Finding Strength During Uncertain Times

This 30-minute yin practice is from a live yin yoga session and is designed to help you find your foundation, confidence, and strength in the midst of uncertain times. You'll spend time on your belly, feeling the depth of your breath. We'll follow that with some spine extensions, twists, and forward bends to find new energy and strength in the body.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

Clasp the hands together,

We'll close the eyes.

We'll take a full inhale through the nose.

Full exhale through the mouth.

We have arrived,

We are here.

Let's get into our first shape.

So our first shape is gonna be crocodile pose.

We're gonna go on our bellies.

So crocodile pose on our bellies.

And what you do is you're gonna take the forearms and they're gonna go right on top of each other and then the forehead is gonna go and rest on your forearms.

So forehead,

Rest on your forearms.

I'm gonna only do the shape halfway so that I can keep talking to you.

But crocodile.

So if you find your way into crocodile,

Take a nice full inhale through the nose and then a full exhale.

And breath in through the nose.

And full exhale.

Ah.

Inhale through the nose.

Exhale through the mouth.

Start to breathe in and out through the nose.

Concentrating on the feeling of the belly pressing into the earth with each inhale and the complete release with each exhale.

So you start to tune into your breath.

So that the noise that you will hear around you,

The external stimulus is still an internal process.

Right,

The noise you hear is your own breath.

What you're feeling is your own belly pressing into the ground and then relaxing.

And today we're spending a lot of time on the ground to focus on our foundation,

To focus on our body's inner strength,

To focus on our body's inner strength,

To focus on our mind's inner wisdom.

If you're anything like me in times like this,

You end up on Google a lot.

What are the symptoms?

How many people?

What should I do?

X,

Y,

Z.

So we're gonna take these next 30 minutes to focus in on our inner wisdom instead of looking for external sources.

Keep connecting and reconnecting to your body and your breath noticing how the brain sometimes likes to float away.

And from here,

We're going to take this shape into a half frog pose.

So you're gonna stay on your belly and you're gonna take the right leg and just gently start to draw it up towards the elbow.

And you're gonna aim to have about a 90 degree angle at the knee,

At the ankle,

At the hip.

You need to move your neck or head around,

Maybe moving one cheek down to the forearms or another cheek.

Now focusing a little more attention to the front of the right hip.

And feeling a softening down into that right hip.

Now I always like to remind my students in the end that intensity equals the shape you're in multiplied by the duration of time that you're in that shape.

So this might not feel super intense at this moment,

But the intensity can grow with time.

And if this does feel super,

Super intense,

Maybe you need to back off a little bit,

Draw the knee a little less high,

More closer to the bottom leg so that you can actually stay.

And so here we get two points of focus,

The belly deeply,

Softly breathing into the ground.

And then the right hip,

Softening down as well.

Notice any tendency to get antsy,

Like you should be doing something more or something different.

That is just mind chatter.

Trust that you are exactly where you are supposed to be.

Notice any tendency to get antsy,

Like you should be doing something more or something different.

Notice any muscles in the hips or thigh gripping.

Can you soften?

And take one more breath in and a full exhale.

Slowly release the right leg down next to the left.

Take a little wiggle out through the hips.

We're gonna do the second side,

Drawing the left knee up,

Finding that 90 degree angle,

Or maybe a little further or maybe a little less far,

Depending on what's going on in your body.

Find your shape,

Then resolve to just be right here.

Softening into the left hip,

Focusing in once again on the belly.

And then we're gonna take a little breath in and a full exhale,

Focusing in once again on the belly.

Purposefully taking this time to turn inward.

We're gonna get caught up in what everyone else is doing and what our policymakers are doing and what this city's doing or not doing,

That store or studio is doing or not doing.

Let's take this time to focus on our own doing.

Take the attention to the face,

Softening out any muscles that might be holding.

To the neck and the shoulders,

Relaxing any places that are holding tension.

And finally to the belly and hips,

To the focus of this shape,

Feeling their release.

Take a breath in and breath out.

Slowly draw the left leg back to meet the right.

Make a little wiggle in the hips.

And then let's start to make our way into a Sphinx pose.

So you're gonna take the forearms onto the ground in front of you.

Forearms are gonna be parallel to the hips.

Arms are gonna be parallel,

Elbows directly underneath the shoulders.

You might have a gentle press into the feet and into the pelvis.

And then feel the head drop here.

So in my body,

I feel like I'm drawing the forearms back in space,

The shoulders are drawing back in space and the head's relaxing down.

Maybe we can take the head a little side to side here if you were pretty still for a while.

