Breathe And Bend Hatha Yoga Full-Hour Class

Equal breath, bending, and movement.

Props needed: Blanket for knee padding (if desired), a block for sitting.

Please work at your own level.

Participation is subject to and governed by English law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.

Transcript

Welcome to today's session. We're going to start supine. So just finding your way down to that comfortable place. And just allowing for everything to kind of settle down. So maybe take a nice big sigh and really land where you are. Just allowing yourself to. Let go of what's happened so far in your day and just come into that place where you just can rest down for a few moments. Let's allow for that sense of the heaviness of the body to rest down. Maybe take in some inhales and exhales, Some nice. . . Easy breaths without too much effort, Just drawing in a little bit more spaciousness into the body. And on the exhale, Just allowing everything to soften down. Maybe taking our awareness from the external world, The busyness. Of the external. Perhaps bringing it to that sense of the internal. Maybe just noticing your breath. That was noticed in the rise and fall of your breath. Perhaps noticing the sensation of the inhale and the exhale. Let's allow for our next few breaths to feel like we're really drawing in. That sense of spaciousness. Let me exhale. Maybe letting go of any tension. Anything we don't want to keep with us for our practice today. Nice inhales. And exhales. And with your next exhale, Taking your awareness down to your feet. Just noticing how feet feel today. Up to our ankles and our calves and shins, Checking in with those. Taking the awareness to our thighs. Maybe notice. Any sensation in the thighs, Perhaps feeling them resting down onto the earth if legs are outstretched? Then taking our awareness to our hips. And pelvis, Just checking in there. Allowing the awareness to move around the back of the body. To the lower back and then around the sides of the waist to the front of the body. To a solar plexus just above our belly button. Taking that awareness up to the chest, To the heart. Centre, The centre of the chest. Wrapping around the rib cage to the back of the body and all the way up the spine. And allowing for that awareness to move down to our fingers and our hands. Forearms, Elbows, And to the tops of our arms. All the way up to our shoulders. Cross the upper back and the. . . Top part of the chest. And then. . . To the back of the neck, The sides and the front of the neck near the throat. Up to our lower jaw. And then to the base of the skull at the back of the head. And then letting that awareness move all the way up the head, Past the back of the head, The ears, The feature of the face, All the way to the very top of the head. And then. . . Let's bring our awareness back to our breath. From here. If you wish, We're going to work with a few equal breaths, Samavritti. So on the inhale, Maybe you'd like to draw that breath into the count of four. And exhale to the count of four. If four feels too long you can make each breath shorter. If it feels too short you can make each breath longer. Just allowing that breath to draw in. And to leave. Eight core lengths with the inhale and the exhale. As you work with this pranayama, It's a really nice one for allowing people Mind. And body to start to settle a little. Let's take a couple more breaths this way, The inhale. And the exhale. Equal in length, Bringing us to a place of. . . Balance, A place of equilibrium. One more breath this way. And then let's just gently release that awareness of the breath and that equal length breath on the inhale and the exhale. And if the legs are outstretched, Let's bend the knees. And we're going to start to take just a gentle movement through the spine. So taking the arms either into a big T-shape with palms facing up shoulder height or cactus arms, Let's allow knees to just gently start to exhale and sway to one side. Inhale through to center and then exhale let's take them over to the other side so we're just going to work with our breath And maybe just noticing how this movement feels for us. Maybe we've been doing a lot of sitting today and perhaps this feels nice. Or even doing a lot of stand in this might feel nice. Perhaps we've been doing something that's made us move a lot today. So perhaps. It's welcome to slow down for our body. Let's take another couple of these. He's going to the point that feels good for you. And then when you're ready, Coming back to neutral. Now, When we've found neutral, We're going to have those knees in towards the chest. We're going to have hands between the thighs and the calves or around the shins, Allowing the head to relax down. Let's take a little rock from side to side, Keeping that little length through the spine. And when you're here, You may like to allow for the whole of the back of the body to relax down. Maybe feel like it's melting into the earth, Almost kind of like wax melting. And as you do this, You might notice the sensations of a little bit of a massage going on in the