Evening Deep Stretch

Looking for the perfect wind-down practice to add to your evening routine? This is the flow for you. Join me for a low-to-the-ground yoga practice designed to bring your body and mind into deep relaxation before heading to bed. This flow is perfect for beginner and advanced students alike.

Background Music: Slow Beginnings by Staffan Carlén, Tranquility Coast by Rebecca Mandal, and Ethereal Escape by Rebecca Mandal | All Available on Epidemic Sound

Transcript

Hey there friends,

Welcome back to Your Journey Yoga.

My name is Natalia and today I will be guiding you through an evening deep stretch practice.

This yoga practice is designed to bring your body into a deep state of relaxation to help set you up for a great night's sleep.

This practice is going to be mostly low to the ground and if you would like to have some props with you that's great but you don't need them.

Whenever you're ready,

I'll meet you on your mat.

Let's begin.

We're going to begin tonight's practice lying on our backs.

You can have your arms and legs extended,

Allowing your palms to either rest facing up or grounded down against the earth and your mat.

Close your eyes and take a deep inhale in and a slow easy exhale out.

Soften through the muscles of your face,

Really allowing the shoulders,

The arms,

The back and the legs to fully soften and be heavy against your mat.

Taking a moment to just scan the body,

Observing if there are any spaces within the body that you are experiencing tension,

Concentrated sensation or anything else that may be present in the body right here,

Right now.

Your only job is to observe and just check in.

Let your body know that you're going to listen to it and be present with it in this practice.

As you're noticing how your body feels,

You might also notice how you're feeling mentally,

Emotionally and energetically.

What kind of day did you have today and how are you feeling?

There's no right or wrong answer and whatever it is that has brought you here to this practice is perfect.

Beginning to integrate a mindful awareness of your breath,

Deciding if there is an intentional shift you would like to find with your breathing,

Whether that's an audible breath,

Your ujjayi breath,

Or simply deepening your inhales and lengthening your exhales.

Since this is a relaxation focused practice,

You might let your exhales be a little bit longer than your inhales.

Very slowly,

Begin to rock the back of your head side to side against the earth.

Maybe you take a full body stretch,

Reaching your arms overhead,

Lengthening out through your toes.

And then start to hug your knees up towards your chest and you might just find some circles with the knees or you might rock a little side to side.

Taking a moment to massage your low back against the earth.

And then very slowly and gently,

Allow your knees to melt over to the left side,

Finding a supine twist.

And depending on how the spine is feeling tonight,

You might just keep your gaze up towards the sky.

If you want to open your right arm to the side,

You can.

And just notice if there has been any change to your breath as you've come into your twist.

Can you keep your breathing deep and slow?

One knee at a time,

Start to move through center and we'll let the knees melt over to the right.

Same thing,

Just check in here,

Where do you want to have your gaze?

Do you want to extend the left arm?

And once you settle in,

Check in with your breathing.

One knee at a time,

Bringing it back to center.

And find a happy baby.

You can either grab the edges of your feet or your ankles.

Letting your knees open wide,

Thighs are heavy down towards the earth.

And if you would like to rock side to side here,

You can.

And then we're going to make our way into a tabletop position.

You might rock and roll along your spine or simply press off the hands and making your way onto all fours.

And when you arrive in your tabletop,

Take a moment to spread your fingers wide.

Take a little bit of pressure out of your hands and wrists by lifting up through your back body and press the tops of your feet into the mat.

On an inhale,

Drop your belly,

Gaze comes forward,

Cow pose.

And exhale,

Round through the spine.

Inhale to drop your belly.

And exhale to round.

From here,

Bump your hips to the left,

Turn your gaze over your right shoulder and look back at your right foot.

Inhale,

Move through center,

Bumping the hips to the right as you gaze over your left shoulder.

Inhale to return to center.

And we're going to extend the left leg out long behind,

Squaring the toes down towards the earth.

Taking lots of length towards the front of the mat and out towards the back of the mat.

Take a deep inhale in here.

And as you exhale,

Draw your knee towards your chest.

Inhale to extend.

And then slowly step that left foot up into a low lunge,

Keeping your fingertips on the earth here.

You might walk the right knee back just a tad.

With the fingertips on the earth,

You might sway a little bit side to side,

Finding some soft,

Easy movement.

And then come back to stillness if you found movement.

And very slowly begin to rise up in your torso.

And you can let your hands rest either on your front knee,

Or you can bring them to your hips,

Or have them at heart center.

Tuning into your right hip flexor.

Noticing if it's feeling super tense,

Or if you need a bit of a deeper stretch,

You might inch your left foot forward just slightly,

And press your hips forward towards the front of the mat.

Take three rounds of breath in this low lunge.

And when you're ready,

You can bring your fingertips back down to the mat,

And start to send your hips back into a half splits,

Drawing your left hip crease and your right hip crease in line with each other,

Flexing your toes up towards the sky.

And you want to make sure that you're feeling this stretch in the middle of your hamstring,

The heart of the hamstring.

If you're feeling too much behind your knee,

Bend it just a little bit more.

Perhaps on an inhale you lengthen your spine,

And maybe on an exhale you round deeply through your upper back,

Bringing your forehead towards your knee.

