Hello everyone Tutu Mora here with the Y bringing you tools to feel well in your body, mind and spirit.
So, today we're going to focus on helping out the digestive system. We can all relate to the times
where we feel bloated or gassy or constipated or all the ways in which we can feel kind of like
off with our digestion. So, there are definitely some breathing and stretching exercises that we
can do to help relieve those symptoms, kind of get things moving a little bit more smoothly. So,
you're not going to need any props today, but you are going to need a yoga mat to lie down on and
I'll go ahead and meet you down on the mat - we're going to be lying down on our back to start. So,
here we go. And so, let's just start here with our knees bent, feet flat on the floor.
And we're going to start by first, just working with our breath. So, I'm going to have you bring
your hands to the bottom of your rib cage. I want you to feel for that last rib, which
is going to be a little bit lower than you think. Once you put your hands in that space,
you're going to take a couple deep breaths into that space, as if you're, you could with your breath,
move your hands apart. So you know, we usually spend a lot of our time breathing into the chest
and so it can take a minute to allow that breath to flow down into the low belly, but
with this way of breathing and breathing down into the length of the torso, we're
really allowing the breath to do its full job. And part of its job, you know, it has
many jobs, but one of the ways in which breath supports the digestive system in
a general sense, is that when oxygen flows down in through the torso it really massages all of
the organs and helps promote like healthy and efficient movement in that space. So,
with your hands where they are, let's just bring the breath into that space with your inhale,
feeling your hands widen and come back together. So, let's take that a few times here together.
[breathing]
Really taking the time to breathe nice and slowly. Taking the time to really feel that breath
impact the movement of your hands coming out wider and then back together.
Breathing as if you were giving your insides a shower
with your inhale. Exhaling as if you were just squeezing out everything that you don't need.
So again, let's just take three more here. Breathing naturally, so for you, whether that feels good for
your body to breathe in through the nose out through the mouth, into the mouth out through
the mouth, whatever feels natural to you, but really directing that breath down into this space.
[breathing]
You're going to move your hands a little bit lower now, so they're right at your hip bones and we're
going to do the same thing. Now, your hip bones are not going to move as easily as the bottom
of your rib cage in terms of feeling that movement with your hands. Let's see if you can direct your
breath down there, down towards your hip bones.
Feeling your belly expand with your inhale.
Fall with your exhale.
One more here.
Now, as we continue through the movements, we're going to be going through, I want you
to keep that breath in this space. So in that low belly space between the bottom of your
cage and the bottoms of your hip bones here. So, just as a practice letting that
breath come down into the space, as if it's just massaging everything inside.
We're going to start by just bringing those knees up. You can just gently hold them in place with
your hands. I'm gonna just tilt the screen up so you can see my body a little bit better. Alright.
So, no need to force those knees in towards you, but just holding them here
supported gently as you breathe.
[breathing]
One more deep breath here. And if it feels good, perhaps, rocking that gently from side-to-side.
Slowly bringing both feet back down to the mat. We're going to stretch that left leg out long and
I want you to find a little reach through the heel of that foot, so a little flex. Right leg is going
to come back in towards you just like we just did. Gently guiding that leg in towards you - we're not
forcing anything, we're just sort of inviting that stretch as you continue to breathe into that low belly.
Really visualizing and feeling into that breath, massaging those organs.
And then we can gently guide that knee in towards the opposite shoulder. So, right knee
towards the left shoulder here. Again, as you breathe you can bring that leg across
in whatever degree feels good for you. So maybe that turns into a full and gentle twist here,
maybe you just stay off to the side, whatever degree is right for you, hold there and breathe.
Let's bring that right arm up, fingertips towards the ceiling, bringing it out into a "T"
as you deepen that little twist. Staying with that low belly breath.
One more.
Bringing everything back together. Gently rest that foot back down
on the mat and we're going to switch sides here. So now, your right leg is
stretched out reaching through the heel, left leg is coming in towards your body here. And again,
not forcing anything, just inviting this gentle stretch as you breathe into the low belly.
[breathing]
Let's start to take this leg across. Knee comes towards the opposite shoulder
and then finding the, the range that feels right for you, whether that
is just a gentle reach across or whether that turns into a fuller twist here. Finding
the degree that feels good for you, as you continue to fill that low belly space with your breath.
[breathing]
Let's bring that left arm up, opening it out to the side.
And breathing.
One more deep low belly breath here.
And then burning it all back in.
From here, once again, let's just bring those legs both in - assisted little shelf here.
We'll take three more low belly breaths.
[breathing]
Resting those legs back down. Heels and knees
together, here, we're going to just gently sway from side-to-side, staying with that breath.
[breathing]
On this next one, opposite arm is going to come overhead
as you sway those knees. You can rotate the head, as if you're going to smell your armpit.
Lengthening through that whole side, again filling that low belly space with your breath.
One more deep breath.
And bringing it all back in. Same thing to the other side.
[breathing]
All the way back in. Let's separate the feet hip distance apart.
Taking that knee sway again. A little bit different orientation, staying with that breath.
[breathing]
All the way back up. Let's bring the feet and knees together once again.
Opening those knees out by externally rotating at the hip socket.
Fill that low belly space with your breath.
[breathing]
Widening through the sit bones to bring those knees back together and we'll do that one more time.
[breathing]
Widening again through the sit bones to bring yourself back up.
Let's separate the feet, hip distance again. We're going to take a little pelvic curl here.
And allow yourself to articulate that up into a bridge. Finding the height of the
bridge that feels good for you. Going nice and slow, as if you're picking up
every vertebrae by vertebrae individually. At the top here, I want you to feel like your back
pants pockets are traveling through your body to meet your front pants pockets.
As you breathe into that low belly,
sinking through the sternum to melt every piece of your spine back down.
And let's do that again.
And melting all the way back down.
So, let's come up to a seated position here.
I'll shift the orientation slightly.
And let's come to a cross-legged position here.
And so, let's bring the left arm out to the side. Right arm is going to come up,
reaching up through the back of the armpit. And let's take this just in the little side bend
Breathing into that low belly.
And we'll take that to the other side.
One more time here, to each side.
On this next one, we're going to add in a little rotation. Staying with that belly
breath really feeling like you're ringing things out. So, same thing, we're going to reach
up, this time we're going to add in that rotation. Reaching over and across as you stay with that breath.
As you exhale, find a little bit more rotation. Bring that back to center, over to the other side.
With your exhale find a little bit more rotation.
And one more set.
And last one.
All the way back up. We'll come on to all fours here.
Little pelvic tilt, and we're gonna just take that back into a child's pose.
Breathing into that low belly.
Exhaling as if you're exhaling all the air out of your system.
Inhaling deeply.
Exhaling.
All the air out of your system. Two more.
[breathing]
Let's bring that right hand further to the right, left hand over right.
Continuing with that breath as you lengthen through that left side.
And the same thing to the other side.
And hanging back here, in the center for as long as you need to.
We're slowly coming all the way up.
Taking a couple more deep breaths here, really focusing on that low belly space.
And curling down, once again, into a child's pose.
Curling all the way back up, once again.
And you can go ahead and find a comfortable seated position. You can turn over onto your back and I would
recommend just resting, as you continue to breathe. But I hope you found this supportive. I hope that
it sort of released a little bit of maybe what was, just building up in that digestive system, so
let things move stay with that breath, allow that breath to kind of continue to massage that space.
And, and yeah, see how that supports you. I hope you found this helpful and I
will see you back here next time on the Y's YouTube channel. Take care.