Sebastian Brosche · 90 min · 7,606 words
A 90-minute yang and yin practice: active strength and mobility, then deep passive holds. The complete movement-and-recovery session.
Hello and welcome to our Yang Yin class. For today's practice you need a strap. So I have a strap available. You can just leave it to the side for now.
You might want to have two blocks and a bolster or a pillow. We can start to sit on our bolster or pillow just to give our hips a nice little lift so we can relax the knees down and also help us to sit up tall for a little pranayama. We will do a little breathing exercise before we start to move. First we give ourselves time to just arrive.
So if you want to roll your shoulders up towards your ears and then drop your shoulders back and down. And if you want to move a little bit around just get comfortable. When you're ready you start to close your eyes or rest your gaze. Taking a moment to notice what did you bring to your practice today?
How do you feel? And just noticing your breath. Noticing your mind, your focus. And then moving into our breathing, the alternate nostril breathing.
So we'll take our index and our middle finger and just close it into our palm. Or you can rest the two fingers between your eyebrows if you prefer. But we will use our right thumb to close the right nostril and we'll use the right ring finger to close the left. And we always close or we seal the nostril after the inhale.
So if you get confused just know that inhale we seal. And then we exhale and we inhale and we seal again. We'll start just inhaling through both nostrils. Exhale through both.
We close the right nostril. Inhale through the left. And we close the left and we exhale through the right. Inhale now through the right.
Close. Exhale through the left. Inhale through the left. Close.
Exhale through the right. Inhale through the right. Close. Exhale through the left.
Inhale through the left. Close. Exhale through the right. Inhale through the right.
Close. Exhale through the left. Inhale through the left. Close.
Exhale through the right. Inhale through the right. Close. Exhale through the left.
Inhale through the left. Inhale through the left. Close. Exhale through the right.
And then just keep going in your own pace, in your own count. Inhale through the left. Always sealing with the inhale. Next time you inhale through the left and you seal and exhale out through the right, you can release your hands down and just breathe normally through both nostrils.
And just noticing again, how do you feel? And blinking your eyes open and slowly starting to move into child's pose. We're not staying there for very long, but just getting comfortable. So touching your big toes together, resting your hips back to your heels and arms start to extend in front of you.
And rest your forehead down either to a block or to the mat. Just breathing into your whole back. And just breathing into your whole back. And one more deep breath here.
And then staying with your hips back, just lifting your head and start to walk your hands and your torso slightly to your right side. And then just start to move into child's pose. And then just breathing into your whole back. And then just staying with your hips back, just lifting your head and start to walk your hands and your torso slightly to your right.
So the torso is resting over your right thigh. And this can be enough. If you want more, you take your left hand, spread the fingers and just interlace them on top of your right and just push the right hand to the floor and relax your left side and breathe into your left side body. Stay heavy in your hips.
So you get some traction if you just, if you clasp the hands and push the right hand down. And just decide the intensity that you, when your body is ready for. And one more breath. And slowly walking the arms through center over now to the left, resting the torso over the left thigh, staying with just the hands separate or taking now the right hand, interlacing the right hand into the left and then pushing the left hand down and slightly pulling on your right to get some traction.
Just stay heavy in your hips and breathe into now your right side body. So taking one more deep breath where you are. And slowly releasing the hands, walking the hands forward and then start to roll through the spine all the way forward. You might want to walk your knees just slightly back.
So you're more in a plank on all fours, allowing the hips to shift slightly forward. And howling here, exhaling, bending the elbows and slowly coming down to your belly. Coming onto your fingertips, you might want to take your hands a little wider and then rolling up into Cobra and coming back down. So inhaling, pushing into the feet, pushing into the hands, rolling the chest up.
Exhale down, doing that a couple of more times. Inhale, lifting, exhale lowering two more. Inhale, and exhale. Last one, pushing down to lift up.
And coming back down, taking your hands next to your ribs, connecting to your core and pushing into the knees and hands, coming back to your plank on your knees. And then shifting the weight back to Child's Pose, taking a breath, knowing that this pose you can always visit whenever you want during class. And again, we roll forward. And this time, moving into Rabbit Pose.
