At Home in the Body

Hi, everyone. We're gonna start on our backs today. Please make sure that you have a block, a bolster, and a blanket for practice. So begin lying down. Bending the knees and placing your feet on the mat.

And you'll have your block with you. You could just set it down for now. We're gonna use it in just a moment. You'll place your hands right over your lower belly. Placing your hands comfortably right below the belly button You can have one hand resting, and then the other one on top, or however you wanna place your hands there.

Close your eyes. Draw your awareness to where your hands are on your body. And we'll begin with diaphragmatic breathing today. So inhale slowly. Take your time. You can breathe in for a count of four or maybe five.

And when you exhale, you're gonna blow out through pursed lips. So very slowly exhaling through pursed lips. In hell, breathe in slow for a count of four or five. Exhale out, counting backwards for a count of five or six. Through your purse lips, take your time. And at the same time as you're breathing out, press your lower back towards the mat.

Almost like you're flattening your spine. We'll do that one more time. In how slow, four or five. Through the pursed lips, exhale. Great. And reach for the block now.

You're gonna hold the block the wide way between your hands and just slide your feet a few inches in front of you. Keep the heels down, lift the toes up. We're gonna slide the heels forward. So if you are you have a sticky mat, this is gonna feel a little bit challenging, but you can also just think of gliding your heel towards the front of the mat. So we'll begin now.

We'll start with the right heel. As you inhale, you're gonna slide or glide your right heel forward in hilly. And as you exhale, slide that right heel back. Inhale the left heel glides forward. And exhale.

You're holding the block with your pumps. Keep going alternating sides, sliding that right heel forward, and sliding that right heel back on the exhale. Good. So you're gonna move at your own pace. The whole time you're doing this, press your hands into your block. Feel that that activates the upper core muscles And while the leg is moving, forward and back, you're activating the lower pelvic floor muscles.

We'll do one more in each side. While you're doing this, press your lower back onto the mat, feel your belly hugging the spine. And when you've done the left side, pause in hell here, And as you exhale, draw your right knee in towards your chest. So you're lifting that right knee, lifting that right foot, and inhale lower the right heel, exhale lift the left knee, draw it towards the chest. Like you're marching in place, we're gonna add on from here. So when you inhale, you'll take your arms back, block back, and exhale bringing the block forward, draw your knee to your chest.

And again, inhale the arms back, block back, exhale, lift your left knee, draw it towards the chest, arms reach back forward. Keep going. Inhale back. Exhale knee to chest. Arms forward, inhale arms back. XL knee to chest. Arms forward.

Keep going. Take your time moving slowly so your hips are not drawing circles on the mat. Really isolating this movement in your abdominal muscles. We'll do one more. Great. And then lower that heel to the mat.

So now we'll come into a variation of a tabletop position. So your knees are lifting. Stack them right over your hips. If you feel your lower back is arching, bring the knees in even closer to your chest. On your inhale, the arms and the block go back while your right heel taps down, exhale bring the arms back up and your right knee back.

And again, inhale arms back, left heel taps. Exhale back to center. Keep going, right heel down, arms above your head. Exhale bring it back. Left side, find your own rhythm, activate your core, strengthen your pelvic floor.

We'll do one more in each side. One more. And from here, hug your knees into your chest, lower your block, give yourself a big squeeze. Just feeling that work you did in your center, activating the center, bringing you back home to the body. We're gonna come on to all fours and right into downward facing dog.

Do whatever feels good in this first down dog. Plug your hands into the mat. Firm your upper arms. Lift the hips up to the sky. Keep drawing your heels towards the mat any amount.

One more full cycle of breath. On the inhale, lift your heels up high, bend the knees and step up top of the mat. Inhale halfway up. Exhale forward fold. Inhale rise.

Hands to the heart. Breathe in as your arms go up, soften your floating ribs in towards the body, feel your core connection here. Exhale and fold. Halfway up, a uttanasana, lengthen all four sides of your waist and even lift the navel slightly to the spine. As you exhale, step your left foot back, so coming into a runner's lunge on your right side.

You can move your right foot a little bit to the right, tent your fingers on the mat and just circle your hips any direction. And reverse the direction. Set the back knee down. Keep your back toes tucked, inhale reach arms to the sky for your low lunge. So find that little lift here of your pubic bone towards your naval, lift your heart and clasp your elbows here.

Move your arms back. You feel this in your upper back? That's the right spot to feel it. Again, being mindful of your ribs, drawing forward, soften them in. One more breath here. And cactus your arms inhale.

As you exhale lower your hands to the mat. From here, step back and go to plank pose. Inhale and plank. Shift forward, lower all the way down to the mat. Place your forehead on the mat.

We're gonna take our hands just a few inches in front of your mat. And even here, tent the fingers like little gecko hands. Inhale lift your chest for cobra. Exhale as you lower. We'll do that one more time inhale for a variation of modified cobra.

Exhale lower. Slide your hands back to the mat, tuck the toes, inhale all fours, and exhale to downward dog. Deep breath in through the nose. De breath out through the nose. Join your legs together.

