Simple Yoga Stretch To Relax And Close Out Your Day

This is a seated sequence designed to help you release stress and unwind for the day. Thank you for sharing this short practice with me. This is gentle and self-paced. Relax into it and let go of the stress with a few simple movements.

Transcript

Allow your index finger and thumb to come together. Sit up tall, Close your eyes and just breathe slow, Steady and deep. Imagine your sit bones rooted down to the ground beneath you. The crown of the head reaching up toward the heavens. Notice how you feel today without judgment. Notice any thoughts. Just dropping into your body. And gently blink your eyes open. We'll bring our fingertips to the mat and crawl the right fingertips out as much as you can, Coming down on your forearm if you have that range and then reaching up and over. With the left arm. You can either look up at the hand or look down. Just a few breaths here. And then come back up on an inhale. We'll come to the other side. Again, Either looking up or down depending on what feels better for your neck. Breathe deep. Open up through the ribs. One more inhale. And then come up, Sitting tall. So we're gonna let the right ear just fall to the right shoulder, Bringing the left fingertips out just a little bit. You'll feel a nice stretch. And then bring that right arm up. Placing a little bit of weight on the side of the head. Deep breath here. Now we're going to move the chin down to the chest and bring our hands clasped to the base of the net. We want a really gentle light pressure here. You should feel this pretty easily. Just breathe deep. Opening up through the back of the neck. Allowing a nice gentle curvature through the spine. And then we'll bring left ear to left shoulder, Walking the right fingertips out. Offering a little bit of extra pressure by placing the hand on the side of the face gently. Breathe. And once again, Bring your hands clasped. The base of the skull. And just let that chin drop one more deep inhale. And then when you come up, Keep your hands where they are and just really spread those elbows. Back and apart trying to bring the shoulder blades together behind you sitting up really tall Taking deep inhale. And on the next exhale, Release down and soften through those shoulders. Brilliant. So now we're going to bring our left leg out bringing our right heel in toward the groin. Center yourself over your left leg and take a nice forward fold. It doesn't matter how far down you get. Just really drape your body over the leg. Breathe deep. On the next inhale, Curl up and we're going to externally rotate this right arm and bring it up and over. Reaching for the toes. One more deep inhale and come up. And we're going to place this right hand behind our right knee and just pop up, Reaching up and to the diagonal with the left fingertips, Just for a breath. Beautiful job. Before we come to the other side, Let's take the butterfly pose here. So we'll begin by bringing our feet together and just bouncing our legs a little bit. Then you can either push down on your knees with your elbows or if you have the range bringing your hands underneath your legs and just allowing your body to drape over Once again, Breathing deep. Slowly curl up and we'll take that fold with the other leg. So right leg extended out, Reach up to reach over. On the next inhale, You'll slowly begin to roll up. And then externally rotate that left arm up and over. Reaching for the toes. Even if you don't get anywhere near the toes, You're just reaching for them. Breathing into the left ribs, Breathing all the way down into the left hip. And then come on up. Place that left hand behind the left knee. Pop yourself up into a nice side body stretch here. Really reach through the fingertips. One more. Inhale. And then gently come down. Wonderful job. Now we'll take the straddle stretch here. Reaching your legs out as far as comfortable to you we're going to bend over the right leg bend to the middle and then bend over the left leg bend to the middle and we're just going to continue on like that just for a few rounds Just come down to whatever version of this your body wants you to be in. And after coming to the left side The next time just settle in the middle here, Come down as far as you can and then gently curl up. Lovely. Alright, So just a little bit of ab work today. Let's go ahead and come up off of our heels here. So only our toes are on the mat. Our knees are up. And then we're going to reach. The feet forward. Reach the hands forward in this Navasana, This boat pose. Our back is as flat as it can be here. One straight line. And if it's not too much, You can extend the legs. Just a couple more breaths. You can always keep the legs bent. Wherever you're at, Focus. And then gently, Slowly, Gracefully come out of it and drape your torso over your knees. Now from here, We're going to come up off those heels again. And if you can, Reach for the outside of the feet. And we're going to balance here. So we're holding on to the feet now. And you can always keep your legs bent here as well. And we're just balancing and focusing. You can always bring your hands behind you too if that's going to give you a little bit of balance. So gently come out of this. We'll take one double leg forward fold. Bringing your legs forward, Flexing your feet, And then bending over, Coming up, Bending over, Coming up. Bending over, Coming up, And then settling down over the legs. Few deep breaths here. And then slowly. Come down to your back. Lifting your hips and lowering them. Lifting your shoulders and lowering them. Just melting down onto your mat. And bring all your attention to your toes and gently soften through the feet. Soften through the bottoms of the feet. The tops of the feet, The ankles. Release and relax through the calf muscles. Soften through the knees and the shins. Allow the upper legs to be heavy on the mat. The hips to melt down, The lower back to release and relax. Feel the natural cadence of your breath lifting your belly and lowering it. Focusing on this rhythm, Honoring this rhythm. Soften to the chest. The shoulders. Allow the arms to be heavy. The wrist to unwind. The hands to soften, Releasing through each finger and thumb. Soften through the net. The jaw. The cheek, The forehead. And the top of the head. Allow a wave of relaxation to move through your entire body. Nourishing you. Allowing you to receive all the benefits of your practice today. A fine, Gentle movement through the fingers and the toes. Rotating your wrists and ankles. Reaching up overhead, Full body stretch. And then allowing your knees to just drop to one side, Then the other. Ultimately falling to whichever side your body is calling you toward today. Take your time to slowly come back up. To a nice seated position Sit tall and place your left hand on your heart, Your right hand on top of your left hand, And just feel your heartbeat here. Still connecting to that natural rhythm of your body. The inner knowing. Gently release the hands down. Begin to rub them together. Get a little bit of energy going. And then push. Right palm into left, Left palm into right, Thumbs to sternum, Sitting tall. One final breath. The light in me salutes and honors the light in you.