Good morning and welcome to this very slow and gentle practice just at home to spend time with yourself.
You can reconnect to your body,
Your breath,
And you can take this mindfulness into the rest of your day.
You can just show up in your PJs.
There's no equipment necessary,
Though if you'd like to have it in your lizard,
Then go ahead and get your blocks.
I think that that's everything and we'll get started in a child's pose.
Opening your knees as wide as you'd like and just resting on maybe just your palms,
Your forearms,
Or you can lower your forehead all the way down.
Really softening into your body.
Relax the muscles in your belly,
In your hips,
Your shoulders.
Noticing the flow of your breath,
Getting lost in the ebb and the flow,
The inhales and the exhales.
Feeling your sides expand as you breathe in and fill all the way up.
And allowing your body to get even heavier with your exhales.
Letting go of every last drop of breath.
Take your left palm far forward in the center of your mat,
And then your right hand in line with your left shoulder,
But try to take it a little bit wider than you might think,
Even off of your mat.
And now tuck your left shoulder underneath you and try to sink it down as you twist to the right.
You should feel a really deep stretch down the left side of your body and even into the left shoulder blade.
Notice any tension there.
Good,
Now weaving your right arm underneath your chest,
Your left hand can stay where it is.
Opening your knees a little wider might help you to get your right shoulder all the way down to the ground.
And if it feels all right,
Maybe you take a bind bringing your left hand to your low back or even your right hip crease.
Pressing into the mat,
Can you lift yourself up?
Bring your right hand onto your left thigh and your left hand to your low back if it's not already.
Maybe you can get your fingertips down towards the ground.
When you breathe in,
Can you open across your chest?
Pull the left shoulder back and down.
Good.
Now place your left palm flat down to the ground.
Turn your chest to face forward a bit and then reach your right fingertips up high.
You might just stay here for a nice stretch or you can lift your hips away from the heels any amount.
Engaging the belly,
The glutes.
Lift a little higher.
One more inhale.
And then lower your hips back down.
Walk your hands in front of you.
Finding Child's Pose and we'll repeat those poses on the other side.
You can take your right hand far forward and then your left palm will come in line with your shoulder just a little bit wider than you might think.
And then turn your chest towards the left while trying to reach your right shoulder a bit closer towards the ground.
Now thread your left arm underneath your heart space,
Underneath your right arm.
Option to bring your right hand around to the low back or the left hip.
Slowly and carefully lift yourself up.
Left hand onto your right leg for your twist.
Right hand can stay to the low back or place it behind your head.
Lower the shoulders away from the ears,
Twisting deeper.
Now ground down with your right hand,
Sweep your left fingertips up and lift your hips.
Lower your hips and bring both hands behind you,
Finding a baby camel.
We're just going to lift the hips up here.
Option to place your hands onto blocks to get a bit more height.
But don't overthink it,
Just let it feel good in the fronts of your thighs,
Hip flexors.
Take a deep breath.
And you can slowly lower your hips back down.
Walk yourself forward into a tabletop pose.
Roughly stacking the joints,
You can tuck your toes under and send your hips back towards the heels,
Stretching into the arches of the feet.
Even a little sway from side to side to get all of your toes included in the stretch.
Good.
Now come forward into a tabletop.
You can untuck your toes here.
And then finding your cats and your cows with your inhale,
Lift your tailbone,
Lower your belly and lift your gaze.
And with your exhale,
Round into the spine,
Bring your chin to the chest.
Think of pushing your hips forward and up.
Keep moving with your breath.
You can make this intuitive,
Shifting forward and back on your hands and your knees.
Maybe finding a bit of a spinal wave.
Good.
Coming into a downward facing dog,
Tuck your toes under,
Send your hips up to the sky,
And then just find a little bend into your knees.
You don't need to force this.
These slow paddles of the legs finding a bit more length into the hamstrings.
Once you do find this length,
Notice if your head and your shoulders are kind of shifting forward like in a plank.
Try to push your heart back,
Lift your tailbone,
Frame your ears with your biceps.
Three-legged dog,
Reach your right toes up high to the ceiling.
Option to bend your right knee and stack your hips.
Then step your right foot outside of your right wrist for lizard.
Lower your back knee to the ground and untuck your toes.
Now,
If you'd like blocks,
You can bring them underneath your hands.
For a little bit of mobility,
For a bit of movement,
You might try opening your right knee,
Rolling onto the knife edge of your foot for a winged lizard.
