Move And Breathe Hatha Yoga Full Hour Class

Syncronicity of breath and movement is the key to this practice. Using breathe to deepen poses and a focus on pranayama

Props needed: Block for sitting, option of strap/belt for forward bend

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 let's come to a nice comfortable supine position you might want to have a little wiggle just a little kind of wiggle between shoulder blades just to readjust in spine and remember you can always have knees bent or legs outstretched whatever feels comfortable today so that you can just let yourself come to a place where you can just sit up So let's allow for everything to. Start to feel just a little. Heavier into the earth so really allowing yourself to surrender the weight of your body down into the earth And from here, I'm going to invite you to come to your breath. As always, Taking the inhales and the exhales in and out through the nose. And then if it feels good, With the next couple of exhales, Just allowing yourself to exhale anything that you want to exhale, Whether it be a thought, Whether it be tension anywhere in the body. Just allowing. The exhale. To let whatever it is leave with the breath. Let's start to really allow for that breath to bring us. To a place where everything starts to feel a little more settled So let's. . . Take some nice inhales. And exhales. Maybe with each inhale, Feel like we're drawing a little bit more space into the body. Reach, Exhale. Latin that sense of ease, That sense of. . . Resting down happen. We're going to be working quite a lot with our breath focus today so let's start to just gently observe our breath as we stay here. Just observing the breath as it enters the body. Observing the breath as it leaves the body. Maybe allowing yourself to observe. The journey of the breath. Inhale. And the exhale And you may want to follow that journey of the breath. You may want to. Just rest your awareness with somewhere that moves as you inhale and exhale. Then with your next exhale, Let's take your awareness all the way down to our feet. And just gently allow for our awareness to check in with the feet and legs. Moving up to the hips and the pelvis. Front of your body, In the back of your body. Your hands, Arms. Up to your shoulders. And then. And then all the way up your face all the way up the back of your head, The sides of your head. Until you reach the very crown of your head. And then allowing for that. Awareness to release. I'm going to invite you to bring. A little bit of awareness back to the room. The invitation here if it feels better for your lower back today is to allow for your knees to bend to see how that feels And we're going to rest with our palms down to the earth by the sides of our body. So we're going to start gently working with breath. And as we breath, Breathe, As we work with that breath and breathe, We're going to flip our palm skyward. So we're going to kind of roll over the little finger. So when we're ready. On our inhale, Rolling over the little finger, So palms flip skywards. Exhale rolling back over the little finger palms to the Really good. Let's work with our breath. Inhale. Um skywards Exhale. Palms down. Let's take three more. Inhale. Palms up. Exhale, Palms down. Two more on your own time. And then once we've taken the exhale, Palms are down. We're going to take one more inhale, Allow palms to come up. The sky shoulders soften down but from here let's draw knees into the chest we're going to place one hand onto each knee so we're going to work with a little bit of apanasana knees to chest pose and once again just allowing for breath to guide movements on the inhale knees move away from the body making space for that breath at the front of the body On the exhale, Let's squeeze those knees towards the chest, Squeeze in the air out. And we're not going to hurry with this one. Just working. So learn the movement to last as long as your breath on the inhale. Then on the exhale as those knees squeeze back towards the body Let's stay with those breaths. Inhales. And X. Just work in. At your own pace with your own breath. Working this way can be a nice way to just start to tap into pattern of the breath. I press awareness. And then with our next inhale. Allowing the knees to move away from the body. And on the exhale, Let's bring feet down to the earth. So there's the invitation here to allow for legs to lengthen out, Maybe stretching arms overhead. Let's have a full body stretch. Perhaps point in the toes. So we make length through the front of the leg. And then maybe pushing the heels away to get that little stretch through the back of the leg. And then let's allow arms to release down as we release. That's stretch. From here, Let's bend these once more, Placing feet onto the earth. I'm not going to. Invite you to either come to a big t-shape with the arms with palms facing up shoulder height or cactus arms whatever you've got space for or feels good shoulders really resting down and we're going to work with our breath once more so we're going to come into a gentle