Dancing Through Life

Hi. Welcome to today's practice. My name is Erin. If you'd like for the practice to grab two blocks and a blanket for coming down onto your knees, you can have that near your mat. And we will begin in sukhasana. So come to a cross legged seat and relax the shoulders. We will be, dancing through life so to speak.

So a lot of stepping forward and back and hopefully finding some joy in the movement. So let's begin with the eyes closed. Taking a moment to just ground and connect to your breath. Let's take a deep inhale all the way to the top. Open the mouth, take a sigh, join the palms together in front of the heart.

And if you have an intention for today's practice, maybe it's just to connect to that spark of joy within. To find some ease as you move. Anything else you'd like to layer, go ahead and get clear. Take one more deep breath up into the heart space. And as you exhale bow the head towards the heart, release the palms and softly allow the eyes to open, taking in the light.

And then we'll begin with some upper body circles. So start to circle in one direction, noticing how your hips, your shoulders, your low back feel. And then let's reverse the circle. Go the other way. Big deep breaths.

Last one here. And we'll take a side bend. So release the right fingertips or palm to the ground. Reach your left arm up and over. And take a big breath here.

Maybe turning the gaze up towards the ceiling. Inhale back up through center, left hand down, reach the right arm overhead. Take a breath and turn the chest upwards and inhale back up to center. And then we're gonna come forward to a tabletop position. So come to hands and knees, spread the fingers, and we'll take cat cow.

So inhale, lift the heart and sit bones as you exhale, press and round the back. Twice more. Inhale lengthen the front body and the breath. Exhale round the spine. Last one here. Inhale exhale round, and then tuck the toes, turn the biceps forward, lift the hips back, downward facing dog, and just take a moment to pedal the feet out.

So bending one knee, straightening the other. And then come to neutral. So either both legs straight or bent for the breath. And slowly cruise up towards the top of the mat in a ragdoll position. Hold opposite elbows.

You can have a soft bend in your knees. Let the back of the skull just heavy towards the floor. And then interlace the hands behind the back, reach your fingers towards the sky, bend your right knee, drop your right shoulder, turn your left chest open, take a breath into the left hamstring, and then return to center if you'd like to switch the clasp, bend your left knee, turn your right chest towards the sky as you drop your left shoulder. One more breath here, come back to center, release the hands, and come up pathway, Arta Uttana, shoulders away from the ears. Exhale fold down the legs, rise to stand, reach the arms all the way up, and palms to heart center.

We'll take a serious c pattern here. So inhale reach up tall, exhale bow forward, feel free to soften the knees, inhale aorta lengthen, and we'll step the right foot back. Here's where you might wanna grab blocks. So lower the knee, we'll frame the foot with blocks if you're using them. And then sync the hips take an inhale here, and as you exhale straighten your front leg flex the foot, let's stay for the breath here, and then we're gonna move dynamically.

So one breath on your inhale, let's bend the front knee, open the chest, lift your heart, exhale straighten the front leg and fold twice more like that. Inhale, lift your heart. Find a little essence of cobra. Exhale half split spread the toes. Good. One more time.

Inhaling here, bending the knee. Exhale, straighten that left leg and fold. And then bend your front knee. Let's move the blocks to the side for now and step back to a kneeling position, lower knees, then chest chin to the floor. Point the toes, roll the shoulders back low cobra, and then downward facing dog as you exhale.

On your inhale, lift your right leg up and back, and exhale step through. Lower the back knee, grab the blocks if you use them. Lift your heart will stay for the breath. As you exhale straighten and fold, Artahanaman will stay for the breath on this first round. On your next inhale, bend your front knee, sink into the hips and open your chest, exhale, half split, fold down your leg.

Twice more like that. Inhale, broaden the collar bones as you bend your knee, exhale, straighten the leg and folds. Good. One more time. Inhale, bend your front knee, open your chest. Exhale half split. This time as you bend your front knee, step to the top of the mat and fold down the legs.

