Hello,
My name is Dagmar and I invite you tonight into yoga rituals for better sleep.
This video is sequenced with a little pranayama at the beginning because the breath is really the most effective tool that gets us after a long day from our busy mind into the body.
Then we will be doing some stretching and yoga poses that are releasing your shoulders.
The neck,
Your hips.
Lower back all these places where we tend to hold tension in our bodies and then we will finish with a short meditation and relaxing shavasana at the end i will also give you some additional suggestions or tips.
Okay uh props for today it's good if you have a strap if you don't have a strap you could have a scarf or a bed so anything that could work as an extension and ideally you're also going to have a yoga block or two blocks and if you don't have blocks pillows anything that you can use to create a little bit of support for yourself.
So let's begin taking a nice comfortable seat.
If you need to sit against the wall this is absolutely fine no worries about that And I invite you to close your eyes.
And to take the next few moments to arrive in your body.
And to just check in with all the sensations in your body.
What's going on right now?
Be aware that every day feels different.
It depends if you had a really stressful day or if you had a really beautiful.
.
.
Fun day,
All this will manifest in some ways in your body.
And why we don't want to judge it,
So it's not better or worse.
It's really the practice of yoga to accept and allow to fear whatever it is that is present in your body right now.
We often take the rest of our day into our sleep.
And so we lay awake at night or we wake up in the middle of the night and we're still processing.
So this practice is really meant to help you integrate.
Your day.
Close the eyes if you haven't already.
And visualize your spine nice and tall.
Notice how the breath flows in and out of your body.
Notice if there are any places where the breast feels restricted.
If the breast feels rather shallow or if it feels really nice and deep and juicy.
When you're checking in with your body really consciously scan your body from your head to your toes and relax each part.
So start at the crown of your head.
Relaxing your forehead if there are any wrinkles.
Relax your eyes,
Let them fall back into the socket.
Relax your cheeks,
Relax your jaw,
Maybe even take your fingers to give a little massage to your jaw.
It's one of those places where we hold a lot of tension.
Feel your head floating on your neck.
Roll the shoulders all the way up to its ears take them back and consciously let the shoulder blades melt down your back And take a moment here with your left hand on your heart to just.
Check in with your heart space and notice.
What's present right now.
Maybe there's joy.
Maybe there's sadness,
Maybe there's anger,
Whatever it is.
Putting the hand on your heart is just a way of acknowledging that this is your reality right now.
And if you need a little bit of soothing,
You can rub your thumb gently over your chest,
Which is one of my favorite tools too.
Relax and slow down.
Kind of giving yourself this.
Permission to Let go of the day.
Breathe into your hand.
Really create that connection.
The warmth of your hand is melting into your heart.
The breast expansion is lifting your heart up into your beautiful warm hand acknowledging your day.
Acknowledging what is present for you.
And then slowly release your left hand,
Continue to scan your body.
Release the area around your solar plexus.
Release your belly,
Your organ Anytime we have a stressful day,
It's definitely also fed of tension in our organs,
In our digestive system.
So soften into that place if you like you can place your right hand onto your belly and just take a few really nice big breaths into the belly And feel the warmth of your hand sinking,
Melting down into.
The belly.
Time to breathe.
Time to release.
Good,
And then release your right hand,
Maybe rock a little bit back and forth feeling.
Your sit bones and the connection to the floor to the earth Just taking a few more moments here.
Feeling the breath.
Coming in and going out of your body.
And take a nice big breath in,
Exhale through the mouth.
And do that again,
Nice,
Full,
Big breath in.
Exhale,
Release.
Last one.
Nice full,
Big breath in.
And exhale.
Good inhale lift the arms all the way up And as you exhale,
Fold forward and just stretch.
Press your hands forward,
Stretch into your back.
Breathe into the back of your heart.
Feel the ribs expanding out to the side.
And then slowly release and walk your hands all the way back.
Now take your strap or your scarf.
If you have a strap hold on to the bucket.
And then open your arms a little bit wider than your shoulders.
Draw the shoulders back.
