45 Minute Lying MBSR Mindful Yoga

This meditation is a lying mindful movement practice. It is the same simple Hatha Yoga practice that is introduced and practiced in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. It includes some simple hatha yoga postures that offer alternatives that can be done by anyone. If any posture seems restrictive to you, or you feel you cannot do it, perhaps imagining that you can do the posture. The purpose of this meditation is to use simple movement to ground the body into the mind in the present moment.

Transcript

So as we begin the lying movement practice,

Finding something that will protect us from the hardness of the floor,

Perhaps a yoga mat,

Just a place that we can lie down comfortably,

And understanding that this practice,

Like the body scan,

Is a way that we participate in our mental and physical well-being.

So as we go through this practice,

Really understanding the limits of our bodies,

Deciding what we can do and what we should refrain from doing.

So really listening to our body as we go through the practice and not exceeding more than about 60% of effort.

And so really paying attention to what our limits are and allowing ourselves to dwell in those limits.

Really experiencing what those limits are like,

But without pushing.

So no need to try too hard to do anything.

And as we get to the limits,

Just really examining with that high resolution awareness,

Really paying attention to what everything feels like.

And as we continue to do this practice more,

We'll notice that our limits are changing.

So we might notice some increase in ability.

And just understanding that this practice is best done by not trying to achieve anything at all.

So being aware of how the limits change,

But not trying actively to change the limits.

And so as we go through the practice,

Really being aware of what's happening in the body in each and every moment.

And sensations may be intense.

You might feel things that you could describe like burning or pinching or heat or pain.

So just really understanding what's happening and also understanding that sometimes we don't know,

We're not familiar enough.

So just asking ourselves this question,

What am I feeling right now?

And examining the mind also,

Seeing if the mind is reacting or responding.

What's the mind thinking?

What's the mind's relationship to what it is that you're experiencing in the body?

And then as we do the practice,

Breathing abdominally if we can throughout the practice and also breathing through the nose.

So keeping the breath in the nose and just allowing our abdomen to move freely as we go through the practice.

And you can experiment with keeping the eyes open or closed and seeing what works best for you at various parts of the practice.

So we'll begin with the same kind of posture that we do for the body scan where we're just lying down,

Perhaps allowing the eyes to close,

Letting the feet fall gently away from one another,

Allowing the palms to be open toward the ceiling or the sky,

And then allowing our mind to rest on our abdomen,

Feeling the movement with each breath,

Just allowing our minds to settle here,

Feeling the abdominal wall as it's moving with each breath,

Just connecting to those physical sensations.

And when you're ready,

Allowing your next in-breath to be a bit deeper and as you breathe in,

Bringing the arms up off of the floor,

The hands up,

Keeping the arms straight,

Keeping movement as we breathe in,

Allowing the arms to come up overhead,

And then allowing the hands to rest on the floor above you.

And then inviting a stretch into the body,

So reaching the fingers up as much as you can,

As far away from the body,

And then reaching the heels out on the other side,

So flexing the feet,

Pressing the heels out as much as you can,

And really inviting that stretch to come in,

Feeling the fingers away from the body and stretched out,

The stretch in the wrists,

In the arms,

Maybe you can feel it especially in the armpits,

And then the torso,

And feeling what the breath is like in this posture,

So just really stretching out as much as you can.

And then on our next out-breath,

Just reversing that process,

Allowing the arms and the hands to come up off of the floor,

Being fully aware that the eyes are closed,

Really feeling what that's like,

Allowing the exhale to bring the arms back towards the floor,

And then when the arms arrive on the floor,

Just feeling what that's like,

What that release can be,

Feeling how the breath feels,

Perhaps noticing the sense of letting go as we breathe out,

Feeling that renewed vitality and energy as we breathe in,

And that relaxation as we let go and breathe out,

And feeling the breath there at the abdomen.

And next,

Bringing the knees up toward the ceiling,

Allowing the feet to rest on the floor,

Close to the buttocks,

The feet being slightly wider than the hips width.

And so now we'll do the pelvic tilt,

So as we breathe out,

Just allowing the lower back to press against the mat,

Allowing the tailbone to curve up,

But without bringing the pelvis off the floor,

Just flexing those muscles in the abdomen.

