Workday Reboot

Designed to fit into your workday, this yoga practice uses a chair to get you moving in a mindful and invigorating way. The sequence begins with mobilizing poses done right in the chair, then you'll stand up and use the support of the chair to elongate the spine and provide some relief from the strains of desk work. Find relief for the shoulders, hips, and low back, then enjoy a brief restorative pose to leave you feeling refreshed and ready to reengage with your day.

Transcript

Hi, Welcome. So glad you are here and you're making this little bit of time in your day for a little workday reset. I'm Carrie Majorca. Let's not waste any time. It doesn't take long, So let's go for it. If you have a chair, We'll start there and then come out of it really quickly. Start by letting your hands rest on your lap. And as you inhale, Take your shoulders up. Then exhale, Roll them back and down. Just notice one shoulder roll. What's the impact right away? Inhale. And exhale. One more time that way. And then let's go the opposite way. Take the shoulders back and up. And then roll them forward and down. One more time. Feel the creation of tension as you lift up. And then intentionally release the tension as you drop down. All right, That's enough sitting, Isn't it? Slowly come up to standing. As you inhale next, Reach your arms out to the side. Spread your fingers and open your chest. Then when you exhale, Give yourself a little hug, Curling in. This is a standing version of yoga's popular cat and cow pose. It's a great way when you aren't really in the place to kneel and get on the floor, Roll out a yoga mat, But you want some movement for the spine. This is a beautiful option. Just one or two more. If you've lost track of your breath, Bring it back to the forefront of your experience right now. Okay, Then next time you inhale, Reach your arms out to the side, Stretch them all the way up. Reach really tall, And if you'd like, You can take hold of your left forearm as you lift up and over, Or you can take your right hand down at your side, Reaching out long. Feel the stretch through your left side and see if you can breathe there. Then inhale, Reach up and go the other way as you exhale. Breathing into the right side. Then inhale up one more time. As you exhale, This time let your arms come down behind you. Notice how you feel. Taking just a moment here, A mini mindfulness moment to observe. Okay, Let's add in a little floppy twist. So now just start to let your arms swing. I like to call this one the playground twist. I imagine when I was a kid, I did this probably a lot. It's very fun and playful. You just kind of shift over from one foot to the other and give yourself a light little love tap. Notice how this offers a spiraling for the spine. Just a nice shift. Normal things we do as adults. And then start to slow down your movements. Notice your arms keep swinging. That's fun and playful. Observe here now another mini mindfulness moment. Your feet spread a little wider than they might normally be. But can you be here in this in-between place for just a couple of breaths? Observing. Notice where your attention is if the eyes close invite them to slowly blink open And let's use our chair to our advantage. So now you can take your chair or if you don't have a chair, You can use a desk or a couch and just stand in front of it. So oftentimes I think we can build up yoga or mindfulness practices as these big things that take a long time and take a lot of special equipment. Nope, They don't. So let's try putting your hands on your surface. Step your right foot back and you'll come to a lunge. So this can be adjusted to the level of depth that feels good for your body. So you can make it a shorter stance. You can make it a longer stance. One's not better than the other. But ideally, We'll start to feel a little work for the front thigh, The left thigh, And a little bit of a lengthening through the hip flexors on the right. You can gently press on your surface to get you to lean up rather than leaning forward where you won't feel much going on here at all. Okay, Take a nice inhale. As you exhale, Begin to straighten the leg and just lean forward over that straightened leg. Inhale, Bend the knee, Lifting up again, Pressing on the surface to give you a little back bend. And exhale as you fold down and just feel a little bit of lengthening. One more time. Okay, Now put your hands on your chair or desk or couch and step back to a little half downward dog. Pressing into this surface, Elongate, Pulling your hips back. And notice, What do you feel different on right and left sides of the body? Take a few slower breaths. Begin to now round the back and you'll step forward with the opposite foot, Bringing the right foot up. Come to a little lunge again. The depth is up to you. Gently press the hands on this surface so you don't lean forward, But you find that lengthening and opening through the front of your left hip and thigh now. Press your right heel firmly into the ground so you begin to charge up the muscles of the right thigh. As you inhale elongate through your crown. As you exhale, Soften your shoulders Were they up to your ears? Mine were a little high. I know that. Now inhale and we'll exhale to move dynamically. So begin to straighten the leg and hinge forward as you exhale. Inhale bend the leg press on the chair lifting up Exhale, Fold forward. One more time. Okay, Then press into the chair. Step back one