Bedtime Yin Yoga

Enjoy a 20 minute yin yoga practice that is crafted to help you release physical tension and mental stress through gentle movement. Poses are held from 1-3 minutes, allowing deep tissue release and relaxation.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Bedtime Yin.

My name is Marie and this is a Yin practice to help you get ready to settle down for bedtime.

For today,

You may like to have some props.

If you have a bolster or just a couple of pillows,

It would be nice to have those nearby.

You can use a yoga mat if you like,

But it's not required.

So let's get started.

We'll start in a seated meditation.

If you'd like,

Find a seat somewhere comfortable.

This can be on your bed or on the floor.

I like to seat myself against the wall so my back is nice and straight and I don't have to hold myself up quite so much.

Once you find a comfortable seat,

Allow your hands to rest on your knees,

Palms facing up.

This will take any additional stimulation or distraction away.

Sit up tall.

You can let your chin bow gently and close your eyes.

Begin simply with the breath.

Let all the air go and then take a full breath in through the nose and exhale out of the mouth.

Again,

Deep breath in through your nose and fully exhale out of your mouth.

Good.

Now I'd like you to bring your awareness to the points of contact on your body that meet the earth below you.

The base of your spine,

The backs of your legs,

Your glutes,

Perhaps your feet,

Your heels.

And if you're sitting against the wall,

Notice your spine aligning with the wall.

Notice the sensation that the breath creates.

Perhaps the breath is a bit warmer as you breathe in and a bit cooler as you breathe out.

The rise and fall of the belly and chest,

Slowly and gently.

Bring your awareness to your open palms.

See what sensation you can feel there,

Just that simple awareness of the sensation in your palms.

Maybe there's something there.

Maybe you're simply holding space.

Anything that's running around in your mind right now can wait.

I'd like you to envision setting aside whatever might be distracting you,

Things from the day,

As if you're just picking them up and setting them to the side.

They'll be there after your practice if you need them,

Those thoughts.

Take a few more rounds of breath.

Being very aware of the cadence of your breath,

The sensation.

And you're welcome to stay here as long as you like,

But when you're ready,

Make your way to hands and knees.

Table top pose,

Hands on the ground under shoulders,

Knees under hips.

And we'll take a few rounds of cats and cow.

So first we'll take cow.

So drop the belly,

Lift your gaze and tailbone with the breath in.

And exhale,

We're going to arch our back,

Round our shoulders,

Tuck our chin for cat.

Good.

Inhale again for cow.

Exhale for cat.

Inhale for cow.

Exhale for cat.

Now take any additional spinal movements that might feel good.

This might be moving your shoulders and hips side to side,

Taking a couple circles with the neck,

Giving the spine a little bit of gentle movement.

When you're ready,

We'll move into sphinx pose.

Go ahead and slide it onto your belly.

You're going to prop yourself up on your elbows and forearms.

Elbows will be just in front of the shoulders,

Shoulder width apart,

Forearms and palms down,

And those will be parallel.

Take a moment to press your elbows into the earth to bring your shoulders away from your ears,

Sitting up nice and tall.

Let the low back compress,

Relax the belly.

And then when you're ready,

Bring your chin all the way down to your chest.

And as you do,

Bring your shoulder blades further together down your back,

Away from your ears.

After a long day,

It's important that we take care of our neck and shoulders.

It's a place that we hold a lot of tension.

You're welcome to keep your chin tucked here,

Or if it feels good in your body,

Begin to make little circles with your neck,

Semi-circles,

Bringing your right ear to the shoulder,

Dropping the head and chin down through,

And then left to left shoulder,

And back again.

Feel free to stay lingering on the right or left side with your neck if you need it.

Sometimes one side needs a little more attention than the other.

And then from here,

We're going to move into prone scorpion pose.

So what you'll do is lay down onto your belly.

You're going to open your right arm straight out to the side,

Creating that right angle between the arm and side body.

And then you'll take your left palm to press it under your left shoulder into the ground.

So you can roll onto your side with that right arm still out.

You'll bring the left leg over.

It's like a little kickstand behind you with the left arm supporting you.

If you feel balanced here,

You can let the left forearm come down.

This is a pretty intense shoulder opener.

Something we do a lot is hunch throughout our day.

With opening the shoulder in the front,

You're really kind of reversing the effect of all that hunching.

And you may notice you need to tiptoe your arm up or down to find your edge.

And what I mean by edge in yin is that place of sensation,

Perhaps even intensity,

But a place before pain,

Not in pain.

As I continue with these yin poses,

You're going to hold them from anywhere to one to five minutes.

Your job in these poses is to find stillness the best you can.

First stillness in the body,

Letting go of the wiggles,

The fidgeting.

And then we work towards quieting our mind.

Yin yoga is equally as meditative as it is physical.

So when I say meditative,

I don't mean the act of not thinking.

That's nearly impossible.

It's simply your job in meditation to become the observer of your thoughts rather than the active participant.

Noticing as they come,

Acknowledging them without judgment,

And then letting them go.

I'll also hold space for silence in this practice.

So if you hear periods of quiet,

I'm still here.

You're almost there.

Holding just for a few more rounds of breath.

Wonderful.

