Trusting the Process

Hi. Welcome to your practice. Thank you for joining me today. We will be diving into trusting the process for said practice. You will want a blanket, a bolster, and a couple of blocks. Once you have gathered your goodies, come meet me flying down.

Any position in the legs that feels best on your lower back. Take a moment to walk your shoulders underneath your chest, offering a subtle lift through your heart, and then invite your arms to either rest long at your sides. Or somewhere along your front body. Now that you've physically arrived on your mat, Invite your mind to follow suit. Slow down your breath.

Perhaps seeing if you can cultivate a bit of balance between the breath in and the breath out. Take a moment if you'd like. To add in an intention for your practice today. And once you have that gathered, You're welcome to join me in an opening home if you feel so inspired. Nice full breath in.

Link your eyes open if you've closed them. Bend your knees and place your feet on the ground about the distance of your front hip points. Paramount your feet to each other and then take your fingertips to the back of your head bring your elbows nice and wide. Shouldn't we press the back of your arms down. And as you do so, you may notice a subtle back then move all the way from your tailbone to your neck.

And then exhale, lift your head, lift your shoulders, and draw your elbows in toward each other observing the round through the spine. And do that again in how lower down, thoughtfully press down welcoming the arch, and exhale pick it up, round it in. Continue at your own pace. Follow your breath. And thinking of this moment a little less like abdominal work, and more like you're doing a lying down version of your cat cow pose.

Take one more round. And then set yourself back down. Bring left knee into your chest and invite the right knee to meet it. You're welcome to hold the stillness or if the body would like a little rock side to side as you ease into this hug. Please honor that.

Grab one of your blocks. And take your block medium width so that the flat wide side is facing your chest. Set one side of the block against your thighs. And try to hold the other side of the block with your elbows. I like to interlace my hands above my head here, or you can bring palms to touch.

Breathe out, lift your head, lift your shoulders. Making friends right from the start today. You may stay right here. If you can keep hold of the block and do so, stretch your left foot forward, and then bring it back in. Shretch your right heel forward, and bring it back in, see if you can do two more each side. And the leg that you're stretching out doesn't have to lower a ton, meet, and edge where you're able to hold on to the length in your lower back.

Pause. Oh, and set your head down set your block down, set your feet down. I feel like even my ears got hot with that one. That was a new sensation. So turning on that furnace of the abdomen. Open your arms out to the sides for a moment here.

Let some of the heat escape. Before we get too comfy cozy, we're going back in. Grub both of your blocks this time a little different. So bring these back in toward your chest. First, take your block medium height one side against the bum. See if you can hold the other side with your heels.

And if you have a really heavy block, a wooden block, or some of the cork blocks, this may be a challenge that is not worth taking on today. You're welcome to imagine squeezing the block here. Can you keep hold of the block between the heels and the bum? So we're waking up our hamstrings, the back of the thighs. And then we're gonna try and do the same thing we did. Block wedged between elbows and thighs.

You may say right here. You might lift your head, lift your shoulders. Try to bring your nose. Maybe a little closer to the block. The block a little closer to your nose.

And if you're trembling, know that you're in good company, need to. And then put your head and your shoulders back down. Set your blocks off to the side. Good riddance. Lovely way blocks for now.

Haven't set your feet back down. Separate your feet as wide as your mat and sway your knees a bit side to side here. Reopening the front of the hips. And find your way back center, reach your arms up and overhead. And as you exhale onto your side and press the floor away, making your way up to your hands and your knees.

Now if your knees are tender on the earth, take time to open a blanket underneath them so that you have added cushion here. And then start with hands right underneath your shoulders. Your knees right underneath your hips. Send your inner thighs back until your toes are directly behind your knees. Push the earth away with your fingertips and round through your back.

Inhale, draw your chest forward and up. Do that again. Xhale hollow round your back for cat pose. And then inhale, find the back bend of cow pose. Return to what feels neutral in your spine, and then walk your right hand a handprint forward. Rotate your left arm so that your fingertips point back.

