Day 14: Moving Your Practice Forward

Hi, I'm Chloe Freytag with Get Healthy U TV. Congratulations on making it to Day 14 of our two week meditation challenge here. I am so proud of you for taking this time to commit to your health, your mental health, your physical health, and I hope that you're finding that creating space in your life for meditation is simple. 10, 15 minutes, depends on your day, maybe even five minutes, but the idea is that now you have a good idea of what tools you have in your mediation toolbox and which ones work for you, so you can utilize that to maintain your daily practice long after this. For today's meditation, we're going to again connect into that concept of movement and meditation and notice how, when we consciously move gently and slowly, it gets us into a better space for us to then sit still and be comfortable in our body in that still position.

So, I recommend having a yoga mat, a carpet, a towel even, something that you can have underneath you for providing comfort, and then find your way into a comfortable seat. Whatever works for you, hands rest naturally, lifting up through the chest, finding that neutral pelvis to sit up on, and then choosing to either close your eyes down or softly gaze to the floor. Together we'll open our meditation with three long, deep breaths in through the nose out through the mouth, and feel free to move your arms up on the inhale with me, and down on the exhale with me if you'd like. Go ahead and inhale, reach it up. Exhale clear it out.

Good, again, inhale positive energy. Exhale, release negativity. Again, inhale lifting the energy up. Exhale, relaxing your arms down. Good, let the hands come to rest back on the knees.

Keep your spine sitting tall here, connect into your conscious breath. So, long, deep breaths in and out, and as you breathe long and deep, start to gently circle your head one direction. Very slow. Keep your breath consciously flowing in and out, just gently circle the head around. Releasing the tension from the neck, from the shoulders, we tend to hold a lot of stress in this area so soft gentle circles like this help us to alleviate that tension.

To wipe away any heavy energy or worries we hold in that area. Just gently relax them through the movement, through the breath. Start to switch your circle to the opposite direction and stay present with your breath, so as you move, keep the breath flowing in and out. Very slow, very conscious. Keep your eyes either closed or have a soft gaze with relaxed face, relaxed eyebrows, jaw.

Everything soft as that stress just melts away through the movement. Gently start to find your way back into a neutral position with the head, eyes can stay closed or softly gazing down. Take a full, deep inhale in. Exhaling out. Starting to take a little circle with our spine here now, so pick whatever direction and guiding from your chest, you'll just inhale as you circle the chest a little forward and exhale as you circle back.

This helps us to work out any tension or stress we hold in the hips and the low back, which allows us to sit more comfortably, more naturally and at ease in our meditation. So just circle through the spine, let the chest guide the movement. The inhale brings you forward and the exhale takes you back. This can be as small or as big of a movement as you'd like, as fast or as slow as you'd like. Eyes stay gazing down or softly closed.

Wherever you are in your circle, you can switch to take it the opposite direction, same movement. So your inhale coordinates to that frontward circle, the exhale coordinates with your back circle. Breathing, moving consciously, staying present in this moment, through your body, through your breath. Letting the movement feel good in your body, so adjusting if you need the movement to be bigger or smaller. Make it nice and easy, nice and gentle.

And start to find your way back into that neutral position sitting up nice and tall, take a few long, deep breaths at your pace. Feeling that flood of circulation that flows through from that simple movement. Letting that increase in circulation improve your mood naturally. Uplift your spirits. Start to transition your way now into a Child's Pose, so just come forward onto your hands, take your knees as wide as your hips, or wider even if that feels better, feet together.

Then reach your hips back towards your heels so they can soften down, arms crawl a little bit forward and then find a way to relax through your head, neck and shoulders, possibly your head connects to the floor. And in this position, find a long, deep breath, and you can use the exhalations to find more relaxation in your body. So each exhale, you can feel your hips resting even further back creating more space in your spine. Maybe on the inhale the arms stretch a little bit forward, just lengthening out. Take about three more breaths here at your pace.

Keeping the body relaxed, the face relaxed. Inhale now, starting to transition your way up to your hands and knees. You can take the knees closer if you need so that they fall right under your hips. Hands under your shoulders. Inhale as you start to soften the belly down, coming into a gentle Cow stretch.