Come up halfway,arta. Exhale fold, rise to stand, reach the arms all the way up, and palms to heart center. Good. Let's add a side bend right hand down, left arm up and over, big breath. And back through center, reaching tall. Good side bend to the left.

Take a big inhale. Back through center. And fold exhale. Arta lengthen. This time, we'll step the left foot back, lower the knee, and reach your arms up on Janiasana.

Good is you exhale cactus the arms. We'll do that just one more time, inhale reach up tall, exhale cactus, inhale reach up, frame the front foot, I'm gonna use blocks again, tuck the back toe under pyramid, hop the back foot in slightly, straighten both of your legs. Let's find some length on the inhale and fold as you exhale. We're here for two more breaths grounding through the feet. Maybe you're dancing in and out of this as you inhale lengthen and fold one more breath.

Exhale. And then turn to the left, all 10 toes face the long end of the mat, lengthen on an inhale, and fold down the legs as you exhale. You can stay center or walk towards your left ankle and stretch maybe bending into that right knee for a moment. And then come back through center, walk towards your right ankle, and maybe bend into your left knee for a moment. Good. Turn to the top, step to plank pose, optional vinyasa, so you can do knees chest chin again or shift forward chaturanga on the exhale.

If you're ready, up dog, or cobra, downward facing dog as you exhale, On the inhale left leg lifts, exhale step through, lower the back knee and inhale reach your arms up, exhale cactus the arms once more, inhale reach up. Exhale cactus, inhale reach up, frame your foot. I'll use blocks pyramid pose, shorten and widen the stance a little bit. Let's lengthen on the inhale and fold exhale. Two more breaths.

Wrap the left hip back as you push through the left big toe. One more breath. Gaze ahead, put a little bend in your front knee, take a step to the top of the mat and folds. Come up halfway, Arda. Exhale fold, rise to stand, big breath in, palms to the heart.

We're gonna keep moving in how reach up tall. Exhale fold down the legs. Inhale lengthen. Step the right foot back, ground the heel, windmill the arms up warrior two, lining uphill to arch. Let's flip the left palm, reach up and back reverse for your big breath.

And then side angle, you can take your left forearm to the thigh to modify, top arm up and overhead. Finding a long line of energy through the right side body. One more breath. Good. Release the hands to the ground. Step back to downward facing dog.

On your inhale, lift your right leg up and back. Let's open up the hip, bend the knee here. Breathe. Good. On your next breath, right leg straightens hips square. Step your right foot in between the hands, ground the back heel, windmill up warrior two. Flip the right palm, big breath reverse warrior.

And then that side angle or modified with the forearm, push through the back heel, left arm up, and overhead, wrap the bicep to the cheek, and extend through the fingers through the crown. One more breath. Good release the hands down, step to the top of the mat and fold, inhale, arda, exhale sigh, bend your knees, utkatasana chair pose, rise to stand, and palms to heart center. Release the arms by your side, and inhale reach up tall, exhale fold forward, uttanasana, inhale,arta, step the left foot back, lower the knee, and pause here for a moment. If you'd like, you can widen the right foot out and stay on your fingertips.

I like to come down to the forearms. You can use a block. And then optionally, you can bend your back knee and catch it with the right hand. Turn the chest open. And as you inhale, maybe kick the heel back.

And as you exhale, pull the heel towards your glute. Stay for one more breath, breathing into that left quad. And then gently without sling shooting, release the foot, come back to half split Artahanaman, if you'd like, fly the arms back this time. Rebend your front knee, lift your back knee crescent pose, take an inhale, turn the palms out, back, stroke the arms one more time, inhale reach up, turn the palms out, swim the arms back, bring the hands to ground or blocks, lift your left leg standing split, take an inhale, and then bend both knees, but keep your left heel pulling towards the glutes so the toes are still pointing up. Do that one more time. Extend the left leg.

