Mindful Yoga - Lying Down

If you practise mindful yoga regularly you will further develop body awareness and be able to focus attention on it. You'll recognise more easily striving and forcing by your mind and learn to know and accept your physical limits. In fact, mindful yoga is learning a new way of taking care of yourself. So please find a time and a place where you won't be disturbed and let the wisdom of your body tell you how much of each posture to do.

Transcript

For this yoga practice,

I invite you to find a time and a place where you can be by yourself,

Where you won't be interrupted,

And where you can lie down on the floor,

On a mat or on a thick rug.

It is important in doing this practice not to think of it as a sort of a competition with yourself,

Or with anybody else.

It is important not to try too hard,

As if it was a matter of achievement and success or failure.

It is more important to honor your own body and its limits.

The wisdom of your body will tell you how much of each posture to do,

And where not to do the posture.

If you do find any of the postures are too difficult,

Then either sitting them out,

Simply imagining your body being in this posture,

Or moving up to the edge of the posture,

And just remaining there,

Wherever your body winds up,

Just exploring the edges of a posture.

You'll find that if you do this practice regularly,

The limits of what your body does will change from day to day,

And there's no need to push against those limits at all.

As we do this practice,

Exploring sometimes doing the stretches with the eyes open,

And sometimes with the eyes closed,

And noticing the difference when your eyes are open and when your eyes are closed.

So now lying on your back,

Letting your feet fall away from each other,

With your arms lying by the side of your body,

The palms facing up if that feels comfortable to you,

And focusing now on the sensations as you breathe.

Zooming in on the sensations of breathing down in the lower abdomen,

The rising of the abdomen on the in-breath,

The falling away on the out-breath,

As if you are floating on a raft in the sea,

And the in-breath was taking you up,

And the out-breath letting you down,

And letting go on the out-breath of any tension there may be.

And now when you're ready,

On an in-breath,

Moving the arms,

So the hands come up above your head,

And end up stretched above your head,

And stretching out as far as the fingers will go,

And the heel stretching out in the other direction.

So your body is stretched here,

And you're aware of the sensations of this stretch,

And continue now to breathe,

And noticing the sensations all the way down to the arms,

And the armpit,

And the trunk,

And the legs,

As your fingers are stretched out above your head,

And the heels are stretched out in the other direction,

And as you breathe,

Noticing if there are any changes in the sensations.

And then when you're ready,

On an out-breath,

Letting go of the stretch,

And allowing the arms to come back over your head,

And very slowly coming back to rest by the sides of your body,

With the palms up if that feels comfortable,

Noticing the consequences of having done that stretch,

Tuning in to the sensations in your body,

In touch with the sensations,

Whatever they are.

And now when you're ready,

Sliding up the feet towards the buttocks,

So that you end up with the knees pointing towards the ceiling,

And the legs in the shape of an upside V,

And the feet are about hips-width apart,

And we are going to do some pelvic tilt.

So in this position,

You notice that the lower back is in contact with the mat or the floor,

And we're going to tilt the pelvis,

So that the tailbone comes down onto the mat,

And you notice that the effect of doing that is that the small of the back comes off the mat,

