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Yoga for Nervous System Regulation | Spring Class 3
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New here? Read this first!
Yoga for Nervous System Regulation is a unique program combining yogic tradition with neuroscience to help students engage with the nervous system, calm stress responses, and cultivate peace and resilience in body and mind. Learn more about the program here.
Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of this practice.
- Please complete the entire Spring Series in order before moving on to subsequent series, regardless of the current season. Each series builds upon the material covered in previous seasons, so doing them in sequence is important for your understanding and your safety.
- Yoga is best practiced on an empty stomach, which means no food for 2 hours prior and no beverages for 30 minutes prior. Follow your practice with food and plenty of water. Review the complete Yoga Safety Tips here.
- Each weekly class consists of a playlist of 3 practices to be completed in order. The asana (yoga poses) prepare us for pranayama (breathwork) which prepares us for meditation, which prepares us for life!
- This course is designed to accommodate a range of learning styles. Below the video playlist you’ll find additional visual aids and links to resources that enhance the learning experience.
- Yoga is a very individualized experience, and it’s normal to have questions or concerns. I would love to hear yours! Please submit a comment at the bottom of the page, or follow KMKyoga on Instagram, where I share additional insights, support, and resources with a growing community of fellow practitioners.
Thanks for being here!
Today, we’ll roll out our mats for a fun, new asana challenge, and I’ll introduce you to nadi shodhana breathing. Be sure to check out the supplemental resources at the bottom of the page.
Remember, yoga is best practiced on an empty stomach. Review the complete Yoga Safety Tips here.
Please don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments section at the bottom of the page, or by sending me an email at kath@kmkyoga.org. I’m happy to help with clarifications or modifications to ensure your practice is safe, comfortable, and enjoyable.
Find a quiet space with room to move. You may wish to pause notifications on your digital device. Gather your mat, a sturdy chair, some water, and a blanket. When you’re ready, hit Play on the first video in the playlist – asana – to begin.
Enjoy your practice!
In This Series
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Spring Class 3 Video Instruction
Each class playlist consists of three videos to be practiced in order:
Asana ➙ Pranayama ➙ Meditation
The purpose of asana (yoga pose or “seat”) and pranayama (breathwork) are to prepare the body and mind for meditation, where the real magic happens! I strongly suggest you try the classes in sequence, but after you’ve completed the entire sequence at least once, feel free to revisit individual parts as you’d like.
Once you complete a video, the player will automatically advance to the next one in the playlist. You can skip to the next video at any time using the next/previous arrows at the bottom of the player window, or by clicking the icon in the top right corner.
Asana (Pose) Descriptions
The following diagrams are offered as a supplement to today’s asana practice. Use them to quickly reference specific poses in the video, review verbal instructions in written form, and clarify details from the class. Scroll within each text box for transcript excerpts with time stamps indicating when each pose is demonstrated in the asana video for today’s class.
00:00:14:21 – 00:00:45:15
So … find a good seat again. We always start this way. Sits-bones are on the chair. Thighs are free. Knees and feet are hip width apart. And your knees are over your heels. Without sliding your feet, pull them a little bit towards your chair and you’ll feel the pelvis tilt and feel the chest open up a little bit and maybe your chin will lift a little. And then, relax your feet.
00:00:45:17 – 00:01:43:16
Let your hands rest on your thighs. Take a long, gentle inhale. And on exhale, close your eyes if that’s comfortable. Bring your attention to the breath in your nose, throat, chest, belly. And then that little space between the bottom of your breastbone and your navel. Again, you can put the center of your palm there if you need to feel it with your hand or … if you don’t need it, put your hand on your leg.
00:01:43:18 – 00:01:56:02
Watch your diaphragm go up and down.
00:01:56:04 – 00:02:38:05
And then watch your whole torso breathe and inhale eyes open. Take a moment to notice how you feel. Do that scan from toes to the top of your head. Okay. Let’s make sure our upper backs are in the game and our arms are comfortable. Let your arms hang down … not slumped, not drawn back. Exhale here and inhale up. Exhale down.
00:02:38:07 – 00:03:04:23
Soft shoulders, soft neck. Let the upper back do the work as you inhale up. If your eyes are out of your peripheral vision, chances are you’re using your upper back more than your shoulders or chest muscles. Now, I’d like you to try a few of those at your pace. So … pause the video and do a few at your breath pace whatever your breath pace is right now.
00:03:05:01 – 00:03:08:12
Respect that and try a few.
00:03:19:17 – 00:03:48:18
So … notice how you feel. Notice particularly any areas … maybe right now your shoulders are feeling a little warmer or tingly? Notice that. Notice how your arms feel, your hands.
