Move with Confidence

Hello, everyone. We are starting our practice in child's posts today. And before we begin, just make sure you have a block. We're gonna move on our mat in different ways. And the invitation is to move through different transitions with confidence today. So when you're ready, let's come into child's pose.

And depending on your preference, your knees can be about hip width, maybe wider, or all the way together. I'm gonna ask you to just let your arms fully relax onto the mat. If your forehead doesn't rest on the mat or you can't reach the mat, you can always place the block underneath it. We'll be here for about three breaths, slow deep breaths in and out through your nose. You're cultivating your ujjayi breath.

What I love about starting this way is you can hear the sound of your breath. It's pretty audible. And easy to make out when you're in child's pose. So listen to the sound, this ocean like sound that you're creating as you're breathing in and out through your nose. And on your next inhale, come on to all fours.

Tabletop position. Align your hands underneath your shoulders. Press the floor away with the palm of your hands, especially in the inner palms. Take your left leg back behind you, set the toes on the mat. You wanna feel like you're zipping up from your pubic bone towards the naval.

So there's length in your lower back while there's this lift in the lower belly. Okay. Now tuck your right toes. Your right knee's on the mat, take an inhale through the nose. And as you exhale, push the floor away with your left foot and your hands, lift your right knee to your chest. It just got intense of nowhere, but we're gonna breathe through this intensity together. So in through the nose, out through the nose.

Take your right leg up and back three legged, downward dog. Your hips are shifting back. In hell here. XL draw your knee to your chest again, knee to nose. One more inhale three legged down dog, stretch back, right leg straight, exhale knee to nose, step your right foot forward, lower the back knee down, untuck your back toes, low lunge, onjaniasana inhale arms rise up, gaze is up, lift your chest on your next exhale lower your hands back to the mat. Curl your back toes under step back downward dog.

Inhale in down dog. Big exhale. Tabletop position. We're repeating this on the other side. So just check your hands.

The creases of your wrists are right under your shoulders. This time, extend your right leg back behind you, place the toes on the mat. Feel the inner right leg spinning up towards the sky. The outer left hip firms in. Zip up from the pubic bone to the naval.

Take a breath in through the nose. As you exhale push the floor away, with your hands and that right foot, draw your left knee to your chest. Your gaze is forward. Your heart is open. This is an invitation to get stronger.

On your next breath, three legged down dog, left leg up and back inhale. XL knee to nose. Inhale left leg up and back. XL knee to nose, step your left foot forward this time. Place your right knee down, untuck your back toes, low lunge, arms reach up.

Let your hips come forward, lift your hearts. Drop your shoulders. Inhale one more time. Exhale your hands lower back down to the mat. Step your left foot back to plank pose, pause and plank.

Firming your legs, they're very strong. Lift the sides of your belly, reach your chest forward, breathe, and shift forward. Chaturanga, bend your elbows, come all the way down to the mat. Once you're all the way down, place your forehead on the mat. Notice the tops of the feet first. They're rooted.

They're gonna stay down as we play around with Shalenboschner. So reach your arms back behind you. Turn your palms to face in so the thumbnails are touching the mat. And on your next breath, lift your chest. Lift your arms. Lift your hands away from the earth. Just gaze slightly down towards the tip of the nose.

Inhale lift a little higher and exhale to lower. Good. And so your hands can stay in that variation or maybe you wanna take a class with your hands so your fingers come together, create that interlace. Inhale lift your chest for Shalmbasana. Lift your hands away from the ground. Press the tops of the feet to the earth.

Take another breath and exhale to lower. If your fingers are interlaced, switch the interlacing of the fingers, so the opposite index is on top. One more time. Shell, inhale, firmly press the pelvis down, lift the heart up. Maybe this time you can float your feet away from the ground, reaching back with the inner big toes firm the outer ankles in. One more breath. And exhale to lower.

Bring your hands to the mat, tuck the toes in hello fours, and exhale to downward facing dog. Big breath in through the nose. Open the mouth this time, unhinge the jaw, exhale. High toes breathe in. Bend the knees step up, top of the mat.

Inhale to Arda, uhtanasana. Exhale, uttanasana. Inhale rise. Hands to your heart. Great. We're gonna step out wide on the mefts, taking the feet about one leg's distance apart.

You're gonna bring your hands to your hips, just align your feet here, your toes are in the same line. The toes are slightly pigeon tote. Bring your hands behind your back and release your fingers. Maybe if your shoulders are tight, you can always use a strap instead. Ground down, lengthen your tailbone towards the earth. Find that little lift of the pubic bone to the navel, lift your heart, inhale, exhale, forward fold, prosorita, padottanasana, c.

While you're here, shift your weight a little more forward towards your toes. Think of hugging the outer ankles towards the midline of the mat so your inner legs get active. Let the head hang heavy. Your arms reach up and over and lift your shoulders at the same time. Stay for two deep inhales in and out through your nose.

