20 Min Somatic Yoga | Daily Fascia Release & Stress Reset

Welcome back to your daily stretch with Devi Daily Yoga, where it's not about how your yoga looks, it's all about how it feels. This is a somatic yoga routine designed to release fascia and reset your nervous system. We'll begin lying down on the back. As you come to your back, make your way into reclined butterfly, placing the soles of your feet together and your knees wide. Rest one hand on your low belly and the other hand on your heart. Close your eyes. Soften your inner legs and let your whole back body soften into the floor. Take a gentle inhaling breath, filling your belly and filling your heart. And gently exhale, feeling your body rest into the support of the floor. Inhale. And as you exhale, slowly bring your knees up and step your feet apart so that they come to the two outside edges of your mat. Spread your arms out so we can come through some windshield wiper movements. Dropping both knees to the right and turning the head the opposite way. And then lifting and moving to the other side and continuing side to side as slowly as you'd like to go. Starting to wake up the body with gentle movement through the hips and lower back. Once more to each side. Knees back up to center. Find your way into Spinal Twist. Shifting the hips to the left first and then taking the knees in and over to your right. Turn your head away from your knees toward the left and breathe and soften. Holding each of our postures for five to six breaths today. And slowly bring your knees back up to the center and shift your hips over to the right before you draw your knees in and take them over to the left. Breathing steady, even breaths. And now rolling all the way over onto your left side and pushing up to make your way into Child's Pose. Lift your knees about hips width and sending the hips back toward your heels, toes toward each other or maybe touching forehead on the floor. Breathing in and out as you rest here and gently stretch into your low back and the back of your hips. Feeling the parts of the body that are connected to the floor, your hands, elbows, knees, fronts and tops of the feet and ankle. With your next inhale, lift and look forward and press your palms into the ground to activate the arms. And now come into a side stretching Child's Pose by walking the hands over toward the right side edge of your mat, placing your left hand on top of your right hand and settling back through your hips, gently pulling outward toward the left through your ribs and backward through the left hip crease to bring this nice length into the whole left side of your trunk. Breathe here. Lift your head and walk the hands over to the other side, placing your right hand on top of your left, sending the right hip back and spreading out through the right side of your ribs. And slowly walk the hands back to the center and come up to hands and knees, moving through cat and cow with your breath. So the knees are under the hips, the hands are under the shoulders. We begin with an inhale, gazing forward, coming into a backbend with the spine, exhaling and rounding, reversing this. Continue with your pace of breath, seeing how much movement you can get into your lower spine, middle spine and upper spine. And now let's take it into puppy by taking the hands out in front and dropping the heart down right between the shoulders, breathing into the front of the ribs, feeling this opening in the shoulders and the ribcage and the upper middle back. And now softening forward and all the way down onto your belly, preparing for Cobra Lift. I'm gonna take it down so the hands are at either side of the chest and touch your forehead to the floor. With your inhalation, lift up into a Cobra that feels good to you. You might keep it low, you might come up medium, you might press up to a higher position, whatever your spine feels good about and then just roll it right back down on your exhale, moving with the breath a few more times. The exhale brings you down, the inhale brings you back up. Moving through your last Cobra Lift. And exhale all the way back down, resting in Crocodile, hands stacked and the forehead resting on the hands, both legs evenly resting on the floor. And feeling the rebound in your body, feeling the energy flowing after the movements you've done so far. And now bend your knees so your feet come up above your knees, taking upside down Windshield Wipers with the knees, tick-tocking side to side. Bring the legs back up to the center and bring the feet to the floor. And coming up to Hands and Knees so we can move into Pigeon Pose. Taking the left knee forward and turning on the shin so the foot comes toward the right hip and settle down, lift up through the chest, take a little back bend here and then exhaling into your Pigeon or Sleeping Swan Pose. You can rest on your elbows or rest your forehead onto the floor, stretching into the outer left hip here, that's our target area, the left buttock. Breathing in and out as you feel the body soften in this area. And slowly rising back up. As you come up, come into Half Butterfly by bringing the back leg around to the front and your left foot will come to your inner upper thigh. Facing the extended leg, reach your arms up, inhale your breath and exhale forward over the leg, letting the hands rest on the shin, the ankle or the foot. Option to use a cushion under your seat if you would like. Feeling the stretch in the right hamstrings and the whole layer of fascia that runs along the back of the leg and over the back of your hip into the right side of your low back and the right side of your sacrum. Breathing in and out, slow breathing to help calm the body. Slowly walking your hands back up the leg to release and then coming into a twist by taking the right hand to the outside of the knee, left hand behind you, looking back over your shoulder. Untwisting and coming forward so we can make our way into Pigeon on the second side. Right leg is forward, left leg is back. Lift your chest, puffing it up like a pigeon as you inhale and exhale forward onto your elbows, resting here or coming down onto your forehead. And now targeting the outer right hip with this stretch. Slowly coming back up and now taking the back leg around to the front for Half Butterfly, right foot coming to the inner upper thigh. Extending up and coming forward with the hands on the foot or the shin. Stretching into the back of the left leg, feeling the length of the hamstrings and the lower back. And walking the hands up your leg and coming into your twist, left hand to the knee, right hand behind you, looking back, breathing and untwisting. And as you come forward again, take both legs out in front for Caterpillar. Letting your feet come to the width of your mat so that it's a wide Caterpillar Pose. Extend up through the arms and the spine and come forward over your legs, hands resting on the shins or elbows on the floor or on top of a couple blocks if you have them. Or maybe your hands come to your feet. It's not really about where the hands are or what the arms are doing. It's about the feeling that you have in your lower back and the back of your legs. This pose is primarily intended to stretch the spine. So you can actually allow your shoulders and head to relax, which will give you more stretch in the fascia of your back body. Slowly release, walking your hands up your leg. Make your way into a cross-legged seat. Sitting up tall and opening the arms out to the sides, moving into our self hug with the palms up, elbows bent. Open your shoulders back, slide your hands back in space and inhale as you gaze up. With your exhale, round your spine and wrap your right arm above your left, hugging yourself with a rounded spine, chin toward chest. Inhale, open it up. Kind of a back bend for the upper back. With your exhale, left arm crosses over right. And inhale, open it up. Let's do it one more time on each side, right over left. Inhale, open it up. And one last big hug for yourself. And inhale, open it up. Good, let's let the arms relax down onto the knees and drop your chin towards your chest, stretching into the neck, side to side. Nodding the head to the right and to the left. And slowly bring the head back to center. Lift the head up on top of the spine. With your eyes closed, we're going to move into some vagal toning to close the practice. Just gently making the sound om on your exhales for three breaths in a row. This activates the vagus nerve by bringing that gentle thoracic pressure into the lungs. Let's inhale the breath now. Om. And feeling the effects now as you sit quietly. Breathing in. And as you breathe out, let your eyes open. And that is the close of our somatic yoga practice today. Thank you so much for joining Devi Daily Yoga. Thank yourself for taking good care of your body and mind today. I look forward to the next time we practice together. Namaste.