Lying Yoga Practice (MBSR)

This is a Mindful Lying Yoga practice that I like to see as a body scan in movement. If you struggle to find sensation or stillness through a body scan or seated practice a slow yoga practice such as this can be a beautiful and kind way to start.

Transcript

Welcome to our mindful hatha yoga practice session.

We'll start this session coming to lying flat on your back.

In the same way that you may do in shavasana with the feet flopping out to the side taking a nice wide stance between the feet.

With the palms facing up with the fingertips slightly curled and having the hands just a little bit further away from the body.

Ensuring that the shoulders are relaxing down and away from the ears.

Also maintaining a nice straight neck.

Not turning the head in any way and also perhaps even picking the head up and just lengthening it one or two centimetres back and then just placing the head mindfully back upon the mat or the floor.

And as you come to this position just beginning to feel incredibly supported by the mat or the ground under you.

Starting to bring your awareness to your breathing and any sensations that might be present in the body just in this moment right now.

Perhaps you're aware of the entire body just breathing in and breathing out.

With each breath with each inhalation and exhalation just allowing yourself to surrender a little more into this moment into just lying here and allowing yourself to really consciously be here.

Noticing what the quality of the breath is like in this moment.

Perhaps it's short,

Perhaps it's long,

Maybe it's in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Maybe it's in through the nose and out through the nose just bringing that awareness to the breath as it is right now for you.

And also just starting to bring a broader awareness to how you're feeling.

What have you brought to the mat in this moment?

Is there energy or is there lethargy?

Are there any other sensations to be felt right now in the body?

Any tension?

Perhaps there are sensations of pleasure,

Pleasurable sensations or unpleasurable sensations or perhaps you can sense those neutral sensations.

Noticing there may be a desire to want for the pleasurable and avert or be aversive to the unpleasurable.

And perhaps there's just a distinct lack of care for the neutral.

Let's see if we can drop that judging,

Drop that wanting to evaluate the sensations and rather just allow or invite all of them to be here as we move through our practice.

So we're just going to begin our session by stretching the hands above the head,

Just reaching them as far as you can and beginning to point to the toes,

Stretch the fingers.

Just lengthening the body as much as you can,

Noticing when you breathe in what sensations are there now.

And as you breathe out,

Even stretching a little farther,

How far,

How tall,

How spacious can you make yourself as you reach the fingertips towards the back of the room and you point the toes towards the front of the room.

And then just releasing all effort,

Just allowing the hands and the feet to just be floppy now,

Taking a breath.

And again,

Just notice what's here to be experienced,

To be felt.

We're then going to release the hands or bring the hands back down beside the body,

Just allowing the hands with the palms to be face down to just stretch out alongside the body.

And then bending the knees and bringing the soles of the feet up towards the buttock,

Just planting them firmly on the floor,

Just about a foot away from the buttocks.

You might reach the fingertips down and just see if you can brush the heels with the index finger.

That'll give you a pretty good estimation of where you want your feet placed.

And then we're just going to move into some pelvic tilts.

So on the in-breath,

Beginning to rock the pelvic ball back,

Creating a nice stretched out kind of gap between the base of the spine or the lumbar spine and the mat.

And then pressing the back right into the mat and tucking the tailbone under.

Let's try that again.

Exhaling,

Beginning to tilt the tailbone all the way back so you create that big space between the mat and the lower spine area.

And then on the inhalation,

Pressing the whole mat or the whole back to the mat and tilting the pelvic ball forward.

Just saying to do that in your own time,

Just this rocking of the pelvic ball,

This exhalation to tilt it back and this inhalation to press it into the mat and tilt forward.

Just making these movements as minimal or as exaggerated as feels right for you here.

All the while,

Just see if you can maintain this connection with the breath.

So as you inhale,

Tucking that tailbone in and drawing the belly down to the floor.

And then as you exhale,

Just tucking or drawing the tailbone back and pressing the belly towards the ceiling,

Getting that beautiful spaciousness between the lower back and the mat.

Just working with each in-breath and each out-breath,

Working as if just riding on the back of your breath on these movements.

Doing one more of these.

And then just on the next in-breath,

Just coming back to a neutral spine,

Whatever feels comfortable for you here,

Keeping the knees bent.

From there,

We're just going to tilt all the way over to the right.

