Welcome back to my channel.
My name is Kristen.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
And for tonight's practice,
Come into a comfortable seated position and we'll take a moment to ground and to connect with our breath.
You can close your eyes and draw the shoulders up towards your ears,
Taking a breath in and then exhale.
Relax your shoulders back and down.
Soften the space between your eyebrows and feel your mind begin to relax into an awareness of your breath.
Noticing the natural flow of the breath in and out through your nose.
Your breath rising and falling at the center of your chest.
Trusting your breath to anchor you to the present moment.
And in your practice tonight,
Allowing the breath to flow through each posture,
Guiding you from moment to moment.
And trusting the exhale breath to release and let go of any stress that you've been carrying in your body,
In your heart,
And in your mind.
And trusting the inhale breath to bring you back to your center of peace in the present moment.
And you can open your eyes,
Staying connected to your natural breath as you extend your legs out in front of you and set up for your first yin yoga posture.
And we'll come into butterfly pose,
Bringing the soles of our feet together,
Letting the knees wing open,
And adding props for our chest and our forehead.
And before you come into the posture,
Take a moment to pause and feel the muscles relax and the bones drop.
Take a deep breath in and out.
And then gradually,
Breath by breath,
Let the whole body drape forward.
Settling into the posture,
Supporting the weight of the bones with extra props under your knees,
And feeling the whole back body open up with breath.
Bring your awareness back to the space between your eyebrows.
Letting your mind follow the breath as one point of focus.
Following the breath through the body to the space at the back of your heart.
Just feel how the breath expands and contracts.
At the back of the heart,
Feeling and sensing into a pause at the top of the in-breath,
A point of stillness.
And can you allow your mind to absorb that point of stillness right before the exhale breath?
And then slowly roll all the way up,
One vertebrae at a time.
And we'll continue to deepen into our forward fold by extending our legs into dragonfly pose.
Just let the legs extend open and then slowly roll up.
Adding any props you need under your heels or ankles or behind your knees.
And then take a breath,
Close your eyes.
Letting the muscles relax and the bones drop.
And from this preparation for the posture,
Start to melt forward,
Letting gravity take a hold of the body.
Supporting your forehead,
Supporting your chest,
Making any adjustments you need.
And scanning your whole body for areas that might be unconsciously gripping or holding or tensing.
And try to soften these areas.
Letting go of tension.
And simply stay connected to the continuous thread of your breath.
And that's always present,
Always connected to you.
And can you feel your breath open up?
And flow through the web of your fascial system?
Reaching every part of the body.
Connecting every part of the body.
And perhaps you're beginning to sense and feel a subtle movement and shift within the fascial body.
And taking some time to exhale and release and let go of stored stress.
Imagining the weight and the tension of the stress dropping down into the earth,
As though you were giving over the stress to the earth.
Releasing and letting go of that burden.
And follow your breath as that cycle of release completes and you can slowly begin to roll up.
And as you come out of the posture,
Walk your fingertips behind your hips,
Lean back and draw up through the back of the heart,
The space right between the shoulder blades.
And see if you can press that space forward and up as the chest broadens.
And take a few deep breaths here,
Really enjoying the inhale breath.
And then exhaling and releasing.
And now we're going to come down onto our back and we're going to continue to open up the fascia through the legs and the hips.
So you can clear off your mat and make sure that you have a strap or a scarf on hand within reaching distance.
As you come down onto your back,
Bend your knees and place your feet on the floor.
And take a moment to feel your feet in contact with the earth.
And let your pelvis become heavy,
Relaxing the weight of the pelvis into the earth.
And feeling each vertebrae along the spine soften down.
And the base of your head heavy.
The whole back body relaxed into the pull of gravity.
And as you settle into the present moment in connection with your body,
Then float your left knee towards your chest and squeeze the thigh to the abdomen for a moment.
So feeling that sensation of compression through the abdomen,
Very soothing for the nervous system and very grounding.
You can reach for your strap and place that around the ball of the foot.
You're going to flex your foot and then send the heel all the way up to the sky,
Curling your toes back towards the chest.
And drawing your hands down the strap until you can feel the shoulders relax back to the floor.
And taking a few breaths here,
Closing your eyes and just feeling that gentle sensation of stretch through the back of the leg.
Returning to your breath and noticing how it's the breath that begins to unwind stress and tension in the body.
Letting the mind rest into the breath,
Aware of the breath flowing through the body.
