Yoga2Sleep At Steamboat Movement Festival

This session was recorded at the Steamboat Movement Festival in Steamboat, CO. Pam led the class with some light movement and a Yoga Nidra relaxation practice to round off the session. It is a 90-minute class.

Transcript

Let's find a comfortable seated posture. You can sit in easy pose or have your legs out in front of you. And as we inhale, Let's bring our arms up and overhead. Exhale, Bring your hands into Anjuli Mudra in front of your heart. Pressing the palms really firmly into each other. So just activating the biceps and the triceps and the arms. Maybe place the thumbs on the sternum. Pressing down into your seat, Your sitting bones, Feeling the ground or the floor beneath you. And then lifting up through the chest and kind of lifting that chest into the thumbs. Softening the shoulders, The jaw, The spacing between the eyebrows. And here you can close your eyes or simply lower your gaze, Your choice. And then releasing the hands down to the thighs, Palms turned up towards the heavens. Softening the muscles of the face. Maybe unclenching, Unparding the teeth. Taking this moment to notice the breath and how you're breathing. And notice as you sense the breath, If you can feel the heartbeat within the breath. Maybe you can feel your pulse through your hands, Your fingertips. So really tapping into that interoceptive awareness of the body. Taking a moment to set an intention for your practice this afternoon. It can be I just want to take a nap. It can be gratitude, Thankfulness. Throughout these next three breaths, Allowing that intention to settle within and out. And once you're satisfied with setting that intention, Begin to deepen your breath. So if you know dear good pranayama, Begin to use it as you breathe in fully through the belly, Side body, Ribs, Chest. As you exhale through the nose, Softening, Keeping the spine long but allowing the front of the torso to soften as the breath is released. Inhaling, Belly, Ribs, Collarbones lift up. Exhale as the chest falls, Ribs fall. Do that at your own pace. Inhaling fully and exhaling completely. If you'd like to add the ujjayi breath, Ocean sounding breath, You can do that at your leisure. The ujjayi breath is done with a slight constriction at the back of the throat. Maybe the chin is tucked just slightly. As you breathe in and breathe out. And three more rounds of this dear good pranayama and ujjayi if you've added that. And releasing that breath, That pranayama, Returning to the normal breath and allowing yourself to notice how you feel, Noticing sensation and noticing where in the body you sense feelings, Feelings, Movement, Energy, Prana. Simply opening your eyes or blinking your eyes open. Inhale, Take your arms out and up. And exhale down. We'll do that three more times and this time as we inhale the arms up, Look up towards the thumbs. Exhale, Bring the head down, Down towards your feet. Go at your own pace. Nice and calculated movements. This is a nice journey. No rush. Once you get to the exhale breath of that last breath, Keeping the fingertips on the ground and looking down, Getting the stretch in the cervical spine, The back of the neck. And take your head over to the right shoulder. Back to center, Chin comes in towards the chest. And taking that left ear over to the left shoulder. Back towards the center. Let's do that one more time. Right ear to right shoulder. Bringing the chin back to the center of the chest and the next breath. Left ear to the left shoulder. Coming back to center, Bringing the chin back up so that it's parallel to the floor. Then taking the left hand to the right knee and coming back to twist. Right hand comes back behind you, Lengthening and then twisting. And then noticing how your breath here is. If you'd like, You can do dear good party arm. Breathing in fully, Exhaling fully. As you exhale, Maybe that twist can become a little bit tighter. Like you can put the back of that left hand to the knee and gently press into the knee. Pressing a little bit more. Use that right hand and reach around the grab. And staying here for three breaths. And on that third exhale, Slowly unwind, Back to center. Inhale fully, Exhale twist to the other side. Right hand to the left knee, Maybe pressing the back of that hand into the knee. Keeping the spine nice and tall and breathing in and out. And final breath slowly unwinding, Twisting back to face me. And walking the fingertips out once again onto the floor. Inhale, Raising that right arm out and up. Exhale over. You may want to slide that arm out. You may want to see how far you can reach. But keeping both sitting bones on the floor, Firmly planted and grounded. So if you have to come up a little bit, That's perfectly fine. Inhale, Look up towards the ceiling. Exhale, Look down towards that left hand. Inhale, Look up. Exhale, Look down. One final time. Inhale, Look up. Exhale, Look down. And allowing that top arm to bring you up. We'll stay here for a moment. And