Chakra Balancing Yin Yoga Class

In this chakra balancing and yin yoga practice, I guide you through a simple visualisation exercise/meditation to help bring a sense of balance into your chakras and energy and create a kind of clearing and cleansing effect.
We then go through some simple yin yoga poses that help to bring about a sense of deep relaxation and opening in our bodies and nervous system, and finish off with a relaxing savasana and chakra cleansing visualisation.
Hopefully you finish feeling balanced, clear, rested and rejuvenated.
(Adjustment: If you don’t have a blanket or pillow you could keep your feet hip-width apart, lift your hips off the ground and place the heels of your hands under your hips with your fingers pointing down towards your legs in ‘Reclined Bridge Pose’. You could stay here for a little bit or the whole time we’re doing this thigh/hip stretch, do what is comfortable for you, and if neither feels optimal simply lie in savasana - lying down on your back).
Enjoy,
Emma

Disclaimer: Because this practice brings about deep relaxation, please do not listen while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Transcript

Hello, Welcome to today's chakra balancing and yin yoga practice. Today I'm going to guide you through a chakra balancing and cleansing visualization exercise. And then we're going to go through some yin yoga postures and movements. And then we're going to finish off with a Shavasana, Which is the lying down pose, The relaxing pose at the end. So thank you for being here. Have fun and let's get started. Hello. So before we get started today, Just check and see if you have. Pillow or a blanket you can roll up into a shape that's kind of similar to this. We'll be using this in one of our postures in the class. If you don't have that, That's fine. I'll offer an adjustment. You can do instead but if you do have pillows or like bolsters or blocks you can use to support yourself feel free to have them around and then you can have the option of adjusting the poses to suit you. And have some water nearby if you want to drink water throughout the class, Feel free. Okay, I do plenty of that. Okay. So starting off this class, We're going to start off in butterfly pose so lying down on our backs and if you're doing this at home and you have a yoga mat of course use your yoga mat if you don't have a yoga mat you can just lie on whatever surface is comfortable for you and put a towel down if you're outside put a towel down or you could just be on the carpet generally all those things are going to work Okay, So. . . Lying down on your mat, Coming to the middle of your mat. Bring the soles of your feet together. And just. . . Climbing the distance. Where you can allow your knees to fall open, Keeping the soles of your feet together, And you can comfortably rest. Your legs. So if it's too far open, Reach further down. You can reach all the way down your mat. So you've got a very like long diamond shape in between your legs or you can have it much closer depending on whether it pinches too much through your inner thighs. And this is a posture where if you want to You can support yourself. With a bolster. Well, But. . . So find for yourself what's going to work. Today I think I'm going to go with She's pillows, Actually. Decided that spontaneously. But you might also want to just check with your body to see if some days We want a deeper stretch. Other days we just want a light stretch. So you can adjust. How much height you put with the pillows underneath your knees. But once you're comfortable. Wriggling your feet as far down or up the mat that works for you. Once you're comfortable, Just moving your shoulders around. Your hands and your palms. Making sure you can actually rest in this position comfortably for a while. The last time we'll say, Once you're comfortable, We want to then Be still. So make sure you're comfortable in this posture first, That it's not too tight or too strong for you. Or you know if you need it to be stronger. Adjust yourself till you've found that sweet spot. With the yin yoga postures you don't want to be pulling too hard or so it's pinching but just a gentle enough stretch. That you can hold it. So when you're comfortable, We're going to hold. Still relax into it and we'll be here for a few minutes. And throughout that time if you need to Adjust yourself because it is hurting more. Whatever other reason, Feel free to do that. You can reach your legs just down the mat. Whatever is comfortable for you. So once you're comfortable, Eyes are closed, Palms facing up. To rest here for a little bit and I'm going to guide you through the visualization in a moment but we're just going to take a moment here to just breathe and relax into this. And a reminder here at the beginning of the class, Some yin yoga poses can be quite deep and quite powerful, Very healing in many ways, Physically, Emotionally. Energetically. So if you notice you have some things moving around, Some emotions that want to be released. Feel free to just let that happen. You don't need to resist or to control it. Let