Yin for grounding.
So before we do anything.
.
.
Let yourself get heavy.
You can melt your shoulders down,
Soften your neck so your head gets nice and heavy.
Feel the ground underneath you.
Notice everywhere that you make contact with the earth.
Like if you were dipped in ink,
Like a stamp,
And the ground was a white piece of paper.
What imprint would you be leaving?
Notice the places that would leave a lighter imprint.
And the places that would leave a darker imprint.
Usually the hips and the head and the back are quite heavy.
Maybe your arms or your low back.
Leave a bit of a lighter imprint.
They're still touching,
But they're not as heavy.
Notice the places that don't touch the ground at all.
Sometimes that's the back of your neck.
Maybe some gaps through your back if you're lying on your back.
Notice any other places.
As you breathe out,
See if you can just surrender to gravity a little bit more.
Notice if you're bracing usually that's through the jaw Maybe your forehead.
Your hands,
Your abdomen.
Soften those places.
Even just 1% softer.
Notice the rise and fall of your chest and belly as you breathe.
It's almost like your torso is a balloon that expands and contracts.
And usually the kind of front of this balloon is the most obvious.
So the abdomen,
Your chest,
The places I just said.
But this balloon does go 360,
So.
You might feel your shoulders slightly lift towards your ears.
Maybe the sides of your body expand.
Maybe that imprint on the mat darkens a little with your inhale and lightens a little with your exhale.
And there is also the base of the balloon.
And that is your pelvis or your pelvic floor so really it's your whole torso breathing with you and your pelvic floor.
Is a hammock of muscles.
It sits between.
.
.
Your pubic bone and your tailbone and the inside of both hips.
Everyone has this.
As you breathe in,
Pelvic floor gently lowers and expands think of the bottom of that balloon And as you breathe out,
It gently lifts and contracts.
And this happens with every breath you take.
It's not something you need to force.
Your body's already doing it.
But it's much more subtle.
Than the breath in the front of your body.
See if you can bring your awareness to your pelvic floor.
Kind of the root.
The base.
And sometimes you can't feel this at all.
You're not doing it wrong if that's the case.
It's just sometimes a difficult area to tap into.
And it's so much more subtle than.
.
.
You know,
The belly,
The chest,
Which you can see,
Right?
But just bring your awareness into your pelvis,
Your pelvic floor.
And visualize.
That expansion.
The lowering and expanding as you breathe in.
And the gentle contraction and lift as you breathe out.
If this feels totally out of reach just focus on your lower abdomen as you breathe.
Sometimes this feels very grounding.
Sometimes it feels kind of spacey,
Like you get really tuned in.
But really all that you're changing is where you're focusing your attention.
Now that we're a bit softer and more relaxed and probably more aware.
Let's come into our first yin shape.
So let's come into a child's pose for this one.
So start to move around a little,
Stretch,
Wake up your body.
And if child's pose isn't your thing,
Just bear with me.
I'll give you some options.
We're going to come up to hands and knees here.
You can always put some support under your knees or the tops of your feet like a rolled blanket.
For a lot of us,
Our ankles don't go totally flat on the mat.
For a lot of us,
Our ankles are kind of like this.
So if you can support that with a rolled up blanket,
That's great.
You can widen out through your knees.
And start to sink your hips back towards your heels.
You can extend your arms long and rest your forehead down.
And,
You know,
Prop yourself wherever you want here.
So maybe it's a.
.
.
A few pillows under your torso.
You can give them a hug Maybe it's one under your bum,
Between your heels and your bum.
Maybe it's under your feet,
Just like I said before.
We're aiming to feel close to the Earth.
And have that little bit of compression of the front of your body coming closer to the front of your body.
For a lot of us,
Child's pose doesn't feel good through our knees,
Through our ankles,
Through whatever.
So you could.
Do that lying on your side,
Just hugging your legs in.
Maybe a pillow under your head.
Maybe you prefer to do more of a I call this sitting like you're sad,
But it's just a till forward fold here,
Knees bent,
Give your legs a hug.
Maybe rest your forehead on.
.
.
Your knees or your arms.
Right?
Same thing.
It's grounding.
You're getting the front of your body closer to the front of your body.
You could do it lying on your back.
Put your feet against a wall,
Or in my case,
A couch,
And you're still getting that kind of compression.
Do whatever you want with your arm.
So a lot of options.
The aim today is grounding.
So what feels grounding and supportive and a little bit of compression.
Through the front of your body.
I'll set a little timer here.
I like to make a little pillow for my head out of my hands.
And then come back to just feeling your breath.
Sometimes there's a feeling of safety.
In a posture like this you're protecting the soft front of your body.
That hard casing of your spine.
Sometimes there's a sense of privacy with your head down between your arms.
But it's also a little hip opener,
So.
.
.
Stuff gets caught in our hips.
So if it doesn't feel grounding and safe for you.
That's okay.
You're in control here.
You can change it.
So you're noticing not just how your body responds to the shape,
And not just how your breath responds,
But how your nervous system responds too.
Can you still feel your breath into your pelvic floor?
If you had your head turned to one side.
We can bring the other cheek down.
You can deepen this pose,
Maybe widen out your knees or sink a little heavier.
Just a few more breaths.
I'm out of this shape.
Whatever that means for you.
Move around.
Or just find another shape that feels like a release.
And then we're going to lie down on our stomach.
Now you might come back into just lying here.
Perhaps this was how you started the class.
Perhaps.
And just lying down here is plenty.
Nice and grounding.
