So we're slowly going to make our way over to the mat.
And as you come to the mat,
Just go ahead and lay yourself down onto your back.
You may roll your shoulder blades under.
Making any little adjustments so your body feels super comfortable and settled down into the ground.
Connecting your hands to your belly.
Maybe more towards your upper belly.
So you start to feel your breath beneath your palms.
You may start to soften your gaze,
Just gently looking outwards.
Or you may close your eyes.
If you're on a mat here,
You can think of yourself.
Laying in this little kind of sanctuary that has four corners.
Four edges.
And your body is lying right in the center of it.
And as you enter this space,
Allowing your intention to be to stay in this space.
To be curious about what happens here on your mat,
Within your own personal experience.
Allowing yourself to become more aware of your own needs.
So as you move through the practice,
Just noticing what would nurture yourself most and how you're holding your body in each posture.
And how you're breathing.
And through the yin practice you can really actually learn how to take care of yourself.
How to treat your body,
Your mind,
Your energy.
As a very sacred special,
Magical,
Loving.
Vulnerable.
Experience.
And it can ignite some compassion,
Some wisdom in you to treat your body with this sort of.
.
.
Loving-kindness.
You So as you've landed on your mat,
You're now in this sacred space,
Four corners.
You're lying in the center of it.
And with your body here holding that intention to pay attention to its own needs.
To what you need.
Not what anybody else needs.
Not what the world needs or anybody you know,
Any relationships you have.
But what you need.
Becoming attuned.
That practice.
Slowly start to deepen your breath into the palms of your hands.
Slow,
Long inhale.
Slow,
Long exhale.
Thank you.
And we'll do two breaths where we hold at the top for a bit and take a long sigh afterwards.
So breathing in through the nose,
Filling up the lower lungs,
The palms of your hands.
Hold.
And sigh.
And again,
Breathe in.
Hold.
And sigh.
Do one more.
Breathing in.
Hold.
And sigh.
Good,
Allowing yourself to settle.
And then taking the arms above your head and just relax your arms down.
So your arms are above your head,
But your arms are relaxed.
Your shoulders are down away from your ears.
And then slide your hips a little bit to the left.
Just sliding on the mat just an inch to the left.
And then slide your legs to the right.
And slide your torso to the right.
So you create a banana shape.
And as you land in your banana shape,
You can have your arms however you'd like,
Closer together,
Further apart.
If they're closer together,
You may hold your left wrist with your right hand.
And option to cross your left ankle over your right.
It may feel good,
It may not.
Just whatever feels better.
As you rest your body into the earth.
Noticing how your body is feeling,
If there's anything it needs right now.
What would feel good?
Maybe just allowing it to be exactly as it is.
Holding this accepting space for anything in the inner world to arise,
To be felt,
To be experienced,
And to fade away.
You And as your forehead softens.
Allow yourself to simply be with this posture.
You may or you may not feel a lot,
But a lot is happening.
And there's that trust that develops in the yin practice that even though you're not pushing,
You're not maybe feeling a lot,
That on an inner level,
Energetic level,
A lot is happening.
Need the big sensation,
The big moment for progress to be happening.
And as time goes,
It will just deepen on its own.
You'll start to feel it more.
You'll notice the depth that has slowly been building and it's been created in the background.
It's already been happening through gravity,
The posture itself,
And time.
And then it gets really beautiful when these energies and this practice starts to effortlessly follow you off your mat.
And even in life when big things aren't happening or big signs or big emotions or something.
That's still in the background.
It's all happening.
It's all moving forward.
Everything is working out as it's meant to.
Not everything can be seen and felt in such a massive way all the time.
It's just those little progressions,
And that's where the faith,
Trust,
Comes in for life,
For energy.
That you don't have to do anything,
And yet it's already happening.
You don't have to feel anything massive,
Force anything.
And yet it's all already happening.
Just like a plant.
The stem is growing very slow.
You may not even notice little centimeters growing every day,
Every week.
You don't notice that little progression.
And then all of a sudden,
It blooms a big flower.
