The Realm Of Possibility: Yin Yoga For Uncertain Times

Uncertainty — we all deal with it in our lives, and sometimes, it can seem as if everything in our lives is uncertain. This practice came out of a time in my life when I felt my entire future was utterly uncertain, and it made me feel shaky, ungrounded, frustrated, and fearful.

So, like many times in my life, I stepped onto my mat and began to move into poses that felt intuitively right. This is the practice that turned my perspective around and lightened the weight of the uncertain times ahead in my life. I hope it helps you too.

Props: 1-2 blankets

By voluntarily participating in this exercise program or using the information provided, you assume all risk of injury to yourself and release and discharge The Yoga Ranger Studio or Aprille Walker from all claims or causes of action, known or unknown, arising from use of this video or information therein.

Transcript

Hello yogis, My name is April and welcome to the Yoga Ranger studio and welcome to this practice, Your practice. So today we're gonna be focusing on something that I feel like maybe A lot of us are dealing with uncertainty in our lives. And although uncertainty has been a part of our lives, Our entire lives, It seems like right now or some times of your life. There's a lot more uncertainty to it. And that can be very disorienting, Very frustrating. Very challenging for a lot of people. And so. As I stepped onto the mat one day, Really exploring my own practice and how I was really feeling the overwhelm of uncertainty that was. . . Looming in front of me that I was facing right in the moment. I stepped into my practice and began this practice, And the practice that we'll be doing today will be that practice exactly. And really As I moved into the practice, I began to understand a few things about uncertainty. And one of those things I began to see was that uncertainty can be uncertainty. Or it can be possibilities. So for all the things that I didn't know what the answer was or I didn't see the path right ahead of me, I didn't see exactly where I was going to end up or the end result. What I could see was a thousand different possibilities. And when I began to see that it was possibility, Not uncertainty, Suddenly my mood lightened, My perspective lightened. I began to see the world in a different light. Hoping that you will too. As we deal with uncertainty and that frustration, It begins to sit into the body and it becomes stress. And often we want to see an end result. We want to see where we're going to go. No one likes to not know where you're going, Right? All of us input the map into our map, Into our phone. We want to know where we're going. We always want to know when we're supposed to be there and how it's going to turn out and the people we're going to see there. And sometimes that's just not available, Right? But in that in that stress that we take of uncertainty is this beautiful What if? What if possibility? You could meet your new best friend. You could be on a pathway that leads to a dramatic change in your life that may be for your best. You may be on a pathway that is coming up where you will be able to let go of something that has really been holding you back. Maybe you knew it was there. Maybe you didn't. But within uncertainty is this realm of possibility. And that's where this class arose from. So as we begin this practice, Just a couple of things to keep in mind. As always, This is your practice. And it is all about honoring your body where you are at. And I will definitely offer you options and alternatives and suggestions and ideas. But if something is just not here for you today in this practice, Choose a modification, A variation. Or whatever you feel works best for your body in your practice. Listening to the tone and tenor of your body's voice. For this practice i am just going to be on a blanket as a soft surface underneath because this helps my knees and my ankles and my feet feel a little bit more comfortable and happy I have a blanket I'm sitting up on, But that could be a towel. It could be a bolster. It could be pillows. It could be whatever you have around you to give you a little softness. And if you know you like a few more props around you, Have them surrounding your space. Take up space. Realm of possibilities take up space. And fill the space with things that will make you feel comforted, Supported, Held. That's what props are. They're about making you feel comforted, Held, And supported. They're uplifting you, Right? So props are definitely whatever you want them to be. Even if you don't know if you'll use them or not, Just have them nearby just in case. Where you can adjust something. And so we're gonna start seated. I like to fold that blanket or towel up several times to give me just a little bit, Like an inch and a half of height or so. If you need more, You can always use more blankets here underneath your seat, Sit on the very edge where your sit bones are just hanging off the end. Legs cross through the bottoms of the feet together. Whatever feels best for you. We're just going to start here with some breath and some centering. Taking a moment to soften your gaze or close your eyes if that feels comfortable for you. And just tap into your breath and notice. Whatever messages your body is sending you. We practice with the body that we have in this moment. Maybe yesterday your body was a certain way and tomorrow it will be different. But today, Today our body is right here, Right now. It needs certain things and wants certain things. So taking a moment to scan your body, Just checking in and noticing what you might need to take more care of, What's doing well today? What might be struggling. Maybe that's a physical aspect of your body and maybe it's emotional or mental or energetic. And just kindly and compassionately acknowledging where you land on your mat in this moment. Maybe like me, You're facing a world of uncertainty up ahead. And that has you feeling disconnected, Discombobulated, A little uncertain, A little shaky. That's all okay. Those feelings are