If you want a little bit of a back bend,
You can come up into a crocodile pose or sorry sphinx pose you were just doing crocodile um so sphinx You're literally just hanging out here with your elbows under your shoulders.
You can gaze forward.
You can gaze down.
Sometimes it's nice to rest your forehead on a block here.
And sometimes it's hard to do this.
Without putting a ton of effort into your arms.
So sometimes a cushion.
Under your arms helps.
The trick is to kind of not think about this like it's a yoga pose.
Think about it like you're just hanging out here.
Reading a book,
Lying on your stomach.
I like your kid coloring.
In yin,
It's okay if your shoulders come up towards your ears.
If it starts to feel crunchy.
Then you can guide them down.
Just a very gentle back bend.
So once you've got a nice kind of.
Physical Then you can tune in to your breath.
And once you've kind of relaxed the breath or become aware of it.
Those deeper layers start to show.
Maybe it's your nervous system.
How you feel here.
Maybe it's your thoughts.
What you're thinking about,
Where your mind goes.
Sometimes emotions come through.
We'll work the hips soon.
If you know,
You know.
You made it.
Come out of this shape.
Find something that feels nice.
Then we'll get into that hip opener,
Like I promised.
A few options.
Option one is to stay on the ground.
We're not levitating,
But you're going to stay lying on your back.
Place your right ankle over your left thigh.
And you can put your left foot up onto a wall,
A chair,
A couch.
So you don't need to reach with your arm.
You'll feel a stretch through your right glute.
If you want some other options.
.
.
You could come to hands and knees.
Slide your right knee towards your right wrist.
The further over you crawl this foot,
The more intense it'll be through your hip.
So some people do like a full 90 degree angle here.
Through their knee,
My hip would crack in half if I did that.
I think it would.
Now,
If this doesn't feel good,
You can bend your back knees,
Your left knee.
And you can fold over your right shin or maybe even towards the right thigh past it.
You're getting a little twist.
A more gentle shape.
Sometimes we need gentle.
You can add support like a pillow,
A block or something under your right hip.
So there's not too much pressure on your knee.
And maybe a block or something under your forehead.
I'm going to do a block under the hip and a block under my head,
But what I'm doing is irrelevant.
Find what works for you.
It's worth wiggling around at the start until you find that shape that you want to be in.
Where you can then sink into stillness.
Once your body's settled-ish in this shape.
Mind your breath.
And again,
Those other layers start to poke through now.
Thoughts,
Nervous system,
Feelings.
If you're lucky,
Maybe some peace and calm.
You are not here to judge your thoughts,
Your feelings.
You're here just to notice them.
You are not your thoughts.
You're not your feelings.
You are the one watching them.
Time is passing,
Despite sometimes it feels like it's not.
A few more breaths.
You made it.
Come out of that shape.
I like to swing the back leg up.
And we should probably do the other side.
So find what works for this side.
Might be a little bit different than the first side.
Just settle in once you find it.
One more breath.
Come on up.
Do whatever you want.
Let it go.
And then we're gonna do a.
.
.
Forward fold,
Inner hip.
And thigh and hamstring stretch.
You got some options.
You can sit up on a pillow or a folded blanket.
You can do butterfly,
So feet together,
Knees wide.
The closer in you have your feet the more you'll feel it through your inner thighs.
The further away your feet are the more you'll feel it through your hammies.
You could stay up,
You could fold forward.
If you're tired of all the folding forward,
You could do this lying on your back.
Last alternative.
I always like to give you a lot.
Widen out through your feet.
So rather than having your knees bent,
You're going to wide.
Leg seated position.
And you can fold forward from here.
If you keep your spine straight,
You'll feel it more through your legs.
If you round your back,
You'll feel it into your.
.
.
Back a little bit and a little bit through your legs.
So find where you want to be.
Some days you might feel like you're hinging forward an inch.
Other days you might be kissing the floor or your feet,
Depending on the shape.
Find where you want to be.
Where your body would like to be.
And then we hang out there.
Notice if you're bracing the same spots from at the start of the class shoulders,
Hands,
Jaw,
Forehead.
As time goes on,
You might be able to sink lower.
Keep breathing.
Almost there Come on up.
Go slow.
You might need to use your hands to pull your legs in.
You And then just lie down one more time on your back.
We'll do a little twist here.
So bend your knees.
Drop your knees over to your right side.
You can add a cushion between your knees or underneath.
I like usually my right hand on my left thigh.
It's a bit of grounding.
You can gaze to your left,
Maybe extend your left arm.
And we're going to take 10 breaths here.
So after your 10th,
Come back to center and just hang out there till I meet you there.
About five more.
Depending on your breath.
And how good you are at counting.
You might already be in center,
You might have been there for a bit,
Or you might be a few breaths away still.
Drop your knees to the left.
Find your twist and we'll do 10 more breaths.
Your 10,
Not mine.
When you've finished your 10.
Do whatever you want.
It's final rest time.
Whatever feels comfortable and grounding to you.
Think about roots growing.
Out of your body.
Down.
Through your floor through your building.
Down,
Down,
Deep into the earth.
Feel this connection.
Of you to the ground to the ER.
To something bigger than you.
Place a hand or two over your heart.
Feel your breath.
Your heartbeat.
And send a thank you to your body.
To the earth that holds us.
To being part of something bigger than ourselves.
Send a thank you to our yoga practices.
And the biggest,
Warmest thank you.
To you for carving out this time in your day.
To practice and do something really sweet for your mind,
Your body.
Your nervous system.
Thank you so much for being here and grounding with me today.
