Hello and welcome to this yoga flow to release any stress.
We're going to get started laying on the back body.
You won't necessarily need blocks,
But if you'd like to have them handy,
I typically use them in my cues.
And just finding a comfortable position with your feet to the ground a little bit wider than your hips.
Allow your knees to fall in together and then place your right hand to your belly and your left hand to your heart.
Noticing the rise and the fall of your chest.
If it's moving very slowly.
Or if your breath feels shallow and rapid.
Noticing your thoughts.
Try not to feel any particular way about them.
And just acknowledge them,
That they're there.
And then maybe you set an intention for your practice.
Sometimes your yoga practice is there for you to move and process any emotions that you're feeling.
And sometimes you just need to push all of those thoughts out of your brain and off to the side.
That you just have this time to move your body,
To breathe,
And then you can return to your thoughts.
When you feel a little bit stronger.
Other times your practice can be for you to release something,
To let something go.
Or to invite something in.
Strange.
Gratitude.
Be intentional about this time when you're met.
What do you need from this time?
Bring your arms along your sides and your feet hip width apart,
But then walk your heels in a little bit closer to your fingers.
A slight tuck to your chin.
And then lift your tailbone off the mat,
Lift your low back,
Your mid back.
And then just stopping when you feel like your hips are in line with your knees and your shoulders.
You have a bit of a stretch at the tops of your thighs.
Take a full and deep inhale.
Exhale,
Lower vertebrae at a time.
Now you're going to arch off the low back while keeping your tailbone to the ground.
So you have a space between your back and your mat.
Take a deep inhale.
And then exhale,
Lower your back to the mat once more.
Find your bridge pose,
Lift your tailbone,
Your hips,
Moving through the spinal column.
Exhale,
Vertebrae at a time,
Lowering back down.
Inhale,
Arch the back off the mat.
Exhale grounding down.
Inhale,
Lift the hips.
Exhale,
Lower down.
Tilt the hips forward.
Exhale,
Lower.
We'll do this a couple more times here.
As you inhale into your bridge,
Feel free to sweep your arms overhead.
Follow your exhale,
Return your arms down along your sides.
Arch off the low back,
Breathing in.
Breathing out,
Lowering it down.
Bridge pose,
Inhale.
Exhale,
Release.
Inhale,
Arch the low back.
Exhale,
Ground down and just staying here.
You can take your knees into your chest,
Give yourself a hug.
Maybe a little rock from side to side.
Good,
Now bring your hands behind your knees.
Start to rock and roll along your spine a few times.
Getting enough momentum to come all the way into a tabletop pose.
Crossing over the legs however you need to get here.
We'll move through our cats and our cows.
Lift your tailbone,
Lower your belly,
Lift the gaze,
Inhale.
Exhale,
Round the spine,
Bring your chin to your chest and push your hips forward.
Inhale,
Open the front of the body.
Out,
Around.
Keep flowing at your own pace.
Noticing how the body feels.
Any stiffness,
Anywhere that feels open.
Take one more round of breath.
Find a neutral spine,
Tuck your toes under and lift your knees and hips into a downward dog.
Picking a few petals of each line.
Walking your feet up to your hands,
Come to the top of your mat.
Allowing your upper body to be heavy.
Softening through the shoulders,
The head,
The neck.
Vertebrae at a time.
Roll yourself all the way up to stand.
Binding Mountain Pose,
Open across your heart space,
Rooting down through your feet.
And you grow a little bit taller.
Take a deep inhale through the nose.
Open the mouth and sigh it out.
Swaying your body from side to side,
Even taking a wider stance here.
And two,
Notice the muscles in your legs that are preventing you from toppling all the way over.
Start to engage those muscles a little bit more.
Now bring all of the weight into your right foot,
Lifting your left heel,
Open the knee.
Setting up for a tree pose,
You can stay as you are here.
You can bring the foot to the calf or reach down and bring the foot to the inner thigh.
Bring your hands wherever they feel natural,
Maybe on your hips.
At heart center or reach them overhead.
Focus on your breath and those little muscles that will support you here rather than just entrusting yourself to balance on the right leg.
Engage your muscles.
Be intentional about this.
And if you fall out,
Come back in nice and slow.
There's absolutely no rush.
There's no expectation.
Seeing what is possible.
Bring your left knee forward,
Step the foot back down.
Inhale,
Take your arms overhead.
Exhale forward,
Fold all the way down to the mat.
Halfway lift,
Inhaling.
Exhale forward fold,
Let it go.
Plant your hands,
Step your left toes to the bottom of your mat.
Lower your left knee down to the ground.
Untuck the toes then ground down through your left palm maybe to a block.
Bring your right hand to your right knee or thigh and start to turn your chest towards the right.
Gentle twist through the spine.
Good.
Plant your right hand down framing your foot and then slide your right foot back into downward dog.
Lower your knees to tabletop,
Look between the thumbs.
Lower your chin and your chest there,
Squeezing your elbows by your sides.
Look forward.
Then slide forward onto the belly finding a cobra or just a baby cobra.
Downward facing dog when you're ready.
Inhale your left toes up high,
Three-legged dog.
Maybe you even bend your right knee ears or your left knee here and stack your hips.
Step the foot forward in between your hands.
Lower your right knee to the ground,
Untucking the toes,
And then we'll take our twist again.
