Slow Down and Bloom: A Yin Sequence for Spring
Spring is the season of birdsong and fresh blooms, of watermelon slices and open windows. It’s a time of clearing out the old, planting new seeds, and waking up to the pulse of possibility.
After the quiet of winter you may be feeling a stirring within, like your inner soil is warming, ready to grow something new. If your soul is beginning to stretch toward the light, this nourishing Yin sequence (approximately 45 min) is a gentle way to align with the cyclical rhythm of the earth and renew your spirit.
Opening Meditation: River of Light
Begin in a comfortable seat.
Close your eyes and visualize a soft light, golden and warm. I like to imagine it as the energy of Source or the sun, shimmering just above the crown of your head.
With each inhale, invite that light in.
Let it fill your forehead.
Let it wash over your face.
Let it drift down into your throat and chest.
Let it rush through you like a river, cleansing, alive, and luminous.
Soothing your nervous system.
Bringing peace into your belly.
As you take a deep breath in, send this golden current into your liver, Spring’s sacred organ.
Let it flow into your stomach, your small and large intestines, clearing away old, stagnant energies and replacing them with new life.
With your next exhale, guide the light into your pelvis.
Then send it rushing down, like a cleansing river, through your legs and into the earth.
With every breath, feel more rooted.
More whole.
More home.
Place your hands on your heart.
Stay in stillness.
Feel your breath—its rhythm, its length.
Let it carry you deeper into the moment.
Sideways Deer Pose – Right Side
Create a 90/90 shape with your legs.
Right shin toward the front of the mat, left shin off to the side.
Support your left knee if needed.
Place right hand behind right hip. Inhale as you lift your hips off the floor and send them up into the sky. Bring your left arm up simultaneously. Do this up to 3 times.
Release hips back down and lower right forearm to a block or the floor. Reach left arm up and overhead.
Let the left forearm rest gently on your head. Soften your gaze-- stay here for 3 minutes anchoring back to your breath.
Deer Fold – Right Side
3 minutes
Fold forward over your front shin. Use props (blocks if you have them) under the forearms or head.
As you surrender, release what’s been weighing on your mind. Offer it to the wind.
This is what renewal looks like: not action, but breath. A quiet returning. A willingness to sit gently with the parts of you that don’t feel like home…yet.
Half Lord of the Fishes
3 minutes
Lift yourself up from folded deer pose. Cross the right foot over your left thigh. Inhale to lengthen the spine. Exhale to twist left.
(I am taking a very light variation as I am pregnant, for other pregnant people a great option is to come to an open twist with your left hand on left knee and rotate towards the right side instead).
For the regular deeper version hug your knee or press right elbow to the outside of the thigh.
This twist stirs the spine, clearing out stagnation from the previous season. Imagine old blockages dissolving, breath by breath.
Repeat Deer → Fold → Twist on the Left Side
~9 minutes total. Let the other side feel like a soft mirror. Unhurried. Responsive.
Dragonfly Forward Fold
3 minutes + 1 minute Cat & Cow
Sit with your legs extended wide in a “V” shape. Flex your feet and gently walk your hands forward, folding over with support from blocks or a bolster under your forearms or head.
Let gravity guide the fold—no force, just breath.
As you soften into the shape, ask yourself:
What do I need to feel nourished right now?
More rest? More greens? Less pressure?
Let your body speak. Trust what it says.
fish Pose
2 minutes.
Lie on your back and slide your hands beneath your hips, palms down. Press into your forearms to lift your chest and gently tilt the crown of your head back.
Let your heart rise. Let your breath flow like the tide—steady, open, alive.
Happy Baby
2 minutes + Knees to Chest
On your back, hold the outer edges of your feet. You can do one leg at a time or both (as in the pictures above)
Gently sway. Let the hips melt and draw your knees in.
Hold yourself gently, like a quiet return home.
Windshield Wipers + Supine Twist
1-2 minutes each side.
Feet on the floor, knees bent.
Rock your knees side to side—like windshield wipers.
Then drop both knees to the right and rest.
Switch sides.
Final Rest – Savasana
7 minutes
Lie down. Get cozy. Let your body be held by the earth.
No need to do anything now.
Let your spirit recalibrate.
