Langhana Practice

This audio-only practice focuses on the exhale. It is designed in posture and in breath to assist someone struggling to be grounded and to clear their mind. The focus on the exhale is to assist the body in releasing tension. Feel free at any time to do what feels good in your body if the guidance does not feel right for you today as you continue breathing.

Transcript

Today,

We're going to practice a Langana yoga practice.

Langana has a calming effect.

We will be focusing on our exhales,

And the poses that we will do will focus on increasing our exhales.

You can begin lying on your back,

If that's comfortable,

With your feet towards the top of your mat and your head towards the opposite.

Your hands can be out wide or down by your hips.

Take some deep breaths in and some deep breaths out.

On your next few breaths,

Focus on extending the exhale.

You can breathe in through your nose and out through your nose,

Or in through your nose and out through your mouth.

On your next inhale,

Bring your hands above your head and extend your toes towards the opposite side of the room.

Take this good morning stretch.

On your next exhale,

Bring your feet and ankles and your hands and wrists to the left side of the mat for a crescent moon.

On your next inhale,

Come back to the neutral good morning stretch.

And on your next exhale,

Bring your hands and ankles to the other side of the room.

Your next inhale,

Come back to the neutral good morning stretch.

Next,

You'll bring your knees towards your chest with your hands resting on your knees or shins.

As you exhale,

Try to bring your knees a little closer to your chest.

As you inhale,

Allow your knees to go away from your chest with your arms straightening.

On the exhale,

Bring your knees back into your chest with your hands.

Continue this a few more times.

Exhaling,

Letting your knees float away from your chest and exhaling,

Gently bringing them back.

When you're ready,

You can roll on your spine,

Crown to tailbone a few times,

And eventually come to your hands and knees.

From our hands and knees,

We'll leave our left hand planted,

Bringing our right hand up high to the ceiling.

Then we will thread our right hand underneath our left arm.

We'll bring our right ear down to the floor.

You can stay here or bring your left hand behind your back or to the top of the mat.

With each exhale,

Twist just a touch more.

On your next inhale,

Bring your right hand back up to the sky and then plant it down underneath the right shoulder.

Your next inhale,

You'll bring your left arm up towards the sky with your right hand still planted.

Then you will bring your left hand to thread underneath your right arm,

Placing your left ear on the floor.

You can stay there or take your right arm to the top of the mat or behind your back.

With each exhale,

Continue to twist just a little bit more.

On your next inhale,

Bring the left hand back up to the ceiling and then place it down on the floor underneath your left shoulder.

You should be back in tabletop position.

Your wrists should be under your shoulders and your knees should be under your hips.

You want a neutral spine.

As you inhale,

Slightly look up and then as you exhale,

Bend your elbows and begin to round your back as you come back to a child's pose.

Then you'll inhale back into tabletop.

Look slightly up and then exhale back into child's pose.

Inhale back to tabletop.

Look slightly up and then as you exhale,

Bend the elbows,

Round the back and bring your hips to your feet back for child's pose.

Continue this three more times on your own,

Seeing if you can extend your exhale back into child's pose just a little bit longer.

After your third chakra kavasana that you are doing on your own,

You will come into lying on your belly.

You will want your hands to be near your ribs with your elbows at 90 degrees.

Take a deep exhale.

And as you inhale,

Lift up slightly with your shoulders coming up and your head looking up.

When you exhale,

Bring your right ear down to the floor,

Releasing your arms.

On your next inhale,

Bring the shoulders and the head back up,

Looking up.

As you exhale,

Bring the left ear to the floor,

Releasing the arms.

Your next inhale,

Return back to that baby cobra.

As you exhale,

Bring the right ear back down to the floor.

Continue that on the left side and then once more on each side.

From your laying down position,

Bring your forehead to meet the floor.

You will keep your left hand where it is at the 90 degree angle and bring your right arm out to the side.

Take a deep breath in and then as you exhale,

Bring your left foot back behind your right leg at a 90 degree angle.

Be rolling slightly on to your right shoulder.

You do not have to go far.

Hold this for two breaths.

On your next exhale,

Slowly return to neutral,

Being gentle.

Now both hands should be near your ribs and your forehead should be on the floor and you are lying on your belly.

We'll now extend the left arm with the right elbow being at 90 degrees.

Take an inhale and then as you exhale,

Bring your right foot behind your left leg at a 90 degrees and come to a slight roll on to your left shoulder.

If it hurts,

You can come back to lying on your belly with your hands under your forehead.

If you are in the stretch,

On your next exhale,

Gently come out and come back to neutral.

Come into hands and knees with your wrists underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips.

On your next inhale,

Push your hips towards the sky and come into downward dog.

You want to spread your fingers out wide,

Pushing some of the weight into your fingers,

Not dumping into your wrists.

You can pedal out your legs if you like.

And then you'll want to walk your feet slowly up towards your hands.

Really feel that stretch in the back of your legs.

When your feet meet your hands,

Feel free to do what feels good here.

You can sway.

You can grab opposite elbows.

Shake your head yes.

Shake your head no.

Take two more deep breaths in this forward fold.

When you're ready,

Roll up to standing.

Take a moment to catch your breath.

Next we'll come to an eagle posture.

You can first take your right foot and cross it over and behind your left leg,

Or the right foot can just come to the opposite side of the left foot.

