So if you're ready,
Just make your way over to the mat.
Once you land on your mat,
Just gently come all the way down to your back.
Once you're on your back,
Gently roll your shoulder blades under so you feel nice and comfortable and settled on the earth.
And then connect your palms to your lower belly.
And gently close your eyes.
And as your eyes close,
Just begin to shift your awareness gently down to the palms of your hands.
Where you can feel this gentle rise and fall of your breath into your lower belly.
And gently notice the connection that you have with the ground.
Feel this solid support there.
And as you feel that connection to the earth,
Just allow yourself to surrender your full day that happened before this moment.
You And feel yourself being held up,
Carried,
Supported by the ground beneath you.
And the eyes the ground Starts to feel really nice and supportive there.
You can start to feel the frontal body,
The energy in the front of the body around the body in front of the chest,
In front of the forehead.
Just start to lighten up and become a little bit more expansive.
And as that energy gets expansive there,
You'll feel your forehead soften.
You You may feel lightness starting to float over your body.
Through your energy feel.
And through that lightness,
Your breath effortlessly starts to deepen into the palms of your hands.
Then you can use a little bit of effort now to deepen your breath into your palms so just breathing a little deeper into that lower belly through the nose then take a longer size out the mouth Allowing everything to slow down in its pace.
And through the slowing down,
Feeling a richness of the present moment starting to arise.
And that richness may feel easeful it may feel like a some emotion or sensation and that's all present all of that is welcome Just getting more and more honest,
More and more true through the slowing down and the deepening of the breath.
You Good.
Let's take two more slow breaths here.
You can hold at the top for a little bit.
So breathing into the palm.
Or And sigh.
And again,
Breathing in.
Hold.
And sigh.
Witness your experience.
Notice maybe a little bit of a settling down in the energy.
You Let us ride that slow,
Peaceful energy through the practice as we take it into our posture.
So let's gently take the arms up above the head.
Point your toes,
Stretch your body as you breathe in.
And sigh it out.
Take another stretch,
Inhale.
And exhale bringing the arms down gently bend your knees and towards your chest And as you draw the knees in,
Slowly you start to rock side to side.
Your eyes still may be closed,
So you're allowing that internal landscape to get more vivid and more alive.
You Then gently send your legs right up to the sky.
Arms up to the sky and have a little bend through your knees and your elbow so they're getting more and more effortless here you may gently sigh your breath Moving your ankles and wrists around,
Moving your jaw a bit if you like.
Gently breathing out Then draw your right knee into your chest.
Hold your shin.
Either release left foot down or straighten your left leg out onto the mat.
Drawing your right knee to your right shoulder as we meet our edges.
These releases in the yin practice is normal for the body to tense a bit,
For the breath to shorten.
And just over time becoming more and more aware of when that response is happening.
And just choose to sigh your breath.
Soften.
Back into the posture.
And through that softening,
Through the effortlessness,
The practice automatically depends on its own.
You that state we access at the beginning of practice when we were lying on the back.
With the hands on the belly.
When we were connecting to the earth,
That stable support.
We're opening up our energy through the frontal body.
And we felt that expansion,
That relaxed softness,
The feeling of being held,
The feeling of releasing.
Into the moment.
That's the state that we can access in every posture.
So although our body is in a different shape,
And we have the release happening.
We can still settle into the ground as our supports and feel our energy start to lighten up and expand the frontal body And then the whole posture just becomes that seat for our consciousness.
Take one more full breath into the belly And exhale.
Slowly release your right leg straight.
Take your arms up.
Stretch the body.
Breathe in.
And side out.
And then gently draw the knees into the chest.
Give your knees a squeeze.
You may pick your head up if you choose off the mat.
Just roll around a little bit,
Feeling that release through your back body.
Gently release your upper back down.
Send your legs back up to the sky.
Arms back up to the sky.
As you land in stillness,
Your awareness can come back to the breath.
So you're just feeling your breath rise and fall into your belly.
Then gently draw your left knee in,
Hold your left shin,
Either right foot down or straighten out your right leg down onto the mat,
Drawing your left knee to your left shoulder.
Your eyes may be closed still and just breathing deeply into your lower belly below your belly button.
You you Our tendency is to really try at our edges.
So when things get challenging,
To push and to try harder.
In the yin practice,
It's the opposite.
If you feel challenge arise through emotion,
Sensation,
Or thought,
The practice in yin is to release at those edges,
So to try less.