And then as we breathe in,

We reverse the motion,

So allowing the back to arch,

Bringing the tailbone back down towards the mat,

Pressing the tailbone into the mat as we allow an arch in the spine,

And then reversing again,

Breathing out,

Pushing the lower back again against the mat,

And then again arching as we breathe in.

If you want,

You can even put your hand in that space that's created by the back.

And then when you breathe out,

You can press and just really feel what's happening in there,

Pressing into the hand,

Or even just the imagined hand that's in there.

And then just continue at your own pace,

Each in-breath,

Arching the back,

And each out-breath,

Pressing the back against the mat.

Then bringing the knees up toward the chest.

So,

With the knees up at the chest,

Just hugging them with your arms,

Putting your arms around your knees,

And you can slowly rock from side to side if you like,

Giving your back a gentle massage.

And if you like,

You can even bring your head up towards your knees.

And could even make some circular motions with the body in each direction.

And as we come to a stillness,

Letting the head rest back against the mat.

And then letting go with the hands and bringing both hands onto the right knee,

Allowing the left leg to stretch out.

So feeling what this posture is like.

And pulling the right knee down towards the chest.

And if you like,

Bringing the head up off of the floor,

And bringing the forehead towards the knee,

And possibly even touching the knee if that's possible for you.

Just checking in with yourself.

And on the next out-breath,

Just letting the head move back towards the floor and rest,

Rest on the mat.

And changing,

Allowing the hands to come away from the right knee and switching,

Allowing the left knee to come up.

Grasping it with the hands and allowing the right leg to extend out.

And the heel may touch the floor,

It may not.

So pulling that left knee towards the chest.

Just feeling that stretch.

And maybe bringing the head up again towards the left knee,

If you did that last time.

And on the out-breath,

Letting the head come back towards the mat and rest on the mat as we allow the left leg to go back out.

Trying ourselves to rest once again in our resting posture,

Our palms open toward the ceiling and the feet gently falling away from each other.

So we return the attention to the breath.

Seeing if there's any residual tension in the body from what we have just done.

And feeling how those feelings flow through the body and how they change as we breathe.

And then arranging to roll over to the front of our bodies.

Coming onto the hands and knees.

The hands under the shoulders,

Knees under the hips.

So just being here on all fours.

On your next out-breath,

Just allowing the spine to arch.

So similar to how we pushed our backs into the floor when we were doing the pelvic tilt.

So arching the back like a cat.

Allowing the head to drop down.

Really just stretching out the back as much as we can.

And on the inhale reversing the motion.

Allowing ourselves to center and then the spine to arch.

The belly to drop down.

Feeling the curvature of the spine.

Allowing the head to look up.

Reversing once again on the out-breath.

Returning the cat pose.

And on the in-breath returning to the cow pose with the arch back.

With the relaxed spine,

Feeling the head come up.

And the out-breath bringing the spine up again.

Back into the cat pose.

And so just continuing this cat and cow pose at your own pace.

Allowing your breathing to be the guide.

And allowing our spine to return to neutral.

And then bringing the left leg off of the floor.

So lifting the left knee.

Extending the left leg back behind us.

Bring the left leg up.

Just feeling what's possible here.

Again,

Not going beyond the limits.

And bringing the right hand up off the mat.

And bringing the hand out in front of the body.

Straightening out the right arm.

And looking toward the right fingers if that's possible for you.

And just feeling what this posture feels like.

You may feel the tension in the back.

Engagement in the left buttock.

And knowing as well what doesn't need to be engaged here.

So checking into the face.

And then releasing this posture,

Allowing the right hand and the left knee to return to the mat.

And the next exhale,

Taking one more of those cat stretches,

Stretching our back up.

Just releasing what we had done there.

On the inhale,

Returning back,

Allowing the spine to dip a little bit,

But returning to the neutral spine.

So we bring the right knee up off of the mat and back behind us.

Lifting the right leg up as we straighten out that right leg.

And extend the left arm in front of us.

Looking at the fingers again if you can.

And paying attention to the breathing.

Noticing what's happening as we hold this posture.

Feeling the engagement in the right shoulder.

Engagement in the right side of the right buttock.

As well as the lower back,

Engaged on the right side but also engaged quite all over.

And then releasing this posture.

Allowing the left hand to return to the floor and the right knee.

And stretching the back up again on the exhale.

And inhaling.

And allowing ourselves to turn back over and go back into our resting posture.

Feeling the feet falling away from each other gently.

Palms once again open to the ceiling.

