Hello and welcome to this practice.
This will be a slow and nourishing practice where we get a little bit deeper into our hips.
We'll also incorporate some twists to relieve any tension through your back.
So go ahead and get started on to your back.
Lay down,
Hug your knees and either hands to the backs of your thighs.
Front severe shins or wrap your elbow creases around your legs.
Stay in stillness or gently sway from side to side.
Giving your back a little massage here.
Just starting with some gentle movement.
Feel the support that's underneath you.
Allow your shoulders to wrap back,
Your hips to be heavy.
Create some space between your chin and your chest.
And the eyes are soft,
Our eyes are closed.
And as you're ready,
Sway yourself back through center and step your feet down.
Either cactus out your elbows or arms open wide.
Heel toe your feet as wide as your mat and take a few slow windshield wipers from side to side.
Your range of motion,
You don't need to go all the way down.
Do notice a gentle massage as you roll across your back to either outer hip.
Collarbones are open,
So your shoulder blades are spread wide.
Feeling this gentle release through your hip flexors and your low back.
The next time that you travel over to the right side,
Go ahead and hold there.
You can either keep your feet staggered or for more support of your left knee,
Walk your right ankle underneath your left knee.
For a little bit more,
You can place your right ankle on top of your left thigh and have a little anchor down.
So up to you finding your option.
And then head can remain to center.
You can turn it slightly over to the left.
Make any adjustments of your hips,
Of your body that you need.
So you feel the sense of spread down into the ground into your mat.
And a soft opening through your left hip flexor.
Check in with your breath here allowing your breath to feel a little bit deeper,
A little bit slower.
Initiating your breath from your lower belly.
Allowing it to rise and expand out into your ribs all the way up into your chest.
On your exhales,
Allow a slow descent down from your chest.
To your ribs,
To your belly.
Allow everything to slow down here.
You can stay here for a couple more breaths.
Our knees will stay facing over to the right.
If your right ankle is on your left thigh,
Go ahead and slide it off.
And we'll come into a traditional supine twist,
Right knee hugs up slightly.
Stack your left thigh on top of your right.
You might notice the stretch changes a little bit more to your left outer hip.
A little bit deeper into your spine,
But do keep your left shoulder heavy and rooted.
Twists are amazing for assimilation and digestion.
Both physically and as well as through information or processing.
If there's anything that you're working on that you're holding on to.
This practice is an opportunity to let it go.
Even if it's not all at once.
It's opening to that doorway of possibility.
Again,
Not staying here as long,
So allow your left ankle to slide off.
Walk your right ankle back,
Windshield wiper your knees back through center.
Take a moment at center.
Feet are still wide.
Knock your knees together.
Reset your spine as you need.
Place your hands somewhere on your body.
You can keep them out wide.
Come into symmetry at center to notice your breath once again.
So even though we know that we're always breathing,
There's these deeper opportunities to focus into our breath.
Our breath gives us information about what our body needs or how it's feeling.
So when we're more stressed or tight.
Her breath is more shallow and is higher up.
And then as we slow down,
We might notice a slower,
More spacious breath that initiates lower down from the belly.
Every exhale is an opportunity to set something down,
Whether that's a responsibility,
A person,
A memory.
And let's move to the second side.
So open your arms back up,
Skew your hips slightly to the right of center,
Knees over to the left.
Make your way into this double diamond position,
Making adjustments as you need of your hip.
Remembering your options,
Left ankle can be staggered underneath your right knee or on top.
And then head to center or slightly over to the right.
Notice how nice it might feel to be able to take a pause wherever you are.
To lay down on your back and give yourself this time to stretch and slow down.
So often the only other time that we're laying down is when we're preparing for sleep.
Or when we're in bed about to sleep.
And so this time gives us an opportunity,
A different opportunity to rest in a different way.
And it can actually help with sleep.
If you are used to racing thoughts when you lay down for bed.
As you're training yourself that it's.
.
.
It's not scary to slow down and focus inward.
Let your thoughts just want to be heard.
Your internal experiences want to be acknowledged.
Couple more breaths here.
And you can stay in this position or let's transition into our supine twist.
Knees are so stay facing,
Left knee slightly up,
Stack your right knee on top.