So just sitting back on your heels, clasping your hands together, rolling the shoulders back. And if this is plenty, you can stay here, just seated, or you can place the top of your head forward and down, and then you start to pull your hands slowly overhead and breathe here. Wherever you are seated or with the head down, breathing into the front of the chest and shoulders. Breathing into the front of the chest and shoulders.
And if you're in Rabbit Pose with the head down, slowly weight back to the heels again and coming all the way up, releasing the hands, and we start to move forward with the hands. And then we're going to do the Rabbit Pose. Coming into our first down dump. Starting to lift the hips up and back, dropping the head, and just walking in place.
So allowing the left heel to drop, lifting the right heel up, and then shifting hips up, right heel back and down, left heel lifts. And just changing from side to side. And then see if both heels, if they want to drop, or if it's better for you to be on your toes and just bending the knees, dropping the head and pushing through the arms. From your down dog, rolling forward into your plank.
Please feel free to put your knees down in plank. Inhale here. Exhale coming through your low push up and to your belly, flattening the feet, rolling the shoulders back, pushing into the floor, inhaling to Cobra. Exhale down, connect to the Cobra.
Exhale down, connect to the core, push into the hands and knees, and tuck the toes back. Down dog. This time high up on your toes, both heel lifts. Inhale here.
Exhale both heels to the right, and see if you can come onto your fingertips on your left hand. Take a breath here. And high onto your toes in the center. One more time, inhaling.
Exhaling both heels to the left. Come onto your fingertips on your right hand. Take a deep breath. And slowly back to center.
Walk the hands back to the feet. So just slowly walking back until you're standing in a forward fold on the back of your mat. So if the floor is far away, I would bend my knees generously right now. Maybe you even want to grab your block if the floor is far away.
You can use your blocks and just have your hands on the blocks a little bit in front of you so you can lean slightly forward. And we inhale here, lengthen the back, and exhale fold. Feel free to bend your knees. One more time, we inhale, push into the fingertips or blocks or palms.
Exhale fold, head down. Rolling up the spine all the way to standing. We just keep ourselves here in the back of the mat for now. And before we start to flow again, just hands in front of the chest.
Maybe you want to close your eyes or rest your gaze. And just take a little check in again and see with yourself if you know you are more yang or yin kind of person or if you have any unbalance of yang and yin in your life. So what tend to happen for a lot of people is that we have little movement, not enough movement, but we have plenty of stress, unhealthy stress. So today's class we will move in our own way.
So we will move in our own way. And I will be showing you some of the movements that we have. We will move in our yang part. We will get some healthy movement in for our body, some strengthening, get some good circulation, some balance work, some core work.
And then we will stress down and allow our nervous system to shift so we can be stress free hopefully when we leave our mat. But just notice when you move, do I need more of this or I need less of this? See where you are. We start with some half salutations.
So when we inhale, reach up, chest up. And exhale, pulling forward and down. So if the floor is far away or your arms are too short, the blocks are great. Dropping the head and inhale, half lift, trying to keep the spine long and not rounded.
And we exhale, fold, maybe bend the knees. Inhale all the way up, reaching, lifting, pushing the floor away through the legs. Exhale, mountain pose. One more time.
Inhale, reach, stretch. Exhale, folding, and then we will move on to the next one. Exhale, folding forward and down, again dropping the head. Inhale, lengthen.
Exhale, fold. Inhale, all the way up. Exhale, mountain pose. Maybe you already felt, ah, I actually need more of this.
One more time. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, half lift.
Exhale, fold. This time just take the blocks to the side if you were using them. And now we start to walk on our hands all the way back into our down dog. Taking a few breaths in your dog, so if you wanted to try to get the heels back and down, if that feels good, or if it's better to keep the heels up, bend the knees.
Breathe here. And we start to roll through the spine, forward into our plank pose. It can be with the knees down or the knees lifted. Inhale.
Exhale, bending the elbows, lowering down, flatten the feet. Inhale for cobra. Exhale, down, connect your core, push back, hands and knees, tuck your toes, down dog. Take a breath.
And now we start to walk the feet forward. Step by step. Again, if the floor is far away, use your blocks. Inhale, half lift, long spine.
Exhale, folding, feel free to bend the knees. Inhale, pushing down to lift up. Exhale, mountain pose. Some sun A's with some variations.
Inhale, arms up. Exhale, folding from the hips all the way down. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, pressing the pelvis down.
