Yoga Sess 06.07.24

The main ideas from this information are: - Starting with child's pose and focusing on deep breathing - Moving into a forearm plank to activate the core muscles - Practicing back stretches and warm-ups - Transitioning into a full expression of the posture, lifting both legs and upper body - Taking circles of the hips and practicing cow and cat poses - Moving into downward dog and adding twists - Continuing with various flows and sequences, focusing on lengthening the spine and finding balance - Ending with a release and relaxation in chair pose Overall, the information focuses on a yoga practice that includes stretching, strengthening, and balancing poses. So we can start today in a child's pose, knees as wide as the mat, sending the fingertips all the way to the front of the mat, relaxing your head, taking a deep breath in, imagining that you're filling those lungs so much that you can sense the expansion in your back ribs, so not just the front or the chest, but let that breath fill all the way, maybe all the way towards your kidneys, breathing in, and out, and if you wish you can bring those palms to touch, bend those elbows, and Adrienne, if you do yoga with Adrienne, she calls this a shark fin, stretching those triceps, and I invite you to set a dedication for this practice into someone or something that may benefit from the energy we create today, and when you're ready, release that, and let's actually come into a forearm plank, so send the weight into those elbows, wrists, straighten out those knees, tuck those toes, and straighten out those legs, and we're going to take three cycles of breath here, waking up the core, breathing in, and out, relaxing those glute muscles, sometimes we tend to hold a lot, just let go, breathing in, release, last one, deep breath in, and I want you to let the weight of those hips come down, and we magically arrive into, if you want you can go into a full upward facing dog, or you can stay here with those elbows down in a sphinx posture, sending that nose up towards the sky. When you're ready, just come to rest that forehead down on the mat, and let's warm up our back side of our bodies, so send those fingertips towards the back of your mat, and when you're ready, take a deep inhale, really anchor your hips on the mat, and lift that upper body, so we're just activating the upper body, and release down, deep breath in, and look up, forehead on the mat, two more, breath in, and send those fingertips to the back, look up, look up, and release, last one, breath in, and peel that nose off the mat, and let's hold it here a little bit longer, so the legs are firmly into our mat, and if you can reach those fingers up just an inch more, can you lift a little bit more, and relax, inhale, and exhale, you can place one palm on the mat, and the other one on top, creating a pillow, rest your forehead on your hands, and next we're going to activate our legs, so our upper body stays planted into the earth, and we are going to lift our legs, so deep breath in, and just lift those legs, here you're going to feel those glutes working, and relax, exhale, lift those legs as far as you can, and come down, breath in, lift those legs, and relax, last time, deep breath in, lift those legs, so our hip bones and our hip joints are in the mat, but how high can you lift those legs, and release, shake it out, shake those hips side to side a little bit, nice, and now we're going to take a full expression of this posture, so we are going to lift both our legs, and our upper body, so take a deep inhale, let's send those fingertips toward the back, or you can keep them to the side if that feels good, and on your exhale, lift the upper body, lift those legs, and feel like you're soaring, flying, and really stretch beyond all your joints, past your toes, past your fingers, past your crown, deep breath in, how high can you go, and exhale, release, and we'll meet on all fours, and let's take some circles of the hips to the left, nice, they can be as small or as big as you want, and hip circles to the right, for me that helps release the muscles that make up the inner thigh, nice, and let's send the gaze up towards the sky, into a cow, sweet breath in, and a long exhale out, you're going to cat, and let's take two more, send my gaze up, press away, cat, and look up, really stretching the deep core here, and so much into cat, you're pressing the belly button so far into your spine, that you start levitating those knees, a centimeter off the mat, pressing into those wrists, deep breath in, floating tabletop, exhale, two more collective breaths here, breathing in, and out, powerful breath in, charge up, and press into our first downward dog, notice how that feels for you today, maybe your ankles crack like mine, really send those hips towards those heels, extending in the armpits, so you're pressing into all ten fingers, all ten toes, so much so that you feel a stretch in the space underneath your shoulders, and let's bring that right arm, touch that left ankle, if it's available to you, deeper twist, or you can come, touch anywhere on that left leg, breath in, and release to neutral, inhale here, and exhale, send that left arm to touch somewhere on the right leg, and come back, let's step, or hop, to the front of the mat, and release into the forward fold, let's sway, grab opposite elbows, and just feel the weight of the upper body dangle, maybe you move left to right, nice, and release, let's slowly roll up, so take a deep breath in, bend those knees, and vertebrae by vertebrae, as if you had an anchor in your tailbone, rolling up, and your gaze is the last thing to settle, and take a deep breath in, switch those arms up into prayer position, maybe a smile comes to your face, breathe in, and let's take an arch here, so you can't really see me, but imagine you're pressing so much weight into your feet, you extend in the front of your hip, and you take a small arch at the back, so you send that gaze towards the back, and you're really stretching the front body, extending to the back, and swan dive down, place those palms on the mat, you can step or hop into plank, and here