Hi and welcome to this restorative class.
This class is going to be a gentle,
Slow one.
You will definitely,
Well,
You most certainly won't break a sweat.
So feel free to put on some comfy clothes and let's unwind and relax in this class.
So we'll start in a Child's Pose Balasana.
You can meet me at the foot of your mat.
We're going to keep our knees close to one another for the time being and just relax our belly on our thighs.
Relax the forehead on the mat.
Hands can stay close to the body for the time being.
Just fully relax the body here.
We're going to do this by taking a couple of deep,
Nourishing breaths.
So deep inhale together.
And then a full exhale.
Feel free to sigh out through the mouth.
Let's do two more deep inhales and exhales,
Relaxing the back,
The shoulders,
The neck,
Head.
Another deep inhale,
Allowing the breath to slowly find its natural rhythm.
And with every exhale,
Still allowing the body to relax further.
Feeling your weight sinking into the mat,
Into the ground beneath you.
Feeling the body getting heavier and heavier.
Slowly walk the hands in front of you or over your head.
You can walk them as far away as you can,
Stretching the back and the sides of your body.
The knees can stay where they are or you can slightly lift up and widen the knees to the edges of the mat and then again sink the entire belly and head or forehead on the mat.
Again breathing deeply.
Noticing how this child's pose with knees wide feels different than the previous one.
Where can you feel the body stretch here?
And again with every exhale,
Allowing the tension to slowly melt away and allowing the body to get heavier and heavier.
Inhale here.
And then with the exhale,
Slowly walk the palms to the right side of the mat.
As right as you can get.
Maybe the forehead goes on the mat once again.
Feeling a nice side body stretch.
But still trying to relax as much as you can here.
And inhale back to center.
And then exhale other side.
Walking the palms to the left side.
Again maybe relaxing the forehead on the mat.
Now feeling the right side body stretch.
Deep breaths here.
When the mind starts to wander,
Try to bring the awareness back onto the breath.
Allowing the thoughts to simply pass away.
And inhale back to center.
Again relaxing here.
A couple more breaths just to notice the pose getting slightly deeper than the first time around.
Inhale,
Gently lift up the head.
And slowly meet me in a tabletop position.
Knees are right beneath the hips.
Palms right beneath the shoulders.
We're going to do a couple of gentle cat and cows here.
With the inhale lift the sit bones.
Drop the belly.
Lift the chest.
Look up.
And then exhale around the spine.
Starting with the tailbone all the way to your neck.
Chin on the chest.
And inhale again.
Lifting the sit bones.
Looking up.
Shoulders away from the ears.
And do a couple of these on your own.
No need to rush.
So we want to go as gentle,
As slow as possible.
To really feel every little movement here.
Let's do two more on your own.
And next exhale we're going to come to neutral spine.
Okay.
Navel is gently pushed in.
We're gently pushing into the palms as well.
From here we're going to make letter C's with our back.
So with the exhale connecting the left hip and left shoulder.
And looking towards the left hip.
And then inhale center.
And exhale other side.
And inhale center.
And continue with a couple of these on your own.
Every time trying to look over your shoulder towards the hip.
Finishing with the right side.
And then coming to center.
Now we're going to connect these movements into circles or figure 8's with our body.
So if this is uncomfortable for you,
You can also do the cat and cows.
Or start to circle with your hips,
Chest and head in one direction.
Making figure 8's.
You can close the eyes here if that feels good to you.
And let's slowly switch directions.
Okay,
Perfect.
And then with the inhale spine to neutral.
And slowly come onto sitting on your heels.
You can curl up the toes and come back onto your heels.
We're going to stay here for a couple of moments just to stretch those feet arches a little bit.
This might feel like we're not doing a lot.
That's maybe okay.
But we're also doing a lot.
Those feet can get really tense throughout the week.
With the shoes that we are wearing,
With the tension that we are experiencing every day.
That's always a really good thing to stretch them.
Okay,
You can untuck them.
