Spring Equinox Yoga

Feeling stuck or unmotivated in your yoga practice? This 40-minute slow and steady yoga session is exactly what you need to reconnect with your body and reset your energy—perfect for beginners and anyone looking to ease back into movement.

Transcript

Welcome! Today we're going to lift our energy and celebrate the Spring Equinox. As the day's balance shifts from dark to more light, And the growing season begins. What seeds around you do you like to plant and see develop over the months? Let's think about physically what we're growing. Around us. And as we set our intention around nurturing this vision, Then it will make sense and inform our yoga practice as well. So nurturing our growth nurturing our seeds of change. When it's cold and wet, Sometimes it's hard to find the motivation to do yoga practice. But once we start moving and the energy begins to lift, Just like the energy of the season, It's like a circle. Just like life. So let's close our eyes. Starts to connect with our breath. Breathe in and out just through the nose. And as you breathe, And as we start to move. . . Move at a pace that feels right for your body. Give the heat time to spread. Just like a spring day, It starts out cold and then the heat spreads through the land. We'll take a few pauses as we go and stop and feel the energy and heat that is being created. As always, Tune into your body and tune out. Outside concerns or distractions. Let's open up our eyes and take a breath together. Bring your arms by your sides. Inhale, Lift up. Feel the energy all around your body. Exhale, Release. Good. Let's move through our spine with cat and cow to begin. So just a nice subtle warming of our back. Our shoulders and our hands right stacked on top of each other and our hips and our knees stacked on top of each other as well. Drop your belly down, Shoulders roll back, Inhale, Send the gaze up to the sky. Exhale, Round through the spine, So we'll tuck our chin, Pull our hips up and in. Inhale, Arch, Belly drops down, Sun the gaze up. Exhale, Round, Pull and lift. Try to get full range of motion. Inhale. Exhale. Once more, Inhale. Exhale. Come back to neutral. And just start to roll your hips around. I'm actually going to move my hands forward just a little bit because I like to come forward and press into my hip flexors. We're just lifting our energy by easing into our hips and easing into our back. Kind of working off some of that sluggishness of cold and winter. Feeling that release. So go whatever direction feels good to you. And then come back to neutral and let's reach our right arm up to the sky unfurling just like a beautiful plant in the sun. Exhale, Take your right hand underneath your left. And roll onto the side of your face, The side of your head, And that edge of the shoulder. Then our left arm can come forward. Or you can wrap it behind your back. Whatever feels nice. I like it forward today for me, So I'm gonna stay here. Good, A little upper body stretch, Nice and gentle. Very nice. Come back up. Let's unwind ourselves. Take our left arm, Inhale up to the sky. Exhale, Bring it underneath, Laying down on the side of the head and the edge of the shoulder. And then again, Reaching forward. Or wrap it around behind your back. For me today, I like reaching forward. Whatever works best for you, Play around with it and see what feels nice. Stretch out. Get rid of those sluggish, Cold spots in our body. Good. Now let's come up to the top. Both hands reach forward and just drop your shoulders downward. Our hips are staying lifted, So we're in our puppy dog pose. So we can feel the sides of the body nice and long. The edges through the rib cage. Good. Shift those hands back just a little bit. Let's take our first downward dog. Come onto your toes, Reach your hips high, And drop those heels downward. Not everyone's heels are going to touch the floor. Don't worry about that. If they do, Fine. If not, That's okay. Feel free to pedal and move. Through your body. Whatever you need to do. Good. Bend your knees, Look forward, Step up or walk up or hop up towards your hands. And fold down into the legs. Let's roll through our spine like we're waking up each vertebrae. One at a time. Our shoulders stay heavy and our head stays heavy right until the end. When we can lift our shoulders up and pull them down our back. And be ready for our Sira Namaskara so that we can warm our entire body. Let's give it a try. Inhale, Reach our arms up to the sky. This is just a traditional Surya Namaskara A. Exhale, Swan dive all the way down. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Our hands can come along our legs, Even up as high as our shins, Whatever feels good to you. Exhale, Hands down. Step back to a plank. Drop your knees if you want to. I'll show this first time on my knees. And Chaturanga, Let your elbows bend. See if you can hover over the mat. Inhale, Slide on the tops of the feet if you can. Lift your chest and feel that awakening of the front of the body. Upward Facing Dog and exhale, Roll back either through your knees or through your feet to our Downward Facing Dog. Aram Goswanasana. Just take a moment here to breathe. If this seems like too much, You can come to your knees and take a child's pose. That's always a beautiful option. Whatever works best for you. Good. Let's start to come forward. So if you're in that child's pose, Lift up. Let's walk, Step, Or hop forward to our hands. Inhale. Exhale, Fold down into those legs. You can bend your knees if you need to. