Yoga Flow To Help Anxiety

This is your slow-flow yoga to help ease anxiety. This class is designed to help you move your body to release stuck, stagnant, and anxious energy. Moving your body is one of the most useful ways to move stress and anxiety out of your body. Let this short, slow yoga flow be your new go-to for those moments.

Transcript

If you've been feeling anxious, Today's slow flow practice is just for you. Hi friends, Welcome back to your mat. Welcome back to my channel. I am Katie Arnold, Yoga and meditation teacher, And today's short slow flow practice is perfect for moving anxiety out of the body. So often we carry our stress, Our worries, Our anxieties within our physical body, And I find a flow like this, Which is gentle, But still we are flowing. We are moving. We can start to work it out of the body. We can start to make its way back out. And then towards the end of our practice, We will start to soften inward. And come back to ourselves, Back to our bodies. I would expect you're going to leave this class feeling much better than you may be coming into it. So you don't need any props for your practice. Unless you want any nearby as a nice to have. So go ahead, Roll out your yoga mat. So we're gonna get started lying all the way down on our mat. I'm gonna take my feet as wide as my yoga mat. Knocking the knees in towards one another. Arms just resting down beside you. Softening the gaze. Maybe looking down the tip of your nose or maybe closing the eyes down completely. It's your choice here, So settling into whatever feels best, Feels supportive, Feels safe for you. And starting to check in with your breath. We'll slowly start to build our Ujjayi Pranayama breath. So that's that nose to nose breathing, That ocean sounding breath. So we have that slight constriction at the back of the throat that creates that audible breath. Take two more breaths here. And start to heel toe those feet to a hips width distance. Arms by your side. Palms pressing into the mat. Tuck that tailbone in. Now start to lift your hips up off of the mat. As the hips lift, Arms reach up and overhead. So it's a rolling bridge. On your exhale, We take everything back down. So maybe not lifting up quite as high as you would in a bridge pose towards the end of our practice when you're already warm. Here we are just starting to warm up the body. Let's take one more. Then keep that left foot planted. Cross the right ankle over the left thigh. Take three breaths in a figure four stretch. Flexing those right toes, Gently letting that right knee pull towards the front of your space. And then we're just going to keep crossing that right thigh all the way over the left. Slide the hips over to the right and then drop the knees to the left. So supine twist. Your right arm can come out to the right or if you're short on space, You can goal post your arm. Gaze can go up towards the ceiling or over the opposite shoulder. Coming back up through center, Unwind, Plant that right foot down. Feed our hips with distance again. We'll take three more of those rolling bridge pose. So inhale, Find that lift. And exhale, Lower down. Inhale lift it up. Exhale lower. One more. Use that whole breath. And keep that right foot down across the left ankle over the right thigh coming into our figure four. And for this variation today, Maybe keeping that right foot down as opposed to finding the bind and take three breaths. And continue crossing that left thigh all the way over the right. Hips slide just a little bit to the left and then the knees fall to the right. Left arm can come out of the left shoulder. And maybe you're already noticing one side feels different than the other i know this side for me is definitely tighter So not trying to force our bodies to. . . Be the same on either side, Just honoring where we're at today, Honoring where our body is. And gently coming back through to center. Unwind. Bring both knees into your chest. Take some rocks side to side. You might circle the knees. Massaging out that low back. Make sure you take those circles in the other direction. And we'll start to rock up and down along the length of your spine. And then just start to plant the feet. Meet me in a standing forward fold. So feet can be hips width distance or a little bit wider for this first one here. Arms can hang down heavy or you might choose to grab onto opposite elbows. I like to take some sways side to side. So if that feels supportive, Maybe you try that on. You can shake the head yes and no. Just exploring this forward fold. Bringing as much of a bend to the knees as you need to depending on those hamstrings, Depending on your low back. Big breath in. Exhale, Release any bind you may have taken. Heel toe your feet back to a hip-swidth distance. Hands to your shins. Inhale, Halfway lift. Long spine, Flat back. Exhale and fold forward. Root down through those feet, Inhale, Stand all the way up, Arms sweeping up and overhead. Exhale let your hands come down through heart center. Inhale, Arms reach. Palms face forward. Exhale, Cactus those arms. Open up that chest. Find the expansion. Open up to love, To abundance, To joy. Inhale arms reach high. Exhale, Fold all the way down. Inhale flat back. And exhale, Step the left toes to the back of your mat. Soften that left knee down. So our right foot is forward. Right ankle, Or right knee over that right ankle, And inhale, Reach both arms up on janeyasana, Nice low lunge. So hips square with the front of our mat. Gently pulling that left hip forward, That right hip back just a little bit. Find that core engagement. Big breath in. Big breath out. Stay for your inhale breath. And exhale, Take that left hand down to the mat, Low twisting lunge. So right arm reaching up towards the ceiling. Gazing towards the right side of your space. Big breath in. Big breath out. Start to curl those left toes under. We're gonna stay in this twist. Just first inhale, Lift that left knee up off of the mat. Perfect. And now exhale start to roll onto the pinky edge side of that left foot. We're going to step that right foot back on top side plank. So you can stack your feet, You can stagger your feet, Or you can bring that left knee down to the mat for a modification. Meeting your body where it's at today. Right arms still reaching up towards the ceiling. Take an inhale with those hips a little bit higher. And exhale high plank pose, Palms pressing into the mat, Heels pulling towards the back of our space. Big breath in. Big breath out. Stay for that inhale breath. Exhale, Lower all the way down to the belly. Untuck the toes when you arrive, Hands underneath the shoulders. Inhale, Lift your head, Lift your chest, Little baby cobra. And stay pause right here. Very little weight in