Feel Good Yoga For A Stressful Day, 20 Minute Class With Julia Marie, Relaxing Gentle Stretches

yoga plus download now for free [Music] hey welcome it’s Julia and today I have a feel-good class for you or maybe you could even call it work sucked today class and you want something to just unwind or maybe you love your job I have the best job in the world but I know some days I come home and I just need to take some time for myself it’s so easy to forget to take time for ourselves all day long and then we get to the end of the day and it seems like that last request is the straw that broke the camel’s back and you just can’t take it anymore so this is the kind of practice you need when you are up to here with your stress and you need to chill for a moment so that you can step back into your life with a little more clarity and with a lot more open-heartedness so let’s start seated I want you to just bring your left heel towards your bum kind of like so and if you notice that your knee pops off the ground then just slide a little blanket or a cushion underneath there I want you to lean back into your right hand just enough they start to feel an opening through your left quad we’re gonna be real kind of systematic as we open up our hips here because if you have been sitting at a desk job all day don’t want to go to extreme into your stretches you want to ease on into your stretches from there I want you to just switch your legs and that can take a little bit of skill just to get comfortable with this idea of moving from side to side so your heels gonna come in towards your bum you’re gonna lean in the opposite hand and it’s okay if you find a little bit of space between your tush and the ground right now that probably just means that you have a pretty tight hip flexor good so now you’re gonna flip your fingertips onto the ground and you’re just gonna find a little bit of movement from side to side this does take some core strength to move your legs without kind of flopping you want to move with ease so just kind of rock back on your pelvis and switch your legs and do that side to side if you’re like Julia what yoga poses this column doesn’t have a name we’re just working with some hip mobility but I guarantee you’re gonna feel really good this is gonna help you with your poses good so we’re gonna pause in the position we’ve just started on slide the right hand a little closer to us and bring the left hand out first you’re just gonna skim the horizon and look over your right shoulder that’s it you’re not moving too much you’re definitely not moving from the waist down you’re just moving for them waist up good on the next one you’re going to take what I call it double Stargazer double because both shins are on the ground lift your butt up lift your pelvis up press into your shins and lift your left side body one of my favorite poses because you didn’t feel opening all the way across your hip and into the side body good and then swing it back down and you know the drill take your heels to the other side and then you’re going to Brown the left hand and just start with skimming the horizon again just moving from the waist and then a third time we’re gonna come all the way up press down into your shins push down into your ground at hand and then engage your glutes just enough that you start to feel a hip opening across the front side of you really nice and then bring it back down and then you’re going to extend your right leg out scoot your tush back bring the sole of your left foot in so you’re in a John use your sauna or forehead to knee legs good we’ll start with a side bend so you’re gonna slide your right arm down the right side of your body you can always put a block or a pillow there if the ground feels a little bit far lift up and over with your left and just reach beyond your toes you don’t have to dock your hand anywhere just reach good now turn the chest up a little bit inhale to come on up and switch legs so if you do need to use your hands to switch legs it’s fine you’ll get the hang of it as you move through these poses a little bit more transition is a really interesting thing that’s space between the poses let’s sort of like just taking the exhale between each email that you have to answer at work right take a pause take a moment notice the space between lift up through the right ribs as you side bend over the left leg good reach beyond your fingers you don’t have to dock your hand anywhere keep the top arm active that’s gonna draw a stretch into the side body good come on up switch the legs again and this time you’re going to turn over your right leg and fold wherever your hands want to stop let them stop you don’t have to touch your toes will be fine if you do touch your toes and it feels good to grab your foot grab your foot but move the chest wall towards the top of your foot so you’re gonna get a nice release for your hamstring and your low back [Music] great [Music] excellent come on up and switch sides so again you’re gonna fold over and you don’t need to touch your toes if you do great you don’t just let your hands rest forever they’re going to rest pull the belly in a little bit move the heart forward and where your body says stop stop you’ve had a million other people telling you to go go go all day at least listen to yourself when your body says stop good really nice [Music] come on