Yoga Sess 02.09.24

The speaker guides the listener through a yoga practice, starting with deep breathing and relaxation techniques. They then move into various poses and stretches, including twists, circles, plank position, downward dog, lunges, and seated forward folds. The practice ends with a seated meditation and standing squats. You can start in a comfortable seat, and let me know if the audio cuts out at any point. You can start with your palms facing up or down, whatever feels good. And begin by maybe gently closing your eyes, sensing a deep breath in, and deep breath out. Arriving onto your mat, letting go of any tension in your forehead, in between your eyebrows. Dropping your lower jaw, relaxing your tongue. Imagining that you're creating space. For me, I've been imagining that I'm creating space underneath my cheekbones, my temples, my forehead, and that gives me a sense of relaxation. As you continue sensing your breath, I encourage you to send your belly button towards your spine, to begin waking up your body to start moving. And if you feel comfortable, you can explore the ocean breath or the ujjayi breath. So you inhale through your nose, and when you exhale, you close your lips, and exhale as though you were going to fog up a mirror. And on your next inhale, let's open our eyes, breathe in, bring those palms up overhead, shift our position, let's take a twist to my left and my right. And gently place one arm in front and the other to the back as you stretch your spine up to the sky and take a deep breath. Nice and released, come back to center, breathing in. And take a twist to the opposite side. So I'm pressing away with this front arm. As I inhale, I sense the energy from the base of my spine, my tailbone, traveling all the way through my crown. And when you're ready, we're going to transition into tabletop position, however it feels good enough. And let's start by taking some gentle circles to your left. If you wish, you can flip your palms, you can flip your palms for your fingers, thank you. And you can take some gentle circles, sending energy through those fingertips. And take those circles to the right, as gentle as you can, you can tense the back of the hand and flip them back when you're ready. Arriving at a neutral position, tuck your toes and on the next exhale we're going to lift those knees into floating tabletop position. Inhale together, and exhale, belly button goes so much to your spine that it lifts those knees off. And take three collective breaths together, if you want to. And release. Deep inhale. Lengthen your spine as you exhale. Last one, breathe in. On that exhale, send those hips up to the side of your downward dog. Bend that left knee, stretching out the back of the right leg. And switch, bend that right knee. And come to a neutral position. When you're ready, we'll walk to our hands. And come to a forward fold. Gently grasping our elbows and let's take a moment to sway side to side. Finding space between our ribs and our hips, so bringing consciousness and awareness to the sides of our body. Nice, when you're ready, release that and we're going to roll up through the spine, so bend those knees generously. And roll up vertebrae by vertebrae, to come to mountain pose. Taking a breath in. Hands can come up to pair position with the heart. Or here, which is going to be imagining that you can't see me fully on this screen. And we're going to take a pair position. Sending those hips into the mat. Breathing in. And exhale. And let's come back up. We're going to take a floor dive down, so step to the side of the mat, breathing in. And dive back down. Palms on the mat, you can step or hop into a plank position. Let's take three collective breaths here, pressing away from the earth. Breathing in. And exhale. Drawing the belly button to the spine, breathing in. And exhale. Pressing away, sensing the strength and power in our bodies, breathing in. We're going to exhale, bend those elbows into a Chaturanga. And you can go into Upward Facing Dog or Sphinx. Pressing away, either on those elbows or on those palms. Be gentle, this is your first backbend of the day. And release your knees. And when you're ready, let's do Sphinx in Downward Dog. Bring those feet to touch behind us, we're lifting that right leg into Three-Legged Dog. Let's bend that knee and take a stretch of the psoas, which is a deep muscle in our core. So we send that knee towards the back, so we're keeping our shoulders square to the front. And when you're ready, come back, straighten that leg, Three-Legged Dog. Bend through, and let's actually pull that knee up to our chest three times. One, two, three. And then we'll cross, so touch that left elbow, right elbow. Left, right, left, right. And release that down into a lunge. Exhaling as you send those arms up overhead. You can keep that back knee grounded. Imagining that you're sending that left hip forward, but you're also lengthening through that crown. So you sense the inner stretch that's happening. And if it feels good, you take that twist to bring that left arm over that right knee. I'm going to lift up. If you want a little bit more power in that process, now you can stay in that stretch. If it feels good, open up those hands. And we're going to release that left palm onto the earth, looking up to the right fingertips. Nice, and when you're ready, let's come back to plank. Trot around the upward-facing dog, however feels good to you. And come back, Downward Dog. We're going to take one vinyasa before taking that slow to the other side. So step or hop to the front of the mat. Drop the head, and let's roll up just as we did vertebrae by vertebrae. Finding space in our joints, breathing in. Arms up overhead, long drive down, hands to core position. Step or hop to the back of the mat. And bend those elbows. Trot around the upward-facing dog. Maybe noticing something new in your space. Noticing where you're practicing. And exhale. Downward Dog. When you're ready, bring those feet to touch behind you. Lift that left leg. Bend the knee. And let the weight of that leg really stretch the front side of your left leg. As you keep the shoulders square to the front. Stretching away. Nice, when you're ready, release that three-legged dog. And come back. We'll do our three pulses. So pulse that left knee up to the chest. And that knee goes to your nose. Three times. And then twist. Touch the right elbow. Left. Right. Left. Release. Smile. Left. When you're ready, come and release. Bring that left leg in front into a lunge. Releasing that back knee. And then exhale. Twist those arms up over your head. And here I'm really considering engaging that belly button towards the spine. So that creates even more length at the front of my right hip. So I don't want to sink into the joint, but I want to feel the energy coming from the earth and the resistance