Welcome to a brief five-minute mindful stretching practice.
To begin,
Standing in bare or socked feet,
With feet parallel to one another and about a hips width apart,
With the knees unlocked so that legs can bend slightly as needed.
On an in-breath,
Slowly and attentively raising your arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the floor,
Pausing here while you breathe out.
And then on the in-breath,
Raising the arms once again until your hands meet above your heads,
Noticing the sensations of tension in the muscles as they work first to lift the arms and then to maintain them in this stretch.
Letting your breath move in and out freely at its own pace,
Continuing to stretch upward,
Fingertips gently pushing towards the sky,
Feet firmly grounded on the floor,
Noticing the stretch in the muscles and joints of the body,
All the way from the feet,
Up the legs,
Up through the back and shoulders,
Into the arms and hands and fingers.
Maintaining this stretch for a few moments longer while breathing freely in and out,
Noticing changes in sensations in the body as you continue to hold a posture.
Sensations may include a sense of increasing tension or discomfort,
And as best as possible opening to these.
Breathing into the sensations on the in-breath,
And as best as possible softening,
Opening on the out-breath.
When you are ready and on an out-breath,
Allowing the arms to slowly come back all the way down,
Lowering until the arms are at rest along the sides of the body,
Hanging from the shoulders.
Allowing the eyes to close and focusing attention now on the movements of the breath as well as any sensations throughout the body as you stand here.
You may be noticing the contrast in the sensations that accompany now the sense of release or relief associated with returning to a neutral stance.
Now at your own pace,
Stretching each arm and hand up above your head one at a time,
Rising on the inhalation and then lowering on the exhalation.
Once you've completed the sequence,
Slowly raising both arms up on an inhalation,
Stretching towards the sky once you've reached up above your head,
Keeping feet firmly grounded on the floor,
Then on an exhalation slowly lowering the arms until once again they are resting by your sides.
Closing the eyes once again and observing the movements of the breath,
Sensations in the body,
Noting any changes that may be present from when we started this practice.
Then when you're ready,
Ending this practice by gently opening the eyes.
