Sacred Sacrum

Hello, welcome everybody to day six of your 10 day yoga challenge with me. All right, today we're going to be focusing on the lower back in our practice today. There's nothing needed. So when you're ready, we're going to begin seated. So take your time to arrive and give yourself a moment to settle.

Okay. Good. All right, so set yourself up in a position that you can maintain for a moment. All right. And once you arrive, close your eyes and give yourself a second to literally pause.

All right. Just caressing your thighs unless it feels good with them a little closer to the knees. All right, and then let the breath just be a little bigger than it was a moment ago. All right, starting to follow the inhales where you feel it the most. So through the nose, start to notice the lift through chest and belly.

Good. And as you exhale, try to soften the shoulders away from the ears. Try to release that excess tension if you're holding any. All right, do that one more time. Exhale big just to pull the focus down into the body.

Nice. And as you exhale, keep that focus, but just soften a little more in that area. Nice. All right. Slowly float your eyes open when you're ready.

And for a moment, I just want you to take the hands to the belly for a bit. Okay. And this part of the body, it's not necessarily designed to twist. Okay. But it does support our twist.

So if you can give a little focus to how we use our lower spine and twist, it'll be amazing. So just for today, hands to the belly, pull everything at the front end, and then just feel for a moment that you can lift out a lumbar for a moment. Lift out of the lower back and lift out of your lower spine. Good. Release that effort just to see opposite, right?

Just drop. It's not that dramatic though, but do that one more time. Hands to the belly. All right. Inhale, draw belly in, lift the ribs, come out of that lumbar a little bit.

Nice. Exhale. Draw back. Okay. So thinking that or keeping that in mind, right?

We're going to take a simple seated twist. So left hand is going to come down to the right knee or any position that feels a little more supportive. Okay. Right hand is going to come behind the seat on the behind the seat, literally on the floor mat. Okay.

So taking a moment, I want you to press down through that backhand and then include that awareness and lower spine, right? Draw belly in, chest lifts up to come up and out of lumbar. Good. And then you're going to roll and twist over that right shoulder and look back. Okay.

Maintaining that lift, right? Try not to collapse just to get a little deeper in your twist. Draw everything in. And again, just lift and up and out. Maintain as you twist.

Good. Okay. Do that one more time. Inhale just to pull in and lift and then exhale with the breath just to turn a little more if you have some space. Nice.

Slowly come back to the middle. All right. Take a moment, it may feel good to kind of just move the spine around a little bit more. So no rush. Okay.

All right. And the left hand is going to come to the seat behind, to the floor behind the seat. And the hands come right hand to your left knee. All right. Take a moment one more time.

You're going to ground through that backhand, pull everything and lift. And then as you exhale with the lift, you twist to look over back shoulder. All right. And again, not at the expense of just going deep and cranking and losing that integrity, but again, drawing everything in to come out of low back. All right.

Take one more inhale to lift. All right. As you exhale, if you have some space, explore. Nice. All right.

Slowly come back to the middle. Take a moment, move what you need to move. Good. All right. And when you're ready, down dog on the mat.

So take time to transition, but hands forward, step back on both feet. Nice. Okay. And then just take a second to greet the body. Okay.

Starting to register just what's present today. All right. If there's any specific tension or any specific, um, just crunchiness, you know, in a place that you might want to work through. Right. Pedaling out through the heels.

If that feels nice in the legs, you can take as big bends and knees as you like. All right. Shaking the head a little. Yes. And know if you want to release a little throughout the neck, that might feel amazing as well.

But just again, loosening and moving. Simple idea. Nice. Okay. Bend your knees and then look forward in between both hands and then slowly walk your feet to the top of the mat.

You're going to come into a fold when you arrive. Nice. Okay. Take a moment and forward forward just to remind your body that feeling of release. Okay.

So again, if you want, you can continue to work through the legs. Keep bending through the knees to move the motion. Give yourself some, some movement into the legs. All right. Same idea.

If you want to sway upper body a little left to right, it might feel good. Maybe you grab your elbows and just take that a little left to right. All right. But let the body hang. All right.

Let the spine kind of stretch out. Let everything relax a little deep into the floor. Nice. Okay. And from here, inhaling the half lift, draw the belly in and kind of stretching from the middle.

So even here, right, pausing for a bit in half, lift hands, see your thighs and calves. Feel like you can stretch away or at least stretch out from the lumbar, right? You're extending through that lower spine, right? Somebody comes in for a moment, take a deep inhale, exhale, fold forward. Let the body relax over legs.

Good. Okay. As you inhale, stand all the way up. Arms stretch over the head. Big breath.

