Hi and welcome to this shorter restorative flow aimed at relaxing,
Unwinding and really getting cozy in our body and in the present moment.
So if it's cold or cooler wherever you are,
Maybe you want to put on some more layers than I'm currently having.
It's really hot where I'm at.
We're not really going to break a sweat in this practice we want to keep warm and stay really you know cozy and nice so when you're ready you're gonna meet me in a seated position on your mat.
Cross-legged is fine,
You can also keep one chin in front of the other if that feels better to you.
Also,
If the knees are really up,
You can bring a cushion or two cushions to put beneath your bum so that the knees slowly lower down in relative to the hip area.
So this will bring a little bit more comfort and it will be easier to keep that spine long.
When you're ready you can bring your palms to your knees close the eyes if that feels good you can also keep a soft gaze looking at the floor in front of you so whichever feels more comforting at this moment.
We're just going to deepen our breath gently inhaling deeply into the belly exhaling slowly in a controlled way deep inhale And exhale.
Continuing with this deep breath,
You can also activate your Ujjayi breath.
You do this just by gently contracting your throat.
As they're trying to say the letter H in Hope,
That letter you would say,
Just keeping the mouth closed,
This is how you wanna contract the throat.
This allows for your breath to make the sound as the waves would make when they are crashing onto the shore.
So you want to hear your breath.
Still keeping that deep breathing,
Keeping that complete inhale,
Complete exhale.
Just using your ujjayi.
There is no constraint in the breathing.
The breathing isn't hard to do.
What ujjayi allows us is to deepen the breath even more.
It brings more strength.
To our body more,
Perseverance to our body and to our mind as well.
Let's do a couple more rounds of Vujjayi on our own.
Last full cycle of breath.
And after you've fully exhaled,
Softening the throat once again and allowing the breath to flow naturally.
Bringing awareness into the body,
Into the breath,
Noticing what the breath feels like now.
Noticing the posture.
And noticing if there is a bit more space to maybe lengthen the back.
Can still keep the eyes closed or blink them open and with the exhale slowly bring the chin to your chest Start to circle your head in one direction.
Going very slowly.
We are in no rush so we really want to feel every stretch every compression of the neck this is why maybe eyes closed help here as this allows us to really tune into the sensations of the neck Okay,
And next time the chin meets the chest,
We're gonna circle it in the other direction.
One more full circle.
And when the chin meets the chest Inhale lift the chin up.
Now blink the eyes open,
Place one palm to the side of your body and lift the other one up and over your head with the inhale,
Lifting the chest up towards the ceiling,
Looking up.
Feeling that nice side body stretch while grounding through both of your sit bones.
Stay here.
A couple of deep breaths.
And next inhale it slowly lift up bring the other palm to the mat now and lift the first one up and over your head Repeating the same thing on the other side,
Really stretching that upper arm above your head as you're trying to reach for something that is just out of reach.
Lift the chest up,
Look up.
And inhale let's lift back up exhale here and next inhale lift both palms towards the sky open the chest and then exhale palms in front of you and walk them further away you might stay here,
Try to ground through both of your sit bones,
Lengthen the back.
There might be space to lower down or maybe even lower down completely with your forehead on the mat.
All of this is optional.
Find where you're at today and stay there a couple of deep breaths.
Let's inhale here.
And then with the exhale walk the palms to the right side of the mat.
Or maybe not the right side of the mat,
But the right side of your body.
If you're sitting on the mat as I am.
Deepening the breath,
Noticing how whenever you inhale,
The body stretches a little bit deeper.
Slowly with the inhale,
Let's come to center.
And exhale to the other side.
Deep breaths.
And inhale center and exhale let's walk those palms towards our body and make your way to tabletop position So for tabletop,
We want to keep the palms right beneath the shoulders,
Knees right beneath the hips.
We're going to do a couple of really gentle cat and cows.
