Hi everyone,
I'm Allie.
So if you're newer to yin yoga or you're just looking for a short and simple relaxing practice,
This is going to be a great one for you.
This will be a yin yoga for beginners and we'll get started in a comfortable seat.
If you have a cushion nearby or even maybe a yoga block,
Grab that for the practice and I'll give you a few options.
You might even want to start seated on your cushion or block.
And we'll get started.
Grounding vibes into your day as well.
As you slow down and drop into stillness.
Let your hands rest in your lap.
Wherever it's comfortable,
Starting to become aware of your surroundings.
But try to focus your eyes.
So you might look down to the floor just a few feet ahead of you.
If it feels more natural to close your eyes,
Go ahead and do that.
Little draw down to the chin.
Shifting now your awareness internally to your body.
Notice how it feels in this shape today.
Feel your breath.
As your belly expands and contracts,
Try not to think too much about it.
Just be curious,
Just be aware with whatever shows up as you breathe.
Yin yoga is really about the practice of surrender.
So we want to bring that into each moment here,
Each breath,
Each shape.
Letting go of trying to Accomplish something.
Letting go of trying.
To get into the perfect shape.
Or to search for an outcome.
Let's just be present here together.
Now we'll slowly bring some movement into the body from here.
Let your shoulders roll up,
Back,
And down.
Maybe three,
Four,
Or five times.
And then with your tall spine,
Just a little twist to loosen up the spine a bit.
Bring your right hand behind you,
Left hand across the lap.
Just a little twist to your right.
Now we don't need to crank through the neck,
So the chin,
The nose,
They're facing the same direction as the center of the chest.
Try that,
So it's super gentle.
Go ahead and switch it up,
Take the other side.
Coming back to center now,
We'll shift off of your cushion if it's there,
And we'll come into caterpillar pose.
So extending your legs in front of you.
Now,
If you do have tighter hips,
Sitting at the front edge of a cushion can be great in these forward fold shapes.
So I'm actually going to do that.
And if you have tighter hamstrings,
The back of the legs are feeling a whole lot here already.
Absolutely bend your knees as much as you need to here,
Okay?
When you're ready,
You'll start to just hinge forward.
And you'll feel kind of that place where your body starts to resist.
We don't need to push into that place.
We want to settle just before you get there so that you can allow gravity and time to take over and do the work for you.
So you are surrendering into this shape.
Maybe placing the hands on your legs.
Is what works best here.
Soften through your toes.
Through your belly.
Your shoulders.
And your face.
And once again,
Just coming back to your breath.
As you try and relax into this shape.
You know,
We often talk about yin yoga being relaxing and it absolutely can be.
It can also be quite challenging.
So if you're not used to quiet and stillness,
Or if you have any pain in the body or injuries or tightness,
Which we all have to some degree.
This practice can be hard.
As we move in and out of each shape and as we land in them,
Just know that you want to find your version of the shape.
That doesn't bring any pain into your body.
If you feel pain,
You back off.
If you feel discomfort,
Then we want to just try and linger and lean into that discomfort a little bit.
And in those moments of discomfort.
They can be great reminders for you to bring your awareness right back to your breath.
As you continue to soften.
Let's take one more deep breath in through the nose.
Let it out the mouth this time.
Big,
Big exhale.
You can start to walk your hands back towards your hips so you're propping yourself up,
Lifting your spine.
And then bend your knees,
Bring the soles of your feet onto your mat,
Lean back into your hands.
And we'll just do a little reset for the spine,
Re-lengthening here.
Allow your knees to fall side to side.
Alright,
Let's swing through and come to hands and knees.
You can slide your cushion off to the side if you have it there.
Shoulders about over the wrist,
Hips about over the knees.
We'll take a little movement for your spine here.
Cow pose,
Let your belly drop down,
Lift your chest,
Lift your chin.
Cat pose,
Take the opposite movement for the spine,
Rounding,
Puff up between the shoulder blades.
One more time,
Invite your breath to join you.
Take an inhale as you lengthen,
Look up.
On your breath out,
Round your spine,
Chin to chest.
And as you move back to a neutral spine,
Tuck your toes under.
Let's take a gentle reset for the back body downward dog.
Lift your hips.
Bend one knee,
Bend the other.
Feel that sweet stretch through the legs.
Bring your knees back down to the mat and we're coming into a wide knee child's pose.
So your knees come to about the edges of your mat,
Big toes together.
Grab your cushion if you have one.
I'll give you an option for that.
First start by sinking your hips back to your heels.
And then start to lower the upper body down.
So if your forehead does not comfortably reach the floor,
You could stack your hands.
Or cushions underneath it for support.
And if that's feeling good and comfortable,
If you would like.
Slide the cushion off to the side,
And bring one cheek right down to the mat.
Either option,
Remember we'll be lingering here for a little while,
So you want to make sure it's a place you can be as still as possible in.
You'll notice over time that that sensation gets louder in the hip flexors.
Maybe other places like the spine.
And try to allow that to come in.
And just keep breathing through it.
If you have one cheek down,
Let's switch it up.
Take the other side down.
And so gently again,
Press into your palms.
Let's rise back up to hands and knees.
Draw your knees in a bit closer.
Let's take one more of those cow poses.
Drop your belly down.
Tip the tailbone and the heart upward.
And then let that go around your spine for cat pose.
Press into your hands.
Okay,
Let's shift around to lay down on your back.
We've got one or two more shapes.
So as you come on to your back,
Keep the knees bent,
Soles of the feet on the mat.
And from here,
We'll move right into reclined butterfly pose.
So soles of the feet come together,
Knees fall open to the sides.
If you find knees are kind of floating in space a little bit high,
You can grab your block or cushion.
If it's a flatty cushion like mine,
Maybe roll it.
In half or roll it up.
And use them to support your outer knees.
That might work.
You might not need it,
So it's a little bit of exploration on your part.
To see what works and what doesn't.
When I do this shape,
I love to also get a stretch into the upper body.
You might want to try this as well,
Bending your elbows,
Bringing your arms into more of a cactus shape or a goalpost shape.
There's nothing left to do here but breathe.
Last little bit of this shape if you want to bring the hands to the belly to allow More of an awareness of grounding the body and mind,
You could explore that.
Allowing the weight of the hands to Just feel that rise and fall of your belly as you breathe.
And if you want this to be the final shape of the practice,
Stick around,
Otherwise we'll move into Shavasana.
Reach to your outer knees.
Gently draw them back together.
And extend your legs out for your final shape shavasana,
Laying on your back.
I love a cushion or block underneath the back of the knees in this shape.
Just an option.
Take a second to tuck your shoulder blades underneath you.
Let the back of the hands fall heavy.
Onto the floor.
Feel the weight in your ankles and your pinky toes.
As the soles of your feet soften.
Start to just notice any shift in the body physically,
Anything that feels differently.
Than when we started this short practice moments ago.
Notice if maybe the internal dialogue or chatter in the mind has gotten a little quieter.
As we've focused on.
Slowing down and breathing.
And then do just that.
Feel your breath.
And stay here as long as it serves you.
If you'd like to finish off the practice back where we started in a seat.
Bring some life back into your fingers,
Your toes.
Take any stretch that intuitively feels good in the moment,
Maybe reaching overhead.
Roll right through one side of the body.
Let's meet in a comfortable seat.
I want to thank you for showing up and having the courage to find peace within.
I'll see you next time.
Namaste.
