Thank you so much for joining me on the mat.
Come into a seated position where you feel supported.
This may look like a block under your hips,
A blanket around your shoulders,
Or a pillow under your knees.
Take a few moments to get comfortable,
Placing one hand on your heart and the other on your belly.
Begin to put your attention on your breath,
Feeling the belly rise and fall with each inhale and exhale.
Tune out everything around you and begin to get present within your body.
This class is for anyone moving through grief.
Grief can show up in many different ways and situations,
Whether it's a physical death,
The death of a friendship or relationship,
Or even the letting go of old identities as we change and move on to new and different ways of being and living.
We all process grief in many ways,
So remember to give yourself space and grace as you navigate these uncertain waters of emotions.
Begin to take a scan of your body,
Finding where there may be contraction and breathe deeply into it without trying to change it.
Breathe a little deeper if the mind begins to get louder,
Just noticing where it is creating emotions and causing a physical reaction in the body.
Just become aware,
Observing and allowing whatever needs to come up to come up.
If at any time during this video there is a need to grieve in any way through tears,
Sound,
Shivers or movement,
Take all the time you need to process and express yourself with no judgment.
And continue to find presence within your body for the next few deep breaths,
Grounding yourself in each moment within your body.
And keeping your eyes open or closed,
Release your hands down and begin to slowly roll your neck in one direction,
Feeling the delicate stretch of the muscles in your neck and shoulders.
And then begin to switch directions,
Going slowly,
Feeling the deep stretch and release in your neck and your shoulders and your back.
And come back to center,
Gonna make your way into tabletop,
Placing your hands on the ground,
Coming onto your hands and your knees.
And we're actually going to go straight into dancing lion,
So this is a free for all movement.
You can keep your eyes open or closed and you're just going to roll around here in circles with your hips,
Moving forward and back,
Shifting your hips back onto your heels,
Maybe doing some cat-cows on your inhales and exhales,
Feeling the spine release,
Releasing the head and the neck,
Allowing it to flow.
And just continue on here with your own movements,
Your own breath,
Connecting even more deeply with your body.
And just a few more breaths here.
You're going to come back to tabletop,
Take your knees a little bit farther apart,
Shift your hips back onto your heels,
And extend your arms forward,
Coming into child's pose.
If this feels too compressive or you need a little more support,
Just place a pillow under your chest or a block under your hips,
And just allow the body to soften,
Feeling the head supported by the earth,
And just feel held in this position,
Taking long,
Slow,
Deep breaths for the next two minutes or so.
We're just going to relax here,
Find a feeling of safeness,
To be here in all of our emotions and all of our thoughts.
And if you're feeling any type of restlessness,
Just lean into that feeling and see where you can release and find softness in the body,
Just allowing it to surrender a little bit more to the mat.
And slowly begin to make your way back up,
Coming into tabletop.
You're going to bring your knees together and drop your hips over to the side,
And just swing your legs forward.
We're going to come into a seated forward fold,
So get comfortable here.
You can bring your feet together or slightly apart,
And just deeply bend your knees and bring your belly to the tops of your thighs.
Reach your hands to your feet,
And from here you can start to straighten out your legs a little bit more,
Until you feel that deep stretch in the belly of your hamstrings.
So take the next few moments to get adjusted here,
To feel the stretch in the body.
Placing your hands next to your legs and just allowing your head and your neck to rest here.
We'll be here for the next minute or so,
So just allow yourself to breathe deeply and sink a little bit deeper with every inhale and exhale.
Being with yourself in the space and in the stillness,
And just connecting with the body and giving yourself some extra love and grace and compassion as you surrender and relax deeper with every breath.
Slowly begin to make your way out of this forward fold,
And make your way into pigeon pose.
You can also come into deer pose as a modification with your right knee bent and your back leg bent,
Or you could straighten out the back leg and come into full pigeon pose.
Lifting the chest up nice and high,
And just fold over the front shin,
Whichever position that you decided to be in.
Just resting your hands on the ground,
And your head on top of your hands.
If this is a little bit too much,
You can also place a block under your right hip.
You can also place a pillow under your belly if you want to get a little bit more comfortable.
So we'll be here for the next minute or so,
So again,
Just giving yourself this safe space to relax and be vulnerable,
Opening up to the stillness of the body,
And allowing yourself to let go of anything that feels heavy in this moment.
And slowly begin to make your way up and out pushing yourself up and opening up that left leg.
As you hug your right foot into the inside of that left leg,
We're just going to go into a gentle side stretch.
