Hey everyone,
And welcome to Day 12 of our 30 Day Yoga Challenge.
My name is Candice,
And today's practice is an evening wind down.
This is the perfect practice to do right before bed,
But you can do it at any time of day.
But all of the poses and the breathing that we're doing is to help with a restful night's sleep.
So you actually don't even need your mat.
You can do all of these poses in bed right before sleep.
If you are practicing on a mat,
I recommend grabbing a bolster or pillow and a blanket.
And a wall.
We will also need a wall.
So make sure you are near a wall space.
So just getting where you need to be,
Grabbing what you need,
And we can get started in a comfortable seat.
So just finding a comfortable seat,
Whatever that looks like for you right now.
If you want to,
Grab a pillow or blanket to sit on to elevate your hips a little bit.
We're just going to take the hands and tent the fingertips down beside you.
And just sitting up tall,
Let's roll the shoulders up,
Down,
And back a few times.
And then relaxing the shoulders down the back,
Sitting up tall.
As you exhale,
Drop the left ear to your left shoulder,
Just gently over to the side.
Just a nice mild stretch here.
If you are looking for more sensation,
You can take the left hand to the head and just gently guide it.
Farther down or you can even walk the right fingertips out to the side a bit more just to create a bit more sensation.
Whatever it is you're looking for.
Just settle into that for a few breaths here.
You can close the eyes,
Allow the breath to be natural.
Softening the belly,
The jaw,
The tongue,
The forehead.
One more breath here.
And we'll inhale,
Taking the head back up to center.
Exhale,
Drop right ear to right shoulder.
I'm just taking whatever variation you chose on the other side,
Whatever level intensity you're looking for.
Soft,
Even,
And deep continuous breaths here.
Allowing whatever events happened in your day to fall to the background here.
Bringing your attention inside to the sensations you're feeling in your body right now.
Using those physical sensations as an anchor or using your breath as an anchor to ground your attention into.
Take one more breath.
And then we can bring the head back up to center.
Take the hands to the knees,
Sitting up tall,
Just gently drop the chin down towards the chest.
If you want more sensation,
You can take the hands to the back of the head,
Gently pressing the chin down more.
Keeping the chest lifted.
And we'll inhale,
Bring the head back up to center.
Keeping the hands on the knees as you inhale,
Roll the shoulders back,
Lift the heart,
Lift your gaze.
As you exhale,
Tuck the chin,
Round the shoulders forward,
Press the heart back.
Some seated cat and cows with your breath.
Leading with the breath.
So we want breath first,
Movement to follow.
Keeping your awareness on the sensations in the body or into the breath,
Wherever that awareness falls.
So knowing whatever is grabbing at your attention,
Whatever distractions that are grabbing at your attention,
They can wait.
And it's normal to get lost in thought.
Your mind is programmed to think thoughts all day long.
So just being gentle with yourself whenever that does happen,
And without any worry,
Just guide yourself back to your body,
Back to your breath.
Let's take two more cycles here.
And we'll inhale,
Come back up to center.
Go ahead and take the right hand down beside you.
Sweep the left arm up and overhead.
Flip the palm to the right.
As you exhale,
Soften the right elbow as you side bend to the right.
Inhale,
Take it back up.
Exhale,
Take the left hand down beside you,
Right arm up and over.
Exhale,
Take a little side bend to the left.
Let's flow side to side.
Inhale to take you up.
Exhale to the right,
Soften.
Inhales take you up,
Exhales to the left.
One more each way.
And we'll inhale,
Come back up to center.
Uncross your legs,
Take the legs out in front of you.
Grabbing a pillow,
Or if you're on your mat grabbing your bolster or pillow or whatever you have,
We're going to slide it underneath of your knees.
Slide back a little bit.
If you have a blanket and you want to sit on that,
You can slide it underneath the view.
Taking the hands beside you for a moment,
As you inhale,
Sit up tall.
As you exhale,
Hinge at the hips,
Fold and melt over the legs.
Take the arms forward or resting wherever they're comfortable.
Allow the spine to round over the legs here.
Let the forehead come down.
Let every exhalation melt off any layers of tension.
Of tightness,
Anything that you're clinging to from your day.
Allow the exhales.
To allow them to roll off the body onto the floor and away.
Allow the exhales to allow it to roll off of the body onto the floor in a way.
Let the shoulders round forward slightly.
Softening a little bit more with every exhalation.
And next inhale,
We'll slowly roll up.
Keeping the bolster or pillow underneath of your knees.
We're going to come onto our backs.
If you want to remove your blanket,
If you have it,
You can just slide it off to the side for now.
And come on down onto your back.
And with the bolster under your knees,
Just bring the soles of the feet together.
Let the knees fall open for a kind of supported variation of our reclined Baddha Konasana,
Butterfly Pose.