back of the body. If you do feel like you want a little bit more space anywhere, By all means do direct your breath there and feel like you're breathing that space into the body. So whatever feels good for you. And then When we've done just a couple more rocks. We're ready. Let's find our way back to neutral. From here. Bringing the feet down to the earth. We're going to lengthen legs out. We're going to have a nice big stretch. So when you're ready, Arms can reach overhead. Let's point to the toes. Sorry, I always yawn when I stretch. Feeling that length through the front to the legs, Front to the body. And then let's push hamstrings or heels away, Stretch through hamstrings. Again, That little stretch. And then when we feel ready to, Let's release that stretch. Oh, Really good. From here, We're going to allow knees to bend once more. Drawing those knees into the chest once again. One hand onto each knee. We're going to work a little bit into our hips now. So when you're ready, Let's allow for the big toes or the big toe joints to stay together. We're going to allow knees to widen apart. Inhale as they move away from the body. Exhale, Bring knees back together as we draw them in towards the body. So a little bit of solar plexus engagement will help us here. That will just keep the body nice and stable. As we work with that nice, Gentle hip movement. So it's always good to. . . Take a few movements before we come to a cross-legged or seated position. Just so that we're kind of easing into our head. Take another few movements. And then let's change direction. So on the inhale, Knees stay together and push away. Exhale, They come wide and come back to the body before they push away again. Just circling the other way. Really nice. This can be quiet. Nice big movement you can make it a little smaller if that feels good for you Just moderate into what feels right for you today. Then maybe taking a couple in the first direction if that feels. . . Like it's something that's going to be good. And then allowing for those knees to rest into the body with one hand on each knee. Now from here, We're going to get a little bit of a massage into that lower back. So just keeping these together, We're just going to stir them around in little circles. And you might feel that bony kind of triangular part in the lower back, That sacrum. Just getting a little bit of massage around that area on the earth. And it might feel good. It might feel a little tender. Show me what feels right so we don't have to go hard with this. We can go slow. We can breathe into it. And then let's change direction. Really good. Gently going the other way. Really not. And then once more in the first direction. Coming back to neutral and from here we're going to either rock and roll tailbone to crown the head or you can roll to one side and we're going to find our way up to seated so however you choose to get there just finding your way there maybe you want to pop yourself onto the edge of a block to see what feels good so from here Sitting bones rooted down, Either onto our block or onto the earth. And we're going to take a little bit of a lateral movement today. So when we're ready, We're going to think about growing tall with our lateral movements. We're going to climb our rope. So let's allow one arm to reach up and really feel that length through the side of the body as if we're getting really, Really tall. And then we can allow that arm to come down. We're going to work with the other side, Reaching up, Find that length. Exhale. So I'm gonna keep climbing for a moment. Just really feeling that length. From sitting bone to fingertip. On the inhale. Exhale, Allowing it to gently come down. And as we work with this movement, Just knowing even though we're lengthening through one side, It means the other side has to contract. So we're working those muscles into the opposite side of the body. They're having to do quite a lot of work. Even though it just feels like we're just stretching. Really good. Let's take two more. Each slide really nice. And then taking our last side. And then allowing those arms to just relax down and maybe we feel a little longer through body. So from here, Let's change across the legs if that feels OK for us to do. And we're going to come to a twist. So when we twist today, We're not going to use hands to help us round. We're just going to use all of those muscles around the spine. So let's allow hands to come to the heart and at the front of the body, I should say. Nice, Soft shoulders. Let's inhale. Get really, Really tall. So really extending up through the crown of the head. And on the exhale, We're going to take a little twist. Doesn't matter which way we go. Inhale, Coming back to neutral. Exhale, Let's take it over to the other side. Inhale. Back to center. So let's keep working with our breaths. I'm really focusing on that sense of the sitting bones. Really grounding down through the earth. Lovely stuff. Really nice and then let's take one more in each direction you know which way you started so we're going to work equally each side and then