Yoga for Insomnia Relief, Restorative Video Series

Transcription

Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Today, we're going to be moving through several poses to help with insomnia relief. Scott is here today and he has several props that you can find around the house, so he has a pillow, two towels and a blanket. I will be using a blanket and then two yoga blocks.

So our first pose is a seated forward bend, and so what we'll do is we'll move on our mats here, and what I like to do is I actually like to prop the bottom up here so it actually tilts us forward. And then we'll bring the leg straight out in front of us and Scott will show how to prop up the knees here using his towel, and then I'll show that variation with the yoga blocks here. But basically, we want to be supported here. And so we'll inhale, we'll reach up, and then through a flat back, we'll hinge forward coming from the hip here and then just bringing the arms to rest. Now again, we're not rounding here. We're keeping the chest lifted and we're just finding a space to relax into and feeling a nice stretch here in our hamstrings.

Now, you can keep the feet flexed or you can just release them, whatever feels best for you here. But maybe on each inhale, we think about lengthening here, and then on the exhale, we hinge forward. And if you don't have anything from the knees, that's okay too. I just ask that you do have that slight bend, but you can also just hold the knees here. So we'll take three more breaths here in this pose. Last inhale here, and exhale, release it down. So we'll walk the hands back here and we'll move to a supported fish pose. So what this looks like, Scott is going to show you what it looks like to do a slight back bend, and I will do a little bit more of a back bend here. I'll be using my yoga blocks and Scott is just going to be relaxing on the pillow and a blanket.

So for me, I'm going to bring one block between my shoulder blades here, and then I'll bring the second block behind my head. And so basically, we're just opening up the chest here and just becoming heavy on our props. So there's nothing to do here but just relax and release into this pose. Sometimes, I like to bring my hands to my belly here and really practice on that deep belly breathing, so often, we only breathe into our chest here. So on an inhale, let's fill that belly, and exhale, let it go. We'll do three more just like that, bringing awareness here to that breath. Last one. Good. You can bring the arms back out and just return to that normal breathing, in and out through the nose. We'll take three more breaths here in this pose. Last inhale here, and exhale. Good. So slowly, you'll just roll off to one side here. We were just in a bit of a back bend, so just removing the props, allowing yourself to come flat on the mat, just feeling the earth underneath the shoulder blades here.

And our next pose will be a reclined butterfly. So we'll just bring the souls of the feet together, and so Scott will show you what it's like to actually prop up your knees using towels. But for me, I'll just have my yoga blocks and I can wedge them in here, and then I'll just relax down here. Right. I can also do these without any props holding me up, so you do what feels good for you. But again, just finding a comfortable space here, maybe bringing one hand to the belly, one hand to the heart, just connecting with the beating of your heart and the rise and fall of your breath. And if it feels okay, maybe you close the eyes. Taking three more breaths here. Last inhale here, and exhale.

Now, you can feel free to stay in that shape as long as you need, but I sincerely appreciate you joining us today and I hope that this can help you get a good night's sleep. Thank you and hope to see you soon.