Welcome to the Follow Your Impulse exercise.
To begin,
Place one hand on your heart and the other hand on top.
Take a deep breath in and slowly exhale.
Allow your hands to return to wherever feels comfortable.
In this exercise,
Follow Your Impulse,
I will guide you in gentle movement instruction,
Guiding you with options to move your body in a way of your choosing,
Encouraging you to follow your own impulse.
By doing this,
You are attuning to the needs of your body and bringing regulation to your nervous system.
Chances are you've been seated most of your day.
So take a moment to check in with your body and notice if there is an urge to stand up,
Maybe sit down,
You could even lie down.
I'll offer suggestions that you can choose to either follow my instructions,
Do nothing at all,
Or something else of your choosing.
We'll start by orienting to our space.
Just take a moment to very slowly let your eyes scan the space that you're in.
Taking notice what you see,
The different colors,
The shapes of things.
You might even notice the space between different objects.
And as you do this,
Turn on your sense of hearing.
Noticing any sounds coming from the space that you're occupying.
You might notice sounds,
Maybe they're outside in the next room.
And now turn your attention towards your breath.
You could just simply stay with the rhythm of your own breathing.
Or you might like to intentionally take a couple of fuller,
Deeper breaths.
You might even make your breath audible,
Making some sounds as you breathe in the breath.
And then a release of a sound when you let go of your breath.
Think of this practice almost like an experiment.
Trying different things,
Noticing how it feels.
And now come back to noticing your posture,
Whatever you've chosen.
Take a moment to shift your weight side to side.
You can do that a little bit longer if you like.
Really stop coming to where you sense balance in your body.
And then begin to notice all the different surface areas that your body is supported by.
So if you're standing,
You might just really feel into your feet where they meet the ground.
You're seated,
Really feeling the space in your sit bones,
Maybe backs of the thighs,
Low back where it touches a chair.
If you're lying down,
There's a lot more surface areas.
So noticing all those parts of the body where they connect with wherever you're lying down.
And now bring awareness to your eyes.
You might like to soften them,
Maybe close them.
And then noticing maybe your entire face.
You might want to play with the muscles there,
Tensing up and relaxing.
Unhinging your jaw perhaps,
Wiggling it side to side.
Sometimes trapped tension can get stuck there.
And then again,
Just check in the way that you are in this posture now.
Do you still like it?
Or would you like to change it?
Notice your shoulders and your neck.
You might just simply let your attention rest there and noticing what you feel.
Or maybe you might like to make some subtle shifts with movement.
Could be a shrug of the shoulders up to the ears and then a ha,
Dropping it down.
Could be some really gentle neck rolls.
Whatever you choose.
The only recommendation I would have is just to be as slow and intentional as you can be.
We have all day to rush,
Rush,
Rush.
This is just really to presence yourself back in your body,
Back in this moment,
Slowing things down.
And now from your shoulders and your neck,
Move your attention down to your arms.
And you might even just simply notice what it feels like to sense the length and the volume of your arms from your shoulders all the way down to the elbow,
The forearms,
And even your hands down to your fingertips.
What's your impulse?
Would you like to make some gentle movements?
Would you like to make some broader movements?
We've been using our technology.
I know our hands and our thumbs do a lot.
So maybe you might want to tighten them,
Make a fist and then flip the fingers open.
Maybe you might like to kind of roll the wrists out.
And again,
Just this sensing and noticing and moving in a way that feels supportive to you.
There's no right or wrong way to do this.
And another option here to check in with your posture,
Making any shifts if you like.
Let's bring an awareness down to the torso.
So the rib cage,
The front of the abdomen,
The back body,
The back,
The upper,
Mid,
Lower back.
There's so much here.
We might want to take a couple of deep breaths.
If you're standing,
You might want to take a forward fold and just let any tension melt out and down.
You might like to kind of make some circular motions with the rib cage.
Again,
Choosing to move in a way that's intentional and slowing it down.
If you're lying down,
Perhaps you might want to roll to one side or then the other.
Maybe you find that one side feels really good to kind of linger or kind of just kind of just kind of just kind of just kind of just kind of just kind of just kind of just linger and stay on your side for a while.
If that's true for you,
Then do that.
Now bring attention down to your hips and the legs,
All the different surface areas,
Sensing the length and the volume of your legs.
Noticing all the way down to your feet,
Your toes.
Maybe you want to roll up the ankles.
Maybe you want to kind of bend the legs back and forth.
You want to make some hip circles.
Wherever you are,
Take a moment now to pause and just notice what you feel.
Noticing what has shifted perhaps since when you first started or what is still present from when you first started.
You might even have gotten a little bit more information from your body about how to best take care of yourself.
I know when I slow down,
I'm like,
Oh,
I need to hydrate a little more.
Maybe a little hungrier than I thought I was.
So if there's any information that you're taking away from your body,
Then maybe there's an action to be taken after this,
Or maybe not.
So this is a practice you can integrate into your day when you need to relax,
Maybe recharge your energy,
Or even wind down the day.
We'll end just as we begin by placing one hand on your heart,
The other hand on top,
Taking a nice deep inhale and exhale.
