Gentle Somatic Practice to Build your Intuitive Sense | Mindful Movement

So we are going to be practicing building intuition today and what I mean by that is getting a sense of safety in your nervous system so that you can listen to the messages of your intuition of your body and tap into the collective energy around you and utilize that to support making choices or really just again listening to your gut instinct if you will. So in order to do that we need that feeling of safety so that we can get out of the survival brain get out of those ingrained patterns of behavior that we've adopted to keep ourselves safe because when we're in those patterns we really can't tap into that intuition. So with that all being said make yourself comfortable. Ideally we're going to be seated the whole time during this practice but if you want to be seated in a chair that's fine I would just encourage you to have your spine straight if possible. So that being said let's settle in and I'd like to start with a quick check-in so you can close your eyes if that's comfortable for you and then begin to just take a couple deep calming breaths in through your nose you can breathe out through your nose or your mouth invite your energy your body your mind to settle whatever that means to you is fine and then we'll set an intention to receive the messages that we each need to receive at this moment knowing that your mind has your best interest and you will receive only what you can handle you are ready to receive and learn open again and then we'll begin with a bit of movement of the pelvis and spine just to open the energetic channel up if you will. So again just being seated wherever you're comfortable hands can be on your thighs or by your side whatever serves you and think of the pelvis as the base of the spine and we're going to be circling the pelvis and therefore the spine will circle in response so you'll tip your pelvis forward you might even feel yourself come forward of the sit bones and then over to one side and then tip the pelvis back around to the other side and you'll just keep going like this you might imagine a bowl and you're turning the bowl but whatever then it's spilling out and then the next time you get to the front so let's go the other direction just changing the movement of the pelvis you can notice how your spine responds to this circling action and then find some stillness and now we'll move more from the shoulders and the rib cage so your pelvis will be relatively still if it moves a little that's fine but think of the the circling happening from the rib cage and up so the ribs go forward to the side they go back in space to the other side and forward and you might notice the your head is going to be moving a little bit more than when we were moving just the pelvis let's go the other direction creating some space expansiveness in the spine this is where our energy travels so we just make space for it and then come back to stillness in the center and then we'll start to move through the neck and head so everything below is relatively still and then you can tip your right ear toward your right shoulder drawing your left shoulder down and then draw your chin down toward your chest and then tip your left ear and again chin down toward the center of your chest and then this time as you finish with your right ear toward your right shoulder keep your head tipped to the side and begin to draw your chin down toward your shoulder and then keeping your head tip chin up towards the ceiling and then once more bring your chin down and then we're gonna look up or lift your chin so that you end up looking to your right with your head turned and then turn your head forward again and then other side tip your left ear towards your left shoulder drawing your shoulder down and then chin goes towards your left shoulder and bring your chin up towards the ceiling and again once more bring your chin down toward your left shoulder and then you'll pick your chin up to level and look left shoulders a few times and continuing to make space again up a little higher we're going to use our hands to self-massage the face so we're going to start at the jaw so about in line with your earlobes find a little indentation here press and usually we can press fairly firmly here but again just listen to your body and as you press you can begin to open and close your jaw and make small circles in each direction I don't know about you but I always feel like I need to do a little release of the jaw I hold a gripping intention there so now with your thumbs pressing under your jaw begin to massage down your jawbone a little silly but we're all in good company and if you want to stay a little longer there feel free otherwise we'll move to the bridge of the nose so really to each side of the bridge of the nose so you can press in and much like we did with the jaw make some small circles a few in each direction just thinking of creating more space you're opening up the sinuses a little bit and allowing more breath to flow and then start to travel out along your cheekbone and then moving to the third eye space or the space right between your eyebrows so just pick one hand and give a little pressure it doesn't have to be a lot and then small circles as if you're dragging your skin go in each direction and then you can use both hands again push in at the third eye space and go up and around your forehead to the temple you might even start to notice your breath passageways expand a bit and then finish there and then we're going to move to a little bit more self-massage for the the neck area so if you can go behind your ears find the bony points behind the ears and we'll start with circles there you're pressing in and dragging your skin and you can explore a little do you want to go up a little higher or a little lower a little more towards the back of your skull and then we'll start to move down so there's these ropey muscles that go down the side of the neck you can make a little kind of a cup with your finger and then press in and as you pull down you're going slightly towards your collarbone so a little bit of a diagonal and I always tend to like to do one side at a time so that you can use both hands and then you can begin to turn your head or tip your head and see what serves you best you might notice one side feels like it