Day 10: Light Hearted Play

Hello, and welcome back to day 10. Today we're gonna play with stepping forward from our lunges and preparation with some fun arm balances. We'll play into crow pose. So again, invoking a light heart. Try not to take ourselves too seriously.

Just have fun with it. We're going to meet at the top of the mat. So taking a few breaths here just to presence and arrive, one hand to the heart, one to the belly. Again, just tapping into the beat of our heart. The rhythm of our breath.

Exhale, just let your hands come down by the sides. Your next inhale, soften through the knees, come into chair pose. So holding chair pose bring your arms into cactus, so draw the shoulder blades down lightly. Take a full exhale. On your next inhale, lift the elbows, take yourself into a slight backbend, and then exhale round in, tuck the chin.

Forearms start to come together. Inhale, lift up through the heart. Find that light backbend, and then exhale, round, tuck the chin, tuck the tail lightly. So prepping right here for the arm balance we're going to play with later today. Inhale, and again exhale almost like you're trying to create a little beetle back, a little ladybug back.

Two more, inhale. Eyes soft. Exhale, round, draw the chin in. Inhale. Good last one.

Exhale, round. Inhale to open and then take the arms up. Stand all the way up, let the hands come down by your sides. Moving through one sun salutation, inhale, take the arms up. Exhale, fold forward.

Inhale, come halfway up. Place the palms. We're going to step back with the right and then with the left to come into downward facing dog. Root through the feet, press through the palms, and when you're on an inhale lift the right leg up. So, we've been here, adding new, keep the shoulders pressed back on an exhale.

Draw the knee in towards the heart area. Maybe towards the nose and kind of round the upper back. Inhale, take the right leg up and back. Bring the gaze back forward. This time exhale, round, tuck knee towards nose, and then round the upper back.

So this will play out in our arm balance a little bit later. Inhale, take the right leg back. We're going to go one more knee to nose. Let the shoulders shift over the wrist, round in. Inhale, reach it up and back.

Right leg comes down. Then change. Left leg, inhale, comes up. Reach out with the left inner thigh. Keep the shoulders back for this first one.

Knee comes in towards the heart on the exhale. Inhale, take it up and back. Exhale, shift forwards, shoulders over the wrists. Let the knee come in towards the nose, so round the upper back, tuck the tail a bit. Inhale, take it up and back.

Same thing, exhale, knee to nose. Feel your abdominals engage with the belly button drilling towards the spine. Inhale, reach it up and back. Exhale, left foot down. Start to walk the feet forward all the way towards the hands.

Inhale, come halfway up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, rise all the way up. Exhale, hands by your side. Moving through sun salutation with lunges.

Inhale, take the arms up. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale halfway. On your exhale, take the right leg back into a lunge, lower the right knee and shin as you rise up, one breath, low lunge. And on the exhale, we're going to bring the hands down, curl the back toes under, step back into downward facing dog.

Same leg, inhale the right leg high. So that action we just did with knee to nose, we're going to do that action, round the upper back and then see if you can step forward, right foot. You might have to actually help it. Exhale, the left knee, shin down, take your time as you rise up full breath. Low lunge.

Exhale, bring the hands down, curl the back toes under, bring the gaze forward and see if you can take the left foot to meet the right. Again, it might be one step. It might be a few and then fold forward. Root through the feet, inhale, rise up. One more time going through the left side.

Exhale the hands down. Inhale, arms come up. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, halfway rise. This time, the left foot steps back.

Lower the left knee and shin down as you rise up. Low lunge. Exhale, hands come down. Curl the back toes under and step it back into downward facing dog. Left leg comes up, so same leg that stepped back.

Exhale as if you're going knee to nose to round the upper back and step the left foot forward. Again, you might have to help it as you bring the right knee shin down, arms come up into a low lunge. Softly lower the hands down, curl the back toes under. We're going for it trying to take the right foot to meet the left. Again, it might be one step, it might be a few.

When you arrive, fold in. Root through the feet. Inhale, rise all the way up. Good. Exhale, hands come down by your sides.

Hands to the hips. Root through the right foot. We're gonna to take the left foot up as we move into our standing poses. Left leg goes back. Find your high crescent again.

Just kind of wiggle in and out a little bit, and then when you're ready open up into warrior two. So we've been here before, right? Heel to heel alignment, knee over ankle. And then we're going to add a new pose in. Right front palm lifts up, take it up, go back reverse your warrior.

To get into it here, take an inhale and lengthen through the right leg. Really reach the right fingertips and then exhale. Let the right sit bone dip towards the right heel. Let's do two more like that. Inhale, lift, lengthen.

Exhale, come back in light through the left hand. One more. And then exhale back in, now hold. Letting this right leg simmer just a bit. Nice.

On an inhale, lengthen through the right leg, lift the torso up, and then turn the right toes toe heel in. So the feet are parallel and now we're going to turn heels in, toes out and sit in. Coming into horse stance. I like to kind of shimmy a little bit here, so my knees are over the ankles, outer thighs draw back, and then let your palms slide down towards your knees. It's just light pressure.

Hang out here for a moment. Feel the legs kind of turn on. Feel the belly button draw back, so abs engaged. And on an exhale, press the right thigh away, lightly gaze over your left, so adding this twist. And then inhale, come back to center.

Exhale, gaze over the right, press the left thigh away. One more each side. Inhale, center. Exhale, press the right thigh away, gaze over the left. Your inhale brings you back to center.

