Bed Yoga for Moms — 22-Min Nervous System Reset When You Can't Turn Off

This is for the mom whose body forgot how to stop. 

You get to bed. The kids are down. The house is finally quiet. 

And your body is still on.

Still scanning. Still bracing. Still waiting for the next thing.

I lived like that for years. And what I didn't understand was that my nervous system had been on duty so long it forgot it was allowed to rest.

This 22-minute bed yoga practice is nervous system work done in the one place you actually have left to yourself — your bed.

You don't have to get up.
You don't have to change.
You don't even have to try.

Just lie back with me.

In this practice we use:
→ Constructive rest position
→ Extended exhale breathing
→ Hand on heart for co-regulation
→ Gentle somatic release for stored tension
→ Orienting to send your body the signal it's safe

This is the Friday piece of Help a Mother's Nervous System Week at The Calm Lab. Monday we had the podcast and yoga nidra. Thursday the full education video dropped. And this is the practice you do tonight.

Grounded in polyvagal theory. Made for the mom whose body has been running on empty.

⏰ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Lie back with me — opening practice
2:30 Why your body won't turn off (the science)
4:30 Constructive rest position
7:00 Extended exhale breathing
10:30 Somatic release for stored tension
14:00 Hand on heart — co-regulation
17:00 Orienting to safety
20:00 Integration and closing

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🎙️ New podcast episode dropping Monday
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/6aDkTER8NLlkFfiOKAS5Z2
Apple → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-calm-lab-podcast/id1825913005

📌 Pinterest → pinterest.com/thecalmlabwithkassandra

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📺 HELP A MOTHER'S NERVOUS SYSTEM WEEK:
Monday's Yoga Nidra → [https://youtu.be/-fAP98u9ty8?si=05r4gfmgE5I8yaej
Monday's Podcast → https://www.buzzsprout.com/2518406/episodes/19005976
Thursday's Full Video → https://youtu.be/xASDCvmvMOo?si=U_xEuJtCxbNhiP9n
Friday's Bed Yoga — you're watching it now 🌿

Namasté Your Life, LLC recommends consulting your physician before beginning any exercise program. There is possibility of physical injury. You agree to participate at your own risk and assume all risk of injury to yourself.

About Kassandra:
Kassandra is a trauma-informed yoga teacher, breathwork guide, and Harvard-certified lifestyle & wellness coach who blends nervous system education with accessible mind–body practices to help people sleep better, ease anxiety, and feel grounded.

Links:

Rewire Your Nervous System in 7 Days (Free Guide)

The 14-Day Nervous System Reset 

YouTube

Pinterest

Instagram

The Calm Lab

Substack

My Apple Music Playlist

LinkedIn

If The Calm Lab is helping your nervous system, the best way to support is to:

★ Rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 

★ Share an episode with someone who needs it 

★ Subscribe so you don't miss the next one

Thank you for being here. — Kassandra 🌿

The Calm Lab by Namasté Your Life, LLC recommends that you consult your physician regarding the applicability of any recomme...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is for the mom who forgot how to stop. Place one hand on your heart, one hand on your belly. We are going to give your nervous system a chance to fully shut off. Go ahead and close down the eyes. Feel the hands rising and falling with the breath. Just take a few deep breaths here, in through the nose and out through the mouth. One more. Inhale as the shoulders come up towards the ears, and then exhale as you roll your shoulders back and down. Really exaggerate the movement here. And when you're ready, you can switch directions. Inhale back and up, exhale forward and down. Take it nice and slow, allowing the breath to really elongate on the exhale. Beautiful last one. Let's find stillness and center, dropping the chin to the chest, feeling the length in the back of the neck. And then rolling the head to the left as if you're trying to touch your left ear to your left shoulder. Lengthening the right side of the neck and breathing deeply here. Inhaling back to center. Just take a pause. Feel the release in the back of the neck. And then exhale, dropping the right ear toward the right shoulder, feeling the length in the left side neck. Relaxing the rest of your body. Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose. On your next exhale, again dropping the chin to the chest, and either doing the same thing we just did or doing full neck rolls in one direction. Take them nice and slow. Inhale as you turn and look up. Exhale as you turn and look down. When you're ready to switch directions, pause with your chin towards your chest. Just take a breath here. And when you feel ready, move in the opposite direction. Dropping the chin to the chest, as if you're going to make a double chin, really tucking the chin. And if you'd like to, on the exhale, hum to stimulate the vagus nerve, breathe in through the nose. Two more rounds. Breathe in. Last one. Inhaling deeply. Exhaling completely. Beautiful lifting the head when you feel ready. Eyes can stay closed. Gentle twist to the left. The right hand comes to the outside of the left thigh. Left hand comes behind you to support you with a tall spine as you twist very gently. On the inhale, maybe lengthen the spine and then exhale twist just a bit deeper. You can continue the vagal toning here by humming on the exhale if that feels good. And then let's exhale through center, gently switch sides, twisting to the right. Inhaling tall spine, exhaling, twisting just a bit deeper, being gentle with our bodies here. Moving slowly so that we're activating the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest, restoring the body and the mind. Inhaling back to center, just take a pause, rest the hands on the thighs, and notice what feels different already. Maybe setting an intention for this practice today. And then when you feel ready, coming up onto the knees, maybe shaking out the hands and the arms a little bit. Beautiful, tucking the toes under if you like. Inhaling, let's reach the arms up toward the ceiling, interlace the fingers, pressing the palms up toward the sky, really finding length through the torso, the side body, maybe even looking up, taking a small back bend, opening the chest, and then exhale, cactus the arms, come all the way down into a child's pose. Knees are wide, big toes touch, reaching the arms out in front of you, resting the forehead down on the bed or on stacked hands or a pillow. And then looking left and right. So we're just massaging our forehead back and forth here, continuing to release any tension in the head, neck, and shoulders. You can come back to stimulating the vagus nerve here by humming on the exhale. And then let's just take a moment to find stillness in this child's pose. Release. Surrender. Relax. Beautiful. You can stay in the child's pose or come up to a tabletop position. Hands and knees, drop the belly, lift the hips, lift the head, little micro bend in the elbows here, and then exhale, tuck the chin towards the chest, pull the navel up towards the spine, tuck the pelvis, and then inhale, just move through your cat-cow poses. You can also take some figure eights here, whatever feels good. Just notice what you want. Maybe you want to bump the hips left and right. So we're continuing to release through the spine, the upper body, moving into the lower body. Do not worry about what it looks like. Just really tuning into what your body wants and how it feels. And once that feels complete, you can either continue or just come back to a child's pose, surrender down and feel the stillness here. Nice long, slow, deep breaths. Inhaling for a count of four and exhaling for a count of eight. And when you're ready, we're going to come back onto hands and knees, dropping the hips down towards the hands, looking up toward your ceiling, and then looking left and right over the left and right shoulder, really releasing the lower back here. You can either look over one shoulder and then just find stillness, or you can kind of move left and right, tuning into what your body wants right now. Take the hands a little bit wider out to the side. You can even come onto your fingerprints here. So we're going to roll up into this cobra, tuck the chin towards your chest, inhale reaching the head and chin up. Exhale, really leading through the chin, rippling back down and then rolling up, tuck the chin. Exhale, rolling down. So just take these at your own pace. Only extend as much as feels good in the spine. And really try to slow the movement down so we can stay in the parasympathetic rest state. This is a really nice massage for the digestive system as well. Alright, last one. Inhale up. Let's pause, reach the chin. Exhale slowly down, and we are going to transition onto our back if you'd like. Send your right arm out and then roll over onto the back. However, that went is perfect. All right. On our back, let's bring the soles of the feet to the bed nice and wide. Heels are out, toes are in, knees are resting against one another. Place one hand on the belly and one on the heart. Let's just take three rounds of the humming breath. Breathe in through the nose. Beautiful. Hug the knees into the chest. Big toes touch, knees are wide. And just find some intuitive rocking movement here, massaging the back, the glutes. And then let's drop both knees over to the right. Left arm goes out to the left. Look over towards the left hand. Right hand rests on the outside of the left thigh, finding a gentle supine twist. Slow the breath down even more here. Hug the knees into the chest, move a little bit, and then both knees drop to the left, look to the right, and just feel this gentle twist. Allow your body to drop completely into the support of the bed. Feeling held. And just noticing where you're holding tension and places in your body where you don't need to use your muscles right now. Hugging the knees back into the chest. If you want to take happy baby, you can bring the soles of the feet up toward the ceiling and maybe grab behind the thighs, the calves, the ankles, or the outer edges of the feet. And here you might want to rock side to side again, lengthening the legs, getting a calf and a hamstring stretch, also stretching the hips here, the muscles in the lower back. As we move more quickly and our heart rate goes up, we start moving into the sympathetic. And then let's take the legs up towards the ceiling, the hands up toward the ceiling. You can point and flex the feet and the hands. You can draw circles with the wrists and the ankles, moving in both directions here, and just allowing this blood flow to reverse itself. Sticking, excuse me, sticking with the breath, breathing in through the nose, and out through the nose or mouth. You choose. Just notice what you need. Let's grab the right ankle or calf and allow the left leg to go long and rest down on the bed. You can always rest the left sole of the foot on the bed. Just finding length behind the right leg. Point and flex the right foot to deepen that stretch. Really feel it in your calf. You may also want to keep a micro bend in the right knee. Don't lock out at your joints. And then from here we're going to transition into a figure four stretch when you're ready. Bring the sole of the left foot to the bed, bend the right leg, cross the right ankle over the left thigh, and then just lift the left foot up. You can stay here, or you can just hug this leg package in towards your chest, stretching the glute and the hip. Maybe flex the feet to protect your knees. And as we transition, be mindful to move nice and slowly. Drop the left foot down, drop the right foot down, extend the left leg, and go ahead and grab behind the left ankle or calf or even thigh, pulling the left leg toward your face, pointing and flexing the left foot, maybe lengthening the right leg all the way down to deepen the stretch. Bring the sole of the right foot to the bed, across the left ankle on top of the right thigh, lift it up for your figure for stretch. Very gently hugging your legs in toward your chest. And let's release. Let's take three final breaths in. If you'd like to continue stimulating your vagus nerve, which runs through your vocal cords, you can hum on the exhale in through the nose. Maybe releasing the legs and the palms to face up or snuggling down under your blankets. Rest well.