Hello and welcome to class.
My name is Charlotte and I'm so excited to have you here at City Yoga at Indianapolis for this gentle yoga flow.
We will spend most of our practice either lying on our backs or seated.
This is going to be a nice relaxing check-in for the whole body.
So let's go ahead and begin.
We'll start by lying back on our mats in a way that is comfortable for you.
So you can take your time as you get there.
Lying back.
And as you settle in,
You can always keep your knees bent to provide a little bit of extra support for the low back.
Or you're free to extend your legs out long as well.
Now rest your palms on your belly.
And settle your hips into the earth.
Relax your shoulders away from your ears.
Relax your shoulder blades into the ground.
Let your elbows relax.
Let your wrists and your hands relax.
And either close your eyes.
Or just soften your gaze and let your eyes relax.
Take a moment to draw your awareness inwards and become aware of your whole body.
Do a whole body check in from your head to your fingertips to your toes.
Just check in and notice how the body is feeling.
And keeping your awareness in words layer on.
And awareness of your breath.
So you might feel your breath underneath your palms in the way that your body expands slightly.
As you breathe in.
And how the body.
Relaxes and gently contracts back inwards as you breathe out.
Now lengthen your next inhale and really let the body expand and get really big.
Open the mouth and softly sigh and release that breath.
Whole body relaxes.
Good,
You can just let your natural rhythm of breathing return.
As you let your hands fall away from the belly.
Arms relaxed out beside you.
Now extend your legs long.
Reach your arms back behind you and take a full body stretch.
Inhale and grow really long and tall.
Exhale,
Hug your knees in towards your chest and reach your hands towards your shins,
But you can keep your head relaxed to the ground.
Gently rock your knees from side to side.
Um.
.
.
As you do this.
Keep your body as relaxed as possible so that you can use the ground underneath you to massage out any initial tension in your low back.
And then hip.
And to massage out tension in the upper back.
And shoulders as well.
Next time your knees come back center,
Pause.
Drop your arms out to a T.
Inhale,
Knees drop all the way over to the right,
But your chest is still gonna face up.
We have a little supine twist,
Bring out the spine.
Exhale,
Draw your knees back in center.
So rolling onto your back.
Inhale,
Drop your knees over to the other side.
Exhale,
Draw the knees back center.
Do that one more time on each side.
Inhale,
Knees over to the right.
Exhale and center.
Inhale over to the left.
Exhale,
Center.
Extend your legs straight up towards the ceiling or the sky.
Slowly rotate your ankles by pointing your toes and drawing circles with them and letting this movement originate in the ankle joint.
So nice and slow,
Think about lubricating this area and switch directions.
Next time you point your toes up towards the ceiling,
Pause.
And flex your feet.
So toes towards the face,
Press up through your heel.
Good,
Two more times.
Point the toes up,
Stretch the tops of the feet.
And flex,
Press the heels up,
Stretch out the calves.
Last time,
Point the toes up.
And flex the feet,
Keep them flexed.
And curl your toes under.
Good,
Squeeze the toes.
And flex the toes out long.
Two more times,
Curl the toes under.
And extend them out long.
And flex.
Relax your feet,
Bend the knees,
And hug them in towards the chest.
That was a sneaky little warm-up.
I'm totally normal to have built some heat in the legs there.
Use your hands and drag your knees apart away from each other towards the armpits and open up your inner thighs.
This is stop one for our happy baby.
So you can chill out here.
If you want more sensation,
Grab the front of your shins,
Flex your feet.
And then open the soles of your feet up towards the ceiling.
You can go even further than that.
If you want,
You can loop your pointer finger and middle finger around your big toes.
Keep your spine nice and long.
Gently rock your baby from side to side.
Relax your facial muscles.
And let your breathing be nice and steady.
Hmm.
Steady back center.
So stationary,
Happy baby.
If they're not already,
Bend your knees.
Hug them back in towards the chest.
Release your feet down to the ground or keep your knees bent.
And then make sure your hips and shoulders feel nice and relaxed.
Good.
Lift up your right ankle and cross it over your thigh.
Flex your foot.
And gently kind of draw the knee away from you and set up a reclined figure four.
So we're thinking about getting a little opening in the right hip.
And glute area.
So you can feel free to stay grounded here,
But if you want more sensation,
You can always lift that left foot.
So the knee comes in towards the chest and the legs can just hover,
Or you could also take a bind.
You can thread your hands around your left hamstring or your shin.
And keep your head and shoulders relaxed towards the ground.
Just breathe here for a couple moments.
Awareness in words.
Present with body and breath.
Oh.
If you're lifted,
Release your foot back down to the ground.
Uncross your ankle.
Place your foot back down.
Make sure your hips and shoulders feel nice and grounded and comfortable.
And switch to your other side.
Cross your left ankle over your thigh.
Flex your foot.
And open the knee.
Mirror the variation you took on the last time.
Either stay grounded.
Hover.
Or take your bind.
Home.
You If you're lifted,
Release your foot back down to the ground.
Uncross your ankle.
Good.
Bring both knees in towards the chest.
Roll over onto your right side completely.
