Hello and welcome to this full body yin
practice. I'm Devi Daly
really looking forward to sharing with
you one of my go-to ways to practice
where we do one posture for each of the
major target areas of the body
this practice is going to relieve stress
it's going to stretch deeply into the
tissues of the body the fascia the
muscles and the joints
bringing healing and bringing a deep
state of rest and calm
so let's get to it start sitting with
the soles of your feet together
in butterfly pose
so bring the soles of your feet together
your hands can be on your shins your
ankles your
toes or on the floor in front of you
feel free to sit on a cushion a pillow
or a folded blanket or towel if you
would like to be a little bit higher in
the hips
and we'll rest here for three minutes to
begin
the target area of this butterfly
posture is the inner thighs the inner
groin
area you can bring your feet closer
or farther away to help get that stretch
and feel free to use any additional
props if you want to have something
underneath the outsides of your
legs to support them a little bit higher
and from within this posture begin to
pay attention to your breath to feel
your breath
notice where your breath goes in this
pose maybe a little more into the back
body maybe down into the bowl of the
pelvis
maybe with your next inhale you can pull
the breath down
into the inner thighs
into the places where you feel the
sensations of the poles
soften and rest a little bit more with
each breath that you exhale
 
good and now slowly release
bring the spine upright and pause here
with the spine upright
and now take the hands on the floor
behind you and slowly lower down
coming all the way onto your back and
rest here on the back
for one full minute spreading the arms
and legs out as much as you'd like to
taking up as much space as you'd like to
and now feeling the sensations in the
body as you rest here in stillness
after that first posture feel what's
happening inside
and now bending the knees hugging them
into the chest
wrap your arms around your legs and
gently rock side to side
feeling the back of the body feeling the
spine feeling the hips
and now roll all the way over onto one
side
and come on to your belly for a backbend
sphinx and seal pose
so we'll do half of our time in sphinx
and then half the time up in seal
sphinx is on the elbows and the forearms
you can do the
palms down or you can clasp the hands
together
legs can be wider or narrower depending
on
what feels best in your body
softening the low belly
softening the ribs
a very gentle lift happening here
through the crown of the head
and a gentle pressing of the elbows into
the ground
from the ribs down see if you can relax
the body
soften the hips the hip flexors the
belly
the front of the thighs
tailbone and the buttocks
and now we'll lift it up into seal pose
which is
going to be more sensation if you feel
like you have enough sensation
here then go ahead and stay here in
sphinx otherwise
hands come either hand come a little bit
wider
lifting up you decide if you want your
hands wider
apart or closer together or if you want
to bring them
closer in to get a steeper or deeper
stretch
or farther in front of you for less
intense
the fingers typically turn out here
which for most people is a little bit
easier with the elbows to be able to
lock out
and that way you can rest here without
rest without
using a lot of arm strength to hold
yourself up
but everybody's bones are different
everybody's arms and hands are different
so feel free to play around with the
exact angles
of your fingers and hands
and releasing down now and slowly come
all the way onto the belly
rest your forehead on your hands stack
your hands
rest your forehead and take a few
moments here to
be still to feel what's happening in
your lower back
typically the sensation of the pose like
this where we're stressing a certain
part of the body
with a lot of sensation that often
happens coming out of it that sensation
will start in a certain place maybe more
right in the sacrum or the lower back
and then it will start to spread over
time
and change and shift and we can just
observe this process
enjoy following the sensations
now slowly lift your hips to come back
into child's pose
bending the back in the opposite
direction
and coming up now to hands and knees and
into sleeping swan pose send your right
knee forward
turn on the shin and settle back
stretching into the right glutes here
the right buttocks so
angle yourself maybe a little more to
the right maybe a little more to the
left
maybe taking this foot farther up or
farther back
so that it feels right for you and the
torso could be higher
up most people like to come a little
farther down some
where either the elbow or all the way
down onto
the hands some people will reach the
hands out in front
comfortably
and as you find your posture for some of
you taking the knee
more toward the midline in front of you
will be a better position
giving you a better stretch or getting
around any knee pain
to get the knee more in centered or
rather than far out to the side for
others bringing it way out to the side
is a lot better
you can always come onto your back into
figure four pose as an alternative to
this
or one of the seated outer hip stretches
the square
or shoelace
and letting the breath help to carry you
farther into the pose with your
awareness
each breath especially each exhale
the body's softening into each exhale
and now slowly releasing come up
step back to downward dog once again
and from downward dog drop your knees
down
to the ground left knee forward this
time
for sleeping swan pulls
making your adjustments
and take your time finding those
adjustments so that you can be
perfectly comfortable to really rest in
this pose for the time that we're going
to be here
and slowly now coming back up
plant the hands to come back into
downward dog
taking a few nice deep breaths here in
the dog pose
feeling into the outer hips now the
glutes
the legs if it feels good walk the legs out
good and now drop the knees rest once
again
child's pose one minute
and now slowly coming up and come into a
seated cross-legged position so
sitting with your
right hand coming behind you we'll do a
series for
the upper back for the shoulders
starting with this right hand coming
to the back and inch your hand up
until you get to a place where you feel
a good stretch in the front of your
shoulder that's not
too much one minute here
and the idea is to keep the chest lifted
the shoulders rolling back
your left hand can do whatever's
comfortable can be on the ground
on the knee
then release that hand and staying in
your cross leg
seated position take your arms out to
