Let's begin by standing with both feet flat on the floor.
The arms alongside your body just dangling.
Standing in an erect and relaxed posture.
The feet may be 2 or 3 inches apart.
On an in-breath we will stretch the arms to the side with the elbows straight and up to the ceiling locking hold of the thumbs.
Just stretching up as we complete this in-breath as far as we can.
Staying on the flats of our feet and continuing to breathe as we stretch.
Just feeling the stretch through the elbows,
The armpits,
The ribcage,
Right out of the pelvis and anywhere else you feel it along your body from head to toe.
Just breathing here as you stretch.
When you're ready,
Unlocking the thumbs and stretching the palms out to the sides as you slowly lower your arms.
You'll probably feel some tingling.
The wrists will be bent,
The fingers pointing towards the ceiling as they come down and slowly,
Mindfully letting your arms come down until they are simply dangling,
Limp by your side.
And if you will,
Just allowing your eyes to close,
Centering your attention in your belly and observing the flow of your breathing.
Of course tuning into the sensations in your arms and what the effects of doing this simple stretch are.
Now let's take another deep breath in and this time just stretch the right arm up.
I will do what we call picking grapes.
We'll just try to reach something that is just out of reach as you continue to breathe and if you like lifting the left heel at the same time.
Just stretching up,
Up,
Up.
The left arm is down alongside your body,
Reaching,
Stretching and then slowly lowering the right arm.
Then raising the left arm and the right heel.
And again picking these grapes that are just out of reach.
Feeling the stretch coming right up out of the left leg.
Left hip,
Stretching,
Reaching and breathing.
And then slowly coming down again.
Now let's again taking a deep breath in and stretching the arms to the side as we did to begin with.
Locking the thumbs together.
And this time just stretching,
Bending over to the right side.
Keeping the head between the arms.
Just breathing as you hang over the right hip.
Just finding where you stop and breathing here as you explore the sensations and limits of your body in this particular bend.
The left side will be stretched and you'll feel it.
Inhaling,
Bringing the arms up and straightening out again.
And exhaling,
Going over to the left,
Stretching.
If you like you can let go of the thumbs and just have the arms be parallel as you stretch out the right side bending over the left hip.
Breathing.
And when you're ready coming back up.
Stretching up one last time with the thumbs locked.
Then slowly lowering the arms to the side as before.
And just letting them dangle here as we once again close the eyes and center ourselves in the standing posture.
Bringing the attention to your belly.
Now let's roll the shoulders around in a forward direction.
Remembering that you can break it down into four separate movements.
The first being raising the shoulders up towards the ears as far as they'll go.
The arms are passive in this and just hang the whole time.
Then squeezing them together in front of the chest.
Letting them just drop,
Just relax.
And then trying to squeeze them together behind the back.
Touching the shoulder blades together.
So a big rolling,
Rolling motion as you move the shoulders around.
And when you're ready back in the other direction.
And then just coming back to stillness,
To standing.
Feeling the effects of what we've just done.
The sensations in the neck and shoulder region.
And then when you're ready let's do our neck rolls where you lower the chin to the chest.
And then move the head so that slowly the left ear is over the left shoulder.
And then keep on going until the head is all the way back.
Then the right ear over the right shoulder.
And finally bringing the chin back across the chest.
Just moving in this way.
Breathing in for the first half as the head goes back.
And breathing out for the second half as the head comes forward.
In a big,
Slow,
Circular movement.
Letting your eyes make a big circle around the room as you do it.
And when you're ready reversing the direction.
And then coming back to standing with the head in a neutral position.
Centering,
Grounding yourself.
In touch with the feet,
Making contact with the floor.
Letting the body be completely relaxed but at the same time alert,
Poised,
Balanced as you breathe.
Now let's work at some balancing and at the same time strengthening the muscles on the side of the body.
Let's begin by slowly letting the weight shift from both feet over onto just the left foot.
And as we do that raising the arms up so that they're parallel to the floor.
And just raising the right leg up as much as it will come.
Stay here,
Breathing and perhaps focusing on a spot on the wall.
Just holding it here,
Standing on the left leg.
The right leg out to the side,
The arms stretched out to the side and breathing.
Trying to maintain your balance as best you can.
When you're ready slowly letting the leg come down and the arms come down at the same time.
So that the weight gradually shifts from the left foot to taken on by both feet.
And then when you're ready on an in-breath raising the arms up again.
And as you do,
Raising the left leg up now,
Letting all the weight be taken by the right leg.
And again,
Stretching out with the arms,
Raising your leg up as far as you can.
And just holding it here,
Balancing and breathing.
Using the focus of your eyes on a spot to keep you concentrated and balanced.
Perhaps raising the leg up a little bit more,
A little higher.
Stretching out the arms,
Breathing deeply into the belly.
And when you're ready,
Slowly letting the leg and the arms coming back down.
And just coming to rest here,
Standing.
Now let's put our hands on our hips.
Gently turn just from the waist over the right shoulder.
Just looking behind you as far as you can.
Keeping the hips facing forward.
Turning the head and the chest and then coming back to center.
Turning and looking over the left shoulder.
Breathing.
And then back to the center.
Keeping your hands on your hips,
Now turning from the ankles.
So that you're turning the whole body to the right as far as you can.
Tracking with the eyes,
Going as far to the right as you can.
Breathing as you do it.
When you're ready,
Slowly coming back through center and turning from the ankles all the way to the left.
When you come as far as you can,
Just breathing with it.
Be aware of your body and what it's feeling in various places.
And then coming back to center.
Letting the hands dangle once more.
When you're ready,
Doing a forward bend.
