Yoga Joy: Heart Opening Practice

Joy is the highest vibration of energy we can feel. This yoga practice invites us to experience the feeling of joy. After centering and a warm-up, we pose and we play, using postures that open the heart space and movement that taps into childlike energy to awaken joy.

This practice ends with a full 7-minute savasana to allow the practice to integrate physically and spiritually.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to my yoga class. My name is Ashley and I'd just like to start by saying thank you for choosing me to practice with today. Our practice today is going to focus on the themes of childhood joy and heart opening. So with our poses, We're going to invite a little bit of playful movement. And we'll also be taking some poses that encourage opening of the chest area to let in more joy and love into our hearts. So we are actually going to start our centering in a pose today rather than seated. And we're going to be doing what's called supported fish pose. If you have yoga blocks handy, This is a good tool to use for the pose. If you don't have yoga blocks you could use something similar to this in shape or in terms of the height and I would pick something that's maybe not too soft but also not uncomfortable and you'll see what I mean. So if you want to take a pause and go find something around the house maybe that fits that agenda you can. I'm going to show you how to set up the blocks in the meantime. One block will be in a flat position. The next block will be in a higher position, But not maybe not the tallest. And you can adjust based on your height. And the way we'll take this pose. Is you want the block that's flat underneath, So the back area of your heart. And then the other block will go kind of supporting your head. You might find that the block under your head is too high. You can also take this pose and have your head meet the floor with just one block underneath your back. So that's going to be up to you whether or not you want something under your head. Alternatively, If you have a blanket. Perhaps the blanket goes under your head. This has a little tiny pillow to help keep your head supported. In this pose we want our chest elevated so I started with the block on its longest side. If you find that the block isn't high enough to elevate your chest, You could always stack two. So I'm going to try this and see. It's too high for me. It kind of is I would probably need something to support my head in this position. So take some time and figure out the version of the pose that's going to fit you most. And then once you find it, You're going to lie here. And picture your heart opening. Knees can knock together if further apart doesn't feel great. You could also place those legs flat on the floor if you find that to be more comfortable. Lying in the supported position with our heart elevated. I'd like you to try and see if you could just bring a little bit of a smile to your face. And maybe consider how many times you've smiled today so far. And whether it's not a lot or many. Just notice what that number is. And with this class, You might ask yourself, How can I get myself to smile more in everyday life? Children smile and laugh, According to research, Hundreds and hundreds of times per day. And this class is going to help us ask ourselves, How can we awaken that spirit of the child in us? As you lie here and breathe, Notice your breath. Because we're in a reclined position, You might notice your stomach or diaphragm coming up and down as the breath comes in and out. Give yourself permission to expand. With every inhale. And fully exhale and release with every exhale. In this position, Picturing children running around outside at play. How their innocent, Playful energy can fill any space, Indoors, Outdoors, With such happiness and joy. Their emotions, Their happiness are contagious and you start smiling too. You and that warmth helps you feel as if everything's going to be okay. Follow your breath for about 10 more seconds. Together we'll swallow in our throats. And gently blink the eyes open. However you feel is comfortable. You can roll out sideways of your position. Use your elbows to come up to a seated position. I hope that centering was good for you and set the scene so that we can begin our practice together. Taking our block out of the way, We're going to be seated. So if you prefer to sit underneath a blanket, You can do so. We're going to start with our legs forward. This is called staff pose or dandasana. And in this position, I want us to focus on our posture. So lift the heart just like we had in supported fish pose, Lower the shoulders, Lift through the crown of your head. Feel how tall and radiant you are in this position. The more open we keep our chest, The more joy can flow in and stay. So that's going to be one of our focuses together. Shoulders relaxed mean that we feel safe and that safety allows us to feel that joy. Great work. We're going to cross our ankles, Coming to a tabletop kneeling position. If you'd like to put the blanket under your knees, You can. From here, We're actually going to start with an opening for the front of the thighs or the quadriceps. And it's going to be a pose called Varasana. It's sitting on our knees. So if this is uncomfortable for you, You can always take a block, A blanket, Rolled up blanket, A pillow, And put it in between. Where your sits bones would end up. So now we have like a supported. Pose here. My glutes are sitting on the block and the block is in a wide position under my legs here. Pillows work too, Rolled up blankets work too. And if this is enough opening for the front of the legs, You can stay here. If you want to try a little bit more. Think about your tailbone shifting toward the front. As you walk your hands back, Supta Varasana. Still staying upright, You don't have to go far. The intensity of the pose happens when you shift your tailbone forward. Toward the front legs. As soon as you make that shift, That stretch intensifies. Opening up the front of the legs is going to help us when we do our gentle backbend later. Because you're opening up through the front body from the chest all the way down to the thighs. So opening up the front thighs will help with the intensity of our backbend, Allowing us to open the heart. Few more breaths in this position. Feeling the opening. One more breath. With every breath, The legs open a little bit further. And gently walk those hands forward toward the back of the leg. And we can remove the block. Counter-pose because that was a little bit much for a warm-up, I agree. Sit back into child's pose. Extend those arms forward. Give yourself some love in this position. Maybe you want to rock the hips side to side. We stitch the front, We stitch the back. Lubricating as we move. Readying our body, Our muscles, Our fascia. For the movement and the poses ahead. And a little bit more lubrication, Let's come up to tabletop. Knees under the hips. Sink that belly button down for cow. Tuck that chin, Tuck the tailbone forward, Round the back for cat. Sinking breath, Inhale on the cow. Exhale on the cat. As their belly sinks low, Fill it up with air. And then push that air out to create the hollow space inside the cat pose. Two more of these. And our last one. Neutral spine here. A little bit of pretend. Remember I said we were going to capture the spirit of a child? Let's wag our tails side to side. So it's a little bit of a hip shake, But it means something totally different. You just start giggling if you think about your dogs shaking your tail or wagging it side to side, Right? I hope you smiled, Because that's the point. And if you still that movement, Maybe you can also kind of put your head side to side. Nothing crazy. Shake the bottom, Shake the top. Maybe roll it out in this position, Roll it out side to side, Just getting rid of any tension in the neck. And quiet that movement, Beautiful. Let's tuck our toes, Lift our hips high to the ceiling on the theme of dogs, Downward facing dog. Walking the dog by Healing. One at a time down to the mat. Or perhaps you prefer stillness that works too. Find stillness in the pose. Deep bend in the knees, Maybe you lift your heels, Walk back toward your feet. Roll up slowly. Shoulders back, Lift up that heart. Maybe a little shake. Get the blanket out of the way if you had it under your knees. And we're going to begin with our first pose. We're going to start with building some heat. So first standing in stillness so we can have a little bit of contrast to dasana. Feet can be together or maybe slightly apart. Rounding into the feet. Rolling the inner thighs back slightly. Tuck the tailbone underneath the hips. Shoulders roll down and back. Open the heart. Wrists are heavy. One inch below the belly button in and up to activate the core. Build a strength and mountain post. And place one hand on your heart. Maybe put that smile on your face. We'll come back here after everything stays hard. We'll come back here after some heart poses just to check in with ourselves. And come back to the body. Let's start with our first heart pose. All right, Standing at the top of your mat. We're gonna do a little bit of heat building with ukatasana or chair. So sitting back into your heels. Pretending there's a chair behind you, Hands at heart center. What we're going to do here is we're going to get creative with the arms. So we're going to open up wide. And then back to center. Staying in the pose open and wide. And back to center. Great. Open up wide. Center. Open up wide one more time. Picture our children playing. Pretend maybe you're a monster. Hands come back to center, Standing up straight. Beautiful. We're gonna do it one more time. Maybe we do a little bit of a different arm variation, Sitting back into chair. This time. We're gonna open up Diagonal. And back to center. Great. Open up. Yes, Alternate. Think this time about taking your heart space and opening it up even wider. Legs are on fire but you're worrying about the arms right now so maybe you're not thinking about that so much. One more. Beautiful hands to heart center all the way up. One more time, I have something fun planned. Sit back into your chair. We're going to take the arch, Our arms forward, Pull back, Release. Other side, Pull back and release. Yes, Pull back, Release. Great job. You got it. Two more. Last one. Yes, Hands to heart. Come up. Beautiful. Reach up. Dive forward. Here's a little reward. Uttanasana. Forward fold. Wrap your arms if that feels comfortable. You can ragdoll this. If you prefer to stay halfway, You can always just stop here. Use this moment to release. Deep bend in the knees, Release the arms, Roll up slowly, Push against the floor. Roll out those shoulders, Great job. Alright, A little bit more. Of opening up and shaking it out. Empty coat sleeves. So there's really no technique to this. We just kind of shift our weight back and forth. Pretend you got some coats with giant sleeves. And there's something inside, You're emptying them out. That they become empty. Let the arms hit you. Notice how that feels. Maybe you feel a little bit of a release. And slowly quiet down. All right, From movement to stillness, We're going to go to a balance pose. If you prefer to have something by you for balance, You could grab a chair. I'm going to grab one right now. You could grab a chair or anything really that. . . You can hold on to. And have it. Just make sure whatever you have is a chair. You have two rungs on the mat so that it doesn't slip away from you. So for tree pose, And you can, Didn't I say we were going to do tree pose? We're doing tree pose. For tree pose, You can choose to use the balance, Not use the balance, Have it nearby, Never use it. So I'll leave that up to you. Shifting into the right leg, Left toes lift high. Taking your foot turning the thigh outward. Holding it there. And if you prefer, You can keep the kickstand, My toes are still on the floor, And this could be your tree. Is a great balance because you are really only looking at one foot and then tiny bit of toes on the floor. Still a balanced pose. If you'd like to venture up, Foot can either go on your calf above the knee. We want to avoid. . . The knee area because that's a possible injury. If you don't have the flexibility for above the knee, Keep it below the knee. Beautiful. Hand at heart center if the other one is using the chair for balance. You could also do a little bit of testing it out seeing how you feel. And then perhaps coming to heart center. And if you wobble, That is expected. That is okay. Give yourself grace. You think about it, When the wind comes, The tree moves with the wind. You move with the wind as well. So if we're thinking about pretend, Maybe you have some limbs. Maybe you become the tree. You have limbs as arms. And yeah, Maybe they move in the wind. Of course, If we start moving, It makes balancing a little more difficult. So maybe it's one limb. Right, Moving in the breeze. The more we do this unplanned movement, The more your body understands that it's not that serious, Right? Beautiful. There is no perfect way to hold a pose. However you hold it, That is the perfect way. Hands can come back to heart center. Bring your feet back down. And again, Empty clothes sleeves. Shake it out. That was a lot of work. Great job. If you had your chair for balance, You can change the direction of the chair, Move it to the other side, Or you could flip around and just listen to my voice. Completely up to you This time we'll be taking that right foot toward the leg, Knee outward. Heel touching the ankle, Toes on the floor. Breeze. This time I'm giving you something else to think about. We've been talking in Mountain Pose about belly button in and up. Do that here and feel how much more stable you might feel in the pose. If you'd like to lift your toes off the ground, There it is. And of course, You can come above the knee if that's something you'd like to try today. Hand at heart center. Find stillness first. Looks great. Maybe the other hand can come to meet it. And maybe we have some limbs. Moving with the wind. Maybe the limbs are moving, Maybe it's a magic tree. Move in ways that your body's calling for. It doesn't have to be like me. Maybe it's just moving here. It's whatever your body wants right now. And if you're not feeling it, Stillness works too. Maybe you can come up here. We're back to heart center. One more breath. If you're wiggling, That's okay. And release the legs, Empty coat sleeves. Nice job. If you brought your chair nearby, We're going to take that chair and put it out of the way. And next, We're going to take a power pose. We're going to take a warrior pose. So step into the top of your mat, Whichever side you prefer. Stepping back with the left leg, Heel on the ground, Toes at 11 o'clock in the back leg, And the back heel is at six o'clock. So toes at 11, Heel at six. Shoulders down and back. Arms to heart center, Legs working hard. Extra stability. Belly button in and up. And today let's bring those arms either here or if your shoulders allow you. Above the head. Warrior One. That's you. Still playing pretend here. With our flow, We're going to straighten the front leg open and then bend back in, Arms up. Or if you're doing the open and arms forward, Open here, Arms forward. You could even do a combination of the two, Open and close. Open and close. Yes. Beautiful. Perhaps you'd like to visualize playing as a warrior. Whatever that means, Whatever type of warrior you are. Inhale on the expansion, Exhale when the arm close. One more cycle through. And now we're going to hold. So wherever your clothes was, Whether it was above your head or in front of you. Hold it. Feel the strength and stability in your legs, Your core. We're going to take our arms to heart center and straighten out the front leg. We're going to bring blocks nearby, I think two. You can also do this without blocks, But I'll demonstrate with and without. So blocks coming. Either side of your front leg. You can also get out of the pose and come back in if necessary. From here, Front leg is straight. We're still in that warrior stance with the back foot. Heel at 6, Toes at 11. Put your hands in your back pockets. This is going to allow you to do a slight back bend, Opening up the heart area. And then from here, I'd like you to hinge from the hips, So maybe you put a finger or thumb on your hip crease. Push that back. And lean forward. You can keep your hands here. If you don't have blocks, You can also put your hands on your front thigh for stability. If you do have blocks, You can reach for them, Keeping a flat back. Pyramid pose. With this pose. We're thinking about opening the back of the heart. We tend to focus on the front of the heart. Often? But our heart also has a back. So in this pose, I'd like you to picture. Either green or pink energy flowing from the back where the heart would be. It's just kind of vibrating in that space. Cycling in and out of your body. This is a beautiful hamstring stretch as well. Breathe into those hamstrings, Breathe into those calves, Those shins. To come out of the pose, Let's bend into the front leg and step the other foot to meet it. And then all the way up to standing. Beautiful. We can probably keep the blocks where they are. Maybe you bring your feet a little bit further apart. We must do the other side, Stepping back with the right leg. Heel at six, Toes at one o'clock in the back. Front leg we want a vertical shin so you might want to Wiggle your toes, Move your legs a little bit. Push the mat apart with your feet, But also stabilize with the core, One inch below the belly button, In and up. Hands at heart center. Starting here, Feel the stability of your feet, The power of your legs, The power of your core. And then we're going to start a cycle through the flow. So arms will come forward. We're going to expand. And contract you can start with the front. If you like to explore. Coming up, You can do all of your reps to the sky, All of your reps to the front. Or a combination of the two, And it doesn't even have to be even. We're exploring, We're playing. Again, It's not so serious, Right? It doesn't have to be every other one. We come up and forward. Just feel how your body moves in this space at this time. Inhaling and exhaling on the contraction. Make this your last one and we'll hold the pose. Your powerful warrior self. Great job so far. We'll straighten the front leg, Arms can come back down to heart center. Hands in back pockets so start with a little bit of a back bend opening up the heart area and then if you'd like to take a karate chop or a thumb to your hip crease Allow your hips to sit back. As we take pyramid, Hands can be resting on your front thigh for support. Or reaching down for the blocks. Once again, Picturing. The pulsating light of your heart balancing on your back. Perhaps on this side you notice that you're more or less flexible. Know that it's all okay. Two more breaths here. Enjoy the stretch. To come out of the pose, Bend into the front leg, Meet the back foot to meet the front. And from here, If you have blocks, Walk it forward a little bit, Just a little bit extra stretch here in uttanasana forward fold. You can also hand to the legs or ragdoll once again if that's what you prefer. Bend into the legs and safely up to standing. Beautiful. Maybe a cleansing breath here. Arms up. Hands to heart center. And like I said, We'll come back to mountain pose. So let's do hand to heart, Other palm down. Notice in your body places where you might be clenching. Maybe it's your jaw, Maybe it's your glutes. Soften. Release those shoulders even lower than they were. Close down the eyes if it feels safe. Notice how your body feels. I'm sure by now the legs are singing. Vibrating pulsing. That feeling is your legs getting stronger. In your heart opening. I hope you feel that pulsing in your heart space. Blink open the eyes to reawaken. We have one more heart opener to take together. So if you have your blocks here, I want you to maybe move them out of the way. At the top of our mats, We're going to do a big inhale up. And lead with your heart forward. Bend in the knees, Hands come to the earth. Stepping back, Knees to the mat. And if you'd like to have something under your knees, You could do that here. I'm going to just skip that and come down to my stomach. So we're going to be taking Cobra pose. There's actually a lot of cues that go into doing Cobra correctly, And I want to help you with that today. So the first thing I want us to do is we're going to take Sphinx pose. Sphinx pose is when you're on your forearms. It's a little bit more supportive than Cobra. It's not as intensive a back bend. If you find that this is enough for you today, Every single time I suggest Cobra, I'd like you to take Sphinx instead. But in Sphinx, I want us to notice the position of our hips and feet. People are often thinking about the upper body here because that's where the movement's happening, But the foundation of our legs and feet actually help us take the backbend further if we'd like to. So, With your legs, I'd like you to rotate. Both legs inward. To ensure that all 10 toes are resting on the floor. The position of your legs, The wideness of your legs, Is going to depend on the wideness of your hips. So I'd like you to experiment wider, Narrower, What feels the best, And what allows your lower back to not feel any tension here. The next thing we'll think about is our glutes. In this position, Some of us may clench. I want you to release the glutes. That's going to protect your lower back as well. And with this position, Take your elbows. Pull them toward your abdominals or your ribcage. And that allows your heart to shine forward a little bit further. This movement of coming forward and then pushing up helps us decompress our spine so that we don't compress as we come up into Cobra, Causing possible back pain. So I think that's everything we need to talk about. We're going to come down. And the first pose we'll take is sphinx, Because I want us to take all of those cues and apply them in a way that's the safest. So what we're going to do is you're going to use your forearms on the ground to shift your heart forward and then up. So creating that decompression before we come up to the back bend. Allowing your heart to shine open. Picturing maybe that pink or green light again, Now radiating out from the front. Beautiful. One more breath. And then taking a break down. With poses like backbends, We don't hold them as long because it can be a lot for strength in back, Of course. So this time, If you'd like to go a little bit further into Cobra, Your arms will come back a little bit. The closer your hands are to your midline or your waist area, The more intense the back bend will be. So I recommend starting a little bit closer to the armpits. Elbows will always be tucked into your sides. If you decide you'd like to take Cobra, Using your wrists, Pull them toward your ribcage, Forward, And then press up. As you press up, Notice your glutes. Are they clenching? Release them. And if you find that you can't release them, Come down about 25%, See if they'll release. Depending on the length of your torso, Depending on injuries, Depending on all kinds of different things, Your backbend might be really upright or maybe not so much. My backbend is not so much. One more breath. And take a break. This time we're going to take a counter pose. So pressing into the knees, Sit back to child's pose. That was a lot on our wrists. So maybe you take a moment to rest on your forearms, Roll out your wrists. I'd like us to try two more, Either Cobra or Sphinx. And then we'll start with our counter sequence for the class today. Maybe some stillness in child's pose just for a breath or two. And then gently walk forward back to your right. Prone position. All right, So again, Adjusting your legs, Rolling them inward, All 10 toes on the floor. Relaxed glutes here, Hands by your armpits or maybe a little bit further back. Wrists press into the floor, They pull toward your ribcage, Heart moves forward and then up. Elbows in toward your spine. You should feel them tucking against your ribcage. And picture that radiant energy shining from your heart space. And release. We're going to take the pose one more time. If you'd like to release your hands a little bit, You can. Maybe do a little bit of this. Wake up your legs. Ensure all 10 toes are on the floor. Wrists engaged with the floor. Roll the shoulders back, Move forward. And up. Last Cobra. Three breaths here. Elbows tuck in. Last one. And release down. Beautiful. Release the hands push back to child's pose but once again maybe rest on your forearms here Roll out those wrists. Nice work. We're going to come to tabletop. And this is a moment where, Yes, You could probably bring that blanket back. A little bit of restorative work on our knees. So here we're going to actually take thread the needle. So I want you to picture your arm here in the back. As a needle, It's gonna thread through the underarm area to give yourself a little bit of a spinal twist here, But it's more restorative. So if you find that you can't meet the floor, You could always stop on a forearm. Here's a version that you could take. If your body allows you to come all the way down, You can. Arm can come forward. For extra stability, Or if you find that keeping it bent here works better for you, You can also do that. Hips are lifted. Giving our back a little bit of love. Our poses today have great visualizations to help understand what the poses are. One more breath here. And we'll bring that arm slightly back, Maybe a little steps, Right? Back off the tabletop. From here, We're going to thread the other side. So taking this arm now. Threading it through starting with the forearm and then stages. Coming down, Down, Down to the floor. Maybe the arm reaches forward. Maybe the arm comes back for stability and presses straight down. Feeling it opening in the shoulders. And then unravel. Up to your tabletop once again. Finding a seated pose. We're gonna take Baddha Konasana, It's butterfly pose. So taking our feet. Placing them together. If your knees don't touch the floor, Blocks are handy to help bridge that gap. So I invite you to do that. You can also do pillows, Rolls up blankets. From here, Just gentle rock side to side. Thinking about kids sitting in circle time. Singing along to any childhood song of your choice. In my brain right now, It's wheels on the bus. Maybe the side-to-side movement gets a little bit more organic. It doesn't have to be so side-to-side, Straight forward and back. Slow, Fast. What's your body calling for right now? If you allow your eyes to close down. And then find stillness here. If you close your eyes, Maybe open them up. Hands to the heart. Inhale and expand. Exhale, Release. Inhale, Expand with the arms. Exhale back to the heart. As we expand, Hard energy expands. And back to the heart. Great job. Maybe on this last one we smile. Inhale. And back to the heart. Yes, Great job. Okay, Last thing before we come into our Shavasana for the day. Blocks can come out of the way. We are going to roll onto our back. If you have your blanket under you, Maybe you slide it out and have it nearby for when we do Shavasana. Rolling down on our backs. Hip opener for the day, Happy baby. So taking those knees. Toward your armpits. Rocking side to side. You can also grab thighs, Calves, Back of the knees, Whatever is available to you. Just rock. Beautiful somatic movement here. Once you've had enough here, You can take any pose that I may have forgotten that you'd like to take today. Otherwise, Hug your knees into your chest. And then finally, Expand into your final pose. Final pose. Is our resting pose shavasana. It can be lying on your back. It could be feet flat on the earth with knees lifted. If you prefer to have a blanket or a bolster under your knees, You can slide it underneath. Place it there. Come back here. If you really liked the supported fish pose, You could place a block under your heart to further intensify the opening of that heart space. And I'll give you a choice. You can either open wide here. Or place one or both hands on your heart. To remind yourself of the focus of our practice today. Take this moment to fully surrender into the earth. Letting our practice integrate into the body. I'm going to provide you a few minutes of stillness and silence. Take it as you like. Once that Shavasana period is over, I'll invite you back in and we'll close our class. You you you Gently bringing your body back to the earth. Starting with deepening your breath. Inhales and exhales even. Inviting movement into the body. Fingertips, Toes start to move. Maybe wrists and ankles start to move as well. Rock your neck back and forth. Create facial expressions to wake up the face. Maybe find that smile that we've been practicing all class. Once you've had enough movement, I'd like you to either roll on your favorite side and find the fetal position. Or come up to this comfortable seat with me. Taking a moment to come back to. Your goal, Your intention, Or anything that came up for you during class. Hold it in your heart. And hold it as your truth. And think about how this feeling, This joy, Can be brought off the mat and into your everyday life. How can we invite that energy of children at play? Into an everyday life as an adult. How can we smile as much as a child does? If you were on your side, I'd like you to slowly and gently roll up to the comfortable seat. And once you're there, Place both hands in your heart. Pause and notice your heart beating. Together, We're going to take a collective inhale through the nose, Expand. And audible exhale, Sigh it out. One more time, This time when we expand, Arms come out wide. And on the exhale, Arms come back to the heart. And on the last one, Our arms come up, Inhale up to the sky. Hands to heart center, Meeting in prayer. Swallowing your throat. Blink your eyes open and maybe put a smile on your face. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you liked this class. I hope you feel great. I hope you found an opportunity to smile. And I hope to see you very soon. Namaste.