And then again come onto sitting on the heels.
And we're going to slightly lean back.
You can place the palms behind you.
This might already be a lot.
Or if there is space,
You can lift the knees slightly up.
And maybe even come onto the elbows.
Stay here.
A couple of deep breaths.
Inhale and exhale.
Slowly lift back up.
Okay,
We're going to come back to tabletop.
And do thread the needle.
So again,
Coming into alignment.
Next inhale,
Right arm lifts up,
Look up.
And then exhale,
Thread the right arm under your armpit over to the left side.
Bringing the right shoulder beneath the left armpit.
Square the hips.
Maybe walk the left hand far away.
Maybe not.
Choose whatever variation feels good to you.
Lift the chest up to the ceiling,
Look up.
Deep breaths here.
If you press the right shoulder into the mat,
This will intensify the stretch.
Again,
At any moment in this class,
If it feels comfortable to you,
You can close the eyes.
This allows the mind to go inward.
Feeling the sensations of the pose from within.
And also observing the mind.
Okay,
Let's walk the left hand back in place.
Next inhale,
Lift the right arm back up.
And then exhale,
Bring it back down.
Okay,
Let's do the other side.
Inhale,
Left arm lifts.
And exhale,
Thread it over to the right side.
Pressing into that left shoulder.
Walking the right palm.
Lifting the chest up and looking up.
Keep the hips squared.
Deep breaths.
Always coming back to your breathing.
This is the biggest insight into how you are at this moment.
Is the breath tense?
Are you holding it in?
And how can you deepen it?
Walk the right hand back.
Inhale,
Lift the left one up.
And exhale,
Lower it back down.
Okay,
Let's come on to our bellies.
And into Sphinx pose.
So place the elbows right beneath the shoulders.
Push the pubic bone into the mat.
And next inhale,
Pull the elbows back.
And open the chest forward.
You can slightly tuck the chin in.
And stay here a couple of deep breaths.
See if you can notice what comes up in the mind as we have these moments of silence.
Where does the mind jump to?
And how does it escape the present moment?
If it does,
Inhale and exhale.
Relax.
Okay,
Forehead on the mat.
Extend the arms to the sides in a T-shaped position.
We're first going to bend our left knee.
Bring the left palm right beneath the left shoulder.
And then send the left foot over the right leg to the other side.
Opening the hips towards the ceiling.
You can flex the right foot and gently press into the left palm.
You can look slightly up if that is accessible.
Deepening the breath again.
And exhale,
Come back to center.
Now extend the left arm to the side.
Bend the right knee.
Bring the right palm right beneath the right shoulder.
And then slowly send the right foot over the left one to the other side.
Flex the left foot.
Raise the hips up to face the side or even the ceiling.
And stay here,
Relaxing the neck and head.
Feeling a deep stretch in your left shoulder.
Inhale.
And exhale,
Back to center.
Great job.
Both palms are now right beneath the shoulders.
Let's slowly lift up and come back to tabletop.
And then bring the right foot forward in between the palms.
And slightly,
Not slightly,
But lift up.
We're going to keep our palms right above the knee.
Navel is in,
Keeping the hips squared.
Exhale,
Slowly lower down into low lunge.
Shoulders away from the ears.
Look up.
Deep breaths.
So we're not going to enter into any advanced poses in this low lunge.
We want to keep this a restorative pose.
So if this is too much,
You can also come onto your fingertips.
And then lower the hips down.
Although we are bringing activity to our body,
We really want to keep it feeling relaxed for our body.
Inhale,
Slowly lift up.
You can now extend the front foot,
The front leg.
Flex the foot.
Square the hips.
Navel is in.
And exhale,
Forward fold.
Palms either on the thighs,
On the thigh,
Or on the mat.
Also,
If you have yoga blocks,
You can use them for support.
Bring them about here and then use them to slightly lift more up.
So,
Wherever you are,
Adapt the practice.
If you don't have yoga blocks,
You already probably know that I'm going to say,
Use whatever else.
