Hey friends,
I'm Allie and today we're doing some yin yoga for focus to help you declutter your mind.
This will include some breath work.
We're going to be seated the entire time.
So go ahead and find a comfortable seat on the floor if possible.
I'm propped up on a couple of cushions.
You can grab those or a yoga block if you have anything nearby.
I'll meet you in a seated position and we'll get started.
Okay,
Making sure you're comfortable,
You're able to have a tall spine here.
You can be cross-legged or sitting back on your heels.
And we're going to start with a little breathing exercise called box breathing.
So we'll be breathing in,
Holding,
Breathing out,
And holding all each step to the count of four.
I'll talk you through it before we get there.
We're just going to simply land with our breath.
You dropping into stillness here as you feel the grounding of your seat beneath you.
Starting to direct your attention,
Your focus inward.
On your body And you're breathing.
Shifting the awareness from the outer world.
The distractions,
The noise,
And the clutter in the mind.
So that we can just take a little time today to be present together and drop into our bodies.
Take a couple of slow,
Easy breaths in.
And gentle breaths out.
If it works best for you today to just stay with a slow,
Natural breath,
Do that.
Otherwise,
I'll talk you through the box breath.
We'll do a few rounds together.
Just start by taking a deep,
Deep breath in.
Open your mouth,
Let it go,
Exhale.
And breathing in for four,
Three,
To one,
Hold at the top,
Four,
To.
One,
Breathe out for four.
Three.
To.
One,
Hold at the bottom empty for four.
One.
Again,
Try it through the nose.
Inhale.
Four.
Three,
Two,
One,
Hold.
3,
2,
1.
Out the nose if you can.
Four,
Three,
To 1.
Hold empty.
Four.
To One.
Again,
Breath in.
Hold.
Breath out.
Hold.
Two more breath in.
Hold.
Breath out.
Hold.
Last one.
Breath in.
Hold.
Breath out.
Hold.
And release,
Just coming back to your natural rhythm of breath.
Observing maybe that your shift,
Your awareness is a little more internal and present.
And we'll take a little bit of movement here with some seated cat cows so you can catch.
Your legs or your feet in front of you,
Maybe even leaning into your hands.
We're going to start here by lengthening the spine.
Peel the chest up.
Imagine the chest is tied to a string and the string is lifting your chest up.
Arching your spine might even look up here take a breath in And then the opposite movement on your breath out.
Round your spine.
Draw your spine back.
Chin to your chest.
Again,
Inhale,
Lengthen,
Lift your heart,
Look up.
Shoulders draw back.
And exhale,
Round your spine,
Chin to chest.
One more time.
Inhale.
Look up,
Lift the chest,
Pull that string upward.
Exhale around,
Chin to chest,
Draw the belly button in.
Coming back to a neutral spine.
Couple of breaths here,
Seated.
Still bringing the awareness back to the grounding of your seat.
Take a little seated twist here.
Bring your right hand behind you maybe to your low back.
Or the floor behind you,
Left hand across the body as you twist right.
So we're not forcing here and really cranking through the neck.
But you can try and point your nose,
Your chin in the same direction as the center of the heart.
So it's a gentle twist.
In yin,
We're really focusing on more of a surrender into the shape rather than trying to force anything.
And if your mind fills up with distractions and clutter,
Just keep on coming back to your breath here.
Slowly coming back to center.
Land here.
A couple of shoulder rolls up,
Back and down.
And let's take the other side,
Left hand behind you,
Right hand across the body.
Gentle twist.
Maybe closing the eyes if that helps keep the awareness inward.
Making sure the shoulders stay softening down away from the ears.
And bring it right back through to center another couple of shoulder rolls And we're going to start to shift.
Into a seated Thread the needle.
So.
You might want to,
If you're seated on anything cushions,
You can slide off of that.
Leaning back a little bit with the knees bent,
Feet in front of you.
Lean back into your hands.
Straighten the legs as much as you need to,
And what you'll do is cross your right leg over your left thigh.
And from here,
You might bend your left knee a little bit more.
So we're getting this sweet stretch into the outer right hip.
Not going to be here for too long,
But make sure it's manageable.
To kind of ease your way into it and you're not putting too much stress on your wrists.
A little flex through the right foot will help support the knee joint.
And soften wherever you can.
Your arms are like these kickstands,
Helping hold you in the shape.
But we want to do as little effort as possible with the rest of the body that we don't need here.
I'm slowly concentrating on the breath.
Now through each of these shapes,
If you found that box breath helpful,
Of course that's something you can come back to on your own at any point,
Breathing in for four.
Holding for four.
Breathing out for four and holding for four,
That might help with the focus and concentration.
On the breath.
And in the moment.
Let's uncross the ankle you can slide your other leg away from you uncross straight now both legs just take a little drop side to side of your feet to your legs Maybe a little rebound off of the wrists.
Pressing the top of the hands towards your thighs.
Give anything a little shake out if you need it.
We move into the other side.
Crossing your left ankle over your right thigh.
Horse,
The right leg can stay as straight as you need it.
Or inching it towards you.
To bend more for a deeper stretch in the hip.
Okay,
Straighten out your legs so you can uncross.
Again,
Lengthening both legs out.
Let them drop side to side.
Let's come off of those wrists.
Take whatever stretch feels good to you right now.
Again,
Back of the hands to thighs may feel like a nice little release for your wrists.
And we'll make our way back to that comfortable seat that we started in.
So again,
If you were seated on anything.
Find that here.
Cross-legged or on your heels.
Before we finish off this practice,
I want to drop into a little forward fold here.
You can start to inch your hands forward.
Just kind of melting the front of the body downward.
Any amount Okay,
So we're going to stretch in the low back here.
Prop yourself to forearms.
Keeping the hips grounded so this is where props can come in handy.
If it feels okay to let your head drop heavy,
Please feel free to do that.
Press into your hands.
We'll rise back up to your tall seat.
Coming back here just for a moment.
To finish off this short and sweet practice,
Drawing your attention,
Your concentration back into your body and your breath.
You can keep your hands resting in your lap or maybe place one hand on your belly,
One hand on your chest and just find.
.
.
That this can help me really draw that attention inward.
Closing or softening your eyes.
Take a moment in this final shape,
Nowhere else to be,
Nothing else to do.
Just be here with your breath.
Feeling the length of each inhale.
Noticing the depth of each exhale.
And staying present and observing when your mind travels away.
Taking a moment here to Find gratitude for showing up.
In this short Reset for focus.
To declutter your mind.
Revisit it whenever you need it.
Blink your eyes open.
Bring your hands in front of your chest.
I want to thank you for having the courage to show up and find peace within.
See you next time.
Namaste.