if your legs are crossed, Just take them out for a moment. Stretch out and cross them in the other direction. Inhale, Take that left arm out and up. Exhale, Hands over. Voice the right arm. Pressing down equally into the sitting bones. As you inhale, Look up towards the ceiling. Exhale, Down towards the right hand. Exhale, Down towards the right hand. Inhale, Look up. Exhale, Down. Inhale, Look up. And exhale, Look down. And exhale, Look down. And allowing that exhale breath to slowly bring you up. Inhaling and exhaling, Release down. Great. And from here, We'll take both arms up. On an inhale, Exhale, Release down. And from here, We'll take both arms up. On an inhale, Exhale, We're going to hinge forward. Keeping the back nice and flat, We're just going to come one third of the way. So we're going around here. Inhale, Coming back up. Exhale, Come maybe two thirds of the way down. Keeping the back nice and flat. The arms are framing the ears. And come back up on an inhaled breath. Exhale, Come down. Try to keep the back flat. So we're hinging from the hips. And then bringing our hands where they're most comfortable. Keeping the back flat, And if this is where you are today, It's perfectly fine. If you'd like to slide out a little bit more, Slowly coming down. And then we'll find a little bit of balance through the back and across here. Returning to your breath. Perhaps returning to Durga. Moving up a little bit, Flattening the back. And keeping the right ear planted on the mat. Inhale, Bring that left arm up. You can look up if that's comfortable. And each hand up and then coming up. Keeping the right hand planted on the mat, Inhale, Bring that left arm up. You can look up if that's comfortable. Exhale, Bring it back down. Let's do that again. Let me get a good look. And exhale, Come back down. You can come down a little bit further. One breath here. And final exhale. The fingertips walk, The fingertips back in towards the midline. And bring the hands back to frame the hips, Extend the legs out, And shake the legs out. Point and flex the toes, The heels, Ankles. Notice the creaking and the cracking. Is that just me? Is it just me? No. And pressing out through the heel, We're going to find Paschimottanasana. So we'll start from Dandasana, Staff pose. If you need to remove that flesh a little bit away from the sitting bones, Go ahead and do that. So you can feel the floor beneath you. And sitting up nice and tall, So notice if the shoulders are rounded and coming away from the spine, Just lift up through the sternum, The collar bones, Placing the palms of the hands gently onto the thighs. Press out through the heels, Bring the toes in towards you. And so we'll do that same gradual movement that we did while we were seated. As we inhale, We're going to bring the arms up. Exhale, Open the arms, Fingertips spread wide like fans, Framing the ears. So as we hinge, We're going to do it from the hips and not fall or collapse the torso. Inhale, Lifting up, Keeping the spine nice and long. Exhale, Hinge one third of the way down. Inhale, Come back up. Exhale, Two thirds of the way down. Keeping the arms affrain the ears as we inhale back up. Exhale, Come down, Keeping the back flat to start. Maybe your hands just come onto your calves or the floor perfectly fine. And you can stay here, But if you'd like to go further, You can begin to slowly come down and round the back. So just working with what your body's saying and dictating for you today, Finding your breath. Take three more breaths. In breath, And out breath. Breathe in, Maybe get a little more breath. Breathe in, Maybe get a little length. Exhale, Release and sink down a little bit more. One final breath in. And the final breath out. And this time we're going to release our hands, So if they're around our feet, Bring those arms back up so that they frame the ears. Take your time with the flat back to rise up. Exhale, Bring the arms down by the sides. Beautiful. So we're going to come through to tables. You can cross your legs and come through the table, You can swing the legs around. You won't be here too long. Anybody with knee issues that need a blanket or anything like that? I'm saying that because I should have a blanket. But this is good enough, I am on carpet. So as we inhale, We want to take our hips over to the right and then look around our shoulder to see if we can see the hip. And then come back to center. Exhale over to the left. And then come back to center. So we're coming into lateral flexion here, We're making like C curves with the spine. Back and forth. Thank you, Laina. You're welcome. Back and forth. If your toes are tucked, Just untuck them, Placing the tops of the feet onto the floor. This is making this nice and relaxed. If it's more comfortable for you to tuck your toes, You can do that as well. Let's do this three more times on both sides. And one final time. And coming back to table in a flat back. So let's take that right leg back behind us. And we want