And if the full point back is a little aggressive through the wrist, just split the difference. Maybe you angle the fingertips off to the side a bit. Glide forward this time. Try to stack right shoulder over the wrist as you lift your chest and then start with the scoop of the abdomen round back. Shift back. Do that again, inhale rock it forward and lift your heart.

Acts, how hollow and round. Come back to what feels neutral. Bring your right hand back underneath your shoulder, turn your left hand forward, and we'll switch. Walk left hand this time, a handprint ahead, rotate your right arm. So fingertips either point straight back or they can angle a bit off to the side.

Glyde forward, stack left shoulder over wrists, lift your heart, exhale, lift your abdomen round your back. Do that again. Come back to what feels neutral in your spine. Turn your right fingertips forward, walk your left hand back, and now come on to the back of your hands so that your palms face up and your thumbs point toward each other. Shift one back towards the heels.

Any amount the knees will allow without stress or strain and see if you can bring your fingertips a little closer to your knees. Lift through your heart, soften the area where neck and shoulders meet, invite your gaze forward at any amount you can find without wrinkling the back of your neck. And now unfold your hands, come onto your fingertips, tuck your toes under and rock back onto the balls of your feet. Yep. Slowly, lift your bum straighten your legs to a comfortable edge for your body. As you fold in, let your head and your neck go.

Inhale, bring fingertips in line with your toes or hands lightly to your shins, reach your chest forward. And then exhale, bend your knees generously creep your ribs over your thighs and let your head and neck go. Keep the generous bend in your knees as you tuck your chin and roll yourself to standing. One little boom at a time. When your head reaches the top, invite your hands to follow, sweep up, reach up, and exhale join your hands at your heart.

Come take a walk to the top of your mat. You can set your blanket off to the side. If you think you might like it for continued padding throughout, maybe set it towards the middle of the mat so it's easily reachable. Grab your two blocks and take them with you to the top of your mat. As you set tadasana here, bring feet about the distance of your front hip points.

Press the top of your thighs back as you scoop the pit of your abdomen in. Press into the earth and with an inhale reach to the sky, inhale, fold in half, uttanasana. Inhale lengthen your spine Ardutinasana. Ben knees enough to get hands securely to the earth or props, step back with your right foot, set back knee down, pat it if it's tender. Uncurl your toes, press down inhale, rise up, reach up.

As you exhale, take your hips a bit forward, draw elbows down. And now shift your hips back, hollow your front body reach your hands forward. As you shift forward, bring your hands towards your chest, lift your heart and take the back of the hands back. Reach to the sky, maybe lift your gaze, and exhale, return your hands to the earth or your props. Slide your left leg all the way back and through, tuck your left toes under.

And if the wrist would like a little break from palms being down, you're welcome to put your forearms on your blocks at medium height. Lift through the pit of your abdomen and try to direct your tailbone toward your back heel. As you reach your heart forward. Almost like we're trying to split the difference between our cat and our cow pose. Hollow. Look for the back bend in the heart.

You may stay right here. If you can do so without crunching into the lower back, lift your heel to about the height of your bum. Bend your left heel until the base of the foot is parallel to the sky. And then again, reconnect to the lower abdomen. And as you're lifting through the pit of the abdomen, can you try and put your left heel on the ceiling?

Know that it may lift like a quarter of an inch probably not gonna touch the ceiling, but if it does, right to me, let me know what that's like in your life. Can you keep the engagement through the glutes and hamstrings? Reststraighten through your leg. And as you exh, I'll hug into a little ball. And I'll reach it out. Do that again, exhale hug into a little ball.

One more time, stretch into your balancing tabletop, and then exhale draw it in. And I'll reach out, put your left toesies down. If you came down to your forearms, come back up to straight arms. Step to your plank pose top of a push up. Glide way forward to your tippy toes, sat knees down.

Welcome the lift of the abdomen. Think cat pose for a moment. Can you keep the hollow there? And now reach your heart forward. Finding a touch of cow pose. Bend your elbows straight back as you lower all the way to the mat.

Brush your toes back. Peel your heart forward and up. And the exhale lower down. Tuck your toes under and walk them in. Inhale to plank or your hands and your knees for added support, and then exhale, lift your hips and press your thighs back downward facing dog.