more time. Chair downward dog or half downward dog. Pressing hands actively. Pull the hips back to elongate through the trunk. Taking a few breaths to find spaciousness in the back of your body. And now notice if you're kind of waiting for what's next, No worries, No judgment. But could you take one more breath that's really conscious and feel your body right now in this pose? How'd that go? Observe. Then slowly walk yourself back in, Coming closer to your chair. Stand. Let your arms come down and just take a moment wherever you are standing and feeling. Observe the impact of that little sequence. Take a couple breaths. All right, It's time to come back to the chair. So turn the chair to a comfortable place and you'll sit down for a little hip release. Getting some external rotation for the hip. So lean back in the chair and take your right ankle to the front of your left thigh. And this is sort of like figure four in yoga, If you know that one. Ankle to the front of the thigh and just gently flex. So it's not important to crank your knee down. That's not what we're going for. Instead, Find a place where your knee feels happy. If this is too intense on the knee, Then instead you can extend your bottom leg so it goes a little lower, But it's less intense. Wherever you are in this pose, Try leaning back on your chair into your hands. Flex the right foot. Lean back and open up your chest. This will probably make it a little easier to be in the external rotation. So just observe. So with a lot of sitting, The hips can get so tight and the tightness in the hips. And then the hip flexors really contributes to a lot of just generalized low back discomfort. So very important to get up out of your chair in your day, Stretch and move, And provide some different ranges of motion for the joints. You can stay right here or if you'd like and you don't feel any concern about the knee, You can come back upright. Maybe you hold your foot or your ankle and take your right hand under your knee and then inhale as you lift. As you exhale, Just lightly lean forward. Oh my. You can stay elongated. You can also curl in. And just observe for a couple of breaths what's happening right now. And then slowly come back up. Lift the foot off of the knee. Place it down and observe. Notice the difference on your two sides. Take a breath. OK, Then other sides leading back. So right ankle to front of left. And you can find the position that feels safe and good for your ankle and for your knee. Don't force it down. Lean back to the hands if that feels good. This helps to just take some of the intensity out of the hip and lets you ease into the pose. Open the chest. Can have the gaze forward or up, Up to you. Just a couple of breaths. Slow down your inhale and elongate your exhale. And then if you'd liked it on side one, You can lean up, Right? Have the hand at the ankle or foot and the left hand under the thigh to just protect the knee. As you inhale, Elongate. As you exhale, Perhaps hinge forward a little. Maybe keeping the elongated spine or slowly rolling down, Up to you. Just a couple of breaths. Now slowly bring yourself back up. Remove the foot from the front of the thigh and take your mini mindfulness moment here, Just letting your hands rest. Observe. Notice sensation in your two hips. Notice the rest of the body. Take a breath. Wherever your attention is, One more breath right here, Right now. Bring your gaze back up as you're ready. And are you ready for it? It's time for a little rest. Lower yourself all the way down to the floor and you'll be using your chair or couch as a prop. So this is a little modified version of Shavasana, Corpse pose, The relaxation pose in yoga. You'll just lower yourself all the way down and place the backs of the legs up on your chair seat. If you don't have a chair accessible, You can also take your legs and place them up a wall. This will be a brief practice, A brief way to reboot, Just like how you might turn your computer off and on, Turn your devices off and on. We need to turn our own selves off and on Restart. Refresh, Reboot. So let your arms relax and your legs be very held in the support that they have here. Let go of all of the effort you used in that brief little sequence. And let go of any of the mental and emotional effort from your day. Make the most of this time. You're here. So why not give yourself fully over to this practice of conscious rest? Taking a slower inhalation. Elongate your exhalation. One more breath like that. Slowly inhaling. Elongate the exhale. And then just let the breath move at its own pace, Its own rhythm. As you take a brief rest here. Let everything else wait. For just a little bit longer. Wherever you are with your attention. Bring your awareness back to this experience of rest for one or two more conscious breaths. If you have more space in the day and you'd like to stay here, I really encourage you to do that. If it's time for you to be coming back, Slowly draw the legs in. You can give them a little squeeze, A little rock side to side if you like. And then roll to the side when you're ready. Head down. Heavy. Take a breath here on your side. As you come up, Keep your head in line with the rest of your spine. And wherever you are, Take a final moment to just observe what was the impact of making this space and time in your day. Take a slow breath at your own pace and feel right now. Thanks for practicing. I'm so glad you made this time. I'll see you next time.