Hey,
It's Hannah and we're going to do some upper body yin yoga today.
Make sure you're dressed comfy,
Put on your own music if you want,
Or join me in a little more silence.
And make sure you've got some pillows and blankets around.
If you have yoga blocks and upholster,
That's great.
Otherwise,
Whatever you've got works.
And just a comfortable place to practice,
Whether that's a mat or just a folded blanket on the floor.
We're going to start seated today,
So just grab a seat however you're comfortable.
You can sit cross-leg,
You can sit kneeling,
You can be up on a couch or a chair.
As long as you're comfortable,
That's what matters.
Once you feel pretty settled here,
Just take a moment and start to bring your awareness inward.
You can close your eyes or gaze down.
And notice what you feel.
How do you know that you're seated right now?
Do you feel the ground beneath you?
Make it comfortable,
Tall spine.
How do you know that you're breathing?
Aside from the fact that you're still here.
Where do you feel the breath?
Of your nose,
Your chest,
Your belly,
Someplace else.
And try to breathe through your nose if you can.
This just helps to naturally slow your breath down and keeps you nice and relaxed and aware of your breath.
Feel how your shoulders get a little bit heavier every time you breathe out.
We'll come into our first yin posture here.
The first few are quickies in terms of yin.
So just bear with me here.
All you're going to do is take a peek to the left.
So you're not moving your upper body,
It's just your neck.
I'll set a little timer here so we stay nice and even.
Your right shoulder is gonna wanna roll in.
Try to keep it back.
And you'll feel a little stretch through your neck.
It might help by tipping your chin up or down just a millimeter.
It doesn't need to be intense to be effective.
What works in yin is that we're We're staying chill,
We're staying focused,
And we're being patient.
Less is more.
Gently and slowly bring yourself back to center.
And then we'll try that on the other side.
So take a peek over to.
.
.
Try not to bring your left shoulder into this.
You'll get more out of it by keeping your left shoulder down and back.
Your torso is still,
It's just your neck getting a gentle,
Sustainable stretch.
It's not gonna be the deepest neck stretch you've ever done.
Less is more.
Good job.
Come back to center.
Then tip your head to the left.
Think of your left ear coming down towards your left shoulder.
Again,
Your shoulders always wanna help you out by coming up.
Today,
Their job is to stay down.
Easier said than done.
Maybe with your exhales,
You think of heavying your shoulders.
And as you breathe in,
You imagine this area through the whatever side of your neck that is,
Right side.
Imagine that area expanding.
Never trust a yoga teacher's lefts and rights.
Bring yourself up to center.
And then we'll do that on the second side.
You might get a few little clicks through your neck,
Through your shoulders.
This isn't the time to beat yourself up for having tough.
Tight shoulders.
We all have them.
It's the world we live in.
Be gentle with yourself.
They're trying to help you out.
They're just doing too good of a job and they're holding on too tight.
We'll do one more as we sit here.
If your legs are getting uncomfy,
Just move them.
You don't need to stay seated perfectly the whole time.
We're just kind of focusing on the upper body here.
The last one we're doing like this is just looking down.
So you're bringing your chin towards your chest.
You'll feel a stretch through the back of your neck.
You might feel it a bit more between your shoulder blades,
Or sometimes you even feel it into your low back,
Depending on what's going on in your body.
If you need even more,
You can rest your hands on the back of your head.
You're not yanking your head down.
You're just adding a little gentle bit.
Think grounding pressure.
Come on up.
If you want to move around,
Move around.
We're gonna come into a heart opener from here.
Now for a lot of us,
Sometimes the shape doesn't feel great on the knees or the shoulders.
So just so you know,
If you want a different option.
I'm not going to be in the frame if I stand up,
But imagine I'm standing and you can put your hands against a wall.
And just let the weight of your head and your heart melt your chest down and you'll feel a nice stretch through your chest.
If you do want to do the.
Hands and knees variation you come to hands and knees you can put something under your knees to keep them nice and relaxed if you want,
If the ground feels too crunchy.
And then you just walk your hands forward.
Try to keep your hips over your knees-ish.
And you melt your heart down.
The name of this posture is Melting Heart.
You can rest your forehead on the ground,
On a block.
You can widen out your arms if it feels tingly through your fingers.
Or I like to do this one arm at a time.
So bend one elbow,
Rest your forehead on your forearm.
And you'll get a nice stretch there.
So I'll let you know when we're halfway through so you can switch sides.
We're going to,
You know,
Come into the first side of it.
Remember with yin.
Less is more.
You don't need to be in the deepest heart opener you've ever been in.
One where you can feel the stretch and where you can hold it.
Keep your breath soft and slow.
And see if you can keep from wiggling around.
The more kind of uncomfortable we are in the stretch,
The more we want to move.
So see if you can just stay mindful,
Present,
And maybe a little bit still.
And often that feeling that urge kind of passes.
Open your jaw.
Anywhere else you might be holding.
Trust that time is passing,
Even though it feels like it's not.
If you're feeling really stretchy.
You can put your chin down on the mat instead of your forehead.
You can switch sides if you were doing one side at a time.
