Hello everyone it's Jax and welcome to your evening yin yoga practice.
Let's find a position lying down so please go ahead and grab anything you need for tonight's practice if you haven't already.
I have a bolster under my ankles,
I got some blocks,
An eye mask would be nice.
As you arrive onto your mat tonight allow this practice to become a transition,
A softening from the busyness of the day into rest.
There's nowhere you need to be right now,
Nothing to achieve,
There's nothing to fix.
This next half hour is simply an opportunity to slow down,
To breathe and to reconnect with yourself in the eternal now,
The present moment.
Notice your breath exactly as it is.
Notice the inhale entering the body and the exhale leaving the body.
Let's begin to deepen the breath slowly through the nose.
On your next inhale,
Breathe in for 4,
3,
2,
1,
Exhale 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1,
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
Exhale 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1,
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
Exhale 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1,
Deep breath in,
Settling breath out.
This practice is about creating space for the body and the mind to unwind.
You'll be invited into stillness,
Into softness,
Into this passive energy.
So instead of asking the body to do more tonight I'm just going to ask it to less.
Take a moment to set a quiet intention for your evening.
Maybe it's about deep rest or letting go or just giving yourself permission to slow down.
And I invite you to hold that intention in your heart as we move throughout the practice today.
Feel free to add any movement to the body,
Maybe wiggling of the fingers,
Maybe wiggling of the toes.
And when you're ready,
There's no rush,
We're going to find ourselves coming onto our hands and our knees.
Feel free to bring your hands by the hips,
Use them as support to bring you onto your hands and your knees.
Let's get into melting heart with a spinal twist.
Left hand is going to reach forward,
Come into your melting heart,
And then halfway lowering down,
Take that twist.
Right hand underneath the left bicep,
Right ear to the mat or a block.
Our target area here is going to be the back of the hamstrings and the glutes if your hips are lifted.
Know that you can always drop the hips down towards the ankle,
So take more of a child's pose or even place something underneath the knees for some extra support from whatever surface is underneath you.
Our other target area here is going to be a little bit of a side stretch in the right side body.
Then feel this nice opening and this broadening underneath the left armpit and across the chest.
So see if you can soften the muscles in your left arm,
The right side body,
The chest.
If your hips are lifted,
Could you soften the glutes,
The back of the thighs,
And wherever you're at,
Just take a couple slow deep breaths here.
Just letting time really be on your side here,
Knowing that even here in this first pose,
Maybe you're still holding on to tension,
To a thought,
The breath,
And that's okay.
Take your time to start to transition out of that doing and that striving and start to slow it down and just be in the energy of you.
No expectations,
Just you.
One more breath here.
Let's unravel and take it back to a child's pose.
I invite you to bring the hands behind the back so your palms are facing up to the ceiling.
That way you can just let those shoulders round.
After these nice long holds,
You know we're getting into our fascia and our connective tissue and our ligaments.
After these long holds,
We call this our rebound where all that hydration in those target areas starts to come in and you just get a moment to be with sensations in your body.
Let's set up for the second side.
Go ahead and slide your right hand forward.
This time thread your left hand underneath your right armpit.
Grab whatever you need,
Something under the knee,
Something under the side of the head.
Our target area is more important than the depth of the pose.
And since we know our target areas,
We know that yin yoga asks us to soften the muscles in that area so we can get into those deep deep layers of the fascia.
There's also a lot of silence in yin so I'm going to go quiet so that you can just observe your experience.
When things start to slow down,
Just noticing what happens in the present moment without expectations,
Without judging or asking things to be a certain way.
More so just a check-in,
Hey what's going on right now when it's just me with me.
Find yourself transitioning out of that and let's take a deep breath in and let's take a deep breath out and let's take a deep breath in and let's take a deep breath out and let's take a deep breath in and let's take a deep breath out and let's take a deep breath in and let's take a deep breath out and let's take a deep breath in and I personally like to grab a block when I'm coming into sphinx.
I find that's a little more supportive for my neck.
