All right,
Welcome to your express de-stress class.
My name is Hannah Rodriguez,
And we will begin.
Just seated.
So allow yourself a moment to ground yourself however that feels best for you.
Eyes can close or you can keep a soft gaze.
For a moment,
Even though this is an express class,
Just notice if you're carrying any stress,
Any stress that's balled up anywhere in the body.
Notice if you have any stressful thoughts,
Any feelings of stress,
Anxiety,
Tension,
Anything like that.
We're just going to take three cleansing breaths to start to move that stress out of the body.
So we will begin by inhaling deeply through the nose,
And just exhale,
Slide out the mouth.
Good,
Two more like that.
Inhale,
And exhale,
Sigh.
Last one,
Inhale deeply,
And exhale.
Beautiful.
All right,
Moving right along.
So we're going to start with a seated forward fold.
So if you want to be up on the edge of a blanket,
You can.
And just notice if you need some support underneath your knees,
You can roll up a blanket and slide it for underneath your knees.
Beautiful.
And then we'll be here,
And when you're ready,
Just gently start to stretch forward and round into yourself.
Maybe you reach your toes or your ankles or your shins.
You're not necessarily looking for any,
Like,
Forcing of the stretch.
It's more or less like,
How can you pour your torso over onto your thighs,
Over in toward your knees,
Folding into yourself?
So the chin can roll into the chest,
Kind of curling in,
And see if you can really breathe up and down,
Up and down the backside of your body.
See if you can relax the toes here.
Relax the tips of the fingers a little.
Yes.
Good.
I'm just noticing,
What do you need to de-stress?
What needs to be released?
What feels heavy and needs to be washed away?
Where can you add in more breath,
More lightness?
Relax the jaw.
Relax the tongue.
Three more easy breaths here.
When you're ready,
Gently start to lift your torso back up tall.
And if you need an opposing stretch,
You can bring hands behind you a little bit and press your chest up toward the ceiling.
Maybe you flex and point the toes or circle the ankles,
Or adding a little movement in the legs.
And then while we're here,
If you want to come to cross-legged,
You can,
Or just seated with legs out,
You can.
We're just going to take a few shoulder rolls,
Crunch the shoulders up,
Roll them back and down.
You can switch directions,
Alternate a little bit.
And when you're ready,
Let's inhale,
Squeeze the shoulders up to the ears,
And really squeeze tight.
Bring all that tension in.
Inhale deeply,
And exhale,
Roll them back and down.
Good.
Twice more like that.
Inhale,
Crunch them up and hold them deeply.
Exhale,
Roll back and down.
Last time like that.
Inhale,
Crunch up.
Exhale,
Gently roll back and down.
Good.
Okay.
And then from here,
We're going to come into a Supta Baddha Konasana.
So we're going to be lying on our back,
But first,
It might feel good to just bring the bottom of the feet together,
Knees wide already,
And we're just going to gently start to lower all the way down.
If you want blankets underneath your thighs for support,
You can have them there,
Or you don't have to.
Whatever feels best for you.
Yep.
And then relax your head down.
If you need a blanket underneath your head,
You can add that for support.
Yeah.
And for your blankets,
If they're underneath the knees,
You can kind of roll them up so they're pretty thick so that it can give you support there.
Yep.
And then reclining down,
The arms can stretch overhead.
The arms can tee out to the side.
The arms can be down by the hips,
Or you can have your hands on your body.
Notice what feels best for your body right now as you are gently de-stressing.
Notice if there's tension places that you need to add any little wiggles or movements.
Otherwise,
Find yourself coming in towards stillness.
And be here.
Three more full breaths.
Really releasing with the exhale,
Letting the stress go.
And then when you're ready,
You can just gently start to slide your legs long in front of you,
Stretching the arms overhead.
Just take a nice good morning stretch as you lengthen out the body.
Beautiful.
Yeah.
If you need any movement for the low back,
You can hug your knees into your chest.
Gently rock side to side or circle the knees a little bit,
Just to massage the sacrum on the ground,
Pressing the tailbone down to the ground.
Beautiful.
All right,
So next posture,
This is called Bananasana.
So kind of like a banana.
Yes,
It's really called that.
So you'll be lying on the ground,
Actually,
And what you're going to do is stretch your arms overhead on the ground.
Yep.
And then we're going to start to arc your left foot over to the left side of your yoga mat and then cross your right ankle on top of your left.
So yeah,
It'll just look like this,
Like you're crossing your ankles.
So yeah,
See if you can keep your hips on the ground.
So hips stay center.
You're just arcing your feet over to the left and then swish your arms over to the left as well.
So you're making this banana shape in your body.
Yeah.
Or kind of like a crescent moon,
Whatever visualization you would like,
Smiley face.
Yep.
And so feel yourself breathing and opening the right side of your whole body through fingertips all the way down through the armpit,
The side ribs,
Along the hip,
Outside edge of the leg,
To the toes.
Full breath.
Letting the earth support you.
Three more breaths here.
And you're ready.
Gently coming back to center.
You can hug your knees into your chest and just give yourself a nice tight little squeeze,
Kind of hugging everything in.
Again,
If you want to rock side to side or circle the knees a little bit,
You can.
When you're ready for next side,
Again,
First lengthen out long at center and then start to move your feet over to the right side of your yoga mat,
Crossing left ankle on top of the right,
And then arcing the arms over.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Your head can tilt one way or the other.
Just point to the ceiling,
Whatever feels most comfortable.
And again,
Feel the length of your left side body and feel the breath really drawing in and down toward the feet and the exhale lifting from the feet,
Exiting all the way through the mouth,
The top of the head,
Out the palms.
De-stressing with each exhale,
Staying with the breath,
Watching the breath travel up and down the right side of your whole body.
Three more breaths here.
When you're ready,
Gently coming back to center,
Hugging knees into your chest,
Maybe rocking side to side,
Just noticing if your body needs any final movements before Shavasana.
So maybe you'd like to end with a gentle twist side to side or a happy baby or anything else your body is yearning for.
And then when you're ready,
Just allow yourself to get situated in toward the earth for final corpse pose,
Lowering the body completely down to the ground.
Notice if you have a blanket nearby,
If you want a blanket underneath the head or on top of the hips or to cover up with.
If you've wafted off too far,
Let's end with a final breath together.
So gently inhaling deeply through the nose.
Let's exhale,
Sigh it out the mouth.
Enjoy your final rest in Shavasana,
Fully releasing,
Fully relaxing,
Letting your muscles get heavy and start to pull you deep down to the earth to completely ground you,
Where you can release all the rest of your stress into the earth,
Letting the earth transmute this stress,
Change it,
Giving you back fresh breath,
Fully cleansed,
Fully nourished,
Fully absorbed in the light.
And we're going to end our express de-stress class in Shavasana.
So just bringing yourself to some gentle awareness of the stress you have released into how you are right now,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Emotions,
How the body feels.
And you're more than welcome to stay resting in final Shavasana for as long as you would like,
As long as you need.
We'll close the practice just like this.
Namaste.