You can use a book,
Books,
Multiple ones.
Whichever will help you ease the pose.
And inhale,
Lift up.
We're going to bend the front knee and send the back shin slightly towards the center of the mat.
Next,
Inhale,
Extend the arms,
Face the side of the mat.
And then exhale,
Right palm on the inner side of the right foot.
Inhale,
Left palm lifts up,
Look up.
Again,
Observing the breath.
Inhale and exhale,
Lower the left palm as well.
Bring the right palm to the outer side.
And let's switch feet.
So,
Right foot goes back and left foot goes forward in between the palms.
Inhale,
Lift up.
Palms above the knee,
Navel in.
And exhale,
Lunge down.
Hips stay squared.
Maybe the palms on the mat.
So,
Try to repeat.
When you're doing the other side,
Try to repeat the same thing you did on the first one.
Just to bring that more balance in the body.
And inhale,
Lift up.
Straighten the front leg.
Square the hips,
Flex the foot.
And exhale,
Forward fold into a half split.
Again,
Repeating the variation you did on the first side.
Next,
Inhale,
Lift up,
Bend the front knee.
Back shin goes slightly in.
Inhale,
Extend the arms.
And exhale,
Left palm on the inner side of the left foot.
Right palm lifts up.
Stay here,
Deep breaths.
Inhale and exhale,
Lower the right palm.
Left one on the outer side of the left foot.
Bring the left foot back where the right one is as well.
Let's sit on our heels and make our way to a cross-legged seated position.
So,
If you're sitting cross-legged here,
And the knees are really lifted up,
You can also bring a cushion and put that beneath your sit bones.
This will allow for a bit more comfort in the body.
Inhale,
Lift both palms to the sky.
And then exhale,
Send them forward,
Keeping the back long,
Walking the palms further away.
Similar to what we did in child's pose with our knees wide,
We're again going to sink the chest down.
Maybe we're going to stay all the way up here.
So,
This might already be a lot.
Maybe there is more space to lower down.
So,
It's really completely not important where you are in this pose.
What's important is to bring a nice stretch,
But also relaxation in the body.
Wherever you can keep a deep breath,
This is usually a good sign.
Exhale,
Try to relax into the mat.
And similarly to what we did in child's pose,
We're going to inhale here,
And then exhale,
Walk the palms to the right side.
And once again,
Feeling this time,
Maybe not as much a side body stretch as you might feel a stretch in your hip area.
So,
Even though it is similar,
Just by making slight variations,
We feel the stretch completely differently.
And inhale,
Center.
And exhale,
Walk the palms to the other side.
Again,
You might be here.
This is fine.
So,
Choose whatever variation allows you to stay for a couple of breaths,
And to deepen the breath as well.
Inhale,
And exhale back to center.
Okay,
One more inhale here.
And exhale,
Slowly walk the palms closer to you,
All the way back to sitting.
Okay,
I'm just going to face your side.
You can stay where you are.
And we're going to extend the legs and bring them wide.
Keeping the feet flexed,
Knees and toes facing the ceiling.
We're going to keep the thighs active as well.
Inhale,
Lengthen the back.
And then exhale,
Keeping the back long,
Slowly forward fold.
So,
The body might not be as warm as it usually gets when we start to cool down after a practice.
And you might notice that you are staying more up than you would usually find yourself in a forward fold.
And this is okay.
So,
You want to respect the body's boundaries.
Maybe coming onto the elbows.
Wherever you are,
Try to lengthen the back.
Every time you hear me mentioning deep breaths,
Try to notice before you deepen the breath,
Where was your breath at that moment.
So,
Use that as a reminder to check in.
Inhale,
Halfway lifting up.
And then exhale,
Bring the palms back in.
Now,
We're going to face our right leg.
Inhale here,
Lengthen.
And then exhale,
Forward fold towards the right leg.
So,
You might not move that much here.
You might stay here,
That's fine.
You might grab onto your foot,
Wherever you are.