let's gently come to Neutral. So from here, We're going to allow for those wrists to start to kind of flow around. So we can just give them a little bit of a. . . Blomp around one way. Maybe interlacing fingers if that feels good. Perhaps that gets a little bit more into wrists. And then let's take it the other way. Click, Click, Click. Save my rest. And then we're going to shake this off. Taking our arms off. And from here we're going to take cactus arms so let's come into our cactus arms and we're going to squeeze fists stretch out hands squeeze fists stretch out hands and we're just going to keep doing this for a little bit So we look like we're kind of blinking. Our hazard lights on. Lovely. So just working steadily. This isn't so comfortable if you have long nails. Don't injure yourself in the palms. Really good. And then we can shake that off a little. And then from here, We're going to come to a nice kind of stretch through the wrists. Now, Any wrist injuries just go mildly with this. So let's allow ourselves to bring our hand out, Going to stop traffic. And then with the other hand, You may want to just place the palm across the palm and just encourage it a little back. But we're not going to tug. We're just going to feel a little bit of resistance. Nice, Relaxed shoulder. Let's breathe here. Really nice. So it's just a gentle stretch, Not going to force anything. And some people have very flexible wrists. Some people less flexible. I'm in the latter category. And then let's allow for that. Hand come down. I'm going to do the same. So just a little gentle hand onto the back of that hand. Maybe just feeling that encouragement. So fingertips towards the floor. With that first hand. Really nice let's take a breath here That's it. And then release in that hand. We can give it a shake. Going to work the other side. So stopping traffic. Once again, Fingertips towards sky. Maybe allowing the other hand to just give it a little encouragement and again we're not forcing anything nice soft shoulder Just breathe in here. Really good. And then bringing the hand to neutral and just bringing the back of the hand so that it's facing forwards, Fingertips towards the earth. And again, Allowing for the other hand to maybe give it just a little bit of stretch. Really nice. And then Let's release. Get some good shake. Lovely. So from here, We're going to find our way into tabletop. So if you do want to pad your knees, Please do. We're going to work with some of our. . . Regular cat cow. If you prefer to take cat cow seated, By all means, Please do see how it works for you today. Now I'm going to get you to make sure you've got a little bit of space behind you, But we don't need a massive amount of space. We're not going to do tiger stretch. We're going to do some little donkey kicks today just to get a little bit of work happening into our glutes. Just for fun, I was going to say. Just because, I should say, Just for fun. Oh, I hate people like me. So let's allow for those knees to be underneath hips. Hands can be underneath your shoulders. They might be further forwards. They might be further out. If we know that we hyperextend into our elbows, Let's keep that softness there, Perhaps spreading our fingers out. I'm going to invite you maybe to close the eyes. We're all familiar with our cat cow. So let's inhale. Sitting bones tilt up. Tummy can drop down. Space between shoulders and ears. Maybe lifting the chin a little bit. Keep that length through the back of the neck. On the exhale, Sitting bones tilt down towards the earth, Drawing belly button up towards the sky. Maybe have a look towards the knees. Or towards your belly button. So stay working with this breath. Really nice. And just taking it. To the point that feels good but also allowing for the movement to last as long as your breath. We're not going to cut that breath short. So we're thinking about breath and bend. And if you wish, You may want to come to your equal breath. Like we worked when we were Settle in that. Inhale to the count of four or whatever count felt good and then match in that count with your exhale. So stay in with those breaths. And maybe you want to feel like you're really pushing the hands, Shins, Feet, Knees down onto the earth to get that rebound. Feeling of the energy coming up into the body might allow you to feel like you're getting a little bit more of a back bend and forward bend if you wish. Let's take two more. Exhale. One more nice inhale. At length through the front of the body. Exhale, Length through the back of the body. And then inhaling, Come into neutral. I'm going to invite you to come to child's pose, Whichever version you want, Or whatever pose feels good for you. We can come to seated if it feels better. So if you come into child's pose, Maybe taking the knees wide if that feels good. Drawing those hips back. And maybe you want to stack the fists, Let the head rest onto the hands, Perhaps your head comes down to the earth. Maybe you want to give the wrists a little bit of a rub just to ease into wrists. We did warm up into wrists, But sometimes