the sides and then cross them in front
of you with your
right arm over your left eagle arms here
so palms together
if it works for you this is not a
position that works for everyone so
if you want to hold on to the backs of
your shoulders
or just kind of give yourself a hug that
does the same
effect here for the upper back as we
come into this
upper body forward bend and this
is different than coming into this kind
of forward bend where we hinge at the
hips
instead we're purposefully kind of
rocking back on the pelvis
and going to take the the elbows in
kind of toward the belly
and in this way we get this nice stretch
between the shoulder blades
and this nice rounding of the upper back
exploring here for about a minute feel
free to move it around a little bit
let the hands sway side to side
kind of like you're swimming
that's what i think of this as kind of a
swimming move
all right very good now keep the elbows
and arms as they are
and lift the elbows up and just take a
little bit of a back bend here with the
fingers reaching up the elbows reaching
up the gaze reaching up
good release the hands release the arms
and come into it on the other side now
so left hand comes behind your back and
you can
inch that hand up to whatever place
feels good for the stretch in the left
shoulder
and find your breath here
finding a lift up through the crown of
the head
finding an open chest a lifted heart
great and releasing now and taking that
arm out to the side
both arms out to either side cross them
in front of you again as you stay in
your cross leg position this time
left arm over the right and into those
eagle arm
or the hug and coming into this upper
body
forward bend once again so rocking back
from the sitting bones
it's kind of hollowing out your belly
feeling hollow the belly and bring the
elbows
toward the belly or toward the low ribs
great and now lifting up with the spine
upright
elbows lifting and find that lift of the
elbows fingertips
gaze up toward the sky
squeezing the upper back squeeze the
back of the neck
and release take your hands behind you
on the floor take your legs out in front
and come up into
upward facing plank lifting up the hip a
little weight on the arms and shoulders
here
and take the hips back to the ground and
now
spill forward over the legs into your
caterpillar pose
so the legs might be hips width apart
they might be
totally together or they could be wider
they could be as wide apart as your mat
and as we work on stretching into the
backs of the legs
the hamstrings and the spine you decide
which width of the legs works best for
you today
wonderful and now slowly feel what's
happening in the spine
as you come up right and all the way
down onto your back
to rest for one full minute
feel the effects of the pulse legs can
always be bent for these rests on the
back if that
feels comfortable for your lower back
and if it feels better than extending
the legs
or you extend legs and arms
your resting position whatever feels
good just
taking this time to be still and to feel
the energy flowing through your tissues
flowing through your meridians
and now bend your knees hug them into
your chest
wrap the arms around the legs and
gently rock side to side
and coming now into spinal twist taking
both knees over to your left
side and the right arm out to the right
side
left hand can anchor the legs down and
you can take any variation you like here
if you like to cross
right knee over the left or have the
bottom leg straight
or use props in any way
letting the breath carry you into the
twist
into the sensations happening in the
bones of the spine
the discs in between the bones of the
spine
the muscles of the side bodies the
obliques
as you reach this right arm out to the
side feel the chest
muscles opening and extending
breathing into all of this sensation
and as you rest further and more deeply
you may
notice that the sensation moves
from the more surface sensations of
muscle to the more deep sensations of
fascia and as your practice
evolves you may even begin to sense into
your bones
the bones which are living organisms
inside of the body
the bones of the spine here
the bones of the ribs as they twist
all right and now slowly release come
back to the center
pause at the center with the knees
resting against one another the feet
wide
and the hands on the belly
pause and feel
good and now taking the knees over to
the other side
so your hips can go to the left first
and then the knees over to the right
left arm out to the left side right hand
maybe on the legs maybe the knees crossed
and now slowly release bring your knees
back
up to the center and straighten your
body out into
shavasana or star pose any comfortable
position
using any props you'd like to have here
for
our final resting period
and start by finding stillness
and from the stillness
letting the breath come in to inflate
the ribs to inflate the belly
to expand the whole body
and then letting this breath go and as
you exhale
let the body sink deep
into awareness into the earth
and taking another breath in to fill the
body from the inside
good and as you exhale feel everything
soften
feel everything lengthen and rest
and now one more of these breathing in
to expand the ribs the back
the belly
and with the exhale completely softening
and resting here
any remaining bits of tension anywhere
that you notice just letting them go
as you completely blossom in this moment
and now gently starting to wiggle your
fingers and your toes
and feel the yumminess of this energy
from this practice
in your body as you enjoy a nice
long stretch of the arms above the head
reach up through your fingers reach down
through your legs and
feet and now exhaling to bend your knees
and
roll to one side and
come on up into a comfortable seat
place your palms together in front of
your heart close your eyes
take three breaths here feeling the
palms together
right palm pressing into left
left palm pressing into right and a
little bit of space
between these palms at the hollow of the
palms
where you can imagine that this is where
you're holding your own heart gently
and breathing into this gentle heart
taking care of this gentle heart
and from this heart space please join me
to chant
om five times today
inhale
Om
Om
Om
Om
sitting for one more minute to feel the
resonance of sound inside of you
feel the vibration touching every cell
every tissue every pore of your skin
that's our practice thank you so much
for taking time
out of your valuable day to join me
namaste
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about the practice
about how things felt in your body or if
you have any requests for future classes
thanks so much
