Beautiful yogis and yoginis,
Welcome!
My name is Derek and today I will guide you through a yoga practice to help release stress,
To unwind and strengthen your mechanisms to deal with anxiety on a daily basis with work,
With life.
Make the space around you your own.
Light up incense or a candle.
Feel welcome on your yoga mat.
We'll start from a standing position.
I will meet you there.
Let's begin at the front of a yoga mat in Tadasana,
Mountain pose with our palms facing forward.
Buttocks are firm,
The back of the neck is tall,
The belly draws in,
Eyes wide open and invite some rolls onto your wrists so we can warm them up and protect them.
When we drop down in chaturangas,
Allow yourselves to immerse in the breathing,
Most vital and important force when it comes to release stress,
To relieve stress.
Slowly inhales and exhales,
Final pause with the hand movement and let's get flowing.
Inhale the hands up to the sky,
Nice and long spine.
Exhale,
Fall forward.
Place the hands onto your knees,
Halfway lift by pressing the spine halfway up.
On the exhale,
Connect the palms onto the ground,
Bend the knees and step them one by one into a plank position.
Now we want a firm core here.
Drop the knees to the ground,
Drop the chest forward and down and from here point the toes,
Firm the buttocks,
The glutes.
Inhale cobra,
That's a gentle backbend.
Exhale,
Climb onto your hands and knees in a tabletop position.
Hook the toes under behind you and bring it into a downward facing dog.
Now this is your first down dog.
Take it easy,
Take it soft.
Remain strong with the hands.
Keep the breath flowing and moving.
Bend the knees,
Look forward,
Step towards the front of your yoga mat,
One leg at a time.
Halfway lift,
Press against the knees,
Lengthen the spine forward.
Inhalation,
Exhale,
Fall deep.
Connect the hands together as one.
Firm on your heels,
Firm on your glutes.
Inhale,
Rise up to standing.
Exhale,
The hands wide.
Perfect.
Roll to the shoulders a couple of times.
Return to your natural flow of breath.
Deepen the inhales,
Deepen even more the exhales.
We are flowing,
We are moving.
Bring the hands up on the inhale.
Exhale,
Fold forward.
Halfway lift,
Press on the knees.
Inhalation,
Exhalation,
Fold.
Plant the hands,
Bend the knees,
Step back into a plank position.
And from here,
Lower the knees,
Lower the chest,
Chaturanga.
Move with your breath.
Cobra on the inhale,
Long spine.
Exhale in your downward facing dog.
In this down dog,
We're gonna bend alternate knees from side to side with really slow movements.
We want to feel the sensations in the body where this stretch is taking place,
Where the tension is located and it's released.
Keep the breath long,
Keep it smooth.
The aim is to get out of the mind and flow with your breath into the body.
Straighten both legs,
Deep inhalation in your down dog.
Exhale,
Bend the knees,
Look forward,
Step towards the front of the yoga mat.
Halfway lift,
We're gonna press on the knees.
Nice lengthening of the spine,
Forward.
Exhale,
Drop,
Fold as low as you can go.
Connect the palms as one.
Let's bring it up to standing.
Inhale it up,
Exhale it wide.
Perfect.
Now roll the shoulders again,
This time the opposite direction.
And pause.
Tadasana,
Nice and tall.
Deep inhalation on the exhale with sound.
Like the sound of the waves.
Let's go for one more Surya A.
Inhale,
Elevate the hands.
Exhale,
Fold forward.
Hands on the knees,
Halfway lift.
Inhalation,
Exhalation,
Drop forward.
Place the hands to plank.
Now we have the option of dropping to chaturanga with a flat body straight down.
If you don't have the strength,
That's totally fine.
You can bring the knees first and then the chest.
Point the toes,
Buttocks firm.
Upward facing dog a little bit higher than our previous Cobras.
Nice long proud chest.
Hook the toes,
Enter downward facing dog.
Feet a little bit closer to each other.
We're gonna lift the right leg off the ground.
We're gonna bend the knee and we're gonna open up the hips a little bit sideways.
Keep it nice and strong with the hands.
Drop the foot down,
Mirror the other side.
Lift the left leg,
Bend the knee.
Deep breathing,
Always flowing.
Drop the foot down,
Bend the knees,
Look forward.
