 So, hi and welcome for this de-stress event today, specifically for nursing students. So what we'll do is we'll start with a five or seven minute kind of a guided breathing exercise. Then we'll do some basic yoga stretching and then at the end I would like to get into a yoga pose with legs up the wall. If you don't have an easily accessible wall, you can also use a chair and I'll show you how to do that. And for the breathing in the beginning, you can sit on the floor, sit up on a support. I'm sitting on a yoga block here or if you have any kind of a maybe a more firm cushion that will just allow you to have the torso upright because really what we want to do is we want to sit comfortably rather than straining to keep ourselves upright and focusing more on that than on the breathing. So if this is not an option, you can always just sit on the chair and relax your hands in the lap. If you're sitting cross-legged on the floor, move the flesh from underneath your buttocks so that you can really sit down and ground and let the legs descend in the front so the torso can sit nice and upright. If you have the option, since it's still early in the morning, maybe open the windows so that you can hear a sound of nature, maybe a bird chirping in the distance or any kind of natural sound that you can let in that always helps with relaxation as well. So if you're sitting cross-legged, just place your hands on your knees, either palms facing up or palms facing down, depending on what feels comfortable. Same thing if you're in a chair, just place your hands in your lap, either palms facing up or facing down and then if you're comfortable, close your eyes. If that is not comfortable, just maybe slightly close your eyes and look at a space on the floor so that your eyes are about halfway closed. Start taking some nice, slow, deep breaths in and out through the nose only. Let go of your day and your week and anything that you've already done today and anything that you still intend to do. Just focus on the here and now and I'd like you to start engaging your diaphragm. So basically imagine that there is a balloon at your belly button that you inflate with every inhalation and then slowly, gently let it deflate with the exhalation. Lengthen the spine, broaden the collarbones in the front of the body to allow for maximum chest expansion. Let the breath get a little bit deeper with every breath cycle and start expanding with the inhalation from the belly through the chest all the way up to the collarbones and then slowly reverse direction on the exhale by releasing the air from the collarbones through the chest and the belly. Maybe you are finding that sound of nature somewhere in the distance that you can focus on that'll help you remain focused on the breath here. If you do notice that there are other thoughts that come up to your mind, just observe them. Imagine that there are clouds in the sky and that the wind just blows them away and then re-center back on your breath. Slowly inhalations and exhalations. Notice the effect of that deep breathing on your physical body and on your mind and your thoughts. Hopefully you're starting to feel a little bit more relaxed. We'll take about three more slow, deep breaths here together. Let this be the deepest breaths you've taken all day after the last breath cycle. Gently open your eyes and notice overall how you feel right now. Let's start moving, bring a little bit of movement here into this practice. Inhale both arms overhead. Really make the arms really circle wide. Feel the engagement of the upper back. Bring the hands together on the top. Interlace the fingers and turn the palms to face the ceiling. Thumbs are to touch and really lengthen. Imagine somebody is pulling your arms up towards the sky. If you feel more expansion of the chest, then maybe you feel a nice stretching in the side bodies and the rib areas. Take another deep breath here and on the exhale, let go of that interlace and turn towards your right side. Place that right hand behind you, left hand on the outside of the right side. Sit up nice and straight here and then on the exhale twist over, maybe look over that right shoulder. That left hip stays grounded on your support, whether it's the chair or the mat or a cushion. Lengthen on the inhale and twist a little bit deeper on the exhale. Continue closing your eyes here. Really tuning into the sensations of your body and sending a deep breath to any area that needs a little extra attention. Inhale both arms back overhead. On the exhale, twist the other way towards the left hand behind you. Right hand to the outside of that left thigh. Maybe look over that left shoulder. Lengthen the spine on the inhale and twist a little bit deeper on the exhale. Take one more nice, slow deep breath here and on the next exhale, return back to center. Inhale on the arms about shoulder height and really engage that upper back muscles between the spine and the shoulder blades. Maybe even let the head fall back. Inhale here. On the exhale, bring the arms together in front of you and round the spine until the palms touch each other, letting the chin come towards the chest. On the inhale, open the arms back up at the sides. Look up on the exhale