Yin Yoga For The Nervous System

Your nervous system is perfectly designed to be pliable and help you to adjust and move through the ups and downs of life with ease.

This class is designed to support you through the ebb and flow of life through gentle breath, acupressure and yin yoga postures, designed to calm and ground your nervous system.

You will require a yoga bolster or two cushions/pillows, as well as a wall space, or the side of your bed or couch.

Please honour your body today throughout this practice. Consult your holistic health practitioner before taking up a new movement program.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to our nervous system practice today. My name is Bec and I'm so happy for you to be joining me for this practice today. So our nervous system is definitely something that we all need support with from time to time or some of us need a little bit of extra support quite a lot of the time and so this practice is a go-to practice anytime that you feel like maybe you're a little bit frazzled a little bit stressed overwhelmed you're experiencing anxiety or if you just want to maintain that health and wellness of your nervous system. So today all you're going to need is your yoga mat I've also got a bolster here as well if you don't own a bolster at home that's okay you can just grab a hold of some cushions or some pillows or rolled up towel or rolled up blanket. You will also need the wall space so I'm going to use the wall here but otherwise if you're say practicing in your bedroom you can use the side of your bed or the side of the couch if you're in your lounge room so we can always improvise with our yin yoga practice. So let's get started so we are going to start in a comfortable seated position it's quite nice to sit up on a prop so I'm sitting up on the bolster here just having those hips a little bit higher than the knees just makes it feel a little bit more comfortable so come into whatever seated position feels good for you to start and then we're going to gently close down those eyes anchoring the sitting bones down towards the earth rising up tall through the spine so the crown of the head is reaching skyward starting to drop into your body first and foremost just observing how is your body feeling today no judgment just awareness and observation if you do come across any points of tension or even pain in the body can you allow this tension or this pain to begin to dissolve moving your awareness now to your emotional body so noticing how you're feeling emotionally today again just observing what's present for you in this moment if there is anything that's causing you stress anxiety or overwhelm just observing that gathering that feedback now let's bring our awareness to the breath noticing the natural rhythm of your breath feel the breath as it glides in and out of the nostrils feel the rise and fall of your chest and your belly with the breath notice if your breath is feeling quite full and expansive or maybe you notice there's some parts of the body that the breath isn't quite reaching let's see if we can start to breathe a little bit deeper we're drawing a deep breath in through the nose and feeling the entire torso swell with a long smooth exhale out through the nose feel the torso gently contract moving through that again deep inhale through the nose long smooth exhale as we inhale a drawing in prana life-force energy exhaling to release and let go of anything that's no longer serving you I'm gonna switch it up a little bit here so we're still breathing deeply taking a big beautiful through the nose but now as you exhale see if you can lengthen out the exhale a little bit so maybe one or two counts longer than the inhale breathing in a long steady exhale inhale again exhaling let's keep breathing in this way for the next few moments and to breathing in this way where the exhale is slightly longer than the inhale helps us to activate the parasympathetic nervous system which is our rest and digest state and this is where we can calm the body calm the nervous system this is where we can activate our innate healing capabilities that are always within still breathing here let's do three more of those beautiful breaths together one more breath and once you finish that exhale just allowing the breath to settle back into its natural rhythm and notice any shifts in the body in the breath or in your nervous system hopefully you're already starting to feel a little bit more calm and grounded and centered here when you feel ready we can gently blink open the eyes coming back into the space and we're going to come into our first Yin pose which is Balasana, Child's pose so let's come over onto hands and knees we've got the knees wide toes touching hips to heels or working towards the heels if you can't get your hips to heels you can always pop a cushion or something under there to give you a little bit of extra height I'm using my bolster here so you can grab a hold of your bolster or your cushions if you'd like extra support here as well and you can come to fold forward drape the arms alongside the bolster turn the head to one side if you would prefer not to use the prop that's okay you can come forward arms rest out in front third eye to the mat that's an option here you could also put one hand on top of the other propping the third eye here or you could swing those arms alongside the body for your full child's pose so lots of different ways we can set up here so maybe try a few out and see how you go have a wriggle around find where you need to be and then once we're there we're closing the eyes down and we resolve to remain still here that's one of the main principles in this style of yoga