to drop just the toes and the ball of the foot on the floor. And as we inhale, We're going to press our heel down to the floor. And then we're going to come back to center. And as we inhale, We're going to press our heel down into the floor. So we want to feel the engagement in the back of the leg, That nice stretch. And then exhale, Come towards me where you're just up on your big toe. Inhale, Press back. Exhale, Come forward. And one more time, Inhale, Press back. Exhale, Come forward. And then as you inhale, Come and find that medium spot, That happy medium. And then as you exhale, Lift that leg, Pressing out through the heel. I found a drishti point on the mat. On your next breath, Bring the left arm up. So we're coming into balancing cat. And keep the neck so that it's in line with the rest of the spine. So looking down, Looking at your drishti, If you'd like to find a bind here, You can do that. If not, Stay in balancing cat, Using the breath. You can have that bind, Release the bind back into balancing cat. And then as you exhale, Bring that left hand down to the floor. And then cross over your right leg. I mean, Cross over the right leg, Over the left, And then turn to look. And then if you can, Slowly slide down onto the forearms, Keeping that leg crossed. If you want to stay up on your hands, You can do that. Inhale, Bring that head back to center, Slide that leg back up. Slowly make your way back. There's my bones cracking. And take your knees wide, Big toes come to touch, Press back into child's. We'll stay here for a few breaths, Checking in, Sliding into child's. Releasing the breath. Releasing the breath. Notice if you're holding in your glutes, Thighs. And with each exhale breath, Allowing for the surrender of the holding. Allow for the release. Three more breaths. Make your way back up into table. Into table. Your left leg comes back behind you. And pressing out nice and strong before we drop the toe and the ball of the foot to the floor. Pressing down. And then inhale, Come forward just on to the top of the big toe. Exhale, Press back. Do that two more times at your own pace. And then come back to find that happy medium. And then lift the left leg. As you're ready, Bring that right arm up, Find balancing cat on the other side. And if you want to reach for the bind, Go ahead and do that here. Breathing. Inhale fully. And exhale. Use the breath to inform your movements. Energy. If you have that bind, Release back into balancing cat. And bring that left hand down to the mat. Cross that left leg over the right. And turn to look. You can stay up on your hands if this is comfortable. If you'd like to come down on those forearms, Go ahead and do so and slide that leg out a little bit. Your next inhale breath, Bring yourself back up. If you're on your forearms, Slide that leg back up a little and then find your way back to the table. Take the knees wide, Your toes come to touch. Press back into your chest. If you want to drop in and become aware of the body's inner nature, You take breaths that you soften the quads, The backs of the thighs. Soften the space in between the shoulders and the knees. Three more breaths. Arms are down by your sides, Bring them up, Palms pressing into the mat. And there you can either come back into table or simply tuck your toes and press up into the downward facing. Walk the dog in one leg and then the left. And then take your feet about as wide as your mat. And then walk the dog this length. You're going to see slight variation. And then straighten both legs. Walk your feet gently towards your hands, Coming into a forward fold. Inhale, Come up to a flat back, Placing the palms on the shins. And then taking the arms out into airplane, Keeping your back nice and flat as we breathe. Inhale up, Exhale palms come together above our heads, Coming into a baby back and bringing those toes in. Inhale, Come straight up into extended mountain, Opening the arms up. Imagine holding on to a beach ball, Shoulders are up now. Exhale, Bring the hands into Ajahnu here. Bringing the feet a little bit closer together, Find the katasana, Chair close. You can keep your palms pressed in. And just finding your seat here. So slowly taking your bum back so you're searching for that edge of the seat. And making sure that you look down so you can still see your toes and perhaps lift the toes so you can bring that energy into the heels. You can keep your hands here in prayer, You can release the hands in the arms above so that the arms right in the ears are your choice. Notice if you're breathing or not, Using your body on her. Maybe on that third breath, Sink a little bit. Third breath slowly rise up. Let's all bring our arms out into extended mountain. And hands together, Coming into steeple. We're going to take our feet about as wide as the mat. Look your up through the heart, Through the chest. Inhale, Point up. You're pressing down into the four corners of the feet. Exhale, Hand over to the right. So coming into