Welcome to our yoga class for self-love.
And we're going to start being extra kind to ourselves.
We're going to lay right down.
And you can come down onto your back.
And then you can choose if you'd like to have your knees bent.
Sometimes that feels really nice in the lower back.
Or you could extend your legs straight.
So whatever feels better to you.
I'm going to keep my knees bent today.
Bring your arms out by your sides with your palms face up.
Then depending on how you feel,
You could decide if you'd like to close your eyes.
Taking a deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
Letting your body start to release and relax.
As we work with this theme of self-love.
We're first going to identify a part of ourselves that.
.
.
Feels a little bit more difficult to love.
It might be something physically,
A part of your body that.
.
.
Maybe has some aches or pain.
Might be a particular thought pattern in your mind.
Or an experience that you've went through that just is really difficult to make peace with.
And if you find many things coming to mind,
Pick just one to work with here.
Holding that thing in your heart.
And.
.
.
Start to imagine what it would be like to care for this part of yourself.
As if it were part of a friend.
So if a friend told you,
I don't like this part of my body.
Or,
I get really down on myself when this happens.
And starting to extend that same kindness to yourself as you would respond to a friend in this situation.
Feel what would it be like?
To love yourself.
In all ways loving all parts of yourself.
The things that are easy to love and the things that are a little more challenging.
Notice how it feels in your body to.
.
.
What it's like.
To love yourself completely.
Keeping that feeling with you and taking about five more breaths.
Then on your next breath in,
Reach your arms up and back behind you.
You can wiggle the shoulders a little bit or the hips,
Just moving a little bit side to side.
Take another inhale,
Reaching long and out through all sides of the body.
And then we'll hug the knees into the chest.
Bring the arms around the legs and just rock a little bit side to side.
Releasing through the lower back here.
And then we'll still the legs and take the left foot to the floor.
Lift the right shin so you can interlace your hands behind the right leg and then press the right leg away from you.
So keeping that right knee bent for a moment and just getting straighter through the arms.
But trying to keep the shoulders on the ground.
The arms might not go completely straight and that's okay.
We're creating a little resistance between the hands and the right thigh.
And then we'll keep that.
And point the toes,
Reaching the toes up.
If the back of your leg feels really tight,
It's fine to keep a bit of a bend in your right knee.
So taking a breath or two.
Imagine that you're coating the back of the right leg with your breath.
All inhale.
And with your exhale,
Just release your hands,
But keep your right leg up.
Breathing in,
Let the belly lift and expand.
And as you exhale,
Keep the right leg engaged,
But start to lower it down to the floor.
You can either tap the heel down or for a little bit of core strength building,
Keep the heel hovering.
And then within inhale,
We lift the right leg up.
Exhale,
Right heel lowers,
Maybe it taps,
Maybe it hovers.
Inhale to lift.
Exhale,
Lower the right heel all the way down this time.
Landing the right leg and then take a breath Bringing or being fully focused in your right way.
And then bend the right knee,
Right foot to the mat.
Will pick up the left foot.
And interlace hands behind the left leg.
And then press the left side away from the ribs.
Keeping the chest open here.
Creating that resistance between left thigh and your interlaced hand.
And then inhale to lift the toes,
Long reach up through the left leg.
One more big breath.
Then we'll release the hands down.
Inhale with a long left leg.
And exhale,
Take the left heel down.
Either choose to tap or hover the heel above the mat.
Inhale,
Lift the left leg.
We're using belly strength to lift.
Exhale,
Heel lowers,
Either tap or hover.
Last one.
We push through the right foot as we lift the left leg.
And exhale,
Take the foot all the way down.
Keep in control as you lower.
And then land the left leg and let it relax.
A little breath or two,
Feeling the left leg.
And then we'll re-bend the left knee.
And you can pick a side.
We're going to roll all the way to one side.
And then lift up and find our tabletop pose where we're on hands and knees.
So we want to align the shoulders over the wrists.
And the knees under the hips.
And then instead of pressing down into the wrist here,
We take our weight a little bit more forward into the knuckles and fingertips.
We'll start to move a little bit through the spine with cat and cow breathing in.
Belly rolls down as we open up the heart.
And breathing out,
We round,
Tilking the chin in and lifting the belly.
Do this a couple more times,
Moving back and forth.
One of the great ways we can cultivate our self love is by listening to what our body needs.
So here we move as our breath comes.
Paying attention to how our body wants to move and the pace that our body wants to move at.
We'll take one more here,
Breathing in to open.
Breathing out two rounds.
And then with an inhale we'll find a neutral spine.
We'll tuck both sets of toes under and then straighten the right leg back.
Pressing into the right heel.
And then making sure that the chest stays open here.
So the shoulders are moving away from the ear.
And we keep the right hip lifted so it's in line with the left.
We're not dropping the right hip and thigh down.
And then keeping that,
We're going to take the right foot and ground it down as we turn the left toes out.
So now the hips are facing the right side of the mat.
And as we breathe in,
We're going to lift the right hand and take it to the heart.
As we open the chest and hips to the right.
With the next inhale,
We open the right arm up to the sky.
Nice big reach from hand to hand.
Full breath in.
And with the breath out,
Take the right hand all the way down.
Parallel the shins and then bring the right knee back to the mat.
We'll tuck the left toes under and straighten the left leg now.
Sending energy back through the heel.
Widening across the collarbones,
Broadening the backs of the shoulders.
And then turning the right toes out as we spin the hips to the left.
Now the left foot is down completely on the ground.
Staying strong through the right arm and shoulder,
We'll lift the left elbow and place the left hand to the heart.
And then inhale to open,
Reaching up high.
Full breath in.
And full breath out,
Taking the left hand down.
Bringing the left knee down,
Shins parallel.