Our target area here is you're probably going to be feeling something there in the lower back from compression.
However,
I want you to really focus on the front of your torso and the abdominals.
Feel this nice supportive stretch here in the belly,
The hip flexors,
Feel the heart open,
Feel the collarbones open.
And this is where we really want to release any muscular effort here in those areas so that you can just stay passive and allow the connective tissue along the spine,
The front of the belly,
The chest to receive this nice long steady opening from these long deep holds.
Allow your body to be,
Allow your breath to be,
Allow your mind to be and I'll let you know when we're coming out of this one.
When you're ready,
There's no rush,
Start to slowly lift your head.
If there's any problems underneath your head,
You can move them out to the side.
Make a little pillow with your hands,
Either rest your head on top,
Your chin,
Your ear,
Whatever feels comfortable and just take some really slow deep breaths here.
And can you just be with whatever you're feeling in the body right now?
Remember,
If you need to stay here,
Feel free,
Take your time.
Our next target area is going to be the IT band and the glutes and we have two different postures to get into that.
So option A will be sleeping swan and option B will be deer pose.
So for deer pose,
Both knees are bent.
You're folding over that left thigh and the right knee is also bent.
Otherwise,
You're doing what I'm doing,
Which is sleeping swan.
Extension of that right leg,
Still keeping the left knee bent.
Now remember,
Our target area is going to be that left IT band and the glute.
That's the fascia and connective tissue that we want to stimulate.
So knowing that,
Do you need to bend the right knee?
Is that more comfortable?
Do you need to put something underneath the right knee,
The ankle,
Something under the hands?
In yoga,
It's not about what the pose looks like,
It's about how the pose feels.
So we want to get into that target area on the left side of your thigh.
That's what we care about more than anything else.
If you are folding,
You'll definitely get the back.
If the chest is lifted,
You'll get more of the front.
So you wiggle around and take your time and then when you find that sweet spot where you feel like you're definitely feeling a stretch but it's not a strain,
Then I just want you to be soft.
Allow yourself to be there in that position and maybe you fold a little bit deeper,
Maybe you soften a little bit more.
That's the journey again,
That you're just witnessing all of it happening regardless of what is happening.
All right,
One more breath here and then we're coming back onto our bellies.
Take a couple deep breaths and then we got the other side to do.
I personally like to lift myself up on my knees and then sleeping swan or deer on the other side.
Right knee behind the right wrist or sleeping swan.
You're going to straighten that left leg.
Your deer pose,
You're going to bend that left knee and then it's all about that target area.
So the IT band and the glute with the right thigh.
I'm just going to go quiet and I'll let you know when we're coming out of this one.
Once again,
Let's come back onto our bellies.
One more breath here.
Our final position is going to be dragonfly.
Target area is going to be the inner thighs.
When you're ready,
Press yourself up,
Come on to your legs.
You'll see that I've grabbed a polster in two blocks.
This is as far as I can go in this fold and that's the thing about yin is that you never want to push to your full range of motion because we're going to be in these poses for long periods of time.
Gravity can do the work.
Gravity can potentially push you down if you want it to.
Otherwise,
You're staying where you're at.
So instead of you doing the work,
Feeling like you have to muscle your way into the posture,
Do less.
Come in really soft and then if the body feels like opening,
Then the body opens.
And if it doesn't,
It doesn't.
See if you can do less.
All right,
One more breath here,
Everybody,
And then we're going to slowly make our way out of this one.
Re-stacking the spine.
Go ahead and come join me in a seated position.
We'll just take a moment to breathe.
Deep breath in,
Even deeper breath out.
Just let the body be.
Well,
Folks,
That's your class.
If you want to just wiggle into bed,
Feel free.
If you want to lie down in Shavasana,
Feel free.
Thank you so much for taking this class.
Anytime you want to release any tension before you go to bed,
Come back to this video.
It's always here to support you.
I can't wait to practice with you again.
I'll see you on the mat soon.
Peace.
