Self-Soothe and Regulate

Hi. This is self soothe and regulate, and this class is really just about self soothing and regulating through breath work and simple movements. You'll need, blankets, a bolster and a block and a strap for this class. We're gonna begin lying down on our backs. Grab your block. You really just need 1.

I know some people like to do this pose with Two Blocks, but I'm gonna demonstrate it with One Block. So Once you're on your back, bend your knees. You're gonna lift your hips up and place the block underneath your lower back. So you wanna really position this block more so towards your sacrum. So as low as you can go, because if it's too high, it's just gonna push against your lumbar, and that's not comfortable.

So adjust it so that it's a little bit lower towards the tailbone, and then you can move it up and down from that point. And then those of you who like to go a little bit higher, you can certainly stack your blocks if you're using two blocks. But once you're settled, you wanna make sure your shoulders are on the mat. Chin is slightly drawing in. Your arms are resting alongside your body, and you can close your eyes here.

Just lifting our hips or elevating the hips like this is really just a nice way to bring our bodies into the state of calm, like reversing the flow the natural flow or natural blood flow. So it's moving in the other direction towards the heart. So just allow your whole body to land in the space. Wherever you're practicing. Once you're comfortable, you can certainly switch up how you want your hands to rest either facing up or down.

You can think of this pose also as being like a slight inversion. So any type of inversion that we take in our yoga classes have This great effect on our mind, just shifting from where we are from one place to arriving here in the now begin to breathe a little more deeply. Apply just a slight constriction at the base of your throat. It's like you're pulling the breath in right at that hollow space in your throat between your collar bones. It's like you're applying just a little pressure against the throat.

Should be able to hear the sound of your breath. And has this ocean like sound as you inhale and exhale. You'll take 1 more inhale. And deep exhale. As your feet press into the mat, you'll lift your hips up off the block and set that block out to the side so he won't be needing that block anymore.

Place your arms alongside your body with your palms down, and we're just gonna do a few dynamic bridges here. So you'll inhale first with your hips on the mat. Draw your tailbone forward inhaling here. So we're slightly reversing the way the breath is here. And as you exhale lifting your hips up towards the ceiling, so it's like doing a reverse crunch. And as you inhale, you'll lower your spine nice and slow, placing your hips back onto the mat, exhale, ground your feet on the mat, your hips up.

So you feel that slight contraction in your abdomen on the inhale you lower. Exhale as you lift. We'll do that a few more times. Inhale to lower nice and slow, placing your spine in a special way on the mat. And as you exhale, lift your hips, draw your tailbone forward, scoop the front of the pelvis towards the navel, and then 2 more in hellower.

Excel lift. And one more. And exhale. Lift your hips up. It's like the sides of your belly or hugging the navel and then lower your spine. Bring both of your knees into your chest Give yourself a big squeeze.

We're gonna lower the left foot on the mat so then left knee starts bent. Grab your strap. And loop that strap around your right foot. Just right underneath the ball of your right foot. You're gonna hold one end of the strap in the left hand and the other end and the right.

So you're separating the strap, giving your shoulders some space. Start with your right knee slightly bent. So that you can draw your outer right hip forward. Take a deep breath in through the nose. And as you exhale, you'll press your right leg to straight. Flexing that right foot.

So it's like you wanna kick the ceiling away with the heel of your right foot. And if you want, you can extend your left leg straight aligning your left heel with your left hip. This is really such a nice pose to do if you're having any lower back issues. Just a really nice way to to ground your energy. Taking a few more breaths.

You don't wanna feel like you're straining around your shoulders or your jaw, so relax around the shoulders, your mouth, your jaw, You can tug on your strap just lightly. And from here, we'll transfer the both ends of your strap into your left hand and take your leg over to the left. You can extend your right arm to the right and know that a little goes a long way here. Your outer right hip is still wrapping forward. Right? Still drawing towards the left toes.

