Yin Yoga For Monthly Period Cramping

Join us for a nurturing Yin Yoga practice designed to ease monthly cramps and release tension through mindful breathwork. You'll be guided into gentle postures held for longer periods, using props like blocks, pillows, and blankets to help you fully relax and connect with your body. This practice not only soothes physical discomfort but also reconnects you with your inner strength and wisdom, building spiritual endurance. We'll finish with a calming music meditation, leaving you grounded and refreshed. Music by Wondershare Filmora and Fred Westra.

Transcript

Welcome to this yogurt to help with cramping. So this is a yin yogurt practice. So you're going to need a few props and then you're going to come up with your feet against the wall. So get yourself on your back with your feet up. So props that you'll need may be bolster cushions, Cushions, Blankets, Rolled up towels. So once you've got your legs up against the wall, Pop your hands on your knees and then just start to relax into the mat beneath you. So just start to settle in. Start to deepen your breath. See if you can breathe into your back body. So when you inhale, The lower back, Middle back and upper back press into the earth and then allow your exhale to be long and smooth and pause with empty breath. When you're ready to inhale again, Fill your lungs, Pause full of breath and repeat. So this practice is designed just to really help you to let go, To focus on your breath. Let go of the pain, Let go of the discomfort. You might be feeling a little bit out of sorts. You might be feeling a bit angry, A bit weepy. So we're going into our inner strength here, Our root chakra. So bring your awareness into your lower belly, This three-dimensional space. Start to feel your breath in your belly as you exhale contracting and as you inhale, Just let it rise and fall. If you're familiar with the chakra system, The lower energy center, The root chakra, Muladhara chakra, The second chakra, The sacral chakra, Svadhisthana. So both of these chakras are what we're going to incorporate in this practice today. Take one more breath here. And then just start to bring yourself out of the shape. Maybe extend your legs up against the wall, Open your arms and then stretch your arms up over your head. Bend your knees and stretch over to one side in the fetal position. In yin yoga, Our postures in between are just as important, Our pausing postures are just as important as our main postures. And then bring yourself up and we're set up for a new pose called deer pose. So as you can see, I've got another rolled up yoga mat. I'm just going to bring my right hip up against the yoga mat. Extending the legs. So then bring your chest across the bolster and then have both knees bent, Coming down onto your forearms. And then you might want something for your head and then you want to turn your head. Same side. So just play around, Finding what position is best for you. Now that you've settled into the shape, Bring your awareness back to the lower belly. Feel your breath moving in and out. This part of your body is the physical part of your body. You might be able to tell that this twisting movement originates in the lower abdomen. So you can turn the turn of your belly, Feel that turn and then feel it coming up through the back body, Up the spine. Try and relax the left side of your chest more into the ground to get deeper into the twist. Because the lower belly is the physical part of your body, Bringing awareness to that strength and awareness brings us back to connection. Without that connection, We might be prone to lower back injuries and leading for ungroundedness, Just feeling out of whack. Think of the lower belly as where the roots of your body start, Just like a tree. Trees have a root bulb where all of the roots begin and then going down into the ground. Think if your legs and your feet is the extension of that root bulb, The root bulb originating in your belly. Just like tree roots down into the earth, You become more steady, Moving your awareness lower into the body, Helping you to ground, Being less chaotic, More stable. And then slowly turn your head to the other side. Check in. If it doesn't feel right, Turn your head back or maybe you just stay here. Notice how that's changed everything throughout your body. Just find micro-releases in the body as you soften further down, Releasing any tension. Breathing in and breathing out. Notice the sensations within you, The emotional waves and any patterns in your mind that starts to form. Just take in one more breath or so before we start to move. Move slowly, Take your time. Maybe deepen your breath, Ground down into the hands, Lifting up off your bolster. Take as much time as you need to swing the legs round. Let's go towards the other side, Left hip against the bolster, Both knees bent, Right leg behind. So now soften the abdomen against the bolster, Re-block your pillows. Just take your head whichever way suits you first, Left or right. Relax the arms, Soften through your fingers, Shoulders and your face. Bring your awareness down to the lower belly, Our anchor for the practice today. Where your pain may be, Where you need to bring some relaxation, Contentment. Breathing in and breathing out. Focusing on our belly rather than the pain in our brain, Bringing this gentle twist. Encourages the pain receptors to switch off, Release and relax. Remember each time of the month that you want to try this, It might be different, From one day to the next and that's okay. So by stimulating this area, We're really looking at our emotional intelligence, Our inner strength, Inner trust. So when we feel like things are falling apart around us, It can really throw us off balance, So we have to come back to something that can't be taken away. This is our own inner strength, Gathering up on that resource within rather than external factors, Building on that mental clarity, Bringing that awareness to the lower belly. Breathing in and breathing out. If you'd like to turn your head to the other side, Make that transition now or simply just stay where you are. The stillness of a yin practice