Coming Back To Center - Chair Yoga

Life naturally moves through periods of balance and imbalance. Just as nature can shift in different directions, we too can find ourselves feeling reactive, tense, or disconnected from ourselves and our surroundings.

This chair yoga class invites participants to return to their center through mindful movement, breath awareness, and self-reflection. Students will explore practices that encourage balance, grounding, and inner awareness.

Transcript

All right, Welcome to our chair yoga today. For your practice, You're definitely going to need a strap. And if you need a. A block for your practice, Just have that accessible and available for you. Come and find a seat in the front of your chair, The first third of your chair. Take a moment to just get some of that extra cushioning out of the way and find your sitz bones. Feet planted on the floor. And if you're sitting on a chair that's too high and your feet don't touch the floor, Please place a blanket or a block underneath your feet. So that the knees align with your hips. All right, Lengthen your spine and soften the shoulders. Keep the elbows back so that you're not overstretching the arms in the beginning of our class. Turn the palms up. And then allow yourself to arrive. So last week I was in Sedona, Arizona. And we spent a lot of time outside and outdoors in the beautiful parts of Sedona hiking and taking in the red rocks and the red sandstone. And it reminded me of a chapter in the Bhagavad Gita, A scripture from India. That mentions how in nature when Nature is an imbalance. It goes in one of two directions. And so. That brought me to my own personal life and how when something is an imbalance. Either I go to the aggressive, Reactive, Angry, Wanting to change things fast. Or I tend to go towards the, You know, I'm going to sit on the sofa and eat ice cream and watch TV and pretend nothing's wrong, Right? So that is generally the tendency of nature, Right? It's either one or the other. And so in yoga. We have what's called a Rajasic, That's your reactive. You know, Aggressive tendency. And then you've got your tamasic, Which is the mellow, Lay low type of tendency. And then sattvic is the center. So when nature comes off balance, Right, Comes away from the center, It does these one or two reactions. It's the same thing with humans. Right? When we come away from our center, We tend to go in one direction and then the other. And this is why I come to my mat or my chair, Because with yoga, I'm able to come back to the center and realize when I've kind of become imbalanced. So I hope that when you practice today, You notice. Notice when you're kind of off that center path. Are you working too hard? What's your breath telling you? Or are you not working enough? Right, So listen to your body and listen to your breath. It's going to be the biggest reminder of what we need for ourselves. All right. So finding that comfortable seat, Lengthening your spine. And then closing your eyes or bringing your gaze down towards the floor to soften the gaze. Just take a breath. And allow yourself to arrive. And then take another breath. And see if you can soften the shoulders and the jaw, The fingers. Breathing in again, Soften the back and the belly, The hips. Take another breath in. And this time as you exhale, Soften the thighs, The knees, The calves, The shins, The feet, Relaxing the toes. Then take the next couple of minutes to check in with yourself physically, Emotionally, Spiritually. How are you feeling today? What do you need? To honor yourself today. And then with your next breath, Bring your hands together at your heart center and bow. And set an intention for your practice. And then you're welcome to join me in chanting the sound of Aum to begin. Take a breath in. Right, Gently open up your eyes, Sitting forward on your chairs, Lengthen your spine. Turn your head to the left. Sorry. Turn your head to the right. And then come back to center, Left ear to left shoulder. I hit a couple of nuts before class. Things are kind of stuck in there. All right, So left ear to left shoulder. Just feel that stretch. And then bring your chin into your chest. Lift the head back up. Right ear to right shoulder. And feel that stretch. Bring your chin into your chest. Inhale, Lift the head up, Open up the mouth. And stretch. Do it again. Let the arms hang alongside your hips. Lift the shoulders towards your ears. Button drop. Lift them towards your ears, Let them drop. Lift them up towards your ears, Let them drop. Roll the shoulders back. So today we're going to focus a lot on hands and arms, Shoulders. Of course, We always incorporate the entire body, But that will be our focus today. Let the arms hang. Gently lean towards the right, Letting the arm hang towards the floor, Keeping this left hip down. Good. And then inhale, Rise up slowly. This time the left arm is going to reach towards the floor, Keeping that right hip down. And then inhale, Come on back up. This time, As you lean to the right, The left arm is going to come up to your waist. It could slide up to your chest or your shoulder. Or