twist a dynamic twist on our exhale let's allow knees to come down to whichever side both of those knees down a little engagement in our solar plexus just above our navel as we inhale knees come to center And then on the exhale, Let's take them down to the other side. Solar plexus engage, Knees. To centre. And again we're slowing this down so we're really allowing ourselves to work. With the breath. Not. Speeding up we're not allowing for the breath to be cut short to be. Synchronized with movement. Let's allow the synchronicity. To be guided by the breath. Really good. Lovely. And then let's go one more each way. Just noticing. Feeling of breath and movement working together. Then as we inhale coming back to neutral. Really good so from here let's allow knees to draw in towards the chest we can hug around the knees around the shins or between calves and thighs let's take a little rock from side to side just massaging into that back When we work with movement, Our poses, Our asana and our breath, Our pranayama, We are thinking about the first two limbs of yoga as the. . . Yoga sutras speak of so that sense of Pairing those, Linking those. And of course that all prepares us. To get to the point. Being able to sit in meditation so this is the point of yoga So let's allow ourselves to come to neutral place. We're going to place one hand onto each knee and we're going to work a kind of breaststroke leg, But keeping the big toes together. So when you're ready, Let's take an inhale as knees part, Move away from the body. Exhale as knees come back to centre and then draw in towards the body. So again, We're going to work nice and slowly with this one. And if it feels like you're a little bit unstable or you're arching into that spine, Draw in that solar plexus, That area just north of the belly button back. Just so you get that scent. Of allowing. For stability while we gently move. So as we take this movement, We're easing into our hips. Mobilizing those hip joints. It's always nice to do this before we come to a cross leg position seated. And then let's change direction. So the breath changes. Knees together on the inhale as they push away from the body. Allow knees to part. And on the exhale, Bringing them towards the body before they come back together. Inhale push away. Parting those knees, Exhale, Drawing in. And bringing them back together. Really nice. And then if you feel you want to, Let's change direction, Maybe one or two movements. Just to kind of get that sense of resetting. From here, Let's bring feet down to the earth. I'm going to invite you either to take a little rock and roll from tailbone to crown of the head to come up and down or we can roll to one side and find our way to seated that way So when you are working into that sense of allowing for breath to guide movement we might all work at a different pace it doesn't matter so if it feels better for you option to sit onto the edge of a block and we're going to work with a little bit of movement into the spine so let's allow hands to come to the heart shoulders nice and soft we're just going to take a little bit of lateral movement so just allowing yourself to sway Light inhales and exhales. Lovely. So even though we're not really doing any lateral bends today, It's always nice to that little bit of movement in all the ways the spine was designed to move. Very nice. And then gently finding your way back to neutral. Let's release hands down. And I'm going to invite you to extend legs out in front. So from here, We're going to work into toes. So let's take a wiggle into our toes. Probably been trapped in shoes or slippers all day. So free the toes. And then let's work ankles. So we can circle the ankles if that feels good. Maybe go in one direction. Oh, Good click from my ankle then. And then maybe work in the other direction if circling doesn't feel good pointing and flexing is a nice option but we are going to do that in a moment anyway and then when you're ready let's push the heels away so we're flexing those feet toes can curl up towards the shins And then let's point the toes. Stretching through the front of the feet really good so let's take another couple of these pushing heels away pointing those toes and then let's go with one more points. And then let's relax. We can give the legs a little bit of a jiggle here. So we're going to work into knees a little bit too. We're going to do this very simply. We're just going to bend knee and then bend other knee and then put first knee down, Second knee down. So when we're ready, Inhale, First knee bend, Exhale. Really not. So we're just gonna do this for a little while. Lovely. While we're doing this, I'll tell you something that I spied last night. So I have a friend who is. Yoga teacher but she's lithuanian and she's moved back to lithuania and I saw an advertisement for her classes. And i couldn't read it because it was in lithuanian so i hit the translation And. Her classes sound lovely, But she was describing them. She said, In every class, We start with a few moments of stagnation, Which is what