Morning Ease

Thank you for joining me for morning ease. For our practice today, we will use two blocks and a strap. We're gonna get started seated. So finding any comfortable seat that feels good to you where we can find a nice tall spine. Let your palms rest face down on your lap. If it's comfortable, close your eyes, and let's take a nice big breath in through the nose, exhale sigh it out through the mouth.

Again, inhale, fill up and exhale sigh and release. And then just allow your breath to return to a natural, steady, even rhythm, taking a moment in your seat to begin to tune into the body. Just begin to notice how the body is feeling, observing any areas of tension, noticing areas of immense efforts, or heaviness. And as your awareness travels through the body reaching these areas, Just give yourself permission to begin to relax, to begin to soften, and to practice allowing. Soften all the muscles of the face.

Beal the skin on the forehead relaxing. But the jaw bone unclench. Swallow a couple of times intentionally to release any tension through the throat. Feel your shoulders relaxing. All the way down the arms to the hands, to the fingertips.

Solving through the low belly. And as you're ready, just allow your awareness now to drift into the breath. See if we can begin to cultivate an awareness of the natural and steady flow of inhale and exhale. And sensing the quality of the breath. When you feel ready, just inviting a very gentle deepening to the inhale and the lengthening of the exhale.

In through the nose and out through the nose if possible. Otherwise, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Mcfeel the breath as we inhale move down into the belly inviting expansion through the belly, through the ribs all the way up to the chest. And as you exhale the breath leaves from the chest, from the ribs, from the belly. And we'll take just another moment here intentionally breathing into the belly, filling the ribs, filling the chest, and exhaling out the chest.

Out the ribs, out the belly. Let's take three more full rounds. And then allowing yourself just to release that depth of breath, to allow the breaths to return to a more natural rhythm. Noticing any shifts, any changes in the physical body and the minds. And sensing ease.

And as we sense that ease, together, we will set an intention to carry that ease and that sweet allowing into our practice together. And when you're ready, just gently blink your eyes open coming back into your space. And we'll make our way onto our hands and onto our knees in a tabletop. So bringing your hands right under your shoulders, your knees, under your hips, Just begin to move through some cat and cow quite slowly. So inhaling arching the back, drop the belly, send the heart forward.

Like your shoulders roll back, and then exhale slowly tuck the tail, curl. And round. And allow this first few moments here of this cat and cow to really deliberately be slow and sweet. Just feeling the undulation of the spine, sensing and noticing any areas where we feel stuck. Any areas we feel rigid or tight.

Perhaps areas where we may feel a little bit of physical pain. And just give yourself permission to move the breath to move the body so we begin. Allowing the body to create space. Let's take a couple more rounds here. Last one.

From here, we're gonna move into a child's pose. I would invite you to spread your knees nice and wide, bring your big toes together to touch. We'll direct the hips back to the heels. Reach the arms forward. And drop the head down towards the earth or perhaps on the earth.

And just take the first moment here to just allow the body to arrive into the shape. No need to push. No need to force. For most of us, the hips won't come all the way back to the heels, and I would just encourage you not to push that action into happening. But instead, see if we can start to draw our awareness to the breath.

And notice how the exhalation use the body permission to release. Let's take a few more breaths just like this. And then as you're ready, we're gonna take the right arm. Throw it under the left arm, finding child's pose with a twist. Turning the palm up towards the sky.

And again, toggling between effort and ease here in our given practice. So not too much force, not too much effort. We wanna feel something. So the targeted area here is really gonna be our right shoulder. Some of us may be feeling this more in the bicep or the tricep.

If it's too much, just back off. See if we can allow here the jaw to relax and while the palms to relax. And just allow yourself to lean into the awareness of the breath so that as we hold these poses in stillness, knowing that we will want to move, It is the breath that is moving. Let's take five and wear rounds at big full inhales and long exhales. And then very gently start to bring your right arm forward back into the child's pose.

Taking a few breaths. And then we'll switch sides. So as you're ready, slide the left arm under the right arm, resting the left side of your head on the mat. Notice the difference between sides. I'm resisting the urge to push into anything.

Instead, can you just allow? Moving to the breath. Follow the inhales and follow the exhales. If your toes are squeezing, see if we can invite the toes to soften. And let's take five more big full inhales and long exhales.

And then tenderly begins to bring that left arm forward. Pausing for just a couple more breaths in the child's pose. Just notice and feel. And then we'll come back into our hands and our knees and our tabletop, bringing your knees back closer towards one another so they're a little more hip bone distance apart. Probably we feel really nice here to circle out through the hips.

Perhaps a couple of rounds of cat and cow. And if you're circling, make sure you go the other way. Then we'll come into center. We're gonna take melting heart. So keep your knees right under your hips as best you can.

