Loving The World Movement & Meditation

Hi,

This is Paige.

The beloved poet Mary Oliver said,

My work is loving the world.

We'll take that sentiment as our mantra today and let this short practice of simple movement and meditation be a love letter,

A valentine to the world.

We'll start by stimulating the space around your physical heart,

Freeing congestion and any sense of tightness in your chest,

Shoulders and upper back.

Then we'll allow the resulting opening and ease to settle into your body for some quiet meditation,

Perhaps allowing the feeling to extend ripple by ripple out into the world.

So you can begin in any comfortable seat,

You can be sitting on a cushion or a stack of blankets on the floor,

You could be in a chair,

You could even be in the seat of your parked car.

Settle in,

Let yourself feel stable and supported.

Allow your breath to be easy.

And begin with some shoulder rolls.

So the next time you're ready to inhale,

You could scoop your shoulders forward,

Way up to your ears,

Give them a little squeeze.

And then perhaps even sigh out your exhale as you slowly roll your shoulder heads around and back and down.

Do that a few more times.

Inhale,

Scooping the heads of your shoulders forward,

Way up to your ears,

Giving them a little squeeze,

And maybe an open mouth sigh as you exhale and roll your shoulders around,

Back and down.

One more time like that for now.

Inhale,

Scooping your shoulders forward,

Way up to your ears,

Seeing if there's anything congested there that you might give a little squeeze to.

And then a gentle sigh as you roll your shoulders around,

All the way back,

And all the way easily down.

And then stretch your right arm up alongside your ear,

Just stretching long through that space.

Take an inhale,

And when you feel ready to exhale,

Put a little bend in your right elbow.

You might even open up your right chest and twist gently to the right as you circle that right arm back and down,

Kind of hugging your shoulder blade against your back.

And do that again.

Inhale,

Scoop your right arm forward and way up to the sky.

And as you feel ready to exhale,

A little bend to your elbow,

Maybe an opening to your right chest,

Hugging your right shoulder blade back and down.

And do that one more time.

Inhale,

Right arm sweeping forward and way up.

And as you exhale,

A little bend to your elbow,

Maybe an opening across your right chest as you scoop that shoulder blade down your back and slide that arm back down.

Same thing other side.

Left arm can stretch up alongside your ear,

Making some space.

Sip in an inhale.

And when you feel ready to exhale,

Bend your left elbow,

Open up through your left chest,

Scoop that left elbow and shoulder blade down as you circle the arm back and down.

Inhale that left arm slides forward,

Way up alongside your ear.

And as you exhale,

A little bend to your elbow,

Maybe opening through your left chest as your left shoulder blade hugs down your back right behind your heart.

One more time.

Inhale,

Stretching your left arm forward and up.

And then a slow,

Almost resisting circling of that bent elbowed arm back down and around shoulder blade hugging against your back.

We'll take some of this now,

Stimulation and opening across the chest and around the shoulders a little bit more into the full center of the body.

So you can stay seated as you are if you're sitting cross-legged and you'd prefer to switch the cross of your legs just to balance things out,

You can do that.

And then we'll move into some seated cow and cat movement and breathing.

So when you're ready to inhale,

You can gently arch your spine.

You might broaden through your collarbones,

Squeeze your shoulder blades together,

Open up through your front body.

And as you feel ready to exhale,

A gentle rounding through your low back,

Your middle back,

Your upper back as you tuck in like a little cat tuck kind of shape.

You might even drop your chin toward your chest.

And again,

When you're ready to inhale,

Lengthening,

Coming back up,

Opening through your chest,

Maybe arching through your spine,

Squeezing your shoulder blades together back behind you.

And as you exhale,

A slow,

Gentle rounding in like you're spreading your shoulder blades apart,

Opening up the space right behind your lungs and your heart.

A few more like that.

Inhale,

Opening broadening through your chest,

Maybe even squeezing your elbows toward each other behind your body as your shoulder blades hug together.

And exhale as you slowly tuck and round in a spreading through your whole back body,

Especially a spreading of the wings of your shoulder blades.

One more time,

Inhale,

Coming back up,

Opening through your collarbones and your chest,

Squeezing your shoulder blades together,

Arching through your spine.

And as you exhale,

Reversing that movement,

Tucking,

Rounding,

Spreading your shoulder blades open,

Opening up the space behind your heart.

And all the way back through a long,

Tall spine,

Releasing your shoulder heads.

And if you're sitting on the floor with your legs crossed,

You can uncross your legs,

Put your feet on the ground,

Maybe widen your feet even a little bit wider than your hips.

You can lean back and support yourself with your hands.

If you're sitting in a chair or in some other space,

You can just widen your knees apart a little bit and then begin to windshield wiper your knees from side to side so they can both drop over toward the left.

And as you do that,

You might spin your chest toward the right a little bit,

Moving now down into your hips,

Your belly,

And all the way up into your neck.

And then bring everything back through center,

Your spine and chest and your knees.

Let your knees drift over the other way.

Let your chest spin opposite,

Opening up through your chest,

Opening up through your belly and your pelvis.

So this windshield wiper movement of your knees side to side,

You can inhale through center and exhale.

Let them drop one direction as your chest gently spins the other and inhale through center.

Let your knees gently drop the other direction as your chest spins opposite.

Maybe one more time each side,

Just letting any sense of opening,

Any sense of release now move into your full body with this gentle movement.

And then when you're ready,

All the way back through center,

Back into a seat that begins to move toward steady,

Supported stillness.

And a few moments of taking this in.

You can notice the sensations of your body,

Notice support.

In her poem,

Loving the World,

Mary Oliver goes on to say that this process is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished,

Mostly rejoicing.

In other words,

Allowing a feeling of wonder at the extraordinary-ness of the everyday.

That forced positivity,

But humble appreciation as a natural outgrowth of our still,

Clear presence and of noticing the smallest,

Most remarkable things.

How the earth is holding you here.

How your breath is rising and falling.

Be in whatever form that still,

Present state is taking for you for a few more quiet moments.

You may feel you'd like to be just as you are,

Or it could be that your presence and appreciation in this moment naturally begin to expand and extend out into the world.

The unforced process of loving the world,

As Mary Oliver says,

As if your heart is a pebble you've just dropped into the pond of life.

Perhaps this feeling ripples just beyond the border of your skin,

Or perhaps it naturally ripples out further and further.

No right or wrong,

Just standing still and being astonished,

Loving the world for a few more breaths in whatever form it takes.

This act of loving the world is also what the most fundamental teachings of yoga offer.

That everything we experience has the potential to astonish us,

Even to bring us to a state of rejoicing.

You don't have to force anything into that category.

You can simply start with what naturally brings you that sense of wonder and abide there in gratitude.

Thank you so much for creating this time for yourself.

I look forward to being with you again soon.