You go,
Oh,
Wow.
And you see it.
But everything can't always be seen.
It's slow.
It's steady.
You can barely notice it.
And then it's just happening.
Slowly releasing your feet to your wrists,
Sliding your legs to your torso back.
Release your arms down beside your body.
Take an exhale.
One more full breath in.
And out.
Good.
Take your arms up above your head again.
And then let them relax.
The shoulders relaxing.
Arms relaxing.
And sliding your hips a little bit over to the right.
And then slide your legs to the left.
Slide your torso to the left,
Creating this banana shape.
And then as you land in the posture,
Usually you won't land exactly as your body wants to be,
So then you start to listen.
Would it feel good to move my arms a little bit or my shoulders?
Just little micro movements,
Little adjustments.
You can always do that.
The posture is just a general guideline,
But then you're filling it in with.
.
.
Your own listening to your own needs.
You know yourself.
I don't know how your body is.
Only you know that.
Options to hold your right wrist with your left hand.
Option to cross your right leg over your right ankle over your left.
As your forehead relaxes.
You trust and drop into this slow,
Effortless unfolding and unraveling of physical tension.
Energies,
Just a freeing,
A freeing motion.
And there's nothing for you to do but breathe in and breathe out and breathe in.
And breathe out.
And that's it.
You Thank you.
Thank you.
You Thank you.
At any point when you notice yourself trying or not breathing,
Just simply sigh.
You Thank you.
And take one more full breath.
And crossing any ankles,
Releasing wrists.
Slowly slide your legs,
Your arms back to center.
Torso back.
Release your arms down.
Take an exhale.
Thank you.
And then when you're ready,
Drawing your knees.
Into your chest.
You may wrap your arms around your legs or hold your shins.
Just rock a bit.
Nurturing your body with gentle little rocks.
And then holding your shins,
Draw your knees towards your shoulders.
And make some circles through your ankles,
Your jaw if you'd like.
You may squeeze and release your face a few times.
Good,
And then when you're ready,
You can gently sop the movement.
Take one more full breath into your belly.
You And exhale.
Thank you.
Good.
Drawing your knees together and then lengthening your legs out onto the mat.
Take your arms up for a full body stretch,
Pointing your toes.
Inhale.
Exhale.
One more breath in.
And out.
Bending your knees,
Roll to the left into fetal position.
Good.
Take a pause there and breathe out.
And then slowly start to rise yourself up.
Take your time.
And we'll come to seated.
Now you may grab your block or pillow.
You're going to stretch your right leg out and bring your left foot into your right thigh.
And if your left knee is off the mat,
You may place a block under your leg.
Or a pillow.
And then you may have one in front of you.
And we want to get nice and long through the spine.
Shoulders relax.
And you may have a little bend in that right knee.
And that can help you hinge from your hips.
So we don't want to round the low back.
We want to be hinging from the hips there.
So a little bend may help.
And.
.
.
Nice long spine.
Just come down a little bit.
And pause for a few breaths.
And you may notice the mind.
Or your expectations or something in you that thinks it needs to try really hard.
May think oh this is not deep enough it's not doing anything not patient you know want something to go faster,
Deeper.
And just pausing just a little bit down.
Barely going anywhere,
Just an inch.
Breathing there.
And allowing ourselves to trust that it's all happening.
This is deep enough.
It's more than enough.
You don't need to feel something massive for the yin practice to be doing wonders for your body.
Probably already feeling the effects through your mind,
Your energy.
So it's just this practice of don't worry.
It's all happening.
It's okay.
You're doing enough.
This is enough.
You're exactly where you're supposed to be.
Everything's unfolding as it should.
This is the plane of consciousness we're tapping into in the yin practice.
Now you may inch forward a little more.
Keeping the spine long.
Another variation if you want to is to round the upper back.
And you may place your forehead on a block,
If that makes sense.
Adjusting your arms,
Your shoulders,
However you'd like.
And if you've bent down to what seemingly looks further or deeper or better,
Just watch that part of you again that's.
