Releasing tension and creating space in the body

So, let's just start by doing any little movements that help you to just feel a bit more spacious in the neck and the shoulders and the upper back. And you could do this completely in your own way. What wants to move? Just let your face go soft. Let your eyes go soft. They might even close. What feels nice? It's almost like you're fluffing up your feathers. That's it. And then when you finish that, just settling down. And when you settle down, let's bring our awareness to our feet so that we can really feel that sense of grounding. It can be helpful to lift the heels. And then take the heels down and lift the toes. And then bring the toes down and lift the heels again. Feel the stretch through the feet and the arches of the feet and the ankles. And then take the heels down. Lift the toes one more time. And then spread the feet down almost like you're spreading your feet into damp sand. And that's that steadiness that's really important. And from the steadiness, you can feel your spine lengthening out of your pelvis. So you're like a lovely flower growing up towards the light. And the chest is lovely and open. So let's open the chest a little bit more. So let's start by rolling the shoulders, lifting the shoulders up, up, and then taking them back and down, squeezing the shoulder blades together. And just let your neck and your arms move in sympathy. Just do that a couple of times in your own way. Remember, you're just breathing as you want. Breathe naturally. And then doing the other way. Go the other direction. Just letting the head roll as you take the shoulders back and up. And then drop them down. And then again, just having a little shuffle of your shoulders just to release any tension. Maybe even a nod of the head and maybe a [sighs] a sigh through the mouth. Good. Good. And then from there, let's open our chest a little bit more. I'm going to suggest maybe taking your hands onto your shoulders and lifting the chest. And then you can bring the elbows together around the upper back. So, there's lots of different ways to do this, but this is essentially you're moving your spine all the way from the tailbone right up to the neck. If I go sideways, you can see what I'm doing. I'm opening the chest, taking the elbows back. You could even bring all of the arms into it. And then as you exhale, you could bring your arms around the body and give yourself a hug, curling in or keep the hands on the shoulders, opening the chest, and then feeling the space between the shoulder blades at the back. And you could do this just without any arms at all, just

simply lifting the chest. And then as you exhale, rounding the upper back. And this is a really beautiful way to release tension through the neck and the shoulders and the upper back that restricts our breathing. [sighs and gasps]

And then when you've had enough of that, come back to the center. Let's lift our heels again. Let's take the heels down and lift the toes. And then spread the toes back down. So you feel really grounded. Feel that lengthening through the spine. And just maybe nod the head from side to side. So just releasing any tension in the neck. And then before we go on, just notice, am I holding tension in the jaw? So check that the space between the back teeth. Maybe move the face around a little bit. And your eyes can be soft. So you want to have a relaxed face. Let's have a stretch. So taking your legs out and maybe lifting your arms right up and overhead, looking up at the sky. If the arms are too much, that's fine. If you're feeling up for it, you could even lift your feet off the floor. A full body stretch. Maybe waggle your fingers and your toes. [sighs] And then coming back to the starting position, lift the shoulders up to the ears. And then roll the shoulders back and down. Get yourself comfy again. Fluff up your feathers. Just take a moment to settle. [sighs] And then from here, let's take a twist. So a twist twist is really helpful for the middle back. It releases tension around the rib cage. And you can do this in many ways. So you can do a great big twist where you take your whole arm out behind you, keep your your hips and your knees facing forwards and then wrap that arm around the body. Or you could make the movement slightly smaller with the hand on the shoulder so it's a smaller wingspan. The idea is that you feel a bit of unwinding through the middle back space between the ribs reaching behind if you want to all the way with the arm. Look at your hand and then sweeping back to the center. Keep traveling. Try the other side. Inhaling, reaching behind and exhaling, coming back to the center. A slightly smaller movement is just as good. Inhaling and exhaling. And when you finish that, just lifting the shoulders up to the ears and then letting the shoulders travel back and down. Let's keep the flow going. taking your legs out, having another full body stretch, reaching. If that's too much, keep your arms down and just have that sense of opening up in the front of the body. So, with or without the arms is absolutely fine. Make the movements bigger or smaller to suit you. Maybe paddle your feet and release your wrists. And then coming back to the starting position. And as you come back to the starting position, let your wings come down. Lift the shoulders up to the ears again. [snorts] and exhale releasing back and down. [sighs and gasps] Let's go the other way. Lifting the shoulders back and up and forwards and down. [sighs and gasps] Let's lift the heels and then lift the toes and then grounding again. So that feeling of stability. So when we've got here, let's just recap. We've got ourselves grounded. We've opened up a little bit across the chest, the middle back, upper back, the neck is softer, the jaw is softer, and so we've created space for breathing to happen. And just before we finish, let's just make sure we can get rid of last bits of tension if you rub your hands together. And you could just

literally sweep down from one shoulder all the way down to the arm. [snorts] Give that arm a shake from the shoulder to the fingers. [sighs] Maybe blow off any tension and then try the other side. Warming the hands, sliding the hand down the right shoulder, down the arm, almost like you're washing it, you're sweeping it. Little shake.

And then again, just coming back to stillness, making any last movements. And then settling, [sighs] breathing space.