hello and welcome outdoors I'm Amanda and in this week's class we have a
gentle relaxing yoga flow so if you're stressed or you just need a couple
minutes to yourself in your day try this class grab your mat and let's get
started all right so we're gonna start in a seated comfortable position you can
have your legs crossed like I am it could be sitting on your heels you can
be on a block or on a pillow and lotus pose whatever is actually comfortable
and then close your eyes here bring your hands to your knees and just take a few
deep breaths in and out through the nose
and just take notes of the sound of your breath
feel your feet on the ground your bum on the mat just land right here in your
body anytime the mind wanders just bring it on back to the sound of my voice to
the sound of your breath and try and maintain a nice steady even breathing
through the nose throughout this practice
one more inhale and exhale on your next inhale open your eyes shrug your
shoulders up towards your ears and then exhale let them fall inhale shrug and
exhale let them drop takes you more
releasing tension with every drop and then one breath here on your next inhale
bring the shoulders forward and exhale round them back
it's nice circles here with the shoulders you want to you can close your
eyes and just really tune into the sensations in the body
and then switch your direction then flowing with the breath come back to
neutral in how the arms up overhead reaching through the fingertips press
the palms together and exhale the arms down inhale them up again and exhale
down inhale up this time on the exhale take a gentle twist towards our right as
your arms fall left hand in front of you right hand behind you you can gaze over
the right shoulder inhale reach up and exhale let the hands fall right hand in
front and take the gaze over the left shoulder
inhale the arms up again reaching and exhale arms down to your knees
roll onto your back and then lift your feet off the mat and create a 90 degree
angle with your knees here so press the lower back into the mat the core should
be really engaged here and then lift the hands straight above the shoulders
inhale on an exhale lower your left foot down as you bring your right hand behind
you and then inhale up exhale drop the right foot and lower the left hand
behind you inhale up so keep going here at the pace of your own breath this is
quite the coordination and always trips me up alternating these hands so just
kind of flow with it have fun put a little smile on your face and make sure
that the core is definitely engaged here
take two more each side
and then hug your knees into your chest and roll around hug your right knee in and
then extend your left leg straight drop that heel on the mat and just take a few
breaths here point through the toes really extend that left leg long then
inhale bring the left leg back hug everything in one breath and exhale
straighten the right leg bring the right heel down hug the left knee in
inhale hug again squeeze yourself nice and tight and then exhale release roll
over back to your hands and your knees hands
are right underneath the shoulders and knees are underneath the hips inhale
exhale drop the belly take the gaze up and then exhale tuck the tailbone drop
the chin inhale drop the belly and exhale tuck the tailbone drop the
chin so keep going here with these cat cows their own pace of your breath take
one more of each and then we'll meet back in a neutral tabletop inhale extend
your right hand and then your left foot again engage the core here find the
balance point the left toes down and exhale drop inhale extend the left hand
and the right foot right toes point down
exhale drop one more each side inhale extend and exhale drop inhale extend
exhale drop tuck your toes lift your knees and come into downward facing dog
first down dog so peddle out the knees if you need to
you want your fingertips spread wide pressing into the mat to protect the
wrist and then take the gaze in between the legs your feet are about hip width
apart
and take a few deep breaths here look forward between your hands
step your right foot forward spin your left heel down then inhale up warrior
one so the right heel is over or under the right knee nice strong back leg here
and exhale bring the hands down step your right foot back to down dog look
forward between the hands again inhale step the left foot forward spin the
right heel down feel nice and stable here then inhale up warrior one
exhale the hands down step the left foot back to downward facing dog we're gonna
do warrior one on each side one more time so look for between the hand inhale
step the right foot forward left heel comes down in without up exhale the
hands down step the right foot back into downward facing dog
again step the left foot forward spin the right heel down inhale
exhale down step the left foot back into downward-facing dog
drop your knees to the mat and come to seated on your heels if this is not
comfortable for you you can stick a block or even a pillow underneath your
butt right in between your heels and that will help to alleviate any
discomfort so find a nice comfortable seat roll your shoulders back so the
shoulder blades are coming down the back bring your hands to your knees and take
a few deep breaths here
I'm an inhale shrug the shoulders up again and exhale let them fall let them
fall one more time and exhale down I mean he'll lift the arms up bend your
right elbow so that the hand comes behind the shoulder blades I'll spin
around so you can see so right hand is in between the shoulder blades and then
you can grab a hold of the right elbow with the left hand and then just get a
nice gentle stretch through the tricep
exhale release and we'll do the other side so inhale the left hand up bend the
elbow so that the hand comes in between the shoulder blades and then the right
hand comes around and gently holds the left elbow
exhale release bring the arms down now we're gonna wrap the arms here in this
little Eagle arms so right elbow comes underneath the left and then maybe the
hands wrap around and press the palms together inhale lift the elbow so that
they're in line with the shoulders and just hold here exhale release
spread your wings and we'll switch side so this time the left elbow comes
underneath and the hands twist around and lift the elbows up so that they're
in line with the shoulders exhale spread your wings and bring your hands down to
your knees come on to seated now so straighten your
legs in front of you I like to lift my legs up a little bit in a rotation
through the thighs the toes are coming towards the face press the legs into the
mat roll the shoulders down the back and bring the hands right by your hips
fingertips facing forward the lower belly is tucked in and engaged I know
this looks easy but it actually is quite a challenge to hold take one more breath
here and then exhale fold over the legs in a nice forward fold don't force it
here make sure that your shoulders are not crunching up towards the ears then
just melt into this fold
inhale look up exhale release bring the bottoms of your feet together bring the
heels in as much as you can same thing roll the shoulders back the
shoulder blades down so you have a nice proud chest here inhale and then exhale
fold forward the elbows stay close to the ribs here
inhale come up and exhale roll to your back keeping your legs the same so the
bottoms of your feet are still together and then just roll back put one hand on
your heart in one hand on your belly and if you need to you can always put some
pillows or even some blocks under your knees for a little more comfort if you
need it and then just relax here feeling your
heart beating feeling your belly rise and fall with every breath
and then if you want to you can stay in that position or you can totally relax
and a straight legs and your palms facing up in this final resting pose for
a few breaths
when you're ready you can wiggle your fingers and your toes and hug your knees
into your chest and make your way up to seated
and we'll just end this class with a few deep breaths
so we'll inhale through the nose and exhale sigh out through the mouth inhale
and exhale sigh out one more time inhale
thank you so much for joining me on the mat in this beautiful place I hope you
got a chance to just relax even if it's just for a little while it's so
important to take time for yourself so let me know in the comments below if you
enjoyed this and make sure to subscribe for more yoga and outdoor resources I
love you and I'll see you on the mat soon