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Yoga for Nervous System Regulation | Spring Class 5
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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.
This program is seasonally oriented. Please begin with the first class of the current season. Each 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!
Pause the track and practice on your own when prompted, or whenever you need to. Below the video playlist you’ll find pose diagrams and descriptions, and additional resources to optimize the class for all types of learners.
I would love to hear your thoughts and questions. 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!
Before you begin, please review the Yoga Safety Tips.
Yoga is safest when practiced on an empty stomach, which means no food for 2-3 hours prior to beginning. Please do not drink liquids for ~30 minutes before beginning. Follow practice with water and food.
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.
Today, we’ll be exploring Side Warrior pose, practicing Box Breathing, and expanding our Awe Walk meditation to seek insight on a question or issue that’s on our mind this week.
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 today’s class!
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Spring Class 5 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.
So we’re going to begin, as we always do, finding a good seat on the chair. Sits-bones are on the chair. Thighs are free. Knees and feet are hip width apart. And your heels are directly under your knees.
00:01:29:06 – 00:01:33:02
When I say pull your feet, remember, the feet aren’t actually moving much.
00:01:33:04 – 00:02:41:00
You’re just establishing that pelvic alignment that will allow you to stack up in a fairly balanced spinal formation and then release the feet. Take a long, gentle inhale that makes you taller and on exhale close eyes if that’s comfortable. Otherwise, slits and look at your knees. Bring your attention to the breath in your nose, throat, chest, belly and that little triangle where you’re going to feel your diaphragm between the bottom of your breastbone and your navel.
00:02:41:06 – 00:03:07:20
The center of your palm can be used to feel it. Or maybe you can feel it with interoception, the ability to feel things going on inside your body while it’s happening. So feel on inhale the diaphragm going down and on exhale the diaphragm comes back up. See if you can do it without your hand. If you need the hand,
00:03:07:20 – 00:03:50:03
that’s okay though. And then notice your breath from nose to tailbone and with your next inhale, bring eyes open. Did you feel in the sequence of your breath that the inhale actually begins at the diaphragm? The first thing that moves is your diaphragm beginning to go down. It doesn’t just go down. It swings out in an expansion. Not that big, of course, but so
00:03:50:03 – 00:03:50:11
let’s
establish the same seat and let’s check in with our arms.
00:03:54:05 – 00:04:17:23
We pretty much begin each class the same way. You have to know that your shoulders are happy. You have to know that your hips are on board. And so you’ll learn this. But it’s also a nice way to introduce your body to “Here we are at yoga again”, so bear with it. Try to just be with the experience.
00:04:18:01 – 00:04:49:13
So let your arms hang down. Remember not hunched, not back, certainly not up. Let them just hang loose and I’m going to turn my palms out as I lift. Let’s keep those hands out of our peripheral vision if we can. Exhale here, inhale up, elbows can bend, you can look up if your neck is happy today and exhale down. I’ll do one more with you.
00:04:49:13 – 00:05:14:15
Remember, the inhale moves away from the body and the exhale moves toward the body. I suggest you pause your video here and do a few at your breath pace, respecting the body that you have, the breath that your body wants right now. So try a few with the video paused.
00:05:22:01 – 00:05:26:15
And now notice how you feel. Just do a little scan.
Is your breath fast or slow? Are you experiencing any pain? Are you experiencing any interesting activity? Check in with those sort of ideas and then let’s check out our low backs. Really the whole spine, but particularly the low back, because that’s where most of the big work happens. So go wider. Make sure your feet and thighs are lined up with each other, because that’s going to keep your knees happy. Palms on your legs, on your thighs, inhale and hinging mostly at the hips,
00:06:07:03 – 00:06:19:05
down you go, exhaling, exhaling, stay straight as long as you can, and then curve down and let your head hang.
00:06:19:07 – 00:07:00:15
Inhale and feel the inhale in your belly, and on exhale soften low belly and let your low back lengthen, pull away from the tailbone just a little bit. Inhale into your mid back and on exhale, soften upper belly and feel that pull extend from your tailbone all the way to your mid back. Inhale into upper chest and shoulders,
00:07:00:17 – 00:07:40:16
and on exhale release, let your head hang limp, neck be soft. Inhale a whole breath here and exhale, softening from tailbone to the top of your head, and then press down with your hands and feet and inhale your way back up. For your safety, I want you to always remember that I add an extra breath if your head is lower than your heart so that you don’t experience dizziness when you come up.
So let’s bring them back together and we’re going to stand to practice the forward bend again. So I’m going to move my chair to the side so that you can see me.
