Gentle Yoga Exercise, Restorative Video Series

 

Transcription

Welcome, I'm excited to be leading you through a general exercise today, which will be a slow yoga flow. Please remember to take any modifications throughout this practice and if anything hurts, back off and take what you need.

So we'll get started here today coming to a child's pose. So we'll move through our tabletop, bringing the knees underneath the hips here, wrists underneath the shoulders, and then take our knees out a little bit wider, bringing our big toes to touch behind us, and just slowly letting those hips fall toward those heels.

Now I have a block here, but you can use anything that you have at home. I'm just going to bring my mat up a little bit closer to rest my forehead down here and let the arms be heavy. And child's pose is a great way to start to come into your space. To let go of everything that you have to do this week, or anything that happened this past weekend.

Just settling in here, finding your breath, focusing on yourself, how you feel. And if your knees are wide, maybe you focus on bringing the breath into the belly here. So often we don't really find that deep breath, so on an inhale, I want you to think about filling that belly here. And exhale, maybe you open the mouth and just let it go. Take three more deep breaths here.

Beautiful. So we'll gently bring the hands back underneath the shoulders. We'll come up through that tabletop pose. Remove any prop that you have. And we're going to warm up the spine here. So we'll move through some cat cows. So on an inhale, we let our belly drop here, really tilt your tailbone up toward the ceiling. Chin comes away from the chest, maybe you gaze up toward the ceiling. And then exhale round through that spine, tucking the tail under, tucking the chin here. Good. And then inhale, we'll move through that cow pose. Exhale through cats. We'll take one more. Inhale through that cow pose, exhale through that cat.

Good. And then we'll come back through our neutral spine. And then from here, we'll simply step our right foot forward and then bring our left foot up to meet the right. So we're coming to a forward fold here and so what I want you to think about is having a generous bend in the knee so that the chest can rest on the thighs here. So we're not here, we're here.

Letting the head and neck go. And then maybe if it feels okay, you grab opposite hand to opposite elbow here, just feeling a nice stretch across the shoulders here. Maybe you find a sway, side to side. But again, just settling in. And our legs are active here. So really think about reaching those sitting bones up toward the ceiling here. Taking two more breaths here.

We'll release our fingers down to the mat, and then it's a slow rise up to stand. So it's almost like we're moving through mud here. Just stacking one vertebra at a time here and then rolling up to stand. And so your palms will face the front of your space here. And I wanted to set this up right in our mountain post.

So really ground down in the four corners of our feet here. Make sure that our knees are soft, and then pull that low belly up and in. And then release those shoulders from our ears. All day we tend to be hunched over. We want to open up the chest here. Chin is parallel with the mat. And if it feels okay, maybe you close the eyes here, connecting with your breath and how you're feeling.

So now we'll get through moving here through a modified sun salutation. So on an inhale, our arms will sweep up, and on an exhale, we'll hinge at the hips through a flat back, softening those knees, coming to that forward fold. On an inhale, we'll lift halfway. So I have my block here. You can use anything at home to just press into find that flat bag. But again, keep those knees soft here. And then exhale, fold down. We'll plant our hands. Move through a high plank here.

Now you can stay here in this high plank, or you can lower the knees. So we're just coming in, building a little heat here. And again, pulling that low belly up and in, chin is off of our chest, and we're really pushing our floor away. So we'll find a couple breaths here, and then we'll slowly lower everything to the mat here. However you get there.

Your forehead can touch the mats. You'll untuck your toes, and then press the tops of your feet into the mat so that the shins and the knee lift off the mat. Bring your hands by your low ribs, elbows point up toward the ceiling. And then on an inhale, we'll just lift our chest coming to a baby cobra, finding a little back bend here. So inhale here, and then exhale, bring that forehead back down to the mat.

We'll take one more. Again, pressing into the tops of those feet. On an inhale, lift up, squeeze those shoulder blades together, keep the neck long, and then exhale back down. And then we'll press up through our tabletop position, and then this time we'll step the left foot forward first, and then bring that right foot up. So then we'll inhale, we'll find that halfway lift, that long spine. Exhale, fold it down. Inhale, arms sweep out and up. Come on up. Good.

So we move through our modified sun A. Now we'll move through a sun salutation B. So we'll inhale, reach up here. And then exhale, we'll sit back like we're sitting in a chair. Now this can be as deep or as shallow if you would like it to be. You don't have to be here. You can simply be here. Your hands can be at heart center, or you can bring the biceps to frame the ears.

But we want the weight to be in the heels and we really want to wing our tailbone back, so we don't want to tuck our tail here. And then just finding our breath in this pose where we're building some heat. So we'll take an inhale here. Exhale, maybe we go just a little deeper here. Inhale, and then exhale, forward fold. Let that go. Inhale, find that long spine.

Exhale. We're just going to bring our fingertips down to the mat and we'll step our left foot back. And so our toes will be at about a 45 degree angle. And then I want you to think about your feet on train tracks here. So we want to widen our base, and then we're going to keep our front knee over our front ankle, and then we're going to rise up into our warrior one here.

Now I like to bring my hands to my hips because we want our hips to be square-ish toward the front of our space. So maybe we pull that front hip back and then move that back hip forward. And if the arms feel good here, great. Or you can lift the hands up, bicep framing the ears. But remember to let those shoulders go down the back here. The back leg is strong. And just finding our breath in this warrior one.

Good. We'll do an inhale here, grow tall. And then exhale, we'll bring the hands down toward the mat. We'll step the left foot to meet the right. We'll inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, bring those fingertips down. This time we'll step our right foot back. Again, setting up our base here, widening it. And you can also take it even wider and maybe even shorter here. You feel that out in your body, whatever you need.

But then when you're ready, we'll rise up coming through our warrior one on this site. And again, connecting with the breath. And then keeping that front knee over that front ankle, making sure it's not caving in here. And then sealing off the pinky edge side of that back foot. Gazes forward. Again, you can feel your hips here and just pull that front hip back in space and move the back hip forward.

We'll inhale, grow tall. Exhale, bring those hands down. We'll step the right foot to meet the left. We'll inhale here, find that halfway lift. Exhale, we'll fold. And then we're going to come back through a tabletop. But we're coming to our backs here. So we just did a lot of movement, a lot of work here. So now we're going to cool it down.

So bringing those knees into the chest here, maybe you find a slight rock side to side, and then dropping the knees off to the right. We're coming into a supine twist here. Arms can tee the body and just be heavy here. There's nothing to hold up, nothing to do. You've done your work today. Just reconnecting with that breath.Taking three more breaths here, enjoying the supine twist.

And then we'll bring the knees through center here. Maybe you give yourself a slight rock side to side, and then you'll drop the knees off to the left this time. Again, arms can tee the body or maybe you even bring them to a cactus. There's nothing to hold up here. Just being heavy. Taking three more breaths here.

Good. You'll bring the knees back into the chest here. Maybe you give yourself a tight little hug, coming to a tight little ball here, and then you'll just extend the legs one at a time out on the mat, coming to our final resting pose of Shavasana. If it feels okay, maybe you close the eyes here. I like to bring one hand to my belly, one hand to my heart, to just feel the beating of my heart and the rise and fall of my breath here.

Now you are welcome to stay in this shape as long as you need. I appreciate you being here today, and hope to see you soon.