Short Yoga Practice For Harmony
This is a short, all level Hatha yoga practice to help bring balance and harmony to your day. You will need a mat and blanket. There is no background music. Perfect for busy people who want a practice, but are limited on time.
Transcript
I am Wendy Reese Hartman and I invite you to come to a comfortable seated position.
I'm sitting up on a blanket.
You can sit on a pillow,
You can sit on some blankets,
Just as long as the knees are below the hips.
Close your eyes and begin to follow the breath in and out of your body as you begin to turn your back on the world and turn into the stillness within you.
Yoga as a practice is about action composed of self-study,
Self-discipline,
And surrendering.
The need to control anything has to be let go and you focus on the one thing that you can control,
Your breathing.
So we move with the breath in today's practice,
Being intentional in our movement with our breath.
Bring the palms together in front of the heart,
Bow the head down,
Honoring the light that is in you,
The light that is all around you,
Namah shivaya.
So today we're doing three of everything and they're slightly different variations of these three,
Four asanas that we're going to do.
The first one,
Tadasana,
Mountain pose,
So standing with your feet parallel,
Take a deep breath in,
Reach the arms out and up,
And hook the thumbs.
As you exhale,
Take it to your right.
As you inhale,
Bring it up.
As you exhale,
Take it to the left.
As you inhale,
Lift up and lift the heart slightly,
Exhale,
Fold forward.
Maybe you bend your knees and hold on to the shins,
Maybe you can reach the floor,
Try to elongate your spine,
Hands come to the top of the thighs,
Inhaling,
Come up,
Exhaling into tadasana again.
Inhale,
Reach the arms out and up,
Interlace all but the index fingers,
Exhale,
Take it to your right.
Inhale come up,
Exhale,
Take it to the left.
Inhale,
Coming up and lifting the heart,
Exhale,
Fold forward.
Hands slide up,
Inhale,
Come all the way up,
Exhaling,
Allowing the hands to come down to the sides.
One more time,
Inhale,
Reach the arms out and up,
Turning the palms,
Hold on to the left forearm,
Exhale over to the right.
Inhale,
Bring it up,
Switch hands and exhale to the left.
Inhale,
Bring it up this time,
Reach the hands back behind the back,
Hook the thumbs again,
Roll the chest open and as you exhale,
Fold forward.
Maybe the hands can lift up,
Let the head drop.
Inhale,
The hands down,
Exhale,
Go a little deeper.
Inhale,
Slide the hands up to the top of the thighs,
Come all the way up,
Reach the arms out and up,
Seal the hands in at the heart and step your left foot back,
Pretty good step back with the toes pointing the front left corner of the mat.
We reach the arms up into Virabhadrasana 1,
Warrior 1.
I find this is kind of that courage warrior,
Just showing up fully as yourself.
One more breath.
Exhaling hands together,
Feet together,
Inhale,
Step the right foot back,
Toes are angled at the front right corner.
Left knee is bent,
Reaching the hands up.
One more breath.
Bringing it in,
You repeat that again,
Only this time,
We're changing it up just a little bit so the base is still the same,
The legs are still the same.
The arms reach up,
Turn your thumbs away from each other a little bit more and then open the arms like,
Here I am,
I'm open,
I'm ready to receive.
And as you exhale,
Bring the hands together,
Feet together,
Step the right foot back.
Inhale,
Reach it up and open.
We don't know what's coming,
But we're open.
Exhale,
Bring the hands together,
Step the foot forward.
One more round,
Taking that left leg back,
Inhaling the hands up,
Opening them and letting them come all the way behind your back to hook the thumbs.
Roll the arms back and as you exhale,
Fold forward,
Letting the hands come up,
Humble warrior.
Inhale,
Come back up,
Exhale,
Step the hands and the feet together,
Right leg steps back,
Inhale the hands up,
Exhale,
Reach them around,
Hook the thumb,
Whichever is an uncomfortable hook,
So the thumb you didn't do last time.
