If you’re sitting down right now, don’t just watch this one. Try it with me. You don’t need to change your clothes, get out a yoga mat, or set aside an hour. You don’t even need a yoga block. You only need a chair and a few moments to move.
Take a moment to move
In the video, I’m practicing a variation of a movement we often do in class called Sufi circles. Traditionally, we move the upper body in a circular motion while seated. The other day in class, we added the arms and held a yoga block between our hands. It felt so good that I knew I wanted to share it with you.
If you have a block, you can use one like I am. If you don’t, simply bring your hands together and imagine you’re holding one. Explore the circle in one direction, pause in the center, and then go the other way. As you move, let your whole body participate in whatever way feels comfortable.
The important thing to remember is that your circle doesn’t need to look like mine.
Let your movement belong to you
Maybe your circle is smaller. Maybe your arms don’t go overhead. Maybe your shoulders would prefer that you leave the arms out completely and keep the movement in your torso. All of those are perfectly good ways to practice.
One of the things I hope you learn when you practice yoga with me is that there isn’t one right way your body needs to look. Your body is giving you information all the time, and part of practicing both yoga and mindfulness is learning to listen to it. Rather than trying to make your movement look like mine, explore what feels comfortable in your body today.
This is one of the reasons I love chair yoga. The chair gives us a place to begin, but what we do from there can change depending on the person, the day, and even the moment. We can adapt the practice to meet ourselves where we are rather than trying to force ourselves into a particular version of a pose.
The pause is part of the practice
When you’ve finished moving in both directions, let your hands rest in your lap and close your eyes if that feels comfortable. Take a moment to notice how you feel now. Is there warmth somewhere in your body? Do you notice your breathing? Do your shoulders, back, or hips feel different? Maybe you feel a little more awake or energized. Or perhaps you don’t notice anything particularly different. That’s okay too.
We’re often so quick to move on to the next thing that we don’t stop long enough to notice what the movement did for us. We finish an exercise and go on to the next exercise. We finish a yoga class and start thinking about what we need to do when we leave. We take a walk and immediately reach for our phones. Yet the pause afterward gives us an opportunity to actually experience the effects of what we’ve done.
That’s why I want you to do more than move with me this week. I want you to move, pause, and notice. That simple act of paying attention to what you feel is part of the mindfulness practice.
Movement doesn’t have to be a workout
At the end of the video, I say that movement is medicine. I don’t mean that movement replaces medical care or actual medicine. I mean that moving our bodies can be an important part of caring for ourselves and supporting how we feel.
And movement doesn’t always have to mean a workout. It doesn’t have to last an hour, require weights or special equipment, or look impressive to count. Sometimes movement can be a few circles while sitting in the chair you’re already in. You can take a few minutes in the middle of your day to move your body simply because it feels good to move.
That’s another reason I wanted to share this particular practice with you. Yoga doesn’t have to be something you save for the time when you can get to class, put on yoga clothes, roll out your mat, and devote an hour to it. There are small ways to bring movement and mindfulness into the day you’re already living.
So if you watched the video without moving the first time, go back and try it with me. Give yourself a few moments to move your body, and when you’re finished, don’t immediately rush on to the next thing. Pause long enough to ask yourself, How do I feel now?
Thank you for practicing with me.