when we're weight-bearing, It can be. . . Quite nice just to release them so from here we're going to take some nice steady breaths let's inhale find space into the body into the rib cage the sides of the body the back the front of the body if we feel there's space there's any tension anywhere can we release that tension Nice inhales. And exhales. Let's take another couple of breaths here And then when we're ready, We're going to find our way up to that tabletop position once more. So let's realign if our knees went wide for a child's pose. Let's have them underneath the hips once more. And from here, We're going to tuck both feet under, So toes tucked under. We're going to work with a little bit of a donkey kick now. So we will be lifting one leg. So if you need extra padding, Please, By all means, Arrange that now. Solar plexus is going to engage. So we're not going to come into a back bend when we do this. We're going to stay nice and level. So the work that's going to be happening is going to be into our glute. That's our big, Big muscle, Biggest muscle in the body. So when we're ready, Let's take an inhale. And on our next exhale, We're going to allow one leg, Doesn't matter which leg, To come up, Keeping it bent, Knee only comes to body height. Bring it down. Really nice. Going to go twice more. Exhale, Kick up. Inhale, Bring it down. Keep that solar plexus engaged. Exhale, Kick up, Glute engages. Inhale bringing that knee down i'm going to go the other side swapping over take an inhale solar plexus still engaged exhale knee kicks up Inhale down. Exhale, Kicking up. Inhale down. One more. Exhale, Kicking up. Inhale down. And then from here, We're going to allow ourselves to draw back just momentarily if that feels good. And then we're going to find our way up. To a high kneeling position. So I'm just going to move my padding. Because I need to face the front for this one. So we're going to work into a little bit of a side bend. We're going to come to gate pose today. Gate pose, Really quite a nice length in through the side body pose. So when we're ready, Let's allow for those feet to come down. We can do this seated if you prefer, Or we can be on a chair for it, Whatever feels good. Let's allow for solar plexus to engage, And we're going to let our right leg extend out to the right. Now, A couple of options here. Need to be soft up towards the sky or if you prefer you can allow for that leg to lengthen out and have toes pointing towards the front whatever feels good for you so we can be here soft knee here what i'd like you to check is i'd like you to check down that right side of the body that we've got a nice long line we don't want to kind of be into an arc shape here we want to be in one nice long line okay Really nice. So yeah, We can do this on a chair. Works perfectly. So from here, Let's allow arms to reach up. Find that length through both sides of the body. On the exhale, Left hand floats down, Palm facing up. Inhale, Reach tall, Just like we did when we were climbing that rope. Exhale, A little lean towards the outstretched leg. Beautiful. So this is our gate pose. Let's breathe here at length through the side of the body. Feel that stretch. Let's keep breathing. Really nice. And then here, Engaging solar plexus, Coming back up to neutral. Lovely gait poses. Arm floats down. And then we're going to gently walk that foot in. And we'll set up for the other side. So when we're ready, Let's take right foot out. Decide whether we want the soft knee, Foot pointing out, Whether we want the straight leg, Toes pointing forwards. And again, Let's check this time through the left side of the body. We've got a nice length up through, So we're not kind of going one way or the other. Nice length. This is the bonus of having a screen that you can see yourself in. A little bit of engagement in that solar plexus, And then let's inhale, Reach up once more. Feel the length through the body. Allowing for that right hand to come down palm facing up as it rests onto the leg inhale reach up again exhale take that little lean towards the right leg beautiful and again relax shoulders a little and let's breathe here so we're really feeling that expansion through the side of the body on the exhale maybe you feel just a little more softening Really nice, Lovely options. And then on the inhale, Let's reach up. Exhale, Arm can float down. And we can bring that foot in. And from here, If you feel you want to, We can come to stand in from here. Or you can get there however you wish. I'm just going to pop my knee pad in. Now the way. And then let's allow for those feet to come down. So we're going to come to Tadasana just for a moment to start off with. So let's make sure those feet feel like they're really rooted through the earth. Equal weight between the balls of the feet and the heels. Just not scrunching up the toes, Just allowing them to gently be down onto the earth. Little engagement in solar plexus. If we'd like, We can soften the knees, But let's engage those legs a little. So we've got that sense of just a little bit of firmness in legs. Find your focal point, Find your drasty. And then softly gazing at that focal point or maybe closing your eyes whatever feels good We're going to work with our equal breath once more. So perhaps allowing for that breath to start from the feet. Count in four as we inhale all the way to the top of the head or whatever count feels good. Exhale equally, Equal in that count as we come all the way down to our feet. Let's take a couple of breaths here. Inhale. And exhale. All the time. This breath is telling our nervous system, It's all good. It's all okay. Let's take another breath this way. Lovely. And when that breath comes down into our feet, Just releasing our equal breath. Just pausing for a moment, Maybe noticing how we feel. And then gently allowing eyes to blink open if we chose to close them. Lovely stuff. So from here we can kind of just loosen off a little if that feels good, Give it a little bit of a shake out, A bit of a shimmy, Always a fan of a shimmy. And then we are going to come to a version of triangle pose. Now, Quite often triangle pose is asymmetric pose where we have one leg out, Toe pointing out. Today we're going to come to more of, I guess you could call it an equilateral triangle. So let's allow for feet to step out as far as feels comfortable. If it was truly equilateral, We'd be stepping them out as long as we're tall, But I don't think that's going to be a possibility today. Certainly not for me. So let's allow for the sides of the feet to be in line with the short sides of the mat. They're nice and parallel. It might feel like toes are turned in a little. That's fine if that is the case. Now from here, We're going to think about our legs. So I'm going to get you to really engage your legs. Lift up so we feel those legs are nice and tall then we're going to get that length up through the spine so we may engage mulabanda those sitting bones tailbone pubic bone gently pulling together little internal lift solar plexus engage feeling like our head is one point of the triangle each of our feet are the other points of that triangle now from here arms are going to come by the sides of the body but we're going to keep a little buffer of air between our arms and the body so we kind of feel like we are almost like a rocket shape. Fingers can spread out, Relaxing those shoulders down. So we feel long through the spine. Now from here, Once again, I'm going to invite you to either find your Dristy or close your eyes. And we're going to work with our breath. So let's start with our right foot. And on the inhale, Imagine that breath coming up the right side of the body all the way to the top of the head. On the exhale, Taking that breath all the way down the left side of the body to the foot. Inhale, Left foot to top of the head. Exhale, Top of the head down to our right foot. Lovely. And we're going to keep working with this pattern of breath. And down each side of the body in turn. But maybe you'd like to take it into an equal breath. Perhaps each inhale up comes to the count of four or three or five, Whatever you like. And the count down, The other side of the body matches that. So just keeping that engagement in legs, In mullabanda, A little pubic lift, Pelvic lift, I should say, Little engagement through. Solar plexus. Nice soft shoulders. Lovely. So we might feel long as we're doing this, A little taller. Great work. Let's go with another complete breath. And we're going to finish when that breath come down to our right foot once more in the exhale. And after that happens, Let's release the breath and just allow the arms to gently come down by the sides of the body. Ah. Releasing effort in the legs. And from here, Let's heel, Toe, Feet together. Okay, Lovely. So we get a sense of real lengthening through the body. From here, We're going to work into a little bit of a half sun salutation just to get a little bit more movement going. We've been quite. . . Stationary so we've been working not dynamically there statically so let's allow hands to come to the heart Let's take our inhale as we reach up. Soft knees, Soft elbows, Solar plexus engaged, Coming down that center line of the body. All the way if it feels good or halfway if you want to. Inhale, Halfway up. Maybe hands come to the thighs length from tailbone to crown the head. Exhale, Back down. Let's inhale, Sweeping the arms out and up. See the thumbs. Exhale has the heart sorry at the beginning this i was momentarily distracted because it's just started blowing a hooli and raining against my window and it was very loud inhale let's reach up Exhale, Solar plexus engaged, Hinging down, Nice soft knees. Inhale, Halfway, Adha Uttanasana, Length through the spine. Exhale all the way down. And then let's inhale. Pushing up. Feel those glutes work just like they do in our donkey kick. Hands come to touch. And then bring those hands as we exhale to the heart. Pause in here. Take in a moment. Really nice. And then. . . Release in those arms. We can take a little bit of a jiggle, A little bit of a wiggle. Okay. From here, We're going to work into a version of warrior one. Now, We're going to come to a dynamic warrior one, But we're going to take a bit of cactus arms. So I'll show you what it's going to look like when we're coming in. We come into our straight leg with arms up, And then on the exhale, As we bend the knee, We come into our cactus arms. Now, Palms are going to face the head. Sometimes cactus arms are palms forwards, But if we have palms facing our head, Then it does a little bit more engagement of those biceps. So when we are ready, Let's come to the top of the mat. Feet about hip distance apart, If that's comfortable. And let's take a step back with our left leg. So we don't have to take one foot behind the other. We're going to stay on train tracks because that's good for balance. Hips facing the front. Allow for solar plexus to engage. Inhale, Arms float up, Shoulders soft. Check we haven't bent that knee too far we're only going to come as far as the ankle inhale arms back up straighten front leg Exhale, Coming down. Inhale back up Exhale, Calming down. One more. Inhale back up. Exhale, Coming down. So we're going to stay here for a moment. Then I'm going to invite you to reach those arms up, Keeping that front knee bent. Classic warrior one position. Let's feel that length up through the crown of the head. Shoulders can relax a little. Beautiful. If it feels good, We may want to come into a little back bend. So let's engage glutes. Lift chest up, Maybe looking up a little. Really nice. Just take it to the point that feels good. And then on the inhale, Coming back to neutral. Hands come down. Hips. And then let's step forward. Really nice. Gosh, It's very wet out there. So from here, Let's take the other side. So this time, Allowing for our right leg to step back. And again, Let's organize it so that feet are on train tracks, Hips are facing forwards. Let's inhale, Reach up tall with the arms. Shoulders relax down a little. So the plexus engage. On the exhale, Let's bend the front knee as we come into our cactus arms. Shoulder height, Beautiful. Inhale, Front leg lengthens, Arms back up. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale back up and then we're going to come into it one more time exhale coming down paws in here cactus arms lovely inhale keeping the front knee bent arms reach up shoulders soften down classic warrior one and if we want to we can come to that little back bend so let's engage our glutes inhale lift in the chest up maybe a little lean back maybe looking up just take it to the point that feels good And then when we're ready, Inhaling back up to neutral. Hands can float down. And let's step those feet together. Okay. So from here, We're going to find Tadasana once more. Feet rooted down. And let's come to a nice kind of crescent moon bend. So we've done a little bit of back bending, A bit of forward bending. We've done quite a lot of lateral bending. So let's go for a bit more lateral bend. So on the inhale, Reaching up with the hands. Point first fingers up. Shoulders relaxed down. We can interlace the rest of the fingers. A little engagement in glutes. And in solar plexus on the exhale it's gently lean over to the left just as far as feels good and then if it feels nice we can push down through the right foot let's breathe here Inhale. Exhale one more breath Lovely. And then really engaging glutes and solar plexus, Inhaling up to center. Let's release arms down for a moment. Okay. Maybe we feel longer one side than the other. We will even that out. So let's inhale, Reach up. Go to interlace fingers, But then move them all down one, Pointing first finger up. Someone else holding your hand. Shoulders relax. Inhale. Solar plexus engage, Glutes engage a little. Taking a little lean over to the right. And again, Rooting down this time through that left foot. Really nice, Steady breath. Inhale. Exhale, One more breath. Lovely. And then engaging solar plexus, Gently bringing yourself back up. We're going to allow arms to release sounds. We're going to come to Dasna. Just pause in here. Finding that softness in the knees, If lower back likes it, Little engagement through solar plexus, Maybe gently lifting those kneecaps up. Find in that focal point, Perhaps coming back to that equal breath. Up and down the body. Really nice. And then with our next exhale, Hands come to the heart. Going to reach up we're going to come to a forward fold soft elbows soft knees coming down that center line solar plexus engage as we come all the way down if that feels good or halfway and we're going to pause here So either allowing gravity to let you dangle, Releasing head, Releasing arms. Hands can come to the floor or the shins or the feet, Whatever feels good. Or if you're halfway, You might allow those hands to rest onto your thighs and keep length through the body. Take a couple more breaths here, Really allowing for that sense of ease to come. Gravity just encouraging us towards the earth with each exhale. Keeping that good softness in the knees just so that the lower back likes it a little more. And from here, I'm going to invite you either to bend the knees, Come halfway up and then push all the way up, Or we might want to bring hands down, Come to a little crouch if we know knees are up for that. If they're not, Then let's not take it. And then when we're ready, Let's find our way to a seated position with legs lengthened out. Now, If you do tend to kind of lean back a little when you're seated, I recommend putting your sitting bones onto the edge of a block just to help with that little tilt of the pelvis. So let's allow legs to lengthen out and we're going to come to Dandasana. Now, Dandasana. I often say this. I think it's one of the most challenging yoga poses. There's a lot to think about in Dandasana, But it looks like one of the easiest. So let's allow those legs to lengthen out. Now, If you have really tight hamstrings, You can keep a little bend into the knees. But even if we've got knees bent, We're going to flex feet towards the sky. And I'm going to get you to really engage your legs. I feel like you're sucking that muscle into the bone. Kneecaps might lift. So hug in that solar plexus back so we get that length up through the crown of the head. If you're tall enough with the arms or if you're long enough with the arms, Hands can rest by the sides of the body. Fingertips point in the same direction as your legs or we can rest hands onto the thighs. Now from here, Let's allow for that chin to tuck back a little and then we can drop it down towards the chest. So we get that sense of length through the back of the neck. When we were in our standing position, Sitting bones, Tailbone, Pubic bone, Gently coming together like compass points to the center of the compass and little lift. So like walking into a cold sea, If you're a man, Apparently. Let's breathe here. So legs engaged. Solar plexus just above the belly button engaged. Mullabanda engaged. Keeping that breath flowing. You can look towards your toes if that feels comfortable for you or you might want to close your eyes. But let's see if we can feel that engagement in all those different parts. Nice inhales. And exhale steady breaths Really good. Three more breaths here. Legs engaged, Mullabandha, Solar plexus. Exhale on. Exhale, Two. And then with our next exhale, Oh, Let's release it all. Oh, We can have a little slouch down. You can have a little moan about me underneath your breath if you wish. So from here or out loud, I can't hear you, So it's all good. So we're going to come to. A supine position today and i'll show you where we're going to go just before we do we're going to work with bridge pose today now when we work with bridge pose as always that little space between shoulder blades i like to physically lift my head up with my hands tuck on my chin towards my chest so i get that length through the back of the neck feet want to be hip distance apart toes pointing forwards now it's up to you how far away you have your feet from your sitting bones whatever feels best for your knees go with that now today rather than going into our bridge pose with the arms down we're going to work arms and back simultaneously but we're going to kind of cantilever so quite often as we come up arms come up we're not going to do it that way so we're going to start with arms up and spine down and on our inhale we're going to peel that spine up as the arms come down so they might give you a little push just to help you a bit further up Come back overhead. So it's a little bit of a brain workout if we don't normally do it this way. So let's find our way down to the mat and let's get set up. So allowing for. Those shoulder blades have a little space in between. Maybe take that wiggle, Perhaps lifting head up and placing it back down onto the earth. Setting feet up so they're hip distance apart, Toes pointing forwards. I'm going to keep those knees over the feet. We're not going to allow them to come out to the sides or towards the middle. So let's prepare. Arms overhead. Shoulders can relax down a little here. And then when we're ready, On our next inhale, Let's allow for the spine to start to lift. As those arms gently float simultaneously down by the sides of the body. So when we're fully up into our bridge, Maybe the arms push down a little bit onto the earth. Inhale sorry exhale as the spine floats down arms float back overhead lovely work so we're going to work three more of these inhale spine lifts arms come down by the sides of the body Exhale. The spine comes down, Arms come back overhead. Lovely. Two more in your own time. No hurry. Just working with that breath. We're not going to. . . Cut the breath short, Just working with those full nice inhales and exhales. Taking our last one. Inhaling spine up, Palms down. On the exhale, Spine comes back onto the earth, Arms. Come to rest overhead. And then gently bring the arms back by the sides of the body. Pause in here for a moment. Just letting the spine settle. Maybe noticing how we feel. In that spine. And then let's draw the knees in towards the chest. Take a little spinal rock. Just noticing. If there's anywhere that wants a little bit of a massage, Maybe allowing for that kind of