Your mind should be a little calmer now that you've practiced some meditation.
Now that we've taken care of the mind,
We're going to move down into the body now to really honor the shape that we take,
To really honor the vehicle that carries us through our day.
Each of these practices that I use are a blend from Tai Chi to yoga.
They're interpretations of things that I've picked up along the way from different philosophies.
So the first movement is I'd like you to stand up now.
Keep your feet solid on the ground,
Kind of hip width apart.
And make your knees kind of bent and loose,
Not rigid.
With your arms kind of loose at your side,
I want you to begin twisting from right to left,
Allowing your arms to swing out from your body as you twist,
Kind of like helicopter blades.
And bring your head with each movement.
Don't look straight or forward,
Just move looking right and left as you twist,
Tapping your body with your loose arms.
We're helping the energy of the spine to wake up by doing this,
Bringing both the left and the right hemispheres of our bodies together.
And keep twisting a few more times.
And now just become still and pause in stillness.
Keep your eyes closed.
Just feel how the energy is maybe shifting or waking up in your body,
In your spine,
In your back.
And now out of stillness,
We're going to begin to shake our arms and our legs.
The more jelly-like,
The better.
Just become like a little kid shaking all of the energy out of your body.
And if you feel the energy wanting to rise up in maybe a yelp or a yell or a sigh or a growl or a laugh,
That would be wonderful.
Let it all go.
Watch yourself loosening the energy.
The key to this movement is to elevate the dormant energy in the body and to kind of sweep out the stagnant air and stagnant spots.
Finding your stillness again,
Closing your eyes,
Noticing if your energy or your mood is changing,
If you're becoming lighter,
More joyful.
So for this next movement,
We're going to do really deep inhales through the nose and out through the mouth.
And a ha.
And that's the sound of the breath.
And with the breath,
We're going to be taking a deep inhale.
We're going to lift our arms above our head.
As we exhale,
We're going to swing our arms back down with great force.
Imagine we're cutting through the air as we push out this kind of loud sigh or exhale.
So in,
Arms up.
Out,
Arms down.
In,
Arms up.
Out,
Arms down with force.
Bend your knees when you're doing the exhale to let your arms really swing down with more force.
Okay,
So we're going to be doing three of these.
Deep inhale,
Arms up.
Strong and loud exhale,
Arms coming down.
Cut the air.
Inhale.
Strong and loud exhale.
Arms coming up,
Body coming up.
Reaching toward the sky,
Maybe looking up if you want.
Feel the very top.
Letting out loud exhale,
Cutting the air,
Moving down.
Last one,
Deep inhale,
Reaching up,
Looking up.
Exhale,
Swinging the arms down with a ha.
Becoming still again.
Noticing the energy in your body.
I want you to take your right hand and make it into a fist.
And we're going to take that fist and we're going to pound lightly on our heart and our chest and our ribs.
So kind of just knock around your whole chest area.
As if you're knocking on the door of your being,
Of your heart.
And just moving your pounding around across your ribs,
Your chest,
Over your heart.
Keeping your eyes closed and just keep knocking,
Knocking,
Knocking.
And we're just getting still again and bringing our hands to our heart again.
And I want you to bring a slight smile to your face.
Feeling your heart beating against your hand.
Feeling the kind of harmony and vitality you've just created in your body.
Feeling grateful for how easily this sort of grace and energy can come to us.
And opening your eyes whenever you're done with your gratitude.
Great work.
We're going to move on to journaling now.
