Anchored and Open

Hello, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for joining me. We're gonna begin a seated today. So if you know that you need a certain prop so that your body is comfortable, you can grab one, but you don't need any prop. For this particular class.

So go ahead and cross at your shins or whatever your preferred seated position is today, and turn your palms to face down on your thighs, close your eyes, we'll begin with a very simple awareness exercise, just scanning your space, the space around you. Just sensing into sounds, temperature of your body, and where you have chosen to practice today. So just take a few seconds to gather that information. And in yoga, we move from the outer world. When we first arrive on our mat, we're moving from that outer space for transitioning and tuning in to the inner space.

So start to notice your breath. And just like you did a scanning of the space around you, start to scan the space within you. As you breathe in, notice where the breath travels. If you're breathing in your chest, can you draw the breath down into the belly? Maybe even below to the pelvic bowl. Take one more breath here.

And if your eyes are closed, blink them open, we're gonna stretch our arms up towards the sky. You're spreading your fingers wide. For now. And we're gonna do a little breath practice called ego eradicator, which is such an energizing breath. Fold your fingers into the palm of your hands, except your thumbs. So your thumbs are facing one another.

If this is too much having your arms up, you can always lower them a little bit. But if your shoulders are up for it, arms straight up, breath of fire, so ego eradicator, we're gonna start to pump at the belly, the inhales are passive, exhales are pretty sharp and strong. So just go along, inhale, and then exhale. So you're pumping from the navel to the back of the spine. Your inhales are just naturally happening, passive, and the exhales are powerful. Once you get the hang of it, close your eyes.

Focus your attention at your naval center. Keep going. You're almost there. Ten more seconds. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Fill yourself to the top of your lungs and hold the breath.

Hold that breath in. Try to bring your thumbs to touch above your head. Don't look just feel. And then exhale, relax your arms. Let the breath out.

Just take a moment to observe, notice what has shifted for you. Plink your eyes open, and let's come on to all fours tabletop position, please. Your hands are just beneath your shoulders. Extend one leg back behind you and the other toes are curled under were now in plank position. So using that strong core that you've just activated with your breath of fire, draw your navel towards your spine.

Lengthen your tailbone to your heels. Stay here. Take another inhale through the nose as you exhale, lift your hips back up to downward facing dog. We'll take a moment here to just pedal out the feet. Do what feels good in your body. Find your stillness here.

Take a full cycle of breath. And then inhale back to plank position pause. Take your gaze forward. Start to shift forward, lower the whole body on two of them at bend your elbows, keep the legs very strong as you lower. Cobra pose point your toes back.

Your hands stay where they are. Just lift your chest. You should feel that your bottom ribs are still touching the mat. Pin the elbows in and back. Take another inhale, exhale, release.

Bring your forms to your mat first things post. So we're gonna set up forms and elbows on the mat. You wanna align your elbows beneath your shoulders. So if your shoulders are really close to your ears, just slide the forms forward just a little more. Your toes are still pointing back, feel the tops of your feet pressing down, the firming of your thighs, draw a little bit of your low belly towards the naval, lift your chest.

Feel your hands flat against the mat. Take another breath. Curl your toes, firm your legs. Push the floor away with the forms and the mounds of your big toes and peaky toes, lift your hips up, lift your thighs up here now in form plank for a couple of breaths. D breath in.

Full breath out. Can you press up to plank from here? If you need to put your knees down, you can do that. Take an inhale downward facing dog as you exhale. Big breath in through the nose. Open the mouth, exhale.

High on your toes as you breathe in. Bend the knees. And at the end of the exhale, step up. Top of the mat. Halfway up, inhale. Forward fold, exhale.

Ground the feet, anchor yourself as you rise, breathing in. Hans to the hearts. And just feel your body is opening, inhale, reach out, breathe in, exhale hinge from the hips forward fold. Halfway up on the inhale, lengthen all four sides of your waist, take it back to plank pose. We lower on an exhale in Chatinanga.

You're welcome to come all the way down to the matter halfway. CObrah or upward facing dog. Pause here. Take an extra breath. Over the toes. Downward facing dog.

Deep inhale, full exhale. Walk your hands back towards the mat. And at the back of your mat, please separate your feet to the width of your mat. We're gonna turn the toes out and the heels in. Drop your hips, your sit bones for melasana.

So if you feel that this is just a hard pose for you to access, you can always sit on a block. This is where you might wanna just place the block underneath the sit bones. You can also roll the back of your mats underneath your heels if they're not touching down. But once you are squatted, press your palms together. Think of cobra and sphinx pose in your upper thoracic.

So you wanna feel that coiling of your upper thoracic pressing in towards the chest. If you wanna feel a deeper stretch in your inner thighs, you can gently push the elbows into the inner knees and then hug the inner knees into the elbows. Stay here, breathe here. One more breath, feeling the anchoring energy of the posture, the opening energy through your breath, inhale again. And exhale lower your hands towards the mat straighten your legs. Oh, that feels good.

