Yoga For Acceptance

This yoga practice centers on the theme of accepting yourself as you are. After centering and a warm-up, we explore postures that challenge balance or flexibility, with the focus that wherever you are at today is okay. This practice ends with a full 7-minute savasana to allow the practice to integrate physically and spiritually.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. My name is Ashley and I am so grateful that you chose me to share your yoga practice with today. Today, Our practice is going to center around the theme of acceptance. So many times when you're in a yoga class or taking a yoga class or any type of class, You might find your eyes wandering to the people next to you. You might be wondering why you can't take the shape the way somebody else can. Maybe it's the teacher, For example. And I want to remind you that when we do a yoga class, The practice is indeed a practice, Meaning that There are many ways to do the pose correctly. And the way your body finds a shape. Can be different than the way somebody else finds the shape, And they can both be correct. So today, We're just going to explore a few shapes with our body and practice accepting how our body takes each pose. And that'll be a metaphor for accepting ourselves in everyday lives. So we're going to start by centering. If it feels safe, You can close down the eyes. If not, You can keep a soft gaze. Palms can face down on the knees for stability. Palms can face up to receive. And we're just going to start with a body scan. So from the top of the head, I'd like you to notice. Where you're holding on to tension. And if you find that that part of your body is tense, I'd like you to release it without judgment. So starting with the forehead. Soften and release all of the muscles in the forehead. All of the muscles of your face. Moving down to the jaw. Unclench the jaw. Roll the shoulders down and back, Create space in the neck area, Maybe move around a little bit. To release that tension. Shoulders soften. Arms soften. Hands and fingertips soften. Moving down to the chest, Soften the chest. The spine, The tailbone. Release and soften the hips, The thighs. The knees, Ankles and toes. Soften the glutes. Soften your entire body. And as you sit here in this relaxed position, Notice your breath. Intentionally slow down the breath. Perhaps making the exhales longer than the inhales. Staying completely present in the moment. If a thought comes by, Just let it keep floating by. Acknowledge that it's there. And let it keep going. As we sit in stillness. Have a poem. Translated from Rumi. And I think this poem is a great. Way to intensify the theme of the class today. So here it is. This being human is a guest house. Every morning, A new arrival. A joy. A depression, A meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Even if they're a crowd of sorrows. Who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out. For some new delight. The dark thought, The shame, The malice. Meet them at the door laughing. And invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes. Because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. And that was a translation of Rumi by Coleman Barks. So as we sit here. And we think of our body as the guest house. Maybe you can remember a time where you might have had feelings of regret. Maybe you overreacted to something. Or didn't handle something correctly. Each time those things happened, It was one of the guests showing up to give you a lesson that you had to learn about yourself. And every time we come to the mat. We learn new things about ourselves as well. Our poses provide a lesson for us to go inward and be more in touch with ourselves. So when we practice today, I'd like you to hold on to that idea. That everything that comes to us helps us become who we are. And that it's about being present on this journey. And that will help us. Find peace every day. Swallowing your throat. Blink open the eyes. And let's begin our practice. So we're going to start with just awakening some movement. Taking a spiral with the spine. Kundalini circles. There is no right way to do this. So it's an organic movement. It's a great way to begin with something less structured. Awakening the energy in our spines. Quiet that movement and find the other direction. Feeling the way the sits bones come in contact with the earth as you move. Quiet that movement in the back. Expanding through the heart. Seated cat cow. Inhale here. Exhale as you round back, Create a hollow space. Roll the shoulders up and back, Expand. And exhale, Bring it back. Inhale, Expand. Exhale, Bring it back. Inhale expands. Exhale come back Neutralize the spine, Reach those arms up on an inhale. Open the arms to cactus and hold this position. Welcoming and inviting. A new perspective. That acceptance. Bring the elbows together. Or bring them close to each other. Mine actually don't touch here. If your arms are here, That's totally fine. We're opening up the back of the shoulders. Bring it back out to cactus. We're