Redirecting Anxiety Practice

This practice is an anxiety reducing practice to help slow the mind when overwhelmed. Bilateral stimulation helps get the brain back on track and several forward folds activate the parasympathetic nervous system. This track was designed with no prop guidance and some modifications are given. Additional tracks utilizing this practice with further modifications to come.

Transcript

Welcome to this relaxing practice that is really beneficial if your mind is going all over the place or if you are feeling really stuck in a certain emotion or just stuck on some thoughts.

This practice is made to kind of help ease it out of your body a little bit.

And we are going to begin lying down today.

So feel free to get some space if you feel like blocks would be good,

Any props that you need.

We are just going to lay down,

Feet about hip width apart.

Arms can go wherever is comfortable.

We just want to rest a little to get started.

And we are just going to start by breathing in through our nose,

Filling up the belly and out through our mouth.

Just continue that breath in and out,

Really trying to balance that breath.

The smooth inhale,

The same length of exhale through the mouth.

In through the nose,

Out through the mouth.

And after your next breath,

Start to get a little movement.

So your next breath in,

Go ahead and start to kind of wiggle the fingers and the toes.

We didn't stay there long,

But we'll get some more time there at the end.

That nice Shavasana so you'll know what we're coming back to.

Go ahead and bring your knees in towards your chest and roll over to one side.

Use your arms really to help you come up into tabletop.

On your mat,

You're going to want your knees underneath your hips.

Your toes can be tucked or untucked,

Whichever feels best for you today.

Your wrists will be underneath your shoulders.

You're not tweaking your neck one way or the other.

You're just kind of naturally letting the neck follow the line of the spine.

We're actually going to go ahead and tuck the toes now.

And on your next exhale,

You're going to push those hips up,

Straighten the knees,

Heels come down towards the floor as you come into downward dog.

You want to think about your shoulders coming away from your ears here.

Just hold that,

Continue to breathe again,

That nice balancing breath.

Whenever you're ready,

You can start to walk your hands back towards your feet or walk your feet up towards your hands,

Whichever is most comfortable for you.

We're going to come into a standing forward fold.

We're going to do some movement here before we stay in the position.

Again,

If we've got a lot going on,

Let's just meet ourselves where we are.

So in your next inhale,

We'll take a little halfway lift.

Hands can come below the knees or above the knees,

Just not on the knees.

As a straight line comes from your tailbone out through the crown of your head.

And then on your exhale,

Bring it back to that forward fold.

Next inhale again,

Take that halfway lift.

Exhale,

Look between your legs as you fold back down.

Inhale again.

Next,

This is our last halfway lift here.

Exhale,

All the way into that forward fold.

Your knees can be bent here as much as they need to be as we continue throughout this practice.

There are no words for the straightest knees.

Now on your next inhale,

We're going to lift with our chest,

Arms up overhead as you come all the way to standing.

And as you exhale,

Come all the way back into that forward fold.

So first we were halfway lifting,

Getting a little movement in that lower back and now we're taking a full extension all the way to standing,

Arms up overhead,

Exhaling all the way back down into that forward fold and then neck release.

Inhale,

This is our last one here.

Exhale release and now we'll stay.

So bend as far into those knees as feels good as your chest comes to closer to your thighs,

Hands going wherever is most comfortable.

Just continue to breathe,

Keeping that breath nice and balanced.

Your hands can be down towards the floor.

Go ahead and release those hands to the floor now.

And on our next inhale,

We're going to come all the way back up to standing.

As you exhale,

We'll just drop the hands down beside us as we come into more of a mountain.

Next we're going to be moving into pyramid pose.

So kind of trick our brains a little here and we'll start with the left.

So bring your left foot forward on the mat.

And sorry,

This is pyramid,

Not triangle if I said that incorrectly.

Both of your toes,

Both sets of toes will be facing in the same direction.

You want to have a little bit of space almost like you're on skis and your left foot is out in front,

Right is behind you want your right heel down.

And you can even take a little internal rotation getting the sides of your feet parallel to the mat.

So it might feel like your feet are coming in a little bit and that's okay depending on your anatomy.

