Balance And Play Vinyasa Yoga Class

An energizing, playful vinyasa yoga class. Some yoga experience is needed. Breathe, stretch, and strengthen the body while tapping into a sense of playful movement.

This practice has no background music. Feel free to put on your favorite playlist or simply tune into the sound of your breath. This class is all about feeling your way into each pose, tuning into your body, and letting go of perfection.

Optional props: blocks, blanket, bolster, or pillow. Practice near a wall if you're feeling a little unbalanced today. Modify as you need and enjoy this playful flow.

Transcript

Hello everyone,

Welcome to this balance and play yoga flow.

We'll start our practice today in a seated cross leg position so you can take a moment to get nice and comfy here.

Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.

Inhaling through the nose and maybe exhaling out the mouth.

Really just taking a moment to let go of your day and your week and start to settle yourself in this present moment.

With each exhale allow for some relaxation and softness to enter your body.

Maybe start to notice the tension you might be holding in your jaw,

Your shoulders,

Maybe that space between the eyebrows.

Feel it relax and release on your next exhalation.

Maybe taking one more deep belly breath in and a nice long loud sigh out the mouth as you fully settle into your space.

Now this class is focused on balance and play so I invite you to take a moment to set an intention for your practice and let that intention be focused around fun and playfulness and simply practicing for the sake of moving your body,

Practicing for the sake of practice.

While we move through some rather challenging postures,

Give yourself space and grace to make mistakes,

To enjoy the fall or enjoy simply finding some balance and coming to stand on your hands.

This is a pressure-free class.

The whole idea is to have some fun,

To test your body.

So take a moment to find that sense of playfulness within you,

Almost like you're calling forth that in a child that used to do cartwheels on the grass and paint really terrible paintings,

Simply because you enjoyed it.

Now take a final deep breath in,

Maybe taking an extra sip or two of air once you reach the top and sigh it out.

Let go of any remaining tension,

Any doubts,

Any fear and come fully into this moment.

Gently open your eyes and start to walk yourself into a tabletop position.

Bringing your wrists in line with your shoulders,

Your knees in line with your hips and we'll begin to move with our breath here.

As you inhale,

Slowly start to drop the belly down and lift your gaze and your tailbone up as we find our cow pose and on an exhalation begin to round the spine,

As we move into a cat stretch.

Now we'll find our own rhythm here,

Moving with our own breath.

So with every inhale,

Find a cow pose and with every exhale,

Move into your cat.

This doesn't need to be a fast movement,

It can be nice and slow,

As you gently take your time warming into your spine.

We'll go for another three breaths,

Continue flowing with each inhalation and exhalation.

And exhalation.

Finishing up your last round.

There is no rush,

But when you're done with that final exhale,

Slowly step back into your downward facing dog.

Lifting the tailbone towards the sky and pressing the heels towards your mat.

Now there is absolutely no reason to have your legs completely straight here,

Especially this early on in the class,

So feel free to keep a nice deep bend in the knees and focus rather on lengthening the spine.

As we hold this position in our downward facing dog,

Begin to pedal out the legs,

Bending from left leg to right,

Slowly starting to find some length and some movement into the hamstrings,

Maybe even finding a bit of movement into the hip joints,

The ankles,

Even stretching into the toes.

And I invite you to add in some intuitive movements here.

It doesn't need to be absolutely perfect,

But as you scan your body from head to toes,

And slowly start warming into your space,

Begin to notice if there's any areas that are particularly tight that you maybe want to take the next few breaths to warm into.

Start to do any movement that feels really good in the body.

It doesn't need to be a yoga pose,

It really doesn't even have to have a specific name,

But start to find some movement in this area.

Maybe you feel that the hips are really tight and you want to find a three-legged dog,

Or maybe you want to take some extra time in a cat and cow pose,

Or flowing into a cobra pose to warm into your spine a bit more.

It really doesn't need to look like anything in specific.

This is just a bit of intuitive movement as we tune our awareness into what we're doing here.

Take another five breaths here.

Five deep belly breaths to intuitively move into your space.

Try not to overthink this process too much.

If you want to just hang out in a downward-facing dog,

You're also welcome to do just that,

Or maybe even rest in a dog pose.

And there's no rush to get here,

But as we finish up our last breath,

Come to find a still position in your downward dog.

Just focusing a bit on your alignment here.

Spread the fingers evenly on your mat,

Gripping the mat with your hands,

And then slowly bring your hands together.

Downward dog.

Just focusing a bit on your alignment here.

Spread the fingers evenly on your mat,

Gripping through the fingertips and pulling that weight out of the wrists and into the upper body.

