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Guided Relaxation and Gentle Movement Practice

A guided relaxation and gentle movement practice for the entire body.

Begin by systematically relaxing from the shoulders down through the spine, limbs, and face. Initiate gentle movements with the arms and head. With knees bent, perform a pelvic rock forward and backward on the mat, allowing the movement to travel through the entire back and neck to improve circulation. Cross the legs and introduce a side-to-side rocking motion, followed by a gentle spinal twist with the head moving opposite the legs. Practice circling the legs to massage the lower back. Incorporate breath with stretching, leg pulls, and hip rotations while lying down. Perform side-lying movements for the shoulders and spine. Conclude with coordinated arm and head circles, gentle neck stretches, and a final integrated movement lifting the head with hands behind the neck. End with a full body stretch and relaxation.

"Relax your whole back and back muscles. In the middle is your spine; relax your spine."

"Bring your legs as much as you can towards your chest, and now rock left and right with your pelvis and legs dynamically."

Relax your shoulders, shoulder blades, and the area between the shoulder blades. Relax and make your neck long, letting your chin come closer to your collarbones. Move your head a little left and right to find a good middle position. Gently bend your head from left to right to find the right alignment. Relax your whole back and back muscles. In the middle is your spine; relax your spine. Relax your chin and chin muscle. Relax your ankle joint, the back of the foot, and your nose. Feel your foot sole and your heel. Relax your whole right leg. Feel your left foot sole, toes, back of the foot, heel, ankle joint, and calf muscles. Feel the front side of your lower leg, your knee, and all your thigh muscles. Relax your chest muscle, the joint of your shoulder, upper arm, elbow, lower arm, wrist, and back of your hands. Feel and relax your thumb. Let your eyeballs look down towards your nostrils. Relax your eye muscles. Relax the back of the nose and nostrils. Relax your lips. Relax your tongue, keeping it in your mouth without pressing it anywhere. Once more, take a deep breath—a deep inhale—and exhale spontaneously. Slowly start to move with gentle movements as you like—your arms, your fingers. If you have the feeling, you can stretch yourself. Bring your arms beside your shoulders, palms facing up, a little above your head as you can. With your long neck, move your head to the left and right side, just drawing left and right, and then to the middle. Keep your knees bent with foot soles on the floor. Stabilize your lower back. Do pelvis rocking forward and backward—the pelvic area. Bring your lower back, with your inhalation, toward the mat. Do not lift up your pelvis; the movement is on the mat. Then move forward towards the tailbone. If you don't know, then look here. Premjyotī, come here and show this movement. If you don't know how to do it, then come here without mentally. The pelvis rocks forward and backward. This forward and backward movement. Keep your knees bent; the legs are not completely together, but not so far from each other. Press down and move forward towards the tailbone. Do you see this movement? This movement should be such that your neck is moving with it. The movement goes along your whole back and neck. Do not lift up your pelvis; the movement is all on the mat, on the floor. It can be slow or dynamic; it depends on the condition of your back, spine, and everything. So please try this all. It improves the blood circulation of the whole belly and intestines. Very good. Now bring both arms again beside our shoulders, palms facing upwards. Bring your legs together. Bring your right leg above the left one, like we are sitting sometimes, hanging over. Thighs are touching each other, and now rock left and right side. Only the left and right side is moving, no torsion yet. Only left, right side. The left leg is the one that makes the movement, while the right leg is relaxed. You can go as far as you like on the side. Slowly or dynamically, it depends on you. Arms can be beside your shoulders, palms facing upwards. Very good. Now we can do the torsion towards the right side. Stabilize your lower back first with your belly muscles, and then bend your legs. Bring your legs towards the right, head towards the left. I didn’t say change the legs. The right leg is above the left one. Three times. With your own breath, do it, please. Legs to the right, head to the left. This opens again our lower ribs on the left side. Very good. In the middle, we change the leg position. Now the left one goes over the right. Now, just let it hang over and make the rocking left and right sides. With your own tempo, or speed—I don't know how you say—rhythm. Very good, so dynamically or slowly, it’s very comfortable for the lower back, and also for the whole thigh muscles and side muscles. But you feel yourself, and you feel yourself, and you feel yourself. Now again, torsion towards the left with your legs, head to the right. Bring your legs as much as you can towards your chest, and now rock left and right with your pelvis and legs dynamically. Your arms are beside your shoulders, palms facing upwards, aligned with the height of your shoulders. You have to know where your shoulder is. Very good. Now you can completely go to this side. Leg on one side, head on the other side. But don’t lower your legs. Keep them near the chest. Three rounds each side. You can make a crook in your back. It’s like a chiropractic adjustment sometimes. Very good. And now we make a circle with our legs—big circle, small circle. It is from my own practice also, and it helps very much if we have back pain. It doesn’t matter which reason, or the other side. The head can be in the middle. The good or the bad massages also our buttock muscles and our lower back. Very good, then stretch. Lift your legs up towards the ceiling. Bring your arms beside your body, and slowly bring your legs back down onto the mat. Take deep breaths. With your inhalation, stretch the whole right side of your