Whole Body Reset

Namaste, everyone. This class is a whole body reset. And you'll need a bolster, a blanket, two blocks. We're starting in sukhasana, easy pose. So, close your eyes when you're there, when you're ready. Sitting in this cross legged position, finding the ease and the comfort within the pose.

Let your hand rest on your thighs facing down, soften your eyelids, turn the inner gaze in words. And let that gaze be soft as you look in and kind, start to notice your breathing and the rhythm of your breath. And what a gift it is to slow down. So that in and of itself maybe offers a smile in your heart, and this gentle smile on your face. So with your hands on your thighs, You can blink your eyes open.

And we'll start to just circle the spine, do circles with your torso. It doesn't matter what direction you're going in. Inhale as you come forward. And exhale as you go back. Just noticing if there's anywhere in the hips, that feel tight. There's some stiffness.

We're not judging that, which is taking in that information. Do one more in this direction. Pause as you come to center and to switch the crossing of your shins. Hands on the thighs, move in the opposite direction, inhale forward. A exhale back. There's no right or wrong way to do these movements or just let yourself, explore, enjoy.

One more. And back to center pausing here, bring your hands to your heart, close the eyes, just drop your chin, set an intention for the rest of the practice. Perhaps one that you can even weave into the rest of your day. And lower your hands, lift the chin, blink the eyes open. Let's come on to hands and knees table top position. And your hands are gonna shift just a few inches in front of your shoulders for this one.

Take your knees a little wider than your hips and start to circle your hips in any direction. And just like you did seated, inhale as your hips come forward, Exhale as your hips roll back. Reverse the direction of your circles. We're gonna pause in child's pose. Your arms are resting.

So not quite an active child's pose, let your elbows release to the mat, your forehead on a mat or a block. Breathe into the back of your body. So the back of the ribs, the space behind your heart between the shoulder blades. Maybe even drawing that breath all the way up to the base of the neck, the back of the neck. And come back onto all fours. Inhale.

Move your hands a few inches forward as you exhale lower to the mat. Modify Chaturanga. We're just going to flow through these, inhale for cobra, lift your chest. Tuck the toes, go back to child's pose, exhale. And again, inhale all fours.

Exhale lower to the mat. Chaturanga dandasana exhale. Cool bra inhale. Child's pose, exhale. And one more inhale.

Come forward, exhale, bend the elbows lower to the mat. Inhale lift your chest and exhale to child's pose. Come forward to all fours, tuck the toes, and we'll go into downward facing dog. Peddle out to your feet. Just explore your down dog.

We're gonna take the feet to the width of the mat and shorten the down dog here. So you're gonna walk your hands about halfway down the mat. So you're going into a very sharp v shape. Keep your left hand where it is. Take your right hand over towards the left shin, left calf.

Maybe you could even slide the hand down to the left ankle. Root the left palm inhale. Find a little down dog twist as you exhale. Soft in that right elbow. You're twisting underneath that left armpit.

And release the right hand back down, send the left hand over towards the right side, right calf, right shin, right ankle, inhale here, lengthen. And exhale twist. Put a little bend in that left elbow as you twist under the right armpit. And release the left hand, walk your hands all the way back towards the feet. Heal and toe your feet in so they're about hip width.

Grab your elbows. Put a soft bend in the knees, closing the gap between the thighs and your torso. As you hold your elbows tugging on them lightly, Just creating a little more traction for the spine to release to stretch towards the earth. Release the arms, let them hang heavy. Talk your chin in.

And as you inhale, start to roll yourself up one vertebra at a time. So you're doing this with your knees bent to offer you support as you come upright again, into mountain pose, tadasana. We'll do this a couple more times. We're just gonna inhale to reach the arms up gently, slowly exhale soften the knees, fold. It doesn't have to be the deepest forward fold. Take your time.

Talk the chin in, slowly roll yourself up on the next inhale. Press your feet down. One vertebra at a time you roll up. The shoulders pull back. Case lifts.

And one more. Inhale. Arms go up. Exhale. Bend the knees. Fold slowly. Tuck the chin and roll yourself up.

Sholders go back, chin lifts, gaze lifts. Inhale reach up as you breathe in. Exhale fold deeply. Inhale halfway up this time. And walk it back to downward dog.