Exhale, pressing the palms down as you shift your weight back now into plank. With or without the knees down. Inhale. Exhale, bending the elbows, coming onto your belly.
Flatten the feet. Inhale, lift the chest. Exhale, lowering down, connecting to the core and the floor, pushing back up. Coming into your down dog.
Breathing here, relaxing the head and neck. Evenly. Weight into the hands, so make sure your fingers are open. And you're not leaning into one side of your hand or your palm.
Pushing into the whole palm, coming onto your toes. Inhaling, bending the knees, gazing forward. Exhaling, shifting the weight into the hands, stepping the right foot and the left. Inhale, half lift.
Exhale, fold, drop the head. Inhale, pushing down to come all the way up. Exhale, mountain pose. One more.
Inhale, reaching. Exhale, folding. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, push into the palms.
Again, lean into your palms and step back into your plank. This time pause in your plank. Connect to your core. And just take your right knee to the floor and your right foot slightly out to the right.
And align your left foot with your right knee. Release your left arm and start to circle your left arm. Big circles. If you want a little bit more here, feel free to push into the floor and lift the right knee off the floor.
If you want less, you use the support of the right knee. Breathe. Big circles. And if you have the right knee off the floor, put the right knee back.
Left hand comes down. Left foot out to the left. Align the right foot with the left knee. Release the right arm and start to circle the right arm.
Big circles. If you want a little bit more, you push into your left arm and your right foot and you lift the left knee off the floor. Or you keep it down. Breathe.
And if you have your left knee floating in the air, placing the left knee down. Both hands to the ground. Choose if you want to keep your knees down or step back into plank. Inhaling.
Exhaling onto your belly. Flatten the feet. Inhale, lifting for Cobra. Exhale, lowering down, pushing back to your Down Dog.
Take a few breaths in your dog. Drop the head. Relax the neck. Next inhale, high up on your toes.
Bend the knees, gaze forward. This time shift the weight forward. Step the left foot, then the right. Inhale, half lift.
Exhale, folding, dropping the head. Inhale, coming all the way up. Exhale, Mountain Pose. Moving into our Sun Seas.
Inhaling, arms up. Exhale, folding. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, stepping the right foot back.
So feel free to use your blocks here. Inhaling, hips down. Maybe you touch your right knee down. Exhale, lifting the right knee off and shifting the weight back.
Try to straighten your left leg. Inhale, hips down. Chest up. If you have your blocks, this might help.
If you have your blocks, this might be easier now to straighten your left leg. Folding, rocking forward. Inhaling, pushing back. Exhaling, two more.
Inhale, exhale. Last one. Inhale, exhale, pulling back. Inhale, two more.
Inhale, exhale, pulling back. Inhale, two more. Inhale, exhale, pulling back. Inhale, two more.
Inhale, shifting the weight forward. Pushing into the palms. And stepping back to your dog. Take a breath here.
Drop your head to relax your neck. And then rolling forward through your plank. Inhaling, exhaling. Lowering down to your belly.
Inhaling into Cobra. Exhale, pushing the floor away. Back to Downward Dog. Take a breath.
And on your inhale, stepping the right foot between your hands. Chest up, knee down. Use your blocks. Push the floor away.
Exhale, over your right leg. So inhale, knee down, chest up. Exhale, folding over your right leg. Inhale, rocking forward.
Inhale, rocking forward. Exhale, pulling back. Two more. Inhale.
Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, stepping the left foot forward.
Half lift. Exhale, folding. Inhale, all the way up. Exhale, Mountain Pose.
Keep flowing. Inhale. Exhale, down. Inhale, half lift.
Exhale, now stepping the left foot back. Coming down with the hips. Hands come off the floor, using the strength of your legs. Crescent.
Gathering the hands in front of the chest. And we start inhaling. Arms up. Exhaling.
See if you can bend your knee. Maybe you tap the floor. Inhale, circling up to Crescent. Exhale, maybe you tap the knee as the hands come to the chest.
Inhale. Exhale. Two more. Inhale, up.
Exhale, two more. Inhale. Exhale. Last one, pushing down.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale to Crescent. Exhale.
Hands down, stepping back to your dog. Relax the head and neck. Take a breath. Coming onto your toes.
Rolling forward to your plank, with or without the knees touching. Exhaling, coming down to your belly. Inhale into your Cobra. Exhale, pushing the floor away.
