30 Min. Energetically Clearing Evening Yoga Flow

This 30-minute Energetically Clearing Yoga Flow is a practice designed to help you unwind, soften, and release the energy of the day. Through mindful movement, longer holds, and steady breath, we create space in the hips, hamstrings, and spine while inviting the nervous system into a state of calm. Inspired by ancient energetic practices that honor the intentional release of stored tension and stagnant energy, this flow encourages you to move with awareness and let go with each exhale. This practice is perfect for the end of a long day, before bed, or anytime you need to reset and return to yourself.

Move slowly. Breathe deeply. Let the day dissolve.

Transcript

Hey there my name is lisa and welcome to your release the day evening slow flow i am super excited for this it's perfect timing because this is the end of my day well almost at the end of my day and i am ready to just dive on into some hip openers some forward folds and really dive on into to releasing whatever kind of latched on to us or energy may have latched on to us it's very interesting that that and a little dharma talk before we dive on into our movement but it's really interesting how when we move about our day i feel a lot of us can be energetic sponges we tend to pick up things or notice things or feel other people's grief and energy because we are empathetic individuals especially if you're an empathetic individual there could also be things that have happened to you that stick with you avoiding a car accident or maybe you were in the department store and you lost your kid and you're kind of processing that after you found them there's many things that can stick with us an argument or a disagreement or maybe it's a total life change you heard news that you realize this may change your whole life this evening flow is meant to reground our nervous system to mirror back the values and the intentions that we set maybe possibly in the morning and really close the chapter in the evening so that we can rest our nervous system and really energetically release even in japanese culture asian culture korean culture you leave the shoes at the door you leave all the stuff that happened in the street at the door you don't walk into the home with it in latin american culture specifically mexico and ecuador there's limpias by curanderas or healers where they clean off the energy of what has happened to you and that's kind of like and that's kind of the energy that we are going to dive on into today is to clear that energy out so with that my friends let's go ahead and dive on into a child's pose if a child's pose doesn't work you can come into seated position or lying on down it is really up to you whatever works so bringing the knees as wide as the yoga mat coming to sit on to the heels of the feet bowing on down taking a moment to breathe on into the hips lower back connecting the energy to the earth breathing in exhaling out all the energy that does not serve us deep down into the earth releasing letting on go and if you hear my cat baby chi we had to close the door because she was being a menace so forgive me if you hear a little mouse or like a baby crying in the background that is our 19 year old cat so take a nice big deep breath in and exhaling out and last big deep breath in and exhale time for you to set an intention for yourself for this practice that will help you ease into a state of release of letting go of softening and from here slowly go ahead come on to the hands and knees and begin to trace circles with the heart over right wrist or over left so in yoga they'll teach a lot about sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems sympathetic is active fight or flight i'm going to go on a journey i'm going to go on a run and parasympathetic is rest release i can digest i might feel hungry and this is all about not being in fight or flight or work mode but being about rest and ease mode maybe begin to trace circles with the hips as you bring the knees in alignment with the spine just to release any lower body tension in yoga philosophy it's known that we carry a lot of our emotions in our hips so pretending there's a paintbrush at the edge of your tailbone tracing circles one way three times and then taking it into the opposite direction if it feels good making sound if it feels good beautiful now if you are like me and have a little bit of angst that needs to be released we'll do just a little bit of core work so just to kind of release a little bit about angst but still keep it in slow flow movement so go ahead ground down through the left hand send the right foot on back trace circles with the right knee sending the right knee behind the elbow back two more times inhaling and last big deep inhale and exhale go ahead send the right heel all the way on back send the left hand all the way on forward so left hand forward right foot on back really point through the ball of the right foot as we reach the left hand on forward hugging the rib cage and the navel on in inhale and exhale release the left hand and sweep the right foot all the way on over to the right side off the yoga mat hopefully you can see my right foot on the edge of or past the edge of the yoga mat stretched on out and see if you can walk the hands as far forward as possible bowing on down i love this hip stretch and inhaling and exhale i'll just hold here holding is the hardest part especially if you want to just if you're in fight or flight you just want to fight or move past emotions or push past emotions and i invite you to stay with it explore it be open to what it has to say if emotions do come up and slowly come to rise sending shoulders over the wrist go ahead sweep the right knee back to center let's take that into the opposite side go ahead send the left foot on back and trace some circles sending the left knee forward down back and to the side kind of like we're a puppy lifting our leg i've heard this goal it's like fire hydrant circles or so many different things and taking a nice big deep inhale and exhale two more breaths breathing on in sighing on out last big deep inhale and exhale