Yoga for Depression and Anxiety| Gentle Yoga to Manage Depression & Anxiety| Yoga with Yana

Transcript

hello everyone welcome to yoga with yana today i'll be guiding you through a gentle and relaxing yoga class for anxiety and depression whenever you're ready i invite you to meet me on your mat in a comfortable seated position and we'll begin there together let's slowly close our eyes here i'm just going to take a moment to ground into our mat consciously relax your shoulders away from the ears and begin to focus on your breath slowly deepen your breath [Music] and you can keep your eyes closed and let's begin to make big circles with our head just allowing any tension that's accumulated in those areas to dissolve keep focusing on your breathing let's switch directions and slowly return back to center let's bring the palms of her feet together interlace your fingers around your feet let's take a deep inhale lengthen through your back and on your exhale begin to bring your chest closer to your feet relaxing the shoulders away from the ears you can keep your eyes closed here and just focus on your own breath letting go of any distracting thoughts or feelings bringing our attention to this present moment just for a couple more breaths and slowly roll yourself up one vertebra at a time bring the palms of your hands on either side of your knees and bring the knees in together for just a moment let's cross at our ankles and we're going to make our way on to her table top and we're going to move into our child's pose so let's open up our knees mad distance apart that big toes are touching heels are apart begin to drop your hips down onto your heels and walk your fingertips forward beginning to lower your chest and your forehead on the mat we're going to stay here for a little bit longer than usual to allow ourselves to ground this helps to alleviate depression and anxiety as we are connected to our breathing connected to the ground [Music] [Music] so [Music] keep breathing in and out through your [Music] nose [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] and whenever you're ready slowly roll yourself up one vertebra at a time bring yourself back into table top keep your knees where they are in your hips where they are and begin to walk your hands forward into an extended puppy pose or melting heart your chest as close to the ground as you can lowering your chin if you can as well just breathing here [Music] so [Music] [Music] and ever so gently begin to walk your hands back into tabletop we're going to drop on our bellies we're moving into swings pose so bringing the arms parallel to one another you're going to keep pressing your elbows back engaging through your kneecaps your core is engaged your shoulders are relaxing down and just bringing the ears away from the shoulders closing your eyes focusing on your [Music] breath [Music] just a few more breaths here and slowly press into your palms bring yourself into your tabletop bring your knees in together and go back into our child's pose with their forehead on the ground the knees are in together this time and her hands alongside her body with her palms facing up forehead on the ground just breathe here you may want to add a gentle rock from side to side of your forehead this helps to massage that area that carries a lot of tension as well and helps you to stay grounded and present so and slowly roll yourself up one vertebra at a time bring your palms in front of you now let's bring our right knee behind our right wrist into pigeon making sure that your hips are squaring forward let's take a deep inhale here and as you exhale lower onto your forearms if you are able to you can always place a pillow and rest your chest on top of the pillow but wherever you are just close your eyes stay focused on your breath and settle into your expression of this pose [Laughter] almost there and slowly push into your palms curl the left toes step your right knee back into your table top we're going to add some cat and cows here on your next inhale drop the belly bring your chin up gaze up exhale curl your back gaze towards the belly inhale drop the belly gaze up exhale curl to your back gazing towards the belly [Applause] last one inhale and exhale curl inhale back to neutral and exhale here let's bring our left knee behind the left wrist this time pigeon pose on the opposite side get into your expression of this pose and wherever you are let's take a deep inhale through the nose and exhale lower onto your forearms if you can use any props if necessary and just settle in deepening your breath here so so just a few more deep breaths here through the nose and slowly push yourself into your palms shift your weight over to your left swing your right leg your right leg out in front of you and let's make our way onto our back bringing our knees in towards the chest interlacing our fingers around the knees let's add a gentle rock from side to [Laughter] side returning back into your still position extend your left leg out interlace your fingers around your right knee bring the knee in towards the chest staying here for a few breaths through the nose and slowly use your left palm to guide your right knee over towards the left extending your right arm into t position or cactus and gazing over towards the right deepening your breath here closing your eyes [Music] so [Music] and slowly returning back to center squeeze that right knee in towards the chest extend your right leg out and let's bring the left knee in towards our chest squeeze it in and stay here for a few deep breaths [Laughter] use your right palm to guide your left knee over towards the left and extend your left palm out into a team position or cactus keep your eyes closed and gaze over your left side deepening your breath so okay so so and slowly return back to center bring both of your knees in towards your chest for just a moment and extend both of your legs out into your final posture shavasana your arms alongside your body palms facing up relax your jaw relax your eye sockets your forehead and let's take five deep breaths here together through the nose inhale exhale letting go of any remaining anxiety or tension inhale exhale three more inhale exhale two more last one letting it all go i encourage you to stay here for a few more minutes if you have the time to allow your body to fully relax and absorb the benefits of this practice it was my honor to guide you through this class and for my heart to yours namaste