Welcome to Glow Yoga and Wellness San Francisco.
I'm your host,
Natasha.
In today's episode,
I'm set to share with you another technique that I love using to put myself to bed.
Or if I wake up in the middle of the night from something loud and cannot fall back asleep.
Also,
A great technique to improve your superhuman power of concentration and visualization.
And whenever you feel scattered or anxious,
You can use this breathing to gather and center your mind.
As we go through our fast-paced life,
All of our work projects,
Family,
World drama,
Things that we learn from the media affect us.
Either we want it or not.
And very often keeps us in the state of fight and flight,
Which is the opposite of repair and regeneration.
And no wonder it's so challenging for many of us to have a restful quality sleep.
We wake up tired,
We depend on substances,
We easily lose our temper.
Little by little,
We turn into this fast-paced,
Patient-less nation.
And it's really important to reclaim that space.
Nowadays,
We have taller buildings,
But shorter tempers.
Bigger roads,
But narrow viewpoints.
There is something that needs to be reclaimed.
There is more space that needs to be created between the situation and how we react to it.
And that is the goal of yoga practice,
The mastery of the mind.
With the yoga practices,
We remove our mind from the external environment to the internal,
Paying attention to our breath.
Then the body and mind finally unite into a self-healing mechanism.
We shift our nervous system from chasing,
Running,
Accomplishing,
Into healing,
Repairing,
Regeneration,
Reproduction.
So we can sleep better,
Repair ourselves,
Replenish our energy,
Ultimately being able to do more.
It is so important we create that mental hygiene and practice breathing exercises as soon as we wake up and right before we go to bed.
All the breathing exercises I overhear make an excellent appetizer for sweet meditation practice right after.
Breathing exercises,
Pranayama,
Are one of the eight equally important practices of yoga,
Just like asana,
Physical exercise,
Reading,
Learning about scriptures,
And embodying the values of yoga.
The goal of yoga is to eliminate all unnecessary suffering caused by our overthinking mind,
The way we relate to the situations,
Become the best version of ourselves,
And spread inner and outer peace in the world.
I find the breathing exercise is the most effective and accessible tool of yoga practice to shift my physiological state,
To reduce my heart rate,
Shift my nervous system from one state to another,
Create more energy in a matter of minutes.
In a matter of five minutes,
I can make myself wake up or fall asleep and completely change the feelings,
How I feel about the particular situation that I go through physically,
Mentally,
And emotionally.
It's amazing how fast it works.
As we grow up and learn to navigate this complicated life,
It is important to implement sustainable daily practices that help us stay graceful,
Kind,
Do less harm,
Make sure we take good care of our health so we can be a better service to all of our family,
Communities,
And spread love and peace in the world.
So I'm very proud of you for finding yoga and the simple,
Accessible practices to help you achieve all of that.
Okay,
Now let's begin.
If you're anything like me,
Before you go to bed,
You have the most amazing ideas of the day popping up in your head.
And it's really challenging to let those great ideas go.
So please develop a habit of having a notebook next to your bed to write those ideas and projects and to do lists into the notebook so you can go to sleep and not worry about losing that great thought.
If you're sitting down for this breathing exercise,
Please sit tall,
Point your tailbone back,
Lift your chest,
Let your shoulders move back,
And even out your chin to the horizon.
Relax your eyes.
And if you are going to bed,
Turn your lights off.
Please make sure in your application setting that the next episode does not automatically start playing so it doesn't wake you up.
This breathing exercise can be lasting 10-15 minutes,
As long as it takes for you to go to sleep.
I encourage you not to give up.
What is better,
Doing this exercise for 15 minutes or not sleeping for an hour?
Lie on your back.
Relax your eyes.
In today's exercise,
We'll be aligning our breathing with visualizing us drawing a square.
Before we start the visualization and breathing,
We'll do a muscle relaxation exercise.
We'll be drawing a square with the little dots in the corners.
Little dots will represent the natural pauses between inhale and exhale.
Every inhale will be a horizontal line and every exhale will be a vertical line.
The horizontal lines will be representing the wide,
Making space horizontally with every inhale.
