Surrender to the Flow

Surrendering to the constant flow of abundance. Welcome to today's practice. You'll want to have one yoga block nearby, and we'll begin on our back. Come onto your back, and your most comfortable position possible, legs can be bent or straight, or really in any shape that you'd like as you deepen your breath here. Allow the breath to deepen.

And if you'd like, you can place a hand on the heart and a hand on the belly, or you can allow the hands come down by your sides with the palms facing down on the earth. Take your full breath in through the nose. And let the breath flow out the mouth. There's two more breaths like this, breathing in, fully into the pelvis, the belly, the ribs, and the chest, letting it go out the mouth. One more, just like this, into the belly, the ribs, the chest, and releasing.

Now allow the breath to flow in and out through the nose. In today's practice, we are practicing flexing our trust muscle. How much can you let go in this moment and surrender? Allowing the ground to hold you here. Your breath continues to flow in this meditation.

Once you have this felt sense of letting go of surrendering the body into the mat of letting go of the mind. You can gently release your hands by your side. Take your feet a little wider than one another with the knees bent and the feet on the earth and begin to windshield wiper this thigh bone side to side. So moving one way and the other. Breath flows, even inhale, and even exhale here.

We'll start with this quote by John O' Donahio. He says, I'd like to live as the river flows, carried by the surprise of my own unfolding, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding. You can allow your arms to start to reach open here. As you continue to rock your knees side to side, let the rest of the body be involved, the belly, the shoulders, the head as well. Our first introduction of movement today.

And then we'll stretch the arms up overhead, reach your legs away from you for a big morning stretch. Toes reach as far as they possibly can away from the fingertips. Breathe in and breathe out. Walk both of your feet over to the right side of your yoga mat. So pelvis stays as it where it is and the feet walk over to the side. You can stay here or you can start to reach your arms over to the right side of the yoga mat or you can lift your head neck and shoulders and place it down so that you make this big crescent moon c shape on your yoga mat.

So both the back of the pelvis is down on the ground, right hand could hold that left wrist as a way of amplifying, of reaching, and breathing into the left side body. We have a few breaths here. And there is once you arrive in the pose, there's not a lot of effort. There's the the release, the surrender. And then you'll gently release the wrist, bring the hands neck and head back to center and walk your feet to center.

You could take that morning stretch once again, maybe like a roll of the wrist, the roll of the ankles. And when you're ready, walk your feet over to the left side of the yoga mat. Hands can reach up and over to the left as well, and you can scooch your shoulders, your head neck and shoulders in that direction as well. So that if you were looking at yourself from above, you would see that you are in that crescent moon shape or a big c shape. Breathe into the right side of the body and see if you can soften somewhere.

My friend Kate has maybe one of the most simple and delightful surrender to the flow, abundance Mudras, or, Montres, rather. She says, everything is always working out for me. Everything is always working out for me. What would happen if that was your mantra? And what would happen if it was true? Slowly walk your feet back to center.

Hands walk to center. Bring your hands right on down by your side. Please the feet on the earth so that they are hips distance apart. Maybe even when you reach your fingertips down, it's like almost you could touch your heels or maybe you do touch your heels. Breathe in here.

And breathe out. Use an inhale to lift your hips upwards to the sky in bridge pose, and use an exhale to slowly lower the pelvis down. Inhale to lift up, and exhale to lower. You can embark in this in a style of your choosing. It's not required in this moment that you roll up and roll down. We're just simply lifting engaging glute muscles and quad muscles.

But if you like the rolling up and rolling down, you could add that in. Inhaling lifting, exhaling lowering. Working with whatever edge you have today, half bridge pose would totally be appropriate. Taking a beat at the top to really extend, to lift a little higher, to reach the chest to the chin would be welcome. Last few here.

Lift all the way up and hold. And you're holding in bridge pose, knees are tracking, tracking straight ahead, so not moving out to the sides, not necessarily moving in towards one another, stacking right above the ankles. Now, if your block is nearby and you can reach up and grab it, go ahead and do so. Otherwise, you could come down and grab it. You'll grab the block and place it behind the back of the pelvis on the flat part of the pelvis and lower the pelvis down to the block. Support bridge pose is just that.

Same version of the pose you did before, but now fully supported. So that moment, the instantaneous, letting go surrendering to the ground beneath you, This is a nice place to stay. Otherwise, we'll lift the legs upwards towards the sky. So supported shoulder stand, legs are above you, and you get this inversion in a really nice passive sort of way, allowing it to work. Right? So all you have to do is allow it. There's no pushing. There's no there's no striving. It's right here, allowing you to trust that you've set yourself up in a way, that the blood flows to the heart, energy flows back to your center.

You can get a nice gaze up your toes. And really there's not much to do here. If you want to move through the ankles in a super duper slow way, you could. If there's some other very slow movement that really calls to you, you could take that. Otherwise, you don't even have to worry about over straightening the legs. You just keep these legs lifted.

