Stress/Anxiety
These practices have been specifically created and sequenced for watching online on Movement for Modern Life to reduce stress and anxiety you may feel in your life.
Within our anti-stress and anxiety series, we have a range of practices which include:
Yin-yoga
which cultivates a deep sense of awareness.The perfect antidote to urban life, Yin focuses on releasing and letting go via the deep musculature of the body and connective tissues, aiding physical, energetic, mental and emotional flexibility.
Restorative Yoga
is passive, designed to adjust the nervous system and rest the adrenal glands, enabling the body to move towards balance.
All of the practices on this site are designed to increase your awareness on the breath and movement, which will intrinsicly help you deal with any stress/anxiety you may feel in everyday life.
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20:00Beginners 4: Twist to unwind
Twists help you feel yourself again. So whether you’re stiff, stressed-out, sluggish, or plain out of sorts, Clare’s simple twist practice will leave you feeling grounded and re-energised. Perfect for morning or evening. The class ends on a savasana, so feel free to lay down and soak up the practice for as long as you need.
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01:23Your Difficult Emotions Practice
A beautiful hatha yoga class to give you permission to feel all the things you're feeling, along with a safe space to process difficult or strong emotions. This class begins with a meditation and a breath-oriented slow yoga flow bringing space and warmth all around your heart along with many opportunities for self-soothing and embrace. Then we will take advantage of this compassionate environment and allow plenty of time for rest, processing, and healing in a few restorative shapes. You will need a strap, bolster, a blanket, and a couple bricks, although you can improvise with whatever you have at home.
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22:41Restorative Yoga for Gut Health: Find Calm
Taking a moment in our busy lives to find calm and be present with ourselves is so important for overall health and wellbeing. In this calming and restorative class Gabriella guides us through a self-massage and breath practice to help relax the abdominal area and deepen our ability to listen to our bodies. Props: one bolster, two blankets and one block
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35:41Your Calming Yoga Practice
This yoga class helps to ground and calm an anxious body or mind and bring us back to the present moment. Start with some grounding self-massage, then move gently with simple, repetitive, and breath-led movements to stabilise the nervous system. Additionally, we will pay particular attention to releasing tension in the head, neck, and shoulders to bring about a profound sense of relaxation and ease. This class is perfect after a long day or when we're overwhelmed. You will need a narrow block or a folded blanket and a brick.
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44:08Flow and Restore 2
This nourishing yoga class starts with a gentle warm up, followed by vinyasa yoga flow to stretch, strengthen and move the body in order to prepare for stillness. The second part of the class is very nourishing and supportive restorative yoga. This yoga class is a wonderful opportunity to strike balance between movement and stillness, challenge and softness, effort and effortlessness. Check out Clive’s first Flow & Restore class.
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12:46Meditation: Befriending your Whole Self
In this short meditation class, be guided through an embodied enquiry of the layers of your body (physical, mental, emotional, energetic, spiritual) as a way of tuning into, welcoming and befriending your body. When we take time to listen and connect to our body we make room to welcome the full spectrum of our human experience – from the comfortable to the not so comfortable. Befriending the body in this way widens the circle of compassion and acceptance of this moment allowing you to tap into the inherent wisdom that resides within. This is a really useful short practice to connect to yourself at the start of your day, before any yoga class and when you are experiencing feelings of anxiety, stress or overwhelm.
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42:05Anatomy of Breathing
You can hardly get through five minutes of any good yoga class without being reminded to breathe. Of course, all of us breathe every second of every day, we do it instinctively. However, how much do we all know about the mechanics of breathing and how we can optimise our breathing for our health and wellbeing? This yoga anatomy video offers an invaluable insight into the anatomy of your breath and how to use your breath on and off your yoga mat to help you feel good both physically as well as mentally. Please note that all advice and recommendations in this film are given generally and do not constitute any form of an individual diagnosis or treatment plan. A consultation with a medical practitioner or registered physical therapist is recommended.
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11:06Gentle Movement Pick Me Up
This is a somatic movement class for when you're slightly low on energy, feeling anxious, you need a gentle work break or are looking for a warm up class. Drawing on Amy’s contemporary dance background as well as her love for Qigong and Tai Chi, this sequence helps us to feel grounded, connected, composed and calm. Also perfect as a Barre cool down class.
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08:04Three Yoga Poses to Support Digestion
It might not be easy to find time to move our bodies or practice a yoga flow in our busy lives, but it is important to aid our bodies and help support our digestive system throughout the day. In this quick yoga class, Gabriella will guide you through her top three poses which can help support our digestive systems along with a diaphragmatic breath technique to help create calm. These will only take a few minutes and can all be done at your desk!
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22:19Gentle Yoga for Gut Health: Aid Digestion
This gentle yoga class begins with slow moving twists, side stretches and poses all designed to gently help support your digestive system. The class finishes with a seated practice to encourage strong posture and uses breath awareness to support digestive balance. Props: one chair, one pillow or bolster.
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47:48Open to Your Heart’s Desire
This heart-centred gentle yoga class is designed to help you connect to your heart's desire, to your inner wisdom and to feel more love for oneself and one another. It includes opening to self love through embodied enquiry, gentle stretching and movement, finishing with yin postures and a guided visualisation to connect deeply to your heart’s desire and its expression in the world.
