Hello,
My name is Shannon.
Thank you so much for joining me today for this gentle grounding yoga practice where we will be using two blocks.
And if you don't have blocks,
It's OK.
You can do the practice without the blocks.
I wanted our affirmation today to be.
.
.
I open my heart to balanced,
Authentic connections.
Built on respect.
Honesty,
And mutual give and take.
So even if you're watching this not during labor season,
This is always a good affirmation to have.
So I will repeat it one more time.
I open my heart to balanced,
Authentic connections.
Built on respect.
Honesty,
And mutual give and take.
Okay,
So we're gonna start today on our back.
So let's go ahead and lay down.
And take a long body stretch.
And place one hand on our belly.
One on our heart,
Letting our toes fall out.
Taking a moment here to notice how you're feeling.
Bringing our attention to our breath.
Now let's take a full deep breath in through our nose.
And a gentle sigh out.
If you have blocks,
Let's grab one of our blocks.
We're going to hold it at the ends of the block.
And bend our knees with our feet wide on the mat,
Bringing our block in the air.
And as our knees fall to the right,
Our block is going to come to the left.
Inhale up,
Exhale the other way.
So just getting this gentle movement.
Little gentle rotations in our spine.
Noticing how our low back.
Our hips.
And our entire spine is feeling.
I will pause with our knees and our arms up and let's bring our feet a little closer together but not quite touching.
Inhale as our arms come up and our knees fall out.
Exhale as they come together.
So following our breath.
With these gentle movements.
And the next time our knees fall out and our block comes overhead,
Let's relax our knees and our block to the floor behind us and place the back of our hands on the block.
Soften our entire body.
And very slowly release.
Let's take that block and place it under our bottom.
We're going to bring our legs in the air with a bend in our knees.
And if this is uncomfortable,
You can always remove the block.
Pause here for a moment.
Notice how or feeling.
Checking in with our body.
Maybe you want to point and flex your toes or your feet.
Maybe do some circles.
And reverse the circles.
Now let's let the lower part of our legs bounce a little bit up and down,
Kind of releasing.
Any stagnant energy.
And then one foot at a time,
Let's place our feet on the mat.
We're going to do one bridge here.
So as we press our feet down,
We'll lift our bottom up.
And if you'd like,
You can take the block and move it closer to your feet and gently press your hands down on the block.
As you relax your face and breathe.
And then we'll press the block out of the way as we lower our bottom to the mat.
Let's take our knees and our hands and gently pull our knees up and out.
So your feet will come in.
We're trying to flatten our back here,
Getting this little squeeze.
And gently release.
We're going to take our time coming into a tabletop,
So turning all the way around.
Coming on all fours and finding your blocks.
We're gonna place our blocks down and have them maybe a little bit in front of your shoulders.
And we're going to do a few cat cows incorporating our left leg.
So let's inhale,
Looking up,
Lifting our leg.
Exhale rounding as we pull our knee towards our nose.
Inhale up.
Exhale round.
Two more.
Next one,
Pause,
Hold,
And breathe.
And then we'll take that foot and bring it in between the blocks.
Let's raise the blocks to the higher level.
And we're going to tuck our toes and slowly lift our back knee up and down a few times.
And then we'll let our knee drop to the mat.
Top of the foot is on the mat.
Let's reach our chest forward as we sink our hips.
And breathe.
Now we'll take that left block and bring it on the inside of our left foot,
Heel toeing our foot out.
And we're gonna bring our left hand to our knee.
And as our knee falls out,
We'll sink our hips.
So we're kind of going up and down.
And down.
Right elbow is bending on the block.
You And then let's pause,
Sinking our hips,
Maybe looking to the left,
Feeling this nice stretch.
And release.
Let's place our hands on the mat and slowly let our body come back.
So we're kind of doing a a half split,
But with our leg out.
So we're rounding down.
And breathing.
If your forehead happens to touch your knee,
You can press your knee down a little bit.
Relaxing our toes.
And then we'll take one of our hands,
It doesn't matter which one,
And grab our toes and just gently pull our toes towards us as we reach our chest forward.
You can have a bend in your knee.
Maybe shut your eyes,
Just notice where you feel the stretch.
A little balance in here.
And slowly release.
Let's bring that left knee forward,
Walk our hands up our thigh.
We're gonna place our right elbow on the outside of our thigh,
Palms together as we twist left.
And breathe.
And very gently release.
Let's take that knee back to the tabletop,
Bring our blocks back up.
To the lower level.
And we'll do some cat cows with our right leg.
So inhale looking up.
Exhale,
Rounding it in.
Following our breath.
Keeping our weight equal between our hands.
And the next time we round in,
Let's pause,
Hold,
And breathe.