Everything lifting above the heart and head, breathing deeply here. Last few breaths. A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a poet Mark Nipo, and I was asking him, he was coming out with like a new book. He'd just come out with a book. And I'm like, you're such a prolific writer. How does this how does this flow from you? How does this happen?

And his answer was, will you be surprised what happens when you get out of your own way? When you're ready, you can allow your feet to come down to the ground. Let your hips lift up, remove the block, set it aside, and slowly lower down, draw your knees into your chest and let your lower back release. What would happen if you got out of your own way? We'll gently start to make our way up to our seat and into hands and knees.

You can rock and roll yourself, or you can simply shift over to one side and rise all the way up to your tabletop position. Once you find the tabletop position, send your hips to your heels for a child's pose. You can allow this child's supposed to be passive, letting the elbows drop to the ground, or you can have the hands continuing to reach forward with the elbows lifting as you take a few more deep breaths in here. Rice up onto your hands and your knees. Knees hip distance apart.

And rather than cat cow today, we're going to turn the spine side to side parallel with the ground. So you can inhale it center, exhale curl over to the left, inhale it center, exhale curl over to the right. Do that one or two more times. So good. Curl your toes under and shift yourself into plank pose. Those shoulders above the wrists, a nice little gaze forward out in front of you, take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out.

Inhale. Exhale. There's one long breath here. One more long round of breath. Inhale. And exhale, lower down onto the belly.

You can drop your knees on your way. Let your forearms extend forward in sphinx pose. So the elbows are underneath the shoulders. And the palms of the hands are out in front of you. Let your chest reach forward.

You can push in with the hands and the forearms and paw your way forward, drag your way forward, taking a few deep breaths in with really broad collar bones here. Nice. And then you'll take your right hand and bring it across the mat. So the right forearm will be parallel with the top of the mat as you come to your right side so that you are lying on your right side in Vishnu's couch, elbow is underneath the shoulder or maybe a little bit further forward depending on your own comfort. And if there's a balancing issue here, you can stagger your feet. And if you kinda like that balancing challenge, keep your feet stacked.

Your left ribs reach down towards the ground, and what happens if the shoulder is kind of interesting and you'll experiment with that, it can come up to the shoulder a little bit more if it benefits you to stretch through the side ribs like this. Yeah. And you'll spend a few breaths here in this really unique side body stretch. And if you wanna add on a little more, you could bend the knee, the top knee, left knee, holding on to the outer edge of the left foot, and reaching the left leg up a little or a lot. So think about the extended leg when you are in that supported shoulder stand, same sort of gaze here, looking all the way up and over, and wherever you are in whatever version of this pose is, kind of a really nice place to be. Right side body stretching, little aspect of balancing that we don't get to experience very often.

And then when you are ready gently release that top leg, if it was lifted, roll right over onto the belly back into sphinx pose as a way to reset and prepare for the other side. And when it's time, the left forearm will come to across the mat, so parallel with the top of the mat. Feed our flex is a totally different side, so embark into it with fresh eyes. Let your left ribs release down towards the ground so the side body stretches. Notice what's happening with the shoulder.

Probably one of those like rare yoga poses where you might hear a yoga teacher say, like, the shoulder can come up to the ear. That's okay. Yeah. And then when you find your nice little goldilocks place, you can decide if you would like to stagger the feet or if you would like to bend the right knee perhaps holding the outer edge of the right foot, reaching it a little up to the sky or a lot up to the sky. Press down through the forearm, press down through the outer edge of your left foot to help stabilize you. And if you tip over, you're really close to the ground, so you can roll right on out.

Good. Release the top foot and bring it down. Slowly roll down onto the belly the time around, you can come right onto the belly hands underneath the shoulders. You're on your belly, bend your knees, and windshield wiper the knees side to side here. So knees are bent and feet are moving one direction and the other.

Release the feet behind you. Press all the way up to your hands and your knees, curl your toes under for downward facing dog. Those side bodies might feel quite open, so breathe wide into your ribs all the way up into the armpit space. And when you are ready, find yourself walking all the way up to your hands in a forward fold. Let yourself fold into yourself, let the head release completely, and you can bob a little side to side here.

And let's say the whole purpose is that the head releases. Bend the knees and slowly roll up to stand, one vertebra at a time, head is last to rise and the shoulders move back and down. Inhale sweep your arms all the way up to the sky and exhale hands to the heart in prayer. Nice and slow, breathing in, arms reach up. Fold forward as you exhale, uttanasana.

The half lift to inhale looking forward, hands plant, step back, plank pose. Lower down halfway or all the way, cobra or upward facing dog, and downward facing dog. Right leg rises up behind you as you breathe in. Step the foot up and in between the hands as you breathe out. Back heel spins down. Circle the arms all the way open through past warrior two into reverse triangle pose.

So both legs are straight. Left hand is touching left thigh. See if you can reach the right arm up as an extension of that right leg, making a lot of space, breathe in. And we'll shift into goddess pose, toes turning out, arms go up, elbows go wide, palms turn out, bend both knees. Really good. Get nice and steady here.

