Yoga Sess 05.10.24

The speaker invites everyone to be mindful of their movement and posture while practicing yoga at home. They start the practice by lying on their backs and relaxing their minds and bodies. They encourage the participants to notice their breath and set a dedication for their practice. The speaker then guides the participants through various yoga poses, including twists, bridge postures, and stretches. They also incorporate movements like ankle circles and knee-to-nose poses. The practice ends with a final stretch and a return to mountain pose. So I invite everyone to be mindful of how they're moving in their space since we are each in our own homes or spaces. So yeah, if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask me either later or during class. No problem at all. So we are going to get started today on our backs. You can roll down however feels good. You can have either your legs extended or bent, soles of the feet on the floor, your arms can rest either by your side or maybe on top of your hip joints. Taking a moment to arise into your body. A lot of times, I can speak from my experience at work, I feel like my mind is running, and maybe you're sitting all morning or you're standing and sitting, but it's like the mind is racing and the body is somewhat still. So just letting all of that go, relaxing, and letting your mind kind of melt into your body as you rest your spine into the earth, soles of the feet maybe. What do you notice? On your elbows or backs of the arms, and relaxing into the earth, on your shoulder wings, I'm going to call them, not shoulder blades, but your wings, where are they? As you inhale and exhale. As you inhale, notice each thought as if it were a cloud in the sky, and as if you were looking up to a blue sky, partly cloudy, maybe, with each exhale, let the cloud move by, finding your own unique rhythm in your breath. Where did your breath move to? If you feel comfortable and you can set a dedication for this practice, maybe you bring your palms to touch, in prayer position, for your sankalpa, where will you dedicate the energy we are about to create, it could be someone or something, yourself, that can benefit from this energy. Beautiful, and when you're ready, you're going to weave your fingers together, place them behind your neck, if your soles of the feet, I'm going to scooch it a little bit more into this frame, if the soles of the feet are not standing on the floor, please do so, so bring those knees up, so they're bent, take a deep breath in, long inhale, then begin to roll this right elbow across, so you're going to come to a twist, but let it be led gently by this right elbow, if you can, you can touch the opposite side, and just come back, exhale neutral, lift that left elbow, just rolling it to meet the right, however feels good, maybe you want to take a full rotation, letting those knees come to the opposite side, this time, drop those knees to the right, bring that right elbow across the body, just taking a gentle twist, then exhale back to neutral, drop those knees to the left, inhale in, bring that left elbow across, sensing that twist in the spine, and exhale back to neutral, deep breath in, release those hands to the side, we're going to take a couple bridge postures, so we're placing energy past those fingertips, deep breath in, press into those heels, and slowly peel those hips up, breathe in, then exhale, roll through the vertebrae, a couple more, press into the earth, hips rise to the sky, and let go, and deep breath in, relax those eyes in the socket, press into the earth, roll up, and massage your vertebrae, as you come down, we're going to do one more, deep breath in, maybe you smile, and exhale, we start by the tailbone tucking, releasing any tension at the front of those hips, if you want you can interlace those fingers underneath you, pressing up into this bridge, stretch, stretch, stretch, sensing how the back of your head is resting into the earth, and release, straighten those legs out long, send those arms up overhead, take a gentle good morning stretch, and we're going to send that right leg over into a twist, just rolling onto the belly, and we're going to meet in a sphinx posture, bringing those elbows underneath the shoulders, deep breath in, long neck, front of the neck, and back of the neck, nice, press into those hands, gently upward facing dog, and send those hips back briefly into a child's pose, knees can be touching or as wide as a mat, let's stay active here, by active, I'm extending past my fingertips, and I am activating, sending that tailbone past where it is in physical space, so just imagine, long spine pivoting in, you exhale, come back into table top, send that gaze up to the sky, to cow, and down to the mat, two more, breathe in, nose towards that belly button, to