You Let's start today's practice kneeling down.
If you have knee issues,
Take any other comfortable seated position.
Placing the left hand on the heart.
Right hand on the belly.
And close your eyes if you'd like to.
Let's take a few moments to check in with how we are feeling in this present moment.
How does my body feel after this workday?
How does my mind feel right now?
There's no need to change or adjust wherever you're at.
Simply tuning in.
And noticing everything exactly as it is.
You are right where you need to be right now.
Deepening into the breath.
Feel the belly expanding.
Right hand rising as you inhale.
Then the left hand as your heart expands.
Then as you exhale,
Feel the contracting beneath the left hand,
Then the right hand.
A few more rounds of deep belly breathing in your own time.
Helping to soothe your nervous system after this long day with so much going on.
Deep belly breaths have been researched to reduce stress levels in calm and anxious minds.
So tune in and notice what happens in the body and mind with each deep breath.
You are right where you need to be right now.
Now let's work a little deeper with the breath.
Inhaling for 4 counts,
Exhaling for 8 counts.
Research has also shown that extending the length of the exhale relative to the inhale also reduces the stress response.
So let's all take one last inhale.
And exhale together.
And on the next inhale for four counts,
Three,
Two,
One.
Too.
One,
Exhale for eight.
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Inhale for 4.
Too.
One.
Exhale for 8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1 too.
Inhale for 4.
Exhale for 8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Continue in your own time and inhale for 4,
Exhale for 8.
If the ratio 4 to 8 is too challenging for you,
Drop it down to an inhale for 3 and exhale for 6.
Keeping the inhale to exhale ratio of 1 to 2.
Let's do one more round.
And when you come to the end of your last count,
Simply letting go of all control of the breath and count.
And observing how the breath body and mind are feeling right now,
In this present moment.
Beautiful.
Now let's open the eyes and coming down on the mat into sphinx pose.
Forearms on the floor,
Starting with a gentle back bend.
Working into the spine for this one.
Lots of options you can choose here.
You can either keep the head facing straight,
Or perhaps you'd like to interlace the hands under the chin if you'd like a chin rest.
Or perhaps tucking the chin down into the chest,
Stretching out the back of the neck.
If you have a yoga block or tall thick book.
You could even place your forehead on it.
We're taking a yin approach in today's class,
So give up striving and pushing yourself into the pose.
Instead,
We start with coming to an appropriate depth.
Knowing we'll be here for a couple of minutes.
Surrender to the edge of this pose.
Knowing that time and gravity are going to intensify this pose.
Going deeper into all of those connective fascia tissue layers.
So the more still we can become in the body while applying this tension to the muscles the deeper we'll be working into not only these connective tissues,
But also into the mind.
So for the next few moments.
Focusing on those deep belly breaths.
Perhaps continue to lengthen the exhales while you're here.
And see if your quiet body leads to a quiet mind.
At any point you find your thoughts wandering.
Bring it back to the breath.
And congratulate yourself for having refocused your attention once again.
One more breath here.
Continue to stay in sphinx if this is feeling good.
Or if you'd like to take this one step further straighten the arms and come into seal.
You can choose to place the hands further away from you,
So it's easier on the lower back.
Or you might like to walk the hands closer to you for a deeper backbend.
Once again,
Knowing that time and gravity will intensify this pose,
So notice if the ego wants to push you into going deeper.
There is no need to muscle your way deeper into the pose.
Just coming into what feels appropriate for you.
In this present moment.
Every day is different.
Whether you're in sphinx or seal,
You might also like to bend the knees and either place soles of the feet together or big toes touching.
But if this intensifies the backbend too much,
There's no need to go there today.
If we've been working most of today at a desk,
Hunched over,
These poses sphinx and seal are a really good stretch in the opposite direction for the neck,
Shoulders and spine.
So continue your deep belly breathing knowing the goodness you're giving your body today.
One more breath here.
Now,
In your own time.
Very slowly.
Gently coming out of the pose.
As the poses themselves.
How much awareness are you bringing into this present moment?
Feeling into all of the fragile,
Sensitive places in the body.
And before we come into the next pose,
Perhaps feeling if your body might be calling out for some movement in the opposite direction.
Maybe you'd like to do a cat-cow,
Moving the spine in different directions.
Just gently moving intuitively whatever the body is asking of you right now.
And then let's come into child's pose.
Your choice today whether you'd like to bring the knees wider than the hips and if you are,
Just allowing the belly to fall between the thighs.
If you're taking child's pose with the knees together today,
Feel the stretch happening more into the lower back today.
And continue to use those deep belly breaths to sense and feel into all of the expanded and contracted parts of your body.
Once again come into the appropriate edge in the pose.