melting down feeling once more into the back of the body. It's whatever feels nice. Then come into neutral hands onto knees we're going to take that little stirring around with the knees together Sacral area, That bony triangle in the lower back, Just getting a little massage there. Change in direction, Maybe. Really nice. And then maybe going the way we started. Coming to neutral and let's bring those feet down to the earth so from here let's take a nice gentle twist arms t-shape or cactus arm shoulder height palms up exhale taking those knees gently down to one side and we're just going to pause there for a moment Maybe just breathing into the side of the body, Breathing into anywhere you feel like you want a little bit of space. Really good. And then on the inhale, A little solar plexus engagement, Those knees come up to centre. On the exhale, Let's take those knees down to the other side. And again, Just pause in here. Taking a few breaths, Making space. Nice inhales and exhales. And then gently engage in solar plexus, Inhaling knees up to neutral. And from here, I'm going to invite you to make any movements you want to. Maybe a nice big stretch. Maybe take in a hug with the knees and a spinal rock, Whatever feels nice. And we're going to make our preparations for Shavasana. So maybe you want to pop on an extra layer or two. Maybe you want to cover yourself over with a blanket. Adjust in. Playlists adjusting lights whatever feels right to make you as comfortable as you can be today So let's find our position. For Shavasana. Maybe you'd like to have your feet up onto a piece of furniture or your legs up onto a piece of furniture. Maybe you'd like to allow legs to be outstretched or knees bent. If the knees are bent, Maybe taking the feet a little wider so the knees can just gently rest in onto each other so there's no strain in the hips. And let's allow ourselves to really land here once more. So maybe taking a nice big exhale. Just allowing yourself to land. We're going to bring that awareness to our breath once more and just letting your breath be completely natural at this moment in time. Roaring in that sense of spaciousness. To anywhere in your body that feels like it just needs that little bit of space right now. And on the exhale. Disallowing all effort. To leave. Now is our time to be effortless. Drawing in. Sense of ease. Exhale. Salam. For release of any residual tension. If you wish You may like to start to cultivate. That equal breath once more, Samavritti. So perhaps the inhale. Draws in to the count of three or four, Whatever is comfortable. And allowing the exhale to leave equal in that count. Let's allow that breath to just draw in. And leave. And knowing that when we Work with an equal breath like this. We are allowing our nervous system. To feel. Rested, Feel balanced. Bringing ourselves to Rest and digest. So if tummy starts rumbling, It's a good sign. Our heart rate might decrease a little. Muscles might give up. Tension that they're holding. Possibly. Our thoughts may slow a little. Maybe just allowing for that. Focus on each inhale and each exhale. And as you breathe with this equal breath, This samavrity. You may find that Your breaths start to. . . Maybe just get a little tiny bit longer. Perhaps you'll inhale. If it was four, Comes to five and you'll exhale. May also come to five. Or even longer if that feels comfortable, But keeping that breath comfortable. And smooth. Let's stay with the inhales And the exhales and just knowing that they are allowing body and mind. Come to a place of balance, A place of. . . True resting. So maybe you'd like to stay with this. Eight cool breaths. Or maybe you'd like to just allow for Any focus on the breath to release. And just let yourself. Just be. Whichever you choose. Giving yourself permission. Either just be or be with your breath. Either way. Completely at ease for the next few moments. And if we're still working with our equal breath. Or if we release the breath, Let's start to just allow for. . . Our inhales to get a little deeper. Going in. A sense of energy, A sense of renewal. To body and maybe mind. On the exhale, Just allowing anything that you want to leave behind and not carry with you for the rest of your day too. Leave with the exhale. Another nice deep inhale. And exhale. And then starting to. . . Find a little movement happening into your fingers. And finding that movement happening into toes. And then maybe making slightly bigger movements, Perhaps taking a stretch, Maybe hugging your knees in, Perhaps bending the knees, Whatever feels good. To find in those movements that your body. . . Is desiring at this moment in time. And then. . . However you wish to. Finding your way back. To seated once more. We're going to close our practice now with one nice deep breath. Let's allow solar plexus to engage, Get that nice length that we've made through the body and come to the heart. Let's take our inhale as we reach up and out. And then let's exhale it all the way back up. And back down to that heart. Namaste. Thank you so much for practising with me today.