Yoga Sess 3.1.24

The speaker is feeling cold and mentions that they will have a slower yoga practice. They talk about the importance of creating a safe space for practice and offer a dedication or sankalpa. They start with stretching and twisting in a seated position, then transition to child's pose and puppy posture. They then move into Sphinx posture and release into a side stretch. They continue with upward facing dog, downward dog, and tabletop position. They end with kneeling hip mobility exercises and variations of camel pose. Finally, they finish with a seated forward fold. I am feeling cold likely because I've been up out and about with this travel to have a slower practice today. I hope that's okay with all of you. It'll be a little bit slower, more stretching, a little bit more yin, and yeah let's get into it. I'm starting in a cross-legged position, placing one hand on my belly and one on my chest, closing my eyes, landing and arriving into this space, taking deep breaths in through the nose and out through the nose, continuing that breath. And I'd like to offer a thought today of how special it is that we are able to create our own safe space, as I'm going to call it, in which we can practice. I'm here in a hotel room, which for some might be the last place they would consider practicing yoga and meditating, but wherever you are, recognizing the beauty that we can, we as we choose to show up and be present, are able to create the space around us as we choose it to be. Keeping your eyes closed, bring those arms up overhead, come through the center. If you'd like to set a dedication or sankalpa for your practice today into someone or something that you feel will benefit from the energy we will create together. As you close your thoughts of your dedication, take a moment to release your lower jaw, relaxing it, almost secure, ready, this is a weird image, to drool, but just drop that jaw, let your tongue feel heavy, touch the back of your bottom teeth, beautiful. When you're ready, open those eyes, flutter your eyelids open, breathe in, arms, hands come to prayer position, we're going to take that two more times, inhale, release, really drawing a line in your center line, energetically, last one, palms pressed together, maybe a smile at the corner of your lips, beautiful. When you're ready, we're going to look to our left, place that right hand behind that right knee and take a twist in the seated position, looking past that left shoulder, deep stretch, release, breath in and on your exhale, look to the right, place that left arm behind that right knee, take a twist, looking past that right shoulder, if you inhale, really sense and imagine the space between your vertebrae, extending and expanding, and on the exhale, twist deeper, beautiful, and we'll release that, let's transition into child's pose for a moment, so however that feels good, if you want to take a second to move through cat and cow, feel free, but I'm going to take a child's pose, so send those fingertips long in front of you, tailbone in the opposite direction, my toes are touching and knees as wide as your yoga mat, and let go of the weight of your head into the earth, breathing in and out, as you exhale, begin to gently activate part of your core, your belly button coming towards your spine, so we breathe in and exhale, just a little pressure, sending that belly button towards your spine, maybe you sense an activation in your mula bandha, your pelvic floor, as you do that, beautiful, I'm going to transition into puppy posture, that's available to you, bring those knees underneath those hips, and we're going to extend those arms forward, you can keep your chin on the mat, if that feels good, or if you want to tuck, then keep your forehead on the mat, feel free, I actually get a big stretch in my armpits and shoulders here, if you're feeling adventurous and want to straighten your lower half of the body into downward dog, be my guest, I am not feeling that today, so wherever you are, let's slowly roll out of that, and we're going to come into a Sphinx posture, so elbows underneath my shoulders, I'm spreading out the space in between my fingers, sending that tip of my nose up like a Sphinx, towards the sky, sensing the space in between my shoulders and chin, and sending weight in the front of my hips, so I don't want to put any pressure in my lower back, actually rather I would send my hips and sort of my lower weight center into that mat, into that earth, so we take a moment to stretch, breathing in, exhaling, maybe you're sensing power in the biceps in front of the shoulders, take three more cycles of breath here, inhaling, and exhale, inhale together, release, breathe in, and exhale, that next exhale, let's release down, bring those arms to a T position, and that left ear comes onto the mat, and if it's available to you, bend that right hand and begin to push over, so I'm going to roll onto my left side, this might be a little different, and place, I'm placing