But again,

You want like there to be a little bit when you look down in between your feet,

You want to see that even though one's further up on the mat,

One's behind,

There's a little bit of space in between.

Nice foundation.

Right.

So on your next inhale,

You'll take the left hand behind your back right hand comes up overhead.

And then as you exhale,

You're going to go ahead and take that right hand like you're trying to reach towards your left foot.

Again,

The knees can bend here,

Especially that front knee if needed.

And you'll inhale coming into a halfway lift here,

Arms reaching forward.

If that feels good,

You can also release the arm if this isn't good for your shoulder.

And then as you exhale coming back down.

This might feel familiar.

We're going to do some halfway lifts here and then all the way back up.

So second halfway lift on your next inhale.

Then exhaling as you release down to the floor,

Leaning over,

Really just folding over that left leg.

So like a standing split,

Just the right foot is back.

We've got this nice little pyramid going.

Now your next inhale will come all the way to standing.

As you exhale all the way down with that right hand coming towards the ground or the left foot.

And inhale again all the way to standing.

You can also stick with the halfway lifts if this is too much movement in that lower back today.

Now we're back down as we exhale coming back up on this inhale again,

Arm reaching up overhead.

And exhale,

Holding back over that left leg.

And this time we'll hold.

So again,

Continue to breathe.

Right heel is still down.

You're folded over that left leg.

It can be bent.

Think about bringing that right hip a little forward.

And on your next inhale,

Go ahead and bring that right arm back up overhead and release.

Now just take a second to notice before we switch sides,

How your left side might be feeling different from your right right now.

And on your next inhale,

We'll go ahead and bring that right foot forward again coming into our skis like we are on two separate little rafters here.

But not quite so wide.

Yeah,

That was a bad example.

But we've got our right foot forward,

Left foot is back,

Heel is on the ground.

So our legs are just making a nice little triangle with our mat.

Our little pyramid here.

And again,

Maybe we take that internal rotation,

Getting the sides of the outside sides of the feet parallel with the mat sides.

Again,

Making sure we've got some space.

Our feet are not in a line,

But they are facing the same direction.

They're still about hip width apart.

Now on our next inhale,

We're going to take our left hand up towards the sky,

Bicep by the ear,

Our right hand comes to our lower back.

So a little bit of a twist.

And then as we exhale,

We're going to fold forward over that right leg.

Again,

Bending the knee as we need to bring that left hand down towards the right foot or the floor and then we'll inhale again,

We'll halfway lift.

So we're halfway lifts first,

Exhale,

Release over that right leg.

Inhale,

Another halfway lift,

Just like we did with that standing fold.

And then again,

Release over that right leg as we inhale.

This time we'll come all the way to standing or again,

Keeping those halfway lifts if that's where you feel best today,

Where you feel like the work is needed.

As we exhale,

Folding over that right leg again.

Inhale,

Back up,

Crown of the heads towards the sky.

Exhaling releasing down the crown of the heads coming facing towards the floor.

As we inhale again,

Back all the way up to standing that right hand is still behind our back.

As we come back down,

Left hand is towards the right foot or on the floor or the shin.

Just folding over that right leg.

Again,

Maybe think about that left hip coming forward a little bit.

Think about squaring your hips a little.

Again,

Bending the knees as needed but keeping that left heel on the ground and continue to breathe.

On your next inhale,

Go ahead and bring that left arm up as we bring the upper body all the way back to standing.

Then go ahead and bring the right foot back to meet the left.

Hands can release down to your sides.

Again,

Just notice how things are going.

A little stock before we move on.

Next inhale,

Go ahead and bring both hands up to the sky.

Maybe you look towards your palms.

As you exhale,

Go ahead and bring the hands all the way down towards the floor.

Bend the knees as much as you need to.

We're taking a nice standing forward fold.

We're just going to,

Maybe we,

Depending on where we are on the mat,

We're either going to walk our hands forward to get us into a downward dog or we're going to walk our feet back.

Nice and gentle.

Then we'll drop the knees coming into tabletop.

We'll just go right into it.

As we inhale,

We're going to tip the tailbone towards the sky.

Belly button is coming towards the floor.

Chest is nice and open as your shoulder blades come down your back,

Looking forward.

