20 Minute Yin Yoga To Open And Clear Your Lungs

This yin yoga practice is beginner friendly and the perfect introduction to yin yoga. In this practice, we'll do a series of poses to help you find more space and mobility in the ribcage and upper spine, so that you feel open and clear in your lung space. This is a kapha-balancing yoga practice.

Transcript

Welcome to today's practice.

We're going to clear our lung space,

Open our hearts,

And release the energy that is known in Ayurveda as kapha,

And that's the earthy liquid energy that can keep us a little stuck.

Today's practice,

You'll want your yoga mat as well as a block.

If you don't have a yoga block,

You can use a large book or even a rolled up towel,

Just something to help elevate the chest.

Other than that,

Please just take care of your body as we move through our practice.

You can always adjust your shapes so that you can find some comfort and take care of your body as it is in the unique expression it has today.

So let's get ready to get started.

We're going to start with a block on the ground,

And it's going to be underneath our chest as we lay down on that block.

So the block will come underneath the rib cage behind the heart,

Between the shoulder blades.

Again,

You can use a book or a blanket or towels.

And you'll lay down with the hips on the ground,

The block underneath the chest,

And then the crown of the head or the back of the head will return to the earth as well.

If this is too much of an angle on your neck,

You can put some more padding,

Again,

Another block,

A book or a blanket,

A towel underneath the head as well so that the head isn't tipped back.

But when you land here,

When you find a place that's comfortable,

You can have the palms face up.

And there's a couple options for the legs.

If you need some more support,

Bend the knees and have the feet on the ground.

A little less support will be extending the legs long down the mat.

And then the least amount of support,

The most open shape,

Will be bringing the soles of the feet together and the knees wide.

Again,

If you don't have a block or if this is really uncomfortable for you to be open in this way,

Just remove that padding underneath the heart and lay flat on your back.

That's totally fine.

Once you find your comfortable position,

Once you are set up,

Let's start to breathe.

Breathing mindfully,

Inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.

Inhale through nose and exhale through mouth.

Inhale through the nose.

Inhale through mouth.

Exhale through mouth.

And start to breathe in and out through the nose.

Keep your attention the center of the heart.

Feeling the lung space get just a little more spacious,

A little more room.

Noticing the rib cage relaxing open,

The muscles between the ribs softening,

Releasing.

So you're removing any sense of solidness and solidity that is in the heart space and letting it liquefy and relax and soften,

Become more pliable.

The shift is aided by the attention on the breath and the slow steady movement of the inhale and exhale,

Constantly flowing here.

Set an intention here in your practice to relax,

To release,

To move past anything that is feeling solid and heavy in your world,

To see its malleability.

Knowing that that breath always moving in and out is a reminder of how it is possible to always be attuned into that movement,

That ability for change.

Take another inhale and exhale.

Your knees are wide,

You can take the hands to the outer thighs to draw the legs back in together.

And then exhale,

Exhale,

Exhale.

And then exhale,

Exhale,

Exhale,

Exhale.

Your knees are wide,

You can take the hands to the outer thighs to draw the legs back in together.

And everyone will slowly roll onto the side,

Off of the blocks and press up to come to your seat.

We're gonna meet in tabletop at hands and knees.

So take your time to get here.

We come to hands and knees,

Hands directly underneath the shoulders,

Knees directly underneath the wrists.

Inhale to drop the belly and open the heart,

Cow pose.

The gaze can lift slightly.

And on the exhale,

Round the spine,

Tuck the chin for cow.

Inhale,

Drop the belly,

Open the heart.

Exhale,

Cat,

Round,

Round,

Round the spine.

One more time,

Belly drops.

Round,

Exhale.

Come back to your neutral spine.

And you're gonna step the right foot forward.

So you come into a little lunge here.

The right foot is gonna come in between the two hands.

And here,

See if you can rest the right shoulder on the right knee.

So it's almost like you're hanging the body on the right thigh and the right leg.

And the arms can just drape down,

The head drapes down.

There's a little rounding through the spine here.

You feel a little stretch through the front of the left leg as you are in this lunge shape.

The head relaxes,

The heart relaxes,

As if your upper body is a coat and the right knee or thigh is the little hook,

The little coat rack.

If this doesn't feel comfortable,

You can always bring the right hand to the inside of the right foot and simply tuck the head and relax the upper body here.

When you find your space,

You resolve to stay.

Maybe now feeling more spaciousness in the back of the heart,

The back of the rib cage.

It's not just the front,

It's also the sides and the back that need to stretch and liquefy and create space.

Keep steadily breathing so that the energy can continue to move.

It doesn't get stuck.

And slowly press into the hands to create a little lift in the head and the upper body and step the right foot back so that you're back in hands and knees.

Take any little movements you need here,

Whether it's a child's pose,

Cow and cat,

Little body circles,

Take a moment to undo the right side.

And then you find stillness once again back in your tabletop,

Getting ready for side number two.

So the left foot's gonna step forward.