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach up to the sky. And exhale, Samasthiti, Arms are by our sides. Nice job. Let's take it again. One more time. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Swan dive all the way forward. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down. Step back, Hop back, Drop to your knees if you want to. Chaturanga. This time I'm showing you lifted. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog. And exhale, Press back to Adho Mukha Svanasana. Downward facing dog. Good. Now let's move on. Lift your left leg. Inhale, Up and back behind you. Exhale, Bring your left knee to the left elbow, Shifting forward a little bit and really holding high through our core. Feel that warmth right in the center. Inhale. Exhale, Step your left foot forward in between your hands. Let's drop our right knee to the floor. Untuck your toes and reach your arms either hands to the knee, That's fine, Or if you want a little more energy lift, Up to the sky. And we're going to imagine the sun shining down on us. And lifting up toward the light. It would be great if we could do yoga, This yoga practice outside. Clearly, I am not outside. We have way too much snow still. But. . . Just feel that energy lift of spring. Good. Inhale. Exhale, Take your hands down to the mat and let's lift up onto this left, Sorry, Right toe and swing that heel to the ground. Now rotate, Maybe place your forearm on the thigh or keep it on the floor, Whatever, But rotate into a side bend, Parsvakonasana. Now we can feel all this energy into our left hip. Here's a place where you might utilize a block. If you put the block on the floor by the pinky toe side of the foot, You just don't have to reach quite as far. So feel free to utilize that block if you'd like. And we can feel the squeeze in that hip. Beautiful. Nice, So take a little pressure off, Lift up, Straighten both legs. Let's stretch out this inner left thigh with Trikonasana. Inhale here, Exhale, Reach back down. If you had a block, Move it to the big toe side of your foot. And extend your gaze and your arm to the sky. That this is too much weight, Too much energy on that shoulder. Feel free to just put your hand on your hip. And that is fine. Feeling that lift. Good. Inhale, Come back to the center. Let's move the block for just a moment. We're actually gonna move it to the other side of our mat, So it's there when we need it. And then we're gonna turn our toes out. I had to step in just a little bit, Because I get really wide. Take a goddess pose. Reach our arms up to the sky, Inhale, And exhale, Bend. But this is a lot of really important hip work right through the inner thigh here. So feel those muscles engaging as we pull the knees back. Good. Here we're rooting down with our feet, With our hips, But our energy lifts up. You can reach your arms up. I like to bend mine in goddess pose. I like to open up my shoulders. Whatever works best for you. Let's do this with a little bit of movement and breath. So inhale, Lift our arms up. Extend and straighten out those knees. Rooting and reaching, Exhale, Bend it down. Keep that inner thigh open. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Bend down. Inhale, Lift up. Can you feel it in the inner thigh yet? I can. Exhale, Bend it down. Let's do one more. Inhale, Reach. Exhale, Bend. Very nice. Come back up. Let's just take our hands to our hips and turn our toes. Now we can start to feel maybe a little bit through the outer hip. We're going to take a different kind of sensation, A different movement. Bend your knees and this time send your hips back. Now here's the challenge. Our knees are going to want to just flop down into the middle. Pull them back, Engage that inner thigh. Good. That's like a big squat, Getting right into these strong, Strong hips. If you want to, You can reach your arms forward. That's even more energy, Isn't it? Whoo, Engage and breathe. Building up our strength. Take a breath, Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands down to the floor. If you need your block, It's right there for you. And let's straighten out our knees. Oh, It's going to feel good now to lengthen the backs of those knees. We've made it into Prasarita Padottanasana A. Let's take a breath here, Inhale. Exhale, Fold forward. We might get a little bit deeper as we walk our hands back. So that they're in line with our feet. We might have our hands on a block. The straighter the knees, The more you're gonna feel this through the backs of the legs. And it should feel really nice after doing all that bending work that we just did. Beautiful. Press into the floor, Inhale, Lengthen and lift. Exhale, Bring your hands to your waist. Inhale, Lift all the way up. Nice job. Exhale, Step together on the other side of your mat. Now, If you have your mat facing the camera, You're just gonna step forward at the top of the mat. If not, If you're facing like me, This horizontal way, Then you're gonna be on this side of the mat. Let's take a vinyasa. It'll lead us into beautiful floor poses on the other side. So here we go. Reach up, Inhale. Exhale, Swan dive all the way down. Inhale, Look up. Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down. Step hop or walk back to the plank. Drop the knees if you want. Chaturanga. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog. Exhale, Shift back to Adho Mukha Svanasana, Downward Facing Dog. Good, Now we're reaching the right leg. Inhale, Up and back behind you. Exhale, Bring the right elbow and right knee together. Squeeze through those abdominals. Feel that energy lift, Just like the energy of spring. Inhale. We did it. Exhale, Step that right foot down in the front. Drop your left knee to the floor. Unfurl those toes. Reach up either hands to the knee or up into the sky. And press down into those hips. This is a great example of rooted to the ground, But lifting through that energy in the upper body. Good. Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands down to the mat. Lift up onto that left toe and roll the foot to the floor. We're rotating to an open position. Grab your block if you want to put it on the pinky toe side of the foot. And unfurled just like a beautiful new spring plant. Stretching through our torso and the side body. So we can feel all of this beautiful energy right around that right hip there. Very nice. Good. Now lift up, Straighten both legs. Trikonasana to stretch out this inner thigh, Inhale. Exhale, Reach forward, Move your block if you're using it to the big toe side. And reach, One hand lifting toward the sun, One hand rooted into the earth. Very nice. Remember, It's okay also to have your hand on your hip. We offered that modification last time. Good. Inhale, Lift up. We'll just set that block off to the side. Exhale, Bring your feet back to the middle, But this time we're gonna step together. We did all that work last time. We're not gonna repeat it. Let's take a standing balance, Vrkasana today. Shift your weight over to your right foot and lift your left foot up. It's really easy to let yourself sink into this right side. Lots of energy through that right hip as you pull the left leg higher. Start with your hands at heart center. This might be your happy place. If you want to unfurl and reach for the sun, Then do so. Lift up to the sky. Just keep breathing. Balancing is all about. Focus, I think. Focusing on this right side. Focusing on our breath so we don't get tired. Too frustrated. Good. Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands back to heart center and release. Let's shift to the other side. Bring your weight to your left leg. Reach that right leg up and remember to keep lifting through this left hip, Left side of the body. Hands can start at heart center. Or they can reach up. I have to be honest, This is my challenging side. We're all practicing together, Aren't we? See how I shift. I've got an old injury in this leg. That's just not quite as strong as my other side. Alright, Let's do this together. One more breath, Inhale. I saved it. Exhale, Bring your hands back together. Place that foot down. Good job. Let's shift this block back over to this side. Take a vinyasa. Sometimes when we do standing balances, We get a little stressed. Our breath stops working. Let's breathe together with the final vinyasa standing here. Inhale, Lift your arms up to the sky. Exhale, Swan dive all the way forward. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down, Step back, Drop the knees as needed, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog. And exhale, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Downward Facing Dog. Good. Lift your left leg. Inhale, Up and back behind you. Exhale, Bend your knee and bring it through to lay down for pigeon pose. So we're going parallel to the top of our mat as close as we can, Which may mean that we can't sit all the way flat on this left hip. So you might have to take a block underneath. Kind of anchor yourself. Or as we start to walk forward, So let's do that now. Walk forward. I personally enjoy a block in the front, Just dropping my forehead down on that block. Whatever works best for you, That's what you're going to do. So we want to be sure as the season changes, That all of our growth is grounded. There's something anchoring us to the ground. So that we can reach from it. Here we can find that grounding and that resting. That's very important as we grow and change. The roots and digging into the earth. Are happening even as the sprouts shoot up. So we're still digging down, But reaching up. Good. Take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Nice job, Lift up Bring your hands upward. You can remove any blocks that you might have from around you. And let's come up onto our knees and extend that left leg out behind us and just kind of bounce and move. That was a lot of energy on that left hip. So whatever you need to do to kind of release it. And bring yourself back up to a plank. Inhale. And exhale, Lower down. Let's spend a little time on our belly getting grounded in a Sphinx pose. So elbows on the floor, Right underneath your shoulders. Pull your shoulder blades back and just lift your head to a neutral position. I really love how this feels because our body can rest on the mat, But we still have a lot of energy in our low back. In our shoulders and chest. We're not sinking down or pressing the ground away. This is really good for increasing bone density. Which women need as we age. Take a breath, Inhale. And exhale, Come on down, Crisscross your hands for a crocodile and just rest your forehead on your hands. And relax your glutes. Relax the body Press with our hands up. Onto