Bedtime Yin Yoga 20 Minutes

hey friends Kathy moo here back with another video this time I've got a Yen bedtime practice just for you so you can certainly do this practice on a yoga mat but if it is bedtime for you feel free to meet me in your bed put your PJs on cuz this is the perfect class to do right before bedtime let's get started we'll start in butterfly pose so you're creating like a diamond shape with your legs soles of the feet together knees wide but the heels are away from your hips and we'll just take a moment to inhale lengthen the spine up bring the shoulders down here and release your jaw and just close your eyes for a moment connect to your breath your body let the day go feel free to keep your eyes closed or gently blank them open and the next thing we'll do is just fold here so allow your spine to round your chin to tuck in we're not reaching for anything with the hands just let the elbows Bend and be soft the hands gentle wherever they lay so in our Yin practice it's a passive practice meaning we're not going to engage any muscles or use any effort in that way but it doesn't mean we won't feel sensation or even tension in the joints as we apply some deep stretches here we might feel sensation and any muscles that are tight and so we'll meet any tension and tightness with [Music] compassion with smooth even inhales and exhales and settling [Music] in to find Stillness so y we hold the poses for at least three [Music] minutes so if your mind is searching to do the next thing just let that go it's a practice of being present with your body in this moment continue to release so your body opens and shifts allow small adjustments to be there take a couple more breaths here breathing in and out through your nose next inhale we'll lift up use the strength of your hands here to bring your torso back up and we'll close the knees here we can bring our arms behind us just lift the chest for a moment and next you'll take one of your pillows or you can use a blanket or cushion or Bol and we'll set it at the edge of our right hip so I've got my right leg out in front of me and I'm going this is dear pose I'm going to create a 9090 with my legs here so 9090 you'll inhale lengthen through the spine and then we'll turn towards our blanket so this is a a Twist here so turn towards the blanket lengthen and then exhale you'll fold on your blanket I'm staying up for my mic but but a couple things that you can do here you can have your right cheek on the mat but if you want to keep the rotation going through the spine you'll turn your head all the way so that you're on your left cheek and that will get your cervical spine involved as well but that might be too much for some of us so if that sounds like you you can stay here with me the right cheek down and at any time if you're on your left cheek and you want to come back to the right you can do that so settle in here and just soften feel the support underneath your chest eyes can be [Music] closed so there's three tenants of Yen that make Yin Yen and the first is going to your Edge in a posture so your Edge is where you do feel a little bit of tension the second is holding for a length of time so at least three minutes and then the third is finding Stillness Stillness doesn't mean necessarily that the mind won't be active or you won't be feeling things but it's discovering that Detachment from needing to react to anything that's happening drop in a little more so allow your body to find that Stillness next deep inhale you'll lift up again using the strength of your hands and you'll just switch sides you can roll on to the other side I'm going to actually flip so I can still see you so we're taking the pillow to the edge of our left hip now creating a 9090 with the legs here we'll inhale long spine turn twist towards your prop or pillow and then you're settling on down so again your head can be on your right cheek or your left cheek sometimes I'm even surprised in some of these postures that don't seem to require too much flexibility or Mobility that once I get in them and I start to hold for a while I start to notice and feel where I am actually tight where I am holding so scanning through your own body to discover those areas releasing your jaw releasing any tension that doesn't need to be there feeling almost a heaviness so weighted grounding n take over your body and you'll inhale lift on up next we'll do frog pose and we'll use the pillow here again so for frog pose your knees will be wide and your feet are flexed and you'll set the pillow right up into the hip joint here so that you can rest your whole chest down and of course if you don't want to use a pillow you don't have to so you're allowing that pelvis to come forward inner thighs getting a nice deep deep stretch and from here you can turn your head to one side and adjust the pillow as you like if you want a little bit less support through the hip joint you can bring it through the chest and rest your head on it so finding the position and support that best suits you and then settling to your Edge wherever that is finding that Stillness so nice to take some of these evening practices and making them routine so we have a little bit of a separation between our busy active day and our sleep sleep is sleep issues seem to be a big problem for so many people these days and there's a lot of tools that we can utilize within the yoga practice for better sleep so whether or not you're doing this full video with me repeatedly you could certainly take one or two of the poses that we're doing and incorporating them in your bedtime routine I like to do a evening meditation sometimes I'll prop myself into a Yin pose put my earbuds in just creating that ritual around [Music] sleep see if you can drop in a little bit more and we'll use our hands again to come out of the pose bring your legs in next we'll take our pillow you can place it all the way up to the abdomen and we'll fold over in what's called caterpillar pose now you can prop yourself up here if you want you you could make two fists to support your forehead and you could also choose to not use a prop at all and just allow the weight of your head and torso to fold over so what's nice about taking some of these deep stretches and the bed is that softness so and again remember we're not using and engaging any muscles so if the knees Bend if the feet playay out we'll let that happen because what we're doing is stretching the myofascia network the webbing around the muscles holding these poses you might feel a deep pull the whole back side of your body and just allow that to be there release your jaw just allowing any Sensations to come up but just observing them not clinging on to them or ruminating over anything that happened in the day this is your time to release and let go bringing your attention to any Sensations in your body without judgement take one more breath here and we'll slow slowly inhale lift on up and you'll meet me on your back so