I thank you for joining me in this Yin Release practice.
Make sure you have all the props that you need to support yourself.
I'd suggest blocks,
Blankets,
Pillows.
And then after you've gathered your props,
Allow me in a seated position.
Come cross-legged,
Seated on your shins,
Hero's pose.
Just begin to feel the surface that's right underneath you.
Let the bones of the body be fully supported by the earth.
Nice calming breath in and soothing breath out.
For today's Yin Release practice,
We'll invite in a mudra.
A mudra is a hand gesture or a seal that represents our intent,
Our internal desire.
So for this practice,
It's the prana mudra,
Which is also known as the seal of life.
It helps to balance out the inner energies of the body.
You'll take the ring finger,
Pinky,
And thumb to come and touch.
You'll create an O shape through those three fingertips.
The middle finger and the pointer extend out.
And then rest the hands on your thighs or anywhere along the spinal column.
Come back to that calming breath in and soothing breath out.
The first part of our practice is just the transition from the external distractions,
From the pace of life,
To a conscious turn inward.
The seal of life,
Seal of spirit mudra,
Helps to balance out the inner energies of the body.
In these last few moments,
Think about where in your life you could use a little bit more balance.
What arena?
Deep calming breath in.
And soothing breath out.
We'll make our way into our first posture of the body,
Hero's pose.
Bringing the heels out nice and wide,
You can always bolster up underneath your hips.
You'll begin to lay the spine onto the mat.
Pause anywhere in that transition down onto your back if you need to come onto your forearms or stay propped up on the hands.
If you made your way to your back,
You'll bring the ring finger,
Pinky,
And thumb to touch.
Take the hands over the head in a cross position,
Either right or left arm on top.
And as the arms cross above the head,
This helps to sink the left and the right hemisphere of the brain.
Anytime we move across the midline of the body,
The opposite hemisphere of the brain gets signal,
The left hemisphere controls the right side body,
And the right hemisphere controls the left side body.
And the two are building a relationship of clear communication so that both sides function optimally,
Supporting one another.
In your yin practice,
You're looking for a five to six degree of intensity of your sensation.
You want to stay as relatively still as possible to observe the subtle fluctuations of change in the body-mind.
Come back to a calming breath in and a soothing breath out.
Now switch the crossing of the arms so the opposite arm is on top.
Again,
If you're supporting yourself with your forearms or the hands,
Be okay with that support.
Visualize the crossing of the midline through your upper extremities.
And the brain functions optimally unless the left hemisphere relies on the right and the right hemisphere relies on the left.
Each part of the brain houses a motor,
Math motor sensory receptors.
And each side of the brain houses special functions,
Whether it's through creativity,
Processing the new,
The comfort with the old.
We're here for about 10 breaths.
If you're lying on your back,
Slowly make your way out.
If you're on the forearms or the arms are straight,
Make your way out.
You'll come to shift the weight onto one side of your hip,
Half pigeon pose.
The right leg will come in front of you as the left leg shifts back.
Then surrender into your pigeon pose.
Before you completely surrender,
Bring some load into the left side body,
Finding a twist in the upper body,
Threading the needle with the left arm.
The left arm is going to cross the midline,
Extend out to the right,
Left cheek comes down to the earth.
Now in the lower body,
One side of the body is in a deep flexion,
The other leg is extended out.
It can be in a minimal extension,
But there's no engagement.
Letting the soft tissues of the body contract,
Giving a chance for the vasculature,
The blood vessels to open up,
To be fed with oxygen,
Oxygen-rich blood.
Come back to a calming breath in,
A soothing breath out.
So for many of us,
This position is uncomfortable to hold for an extended period of time.
If you need to make mild adjustments,
Please feel free.
Then settle back in to your shape,
And then focus with a calming breath in and a soothing breath out.
Letting the soft tissues of the body contract,
Giving a chance for the blood vessels to open up,
To be fed with oxygen,
Oxygen-rich blood.
About 10 cycles of breath.
You'll unthread the left arm,
Send the right leg straight out to meet the left.
Extend the right arm nice and long.
You'll roll over onto your right hip,
Your right side body.
Bring the left arm either up by the ear or drop it to the low back.
