This is a seated movement practice.
Let's start with getting into a mindful seat.
Feet planted on the ground,
Hips firmly planted on the seat,
Spine nice and upright.
Now the seat could be in a chair,
It could be on the couch,
And if you're doing this on the floor,
That's totally fine,
It's just that you might not sit with your feet planted on the ground,
You might be sitting with your legs crossed,
And that's fine too.
Just do whatever works in that seat that you're in.
Let's experience the sensations first of the body making contact with the ground and the seat.
So that might be experienced in the feet,
And in the hips,
In the buttocks.
And just observe the firmness and the solidity of the seat in the ground and also of the body.
Take a breath in and reach the arms up overhead.
Take a breath out,
Let the arms slowly come down,
Reaching out to the sides as you go.
Do this a few more times with the pace of your breath.
Reaching up on the inhale,
And down on the exhale.
Only bring the arms up to the extent that it feels okay.
Not going into a place of strain and great discomfort.
And once your arms come down the next time,
Go ahead and leave them down at the sides.
Hold the head sideways very gently so that the ear is coming down towards the shoulder.
You'll feel a stretch in the side of the neck.
Slowly start to bring the chin down towards the chest.
As the head rotates over,
And now the other ear is by the other shoulder.
Go ahead and do this again to the other side with the chin coming down to the chest as the head rolls over to the other side.
Continue to do this slowly and carefully.
Being mindful about any cricks or strains in the neck.
This is one of those movements where we really don't have to do too much to experience the stretch.
Next time the chin comes to the chest,
Just gently lift the chin up so that the neck is aligned with the spine and the head is upright.
Tune into the breathing here.
Notice the feet,
Observing two feet and a breath.
Bring one arm up to stretch up towards the ceiling and then over to the opposite side so there's a stretch in the side body.
Try to bring the shoulder blade down and then bring that arm down.
We'll go to the other side,
Stretching the arm up overhead and then over to the side.
Now the shoulder sometimes will crunch up by the ear.
See if there can be a little space between the ear and the shoulder.
And allow the arm to come down.
We're going to do seated cat cows here.
This is a stretch for the back.
It's a movement for the back.
So do be mindful with this.
It might be helpful to sit with the hips a little bit away from the back of the seat,
Just so the seated position is nice and grounded.
And we'll start with opening through the chest,
Trying to squeeze the shoulder blades in towards one another as the head looks up.
And now we'll move the spine in the opposite direction,
Bringing the shoulders forward and then towards one another as the back arches here and the chin comes down towards the chest.
And then we'll do the reverse.
Shoulders come up and then shoulder blades come together.
Elbows reach towards one another just a bit.
There's a lot of opening in the chest here.
Head is up.
And now spine moves in the other direction.
Belly button coming in towards the spine.
Head comes down to look down at the lap.
And continue to do this at your own pace.
You can combine this movement with the breath,
Inhaling while looking up and then exhaling when reversing and looking down.
This is all about movement in the spine.
When you're ready,
Go ahead and come back to a seated neutral position where the spine is not arched in any way and is just straight up and down.
Take one foot and cross it over the other leg.
This reminds me of how my dad always sat when I was a kid.
So you're basically going to be trying to sit with your ankle rested on your knee.
This is a stretch for the outer hip.
And just do the best that you can with whatever's going on with the hips.
When you look down,
It's kind of like the leg is at a right angle here.
Now this might be enough.
There might be quite a stretch going on in the outer hip.
If you have any desire to increase the stretch,
You can simply take the spine and the head and start to come forward,
Keeping the spine nice and long.
So it's almost like a little bit of a forward bend now.
And again with this,
Just a little bit of movement with the trunk of the body moving forward can result in a lot of sensations happening in the outer hip area.
Start to release.
Bringing that leg down to the floor.
Notice for a moment what it feels like,
One leg compared to the other.
Notice two feet and a breath.
Now we'll do the same thing on the opposite side.
Bringing the ankle to the knee,
Feeling that stretch in the outer hip.
Sometimes we might notice that one hip is tighter than the other.
So don't feel like you have to do this exactly like you did on the other side.
Making you be mindful of just how this is showing up in sensation right now.
Keeping the spine nice and long.
Feeling the hips grounding into the seat.
Feeling stretching and sensation in the outer hip.
And then coming to sit upright,
Go ahead and release that leg down to the ground.
From sitting upright,
Start to bring the trunk forward for a forward bend.
Keeping the spine nice and long as the chest and the trunk of the body,
The belly come forward towards the thighs.
At some point we'll have to stop because the legs are there.
And you can stay in this forward folded position.
You can also let the arms rest at the sides.
Even allow the head to come down a little bit if that feels okay.
Letting a deep exhale come out.
Really start to come back up to sitting upright.
Let the hands rest in the lap.
Start to turn to one side,
Looking over the shoulder,
Keeping the spine long as it twists.
Only twist as far as feels okay.
We don't want to come into a place of strain and pain.
Come back to center and then twist to the other side.
Maybe looking all the way over the shoulder,
Maybe just looking out to the side.
That in itself is definitely a twist.
Come back to center,
Slowly untwisting the spine.
Sitting upright,
Observing two feet and a breath.
Hinge the arms all the way out to the sides.
Bring the arms towards one another so that one elbow ends up stacking over the other.
Bend at the elbows so that the hands will then rest somewhere on the upper arms or the shoulders giving yourself a hug.
There can be a little swaying from side to side here which can be a nice little stretch for the upper back.
Now we'll reach the arms out again,
Big stretch opening through the chest.
We'll do the same thing on the other side.
Bring the arms together,
One elbow over the other,
Bending at the elbows so that the hands rest on the shoulders,
The upper arms or wherever they end up landing.
Here there can be a little swaying from side to side,
Giving ourselves a hug.
Stretching the arms out once again,
Nice big stretch.
Now reaching the fingertips up towards the ceiling and now let the arms reach out to the sides as they slowly come down.
As we are coming to the end of our movement practice,
Check in once again with the two feet and a breath.
Thank you for taking the time to practice and move your body today.
What a wonderful reminder that we can move even while we're in a seat.
May you be well.
