Yin Yoga To Ease Chronic Pain

00:30

39:22

Yin Yoga To Ease Chronic Pain

by Rachel Atkins

Rated

5

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

3

Are you living with chronic pain and looking for something truly gentle? This 40-minute supported yin yoga practice is designed to meet your body exactly where it is - using long-held, supported poses to quietly release deep tension, calm your nervous system, and bring a little more ease to your day. Yin yoga is one of the most accessible and therapeutic styles of yoga for chronic pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and inflammatory conditions like arthritis. Unlike more active styles, yin yoga works with gravity and time - no forcing, no pushing, just supported stillness and slow, gentle release. Props used: A blanket, yoga blocks, and a cushion

Pain Management Fibromyalgia Arthritis Relaxation Nervous System Breath Awareness Body Scan Visualization Chronic Pain Management Shavasana Visualization Technique

Meet your Teacher

Peterborough, United Kingdom

Meet your Teacher

Peterborough, United Kingdom

Transcript

Hello flowly friends and welcome to this yin yoga session for chronic pain. Now this session today is going to be full of supported poses that will allow you to release a little tension in your body and hopefully make you feel a little bit more calmer and more at ease. You are going to require some props to support you in this session. So blocks are great, Maybe pillows or cushions if you've got them and a folded up blanket. Or towel as well. You might not use all of these things but if you just have a few of them close by ready to support you as you need. If you do enjoy this session make sure to give me a like and definitely leave me a comment because I'd love to hear how you get on in these sessions and then whenever you're ready let's get started. So we're going to begin in a supported caterpillar pose but So you may want to grab a pillow or a block here. Now you can sit on a pillow or a cushion just to give you a little bit of comfort underneath your seat. We're going to extend the legs out in front and then what we're going to do is support the knees here. So you can grab your block, You can pop it on any setting. It could be the flattest setting or you could just lift it up and you can definitely pop something soft on top of that. So maybe another cushion or blanket, Whatever you've got. I'm just going to keep mine as it is. I'm just going to allow my knees to just gently rest on top. And then this is just allowing my thighs to just be lifted so my torso doesn't to reach all the way down. Now also you can pop something in between your thighs and your chest so I'm definitely going to do that for a little bit of comfort. And then let's bring the hands down by our sides. Try and take an inhale and lengthen up through the spine and then as you exhale, Just slowly walk your hands forward, Lowering your torso. And then just allowing your head to gently round forward. Maybe drawing your chin to your chest. You can also support your head here if you needed to, So you could pop maybe another block or another cushion underneath your head. To support it if your neck is day for your head feels super heavy today. Often supporting the head can be really, Really helpful. And just try to allow your upper body to sink as deep as it can here. Fully supported by your props. Allow your shoulders to relax. Just start to notice how you feel here. We're gently lengthening out through the spine. And so as you breathe maybe you can visualize the breath moving through the spine. And every time you exhale, Starting to melt some tension away from your back. In each of these poses today we're going to find some stillness, Some quiet. So if you can try and focus in on the breath. Just gently follow it as it moves in and out of the body. Remember that it's okay if the mind wanders, This is pretty normal, It happens to all of us. Just gently guide. Your breath back. Each and every time you notice. That the mind is wandered. Wonderful, When you're ready take an inhale and really slowly start to roll the head and the neck up first. Take your time, You can use your hands just kind of walk you into an upright position. Might just want to pop. Your props to one side for a moment. Now if you're sitting on something, You can stay as you are. Keep that underneath your seat and we're going to go into a little half butterfly. So we're going to extend the left leg out. We're going to take a little bend into the right knee and then just let that knee fall out to the side. Now we want to support ourselves here, Especially if we are experiencing any pain in the legs or the knees, We want them to be supported. So this is where your blocks are brilliant because you can support that outer knee. Then you can also support the knee that's extended as well and same again, You might change the level of that support, You might change the size of the block, And this is why blocks are great, Because we have those different. . . Settings and so we can adjust them however we feel fit. Okay so make sure that you feel nice and comfortable. Again you could pop something soft on top of this extended leg so that when your chest comes down you're fully supported here. Otherwise you can just place your hands either side of your legs, Take a nice big breath. Again we're finding length through the spine and then as we exhale we are slowly gently lowering down. Wonderful, You might walk your arms out a little bit here. And then let in there. Head just round forwards. Chin to chair. Maybe rounding the forehead towards your knee. We're not forcing or pushing here, We're only going as far as we feel we can. We want to be able to hold this position. Start to gently come back to your breath. You might take a moment in each of these poses to just kind of notice where you feel it in each pose. Sorry. Within our little half butterfly, We have this lovely little opening through that right hip here into that thigh. Getting a little stretch into your back. Flexion of your spine. So you might fill it in more than one area. That's perfectly okay. Try if you can to think about softness in each of these poses today. We're trying to ease tension. Allow it to melt away even if it's only a little bit at a time. Perfect, When you're ready take an inhale and start to slowly roll up the head and the neck again using your hands. To bring you into an upright position. Give yourself a moment when you get here. And then we want to gently transition to the other side. So