Yoga For Relaxation - Beginner Friendly Stress Relief Yoga Flow

Hey guys , welcome to Yoga TX .

I'm Jenn Hillman .

Today , we'll be featuring a special video geared towards helping you relax .

Life can get pretty stressful out there .

So I've chosen some stretches to help you slow down , chill out .

Get back to your center , get back to your breath and allow you to unwind and really relax .

Give me a thumbs up like this video and add it to your list of favorites and go ahead and subscribe to the yoga TX channel so you can stay up to date with fresh new videos for me every Thursday .

Today .

We're gonna start sitting in a comfortable position .

So just find yourself in a nice comfortable seat on the floor and if sitting right directly on the floor isn't super comfortable for you .

You can try sitting on a pillow or a cushion to lift your hips a little bit higher and this will help you to sit up nice and straight .

All right .

So we're gonna start by just centering your attention and awareness and coming to focus on your breath .

So if it's helpful , you can close your eyes .

This is a nice way to start to shut out any distractions and start to move your awareness to your center .

I'm just taking some slow , steady deep breaths .

So this is the first step in relaxation and it's just coming back to breath .

This is your home base .

So when life starts to get a little chaotic , remember that you can always come back to this breath and let your hands rest comfortably on your knees .

And we're going to start to incorporate a little movement moving with the rhythm of your breath .

So as you inhale , breathing in , open your chest leading with your heart , you can even open your throat .

Then as you start to exhale round your spine , rock back on your sitting bones to stretch your back body and moving into your inhale , open your chest again and exhale rocket back .

So see if you can make this movement really smooth and fluid , using the full length of your inhale and your exhale and pay very close attention to that moment when your breath changes from an inhale to an exhale and notice how your body reflects that movement as you rock forward .

Feel that gentle pause at the top of your breath , at the top of your movement and notice that subtle moment when you start to change direction .

As the pendulum swings the other way , we'll move through one last cycle here breathing all the way out and on your next inhale , let's just come all the way up to seated now .

We're gonna continue this idea of moving with your breath that just kind of changing up the movement a little bit as you breathe in , reach up and over to the right side .

So you're gonna stretch , open your left side of your body .

Then as you exhale , roll through center and all the way to the left side , breathe in as you stretch over to the left and out .

As you roll through center come all the way over to the right side .

Breathe in and out , in and out .

So just find the rhythm of your breath .

There's no need to rush , just allow your breath to instigate this movement .

So it's not the movement that comes first , but the breath comes first and your body responds with the movement .

Exhale through center , inhale to stretch .

Exhale as you move back to the right inhale , as you stretch , then come back through center and one more time inhale , open to the left side and exhale .

Coming back to center this time , walk your hands all the way forward and just take a moment to fold over your legs .

Let the weight of your head drop down to the floor .

Just feel your breath and notice whatever stretching sensation is occurring in your hips or in your back and slowly walk your hands in coming all the way back up and then change the cross of your legs .

So the other foot comes in front and again , walk yourself forward to fold over your legs and just notice any difference in the sensations from the right side to the left side .

Notice if one side feels tighter than the other or if there is any other part of your body that's lighting up with a stretch sensation and there's no need to change or manipulate your body .

Just simply notice and feel what's occurring and just keep your awareness with your breath that's slow and steady , inhale and exhale and walk your hands back in and we'll come up to center and in this time , extend your hands forward , we're going to do a little work in your wrist and hands .

So make a fist and roll your fists .

So you feel a nice stretch all the way around the entire range of motion , making big circles with your fists and then let's go the other way .

Do you go in both directions really working out the wrists and hands ?

This is a part of your body .

You probably don't spend a lot of time stretching .

But if you're on your phone a lot or on your laptop , man , those forearms and wrists and hands can really start to carry a lot of tension .

So this is a chance to just stretch it out and improve your flexibility and your strength and your range of motion .

Ok .

So after you've done a few circles , turn one palm forward with your fingertips facing down , then use your opposite hand to pull those fingertips back , you're gonna get a big stretch in your forearm , the more you can pull your fingers back , you'll increase the stretch even through the palm of your hand .

So this is a great stretch to do every day , even multiple times a day if you spend a lot of time typing .

So we switch to the other side , flex your palm forward and pull those fingers back .

Try to let your shoulders relax and just bring your awareness to that forearm and the palm of your hand as you stretch it open and then gently release and you can shake out your hands , uh releasing any excess energy and now we're gonna come down onto your back .

All right .

So once you find yourself lying on your back , draw your right knee in towards your chest , give it a good squeeze .

So you really compress your thigh bone deep into the hip socket .

Nice , good squeeze in there and then extend your right leg up towards the sky .

So you can interlace your hands behind your hamstring or behind your calf .

If you have a little bit more flexibility , just wherever your personal edge is , that's where we're going for .

So you just want to find that stretch in your hamstrings and then of course , we're gonna breathe .

So if it feels tight , if your leg is shaking , if you hate me for putting you in this pose , just breathe .

Slow down , relax .

Then with your right foot in the air , make a few circles .

So you start to stretch your ankles .

