Yoga sequence.
My name is Lisa Pollard it's great to be here with you today.
And we're going to do some gentle movement.
To join the body and the breath together,
Yoga means union.
If anything's not okay,
Feel free to pause.
You might visualize in the mind.
You could also do this sitting in a chair.
So just begin by rubbing your hands together in front of the heart,
Warming them up.
And then come back to stillness and just noticing that sense of touch and warmth.
Inhale extend the arms long exhale hands in front of the heart inhale tall you might look up with the eyes look after your shoulders exhale hands back in front of the heart inhale extending long Exhale back in front of the heart.
One more round with your breath.
Release the arms and we're just going to rock.
So you'll feel how your awareness drops down into your feet.
One foot gets heavy and then the other.
Then you might like one hand on the belly,
One hand on the heart.
And moving in this figure of eight movement through the spine,
Sensing and feeling.
Releasing any tension in the spine.
And then you might like to go in the opposite direction.
You're less habitual way of moving.
See how that feels.
The mind wanders,
Just come back to the body.
Any sensations you're aware of.
Stepping the feet a little bit wider and going into a spinal twist.
And we can gently tap the hands on the kidneys so arms are soft hands gently tapping Coming back to stillness and we're going to clap on the knees.
So lifting one leg,
Then the other.
And when we do this left and right tapping on the body,
That can sometimes calm the amygdala in the brain,
That alarm bell,
That goes off when we're stressed.
And now swinging your arms forward and back,
You might turn your head.
To the back a little bounce with the knees shaking off anything that doesn't serve you anymore any tension through the arms,
The shoulders.
Come back to stillness,
Taking one hand,
Sweeping down one arm and then down the other arm.
So this bilateral sweeping can sometimes be calming for the nervous system.
And then you might like a double sweep See how that feels.
And then inhale reaching up for something on the shelf more of a diagonal stretch through the body exhale release and inhale reaching with the other arm exhale if there's any pain in the shoulders you might scoop the arm inhale exhale and then the other side scooping inhale exhale Having the arms long,
Draw the navel back.
We're going to do some side bending.
Sometimes if we recruit a little bit of core support,
That can be helpful.
So draping fingertips down,
Elbow comes up.
Inhale tall exhale feel that opening through your intercostal muscles inhale tall exhale side bending inhale Exhale,
Come back to standing.
Hands on the waist.
Inhale look over one shoulder Exhale,
Chin down looking after your neck.
Inhale looking over one shoulder Exhale,
Release the chin down.
Always being gentle with your neck.
Moving gently with the breath.
Coming back to standing and bend the elbows.
We'll just do some rolling of the shoulders.
A little bit of shaking of your hands and you might like to stretch your fingers one at a time see if you're holding any tension there be gentle with the hands a sense of kind curiosity and then we'll try the other hand shaking the hands again and then maybe some soft taps around your head around the forehead the eye any ways that we can feel into the body.
Float the arms down.
So palms open and we're just going to smile with the face.
Smiling and breathing.
Quite nice for our nervous system as well.
Inhale,
Float the arms up,
Elbows can be soft I'm going to breathe out through the mouth,
Bend the knees.
Inhale float the arms up even opening armpits can release depression out of the body exhale One more round.
And come back to standing,
Noticing you might lean back into the heels,
Slightly extend,
Fingertips long,
Lots of space from the ears down to the shoulders.
Steady breath,
Steady gaze.
Feel that connection to the earth.
Then we'll rub our hands together make them nice and warm Bend the knees,
Palms facing the earth and feel that connection now,
That sense of grounding.
Coming back to standing.
Inhale tall with your arm.
Exhale,
Lean off to the side.
Inhale tall exhale release changing arms Inhale,
Exhale.
Inhale tall exhale continue that rhythm with your breath one more on each side and float the arms down having one hand on the shoulder other arm to the lower back If that's hard for your shoulder hand to the waist.
Inhale tall with the spine exhale gently twisting to the hand that's on the shoulder even weight through your feet Pausing here and feeling the movement of your breath.
Particularly around the side lung,
Rib cage area.
Coming back around opposite hand on shoulder other arm to the lower back inhale exhale even went through the feet tall with the spine breathing in and out through the nose focusing on the side lung rib cage area Coming back,
One hand on the thigh,
Other hand on top.
Inhale,
Toward the spine.
Exhale,
Bend the knees,
Drape the fingertips down.
Inhale coming back up hands to the other thigh exhale drape fingertips down look after your back Inhale,
Tall.
And then we'll bring the hands to the kidneys.
I'm gonna sweep them down the back of the legs.
And then sweep them up through the front of the body inhale opening your good heart exhale hands to the kidneys sweeping down through the back of the legs And then through the front of the body as you inhale,
Opening,
Receiving,
Exhale,
Hands to the kidneys,
Bend the knees,
Sweeping down.
And coming all the way back to standing,
Observing,
Palms open and smiling.
So thank you for your time today.
I hope you've enjoyed this standing sequence.
And please continue to look after yourself,
Connecting with the breath and looking after the body,
The heart,
The mind.
Thank you for your practice.
