When we’re feeling fatigued, while it may feel like the only thing you want to do is flop down on the sofa, it’s actually very beneficial to move. Now, I don’t necessarily mean go run 10k, but instead meet yourself where you’re at and slowly building up from that point.

You may want to start out lying on your back, in child’s pose, in a chair, or even on your bed. And here’s the first key point: tune into your breath. Notice the gentle movement of the natural breath within the body. Allow the breath to start signaling to you where your energy lies.

You may just want to find a restful restorative pose (or a few) and let yourself deeply rest by using supportive breath and awareness techniques.

But, perhaps you find it feels good to add in gentle movement, little by little. Maybe first start with a little self touch and massage, gently caressing your face, head, arms, chest, sides, and legs with your hands. Then using your index and middle fingers to make small, slow circles moving down from the forehead, sides of the face, jaw, neck, shoulders, maybe gentle squeezing your upper arms and forearms, and massaging your thumbs into your palms. You could even take it the self-massaging down to your feet and calves.

From there, if it feels good you might add in a gentle joint warm up (neck circles with your eyes open, shoulder circles, wrist and ankle circles, wiggling in your toes) and then if that feels good adding in some gentle bends and twists.

If you notice that you’re starting to feel a bit more energized maybe come into a cat/cow sequence and a downward facing dog. Maybe even doing a gentle, slow vinyasa. And eventually, this may lead you to standing poses like the warrior series or triangle series.

Or maybe you go for a little walk outside, or you go for a swim.

Or perhaps you do a little movement and then realize, “Nope, I need that deep, restorative rest. I’m going back to that.” And that’s okay too.

The key word in this is to be mindful. Move a little, check in with your breath, am I good to go on? Yes, great let’s add on to it. No, totally fine, let’s rest a moment.

This week I’m going to go live on Wednesday, June 15th at 12pm CEST (11am BST) to give you a short mindful, loving self touch and self massage session in the Yoga for Pandemic Fatigue, Stress, Anxiety & Long COVID Facebook group. You will have access to the video within the Facebook group for 1 month and after the month is up, you’ll be able to find it in the Tytoni Online Studio.

Come join me live or catch the replay in the Facebook group:

Yoga for Pandemic Fatigue, Stress, Anxiety & Long COVID