take your hand, Lift up that right knee, And then you can just gently extend the leg out. Then take a little bend into the left knee and then let that one just fall out to the side. Now we're probably going to use the props again especially if you did On the other side, We want to make sure we're fully supported here. So pop props in however feels the most comfortable for you. Make any adjustments as well that you feel you need to, Bringing the left foot closer to the body or sending it further away. We always want to make sure as well that we keep the legs nice and relaxed, We're not trying to have engagement in the leg or anything here, So we're not pressing the heel away, We're not trying to engage, We are just keeping everything relaxed. Okay, We sit nice and tall, Hands either side of those legs. And exhale slowly lowering the torso down. Again, Just finding that softness, Easing yourself into this pose. And then maybe. Forehead comes down towards your knee. Watching towards your chest or maybe you've got something supporting your head here, A pillow our folded blanket there's no right or wrong with how you use your props either so you just use them in a way that feels supportive for your body. Find that connection to your breath. Try to enjoy the stillness for the next few minutes in this pose. Wonderful, When you're ready take an inhale, Slowly roll it up. We take our time, Always easing gently out of yin postures. Especially if we are in chronic pain, We want to make sure that we take our time. We're not rushing to get anywhere here. Perfect. So slowly just lift up left knee. You can extend the leg out. Let's remove any remaining props. I'm gonna remove the one from underneath my seat as well. And then I'm going to come down to lie on my back. So you do the same, Take your time here Just slowly roll it down. We are not rushing. Okay, Once you arrive, Onto your back, Take a little draw of your knees in towards the chest and just take a gentle rock from side to side. Moment to tune in to how you feel here. Noticing what comes up for you. Perfect. And then just allowing your feet to come back down to the floor. We're going to take ourselves into a twist but we're going to make sure we support ourselves in this twist. So you're going to either want a block or a pillow or you could have both as well if you want to. So we're gonna, From this position with your feet connected to the floor, We're gonna allow the knees to gently rotate over to the right side. So just really slowly rotate them. They might come down to the floor, They might not quite touch the floor and that's okay. This is where our props come in. So we're gonna take our block or our pillow and we're gonna pop it under that bottom knee for some support. You can add some softness by popping it on top of your block. Your legs. And nice and supported and feel nice and soft or you could pop your pillow in between your legs and this feels nice as well, Feels nice and supported. Now if you can, Try and just rotate through your spine. So you're just opening up your chest that little bit more so it's facing up towards the ceiling. And then we're going to just take the arms nice and gently out to the side. Anywhere out to the side that feels good. That could be closer towards your body. You can reach straight out in a nice big T shape if you prefer. Have your palms facing up. Let your shoulders relax. Allow your legs to really relax here, Allow them to be heavy. Feel that heaviness of the legs against your props. The more you try to relax the legs, In turn your hips will start to soften. Of course, We relax the belly as well. And try not to hold any tension in your neck and shoulders. Find that connection to your breath again. And if following the breath is a little challenging today, Just think about what you're experiencing while you lay in this pose. Focus on the areas where maybe tension lies or where you're starting to feel a little bit more ease. Maybe you notice the parts of your body that are actually touching the floor, That are in contact with the floor, With your mat. That's just a way then to keep the attention on you without kind of letting the mind wander off. To work and family life or whatever it is that's distracting you today. Wonderful, Whenever you're ready take a little wiggle of your fingers. And you might just want to move your prop to one side just for a moment. And then draw your navel towards your spine, Take a breath. And gently roll yourself back to centre. Now if you feel like you need to just realign your spine here, I often do that after a twist and we're going to do that. Just. . . Realigning slightly and then we're going to take those knees over to the left. So be sure to take your props with you or move them over to one side before We twist, So just nice and gently lower those legs over to the left side. Hop your props, Block underneath that bottom knee. And then your cushion that can go either on top of that, Or maybe you pop it in between your legs. And then we try again just to open up through the chest. That's just taking us slightly deeper into the twist itself. But I often find that if we can just take it a little deeper into the twist, It almost allows your shoulders to be a little bit flatter on your back. Of course, If doing this makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, You can just adjust as you need to. This is your practice, So make it work for your body. And then extend those arms out. To the side, Palms facing up. We're finding that connection. Either to the breath or to whatever we're feeling in the body right now. And again, Just trying to enjoy the stillness for the next few minutes. Wonderful, When you're ready, Nice and gently blink open your eyes, Take a little wiggle of those fingers. We might just take a moment to remove props. And the navel to spine. We draw the knees back to centre. When you get here take a realign of the spine if you need to and another little draw of the knees in towards the chest. Take a little rock. And breathe. Okay just allow your feet to come back down to the floor. So now we're going to do a little supported bridge. So grab your blocks. And also grab a pillow or cushion or something soft just to pop on top. And then when you're ready take an inhale lift your hips up Let's slide the block and the pillow underneath the back of your sacrums, That flat part at the back of your hips. And just make sure then that when you land the hips that they feel okay here. Okay now what we're going to do is we're going to draw one knee in