One of my favourite lines from Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry is this,
Quiet friend who has come so far,
Let your breathing make space around you.
Often in our lives,
It can feel like the days get really dense,
Or the weeks,
Or the months,
And it can be hard when we get into this spiral of busyness to find a way to really slow down and carve out space.
These restorative practices are a way to create space and what we're going to do today is use our breath as a portal into that more spacious realm.
So begin in a comfortable seat.
I'm going to guide you through a really simple breath practice where we're going to inhale first to the belly,
We're going to keep inhaling into the chest,
We're going to hold the breath just briefly and gently at the top and then we're going to do a long exhale and if you've had one of those dense kind of days,
You might even add some sound to your exhale so you might go ahhh when you breathe out.
See what you feel like you might need.
So take a moment to find a seat.
You might like to sit on your cushion or a block.
And just take a moment to notice that you're on the ground.
Notice the contact of your sitting bones with the floor.
And a little softness down through the sides of the neck,
The tops of the shoulders and your lower ribs,
Belly,
All relaxed.
And so from here we'll begin.
Start with a full exhale breath to prepare.
And then together we're going to inhale to fill up the belly.
Keep inhaling to fill up the chest.
Very slight pause.
And then the full breath out.
We'll do that again.
Inhale to fill up your belly.
Keep inhaling to fill up your chest.
Just a slight pause at the top.
And a big release.
Okay,
We're going to extend it a little.
So inhale to the belly.
Breathe up into the chest.
Pause a little longer.
Allow your shoulders to be soft.
And a full breath out,
Letting go of anything that feels heavy for you now.
Again,
Belly,
Chest,
Pause and be soft.
And release.
And as we continue,
Your exhale may become more subtle and smooth.
Again,
Belly,
Chest,
Hold,
Relax.
Long breath.
This is the last time,
Belly.
Chest.
And so now we can just let our breath breathe itself.
Your body already knows how to do this.
And we're going to move into just a few really simple and restorative postures today to create space in some of the parts of the body that can feel the most compacted.
So we're going to start with the hips with the deer pose.
So for this one,
You want to bring your pelvis down onto the ground.
If you're using a bolster or a cushion of any sort,
It can just go out in front of you.
So for deer pose,
We have one shin out in front at a kind of 90 degree angle.
And I'll show you the other side.
The back leg,
It bends up.
So it's kind of like a 90-90 sort of shape.
What this does is it takes any pressure off of this front knee.
So you're resting on the front leg's hip.
And then from here,
We lean forwards.
And before we lay down fully,
We're just going to move with the breath for a couple rounds through this shape,
Just to floss a little mobility,
A little awakening into the target area,
Which is your front outer hip.
So to begin,
Use your hands for support.
As you inhale,
Lift your torso long like the air is inflating all the way to the roof of your mouth.
And then exhale to lean forwards,
Let your hands support you.
As the air empties out,
You deflate and you soften.
We'll do that again.
Inhale,
Pull all the way up,
Maybe even lifting to the eyelashes now.
And exhale,
Pull that down long spine as you lower.
Last one like this.
Inhale up,
Space all the way now to the crown of the head.
And out and down.
This time,
As you come down,
You're going to stay in a degree of lowered torso that feels comfortable for you.
So your bolster or your cushion is perfect for support.
Pull it in close,
Organise it in such a way that you can lay your body down on it.
Some of you might lay all the way down,
Resting your forehead on your hands.
Take your time to get comfortable in the shape.
There's no rush.
So we'll stay for a few minutes here allowing everything to slow down,
Allowing the momentum of your day and of the world around you to just slow as your body comes to rest.
Now the target area for this pose is your front outer hip.
And so that means that's where you can pay attention to the sensations while you're in the pose.
It might feel like a stretching or pulling sensation.
Or it might feel kind of warm,
Sometimes even tingly.
There might be a sense of it feeling pleasant or unpleasant.
So you can just notice and bring awareness to this part of your body.
You don't have to try and make it any kind of way.
Just creating space for this experience,
This sensation as it is.
So as you settle into the shape,
Start to notice the breath in this position.
And when I say notice the breath,
I mean tune in to the sensations of the body making space for the air when you inhale.
And then contracting around the vacuum as you exhale.