go ahead send left foot on back the right hand reaches on forward we're finding that opposite balance we're engaging the core we're creating a little bit of fire take a nice big deep inhale on what you wish to release exhale sigh it on out ah releasing the right hand sweeping the left foot to the left side or past the left side off the yoga mat walking the fingertips as far forward as possible bowing on down getting a nice stretch into the inner left thigh you can come onto the elbows the forearms and just releasing the day releasing any emotions especially if you work at a desk you might be on a lot of meetings getting a lot of information doing a lot of tasks and it's all just sitting in your hips it's all just there at that weird hinge of gravity so breathing into the hips exhale sighing out releasing stunning my friends take a nice big deep inhale slowly coming to rise on sending the left foot back to center on exhale go ahead ground down through the left fingertip sweep the right hand all the way on up and thread the right hand just reaching it underneath the left side of the body inhale to rise it on up and exhale to reach two more times in a and exhale and last time breathe it in and exhale to send that right shoulder all the way down to the yoga mat walk the left hand on forward now we're releasing any tension in the heart space any tension the jaw neck especially for listeners i am so happy to work with a lot of you guys where i learn you are social workers nurses caregivers you hold people's hands at the end of their lives or at thresholds you're doulas and healers and space holders some of you are firemen or we're in military i want to just honor all that energy and even if you don't have that title maybe you just listen to a friend today or you listen to or held space for some news that was sad for those who need to be remembered in the world and maybe we just need to release a little bit of that energy from the heart which means we don't forget we don't ignore we just know it's okay to let go it's okay to experience forward movement while still honoring all that is honoring other people in the world around us when you're ready place the left hand in front of the face sweep the right hand all the way on up and let's take it into the opposite side go ahead sweep the left hand on up and then thread the left hand underneath the body inhaling on up and exhale to thread last time inhale to reach and exhale to thread and release that left shoulder to the ground walk the right fingertips on forward taking a nice thread the needle pose kind of continuing on that note a grief especially or survivor's guilt shame sometimes we almost feel guilty to move on it's like oh if i move on without doing anything but i might as well be ignoring it or i'm not honoring the situation or i'm not honoring other people's feeling you already honored you paid attention you acknowledged you listened if you went to a friend's house after losing pet for example there's nothing they could do there's nothing you could do in the situation but they listened to you they held your hand they even said a hope a wish that you heal from the grief that the grief process goes easy and that that pet's always remembered and the person leaves do you feel like that's not enough are you stuck in that cycle because if you were that friend wouldn't you feel like that was enough wouldn't you feel that that was the greatest gift that they listened that they could be there for you sometimes we don't recognize how important it is for us to just acknowledge someone's grief that's the greatest gift is acknowledgement take a nice big deep inhale exhale placing the right hand in front of the face sweeping the left hand on up and releasing the left hand on down pressing to the hands and feet lifting the hips up nice and high coming into that inverted v-shape of downward facing dog begin to paddle out the legs bending through one leg reaching through opposite heel oh i feel so good to just release and stretch out everything so like i said think about if you feel like you're not doing enough think about the person that's receiving you know if you feel like oh a dollar isn't enough think about the person who receives the dollar if you're like oh that listening wasn't enough think about the person who's receiving the listening if you were in there don't you feel like are we that hard on ourselves let's be for real we would be we would probably be grateful be like hey we were in knowledge oh that was really kind hey there's a little hope the world isn't that harsh and even in times when we make mistakes it's like hey mistakes happen it's not intentional it's honoring that as well take a nice big deep inhale and exhale grounding down through the left foot sweep the right foot up towards the ceiling and can you see if you can send the right knee on down to the center of the yoga mat you can choose to stay here sending the right hand to center pivoting the left heel on down and rising on up if you want to come a little bit deeper we can go ahead come back into that three-legged dog pushing up and back hugging the right knee on in and then again threading the needle this time with the foot sending the right foot underneath the left side of the body pivoting that left heel on down reaching that right hand on up taking a nice big deep inhale and exhale last big deep breath here and exhale release and release it on down take it into the opposite side inhaling the left foot on up and three-legged dog bending the left knee and then see if you can send the left knee on down to the yoga mat sending the left hand in front of the left knee pivoting the right foot on down and then rising that right hand on up this feels good you can choose to stay here or take it in a step further grounding down through the fingertips back to three-legged dog and then hug the left knee on and send the left hand to center and thread the needle with the foot left foot comes forward rising on up opening up in the chest inhaling and exhale slowly come back release sway the head yes sway the head no no judgment no criticism no holding on walk the hands towards the feet this