So just take all of your weight into the right sit bone,

The right tailbone,

And then just rock to the left.

We're just going to rock the hips from left to right,

Right to left.

Just changing the motion,

The movement of the lower back and the hips.

And again,

Notice what's here to be felt,

What's here to be discovered.

And again,

Just tapping into whether or not these sensations are perhaps pleasurable,

Unpleasurable or neutral.

One more on each side,

Just rocking from side to side and then just coming back to neutral again.

From there,

We're going to relax or draw the knees into the chest and start to wrap the arms around the knees.

And again,

You might just like to roll or do some gentle circles through the lumbar spine or rock from side to side,

Just massaging out that lower back area if you're working in circles,

Moving in a clockwise and then an anticlockwise direction.

And then just stopping the rocking or the movement,

Then instead just begin to use a little bit more bicep strength to draw the knees close to the chest.

Allow the head to be completely relaxed here and take a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

Knowing that this kind of yoga,

This hatha yoga is not about striving,

It's not about efforting.

The whole point of yoga in its century long origins was never about accomplishment or perfection or even about the techniques themselves.

It was always more about finding this vehicle for cultivating a deeper insight into your own body.

Good.

Then from here with those knees drawn tightly into the chest,

We're just going to exhale and start to lift the head towards the knees.

And then on the inhale,

Take the head back to the floor.

And then let's do that again,

Exhaling,

Starting to draw the forehead towards the knees and inhale,

Taking it back.

Let's do that three more times.

Exhaling head or forehead to knees.

Inhaling,

Stretching and releasing back.

Exhaling,

Forehead to knees.

And inhaling,

Stretching on back.

Final one,

Exhaling,

Forehead to knees.

And inhaling,

Stretching yourself back.

From there just releasing the feet to the floor,

Letting the palms face up again,

Releasing the hands down beside the body.

Just resting here in stillness and noticing what sensations are now being felt in the body.

Perhaps there's a warmth or a tingling at the lower back or some new sensation as a result of these very gentle,

Very subtle movements.

Then we're going to go ahead and draw the knee,

One knee,

Just the right knee perhaps,

Into the sideways.

Just drawing that in,

Bending it and starting to grab hold of the knee with both of the hands and just begin to pull that knee down to the sideways.

Hold that for a few breaths.

And then beginning to release it.

Let's go ahead and pick up the left knee now.

Draw the knee into the chest,

Use both of the hands to pull that knee down to the sideways and take a couple of nice deep breaths here.

And releasing.

Picking up the right knee again and drawing it into the chest,

This time on the next exhalation.

Again drawing the head back to the knee and holding it there.

Holding with the head,

Working towards that right kneecap.

Breathing,

Just drawing that knee gently and keeping the head raised and then releasing.

Taking a breath.

And again,

Just pulling the right knee in a bit deeper and taking the forehead towards the kneecap,

Holding here.

Breathing.

Feeling perhaps the effort of the muscles.

Again,

Just notice not to strive,

Not to push or pull,

Just allow it to happen and then exhale.

Just release and relax both of the legs down to the floor and the hands as well.

Let's do that on this other side.

So picking up the left knee now,

Drawing it into the sideways.

And beginning to draw the knee further in as we lift the forehead towards the kneecap and we hold.

And hold.

And then slowly release.

Just keeping the one knee lifted,

The other just extended out.

Let's do that again,

Hugging onto that left knee,

Start to bring the forehead towards the knee,

Gently holding.

Hugging the shoulders or rounding the shoulders.

Beautiful and then releasing.

From there just reaching the hands up above the head again and pointing the toes and then we're going to bend both of the legs.

And we're just going to roll onto one side.

So just allow perhaps the head to rest onto one arm as we roll into that fetal position.

And then we're just going to slowly begin to make our way up and over so that we're on all fours in our tabletop position.

So you want your knees stacked under your hips and your wrists under your shoulders.

Just upon the mat or on the carpet.

So we're going to work into our cat cows now.

So as we inhale we're going to drop the belly,

Lift the chin and lift the tailbone creating that beautiful C shape in the spine.

And then on the exhale,

Pressing down through the hands,

The backs of the knees,

The backs of the,

Or the shins and the backs of the feet.

Round out,

Really drawing the belly button back towards the roof.