Deepen the breath.
And relax here.
Inhale,
Halfway lift up.
We're going to keep our right hand where it is.
So,
Either on the foot or on the floor.
And then lift the left arm up and over our head.
Also,
Rotating the chest up towards the ceiling and looking up.
Your inner side of the palm is facing the mat so that the shoulder rotates outwards and away from the ear.
Lift up.
Let's now face the left leg.
Inhale,
Lengthen.
And exhale,
Walk the palms down.
Maybe they stay here.
Maybe you grab onto the left foot.
Inhale,
Left palm stays where it is.
So,
Either on the mat,
Grabbing onto the foot.
Lift the left,
The right arm up and over your head.
Opening the chest towards the ceiling,
Looking up.
So,
We're adding that side body stretch as well here.
Inhale,
Slowly lifting back up.
Okay,
Let's roll our shoulders in one direction.
Maybe the other one.
Gently start to bend the knees.
Bring the feet closer together.
Maybe shake it out a little bit.
And now we're going to bring the feet together and closer to our sit bones.
So,
You can bring them as close to the sit bones as they can get.
You're going to grab onto your feet as you're grabbing onto a book.
And then open the feet wide as you're opening a book.
Inhale,
Lengthening the back.
And then exhale,
Forward fold.
Wherever you can keep the back long,
This is where you're going to stay in this nice hip opener.
You might notice with every exhale,
If you didn't force too much in the beginning,
There is a bit more space.
There is a bit more space to move a little bit more down and forward.
But this only happens when we don't force the body,
When we allow the body to open up to us with every breath.
Okay.
Inhale,
Lengthen the back.
And then exhale,
Slowly,
Very slowly,
Come out of it.
And the best part,
We're going to slowly make our way onto our backs.
We're not yet at Shavasana,
Although we're not far away.
We're going to first do a couple of restorative stretches laying down as well.
So keep the knees bent,
Feet on the mat,
And then lift the right foot and bring it over the left knee,
Opening the right knee.
Bring the left knee in,
Holding onto either your thigh or onto your shin.
Keep the right foot flexed,
Stay here in this reclined pigeon pose.
Closing the eyes if that feels good.
Inhale.
And exhale,
Release.
Let's switch sides.
Right foot on the mat,
Left one lifts and over the right knee.
Flex the left foot,
Bring the right knee in and grab it onto wherever you grabbed the left one.
Relaxing your face muscles,
Your neck,
The shoulders,
And whatever else tends to get tense.
But you don't need it to be tense at this moment.
Inhale.
And exhale,
Release.
Lifting now both feet,
Not feet,
Sending the knees to the sides,
Grabbing onto the outer edges of the feet,
Happy baby,
Bringing the tailbone towards the mat.
Let's rock here left to right first,
Just to massage the back,
Bring that nice relaxation in the back area.
And then slowly finding stillness,
Gently pulling the feet down,
Pulling the tailbone down towards the mat.
Perfect.
Inhale here.
And exhale,
Release.
Bring the knees and feet together,
Shins about parallel with the mat.
Extend the arms in a T-shape position.
Inhale here.
And then exhale,
Knees to the left and look towards the right side.
Leaving the shoulders into the mat,
Feeling a nice stretch in your lower back.
Allowing with every breath the body to relax further.
Feeling all that remaining tension melt away from the body,
Breath by breath.
Inhale,
Making your way to center.
And exhale,
Other side.
And we're gonna either repeat the same twist or add a quad stretch to this.
You're gonna see in a moment.
So inhale,
Back to center.
Exhale,
Knees to the left,
Look towards the right.
The upper knee,
The right one,
Stays where it is.
You can bring the left palm and place it over the right knee.
And then send the left knee down towards the center of the mat.
And try to grab with your right hand,
Your right palm,
Onto the left foot.
So the left foot,
Both feet are extended actually.
And you can feel that nice stretch in your left quad.
So you're using your left palm to bring the right knee to the side to keep it where it is.
