15 Min Somatic Fascia Release | Yin Yoga Flow with Vagus Activation

Welcome to this somatic Yin yoga practice and welcome back to Devi Daly Yoga. This is a gentle stretching sequence that will incorporate somatic exercises and breathing that will activate the vagus nerve and get the body into its rest and digest mode, activating the parasympathetic nervous system and helping to release deep seated tightness and tension from the body's fascia. We'll go ahead and begin the practice in child's pose.

From a hands and knees position, bring your knees to a comfortable width apart and send your hips back toward your heels in child's pose. Rest your forehead on the floor.

Let your next inhale, feel the breath expand into the back of your body.

And with your exhale, feel your spine soften and relax into the body.

Take another breath into your whole back body and exhale completely.

And now inhale up to hands and knees, coming into hip circles, knees under your hips and your hands under your shoulders.

Take a breath in, and with your exhale, send your hips and shoulders over to the right, and then swing your hips back toward your heels a bit, and swing the hips over to the left and forward.

And keep going in this direction two more times, feel the spine bending and curving to one side, and then bending and curving to the other side.

One more time going clockwise like this.

And as you come forward this last time.

Change the direction of your circles.

Going to the left first and back.

And to the right and forward.

Nice and slow.

And taking one more full circle around.

And bringing everything back to the center.

And now some easy cat and cow breaths, inhale, lift your gaze and find a back bend with your spine.

Exhale and round your spine, tucking your chin and tucking your tailbone.

Inhale, back bend, gaze forward.

Exhale, round your spine.

Two more, inhale, and imagine the spaces between your spinal bones.

Imagine the discs being massaged.

As you breathe in and out.

One more.

And last time exhaling.

And return to a neutral spine.

And make your way down onto your elbows and forearms.

Coming into a sphinx position.

And from this sphinx position, just lengthen the front of your hips toward the floor.

You can wiggle your hips a little just to kind of nestle in here.

And then bend your right knee so that your foot comes up into the sky.

Lift your gaze forward.

And begin to circle this right foot in a clockwise direction.

Toes pointing up toward the sky.

Like you're drawing a circle on the ceiling or on the sky.

Circling two more times.

Good.

And now circle it around the other way.

Three or four times.

Feeling this stretch in the front of your hip, a massage of your hip joint.

Good.

And bring your leg back to center.

And let the leg come down to the floor.

And now bend your left leg.

Pointing the left toes up toward the sky.

And starting with your clockwise circles.

One.

Two.

Three.

And four.

And then circle around the other way.

One.

Two.

Three.

And four.

Good, let the leg come back down to the floor.

And now we'll hold our sphinx pose.

You can press down into the elbows.

Lift your gaze.

Roll your shoulders back.

Getting into our first Yin pose here, you can stay on the elbows.

Or if you want a little bit more sensation, you can straighten your arms and come into seal.

Wherever you are, begin to relax your legs.

Relax your thighs.

And breathe steadily and easily in and out.

As you continue to rest here.

Feel the front of your hips relaxing.

And feel your breath gently massaging your body from the inside.

Inhaling.

And exhaling slowly.

Lower down.

And slowly make your way onto your back.

As you come onto your back, spread your body out on the floor in star.

Feel your arms and legs contacting the earth.

And feel the earth supporting your whole body.

Breathe in.

And take a big exhale, really releasing into the floor.

Into the earth.

Another full breath in.

And sigh it out.

And now bend both knees, taking them in toward you.

And just hug them in toward your chest, interlacing the fingers.

Gently rocking side to side.

And now let's take it into figure four.

With the left ankle coming over the right knee.

And the left knee turning out to the side.

And hug the right leg in.

You can clasp behind the thigh or in front of the shin.

And we're going to feel this stretch in the outer left hip.

And this is this whole region of fascia that weaves around the outside of the left hip.

And throughout the muscles of the glutes.

And the rotators.

And this region is from the outer left leg.

Up over the back of the hip and the side of the hip.

Anchoring into the lower back.

The sacrum.

Let's breathe into this area.

Inviting tension to release and soften.

And take an inhaling breath.

And exhale, release your legs.

And extend both legs long down your mat.

Interlace your fingers and press your palms up and away from your legs.

Full body stretch.

Deep breath in.

And exhale, hug both knees in again.

Gently rocking side to side.

Feeling this gentle massage of your low back.

And bring your legs back to center.

We'll come into figure four on the second side.

Right ankle over the left knee, clasping around the shin.

Or the back of your left thigh.

Wherever you feel comfortable enough to feel this stretch in your outer right hip.

And this whole region of fascia.

From the outer left, I mean the outer right thigh.

And into the low back.

And throughout all of your gluteal muscles.

Your buttock.

And your low back on the right side.

And each time you breathe in and out of this area.

It can be an invitation for the fascia to release.

And take another deep breath in now.

And exhale, release your legs.

To the floor, and place your feet as wide as the edges of your mat.

Spread your arms out to either side.

Coming into windshield wipers.

A little easy somatic movement with both knees coming to the right.

Turn your head to the left.

And now we'll just gently steer the knees up to center.

And over to the other side.

Keep going side to side.

Each time the knees go one way, you can turn your head the other way.

Nice and slow.

For a couple more rounds.

You can reach your arms over your head against the floor.

Getting a little bit of an extra fascia pull through the torso.

One more time to each side.

And slowly come back up to the center.

Inhale your breath.

And as you exhale, take both knees in.

And place one hand on each knee.

Circling the knees in a clockwise direction.

Three times.

And then circling them in a counterclockwise direction.

Three times.

And slowly roll all the way over onto one side.

And come up into a seated position with your legs crossed.

Sitting up tall.

And we'll move into some toning.

Which will begin with the eyes closed.

And three deep breaths in and out.

So inhale first.

And hum on your exhale.

Mmm.

Inhale.

This is stimulating the vagus nerve.

With this vibration.

Exhale with your hum.

Mmm.

One more.

Inhale.

Mmm.

Now we'll take the left hand to the low belly.

And the right hand to the heart.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Gently let your eyes open.

And give your arms a big circle, gathering the energy above your head.

And bring your palms together and down in front of your heart.

And that is our somatic Yin yoga practice today.

Thank you so much for joining me.

I hope that this was a relaxing session for you.

Feel free to leave a comment below, I always love hearing how you feel about these practices.

And I look forward to practicing with you again very soon.

Namaste.