Gentle Yoga for the Neck and Shoulders - Inner Phoenix Yoga presented by MESA (captioned)

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 hello welcome to yoga today I'm Melissa Carey and we're going to be working with a little bit of neck shoulders and spine just to if you're feeling a little tight or Tender around those spaces and so we're going to start with a little bit of a seated meditation so uh make yourself comfortable you might find a cushion to sit on you might even sit in a chair and you can sit cross-legged your legs outstretched or however is comfortable and we'll just start by taking the hands towards the ground and letting yourself adjust maybe a little side to side tipping forwards and backwards I'm feeling how the hips and the spine are feeling today hmm we'll take three big shoulder rolls to start as we inhale draw the shoulder blades and the shoulders up into the ears and exhale roll them down the back inhaling rolling up and exhaling down the back one more time and just let the fingers drip towards the floor they don't have to actually touch and start to invite yourself present to invite the sensation of your breath how you feel it and your nose the back of the throat temperature where you feel the inhale go to how you feel the exhale pouring back out take a moment to invite your sense of hearing noticing the Sounds in the room around you 've been noticing the sound of your breath gently coming in and out without Force and then notice not only the sounds around you but the way that you feel the move within you your reaction to the sounds I love her subtle well let the head just gently tip over towards the left shoulder however much feels safe with your inhale start to reach out with your right hand your left hand can come to the ground or a block just to give yourself a little bit of support or the side of your chair and start to reach out with the right hand and slightly back and draw the shoulder blade down the back and you can start to play with a little bit of movement here turning the Palm up turning the Palm down spreading the fingers closing the Fist and exploring the space between your fingertips and your jaw you can start to play here too with the angle of your nose letting the nose move towards the floor more towards the ceiling and whatever range feels safe and comfortable I'm just exploring that sensation where do you feel the sweet spots I'm taking a moment pausing and breathing into those spaces that feel particularly good let's take one more breath foreign exhale let the head roll into the chest as you come towards neutral just letting the right hand drip down back down to the side and then inhale come up through the center and notice here the difference between the right side of the neck and the left side of the neck if you used a block you might move it to the other side with an exhale allow the head to tip to the right shoulder any amount and then inhale reach out with the left hand and slightly back I'm exploring movement in the arm and how that sensation moves through shoulder chest neck maybe all the way to the jaw you might use a block or let your right hand come to the ground or the side of the chair you can let the nose move towards the floor towards the ceiling finding different angles one or two more breaths as we exhale let the head roll into the chest as you come towards neutral letting the left hand just drip towards the floor inhale to come up through the center let's bring Palms together interlacing in front of the chest press forward through the Palms straightening through the elbows drawing shoulder blades down the back but then sliding them apart so you're pressing into the space between the shoulder blades so spread the fingers steady breath as you inhale start to reach the arms up just letting them go to the point where your shoulders say stop so it might be more vertical away from your shoulders it might come all the way up over your head just listening to your body and again we're going to create a little opposition so spread the Palms put the fingers and then draw shoulder blades down as much as you can breathe into all that sensation exhale let the hands come down to the sides just dropping the fingertips towards the floor again and feel has all that sensation gently and slowly drains from the arms what is Left Behind what does this sensation turn into slowing down enough to notice you're ready let's come up and over just so we can scooch the cushion out if you're sitting on it if you're sitting in a chair let's come to Seated on the ground and we're going to take the left foot so the right foot out to the side and the left foot stays on the inside of the right leg then we're going to turn over towards the left both hands coming uh in line with your left leg here then with an inhale pull back with the hands to lengthen up through the heart and mermaid twist we're gonna press down into the knees and let your heart start to move towards the left towards the back edge of the mat just breathe feeling all the way up and down the spine one more breath and slowly walk your hands in a circle towards the front of the mat and we'll switch our legs so right leg comes out left leg goes in and here just a point of note for your left knee your toes can be pointed out or tucked under whatever feels better on your knee so you're really listening to your body to be the the guide and then we'll turn our hands over so they're in line with the right side of the leg and walk out just a little bit inhale to lift up through the hearts you're finding extension and then exhale slowly just turn the shoulders slightly towards the right letting the heart walk back towards the back end of the mat and if there's space you can walk a little further with the hands and then use the breath to explore the space along the spine can you gently Puff the breath into any places that feel tender or compressed find a little softness a little release with the exhales one more breath all the way in all the way out slowly come back towards the top of the mat and then we're going to take both legs out coming to a v here and you can find your cushioning in or your sack of blankets and place it just inside of the legs first we'll start with just the hands here and let the feet go floppy so we're not trying to push or pull here you can walk around on your sits buns until you really feel them and that's just the very bottom of the pelvis where the hamstrings connect hands on the cushion in front inhale lengthen up find that extension through the spine and then exhale let yourself round so we're not necessarily seeking our biggest deepest forward fold if there's space you can come to your elbows on the cushion but we're letting the back body round letting this space between the shoulder blades get a little puffed up you can even find a block to rest your head feel free to attend and adjust to your body as needed I'm just spending a couple more breaths here right into the space between the shoulder blades and letting gravity in the exhale soften into the support the ground and the props and your breath when you're ready bring your hands back to the cushion if they left and gently help yourself up one vertebra at a time the head being the very last thing to rise you just push this stuff out of the way and come back to whatever seat feels comfortable maybe crossing your legs or coming to kneeling and letting your hands rest on the knees Palms up or Palms down take a moment to notice anything that has shifted notice what hasn't what is eternal you can bring Palms together at this base and place in front of the heart if you'd like thank you for sharing your practice with me today namaste [Music]