Heal and toe your feet in so they're hip width apart. Arda, Uttanasana, halfway up, inhale, walk it back to downward facing dog. In down dog, join the legs together, inhale, reach your right leg up to the sky, pausing for a few breaths. Take another breath in and exhale, step your right foot forward. We're gonna move the right foot a little bit to the right, so we're not on a tight rope.

Scooch your back foot in just a little bit, and then spin the back heel flat. So we're coming into what would be a setup for warrior one. I'm gonna say for today just to give your hips a little more space, go wider than hip width. And when you're ready, come up into warrior one. We're gonna reach our arms forward and then fold your fingers into your palms just like you did with ego eradicator in the beginning of class. Your left arm, you're gonna pull it back.

So imagine like your pulling a bow and an arrow, like you have a bow and an arrow in your hand, and you're just pulling the elbow back. Your right thumb is up. You're bending into that right thigh, not letting it go past your ankle. And you can stay here. Take deep breaths where you can join me for breath of fire again. So we're gonna inhale together through the nose and exhale begin to pump at the belly.

While you're doing this, fix your gaze to your thumb. Like, that's your target is the thumb. This pose is Archer's pose. It's a great pose for focus. And obviously physically you're opening your hip on the right side, strengthening that back leg.

We're here ten more seconds to go. Take a deep inhale. Hold the breath, bend a little more into your right thigh, hold breathe. Exhale, and then lower your hands to your mats. Step back to plank.

Make a wise choice. You can vinyasa or just go back to downward facing dog. Pause and down dog. Notice the right side of your leg, your body. Second side, join the feet together, inhale your left leg back, hold the left leg up, feel the stretch through the back of your right leg, and exhale step your left foot forward.

Move that foot to the left. Give yourself the space. Be generous with space here. Spin your back heel flat, inhale to that first warrior. And now reach your arms forward.

We're going right into archers pose on the left side. Fold your fingers and your palms, pull the right elbow back. Take a deep breath. You're bending into that left thigh and begin to pump at the naval. Fix your gaze at your left thumb.

Be super focused here. Super clear. Unwavering with your breath, your mind, present, grounded, anchored. Take a deep inhale. Hold the breath.

And exhale, let it go. Release your hands to your mat. Step your left foot back this time in Helen Plank. If you're choosing Chaturanga lower on the exhale, cold brow or upward dog, inhale downward facing dog, exhale, pause, notice. What feels anchoring for you in this moment, and what feels open?

In hell high toes, bend the knees, step up to the top of the mat. Inhale halfway up, exhale refold, chair pose, inhale, stand hands to the heart. We're gonna move through one round of surya namaskar b. In Halut Catasana, exhale fold halfway up breathe in, step back, move through your vinyasa, feeling the heat building, right foot forward, back heel spins in how Warrior one hands lower, exhale through Chaturanga, inhale to your backbend of choice, exhale downward facing dog. Left foot forward, right heel spins, inhale rise, exhale lower your palms, move through your vinyasa.

Meat and downward facing dog. Two full cycles of breath. And lower your knees to your mat. Let's transition onto our backs and take this heat into some back bends. So place your feet on the mat, bend your knees, align your feet so they're about hip width apart.

Rest your hands alongside your body, and take a breath in through the nose. We're gonna do this on the exhale. As you exhale, lift your hips up towards the ceiling. So decide if a clasp with your hands here is accessible. If you can clasp your fingers underneath your body, go for it. Otherwise, hold your mat.

Roll your shoulders in a little bit. So it's like you're tucking your triceps underneath you. Press your feet into the earth. Let the inner thighs, release, relax, towards the earth. Take two more breaths.

In hell again. And as you exhale, release the clasping of your fingers, lower your spine, lower your hips. Take your right ankle on top of your left thigh for thread the needle. So your choice, how you want to expand in this pose if you're clasping behind the left hamstring or in front of the shin. And lower your left foot to the mat, cross your right thigh all the way over the left.

Shift your hips to the right, drop your knees left for a twist. Maybe you hear some cracks. Come back through the center. And switch sides, so left ankle crosses over the right for thread the needle and thread the needle. Your whole spine including the lower back is resting on the mat.

Draw your chin in slightly towards the chest. And let's take this into a twist. Cross the left thigh over, shift the hips to the left, drop your knees right. And then come back to center. Hug both knees into your chest, and we're gonna end seated today.

So roll on up back to seated position. Any comfortable way that is for you? Lending your hands. This time it rests up on your thighs. Palms facing up, you are in this place of receptivity, opening yourself up to the benefits, and the fruits of your practice.

And even taking this off the mat, opening yourself up to whatever blessings or gifts, are meant for you today, meant for you to receive today. Join your palms at your heart, bow your chin towards your heart. Thank you for sharing your practice with me. Namaste.