back up switch legs once again and now we’re gonna get a couple of those poses linked together so we’re going to come into stargazer pose similar as what we did at the top of this practice but with one leg extended so with your right leg out you’re gonna take your left hand behind you sweep your right arm across the horizon and then come on up big opening across the entire side body from toe tip to fingertip push into the ground use a little bit of muscle through the grounded shin so you’re pressing down engage the glutes just a bit the leg will activate to keep you lifted and then come on down switch sides so the left leg is gonna come out right foots gonna come in circle your right hand behind you so you have a nice solid base swing your left arm in front of you and then up over your ear lift off so a little bit of muscle down through that chin you’re gonna notice the legs gonna fire the glutes gonna fire long leg to lung fingertips you’re gonna feel nice and spacious and then this grounded hand really root it down so you’re lifted beautiful work [Music] let’s swing yourself back down and now you’re gonna bring the soles of your feet together so as you draw the soles of your feet together I want you to walk your sit bones back hug your feet a little bit and press the heels of your feet together as you’ve lift your heart up so a little counterintuitive because most of the time when you grab your feet you won’t immediately bend forward but don’t pause and go really long with your spine as you press your heels together you’re gonna notice that the groins are gonna open a little bit it’s sort of that activation of a muscle to actually lengthen a muscle is what we’re what we’re feeling here take one more breath in that nice tall seat and then begin to bow forward you can release your hands from your feet at this time and then just let your head hang allow your nose to fall down towards your toes relax your back you should feel really nice in your low back a nice opening for the groin big inhale big exhale good walk yourself up good we’ll take a tabletop a reverse tabletop rather from here so the feet will come in front of you as you circle your hands behind you let your fingertips point towards your heels and then pull the shoulder blades back from there you’ll lift your hips up root through your finger pads you’re not dumping in your wrists anchor down through your heels and then try to drag your heels back towards your bottom you’ll feel your hamstrings activate you can lift your pelvis up good take one more breath here as you exhale lower your seat back towards your thumbs and swing your booty back now your legs are nice and long and they’re together and we’ll come into our paschimottanasana root down into your sit bones and sit tall and dandasana or staff pose then swing the arms up overhead and fold so you fold forward again it’s the same drill as it was with the John your sirsasana if your hands don’t touch your feet it’s fine just let them rest fold as far as your body allows you can often access a deeper fold if you draw your belly in just a little bit allow the head to come on down very last so most of this is about moving from your hips rather than moving just from your neck [Music] good two more breaths [Music] that feels nice come on up slide your heels in take your hands behind you swing yourself back up into that reverse tabletop pressing down through your hands so the shoulder blades start to come together a little bit squeeze them in move the chest wall through good as you exhale swing your hips back and we’re gonna take it down all the way to our back from here so roll on down get yourself onto your back for your arms up out from underneath you and then cross your right shin over your left thigh threader your arms through and grab behind your left hamstring for a supine pigeon flex your toes and then pull your legs towards your chest if you have a little more to play with anchor your right elbow into your right femur bone or your thigh and press it away from you so as you press away and pull in at the same time you’re gonna access a deeper stretch for your hip good and I’ll maintain this figure for a leg you’re just gonna drop it all the way to the side good from here take your left hand to your right ankle and this one can be a little bit tricky to hear and visualize so I really want you to activate as I talk you through it so the bottom knee the knee that’s on the ground I want you to pull that into the outer edge of your right foot so pull it back you’re gonna start to feel that has some activity in your butt and now as you hang on to your right shin I want you to widen your knee so again we’re activating a muscle to stretch it widen your lifted me so move your knee away from your chest and you’re gonna feel a deep release in your hip good come on back to the middle and relax your feet down if you want a windshield wiper your knees side to side that can feel really good we’re thinking about sort of stress relief it’s important to remember that we are wired with a negativity bias that’s how we survived our evolutionary process to get us to this point so the way our brains are wired it’s wired for survival and we should sync our brains for that it’s wired for pleasure it’s wired for survival and so when you have these stressful events at work sometimes that one stressful event stays in