A Moment to Exhale Movement

Hello everyone and welcome to a very special Mindful Moment Monday.

Today, we are going to be doing something a little different.

My great friends over at Exhale Movement have partnered with me to sponsor this Mindful Moment. And by partner, I mean I fully support their brand and mission. This is, in no way, a paid sponsorship. I’m simply sharing this with you, my most beautiful Mindful friends

If you aren't familiar with Exhale Movement, let me give a quick introduction...

Exhale Movement is a lifestyle brand that celebrates diversity and inspires inclusivity in every movement artist, dancer, and athlete.

They've created a wonderful, minimalist card deck with prompts to enhance and awaken creativity in our movement, meditative, or creative practice.

So today, please enjoy this video and audio version of our Mindful Moment which includes prompts and cards from their beautiful deck.

We can use a traditional sitting practice or another option is to add movement to our meditation. This could be adding mindful movement while sitting or taking a different posture, maybe trying to lie on the floor with space to extend your body.

You could do a light dance or movement through bodily expression. You could even take this practice to the pole for my pole dancing friends out there.

Let's begin our practice by finding a position of your choosing and begin connecting to our Breath.

Taking a deep inhale, feeling your chest and lungs expand.
And on the exhale, just let everything flow and release naturally.
Take another deep breath in...
And exhale.

The breath can be our anchor at all times.
It is our connection to life.
And it's our connection to this moment.

As we begin, we're going to start with moving slower.

If you're sitting, I invite you to start moving a body part.
A foot,
a hand,
your head,
a shoulder,
just begin to move, slowly.

And whatever you're moving, slow it down.
Feel like you're in slow motion and really connect to what you're feeling, connect to that part of you.

Okay, slow it down even more.

Connected, still to your breath, feeling into all the sensations and just observing them.
Continuing to move slowly, your eyes can be open or they can be closed.
And then coming back to our anchor, the Breath.

Once again, noticing the Breath and noticing if there are any other sensations that you notice in your body

Just to observe and let everything be just as it is.

For our next prompt, I want you to keep your eyes closed at first.

We're going to find a single point of focus and we're going to do this on the inside.

So I want you to focus on a body part...
Could be a hand or a knee?
Could it be your hips or your back?

Your single point of focus could be a sensation that you're noticing right now.
Just take all of your energy and all of your focus into that one point.

Breathing into that point.
Give it your full attention.
Breathing into the awareness of that space.

Now, let's open your eyes, and I want you to find a single point of focus externally.
Whatever it is your eyes land upon, let that be your focus.

If you're expressing or dancing, experiment with different movements of the body, still keep your eyes on a single point of focus.

See if you can open up the rest of your senses.
Come into an open focus with the rest of your body,
with the rest of your senses,
listening,
feeling,
smelling,
tasting,
touching,
But keep your gaze on that single point.

Expanding your awareness can even be expanding your movement, but keeping your gaze on that single point.
And continue to follow your breath.

Let’s come back to our center and drop our external gaze.
Bring our focus back inside.

Again noticing, but not judging,
Noticing, and being present.

For our next prompt, we are going to get creative.

For the next few moments, I want you to simmer in your skin.
This could be any interpretation of what this means to you.

If you're sitting, you can bring your attention to any sensations you may feel on your skin that's exposed to the elements or that touches your clothing.

You can even bring your imagination into what it would be like to actually simmer in your skin.

And if you're moving, what would it be like to move as you simmer?
How can you express simmering?
What does that feel like?
How do you experience that?
Continuing to be connected to your breath.

Let's slow our movement down and come into a resting position of your choice.

And if you're already seated, bring your awareness back to your breath.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
And as you go about your day, whether you continue into a movement practice of exercising or dancing, bring mindful attention to your body and your movement.

Going about our daily life is a dance. An expression.
It is a form of movement that we can always bring a mindful awareness into each and every activity.

If we're making a cup of coffee or having our breakfast or lunch, not only could we slow down, we could make our activity, our single point of focus, just focusing on each bite and truly savoring our meal. Having a mindful moment with the food that we are ingesting.

And if we've come home from a day of work, we can take a moment and simmer in our own skin. We can feel the presence of our own bodies. We can feel our skin and to really feel into your body. We are so often disconnected.... let's mindfully feel the sensations of our the skin we're in.

I invite you to use these prompts and have fun with them.

They were created for Mindful Movers just like us.

And if you have enjoyed these prompts from Exhale Movement as much as I have, I highly recommend you take a deeper look into what they offer.

These are beautiful cards that you can use to invite a little more curiosity or creativity to your movement life.

Whether that's pole dancing or other forms of exercise, or even just play with pulling a card, like maybe like you would with a tarot deck.

Take a prompt and explore!

It's just an invitation to play a little bit with life.

So as we come to a close, we're going to start off with possibly the most basic and most important prompt...

Breathe.

Thank you for spending this time with me.
Thank you for spending this time with yourself.

From my heart to yours,
Heidi

PS! Make sure to check out Exhale Movement and their beautiful deck!