Day 4: Chair Yin Yoga

Hello, everyone. Welcome to day four of the Ayurveda Winter Challenge. I'm so glad you're here to join me today. We're going to do a yin restorative chair practice to dip into some of the more meditative aspects of the practice. And hopefully you've enjoyed doing our sun salutation and dynamic work through day one and three. And we'll get back to that again tomorrow. Today we're going to be on our bellies for a little bit. So I want to encourage maybe some blanket or cushion to make sure your pelvis is comfortable. And we will use a chair for most of the poses today. And we'll go from some backbends and forward bends today, a little bit of twist, hopefully something new for all of you, even the seasoned yin yogis out there. Maybe we'll get a new pose here today. I've added a blanket over my chair just so it's a little bit softer and not cold and shocking if you have a metal chair that you're using, but any chair will do. And when you have a chair ready to go and a blanket for maybe underneath your pelvis, we're going to begin actually in the prone position on your belly. Slide the padding underneath my pelvis and I've got my phone here to keep track of time so you can totally relax knowing time is being taken care of. As we head into postures that might be four to five minutes in general. So as we come down to the floor might stack your hands on top of each other and then let your forehead rest on your stacked hands. I like to generally begin with a little bit of wagging my hips side to side just doing a little bit rocking in the spine to let go of any gripping or tension that might live there. And really just this opportunity to loosen up before we move towards stillness. So maybe I wiggle out a little bit of the restlessness and eventually things start to slow down. The movement starts to slow down and perhaps we stay with the forehead down on your stacked hands and that eyes might be open or eyes might be closed as you start to feel the support of the ground underneath you. And welcome the heaviness of the bones, the flesh, the muscles, welcome that heaviness to root you here in your body. And I want to encourage as we start each pose to try to pay attention to 10 breaths as we transition from whatever responsibilities we've been in charge of today or separating from your householder life to come into this practice time, the ritual of the practice. And it won't count every time to 10 but for your own practice finding your own rhythm of maybe counting to 10. Inhale, exhale, one. Inhale, exhale, two. And gradually working towards 10 is to feel more presence as we move into the adventure of this particular pose. Curious about what awaits us as we get deeper into our breath count. As we move into the more spacious regions, potentially arrive at that place where there'll be some silence. And maybe in that silence a little bit of peace, a little bit of ease. And as we go deeper into that 10 count with our breath, just notice if you can sense more muscles beginning to soften, the body beginning to widen. As if we're softening the boundaries and edges of our shape so that we get even more spacious, more connected to the ground as our water body softens. And in that softening, receiving the support, are there certain parts that are reluctant to receive support? Just take note. If you notice some of those areas that feel a little bit tight or grip, just spend a little more attention in that area.

And perhaps in this time we're here we witness some softening, some yielding. There were no hurry, no rush. Over the next few breaths, just finishing this first place of making contact with the ground, hopefully softening the belly. So as we move between these back bends and forward bends, livening these meridian lines of the bladder and the kidney, from the Chinese perspective, the meridian channels that relate to the organs that move water in the body. That's what we tend to a little bit more in the winter season in yin. So let's over the next moment, raise the head away from your stacked hands, draw your elbows in a little bit closer. And I'm going to have you reach forward and catch the legs of your chair. And maybe you have the need, depending on the length of your arms or where you've set yourself, to push your chair a little more forward. So you've got straight wrist. And then with your arms straight and the arms now lifted off the floor, you're in charge of how high up you walk your hands. The higher you go, the more you're going to be moving into a little bit more of a shoulder chest stretch. And maybe you appreciate that as we lower the head down towards the floor. If you feel like you've lifted up pretty far, you're also welcome to put a block underneath your foreheads. If that feels like a better angle, like you're doing a little bit of a sphinx pose. Alright, so some stretch now as we take the arms forward, there's a little bit of yang energy required as we hold on to your chair. And perhaps you can sense that and that stretch in your shoulder area. And as best as you can, let your head drop down into the floor or to a prop. And then as you readjust, you might even wiggle your hips a bit side to sides and check out that everything feels like it's in the right place. So you can start to focus a little bit more on the sensations and places opening, places changing in your body. When you feel like you found the physical shape you're going to work with, let's start to count to 10. 