Tools For Life: Mindful Yoga Practice

BE AWAKE by Dr Linda Kantor. Yoga is a deeply relaxing practice and can be used to open up the deeper aspects of the mind. It is useful for stress management, improved use of the mind, and to awaken inner potential - a gentle, nourishing, yet powerful way to spend time with yourself.

Transcript

Welcoming yourself into this time.

You might like to make sure that you have a blanket or a mat available and making sure that you won't be disturbed for the next 20 minutes or so.

Take this as a special time for yourself to bring awareness to the body,

Breath,

Thoughts the entirety of you.

Our focus in mindful yoga practice is not about getting the postures perfectly right.

It's more about having the freedom and space to explore the miracle of the body and what it's able to do moment to moment.

We focus our awareness into the body,

Looking deeply into what the body is able to do and in so doing we learn the best ways to care for the body.

So when you're ready,

Take some time to establish a comfortable sitting position on your mat or blanket.

You can lift the flesh of the buttocks behind you so that you can really feel the sitting bones connecting to the floor beneath you.

Resting the hands and the knees allow your awareness to move into the spine and allow the spine to lengthen and stretch from the base up to the neck and allowing yourself to feel the movement of the breath in the belly in this comfortable sitting position.

Can you feel the support of the ground beneath you?

Can you feel the groundedness through the legs and the buttocks and perhaps a sense of elevation through the upper torso?

So cupping the hands around the knees,

Let's take a while just to explore the range of motion in the sides of the body.

So you might like to just shift your weight now to the right buttocks and just feeling a slight stretch through the left side of the body.

And then on your next in-breath finding your way back to the center and as you exhale allowing the body just gently to drop to the right side.

So noticing how far to the side you can lean without the body.

Perhaps noticing the feeling tone in the body and then on your next in-breath finding your way back to the center.

So you might like to explore that one more time to each side of the body.

On your in-breath allowing the body to shift over to the right side almost as if you're going to fall but not quite.

Noticing where you're holding tension.

Noticing what's happening to the breathing here.

And then using your in-breath to bring yourself back to the center and your out-breath to guide the body to the opposite side.

Exploring what it takes to hold yourself here as you breathe.

And then when you're ready to on the in-breath coming back to the center taking a deep breath in through the nose.

Holding the breath at its apex so that you can feel the air in the lungs.

And then as you exhale breathe out through the mouth with a slow sigh.

And then as you exhale breathe out through the mouth with a slow sigh.

Take a moment just to feel the sensations in the body.

To perhaps connect with and feel the sense of the breath in the body.

Noticing if you're wanting to move into the next posture and reminding yourself that this indeed is a posture simply sitting breathing.

So we'll explore that side to side motion a little further now by taking the palm of the right hand and placing it just by the side of the right buttocks.

Placing some weight here.

And as you inhale lifting the left arm up and extending it up through the fingertips.

And extending the fingertips towards the right side of the body so that you feel the stretch through the left.

Holding it here.

Coming up to a comfortable edge that is right for you.

And when you're ready to just pushing placing some weight on that right hand and allowing the left hand to find its way back down onto the ground by the side of the left hip.

And as you do so opening now through the right arm lifting the right arm up extending into the fingertips and allowing the right fingertips to find their own way to the left side.

And so that's the motion that we'll explore for the next while allowing the palm of the hand to come down onto the ground and extending the opposite arm up and into the side.

Can you feel the entirety of the body as you move here?

Can you sense the connection of the sitting bones to the ground?

What do you notice about the left side of the body and the right side of the body?

No need to analyze that but just actually feeling and sensing as you move moment to moment.

Can you allow your body to find its own rhythm,

Its own pace?

And when you're ready allow yourself to move into one slow movement once again to each side.

If it works for you,

You can come right down onto the elbow just to extend and deepen that sense of stretch and intensity through the body.

And when you've completed the motion on both sides of the body allow yourself to come back to the center resting the hands on the knees.

Let's take a deep breath in through the nose and a slow deep breath out through the mouth.

Taking some time just to feel and sense the posture in the body and the echo of the previous movement.

Remaining in a seated position take the hands and just cup them around the knees once again and this time we're going to inhale and we're going to rotate the body forwards on the in-breath.

And as you exhale allow the body to circle back.

So we're inhaling bringing the torso and the chest forwards,

Opening up through the heart and as you exhale circling from the waist in the opposite direction so that we're creating circles from the waist.

So it's a good time to just notice the sitting bones connecting to the ground allowing the spirals to be as small or as deep as works for you.

Perhaps as the pose becomes more familiar you might like to widen the circles.

Keeping that breath pattern inhaling moving forwards and exhaling rotating back keeping the head level as you do so.

Almost as if you're moving the body around a central axis point.

Exploring the range of motion as you move.

And when you feel ready to allow yourself to move the body in the opposite direction still inhaling forwards and exhaling rotating backwards.

All the while staying sensitive moment to moment to what's right for your body.

So this is more about the exploration and the journey than about getting anything right.

When you're ready to you might like to make your spiral slightly smaller and even smaller.

Making your way back to the center when you feel comfortable to stop take a deep breath in through the nose.

And you can slowly exhale through the mouth.

Taking some time just to notice the body digesting the posture.

So maybe noticing the range of sensations in the body right now some subtle and some strong.

