Grief Yoga Chair Class

The heart of Grief Yoga is about compassion. In grief, compassion and movement are so important because your body holds onto pain. All we’re going to do is move it through.

Grief Yoga blends movement, breath, yoga, and sound to help liberate the struggle to connect to more love, grace, and peace. Grief Yoga honors loss, but also recognizes your resilience to tap into your power to move through the grief.

A couple of things that will help the experience:

1. Find a 20 minute pocket of time you can commit to it.
2. Find a comfortable chair you can move in.
3. Just be open to this compassionate cycle of transformation.

Transcript

Hey, Paul Denniston here. Thank you so much for joining and thank you for just committing this time for you. I am honored to be your guide. When I created grief yoga, I really designed it for every body and I know that we all have injuries that we're dealing with and that's why this chair practice is such a perfect space to allow us to transform the struggle. We're going to begin the class in just a minute, So find a comfortable seated position. Find a chair and choose to commit to 20 minutes right here, Right now, For you. And just begin to get connected to your breath. And know that I am your guide in this practice. Connect to your intuition, Your inner teacher, To allow you to know if at any point what I offer you physically hurts, Then pull back and rest. But if there's an emotional struggle, Then move forward with a sense of inquiry and what can you move through? Again, Using movement, Breath, And sound. And take a deep inhale. And a deep exhale. Let's do that again. Deep inhale. And deep exhale. Let's begin. And take a deep inhale through your nose. And a deep exhale. Again, Deep inhale, Fill up. And a deep exhale. Now begin to just do a Sufi grind here, Making large circles within your torso. And as you observe your breath, Create space in the spine. Coming back to center, Now move the neck around, Large circles within the neck. Moving in the opposite direction, Large circles. Breathe. And now moving the head from side to side. And this can also be, What do you need to say no to in your life? As you stretch the neck. What do you need to say no to? Coming back to center. Bring one hand to your opposite knee. Inhale, Lengthen the spine. Exhale, Twist. Come back to center. Bring the other hand to the opposite knee. Inhale, Lengthen up. Exhale, Twist. One more time on each side. Twist Again. Twist And slowly come up to center. All right, We're going to release any tension right within our jaw. The way you do this is you grasp your palms right here and you inhale. And then just shake any tension in the jaw. Just kind of like. . . You can make a noise if you want or not. I do. And inhale and just shake any tension in the jaw. Shake it out through the hands. Almost like you were just kind of shaking out water if your hands were wet. Just kind of shake it out. And begin to lightly just begin to tap your core a little bit here. Just kind of lightly tap your core. Good. Bring your hands right over your chest with tight fists. And connect to what is the struggle or the darkness that you feel in your life, In your mind, Or your body. And I want you to hold your fists with dynamic tension. And connect to where it is that struggle that you are facing in your life something that is keeping you stuck I invite you with breath of fire, Do equal inhalation and exhalation through the nose to spark the fire. Take a deep inhale. Now push both elbows back. Connect to your roar. Inhale. Exhale back and again Oh! Huh! Haa! Huh! Huh! Oh, Three more. Haaa! Good. Shake it out. Move it through. Shake it out through the hands. It's a powerful way to open up right here within your throat, But also to connect you right here down to your core. Okay, This next exercise. Sometimes we might be really frustrated with the struggle and we want to know why this happened. Why did this loss happen? Why is this injustice or why is there pain in the world? We might not always have the answer to it, But I think it's very important for us to express it, To move it through. And this is called releasing the why. And if you don't know what the why is, That's okay. Embody this. The way you do it, You bring your hands right up, Palms facing forward, And you just say the word, Why? If you want to lift it up instead towards the sky, Why? You can do that here. And begin to find it now at your own pace. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Three more. Why? Why? Why? Bring your fists to your heart. Allow any pain that you feel is inside of you, You're going to channel it and move it and flow it in powerful ways. You inhale and then push it out in front of you. HAHA! Fists to the heart, Inhale, Release. Wow! Inhale, Let go. Oh! Haaa! Three more. Oh! Haaa! Oh good and then just shake it out shake it out move it through move it through Nice job. Hands. Hands out like wings, Begin to move them forward and back. Forward and back. Heart forward, Heart back. And just connect too. How can you be compassionate to yourself in this time of transformation? How can you be kind to yourself? Where does love live in this space? Really allow the love to open. Up and back. Slowly coming back to center. I invite you to place one hand now onto your heart and allow the other hand to be at your side with the palm facing up. And now just flow with your own breath. And see if you can just tune into your heartbeat here. And whatever pain resentment, Hurt. Anger struggle is weighing heavy in your life. When it starts to come up, I want you to acknowledge it and just like your hand is letting it move beyond you, Behind you. See if you can tune into your breath, Into your heart. And now place that hand right here on the belly. May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be content. And take a deep inhale. And exhale, Release your hands down. And in this space we're going to embody almost as if it were like liquid grace. And I invite you to just dip your hands almost as if they were going into like holy water. And then you inhale and lift it up. And then just slowly begin to bless your mind, Your body. And your spirit. And now keep moving, Inhale, Elevating, Lifting up. And then exhale, Just bless yourself. And if you want to in this, You can also just bless yourself with a couple of mantras here. May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be content. May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be content. I wash away the hurt. I wash away the pain. May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be content. Slowly bring your hands then right down to your knees and take a deep inhale. And a deep exhale Begin to move the knees a little bit here from side to side. And I invite you to place one foot over the opposite knee. And slowly begin to fold right over that thigh and knee. And just begin to breathe. If you still want to connect to those mantras, May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be content. Do you want to take that foot? Almost as if you were bringing it inside for a deeper stretch. You can do that too. When you're ready, Just release that foot down. Ground it in. Bring the opposite foot to that opposite knee. You're welcome to fold forward right over that thigh or knee. You can also pick that foot up if you did it on the other side and stretch the thigh. May I be peaceful. May I be happy. May I be content. Slowly coming back to center and bring your foot back down to the earth. And then bringing one foot over the opposite knee. Just squeeze those knees together. And then gaze over the shoulder and twist. Coming back to center, Place that foot down, Bring that other foot over the opposite knee. And then twist from the other side. Slowly coming back to center bring your feet down to the earth slowly fold forward again as a bracing almost like a waterfall and just kind of shake it out through the head shake it out through the hands Slowly one vertebra at a time. Take your time as you slowly begin to rise to sit. I invite you to place one hand on your belly and one hand to your heart. Just observe your breath as it flows in through the diaphragm. And out. And allow the hand to see if you can hear the heartbeat, Tune in and listen within. And now feel your neck stretching up. And almost like a string is lifting your crown up towards the sky and bring your palms together at your heart space. And take a deep inhale. And a deep exhale. Just take a moment and observe how you're feeling different than you were 15 to 20 minutes ago. It's amazing when we just give ourselves a little time commitment to honor that mind-body connection. It creates space to lift our spirit. Like grief, It lives within you and so does your love. And I am honored to have been your guide in this practice. And remember, This is a gift for you. You can come back and use it whenever you want. And thank you for letting me be your guide.