00:03:19:17 – 00:03:48:18
Let’s check out our backs next. So … we’re going to go wide just like we did in videos one and two. Hands are on your knees for support. As you’re going down or coming back up, you might feel a twinge in your back.
00:03:48:23 – 00:04:14:23
Those arms are going to offer additional support, so that you can come back up comfortably by putting the weight on your arms. But maybe you won’t have any twinges. Let’s see what happens. We’re going to inhale here and – hinging only at the hips – come forward with a straight torso as long as you can. And when you can’t be straight any longer, begin to curl down.
00:04:15:01 – 00:04:53:05
Let the top of your head point to the floor if that’s comfortable. Inhale into your belly; as you exhale, soften that belly and let your lower back release. Breathe into your mid back and on exhale soften your upper belly. Let your mid back hang. Breathe into your shoulders and on exhale soften shoulders, neck. Let your head hang freely.
00:04:53:07 – 00:05:25:15
And then big inhale here, exhale. And then big inhale coming up, because our head was lower than our heart. You can have some dizziness is why I’m encouraging you to inhale. Inhale activates the sympathetic system and your pulse rate is actually a little higher when you’re inhaling compared to when you’re exhaling. So … you won’t be dizzy if you have an inclination to be dizzy.
00:05:25:17 – 00:05:36:16
Coming up, if you’re coming up on an inhale and you’ve got plenty of oxygen on board, let’s come back in to hip width apart. And parallel knees over
00:05:36:16 – 00:06:05:22
your heels and ankles. And we’re going to put the two motions together in a seated forward bend, just to make sure … before we go to the standing forward bend … that our bodies up for the trick. So … hang. Remember, loose. Exhale here. Inhale up. Soft arms. Soft shoulders. Soft neck. Hinging at the hips, exhale forward to lie on your thighs.
00:06:06:00 – 00:06:32:08
And soften. Let your arms be limp. Your fingers come in to your heels. Your head hangs. And then press down with the feet … and inhale up. And then just exhale the arms down. If you had no pain with that move, then you’ll be able to do the standing forward bend.
00:06:32:08 – 00:06:55:18
If you had no pain with that move, then you’ll be able to do the standing forward bend.
00:06:32:08 – 00:06:55:18
So … I’m going to move my chair again to do standing forward bends. And I want you … if you are standing up, I want you to make sure your chair is up against a wall. The back of your chair is up against a wall so that it can’t slide on the floor. If you’re on a rug, that’s not as much of a problem, but it would still be safer to have it against a wall.
00:06:55:20 – 00:07:31:07
So … I’m going to move my chair. We’re going to do the same standing forward bend that we did in Session two, but we’re going to add some fun. First, let’s practice what we know. So … we’re going to inhale here and then sticking your bottom out, limp arms, keep sticking your bottom out … when you can, take hold of the chair and keep sticking your bottom out.
00:07:31:09 – 00:08:04:13
Let go of all of your air and then press down with the feet and up you come. Try one or two more of those at your own pace to make sure that it feels comfortable. So … notice how you feel after a few of them. Let’s add the arms back and notice first. Okay, so … remember, you’re using your upper back more
00:08:04:14 – 00:08:44:01
if – when you raise your arms – you can’t see your hands. Keep that in mind. We’re going to exhale here. Inhale up soft arms, still soft shoulders, soft neck, and then sticking the bottom out. Torso remains straight. We come down, hold on, and ease down from here. You press down with the feet and come back up and down again.
00:08:44:03 – 00:09:17:15
Try a few more of those, adding the arms in just to make sure that’s comfortable.
00:09:17:17 – 00:09:47:04
So … I’m going to exhale here. The beginning is the same as the other. Inhale up. Stick your bottom out as you exhale down; take hold of the chair and sink down. Let that back lengthen, then shift your weight onto your right foot. Bend your left leg and place it as far back as you can. Soften your shoulders away from your ears.
00:09:47:06 – 00:10:18:09
Bring your front knee toward the chair until it’s over top of your ankle again and your back hip will come down. Keep that back leg straight from here. You can bring the head down and straighten the front leg and come back to the same position. Soft shoulders. Lift up the chest, lift up the face. Exhale down as I straighten the leg.
00:10:18:11 – 00:10:50:10
Inhale up as I bend and open the chest; back and forth very slowly at the pace of your breath, exhaling, inhaling back and forth. Let’s pause there. You’ve watched that. So now I’d like you to try it. I’m going to start from the beginning again so that you can try it with me. You can also get a little sneak peek for how we get out of this.
00:10:50:12 – 00:11:10:19
So … I’m still straightening the front leg, but this time I’m bending the back leg and I’m going to jump and place my foot where I want it to be and come back into forward bend and inhale back up again. You don’t have to remember that. I’m going to talk you through it when the time comes.
