Spacious Hips

Thank you for joining me for spacious hips. For today's practice, we will need a bolster and two blocks. We're gonna get started in sukhasana, nice easy seat with one shin crossed in front of the other. Before we close our eyes, take your right hand, nestle it right under your left armpit. Take your left hand onto your right shoulder so we create a nice somatic hug.

And then close your eyes. Bow your chin just slightly in towards the chest. And let's take a nice big breath in through the nose. Big sigh out through the mouth. One more time, inhale, and exhale.

Now just allow your awareness to move into your breath. See if you can just begin to follow the natural rhythm of the in the house and the exhales. And as we find that rhythm, Just begin to relax the forehead. And as the forehead begins to relax soften through the jaw, Feel your shoulder softening. Relax through the low belly.

I notice any other areas of tension and invite them to soften in this moment. Feel the weight here of the sits bones plugging down into the earth. And as the sits bones plug down into the earth, I would invite you to imagine the lower ribs all the way up to the crown of the head floating up and off of the pelvis. And then bring your awareness down into the pelvis, down into the hip joints. Noticing any squeezing, any clenching.

And as you begin to deepen your breath, See if you can imagine the breath drawing in and up through the tailbone, filling the pelvis all the way up to the chest. And as you exhale, let the breath leave from the chest out the tailbone down into the earth. And let's take five or six more rounds. The deepest fullest breaths you've taken so far today. And Just inviting that breath to be drawn up from your foundation, from the tailbone all the way up to the chest, and pushing out whatever you need to let go of from the chest, back out into the earth.

Two more rounds. And then keeping your eyes closed, just release the somatic hug, releasing your hands down onto your thighs or onto your knees. Connecting to that contact, to that warmth of your hands. Coming forward, very simple forward fold. So keep your shins crossed.

And you're just gonna bring your hands down onto the earth. Draw the chin down and towards the chest. Just a very simple offering here of surrender. Notice if the sits bones are lifting up and off of the earth, see if we can find the sits bones plugging down. Tune in here noticing and observing what's happening in the hips and the glutes and the low back.

And as we breathe in this compressed state, can you direct the breath to move around from the belly to the low back? And perhaps as we keep that full inhale, we can breathe all the way up to the space between and around the shoulder blades. Feeling expansion from the tail all the way up to the space between those shoulder blades. Just take five or six more rounds of breath. Soften your head and your neck.

And then very slowly begin to walk your hands back. Roll yourself up. Open your eyes. We're gonna free our legs up out in front of us. And just shake, shake, shake out your legs, pedal out your feet, whatever feels good here.

Then we're gonna come into the deer pose. So for the deer pose, we're gonna swing our left leg around so that the left shin is parallel the outer edge of the mat. Bring your right shin forward so that the right shin is parallel to the top of the mat. And then from here, you could be grounded down through your right hand. Some of you might be able to tent your left fingertips outside of the left shin, or it might be your whole left hand.

We're gonna lift through the chest, close the eyes, drop into sensation, noticing and observing without judgment, without critique. How we're feeling, where we are feeling the sensation. And you can make a choice from here. Perhaps we stay right where we are. This might be enough.

Perhaps we start to come forward onto our forearms right in front of this right shin. So it should feel almost like a crooked pigeon. I'm just breathing about 15 breaths here. To relax the toes. Keep the breath moving.

It's noticing any unnecessary effort. Let's see if we can release any squeezing in the left glutes. Soften the head a little more. Few more breaths. And then very gently press up into your hands.

We're gonna take the twist. So you're gonna bring your left hand onto your right thigh or your right knee. Right hand is outside of the right hip. Very soft twist to the right. No pushing, no forcing, especially with the head and with the neck.

I just feel a soft turn from the left side of the belly over to the right side. Few more breaths. And then we'll come back to center. And we're gonna switch sides. You'll swing your left leg around.

The left shin comes forward in parallel to the top of the mat. Right leg swings around, so the right shin is parallel to the outer edge of the mat. Hands are by your sides. Lift your chest. Close your eyes.