And you might extend your right leg now down onto the ground if that feels okay for your back.
Feeling the weight of your right thigh bone drop and a gentle stretch across the top of your hip flexor.
And then take both sides of the strap into your left hand and bring your right hand down to the top of your right hip and then slowly draw your left leg open to the left.
You can relax the left elbow down to the ground and just let the leg bones hang into the pull of gravity,
Feeling the stretch opening through the inner leg line.
Keep pressing the heel gently away from the body.
And returning to the power and the presence of your breath.
The whole body relaxed,
No effort,
No force.
And simply allow the intelligence of the breath to open through the fascia.
Gently engage through the navel center,
Stabilizing the center of your body as you bring your leg back through center.
Let go of the strap and bend your left knee and then bend your right knee and place the right foot back to the floor.
We're coming into reclined pigeon pose.
So you can flex your left foot,
Cross the ankle over the right thigh and then use your left hand to push the left thigh bone away from the body until the pelvis comes back to neutral.
Floating your right thigh up towards your chest,
Interlace your fingers behind the right thigh and then let the thigh bone just drop down into the palm,
Relaxing the whole body.
And you can always add a cushion or support under your sacrum if you are feeling tightness through the back body.
And you may notice that your breath naturally deepens as we deepen into the tissue layers of the hip.
For your last minute here,
You might draw the right thigh a little closer as the left knee wings away from the body.
And you can interlace your fingers in front of the shin bone.
Make sure that feels okay for the knee as you hug the body closer,
Feeling your breath expand through the back body.
And as you exhale,
You can take your right hand and take a hold of your left ankle and then take your left arm and open it up in line with the shoulder.
We're taking the whole body over to the right side.
So as you shift over to the right,
Your left foot's touching down to the ground and your left knee is pointing towards the sky.
So we're coming into a twist,
But we're also feeling some opening through the side body.
Release your ankle and stack knee on top of knee,
Taking a few more breaths and returning back to center,
Lying on your back with your feet on the floor.
Returning back to an awareness of your breath,
Whole body relaxed,
Floating your right knee towards your chest,
Squeezing the thigh closer to the abdomen and feeling that sensation of compression.
Reach for your strap and place your strap around the ball of the right foot,
Flexing your foot,
Pressing the heel to the sky,
Relaxing the upper body,
Shoulders,
Neck and jaw.
And again,
Without any force,
Just simply feeling and sensing the stretch through the back of your leg.
Feeling the breath open up through the tissue,
Extending your left leg onto the ground.
Noticing how this changes the sensation through the body.
Taking the strap,
Both sides of the strap into your right hand,
Left hand to your hip and then let your right leg drop open to the side.
Just relaxing the upper arm and elbow to the ground,
Staying as relaxed as possible.
And feeling gravity take a hold of the leg bone.
Notice your breath in this posture.
Are you breathing?
Feel the center of your body as an anchoring point and then slowly drawing your leg back to center.
Relax your strap,
Bend your right knee,
And then bend your left knee and place the left foot back to the floor.
Flexing your right foot or crossing the ankle over the thigh,
Coming into reclined pigeon pose and you can press your right thigh bone away from the body.
Taking a breath,
Maybe you stay here or maybe your left thigh draws up towards the chest as you interlace your fingers behind the thigh bone and just let the thigh bone hang back into the palms.
Adding any extra support you might need so that your breath can naturally expand and open.
Shifting into the parasympathetic nervous system.
Where the breath becomes effortless,
An effortless wave rising and falling.
Feeling the sensation of your breath through the nose.
And you can take a hold of your right ankle with your left hand.
Open up your right arm in line with your shoulder,
The palm facing the sky,
And then your whole body moves over to the left.
Right foot comes down to the ground with the knee pointing towards the sky.
Wrapping the right arm under your body and feeling the center of your chest facing the sky.
And then soften here and relax.
Relaxing your hand away from the ankle and stacking knee on top of knee.
Taking your time to come back to center with both knees hugging towards your chest.
Feeling both thighs compressing against the abdomen.
And then when you're ready,
You can either come into Shavasana lying flat on the ground,
Or you can come up to a seated position into a seated meditation.
Taking some time to pause and integrate your practice.
Absorbing the sensation of stillness.
And welcoming the stillness into the body and into the mind.
Feeling your whole body become like space.
Your whole body dissolving into space.
And you can stay here for as long as you need tonight.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
