Yin Yoga Tutorial: Shoelace Pose | Shala Worsley

Transcript

my name is Shayla and I teach at the Asheville Yoga Center also the Asheville school for massage and yoga I'm sitting in a pose in y is called shoelace so one knee is stacked on top of the other knee my feet are beside my hips if it's too much for knees sometimes I'll sit on the edge of a blanket like this the other fix is to just put this foot flat on the floor especially if it's going into that top knee a really great pose to open up the hips hips and done Yin style it's done with a rounded spine a very relaxed neck but before I fold forward I'm just going to sit up and let this be a little bit of a neck stretch and a side stretch so I'm going to drop my head over to the right until I feel a stretch in the left side of my neck if I wanted to go deeper I could take my right hand out to the side and start to side Bend slowly going to try to stay anchored in my sit bones maybe my forearm comes to the ground I just let the left arm hang and one thing I like to play with when I'm leaning to the side like this is to breathe into the top nostril so right now I'm going to practice breathing into the left nostril into my left nostril breathing in and out through the left side only and then I feel the left nostril start to really open open up so the left nostril is taking in more air or more Prana than the right side and the left nostril is associated with the eaad or the energy channel of the moon so breathing in and out of the left nostril is a breathing practice that can help cool us down or connect us to um the more feminine or intuitive side of our being our nature and then after a while just start to fold down toward the top foot and walk very carefully around to the front slowly melting a little bit more and a little bit more as my hips are ready so it could be forehead toward the knee or chin toward the knee or maybe some days I come into it and my Edge is right back here hinging forward the smallest amount I already start to feel something so the key is find where the first Edge is pay attention breathe deep and be patient and wait for the body to release into the next Edge and that's how longer lasting flexibility is achieved if we don't go slowly then the Wise Wise body thinks it's being pulled apart so this thing called the stretch reflex is initiated and the body will knit itself back together making it tighter than when before we even began stretching so after a minute or two or three depending on the day I'll roll up and do the same thing on the other leg so starting with a sitting tall just drop my left ear to my left shoulder start to breathe into the right side of my neck and right jaw and right eye and maybe even the right nostril especially as I lean to the left a little bit just take the right arm and drape it behind my back and lean slow slowly a little bit more as my body is ready trying to keep my sit bones rooted into the Earth so that I feel an anchor to the stretch right nostril breathing is associated with the pingal or the energy Channel connected to the solar energy in us which helps us process information make decisions take AC action feel strong and confident I can slowly round down toward my knees and I'm pressing the floor away so that I don't go into the stretch too far all at once might even sway from side to side a little bit and just let my spine sort of drape over my legs as it's ready noticing that one side is a little tighter one side is a little more open I just treat each side with equal care but the edges might be different dayto day side to side and moment to moment so I might find an edge that's very deep and then need to back away and tip toe toward that edge again and the more I let my head relax the more I feel the stretch all the way down to the base of my spine and after that I'll let my legs straighten out and flex and point my feet and maybe windi wiper my feet and some days I just feel the length of time on one side and the length of time on the other side some days they're the same and some days they're different and some days I'll count my breaths so I'll do 50 or 25 breaths on one side 50 or 25 breaths on the other side but usually I just feel my way into it and out of it so that's shoelace in a Yen way