Mindful Movement To Anchor In The Present Moment

Practice some slow and gentle seated movements to focus on the physical sensations of the body. We allow the gentle movements to be our anchor in the present moment, away from our mind which may be chaotic or full of fear. We may also observe that we tend to push away the slightest discomfort or at the other extreme, we can push ourselves too far regardless of signs of discomfort. This can also be a useful practice if we find sitting still meditation difficult.

Transcript

Okay so let's find a comfy position for ourselves in our chair and take a few deeper breaths as we become comfortable. Allowing our spine to get a little bit taller as we inhale. Exhaling allowing our shoulders to soften, The muscles of our face to soften. Plant our feet on the floor and place our hands somewhere comfortable. So we put our body into neutral. And taking a few deeper breaths as we settle into this stillness. Just noticing the position of our body. And how our body feels right now. Sensing our feet and our legs. Our torso, Our back, Our belly, Our chest, Our shoulders, Our arms, Our neck and our head. So we'll do some slow careful movements. And the objective here is not exercise. The objective is to sense, Is to feel. So we use the movement of the body as an anchor in the present moment. So by all means enjoy a nice stretch but that is not the primary purpose. The purpose is to feel as much and in as much detail as you can. And use that to take us out of our sometimes fretful thinking. We come into the body and that's our anchor in the present moment. So placing our attention on our back and allowing it to become a millimetre or two taller. Crown of our head getting ever so slightly near the ceiling. Next time we inhale we're going to lift our shoulders up to our ears. And when we exhale we're going to allow the shoulders to slide away from our ears and the neck getting a little bit longer. Shoulders soft and relaxed once we're finished. So we'll do that again and we'll pay as much attention as we can to how it feels. Inhaling, Shoulders going up to the ears, Neck disappearing into the body. Exhale, Shoulders sliding away from the ears, Shoulder blades down the back. Sensing how that feels as best we can. With our head balanced on the top of our spine as best we can and sensing as much as we can. We're going to let our face glide round to one side. How does that feel? Start thinking about the movement, Feeling it. And then gliding back to the centre. And round to the other side. Noticing everything that's happening. The sensations. You might also notice, Please come back to the centre, You might also notice a tendency to push yourself. A tendency to want to do a little bit more, Do a little bit better. Can we just notice this? So returning to our central position, Nice tall spine. Let's take our attention to our right hand. And we're going to slowly, Slowly, Slowly start to raise the right hand and lift it above her head. Touch the fingertips up as far as is comfortable. Feeling muscles working in the shoulder, Even in the back. Our ribs have moved. There's a lot going on to lift that arm up there. And the longer it's there, The less comfortable it will become. Can we notice that? And by all means, If it becomes very uncomfortable, Please lower your hand. But if it's just a little bit of discomfort, Can we just notice that? It's very good practice for life. Can we just notice our discomfort without feeling the urge to immediately act? It's becoming really uncomfortable. So we're going to slowly, Slowly, Slowly lower the arm and notice how it feels as we do so. The blood coming back into the arm, How that feels. And then when you get back to your arm resting in your lap, We can still be noticing. We feel like the after effects of that movement. So we're going to do the other side and be really alert for every single sensation, But also whether our mind wants to get us to try harder or maybe the opposite. Maybe it wants to say, Oh, Don't do that. It's sore. Don't do that. It's uncomfortable. By all means, If you have considerable pain, I'm not asking you to be in pain. So if it's uncomfortable at all, Please lower your arm. But notice. So in your own time, We're starting to activate our left arm and slowly, Slowly lifting it. And when it gets up there, Stretching the fingertips up a little bit as if we're picking fruit, It's just out of reach. And feeling that as best we can. And our arm, In our shoulder, In our armpit, And our ribs and our back, Our neck. May even be a change in our feet and our weight distribution. Feeling the discomfort becoming a little stronger. And noticing what is the trigger to make you want to move your arm. I'm going to leave it up to you now when you lower your arm. Can you notice when it becomes right? I've had enough of that. But noticing. And feeling how your arm now feels. How the whole left side of your body now feels. Lifting your arms slowly if you haven't already done so. Coming back to your neutral position. Feeling how that feels now. So, Let's slowly, Mindfully put our hands on the centre of our chest. And we're going to move our arms in time with our breath so that as we inhale we're going to open our hands, Open our arms out to the sides, Filling our lungs. As we exhale we'll bring the hands back towards the heart centre. One time with your breath, Inhale allowing the hands to open. Exhale coming back in again. And doing this as carefully and being the observer as much as we can. One more time. And after that last exhalation let's lower our hands, Come back into the neutral position and notice. Inhale our body. Resting our hands now on our knees or our legs somewhere, Our thighs. As we inhale we're going to arch our back a little bit and lift our chest a little bit. If it's comfortable we can raise our gaze a little bit but not, We don't want to compress any of the back. We're just opening the front of the body a little. And as we exhale we're going to round the back a little, So curving it back the other way looking towards the lap a bit. Inhale lifting the chest, Arching the back a little bit. In time with your breath and feeling how this feels. Let the breath lead the movement. We're not putting any strain on our back or our neck, Just enjoying or not experiencing the gentle movement. And returning to our neutral position and seeing how that feels. Allowing our back to be straight but not rigid, Alert and yet relaxed. For the last few moments can we get a sense of the whole body? How that feels and what we might think about it as well. Judgments and criticisms being particularly important to observe. Don't believe, Just observe. So we'll take a few deeper breaths allowing them to energise our body and we're going to return movement into our body but let's allow this to be part of the practice. So very slowly starting to move your hands and feet. Feeling it all. Rotating your wrists and your ankles. Bringing movement into your arms and legs. And taking a stretch if that's for you. And when you're ready coming back into your regular waking consciousness. Thank you for practicing with me.