With the inhale,
Lift the sit bones,
Lift the chest,
Look up,
Sink the belly down.
Then exhale around the spine from the tailbone all the way to the shoulders,
Chin to chest.
And then inhale again arch the back look up Exhale round.
Let's do a couple of these on our own.
Again,
You can close the eyes and really feel this movement from within.
Let's do one more.
And with the inhale spine to neutral.
Stay for the exhale.
And then next inhale,
Lift the right arm up.
Look up.
And then exhale,
Thread the right arm under your left armpit.
Bring the right shoulder down.
Maybe walk the left palm further away.
Try to lift the chest up,
Turn the sky,
Look up,
Square the hips,
Push into the right shoulder and stay here.
A couple of deep breaths.
The eyes can be closed if that feels good to you.
So throughout this entire practice,
Wherever it is possible,
I invite you to close the eyes.
We're going slowly at a slow,
Gentle pace.
So it's a really great opportunity to make this a really mindful practice.
Slowly bring the left palm back where it was.
And then with the next inhale,
Right arm lifts up,
Look up.
And then exhale,
Lower it back down.
Let's do the other side.
Inhale left palm lifts up Exhale,
Thread it over under the right armpit to the right side.
Walk the right palm if you did on the other side.
Lift the chest,
Look up,
Square the hips,
Stay here,
Couple of breaths.
If you're wondering why am I not feeling a stretch here,
Try to press your left shoulder further into the mat and this will allow you to feel a deeper stretch here.
And slowly walk the right palm back if you walked it further away.
Inhale left palm lifts up and exhale back to tabletop.
Can sit on the heels and then rest for a moment in child's pose,
Balasana.
Inhale,
Lift the head up,
Look forward and slowly make your way onto the belly however you choose to do that.
And let's meet in Sphinx Pose on our elbows,
Which are right beneath the shoulders.
You're going to gently press the pubic bone into the mat.
And then with the inhale,
Pull the elbows back and open the chest forward.
Stay here,
Deepening the breath.
Next exhale,
We're gonna slowly turn our head.
To the right side as they're trying to look over your right shoulder towards the back of the mat.
Again deepening the breath here.
Then inhale to center and exhale other side looking over the left shoulder inhale back to center exhale relax completely on the mat And then slowly make your way onto your knees and sit on the heels.
Okay.
You might stay sitting on your heels like this.
This already might feel like a lot for your feet.
Or if there's space,
We're going to lean slightly back,
Come onto our palms,
Or maybe even lift the knees up and come onto the elbows.
Deep breaths here.
The more you lift your knees the more you will feel the stretch.
In your feet and ankles But be very careful and very gentle here with your feet.
We don't want to push too hard we want to feel just the right amount of Pressure and stretch.
Inhale and with the exhale,
Let's slowly lift back up.
Okay.
Curl up the toes,
Sit on your heels for just a moment here for allowing that blood rush to flow through the feet And then when you're ready,
Make your way onto your bum and with your feet in front of you.
So legs are extended,
Feet are flexed.
We're going to inhale,
Lengthen the back.
And then exhale,
Forward fold.
Hands can stay on the shins,
Navel is in,
Lengthen the back,
You can stay here,
This is perfect as it is.
Or with the exhale,
You might notice there is a bit more space to progress further forward,
Maybe grabbing onto the big toes.
Maybe onto your feet.
Wherever you are.
Deepening the breath again,
Closing the eyes if that feels good.
And inhale halfway lifting up and exhale release great job let's bring our feet together knees open Knees can stay at about a 90 degree angle.
You're gonna grab onto your feet.
Inhale,
Lengthen the back.
Then exhale,
Keeping the back long,
Let's forward fold.
If you're lower down,
The elbows are over the shins.
You're gonna stay here,
Couple of rounds of breath.
Breathing deeply into the hip area as this can feel like quite a deep stretch there.
Okay,
From this long back,
From this active stretch,
We're going to move into more passive one.
