(Extras) Mindful Yoga for Meditators

A mindful yoga routine designed to increase flexibility and core strength in support of sitting meditation on the floor. And in itself to be a gentle mindfulness exercise to increase groundedness and awareness of the body.

Transcript

Yoga for meditators.

A short,

Mostly seated sequence that can be done on its own as a daily practice or as very nice preceding seated meditation.

Being on hands and knees on the floor to start.

Double check that the hands are right under the shoulders,

Knees right under the hips.

Spending a moment to feel the condition of the body,

The sensations in the body as we begin this yoga sequence.

And now lowering the belly and gently raising the head into cow pose.

Dropping in slowly with the breath.

Trying to warm up the spine,

Neck and reversing this rolling from the sacrum up as we raise the back,

Lower the head,

Lift up out of the shoulders into cat pose.

Taking a few breaths there.

Full breaths and at our own pace alternating between the cat and the cow.

Breathing as we roll the spine up and down.

And coming back to neutral,

Dropping into the child's pose.

Floating the buttocks back to the heels.

Hands can stay planted right where they were.

A little bit of an armpit opener and a shoulder stretch here but be gentle.

Mostly a way to rest.

Breathing evenly into child's pose.

And floating back up to hands and knees for lunge.

Leaving the left leg where it is and bringing the right leg up to the outside of the right hand and arm.

Foot to the outside of the right hand.

Right knee to the outside of the right shoulder.

Squaring the hips,

Dropping the torso down to the inside of the right thigh.

Left foot can stay planted.

Excuse me,

Left knee can stay planted on the floor or straighten the left leg for a stronger stretch.

Breathing into the lunge.

Coming back out to hands and knees.

Dropping back briefly into child for a couple of breaths.

And coming back to neutral.

Dropping back briefly into child for a couple of breaths.

And let's come back up and practice the lunge on the other side.

Left leg forward.

Squaring the hips,

Dropping the torso to the inside of the left thigh.

Making a conscious decision whether to straighten the right leg or keep the right knee down.

Breathing into the hip,

Breathing into the body,

Breathing into our heart.

As we gently drop into the lunge.

Now let's come out to hands and knees.

Cross our legs and sit down on our butt and bring our feet in front of us for boat pose.

Core strength builder.

Helpful for seated meditation.

And remember all of these are described in the handout which has diagrams.

Holding on to the shins,

Lengthening the spine,

Engaging the core muscles.

Head is floating up high,

Lifting from the back of the head.

Bringing the chest forward without collapsing.

And choosing how deep to go into the boat pose.

You could let go of the shins and simply extend the arms.

Bringing the torso up towards the knees.

Or you could balance on the sits bones and lift the feet.

Up into the air.

Possibly even straightening the legs or partially straightening the legs.

Noticing the intensity that arises often quite quickly.

Trying to allow the breath to be as even as it can be.

Strengthening the core in boat pose.

And coming out,

Crossing the legs.

Just resting for a few moments.

Perhaps shrugging the shoulders or gently rocking the head side to side.

Repetition is helpful for strengthening poses.

Let's do boat pose again.

Rising up into the boat.

Balancing.

And even if your feet stay flat on the floor,

There's still an important element here of balance,

Extension and engagement.

A little quivering is okay.

Just to be with what is.

And coming out.

Now bringing the hands behind us for tabletop shoulder opener.

The fingers are pointed forward.

The hands are flat on the floor beneath the shoulders.

Sliding the torso forward.

Sliding the butt forward.

Feeling the shoulders.

Not hunching the shoulders.

Letting them drop down as they rotate.

And then optionally lifting the buttocks up to make a flat table.

The gaze.

Gently lying on the top of your body table here.

Gazing down towards the knees.

Tucking the tail.

A little length in the spine.

Knees moving away.

Tabletop shoulder opener.

And dropping the butt back down.

Coming back to a seated,

Cross-legged seated position.

Taking a breath.

Perhaps rolling the shoulders a little bit.

And now seated twist.

We're going to twist first to the right.

So we're going to bring the left foot and the right foot together.

Twist first to the right.

So we're going to bring the left foot and the left knee up and the left foot up and over to plant it to the left side of the right knee.

The right bottom of the foot is pointing towards the right.

Twisting towards the right.

You can put your left elbow or left arm against the inside of the left knee.

That's a support.

Right hand behind and to the right.

Pressing gently down on the floor to encourage openness and extension in the spine as we gently twist to the right.

And easing out of the twist to the right.

Back to neutral.

Setting up to twist to the left.

Left leg is bent with the left foot towards the left.

Right foot up and over.

Right knee up.

You have that nice place to press the right outer arm or elbow against the right outside of the right leg.

Twist to the left.

Left hand is down and behind as an outrigger.

Feeling where the twist is obvious and feeling where we aren't noticing the twist.

Can we twist all the way up and down the torso?

And coming out of the twist.

And coming into star pose,

Butterfly pose.

Soles of the feet together,

The knees splayed out.

Starting with the feet fairly close to the groin.

And the back long and upright.

Feeling into the hips.