Finding stillness in the body.
Which leads to stillness in the mind.
And then we rest here.
For some time.
If you find your thoughts wandering,
Simply bring them back to the deep belly breaths once again.
And congratulate yourself for having refocused your attention.
One more breath here.
Now slowly moving out of butterfly once again,
Moving the body if it's calling out for kayak cow.
Maybe even a downward dog if the legs and hamstrings need a good stretch.
And let's make our way to seated butterfly.
Soles of the feet together and draw them away from the body so that the legs form a loose diamond shape.
Knees out on either side.
And then very slowly Gently folding over.
Rounding the spine.
Feel the shoulders drape around the spine.
Head is heavy.
And release.
Surrender.
And allow the surface beneath you to hold you.
If you have a block or thick book,
You might like to support the forehead here,
But there's no need to,
Once again allowing time and gravity to invite the body to open up wherever it wants you to open into next.
Bringing your focus and attention back to the deep belly breaths.
One more breath here.
Slowly unfolding out of butterfly.
We've worked the spine in both directions.
Now let's move down into the hips,
Coming into deer pose on the right side.
Keeping the right leg bent in front of you,
Let's internally rotate the left leg and swing the left leg back,
Also with a bent knee.
So your legs come into an open square shape.
For the first few breaths simply staying up here with the hands on the floor beside you and deep belly breaths sensing into any tight contracted areas in the hips,
Glutes and groin area and using the breath to deepen soften into all of those areas that now need some attention after sitting at a desk all day.
Target area here is the hip flexor and the glutes,
Especially on the left side.
Some of us might also feel this on the right side,
We're all built differently.
And then if you'd like to take this deeper,
Walk the hands out in front of you,
Coming onto the forearms,
Or some of us might like to come down all the way to the floor.
If you'd like to also work strongly into the right hip and glutes while you're here,
Another variation is to walk the hands and body over to the left side of the mat.
Once again,
Finding the appropriate depth of the pose,
Knowing we'll stay here for a while.
Coming to a place of stillness in breath.
Body.
Mind.
Notice where you might be holding on to any tension.
In the jaw.
Shoulders.
Legs.
Maybe even in the mind with your thoughts.
Simply release on the next exhale.
One more breath here.
Now slowly gently making your way back up again and before switching sides let's swing the left leg round to the front and a few windshield wipers just to get some movement in the legs shifting the energy between sides.
Both soles of the feet on the floor as wide as your mat.
Then placing both knees over to the right.
Then over to the left.
Slowly intentional movement.
The next time you drop your knees to the right,
You might like to press the hips forwards and to the right,
So you also get a deeper stretch into the hip area.
Same thing on the other side,
Pressing those hips diagonally to the left and forwards,
Stretching out that right hip area.
Moving into deer pose on the left.
Keeping the left leg bent,
Shin is parallel to the front of the mat as much as you can.
Internally rotating the right thigh,
Swinging it behind you,
Keeping the knee bent.
And a few breaths while we're here.
Once again,
Deep belly breaths.
And expanding into all of those tight,
Contracted spaces in the hips,
Groin,
Glutes.
Noticing if left and right sides might feel different.
Everything just as it is.
Letting go of any judgment.
It's perfectly natural to feel tighter on one side than the other.
And then if you'd like to take this deeper,
Walk the hands out in front of you,
Coming onto the forearms or all the way onto the floor.
If you walk your hands out on the other side,
Do the same on this side.
So walking the hands out to the right this time and continue with deep belly breaths.
Notice where you might be holding onto any tension in the jaw,
Shoulders.
Legs.
Maybe even in the mind with your thoughts.
And then simply release on the next exhale.
One more breath here.
Slowly making your way back up again.
Swinging the left leg forwards and let's do some windshield wipers once again.
Soles of the feet on the floor as wide as the mat.
Dropping the knees over to the left.
Then dropping them over to the right.
This time when you drop the knees to the left,
Press the hips diagonally to the left and front.
And the same on the other side.
Beautiful.
And then let's move into final resting pose,
Savasana.
Settling down,
Allowing the body to be heavy.
Allowing the surface beneath you to hold and support you.
Letting go of the thoughts.
Letting go of emotions.
Allow yourself to sink into the deeper layers of you.
And even as you notice all of the changing sensations.
Thought.
Emotion.
Notice how they are resting in a deeper,
Unchanging presence and awareness.
That's always here.
Always within you.
You continuing in as long a savasana as you'd like to.
Otherwise bringing yourself back once again.
Slowly rolling over onto your left side.
And come back to a seated position.
Ending as we began today.
Hands in prayer in front of your heart center.
Taking a moment to bow down in gratitude for this time you have taken for yourself today.
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you.
Namaste.
