Yin Sequence for Spring

 

Self Care by Filippa Edgehill

Designed for 60 - 75 minutes
Blocks + Bolster optional
Playlist

 

OPENING:

We are at the beginning of a fresh new season. Things outside are unfurling, building, bursting. But for now, we surrender…Let go…yield…experience, rest back, witness…

During this practice, you can bring attention to a thought and let it go.

During this practice you can bring attention to a place in your body that is talking to you and with your breath, let it go quiet.

In yin, like in life, if you stay with sensations of discomfort, and settle your thoughts around it…you learn how to see with different eyes. Learning to see and lead with heart is our intention here. If you can let go…you can be free.

READING:

Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The gray perished landscape is shorn of color. Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged. Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up. Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return. Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bud opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.

The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it.”

— John O’Donohue


ASANAS:

Arrival Posture of Choice
(typically sukhasana or supported savasana) - 5 minutes
soft gaze or eyes closed. settle into a place of awareness and stillness

Fetal Shape (Left) - 3 minutes
keep left arm straight for a tourniquet effect on inside of the arm

Cat Pulling its Tail (holding Left foot) - 2.5 minutes
use as a gentle quad stretch or slowly open to a twist on your back

Belly Down Savasana (switch cheeks halfway) - 3 minutes
sense into the releasing energies in arms and fingertips

Half Frog (Right) - 3 minutes
thread R arm under left and press R temple down

Crocodile (Rebound) - 1 minute
windshield wiper your legs

Fetal Shape (Right) - 3 minutes
keep right arm straight for tourniquet effect on inside of arm

Cat Pulling its Tail (holding Right foot) - 2.5 minutes
use as gentle quad stretch or slowly open to a twist on your back

Belly Down Savasana (switch cheeks halfway) - 3 minutes
sense into the releasing energies in arms and fingertips

Half Frog (Left) - 3 minutes
thread L arm under left and press L temple down

Crocodile (Rebound) - 1 minute
windshield wiper your legs then flow in and out of Cobra a few times

Child’s Pose (Wide) - 5 minutes
use any props to support and restore you

Japanese Sit + Movement (Rebound) - 1 minute
smash your calves and awaken legs by rocking side to side

Dragon (Left) - 3 minutes
use this difficult posture to consider where you are in transition - what is fading away? What can you leave behind with Winter?

Half Split (Rebound) - 1 minute
tilt L toes up and move as needed or take fire-hydrant movements

Flowing Table (Release) - 1 minute
move organically to let the lunge sensations spread and break up tension

Dragon (Right) - 3 minutes
use this side to consider where you are in transition - what is emerging? What excites you about this time of the year?

Half Split (Rebound) - 1 minute
tilt R toes up and move as needed or take fire-hydrant movements

Flowing Table (Release) - 1 minute
move organically to let the lunge sensations spread and break up tension

Butterfly Fold (Peak Consciousness) - 3-5 minutes
explore all sensations, support your forehead with a block and breathe using third eye visualization

Supported Fish - 3-5 minutes
return to your thoughts of Spring and open your heart to make your desires real

Optional Legs Up the Wall - 2-3 minutes
option to take this position into savasana

Savasana: 10-15 minutes (or as long as you can)
take three surrendering breaths and then dissolve into your well-deserved rest…

CLOSING:

Begin to bring subtle movements to your smallest parts, your fingers and your toes.

Awakening.

I hope you feel hopeful…I hope you feel inspired…I hope you feel peaceful. Rise to an easy seat. Just where you began.

Take a deep breath in and out…cleansing your body and spirit. Then take your Om as a hum. Lengthen the breath and create the vibration as a long held hummmmmm. The hum exists in that pause between inhale and exhale. Take 3 cascading hummmms for as long as your breath allows. Make a symphony of buzzing energy.

Hummmmmm x 3

 Bring your palms to touch at the center of your chest. Your heart. Close your eyes.

Honor the place within where the entire universe resides. Honor the place within you of love, of light, of truth, of peace, knowing that when you are in that place, you can see others in this same light. In this place you feel that you are one. Bow deeply in reverence to yourself…

Be open to all the beauty in store for you this Spring.

Namaste.

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