my right sole of the foot behind me, and I'm finding a stretch actually in my left front arm, so if you keep that arm straight on the floor, on your mat, in the T position, that's one way, if you feel like you want a deeper stretch, gently bend that elbow, and you might have to come more forward, for example, I need to do that because I sense a really deep stretch, so just stay mindful, and come back to neutral, bring that right ear on the mat, arms in a T position, bend that left arm, bend that left toe of the foot onto the earth, stretch that front of the right shoulder, and you wish to bend that arm, the right arm, into cactus, that's what it's called, and be gentle with yourself, this for me is super intense, breathe in, and out, one more breath in, and release, if you wish, gently press up into an upward facing dog, sense that stretch in your deep core muscles, maybe look to that left toe, left big toe, then look to the right big toe, just breathe in together, inhale, exhale, maybe lift those knees off the mat, really pressing away, kind of feel like the seal, that sounds funny, but think of a seal, and let's inhale together, exhale, this is our last cycle here, breathe in, and when you exhale, slowly peel yourself up into a downward dog, really stretch your limbs, bend that left knee, and the right, pedaling out at the soles of the feet, I tend to carry so much more tension traveling, maybe because I'm carrying a lot more weight, but wherever you are, find the support from the earth, the strength in your body, and from that place of lovely and rich support, you can choose to let go, maybe you let go of the space in between your eyebrows, and when you're ready, let's gently come into a tabletop position, if it feels good, keep those toes tucked, or you can stay on the tops of those feet, and gently tip that nose up into cow, tailbone also up towards the sky, exhale into cat, rounding up that spine, and come back to cow, and exhale, cat, and inhale, look up, exhale release into cat, let's actually from here, walk those knees to reach our hands, and let's take a moment, if you wish, bring those knees to touch, if this is uncomfortable for you, feel free to take a seated position, cross-legged, let's take a moment to find stillness, taking a moment of pause, and rest, perhaps sensing our heartbeat, imagining the blood flying, zipping, and circulating through our veins, and our arteries, honoring how special, precious, and beautiful it is to be here together, breathing together, as you find length in the back of your neck, maybe you tilt that nose just a little bit forward, towards your belly button, finding gratitude, and how our spine supports every move we take with our body, not only does it support us, and guide our movement, but it also carries so many nerves that allow us to feel and sense the world, recognizing and honoring that this time we're taking together, to find ourselves, to ground ourselves, is priceless, beautiful, when you're ready, open those eyes if they're closed, you can stay right where you are, I'm going to shift to face the camera here, and let's start, please be gentle, that can be a lot on our quads, and our feet, so let's stand in a kneeling position, and we're going to do a little bit of hip mobility here, so gently press away from the earth, you can even tap the tops of those legs to feel that, and gently send those hips to the left, and arms to the right, and breathe in, as you exhale activate belly button to spine, and shift to center, and gently when you're ready, come to the right, breathe in, exhale up, take it to the left, arms to the right, gentle, come back to center, belly button to spine, and right, we're going to take it one more time, come back up, neutral, exhale come down, if you're cracking your hips like I am, that's amazing, come back center, belly button to spine, gently lower your weight, and come up, beautiful, we're going to take some variations of camel, so again you can stay right where you are, I'm going to shift for a better angle, let's start by tucking our toes behind us, let's circle up that right arm to touch that right heel, really send the hips forward, lift the opposite arm up to the sky, stretching those fingertips, come back to neutral, let's just take a little break, sit on those feet, belly button to spine, come back up, tuck those toes, take camel on the other side, so circle back that right hand to touch, sorry that left hand to touch the left heel, right hand up towards the sky, sending your belly, your hips forward and up, I'm sensing a deep stretch in my core muscles, and come back, untuck those toes, take a seat, maybe curve that spine, I'm pointing my fingers out in front, creating a c-shape in my spine, and come back up, if you feel confident and comfortable to take the full camel expression, let's do it, you can keep those toes tucked, or you can release them, down for a deeper stretch, I'm going to start with them tucked, just because I'm feeling my body a