yourself feel those motions in a way that feels safe to you. Or that you have the capacity for in the moment. And you also might have nothing come up as well but just in case it does Feel free to stop, Press pause, Have some water, And if you feel comfortable continuing, You can do that as well. Eyes are closed. In a moment we're just going to go through that visualization. So as you're lying here, Just going to bring our attention to the heart and the chest area. And imagine a ball of pink light right in the center of your chest. It can be as big or as small as you like but I tend to imagine it at least the size of three times the size of a basketball generally. It's a sphere of pink light, Almost like the light in Glinda in The Wizard of Oz, Of Glinda's little aura she has. Imagine that there in your chest. And then in a very similar way, We're going to use gold like sunlight. And imagine a ball of sunlight. Right above your navel, Underneath your ribcage to the solar plexus. Same kind of size, Just imagine that there. Breathing as you do. And then between your belly button and your pelvic bone, We're going to imagine a ball of white light, Same size. And then right at the base of your spine, Your coccyx, We're going to imagine a ball of white light. Just breathing here. You may notice if you've done chakra clearing meditations or balancing meditations. My approach right now is a little bit different. I'm using different colors of light. If that doesn't feel good for you, Feel free to just not do that. Cleansing kind of energy clearing meditation myself. And I really quite like the way it feels. So feel free to continue going along. It's more like an energy clearing, Light visualization more than anything. Okay, And so now I tend to bring the awareness down into your feet. And apparently, So I've been told and I feel to be intuitively true, We have chakras around near our feet, Soles of our feet and even lower than that. So I like to imagine balls of white light, Two balls of white light on each each foot or at your feet given that the soles are together right now. Breathing here. And then I do the same at my hands. So two balls of white light covering my hands and my wrist. Remembering your breath. And instead of the traditional visualizing light at the third eye and the crown chakra, Which you can do, There's nothing wrong with that, I quite enjoy imagining a very large ball of white light kind of just sitting over my head. So it also goes over my shoulders, Almost over my shoulder blades. It's a massive, Like maybe a meter in diameter ball of white light sitting over my head, Clearing the energy around my head. So that basically covers the crown chakra and the third eye as well. It clears any energies you might have sitting around your shoulders, Your ears, Cleansing your ear chakras, Clearing that mental space, That sacred space. And just to integrate that all together now if you want to you can imagine like a waterfall of light or a beam of light like imagining sunlight but I use white light just gently pouring over your head down through your entire body and out through your feet. Don't try too hard to imagine it just kind of gentle imagination You're just flashing your energy field. Okay, Now if you're still in this. . . Butterfly pose which I haven't said not to be so you'd be correct in still being there. We're just going to breathe that tiny little bit more but if you've noticed you've had enough you're still welcome to bring your knees together and come out of it. We're just going to take a few more breaths in this posture. Settle. Okay. Now very gently, You want to, If you want you can use your hands, Place them on the sides of your thighs, Bending, Lifting your knees together. If you use pillows or props under your knees, You can gently move those out of the way. And from here, We are. Bringing our knees together. Separate your feet a little bit more than hip width apart, Just letting your knees kind of turn in. Palms facing down and just resting here. So you're releasing pressure through your lower back, Giving the inner thighs a bit of softness and relaxation after that. Just focusing on your breathing. We'll be here for a couple of minutes. A few more breaths here. Okay. And you can separate your knees if you like. Now if you have that blanket that pillow or a pillow you want to roll up. Preferably if it's like shorter in width it's going to sit better under your hips for this but a pillow should be okay as well. We're going to slide. This pillow to rest under our hips and then so that our hips are lifted off the ground. There's a slight opening through the front of your hips through the front of your thighs and you can wriggle your hips back a bit so you feel like a gentle like subtle stretch over the front of your thighs. Palms facing up and we're just going to allow gravity to create that stretch for us. If that isn't high enough for you and you want it to be a little bit deeper, You can put another pillow underneath there or maybe roll your pillow in a way so it sits higher. I'm gonna do that. And once you get