yin yoga where we are finding stillness in the body and finding stillness in the body helps us to cultivate stillness of mind because we're not distracted by the movement of the physical body we've also got the eyes closed in yoga we call this Pratyahara which is withdrawing the senses and again this helps us to turn our awareness deeper within and throughout this whole practice we want to maintain a deep even and rhythmic breath inhaling long smooth and deep and long smooth gentle exhales as well using our breath as the anchor so here in our child's pose you want to anchor and ground down through all of the parts of your body in contact with the mat as a representation of the earth so really grounding yourself here and connecting to the earth soften your neck shoulders and jaw soften your belly so you can start to breathe deeply into the belly breathing out into the back and side ribs as you feel the ribcage expand and contract and just softening through the lower back and the hips as well child's pose is a pose that we use in all styles of yoga for its restorative qualities so take this opportunity now to allow yourself to be held to allow yourself to be restored to allow your nervous system to be soothed here as you hold and you breathe and you step into a greater sense of presence here if you've got your head turned over to one side just very gently with as little disturbance as possible can you lift your head up and turn your head over to the other side and then soften back down into the pose and just notice how that feels for you that little subtle shift of the head can you soften just that little bit more can you surrender just that little bit more and allow yourself to be held me unnecessary thoughts any stresses or worries to float away we can return to them later on should we choose but right now we're choosing presence stay present keep the breath flowing I'm just gonna leave you here for the next few moments just to be here in your own energy and I'll bring you back out of the pose very soon let's take another five of those big beautiful breaths here deep inhale through the nose exhaling either through the nose or the mouth as we inhale let's slowly start to uncoil the spine lifting the head walking the fingertips back keep the eyes closed find a comfortable seated position we're going to take a moment to integrate after that first yin pose so take some time now to notice and absorb the effects from that child's pose one more breath here okay just blinking open those eyes for a moment so from here we are going to come into battle can us and I which is butterfly pose but before we do we're going to do an acupressure point so if you want to come into any sort of cross leg position or even come into butterfly what we're gonna do is take the kidney one point so if you have have a feel around on the sole of your foot it's kind of like right in the center of the ball of your foot if you have a play around you'll be able to find it so find that space on the soles of both of your feet and you want to grab your thumbs and we're just applying gentle pressure there at the kidney one point you might choose to close your eyes down for a few breaths here gentle pressure here at the kidney one point this point is very grounding very calming which is a really good one to add into the theme of this class and you can even just hold this one for a few moments before butterfly like what we are doing now so gentle pressure eyes closed let's take a few breaths here and see if you can notice just this sense of calm and groundedness washing over you here as we hold and we breathe let's take three more breaths here at the kidney one point if you're feeling comfortable where you are here in butterfly you could stay here so you could stay with the spine long eyes closed I'm going to give you some other options as well so option two is to come to fold forward with this one so we've got knees wide the closer that your feet are to the body the stronger it's going to feel so if it feels a bit too much press the feet away and make like a nice wide diamond shape so option two here is to fold forward so you could fold if you've got quite open hips and flexibility through the spine you could fold all the way down maybe using your prop like your bolster or your cushions to fold all the way down another nice option if you do have a bolster is to just pop it up on its side and you can rest your third eye at the end of the bolster so you're still folding but not as deep and you're supported so this is a really nice one here as well and I'm going to give you one more option just because I'm feeling generous today if this seated variation isn't really working for you today you can come into a supine variation so this is where you'd lay down so you can either lay flat on the mat or if you want some heart opening lay over your prop that you're using here again soles of the feet together knees wide and then just find wherever you want to be with the arms whatever feels comfortable for you so lots and lots of different options maybe try a few of them out and see what you feel called to see what your body needs today and once you've found your spot again we're going to close the eyes down and fall into stillness here again and say most of us are probably coming into this folded variation and so any poses with any forward bends where we're folding like this are always really calming and cooling for the nervous system so that's something to keep in mind as well if you're practicing at home let's bring our awareness down to the hips so you'll likely feel this in the hips as we hold here you feel it both in the inner and the outer hip space if you can sense that you're