Take one more breath in through the nose. Out through the nose, bring in your leg back to center, rebend your left knee first and then hug your right knee to your chest. Give it a squeeze. We'll switch sides. You're gonna place your left foot in your strap. So, again, you wanna feel the strap right underneath the ball of your left foot.

And then holding the strap in both hands, you can extend your right leg straight when you're ready. And, again, here, you're wrapping your outer left hip forward. So just checking that your Left hip and your right hip align, the hip points align that you can draw a straight line from one side to the next side. So with the pose. You can certainly at the end of the day or even in the evening. I like to do this one at night to self soothe and regulate before bedtime.

It's just an sweet stretch for your body. And then transfer both ends of your strap into your right hand. You'll extend your left arm out to the left and guide your leg over to the right. And you wanna feel that your left shoulder is anchored to the floor Right? If it starts to lift, you're just going a little too far to the right with the leg. And then back to center.

Bend your right knee first, and then hug your left knee into your chest. You can set your strap over to the sides. Hugging both knees in, give yourself a little squeeze, rock side to side. And then up and down the length of your spine to come up onto all fours. So coming into that hands and knees position.

Your hands are about shoulder width apart. And for this, we're gonna slide them just a few inches in front of our shoulders. Your knees will separate hip width. Well, do a little twist starting with the right arm. As you reach out to the right, you're anchoring into your left hand, you can open your chest and nail.

As you exhale, I'll take that right arm through landing softly on your right shoulder and the right temple Your left hand can stay where it is. Your elbow is bent. If you have a variation that you love, you can also extend that left arm forward. Just giving you more space in your body to take in more oxygen. So we self soothed and self regulate with the breath.

Take a deep inhale followed by complete exhale. If your left arm is forward, slide it back. Press into the mat to come up. We'll do the second side. So taking that left arm to the left, you can also open a little bit more to the left if you wish inhaling and exhale threading that arm through landing on top of that left shoulder.

Again, any variation that you wish with that right arm, Filling up, the body with breath. And then slide your right hand back. Press down to come up. We're gonna set up for downward facing dogs to spread the fingers on your mat, tuck your toes, lift your hips, automukashvanasana, downward facing dog. And then down dog, you're gonna separate your feet about the width of your mat.

So they're gonna go a little bit wider or a lot wider. And you're high on your toes for a moment. Just bend your knees. Draw your sit bones up and back. And if it's possible to start to lower your heels towards the mat, you'll take that variation, straightening out your legs, firming your thighs, We're gonna shorten our down dog.

So we're gonna walk your hands back a couple of inches. So it's like you're a deep v shape. And your left hand is gonna stay where it is. We're gonna take that right arm over to the left leg. So you can grab the shin, ankle, whatever you can reach for, and then inhale as your sternum reaches forward.

As you exhale, soften your right elbow and twist towards the left. It's a little down dog twist. One more breath. Exhaling fully, and then release the right hand. We'll go over to the second side.

Left hand reaches over to the right. You're gonna grab your shin, your ankle, your calf, soften that left elbow a little bit, reach a sternum forward inhale, and then exhale twist underneath the right. Or a pit. So your left elbow is bent, giving you just a little bit of leverage to twist. Opening up the intercostal muscles, those muscles in the rib cage that help us breathe.

And then release your left hand. Go ahead and walk your hands forward. Step your feet in, hip width apart. So you're in downward facing dog. Take another full inhale.

Deep exhale. And then place your knees on the mat for child's pose. So whatever your preference is for child's pose, you can do knees together. Personally, I like my knees apart, stack your hands, place them underneath your forehead. And just breathe into the backside of your body.

Appreciating all this new space that you've created. Space in your hips, your low back, your heart, your mind, And then from here, let's come into a seated position. So any seated position that you're comfortable with I'm gonna use a blanket today to sit on since we're gonna be here to do some breath work. You can certainly place your blanket underneath their sit bones. If you would rather do this laying down on your You can do that as well.