Once you get those little movements out,

Return to stillness.

Rather than me telling you where to feel this shape,

Check in with your own body.

Notice where you feel.

Where is their stretch,

Where is their sensation,

Where is their movement?

And knowing your own body,

You can decide if it makes the most sense to stay right here.

This is enough for your back and for your front body.

Or we're gonna move into a seal pose,

Knowing you can always come back to Sphinx if that's better for your body.

So in that seal,

Hands are gonna come out towards the corners of the mat and then you're gonna press into the hands,

Straightening up the elbows.

Nice,

Once you get those elbows straight,

Feel the shoulder blades draw together as the chest just drops.

So we go from being all lifted to dropping the chest shoulder blades together,

Head relaxes.

So there's strong press into the hands and this sense of release along the front body.

Let me relax the head.

Maybe you need to give a little wiggle in the toes.

Let's let her out through the lips.

Making the conscious decision to release tension from where it's not needed.

Knowing that we're going deep into the body's connective tissue.

Which can cause emotions to come up.

Things can shift.

Resolve to keep the breath moving,

Thus keeping the prana,

The energy of the body moving.

Keeping the focus on the body,

On your internal world.

Keeping the focus on the body,

On your internal world.

Take another breath in.

Full breath out.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

On your exhale,

Slowly lower the elbows back down to the ground.

Take the hands together,

Elbows wide.

Drop the forehead to the hands just for a few breaths.

Take the hips side to side.

And let's actually even bend the knees and take the feet to windshield wiper them side to side.

Notice the energy in the back body,

The front body.

Release the feet down.

Hands are going to come underneath the shoulders next to the rib cage.

Let's press back to a child's pose.

We're going to come in through hands and knees nice and gentle.

Let's draw the knees together here for this child's pose.

So unless this feels really bad and you definitely want to keep the knees wide,

I'm going to invite you to keep the knees together and just round the spine.

If you want a little extra rest for the shoulders,

Maybe you even cup the heels.

Relaxing the head down,

Finding that rounding the spine,

The tucking of the chin.

The gaze turns internal here.

This moment of self-reliance.

A moment to thank your body for the way it handles so many different situations.

Heat and cold,

Day and night,

Travel,

Overworking,

Underworking,

Junk food,

All the different things we throw at it,

It handles it so well.

Our bodies take such good care of us.

Taking a moment to believe and remember and acknowledge its strength.

From here,

You can press into the ground.

Let's come on up to a seated position.

We're going to take your legs out in front of you.

And we're going to take a pachi-mosana here.

Now,

I actually don't have any props with me here,

But this is a great point where if you have a block,

A book,

A blanket,

You can choose to bring those props underneath the forehead so that you have a place to rest.

Otherwise,

In this forward fold,

I really invite,

Not a grabbing onto the feet and pulling like we do in some of our vinyasa classes,

But rather palms face up,

Really resting it so that the elbows are even bent and just rounding the spine,

Tucking the chin.

Again,

Remembering that intensity is created also by time spent in a shape.

So you don't have to be the furthest you've ever been,

But rather use gravity here to relax the body.

Soften the toes and the legs.

Letting the breath be steady and slow.

I find in my yin practice,

Even though we're staying still,

You can keep yourself pretty darn busy just by scanning from head to toe and noticing any places of tension or holding and gently releasing them.

You slowly scan from the crown of the head,

Relaxing through the forehead and face,

Through the jaw and neck.

Relax in the shoulders and elbows and arms.

Relax through the back body,

The upper back and lower through the low belly and hips.

All the way down through the legs.

Through the calves,

Through the ankles,

The feet,

The toes.

And then maybe you start again,

The crown of the head.

Slowly and steadily moving.

Take a full inhale.

Long exhale.

Slowly start to press into the hands.

Be gentle as you lift the body up.

Going all the way to your seat.

Nice soft soft shoulders.

Let's get onto our backs.

We're almost complete.

So on our backs,

We're going to take a twist here.

So when you get on your back,

You're going to hug.

See,

We'll start by hugging the left knee into the chest.

Gently draw that left knee in.

And then draw the left knee over to the right side,

Creating your gentle spinal twist.

You want to feel the left shoulder softening down to the ground.

And this might be enough.

This might be great.

This might be a beautiful place for you to be.

If you want a little more sensation,

You can take this bottom leg,

The right leg,

Bend the knee back behind you.

Maybe the left hand takes hold of that foot behind you and gently holds on.

Keep the left shoulder drawn down.

Gently draw that foot up.