And then we'll place that foot in between the blocks,
Raising the blocks to the higher level.
Tucking our back toes and lifting our back knee up and down a few times.
And then we'll pause,
Dropping our knee,
Top of the foot is on the mat.
Let's sink our hips as we reach our chest forward.
And we'll place that block on the inside of the foot,
Heel toeing our foot out.
Bringing our right hand to our right knee.
And letting our knee fall out as we bring our body up and down.
This can be a very small movement.
And then pause with your knee out,
Looking back to the right.
Getting this nice tress.
Stretch with a gentle twist.
And release.
Let's go into our half split,
So bringing our body back.
Hands are on the mat,
Rounding down towards our right knee.
If your forehead touches your knee,
You can gently push on your knee.
As you pull your right hip crease back.
Maybe you feel your left hip going a little to the left.
And then we'll come up and take whatever hand you'd like,
Right or left,
Grabbing your toes,
Gently pulling your toes towards you as you reach your chest towards your toes.
And gentle release.
Let's bend that front knee once again,
Walking up our thigh,
Placing our left.
Elbow on the outside of our right thigh,
Palms together,
Rotating right.
You can sink your hips lower.
Breathe.
And very slowly release.
Now we're going to take our time here.
Our hands are on the block.
Let's take our right foot behind the right block.
Our back toes and bring our left foot behind the left block.
And sink down into a forward fold.
You can have as much bend as you need in your knees.
We're relaxing our body,
Our face.
Then on an inhale,
We'll come into a halfway lift,
So raising our body flat back.
Exhale down.
Let's do that twice more.
Inhale up exhale down.
On this last one,
As you come up,
Pause,
Hold,
And breathe.
And then we'll bend our right knee and reach our left arm up towards the sky.
You can keep your fingers facing up or you can even open your hand to the sky.
Feeling this nice stretch,
Rotation.
And slowly release.
Back into our forward fold.
Breathing.
And then halfway lift,
Pause,
Hold,
And breathe,
Pulling in your belly.
And then let's bend that left knee,
Reaching that right arm up.
And maybe you want to open your arm even more,
Opening up your chest,
Your right shoulder.
Feeling a right IT band stretch.
Your weight is through your feet.
The block is just for balance and support.
And slowly.
Release.
Let's turn towards the long edge of the mat.
Hands on our blocks.
Walking our feet out,
Our feet are parallel.
You can bring the blocks maybe to a lower level.
Let's come into a standing wide-legged forward fold.
So really relax your head.
It's almost like the top of your head is reaching towards the mat.
Now we'll very slowly bend one knee at a time,
Moving side to side.
And if your blocks are wide like mine,
You might want to bring them in just a little bit.
We're going to pause and heel toe our feet.
Closer together,
But keeping them wider than our hips with our toes pointing out.
We're going to take our time lowering down into our goddess squat.
So.
Arms are in between our thighs,
Hands are together.
And if there's any discomfort here,
You can always sit on your bottom with the bottoms of your feet together in butterfly.
Otherwise,
We're going to pause here for a few breaths.
Getting this deep hip stretch.
And release.
Let's come on down to our backs.
Removing our blocks.
Come all the way down very slowly.
Let's take our right ankle on our left thigh.
And grab our top leg,
Our right leg.
Gently pulling our leg towards us and a little to the left.
An option to straighten your left leg.
Maybe you want to even grab your big toe.
That's not an option.
That's perfectly fine.
Breathe.
And slowly release.
Let's go to the other side.
So bringing our left ankle to our thigh as we pull our legs towards us,
Getting this nice stretch.
Maybe rotate a little to the right,
So that's nice.
Kind of isolating that left piriformis a little more.
And once again,
Option to lift your,
To straighten your right leg.
And second option to grab your foot or your toes.
Gently pulling them towards you.
And very slowly release.
Let's grab our knees once again,
Pulling our knees up and out.
Pressing our tailbone down so we're flattening our back.
And then do a few circles with our knees.
And circles the other way.
And take our time making our way into our final Shavasana.
Toes falling out.
Palms facing up.
Softening all the way down for a few moments of rest and stillness.
I'll find a little movement in our fingers and toes.
Take our time making our way up to our easy seated pose.
When I do these shorter classes,
I keep shavasana a little bit shorter.
Now let's place our hands on our knees,
Shutting our eyes.
Relaxing our face and our shoulders.
Taking a moment to notice how we feel.
I open my heart to balanced,
Authentic connections.
Built on respect.
Honesty.
And mutual give and take.
Place our hands to heart center,
Bowing our heads,
Giving ourselves gratitude for showing up today to practice and come home to ourselves.
The light in me honors the light in you.
And together here now and always,
We are one.
Namaste.
