A yin yoga class featuring a meditation, wrist and shoulder release, twists, and hip opening. The theme for this short practice is digestion. Consider all of the ways you assimilate and take in the world around you: how do you feel? What are you taking in these days in terms of information and experiences? How are you processing each event? The invitation is to go into each pose and explore how it receives the shape. Breathe deeper to see how it might change your appreciation and sense of each posture.

As you go into each pose, explore how your body feels and receives the shape. Breathe deeper to see how it might change your appreciation and sense of each posture.

Style: Yin Yoga

Duration: 35-minutes

Level: open

Props: 1 Bolster, 2 Blocks, 1 Blanket, 1 Eye pillow

Focus: twists, hip openers

Location: Vancouver, BC

Music: Now We Lay Down Spotify Playlist

** If you do not have the props mentioned above for this class, feel free to do without.

Meditation 

Come to sit or recline on your mat. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths into your lower abdomen. Consider all of the ways you ingest each experience. What is feeding you right now? How does your body feel?

Stretch 1

Wrist release from a tabletop pose

• Take your hands as wide as your mat
• Turn your fingers out to either side
• Rock your shoulders to the right and left
• Stay in this shape and breathe as you gently sway to either side.

OPTION:

• Flip your palms, so your fingertips face the back of your mat
• Bend your elbows slightly
• Rock forward and back slowly
• Keep your fingertips anchored on the earth

OPTION:

• Take the backs of your palms to the ground
• Turn the hand, so the thumbs are inwards
• Spread your fingers wide
• Rock forward and back slowly

Stretch 2

Shoulder release

• Come to sit at the back of your mat on shins
• Tuck your toes to express the sole of each foot
• Roll your shoulders in one direction
• Switch after several cycles of breath

Stretch 3

Twist from child’s pose

• Come to a tabletop pose
• Inhale and extend one arm wide to the side
• Exhale and sweep the same arm under your torso, taking your cheek to the ground
• Repeat several cycles inhaling the arm wide and exhaling to twist
• Hold in the twist and roll your chest open to the opposite side of your mat
• Tend the fingers on the opposite hand
• Breathe into the side body
• Repeat the same cycle on the other side

Stretch 4

Cat/cow from tabletop

• Come to hands and knees
• Inhale and arc the spine, reaching your heart forward
• Exhale and round the spine, curling your chin to chest

Deer pose or 90-90 legs

• Come to sit on your mat.
• Take one leg forward and align the shin with the top edge of your mat
• Take the opposite leg to the side and align the shin with the long edge of your mat
• Bow forward over your front shin
• Option to take your hands to one side for a side waist stretch/deeper twist
• Use a bolster or your blocks for your forearms or head so that you can release into the pose.

Benefits of deer pose:

• Improves hip mobility
• Aids in digestion and bloating
• Stimulates gallbladder, liver, and kidney meridians

Savasana with props

• Come to recline for final rest in corpse pose.
• Option to take a seat in meditation if you’d prefer
• Take your blocks and set them on the lowest height, side by side
• Stack your bolster lengthwise across the blocks
• Place your calves over the bolster so that your heels rest on the ground
• Layer yourself with a blanket
• You may place your eye pillow over your heart center OR your eyes