Day 8: Movement is Meditation

Hi, my name is Chloe Freytag with Get Healthy U TV. Welcome to our second week of our 14-day meditation challenge. As you can see in week one, we've developed a foundation for our practice. We've explored positions that we can sit in, maybe ways we place our hands, developed a relationship with our breath and with our mind simply by showing up. And this week, we're going to take it a little bit further.

We're going to explore adding in mantras and movements to our meditation. Now, keep in mind that there's no right way to meditate. This is not something that you can do right or wrong. It's an exploration, it's a journey. And so, throughout these meditations and throughout your daily practice, keep that in mind.

And remember, always the essence of meditation is just being present and breathing. So if any point you need to reconnect into that breath, even if the movements become a little too much and you just wanna get into your breathing, totally fine. And allow your mind to do whatever it's doing. The fact that you're sitting down and showing up and committing to this daily practice is more than enough. For our meditation today, find your way into a comfortable seat that works for you.

Make sure your pelvis is neutral, so you've got space to sit up nice and tall. Your hands can rest in whatever position feels good today, lifting through the chest, and then make the decision to either close your eyes down or softly gaze towards the floor. We'll begin our practice with three deep breaths together, inhaling through the nose and then exhaling out through the mouth, clearing away any stress or worries through this breath, setting the tone for our meditation. Take a big deep inhale, and exhale out the mouth. Letting all worries go.

Again, big, deep breath in, exhale out all expectations. Last time, big inhale, exhale, clearing it out through the mouth. And stay in your comfortable seat, take a few breaths at your own pace, connecting into your rhythm of your breath. Connecting into the present moment that you're in today, into the mental space you're in today. Allowing it to be whatever it is.

Being gentle and understanding with yourself. And we'll introduce some arm movements that help us clear away any unwanted stress or emotion, so each exhale as we do this movement, you can feel that stress just kind of melting off, releasing out through the exhale. So as we did in the beginning, the same way we'll inhale nose and we'll exhale it out through the mouth but adding in our arms here. So as you inhale, reach those arms up, stretching through the chest, exhale mouth, clear it out. Good.

Again, inhale. Reach up, open up, maybe even gaze up. Exhale, let all worries go. Last time, inhale, reach it up, open chest, exhale, clearing that stress out. Let the hands rest back into whatever position they were before.

And just take a few breaths. Let yourself continue to release and clear out any emotions as a result of that simple movement and breathing. Just taking this opportunity to pause between the movements as we find that opportunity to pause between the thoughts. We'll come into that same movement again, same exercise, continuing to clear out our stress. Inhale, reach those arms up, open chest, exhale it out.

Again, inhale, reach up, open, look up, exhale, clearing it out. Last time, inhale, arms up, exhale, let it go. Hands can rest back onto the knees. Again, just a few breaths. Absorbing that clearing exercise, letting yourself integrate it in.

We'll add in a little variation here as we bring it into a more balancing place through these movements and breaths. So this time when our arms come up on the exhale, instead of clearing them to the sides we'll take the hands into prayer at the chest. Using this position to balance our brain, our emotions, balance our body. So again, inhale, reach those arms up, gaze up, same as before, this time exhale, mouth, hands to prayer. Again, inhale, reach arms up, exhale, prayer.

Centering yourself again. Inhale, reach those arms up, exhale, hands to the heart. Feel free to pause here with the hands at heart center. Or if you feel more comfortable bringing them back to the knees, you can do that as well. Take a few long, deep breaths, just connecting, finding that balance in your body, in your mind.

We'll take one more round of this arm movement here. So inhale, reach it up, open up, exhale, hands prayer. Again, inhale, arms lift, chest opens, exhale, connecting to your heart. Again, inhale, reach those arms up, exhale, hands to prayer center. This time, pausing it prayer center to find a moment of gratitude, being grateful to yourself for showing up to committing to your mental health.

Being grateful for all the blessings you have in your life. And with our hands in prayer, we'll close with one breath, big inhale through the nose, pause for a moment here, keep the shoulders relaxed, and then exhale in mouth. Let the hands fall back to your knees or whatever position is comfortable and gently blink your eyes forward. Thank you so much for meditating with us. We'll see you tomorrow.