You'll take the right arm and wrap it underneath your left arm with your elbows bent,

Your hands towards the sky.

See if you can get your palms to touch.

Keep your elbows lifted for an upper back stretch.

From here,

You can stay here or sit back into chair with your thighs parallel to the floor.

Whichever position you're in,

Hold this for two more breaths.

If you become unwound or fall out,

You can come back.

On your next exhale,

Begin to unwind and come back to standing.

We're going to take this pose on the opposite side now.

Take your left leg and place it on the opposite side of your right foot,

Or you can wrap it around your right leg.

With your hands towards the sky and your elbows at 90 degrees,

Take your left hand,

Wrapping around your right for your hands to touch.

If they touch on the back or they touch on the palms,

You can stay here if that's more comfortable or you can bend to your thighs to be parallel to the floor and hold for two breaths.

On your next exhale,

Come back to standing as you unwind.

As you inhale,

Bring your hands to the sky and as you exhale,

Come back into that forward fold.

On your next inhale,

Plant your palms with your weight in the fingers and walk back out to downward dog.

Stay here for a moment,

Increasing your exhale by one.

Next,

You can drop your knees and slowly your feet to meet the front of your mat.

As you slowly roll down to your back.

Your hands can be by your hips and your feet by your hips and your knees are bent.

As you inhale,

Bring your arms above your head,

Biceps by your ears,

As you lift up with your hips.

On your exhale,

Bring your hands back towards your hips and lower down,

Slowly roll from the top of your spine down to the tailbone.

This is our bridge pose.

On your next inhale,

Bring your hands above your head and push up with your hips.

On your next exhale,

Roll down slowly,

Crown to tailbone,

Your hands coming back down to your hips,

Focusing on that exhale.

For this next bridge,

You can continue in bridge or you can take full wheel if that's in your practice.

Your next inhale,

Take either the bridge or the full wheel.

Hold it through your exhale,

Inhale once more and then slowly exhale,

Coming back to rest on your back.

Next you'll bring your knees into your chest and your hands can stay by your hips or rest on top of your shins or knees.

As you inhale,

Extend your heels towards the sky,

Straightening your knees and bring your biceps back to your ears like we did in bridge.

As you exhale,

Come back to the bent knee position with your hands wherever is most comfortable.

As you inhale,

Take the legs up to wall pose again.

Your knees can be slightly bent or more so.

As you exhale,

Come back to the bent knee position.

One last time,

Take the legs up the wall,

Feet towards the sky,

Straightening your knees as is comfortable,

Arms overhead.

And then as you exhale,

Come back to knees to chest.

Next,

You may take a shoulder stand if that's within your practice or you can take another bridge.

If you are taking a shoulder stand,

You'll want to roll a little and make sure that your elbows are not splayed out underneath you,

That they are planted firmly and that your hands are supporting your lower back.

After taking the bridge,

Prepare and lift up.

We're going to hold for 30 seconds.

If you need to come out and go back in,

That's okay too.

On your next exhale,

Slowly release out of your shoulder stand or your bridge,

Rolling from crown to tailbone.

You'll bring your knees to your chest and we'll repeat the movement earlier with our hands on our knees as we inhale,

Allowing the knees to come away from the chest,

Straightening the elbows.

Then as we exhale,

Bring our knees back into the chest,

Bending the elbows.

Move through this movement on your own a few times,

Focusing on the exhale.

When you're ready,

You can bring your arms to extend like a T beside you or into cactus,

With the elbows bent.

From here,

You'll take your knees that are still together over to the left side for a supine twist.

You may look to the right side if that feels comfortable.

Hold this for two breaths.

On your next inhale,

You can bring your knees back to your chest.

As you exhale,

Move your knees to the right side.

Arms still extended.

You can look to the left if that's comfortable.

We'll stay here again for a few breaths.

On your next inhale,

Bring your knees back to your chest.

You can extend your hands above your head and extend your legs,

Your toes pointing the opposite of your hands.

Take a big inhale,

A big exhale as you take this good morning stretch.

When you're ready,

You can allow your feet to splay out,

Become as wide as is comfortable,

Usually the width of your mat.

Then you can bring your hands to where is comfortable,

Either by your hips,

A little wider than your mat.

Perhaps starfish.

If you're in need of some grounding,

You can have your palms face the floor.

If you're needing some energy today,

You can extend your palms to the sky.

As you rest here in Shavasana on the floor,

Take six deep breaths,

Focusing on the exhale.

This will form the When you're ready,

You can bring movement into your fingers and your toes as you roll to one side,

Your favorite side,

In the fetal position.

Use whichever arm is on top to help push you up into sitting.

As you come to a seat,

You can sit cross-legged,

You can sit in lotus.

You want your shoulders to be on top of your hips as much as possible.

Can take a few neck rolls here,

A few shoulder rolls.

Notice how your spine and your body may feel different from the beginning of practice.

Take a few more deep breaths in and deep breaths out.

Do you feel calm or more energized?

If you need more calm,

Stay here as long as you like,

Focusing on your breath.

Try extending your exhale by one for each exhale until it's comfortable.

You'll want your exhale to be longer than your inhale.

You can stay here for as long as you like or if you're ready to begin your day or finish your day.

You may bring your hands above your head as you inhale.

Exhale,

Bring your thumbs to heart center.

Can I bid you Namaste?

Namaste.