Hello everyone,
My name is Suzanne,
And welcome to this 20-minute gentle morning flow.
You don't need any props for today's class.
Go ahead and find a cross-legged position.
Close your eyes.
Bring your hands to your knees.
And just take a few deep breaths.
On your next inhale,
Draw your shoulders up and forward.
As you exhale,
Roll them down and back.
Inhale up and forward again.
Up to your ears,
Exhale down your back.
You're going to inhale.
Bring everything up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up.
And scrunch up your face also.
Make everything really tight.
Open your mouth and exhale.
Drop everything.
One more.
Inhale.
Scrunch everything up,
Up,
Up.
Squeeze.
Tense.
And exhale.
Let it all drop down.
Inhale,
Sweep your arms up overhead.
Bring your palms together.
And exhale,
Hands to heart center.
One more time.
Inhale,
Big circle with the arms.
Exhale,
Hands in front of your heart.
Now we're going to inhale,
Reach the arms up.
And exhale,
Drop your right hand to the floor and lean over towards your right.
Maybe the elbow comes down too.
Inhale,
Up center.
Exhale,
Leaning left.
And we're just going to keep going,
Alternating.
Inhale,
Center.
Exhale,
Lean right,
Feeling that side body opening up.
Inhale.
And exhale,
Lean left.
Inhale up to the center.
And exhale,
We're going to twist to the right now.
One hand to your knee,
One hand back behind you.
Keeping the hips really nice and stable.
Inhale up to the center.
Exhale,
Twist the other way.
One hand to knee,
One hand behind you.
You can relax the shoulders.
Let the sensation happen in your middle back.
Inhale up the center.
And exhale,
Bring your hands to a basket behind you and stretch the arms,
Lift the basket away.
And bring the basket to your right.
And drop your head over towards the right.
You could stay still,
Or like I'm doing,
Tilt the chin forward and back a few times.
Feeling that lovely stretch in the left side of your neck.
Try the other side,
Basket to your other hip.
Head to the other side.
Maybe some gentle movement.
Or just some stillness.
Now bring yourself back to the center.
Inhale,
Sweep your arms up.
And exhale,
Put your hands out in front of you,
And we're going to meet in a tabletop position.
Hands and knees.
Make sure all your joints are stacked.
Drop your belly,
Lift your chest,
Look forward.
Exhale,
Round your spine,
Push the floor away.
Keep going.
Inhale,
Heavy belly,
Light heart as you look forward.
Exhale,
Rounding and pushing away.
Inhale,
Stretch the front of your body.
And exhale,
Take a child's pose.
Sink the hips back.
Open up your knees.
See where your arms want to go.
Remember you can always take this pose at any time.
Inhale,
Look forward for a moment.
And exhale,
Walk your hands over towards the right,
Off of your mat.
Bringing that gentle side stretch into the left side of your body.
You can draw your left hip back a little more to intensify the stretch if you'd like to.
Breathe into your left ribcage.
Inhale to the center.
And exhale,
Walk the hands over towards the left for the other side.
Feel the hips really strong and stable.
Heavily sinking backward as your arms go forward.
Inhale,
Walk your hands to center.
Come up to tabletop position again.
We're going to inhale,
Pick up the right leg.
And we're going to send the left arm out as well.
So opposite arm and opposite leg.
If you have any wrist issues feel free to keep both hands on the floor.
But we're just staying here.
We're just building some heat in the core,
Building some stability,
Long neutral spine.
Put the hand down,
Put the knee down,
And try the other side.
So left leg,
Right arm.
Square off the hips.
Keep that spine neutral.
Feel the heat building.
Keep the breath flowing.
And put everything down.
Nice job.
Now inhale,
Pick up your right leg.
Exhale,
Curl it into your nose.
Inhale,
Long right leg.
Exhale,
Curl it in.
Two more like that.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Curl.
Inhale,
Lung.