And try to twist a bit more to the right,
Looking towards the right side,
Bringing the right shoulder on the mat if it lifted up.
Closing the eyes,
Staying here,
A couple of deep breaths.
Inhale and exhale.
You can let go of your left foot,
Bring the left knee back where it was with the right one.
Extend both arms again in a T-shape.
Inhale,
Center,
And exhale,
Other side.
Repeating all of this on the other side.
Right palm on the left knee,
Right knee goes down towards the center of the mat.
And with your left palm grabbing onto the right foot.
Twisting to the left.
If this is too much,
You can always repeat the first twist that we did.
Good,
Inhale.
Exhale,
Slowly let go of the right foot,
Bring the right knee with the left one.
Extend the arms.
Inhale,
Back to center.
We're gonna hug our knees in for a couple of moments,
Rock left to right.
Again,
Using the opportunity to massage the back.
And before we enter Shavasana,
We're gonna do a nice relaxing breathing technique,
Which doesn't require us to lift up,
So we're gonna stay laying down.
You can bring the legs into a reclined butterfly,
So feet together on the mat,
And open the knees facing the ceiling.
Or rather,
Hips facing the ceiling.
We're gonna place our palms in different areas of our body,
And where we place our palms,
This is where we're gonna breathe deeply into.
So we're gonna start with our lower belly,
Very low side of our belly,
So all the way where the hips are,
You're gonna place both of your palms.
First,
Make any last wiggle adjustments to really relax the body into the mat.
And now we're gonna take a couple of deep breaths into where our palms are,
Feeling the gentle support of our palms as well.
Deep inhale here.
Try to really breathe into that area,
So feel that area lifting up as you inhale.
And then feel it deflating as you exhale.
Deep inhale.
Continue for a couple of rounds on your own.
After the next exhale,
We're gonna slowly allow the breath to flow naturally,
And move our hands slightly up,
So right above the belly button,
Still in the belly area,
Right below your ribs.
This is where we're gonna keep our palms,
And this is where we're gonna take the next couple of inhales and exhales.
So every time you inhale,
Really focus on lifting,
On inflating that part of your body,
And then as you exhale,
On deflating that part of your body.
Okay,
Let's begin.
Deep inhale into this middle belly area.
And exhale.
And continue on your own for a couple of rounds of breath.
Great job.
Breathing normally,
And now slowly moving the hands slightly up over your chest area.
So maybe one hand is more over the heart space,
The other one mirroring that space,
But on the right side.
You might feel your heartbeat here,
You might not,
That's fine as well.
Let's take a couple of deep breaths here.
Inhaling,
Inflating this part of your body.
And exhaling.
Continue on your own for a couple of rounds of breath.
Allowing the breath to flow naturally.
And now slowly,
In your own time,
Coming into Shavasana.
So first maybe bringing the knees together,
And then extending the legs.
Feet are staying now,
Mat distance.
You're opening the palms towards the ceiling,
Moving the hands slightly away from the body.
Feel free to grab a blanket here if you need to keep the body a bit warmer.
And staying in this beautiful,
Relaxed state for a couple of moments in complete silence.
Slowly becoming aware of the body once again.
Taking a deep breath.
Bringing some dental movement by wiggling the fingers and toes.
Still keeping the eyes closed,
Still remaining within yourself.
Maybe lifting the arms up and over your head,
Taking a nice morning stretch.
Knees towards your chest,
And then slowly come onto the right side of the body.
In a curled up position here,
We're going to stay a couple of more moments.
And then in your own time,
Keeping the eyes closed or just slightly open,
Making your way to a seated position.
Hands in front of the heart space,
Bowing down in gratitude.
Taking a quick scan of your body,
Noticing how it feels now.
Noticing all the sensations.
Noticing the breath.
And let's take a deep inhale for Aum.
Aum.
I hope this restorative flow brought you some more inner peace,
More presence in the body.
Until our next class,
Have a beautiful rest of your day.
Namaste.
