A compassionate movement meditation practice.
So inviting you now to stand up,
If you can,
And place your feet hip distance apart.
If you find it difficult to stand,
You can do this practice sitting down.
Either on a chair or on your bed.
Wherever you are feeling the weight of your legs.
Your body moving down into your feet.
Sensing into the soles of your feet on the floor.
Or whatever you are standing on.
And just noticing what it feels like to surrender the weight of your body down through your feet to the earth beneath it.
And now if it feels comfortable for you,
Starting to rock.
Forwards and backwards,
Just a little.
And noticing.
The sensations in the soles of your feet.
To your toes as you rock forward.
And to your heels as you rock back.
Just doing it gently with ease.
And then taking yourself from side to side.
And noticing the changing.
Sensations of your feet.
As you roll to the outer edge of one.
And the inner edge of another.
The arch.
And then to the other side.
And bringing yourself back into the centre and allowing your hands down to the tops of your knees.
We're just going to make some little circles with your knees.
Just around in one direction.
Several times,
Taking care.
And then back the other way.
Just feeling into the sensations of your knees.
And the changing sensations once more.
In the soles of your feet.
Anchoring your awareness and your attention.
In the feet.
And the contact they're making with the floor.
And then gently coming up to full standing once more,
If you are able to.
And it might be helpful to just close your eyes for a moment and then begin.
Scanned through the whole of your body.
Just feeling into the sensations of the body.
With an open awareness.
Noticing any areas.
Maybe any areas that are feeling tension.
And then starting,
If you like,
With your eyes open to.
.
.
Gently roll your shoulders,
Just bringing your shoulders forwards.
Up to your ears,
Then easing back.
Sensing into the shoulder blades.
As you ease your shoulders around,
Just taking them full circle.
But with gentleness and kindness.
Just feeling any tension.
Or discomfort.
Maybe hearing some noises from this part of your body,
Just noticing.
That.
Maybe starting to roll one shoulder and then the other.
And noticing how this feels in your upper back.
Your net.
Being aware of how it affects your breathing.
And then coming back to centre.
Interlocking your fingers.
Turning your palms out and up towards the ceiling.
So that you can feel a beautiful stretch in your spine.
Lengthening and opening.
Feeling the shoulders lifting.
The arms past your ears.
And noticing how that feels in your whole body.
And taking a deep breath in,
And as you breathe out,
Let the arms just gently float back down to your sides.
And then separate your feet a little more.
Take your arms down to the sides of your body.
We're just going to ease from one side to another just going into side movements.
Just floating down,
Perhaps taking your middle finger further down to one side.
And then coming back to centre,
Going down the other side.
Moving with an attitude of kindness and compassion.
Knowing that you're just taking these few minutes to allow your body to relax.
To move and stretch.
And bring back to the centre once more.
Having a pause.
Couple of long lovely deep breaths in and out.
And then separate the feet a little further apart.
I'm going to let the arms just swing around from one side to the other.
So that you're twisting into the spine.
Allowing the neck to turn just following this movement.
Perhaps just letting the hands just flop.
To the side of your body.
Shifting the weight from side to side Noticing what is happening in your feet.
And just move your feet a little bit and perhaps having a little bounce in the middle with your knees.
Really playing around with this movement as your arms are swinging from one side of the body and around to the other side of the body.
Just allowing your body.
.
.
To flow with ease.
Just feeling the breath.
And then bringing that swinging movement slowly back to stillness,
Letting the hands come to a gentle stop when you're ready.
And then if you care to,
Just imagining that you are a dog who's just come out of the water.
And shaking out your arms.
Your legs.
Shaking yourself dry.
Just doing that in your own time,
Just having a good shake.
And coming to stand back in stillness.
And then inviting you to move the body in any way that it would like to go.
You might have a little stretch,
A back bend.
I'd like to put your hands on the front of your legs and roll slowly down a little.
Easing into the lower back.
Perhaps you'd like to return to that swinging movement.
So just having a play with the sensations,
Just moving the body in whatever way it would like to go.
Tuning in to whatever the body needs right now.
With kindness.
And then when you are ready,
Coming back to standing with your legs hip-width apart.
Perhaps close your eyes once more and feel into your body.
And just noticing your experience.
And when you are ready,
Just coming back.
Out of this meditation practice.
Thank you.