comfortable, It's the same kind of thing. We just stay still and we breathe there. So these are mostly kind of passive poses. Surprisingly very powerful in a lot of these poses I notice. The power of them after the practice. They can have, I feel like I've had like a Chinese medicine kind of acupuncture session or something. The impact is subtle but strong. Okay so making sure you've got enough stretch that's comfortable, Arms facing up. We're just going to be here a couple of minutes breathing here. About one more minute here. Really just let your breath flow into your belly. Let gravity kind of pull your legs down creating that subtle stretch through the front of your hips. Gentle through the front of your thighs. Okay, Very gently now wriggle through your fingers and toes, Bending through your knees, Walking your feet in, Removing that pillow out from underneath you. And we're going to hug our knees into chest. And gently rocking left to right on the spot. Breathing into your belly Massaging through your lower back. Breathing however feels comfortable. If you need to release pressure or tension through your breath. Like breathing out through your mouth or breathing through your nose, However. Feels right for you right now. So rocking left to right helps to balance and regulate our nervous system. Any movement that kind of rocks or crosses the midline of our body has this regulating and balancing effect on our central nervous system. So I like to kind of give this rock Baby. Good chance. A little bit longer than usual. A couple more times provided that feels comfortable for you. Okay very gently now we're going to rock our arms and legs over to the right side pressing into the ground with our left palm. And sitting yourself up. I'm going to come on to the fronts of our bodies now on our mat. Into what is called cobra pose. Are you lying on the front? Love you, Matt! Your fronts of your feet pacing down. And you're resting on your elbows palms facing down and relaxing your shoulders and you're rolling your shoulders away from your ears and you're gently lifting up. For your chin. So what we're going to do is just play around how far forward you want to have your elbows. You're lifting up through your chin, Looking forward, Or how far back. Because the further back you have your elbows, The more of a stretch you're going to get through your chest. It's going to be a little bit more arching through your lower back. So just feel into your body and what feels best for you today. Much strength you feel you have on this day and you can play around if you notice it gets too strong after a while. Breathing here for a few minutes. So once you find your comfort spot, Stay as still as you can unless you need to adjust. Your posture. Sounds like a contradiction, But you know what I mean? Once you're in it, Stay in it, And then if you need to move. . . Move and then stay in it again. Just looking along your nose. And breathing. Remembering to notice as well. Any sensations that might. . . Be coming up in your body. Whether that's physical or emotional. Just energy moving. And just Be aware of it. If you can connect to those sensations, Just feel those sensations. If you're experiencing pain or pinching that's a bit too much you can adjust yourself. Make it less intense or softer. It's more comfortable for you. We'll stay here about another minute or so. Does get too much for you and you want to come out, You can come out of the posture. Now we're going to come bring our heads down on the mat. So placing you want to if this feels comfortable for you. Placing both palms, So maybe your right palm down and your left palm on top and then resting your forehead on your palms. We're just going to relax our lower back here, Relax our shoulders and breathe here. Stay here another minute or two, Just focusing on your breath. You can focus on it flowing into your belly and feel that pressure against the floor or whatever surface you're lying on. As you're doing whatever posture. We're in. If you kind of mentioned before, Really allow your breath to move how it wants to. Breath is a way that our nervous system releases pressure, Tension, Stored energy. And so letting your breath flow allows your body to kind of change states and release that pressure and tension. Okay, Now gently tucking your feet under. And press through your hands with your elbows gently lifting yourself up and for a moment we're going to come to a seated position. And sitting here, Take a moment, Spend a bit of time on the floor. Just relax yourself, Relax your shoulders and just roll your shoulders backwards. And just loosening everything up there through your neck and rolling your shoulders forwards. And from here, Just gentle circles. Clockwise and anticlockwise. Rolling through your neck Very gently don't go too far if it doesn't feel comfortable like through the back or the front. Work within your limits and breathing. And then coming back in the other direction. Gentle through your neck. Back to center and we're just going to gently let our left ear fall to our left shoulder just gently grabbing