Gentle Back Bending (Lifting Energy) - Inner Phoenix Yoga presented by MESA (with captions)

Transcript

[Music] foreign [Music] to Inner Phoenix my name is Janine and I am the director of moving to end sexual assault and the director of trauma services at Mental Health Partners in Boulder Colorado I'm a psychologist and a yoga teacher and I have witnessed the power of yoga to help people heal from the impact of traumatic stress these Yoga practices are intended to facilitate grounding in a connection with ourselves as we move to build a sense of empowerment and resilience as we work through our journey together while I will cue you in different poses throughout the practices feel free to do what's best for your body on this day at this time for today's practice we are going to work with this idea of lifting our energy it's really normal for most of us on some days to feel like we're just dragging through it could be hard to get out of bed or motivate to do things and and that's normal and often part of our recovery from traumatic stress but sometimes also we'd like to shift that and today's practice will incorporate some very gentle back bending with the intention of lifting our energy helping us maybe to feel a little more engaged and energized so with that let's start our practice together standing so standing nice and Tall on our mat and just arriving here with the feet about hip distance apart and just as we arrive bringing a slight Bend to the knees so we're not locking out our joints and feeling little buoyant little fluid in our legs just taking an inhale breath in and exhaling letting the shoulder settle down as we just arrive into our space and when you're ready we're going to inhale the arms up to the sky and settling the shoulders down the back here we're just going to do a little side Bend here so the right hand coming down to the side as the left hand reaches up as we inhale and then exhale side bending over to the right being mindful to keep equal weight in both feet you can look straight ahead or you could look down inhaling both arms back up to the sky and then exhaling left arm down as the right arm sweeps to the left just breathing here maybe feeling the expansion between the ribs inhaling back through Center and then from here exhaling both arms forward and plugging the shoulders back toward the body so we're not reaching out but rather pulling the shoulders back and from here when you're ready we're going to inhale and sweep the right arm back behind us the hips stay squared toward the front of your space it could feel good to gaze over the right shoulder but only if that feels right on your neck as you exhale release come back through Center and then inhale we'll sweep the left arm back and again just notice be mindful not to hold the breath here as we twist but breathe and then releasing the left arm back and then from here lifting both arms back up to the sky and we'll draw the palms together and just begin to gently bring the hands back toward the back of your space maybe the Gaze lifts up maybe straight ahead and just don't come far to where you're holding your breath or it feels strained and just notice this is a gentle back bend here and then when you're ready just release and slowly come back to Center you could feel slightly dizzy with that so just take your time as you exhale bringing the hands behind your back draw the heels of the hands together here so that the shoulder blades squeeze together and lifting from the sternum here even this is a little gentle back bend here if this feels uncomfortable on the shoulders or doesn't work for your body you can release the grip right you just put your hands on the hips even as the shoulder blades draw together on the back and then when you're ready we're just going to fold forward all the way down to the Earth coming into this shape of forward fold letting the head and neck go maybe the crown of the head points toward the Earth and bringing a slight Bend into the knees so we're not locking out the joints but we're letting this be a release for our head and neck good and then when you're ready we're gonna walk the hands forward and just come down to the knees here into this shape of tabletop and then from here we're going to root into our space with the hips over the knees the wrists are under the shoulders and begin to walk the hands forward maybe about two hand prints forward and keeping the hips right over the knees we're going to begin to sink the heart down toward the Earth so coming into this pose called Puppy pose right and feeling the stretch behind the heart drawing the shoulder blades together just like we did when we were standing and again just notice this is a a gentle back bend here so the heart is just sinking down toward the Earth hips are staying over the knees and breathe it and you might feel a lot of sensation in the shoulder so if it gets too much at any time you can just begin to back out of the pose by pressing into the hands and maybe coming back into this shape of puppy pose and then from here when you're ready we're going to bring the left forearm down the right forearm down and just lower the hips down to the Earth coming to this next shape of sphinx so in Sphinx pose the elbows are a little forward of the shoulders and the heart is reaching through the arms and here you might feel the crown of the head lifted toward the sky and you might feel a little dull achy sensation in the low back that's actually normal but if that feels like it's too much and that feels like you can't breathe or it feels painful in any way just begin to walk the hands a little more forward that'll take a little bit of the curve out of the low back and it's still a backbend and just breathing here feeling the heart lifting maybe the hips sinking and then when you're ready to come out we're just going to stack the hands on our mat and let the forehead rest on the hands here into the shape that we call crocodile and even here in this crocodile shape wow it can be considered a resting or restorative pose for some of us it's actually still a back bend we're actually still arching the back slightly so just settle here for just a few breaths maybe feel a little surrender to the Earth the support of the earth underneath you and then when you're ready I'm going to take this in to oppose a modified pose of um fraud so we're going to bring the right knee out to the side so that the knee is even with the hip and we can keep the hands stacked the forehead on the hands if that feels good you can even come back on the forearms if that feels better like we were in Sphinx right what we're going for here is again just a little gentle back bend as well as a hip stretch and remember if this ever doesn't feel right in your body always the option to come out return to crocodile pose or another pose or shape of your choice so breathing here and then when you're ready we're just going to slide this right leg back behind us and move into the other side so the left knee comes in line with the hip or to your point of sensation and then letting the head rest again and you might notice a difference in these two sides maybe one side feels more open and just sitting with the breath as best you can today following it as your anchor to this time in this moment when there's nothing to do except letting the shape of the pose create the stretch and then when you're ready we'll just slide this left leg back bringing the hands under the shoulders and pressing up gently back to this shape of tabletop letting the hips come down to the heels and bringing the hands to the knees to close our practice let's together take one inhale breath through the nose and exhale slowly out the nose or out the mouth to release any heat or tension bringing the hands in front of the space of the heart close this practice of lifting our energy to move through when we feel sluggish thank you so much for being part of this practice today foreign [Music] [Music]