Return to Presence

Welcome everyone to your practice today, return to presence. We're gonna begin in mountain pose, and you can step to the top of the mat. This pose is very grounding and a great way to bring yourself back into presence. We're gonna use breath and movement to, as a gateway to presence. So join me here with your feet hip width apart, and if it feels right, close your eyes.

And before we begin, just do a little scanning of your space, even though your eyes are closed, you know the space that you are in, wherever you've chosen to do this practice. There any walls around you, the floor beneath you, perhaps a ceiling above you. So just bringing yourself into this space physically And even tune in to any sounds, the temperature of the space So take a moment to sense into that, to bring yourself into presence. And we'll bring one hand over the belly one hand over the heart, tuning in to our inner space. So feel your breath.

Notice the belly and the chest expanding as you breathe in, and notice the belly contracting the chest falling as you breathe out. Take a moment to set an intention for your practice. Collectively, this is a return to the present moment. Open your eyes. We'll begin arms alongside the body, inhale reach up while pressing your feet down into the mat.

As you exhale, hinge from the hips, forward fold. Take your time. Inhale. To come up halfway, lengthening the spine, drawing the chest forward. Exhale forward fold.

Route the feet into the earth inhale to rise and exhale join your palms together at your heart. Let's add on, inhale, arms reach up, breathing in. Forward fold, breathe out. Inhale halfway up. Shoulders shrug back.

And as you exhale, step your right foot back so you're in this lunge. You can move your left foot a little bit more to the left for space. Set the right knee onto the mat and inhale into your low lunge. And we'll just be here for a few breaths. You can absolutely draw your hips forward but be mindful not to compress into the low back. So scoop your lower belly up towards the heart.

Lift the heart to the sky, maybe even lift your gaze. Your palms can join in hell here. As you exhale lower your hands to your mat, lift the back knee, we're stepping back into our first downward facing dog, and we'll pause here. Notice your feet. Notice the hands.

Press the hands down just like you did a moment ago with your feet in tadasana root the palm of the hands into the earth. Feel your arms active and strong at the same time. And now, join the feet together in down dog. Inhale, lift your right leg up. Exhale, step your right foot forward.

Returning into that lunge. We're gonna lower the left knee down now. Inhale arms reach up. On Janiyasana, low lunge pausing here. Feeling that stretch in the left so as hip flexor.

Do a little bit of the scooping of the low belly to the heart, heart to the sky, gaze to the sky, palms together inhale. Exhale lower your hands to the mat. Lift that back knee and step up to the top of the mat. Half way up breathing in. Forward fold as you breathe out.

Route your feet to rise inhale. Join your palms to your heart, exhale. So, surya Namaskara, see inhale reach up, breathe in. Exhale forward fold. Half way up inhale.

Left foot back, left knee lowers exhale. One breath this time inhale reach up, breathe in. Exhale hands to the mat step back downward facing dog. Pos and down dog, breathe in. Full breath out, exhale.

Leggs together, feet together, inhale left leg reaches back. Exhale, step your left foot forward, lower your right knee down, the one breath as you rise on Janiyasana, exhale hands to the mat, step your right foot forward. Inhale halfway up. XL refold. Inhale as you rise.

Enjoy your hands back to your heart. We'll move into sun salute a this time, inhale. Reach up, feel how these movements are bringing you to this present moment, exhale fold. Halfway up on your breath in. This time meet yourself in a plank pose, top of a push up our very first plank.

So holding here, you can always do this modified with the knees on the mat. If your knees are up, firm your legs, draw the naval in and up. Reach your chest forward inhale here. You'll lower either all the way to the mat or halfway your choice exhale chaturanga bending the elbows. Cobra or upward facing dog inhale.

Over the toes to downward facing dog. And again, pausing because we find that presence in between, in the in between. So before we continue to move in this moment, presence in the breath. In the posture. Inhale to reach your heels up.

XL bend the knee and at the end of the exhale step up to the top of your mat. Halfway up on the breath in. Forward fold on the breath out. Inhale rise. Hands to the heart.

And so from here, separate your feet hip width apart. We're gonna come into utkatasana. Such a fierce post, so you'll bend your knees, draw your hips back. You want to find that scooping of your lower belly just like you did in that low lunge. It's a low belly to the heart, heart to the sky.

Maybe the gaze lifts. Take one more breath. And as you exhale fold back in. In how to reach your chest forward, your shoulders shrug back. You can step back to down dog if you want to skip the vinyasas or take plank We're lowering in Chaturanga on the exhale.

Inhale for upward facing, if you're choosing that back bend, pull your shoulders back. Ground the hands and feet. Exhale to downward facing dog. Join your feet together. Inhale, lift your right leg to the sky.

As you exhale, step your right foot forward and pause. We're gonna move the right foot a little bit to the right, so we're not on a tight rope. Spin your back heel down on its side and seal the edge of that back foot to the mat. On your next breath, come into warrior one. So very strong pose. Here, very present with the pose, with the breath.

