Hello and welcome to practice today.
You can start by lying down on any surface where you have a little bit of room to move.
The floor or the bed perhaps.
Once you get there you can start by taking a few movements that would feel good or okay like rolling your head from side to side or maybe taking a full body stretch.
Give yourself a few moments to notice areas of tension in your body as well as any areas of softness.
Notice any movements that might feel good in response to the tension you're noticing or any movements that help you drop into the softness.
When you're ready bring your feet to the floor or the bed with your knees bent.
Extend both of your arms up towards the ceiling and cross your right arm in front of your left and give yourself a big hug.
Here your arms are wrapped around your chest and your elbows are pointing up towards the ceiling.
You can take a few breaths here in stillness.
Can you feel your shoulder blades and upper back expand with each inhale and soften with each exhale?
If you'd like you can keep the arms as they are and start to sway your knees from side to side and as the knees fall to the left and to the right just noticing any shifts in your breath.
After a few more rounds of movement you can come back to stillness.
Let's re-extend the arms up towards the ceiling.
It might be nice to roll your wrists a few times here or bend and extend the elbows.
Crossing the left arm in front of the right,
Giving yourself another hug.
Now that you've got the other arm in front just notice if there are differences in sensations on this side.
Feel the breath moving the body.
You can always decide to stay here in stillness or at some point add in the sway of the knees.
Knees traveling together,
Going slowly from left to right.
After a few rounds you can make your way back to stillness.
Once more you can extend your arms up towards the ceiling.
This time bend the elbows to 90 degrees and let the backs of your hands come down to the floor or to your bed so your arms are making the shape of a goalpost.
If the backs of your hands don't reach the floor or the bed you might add a folded blanket or a pillow underneath the forearms and wrists.
From here you can shift your hips a little bit to the left and let your knees draw to the right.
You can stack the knees on top of each other and maybe keeping them in the same line as your hips.
Settling here into this twist,
Gentle opening through the chest,
The pectorals,
The shoulders.
Just a note that you can always add a pillow between the knees to soften up the posture.
From here you can add in some breath practice.
You can try inhaling to the count of four and exhaling to the count of five or six.
Letting that exhale just be one or two counts longer than the inhale and staying here,
Staying with this counting of the breath for a few cycles.
When you feel ready you can gently draw the knees back through center bringing your feet back to the floor.
Before we go to the other side take a few moments to notice the effects of that movement and that breath just on this side.
You might feel more spacious,
You might notice a feeling or an emotion bubbling.
Just noticing.
Now let's shift the hips a little bit to the right and draw your knees to the left.
Again stacking the knees on top of each other.
You might like to bring a pillow between the knees again.
Letting the shoulder blades soften into the floor,
Into the bed,
Keeping both shoulders on the ground.
Arms are still in that goalpost shape if it feels okay.
Give yourself some time to make small or big adjustments here and soon you can settle into that breathing pattern we took before.
Inhaling for the count of four,
Exhaling for the count of five or six.
Your breath and your body might feel different on this side and just letting this be a practice of noticing,
Staying curious,
Staying open to the changing moment-to-moment experience.
And slowly you can draw the knees back through center and this time let your arms soften down by your sides.
You can pause and notice the shifts in your body,
Your thoughts,
Energy.
And finally you might like to draw both knees in towards your belly.
You could have your hands on the fronts or the backs of the knees.
Maybe experiment with rolling a little from side to side.
You could massage out the low back a bit.
A few breaths here and squeeze the knees in close for a moment and on your next exhale let yourself come to rest.
You could find a resting position that's like Shavasana,
Arms and legs stretched out as you lie on your back.
You might lie on your side.
Some people even like to sit with their back against the wall.
No rush here as you settle in,
Giving your whole system a chance to transition from movement to stillness.
And once more we'll come back to the breath.
This time you can inhale for the count of four and exhale for the count of seven or eight.
As we extend the exhale,
It's possible it might be challenging the first few rounds and see if it becomes more easeful over time.
From here you might be ready to end your practice and slowly transition back into your day.
And if that's the case,
Letting your transition into wakefulness be really slow,
Patient,
Gentle.
Maybe taking little movements that again feel okay or good and checking in with tension,
Softness in the body.
You're welcome to slowly begin the wake-up process or maybe you'd like to stay and rest.
Whatever you choose,
Finding a little bit of softness.
Thank you for practicing.
Wishing you an easeful day ahead.