Coming back to your dog. Take a breath. Exhale, coming back to your dog. Take a breath.
Inhale, stepping the left foot between the hands. Hips low. Staying here, using only the legs on your next inhale. Coming up into Crescent.
Exhale, hands in front of the chest. Inhale, circle the arms. Exhale, as the hands come down, knee touches, maybe. Inhale, arms up.
Exhale, lowering down. Exhale, down. Exhale, down. Exhale, down.
Lowering down. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.
Exhale. Last two. Inhale. Exhale.
Last one. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale into Crescent.
Exhale, hands down and forward. Inhale, stepping the right foot forward. Half lift, long spine. Exhale, folding, dropping the head.
Inhale, coming all the way up. Exhale, Mountain Pose. Moving into our Sunbees. You can place the feet together if that feels okay.
If not, you can keep hip distance. So to lower into our Chair Pose. See if you can maybe touch your fingertips. Keep the hips low.
Inhale, reach the chest. Reach the arms. Stay here for a breath as you lean the weight back into your heels. And reach for the sky.
One more inhale. Exhale, fold. Inhale, half lift. Exhale.
If you're comfortable floating through a Vinyasa, you can. If not, step back through Plank. Take an inhale. Exhale, come back up.
Inhale, exhale into your low. Push up with or without the knees down. Inhale, Cobra or Up Dog. Knees off the floor.
Exhale, pushing back into your Down Dog. Relax your head. Take a breath. And on your next inhale, right leg up and back.
Reach. Exhale, pull the knee forward. And step up into your Crescent Pose as you inhale. And reach for the sky.
And reach for the sky. And reach for the sky. And pose as you inhale. Exhale.
Stay. And we just keep pushing out through the left heel. Reach through the arms. And keep our hips low.
Noticing if you have tension anywhere where you don't need it, like in your face or your shoulders. Keep the legs strong. The breath steady. The gaze steady.
The breath steady. The breath steady. The breath steady. The breath steady.
The gaze steady. One more breath here. And we start to lean forward. Bring the left knee next to the right.
And just glue the knees together. With a slight bend in the right knee. I want you to feel your right glute. And then push off.
And then push up. And then push up. And then push up. And then push up.
And then push up. And then push up. And then push off the right leg. And take your left knee up.
You can stay here, hands in front of the chest. Keep lifting the left knee. If you feel strong here. And you want to extend the left leg, you can.
Breathe. Push through your standing leg. Reach through the crown of the head and the chest. And then slowly knees together again.
Bend the right knee. And then slowly knees together again. Bend the right knee. And then slowly knees together again.
Bend the right knee. Bend the left knee. And glue them together. Come down low.
And then warrior three. Extend the left leg back. Keep reaching the chest forward. Keep the neck long.
The core strong. Breathe. Strong right leg. And again bend the right knee.
So you can land softly on your left toes. Crescent pose. Inhale. Exhale.
Hands down. Inhale into your plank. Exhale. Low push up with or without the knees.
Inhale. Cobra or up dog. Exhale. Downward dog.
Take a breath. Inhale. Left leg up and back. Exhale.
Left knee forward. Stepping up into your crescent as you inhale. Exhale. Stay.
One more breath. And then you start to lean forward again. Take your right knee. Glue it to the left.
Keep the bend in the left leg. And just breathing. Connecting to your left glute. Connecting to balance and your strength.
And then start to pull your right knee up. You can have your hands in front of your chest. And stay here. If you want.
If you want a little bit more. Extend the right leg. But keep pushing through the left leg. Reach through the chest and the crown of the head.
One more breath. And then glue the right knee next to the left again. And bend the left knee. Come down low.
And then start to extend the right knee. And then start to extend the left knee. And then start to extend the right leg back. Warrior III.
Reach back through the right leg. Strong core. Strong left leg with a slight bend in the knee. And then reach back.
Land on your toes. Inhale, crescent pose. Exhale, hands down. Inhale, plank pose.
Exhale, low push up with or without the knees. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog. Stay and breathe.
Notice the yang that builds the heat in the body. Gets the circulation going. And all the goodness that we need in our lives. And on your next inhale, bending the knees.
Gazing forward. Either walk or lean into your arms. And do a little jump forward. Inhale, half lift.