So you might notice in this position a feeling of lifting into the lower back and the back ribs when you breathe in.
You might even feel the inhale pulling all the way down into your lower back.
Maybe even in the outer hip that we're stretching.
And then when you breathe out,
Those parts of your body soften back downward and inward.
Like the wings of a bird just softening onto its back when it lands after flight.
And this will be the last moment in the pose.
And then just kind of languidly press your body up.
You move so slowly like you're moving through honey.
Let the bolster press away so that you can sit onto your sitting bones,
Two legs out in front.
And we're going to take this constructive rest shape here.
You can lean back into your hands,
The knees knocked together.
And it's like your own arms and shoulder blades become a comfy chair.
Now if any of the rebound poses I suggest don't suit you,
Feel free to make up your own.
So you could lay down instead here,
Lay on your side,
Whatever feels right for your body.
We've placed the femur bones,
The thighs,
In a gentle internal rotation.
You might be able to notice that the sensations on the side that you just stretched are different to the other side.
So it's worth paying attention to.
And you might even see the breath in your belly here as well.
The soft animal of your body breathing itself.
And then when you're ready,
We'll do the same pose on the other side.
Like I said,
Really simple here today.
So the opposite shin goes out in front,
Kind of 90 degrees-ish.
You don't have to get too obsessed about that.
Just let it feel comfortable.
The other leg can be out to the side.
And we'll take those few waves of breath before we settle in.
So,
Support with the hands.
Inhale,
The spine ripples to its full length.
And then breath out,
You gently ease forwards.
Just go to the first point of resistance,
You don't have to push.
And then when the breath in comes all the way back up,
Like cresting a wave.
And exhale,
Wave rolls back out.
Last one here.
And up.
And then when you get down,
You're going to stay,
Finding a position for your torso that's comfortable.
And supporting the body to rest here.
Release for the outer hip.
And we've got our few minutes.
One of the real benefits of these kinds of restorative practices like Yin Yoga,
Is that it gives us a sort of punctuation mark from our normal way of being.
And for a lot of us in the modern world and the society we live in,
That way of being is busyness.
Busyness has been glorified a lot in our culture,
Unfortunately.
And for a lot of people,
It can feel hard to slow down and hard to rest.
You know,
I sometimes get that sense where on a day off,
Initially there's so much momentum in my body that I feel like I need to be doing things,
Be productive,
I write a list,
You know the sort.
And so a practice like this can help us put a hard stop to that pattern.
And if it's not a full stop,
At least a comma,
So that we create just a little clearing.
As Wendell Berry says,
Create a clearing in the dense forest of your life.
Because for the next couple of minutes,
Your only job is to feel the way the breath moves into your body in this shape.
That's it.
Just that.
As if that were a whole miracle all by itself.
Because it kind of is,
Right?
And in this space,
You get to notice the simple beauty of the breath.
And of being.
Just being.
Last moment or so here.
The wings of your shoulder blades fold onto your back body.
As you exhale,
You land.
And then the breath in is going to push you up again.
Lifting the torso,
Just slide the bolster to the side.
And you're going to take that same constructed rest position like before,
But you can choose to do it laying down now.
So whether you like to stay upright,
Leaning in your shoulder blades,
Or whether you want to just lay the spine down now.
And let the body find the floor.
If you're on the ground,
Let your hands just open and soften.
And see how it feels to be completely effortless here.
Just being held by the earth.
So many of us,
We hold so much.
And what a contrast it is to have a moment where you let yourself be held.
And even if there isn't really a person who might be that for you,
The earth can be that for all of us.
It already is.
Just laying down.
Letting gravity have its way with you.
Really a simple moment of remembering our connection to this earth.
The place we all come from.
And the place that eventually we'll all return to.
So,
Having released a bit through the outer hips,
We're going to move now to the chest.
So the front of the shoulders and the front of the chest are an area where a lot of us can get a little compacted or a little dense,
Just because of our lifestyles that hunch over tech devices so much.
So we'll do a simple sleeping butterfly.
A nice way to do this is to add a little thoracic extension,
So a little more chest lift by using your bolster or whatever kind of cushion you have.
I recommend if you have a long one like this,
Placing it so that it can also support your head.