the translation said. It just made me laugh. I was like stagnation. The rest of it made perfect sense. And I was thinking, I wonder what kind of what cross wires has gone on there with the translation. This is why we cannot trust. Automatic translations for things people are going all right so we stagnate for the first few minutes of the class and then we start moving So let's allow for those legs to lengthen out once more. We can give them a little shake out. Lovely and then we're going to find our way to a seated position cross-legged if that feels comfortable So from here, If you need to ease into wrists a little, If you were leaning back, By all means do. It's going to flat line around a little bit. And from here, We are going to work into a little bit of cat cow however i'm going to invite you to use um a breath that translates as victorious breath out ujjayi breath now the best way to describe it is is a little constriction at the back of the throat on the exhale so as if you're trying to fog up a mirror. Kind of huffing sound but rather than breathing out through the mouth we breathe out through the nose so a normal inhale little constriction on the exhale so we're going to start with just a few rounds of ujjayi breath if you'd like to try that with me and then we will drink bring the movement in nice and gradually of our cat cow Just letting yourself sit nice and tall, Shoulders soft. You might want to close your eyes. And then on the inhale, Let's take a normal inhale through our nose. That little constriction in the back of the throat and the exhale. So it might sound like a little whisper. Let's take four more of these in your own time if you're comfortable. One more. And then maybe bringing in that cat cow movement with the ujjayi breath On the inhale, Chest comes out, Chin lifts, Shoulders soft. On the exhale, Drawing back, Slouching down. So let's stay with that breath. You can use a normal breath if Ujjayi breath doesn't feel good for you. But OGI breath is a really nice way to slow down the breath. And if you're really comfortable and familiar with Ujjayi breath anyway, Maybe you'd like to allow for that constriction to happen on the inhale too. See how it feels for you today. Let's take two more in your own time. And next time we come to our inhale, And there's no hurry, Just finding your way back to neutral. Just pause in for a moment and let. . . Release that breath, That ujjayi breath. So we're coming back to a natural breath. And then let's gently allow eyes to blink open. Lovely so ujjayi breath can work really nicely in a way to relax us but also it can allow us to kind of hold strength in poses or just elongate the breath so from here we're going to find our way up to standing so however you get there I do not mind. So we're going to work with Tadasana just to start off with to get that sense of grounding. So let's allow feet to root down. Maybe softening into the knees a little if the lower back likes that little engagement in solar plexus. And let's relax shoulders down. Find your focal point. Find your drishti. Softly focus on whatever it is you've chosen that isn't moving. Or you may like to close your eyes. And we're going to work with that breath again. If you want to use Ujjayi, Please be my guest. If you want to just use normal breath, Then please do. But let's bring the breath from the feet. Imagine it traveling all the way up the body. All the way to the very top of the head maybe it goes a little bit beyond And on the exhale, Feel that breath coming down the body. All the way down into the feet, Maybe into the earth. Let's take a few breaths this way. Inhales. Exhales. May allow you to feel tall, It may allow you to feel grounded. Take one more breath this way. And gently allowing eyes to blink open if we chose to close them. We can release the effort, Maybe just lift feet up, Have a little jiggle around if that feels good. So from here, We're going to work into a little chair yoga chair sequence. And when we come into our chair sequence we're going to work it three times the first time we're going to work one movement one breath Going to match that the second time. The third time we are going to take one movement for three breaths. So we're going to hold. That movement or hold that pose for three breaths not hold our breath but hold the pose So when we're ready, Let's allow for Tadasana to come. Hands come to the heart. Shoulders nice and soft. Let's take our inhale, Reach up. Solar plexus engages, Soften knees, Soften elbows, Hinging down into that forward fold. Exhale. On our next inhale, We allow arms to float in front, Come in into chair, Shoulders soft. Beautiful. Nice steadiness in those feet. Inhale, Open out to the right as if we're going to give someone a nice big hug. Exhale back to neutral. Inhale open out to the left. Exhale, Back to chair. Palms come together on our inhale. Let's push up, Upward salute. You can engage the buttocks if you like. Exhale, Hands come down to the heart. Lovely. So we're going to work that once more, One breath per movement. Inhale, Reach