Mindful Movement With Teresa Johnson

Our mindful movement sequence uses gentle yoga poses with an emphasis on self-awareness, curiosity, and exploring sensations and presence. It's accessible for most bodies and our teachers encourage modifcations and and a gentle approach. Join Teresa in dropping deeping into the body while moving it through a peaceful sequence of postures.

Transcript

We'll begin our practice of mindful movement today first by coming into Mountain Pose.

An invitation here is to place the feet about hip width apart and to begin first by noticing the distribution of weight on the feet,

The sensation of the feet as they meet the floor,

Feeling all the points of the feet,

Perhaps from side to side at the ball of the feet and then the heel as a third point,

A triangle of stability underneath the foot.

Sensing the crown of the head,

Reaching up for the ceiling of the sky and the feet pressing against the floor,

Letting the body stretch and elongate,

Arms along the sides but active.

You might lower your gaze or close your eyes and feel this pose,

Mountain Pose.

Feeling the breath coming and going and on the next inhale,

Sweeping the arms up,

Palms facing the ceiling and then facing each other as the arms come above the head and then letting those arms float down back along the sides,

Feeling the air going through the fingers,

Letting them float slowly down and then inhaling again,

Inhaling the arms up,

Breathing and stretching,

Lengthening the arms,

Stretching up through the side of the body and then again letting the arms float down on the exhale,

Letting gravity bring them back down until they're once more at the side of the body.

Two feet here,

The breath and noticing how this movement is echoing through the body.

What sensations do you feel that weren't there before?

And third time,

We'll raise the arms again and this time letting one arm,

One hand stretch a little farther up toward the ceiling,

Feeling the stretch through the side of the body and exhaling as that arm comes down,

Inhaling the other arm up,

Fingers pointing toward the ceiling,

Exhaling the arm back and then letting the arms float back down.

Turn the palms over so the palms are facing as they come down,

Noticing the change with that.

And then once the arms are next to the body resting,

Noticing how this movement is affecting the body.

What's the ripple?

What are the sensations that are here now that were not there before we started moving?

And then with shoulder rolls,

First beginning by bringing the shoulders forward and then up,

Inhaling and as the shoulders roll around the back,

Exhaling,

Letting the breath coordinate with the movement of the shoulders,

Bringing the whole shoulders forward,

Up toward the ears,

Around to the back and on your own rhythm,

Rolling the shoulders and feeling the range of motion in these shoulders,

Noticing if there's a difference from one side to the other,

The range of motion that's available for your shoulders.

Mindful movement is an invitation to feel our own experience in the body,

Moving back around the other way,

Reversing,

Experiencing sensations in our own body without comparison to other people or even to ourselves.

Moving with the body we have here today may be a very different body than we had five years ago or two years ago.

Still a feeling,

Living body and what do you notice here in the shoulders,

In the upper body now because of this movement as the arms come to rest?

Breathing and sensing in,

What's the body telling you now?

Next movement will be a side stretch so we'll be sweeping the arms up as we did at the beginning and then clasping the left wrist with the right hand and bending toward the left side and as you bend,

Not straining,

Maybe playing and coming back up out of it,

Just playing at the edge of this stretch.

You might want to coordinate your breath in some way with it.

Where do you feel the stretch with this movement?

Can there be stretching on both sides of the body and how can that happen?

Maybe lifting up out of the ribs on the left side as you stretch along the right and then the other side,

Grasping the right wrist with the left hand and stretching along the left side,

Lifting up out of the right side along the ribs,

Playing at the edges,

Coming in and out of the pose.

Asking your body what would it like?

How far does it want to stretch?

It will tell you.

And then coming back up,

Arms straight up toward the ceiling and then floating back down.

Breathing in here,

Feeling the two feet on the ground and the breath.

Realizing how this movement is echoing in the body.

Our next pose is a balance pose,

A standing balance pose.

It might be helpful to have a chair nearby or a wall.

If you want to play with balance,

It might be helpful to move off of the mat unless the mat is very thin.

And beginning just by unweighting one foot and noticing what needs to shift as you do that.

And the standing leg,

What does that leg need to do to support now the entire weight of the body?

Noticing where there's a tendency to sink down into the hip.

And what happens as you resist against the floor of the heel?

What else engages with that movement?

Foot may just be kick standing off the floor.

You may have be lifting it,

Touching it back down.

You can play with lifting it a little bit more.

You might want to also bring the arms into the picture by raising the arms up either next to the body,

Like limbs of a tree,

Bringing them up above as we did before.

Noticing what motivates this movement.

Noticing what drives the movement.

Noticing the body but also noticing the mind.

And when there's loss of balance,

What happens then?

What happens in the mind,

The feelings?

And letting the foot come back down to the floor slowly and feeling as you come back into that supported position of two feet on the ground,

Allowing arms to come back to the sides.

Noticing that feeling too.

And then bringing the weight into the other leg,

Unweighting the opposite foot.

And again,

Either touching the toes to the ground,

Kick standing,

You may want to let the heel rest at the ankle with the foot on the ground.

That's a form of tree pose,

Bringing the arms out to the side.

Opening the tree,

Opening the generosity.

Or you may wish to put your heel on the calf or just playing with the leg raised,

Flexing the foot,

Pointing the foot.

Your tree may be a tree that looks like a tree on a windy day.

It may be a tree that's moving,

Dancing.

Letting this be a playful time.