And very similar to our child's pose. We're gonna walk our arms forward, but I'm gonna take the arms far out in front of you as you can, as you send your chest forward, and then begin to move the sternum down towards the mat. So some of us, the chin, is gonna make contact with the mat. Some of you will be your forehead. We're just here for about a minute and a half.

Again, notice the toes. See if we can relax and soften the toes. See if we can allow any gripping, any squeezing of the palms into the earth or into the mat to relax. And lean into the exhales here, especially if we are feeling quite a bit of sensation. Please.

Can you allow the heart to release down just a little bit more? Watch your breath deepen. Is you in the towel fill the back ribs with breath? And as you exhale, release the chest a little bit more. Few of my breaths.

Now to come out of this, you wanna do so mindfully and carefully minister to press up onto your elbows. Slowly bring your forearms back. I love to rest my forehead down on my forearms. Just to take that in. And then as you're ready, you're gonna press back up into your hands and your knees.

Take any movement that feels good, hip circles, cat and cow, perhaps. Let me just take a few more here. And then from here, tuck your toes gonna lift our knees and send our hips up and back into a downward facing dog just for a moment. So just take a moment to move the feet, feel the backs of the legs. Let me shake the head. Yes.

Maybe shake the head. No. Keep a nice bend to the knees and just go side to side. And then we'll take a slow walk forward to the top of the mat to meet the hands. And from here, we're gonna grab our blocks. I'm gonna recommend that we place the blocks on the highest setting.

So you're gonna place your hands on the blocks. I love to have my feet quite wide. So feet as wide as the mat, keep a nice bend to your knees. Our pose here is dangling. And so what I would invite you to do is keep the bend to the knees and start to empty the torso down into the forward fold.

Give your head a gentle shake. Yes. A gentle shake. No. And then allow yourself to pause in stillness. And with this sense of curiosity, just really noticing what's happening in the body. Noticing how the low back is feeling.

Observing the head and the neck, the shoulders, can we relax the head even more? Perhaps we could bend the knees just a little bit more so that the belly really stays connected to the thighs. And I'm not going for straightening my legs and finding the perfect forward fold. I'm encouraging the body to release the torso, the trunk, the overworked back, to empty down towards the earth, to give over to gravity. Then as we tune into the breath, the belly is connected to the thigh.

See if we can find quite deep full inhales. So that as the belly pushes into the thighs, the breath then moves to the low back into the sacrum. Unscrunched the toes. I'm just here for another moment. If you feel that you have the space perhaps, turn your blocks down.

Medium or low setting. Palms flat, no effort in the palms. Breathe and allow. Give over to gravity. Your thighs might start to shake a little bit.

This means you're human. And especially in the last thirty seconds here, the desire to just get out is very strong. I know. See if he can lean into the breath to be the movement. That soothes the mind.

So that we stay when we release. Think a moment here to grab opposite elbows and just move side to side. Feel the weight shift into the right leg. Feel the weight shift into the left leg. Back and forth.

And then keep the knees bent, release opposite elbows, squeeze the glutes and roll yourself up very slowly. One vertebrae at a time. The head come up last and let your shoulders just roll at the top and take a moment and pause here. And just notice. Inhale reach the arms high.

And then let's exhale come back down into your forward fold. Plint your hands on your blocks. You're gonna walk our right foot in towards the middle of the match a bit more. We're gonna take our left leg back into a lunge, lower the left knee down, and then walk your right foot forward so we have a very strong 90 degree bend to this front knee. We're gonna go through the Dragon series.

I love to use blocks here. So the first phase here of the Dragon series is just right here. Hands are on the blocks or mirror. My right knee is moving in the direction of my right armpit. And then I'm surrendering the frontal hit points forward and down.

Let the shoulders relax down the back. Draw all the chins slightly into the chest so we keep the length through the sides of the neck, soften the brow, and then breathe. You'll notice the body naturally moving in different times. You might feel a slight sway side to side or forward and back. I noticed any areas that may be working.

And see if we can invite those areas to soften. So that as they soften, we feel that allowing through the frontal hit points. From here, the next phase is that we bring our hands up onto our right thigh. So you're gonna interlace your hands around this top thigh. Try to relax the shoulders.

Gaze can be up and slightly forward. Same surrender here in this left frontal hip point. The hands on the thigh could suggest just a very gentle moving forward of that right knee and of the right shin. So we do tend to wobble a bit here, which is fine. If you do feel quite out of balance, think that you could really press into the pinky toenail edge of the left foot, and that will help stabilize you. Draw all the breath out from the belly.

All the way to the chest. And there's a lot of sensation here. Close the eyes and sigh out the exhales. Couple more breaths. And from here, bring your hands back down onto the blocks.

I'm gonna straighten the front leg. You can flex the foot or you're welcome to keep the toes down. But we wanna draw the right hip back in space, send the left hip forward, and just softly send the heart forward so we're finding length through the spine, length through the back of the leg. Chin again softly into the chest. So we release any grabbing or squeezing in the neck and in the shoulders, breathing into the back of the right leg.

