Welcome back to my channel.
My name is Kristen.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
In today's class,
I'll be guiding you through a yin yoga stretch for the full body.
And for today's practice,
We'll get started by coming down onto our back,
Bending our knees,
And placing the soles of our feet on the floor.
As you settle your body on the ground,
Take a moment to have a yoga block or a yoga bolster within reaching distance.
And then you can close your eyes and feel your spine softening onto the ground.
As though the ground below your body were holding you in this space.
The energy of the body grounding down.
Relaxing the base of your skull,
Shoulder blades,
And sacrum,
The wide triangular bone at the base of your spine.
Relaxing the space between your eyebrows and feeling your heart soften back into the ribcage.
Your belly and chest rising and falling with the movement of your breath.
Taking this space at the beginning of your practice to deepen and lengthen the breath.
Tuning in to the sensations arising in the body.
Noticing if the body feels heavy or light,
Tense or relaxed,
Warm or cool,
Closed or open.
And then reach for the prop that you have nearby.
And we'll engage the navel center as we float our hips up,
Rolling up along the spine,
Coming to a backbend.
And you can take your prop at any height and place that to the wide triangular bone at the base of your spine.
Feeling as though your pelvic bowl were fully supported.
So you can feel the pelvis drop into the support below you.
You can always adjust the height of the prop,
Making the prop a little higher or lower.
And making sure that your prop is below the curve of the lower spine.
Relaxing your palms alongside your body.
And noticing what happens to your breath in this posture.
Following the breath all the way up to the center of your chest.
And with each exhalation,
Releasing and letting go of any tension that you've been carrying in the body.
And taking your final breath here.
As you exhale,
Draw your navel center back towards your spine.
Slide away the prop from underneath your sacrum.
And lower down one vertebrae at a time.
Smoothing out through the lower back and setting the tailbone down.
Feeling your spine rest on the ground.
Letting your knees wing open to the edges of your mat and bringing the soles of your feet together.
Reclined butterfly pose,
Adding any support you need under your thighs or your knees.
And bringing your palms to the lower belly.
Feeling breath expanding through the belly and all the way up to your chest.
Noticing how sensations through the body might shift and transform.
Rise up and dissolve.
Thoughts and emotions may also rise up.
And shift and change and dissolve.
Reach for your outer thighs and help your knees back in towards each other,
Setting your feet to the ground.
And let's inhale to float our left knee to our chest,
Interlacing our fingers to the shinbone and compressing the thigh bone towards the abdomen.
And you can keep your right knee bent or you can extend the right leg onto the ground.
Massaging the abdomen through this gentle compression.
And allowing the lower back to soften and lengthen.
And then taking your left knee open to the left towards the left armpit,
Letting the thigh bone hang.
And feeling sensation through the inner thigh and around your hip.
And this might feel like enough of a stretch for your hip joint.
If you'd like to deepen,
You can move into half happy baby pose on the left side by bringing your ankle over the knee and your palm to the outer leg line.
You can always bend your right knee again with the foot on the floor.
Just noticing how your body feels supported in this space.
Taking one final breath here.
And relaxing your left foot by bending the knee,
Drawing the knee back to center and squeezing both knees now to your chest.
Taking a breath,
Exhaling to round your spine,
Forehead to your knees.
Relaxing the shoulders and your head back to the ground.
And we'll take both knees over towards the right for a two knee twist.
As you relax your body in this posture,
You might be adding a block or a cushion between your thighs for more support in the lower back.
And you can also slide your knees either closer towards the chest or further away from the chest.
Just depending on how it feels for your back.
And try to rotate the center of your chest to the sky,
Softening through your left shoulder.
Closing your eyes.
Resting back into your breath.
Aware of your whole body breathing.
Slowly bringing your feet back to center,
Unwinding from your twist.
Pausing in resting pose for a few breaths.
Allowing your nervous system to fully integrate.