And then bend your standing leg, bend your left knee so the heel squeezes towards the glute, extend, move the block, step back to downward facing dog. Take a breath. Open the mouth. Let's lift the left leg. Open up the hip, bend the knee, breathe, inhale to straighten the legs square off.

Step your left foot forward and lower the back knee down. Now if you obviously needed to use the blanket, you could also fold the mat, and then let's heel toe the left foot over and walk inside your left foot. Again, if you lowered to the forearm on the first side, you might do that, or reach the left hand back and catch the right foot. Take a breath, kicking the shin bone back, as you exhale, heel pulls towards the glute one more time, and exhale. Good. Release.

Come back to the half split, straighten your left leg. Perhaps you fly your arms back, squeeze the shoulder blades, and then rebend your front knee, lift your back knee, inhale crescent, Turn the palms out back stroke the arms one more time inhale reach up. Turn the palms out back stroke, hands to ground or blocks, lift your back leg up and then do the hamstring curl squeeze in little bend in your standing leg. One more time, extend, inhale, exhale curl, inhale extend. Step to the top of the mat, soften the knees, hold opposite elbows, and fold.

Take a breath, spread the toes, heavy the head. Bend your knees, roll one vertebra up at a time, and rise to stand. Alright. So we're gonna come into dancer pose, step onto the right foot, and first start upright, line up your knees and thighs, and pull your left heel towards your glute. You can stay right here reaching the right arm forward. If you need support, you can hold on to a wall and then start to kick the shinbone back.

Have a little micro bend in your standing leg. Pull the heart forward as you're kicking back and breathe. One more breath. Pull the left knee into the chest and then fly it away. Good grounding into your left foot. Let's start with the thigh bones parallel with one another. Knee points down, tailbone down, and pull the right heel towards your glute.

Take an inhale. You can stay here reaching the left arm forward or start to kick the right leg back. Pull the heart forward and up. And try to keep the hips square. One more breath. Could bring the right knee into the chest and fly it away.

Good work. Alright. We're gonna come onto your backs for some dynamic bridge poses. So have your feet hip distance, roll down onto your back, and then press through the soles of the feet evenly toes point forward. As you inhale, lift your arms and your hips as you exhale lower down. Do that again.

Inhale, lift tailbone towards the backs of the knees. And exhale lower down one vertebra at a time. Last time like this, inhale lift and exhale lower. Let's either hold the outer edges of the mat and tuck your shoulders as you lift the hips or interlace the hands behind the back, puff the chest, take a breath, rolling the inner groin down. So you're rooting through the inner heels and then drag your heel bones back energetically one more breath.

Release the interlace. And lower down. Let's take the feet wide and drop the knees over to the right. Slow deep breath. Full exhale.

Bring your knees back to center and over to the left. You can give your shoulders a little tuck. Take that full exhale and come back to center, cross your right ankle on top of your left thigh. Thread the right hand through, hold either behind your thigh or in front of your shin. You might rock gently a little left and right.

Be mindful of your right knee. So this right foot flexes and the ankle stays straight like a foot you could stand on. One more breath. When you're ready, gently release that side, cross your left ankle on top of your right thigh. Thread the left hand through holding behind your thigh or in front of your shin, take a deep breath in, and exhale.

Couple more breaths, maybe rocking a little side to side, and then flex the foot so you're pressing the ankle into the thigh, soften the shoulders down towards the floor. Take one more deep breath in. And out. Gotta gently release. Give your hips and shoulders a little tuck.

Hug your knees into your chest and either stay here or reach up for the outer edges of the feet and draw the knees down by your side. Happy baby. You can rock a little side to side. And take a deep breath here up into the chest, down into the hips, and then gently release. I'm gonna have you come into your shavasana.

So go ahead and tuck your shoulders under straighten your legs and relax stay as long as you'd like. And thank you for sharing your practice.