the four corners. And now come back up. Come back up. Imagine drawing circles with your fingers. Let's just start with the arms. And a little more in your hips with the direction of the fingers. And this is a small one. And then it's a big one. Make the soles bigger. And when your fingers are pointed towards the back of the one, Pause and make the soles bigger. If your circles are really big, Try to slow them down a little and make the soles smaller and smaller. And then come back to your part. Hands together. And then you're going to come back up. And then you're going to come back up. And then you're going to come back up. And then you're going to come back to your first part. Hands come as a prayer. Take a moment to pause here. Tap into the entire reception of the body. Soften, Close your eyes if that would help. Take a deep breath into awareness, Into spaciousness. Release the hands down. Palms facing in, Coming to the full mountain. Imagine your fingertips squirming waves of sunshine and energy flying into the ground. Inhale, Lift up onto your toes. Exhale, Come down. Do that two more times. One more time. One more time. And then come back up. Come back up. And then come back up. And then you're going to take your arms out into T. And keep them flat back within an exhale down. Flat back all the way down. Inhale halfway up. Heart open to nothing. Palms come to the shins. Exhale long. You're going to step back into plank. And if you need to drop your knees, You can. You can do a knee down plank. It's your choice. Exhale slowly, Come down. You're going to find space once we land. So notice if your head is hanging, Try to bring it up a little bit and tuck the chin in. Next breath, Cross the arms over, Bring your head all the way down so the forehead is on the back of the head. Next breath, Bring the soles of the feet up so that they're facing the ceiling. So that means you have to bend your legs. And then we're going to windshield wiper the legs back and forth. Make sure you're mindful of your neighbors. Slowly bring your legs back down. Next breath, Lift your head up, Turn to the left and place your head back down. And lifting the head up, Turn the head to the right or the other direction. Coming back to center, Bringing the hands under the shoulders, Lifting up and pressing back into child's. And this time you can keep your knees together, But if it feels better for you to take them apart or hands or so, Slowly come down, Bring your arms down by the sides, Sink back into the hips. Next breath, Slowly rise up, And come into hero's, Where you can sit back on your heels. If that's not comfortable for you, You can take a blanket and stick in between your legs. Inhale with the thumbs, We're going to come up with your knees, Up. And exhale, Bring the arms down. Bring our hands to our hips. Extend that right leg out to the side. So we're going to find gate, Take our time. Drive that right arm, Right hand down that leg, Inhale, Bring the left arm up. You can keep your foot flat or you can turn on the heel and have the toes pointed up. So it feels better for you. So we're going to drop that left hand down to the floor and lift that left leg. So we're going to move back up, Arms come down, Bring that left leg in. Slide the left hand, Left arm down, Inhale, Bring that right arm up. This side feels a little different, A little tighter. Breathing, You can hear your arm, You gotta get it. Inhale, Come up, Bring that hand to the ground and lift that left leg up. And exhale, Bring that leg down, Slowly bring it up, Arms come down, Other hand in, Position back. Taking our hands to one side, Bringing the legs out. And moving the horses, Shaking the legs, Climbing, Pressing the toes, Push, Push, Push. Bending our legs, Taking the soles of the feet to the floor and taking the legs out a little bit. Bringing our hands a little bit back behind our hips, We're going to wipe our knees over to one side. You may want to add an arm and pause there for a moment, You feel the stretch. Pause. You may want to lift up and really stretch, Just finding a rhythm left for you. And if you're lifting up, Slowly come back to just arms, Just legs. Let the knees come up to face the ceiling, Extend those legs out, Pressing out through the heel. Get it nice and tall, Bring your hands in front of you. Inhale, Round down through the seat, Lift up through the chest, Exhale, And forward. You may want to do a back and back, You may want to do a back and back. You need to struggle with anything, You can just go ahead and do that. I'm just taking five breaths here. You may want to feel the tension, The hamstring, The glutes. Put your hands in towards the middle, And then walk over towards the right leg, And then come down. Keep your heels pressed out, Toes in the trajectory. Slowly lifting up, Locking the hands back and centre, And then come down across the left leg. And slowly lifting up, Bringing the legs together and shaking it down. So we're going to do two restorative