The left foot can come in between the hands and you can just hang the left shoulder on the left knee,

Letting the head drop,

The arms relax,

The upper body soften.

Again,

If that's not right for your body,

Hands can be on the inside of the left foot.

A new side here,

So notice,

Be present to this side,

This variation,

This experience.

And you trace the breath as it moves through the body.

Feeling the body liquefy,

Believing any sense of stuckness,

Solidness of heaviness.

Feel softness around the shoulders,

The neck,

The chin.

Sometimes as we relax the rib cage,

The tension can move to other parts of the body.

Let it continue to move until it exits the body.

Take a full inhale,

Long exhale.

Press into the hands to lift the torso and draw the left leg back,

Your back at hands and knees.

Again,

Any movements you need,

Child's,

Cat-cow,

Body circles,

Take a few moments to undo that side.

And then we're gonna meet on our bellies,

So draw the body forward,

Come onto your belly.

We're gonna take Sphinx pose,

So what's gonna happen is your elbows are gonna come underneath the shoulders,

The forearms are gonna be parallel on the ground in front of you,

Fingers pointing towards the front of the room,

And your chest lifts up off of the mat so that your gaze comes forward.

It's just like a Sphinx,

You press into the forearms,

Elbows underneath shoulders,

Heart is a little lifted,

Gaze is forward.

You wanna make sure those forearms are parallel and if it feels better for your body,

Let the head hang forward here,

Find a little more ease.

But there is still some strong support in the arms,

Helping to hold the chest open.

Really notice the spread of space across the front of the heart.

When our hearts open and face forward like this,

It's like saying,

Here I am,

Ready to seize the day,

Ready to move forth,

The opposite of stuckness.

So feel that pride in the front of the heart.

Now you can choose to stay right here.

If you'd like to go a little deeper,

We're gonna take it into seal pose.

So for seal,

You'll keep your elbows where they are,

But the hands are gonna turn out towards the corners of the mat so they turn out about 20,

30 degrees,

And then you start to press into the hands to straighten the elbows.

Now the elbows start to lift up off of the mat until your arms are straight.

Once you have the arms straight,

Feel the shoulder blades draw together and the heart drop a bit and the head relaxes.

So arms are straight,

You're propped up on the hands,

Shoulder blades are together as the heart relaxes forward and the head drops down.

Again,

You can always choose to be staying in your sphinx pose instead,

Honoring your body and your lungs here today.

Bent into this shape,

Can you feel the breath flow and move?

Feel the movement inherent in the stillness.

You are never stationary or stuck or still.

Take a full inhale,

Full exhale.

If you're in seal pose,

Take the elbows back down to the earth.

Everyone's gonna draw the hands together,

The elbows wide,

And place the forehead on the hands,

Or you can draw the arms a little closer together so that the hands rest on top of the elbows and then the forehead will rest on the arms.

So on your belly,

Forehead and arms.

And here,

I invite you to draw your attention to the abdomen,

To the diaphragm,

To the depth of your breath,

To how fully it saturates your body.

And then,

Usefully,

Just gently roll over onto your back.

It doesn't have to be a big movement.

You just gently roll onto your back to find your Shavasana.

Shoulder blades tuck underneath you,

Palms face up.

And here,

Feeling the energy move through the body.

Maybe you'll imagine that you're laying in a very,

Very shallow river,

Just the gentlest stream,

And that river is drawing water from the feet all the way up to the crown of the head,

Flowing through the body all the way up to the head and past.

Ensuring that even as you lay here still,

The energy flows.

You are not stuck.

You are not stuck.

You can choose to stay here as long as you'd like.

If your practice isn't complete,

You can bring the breath in a little deeper,

Start to wiggle the fingers and toes,

And bend the knees,

Walk the feet closer to the hips,

Roll to the side,

Press into the hands to come to a seated position.

Eyes closed here,

Hands can press together at the heart.

Take a moment to reconnect to the center of the body,

To the center of the lung space.

Recalling your intention to move forward,

To move past any feelings of congestion or stuckness.

Continuing that intention as you move through the rest of your day.

The light in me very humbly bows that same light in each one of you.

Thank you for joining and for practicing.

Namaste.

Reviews

Beautiful practice, to Open the Heart, to feel more Space

Very helpful for lung congestion. Thank you. Namaste🙏

Hello beautiful 🌼🌼🌼🌼Thank you so much for the wonderful yin yoga practice 🌼☀️I’m feeling light and sunny and the day is waiting for me ☀️🌼be well 🙏Namaste

Just what I needed. Thank you! 🙏Namaste

Great heart opener ❤️ Namaste🙏🏼🌹

I found this helpful and soothing. You have a wonderful voice!

Absolutely beautiful! Thank you so very much for creating this practice ❤🌻🌺

Thank you so much! Feeling more fluid in mind and body now 💕🙏

As a Yin teacher, I get to teach Yin but don’t get to ‘do’ Yin nearly enough. This was excellent and just what I needed today. Namaste

💖so good, thank you💖