Take a breath in.
And then with your breath out,
Bring your knee into the shoulder and just flowing like that a few times.
If there's another option in your lizard that you'd like.
Maybe lowering onto your forearms or catching a bind with your right hand to your left toes.
Then go ahead,
Explore.
We're still here for a few breaths.
And coming back to a neutral position on your palms with your knee into the shoulder.
Tuck your back toes under and keeping your hands inside of the leg will take a variation of half splits.
Extending your hips back,
Walk your hands a bit further down.
And then draw the right toes to your face.
Now it's okay if this leg is bent.
Especially if it means keeping your spine open.
You don't necessarily want to be rounding a lot here.
And if it feels like you're being forced all the way back,
Just lengthen your stance,
Walk your right foot further forward.
Now if you're using blocks just make sure that they're stable,
Maybe even stacking two flat ones.
Take your right fingertips up slowly to the sky.
Twisting your chest towards the right.
Breathe.
Good,
Release your right hand back down.
Walk forward into your lizard.
And then find a downright facing dog.
Three-legged dog,
Lift your left toes up high,
Bending your knees,
Tucking your hips for scorpion.
And place your left foot outside of your left wrist.
Find your lizard,
Lowering your right knee down.
Now notice if your back knee is fairly close to your left ankle.
You might not feel anything into the front of your right hip,
So sliding your knee further back will bring that in.
You can stay in any variation in stillness or you can find movement opening and closing your left knee with your breath.
Just a little reminder,
You can open your left knee,
Take an inhale,
And then exhale,
Bring the knee in.
Whenever you're ready,
You can find half splits.
Tuck your back toes under and send your hips back.
Walk the blocks down.
Make sure to draw the left toes towards your face.
That's more important than folding forward.
It's more important than getting your legs straight because it really focuses the length to happen in the back of your leg.
By neighing your twist,
Your right hand stays down.
Slower than you want to because this stretch often just creeps up on you.
Reach your left fingertips up high.
Try to turn your whole torso,
Not just the arms.
And circle your left hand down,
Walk back into your lizard.
That blocks off to the side and find a downward facing dog.
Your downward facing dog,
Lower your knees to the ground and then bring your legs,
Your ankles over towards the right and sit your hips back into a mermaid seat.
We're going to take a twist here.
Don't overthink it with the legs.
Make sure that they are landing comfortably and that you're not super awkward.
And then bring your right hand to the right leg.
Sweep your left fingertips overhead for a side bend.
And focusing this on the left side body,
Breathing deeply.
Lift yourself up,
Place your left hand behind your hips,
Right hand comes to the left thigh,
And then twist to look over your left shoulder.
And come back through center,
Both hands behind you so that you can swing your legs over towards the left.
Left hand can come down your legs and your right arm can reach up and over for your side bend.
Rise up,
Place your right hand behind you.
Left hand comes to your right thigh.
Look over the right shoulder,
Twisting back.
And come back through center.
Bring both feet down to the ground in front of you.
And then maybe if you're towards the bottom of your mat,
Shuffle forward.
And then bring your fingertips behind your hips and open across your heart space.
Maybe even bringing the soles of the feet to touch and opening your knees for a butterfly.
Try to lift up through the sternum.
Good,
Finding a neutral position,
Neutral leg.
You can close down the eye.
And one of my favorite things about a morning practice is that you can set an intention for your day ahead.
You have a completely blank slate right now.
And in all honesty,
You've started it off really wonderfully by moving your body and connecting to your breath by having this mindfulness,
This awareness.
And so ask yourself what you need in this day.
And perhaps it's confidence or joy and happiness.
Maybe you need to be calm.
And patient.
Choose a word or something that you can hold on to and remind yourself of throughout your day.
You're more than welcome to rest in Shavasana here.
Stay in a seat,
Be here for a few more breaths.
Hold on to your intention and let that energy and try to embody it,
Holding it in your heart space.
Taking a moment to come back into your body in this space.
We're going to close off our practice with a final breath together.
So if you're at a seat,
Swoop your arms overhead and take a deep inhale.
Exhale,
Bring your hands to your heart center.
The light in me sees,
Acknowledges,
And honors the light in you,
And knows that they are the same.
Namaste.
Thank you so much for joining me for this video.
I hope that you enjoyed it.
And I'll see you in another one soon.