postures, And if you have a blanket, I'd like you to get the blanket and roll it up into a nice roll. We don't have any bolts, We'll just use blankets. So that movement that we made when we were windshield wiping our knees, We're going to revisit that again. We're going to have this blanket at the safe room, In alignment. And so what we'll do is windshield wipe our knees over to the right, So we're going to keep our backs nice and straight. And I'm going to start twisting, The opponent will call me first. If you're familiar with that plan, You may have to make an adjustment in the blanket. And we're going to slowly come down, Like this. We're going to get our entire torso down on the floor, But it's really nice, Nice use of our sort of posture. So we're able to lay on our torso and unwind it. Just come down to the floor. You just have it. Softly close your eyes. If you want to turn your head in the opposite direction, As your knees are pointing, You can do that. That's too much in your head. Softly close your eyes and notice where you're holding. Your glutes, Hips, Your face and pants, Drawers tied, Releasing the tunnel from the room and up. Really sinking down into this blanket, Into this support. It's allowing gravity to take over. You don't have to fight gravity so much. Notice what you're holding on to. And allow yourself to release and let go. Okay. Take three more breaths. Slowly, Gently, Crush yourself up to make your way to the other side. Just taking your time. Exhale and lift. Just noticing how the side feels different. Just noticing if there's more or less holding here. Okay. Good. Okay. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Take three more breaths. Slowly and gently pressing yourself up. Just coming back to center. You will come into a supported fish. So if you have that rolled up blanket, Again, We're going to bring it to the base of the spine and just slowly roll down. We'll be here for a few minutes. If you're getting a little chilly and you want a blanket, Place one of your hands where we are and I'll bring you a blanket. Okay. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Take three more breaths. Slowly make your way over to one side with knees bent. Moving the blanket out of the way. Nice and gentle, Nice and slow. We're going to find our way to Shavasana. So we'll be here for the remainder of our class for yoga nidra. So if you need to get any jackets or anything to put on, Go ahead and do that now. You'd like an extra blanket. Okay. Let's all settle into this space in this place. Allowing the whole body to become heavy. Sinking down into the floor beneath you. So we begin our practice of yoga nidra by checking in with the breath. Checking in with sensations in the body. Thoughts in the mind, Emotions in the heart and spirit. Allowing your body to fully receive the movement that preceded this practice. And to fully receive this relaxation portion. By letting go. By surrendering to gravity and to the earth beneath. Take a deep breath in and release out. Settling in, Sinking deeper. Bringing your awareness back to the intention that you set at the beginning of practice. And notice how that resonates with you now. Maybe some things have shifted. Maybe some beliefs or ideas around that intention have changed. And then taking this next moment to give yourself full gratitude for practicing self-care today. For actually slowing down. Which in many ways can be harder. Can be challenging. Give thanks for this practice. Bringing your full awareness and attention to the body. Begin with the right hand. Noticing the right hand. The right hand thumb. Index finger. Middle finger. Ring finger. Pinky finger. The right palm. The back of the right hand. The right wrist. The forearm. Elbow. Upper arm. Right shoulder. Right shoulder blade. Noticing the left hand. Left hand thumb. Left index finger. Middle finger. Ring finger. Pinky finger. The left palm of the hand. The back of the left hand. The wrist. The left forearm. Elbow. Upper arm. The left shoulder. Left shoulder blade. Noticing the entire right arm. The entire left arm. Both arms together. Both arms together. Noticing the right foot. The right big toe. The second toe. Third toe. The fourth toe. Pinky toe. The top of the right foot. The sole of the right foot. The right ankle. The right calf. The knee. The thigh. The right hip. The right glute. Bringing your attention to the left foot. The left big toe. Second toe. Third toe. Fourth toe. Second toe. Top of the left foot. Sole of the left foot. The left ankle. Left calf. The knee. The thigh. The hip. The left glute. Noticing the entire right leg. The entire left leg. And now both legs together. Both legs together. Noticing the pelvis. The lower belly. The navel. Diaphragm. Chest. Collarbone. Front of the throat. The chin. The jaw. The lower lip. Upper lip. The nose. The tip of the nose. The left cheek. The right cheek. The left temple. The right temple. The forehead. The eyebrows. The space in between