Relax, Restore And Reset - 30 Minute Restorative Yoga

A 30 minute deeply relaxing and restorative yoga session.

Great for resetting the nervous system and facilitating healing in the body.

Set in a magical woodland and enhanced with beautiful music this session is designed to support you and your body through times of stress, anxiety, overwhelm, fatigue, chronic illness and for when you just need some time and space for you and for self care.

Transcript

So welcome to this session for deep restoration, For resetting the nervous system. This is a perfect session if you are feeling a little under par or you've been under a lot of stress or you're suffering from any chronic conditions, Chronic fatigue or chronic illness. This is a wonderful session just to help restore, Reset the nervous system to help the body's capacity for healing and to really nourish and nurture yourself. So very gentle, Very soft. We'll take it nice and slowly. We won't be doing too much, But we're going to use some support just to help us in our postures. So for this session, You'll need a couple of cushions. I've got, I'm using a couple of folder blankets. Works well too. So you might want a couple of cushions, Perhaps something underneath your head. If you are a little bit cool, You might want to place a blanket over you as well. So as I said, We won't be moving too fast from position to position, So you have lots of time to get yourself really comfy in each of these poses. Okay, Lovely. So we're going to start just by getting the body just to start gently opening. So we're going to do a little opening through the hips. Get that central line to open, That energy to open up through that central line of the body. So we're going to start by coming onto the back of the body. So you'll need a cushion or a folded blanket on each side. We're going to bring the soles of the feet together. Going to lay back and we're just going to place those cushions or roll blankets just underneath the upper thigh so soles of the feet together underneath the upper thigh there if you want a little something underneath the head as well can have that lovely so with the arms I would say perhaps just taking them down by the sides you can roll your shoulders back then the palms just naturally turn upwards or if you want to really get that energy focusing inwards you can place the hands onto the body so perhaps onto the abdomen or onto the heart or separate those hands so just see whatever feels right for you and with all my yoga sessions it really is about working with your body and how it feels in this moment. So if something doesn't feel right you can change it or adapt in any way. So we're just going to start in this position, Soles of the feet, So really start to connect through the soles of the feet, Feel the connection perhaps just closing the eyes or softening the gaze and as I said if you want to cover yourself with a blanket here you can. And just taking a moment just to soften. Soften back just you. Lean into that support beneath you. So feel into your body lying on the ground. Feel into perhaps those supports underneath the thighs. And just start to invite a softness into your body. Soften behind the eyes. Soften the jaw. Soften into the neck and shoulders. And then soften all the way down into the abdomen. And as you soften into the abdomen. You might find that that breath begins to deepen. So allow that breath to deepen into your body. And as that breath deepens. It also begins to slow so get that sense of just slowing down. Nowhere else to be, Nothing else to do, Just to be right here, Right now. It's time for you. It's time just to breathe. So just witness your breath flow in and out of the body. Witness your body, Witness how you are feeling. Give yourself this time, This attention. Give yourself this pause. This is your moment to reset. Checking in with you. And in this position here, We're just very gently asking the body to start opening. Opening up the energy if you have been. Stressed or busy or under any illness. And often everything sort of tightens up. It's like a protection shield, Everything tightens up around you, Your body tightens up. So what we're doing here is just asking for that softness and then that gentle opening. Lovely let's take another nice deep breath in here so let's just breathe in and then let that breath go and again breathe in Let go. Lovely, I'm just going to gently squeeze the knees together here. Just going to change our position slightly so we've had that lovely opening of the hips we're just going to get that gentle opening as well now through the chest so just opening up the heart energy here so if you want to take one of your cushions or your folded up blanket we're just going to place it underneath the upper back so right underneath your your heart center there between your shoulder blades if you need something underneath the head you can have that there too i'm just going to take those arms maybe out to the sides here you can have your your feet bent or you can have them straight down if you prefer. Let the knees rest together so whatever you prefer, Whatever feels right. And then we're just going to soften here just allowing this lovely opening. Again it's very gentle so finding it a little bit too much. You might need a slightly lower cushion or take a fold out of your blanket. This nice gentle opening of the chest. So just really allowing that breath to come in. A little bit more space. Again, We're really just leaning. Into that. Support so as we do this. Please don't worry if. . . Any emotional stuff comes up to the surface. We're here, We're offering support to the body, We're being very present to ourselves, We're giving ourselves this lovely time and self-care, So if there are any emotions that need to be released, They may come up. To the surface here and all I would say is just allow, Allow whatever is there. Just acknowledge what's there. If anything's coming up just let it go. Keep breathing. Keep softening. Keep opening Let's take another deep breath in here. Let that breath go. And again one more breathing in Let that breath go. Good, Well done. Lovely and then let's just gently move the body again so just releasing. That blanket, That cushion from behind you. Is coming onto the back of the body again. Okay this time we're just going to just take the arms out to the side so shoulder height we can turn those palms upwards so really roll those shoulders back. Feet hip distance apart or even wider if you like. We're just going to gently start to rock the knees here from side to side. So again, Just tune into your energy, Tune into how you are feeling and just allow that rock. To you. Suit your body, Suit your needs. Just my trout. Just allow yourself to fall into your own rhythm. Breathing through. Lovely, Well done. We're just going to allow the knees to drop to one side, So perhaps dropping those knees over to the left. If you want to, You can just place that cushion, Folded blanket between your feet. Your knees, You're just offering a little bit of support, We're not shutting down the pelvis this way, We're keeping everything nice and space and open. We're just going to turn the head towards the right hand, So if the knees have gone to the left, Turn the head towards the right. Just soften, Breathe here. Lovely and then we'll gently bring that head back to the centre, Bring those knees back up and then take them over to the other side again, Just adjust your blanket if you need, Just Little bit of support