Yin Yoga For Rebalancing After A Long Day

This short yin practice is designed to rebalance your body after a long day. We'll do movements to relieve low back pain, to open the shoulders, extend the spine, and twist. Slow and meditative, this practice will set you up for a great night's sleep or a relaxing evening. Suitable for all levels.

Transcript

Hi everyone.

Today's yin practice is designed to help you rebalance the body after a long day.

It's perfect to do right before bed or in the evening to help you wind down.

You don't specifically need any props for our practice today.

Yoga mat is always helpful being in some loose comfy clothing and if you do have some yoga blocks they're always great to have to help you find some extra stability or you can also have a blanket for some extra padding or as a covering as we get to the end of our practice.

I will be offering legs up the wall pose towards the end of practice so if you are able to set up near a wall or near a place where you can extend your legs up the wall that is going to work best for you.

Otherwise no worries you can always take a regular Shavasana pose.

So roll out your mat,

Get all ready to go and let's start in a child's pose.

So for child's pose you're going to take the knees wide the feet together the hips are going to come back to the heels as the forehead extends towards the ground and the arms reach out towards the front of the mat.

If your forehead doesn't reach the ground here perhaps you do put one of those blocks or even a thick book underneath the forehead so you have a place to connect and if this is really tough on your knees you can roll up your blanket and put it behind the knees to give you a little more space.

Once you arrive at your child's pose you found a place and a way to make this feel comfortable.

Let's take a nice deep inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.

Inhale through the nose,

Exhale through the mouth,

Breath in through the nose,

Breath out through the mouth and then start to breathe in and out through the nose.

Maybe you feel the breath fill up the back body so that each inhale you feel the rib cage truly expand.

You find some extra length through the muscles of the back.

And see if you can keep your attention right here in your body and right here with your breath.

Noticing how you feel here today now.

Doesn't matter what came before or what's gonna come after.

Present right here.

Notice if you're holding any tension through the muscles of the face.

Maybe you give your jaw a little wiggle,

Softening the teeth apart from each other.

Find a gentle close of the eyes or even rock the forehead a little back and forth on the block or ground finding softness.

Perhaps taking this moment to set an intention for your practice.

Perhaps it's the intention that I invite you to which is to rebalance.

Perhaps you can find something more specific than that.

Maybe you want to rebalance a specific way.

Feel more peaceful,

More calm,

More content or anything else that comes to mind for you.

In your next breath you're gonna remove any blocks from underneath you and slide on to your belly.

So you're gonna come to lay down on your belly and the right arm is gonna come out to the right side like you're making a T with your body.

Right arm straight out to the right,

Palm faces down.

Left hand's gonna come underneath the left shoulder.

We're doing broken wing pose so you're going to press into the left hand to lift the body up and start to roll on to the right side.

So we're stretching the front side of the right shoulder here.

So right arm stays on the ground.

Left hand presses into the ground to roll you onto the right side.

Head relaxes onto the earth.

From here you can stay as you are or perhaps you take that left leg you can bend the left knee and place the foot directly on the ground behind the right leg just to act as a little stabilizer here.

You might find this helps you in your shape.

You might find this doesn't so do whatever's best for you.

Knowing we want this shape here to feel soft to slowly stretch the body.

Breathe into the right shoulder.

Take another deep breath.

Exhale fully.

And inhale.

And exhale for softness.

Your inhale roll back onto your belly.

Extend your left arm out to the left.

Right hand comes underneath the right shoulder and then you'll press into the right hand to start to roll onto the left side of the body.

Now the stretch here is at the front of the left shoulder.

The head relaxes to the earth and you choose if you want to bend the right knee to place the right foot on the ground behind the left leg.

Again if this feels super awkward in the legs doing so then just stay with one leg stacked on top of the other.

We're doing this shape here today because many of us tend to hunch the body forward whether it's because we're on a phone or on a computer carrying a heavy bag.

Here we're creating some openness across the front of the shoulders,

The front of the chest.

Rebalancing.

And your next inhale slowly come back onto your belly.

Extend the arms wide and you press into both hands here just to feel the heart lift off of the mat to feel some engagement across the front of the shoulders.

So we're just reintegrating the muscles of the shoulder.

Press into the hands,

A little lift in the heart,

One inhale.

Exhale lower the chest back down to the ground.

So what you're gonna do is you're gonna bring the arms in here so the elbow is gonna be directly underneath the shoulder.

That means the chest is gonna lift.

So elbows directly underneath the shoulders,

Forearms parallel,

Pressing the hands into the ground.

It's called a Sphinx pose.

So you press into the forearms,

Gaze can be towards the front of your room or you can drop the head.

You press into the hands,

Into the forearms.

Probably the pubic bone is gonna press a little bit into the earth as well to find some length.

Breathe deep.

Here creating some extension in the spine once again just like our broken wing pose counteracting the hunching that tends to happen through the day.

And if this is enough for your shoulders,

Your chest,

Your back,

You can stay right here.

If you want to go a little further into this back bend,

What you'll do is draw the hands out about like they're facing towards the corners of your yoga mat.

