And this practice will be yawning.
Yawning is an incredibly powerful natural urge that all mammals do,
And one that unfortunately we resist a lot of the time.
It's a beautiful adaptogenic practice,
Meaning that you can do it to feel more energized when you're tired,
But you can also yawn in order to down-regulate your system,
Meaning calm down when you need to sleep.
You can choose to stand or sit.
Make sure you have some space around you as you'll be moving your arms around.
So begin with your arms dangling by your side.
Now,
Alternately,
Make a fist with the right hand as you spread the palm of your left hand open,
And then shift,
Clench the left fist and open the right hand.
And do this a few more times,
Just closing one fist,
Opening the palm of the other hand,
And then pause.
Now,
Breathe in as you raise your shoulders up towards your ears.
And as you breathe out,
Just let them drop back down.
And repeat this two more times,
Breathing in to lift the shoulders,
Breathing out to release them down,
Breathing in to lift the shoulders,
Breathing out to release them down.
You might be yawning already.
If so,
Keep yawning.
And notice if there is a tendency to try to cover your mouth as you yawn.
Now,
Make a fist again with your right hand.
Extend your right arm to your side and keep raising it until it is about 45 degrees to your head.
Clench your left fist and extend your arm down.
So you're creating a long line from your left fist,
Which is pointing towards the earth,
Through to your right fist,
Which is pointing up to the sky.
Now,
Tilt your head to the right side towards your right shoulder.
Open your mouth,
Close your eyes,
Take a deep breath in through your mouth and see if a yawn comes.
If it doesn't,
That's totally okay.
Just relax your arms by your side and release the fists and just pause.
Now,
We'll do the same on the opposite side.
Make a fist with your left hand,
Start to lift and extend your arm out to the side up to about 45 degrees from your head.
Make a fist with your right hand and extend that down towards the earth.
So you have a long line from the right fist to the left fist.
Tilt your head to the left,
Close your eyes,
Open your mouth,
Take a deep breath in and let a big yawn come and then release and relax.
Relax your breathing.
Now,
Perhaps doing the same movement or perhaps just stretching the body and allow for more yawns to come.
So see if you can cycle through another four to six more yawns and really exaggerate them now.
Stretching your jaw as wide as possible,
Allowing tears to come.
So when you stretch your jaw muscles and relax,
The lacrimal glands around the eyes are massaged and tears are induced.
Continue with these yawns,
Allow them to flow.
And now,
As the yawns come,
Bring your lips together,
Keep the teeth apart,
But bring the lips together.
And even as the yawn comes,
Keep the lips together,
But allow teeth to part,
Allow your body to still stretch.
And doing this takes more slack from the throat muscles and lengthens and relaxes around the base of the tongue and further stretches and relaxes the neck,
Jaw and occipital region at the base of the skull.
And now do this for six more yawns,
Yawning but keeping just the lips together,
The teeth are separate and allow yourself to yawn.
Allow tears to come,
Allow the biggest stretches in your body to express themselves.
Two more yawns and now finally release.
And if more yawns keep coming,
Just allow them to express themselves,
That's totally okay.
But just notice how you feel.