natural. And on the mat in your practice today, You don't have to pretend. You don't have to be anything. You don't have to be brave. You can just be. What you are in this moment. Noticing your breath and using your breath as an anchor in this practice. This anchor that you have within you at all times. Maybe even thinking of it as a lighthouse guiding you back to self, Back to presence, Back to home. Maybe setting an intention for your practice. Sometimes what I ask for in my practice is a shift. I ask for a shift in perspective. And experience. Letting that intention guide you in your practice today, Whatever that may be. Softly and gently opening your eyes. We're gonna stay here seated up on this blanket. We're gonna take a very loose square. So we're gonna take right in front of left. And square is traditionally one of those where you put the foot up on top of the knee, But we're gonna take a really loose version of it. So let your feet be kind of loose and squared off a little bit, Flexing your toes just a little bit to keep those ankles comfortable and safe. Feel into this, I can already feel some tension building up, Some stretch. And then just start to fold yourself over long spine and then let your hands rest wherever they may. Sometimes that feels good to take those hands on top of the knees if you're looking for more opening. I like to often take my hands on my knees and my head into my hands so that I have a little prop here. If you are closer to the floor than I am, And many people are, Go ahead and come down as far as you want or use a pillow to prop you up so you don't have to go as far, Right? You can go wherever your body feels like it is most safely comfortable. You feel a little bit of tension. You may feel a little bit of stretch. Or you maybe feel nothing at all sometimes in these poses. Going to two thirds of your maximum capacity, Not as deep as you could go, But just a little bit shy of that and holding for time. Breathing through. Inviting the muscles to relax, Your body to unwind. Maybe softening your gaze or closing your eyes if that feels appropriate for you today. You may find that as time goes by, Your body can sink a little bit lower. Noticing whatever comes up noticing your breath. Noticing any sensations physically that you are beginning to feel or that are subsiding. Making any adjustments you need. Gently taking your hands to the floor and using your hands to press yourself up very, Very slowly. Coming all the way back up to center, Leaning back. I like to take my hands underneath the outside of my knees. And start to windshield wiper those knees a little bit side to side. Noticing where you felt that pose. And then coming back into that pose and taking the left leg in front of the right this time. So this will seem kind of like easy seated pose, But we're a little bit more squared off than that with the feet a little bit more flexed. Kind of a loose square, Kind of comfortable square. Here again, Just settling in. Noticing how you feel. And then starting to lengthen the spine. I like to keep my hands on my knees so the spine is a little bit longer. And then you reach a certain point, Resting your knees on your legs, Your head and your hands, Or folding down with your hands on the floor. Settling into the pose, Letting your back round a little bit. Circling back to your intention for your practice. Once again, Using that as your guide for how to move through this practice. Very gently dropping your hands down and lifting back up using your hands, Coming back to center. Taking your hands behind your knees again here, Leaning back on your hands and just dropping those knees side to side. Noticing sensation that comes up after the pose is over as we shift energy again into a different position. We'll be focusing a lot today on the hips and the top of the thighs and inner thigh as we. . . Focus on the root chakra, That energy there, Spleen and stomach meridians. Running along the tops of the thigh and inner thigh all the way up into the low belly and chest. Coming back to center here and we're going to be setting up for pose that we're going to do a couple of different things with so i like to have a blanket on one side because this pose often makes you a little bit lopsided so taking your right leg out straight we're going to tuck that left leg back behind us in a half saddle pose i like to lean over a little bit and take my thumb to the inner thigh and kind of pull that calf muscle out of the way so that i have a little bit more space You can adjust your blanket. To hold you up here but this keeps you a little bit more level so you don't feel like you're really lopsided taking that foot you can either put the foot flat or turn it out to the side and starting to fold forward letting your foot be soft Maybe even letting your knee be soft if you want to come down a little bit lower. And this is gonna, With the bent knee, Gonna focus a little bit more on the back of the leg. On this right side if you straighten it out you might get a little bit more on the entire hamstring on the back body your choice here to kind of explore that. You can always lift up a little bit higher, Sit on something higher to take some of that stretch out of that left knee or place a towel right behind it so the bend of the knee is not quite as strong. Let yourself just soften here. Maybe after a few breaths, Your body begins to. . . Let you go a little bit further. Here we're tapping a little bit into that. Bladder meridian line dealing with fear a little bit of uncertainty as it runs down the entire backside of our bodies. Maybe lessening our fear of the uncertain. Things that are not sure. Slowly using your fingers to bring you back up. And here we're going to either shift that blanket off or you can leave it behind you. I like to shift off of it. And then come down into half saddle pose now maybe you come down to here and you stop here with your elbows bent maybe you feel like it's okay if you come down a little bit further maybe you can come down all the way i'm going to stay here because this feels appropriate for me today your