Forward Folds To Relieve Anxiety - Gentle Yoga Practice

A gentle forward folding yoga practice designed to fold out anxiety. Close your eyes and gently work with your body and breath to release feelings. Be kind and compassionate with your breath and allow movement to release tension.

Transcript

Let's start by laying on our backs.

I want you to place your hand on your belly.

As we breathe in,

I want you to breathe all the way into those bellies.

So as that breath moves into our bodies,

Let's feel those bellies expanding.

And as we exhale,

A long exhale up,

Let's feel those bellies contracting.

Let's just take a moment here to note how our bodies are feeling.

Let's try to push any anxiety or worries out of our minds.

And as we breathe in,

Feeling those bellies expanding.

As we breathe out,

We start to push all that anxiety out of our bodies.

So let's just take a few moments here,

A few breaths in and out,

Just to completely relax ourselves,

Completely let go,

Completely push any worries aside.

So taking that deep inhale and long exhale out.

Deep inhale and long exhale.

Inhale and exhale.

Two more times.

Deep inhale and long exhale.

And last time,

Deep inhale.

As you're breathing in,

I want you to feel the oxygen moving around your body,

Giving life to every muscle,

Every limb.

And exhale.

Just take note of how you're feeling now,

How your limbs are feeling,

How your mind is feeling.

Just take a few more minutes,

A few more moments,

Just to allow yourself to be in this space,

In this present moment,

In this time right now.

And when you're ready,

I want you to bring your right knee to your chest,

I want you to place your arms around it,

And I want you to hug it tight.

Remember to keep breathing,

We can focus on our natural breath here.

And on the exhale,

Release that leg.

And now on the inhale,

Let's bring that left knee to our chest and hug it tight.

Just take a few more breaths in and out here.

And then on the exhale,

Let's release that leg.

Now I want you to interlock your fingers above your head,

And I want you to stretch out as far as you can.

Keeping every limb,

Every muscle opening.

And now on the inhale,

Let's bring both our knees to our chest.

If you want to,

We can slowly gently rock from side to side here.

We're going to pull those knees deep into the chest,

Hugging them tight.

Keep rocking from left to right.

Now we're going to release our arms and we're going to place them out 90 degrees from our bodies.

Just place them to rest on the ground.

We're gently going to roll our knees down to the right side,

All the way to the ground if you can.

And I want you to look in the opposite direction.

So we're going to look left as your knees are folding right.

Just feeling that stretch.

Now on the inhale,

We're going to bring those knees back to the center.

And on the exhale,

We're going to take them down to the left hand side now.

We're going to turn our necks and we're going to face right.

And then on the inhale,

We're going to bring those knees back to our chest,

Back to the center,

Hugging them tight again.

And on the exhale,

We're going to stretch our legs out,

Interlock our fingers above our heads and give ourselves another good stretch.

When we're ready,

We can slowly move up and come into a seated position.

So I want your legs out in front of you.

We're going to extend our spines up towards the sky.

We're going to arch our feet towards us,

So flexing those toes towards us.

We're going to take a deep breath in and now folding at the hips,

Not rounding our backs,

Keeping those backs as straight as possible,

Folding at the hips.

On the exhale,

We're going to fold forward and we're going to grab our feet or our ankles or our shins or wherever our hands can actually reach.

We're going to take another deep breath in here and on the exhale,

Using that exhale,

We're going to fold even deeper into the stretch.

So bringing our heads towards those knees as far as we can,

As far as we're comfortable.

Remember everyone's bodies are different,

So listen to your body.

Only go as far as you're comfortable.

Just hold here for a few moments.

Take note of how your legs are feeling.

Take note of how your upper body is feeling.

Remember to keep breathing.

Now on the inhale,

I want you to release your hands and come back up into a seated position.

Remember to keep those backs as straight as possible.

Now I want you to bend your right knee and I want you to bring that right foot,

The sole of your right foot,

Into your left thigh.

We're going to keep that left foot flexed towards us.

We're going to keep those spines as straight as possible.