So you're going to reach your left arm over to your left foot,
And reach the right arm up and over your head,
Feeling that deep stretch in the side of the body.
You can keep your eyes closed,
Just feeling the sensations and the deep stretch in the body,
Feeling the ribs expand on every inhale and stretching deeper on the exhale.
And slowly come out,
And we're going to switch sides,
Coming into pigeon with the left leg in front,
Or if you'd like to go into deer pose on the side,
Just keeping both legs bent.
If you're going for full pigeon,
You can straighten out that back leg and pull that right hip forward towards the mat.
Sit up nice and straight and begin to fold forward,
Finding that safe,
Comfortable position that you did on the other side as well.
Maybe taking a pillow and placing underneath the belly,
Or placing a block under the hip.
And just take these next few moments to settle in and get a little bit more comfortable here,
Feeling that deep stretch in the outer hip,
Finding softness in the face and the body,
And surrendering deeper into the ground.
If you need any tiny adjustments along the way,
Maybe you sink a little bit deeper,
Or maybe it's a little bit too intense and you need to come out.
Just find that position that feels right for your body,
And settle into it a little bit deeper.
Slowly begin to come back into your body.
You're going to gently push yourself all the way up and coming into the side stretch on the other side.
So extending that right leg out,
Bringing the left heel in close to the body.
You're going to reach that left arm up and over your head,
Feeling that stretch in the entire left side of your body.
Feeling the lungs expand on every inhale,
And feeling a deeper stretch on every exhale.
Slowly begin to make your way out.
You're going to extend your legs out,
And then take a bend in your knees with your feet about hip distance apart,
And slowly begin to lower all the way down onto the ground.
We're going to come into a gentle bridge pose.
So with your feet hip distance apart,
Slightly tuck your tailbone under,
Just to feel the back flat against the ground.
You're going to place your hands by your sides as you slowly lift your hips up towards the sky.
No pressure here,
Just a very gentle lift of the hips.
Finding your calm and stillness here.
As you slowly lower the hips down,
And start to bring your knees into your chest,
Giving yourself a nice hug and rock from side to side.
We're going to come into a reclined twist.
So take that right leg to cross over the left.
Bring your hands by your sides,
And then drop your legs over to the left,
And turn your head over to the right.
Finding this nice spinal twist.
You can place a block under your knees if that feels a little bit more comfortable for you.
So find that position that feels good,
And settle in here,
Taking long,
Slow,
Deep breaths.
Slowly begin to come back to center,
And we're just going to switch sides.
So cross that left leg over the right,
And drop your legs over to the right.
And this time,
Turn your head over to the left.
Taking any variation on the side that you need that makes you feel comfortable here.
And slowly begin to bring your legs back to center,
And crossing your legs,
And hugging your knees into your chest.
Giving yourself a nice,
Big hug.
Maybe rocking from side to side if that feels good.
And then gently release your legs down,
And your arms by your sides.
Coming into Shavasana.
If you'd like to place a pillow under your legs,
Or behind your chest.
Maybe bring one hand to your heart,
And the other to the belly.
If you'd like to bend your knees,
And tipi them in together.
These are all wonderful options for you,
As you make your way into Shavasana.
Settling in here,
And finding the stillness,
And deeper connection with your body.
Giving yourself some compassion and love,
As you lay here for the next few minutes.
Taking long,
Slow,
Deep breaths,
And connecting to the stillness that lies within.
Take a deep breath,
And feel your body.
Bringing movement back to your wrists,
And your fingers,
And toes.
And taking a full body stretch here.
And bring your knees back in,
And gently roll onto one side of your body here.
And just use your arm as a pillow.
Feeling cradled,
And held in this fetal position.
And slowly begin to push yourself up,
To a seated position.
You can keep your eyes closed here,
If you'd like.
You're just going to take your arms,
And wrap them around yourself,
Giving yourself a nice,
Big hug.
Say,
Thank you,
Thank you,
Body,
For being with me during these emotional times.
Thank you for your strength and resilience.
And release your arms,
And bring one hand to your heart,
And one to your belly.
Grief takes time to process,
May always reside within you,
And be activated and unexpected at different times.
Be patient with yourself,
And remember to always give yourself grace and compassion.
Just remember to take a few deep breaths,
And become as present as you can in your body.
Give gratitude for the love and the loss.
And say how lucky are we to have loved so deeply,
To feel such pain.
And take a big inhale in,
And an exhale out.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Namaste.
