Move through gentle stretches and anchor your awareness in the physical sensations of your body and breath.

English

A 15-minute mindfulness practice starting with some guided movement to bring awareness to the body and release built up tension through the shoulders and neck. Please ensure that you move within your own range of motion and skip anything that causes pain in your body. This meditation transitions from awareness of the moving body, to the flow of the breath and then to relative stillness and awareness of whatever sensations are present. This practice is best done sitting in a chair or on a cushion. Enjoy and get in touch with any questions.

Simple Meditation On Sensation

Hello, I'm Emily. I'm one of the teachers on Insight Timer here and welcome to your practice today. So find yourself a comfortable seat for today's practice. And this is a practice that's gonna be best on sitting in a chair. We're going to be moving a little bit, but you can do that with your eyes closed if you like, just listening to my voice and my guidance. Try to find a position where you can lift your spine up as tall as you can, so that you can find a sense of length from your sit bones all the way to the top of your head. The instructions are gonna be really simple. We're going to start with a little bit of movement and then allow ourselves to settle into some stillness and some meditation. And it's really not about what this movement looks like, but about finding a range of motion that works for you. And in essence, it feels good in your body. Let this be a practice of mindfulness to really feeling the movement. Let's start to just roll our shoulders up and back a few times. So feel into that whole movement of the shoulders, lifting them all the way up towards your ears and then all the way back and down. And if you have your eyes closed, that might help you to really feel and sense what's going on in your body as you move. And then you might like to change direction. So roll the shoulders up and forwards. And then you might like to take your hands onto your shoulders. Only if this feels okay, start to just lift your elbows and then move them in a circle, moving them in one way a few times. And then moving them back in the other direction, noticing how this feels. If there's any pain, please just let it go. You might stay with the simpler movement of the shrugging of shoulders, taking it nice and gentle. And then again, only if it feels okay for you, you might like to circle your whole arm around in one direction, both arms together, and then switching direction and moving back the other way. You might feel some heat building through your shoulders, maybe into the chest and the ribs and the neck. And next time your hands are reaching up towards the sky, let's leave them there. If it feels okay to you, you might interlace your fingers and then press the palms of your hands up towards the sky, just noticing how that feels again, letting that go if there's any pain in your body. Now let's take a really big breath in. And as you breathe out, release your hands. Release your hands and just let them float all the way back down towards your lap or down by your sides. And then keeping the hands just resting onto your lap or down by the sides, just let your right ear drop down towards your right shoulder. And it doesn't matter if you do the other side, just as long as you find yourself balanced and swap over. So dropping the left ear down towards the left shoulder now, stretching out through the right side. And then coming back to center and letting your chin drop down towards your chest. So however far that needs to go for you to feel a little stretch through the back of your neck. And then you might lift your chin again and just raise it gently towards the sky, opening up through the front of your throat slightly. Take a breath here. And then coming back to center and taking a side bend. So the left hand might even hold onto the side of your chair if you're in a chair. Take the right hand up towards the sky and then take a side stretch over. So reaching that right hand up and over the top and feeling length through the right side of your body. And you might start to feel the rhythm of your breath and expand that breath into the right side, into the ribs, into the side waist. And then allow yourself to come back up to center. Take a moment to breathe in neutral position and then take your side bend to the other side. So left hand reaching up and stretching over the top. Another breath here before you lift yourself back up again. And then just allow the hands to rest back down. You might take a, just a really gentle twist of your spine, turning your body in one direction and then back to center. And turn the other way. And then as you unwind your spine back into center, just allow yourself to settle here. So this little bit of movement, just bringing our awareness and our consciousness really into this physical body. And so take a moment now to really feel yourself on your chair. You might feel the soles of your feet pressing down into the ground. Feel the sit bones resting on your chair. Feel the spine stacked, the head resting on the spine. And let your belly start to really soften as you breathe. So belly receiving the breath in and out. And notice how it feels to land here, having journeyed through that little bit of physical movement. Really notice whether you're more able to find a sense of presence in your body. And sometimes we can be really busy and we don't have time to stop and actually listen to how we're feeling. And so you might really consciously bring your attention, your focus from that thinking mind, that planning mind into this sense of being. And sensing and feeling body sitting here right now on your chair. Notice what's here for you without judgment, without expectation. And even as we bring our body into more stillness from that movement, underneath the surface, there's always this wave of the breath, this constant motion of the breath. And so if it feels comfortable, okay for you today to really bring your attention to land on the breath, to anchor to the breath, you might start to really notice where the breath enters and leaves the body. Perhaps the sensation of the air at the nostrils or the back of the throat. Maybe for you there's a real sensation of the chest rising and falling or the belly expanding and contracting. Notice whether the breath feels smooth and flowing or whether it feels a little ragged in places. Notice the depth of your breath, the length of your breath. And as best you can, just letting everything else fade into the background as you really commit to staying with this feeling of breathing right now. And particularly when the mind can be quite busy, this can feel hard. So acknowledging that if that's the case, see if you can bring a quality of tenderness and gentleness to your commitment to staying with the breath. If you notice that you get carried off into these to-do lists or stories that you might be telling yourself right now, know that it's normal for your mind to be planning and remembering and processing information. But just for now, can you really let your attention settle on this simple movement of breath in and out, the sensing and feeling of what's happening in the present? Just letting everything else fade into the background as best you can. And again, if your mind wanders, you're also welcome to check back in with your body again. Just notice the feeling of your feet on the ground. Perhaps notice sensation in your shoulders or your jaw. And then with that reconnection with the physical body, start to feel the sensation of breathing again, where you feel that breath most strongly. Just feeling the next breath. And then this one. And then the breath in and the breath out. And as we start to bring our practice to a close, you can just perhaps take a few slightly deeper breaths. So feel the whole body expand as you breathe in. And you might even want to sigh your breath out with a ha. Ah. And doing one or two more of those if you like. And then bringing yourself back into that physical body, feeling the body resting on the ground, on the chair, on the floor. And then perhaps even starting to bring a little bit of movement back in. Just as we started, rolling the shoulders up and back, maybe stretching your arms up above your head, stretching out through your neck again. Anything that felt good or feels good now. And then keeping your eyes closed, you might like to place one hand over the top of the other across your chest or even palms together if you like. And taking this moment here to notice any insights or any benefits that you might have gained from this short practice of simply bringing presence into a body and into the sensation of breathing. And you might like to bring someone to mind or some being or something that you hold close to your heart that you'd like to offer some positivity up to today. And that can be yourself. And as you're ready to, you can start to gently bow your head, blink open your eyes and bring your focus back into the space that you're in. Really gently coming back into your connection with the world around you. And thank you so much for practicing this meditation with me today. I've been Emily and I wish you all the best and hope to see you again here on Insight Timer soon. Thank you.