Centered Calm

Hi, everyone. Welcome to centered calm. And for class today, have two blocks available in a strap. We're gonna begin on our backs. You're gonna need your strap right away.

So please lie down. And we'll start with the feet on the mat, the knees bent. You'll reach for your strap and place that strap right on top of your right foot. So loop it around your right foot. You wanna have both ends on of the strap in each one of your hands.

So right and left hands. Start with a slight bend in your right knee. Draw the outer part of your right hip forward. And maybe you stay here with this knee slightly bent. Or press the leg to straight and lightly tug on your strap.

If your lower back feels good, you can extend the bottom leg straight flex the left foot from the left leg. And we'll be here for a couple of breaths. So imagine you're breathing in from the back of your right leg, your right hamstring. So sending the breath in the back of that leg in through your nostrils, your awareness and intention to the back of your right leg. And out through the nostrils cultivating your yogic breath.

Great. And rebend your right knee. Just place the strap to the side. We'll use it in just a moment for the left side. You're gonna interlace your hands behind your right hamstring and extend your right leg towards the ceiling. So, you are welcome to stay here the whole time.

Or join me as we go into strengthening our core. You're gonna interlace your hands behind your head in hell here. As you exhale, lift your head and shoulders off the mat. So if you wanna make it a little more challenging, you can lift your left heel off the mat a few inches. Sis are the inner thighs. So imagine you're holding a tennis ball with your inner upper thighs, inhale as your head lowers, and exhale as your head lifts.

Inhale the head lowers. Keep the sides of the belly drawing down so your low back doesn't arch. XL to lift up. We'll do two more inhale lower. XL lift.

Inhale lower and exhale lift. Great. Stay up. Pause here. Reach your arms forward. Hold. Breathe. Hug the sides of your belly towards the mat and bring both knees into your chest.

And you'll rest your feet back down on the mat, grab your strap again, loop that strap around your left foot. Just a reminder that you can hold both sides of the strap. Each one of the hands separating your hands, separating the straps so your shoulders have space. Start with a slight bend in that left knee. Draw the outer left hip forward. And then press the leg to straight.

Right leg, elongates, right thigh firms. A couple of breaths here. So sending the breath into the back of the left leg. This is such a therapeutic stretch. Very centering.

One more inhale. Followed by deep exhale. And you'll re bend your left knee. Go ahead and place that strap over to the side. Interlace your hands behind your left hamstring, pause here, extending that left leg towards the sky.

Let's bring the hands under the head one more time and release your fingers rest your head into your palms. Inhale. Exhale lift your head and shoulders. Decide if you wanna float that right heel off the mat, inhale your head lowers, exhale lift. That's two, three more to go. Lower down inhaling, lift back up exhaling.

Two more times. And one more. Pause as you stay up, reach your arms forward, and hug your knees into your chest. Great. And from here, we're going to come up onto your hands and your knees tabletop position, and set up from here. So grab one of your blocks.

Just place one to the back of your mat. We're gonna use that in a moment and you wanna have it there in case. We're going into downward facing dog. So the backs of the legs have more space from our stretch. Try drawing your heels towards the mat notice if that feels good in your body if that offers more length in your spine.

The root down through the palm of your hands, lift up through the inner forearms. Join the legs together. And we're gonna start by lifting first the left leg to the sky. So left leg goes up. Inhale through the nose. As you exhale, walk your hands back towards that right foot.

So we're at a standing splits position at the back of your mat. And maybe this is where you wanna use that block. If you can't quite get to the floor, you can always place your hands to the block. We're in a very similar shape that we were in before. It's just now your right foot is on the ground.

You're stretching the back of your right leg. So just imagine what it did a moment ago in the strap. As you press down into the earth with your right foot, can you wrap your right hip back? Take one more breath. Beautiful.

And then inhale just lengthen the spine halfway up. As you exhale, step your left foot next to the right foot. And come into utkatasana chair pose. Pause in your chair pose. Take a deep inhale.

And exhale, stand hands to your heart. Inhale reach your arms to the sky. Exhale forward fold. Come up halfway breathing in, and walk your hands to downward facing dog. Now your feet join, we are lifting up through the right leg and walking the hands back towards that left foot.

So using arm strength, but also core strength as you walk your hands back. And again, you can always use that block if you need it here to offer you more support. Otherwise, your hands stay on the mat, your forward folding over that left thigh, breathing, offering breath in the back of the left leg, the hamstring, the calf. This is also very centering. Your head is below the heart.

Very calming, soothing effects to the mind of the brain. One more inhale. D back sail. Now lengthen the torso, reach your chest forward. And step your right foot next to the left one.

Inhale utkatasana. And exhale come up standing. Hands to the heart. We're gonna walk up to the top of the mat now, and you can bring that second block with you. And we'll do one sun salute a.

It'll feel nice to flow after that inhale arms reach out. Exhale and fold. Halfway up breathe and step back to your plank, your first plank. Pause and plank inhale, shift forward, chaturanga exhale, lower all the way or halfway, cobra or up dog breathing in. Downward dog breathing out.