Exhale, fold. Inhale again. Chair pose. Hips down.
Arms and chest up. Mountain pose. One more round. We float the feet.
And then we come back down. One more round. We float this time. Inhale, chair pose.
Exhale, fold. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, walk or float through your vinyasa. Following your own breath.
To your down dog. Inhale, right leg up and back. Exhale, right knee forward. Stepping the right foot down.
Inhale, crescent pose. Exhale, knee to knee. Inhale, coming up. Exhale, knee to knee.
Inhale, coming into warrior three. Exhale, stay. Inhale, crescent pose. Exhale, walk or float through your vinyasa.
Inhale, crescent pose. Exhale, I call this flamingo. Knee to knee. Inhale, up.
Exhale, knee to knee. Flamingo. Inhale, warrior three. Take an exhale here.
Inhale, crescent pose. We float one more round. Exhale, flamingo. Inhale, coming up.
Exhale, flamingo. Exhale, coming up. Exhale, flamingo. Inhale, warrior three.
We stay for the exhale. Inhale, crescent pose. Exhale, hands down. Inhale, plank pose.
With or without the knees down. Exhale, low push up or belly. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog.
Take a breath. Exhale, down dog. Take a breath. Allowing the heat to come.
Next inhale, left leg up and back. Exhale, stepping the left foot between the hands. Inhale, crescent. Exhale, knee to knee.
Inhale, coming up. Exhale, knee to knee, flamingo. Inhale, warrior three and stay for the exhale. Exhale, coming up.
Inhale, crescent pose. We float two more rounds. You got it now. Inhale.
Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.
Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.
Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, crescent pose. Exhale, hands down.
Inhale, plank pose. With or without the knees down. Exhale, low push up or belly. Inhale, cobra or up dog.
Exhale, down dog. Exhale, down dog. Exhale, down dog. Exhale, down dog.
Exhale, down dog. Take a breath in your dog. Relax the head and neck. And your next inhale, gaze forward.
And then on your exhale, walk or float to the outside of the hands. And sit down in a little squat. Elbows on the inside of the thighs. Breathing into your hips.
Breathing into your back. Noticing anything that is happening in your body right now that you just created. Just with some movement. And slowly come into a seat.
Not a comfortable one. More like a boat seat. So sitting tall, you can grab the back of your legs. Hold your legs up like this.
And if you want, you drop the legs. But try not to sink into your low back. If you do that, just keep lifting yourself. Breathe here for a couple of breaths.
And we are going to do a couple of more of these. And then we're going to do a couple of more of these. And then we're going to do a couple of more of these. And we're going to move through high boat, low boat.
So if you need a little help, hands behind you. Inhale here. Exhale, lower the legs and lean slightly back. Inhale, pull the knees back in.
Chest up. Exhale, lower. Inhale, up. Exhale, lower.
Inhale, up. Exhale. Inhale, three more. Exhale.
Exhale. Inhale, one last time. Exhale. And inhale.
And see if you can move all the way back now into... It can be just legs up or it can be plow. Just rolling. And then all the way up.
Feet together, hands in front of you. If you have a crow, start moving to crow. If you're newer to crow, you might want to put the block on the tall side in front of you. Get your knees high up on your arms.
And then lift the hips. And shift the weight forward until you can have the weight of your forehead on the block. And then see if you're comfortable to maybe flex your feet so they're floating off. Maybe one toe, maybe all toes.
Maybe pick them up a little bit. Just give it a go a couple of times. If you want to try without the block, you do the same. Hips up first.
So the weight comes from the top and down. You have to lean forward. So the head has to go forward. And then the feet become light.
You start to maybe flex one foot. Push into the floor. Maybe you flex the other foot. And maybe from there you point and you pull them up together.
Just see what happens today. Breathe. And when you're ready, you either walk or you float through your vinyasa. If you float, you can do one leg at a time.
Shooting one leg back and then the other. Or if you do both, keep the head forward and jump the feet back. Low push-up or belly. Inhale, Cobra or Up Dog.
Exhale, Down Dog. Drop the head, relax the neck. One small Yang flow before we start to move into our Yin. So next inhale, right leg up and back.
Open the hip. Exhale, pull the knee forward. Step up into Crescent as you inhale. Exhale, we're to open up the hips to the side.