Exhale, left press it away and gaze over your right. And come back to center. Inhale, lengthen the legs. Toe heel the left foot in, so you can gain control. Turn the hips to the front, and then step back to the front.

And just settle for a moment. Feel your feet. Hands to the hips. Now the right leg goes back. Stepping back high crescent.

Kind of wiggle in. Drop the back heel, open up warrior two. Find yourself heel to heel. Left palm flips up, take it up, go back reverse. And then inhale, lengthen through the left leg.

Exhale, dipping back in. Two more like this. Inhale. Exhale. It's kind of again, like teasing our self.

Inhale. Exhale, and hold. See if you can be light through the right hand. It's just a little stabilization. Beautiful.

Lengthen through the left leg, come all the way up. Toe heel the left foot in, gain control. Turn the toes out, heels in, so almost like you're at two and 10:00 again in horse stance. Thighs settle down and draw back. And then we'll just for this one, take the palms turning up, and just simmer.

Right, so just trying to be relaxed through the arms. Relaxed through the shoulders. This is the perfect pose to practice that ease in our effort. Where is it that we can be tender and graceful with ourself and then there's places where we're working like our legs, should be working. Two.

One. Lengthen, turn the toes in, and then turn towards the front. So I like to take left foot, right hips, step on up. On the inhale, take the arms up. And then just exhale, take the arms by your sides.

Toe heel the feet about hip distance to mat distance apart. Come down into a squat pose. So remember, we've been here before. If this doesn't feel good in your body, you can kind of shuffle around a little bit. You can come back to the pose that we just did, horse stance.

We're just going to hang out here for a few breaths. Really soft through the eyes, the jaw, long through the spine. Two more breaths. Good, hands to the floor, lift the hips, toe heel the feet back in. Let's take an inhale to come halfway up, and exhale, fold in.

Fingertips can come the floor, the shins. If you'd like, you can bring palms to the back of the thighs to draw yourself in a little more. We'll just go two more breaths here. Soft release. We're going to take right foot back, then left foot back, and we'll meet in downward facing dog.

Just taking one leg lift and one knee to nose on each side just to review and get us ready for our arm balance. On an inhale, take the right leg up and back. Exhale, draw the knee in towards the nose, round the upper spine, draw the belly button back towards the spine like broaden through the back body. Inhale, take the right leg up and back. Exhale, right foot comes down.

Left side, inhale, left leg lifts. Exhale, knee to nose, shoulders over wrists. Round, round, round, feel the abs engage. Feel the palms pressing through the floor and pressing away. Inhale, take it up and back.

Exhale, left foot down. Inhale, come on to the balls of the feet. Exhale, come down onto the knees. Come right into child's pose. Then slowly transitioning back up onto the knees and palms.

We're going to curl the toes under. Come into downward facing dog and just for transition we're going to walk the feet towards the hands. So now we get to play a little bit. So as the feet are by the hands or in that genre, try to bend the knees deeply, bring the palms down. And just for fun, see if you can bend one knee and maybe touch the upper part of your back of your arm.

The upper part of your tricep. Just see if you can bend one and touch it. Okay, so as we progress if the next place isn't there just come back to right here. See if you can wiggle and play here. The next place as we move into crow, we're going to start to come into a squat pose again.

We're going to wiggle ourself inside here. I like to actually, if it's there do a little press in, but we're going to come out again, so see if you can have the knees touch the back of the arms and then from here, as the butt's lifted, come onto the balls of the feet and this might be plenty. You might be like, "Okay, I'm happy right here." Right, for those who are like, "I want a little bit more," maybe one foot lifts. And that can be a happy place. If you play it there, see if you can take the opposite foot.

The next place is maybe both feet. So try to work the knees up as high as you can. Start to press through the palms, ladybug the upper back, and if the feet are off the floor try to sustain it. So heels draw in, ladybug the upper back so abs are engaged. Eventually the gaze comes forward.

Have fun with it if you fall out, no big deal. One more breath. Good, softly step on down. Ahh, sit on back. Legs are going to come out long.

Bring your finger pads behind you like, flips your hands, and then lift up through the chest, flex through the feet. Feel your sit bones on the floor. Peel the shoulders back. And then from here, as you try to sit up tall, see if you can take your hip bones forward. You might be happy right here.

You might kind of walk a little bit forward with the hands. Right, that moment that you feel the whole chest go pause for a moment. Right, we want to back up so we're nice and long. Again, if you can still feel like the chest is lifted, you can keep walking the hands forward stopping at the shins, on the mat, on the feet. But again, if you start to round right here, back it up.

And we'll just go another three breaths. You can start to let the head relax. On your next inhale, slowly lift up. Bend your knees. Reach the arms out in front, so lowering down again as we've done a few of these practices.

Draw the belly button in and see how slowly you can lower. If you just let go, at least let a little giggle out. Rolling down, belly button to spine. (sighs) Coming right into our resting pose. Letting the feet splay out to the side.

Letting the palms face up. Again, see how quickly you can drop in just letting go of the tension in your body. Trying to catch those gaps. Letting the thoughts just go by. Begin to take a little deeper inhale.

You always have the option, the choice to stay right here. Beginning to wiggle the fingers, the toes. Taking the right arm up and slowly rolling onto your right side as you bend the knees. Pressing up into a comfortable seat. Great job, day 10.

Way to play with crow pose, and remember don't sweat the small stuff. Whether you did it or not, you're still amazing.