Yoga Sess 08.09.24

The speaker encourages gratitude and self-awareness in the class. They start with child's pose and move through various yoga poses, focusing on different body parts. They mention the importance of setting intentions and dedications for the practice. The class includes movements to warm up the joints and stretches for the ankles, hips, and knees. They also incorporate deep breathing exercises. The class ends with a transition into downward dog and a lion's breath exhale. today. I usually don't kind of offer a shared theme for a class or a dedication which we will set individually in a couple moments, but I do invite you to maybe consider through this class kind of holding in gratitude all the things that we have been blessed with, we are blessed with, you are blessed with, and whether you're spiritual, religious, none of the above, all of the above, you know, I welcome any perspective, but just taking a second to really feel what it is to be the celebrity of your own life. You are your main character, and I don't mean that in a weird egotistical way, just in a very kind of understanding and grounded way. So with that intention in mind, we're going to start today in child pose, knees wide in the back, and reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach those fingers all the way to the front, dropping the head, breathing in through the nose, and out through the nose, you wish you can activate the ocean, an ujjayi breath here, so all that is, is kind of making an ocean sound at the back of the throat as you exhale, relaxing those tops of the feet as they rest on the earth. When you're ready, bring those palms to touch in prayer position, and stretch those triceps by placing the prayer position behind the head in the neck, maybe sending those elbows even further towards the front of the mat, and I invite you to set a dedication for this practice, a samtalpa, into someone or something that may benefit from the energy we share today. And when you're ready, release that, let's cup the fingertips, so strong hands, only the fingertips on the mat, they kind of look like daddy long legs, but hands, and when you're ready, we're going to meet in some cats and cows going into all fours. I invite you to explore and play around with your wrists today, so I'm going to start having my fingers kind of facing outwards to the sides of my mat, and we'll start with some hip circles, just warming up the joints here to the left, and to the right. Nice. However feels good, and I'm going to flip my palms because I want that stretch, but feel free to stay normal here, and let's take a deep breath in, lift up, and exhale, and kiss out. Deep breath in, stretch the inside core muscles, exhale, in, one more, and exhale, nice. And, when you're ready, we're going to play around here a little bit in this feeding pot position, rest those fingers, extend that right leg back, and rock back and forth, warming up that ankle. Nice, and switch and pull up the other ankle, and we're going at it, nice. And here, let's lift that right leg in the air, but before we do that, take a deep, collected breath in, exhale, really high, and let that belly button kind of magnetically attract itself to your spine, and allow that feeling of support to lengthen the back of your neck. And when you're there, now we can lift that right leg up, and we're going to take some pulsing movements with that right foot up towards the sky, let's take 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and 1. Great, let's take some outward circles, so it's like we're doing what we usually do in a three-legged dog, but we're here on all fours, let's take four more, 4, 3, 2, and 1, nice. Let's take a brief, relaxed child's pose, knees together, bow the upper body towards the earth. And we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, here we go, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, let that feeling of support lengthen the back of the neck, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take a deep, collected breath in, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to your spine, and allow that feeling of support to lengthen the back of the neck, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, here we go, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, let that feeling of support lengthen the back of the neck, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, here we go, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, let that feeling of support lengthen the back of the neck, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're going to take it to the other side, so again, collected breath in, exhale, let that belly button magnetically attract itself to the spine, and from there, we lift that right leg up, and we're 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one more for your left, beautiful job, and last child's pose here, tap into that body, tap into your breath, beautiful, roll up, and take a deep breath in there, kneeling position, and we're going to slowly transition into downward dog, so let's go into all fours, tuck those back toes, and extend through those knees, send those heels towards the earth, deep breaths in, and as if you were rinsing a dirty towel, exhale all that dirty negativity out of the body, two more breaths with that vision in mind, inhale all the goodness, exhale any negativity, any stagnant energy, and this next time we're going to do lion's breath, so stick your tongue out when you exhale, deep breath in, and lion's breath out, great, step or hop to the front of your mat, grasp opposite elbows and swing them side to side, letting the weight of your head and spine be what pendulates you back and forth, nice, hands to shins, flat back up, spread those toes here, release, and we're going to roll up, bend those knees, bellybutton is fine, I do vertebrae by vertebrae, roll up in the spine, nice, inhale, arms up over the head, and let's take a side bend, so hands can come into a steeple grip, so that's going to look like this, so I'm interlacing my fingers, releasing index up towards the sky, deep breath in, extend up, and send those hips to the left, center of the upper body to the right, taking a crescent shape, stretching the left side body, breathe here, nice, and again, reach that center, extend up and over here, switch to the left side, so hips gently rock to the right, deep breath in, nice, come back, release, so forehead down here, forehead down, if you can, whether you're touching the earth or the back of the leg, shake that head now, really shake it now, and let it get, good work, good work, and from here, wherever you're at, walk to come into a downward dog, so either step those feet back or walk those hands forward, wherever you are, you need a downward dog, let's lift, three-legged dog, right leg up into the sky, knee to nose, exhale, three-legged