your brain so much longer than the ten amazing moments so maybe ten of your colleagues have given you a compliment but like one person said something really crappy that tends to be the thing that our brain pays attention to but what yoga helps us do is to notice the moments that feel good so we start to retrain our brain to notice stuff that we’re doing in the moment that’s working for us mister to rewire ourselves towards happiness or success or pleasure or something that is going to make us proud in the moment so let’s feel that as we take ourselves to the other side cross your left shin over your right thigh thread through so now you’re feeling that sensation of stretch it’s a little bit of tension but if you actually lean into that tension instead of backing away from it you give us a really pleasurable stretch response now if you went too far with your stretch you’re gonna get a singer and your brain is gonna say uh-uh and you’re going to maybe pull back that’s that’s the natural tendency but if you start to play with that edge where it feels you’ll notice that reward we start to crave that sensation of who yes I’m taking care of my body I like this and that alone just sort of that feeling of caring for ourselves starts to lower our stress response start to feel more empowered have more agency over our experience good and now take those figure-four legs and just drop them over so again one knees gonna hit the ground the other knees gonna stay up towards the ceiling the knee that’s on the ground I want you to hug it in toward the edge of your foot then with your right hand grab your left ankle and using your outer hip muscles widen your knee away from you just a little bit it’s not gonna be a huge movement but you’re gonna start to feel some release through the side panel of the hip and thigh that could be a really great sensation maybe as you do this recall a moment in your day that wasn’t stressful most of the time we say oh I’ve had a bad day but the reality is you had a couple of bad moments in the middle of a day the entire day probably wasn’t bad so call to your attention a moment that was actually really good and start to focus on that great and then come back to the center and I want you to hug your knees into your chest this time rock yourself side-to-side the rocking motion is a naturally soothing motion for the body we love it we’ve loved it since we were babies we’ve loved it since before we were born to be honest so it can be really sweet to just rock yourself side to side and then bonus you’re getting a little back massage as you do it great from there just release your feet down I want you to knock your knees in together today so you have a lot of stability you can really feel your feet underneath you and then just place your hands on your own body so you’re making contact with yourself acknowledge that this is a moment that you’re taking for yourself no one can take it away from you you have this moment for you to breathe if you felt like everything has been coming at you from all different angles I get it I understand that we’ve all been there but what our yoga practice and when our breathing practices offer us is another way a way to just start to pay attention to support ourselves [Music] cultivate some resiliency no matter where you are what you did or didn’t do even if you felt like you made a colossal mistake today that’s the past you’re in a present moment right now you can learn and move forward you can let go and move forward you can relax and move forward all of these are possible for you take a few more breaths [Music] [Music] you start to move yourself out of your shavasana take your time roll to your side [Music] and then press yourself up ah that feels better it doesn’t matter if you love what you do maybe your home with kiddos or maybe you even own your own business we all have days regardless of what’s coming at us on a day-to-day basis or a general feeling about it we all have days that take a toll on us but if we start to cultivate this kind of practice where we take care of ourselves where we pause and we say off what feels good or what could feel good in this moment in my body that is such an awesome practice not to tune out your day but actually to tune in to yourself and when we do that we come back feeling lighter brighter more energized more at peace and that’s what I really hope for you I want you to feel at peace thank you so much for joining me in this video it means a lot that you showed up for yourself I’ll see you in the next video namaste hey it’s Julia and welcome to my 30 day yoga for weight loss program I’ve designed this program to help you live more optimally in addition to 30 days of yoga you will find bonus tips and homework assignments at the end of each video to help you stay on track in fact we’ve created a really balanced program this means you are going to be addressing all aspects of your well-being from your physicality all the way to how are you feeling mentally and emotionally throughout the entire 30 days we’re starting right here from the ground on up to build a practice that you can sustain day-in day-out for your whole life but let’s just start with 30 days I can’t wait to get started with you and I’ll see you on your man available now on Amazon and on wellness plus TV
Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GwGUpOys3w