Taking three rounds of breath here.

And as you're ready,

Rolling through that front foot,

Coming back to your low lunge,

Bring your left knee back into your tabletop.

Find one round of cat-cow.

And then come back to a neutral spine,

And we'll extend the right leg out long,

Squaring the toes down towards the earth as you lengthen from the crown of your head all the way out through the sole of your foot.

Taking a deep inhale in here,

And on an exhale,

Knee to chest.

Inhale to extend,

And as you exhale,

Step that right foot forward,

Finding your low lunge.

Same thing as before,

You might keep the fingertips on the earth and sway a little bit side to side,

Feeling out this low lunge stretch.

And if you found movement,

Begin to find stillness.

Press into your front foot as you begin to rise in your torso and find your hip flexor stretch on this side.

Notice if this side feels different,

And simply respond accordingly.

Maybe you do or don't go deeper.

Just listen to your body.

Do what feels best.

We're going to take three rounds of breath here as well.

And when you're ready,

You can bring your fingertips back down to the mat and shift your hips back into your half splits,

Bringing the right and the left hip creases in alignment with each other.

Toes are flexed.

And again,

Feeling for this stretch in the heart of your hamstring,

Bending your knee as much as you can,

And again,

Feeling for this stretch in the heart of your hamstring,

Bending your knee as much as you need to to find that stretch.

Maybe you lengthen your spine on an inhale,

And round through your upper back on an exhale.

Taking three rounds of deep breaths here as well.

And as you're ready,

Rolling back forward to your low lunge,

Bringing that right knee back into tabletop,

And taking one more round of cat-cow.

And then finding a neutral spine,

Crossing your ankles behind you,

And use your hands to roll back into a seat,

Sending your legs out long with your toes flexed up towards the sky.

Pressing the earth away from your sits bones as you lengthen through the crown and reach your arms up and overhead.

And as you exhale,

Begin to fold over your legs,

Grabbing whatever part of the legs is available to you.

That might be near your knees,

Your ankles,

Or even all the way down to your feet.

Try not to push or force here,

Allowing the body to go deeper if that's something that it would like to do on its own time.

You can keep your spine long,

And if you haven't already,

You might opt to round through the back and feel the skin of the back body stretching.

Very slowly begin to roll back up through your spine,

And we're going to bring the soles of the feet together,

Knees wide for baddha konasana.

You can interlace your fingers around the toes,

Or you can grab your ankles.

Again,

Pressing the earth away from your seat as you lengthen up through your spine.

And keep your thighs nice and heavy as you begin to bend at your elbows and draw the heart space down towards the earth,

Eventually rounding through the back when you find your point of resistance in this stretch.

If you'd like to,

You could bring your thumbs to the arches of your feet,

Or even massage out your calves and your ankles,

Giving yourself a little bit of tender love and care.

Very slowly begin to roll back up through your spine,

And then we're going to extend the left leg long,

Hug the right foot to the inside of your left thigh.

Turn to face your left foot,

And on an inhale,

Reach your arms up towards the sky.

And as you exhale,

Fold over your left leg,

Finding head-to-knee pose,

Rounding through the back,

Forehead comes towards the knee.

Keep your right thigh nice and heavy as it draws down towards the earth.

And as you settle into this pose,

See if you can soften anywhere in the body,

Maybe in the shoulders or the face.

Take a few rounds of breath here.

Begin to roll up through your spine,

And we'll take it to the other side,

Sending the right leg out long,

Left foot comes to connect with the inside of your right thigh.

Sit up nice and tall through the spine as you reach your arms up high,

And begin to fold over your right leg.

Left thigh draws down towards the mat,

And find places to soften and relax here.

Slowly begin to roll up through your spine,

Sending both legs out long again,

And this time rolling all the way down to your back.

Taking a moment to find another happy baby,

Grabbing the ankles or the feet.

Maybe you find that the hips are feeling a little bit more open this time.

And then bring your knees back together.

Wrap your arms around your shins.

If you want to,

You can bring your forehead up towards your knees and give yourself a real tight squeeze.

Gathering up any tension that still may be remaining in the body as you take a deep inhale.

And as you exhale,

Extend your legs out long.

Arms come to rest down on the earth as we come into our final Shavasana.

Relaxing through the muscles of your face.

Shoulders are soft and open.

Allowing all of the limbs of your body to be completely heavy as they melt and become one with the earth as you rest here for a few rounds of breath.

You can stay resting in Shavasana for as long as you'd like.

Maybe you hit pause on the audio and remain.

If you're ready to carry on with your evening,

You can join me in very slowly bringing your hands together,

Thumbs up to the third eye.

Extending some gratitude for showing up to this practice.

Thank you so much for joining me.

It is an honor to be with you.

I look forward to practicing with you again soon.

Namaste.

Reviews

Incredibly peaceful and well balanced yoga stretch track. Thoroughly enjoyable for when a 20 minute stretchout is required. Thank you!

Brilliant! Soooo relaxing. Thank you ❤️

Beautiful evening practice! Thanks for sharing! 🙏🏻🫶🏻