that I create. And if it feels good, take a twist, bringing that right elbow over that left knee. If you wish, untuck that back leg. And then stretch those arms. Really sensing these twists. And release that right palm to the earth. Continuing to look up. The left fingertips. When you're ready, we'll come back. So place position. Release down. You're trying to run up and into your yawn. Maybe notice or imagine you're smelling the beautiful flowers. And come back. Downward dog. Great. And let's take a moment to rest in child's pose. So bend those knees as wide as a mat. If you wish, you can actually keep them together. Extend those arms out to the front of the mat. And then we'll inhale again. Exhaling. Maybe bringing to mind one thing, whether it's in your personal life, your work life, that you're choosing to let go of. And bring that idea, that image to mind as you inhale. As you exhale, imagine you're blowing that out, letting it go from your life. Beautiful. When you're ready, come on up to your seated pose. Transition out into a seated position. Bring those legs straight in front of us, flexing those feet. We're going to come into a seated forward dog. So coming in, arms up overhead. And gently imagine you're going over a barrel. As you touch, maybe reach for those legs, or you can touch just over your feet, but you can also stay touching your shins. Taking a stretch here at your own pace. Beautiful. Come back up. Let's actually take a moment and stretch the top part of our feet. So I am imagining, like ballerinas, I'm pointing those feet to sense a deep stretch at the front of my ankles. As I breathe in, we're going to take another forward dog. And exhale. Sensing the length on the front part of my legs, releasing that head. Nice. On the next exhale, let's pump. So now I'm going to bring the soles of the feet to touch. Let's start with them wide, so we're creating this diamond shape. And as you lean over, imagine that you can place your forehead in between the soles of your feet. Reach forward. Maybe you can, or maybe you just imagine it for today. Letting go. Releasing. Nice. On the next exhale, let's roll. And if it's available to you, bring the soles of your feet a little closer together, so we're making a smaller diamond. And let's inhale together. On the exhale, reach forward, being gentle with your knees. And releasing the weight of the head. Nice. And as you're ready to sit, we roll up. Maybe imagining you're painting on your mat, bringing those hands back to center. Let's take a moment to actually give ourselves a little pause. Curl. Touch your nose to your knees. And look up to the ceiling, creating a C-shape in your spine. Nice. And when you're ready for that, you'll come into a Malasana or squat position. There's no breakaway. Just to get out of that, you can place those palms. I'll come to face the camera in prayer position. Let's take three collective breaths here. Maybe you close your eyes, breathing in. Relaxing that jaw, creating space between your upper and lower jaw. Breathing in. Spreading those toes on that exhale. Knees, inhale in. Lengthening the back of our neck on that inhale. When you're ready, we're going to stand. So, be gentle, come up, set it up, squat. And if it's available to you, let's send those hips down. Gently and slowly and calm into that squat. We're going to do two more of those. Breathing in. I'm stretching my arms side to side as we lift up. If you hear any cracks like I do in your hips, that's great. This next one, breathe in. And come back into the squat. Let's stretch those arms side to side. Tilt towards your right side. Maybe you place those fingertips on the mat. Looking up to your left hand. If you wish, you can take a bind. So, I'm wrapping that right arm around my right leg. Coming to grasp my fingertips with my left arm behind my back. And wherever you are, release back. Breathe in. If you need to take a break from this, feel free. Deep strength and stretch for those hip joints. Let's go to the other side. Left palm on the mat. Looking up to the right fingertips. If you wish to take a bind, same thing. Last thing, wrap that left arm around the left leg. The right arm behind the back. And release. Now let's place those hands on the mat. Bring those feet parallel and just release into a wide-legged forward fold. If it feels good, gently rock those hips side to side. Maybe sending a deep stretch on the outside of your legs. When you're ready, we're going to roll up. So, bend those knees. Bellybutton's bent. Slowly come back up. And we're going to take a balancing pose in tree position. Again, imagine my upper body. You can't see it. So, bring those feet together. Let's lift that right leg up. Taking some painful circles one way. The other way. And you can place the inner heel of your right foot either on the calf or you can bring it up. On the inside of that left leg, I'm bringing my hands to prayer position as I focus my attention and my eyes forward in front of me. If you wish to take a different expression of those arms, feel free. As you inhale, you want a little bit of a balancing challenge. Place that right arm on top of the right leg and take a gentle, gentle side bend towards the right. And come back and we'll release back. Shake it off. And we'll take it to the other side. So, bend on that right leg. Strong right leg. We're pressing down through the earth, flexing the support of our feet. If you can take a circle one way. The other way. When you're ready, you can place your right foot on that left foot. Either down at the calf or above the knee. You don't want to press into our knee. Bringing those hands to prayer position. If you like a challenge, maybe close your eyes. I'm really sensing the connection between the sole of that foot and the inside of my right leg. It helps me find balance. So you took that stretch on the right side and you want to explore that on the left. Gently rest that left arm on that leg. Take a side bend towards that left. And release back. And shake it off. We're going to gently come to a seated position. Actually, let's transition to chair position. Bring those knees together. Send those arms up overhead. When your exhale extends, you'll kick down towards the mat as far as you can go. Kick down towards the mat as far as you can go. Activating belly button to spine. And if you can't go any further, just gently, gracefully come to a cross-legged position. Returning to how we started. Perhaps sensing something new in the body. Taking a moment to recognize something that feels good inside the body. In the mind. Feeling how the breath moves us as we inhale and exhale. Feel comfortable and going to finish today's practice by taking my palms on my heart. Sensing my heartbeat. Offering gratitude to today's practice for the energy that we have today. I want to thank each and every one of you for joining.