And makes an arched shape,

So that if you want to feel with one hand,

You can put the hand under the small of the back,

In the arch that formed,

And holding that position and breathing with it for a few moments,

And taking the hand away,

And noticing what happens if you tilt the pelvis in the other direction,

So the small of the back comes down onto the mat,

And the pelvis is still on the mat,

But the tailbone is now coming off the mat,

Very slightly,

And holding that for a few moments,

And then tilting back,

So the tailbone comes down,

And the arch is opened up in the small of the back again,

And now just gently rocking from one position to the other,

In your own time,

Perhaps in time with your breathing,

And then when you're ready,

Coming to rest,

And drawing the knees right up towards the chest,

And moving your arms around to take hold of the thighs,

Underneath the knees,

And hugging your thighs to the chest,

And you may rock gently from side to side,

To massage the muscles on either side of your spine,

And if you like,

You can bring your head and shoulders up off the mat,

Towards the knees,

So that you are rocking gently here,

With the head towards the knees,

And you might try circular motions,

As well as the side to side motion,

Then when you're ready,

Coming to rest,

Moving the shoulders and the head back down onto the mat,

Letting go of the thighs,

And letting the legs stretch out again onto the floor,

And tuning into the sensations in the body,

The after effects of doing these stretches,

And now drawing up the left knee,

And reaching out with your arms,

And holding on to the left thigh,

And squeezing it towards the chest,

And however far it comes,

That is as far as it needs to go,

For you at this moment,

And then perhaps moving up the head and shoulders again,

Towards the knee,

And seeing where it winds up,

Continuing to breathe,

And noticing the effect of these stretches on your breathing,

And when you're ready,

Moving the head and shoulders back down onto the mat,

And letting the left leg stretch out back onto the mat,

And noticing the after effects of the stretch,

And perhaps the difference between one side of the body and the other,

One leg and the other,

And then when you're ready,

Moving the right knee up,

And again reaching out with your arms and hands,

Moving your arms around the thigh of the right leg,

And squeezing it up towards the chest,

Gently squeezing it,

Not forcing it in any way,

Moving up to the edge of the stretch,

And not trying to move beyond it,

Or compete with yourself,

If you want to,

Bringing up your head and shoulders towards the knee,

And then again,

When you're ready,

Moving the head and shoulders back down onto the mat,

And letting the leg stretch out again,

And back in the starting position,

Lying on your back with your hands at your sides,

And the legs stretched with the feet falling away from each other,

Breathing,

What sensations are here in this moment,

And as best you can,

Allowing yourself to be just as you are,

Allowing your body to be just as it is.

Now when you're ready,

Please turn over and coming up onto all fours,

And in this position,

The hands and the palms of the hands are directly underneath your shoulders,

And your knees about hips width apart,

Are directly underneath the hips,

And the position is something like that of a table with four legs,

And remaining here for a few moments and breathing.

We're gonna do some cat stretches.

So on an out-breath,

Let the back come up as if you were a cat,

Arching its back,

Let your head come down between your arms,

And really giving your back a good stretch on this out-breath,

And then on the in-breath,

Letting the head come up,

And the back comes down,

So the abdomen and the belly are hanging here closer to the ground.

So it's the opposite of the arching,

It's almost arching in the other direction,

But not overdoing it.

And then on an out-breath again,

Moving up into another cat stretch,

Arching the back,

The head comes down between the arms,

And then on an in-breath,

Letting the back come down,

And move slowly into the reverse position,

And the head and shoulders will come up,

And you may be able to look out ahead of you.

So once more,

Breathing out and making a cat stretch,

Breathing in,

Coming in the other direction,

Breathing out,

Stretching,

Arching the back,

And now doing this in your own time.

Arching the back on an out-breath,

And then moving the back into its other position on an in-breath,

And now coming back down and back into the table posture,

And from this posture,

Stretching out the left leg behind you,

And stretching out also the right arm in front of you,

And you can look out over the fingers of the right hand,

And this is a bit of a balancing posture.

And you may notice that your body moves from moment to moment to help you maintain your balance,

And just remaining here breathing,

And then when you're ready,

Bringing down the leg,

And bringing down the hand,

And doing another cat stretch,

Letting the head come down,

Breathing out,

And giving your back a good stretch,

And then letting the belly come down again,

And this time stretching out the right leg behind you,

And stretching out the left arm in front of you,

And looking out over the fingers of the left hand,

And balancing,

Breathing,

And then coming back down,

And giving yourself another cat stretch.

So once again,

Arching the back,

Letting the head come down,

Breathing out,

And then when you're ready,

Bringing the belly back down again,

And then coming back down,

And lying on your back on your mat,

Back in the starting position.

So lying here now,

Noticing the after-effects of doing the cat stretch,

And perhaps doing some pelvic tilts again,

Bringing the knees up towards the ceiling,

And the feet about a hip's width apart,

And rocking the pelvis,

Tilting the pelvis,

First in one direction,

And then the other,

The tailbone coming off the mat,

And then the tailbone going onto the mat,

And rocking in your own time.

And you may notice if your body is quite loose,

Lying on the mat here,

But your whole body moves,

As you tilt the pelvis in this way,

Then coming to rest,

And drawing the knees right up,

And hugging the thighs to the chest,

And rocking from one side to the other,

And gently massaging the muscles on either side of the spine,

And if you want to,

Bringing the head and shoulders up towards the knees,

Or simply letting them lie on the mat,

And rocking from side to side in this way,

And then when you're ready,

Coming to rest,

Back into the starting position,

Lying flat on your back,

On the mat,

With your hands by your side,

Feet stretched out,

Lying here,

And breathing,

In touch with your body,

Allowing it to be just as it is in this moment,

Nowhere to go,

Being here with your body,

And in your body,

Aware of the sensations in the whole of your body,

The sense of coming home,

Allowing your body to be just as it is,

Allowing yourself to be just as you are,

And bringing this sense of calmness with you,

As you end this practice,

And resume the activities of your day.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🎈🥂🎈🥂🎈Thank you so much for the wonderful yoga session 🌸🌸🌸it gives me smiles and pleasure 🗺️happy new year 🕉️