Evening Qigong For Sleep & Rest

Hello and welcome to this 15-minute evening Qigong for Sleep. We begin in a standing position with your feet firmly planted on the ground. Give way on your knees. Unlock your hips. Bring your tailbone a little bit forward to relax your lower back. Relax your neck and shoulders. Take a moment to lengthen through your spine, releasing the back of the neck and mentally reach upwards through the crown of the head. Begin rotating your body from side to side. This is a quick and easy way to release tension from the body, to relax the muscles around the joints and bring awareness to your physical body. Use this time to quickly scan your body from head to toes, identifying areas that need your attention and relaxation. Take a moment to feel the back of the neck and the shoulders. Allow your upper body to relax down your arms and into your torso or into your abdomen. Relax your chest and your ribcage. Relax and open your belly. Relax your lower back and your hips, sending that relaxation all the way down to your feet. return to center and slowly raise your hands to shoulder height. Take a moment to open and stretch. Release the effort and slowly stretch upwards, elongating through your spine. Take a moment to feel a stretch. Release the position softly and relax your entire body. Repeat the exercise a few times. Take a moment to stop and pause to stretch your chest, opening your heart center. Then slowly go upwards, releasing pressure from your spine. Relax your entire body. The breathing here is relaxed and natural. Paying attention to the stretches and the relaxation that follows. Allowing all the muscles to relax. Visualizing a big wave coming down on you and relaxing your entire body. Continue doing the exercise. One more time. Open up. Gently reach upwards, keeping your spine nice and long. Full release down. Allow the energy to follow and slowly spread out your entire body. Well, we've got a visitor who is not feeling very sleepy, but we continue to stretch and work with the spine as you turn to the back, pressing in opposite directions, keeping your spine nice and straight. Return to center to relax and reset and then repeat the movement on each side. Remember to keep your breath as natural as possible, focusing on the stretches and relaxation. One more time. Open up. From here, moving on to the hip rotation. This feels particularly comforting and soothing at the end of the day. Take your time to really connect your mind to your body. Notice how this motion feels in your body. The more time we spend focusing on our body and ourselves, the more energy we will be able to accumulate. When our attention is scattered, the energy escapes quickly. Change the direction. Continue to visualize and comfort your lower back and your hips, bringing hydration and lubrication to the joints and relaxation to the muscles. Return to center and gently rub your lower back for more comfort. Our hands can transmit the healing energy to the area. From here, begin warming up your spine. Gently lean forward. Allow your hips to slide back, bring your chin to the chest and slowly roll up, elongating through the spine upwards. Continue doing the exercise in your own rhythm. This feels especially good if you take your time to warm up and release tension from the back. Hello Altai, we missed you! Altai is feeling very playful. Continue doing the exercise, paying attention to the motion and the fluidity of your spine. And then do once more and return back to center. Take a nice big breath in to center yourself, grounding the energy, inhaling through the nose, exhaling out the mouth. A few more times. Keep your breath natural and soft, so you don't energize yourself before bed. From here, we're going to do an exercise called Flying Wild Goose. On the inhale, sink down, opening your hips. On the exhale, push up the spine and straighten up. These two motions feel very opposite and that's the beauty of it. On the inhale, allow yourself to soften, melt and enter your legs. On the exhale, pick up the power and reach tall through the spine. Inhale as you soften, exhale as you open your spine. Inhale, exhale. When doing this exercise, pay special attention to working your hips and legs. Avoid bending forward and putting strain on your lower back. One more time. Inhale, exhale. From here, raise your hands overhead and do a rainbow dance as you shift the weight from left to right, exposing and stretching through the side of the body. Keep the movement nice and playful. There is no tension in the neck and shoulders. This exercise helps to strengthen the back and the waist and balance the energies in the liver and gallbladder meridians. This is good for balancing stress, anxiety and mood swings. It can also clear headaches because the Lungun point on the hand is transmitting the Chi to the Baihui point on the top of the head. One more time. Inhale. On the exhale, let your hands calm down. Gently follow your hands to lean forward. Take a moment to stretch and lengthen through your spine. Then on the inhale, reach up, opening yourself to the sky. Exhale, lean forward, surrendering to the Mother Earth. Inhale, open up. Exhale, relax and release any stress, negativity, worries into the Earth. Continue to do this exercise following your own rhythm. This exercise helps to stretch the kidney and bladder meridians. It also helps to stretch the back, strengthen the neck and make them more supple. One more time. Breathing in and out. Let your hands rest on the lower dantian or the area just below your navel. Check in with your breath and take a few deep mindful breaths into your abdomen. Allow the energy to settle and gather into your center, feeling centered, balanced and grounded. So gently rub your belly to remember pleasant comforting sensations. Altai is here to wish you good night, good dreams and thank you for practicing with us. Thank you for joining me today. If you want to see more videos like this, don't forget to click a subscribe button so you don't miss any future videos or live streams. I wish you a great health and see you next time.