One more. Press your feet down, put a slight bend in your knees to inhale rise. Bring your hands on your hips, and step step. Let's come up to the top of the mat again. Arms alongside your body.

Just pausing to notice, what is shifted, how does your body feel in this moment? If your eyes are closed, blink them open, inhale, Katasana chair pose, exhale forward fold. Come up halfway, breathing in. You're welcome to step back or if you'd like to hop back to Chatea, you wanna land with the elbows bent in hell to cobra or upward facing. Exhale to downward facing dog.

Lift your right leg up, breathing in, removing with confidence, step with the right foot forward, and pivot your back heel flat on its side. You're heel to heel are a little bit wider. Come up to your first warrior. Inhale as you rise. On your next exhale, bring your hands behind your back, interlock the fingers.

Lift your chest, open your heart, feel the anchoring of your feet, exhale into humble warrior, pausing here for a beat, firming that right hip in towards the midline of your mouth, lift your shoulders. K. Listen carefully and he'll reach back up or you're one. We're swiveling open to the back of the mat, so you're turning your right toes in, opening the left foot into warrior two. So you should be. Facing the back of the mat, left heel aligned to your right arch.

Warrior two. And just check-in. And if you miss that, it's okay. We're gonna repeat it on the other side. So you get a second chance.

Flip that left palm, reverse it back. Stay light on your right hand. XL, circle the hands to the mat. You're at the back of your mat still. Inhale plank.

Shift forward, chaturanga exhale. Inhale to up dog or cobra, exhale to downward facing dog. And just pause, breathing in, find the rhythm of the breath, breathing out, lift your left leg in hell. Step the left foot forward, spin the back heel flat. We're aligning the feet for warrior one, and he'll come up.

Take the hands behind your back, interlace your fingers again, lift your chest it's humble warrior on the left side of the body. In how come back up to your first warrior, And as you exhale, open up to warrior two with that right foot, so turn the left toes in, swivel the right foot open, heel to arch, right heel to back arch. We're in that second warrior pause. Meet me here. Flip the right palm, reverse it on the inhale.

Hands come down to the mat. Add Chaturanga as you exhale, cobra or updog, your backbend, your heart opens, exhale to downward facing dog, pausing for a beat. Inhale your heels come up. And exhale bend the knees, step or hop. Top of the mat, inhale lengthen the spine, Artotanasana.

XL refold. Inhale rise bring your hands to your heart. Chair pose, uttanasana will pause here, holding the chair pose. In fact, take the heel of heel of your hands to the creases of your hips and just press into the crease of your hips, push down and lift your pubic bone to the naval. So give your low back some more space.

Add the arms again. Shift the shins put forward, see if you can sit a little lower and lift your gaze. Take one more breath. Maybe the palms touch. Stay here.

And come all the way down to the mat. You can always put your hands down. If you need that added support, this is a tease. We're really not doing more than this. Tabasana, just filling your core, and then put your feet down.

You'll need your block in just a moment. But first, lie down on your back with your knees bent. We're gonna set up for bridge pose. Pause here for beat, arms alongside your body. And on your next inhale, lift your hips up.

Underneath you, you can bring your hands together to roll the triceps, the outer upper arms towards the earth. It's like you're snuggling your shoulders underneath you. Now press the feet down. Roll the inner thighs down. They're slightly more relaxed.

Take two more breaths. Inhale, and exhale release your hands, lower your spine, pause, address the shoulders. And from here, you can grab your block. We're gonna come into supported bridge. Any height in the block, I'm gonna go slightly higher today.

So as you continue to exhale every exhale in this moment in in class is really an invitation to release effort in the practice. At the end of class, we open up, receive the fruits of the practice from our efforts. And even here we can invite that idea of just trusting the process. There is confidence even as we're resting more, inviting more stillness, confidence in the way that we are moving towards the end of class as well. How we are transitioning in this part of the class.

If you happen to be at a higher height with the block, just set it down to the lowest height first. So you'll lift your hips slightly to adjust the block. Let the hips rest on the lowest height of the block. And when you're ready, you take the block out from underneath your body, both hips down. Bring your right knee into your chest, straighten your left leg long, we'll take a twist, open the right arm to the right, drop your knee over to your left for a spinal twist.

Back towards center. Switching legs, left knee in right leg long. In hell here. Xhale, open your left arm, left. Drop your knee right.

And back to center. Bring your knees into your chest. We'll place the feet down on the mat. You can take the soles of your feet together and let your knees part wide. For baddha konasana, you're even welcome to complete the rest of your practice in this pose.

If you prefer to straighten out your legs, you can. And let your breath control be released. Letting the body breathe when it needs to inhale and exhale on its own. We'll bring the knees together if they're apart meeting in seated position coming up. Joining the palms together in front of the hearts.

Just bow your chin and honor yourself always for showing up. Namaste.