Yin Yoga: Emotion - Energy In Motion

A deeply grounding Yin journey inspired by the truth that emotions are energy in motion. Sometimes they flow softly — gentle, subtle waves whispering through the body. Other times, they rise and crash like a wild tsunami. Yet no matter their form, they always pass. Energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed — and the same is true for what we feel.

Perfect for moments when you feel full, tender, or raw — when you’re ready to meet yourself beneath the surface and trust the wisdom of your inner tides.

Gather a few pillows or cushions, a blanket, maybe light a candle, and create a space that feels safe for your emotional body to exhale.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this yin practice. And so. The theme of this practice today is. . . Energy in motion. And that emotion is energy in motion. And so something that's been very prevalent in my aura, My circle, My being at the moment is that emotions are fleeting. And emotions can arrive, They can come in waves like these nice smooth flowing waves or they can also come crashing like these huge tsunamis that wash over us and almost knock us over and when this happens It's good to ground, It's good to regroup, It's good to come back to centre. And all of these waves, No matter how big or small they are, Of emotion. Are moving it's all energy moving and so it's not stagnant which is good because when we become stagnant that's when we get sick or when dis-ease happens but when we're flowing and moving through these emotions no matter how big or small this movement is In the end, Emotion is just energy in motion. And so the idea for this practice today is to re-acknowledge and accept any emotions that do arise, Or maybe you're reflecting on emotions that have arisen throughout the week or throughout the day so far, If you're watching this later on in the day. And we're just being present with those emotions. Just seeing how they feel and where we feel them in the body. So my name is Danny. If we haven't met before, Welcome. Welcome to this practice. In our yin practice today, We want to be at about 70% of our maximum capacity in each pose. So if you're feeling something super intensely, Maybe ease off a little bit, Or if you're not feeling something deep enough, Maybe it's time to lean in and breathe in to the spaciousness that we're creating in each and every pose and posture. So today we will need, I have got a big cushion, You can have some pillows, I've got some small cushions here as well. That's pretty much all you'll need. Just a few cushions or pillows. If you want to get a blanket as well for the end of the practice, That's always super nice to tuck yourself in for Shavasana. Gets super duper cozy. So we'll begin in a seated position. I like to prop my hips up, My sit bones up on a cushion just to create spaciousness in the front of the body so my spine can be nice and long and straight, Allowing the energy to flow up and down Shashumna Nadi, The whole length of the spine, This energetic highway that resides in our back body. And this is where the chakras live. They're all resting in alignment. Ideally up and down the length of the spine. Sometimes with these waves of emotions the chakras may become imbalanced depending on where we're at, Situations that are happening in our life, Our state of mind, Our emotional state, The connections that we have around us. Circumstances, All of these different things. May just sway the chakra as the energy centers a little out of balance. So what we're aiming to do here is just to bring everything into balance, Into cohesion. So the energy is flowing nice and smoothly. And we're being intentional with our space and our energy. And how we flow through life. So once you've got your props. And the space is set. Just finding a comfortable seat. Lengthening the spine. The crown of the head reaching up towards the ceiling. And we'll rest our hands on our lap. We'll bring the index finger and thumb together. Creating a mudra. Or an energetic seal with the hands. And by facing our palms down, We're grounding our energy. And just begin by settling into the space, Taking any movements your body may be calling for. Maybe rotate the neck nice and slowly. Notice any tension in the shoulders or the back body. I'm just taking any twists or stretches or movement in the back. The spine. Can create these little pockets of tension. Or may become quite rigid and stiff if we're sitting at a desk all day or if we've just woken up from being lying horizontal for the past six to eight hours, If we've just woken up from our sleep, From our slumber. If we've been exercising, Working out, We can create some stiffness, Some tension and we just want to relax that here. And notice the breath. If it feels okay for you, I invite you to breathe in and out of the nose. Sealing through the lips. Notice where the breath goes in the lungs, Is it into the belly, The sides, The back or the chest Notice how deep the breath is. And we'll just begin to lengthen through the breath. Breathing in for 1. Three, Four, Five. Exhale, Double the length, 10. 9. Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, Inhale, One. Two three four five exhale 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 too. One more breathing in. And exhale through the nose. Closing down the eyes, We'll bring the palms to meet together as one in front of the heart space. Awakening the practice with a single sacred collective sound of Aum. You can join in or just listen if you wish. Breathing in for Aum. Deep breath in. And a long breath out. And now we'll begin to maneuver into our first pose, Our first posture of the practice. So grabbing your cushions, Your pillows, Whatever it is you have to hand, And we're just going to turn to face the front of our mat. This first pose is dragon pose or lizard pose for my yogis so what we're going to do is we're going to step our right foot forward to the edge of the mat we're going to spill our toes just off the edge of the mat so your heel i'll show you underneath behind the pillow your heel is on the mat and your toes are just spilling off and then we've got our props cushion, A couple of pillows, Whatever it is you need underneath our hands. We'll then walk our left foot back a little bit just to get a nice stretch here in the front of that left hip flexor and we're stretching the inner seam of that right thigh here as well. So to begin, We'll have the spine nice and long upright. And if you'd like to go deeper. You can always stay up here. But the invitation is to maybe come down to your forearms. And see how that feels. And if that's quite intense, If it's too much, Again remembering that 70% is that sweet spot, Maybe just coming back up to the hands. Otherwise we're down in the forearms. And if you're not feeling too much here, Maybe you get rid of one of the cushions. Or maybe the forearms are on the floor. We don't want to activate our nervous system here. We want this to be nice, Soft, Gentle. So just honoring that. And honoring where your body is at today. And at the beginning of the practice, I spoke about the emotions and the waves that we may encounter. Maybe in this spaciousness, In this time that we have together, Notice any emotions that may arise. Maybe they come and go quite quickly. Or maybe it's this super soft expansion of the emotion as you give it space. And quite often when we don't give our emotions space. They become stuck in the body. So this is your opportunity to acknowledge. And let the emotion come through. And we can sometimes label these emotions as good or bad. Without any judgment today. Just acknowledge, Notice, And allow. No judging, No labeling. No need to put your emotions in a box today. I've got another few more breaths here in this dragon pose. Opening up through the hips. Can you relax through the shoulders? Release the jaw. Taking a long, Full, Deep breath in. And exhale begin to soften Maybe going a little bit deeper. This time as you breathe in slowly slowly if you're on your forearms just bring your hands to the mat or to your props Press back into that left knee. Create some space for your right thigh. Maybe it feels quite tight. Maybe it feels more open. And just bring your knees back towards one another. Maybe come to stand on the knees for just a moment, Noticing the difference in both sides of the body. Then when you're ready we're going to come straight through to the other side. So stepping that left foot now to the edge of your mat so your toes will spill over the mat and your heel, Your left heel will be on the mat. We'll bring our hands in. Onto our props or onto the earth. Then we'll walk that right knee back if you want to go a little bit deeper otherwise stay as it is. And that left knee is over the left ankle. Having a feel around here maybe this side is quite different maybe it's more open maybe it's a little bit more tight If it feels safe, Maybe you come to your forearm. Your body, Your practice. Your movement. And I always laugh when I come into the opposite side and it's quite different. Maybe it's a lot more stiff. Maybe it's quite difficult to get into the pose in the opposite side. And it feels strange. You'd imagine that both sides would be pretty similar. But this really isn't the case sometimes. And a phrase that comes to mind is that eyebrows are sisters, Not twins. And I feel like it's fairly relevant when it comes to both sides of the body. They're not identical, Both sides of the body. And sometimes they're very far from it. And so with our yin practice, We give ourselves space and time to actually notice. Oh, This