Roll the arms back,
Fold forward with your exhale,
Inhale,
Bring it up,
Exhale,
Hands and feet together,
And step the left leg back,
Turn open.
So this is a much wider step so that your right knee can stay over the ankle,
Reach the arms out,
Virabhadrasana II,
Warrior II.
Exhale,
Step the feet together,
Inhale,
Step back with the right foot,
Exhale,
Open up,
One deep breath,
Bring it in.
We're going to add on to that one now,
Step it back with the left foot,
Open it up,
Turn the right palm up,
Reach up with the right hand as the left hand reaches down the leg,
Reverse Warrior.
Inhale,
Bring it up,
Exhale,
Step the hands and the feet together,
Other side.
Exhaling out,
Inhaling,
Reaching up,
Exhaling,
Bringing it back together,
One more Virabhadrasana II.
And we'll add on to the base of what we just did,
Inhaling,
Reach up,
And exhaling.
This time,
Bring your right knee down to the thigh,
Take the left arm across,
Parsvakonasana.
Inhale,
Come back into Warrior II,
Exhale,
Step the hands and the feet together,
Inhale,
Right leg goes back,
Exhale,
Open the arms out,
Inhale,
Reach it up,
Exhale,
Bring it into Parsvakonasana,
One breath here,
Inhale,
Bring it back up,
Warrior II,
Exhale,
Hands and feet come together.
Warrior III this time,
Shifting the weight into the right foot,
Hands stay at the heart as you lift the left leg,
And you press that left foot back,
The toes are pointing down to the floor as the crown of the head reaches forward.
Inhale,
Come up,
Not holding these long,
Shift the weight into your left foot,
And take it forward,
Hands still stay at the heart,
Hips level,
Spine lengthens,
One breath.
Shift the feet,
Take the left leg,
Even the hips,
And then reach the arms out to the sides.
Hands come into the heart as the foot lowers,
Take the right leg back,
Reach the arms out,
Bring the hands in,
One more on each side,
Taking that left leg up as you hinge forward at the crease of the thighs,
Reach the arms forward,
Inhale,
Come up,
Seal the hands in at the heart,
Take it over to the other side,
Reach the arms forward.
This time,
Bring the hands back to the heart and then come up,
Nice.
Come down to the mat,
And I'd like to give you two options for this.
You can have the legs straight out,
And that's for people who have a little bit tighter hips or if you've ever had hip replacement,
You won't want to do the full version of this.
We're going to cross the right leg over,
So this is the most basic version.
If you want to take it into a slightly different,
More intense,
We're going to bend that left knee.
Both sits bones need to be down on the floor and the right foot flat on the floor.
Hug it with your left arm,
The right knee with your left arm,
And twist.
Reconnect to your breath.
The inhale allows you to lengthen,
The exhale allows you maybe a little bit more space to open.
One more breath.
Come on back to the front.
Uncross the legs.
If you're going to do the basic version,
You want to keep the right leg straight,
The left leg goes over.
But if you want to try your luck and see how it feels to be in the deeper version of this,
You're welcome to wrap the right arm around the left knee,
Left hand goes behind the hip.
Inhaling to lengthen the spine,
Exhaling,
Maybe you get a little more twist.
Come back to the front.
Uncross the legs.
Find your blanket or pillow and come back up to a seated position.
And allow the palms to be face up as you close your eyes.
Begin to follow your breath in and out of your body.
As we practice mindfulness as a tool to surrender attachment to outcome,
We bring one hand to the belly and one to the heart.
As we take in Sarabhan Ratnak's words,
Harmony is the inner cadence of contentment we feel when the melody of life is in tune.
Listening deeply inside of yourself,
What is out of tune in your body and life?
And what would harmony feel like?
Bring the palms together in front of the heart.
It's an honor and a pleasure to guide you.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
And share this with a friend who needs it.
Gotta spread the love,
Y'all.
Infinite love and gratitude.
Till next time,
Be whole.