Inhale, lift your right leg, point your toes straight down. Acts, hug your knee toward your nose, foot your shoulders over your wrists, and inhale. Take your leg back in through. Do that again, hug your knee to your nose, float forward, and inhale back in through. This last time draw knee to nose, and then try to step foot forward between your hands. Hope it if it didn't get there on its own.

Set your back knee down, uncurl your toes. Press down inhale, rise up, reach up. Exhale, hips forward, elbows down. Hips back, hollow your abdomen like a little cat pose, reach your hands forward. And now again, hips forward.

Draw hands into the heart as you lift your chest. And then back of hands back, cactus arms briefly before you reach to the sky. X. I'll return hands to the earth or to your blocks. Tuck your back toes under and lift your back knee. Hop your back foot up to meet your front foot.

Press your thighs back as you draw your chest forward. And then exhale and fold. Press down inhale rise up, reach up. Maybe look up and exhale to your heart. Second half. Press down as you inhale once again, lift to the sky.

Xhale, fold ribs toward your thighs. Inhale, straighten your legs as you lengthen your spine. Ben knees enough to get your hands down. Step back this time with your left foot. Set your back knee down.

Take time to pat it if it's tender. Uncurl your toes, press down, inhale, rise up, reach up. A little different this time. Bring your hands into your heart. Inhale, take your arms out wide to the side.

And as you exhale, bring your left arm underneath your right and give your body a hug. Move your bum down, sniff through your heart, maybe walk your gaze a bit up the wall in front of you. Exhale shift your hips back, hollow your abdomen, and maybe fold the elbows a bit toward your navel. Do that once again, inhale lift your heart. Ex, I'll shift your hips back, hollow, subtle, round in.

Bringing your hips forward, unwind your arms and reach to the sky. Ex, how hands to the earth or to your blocks. Send your right leg this time all the way back in through. Making the adjustments you need so that your left hip is on top of your left knee. Hands, either on the Earth right underneath your shoulders, or if you're a fan of forearms on the blocks, I am. You can join me.

Forearms on blocks medium height if the wrist would like a break. Coil the pit of your abdomen in, smooth them away from the waist. And for a moment exaggerate that. Maybe allowing the spine to find a bit more of a round. Can you hold on to some of that connection you created through your lower belly as you reach your chest forward.

And now thoughtfully, lift your right heel out to the height of the bum or as close to that as you can maintain without losing the connection to your lower abdomen. Bend right knee so that heel faces the sky. And then draw your navel up and in as you try to put your right heel on the ceiling. And again, what we're looking for is engagement through the gluteal muscles and through the hamstrings versus the dumping or crunching into the lower back. Inhale, restrate in your leg.

And as you exhale, hug in. Inhale, reach out. Do it again. Xhale, hug in. And inhale, reach.

Last one. And set your right toes down. Press yourself up to straight arms. If you have your hands on blocks, move them out of the way. Step yourself to plank.

Glyde forward, use knees if you'd like the added support, lower. Take your slowest ascent possible all the way to meet the earth. So a little different as we come down this time. Proop yourself for a moment here in your sphinx. Take your right arm. Sneak it underneath your left.

Take your left arm. See if you can get your elbows to cross in front of each other. Know that some days the body is gonna be like, no, we're not doing that. In which case, you can lean a little bit more to the right prioritize the opening through the back of the arm here. And the front arm is we'll call it a more casual forearm prop. Bring your chin slightly in.

Just enough to soften the front of your throat. And take the wrinkles out of the back of your neck. And then rock a little bit more towards the outer border of your right shoulder. Unthread, left arm. Come center, unthread right arm.

PRop yourself again briefly to your sphinx. Take your left arm this time, thread it underneath your right. And then I don't know why, but the sound helps. I try to move your right arm over to the left crossing. It's close to the elbows as you can.

Again, soften the front of your throat. And breathe to where you feel the resistance, the greatest here. And then rock a bit towards the outer border of your left shoulder. Shretch right arm out to the right. Come center.

Shut left, arm out to the left, and bring your hands back alongside your ribcage. Tuck your toes under. Press to plank or hands and knees. For the additional support, and then exhale take your hips up and back downward facing dog. Inhale, lift your left leg points your toes straight down.

