Unwind Your Day

Hi, thanks for joining me in this practice for unwinding, when there's been too much adulting going on and we need to just chill out. So grab your, I have a blanket on the mat and you can be on whatever kind of squishy is comfortable for you and then I have a blanket and a bolster. If you don't have a bolster you can roll up a couple of blankets or a few towels, place the bolster or the blankets in the middle of your mat, lie down over the top, long spine and one hand on top of the other, forehead rests and find your breath. And send your breath all the way down your back, into the area of your lumbar and your kidneys, long, full inhale, pause at the top, long, full exhale, pause at the bottom, repeat it. Always five or six or more breaths before you feel something let go, around your sacrum, around your hips, give yourself a chance in this little quiet space.

Bring your hands underneath your shoulders, keep your knees on the floor and press yourself up to tabletop and find a supported position. Press over your knees and shoulders over your wrists, neutral spine and exhale back to child's pose, slide your bolster forward a little, rest your head on the bolster. And hands under shoulders again, press yourself up, use your arms not your spine and stack your spine, sit back on your heels. Okay so from here we'll take three cleansing breaths, so it's inhale through the nose and we fold forward and do a forceful exhale through the mouth, we clear out the lungs and make way for huge fresh air coming in, huge intake of breath, so it looks like this. Press all air out, go as empty as you can, then pause.

You may feel a little Uddiyana Bandha engage here all by itself, exhale normally between rhymes and go again. One more, when you get to the top of the third inhale pause and hold your breath, just a few seconds and exhale. Set your bolster off to the side and come to tabletop again. Full breath in here and exhale, round your back. Stack your tailbone under, look back towards your pubic bone.

When the inhale comes in follow up with the movement, sit bones up, belly down, chest forward. Pause at the top of the breath and exhale again. Keep going with that movement, just give enough space, just enough to notice that the breath comes in, then inhale with a neutral spine on tabletop and bend your elbows, sit back, relax your neck for chakra vakasana. I'll bring you again to tabletop and exhale back. Two more rounds like this, inhale pause, exhale pause.

Inhale again to tabletop, tuck your toes under and press back to dumber dog with the exhale. Keep your knees soft, inhale to tabletop and exhale child's pose. Exhale tabletop, exhale dog, stay here in dumber dog for a few breaths, paddle out nice and slow. One leg up on the inhale and exhale through to a low lunge. Step your foot out to the side, support yourself on your arms, relax your neck and breathe.

Press your hands into the floor, lift your back leg and lift your hips, leg goes up in the air again and exhale, other side, exhale through between the hands and step your foot out a little, take the back knee down, full breaths here, full breath in, take your weight in your hands again, back leg strong, lift up and exhale down, paddle out again. More a little bit of movement in your dumber dog, feels intuitive with emphasis on feeling as opposed to looking like. Inhale to tabletop, exhale child's pose. Right eye and take three breaths here. Inhale tabletop.

Exhale and bring your weight forward, lay down, bring one arm across the front of your body, rest your head, reach back with the other hand, take hold of your foot and start to squeeze your foot in towards your hip at the same time as you press back with the foot. You can pulsate in that movement with your breath, so inhale a little, lift, press the foot back and exhale, squeeze in, inhale lift, exhale squeeze, inhale lift, exhale squeeze. Stay there for two more breaths. And release your foot down, change arms, and get a grip of the top of your foot, start to squeeze in towards your hip, then inhale press back, a little bit of a lift, and exhale squeeze. Inhale again, little lift, press back with your foot, and exhale.

Inhale again, breath moves first, hold the foot in towards your hip and take two full breaths. And release the foot down, roll from side to side. Reach back with both hands, take the tops of both feet. Keep the back of your neck long, a little lift as you inhale, and exhale down. So not going into a huge backband, and release, bring your hands under your shoulders, keep your knees on the floor, take a full breath in, and as you exhale push.

To tabletop, stay here for two breaths, neutral spine. Another full breath in, and press back to child's pose. Hold your breath, and let yourself explore a little bit the pauses at the top and bottom of the breath. Exhale to tabletop, exhale to armor dog. Right leg up, inhale, and exhale through so it comes into pigeon.

Lift up on your fingertips, find a breath here, and follow the exhale all the way down. One hand on top of the other, rest your forehead. Plant your hands on the ground again, tuck your back toe under, and lift your hips up. Let your head out into armor dog, and go to the other side. On fingertips, get a full breath in, and exhale.

Come down, and breathe. Place your hands again, tuck your back toe under, lift your hips up, and press back to armor dog, first side again, right leg. Inhale lengthen and lift, and exhale fold, and come all the way down to the floor or rest on your elbows. Sit back on your right hip, support yourself with your arms, and bring the left leg around to the front. So we shift into Ardapashimottanasana, right leg bent up against the top of the thigh and the left, and the left leg over the bolster, so nice bent knee.