dog, exhale, one more time, knee to nose, last one, exhale, knee to nose, place that right foot in front into a lunge, we're coming onto the opposite leg, stretching that left hip, so I'm placing that left knee on the mat, pressing away, I'm using my palms on my right thigh to create what we call negative space, so negative space in the dance world is the space in between essentially the body parts, so here, you're creating kind of a circle with those arms, and you also have space between your belly and that leg, let's stay here for three collective breaths, breathing in, and exhale, take a breath in, maybe go a little further each time, and exhale, and then take a breath in, and exhale, one more, okay, we're going to take this stretch a little deeper if you need, let's actually all take a little break from that, so send those hips towards the back, lengthen this front right leg, it's a variation of a monkey, flexing that front foot, and just drop the upper body here, for me that acts as a deep calf stretch, nice, and we're going to come back into that lunge, this time wrap this right arm around the body, send that left arm up overhead, and as you send your weight towards the front of the leg, also take a side bend with the body, so that for me, activates a much deeper stretch in the psoas muscle, so that is essentially a muscle that you can feel running from underneath your ribs towards your hips, nice, stay here for a couple breaths, and when you're ready to release that down, untuck that back foot to the torso, and we need a plank, three collective breaths here, pressing away in those shoulders, breathing in, exhale, breath in, release, last one, inhale, and try to round up, bend those elbows, as you exhale, you can come either into a sphinx, with those elbows on the mat, or a full upward facing dog, whatever floats your boat today, is more than enough, coming back to that intention of being the celebrity of your own life, being the main character of your own book, we hope that you find today, and in your practice daily, that you're deserving the purpose, right, to receive unconditional love, and we are always more than enough, and when you're ready, transition back into downward dog, and that right knee, and that left knee, nice, and we're going to take it to the other side, so lift that left leg up, three legged dog, exhale, knee to nose, three legged dog, exhale, curve that spine, knee to nose, and one more, three legged dog, exhale, knee to nose, and send that left foot in front, or anything underneath, on the left side, so my back knee is on the mat, I'm pressing away with my palms on my left side, and I invite you to find again, a sense of space and spaciousness, we talked a little bit about the upper body on the right side, so now let's talk about the negative space between our legs, I think women might talk a little bit more about what the pelvic floor is and does, but, you know, whatever, whoever you are, however you identify, just find a sense of power in the space in between those legs, and take a deep breath in, exhale, tuck that tailbone in, deep breath in, last one, nice, and let's take a counter stretch, so, palms come to the mat, lengthen that front leg, flex that front foot, and bow the upper body down, and we're going to come back into that variation, so I'll turn around for you here, so, now, we are going to take that left arm, wrap it around the body, as we extend our weight forward, right arm up, and side bend towards that left side, so tuck that tailbone, and stretch, side bend, deep breath in, do that at your own pace, one more breath here, nice, when you're ready, we'll switch over to some other side, tuck that back toe into the left arm, and we meet in plank, three collective breaths here, you got it, we're almost done, breath in, exhale, take two sighs here, breath in, loud sigh, and one more breath in, sigh it out, and when you're ready, bend those elbows, chaturanga, maybe you feel ready to go into an upward dog now, lean with that nose, and breath back, and sit down with a dog, nice, bend that right knee, and that left, and walk those feet towards the hands, grasp opposite elbows, take another swing in our forward fold, and I invite you to consider how this might feel different from a couple moments ago, nice, nice, nice, from here, lift those legs together, really together, spread those toes, so by lifting the legs together I mean the inner toes of the feet are together, but that doesn't stop me from spreading all my toes on the mat, and we're going to send those hips, bend those knees, relax at those ankles, and we'll come into a chair posture, reaching those arms up overhead, stay here for a deep breath, breathing in, find yourself a space between those hip bones, exhale, relax those shoulders down, breath in, feel that shape, and slowly here, send those hips towards the earth as much as you can, and you'll come to boat posture here, we'll do a little bit of abdominal activation, you can stay here with these knees bent, or you can straighten them for a little bit more of a push, and we'll pulse those arms in for 10, nice, let's come into a little, I'm shaking, power position with those fingers, and go into twists for 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, we got it, 2, and 1, grab those knees and just rock back into a happy baby, for a half happy baby, start maybe with the right leg, grabbing the inside heel, and then maybe you do the left side, or you want to do both already, great work, nice, and when you're ready to come to lay flat on the mat, and come into a Shavasana, final resting pose, closing those eyes, relaxing that jaw once you're ready to drool, maybe taking it a little bit slow, managing energy, and it's in a relaxed way, you don't need to effortfully think about this, but just envision and sense the energy that goes past your extremities, past the crown of your head, past your perineum, past each of your toes, each of your fingers, kind of just radiate, and for some people, they envision that sense of protection, sense of beauty, all of the above, none of the above, whatever it is that comes to mind, just allow it. If you have the time, feel free to stay here as long as you would like on your Friday, but if you do need to return to the real world, just start wiggling those toes and those fingers, maybe bend one knee and the other, moving however feels good to me, maybe you yawn, maybe roll to one side, and slowly and surely, you can meet your seated position, we're going to take our usual breath in, so fingers just up over your head, breathing in, and carves out the middle, sensing a long spine, last long breath in, hands in prayer position, we tap our foreheads, tap our hips, thank you for joining me today, thank you for your flexibility and your patience, I appreciate all of you for joining, my regulars, I really appreciate it.