Go a little deeper into the twist.
A little deeper into your outer right hip.
And as you're ready,
Come back through center,
Back through stillness,
Reset your hips.
So hug your knees back into your chest.
But hands to the backs of your thighs.
So find a little bit of movement.
So you're going to rock and roll up and down your spine a couple of times.
Or stay where you are.
And then this next rock up,
Let's go ahead and come to a seat at the center of our mat.
Walk your hands back behind you,
Thumbs forward,
Fingertips facing out.
Heel toe your feet as wide as your mat.
Let's do that same windshield wiper we did on our back.
So knees slowly to the right,
Knees to your left.
Knees over to your left,
Gaze to your right.
Let's stay over to the right side.
So knees over to your right.
Stay there.
Right hand stays,
Inhale,
Reach your left arm up,
Pivot this right hand.
And then walk your hands.
So there's a little bit of a hip adjustment.
Walk your hands onto your mat reset.
So you're facing towards the back of your mat.
We'll stay on our hands to begin.
So the further away your hands are,
The more supportive this will be.
For a deeper twist and stretch,
Walk your hands closer to your right hip.
And lengthen your spine up.
So your gaze can be slightly down,
It could be forward or slightly up.
As we anchor into this right hip,
Allow this left hip to wrap around so we're getting deeper into the twist.
We'll focus a little bit on this right hip as well and still lengthening out through the left hip flexor and into the quad.
This can be a really nice position to do,
Especially if you've been seated at your desk.
Quite a bit throughout the day or the week.
And you can stay upright for a couple more breaths.
Or lower down onto your forearms,
Option two.
Option three will thread the arms get a little bit deeper in the twists and the right hip.
So if you want to add the twist of the arms,
Walk your right forearm slightly forward.
Thread your left arm underneath your right so you're coming onto the shoulder.
Left palm is facing up or down your choice.
Then fold your right forearm parallel to the back of your mat and take either your forehead or the left side of your head onto your right forearm like a pillow.
You get a really deep compression here.
And the more you fold onto your right hip,
Left shoulder,
The deeper and juicier this.
The sensation will feel.
We won't be here too long,
But we will be here for just the right amount of time to really marinate in.
To connect back to your breath.
And if you were to imagine if any tension in your body is making you like a tight,
Clenched fist,
Imagine unfurling that fist.
Unfurling any tension.
Feeling this felt sense of being held and supported underneath you.
This time that you have with yourself.
And take one more cycle of breath here.
And gently guide yourself out of the twist as you're ready.
Walk your right hand back over to the left.
Reach your left arm back up.
And pivot back through center.
At center,
Elongate your legs out.
Heels about as wide as your mat.
So it's a seated forward fold,
But with a wider stance.
It feels better at any point to have your legs closer.
You can always do that.
You can always bend your knees as well.
Fingertips tent and take a long inhale,
Grow up long through your spine.
And as you exhale,
Begin to walk yourself forward.
You can always stay more lifted,
Focusing on this long extension.
Or you can melt in to fold between your legs.
You can either have more of an active stretch,
Dragging your heels back,
Feet stay flat.
Or you can allow your feet and your legs to soften a little bit more into more of a melted shape,
Your choice.
And this position helps us to lengthen our hamstrings,
Even if your knees are bent.
It helps us to create space for our back and our spine.
And also folds are really grounding and soothing for our nervous system.
So focus on those deeper belly breaths here.
You get to withdraw from the world for a moment to take this pause for you and refill your cup.
Take about three more slow,
Deep rounds of breath here.
And now gently walk yourself back up from your seated position.
Help your legs to close,
Coming with the right ankle in front of your left.
And inhale,
Circle and sweep your arms up overhead.
Get really,
Really long.
Exhale,
Take a big cactus bend of your elbows.
Spine can be more neutral or heart opener.
Get in,
Inhale,
Reach up,
Lengthen up.
As you exhale,
Twist over to your right side,
Hands stay in the air for a moment,
And then allow your hands to float down,
Left hand right,
Outer thigh,
Right fingertips back behind you.
Every in-breath is an opportunity to lengthen.
Every out breath is an opportunity to twist and rotate.
Allow your hip flexors,
Your hip creases to be relaxed.