Good. As you exhale, mountain hands to the sides of the body to pause. Good. All right. Pause it for a moment just to pull your mind back into breathing.

All right. Take a big inhale in. Nice smooth exhale out. Let that go. Nice.

Do that one more time. Try to inhale as big as you can. And then just extending the exhale a bit. Take your time. Release.

Good. Okay. Keep that focus. Salutations just so we can pair that with a little bit of movement. All right.

One more time. Inhale, arms forward and up. Nice. As you exhale, slow on the breath, come all the way down to fold. Good.

All right. As you inhale, half lift, extending from the lumbar. Good. Exhale, forward fold, relax and release effort. There we go.

All right. As you inhale, stand all the way up. All the breath as you rise, big stretch. Nice. Exhale, let the hands relax to the sides of your body.

Okay. One more time. If you can breathe deeper, make that happen. All right. Inhale, stretch the breath as you reach up.

Nice. As you exhale, just slowing down, not rushing it, but carrying the entire body with the breath. Good. All right. One more time.

Inhale, half lift. Take a moment. Good. As you exhale, fold and see if you can take a moment at the bottom as well. Nice.

All right. Slow inhale. As you exhale, stand tall and reach. Nice. As you exhale, hands release to the sides of your body.

All right. Last one. If you want to close your eyes, that might feel nice. Okay. Inhale, feel the reach as you stretch up.

Nice. As you exhale, feel the release, right? Feel that space where again, there's no work needed. Heavy. Good.

Okay. Inhale, half lift, little active through lower back. Nice. As you exhale, soften. Neck is relaxed.

Arms are soft. Good. All right. As you inhale, stand all the way up. Reach through the feet a little too.

All right. Let that help you ground. Good. And as you exhale, take the hands to the side. Okay.

One simple Sunday, move it from up dog through down dog. Okay. Inhale, arms folded up. Nice. As you exhale, soften the body, relax and fold one more time.

Good. All right. Inhale for half lift. Exhale. Take the hands to the mat.

You're going to step both feet back this time. All right. Pause and then plank. All right. If you need, you can draw the knees to the mat to support your plank as much as you need throughout the practice.

Okay. But if you're up, right, maintain that. All right. And then spread the space between the fingers a little bit more so you have that room to release and then push the floor away. Right.

Imagine you can kind of lift the upper body up and away from the mat, but with that, press through the hands, let it support. All right. Take a deep inhale. Exhale. Come down halfway.

Nice. All right. You're going to inhale over the toes for up dog. You're going to start lifting up and back. Nice.

As you exhale, down dog, all right. Hips up and back. We're going to pause for a moment. Okay. And then seeing if as we pause in here, you can maintain that continuity of the breath.

All right. So again, if you can remind yourself just to inhale a little bigger than usual, right? Maybe you slow down the exhale so it's not as forced or rushed as it might usually be. Good. Okay.

And if you're going to bend your knees, look forward. All right. We're going to slowly walk or hop in between both the hands. Forward fold. Nice.

All right. Inhale for a half lift. Exhale, soften and release. Let go. Good.

As you inhale, stand all the way up. Stretch through the arms and hands. Nice. As you exhale, hands to the sides of the body. Nice.

Okay. Last one. Take as much time as you need. Okay. Big inhale.

Stretch up. All right. Feel every part of the breath on the way down. Fold and release. Nice.

All right. Come up for half lift. Nice. As you exhale, hands to the mat. Step both feet back for downward facing dog.

Good. Okay. And then from here on out, your choice. Right. If it feels good to flow, you're welcome to it.

If you feel like you need to pause, take a pause, an actual break. All right. But as you inhale, come forward into plank. Good. Exhale halfway down.

All right. Inhale over the toes. Up dog. Chest lifts as your shoulders roll back. Good.

Down dog. Tuck your toes. Lift through the hips. We pause. There you go.

All right. So just coming back to a consistent, calm cadence. Breathe big in the body. All right. Let the exhale remind you where you can soften.

All right. Feel that space around your neck. Let the shoulders come back as well. Nice. All right.

As you inhale, stretch the right leg up and back. Good. Exhale. Step forward in between both hands. You're going to set up high lunge.

So back heel stays up and an arm stretch up and over the head. Good. All right. And then just to arrive in your pose. So again, we settle with the breath.

All right. Exhale, soften the shoulders, but you want to stay active a bit through the hands. Good. All right. And then twist in a bit.

But feel in that same motion we started class with, okay? Draw a belly back and in, lifting out of the lumbar. Stretch up through the hands. Then we're going to twist. Left arm is going to stretch to the front.

