Yoga Sess 05.17.24

The instructor encourages everyone to be mindful of their practice space and stay safe. They guide the class through various yoga poses, focusing on breath and body awareness. They suggest setting an intention for the practice and offer modifications for different levels. The class includes movements for the spine, downward dog, lunges, warrior poses, and a dolphin pose. The instructor also includes moments of rest in child's pose. The class ends with a twist and a return to all fours. I invite everyone to always stay mindful and present of the space they're practicing in. I really wish I could offer hands-on adjustments, but we're not in person, unfortunately. So just do what you need to do and stay safe as you're practicing. Although this is an all-levels class, we won't be doing any crazy tricks, unless that is what you feel like doing today. So, we can get started in a cross-legged position, hands facing up or facing down. Whatever feels good for you today. You can close your eyes if that feels good. And begin to notice your breath. Trapping the weight of your elbows. Sensing how your shoulders slip downwards. Noticing where your breath travels in the body as you inhale. And exhale. Does the breath feel soft? Does it feel warm? Noticing how your sit bones are resting on the earth. Lifting those eyebrows. Maybe sending your focus and attention up to the middle point on your forehead. Some people call it the third eye. Scientists and doctors call it the pineal gland. And I invite you to set a dedication for your practice. If you wish, you can bring your palms to your heart. Sending the energy we will create into someone or something that you feel will benefit from our practice. And holding that in your heart, you can begin to open your eyes. Send those arms up overhead. Breathe in. And exhale. Tap those fingers on the mat. Breathe in. Belly button to spine and exhale. And breathe in. Release the breath out. One more time. Let's look up. Send the gaze up. And twist towards your left. Placing that right arm across the left leg and taking a twist. Sending your gaze past that left shoulder. Active breathing. Belly button to spine and come back to neutral. Breathe in. Look up and twist to the other side. For me, it's my right. Sending now the left arm across that right leg. Noticing how far your gaze can go on this side and come back to neutral. Breath in. Let's bring the soles of the feet to touch briefly. And open those knees in a diamond shape and just gently reach forward. Take a stretch forward. Lengthening the outside of those legs. Deep breath in. Release the weight of the head down. Nice. And come back to neutral. We are going to transition into all fours. However feels good. Spreading those toes, those fingers. Again, let's activate belly button to spine. So by that, we're obviously envisioning, right? The lower belly tones up just slightly as we lengthen the tip of our crown towards our front space and our tailbone towards our back space. We're pressing away from the earth as we come into cow, looking up. And exhale. And cat. Send that gaze up. Down. Slowing through the spine. I've been reading about how much benefit there is in doing exactly this. Moving the spine and the body. We carry a lot of our nervous system in our spinal cord. And so these movements help us release the tension. And last one. Look up. As you send that gaze down, imagine your belly button is going so far it actually goes past your spine. And that's what lifts you into a brief floating tabletop. And your knees are an inch off that mat. Three collective breaths here. Breathing in. Exhale with a smile. Inhale in. Maybe you shake as you exhale. And last one. Breath in. And on that exhale, send those knees up into our first downward dog. Stretching the Achilles, the soles of the feet. So here we're spreading our toes as if there are webbed connections between each of those toes and each of those fingers. And let's bend that right knee, taking a deeper stretch on that left leg. Breath in. Lengthen the spine as you exhale. And switch, bend that left knee. You're sending more weight into the sole of that right foot. And come back to neutral. Let's hop or step to the front of the mat. Come into a forward fold, grasping opposite elbows. And relaxing the back of our neck. We have a teacher that brings this image of letting your worries or thoughts tumble out of the crown of your head. If you're here in forward fold, what does that mean to you? And slowly roll up, vertebrae by vertebrae, sensing the weight of those arms. Deep breath in, arms come up overhead. You just imagine this. And swan dive down. Let's hop or step into plank. Take three collective breaths here. Breathing in. Exhale. Pressing away, long spine. Exhale, lifting those cheekbones. Inhale, relaxing those quadricep muscles. Then on the