Seated Yoga Sequence

Enjoy this seated yoga flow that's great for all levels. Join me in criss-cross applesauce for the whole sequence! You'll experience seated folds, twists, and turns, plus some opportunities to work on and lubricate the hips.

Transcript

Hello, Hello. It is a be Ali Blair here for a short sequence. We're going to spend a few moments here, Grounding down, Touching base with the heart, And then we'll just do a seated sequence will do many poses different awesomeness here on our seat. Please join me. Find a seat, A comfortable seat on your mat. We'll spend, If it's comfortable for you, I'm going to spend the entirety of this sequence of this practice with with my feet crisscross applesauce. If that's comfortable for you, I encourage you to follow along in that sense. If not, You can sit on a block. You can sit in a chair if you'd like. So you decide what feels comfortable for you. If you're sitting like this, Move the flesh out of the way. Say hello to the kitty. Roll your shoulders back, Grow your spine. Make contact with yourself, Bring your hands down to your knees or down to heart center. Settle in. And close your eyes. Before we completely settle in, If there's a playlist you'd like to get started so you can practice with some music on your end, Please feel free to do so. Otherwise. Breathe deeply in and out of the nose. If your mind is racing, If you've got thoughts. Coming and going in your head. Bring the focus back to the breath. You can literally focus on your nostrils as you breathe in and out. How the mind to get quiet. Breathe a little deeper into the belly. See if you can't get that breath to travel a little bit deeper. And as you continue to breathe deeply here, I invite you to bring your awareness to the heart space. Breathe into the heart space here. Expand the belly, Expand the heart. We can take a few moments here to ask the heart for an intention for our time together today. Or maybe some words of wisdom for the week ahead. We can even ask the heart if it needs anything from us today. Taking our time here. Grounding down, Settling in. Maybe we can give ourselves permission today. To feel fully grounded. Fully supported. Divinely connected. And unconditionally love. In this space together. Let's take a big belly breath in. Sigh it out. Another big belly breath in. Let it go. One more just like that. And breathe it out. Let yourself settle. Prepare the mind to move the body here. I encourage you to keep your eyes closed if you'd like. It's just you and me here. There's nobody else. Nobody is. Judging you or nobody cares what you look like. Let this be an internal practice if you'd like. So if you're comfortable, If it feels safe to do so, I invite you to keep your eyes closed as we continue to breathe deeply. And if not, You're welcome to open your eyes too so you can follow along. We'll start to find a slight stretch in the neck just starting to move gently here. Let's roll the shoulders back once more. You can bring the hands down to your knees or down to the floor. And then let your right ear drop over to your right shoulder. Just let gravity do the work here. Finding a nice stretch from that left neck down to the left shoulder. On your next exhale, Bring your chin down to your chest. I'm gonna roll the left ear over to the left shoulder. Finding a stretch on the right side now. On your next exhale, Bring your chin back down to your chest. Find the other side. And then keep going. Go at your own pace, Move with your own breath. Maybe you decide to take full neck rolls here instead of just half on either side. What does your body need today? To take some time to explore. See what feels good. And whenever you've had enough, We can find stillness. Roll your shoulders back once more. We're going to find a gentle twist on either side here. On an inhale, Bring your hands up overhead, And then twist over to the right, Bringing your left hand to your right knee. Looking behind that right shoulder. Breathe into the belly here. Your next inhale brings you forward, Hands up overhead. On an exhale, Twist to the other side, Looking behind that left shoulder now. No tugging, No forcing, Just a gentle twist. On an inhale, Bring yourself back to center, Hands up overhead. On an exhale, Bring that right hand down, Left arm reaches up and over. Spiraling that chest up. We're not collapsing down on ourselves, Right? Spiraling up, Breathing into the chest. Maybe letting that breath travel all the way down to the belly, Opening up the collarbone. Now on an exhale, Bring yourself down, Bring that left hand down to the ground and stretch yourself out. Finding, We might have a kitty in the way, Finding a forward fold here. A seated forward fold. It's okay if you don't go far. It's okay if you don't stretch all the way over, But can you just make a little more space for yourself on either side? And once you get there, You can let the neck drop. You can let the head hang. On your next inhale, Bring your body over to the left, Left hand anchors, Reaching up and over with the right now. Maybe you look up, Maybe you look down. You can shake your head, Yes or no. Just making sure we're opening the chest up here. You can roll out that right wrist if you'd like. On an inhale, Bring yourself up, Hands up overhead. Exhale, Bring them down to heart center. If you've been sitting crisscross applesauce with me, Switch which leg is in front. And then re-anchor yourself down on your sits bones. Roll your shoulders back, Reset. And then we'll take that on the other side. On an inhale, Bring your hands up. Exhale, Left hand comes down, Right arm reaches up and over. On your next exhale, Bring that right hand down, Curl yourself forward towards the top of your mat, A seated forward fold. Maybe you crawl your fingers a little farther out, Making room for yourself. In your next inhale, Bring that upper body over to the right, Right hand anchors down, Left hand reaches up and over. Breathing into the belly, Opening up the collarbones, Shoulder blades coming a little closer together on the back. And on an inhale, Bring yourself up, Hands come up overhead. Down the heart center, Down towards our sides. Close your eyes, Roll your shoulders back, Make contact with yourself. And reset. What shifted for you? Where's your breath? Where is your mind? Again, You are welcome to keep your eyes closed here, But you can always open your eyes so you can see