Embracing them all with your awareness.

So from the seated position we're going to extend the leg out so let's start with bending the knee and bringing the sole of the left foot to the inner right thigh and extending that right leg out in front.

Allow yourself to square your torso over that extended right leg and if it works for you you can inhale bring the arms up and just open up through the rib cage.

And as you slowly exhale allow the body to fold over or towards that extended right leg.

You might be able to extend the hands right down towards the feet or the toes.

Or it might be that what is right for you is to reach towards the ankle or the knee.

So it's not important how far you get.

What we want to do is to tune into the qualities of sensation as we allow the body to extend over the right leg.

You can also extend the right toes towards the face flexing through the right foot so that you really feel and sense the back of the right leg.

Coming up to a comfortable limit.

On each out breath perhaps noticing if there's any sense of softening or letting go into the posture not pushing but more allowing.

It's sometimes useful if you're new to this to sit on a rolled blanket or on a foam.

So feeling free to make any adjustments that work for you as you breathe here.

And then to complete this we'll inhale bring the body up and extend the arms up towards the ceiling one more time feeling that lift and opening through the rib cage.

And as you exhale float the arms down and extend now through the left foot you might like to shake both legs a little bit just to bring some energy and movement into the legs.

And then take the right foot and angle it right towards the top of the left inner thigh.

Once again just angling the torso towards the extended leg take a deep breath in and stretch the arms up.

See if you can feel right into the fingertips and beyond the fingertips.

And as you exhale keeping the heart lifted as best you can allow yourself to come forward.

Coming up to a comfortable limit for yourself reaching towards the left knee or left ankle or the left toes.

And breathing here.

You can focus on the in breath on extending the spine.

And on the out breath allow the focus to simply be a softening and letting go.

Remembering that you can flex the toes towards the face just to feel that stretch through the back of the left leg.

And then when you're ready to come up slowly lifting yourself on the in breath extending the arms up towards the ceiling.

Lifting up through the fingertips opening up through the chest.

And on the out breath coming back into a seated position resting the hands on the knees.

This time you can turn the palms of the hands upwards towards the ceiling.

Simply sitting aware of breathing and sensing.

We'll transition now onto all fours.

Placing the hands directly underneath the shoulders and the knees directly underneath the hips.

You can spread the fingers of the hands wide just to create a sturdy solid base.

And when you're ready we'll inhale bringing the chin up towards the ceiling keeping the eyes open if that works for you.

Softening through the belly and softening through the lower back.

And the out breath we're bringing the chin inwards towards the chest arching the spine completely in the opposite direction like an angry cat about to pounce.

And then inhaling again relaxing through the lower back softening through the belly lifting the chin up.

And the out breath moving the spine in the opposite direction.

So this is the motion that we're here to explore for the next short while.

See if you can allow the movement to originate from the base of the spine and the pelvic region and see if you can feel and sense the wave like motion through the spine.

Noticing as you move the miracle of the spine no matter what condition you might find it in.

The miracle of being able to breathe and move in this way.

You can allow the movement to be slow or more rapid.

Allow your body to guide you moment to moment.

And then when you're ready inhaling deeply through the nose one more time as you lift the chin up.

Soften and let go through the belly.

Exhaling arching the spine completely.

Bringing the chin towards the chest.

Inhaling one more time coming back into a relaxed position with the spine extended and straight.

If you need to take a rest here taking a moment just to drop the buttocks onto the heels and to extend the fingers out in front of you and to rest the forehead onto the floor if that's available to you.

Taking some time just to feel and sense the movement of the breath in the belly.

This is an extended child's pose.

If you want to keep it active keeping the elbows off the ground and feeling a sense of strength through the arms of the hands.

If you want to keep it relaxed just dropping the arms by the sides of the body you can bring the fingers towards the feet.

Well done.

Take a moment just to acknowledge yourself for having spent this unique time with your body and with your breath.

See if you can just feel the rivers of feelings and sensations in the body.

And when you're ready to you'll just use your in-breath to bring yourself up as we enter into our final posture coming onto the back into corpse pose.

Relaxing the arms by the sides of the body turning the palms of the hands upwards towards the ceiling letting the feet and the legs completely relax.

You can scan your awareness through your body from the toes up to the head and from the head down to the toes.

Feeling the envelope of the skin and allow yourself to rest here to notice.

Some say that this is the most important posture in yoga because it allows us to slow down and truly notice.

So you can allow yourself to rest here for as long as is possible for you to savor and to relish the sensations and the simple act of letting go and allowing the ground to support you.

And as you carry on through the rest of your day perhaps setting an intention from now to maintain the stream of awareness throughout the moments of your day.

Reviews

What a beautiful, mindful practice. Thank you.

Excellent session. Combination of Yoga and meditation very effective in quieting monkey mind. Thank you.

Thanks for this great, simple guided yoga practice! Beautiful voice!

Lovely and calming. Thankyou

This started great then my cat hooked me with his claws. Hopefully he’ll be outside next time I attempt this!! I enjoyed what I did do!!
🙄🐱🐈🙏🏼 🧘🏻‍♀️

Oh my goodness, this was a most lovely session. Thank you so much! 🙏❤️

Thank you so much I just graduated to be a yoga instructor and this helped me a lot.
God bless

Thank you-that was a perfect practice after my hard physical work of yesterday