Yin Yoga For Total Body Relaxation

Join Ali for this deeply gentle 15-minute yin yoga practice, to guide your whole body into a state of total relaxation.
Through slow, supported holds targeting the shoulders, hips, hamstrings, and lower back, this practice works through the areas that carry the most tension and gives them the time and space they need to release. Get ready for long, gentle stretches that let gravity and breath do the work for you.
By the end of these 15 minutes, you'll feel softer, lighter, and more at ease in your body from head to toe. All levels welcome.

Transcript

Hey everyone, I'm Allie and today I've got a yin yoga practice for total relaxation. This will be a full body express practice. We're going to get right into it, So go ahead and find a comfortable seat. Sitting on your heels if you can, We'll be moving off of those in just a moment. So sitting back on your heels just for a moment here to get grounded, To get still, To get calm in the body and present in the mind. You can just let your hands relax in your lap. Softening your eyes to look just ahead of you or close them all together if that feels right. Start to become aware of your breath. The ebb and flow. The organic length of your inhales and depth of your exhales. Observe how your body feels today in this moment. And if at any point the practice feels challenging or overwhelming, Just come right back to your breath. Firstly, Try to stay in the pose and of course modify and do whatever you need to do today. So we're going to start by stretching out the feet and the shoulders. We'll start to walk the hands forward a little bit. Tuck all 10 toes underneath you. You can even reach back and make sure those little pinky toes are tucked under. Roll your hands back towards you and you're leaning your hips onto your heels so the weight of the body is there you can probably feel this one especially along the tops of the feet or the front of your legs your shins so we'll drop in here for a moment and also get a stretch in the shoulders and create some eagle arms so you can reach your arms up Wrap your right arm underneath your left, Grabbing opposite shoulders or wrists. Allow the shoulders to melt downward, Away from the ears if you can. Just settle in using as little effort as possible to keep yourself in this shape. All we need to do here is breathe. And if there are sensations that feel a little intense in the body, Try to just observe that, Let it come, Let it go. Remind yourself that it's temporary. Last few breaths here. We'll start by releasing the arms first. You can unravel them. Might feel nice to reach back and interlace your fingers behind you. Take a little puff up with your chest. And you're probably feeling ready to get off of your toes as well, So start to crawl your hands forward. Untuck your toes, Gently take a little pitter patter, Press the top of your feet into the mat just to release that sensation. Alright my friend, We have one more set just like that. So again, Start to tuck the toes under. This time will be a little bit shorter. Hips back to your heels, Reach your arms up. Take the other side, Wrap your left arm under your right. Notice any areas in the body that might start to tense up here. Sometimes that can creep into the jaw area, The face. The belly, The shoulders. So just try to allow your breath to guide you into a softening in this shape wherever you can. Last few breaths here, Stay with it. And we'll start with the arms again. Take a big stretch back, Interlace the fingers. Rise through the chest. And we'll go ahead and get off of those toes again. Walk your hands forward, Untuck the toes, Pitter patter. And just land here in the center. Just a few breaths. To resettle in the middle Let's take a cow pose to stretch the spine, Drop your belly down, Lift your chin up. Cat pose, Round your spine, Chin to chest. Come back to neutral and we'll come into a wide knee child's pose here. Big toes together, Knees wide, Hips to your heels. And just start to crawl your hands forward and melt your forehead, Your upper body down to the mat. You can stay here or I'll give you an option to stretch out the biceps as well. So the child's pose gets into the hips. We're stretching the spine. If you want to also get into the arms, You can bend your elbows and stack your hands over the back of your head. All right, My love, So slowly start to press into your hands. You can extend your arms back out, Lift the upper body. Coming back up and I want to take a nice rebound stretch for this one. Tuck your toes under. There's that fun feeling in the feet again and just stretch your hips up for a downward dog to get that length back into your legs for a moment and your spine before we move into a forward fold. Bringing your seat back down to the mat, Stretch your legs out nice and wide. And coming into straddle pose. So wide-legged forward fold. Once you are ready, You can start to just hinge forward at the hips. Crawl your hands forward. And land wherever you land in the center. You don't have to be at a certain height to see what works for your body today. You can stay in the middle if that's working for you. If you want to get more intentionally into the side body, Start to crawl your hands over to your left foot and drape your body over your left leg. And if you're on the left, We'll switch it up. Slowly crawling back through center. And then over to the other side. Dropping over your right leg. Remember, We're not forcing anything here. We want to really soften and relax into the shape. And allow gravity and time to take over the work for you. Once again, Pressing into your hands, Crawl yourself back to the center. And once you're facing the middle again, You can reach back, Grab the back of your knees. Just giving yourself a little support to bend the knees, Feet on the mat, Lean back into your hands. We'll take a nice rebound for the spine here. Let your knees fall side to side. Turn around to lay on your back. And do the last couple of shapes here. So as you arrive, Let's start by hugging the thighs into the belly. You can wrap your arms around your legs or behind the back of your thighs. And compression once again for the hips, Rounding in the spine. Nice stretch for the low back. Let's let it go and come into your final shape shavasana lengthen out the legs you can always take this final meditation seated if that works better for you otherwise take up lots of space separate your feet apart wrap your shoulder blades underneath you feel the back of the hands getting heavier onto the floor Take a moment to drop into stillness once more. And allow your breath to guide you through just a little. Awareness. Of anything that's shifted over this short time. So notice how the body's feeling here. After a few grounding and opening shapes. Observe anything that has changed in the mind. Me a bit more of a settling. Little more presence. Allow that awareness to naturally just gravitate right back to your breath. You're so welcome to hang out here as long as it serves you today. If you'd like to finish off the practice in a seated position with me, You can go ahead and slowly start to wake the body up, Maybe rolling the wrists and ankles. Take whatever stretch feels intuitive in the moment. Roll through one side of your body and I'll meet you in a seated position. I want to thank you for having the courage to show up and find peace within. I'll see you next time. Namaste.