Heart & Shoulder Openers

The heart is a sensitive area in the body. To open the heart means you have to have courage to open, soften and release in a gentle way. In this video I will take you through some poses so you can walk through life with an open heart.

Be love,
Dorinda

Transcript

So we're going to open the shoulders and the heart so that we lengthen the lower belly, Protect the lower back. We're going to start with hands and knees. Coming stable, Spread the fingers wide, Make sure you're solid. We're going to go into a soft twist by taking the left arm underneath. Place the left shoulder on the ground and the head. And if you have enough space, You can reach your right arm up and start to open it up and back. Shift the left hip back to the left. And stay here a few breaths, Relaxing face. Let's see if you can expand. Just by taking deeper breaths. Don't push hard. Create the length in the belly to protect the back. Next, Exhale, Take the right hand down, Place it in front of your face, Push up. And come back. Left hand goes down stable, Right arm slides underneath. And same thing, We stay here. Taking arm up. And back for a few breaths. Shift the right hip back to the right. Exhaling, Take hand back down, Push back up. Coming slowly into down facing dog, Bring the toes up in the back. Shift the hips up towards the sky, The ceiling, Heels towards the ground. Hold on, Can I do that? Coming slowly into down dog, Lift the hips up towards the ground, Heels towards the ground. Shoulders reaching away from the ears. This will also help to strengthen the back of the shoulder. And we stay here for a few breaths. Imagining I'm holding something between my upper inner triceps. The whole hand is flat. And strong. I'm gonna walk to the front of the mat, Lengthen halfway up on an inhale, And exhale, Fold. Come on in the nail up to standing. And exhale, Hands to the heart. We're going to do one sun greeting. First, Inhale, Arms up. Exhale, Fold forward. It's okay to bend the knees slightly to get the fingertips to the ground to keep the back flat. Lengthening halfway up. And exhale, Step back to plank. Go to low plank. It's okay to put the knees down because I prefer that you use the arms. Inhaling to upper dog or cobra and exhale back to down facing dog. Neck relaxed, Shoulders wide, Breath is deep. Stay here, Five breaths. Come on to the knee. We're going to take the hands out a little further to open the chest and shoulders even more. Again, Reaching shoulders away from the ears, I'm going to shift back, Taking my buttocks in the air, But my chest towards the ground. The elbows don't touch the ground. If this is too easy, You can take your knees back a little further. It'll make it more challenging. So you shift. And this will open and strengthen the back of the shoulder to help open the chest. Inhale, Back up. Onto the hands and knees. You can take a child's pose if you like, Shifting back onto the heels. If there's a lot of stress in the shoulders, Release the hands back beside and just rest here for a few breaths. Come up slowly again onto the hands and knees. We're gonna come sitting on your buttocks. We're gonna open the shoulders a little more and go back to down dog. I'm going to show you a way to open the shoulders by taking the right hand back. I want to take the fingers facing the hip, But you're going to take your hand back pretty far as far as you can comfortably without You want to feel some stretch in the front of the right shoulder. Keep the foot flexed in the front. We're going to bend the right elbow and then lift the chest. And relax the head away from the bent elbow. This is gonna stretch the front of the right shoulder, Give us a little more space here. Take some deep breaths, It's quite intense. Bend the elbow, Lift the chest, Relax the head away from the bent elbow. One more deep breath here, Bending the elbow, Lifting the chest, Relaxing the head away. And just because I want you to feel the difference, Come quickly into down-facing dog. And allow yourself to feel the difference. Right shoulder feels much more open as if you can sink lower into down dog. Noticing that also helps to open the heart. We're going to come back and do the other side. I'll turn around so you can see me. Same idea, We're gonna bend right knee, Left hand goes straight back, Fingers face the hips. You bend the elbow, Lift the heart, Relax the head away from that elbow. Take some deep breaths, Lengthen the spine, Keep the. Heart lifted. Inhale, Expand, Exhale, Bend. Find your safe edge. Bend the elbow, Lift the heart, Relax the head away. Keep the foot active in the front. One more breath, Bend the elbow, Lift the heart, Relax the head to the right. Nice. We're coming back to down facing dog again. In down dog, Heels towards the ground, Neck