And floating your right knee to your chest,
Interlacing your fingers in front of your shin bone and hugging the thigh bone to the abdomen.
Softening through the lower back and perhaps extending your left leg to the side.
The right knee to your armpit,
Letting the thigh bone hang open.
Feeling and sensing into the right hip joint.
You might stay in this space,
Deepening into your breath,
Or you can move into half happy baby.
On the right side,
Bringing your palm anywhere along the outer leg line.
You can always modify by bending the left knee and placing the foot back to the center.
Floating to the floor,
Responding to what your body needs in this moment.
Deepening your breath into sensation through the body.
Returning to awareness of your breath.
As you relax through the right leg,
Bending at the knee,
Bringing your knee back to center.
Both knees float up to your chest,
Squeezing the thighs to the belly.
Taking both knees over towards the left side,
Coming into a two-knee twist.
Perhaps adding support between your thighs,
And opening the center of your chest to the sky above you.
Feeling sensation along your spine,
Along all the nerve endings of the spine.
Sensation through the whole body.
One final breath here.
Taking your time to move back to center with your feet on the floor.
Breathing and falling like waves through the front of the body from the abdomen to your chest,
And from your chest back to the abdomen.
Breathing and rising like waves through your body.
Rising up from the abdomen to the center of your chest,
And drawing back from the center of your chest down to the abdomen.
Waves rising and falling.
When you're ready,
We're rolling over onto our bellies,
Coming into sphinx pose.
And from your belly,
Let's bend through the elbows,
Placing the forearms shoulder distance apart,
And our palms facing the ground.
Sphinx pose.
Softening your heart between the shoulders,
And feeling into the compression through the lower lumbar spine.
If this feels too intense today,
You can always walk your palms a little bit further forward,
Reducing the sensation at the lower back.
Feeling your pelvic bowl heavy on the ground,
And scanning down through the leg lines as you soften and relax all the muscles through the glutes and the legs,
All the way down to the soles of your feet.
And the tips of your toes.
Sensations rise up,
Perhaps interconnected with thoughts,
Emotions,
Images,
Memories.
Relax,
Holding space with compassion for whatever is present in the body and the mind.
Widen your elbows open,
Stack your palms,
Roll down,
Resting your forehead on your palms.
Moving slowly,
You can place your palms under your shoulders,
And we'll lift up and back into a wide leg child's pose.
Breath expanding through the back body,
Reaching both palms forward in line with your shoulders,
And walk your fingertips forward until you feel a little bit of pull through the side line of the body.
And we'll walk both palms to the left,
Creating a C shape through the spine,
And feeling into the side line of the body as you melt forward and down.
Walking both palms back to center,
Taking a full breath to stretch your spine,
And then bring both palms over to the right,
Curving the spine,
Folding forward and down,
And melting your hips back.
Bringing your body back to center,
Softening through the elbows,
And let's take a few more breaths in child's pose.
Feeling your breath rising and falling like a wave through the whole back body.
Your forehead at rest on the ground.
Allowing the mind to come to rest like a still clear lake.
And when you're ready,
Bring your palms under your shoulders and begin to roll up,
And come to a seated position to finish our practice.
Crossing one shin bone in front of the other,
Relaxing your hips to the ground,
And drawing your shoulders over the hips,
Your head over pelvis,
Palms on your thighs or in your lap,
As a gesture of receptivity.
Feeling the space inside your body,
Sensing and feeling your inner space,
Feeling the space outside of your body,
Feeling and sensing the space outside your body,
Surrounding your body,
Feeling your inner space,
Feeling the outer space,
Feeling the space inside your body,
And the space outside your body,
As one space.
One sensation of space resting at the heart.
The heart holding space for everything that's present.
And as we finish our practice tonight,
Allowing your mind and your breath to simply rest at the heart,
In the space of compassion.
And you're welcome to stay seated in meditation for as long as you need tonight.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