I'm gonna take five more breaths here. And then go ahead and re bend your right knee. I'm gonna take the right foot over to the right, bring your blocks inside of your right foot. So we're finding the lizard here. So you're welcome to come down into your forearms into the blocks.

You're welcome to come down into the forms without the blocks. The blocks provide them just great support here. Allow your right thigh to open up if it naturally wants to. Don't feel here that you need to squeeze it in and contain it. Shoulders back. I like to look straight down thinking chin again slightly into the chest.

And we'll offer up a couple of variations here, but just keep it nice and simple for now. Again, continuing to allow the pelvis, the frontal hit points to move forward and down. Breathe. Now you might stay right here. Or you could stay on your left forearm or come up into the left hand using the block. Bring your right hand onto your right thigh.

Peel the thigh and the foot open. Like you're opening up the pages of a book and lean back. Again, continuing to surrender that left frontal hit point. And this might might be really nice just to stay right here. Or perhaps begin to bend your back knee point your toes, maybe reach back with the right hand, get the back foot. Let the weight of this foot in the hand be what opens up the right collarbone rather than forcing or pushing Again, it's all about allowing here.

And just take five more breaths. Now if we have the back foot, we wanna very carefully release it. You're gonna bring your hands back inside of your right foot. You can move your blocks off to the side. Hands come down onto the mat, tuck your back toes, lift the back knee. This should feel really nice, right leg steps back.

Oh my goodness, downward facing dog. Peddle it out, shake it out and move it all around. You're gonna feel quite a difference in the right side and the left side here. And then we're gonna take another walk towards the hands. Nice and easy.

And just grab opposite elbows, move it outside to side. And then we'll slowly roll ourselves up one piece at a time. Head last shoulders roll at the top. Just pause, notice, and take it in. And then reach your arms up.

Bend the knees. Let's come back down into our fold. We're gonna grab our blocks. We're gonna place them under our hands. I'm gonna step the right leg back this time for a dragon series.

Lower the right knee down, bring your left foot in a little more towards center. So the left knee is a nice proximity to the left arm pit. Feel the right frontal hit point here surrendering forward and down. Chin slightly into the chest, shoulders move back away from the ears. Turn your awareness to the breath.

To the body, noticing the difference in sides. And in that difference in sides, noticing wear resistance, where effort may be wanting to creep in. I'm just with our awareness inviting that effort and that resistance to release. Few more breaths here. In the next phase, we'll bring our hands up onto our left thigh, interlacing your fingers around the thigh.

It's almost as if the hands are suggesting the thigh bone moving forward. So we keep this really nice 90 degree bend to the left knee. He've surrendering the right frontal hip point down. But again, if you need to back off any amount, feel free to back off. Just moving the breath.

I'm again connecting to the pinky toe edge of that back foot, especially if we do feel like we are losing our balance. Couple more breaths in through the nose. Out through the mouth. Inhale. XL. Bring your hands back to the blocks.

We'll start to extend our left leg, any amount, so finding a half split. You're welcome to keep the foot flexed, or you could keep the left foot down. The leg does not need to be fully extended. The left hip ideally is moving back. The right hip is moving forward.

Heart is reaching forward. The tails reaching back. The chin, micro tucks into the chest, lots of length in the sides of the neck. I'm just breathing here into the back of that left leg. Few more breaths.

And then we'll re bend our left knee. We'll bring our blocks inside of our left foot. Left foot goes quite wide. And from here in our lizard, we might stay up on our hands or perhaps we're coming down into the forearms on the blocks or on the earth. And same thing on this side. Right? For most of us, that left side is gonna wanna naturally open up.

Just allow it if it wants to. Breathing here, letting the shoulders roll back away from the ears. Thinking at the center of the top of the head is just energetically moving forward, but again, not with too much effort. And feeling and finding that surrender that allowing that ease through the right frontal hit point. And you're welcome to stay right here.

Where you can stay on your right forearm or come up into your right hand, perhaps in the block, if it mat, left hand can come into the left thigh. And we're peeling the thigh and the foot open. Right? Like the pages of a book, surrendering the right hip point down a little bit more leaning softly back, finding a slight backbend as we lift the chest up. And you could totally say right here, this is enough, or bend your back knee. Reach back with your left hand, get the back foot, surrender the right hip point down.

Let the weight again of this right foot in the left hand be what opens the chest up and encourages us to lean back into a slight back bent. It's a few big full inhales and long exhales here. Inhale. XL. Carefully release the back foot.

Bring your left hand back inside of the left foot. We're gonna move our blocks off to the side. Hands plant on the mat inside of the left foot, tuck your back toes lift your back knee, step the left leg back downward facing dog should feel like a really nice relief and release here. And just pedal out your feet. Shake the head.