And deep breath in through the nose, out through the nose. Lift your right leg up to the sky. And step your right foot forward. That foot is gonna go a little bit to the right. Spend your back heel flat, align heel to heel or wider.

Warrior one. So pausing in that first warrior, there's a deep bend in the right knee. That back foot is sealed to the mat, offering you a very nice supported back leg. And just reach your left arm towards the front of your mat. Like, you wanna shake someone's hand in front of you. Do your best to square off the left side of the ribcage to the front edge of your mat, and then lift that arm back up.

Your arms are straight fingertips are reaching. You can maybe lift the gaze. Take another breath here. Inhale. And as you exhale, lower your hands to your hips. We're gonna go ahead and scooch that back foot in about a third of the way in, shortening the distance between the feet, and then straighten out your front leg.

So coming into pyramid pose, parsvottanasana. Here, you can square off the hips. So your hip points are facing in the same direction like headlights. Open the arms out to the sides, turn the thumb side of your hands down. Make fists or simply bring your palms together behind your back.

And inhale here lifting the sternum, scoop your lower belly up at the same time as you exhale hinging from that right hip, folding maybe just halfway. Towards that right thigh or even lower. Right? We have that space now in our hamstrings. We've offered a lot of space to open the back of the legs. So perhaps you can fold more deeply.

Press down through the mound of your right big toe. Hugging the right hip in while that left thigh presses back. Stay here. And then go ahead and lower your hands. You can use blocks here if you need. I'm going to grab mine.

We're bending that front knee and coming back into standing splits. The blocks move up, if you're choosing to use those, step into the right foot, lift the left leg, fold deeply over that right thigh. Letting the head hang below the heart. And inhale, lift your sternum halfway up. Point your back toes, rebend your front knee and step back into a runner's left taking the blocks back, hands to the mat optional vinyasa.

It's going to feel nice to add a backbend here after the forward folds, meeting and downward facing dog. Pausing and breathing. Second side, lift your left leg. Step the left foot forward. Move it a little bit to the left.

Spin your back heel flat, warrior one. So create that deep bend in the front knee, the front thigh descends, but the back leg is actively lifting as the as you're sealing the edge of the back foot into the mat, the inner leg is lifting. Reach your right arm forward, square the right side of the rib cage. And inhale, lift the right arm up, pause here. Maybe lift the gaze.

Take another breath. Palms join. As you exhale bring your hands to your hips, We're gonna step that back foot in about a third of the way, straighten out through the front leg, pyramid pose on the left side, take your arms out, turn the thumbs down, bring your hands behind your heart. So reverse prayer, inhale your sternum lifts, exhale as you come forward, either halfway or perhaps a little lower, folding over your left thigh. Feel the root of the mound of the left big toe.

That left quadricep is active and lifting. Your back heel is anchored, your back thigh is active. One more full breath. And slide your hands to your two blocks. Come into standing splits, bend your left knee, move the blocks up, fold forward or the left thigh.

These big hamstring stretches offer some space in the low back as well as we open up these, the connective tissues and the muscles. Then inhale, lift halfway up, rebend your standing legs, step your right foot back to that runner's lunge, either vinyasa or downward facing dog. Inhale. We're meeting in down dog exhale. And from your downward facing dog, let's come forward into plank.

And lower to the forearms for forearm plank. Still very centering can be very calming, so make sure you're still breathing. If you want, you can always put your knees on the mat. Let's interlace the fingers from here. Start to walk your feet, and we're going into dolphin pose. Watch out for your elbows splain on the mat.

So you don't want them any wider than your shoulders. Your feet come in towards the elbows, and your head is still lifting away from the mat here. So in dolphin pose, your head is up. In dolphin, join the feet together. Lift your right leg up.

Breathe Set the right foot down. Second side, lift your left leg up. And lower the foot. Place both knees to the mat child's pose. Many variation of child's pose.

And we'll come up to a seated position. Crossing the It doesn't matter which then actually just make note of which one is in front. We'll take a seated twist. So hands alongside your hips just tent your fingers here, sit up with a tall spine. We've done a lot of stretching today, inhale.

And as you exhale, you're gonna take that left hand behind you, your right hand to your left knee for twists. In hell as your heart lifts, the spine, the waist gets longer. Exhale offer up another twist here as you pull the right side or the left side here, the left side of your ribcage back, the right side forward. And then look forward. Walk your hands in front of your shins, forward fold.

Take a moment. And then walk your hands back towards the shins, switch the crossing, tent the fingers to the sides, inhale, breathing. Your right hand goes back behind you, left hand over to that right knee twist. Breathe in. Offer up one more little twist as you exhale.

Look forward. Walk your hands forward. Forward fold over your thighs, your shins. Then walk your hands back. And just stay here. Close your eyes.

Really soak up the feeling of being centered and calm. Letting your breath be very gentle. Imagine you have leaves or feathers right underneath your nostrils, and you don't want to ruffle the feathers, ruffle the leaves so your breath is soft. A reflection of how you feel on the inside. Please join your palms at your heart.

By your chin, offering gratitude to this practice. Namaste.