Tuning the attention into the breath.

Just feeling the waves of relaxation as we breathe out.

Noticing anything that may be different about the body.

Change in heart rate.

Body temperature.

And the breath.

And then we'll allow our arms to come up once again over the head as we breathe in.

Allow the arms to rest over the head as we bring the feet again to the mat allowing the knees to be up toward the ceiling.

And here we'll do the half bridge pose.

So allowing our pelvis to come up off of the mat.

So pressing down with the feet and really allowing the pelvis to come up as much as is comfortable for you.

So feeling what it feels like to be here in this half bridge pose.

And feel the quadriceps engaged,

The buttocks engaged,

The back muscles flexed.

Really holding us up in this position,

In this posture.

And then feeling the arms.

Noticing that the arms don't need to get involved here at all.

And the face as well.

So just intentionally relaxing the face,

Relaxing the arms.

Just feeling what needs to be involved here and what doesn't.

And then on the next out breath,

Allowing the pelvis to come back down to the mat.

Just like to also invite you to bring your knees towards your chest and hug the knees in once again.

And do some more of the rocking from side to side to help massage the back.

And letting the feet be placed against the floor near the buttocks once again.

Knees up and doing a few more of those pelvic rocks.

The arms are alongside the body here.

Pressing the pelvis,

Pressing the lower back against the floor on the exhale and allowing that arch to come on the inhale.

Just loosening up the lower back a little bit after having done something that may have had some intensity.

And so now taking the knees and putting them together,

The feet as well.

And interlacing the fingers and allowing the hands to come behind the head.

Just taking a few breaths here as we prepare to do our spinal twist.

Just nice gentle spinal twist.

Just on your next exhale,

You can allow your knees to come down to the right.

And perhaps your left foot will come off the floor and stack.

Your whole left leg will stack on top of the right and the knees may be together,

They may separate.

Just letting them slowly fall towards the floor and just letting them be just wherever they are,

Wherever they can go.

And then turning your head to the left,

Looking towards the left elbow.

Feeling that gentle twist.

And what each breath feels like in this posture.

On the in-breath,

Bringing the knees back up toward the center.

And maybe taking one breath here with the knees up.

And then allowing the knees to fall towards the left.

And the right foot may come up off the mat.

Just we allow our bodies to twist to the left.

Bringing the head to the right,

Looking over the right shoulder or the right,

Looking towards the right elbow.

Just breathing here.

Feeling what that twist feels like.

Feeling into the lower back.

Feeling any sensations in the armpits and across the chest.

And then on the next in-breath,

Bringing the knees back up toward the ceiling.

Letting go of the hands from behind the head.

And keeping the right foot planted on the floor.

Allowing the left leg to extend outward.

So extending the hands alongside the body.

Allowing the palms again to be facing upward toward the ceiling or the sky.

And taking a deeper in-breath here,

Really filling up the lungs.

And as we exhale,

Taking the left foot off of the floor,

Keeping the legs straight.

Just bringing that left leg up as high as we can without trying too hard.

Feeling within our limits and bringing that left leg up.

It's possible maybe you can even get the leg to be perpendicular to the floor.

Just holding the leg here.

And feeling into this posture.

Noticing what's engaged.

Noticing that the arms aren't involved here at all.

The arms can rest completely by the sides.

And checking in with the face.

Feeling that our face can just be relaxed.

And then if you like,

You can extend your right leg out and bring your arms,

Your hands up toward your left leg,

Allowing the hands to somewhere around the knee or beyond grasping the left leg and allowing the head to come up off the floor towards the knee.

And just experimenting with this posture.

Feeling what that stretch feels like,

What engagement needs to be done.

Can feel some engagement in the abdominal muscles if your head's up.

And then on the next exhale,

Letting the head come back towards the mat.

Releasing the hands.

Letting the leg come back down towards the mat.

And feeling that wave of relief as the heel makes contact with the mat.

Feeling how the breathing's affected.

Each exhale and feel that release and that softening.

So then switching the legs.

Placing the left foot on the mat with the knee up.

And bringing the left leg up off the mat.

Seeing as far as we can get the leg to go.

Staying within our limits,

Just feeling what's engaged here.

Then bringing the head up off of the mat.

Allowing that left leg to stretch out again as we bring our hands up toward the knee or the calf muscle.

That feels comfortable for you.

Just experimenting with this posture.