body. Kumbhaka, antar kumbhaka, according to your capacity. And when you need to exhale, release your stretching and bring your arm back. And the left side of your body: deep inhale, stretch. Under kumbhak—high blood pressure people, no—high blood pressure, don’t keep kumbhak. Inhaled, and once more, please, each side. And once again, on both sides, according to your capacity. Bend your right knee and hold it, pulling it down towards your chest. Make your neck long. And look, that your shoulders are going down towards your hips, not towards your head. The right foot is relaxed. The left foot’s toes are in an upright position. And try to pull your left leg towards the periphery, from the middle towards the periphery, with your heel forward. Normal breaths. Legs a little bit apart from each other. The toes bring in the upright position. Now, move your legs, toes towards the middle, until the toes are touching each other. And outside rotation, with straight legs. No, no rotation in the hips, only like this. Always, the toes and foot are in the upright position. We make the rotation in our hip joints. Try it. Don’t stretch your feet forward. Very good. Now we bend both knees and hold both legs, rolling left and right side, rocking left and right side, and try to turn your head first and let your body follow. Head is on the mat. Don’t lift up your head. Turn your head first, and let your body follow. Babies are doing like this. If you observe the movements of the babies, they are doing like this also. Very good. Now remain on the right side like this, stretching your arms in front of you, in front of your chest. Legs are down on the floor, arms are in front of you. Make a place for your head, so maybe you have to move your shoulder a little bit, so that your head is on the ground. Now we have to improvise with your neighbor, to coordinate with your neighbor, back side. With your inhalation, the arm above goes in a circle to the side, and your head follows the movement of the hand. Try to keep your legs, your knees as near to the chest as possible to make your back round. If you need space, then make space for yourself. But anyhow, we don’t have any problem with contact now with our neighbor. Very good. And then above your head, in a half circle, if there is space. Make a half circle, fingers attached. Touching the ground toward the other side. And then keep your arm, remain there with your arm on the side, open chest, normal breaths. And relax your arm, shoulder, chest muscle, and back muscles. Relax your leg. We need not press our knees together; we can relax our hip muscles. We don’t have to push our knees to each other; we can release them to the navel. The knee and thigh want to open, then let it, and press together. Observe if your upper arm muscle is still in tension or if you can relax it already. Slowly bring your arm back, your head back. The lower arm can be under your head now, so bring your arm above your head, and the other hand can be in front of you, in front of your chest. We can keep the legs in this position, and then just open your knee and close it. And then, just open your knee and close it. I’ll show you, look here. The mirror remains like this, with your arm. This knee, just open and close. But do not go with your pelvis back side; the pelvis remains in this position. You can put your hand here, then you can feel the movement of your pelvis. Panvī, you can control it with your right hand and just put your knees together. We do it dynamically, and then 15 times. These trenches are the small gluteus muscle. It is important when we sit a lot; you will feel it after ten times where it is. Do you feel? Very good. Do you feel? Very good. We are doing nothing; we are just relaxing. The knees towards your chest again, a little bit, or more, as you like. And stretch your whole body, so it means both arms above the head, deep in head, stabilize your lower back, don’t arch your lower back too much, antakumbhak, and exhale back. Not too wide and not completely together. Feet are straight, not facing outside. Neck is long. Now, with your inhalation, lift up your pelvis and back, but don’t arch your lower back; stretch your hip flexors. Inhalation, lift up your pelvis and back, stretch your hip flexors, squeeze your buttock muscles together, and exhale down. Five rounds. Try not to arch your lower back, but stretch your hip flexors, the front side of your thigh towards your belly. Very good. I see you are doing well. Everything is good, yes? Very good. Now we bring both arms above the head. Foot soles, heels nearer towards your body, and again lift up your pelvis. Lift up your pelvis with your inhalation, and one heel lifts up. One heel, arms above the head, and with heel up, slowly bring your body back on the mat. Belly is up. Look here, again look here, pelvis. Up, pelvis up, heel up, look here, one heel is up. Now, while rolling back on the ground, we bring our body weight more to that side where the heel is on the floor. In that way, we can massage the thoracic part of the back when you are lying. Bring your heel down. Very good. Come up, lift up the other heel, bring the weight, not so much, a little bit, and now slowly go back, and up again, and back again, dynamically, yeah, heel up, yeah, this you have to try yourself now, in that way you can massage this area between your shoulder blades, where there is the most tension, and you don’t have anybody who massages you, you give yourself this kind of massage. Arms above the head, not under the head, above. Do you feel? If not, then try and try. Very good. And again, bring both knees towards your chest. Hold them, make your neck long, lift up your head towards your knees, and pull up your shoulders. Shoulders down and rolling left, right side, just rolling left, right side. Head is up, a little bit dynamically here. We are massaging our back, and I don’t know if you can do this forward and backward. I don’t know who can do it or who can’t do it, but take care of your teeth and glasses and your knees. Very good. So long sitting, no? Very good. And again, lie down. Spread your legs. Stretch your left leg towards the ceiling and bring your foot onto your right thigh. Hold your toes with your