So you'll sit your pelvis on the floor,
Nestle your lower back towards the bolster,
And then just gently lay your spine down over the top of it.
The head can rest.
You'll feel that naturally as your arms open out to the side,
Your shoulder blades will nestle together to allow that opening.
And as the shoulder blades move closer together,
The reciprocal act at the front of the chest is that the heart lifts.
And then with the legs,
The butterfly is feet coming together that's the body of the butterfly,
And the knees falling out wide of course that would be the wings.
And if you want to adjust the leg position do something different,
Of course you can.
And if you want to do this without the bolster laying flat on the floor that's a lovely option too.
And then we can experiment here with the arms being by your side if you feel like you want to stay just a little more protected with yourself,
Keep your arms down or even on your body can be just some nice feedback you know,
Here I am.
If you feel like you want to let the pose be more expansive,
If you're ready to expand then the arms can open a little more out to the side.
You'll feel this potentially in the pectoral muscles at the front of the chest or just where the front of the shoulder meets below the armpit.
You might even bend the elbows this will bring more stretch into the chest and of course lifting the arms overhead is available if that feels helpful for you.
So we'll spend a few more minutes here breathing and resting noticing what moves here when you inhale you might find it's the front ribs lifting and spreading upwards as if every inhale the whole sky is falling into your chest so much space and when you exhale your body gives the air back lets it return to the sky after you've metabolised all the parts of that little oxygen meal that your cells needed you're aware of the size of the sky above you,
This whole atmosphere and your body beneath it opening wide and as you allow the body to open imagine that there's so much space now that there's no room for anything to get stuck inside of you you ventilate all the things you feel you ventilate your life throw open the windows the breeze rushes in we'll take our last moments here aware of the ribs lifting on inhale,
The shoulder blades squeezing together at the back of the heart to release this if your knees were butterflied you can just gently help them come up together,
Use your hands if you like and roll off the bolster so you don't have to get up too high to press it out to the side and allow yourself to lay back all the way down onto your back and just take a moment to let that pose just wash through the body once again grounded you might just take a little scan through the body here to check at this point in the class are there any parts of you that are still contracting,
Any parts that are still dense,
Check the muscles of your jaw check the muscles around your neck and shoulders just check the muscles of your abdomen,
Your belly okay and so we'll take one more restorative pose now and it's going to be either legs up the wall or waterfall so they're the same pose but with one of them if you have a wall right beside you or behind you you're going to put your legs up on that,
If you don't have a wall we simply do it with your bolster or your cushion or you might use something quite low,
Even a rolled up towel,
I'll demonstrate this way first and all you're going to do is just put your tailbone on the prop so that it creates a tilt in the pelvis and as we lift our legs up into the air that tilt of the pelvis will help everything just rest in position the legs aren't straight at all,
It's just this very gentle restorative inversion so many benefits to help the body slow down and the nervous system regulate and if you're near the wall you can take a prop with you if you want but you might just scooch your pelvis up to the corner,
Lay down,
I like to do it side on first and then spin so that the legs are on the wall and then the wall holds your feet there and you can just rest like this and once again,
A couple of minutes here a sense of lightness in the feet heaviness at the back of the shoulder blades and just the skull heavy in fact,
Your whole brain can be heavy now as if the weight of the brain sinks to the back of the skull and it rests there and really gently you can notice where does the breath move you in this shape how does your body make space on the inhale and where does it soften on the breath out last few moments here and then imagining that your feet really really slowly are just going to drift slowly one by one back down to the ground like feathers in a very soft breeze when your feet reach the floor,
Take a moment so they can land notice the sensations as the feet drop back down and return and then really easily just let your body lay down fully on the mat this pose will be a few minutes as well shavasana or pentacle pose which is just laying down and if you want to take a bolster underneath your knees or something over your eyes to dim the light you can really simple shape sometimes the simplest things are the most profound as you rest here held by the earth become aware of the space around your body then become aware of the space inside your body and then let the space outside and inside blend your breath is the bridge so from here the guided part of your practice is going to finish and it's up to you if you want to stay longer and rest or sit up and take a little bow and move softly back out into your day remembering the words of Rilke,
Quiet friend who has come so far notice how your breathing makes space around you