Your hands can be resting beside you,
Palms facing up,
Or maybe you bring one hand to the heart,
One hand to the belly.
Notice where you're clenching,
If you are clenching,
Maybe doing a little scan from head to toe,
Noticing areas of tension.
Allow the exhales to consciously soften those spaces.
Letting everything go.
Feel yourself surrender to this moment that you have here.
I once did a yin practice with a teacher named Stephanie Nosko.
Had a really lovely cue for distractions in the mind.
Anytime those distractions come up and try to pull at your attention,
You can lovingly,
Compassionately visualize yourself setting them beside you on your mat and whispering,
Not now.
Whatever it is,
It can wait.
When we place our bodies into stillness,
That's when the mind tends to become louder and the thoughts start rolling in.
And instead of clenching and getting frustrated or irritated,
Can we lovingly,
Compassionately set them beside us and just tell them not now?
Just a few more breaths here.
And then to come out of it,
You can just start to pick up the knees.
Off of the bolster pillow and you can just slide it off to the side for a moment.
And heel toe the feet to the outer edges of the mat.
Just let the knees rest on each other.
And if it's comfortable,
Take the arms up overhead,
Keeping the elbows bent.
This is a very restful pose.
I find this position to be very stress relieving.
I don't know if you feel the same way,
But something about it is so.
.
.
Ah.
Don't even have a word for it.
Just take a few moments to rest here.
It's just like complete and utter surrender.
And we can heel toe our feet back to about hips distance apart.
Let's just rock both knees over to the right.
You can slide your hips to the left a little bit to create a bit of space.
You can keep the arms as they are if you want them here or if you want to extend them straight out to the side.
If you want to grab a pillow or bolster and stick it between your legs just to offer a bit of support there.
Make it a little bit more restful and restorative in your twist.
Just a nice gentle sensation here.
One more full breath in.
And with your exhalation,
You can pick up the knees.
If you want to just pick up your pillow or bolster with them,
You can do that.
Slide the hips over to the right,
And go ahead and drop the knees over to the left,
Settling into your version of your twist on this side.
Every exhalation melting off a layer of debris.
Feeling every bit of tension releasing and leaving the body.
Let's take two more cycles of breath.
And this time,
To come out of it,
You're just going to take your bolster or pillow out from between your knees if you had it there.
And we're just going to roll our whole body to the left.
Use your right hand to lazily press yourself up.
And we're gonna move to our wall space.
If you are on the floor with a mat,
I do recommend having your blanket and just placing it up against the wall.
If you're in your bed,
Maybe you can just place your legs right up the wall,
Right at your headboard or wherever your bed is resting on.
So we'll be doing legs up the wall Viparita Karani.
So you can come on over and sit on to your blankets or if you're on your bed just sitting up at the top of your bed with your hips up against the wall.
And we can,
As we lie down,
You can keep sliding your hips closer to the wall.
And take the legs up the wall.
And the knees might not be completely straight.
You can keep a soft bend to the knees.
Keep the toes and the ankles somewhat soft here.
You can take the arms out wide beside you.
This is a wonderful thing to do right before bed.
When I was pregnant,
I was working as a server and I would come home after a long shift with very,
Very swollen feet and ankles and I would do this in my bed.
For as long as it took.
So if you are pregnant and you can handle lying on your back,
I highly recommend this to combat those swollen feet and ankles that you may have.
But as we lie here with our legs up the wall.
We're going to practice a breathing exercise known as four,
Seven,
Eight breaths.
So we're going to inhale for a count of four.
Hold the breath in for a count of seven.
And exhale for a count of eight.
So if you find with the breath retention,
With holding the breath,
You start to get a little panicky and you're not loving it,
Just releasing the breath right before you hit that point.
So I'm gonna be counting,
But if you need to go at your own pace,
You can absolutely do that as well.
So allowing the eyes to close.
Wherever you are in your breath,
Exhale all of the air out.
Inhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Hold 7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Inhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Hold 7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Inhale 4,
3,
2,
1.
Hold 7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Exhale 8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3.
2,
1,
Final round in 4,
3,
Too.
1,
Hold 7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1,
Exhale 8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Inhale fully,
Fill the lungs.
Pausing at the top,
Hold the breath in.
Exhale with a sigh.
One more like that,
Inhale full,
Filling the lungs.
Pausing at the top,
Hold the breath.
Exhale with a sigh.
Hmm.
Returning back to your natural pace of breath.
And I'm actually going to leave you right here for as long as you need or as long as you have time for.
Whenever you are ready to come out,
You can just bend the knees,
Kind of place the feet on the wall and roll off to one side to press yourself up.
But feel free to stay as long as you can,
As long as you want to.
And thank you so very much once again for joining me in practice and we will see you again tomorrow.