And have a little bit of engagement in your belly as you inhale now lift the strap up and exhale bring the strap back notice if your movement initiates with your head keep the head leaning back on the inhale lift the strap on the exhale release it down good way to release the shoulders after a long day breathing nice and easy inhaling up Exhaling down.
Inhaling up.
Exhaling down Good.
Inhaling.
Exhaling down So next time,
Inhale,
Come up.
Pull on the strap at the spot that feels most tight.
Take an extra big breath.
Lean your head back.
Good.
And then release the arms down.
Do the same when you come up.
Stay at the spot that feels most tight pull on the strap you can have a bend in the elbows for a big breath into your chest.
And then inhale to come up and exhale.
To release you can take the stroke to the side very beautiful now bring your left arm in front of you.
Draw the shoulder back.
And down and feel the nice stretch in the upper arm,
Lean your head back.
Other side.
Shoulder is melting down.
Breathing deeply.
Exhaling to release.
Bring your arms forward.
Palms facing as we start and then inhale open the arms lean your chest forward as you exhale lean back round your back turn your palms to face out and again inhaling coming forward like you're spreading your wings after a long day exhaling to round inhaling to open exhaling two rounds Two more times.
Inhale,
Open.
Exhaling to round Inhale to open last time.
And exhale to round good beautiful release your arms Let's do a little side stretch.
We hold a lot of tension on the sides of the body.
So I always feel that feels really,
Really good.
Walk your right fingertips out and inhale,
Lift your left arm up and over.
And press into your sit bones so that you have some grounding stability so that you can stretch a little bit more.
Leave your chest a little bit up towards the sky.
Pressing down.
Inhale to come up.
Take it over to the other side.
Again,
Sick bones are rooting you down.
Stretch,
Breathe,
Keep your face soft.
Thank you.
And then inhale come up and exhale release.
Straighten your legs in front of you,
Shake them out.
Come to life on your.
.
.
So we're adding on to this arms next to your body we'll just do a few dynamic bridges on the inhale lifting your arms and your hips up on the x here slowly coming back down and again inhaling lifting up exhaling releasing down inhaling lifting up And exhaling,
Releasing down.
Hug the knees into your chest,
Rock a little bit back and forth.
Massaging your lower back.
Rocking is always nice.
It feels also very soothing.
Think of your spine as like the biggest energy channel in your body.
Now bring your right foot above the left knee slide your hands through the little it's called threaten the meter and keep the foot engaged and then draw the left knee into your chest either hands on front of your shin or if that feels too much interlace the hands behind your left thigh And as you draw the left knee closer,
Move the right knee away from you.
Want to feel the stretch in the outer right hip this is a wonderful way to release the lower back And to intensify the stretch on the right side,
You just need to roll a little bit more over to the left.
Beautiful.
Breathe into the stretch.
Inhale coming back up exhale release Switch left foot on top of the right knee,
Hugging the right knee in.
Notice if this side feels a little bit different breathe into the lower back imagine also that you lengthen your spine And in order to get a deeper stretch into the left side,
Roll a little bit more over to the right cheek.
Keep looking straight up.
Your best tool is your breath,
So really fill the stretches with your biggest breath.
Slowly come back to the middle and release place your feet down Move your knees side to side.
Right.
All right and then have a block or a pillow a strap Place it between your knees.
Inhale as you exhale let the knees fall over to the right turn your head to the left There's your right hand.
Onto the left side of your body this is the stomach and the spleen so just And I'll give it a little bit of attention,
Awareness.
If you prefer you can also just keep the arm.
On the right side breathing Remember,
It's your breath that creates the healing.
Allow yourself nice deep nourishing breath.
No rush here.
Ah.
With your next inhale come up and exhale let the knees fall over to the left turn your head to the right So here you could place your right hand or your left hand onto the right side.
This is your liver.
And you know the liver is our most important detox organs it's really nice too Place your hand on it.
Give it some extra love,
Some extra breath.
If the energy in the liver is stagnant or not nourished,
It can lead to anger,
Frustration.