Step towards the front of your mat.
Feet together as one.
We're gonna halfway rise it.
Press on the knees,
Lengthen the spine.
Perfect.
Exhale,
Drop as low as you can go,
Connecting forehead towards the knees to a comfortable distance.
Now let's bend the knees,
Look forward and awaken the hands up into a chair pose.
Our knees are together to connect them along with the heels so we can have a solid foundation.
Buttocks firm,
In order to protect lower back.
Lengthen the spine,
Hands go up.
Inhale long.
On the exhale,
We're gonna fold,
Placing the hands down and then palms behind us.
And this is our flow.
Inhale,
Chair pose.
Exhale,
Fold palms to the sky behind you.
Inhale,
Chair pose.
Exhale,
Fold.
Inhale,
Chair pose.
Exhale,
Fold.
Once again.
Perfect.
Chair pose,
Find height,
Find length.
Inhale,
Exhale,
Fold.
Straighten the legs.
Well done.
Halfway lift.
Nice long spine.
Nice long exhalation as you fold.
Plant the hands,
Step to plank.
And from here we're gonna flatten down to chaturanga.
Upward facing dog.
Move with your breath,
Move with the body.
Downward facing dog.
The hips are high,
The knees are as wide as your hands,
Your hips.
Bring the right leg up to the sky and we're gonna swing it forward to place it in front of the mat.
Drop the left knee and foot down.
Let's climb up on the right knee,
Chest tall,
In a anjunayasana,
In a low lunge.
Smooth out your breath.
And let's introduce our hands up to stretch and lengthen the abdominal wall.
We want our knee to be exactly above the ankle to provide a nice right angle with the knees.
Don't put it too much forward,
This will cause strain onto your knee.
Keep the breath flowing,
Keep rising with the chest,
Keep moving in and out with the breath.
Fold forward,
Plant the hands onto the mat.
Let's step gently back into a plank position.
Drop low to chaturanga,
Point the toes,
Rise upward facing dog,
Exhale downward facing dog.
Bring the left leg up behind you,
Swing it,
Step it forward to the front of your mat.
Drop the right knee down along with the foot.
Climb up first with your hands onto the left knee,
Catch your breath,
Rise tall with the chest,
Go low with the hips.
And let's introduce our hands up and tall,
Inhale them high,
Immerse yourself in the present moment.
We are here in the now with this breath,
This inhalation,
This exhalation.
Fold forward gently,
Plant the hands,
Step the feet back to plank,
Straighten the whole body,
Engage your core,
Lower down to chaturanga.
Upward facing dog,
Lengthen,
Inhale,
Downward facing dog,
Bring it with the hips high,
Straight legs,
Straight spine.
And let's continue our practice to a seated position.
Bend the knees,
Step it forward to the front or to the center of your mat.
Comfortable cross-legged posture.
You can also use a cushion underneath if you want to feel more grounded,
To bring more comfort and ease to your senses.
Our hands are on our knees,
Our eyes are wide open,
Awakened to the senses,
To the environment around us.
I will now guide you through a pranayama breathing technique.
This particularly has really helped me find my breath.
It built my confidence into nose breathing instead of the mouth breathing I used to do before,
Which causes more stress and builds up.
We'll start simple,
We'll do the really basic version.
We're going to bring the right hand thumb facing up along with the pinky,
Just like the telephone.
And before we start the alternate nostril breathing,
Bring yourself to your breath.
Feel comfortable,
Feel smooth.
Even out the inhales and the exhales with equal length.
And let's begin gently.
We want to take it slow.
If you feel you're gasping for air and you need to use the mouth,
Feel free.
We want to make this a comfortable practice.
Eventually we will keep pushing to build up and build confidence with nasal breathing.
Thumb onto the right nostril.
We close it up.
We're going to inhale from the left for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale from the same nostril for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Now switch it up.
Pinky closes the left nostril,
The right is free.
And breathe it in for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Switch it up once again.
Right nostril is closed.
Inhale for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Switch it up.
Inhale for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Switch once again.
Thumb on the right.
Inhale from the left.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Switch it up.
Close the left with the pinky.
Inhale for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale for 1,
2,
3,
4.
Perfect.
Release the hands down.
