Evening Yin Yoga

A slow, gentle yin yoga practice to unwind and release tension after a busy day. We practice child's pose, twisting child's pose, sphinx, thread the needle, butterfly, dragonfly, banana, reclining twist and savasana. Seamus and Tosca the cats join in with their calming feline energy.

Background music by Relaxing Time
Image by Mikiwa

Transcript

Welcome to this evening practice. To wind down and release tension from the day. We're going to begin in child's pose. Come to kneeling on your mat and bring your big toes together. And open your knees out to the sides Sit back onto your heels. Take your arms out in front of you. And rest your forehead to the mat. Make sure that you're comfortable here. You can place a block or a cushion onto your heels if it feels more comfortable to sit back onto a block or a cushion. And you can also support your head with a block. Or stack your forearms and rest your forehead onto your forearms. Just feel yourself settling into your body here deriving into your practice. Notice how your body's feeling this evening. Just become aware of any places that are communicating to you that they're ready for some release. If you have found somewhere that feels a bit tight or uncomfortable. That's holding on to any tension from the day. Stop to breathe into that area. Send the breath into that tension or discomfort. And feel the exhalation carrying some of that tension away When we practice Yin Yoga, There's no need to force anything to happen. There's no goal or nothing to strive for. We can just be in the posture. And just make the intention now to leave any stresses or worries or need for achievement from your day to one side for the practice Just enjoy this time for you to just be here with your body. To give your body and your mind this space for release. This space to just be present. Now lift your upper body slightly and walk the hands towards the right. And then bring your upper body over the right leg and release the head down You can support your head here with a block or with your folded arms if that feels best. And keep sending the breath wherever it needs to go. Just welcoming those initial feelings of unwinding and relief. We'll just stay here on the right side for a few more breaths and then lift your upper body and walk your hands over towards the left Bringing your upper body over the side. Supporting your head if you need to. And notice what this position feels like on the left side Usually our two sides are very different. So just observing how this side feels. Keep breathing into any tension. Walk your hands back to the centre. And then walk the hands in to come back up and make your way to lying on your front for sphinx pose So for Sphinx, Bring your elbows under your shoulders and your forearms parallel to the sides of the mat. So that your chest is naturally lifting. If this feels a bit too intense for your back then you can walk the hands forwards to decrease the intensity or you can also stack the arms and rest your forehead onto your forearms. If it's feeling tight or uncomfortable in your lower back, You can often alleviate this by opening the legs a bit wider. And just check in with your body here. Notice if there are any places that you can relax. Check that your shoulders are relaxed. And check that the thighs and the buttocks are relaxed. In yin yoga we want to relax the muscles as much as possible. So that we can get a deeper stretch into the connective tissue, Into the fascia. Keep breathing into any discomfort. And just watch what happens in your body as you rest in. We're gradually going to increase the amount of time that we spend in each of the postures. We've got just under two minutes left in this one. Just taking a few more breaths here. And take your hands under your shoulders and press yourself up to your hands and knees. We're going to come back into child's pose, So bring the toes together again, Open the knees and sit back to the heels taking any support that you need. Notice how this position feels sometimes coming back into a posture can be quite a different experience. Check in again to see if there are any places where the muscles are clinging. You Keep breathing into any tension. Just taking a few more breaths here and walk the hands in to come back to your hands and knees Bring your wrists under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Up next we are coming in to thread the needle. So we'll start by taking the left arm behind the right. So thread your left arm behind the right arm, Keeping the palm of the left hand facing upwards and keeping the left arm straight Bring the left ear down to the mat. Or if it feels more comfortable for you, You can take some support for the head, Either a block or a cushion. And then bring the right arm out to a diagonal angle check in with your body to see if there's any way that you can relax here. If you feel like you want to deepen the stretch into the right shoulder bring the right arm behind your back you can bring the hand to rest at your lower back or you can bring the fingers to the left thigh Make sure that the shoulder is