10 breath cycles to walk yourself in this pose a little bit more into the luminous now. And feeling that possibility in this moment again to feel supported. Welcome the support of the ground, the chair. And as our body softens and maybe there's that sense of widening across your shoulder blades or widening down through the belly and hips. As we work our way into that 10th breath, into this luminous now, that possibility that we feel ourselves in this shape with a little bit more light or lightness. So there's that heaviness of the body we invite to anchor us into the pose this moment. When we feel grounded and supported, maybe we can start to feel a little bit more light, lightness in the center of our body. And if we might imagine as a focal point that we start to circulate this quality of light, brightness around your spine. So as you're inhaling perhaps we imagine that light going down that center tube of your spine or the front of your spine down towards your pubic bone. And around that tailbone through your spine, maybe back over your head. And we come back to the nose as we breathe in. Just imagine the equality of light filling the spine or front spine, moves towards pubic bone. The sense of lightness or light moving up over this back of the spine over the crown of your head. And at any point the arms need to rest before I even suggest you're always welcome. Remember to bring your arms down sooner. Perhaps we're enjoying that feeling of enlivening those muscles deeper in the shoulder or upper mid-back. Encouraging softness, widening. As we bring our awareness to the breath and that light that we might imagine in the breath to illuminate your center, illuminate your spine. Let's take three more moments right as you are without changing the thing, this full presence. When you're ready it's kind of a big shift if we will. Take your arms down and put your elbows on the floor and you might turn your head so that your right ear ends up the floor as your arms sweep back by your side for a moment and turn your head so maybe the right ear ends up on the floor and your arms rest at your sides, arms drop towards the floor. So you can feel the effects of that stretch through your upper body and shoulders. And then when you're ready let's go ahead and take yourself up now and to a little bit more of that traditional sphinx pose. Whereas your elbows slide in towards your chest, top of the head lifts a little bit towards the ceiling. Perhaps your palms press together as you look down the tip of your nose or if you prefer grab an opposite elbow and either bring your elbows more forward away from your chest if there's any pinching or gripping in your lower back or slide those elbows closer into the chest if you prefer more backbend. And since we know we're here for several minutes again try to find one that's a little bit on the conservative side to begin with. And perhaps you can imagine if you're looking over the tip of the nose or just remembering what it's been like to look at the candle this week if you've been using candle gazing meditation. Perhaps you're getting more comfortable with the eyes slightly open to stay focused on one spot. Perhaps even remembering the image of a candle flame, the subtle movements of the flame. And that movement again often reflects the same thing happening in our mind until we reach those moments where the candle is still, our mind is still. And then again there'll be movements and there'll be periods of stillness and can we continue to ignite our interest and curiosity and being present keep choosing to come back to this moment. So we might be seen eventually more clearly into our nature into this moment. And let's drop in together for 10 breaths, 10 counts of the breath cycle, eyes open or closed. As you're doing the counting perhaps adding that layer of circulating the lights of the breath, the lightness of the breath around your spine. As we get deeper into our account eventually hopefully noticing underneath the busyness of the mind is stillness. There's perhaps a sense of silence, awe and wonder. What happens if we stay in that space a little bit longer? Whether your eyes are open or closed just being aware when we shift back towards movement in the mind or busyness, distractions. If your eyes start to wander bring them back to your focal point, settling your attention in towards the spine. When the conditions are all right we slide perhaps a little bit more naturally organically into that silence. A sense of peace that's there always there. We touch into that being curious about what it would be like to stay there longer. To hold on to that feeling again hopefully the pleasant feeling of being present so we remember why we do this. Why it's beneficial to be present. Let's finish with three more cycles bringing awareness luminosity to the spine here. Then we might again slide your elbows away from your chest and come back down to our stacked hands and just another moment reflecting again on the effects of that backbend as you rest your forehead down on your stacked hands and take a couple big belly breaths. All right let's draw the head out now and slide your hands towards the side of your chest. We're going to come away from the ground now and as you move away from the ground slide the knees onto the padding and take the chair just a little bit closer if it slid away for that first pose. If we turn to the side I'm going to turn so my right side is on the ground my right leg is on the ground as I stagger my legs and as I stagger my legs let's say I have my left knee and the arch of my right foot so my legs are basically in 90 degree angles. I'm going to stack my forearms on the seat of the chair might need to adjust that so I'm going to turn towards the seat of the chair rest my elbows here and then rest the forehead on the stacked hands or forearms or seat of the chair for that matter but I'm resting on my stacked hands on my top of my wrist and then this way you have to adjust things so they feel comfortable. I'm going to let my front of my chest press into the chair at the top of my chest so I can have my stacked hands rest my forehead and let my shoulders widen here. Okay now as we're in that little bit of a twist make sure that that feels safe for you legs staggered and then when everything feels like it's in the right place and maybe it's turning your head and exploring if it feels good to turn your head towards the direction of the knees or is it more interesting for you if you turn your head in the opposite direction of your knees which will typically be more challenging. Okay so notice that there's some tension that's revealed and we're going to start again with that more conservative edge and then when you find comfort in that seat support perhaps if our eyes are open that we choose one focal point and maybe you imagine again like you've maybe been looking at the candle flame and as we gather more experience perhaps with eyes open meditating it gets easier every day