going to open the heart, Arms come behind us, And then open through the chest. Here, If you'd like to find a bind, You could bring the fingertips together and pull them straight, Keeping the shoulders down. The bind is completely optional, Just create some space in your heart center. Neutralize the spine once more. Arms come up to the ceiling on an inhale. And on the exhale, We'll take a gentle twist, Taking your right arm toward your left knee. Ribs and shoulders have the same rotation. Sit tall through the spine. If you'd like to, We can introduce a side body stretch. Arm comes up and reach over. If this doesn't work for you, You can just keep that twist. Release the side body stretch back to your twist. Gently walk through center. And arms come up, Inhale. Twist bringing your left arm to your right knee, Sitting up tall. Feeling the rotation. And then if you'd like to invite the side body stretch, Arm comes up and over. Beautiful. Reaching up back to your twists, One more breath here. And on the exhale come back to that neutral spine. We're going to come onto our knees. If you'd like to put a blanket under your knees, You can for extra cushion. If you don't have a blanket, No worries, Or you can pause and go grab one right now. We're going to practice a little bit of rotating here to help warm up the spine. Your tabletop position, I'd like you to walk your arms forward. This is puppy pose, So your hips are lifted. It's not quite a child's pose. From here, We're going to take some dynamic movement. We're going to reach the arm forward. And then thread it underneath. Reach the arm forward on the inhale. On the axial threaded underneath. So it's just a slight rotation here. Toward the end of class, We'll find a more restorative hold of this rotation. For now with our warm-up. We're attempting to warm up the spine, So dynamic movements. Or what we'll do here. You can move slower than me. If that is what you prefer. On this last thread, We will hold it here for an extra breath. You can either stay upright here or you can let your head fall to the earth. Your arm could extend forward more if you'd like. To come out of the pose, Move that palm back toward you, Lift up the head, Unthread the arm, And yes, We will sit back to child's pose. Hips meet the heels. If you'd like to do a little rock back and forth here you can. If you'd like an extra stretch for the shoulders, You can tent the fingertips. If you've tented the fingertips, Bring them flat. And we will come right back up to our tabletop position. Finding puppy, Once again, Walk those hands forward, Hips to the sky, Chest sinks toward the floor. We'll lift up the arm. Thread it through. And then reach forward again. So inhale here, Exhale here. Going at your own pace. Working with the rotation of the ribs. Noticing maybe one side might rotate more than the other. Accepting that that is okay. One more time, Reaching. And then we're going to hold our rotation for a breath. You can keep the head lifted or you can let it rest. And maybe crawl those fingertips forward. One breath here, Fully embrace that stretch. To come out, Crawl those fingertips back, Use that arm to lift the head off the floor, Arms replaced, And then we sit back to a child's pose once again. Lengthen the spine. Coming up to tabletop. One more little massage for the spine. We're just going to create hip circles. Some more organic movements. To help our bodies understand and realize that. It's not about getting it perfect all the time. Make this move as organic as possible. Switch directions when it feels right. Become more in tune with what your body's calling for and what your body needs. I just keep switching directions when I feel like it. I want you to do the same. Maybe you get your shoulders involved. Once you feel ready, We're going to quiet the movement, Tuck the toes, Lift those hips up to the ceiling downward dog. In this position, Walk out your dog. If you prefer stillness, Of course, You can just stay still. Then we're going to take one leg up to the ceiling. I'm starting with my right leg here. We will step it forward. And meet in a low lunge. So if you had trouble stepping forward, Remember to release that judgment. Release the back toes to the floor. If you have blocks handy, Now's a good time to grab them. Blocks look like this. It's like a square. Rectangle shape. It just helps bring the floor to you. If you do not have blocks, You can grab a book or anything similar in shape that just helps bring the floor toward your hands. And if you don't have anything like that, There's no worries. I'll show you options without the blocks as well. But if you don't have those blocks yet, Feel free to pause and go grab them. We're going to be using the block in this sequence to help with stability. So my blocks are on either side of my front foot in this low lunge position. Play with the positioning of the blocks. Perhaps you start with the highest setting. What this does is it helps our body stay tall. With a strong and long spine. Observe your front shin. Notice if it's