Earth Day Yoga

Celebrate everything you love about the Earth, the trees, growing things, the ocean, as well as all the places you want to visit on Earth. In this yoga practice, we will pay tribute to the Earth with our balancing poses as well as enjoy inspiring quotes about nature. Get grounded, feel the energy, celebrate the Earth!

Transcript

Welcome to our Earth Day yoga practice today. There are so many things to love in the earth, The mountains, The ocean, The sunrise, The sunset. All the places that we have traveled. And all the nature that we have yet to see. So throughout our practice today, I'm just going to be sprinkling in some quotes about the earth. And just to help you feel a little connected and a little bit of a tribute to the earth and to nature. So let's just close our eyes, Let our shoulders roll back. Take our arms by our sides. Or you might even place your hands on the earth. And just kind of feel the ground around you. Now even if you're not outside, Which I am not, We can imagine the ground underneath us and we can feel the parts of us that are connected to the earth. Our grounding presence. That energy beneath us that supports us. And that life-giving presence. We'll feel that today as we move. As we try to get grounded. And to get focused. You're breathing in and out just through your nose. If you can. To heat up a little deeper through our lungs. Through our hearts. And to feel this connection to our body. Let's open our eyes and take three unified breaths together. Inhale, Lift. Exhale release. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Release. Feel that energy humming all around you as you breathe. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Release. Now bring yourself over to a child's pose. So we'll let our knees widen just a little bit more than our hips. Sit our hips back, Reach our arms forward and feel like we're bowing down to Mother Earth. You can place your forehead on the ground if that's comfortable for you, Or you can use a block. To place your forehead on the block. And just feel that connection. To the ground. To that Mother Earth that's there below us. Breathe it in. And start to feel in your body where you might want to loosen today. Where you might want to focus your attention, Your energy as we stretch. Now let's lift up onto our hands and feet, Reach our hips to the sky and drop our heels down toward the floor and start to press back into the hips. Moving back through your shoulders, Lifting up through the hips. And feel free to check it out. Stretch out a little bit in this first Adho Mukha Svanasana. You can bend your knees and pedal your feet if you'd like. Kind of noticing moving the ground below you. You can imagine that your feet are in sand and you're pressing through the foot through that slippery, Cushiony sand. It's certainly one of my favorite places on the Earth. Is the beach, By the ocean. I love it. And then let's gently walk our hands and feet toward each other. Come into a forward bend, Uttanasana. Now it's okay if you don't have your hands on the floor, They can just be hanging down. You can have your knees bent. You can have your knees straight. It's all up to how you feel right at this moment. And let's roll ourselves up. Keeping our head heavy. And our neck loose, Our shoulders heavy as we come up to the top and wake up. We'll move into our first balance, Vrkasana. Shift over to your right foot and gently pull your left foot up your leg. You can go as high or as low as you want. You can even have the toes on the floor. It's perfectly fine. Start to feel this grounding energy from the root, From that right foot and have the energy lift up. So we're lifting our calf, We're lifting our quadriceps, We're lifting our hips. And if you want to, You can reach your arms up overhead. As well, But it's up to you. And here's our first quote, Our first tribute to the Earth. The earth is what we all have in common. By Wendell Berry. Take a deep, Grateful breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands back together if you lifted them up and let's place our feet down. And shift over to that left side. Move your right leg up. This side, I'll admit, Is my weak side. Maybe you have a weak side too. We do our best to stay balanced and grounded. Just keep focusing on that energy from the floor and that lifting up through the side of the body. Feel free to reach your arms ahead if you want. Feeling the rest of the growth, Just like a tree. This is Tree Pose. It's literally what we're doing. Rooting to the floor and growing our energy up. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bring it back to the center, And replace that foot down. Nicely done. Let's warm our whole body with Surya Namaskara A. Perfect salute to the sun, The sun part of nature, Of course. So here we go. Inhale, Reach up. Exhale, Swan dive forward. Inhale, Bring your hands to your shins, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down to the floor, Step back or hop back to a plank. And take Chaturanga, Elbows bent. See if you can hover for just a moment. Inhale, Press into the ground, Lift up, Opening the chest, The throat, The back. Exhale, Roll back to Adho Mukha Svanasana, Downward Facing Dog again. Now after moving through that sequence, Maybe it feels a little different to be in this down dog. Each one should feel a little different. Just notice. Just be aware. Keep connecting with your breath. Bend your knees, Look forward, Inhale, Step or hop to your hands. However you get there is fine. Exhale, Fold into your legs, Uttanasana. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach up to the sky. That sun. Exhale, Samasthiti, Feeling grounded. Good. Let's take it again. Inhale, Lift and reach. Exhale, Fold down, Uttanasana, Pulling in through the center as you lengthen the backs of the legs. Inhale, Look up, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, Hands down, Step or hop back. Chaturanga. Inhale, Urvamukha Swarmasana, Upward Facing Dog. Exhale Adho Mukha Svanasana. Downward facing dog. Keep lifting through the center of your body. Feel that length through the back body. Good. Hopefully you're starting to warm up. Feeling very connected to the breath. Let's do one more for now. So bend your knees, Look forward, Inhale, Step or hop to the hand. Exhale, Fold into your legs. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach up. Exhale Samasthiti. Good. Last time for now. Inhale, Feel the joy and the energy all around you. Exhale, Swan dive down. Inhale, Cup halfway left. Exhale, Hands down, Step or hop back, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Atmakasvanasana. Good. Grateful breaths. Here we're very connected to the earth. Hands and feet on the ground and the energy lifting up out of it. Now lift your right leg, Inhale, Up and back behind you, Three-legged down dog. Exhale bring it through in between the hands and let's stay lifted on this back left foot and raise up. Now this is a balance, We've got two feet on the floor but we are feeling that lift from underneath. So notice that. Notice how the energy feels. It almost feels like we're going to launch ourselves forward, Which is exactly what we'll do next. Let's take our torso forward. And press off with that left foot and move into your warrior three. Now here's where a block might be handy. Reach down and place your hands on the block. So we've still got that lifted foot. But we're not quite extending our torso the whole way. Feel free to take it however works best for you. Either way, Lots of lift through the torso. Lots of energy reaching up. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your right knee, Place the left foot down, Drop that heel and feel strong. And support it. Walt Whitman said, This is what you should do. Love the Earth. And the sun. And the animals. Good. Inhale. Exhale open up to Warrior 2. Bearer than just an abbey. Pull the pelvis under, Open up that inner thigh. This pose should feel very grounded. Very connected. I think it's always nice to feel connected after doing a balancing pose. So let's just get a little deeper toward the earth. Take your right forearm to your thigh. Or you can reach your right hand to the floor. You also might have your block and you can place your hand on a block on the pinky edge of your foot. Then pull that left arm overhead. And how stable we feel into this right hip. Lots of energy opening up, Lots of stretch and length. Through the torso. Enjoy. Take another breath. Inhale. Exhale. Let's straighten up through our body. Good. We're in. I'm going to move to Trikonasana. I'm a little wide. I'm going to step in just a tiny bit. Inhale. Exhale, Take your right hand down, Shin, Your ankle, Your big toe or your block on the big toe side of your foot. Extend that left arm up to the sky and feel that nice long reach. All the way up the torso. I love that connection of reaching to the floor, But lifting the energy upward. Again, A nice strong stable position. So maybe we can move into another balancing pose. Let's look down. Bend our right knee. Take the right hand forward. Perhaps you'll move your block with you. And lift off. Into a half moon. Ardha Chandrasana. And feel how this hip opens. And the chest opens. Not an easy balance, But it's worth it. It's a little easier to look down to the floor. So if you need to do that. Do that. It's fine. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your right leg, Place that foot back on the floor, Stand up, Enjoy feeling stable and grounded. Turn your toes toward each other, Place your hands on your hips. Prasarita Padottanasana A. Inhale, Look up. Exhale, Find the earth. Take your hands down to the floor or maybe you're placing your hands on your block. And walk the hands back between the feet. Press into the floor, Look up, Inhale. Exhale, Fold yourself back down. Enjoy how nourishing this feels through the calves. The hamstrings, The hips, The low back. We're relaxing our jaw, We're relaxing our head and neck. Feels so nice. Just to lengthen everything on the way down. Nice deep breaths. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Press into the floor, Look up, Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands to your waist. Inhale, Lift up the rest of the way. And exhale, Step your hands back to heart center. For a moment to connect to the earth. And our Chinese proverb says. . . The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. With that said, Let's do a Surya Namaskara A. Here we go. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Swan dive forward. Inhale, Look up halfway, Lift. Exhale, Hands down, Step or hop back, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale. Aramuka Svanasana. Good job. Moving on to our left leg. Inhale, Lift the left leg up and back behind you. Exhale, Bring it through in between the hands. Stay on the toes of that right foot. And lift up. Feel that connection to the floor here. Even though this heel is trying to launch us forward, Feel your torso right on top of your hips. Now let's start to move. Take your energy forward with your torso. Press with that foot and lift off. Remember, You might be using your block. So feel free to grab that. Just make sure that the block is right below your shoulders so you're not having to reach back for it. Line it up so that your torso stays lengthened. Good, Maybe you're reaching your hands off the block. This is my difficult side, So I'm gonna stay using my block. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your left knee, Press that right heel all the way down so when you lift up, You feel strong, You feel supported, You feel connected to the earth. Inhale. Exhale open it up to Virabhadrasana B. I always widen out really far here. I just want to make sure, And you should look too, That the knee stacks right on top of that ankle. Good, Really nice and connected to the ground. Both feet very stable, Torso right on top of the hips. Open up through that hip flexor. Feel that inner thigh opening up. Take a breath, Inhale. Exhale, Deepen the left forearm to the thigh, Left hand to the floor, Maybe on a block on the pinky side of your foot and pull that right arm overhead. Feel that strong energy going into the right hip, I'm sorry, Left hip and the right side of the body lengthening. Beautiful. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Let's press into the floor and lift up, Straighten both legs. If you feel wide like me, Maybe step in just a tiny bit. Inhale. Exhale, Trikonasana, Reaching down. You can use your block again on the big toe side of your foot, Or just grab somewhere along that leg for Trikonasana. And enjoy this pull, Both reaching for the ground, Reaching for the earth, But then the energy to lift up out of it. Our strong stable position gives us the courage to move into a bouncing pose. Feel free to move with me if you'd like. You can always stay here if you'd want as well. But let's look down. Bend the left knee, Take the left hand forward, Maybe you're finding your block again, And lift up. Same thing like I said in that warrior three, We want to make sure that there's room for the torso. See this length here? Keep the arm right below your shoulder. And as we balance. Thomas Fuller said. He that plants trees loves others besides himself. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your knee, Place your foot down, Lift up, Enjoy the stable ground. Turn your toes toward each other and bring your hands behind you for Prasarita Padottanasana C. Now if you're really tight in your shoulders here, You might have a strap and you can place that strap back there to widen out your grip. So press into the fingers, Look up, Inhale, Pull those shoulders back, Feels so nice. Exhale, Fold down and pull your hands away from your back and just relax your neck. Take a moment to relax your jaw. Feel this nice length. Through the back. Through the shoulders. I could stay here all day. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale Inhale, Start to come up. It's okay to move slow. We have been upside down for a little while. We'll release our hands. Step our feet back together. Good job. Take a vinyasa to bring you down to the floor where we can do some stretching. So here we go. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Swan dive forward. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down, Step or hop back. Chatter on that. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Exhale, Adho Mukha Svanasana. Good. Bend your knees, Look forward, Step, Hop, Or walk your way through to sit. Bring yourself. To the earth. Nicely done. Let's take Ardha Matsyendrasana. So we're going to start with our right leg, Sorry, Left leg on the bottom and the right foot over the top. Now if this feels really tight, Kind of intense to you, Feel free to straighten out the leg. So the left leg is straight and the right leg is over the top. So that's a modification that you might see. Enjoy. Now you might feel like your hips are a little shifted. Do what you can to press both hips down. Feel grounded. It'll help when we twist. Lift the left arm up. Inhale. Exhale, Hook it onto the knee. Take the right hand to the floor, Press against the floor and push those hips into the ground. Really feel grounded there. That's going to stabilize your hips and allow you to twist deeper right at the base of the spine. At the sacrum. And keep pulling in through the center of the body as we send our gaze back. And feel that nice spiral. Good. We've done our balancing poses. We've done our standing poses. Now we're going to get connected to the earth. We're gonna get grounded with these deep stretches. Very nice. Good. Come forward. We're going to try one of my favorite little transitions. This is just kind of for fun. So take your hands to the floor and lift up. So you're standing on your feet. See how I'm still crisscross. Then walk your way around so that you untwist. Keep going, Keep going, Keep going, It'll twist you back. To the other side. Did we make it? Just check yourself. I think that's just kind of a fun little energy lifter. You should have your right leg on the bottom and the left leg on the top now. So adjust if you didn't quite make it. You can try it again later. Extend your right arm. Inhale. Exhale, Hook it onto the knee, Left hand to the floor, Sit tall, Pull your shoulder back. Enjoy the opening up of the chest and the connecting of the floor, The hips on the floor. A North American proverb is. We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children. I love that. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Just enjoy squeezing all of that out. Nicely done. Let's open up wide. To epuupuvista kranasana. So we were bent for a while, We did the outer hips, We did the twist, Now we're going to do inner thigh and groin. As we fold forward and reach deeper and deeper for the earth, Just make sure your toes stay pointed to the sky. Take a breath, Inhale. Exhale, Walk your way forward. Walk your way forward. Keep breathing. Keep feeling that length. Maybe you notice that your legs start to relax, Your inner thigh starts to relax, And you might be able to pull a little bit closer, A little bit deeper. Try it. But don't pull so far that you lose the stretch. The knees bend or we roll our heels forward. That is not as the length, The quantity is not as important as the quality. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Good. Gently lift your weight up. Nicely done. Bring your legs together. I'm going to turn to my side so you can see. And we're seated in Dandasana, Staff pose, So that we can move into Paschimottanasana. So take a breath, Inhale, Exhale, Reach forward. Now if you can't grab your feet, Take a strap or a towel, Anything, Wrap it around your feet. So that as you come forward, You're keeping your knees lengthened and you get a deeper quality of stretch for the hamstrings. Let's take a breath, Inhale, Pull in through the middle of the body. Exhale. Hold yourself down. Roll those shoulder blades back. Bending into the body. As we do these stretches, Try to keep yourself in this present moment. Try to keep yourself focused. After all, Buddha said, As you walk, And eat. And travel. And see much of nature. Be where you are. Otherwise, You will miss most of your life. Let's be present. One more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Lift up. Nicely done. Set your strap aside if you're using it. We want to keep our body heat warm, Keep it high so that we don't lose our energy. So we're going to take a little half vinyasa from the floor. Let's pull our knees in and kind of lift up onto our sits bones. Inhale. Exhale, Fold forward, Take your hands down, Step hop or walk yourself back to your plank. And just lower all the way to the stomach, All the way to the earth. Let's take our arms by our sides, Feet on the floor. I won't lower my chest all the way down due to my microphone. Vatsalabhasana. So you can lift your chest, You can lift your legs. Just hover. Over the earth. Keep your neck nice and loose. Roll those shoulder blades back. Feel the back muscles working strong. It's not a neck pose, So don't strain it. Just game. Gays. Down the neck. Down the nose, Down the bridge of the nose. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Come down. You can crisscross your hands if you want. Rest on your forehead there. Relax your glutes, Your hamstrings. Your shoulders, Your neck. We're gonna take it one more time. You can feel free to go a little deeper. So either do that same version again, Salabhasana. Or if it's in your practice, You might grab your feet here. And we'll lift from here. So this is option B. Option A, Down. All right, Choose your way. Here we go. Inhale, Lift up. Fold those shoulder blades back. Feel that lifting through the chest. Arching. Good. I'm rocking a little bit because I'm breathing. I hope you're breathing too. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Release it down. Nicely done. Roll back into a child's pose. Sit back onto those hips. And let your head drop down and just relax the shoulders. Feels nice to change the direction of our back here. Take a few grateful breaths. Feels so connected to the earth. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Press your hands and feet into the floor, Lift your hips up. And drop those heels back down. Good, Pressing and lengthening the hips. Lengthening the back of the legs Bend your knees, Look forward. Step hop or walk your way through and then on to your back. So come around. And get down. Onto the floor. For bridge poses. I love bridge poses for connecting to the earth because we're laying on the ground and we're going to use our feet. And our torso to press into the ground in order to lift ourselves up. So see if you can feel that balance, That connection. So from the base of the spine, Start to roll up one vertebrae at a time. Take your hands underneath you, Clasp them together and roll toward the edges of your shoulders. And just keep pressing with the feet. To feel more lift, More stretch through the front of the body. It feels so good. To open up that heart space. Stretch hip flexors, Quadriceps. Love this connection. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Release your hands, Roll yourself down. Nicely done. Good. Let's just do one more. You can do it just like we did. Or you can move into a wheel pose with me or Urdhva Dhanurasana. This is where we take our hands behind our head. Right back where the shoulders are. And from there, Press into the floor, Press into the floor with your hands and your feet and let that energy off. Now if this is too much for you, Go back to the bridge pose. It feels great either way. You're going to be opening up your chest. Stretching the front of the body, Stimulating our back body muscles. Both have wonderful benefits. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Start to come down. Tuck your chin. If you're in that wheel pose, Let's protect our neck. And bring your knees into your chest. Give him a hug. I feel like I just need to sigh. We have now connected back to the earth. Take little circles if you'd like. It feels nice on that sacrum. And we're going to end with a spinal twist. To work out any last remaining tension across your back. So let the legs drop over to the right side. Take your arms out to a T. And then turn your gaze. Over the left shoulder. And just feel your body starting to settle. We've done our work. We've built our energy. We've balanced on our feet. And now we're connecting to the earth below us. Come back through the center. I can feel my breath relaxing. Hopefully yours is too. And drop the legs over to the left. Turn your gaze to the right. And just try to release any last remaining tension that you might be holding on to. Let it go. Let it relax. One more deep grateful breath here. It feels so good just to let it all go. And let's bring our legs back to the middle and let them float down. One leg to each edge of the mat, Arms by our sides. And relax into your deep breath. Shavasana. Get as comfortable as you need to. Maybe pillows, Bolsters underneath the knees can help you ease back strain. Blankets, Whatever you need to do. Now is your time to be comfortable and relaxed. I will wake you up when it's time. So allow your mind and body just to drift for a moment. Feel that nourishing earth beneath you. Gently start to wake yourself up. Start to rotate your wrist. Your ankles. Fingers. Toes. Getting a little movement back in your body. And stretch your arms overhead, Lengthen your legs down below. Feel like you're waking up. From a beautiful experience, Ready to face it. The rest of your day. And roll yourself over onto one side in fetal pose. Gently press yourself up to a comfortable seated position. We'll bring our hands to heart center and we'll make the sound of Aum together. This is said to be the sound of the earth, The hum and the rhythm of the earth. So what a better way to connect with Earth Day than saying Aum together. Let's inhale. Aum. The Earth has music. For those who listen. By Shakespeare. Thank you so much for your practice today. I wish you a happy Earth Day. Namaste.