holding on to some tension here in the hips can you start to direct your awareness and direct your breath down into the hip space and soften here soften that groin area the inner hips the thighs allow the knees to fall wider with the exhale if you're folding forward feel that energy up through the back of the body through the bladder meridian if you're reclining over the prop feel that spaciousness and openness and energy through the front of the body so tune into your experience of this pose keep the breath flowing keep drawing your awareness deeper and deeper within notice what your mind is doing here if you find the mind starting to wander you can gently draw it back and anchor your awareness back to the breath maybe back to your third eye between the brows let's spend another five of those big beautiful breaths here together deep inhale through the nose long smooth exhale as we inhale let's very slowly roll up through the spine if you'd come to fold forward if you're reclining roll up gently into a seated position where we'll all meet together keep the eyes closed again we're going to take some integration time here so observing how that's feeling for you one more breath here inhale to gently blink open the eyes coming back we're going to come and lay down onto our mat now so keep your props handy whatever you're using come and lay down onto your back and let's just take a moment to just pause here and let the body settle into the mat whatever position feels good for you you might have the knees bent you might stretch those legs out long let's let your body have some rest here for a few breaths let's prepare to come into our next pose now so you will need your prop whatever you're using I'm going to use my bolster you can also use a yoga block if you have one or some cushions we're going to come into a supported bridge pose so to bend us and us so bending the knees walking the feet backwards towards the body you want to lift your hips up enough to slide the prop that you're using underneath the sacrum at the base of the spine so at the lower back there so we've got the pelvis elevated here you can have the arms either beside you overhead clasping opposite elbows so this is option one I'm going to show you another option just in case you would like to take it it's a little bit deeper so the other option is to come into canoe and this is where we stretch the legs long and front so you could maybe try that one out see how you go see how it feels if it's too much come back to bridge because you don't want to feel too uncomfortable there is a level of discomfort in this style of yoga but you want to be able to hold and not have to move around too much so see which one resonates with you find where you need to be with the arms and the legs and then once you're there closing those eyes down falling into stillness once again so here as we hold either bridge pose or canoe you want to feel like the back of the body is heavy so let the back of the body sink down towards the earth and then the front of your body is light and open and receptive this pose is really beautiful for giving those kidneys some love and the kidneys in Chinese medicine the kidneys are what store our gene which is our vital essence and so giving the kidneys some love is always a really lovely thing to do the adrenals that sit above the kidneys also need some support particularly with the theme of this class which is supporting the nervous system we want to give those adrenals some love here as well so you can feel that we're placing some gentle pressure here at the lower back where those organs and glands are stored in the body stimulating those digestive organs there at the lower abdominal region as well as the reproductive organs as well we've got that gentle elevation here of the pelvis so that's going to help us to get that blood flowing a bit more freely back towards the heart as well keep breathing here stay present keep drawing your awareness deeper within keep invoking this deepest sense of calm of groundedness of relaxation of healing I'm gonna leave you here for a few moments just to be in that energy within yourself and I'll invite you back out of the pose very soon let's take five more breaths here together deep inhale through the nose long smooth exhale now if you are in canoe with the legs extended long let's start to walk the feet backwards towards the body drawing the arms beside the body as well gently press through the feet lift the hips up enough to just remove that prop out of the way placing the feet back down to the earth maybe knock the knees together take some time to integrate as always here in our yin practice allow that lower back some time to settle noticing and absorbing the effects from that beautiful bridge pose when you feel ready we're going to hug the knees into the chest let's just take a sway here from side to side feel that beautiful massage for the lower back a nice little release here should feel quite nice beautiful we are going to do a little twist here now so we're not going to hold for too long I just want to release out through that lower back after that bridge pose so you can drop the knees to one side doesn't really matter how you stack the legs so you could keep the knees quite wide like so you could stack one knee on top of the other and then drop the knees to the side you could also cross one leg over the other that's kind of a deeper expression there you can also use the prop as well so if you want a little bit of extra support you could grab that bolster pop it in between the knees there and that can give you a little bit of extra support for the twist so you want to have the shoulders anchored to the mat your head