still relaxed. We never want to be more than about 60 or 70 percent of the biggest stretch. So if you do feel like you're forcing a stretch here, Just relax and come back a bit until you're just at that point where you can feel that something's happening there. We've got another minute here. And slowly unwind if your right hand is behind your back bring the right hand under the right shoulder Unthread the left arm, Bring the left hand under the left shoulder and come back to your hands and knees. We'll just take a few cat cow stretches so as you inhale drop your belly bring the chest forwards and look up and then exhale to bring your chin to the chest and arch and round the back just do a few more of these moving forwards on the inhalation grounding the back on the exhalation and we'll go to the other side so bringing the right arm behind the left this time Taking any support for your head, Finding where your body wants to be for this side. Bring the left arm out to a diagonal relax into the posture experiencing this thread the needle position on this side. If you want to stretch more deeply into the shoulder bring the left arm behind and take the hand to your lower back or take the the fingers to your right thigh Keep sending the breath wherever it needs to go. We'll just stay here for a few more breaths. You Bring the left hand back under the left shoulder, Unthread the right hand, Bring the right hand under the right shoulder, Press back to your hands and knees We'll just do a few more Cat-Cows, Inhaling the chest forward Exhaling to round the back Bring the big toes together. Open the knees again and we'll come into one more child's pose. Sitting back to your heels, Resting your head down. Noticing how this posture feels this time around Walk the hands in to bring yourself back up and make your way to sitting. Next we're going to come into butterfly So bring your soles of your feet together with the knees opening out to the side. And you can support your legs here with blocks or cushions if that feels best for your legs. Take a breath in to lift your chest and then as you exhale fold forwards over your legs releasing your head towards your feet. You can just take your hands to the outsides of the feet with the palms facing upwards. Relax into the posture here. Check that your shoulders are relaxed your thighs relax Allow every exhalation to help encourage the release. Help encourage any tension to unwind. Take your hands to your feet and slowly walk your hands up your legs to curl the spine back up to sitting. And then take your hands to the outside of the knees push the knees together and bring your feet to the mat just rock the knees from side to side here just observing any after effects from that posture Next we're going to come into dragonfly. So for dragonfly we open the legs. And just bring the legs out to a comfortable open position so not your biggest wider stretch but somewhere that you can stay for the next few minutes. If you find that it's difficult for you to sit like this then take a block or a folded blanket to sit on to help lift your hips. And if it feels tight on the backs of your legs, Put some support under your knees so that your legs can just relax down. And take a breath in here to lift the spine and to lift the chest and exhale to fold over releasing your head to the mat and check that your thighs are relaxed and check that the shoulders are relaxed watching the new feelings watching what happens in your body as you rest in this new position. As your body gets used to being here, You might find that the intensity decreases. So if you do start to feel like not so much is happening and the position isn't really doing anything for you. You can always walk the hands a bit further forward. Until you feel that intensity arriving again. And then relax back into the posture. This is very much one of those positions that looks different for everyone. Some of us will be moving the hands just a few inches forwards. Some of us might come all the way down onto our forearms and rest the forehead to the mat. But it's really not about how the position looks on the outside. It's all about what you're feeling on the inside. As long as you're feeling that sense that something is happening. That feeling of unwinding when you're in the right position for you. And we'll just take a few more breaths here walk the hands in to come back up Take your hands under the thighs, Bend the knees and bring the feet to the mat. And just rock the knees from side to side feeling any after-effects from that posture It's often this time just after we come out of the posture that we really feel how much happened when we were in the position. From here make your way to lying on your back for banana pose so come to lying with the feet apart And with the arms by your side. We're going to take the right foot to the left first bring your right foot to meet your left foot either bringing the ankles together or you can cross the right ankle over the left ankle for a deeper stretch Then bring your body towards the left so you're taking the body into a curved banana shape. Take hold