Stillness & Surrender — Yin Yoga with Beach Meditation

This practice invites you to slow down and settle into stillness through a gentle Yin Yoga practice paired with a guided beach meditation. This session focuses on longer-held, passive stretches that help release tension in the body while encouraging deep relaxation and mindfulness. As you move through each pose, you’ll be guided to soften, breathe, and allow your body to gradually open without forcing or striving.

Transcript

Today's practice will give you a deep relaxation in body and mind. Welcome to Golden Yoga. I'm Chanel, And we're going to do a yin practice. Now, If you're not familiar with yin-style yoga, We hold each pose for about three to five minutes, So you'll really get to go deep into certain areas in the body. The biggest thing I can tell you that's going to help you with your yin practice is the breath. We want to listen to our body. We want to listen to the breath. Cat-Cow. Hands under shoulders, Knees under hips. Inhale, Let the belly drop, Head and hips lift. Exhale, Press away from the earth. Head drop. Inhale into your cow. And exhale into cat. On this last one, Option to add some additional movement in your cow. Maybe you want a little side-to-side motion. And then cat stretch, Same thing. Option to sway back and forth to look over the shoulder. And then let's come to neutral and come to a seated position. So from here. Bring the left arm down right arm up reach up and over side stretch coming down until you feel that stretch along the side, Both sit bones planted on the mat. Switch sides. This is just our warm up before we get into our little bit longer holds. And release bring the feet a little further than hip width apart and we're going to just windshield wiper the legs warming up the hips a bit because we've got some deep hip openers we want to make sure our hips are nice and warm so knees to one side knees to the other And then let's begin in our butterfly pose. So butterfly pose is called baddha konasana in our yang style yoga, Our hatha yoga, And it's called butterfly in yin yoga. So soles of the feet together. The further away from your body, The gentler this stretch will be. So if your hips are tight or you're just waking up, Keep your feet a good distance from your body. And then we're just gonna hinge forward any amount. So find the place that feels comfortable for you that you can stay for a few minutes in this pose. Now, One thing you'll find in yin yoga is the longer you stay, The more your body starts talking to you. So you may find a comfortable pose at the beginning, But you may realize soon that you've gone too deep. And you'll know that because your body is telling you to get out of this pose or you find yourself thinking thoughts like, When is this going to be over? If you find that then that's a cue for you to back off a little bit. You don't need to go super deep in yin. But what we do need to get deep into is the breath. Slow, Steady breath. Allows us to relax, To melt into the pose. These long holds also allow us to find space. So as we hold. You may find that you have more space than you thought at the beginning and you may be able to go a little bit deeper. Pay attention to each breath coming in through the nose. Out through the nose. We'll hold this pose for about one more minute. And what I want you to do as you inhale, Picture the breath coming in through the nose. Send it down through the throat through the chest clear down to wherever it is you're feeling the stretch maybe it's in the low back maybe in the hips Send the breath down there. Imagine as the breath swirls around in that area where you're feeling the stretch. It's loosening up the muscles. Releasing any tight places. And replacing stale energy. With fresh, New, Clean energy preparing you for a new day, A new beginning. And as you exhale, You let go of any of that old energy, Those old feelings, Those old emotions, Anything that's not serving you anymore that you've been holding on to for too long. So do that again with your own breath. Inhale. Picture that breath moving clear through your body. All the way down to those tight areas. Imagine that breath giving new life to your body, New life to your mind, Releasing anything that needs to be released. And as you exhale, Release, Let everything go. Let's use our hands to gently press our bodies back up to seated. For our next pose. So our next pose is called Sleeping Swan. In yin you it will look familiar if you've done yoga before this is called pigeon pose now before we get into pigeon pose i want to show you an alternate move if pigeon pose doesn't work for you you can take figure four this is especially important if you have bad knees And we're going to hold this for a while. So you don't want to be in that uncomfortable pose. So figure four is a good option here. Now, If. Pigeon sleeping swan works for you. We're gonna take our left leg first, Bring