If you weren't,
That's your sign we're halfway through.
Now,
If you just heard a swear word in your head.
That might be a sign that you've held the posture long enough.
You don't always need to do the same amount of time or the same option that I do.
Listen to your body,
Your breath,
Your intuition more than you listen to me.
That's really what yoga is about,
Right?
Listening to yourself and the changing needs of your body.
Every time you want to move,
See if you can stay for just one more breath.
Practicing patience.
You made it!
Come out of this shape.
And sometimes it's nice to round your back,
Maybe a child's pose with your arms alongside your body.
Maybe something else entirely.
It's all up to you,
Right?
Now again,
I'll give you a standing variation for this next one.
Um,
If you were standing,
This is hard to do because I don't have a wall right here.
You would stand,
The wall would be here,
And you can put your arm up against the wall.
And just rest your hand on it,
Maybe even your shoulder and start to just turn away from the wall and you'll feel that lovely stretch all through the front of your chest,
Front of your shoulder.
If you wanna join me on the floor here,
We're gonna lie down on our stomach.
Extend your right arm out to the side.
And look to your left.
For some of us,
This is enough.
If you want more,
You could start to roll onto your right side.
Maybe you bring your left foot behind you.
Maybe you even bring your left hand behind you.
So again,
The main aim of the stretch is.
The Chest,
The front of your shoulder.
Some people like to bend their right elbow here and do more of like a cactus arm.
My arm doesn't like that so I don't do that one.
But you find,
Again,
What works for you.
There's a theme here.
Can you tell?
As time goes on,
You might move deeper into the posture.
I roll him back a little bit.
The opposite might be true too.
Maybe you come out a little bit.
Doing more and more isn't always better.
Like I said at the start,
Less is more.
Magic of yin is that your nervous system is allowing the stress.
Eating and fussing to get into it.
It's just opening up on its own time where it feels safe.
Where you can actually soak up the benefits.
Slow breaths.
Unravel.
Do what you want for a little bit here.
Maybe it's a little sphinx pose.
Maybe it's another child's pose.
When you feel ready,
The other side awaits.
You know the drill.
This time it's left arm out to the side.
Look to your right.
And then start to roll onto your left.
Let your breath work into any areas that need a little more attention.
Unravel.
We're gonna meet lying on our back.
You might want to have a pillow.
Or a blanket nearby.
We're going to come into a nice supine twist here.
So you can bring your.
.
.
Hello or whatever over to the left.
Stretch your left leg out long.
Bend your right knee.
And send it over to the left.
You can extend your arms wide,
Make a big T shape.
Maybe you rest one hand on your leg.
If you want a little bit more for your chest,
Instead of having your right arm out to the side,
Making a T,
Reach it up just a little bit like you're making more of a Y shape out of your arm.
You could even try a cactus arm.
And if you want to bring this into your neck,
Then you look over too.
All right.
You might find that you don't need the support underneath your leg.
You can move it.
You're getting a twist here.
You're getting some nice space through your rib cage,
Through your spine,
Through your neck.
You might feel it into your right hip.
Feel how your breath massages out these spaces.
I know most of us come to yoga because.
.
.
Or experiencing pain or discomfort or whatever.
One thing that's been really helpful to me is.
.
.
Trusting that my body isn't working against me.
It's not giving me pain and discomfort.
Because it hates me.
Or because life is so difficult.
You know,
Your body loves you and it's.
.
.
Doing its best to protect you.
So when you feel stress,
Your shoulders creep up,
They round in.
They're doing that to protect your heart.
Whether that stress is a physical stress or emotional,
Mental.
Your body gets like that because it thinks it's keeping you safe.
Unfortunately,
It is very,
Very good at doing that,
And it doesn't quite know when to soften and relax.
Know it doesn't know the difference between an email stress and a tiger chasing us.
But see if you can just meet your body with.
Maybe some gratitude.
Thank you for trying to keep me safe,
But I got this.
I know it's easier said than done and I know that it can sound kind of woo-woo.
But it is a really nice mindset change that.
For me at least,
Has made me more grateful for my body.
Or maybe you're tight from working a desk job.
But that job allows you to provide for your family or provide for yourself or keep food on your table.
Or maybe you're tight from doing a sport you love.
How lucky are we to do sports?
So many things.
There's often some goodness,
Even in the discomfort.
You can unravel.
And usually the best counter pose for a twist is the twist on the other side.
So we'll head right over there.
You know where you're going.
Come on out of there.
If you want to move more,
Move more.
If you're ready to chill.
I'm just going to put that cushion under my knees.
You've done enough.
Just rest.
And let your body process the practice.
See if you can tune in to your heart.
Maybe it's kind of space of your heart.
Or your heartbeat.
And send a heartfelt thank you to your body.
All that it does day in and day out.
Thank you to all the teachers who came before us,
Who passed these practices down to us.
And send a great big thank you to you.
Carving out this time in your day.
Practice and do something really sweet for your body and your nervous system.
Thank you so much for being here with me.
I hope you have a lovely rest of your day with nice open shoulders.
Peace everyone.