you can lift it straight up. Stretching both sides, Right fingertips, Left fingertips. And then inhale, Rise up. Bring that left arm down, Take a moment to adjust. Notice what you're feeling in the body. And then lean towards the left. Right arm and hand slips to the hips. Maybe it stays there, Comes up to your chest, Your shoulder, And then straight up. Reaching and wiggling both sets of fingers. Beautiful. And then inhale, We rise up. Hands come to your thighs or your knees. Inhale belly, Chest forward, Chin lifts. Lift, Lengthen the spine. Chin to chest. Inhale, Come forward. Lift, Lengthen the spine, Exhale. One more time, Inhale, Come forward. Lift, Lengthen the spine, Exhale. Good. Sit up nice and tall. Take your right hand to your left knee. Left hand goes to the side of the chair or the back of the chair. You're going to lengthen the spine. Let the belly, Rib cage, And chest turn and twist towards your left. And then we're gonna inhale, Come back through center, Take the left hand to the right leg, Right hand behind your back, Lift, Lengthen, And let the head be the last thing that turns and twists. Good, And then come back to center. We're going to go back to the left side. This time we're going to take the arms up. And now we're going to take the right hand to the left thigh, Left hand back behind you. Again, We lengthen, We twist, And then we gaze over that left shoulder. And then we inhale, Take the arms back up or forward or down. And then we take the left hand to the right thigh, Lift, Lengthen the spine always before you twist and turn. Inhale, Arms come all the way up. And then we exhale, We bring the arms down. Bring your hands to your heart center, Interlace the fingers, Reach forward. Soften and broaden the collarbones and then lift the arms up or keep them forward and then exhale, Open nice and wide. One more time, Reach forward. Either you stay right here or you inhale, Rise up. And then take those arms all the way down. Shake them out. Walk your feet out so you're sitting forward of your chair in a short straddle here, Not as wide as you can be, Just a short one. And we're going to take the upper body and we're going to lubricate our hip joint. Circling around, So the upper body circles around the hips. In one direction. And then we're going to slowly circle the other way. And just notice as you're moving the body, Where do you feel something? What does it feel like? One more circle here. Great, And then come back to center and sit up nice and tall. Walk your feet back into your chair asana, Knees and ankles aligned. We're gonna take that left leg, We're gonna straighten it out in front of you. The heels on the floor, The toes are lifted, And we're gonna move the toes. So start to wiggle them around. Make sure you can move all five toes. Great. And then you're going to point the foot. And you're gonna flex. And you're going to point. And black. And point. And flex. Take your hands underneath the left thigh. Inhale, Lift the foot up off the floor or keep it on the floor. And you're going to move that knee joint, Stretching the leg and then bending it. Couple more times. Then you're gonna take your left hand to the top of the knee, And you're gonna circle around that hip joint, Taking the knee and the leg and circling it in the hip joint in one direction, Out to the side, And then again in the other direction. Circle it around. Good. And then plant the foot flat, Open and close the knees. Just notice how one side feels in comparison to the other. And then we're gonna take the right leg straight, Heels on the floor, Toes are lifted. Lengthen your spine. Take a moment, Look at your toes. Let's wiggle those around. And then we're going to point. And flex. So point the foot towards the floor and then flex. And point. And flex. And point and flex. Take your hands and underneath the right thigh, Bend the knee and lift the foot up off the floor, Sitting up nice and tall. We're going to kick it out. One, Two. And two. And 3. And four, Hold it here with a bent knee, Right hands at the top of the knee. And now we're gonna take the, And make these knee and hip circles, Just circling the leg out to the side. And now we're going to go the other way. So circle the other way. Just warming up the body. Perfect. And then plant the foot flat on the floor. Take your arms back behind you. If you can, Take a hold of the chair, Lift the chest, Lift the chin slightly, Gaze it where the wall and the ceiling meet, Feel the opening in the front body. Take a breath here. And then exhale, Release, Shake those arms out. Okay, Great. Take your left. Hand facing me. You're going to bring the thumb to the pinky, The base of the pinky. Thumb to the base of the pinky. Right, And then open it out. Five, And then again, Thumb to the base of the pinky. And then open it up. Thumb to the tip of your index finger, Keeping the other fingers up. Good. Open it up. Thumb to middle finger, Like if you're making rabbit ears. And then all five fingers open thumb to ring finger. Again, You want to try to keep the other fingers nice and tall. And then up and then thumb to your pinky