Welcome yogis,
This practice is dedicated to unwinding and releasing tension before bedtime so that you can have an uninterrupted and most peaceful and nourishing sleep.
And it's the perfect practice for the end of a busy day,
The perfect practice for anyone who's been sitting down all day,
Somebody who has been traveling,
Perhaps you've just had a busy or stressful day being a human being,
This is dedicated to you.
And things that you will want to have are a couple of blocks.
You might want to have a bolster for the end of practice for Shavasana,
If that feels like a nice,
Yummy way to end the practice.
Let's get started.
We're going to start seated.
So I always like to grab a block or cushion to sit underneath my bottom,
Just lifting my hips up a little here.
And you can be on your shins,
You can be cross leg.
If you feel like you want to start lying down,
Legs up the wall,
Whatever it is that feels like a nice place to begin.
Go ahead and find your way there.
If you're seated,
We're gonna take our palms to face down today.
And this is a calming down energy versus palms facing up,
Which is drawing energy in.
So palms facing down.
Closing our eyes and just taking a moment to arrive into our bodies.
Sitting up as tall as we can,
A little lift of the heart,
Shoulders relaxing away from the ears.
And just mentally choosing to let go of everything that we have done today.
Letting go of every conversation that we've had,
Every thought that's been passing through.
Things that we were reading about or talking about or writing about or thinking about.
Let's see if we can let go of thinking about the future.
Anything that's going to come later in the day or later in the week,
Later in the year.
And give ourselves permission instead to really just be here.
In this moment,
Free of any thinking about anything else.
Notice how that instantly allows you to feel a little lighter.
Lessening the load of things that you need to be concerned about.
Even if it's just for the duration of the class.
And just take a moment to notice where your tongue is.
If you find it resting in the roof of the mouth can you gently relax it away.
Give the jaw a little wiggle from side to side.
Just letting any tension or residue of stress around this area melt away.
Just take a moment to shrug the shoulders up towards the ears.
A place where we find them creeping closer and closer to during these busy,
Stressful days and times of our lives.
And then just gently let the shoulders relax away from the ears.
There's a softening of the space in between the eyebrows.
As you sit here,
Just take a moment to reach your right hand behind your back,
Fingers creeping over to the opposite side of the waist.
And taking your left hand upward and just letting the hand find the opposite side of your head and just drawing the ear towards the shoulder so you're feeling this Little release all the way through the right side of the neck here.
You might tilt the chin downward,
You might tilt the chin upward a little.
Until you find the sweet spot that needs the attention.
That you're looking to give it.
Let the teeth gently.
Fall away from each other.
The lips can be closed or lightly touching,
But there's this feeling of ease around the side of the neck and jaw.
Notice how the breath naturally slows down as you start to take care of your mind and your body.
As you detach yourself from all of the busyness of doing.
And surrender instead to simply being and noticing.
Just gently release the head,
Come on back up to upright and let's swap arms.
So we're going to take left hand behind the back,
Right hand up to the sky,
Finding the opposite side of the head and drawing the ear towards the shoulder.
Notice how it feels in this direction.
You might again just draw the chin down or you might need to lift it up until you find that place that's perfect for your needs,
Knowing that it might be different from one side to the other.
We tend to carry our bags.
On one side more than the other,
Crossing our legs when we sit in one direction more than the other.
All of these things have little.
.
.
Consequences on the body and where we might feel things.
And take another breath in this side.
When that breath is finished,
Just slowly release the head,
Hands come back down to the lap.
Now I want you to notice the breath as you breathe in.
Can you breathe in through the nose?
And as you breathe in,
Can you draw that energy down towards the belly,
Becoming aware of that expansion around the chest,
Around the heart,
Around the lungs.
Notice that feeling of everything coming back to centre as you begin to let the exhale leave the body.
And let's add into that a little.
So as you inhale,
I invite you to count to the number four,
Letting the breath last for your count of four as you inhale.
When it's time to exhale,
Can you let the exhale be the count of five or six?
Maybe even longer,
But longer than your inhale.
When the exhale is complete we begin the inhale again to the count of four.
Exhale begins and exhale lasts for five or six.
Your own count.
Taking three more rounds of breath with this extended exhale as the focus.