Try less.
And try less.
Practice of trying less.
Just get better at it every time we come to the mat And you may already notice that by holding that intention to try less,
That the posture just already got easier,
The challenge.
Dissipated or disappeared.
And you feel yourself.
Landing back effortlessly into this state of flow.
State of ease.
State of contentment.
Take one more full breath.
Good job.
Gently release your legs straight.
Arms up.
Stretch your body.
Breathe in.
And sigh it out.
Bend your knees.
Roll to the left into a fetal position.
Stay there and exhale.
Gently begin to rise yourself up no rush here seated position.
We'll set up our butterfly pulse,
So your feet together,
Your knees out.
You can choose to have your feet closer.
That'll get more into your inner thighs.
Further away,
We'll get more into your glutes and hips.
You may use your block or pillow if that makes sense for you somehow,
Or you don't need to.
Take a moment to lengthen through your lower back,
Softening your leg.
And then gently begin to walk forward.
Once your body wants to sop,
Stop.
Close the eyes.
Or steady the game.
And as your shoulders soften,
Just feel your breath flowing into your body.
Then from your mid back up,
So your lower back is quite straight,
But from your mid back up,
You can keep it straight.
Or you can round it in if you choose.
And you can let your head drop if you like,
If that feels okay.
You may sigh you you you sensation,
Motion,
Thought is all a part of the release process that's effortlessly happening.
As you've given this beautiful,
Important time for your body to actually rest where it can heal on its own.
The healing process,
We always go through.
The emotion through the sensation.
And on the other side,
We feel relief.
We feel ease.
We feel flow.
So feeling grateful for the time you have to be in stillness and to practice.
Breathing into your belly to deepen your ground within these fluctuations of energy and to expand your awareness to hold what is temporary within life.
And from this place,
You can also know that with time,
The release,
The relief is happening on the other side.
So the choice to not fight it,
The choice to soften at the edges,
To try less,
To trust the body,
To trust the posture,
That's the practice.
The only thing you want to watch out for is shooting pain.
So if you have shooting sharp pain in one area of the body,
Then just ease off the posture so you don't have that shooting pain.
That's the only thing that we don't want.
If you have sensation that feels more like it's spread out across an area and it's just a doll.
Kind of sensation that's just lingering there.
That's all good.
That's part of the release process.
On a physical level and then that triggers the emotional energetic and mental release so then You'll also maybe feel it as.
.
.
Emotions starting to increase.
Thoughts starting to increase maybe you have reactions like oh,
I want to get out of this,
That kind of flight mode come through,
And that's okay.
Just watch your reactions.
Just watch it happening.
Breathe into your belly.
And with time,
We'll get more and more grounded.
This awareness.
Into the spaciousness and You'll be able to trust yourself in the center of the storm more and more in daily life.
So everything that you come to your mat to practice carries with you into daily life.
Effortlessly.
Just becomes a part of you.
So recognize the strength that's being built here.
The strength within surrender.
Not the strength within the fight but the strength within the allowing to be.
The trust,
The strength that comes in trust.
And then face.
And in commitment to being compassionate with yourself more and more with time and more patience.
That's patience is a deep thing with the yoga practice.
It's always evolving over time.
This slow evolution over a whole lifetime.
And you don't get down into postures really fast.
It's just bit by bit,
Bit by bit.
Every time you come back to your mat.
And as you get deeper with time,
You start to not really care about how deep you are,
What that looks like,
Or anything like that.
You recognize that the strength was built in the process,
The awareness,
The breath,
The presence,
The compassion,
All that was built within the process.
Not built within an end game that was fleeting or a nice picture or something of what you look like.
But in the process,
That's where those qualities start to.
.
.
Get built.
And you're here in that practice.
So recognize the doubt.
Of what is happening here.
In the stillness.
You you Take a few deeper breaths.
And then slowly.
Start to rise yourself back up and there's no rush here and just very slow it's very deep long hold carefully take your hands back and just straighten out your leg And just take a full breath there.
Feeling that rebound the energy flushing through the legs And then gently bend the knees,
Bring the feet to the mat a bit and drop your knees slowly side to side.
And you may move side to side or you may hold one side and then the other a few times.
Good.
And then gently walking the hands back up.
Let's straighten out the right leg.
Bring your left foot into your right thigh.
So one leg straight,
One leg's bent there,
Your left knee.
