Make time to take care of your back and prepare for deep and joyful meditation.

We have these bodies to get done what is needed for our mission in life, and that means making the effort to maintain body and mind. Meditation is for our mind and soul, but needs the cooperation of our body to get the job done.

This sequence strengthens the lower back and the abdominal muscles through a series of stretching, contracting, holding, relaxing repetitions as follows. Be very careful not to strain while exercising.

Part 1.

Preparation:

Lie on back, bend knees, wrap arms around knees and pull knees toward body, hold for a breath in and a breath out. Release arms and stretch out in corpse pose (as in photo of boy ).

To begin:

You can do the Preparation first or begin here:

Lie on back. Stretch legs out, then, flex knees with soles of feet firmly planted on floor. Rest arms alongside of body on floor (as in the photo with flexed knees).

Press lower spine below waist to floor or firm surface.

Bending the knees allows this position.

Allow upper back to remain relaxed.

Holding this position, take a deep breath and slowly release it.

Then breathe in your natural rhythmic pattern.

Part 2.

Contract (suck in) abdominal muscles while pressing the lower back into the floor.

Hold position a few seconds, then relax muscles for a few seconds.

Breathe in while contracting abdominal muscles and breathe out when relaxing.

Repeat entire sequence.

More articles in the poses for sitting meditation series:
- Develop Flexibility for Sitting Meditation
- Stiff Joints? Meditate While Sitting on a Chair

The poses shown in this article are in these books – one for adults, and one for kids:

For adults
Gentle Yoga and Meditation – for All Adults
30 gentle yoga poses and 10 meditation techniques for adults of all ages, plus a dose of yoga philosophy and virtues. All poses illustrated. 107 pages. Table of contents at this link.

For kids
Yoga for all Kids
4 styles of meditation, plus 15 gentle moving yoga poses that can also be used as a basic motor skills lesson plan, followed by 18 chapters about how to live social skills, and a dictionary of 40 one sentence definitions of happiness. 96 pages. Illustrated with photos of poses.

I invite you to join me in a world-wide cyber meditation every day of the year. Click on this link to read about it.

Article by Susan Helene Kramer