Welcome to Office Chair Yoga.
I'm Jerry Givens and today I'm going to guide you through a set of practices that help to relieve tension and to calm the nervous system.
And what you'll need for this practice is a steady chair and just a little bit of space.
And if anything I invite you to do you can't do with the space you have available,
Feel free to modify it so that you can do it to the best of your ability.
Now everything I offer you here will be in a sequence,
But know that you can take these practices out of sequence and practice them on your own if you'd like to.
Now with that,
Everything is an offering.
You don't have to do everything.
If something doesn't feel good or it feels painful,
Feel free to sit that one out or modify it if you can.
Most importantly,
Stay safe and have fun.
To begin,
Slide forward to the edge of your seat.
Sitting tall,
Relax your shoulders and close your eyes.
And become aware of your body resting here.
Your feet on the floor,
Your seat in the chair.
And notice the sensations inside of your body.
Some of those feelings may be uncomfortable.
Perhaps there's some pain or discomfort.
And at the same time,
In the same body,
You also may sense regions or places that feel relaxed and open already.
And while we might have a preference for the more pleasant sensations,
Just notice all of it.
Feel your breath moving in your body,
Expanding on inhale,
Contracting on exhale.
And that might be a big movement.
It might be a smaller movement.
It might feel easy to breathe.
It might not feel so easy to breathe.
Just notice.
Notice how you're feeling energetically today.
Perhaps you're feeling tired,
Exhausted.
Lethargic.
Perhaps you're feeling hyper or restless or excited.
Maybe you're feeling calm.
Or a paradoxical blend of these.
The awareness of your body your breath and your energetic state notice how your mind is doing Is the mind staying focused?
Does it wander?
What thoughts and emotions are present?
Don't judge the mind.
Just be aware.
How is the mind?
And it's with this awareness of the body,
The breath,
Your energetic state,
And your state of mind that we can better tend to the needs of your system.
So with that,
Go ahead and take a deeper,
Fuller breath.
And slowly allow your eyes to open.
Bringing yourself back to the space around you.
Sitting tall,
Take your arms down by your sides.
And with your inhale,
Sweep the arms out to the sides and overhead,
Reaching up.
And exhale,
Bring the arms back down.
Again inhale,
Lift the arms up and overhead.
And exhale,
Bring the arms down.
We'll do that a few more times,
Reaching up through the fingertips with the inhale.
Exhale release.
Inhale,
Reaching up.
Exhale down.
Last one,
Reach up.
Reach up,
Reach up,
Reach up as much as you can.
Keep reaching.
And exhale,
Bring the arms down.
And feel sensation.
Sitting tall.
Go ahead and take your right arm out to the side and then sweep it across your body,
Arm parallel to the floor,
And hold up just above the elbow and hug the arm into your body.
Keep sitting tall.
Breathe.
And then you're going to go ahead and twist further to the left.
Keep your hips grounded.
Roll the left shoulder back as far as you can.
Breathe.
Then inhale,
Come out,
Relax the right arm down and we'll do the other side.
Left arm out.
Sweep it forward and across again parallel to the floor holding above the elbow and hug the arm into your chest to begin Staying here for a breath or two.
Then when you're ready,
Go ahead and twist further to the right,
Rolling the right shoulder back.
Keep the hips grounded and stay for a breath or two.
With your next inhalation,
Go ahead and unwind and release the arm on down.
Feel sensation.
So sitting tall at the edge of your seat,
Take a deep breath in.
Squeeze the shoulder blades together.
Let the head fall back and open your chest.
As you exhale,
Round the upper back and look down at your lap.
Inhale,
Open the chest again.
Look up.
And exhale,
Round the back,
Look down.
And keep moving between these extremes.
Inhale,
Opening up.
Exhale,
Rounding.
And it's good to mention that this movement is happening from the mid-spine upwards.
The lower back stays pretty steady here.
It doesn't move that much at all.
Opening the chest with the inhale.
Exhale,
Rounding the upper back.
Bring some mobility to this upper spine region of the body that gets so stiff when we sit for long periods of time.
Good.
Staying open this time.
Feeling the chest open,
The head falling back.
Breathe here.
Gentle stretch for the throat as well.
Then go ahead and round the back,
Looking down.
Feel the shoulder blades separate at your upper back,
Chin tucking under.
Again,
The lower back stays flat here.
Breathe.
Inhale,
Come to a neutral spine.
Drop the shoulders down and feel sensation.
Sitting tall,
Go ahead and shrug your shoulders up towards your ears as much as you can.
Then exhale,
Let the shoulders drop down.
Inhale lifting the shoulders up towards your ears Exhale,
Letting them drop down gently.
Again,
Squeeze the shoulders up towards your ears.
Inhale.
Exhale drop and then this time shrug the shoulders up as much as you can and keep squeezing keep breathing keep squeezing squeezing squeezing squeezing squeezing as much as you can Breathe.
Breathe here.
Almost done.
Keep squeezing.
Deep breath in.
And with your next exhalation drop the shoulders down.
Good.
So next we'll do an exercise to help stretch the neck.
So sitting tall,
Go ahead and drop your right ear to your right shoulder.