finger. Notice how the other finger wants to curl in. And then relax, Wiggle the fingers out. I'm going to come a little closer so I can show this to you. So turn the hand so the palm faces towards your body. You're going to curl your four fingers in. The base of your fingers, Right, And see if you can get them to touch. Right, Then you're gonna curl all the way in and let your thumb rest. Keeping the wrist nice and straight. Good. Then relax the thumb back and you're going to uncurl halfway up. And then uncurl all the way up. Okay, Great. Curl towards the base of the fingers and then all the way down and make a fist. Uncurl halfway. Don't forget the halfway. Right? So it's, See if you can get it to be flat against the palm and then all the way, And then wiggle those fingers out and relax that arm. The right arm comes up. We're going to do the same thing here, Right? So curl halfway. Curl all the way, Let the thumb come in. Uncurl the thumb, Uncurl the fingers halfway. And then uncurl all the way. Let's do that again. Curl the fingers halfway. See if you can get the fingers to touch the base. And then all the way and thumbs in. And then we're going to open halfway. And then all the way. Beautiful. And then wiggle those fingers, Right? This is really good for arthritis of the fingers. You're going to take your left hand. Bend at the elbow. You're going to take your right hand, You're going to place it on the wrist and then gently pull down and hold the forearm. Then you're going to circle the wrist joint. Try to keep your elbow still. And just circle at the wrist joint. And then we're going to circle the other way. Good. Now, Right hand, I'll bend at the elbow, Take a hold to the wrist and gently pull down to the forearm. Circle that wrist joint. Try to keep the elbows still. And we're going to go the other way. Great. Wiggle fingers. Okay, You're gonna take the left arm out in front of you. Out in front of you. Make a fist. Soften the shoulder. You're going to open the arm out to the side. So the same side, And you're going to open one finger at a time. So we'll start with the pinky. Ring. Middle, Index. Thumb When you have all five fingers open, Your shoulder and your hands should be in alignment out to the side. And now we're going to bring it in. So thumb, Index. Middle. Ring, Pinky Try to do the movement of the arm as you're opening the fingers, Not before or after. All right, Here we go. So pinky, Ring, Middle, Index, Thumb, Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring, Pinky. Beautiful. Lower the arm. Right arm goes up. This time shoulder stays in the socket. Make a gentle fist. And here we go, Pinky. Ring, Middle, Index, Sum, Index, Middle, Ring, Pinky. Beautiful. A little faster. Pinky, Ring, Middle, Index, Thumb, Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring, Pinky. Beautiful. Lower the arms. Take both arms up, Soften the shoulders. And again, If you have any shoulder injuries, You can lower the arms, Right? Or keep the elbows bent if you need to. Gentle fists. Here we go. Both at the same time. Pinky, Ring, Middle, Index, Thumb, Thumb, Ring, Index, Middle, Ring. Pinky. Good. Pinky, Ring, Middle, Index, Thumb, Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring, Pinky. Beautiful. Lower the arms and just. . . Roll the shoulders. And shake them out. You're gonna turn the palms face up, Elbows into the waist. Imagine you're holding a tray. You're going to take the tray of food out to the side. Keep those elbows as hugged in as possible. Try to keep the palms as flat. If they turn, Your entire tray of food is going to spill. I don't know about you, But I'm hungry. It's lunchtime. I don't want to spill anything. All right, So here we go. Bring it in. Bring it out. Bring it in. Bring it out. Bring it in. Bring it out. Bring it in. Bring it out and hold. Okay, Left arm goes up at shoulder height or lower and we bring it in. Right arm goes up at shoulder height or lower and we bring it back to the waist. Both arms go out. And we bring it in. And we bring the arms over the thighs. Okay, So here we go out, Left arm up. Bring it in, Right arm up, Bring it in, Both arms up, Bring them in, Bring the hands over the thighs. Great, Let's add on. All right, So here we go. Left arm out, Bring it in, Right arm out, Bring it in, Left arm out, Lift it up. Turn it above the head. So the finger is now facing towards your right side. And then turn it back. Bring it in towards the waist and then again the hand over the thigh. Right arm goes out to the side, Lift the arm up. Lift the arm up really high and then turn the palm so it faces towards the left. And then turn the fingers back around and bring that arm back down and over the thigh. Both arms out to the side. Lift them up. Go as high as you can, Making the flat palms, Turn the palms in over your head, Just gently drop bands on top of your head, Lift it up and stretch. Open it out. Elbows into the waist. And bring it in. And relax. Take a breath. We're gonna do that one more time. We're gonna lift up and go out to the side. Lift the arms to shoulder height. Lift the arms above the head. Flatten the