Hi friends,
Welcome.
Happy New Moon in Capricorn.
It's the first New Moon of the year.
You're going to need a few props today,
Two yoga blocks for sure,
A bolster or any kind of bunch of pillows that you have at home will do,
And then some kind of a blanket,
And it could even be a bath towel if you don't have a yoga blanket or another blanket.
Find a comfortable seat.
For me,
I want to sit on my blanket right now,
So I'm going to do that.
And then.
.
.
Find your fingertips onto the ground near you,
Next to you.
And either soften your gaze towards the floor or even close your eyes.
And find a moment here as you arrive and you land and you practice.
To check in with yourself.
Capricorn is an earth sign.
But it's also not the most easeful sign for the moon.
And we're at the end of this of Capricorn season.
So there's a little bit of like fatigue too,
Right?
We're getting to the tail end of it,
Just as we're navigating towards the end of January,
Which sometimes can demand a lot of us.
So if you've been feeling.
.
.
Little bit of tension between the things you want or have to do.
And maybe the energy level that you have that's totally normal.
Or also in winter.
Where there's a natural pull towards less doing and more introspection.
But the world and society doesn't necessarily accommodate that.
Go ahead and open your eyes when you feel them already.
And the invitation for today's practice is to explore the little bit of tension that the sea goat of the Capricorn brings,
Which is this earth element,
Which is more analytical brain,
You know,
Structural,
Figuring things out.
And then the water element of the sea goat,
Where there's more emotional landscape and there's more.
There's less discipline,
There's more fluidity.
And so we're always kind of navigating the tension between these two realms.
And we're figuring out what that means for us to find the right proportion of each,
Which is going to be different for all of us.
So you're nuggeting your bolster for now,
You can put it to the side.
Blanket,
Same thing.
Let's meet on all fours.
And we'll find just a few rounds of cat cow.
You can drop the belly and open the throat and the breath in.
And then round the back of the breath out.
We'll move a tad.
And then we get really,
Really still with restorative poses.
Go ahead and keep going at your own pace.
You might go a little slower or faster than me,
That's fine.
And then when you feel ready,
Center your left hand,
Reach your right arm up,
Breathe in.
Little monkey tail with the right arm onto the left,
Don't go down too much.
And then reach right arm up again.
And then this time thread the needle so land on your right shoulder,
Right cheek.
And you can walk your left fingertips to the left corner of your mat as well if you want.
See if you can reach both hips evenly back and press the top of your feet down.
So Capricorn is also linked to the joints,
Which is that perfect.
Physiological mix,
Right,
Of earth and water.
Here's the cushioning of the joints.
And there's the bones,
Which are that calcium hard porous element.
Bring your left hand back next to your prize down with your right arm up.
Nice,
And then right hand down.
Just one round cat cow,
Grab the belly,
Open the chest.
And around the back.
Center your right hand,
Reach your left arm up.
Inhale.
And just once before you go down,
Monkey tail,
Left arm towards the right.
Little torsion,
Reach the left arm up.
And then land on your left shoulder,
Left cheek down.
And you could keep the right hand next to you or you can walk your right hand towards the right corner of your mat.
Deep breath in through the nose.
And a deep breath out Right hand next to you,
Press down,
Reach left arm up.
And then left hand down.
From here,
Walk your hands a little forward.
Open your hands out so that you have a little more space in the shoulders.
Again,
Softening the joints here.
Tuck your toes under.
And then have a micro bend in the knees and a micro bend in the elbows just for today,
Just for this one.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
Walk your feet all the way to the front of your mat.
And then find a forward fold.
I got new yoga pants,
They're falling a little bit.
And then when you feel ready,
Lift halfway up,
Inhale.
Exhale fold forward and drag your hands on your legs find that earth energy as you Find the stability of your legs.
Reach your arms up.
Inhale.
Exhale fold forward.
Soft and gentle movement.
Inhale,
Lift halfway up.
Exhale step back.
To plank pose and right away drop your knees child's pose.
So we're now going to Vinyasa practice.
We're finding the ground and fluidity.
Inhale forward,
Kalpos,
Open the belly.
Exhale downward facing dog One nice inhale here.
Micro bend knees and elbows.
Exhale walk your feet all the way to the front of your mat inhale lift halfway up Excel full band in these quite a lot.
Inhale,
Drag your hands on your legs.
On your hips and then reach up.
One more time like this,
Exhale,
Fold forward.
Inhale,
Lift halfway up.
Exhale step back to a plank pose,
But right away drop the knees down and then find child's pose Inhale forward cow pose,
Open the chest.
Exhale bent knee bent elbows downward facing dog.
So a little more soft and press on every single fingertips down last one walk your feet all the way to the front of your mat forward fold Drag your hands on your legs.
Reach your arms up,
Inhale.
And then fold forward,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Lift halfway up.
Exhale that brief plank pose to childspose.
And this time,
Drag your hands back.
And sit on your heels.
Close your eyes for a moment or find a soft gaze on the ground.
And then check in with your emotional landscape.
Check in with maybe the chatter in your brain.
Notice both happening at the same time.
And then open your eyes,
Friends.
And just again,
Because we're playing with joints a little bit with that crappercorn sign,
Go ahead and make some fists with your hands and find some circles with the.
.
.
With the wrists,
Just two.
Bring a little love to the wrist and you can go in both directions a few rounds each.
Switch.
Give your hands a little shake.
And then shrug the shoulders up to the ears Exhale soft release down.
You might even reach for the fingertips and touch the ground.
Inhale reach with the shoulders up up up up up Exhale down and then reach,
Reach,
Reach,
Reach,
Reach down.
Last one,
Inhale.
And then exhale.