Then bring the head back up and drop your left ear to your left shoulder.
Then slowly go back and forth.
Side to side a couple of times.
Feeling length along the sides of the neck.
Maybe one side feels tighter than the other.
Then bringing an ear to a side.
Go ahead and roll the chin down to your chest and roll over to the other side,
Stopping there.
Roll forward again.
Come back to the first side,
These half circles.
Feeling the back of the neck stretch as you go from side to side.
Breathe as you feel that stretch along the back of the neck.
Side to side.
You can let the jaw be loose here if you'd like to.
Almost done.
Bring the head straight down.
Tuck the chin back towards your throat slightly to feel an emphasis of the stretch of the back of the neck.
You might even wiggle the forehead from side to side a little bit to help coax that tension out of the neck.
Keep breathing.
Bring the head to stillness.
Carefully lift the head up to center and notice sensation.
Sitting tall,
Go ahead and lift your left arm into the air and bend your elbow so the hand comes behind your head.
With your right hand,
You'll reach up and hold on to the forearm or the elbow and draw the left arm toward the center line of your body.
The arm behind you is going to come closer to your spine and then lift the chest.
Good,
Now stay here and breathe.
Relax your jaw.
And it's okay if you find this posture.
Uncomfortable.
Just keep breathing.
Because the longer you hold it,
The better the relief that you'll feel in the shoulder.
Will be when you come out.
So just stay and breathe with it.
For about a minute total so you're almost there.
It's okay if the arm starts to fall asleep a little bit.
And then go ahead and carefully release that left arm down and feel the sensation in the shoulder and the arm.
Then we'll see what that feels like on the other side so lifting your right arm into the air bend the elbow hand behind the head with the opposite hand reach up and grab the forearm or the elbow and draw the right arm toward the center line of your body the hand behind you comes closer to your spine and again lift the chest Staying here for about a minute.
Keep breathing.
You might notice a difference in tension or sensation between this side and the first side.
We tend to hold tension in the body asymmetrically,
And so this might feel tighter to you.
This also might feel more open to you.
Whichever is true for you,
Please keep breathing.
Try not to clench your jaw.
Staying for just a little bit longer.
Couple more breaths.
And when you're ready carefully releasing that right arm again feeling the sensation in the shoulder and in the arm as you release Take a couple of breaths to feel sensation what's going on in the body here after this exercise.
And so next we'll do a practice that will help to stretch the shoulder joints.
So sitting tall,
With your inhale,
Take both arms out to the sides,
And then sweep both arms forward,
Have your right hand overlapped.
And continue across,
Giving yourself a hug,
Holding onto the shoulders,
And you might be able to tighten that hug.
And then lift the elbows powerfully in front of you.
Keep breathing.
And feel your shoulder blades lifting off of your rib cage,
Allowing you to take deeper breaths.
So take a couple of deep,
Deep breaths as you lift the elbows powerfully.
Keep lifting the elbows.
And with an exhale,
Go ahead and drop the elbows down and release the hug.
Feel sensation.
And when you're ready for the other side,
We'll take the arms out again.
We'll sweep the arms forward,
Left over right.
Continue across,
Holding onto the shoulders,
Maybe tightening the hug.
And then again,
Lift the elbows powerfully in front of you,
Feeling the shoulder blades lifting off of the rib cage.
And again,
You can play with taking deeper breaths here.
How full can you make your inhale?
Without the rib cage being compressed by the shoulder blades.
Staying for just a little bit longer,
Bree.
And with your next exhale,
Drop the elbows down,
Release the hug,
And again,
Feel sensation.
As you adjust Sitting tall,
Take your right hand to the outside of your left thigh.
Take your left hand onto the chair cushion next to you.
With that connection,
Sit up nice and tall,
And roll your left shoulder powerfully back,
Looking behind you to twist.
Then staying in the twist,
Sit up a little bit taller as you inhale and keep rolling that left shoulder back as you exhale.
Staying here and breathing.
And then with your next inhale,
Carefully unwind.
Adjust for a moment.
And then we'll do the other side,
Taking the left hand to the outside of the right thigh.
Right hand onto the chair cushion next to you.
Again,
Sit up nice and tall here.
And powerfully,
With an exhale,
Roll that right shoulder back,
Looking behind you.
Stay and breathe again,
Sitting taller with every inhale and twisting deeper with every exhalation.
Keep breathing.
And with your next inhalation,
Carefully unwind,
Coming back to center to adjust feeling sensation here.
So sitting tall,
Go ahead and roll the shoulders down the back,
Open the chest,
And look up.
With your exhale go ahead and fold forward over the thighs Good,
And you can let your arms hang to the floor if you'd like to.
And if that's too much on your back,
You can go ahead and bring those hands back up onto your thighs,
But keep folding forward,
Feeling that stretch at your lower back.
The head is dropping,
Feeling a gentle stretch at the back of the neck.
And breathing here.
And then with an inhale,
Carefully sit back up.
And feel sensation.
Thank you for joining me for Cheer Yoga.
I hope you had fun.
I hope you learned something new.
And remember to return to these practices anytime you need to.
So until next time,
Take care.