what's going on on this side of the screen. We're gonna find some seated cat cows, And then we'll find some hip circles as well. So let's start with our traditional, Well, I guess not traditional because we're not on hands and knees here, With our seated cat cows. Let's roll our shoulders back. And then on an inhale, We can tilt the tail and tilt the chin, Opening up the chest, Looking up, Seeing what's out there. And then on an exhale, We'll curl into ourselves, Doming the back. On an inhale, Open back up. And on an exhale, Come back home. You can drop the head here. Keep going. Move in your own breath, Move with your own rhythm. Moving the shoulders and the hips back and forth. Treating our spine kind of like a rope. Making it a little more flexible. We make a little more space for our rib cage, For our heart. Few more here. Or when you've had enough, Find stillness, Find a neutral spine. Chin up, Eyes closed. We'll find some seated circles now. On your next exhale, Start to move your hips, Move your torso over to the right. Going in a clockwise direction. Now again, There's nobody else here. Nobody cares what you look like. You get to decide what this practice looks like, What it feels like for you. So maybe you keep your hands on your knees, Maybe you bring them to your hips. Maybe you bring them out. What does this feel like? These circles can be as big or as small as you would like. You decide how much space you take up, Not just on your mat. But in your life. Now for me personally, I love making these huge hip circles. I love the concept of getting around myself. So maybe you explore that. Maybe for you, It's just something smaller. A smaller movement. You decide. When you've had enough, Find stillness. Switch which leg is in front. Anchor back down, Move the flesh out of the way, Anchor into the sits bone. And then find those circles on the other side. Going counterclockwise now. And again, Explore. What does it feel like to make smaller circles? What does it feel like to take up more space? What am I used to and what feels uncomfortable? Is there somewhere that feels sticky? Or somewhere that I want to keep going back to. I want all of our sessions together. To be an opportunity for you to just explore your body. What does it feel like to just? Be a human being. What a concept. I want you to explore that. A few more breaths here. When you've had enough. Find your stillness. Close your eyes, Roll your shoulders back, Maybe bring. Your hands to your torso, One hand on your chest, One hand on your belly, Breathe into yourself. And then let it go. Take a few moments. Reset, Recalibrate, Come back to the intention you set. We will find a few different versions of forward fold. Before we find a seated Shavasana and we end our short practice together. If you are seated crisscross applesauce, Stay where you are. This is perfect. We're gonna find that forward fold again. On the inhale, Bring your arms up overhead. And on an exhale, Fold over yourself. Now, It's not about how can I get myself all the way down and make sure I touch the top of the mat. Can we just make room? Can you reach out? How far can you reach out before you touch down? And then once you get there, You can drop the head. Elongate the spine. And settle in. We'll be here for a few breaths. If you've got some tight hips, If you're feeling some big sensations in your hips, Breathe into it. And if it becomes a little too intense, You can always take yourself out a little. One more breath here. On your next exhale, Push yourself up, Come back to neutral. Switch which leg is in front. Anchor back down. We'll find that again on your next inhale, Bring your hands up overhead. Exhale yourself forward. Maybe you scoot your fingers, Crawl your fingers out before you touch down, Before you settle in. Your next inhale, Bring yourself back up. Stretch your legs out long. Cross-legged for so long, My friend. Stretch your legs out. Move them around. What is this called? Windshield wiper your legs. We're gonna find one more forward fold here. If you have blocks at home and you know you're a hyperextender like myself, You can always put these blocks underneath or a blanket underneath, A pillow underneath to make sure that we're protecting the knees. If you don't have any of those things at your disposal, Just be mindful that you keep the tiniest bend behind your knees. We don't wanna lock ourselves out of our own bodies here. So let's move the flesh out of the way once more. Legs are out long, Toes are flexed up. Let's inhale our hands up. Exhale, Reach over yourself. Again, It does not matter how far you go. You do not have to touch your toes. Please remember, I've been practicing yoga. I've been practicing four folds. Every single day for the last six years, Okay? It is okay if you're right here. This is perfect. But go wherever you go. And then settle in. Keep the spine long, Keep the chin up, And then when you've had enough, Drop down and settle in. On your next inhale, Bring yourself up. Bring the right foot in, Right knee is out, Left leg is still stretched long. The, What is this called? A sole. The sole of the right foot is making contact with the inside of the left thigh. On an inhale, Bring your hands up, Shift your torso over to face your left foot, And then fold over. Again, It does not matter how far you go. Our point is to reach out and over and then touchdown. Take a few breaths here. On an inhale, Bring yourself up, Stretch the right leg out long, Left foot comes in, Sole of the left foot makes contact with the inside of the right thigh. Long spine, Shoulders back, Hands up. Hold over that right foot now. And on an inhale, Bring yourself back up. My friends, We have reached the end of our seated sequence. We're going to take a few moments in Shavasana, In our final resting pose of this practice. I'm going to stay seated for this. We're just going to take some time to breathe deeply. If you would like to lay down on your mat or if there's another position that feels more comfortable for this rest. By all means, Take that pose, Take that position. You're perfect. But once you get there, Settle in. If you're seated like me, Roll your shoulders back, Elongate your spine, Bring your chin up just a touch. And then close your eyes. But all of the magic of this yoga session integrate into your body, Into your soul. Settle in. Settle the mind, Settle the body. And focus on your breath.