This is a short,
Simple yoga practice that you can do completely lying on your back.
Let's come to our backs in constructive rest position and take a moment just to center ourselves.
So bend your knees,
Place your feet on the floor about hip-width apart and let your arms rest comfortably by your sides,
Palms facing up or down or on your belly,
Whatever feels natural to you today.
And take a moment to notice where your body meets the floor.
Notice the weight of your head,
Your shoulders,
Your back,
Your pelvis,
And your feet.
And begin to gently deepen your breath,
Inhaling through your nose,
Feeling the belly rise,
And exhaling through the nose of the mouth,
Letting the belly release and relax.
And take that two more times,
Inhaling and exhaling.
One more time,
Inhale and exhale.
From here,
We'll hug the knees into the chest.
You can wrap your hands around your shins or behind your thighs and just gently rock side to side,
Massaging the low back against the floor,
Just letting the movement be easy and intuitive.
If it feels good,
You might make the rocks a little smaller or explore making the rocks a little bigger.
Just pay attention to what your body naturally wants to do,
Breathing as you rock,
Letting the low back and hips soften.
Keeping the knees hugged in,
You can begin to make slow circles with the knees.
They can move in the same direction or opposite directions.
We want to inhale for half the circle and exhale for the other half,
Always trying to coordinate the breath with the movement.
Just notice how the movement ripples through your hips and low back,
Releasing tension.
And after a few rounds,
You can gently reverse the direction,
Moving with your breath,
No rush.
And then you can place your feet back on the floor,
Returning to that constructive rest position.
We're going to take some pelvic tilts.
So as you inhale,
Gently arch the lower back,
Tipping the pelvis forward.
And as you exhale,
Press your low back down and tip your tailbone up a little.
Just move like this again with your breath,
Moving slowly like a wave,
Inhaling to tilt forward and exhaling to press your low back to the floor and tip your tailbone up.
Just continuing to move a few more times with your breath here.
This can be more about awareness than effort.
Just smooth and easy.
And then you can stay in this constructive rest position.
And from here,
We're going to come into a figure four stretch.
So you'll cross one ankle over the opposite thigh,
Creating kind of the shape of a figure four.
And you can either stay here and gently press on your right thigh,
If you've lifted your right thigh,
Left if you've lifted your left,
And gently press it open.
You can also draw the bottom leg up toward you.
And that adds a bit more sensation to the outer hip.
Just let the hips soften.
And try to imagine breathing into wherever you're feeling the stretch.
After a few breaths,
We will release that position and switch sides.
So cross your other ankle over your opposite thigh,
Creating that figure four position.
And you can either stay here.
Or if you feel comfortable with this,
You can lift the bottom leg up and hug behind the thigh.
Just let the hips soften and notice the difference on the side,
The side might be more open,
It might feel tighter.
That's okay,
Just breathe into any sensation.
And then release your feet to the floor.
And you can actually place your feet on the edges of your mat.
Or if you don't have a mat,
You can just place them a little wider than hip distance apart.
And you're just going to allow both knees to slowly drop over to one side.
And then you can lift the knees and let them drop to the other side.
This is just applying a little bit of a twist.
Now that the low back is warmed up.
We're just doing a gentle twist.
Sometimes we call this windshield wipers.
And you can again coordinate the breath with the movement.
Inhaling as you lift through center,
And exhaling as you drop your knees to the side.
Just a couple more times,
One to each side.
And then you can lift the knees back up to center.
Place the feet hip distance apart.
So if they were a little bit wider with the windshield wipers,
You can bring the feet more in line with the sit bones.
And we're going to do a bridge pose here.
So bring the knees back to center,
Feet planted.
And let's start with those pelvic tilts.
Let's just practice those pelvic tilts again.
So inhale,
You arch your back a little and exhale,
You press your low back to the floor.
We'll do that one more time.
Inhale,
Arch the back.
Exhale,
Press the low back to the floor.
And now press gently into your feet and lift your hips a little bit.
Only to a height that feels supportive and steady.
Take a few breaths here.
Nice,
Slow and smooth.
And on your next exhale,
Slowly lower the spine back down one vertebra at a time.
And then from here,
Just hug the knees in again,
Drawing them into your chest,
Giving them a gentle squeeze.
Notice your breath.
And notice the change in your low back and hips.
Do they feel more open?
Do you notice a warmth that wasn't there at the start of the practice?
Or do you notice some other sensation?
Make note of this.
If you'd like to move from hugging the knees into happy baby,
You can do that.
Happy baby,
You will open your knees wide and bring the soles of your feet toward the ceiling.
Then you can hug behind the thighs,
You can hold the shins,
You can hold the outsides of the feet,
Whatever feels accessible to you.
And you certainly don't need to do happy baby.
You can just stay hugging your knees.
You might gently rock side to side,
Or stay still.
Check in with the face,
Let it soften.
Let the jaw unclench.
Just breathe.
And then return one last time to constructive rest.
Releasing the legs back to the floor,
Feet on the floor,
Knees bent.
And return your awareness to the breath.
Taking a moment to notice any changes in the body.
Feeling that support of the floor underneath you.
Steady and grounded.
Begin to gently deepen your breath.
Wiggle your fingers and toes.
And if you'd like to,
You can just remain here as long as you need to.
Or you can close the practice by rolling to your side and pressing yourself up and continuing on with your day.
Thank you.
