Welcome to this gentle yoga for grounding practice.
This is about a 10 minute yoga practice to help you feel more connected in your body,
In your mind,
And your heart.
We're going to begin in a seated position of your choice.
And take a few grounding breaths to release your entire body weight to the earth.
Start to lower your weight from your head to your shoulders,
From your shoulders to your belly,
And from your belly,
All the way out through your sitting bones into the earth.
And notice the support underneath your sitting bones,
Holding you up.
The earth,
A chair,
Whatever you're sitting in.
And once you feel grounded and connected to the earth in your body,
Start to notice the natural rhythm of your breath.
Notice how each breath fills you on its own and leaves you without effort.
Watching the breath for a few rounds,
Without having to change it,
Simply noticing what your natural breath rhythm is like right now.
Letting your mind rest on the flow of your breath.
Now that we've grounded and connected to our breath,
Let's begin with some gentle movements to deepen the breath and release tension from the body.
We'll begin with seated cat cow.
You can place your hands on your knees.
And when you're ready,
Move with your breath.
With each inhale,
Begin to open the belly,
The heart.
And with each breath out,
Begin to round through your spine,
Pulling the belly towards the spine.
Each inhale opens you up in a gentle backbend.
And each exhale helps you curl.
Moving with the pace of your breath for three to five rounds here.
And when you're ready,
Coming back to neutral,
Gently engaging through your low belly,
Lifting up through your spine.
And we'll take a side bend over to the right.
When you're ready,
Drop your right hand towards the earth,
Lift your left arm up and side bend over to the right.
Feel the expansion in your ribs as you're still rooting down through your sitting bones.
With your next breath in,
Lift both arms up and release to the other side.
Left arm down,
Right arm up.
Side bending over to the left.
And when you're ready,
Draw both arms back up to the center and down,
All the way down through center.
Namaste.
Prayer hands.
Let's do that twice more.
Inhale to sweep the arms around you like a half circle.
Reaching the arms all the way up over your head.
With each exhale,
Bringing the hands through center.
Namaste or Anjali Mudra.
Moving a few times,
Sweeping this space around you,
The energy around you,
And bringing the hands back down through the center line of the body.
And from here,
We'll take a gentle twist.
When you're ready,
Take your right hand to your left knee.
Left fingertips behind you.
With a deep breath in,
Reach up through the length of the spine.
And with a deep breath out,
Begin to twist,
Looking over your left shoulder.
With each inhale,
Lengthen through the spine like there's a long string running up from your sacrum to the top of your head.
And with each breath out,
Revolving into the twist.
And when you're ready,
Bringing everything back to center and going to the other side.
Reaching opposite hand to opposite knee,
Lifting up through your spine,
And twisting to look over the opposite shoulder for three breaths here.
Keep rooting down through your sitting bones as you twist for three breaths here.
And eventually,
Drawing everything back to center.
We'll take one or two more postures here.
From a seated position,
We're going to transition to all fours.
If you're seated in a chair,
You can do this as well,
Just standing.
When you're ready,
You will extend one leg out behind you,
Coming into a three-legged plank.
Hands root down to the earth as you extend your right leg out behind you,
Foot resting on the earth.
If you're doing this with a chair,
You can hold on to the chair as you lift your leg up behind you.
Three breaths here,
Reaching through the ball of your foot,
Extending your spine nice and long,
Firming those low ribs in,
Feeling the strength of your arms and leg pressing into the earth.
And when you're ready,
Let's change sides,
Opposite leg behind you,
Reaching through the ball of your foot,
The heel extending long through the spine,
Through the crown of the head,
Hands rooting down and ball of the foot connected to the earth for a couple rounds.
From here,
We're going to drop into a gentle child's pose.
If you're on all fours,
You can bring both legs down to the ground,
Sitting on your heels.
Take a breath in hero pose.
Let your weight drop to the earth once more.
And then from here,
You can begin to fold in a child's pose,
Sinking your hips towards your heels,
Folding your forehead down towards the earth,
Or maybe stacking your forearms or palms underneath your forehead.
Let's take five breaths here,
Breathing into the back of the body.
If you're seated in a chair,
You can sit back in the chair and just fold and round your body down towards your feet.
Breathing into the length of the spine and breathing out any tension out through your forehead into the earth.
Imagine that Mother Earth is carrying away anything that's been overwhelming you,
Troubling you.
It's holding it for you in this moment so that you don't have to hold it or yourself up right now.
Allow yourself to be supported in these last two breaths.
And when you're ready,
Gently pressing back up,
Take your time to press to seated in varasana.
You can either sit here,
Absorbing the natural grounding energy you've cultivated,
Or you can lie down on your back and bring a bolster pillow underneath your knees.
For these last few seconds,
Release all your body weight to the earth.
Soften your breath and your mind.
You are worthy of deep rest,
Of grounding and connection to yourself and the earth.
And when you're ready,
You can deepen your breath or stay in your resting position.
You can stay in this posture as long as you like.
If you're closing with me,
You can bring the hands to the heart and gently bow towards your heart in gratitude for the self care practice of grounding and connection to your body,
Mind,
Heart,
And breath.
With great love,
Namaste.