00:08:14:20 – 00:08:47:08
But in essence, you don’t have to move your chair, but you do need to make sure your mat is anchored down by the front legs of your chair right in front. Most of the time the floors aren’t slippery and the mats will stick, but just in case, that chair will anchor it down. I want you to stand very close to your chair, almost knees touching with your knees and feet hip width apart.
00:08:47:10 – 00:09:21:02
And remember, I make this point a lot but if you’re truly sticking your bottom out to balance your way down, you’re not going to touch the back of the chair. I’m tall, very tall. And it’s it’s just a balancing act. So inhale here and stick your bottom out as you exhale. You’re moving slow, so if you run out of air, cool. Stop, get another inhale on board and keep going.
00:09:21:04 – 00:09:54:02
Sticking the bottom out. Hold on to the front edges of the chair and continue your descent. Maybe your head touches. Maybe it doesn’t inhale in this position. And on exhale, soften that low belly and you’ll find yourself a little closer to the chair. Inhale back up. Pause your video and try a few at your breath pace.
00:10:01:13 – 00:10:08:13
So I want you to again notice how you feel. If you’re experiencing any tenderness,
00:10:08:15 – 00:10:34:00
maybe you’re being too ambitious in how far down you’re going. If you’re experiencing maybe discomfort coming up, maybe you need a little more support from your arms coming up. Be safe. If these questions come up, please leave remarks or comments about it, and I’ll certainly address any issues you have. Let’s try adding the arm motion, now. It’s the same motion.
00:10:34:03 – 00:10:37:00
I’m raising my arms out of my peripheral vision. If you want to play with it for a moment. If you lift from the front, notice where the work is happening. The work is happening a lot in your deltoid, the muscle on the top of your shoulder and the upper back isn’t really doing a lot. If you’re back here, notice how the deltoids get the cap muscles, get a bit of a break and your upper back is doing most of the work.
00:11:07:04 – 00:11:14:12
I know folks in my generation all know someone with a rotator cuff injury. It’s probably from asking their
00:11:14:12 – 00:11:39:11
shoulder girdle to do the work of their upper back. And we’re kind of primed for that in a culture that types and reads and drives. So when our chest is open, or at least it’s not really even open, if it’s just flexible, then we can use our upper backs to lift our arms.
00:11:39:13 – 00:12:08:19
So let’s add that in. Exhale here, inhale up. You can look at your hands if your neck’s happy today and then stick your bottom out. Hold on to the chair as soon as you can and bring the head down, soften your belly when you get there, press down with the feet, inhale up, and your hips naturally come forward.
00:12:08:21 – 00:12:35:07
So it’s exhale down with the bottom sticking out. Hold on and use that exhale to soften your bottom, soften your low back, ease into a deeper bend and inhale back up. I want you to pause the video and try a few of those. Take your time, follow your breath pattern.
Okay. So last time we did what my student, Fluff – that’s her nickname – called the Pee Pose. And we can really think about it more as a pelvic floor pose.
00:13:17:02 – 00:13:46:09
Remember, you are doing it with your chair in front of you if you need to. I’m going to go wide and notice what’s going on in my hips. I don’t want any strain here from going. I mean, I can go wider, but do you see that I’m coming forward? I can’t straighten up purely because of the way that the cap for the femur.
00:13:46:11 – 00:14:11:04
And then there is a ball joint at the top and a ball joint has to have a cap or a socket. That’s just the way my hips are made. Your mileage will vary. Do something that’s comfortable. So we go down the same way in wide forward bend as we do when the legs are closer together, inhale here and exhale down.
00:14:11:04 – 00:14:49:00
Sticking your butt out. Stick it out. You’re going to take hold of the chair. But I’m coming down here so you can see what I’m doing. Feet are parallel, inhale here and on exhale, bend one knee, soften your belly at the bottom, inhale back up, and on exhale. Then the other knee inhale back up. There is a tendency to want to do this and be crooked.
00:14:49:05 – 00:15:15:05
I want you to take your whole torso with you as we go side to side. So when I bend one knee, my shoulders and my hips stay lined up as I go from one side to the other, back up again and down to the other side. I’d like you to try a few more of those at your breath pace.
00:15:15:06 – 00:15:19:23
Take your time and restart the video whenever you’re ready.
00:15:28:01 – 00:15:50:17
Notice how you feel. I am going to say that a lot. I’d like you to go through life noticing how you feel. So hearing that on a regular basis is not a bad idea. So we’re going to stay here for a moment to do another pose. Make sure that your feet are still parallel.
