Slow & Stretchy Yoga | 25 Min Somatic Movement Practice

Hello everyone, welcome back to Devi Daily Yoga for this slow and relaxing stretch. We'll flow through a set of somatic movements to relieve tension and quiet the mind. Let's begin lying down on the back, with the knees bent, placing the left hand on the belly and the right hand on the heart. Bend the knees and plant your feet about shoulder-width apart, letting the knees rest in against one another. When you're ready, take a deep breath and sigh it out, settling into the floor through your back body. Another deep breath in and sigh it out, releasing stress and tension. Take one more deep breath in and out. Now begin to nod your head side to side, to the right and to the left, a couple more times as you feel into your neck and your shoulders. And as you bring your head back to center, when you're ready, bring your knees in towards your chest, hug the arms around the legs, giving yourself a nurturing hug here as you start to move gently side to side, feeling your spine and your lower back. And now with one hand on each knee, extend your knees away from you with long arms and begin to circle your knees in a clockwise direction, about three times, massaging around your sacrum and the back of your hips. Take your time, breathing as you circle around. Next time the legs come to the front, change the direction so you're circling counterclockwise three times again, massaging your low back. Release the legs and let the feet find the floor as you set up for windshield wipers with your feet wide and your arms over your head. Let both knees fall over toward the right and now knees to the other side. Continue side to side, finding your own pace, your own rhythm as you stretch into the whole torso and the hips and breathe with your movement. Take it once more to each side. Beautiful. And now let's bring the legs back up to center and set up for bridge pose, with the feet closer to the hips and the arms down alongside the body. And plant your feet about hips width away from one another. When you're ready, tuck your tailbone and start to lift your hips off the ground, engaging the thighs and the glutes. Lower back down, touching the hips to the floor. Do it again, tucking tail, lifting up and slowly come back down. Again, lift up, squeeze the glutes at the top, and exhale back down. Changing it up now to lift through the heels and lift into bridge once again, this time take the arms up over the head. And from here, begin to feel into your hips with movement, circling, swaying side to side, see what feels good. Take a deep breath in, and as you breathe out, let your hips come back down to the floor. Good, and now hug the knees in, lift the head up toward the knees. Take it to happy baby pose, hold the bottoms of your feet, and lift the soles of the feet up to the sky. Let your head rest back down, knees wide as you draw down on the feet to open the knees toward the earth. And any movement that feels good here, perhaps you like rocking side to side or extending into one leg and then the other. Let your legs go and slowly roll over onto your belly, and rest on your belly with your hands stacked and with your forehead resting on your hands. And feel the front body meeting the earth now. Breathe into the front body, feel your belly, your chest. And when you're ready, bend your knees and slowly begin to move the legs, tick-tocking the feet and shins side to side. And feel how this gives a nice massage to the lower back and the sacrum and the hips. A couple more times to each side. When you're ready, set your legs back onto the floor, and place the hands at either side of the chest for cobra lifts. We're going to move with the breath. Press the hips down and peel up through the chest. Inhale at the top. Exhale, roll back down and touch your forehead to the ground. Again, lift up, inhale. Exhale, back down. Once more, inhale, rise up. Feel the backbend. Exhale, roll slowly back down. Let's come up again, and this time stay there. Turn your head to the left and then to the right. Continue side to side, looking over your shoulder on each side. Slowly lower back down. And rest on your right forearm, propping up your head and chest. Bend your left knee, reach your left hand back and hold the left foot. Stretching into the quads, maybe staying here, lifting the chest and pressing down into the right arm. Maybe, to take it a step further, you open your left hip up and back, and kick back into your left hand. Rolling all the way onto the outside of the right hip. Whichever version you're in, can you feel the backbend and breathe into the stretch. Slowly release back to center. And switch the arms, left forearm on the floor. Bend the right knee, reach back and hold the foot. You can draw the foot in and lift up through the chest. Stay here. Or optionally, roll up onto the outside of the left hip, and kick back into the right hand. Breathe into this quad stretch. When you're ready, release back down, and find your way back into child's pose, pressing your hips back toward your heels. Rest here. Breathe here. Come up to hands and knees, setting up for some circles of the torso. Plant your hands under your shoulders, your knees under your hips, and steer the torso to the right and back through your hips. Ribs now curve to the left and forward. Circle to the right again with your ribs, and send your hips back a little, and swerve over to the left and forward. Take it one more time in this direction. Nice and slow. When you're ready, change the direction of your circles, feeling the spine curving side to side, bringing hydration and lubrication into the shoulders and the hips. Once more, all the way around. Beautiful, and now when we come back to center, we'll bring the hips back to the heels once again in child's pose. Take a breath, and move into side-stretching child's pose. Take your left hand to the