it up toward the top of the mat. So if this is new to you, You wanna reach that heel up as far as feels comfortable, Flexing the left foot, Then you're gonna walk that right foot back until you feel a bit of a stretch. Pause here. Make sure everything feels good. Now there's a difference between stretching and pain, Right? We don't want to be in pain. If you are, Go back to that figure four I just showed. And then go ahead, If the space is there, And sleep your swan, Letting the head come down. Melting into this pose. Now again, Like we said in the last pose, Your body may talk to you. How does your body talk? This is a really good practice to figure out the messages your body is sending you. If it's saying this doesn't feel good get out of this pose then this is your time to listen how can you make this pose a little gentler maybe you bring that left heel closer to your body Maybe you come up and you have a lifted swan rather than a sleeping swan. Find the pose that feels good to stay in for a few minutes. And when you get there, Let everything relax. Let everything melt toward the earth. Use this time to focus on the breath. Slow, Steady, Even breathing. They say the hips store emotion. And so when we're in these deep hip openers, Especially in a yin class where we hold them for several moments. We may start to have some emotions come up. Pay attention to those. That's another way your body communicates with you. What is it trying to say? What is there for you to learn in this quiet moment in our yin class? Let's gently come up out of this pose. Bring the left knee back to meet the right. Just gently sway side to side. It's important in our transitions. We're moving slowly and mindfully. And then let's come up to the other side. Right knee comes behind the right wrist. Bring that left heel to any level. So closer to the body is going to be a little less intense. Further away from the body, You'll feel it a little bit more. Walk the left. Side of the body down the left hip closer to the mat pause here Again, If you're in figure four, Your right foot is over your left knee. Stretching the same muscles just in a slightly different way. Option to sleep your swan, Bringing your body down toward the mat. Slowing the breath. Noticing, Notice the breath, Notice the emotions. Notice what the body is saying to you here. If you find that you've gone too deep into the pose. Then gently come out of it. Finding the pose where you can melt, Relax into the pose. Instead of the pose where your mind keeps bringing you back to a message of discomfort. This should feel comfortable and good. A nice deep stretch. As we hold here, There's nothing else to do. There's nowhere else you need to be. Give yourself this time to let everything else go. Slow, Steady, Even breath. Letting everything melt into the pose. Using the breath to help relax the muscles the tissues the fascia all those things but also the mind Relaxing the mind, Calming the mind. Let's gently come out of this pose. And we're going to work our way onto the back for our final shavasana. So moving slowly, Gently, Coming onto the back. Bringing the feet out to either side of the mat, Letting them flop open, Bringing the palms up. Wiggle around find your most comfortable place on the mat and then For our final relaxation, I would love to take you with me to a beautiful place. Today we are going to go to the Hawaiian island of Maui. I want you to see in your mind's eye. The beautiful bright blue water. The sun is shining. You can see it sparkling off the water. The waves are gently crashing into the shore. Feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. Notice each wave comes in. And it goes out just like the breath. Allow yourself to relax into that motion, That inhale. And that exhale. That gentle movement of the ocean, That pattern, That repetition. That we can count on will just keep coming. In your mind's eye, I want you to smell the sense of the ocean. Salty sea air, Maybe sunscreen, Suntan lotion. I want you to imagine all the things that you would see on this beautiful Hawaiian beach. Allow yourself to relax into it. Feel the gratitude for this beautiful earth. For your mind that just with some thoughts, Some ideas can take you. Anywhere. All it takes is a little bit of time and imagination to bring us anywhere we want to go. So we'll take the last minute in silence, Just enjoying this beautiful beach weather, This beautiful Hawaii day. In total surrender, Total relaxation. If you need longer, Press pause, Take longer, Or if you're ready to go on with your day, Let's take a big stretch. Reaching to either side of the room maybe rolling out the shoulders pointing and flexing the toes and gently make your way onto your side, And then up to seated, Moving slowly and mindfully. And as you do, I want to thank you for joining me for this practice today. And when you're ready, Join me in seated. Hands at heart center. Namaste.