This 15-Minute Practice Will Relax Your Entire Body

Want to relax your body and calm your mind without worrying about how your practice looks from the outside? Somatic yoga offers a gentle, holistic approach to mind-body wellness that emphasizes awareness over aesthetics. It invites you to slow down, tune in, and move in ways that feel nurturing so you can ease stiffness, improve mobility, and reduce stress in a more compassionate way.

Unlike other styles of yoga, somatic yoga shifts the focus from external alignment to personal sensation. It emphasizes feeling each posture from the inside out, letting intuitive movement guide your alignment and intensity. These mindful, unhurried movements also help hydrate and release your fascia, the connective tissue network that surrounds and supports your muscles so the body can move with more ease.

This heightened internal awareness, known as interoception, encourages you to honor your unique anatomy and make decisions that support safety, comfort, and self-care. By asking you to slow down and center your attention on how movement feels rather than how it appears, somatic yoga helps quiet the inner critic and clear mental clutter. The result is a more mindful, present, and restorative practice.

15-Minute Yoga Flow for Tension Release

This 15-minute yoga sequence blends grounding movements with soothing stretches to release tightness in your neck, shoulders, hips, and lower back. All you need for this somatic yoga practice is a mat and a willingness to move slowly. Listen to your body and modify or skip any movements that cause you discomfort, especially if you have any injuries or medical conditions.

Constructive Rest

To begin, lie down on your back with your knees bent and your feet shoulder-width apart or wider. Rest one hand on your belly and the other hand on your heart. Close your eyes and let your body settle into the floor. Take a few easy, natural breaths, and tune into your inner landscape.

Windshield Wipers

Open your eyes and extend your arms out wide. Lower both knees toward the floor on your right, keeping your feet shoulder-width apart and turning your head to the left.

Bring your knees back to center and lower them to the left. Notice any sensations in your hips, thighs, and lower back.

Continue with your windshield wiper motion, alternating sides and turning your head away from your knees, for a total of 3 times on each side.

Knees to Chest

Hug your knees toward your chest and take a deep breath as you cradle your body. Rock side to side, feeling a gentle stretch in your lower back. Exhale and roll onto your side.

Cat-Cow

Come to your hands and knees with your hands under your shoulders and your knees hip-width apart. Inhale, lift your gaze, and arch your spine in Cow Pose.

Exhale, rounding your spine while tucking your chin and tailbone in Cat Pose. Repeat, inhaling into the backbend and exhaling into the rounded back, for a total of 3 cycles.

Child’s Pose

Bring your feet together and draw your hips toward your heels, resting your forehead and palms on the floor in Child’s Pose. Breathe into the back of your body and feel your spine stretch as your lower back softly rounds. Notice the sensations in your body after the poses and movements you’ve done so far.

Puppy Pose

Slowly return to hands and knees, then move your hands a few inches forward and lower your chest toward the floor in Puppy Pose. Take a deep breath into your ribs. Exhale and soften here, sensing the opening in your shoulders, your chest, your upper spine, and your neck. Take 3 breaths here.

Thread the Needle

From Puppy, slide your left arm under your chest toward the opposite side, bringing the outer upper left arm to the mat and resting the left side of your head on the floor in Thread the Needle. Press your right palm into the floor above your head while drawing your right shoulder toward your back. Hold for 3 breaths, feeling all the sensations in your upper body as it twists.

Slowly release and repeat Thread the Needle on the other side.

Low Lunge

Gently return to hands and knees. Step your right foot forward between your hands, placing the foot under your right knee. Relax your hips downward and lift your chest forward, drawing your shoulders back. Hold this Low Lunge for 3 breaths, feeling the stretch in the front of your left hip and thigh.

Half Splits

Draw your hips back and extend your right leg into Half Splits, keeping your hands on the mat on each side of your front foot. Draw your right toes back and relax forward over your extended leg until you feel the stretch along the back of your right thigh. Breathe into the stretch, inviting the body to soften each time you exhale, for 3 breaths.

Shift forward into Low Lunge again, then repeat both poses on the other side. When finished, return to Tabletop.

Sphinx Pose

Carefully lower onto your belly and prop yourself on your forearms in Sphinx Pose. Let your legs come to a comfortable distance apart, either hip-width or mat-width. Breathe into the stretch in your low belly, your low back, and your hips. Rest here for 5 breaths, then release and roll onto your back.

Supine Stretching

Draw your Knees to Chest and take a breath or two. Clasp your fingers around your right knee and extend your left leg forward, resting it on the mat. Pause here, hugging the right knee and feeling into your lower back and right hip.

Extend your left arm on the floor toward the left. Place your right hand on your right knee, and lower the knee toward the right while turning your head to the left.

Now draw your right knee back to center, switch hands, and bring your left hand to your knee as you extend your right arm out to the right in a Supine Twist. Draw your right leg across your body to the left, letting the right hip stack on top of the left. Bring your right leg back to the starting position and repeat the twist on the same side 2 more times, pairing the movement with your breath.

Half Happy Baby

Grasp the outer edge of your right foot or calf with your right hand, bend your knee, and try to stack your foot over your knee in Half Happy Baby Pose. The sole of your right foot will face the sky. Gently draw the knee down toward the right side of your ribs. Breathe into the left hip, inviting it to soften, and releasing tension with every exhale.

Figure 4 Pose

Bend your left knee, place your left foot on the floor, and come into Figure 4 Pose by placing your right ankle against your left knee. For a gentler stretch, keep your left foot on the floor. For more sensation, lift both legs and draw them in, threading your right hand between the legs to clasp around the back of your left thigh or the front of your left shin—whichever best stretches your right outer hip. Keep your shoulders and head relaxed on the mat. Take a breath into your right hip, and as you exhale, envision it softening and relaxing.

When you’re ready, release and repeat the Supine Stretching Set on the second side.

Reclined Bound Angle Pose

Slowly lower your legs into Reclined Bound Angle Pose or Reclined Butterfly Pose, placing your feet together and letting your knees drop away from each other. Rest one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart. Return to a natural and easy breath, softening with each exhalation.

Easy Pose

When you feel ready, gently draw your knees back in toward each other and slowly roll over onto one side, then press up to a seated position. Sit up tall, place your palms together in front of your heart to bring gentle closure to this somatic yoga flow. Thank yourself for carving out this time to take care of your body and mind.