in a 90 degree angle. Vertical shin meaning your ankle and your knee are in line with each other. If that's not happening, Adjust your front leg, Adjust your back leg until you get closer to that position. And just notice how this feels. We're opening up through the hips. Still a little bit of our warm-up here happening. Now I'm going to give you some options and I use the word option because yes, They are completely optional. You could stay in the slow lunge position like we're in the whole time and focus on the opening of the hips. If you'd like to try this. Hands to heart center, A lot more balance happening now. You could always do one hand to heart center and the other hand on your block. Again, You can stay here. This is a lot. If you'd like to see what your body can do. Take your ribs. Rotate the ribs toward the inner thigh. Notice where your body stops. Thumbs to shoulders. Expand outward. A lot's happening here. Legs on fire, Body on fire. You might have expected that you could have twisted more. Let go of that expectation. Whatever twist you have is the perfect twist. Take your hands back to heart center. If you chose to twist, Come back to neutral. Hands to the blocks if you have them. Shift it back. Release tension. Maybe you lift the front toes off the floor. If you don't have blocks, You can always just place your hand on your upper thigh as well. Oh, Beautiful counter pose here. Coming forward onto the foot, Tuck the toes in the back, Lift your hips up, And adjust that back foot until the heel meets the floor. I'm going to move my front block so you can see the position of my legs. Straight leg, Soft knee. This is pyramid pose. If you don't have blocks. . . Hands can once again come to that front leg for support. If you have your blocks, They're up in the highest position most likely. We have a beautiful flat back. Moving toward the back of the mat while the heart shines forward, That opposition helps keep your back flat. The pyramid pose is a beautiful pose of release. Which is why I included it in our class about acceptance. It's a release, It's a surrender. But this triangular shape is also a symbol of strength. In this pose, We're going to invite another twist. Completely up to you. You can stay in pyramid the whole time if you prefer that. First option if you don't have blocks in your hands or on your thighs, We're just going to once again try to do that twisting motion by taking our opposite ribs moving them toward the inner thigh. You could hold this position and just hold the twist. If you'd like to. Arm comes out from the shoulder. Wherever it is. So this may not look like much of a twist. In your eyes. But we are still twisting. Harivrta Trikonasana, Revolved triangle. If you are doing this with a block, Move the block a little bit toward your inner foot. It doesn't have to come completely to the foot. And once again, We rotate. And bring the thumb to the shoulder before we expand. Beautiful breeze here. On our second breath, Bring the hand to the heart. Love and accept yourself for the shape you're taking right now. Wherever you are, I'd like to unravel you to unravel. To your pyramid, Whether that's on blocks or with your hands on your thigh. We're going to lift the back heel, Knee comes to the mat. Other knee comes to the mat as well, And then we'll sit back to a child's pose. Arms come forward. If you have blocks, Bring them inside the block. Beautiful job. Three full breaths here. Completely release. We'll bring our hands a little bit closer to tabletop position. Tuck the toes, Lift the hips back up to downward dog. This time we'll work on the other side. Take my left leg up. Step it forward, Replace the left hand if your step wasn't wide enough just like mine. Accept to bring it forward, Untuck the back toes. Notice if you have a vertical shin or not. Take some time to adjust. And then if you have blocks, You can use them, If not. We can hold on to that front knee. Beautiful, Sink into the hips. Notice the feelings on this side. Does it feel tighter? Does it feel more open? And just notice how it feels without judgment. Hands come to heart center if you'd like to move up one. Level of intensity. You don't have to. Honor what your body needs in this moment. And then if you'd like to introduce the twist, Guide your ribs over to the inner thigh. Hands at the heart. Thumbs to the shoulder if you'd like, Expand. Breathing. Think of this expansion as a symbol of you saying hello world, Here I am. This is me. Hands come to heart center, Guide your body back. To your low lunge and then as a relief sit your hips back. Either hands on the thigh or hands on the block. Lift your toes in the front. Mmhmm. Is moments of a counterpose, This release. At least for me, It fills me with gratitude that my body was able to do all that work and then the release is like a deep exhale. Feels so good. We're going to press back into the front leg, Tuck the back toes, Lift the hips to the sky, Adjust your legs so both heels can touch the floor. Feet are about hip distance apart. Pyramid