feels quite different to the other side. Maybe this side needs a little bit more attention, Maybe it needs a little bit more strengthening. Or maybe it needs some more stretching and opening. So just using the breath here to create space where you need it. Stretching the front of that right hip flexor and the inner left thigh. Towards the groin. And again, Notice those emotions that arise. And just a few more breaths. You can allow your head to rest heavy, Relax the shoulders and the neck. Taking a long, Full, Deep breath in. And exhale, Let it go through the nose. When you're ready, Breathing in, Pressing the hands into the props of the earth. Weight comes back into that right knee, Maybe stretch the front of that left leg and then bring the knees to meet together as one. Take a moment the hips will go towards the heels and then we're going to swing around so swing the legs around. Move your props to the side or to the front of your mat. We're going to come into a little rebound here. So this rebound is like a mini shavasana. We're going to have our feet as wide as the mat, Laying down. Our hands are going to be outside of our body and the palms will face up. So this would be the structure of the practice today. We'll have a pose, Two poses, And then a little rest in between. And this rest in between. Begin to notice. The areas of the body that we've just opened or activated. And notice the prana, The chi. The life force energy moving in these areas. So maybe you feel that stretch on the inner seams of the thighs, Maybe the hip flexors. Get a little bit tingly or warm. And just practicing the art of noticing here. Take a deep breath in, Feel the belly, The sides, The back and the chest and slide out through the mouth. When you're ready, Just rolling onto either side and pressing yourself up into a C. We'll face the front of our mat here again. I'm just going to turn around to face you to show you what to do here. So we'll have our feet out nice and long, Flexing through the feet. From here, We'll bend into that right knee. And have the knee out to the right. We'll then bend into our left knee just a little bit and slide our right ankle under our left knee. Then from here we'll bend through the left knee so that front leg and we'll bring it in front of the right shin. So we're not quite cross-legged here it's more of a boxy shape with the shin so it's almost like these two parallel lines with the shins and we're aiming to get our heels in line with our knees. From here, You can grab a prop. A cushion or a pillow and have it in front of you. We'll then bring the hands onto the knees, Breathe in, Lengthen the spine. And as you exhale, Begin to walk your hands forward on the earth or onto your props. And if you wish, You can grab a second prop here as well and pop it on top. Just depending on how deep you go in the range here. That left shin is in front, The right shin is behind, The hands go forward, And the head can rest on your props. You can have a few props here. If your head doesn't quite reach the props, You can have your elbows down and rest your chin in your hands. I like to completely surrender here, Folding forward. Towards the front of your mat. And just really allow yourself to rest here. Forehead is resting. On the props or maybe your chin is supported by your hands. And so in our first couple of poses, That dragon pose on either side, We opened up to the inner seams of the hips. And now the target area here is the outer seam. So we're stretching our glutes. Outside of the hips here. And if you're feeling safe and comfortable. You can always go deeper into the pose. Maybe you play with removing a prop. And releasing down a little bit deeper. So completely up to you here. You listen to your body. And notice where your body is at. You can come up at any time, You can rearrange. But I encourage you to find stillness. And steady the breath. Just a couple more breaths here. Breathing, Softening. Feeling safe and supported. Taking a deep breath in, Slowly, Slowly begin to peel yourself up from your props, Walking the hands back towards the knees. We're just going to come straight through to the other side. So just as we did when we began we'll bring those legs out nice and straight. And this time we're gonna bend that left knee first, Bring the left knee out to the side. Right foot is flexed and then we're going to bend into that right knee just a little bit so we can tuck our left ankle underneath our knee. And then the right knee, The right shin comes in front of the left and we're creating that boxy shape. So this is like a double pigeon for any of my yogis and the heels are just about in line with the knees. So this nice square shape. And again you can use your props, So we'll bring our props in front. Take a deep breath in, Press the hands into