So I say it's like you're doing 30,

45 degrees.

They're just you know your arms are on a diagonal.

You're gonna press into the hands to lift the elbows off of the earth so that your arms straighten all the way.

And then you want to just relax the heart between the shoulders.

So it's like you feel the shoulder blades drawing closer together like the chest is so heavy it's falling back down towards the ground.

And you drop the head as well tucking the chin.

So your arms are holding the shoulders,

The chest all up,

The head is relaxing down.

The arms straight and strong.

And then pelvis is going to press slightly into the earth helping you create length.

You're going to breathe steady.

Noticing the sensations as they arise.

Rebalancing isn't always easy.

It's not always seamless.

There might be some friction.

There might be some difficulty.

Notice it.

Be there.

Breath in,

Breath out.

Inhale,

Exhale.

One more inhale.

On the exhale start to bend the elbows to bring them down to the ground.

Then you're going to draw the hands together,

Elbows wide,

And rest the forehead on the hands.

Take any little movements you need here in the hips and the low back.

Breathe steady.

In your next breath you'll take the hands underneath the shoulders,

Press through hands and knees,

And then come back to downward facing dog.

So toes will be tucked,

Hips lift into sky,

Knees are lifted off the mat,

And you press into the hands creating that upside down V.

Here make your down dog really nice and soft.

Some bend in the knees so you can pull the hips up and back in space finding some length through the spine.

You can even softly pedal the feet bending one knee than the other to feel the hips move side to side.

Take another breath in and another breath out.

Bring the knees back down to ground and then come to lay on your back.

Once you're on your back you're going to hug your left knee into your chest.

Take a deep breath in and then the exhale twist over to the right side.

So left knee is going to come over to the right side.

Your left hip is going to come off of the mat and your left shoulder is going to stay down on the ground.

You might even extend the left arm all the way out to the left.

Your gaze can follow that left hand providing that counterweight to your twist.

You can find some extra breath into the side waist here.

And softening through the body.

Now we're loosening up the sides of the waist,

The sides of the rib cage,

Just helping to decompress our spine from the work of gravity all day.

That gravity does indeed have an impact on us.

Just be right here for this twist.

Letting anything from your day that's unnecessary,

Letting it just fall away.

Letting it be just you,

Just this moment.

And breath in.

Breath out.

Slowly draw the body back towards center.

Extend the left leg along and then hug right knee into the chest.

You twist to the left.

Now this time the right shoulder stays connected to the earth.

The right arm reaches out to the right.

Just noticing how this side differs from the other.

Making space through the side of the body.

Space to relax.

Space to just be.

Then you're going to come back to center.

Hug both knees into the chest.

Just do a little rock and roll side to side,

Side to side.

There are two options here for our final shape.

One option is if you have a wall near you,

You can put your hips next to the wall and then extend your legs up the wall doing what is called legs up the wall pose.

So you're laying on your back,

Feet and back of the legs resting on the wall and extending the legs up to the sky.

And if that's not possible for you today,

You can take your regular Shavasana shape laying on the ground,

Shoulders tucked underneath you,

Palms face up.

So decide and make your way into your final shape.

And here feel the back of the head connect strongly and evenly with the ground.

Then notice the space behind the heart connected to the earth.

Feel underneath the hips an engagement and connection.

Breathing deep.

Soft breaths.

Take one more full inhale and full exhale.

I'm gonna roll over onto your left side.

Press into the hands and come on up to a seated position.

Here you're you can keep your eyes closed or have a soft gaze.

Hands can press together at the heart.

Taking a moment to notice how your body feels.

To notice what's changed over the course of our practice.

To check back in with your intention and how you wanted to rebalance your body.

Take a deep inhale.

Long exhale.

Thank yourself for practicing today.

For taking this action to rebalance.

To bring you a little closer to ease.

Delighten me very highly bow so that same light in each one of you.

Namaste.

Reviews

Lovely practice, I did it in the morning equally nice. Thank you

Hello beautiful 🌷🌸🌷🌸🌷Thank you so much for the wonderfully yin yoga 🌞⭐️it gives me a sunny mind and body 🗺️much love 🕉️ Namaste

Thanks
Gentle and effective
💗🙏🏻💗

Just what I needed… thanks

Thank you 🙏

This was beautiful, just what I needed at the end of the day. Thanks

a lovely relaxing practice, very helpful indeed at the end of a long day.
thank you

Namaste and thank you for an awesome class 🙏🌸
Timing and instruction are perfect... totally addictive 🧘🕉️

I LOVE yin yoga and practice it a local studio with frequency. Was super excited to come across your offering. I’ve been using this each night this week just before bed. This will definitely become part of my weekly practice. Looking forward to listening to your other yin yoga offering as well!
In gratitude🙏

Yes! Loved it. Just what I needed. Clear directions throughout so I never felt lost. Focusing on the movement , the stretch, the breathing helped me move some anxiety out today. Thank you.

I was in bed- saw this and crawled out again to do the stretches. So pleased I did. Thank you x

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and scattered before I took this practice. As I came out of my final rest and back into a seat my breath was smoother & my mind calmer. Thank you, Sam!