Full Body Stretch for Morning or Evening

This gentle full-body stretch helps you release tension, improve flexibility, and reconnect with your body. Perfect for morning or evening, this calming flow encourages slow movement, deep breathing, and a sense of ease.

Transcript

This practice will help you ground, Reflect, And restore. I'm Chanel, And we're gonna focus on a moon salute today. Let's begin with the breath, Bringing hands to heart center. Close the eyes and just come into the breath. Big breath in through the nose. Out through the nose or mouth. Again, Deep breath in. And as you exhale, Feel the shoulders drop away from the ears, Letting go of any tension, Tightness, Big inhale. Exhale let the hands drop Eyes blink open. And let's come to standing on our mat. Just right in the center here for today. Roll the shoulders back, Turn the palms to face forward, Feet about hip width apart. Mountain pose the kneecaps are lifted the shoulders are rolled back the heart is reaching forward The chin is lifted slightly. Strong pose. Mountain pose is all the potential for energy. Feel that energy just flowing through your body. Ready to move. Ready to begin. Good. Let's go ahead and start with a side stretch. Inhale. Reach up. Use your left hand to grab hold of your right wrist and reach up and over. Big side stretch, Maybe turning to look up. That side. Inhale come up to center switch hands Reach up and then drop over. Option to turn the neck slightly. Looking up toward that outstretched arm. Deep breaths. Inhale, Center. Exhale, Release the arms. Bring the feet nice and wide. Toes turned out. Coming into a squat. The lower, The more intense this is going to be. Our goddess squat. Hands back at heart center. Three breaths here again a little bit less bend in the knees you're going to have a little less work or you can really sink into those knees getting nice and deep working through the legs One more inhale. Exhale and burst open into our star pose. Fingertips extended, Reaching out. The toes reach out. Reach everything out. Nice, Deep breath. And then turn the left toes in right toes out extend the arms right out at shoulder height tip over left hip comes out and we tip forward into our triangle pose You can come down any amount so long as your shoulders are open, Stacked one on top of the other. Tiny micro bend in the knee here is gonna protect the knee. So keep that in mind. You can turn to look up at the extended hand. Keep your breathing slow and steady and controlled. And then bring the hands to the hips. Gently come up turn the right or the left foot in slightly, We've got our right foot forward, Turn the hips squared off to the top of the mat, Hinge forward at the hips into our pyramid pose. Now, If the flexibility is there, We can go low. If you're not feeling so flexible today, Bring your hands to your thigh or even your calf. We don't want to go on the knee. Or you can bring them to the floor in our pyramid pose. Bring the back heel up so it lifts up. And bend into that front knee move that back foot back enough so that your straight your ankle and knee are in alignment here coming into our low lunge Slow breath. And then walk the hands forward, Shifting the hips, Coming into skandhasana. So skandhasana is a deep bend. Ideally you want this right heel on the ground mine comes up if you're the same way that's totally fine you can keep that heel lifted On our left foot, The toes are pointed up to the sky in our skandhasana. Walk the hands over to the other side bringing the bend into the left knee for skandhasana on the left The right leg extended, Deep bend. You're up. On that heel, If this doesn't feel good on your knees, Keep it up much higher, Okay? You've got to always listen to your body. Pay attention to what it's telling you in this pose. One more big breath in. And big breath out. And we're gonna walk the hands over. Coming into our low lunge. Sink the hips nice and low. This knee and ankle is in alignment. Slow, Steady, Even breath. And then walk the hands back slightly to start to take the bend out of the front leg and bring that back foot up just a couple of inches. Coming into our pyramid pose. Now maybe your hands reach the ground, In which case they can stay here. If not, They can come to the calf or the thigh, Keep a little micro bend in that front knee as needed. Pyramid pose. This one's a deep hamstring stretch. Slow, Steady, Even breath. From here, Take your right foot and spin it around. We're gonna come into our triangle pose. So options, We can come up here. Or down a little further, Depending on your flexibility. What you wanna make sure is that your shoulders are stacked. So if you're here to try and get in a deeper pose, You're actually not getting deeper in the pose. We wanna open through the heart space. That matters a lot more. Opening through the chest, Through the heart, Matters a lot more than how deep we go down. Option to turn look up at that extended hand one more breath here And let's release just like we did before. Reach up, Burst into our star pose. Toes pointed out, Fingertips extended. Look up high, Feel the strength and the power as you extend all your limbs reaching out to every side. And then bring your hands back at heart center. Come into your goddess squat. Again the lower the more intense if you want a little less come up just a bit Bring the hands down, Extend the legs, Heel toe the feet in, Back to mountain pose. Palms forward, Chin lifted, Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Feel the difference. As we've gotten our heart rate up a little bit, Feel the energy flow through the body. And let's gently come down to the mat. Let's come to a seated position, A nice easy seat. Inner leg in front. And from here, Let's come into a seated forward fold. So just lean forward, Hinging forward at the hips, Walk the hands forward, Let the head bow down. Gently walk the hands back up and behind you and switch the cross of the legs. Hands in front. And walk down any amount, Folding forward to your level. Gently walk the hands back up to seated come onto your back moving slowly and mindfully Legs extend. Palms turn up. Take a moment to find your most comfortable spot on the mat. Wiggle around a little bit until you can feel completely comfortable, Completely relaxed. And when you're there, Let everything go. Let go of the breath. Let go of the need to look any certain way in your pose. Let go of anything that's on your to-do list or things you're worrying about. And take this moment in Shavasana to just be. Hit pause if you need a little longer. If not, Gently wake up the body. Wiggling fingers and toes. Wrists and ankles. Maybe the head goes side to side. And slowly in your own time, Making your way up to seated. I want to take this moment to thank you for being here with me today. Bring your hands to heart center. Thank you for joining me today. Namaste.