Anytime Yin

Hi, everyone. I am Tamika Caston-Miller, and this is anytime Yin. My intention for you today is for you to find a sense of balance. For you to cultivate the opposite of everything that is around and oftentimes the noise that is in our own minds. This is especially true as we're moving through our lives and our bodies are changing. Our hormones are changing.

It's just a whole bunch of things are going on that can get us really into our heads. So what happens if we move from our heads into the body? Today will be especially supportive for any type of shoulder awareness that you might have and low back relief. And I'm incorporating two blocks and a blanket I recommend that you go ahead and grab those so that you have the best experience today. Let's get into it.

We're going to begin in one of my favorite shapes is probably yours too reclining butterfly. And the way that I'm going to set this reclining butterfly up is, on purpose. I'm going to use the high block under my head. So the block has three levels And then a medium level block underneath my back tracing my shoulders. A lot of people will also bring the block tracing the spine. But what I wanna do is actually stabilize my neck and give some shoulder relief. So supporting the shoulders in this way works really well. If you have a different way of doing it that you prefer, you're welcome to do that as well.

Let's go ahead and settle in now. Now we are going to go into reclining butterfly, but I'd like to take my time because, you know, everyone else is trying to take my time. So let me take some for myself. So really, take an opportunity to set up, ensure that the block is where you want it to live and these yin shapes were gonna be here for a little while. When you feel you've arrived, you can exhale knees bow out soles of the feet come together.

And just take a moment to arrive. Notice where the breath naturally rises and falls. And wherever that happens for you, let's call that home. As you inhale, allow for the breath to travel home, And as you exhale breath awareness goes out towards the head, your feet, and fingertips. In hell again, allowing for the breath to travel home.

And exhale breath awareness travels to anywhere where you might need it. It might be right around now that you may have noticed that your feet might be a little too close or too far away from your groin. So feel free to make those adjustments as we will be here for a while. You want to set up for these shapes in a way where you can be here for, anywhere from three to five minutes. And don't worry.

I'll be keeping the time for you. So if you notice that you start gripping or holding, this is a really great time to incorporate blocks or pillows underneath your thighs or knees. There's a pillar of yoga that is cultivating the opposite. And as we cultivate the opposite, we're not trying to just go from one extreme to another extreme, but rather to arrive at a quality of balance, a Salt Lake state is what it's called. And in this place of balance, it's almost like the stillness of a lake before the pebble's been thrown in or after.

A state of conscious awareness. And for me, in this place, anything is possible, including ease, calm, and peace. No matter what is going on, no matter if I'm feeling some sort of way, especially in my hips. So as you exhale, you'll take these next few moments. Cultivating the space of peace, calm, and ease.

Steve in your breath. After your next exhale, bring the soles of your feet to the floor and take a moment to feel for a connection between your hip bones, your sacrum, and the earth, and to allow for your lower body to be heavy and supported by everything underneath you. As we move into heart bench, you might find that allowing for the hips to be heavy is more supported by bent knees. If you like to keep your knees bent, you can do that. You might eventually straighten your legs out if you feel like your legs give more of an anchoring quality to the shape.

You also may change the height of the block underneath your head to the medium height now opening across the throat. So as you settle in here into heart bench, feel for that opening along the throat, the expansion across the chest. And the heaviness of the lower body creating, a different sensation, a grounded sensation. Another time another thing to expect in this practice is A lot of opportunities for silence or stillness. So enjoy this time refilling your cup without all of the noise even from me.

If your intuition tells you to do something a little different, feel free to do it. I'm gonna take this opportunity now to extend my legs and to check-in to see if this is what my body wants today. Invite you to do the same. Bring more awareness to your breath. With this last exhale notice that there's anywhere where you've been holding and even if just for one breath, allow for all holding to cease.

And now in any way that feels right for you release, eventually making your way down to your back, So remove everything from underneath your body and make your way down to the floor for constructive rest. As you inhale, fill for the expansion of the back in towards the floor. And as you exhale, notice the breath leaving, creating a little more spaciousness. Do that again, inhale. You might notice this compression between your back body and the floor.