And then as you exhale,

We're going to bend the elbows,

Round the spine,

Hips come towards the heel.

Head comes towards the ground as we come into a child's pose.

And then on our inhale,

We're going to bring it back up,

Bending into those elbows.

Weight comes into the hands as we shift into that cow position in tabletop.

You can also come to a neutral tabletop if this cow does not feel good and you'll just want to be looking a little bit in front of your hands on the ground to kind of help get that neck position where it's best.

So whether you're in cow or neutral,

As you exhale next,

You'll go ahead and bring it back into that extended child's pose.

Again,

Bending the elbows,

Rounding the spine,

Hips towards the heels,

Forehead towards the floor.

And then as you inhale,

Coming back on up into neutral workout,

Opening the chest and then exhaling,

Coming back into extended child's pose.

Nice and juicy.

We're going to keep going.

Inhale a couple of these.

We're doing a lot of back work and hip work today.

Your mind starts to move off your mat.

Just keep this flow,

This exhaling into this extended child's pose.

Inhaling,

Coming up to neutral or cow as you're flexing that spine.

Taking it into the rounded,

So going back into the child's pose.

Inhale,

Bringing it back up.

Exhale,

Child's pose.

And from here,

Just take a nice deep breath,

Expanding the back here in child's pose.

Whatever feels best to you,

We're going to come into cobra now.

So what I like to do is start to extend my legs back behind me.

I come up onto my elbows,

More of a speaks posture,

So that way I can get my lower body settled while my upper body is resting on my elbows.

And then I adjust by bringing my hands just a little bit,

Maybe about the lower ribs.

So my elbows are pointing towards the sky.

My legs are extended out behind me.

I'm on my belly.

My forehead's on the ground.

You can also lay on one temple or the other,

Depending on what's most comfortable for you.

And on your next inhale,

You're just going to lift the upper body,

Really thinking about the shoulders pulling away from the ears here.

Then as we exhale,

Release back down to the ground.

If you had your temple down,

Maybe go to the opposite temple to get a little extra neck work here.

And then on your next inhale,

Lifting the upper body once again.

As you exhale,

Release down toward the ground.

Inhale again,

Lifting just the upper body,

Maybe pushing into the legs.

We're going to stay here.

So even on your next exhale,

Stay in this upright position with the upper body.

Thinking about those elbows just really pulling back.

Maybe even pushing a little into the hands to get a little tension,

A little extra lift there.

But only as far as it feels good.

And on the next exhale,

Go ahead and release the upper body down towards the ground.

Your hands might be in a good position to come up as we come back into tabletop with our wrists underneath our shoulders,

Our knees underneath our hips.

And we're going to take six more of those cows to childs like we were just doing.

We're doing a little compensation.

So as we inhale,

Navel comes towards the ground,

Tailbone tips up,

Chest is open.

As we exhale,

Bending into the elbows,

Rounding the spine as the hips come toward the heels.

Inhale,

Coming back to that tabletop.

Or cow,

Exhale,

Coming back into that child's pose in the extended hand position.

Just continue to follow your breath.

Try to make these movements even as you're going.

Continue with your breath as evenly as possible,

Coming into that cow nice and fully.

And then rounding the spine,

Bending the elbows,

Hips towards the heels.

Just continue.

And the next time you're in child's pose,

Take a pause,

Complete the breath.

And on the next inhale,

We'll leave our hips towards our heels as we start to walk our upper body up.

So now we might be in a way sitting on our heels perhaps or moving in that direction.

And then we want to lift the hips over the knees.

So we want to come into more of a kneeling position.

So we're kind of a backwards L now.

We've got our feet out,

Knees are bent,

Hips are over the knees,

And then our shoulders are over the hips.

On your next inhale,

We'll bring the hands up overhead,

Palms touch at the top.

And then as you exhale,

Open up the arms as you look to the left,

Looking over the left shoulder as you bring the left arm behind you as much as is comfortable in the right hand pulls out in front.

Like both hands are trying to get away from each other.

As you inhale,

Bring them back to overhead,

Palms touch.

And as you exhale,

Open up to the right side.