can really bring things to the surface that you might normally suppress or you might distract yourself from it. So this practice encourages you to be still and as things do come to the surface, Try not to look into them, Just breathe in, Allowing that experience to wash over you. Encouraging your upper body to just melt down into the mat even further, Relaxing the fingers, Relaxing the arms, The shoulders, Becoming completely heavy on the mat. A few more breaths in this posture, By now your body should be melting and letting go. Using the twist to encourage calm, Relaxation, Sending signals to the brain to switch off any pain, Any discomfort. And then slowly press your hands into the mat, Push yourself up, Remove any props in front of your head, Bring your right leg all the way around and then just moving your props just so that they're in the long ways now, Bring your feet together, So you've got your feet in front of you together, Legs out and then you just want to build up those props so you can pop your head down and then you might want to just take your hands to your feet and let the hips completely relax now. So just bringing some bit of a counter pose here to the hips, Allowing the head to be heavy, Let the shoulders round, Feel those sitting bones dropping into the earth, Knees relaxed, Ankles relaxed, Toes relaxed. Just allowing this posture to bring some relaxation to the belly area, Encouraging the belly to completely relax now. Enjoying that stretch across the spine, Across the shoulders and up the neck. So hopefully you're feeling a bit of an edge now in this yin yoga practice, So you're not pushing too far but we're working with the fascia, The ligaments and the tendons rather than the muscles, So you might feel your muscles getting a stretch but the muscles let go pretty quickly, We're going into this deeper, Deeper layer of the fascia tissue. So slowly start to bring yourself all the way up, Being mindful of your neck, Bring that really slowly back up. If you're looking at the screen now I've become emblazoned in sunshine and you can't really see my face. So just take your time removing your props, You are going to need them again though so keep them handy. You're going to come into a wide-legged straddle pose, So just come round, So this is dragonfly in yin yoga, Move the flesh on your bum, So bring the hands behind the back just to get them out the way and then you want to use your bolsters in front of you. If the backs of your legs are restricting the shape, Pop a block underneath and if your lower back is a little bit intense then pop a towel underneath your buttocks. So you can just stay upright or you can make a bit of a ramp in front of you, Lots of different things in front, Just have a play around, See what works for you. Stack your hands, Stack your arms, Just get creative. Now if you don't like this seated version, I'm going to show you the at-the-wall version which is my favourite. So bring yourself to the wall, So you want to get your sitting bones as close to the wall as you can, See you look at the screen, Bring your legs up and then soften your body into the back and just really start to let gravity do the work here. So if you've got any pain in your knees, Keep your feet flexed. Now I've got a visitor with me, So I'm going to do a little bit of a push-up on my back. So if you've got any pain in your knees, Keep your feet flexed. I've now got a visitor with me, Bonnie's come for a cuddle, Oh bless her! So just take your time to get into this posture, Really start to relax into the nervous system. So if you're in a state of stress or anxiety, It's going to take time to unwind. And it's quite healthy for this to be a slow process. Fears and stresses serve a purpose for some time, They're there to raise the warning flag or to protect us. But now that we're here in this safe place on the mat, It's time to unwind those energies. This is part of where the practice becomes regenerative, Rather than bundling up and protecting ourselves. So we want to soften and allow that improvement to resonate through the body. After our practice, We'll feel lighter and clearer. As we stretch the inner legs, We're working with a few different organs. So the spleen is one of them. The spleen meridian line comes up the inner legs up to the groin. And the spleen is the organ that is connected with how we feel at home. So it's incredibly important when we find ourselves So it's incredibly important when we find ourselves lacking a sense of home. There's always going to be change. Sometimes life just throws us curveballs. And in those times of change, We can be really thrown off balance. So what can we count on? What can we ground into? We can count on our inner system, Finding home within. With the breath, Reconnecting with our spirit. As we stretch the spleen meridian line, We really support this organ. Feeling like we're coming home on the mat, Connecting with ourselves, What we believe and what we know to be true. A few more breaths here. And then slowly bring your hands to the backs of your knees, Drawing your legs in. Maybe press the feet into the wall. Just start to really take your time. Pull your knees together towards your chest and just pause. Deep breath in. Maybe bring your nose up to your knees. And then you're going to come into your ball. Just a couple of breaths here. Notice the energy flowing through you. Sometimes the release of the pose feels more intense than when you were actually in the pose. And then just take yourself over to one side. Push yourself up and come back down to sit on your bottom with your legs slightly away from you, Knees bent. And then pop the heels back down. Together, Soles of the feet together. Allow the knees to just relax. We don't need any props at the moment. Just take your hands to your ankles. Just take a moment. Close the eyes. Just relax. Just allow the belly to soften again. Notice how you feel now compared to the beginning of class. Just focus on your breath. And then bring your legs in a little bit closer. And if it feels good, Just come forward now without any props. So take your hands around your toes. Elbows on the outside of your