Autumn Yoga For The Changing Seasons

This yoga sequence will prepare your body for the changing seasons. We will store up all the energy and heat we built up during the summer with energetic yoga twists. We will move slowly through transitions so we do not burn off this heat too quickly and learn how to rest our body for the winter time. Celebrate the changing season through yoga!

Transcript

Welcome to the fall equinox celebration with our yoga practice when we come into fall we've just moved out of summer and we have enjoyed the fruits of our harvest when eating vegetables fruits maybe enjoying the warm weather and we recognize a change And in this time of change, We want to store up our energy for the winter ahead. So this is a preparation to heat up our body internally. Perhaps we're losing some of the external heat. So we use our breath to heat up internally. Let's close our eyes and just take deep Ujjayi breath in and out through our nose together. This the change of this season we want to slow down a little bit and draw inward to our yoga practice. So just like we're trying to pull the energy in our body, Draw inward. We'll do some things to warm up through our center, Twist. Side bends stretches to bring that warmth in internally. Let's open our eyes. Take a breath together. Inhale reach your arms up Exhale, Let's fold forward over our legs. So we can feel whichever leg we have on top or in front, We should feel that hip a little bit more. So that outer edge of the hip. Into the low back and this is our first forward bend our first chance to pull in through the middle as we fold Just let your head and neck relax. Then walk our way up to the center, To the top. Take your left arm out to the side and inhale lift your right arm up bend As you lean, Press that right hip down toward the floor. So that you feel the length through the hip, Through the side body, Through the rib cage. Inhale lift up take your right hand behind you draw your left arm across and into our first twist pull your right shoulder back so that we're opening up our chest rotating through the low back Upper back. Twists bring a lot of heat into the center of our body. Really good for digestion. It's that third chakra. If you love the chakras like me, That solar plexus chakra. Good now come around unwind yourself and let's switch our feet whichever leg was on top before or in front before do the other side Take a breath. Inhale, Lift. Exhale fold forward. Now we can feel that opposite hip. Opposite hip, A little bit deeper stretch. Again, Pulling inward, Lifting our center. Utilize Uddiyana Vanda. Pull up and in as you fold. Inhale, Lift up. Extend your right hand, Left arm reaches Inhale as we press. Push that hip to the floor. Exhale, Take the full lean. Just feels good to lengthen the sides of the body. I think it builds energy creates more space or breath. Which builds energy Inhale, Lift up. Pull your left hand behind, Bring your right arm across. Rotate the shoulders. Drawing that left shoulder back so that we're sitting nice and tall into the twist good come around to the center very nice let's stand up onto our feet and continue our side bending just building it up if you want to come up slow you can start with bent knees this will ease your back We'll just begin to roll up through the spine. As we get to the top, Our shoulders roll back. We can take a side bend standing so now our root is on the floor think about the trees in the autumn rooted to the ground inhale lift up press your palms together at the top exhale lean to the right so again we're feeling that side in that left side long and stretch through the shoulder inhale back to the center exhale lean to the left long side body. Inhale back to the center. I'm going to turn work. We'll continue with our vinyasa So exhale now fold forward. We're moving into Sura Namaskara a Take your hands down toward the floor and just hang here for a moment. Relax your neck and jaw. Notice if you're very tight in the hamstrings, Maybe you're bending your knees. And again, We're pulling inward, Lifting that center space. Hands to the shins. Inhale, Look up. Halfway lift. Exhale bring your hands down to the mat step back or hop yourself back to a plank you can release your knees here I'll demonstrate and Chaturanga elbows bend feel free to keep the knees lifted though if that's your practice inhale press up upward facing dog shoulders rolled back open the throat and neck Exhale, Roll through the knees or your toes to downward facing dog, Atamukha Svanasana. Heels release down to the floor we can feel that stretch through the backs of the legs. Good. Our breath continues here. Never stop breathing. Beautiful. Now bend your knees, Look forward. Inhale, Step or hop up to your hands. Exhale fold into your legs inhale reverse swan dive reach up to the sky exhale samasthiti let's take that cycle one more time for now inhale lift This will build our heat internally. It'll help. Exhale fold. Inhale, Look up halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down. Step or hop back. Drop to your knees if you want. This time I'll show it lifted. Chaturanga. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana, Upward facing dog. Exhale, Atamakaspanasana, Downward Facing Dog. Heels release. Shoulder chin tucks just a little bit. We feel that back of the neck lengthening bend your knees look forward inhale stepper hop up to the hands Exhale, Fold in, Uttanasana. Now as we come up, Let's bend our knees and come into a chair pose. Here feel it do you feel like maybe there's some energy that you can release for me i like to bend my elbows and let the shoulder blades relax maybe that feels good to you as well feel something that can let go just like the leaves on the trees will eventually let go during the fall season bring your hands to heart center guide the right elbow over to that left knee it doesn't have to touch but you can and then pull the shoulder up to the sky. We're twisting feel free to stay here or perhaps open This is building up the heat right in the center. We can really feel that motion for the twist. Inhale. Exhale come back to the center don't let go of your energy let yet keep going exhale elbow to the knee pull the shoulder up you can stay here or you can open whatever you did last time Squeeze. Build up that center heat. One more breath, Inhale. Exhale, Ooh, Legs are feeling it, The heat. Inhale, Back to the center, And let's straighten out our knees. Now it's going to feel nice as we release into Uttanasana. And just consider that trees that don't let go of their leaves, Sometimes are in danger during an early winter storm, Early frost. So sometimes we need to learn how to let go or we might be dragged down by the winter. Take one more breath here inhale Exhale. And let's roll up through our spine. All the way up to the top. With the shoulders rolling back. Nicely done. Step your right foot forward and we'll pull our left foot back. So we're coming to rear two position, Heel to arch aligned, Open through the hips. Bend your knee, That right knee, And feel the extension of the arms. We're strong through our shoulders, But not rigid. Strength, But not tight. Intensity relax relax take a breath inhale Exhale deep and into parsvakhanasana. So you can take your forearm to your thighs. Maybe start here and pull the left arm overhead. Or if you want to go deeper, You can take your hand down to the floor on the pinky toe side of the foot. Here's where you might utilize a block. You can place your block on the floor by your foot and then it just elevates your hand. You don't have to quite reach so far. You choose. Good again side bended lengthening really extended it feels nice inhale straighten up through your torso and your leg so we'll lengthen that knee take a little weight out of the hip And exhale, Reach to Trikonasana. If you're using a block, You would shift it to the big toe side of your foot. If you don't have a block, Just your hand along your leg is fine, As far down as you can go. We can still feel this side body lengthening really nicely. Good. Now you can choose to stay right here. If you'd like to go a little deeper, Build a little more heat, You can look down. Bend your right knee and take your right hand forward. Maybe lift up into a half moon pose. Option here to have your hand on your block as you're lifted. And again, Of course, You can keep both feet on the floor. Find a place to look. Feel the strength in the center of your body through that right ankle. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your left knee. Take your foot down or sorry, Right knee. Take your foot down. I'm just switching my block. Turn your toes so they're facing each other Now look down. Make sure your feet are in line with each other after doing that vertical lift. The balance, We need to make sure our alignment is good. Hands to her hips. Pull your shoulders back. Inhale, Look up. Exhale fold forward hands come to the floor or to your block and walk them back so they're lined up with your feet. And straighten out your arms. Inhale, Lengthen the spine. Exhale, Fold back down. Take your hands down. Let your head relax and your neck relax. We can feel all this length through the back of the legs, Really nice in the hamstrings, Deep into the hips. Release through the sacrum. Beautiful forward fold. This is Prasarita Padottanasana A. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale press into the floor or the block look up Exhale, Bring your hands to your waist. Inhale lift up the rest of the way Exhale turn your body however you need to face the camera so that now your left knee is in front and the left knee is bent We're on our second side into Cyrano Mascara B. I mean, Sorry, Virabandrasana B. We're here too. Pelvis pulled under, Hips nice and open. We're strong, But we're not rigid, Yes? Inhale. Exhale release the left forearm to the thigh or you can take your hand to the floor maybe you've got your block your hand on your block on the pinky toe side and pull your arm overhead Feel that strong reach through the torso, Length from the fingertip all the way down to the pinky edge of your right foot. Now inhale, Straighten up through legs and torso, Lengthening that quadricep and knee. Exhale, Trikonasana. Reach your hand down along your leg. Maybe you can grab your big toe. That's the Ashtanga way. Or a block. The big toe side of your foot All good options. Listen to your body. Listen to your breath. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Now you're choosing to stay here or bend your left knee. Take your hand forward. Maybe you're using your block. Maybe not. Lift off. Into the balance. Feel that lift, That reach. But. . . One more breath wherever you are. Inhale. Exhale, Bend the standing leg, Put your foot down. Lift up. I almost lost my balance at the end. Parallel your feet. Back to this position once more. Look up. Inhale. Exhale hands down this time just directly underneath your shoulders so we're not going to pull them back quite as far Let's twist. Keep your right hand on the floor. Inhale, Lift your left arm up, Rotate. Open up the chest space. We can feel that shifting in the hips, Low back and upper back. Inhale. Exhale replace the hand down to the floor Other side. Inhale, Lift up. Unwinding releasing Inhale. Exhale, Place your hands down. Good. Look up, Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands to your way. Inhale lift up nicely done exhale step your feet together Good work. This would not be a fall yoga practice without a tree pose, Right? So let's shift over to our right side and pull the left leg up. Now you can change this. You can leave your toes on the floor. You could prop your toes. Onto a block. It can be however intense you want Take your hands, Maybe start them at heart center. And then if you feel like it, You can reach your arms upward. There's nothing, There's so much power in pulling inward when we do a balancing pose. We're feeling all that strength and energy right here, Right at our center. We're imagining noticing the root of the foot on the floor and all this energy that lifts up our body. Just like the trees that are changing colors maybe. Inhale. Exhale. Good job. Bring your hands back to heart center. Let's shift to the other side. If you're using your block, Do it again, Right? Or foot on the floor. Try to keep, Well, This is my hard side. Look at me go. Try to keep both. Feet equal to each other. Good now strengthen our center lift through that hip there Maybe you're reaching your arms up. I definitely have a strong side and a not so strong side. You can tell which one. Is mine. Feel that strength. Keep your focus on your breath. One more breath inhale Exhale. Good job. Bring your hands back. Release. I'm going to set my block out of the way. Let's take a vinyasa to bring us down onto our stomach so we can continue to stretch. Here we go. Inhale, Reach our arms up. Exhale, Swan dive forward. Inhale, Look up halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down. Step back. Hop back if you want. And lower all the way down onto your stomach. I'm going to change my mic. It's kind of bad right there when I'm on my stomach. Okay, Let's build up a little heat in our low back and through our triceps. Pull your elbows by your sides, Hands right below the shoulder blades for cobra pose. Five cobra poses here. Press into the floor, Inhale, Lift up. Extending your neck Exhale lower it down inhale lift up Exhale, Lower. Three more, Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Pull your shoulder blades back. Exhale. Here's our last one. Inhale. Very nice. Now prop your elbows. On the mat right below your shoulder blades this is sphinx pose After that movement, It might almost feel like this is a rest. We're just balancing on our elbows. But we're still putting energy into it, Pushing the ground away, Lifting up through our shoulders. Such a beautiful back bend. Really good for muscle weight bearing on our on our bone bone density right increases that Beautiful one more breath Inhale. Exhale, Come down. Change your arms one more time. Bring your arms by your sides. This time, Option to lift our legs and lift our chest and hover in place. Here we go, Lift up. If you find that it's too hard to do both, Then just drop one or the other down Try to bring your toes toward each other in the back. So touching your toes instead of spreading the legs apart. Look down at the ground so you're not straining your neck. Inhale. Good. Exhale. Come down. Let's press onto our knees. Let the knees open a little wider than the hips and sit down into a child's pose. Good. Breathe a sigh of relief as we're in a moment of rest. So just settle into this stillness. Of your body and store up your energy. For during this rest. Store it up. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale lift up Let's have a seat. Nice after all those back bends it will feel good to fold forward and lengthen out our back so I should have grabbed this if you have a strap we'll use it next if you don't have a strap don't worry about it I can show you what you can do So if you've got the strap, Place your strap around your feet. Sit nice and tall. Inhale. Exhale walk your way forward extend your arms your arms are reaching toward the toes so our elbows are not bent up here walk your hands down that strap If you don't have a strap, You can just grab your ankles, Your calves. Anywhere that you can reach, And some of you might be able to get your toes. Take a breath, Inhale, Pull in through the middle. Exhale fold yourself back down What a beautiful way to release. We're letting go of tension. Every time we exhale, We're trying to let go a little bit more. Energy releasing it out of our body. Feels nice to lengthen the back. We can feel the hamstrings. Maybe even the hips. Take one more breath inhale Exhale. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale release nicely done bend your right knee take another twist this time seated extend your left arm inhale Exhale, Hook it onto your knee. The right hand comes behind you. Pull your right shoulder back, Press against the knee, And draw open through your chest. This should feel really deep through the center, Like when we did the twist in the chair pose. This is Mary Chiasana C. Like I said, Twists are great for building up heat in our center. So again, Just pulling that energy inward. Inhale look forward exhale release let's do our other side Bend the left knee. Inhale, Reach the right arm up. Exhale hook the elbow to the knee or you can hug the leg as well left hand to the floor pull that shoulder back squeeze through the middle Send your gaze back as well as we feel that lifting, That rotation. Through the low back area. Nice revolve. Feels good along the spine. Inhale, Come forward. Exhale release great job one hip opener before we lay on our back Let's take upavista khanasana. This one can be difficult. Just do your best. I don't love sitting on a block, But you can. Maybe a blanket would be better. That can kind of tilt the pelvis forward, So you can try that. Just keep your toes pointed to the sky. I'm going to start to walk. Our way forward. So as we walk forward, We'll get as deep as we can. And when you find that limit, The limit of your depth, Then just hold there. And breathe. And try to relax. Let go of tension. Let go of stress. We cannot. Well it's hard to build flexibility if we're holding tight tight tight onto our body let go just like the leaves are gonna let go of the tree and fall. We can use our energy somewhere else. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale walk it up great job slightly bend release some of that tension maybe it's tight for you in the hamstrings it's okay it's normal Now we've been holding still, Doing some stretches. Let's get a little movement as we begin a couple of rounds of bridge poses. So come to your back. Feet on the floor, Arms by your sides, Relax the curve of your spine. So maybe lift your hips a little, Tilt your pelvis, Press the back to the floor. So it feels like The back is flat before we start. We're going to move together. We'll lift our hips and bring our arms overhead and then lower them back down five times. Build a little heat once again. Here we go. Inhale lift up hips lift arms lift Shoulder blades come up toward the neck. Exhale, Lower it down. Relax as you come down we'll do that five times so that was one inhale lift Exhale lower Good. Keep your feet firmly planted. Inhale, Lift. Feel that energy across your back. Exhale, Lower. We have two more. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Lower. Here's our last one. Inhale, Lift. Exhale lower Nicely done. Good Now we'll move into a traditional bridge pose where we just lift and hold. Let's change our shoulders just a little bit as well. So roll up. One vertebrae at a time take your hands underneath clasp them together and this time we're drawing our shoulder blades away from our neck So it feels different. Our chest open a little bit more maybe because we're squeezing the shoulder blades together just a little bit more. Good take one more breath Inhale. Exhale, Release your hands. Come down all the way down, Curving that spine on the way. Good. Let's do one more lift. So many options. You can do it the same way that I just demonstrated. You could take a block underneath your hips. And rest on that block that might be feel really nice if you're ending your day and just Kind of let the block do all the work. So that's a great choice. If you want more heat, More energy, You could take your hands back behind your shoulders and then press up. Into a wheel pose. So choose your way. All three options are great. Do it with breath. Listen to your body. Build up that energy that we're going to store for the change of the season. One more breath wherever you are. Inhale. Exhale come down tuck your chin if you're in a wheel remove the block if you have a block And everybody, Pull your knees into your chest. Pulling all that energy right into the center, Right? Can you feel it? Can you feel that warmth there? Feels lovely. Few grateful breaths And let's move into one final twist as we finish our practice. So let go. Of your left leg the left leg will come down to the floor and our right knee is into our chest Then take your left hand and guide it over to the left. Our right arm extends so we're trying to keep this right shoulder on the floor and trying to bring the left knee i'm sorry right knee down to the floor on that left side I like to look at my right hand so that my neck is twisting when opening through the chest. We can feel it in the low back, In the hip. And this final twist that we're doing a twist to let go any last remaining tension that you might have. You're going to release it. Let it go. Like twisting out. Anything that's remaining. Going to take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Bring your right knee, Excuse me, Back to the center and release it. A little frog in my throat from laying down, I guess. Let's bring our left knee into our chest. Guide it across the body to the right side. Extend out the left arm. Bring it down to the ground. Maybe you can reach it to the ground. And then turn your head. Try to release any last remaining tension that you feel. Let it go. Don't hold on to it. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Let's bring our leg back to the center and we'll lay it down. Take your shavasana so one leg to each edge of your mat will gently open up your hips Arms by your side, Palms facing upward. Sometimes it feels really nice to elevate your knees. So if you want to slide your blocks underneath your knees, That can take some pressure off of the back. All of that is good. I'm going to let you rest there but as you settle into your rest Just take stock of your body, A little mental stock of the body, A body scan. See what you've released. You were first a tree, We were standing tall, But now you're laying in the leaves that are on the floor, On the ground. Turn inward. And tap in deeply. You already have what you need to get through whatever comes next. I'll let you rest and i'll wake you up with the sound of the bell so just let your thoughts float around you comfortably Start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrists and your ankles Point and flex your feet. Stretch your arms overhead to lengthen through your entire body. And roll over onto one side in fetal pose Gently press up to a comfortable seated position. And bring your hands to heart center. I'll send you off with a quote today by Ramakrishna. The wings of grace blow all the time. All we need to do is set our sails. Thank you for your practice today. Namaste.