Find Calm With Gentle Yoga & The Breath

Welcome everyone.

Thank you for joining me today.

We're going to have just a brief practice,

Just a little bit of movement in this gentle practice.

We'll be focusing on our breath and using our breath to help calm anxiety and stress.

My name's Pamela.

Thank you for checking out my videos or recordings rather.

Thanks for joining me today.

Find a comfortable seat.

You might sit cross-legged or on a prop.

Any comfortable position where your spine can have some length,

Coming into a regal posture.

And that tall spine.

And notice how you feel.

Notice where there's tension or tightness in the body.

Notice if it's around the shoulders,

Neck,

Back,

Maybe in the hips or elsewhere.

Just observe what you notice without judging or criticizing.

Just be present.

Notice how you feel right now.

And then observe your body breathing.

Notice the quality of your breath.

Notice if it's shallow or deep.

You notice how long the inhale and exhale is.

And notice where you feel the breath in the body.

Is it more in the chest or belly or maybe the nostrils?

And invite your next breath to be a little deeper inhale.

And maybe a soft sigh of an exhale.

Just let it go.

Couple more breaths like that.

Deep inhale with a soft sigh of an exhale.

Letting go.

Again,

Nice deep inhale and an open mouth sigh of an exhale.

And then gently,

You can open the eyes if they were closed,

And reach your arms out and up.

Bring your hands together.

And then gently exhale,

Bring your hands down towards your heart.

Again,

Inhale,

Reach your arms out and up.

And exhale,

Bring your hands down to your heart.

Once more,

Inhale,

Reaching out and up.

Exhale,

Hands come down to your heart.

And then reach the hands straight up towards the sky.

Release your right hand down beside you.

Take an inhale and find length all along the left side.

Reaching long through the left fingertips.

And then side bend as you exhale over towards your right.

Remember,

This is your practice.

Listen to your body,

Listen to the breath.

Find variations as you need to.

Honor where you are today.

Might be different than yesterday.

So just pay attention to how your body feels right now.

Invite a little more space between the left ribs.

And breathe here.

On your next inhale,

Come back up,

Both arms go up.

Exhale,

Lower your left hand down beside you.

Lengthen through the right side.

On your exhale,

Side bend over towards your left.

Feel that stretch all along the right side body.

Maybe even breathe a little deeper in between those ribs.

Inviting a little more space along the right side.

On your next inhale,

Rise back up.

Hands might touch.

On your exhale,

Lower the arms down by your side.

And then just start to roll your shoulders,

Slowly moving them in one direction.

Notice how they feel.

Starting to get into some movement in the shoulders.

And then reverse direction.

Slowly moving the shoulders in the opposite direction.

And again,

Notice any differences in how it feels from the other direction.

And then return to neutral.

Relax your arms by your side.

Extend your arms out beside you as you inhale.

And then on your next exhale,

You're going to twist to your right and lower the arms and hands down wherever it feels comfortable for you.

Keep that nice long spine.

And feel the twist beginning from your upper back.

And then head and neck follow.

Choose your gaze,

Your drishti.

And notice how this feels.

Breathe normally here.

And then on your next inhale,

Come back to center.

Arms extend out like a T shape.

On your exhale,

Slowly twist to your left.

Arms and hands come down wherever they feel comfortable for you.

Remember,

Force yourself into a twist.

Just notice how it feels.

And come into the twist only as far as feels right to you.

Twists are great for releasing tension,

Tightness.

Inhale,

Unwind.

Come back to center.

And then exhale.

Hands onto your knees.

If you need to change your position a little bit,

You might do so.

And just start to move your upper body into a circle as if the crown of your head is drawing a circle on the ceiling.

Notice which direction you're going.

And you might get the shoulders into this movement a little bit.

You might get a little twisting action going,

Whatever feels good.

And then reverse direction.

Notice which direction feels maybe more comfortable.

And return to neutral.

So reach your arms back up over your head.

And then bend the elbows,

Coming into goalpost arms.

So your elbows are out to the side.

Forearms are up so that your forearm and upper arm are making sort of a 90 degree angle.

Palms are facing forward.

And take an inhale,

Bringing the arms slightly back.

Feel your shoulder blades come closer together,

Getting a little stretch through the upper back and shoulders.

And then exhale,

Bring your forearms towards each other.

See if you can touch your elbows towards each other.