Nice last little bit of movement before we settle into our first restorative pose come to all fours and then reach your right foot straight up towards the ceiling,
Open the knee out and then bring the knee in.
Make some circles with that right leg,
See if you can keep the rest of the body somewhat neutral and unmoving.
Bringing in a little bit of juice.
A little bit of water,
A little bit of rasa,
As we call it in Ayurveda.
To the right hip.
And then bring the right knee down,
Lift your left foot up towards the ceiling.
Open the left knee out and then down.
Up,
Out and down.
And again.
See if you can keep the rest of the body pretty neutral you move through that left leg.
Nice,
And then left knee down.
And then we're going to set up our first restorative post.
So you're going to want your tube lock.
And you're going to place block at a high setting to the front of your mat.
Then a block at a medium setting and it's going to be a little different depending on what type of bolsters and cautions you have you might need to adjust those blocks so that you have a nice stable foundation.
So I like mine at a high setting and then a medium setting.
And then from here,
I'm gonna put that bolster on top.
And you're going to want the bottom of the bolster or whatever pillows you're using to be touching.
The mat.
And from here,
You're going to still need your blanket.
And this is really important.
Don't skip it.
It's going to be tempting to be like,
Oh,
It's just optional.
Don't skip it.
It's important.
Open your blanket and then find your feet down.
And go ahead and wrap.
Your blanket behind you.
Might need a little bit of,
You know,
Some mingling.
And you're covering your low back,
Basically.
And your knees are outside of your bolster or whatever props you have.
And then you're going to find your belly down.
Turn your head to one side.
I'm turning to the left because of the microphone.
But feel free to turn towards the right.
And you can kind of wrap the bolster underneath you You can slide your hands and your arms between the bolster and the blocks on the floor.
And find a deep breath in here through the nose.
And a deep breath out.
And as you rest here,
I want to give you a little bit inspiration about this Capricorn energy that we're navigating.
So as we're talking about Lan and C,
Navigating both land and sea,
Both earth and water.
Both this kind of discipline,
Right focus.
And emotional landscape and flexibility.
There's an invitation to see what alignment for us means.
With these two aspects.
What is the.
.
.
Balance between.
Rest in softness.
And commitment and focus.
So find.
.
.
Another deep breath in here.
And a deep breath out.
And if your chin is up.
Quite further away from your chest,
See if you can bring your chin a little closer to your chest.
If you'd like to turn your head to the other side,
Go ahead and do so.
We'll be here for another two to three minutes.
So if you'd like to make any adjustments with your props,
You're welcome to do that.
Notice any part of your body that is still tense and gripping.
And let it soften down.
Soft breath in.
So,
Breath out.
Go ahead and lift your torso up from your bolster.
And then take your time to move.
Those props towards the long edge of your mat.
And you're gonna want to refold your little blanket so you can sit back on it.
And so we're going to face the long edge of the mat.
And have more or less the same setup with the legs open,
So it's a wide angle.
Forward fold here.
And I'm going to give you another option if you feel that this setup might be a little too.
.
.
Too low for you and you know this doesn't feel useful you could also just kind of have your bolsters or your blocks and then find a little bit of a rest right here.
And the legs don't need to be open as wide as you can,
Just,
You know,
A little opening and you might kind of bring a little softness to the joints and the knees.
And then go ahead and adjust your props as you'd like and then find your forward fold and find a lot of softness as you fold here.
Just a little bit of tension in the inner leg.
And the hamstring.
Some stretch in the In the spine.
We'll come back again to.
.
.
Your own exploration.
This this little bit of tension between being only in the emotional realm.
Or being only in the analytical realm or in the discipline realm.
And in the emotional realm,
There's also play and joy and pleasure.
And for yourself,
See maybe if.
You navigate each with ease and with a level of balance,
Even though the word balance is tricky.
Or if you tend to live mostly in one.
Because the truth is,
It's just like the sea goats.
We're made to experience both.
We have in our bodies,
Heart.
Soul and brain Find a soft breath in through the nose.
And then on your exhale lift yourself back up.
And then we'll close our practice with.
.
.
Short shavasana if you have a little bit of longer time you're welcome to stay longer And you could have a simple Shavasana with.
.
.
Your knees onto the bolster or your pillows.
And for today,
I wanted to invite us.
To a Stonehenge variation.
Which is your two blocks at a high setting.
And then your bolster or your pillows on top.
And so if you're using pillows,
You're going to need to adjust the block so that the middle isn't caving too much.
And you might want to use your blanket for your head.
And here the only little bit that I will mention about the setup is that if you're too close or too far from your bolster,
You're going to need to effort a little bit to hold your legs in place.
So you're going to want to make sure.
That you find the right distance As you lay down,
So that there's really no work happening in the legs.
And once you get there,
You can open your arms next to your palms facing up.
And again,
Find your chin a little bit towards your chest,
Not too far up so that.
.
.
This closing that gap can activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
If that resonates with you in this moment,
You could even place a hand on your belly.
And notice your belly rise on your inhale.
And then soften down on the exhale.
Just a couple more breaths like this and again if you have longer than 20 minutes Please pause the video and just feel free to stay here for as long as feels good and is available to you.
Let your face start to soften your forehead and your eyes.
And if this is the end of your practice today,
You can start to Roll to one side and bring your legs off of your bolster.
Gently lift yourself up you might keep your eyes closed here.
Find a comfortable seat for a few moments.
With your palms facing down and maybe your thumb touching your second fingers.
Your spine tall as you find.
Sit bones anchoring down.
Let yourself commit.
To direct your energy in.
Appropriate aligned ways for you.
While making sure that you keep time.
To play.
To experience joy.
Since you feel your feelings.
When you're ready you can open your eyes Happy New Moon again.
Have a beautiful rest of your day,
Everybody.
