Find Your Peace with Yoga

Introduction: Hi, I’m Wendy! I’ve put this video together so that you can have a chance to experience yoga for yourself and also know a little bit about what it might be like to come and have an individual session with me. So for the next 15 minutes or so, just give yourself the opportunity to relax, do some breathing and some postures, and then a little relaxation at the end.

As you move through the sequence, feel free to stop at any time, or modify the postures as needed. Just really listen to your body and know that the most important part of your practice is your breath. You can always come back to that anytime you need to. I hope that you enjoy it! You can use it anytime that you wish and I look forward to the opportunity to work together at some point in the future.

PRACTICE:

Breathing (pranayama): So just find yourself a comfortable position, legs are crossed, just allow your arms to rest comfortably at your sides, let your hands rest on your knees. You can have your palms facing up or facing down, whatever is comfortable for you. Go ahead and close your eyes when you are ready, and just tune into your breath here for a moment. So begin to lengthen your inhale and lengthen your exhale. Taking a nice deep breath in, filling up your lungs, and exhaling it all the way out. Direct your breath in and out through your nose. Nice deep and full breath, lengthen your spine, lift up through the top of your head and allow your seat to be grounded into the earth. (Pause) If you’d like, as you draw your breath down for the exhale, just tighten those muscles in the back of your throat and you will create an ocean-like sound. It’s a great way to focus yourself as you move through the rest of the postures. So as I said before, just know that your breath is the most important part of your practice, it’s really your foundation, so anytime that you need to just come back to your breath.

Warm Up: Now gently open your eyes, allow your hands to rest on the mat, take a nice inhale and lift your arms up overhead. Reach up, look up, touch your hands together if you can, and then exhale and release them all the way back down. Then again, just lift the arms up, inhale up, reach up, look up, exhale and let your hands come all the way back down. This time inhale, lift your arms up, interlace your fingers at the top, and press your palms up. As you exhale, bring your palms forward and round your back. Inhale, lift the arms back up, reach up, look up, exhale and round. Inhale again, lift up, lift up, reach up, exhale and round. Good, come all the way back up and then release your arms back to your side.

You can place your hands on your knees now and we are just going to circle around. Allow your torso to circle around. As you come behind just round your back. Allow yourself to just open up that space a little bit more, just warming up the body. Now around to the other side. Keep breathing. Good, now come back to the center.

Come up onto your hands and knees for cat/cow pose. You want your hands right underneath your shoulders and knees are right underneath your hips, nice flat back here, allow your head to be in line with your spine. Your gaze is slightly forward but down. As you inhale, let your spine sink down, pull your chest forward and look up. Exhale round your back, pull your abdominals in, tuck your tailbone, and stretch. Again, inhale let your spine sink down, pull your chest forward. Exhale and round your back. Really allow your breath to move you in this pose. So go at your own pace. Inhale, exhale and round. Inhale look up. Exhale and round. Do this a couple more times, letting your breath move you. (Pause).

Good, come back to a flat back and just press yourself back onto your heels, extend your arms forward and bring your forehead to the floor. Rest here in child’s pose for a moment. Really pressing your hips down onto your heels, reach forward with your hands and just relax into the pose. Find your breath here.

Asana Flow: (connected postures, moving with your breath, includes standing and seated postures). Come back up onto your hands and knees, tuck your toes under and then walk your hands back to meet your feet, lift your hips up, coming into a forward fold. Bend your knees as much as possible and just relax like a rag doll over your legs and find your breath. (Pause).

From here slowly bend your knees, and round yourself all the way up, one vertebrae at a time, let your head be last, bring your shoulders up, back and down. Good. Inhale, bring the arms all the way up overhead, and exhale bring them down in front of your heart in prayer pose. Find your breath.

Mountain Pose to Forward Fold: Inhale, bring the arms up again, exhale and fold forward, with a flat back, come all the way over, arms come all the way down. Bend your knees as much as you need to here. Inhale, reverse that, bring the arms out to the side and up overhead, reach up, look up, you can arch back a little if you like. Exhale, right back into that fold. Inhale, arms out to the side, come all the way up, exhale and fold. Good, one more time. All the way up, inhale, reach up look up, exhale bring your hands back to your heart and find your breath. Close your eyes here for a moment and just center yourself. (Pause) Come back into that breath where you started. Nice, deep, and full. Good. Gently open your eyes and just release your arms.

Standing Half Moon Pose: Inhale, bring the arms up overhead, interlace the fingers at the top and release your index fingers. Exhale and arch over to your right (I’ll be your mirror) reach up through the top fingertips, and press down through your left leg. Reach up and over, really keep your chest open, breathe. Good, inhale and come back to center. Exhale and over to the other side. Good, if you start to lose your breath then come back out of the pose a little bit. Find what feels comfortable for you. Come back to the center. Release your arms.