exhale, bend those elbows. Chaturanga to our first upward facing dog, if that feels good for you. Noticing what's in the front of your space. I have this beautiful blue sky. Come back into downward dog. Deep breath in. And exhale, bring those feet to touch behind. Lift that right leg. Bend the knee in three-legged dog. And let's take five circles of the knee outward. Three. Four. And five. You can make them as long as you want. Five inward. Two. Three. Four. And five. Come back. Three-legged dog. Really stretching your heel towards the back of your space. Bring knee to nose. Curve that spine and come back. Three-legged dog. Exhale, knee to nose. Three-legged dog, last one. Knee to nose. We're going to come to a lunge, releasing that back knee. Right leg is in front. If you wish, you can keep those palms on your front leg. And again, we are almost as, I don't know, like the zipper of your pants. That's what the image that's coming to mind as I invite my belly button in. So sending that energy just as much as you send your weight forward and down, stretching the front with that left hip. And extend those arms up overhead. If you wish, touch that back toe. And we're just going to straighten and release. Knee down. Relax the foot. Two more. Straighten up. Knee down. Last one. Coming into a full lunge. If it's available to you, we're going to transition into a warrior two. It's always kind of funky just seeing half my body on the screen. And where is your drishti, your focus point? Where you send your eyes and your attention. Beautiful. Let's take a reverse warrior. Stretching that side of the body. And windmill. Come back, both palms on the mat. If you want, you can take chaturanga with one leg out. Upward facing dog. Leaving a smile. And downward dog. Let's take three breaths together here. And if you wish, you can always take a child's pose. Breathing in. Releasing that breath. A sweet breath in. And a sweet breath out. What about a soft breath in? And a soft breath out. Bringing those feet to touch behind us. Now we lift that left leg and take five circles with the knee outwards. At your own pace. Circles inward. Two. Three. Pressing away from the earth. Beautiful. Five. When you've done five, we meet in three-legged dog. Left leg up in the air. And exhale. Knee to nose. Curving that spine. And three-legged dog. Knee to nose. And legs in the back. Last one. Knee to nose. Soft count if that was three. Meet me in lunge. Knee to nose. Send that left leg in front. Drop that right knee. We come to Anjani Asana. Again, zipping up your pants here. Belly button to spine. What does it feel to release the weight of those shoulders and elbows? Take a breath in. Really stretching the front of that right hip. And when you're ready, send those fingertips up towards the sky. Tuck those back toes. And we're just going to straighten that knee. And release. Knee on the mat. Front or top of the foot on the mat. And again, tuck those toes. Activate that back leg. And release. Breath in. Last one. And come back. We're going to tuck those toes. It's available to you. Transition into Warrior II. Finding length. What does that mean? Length of sending the crown towards the sky. Your perineum and tailbone. Middle finger to the front. Middle finger to the back of your space. Stretch forward. Release. Reverse that warrior. Stretch the side body and windmill down. We meet into a three-legged chaturanga or a regular chaturanga. And come into an upward-facing dog. Downward dog. If it is available to you, we are going to drop those elbows in synchrony if you can. And come into a dolphin pose. So here we are inviting our heels. You can't really see because of my pants. Towards the mat. Some people are extra bendy and their heels are naturally already there. But this is a deep stretch and activation for those triceps. We're going to take some movement here. So take a deep breath in. Send the weight into those palms. Send your gaze forward. And straighten those elbows. Come into downward dog for a breath. And release. Elbow, elbow, onto the mat. Dolphin breath in. Press away. We're just going to do one more. That can be a little intense on the arms. Bend those elbows gently. And come back. Downward dog for a breath. And release. Let's actually come into a brief child's pose. So your knees can either be as wide as the mat. Or can touch one another as you send your fingertips to the front. Long spine. And even as good as that feels, let's come back to meet on all fours. Place that left palm in the middle of your mat. And trace a line up, fingertips towards the sky. Taking a twist towards your right. We're going to thread that needle. So send the right hand in between. And straighten out that top arm, that left arm. If you wish, you can take a bind. So I'm sending my left arm behind, wrapping behind my back. Really stretching and