If this pinches your right shoulder,
You'll draw the palm of the hand closer down towards your hip.
The more you lean the weight of the body back,
The more opening you'll get right across pec major and pec minor on the right side,
As well as some sensation along the front part of the chest where the ribs meet the sternum and the cartilage in between.
Feel along all those soft tissues in between the ribs.
Breathing breath in and soothing breath out.
If the fingers are free,
Come into your mudra of balance,
Prana mudra,
Ring finger,
Pinky and thumb create an O,
Middle finger and pointer extend out.
Right and left side body.
Add some sense of harmony balance.
Notice if you're clenching down at your bottom,
If the jaw is clenching,
The tension melts away with a calming breath in and a soothful breath out.
Coming onto your belly,
Pressing yourself up into an extended child's pose.
The knees will go wide,
The hips glide back to the heels,
The arms extend forward.
Just notice the subtle shifts,
Comparing and contrasting the right side of the body and the left,
The front of the body and the bottom of the body or the back of the body and the top of the body and the bottom of the body.
Settling breath in,
Settling breath out.
Come forward into a tabletop,
Pigeon on the left side.
Left knee moves up.
Right leg extends back,
Thread the needle.
Left arm threads through the right,
Right cheek comes to the air.
Shifts and load over onto the left hand side.
Tap the outer left hip down and let it fall back.
Five to six degree of sensation of its intensity.
And build our awareness as well as deepen our connection to our spirit energy.
We notice the current and flow of blood,
Of fluid within the body.
Feeling those gaps of places that may have been unconscious.
Now bringing those spaciousness,
Bringing spaciousness and light into those areas.
About ten breaths.
Making your way out.
The left arm to unthread.
Sending the left leg back,
Coming to lie on your belly.
Notice the nice rebound of sensation through the left side body.
Roll over onto your left side,
Extending the left arm out shoulder height.
The left hand can move down towards the hip or opening up through the deep muscles along the chest,
Rounding back through the shoulder and the delt.
The right arm can reach up by your ear or fall to the low back.
And calming breath in.
And calming breath out.
So instead of thinking about the blockages of the body where the energy might feel stuck,
Visualize that space as a gap.
The gap that consciousness fills with light.
If your hands are free,
Come into the balance mudra.
Middle finger,
Pinky and thumb come to touch.
Ring finger and pointer extend out.
Realizing the inner energies of the body to bring about and to induce a harmonized state of being.
Step ten breaths.
You bring the chest and the belly back down to the earth.
Press yourself up into embryo pose.
The knees will come closer to one another.
The crown of the head rests on a block or the earth.
The palms of the hands come down by your hips.
Folding the lower body in half and draping the upper body using the upper body as a blanket.
Fold over the legs.
Fill those gaps with light.
Calming breaths in.
And soothing breaths out.
Come out of your embryo pose.
You can stay seated or come to stand on your knees for camel pose.
The hands will come to the low back.
You'll press your hips forward and then lift the sternum and breastbone all the way up and out towards the sun.
You don't want to create too much strain in this backbend.
We're looking for nice extension up and out.
Space for the front line,
The front part of the spine to open up.
If you're supported with your hands at the back and you feel open enough to come into your full camel,
Make your way into full camel.
Slowly make your way out of your camel.
You'll return to that seated position either on your shins,
Cross-legged or hero's pose with the hips in between the heels.
You connect to your prana mudra,
The mudra of balance.
Into that calming breath in and soothing breath out.
Taking note of the state of the body.
Feel like the energy is balanced and is flowing within.
There's balance in the nervous system.
Balance in the left and the right hemispheres of the brain.
What state that produces.
Feeling the mudra,
Ring finger,
Pinky thumb,
Create a circle.
The other two fingers extend out.
Stay right here in this seated reflective shape or if you'd like,
Make your way down onto your back for your final shavasana.
And release your mudra,
Hold through your mudra.
This dirtiness of the earth supports the energies of the body.
You drop from the narrative mind into the felt sensations and the energetics of the body.
Final shavasana is where I leave you.
Stay here as long as your moments allow.
With light,
Love,
Gratitude and grace.
Namaste.