Straddle Forward Fold with a Twist: Place your hands on your hips and spread your feet nice and wide coming into a straddle position, as wide as you can comfortably. Turn your toes in slightly, and we are going to fold from here. So keeping your hands on your hips, lift through the chest, nice inhale, exhale and fold with a flat back, hinging from your hips, come all the way over. And rest your hands wherever they may. If you can bend your elbows, great, if not leave your arms straight. Just hang here for a moment and find your breath. And then straighten your arms, if they are not there already. Take your right hand and bring it into the center. Opening up into a twist here, take your left arm up, and open your chest to the side. Good, breathe here. Keep both hips squared to your mat. And then release back to the center, bring that left hand down in front and open up to the other side. Keep breathing. Nice straight line with your spine, extending forward through the top of your head. And then come back to the center. Bring your hands back to your hips, bend your knees, and slowly lift yourself back up to standing. Walk your heels and toes in. Good. Bring your hands to your heart, come back to your center, find your breath. (Pause). Good.

Child’s Pose: Inhale arms all the way up, exhale and fold forward, bend your knees, place your hands down on the floor in front of you and come back onto your hands and knees. You can spread your knees nice and wide coming back into child’s pose, touch your toes together, and sit back on your heels. Once again, reach your hands forward. So really breathing into your back here, relax into this pose. And then slowly walk your hands back up and sit on your heels. Then shift off to one side and bring your feet around in front of you.

Butterfly Pose: Touch the soles of your feet together, sitting up nice and tall, coming right up onto your sitz bones (they are little pointy bones that are right at the base of your spine), lift through the chest, right up through the top of your head, bring your feet as close or as far away as its comfortable for you, you can grab onto your ankles, you can wrap your hands around your feet if you like, nice flat back, take a deep inhale, exhale and pull yourself forward. Really work on keeping a flat back here. As far forward as you can come. And then once you have come as far forward as you can, just allow yourself to really relax and round over into the pose. Release your hands, so that you are no longer pulling here. Just allow the weight of your head to create a little more stretch for you. Find your breath. Just relax down into this pose. Let your knees open wide. Opening up through the hips. (Pause). And so place your hands gently on your feet and slowly roll yourself back up. Nice and slow. Now work your way down onto your back.

Lying Twist: Your knees are bent, laying all the way down. Just pull your knees into your chest. Give yourself a big hug. Then allow your arms to open up into a “T.” Palms can be on the floor or face up, whatever is comfortable for you. And then slowly let your knees fall to the right (I’ll be your mirror). Allow your hips to be stacked on top of each other. Try to keep both shoulders on the floor if possible. Just honor whatever is happening here for you. Allow your back to relax as you breathe: inhale and lengthen, exhale and allow yourself to fall into that twist just a little bit more. (Pause). And then slowly bring your knees back to the center.

Find that center, inhale and exhale, and then let your knees fall to the other side. Keeping both shoulders on the floor if possible, hips are stacked right on top of each other. Find your breath here and use that to help move you a little further into the twist. You can close your eyes here, feel free to look in the opposite direction if you like. (Pause). Good.

Slowly come back to the center, bring both knees back up into your chest again, wrap your arms around them and give yourself a big hug. Thank yourself for taking the time to do these poses and just give yourself a chance to relax.

Savasana (Final Relaxation Pose): So coming into our final pose, its relaxation pose, or also called Savasana. You are laying down on the floor, allow your legs to extend all the way out, take your feet at least as wide as your mat and allow your feet to roll out comfortably to the side, arms are down at your side, palms are up, and just draw your shoulder blades down your back, resting comfortably on the floor. Your eyes are closed and just allow your breath to come back into its normal rhythm. Allowing the earth to support you here, just sinking into the floor. (remain here for the next few minutes until I guide you all the way back).

So as you breathe in and out here, just scan your body and notice any remaining tension or tightness that is still left over. And as you breathe in and out, use your exhale to just send the breath down through those places that feel blocked. Allow the breath to open them up. And just breathe out all of that remaining tension if there is any left. Really allowing yourself to relax here, and integrate what’s happened for you in these last few moments. Just really notice how your body is feeling here, notice the shift that you’ve made from where you were when you began the practice to where you are now. And so we will just take a few moments in silence, to allow you to have this time with yourself, and then I will guide you back in a moment. (Pause for the next 2 mins).

And so now you can just gently bring your awareness back into your body, you can rotate your hands or your feet, just to begin to wake up. And then gently bring your knees up toward your chest and just roll over onto your right side, coming into a comfortable fetal position just to re-center yourself here for a moment. Then gently use your hands to push yourself back up into a seated position, coming right back to the place where we started, easy pose with your legs crossed.

Bring your hands to your heart center, you can close your eyes and bow your head. Thank yourself for giving yourself this time today, and I thank you for spending these moments with me. Namaste!

Conclusion: Thank you so much for joining me today! I hope that you feel relaxed and refreshed and ready to go about the rest of your day. And just know that this sequence is here for you anytime you would like to use it in the future, and if you would like to explore yoga further, please feel free to contact me either via email or the phone number listed on my site. Thank you so much for joining me today. Have a great day!