Yoga Sess 05.31.24

So thank you everyone for joining. I'm going to invite folks to start laying on their backs, if that's okay. When you arrive, you can either have your legs stretched long or bent, whatever feels good today. You can have your hands resting on your belly, or maybe one on your belly and one on your chest. They could be stretched out long. Begin to center yourself in your breath. Breathing in, and gently out. Inhaling the inhale, and extending the exhale. As you do so, invite length in your spine, sensing how you're supported by the earth. Maybe the back of your neck can relax deeper into the mat. Maybe your eyes can relax in their sockets. Noticing where your shoulder blades touch the mat. Can you let go of any tension? For me, I notice some gripping at the tops of my shoulder joints, so what if I welcome ease wherever there could be some tightness? Noticing how the breath moves in and out of your body. Relaxing the space in between your eyebrows, your forehead, and as we're here, I invite you to set a dedication for your practice to some kelpa, and to someone or something that might benefit. Beautiful. When you've finished, let go of those thoughts. With a little warmth, you can see it pass through your mind. When you're ready, if your legs aren't stretched out long, you can stretch out your legs. Take a good morning stretch, stretching those arms up overhead. You can reach the right fingers and then the left. When you're ready, we're going to cross over that left knee, take a gentle spinal twist to wake up the body. The arms can be in a T position or cactus position up top. You can relax your gaze to the opposite side. I'm looking to my left as I have the left leg crossed over to the right. When you're ready, come back to neutral. Send the opposite leg over, so right knee crosses to the left side of the body. You can relax your head towards the opposite side. Nice, and come back to neutral. We are going to roll over onto our bellies. Take a little pillow for your forehead. You can place your right palm on the mat and your left palm on the mat. Your forehead can rest on top of those hands. When you arrive there, I invite you to sense how the front of your hips press into the mat. Find that sense of awareness of belly button to spine. The front, I almost call them like car lights, the front part of those hips are pressing into the mat. We're going to start taking some gentle pulses of the legs. Upper body stays on the mat, and we lift both our legs, and we'll do this a couple times. Breathing in, and out, five, four, three, two, one, last one. Now we're going to take the upper body. Drag your legs, the tops of the legs, into the earth. You can lift your arms maybe in front, almost like, I don't know, flying super women out there. Send your gaze up, we'll lift the upper body, and come down. Let's take five more, breathe in, and exhale, four, three, two, one, last one, and come back. We are going to transition from here into an active child's pose, so bring those knees as wide as the yoga mat, stretching those fingertips out to the front. Maybe you activate the ujjayi breath, or the ocean breath, so you inhale through your nose, and exhale through your nose, and creating almost like an ocean sound at the back of your throat. Breathing in, and let's take two more breaths like that, breath in, and release, just one more breath, breathe in, and out, nice, and walk those hands underneath those shoulders, transition into tabletop position. If you wish, you can tuck those back toes, spread those fingertips as much as you spread those toes, belly button to spine, and send your nose up towards the sky, into a cow, and exhale, into a cat, breathe in, and move at your own pace through a couple cats and cows, creating space in between the vertebrae, and one more breath in, and exhale, as you stay here in cat, send that belly button so much so to the back of your spine, with your toes tucked, lift those knees a centimeter off that mat, we'll take three collective breaths here, breathe in, and out, two more, pressing away from the earth, and exhale, take a deep breath in, and press back into our first downward dog, bending that right knee, sending that left heel into the earth, long back leg, and switch, bend that left knee, press the right heel into the mat, and send both of those heels into the mat, really stretching the space in between those fingers. So one thing that I've been learning, I take Tai Chi classes, and we talk about how the space in between the index and the thumb, so that kind of curvature between those fingers, that matches the instep of your feet, so what if you can find that sense of awareness here in downward dog, as you stretch your fingers, and you find that same sort of awareness at the instep, sort of the inner part of your foot, nice, when you're ready, let's lift that right leg