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Transcript:
Hey everyone! My name is Judy and I’m a yoga instructor in Toronto. Feel free to follow the link below to my website, which’ll show you my teaching schedule. Today, I’ll be guiding you through two of my favourite restorative poses. If you’d like more yoga videos, hit that “like button” and subscribe to this channel. Let’s go.
Fold a blanket and place it onto the seat of your chair. You’re going to be sitting right in front of the seat in a wide straddle – slip a bolster under each knee or use two rolled up blankets to prop them up. You can fold your arms on top of the blanket and round the spine forward to rest your head onto your arms. Close your eyes and stay for a few cycles of breath.
Like I said earlier, if you don’t have access to bolsters, just take two blankets and fold them to roughly the same height – like I’m doing here and slip these under the knees instead. The idea is to fold them enough times, so that your knees are bent and can rest comfortably on top of them, so that you’re not feeling stretch in your legs as you fold forward. How high you need it and how much bend you need in your knees depends on your body.
If your legs feel like they’re stretching, remove the bolsters supporting the knee and take a cross-legged position instead. We’re thinking about allowing the back body to open as we fold forward and you want to be comfortable enough so that you can stay a few minutes.
If there is a pulling sensation happening in your lower back, prop your hips up. And if you’re finding it hard to reach your head to the chair seat, add more cushioning, so that your head and neck are fully supported.
For our second pose, remove the props from underneath you, come to lie down on your back, and take your legs up onto the chair. Make sure your feet are fully supported – I needed to remove the blanket padding to prevent them from dangling. Slipping a bolster or folded blanket under the hips can also do the trick and add height to the thighs.
You can close your eyes here or cover them with an eye pillow if you have. And, sometimes it feels good to place a folded blanket underneath your head for support. See if you can stay between 15-20 minutes – focusing on releasing any tension from your day. Feel heavy in your legs and torso and allow it to melt into the chair and ground. Make sure that your wrists aren’t angled in a way that would cause tension. Loop the shoulders up to your ears and then melt them into the earth. Separate the biting surfaces of your teeth and take the tongue away from the roof of your mouth. Finally, soften the space between your eyebrows and just give yourself this time to relax and restore.
To move out of the pose, gently roll off to one side.
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