again. Bring the palms together in front of your chin to the chest. Let that back round like a cat stretching. One more time. Inhale the arms down to the sides. Look up. Exhale, bring the palms to touch. And then return back to center here. And we'll come off of our support. And we'll be on our force here for a moment. With sensitive knees, you can always place a cushion or a blanket or some other support underneath the knees. And on our force here, we'll have the hands right underneath the shoulders and the knees right underneath the hips with the index fingers pointing straight forward and the fingers spread nice and wide here. Inhale, look up. Lift the head and lift the tailbone. On the exhale, round the spine. Bring the chin to the chest and the pubic bone towards the belly button. Exaggerate the movement here. On the inhale, look up again. Lift the tailbone. On the exhale, round the back. Chin to the chest. Take a couple more rounds here on your own and follow your own breath. Maybe again, close your eyes and turn into your body. So that you can be aware of where your areas lie that might need some little extra attention in opening up. So one more cycle here. And we'll meet back in our force. Bring your knees a little bit wider here on the mat. Bring them to mat width distance and the big toes to touch. Sit the buttocks back onto your heels extending the arms in front of you, letting the forehead relax on the mat. If the hamstrings are tight, you can always put a support between your heels and sit up on that between the heels. And if the forehead doesn't easily reach the mat, you can always place a block under the forehead to kind of bridge that gap here. Yoga is not about pushing yourself and your body into a position just because. It's to be comfortable and working within your own body. Bubbles off the mat. Keep the fingers spread nice and wide and crawl the fingertips away from you while keeping your buttocks glued onto your heels to really feel that lengthening in the spine all the way from the tailbone to the base of the skull. Relax your facial muscles. Take some nice deep breaths into the back body. Opening up the back of the lungs. Take one more slow, deep breath here. Slowly walk the hands off the mat or to the right of your body, letting the torso come onto the top of that right side. Maybe placing the left hand on top of the right one to lengthen the left side here. Pay attention that the left hip stays glued to the left heel. That you can lengthen the left side all the way from the hip up to the fingertips. You walk in the hands over to the right a little bit more as things start to release. Take one more nice deep breath here. Slowly walk your hands through center over to the left side. Now the torso sits on top of that left side. Maybe the right hand comes on top of the left and that right hip stays glued on that right heel. Lengthening the right side here from the hips all the way to the fingertips. Then slowly return back to the center. Place the hands under the shoulders and come up back to our force. Place the hands under the shoulders again and the knees are underneath the hips. Then kick the feet off the mat or to your right and look towards your right feet. Again we have a side body bend here. On the inhale bring the legs through center of the left side of the mat. Look in towards the left feet. Inhale through center. Exhale over to the right. Again take a few more rounds on your own here. Following your own breath. Listening to your body and see what it needs. One more on each side here and then return to center. If you're on a mat back up just a little bit. Make sure that you have a little bit of extra space in front of you. Keep the hips right above the knees but walk the hands out in front of you until the forehead either comes down to the mat or on a support. Again work with your own body and see what feels good. Don't push yourself into anything that causes strain. Off the mat here and the fingertips spread nice and wide. And see that with the exhalation if you can bring the torso a little bit closer to the mat. Go deep inhales and exhales. Relax your jaw and your facial muscles. Option here is placing the chin onto the mat for a little bit of a deeper opening but again work within your own body and with the sensations to whatever feels good. Then slowly walk the hands back underneath you. And then swing the right leg around so that you're now in a low lunge with the right foot in front of you. Again everybody will probably be a little bit different depending on how the hips feel this morning. The ankle should always be underneath the knee on the right side and then see how it feels in the front of that left hip. If that feels pretty open you can always back the leg up a little bit into a deeper lunge. Bring the hands onto that front thigh. Releasing the shoulders away from the ears. Making sure the collarbones are nice and open to allow for the nice deep breathing. Inhale both arms overhead. Spread the fingertips nice and wide. Reach again for the sky. Feeling the opening in the front of the left hip. Option here is actively pressing the left chin into the mat to open the front of the hip just a little bit more. Again listen to your