You're going to reach your left arm forward just to square off your chest to the front edge of your mat. And then inhale that right left arm back up. Pause and breathe. Feel your roots. Feel the extension of your arms, the extension of your fingers, And if it feels right for you, look up, press your palms together.

Take another breath in warrior one. Exhale lower your hands to your mat. Step back to plank in help plank. Exhale either lower halfway or all the way, chat that on go. Inhale to cobra or updog, exhale downward facing dog.

In your down dog, your feet come together, inhale left legless, exhale left foot steps forward, move it to the left a little. Give your hips this space, spin your back heel flat on its side, seal the edge of that back foot, inhale rise. War year one. So you wanna bend deeply into that left knee now. Just don't let it go past the ankle and reach your right arm forward to square the chest.

Good. Left that right arm up. Pause here. Find a space or a spot in the body where you can soften. Perhaps at the shoulders at the base of the neck. Start to lift the gaze. Your palms can join, take another breath.

Exhale lower your palms, move through the vinyasa or skip it. We'll meet in downward facing dog. And notice what has shifted for you as we moved through all the sun salutes. CA and b. We're gonna walk the hands halfway down the mat. And the feet are going to meet the hands so you're at the middle of the mat.

Just taking uttanasana forward fold, grab your elbows. Just allow your heart rate to slow down to regulate here. You're welcome to take any variation of this pose. If you're clasping your elbows, and that still feels good, or you can also grab your big toes. If that's a variation you prefer.

And release your hands, bring them to the hips and inhale come up slowly. Great. So you're gonna take a wide step your feet separating about one leg's distance apart. We're gonna take trikonasana. I'm gonna practice mine with a block and you can too. And if you're using your block, just set it behind your right heel.

Stretch your arms out into a t shape, bend your right knee, turn that right leg open so that the toes face forward and your back heel slides back a little bit. In hell, lengthen all four sides of your waist. And on the exhale, hinge out your hip, reach, reach, reach, reach, and set your hand down on the block. If you're not using the block, that's fine. That's your preference.

So you're in Utita trikonasana. Looking down at your right big toe, press it into the earth. Be mindful not to hyper extend in the right knee. So draw a little bit of your right calf to the shin. Firm your right hip into the midline of the mat.

Feel the strength of your back foot and leg. We're here just a couple more breaths. So this pose reminds me often of an inhale because in our inhale, we're expanding And there's this essence of expansion in our triangle pose. So feel free to take up space for two more breaths. If you are looking up, take your gaze down, press your feet into the mat, grab your block, inhale rise.

You'll exhale to bend that. Right knee, turn the right toes in. We'll move over to the other side, so bend your left knee from the hip socket, turn the left toes out. Put your block alongside your foot. Your right heel is gonna slide back a little bit too just to give you more space in the hips.

And then when you're ready, reach forward, lengthening the left side of your waist. Place your left hand down. Reach your right arm up. Feel the mound of the left big toe rooting down now. The activation of the left leg from the root The back foot, feeling very supportive, back leg supportive, and take up the space here for two more breaths.

One more. And look down Inhale to rise, grabbing the block with you, turn your toes in, and then step your feet together. We'll come to the top of the mat again in tadasana. Closing your eyes to observe how is your inner space? Feeling in this moment.

The pulse of your heart, the rhythm of your breath, Inhale, bend the knees, come back into chair pose. Oh, katasana. Take another breath. And as you exhale start to descend towards the mat, so you're going to squat all the way down, you can always use your hands to do this. And we're going to lie down on our backs from here Joining the knees together, bringing them into your chest and just pausing, feeling the spine now on the earth. Sensing into that. We're coming into happy baby pose.

So grab ahold of the outer parts of your feet. If that's not possible, you can hold the ankles or the outer shins. And even here, we wanna feel the flatness of the spine against the mat all the way down to the tailbone. So you're really pressing your lower back down We're gonna lower the left foot on the mat and cross that right ankle on top of the left thigh for thread the needle. You can absolutely bring your right arm through the gap between the legs and take a variation through the needle that works for you.

Either clasping the fingers in front of the left hand or behind the left thigh. Notice your breath, the sound of your breath. The expansion on an inhale and the contraction on an exhale. From here, release the clasping of your fingers. Bring your knees back into your chest, happy baby pose, grab ahold of the feet.

Press down with the tailbone and the lower back. Now lower your right foot onto the mat, cross your left ankle over the right thigh. Thread the needle on that side. You might notice this side is more open, less open, So we make the adjustments we need to make. And lower your right foot to the mat and the left.

We'll join the soles of the feet together and let the knees part out wide. Soup to baddha konasana, you can place one hand over your belly, one hand over your heart. Just to allow the whole backside of your body to soften, to the earth so that the front side feels held and supported by the back body. Notice how all the parts of you are united, mind, body, breath and spirit together in the same place present and here. Thank you for joining me today, Namaste.