How to do a Mindful Stretch

We all move every day hundreds if not thousands of time. How many of those movements are you aware of your body and the sensations as they happen? Very few I would guess. Well that can change if you deliberately learn how to do a mindful stretch.

Mindful stretch

To begin your mindful stretch, come into a standing position and notice your breath. Just feel your breath coming in and going out. You could place your hand on your belly and feel how it rises and falls with the breath.

Now slowly move your weight side to side and back and forth until you feel like you are evenly balanced. Drop your shoulders away from your ears and release your jaw. Notice how your body feels. Really listen to your body as you breathe.

Move Mindfully

If it feels ok, you could close your eyes at this point. If that doesn’t feel good, just lower your gaze slightly. Now on an out breath, slowly start to move your arms out to the sides until they are shoulder height. Ensure your shoulders are relaxed and not crunching towards your ears!

Really pay attention to the sensations in your arms, shoulders and torso as you raise your arms up. On the next exhalation, continue to slowly move your arms up above your head. Drop your shoulders again and take another breath. On the next out breath, stretch one hand even further up and then relax it. Repeat with the other hand. Check in with your arms, shoulders, torso, legs and feet again. See what you can notice now. How does your body feel now?

With the next exhalation, slowly start to move your arms back to shoulder height. Check in again with your body and the sensations. See if anything feels different now. On the next out breath, slowly move your arms back down to your sides. What can you notice now? Check how your breath and body feel now.

You can repeat this process several times and notice how you feel at the end of the movement. Try doing different types of mindful stretches or mindful movements and notice how that feels. Be curious and focus on the body sensations not how far you stretched.

Move During Your Day

You can do this mindful stretch or movement several times during the day. Try doing it first thing in the morning, when you get out of bed. It is great to do this if you sit at a desk all day. Not only do you get a chance to move your body, you also drop out of the busyness of your head for a few minutes. Repeat the movement before you go to bed and you will begin to drop out of doing mode and into being mode. This can help you sleep better if your mind is less busy.

Want to know more about the benefits of mindfulness meditation? Pop over here.

Keep being mindful!

Louise