Four supported shapes you can do in bed or beside it, twenty minutes before the lights go out. Built for the nights when your head will not stop.
Bad sleep usually is not a sleep problem. It is a busy day that has not finished yet. This sequence gives it a way to finish.
Set up
Dim the lights. Have two pillows and a blanket within reach. Put the phone in another room if you can, face down if you cannot.
The sequence
Legs up the wall
Lie with your hips close to the wall and your legs resting up it. Five minutes, long exhale.Supported fish
Lie back over a pillow placed along your spine, arms open. Three minutes.Side-lying twist
Lie on one side, knees bent, and let the top arm open to the other side with a pillow under it. Two minutes each side.Supported child's pose
Kneel over a stack of pillows and turn your head to one side. Halfway through, turn it the other way. Four minutes.
The studio at 20:00, when the Restore and Yin class begins.
Stay warm
Your body temperature drops as you relax. Put the blanket over you before the first shape, not halfway through.
Rest is not the reward for finishing the day. It is how you finish it.
Inés
Then go straight to bed
No screens between the last shape and the pillow. If you wake in the night, try the four in, six out breath from our breathing note.
Written by
Inés Varela
Inés has taught for fifteen years, first in Lisbon and now in her eight-mat studio in Ruzafa. She writes the journal between the morning and evening classes.
