Hi,
I'm Steph,
And this yoga practice is dedicated to overcoming procrastination.
When we delay something that we don't want to do,
The problem isn't just that the thing doesn't get done.
We end up paying a dread tax on it,
As in we carry with us the dread of not getting it done.
If you're here,
Know that you're not alone and there is absolutely nothing wrong Where yoga could just be one more thing to do to avoid the thing that you have to do,
This yoga is different.
You will move and stretch your body,
Yes.
You will also move and stretch your mind to ultimately begin on whatever that thing is that you've been procrastinating.
We'll get started in a comfortable seated position and begin by tuning into our breath.
Imagine your sit bones grounding down through the mats into the earth.
Lengthening your spine,
Roll your shoulders down your back and lift the crown of the head a little closer to the ceiling.
As you inhale through the nose,
Imagine the breath entering your body in that space between your eyebrows.
As you exhale,
Imagine the breath traveling down your midline and exiting out your sit bones.
Cycle through this breath and as soon as you exhale,
Beginning again.
I want you to imagine a dial like the volume on a stereo.
On the dial is written Little Miss Procrastination.
I want you to imagine yourself reaching out and turning that dial down.
You don't have to turn it completely off,
Just see how low it can go.
And now we're going to start transitioning our breath work so that it's still coming through the space between your eyebrows,
But now as it travels down your midline,
It is exiting through the space below your belly button.
And I want you to roll onto your hands and knees,
Making your way to tabletop.
From this tabletop position,
Start to lower your belly,
Lifting the crown of the head and hips to the ceiling for cow pose.
And on your next exhalation,
Round the back,
Tuck your chin to your chest for cat.
And as we move through this cat-cow on an inhale,
Lowering the belly and on the exhale,
Rounding the back.
I want you to bring to mind that thing that you're procrastinating.
We've turned the dial down on procrastination and let's turn the dial up on what the thing actually is that you need to do.
Inhale to lower the belly and exhale to round the back.
And then take your knees wide,
Your toes together,
Sit back on your heels and make your way to child's pose.
Letting child's pose feel easy.
And if you only had five minutes to do this thing that you've been procrastinating,
What's the first thing that you would do?
Just bring it to mind,
Letting the thoughts be light and easy breezy.
Bringing to mind the first step you would take on this thing that you need to do.
One more nice long inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
Come back up to your tabletop.
Take one more cat-cow,
Lowering the belly and rounding the back and then stay in tabletop.
We're going to transition our breath work,
Still imagining that inhale through the place,
Space between your eyebrows.
And as it travels down your midline,
This time it's going to exit as an exhale out that space just above the belly button,
Your core power center.
Step your feet to the back of the mat,
Making your way to a high plank pose,
Engaging your core,
Tightening your glutes.
We're not here for long,
But it's an option to drop your knees and it's also an option to come onto your forearms.
Cycle this breath,
Inhaling through that third eye center,
The space between your eyebrows,
Exhaling out through that space just above your belly button.
Cycle through that breath,
Really tapping into your power center of your body three more times.
Ah,
One more nice long inhale,
Staying for the exhale.
Come back to tabletop.
Take a cat-cow,
Lowering the belly,
Rounding the back,
And then take your child's pose,
Knees wide,
Toes together,
Sitting back on your heels.
We're going to come back up through tabletop.
Tuck your toes,
Lift your hips,
Press the mat away,
And make your way to a downward facing dog.
Pedaling out the feet,
Shaking out the hips,
Shaking the head for yes and no.
And then start to walk your feet to your hands,
One little step at a time.
And when you make your way to the top of the mat,
Heel-toe your feet to hips with distance,
Grab opposite elbows to hang in ragdoll,
And slowly sway from side to side.
In this pose,
Letting your head hang heavy and your neck relax.
Release your elbows,
Slowly roll up to stand,
One vertebrae at a time.
Your head,
Neck,
And shoulders should be the last to arrive.
And when you get there,
Roll your shoulders up to your ears and down your back a couple of times through.
And now we're standing in mountain pose Tadasana.
Take a moment here in mountain pose to be really intentional about your body.
Grounding down through the balls and heels of your feet,
Engaging your core as if you're in that plank pose.
If they're not already,
Rolling those shoulders down your back and lifting your chin slightly so the crown of your head reaches a little closer to the sky.
I want you to close your eyes here and notice how even with both feet on the ground,
You may sway from side to side.
This idea of balance,
Even with both feet on the ground.
And then I want you to imagine again,
Flutter your eyes open,
Imagine again that inhale coming through the space between your eyebrows.