.
.
You know,
Feeling a high or feeling something off that.
Just simply witness it,
Let it pass by,
Just remember that just You're just in a different variation and it just is a different experience.
It's not necessarily better or worse.
And there's not really much of that within the yin practice,
That better or worse space,
Even though we can get caught up in that because we see it with our eyes and we decide that.
.
.
This looks better and this doesn't.
But the yin practice is an inward practice.
It has nothing to do with external sight,
With the shape of the body.
What you look like,
Any of that stuff.
All about an internal experience.
So what are you feeling?
What is the person feeling that's in the posture?
What sensations are running through their body?
And just witnessing that.
And the only reason that.
.
.
We get deeper per se with time is so we can keep finding that edge.
So when you don't feel anything,
Your body will start to effortlessly release more so you can then again be in the edge.
So it's all about being at the edge.
It's all about having that.
Sensation,
Emotion,
Thought,
Energy passing through because that's the place where your body is healing.
It's releasing.
And with time,
It will just start to release layer and layer more.
And on the external level,
That can look like a deeper posture.
It's the exact same process as somebody who.
.
.
Has a seemingly less deep posture,
They're in the exact same place,
The exact same edge is happening.
So the internal world is the same.
The external can get very.
.
.
And,
Um.
.
.
You can get very attached to what you want it to look like but the inner world is the same.
Just remembering that.
We're all here to breathe at our edge.
We're all here to experience that edge of healing,
That edge of feeling.
One breath at a time.
You Thank you.
And take one more full breath here.
And then slowly start to rise yourself up nice and slow.
Releasing any blocks.
We'll straighten our left leg out for a moment.
Take an exhale.
And then we'll move into our right hip.
So leaning to the right deer pose,
Sending your left leg back.
So your left leg's back,
Your right leg's forward,
And you're sitting on your right hip.
Okay,
So your right thigh is aligned with the edge.
Your shin can be more straight or more diagonal into the body.
It just depends on your hip socket and you'll figure that out over time what feels best for you.
You may have a block or pillow ahead of you.
Left leg back more will deepen the posture.
Forward more will be a little less deep.
You can also just play around with that.
Noticing what feels best for your body as you start to fold over your right leg.
Arranging your upper body into any position you'd like.
You may rest your forehead down to help your neck relax and to.
.
.
Put pressure on your third eye space,
Which relaxes your central nervous system.
Thank you.
Thank you.
If you're not feeling it in your right hip glute area,
You can send your left leg back more.
If your leg's all the way back,
You're not feeling it,
Then you can come on top of your knee into that alternative pigeon posture.
Just a different shape again a different way for us to find that edge.
Thank you.
You Thank you.
You may take a sigh and just feel yourself sink a little deeper.
You Thank you.
Thank you.
Good,
And take a few more deep breaths.
And then very slowly start rising yourself up.
Slowly leaning to the right.
Slowly bring your left leg forward.
And then straighten both your legs out again.
Take an exhale.
Thank you.
Good and then bend your left your right foot into your left thigh so our left leg is straight And if there's your right knees off the mat,
You may place a block.
You may have a block in front of you.
Thank you.
Okay,
And then you may have a little bend in that left knee as you lengthen through the spine.
Slowly begin to fold just a bit.
So we'll do that long spine.
Shoulders down and just fold a couple inches till the body stops.
When the body stops,
Just stop.
Take a few full breaths.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You can stay exactly as you are.
You may come a little further with the long spine,
Or you may round the upper back.
The low back still stays pretty straight,
So you're still hinging from the hips.
Your shoulders relax down and back as you breathe out.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
A couple more full breaths.
You And then slowly start to rise yourself back up.
Good.
Straightening out your right leg.
Take an exhale.
Press into your hands.
Lift your heart up to the sky.
Take a full breath,
Squeezing your shoulder blades together.
Thank you.
Good.
And then lifting back up again.
And we'll lean to the left into deer pose.
So bending your legs to the right and back.
Sitting on your outer left hip,
Left thighs aligned with the edge.
