Mindful Chair Yoga Card Deck

Knee Taps

Sit towards the front edge of your chair with your feet flat on the floor and your spine tall. Pull your belly button in a bit to engage your core.

Lift your right knee up towards your chest and rotate your torso towards the right to bring your left elbow towards your knee. Pause for a moment and then rotate your torso back to the center and lower your right foot to the floor.

Repeat on the other side. Lift your left knee up towards your chest and rotate your torso towards the left to bring your right elbow towards your left knee. Pause and then rotate your torso back to the center and lower your left foot to the floor.

Once you're comfortable with this movement pattern, you can experiment with adding some simple breathing to the movement.

Inhale in the center.

Exhale and twist to the left.

Inhale back to center.

Exhale and twist to the right.

Thought River

Our minds are thought making machines, and sometimes those thoughts can get really confusing or overwhelming. With practice, we can build our capacity to better understand our thoughts, and choose which ones to hang onto and which to let go of.

Sit in a relaxed position, close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting by a tree next to a river on a sunny day. This can be a river you've visited in the past, or a river you imagine. Notice the current, is ti lowing quickly or slowly?

As you sit by this river, turn your attention to your thoughts. As a thought comes into your mind, notice it and any reaction you may have in your body, then imagine taking that thought and placing it into the river.

Sit with your thoughts, dropping them into the river one at a time as they come up in your mind. Notice if there are any thoughts that are hard to put down, or maybe ones that you put down and then pick up again.