Notice the difference between sides. It's like a whole different world. And then in that awareness, perhaps staying right here, if this is enough for you. Perhaps we come forward and we fold over this left shin. Again, try to relax through the head and through the neck as much as possible.

Softening the shoulders and releasing any squeezing, any clenching, and the right glute. Just let gravity do the work. If you find that you're pushing into this back off, you wanna find a reasonable point where we are feeling that something is happening. We're feeling the beginnings of a stretch, and that's really the magical place where we create this space. Let's take five more big, full inhales, and long exhales.

And then with tenderness, just begin to press yourself up and we'll take our twist. So our right hand is gonna come onto either the left thigh or the left knee. Left hand comes out to the side, very gentle turn to the left, not pushing again, especially with the heading with the neck. Just a soft turn of the right side of the belly over to the left side. Breeze well.

And then gently come back to center. We'll swing our right leg out. Swing your left leg out. Take a moment with your hands by your sides and just pat out the legs. Whatever feels good here.

And then from here, we're gonna swing our legs over to the side to come up onto our hands and our knees, finding a tabletop, hands under shoulders, knees, under hips. So let's take some really big hip circles just to flush that out. So move through the hip joints and circle the other way. And then when you're ready, I want you to extend your right leg back with your toes tucked. And you're gonna find a nice pulse forward and back. Forward and back.

Just waking up the connective tissue in the foot, calf. And then however you choose to get it there, we're gonna take this right foot outside of the right hand. Grab your blocks on any setting. I'm gonna use the medium setting. And we're gonna come into our lizards. So you're gonna bring your forearms down into the blocks or into the earth.

And then let the right thigh do whatever it naturally wants to do. So for most of us, it's gonna wanna naturally gonna open up. Just allow that to happen. Relax the shoulders down and away from the ears. Thinkchin micro tucked into the chest. Just notice that we're squeezing the left glute, see if we can let the left glute relax and tune into your breath.

And then opening up the imagination, just for a moment. Bring your awareness to your left shoulder. And as you bring your awareness to the left shoulder, now bring your awareness to the center of the right hip. And I want you to imagine those two points moving away from each other. And now bring your awareness to your right shoulder.

And from the right shoulder, bring the awareness into the left hip the very center. And imagine those two points moving away from each other. So the left shoulder and the right hip are moving away from each other. The right shoulder, left hip are moving away from each other. Now move your heart just very gently four between those points.

Five more breaths. Bring your hands up onto your blocks or onto the earth. Lift your chest. Take a big breath in. Take a big exhale.

So take your blocks forward. Gonna move into sleeping swan or pigeon. So you're gonna walk your right foot over to the left side of the mat, come down into the right knee, right shin, slide down into the top of the back leg and foot and just pause. Stay lifted for a moment. Just notice and become aware. And then that awareness is choice.

So maybe we choose to stay right here. Perhaps we come forward onto our forearms onto the earth. Or perhaps we take one block, line it up with your shin, and maybe one block at the top for the forehead so that the sternum, the chest can rest on this first block, and the forehead can rest on the top block. Let the hands relax with the back toes un squeeze. And allow yourself for a couple moments here to move into the breath.

To allow the shape to give us that space and that release through the hip joint. And the urge is likely to come up that we wanna fidget. We wanna move. We wanna get out of it. And see if we can embrace stillness here. And when we have that urge to fidget and to move, just notice your breath.

Alright. Allow the breath to be what is moving. Breathe. In our last moment here, as the shoulders relax, move your awareness to the very center on the top of your head. And then move your awareness down to your tail. And even as we are folded in this shape, can you imagine the center of the top of your head just reaching forward And at the same time, your tail reaching back.

Five more breaths. And take your time, press up into your hands. Keep the shape of the pigeon. Just lift your chest for a moment and slide our blocks forward off of our mats. From here, you're gonna tuck your back toes, lift your back knee and slide it forward a little bit, swing your right leg around the front of the left leg, finding shoelace or gomukhasana in our legs. So our left knee starts to really fit behind the right knee.