those hands, Elbows hugging in close, Just starting to engage that backside body. Big inhale breath. Exhale, Lower down. Take your knees out nice and wide and press it back to a child's pose. Hips down towards the heels. Hands can rest on the mat or I sometimes like to bring the palms of my hands together. Maybe you try it on and notice what it does for your child's pose. If you like it. Maybe you stay there. Maybe you try it a little bit more in future practices as well. And if you don't like it, If it doesn't feel good in your body, Don't do it. Find what does work. Find what does feel good. Take a round of breath. Inhale up to a tabletop position. And then curl your toes under. Let your hips go up and back, Downward facing dog. So go ahead and walk out your down dog. Paddling out those feet. Big breath in. Big breath out. Inhale onto your tippy toes. Exhale, Bend your knees, Gaze forward, And just step to the top of your mat. We'll take that all to the other side. So from this forward fold, Inhale, Halfway lift, Long spine, Flat back. Exhale and fold forward. Inhale root to rise stand all the way up And exhale hands down through heart center. Big breath in. Big breath out. Find some grounding, Some anchoring under those feet. Inhale, Arms reach. Palms face forward exhale cactus those arms open up that chest Stay for a full round of breath. Inhale arms high. And exhale, Fold all the way back down. Inhale flat back This time, Exhale, Step the right toes back. That left foot is forward. That right knee softens down to your mat and left knee over the left ankle. Inhale, Reach both arms up. Finding your low lunge. And setting up this strong foundation in our lunge. Find the length up through the side bodies. So we're reaching our arms up and overhead. There's energy up through those fingertips. And then it's just a gentle drop of the shoulders to keep them out of the ears. Take a big breath in. Big breath out. One more in-house. Exhale, Bring that right hand down to the mat. We start with that low twisting lunge with that right knee down. So reaching those left fingertips up towards the ceiling and take that gaze wherever feels best. Might be straight ahead. Maybe it's up at that left hand for a little bit more of a challenge. Big inhale. Big exhale. Curl those right toes under. Inhale, Lift that right knee. And now exhale, Roll onto the pinky edge side of that right foot. Step the left foot back to your side plank. If you're a little wobbly, That's okay. I am too. And again, Stack the feet, Stagger the feet, Or drop that right knee down. Wherever we are, Though, We're lifting up with those hips. We're lifting up with that left hand. And we're pressing the mat away with the right. Big breath in. Exhale through to your high plank pose. Big breath in. Big breath out. One more inhale. Exhale, Lower all the way down to the belly. Untuck the toes. Inhale up. To your cobra pose, Invitation to bring a little bit more weight in those hands this time, Activating more of the backside body and lifting a little bit higher. One more inhale. Exhale, Lower all the way down. Knees out wide. And send it back child's pose. Reconnecting with your breath. We're not moving super fast here. But we are still building strength. We are still creating a lot of prana, A lot of energy in the body. We are trying to replace the anxious energy. We are trying to move that anxious energy out of the body. And as we do so, Maybe you notice your breath get away from you. And take this opportunity. To come back. And just start to. . . Pull yourself up. And we're going to come to a tabletop position. And we're moving into puppy pose. So from this tabletop, We're going to take a giant step forward with each hand and start to soften the chest down towards the mat. That does not mean it's touching. We are softening the chest down towards the mat. Maybe the forehead rest down. Maybe you have the space and it feels okay and the chin rests down on the mat. So find your spot that works for you. Hips stay over those knees. So this is a. . . It's a puppy pose, But to me, This feels like a child's pose just going even deeper. So if you find that this is too much wherever you're landing in this puppy pose, You can stay in a child's pose as a great alternative. Otherwise I want you to feel that softening in the heart space. Turning this practice inward. Softening our heart to possibilities. Staying open. To gratitude. And also to the present moment. Anxiety is often related to the feeling of Thinking ahead, Thinking about the future, Worrying about the future. Depression often is thought about in this way of living more in the past. And of course, There's going to be circumstances where this maybe is not the case whatsoever. So I want us to stay open to that. But I want you to think about. Just coming into presence with yourself. To this idea of softening into yourself. Of opening yourself up to love and abundance and joy. To opening yourself up to relieving your stress and your worries and your anxieties. And start to pull yourself out. This puppy pose, Walk those knees in and just find a seated posture. Hey, I'm gonna sit on the edge of a pillow for this. But you don't need to sit on anything if you don't have anything or don't. Want to. But come into a seated posture, Any seat that feels good to you. Root down through those sit bones, Lift up through the crown of your head. We're going to take our right hand and we're just going to come into left nostril breathing. This is going to trigger stress response. Our bodies to calm down to slow down. So this is that part of the practice where we are continuing the work in Word. We are inviting in the softness and the stillness. So go ahead, Take your right hand. Block off that right nostril and inhale through the left. Exhale back out through the left. Continue exclusively breathing in and out through the left nostril. And if you find that The natural is. . . And it's hard to breathe exclusively through the left nostril, Then I want you to breathe through both nostrils, But I want you to envision the breath at the base of your spine, Climbing up and down the left side of the spine. So bring in the visual element if you don't have that ability right now to just breathe through the left nostril. Releasing the right hand down. Breathing. Normally through both nostrils Taking a moment just to tune in, Connect with where you're at. Notice the softness. Stillness, For ease. Inhale, Sweep those arms out nice and wide. Let your palms meet overhead. And exhale, Let your hands come down through heart center. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you are feeling less anxious, More calm. Maybe even more so, I hope you're feeling more connected to yourself. Om Shanti.