Now exhale,
Curl your knee in and we're going to get that foot right up between the hands.
Now inhale,
Glide forward.
Shift your hips forward.
Exhale,
Shift your hips back and stretch your front leg a little.
Keep going.
Inhale,
Forward.
Exhale back.
Just gently getting some movement,
Some mobility in the hips.
And then next time you're forward,
Leave your left hand on the floor.
Inhale,
Pick up your right arm.
Twist open towards the right.
Reaching along with that right arm.
And exhale,
Put it down inside of your front foot.
You might need to move your front foot over.
Inhale,
Shift forward again.
Exhale,
Shift back again.
So same thing,
Just with a slightly different position of that front leg.
And then you're going to swing that right leg back.
You're backing your bird dog.
And try now opening up your right hip.
Picking up your right arm.
This is a baby half moon.
You can look up or you can look down.
If you want you can bend the top leg and bind your foot or your ankle.
And kind of kick your foot into your hand.
It feels really nice for the thigh and for the quad.
Inhale,
Open up arm and leg and put your foot down at the back of your mat.
Inhale,
Come up to this half kneeling position.
Exhale,
Lean over your straight leg.
Nice side stretch here on the left.
And inhale come up Exhale,
Put both hands down.
That right leg is floating again.
Pick it up a little higher and exhale,
Curl it in.
Step it up to the front of your mat again.
Both hands come on top of the thigh and inhale,
Push your chest away from your thigh.
Exhale,
Fold forward again.
Inhale,
Push away.
Feel that left hip flexor stretching.
Exhale,
Full.
Now inhale,
Come up.
Exhale.
We're going to come forward a little bit.
We're going to turn to the long edge of the mat to the left.
And bring your hands to your hips and start just do little mini side lunges,
Bending and stretching your right knee.
If you want,
You can take the arms out like Warrior II for a bit more of a balance challenge.
Then windmill the hands back to the front of your mat.
Face the front of your mat.
Get your right leg back into tabletop.
And just take a few cat-cows to reset.
Inhaling to open the front.
Exhale to open the back.
Inhale for Tao.
Exhale for cat.
And he'll pick up your left leg.
Exhale,
Curl your knee into your nose.
Inhale,
Long leg.
Exhale,
Curl it in.
Inhale lengthening.
Exhale knee to nose and we're gonna get that foot up between our hands drop the hips forward And drop the hips back.
And keep going forward and back.
That front leg does not have to be perfectly straight.
You can always have a little bit of a bend in it.
Next time you've come forward,
Stay low.
We're going to keep the right hand on the floor.
Inhale,
Twisting to the left.
So pick up your left arm.
Feel the hips dropping lower as your arm goes up,
Up,
Up.
Inhale here.
And exhale,
Put the hand down inside of your foot.
Maybe you need to move your foot to the left a little more.
And try that forward and back motion again.
Letting your hips drive forward and drive back.
Then we're going to send that left leg back,
Open up the hip,
Pick up your left arm,
And you're in a baby half moon on this side.
Maybe staying right here or maybe bending that top leg.
Whatever you tried before.
And maybe you want to kick that foot into the hand,
Activating your quad.
Inhale,
Open everything up and put the foot at the back of the mat.
And inhale,
Come up to a half kneeling position.
Exhale,
Lean over your straight leg towards the left.
Inhale to come up to the top.
And then exhale,
Bring both hands to the floor.
Your left leg is still floating because you're going to inhale,
Pick it up.
Exhale,
Curl it in and step that foot up between your hands.
Bring your hands to your thigh.
Inhale,
Lean away.
Exhale,
Fold.
Heart over your hands.
Inhale,
Lean back.
Stretch that right hip flexor.
Exhale to lower.
Inhale,
Opening up.
And exhale,
We're going to turn to face the other long edge of the mat.
And bring your hands to your hips and getting that inner thigh groin stretch.
Little kind of pulsing stretches.