You can take your time making a few circles in one direction and then change directions and just notice if one direction is easier than the other , sometimes it can get a little discombobulated in your brain .

Let me just make a few circles stretching out your ankles and mobilizing your foot , hug your leg in a little bit deeper into that stretch .

You can release your knee and now twist your right leg across the left side of your body .

See if you can bring that knee all the way down to the floor .

And then if your right shoulder starts to come away from the floor , it's no problem just open your right arm out to the right side .

And you're going to feel a gentle stretch across the right side of your chest .

So now we're getting a stretch across the outer hip , the low back and into the spine and even stretching across the chest .

So this is a nice twist and you can even rotate your gaze towards the right .

So you may even feel a little stretch across your neck as well .

And you can close your eyes here , allowing yourself to really go inward , feel your breath moving through your body and the subtle sensations as you twist through your spine and then slowly come back through center and release your right leg down to the floor you can kind of roll it in and out a little bit , shake it out and then we're gonna move to the other side .

So bring your left leg up into your chest , hug your knee in .

So give it a good squeeze .

Feel the difference from one side to the other and extend your left leg straight up towards the sky as best you can , you can interlace your hands behind your hamstring or maybe behind your calf if you've got a little more mobility .

So getting a nice stretch in your hamstring here , stretching your hamstrings is awesome for reducing low back pain .

If you sit a lot or spend a lot of time driving in the car , you definitely want to take time to stretch out these hammy , then we're gonna roll your ankle two directions .

So start going one way making three or four or five circles and just notice where it feels tight .

Breathe into those places where it's really stretching a lot , then you can start to change directions .

So you want to be sure you get that full range of motion .

And then after you've made your circles with your foot , take another cycle of breath , pull that left leg in as tight as you can giving it a good stretch in the hamstring and then release your knee to relax , then twist your left leg over to the right side .

So again , try to bring that knee as close to the floor as you can .

And then if your left shoulder comes up , you can just open your left arm out to the left side , giving you that gentle stretch across your chest .

You can close your eyes to help you bring your awareness inside and feel your breath as it moves through your body .

Feel the sensations of this stretch .

Notice your thoughts .

If your mind is running with the grocery list or the to do list or the honey do list , just put those things aside for now .

It'll still be there waiting for you when you're ready to pick it back up again .

For now , give yourself permission to relax and slowly come back to center .

This time , you're going to bring the soles of your feet together and let your knees open out to the sides .

You're gonna feel the weight of gravity gently helping your knees open out to the sides , then bring your arms up overhead can slightly bend your elbows and rest one hand in the other .

This is an excellent pose , not just for relaxing , but it also opens up the major lymph nodes , which is what helps circulate your lymphatic fluid , which keeps your immune system strong and healthy .

So when we undergo a lot of stress and anxiety in our day to day , life releases a lot of hormones into our body that sends our body into a fight or flight mode .

But coming into this resting pose kind of reverses that and sends us into a parasympathetic mode where we start to relax and unwind and starts to boost the immune system , which helps uh kind of reverse the process of all that stress that our body undergoes .

So just take a few deep long breaths here and tune into the vibration of your body healing and restoring itself coming back into balance and homeostasis .

You can bring the opposite hand on top and see if that makes a difference in your shoulders or your chest .

And you're welcome to stay here in this position and rest for as long as you like .

And whenever you feel ready , you can extend your feet down to the end of your mat , let your hands come down by your sides .

So you come to Shabana coming to the full corpse pose for these last few cycles of breath .

These last moments to go a little deeper into your state of relaxation , allow your body to come down off of all the hype of your stress and anxiety , all the tension , all the drama , let it dissolve like little puffy white clouds dissipating in the clear blue sky .

So that in this moment , the only thing that matters is this breath in and this breath out and just keep breathing your breath like this and and out .

You can stay here and relax in your for as long as you have time , maybe even longer than you think .

And as you're ready to come out , slowly wiggle your fingers and toes , inviting just a little bit of movement back into your body .

You can stretch your arms up overhead , taking a big full body stretch and then roll yourself over to one side .

So you can slowly press yourself back up to a seated position and bring your hands onto your knees , lift up tall through your spine .

So you can take a couple of moments here .

Just feel that sense of relaxation , feel that sense of peace and stillness .

I know in our day to day lives , it's easy to get caught up in all the things that we have to do .

But this time that you have spent giving yourself a chance to relax and connect to your body and your breath is one of the most important things you can do for your mental , emotional and physical health .

So thank you for letting me be your guide and I hope you will come back and practice again and again , this is the best gift you can give yourself .

Subscribe to the yoga TX channel .

So you can get lots of great new videos from me every Thursday .

Visit our website yoga TX dot org .

We've got all kinds of awesome videos available to you through the website and you can also visit my page Jen Heman dot com .

We've got a new schedule of workshops so you can find out when I'll be in your area .

I'm also doing some international retreats .

If you like to travel , you can come join me abroad .

And I would love to share this practice with you in person .

I hope you have an awesome day and keep that sense of peace in your heart no matter where you go .

Thanks for joining me .

I must stay exhale , die and come all the way up to center .

Bring your right hand across to your left knee , your left hand behind you and just take a gentle twist through your spine .