25-Minute Bedtime Yoga Flow for Better Sleep & Relaxation, Best Sleep Ever

So we'll start in a cross-legged position. We can go Sukhasana, cross-legged, or one foot in front of the other, whatever feels most comfy for you. And also, feel free to grab a pillow, and if you want to sit on that, kind of prop up the hips a little. That could be a great prop to use here for this evening's practice. So wherever you choose to settle in, we'll start to do just that, finding a little lift through the chest, a little lift through the chin, and then just starting to get really heavy from the waist down. And from here, we'll just start to sync up our breath, really taking a big, full, deep breath all the way in, big inhale through the nose, and a big exhale out through the mouth. Start letting go of the day. Nice and easy. If you want to, take a couple neck circles. We can inhale by letting the tip of the nose be our guide, inhale, looking up, and then as we exhale, coming through chin to chest. So moving nice and slow, take stock here. Notice if there's any tension in the neck or any little crunchies of the neck and shoulder. You know, we can carry things with us throughout our day that can sometimes manifest physically, so can be really great to just see if we can release that. Notice if there's any places to soften through the face, through the jaw, and whenever you feel is right, we'll start to reverse the direction, and just taking it the opposite way. You can even close your eyes here if that sounds nice. Letting go of the day we just had. So when we do make our way to the bed, we're ready to fall right to sleep. So that way we can wake up energized and feeling awesome for our day tomorrow. Great, let's do one more big neck circle going this way, and then we'll end the neck circles coming through chin to chest. From here, maybe we bring the palms together, Anjuli Mudra at the heart. Can close the eyes for this beat if you haven't already, and stick with your long, deep breath, letting the dust settle. Notice how you feel as we get this great big stretch through the back of the neck. Let your shoulders soften, relax. Hips are getting heavy. Breath is long and deep. Settling in, awesome. With the next exhale, nice and easy, we can lift the head, lift the chin. Nice and slow, we're gonna bring the left foot in towards center and send your right leg out long. From here, we'll send the fingertips out. Inhale, just reach it up, nice and slow. Don't have to go super high. We can even take this big wide V. And then with the exhale, we'll turn to face the right leg and drape and fold over the right leg. Head to knee pose, really push through the right heel here. And this can be subtle. Don't have to come way down unless you're really digging that. You can have as generous a bend in this right knee as you like. And maybe we reach for the outer edges of the right foot. If that's not available to you, we can stay here touching the outer edges of the ankle and breathe deep, just fold in. Notice how with a couple rounds of breath, maybe the pose starts to unfold a little more, keeping a little action, little active foot in the right foot. Flexing the toes, filling your lungs with air, big deep breath in, big deep breath out. If there's any tension, see if we can bring the breath to that tension and then imagine it leaving the body with the exhale. All right, we'll be down here for one more breath in. And with the exhale, we'll roll it up nice and slow. From here, left fingertips will reach behind and inhale, sweep the right fingertips all the way up and over towards the left for a little right side body stretch. We can have left fingertips on the earth or maybe we come down to the left forearm, still reaching that right heel towards the front right corner of the mat, big deep breath in. And then exhale nice and easy, bending this right elbow, we'll come back through center. Take it to the other side, right foot comes in, sending the left leg out long. Notice if the side feels different, typically does, at least for me. Fingertips will come back out at our sides. Inhale, we sweep it up, maybe just a little higher than the shoulders. Deep breath in and then exhale, turning to face this left leg, we fold over. And again, fingertips can reach to the outer edge of this left foot. Maybe we're at the left ankle, finding a nice comfy place we can root down and breathe deep, sending that left heel towards the front left edge of the room. Might feel good to even close the eyes here, just folding inward, staking with the breath. And again, we can have as generous a bend in this left knee as you like. This is your practice and your time to unwind. Maybe we even visit an Ujjayi breath here, bringing the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, sealing the lips, taking an inhale in through the nose, and then exhaling out through the nose and mouth. Maybe you hear that calming ocean-like sound coming from the back of the throat. And we'll be on this side for one more breath in. And then with the exhale, nice and slow, we'll roll it back up. Right fingertips crawl behind this time and inhale, send the left hand up and over. Maybe we come down to this right forearm, maybe not. Deep breath in as we stretch through this whole left side body. Deep breath out, and a few more inhales in. Gaze can be looking up or down, whichever feels best. We can even tuck the chin to keep some length through the back of the neck. Wherever you're at, just breathing super deep. Big, full inhale in, and exhale nice and slow, bending that left elbow, we come back up. Awesome, let's bring the soles of the feet together now. Coming into a little butterfly position, also called cobbler's pose. So we wanna bring the soles of the feet together and then try to anchor down through the thighs. We can scooch the feet closer towards center as you like, getting this big stretch through the hips. If you like, we can bring the fingertips to interlace and kind of cup around the feet, the toes. Might also feel good to give the soles of the feet a little massage here, just a gentle rub of the feet. Maybe even the Achilles here, sitting up nice and tall, finding this little lift through your chest and your chin. Tuck a little weight down through the elbows and keep breathing deep. Stick with