The left hand, Gentle stretch here. Breathing here. And then using your left hand to press back up and on the other side. Right ear comes to the right shoulder. Gentle pulling with the right hand over the head. Just gentle, Just enough to feel a slight stretch. Breathe into your belly. Okay, Lifting your head back up. Take some water if you'd like to. We're going to come back down onto our mats lying down to kind of finish up the class in Shavasana and we'll do a bit of visualization to close us off. Sounds like a bit of zippo we need to pull up. Maybe we do! Okay, Coming down onto your back again, Just hug your knees into chest just to Relax and release any pressure through your lower back. You can rock left to right if that feels good. Breathing into your belly, Kind of massaging into your lower back. Okay coming back to centre and gently reaching your legs down your mat. Placing your feet about hip width apart and your Hands facing up to the ceiling about 45 degrees away from your body. You can wiggle around through your hips till you get comfortable. Gently tuck through your chin, So the back of your neck is elongated. Gently turning your head left to right just a little bit to open up through your neck here. Breathing into your belly. Coming back to centre and we're going to rest here in Shavasana for a couple of minutes and I'll guide you through. Finishing off visualization. To close up. That chakra balancing and cleansing we started with. Just for a moment we're going to take a few breaths here, Really letting your body relax into the ground, Into whatever surface you're lying on. Okay, Staying here, Eyes are still closed. We're just going to go through the guided visualization. So instead of doing those, Lighting up those parts of our body one at a time, I'm going to do it all together but I'll remind you what they are. A pink light in the chest, Ball of light. Sunlight gold light in your solar plexus. What lie? In your sacral chakra between your belly button and your pelvic bone, White light at the base of your spine, White light over both feet, White light over both hands and wrists and a massive ball of white light sitting over your head and shoulders. See that all at once, Just feel that kind of glow of light in all those places. Breathing into that. Deep breaths let that light be there let it glow let it kind of just fill you up bring you a sense of warmth or just a good well-being feeling And while keeping your awareness of that visualization, That light, At the same time we're going to let that waterfall of light flush through the crown of our head and through our entire body. Almost like it's just washing through, Washing through our whole energy field, Our electrical system, Our aura. And just allow yourself to feel literally light, Both physically and energetically, Maybe even emotionally. Soften through your jaw. Just notice any parts of your body that might be holding tension. Let those parts of your body relax. We're going to stay here for a little bit longer. Breathing here. Let your body stay still. Eyes are closed. It's relaxing, Resting, And breathing. A few more breaths here, About four more breaths. In through your nose and out through your mouth or you can breathe in and out through your nose or in and out through your mouth. Whichever feels good as long as you're getting a big breath in You can kind of fill up your belly, Your chest. Without pushing or straining too hard either. Okay and we're going to place our hands now just over our belly area. So in between our belly button and our rib cage, Palms on top of each other and just press your breath into this area here just to bring a sense of presence and almost groundedness into your body. Bring pressure against your belly area. It kind of brings that centeredness into your body again. Breathing into your hands. Breathe out. Breathe out through your mouth if you like. Breathe in. And breathe out. One more time. Breathing pressing into your hands. Relax that breath. Just come back to your normal breath. Gently bending through your knees. Hugging the knees into chest. Again, You can rock from left to right if you want to. And gently rolling yourself over to your right side, Both arms and both legs, Pressing yourself up. And taking your own time, But we're done for today. If you want to take a moment just to sit and kind of ground yourself after that it's a great idea go outside grab some water maybe have something to eat if you're hungry anything that helps to ground you a lot of those poses were quite passive but also powerful and the visualization can kind of bring us up into more of our energetic body that spiritual energy which is great but we sometimes need to ground back to our bodies so we can kind of be in the world in a more present way. So just make sure you're feeling settled after that. And I will come closer to the camera before I. . . Finish up. Yes, And I hope you have a nice day. So thank you for being here. I hope you got some benefit. Feel free to leave me a comment, Connect and show that you enjoyed the class and I will see you next time.