Namaste Welcome to your practice and thank you for joining me.
Today we'll be doing a very short seated sequence.
To relieve.
Tension or tightness through the neck or shoulders.
You can do this practice from any comfortable seat.
That might be Sukhasana,
Your legs crossed.
Easy seat.
You could also kneel.
Extend the legs in front or use any props that you might have around or cushions or pillows to elevate the hips or prop up the knees.
We allow ourselves to be as comfortable as possible through the lower body.
You might take a moment as we're arriving just to really settle in here.
Feel the feet relaxing.
Shift the weight forwards,
Backwards,
Side to side.
And then find yourself coming into stillness.
We can rest the hands comfortably on the knees.
Take an inhale to pull the crown of the head towards the sky.
Feel that length in the spine.
And as you exhale,
Let the shoulders relax.
The face can relax.
Let's take about three deep breaths here.
Inhale,
Following the breath as it flows through the nostrils.
Fills the lungs and then slowly empties back out.
Noticing your expansion on your inhales.
And that release on your exhales.
One more deep breath here.
Let's take another inhale,
Feel the crown of the head pulling towards the sky again,
Really noticing that length as we sit up nice and tall.
Exhale now,
Let the chin tuck in as you lengthen the back of the neck.
Inhale,
Let the right ear rock over towards the right shoulder.
Now finding some sensation along the left side of the neck.
And as you exhale,
Chin can tuck back to center.
Inhale again,
Now left ear gently rocks over towards the left shoulder.
And exhale slowly coming back through center as the chin tucks towards the throat.
Let's continue with your breath for a few rounds here.
Inhale to open the side of the neck and exhale.
Back to center.
You can move slowly.
Notice the sensations.
Along the neck,
Changing as you switch positions here.
You find these gentle rocking motions side to side.
And when you're ready,
Slowly come back through center.
Inhale again to sit up tall,
Lift the head and exhale just relaxing where you are.
Let's take an inhale now,
Reach the arms out wide as far as you can.
Reaching through the fingertips,
Start to feel that activation through the shoulders.
And we'll take a few rounds of breath as we very slowly lift the arms.
Imagine someone is pulling you from either wrist.
Finding that stretch,
That length from fingertip to fingertip.
Perhaps all the way through the arms,
Maybe in front of the lungs.
Continuing as slowly as you can here,
We start to lift the arms up towards the sky.
Notice the shoulder blades lifting behind you as you reach.
Eventually bringing the palms to face each other,
Option to lift the chin as we gaze up.
Beautiful.
Take another two breaths right here.
Really reaching high.
And then gently bend the elbows.
Let's bring the fingertips to rest on top of the shoulders.
We're going to start to warm into the shoulders a little bit more with some circular movements here.
Joint movement.
So let's first bring the elbows together in front of us.
They might touch or they might just be moving in that direction.
Find that sensation along the way.
The upper back.
Space between the shoulder blades.
And then as we inhale,
Let's lift the elbows,
Start to roll the shoulder blades back as we open through the heart space.
See if you can let the hands touch behind the head now.
And again,
They don't have to touch,
But we're just moving in that direction.
Shoulder blades pull together and everything rolls back.
And then slowly open the elbows,
Continue your circle all the way down.
As you exhale,
We'll round it forward again.
Elbows can touch.
Beautiful,
We'll move with breath a few times.
So inhale,
Slowly open,
Maybe hands touching behind the head,
And then continuing their journey all the way back.
Exhale as upper back rounds,
Elbows touch in front.
One more slow movement here.
Inhale to lift.
And exhale to roll it back,
Elbows touching.
Beautiful.
Move in the opposite direction now.
As you inhale,
Elbows will pull back first.
See if you can lift the hands to touch behind the head.
And then as you exhale,
Drop the elbows down in front.
Maybe they touch here.
Twice more like that.
Inhale,
Roll back.
Shoulder blades coming together,
Elbows lifting,
Maybe the hands touch.
And exhale to round it forward,
Elbows touching in front.
Once more,
Big inhale,
Feel the heart space opening.
And exhale to round.
And release now.
You might rest the hands,
Roll out the shoulders a few more times.
And take a deep breath here.
Beautiful.
Let's find another inhale as we reach the arms out wide,
Moving a little faster now,
Coming all the way up,
Gazing up if that's comfortable.