your big, deep breath. Feel free to close your eyes here. And we can stick with massaging the feet for as long as you like. If you're ready to come on down to the ground, I'm gonna come long ways on the mat, nice and slow. Maybe we come down to one elbow and then the other, keeping the soles of the feet together. If you want to grab your pillow that we were seated on, if you took that, we can bring it behind the head as we nice and slowly lower down to our backs. And the soles of the feet are still together. Feel it out here as we lay on our back. If there's any tension in the low back from this, we can walk the feet out just a little. Might also feel good to support the low back with an extra pillow if we have it. So one for under the head, one under the low back. And that's all optional too. So just getting this great grounding. We can bring the hands to the belly to kind of mirror the legs here. And feel free to close your eyes as you like. And we'll be in our supta baddha konasana, our reclined butterfly for one more deep breath in. And as we exhale, nice and easy, we're gonna send one leg out at a time. Awesome. From here, we'll just take a big full body stretch, inhaling to send the fingertips up and overhead. And we can even make fists and roll through the wrists. Take a couple of circles with the ankles here, point and flex through our feet. Deep breath in. And as we exhale, settling in, we'll bring the palms down at our sides towards the earth. We'll bring the soles of the feet to the earth now and start to walk the feet up towards your stiff bones. From here, we'll plant the palms firmly into the earth. And then inhale, lift the hips up for a little baby bridge. So knees are facing inward, not splaying out. And lifting our chest to our chins and our chins up towards the sky. Big, deep breath in. Fill the front body with air. And a big, deep breath out. Maybe you consider letting go of any thoughts with the exhales. And we'll take one more inhale here. And exhale to lower nice and slow, lowering hips to the earth. From here, maybe we take an inhale, just like our full body stretch, but with the soles of the feet to the earth, reaching fingertips up and overhead. Big breath in. And then with the exhale, nice and slow, lifting the hips up again, just for a little variation in our bridge. Lifting chest to chin and chin towards the sky. Consider the knees, draw them inward. Big, full, deep breaths. Inhaling, nice, long exhale out. And let's say we'll hold for two more breaths. Big inhale, big exhale. Maybe you close the eyes and lift the corners of the mouth just slightly. One more breath cycle. Inhaling in through the nose and exhaling out through the mouth. Awesome, nice and easy. We'll lower the hips to the earth. We can bring the hands back at the belly or on our sides. And then from here, we're gonna just hug the knees into our chest. Should feel really good to flush the low back with the earth. And we can even rock a little side to side here. Maybe we turn the gaze a little right to left. If you're doing this with a partner, maybe you greet them as you turn their way. From here, nice and slow, we can bring palms to the knees. Just let your shins fall forward. Give it a try, see how that feels. And then maybe we just take a couple circles with the knees going one way. Breathing deep, feel that nice massage of the low back. Maybe here you imagine something you'd like to dream about. And then whenever it feels right, reversing the knee circles. Just taking it the opposite way from where we started. Still breathing super deep, finding that nice massage. And then you can stay rocking it out with our knee circles. If you're getting a little sleepy here, maybe we, nice and slow, send one leg out at a time. Well, I'll send the right leg out, but you can choose. And then hug the left knee into the chest. Big, deep breath in. And then with the exhale, whichever knee you're hugging into the chest, we're gonna melt it over to the other side for a supine twist. From here, we can send the fingertips out at our sides. And again, if you're practicing this with someone, maybe you hold hands or reach for them. Maybe you give your pet a little rub if they're there. Just finding this nice twist through the spine. And big, full, deep breath in. Nice, easy exhale out. Keep filling the belly, the lungs with air. Big inhale, big exhale. We'll stay on this side for one more breath cycle. Inhaling in, and then exhaling, rolling back through center. From here, we'll send the leg, the left leg out. If we were hugging that one in, if not, we'll send the right leg out. And then from there, hugging the opposite knee into the chest. Big, full inhale in. And then as we exhale, nice and slow, guiding this knee to melt towards the opposite side. Over the leg, we can send the fingertips out or cactus the arms, whichever feels best. And breathing deep here, maybe we revisit that Ujjayi breath. Maybe we close the eyes if we haven't already, or if they've reopened throughout the practice, that's okay. Settle in here, feel it out. Notice how you feel. Notice if there are places to soften. See if we can find this weightless feeling. We'll be on the side for one more breath cycle. Inhaling in, and exhaling, nice and easy, rolling back through center. From here, we can send this leg out long, coming into Shavasana. Hands can rest gently on the belly or at our sides. Or maybe you bring one hand to the belly, one hand to the heart. Snuggle the shoulder blades underneath your heart like they're trying to go in for a little kiss of each other, the shoulder blades. And then feel the expansion with your breath in, and then feel the loosening, the contraction with the breath out. And if you like, maybe we scan the body, starting at the soles of the feet, and just take notice through this body scan, traveling all the way up through the crown of the head. If you want to head right into Shavasana, nice and easy, I invite you to bring the palms together and bring the thumbs up to your third eye. I hope you have a beautiful night's rest. Good night to all my friends. Namaste. Welcome to Yoga Plus, courses available from pupil to yogi. Sort by yoga, fitness, and instructors. Create your own routines. Access the Pose Library. 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