Wall Yoga For Deep Rest

If you sit for long periods or are on your feet all day, a lot of tension can build up in your lower back. I love doing this wall yoga series to open my hips and hamstrings, either before bed, or before or after a long drive or flight. Legs up the wall boosts lymphatic drainage, which clears toxins, helps circulation, and soothes the nervous system.

Think of this practice as a full-body reset!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to wall yoga for deep rest.

This is a series of wall yoga poses that are designed to help you shift into sleep or just get rejuvenated after a long day.

I like to do these poses if I've been at a conference all day,

Where I've been on my feet doing a lot of walking,

If I'm traveling or sitting in a plane or a car for a long period of time,

Sometimes just a typical day where I know that I'm just carrying a lot.

So having our legs up the wall helps with lymphatic drainage,

Which releases toxins from the body with circulation,

And also just with our nervous system.

So this series of poses is just kind of like a really nice reset.

So get ready for some long holds and some focused breathing and know that you are going to feel so good after.

So go ahead and get yourself situated next to a wall.

I like to choose a wall that has some carpet next to it.

You can also use a yoga mat on the floor next to the wall.

If you have a bed that's next to a wall,

You can also use that.

And so you want to get yourself in a position where you can bring one of your hips to up to the wall and then swing your legs up so that your hips are pretty close within an inch or so of the wall.

So you want to get your hips pretty close,

And then we'll start just with our legs extended.

So there can be a soft bend in the knees,

But generally the legs are just reaching straight up.

And the heels are resting against the wall.

Bring your arms down next to your sides,

Palms facing up.

And we'll just start with some breathing here.

So breathing into your belly.

And slow exhale.

Maybe letting your eyes close.

So we'll be holding each of these poses for about four minutes.

So really take the time to shift into mindfulness and stillness.

Bring your attention to your breath.

Just observing your breath rising,

Coming in,

And drifting out.

And you can also imagine any worries or fears or thoughts or emotions drifting out of your body and energy field on each exhale.

Notice any small shifts in the tension in your low back,

What you feel physically.

Letting your heels rest even more into the wall,

Feeling more supported,

And letting the muscles in your body relax.

Got about 20 more seconds here.

And we'll start to transition into our next pose.

So what we're going to do is bend the knees so that the soles of the feet come flat onto the wall.

And the knees could be at about a right angle or more straight from there.

You might want to start with them a little more straight than that right angle,

And then you can adjust.

And then what we're going to do is we're going to press the feet into the wall and start to press,

Peel the hips up off.

So as you peel the hips up off,

It's almost like you're doing a bridge pose.

And you might even bring your hands to your low back.

And then start to press your hips forward,

Almost like you're pressing your hips as if they're going to stack over your head.

And so then we get about to,

Now our knees are kind of at a right angle,

Pressing into the wall,

And our hips are directly under our knees.

And from here,

We're going to lengthen out the right leg.

So pointing the sole of the foot up towards the ceiling and hold there for a moment.

Just pressing that heel away from you,

Lengthening through the leg,

Pressing into the wall with the left foot,

And then bend the right knee.

So we're going to go into a figure four.

So we're going to cross the right ankle over the top of the left thigh and then sort of point the right knee out to the right side.

And then pausing here for a moment,

Feeling into this pose.

And then from here,

We're going to start to keep that pose in the legs,

But then start to let our spine iron itself down onto the mat.

So that we're coming down from our upper back to our middle back,

To our low back,

All the way towards our tailbone coming down.

And you're going to start to feel a deep stretch in your hips here.

So come down to where it's accessible to you.

And if you need to make it less intense,

What you're going to do is you're going to inch the left foot up the wall.

And so we want to get to where your low back is pretty much down on the mat.

It doesn't have to be all the way down to your tailbone,

Because this is a deep stretch.

But we want to come down to where the hips feel supported.

We've got this deep stretch in the outer hip.

And then bring your hands down to your sides,

Palms up.

After you're done making adjustments,

Again,

Inch the foot up the wall to make it less intense,

Or move the foot down the wall to make it more intense.

And then we'll settle into stillness and breathe into this pose.

So we're breathing into the hip where you feel that sensation.

And as you breathe into it,

Imagine that you're breathing in soothing energy.

And then as you exhale,

Imagine that you're releasing any tightness in that hip.

And you might close your eyes so you can place all of your focus and presence onto this hip.

Again,

We'll be here for about four minutes.

And it'll be really intense for the first minute or two,

And then it'll start to mellow out.

And it'll feel absolutely amazing once we get through each pose.

And we're more than halfway there.

Make small adjustments if you need to.

Otherwise,

Just keep breathing into the pose.

So we're going to start to ease out.

So go ahead and just lengthen your left leg up the wall.

So straightening out the left leg to release the stretch.

And then lengthen your right leg up,

Unbending it,

Uncrossing it so that both heels lean against the wall once again.

And we're going to pause here in between poses so you can feel into the difference in your body,

The right side versus the left.

Noticing that nice release,

That nice fresh energy,

You feel fresh circulation moving through the right hip.

New mobility and opening.

Then we'll start to shift to the other side.

So again,

Bending your knees so the soles of your feet press against the wall.

Coming to about the same place you did on the other side.

And then as you press into the wall,

Start to peel your hips up off the wall,

Pressing your hips up.

