There are countless ways we can shift our world for the better—whether it’s volunteering weekly in our communities, engaging someone in a compassionate conversation, joining an activist group, or creating art that envisions what positive change might look like and energizes us to get there. Showing up with our passion and care is strong fuel for joy and purpose. Yet outward actions are not the whole story here. We need to care for ourselves, too: Healing and replenishing ourselves is part of the healing we wish for others. So let your body and your breath support you in flowing, breathing, and deepening your roots so that we can all continue showing up with revolutionary love.
Mindful Movement Practice: Connect With Your Brave Heart
In this seated yoga practice, we cultivate the tools to nurture, strengthen, and give courage to our fearless hearts.
Mindful Movement Practice: Connect With Your Brave Heart
- Start by finding a comfortable seat. Start to feel your breath coming into your body. Place your right hand on your belly, feeling your breath there, and put your left hand on your heart, feeling your heartbeat. Honor these two functions that keep us in harmony. Gently release your hands to your knees.
- Begin to lengthen your inhale and exhale. Imagine the exhale removing all that we don’t need from our body and mind, the inhale embracing everything that nourishes us. What can you embrace in your mind that lets you know you’re safe? And on the exhale, what can you release that does not serve your better good?
- Breathe into your heart center. Relax your jaw, your tongue, the space between your eyebrows. We have everything we need inside of us: all the courage, all the stamina, all the forgiveness, all the kindness. Embrace it all as you step into your brave heart.
- Inhale, moving your hands up toward the sky. Meet your palms above your head and reach your fingertips up high. Take a long inhale, and as you exhale, draw the shoulders down the back. On your next exhale, turn your palms out and slowly arch your arms out to each side until they are parallel to the mat.
- Inhale, bend at the elbows, hinging your forearms up as if mimicking a cactus. With a long exhale, bring your cactus arms closer together until your elbows, wrists, fingers, and palms connect at the centerline of the body. Bow your head and set an intention for your brave heart, with love and kindness as your foundation.
- Inhale, reaching upward, and release your intention out into the universe. Take a half twist to the right by lowering your right hand down to the ground behind you while placing your left hand on the outside of the right knee. Inhale, lengthen the spine, and exhale, twisting the ribcage and shoulders to the right.
- Inhale, move your right hand high up toward the sky, shifting it all the way over to your left knee or thigh. With the elbows crossed, tuck the chin to the chest, tilt the pelvis up, and let your heart space open into your spine as your shoulders open up. Breathe into that back heart space. Soften the space between your ears.
- Inhale, come to a comfortable position. Keeping the elbows gently crossed, hug your shoulders and tell yourself that you love yourself unconditionally. No judgment, just unconditional love. Inhale, reaching the arms up to the sky, exhale, and release.
- Now take a half twist to the left. Let your left hand come down to the ground behind you and the right hand come to the outside of the left knee. Inhale to lengthen the spine, exhale to twist to the left.
- When you’re ready, move your left hand up toward the sky, moving it all the way over until the left hand meets the right knee or thigh. The elbows are crossed. Tuck the chin to the chest, tilt the pelvis up, and let your heart space open as your shoulders open up.
- Inhale and return to a comfortable position. Keeping the elbows gently crossed, hug your shoulders. Bring to mind someone or something that challenges you. Breathe love into that challenge. And if you can’t breathe love into it directly, perhaps consider what tools you can embrace for the better good of all.
- Inhale, stretching your arms over your head, releasing. Exhale your arms back down to rest your hands on your knees or thighs. Just sit with that right now as the universal light of interconnectedness shines within you, and within each of us.