Sunset Yoga For The Stressed Body

Whether you are doing this practice at sunset or not, it is valuable to learn how to wind the body down to release stress. This sequence will focus mostly on releasing the hips but can also be used for shoulder and neck release.

Transcript

Welcome to Sunset Yoga. And even if it's not sunset time for you. We can think about how we ease our body of stress. And tension in high-stressed areas like our neck. And our shoulders and our hips. Areas that we hold tension throughout our day. So you can do this practice in the beginning of the day to warm up the body, At the end of the day to cool down the body, Or in the middle of the day for a reset. And we'll just see if we can slow down, Tune in, Do what feels right. And just to take care of our body. So close your eyes. And we'll start with just breathing in and out through the nose. Anytime we do yoga and we're trying to tune inward, We want to be specifically aware of our breath. And the way that as we breathe. It changes our body's response to things. We can start to feel different sensations. Let's open our eyes and we'll just place our hands on our legs and start to roll through our hips. If you're on a bolster, You should still be able to do this. If you're on a block, It might not feel so great. So maybe remove the block at this point. But just roll. This kind of warms up our hips a little bit. We start to ignite a little through our abdominals and the low back as we roll around. Then let's hold our progress and take it the other direction. Start to roll around. Nicely. Back and forth. Around and around. So we can feel both sides of our body, Both hips. The abdominals, The low back. Nice, Loose, And free. That's all it is. Good, Now just hold still. And start to just move your shoulders. Move your knees. There's kinks in our body. Sometimes we hold stress. In our body, In our neck, In our shoulders. Wherever it is. So let's just gently Moo. Shoulders going both directions, Head moving all around, Just whatever feels good. Good, Then just hold still. Let's take a breath together. Arms by our sides. Inhale, Lift up. Press your palms together at the top. Exhale, Bring your hands through heart center. Just take a breath here. And establish your intention. Maybe you are ending your day. Maybe you're just beginning it. Maybe you are resetting it. With this sunset yoga. Let's release our hands and gently come to our feet. Just standing up in Tadasana or Samasthiti. Feet either hip-width distance apart or you can bring your big toes together, Heels slightly apart. Let's take a reach, Inhale, Lift up. Press your palms together at the top, Exhale, Lean to the left so you can feel that right side of the body lengthening out. Almost like we're making a crescent shape, Like a moon, Right? Inhale, Come back to the center. Exhale lean to the right so you're lengthening out that left side. Inhale, Center, And let's open it up to a goddess pose. Feet wide, Exhale, Bend it down. Hips take a lot of strain and stress in our body. Try to pull open through the inner thigh. Draw those shoulders down so they don't feel too tight. Stand up, Inhale. Exhale, Take your hands to your hips and rotate just a slight bit. So we'll turn our right toe toward the edge of the mat and the left heel draws back toward the back end of the mat. The left toes pointed mostly toward the camera. Extend your arms. Inhale. This is Trikonasana. Exhale, Reach down. The right hand reaches down that leg. Now here's where you might utilize your block. You could place it in the front of your right foot and bring that hand to the block. You can adjust the height of your block. Or not use a block at all and just reach for your toe. Whatever you can do is great. Try to engage your neck by looking up toward that hand. If that feels too tight, Then just look down and that's fine too. Good, Stretching out that whole left side of the body and the hamstring underneath. Now inhale, Lift up. Take your hands to your hips and turn your feet. Both feet facing straight forward, And you can again utilize your block, Placing it down somewhere. By that right foot. Hands to your hips, Look up, Inhale, Exhale. Exhale, Fold forward. This is pyramid pose. Reach your hands down to the block or just down your leg. If you're flexible enough, You could place both hands on the floor. The idea is to keep the right leg as straight as we can so that we can feel the stretch along the back of that right leg, Hamstring and glute. Again we're just targeting high stressed areas in our body, Really trying to release and let them go. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your right knee and drop your left knee down to the floor. You can use your block, Hands on the block if the ground feels too low. You can bring your hands to your knees. You can also just keep your hands on the floor if it feels okay. And we'll just press our body weight into that right hip. One thing to be aware of is this angle right knee stacks just on top of the right ankle so that you're not putting too much pressure on that knee pressing forward. Pay attention to that. Good, Now let's start to switch toward the other side. We're going to do all these poses simply in reverse. So lift up onto that back knee and we'll step our right foot in. And have a seat for Malasana. This is a place where you could utilize a block. Not everybody's heels come to the floor. So you might take a block and just sit on it. That might take a little pressure off of your ankles. Just as dependent upon the way that your ankle bones are formed. So you might notice that you need just a little bit of support. If you don't need it, You don't have to use it. A little deeper stretch for those hips. For those ankles right through the middle. Oh, I can tell I need this one today. I can feel it. Let's take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Bring your hands to the ground. Lift up just a little bit so that you can rotate into our lunge. So our left leg is now forward and the right knee down. Use the same modifications as you did before. So hands on the block, Hands on the knee. Hands on the ground. Whatever works best for you. Now we're pressing down into that left hip and lengthening the right hip flexor out in front. Out along the leg there. Feels good to stretch out those highly stressed places. Indeed, Feels good to me. Now let's lift up into our pyramid pose. So roll up onto your right foot. You'll need to step it forward a little bit in order to straighten out that left leg. Utilize your block. Remember to use that as well if you need it. Or just hands along the floor or along the leg. And do your best to keep this left knee as straight as you can so you can feel the hips the calf, The hamstring, All the way down. One