outside left edge of your mat, and your right hand on top of your left hand. Settle back with a gentle tugging motion back through your right hip, and breathe as you expand out through your right ribs. Take it back to the center, and walk the hands over to the second side. Right hand on the outside right edge of the mat, left hand on top of the right. Breathe into the left side of the ribs. Slowly take the arms back to the center. Return to hands and knees. Inhale and tuck your toes, lift your hips to downward facing dog. Walk the legs to stretch into the backs of the calves and feel the soles of the feet. Pressing into the arms, feeling the upper body, feel the hamstrings lengthen as you walk it out. When you're ready, step your feet as wide as the edges of your mat and walk your hands back to come into a ragdoll pose. Hanging over the legs, option to hold opposite elbows or let the arms hang. Breathe, releasing completely through your spine, your head, and maybe exploring movement side to side, whatever feels good here. Slowly walk the hands forward to the top of your mat, and return to hands and knees, crossing the ankles to come into a seated position. Extend the legs long and sit up tall. Bend the left leg and place the foot at the inner upper thigh. Turn your chest toward the leg and begin to come forward. Feeling into this stretch of the back of your right leg, the back of the thigh, and also the back of your torso and the right side of your spine. Your hands might rest on your shin, or they might hold your foot. With your next inhale, lift your chest like you're coming halfway out of the pose, and exhale, roll back down, bow your head toward your leg. And do it a couple more times like this. Inhale, lift and lengthen. Exhale, soften back down. And again, inhale, lift and lengthen your spine. coming up and bending the right knee. Place the right foot to the inner upper thigh. Turn toward the left leg and come forward over the leg, feeling the stretch in the back of the left thigh, the back of the torso, and with hands on the shin or the foot, lift up halfway, inhale. Exhale, release back down, round your spine and shoulders. Inhale, lift again. Exhale, soften. Last time, inhale, lengthen. And exhale, soften and relax here, holding the forward bend and breathing as you rest. Slowly come up and come into position for butterfly. Bring the soles of your feet together, let your knees open out. Option to sit on a cushion as you bring your hands to hold around your ankles or your toes. And exhale and come forward over the legs. With your inhale, lift up halfway and lengthen your spine. Exhale, forward and relax. One more time, lift and lengthen, inhale. Soften as you exhale. And relax here. Hands might come out in front of you, or wherever they're comfortable, letting the weight of the head and shoulders soften forward and down. Take a deep breath or two here. Slowly now begin to come up and make your way all the way down onto your back. As you rest on your back, bend your knees and hug them in toward the chest. Wrap the arms around the legs and gently rock side to side. Moving into spinal twist now. Release your feet to the floor. Lift your hips and shift them over to the left a few inches. Draw the knees in and over to the right, extending left arm out to the left. You can take your right hand down on the outside of the knees. Option to cross your left knee over your right knee, or just keep the knees stacked on top of each other. And settling into steady breathing as your spine twists in the center of your body. Stay here in the twist, but just shift the arm position to take your left arm up next to your head. Letting the arm rest toward the ground and breathe into the left side of the ribs. Feel the opening in the left armpit, left side of the waist and the trunk. Inhale. As you exhale, cross the arm over your face and curl up into a ball on your right side. Resting here. Breathing here. And roll back up to the center and slowly shift to twist to the other side. Hips to the right. Knees up and over to the left. Reaching out through the right arm. Left hand on the legs. Settling into your steady breath. Letting your body surrender into gravity. When you're ready, take your right arm up next to your head. Letting the weight of the arm release toward the ground. Take a big breath into the right side of the ribs. And exhale, cross the arm over the face as you round your spine and curl up into a ball on your right side and rest here. Good. And now slowly come back up to the center and find a comfortable position to rest on your back. And once you find the connection of your back body to the earth, take a breath in and sigh it out. Breathe in and breathe out. One more time. And now let your body settle here as you feel the effects of this practice of moving, stretching, breathing, and tending to your body. Feel the energy that moves and swirls inside. When you're ready, reach your arms over your head with interlaced fingers, pressing the palms away. Inhale, stretch down long through your feet and legs, perhaps taking a yawn. And now bend your knees and slowly roll over onto one side. And slowly come up into a seated position, any comfortable seat. Taking a moment now to close the practice, feeling the breath and feeling the body, sensing into your inner world, feeling each breath. Resting in this quiet space and place the palms together in front of your heart when you're ready, bowing the head to honor this time of self-care, this time with yourself. And that's the close of our slow and stretchy somatic movement practice today. Be sure to move gently into whatever comes next in your day. Thanks for practicing with Devi Daily Yoga. If you liked this session, tap the thumbs up, subscribe to my channel, and check out my free yin yoga guidebook in the description box below. I'll see you again soon, the next time we move together.