own body. And then slowly cactus the arms so bend at the elbows. Bringing the elbows about to shoulder height. Keeping the fingertips spread nice and wide. And again engaging the upper back area between the shoulders and the spine. Nice deep breath here. And then slowly continue lowering the arms until you interlace the hands behind you. Pulling the knuckles towards the ground and opening the chest here. Nice full deep breath and slowly release the interlace. Place the hands on the mat on either side of that right foot. Step that right foot back and we'll switch on the left foot as in front here. Making sure the ankle is right underneath the knee. Seeing how the front of that right hip feels. If it feels pretty tight you just stay right here. If it feels pretty open you can always extend that right leg back and then bring the hands to the side. Noticing again the front of that right hip. Inhale both arms overhead. Reach with the fingertips for the sky. Low deep breaths. Inhaling and exhaling through the nose. And then slowly again we'll move through cactusing the arms here. Keeping the fingertips spread nice and wide. Elbows come to shoulder height. Engaging the upper back muscles between the spine and the shoulder blades. Slowly continuing down until we can interlace the fingers. This time go the opposite way. So put your non-dominant hand on top. Knuckles move towards the ground and the chest opens in the front. Deep breaths here. Working with your own body. Paying attention to the sensations. And easing up or going a little bit deeper depending on how it feels. Take one more nice deep breath and then slowly release. Bring that left foot back to meet the right. And sit back on your heels. If that's a little bit tight you can always sit up on a support. And just kind of notice here close your eyes. Maybe your heart rate has elevated a little bit. Take a nice deep breath in through the nose. And open mouth exhale. Let's do two more of those. Deep breath in and open mouth exhale. One more time. Inhale, exhale. Slowly open the eyes. And we'll move into our last pose here. Which is a nice relaxation pose. If you have easy access to a wall I would recommend that. If not a chair or a couch work really well too. I'll show you with the chair first. Bring the chair here. Lay your calves onto the chair. And then lay back. The chair or the couch. Arms come out to your sides with the palms facing towards the sky. And you relax here. If you have easy access to a wall. You scoot your buttocks as close as you can to the wall. So for example my right hip is a little bit farther away here. So I'll scoot that right hip in as close as I can. I lay down on my side. And I just come up and bring the legs up the wall. Now depending on how the hamstrings feel. You might either want to scoot away from the wall a little bit. If they are a little bit tight. Or you can put any kind of support underneath your sacrum. To lift the hips and decrease the angle of the hamstrings. So just work with whatever feels good for you. But release the arms by your side. Take up some space here. Make sure that you're not touching anything. So that your body is not distracted by any other sensations. Other than the breath and the legs up the wall. Once you arrive in the pose that you choose. Start focusing back on inhaling and exhaling through the nose. Slow deep breaths. Engage your diaphragm. And let the chest expand to its full ability with every inhale. And exhale. We'll be here for about 3 to 5 minutes. So make sure that you take any kind of adjustments or wiggles. That you can nicely relax here. If you haven't already done so close your eyes. And tune into your breath again. Noticing any thoughts that come up. Observing them like a cloud in the sky. Letting the wind take away. Focusing back on your breath. This is a very special pose. That I recommend for anybody. If you're feeling stressed or anxious. If there's a lot going on in your life. Just by simply bringing the legs up the wall. And focusing on those inhalations and exhalations. It'll activate the parasympathetic nervous system. And just let you relax. And wiggle. Relax your facial muscles and your jaw. Maybe let the mouth follow open just a tad bit. So the jaw can be nice and relaxed. Also relax your shoulders and the fingertips, the arms. Deep breath in. Open mouth. Some movement back into your body. Wiggling the fingertips and the toes. Maybe take a full body stretch. Stretching the arms overhead. And then slowly bring the legs down the wall. And roll over to one side. Supporting your head with your bicep. Notice how you feel right now. Maybe how the breath and the physical sensations have changed from the beginning of this class. You're ready. And if you're comfortable, keep your eyes closed. And press yourself up to any comfortable seated positions. Lengthen the spine again. Relaxing the hands on the knees. Thank yourself for taking this time for your well-being and your self-care. And know that this tool of the breath is always there for you to access whether you're feeling stressed or anxious or you just need to unwind a little bit. Bring your hands to your heart center. Thank you for joining me in this relaxation session today. Namaste.