20 Min Somatic Yin Yoga Stretch For Stress Relief

Transcript

Hello everyone. Welcome back to your daily stretch with Devi Daily Yoga. Today's practice is an exquisite blend of yin yoga and somatic movement that I like to do for gentle self-care to relieve stress and tension and reduce cortisol levels in the body. We'll be on the floor for most of this practice and we'll start lying down on the back with bent knees. Widen your feet enough so your knees can comfortably rest against each other and rest your hands on your belly. Start to become aware of your physical body here in this constructive rest position. Take a deep breath and as you exhale, feel the earth below you, the ground that supports your body. Let yourself rest into this support through the back of your head, the back of your ribs, the back of your hips, and the soles of your feet. In somatic practices, we tap into the healing power of our own body, awakening the subtle body's restorative energy. We'll do this today with slow movement, gentle stretching, deep breathing, and simple stillness. [Music] Take another deep breath right into your heart. And as you breathe out, feel the healing energy that flows between your heart and your hands. Breathing in and out a couple more times. Sensing how each inhale feeds this heart energy and how each exhale sends it down your arms through your hands and into your belly. [Music] With your next inhale, begin to spread your arms and legs out, stretching out into a big star on the floor. Full support of your body against the earth. Deep breath in as you reach through fingers and toes. And coming right into banana pose for our first stretch for the side body. Cross your right ankle over your left ankle and take your arms both over toward the top left corner of the mat. Allow your hips and waist to be bumping out to the right as your arms and legs are curving toward the left. Gentle stretch in the side of your body through your waist, ribs, and armpit. And take a deep breath into the right side of your lungs. and exhale, relaxing the weight of your arms and legs, letting your whole body be heavy. And now take another breath into the side of your body and let your body melt into this curve with your exhale. [Music] Settling in to a still and restful position. Slowly now come back to center. Uncross your legs and pause between the two sides for a moment here. Feeling your spine returning to center. Feel the rebound, the sensations from that first side of banana pose. And gently move to banana on the second side. Cross your left ankle over your right and draw both arms toward the top right corner of your mat. Perhaps adjusting your hips to the left a bit more to emphasize the curve. And take a deep breath into the stretch that you feel in the left side of the torso. With your exhale, soften throughout the left side of your torso, inviting this combination of patience and gentle lengthening of the tissues to create space and release tension in your body. Inhale. Exhale. [Music] [Music] One more gentle breath into your heart now and exhale back to center. Uncrossing your legs and bringing your arms down to your sides. Bend your knees. Place your feet on the floor hipswidth apart. With your palms down, begin to curl your tailbone and lift your hips off the floor into a bridge. Release back down, moving slowly. Once the hips touch, draw your knees in and curl into a ball, hugging the knees and lifting the forehead toward the knees. Slowly release. Head to the floor. Feet to the floor. Back into bridge. Slowly rising up. Inhale at the top and exhale back down as you draw your knees in back to your curled up ball. Wrap your arms tight around your legs. Letting go and moving through this two more times. Come into your bridge. Inhale. Hips up. Exhale. Lower your hips. Knees in. Squeeze into a ball. Lifting your head. wrapping tight and releasing back down one last time into this bridge back bend. Feel your spine and your hips rising. Exhale back down. Hug your knees. Wrap your arms around. Squeeze up and letting go to come back down and place your feet back on the floor. Take a deep breath in. And as you exhale, cross your right ankle over your left knee to come into figure four. Draw the left leg toward you, clasping around the shin or around the back of your thigh. And adjust your position. Adjust your body angles as needed. So you feel the stretch in your right buttock and the outer hip region down the outside of the right thigh and up toward the sacrum on your right side. Take a deep breath into this outer hip region and invite your body to soften and release tension with your exhale. Entering into complete presence with your body in this moment and with what you're feeling. [Music] [Music] And now slowly release figure 4 and slowly change to the second side. Cross your left ankle over your right knee and draw your legs toward you, clasping behind the right thigh or in front of the shin. [Music] Bring awareness to how the stretch might be different on this side and bring awareness to how your breath affects the stretch. how the breath affects the sensation that you're feeling and how is it different on the inhale compared to the exhale. Inhale. Exhale. [Music] [Music] Slowly release your legs. and place your feet wide, about as wide as the edges of your mat to come into windshield wipers. Let both knees come toward the right as you turn your head away to the left. Bring the knees back up to center and over to the other side. Continue side to side, feeling deep into the hips now with this rotational movement. Noticing what you feel inside your hip joints, right and left. And notice the energy that's flowing and coursing through your legs and hips after figure 4 pose. Moving slowly enough to really harvest the energetic benefits of this movement. Next time the legs come up to center, stay here and prepare for twisted roots, our spinal twist with left knee crossing over the right. We'll be bringing both knees to the right. And you can adjust your body angles in whatever way helps this to be comfortable. The weight of the knees coming to the side, counterbalanced by the weight of your left arm and shoulder. Feel into this diagonal line of energy from the left wrist across the body to the left knee. And begin to settle and soften here. Letting the breath help you relax and release tension. So the body can relax here a little more with each breath, with each exhale. [Music] [Music] Slowly come back to center. Unwind your legs and twist the other way. Cross your right knee over your left and rest both knees to the left side. Extending out and back through your right arm and shoulder. Making any adjustments that you need to so that you feel restful in this position with a sensation of your spine twisting and the spiral the diagonal between right wrist and right knee. Take a breath in to the heart. And as you exhale, feel the heart energy radiating through this line, through this spiral, through this diagonal. Inhale and exhale. [Music] [Music] Very gently now return to center, uncrossing your legs, straightening out your hips and shoulders, and drawing your knees in toward your chest. Place one hand onto each knee and we'll come into some gentle and slow somatic knee circles starting clockwise. [Music] Feeling the way this movement massages your lower back. Feel the way your sacrum is being massaged against the ground. And after your knees come forward, change to a counterclockwise direction. Or really just any movement that feels good to your body here as you feel the after effects, as you feel the rebound of the twist. And of all the movements we've done so far, [Music] bring your knees back to center and come into reclined butterfly with your feet together, knees wide, one hand on your low belly and one hand on your heart. resting into this gentle stretch of the inner thighs and reconnecting with your heart energy as your hand contacts your heart space and breathe into the center of your heart. Exhale and soften this entire underbelly of your body, the inner legs, the front of your pelvis, the low belly, and begin to sense into the energetic connection of these softer parts of yourself. the heart meridian connecting to the liver meridian, the belly, the palms, the front of your pelvis, and your inner thighs. There's an energetic connection of these most soft parts of ourselves, of our body. We can create safety to shed the armor and come into attunement with this soft aspect of the self. [Music] As you rest, breathe in and out with this most gentle part of your nature. [Music] Inhale. Exhale. Slowly and gently. Now draw your knees together and gently roll over onto one side. Very slowly push up into a comfortable cross-legged seat. Sit with your spine tall and rest your hands right on your knees. Close your eyes and take these last few moments of the practice to harvest what you've cultivated. You might rest in stillness for this final minute or so. You might begin to move your torso ever so slowly and gently in a circle, allowing yourself to be moved by the energy that's flowing through your body, through your spine, your heart, your head. Eventually [Music] coming to a still point. Rest here in this space. Feel the energy moving here in this center. When you're ready, allow your eyes to gently open and we'll close the practice. Circling the arms out to the sides and over the head. Let your palms meet and draw them down to the heart. And that's our somatic yin yoga practice today. I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to move slowly and gently into wherever you're headed next. Thank you for practicing with Devi Daily Yoga. I look forward to seeing your comments below and I look forward to the next time we practice together. [Music]