more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale Soft bend in that left knee just as we lift. Let's take our hands to our hips. And we only have to readjust our feet just a slight bit. Turn the right toes slightly toward the camera. Reach up. Inhale. Exhale. Move to Trikonasana. Reach your left hand down that leg. Another place to use the block. Maybe place that block in the front of your foot. Then send the gaze up if it feels okay. And it's perfectly fine to look down. And feel that stretch. So it's opening the chest, Stretching the neck. Feeling that lift in the legs. Inhale, Lift up. We've made it back up to the top. I'm just gonna move my block. Turn both toes out, Ending how we started with a goddess pose. Bend your knees and sink down into those hips. Whenever we repeat a yoga pose, It's nice to be able to determine if it feels any different. Does it feel different through the legs? Does it feel different through the hips? It might. Who knows, We just know this, Right? Inhale, Straighten up. Take your hands to your hips. Turn your toes toward each other. So a slight shift will get some attention to the outer edges of the hips with Prasarita Padottanasana A. Look up. Inhale. Exhale fold forward take your hands down to the floor or you can place them on your block. And walk them back so they're in between your feet. Press into the floor, Inhale, Look up, Lengthen through your spine. Exhale fold back down. See if you can relax your neck. And your jaw on the way down. Our weight is slightly toward those toes so we can feel the backs of the legs. We can feel those hamstrings. We can feel the calves. This is a beautiful stretch for the back. And right in between those hips. Now walk your hands forward. If you've got your block, You can still use it or maybe leave it behind. But place your hands just right below the shoulders. Take a breath, Inhale, Reach your right arm up to the sky. Feel that reach and that opening up of the chest and the throat. Inhale. Exhale, Place the right hand down. Other side, Inhale with the left arm, Reach it up. Opening up the chest and the throat. Inhale. Exhale, Take your left hand down. Look up, Inhale halfway lift. Exhale, Bring your hands to your waist. Inhale, Lift up the rest of the way. Nicely done. Exhale, Step your feet together. Hip-width distance apart. One more forward bend to round us out. Parsimodanasana. Inhale, Look up. Exhale, Fold forward. A couple of options, Reach down. For your block and hold on to it. Reach down and grab behind your ankles or reach down and wrap index finger and thumb around your big toe. Inhale look up lengthen pull that lift at the center exhale fold forward relax your neck Relax your jaw. Shift forward toward your toes so you feel the backs of the legs. A nice deep pull. Forward bends can relieve stress throughout our nervous system. That's what we want to do. Release our stress. Take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Bend your knees and take your hands under your feet. Some of us, I'll turn to the side. Some of us will keep our knees bent. And that's perfectly fine. Feels really great on the back. We're kind of changing the direction of our wrists. Some of us might be able to straighten our knees and that's great too. Just do what you can. Take one more breath, Nice and deep. Inhale. Exhale Let's release our hands, Bring them to our waist. Shift to your shins, Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Bend your knees, Come down to all fours. Let your knees open a little wider than your hips. And sit back. To a child's pose. Relax. Sitting down into the hips, Pressing open through those hip flexors. And in between the hips at the sacrum. Could. Lift up. And let's come to sit. Once more. In Sukhasana for a few more things before our Shavasana. Take a breath together. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Twist to the right. The left hand down to your knee, The right hand behind you. Turn your gaze back. Feel that shoulder and the neck one more time. Inhale, Come forward. Let's fold over our legs. Exhale. Whichever leg is in front is the hip that you're going to feel the most. Inhale, Walk it up. Exhale. And switch the leg that's in front. Once more, Other side. Inhale, Lift. Exhale twist to the left, Right hand comes across and behind. The shoulder back. Inhale come forward, Lay over our legs once more, Exhale fold down. Relax your neck. Feel that outer hip. A nice deep squeeze. Good, Lift up, Nicely done. Let's roll on to our back. Grab your one block. And your strap. We're finally going to use our strap here. Let's lay on our back. And hug our knees into our chest. A nice relaxed position, You can rock it a little bit. One more time, Just easing strain and stress from that low back area. And then place your feet on the floor. So that you can take this block underneath. We're going to bring it under our hips at the lowest height. So lift those hips. Place the block. Right there. You should get it to a point that it feels comfortable. So maneuver it so that it feels comfortable. Then, Grab your strap. And we'll place the strap around our feet. Hopefully the block is still where you need it to be. And we'll just take this gentle inversion from here. Inversions can do wonders for our nervous system, Our circulation, And our metabolism. This is a gentle one. We shouldn't be feeling any straining in our abdominals. And there's just a gentle pull along the backs of the legs unless you're really tight there and then it might feel More intense. And that's fine too, We do what we can. Try to keep your knees as straight as you can so that you will feel the benefits to the hamstring there. Just let your breath change a little bit. Slowing down. Moving toward that resting breath. Let's take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Bend your knees. Let's release our straps. Put our feet down first. Then remove the block. And pull your knees into your chest one more time. Gently release your legs. Move one leg to each edge of the mat. Shoulders rolled back. Close your eyes. And settle yourself for Shavasana. I will leave you here to rest for just a few moments. Have no worries, I will wake you up with the sound of the bell. So just enjoy a little bit of peace and calm. And absorbing the good, Gentle practice that we did together today. And start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrists and your ankles. Point and flex your feet. Stretch your arms overhead to lengthen through your entire body. And roll over to one side in fetal pose. And press up to a comfortable seated position on your mat. Let's bring our hands to heart center. And I'll leave you with this quote. By Sumukhai. At the end of the day, What matters most is deep, Abiding, Everlasting contentment. Thank you for practicing with me today. Namaste