Gentle Evening Relaxation

Namaste, welcome to Yoga & You, where we bring you yoga from its source, India. I am Rasika, and today we will be flowing through a gentle yoga sequence to help you sort of unwind and relax. It is very important to have this kind of restoration, to have a practice which relaxes you and puts you in the parasympathetic mode, because we spend most of our day in the sympathetic mode, where we are constantly moving around, we are constantly thinking, we are stressed, all of that. So this downtime is very essential to help rejuvenate you and to help you come back to the next day with renewed focus and clarity. So this practice is best practiced towards the evening, a little closer to your bedtime. I will see you on the mat.

Sit at the back of your mat in Vajrasana, hips over your heels, and we will start with child's pose. You can take your feet, your knees slightly apart, stand both your hands forward and bring the forehead down. Connect with your breath here, really feel enveloped by your breath over here, feel the breath like waves rolling into your body.

Now inhale, just slowly lift the head up a little bit, exhale and walk your hands to the right. Feel the stretch in the intercostal muscles on the left side. Great if you've been sitting all day, exhale to fold forward here. You can intensify the stretch as much as you need by walking the left hand further and further towards the right. Inhale, come back to center, exhale, walk your hands to the left and fold over your left leg. Again breathing into the intercostal muscles on the right side now. Inhale back to center, exhale here, and inhale, slowly come up.

Now from here we're going to roll forward into a couple of backbends that we're going to do, okay? So you're going to pull all the way forward, lie down on your belly and bring your forearms to the mat, come up into Sphinx pose, Saral Bhujangasana. So your elbows will be under your shoulders, and you feel for dragging the elbows a little bit back towards your feet. So you feel the chest open more and you feel the back stretching a little bit more. So three breaths, stay here: two, one.

Now slowly bring the forehead down, come up into Bhujangasana, hands beside your chest. Keep the legs engaged, your glutes engaged, roll the shoulders back and inhale. First just your head and chest lifting, elbows close to your body, then begin to push down slightly with your palms, come up just a little bit more. And on the exhale, child's pose again, sit back. All right, now slowly come up and lie down on your back.

So for this one it will be useful for you to have a strap. If you don't have a yoga strap you can use anything, a belt, a dupatta, a shawl, towel, anything you have around you, okay? So you will keep that left leg bent for now and slowly bring the right knee into your chest, take that strap, loop it around the arch of your right foot, and slowly lift the right leg up, Supta Padangusthasana, a modified version. You can either stay here, or if you are very comfortable you can extend the left leg onto the mat. It's not necessary that you have to completely straighten the right leg; if you are not feeling good in your hamstrings you can keep a slight bend in the knee, no problem. But make sure you feel something around the back of the leg, we are working on lengthening into the back of the leg, also great to reverse the circulation as you bring the feet up. Try to bring the leg a little closer to your face, breathe length into the back of your right leg, stay one more breath.

All right, now from here, bend the left knee, release that strap and cross your right ankle over your left knee into a figure of four. From here, bring the left knee into your chest, take your hands and interlock your fingers behind your left thigh as you pull the left knee in closer. Use your right elbow to push the right knee away from you, breathing into that ball-and-socket joint, the right hip. Good, now slowly release that left leg, bring the right knee into your chest, hug your knee, you can release that left leg all the way, and then slowly bring the right foot down.

We'll repeat it on the other side. Grab your strap, bring the left knee into your chest, loop the strap around the arch of your left foot and do your best to straighten the left leg all the way up. You can either keep the right knee bent or straighten it out on the mat, your choice. Stay with the stretch; if there is some discomfort, breathe into it, unless it becomes painful or there's some kind of a shooting sensation, try to stay with the discomfort as much as possible. Breathing in yoga is not about being comfortable, it's also about finding a sense of equanimity, even when you're not in the most comfortable position.

Slowly from here, bend the right knee, release the strap, cross the left ankle over the right knee, draw the right knee in towards your chest, take your hands to the back of your right thigh, pull the right knee in, use the left elbow to push the left knee out, bring all your awareness to that left hip, that ball-and-socket joint, feel like your breath is like steam polishing that joint. Gently release the right foot down, hug the left knee into your chest, maybe release the right leg onto the mat and stay here. Slowly release the left leg as well, roll over to one side and sit up.

Now we're going to come into Janu Sirsasana, so stretch both your legs out first, bend the right knee and open the right knee out to the right side, the sole of your right foot against your left inner thigh. From here, inhale, lift your hands up, exhale and fold forward towards your left leg, keep the spine long, lengthen, but keep the neck relaxed. Once you can touch your ribs to your thighs, you can then drop your head down if you want, breathe here, keep breathing into the right side lower back, you might also feel this in the left hamstring, so wherever you're feeling it, just bring awareness to the sensation. Inhale, lift your head up.

Now just take your left leg out to the left side, so I'm going to turn towards you, so the left leg just goes out towards the left side, right knee remains bent, we're going to get into a side stretch over here. Okay, so take your left hand onto your left leg, the right hand goes up and over your ear as much as possible, stretching into the right side, slowly come back up. Let's repeat it on the other side now, so first bring the right knee to the chest and release the right leg, bend the left leg, open the knee out, we'll first come into Janu Sirsasana, inhale arms up, exhale fold, allow the breath to soothe you, to soothe any discomfort, any tightness. Push from here, inhale, slowly walk your hands back, and now take your right leg out towards the right side, like so, get into that side stretch here, right hand on the right leg, or you can even bring the right shoulder towards the right knee if you are a little more flexible, and bring your left hand from top, so it's up to you. Stay, slowly inhale, come back up.

And now you're going to bring both the soles of your feet together into Baddha Konasana, so let's turn to face the long side of the mat and move slightly towards the front of the mat, because we'll also lie down in this position. So first we'll come into a forward fold, so you can have your hands around your feet, inhale to find some length in your spine, and as you exhale I want you to slouch your body, so just bring a roundness to your spine, round the spine and try to bring the forehead down towards your feet. Slowly inhale and come up, and just like this you're going to lie down into Supta Baddha Konasana on your back, use any props you need, completely relax here. You can either take your Shavasana in this position with plenty of cushions and stuff under your knees, or you can take the traditional Shavasana with your legs extended. You may bring your hands to your heart and your belly, and really wind down the day by focusing on your breath and allowing the breath to settle.

Thank you so much for practicing with me, I hope this short practice has left you feeling completely relaxed and gives you the much needed energy to face the next day with utmost clarity and focus. Thank you.