Mercury Retrograde In Cancer Yoga [Soothing Vocal Guidance]

A 20-minute Mercury Retrograde in Cancer Practice, guided entirely by a soothing voice. This audio was originally created as a video sequence. Because the vocal cues are intentionally gentle, soft-spoken, and detailed, I have made it available here as a pure, audio-only experience with no background music. There is no need to look at the screen. Simply close your eyes, stay on the mat, and let the soothing ASMR-like quality of the guidance hold space for your practice.

Transcript

Hey y'all, Nico here. Welcome back to my channel and if you're new here, Thanks for joining me. I'm Nico. Today's practice is for Mercury retrograde in Cancer. This is happening from June 29th to July 23rd. The energy of this retrograde is emotional reflection and communication, Stepping away from strict logic and revisiting old memories or lessons. We're going to tap into the sacral chakra since this is such an emotional time, And the heart chakra as well, All related to opening our hearts, Regulating our emotions. So let's go ahead and get started. So we're going to use a hand mudra called the Hridaya Mudra, Which connects directly to the heart. So to do the Hridaya Mudra, We're going to fold down our index finger to the base of our thumb. And then we're going to touch the tip of our thumb to the tip of our middle and ring finger. And we'll let the pinkies extend. So it looks like this. Go ahead and rest your hands on your knees. Let's take a deep inhale through the nose. And exhale out the mouth. Second deep inhale through the nose. And exhale out the mouth. One more deep inhale through the nose. And exhale out the mouth. Bleh. Come back to the natural breath. See if you can find a steady breath in and out of the nose. As we prepare our minds and our bodies for this mercury retrograde and cancer practice. Tapping into the emotions. Tapping into the heart. Using this as a time of power and strength. And love rather than negativity. Let's take an inhale. Exhale, You can release the fingers. We'll take the arms. Bring them out wide. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Extend the arms up towards the sky. Exhale, Twist to the right. Bring your left hand outside of your right knee. Let your right fingertips rest behind you. Look to the right or over the right shoulder. Let your shoulders be nice and relaxed away from the ears. We'll come to center. Inhale. Exhale drop the arms wide Inhale up again. Exhale, Twist to the left. Same thing. Right hand outside of left knee. Left fingertips rest behind you. Look to the right. Or over the right shoulder. Or look to the left, Rather, Or over the left shoulder, The opposite way as before. Good, Come back to center. Inhale, Extend the arms up. Exhale the arms out. Inhale up. Exhale, Twist right. Good. I'm gonna find a flow here. Inhale, Center again. Excel out. Inhale, Center. Exhale to the low. Twist to the left. Let's do one more time each side. Inhale, Sense our arms come up. Exhale out. Exhale, Twist. Good, One more time. Inhale up. Exhale out. Inhale up. Exhale twist. Good. Inhale, Center again. Exhale, Release the arms. Let's bring the bottoms of our feet together. And we'll come to bound angle pose. So bottoms of the feet together, Knees bent. You can grab the ankles or you can cup the feet with the thumbs inside of the arches of the feet. Let's start with a nice long spine. Inhale, Exhale, Start to hinge forward. You can keep your back nice and flat here. Keep your gaze forward, Chest open. Just come down as much as you like. Inhale in Baddha Konasana, Mountain Angle. Exhale. Come up to a seat again. We're gonna extend our right leg out to the side and bend into our left knee, Letting the bottom of the left foot rest up against the inside of the right thigh. We'll reach the arms up, Inhale. Exhale, Square your chest with this right leg. Fall down over the right leg for Janusha Shasana, Head to knee pose. You can let your fingertips come to the ground, Or if you want to grab the toes, You can. And you can let your spine around here. You can relax down. We'll take an inhale. Exhale. Roll up to a seat. We're going to take this left hand, Rest it behind us. We're going to sweep this right arm up and back as we lift our hips, Kind of finding this baby wild thing pose, Reaching that right arm up, Reaching those hips up. Inhale. Exhale, Lower the hips back down. Good. Let's bring the right leg in and extend that left leg to the side. Bottom of the right foot and rest up against the inside of the left thigh. Flex the left toes, Sweep the arms up, Inhale. Square chest with the left leg. Fall down over the left leg. Grrrr. Take a inhale. Exhale, Roll up to a seat. We'll take the right hand, Rest it behind us. Sweep this left arm up and back, Lift the hips. Reach that left arm. Good. Inhale. Exhale, Lower those hips back down. We're going to make our way up to hands and knees now. So however you get there