Maybe right arm extends out to the right.

Again,

No pressure to take hold of that bottom leg if that's not serving you today.

I think of this twist almost like you're washing out a dishrag,

Right?

You're squeezing that dishrag,

Getting rid of anything excess,

Anything no longer needed.

This is what we're doing for our spines.

All the muscles along the spine,

You can hold so much tension there.

Showing up for you,

For yourself,

Right here,

Right now.

Taking a moment to acknowledge the community of people gathered here to practice together.

The reminder you are not alone.

I always find it comforting to remember that there are other people who turn to these practices like yoga,

Like meditation,

Like breathing,

To help them constructively cope with difficult situations.

If you have that bottom foot,

Gently release the foot and we're going to draw ourselves back to the other side.

So come back to center.

Be nice and slow.

There's no rush.

There's no,

No,

No rushing in.

If you need to take any little movements in the hips,

Please do.

And then extend the left leg long,

Hug the right knee into the chest.

Draw that right knee in.

Take the right knee over to the left side.

You might choose to stay here or bend the bottom leg,

Bend that left leg.

Right hand can come to the left foot,

Creating a little more sensation for the front of the thigh.

Again,

Remembering you can adjust up or down these shapes as you need.

But as we deal with this connective tissue,

There's no,

There's no race.

Deeper is not always better.

Notice the breath here.

Might feel a little bit more constricted,

So can you still find some depth to the inhale and exhale?

Breathe any places of sensation.

Slowly release the left foot.

Gently draw the right leg back to center,

Please.

No rush as you exit this shape.

Let the knees draw a little side to side.

About that one.

And then let's extend the legs long.

Shoulders tuck underneath you,

Arms are way by the sides,

Relaxing down into our shavasana shape,

Into our final rest.

So this is a great time to grab out a blanket if that's supportive for you.

To maybe wiggle the head back and forth to feel softness through the neck.

And then once again,

Starting at the crown of the head.

Start to relax through the muscles at the top of the head.

Letting that softness and ease flow from the crown of the head down through the sides of the head and back of the skull.

Feeling the heaviness of the skull on the earth.

Feel the release through the forehead,

Undoing any little crinkles in the forehead.

The eyebrows softening.

The eyes and nose and cheeks relaxing.

Feel the ears and jaw soften and release.

The neck,

Feel the muscles along the sides of the neck,

Slowly let go.

Might even feel a little drop in the shoulders when you do that.

And finding a softness in the throat here.

There can be so much tension in the throat from all the things that we say and do not say.

So relax the throat open here.

Find release across the tops of the shoulders.

And down the arms,

Across the elbows to the forearms,

Into the wrists and the hands.

Keeping some attention at the wrists and hands and relaxing them here.

And taking the attention up through the arms,

Across the shoulders once again.

Start to relax across the front of the chest.

Across the heart and the rib cage through the lungs.

Feeling the ease of breath here.

Gratitude for this ease of breath.

And continue to relax down through the torso.

Even feeling the organs relax.

The stomach doesn't have to work so hard.

The liver relaxes,

The intestines,

The spleen,

All of your internal organs relaxing down,

Softening out.

And letting your attention go across the hips,

Softening the thigh bones and the hip sockets,

Relaxing the glutes,

Relaxing the pelvic floor and pelvic organs.

Feeling the tops of the thighs start to relax,

The hamstrings soften.

The release across the knees and the shins and the calves,

Ankles relax,

Feet soften,

Toes relax as well.

Feeling the entire body at ease right here,

Right now.

Noticing how your body is held by the ground beneath you.

And feeling that support,

Yes of the world and the external world,

But I even invite you to find the support from your internal world,

From the internal wisdom and the internal strength we talked about earlier.

Take a deep inhale.

Full exhale.

Bring some wiggles to the fingers and toes,

Small movements.

And start to bend the knees,

Walk the feet into the hips.

Roll over onto your side,

Taking your time.

And then press into the hands to find a seated position once again.

Here you can press the hands together at the heart,

Eyes can close.

Take a deep inhale.

And exhale.

Notice the energy of the body,

Notice how it's changed through our practice today.

And taking the moment to send some of the positive energy that we've generated,

Send it off to someone in the world who could need it,

To all of the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people that are sick at this moment.

And then tune back in,

Gratitude for yourself for showing up,

For constructively using this time while we are social distancing to help support your own health as well as the health of those around you.

Bring the thumb to the forehead,

The light may very humbly bow to the same light.

And each one of you,

I'm so grateful to you all for sharing and coming to this practice with me.

Namaste.