You can move a little side to side. In fact, you're encouraged to move in this moment. Chest rising. Be shoulders going back. Good. And then straighten both legs.

Turn the toes in so the feet are parallel with the top and bottom of the mat, and take yourself into a wide leg forward fold, Prasarita Pada uttanasana. Once you get your head can let go, observe the weight of the body and the soles of the feet. And see if you can use the ball of the foot and the toes to support you just as much as the heels. That'll tip you forward just a bit. Can you surrender into this moment?

Right hand comes forward out in front of your right shoulder. It might even be on the fingertips. Left hand will hold the outer right leg, maybe just above the ankle. Maybe the ankle. So you're crossing the body. Left hand holds that right shin.

Bend into your left knee. Keep the right leg straight. Let the head go. Breathe into the sensation in the shoulder, in the legs, in the back. And come back to center, bend into the right knee.

So keep all of the grips and the hands the same right knee bends. Both legs straight and hands come in between the feet, walk them over to the right foot, turn the right toes forward, lift your back heel, step back to plank, You have the option to move through your flow here through a plank, chaturanga, cobra, or updog, and downward facing dog. Left leg rises up behind you as you breathe in, Step it up and in between the hands back, heel spins down. Past warrior, too, you circle up and open, peaceful warrior. Left leg straightens, right hand is back.

Left arm extends, extends, extends. Goddess pose comes next. Turn the toes out, the heels in, the elbows wide. Those shoulder blades retract. They come together.

Ben deeply as deep as you wanna go. And a little movement side to side or up and down here. Straighten your legs. Turn the toes forward so the feet are parallel. Coming to the forward fold, wide leg forward fold.

Allow yourself to drop to release to surrender. Getting that real bodily sense of letting go, strengthening the muscle of surrender when you're on the mat in this microcosm, so we can take that strength out into the world. Left hand reaches forward. You may be on your fingertips. Right hand reaches across the body to the outside of the left ankle or just above or the shin.

Bend into your right knee. Bend into your right knee. Keep holding on to the left leg. You might let the head go. Make any adjustments that are needed.

For your comfort, for your own practice and your own body. There's plenty of ways to move shift and bring the feet closer or further. And gently shift up and over to the other side, right leg straightens, left knee bends. Straighten the leg, bring the hands back to center, walk both hands over to the left foot, frame the front foot with the hand, step back to plank pose. Lower down, cobra or upward facing dog, and downward facing dog.

Breat in. And breathe out. Lower your knees down to the ground. Shift yourself onto your seat. Gonna allow the legs to extend forward for a moment.

And then sweep your arms forward, breathe in. Slowly lower onto your back as you breathe out. Bend your knees and place your feet on the earth. Returning to the place that we started from, realigned, reconnected, breathe in, and breathe out. You have two choices about how we move into our hip opening posture.

You can choose to take figure four with your right ankle on top of your left thigh with the possibility of interlacing the hands on the back of the left thigh. Or if you'd like, you can take hold of your right foot with your left hand and pull as if you were pulling the left foot towards your right shoulder. Your right hand could hold the shin. Some people might be able to wrap their arms all the way around the right shin. Maybe extending the bottom leg on the ground, if you'd like. So we are in a supine pigeon pose.

If you've chosen this choice for your practice today or a figure four if you prefer. And if you choose one and then halfway through, you would have preferred a different one, you can always switch. And wherever you are, you'll gently begin to release either releasing the clasp of the hands or releasing the foot down to the ground. Take the breath in between and the breath out. The other side, either the left ankle comes on top of the left or the right thigh, figure four, or if you'd like, you can hold onto the outer edge of the left foot with the right hand.

Designiding if you're coming into the supine pigeon, wrapping your arms around left leg with the option to straighten the right leg. So if you think about pigeon, we're doing that exact same movement. But it isn't weight bearing in the same way, meaning our body isn't squishing it down to the ground. We're gently pulling the leg down towards us. So you get a good sense of what feels like a yes and what feels like a no in your body.

When it's time, gently release this shape, feet come down, inhale, and exhale. Hug the knees up into your chest and give them a little rock side to side. Allow both knees to tip to the left as your right arm stretches away from you a brief final twist before we rest. Come up to center. Switch to the other side.

Let the knees drop over to the left. Jently come back to center. Draw your knees into the chest one last time, and then reach your legs long on the mat. Allow your eyes to close. Let the breath release.

Surrendering to the natural flow of abundance. Shavasana. Take a deep breath in and let it go, and gently invite movement into the body. By moving the wrists and fingers and the toes. Stretch your arms up and overhead.

Bend your knees and roll to your side. Slowly press your way up to your seat. Deepen your breath. Henn sweep to the heart in prayer. Notice how everything is always working out to you.

How you can surrender into the flow. Breathe in, and bow into the heart as you breathe out. Thank you for sharing your practice.