a little difference as to how distracted we are how quickly we pull away from our focal point where does it feel easy today to settle in and some of you might prefer to close your eyes and maybe imagine the light you've been looking out at you take that light with you into your practice and let's imagine again that light circulating in and down around your spine towards your pubic bone up around the back of the spine towards the crown of the head back to the nose then we're doing our count to 10 now let's officially perhaps begin working towards the silence the spaciousness that's there after the count of ten or at least hoping that we get some of that quiet nothing to change nothing to fix it's resting a little bit more into this precious moment helping down a layer beneath the busyness of the mind one breath at a time maybe empty out some of the stressors of the day or the busyness in the minds that we get to fill this new space with light eyes are open welcome that light into your body if your eyes are close imagining the new space you're creating being filled with light of course we bring our imagination and our intention or breath all together here to try to sense that hidden subtle energy prana or chi we can imagine moving that in that circular pattern around our spine what if that makes a difference in helping to bring a moment of more calm more ease what if that's possible see here for maybe about another three breaths exactly as you are and then when you're ready to lift your head up and surprising sometimes how the body feels after you come out of those poses that the transition again is part of the practice so increasing mindfulness in transitions and now we're going to turn and rather than go right into the second side we're going to turn to face the short end of your mat and now I've got the back of the chair the seat of the chair right up against the base of my shoulder blades where join the bottoms of my feet to touch and if the hip opening doesn't work for you you're welcome to go to straight legs I'm going to keep my feet together and I'm going to hold on towards the bottom part of my chair to keep my chair from sliding and allow my arms and shoulders to roll just a little bit back so it's giving me a little bit of a chest opener so I can lean into the seat of the chair kind of like if somebody's knee was there to help me open the front of my chest and us in the class and then I want to invite you to have your chin drop ever so slightly towards your chest as if you were doing what the yogis would call jalandara bandha so that we're not tilting the chin towards the ceiling and our head isn't forward of the spine we're just doing a gentle chin tuck as if you're drawing the chin slightly back towards the back of the chair as a way to help contain this light this prana this energy down into your torso okay now if your eyes are open we'll do this in each pose if your eyes are open try to choose one focal point and like you may be again have been doing with the candle and we soften our focus around that object soften through the periphery it's more of a vacant gaze at your objects and maybe you appreciate the eyes open to let light in through your eyes down into your hearts down into your body and for some of you you might take that light that you've been looking at and let your eyes close and take that lights insides to help illuminate this moment and then when things feel like in the right place we're oriented into this moment with the props may we now count to ten in your own rhythm as a process and to get maybe another layer beneath the busyness of the mind as we sense we might be able to let go of some tension gripping in the body or busyness thoughts in the minds can we feel this new space with light or a sense of lightness may that light help each of us see a little bit more clearly the truth of this moment the impermanence of the thoughts sensations maybe as we get closer to our count of ten we feel like we've actually settled in some way in the body or mind feel that possibility of stillness quiet this adds some benefit to our nervous system even to our immune health as we do things that are calming and relaxing possibility that this moment adds value to our health to calming our nervous system and then taking the breath into the areas again that we feel on fine the place is changing maybe take three more breaths right where you are sensing where your body would appreciate those last few breaths and then we'll go ahead and start to lean forward away from the seat of the chair again let your arm slowly come forward it can be surprising again the change that happens after that pose maybe hold your knees bring your legs together slowly tip them towards center all right and then you might come forward for a moment reach around catch the front of your shins and maybe we drop the head down for a moment down towards your knees breathe into your back body as we've been opening the front exhale here when you're ready we're going to transfer and turn to the other side so now if we turn your knees behind your face to the left we stagger the legs in some way they're kind of making 90 degree angle ish shapes left thigh is facing the chair seats might need to scoot myself towards the chair and this side could be really different so as you put your elbows on the seat of the chair stack your hands or slide your elbows to the edge of your chair and as much as you're comfortable turning and you might need to explore what angle feels safe for your knees and let your forehead rest down on stacked hands or maybe you're making a couple fists and trying to find that shift and the body the shape and the body it helps you feel like you're poised now for energy to flow for the breath to flow a little bit more easily in and down if you haven't checked out is it better to have your your nose and face the same direction of your knees or is it better to have your nose turned opposite direction of the knees or maybe neutral and then as you get into a shape that you feel like you're going to start working with as the next meditation pose and what's it like to settle into the luminous now whether eyes are open and we're taking in some lights or rather the eyes are