As well as your shoulders,
Your jaw,
And your face.
Breathe into this twist,
Noticing how each twist is different.
Let's keep our left hand to our right outer thigh and now reach your right arm all the way up.
As you exhale,
Rotate back through center.
Find this little resistance of your left hand to your right thigh.
And side bend over to the left.
Gaze is either down,
Out or up depending on the comfort of your neck.
And as you're ready,
Come back through center.
Free your left arm up.
And take your arms out wide and back behind you.
Unfold your feet.
Step them as wide as your mat.
Let's do the second side.
The knees over to the left first.
Gaze to the right.
Then knees to the right,
Gaze left.
Let's switch it out.
Knees to your left.
Gaze right.
Knees stay left.
Inhale,
Reach your right arm up.
Left hand pivot.
Then readjust yourself to face towards the back of your mat.
Remember your option to walk your hands forward for more support or back for more lift,
Lengthen,
And twist.
We'll stay upright for a couple more breaths here before we lower down.
Focusing more to the left hip in the twist.
There's no rush whatsoever.
So each pose gets its own amount of time.
Its own amount of breath.
That is how your body is being supported.
That feeling of support that's underneath you.
Noticing that thread of awareness throughout this practice and maybe that feeling of being supported and held.
Can help it so if you're holding a lot right now,
You know that you don't have to hold it all yourself.
It's okay to let some of that go moment to moment.
You can stay upright or lower down onto your forearms.
And stay here,
Left forearm forward a couple inches,
Right arm underneath you to the left.
Fold your left forearm and take either your forehead or the right side of your head onto your left forearm.
So this is a really deep twist,
Hip,
Right thigh,
Right hip flexor.
But we did warm up on our back earlier.
You remember you can always come out of the deeper twist back onto your forearms or your hands.
And let's settle in and breathe.
And unwind yourself back up through center.
Your mind has wandered away.
That's okay,
But come back.
Left hand over to the right.
Inhale,
Right arm up.
And exhale,
Pivot back to the front.
This time,
Let's bring our feet together in butterfly.
Heels can be either in close or further away.
Hands to the fronts of your shins.
Inhale,
Lengthen your spine up.
Let's do a few cow and cats.
Exhale,
Round your spine,
Hug in.
Inhale to lengthen,
Create that space,
Shoulders back.
Exhale,
Curl around in.
A couple more times here.
Your pace.
And the next time that you lengthen up,
You can stay here or fold yourself forward.
A little bit or a lot up to you.
And we'll breathe here into our inner and outer hips.
And give you just a little bit more space for silence here in your own experience.
And after your next exhale,
Gently guide yourself back up to a seated position.
Take a little moment to pause.
Hands rest back to your legs.
A little rounding of the shoulders of the upper back is okay.
And hop your legs and left ankle in front.
Let's take that seated twist,
Arms reach up.
Exhale,
Big cactus.
Inhale and lengthen.
And twist over to your left.
Allow your hands to float down.
Right hand left outer thigh.
Left fingertips behind you.
Breathe here.
Good.
Keep your right hand where it is.
Reach your left arm back up.
Let's rotate back towards the front and lean up and over to the right.
And come out of the twist,
Reach your right arm all the way up.
And then reach your arms back.
Behind you,
Unwind your feet.
Some feet can be hip-width.
Make sure there's room to go behind you.
And let's roll all the way down onto our back.
You can either hug your knees back in again like we started or find happy baby.
It could be a relaxed version,
Grabbing to the backs of your thighs.
Calves,
Ankles,
Or feet.
And stay in stillness or sway from side to side.
Allow this shape to help you center and slow down,
But also the deeper you root your thigh bones wider than your rib cage.
The more space you'll create through your hips.
And it's nice and grounding as well if you lengthen your tailbone so your sacrum drops down towards the ground.
And as you're ready,
Allow yourself to extend out into a shape of rest.
You can always keep your knees bent.
Hands can rest out to the side or on your body somewhere.
We'll take a couple moments here in Shavasana for rest and integration,
Knowing I will guide you out.
I encourage you to stay here as long as you'd like,
As long as you need.
Thank you so much for practicing with me and I'll see you next time.