And then on the in-breath,

Dropping the belly,

Lifting the chin,

Lifting the tailbone and exhaling,

Rounding out.

Doing this a few more times in your own breath gown.

Just breathing in,

Dropping that belly.

And exhaling,

Rounding out.

Inhaling.

And exhaling.

One more time,

Inhaling.

And exhaling.

Good.

And then from there just coming back to that neutral spine.

And we're going to then reach the right fingertips out in front and extend the left leg back.

So we're working with a balance here.

Draw the belly in and just hold.

Breathing here.

Feeling the constriction or the work of the muscles.

Noticing the sensations that are arising as a result of this.

And then just release the right hand,

Left knee back down.

Good.

And then coming straight to the other side.

We're going to extend the left hand out in front,

We're going to reach the right toes back.

Taking them off the floor and holding.

Lovely.

And just releasing the leg and the hand down.

Let's take the knees out wide now,

Bringing the big toes to touch.

Press the heel back to the,

Sorry,

Press the tailbone back to the heels.

And just extend the hands out in front.

Really reaching the fingertips out in front.

And just taking a couple of nice deep breaths here in your extended child's pose.

And then we'll slowly begin to come back up onto our knees and we'll just come right back over onto our backs,

Setting ourselves up for bridge pose or setu bandhasana.

So again,

You're going to bend the knees and bring the heels right up towards the buttock.

Setting the back straight,

Making sure the neck does not move from this posture.

Reaching the hands down,

Just again gauging that the heels are just too far enough away from the buttocks that you can just brush them with the index finger.

The hands are down beside the body.

And then we're going to press down firmly through our feet,

Which are hip width distance apart,

And begin to inhale to lift the whole tailbone entirely off the floor.

And then on the exhalation,

Just slowly,

One vertebra at a time,

Working all the way down along to the floor again as if your spine is a zipper and being zipped back up.

And then inhale,

Lift back up again,

Reaching the tailbone towards the ceiling,

Lifting.

And then exhaling again,

One vertebra at a time,

Coming all the way back down,

Pressing the whole back into the mat.

Inhaling,

Lifting.

And exhaling,

Slowly moving back down.

And lifting.

And slowly coming back down.

This time maybe beginning to move with the arms too,

So as you inhale,

Lifting,

Not on the tailbone but extending the hands all the way behind the back until they reach the floor.

On the exhalation,

Again,

Starting to take the spine and the hands all the way back down.

Starting to move like that on the inhale,

Hands and spine come up.

And on the exhalation,

All the way back down,

Just moving slowly with your breath.

I imagine this would be somewhat like what it would feel like to be a reed or a piece of carp or seaweed under the ocean,

Just that gentle movement,

That flowing movement that you see under the water in the ocean.

Just a gentle weightless movement.

Doing two more of them.

And then just releasing.

From there,

Let's take the knees back up into the chest,

This time taking the hands out so that they're shoulder width distance apart so they can be the cactus or stop sign or you can just have them reaching as far out as you want so that they're just in the same line as the shoulders.

From there,

We're just going to exhale and drop the knees over to the right into a twist and then on the inhale,

Lifting back up,

Then exhaling over to the left and inhaling,

Lifting back up.

Exhaling over to the right,

Inhaling,

Lifting back up and then exhaling over to the left,

Inhaling,

Lifting back up.

Just working in your own time now,

Just working with that twist,

That slow and steady twist from one side to the other,

Maintaining that continuous breath and movement and also enjoying at the end of each exhalation as the knees move towards the floor,

That pause between the exhalation and the inhalation.

And just see if you can really notice the process of completely letting the body go at that point and then again inhaling,

Lifting the knees back up,

Exhaling over to the other side and just enjoying that letting go.

Inhaling,

Lifting back up and exhaling over to the other side.

Just two more on each side here.

And then just drawing the knees back to the floor,

The feet back to the floor with the knees bent,

Then we're just going to reach or extend the right foot all the way up to the ceiling so the sole is at the ceiling and then you might even like to inhale to point and exhale to flex the toe.

Just working there,

Inhaling,

Pointing,

Exhaling and flexing,

Inhaling,

Pointing,

Exhaling and flexing.

At this point you might like then to take the hands to the knee pit and just grab hold of that leg and just draw it a little bit further down,

Just being very gentle,

Aware of your edge,

Noticing that perhaps potential to wish to be more flexible or that need to strive a little bit more.