And as you exhale,
Imagine the exhale coming out through your heart center.
And we're going to connect this breath with movement.
On your inhale,
Lifting your arms overhead,
Palms touch.
And on your exhale,
Cactusing open the arms,
Squeezing your shoulder blades together,
Arms like cactus arms,
And gaze up to the ceiling.
And you want your gaze to the ceiling as much as your heart is going to the ceiling.
Inhale to arms come overhead.
Exhale to cactus the arms open.
We'll take this two more times.
See if you can match that exhale with your cactus arms and imagining that exhale coming out through your heart center.
And then this time,
Inhale,
Arms come overhead,
Palms touch,
And exhale to swan dive forward fold.
From this forward fold,
Letting your head hang heavy in your neck,
Relax and then bringing your hands to your shins,
Coming up to a flat back half lift.
Take that forward fold again,
Forward fold hands to the mat or to your toes or to a block.
And on your next inhale,
Hands to the shins,
Coming up to a flat back half lift.
Let's take that forward fold to half lift again on an exhale,
Forward fold on an inhale,
Flat back half lift.
And then from here,
Bring your hands to the mat,
Step your feet to the back of the mat.
Find that plank pose again,
Engaging that core power center.
You are so capable of doing everything you put your hand to.
And then from here,
Lower your knees to the mat,
Chest to the mat,
Chin to the mat.
Slide forward to baby cobra,
Lifting your head,
Neck and shoulders and stay.
In this baby cobra,
You should feel this heart opener similar to our cactus arms when we were standing.
This is a space in your body for compassion,
For yourself,
For others.
Taking no shame or blame for any procrastination that has happened up until now.
Knowing that you can own your power and decide in the next moment to do the thing you know you need to do.
Lower your chin to the mat.
Inhale to lift your head,
Neck and shoulders again.
Exhale to lower your chin to the mat.
Last time through,
Inhale to lift your head,
Neck and shoulders.
And then as you lower your chin to the mat,
Come back up through tabletop.
Take that cat cow because it should feel good.
Inhale to lower the belly,
Exhale to round the back.
And then tuck your toes,
Press the mat away,
Lift your hips,
Downward facing dog.
From this downward facing dog,
Taking one more nice long inhale.
And on the exhale,
Come to the tip of your toes,
Bend your knees a lot.
Walk,
Step or hop to the top of the mat right into a flat back half lift.
And then exhale to forward fold.
Inhale to reverse swan dive,
Arms come overhead,
Palms touch.
And exhale to hands at heart center,
Tadasana.
From here,
Inhale to arms come overhead,
Palms touch.
Reach your hands behind you,
Lower your arms,
Reach your hands behind you,
Clasp your hands,
Roll your shoulders down your back,
And look up to the sky.
In this pose as you inhale,
Imagine that breath work coming through that space between your eyebrows.
And as you exhale,
Imagine it coming right out through your throat center,
Your space for communication,
For clarity.
One more inhale here,
Looking up to the sky,
Throat open to the sky.
And on an exhalation,
Forward fold,
Taking those arms with you.
From this forward fold,
Release your hands,
Let your fingertips graze the mat,
Or your toes,
Or your shins.
And then slowly roll up to stand,
One vertebrae at a time,
Head,
Neck,
And shoulder,
The last to arrive.
We're going to take a sun salutation A,
One time through,
One breath,
One movement.
You can just follow my prompts,
Tune into your breath.
Inhale to arms come overhead,
Palms touch,
And exhale to swan dive forward fold.
Inhale,
Taking it to a flat back,
Half lift,
Hands to shins.
And on an exhale,
Step your feet to the back of the mat,
Making your way to a high plank.
From this high plank,
Either lower knees,
Chest,
Chin,
Or halfway down chaturanga.
Slide forward for baby cobra or upward facing dog,
And then tuck your toes,
Lift your hips,
Downward facing dog.
Taking a nice long inhale,
Staying for the exhale.
One more nice long inhale here.
Exhale.
Extend your right leg out behind you,
Bend your right knee to open up your right hip,
And then bring your right knee to your right wrist.
We're setting up for pigeon pose.
If traditional pigeon pose is too much on your knees or on your hips,
You can always slip onto your back and take a figure four.
For pigeon pose,
Start by walking your hands back to your hips.
Look behind you to make sure that leg is nice and straight,
And then start to walk your hands out in front of you,
Forearms to the mat,
And then forehead to the mat.
As we settle into this pigeon pose,
Tuning back into your breath.
Nice long inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
One more full cycle of breath here.
Slowly make your way back to your hands.