cat, and one more, exhale into cat, so much so, we tuck our back toes, and we lift those knees a centimeter off the mat, breathing, three cycles of breath here, inhale, smile on that exhale, press away on the inhale, strong shoulders, let go of the breath, one more deep breath in, and then on that exhale, just enjoy that stretch as we press up into downward dog, perhaps today finding stillness, so spreading those toes, spreading those fingers, and sensing how our skin feels on the mat, how does that sense of touch inform the rest of our body that we are in downward dog, breathing in, and out, nice, let's bring that right leg up into three-legged dog, take some ankle circles out to the right, ankle circles in to the left, and to the left, let's bend that knee, stretching the right psoas, the deep core muscle, and bring that nose in, touch, bring that nose in, bring that knee to nose is what I'm thinking, and send it back, inhale, three-legged dog, knee to nose, three-legged dog, last one, knee to nose, release, high on that back tippy toe, send it forward into lunge, release that back knee, let's place our hands on the front leg, and find a sense of resistance, so I'm not sinking, but what if you press away, so you're creating a beautiful shape with your chest, your elbows as you stretch the front of that left hip, I'm going to take this sweater off, beautiful, deep breath in, and go a little further, let's actually send those arms out, we're going to inhale, bring those arms up overhead, straighten that front leg, keep it flexed, and exhale, bring those arms down as you come down deeper into that stretch, and two more, inhale, straighten, exhale, come back into lunge, one more, breath in, and exhale, place those palms on the inside of that right leg, tuck that back toe into lunge, let's rock back and forth a little bit, and let's take a gentle twist, open up towards our right side, right wrist up to the sky, deep breath in, exhale, come back, send that leg back into plank, let's take three cycles of breath here, breathing in, big exhale out, deep breath in, and exhale, last one, long strong breath in, and when you're ready, bend those elbows into chaturanga, and down, upward facing dog, lift those cheekbones, and downward dog, bend that left knee, pressing deeply into the right sole of the foot, and switch, bend that right knee, and release, firmly rooting, really imagine here with our feet and our hands rooting into the earth, what does that image invite you to feel or to sense, and both heels on the mat, one collective breath in, and release, let's bring that left leg up, three-legged dog, some ankle circles out, to the left here, and ankle circles into the right, nice, bend that knee, just three-legged dog stretching the outside of that left, hip, the deep core muscles, the psoas muscle, still spreading those toes, and those fingers, exhale, come back, three-legged dog, deep breath in, and exhale as you bring that knee to nose, and come back, smile, three-legged dog, and knee to nose, smile, three-legged dog, and knee to nose, curving that side, three-legged dog, last one, knee to nose, high on the tip of the toes of that back leg as we transition into lunge, on the other side, releasing that right knee, and again, how does this shape feel for you today? So we're placing our arms in the front leg, arriving into the posture, landing into the posture, nice, bring those arms to the side, deep breath in, straighten that front leg, maybe you come onto the heel, and here, find an awareness of your hip alignment, so we're not hiking our hips to the left, but we're rather, imagine if you had two lights at the front of your hips, and both lights, like car lights, are pointing forward, release, bend that front knee, come back, exhale, straighten that front leg, inhale, exhale, and straighten, really pressing into the earth, and last one, bend that knee, going a little deeper, maybe, and place those palms on the inside of that left leg, tucking the back toe, and taking a gentle twist here, so press into that right palm, root it into the earth, lifting that left fingertips, maybe they wiggle up above your head, and really sense that deep twist, so we have a straight line from middle finger to wrist, and yet we're still finding that stretch on the front right hip, breathing in, and let's come to meet in plank, deep breath in, exhale, chaturanga, upward facing dog, and downward dog, beautiful, and breathing in, and out, shake your head no, nod your head yes, nice, activating belly button to spine here, and downward dog, so perhaps finding a little more length past our limbs, nice, walk to the front of the mat, or hop, and come into forward fold, perhaps you grasp opposite elbows, gently rock side to side if that feels good, and we're going to roll up to meet in mountain pose, so generously