lot these days, so rotate that right arm to touch that right heel, left to touch the left heel, let go of the neck, and find that stretch of the front body, strong back body, the more you send those hips to the front, the deeper the stretch, if you wish, untuck those toes, one more breath, and bring left arm to lower back, right arm to lower back, let's transition into a seat, however feels good, bring the soles of the feet to touch, we're going to do a seated forward fold, but before that let's shake, shake those legs out, maybe bring those hands to the legs, and give yourself a gentle massage, maybe wrinkle those muscles, beautiful, when you're ready, take some circles with those ankles out, I hear some cracking, if you do too, that's great, sometimes I imagine like when you press those little ear bubbles out of the shipping, the packing paper, that's how I feel when my joints crack, it's satisfying, so let's flex those ankles, breathe in, deep breath in, activate belly button to spine, imagine you're going over a barrel, and whatever you can touch, whether it's your knees, your toes, take a moment here, ground yourself in your breath. Beautiful, gently roll up, let's take, checking our time, take that right leg up and over the left, let's stretch that left arm up, place it and take a deep twist just as we started that class, so left arm is behind that right knee, opposite arm is just behind our sacrum on the floor, and take a twist and notice how your body might feel different, might be observing the space differently than the twist we took in the beginning, beautiful, when you're ready, just relax back to neutral, bend that left knee, place it over the right leg, breathe in as you bring the right arm up overhead, take a gentle twist, so right arm is behind that left knee, really pushing away, opposite hand is behind us, take a twist and just see what you notice, see what you feel, and come back to neutral, let's bring the soles of the feet to touch, Gatakanasana, you can keep a wide diamond or a shorter diamond, whatever feels good, let's hold our ankles if it's available to you and as you begin to send your upper body forward, bend at those elbows and offer yourself, the hands-on I would offer, right, your knees, to send those knees toward the earth, as you send your crown, so send, imagine the energy going beyond the center of your head as you stretch that spine, a flat back forward, I sense a deep stretch in the tops of my glutes, the sides of my glutes, inhale together and exhale, inhale, if you feel like you want to stretch those fingertips in front, feel free, one more cycle of breath here, breathe in, and stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch those tendons, beautifully, come back up, let's gently take a couple rocks, well let's start by holding, rock on our back is what I want to say, but let's start by holding those legs, and just playful, rock back and forth from the ciphers to your spine, take a couple and when you're ready, just lay on, just lay on your mat, and press that left leg, left ankle over right knee and take a figure four, reclined figure four, so I'm holding my right hamstring, left elbow is pressing left thigh out, and just on each exhale, bring those legs toward you, sometimes I like giving my muscles a little bit of a massage, just feeling that your muscles can relax off of the foam, beautiful, let's actually stretch those legs up over here, place those hands, press them away from the mat, and we're going to gently lower our legs as we zip them up tight, belly button to spine, ankles touch the mat, and back into soles of your feet on the floor, knees bent, let's take the other side, so cross right ankle over left knee, thread those arms through to hold that left hamstring, you can press your right elbow into your right leg, taking the reclined figure four on the other side, I'm going to do a little bit of the massaging, just because it feels good for me, and all I'm doing is pressing those palms, very gentle, into my muscles, and just give a little shake, you can do taps if that feels better for you, whatever feels good, and let's do this one more time, where you zip up those legs, press firmly into the mat, and slowly imagining you're sending energy through your toes, keeping that sacrum on the earth, gently come down, when you land here just lay flat on your back for a moment, if you have time in your day to take a shavasana feel free, if you've earned it, otherwise we will end our practice here, sensing the energy pulsing in our bodies, maybe smiling, not taking ourselves too seriously as we go about our day, if you would like to finish this practice with me, bring those palms to touch, if you wish place them at your third eye or your forehead, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for joining me, thank you for joining even in this way, I am sending you all my good thoughts and good energy, and hope you have a beautiful March, the 1st of March, that you enjoy your weekend.