up, three-legged dog, let's bend that knee and take some outward circles, as big or as small as you would like, and reverse, take them in, really imagining that you're building space in between your ligaments and your joints, and come back three-legged dog, let's send that nose to the knee, or that knee to the nose, come back three-legged dog, breath in, and knee to nose, three-legged dog, knee to nose, and come back into a lunge, so right foot in front, release that back heel, send those arms up overhead, breath in, let's press those arms down as you straighten that front leg, and swipe those arms up, press into that front foot, let's do two more, belly button to spine as you press through the air with your arms, push back, last one, swipe those arms, push back, nice, and when we're here, let's relax the upper body, release, take a stretch here, and half monkey, you can keep your foot flexed, so toes pointing towards the sky, if it feels more comfortable, you can also send those toes towards the mat, take a deep breath in, release, one more, breath in, nice, so the next exhale is transition back into lunge, tuck that back toe, take a twist, so right fingertips up towards the sky, and bring that arm down, we are going to transition into chaturanga, you can do a three-legged, or both feet on the floor, bend those elbows, and take our first upward facing dog, breath in, press away from the earth, transition back into downward dog, let's take three collective breaths here to center, and ground ourselves, breathing in, as you exhale, maybe imagine us all practicing in the same space, how does that feel? Breathing in, exhale, one more breath in, pressing away from the earth, nice, now let's lift that left leg up into three-legged dog, bend that knee, and take circles with the knee out, really stretching the front part of that hip, sometimes those muscles don't get a lot of movement, if we're sitting all day, and take some circles inward, that left knee, again, what if you create and offer support for all of your joints, however that means to you, nice, and come back to neutral three-legged dog, let's send that knee to nose, exhale, three-legged dog, exhale, knee to nose, and three-legged dog, knee to nose, and let's transition into a lunge with that left foot in front, Anjani Asana, send those arms up overhead, deep breath in, as you sink into that front leg, and press those arms down, as we press into our back knee, if that's available to you, and inhale, back into the lunge, swipe those arms up overhead, and bring them down, last one, swipe those arms up towards the sky, really feeling that deep activation and stretch at the front of those right hips, belly button to spine, as we press into half monkey, and bow the upper body down towards the earth, relax the weight of the head, again, you can keep those toes pointing towards the sky, or bring them towards the mat, breathing in, out, inhale slowly, and exhale, and on that next breath, send that weight into the left foot, tuck the back toe, lift the knee, take a gentle twist, lifting those fingertips up towards the sky, pressing away, nice, and bring those arms down, we'll meet in plank pose, transition into Chaturanga, pressing into those palms, lifting up, upward facing dog, and downward dog, stay here, breathing in, and out, connecting the feet to the earth, and the hands to the earth, nice, and let's do some, we've done a little bit of these before, activation of the tricep muscles, so as we're here in downward dog, whenever you're ready, we are going to release those elbows towards the mat, and maybe your heels come off, send that belly button to the spine as you breathe in, and push back into downward dog, we'll do two more, deep breath in, elbows together, palms towards the mat, and press up, downward dog, one more, this can be intense, so I invite you to stay mindful and connected to how you're feeling, you can always take a child's pose, and release those elbows, slowly with control, and press, nice, into downward dog, shake that head now, not on that head, yes, and let's hop, or walk towards our hands, grasp opposite elbows, just take some rocks side to side, and forward fold, nice, let's take a halfway lift, flat back, and release, let's do a reverse swan dive up, so peel from your nose, like a wave to the body, come back, mountain pose, cool breath in, and a warm breath out, cool breath in, and a warm breath out, last one, breathe in, bring those arms by your side, up into prayer position overhead, breath in, maybe you smile, and swan dive down, hands to the mat, you can hop or step into plank pose, bend those elbows, chaturanga, transition into upward facing dog, and downward dog, let's take that one more time, so walk, or hop, to the front of your mat, and this time let's place the right hand, if that feels good, underneath your right foot, left