palms. Turn towards your head. Plant the hands on your head. Lifted up. And go out. And then the elbows in and around. Beautiful. And then relax. And just take a moment. All right, You're going to take your left hand, You're going to place it on your thigh, Spread the fingers. You're going to take your right finger. Your right index finger, You're going to bring it to the base of where the wrist is, Okay? You're going to keep the connection of the finger to the hand. You're going to trace around The thumb. Around the index finger. Around the middle finger. Around the ring finger. Around the pinky finger all the way down to the base where the wrist is. And now you're going to reverse this. You're going to go up the pinky. Up the ring. Up the middle. Up the index. Around the thumb and back down, As if you were tracing your hand. So now the right hand goes down flat on your thigh, Spread the fingers. Left index finger, Base of your thumb. Sitting up nice and tall, You're going to trace. Keep the connection of the finger with your hand and you're going to go around each finger. Tracing your finger. Beautiful. And then come all the way down to the base of the pinky, The wrist. And now you're going to reverse this. Going up and around. This is really good for our concentration. And then we're going to come, It's actually quite meditative. And then come all the way down to the base of the wrist there of the thumb, And then you're gonna relax the fingers. We're going to take the right arm forward. You're going to take your left hand to your fingertips and you're going to gently press back. Stretching the wrist here and the arm. So it looks like this from the side. Yeah, And now we're gonna bring the fingers towards the floor, Take the back of your hand, Gently press it back. Again, Be really mindful that the shoulder doesn't go up. You wanna keep it down. And gently press. Beautiful. Okay, And then relax and shake it out. Let's take the left arm forward, Palm facing me, Take the right hand and gently press it back. Try to keep the arm as straight as possible without hyperextending the joint. Feel the stretch. Good, And then bring the fingers towards the floor and gently press back. Again, Notice if that shoulder rises and notice which side may be a little bit more sensitive than the other. Right, Take a breath here. And then again, Circle. Alright, Sitting up nice and tall, Bring your hands together at your heart center, Lift the arms up until the elbows can touch. And if they can't, That's absolutely fine. So you're arms and your head. Your hands and your elbows are close together like so, Okay? And then you're gonna lift the elbows, Hands away from the face, Lean forward by hinging from your hip crease, And try to stretch the back of your shoulders. Feel that stretch. Breathe into it. And then inhale, Rise. And lower the arms and just feel the blood flowing again in the shoulders. Great. Inhale, Take the arms out to the side, Bend the elbows, Place the hands on the shoulders. Let's get into some of those angel wings, Circling around. Beautiful, And then again, Shake it out. All right, Coming back into this pose where we put the hands together and elbows together. Right, Sitting up nice and tall, Hand away from the face. Inhale, Open the arms into your cactus, Squeezing the shoulder blades together at the back of the body. Exhale, Let's have the elbows and hands touch. Inhale, Open. Exhale, Touch. You can tuck your chin in if you want a deeper stretch. Inhale, Open. Exhale, Touch. And then inhale, Open and release those arms and just shake them out. Great. Take a hold of your strap. Let's give our arms a little break as we work on our legs. So take a hold of your strap. We're gonna straighten the left leg out in front. We're going to take the strap to the ball of the foot. You want to find your alignment here, Right? Second and third toe to the knee, Knee to the hip. We're going to lengthen the spine and we're going to hinge from the hip crease, Feeling the stretch down the back of that leg. Now, If this is not enough for you and you're not feeling the stretch, You're more than welcome to walk your hands a little further down the strap. Towards your foot. The most important thing is you want to keep your back as flat as possible and make sure you're hinging from the hip. Let's take a couple of breaths here, Not rush it, So we can feel the stretch and the opening in the back of the hamstring muscles. Maybe our glutes. Breathing in. Breathing out. And then inhale, We're gonna sit up nice and tall, Elbows next to your waist, And you're gonna gently lift the leg up. And we're going to bend the knee into the chest. And then we're going to straighten it out. And bend the knee into the chest. And straighten it out. Bend the knee into the chest. And straighten it out. One more time, Bend the knee into the chest. And straighten it out. This time we're going to hold it here and put the strap into your left hand, Open the leg out to the side, Take the right arm out and get a nice long stretch here. Breathe. Good, Bring that leg back through center, Switch the hand that's holding