And exhale, find and fill into a little more space. My favorite way to come into tuck to twist is to roll all the way over onto the right side, hug your knees up towards your arms. And then to recline the shoulders back towards the floor. So if your shoulders don't reach the floor, you can tuck your knees up just a little bit more, creating a curve here at the spine, a little tuck, a little forward fold. As you exhale soften, feel free to welcome in a rolled blanket between your knees or under them or even a block.

Feels kind of nice to have that blanket that we earlier placed nearby. And some folks may want to even extend the legs out long. Is there anywhere else where you might soften? If you find your gaze going to another place, feel free to bring your gaze inside and to really settle in to what's happening. Being welcoming a little more calm, a little more peace.

Do you've been your breath? Release, release in any way that feels good, and eventually make your way back to constructive rest with the soles of your feet on the floor, knees bent, Notice any differences between the sides. You might feel more open or more compressed, or even sometimes longer on one side than the other. These pauses to feel sense and notice are really important to the in practice. And now we'll take the tuck twist on the other side.

Again, you can approach by leaning all the way on to the left side, or if you really want to bring your knees in, do that and bring the legs over towards the left. Again, notice, is there anything that you'd like to bring in to make this twist more approachable? Especially if you have any type of sensitivity at the hip or the knee, bringing in a blanket or anything like that really helps with that. And don't worry about going off the mat. Notice any place where you might be holding.

And if you find a place and you continue holding there, feel free to even tell yourself, soften. Notice any discomfort with stillness that begins to creep in. Or any attachments to rest, knowing that this is a yin practice, not a restorative practice, our goal isn't rest, but rather an opportunity to find a peace and a calm within each of these poses. Deepen your breath. And release.

Make your way back to your back again for constructive rest. And feel for evenness now between both sides. If it's not to be found, use your imagination to fill in any spaces that still might feel activated or shorter or longer. As you're ready, roll over to either side, Let me even take a tiny pause here. Just a gentle reminder that you don't always have to rush.

And as you're ready, press your way up. To an upright position. I'd like to take just a moment to exist upright considering we've been on our backs this whole time. We are gonna come into crust wing. Essentially, this shape is going to look like a bow tie under the body. So we're gonna bring the arms under the body in this wrapped shape.

I like to roll onto one side and then wrap the other arm under. So I'm going to roll onto my left side, bringing the left arm under the body. And then my right side make any adjustments. Some folks like to tuck their toes and really bring their arms underneath the chest and others I'm others, like to bring a block under the forehead. So as you settle in, feel free to make any adjustments by Moving up, tucking your toes, moving up over your legs or not.

Let me settle in opening now across the back of the body. As you're in this hug, the back of the body is opening and expanding. Front of the body is compressed. And what's really interesting about this shape is that we have these energetic channels that are in the arms according to traditional Asian medicine that are being compressed. So we want to compress those almost like a, a water hose, bending it in half and cutting off the water supply temporarily.

To build up a little bit of those energetic stores. But also, of course, you have this wonderful expansion across the back of the body. So send your breath awareness there. Rease. Again, you can release by rolling over fruit to one side.

And switching the cross of your arms. And just like earlier, when we brought the awareness of the breath, bringing it to home, notice how home has shifted now perhaps to the back of the body. Or maybe it is still in the same place. And fill into that expansion and contraction as you inhale and you exhale again. Take a long luxurious m, hell m.

XL for a little longer. Unwind your arms and take a moment in any child's pose position. You may find that bringing blocks under your head or your arms feels really great. This variation is embryo, and we're actually just going to be here just for a moment. You could stay here a little longer, taking time to breathe and expand along the back body.

Or you can make your way into belly Shavasana. With belly Shavasana, I love to roll my blanket and put it underneath my hips. And settle in your choice. Whatever you've chosen to do for yourself, I invite for you to continue refilling your cup to find a little more ease and balancing your day. Whatever is the case is always my goal to leave you better than I've found you, and I hope that happened for you today.

Shanty shanty. Peace, peace, peace.