Feel as you do this,

The tailbone starts to lift a little bit higher.

And imagine that you have a rope that is tied to the ceiling and it's under the hip bones.

And with every breath in,

The rope lifts a little bit higher,

So it's really helping you find that elevation in the hip area.

And begin to press the heels a little bit closer to the mat.

But remember that there is really no reason to have your legs completely straight here.

Focus rather on lengthening into your spine and taking a generous bend into the knees.

And now from your downward-facing dog,

You're going to step the right foot between your hands,

Coming into a lunge.

And then from here,

You'll inhale,

Lift the torso into a high lunge,

Arms reaching overhead.

We're going to hold this position for a couple breaths and slowly start to prepare for our first balancing posture here.

We'll be moving from high lunge into a warrior three pose.

So on your next exhalation,

Slowly start to shift your weight forward and lift the left leg up,

Coming into a warrior three.

So from the side,

You're kind of going to look like the shape of a capital T.

And we'll hold this for a few breaths as you come to find your balance here.

And keeping in mind that if you fall out,

If you are kind of swaying,

You're not losing your balance.

Right now your body is just trying to find its balance.

So breathe here,

Be a bit graceful with yourself as you try to find this balanced position.

Even if the back foot is sort of just resting on the mat and you lift that leg away from the mat every now and then to find a little bit of balance,

A little bit of air time.

And now no matter where you are in this posture,

I invite you to try and hold it for three more breaths.

Inhale,

Feel the belly expand as you maintain your hold in this balance.

Exhale and stabilize the body.

Breathe in two,

And breathe out.

Last breath,

Breathe in.

And as you breathe out,

Lower the left foot back to your mat.

Find yourself in your high lunge once more,

Taking a nice deep bend into the front leg,

Lifting the arms overhead.

Take a moment to catch your breath.

All right,

Now listen carefully.

On your next breath in,

You'll shift your weight over to that front leg.

As you send the weight forward,

Lift the left leg out behind you and then bend the knee and bring it all the way into your chest.

So you come to a one-legged Tadasana pose at the front of your mat.

Take a moment to find your balance here.

And then with control,

Lift your left foot and cross the left ankle over the right thigh.

Now lean back,

Sit back as if you are coming to take a seat in a chair,

Bringing your hands to a prayer pose at your heart center.

Now you should be feeling a nice stretch into the left glutes and quite a lot of work being done in the right thigh as you hold and breathe here.

Take another two breaths.

Breathe in,

Fill up the lungs.

And exhale,

Slowly release.

One more,

Inhale.

And as you exhale,

With control,

Step that left foot back into your high lunge.

Arms reach overhead,

Take one more belly breath in.

And as you breathe out,

Lower your hands onto your mat,

Step back into a downward facing dog.

And then slowly lower down onto your knees,

Taking them a bit wider than your hips as your toes come to touch.

Rest for a moment in child's pose.

Nice well-deserved break here as you catch your breath.

Feel as you breathe,

The belly begins to press against the thighs.

And with each exhalation,

Start to soften the body.

Allow the breath to even out,

The heart rate to slow.

And as you rest here for a moment,

I can invite you to tune back into this idea of playfulness.

This is not a serious class at all,

Just try and tune into this idea of joyful play as we move over to the next side and work with our balance a little bit.

Falling out with grace,

Falling out with a smile on your face if the balance is not good,

And just giving yourself the space to explore your body and explore your breath.

If you need a bit more time to catch your breath,

Feel free to just pause this video.

But if you're ready to move over to your next round,

As you breathe in,

Begin to lift the hips up to the sky as we move back into our downward facing dog.

Again,

Taking a moment to check in with that alignment,

Taking a generous bend through the knees and lengthening up the spine,

Spreading the hands evenly on the mat.

Your middle finger should be facing forward,

The pinkies facing the outer edge of your mat,

And slowly start to work those heels a bit closer to the earth.

On your next breath in,

We'll step the left foot between the hands.

Inhale to lift the torso into our high lunge,

Arms reaching overhead as we sink a bit deeper into the hips.

Take a moment to just settle into this position and prepare for this next bit of balance.

As you exhale,

Begin to shift your weight forward and lift the right leg up behind you,

Coming into this warrior three.

Again,

From the side,

We should kind of look like the shape of a capital T.

So we want to keep the back ankle in line with the hips.

You can reach the arms out in front of you or reach them backwards.

So you're either kind of looking like Superman here,

Or the arms reach back as if you're flying forward.

Now remember,

Your body is just trying to find its balance.

So maybe you are in a perfect warrior three,

Or perhaps you're really struggling on the side and falling in and out.

