Now start to take slow deep breaths in and out through the nose.
When we slow the breath down,
It starts to calm the nervous system,
The mind,
And the emotions.
Breathe in through the nose,
Sitting a little bit taller.
Breathe out slowly through the mouth or nose.
Now we'll lift the shoulders up to the ears as we inhale through the nose like a shrug.
When you exhale,
Drop the shoulders and take a big sigh.
Three times now letting go of the busyness of the work day or day.
Inhale shoulder shrug,
Exhale a big sigh letting go.
Any noise that helps you release tensions in the shoulders and neck.
Try one more on your own.
Now start to make circles with the shoulders.
You can keep the eyes closed or open,
But really stay present with your body.
Just giving yourself the short break to move the body here and interlock the fingers in front of the chest.
As you inhale,
Stretch the arms up overhead,
Pressing the fingers up towards the sky.
This is called thunderbolt pose,
Stretching the arms and even the fingers.
If you're at the computer a lot,
This might really be useful to do a few times a day.
If it hurts or there's pain,
Skip the pose.
Otherwise from there,
Try a little side bend with the fingers interlock,
Curve gently to one side and then the other.
You're creating a gentle crescent moon shape with the spine as you take slow deep breaths to lengthen the spine and a gentle stretch between the ribs.
When you feel complete with that,
Come back to center and lower the arms.
Now we'll lift one leg to the chest.
Bring the hand between the thigh and knee,
Behind the knee,
Sitting tall,
Lifting the knee as high as you can.
I call this seated lunge in my chair yoga book.
And this is wonderful to get some relief to the sciatic and lower back and hip joint.
From there,
You can make big circles in the air with your knees,
A few in both directions.
If you're sitting all day in a wheelchair or at work in a chair,
This is really useful to keep the joints healthy and moving as best you can.
Switch sides when you're ready.
Lift the left knee to chest,
Hold and breathe,
Lifting the knee as high as you can.
Start to circle the knee in the air a few times in both directions as you take conscious slow deep breaths.
When you feel complete with that,
Lower the foot and take a pause with eyes closed,
Returning to mountain pose.
Feel the effects of the simple lunge seated pose to ease hip and low back pain and sciatic joint tensions and notice the effects.
Now we'll try one more posture called the cobra in Sanskrit,
Bhujangasana.
Interlock the fingers behind the back,
Stretch the arms down as you lift the heart.
If that doesn't feel good,
You can bring your hands on the chair,
Back of base of chair or the chair back or just stretch the arms out to the side as you bring the hands a little bit back,
Lifting the sternum or chest bone.
Take slow deep breaths,
Creating a nice upper back bend like a snake,
A cobra,
The hood of the cobra coiling up to the sky to create flexibility in the spine and a feeling of perhaps even joy or opening the heart center.
When you feel ready to come out,
Release,
Roll the shoulders again and then pause and observe the body.
Notice how just this five minute gentle joint movement and yoga asana,
Yoga pose break at your desk,
Which I call chair yoga or office yoga or at home can really create more ease in the body.
If you just want to leave it at that,
That can be your practice.
Otherwise,
Now that we've eased the body a bit from tensions,
We'll close the eyes for a brief guided meditation.
We'll start with a breathing exercise called equal length breath.
With the eyes closed,
Slowly inhale four seconds as you breathe in,
Counting to yourself slow.
Exhale four seconds out.
Repeat on your own.
Inhale through the nose four seconds in,
Exhale through the nose four seconds out.
This equal length breathing exercise can help the mind focus.
If you're working and just taking a break,
It can help you focus when you return to work or it may just be useful to calm the mind to prepare for sleep or meditation.
You can continue with the four counts or if it feels okay,
Start to expand to five second inhale,
Five second exhale.
Samastitihi Pranayama is the Sanskrit,
Which means equal length breathing,
Consciously controlling the breath,
Making it smooth,
Rhythmic and even.
Make sure there's no strain and that the throat stays relaxed.
Try three more,
Letting your mind be fully present with breath,
Counting at your own pace.
And breath is a tool that you always have in sight of you to ease anxiety,
To prevent panic attacks,
To help with insomnia or just for general feeling of peace and wellbeing.
So just taking slow breaths,
Even without counting like we just did,
Can be quite useful.
Try that now without counting.
Slow breath in through the nose,
Long breath out through the nose and repeat at your own pace.
So we did some yoga warmups for the joints,
Some chair yoga postures leading into some breathing exercises called pranayama.
And now we're just doing breath awareness,
Slow breathing.
And then this can now lead to silent meditation where you let the eyes close,
Sitting tall in your chair and just watch the breath now as is without trying to count or control it.
If you use your own mantra,
You can add that now or try the universal mantra AUM,
A-U-M,
Mentally and silently repeating AUM on the inhale,
AUM on the exhale at your own pace or your own word like peace or love or any sound that feels soothing,
Loving or calming.
AUM on the inhale,
AUM on the exhale.
Repeat silently on your own for the next minute of silent meditation.
If the mind feels distracted,
You can always deepen the breath,
But the nature of the mind is usually rather busy.
So instead of trying to stop thoughts,
Just do your best to concentrate on your breath and or the mantra or sound.
You can continue now on your own,
Even for another 30 minutes if you like,
And enjoy the peace and health and harmony that yoga brings.
If you just needed that 10 minute break,
Start to slow the breath down again,
Take an inhale,
Stretch the arms overhead now,
Spread the fingers to give yourself energy and then shake the hands out,
Lower your arms,
Feeling refreshed and relaxed as you reenter the day or work day.
Have a wonderful day.
Namaste.
