Stretch Into Your Greatness Episode 1: Make Your Brain Rich

This is a simple practice, good for beginners, by Wendy Reese Hartmann, 500 hour certified yoga teacher. The focus of the practice is mindfulness in movement. Includes opening meditation, breath work, asanas (physical practice), and a final mediation. It's short and sweet to fit into a busy schedule.

Transcript

Welcome to the first session. I am Wendy Reese Hartman, And to begin, We're going to start sitting down. So if you have a pillow, You're welcome to use that. I use a folded up blanket, Pretty traditional in yoga. To sit like this, I no longer cross my ankles. It's not comfortable for an old hip injury that I had, And if you have well-used knees, This may not be available to you either. Let's start with the first modification, Is to have one leg tucked and the other foot to be in front of it. If this is too much on the hips or it's too much on the knees, You can stretch out one leg, You can stretch out both legs. You just want to be able to find a position that's comfortable for you. Let your hands rest on your thighs. You can have the palms down, You can have the palms up. It's your choice. Begin to follow your breath as it moves in and out of your body. There's nothing to do or change or fix. It's simply an awareness of the breath moving in and out, And begin to notice, What is the quality of this breath? Is it fast, Is it slow, Is it shallow, Is it deep? And as you do this, Begin to notice how your body feels in this moment. Where are you holding tension? How are you sitting? Are you slouching down just a little bit or is your spine lifting up? Begin to turn your back on the world. I know you have an amazing to-do list. I know that there are so many expectations for you, Waiting for you, Maybe even that you put on yourself, But for this moment, Turn your back on the world and turn inward. There is a place of peace and stillness within all of us. Find that place. Henry David Thoreau said, I make myself rich by making my thoughts few. I make myself rich by making my thoughts few. And I suspect you and I have something in common in that our minds are always, Always moving. And so this beautiful sage advice, This feels impossible. But my meditation teacher shared with me one time that what if you can just create a little bit more space between the thoughts? So as you sit here for the next moment, Observing the breath, Observing your thoughts, Maybe you can start to create a little bit more space and sink a little deeper into that place of stillness and peace within you. Bring your palms together so that the thumbs face the center of your chest. We call this Anjali Mudra. It's a very reverent hand position. Bow your head down honoring the light that is in you, The light that is all around you. And let's start standing up because I wanna talk a little bit about alignment. And this is really from the tradition that I was taught in. It's certainly not the only way to do it, But from a background of exercise science, It makes a lot of sense in helping me to get to posture. The other thing with this that I really, Really liked was that, Like I mentioned, My mind is always going. And when I focus on my alignment and stacking my body from floor up into that good posture, Oftentimes what happens is by the time I get up here, I've lost it down there. So I have to go back and restack my body, Go back and restack, And it's a continual process. But because I am being very present to where my body is in that moment, I become very present in my body. And that presence is cross-training for off of the mat, Being present in our body, In our everyday world, Because oftentimes our mind is way out here, It's 1, 000 miles away, And our body is back here, And we've gotta bring those back together so that we can be in that place that athletes call the zone. I've heard it called the flow. It's this place of complete and total presence where you can really tap into your own wisdom. You can start to do matrix-like stuff. It's pretty cool. So let's start with this. On the bottom of each foot, Under, On the ball of the foot, Under the big toe and the pinky toe, And then on the heel, Inner and outer ankle, Those are the four corners of the bottom of each foot. And if you lift your toes up, You feel the arch of the foot lift up. And if you spread the toes, You start to really connect those four corners down. Try to keep the arch of the foot lifted as you slowly let your toes go back down. If you think about your shins and you slide them forward just a little bit, You'll feel your knees bend just a tiny bit. It doesn't have to be a lot. And then your inner thighs, If they start to move back just a little bit, You'll feel your hips and your buttocks shift back a little bit, And that's okay. Just notice how your lower back feels right now, And then find the spot that is two inches below your belly button. Pull it back towards the spine and then up towards the belly button. And that spreads out that lower back and it brings the pelvis into a more neutral alignment. The bottom rib wants to be parallel. So oftentimes we puff out our ribs. We want to think about the bottom rib almost doing a micro crunch so that the middle of the back spreads out just a little bit. And if you can imagine a really big rolling pin under your collarbones and it rolls up and back, And then gather a little bit of saliva in your mouth and give it a swallow, And that pulls your ears back and you are now standing in Tadasana and pay attention to where your feet are. Are those four corners pressing down? Are the shins moving forward? Are the inner thighs moving back a little bit? Two inches below your belly button draws in and up. The ribcage moves down, The collarbones move back, And the ears shift slightly back. Yeah, It's easy to lose that. Take a deep breath in, Reach your arms out and up. Exhale, Bring the palms together in front of the heart. Inhale, Reach the arms out and up. Exhale, Bring the hands together. One more time, Inhale, Reach the arms out and up. Bring the hands in. And interlace the fingers, Bring the hands underneath the chin. Inhale, Reach the elbows up. When you can't go any further, Lift the heart and exhale, Bring the elbows back down and together. Inhale, Lift up, Lifting the heart. Exhale, Bring it back down. Three more of these, Please. Inhale, Reach up. Exhale, Bring it back. One more time. Take a deep breath in, Reach your arms out and up, And this time, Interlace the fingers and press up, But bring your hands forward a little bit. Keep the elbows slightly bent and let the shoulders melt down. Four corners of the bottom of each foot presses down. The shins move forward a little bit. Two inches below your belly button draws in and up. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, Reach to your right, Letting the left ribcage lift up just a little bit as you press those feet down. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Take it over to your left. Inhale, Bring it up. Lift the heart. Exhale, Reach your arms back behind your back. Interlace your fingers. So my hands, The palms are facing up and the fingers are intertwined, But they're pulling away from one another. The top of the arm rotates back just a little bit and the elbows stay bent. Maybe you can take the hands off of the lower back just slightly so it's just lifting up here. Again, Four corners of the bottom of each foot. Shins move forward, Inner thighs back. Two inches below the belly button, Ribcage, Collarbones, Ears. And as you inhale, Release the hands, Reach the arms up. Exhale, We fold forward and place the hands on the shins and try to lengthen through your spine. And if you're able, Keep the knees bent a little bit. If you're able to get the back all the way straight, Maybe coming from the crease of the thighs, You can start to lean forward and let the hands slide down. Maybe they can even walk forward just a little bit. Shake the head, No. Nod the head, Yes. Slide your hands up to the top of the thighs. Come all the way up. Reach your arms out and up. Bring them back in under the chin. Let's do five more of these breaths. Inhale, Reaching up. Exhale, Bringing the elbows back down. Inhaling. Exhaling. Three more. Inhaling, Bringing the arms out and up. Exhaling, Bringing the hands in. Inhale, Bringing the arms out and up. Exhale, Bringing the hands in. One more time like this. Bringing the hands in. And let's have a seat once again on your pillow or on a blanket. Let the hands rest on the knees. Close your eyes and just begin to follow your breath again in and out of the body. Marcus Aurelius said, The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. As you sit here just for one minute, Following the breath in and out of the body, Just observe any thoughts that come to you and just be willing to let them go. Take a deep breath in. Bring the palms back together in front of the heart. As you move through your day today, I invite you to think about this quote and being willing to pay attention to the quality of your thoughts. It's been an honor and a pleasure to guide you. Thank you for joining me. Look forward to seeing you next time.