Left hand to the side,
Turn your chest to the left.
Lowering your left hand down,
Frame your foot.
This time lift off your back knee and step up to the top of your mat.
Halfway lift,
Inhale.
Exhale,
Fold and let it go.
Sweep your arms high,
Breathing in to high mountain.
Breathing out,
Bring your hands to your heart.
Setting up for a tree on the other side,
Allow your body to shift from side to side.
But this time the weight is going to come into your left foot.
Without sinking into your body,
Stay engaged,
Lift off your right heel.
Open your knee.
Then place your foot wherever it needs to be here on this side.
Explore with your arms,
Maybe taking a different variation than you did before.
Nothing that you can gain.
From achieving the pose.
That you can't gain by just trying.
A goal of expectation.
Bring your knee forward,
Softly step it down.
Inhale,
Reach your arms up high.
Exhale,
Forward fold all the way down to the mat.
Halfway lift,
Breathe in.
Breathe out,
Fold,
Planting your hands.
Now step your right toes back first.
Lower your right knee to the ground.
And then bring blocks underneath your hands if you'd like to for half splits.
Straightening your left leg,
Pull the left toes towards your face.
Find length into the back of your legs.
Think of your belly button towards the thigh rather than curling and bringing your forehead towards the knee.
Now walk forward into your low lunge that blocks off to the side.
Tuck your back toes under if they're not and lift into a downward facing dog.
From tabletop,
Lower your knees.
Then lower your chin and your chest between your thumbs,
Look forward.
Slide onto the belly and find your backbend of choice.
Downward Facing Dog when you're ready.
Lifting your right toes up high,
Breathe in.
Bend your knees,
Stack your hips.
And then place your right foot forward between the hands.
Lower your left knee down but keep the toes tucked for half split.
Straighten your right leg,
Pull the right toes to your face.
Come forward into your lunge.
Lift off your back knee and hop up to the top of your mat.
We lift and inhale.
Exhale forward fold.
Sweep your arms high,
Inhale.
Bring your hands to your heart,
Exhale.
Take an inhale.
And exhale.
Inhale,
Reach your arms high.
Exhale forward,
Fold down to the mat.
Halfway lift,
Breathe in.
Breathe out,
Fold,
Plant your hands and step back into a downward facing dog.
Lower your knees to tabletop.
And then bring your hands underneath your shoulders.
Twist your right fingertips up to the sky for a twist,
Breathing in.
And then weave your right arm underneath your heart space,
Landing on either the forearm,
The shoulder,
Or a block.
You can take your left fingertips all the way to the top of your mat or just keep it under the shoulder.
Or you could even wrap it around the low back for a bind.
Bring your left hand back into the shoulders.
Take your right fingertips up high for your twist,
Breathing in.
Strong belly,
Lift up into a kneeling twist,
Left fingertips forward,
Shoulders over your knees.
Now taking a seat,
Bring your left hand to your thighs and your right fingertips either to the ground or to the low back.
Good.
Inhale,
Reach your arms up high,
Face forward.
Exhale,
Bring your hands to your heart.
Switching sides,
Come to your tabletop.
Inhale your left fingertips up.
Exhale,
Weave your left arm underneath your heart space.
Exploring with your right arm however you'd like to.
Bring your right hand under the shoulder,
Twist your left arm back up,
Take an inhale.
And rise up,
Right fingertips forward,
Shoulders over your hips,
Left fingertips back.
Lower into your seated twist.
Right hand to the leg,
Left fingertips either behind or to the low back.
And take your fingertips overhead,
Breathe in.
Breathe out,
Fold all the way down to the mat,
Child's Pose.
Rest your forehead down.
You can open your knees a little bit wider.
And lift yourself up.
Make your way onto your back body for your Shavasana.
If there are any last poses you'd like to take,
Then please take them now.
Maybe you take happy baby or just pull your knees up to your shoulders Maybe you take a few more twists or windshield wiper your knees from side to side.
When you're ready for stillness,
Make your way into your Shavasana.
Either your feet out wide and your knees falling in together.
You could bring the soles of your feet to touch,
Let your knees open.
Or just extend your arms and legs out long.
Noticing your thoughts.
Breath.
Your body.
Trying to find stillness in your body.
But also your mind.
Noticing if your thoughts are still very loud and frequent.
You're able to find presence.
Don't be discouraged if your thoughts are still very loud.
This is just a practice.
There's nothing to prove or to gain.
Just practicing mindfulness.
Something that you can do is visualize your thoughts as clouds.
And trying to just see them as thoughts,
As clouds passing by.
You could even visualize the thoughts in your mind and then stuff them into a big white fluffy cloud and then send it on its way.
It might be a very,
Very cloudy day.
Mind and that's okay.
I'll call you back in a few moments to close off the practice together.
Taking a gentle breath in.
And a soft sigh to let it go.
Wiggling your fingers and your toes,
Rolling out your wrists and your ankles.
And you could take a stretch.
You could bring your knees into your chest for a hug.
Blink the eyes open a couple of times.
Then you can either roll onto your side or roll along your spine,
Lift yourself up.
We'll close off our practice with a final breath together.
When you inhale,
Reach your arms overhead and bring your palms to touch.
Exhale,
Bring your hands down 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 very much for joining me for this practice.
I hope that you feel a little bit more relaxed.
I will see you in another video soon.