closed and we're remembering again lights coming in brightening our center along the shishumna naughty the energetic highway that the yogis describe that feeds into so many important organs and the nervous system so we can imagine bringing this light and lightness through the spine perhaps we can help affect again a little more efficiency and health in the organs in the nervous system so we maybe feel that possibility let's use the meditation of counting and working at your own pace towards the count of 10 each breath perhaps a little more softening accepting receiving and leaving yourself open for that experience of light pouring into the light of your body imagining that orb of light around your spine as we go in and out of potential states of quiet and peace and ease we go in and out of these states as we pay attention to the health benefits of that the feeling of those states of calm awaken that curiosity to stay a little longer choosing to move away from the busyness and coming home again to yourself meeting new layers again to soften into as we hold the pose nothing to change nothing to fix as being in that possibility of energy moving through you to be filled with light be more breaths as you are here when you are ready let your head come up and we're going to slowly lift your body away from the chair seat for a moment and take your back leg and swing it forward so we're going to end up facing the seat of the chair and if you slide your feet forward underneath the chair seats we've got the chair that we can bring towards us or move away and now at the bottoms of the feet touching if we can tilt a little bit forward and then hold on to the seat of the chair for our cobblers pose if you're finding again the pelvis isn't rocking forward we might add another fold of your blanket or two to angle your hips a little bit more forward you could also have your hands hold your head so your elbows might be on the seat of the chair and if this way keeps your spine longer perhaps we choose that variation which one gives you most access to breathe in and down to the center tube of your spine so coming into neutral after our twist when you feel like you're able to drop in now to the shape whether your eyes are open choosing one focal point if your eyes stay open in our winter practice or maybe that's just in general a better way for you to pay attention eyes open or to let the eyes close and take in the lights you were just aware of and imagine that light starting to move in and down towards the center of your spine and as you imagine that breath flowing down just aware of places where the body feels a little blocked frozen and just being patient and perhaps just waiting and keep nurturing that area with your kind attention until we feel like maybe those obstructions dissolve and eventually we can feel the pull of prana or chi all the way down towards the base of your spine pelvic floor and exhale the return of that subtle hidden breath prana up the back body over your head alive in the spine here pour that light into your spine here helping to illuminate our our journey more and more into this present moment let's turn our countdown into maybe more silent space and we're settling in towards that space what's it like for the minds the body the spirit perhaps there's a pleasant feeling with that presence that we remember and choose again and again to linger in that space for longer periods what would that be like today as you are for another three breaths you feel complete let's go ahead draw your head away from the chair seat or your hands and lean back and if you've been sitting on a little bit more height let's go ahead and lean back away from the chair for a moment i'm going to take my right leg and tuck that in first and slide my left leg back so if you know that pigeon variation doesn't work for your body i encourage you to sit on the chair and we can do figure four shape if we're sitting down on the ground we'll go back to the 90 degree angle 90 degree angle legs and then we're going to lift our hips up and turn towards the seat of the chair i'm going to scoot myself towards the chair some of you might like a block under your right buttock or thigh to sit down onto as you come towards pigeon where you're up right and hold on to the opposite elbow so the front of my chest is very close to the chair seat or you might have the chest up on top of the chair so we're back into a back bend shape if you don't again come to pigeon in this way we might be sitting on the chair and have your legs in the figure four shape like this okay so one of those two might hopefully work and with the chair in front of us a little young energy to keep the spine up perhaps resting again that right outer leg buttock on a block or folded blankets as we lengthen through the curves of the spine here might we look down over the tip of the nose and finding that one focal point for your eyes if your eyes are open or if you prefer close eyes let's take that light you've just been looking at and bring that into your body just curious what that's like to imagine that light moving in and down towards the center tube of your spine the illuminating your core more and more each breath helping us see each moment a little bit more clearly the truth of this moment and the next and we'll see if we can walk into our practice of counting to 10 and drop into the adventure now of this pose the possibility of being in that shape that allows energy to move freely through your spine when in doubts notice what you can soften can you be more willing to receive support and and see if we can pay close attention now to three more breaths as you're ready let your weight shift a little bit to the right and the leg that's behind scoot that closer to your right knee if you're sitting on something let's slide that out of the way if you're sitting please put both feet on the floor i'm going to swing my legs around towards the chair and then swing the legs to the other sides and maybe getting ready if you're sitting in the chair to cross your legs the new way otherwise as i stagger my legs towards 90 degree angles and then get ready to lift my hips up and insert perhaps a block underneath the left leg to sit on as that