of the right wrist with the left hand. Relax the arms over your head. Make sure that everything is relaxed here. Check that the arms and the shoulders are relaxed. The thighs relax. Feeling the new sensations that come up in your body in this new position Just taking a few more breaths on this side and slowly come out bring the right foot to the right side of the mat Bring your upper body to the centre. Release your arms, Bring your arms back to your sides and take a few breaths here just to observe. Notice any after effects from that posture. And we'll go to the other side so bring the left foot to meet the right either bringing the ankles together or crossing the left ankle over the right ankle bring your upper body towards the right bring the arms over your head, Taking the left wrist into the right hand relax into the posture Notice what this position feels like on this side. And slowly coming out bring the left foot back to the left side Bring the upper body back to the centre Release the arm. And take some breaths here to observe We're going to finish with a twist. Bring the knees into your chest, Bringing the knees together and the ankles together. And just shift your hips slightly over towards the right so you have some space for your legs to come down take your left hand to the outside of the right thigh and bring the legs all the way down to the left keeping the hand on the thigh to keep anchoring the legs down Bring your right arm up to a diagonal angle. And you can keep your head looking straight up. Or you can turn to look over the right shoulder see what you can relax here Keep breathing into any tension. We're going to stay in these last twists for a little bit longer. So you've got three more minutes here. Slowly come out, Bring the right hand to the right side Bring the left hand to the outside of the legs, Push the legs back to the centre, Re-straightening the hips. Keeping the knees in towards the chest, Bring your hands to the knees. And just make some circles with your legs here Feelings the massaging of the lower back onto the mat And make some circles in the opposite direction. And we'll twist to the other side so shifting your hips towards the left this time Bring the right hand to the outside of the left leg and bring the legs all the way down to the right. Bring the left arm up and 8 to a diagonal angle. You can look over the left shoulder if that's comfortable for your head. Relax into the posture. Bring the left arm back down and bring the right hand to the outside of the right leg push the legs back to the centre re-straighten your hips Make some more circles with the legs here, Circling the knees in one direction And setting the knees the opposite way. And it's time for your relaxation. To take anything that you need to be warm and comfortable. You can come to lying in shavasana taking your legs to a bit wider than hip distance Bringing the arms a little away from your sides with the palms facing upwards. What if it feels better for your lower back? Take your feet to the mat at hip distance apart and let the knees drop in together. You might like to take some support for your head. You might like to cover yourself with a blanket. Once you've made yourself comfortable, Just take a moment to appreciate the feeling of your body completely held by the surface that you're resting on. Notice how with every breath the whole of your body sinks a little more deeply into that surface. You and take your awareness down into your feet feel all of the muscles in your feet relaxing Nothing good. Any remaining tension from the day releasing from your feet. Bring the awareness into your ankle. Tension releasing from your ankle from your calves and your knees. Feel your thighs releasing and relaxing. Tension releasing from your hips Your feet and your legs completely relaxed. Sleek lady. Feel tension releasing from your lower back. Be too fat. Upper back and shoulders. Tension unwinding from the upper arm. The Alpine. There we are. The rest. A hand to the think. Feel the back of your head heavy against the surface beneath you. Whole of your face softening. And tension releasing from the jaw. Watch the breath effortlessly flowing in and out. Feel the whole of your body completely relaxed. Whole of your body relax Petite. At peace. Start to make some small movements to slowly reawaken your body. Moving the fingers and the toes. Your hands and feet. Bring your arms over your head for a long stretch through the sides from your hands all the way down to your feet and then bend the knees, Bring the knees into the chest. Hug the knees and just gently rock from side to side easing out any remaining tension from the lower back. When you feel ready slowly roll over to one side Keeping your eyes closed if you can, Make your way back up to sitting. Just take a moment to feel into your body. To notice how your body feels after your practice. It is your mind. Any thoughts that are passing through right now. This is how you are feeling right now. And when you're ready, Slowly open your eyes. This brings us to the end of the practice. Thank you for joining me today.