the eyebrows. The left eye. The left eyelid. The right eye. The right eyelid. Both eyes together. Both cheeks together. The whole face. Noticing the top of the head. The back of the head. The left ear. The right ear. And the back of the neck. Noticing the whole head. Noticing the middle of the spine. Noticing the middle of the back. Noticing the lower back. And the sacrum. Bottom of the spine. Noticing the entire torso. The whole torso. Bringing your awareness to the whole head. Both arms. The torso. Pelvis and glutes. And both legs. Noticing the entire body. The whole body. The whole body lying in stillness. The entire body receiving relaxation. The whole body. Gently shifting your awareness to the breath. Noticing your breath at the belly. As you breathe in, The belly rises. As you breathe out, The belly falls. Breath in, Belly rises. Breath out, Belly falls. And as you hold your awareness here at the breath, Begin counting each breath. From 27 down to number one. 27, The belly rises as you inhale. 27, The belly falls. 26, The belly rises and so on. At your own pace. At your own cadence. Count the breaths at the belly. Frustrated breath. And releasing the count of the breaths at the belly. Letting that go and taking your awareness of breath up to the chest of the heart space. Starting to notice breath there. As you breathe in, The chest rises. As you breathe out, The chest falls. Breath in, Chest rises. Breath out, Chest falls. Holding your awareness here at the chest, Begin counting your breaths from 27 down to number 1. Breathing in, Chest rises. And releasing the count of the breaths at the chest. And releasing the count of the breaths at the chest. Letting that go. Imagine now that you are going to a movie theater. And this is a movie you are seeing alone. As you walk into the movie theater, You have your choice of seats. You decide to sit in the seats. You decide to sit in the seats. You decide to sit in the seats. You decide to sit directly in the center with a full view of the screen. And as soon as you get comfortable, The theater goes dark. And you begin to see a small shape of some kind slowly emerge on the screen. You can't quite make it out. But you're not straining to rush to see what this is. You stay with it in presence, In the moment with your awareness. And as you allow yourself, Your body, Heart, And mind to steep into this presence, The figure on the screen becomes a little bit clearer, A little bit less foggy and faded. And as you move into the next scene, The figure becomes a little bit more foggy and faded. But you can wait. As you're in the moment, Full of this awareness, You know the moment will arrive. And so as this figure gets clearer and clearer, You begin to see that perhaps there's some letters. The screen is white and the letters are a little dark, But they're still a little foggy, A little faded. And then you finally see a word on this screen that says, Just for you. This word you see on the screen is just for you. As you are in full receipt of this message, This word, You now feel comfortable with getting up and slowly walking out of the theater, Noticing how you feel in this moment after receiving that message. And so now a few things will be mentioned. So allow for any visualizations, Thoughts, Beliefs, Images to surface as each of these things is mentioned. We'll begin with a giraffe. A red desert. A bluejay. Freshly cut grass. An apple orchard. A freshly peeled orange. Breaking waves on a beach. A waterfall. A pride of lions. Burning embers from a fire. A thunderstorm. A field of wildflowers. A bald eagle. A dense forest. A rosebush. A hummingbird. A sunset. A church on a hilltop. A full moon. A sunrise. A dog barking. A cat stretching. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. The sound of my voice. Slowly and gently bring your attention back into the room, Into the space. Start to move your fingers, Toes, Hands and feet, Wrists and ankles. Gently move your head from left to right. Slowly coming back into the room, Into the space. In your own time, Bending your knees in towards your chest, Rolling over to one side. And pausing here. Once again, Checking in with the body and the breath. Checking in with the heart and the mind. Your own time using that top arm and hand to gently press yourself up into a comfortable and supportive seat. And now, Your own time using that top arm and hand to gently press yourself up into a comfortable and supportive seat. In this moment to receive the full energy of your practice this afternoon. In a moment to sense the calm and serenity. Taking your hands into Anjali Mudra and bringing the thumbs to the third eye. It's giving ourselves honor for openness, Spaciousness, Intuition. Taking our thumbs and hands to our lips so that we can speak kind words. Taking on to remove your hands to the heart so that we can be open in compassion for ourselves first and then for others. The light in me sees the light in each and every one of you. Namaste. Thank you.