out. Soften elbows, Soften knees. Exhale, Hinge down. Release arms. Inhale into chair. Shoulder side. Lovely. This time, Inhale open out to the left. Exhale back to chair. Inhale, Open out to the right. Exhale back to chair palms together Inhale, Reach up. Upward salute. Exhale, Hands back to the heart space, Shoulders soft. Okay, Let's pause here for a moment. It's noting if heart rate has increased. Maybe it has. This time. Each part we are going to hold for three. Select Prepare. Take out inhale as we reach those arms up. Upward salute. Three breaths. Engage in buttocks if it feels good. Shoulders soft. On our next exhale, Hinging down through that centre line, Uttanasana, Full forward fold. Three breaths here. Maybe feeling a little extra softness with each exhale. Next inhale let's come up to chair pose nice strong leg solar plexus engage palms facing each other nice relaxed shoulders three breaths Next inhale, Let's open out to the right. Three breaths. Inhale coming back to chair three breaths next inhale opening out to left three breaths And then inhale, Coming back to chair, Three breaths. Calms together. Inhale, Upward salute. Engage, Buttocks if it feels good, Relax, Shoulders down. And on the exhale, Hands down to the heart, Coming back to Tadasana. Maybe closing the eyes. Three breaths here. And then let's release those arms down, Opening the eyes. Okay. Really nice so quite a quiet sequence quite hard work when we're holding it so that breath really really helps especially if you're using ujjayi breath if you chose to So from here, We're going to work a little bit more into arms. So let's come to Tadasana. Allowing those feet to root down. And we're going to imagine that we've got a really big cafeteria and we're going to plunge. And as we plunge, We're going to take the exhale. But it's a really big one. And the top of the plunger is up high. So we're going to have to reach up. Let's allow solar plexus to engage we're going to work with our breath and we're not going to do it too fast because if ever you've got a cafeteria you know you have to kind of feel the resistance so sometimes it takes a little while to push it down So when we're ready, Let's inhale, Reaching up. Exhale plunge. Next breath. Inhale. I hope the other hand comes on top. Plunge. One more. Inhale. And then take the plunge. Release in. Allowing breath to come back. To a natural rhythm. Okay. We can lift feet up. We can have a little jiggle around if that feels good. And from here, We're going to come back to Tadasana. We're going to take a few breaths into that and adjust as we did start off with that sense of the breath moving up and down the body. Find your focal point or close your eyes softness and knees if we like that little solar plexus engagement Let's inhale that breath, Moving from the feet up to the crown of the head. You can use Ujjayi if you wish. Exhale, Taking all the way down to the feet. Maybe into the earth. Two more breaths in your own time. And making this last of our exhales in Tadasana. And on the inhale maybe blinking eyes open. Releasing that effort, Releasing that focus. And we're going to find ourselves down into a seated position with legs lengthened out. If you do like to pop yourself onto the edge of a block, Then please do. And From here we have the option to use a strap, But you don't have to use a strap. So for this one, I'm not going to, But if you want to use a strap, Then you can. So we're going to take a forward fold here. We're going to take a forward fold with one hip open. So getting onto those sitting bones and make sure that we can kind of feel them rooted down. Let's take a little bend into our. Left leg and allow for that hip to open out and we don't have to bring the foot really close up to the body we can have it a little bit lower down but if you feel like that knee is really floating then you can always kind of put a block or something underneath it so just get comfortable blanket whatever wedge is there comfortably So from here. We can soften this outstretched leg a little if we want to. We don't have to have foot flex, So just let the foot do whatever it wants. But we're going to work with breath. Now, Breath is the key to allowing us to forward fold. Now, When we come into our forward fold, We're going to start hinging. The hinge and the breath work together. Then when you've hinged as much as feels good, And that might be just a little way, It might be all the way down, Then we're going to soften and round down. And when we're there, We are going to allow for the exhale to feel like things are softening. On the inhale, Maybe we're making space, But we're not going to force ourselves. We're just going to let the breath do its thing. So when we're ready, Let's get nice and tall up through the crown of the head. And on the exhale, Let's take that little hinge forward. Really nice so we're not softening through the shoulders yet Maybe another inhale happens. Maybe another little hinge for what happens. And again, We're just working with that breath. Maybe there's more hinging to be