the knee. And as you exhale, Begin to fold forward. Think of this draping motion, The body draping forward. And to go deeper, Those hands can walk further away. You need to come up again. The option is here to rest your elbows down and hold your head in your hand. Opening up the outer seams of the hips. Or sometimes emotions. Can be held on to. And again, Feeling free to readjust, Maybe going deeper after a few moments. Breathing in and out of the nose. And just a couple more breaths. Taking a deep breath in. And exhale soften a little bit deeper. As you inhale, Slowly, Slowly begin to rise up, Pressing the hands into your cushions or into the earth. And rising all the way up to a C. And so same as we did before. We'll come into that rebound. So just coming to lay on your back. Smoothly, Softly, Gently. Those feet are as wide as the mat, The hands facing towards the sky. And we're just taking a moment to rest here. Bringing your awareness to the outer hips. Noticing the flow of energy here. The energy in motion. Maybe an emotion arises. Take a deep breath in. Insider. When you're ready, Making your way back up, Finding a seat. And from here. . . We'll find a half butterfly pose. So for this one, You'll need a couple of props. If you're quite tight in the hamstrings and the lower back, I always like to pop a little cushion underneath my sit bones, Underneath my bum. And this just, Again, Just like we did at the beginning, Raises the hips up just a little bit to give you some more space. So we'll face the front of our mat here. Cushion under your bum. And have your other props close by here as well. We'll bring the legs out nice and long. Similar to what we did before, We're just going to bend through left knee, Have that right leg nice and long. This time we're going to press our hands into the earth, Lift the spine and as you exhale slowly drape over that right leg. And you can leave your hands on the ground here. You can have your hands on your shin. Maybe you touch your foot here as well. And we've got our lovely props to assist and allow us to be more comfortable. So if you can reach the foot and bend over and you're happy there, That's fine. Otherwise, Maybe you grab a prop, Lay that on your tummy and reach forward and rest here. Or maybe your head is resting on a second cushion. A bolster, Or a block. And if that's still quite intense for you. You can always just grab your prop, Your cushion, Your pillow, Whatever it is. I just kind of cuddle it in front of you here. So the target area here is the back of that right hamstring. And you're feeling a stretch in the lower back. And so we're really working on the lower half of the body. For the first part of this practice. And personally lately I've been feeling the energy around me has been quite chaotic. I've just been doing some traveling and. . . As beautiful and incredible as it is, It's quite ungrounding. Not being settled in one place and constantly moving. And I'm very much so an earth sign through and through, So. . . Being. Is where I can come back to center. It's almost contradictory because I love to travel so much and be free and to learn about different people and cultures and have all of these new experiences. But I always need that little space in between to be still, To be grounded. To nourish myself, Not only with the food that I eat, But the people I spend my time with. And to come back to my practices, To come back to myself. So in our practice today, We've got that little rebound. We're exploring and traveling through these different asanas, These different shapes, These different poses. But between each exploration, Each journey, We come back to centre, Back to ourselves. To ground and be present. Deep breath in. And a long breath out. Coming up on your next inhalation. You've got your props, Just slide them to the side for now. We'll come through to the opposite side now, So both legs are long. We'll bring a bend into that right knee now. Left leg is long. And again take a deep breath in lengthen through the spine nice and long and tall and as you exhale begin to fold forward maybe walking those fingers forward the hands can be on the shin here outside of the leg maybe you grab the foot and fold forward Energetically your forehead is going towards your shin, Towards your knee. Relaxing the head. And you can have that cushion under your bum, You can have some pillows, Cushions, A bolster on top of your leg. You can coddle the props as we did before. Or you can just rest here. And our props are this beautiful support to allow us to surrender deeper. When we feel supported. We can relax a little bit more. And this is not true just in our practice, But in our day-to-day lives as well. And the intention behind working on the lower part of the body. At the beginning of our practice is to allow