Ex, how left knee toward your nose. Try to bring shoulders over your wrists. Inhale back and through. Xhale, left knee to nose. And know that you can do this with the right knee down, just like we did in our balancing tabletop if the body is saying, give me more support.

This last one hugged me to nose, bring shoulders over wrists, and try to step your foot forward between your hands. Set back knee down, uncurl your toes. Press down, inhale, rise up, reach up, exhale, hands to your heart. Inhale your arms out wide, And as you exh, I'll bring right arm underneath your left, give the body a hug. Smooth your bum down, bring the hips a bit forward as you lift your heart.

And now, exhale shift the hips back, hollow your abdomen, maybe elbows move a little toward the naval. Do that again. This time as you come forward unwind your arms reach to the sky. And exhale, take your hands to the earth, or to your blocks, tuck your back toes under, lift your back knee, and then hop back foot up to meet your front. Inhale, press your thighs back as you reach your chest forward.

Acts, how fold forward. Route down, inhale, rise all the way up And exhale, bring your hands to your heart. Lower your arms by your sides. Grab or if you have your two blocks at the front of your mat, you're actually able to stay right where you are with them. I'm gonna turn so you have a better vantage point of what I'm up to.

Boop. Okay. Afish's mission, if you choose to accept, is Trepo's Rixasana. Shift your weight onto your left foot and come to the toes of your right. Open your hip forward and back a few times. The next time you open, go only as far as you can manage, keeping your front hit points parallel to the wall that you're facing.

Now, you are welcome to stay right here with your toes on the ground. You might slide foot to your inner calf or place your foot against your upper inner thigh. There are some days where I find it really helpful to split the difference and use my block. So you can put your toes on the block and your heel against your opposite leg. Observe if left hip wandered off to the left.

Instead, can you press your foot into your leg and now hug your hip back into your body? Scoop your abdomen in as you smooth your bum down and then join your hands at your heart. And if you find yourself moving a little bit here, know that, you know, trees sway. In fact, their strength as the saying goes comes from their ability to bend. Hands can stay at the heart the whole time or if and when you're ready reach your arms to the sky.

Couple right back to your heart center. Bring your knee forward. Take your right leg now and cross it over the left. You can put toesies on the earth. You might hook your foot. You might get this other little cutie. Beep.

And put your toesies on a block. Support yourself. You deserve it. Right? You may stay upright with this shape.

You might sit heavy into the heel of your standing leg foot as though you were sitting your butt back to sit in the chair. Open your arms out to the sides. And as you exhale, bring your right arm underneath your left. This time, see if you can wrap your fingers around to meet your other palm. And if your body says, I don't care for that.

Grab outer border of opposite shoulder or upper arm like we did before. Breathe into the expanse of your back. And if you're at a purposeful edge holding here, please hold here. Otherwise, hollow through the pit of your abdomen and see if you can bring your elbows a little closer to your knees. I'm impressed down in how bring it right back up.

Uncross your arms. Take your hands to your hips. Uncross your legs. Be mindful if there's a block. So there, step the foot down wide.

Okay. Six shares. Second side. I like to start with my blocks a little ahead of me so that I can choose to grab them or they're not in the way as I'm setting up. So If that seems like a helpful piece for you, move your blocks a little forward as well.

Take your hands to your hips. And this time, root down through your right foot. Come to the toes of your left. From your hip socket, rotate your leg forward and back a few times. Lubricating your hip joint.

The next time you open left leg to the left, go only as far as you can go, keeping your front hip points facing forward. You can stay here toes on the ground. You might slide foot to inner calf, perhaps you place foot to upper inner thigh, or maybe you put your toes on your block. What serves you best? I'm gonna stay low today. Press foot into leg.

Press leg into foot. Bring pit of your abdomen in. And can you find that little whisper of cat pose through your lower abdomen and then look for a little bit of cow pose, little lift through the heart. Bring your hands together at heart center and find a drifty appoint to focus on. You can stay here.

If and when you're ready, grow your branches. Reach. Come right back into your heart. Bring your knee forward. And now cross.

