Gentle Full Body Stretch | Feminine Yoga

This gentle, beginner-friendly Feminine Yoga practice invites you to wake up your body through soft, seated movement. Rather than striving for the perfect pose, you'll be guided to listen deeply to your body, move intuitively, and reconnect with your feminine essence. This completely seated practice gently stretches your whole body without any standing poses or Downward Dogs, making it accessible for every energy level. It is an invitation to stretch, soften, calm your nervous system, and rediscover the wisdom of your body.

Transcript

Hi, My name is Nika, And I'm going to be guiding you through this practice to really wake up your body, Give it a full body stretch, And at the same time, Connect you to this more feminine essence, To your feminine energy. And so I like to call this the feminine way of doing yoga or feminine yoga. What that means is that the invitation is to really listen to your body. And sometimes I'll be inviting you and giving you space to color a little bit outside of the lines of the normal asanas. To really connect to this intuitive flow within. Besides that, The practice is quite soft and slow and it's really, Really designed to deeply connect you to yourself and to your body. One bell marks the start, Three bells marks the end. So let's begin. We're going to mainly do this practice sitting. And so what I recommend and what I'd like to do is actually have a little bolster or a little pillow to sit on. It can also be a block. So it creates a gentle lift in my hips and through that I can really relax and soften my belly. I can more naturally and easily sit up straight. So I recommend you trying that out. And then taking a moment here to just close your eyes. Maybe setting an intention or just thanking yourself for showing up. And then from here, Bring your hands on either side of your body. We're going to take three breaths on the exhale and invite you to sigh out to really relax your jaw. If it feels even comfortable to make a gentle sound, Just letting that come out. And at the same time, We're going to move our arms and wake up the shoulders and the arms. So inhale, Lengthen up. Reach up, Stretch up. And exhale, Letting the arms float down, Side out. And so when you're floating the arms down, Feel free to just play a little bit in the shoulders and letting that movement just be kind of fluid and flowing. Let's do that two more times. Deep breath in. Lengthen up, Reach up, Stretch up. Exhale. Letting your arms come down. Beautiful. One more time. Deep breath in. Lengthen up, Give your whole body a nice stretch. And exhale, Sigh it out, Letting the arms flow down. And you can also shake out your arms here, Shake out your hands, Stretch out your shoulders for a moment. Beautiful, Bringing a little bit of playfulness. Now we're going to interlock the fingers, Placing them just at the top of the neck. Just below your head. And then we're going to inhale, Open the chest, Really open the elbows. Chest goes forwards and up, Maybe gently gazing up. Exhale, Chin in. Belly in, Rounding elbows, Maybe touching or coming close. Inhale, Opening up. Exhale. Rounding. Inhale. And again, Opening up. And exhale, Chin in, Belly in, Rounding elbows come close. And then coming back to neutral. And then from here, While keeping the hands like this, I want you to explore a little twist. And the spine so you're twisting one side. And twisting the other. Try not to force it. You can also close your eyes and just feel how does your spine feel this morning. And moving one more time, Both sides. Getting that twist of your spine. Amazing. And coming back to center, Letting the arms come down. From here. If you're sitting on a little bolster or pillow. Most likely it's a recommendation to roll off to have your bum really on the floor. But still, Again, If you need it, Listen to your body. Because if you're specifically rounding down, You're having your feet like this, So we're bringing the feet forwards together. So we're getting these butterfly legs. So if you're noticing you're really falling back, Then have the pillow. So you can have that still forwards, Folding sort of motion. But for now, Just giving your feet a little massage. And at the same time, We're just butterflying the legs. So awakening some energy in the leg. Creating a bit of a stretch in the groin. And at the same time. Just connecting here with your feet, Really grounding you, Anchoring you in your body. Just loving your feet up. They carry you throughout your day, Every day. And then from here you can grab a hold of your feet and you might just want to kind of fold and stretch forward. See if you can create this stretch on the inside. Of your groin and your hips. You can play a little bit, Explore moving left and right. And for some, This is easier to target when you're just having your feet out wide. So you can also try that out. So you're creating that stretch. And sightline. Amazing. Beautiful. And from here, We're going to bring the legs forwards. So shaking out the legs here for a moment. Giving them a little bit of a shimmy, A little bit of a shake. And then from here, We're going to create a stretch in the entire back line of your body. So initially just like flexing and pointing your toes. So just waking up your ankles. Amazing. And then from here, We're going to create that stretch, That hamstring stretch, Maybe calf stretch. If you flex your toes towards your face, Most likely you feel it more also in your calves. Just kind of like leaning forward. So think about lengthening from the heart forwards. And see if you can sort of connect or tickle your toes or your legs and just create also a little bit of touch here. Create this grounding. Connection with your body, Thanking your body, Acknowledging your body. And then from here we're lengthening forward. Inhale. Exhale, We're going to twist. Towards the back. Maybe you can place your fingertips behind you. And again, Inhale, Lengthen forwards, Connect to your legs, Touch your legs, Feel your legs. And exhale, Twist towards the other side. And feel free to Come into a bit of your own flow. Moving forwards and coming into that twist. And twisting the other side. Beautiful. And then from here, Bringing your legs again back cross-legged. Last few moments here. And I'm giving you a little bit of space here to free flow. So coming a bit into this circular motion. Of the hips of the upper body. And from there, I just want you to close your eyes. And just see if you can listen within. And let your body tell you what else it needs. So maybe it's a side stretch. Maybe. The neck still wants to move. Maybe you want to reach a leg out and stretch that in a certain way. I'm kind of keeping the movement a little bit flowy and fluid. And see if you can just trust. That your body knows what else it needs. And allowing yourself to listen. Last few moments here. Stretching out any muscle. Little knots or kinks. Tensions that are still here. And then from wherever you're at. Coming back to center, We'll do one minute of stillness here to integrate. And to really deeply connect to yourself, Allowing yourself to become a witness of your body, Your mind, Your emotions. You can place your hands resting somewhere on your body and your legs. On your womb, On your heart. Whatever it feels. Most nourishing here. You These three bells mark the end of this practice. Of a beautiful day. Thank you for practicing with me.