We'll press back with the hips,
So toes untuck as we push the hips back and find Child's Pose.
And keep the arms reaching forward here.
Taking a couple of deep breaths.
Feeling the rib cage move as you breathe.
Trying to recall that sensation of loving all parts of yourself.
What would that feel like in your mind and your body?
With our next inhale we'll shift forward.
And then lift up onto your fingertips here.
We're going to step the right foot forward and the foot might come part way forward.
So what you can do then is take your right hand and help you bring that foot up a little bit further.
We want the outside of the right foot to be near the right hand.
And the right knee will be on top of the right heel.
So here,
Letting the hips relax down a little bit,
But keeping the outer hips and inner thighs hugging in toward the middle of your mat.
You might stay right here.
You might add on by lifting up,
Taking hands to the right side.
If that goes well you might choose to bring the arms forward and up.
All inhale.
And as you exhale,
Take your hands all the way back down.
Coming back to your fingertips,
We'll tuck the left toes under and pick up the left knee.
So left leg gets straight here.
Bring the right hand inside the right foot and pivot around so that your legs are wide and both feet are parallel.
Now you're facing the long side of your mat.
You can bring your hands down to the ground,
Maybe bending the knees here so your hands reach.
And then take the right hand a bit forward.
And under your nose You'll still be up onto your fingertips here,
But we're gonna do that same motion,
Turning to the left and bringing the left hand to your heart.
And if that goes well,
You might choose to lift and extend the left arm up.
Big open twist.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Take the left hand all the way down.
Pivot around to the front of your mouth.
Right knee bends,
Left heel lift.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Lower the left knee.
And will step the right foot.
And then we'll still be up onto fingertips here.
We'll do that same thing on the second side.
So stepping the left foot forward,
Maybe using your left hand to the ankle.
To help get it up closer to the front of the mat.
And then starting to open up through the front of the right hip here.
Giving yourself a breath or two,
Making sure that the left knee is over the heel.
And then pressing down through the feet to help you lift up if that feels appropriate for you today.
So always working within what your body is able to do.
Part of self-love is trying to accept that instead of thinking we should be somewhere different.
Inhale,
Maybe the arms sweep up.
We like to work a little bit more into the arms and shoulders.
Full breath in.
And with the out breath,
Fingertips come all the way forward and down.
We tuck the right toes under,
Pick up the right knee.
Straighten the right leg and then the left hand goes inside of the left foot and we start to pivot around to face the long side of the mat.
You can arrange your feet so that your heels are about in line with each other.
Then staying up on fingertips,
Any amount of bend in the knees is good here.
We'll take the left hand a bit forward underneath the nose.
And then right hand comes to the heart as we turn to the right.
Inhale,
The right arm might extend all the way up.
Your choice.
One more in breath.
And exhale,
Right hand releases all the way down.
And then we pivot forward again,
Turning the left toes forward.
Lifting the right heel.
And then lowering the right knee.
We'll set the left foot back.
And I'll give you a choice this time.
You might take child's pose as we did before.
Pressing the hips back toward the feet.
Or you might choose to take a downward facing dog if you're familiar with that pose.
Hips would lift up high.
You could choose to pedal out through the feet.
Alternating knee bends If you're in downward dog,
Just take a final moment here.
Then bend your knees lowering them all the way down.
We'll lift up to tabletop from child's pose.
So we all meet on all four.
And then we'll turn the feet to one side so you can come down to six.
And we'll sit with knees bent.
Trying to bring the feet down on the floor.
So we want to try to get the toes and the balls of the feet on the floor,
But if they don't quite reach and only the heels can touch.
You can send the energy down into the feet and toes.
And then we'll place hands behind the hips,
Fingertips pointing away from the body.
If your shoulders are tight,
You could step your hands a bit more out to the side.
But then we're going to try and draw the shoulder blades together and feel how hugging the shoulder blades onto your back starts to help lift and open the heart.
Take one more breath here,
Making sure you have a small little bend in the elbows so we're not.
.
.
Overextending the elbow joint and then you can walk your hands back in Shift your hips a bit forward.
And we'll come down to lay on our back.
So a couple of options here.
One would be to bring the bottoms of the feet together.
Let the knees open out to the sides for butterfly pose.
That feels a bit intense for you.
You could try bringing fists underneath your outer hip.
For a little bit of support.
Or you could extend your legs long and straight.
Taking a few moments to relax here,
Bringing the arms down to the floor.
Turning the palms to face up.
Being aware of your breath.
Being so aware that your mind is absorbed by your inhales and exhales.
If you are in reclined butterfly pose,
You can bring your knees back in together.
And then extend your legs long.
We'll all meet in relaxation pose.
And as you settle in to rest here for a moment.
You moment.
We'll repeat an affirmation three times.
Using.
Self-love.
For ourselves.
The affirmation is,
May I love myself just as I am.
May I love myself just as I am.
As you finish,
You can release the words.
Let yourself rest.
Mm-mm.
Begin to take some deeper breaths.
Gently moving your hands and feet As you're ready you can bend your knees.
Bringing feet to the mat.
And then knees into the chest.
Maybe rocking side to side.
When the time is right,
You can roll all the way to your side.
Coming up into a seat and closing your eyes.
Pausing for a moment here to notice your experience with this practice.
To see what it's like to care for yourself and to be kind to yourself.
We might decide to take this idea with you as you move back into your day.
Maybe remembering this feeling or finding little ways that you can do good things for yourself.
Helping to support your well-being.
And cultivate self-love.
To seal in our practice,
We'll take a big breath in,
Reaching our arms out and up.
Taking hands together in front of the heart.
Bowing our chin in,
Honoring ourselves and this practice.
When you're ready you can lift your chin open your eyes And start to have a mindful transition back into your day.
So thanks for practicing with me today.
See you again soon.