bend those knees, vertebrae by vertebrae, rolling up, big inhaling, lots of love in, as Adrian says, yoga with Adrian, bring those fingertips to touch, maybe come into Anjani Asana, prayer position, closing your eyes, how does your body feel, can you continue to imagine rooting into the earth, the earth supports us, we go and enjoy our beautiful lives, and as you exhale, flutter those eyelids open, and we're going to swan dive down, hands can come to the shins, slap back up, you can hop or step back into plank, breathe in, and chaturanga, the upward facing dog, and downward dog, we're going to take a couple more of those, so breath in, step or hop to the front of the mat, forward fold, release the weight of the head, and breath in, slap back up, let that all go, let's do a reverse swan dive up here, so lead with that nose up, gaze up to the sky, breath in, and swan dive back down, spreading those toes, spreading those fingers, slap back up, hands can maybe rest this time on our quads, and release forward fold, hop or step into plank, breath in, and release chaturanga, upward facing dog, and downward dog, beautiful job, one collective breath in, and release, let's come to meet on all fours, so bring those knees down to the mat, and let's take a brief child's pose, this time i'm going to bring my inner thighs together, and then my arms behind me, finding a moment to surrender, if you wish, if not you can keep those legs wide, relaxing the jaw, connecting to the breath, so when you're ready, roll up, vertebrae by vertebrae, and we're going to take a variation of hero's pose, so if it's available to you, you're actually going to sit so that your either side you're taking, your foot is actually outside of, in this case it's my right hip, you can see that, and then the opposite leg in front, reach those arms up overhead, if this is uncomfortable to you, you can totally take a stretch with the sole of the foot touching the inside of that leg, not as difficult as i have here, and here, find awareness of your tickles, so again, are both of my tickles resting on the earth, or am i leaning to one side, breathing in, send those arms forward, maybe you touch your foot, or wherever you are, really invite more length towards the front, and let's keep our back foot active, so by active i mean either pointing that foot, maybe pointing the foot, and keep protecting that knee, and come back to neutral, release that right leg, and just shake it out, maybe you bring your hands to give yourself a little massage, your palms, give yourself a little love, that's the intention behind this, and when you're ready, we're going to take the other side, so for me it's that left foot comes to the outside of the left hip, and be gentle, for me this can be very intense, so wherever you're at on your journey, rotate so you can see a little more, and bring those arms up overhead, and smile as you come to reach towards that right foot, then again inviting both tickles to rest into the earth, wherever you are, continuing to renew the energy going past those fingers, past the front of your head, slowly roll up back to neutral, if you wish to take full hero pose, you can bring that right leg to the outside, so almost as if your feet are touching the edge of the mat, and just gently bring your hips down, this for me, it's a lot of stretch at the front of my hips, so you can support yourself in the back, otherwise you can take a seated forward fold, you're about to go there now, but if you're here, let's take a deep breath in, one more, can you feel the support of the earth, breathing in, and however you are, let's come to bring those legs out in front, and shake it off, shake it off, and then bring those legs back, and then we're going to come to the front of the mat, and shake it off, shake it off, Taylor Swift, and breathe in, so find spaciousness in what I'm calling the shoulder wings, right, how the arms actually start the center of the spine, as you breathe in, and just gently bow forward, maybe you touch your feet or your knees, wherever you are, and then some loving energy, wherever you need it, right, just whomever you feel called to send it to, bow the head down, relax the back of the neck, the cervical spine, one more collective breath here, breathe in, long exhale, and gently roll up, you can come to meet in a seated cross-legged position, you can close your eyes, palms up, if you're desiring to recede or down, just like this, observing your mind, observing the breath, and observing the body, you wish you could stay here a little longer, otherwise, bring the fingertips up, pull the hands back in, if you feel you would like to come into prayer position, put those hands, you're welcome to, otherwise you can stay here for a moment, or lay down, that's all for now, I'm flying, thank you everyone for joining me,