is either centered or falling in the opposite direction to where your knees are facing if you want that full spinal twist eyes closed we're just going to be here for the next couple of minutes so this should feel quite nice like a nice release here through the lower back twisting here through the body so cleansing out those digestive organs we're encouraging that energy to flow up through the spinal column allowing yourself to soften and deepen into the twist a little bit more each and every breath let's take five more beautiful breaths here deep inhale through the nose exhaling through the nose or the mouth using that next inhale let's roll back to center pause in the center realign the spine let's take a few breaths here before we change sides a little mini integration and then when you feel ready drop the knees over to the opposite side now take the props over with you if you felt like that was helpful for you on the first side stack the legs however feels comfortable for you on this second side shoulders anchored to the mat eyes closed and again just allowing yourself to soften and deepen your pose here with every breath notice if this side feels any different than the first let's take five more breaths here together using that next inhale let's roll back to center just come into whatever position feels comfortable for you to rest here for a few breaths and then when you feel ready let's hug the knees into the chest here again just take a little sway from side to side and gently releasing that we're going to come into our final pose now so very slowly and gently roll yourself out to the side and then come on up into a seated position we're going to come and find the wall space now so either move your mat into the wall space or the side of the couch or the side of your bench we're coming into legs up the wall so just bringing your hips as close to the wall as you can and then however you can you're going to swing those legs up the wall so you'll just have a little play around here to find the comfortable position for the legs to rest it should feel quite effortless once you find the position so just keep moving around until you find where you need to be arms might rest beside you or overhead you might feel called to bring your hands to rest somewhere over your belly or the heart just see what you intuitively feel called to eyes are closed if they aren't already this pose legs up the wall such a beautiful pose for you to do each and every day if possible it's very calming and grounding for the nervous system so it's a beautiful one to do in the evening before bed if you can after we've been here for a little while you might start to feel some sensation through the the legs like a vibration or you might start to feel the energy moving through the legs so just allow that to happen so as I mentioned very calming and grounding for the nervous system it's also great for the lymphatic system as well it's also great for getting that blood flow back towards the heart as well that's giving a heart a little bit of extra support as we come more towards the end of the practice now to start to drop even deeper into your pose into your practice into yourself really invoking this sense of calm a calm and grounded nervous system which we can really all need support with from time to time we're gonna take five more breaths here together big beautiful deep even breaths if you feel quite comfortable here and legs up the wall you could actually stay here for your final relaxation that's totally fine as well if you're coming with me we're going to bend the knees just roll out to the side and pause there for a moment and then we're preparing now for our final relaxation pose which is Shavasana so you want to come and lay flat on your back grab a hold of any props that you might like to use that's quite nice to put something underneath your knees if it's cold you might grab a blanket or some socks if you've got an eye pillow or something to cover the eyes that's quite nice as well so whatever you need to do to get really comfortable and supported here so coming to lay flat on our back we've got the legs out long just allowing the feet to flop out to the side arms rest beside you palms facing up spine nice and long eyes are gently closed and just do a little bit of a scan here from head to toe and just noticing how the body's feeling if there's any residual tension in the body can you allow this tension to begin to dissolve allow the breath to become soft and free-flowing allow the weight of your body to begin to melt down towards the earth this is our time to rest to restore to integrate everything that we've moved through throughout the practice I'm gonna leave you here for the next few moments just to be in your own energy have your own experience in Shavasana and I'll bring you back out very soon if you have time to stay here in your Shavasana for a little bit longer I welcome you to do so if you're coming with me we're starting to deepen the breath a little bit here as we bring our awareness back into the space back into the body bringing some gentle movement back into the body wriggling out through fingers and toes inviting a nice deep breath into the body stretching out through arms and legs bending the knees roll on out to the right hand side and pause here for a moment and when you feel ready keeping the eyes closed bring yourself up into a comfortable seated position drawing the hands into one Jali Mudra prayer position at the heart bowing the head down as we close together we give thanks for the blessings in our life thank you so much for sharing your practice with me today and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day namaste