BEDTIME Yoga Stretch - 10 min Beginner Yoga for Good Sleep

Hi Yogis .

Welcome to my channel .

My name is Cassandra and I'm gonna take you through a 10 minute evening yoga practice .

So nice and simple , we're going to start cross legged or not really cross legged , but sitting in a way where you can have one shin in front of the other .

So you don't need to cross out your ankles , get right shin in front of the left one slightly , we're going to fold by twisting a little bit .

So if you rotate , you wanna face over towards your right knee and then start to walk your hands forward and just see how low you can make your way down and you might be up a little bit higher as you feel a nice stretch along the side of your back , maybe into your left hip or you might be able to maybe make some fists with your palms and fold on down this way .

So evening yoga , bedtime yoga is all about releasing tension and this is not only physical tension but also mental tension .

So whatever stress you might be carrying , whatever thoughts might be lingering and clouding your mind or weighing you down .

We want to use our time on the mat to just let them drain out , fully , releasing whatever is in the way and creating space for peace of mind , for clarity and for a sense of weightlessness .

So I take another three deep breaths here and start to push your hands into the floor , roll back up , just bring your hands onto your knees , little cat and cow before we go to the other side and he'll open up through your chest .

Exhale around and contract two more like this and Hale and exhale last one , coming back to neutral , bring your other shin in front .

So left chin in front of the right one and this time rotates so that you're facing towards your left knee and then you can start to initiate the fold .

You might notice that one side feels a little bit easier than the other .

It's totally normal .

We're just looking for a gentle release in our low back , inviting our right hip to soften and open up a little three more breaths on this side and rolling back up nice and slow .

Same thing , little rounds of cat and cow , hold onto the knees , inhale broad and through the collarbones , exhale round and really let your head be heavy chew more .

And as you finish up here , we're gonna come into a straight legged forward fold .

So forward folds really are some of the best poses that we can do , especially in the evening to prepare for a good night's rest .

So extend your legs out in front of you , feet are about hip with distance apart or so and just start to round down and we're making this a passive forward fold so your palms can face up to the sky , not using any effort .

Just letting gravity pull you deeper into the pose .

So shoulders are heavy , neck is heavy .

Your head can just dangle and just a big stretch through the backs of the legs all the way up the back of your spine , walk your palms in , push into the floor to uncurl and let's roll all the way down onto our backs .

Taking a little twist here , bring your right knee in towards your belly and cross it all over to the left .

You can use your left hand to help guide that thigh down and reach your right arm out to the side .

Try to relax here in this pose , not using too much effort coming all the way back through to center .

Hold on to the back of your right thigh and extend that leg straight up to the sky .

So just getting into the hamstrings , you really don't need to overexert yourself in this one .

And I like to do a few ankle rolls with the right foot just to stretch into the ankle into the toes and release and let's go and switch to the other side .

Pull your left knee in towards your belly , carry it into a twist .

So left knee travels to the right , you can reach your left arm out to the side , so your chest faces up , stacking one hip over the other and make your way back through to center .

And we'll take that little hamstring stretch with the left leg , just hold on to whatever is accessible to you here .

And you really don't need to have the leg perfectly straight .

Maybe taking a few ankle rolls with your left foot , flexing and pointing through your toes and releasing here .

Draw both knees in towards your belly .

Happy baby stretch , stacking your ankles over your knees .

You can use your elbows to push the thighs open a little wider , maybe rocking a little side to side , making our way to Shiva our final resting pose , extend out with your arms and your legs , turn your palms facing up towards the sky , close your eyes .

This is the ultimate pose for surrender .

Let yourself be completely heavy .

Nothing to do nothing to take care of just welcoming in peace of mind .

Clarity and a sense of calm .

Start to breathe a little bit deeper , move fingers and toes , big stretch here , lengthening your arms overhead .

You can just roll to one side , gently lifting up so that you can take a seat , bring your hands together at the front of your heart .

Roll in your shoulders back .

I bowing forward .

I must stay .

Thank you so much , Yogis .

I hope you feel ready for a good night's rest .

If you would like , you can join my free 30 day morning yoga movement challenge by clicking right here so that tomorrow morning we can practice together .

And if you want to continue your practice on the mat right now , I would love for you to follow it up with this video right here .