Gentle Standing Mindful Movement

Standing mindful movement practice.

Taking your time to find a comfortable posture.

Perhaps taking your shoes off.

Noticing your feet on the floor.

Feet about hip width apart.

Knees off lock.

Taking a moment to drop in and notice how your body,

Heart and mind feels right now.

Taking a little bit of time to open to the experience of simply standing in this moment.

You may become aware of your feet making contact with the floor.

You might like to lift your toes and place them down so you really get a sense of the sensation of the floor beneath your feet.

Maybe to feel these sensations more vividly you might begin rocking gently forward and back.

Noticing the changes to the weight distribution in your feet.

You may be noticing other sensations in your knees and legs.

Maybe even in your pelvis and lower belly.

As you support yourself to go a little forward but not too far.

A little back but not too far.

You might want to explore leaning from one side to the other.

Gently rocking to and fro.

Really noticing the shifting sensations that we often take for granted.

Feeling the sensations of transition from one foot to the other in this moment.

And then coming back to stand on two feet and feeling what's it like to make the transition from moving into relative stillness.

You may notice there's all sorts of subtle movements still going on to keep you balanced.

And if you wish you might like to press your feet more fully into the floor.

We can do this by pressing into the big toe side and the little toe side.

The inner heel and the outer heel.

And just feeling what happens as you make this more deliberate stand on the earth.

You might notice some shift of tone in your legs,

Your belly,

Maybe your chest.

And as you press down into the earth with your feet,

How might it feel to allow the top of your head to extend to the sky.

Feeling the whole length of you from the inside.

Perhaps even savouring this quality of standing long.

You may want to reach your arms down towards the floor a little.

See if that sense of length through the arms as well.

Maybe bringing the shoulders back a little so it's a bit of expansion in the chest.

And breathing here.

In yoga this is called standing like a mountain.

And maybe you'd like to connect to this mountain like sense of stability,

Steadiness,

Groundedness and openness.

There's some lovely language around stand.

We might talk about taking a stand or understanding.

And in a way we're all taking a stand in being on this course.

And we've all expressed intentions around how we might like to stand in our life.

And how is it to stand in this body,

With this breath,

In this moment,

Quite an intentional way.

So we're going to explore some slightly bigger movements now.

Which will help bring that flexibility and ease into your joints and your muscles.

But this could also be applied to your life.

Gentle paced movements.

That are truly safe.

As best you can exploring slowly,

Perhaps with some curiosity about the sensations.

Subtle or intense.

Pleasant or unpleasant.

Or neither.

So if you're up for it,

You might like to allow one arm to just slowly reach up above you.

Either in front or beside you.

Gently stretching towards the ceiling.

Perhaps noticing the stretching in the side of the body.

And then allowing that arm to lower,

Really noticing the feeling.

That feeling of release as the arm comes back to the side.

And then trying this with the other arm.

Lifting the arm up slowly.

Maybe notice how it is to lift against gravity.

The sensation of the stretch.

And then noticing how it is to release that arm.

All the sensations,

The arm,

The hand,

The fingers.

And noticing as you come to rest.

If you'd like to now,

Placing the hands on the shoulders.

And moving into some gentle shoulder circles.

So bringing the elbows towards each other in front of you.

Then bringing them up.

And separating them a bit and bringing them to the side.

And then down.

Maybe working out the size of the circles that are just right for you.

Could be just tiny little circles.

Or you can make nice big ones.

And then at some point reversing those movements.

Noticing the sensations in the shoulder blades.

The shoulders.

Perhaps the effect on the breath.

And when you've evened that up.

Just allowing the arms to drop to the sides.

And notice the effect of the movements.

Now placing one foot nice and firmly onto the floor.

And allowing the weight to come out of the other foot.

And moving that foot around on the floor.

You might like to imagine that you're putting your foot into a nice comfy slipper.

Perhaps rolling the foot around on the floor.

Perhaps bending the toes one way and then the other.

Rotating the ankles a little bit.

Coming to rest now.

And moving to the other side.

Again move that foot around.

Explore that comfy slipper if that works for you.

Some movement in the ankle.

The foot.

The arch of the foot.

The toes.

Backwards and forwards.

And coming to rest.

And noticing the sensations in the feet and toes.

And now if you'd like opening your arms out fairly wide.

Perhaps pulling the shoulders back.

Opening the chest up.

Arching the back.

And sticking your tailbone out a bit to exaggerate that curve in the small of the back.

And then reversing this.

Tucking the tailbone under.

Allowing your shoulders to come forward.

And allowing your arms to cross over in front of you.

Giving yourself a hug.

Coming slowly in and out of this movement.

Which is a bit like a standing cat cow yoga pose.

In and out.

Slowly.

With awareness.

Perhaps noticing any preference for the more open posture.

Or the closed posture today.

And letting go of this movement.

Coming to rest.

And noticing.

And now if it feels right for your body.

Keeping plenty of bend in your knees.

You may want to slowly bend the head forward.

Tucking the chin in.

And fold the body down into a slow forward fold.

Perhaps coming to have your arms resting on your thighs.

Or perhaps touching the floor with your hands.

Just noticing.

Where is the best place?

For your hands here.

While you're down in the forward fold.

You may even like to gently swing to and fro a little bit.

Or just staying in this forward fold for a few moments.

Knowing this is a wonderful movement for almost all of us.

Even if we and perhaps especially if we have back pain.

Gets the synovial fluid moving around the joints.

Massages the spinal cord.

Gets the spinal fluid flowing.

And stretches those tough ligaments in the spine.

And when you've had enough.

Coming back up slowly.

And noticing as you gently stack one vertebra on top of the next.

And finally allowing your chin to come up.

Just notice the effect of the forward fold.

Perhaps having the feet a little bit wider now.

The legs,

The knees bent.

And starting to twist to one side.

Allowing the arms to swing gently around as you go.

And then back to the other side.

Allowing the arms to swing gently to that side.

You might like to do this movement quite slowly.

Or perhaps today it feels right to make it more dynamic.

You might even go quite quickly and tap the top half of your buttock.

With the back of your hand as you swing your arms around.

And if you are going quickly.

You might notice the feeling of your hands going through the air.

Maybe some tingling or vibration in the tips of the fingers.

And that sense of transferring the weight from foot to foot.

And perhaps the effect on the breath.

And now gently starting to slow down this movement.

Coming back to rest.

And noticing the effect of this practice on the whole body.

And as we're coming towards the end of the meditation.

You might like to imagine that you're a long sea kelp plant.

Your roots anchored in the ocean floor.

And your body swaying in the current supported by the water.

Just allowing your body to sway gently.

Perhaps having that sense of both resting in gravity.

And swaying but being supported.

Anchored yet responsive to the environment.

Perhaps imagining you're part of a whole sea kelp forest.

Just noticing all the sensations involved in allowing your your arms and your legs and your trunk to gently move and sway.

And then coming into stillness in standing now.

Taking some moments to notice the effect of the practice.

Perhaps giving yourself a little appreciation for taking this time to practice.

Caring for your mind and body in this way.