relaxed, Shoulders wide, Dropping away from the ears. Take a few breaths here. Bend the knees, Walk to the front. Lengthen halfway up on the inhale. Exhale, Fold. Float again up to standing. And then exhale, Hands to the heart. We're gonna take the hands behind and wrap the fingers together. Reach the arms down and away, Lift the heart. We're going to open and lift the arms, But attempting to bend the elbows and bring both Hands to the left side waist. Squeeze elbows in towards each other. And also opening the shoulders. Take a few breaths here. Taking the arms back again and to the other side. Lift first, Taking both wrists, Both hands to the right sideways, Squeezing elbows in towards each other. Keep spine long. Take a few breaths here. Arms back out, This time we're gonna bend the knees so that the belly touches the thigh, Neck goes neutral. Head releases. And just allow the arms, Shoulders to open. Exhale, Place both hands back down, Step back to plank. We're gonna come into low plank and onto the belly. Come all the way down to the belly. Open the arms up sideways. Keep the neck neutral. You can also rest to one side if it's more comfortable. We're gonna open the shoulders. I want the hands to stay at the same height as the shoulders. You're going to roll onto your left hip. And lift your right toes, Touch the ground behind you. Your right arm reaches up. And back. Opening both shoulders, Take some breath. Eventually, If you have enough space, You can also. . . Have both feet on the ground. Two breaths here, Keep the neck neutral. Slowly straighten the legs, Roll back onto the belly. Back flat, Hands still at shoulder height, Head relaxes to the side, Left shoulder a little warmer. We go the other direction. Rolling onto right hip, Touch left toes down behind you. Left arm reaches up. And back. Keep the arms up so that the shoulder opens and eventually you can even put both feet flat but try and keep the neck as neutral as you can. Take some deep breaths. Last breath. Exhale, Rolling back onto the belly. Head relaxes to the side. What we also want to do is strengthen the upper back. So that we're able to go back. So we can wrap the fingers together behind the back. Reach the arms back and lift the chest. This will also strengthen upper back, Shoulders, And also lifting the arms at the same time. Take a few breaths. Neck is neutral. Exhale, Release hands down, Head to the side. Let's take the hands under the shoulders, Come up onto the knees again. And we're going to sit either with cross-legged position or on the heels, Wherever you feel more comfortable. And we're going to Do. Pose where we connect the arms in the back. Lifting right arm, Take the hand behind the head. If you have enough space you can maybe even help to adjust. Try not to push the neck too far forward. Left arm sweeps down and under, And you attempt to grab the hands together behind the back. If you don't manage to get there, You can just grab your shirt or see even if you have a strap or something to put in between. And eventually you want to reach the hands together. Take a few breaths here. Exhale, Releasing, And just take the other arm up. Left arm goes up, Right arm down and under. You either grab the shirt, Wherever you are, Or put a strap between, Or see if you have enough space to connect the arms. Stay here a few breaths. Stretching the left tricep and right shoulder at the same time. Exhale, Release. Come back to child's pose. Forehead onto the ground. Shoulders can relax back. Come again up to sitting. We're gonna straighten the legs. And come to a relaxation. I would like you to roll back onto your back. Sometimes we can use a block under the upper chest and the head to actually be more open and do a passive backbend. We're just going to go into a relaxation now. But first of all, Lie flat. If we want to strengthen the upper back and chest and head, We can also see If we can get the hands to touch beside the ears, This is also not everyone's going to be able to get there. If you can get the hands to touch beside the ears, What's also possible is to lift Upper chest. You're doing backwards pushups. This will also help to strengthen the upper back and open the shoulders. Just come to resting. Let the arm palms open wide, Face relaxed. Close the eyes. Take a few deep breaths. And let yourself just sink into the floor. Slowly bringing your attention back into your breath. Take a deeper breath. Start to feel the fingers, The toes. Hands, The feet. Very fluid, Very soft, Allow yourself to reach into the arms and the legs, Eventually bending the knees. Rolling off to one side, Just rest there for a moment. Before slowly coming up again to sitting. With a straight spine. Sit quietly for a moment. Bring your hand palms to your heart. Take a deep breath. Exhalerica. Namaste.