knee on the left side might lift off the floor just a little bit you could use a bolster and tuck it underneath your back so that you can lay back a little bit more Notice whatever comes up in this pose. Often it's a strong desire to come out or a wish to deepen. Sometimes it's how long will this post last? Notice those things that come up. Very gently start to come up onto your forearms. Use your hands to press yourself back up. You're going to lean a little bit over to the right. Slowly use your hand to untuck your left leg, Which has been under for quite a while. Slowly stretch that leg out, Bounce it around a little bit. I'm gonna take that blanket and tuck it underneath our hips again. We're gonna take that left leg across the right in a half. Shoelace pose. So go ahead and cross that over. Get your knees as close to on top of one another as you possibly can. Maybe you are a little bit more off to the side. That's okay, Too. It is as close as you can get, Right? And then here we're just gonna go ahead and lean over to the sides. We're gonna take that right hand down to the right, Left hand is gonna go up and over, A little lateral stretch for that outer hip space. Checking in with your body, Noticing what's coming up energetically, Emotionally, Physically. And even if there's nothing noticing the nothing. Starting to take that left hand back to the left, Using the right hand to push yourself up for center. Unwinding your leg taking that leg out straight again, Leaning back and just letting your knees be soft, Maybe swiveling your feet out to the sides. And some foot circles or ankle circles. Stretching out through the toes as much as you can. And then flexing as strongly as you can, A little balance here. As we prepare for our second side. Once again, If you liked that, You can take that blanket and put it underneath your outstretched leg, Which would this time be your left taking that right leg back behind you. Here, Once again, You can turn the foot out if that's more comfortable for you, Or you can flip those toes over. I find that the blanket gives me enough comfort where I can kind of flip it over and be more More comfortable here. Taking your thumb and rolling that calf muscle out so it gives a little bit more space for your body and maybe tucking a towel on behind the knee. Giving you a little bit more space behind the kneecap and just starting to fold over. Now this side may not look the same. For me it looks very different. I have a little bit more width between the knees. I start with a Bentadine maybe and start to straighten that out whenever I feel like it's appropriate. Whatever you feel like you need today, Maybe the side needs a different pose. A little different variation to help support it. Making those adjustments, Maybe a pillow underneath your chest or a. . . Blocks underneath your hands so you can hold up a little bit higher. Notice that as you hold the pose, Your body begins to soften or release more deeply into it. Notice the subtle shift. Of muscles. And tissues. Invite more softness in with your breath. Gently use your hands to start to press yourself back up. Here again, You can move that blanket out from underneath your hip. Come down maybe this side you need a little bit more room or a little bit more time to get into this pose i know i do and then settling in be finding a middle ground here this side does not want to go as deep so I'm going to let it choose how it wants to go If you feel comfortable coming all the way down, Coming all the way down, Remembering that you can always come out of a pose if you feel like you've gone a little too far. This is your practice in your body. Wherever you're at, Starting to make your way back up. To upright. Weaning over to the left as far as you can using your hand to unwind and pull that right foot out. Slowly taking that leg out long. Maybe bouncing the knees a little bit. Wiggling the toes, Circling the ankles. And then here again, If you like sitting up on the edge of that blanket. This time we're gonna take that right leg and cross it over the left, Right at the knee. And start to kind of inch that knee over knee as much as we can. And then taking that left hand over to the left, Right arm up and over, Resting it on your head, Leaning over for a lateral stretch. This time stretching the right side of the body. Softly and slowly starting to bring that right hand back up to center. Use your left to come back through the middle. Take your hands and unwind that right leg, Maybe leaning back and bouncing your knees a little bit, Wiggling the feet side to side. Wiggling your toes. Nice deep inhale and nice deep exhale. Noticing whatever comes up maybe it's relief Some poses are like that. And then we're going to bend those knees and come onto our hands and knees. Now, If your knees are kind of tender like mine are sometimes, Or if you just feel like you want to take a little extra care here, I'm going to take that blanket that we've been using or that towel and put your knees on top of that for melting heart pose. So taking the knees hip distance apart, We're going to shift the hips back just a little bit and begin to walk the hands forward. Here you have some choices. You could use a bolster or something underneath your head or your arms or your chest. You can gauge your core a little bit and start to flatten your back out so it's not quite such a deep dip. Or you can walk your hands. Further forward and drop your head or your chin down for this pose. Deep opening for the back. The lower belly, The chest. Definitely the arms. Here again, If you find that you need to make some modifications or a variation, You could take a modified puppy pose or child's pose if that feels more appropriate today. Taking your hands wider or using props. Very gently starting to walk your hands back in. Coming back up. And here, Flipping your toes, We're going to come back into a nice foot stretch here. As we have our knees already on this blanket, You can keep your fingertips on the floor. You can start to flip those toes and sit back. We're just going to be here for about a