Let's bend the knees slightly.
Take a deep breath in,
Stretching the arms up over the head as we did before.
Deep breath in.
And then on the exhalation,
Just bending over from the waist and hanging,
Coming down until your head is hanging towards the floor.
The arms are hanging towards the floor or touching the floor.
Just resting in this position.
Hanging and breathing.
With the knees slightly bent.
Every time you breathe in,
Feeling the actual in-breath,
Expanding against the ribcage and stretch the back a little.
As you breathe out,
Just surrendering to the gravitational pull and letting the muscles lengthen and relax.
As your head sinks a little bit deeper,
A little bit further down towards your knees and towards the floor.
Slow,
Deep,
Diaphragmatic breathing.
And if you like,
While you're down here,
You might like to stretch out one arm,
Say the right arm,
Until it's parallel to the floor.
And just holding it here,
Breathing,
Letting it come back down and stretching the left arm out and up until it's parallel to the floor.
And breathing with it.
And then letting it down,
Just hanging,
Breathing.
And when you're ready,
Slowly standing back up.
And coming up with the lower part of your spine first.
So that you're straightening first the hips and then the central part of the back and then the upper part of the back.
And only then raising the head back up.
Coming into a balanced standing position.
And if you care to,
Closing the eyes,
Again focusing on the breathing and your belly.
Tuning into the effects of this forward bend.
Be aware of your breath.
Perhaps you'll also be aware of your heart beating.
Just letting everything settle.
And now we'll do the chair,
Which involves stretching both arms out in front of you and having the feet body wide apart.
And then imagine that you're sitting down on a chair that is not there.
An imaginary chair.
Just coming down to a sitting position as best you can.
With the head and the back as erect as you can keep them.
They will be bent forward some.
And just slowly bending the knees.
Sitting down until you've reached as closely as possible the point where you would be if there was a chair.
And stay breathing.
You may feel this in your ankles or in the small of your back.
And staying with the feeling of sitting here and the strength that's required to maintain this.
Using your arms for balance and breathing.
See if you can drop down a little bit lower.
Just staying at your limit,
Wherever it may be.
And when you're ready,
Just standing back up and letting your arms hang.
If you like,
Shaking them out a little bit.
Taking a long deep breath in and just letting it out.
Letting all the tension or fatigue that builds up in doing something strenuous like that,
Just leave on the out breath.
When you're ready,
Sitting down.
We'll do some stretches from a sitting position.
Now let's begin by bringing the soles of the feet together.
Enlisting the fingers beyond the toes and then slowly drawing the heels in towards the pelvis.
Towards the perineum as you sit up straight.
Now be careful not to yank or to pull on your feet.
Just move them in until you've reached the point the body tells you to stop.
And then just gently bouncing the knees a little bit to loosen the things up in the pelvis and in the inside of your thighs.
And as you do this,
Breathing down into your belly.
Now let's do the half bridge to reverse the stretch in the back somewhat and balance it.
We do this by bending both knees.
Yeah.
We do this by bending both knees so that the feet are flat on the floor about a body width apart.
And not taking hold of the ankles with the hand unless you can reach them.
But it's not necessary.
Just with the hands on the floor alongside the body.
When you're ready,
Taking a deep breath in and as you do,
Just lifting your pelvis off the floor so that you come to rest on the soles of your feet and upper back.
Your shoulder blades,
The back of your neck and head.
Just resting in this position with your thighs as parallel as possible to the floor and your pelvis as high up as it will go.
Just breathing in this position right up into your belly,
Feeling and in fact seeing your belly expand every time you breathe in.
And recede every time you breathe out.
In this position,
Your chest is fully expanded and you can breathe quite deeply in and out.
Be aware of the fatigue that may be setting in in the lower back or the thighs and try as much as possible to maintain this posture with minimum muscular involvement so that you're just resting here as still as possible.
As if you were a statue in this particular configuration.
Timeless,
Just what you are in this moment.
And allowing your face to relax and your arms.
You may want to stretch your arms up beyond the head to the floor and rest in this position.
And when you're ready,
Slowly lowering the pelvis back to the floor.
Stretching back out into corpse position with your arms alongside your body.
And now that you're ready,
Let's draw both knees up towards your chest and wrap our arms around the shins and just squeezing the knees towards the chest as we rock a little from side to side and gradually stretch out the back once again.
Rocking from side to side and then,
If you like,
Raising the head up.
Either putting the forehead on the knees or wherever it gets to and rocking a bit from front to back.
Just gently.
Perhaps you can rock up to a sitting position and back onto the back of your head and neck.
But if you find that that's difficult,
Just rocking as best you can within your limits.
And when you're ready,
Just once again stretching back out on your back and letting go.
Relaxing.
Sinking into the floor as your muscles release.
Bringing your attention once again to your belly.
Just staying in touch with your body.
Relaxing.
Relaxing.
Now,
As the practice ends,
Just remembering what it means for you to engage yourself in this kind of work.
In this way of giving yourself some time and some energy.
Giving yourself some nourishment that helps you maintain and improve your health.
And making the time on a regular basis as we've been practicing,
Perhaps every other day,
To either use this program or to learn the sequence to the point that you can do it on your own.
Or to use other postures that you may have learned or learned from doing yourself.
And introducing a little bit of this body awareness and this method for both strengthening your muscles and your muscular skeleton system.
And stretching it and relaxing yourself as part of your daily routine.
Even if it's 10 or 15 minutes.
But on an ongoing basis.
And as you do over the weeks and the months and the years.
Observing your limits and dwelling at your limits and observing the changes in them as you grow and as you become stronger and more flexible and more balanced.
Thank you.