pose. Find the stability here whether your hands are on your leg or your hands are on the block. If you find that you're not very stable, Bring your feet even further apart in terms of width. Hip distance with the legs. Staggered stance. You can continue to wiggle and adjust throughout this sequence if you'd like. Full permission, This is your practice. From here. We're going to introduce a twist if you want. You can always just keep this pyramid position. Either. From the thigh. Guiding your ribs toward the inner thigh. Hands here. Shoulder release if you'd like to do an extra arm, You could always just keep the hand on the leg Another option, If you have the block, Just bring it slightly closer to the foot. It doesn't have to come all the way to the foot. Again, Rotating through the ribs. We'll start with the thumb and expansion. Feeling the stretch in the outer thigh. And then finally, We'll place that hand on our heart. Love and acceptance in the shape we're in right now. One more breath here. On the next exhale unravel back to your pyramid moving the block back. Lift the back heel, Bend into that knee, Knees come together, Sit back. Child's pose. Beautiful work. Three full breaths here. Last one. From here, Walk your hands a little bit closer to your knees, Come to a kneeling position, Just so that if you have blocks you can move them out of the way. And then we will tuck our toes and meet in downward dog once again. Just as a transition to standing, So a deep bend in the knees, Walk your hands toward your feet. We're also going to move our blanket out of the way if you have that under your knees. And then bend the knees, Roll up to a nice standing position. Shake it out a little bit. We're about to do a little bit of a balance series. Something that can help you is maybe doing the whole series by a wall so you can hold on to a wall. If you don't have access to a wall, I'm going to grab a chair. So you could have a chair handy or anything about this height to help with balance. If you're using a chair, Make sure that you have two rungs of the chair on the mat so that it doesn't slide away once you bear weight on it. Starting with one of my favorite poses which is chair, So hands, Feet. About hip distance apart and we're going to sit back into our heels. I'm going to turn sideways so you can see this shape. So sitting into the heels. Maybe you use the chair for extra support? Or you can have your hands at heart center. Pushing through the heels. Feeling fire, Energy in those thighs. You could also take chair with feet closer together if you prefer. We'll leave that up to you, Whatever you like. And we're going to introduce some movements here. So we're going to come up and expand. Exhale back to heart center. Expand and accept. Back to heart center. Great. Go again. One more time. We're going to hold chair, And we're going to keep that same expansion. So now we're going to accept. Our body is working really hard. Maybe we want to give up. Remind yourself that you're strong. Nice. Keep breathing. Last one. Inhale, Expand. Exhale, Hold for one more breath. And stand on up. Shake it out. Nice work. All right, Here comes our balance pose. So we're going to use our chair for support. We can always let go of the chair later if we prefer. Taking your left heel, Lift it up. And then turn that thigh out to the side. And attach the heel to the inner shin ankle area. Your knee? Might be more inward depending on how flexible you are in the groin area and that is completely okay. Tall spine. Press through the standing foot for stability. Hand to the chair for extra stability. And this can be your tree pose with a hand on the heart. If you'd like to lift the toes off the floor a couple of inches, Bringing the bottom of your foot, The sole of your foot to your calf. This is an option for you as well. Another option if you find that you are super flexy and you would like to take the foot up above the knee, You can. The only thing I'd like you to avoid, Please do not. Put that foot directly on the knee. An injury possibility. So if above the knee is not quite working for you today, Keep that foot directly on the calf. And here is our tree. Set the expectation now, Fully expect that you might fall out of this pose and know that it's okay. Balancing is an option that you don't have to take. You can always keep your hand here if that helps you. But if you fall out at any time. Come right back in. A symbol of resilience. Determination. Getting up after you fall down. Beautiful metaphor for life. If you like to, Arms can come up to the sky. Think of your arms as a funnel. Funneling in all the positive energy and the growth. As we move through life. One more breath here. Hands come back to heart center, Foot comes to the floor, Shake it out. I have one more balance challenge for you. Taking the same leg. That left leg lifted up. Half Mountain Pose, So I have the toes flexed, Balancing here with the chair for help or hands to heart center. If you'd like. Bend that leg and bring that foot forward. Ooh, Lots of