Same leg. Inhale, your right leg goes back. Turn the right hip open and bend the knee, stretching the right side of the body. Extend the right leg long, square the hip off, breathe and exhale as you step your right foot forward back in that runner's lunge in how to reach your sternum forward, collar bones wide. Exhale step your left foot to the top of the mat and fold. Inhale rise, root the feet, stretch up, and exhale hands to your heart.

So from here, separate your feet hip width apart, bend your right knee. We're coming into tree pose, Rick Shasana, turn your right knee open to the right and place your foot either above the knee or below it. Hands to your heart. Anchering in your left foot. Feel the firming of your left leg.

And then even here, you can draw the sides of the belly back to the spine feel your core connection and lift your chest. Maybe the arms go up. Take one more breath. And as you exhale hands return to the heart, draw that right knee forward and set your right foot down, two feet on the mat, close your eyes feeling at home in the body. At home with your breath.

Inhale arms reach back up. Exhale forward fold. Inhale. Arta uttanasana. Step your right foot back in that runner's lunge.

Move your left foot a little bit to the left. Tent the fingers on the mat. And circle your hips any direction. Reverse your circles, other direction. Pause, set your back knee down, inhale, come into your low lunge.

Right away clasping at your elbows. When we move the arms back, it creates more of a coiling in the upper thoracic. So we wanna open the chest while at the same time drawing the front ribs down and in. Cactus your arms, take a breath, and exhale lower your hands back down. Step your left foot back to plank, inhale plank.

Shifting forward, lower all the way down to your mat. Again, sliding your hands in front of your mat, tense your fingers, inhale cobra pose. Exhale lower. One more time. Inhale cobra.

Exhale lower. Hands to the mat, tuck the toes, inhale all fours. Exhale downward facing dog. Join your legs together, lift your left leg up and back. Turn the hip open, bend the knee.

As you're opening that left side, firm and hug your right hip in at the same time. And then straighten that left leg, square the hip, inhale, exhale step your left foot fold and pause. Tete your fingers on the mat. Reach your chest forward, breathe in exhale step your right foot forward and fold rise to the top inhale. Hands to your heart.

Into Dasana pose pausing here with your feet hip width, removing into tree pose, standing on the right foot now. So bend your left knee, turn that left hip open. And place that foot above or below the knee, bringing your hands to your hearts. Something about tree pose as a way of bringing us back home. It's a classic in yoga.

Arms can reach up if you wish. Breathe in. And exhale, hands lower back to the heart, bring your left knee forward and set your left foot on the mat. We'll take one more final vinyasa, inhale, stretch up. Exhale fold forward.

Inhale halfway. Step back to plank if you wish to skip this year. Welcome to Moving through your vinyasa meeting in downward facing dog. Lift your right leg up inhale. And bring your right shin forward for single pigeon.

If this doesn't work for your body, take thread the needle. You'll place the back knee down on the mat. You can even stretch that leg further back. If you need any props here, you can put a blanket underneath your right hip. And I'm gonna use a block underneath the forehead.

So we'll come back to that simple diaphragmatic breath here. You'll inhale for a count of four or five. And exhale through your pursed lips slowly for a count of seven or six. Inhale, five or six now slowly through the nose. Through the purse slips, exhale slowly counting backwards from eight or seven.

And if your forehead is resting on a block, lift it up, lift yourself up. If you have a blanket underneath your right hip, just slide it over so that you can lean into your right sit bone and swing your left leg forward for Janu Shureshasana. So your right foot is at the inside of the left thigh, tense your fingers alongside the body, lift up with your heart, and exhale fold over your left thigh. You can walk your hands towards the shin, towards the ankle. You can grab your left foot with your hands.

Think of grounding through the outer right hip, and slightly twisting the outer right side of the ribcage towards the earth. Inhale lift your chest. Cross at your shins. We're gonna make our way back to downward facing dog. Inhale lift your left leg.

Single pigeon on your left side, bringing the left shin forward. Support that left hip with a blanket if you need. You can rest your forehead on a block again if that felt comfortable. And we'll go into the breath practice, inhale for account first of four or five. Through the pursed lips slowly out for a count of seven or six.

Inhale or count to five or six. Exhale for eight or seven through the pursed lips. Lift your forehead off the block. If you're there, making our way to Janu Shashasana on that left side. If there's a prop underneath that left hip, please remove it.

Swing your right leg forward. Place that left foot in the right inner thigh. Tenth the fingers. Lift the chest. Breathe and fold forward as you breathe out.

Grab a hold of whatever you can, your foot, ankle, calf. And inhale lift back up and straighten that left leg. You're gonna take your bolster here and slide it underneath the thighs. And then the other blanket is gonna go right over your hips. Lower part of the belly where you had your hands earlier for supported Shavasana.

Once you're comfortable and you've made adjustments, just let the whole body soften to the earth. Feel the practice still very much percolating and alive in you. Anchoring you in your inner space, your inner home. You'll place one hand over your belly one hand over your heart. And just bringing gratitude to your body, your health, and your willingness to show up.

Thank you for your practice. Namaste.