Right arm is going to reach to the back of the room. Good. All right. And again, we're not losing any of that support through the spine. So no collapse.

We stay pulled in and stretched and lifted. Nice. Okay. Open across the chest. Reach into those hands.

Keep that awareness. Right? Inhale. Front arm reaches up. Back arm to back leg.

Nice. And as you exhale, take the hands to the mat. Down dog. We step back. All right.

Taking the floor if it feels nice or if you want to pause and down dog, you know you got an option. Nice. All right. Same thing on the left side. Just staying consistent with breath.

Inhale. Left leg up. Nice. As you exhale, step forward for high lunge. All right.

Inhale into stretch up. There we go. Good. Yeah. All right.

So remind yourself, right? You can be active hands, active arms, but what can relax for a moment as we arrive, right? Keep that attention in the body. All right. And then feeling that part we're focusing on, pull in from the lower spine and then lift.

Yes. All right. Now keep that. Inhale, stretch up. Exhale, twist.

Right arm to the top. Left arm back behind you. You can keep your eyes focused on front hand if you want to look back, back hand. Cool challenge. As you can see.

Okay. But feel, you're not losing anything here, right? So again, drawing everything in and feeling just even if it's a little lift, good. Keep that twist from upper body. Take a big inhale, reach.

Nice. Exhale front hand to the mat. One dog. You step back. All right.

Flow in. If you're flowing, pause in. If that's the better choice. Nice. Okay.

Stay smooth with the breath. All right. And just notice if anything distracting is pulling your focus away. Right. And the idea is to kind of keep, excuse me, to use the body as an access point to come back.

Okay. So maybe you feel low spine. It's the focus. Or maybe it's just to breathe in bigger. That keeps you grounded.

Okay. Bend your knees. Look forward. Nice. Slowly walk our hop to the top of your mat.

There you go. All right. Inhaling for half lift. Exhale into soften and release. Nice.

Inhale. Stand all the way up. Arms overhead. Nice. As you exhale, let the hands relax.

See your sides. Good. All right. Pause in for a moment just to pull the mind back to breath. Okay.

Good. Nice. Smooth exhale out. All right. So at the top of your mat, take the feet about hips width.

Okay. And take a moment just to sense where the hips are in this space and time right now. Right. Like they're just grounded, facing forward. Not too much movement.

Okay. Keep that in mind. We're going to move through a chair pose, but noticing that as we twist, it's not going to come from here. Right. We're going to lift out of here, but the motion is going to come a little more from up here.

Okay. So preparing for chair pose. Take a deep inhale. Heart, lips. Nice.

As you exhale, sit the hips down and back. Hands might come to the heart to prepare. Okay. And again, just taking an extra notice in chair pose. Hips are where they are.

Static. Not too much movement. All right. Arms stretch over the head, biceps by the ears, and then keeping that in mind. Same way we started class.

Inhale belly and lift out of lumbar. And as you exhale, take that right hand back to the chest, opens up to the right, but you're not right. You're not explaining in the hips. Okay. So keep that solid.

Twisting from upper body, but lifting out of low back. Good. Right. If you want to look towards that back arm, you can. Right.

Sit a little lower if possible in chair. Nice. All right. Inhale, stretch through the hands. And as you exhale, take that right arm back out and up.

And same thing on the left. Left arm stretches back, not from here. Okay. Keep that solid. Right.

Twisting from open upper body. All right. Lift a little through that lower spine. Stretch a little more through those arms. Nice.

Okay. Take a deep inhale to reach. Exhale, left arm back to the top. Take a deep breath to feel all of it. Nice.

In an exhale, forward fold, we release. Okay. Let the neck soften again, remind yourself, right, this space in our practice where we don't have to work as hard as we usually do. All right. So practice the softness.

Practice the rest. Inhale for half-lift. Nice. As you exhale, take the hands to the mat, step both feet back. Downward dog.

All right. Flow in if you're taking that movement, right? If you're paused, make the movement in your breath a little smoother, a little smoother than it was. All right. So again, you may not particularly be moving through the body, but there's still a rhythm, right?

There's still a pace that we want to maintain. All right. Keep that. Inhale, right leg up and back. Good.

As you exhale, step forward in between both hands. All right. So we're going to set up low lunge. So back knee comes down to the mat, all right? Arms over the head.

Nice. Okay. So similar on low lunge, we're going to move through a backbend, okay? The motion, which is primarily what a lower spine is designed for, forward and back. Still same technique, okay?