You may take your right foot a little more out to the right.
You may have the block for your forehead.
You'll link through that lower back.
You may have little bend in your right knee that can help you hinge right from your hips.
Take a breath in.
Exhale,
Come down.
Opening right hamstring Let me gently sigh just to settle in.
Remind yourself you're doing an effortless practice right now.
You As your hamstring starts to release,
You may shift yourself a little deeper.
Start to breathe into the belly and gently sigh out your breath.
Slowly you start to walk yourself back up.
Exhale.
Removing the block Straighten out that left leg and then we're gonna lean to the right for deer pose.
You're gonna lean to the right,
Your legs are gonna bend towards the left.
So you're sitting on your right hip.
And your right thigh is aligned with the edge.
Right shin is aligned with the top.
Back leg back more as deeper.
Back leg forward more is less deep.
You may have that block in front of you as you shift your torso a little to the left.
And then start to fold.
And then you can release your forehead on the block or the earth.
Allow yourself to arrange your upper body any way you'd like.
And if you're not feeling it into your right glute,
Right hip.
You can send your left leg back more.
And you can also shift your weight.
So you may shift your torso just a little bit to the right,
A little bit back,
A little bit forward.
That weight of gravity down torso down onto the hip space will Change how you experience the opening.
Through this posture.
You you to deepen the breath.
You Slowly start rising.
Take your time.
Breathe out.
And then take your right hand to the side,
Lean to the right.
And extend your left leg forward so we're setting up Hamstring opening on the left,
Right foot into your left thigh.
You may use that block.
Maybe a little bend in the left knee.
Lengthen your low back as you breathe in.
And then begin to gently Fold over left hamstring.
You Let me gently sigh soften,
Receive a little more.
You Start to sigh your breath.
Slowly start rising yourself back up.
Breathe out.
Then straighten out your right leg for a moment.
Lean to the left.
Send your legs to the right.
So deer pose.
Sitting on your left hip.
Left thigh is aligned with the edge,
Left shin with the top.
Back leg back more is deeper,
Forward more is less deep.
Block ahead of you.
Shift your weight a bit to the right.
Begin to fold down.
And opening left glute and left hip.
So if you're not feeling it Send right leg back more.
You can also shift where your weight is.
Just little micro movements of your torso to the left or back or forward and you'll just feel.
Different into your your left glute and left hip area Arrange your upper body any way you'd like.
You you you you Feel your breath in and out of your belly.
Start to deepen your breath.
Slowly start rising up.
Exhale.
Left hand to the left.
Lean over.
Gently bring your leg forward.
Right leg forward.
Drop the knees side to side.
Take a full breath.
You Then gently come to your hands and your knees.
And you can choose either melting heart or child's pose.
So melting heart,
You'd stay like this and take your arms forward.
Child's Pose,
You take your knees wide,
Big toes together,
Sit back to your heels,
Arms forward.
So you decide.
Which posture you want to take.
And as you settle in,
Feel this opening through the shoulder space as you relax your armpits down to the earth,
This opening through the shoulders,
The spine.
Breath into the body you Softly sigh your breath.
When you're ready,
Start pressing into your hands.
Slowly bring your hands one at a time back into tabletop.
Shifting your hips up if you're in child's pose.
It may take a few cat cows dropping your belly.
Lifting the heart,
Then rounding your spine.
You may take a few hip circles,
Whatever you want,
Just a little movement through the body.
You Amen.
Switching directions if you're making circles.
Then slowly send your feet to the side,
Come to seated position.
Send your legs forward.
Scoot your bum forward and come down into Shavasana.
Final poll.
Spread yourself out on the ground.
Take a sigh.
You arms can be to the sides or you may connect them to your belly This pose is where the whole posture settles into every layer of our being.
Solidifying the practice.
So feel your connection to the ground deeper than you ever have.
Just deeply connected to the earth.
You this opening through your heart the frontal body as you receive.
The state of being you you you you Gently bring your awareness to your breath.
Spend more time in Shavasana if you have it.
You Or slowly start making little movement into your body.
Gently bending your knees and rolling to the left into fetal position.
Breathing out.
Gently rising up to seated position.
Connecting your palms together,
Closing your eyes.
You you Moment to witness your experience.
Acknowledging yourself,
Your energy,
Your breath.
Your attention.
Take a breath in.
And out.
Opening the eyes Namaste.