Go ahead and circle your hips a few times one way. Few times the other way. And then we'll sit down and back between the feet just for a moment. Interlacing your hands around this top knee use that contact pull back to lift through the chest. And just notice, be aware.

And again, within that awareness is choice. It might stay right here. If it's in your practice to come forward, feel free to come forward. Otherwise, bring your hands back behind you And let yourself for a moment just lean back into the shape. Close your eyes.

Let the breath be drawn up through the tail, rising all the way up to the chest. And as we release the breath leaves from the chest and pushes out the tail and into the earth. Five more breaths. And then after that fifth breath, just slowly begin to press yourself up. Bring your hands back onto that top knee, lift your chest one more time.

And then from here, you're gonna start to slide your left hand forward so that it's parallel to the top of the mat. You'll bring your right foot down. We're gonna grab our bolster You're gonna place the bolster right in front of your left shin. This is a variation of fire logs or double pigeon. That's really nice.

You're gonna take your right shin on top of the bolster. So rather than stacking the shins, we're really using the bolster here to find space. Now if possible, reach forward and grab the sides or the front of the bolster, pull the bolster back to lift the chest so we find that forward tilt to the pelvis. Close the eyes. I'm gonna get in your awareness, choose.

Perhaps stay right here. This could totally be enough. Perhaps come forward. Or the offering here is to bring the hands back by the sides and maybe start to lean back. Closing the eyes, breathe, I'm creating the space just by allowing.

Keep the forehead relaxed. Big breath in. Big breath out. If you're back, you're gonna slowly come forward. We'll take our right foot off of the bolster.

You can push the bolster off to the side. Bring your feet onto the mat, so just windshield wiper your knees side to side. And then take your time. We're gonna find our hands and our knees once again. Go ahead and circle out your hips a few times one way.

Few times the other way. And then our left leg will extend back with our toes tucked. I'm just gonna pulse forward and back. Waking up the connective tissue in the foot, the thigh. And then we'll step our left foot outside of our left hand, finding our lizard on this side. Grab your blocks again.

Any setting. High medium or low, bring your forearms onto the blocks, onto the earth. Same thing here. We're just allowing the left side to do what it naturally wants to do. The chin draws slightly into the chest.

If the right glue to squeezing, see if we can relax that right glute and breathe. Breathe right down into the belly. Move your awareness now to your right shoulder. And from the right shoulder, move your awareness to the center of the left hip. Just imagine those two points moving away from each other.

And then let the awareness go to your left shoulder From your left shoulder, move the awareness to the center of the right hip. And imagine those points moving away from each other. So right shoulder, left hip, left shoulder, right hip. And as we continue to imagine that then send your heart forward. Find a little length, a little extra space, just a few more breaths.

And then bring your hands up onto the blocks of the earth. Lift your chest. Take a big breath in. Exhale. Take the blocks off the mat, moving into our sleeping swan, our pigeon on this side.

So we're gonna walk that left foot over to the right side of the mat. Coming down into the left knee, left shin, slide down into the top of the right leg and foot. Lift your chest for a moment. Close the eyes. Find that awareness. Perhaps I stay here.

Perhaps you come forward onto your forearms onto the earth, or feel free to use your block in front of this left shin for your sternum. Another block for the head. We come down in that support, relaxing the hands, relaxing the jaw, the toes, Stay with the breath. And again, that urge to move me rise. Creating space can be uncomfortable.

So as much as we are able to in the in practice, can we Let the breath be what is moving. Awareness now moves to the very center of the top of the head. From there, we move down to the tail. And just imagine those two points moving in opposition of one another so that the very center of the top of the head reaches forward, the tail reaches back. Let me find a little extra space.

Few more breaths. And then very gently press up onto your hands. Blocks can go forward off of your mat. From here, tuck your back toes. Just lift the knee slightly to slide it forward.

We're gonna swing the left leg around the front of the right leg, finding shoelace or gomukha in it in our legs. Just circle a few times one way. Few times the other way. And then we open the feet up, and we'll sit down and back. Whole different side, whole different world.