Now just gently roll back onto your belly,

Pausing with the arms slightly extended.

Noticing that sensation return to the arm.

I like to call this the afterglow of the pose.

Bringing your awareness to this gentle return of circulation to the arm.

And from here,

We'll move into bent wing pose.

You're going to prop yourself up onto your elbows once more.

And you're going to turn the right palm facing up and slide your right palm and arm under the left,

Coming down onto your upper arm with your chest and allowing the left arm to extend long or gently bend in front of you.

And then allowing your right temple to come down to the earth as well.

You might need to move your arm up and down to find that sweet spot on your shoulder.

But as you notice,

This is going to address the opposite part of our shoulder than prone scorpion.

If you find your thoughts making their way back into your mind and taking your attention,

Bring your awareness back to your breathing.

This can be very simple.

Just noticing the cadence of your breath,

How your belly and chest lift your torso with each breath in,

And how the body slowly settles down with each breath out.

Just about halfway there.

You've noticed probably by now,

Little subtle changes in your body as you hold these poses.

It's much like an unraveling.

First,

It's possibly a bit intense,

That edge is front and center,

And then you begin to soften into each pose,

Going deeper and deeper.

Notice that unraveling as we move into our next pose.

Gently bring that left arm back so you can press up,

Unwind,

Open the right arm out to the side,

Just like we did after our last pose.

Letting it linger there for just a moment.

Staying in that afterglow,

That return of sensation.

And now,

We'll bring that arm back.

We're going to extend the left arm out,

Palm facing down,

And bring the right hand,

The palm,

Right to the ground under your right shoulder to press up.

So you can roll onto your left side with that left arm still extended.

This time,

The right leg kind of comes up and over to act as a little kickstand.

And just before,

You may know that you need to move your arm up or down while extended to find your edge,

That sweet spot where you're feeling something,

Maybe a lot of something,

But you're not in pain.

And then once you find that place where you can stay,

Be still.

You're just about halfway there in this pose.

And then we'll begin to come out of this pose simply by rolling back onto our belly,

Leaving the left arm extended.

Pausing here.

And then when you're ready,

We'll move into vent wing pose.

So we'll take our right elbow to prop ourselves up.

We'll bring the left arm,

Palm facing up,

Under the right,

Extending the right arm long and coming to lay down on the upper left arm.

Again,

Making sure you find that space where you feel sensation in the shoulder without pain and then settling into the pose,

Letting your temple rest down on the ground and be still.

You're just about halfway through this pose,

Checking in with yourself here,

Being aware of your thoughts and sensations and aware of the breath as well.

Once more,

Noticing the rise and fall as our belly expands and softens with each breath in and out.

Beginning now to bring the right arm back so we can press up just a little to open the left arm out wide to the side once more and lowering onto the chest just for a moment.

Again,

Pausing in that return of sensation.

We'll bring both palms under our shoulders,

Now pressing them into the earth.

Press down and straighten your elbows for cobra pose.

Let the low back really compress.

Let the lower body make contact with the ground.

Take a big breath.

As you exhale,

Sink back into child's pose.

You can let the knees go wide,

Toes come behind you to touch.

And if you have a bowl,

Store some pillows,

You can place them right in front of you so you can walk your arms out long to rest your head and upper body on the bowl or pillows.

Or if you don't have those,

You can walk your arms out long and let your forehead come to the mat.

Take a couple rounds of cleansing breaths,

Breathing fully in through the nose and out through the mouth.

In through the nose,

Out through the mouth.

Begin to walk your arms back.

Press up to a seat,

Shifting your hips to one side of the other so you can swing your legs out long in front of you,

Long and straight.

If you have a wall nearby,

Feel free to scoot yourself up against the wall so your back can be nice and straight.

Take a breath in and bring the arms all the way up overhead.

And as you exhale,

Take caterpillar pose,

Just folding over your extended legs.

Let the hands rest softly on either side of your legs.

No need to tug or hold on to anything.

This is a very passive forward fold.

It's also a fold that we let gravity really do the work here.

Gravity and time.

Even though we're not holding on to our toes or pulling,

You'll begin to notice that as you softly stay in this pose,

You might inch closer,

Closer chest to your legs,

Just a little bit at a time without much effort.

With eyes closed,

This is a wonderful pose to bring your awareness inside,

Perhaps even to that space behind closed eyes,

Right above the eyebrows of the forehead,

Your third eye.

It's a place of introspection,

Awareness.

You're just about halfway there in this pose.

Now gently begin to roll back up to seated and find your way all the way onto your back,

Making sure that you have plenty of space around you.

If you'd like to take Shavasana in your bed,

Make your way there.

Lay down on your back in bed or the ground.

Let your arms come to your side,

Step your feet apart,

Let your palms face up.

Close your eyes.

Let all the air go.

Take a nice big breath in through your nose,

Filling all the way up.

Open your mouth and let it all go.

Excellent.

Take these next moments to be exactly as you are,

Without expectation or judgment.

Let your thoughts come and go freely without lingering too long.

You're welcome to stay here in Shavasana as long as you like or drift off to sleep.

Taking this peace with you in gratitude for the ability to take this time to nourish your body,

The mind,

And the light within.

Namaste.