Maybe bringing your hands to your low back to really press your hips forward as if you're pressing your hips to stack over your heart,

Your chest.

Pressing the wall away from you.

Then lengthen the left leg up long.

Pressing the heel up towards the sky.

And then bend the left knee.

So coming to a figure four,

Crossing the left ankle over the right thigh.

And then from here,

Slowly starting to iron your spine out,

Coming down one vertebrae at a time.

All the way until your hips reach the ground.

And again,

Notice how this side might appear tight,

Just like the other one did.

It will even out.

But just taking a minute to adjust.

Inching the right foot up the wall to make this more to give yourself more space to make it less intense and move the foot down the wall to make it more intense.

And again,

We'll be here for four minutes.

So coming into your stillness,

Letting your arms rest by your sides.

Maybe closing your eyes and bringing all of your attention to your left hip.

Inhale,

Imagining fresh energy rinsing into the hip.

And exhale.

Imagine all the tension being rinsed away.

About halfway there.

So checking in with your body,

With your mind.

Taking slow,

Steady breaths into that hip.

And as we start to transition out,

Start by just lengthening out the right leg so the right heel comes back to the wall.

And then once that pressure is released,

Then release the left foot.

Uncrossing and unbending.

Lengthen the left leg up the wall to meet the right.

Both heels resting into the wall.

And pausing here in between poses.

Again,

Checking in with how the left side feels compared to the right side.

Feeling that fresh energy in both hips.

And for our next pose,

We'll move into butterfly on the wall.

So we're going to point our knees out and bring the soles of the feet together to touch.

So our knees make that butterfly shape.

And if you'd like to set up,

You can use your hands to adjust your knees.

Maybe pressing your hands gently into the insides of your knees to press your knees a little bit more open.

But from there,

Then bring your hands back down to rest.

Palms up beside you.

And if the knees start to kind of come towards you again,

That's fine.

Because this is just meant to be a gentle opening for the hips.

So we don't need to press our knees really wide open in order to access it.

And we'll be here for about four minutes.

So settling into your body,

Observing your breath.

Feeling the inhale opening up.

And on the exhale,

Releasing tension.

As you exhale,

See if your knees are ready to drop open just a little bit more.

Got about one more minute here.

To come out of the pose,

Bring your hands to the outsides of your knees.

And gently bring your knees together like you're closing a book.

And then straighten your legs back up the wall.

And so we're going to pause here and legs up the wall again.

So you might just kind of inch yourself closer to the wall if you've drifted.

So that your hips are within that one,

One to two inches from the wall.

Your knees are slightly bent and your heels are resting against the wall.

Let your palms face up towards the ceiling,

Arms relaxed next to you.

Close your eyes.

And settle in with your breath.

And we're about halfway through here.

Checking in with yourself.

Shifting your thoughts back to stillness.

And feeling into the pleasure of the pose.

And moving into our final stretches.

Bring your arms out like a T shape.

Or if you don't have the space,

You can do goalpost arms.

And then bring your knees into your chest.

And then from here,

Just gently let your knees drop over to the right side.

This is a really nice pose.

If you have a wide wall and can let your feet press up against the wall.

As the knees drop down over to the side.

And once your knees have found the floor or the surface beneath you.

You can either keep your gaze directly up towards the ceiling.

Or if you have the space,

You can start to point your gaze over towards your left side.

And checking in with your breath.

Allowing the breath to slow down.

And then slowly come in,

Expanding through your belly and ribs.

And gently flow back out.

Breathing into the pose.

And feeling your body supported by the floor beneath you.

And start to bring your knees back to center.

And we'll pause here in center and just resetting your hips.

Letting your knees fall down towards your chest.

And taking a breath.

And then with your arms out to that T shape or goalpost.

Go ahead and let your knees drop over to the left side.

And once the knees reach the ground.

Checking in with your gaze.

Either keeping your gaze up towards the ceiling.

Or pointing your gaze over towards the right.

And breathing into that hip space,

That outer hip,

Low back.

Where you feel this pose.

Inhale in lengthening.

And then exhale.

And exhale,

Releasing tension.

And keep observing the breath.

With each breath,

This pose getting just a little bit more comfortable.

As your body opens up.

And as the muscles relax.

Start to bring your knees back to center.

Bringing your low back down to the mat.

To the floor.

Letting your knees rest in your chest.

And then we'll close with one final round of legs up the wall classic.

So lengthening your legs long.

So your heels rest against the wall.

Soft bend in the knees.

Let your arms straighten out and relax down by your sides.

Palms facing up.

And we'll just be here for a few minutes more.

Letting all these deep stretches soak into the body.

Letting the blood circulate back down our legs.

Hamstrings gently open.

As we signal to our nervous system that it is time to rest.

And that it is safe to rest.

We'll start to finish up here.

So to begin to transition out.

You can just let your knees come back down to your chest.

And then roll onto one side into a fetal position.

And pause here for a moment.

With your knees curled in.

And your arms curled in towards your chest.

And then from here,

Roll a little further over towards your belly.

Using your hand to press yourself up.

And as you come out,

Just notice how your body feels.

How your mind feels after that time of rest and opening.

When you're ready to get into bed.

Go back to your day.

Know that you can come back to this series any time that you need a nice nervous system reset.

So I'm wishing you the absolute best.

And I hope to practice with you again soon.