With the left leg,
Left knee.
Bending.
And stretching.
Maybe arms open into warrior two for a challenge.
Bring your hands down,
Send that left leg back.
We're in tabletop again and try some cat cows and really notice how both sides of your body feel now that we've done both sides.
Maybe there's still a little difference between the sides or maybe they're feeling much more aligned and symmetrical.
Now we're going to make our way down to our bellies.
However you want to do that is fine.
You could go through a plank or just lay yourself down.
And you want your hands right underneath your shoulders.
So maybe wiggle them back a little.
Push into your hands and inhale.
Peel your chest and your belly away from the floor.
Little cobra.
Exhale,
Bring it down.
Inhale,
Rolling the shoulder blades down your back as you lift up.
And lowering down like you're peeling the front of your body away from the floor with control really gentle And exhale,
Lower down.
Inhale lifting up extending through the whole length of your spine and bring it down.
Now we're going to just take ourselves back into a gentle child's pose,
Finding a really comfortable position here.
For the knees,
For the arms.
Bringing some space into that low back.
Breathing deeply so the low back releases and the belly expands.
Let's meet up in a seated position.
So however you want to get there is fine.
You could come forward,
Cross the ankles,
And we want to kick the legs straight out in front of us.
Inhale length.
And exhale to fold and find something to hold on to,
Wherever that may be,
Your knees,
Your ankles,
Your toes.
As you inhale lengthen your spine.
As you exhale maybe pull a little deeper.
Inhale,
Sit all the way up.
We're going to scoot ourselves forward a little more so the heels are hanging off the top of the mat.
Inhale lengthen reach up exhale reach over way past your toes stretch your back inhale come up And exhale with control.
Slowly roll your weight all the way down onto your back.
And we're going to set the feet down on the floor about hips a distance apart.
Have your fingers just barely able to touch your heels and lift your hips away from the floor.
For bridge pose,
Maybe you want to bind your hands and tuck your shoulders underneath you a little bit more.
Otherwise you can have your arms flat on the floor.
Imagining you're squeezing a block between your knees,
So your knees point straight forward.
Breathe deep into the front of the thighs.
Inhale here.
Exhale,
Release the hands,
Slowly release the hips down to the floor.
Just bring the soles of the feet together.
Open up the knees wide.
Bring your hands to your belly.
Feel the rise and fall of your breath.
Bring the knees together.
And then just drop both knees over towards the left.
Turn your head to the right.
This is a really gentle twist in the spine.
If you want it a little stronger,
Feel free to move your hips over to the right more.
Or cross your legs.
For the other side,
You can just open up your knees.
And the left knee goes over towards the right.
And you can look to the left.
Again,
Feel free to adjust so this is comfortable for your back.
And then open up your knees.
And feel free to take Shavasana in this bound angle position.
The feet together,
The knees open.
It's a little hip opening.
Or if you prefer,
Feel free to take the classic Shavasana position.
Just stretch out your legs long,
Open up your arms.
See what feels.
Intuitively right for you and your body this morning.
Close the eyes and just let the breath flow.
Let any effort in your body.
Release.
Trust that the earth,
The floor will hold you.
All you need to do is just lay here and breathe.
And observe your breath.
Start to wiggle your fingertips,
Wiggle your toes.
Circle out your wrists,
Your ankles.
Bring your knees together and hug your knees into your chest.
And then roll onto your favorite side.
Maybe give yourself a little hug.
Little loving touch.
And appreciation of your body.
And your practice today and the breath in that body.
Make your way up to a comfortable seated position.
Take your time.
Bring your hands together at heart center.
And the light in me acknowledges the light in you.
Bring your hands up to your forehead.
We bow to each other.
We bow to ourselves.
Namaste.
Thank you for joining me this morning.
My name is Suzanne.
I hope you enjoyed the class and I hope you have a lovely rest of the day and I will see you next time on the mat.