And just see if you can let go of that,

Just working as gently as you can,

Really just feeling into these sensations,

Feeling into each moment as we move through these very gentle postures.

From there you might just begin to then draw the forehead up towards the knee and just hold there,

Taking a couple of breaths with the forehead very close to the knee.

And then going ahead and releasing the right foot back down to the floor just so that it's bent with the left and then we'll go ahead and just reach the left leg up so the sole is reaching towards the ceiling and then again you might point the toes and flex,

Point the toes and flex.

And then perhaps reaching the hands towards the leg and grabbing hold of the leg at some point maybe under the knee pit or up towards the calf or maybe even the toes.

But again just being very aware of that mental need to do better,

To strive,

Just notice whenever that enters in,

This pushing and just see if this yoga session you can just take it back a notch.

Let's draw the knee towards or the forehead towards the knees now and hold in there,

Taking a couple of nice sturdy breaths here,

Feeling the effort just to hold the posture,

To hold the torso in this way.

And then let's release and just take it back down,

Stretching the legs out,

Having the palms facing up towards the ceiling and just breathing here.

Good.

So from there we're just going to roll all the way over to our right side,

Just coming to roll to the right so you've got the legs extended,

You might then just take,

So we're on the right we might take the right hand under the head just with the elbow bent and just rest the head there.

Or you might have the head on the floor with the arm outstretched.

We'll take the left hand out in front of the belly.

We're just going to inhale here to raise the left leg towards the ceiling just doing a side leg raise and then exhale take it back down.

Inhale,

Lift it up.

Exhale,

Back down.

Two more,

Inhaling,

Raising up.

Exhaling,

Taking it back down.

And inhaling,

Raising up.

Exhale,

Back down.

Good.

Just coming onto your belly,

Just bringing the hands out in front,

One palm on top of the other and just rest the forehead for a moment,

Taking a deep breath here feeling the belly rising and falling.

And we'll just roll onto the left side,

Coming to rest on the side with maybe the hand supporting the head or just the head resting upon the arm that's outstretched.

The right hand now will come in front of the belly and we're going to raise the right leg as high as we can and exhale it back down.

Inhale,

Raising the leg.

Exhaling,

Back down.

Two more,

Inhaling.

Exhaling.

And inhaling.

And exhaling.

Good.

And then just rolling back onto your belly once more.

We've got the hands down beside the body with the palms faced up and then we're just resting the chin on the mat here so just allow that chin to extend out in front,

Just resting it there.

And on the next in-breath we're just going to raise the right leg towards the ceiling and exhale,

Release it back down.

Inhale,

Raise the left leg now towards the ceiling.

Exhale,

Release it down.

Inhale,

Right leg.

Exhale,

Down.

Inhale,

Left leg.

Exhale,

Down.

Good.

Let's try and lift both the legs just for a moment,

Lifting them up,

Keeping the chin on the floor,

Holding for one deep breath.

And then exhaling,

Release.

Good.

Just letting the right ear rest on the floor now and taking a couple of deep breaths.

And then finally just starting to bring the chin back so that it's on the mat.

We're going to extend those hands back if they've come up to the sides and we're just going to take a Shalambassana or a Locust Pose.

We're just going to inhale and lift the chest and then lift the legs as well.

And just hold that for as long as you can,

Just maybe three or four breaths here.

Keeping all of the parts off the floor,

The chest and the legs and then just relaxing.

Beautiful.

From there just taking the hands under the shoulders and pressing back into your traditional Child's Pose.

Just bringing the knees together,

Taking the tailbone down to the heels.

Just relaxing the hands down beside the body.

Let the forehead rest on the mat.

That may be nice to just roll or rock the forehead from side to side here.

Just seeing if there was any tension in the forehead as a result of that last posture.

Good.

And then we'll just slowly begin to roll back over onto our backs and finish in Shavasana.

Just allowing the feet to flop out to the sides,

The palms to face up.

Just closing the eyes and allowing the body to totally relax into the mat.

Seeing if you can remain here for at least five minutes.

Just resting in stillness,

Just noting sensations in the body.

And allowing the whole body to just surrender with each exhalation,

Just softening and deepening your relaxation.

And then when you're ready,

Just making your way out of the pose.

Thank you.