back right leg goes straight and then figure out is the chair too close to me is it too much of a backbend or do you push your chair further away to decrease the backbends okay so you could always move your chair more forward right if you want a little less backbend and if you prefer again staying up tall you stay up tall i'm grabbing opposite elbow you might have your palms together if you're in figure four again perhaps tilting just a little bit forward until you find that interesting stretch into your left hip this time you know in our pigeon like shape with supports perhaps we can take a moment just to acknowledge the curves of your spine and send some intention and energy in that direction to lengthen see if you can feel how you're gathering perhaps some of your energy and core muscles towards your center line we'll keep trying to support the direction of energy towards that central channel as you're breathing in feeling the breath moving up in the back body on exhale perhaps down the front body on inhale you're making any last adjustments so you might be in that pose that we can move energy through okay poised in that way to experience the luminous now and then we'll walk into our process of counting to 10 back to that familiar practice and perhaps getting more comfortable resting in that space underneath the busyness of the mind or body we'll slide into this almost minute now of silence going with the visualization practice or counting your breath so let's take three more breaths here when you're ready to make this shift we'll go ahead and move our body back reach your hands down if you're sitting down uncross the legs if the legs are in figure four in your seat and then everybody will come off whatever prop you might be using underneath you if you were sitting in your chair if you can come back down to the floor and we'll finish the yin pose with legs up on the seat of the chair so this is where it's nice to have padding there and as you put your legs up your calves up on the seat of the chair and then make that reclined position maybe onto some padding arms somewhere out to your side or if you like having your hands on your belly to keep track of that movement in your center so one more yin pose in the reclined position and having your knees perhaps slightly parted trying to find that angle where you can really let go of trying to hold the legs any particular way and allowing your spine to start to merge a little bit more each breath with the with the earth spine and then sensing what it's like to bring that sense of light or lightness into your spine now in this horizontal position and can we soften that front body enough to feel the wind of the breath and that light moving over the front spine towards your pubic bone and through the pelvis up this spine the back side on exhale over the crown of the head as we get back to the nose so we have that pathway to work with the visualization let's come into our practice of counting to ten and to bring yourself into the luminous now so and then together staying in this seat now in the quiet space for just a little over two minutes so you and seeing here three last breaths you're ready let your arms relax out to the side if they were on your belly we might start sliding the heels towards the seat of the chair and turn your legs over to one side and as you curl over to your side perhaps take the quality of attention and focus with you as you come up and we'll have that moment maybe where you fold your blanket for a little extra cushion to sit on and give yourself that moment to come on up and perhaps that seat's a little bit more comfortable sit in the chair seat if that's better for your body all right for just a moment with your eyes open looking down the tip of your nose let that light in perhaps feeling the spine nice and bright illuminated as we take notice of the effects of our yin practice today let's join the hands together in front of the heart center and may others always benefit from our practice practice thank you so much for being here today to practice in this way to complement the more young style that we've been doing this week and we'll get back to again tomorrow so those of you that are growing your yoga beyond the mat into your daily life and routines in addition to things that you might have appreciated doing earlier this week from um bedtime awareness to warm water to improve circulation sun salutations um we've talked about candle gazing meditation dry brushing to invigorate your skin we've talked about soups and we've talked about warm breakfast so the pieces i wanted to introduce today was this idea of taking a an herbal tea break in the afternoon where for maybe five to ten minutes that we're enjoying holding the warm cup of tea and looking out into nature maybe it's outside or maybe it's just looking out the window to give our eyes a rest to look at more natural light and color and to have that interruption in the after maybe a really busy day just to have some calm in peace so that we might wind down more more easily from that point into the evening which we know the short days they happen really fast so that transition from the busyness to the calm with some herbal tea might help to warm up your system as well as kind of start that process of unwinding from the day and to kind of slowly move gracefully into our evening and then potentially maybe after your tea just take a little movement break where you roll your joints maybe from the neck down through the shoulders to a little twist circle the hips and maybe get down to your knees and ankles just to do some movement that improves circulation and i'm a huge fan of trying to do that more than once a day but the invitation this week might be to try to add that to your kind of afternoon program to have some warm tea see if that decreases some stress and if we haven't decreased stress with tea to do that with a little bit of joint rotations all right so we've got some things to do in the evening we've got some things to focus on in the morning and this was a little invitation for the afternoon all right so thanks so much again for being here and i'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow for day five thank you namaste