I thought it would be appropriate to do Yang Yin arms or Yin Yang arms in our flow today. So bending the elbows, taking the left hand in front of you, cross the belly, pushing to the right, taking the right hand overhead, pushing to the left at the same time, leaning to the left. Inhaling, changing the arms. Right arm in front of the belly, left arm overhead, pushing opposite directions.
Inhale, big cartwheel. Exhale, push. Inhale, cartwheeling. Exhale, it's like a side angle.
Into reverse warrior, only slightly different with the arms. A couple of more. You decide the intensity. Meeting in warrior two, extending the right leg, turning the right toes to the left.
Inhale, arms up. Exhale, forward and down so the hands are underneath your head, especially your right hand. You can use your fingertips or your block. Just lean forward so the spine is nice and long.
And then circle the head. And then we're going to do the same thing with the other side. And then circle the left arm up. And twist.
If you want any variation, one choice is to take and wrap the left arm behind your back. And keep the neck long and the breath steady. If you have the wrap, releasing the left arm first. Inhale.
Exhale, both hands down, walking to the top of the mat. And lowering the hips down into lizard. Releasing the left foot. Taking the right hand to the inside of the right thigh.
And just twisting slightly to the right. Option to bend the left knee and turn the right knee. To bend the left knee and grab the left foot. One more deep breath.
If you have the foot, release the foot, both hands down. Shift the hips back and release both knees next to each other. Or lift the knees up in plank pose. Just inhale here.
Exhale all the way down. Reach the arms back. See if you can clasp the hands, roll the shoulders back. Lift the chest into locust.
You can keep your toes on the floor or lift the legs off the floor. You choose. But try to really connect to the back side of the body. To lift and stretch the front.
It's a little hard to breathe when you're on your belly but you try. Last inhale. And you exhale. Slowly release the hands.
Connect to the core. Push back. Down dog. Last round here.
Take a breath. Inhale. Left leg up and back. Open the hip.
And release. Exhale. Rolling the knee forward. Inhale crescent pose.
Exhale. Heel down. Warrior two. Starting with the yin yang.
Yang yin. Yin yang. Arms bending the elbows. Right arm in front.
Left arm overhead. Cartwheeling. Right arm overhead. Left arm underneath the body.
Like a side angle. And reverse. Keep flowing. Keep reaching.
Legs strong. And slowly coming up. Warrior two. Straightening the left leg toes forward.
Inhale arms up. Exhale. And release. And release.
And release. And release. And release. And release.
And release. And release. And release. And release.
Exhale. Pulling forward and down. Leaning now forward with the long spine. Fingertips or blocks with your left arm.
Inhale. Right arm up. Twisting. You can stay here.
Or you can wrap the right arm behind you. And breathe. If you have the wrap slowly release. Inhale reach up.
Exhale hands down. Start to walk forward. Left toes forward. Hips down.
Into lizard pose. And then take your left hand to the inside of the left thigh. And twist. Option to reach for the right foot.
Bend the knee. And then lift. And then lift. And lift.
And lift. And lift. And lift. Then bend the knee.
And then push the foot and hand into each other. Wherever you are, just notice how is your body feeling. What is your mind doing? One last breath.
Slowly release, both hands down, hips back so you can take the left knee next to the right. Inhale, exhale all the way down to your belly. You can do Locust again or arms back, bend the knees and then grab the feet or the ankles. Next time you inhale, lifting up into your bow pose.
To keep pushing the feet up and pulling the feet back, keeping the neck long, breathing. You can either flex the feet or point, it just helps to have active legs. One last inhale, exhale release. Pancake pose, taking your hands in front of you, resting your forehead down.
Maybe wiggle the hips from side to side. We are transitioning into our Yin part of the class. So give yourself some time to feel the yang in your body. To feel the flow of energy that you created with your choices.
You would not feel the same if you were seated for this time. So we understand we need movement to feel good. Our bodies need movement to feel strong and healthy. But now we are transitioning into Yin.
So every day we are overloaded with sensory sounds, images, news, voices, happenings all the time. There is something happening. So we need to give ourselves permission to also rest. To rest our minds and also our bodies.
And our nervous system. Take a deep inhale in through your nose. Inhale through the mouth. And give yourself time to find the quiet.