let's take three collective breaths, breathing in, if you want an extra challenge, you can add a chaturanga on each exhale, and come back up, inhale, and exhale, bend those elbows if you want, and come back, last one, deep breath in, and full chaturanga, slowly into upward facing dog, beautiful job, really stretch, press away, pressing into the tops of the feet, into all cells of the skin on your palms, and come back, we meet in downward dog, and I invite you to find a sense of opening at the base of those palms, and in the arches of your feet, finding maybe a deeper sense of rooting, nice, one inhale here, long inhale, on your next exhale, let's step or hop, towards your hands, take a flat back up this time, palms can come to the shins, and release, let's roll up again here, vertebrae by vertebrae, so deep inhale, and gentle exhale as you extend those knees, belly button to spine as you roll up, spread those toes, and we'll meet this time in chair pose, if you wish you can bring those feet together, zip up those legs, and bend those knees, we come into a majestic chair, hmm, and here, you're really, almost as if you had magnets on the inside of those legs, so find an activation there, we're not really supporting by gripping, but rather you just feel like your legs come together, and as they do, maybe you send those hips a little deeper, you can bring your palms into anjani asana, let's take a twist to the left side, if you wish, send that right elbow on top of that left leg, but still, how much can you sense your legs coming together, breathing in, and exhale, come to neutral, stand up in that chair, let's take a little balancing challenge, deep breath in, send the weight into the balls of your feet, again, your ankles are kissing, can you lift those heels off the mat, as a lifelong dancer, this is called a releve in ballet, but here we're just finding an activation in those calves, maybe a little bit of a balance, and release, bend those knees, and let's come back into chair, sink those hips down, again, zipping those legs together, connecting to the breath, those palms can come into prayer position, as you take a twist to the other side, the right, if you wish, you can, send that left elbow on top of that right leg, deepening that twist, and come back to neutral, send those palms up overhead, deep breath in, take an arch of that back, so send those hips forward, release the weight of the head back, and swan dive down, hop or jump into plank, bend those elbows, try to run the upward facing dog, deep breath in, and downward dog, great job. We're going to build off of that flow sequence, so whenever you're ready, I invite you as we go through this next time to find awareness in the length of your spine, right, so, talk about the tailbone, your tailbone is actually quite sharp at the end, and imagine your spine goes beyond your crown, so, I don't care how tall you are, in real life, I'd say I'm 5'1", I hope to be 5'2", but really, I'm just short, but that doesn't matter, right, how tall can you feel by sending your energy past the tailbone and past your crown? Deep breath in, hop or step to the front of your mat, take a flat back, so hands can come maybe to your thighs this time, and release down, exhale, bend those knees, we're going to roll up, deep breath in, exhale, belly button to spine, loose, loosey-goosey, come up, head is the last thing to release, if you wish, zip those legs together, and here, what can you relax to move, that's how I like to think, can I relax those glutes, those, I think we're all, I don't know if we're all ladies here, but relax that space underneath the booty, right, and send those hips back, arms up overhead, exhale, arms to prayer position, take a twist to the left, if you want, you can tuck that right elbow across that left knee, send the weight into this left leg, so much so that you can just slowly slide into a left lunge, look at where we are, if you want a deeper twist, open up those arms, and again, can you find an activation, your inner life, send the gaze up, and we're going to unravel, so come in the same pathway, arms in prayer, deep breath in, send the weight to that front leg, right, can you come back to meet in chair, gently, and neutral, let's come up, release, breath in, swan dive down, hands come to the mat, step or hop into plank, bend those elbows, try to run the upward facing dog, really stretching the front of those hips, and downward dog, hmm, maybe noticing how downward dog feels different than when we just started, deep breath in, and on the exhale, hop or step towards the front of the mat, flat back up, hands can be wherever they feel good, and release the weight of the upper body, really letting go, shake that head no, shake that head no, and nod that head yes, deep inhale, and we roll up vertebrae by vertebrae, belly button to spine, spreading those toes, if you wish, dip those legs together, and breath in, arms up overhead, again, what can I relax, can I drop those shoulders so much, I feel the shoulders sink into my hips, and that is what initiates my chair pose, send those hips towards the earth, inhale, exhale, arms come into prayer, and send those knees to your right, take a twist, if you wish, rest that left elbow across, right knee sinking into that right leg, what does that mean, rooting so much so that I can just slip that left leg back and I come into a lunge, I can twist and open those palms, so the deeper I twist, the more I want to send those hips towards the earth, really open up, and hands come back to prayer, if you're there, and again, send that weight into that front leg, and chair, arms come to neutral, and extend into those hips, exhale, and inhale, arms up, release, swat that down, long spine, palms come to the mat, hop or step back, send those elbows, upward facing dog, really rotating outwardly, those shoulders that we meet, and downward dog, let's take three collective breaths here, we made it, breathing in, really savoring the breath, sweet inhale in, exhale, deep inhale, and you can release down into a child's pose, knees as wide as a mat, or legs come together, bowing your upper body towards the earth,