Again,

Opening that chest,

Hands are pulling apart,

But this time you're looking towards your right thumb that's behind you.

Left hand is in the front.

Inhale,

Bring those hands back together above your head,

Palms touch.

Exhale,

We're bringing it over to the left again.

Opening that chest and that twist,

Hips are facing forward,

Back up,

Palms touch.

Inhale,

Over to the right.

Just inhale,

Hands come up,

Palms touch.

Last one here on the left side,

That nice twist,

Opening the shoulders,

Back up.

And then to the right side.

You're just opening,

There is no wrong way to do this.

Then we'll bring our hands up overhead on our next inhale.

Exhale,

Go ahead and bring your hands down,

Shoulders over the hands in the tabletop position,

Hips are over our knees still.

And here you can either bring both your feet kind of out to one side or you can cross them as you sit back on your bum.

But one way or the other,

We want to come to seated position,

Whatever feels good there.

Once you're seated,

Then we're going to start to come down.

I like to kind of lean back and get my elbow situated first and then release down to the ground.

So our upper body is laying on the ground,

Our feet are on the floor by our heel,

Our hips,

Sorry,

Our heels are by our hips.

There we go.

And then my hands,

I'm going to put them down by my hips,

Palm down.

Just as needed so the shoulder blades don't feel like they're creeping up.

We want them releasing into the mat.

And then we're just going to take our feet like we're trying to plant them on the top of the ceiling.

And again,

Bend your knees as much as you need to here.

It's really that movement of opening that back side of the leg that we're going for here.

So the bottoms of our feet are trying to find their way towards the ceiling and they're both together.

Inhaling nice and big and strong here.

And then as we exhale,

Bring your knees more in towards your chest as you lower the feet down towards your hips.

And then as you inhale,

Start to extend those feet,

The bottoms of the feet back up towards the ceiling.

Again,

Just as far as they'll go,

We're just moving through it.

And as you exhale,

Knees in towards the chest,

Your hands are just supporting you.

As you inhale,

Feet comes back up towards the ceiling.

Exhale,

Knees in towards your chest.

Inhale,

Feet up towards the ceiling,

Straightening the knees,

But not all the way.

Exhale,

Knees come in towards your chest,

Hips to heels.

Inhale,

Extend those legs again.

Exhale,

Bring the knees in towards the chest.

Inhale,

Extend the legs again.

Exhale,

Knees in towards the chest,

Heels are towards the hips.

Maybe you want to take your hands now and either clasp on top of the shins or maybe behind the thighs,

Underneath the calves.

Just kind of rock a little right to left,

Side to side.

Yourself a little lower back stretch there,

Massage rather.

And then you can either go ahead and roll over to one side,

Use the hands to come back up to seated.

We've got one more seated posture near the end of our practice today.

So,

We're going to go ahead and sit,

Put our feet out in front of us,

So extended.

And this might make our hips feel really weird.

So please think about where your legs are,

Where your knees are.

I know I'm like a broken record with the knees today.

But feel free to bend them as much as you need to.

This is great for people who struggle with flexibility and people who have a significant amount of flexibility and anyone in between.

Bending your knees really helps get that hip position better,

So that way you can get the stretch in your lower back where it's intended.

And not just in the hamstrings where we might overextend.

So once you've got that hip position where it feels like your hip point,

The tops of your hips are pointing up towards the ceiling and your knees are bent or straightened as much as is best for you,

Your toes point up towards the ceiling.

And as you inhale,

Bring your hands up overhead.

And as you exhale,

You want to hinge from the hips as you reach your hands towards your feet.

Just lay right on top of your legs.

We're going to do some dynamic movement and then we'll stay.

So whatever's best for you today,

Please listen to your body there.

Next inhale,

We're going to come back up.

With the upper body,

Legs stay the same.

As we exhale,

We'll extend forward again,

Thinking about just laying on top of our legs,

Reaching for the feet.

And then as we inhale,

We'll come back up.

As we exhale again,

Reaching towards the feet with those hands,

Knees bent as much as is needed,

Like we were in that standing forward fold earlier.

As we try to bring our chest towards our thighs,

Think about extending the crown of your head towards your feet as well.

Thinking about those hip points.