us to strengthen our connection to the earth. In our lower chakras, Our energy centers, Or the lower parts of our body. Are tight and rigid and not flexible enough. Sometimes it. Blocks our connection with the earth energy. And so we may feel ungrounded, Flighty, Airy, Maybe overwhelmed with emotion. So we're releasing the bottom half of the body so that the energy can flow freely and connect to the earth. Many of you may practice this already but a beautiful practice to feel safe and grounded. Is to walk around barefoot. I know for me at the moment, It's quite cold to do that. But if you get the opportunity to be out in nature, In some grass or on the beach, In the sand, Dipping your feet in the ocean. It's like this reset, Like anything we've been carrying, Any fiery or watery or airy energy just comes back to its foundations, To its roots. And seems to dissolve into the earth. Taking a deep breath in. . And exhale, Go a little bit deeper. As you breathe in now, Begin to ripple up through the spine, Coming all the way up. Some clicks and cracks there for me. Let's slide the props to the side and you know where we're going. We're coming back to that beautiful rebound. It is wide as the mouth. Upper body meets the earth, The palms face the sky. And just like walking barefoot in the ground. Notice all the points of contact with the earth. Just allow Mother Nature to cradle you. Allow the Earth to support you. Allow any chaotic or frantic energy to be absorbed into the ground. To be transformed and utilized again. Welcoming any yawns, Any sighs. A sign that your body feels safe and relaxed. Deep breath in. And a long breath out, Sigh it out, Let it go. Again, Slowly making your way up to a C. You can press your hand into the earth, Bending to the knees. Always gets trickier every time for me because you become more and more relaxed. So our next pose, We'll find ourselves standing on our knees. So if you've got any sensitivity in your knees, You can pop a blanket underneath, You can pop a little cushion underneath your knees here as well if you wish. Otherwise, We're coming to stand on our knees. So we'll have our biggest cushion ready and our props ready at the side. Option, You can tuck the toes under. Or you can have the feet flat on the ground. To begin, We'll bring our hands to our lower back. Just for support here in the lumbar spine. We'll breathe in. Feel the chest lift and open and as you exhale, Just coming back a little bit here. So as you come back, The hips are going forward. Shoulder blades draw towards one another the heart opens and if it feels okay for your neck maybe the chin comes to the sky. It's too intense, The chin can come to the chest. So if you're happy here, Stay here. A bit more engagement, A bit more activity involved in this one. If you'd like to go deeper. You've got your props beside you. You can Put a pillow or bolster on the back of your legs, Maybe a cushion or a block on top. And you can, Same, Same, Press forward, But the hand will be on the props instead. And again, You get to decide the depth here. So you may be happy here. Or maybe remove the props to go a little bit deeper. And just remember that 70% is where you want to be. Your body is screaming here. Or if you're in pain. Or if it's quite intense, Maybe your nervous system is switching on, We don't want that. So maybe you just come up, You can readjust. Just a gentle back bend with the hands in the lower back. Or again, Maybe you bring in that prop, The extra pop, Just for that extra support. So bringing that energy up from the base of the spine that we just opened allowing it to flow through the belly as you breathe in And you can feel this opening in the chest, This opening in the heart, This opening in the collarbones. And the throat opens and the third eye faces the sky. Grounding energy coming from the earth. An energy coming from the divine. The stars, The cosmos, Into the crown, The third eye. Meeting in your physical body. Allowing everything to freely flow. Couple more breaths here together, Friend. Are not here for much longer. Take a deep breath in. Open the hair. Exhale, Go a little bit deeper. And as you inhale, Begin to stand on those knees, Support the lower back, Bring your chin towards your chest. And remove the prop just to the side. Will come to sit on our heels. So a few options again for this saddle pose or hero pose. Option one will be sitting on our heels, Toes together, Knees wide. Option two. Slighted cushion. Bolster block underneath your sit bones. You can stack these up as much as you need here if it's quite an intense stretch on the quads. If you wish to go deeper. You'll be sitting on the toes. And you can set your props up beneath you. So you can make a little ramp here if you need, If you wish, With your cushions, And then have the biggest