Deep in hill and down dog. Full exhale. Place your knees down on the mat. We're going to set up today for a supported pigeon. So if you know that pigeon doesn't feel good in your body normally, you can always skip it and do thread the needle.

But with a bolster, you might find you might be surprised that actually it's quite it's much more accessible. So you're gonna place this bolster right in the center of your mat. And then you're on all fours. We'll start with the right foot. So from that tabletop position, step your right foot forward.

And what you wanna find is that the bolster is gonna be right up against the thigh, When you lay on it, I'm gonna show you, once you heel toe your right foot over to the left side of your mat, bring that heel in so the shin is at an angle. Extend the back leg long. What you wanna feel is that the bolster is now supporting the top of the left thigh almost to the hip point. Grab a hold of one block. It's gonna rest right underneath your chest. Okay.

So the sternum bone, breast bone. And the other one is right under your forehead. So it looks like a t shape with the blocks. One is the long way underneath the torso. The other one is the long way underneath your forehead.

So Take your time. Find the setup. That's right for you. You might notice you may need to move your bolster a couple of times. You may need to adjust the blocks.

But when you're ready, you'll place your chest to the bottom of the rib cage on the bolts on the blocks or one block, excuse me. And then the other block is under your forehead. And you might notice that part of your body is gripping or holding back. From resting or relaxing into that support beneath you? Can you find the invitation in the exhale to soften the front body onto your props.

Soft in the outer right hip onto your bolster. And even find your fingertips, softening, and your jaw, your mouth. Your lips, your eyelids, and the space between your eyebrows. Please take two more breaths. And when you're ready to come out, your hands are on the mat, lift yourself off your blocks.

Just set the blocks over to the side again. Now, to exit, you'll have to tuck your back toes and use a little bit of strength here. So, tuck your back toes, lift your hips, pick up your right chin, pick up your right foot, step back to down dog. Now lower your knees again. The bolster is gonna stay where it is. Step your left foot forward.

I already can tell that I need to adjust the bolster a little bit. Move your left foot over to the right side of the mat, heel and toe it. Bring that heel in towards the bolster. So the shin should be on the flat. Your back leg is going to slide back a little bit.

So again, you have the top of that right thigh now, almost to the bottom of the hip point on the bolster. Your block is gonna go underneath your chest one more time, create a t shape with your blocks. And when you're ready, you'll just go down relaxing once more. The front of the torso onto the blocks, the forehead, the outer left hip on the bolster. Pay a little extra attention to your exhalation.

Letting the exhales be longer than the inhale. It'll take two more breaths. Move your hands to the mat, lift yourself up with the support of your hands. You can move your blocks over to the side. We'll use them again in just a moment.

Tuck your back toes. Lift your hips up and back to down dog, and we'll just pause here for a moment. Taking a full cycle of breath. Lower your knees to the mat, and we'll set up for a very delicious pose, supta baddha Quinasana. So two blocks.

And you're creating another t shape here with your blocks. Actually, it bring one block to the lowest height. It's an l shape, not a t shape. So l shape with the blocks. One is at the highest.

The other one is the lowest, and you'll grab your bolster and just rest it on top of the two blocks. Your blanket, you'll open it up. So it's a rectangle. Take the sides and pinch the sides so you can start to roll up your blanket. It's gonna be a pretty tight This is feeling more like a burrito than a taquito, but a tight roll.

Souls of the feet join. Your knees are parted white. Place the blanket on top of your feet. And then tuck the sides underneath the shins towards the thighs. And then from here, you can lie down onto your bolster coming into this beautiful reclined Barokonasana pose.

And just like you did, the front body releasing to the blocks. Now we're allowing the back body to feel the invitation from the exhale to soften onto your bolster. So allow the first couple of exhales to really draw the back body into that support. So give yourself permission here to truly receive this moment, this gift of restorative replenishing breath, and posture. Start to deepen your breath again.

You'll bring your feet onto the mat so you can always help your knees, drawing them in towards one another or your thighs. Lifting yourself off of the bolster coming into a seated position. Once you're seated, join your hands at your heart. Coming back full circle with the whole body that is reset. Drop your chin in gratitude of this practice in honor of your participation.

Namaste.