Still up towards the sky,

We really want that spinal flexion.

We're going to stay here.

So continue to breathe evening out and ironing out those inhales and exhales.

Nice gentle stretch here.

As you inhale and exhale,

You're really letting your breath do a lot of the work here in your legs.

It's helping expand that lower back because everything's connected.

It's in turn working with your legs as well.

One more nice big inhale and exhale.

As we inhale,

You can just walk your hands up your legs as you bring your upper body back to seated.

We're going to go ahead and shift into the bridge before our final relaxation.

So we're going to shift,

Bend into our knees.

So our hips are going to come towards our heels and as we again come to lying on the mat with our upper body,

We might come onto our elbows and then release slowly down to the mat.

So now our knees are bent.

Knees are pointing towards the sky.

They're on the floor.

Heels are as close to the hips as we can get them.

Our upper body is laying on the floor.

Hands are down by our hips,

Palms down.

And we're just going to take six dynamic bridges here before coming to Shavasana.

So on your next inhale,

Once you feel like your feet are about hip width apart,

Heels are towards your hips.

Hands are down by your hips.

As you inhale,

You can push into the feet as you lift your hips.

If you like,

You can also take your hands up overhead like they're reaching back behind you,

Biceps by the ears on the floor.

And then as you exhale,

You can release everything back down to your starting position.

And again,

If that is not working for you on the arms,

You don't need to do that today.

But if so,

As we inhale,

Everything comes up.

Hands are coming back like your fingernails are trying to touch the floor behind you.

Elbows straight,

Hips in the air.

As you exhale,

Release down.

As you inhale,

We'll come back up.

Think about your chin.

You want it to be kind of parallel.

So think about your chin coming a little away from your chest,

Not like you're looking behind you,

But just a little bit away.

And then as you exhale,

Release back down.

Inhale,

Hands come back up.

Hands come up.

Exhale,

Vertebrae by vertebrae,

Releasing everything back down to the mat.

Last one as you inhale here.

Nice and big.

Inhale,

Really stretch those fingers behind you.

Push into those hips.

And then as you exhale,

Vertebrae by vertebrae,

Releasing down to the mat.

Now let's take our knees in towards our chest.

Maybe your hands come over the shins.

Maybe they come behind the thighs.

Just rock a little,

Getting a little bit more into that lower back.

And then once you're ready,

We'll find some stillness.

We're going to come to whatever version of Shavasana serves you best today.

Maybe it's feet splayed out,

Mat width apart.

Maybe your feet are hip width apart.

Maybe the hands are at a 45 degree angle from your hip.

I guess your body.

Maybe kind of starfish out wide and hands are in more of a Y shape above your head.

Palms can be up or down,

Whatever's most comfortable.

We did do a lot with the lower back today,

So maybe it's best to have feet more than hip width apart.

Knees bent as your knees knock in towards each other.

Head is neutral.

Hands can go wherever's comfortable.

Maybe it feels good to have one hand on the belly and one hand on the heart.

As you come back to that breath,

Just evening out,

Then inhales and then exhales.

And now just release any focus or attention to the breath and just allow the body with each exhale to sink further into the mat as it absorbs this practice that you've done today.

Ready?

You can certainly stay here as long as you like.

Pausing this recording or just letting it run out.

Whenever you're ready to begin moving on with your day,

Start to maybe wiggle your fingers,

Your toes,

Deepen the breath,

Maybe take some wrist circles,

Some ankle circles,

Move your head a little from side to side.

Maybe you bring your knees in towards your chest,

Giving yourself one last little hug as you roll over to your favorite side,

Feeling some gratitude for your mat and the time you spent there today.

Realizing how you might feel compared to earlier.

And on your next inhale,

Use your arms to come back up to seated.

Bring your hands out stretched to your upper chest right below your collarbone,

One hand on top of the other as you take one last big inhale through the nose,

Exhale through the mouth.

Thank you for practicing with me today.

I hope that this brought you some benefit from before the practice to after and that you have a great rest of your day.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌹🍎🌹🍎🌹Thank you so much for the wonderfully practice 🌞⭐️I enjoyed the flow and everything I’m feeling like shiny glimmers 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste