The Ten Mindful Movements are a wonderful way of connecting the mind and body in mindfulness. Here are the first five:
MINDFUL MOVEMENT #1
Begin with your feet slightly apart, arms at your sides. Breathing in, keep your elbows straight as you life your arms in front of you until they’re shoulder level, horizontal to the ground. Breathing out, bring your arms down again to your sides. Repeat the movement three more times.
MINDFUL MOVEMENT #2
Begin with your arms at your sides. Breathing in, lift your arms in front of you. In one continuous movement, bring them all the way up, stretching them above your head. Touch the sky! This movement can be done with your palms either facing inward toward each other, or facing forward as you reach up. Breathing out, bring your arms slowly down again to your sides. Repeat three more times.
MINDFUL MOVEMENT #3
Breathing in, lift your arms out to the side, palms up, until your arms are shoulder level, parallel to the ground. Breathing out, touch your shoulders with your fingertips, keeping your upper arms horizontal. Breathing in, open your arms, extending them until they’ve stretched out to a horizontal position again. Breathing out bend your elbows, bringing your fingertips back to your shoulders.
When you breathe in, you are like a flower opening to the warm sun. Breathing out, the flower closes. From this position with your fingertips on your shoulders, do the movement three more times. Then lower your arms back down to your sides.
MINDFUL MOVEMENT #4
In this exercise, you make a large circle with your arms. Breathing in, bring your arms straight down in front of you, centered between your hips, palms together. Raise your arms up and separate your hands so your arms can stretch up over your head. Breathing out, continue the circle, arms circling back, until your fingers point toward the ground. Breathing in, life your arms back and reverse the circle. Breathe out as your bring your palms together and your arms come down in front of you. Repeat three more times.
MINDFUL MOVEMENT #5
Start by putting your hands on your waist. As you do this exercise, keep your legs straight but not locked, and your head centered over your body. Breathing in, bend forward at the waist and begin to make a circle with your upper body. When you’re halfway through the circle, your upper body leaning back, breathe out and complete the circle, ending with your head in front of you while you’re still bent at the waist. On your next in-breath begin a circle in the opposite direction. On your out-breath, complete the circle. Repeat the series of movements three more times.
Each of these mindful movements can be accompanied by an illustration. For a copy, contact: barryschade@gmail.com
Five more mindful movements will be described on another page of barrygardenpath.com