So at the end of the day,
We want to let go of all of.
.
.
Those emotions and let them just flow through us.
It's okay to be angry.
It's okay to be frustrated.
It's okay to be sad.
But we don't want to take it into the night if we can.
Good slowly come back to the middle Release the block.
Hug the knees into your chest.
All right.
Place the feet down,
Take your block.
Or pillow or book place it and they're too high Lower or higher.
Underneath your lower back and then float your legs up you can also do this as like one of the really most powerful poses you can do it against the wall really beautiful restorative pose.
So less is more.
As you want to end your day,
Use really simple things,
Simple poses that you can remember easily.
That are inviting you to breathe deeply.
Good and then from here,
Slowly bending the knees,
Placing the feet back down.
Lifting your hips up.
Coming back down.
Take the soles of the feet let the knees fall out to the side and once again right hand onto your belly left hand onto your heart Breathing deeply here.
Face is soft.
Your belly and your heart are the two main energy centers.
So just again soften,
Surrender.
Just feel the breath.
Hmm.
And take a couple of nice deep Exhalation.
Three more breaths.
And then from here,
Just straighten your legs into a Shavasana.
Just a short one.
Allowing your body to completely let go,
Integrate.
The stretches if there's anything you feel you need to do.
Maybe hugging the knees one more time into the chest.
Go for it.
Allow yourself to rest here for a few moments a few breaths Good,
From here,
Wiggle your fingers,
Wiggle your toes.
Slowly bring the knees back into your chest,
Rock a little bit back and forth.
Roll over to one side.
Come back into a comfortable seat.
And taking a moment here again,
Sitting tall.
And checking in what's Present.
For you right now what's the life in you what may have shifted so maybe you feel a little bit more spacious maybe a little bit more calm clarity I invite you to make your exhalations now.
Double the length of your inhalation so if your inhale is a count of four Please make your exhale a count of eight.
This is inviting your nervous system to rest.
And digest.
We're connecting to the parasympathetic.
Nervous system Now you can visualize.
Your breath.
Going in through the left nostril and out through the right nostril.
Again longer than the in here.
And then inhaling through the right nostril,
Crossing over and long exhale through the left nostril.
And do that a couple times,
Inhaling.
Left exhaling right And switching.
At some point you can.
Do so naturally without counting the breath.
The face remains completely soft.
Become aware of the point above the nose the point of the third eye between the eyebrows maybe feel a little presence here as if it's the point from where you are observing yourself sitting here Breathing.
And visualize a white point of light.
It could also be a golden point of light.
Just right there between the eyebrows.
And draw a line from that point down into the center of your chest.
Stay here,
Feel that beautiful point of light radiating out into the chest,
Into the heart space.
Into your whole upper body and drawing a line from the center of your chest into the center of your belly your navel anchoring here that point of light Feeling it expanding into your whole lower body.
Back body,
Belly,
Everything feels warm and soft.
And then visualizing that point of light at the base of your spine.
Connecting you to the earth,
Giving you a sense of grounding,
Of safety.
Please take your hands together in front of your heart.
A moment of gratitude to yourself.
Taking the time to finish your day with a sweet,
Beautiful practice.
And these nourishing rituals.
Thank you so much for joining me and I wish you a really beautiful evening and restful sleep.
Thank you.
Namaste.
So you may end your practice here or if you feel inspired and if you like to journal i recommend you take your notebook and you write every time after this practice just a few notes What has come up for you?
What is something that you fear moved through you?
What is something energetically that you may have shifted?
And if you also like,
Maybe write down three things that you are grateful for today.
And that you did really really well.
It really makes a difference to end our day on a positive note.
So often we sit and we think about all the things we didn't get to do.
So this is very helpful to really honor yourself for One,
Two,
Three things that happened that really went well.
And of course,
In order to sleep well.
Keep the lights down have some candles.
Don't go back to your computer or your phone and really enjoy the beautiful,
Peaceful energy that you have.
Now created.
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
And if you Have any questions,
Please feel free to reach out and connect.
Thank you.
