Welcome to your mini-retreat! The most accessible one ever – I hope. We begin by settling in with a brief breathing practice. Move with a gentle, seated stretching practice. And finish off with a delicious, easy, restorative pose accompanied by a body scan meditation.
This is a rest for your body and mind.
Choose a time when you have around an hour spare (you won’t be moving for more than 10 minutes of this, don’t worry!). Tell people you can’t be disturbed.
Set yourself up, get yourself ready and relax.
Click on each of the titles below to open that section.
We breathe.
Then we stretch (gently).
Rest is the king of this show.
We come into our retreat, sink into our bodies, and leave life behind for a time.
Enjoy this gentle, seated stretch to get yourself moving before your rest.
Finish off your delicious mini-retreat with this restorative yoga pose, combined with body scan relaxation that you can do on your bed (with your heating pad!). Don’t be fooled into thinking this is an afterthought, this is the most vital part of the retreat.
You will need a few cushions/pillows. An eye mask is an optional but helpful addition.
At this point you may like to drift off to sleep. Resume your day. Or you could take this chance to do some journaling. Set the timer, or free write for however long suits. I have a few journals that I created available here.
Don’t forget to have a large glass of water and thank yourself for the nourishment you have just given your nervous system.
How was that?
Will you do it again?
You could schedule a mini-retreat into your calendar for next weekend, simply copy the URL of this page into the calendar entry for simple access.
Share your experience in the comments or tag me with a picture of your practice on Instagram @melissanreynolds
Thanks for putting this together, Melissa. I’m a big believe in stretching and taking time to just ‘be.’ I also love a random legs up the wall pose when my legs are feeling achy. I’ll even read to my kid that way!
Oh I love the idea of reading to your kids when resting and adding restorative poses to make it double whammy!
How do I sign up for the mini retreat
It’s right here in the post – simply set up the time and work through the drop boxes 🙂