Interlace your hands around that front shin. Pull back with the hands to lift the chest. Close the eyes again, moving in and just decide maybe we're here. If it's in your practice to come forward, feel free to come forward. Otherwise, perhaps hands back by the sides behind us. Start to lean gently back.

Just imagining that left sits bone pressing down into the earth. The breath filling, the belly, the ribs, the chest. As we exhale some effort that might still be residing in the body as able to release breathe. Five of my breaths. And that is already, gently bring your hands back up one more time.

Hands wrap around the front shin, lift the chest. And then hands by the sides, this time we're gonna slide the right shin forward so that it's parallel to the top of the mat. You bring your left leg around as we grab our bolster. The bolster's gonna go right in front of our right shin. Left ankle left shin comes on top of the bolster.

See, we can reach for either the sides of your bolster or the very front. We're gonna pull back to lift the chest to find that forward shoulder, the pelvis. And again, closing the eyes, choosing in that awareness may be coming forward. Staying where we are or perhaps just gently leaning back. Breathe. Think about five more breaths.

And then slowly gently, if you've leaned back, come forward. If you're forward, come back. So as you're ready to come out, so you're gonna take your left shin, left leg off the bolster, push the bolster off to the side. Bring the right leg out in front of you, left leg out in front of you and just shake out your legs. And then we're gonna make our way onto our backs, hug your knees into your chest, Give yourself a little squeeze. Let me draw little circles.

Just finding that soft massage with the low back, the sacrum. And then from here, let's take our right leg and wrap it around the left leg, finding twisted roots. You're gonna drop the knees crossed over to the left. You can roll a little more into the outer left hip, open your right arm out to the side. Close the eyes and breathe right into the right side of the body and to the back of the right hip now.

Just keep relaxing that right shoulder head down towards the earth. And then go ahead and gently bring the legs back to center, unwrap the legs set the feet down. Take a few breaths here. So go ahead and bring your knees in. We're gonna take the left leg around the right leg.

Dropped the knees over to the right for twisted roots on the side. So opening up the arms nice and wide and allowing the breath to move into the left side of the body. Relaxing the left shoulder head down. It's breathing into the back of the left hip. A couple more breaths.

I'm gonna go ahead and bring the knees back to center. Release the feet down. Just pausing for a moment. Hugging these into the chest. Happy baby.

So grabbing either the outer edges of the feet the backs of the thighs or the big toes, and kick out through the legs, rock side to side. Just feel all that space that you've created through the hip joint. Take a moment and pause here in stillness. Just allowing the low back and the sacrum to release down. Feel the shoulders relaxed.

Just give yourself the opportunity to release any residual clenching or squeezing through the inner thighs, through the outer hips. And then go ahead and rock side to side once again. Bring the knees in. If yourself a little squeeze, let your right leg go long down the mat, let your left leg go long, let your arms rest by your sides. Just take a moment here in complete stillness.

To rest and to receive finding Shavasana. It's relaxing the skull all the way down to the feet and to the toes. And as your awareness comes back to your breath, Just invite that breath to move from the bottoms of the feet all the way up through the hip joint. Exhaling and releasing, pushing out whatever we need to let go of. That's still lingering.

Take five or six more breaths. Starts to wiggle your fingers. Your toes. Move your head side to side. Both feet come back into the earth.

Well, gently roll over onto the left side into a little fetal position just pausing for a couple breaths. When you're ready using your right hand, you're gonna very gently press yourself up into an easy seats, finding your nice tall spine, taking your left hand onto your heart. Take your right hand right into your belly. Close your eyes. Drop your awareness down into the hip joint, down into the tail, into the pelvis.

And take a moment to feel all of the space that you have opened up today through your practice. And just like when we began, feel the heaviness of the sits bones plugging down into the earth. And allow every free everything from the lower ribs up to lift up and off of the pelvis. Take a really big breath into all that space. Exhale sigh it out and release.

One more time. Inhale. And exhale. Bow your chin in towards your heart, seal in your effort, seal in the space that you've opened up today with gratitude. Thank you so much for sharing your practice and your energy with me today. Namaste.