When you finish the final round of breath here,
Just slowly coming back to a natural breath.
Letting go of the counting or the control.
Just noticing how that natural breath feels and how your mind is doing.
A really nice simple way for us to move ourselves.
From this place of being.
A really nice way for us to move ourselves from this place of doing to this place of being.
Shifting gear internally.
Let's slowly start to open the eyes here and let's lift our bottom,
Releasing whatever we may have been sitting on.
Okay,
And we're going to slowly start to make our way onto our shins here.
Taking our right arm out in front of us,
Left arm crossing over and we'll bend the elbows,
Wrap the arms around each other,
Fingers lift upward,
Elbows away from the centre of the face.
And just a nice little opportunity to release.
Around the back of the shoulders here.
You can draw the chin in towards the chest if that feels good and necessary for the back of your neck as well.
Just notice how that feels here as you continue to breathe,
Remembering that the lungs sit on the back of the body as well as the front here.
Let's make our way to the second side,
So just simply changing the cross of the arms,
Bending elbows,
Wrapping the arms around each other,
Second side here.
Elbows away from the centre of the body,
Fingertips lifted upward.
This opportunity to let the tension melt away.
From the body so that the mind can be clear and calm.
Nervous system receiving the message that we want to slow down.
Move away from the busyness of life.
Simply returning to this place of balance.
Let's unwind the arms,
Hands come to rest on the thighs,
Couple of rolls of the shoulders here.
And then go ahead and place the hands down in front of you,
Just stepping the knees back so the hips are above the knees.
And let's do a couple of cat and cow.
So as we inhale,
Softening the belly,
Chest comes forward.
As we exhale just slowly rounding through the spine,
Releasing.
Through the back of the body.
Close your eyes and just keep on moving intuitively with the breath here.
Inhale opens the front of the body.
Exhale,
Allows that freedom through the spine on the backside.
Every breath that we're taking,
Every move that we're making is.
Creating this sense of ease in the muscles that support the spine,
But also those muscles that connect upper and lower body as we tilt the pelvic bowl back and forth.
One more round.
When you finish that.
Final round,
Just slowly widen your hands,
Step the right foot forward a little,
And just bring the hands to rest on the right thigh for a moment.
Sweeping left hand up to the sky,
You're gripping the mat with the feet.
Lift up through the left fingers,
Belly drawn in,
Just slowly lean over to the right side.
So you're feeling it through the front of left hip as you draw yourself back.
And then you're also getting this beautiful release through QL.
And muscle on the side body that we hit.
Started to awaken.
This also gets into the psoas muscle that starts in the lower back.
Works its way through the pelvic bowl to the inner thigh.
We're sitting down a lot or we're under pressure.
Tension and stress this muscle shortens.
And when it gets short and tight,
It can create a pulling sensation in the lower back.
So just really nice to release.
And then go ahead and lower left hand down to the ground.
Simple twist to the right side of the room,
Shoulder draws back.
Again,
Making space for us to be able to breathe more easily into the lungs.
Letting our nervous system know that we're in a place where we can slow down the breath,
We can calm down.
And recharge rather than.
Be in fight or flight mode.
Take the hand down to the mat and just step the right foot back here and go ahead and swap sides.
So left hand or left foot comes forward,
Belly draws in away from that thigh,
Left hand on the thigh,
Right hand reaching up,
Gripping the mat with the feet.
And as we inhale,
We lengthen.
And as we exhale,
We move over to the left side.
So you're feeling it through the front of that left hip and right side body.
Tuning in to how it feels because we know we sit differently,
We carry things differently from side to side.
So how does it feel for you today in this direction?
How does it feel when you practice this a second or third time?
Between the practices.
And let's slowly release right hand to the earth,
Simple twist,
Left hand to the sky,
Shoulder draws back,
Ribs,
Chest.
Awakening here as well.
Nice and then lower the hand to the ground and just simply step left knee back,
Hands wide,
Tucking our toes,
Lifting the hips and just slowly making our way to downward facing dog.
And just walking the dog for a moment,
A simple inversion to shift our perspective from the day that we may have had.
Lifting one heel,
Bending the same knee,
The opportunity to lengthen the spine,
Which naturally collapses as the day goes by.