towards the chest. But the other leg, You need to kind of find where feels the most comfortable for you to have it. So if you can extend the left leg out along the floor, Let it relax when it gets here and then draw your right knee in towards your chest. You're going to interlace your fingers around that knee and you're just letting your arms just kind of relax here. So you're not trying to pull the knee towards the chest. You're just holding it in place with your arms. Now if this doesn't feel good on your hips or your back, What you might want to do is just release for a moment and then bend into your left knee, Keeping the foot flat to the floor and then same again, Drawing the knee in towards the chest and just hold it here. A nice little added bonus that might feel nice for you here is if you have gone for the bent knee, Maybe allow that knee to just fall out to the side a little bit. See how that feels. It's going to open up your groin into the front of your hip a little bit here. So see how that feels. So any option is good. Allow yourself to relax. You're going to feel your shoulder blades pressing deeper into the mat. Let the whole body soften. And are you relaxing through your face here, Those little muscles around the forehead? Around the eyes and the cheeks. Are you unclenching the jaw? This is another place where we hold that unnecessary tension. And you release and let go. Perfect, When you're ready just take a little roll of that right foot. A few times in one direction and then just take it the other way. And then still holding your knee towards your chest, Just take a little rock of that knee from side to side, Really gently, Just a few times. Perfect. Wonderful. Come back to centre, Gently release that right leg and then we're just going to switch to the other side. So maybe you extend the leg or maybe it stays bent. On that right leg that is. Draw your left knee in towards your chest remember you're interlacing your fingers but you're not pulling in you're not drawing the knee in super close just wherever it stops your hands are just supporting your knee in place. Remember to try and relax your legs as best you can. We relax the shoulders. So this is kind of how you'll know if you're pulling your knee in with your hands, That's going to allow your shoulders to tense up, Which is not what we're looking for here. So that's why we're just placing those interlace fingers nice and gently on the leg. You let the arms relax. The shoulders will then relax. And you'll start to feel that gentle pressing of the back of your body into the mat. Wonderful, Whenever you're ready. Just start to rotate that left foot. Give it a little roll. And let's take it the other way a few times. Perfect. Wonderful and then nice and gently just release. That left leg down to the floor. Let's take a little bend into both knees if they're not like that already and then we're just going to draw both knees in towards the chair. So you're still supported at the back of your hips here. Take a little rock, Really small little movement here, A little rock from side to side, Just a few times. You just don't want to topple off your props here, So that's why it's a really small little micro movement. Perfect. And then allow your feet to come back down to the floor. We're going to take an inhale to lift the hips up, Remove our props. Wonderful and then I'm going to pop my pillow underneath my head for support. And you might want your blocks here to support your knees but it's not a necessity for this pose if you don't want to. We're going to do is bring the soles of the feet together, Allow the knees to gently fall away from each other. Now again you might add in maybe something soft underneath your low back especially where sometimes we have that little bit of space so you just want to allow your legs to be held by gravity here. So surrender to gravity. Let gravity take hold of your legs. Let them go as far apart as they can. Again, We are not forcing here. This is a pose that we do not force. We're not trying to force the legs really far apart. We just let them naturally fall away from each other towards the floor and we keep it there. We're going to sweep the arms up alongside the ears. And have a soft little bend in the elbows. Close your eyes. So in reclined butterfly, Take a moment. To really notice which parts of the back of your body are in contact. With the floor. So maybe you start down at your feet. Just take a little scan, Noticing each point. That touches the floor as you move up. And then just come back to your breath whenever you're ready. Wonderful, Whenever you're ready, Take a little wiggle of your fingers. Gently release your arms down by your side and use your hands to draw your knees in together. And then from here you can either keep your knees bent, Maybe let the knees rest against each other for a little constructive rest. Or we're going to extend the arms and legs for a full shavasana here. You can grab a blanket if you need to, To get nice and warm. And then once you get comfortable, Take three nice, Big, Deep breaths in through the nose and out through your mouth. After that third exhale, Allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm. And just as you have been throughout the rest of these poses, Stay with the breath. For the next few minutes. Allow your body to process all of the little poses you've just done. And allow the body to take that time to reset. Find some ease. And hopefully allow you to feel a little more comfortable in your body again. Now you can stay in your relaxing pose for as long as you need to, But if you would like to end the practice here with me now, Let's take a little wiggle of fingers and toes. Soft. Gentle movement, Just wake up the body gently again. And of course you can add in any other movements that feel good to you. Whenever you feel ready take a little roll onto your side body. Staying here for as long as you need to. And then whenever you feel ready to bring yourself back up. Press yourself into an upright position. Once you do arrive in your seat. It's a good idea to have a little check-in with how your body is feeling now. And then let's take one last cleansing breath together. Biggest breath you've taken so far through this practice. A big inhale through your nose. And a nice big noisy sigh out. Gently blink open your eyes. And that brings us to the close of this yin yoga session for chronic pain. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope that you enjoyed this session. Thank you so much for watching. Take care.