Spacious Mind

‘Moving into space’, ‘let the space invite you’, ‘move with space’ are common practices within my classes. These are important ways to help ourselves in movement so that we continually release our flow and find easeful movement, rather than becoming compressed, held, or stagnant. As equally important to our physical ease is our mental ease; in fact, these are mutually constitutive….each impacts the other. When we are stressed at work or in our relationships, we become tense somewhere in our bodies, we have difficulties sleeping, and more…setting up a negative cycle of tension building. When we have chronic pain or an acute injury, our worry over this can lead to additional tension holding in our tissues. One of the benefits of our mindful movement practices is that it offers us space to be very present to our physical selves, thus enabling us to reduce tension and have a calmer mind.

At the start of this New Year, I invite you to begin a spacious practice specifically for your mind. Yes, we can call it meditation, but if that has too many ‘tags’ or negative connotations for you, then call it a ‘time of observation of self’ …. . Just as we can observe ourselves physically, noticing where we find ourselves tense/held/compressed, so too can we observe our thoughts and emotions and how these affect our body-mind. In offering ourselves time and space to notice our thoughts and emotions, we are offering ourselves space/distance from these thoughts and emotions. Please find below a SOMATIC based meditative practice. I’m distinguishing this as somatic as many meditative practices can be solely mental…this is fine, however if you are looking for more of a Body-Mind practice, I suggest this practice:

Spacious Somatic Meditation (abcde) (at least 10 to 20 minutes…)

• Alignment: begin by finding a comfortable seated position, sensing the verticality of your spine, hands resting on your lap, feet resting on the floor. Transition from your day with 3 cleansing breaths (inhaling life-giving oxygen, exhaling your activities with a big sigh)
• Breathing: tune into your breath, feeling your inhales and expanding of your body, then as you exhale, releasing your muscular tension and resting into the support of the earth (yielding)
• Concentrate on the sounds around you, both far and near, observing your response to the sounds, without judgment of self or the sounds (you are creating space between the sound and your response)
• Deepen your awareness of your breathing, really feeling the inhales and exhales. Notice where your breath flows freely in your body, notice where your body feels more held…again without judgment (you are creating space between physical sensation and your response)
• Emotions: notice your emotional tone/responses in your body…does this lead you into thoughts that carry you elsewhere? Allow yourself the gift of space to observe yourself, as you would a sunrise or a vista, without judgment, just noticing. Continue sensing your breath, and little revelations of yourself that bubble up for about 10 minutes.
• To transition out of the meditation, take another 3 big breaths/sighs, wiggling fingers, toes, face then circling wrists, ankles, and turning your head side to side.
• Offer yourself space to notice your quality of body and mind, allowing yourself time to absorb the benefits of your practice. ENJOY YOUR SPACIOUS BODY-MIND