To find the peace. This might be so new for you that it will take more than one Yin session. Maybe it will take ten. Maybe it will take more.
Maybe it is super easy for you to find peace. Just stay present and notice. Know that everything is ok. Any reaction is fine.
So trying to stay as calm as you can through the transitions between the poses. Trying to not activate your nervous system too much. Just allow your body to feel really heavy. Allow your breath to come and go.
Really gently start to pull yourself up. We will move into seated butterfly. So there are many ways to support yourself here. You can sit on the bolster.
That can be nice if you feel like you are rounding your low back a lot and you feel you have to almost stay active just to sit here. It can be nice to sit on to something and then scoot slightly forward. And then rest your knees out to the side. If the knees don't feel rested and it doesn't feel good for the knees, have blocks underneath the knees.
Option is also to have the bolster underneath your knees if you don't sit on the bolster. And then have some more space between the heels and the hips. And also maybe using any props to have a way of supporting your head. It can be really relaxing to just rest your head on to something.
If that's not an option you can of course just relax the head down like so. Giving yourself some time just to be where you are. Try to resist the need to fidget around when you first get into the pose. You try to stay there without force.
And just allow the pose to happen. And just be a witness of your thoughts that is going through your mind. You're not trying to push your body into the deepest stretch right now. You're just looking for a little bit of sensation in the place you can just stay and surrender.
So relax your legs and allow them to be really heavy. And relax your belly, your back, your arms. Relax your hands and your feet. Relax your head and your face.
Relax your shoulders. Relax your shoulders. Relax your shoulders. Relax your shoulders.
Relax your shoulders. Relax your shoulders. Relax your shoulders. Relax your shoulders.
Relax your shoulders. And then give yourself three more deep breaths in this pose. You feel all the way up on your inhales. And release everything out on your exhales.
And then slowly coming off the props. And again, just without getting too active or move with any sudden movements, just leaning back slightly, stretching out the legs. Maybe just leaning into the hands and shake the legs slowly. And stretch the back.
Moving into pigeon. And I will show the one on the back first. So we call it swan in Indian, pigeon in Vinyasa. So pigeon either seated or if you're close to a wall and want to do a modification, if it's for the knees or ankles or anything, you can scoot over to the wall.
Take your left foot to the wall where the ankle and knees in line and then take your right foot and cross it over your left thigh. And you can use your right arm just to slowly, just to softly push the knee away. And the closer you are to the wall, the more deep the stretch. You can also lay without a wall if you don't have a wall.
If you can clasp comfortably around the front or the back of the left leg. If you're comfortable in pigeon, you can use your bolster in front and then you can walk the right shin in front of the bolster. And then allow your front of the left hip and the back of the right hip to rest on the bolster. If you don't need it, you just take it away.
And then again, it's nice if you can rest your head on either your hands, the floor or a block. We stay in our variation in our hip opener. Just find a place where we feel but not a place where we want to escape right away. And relax, especially your jaw, your cheeks, your tongue.
And allow the hips to be very, very heavy. Relax the feet. Relax your belly. Just be.
And if you feel like you're tensing up or losing your focus, just invite in a deep breath and come back into your body, into your practice again. Sometimes it's easier to stay present when we're moving a lot because it's a lot of legs and arms and right and left all the time. So we have to focus. And when we get still, our mind starts to wander.
It's normal. But like any other practice, we practice to just be present. Using our breath to pull us back whenever we need. Three more deep breaths where you are.
And then slowly, slowly and softly. If you're on your back, just taking your time to release your legs. And if you're seated, just doing what you need before we change sides. A lot of people think it's nice to just come on to all fours and then open up the right hip a little bit.
When you're ready, if you're on the wall or laying down, take your left ankle on top of your right thigh. Any right foot to the wall if you're using the wall. If you're not using the wall, just left leg in front of the bolster or in front of you, trying to rest the front side of the right hip and the back side of the left hip on the bolster. And your head can rest on your hands, the floor or a block.
Notice your face and relax it. Relax your hands, your feet, your arms and legs. Relax your belly and your back. The whole body, heavy and soft.
And whenever you need to, bring the breath back. You can also play with directing the breath to any part of your body. So if your hips feel tight, you can pretend you're pulling the breath into that area. And then release it and relax it with your exhale.