Think breathing width-wise.
And the vertical lines will be exhales,
Representing the lengthening sensation of our torso and the spine as we exhale.
On the inhales,
We'll try to expand the belly and ribs as much as possible horizontally and on the exhales,
We'll try to feel the lengthening sensation across our spine.
And when you catch yourself on thinking a thought,
Start from the top left corner again.
With no judgment,
Calm,
Peaceful,
Loving,
Just simply begin your square from the left top corner every time you catch yourself on a thought.
Noticing your thoughts and bringing yourself back to breathing really helps us retrain our mind.
This is self-mastery.
Mind-mastery is incredible.
I love this one so much.
Okay,
Let's try.
We'll begin by scanning our body.
Try to flex and relax every muscle.
Take a deep inhale and think of your feet.
Flex your feet towards your knees.
Hold that.
Hold the inhale.
Exhale,
Relax your feet.
Beautiful.
Let's do more.
Let's point our toes away from us.
Point your feet,
Take a deep inhale.
Hold that.
Keep pointing around your toes.
Exhale,
Release your feet.
Think about your knees and your quads.
Let's flex the toes back towards us and lift up the kneecaps on the next inhale.
Inhale,
Lift your kneecaps,
Engage your thigh muscles,
Flex your toes,
Press your heels away from you.
Hold that.
Exhale,
Release.
Feel that sense of letting go.
Inhale,
Think of your glutes,
Engage your glutes,
Your toes flexed,
Your kneecaps,
Squeeze your glutes,
Thighs and your toes towards you.
Hold.
Inhale.
Let go.
Exhale.
Mmm,
So good.
Let's now think about our hands.
Squeeze your fists and point your toes away from you.
Round your toes.
Inhale,
Fist,
Toes,
Hold.
Exhale,
Release.
Now glutes,
Fists,
And shoulders.
Press your shoulders into the bed,
Squeeze your glutes,
And squeeze your fists.
As you inhale,
Hold that.
Exhale,
Release.
Keep going.
Shoulders,
Glutes,
And press your head into the pillow.
Inhale,
Shoulders,
Glutes,
And head.
Hold.
Exhale,
Release.
Now face and shoulders.
Press your shoulders into the bed,
Squeeze your face.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Release.
Now face and shoulders.
Inhale,
Squeeze your face and shoulders.
Hold.
Exhale,
Release.
Now face and hands.
Inhale,
Squeeze your face and your fists.
Hold.
Exhale,
Release.
Beautiful.
Start noticing your breathing.
Pay attention to the rate of your breath.
See if you can relax your eyes.
Now,
Feeling the rate of your breath,
Visualize your hold in a beautiful pen.
Inhale,
Draw from the left to the right,
Little pause,
Place a dot in the corner,
Exhale,
The line goes down,
Dot,
Inhale,
The line goes from the right to the left,
Place a dot,
Exhale,
The line goes from the left bottom corner up,
And place a dot.
Inhale,
Wide ribs,
Line goes from the left to the right,
Dot,
Exhale,
The line being drawn from the top to the bottom corner,
Place a dot,
Inhale,
From the right to the left,
Dot,
Exhale,
From the bottom left up to the top,
Place a dot.
Inhale,
Line goes horizontally,
Dot,
Exhale,
Vertical drawing down,
Dot,
Inhale,
Exhale.
Find your own rhythm and keep going.
Every time you begin your square again,
You remind yourself,
I relax my eyes.
Breathing and drawing.
Keep going.
Make a little bit of space between your upper and lower teeth,
Relax your jaw.
Inhale,
Dot,
Exhale,
Dot,
Inhale,
Dot,
Exhale,
Dot.
What is the color of your pen?
Relax your eyes.
As I'm breathing here,
Calm and peace,
Overflowing my face,
My head,
My neck,
My shoulders,
My entire body is relaxed.
Take a moment to give yourself a sweet prayer.
Mother,
Father,
God,
Holy Spirit,
The universe,
My angels,
Please keep me and everyone safe and well so I can enjoy a restful,
Deep sleep.
Keep breathing and drawing.
Have a good night.
.
