Hi and welcome.
This short practice uses the support of a wall to help you settle and reset.
So everything will be done lying on your back with your legs supported by the wall.
When you're ready,
Come sit sideways next to your wall.
Lower yourself onto your back and then swing your legs up the wall and kind of scooch your bottom up toward the wall.
Take a moment to just make sure that your pelvis and low back feel comfortable.
Let your arms rest beside you and your palms can be facing up or down.
You can also place your hands on your belly if that feels good.
Allow your shoulders to soften and let your face relax.
Then take a slow breath in through your nose and a long breath out.
Let your legs be supported by the wall.
Allow gravity to do most of the work and notice how you feel here.
You might notice sensations in your legs,
Warmth,
Heaviness,
Or a subtle pulsing.
Just simply observe.
Keeping your legs on the wall,
Begin to bring some movement into your feet.
Point your toes,
Flex your feet,
And you can continue that a few times at an easy pace.
You might also circle your ankles,
Just moving slowly with awareness.
You're just letting your lower legs and feet wake up and soften.
Then allow your legs to become still again.
We're going to come into our first stretch and to do that we'll bend the knees and place the soles of your feet together,
Allowing the knees to separate out.
This is like a butterfly shape and you're going to let your knees and your feet slide down the wall into this shape.
Allow your inner thighs to soften and again you can play with the placement of your hands.
It might feel good here to place one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart or you can open your arms out to the sides.
You can even take your arms into a goalpost position if that feels good.
Just take a few steady breaths here.
Feel your belly rise on the inhale and relax back on the exhale.
You can do that several times.
Then you can extend your legs back up the wall.
From here we'll slide your legs apart into a wide leg stretch.
You're just simply allowing the legs to fall to their natural stopping point,
Making kind of a V with your legs.
It's only as wide as feels comfortable and your body will just naturally come to a stopping point.
You don't have to make your knees straight.
They can stay slightly soft.
Allow your inner thighs to lengthen and we're just letting gravity invite the opening.
Connect with your breath,
Watching the belly rise on the inhale and soften back on the exhale.
We'll remain here for several breaths.
One more inhale and exhale.
To come out of this,
It can be a little tricky after being in this stretch for several breaths.
I like to place my hands on the outsides of my thighs and help push my legs back up so they're back up in the position of legs up the wall.
You can bring your legs back up.
And then we'll come into another position by bending your knees a little bit.
And you're going to play with how much you bend your knees.
It just depends on what your body is able to open to.
So you're going to bend your knees a little bit so your feet are kind of flat on the on the wall.
And then you're going to open your legs out and we're basically coming into a wall supported version of happy baby.
So you might find that you can bend your knees quite a bit.
So they're more like a 90 degree angle at the knees.
You might not be able to bend your knees that far.
Just come to the point where your intuition says,
Yeah,
That's enough.
And we'll just rest here.
And continue to breathe.
Your arms could hold behind your thighs,
If that feels right.
You could also allow your arms to rest on the floor.
You might notice that your tailbone kind of curls up.
And you can play with that as well.
You can keep the tailbone curled up or you can gently nudge it as if you want to press it back down on the floor,
But don't force anything.
Just connect with your breath here for about three to five more smooth,
Even rounds.
And then you can slowly come out of this by extending your legs back up the wall.
Now we're going to come into a wall figure four.
So let's start with bending the left knee slightly and placing the left foot on the wall.
You're going to cross your opposite ankle so your right ankle will cross over your left thigh in a figure four stretch.
And what you can do here is play with how deeply you bend that left knee.
You may only want to bend it a slight bit because you feel that stretch in the figure four position.
And your body may also allow you to bend that left knee quite a bit more.
So,
Just allow your hip to soften that right hip,
Rather than forcefully pushing into the stretch.
And we'll take a few steady breaths here,
Noticing the sensations in your body.
And imagining you're breathing into the stretch that you feel.
And then we'll come out of the position by stretching the legs back up the wall,
And then switching sides.
So again,
You're going to bend the right knee,
Slide the right foot down the wall a bit,
Cross the left ankle over the right knee,
Coming into that figure four position,
And then deciding whether or not you can slide that right foot down the wall to feel more sensation in the outside of that left hip.
You might notice this side feels very different from the other side,
And that's absolutely normal.
Let your breath remain steady here.
Watching the belly rise on the inhale,
And soften back on the exhale.
Now slowly come out of that posture and extend your legs back up the wall,
And just return to stillness.
Notice how you feel.
You might notice circulation in your legs that you didn't notice before.
An opening,
Warmth.
Or maybe you just notice a quieter rhythm in your breath.
Allow your face to soften,
And let your shoulders rest.
Begin to wiggle your fingers and toes,
Circle your ankles,
And then you can bend your knees,
Place your feet on the wall,
And then very gingerly roll onto one side.
Just lie here for a couple of breaths.
And then slowly press yourself up and come to a comfortable seat.
Take one last slow breath in.
And a long breath out.
Thank you so much for practicing today.