Taking a few breaths here with the feet close.

And then sliding the feet further away,

Still together.

So there's about 18 inches,

20 inches between the heels and the groin.

And now bending forward at the waist and allowing the back to round.

Dropping the face down towards the feet.

Breathing into star pose.

Now rolling back up,

Lying onto our backs,

Taking a breath into the yoga resting pose.

Settling ourselves fully onto the mat.

And right knee to chest,

Left leg stays straight.

Left leg is active but not tense.

Bent right knee comes straight down into the right chest,

Wrapping the arms around.

Hands could be gripping the backs of the thighs or the outside of the shins.

Without strain inviting some real depth here into this hip opener and this compression pose for the organs in the belly and the right side.

Deepening on the exhale.

And coming out,

Back to yoga resting for a couple of breaths.

And left knee to chest,

Right leg active,

Extending out of the bottom of the right foot.

Keeping the hips dropped.

Isolating the movement into the left hip.

And feeling the compression in the left belly.

Again inviting a little depth.

And coming back out to yoga resting.

Letting it all go for a breath or two.

And then the needle pose.

Planting the left foot flat on the floor,

Left knee is pointing up,

Right foot comes up and over the left knee to rest on the left shins.

Just below the left knee.

Right knee is pointing out to the right creating a little triangle there.

Reaching through that triangle with the right hand to wrap that right hand around the outside of the left shin and reaching the left hand around the outside.

And then with the two hands together,

Clasped together,

Pressing this whole knee assembly up towards the belly.

Allowing the butt to roll up.

Eye of the needle.

Coming out into yoga resting.

Eye of the needle on the other side.

Right foot starts planted.

Left foot comes up and over.

And then through the whole created by the left knee,

Left leg.

Pressing gently on all the legs up into the belly.

And releasing briefly back to yoga resting.

And let's come up to sitting.

Seated shoulder opener.

Likes to be crossed in some way.

If it's uncomfortable,

Sit flat on the floor.

You might put a cushion under your butt.

Reaching the arms wide out and up over the head.

Clasping the fingers.

Reversing the palms up.

Opening the armpits,

Opening the shoulders,

Lengthening both sides of the body.

Left and right.

Even front and back can be evenly extending.

Reach the arms together up.

And coming back out,

Feeling free to shrug the shoulders a couple of times.

Side stretch.

Planting the right hand out to the back and the right.

Back and right.

Left arm up and over.

Bending over to the right while still keeping.

.

.

Excuse me,

Bending over to the right while still keeping both the right from collapsing completely.

Both the extensions on the left of course.

And reversing the side stretch.

Over to the left.

Left hands in outrigger.

Right hand up and over.

Similar to this half moon pose we do standing.

Breathing into the side stretch.

And coming back out.

Final pose.

Sitting tall.

Subtle pose.

Sitting cross-legged,

Hands on the knees.

Tucking the tail in here if it's uncomfortable to sit flat on the floor,

Definitely put a pillow or a cushion under your butt.

So that the hips can be slightly tilted forward,

Just like in meditation.

Establishing the base of the S-curve of the spine.

And in sitting tall we're exaggerating the lengthening of the spine.

Feeling the spine from the sacrum,

Middle,

Lower middle,

Upper back,

Right up into the neck.

Chin may tuck slightly as we just float the back top of the head up towards the ceiling.

Trying to not let the shoulders rise up too much.

Sitting tall,

Breathing into this length.

Very tall.

And then an exhale,

Releasing.

Shrugging shoulders,

Rolling head,

Gentle twisting.

A few deep breaths.

And then either moving into sitting meditation or just pausing for a moment.

And collecting yourself before you get up to go on with whatever it is that's next.

Yoga for meditators.

Offering a little appreciation to ourself for making this effort to care for the body,

Mind and heart with some gentle yoga.

Reviews

A nice, easy flow with a reminder that yoga is not just for the body's benefit. Thank you!

Nice introduction to movement meditation.

A nice gentle “motion” meditation.

This was perfect for me! Clear instructions and gentle yoga stretches before sitting!

Thank you - very nice - clear instruction - gentle mindful practice - 🙏

Lovely session. Wish you could create more segments of mindful yoga for this app!

~ Namaste 🧘🏻‍♀️

I agree music would add depth. Not as focused on core as much as I expected. Still very nice pace and clarity. If you don’t have the handout and don’t know the poses it could be confusing. I did enjoy it and will look for more from him.

Good morning wake up movement.

Gentle and easy for beginners, but I feel so much more ready for my day!

This is very basic and was great for me as a beginner. Thank you.

Will come back to this one absolutely wonderful. Thank you

Thanks, Tim. Very pleasant. Balanced.

Very gentle and relaxing.

Love this, thank you so much! Just what I needed :-) Would love to see more like this on insight if possible... Namaste x

WOW! So simple yet effective. Enjoyed it immensely. 😊

Love this session thanks!

This was exactly what I was looking for today. I have an injury which is keeping me from vigorous exercise, yet I wanted to do something which would engage my body. This was perfect. Thank you.