time coming into forward fold we're gonna cleanse our aura or fluff off our aura brush off our feet with our hands gently brushing off our shins or calf muscles our glute muscles our legs as we solely rise to standing brushing off our pelvis or lower back our hips our belly oh brushing up our heart and our arms brushing it all off it's not ours to carry we don't have to carry the whole world that's a savior complex right there we don't need that we just need to do our best and be a good person that's it and if our best wasn't enough in someone's eyes that's not on us because our best is our best shake it out shake out the right leg shake out the left leg shake out release the day blubber the lips to release the jaw beautiful guys finding stillness finding groundedness as we come to slow it on down even more taking a nice big deep inhale sweeping the arms on to the side and up exhale walk the hands on back downward facing the dog let's go ahead bring the knees on down and sweep the legs in front let's take a forward fold practice here my favorite forward fold butta kanasana i don't know if it's meant to be butterfly pose butta kanasana to be honest all these sanskrit words like butta kanasana uttanasana aromukasvanasana you know those are sanskrit words for poses but people are actually still and historians are still trying to figure out like what came first the yoga or the pose the pose or the philosophy of yoga are still trying to learn about it but let me know in the comments um if you know a little bit about it inhaling as you send the soles of the feet together reaching from the tailbone to the crown of the head rising on up and exhale setting the heart on down to the soles of the feet sending the chin towards the chest closing the eyes oh my goodness our neighbors are shoveling the blizzard storm i heard one of them say snowman bringing it back to that innocence butterflies are a symbolism of transformation metamorphosis and remember every challenge we go through every interaction every moment it's an opportunity for metamorphosis for growth for transformation we are butterflies we go into cocoon phase and we blossom out of it and then we slowly come back in like phases of the moon and those cycles honoring those phases honoring the deep transformation last move reverse tabletop with lion's breath i love this at the end of a day oh my goodness i love this so feel free to ground down through the fingertips as well as the hands fingertips are pointing towards the heels of the feet knees or hips distance apart slight bend in the elbows and see if you can just press in the hands and feet and lift the hips you don't have to go too high it could just be a little bit off the yoga mat if you want to press and come a little bit higher it'll be more of like a tabletop pose or a little bit more of a and just take a nice big deep inhale exhale stick the tongue out sigh out lion's breath inhale to lower the sit bones on down exhale to press into the hips lifting on up lion's breath last time inhale to lower and exhale press and lift ah gorgeous lower on down come on to the back hopefully we release our day with the last and final reclined twist hugging the knees in towards the chest tracing circles onto the ceiling bringing the feet on down scooching the hips over to the left and allowing both knees to fall on over to the right maybe bring the hands up and over oh my goodness a twist after a long day is so rewarding even just if you wish to bring it a little bit deeper placing that right side of the foot onto the left knee taking it into the opposite side releasing the right foot on down scooching the hips over to the right and twisting on over to the left maybe placing the side of the left heel onto the right ankle releasing the left foot on down bring the knees back to center and give yourself one more compassionate hug thanking yourself for all that you do for all that you are using the feet and the legs on down releasing it all down let's do a hold and release exercise so we get a sense of what we're holding on to so any emotions anything that's stuck with you anything you wish to release take a nice big deep inhale really tense up the feet the glute muscles draw the navel in make fists with the hand maybe send the shoulders up towards the ears we're in tension we're in tension we're like oh my god like we don't want someone to touch us we're in tension then we're like squeezing we're squeezing our mouth like we tasted like a sour lemon we're like oh my god that's so sour and we purse our lips and we're inhale and exhale sigh it out let it go it's okay to acknowledge the world emotions can become like things we carry with us on the journey and there are some things we just can't take with us or keep with us in the capacity they are at when we receive the things we can let things go we can our memory we take with us on the journey but it is not just okay to move on it is your birthright to grow from it to live from it to we how you grow how you wish to move on to live so visualizing maybe that you're again releasing it all into the earth maybe it transforms into a flower maybe again clean slate but if you wish to close the practice with me end your day read a delicious book take a nice end of the day bath or shower to close your ritual journal wriggle your fingers your toes cradling the head resting there for a moment thanking yourself for all that you do for all that you are noticing how you feel now versus when you first began your practice and honoring your journey with the remembrance that part of living is experiencing like ocean waves washing over you or clouds passing in the sky and then the next moment the next chapter doesn't mean those past things don't matter or that we ignore in reality we are acknowledging and we are truly living like we are dancing with life and emotions the hard and the beautiful the chaotic and the serenity all in one so at that my friends i thank you again for joining me on your practice bring the hands to prayer thumbs connecting to the heart may you have an amazing rest of your evening and i will see you next time om shanti shanti peace namaste my friends