hand underneath that left foot, it's kind of a funky massage, self massage, but it really says how the skin touches the skin, we don't often have that kind of connection with the soles of our feet, they offer us so much support in our days, and we get from place to place, when you're ready, release that, halfway lift, pressing into those legs with those palms, release, and again, reverse swan dive up, from the tip of the nose, like a wave coming through your spine, come up, to mountain pose, long breath in, gentle exhale, a long inhale, and a gentle breath out, long inhale, bring those arms up overhead, prayer position, and a gentle exhale as we swan dive down, you can hop or step into plank, chaturanga, upward facing dog, and downward dog, nod my head yes, and as we do that, you can relax those eyes in your socket, maybe your eyes are open, but perhaps you can take a gentle gaze or close them, just to find a little bit of depth in our relaxation of the neck, and when you're ready on your next exhale, you can step or hop into malasana squat, I'm going to turn to face the camera, nice, and those hands give me a prayer position, pressing the backs of those arms to the inner thighs, and I want you to imagine here that we have some kind of weights, like little anchors, attached to our sit bones, those pointy bones that you can feel when you're sitting in a chair, what does that do? Can you relax that weight into the earth, into the support of gravity, just as much as you press finger into finger, knuckle into knuckle, activate, if you practice yoga in other places, they call it the bandhas, right? Your belly button to spine, maybe your pelvic floor, just bring awareness there, nice, and when you're ready, we're going to open those palms, send the weight into that left arm, and look, send those right fingers towards the sky on a diagonal, just deepen that stretch, relax the weight of the heels into the earth, taking a twist, long fingers, strong spines, come back to malasana, we're going to take, we've done this before, we're going to stand up from here, there's some deep squat squats, so send those fingertips up, send your gaze past those fingertips, and as if a loved one is pulling you from those hands, gently straighten those knees, and really extend through those hips, so we're extending through the ankles, extending through those knees, and stretch the front of those hips, so we have a long body in the front and the back, and gently, as if you were moving through jello, send those hip anchors down, back into our squat, breath in, and on the exhale, as if you just want to float up to the sky, extending through our joints, pressing away from the earth, release gently, moving through jello, and moving through water, sending those hips towards the earth, and we'll do one more, relaxing at the creases of your hips, breath in, how easy can you make this? Rise up, pressing away, feeling the support from the earth, and bring those palms together, come back down into your squat, open those arms, and we take the opposite stretch, so pressing the right palm into the earth, left fingertips up, looking towards that side, again, finding awareness here, maybe in our lower abs, our pelvic floor, we press into the earth, and we can come back to neutral, and gracefully, just plop ourselves down, gracefully as you can, if you want, you can shake those legs out, give yourself a little bit of a massage here, and when you're ready, we'll meet in a seated position, cross-legged, maybe your eyes are closed, your palms can be up if you're ready to receive, and down, for a sense of grounding, connecting back to the breath, and I invite you to, if you wish, bring your intention, and let that shift your attention, starting at our bottom-most chakra, our root chakra, all chakras mean is sort of an energy meeting point, but they so happen to be at our center line, so they're very helpful for us to move efficiently, send your intention there, and move up to the next chakra, sort of at the base of the spine, what if you relax into your back as you do so, up to the solar plexus, sort of that space by the diaphragm, the ribs, what does it mean to sense the support of our bones, of our environment, and come into the heart chakra, and the throat, sensing length all through our spine, coming up to the space in between the eyebrows, the forehead, we call it a third eye, and then out to the crown of the head, our top-most physical part of our body, connecting to that chain of energy and support that we all have, and when you're ready, you can flutter those eyelids open, and I want to thank you for joining my class, if you wish to stay here a little longer, feel free, I caught myself in a little bit of a slow state there, didn't want to break free, but thank you for joining my class, and I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend.