So welcome to the 10 minute mindful movement practice.
You can do this sitting down or standing up and taking care of yourself and following my guidance only if it feels right for you,
Remembering that there's no right or wrong way of doing these practices.
We're simply taking the time to be with our bodies and connect to the present moment,
Anchoring in the present with the breath and the body.
So to begin with,
Standing up or getting comfortable sitting down,
Having your feet flat on the floor,
And I'm just going to invite you to bring your attention to your breath,
Not changing the rhythm in any way,
Simply breathing in and breathing out.
And now I invite you to bring your attention to your feet,
Exploring where they make contact with the floor,
And now an invitation to move your weight into your right foot.
So if you're standing up,
You might be leaning to the side slightly,
Being playful and exploring how far you can go.
What's too far?
What's not far enough?
How much do you push yourself?
How little do you push yourself?
Exploring your boundaries and edges and limits with your body,
And then returning your body to a neutral standing position,
Just checking that your knees aren't locked,
And resting in the felt sensation of having made that movement,
And now repeating the movement on the other side.
So bringing your attention to your left leg and putting the weight into it,
And if you're standing,
Again you might be leaning slightly to the left,
How far can you go,
Being playful and curious.
If you lose your balance,
Just correcting yourself and noting how your body knows how to correct itself,
And then bringing yourself back to a standing position,
And just playfully moving your weight from left to right leg,
Noticing what happens to the rest of your body when you do that,
And just checking in with the breath.
Are you still breathing?
Have you clenched your jaw,
Has your forehead clenched,
Furrowed?
Releasing any tension that you find,
Not judging it,
Simply acknowledging what's there,
And releasing the tension,
And then bringing yourself to stillness.
Now I invite you to lean forward as far as you can go.
If you're sat down,
You might want to bend from the waist,
If you're standing up,
Just leaning forward,
How far can you go,
What happens to your toes,
And your heels,
And your hands,
Your shoulders,
The breath,
And then returning to standing,
And resting in the felt sensation of having made that movement,
And now bringing the weight into your heels and leaning back as far as you can go.
If you're sat down,
You may feel your weight in the back of the chair,
If you're standing up,
Maybe exploring,
Maybe noticing apprehension.
If you've got your eyes closed,
I invite you to open them,
And if you've got your eyes open,
I invite you to close them,
Being playful,
Interested,
Curious,
Where are your edges,
Do you push yourself too much or too little,
Or are you just right?
And then bringing yourself to a standing position,
And just taking a moment to be with your body,
And now adjusting yourself into whatever way you need to get your hands to stretch to the side as far as they can go,
At shoulder level,
So bringing the arms away from your body,
And up straight,
And up to shoulder level,
Slowly,
And carefully,
And deliberately.
Do your shoulders go up by your ears,
An invitation to drop them if they have,
Checking that your jaw isn't clenched,
Your knees aren't locked,
And that you're still breathing.
Now,
An invitation to circle the arms,
Just very slowly,
One way,
And then switching to the other way,
Little circles,
And making big circles in this way,
And then big circles the other way,
And then resting the arms still up,
Or maybe they're not,
Maybe you've dropped them by your side,
Simply resting in the sensation of your arms away from your body if you're still here,
And then ever so slowly bringing them back down to your sides,
And this is if they're floating,
Floating down.
How does that feel?
Did you want to keep your arms up for longer?
Did you want to bring them down earlier?
If you didn't listen to what your body was telling you to do,
Why not?
And simply resting in the felt sensation of that movement,
And now moving and stretching in whatever way your body is calling you to do,
Stretching your arms behind your body,
Or in front of your body,
Maybe moving your head,
Your fingers,
Simply listening to your body,
What it's asking you to do,
In what way would it like you to move in this moment,
And then narrowing your attention back to the breath,
The in-breath,
The out-breath,
The pauses.
Bringing attention to our bodies and the movements that they make gives us an opportunity to explore our own boundaries and edges and limits.
Often the patterns that show up here will show up in other parts of our lives.
So taking a moment to thank yourself for having undertaken this practice,
And as best you can,
Taking this sense of awareness and connection into whatever you have left to do with your day.