Palms face your face.

And then on your inhale,

Open the arms out again.

Goalpost arms,

Taking the arms back only as far as is comfortable.

Feel that stretch in the upper back.

And then again,

Exhale,

Bring your forearms together.

Palms towards your face.

Elbows may or may not touch.

And again,

Inhale,

Opening the arms once more.

And exhale,

Bringing the arms back together.

And then inhale,

Open the arms wide.

So arms are parallel to the floor,

Taking them back as far as is comfortable for you.

And then on your exhale,

Bring your hands to the opposite shoulder and give yourself a hug.

Maybe gently rounding the upper back.

Feel that stretch in the upper back.

Notice which arm is on top.

And on your next inhale,

Open the arms once more,

Reaching them out and back.

And then give yourself another hug,

Hands to the opposite shoulder,

Opposite arm on top.

Gently rounding the spine.

And next inhale,

Open the arms once more.

And exhale,

Lower the arms to the mat.

Transition into table pose,

Coming onto hands and knees.

And start to move very thoughtfully into whatever feels comfortable for you.

So just moving organically here in table,

What would feel good?

Maybe moving the hips or shoulders side to side.

If you need extra cushion under the knees or adjust for wrist issues,

Please do so.

And then come back to a neutral table.

Take an inhale,

Lengthen through your spine.

And on your exhale,

Round into cat.

Draw the belly in.

Inhale,

Arching the back,

Tailbone tips up,

Come into cow.

Draw the heart forward.

Nice and easy here.

Exhale,

Tailbone tips down,

Round through the spine.

Come into cat.

And maybe use an ujjayi breath here,

That soft ocean breath.

Let it be the rhythm for your practice.

So the ujjayi or victorious breath is done with the lips closed and a gentle constriction in the back of the throat,

Producing a soft ocean sound.

Nice,

Easy breath.

So that's a soft ujjayi breath.

You should be able to hear your own breath making those similar sounds.

And then return to neutral table.

Bring your toes to touch,

Knees wide in a little bit.

And bring yourself into a child's pose,

Balasana.

If your forehead doesn't quite make it to the mat,

You might use your hands or a yoga prop.

Bringing your arms out in front of you.

Maybe forearms touch the mat or just your hands.

Make sure your head is supported.

And breathe here.

Notice the belly against the thighs.

Make sure your neck feels long and the head feels supported.

Find any variation for child's pose that works for you.

If knees complain,

Another option that is really nice is to lay all the way on your belly.

Bringing your elbows out,

Stacking your hands on top of each other,

And resting your forehead on the back of your hands.

This is called makrasana or crocodile pose and is very wonderful for calming the central nervous system.

Breathe here for several rounds of breath.

Soften your whole body with each exhale.

Imagine you're melting into the mat or that your shoulders and arms or wherever there's tension in your body that is beginning to melt and soften.

Continue with the ujjayi breath just nice and easy.

Take a nice big inhale and an open mouth sigh of an exhale.

Really let it go.

And then slowly bring yourself back up to a seat.

Sit on any prop that you would like or sit on your heels or cross legged.

And just pause.

Notice how you feel.

Either the ujjayi breath or just a nice soft breath.

Notice how long your inhale is.

It might be three,

Four,

Five seconds.

Maybe observe pauses in between the breath and see if you can extend the exhale by two counts or more.

So just count to yourself how long your inhale is.

Notice maybe a brief pause at the top of the inhale and then a long slow exhale.

And again maybe notice a brief pause at the bottom of your exhale.

Continue in this way for a few rounds of breath.

This breath,

This calming breath is great to do whenever you are feeling stressed or anxious.

Bringing your awareness back to the present moment with your breath really helps focus the mind.

And the mind and breath are so connected,

Intimately connected.

When we notice our breath is short,

Constricted,

Shallow,

Notice how the mind is.

Are we anxious or stressed?

So when we bring our focus to the breath and we focus on elongating the breath,

Soothing the breath,

We can calm the mind.

And when we stay focused and aware of the present moment,

Not letting our mind wander off into the future,

Wondering what might be,

Ruminating about the past,

Staying focused on the present moment,

Using the breath to help us stay focused in the now,

You'll find yourself becoming calmer,

More centered,

And more at ease.

Two more breaths.

Thank you for joining me.

Have a beautiful rest of your day.