And then let's just lower to our knees. Send your hips back to your heels just for a moment. Of a child's pose. And then from the child's pose, We're gonna slide forward onto our hands and our knees, lower down into your forearms, just finding a moment of sphinx pose. So elbows are under the shoulders or perhaps slightly ahead of the shoulders.

I like to spread the legs as wide as the mat. So if it feels better for your low back, you could bring the legs closer together. Very soft effort here of pulling the heart forward between the arms. Again, chin slightly into the chest. Allow the glutes to relax.

Allow the breath to be easy. You're welcome to stay right here. If you would like, we could come into seal pose. You're gonna bring your hands as wide as the mat. Press into your palms straighten the arms and lift the chest.

So I like to keep the gaze slightly forward. If it feels okay in your neck, you could look slightly up. Try to keep the shoulders relaxing down the back. Leave the toes spread and relaxed. There's five more breaths wherever we are.

And then tenderly begin to roll yourself down onto your belly, stack your palms. We're gonna lower the forehead, gently into the palms and swish your hips from side to side. I'm encountering here with half frog. Open your left knee, left thigh out to the side so that the left thigh is parallel to the top of the mat. I'd like to turn the gaze to the left.

Close your eyes and just feel that nice sweet release through the left inner thigh, through the groin. Might feel a nice release through the low back through the glutes. And that release comes from allowing. Comes from a place of ease. So just take three or four more big full breaths right into the belly.

And then we'll bring our left leg in. We move our hips from side to side. And we'll switch. Right knee, right thigh opens out to the side for half frog. Turn your gaze to the right so the left side of my head's resting in my palms.

Just breathing here into the right side of the little back, feeling that nice release. Through the inner thigh, through the glute. In connecting to the soothing quality of the breast, just pushing down into the earth. Think a few more rounds. And then go ahead and bring your left leg back in.

We'll switch the hips from side to side. And then from here, go ahead and press up onto your hands and your knees. Circle out your hips a few times one way. A couple times the other way. And then we're gonna go ahead and come on to our backs.

So come to lie on your back, bringing your feet onto the mat. Grab your strap. We're gonna place the strap around the ball of our right foot. Bring your left leg long down the mat. Keep an event just for a moment.

Try to relax through the shoulders as much as you can. We're gonna flex our left foot. So this is really where we're gonna find most of our effort. We're gonna flex the left foot and gently push forward. Give yourself as much room as you need on the strap. Inhale lengthen and extend the right leg up to the sky.

Exhale re bend the right knee. Inhale lengthen. Exhale bend. Last time, we're gonna lengthen and pause. Just 10 breaths here keeping that right foot flexed and breathing into the back of the leg.

Breathing into the calf. So the upper right here again, left leg. Let your shoulders relax. Let all the muscles of the face soften. Take a big breath in. Big exhale. One more time. Inhale.

End exhale. Go ahead and re bend your right knee. Take the strap off the foot. Just let the right leg go long and pause. Let the legs relax. Just notice the difference between the right and the left side.

And then let's do the other side. It's keeping your right leg long, bring your left knee in. We'll take this strap around the ball of the left foot, keep the knee in, and then flex this right foot. So, again, that's where the activation, that's where the more yang energy is is really keeping this right foot flexed and pressing forward through the right heel. Inhale lengthen and extend the left leg up to the sky, exhale re bend the left knee. Inhale lengthen, exhale bend, Last time, we'll lengthen, we'll extend, and we'll pause, relaxing the shoulders, softening the face.

Putting the breath into the back of the left leg, into the hamstring, into the calf, and allowing it to be what it is. Like might be shaking a little bit after all the work that we've done. Can you just allow? Big breath in. XL.

One more time. Inhale, and exhale. Okay. Go ahead and rerun that left knee. Take the strap off the foot, set the strap off to the side, bring your left leg along. Let the legs relax.

I want you to open your legs up just as wide as feels comfortable. We're gonna reach the arms up overhead, finding pentacle pose. So just take up space. We wanna take up as much space here as we can. Close your eyes.

Spring your awareness into the body. Noticing every corner. Every edge, feeling all of that space that you have unlocked. And embracing that sense of ease with every breath. And then as you're ready, bring your arms down by your sides.

Bring your legs back in towards one another. Bring your feet onto the mat. Bring your feet as wide as the mat, let your knees come together to touch just for a few breaths. And then we'll gently roll over onto our right side. Use your left hand, and we'll rise up into a seat.

Finding a nice tall spine. Placing your left hand on your heart, place your right hand on your belly. Take a moment to bow your head in towards your heart. To seal in your effort, to seal in your practice, and the ease that you created, cultivated, and the space, the mind and body and heart, and carry that with you today as you move through your day. Thank you for sharing your practice and your energy with me.