So interlace the fingers, release the index overhead, and then feel. You can pull belly in. You can lift through the ribs. So again, you're coming out of low back and sacrum. Keep that heart stretches towards the ceiling, and then just a little.

You don't got to go all the way unless you want to, okay? But feeling that engagement to lift out of low back, stretch up through the heart. Nice y'all. Deep inhale, reach up. Maybe back a little more if you want to go.

Nice. All the way down. Down dog. Good y'all. All right.

One more time, inhale, low or pause. Nice. All right. One more time. Inhale, left leg stretches back.

Good. As you exhale, low lunge with your left foot at the top, all right? Arms over the head, taking a breath again to arrive. Yeah. All right.

Noticing that, right? Like sometimes unconsciously, when we reach, everything goes with it. Soften. Soften. Soften a bit.

Good. Okay. And then engaging without, it doesn't have to be excessive, you know? Pull in, lift up, reach, and then come back. Nice.

Okay. So feeling that no collapse because we want to like lengthen that area, but also lift out of it. Okay. So stay open through the heart. Take a big inhale, stretch up.

You can go back a bit. Nice. All the way up. And then down dog. Good.

All right. Take as much time as you need on the flow. All right. Wherever you are, breath is a little bigger than it was a moment ago. Nice.

Okay. Slowing down for a moment. All right. What part of your body does the breath reach when you pull the breath in? Good.

Okay. Keep that. Knees come down to the mat. Pull top. All right.

And if you're feeling for a moment, hands underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips. Okay. A few cat cows just to kind of slow down a bit, but also bring some attention back to the spine. All right. So as you inhale, belly drops to the mat, chin and chest comes up.

Nice. As you exhale, pull the belly in, round your upper body to the ceiling. Nice. All right. One more time.

Inhale, belly drops, chest lifts. Good. All right. So pull low spine in, curl through the body. Nice.

All right. Pause next time you pass through neutral. All right. So from here, walk the hands back until you're stacked and standing on the knees. All right.

And if you're feeling for a moment, we're going to take a camel back bend. Okay. But before we even get into the whole motion, I want you to pull back into mind that feeling of like coming in and lifting out a lumbar. Okay. So even with this one, belly comes in and back.

You're going to lift and extend a little more with those ribs. Okay. And then it might feel nice to kind of engage a little through the glutes. But again, that feeling to lift should stay consistent. Okay.

Hands are going to come to support low back, palms around where the waistline is, let the fingertips point down and then elbows are going to just gently tuck it. Good. Okay. Keeping that in keeping that consistent squeeze and lift, inhale, chest comes up and as you exhale, drop back with the head, bend the body backwards to where the body allows. Okay.

So if it feels nice, you could also reach back for the heels. You can reach back a little further if you want to crawl it out, but not at the expense of collapse, right? Still maintaining that belly in that lift. So you're lifting again, add a low back lumbar. Okay.

Head can relax back, lifting through the heart as much as possible, draw and sense that feeling of lifting even in a back bend. Nice. Okay. Hands are going to support you when you're ready to come out. All right.

Slow rise. Take your time. Come all the way up. Nice. And then sit the hips back onto the heels for a breath.

All right. Hands can relax on your thighs or any other position that feels supportive, but close your eyes for a bit. All right. See if you can just sense the after effect of the pose. So if you need a point to set your focus on, what is your back feel like today?

Especially after a back bend like that. All right. What's the sensations that linger? Nice. All right.

Take a nice big inhaling. Exhale as smooth as you can to release. Nice. Okay. Eyes hold open if they aren't already.

All right. You're going to sweep your legs out from underneath you. All right. Setting up for a seated forward fold. All right.

So take a moment. All right. I want you to stretch your legs a little longer onto the mat. All right. And we're setting up for a forward fold just to kind of give the counter or the opposite of what we've been working through the most.

We did some twists. We did some back bends. And we're going to take it forward just to kind of round out the entire motion of the spine. Okay. So feel here.

Thighs are going to press down into the mat. So much so that the heels might lift up and it's okay if they don't. All right. That's kind of the effect that I want you to feel. All right.

Flex your toes a little back towards you and then trying to keep that grounded. Same idea. We didn't lose it. Right. Presses the thighs.

Draw a front belly back and in and then lifting out a lumbar, take a big inhale stretch up through the arms and then carry yourself forward and down, but try to maintain that press through the thighs. All right. So if you want possible, you can bend the knees, right? But then what we do is kind of take that stretch off the back, especially the legs, and then maybe just for the sake of going deeper, we go deeper. Right.