Just as long as you can be here for a little bit of time, we're gonna do a breath that I love that is really made to self soothe and regulate, especially if this is a breath that you enjoy, I highly recommend just practicing it as often as you can or whenever you remember to. It's called alternate nostril breathing. So naughty showed a and it has a, hand mudra. So we're gonna use our right hand for this practice. You can either do this. There's a couple of ways.

You can use your thumb or your index finger, or if you're able to fold your index finger and middle finger into the palm of your hands, you'll be using your thumb and ring finger. So this is the way that I like to practice this, but, again, you can use your thumb and index finger. Resting your elbow on your chest just to give you a little bit more tort, your left hand is gonna be in Guyan Mudra, so your index and thumb fingers will touch. I'm gonna demonstrate, and then we'll do this together. We're gonna take the thumb against the right side of the nostril, where the nose, so the outside of that nostril and inhale through the left.

And then we'll take the ring finger over to the left side, close it off, open the right at exhale. You'll inhale through the right. Close off the right side, open left, exhale. So that's 1 cycle. And we'll do a few more of these.

We're gonna go for about 2 minutes. So, again, do whatever hand variation works better for you. We'll close our eyes when you're ready. Inhale through your left. Close the left, open right, exhale.

Inhale through the right, exhale through the left, In through the left. Out through the right? And through the right. Out through the left. Keep going at your own pace.

When you exhale, try not to push the air out. So you're gently inhaling, gently exhaling. If you feel as though you're straining or it's particularly challenging for you to do this. Just take a break, breathe through both nostrils, and then you can always start again. When you find yourself exhaling through your left side, Lower your right hand and just sit in stillness for a moment.

Breathing in through both of the nostrils, feeling the in and outflow through the nose. And from here, you can blink your eyes open and set up for Shavasana. So grab your bolster here so you have support and like to place the bolster underneath the thighs. Your heels are gonna stay on the mat, and you can cover your whole body with the blanket or just place your blanket over your hips. We're gonna go on a little little relaxation journey together.

So you wanna make sure that have everything that you need so that you can let your whole body, your muscular body relax completely. So place a blanket under your head if you need it. Just grab whatever support that you need. Once you're ready and you've made all of the adjustments, You can close your eyes. Just feel the space that you're in, noticing any sounds, and the temperature of the room.

Allow your breath to become softer. Notice the abdomen rise and fall as you breathe. And your chest rise and fall with every breath. Bring your attention to your nostrils. And the flow of the breath entering through the right side.

It's as though you're just filling the right side of your body with your breath. Yeah. When you exhale, the right side of your body, becomes heavier. Your right heel. Your right calf. The right thigh.

The right side of your pelvis. The right side of your low back, mid back, and upper back, right shoulder, your right arm, and the backside on the right side of your head. And notice the breath now at the left nostril. And as you inhale, you feel the left side of your body. As you exhale, the left side of your body becomes heavier.

The left heel, left calf, your left thigh. The left side of your pelvis. The left side of your low spine. Mid spine, and the upper spine. Their left shoulder, left arm, and feel the back of the left side of your head, heavier.

And the next time you breathe in through both nostrils feel the center of your body. As you exhale notice the center of your body completely relaxing, becoming heavier. From the base of your spine. To the center of your pelvis. Low back, mid back, upper back.

Well, the center of your throat, softening, On the center of your head. In the space between your eyebrows. Notice your whole body. Restaine. Efforlessly.

Bring in your awareness again to your mouth as you breathe in through the right and the left. Allow your breath in to be more expensive. Take in the space you're in. Any sounds and the temperature of the space? Move your toes and your fingers?

Bend your knees and make your way to one side and to fetal position. Transitioning slowly. You'll come up to a seated post. So, again, choosing to sit on a prop, if you wish. Once you're seated, close your eyes, showing your right and left hands together in front of your heart as the 2 merge feeling that space within you that is more harmonious.

And all the parts of you integrated, whole, and complete. As you bow your chin to your hearts and gratitude for showing up, we'll inhale deeply together through the nose. Big exhale. Lift the chin. Open your eyes. Nam must stay.