the knees, Onto the toes, And lifted. Good, Let's do our other side of the pigeon. Extend your right leg, Inhale, Up and back behind you. Exhale, Bring it through in between your hands and work your way as close as you can parallel to the top of your mat. We're walking that left leg back behind us. And our options again, We can put a block underneath that hip. That feels good or feel free to play around with bringing it forward. On our forehead. That works well too and we can feel this outer hip here. On that left side. I'm sorry, It's your right leg. Make sure you're doing the opposite leg as you did on the first side. How about that? And just breathe and let yourself relax into this grounding. Bye. Okay, Let's take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Press back up onto our hands. We're going to release this right leg, Come to our knees and step that right foot back and just bounce a little bit. Releasing tension in that hip. That's a lot of energy placed in the hip. So just ease it out a little bit. Good. And come on to your toes, Take a breath here. Inhale, Exhale, Lower all the way down. Let's build up a little more energy this time with our back bends. So we'll bring our hands back by our sides. And we're going to lift our chest. And if you want to, Lift your legs off the mat. Raise up. This is Sala Basana. Pull your shoulder blades toward each other and keep your neck relaxed. So just looking down to the ground is great. I like to just look down the edge of my nose. Good. The work is happening in the low back, Not in the neck. Take a breath, Inhale. Exhale, Lower down. Just turn your head. Rest on the cheek. Relax your shoulders. We're going to do it one more time with an option to go a little deeper if you choose. Good, So you can come here like we did last time, Or feel free to reach back and grab your feet. I will demonstrate this. And then here, We'll lift. So this is Dhanurasana. It's much deeper. You can try it. If you need to go back to the other version, That's perfectly fine. Same thing, We're squeezing our shoulder blades, Squeezing our back, Our neck is relaxed. And we can feel a little more through the quadricep and hip flexor as well. Good, Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale, Release. Let's use our hands to press up and over, Change the direction of our back with a child's pose. Relax that forehead on the floor. Feel yourself sinking down into the hips and into the low back. Good. Lift up. And let's come to our back. With our feet bent, Knees bent. Toward the sky, Feet on the floor, Arms by our sides. You can take them out to a T. And just take a grateful breath here, Feeling the ground so supported beneath you. After all of our energy lift, It's time to start releasing. And becoming even more grounded with, You know, Moving towards Shavasana. So let's bring our hands around our legs and just pull those knees into the chest. Might rock a little bit might feel that energy in the low back. Any tension in the low back just releasing. Then we'll reach down, Either grab the arches of your feet or grab your knees, Whatever's easiest for you, And take a happy baby. This feels great on that inner thigh. Feels great on the sacrum in the low back. Just kind of rocking that out. I always love to end with a spinal twist and we haven't done any twists today. So let's pull our knees into the chest and just release that left leg so you've only got your right leg. And guide your right leg across your body to the left side. So you can see how my hip lifts off the ground. Extend your arm out and see if you can bring your shoulder back down to the ground. In the twist. So we find our balance between pulling the leg across and reaching open with our arm and through that chest. And this is a twist to let go of any last remaining tension you might have. Letting the body unwind as we as we wind up we unwind our tension. Good, Come back to the center. And replace that right leg. Bring your left knee into the chest. And guide it across the body to the right side and we'll unfurl the pedal of our right arm, Left arm, It's your left arm, And send your gaze over that left arm as well. Feel the release. Whatever part of our body needs to let go, We hope that that is what is happening. That our body is letting go. Bye. Bye. Take one more grateful breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. And bring your leg back to the center. Get yourself comfortable on your mat. One leg to each edge of the mat works really great. Putting pillows, Bolsters underneath your knees can release back pressure and tension. Arms by your sides, Maybe a blanket over the top of you. You know what's going to help you to feel good. And as you settle off into Shavasana, Let me just leave you with this thought. Commit here to practices that will help you tend the garden of intentions you have set. How can you nurture the seeds that you've planted? Even today as you go throughout the rest of your day. I'll leave you here for a few moments to absorb the good work that we've done. I'll wake you up with the sound of a bell, So have no cares, Just enjoy your rest. 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 let's bring our hands to heart center. I will leave you with this quote by Benjamin Franklin. Energy and wisdom. Conquer all things. Thank you for bringing a beautiful energy today as you practiced with me. Namaste.