But for today, we want to press the thighs down, believe it or not, there's muscles in your back that could, excuse me, muscles in your legs that connect to low back. So that effect allows you to stretch a little more here, which is what we desire today. Okay. So reaching a little bit more heart lifts up. All right.

Wherever you go, it's fine to land. Don't feel like you got to go further. All right. Take a moment. Nice.

All right. Take one more inhale. Let the heart stretch a little more towards toes. Good. Press through the legs, slowly rise back up.

Good. And then all the way down onto your back when you ready. Nice. Okay. So feel for a moment that you can lay for a bit, right?

Take a big breath, maybe two. All right. And then take both knees up into the chest, your hands are going to come to the tops of both knees. And then feel with the hands and knees that you can make a few small circles, right? So just imagine it, or at least just feeling, you may have to, you can feel it, okay?

Feel that you can massage a little bit of your lower back as you make some circles. All right. So if it feels good, you can keep the knees together. It also might feel nice to kind of take them in separate kind of motions, but every circle, imagine you can lay a little more of your lower back into the floor. Like you can press your sacrum down.

Nice. Okay. And then keep the right leg in towards the chest. Stretch your left leg down onto the mat and always the fingers on the top of that right knee. Okay.

Take a deep inhale. And as you exhale, pull the knee a little closer into the body. Good. Okay. Soften your shoulders.

Do that one more time. Take a deep inhale in. And as you exhale, twist the right leg across to the left of the body. All right. If possible, take your right arm out to the side.

All right. But just notice, right? Different orientation will lay in down, but what's rotating the most is this up here. All right. Even though it might look like this is doing the thing, right?

Body is, it can play tricks on you like that, but same idea. Okay. We had similar ideas if we were standing here and we twisted from up top. Nice. Okay.

A little softer through the upper body if you can allow. All right. Take one more inhale to stretch through that right arm a bit. Nice. And as you exhale, slowly back to the middle.

All right. Give one more pull on that right leg. All right. And then release that leg down into the mat. All right.

Take a moment. Again, notice the linger, notice the sensation. Nice. Okay. And then bend your left knee all the way over to the left side.

Okay. So it always the fingers, same idea. All right. Draw the knee into the chest. If you can stretch that bottom leg a little bit more, feel that feeling.

Okay. Take a deep inhale in. And as you exhale, pull the knee closer into the body. Good. All right.

And then twist in. Exhale. Squeeze. Squeeze. Squeeze.

Squeeze. All right. And then twisting over to the right. That's how yoga makes me out. Get a little sing song.

All right. Left arm out to the side and feeling again that left shoulder. Like my big idea is like, if you don't have the space to stress, that's okay. You can bend the elbow or even if you got to pull it in cool, but you can release the upper body, right? Soften.

So there's no excess effort. You're not lifting from the mat. Okay. Just throw the shoulder down. All right.

See if you can take a breath big enough that you can feel in your lower back right now. Okay. Take one more inhale, stretch through that top arm. Nice. As you exhale, slowly come on to the back.

All right. One more pull on that left knee. Nice. And then release the left leg down to the mat. All right.

Last pose, Shavasana. All right. If you can, bend your knees, bring the soles of your feet to the mat. All right. In hopes that as you do that, maybe you untuck tailbone a little bit, but feel like you can ground the sacrum a little bit more.

And as you get heavy in that part of your body, see if you can take your focus and awareness just to stick with that space. Right. And if you get tempted to kind of be pulled into something different, that's perfectly fine. You're human. We're all human.

All right. But a part of this practice, or at least what we're working on today is to feel that you can keep that one pointed focus, that one pointed mind of attention and practice staying a little longer than you normally would. All right. Do me a favor on your next inhale. Just pull it in a little bigger than the left.

As you exhale, just exaggerate a little on the release just to feel that push or that last little exertion of release and effort. All right. And then little by little, start to wake the body. So flexing through the hands, at least flexing through fingers. All right.

Toes can start to work and wiggle as well. Take your time. All right. I always like to move my head a little left or right just to invite some movement into my neck. Take full advantage.

And then slowly draw the knees up into the chest. Take the arms around both legs, give yourself a little squeeze around body. And then rolling over to the right, pausing the right side of your body, feel free to rest your head on that top arm. And slowly coming up to a seat. All right.

Try to remain relaxed, stay soft, do the eyes, stay soft, do the shoulders and neck. And just feeling before we just open our eyes and pop back into movement that there's some space for a pause. There's some space to feel the stillness. All right. Okay.

Just take that with you. Right. In the midst of the movement, there's some space to pause. There's some stillness underneath the motion. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for practicing. I'm grateful. And I thank you. Namaste.