Return to your natural breath.
Calm the breath in and out.
Sitting up tall with the hands on our knees.
Our eyes observe the space around us.
I'll introduce you to a technique that has really helped in times of panic,
Especially panic attacks,
Because this helps to send the mind to a treasure hunt,
To look for objects around the room,
To look for things,
To bring us to the senses,
To the body,
And to help get away from all those frightful fantasies that eventually build up and build up and cause stress,
Internal struggles and anxiety.
So first,
We bring ourselves to five things we can see in the room or space around us.
Just five objects with your eyes.
Name them.
Identify them one by one.
Name them within your mind,
With your inner voice.
Once you have identified those objects,
Those elements,
We're going to bring ourselves to four things that we can touch with our hands,
With our fingers,
Which hold the most sensitivity towards the touch,
The sense of touch.
It's the hands,
The fingertips,
And the lips.
Now let's bring ourselves to four things.
Perhaps it's the mat,
Perhaps it's your knee,
A carpet or the floor in front of you.
Just find four things.
It can also be your dog or your cat,
Something you can pet.
Always be mindful of the breath in and out.
We're going to move to three things we can hear.
Now this can be my voice,
This can be the distant cars and traffic,
The neighbours and noise in your surroundings.
Identify,
Once again,
One by one,
Name it,
Three things that you can hear.
Now let's come to two things that we can smell.
Perhaps your candle,
Your incense,
Your environment,
Your room,
Your clothing.
Two things,
Name them,
Identify them.
And finally,
Let's bring ourselves to one thing that we can taste.
Right now,
In the tongue,
Perhaps it's the saliva.
Just name one object,
One element,
One taste.
So to break it down,
Whenever you have a moment of great stress or you're driving yourself into a panic mode,
Bring yourself to five things that you can see,
Four things you can touch,
Physical,
Real things,
Three things you can hear,
Two things you can smell,
And one thing you can taste.
Perfect,
People.
Now,
We're going to close our practice with a nice,
Gentle shavasana.
So go ahead and lay flat on your mat,
With the feet as wide as the width of your yoga mat,
Laying flat.
With the hands,
Let's bring the hands to the belly,
Actually,
So we can really feel the breath rising up and down.
We want to bring our inhales with an inflate and rising of the belly.
With the exhales,
We deflate,
The belly goes down.
Inflate,
Inhale.
Deflate,
Exhale.
And continue this breathing in and out,
This important element of being alive,
Of being present.
And I'm going to read out to you a quote by Ed Cartola,
The popular,
Famous author of Power of Now.
He says,
You are in the here and now.
The mind is in the future.
This creates an anxiety gap.
Very true,
Our mind is time-based,
We constantly think of the past,
The future.
The only thing that matters is to hear the presence,
Our breath,
This very moment,
Our sensations on the yoga mat as we lay down,
Sensations and tingling in the belly with each breath.
So lay here a few more moments in pure relaxation.
With your breath,
In and out,
Become heavy.
Embrace silence.
Embrace stillness.
Let's bring our awareness back to the breath.
Bringing ourselves back to life,
Slowly,
Mindfully,
With a new sense of self appreciation.
An inner gratitude for what we just practiced,
That we took that step,
That important first tiny step towards liberating from a world and a life of stress.
Bring some life back to the fingers,
To the toes,
The feet,
The hands.
Slow movements and eventually,
From your laying down position,
Just stretch the arms over the head.
Give yourselves a nice long stretch.
And then from there,
Bend the knees,
Roll over to the side of the body.
Hands underneath the head,
Resting for a few more moments.
Using the hands to the ground,
We're going to bring ourselves and rise up to a seated position.
Cross-legged,
With our eyes closed for a few more moments.
Sitting up tall.
Sitting up in our space of peace.
Honoring our breath in this practice.
We moved out of the mind into the body with asanas,
With yoga.
We furthermore flowed into the breath,
With the breath,
In order to find a new sense of breathing,
A new way that will help us become free from the heavy burdens of stress and anxiety.
I hope you enjoy the practice.
I wish you a beautiful,
Relaxing day ahead,
Or evening.
Keep rising and falling into the ever-flowing current of life.
It's all up and down,
Always moving.
Much love.
Thank you for joining.
Namaste.
