Gentle Cool Down

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. This is Aishwarya, bringing you yoga practices all the way from its roots in India. Today we will be doing a gentle yoga practice to cool down the entire body. You can do this at the end of a stressful day or even at the end of the week when you are ready to wind down. And let's get started.

For this practice you will need a nice big pillow like this one, a bolster pillow, or you can even stack two to three pillows together that you have at home. Slowly come into child's pose, bring the pillow close to you and lie down on the pillow with your entire torso supported. Adjust the pillow in any way you like. Release the hands by the side, forehead on the pillow, and completely relax. You can stretch your hands out or be on your forearms like I am. Just stay there. Connect with your breath. You can turn your head from side to side or keep it straight, whatever feels comfortable for you. With each exhale I want you to release the hips down towards the heels, release the shoulders down towards the floor. You can also turn your neck to the other side and relax it. Release the back. Release the hips. Release the shoulders down. With each exhale, feel your back expanding, feel your body relaxing onto the mat, onto the pillow. Be connected with your breath and become aware of any tension holding in any part of your body — shoulders, hips, knees, ankles. Maybe even close your eyes. Very gently, slowly come back up and lift yourself off.

From here, you're going to keep the bolster pillow a little further away from you and going to turn, keeping my knees like this. You're going to have a gentle twist in the spine. Just sit this way with your legs pointing to one side, and I want you to turn your upper body, place it on the pillow, maybe even turn your neck to face the back, and lie down. This gives a gentle twist in the spine. Try to relax completely over here. Four arms on the floor, feel your spine twisted. Release both shoulders down, especially your right shoulder. Inhale and gently come back up.

Let's do the same thing on the other side. Turn towards the center and drop your knees towards the other side. From here, I'm going to turn my body towards the pillow, lie down, and turn my head towards the right. Just stay here comfortably. Maybe even close your eyes. Relax your hips. Relax the spine.

Come back to the center. And when you do a simple forward fold here, take the pillow, keep it horizontally, and place it under the knee. We're going to get into a forward fold. Relax your head here. Maybe you want to place your hands one on top of the other and then also relax your head on top of the arms. Stay here. Long deep breaths. And with each exhale, let go of any tension you're holding in your body, in your hips, knees, on your back. Take your one last breath here and gently come back up.

After this, we're going to be lying down on the bolster pillow. So what I'm doing is I'm going to move it to the side, lie down on my back, and first place it under my hips. So I'm going to lift the hip up and pull the pillow under my hips. First, what I'm doing is I'm stretching my legs out, taking the arms over the head, and relax. Take a few long deep breaths here. With each inhale, feel your belly expanding, and with each exhale, your body relaxing on the pillow. You feel a stretch in the front of the body and a little bit of compression on your back. Let your legs relax. Let your upper body relax. Keep your eyes closed if you're comfortable, and breathe.

Very gently bring your awareness back. Bring the hands down and slowly bend, bring the feet on the floor. First, I'm adjusting the pillow a little bit for myself, make sure it's right underneath the low back, and from there, I'm bending the knees, bending the knees close to my chest. See what feels comfortable, maybe even massage, slightly move your knees towards the left and the right. Feels really good. From here, gently take the legs up towards the ceiling, relax the hands by the side, and stay. Really great for rushing the blood back up towards the upper body. If you have any sciatica pain, this helps relieve that at the end of the day. Great for menstrual cramps. You can even keep your legs supported against a wall if this feels a little too much. Just a few more breaths. Try to relax the hips down. Maybe bring your feet a little closer. Gently bend your knees and slowly place the feet down on the floor. Lift your hips up and remove the pillow from underneath.

I'm going to take the pillow now and place it behind me. I need you to adjust yourself so that it comes right behind your chest, towards your upper back. Stretch your legs in front of you or keep the feet on the floor. Adjust the pillow and gently place your upper back on the pillow. If you need to, you can support your head with another pillow, or relax it down like I have. Take the hands up. Release the legs down gently and relax completely. If this doesn't feel comfortable, you can also relax the hands towards the side or on your belly. I feel comfortable here, so I'm going to release my hands over the head. Feel all the tension in your upper back relaxing. If you've been drooping on your desk all day, this is a perfect way to de-stress that spine and to open the chest. Take long deep breaths. Maybe even exhale through your mouth. Make sure your neck is supported and you don't feel any strain on the neck. Keep a pillow under your head if you need to reduce the strain on the neck. Relax the hips, relax the legs, and the upper back.

Gently bend one knee and roll over to one side and slowly press yourself up to a seated position. For the last one, I'm turning the pillow so that it supports the entire back and place my back against the pillow. Now you're going to come into Baddha Konasana, or bring your soles of the feet together to touch and let the knees drop out. Very gently roll yourself back and lie down on the pillow. You can let your hands fall towards the side and relax completely over here. This is one of my favorite poses, favorite ways to relax. The hip opens, the heart opens, the body completely relaxes. Feel your body expanding with each inhale and relaxing with each exhale. Expanding with each inhale and relaxing with each exhale. Let go of any tension you're holding in your shoulders, in your elbows, and in your palms, in your hips, knees. Completely relax. Unclench your jaws. Relax your neck, your forehead, eyebrows, nose, upper lips, lower lips, cheeks. Bring a gentle smile to the calm face. Stay here for as long as you like.

Thank you all for joining me in this beautiful cool-down sequence. I hope you're feeling much better after this one.