Left leg over your right. You can keep toesies on the earth as a kickstand. You can wrap the foot or you can put your foot on a block. Either choosing to stay upright here or sit heavy into the heel of your standing leg foot Take your bum back and down. Open your arms out to the sides.

And as you exhale, bring your left arm under your right and wrap either sending fingertips up or holding outer border of upper arms or shoulders. Take a full breath into the expanse of your back. And as you exhale, maybe you hollow your abdomen and bring elbows toward the front of knees root down in how stand it up. Uncross your leg. Unwind your arms and give it a little wiggle.

Let that go. Trusting the process. What is this all about? Take your two blocks and set your blocks one on top of the other like so. Come stand with your feet in front of the blocks.

I'm a good like four ish inches. My heels to my blocks. Separate your feet a little wider than your outer hips and turn your toes slightly out. Get heavy in your heels, in fact, stick your booty out. And you're welcome to take a pit stop here with elbows and thighs.

Haul through the pit of the abdomen and see if you can sit through to meet your blocks. And if your body's said, particularly your knees said, I don't like that pathway down. Come sit all the way on the ground, and build yourself up from the earth. You can add the blocks in from the ground. If the feet are back so far that you're feeling pressure or discomfort through the front of the knees, walk your feet a little further forward.

Bring your hands together, sneak your elbows inside your thighs, interlace your fingers. Send your knuckles forward. Maybe you bring your feet in a little closer to each other. Hollow through the pit of your abdomen and breathe into that gentle round through your back. And inhale right back into your heart center, lift your chest.

Switch the interlace of your fingers, opposite thumb on top, and once again. Hollow through the pit of your abdomen, gently round through your spine and let your head and your neck go. And come right back into your heart, lift your chest. Come off of the blocks that you are on. Set one to the side and keep the other one with you.

Take your block either narrow between your inner thighs or medium width. Pick the option that keeps your feet closest to about the distance of your front hip points. A parallel feet to each other and take your hands to the back of your thighs. Exhale. Down to the length of your arms hollow through the pit of your abdomen.

Can you pause here as you breathe in? And then exhale, hug your block. Come right back up. Do that again. This time we'll inhale roll down. X, I'll hug the block, roll back up. Perhaps you explore this next round, taking your hands forward.

Can you find that same hollow, rolling down only as far as you can go without lifting your feet or falling backwards? And then hug your block, x. I'll come back up. If you took your hands away and we're like, that was a bad idea. Give yourself permission to put your hands back.

We'll take one more of these. Roll down. Hug the block and exhale come right back up. Okay. Set your block off to the side, shift your feet.

Off to the side, and grab your bolster. Come to sit in so tops of feet down shins down Take your bolster over the top of your thighs. And if you would like, you can watch this through the first time, rewind and do it with me the next time. I'm gonna bring one edge of my bolster right into my abdomen right at the top of my thighs. And then I take the back of my arms, and I try to squeeze the other side of the bolster with my elbows. Thinking about the work that we did, squeezing and holding the block between the elbows and knees from top of class.

Now it's between the elbows and abdomen. Separate your elbows a shoulder distance apart, and then plant your hands a shoulder distance apart. Shift forward, tuck your toes under. And now, dip forward, dip forward, dip forward until your face gets a little closer to the earth and your elbows get over your wrists. Hollow through the pit of your abdomen squeeze heel toward the bum.

You squeeze heel toward the bum. Maybe. You lift both feet. Maybe you don't. Get both feet back down if they came up.

And sit yourself upright. So this is a variation of our crow pose. And it's maybe not What comes to mind for most of us when we're thinking about a beginner's posture? And I'm gonna share a couple things about that. A couple thoughts, if you will.

Come take a seat, and you can follow my lead maybe coming to sit on your bolster so that you can sit with better length and ease through the spine here and your knees end up level with or perhaps a little lower than your hips. Bring Your hands together, interlace your fingers, and roll out your wrists. So what is a beginner's pose anyway? That's the first thing I'm gonna say about that. What makes something beginner or, quote, unquote, advanced. And I think more than anything, it's about our mindset and our approach.