And then three more deep breaths where you are. Really slowly. Moving out of the pose the way it feels good and natural for you. If it feels good to open the left hip, you do that.
If not, do what you feel like doing. And next we're moving on to our backs with our props. And just have your strap close by. And then we're taking the blocks.
For some it will be one at the high and one at the medium or lowest. Or medium for the head lowest. Just do what you prefer. And then the bolster on top if you have a thin bolster.
You can also have a blanket underneath your head and also over your body. You can just have the blocks or just the bolster. So there's many ways to do it. If you want to have more of a gentle pose, you can just have your bolster if it's a thin one.
And just lay over it and use the blocks underneath your knees. So just do whatever you feel like here. But there are many options. I will go for middle and lowest and bolster.
And then you scoot back so there's just a little space between you and the bolster. Make your tail move forward and the hips down. And then rest your hand, chin in, arms to the side. Option to have the feet together, knees out to the side.
So if this is very uncomfortable you can have the blocks underneath your knees. But if you're using the blocks you can also take your feet to the edges of the mat. And just rest the knees toward each other instead. When the chest is open the arms are relaxed.
And you can close your eyes. And just allow your whole body to rest over your props. And relaxing the hands. Relaxing the hips.
Dropping the whole weight of the body heavy. And just noticing. Almost like you can witness yourself in this pose. And also know that you deserve this time to be here.
And also know that you deserve this time to rest. Nothing works without rest. So allow yourself to have this side of the practice with yin. So you can charge.
So you can function. We need both. We need the movement. And we need the stillness.
We need the yang. We need the yin. You deserve both. We have time for both.
If not we make time. So we can do both. So we can do both. So we can do both.
So we can do both. So we can do both. So we can do both. So we can do both.
So we can do both. So we can do both. And then three deep breaths where you are. And then three deep breaths where you are.
Slowly, really slowly. Just rolling onto your side. Just push the props away. So you can come onto your back without the props.
And then take your strap. And then take your strap. I'm going to rest further into the hammock. I'm going to rest further into the hammock.
So I'll take the right foot into the strap. I like to take it on the ball of the foot. I like to take it on the ball of the foot. And then I will be able to keep it like this.
of the foot and then take the other part of the strap just behind the head not in neck if you take it in the neck it will not feel very comfortable so back on the back of your skull so your back head is resting in the hammock and your foot is holding your head you can have a slight bend in the right knee doesn't matter and you can also have your left foot on the floor if this is enough sensation for you if you feel like it's okay to lengthen and straighten the left leg or both legs just find your way to be here for a couple of moments to just relax the head and dropping the weight of the head into the hammock and relaxing the hands maybe relax your eyes and close them if you're shaking it means it's too much so find a place to relax if you need to sway the leg from side to side maybe that suits you and take your time to be comfortable with the stillness might take a few tries especially for we used to measure our value of the things we are doing that is very visible just allow yourself to feel anything it might be that you feel restless stressed even no rules of how you should feel when you do yin the only rule is that you try to observe what are you feeling and is there anything you can do to feel better a deep breath anything do you have the time to shift your focus with practice you will feel calmer maybe this is just natural for you just close your eyes and allow the body to rest both are right one more deep breath and then slowly bend the left knee bend the right knee and place the right foot onto the floor and take the ball of the left foot into the strap and slowly start to push the foot into the strap if you are comfortable you straighten the left leg you straighten maybe also the right leg let's find out where you need to be give yourself time again if you're shaking try not to just stay there try to adjust so you can relax bend the knee slow movements anything that can help your body to feel more relaxed and not tense up and then one more deep breath slowly bending your right knee bending your left knee taking the hammock away taking both knees to your chest just holding around your legs rocking a little bit from side to side I'm prepping for Shavasana you might want to grab a sweater or a blanket keep you warm I also like bolster under the knees so you can get yourself comfortable placing yourself in a way where you can stay relaxed I recommend to stay between ten and fifteen minutes so when you are ready in Shavasana taking one last deep inhale through the nose filling up the whole body and when you get to the top just try to pause sip in a little bit more and then open your mouth release the whole weight and allow the whole body to feel really really heavy and also soft and stay here between ten to fifteen minutes and just relax just be and charge Shavasana you you you you you you you you you you you you you you
This is the transcript. Become a member to watch the video.
Watch now →