needs your attention a little more you can stay there spend a little more time on one side than the other if you'd like and then release your arms shoulder room okay and then we'll move into just a few really gentle stretches here so you're going to either interlace your hands behind your back if you can reach or you might even just clasp your elbows behind your back depending on your shoulder comfort and then start to open your chest so if you have your hands clasped you can draw your elbows towards each other and then reach your knuckles down if you are holding opposite elbows you might have to just encourage the chest to open and then start to lift your chest a little do you feel the slightest little backbend maybe your eye gaze tips up and release there and then moving into a twist take your right hand to your left leg either thigh or knee left hand behind you lift tall first so we've created that space let's encourage it and then think of a spiral turning from your ribs your shoulders your neck your head and i'm going to encourage you to turn your eyes too so you're looking as far to your left as you can with your eyes you might imagine you're trying to see your own ear breathe in create space from the base of your spine to the very tip top of your head and breathe out letting all that go one more breath in your twist looking as far left as you can and then take your time as you unwind from the bottom middle top of your spine and eyes and then blink a few times and then do the same to the other side so left hand to the right leg right hand behind first find that lift out of the pelvis the length of the spine and then spiraling from the base so hips maybe turn a tiny bit really the waist is where it begins spiraling your way up until your eyes finish the twist looking towards your right breathe in get even taller even more space between each vertebra and then breathing out just letting go of any tension or holding and then take your time as you unwind base of the spine working your way up eyes are the last to come back to the center blink a few times and then our last stretch will be a side bend so let's lift our left arm or your left shoulder away from your ear and just think of getting as long through your left side as you can without shortening the right side too much it's going to shorten shorten a little bit but the main priority is lift and lengthen and if it feels good you can use your right hand and just give a little massage along the left side ribs the waist all the way up to the shoulder and then bend your left arm so the hand comes behind your head or behind your your upper back and then you can use your right arm and gently pull your elbow so we deepen that stretch a bit breathe in come all the way back shoulder rolls if that feels good and then other side so right arm lift and first just think of that length out of the pelvis as you tip over and then you're welcome to add on the massage and then again you can bend your right elbow gently grab the right elbow with your left hand and side bend over breath in and out center okay so now moving into our breath work and our meditation if there's any adjustments that you need to do to your sitting posture you're welcome to do so any other last minute stretches that you'd like before you settle in this is your practice so make it what you need and then when you feel ready you can close your eyes gently very much like we began let your let yourself settle whatever that means now we have opened we have created space for the energy to flow and so we'll encourage that with our breath work and our meditation so i invite you to begin imagining that from the base of your spine you have a cord that goes down through the surface of whatever you're sitting on the floor of the space that you're in it travels through the ground into the very center of the core of the earth much like you would plug a phone in we are plugging into recharge to balance your energy so you can think of this cord as a two-way cord down into the earth to both let go of what you don't need and receive what you do need so with that cord grounding you balancing you begin to draw your breath in from that cord through the base of the spine through your ribs your chest all the way up to your head and breathe out completely letting go and making room for your next breath continue breathing this way fully deeply on your own imagine drawing in from this energetic cord filling up completely from the base of the spine all the way up through the top of your head and maybe even imagine breathing beyond your body and when it feels right to you you can let go of the effort associated with breathing and allow your breath to still be full and complete but automatic or natural and then begin to imagine that energetic cord bringing in a healing light energy whatever color naturally appears and then just like your breath imagine this light energy drawing up through the base of your spine filling you up your abdomen your ribs your heart throat head and beyond and as you continue to allow your physical body to relax and settle and let your conscious thinking mind rest when you're inviting your nervous system to sense signs of safety whatever that means to you and when you are safe you shift into the learning brain and with your learning brain with the support of this healing energy and the space you've created you can tap into your intuition continuing to let this healing light fill you up support you continuing to allow your body and mind to settle for the next moment or so of silence listen feel sense any messages that your intuition your inner wisdom is offering and your mind will do often lovingly bring it back we focus on sensing feeling hearing seeing however you receive back to receiving what you need another long slow breath in filling up drawing energy up and in and then let it go more like this in what you need letting go and allow this connection with your intuition to remain open as you are ready to make your eyes open come back to full awareness and just remember that intuition or receiving intuition is a skill just like any other so i invite you to keep practicing keep checking in and listening coming back to that learning brain that relaxed state safe state of your nervous system as often as you can hope you have a wonderful day thank you so much for joining me today