twisting. How does that feel today? Come back. So we're going to unravel, just as we came here. So left palm on the mat. Right fingertips twist up towards the sky. And come back to all fours. Let's take some active child's pose here to reset. So knees can be as wide as the mat. Send those hips back for a brief moment. Stretch fingertips. Forward and come back. Almost to all fours. Keep those legs where they are. And again, tailbone towards your heels. Child's pose. Come back. Almost to tabletop. And last one. Tailbone to heels. Stretch those arms. Come back. Now let's bring those feet to be parallel. And take that right palm to the center of the mat. Twist that left arm up towards the sky, opening the side. And when you're ready, thread that needle. So I extend my left arm through the space between my front arm and my legs, taking a twist. Noticing if one side feels different than the other. If you want, you can take a bow, so I wrap that right arm behind my back. And we are slowly going to unravel. Send that left arm up towards the sky. And come back to some cats and cows. Send the tip of the nose up to the sky. And curve. There's a cat. Breath in. Cow. And exhale. Cat. And one more. We're going to tuck those toes. We're going to take our last downward dog. Straighten those knees. And this time, let's walk those hands back towards our legs. If it's available to you, you can grab your ankles and take a deeper stretch here. And reach forward. Shake your head no. And nod your head yes. Finding a moment of gratitude for taking the time in your day to join me, to join us. So let's actually open those feet so your toes kind of spill over the outside of the mat. And we're going to come into a Malasana squat position. I'm going to turn to face the camera. Bringing those palms to touch if that feels good. So you can use the backs of your arms to help you press those knees. And here we are finding awareness of our knees going over our second toes. So we keep an alignment. And again, zipping up those pants. Belly button to spine. Deep breath in. Relax that lower jaw. They say that if you release your jaw, that helps you release here in the hip joints. So perhaps it allows you to sink a little deeper. I know this might be a weird cue, but it's also helpful for me to think of kind of underneath my glutes. Just notice is there any tension there that you can let go of. And that for me instantly gives me a centimeter more. Open those arms up. Tilt towards the right. Just take a twist. If you wish, you can take a bind. So I'm wrapping that left arm behind. And the right arm is around my right leg. Otherwise, you can just say gaze it up towards that left hand. And come back to neutral breath in. And open up to the other side. So I'm sending my left fingertips towards the mat. Right middle finger up on a diagonal. And if you took a bind, you can take a bind on this side. Breathing in. And from here, we are just going to come back to neutral. And gently come to a seated position. Legs out in front. Let's bend our knees. Shake it out. Let's give ourselves a little massage. So however feels good. Just open up those quadricep muscles. Maybe a little pressure on the side of the legs. The inner tibial band, the IT band. Nice. And we are going to come now into a seated forward fold. So breath in. Bring those arms up overhead. You can keep your toes pointed. Or towards you in a flexed position. And reach the fingertips forward and take forward fold here. Relaxing the weight of the head. And wherever your hands are, honor where you are in your journey. There is no need to reach a certain picture, a certain pose. At least not how I practice yoga. And come back to neutral. Let's actually take a moment. Bend those knees. Give yourself a big hug. And as you are here, straighten that spine. So what if you arch from that tip of the nose up. And then curve that spine. Send your nose towards your knees. And then this time let's straighten. And take a different position of the feet. So if your toes were towards you that first time. Send them into what they call point position. And arms up overhead. Breath in. And forward fold. Sensing the stretch a little differently. Enjoying the stretch. What does that mean? Beautiful. And slowly from here roll up vertebrae by vertebrae. And I invite you to roll all the way down towards your mat from here. So again we tuck the tailbone. Each vertebrae slowly roll onto the mat. Arriving into our final resting posture. Connecting back to our breath. Sensing how the mind or the body feels in the present moment. Noticing if something feels extra good. And if you have time in your day feel free to stay here. Otherwise slowly make your way back into a seated position. Palms can be facing up or down. Coming back to where we began. Breathing in. And out. I want to thank you guys for joining me today.