We're going to take a long inhale here.

And then on the exhale,

We're going to fold forward again.

We're going to grab our feet or our ankles or our shins.

We're bringing our heads towards that left knee.

Let's just take a moment to relax here.

And on the inhale,

We're going to come up again,

Keeping that spine straight,

Keeping our necks arched up towards the sky.

Now we're going to bend that left knee and we're bringing the sole of our left foot into our right thigh.

We're keeping our backs as straight as possible.

We're keeping that right foot flexed towards us.

We're taking that deep inhale.

And on the long exhale,

We're using that breath to fold forward,

Bringing our heads gently towards that right knee.

Just staying here for a few moments.

And on the inhale,

We're going to stretch out that leg.

We're going to straighten our body,

Straighten that spine,

Coming back up into a seated position.

Now we're going to bend both knees and we're bringing both soles of our feet together.

We're taking a deep breath in.

And on the exhale,

We're just bringing our foreheads down towards the ground as far as we're comfortable.

We're just going to take note of how our bodies are feeling,

Specifically our lower body.

Feel with each movement that each breath we take,

That tension is being released.

If you want to,

You can use your elbows to push down on those knees,

Pushing them down even further into a deeper stretch.

And on the inhale,

We're going to come up.

We're going to straighten those legs out again.

We're going to take a deep breath in.

And on the exhale,

We're going to fold forward,

Taking our hands to both of our feet,

Bringing our heads towards our knees once again.

And inhale coming up.

Now on the exhale,

I want you to lay back down onto your backs as we started.

Now I want you to place both of your soles of your feet on the ground.

So we're bending our knees.

We're going to lift our hips up into a bridge position.

So we're taking a deep breath in here.

And on the exhale,

We're lifting those hips as high as we can.

If you want to,

You can interlock your fingers underneath you.

Otherwise just rest them wherever they're comfortable.

We're just going to hold here for a few breaths in and out.

And gently lower them back down to the ground on the exhale.

And on the inhale,

Bringing them up again.

And exhale,

Releasing those hips back to the ground.

Now I want you to take your right foot and I want you to place it over that left leg,

So the left thigh.

And I want you to place your hands around that left thigh and gently,

Ever so slowly,

Bring it towards you.

And on the exhale,

We're going to release that leg,

Bringing it back to the ground.

Now on the inhale,

We're taking our left leg,

Bending it over,

Placing it on our right thigh.

And gently,

We're going to pull that right thigh slowly towards us.

And on the exhale,

We're going to release it.

We're going to stretch both our legs out.

We're going to interlock our fingers as we did in the beginning,

Above our heads,

Stretching out every muscle,

Every limb.

Just remember to breathe,

Taking those deep breaths in and out again now.

Now I want you to place your hands on either side of your body with the palms facing upward.

I want you to make yourselves as comfortable as possible.

We're going to slowly,

Consciously start to relax every single muscle in our bodies.

I want you to feel as if gravity was pushing down hard on those muscles.

I want you to feel them getting heavy.

Taking long breaths in.

And as you exhale,

Feel each muscle pushing deeper into the ground.

I want you to specifically focus on relaxing the muscles around your eyes and your mouth and the muscles on your forehead.

I want you to feel as if your body was sinking into the ground.

And as you sink deeper,

Any stress and anxiety rises up and leaves your body.

Let's just take as long as we need here,

As long as we want,

Just to completely be still,

Completely relax.

This layer for as long as you want.

When you're ready,

You're going to start to move your fingers and your toes and you'll gently roll onto your left side and then come back up into a comfortable seated position.

Namaste.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌺🌺🌺Thank you so much for the wonderful yoga practice 🌺 I feel grounded in my body and having sweet energy 🌺 be well 🙏Namaste

I was feeling down today and this exercise really helped. Thank you

Gentle and effective restorative yoga. Loved it!

excellent stretch and wind down before bed

Lovely
Just exactly what I needed to reset my energy
Thank you

Wonderful gentle opening to release anxiety. I love this one for morning especially.