the strap, And this time we're gonna find our twist here, Opening up that left arm and gazing over that left shoulder. And then you're gonna come back to center. Holding the strap with both hands, Fire up that thigh muscle. Okay, So really engage it slight bend in the knee, Sit up nice and tall, You're going to drop the strap. Let that thigh muscle fire up and hold. Point the foot. And flex. Point the foot and flex. Point the foot. And flex, Bend the knee, Take a hold under the thigh or the shin, Hug it into your chest. You're going to take your foot and you're going to place it on the opposite thigh. You can always place the foot on the floor, Either on the outside of your right foot or the inside of your right foot or on a block. The knee is open, You're coming into your seated figure four here. Your foot, Your top foot is flexed. Making sure that you're sitting on both of those sits bones. So you may have to like get in there and kind of move some of that cushioning around. And then sit up nice and tall. Great. Bring your hands to your heart center. Inhale, Reach forward with the arms. Turn the palms away from each other. Come all the way back. Take a hold of your chair. Breathe here. Feel that stretch. Good, And then inhale, Rise up and release your hands. Bring that leg back down, Open and close the knees. Take a hold of your strap once again, Right leg is going to go straight. You're going to place the strap on the ball of that right foot. Sit up nice and tall, Make sure you find your alignment. Lengthen your spine, Start to hinge forward, Pressing the heel towards the front of the room. Take a moment here to feel the stretch here. And then if you want to go deeper, Walk your hands a little lower down the strap. Breathing in. And breathing out. Softening. Right, So our two opposing forces. Right, Our expansion and contraction. And we can find the space in between the center. That's where we find our balance. So inhale, We're gonna sit up again, And this time the leg could come up if you want it to. Bend the knee into the chest. And straighten it. Bend the knee into the chest. And straighten it. Bend the knee into the chest. Straighten it. One more time, Bend the knee into the chest and straighten it. Take the strap into your right hand, Leg out to the side, Left arm reaches up. Sit up nice and tall, Don't let yourself fall back. Beautiful. Bring that leg back through center, Switch the hand that's holding the strap, And this time the right arm is gonna open, Gazing over that right shoulder for a twist. And then you're gonna come back to center, Take a hold of the strap and again, Fire up that thigh muscle. Okay, And then you have the option of. Dropping the strap. Letting that thigh start to work. You're going to point and flex. And point and flex. And point and flex. And then you're going to bend the knee and you're going to bring the knee into the chest for a stretch here. And then take your right foot on top of your left thigh, Coming into that figure four, Finding both of those sit bones evenly pressed. Sitting up nice and tall. Bringing your hands again to heart center and then we're going to reach with those hands forward as we hinge forward. We're going to turn the palms and we're going to reach back for our chair. Feel the stretch in the glute and the leg and the hip. And then inhale, We're gonna rise up. And we're gonna take that leg back down and open and close. Great. We're going to come to stand. And just kind of march it out, Because we've been sitting for a while. Kind of march it out. Maybe you shake your legs and shake your arms. Beautiful. You can stand behind your chair. Otherwise, What I'd like you to do is have the chair on your right side, So that you're standing with your right hip. Next to the chair and your right hand is on the chair. If this still creates any kind of imbalance then you are more than welcome to hold on to the chair with both hands and you're facing the back of the chair. OK, Great. Make one big foot. So feet together. And then you're going to slide your left foot. The sole of the left foot to the instep. So the knee goes out to the left side. Now, If this is challenging for your hips, Your knee can face forward. And the toes are on the floor and the heel is lifted, Right? Otherwise, Your knee goes out to the side, The sole of the foot is against the instep and the ankle of the right foot. Now the tendency here is for us to collapse in that standing hip and we tend to like leave our hip going out to the side. I want you to press the right foot down, The standing foot down, And then lift up and out of that standing leg and hip. Right slight bend in the knee. Once you've got your balance here, You can take one hand. Maybe you hold onto the chair with one finger. Or you release both hands and come into your balance pose. Right? And it's okay to move, Right? When you're in balance, It doesn't mean that you're still Right, You're just moving in equanimity. Beautiful. And then we release the arms and we shake it out and we march it out. Okay, Same side, You're going to repeat that if that was where you need to be