to the hips there. The pelvis turn that head towards the left hand, Soften and breathe. You Lovely, Well done. Then bringing the head back to the centre, Bringing those knees back up, Good. Now just roll onto one side here, So whichever side you feel most comfortable on, Just taking yourself over onto that side, Just giving yourself a moment. We're going to come up and over onto the knees, So we just need to give the body this time to adjust to that change. Um so when you're ready just going to come all the way up and over good so we're going to come onto the knees and you will need your cushions again here so I'm just going to roll my blanket just to give a little bit of a lift to the hands. I might bring a blanket also or a cushion between the knees here too. So we're just again supporting the pelvis, Supporting the hip. And in doing so we're supporting our emotional body as well. Between your knees and if you've got any problems with the knees that don't bend quite as far, You can indeed put something underneath here between the heels and the buttocks as well to give you some support. Okay, Lovely. So we're placing that cushion between the knees. We can have this one out in front for the arms to rest on. Now the head comes down to the ground. But if that's not comfortable feel free to support your head or you can even pop a cushion underneath that head. So whatever feels right for you and even if you're halfway through the pose and you need to adjust that's absolutely fine. So we're taking these arms out in front Softening here, Just feeling that opening into the shoulders. Breathing nice and deeply into that space. Lovely and let's take a nice deep breath in here. And let that breath go Breathing in deeply. Let that breath go. Good well done gently bring yourself back out good so we're going to come on to the front of the body now so we're going to have one cushion underneath the top of the feet so at the top of the ankles and the other cushion is going to come underneath the pelvis so we're going to rest the top of the feet trousers you can't see but resting. Top of the ankles on there and we're going to bring this one underneath the hips or the pelvis. Adjust yourself so that you are comfortable there. And then we're going to make a pillow with our hands. We're going to turn the head to one side and just soften here. Oh, It feels wonderful. This is really good for the lower back. It sort of takes that strain off the lower back. If we lay completely flat on the ground, Often we can feel a little bit of strain into the lower back if we're there for any length of time. So this just really helps to open up the lower back. It's really good for the internal organs. Organs, Allows the lungs to drain, The largest part of our lungs in the back of the body, So when we come into this position, The lungs can open up as well, So really restorative for any lung conditions or coughing or anything like that. In this position also we get the fluid along the spine being pushed up to the brain to be restored. So it gets pushed up to the brain, Gets refreshed and restored and then comes back down the spine. Lovely and then we might want to just bring the head over to the other side so if you've got the head on one side you want to bring the head over to the other side you can if you do need any support underneath your chest at all or underneath the head feel free to to pop a cushion under there or another blanket Really just making sure you are as comfortable as you can be. On this side just allowing you to Just drop into that quiet space. Lovely well done just take a nice deep breath in here let that breath go and again breathing in deeply Let that breath go. Good, Well done. Gently bring yourself out of this position, So maybe taking the hands Pressing up. And back if you do want to give yourself a little bit of a wriggle out there you can so coming on to all fours and just allowing your body just have a little stretch or move Wriggle out there, That's lovely. It's like massaging your body from the inside. Good. So we're going to come into a lovely, Very restorative, Very relaxing position here. So what we're going to do, We're just going to bring the uh or a cushion or a blanket underneath the head and this one's going to come underneath your rib cage and then we can place a cushion between the knees as well so you might need to adjust the height to get this really comfy and once you get it it's it's the most yummy position ever so we've got the blanket underneath the rib cage the arm rests in the middle and then you're going to have the other blanket come underneath the head and then perhaps a little something between those knees just to support the hips and then really just allow yourself to to snuggle in again if you want a blanket over you you can just really soften relax here really giving in to that support. Really let your body sink in. Again, I'm just going to get quiet so you can have this time for you as well. Really softening. Releasing. Relaxing. Let's take a nice deep breath in here. Let that breath go. And again, Deep breath in. Let that breath go. Good well done we're just going to gently come on to the other side so you can just swap yourself over i'm going to swap ends so i'm facing the camera but um feel free just to turn yourself over go on to the other side again Cushion underneath the head, Cushion underneath the ribcage, Something under the knees for support and then just breathe here, Soften, Release. Relax and again, I'll just allow you this quiet time. To really enjoy this space. Lovely when you're ready to gently bring ourselves down. Out of the pose we've just got one more little um spinal release to do so something really lovely for the lower back so we come on to the back of the body just taking your your rolled cushion or your blanket and just placing it right underneath your tailbone so as low as you can get that blanket to go And then what you'll find is that your pelvis will just naturally come into this tucked position. So we're not having to push it into this position, It's just happening because we've got this support underneath the tailbone or underneath those seat bones. So what we want to do is just relax here and just allow gravity allow this support to do all the work for us. So again just get yourself comfortable maybe have those feet flat on the ground you can either let the knees drop together or just knees hip distance apart if you want to you can have the legs stretched all the way down as long as you're getting that lengthening through your lower back. It will be effective. So we're just going to relax rest here for a moment. Again, Just breathe and drop into this space. Lovely and then when you're ready we're just going to push down lift that blanket out roll through your spine just notice how much more length how much more space there is in that lower back wow hopefully your back is feeling as wonderful as mine does right now and it's just from offering that wonderful support just breathing and releasing and relaxing so know you can do that anytime if you've got any lower back pain just taking a few moments in that position good so we're going to come all the way up from here so When you're ready, Perhaps coming to one side and then gently coming up. We're just going to finish our session here today just with a few breaths. Breathing in, Taking the arms up. Breathing out down through the centre and again breathing in breathing out and one more breathing in Breathing out. Namaste.