00:11:11:09 – 00:11:32:22
So … we’re going to add the fun part now, but I want you to be extra safe. The fun things give you a little more opportunity to not be safe, literally. So … I want you to be safe. I’m putting my mat down. I prefer you to not use a Pilates mat, a thick mat,
00:11:33:00 – 00:11:53:11
but anything that’s labeled a yoga mat will probably be okay. If you go to my website – I don’t get any perks from this, but – I have a couple of mats that you could look at and know what kind I’d like you to have. When you place your mat, I want you to secure it with the front legs of your chair and then just let it roll out.
… we’re going to come in close. Same position, hip width apart, right? Almost close to the chair. We’re going to exhale here, inhale up, exhale … by sticking your bottom out, gently swoop down. It does feel a little bit like flying.
00:12:22:00 – 00:12:51:12
Hold on to the chair and down you come. Always give yourself that little stretch of forward bend. Shift your weight onto your right foot and throw your left foot back … shoulders away from ears … bring the right knee over top of the right heel and ankle and … open your chest, lift your face. We’re going to hang on to the chair and straighten the front leg.
00:12:51:14 – 00:13:16:12
Your head will naturally come down, back leg stays straight; on inhale, the knee bends again and … the chest comes up, face comes up, Exhale takes you back down again. I’d like you to try a few more of these on your own, and then we’ll switch to the other side. But I’ll talk you through how to do that. I’ll show you now.
00:13:16:17 – 00:13:26:04
But you don’t need to come out of it quite yet. You just bend the back leg and jump in and down you come and up again.
00:13:26:04 – 00:13:41:23
Try a few of those on your own. Just remember, when the chest is coming up and away from the body, that’s your inhale. When you’re straightening the leg and the head is coming down, that’s your exhale. Try a few of those on your own at your breath pace.
00:13:58:16 – 00:14:09:10
Notice how you feel and then give me a second to get into the position and I’ll show you how to get out of it.
00:14:09:12 – 00:14:38:15
So … I’m going to come up, exhale down, weight on the right foot … back I come, knees forward. So … find yourself in this position. Chest is up, back leg is straight. We’re going to straighten the front leg again. But this time we’re going to bend the back leg – see how far my head is down? – and then jump and place your foot where it was before and come down into forward
00:14:38:15 – 00:15:09:13
bend, come up, and we’re going to go right to the other side. Exhale down. Hang for a minute. Just give yourself that little hang from the tailbone. Shift your weight onto the left foot. Bend the right foot and leg and back you go … shoulders away from ears … front knee is over the heel and ankle and that back leg is straight.
00:15:09:13 – 00:15:37:07
Bring your chest up, bring your face up. And then, as you straighten the front leg and exhale, the head comes down as you inhale. Your front leg bends and your chest comes up. Keep those shoulders soft … back and forth at your own pace. Pause the video and do a few of these.
00:15:51:06 – 00:16:13:01
Notice how you feel. One of the other aspects of noticing is … if you have any distress, you stop. If you’re uncomfortable in any way, stop, have a sit for a minute, and then come back to the video. If your breath gets a little too fast or feels like you’re not getting enough air for some reason, stop. Sit down.
00:16:13:03 – 00:16:45:06
Notice. So let me show you how to come out of this. I’m going to get first back into the position by inhaling up, stick in my bottom out. Hold on. Hang, shift, step, bend. So … to come out of it, we’re going to straighten that front leg while we’re bending the back leg and the head naturally comes down and you jump and place that foot where it was hanging.
00:16:45:06 – 00:17:13:21
And inhale up and exhale the arms down. You know, I’m going to say, notice how you feel while you’re doing that. I’m going to roll up my mat and turn my chair back around.
Additional Spring Class 3 Resources
In today’s pranayama audio (starting at minute 4:00), I described how to block your nasal passages, one side at a time, to facilitate nadi shodhana breathing. Here’s how that looks.
I introduced a yoga mat in today’s asana practice, and we’ll be using them regularly going forward. Your mat should be sticky enough to stay put when you move, and just thick enough to cushion your body without compromising your balance or risking injury.
Click through the slides for my recommendations on choosing a mat. (I don’t get any perks for featuring these.)
Previous slide
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Comments or questions?
I’d love to hear about your experience with this week’s class and address any concerns you may have. If you’d prefer to reach out privately, send me an email at kath@kmkyoga.org.
Hi, I’m Kath. I teach yoga, breathwork, and meditation as a path to greater somatic awareness and nervous system regulation. Through this practice, I have learned to care for myself so that I can live more peacefully and more purposefully in my body, my mind, and the world. Read my full bio here.
I created KMKyoga for people like me, who can benefit tremendously from yoga but need an option that doesn’t break their bodies or their budget. All KMKyoga classes and learning resources are funded by donations. Learn more.