today, Right? If not, You want something a little bit more. You're welcome to bring the sole of the foot to the inside of your right shin. It's really important here that you don't put the foot on the knee, Right? So you're going to either be at the instep with the toes touching the floor, Or you're going to be at the shin. If you have a practice where you're able to bring the foot to the upper inner thigh, You sure can do that. Just again, Remember you don't want to sink into the hip, Right? You want to press down. With the foot and lift up. And those are our two opposing forces, Right? The pressing down is the Rajasic. That's where we want to like press and do and be reactive, Right? And the lifting up is somewhat tamasic. It's kind of like, Oh, I'm just going to be here, Soften into it, Right? And when you find the evenness in both, There comes the balance and you can let go of one hand and you can let go of the other. Okay, Take another breath here and balance. And then come on out and march it out. Okay so now you're going to bring the chair to the other side so this time your left hip is up. Alongside the chair. One of the most important things when it comes to balancing is where is your focus? Where is your drishti? Where is your eyesight? We get a lot of information from our eyes and our vision and that can be very distracting. So it's really important when you're learning to balance or practice balance is to focus on something on the floor three to four feet in front of you that's not moving. And then eventually you can bring your gaze to the horizon and even up higher if that's comfortable for you. But wherever you choose to focus, It has to be a non-moving object. Because as soon as the object moves, You will go along for the ride. All right, So here we go, One big foot. Both feet firmly planted. You're going to take your sole of your right foot to the instep of your left. Knee can be open to the side or in front. Again, Press that left leg and foot into the floor and then rise up out of it to really contract and engage the muscles of that standing leg. And then you can take. Your one arm. Maybe you hold with a finger or you tap. And when you feel comfortable, The other arm can come off. Wherever it goes, You're in balance. And then we release and we march it out. So we're going to do the same side again, But this time we're going to bend. Option to lift the foot up a little higher to really work on balance. If not, You keep the foot where it was. Okay, So the sole of the right foot comes to the instep or to the shin, Not the knee or up into the upper inner thigh. You want to press down into the floor, Lift up out of the hip. Press the foot into the thigh, Or the foot into the shin, And the shin into your leg. Again, Those are all contraindications. Contradictory. Motions, Right? And then you can take one hand off. And play with taking the other hand off. And finding your tree pose. And then slowly release. And let go, And then just march out your legs. And then you're gonna come back to stand in front of your chairs. Making sure that you can feel the back of the chair so that you're comfortable and you feel safe in doing our chair series. Okay. So the arms can come across the chest or they can come onto your hip, Whatever you find comfortable. All right. You're going to slowly bend the knees a little bit. So as soon as I say bend the knees, Right, We're not hinging forward. We're keeping our back as flat as possible. We're just slight bend in the knee. It's a little bend. If it's too much for your knees, Stand back up. Otherwise, A little bend in the knees. Okay, Now you're gonna take your hips and your buttocks, You're gonna bring it back. Now the upper body wants to come forward. You're going to try to keep it upright as much as possible. Tailbone down, Engage your core. Bend the knees a little bit more. Try not to stick your chin out. Tuck everything in. Sit bones back. Beautiful. Your thighs should be all fired up right now. You should feel this in the thighs. Bend the knees. Maybe the arms come forward. Coming into your chair pose, Strengthening your thighs, Your legs, Your glutes, Your hips. Breathe. Beautiful. And then you're going to come down to sit on your chairs. All right, Sit all the way back onto your chairs and then just take your legs and just shake them out. Wiggle them around, Right, Just like that. Circle the wrists and recircle the ankles and wiggle the toes. And just kind of. Relax your feet, Let them just kind of hang. Good, Open the knees and close them. Okay, Great. Come sit forward on your chairs once again, And let's go back to those beautiful arms. All right, Inhale, We're gonna take the arms out to the side, Then we're gonna bring them forward. Soften the shoulders. All right, We're gonna take the left arm forward, Right arm underneath, You're gonna bend the elbow. Feel that stretch. You're going to lengthen the spine. You're going to hinge from the hip coming forward. Close your eyes and breathe into the shoulder blade, Creating some space. Take another breath here. Good. Inhale, Sit up nice and tall. The second option here is