It's not about getting as deep as possible into this pose straight away, it's just letting surrender happen over the bolster with the breath. So a little support from the hands, and inhale lengthen and lift, exhale starts to fold, soft neck. So let your breath be the indicator of how far you should go here, but at some point you find yourself not breathing, you've gone too far, so back up. Every inhale a little lift and lengthen, every exhale maybe a little more softness. Stay away from any ideas of where you should be or what this should look like, and instead be present with your breath just where you are.

So breath. Sigh Sigh Sigh Sigh Sigh Sigh Sigh Bend your hands and to support yourself. And inhale, lift up. Slide the bolster out. Take your left leg back again.

Lift up and go to Dharma Dog. Exhale through the pigeon. Inhale, lift. And exhale, come down. Inhale, pause.

Exhale, pause. Lean over onto your left hip. Bring the right leg around. Bring your bolster back in. Underneath the knees, your knees supported.

Left foot against the top of the right thigh. And bring your hands forward and lift, lengthen through the spine as you inhale. Exhale a little softening. Exhale. Your right leg and left leg might feel very different in the pose.

That's okay, that's normal. It doesn't mean you have to push on one to catch up with the other. Just be wherever you are. And if there's any deepening in the pose, let it be the breath that takes you there. If you find your breath loses anything of the quality of long, smooth inhale and exhale, an easy pause at the top and bottom, then you've gone too far back up.

A couple more breaths here. And bring in your hands. Press yourself up. Slide the bolster to the side again, right leg behind you. Lift up and go back, Dharma Dog.

Come to tabletop on an inhale, child's pose on an exhale. Three breaths down here. Bring your hands underneath your shoulders again, press yourself up on an inhale. Rest here for a moment. Notice anything, you even better notice nothing.

And bring your legs around in front of you. Bring your feet together and pull them in quite close. So if your knees are quite high off the floor like mine are, grab your bolster and sit up on it. Even a breath is long and elevating on the inhale and start to fold forward on the exhale. All the time with the breath.

Inhale lifts a little, exhale softens. Breath moves first. Breath. And bring your elbows down to the floor for some support. Breath.

And press into your hands, tipping yourself back up on an inhale. Grab hold of your knees and lift your knees in together. Slide down off the bolster onto the floor and bring it around to the front again. Press both legs over the top of it. Do a nice long supported Paschimottanasana.

So settled hips down into the floor. Some support from the arms. This is for the whole back body. Use your breath, inhale lift, rise. Breath moves first, the breath leads the way into the pose.

And the smoothness and quality of the breath is the marker for how far we go. If the breath becomes hampered, find yourself stopping breathing, back up, find the breath again. Send your breath into your back body. Breath. Breath.

Bring your hands back in, press yourself up. Take the bolster to the side again and rest for a moment. And bring both feet in front of you, with the feet touching in a sort of diamond shape. So not too close in. Bring your weight forward, lengthen and lift with your inhale.

And let the exhale take you down. If you feel a little pinching in the back of your knees, you can play with the distance of your feet a little bit. Maybe take them a little bit closer, a little further away. And keep the support of your hands on the floor and use the breath. And it may be that you start to come down quite close to your feet.

You can then take your arms in underneath your thighs and wrap, sorry, underneath your calves. Wrap your feet, come back to your breath. And some day your head might come all the way down into the little nook of your feet. And some day's not, and that's okay. Stay with your breath.

And bring your hands out and press yourself back up to sitting. Bring your legs in crossed again, rest for a moment. And turn around, light on on your back. Feet flat on the floor, hands on your belly. Find your breath.

Reach for your bolster and place it between your lower legs up to your knees. Scoot your hips a few inches to the left. Bring your knees in towards your chest. Take a full breath in. And exhale.

Have your knees come down. Make a comfortable position for your arms and stay here. Exhale. And come back to center. Scoot your hips the other way.

Full breath in again with your knees towards your chest. And exhale, roll over. Twist on the other side. If you need to adjust the position of your arms slightly to be comfortable, then do that. And come back to center.

Bring your hips to a neutral position and drop the bolster down behind your knees. Rest your feet on it for a moment. Take a look at the top of your knees, let your feet hang. My very favorite, Apanasana. A full breath in here.

Wait for the exhale, and when it comes, squeeze the knees in towards the chest, bend the elbows. Pause at the bottom. And the inhale comes. Breath moves first, then the body. Body stops moving, then the breath stops.

Breathe. And stretch one leg at a time, down into Shavasana. Make whatever last little movements you need to make to be comfortable. And focus on your breath. Pause at the top.

Pause at the bottom. Breathe. If you would like to lay longer, please do. Otherwise, make little movements for your fingers and toes. Reach through your legs, through your arms.

Moving one leg in at a time, towards your chest, and roll over onto one side. Use your arms to press yourself up to sitting, keep your eyes closed. Neck comes up last. Bring one hand onto your upper chest and the other wrap around your belly. Observe your breath now in its natural state.

Let it be exactly how it is. And bring your hands into your lap. Left hand in the right and thumbs together touching. Rest here. Pause at the top.

I hope you feel calmer and have more ease after this practice. Thank you for joining me.