It's always shorter in the evening than we are when we wake up in the morning.
Notice how the back of the legs are feeling,
These can get quite tight from sitting down a lot as well.
We're going to walk the hands towards the feet.
Take the feet a little wider and just take hold of opposite elbows.
A little dangling position here,
Head heavy,
Neck relaxed.
And you might sway a little from side to side.
Bend the knees generously here if you need to.
Try to bring the weight into the front and back of the feet.
And just notice how everything's feeling.
We'll take another breath or two just here,
Releasing through the back line of the body,
Releasing through the lower back,
Finding little energy,
Releasing of tension through the spine and shoulders.
Slowly the hands come to the ground and just walk the fingers forward to downward facing dog.
One more time.
And then look to the middle of the mat,
Tiny little baby steps to the middle of the mat.
And you're gonna lower your bottom down to the ground.
Now,
If you have a wall to go and lie against,
Then please go and get as close as you can to the wall and you'll go.
In the position of legs up the wall,
So you'll lie on your back.
And take those legs up the wall,
Arms wherever you need them.
You could even do this part of the practice in your bed.
With your legs against the bedroom wall here.
For those of you who don't have a wall nearby,
Grab one of your blocks.
Lie yourself down onto your back here and just lift the hips a little.
Place the block underneath the lower part of your pelvic bowl.
And just slowly start to take the legs up towards the sky.
And that block is just gonna tilt your pelvic bowl ever so slightly so that the muscles in the legs can relax here.
And then take the arms to wherever feels good.
Alongside the body,
Overhead,
Maybe even hands resting on the belly.
And whether you're using the wall or whether you're on the mat itself,
Just closing the eyes,
Softening.
The muscles around the eyes and the mouth.
I'm just noticing how you're feeling.
Could come back to the breath that we did at the beginning of the practice,
Inhaling for the count of four.
Exhaling for the count of six.
Knowing that that extended exhale just signals to the nervous system.
The desire to slow down,
This feeling of safety.
This feeling of ease arriving into the body.
Physically and mentally when we know that we're in this safe place.
And those of you who are working with the breath,
Just taking two more rounds of that breath here.
And the second breath is finished.
If you're at the wall,
Just slowly draw the knees to the chest as you roll to rest on one side of your body.
Those of you who are on the mat,
Just bending the knees,
Returning the feet to the ground.
Releasing the block from underneath you.
Staying on your back.
Meeting on our mats once again.
And we're going to take our left leg,
Releasing it down to the earth,
Right knee coming into the chest.
Right arm to the right side of the room,
A really simple twist.
Shoulders stay connected to the ground,
So the knee is only going to move over.
So far that you and stay connected to the earth with the upper body.
And notice how that feels through the spine,
Through the.
.
.
Outer hip.
Around the shoulders here,
Three big breaths.
When your third breath is finished,
Just guide the leg back to centre,
Give it a little hug.
Release the leg down.
Left knee comes into the chair.
Drawing it across the body,
Left arm to left side of the room,
Exploring space and freedom here.
On the second side of the booty.
Notice if it feels similar or different to the first side.
When you finish the breath that you're on,
Just slowly guiding the legs back through to centre.
And if you have a bolster that you want to place behind your knees,
Feel free to place it there as we come into our final resting pose,
Shavasana.
Arms wherever feels good.
Relaxing and letting the whole of the back line of the body just simply melt down towards the ground.
Do you take this opportunity just to simply be here?
Starting to bring a little movement into the fingers and the toes.
Gently reaching the arms up overhead,
A nice long full body stretch.
Giving the knees a little hug as you draw them into center and just rolling a little side to side,
Back and forth.
Eventually rolling over to rest on whichever side of your body feels best.
Use your hands to push the ground away,
Lifting yourself up to a comfortable seat.
Just taking a moment to acknowledge how you're feeling.
How it feels to be present.
In this moment.
Let's see if we can carry this presence,
This sense of ease and calmness with us into the rest of our evening.
A nourishing sleep ahead of us.
It's a brand new day still to come.
Bringing the hands together at heart center as we bow our head to our hands in gratitude for the practice,
In gratitude for our health.
Namaste.