And then on the exhale,

Releasing,

Allowing the head to go back down,

The hands to let go,

The leg.

The hands to come back toward the floor and the leg.

To slowly come back toward the mat also.

And then when the heel touches,

Just feeling that relief come over the body.

Just feeling the waves of breath as we lie here in the resting posture.

And turning to lie on the left side of the body.

And propping the head up with the left hand.

Allowing the right hand to just rest on the floor in front of us.

And bringing that right leg up.

Lifting the right leg and bringing it up just as high as you can.

And holding it there.

Just feeling that.

What that feels like.

And you can bring your right hand up off the floor if you like and probe into the right leg.

Feel where the engagement is.

You can see the right buttock is not so engaged here but the muscles near the right hip are tight.

And the abdomen,

Just feeling around through there and just connecting with what muscles are involved in this holding of the right leg up.

And try to extend a little bit more to see if you can get the right leg any higher.

And letting go,

Allowing the right leg to come back down.

Feeling the rest as the left foot and the right foot make contact with each other.

Feeling the breath.

And again,

Taking the right leg and lifting it up.

And then exhaling,

Allowing that right leg to come back down and make contact.

Feel that release.

And then transitioning to the other side,

Rolling over on the back and rolling over onto the right side of the body.

And propping up the head with the right hand.

Facing the left hand in front of the belly.

And then bringing the left leg up as far as you can.

Comfortably but exploring what's possible here.

Seeing if you can maybe raise up the left leg a little bit higher.

Or maybe you need to back off,

Just knowing what's right for you.

And letting the left leg come back down,

Make contact with the right foot and then feeling that wave of relief.

And then lifting the left leg up again.

And then releasing it back down.

And again,

Really tuning into that,

That feeling of relief.

And rolling over onto our bellies.

Facing the arms and the hands alongside the body and resting on our left cheek.

And feeling what the body's like here in this posture.

Feeling how the breath feels.

Maybe a bit harder to breathe with the mat.

Kind of restricting the abdomen and what kind of movement can be made.

And bringing the chin onto the floor.

And with a straight leg,

Lifting the right leg up off of the floor.

Feeling the thigh come off the floor if that's possible for you.

Keeping the legs straight.

Just feeling what's involved here.

Your hands may be open toward the ceiling,

They may be down,

Pressing against the floor.

Just whatever is happening for you right now.

Just feeling that.

And you might want to probe again into the muscles here.

You can feel the right buttock engaged.

The back quite engaged.

The hamstring flexed.

So lots going on in this position.

So then on the next exhale,

Letting the leg come back down.

And resting the face,

Resting the head on the right cheek.

Taking a few breaths here.

Then turning the chin to the floor.

And bringing the left leg up off the floor.

Again really feeling what that feels like.

And notice your right foot pushing down,

Right side of your body,

How it assists in this posture as well.

And then resting,

Allowing that leg to come back down and feeling that relaxation come over the body as we rest again on our left cheek.

And we'll put our chin against the floor one more time,

And this time we'll do the lower cobra pose.

So just bringing the head and the chin off the mat.

Then seeing if you can get your shoulders to come off the mat,

And your chest.

Just seeing how high you can get here comfortably without putting too much strain on the back.

You can even allow the neck to bend as you look up toward the ceiling.

Just feeling all of the engagement in the back and in the neck.

Noticing how breathing changes here.

And then releasing.

Trying the chest to come down,

The shoulders,

The chin,

And resting the right side of the face on the floor.

And then just turning back over,

Returning to our resting posture.

Tuning the attention into the breath at the abdomen.

Just feeling each breath.

Feeling the whole body,

Noticing the consequences of what we've just done.

But letting go of those recent memories that we have of what we've just done.

Moving allowing ourselves to rest in this present moment.

Just letting the waves of our breath come over our bodies.

And as we draw this practice to a close,

Giving yourself some gratitude.

Take some credit for having nourished yourself in this way.

This practice can develop strength and flexibility within the body.

Can also help us understand how to be stronger and more flexible in our emotional lives as well.

Help us understand our relationship to life itself.

Can have a deeper appreciation for life and for feelings and the elements associated with that,

With life and feelings.

So just resting here in stillness,

Being at one with yourself.

Reviews

Awesome thank you !!
Bookmarked !!
Really lovely practice !

Superb, just did wonders for my lower back. Thank you!