So welcome to your yin practice.
Let's start in any comfortable seated position,
Whatever that means for you.
You can be sitting on a chair,
Cross leg kneeling,
Maybe with one leg out,
Doesn't matter.
Take a second to find your comfortable seated position.
And once you do find it,
Just settle into it.
A comfortable,
Tall spine,
Nothing rigid.
Let your shoulders melt down.
And then just feel your breath.
Notice where you feel it.
And just watch that place.
Notice where your mind is at,
If it's all over the place or if it's settled right in.
Just drop your left ear towards your left shoulder.
Your right shoulder might try to join in and lift up,
Try to keep it down.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
Is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
Is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
Is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your left shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
And then you might find that your right shoulder is a little bit more relaxed as well.
Is there more of a deepening of the posture?
Is there more of a deepening of the posture?
Whatever that means for you.
It's really you being in conversation with your body.
Not a wrestling match with tension.
But a conversation.
Do I want to go deeper?
Is that what my body wants?
Come on out.
Now if you're used to yin,
Now if you're used to yin,
It might feel like we're racing through this practice.
It might feel like we're racing through this practice.
Only we've been holding for a minute or two each posture.
We're working our way up to longer held poses.
So it's a nice way to ease into the slowness.
So we'll go into the other side.
Straighten out your left leg.
Bend your right.
You can cross your foot over if you feel called.
And then just twist either towards your leg or away from it.
And remember as these postures go on,
Do what you want.
You can always do what Chili's doing,
Which is Shavasana.
All this dog has ever done is like some downward dogs and Shavasana and she's totally content.
So if you're giving yourself a hard time for taking some rest,
Remember that's what she does and she's pretty dang happy.
Give yourself grace and patience.
And it's not just for this practice,
Right?
It's every practice.
The culmination of all your practices.
Some days we're going to be more gentle.
Some days you're going to do crazy stuff.
Maybe.
But just because you're not doing the most intense thing today perhaps doesn't mean you never will.
Come on out of this.
Move around.
And then we'll start to bring in a bit more lower body.
So let's start with the right leg out.
Bend your left knee again.
And then this time cross your top leg over.
Keep wiggling your toes over and over until you've got your knees as stacked as they can be.
Now you can stay right here.
This is plenty.
If you choose to fold later on in the posture,
You'll feel it through the outer left hip and the back of your right leg.
If you're feeling real hippie,
You can gracefully bring that bottom leg under.
You can't see because the dog's in the way,
But my foot's just under.
I'm not going to do that one.
I don't feel like I need that today.
But I'm not you.
You choose.
And then we'll layer in the upper body.
You can give yourself a hug here.
Right arm underneath.
If you've got the space,
You can bring the back of your hands or your palms to touch.
You can lift your elbows up a little and potential to fold.
You might find that you need some support here.
Blocks under your torso,
Under your legs somewhere.
Prop up as you see fit.
So you're getting into the back of your body.
Between the shoulder blades,
Maybe the back of your neck a bit.
Hips,
Legs.
It's a bit of a doozy,
A bit of a pretzel-y one.
Keep breathing.
Keep finding your breath.
Breath.
As time goes on,
You might fold deeper.
One more breath.
Unravel your arms.
Come on up.
Unravel your legs.
We'll try out the second side.
Left leg is straight,
Right leg is bent.
You heel-toe,
Heel-toe it over.
Maybe you bring the other leg in underneath.
For those of you that love pigeon and stuff,
That might be your jam.
Or you can do no legs.
Or you can do no arms.
You can go hands-free.
Otherwise,
Bring your left arm under the right.
Choose hug,
Back of the hands or palms together,
And try folding.
Does anyone else immediately forget which arm is supposed to be on top?
I might be doing it backwards.
Don't tell me if I am.
I don't want to know.
Keep coming back to your breath.
Soften your jaw or anywhere else that tends to hold.
Brace.
Come on up.
Unravel.
Big stretch.
Then let's come to hands and knees when you're ready.
You can keep wiggling around as I yap here.
This next one is melting heart.
It's a big heart opener.
Traditionally,
It's done hands and knees,
But that's irrelevant.
If you'd like,
You can come to stand next to a wall.