is fine. Bring your hands underneath your shoulders, Your knees underneath the hips. And we'll do Cat-Cow here, Marjaryasana and Bidalasana. So take an inhale, Arch the spine, Lift the chin, Put the tailbone up and away. Exhale, Round the spine, Tuck the tailbone under, Bring the chin down to the chest. Inhale, Arch. Exhale round. And our arch. Exhale round. Good, Do a couple more rounds on your own. Ugh. Come back to a neutral spine again. Let's move into Pigeon Pose, Ekapada Rajakapotasana. So we're going to take the right knee and slide it up in between the hands. Now your shin can be parallel with the front edge of your mat, If that works for your body. If not, You can have a deeper bend in your knee. Start to extend that left leg back. And we'll come up on the fingertips, Rolling the shoulders back here. If there's a lot of space between your hips and the ground, You can tuck a pillow underneath your hips. If this version doesn't work at all, Come to seated pigeon. So you'll just cross your right ankle over your left knee as your left foot rests on the ground. That works just fine. Roll our shoulders back. Nice and open in the heart. Couple more breaths here. You inhale, Exhale, Extend this left leg forward. Then we're going to take the right foot and cross it over the left leg. Go ahead and flex that left foot. You could take this left arm, Wrap it around the right leg. Right arm rests behind you and bring your gaze over to the right. Go into lord of fishes pose. Half-Lord of Fishes pose. If you want a little more, You could bend that bottom knee as well if it feels okay. Grrr. Take a inhale. Exhale. We'll release everything and come back up to a table position again. This time we'll slide the left knee up in between the hands. Extend that right leg back. Remember, You could come to your seated version if you like. Staying nice and square on the hips. Roll those shoulders back, Chin parallel to the floor. Ugh. We'll take it in here. Exhale. Go ahead and shift your weight into the left hip as you extend the right leg forward. And then we'll step this left foot over to the right side of the right leg. Take this right arm, Wrap it around that left leg, Around that bent knee. Left hand rests behind you. Look to the left or over the left shoulder. If you want a little more, You could bend that bottom leg as well. We'll take a inhale. Exhale, Come back to center. Let's extend both legs to straight. Sweep the arms up, Inhale. Exhale, Hinge forward or seated forward bend, Paschimottanasana. You can let the fingertips come alongside your legs or you can grab the toes. And feel free to have a bend in your knees if you need to, Because this is an intense stretch. Take an inhale. Exhale, Go ahead and lower down a little bit further. You can let your head fall down. Feel free to let your spine round. Take a inhale. Exhale, Roll back up to a seat. We'll bend the knees to bring them flat on the ground. Scoot the hips close to your heels. We're just making our way down to our back. So coming down to your back with your knees bent. And then we're just gonna let our knees fall out wide for supta baddha konasana, Recline bound angle. Now if this is super intense, You can scoot your feet out further so it's not as intense. You can just let your arms rest at your sides or you can rest them on your belly if you like. And we'll take an inhale. Exhale, Use your hands to help bring your knees back together and then hug them into your chest. Squeeze yourself into a ball in your hold. Exhale, Release to Savasana. Feet reach towards the bottom corners of your mat. Arms rest at your sides, Palms facing upward. Or you could come to a seated position if you prefer. Let's come back to the breath. Deep inhale through the nose. Exhale out the mouth. Second deep inhale through the nose. And exhale out the mouth. One more deep inhale through the nose. And exhale out the mouth. Bleh. Come back to the natural breath again. Releasing any control over the breath Just letting yourself be relaxed in this moment. Fully letting go. And surrendering to the present. And while you're here, I'll say some affirmations to you, Which you can repeat silently to yourself or aloud. I am in control of my emotions, Thoughts, And actions. I release old stories knowing that they don't define me. I trust my wisdom and intuition to guide my decisions. If you'd like to stay here longer, I invite you to pause this audio now. Otherwise, Begin to wiggle your fingers and toes, Coming back into your body and back into the room. And if you're laying down, Roll to your favorite side using your arm as a pillow. Taking a moment here to reflect on your practice. And to extend gratitude towards yourself for this act of self-care and self-love today. If you're not there, Go ahead and make your way up to a comfortable seat once again. And together we'll sweep the arms up overhead. Inhale, Let the hands meet. Exhale, Float them down to heart center. Namaste.