Gently press into your left palm and lift yourself up into a seat.
You can make your way into a cross-legged seat.
Resting your hands on your knees if that's comfortable for you.
You can also take any seat that's comfortable.
So you can extend one leg,
Both legs.
You can have props,
A blanket or a pillow under your hips.
We'll start to settle in,
Or we can round into the hip.
Think about growing tall through your spine.
And relaxing your shoulders down away from your ears.
Either soften your gaze or close your eyes.
Take a deep and full breath in through your nose.
Open your mouth,
Sigh,
And relax your jaw,
Neck,
And drop your shoulders down away from the ears.
Good job,
Just let your natural rhythm of breathing return.
And drop your chin down to your chest.
Invite a little stretch into the back of the net.
Next,
Inhale,
Roll your right ear over towards your shoulder.
And then pause wherever you have a nice stretch in the left side of the neck.
No muscles need to be pulling.
It's just gravity doing the work as you relax your shoulders and breathe.
Slowly begin to drop your chin back down to your chest.
Inhale to the other side.
Left ear to shoulder.
And then settle in.
Soften your facial muscles.
Relax your shoulders.
Slowly drop your chin back down to the chest.
Back to the other side.
Inhale,
Right ear to shoulder.
And we're gonna keep moving with the breath.
You can kind of look up if that feels nice.
Exhale drop your chin back down to the chest.
We've got a little half circle we're doing.
Inhale,
Left ear over the shoulder.
And you might kind of look up a little bit don't I.
Exhale,
Chin back down to the chest.
One more time on each side,
Inhale.
Right here to the shoulder.
Exhale,
Chin to chest.
Inhale other ear to shoulder.
Exhale,
Chin to chest.
Slowly lift your head.
So your neck is back in line with the spine.
And again,
You have this nice line of energy from your tailbone up through your crown.
If you do have cross legs.
Go ahead and cross your legs with the opposite one in front.
And then reground and establish your seats.
Once you've got that,
Reach your arms out to the side and relax your fingertips down to the ground.
Inhale,
Reach your right arm up towards the sky or the ceiling and then over to the side and open your heart up.
Keep your right hip heavy for a little side body stretch.
Exhale,
Right hand down.
So we're gonna have both hands down on the floor.
Then to the other side,
Inhale,
Reach the left arm up.
And over as you open the heart up.
Right elbow might bend a little bit.
Exhale,
Take it down.
Two more on each side.
Inhale,
Right arm reaches up and over.
Think about a nice side body stretch on the right side.
Exhale,
Take it down.
Inhale,
Left arm up and over.
Exhale,
Take it down.
One more time,
Each side.
Inhale,
Rise them up and over.
Exhale,
Lower.
Inhale,
Left arm up.
Exhale,
Take it down,
Both fingertips on the ground.
Good.
Rest your hands to your knees.
And relax your shoulders.
Inhale,
Draw the shoulders forward and up towards your ear lobes.
Exhale,
Draw them back,
Squeeze your shoulder blades together and down.
And a couple of times on your own,
Just roll out the shoulders.
Thinking about doing a little tense and release.
The shoulders and the upper back.
And then,
When it makes sense for you,
Pause and switch directions where you'll draw the shoulders back and up.
And then forward and down.
For more times.
Mmmmmmm.
Relax your shoulders down away from the ears and just sit up nice and tall.
Either soften your gaze or close your eyes.
And in our seat,
Take one more deep breath in.
Open the mouth and sigh,
Relax jaw,
Neck,
And shoulders.
Blink the eyes open.
And we'll briefly make our way back onto our backs to relax into a short shavasana.
You could also do this seated as well.
So you're free to stay here as you are.
Otherwise,
We will once again make our way onto our backs.
You can have your knees bent or you can extend them long.
Making yourself comfortable.
Our last.
Few moments.
Either soften your gaze or close the eyes.
Draw your awareness in words.
Become aware of your whole body.
Become aware of your whole body from the top of your head.
Down through your fingertips,
Down through your toes.
Become aware of your whole body.
And notice the effects of our practice,
How you feel.
Setting aside this time.
So slow down,
Check in,
Release tension.
Notice the whole body is entering into a state of relaxation.
Because the body is relaxed.
We are breathing through the diaphragm.
If you're lying down,
That could feel like breathing into the belly a little bit.
Regardless,
Just notice your breath.
That was it.
Rises and falls in the body.
Take a couple more moments to watch your breath.
And then you're free to continue to watch the breath or release your focus as we settle into our last minute of relaxation.
Begin to invite some deeper breaths into your body.
Wow.
And if you're lying on your back.
Relax your arms beside you and gently wiggle your fingers and toes and then rotate your wrists.
Slowly make your way.
Onto your side into a fetal position.
And then slowly.
Press yourself back up into a comfortable seat.
So the same seat that you took before.
Crown through your hips and relax your hands to your knees.
Relax your shoulders.
Awareness in words for one final moment.
Take a full breath in through the nose.
Open the mouth and sigh.
Thank you so much for joining me for this practice.
I do hope that it served you.
Please take it with you.
Please go in peace.
Namaste.