Tadasana standing in mountain pose can be a very advanced practice just as standing on your hands can be. Bring your palms together, roll through your wrists. Also, we have to start somewhere. Alright? Come back the opposite way.

And maybe today wasn't about the feed actually coming up, but exploring and understanding some of the actions that may lead us there at some point if it's something we desire in our practice. Give a shake out. When we are speaking about gardening from a literal standpoint, you know, we have We till the earth, we do that work and effort. And then we plant the seeds, which is exciting, figuring out what we're going to put in the garden, set your bolster off to the side, keep a block in reaching distance, keep your bolster and reach reaching distance, keep everything in reaching distance, and then come lie back. Following the effort and the excitement, there's a lot of trust we put in, you know, watering a piece of dirt and hoping that something is gonna sprout from it.

Bend your knees. Please feet on the ground about the distance of your front hip points. And walk heels toward your bum until it feels like your knees are close to being aligned over your ankles. Bend at your elbows, making robot arms, so point your fingers up, and then press into the back of your arms and walk your shoulders underneath your chest. Can you maintain the lift in your heart as you scoop the pit of your abdomen in?

Press down through your heels, lift your hips and lengthen your low back. And now, exhale roll right back to the mat. If you felt any pressure or discomfort through the front of the knees, walk the feet a little further away from your bum and do that again, root into the earth. Lift and lengthen. Exhale roll it right back down.

Take one more round, inhale, lift, lengthen, and pause at the top. Grab your block, and place the block at any height that works for your body right underneath your sacrum, that last triangular shaped bone just above your tailbone. Walk your shoulders underneath your chest a bit more, and release your arms long by your sides. Rotate arms until your palms face the sky. So what keeps us motivated to keep nurturing and nourishing something that we can't see growing?

You're welcome to keep your knees bent, base a feet on the ground, or if you can do so without stress to your back body, walk your feet forward, either pointing the toes for more length to the front body or flexing your feet for more length of the back body. Arms can stay by your side or you can find your cactus arms overhead. So for some of us, this is, you know, faith. It's a belief that what we're creating, what we're building towards is possible for us. That we're worthy of it.

That if we are doing the work, that if we are steadfast in practice, there is growth below the surface that will eventually grow into benefits that will grow into sometimes I can put it as simply as growth. Growth begets growth. Rebend your knees, place your feet on the ground. Lower your arms by your sides if you brought them overhead, and now press down through your heels. Lift your hips just enough to slide the prop out from under you.

Take your feet a little wider than outer hips. And if the back would like a touch of release here, consider the rock of the knees side to side. As we set up for our final resting shape, Shavasana, You may choose to stay here as you are now. If you wanna hug of the knees to the chest before letting the legs go to Shivasana indulge. I'm going to continue in this reopening of the front of the body.

By taking my bolster and coming to sit right in front of the short end of it. And then I lie back so that the bolster is running the length of my spine. Creating supportive, passive opening for my heart center. If your head is falling back uncomfortably far, you can always take a blanket underneath the back of your head. To support the hat and neck.

Once you find the shape that best serves you, either close your eyes or if you prefer, Find a point to softly focus on. I once had a teacher that spoke of this beautiful shift where we go from doing yoga to having a yoga practice. And in my mind, that shift and change speaks a bit to this trusting the process, this watering of the seeds, or, you know, as we see it from the surface, the watering of dirt, and wishing and hoping. It is a shift where We worry less about our practice being good or bad based on what we did or did not do. But instead we begin to understand that in the simple and also equally challenging work of showing up of being present, of stumbling and trying again.

We are cultivating So much beautiful work below the surface. We are cultivating a bit more peace along the path. And we're giving ourselves permission to be wholly present in the process, in the practice without judgment. If you're at ease as you are and you would like to stay in your Shavas in a longer, please do. Otherwise, maybe offer movement to fingers to toes, reach through your body.

And when you're ready, bend your knees, roll to your side. And make your way thoughtfully up to seated. Place your hands on your heart and take a sweet, full, loving breath into the expanse of your heart. Sai it out. Thank you all for sharing your practice.

Have an absolutely gorgeous rest of your day. And I look forward to seeing you the next time.