work happening here. And then bring the thigh outward. And cross the ankle over the thigh, Figure four. Printing a letter four with our legs. He likes working hard. Last challenge, If you'd like to take it. I'm going to grab the chair for this. Bend into the standing leg, Intensify the hip stretch. Hand to the heart, Accept, Accept that feeling. Body's working really hard. One more breath. Ooh, Come up, Release that leg. And this time we're going to take a half forward fold. So hands into the hip crease, Just come halfway. Hands to the thighs, Maybe you shake the hips side to side a little bit. Beautiful. If you'd like to come a little bit deeper, You could. Up to you. Hands can come to the earth, Hands can have a rag doll. You can rock side to side. You can always stay halfway. Listen to what your body is calling for. If you chose to come further, Start to walk up your legs halfway first straight in the back. And then deep bend into the knees, Stand up straight. Beautiful. We're going to try the other side. So we'll move the chair first. Again, Remember Two rungs at least of the chair should be on your map. And we'll start with chair. So feet hip distance or closer. We're going to be sitting back into the heels, Keeping a flat back. Hands to heart center. Weight in your heels, See if you can lift those toes off the floor. Float them down to the mat. Hold the pose. And then we'll inhale, Expand. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Great work so far. Thank you. One more of these. Hold your chair pose. And we'll do the same expansion here, Inhaling. And exhale. Nice. Inhale again. Exhale, Legs on fire, One more. Hold here for one more breath. Accept that you can do this. And come up and release. Oh, Shake it out. Great job. Entering our tree pose. Hand to the chair for support. Right heel lifts off the earth. Moves toward your inner thigh. Hand half to heart center or on your heart. If you'd like to lift your kickstand, You can come to your calf or again you can come above the knee if you wish. If you're feeling adventurous. And this can come to heart center. If you're wiggling, Know that that is normal and accept that this is OK. Maybe this time our arms can expand outward. Or they can come back up to the funnel. Beautiful tree pose. If you come out, Come right back in. Hands to heart center, Bring that foot to the floor, Shake it out, Nice. All right, Our last balance challenge. Lift up that right leg, Half mountain pose. You can also balance here. I'm smiling because I think you know what comes next. Expand that leg forward. Great when we can giggle at our little. . . Wobbles. Bring it over to create the figure four, Foot above the knee or below the knee. Pushing down on the knee to open up the hip. And then if you'd like, Whether holding onto the chair or not. Bend, Bend, Bend, Bend. All of this is optional. Come up, Release. And one more forward fold, Pressing at your hip crease. Sending those hips back. Holding halfway or if you'd like to walk down the legs you can. You can also ragdoll. Deep bend into the knees, Walk up your legs. And stand, Roll the shoulders back. We're going to take the chair out of the way if you grabbed one or you can come back away from the wall if you prefer. Time to start our counter sequence. At the top of your mat, Big inhale up. Dive forward with the heart, Hands meet the earth, Knees come underneath you. Start by giving our spine a little bit of love. Cat-cow. Drop the belly button. Round up to the sky. Drop the belly button. Round up to the sky. Sinking our breath. One more. From here, We're going to walk out to puppy pose. Once again, Keep the hips lifted. Hands come forward. This time we're going to hold the pose a little bit longer than our warm-up. Take your left arm Come through the right arm into your rotation. Maybe you rest your head on the floor. Maybe you need a pillow. You can put a pillow there instead. Arm can come forward, Crawl forward. Feel the twist. One more breath here. Crawl those fingers back, Push against the floor, Lift up the head. Bring that arm forward. Sit back the hips to child's pose. This time we're going to introduce a side body stretch. Bring the right arm to meet the left. Walk the arms through center. Left arm meets the right side body stretch. Back to center in that child's pose. Lift up two tabletops. This time taking the right arm and threading it through the left. Walk that arm forward. Head meets the mat if it can or maybe it's resting on a pillow or a blanket. Lift up through your tailbone. Send energy forward through the fingertips. In both directions. Bring those fingertips forward and then press up. Out of your twists into your tabletop. We're going to cross our ankles behind us, Find a comfortable seat. You can reintroduce the blanket under your hips if you prefer. We're going to do a wide leg forward bend. So bringing our legs wide here. Here's another beautiful pose of acceptance. If you find that this is enough stretch for you, Feel free to stay here. You can also use blocks for this if it's helpful. Putting the blocks in front. And maybe using them almost as a way to reach a little bit further. My hips stay firmly in the earth. With my legs, My toes are pointed to the ceiling and active. And just see if you can use the blocks to crawl forward little by little. Any progress you make in this pose is beautiful progress. Feel the stretch in the inner thighs. Roll those shoulders back, Shine up through the heart. As you breathe, You might notice you can go deeper. And if you do, That's great. And if you don't, That's also great. One more breath. And on the exhale, Walk back in towards your legs. And then we're going to try to find a lying position. So coming to the short side of your mat, If you're not already there, Have a blanket handy. Move your blocks out of the way. And we're going to come down to a lying position. Our hip opener today is actually going to be reclined. So we're going to be doing reclined Baddha Konasana. Knees out to the sides. Feet together. If you need something underneath your knees, You can take a blanket. Roll it up in such a way that maybe your knees can then rest on it. You could also place blocks under each knee as well for extra stability. This pose. Is wonderful. Because we're letting the earth hold us. And gravity is helping do the work. By opening up our groin area. As our knees. Pull toward the Earth because of gravity. Just lay here and be. Nothing else left to do. If your to-do list floods into your brain. Push it aside. Except that for the next few minutes you are allowed to lay here and rest. Maybe come back to the breath. Notice how as you inhale, Your body expands upward. And as you exhale. It releases and comes back down. One more breath here. You I'm going to offer you one more pose. You can choose to take this pose or you could even find your final rest right now. So bring your knees back up to the ceiling. Bottom of your feet up to the sky. This is called legs up the wall. If you have access to a wall, This is a great pose to take at the wall because the wall then supports the back of your legs and it can be about the Russian flood of energy back to your heart center. You can also take a blanket. Or a blot. Underneath your lower back as you lift your legs. To intensify that feeling of the blood coming back to your heart. So take a few minutes in this pose as well if you wish. And then when you feel ready, And this is no rush, I'm going to provide you plenty of time. For both poses. But when you feel ready. You can release whatever pose you took as your final pose. And find your Shravasana. There's plenty of ways to take this pose, This final resting pose. You can have your feet flat on the floor, Knees pointed to the ceiling. You can lay flat like this without any props at all if that feels comfortable to you. If you have a blanket or a bolster and you'd like to slide that under your knees, Or even if your blocks are lower to the ground, The blocks can go under your knees. This helps with lower back and keeping the spine neutral. You could even take the entire resting period in the legs up the wall position we were in or lying on your side or seated. So for the next few minutes, I'm going to provide you some silence. And an opportunity to take whatever pose you'd like. And allow the practice to fully integrate into your body. Let the earth hold you. Remember any goals or intentions or anything that came up during this practice. And maybe consider how these aha moments can influence your life after you leave the mat. I'll let you get into your final resting pose and I'll see you on the other side to close out the class. You keeping your eyes closed. Start to come back to the earth by deepening your breath. Then perhaps you can invite some small movements into your body. Through the fingertips. And the toes. Those movements can eventually become larger, Perhaps moving through your wrists. Or your ankles. Rolling through the net. Maybe a big good morning stretch reaching the arms above your head. Legs reach out as well in opposing force. Lengthening the spine. And allow those movements to land you either on your favorite side in the fetal position or up in a comfortable seat. Wherever you land, Place both hands on your heart. I'm going to offer you a mantra. And I'd like you to silently say to yourself this mantra three times after I say it. I love. And accept myself. Unconditionally. I love and accept myself unconditionally. I love and accept myself unconditionally. Hold on to that for a moment. If you're in the fetal position, Take this moment now to come up to the comfortable seat we started class in. Keep both hands on the heart. And if it feels safe, Keep the eyes closed down. Inhale through the nose. Audible exhale, Let it go. We'll do that two more times. Inhale through the nose. Audible exhale. And our last inhale through the nose. Audible exhale. Find stillness for a moment. Swallowing your throat. Blink open the eyes. I hope you enjoyed this practice today. Peace to you. Thank you so much. I hope to see you soon in a class. Namaste.