Underneath your shoulders,
Press the mat away.
Tuck the back toe,
Lift the hips,
Make your way back to downward facing dog,
And then extend your left leg out behind you,
Bend your left knee to open up your left hip,
And bring your left knee to your wrist.
Setting up for pigeon on the other side.
If you're on your back,
You'll just use the other leg to make the figure four.
Look behind you to make sure that leg is nice and straight,
And then bring your forearms to the mat,
And then forehead to your hands.
Letting your hips sink a little closer to the mat,
Letting go of any tension.
Two more full cycles of breath.
Bring your hands directly underneath your shoulders,
Press the mat away,
And this time sit down on that left hip.
Swing your right leg around and take your right leg over your left leg,
Making a little pretzel twist.
And if you want to just take this as a simple twist in a comfortable seated position,
You can do that as well.
Inhale to lengthen the spine,
And exhale to twist around to the right.
Counter-twist to the other side,
Twisting around to the other side,
And then come back through center.
Take your right leg under,
Your left leg over.
You're going to pretzel twist on the other side.
Inhale to lengthen the spine,
And exhale to twist around to the left.
Counter-twist to the other side.
And then come back through center.
Take both soles of the feet on the mat and hug your knees to your chest,
Lifting your feet off the mat,
Finding that core engagement.
It feels similar to when you're in a plank pose.
We're just going to tap into your own fire center,
Your power center here.
Maybe taking a boat pose here,
Releasing your hands,
And then slowly lower all the way down to the mat,
Back to the mat,
Feet to the mat,
Head to the mat.
And take your soles of your feet together and your knees wide so that you are in a supta baddha konasana,
Reclined butterfly pose.
And in this reclined butterfly pose,
Closing your eyes,
Imagining your breath work again,
Moving through your body.
This time,
As it enters into that space between your eyebrows,
Let it exit out through that same space,
Massaging this third eye center,
Your place of knowing,
Taking this a few times through.
And then for our final resting pose,
Extending your legs long out in front of you,
Arms out beside you.
Doing a full body scan from the crown of your head down to your toes,
Letting your body sink a little closer into the mat,
Letting gravity work its magic.
And before we release our awareness on our breath,
Let's do our final bit of breath movement work through the body,
Inhaling through that space between your eyebrows,
And as you exhale,
Let it exhale out through the crown of your head.
Take that one more time through,
Inhaling through the space between your eyebrows and exhaling out through the crown of your head.
And then release any awareness on your body,
On your breath.
If your thoughts start to wander,
Bring them back to your space between your eyebrows for your final resting pose,
Shavasana.
And I'm going to invite you out of your Shavasana one sense at a time,
Bringing your awareness to your sense of touch,
Noticing everywhere where your body comes in contact with the mat,
Your clothes against your skin,
Maybe even wiggling your fingers and your toes ever so slightly.
And then bring your awareness to your sense of sound,
Turning the dial up on your sense of hearing,
Seeing if you can notice not just my voice,
Sounds you didn't notice before now.
And then bring your awareness to your sense of sight,
Noticing colors,
Textures,
Shapes,
Making the color scheme,
The sight more vibrant than you ever noticed before.
Like you're viewing your world in techno color.
And then on your next inhale,
Bring your awareness to your sense of smell.
And on your exhale,
Bring your awareness to your sense of taste,
Maybe licking your lips,
Smacking your gums.
And then finally,
Bring your awareness to your sixth sense,
Your seat of inner knowing,
That space we've been moving our breath through,
That space between your eyebrows.
And with your six senses turned up and tuned on,
Slowly start to roll over onto one side and come back to that comfortable seated position we took at the beginning.
I want you to bring to mind one thing you can do right now on this task that you've been procrastinating.
Breaking it down into the very first thing,
The very first step you need to do.
Committing to it for a certain amount of time,
Whatever commitment of time feels doable to you right now,
Two minutes,
Five minutes,
25 minutes.
And taking one hand on the heart and one hand on the belly,
Making a commitment to yourself,
To honoring that first step that you're going to take.
The dial is turned down on little misprocrastination,
And it is turned up on every other sensation.
So it's going to help you tune into your own inner creativity,
Clarity,
And confidence to do that thing that you know you need to do.
I'm bringing both of my hands together and placing them at my heart,
And placing them at my heart center to tell you that the light in me sees and honors the light in you.
I am doing this practice with you because I too have things that I procrastinate from time to time.
And as I leave this practice to go and do the one thing,
The first step,
And the thing that I need I'm procrastinating,
I'm counting on you to do the same.
Namaste.