right hand, half butterfly. Hold your toes and pull it up as much as you can towards your hip. Left arm above the head, and make the movement. The left arm is above the head, stretching like this. If you hold your toes, or only one toe, it is easy for you. Of course, it depends on the condition of the knee. Very good. Výborně. And again, stretch your leg up towards the ceiling. And bring the foot sole on the mat. The knee is bent. We have one leg more. Right leg. Right leg. Above, towards the ceiling. Bend your knee on the thigh, the foot, and hold your toes. And make the movement like the wing of a butterfly. Try to make the movement more towards the ground, not towards the ceiling. Very good, and bring your leg back. All butterfly, foot soles together and very gentle movement. You need not hold your feet; foot soles together and just relax your hips. Even we need not move; we just relax our hips. Just relax, the feet are on the ground, like this. Just relax your legs, your feet. Now you can move it: your pelvis left, right side. The whole pelvis is rocking, left, right side. And again, in the middle. No movement, just relax your hips and your legs. Then, one after the other, bring the leg into the upright position. Now, relax your legs on the mat. Can you hear the voice? Back side also? Can you hear? So then relax. Relax. If you don’t feel comfortable in this straight position, if you have back pain, anytime you can bend your knees—one leg or two legs. Stretch your arms in front of you towards the ceiling. Separate your fingers and make a fist, thumb inside. Just stretch, separate your fingers and thumb inside the fist. You can do it slowly or quickly, as you feel. Very good, and then keep a fist with the thumb inside and do the cycling. Make a big circle with your wrist. This can be a slow, big circle, and also in the other direction. Very good. Now bring your hands down in front of your chest, hold both elbows. Bring your arms above your head with your inhalation, and back to your chest with your exhalation. Some movements for our shoulders and neck. If you feel so, then please bend your knees, with the soles of your feet on the mat, or with stretched legs. Now, keep your arms in front of you at the height of your chest. One hand is going over your elbow, holding the upper arm and pulling the whole arm towards the side, and the head is following the movement towards the middle back. You can change your hand position. The other hand is going over the elbow, holding the upper arm muscle. We change the position of the hand and again, with one hand, we pull. The other one goes over the elbow, and the head goes in the same direction. We have to go above the elbow. The hand is going above the elbow, then you reach those muscles which go over the elbow and make the elbow joint. Very good. Now continue with the movement of your arms. Only the head goes in the other direction from your arms. So, everybody should feel yourself on your shoulder, on your neck. We are still not cycling. Sorry, TV. Still going left, right side, yeah? Sorry, yeah, also. Only left, right side. Very good. Now we can start to make, in this arm position, a big circle. Big circle, and let your head and your eyes follow the movements. When the hands and arms go to the side, they move to the side. When the arms are going down, the head is all, and the eyes are going down and also above. The movement is very slow, and the head remains on the mat. Do not be afraid to look up. Very good. Now relax your arms, please, inside your body. Make this movement with your arms, this rotation with your arms, outside and completely, as much as you can. Whole arm on the floor. Don’t lift your arms up. Om, but as much as you can, turn your arms around. And without movement, gently move your head left and right. No stretching, only a little bit rolling left, right side. Like you want to pariren, I don’t know the word in English. You want to balance something in the middle. And in the middle, stretch your right arm above the head, go over the head to your left ear, and without rotation of the head, pull your head towards the right side. Relax your left shoulder and arm, keep stretching, and then with your upper arm, push your head back to the middle. Bring your right arm back next to your body, and stretch your left arm above the head, going over the head to your right ear, and pull your head towards the left. No rotation of the head, only looking towards the ceiling. The head is sideward, and push back to the middle, and bring your arm down. Interlock your fingers behind your neck. The small finger is at the beginning of your head. So the fingers are more in the neck, not on your head. This movement we can do with bent knees or straight legs, as you feel. First thing is, when we start, we inhale and stabilize our lower back. And then, with our exhalation, we pull up our neck and head. Pulling your elbows towards your toes or knees. Bāhya Kumbhak, exhale, remain in this position. When you need to inhale, go with your inhalation back, elbows on the floor, and relax your legs and back. When we have straight legs, inhale, toes up, stabilize your lower back, exhale, come up, elbows pulling downwards, our toes, Fahiya Kumbhak, and with your inhalation, go back and relax. One normal breath in between, and please continue in your own rhythm. And then we continue in your own rhythm. If you have long hair, then bring your fingers, your hands under your hair so that you are directly on the skin. Then you can relax your neck and shoulders better. You can also do the diagonal variation, where your right elbow goes more in the direction of your left hip when you come up, and conversely as well. Very good. Výborně. And relax again your arms, your back, your neck. Relax. Zāda, krk. Deep in and exhale. Just relax. Relax. Relax. Take a deep breath, and once more, stretch your whole body. Stretch your body completely. Very good. Wrap your palms together. And on your face and forehead, massage a little bit around your eyes. And looking into your palms, open your eyes, and then slowly sit up. Very good, thank you.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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