to give yourself a hug. Or if you have the flexibility today, Bring the backs of the hands together where you can twist and hold the fingers or the palms of the hand. Reach up with those elbows, Hands away from the face, Lengthen your spine, Come forward just a little bit. Feel the stretch. Now tuck the elbows into the chest, Tuck your chin in. And then inhale, Lift the chin, Lift those elbows up. And then again. Tuck the chin, Tuck the elbows into the chest. And one more time, Inhale, Lift up. And then you're going to unwind and you're going to just breathe. Roll the shoulders back. Shake the arms out. Inhale, We're going to take the arms back out to the side, And then we're going to bring them in front. Soften the shoulders into the socket, Broadening the collarbones. And this time, The right arm to the left. Is going to come under the left. I think. And first, You know what, First we're gonna just stretch. So arm is straight, Elbow is bent, We're lengthening the spine, We're coming forward. So you're on whatever other side you were on before. That's it. Breathe into it. Just take a breath and just begin again. So first we're going to keep the arms straight. Yeah, There it is. Beautiful. Good. Inhale, Sit up nice and tall. Now we're going to bend and we're going to find our eagle arms, Right? I think I did that side already. Ooh. Find those eagle arms. And again, You can always go to giving yourself a hug. It's a great variation. Lift the elbows up. Come from the hip flexor to come forward and just feel the stretch in the back. And then sit up nice and tall and release. Roll those shoulders back. And shake the arms out. Walk your feet out into the wide straddle, Whatever is wide and comfortable for you. Put your hands on your thighs. You're going to take the left shoulder to the right knee. Feel the stretch down the back body and then bring it back. And then right shoulder to left knee. And again, One more time, Left to right. And right to left. And then come on back. Beautiful. Inhale, We're gonna take the arms out to the side. You're gonna take the right hand and you're gonna flip the wrist so that the, Like if you're about to stamp the wall with your palm. Okay. You're going to take the left arm, Palm facing up. You're going to reach back behind you as if you're trying to grab an arrow out of your bag that's behind you. You're going to grab the arrow. You're going to put it into the bow of your right hand. You're going to reach all the way back and then you're going to release it. Okay, And then again, Reach back, Grab another arrow. Put it into the bowl. Come all the way back. And release it. One last time. Grab the arrow, Put it into the bow. Swing it all the way back. Tight, Tight, Tight, Tight, Tight. And then release it. Beautiful. Relax the arms. Shake them out. Inhale, Arms come out to the side. Left palm this time faces that left wall. You're going to take the right palm up. We're going to reach back for the arrow on this side. We're going to put it into the bow and we're going to reach all the way back and release. Come back behind you, Take another arrow, Put it into the bow, Reach all the way back. And let it go. One last time because three is a charm we're going to reach in towards the bow come all the way back and release it. And then we're going to relax the arms and shake it out. Come back into your chair asana, Right? Lean towards the left of the chair and just let your arm hang and swing in a pendulum, Circling around. Right and go the other way. Good, And then plant the left hand on your thigh, Lean to the right and let that right arm hang and swing. Good, Now let's go the other way. And then plant that hand on your thigh. Bring your hands to your knees. Inhale, Belly, Chest forward, Chin lifts. Lift, Lengthen the spine, Your chin to your chest. And one more time, Inhale, Come forward. And lift, Lengthen, Exhale. Good. Sit up nice and tall and go ahead and sit back and find a comfortable seat. Taking whatever props you may need for your practice, The end of your practice today. Palms facing up, Eyes closed if that feels comfortable. And bring your awareness to your breath. See if you can slow it down. So that you can focus on how the inhalation expands the belly. The ribcage and the chest. And as you relax the breath, It releases from the chest down into the ribcage, Down into the belly. Finding this three-part breath. Allowing the mind and the body to settle. Softening toes. Ankles, Knees, Hips. Belly. Shoulders. Fingers. Ciao. Eyes and face. And if the mind starts to wander, Bring it back to your breath. Once again, Bringing your awareness to your breath. Just take a moment to notice how you're feeling. Is there a little bit more of a centering and more of a sattvic? Feeling in the body and the mind. More of a connection. And then with your next breath. You're welcome to bring your hands together at your heart center and bow in gratitude. You're welcome to join me in chanting the sound of Aum. To close our practice. Take a breath in. With my gratitude. And the light that shines within my heart to yours. I bow. Namaste. Thank you so much.