cushion on top. And you want it. To be behind your back. So you can probably guess where we're going with this one. If you want to go deeper, You can be back here on your hands. If you want to go deeper again. You can come all the way down onto your forearms. And maybe onto your props. I'm getting nice and comfortable here. We've already worked on opening those hip flexors, The thighs. If there's quite a lot of tension or pressure pushing on the lower back. Think about tucking your pelvis or maybe just come up for a while. Palms can face the sky or maybe the arms come up and overhead. Or at the side. Whatever feels good for you. This beautiful heart opener. And again you may just be sitting on your heels or on the cushion in an upright position and if so you can rest your right hand on your lap and your left hand on top and just breathe into the stretch in the front of the quads. And your breath will normally let you know if you've gone too far. It might get a bit more shallow. It might get a bit more intense. Just an indicator that maybe it's time to soften, To ease off. Noticing any emotions that arise. Any sensations in the body. Take a long, Full, Deep breath in. And exhale softly. Your next breath in we'll make our way up maybe bringing your hands back down to earth maybe your forearms meet the ground we'll come back up into that seated position for just a moment allow the energy to flow back in the right direction releasing the props Releasing your heels to the side. And coming back to that rebound. Any tension or energy flowing through the lower back, Just give your hips a little bit of a wriggle here. Just allow it to flow into the earth. Rebounding and reconnecting. Your true self. From here take a breath in, Fill the lungs. Slide it through the mouth. And taking one of your props and popping it to the left hand side we'll begin to float those knees up over the hips and so Have your pra. Whether it's a bolster or a pillow, To the left hand side, The arms will open out nice and wide into a T shape. Breathe in deeply and as you exhale with the legs together, Heels together, Toes together, Knees together, The legs will melt over to the left and rest on your props. And support a twist. Great for releasing the lower back. Massaging the internal organs, Assisting digestion. And the head, The face can be up towards the ceiling or maybe over towards your right thumb. And it helps not only our physical body digest. Also the digestion of emotions Taking a deep breath in. And exhale. Mindfully breathe in, Load legs, Load through center, Keeping them together. Move your pillow bolster to the opposite side to the right hand side in line with your legs arms are still out nice and wide in a t-shape breathe in And as you exhale, The legs make their way to the right hand side as you gaze either to the ceiling or to that left thumb. If you quite often feel a little bit anxious in your tummy. Nervousness in the center of your body and your torso. Twists are a great relief. And can you relax into the twist? And allow the energy to flow. Deep breath in. And a long breath out. Inhale, The knees take their way over the hips. Exhale, Feet find the earth. Finding our final rebound of the practice, Shavasana. Feet as wide as the mat. And the hands can face up towards the sky. Or maybe bringing your right hand to rest on your tummy and your left hand to your heart. Noticing any shift. Maybe a wave of relaxation ripples through your body. From your head to your toes. You can pop your blanket over you now. It's time to fully surrender and rest. Reaping the full rewards of your practice. Through stillness. Together, We'll take a deep breath in. And sigh it out. You can stay here a while longer if you wish. Or if you are ready. . . To bring the practice to a close, Just bending through the knees and simply rolling to one side. Again, Staying here a little while longer, Or maybe guiding yourself up to a seat. Eyes remain closed or a soft gaze towards the earth. Floating the hands together as one in front of the heart center. Clothing just as we began with a single sacred sound of Aum. Inhale for Aum or just listen along. Raising the hand to the third eye center, Repeating after me only if you wish. For hopes and dreams. Bring the hands to the lips. For truth and honesty. Hands to the heart. For love and compassion. The light that resides within me bows and acknowledges the light that resides within each and every one of you. Humbly humbly bowing from my soul to yours. Namaste. Take all the time you need, Rest, Slowly move, Stretch. Wriggle your body in whatever way feels good for you to come back to earth. Thank you so much for practicing with me today. It is my honor and privilege to share these teachings with you. I hope to see you on the mat very soon. Namaste, Have a good day.