done. Maybe there isn't. And when you feel that you've hinged as far as your body will take you without. Forcing anything, Let's soften through the shoulders, Soften through the upper back. And we're going to allow ourselves to be here. So I'm going to invite you to maybe close your eyes. On the inhale, Can we draw that breath into anywhere where we feel this tightness to try and expand, Bring space. And on the exhale, Can we allow for a little softness to come to anywhere that feels like it wants that softness? So again, We're just going to allow ourselves. Come into our forward fold we're not going to force ourselves as soon as we start forcing ourselves as soon as we start trying to Make things happen. That's when. . . We lose that sense of softness. Just letting the breath, Drawing, Finding the space. And allowing the breath to leave. Maybe finding a little bit more softness. And it doesn't matter if you don't. Let's stay with those breaths. And in a moment, We're going to come up, But we're going to lengthen through the body before we come up. So on our next inhale, Let's unround. Pause. And then with our next inhale, Let's hinge up. Nice and slowly. And we may roll shoulders back. Lovely. So let's allow for the hand to help that. Leg in, Lengthen it out. I'm going to take the other. So this time. Allowing for left leg to bend. Did we do right last time? Allowing for the other leg to bend and then let in. That's knee come out. I'm sure I said it the wrong way around, But you knew what I meant. So when we're ready again find that length up through the crown the head And on the exhale, Start hinging. And once again, We're working with the breath. Maybe pause. Inhale, Find Lent. Exhale. Maybe there's a bit more hinge. Maybe there isn't. Doesn't matter. Just come to what feels good for you. Maybe there's more with our next breath. But when you feel that you've come to. Your hinge in point that feels comfortable with the next exhale. Just allowing that softness. Maybe rounding through shoulders. Maybe softening into the head. Really nice and once again we're not going to force anything We're just going to work with our breath. So each inhale, Letting it draw space into anywhere in the body you feel needs a little bit more space. The exhale can we just allow ourselves to soften a little more. Let's take two more breaths. And then with our next inhale. Let's gently start to lengthen through the spine. And then with our next inhale, Hinge and hinge and hinge and up. Maybe we're all insurers, But. Let's hold that knee back and up to centre. We can give legs a little bit of a wiggle here. Okay. So from here we're going to work into a nice gentle twist. So let's re-bend our left leg. Inhale find length through the crown of the head. And on the exhale, We're going to take just a little twist over to the left, Maybe wrapping hand around the leg, Shoulders. Beautiful. We're here. Maybe feel like we're breathing into the two-third, Top two-thirds of the lungs, That chest area. And on the exhale, Feel like maybe you're breathing out of the bottom third, Maybe finding a little bit more twist so you're breathing out the tummy. Inhale. Lent through the spine. Exhale. And then on the next inhale, Let's gently find our way back to neutral. Leg can lengthen out. So we're going to work the other side. This time, Bending our right knee, Foot on the earth. Find that length on the inhale. Exhale, It'll twist over to the right. Maybe wrapping hand around the leg. Other fingers can tickle the floor behind. And again, Inhale. Maybe feel like you're breathing into the top two thirds of the lungs. Exhale from. Early area maybe there's a little bit more twist to be had inhale Exhale. One more breath in. And then on our next inhale, Coming back to neutral. If you feel you want to exhale and de-rotate to the other side, Please do. And then come back to. . . Okay. So from here, We're just going to take a little bit of a back bend because we've been doing a little bit of forward bend. So you might feel like you need to just even out. So let's allow hands to rest behind. Legs can lengthen out so this is kind of i'm calling it a modified fish pose so we're going to think about our sternum and on the inhale let's lift sternum up towards the sky we can keep looking forwards or we can look up we're not going to drop that head back so we kink the neck though And let's allow for tummy to move forward. So we're into that back bend. One more breath here. And then on the exhale, Let's gently release. Going to find a way here to a cross-legged if that's comfortable seated position So we're going to work with a pranayama for a moment while we are seated now i'm going to give you two options you can come to a visualization of this pranayama or we can actually physically take the pranayama so the pranayama we're going to do is nadi shodhana which is um our um alternate nostril breathing so it's meant to balance the hemispheres of our brain and body the male female energy the hot the cool all of these things two options either taking the inhale and the exhale um as