At the top,
Let's interlace the fingers.
Start to bend the elbows.
And see if you can bring the palms to rest behind the head.
This might be enough sensation for you right here.
But if it's available to you,
On your next inhale,
Gently pull the elbows apart,
Feel the shoulder blades coming together.
You might be able to press the head back into the hands just a little bit,
Lifting the chin any amount as we start to open into the throat.
And then as we exhale,
Tuck the chin in again to lengthen the back of the neck.
Elbows can roll down.
And we're not forcing here,
But we're letting the weight of the arms gently guide the chin towards the throat.
And again,
We'll move with.
Inhale to lift everything,
Open through the elbows,
Pull the shoulders back as you lift the chin.
And exhale Releasing the arms,
Rounding the chin in.
Upper back can round here gently as well.
Once more like that,
Big inhale.
And exhale,
Slowly tuck it in.
Next,
Inhale,
Come back through center,
Reach the arms back up,
Release the hands,
Gaze up.
As you exhale,
Start to turn your heart towards the right as much as you can.
Let the heart lead the way here and then release the hands.
You can land that front hand outside the knee,
Back,
Fingertips landing behind the spine.
Take another inhale as we sit up nice and tall and as you exhale you can use that left hand outside the knee to gently guide the heart a little bit deeper into this twist.
Think about guiding the shoulder behind you back a little bit more.
And then if it's comfortable,
Start to gaze back behind you.
So allowing that chin.
To turn towards the right as much as is comfortable.
Gaze can follow.
Let's take about three breaths here.
Notice the abdomen expanding freely.
Notice the twist in the spine all the way from the lower vertebra up to the cervical spine.
Let's keep this twist through the spine but now gently guide the chin back towards the front of your space Directing your gaze now over the left shoulder.
Notice the sensation in the neck moving.
Option if it feels right.
To slowly lower that left ear down towards the left shoulder as we open the right side of the neck a little bit more.
And feel free to slowly.
Tilt the chin up or down to explore this sensation further.
Take another two deep breaths.
On your next inhale,
Let's bring the head back through center.
Reach the arms all the way up as we unravel our twists.
Gazing up at the top,
Reaching high,
And then exhale,
Turn the heart towards the left as much as you can.
Cartwheel the arms down,
One lands outside the knee,
One behind the back.
Inhale again to sit up a little bit taller.
Exhale use the arms to gently twist a little bit deeper Notice now your left shoulder rolling back behind you.
And you can direct the gaze over that shoulder any amount.
Letting this movement come from the chin.
Gaze can follow.
Let's take another three breaths here.
Even as we twist we can feel the abdomen expanding freely.
Deep cleansing breaths.
Again,
Let's keep this twist through most of the spine all the way up through the shoulders,
But allow the gaze to travel back towards the front of your space.
Over that right shoulder.
You can stay right here or you can play around with gently guiding right ear down towards right shoulder to lengthen along the left side of the neck a little bit more.
And you might also tilt the chin up or down slightly.
Moving.
Gently here,
Not forcing anything,
Just exploring the sensations we feel along the neck.
Let's take one more deep breath.
As we inhale,
Slowly bring the head back through center.
Arms can lift as we unravel the spine.
Gaze it up.
And exhale.
Bring the palms together,
Release the hands through heart center.
We can pause here now.
Option to close the eyes.
Notice the space we've created,
Whether that be through the shoulders and neck physically or somewhere else.
Space in the mind,
Space in the heart.
Feel into any residual sensations you're feeling.
Energy moving through the body,
Warmth,
Tingling,
Whatever it is.
And then allow those sensations to melt away.
We come back to the breath.
And we'll seal our practice together with three more really deep cleansing breaths.
In through the nostrils,
Filling the lungs,
Allowing the ribcage to expand,
Abdomen lifts And slow,
Steady exhales through the nostrils or through the mouth if you'd like,
Sigh it out.
Two more breaths.
Last inhale.
And release.
I thank you all so much for joining me today for this practice.
Let's thank ourselves for showing up.
For honoring our body and breath.
And for sharing this space together.
There is a light inside all of us that holds the entire universe.
When I find that light in me and you find that light in you,
We are one.
Namaste.
And take care until next time.
