Welcome to this short desk yoga session.
Start by sitting comfortably in your chair,
Taking a moment to adjust your chair so that you can ground your feet down onto the floor.
Lifting up and stretching through the toes,
Placing the toes and all of the feet onto the earth.
Feeling the energy rise up through the legs and grounding your sit bones onto your chair.
You might imagine that the soles of your feet are like the roots of a tree and you're drawing up the strength of the tree into the trunk of the legs.
And then notice the weight of your body on the chair,
Feeling grounded and stable.
Engaging the navel and sitting up nice and tall in the spine.
Roll the shoulders away from the ears and let them melt down the back.
Tuck the chin in ever so slightly,
Feeling length in the back of the neck.
And then the crown of the head is like the branches of a tree moving towards the sky in the sunlight.
Gently closing the eyes down or having a soft focus.
Let's take a lovely deep breath in through the nose and out through the nose.
Two more times,
Deep breath in,
Four breath out.
One more,
Make this your deepest breath that you've taken all day and releasing anything you don't want to keep with you.
When you're ready,
As you inhale take the shoulders up to meet the ears,
Take them up as high as you can.
As you exhale,
Release the shoulder blades all the way down the back.
Taking a few rounds of these,
Working with your breath.
Inhale,
Shoulders rise up and up.
As you exhale,
Drop them away from the ears.
A few more times,
Inhale shoulders up.
Exhale shoulders down.
Last one,
Take them as high as you can,
Notice how that feels.
And then fully releasing,
See if you can allow your shoulders to remain all the way down the back.
Taking your fingertips to your shoulders,
Beginning to draw some circles with your elbows.
Imagine your elbows are like paint brushes and you begin to draw small circles.
And then maybe the circles get a little bit bigger.
Perhaps the circles get bigger still.
And imagine you're trying to make the circles really smooth and even,
Smoothing out any ragged edges.
Drawing the circles with the elbows bigger still,
Take them really wide.
Perhaps pointing the elbows towards the front.
And then take them out to the sides and maybe even towards the back.
Take a few more beautiful big circles with the elbows.
And then releasing the hands,
Palms can just rest in the lap.
When you're ready,
Take the gaze up towards the sky,
Gently stretching out the throat.
And bring the gaze back to centre.
Take the gaze over your right shoulder.
And back to centre.
Take the gaze over your left shoulder.
And back to centre.
Drop the chin down towards the chest and we're going to pause here,
Feeling a lovely stretch in the cervical spine,
The back of the neck.
And then gently lifting the gaze back forward.
Take your left hand on top of your right ear.
Gently taking the left ear over to one side,
Stretching through the side of the neck.
Gently pushing the hand into the ear and the ear into the hand.
But very gently,
No force or strain here.
You might want to release your right fingertips out to the side.
And just point your fingertips towards the floor.
Gentle stretch in the side of the neck.
And switching sides,
Float the hands.
Take the right hand over towards the left ear.
Ear into the hand,
Hand into the ear.
Keep it gentle.
Perhaps reaching out your left fingertips,
Straight line of the arm,
Point the fingertips towards the floor.
Breathing here.
And releasing the hands,
Take the hands back into the lap.
Remembering your posture that we had at the beginning,
Still rooting through the feet,
Engaging the core.
Spine is nice and long.
The frown of the head draws up towards the sky seal.
Working with the wrists now,
Interlacing the fingertips.
And then making a figure of eight with your hands,
Noticing any creaks or crunches.
Just making beautiful circles of eight.
A couple more here.
And then releasing the grip of those fingertips,
Scrunching the fists.
Make your hands into tiny little balls.
And then the opposite,
Really spread through the fingertips.
And again,
Make your hands into little fists and then spread them wide.
One more,
Tiny little fists and then super active hands.
And then interlacing the fingertips again.
This time we're going to float the hands up towards the sky,
Palms face up,
Knuckles are down.
Reaching the hands above the head,
Soften the shoulders.
Take a stretch over towards the left hand side.
Keep those sit bones rooted.
Your gaze might move up towards the sky.
Feeling a stretch in the side of the body,
The sides of the ribs.
Coming back to centre.
Switching sides,
Take the stretch over towards the right.
Spin the gaze up if it feels good for your neck,
If not keep it forward.
Maybe you can open your chest more.
Coming back to centre.
Releasing the fingertips,
Take the arms to either side of the room.
Have a really nice big stretch of the fingertips.
Let them release down by the sides of your chair,
Your body.
Inhale,
Float the hands all the way up.
Take a big stretch,
Palms touch together at the top in prayer.
And then release them all the way down.
One more,
Let's match this with the breath this time.
Inhale,
Big reach all the way up.
Maybe your gaze follows your palms as they meet.
Exhale,
Float the hands all the way down.
Bringing the hands to prayer.
Roll the shoulders one last time away from the ears.
Coming back to the breath.
Deep breath in through the nose.
Full breath out through the nose.
Thanking yourself for taking the time to practice today.
Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day.
Namaste everyone.