Playing with balance.

And then letting that foot come back to the ground slowly,

Arms coming back to your sides.

Taking a breath in and feeling the two feet and a breath in mountain pose.

That's felt here now.

This next pose,

A forward fold.

We will crease at the hips,

Bending forward with knees bent slightly.

Us creasing,

Keeping the back strong and long,

Letting the crown of the head come forward toward the wall in front of you.

And you may stop right here with hands on the thighs.

This is,

The back is needing to just stop right here.

This is a good place to stay.

But if it's available to you to come forward a little more,

Bringing the belly to the thighs as you move down,

Bending the knees,

Coming forward and only opening up the back of the leg as far as you can with still allowing the belly to be on the thighs.

This supports the back.

Coming into forward fold,

Letting the crown of the head go down toward the floor,

Letting the neck be loose so that if you can say yes and no with your head,

You're allowing it to be relaxed.

Your hands may go to the floor,

They may not.

They may be right on the tops of the thighs.

And noticing what happens with the breath here now as there's some contraction.

And then slowly bringing the hands back to the thighs,

Using the strength of the legs to push up,

Pushing against the thighs with the hands,

Bringing yourself back up to upright position,

Taking your time and feeling this pose,

The echoes of this pose now.

This next pose is called chair pose.

What we'll do is begin by bending the knees and letting the hips travel back as if someone's going to slide a chair underneath us and we're going to sit on that chair.

So letting the hips travel back and the knees don't come in front of the toes.

So if you look down and you can still see your toes,

Then your knees are protected.

And you may want to have your hands on the hips or bring them out in front.

Some people like to bring the arms up alongside the head.

You may want to play with coming in and out of this pose.

If you need to come back up to standing for a moment,

Take a breath and then come back into sitting,

That's fine too.

And if staying in the pose and staying with the pose is something that seems like the right thing for you,

Noticing what happens as you stay with this pose.

How does the mind meet this moment of challenge or strain?

Maybe not strain but stretching a little,

Working.

And what's happening in the body as you stay in that pose and then coming back out,

Taking a breath and feeling the body now.

And then coming down again,

Hinging at the hips as we did with the forward fold,

Bending the knees,

Coming down into a full position and then coming all the way down to the hands and knees.

Knees are beneath the hips,

The hands are just ahead,

The wrists are just ahead of the shoulders.

Feet are straight back from the knees with the tops of the feet against the floor.

And this is tabletop position where the back is in a neutral position,

It's neither convex or concave,

It's just straight.

We'll be moving into cat pose.

With this one,

Imagine a Halloween cat arching its back and when we do this,

We tip the tailbone,

Tucks under,

The head comes down,

The crown of the head comes toward the floor,

The chin toward the chest,

Pulling the belly up against the spine.

Breathing out,

Exhaling and then moving into cow by bringing the tailbone toward the ceiling,

Letting the belly sink down,

The head comes up out of the heart,

Eyes gaze up,

Breathing in and then back to the arching Halloween cat,

The chest,

The chin comes to the chest,

The back arches,

Pulling the belly toward the back of the spine.

And back and forth on your own rhythm,

You may find that you want to be in one position or the other a little bit longer or breathe a couple of breaths in one position before moving to the other,

Asking what your body wants,

Noticing each time you move,

What parts of the body are engaged in this movement.

What are the shoulders doing?

How do the shoulders move differently when you move from cat to cow?

And noticing if there are any areas that feel stuck.

Also noticing if anything changes.

And then evening yourself out until you come back to tabletop.

And tabletop then from this pose,

Lengthening the right leg back so the toes are touching,

Leg is straight back,

Just playing with lifting that leg a little bit off the ground.

Noticing how this feels,

What needs to engage to allow for this leg to come off the ground so that three of the limbs are supporting the body and one is unweighted,

One is free.

What shifts?

And then bringing that leg up,

Coming straight back and then if it's possible,

If it's available,

Lifting the left hand,

The opposite,

The diagonal,

With the thumb facing the ceiling,

The palm facing in and the arms straight out from the shoulder ahead of you,

Gazing straight out,

Maybe looking at the floor ahead of you.

And now noticing what shifts as you balance on one hand and one knee.

Then bringing the hand back to the floor and the knee back to the floor next to the other one.

And again back into the stability of both hands on the floor,

Both knees on the floor,

Noticing that.

Breathing here,

Extending the opposite leg,

The left leg back,

Just touching the toe on the floor and then lifting,

Lifting that leg and the opposite arm,

Palm facing in,

The arm coming straight out from the shoulder,

The thumb pointing to the ceiling.

Maybe helpful to draw the belly in toward the spine to support this movement.

And noticing the breathing and what changes with the breath.

Bringing the hand back to the floor and then the knee down next to the other one.

Taking a breath,

Feeling the body.

And one more time on each side.

Remembering to pull the belly up against the spine,

Support the lower back,

Help stabilize this position.

And once you're evened out and your knees are back on the floor,

Parallel to each other,

Hands down.

And you can move back into child's pose by letting the hips travel back to sit on the heels,

Letting the arms extend out in front.

You can make a little pillow with your fists and prop the head,

The forehead on the hands or if it's available to stretch the arms out ahead and let the forehead touch the ground,

That's also a child's pose.

Whatever is most restful for you.

And letting yourself rest in this pose.

Feeling the breath,

Noticing the breath as you're in this pose.

And feeling the body here.