00:15:50:19 – 00:16:13:06
They tend to travel a little in that pose. Let’s all choose this foot, pick up the toes, rotate and plant. I’m a little too wide. I’m going to come together a little bit and you can too. You need to feel safe at each point as we go. So from there I’m going to swing it out on my heel.
00:16:13:08 – 00:16:44:18
My toes are pointed so that my foot is parallel pretty much to the sides of the mat. You know, feet aren’t really rectangles. Your hips should be at an angle. You will hear yoga teacher say to square off the hips with the side of the mat. That’s really a dangerous idea in my experience. And so but we do square off the shoulders.
00:16:44:23 – 00:17:15:17
So you can see I’m in a twist already. My hips are at an angle and my shoulders are a different angle. You’ll know your shoulders are in the right position if this arm hangs behind your straight back leg. Okay, While we’re in this position, I want you to practice a safe knee bend, which means point your knee toward the little toe side and prepare to stop over top of your heel.
00:17:15:19 – 00:17:35:07
So inhale here and exhale. Bend slowly, gently, explore. Stop. When your knee is over your heel safest for the knee, most effective for the line that we’re opening up. So up again.
00:17:35:16 – 00:17:55:23
Exhale here and we’re going to inhale the arms up and then exhale, bend. For the length of your inhale, straighten that front leg. For the length of your exhale,
00:17:56:01 – 00:18:32:14
lower the arms. This might seem intricate. It’s really not so very intricate. You just need to remember arms, leg, leg, arms. So arms is the inhale. Exhale is leg. Inhale is leg. Exhale is arms. I’d like you to pause the video and try a couple of those on your own.
00:18:40:07 – 00:18:47:18
Notice how you’re feeling. Notice your body. Notice what your breath is doing right now.
00:18:47:20 – 00:19:15:19
Whenever we’re turning our feet back in, remember, we’re bending the knee first. Bend this knee, turn the foot in, check in with your hips. Are they still happy with this width? I think mine are, but I’m going to check it out by turning my foot. Pick up the toes, spin it out and down you come. My hips are at an angle.
00:19:15:21 – 00:19:40:02
I’m putting my shoulders parallel with the long side of the mat. And remember this arm on the straight leg side can kind of rest behind my thigh. It’s a good marker for whether or not it’s straight. Let’s practice that knee bend toward the little toe side for knee strength and integrity and stop when you’re directly over your heel.
00:19:40:03 – 00:20:15:13
This is going to keep your knee safe and still give us the effects we want. Straighten it up. Exhale here, inhale up, keep those shoulders and neck soft and exhale. Bend slow as you exhale, straighten that knee for the length of your inhale, and exhale the arms down for the length of your exhale. Let’s do another. I forgot to mention something.
00:20:15:18 – 00:20:56:06
When I bring my arms up, I turn my face to look at this front hand, and you can, too. It’s better for balance. Inhale up, exhale. Bend toward the little toe side when you get to the bottom, soften your belly, and then inhale up and exhale down. Let’s do one more together. Inhale up, Exhale. Bend. Inhale straighten, exhale lower.
00:20:56:08 – 00:21:03:10
Pause your video. Try a few at your breath pace, and we’ll be back in a moment.
00:21:11:05 – 00:21:40:05
Notice and you have something now to compare to. Is this feeling different than it was to the other side? We are an asymmetrical species. It looks like we’re the same on both sides. We are not. So to come out of this, remember, to turn your foot you bend your knee first and then lift the toes, spin it, put them down.
00:21:40:07 – 00:22:24:15
Every pose needs a counter pose that is in the same orientation, standing as close to the same position, wide legs as possible, but a little simpler. And it’s just to make sure if there’s any residual effects from the yoga effort that you’re sort of neutralizing those. And for this one, we’re going to use that fun pose we did in series four. Bend the knee to pull this heel in so that your toes and knees are going the same direction, and then bend this knee, turn those toes out, and we’re bending.
00:22:24:15 – 00:23:12:01
Remember, with the knees wide as we begin to gain more flexibility in the inner thighs, this becomes easier. So just for fun, some people call this Durga pose with Lion’s breath. I don’t have a name for it, but it’s fun. Exhale here. Inhale up and exhale down. Inhale up, exhale down. Inhale up. Loudest one of all! It’s a great stress buster.
00:23:12:03 – 00:23:47:06
Just exhale the arms down. Bend one knee to turn the feet, toes in, Bend the other knee. Turn your toes in, shift your weight to one side by bending one knee and jump them together. And if you like, you can take a seat back on your chair. I need to just move my mat out of the way and then move my chair back to where it was.
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.