minute. We've had a lot of our feet being more flat, The top of the surface flat. So we kind of want to balance that out with a nice foot stretch. Noticing the shift in the energy. I often feel a lot in my upper shoulders and my upper chest in this pose. That pose before. We kind of want to unwind that tension as we're focusing on our feet for just a moment to distract. And just one more deep inhale and exhale. Noticing that big strong foot stretch here in this intermediary pose here. Coming off. Taking that blanket maybe off to the side where you can reach it for your Shavasana later. And coming all the way down onto your back. Coming down nice and soft, We're gonna take nice twist here so taking that right leg crossing over the left shifting your hips over to the right drop those knees over to the left Hands can go out to the side. I often like to take my left hand to my belly or chest. Right hand out to the side it can be right out from the shoulder or it could be higher up if you like a little bit more opening in the upper chest you can slide that hand up a little higher toward the right side and let your knees drop a little bit deeper toward the left. Turn and look over your right shoulder or look straight up. Whatever feels best for your neck today. Starting to turn your head back to center if it's over toward the right. Slowly bringing your knees back through center. Shifting your hips straight down the middle, Take your feet wide, Drop your knees together, Take a few breaths here. Just a pause. Noticing whatever comes up how your body feels. How you're feeling as we enter the last portion of the practice. And then gently shifting your hips over to the left this time. Taking that left leg, Crossing it over the right. And just letting those knees drop over toward the right, Left hand out to the left, Turning to look over the left shoulder if that works for you, And noticing that maybe you need to make some changes to this pose on this side to accommodate the differences in the sides of your body. Choosing whatever props or support or variations work best for you today. Gently start to turn your head back to center. Your hand alongside your hips. Help yourself move back through the middle, Taking. . . Once again, The feet wide, Drop the knees together, Take a few breaths here, Just noticing. Than using whatever props you have or want to. To set yourself up for Shavasana, And that may be on your side, On your stomach. On your back. Maybe using that blanket to give you some support underneath your head or across your body. Sometimes when I need to feel a little more grounded and stable, I like to take a blanket across my middle, Sort of tuck it in, Give myself a little support here. Using those props and just tucking your shoulder blades underneath spreading your hands wide to the floor and then letting those hands soften back letting your toes drift in and then back out to wherever they feel. Most natural. Setting yourself in. We're just going to practice a little bit of alternate nostril breathing without using our hands. I'll walk you through this. We're going to take five rounds of Nadi Shodhana. We're going to inhale through the left. And exhale through the right. Inhale through right. And exhale through left, Just imagining the breath coming in through the left. And out through the right. In through the right. And out through the left nostril. In through left nostril, Out through right. In through the right nostril. And out through left. In through left. Out through right. In the right And out the left. And just continuing on your own for another three rounds here. Ending on an exhale on your left nostril. Whenever you're done with those three, Just letting your breath come back to its normal state. Remembering the ear breath is that lighthouse, That anchor point. Always bringing you back to home no matter how the world may be. Whatever uncertainty or pathways lie ahead of you. Here is home. Beautiful body that you inhabit. There's so many possibilities for what could happen in the future, And many of those possibilities will be. Amazing experiences that will change your perspective and your life and your direction and how you see the world and live in it. So shake yourself free of that. Sense of fear or instability and know that There is so much to come. Allowing your body to release that tension. That holding. Knowing that you are secure and rooted and stable and grounded in your body and in your mind and your energetic field. I invite you to stay here as long as you need for your body to rest and feel its connection to the earth and feel supported. Just noticing your breath and feeling into that lighthouse. But if this is all the time that you have available today or you need to move on with your day, Go ahead and begin to wiggle your fingers and your toes. Take your arms up overhead and your toes out long, Stretching out, Lengthening through your spine. Feeling that opening that you have created through your practice and your breath. Opening in your body and your mind and your energy. And then gently rolling over to your right side, Taking a moment or two here. Making your way up to Whatever seat. Fills best for you here using props or no props. Whatever feels intuitive. Taking a moment to bring your hands together at heart center, Bowing your head softly. Honouring yourself for this practice and this time you've taken. And just enjoying one om chanted together to seal our practice. Inhaling deeply. Thank you so much for sharing this practice with me I hope it opened up your doors to think of uncertainty as possibilities and opening and spaciousness. Versus feeling closed in or frustrated or destabilized. You can think of this world as just so many opportunities lying ahead. It's all in how you see it, How you approach it, And how you act on it. So you choose. You choose how you see the world and you choose how you involve yourself in it. Allow yourself that opportunity. I appreciate your taking the time to spend with me and I hope you will come back soon. I will see you very soon and have a wonderful, Wonderful week.