It's completely okay.

Find a place where you can hold here for about three breaths,

Even if the toes are just inches off of your mat,

And you're using that back foot to kind of stabilize you from time to time.

We'll take a deep belly breath in,

A slow exhale out.

Two more,

Inhale,

And out.

Last breath,

Breathe in,

And as you breathe out,

Slowly step back into that high lunge.

Take a moment to regain your balance here,

And catch your breath as you sink a bit deeper into the hips.

And we're again going to shift our weight into that standing figure four pose.

So listen carefully.

As you breathe in,

Slowly start to shift the weight onto the front leg,

Lifting the right leg up behind you,

And then gently bending the right knee into the chest.

Take a moment to stabilize yourself at the top of your mat.

And then with control,

Lift your right foot and cross the right ankle over the left thigh.

Sit back as if you were sitting into a chair,

And bring your hands into a prayer pose in front of your heart.

Take a moment to feel the stretch into the glutes and the hamstrings,

And then feel the stretch into the glutes and that activation into the standing leg.

We'll hold for three breaths,

Inhale,

Exhale,

Sink a bit deeper into this imaginary chair.

Two more,

Breathe in,

And out.

Last breath,

Inhale,

And as you exhale,

Uncross that front leg and slowly step it back into a high lunge,

Sinking into the front hip,

Lifting the arms overhead,

And opening up the heart space a little bit more.

When you're ready,

Gently bring the hands onto the mat,

And step back into a downward-facing dog.

From your downward dog,

Gently lower down onto your knees,

Bringing the knees a bit wider than the hips,

Big toes come to touch as you take an extended child's pose,

Body between the thighs,

Rest the forehead on the mat,

And catch your breath.

Take several deep inhalations,

And nice,

Slow,

Long exhalations.

Now we're not quite done with our playful balancing flow just yet,

And this next posture is a little bit strange,

But it's quite fun.

It's called the baby crow pose,

So listen carefully.

From your extended child's pose,

You're going to bend at your elbows so that you are on your forearms.

Lift the hips slightly so that the knees come off of your mat,

And now walk the feet in so that you can bring your knees to rest on your upper arms,

Leaning the weight forward.

You almost want to just kind of lean forward,

And then you're going to come back up,

And you're going to lean the weight forward.

You almost want to tuck the knees into the armpits here.

Spread your fingers evenly on the mat,

And then once you feel like you almost want to tip forwards,

You're going to slowly lift one foot at a time.

So start with your right foot,

Just lift it off of the mat,

Keep the left toes on your mat behind you,

And then see if you can shift onto the other foot,

Bringing the right foot down and lifting the left foot up,

Playing from side to side.

And once you kind of feel like,

Okay,

You get the idea here,

Lift one foot towards the glute,

And then see if you can lift the other,

Bringing both feet off of the mat.

Now for this balance to work,

You really have to lean that weight forward,

So if it feels like you're going to fall flat onto your face,

You're welcome to bring a pillow or a blanket in front of you,

Just to give yourself a little bit of softness to fall into.

But remember that this is a playful class,

So here we're really not aiming to get it right,

We're aiming to play.

So let yourself fall,

Let yourself experiment a bit here,

Just maybe shifting from one foot to the other,

Or playing around with lifting both feet off of the mat.

Take your time experimenting,

And whenever you need a break,

You can lower back into a child's pose,

Or even come into a Malasana squat position before trying again.

And if you haven't gotten it right,

Take a moment to pat yourself on the back for giving it a good go.

You're always welcome to pause this video and give it another try,

And take your time here,

But we are again not quite done with our balancing play,

So this baby crow pose is really just preparation for the next posture,

Which is crow pose.

So from your position,

Come to find a squat pose,

Your Malasana squat.

So your heels are in,

Your toes are out,

You're really sinking your hips between the legs,

You can bring your hands to prayer pose in front of your heart,

And if your hips are feeling a bit tight,

You can come to take a seat on a block,

Just to help take some pressure off of the hip flexors and the knee joints.

And you can hold this for a moment or two,

Just catching your breath,

And we'll slowly start transitioning into this crow pose.

So from your Malasana,

Place your hands a shoulder-width apart on your mat,

Spread your fingers wide,

And press firmly into your hands.

We are only using our hands for balance here,

So it's really important that you get a good grip through the hands,

And actively try and use your upper body strength to keep you lifted here.

Now listen carefully,

We're going to lift the hips and slowly walk the feet in,

So that we can bring the knees to the back of our upper arms.

So unlike baby crow,

Where we have the four arms on the mat,

Here our arms are straight.

