Restorative Yoga Flow, Restorative Video Series

Transcription

Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Today, we'll be moving through a restorative yoga flow, and so I want you to come up with a few things. I want you to find a comfortable space where you can really relax. Scott also is here to model what it looks like when you use props that you can just find in your home, so a pillow, two towels, and then a blanket. For me, I will be utilizing two yoga blocks and also a blanket. As we move through this flow, you may not hear me cuing you or talking to you, but that doesn't mean that we're done. Right? You may just have to stay into the pose. The idea is to really be able to relax and release into these postures. But don't worry, I will cue you into the next pose. So if you don't hear me, just know that we'll be moving soon. Okay?

So our first pose that we're coming to is a supported child's pose. So we'll just come through a tabletop here. And Scott will model what it looks like to have the towels and the blanket underneath his chest. And then I will show you what it looks like also, if you have an extra blanket, to take that blanket behind the knees here to really relax and rest here. And then when you're ready, you'll just bring the chest down. And I like to use a block underneath my forehead to bring the mat up to me. So in this first pose of our practice here, I invite you to let go of everything outside of your space, to let go of your to-do lists, what you need to do later today or tomorrow, and just be present here, focusing on your breath, and moving your body through these poses.

Now, if at any time this pose no longer serves you, you can always remove whatever prop you have in front and just come down onto the belly and bring the palms of the hands underneath the forehead here, taking a crocodile pose. So you do have options here, but I'm going to move back into the supported child's. And make sure you're not holding the arms up here. The arms are heavy. Everything's heavy here on the mat.

We'll take five more breaths here in this pose. Last inhale here, and exhale. Now slowly, we're moving very slowly through these postures, right? We don't want to jostle anything. We're just moving very slowly. So our next pose is supported fish pose. So however you can, we're just coming onto our seat here. And then I have two blocks. And then Scott will show you what it looks like, if you take a blanket and two towels. You can also just use a pillow behind the back. But I'll show you how it looks with two blocks. So I'm going to place one block between my shoulder blades, and then the other block will just come behind my head here. And then Scott's relaxing down onto all of his props. Now, the legs can be long here. You could also bring the souls of the feet together, if that feels okay, but just taking what feels good in your body. Maybe you close the eyes here. But again, just allowing yourself to be heavy here.

Taking five more breaths here. And maybe with each exhale, you sink just a little bit deeper here. Last inhale here, and exhale. Now with this, you'll just roll off onto one side here, and then maybe you press yourself up to remove the props that you had behind you. But we'll come back down onto our backs. We're moving to a restorative bridge. So having your props handy here, we'll move onto our backs. And maybe we just enjoy feeling our back pressing against the mat here. We are just in that chest-opener. You can even bring your knees in. Maybe you rock side to side gently here.

But then you'll bring the soles of the feet onto the mat, so that they're about hip distance, and the ankles are underneath the knees. And then you'll press into the feet, just lifting the low back up off of the mat. And then you'll place whatever prop you have underneath the sacrum, so making sure that it's not too high so that it digs into the lower back or that it's too low so that you're on your tailbone. We want it underneath that pelvis. Palms can rest alongside you here. But again, just returning to that breath and releasing down into your prop, letting it support you here.

Taking five more breaths here. Last inhale here, and exhale. So gently, not a lot of movement here, just press down into the feet, lifting the hips, moving your prop or props. And then again, maybe you bring the knees in for a slight rock side to side. We're moving to legs up the wall. So if you have a wall in your space, you can always move there. And all you'll do is just bring your legs up against the wall. So Scott and I don't have a wall here, so I'll be modeling what it looks like just to have my legs straight up in the air. And then Scott will show you, even if you have a chair or a couch in your space, you can always bend the knees and just rest the feet on that space.

Now, if you're holding your legs up and you get tired at any time, you can always bring the legs down. Maybe you take the soles of the feet wide on your space and then knock the knees in. And then you can return to that legs up the wall at any time. But again, we'll be here for several breaths, so take what you need and find comfort and support in whatever pose you choose here.

Taking five more breaths here in, whatever shape you're in. Last inhale here, and exhale. Wherever you are, bringing the knees back into the chest. If you're against the wall, just moving away from the wall. We're coming to a reclined butterfly, so the legs are into the chest, and we'll just bring the soles of the feet together here. Now, we don't want anything to be held up in our practice today. So Scott will show you what that looks like to take the towels underneath the knees. And I'll have yoga blocks here. You shouldn't be holding anything up here. So just really resting down into this pose. Again, you can bring the arms to a T here. Maybe you take them overhead. You have all kinds of options here. But again, just doing what feels comfortable and supportive in your space for your body.

And remembering at any time, you can always change your arms. Maybe you bring them out to the side. But you don't ever want to be in pain here, so we're just finding that ability to relax. Taking five more breaths here. Last inhale here, and exhale. Now, bring your hands to the outer edges of your thighs, and just help your knees up toward one another. We'll just remove our props away from us here. And then with as little movement as possible, we're just coming to our final resting pose, so each foot goes to its own corner on our space. And then our palms can rest up alongside our side body. Really, whatever variation this looks like for you, but coming into Shavasana here and just finding that deep relaxation as we end our practice together today.

I invite you to stay in this shape for as long as you need today. But if you're ready to move, we'll slowly start to deepen our breath here. Maybe you find the wiggle of the fingers, wiggle of the toes. Just bring your awareness back to this space. You can roll out the wrists here, roll out the ankles. And then bringing the arms overhead, maybe you reach, taking the biggest stretch of your day, fingertips away, toes away. And then when you're ready, rolling off to your favorite side, bringing the knees in toward the chest here, and just taking a moment of gratitude for showing up today, for giving yourself the gift of respite and relaxation. We'll press up very gently here to an easy seat. Maybe the eyes close here, just feeling the length of our spine.

Thank you for being here with us today. I hope you feel relaxed and recharged. And I hope to see you again soon.