Your left shin can be straight or in diagonal.
So you can play around with that over time,
See what feels better in your body.
It's just a process of learning.
Your body.
Slowly begin to fold down over your left leg.
You you Your right leg back more while deep in the posture.
You can make little adjustments in your torso just where your weight is down onto your left hip.
May make little micro movements back,
Left,
Right,
Forward.
Just feeling more into the subtleties,
The deepening in practice.
Just get more and more aware of the subtleties,
Subtle little sensations.
Subtle thoughts,
Emotions,
Energies that are moving through your body.
And then just running that contemplation.
What does your body need?
How can you take the best care of yourself right now?
Most comfortable position for your body here so it can Start to unravel all on its own.
You may take a gentle sigh.
Feeling everything relaxed.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You Thank you.
Thank you.
You you Good,
And take a few more deep breaths.
You you and slowly start rising yourself back up good slowly leaning to the left slowly bringing your right leg forward that nice and slow straightening the legs out Take an exhale.
Bending your knees,
Feet to the mat.
Dropping your knees side to side.
Okay now two options here you can either lie flat on your back Or you can use your blocks or pillows for passive fish.
So if you want to move into passive fish,
Place your blocks kind of like a T so one long vertical,
Horizontal.
Keep your bum on the ground.
Slowly lower down so the first block goes right along your spine on your upper back.
So your upper back right along the spine.
Use your hands to place the other block beneath your head.
You can also use pillows or a long pillow.
Or you can lie flat on your back.
That's good too.
This is an opening of the frontal body.
Now with your lower body,
You can also add in butterfly legs if you'd like.
You may bring your feet together,
Your knees out.
Or you may have your feet on the mat or your legs may be straight.
Your arms can be out to the side,
Like a T position if you'd like.
Or a u shape so up towards the top corners of the mat Just giving yourself this nourishing rest.
Deep rejuvenation for the body,
Opening through the chest,
The shoulders.
The inner laying.
You may feel the breath into the belly and gently sigh it out.
You Thank you.
You Thank you.
You Thank you.
You Thank you.
You and take a couple more full breaths in and sigh it out.
Thank you.
Then bringing your arms down.
If your legs are in butterfly,
Take your hands to the outside of your thighs.
Gently help your legs back up.
Take an exhale.
Now,
If you're on blocks or pillows,
You can either slowly roll off to one side into fetal position.
Or you can press your forearms down,
Engaging your core,
Tucking your chin in as you come up the way you came down very slow.
Once you come off the blocks,
Take an exhale.
Okay,
And then slowly start to remove the blocks wherever you are and just lie down flat onto your back.
Once you've landed on your back,
Gently draw your knees into your chest.
Draw your knees towards your shoulder.
Holding your shins,
Opening the lower back,
The hips,
Hamstrings.
You can stay there or you can hold your ankles or your feet for a happy baby,
Sending the soles of your feet up to the sky.
You may take a full breath in here and just exhale.
Good.
And then slowly release whatever you're holding.
Straightening your legs out for final pose.
Shavasana.
Thank you.
Take a deep breath in.
And sigh.
And again,
Inhale.
And exhale.
Thank you.
Filling your body with a gentle intention of loving kindness.
Full acceptance.
Total love.
Just resting in that space,
Giving your body rest.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And gently bring your awareness to your breath.
Thank you.
Spending more time in Shavasana if you'd like.
Very healing posture.
Or slowly starting to make little movement.
You may take a stretch.
Bending your knees,
Rolling to the left fetal position.
Take an exhale.
Then slowly start pressing yourself up to sedent.
We can close the eyes.
Connecting your hands to your belly or chest.
Thank you.
You must feel the giving nature of your hands.
Pouring into your own body.
Filling yourself up.
All that you need,
All you deserve.
All the kindness,
Love,
The courage,
The acceptance,
The peace.
That you have to give yourself.
Already here Take a full nourishing breath into your palms.
And sigh.
Good.
Connecting your hands together.
Opening the eyes.
Namaste.