And then exhale, rounding the spine, chin to chest, tucking the tailbone under, finding your way to Cat. Inhale is your arch, gently softening. Exhale, rounding. Move at your own pace, inhale finding that arch, lengthening out. Exhale, rounding, lifting up through the back of the heart.

Again, coordinate your breath with your body so your inhale finds that extension, your exhale starts to round and stretch. A few more rounds at your own pace. Gently start to sit your way back into a Child's Pose. You can widen the knees if you'd like, hips reach back, heels go down, arms crawl forward. Relaxing your head down as you breathe consciously.

Embracing this pause of stillness between the movements. So you allow yourself to feel the effects of that circulation. Feel the natural benefits of mood elevation, of stress relief, just washing through your body. Releasing anything that doesn't serve you. Inhaling now as you rise back up onto your hands and knees.

Again, hands fall under the shoulders, knees under the hips. This time coming towards a modified side plank. So let your right foot splay out to the side, staying on that shin as you straighten out your left leg and plant the foot on the floor. Your right arm will open up as you find a nice big stretch here. And then we can start to circle our arm, so you can inhale, circling up and around, exhale as it comes down.

Inhale opening, exhale. One more big circle, inhale open up, and exhale, let the left hand fall back to the mat and transition back to hands and knees. Same thing other side, so open up that left foot, keep the shin on the floor, extend your right leg, straightening it out, planting the foot for stability. Inhale, open up the chest, right arm lifts, exhale as you start to circle the arm down and around. Inhale opening the chest, the heart, exhale nice big circle.

One more, big inhale, open up, exhale, right hand comes back to the mat, transitioning back onto your hands and knees. This time start to sit your hips to whichever side is comfortable, and then flip around onto your back, laying all the way down. Let the soles of the feet come together and the knees drop out to the sides to a laying down Butterfly position, or supine Baddha Konasana we call it in yoga. And find more space to relax your in front of your hips. So if this position feels a little tight, you could move your feet farther away from your hips to create more space and room for them to relax naturally.

Allow one hand to connect onto your heart and the other hand to connect onto your belly. If your eyes have opened back up, go ahead and close them back down or soften your eyelids a little bit so your gaze is just soft and here we'll take long, deep, conscious breaths as we encourage the body to relax, to soften. Now that your hand is resting on the belly you can really feel that breath. So really feel that inhalation expanding the belly, and the exhalation softening it back. Breathe at your own pace.

Enjoying this state of ease that falls over the body when you simply connect to that long, deep breath. Slowing our heart rate down as we breathe creating more peace within our bodies, within our minds. Whenever your mind starts to wander know that it's natural, it's normal, but keep coming back to that conscious breath. Keep it flowing in and out, nice and full. Breathing long and deep so that you can find a deeper connection to yourself.

Deeper compassion and understanding for your mind, your body. And knowing that when we find that compassion for ourselves, we can also give that compassion out to others. Enjoy a few more breaths here, comfortably in this position. Slowly start to release your hands so that you can grab towards your legs and encourage them back together. Transition your way up to a comfortable seat, so maybe that's laying over to the side and gently finding your way up, however works, take it nice and easy and just find your way into that comfortable seat.

Let the hands fall back onto the knees, sit up tall, close your eyes. And I invite you to take a few moments of stillness and notice how the seat that you're sitting in possibly feels different, maybe more comfortable, after we've taken that conscious movement. Do you feel more relaxed, more at ease? Long, deep breathe, just enjoying that sensation that we've created. We close our meditation with one big, deep breath together.

Feel free to bring the arms up with me on the inhale, reaching up, pause at the top as the hands press together, and then exhale, bring that position right at heart center. Closing with a moment of gratitude, letting whatever that emotion sweeps in today to come up and just say thank you to whatever it is. As you feel ready, allow the hands to rest back onto the knees, blink the eyes back open. Thank you so much for joining me today on this meditation. I hope you carry this energy with you throughout the rest of your day, possibly your evening as well.