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38:02Yoga to Rest & Digest: The Vagus Nerve
This yoga class uses simple practices to resource and reset the nervous system using breath, sound, gentle movement and massage to stimulate the vagus nerve and encourage deep relaxation. Either follow the class in full or learn the practices which resonate with you to be done in your own time. The vagus nerve acts as a “super information highway” communicating between the brain and our body’s systems regulating our mood, digestion, heart rate and hormones. The vagus nerve balances our nervous system by switching on our parasympathetic 'rest and digest' mode and influences how we connect and feel safe with others. You will need a bolster, blanket, tennis ball and/or soft pilates ball. Gabriella uses a Yoga Tune Up Coregeous Ball.
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16:16Gentle Yoga for Emotional Release
The journey into perimenopause and menopause can bring up a range of emotions from anger, rage, grief, loss and frustration. This gentle yoga class is an opportunity to move with your feelings; allowing them to arise, shift and release through somatic movement, gentle yoga postures and breath work. Welcome the full spectrum of your human experience. You will need a blanket.
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37:42Restorative Yoga with Two Blankets
A nourishing, relaxing Restorative yoga class can still be achieved with fewer props and in this class, we use just two blankets to experience three postures. The postures help to release tension and shift the body into a relaxation response. Tuning into the breath during restorative yoga also helps the body to release and relax, I also recommend listening to the Tamboura playlist, as the Indian root instrument is very grounding and draws you further into your restorative practice. You will need two blankets or bath towels of the same size, and an eye pillow. Practice this class alongside this playlist.
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10:00Easy Hips: 1
Tight or painful back, legs or hips? Take this easy series with Leila and benefit from this easy to follow straightforward routine. Easy and effective pain relief and maintenance for those of you who are new to yoga, who are working with injuries or those with very limited time. Props: Yoga block or stack of books. Yoga belt or tie/scarf.
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01:11:38Relaxing Restorative Yoga
This restorative yoga class is an opportunity to truly relax, the use of yoga props allow the body to shift from "fight or flight" into relaxation mode. Perfect for when you're a little overwhelmed and you need to give your immune system some time off. The props allow the body to be fully supported enabling release of tension leading to relaxation. Be kind to yourself as you move into stillness which may take time to achieve, but your nervous system will thank you for the opportunity to have an increased sense of well-being. Each posture is held for 5 - 10mins this is to allow the body to rest fully as it takes the nervous system on average 15 mins to shift mode; from sympathetic ("fight or flight) into parasympathetic (relaxation). There are only 4 postures during this class to maximise on rest and minimise movement. This class is great for improving posture, as we so often sit at desks rounded over computer or phones; postures chosen open chest and shoulders as well as creating an overall restful feeling. Props you will need: 1 bolster, 1 belt, 2 bricks, 2 blankets and an eye pillow. (1 x pillow folded in half, wrapped in a towel and pushed into a pillowcase makes a bolster or indeed a sleeping bag tied together | A scarf or robe belt can be used as a yoga belt | 2 x hard back books can be used as blocks| 2 x Bath Towels can be used instead of blankets.) Practice this class alongside this playlist.
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31:44Chakra Meditation for Renewed Energy
Find balance and inspiration, and feel grounded, and recharged with this wonderful chakra meditation class. This meditation to find the Balanced State works through the chakras to find the place of infinite peace within each of us; a calm inner sanctuary free from the stress, tension and worry of the outside world. Expect a blend of slow, steady movements and intention-setting meditations to re-centre and bring renewed energy to the body, heart and mind. This meditation features movements, visualisations and breathing to inspire you from the inside out. Rather than feeling obligated to “do meditation”, you will be inspired to “feel your meditation”! To accomplish this, you don't just sit for the entire time still; instead you will be guided to help open up to be more receptive to the calm wisdom found deep within your core. When you learn to access your Balanced State, the peace and joy you uncover will extend to all aspects of your life.
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19:15Two Key Restorative Yoga Poses
A gentle, restorative yoga class with variations of two key restorative postures - Supta Baddha Konāsana, Reclined Cobbler and Savāsana, Relaxation pose. This class sets up the poses, and then you'll need to find the time to practice. All restorative postures are relaxing and great for improving nervous system health, but these two are deeply relaxing and nourishing. There is a true sense of healing from the position in which the body is positioned in Reclined Cobbler, there may be a sense of vulnerability as the soles of the feet touch and knees are apart, but you can always take another blanket to cover the knees. Savāsana allows all the benefits of our previous postures (in any style of yoga) to come together in this final restful pose. This class is perfect if you've had a tough day and you're looking to unwind, or you simply are looking for some home self-care. You will need: 2 bolsters, 1 strap, 2 bricks, 2 blankets and an eye pillow (1 x pillow folded in half, wrapped in a towel and pushed into a pillowcase makes a bolster or indeed a sleeping bag tied together | A scarf or robe belt can be used as a yoga belt | 2 x hard back books can be used as blocks | 2 x Bath Towels can be used instead of blankets). Practice this class alongside this playlist.