a visualization now i visualize it like a tennis ball come in over the bridge of my nose which is the net the breath comes in and then out And then in. Then out so it always has to come in the side that it's come out of second option allowing for you can either curl fingers in first two fingers or you can rest them between your eyebrows and we use our ring finger as our third finger in our thumb to just very gently push and mostly close each one of our nostrils in turn now your fingers and your finger and your thumb should always gently be in contact with your nostril if you're doing this so it's not a big movement so it depends if you're comfortable doing it this way i get cramping my fingers when i do it this way i prefer to rest my fingers between my brows so whatever works for you if you want to visualize that is also absolutely a-okay So let's allow for everything to rest down for a moment. And let's close our eyes and just come to our breath. So we're not going to use a dry breath. We're just going to use a natural breath for this. Now, If you're using your hands, Then just assume that position with your hands. And if we're using our hands we're going to gently block nostril with a thumb Take an inhale in through the left. For using hands, Let's swap the block over. Exhale, Right. Inhale right. Swapping block exhale left Inhale left. Swap. Exhale right. Inhale right. Swap exhale Let's keep working with that breath. Whether we're visualising. Or whether we are physically blocking. Let's take one more round. And then when we've exhaled through that left nostril, Just allow for that focus to release. Rest in hand down if we chose to. Physically take the block. And then just noticing how we feel now. Let's gently allow eyes to blink back open. Okay. So from here we're going to move down into a supine position. You might like to pop on some extra layers, Adjust light and adjust playlist. We're going to just take a little bit of a spinal rock before we come to Shavasana today. So just preparing. Yourself. To be comfortable. Once we've got everything by us that we need Let's allow ourselves to find our way down to our back. Maybe make space between the shoulder blades and let's hug those knees in, Maybe hands around the shins or between calves and thighs. Let's take a little rock from side to side. So again, Just easing in. Maybe allowing for the back to feel like it's kind of just melting down towards the earth. Lovely. And then let's come back to neutral. I'm going to invite you to make any movements you want to, Any stretches. Whatever feels good. Oh, And then. . . Pair yourself and find a comfortable position. Shavasana today. It's just allowing everything to start to settle, Maybe covering yourself over, Just getting nice and snug. So let's. . . Allow eyes to close if that feels comfortable just defocus your gaze going to invite you once more to come to your breath. Let's feel that breath drawing in. Feel the breath. Gently leave it. And as those breaths draw in and leave, Just allowing them. To be natural and effortless at this moment in time. Allowing your inhales to feel like they're breathing. Spaciousness. Into the body. Maybe into the mind and on the exhale. Allowing tension to leave with that breath. So I'm going to invite you now. To maybe tape. A little extended exhale just to help you. Slow down the breath and come to the rest in division of your nervous system. Maybe your next inhale would like to draw into the count of four. Just slowing down the exhale, Allowing it to leave to the count of six. If he wants. You can change that count to make it more comfortable for you. But just letting the exhale be a couple of beats longer than your inhale. When we work with our extended exhale. The breath. Tells the brain to tell the body. Everything's fine. We can allow ourselves to come into a place where we are resting. If you wish you might like to stay with this extended exhale. Or maybe you'd like to just release, Focus on the breath completely. And just give yourself permission. Be here. At ease and effortless for the next few moments. And now let's start to become. Aware of the breath once more if we choose to release that focus. Let's draw in the breath just a little deeper. And with that deepening of breath, Allowing for a little bit of energy to be drawn into the body. And as that energy starts to move around the body. Taking the energy down to our fingers and our toes. Take a little wiggle into fingers and toes. Just gently reawakening the movement. Then. . . Just starting to make some other movements, Maybe stretching, Maybe hugging knees in. Whatever feels right for you at this moment, Just to Reawaken the body. And then without too much rush. Let's bring ourselves back to. Seated position to close today's practice. Sit in with that length up through the spine. We're going to rest hands at the heart. I'm going to finish with a nice deep breath. Let's take out in the hail as we reach up and out. And then let's follow that path back as we exhale. Namaste. Thank you so much for practicing with me today.