Standing is the most knee-friendly one and shoulder-friendly.
You would put your hands against a wall.
I just don't have one close enough.
Put your hands against a wall and let your heart melt down,
Like if you're standing.
You know what I'm saying?
You could do it with your hands on a couch,
Something like this.
More of like a child's posy option.
Or hands and knees.
Keep your hips over your knees-ish.
Then walk your hands wide,
About as wide as your mat,
And start to let your head and your heart melt down.
You can rest your forehead.
You can rest the side of your head.
You can rest your chin if you're feeling really stretchy.
You can also bend one elbow and rest your forehead on your forearm.
I'll let you know when we're halfway through so you can switch sides depending on what you're doing.
Find your favorite and hang out there.
We're at the halfway point.
You can switch sides if you were doing one side at a time.
You made it!
Come on out of this.
That might mean a child's pose.
Maybe with your arms back alongside your body.
Maybe you want to give your legs a break and move them around.
Just breathe.
Let your shoulders chill.
There are some different ways you can do this.
One option is to do this from child's pose.
Knees can be together or wide.
You would lower down.
I'll show you the seated version in a second.
Keep your left arm extended.
Bring your right arm back.
Then bend your right elbow so the back of your hand lands somewhere on your back.
Then bend your left elbow so the palm of your left hand lands somewhere on your back.
Your hands might touch here.
They might not.
That's one option.
You could also do this seated.
Same thing.
Left arm up.
Right arm back.
Then you can bend your elbows.
Sometimes you're going to be able to reach opposite hand behind your back and you can grab hold.
Sometimes you're going to feel miles away in which case you just stay here.
If child's pose just isn't your jam,
Then you can do this seated anyway.
You can tip forward a bit if you want.
Then we'll hang out there.
You can also take one or both arms out of the equation.
Go ahead and switch sides.
You might be able to catch hold of your hands on this side and not the other.
That's fine.
Part of being human is being asymmetrical.
Come on out of this.
When you've had enough just lie down on your back.
Now this next one requires your pillows or rolled up blanket.
I'll show you a few different options here.
One is to bring your pillow lengthwise behind your back,
Bum on the floor.
Recline down onto your prop.
It's a big heart opener here.
The wider your arms are,
The more you'll feel it through your chest,
In front of your shoulders.
This is such a great one.
We do it all the time.
If you want a slightly deeper one then you bring the bolster or whatever you're using.
You flip it around so it's kind of widthwise.
You can bring the back of your head down onto either some blocks,
The ground,
Or maybe another pillow.
In all of these you can do whatever you want with your legs.
Now sometimes in rest or something I'll tell you not to do this one because your head's hanging off the edge.
In the end,
Since we're not holding it for as long as we would be in rest,
It's cool.
In rest we hold this for 15 minutes so it would get uncomfy.
Find what you want to do.
This one is a bit more of a back bend.
The other one is more of a heart opener.
Try them on,
See what fits today.
Try to soften around the support a little bit more.
Just two more breaths.
Bend your knees.
You can roll onto one side or you can push yourself up if you have the energy.
Then we'll come into a twist.
You choose how deep of a twist you do.
One option is to drop both knees to your right side.
Maybe you add a cushion underneath or between your knees.
Reach your arms wide,
Look away from your legs.
You could always cross one leg over or straighten out one leg.
Find what feels delicious.
Just breathe.
Continue to come back to your breath.
Unravel.
You can roll onto your back,
Onto your side.
Whatever feels good.
There we go.
Second side.
Choose whatever variation you like.
Be patient with yourself,
With the posture,
With the practice.
You're almost there.
Then unravel.
You can roll onto your side,
Slide your back,
Whatever.
Eventually,
You can settle into some stillness for final rest.
You've done enough.
There's nothing you need to do or accomplish or change.
Just let yourself rest.
Being here is enough.
Feel that steady rise and fall of your breath.
Place a hand or two over your heart or someplace else meaningful for you.
Feel your heartbeat and send a heartfelt thank you to your body,
To our yoga practices,
And to you for carving out this time in your day to practice and do something really sweet for yourself.
Thank you so much for being here with me.
Peace,
Everyone.