You are welcome to keep a bend through the knees,

But the only thing that is really going to keep us lifted is the hands.

Now once you have your knees tucked in nice and close towards the armpits,

We're going to experiment by lifting one foot off of the mat at a time.

So first we really need to lean that weight forward,

Shift the weight onto your hands,

And then slowly start to lift one foot,

And then gently bring it back down,

And switch sides,

Bringing the other foot up to the glutes,

And lower it back down.

Make sure that you feel nice and supported here,

And then if you feel like this balance is working today,

We're going to slowly lift the right foot towards the glutes,

And then see if the left foot can join it.

Now again,

We kind of have to lean that weight forward,

So there's a little bit of trust going on with our body here,

And remember that if we fall,

We fall.

It's not the end of the world,

So if you feel like you are going to fall,

Bring a couple pillows in front of you just to soften this fall from crow.

You can take your time experimenting here.

Maybe you're only able to get one foot off of the mat at a time,

And that's perfectly okay.

Again,

Try and tap into this idea of playfulness,

That this class is really not that serious.

We are just tuning to what our body is doing today,

Tuning into our breath,

And having a little bit of fun in this really strange balancing position.

So see if you can find a place where you feel comfortable experimenting,

And if you find that maybe this is not working for you today,

Then give yourself that pat on the back for showing up for your practice,

And just be wherever you are.

Let your experience simply be your experience,

And if you do manage to get a little bit of air time in your crow pose,

See if you can hold it for at least three breaths.

And whenever you need a break,

Settle back into that Malasana squat pose,

Catching your breath and readjusting your body before you give it another go.

And of course,

You're welcome to pause this video and keep experimenting as long as you want,

But when you are ready,

We're going to slowly find our way into our child's pose,

A nice extended child's pose again.

So lower down onto your knees,

Bring the knees a little bit wider than your hips,

Big toes touching,

And sink the body between the thighs,

Resting the forehead on the mat.

Take a moment to tune into your breath,

And tune into that sense of playfulness.

I invite you to find a space where you can let your experience be your experience,

No matter how you found class today,

If it was absolutely terrible and your balance was nowhere,

Or if you managed to balance the whole way through the class.

Let your experience just be your experience.

There was no expectation going into this class,

And the most important thing is that you showed up for your body,

And you showed up for your breath,

And you gave it a go,

And you tuned into that playful energy.

And when you're ready,

You can slowly bring yourself out of child's pose,

And come to lie flat on your back.

We'll begin to cool down the body and settle the mind,

So as you lie flat on your back,

Gently hug your knees to your chest.

Gently drop both knees over to the right,

Extending your arms out to the side in a capital T,

And we'll hold here for a few breaths.

Start to close your eyes,

And begin to deepen your breath.

And begin to deepen your breath.

On your next inhale,

Gently bring those knees back to chest,

And slowly drop both legs over to the left,

Shifting your neck and your head over to the right,

Keeping your eyes closed,

And tuning into the natural rhythm of our inhalation.

And exhalation.

On your next in-breath,

Lightly bring the knees back to chest.

Give yourself a little squeeze as you wrap the arms around the shins,

And bring your nose over to your knees.

Take a moment of gratitude for your body,

For your breath,

For showing up to practice today,

And allowing yourself to experience the joyful flow of moving into your body.

When you're ready,

Extend each foot to each corner of your mat,

Bringing both hands over to the belly as we shift our position into Shavasana,

And take our final relaxation.

Your eyes are closed,

And the breath begins to deepen.

Feel as you inhale,

The belly starts to rise,

Expands outwards,

Feel it lift your hands up,

And as you breathe out,

Feel the navel drop towards the spine.

With each exhale,

Soften into your body,

Soften into your breath.

Give yourself permission,

Just for the next two minutes,

To be fully present,

To be still,

And to simply be present.

When you're ready,

Slowly begin to bring some gentle movements back to your body,

Wiggling your fingers and your toes,

Maybe taking a deep breath in and out as you breathe out.

When you're ready,

Slowly begin to bring some gentle movements back to your body,

Wiggling your fingers and your toes,

Maybe taking a deep breath and reaching the arms overhead as you stretch from fingertips to toes,

Waking the body up and exhaling with a nice loud sigh,

And then slowly bringing the knees into the chest.

Roll onto one side and come into a seated position,

Bringing your hands to heart center for one last moment of gratitude.

Gratitude for your body,

For your breath,

Your practice,

And maybe one more thing,

Anything that comes to mind that you're grateful for.

Anything that comes to mind that you're grateful for.

Thank you so much for joining me today.