shins. Drop your head. Allow your shoulders to completely relax. So just connecting with the belly again. Noticing how that feels. Soften your face. Bring in your awareness back into the lower belly. Picture a ball of roots in the lower belly. And then picture your sit bones and your tailbone anchoring down into the mat. Like roots extending through the mat. Visualize the roots going down through the floor beneath you. Through layers of dirt and stone and sand, Rock. Tapping even deeper into the rivers that flow under the ground towards the center of the earth. Through these roots you become steady, Recharged and reconnected. Breathing in and breathing out. Sinking deeper and deeper down into the earth. All of this emphasis and visualization with the lower belly is reconnecting you to your wisdom center. The lower belly is this center that connects us to our ancestry. So all the lessons that we can gain from our ancestors, We can harness in the lower belly. And also consider all of the wisdom from everything that you've ever been, Learnt, Will be. And then slowly, Bone by bone, Draw yourself up. Take your palms to your knees. And just notice how you feel. Keep your eyes closed. And then bring your knees up and you're going to come to lie down on your back. So let's just come into a mini shavasana. Mini shavasana, Just to give you a couple of moments of pause. So feet wider than the mat. Relaxed, Palms away from your body facing up. Noticing things in the body shifting and changing. Just like the physical body, Where sensation is constantly changing, The quality of our emotional body is also shifting. Even when we're with one emotion for quite some time. Like grief, Might be in it for a while. There's actually different shades of grief. Just like different shades of a color, There's different shades of pain. There's different shades of emotion. Reminding you of this, So that you can be in that space of trust, Where things are moving all of the time. Relaxing around our process. Everything's changing, You can look back and see how far you've come. Trusting that you can move forward. Bring your hands above your head, Stretch your arms. Bend your knees and turn over onto your right side. Ground down, Come up. And let's come into a supported fish pose. So depending on what you've got handy. Maybe bring blocks for your chest, And then a pillow block for your head. So a couple of blocks, As you can see for the chest, And then the pillow above the blocks. So then you want to just bring the back across the blocks. And then you might need to inch up. Inch up, Okay, Just take your time. And then your head relaxes back into the pillow. We come out of this, So I can show you another option. So other yoga mat, Cross the mat, Rolled up. And then my little bolster pillow is the cushion. And then you're going to just come back. So you want that bolster for your head, But you want the rolled up mat, Sort of where your bra strap is. So you're opening up the clavicle area of the front body and the throat. So your throat's open. And then your arms want to come away from you, Palms facing up. So your arms are away from you. And then bring your feet together, Or you can come with the legs long. Whatever feels comfortable for you. Settle in with the heart open to the sky and the throat open. You might experience some vulnerability here. We're designed to protect the belly, The throat and the heart. So we've changed our energy with our heart open. Our practice up until this point was you bring an awareness to your lower belly so that you're inner resourcing yourself. But now our focus is towards the heart and the throat. So rather than defining us by our external resources, We're looking inwards. Towards our heart and our throat. Opening to the world around you now that you know you're in this sacred space. Feel the support that's at your back. Bring your awareness across the entire back line of your body. Feel the earth rising up to meet you as you inhale and exhale. Let your body fall down more. And as your body falls and as the earth rises, The sensation can come over you. Maybe you feel like you're falling or flying. Breathing in and breathing out. So even when you're going through challenging times, You know now that you have an incredible amount of strength and resilience that you can tap into. And that even when things seem difficult in our external world, We can trust that each step is leading towards something different. Something new and is teaching us to see the bigger picture in our lives. So you might want to stay here for your Shavasana, But you are going to be here for around 10 minutes. So if you think this might get a little bit too much, I would encourage you to come out of this posture, Remove your props and set yourself up for traditional Shavasana corpse pose in your own time. You might want to pop a bolster under your knees or the rolled up yoga mat, If that's what you've got. You might want a blanket or an eye pillow. Bring your left hand to your heart and your right hand to your lower belly. Right hand is on the lower belly, Connecting you with your inner resource of strength. Helping you to build that trust as you move through your pain and your left hand is on your heart. Your heart is an energy center of the body that is very often reaching outwards, Connecting with the world, Receiving from the world. So with your hand on both of these important energy centers of the body, You can feel resource from within and from without. Let go of all efforts and relax completely. And now start to deepen your breath, Bringing your attention to your feet, Your toes, Your legs, Hugging your knees into your chest. Let's take in a moment, Coming over onto one side, A few breaths here. Connecting back with your body, With the room that you're in. Noticing how you feel. And then slowly bringing yourself all the way back up, Briefly into cross-legged position. And just take your hands into prayer, Thumbs into your chest. And just take your hands into prayer, Thumbs into your chest. Drop your chin slightly towards your fingers. Namaste. Thank you for this practice. I do hope this has helped with your cramping.