But first with the inhale lengthening the back,
Slightly lifting up,
And then with the exhale we're going to really start to round the spine from the tailbone all the way to our head,
To our neck.
Then exhale relax down as far down as our body will allow us to do so.
So try to really relax everything here.
When we are in a more active pose and in a more active stretch you will hear me say a lot of cues like navel in,
This is strong,
This is active,
But here we really want to now relax everything.
Beautiful.
Okay,
Inhale here.
And exhale,
Vertebrae by vertebrae.
Let's slowly lift back up very slowly.
In your own time.
Okay.
Maybe rolling the shoulders in one direction.
Maybe the other one.
And slowly bringing the knees together,
Hands behind you.
Maybe shaking the legs a little bit here.
And then move the feet further away if you need that space for a seated pigeon.
The right leg up,
Flex the right foot and bring the right ankle over the left knee and open the right knee.
From here,
You're gonna lengthen the back,
Open the chest.
You might already feel this a lot,
And if so,
Just stay where you are.
If there is space you can slightly bring the left foot closer to you.
As long as the stretch in your right hip is a juicy comfortable one,
This is good.
Deep breaths.
Okay,
We're gonna keep everything as it is and from here with the exhale send the right foot to the left side.
And look over to the right side in the direction of your right shoulder.
So I kind of.
.
.
Seated pigeon modified twist.
To bring some new movement to the body.
And inhale lift it back up okay let's switch sides right foot is on the mat lift the left one bring the left ankle over the right knee flex the left foot open the left knee and bring the right knee closer to you as you did with the left one back is long so we don't want to be like this here we're going to keep the back long this will allow you to feel this stretch in your left hip even deeper Okay,
Inhale and exhale,
Left foot to the right,
Looking towards the left side,
Stay here.
And inhale back to center.
Okay,
Let's release and make our way onto our back.
So very slowly laying down onto your back,
Extend the arms in a T-shaped position.
Kneezer bent.
Close together,
Shins perpendicular to the mat.
Inhale here.
Then exhale send knees to the left and look towards the right side again the eyes can stay closed here Deepening the breath,
Slowly allowing the body to relax completely.
Relaxing the shoulders.
Relaxing the neck.
Entire hands,
Palms,
All the fingers.
Okay,
Inhale,
Come back to center.
And exhale,
Switch it to the other side.
Relaxing all the face muscles and the tongue.
In the eyes.
Okay,
Inhale to center.
Hug your knees in one last time here,
Maybe rock left to right,
Massaging the back.
Inhale and then with the exhale let's slowly make our way to a short shavasana Feet or mat distance.
Make any last wiggles,
Adjustments,
You can open the palms towards the sky.
Allowing with every exhale for the body to sink deeper into the mass feeling heavier and heavier.
And more relaxed.
As though layer by layer you're taking off.
All that doesn't belong to you all that doesn't serve you.
All that is no longer yours to carry breath by breath.
Until all that is left is who you are,
The pure essence of you.
Spending a couple of moments feeling this core of the person you are,
Feeling what they feel like.
And noticing whatever comes up in this moment.
Beautiful.
Slowly start to deepen the breath.
Wiggling the fingers and toes.
Bringing the knees closer to you,
Then coming on to your right side and then with the eyes maybe closed,
Still making your way to a seated position.
Maybe allowing a gentle smile to come onto your face if that feels natural to you in this moment.
Hands in front of the heart space,
Bowing down in gratitude.
Gratitude for your body,
For the practice.
And for one more thing that you wish to express your gratitude towards.
One small thing in your day.
That serves you,
That supports you,
You want to Really think.
I'm sure there are many many things but you're only going to choose one and really feel that gratitude towards the thing,
Person,
Experience.
Okay.
Whenever you're ready,
Lock that beautiful gratitude in your heart.
Let's take a deep inhale for OM.
You for joining me on the mat.
I'll see you in another class.
Namaste.
