Breaking Through the Surface

It's time to break through. Welcome to your practice. For class today, have a blanket and a couple of blocks. You will notice I have opened my blanket out over my mat to begin, and I will invite you to do the same. If you don't have a blanket that's large enough to do this with, but you happen to have carpet in your house, you can also come off of your sticky mat and onto the carpet.

You want something that will allow your feet to be able to glide. Once you have prepared your mat or moved off your mat, let's lie down. And as you settle in, play with the placement of your legs and feet. Until you find the place where your body is happy. Shift the awareness from the doing of your day thus far.

To the coming and going of your breath. And as you find yourself, if and when you find yourself, a little bit more connected to self. Add an intention for your practice. Maybe something you're hoping to gain or let go of through the course of our time together. Once you have that gathered, if you'd like, you can join me in an opening home.

Nice full breath in. Blink eyes open if you've closed them. If you haven't already, bend your knees and place your feet on the ground about the distance of your front hip points. And now, send your knees a bit to the left until you feel yourself get a little lighter through the right side of your pelvis. And then come back through center and send your knees a little to the right until you feel the left hip come up a bit.

And come back center. Adding on to that, center your knees a bit to the left. And this time, let your left knee open like we do for bound angle pose. And now slide your left foot forward. Until the leg is long, like you might for Shavasana.

And now open your right knee to the right. You can allow the left hip to follow and maybe the left leg rolls so that knee points more up. And slide the pinky edge of the right foot forward. Finding yourself now more level through the hips. And then, bend your left knee out to the left and maybe the right hip and leg follow a bit and bring the knee up.

Ben your right knee out to the right. Maybe the left hip follows a bit. And then rock center as you bring both knees up. We're gonna take that cycle same direction again. And if my words are a little confusing or this is a new movement to your body, please feel free to pause, take a look at what I'm doing, and then jump back in when you're ready.

So knees a bit to the left, open left hip to the left. Glyde the pinky edge of your left foot towards the bottom end of the mat. And then open right knee to the right, let left leg follow as it does naturally and slide pinky edge of the foot forward. Bend left knee out to the left and draw the left knee up and bend right knee out to the right and draw the knee back up. One more time leading to the left.

And slide pinky edge of foot forward. And then open right hip to the right and slide pinky edge of the foot forward. And open left hip to the left. And draw the left knee up. Open right hip to the right and draw the knee up.

Pause a beat center, and then we'll go back the other direction. I don't know if this has a formal name, but I call it hip gliding. You may borrow if you like. Rock your knees a bit to the right and then open your right hip and slide it forward. And now open left knee to the left and slide the foot forward.

Bend right knee out to the right and draw it back up. Bend left knee out to the left and draw it back up. One more time, leading with the right, slide the foot toward bottom edge of mat. Open left knee to the left and slide pinky edge of foot forward. One more time.

Open right knee to the right. And draw it back in. Open left knee to the left and draw it back in. Pause a moment center. If the feet drifted, make any adjustments you need so that they're back to roughly your hip distance.

And then rock your knees a bit to the left. And as you exhale sweep right knee up towards the chest, Put the foot down and rock to the right, exhale knee toward the chest, and continue this side to side, allowing it to be a bit of a rocking motion. And each exhale motivates the sweep up. Take one more each side. And then pause center.

Bring your right knee into your chest. Hold it close to the ribcage as close as is comfortably manageable for your joints and your back. And then we give a little jostle to the leg, a loving jostle. And then pause the jostling. Stretch your right heel to the sky and now shake the leg.

Breaking through the surface requires a lot of a lot of work here. Right? Bit of vibration. And then sat your foot down and observe the two sides of your body. And for some of us after the sweeping, after the shaking, we might actually feel the sensation of the right hip sitting a little lower, a bit of release potentially having come into the psoas, one of our major hip flexors. So setting the second side, bring your left knee into your chest, and give it a loving shake. A little rock.

And then pause the rocking, stretch your foot straight up to the sky, and I'll shake the leg. Then let it go. Pause and observe a moment. What do you feel? Where do you feel it?

How does it feel? Once you've centered a bit, grab one of your blocks, have it in reaching distance. Take your feet a little wider than your hips and give a bit of a rock side to side. Work within a range of motion that serves your body. And then settle yourself back center.

He'll toe feet back into their hip distance and walk your feet a little closer to your bum. So that knees feel a bit more aligned over your ankles. Press into your arms, find the lift of the heart, and then coil the pit of your abdomen in. Press down through your heels, lift your hips and slide your block underneath your sacrum, that last triangular shaped bone, just above your tailbone. Flat or medium height.

Let's skip super tall for now. Now once the hips came up, for some of us, the knees went a wandering, for now, can you send your inner thighs down so that your legs parallel to each other? Press into the back of the arms, welcome the lift through your heart. If you can do so without stress or strain to your lower back, slide your right heel forward and flex your foot. And now take your right hand to your front hip point, that bone that protrudes at the front of the pelvis, and travel up a couple inches lovingly.

Press your hands down into the flesh there, and then pull up toward your rib cage towards your chest a bit. Like, you're aiding a little bit of the scoop of the abdomen in on that side as you reach forward through your heel. And hopefully, this is allowing length to come in to the musculature across the front of the hip. While still keeping the lower back open and uncrunched. And if your body says, mhmm, right leg out still feels a bit unkind to the lower back, you're welcome to bend your knee and do this on both sides with your hands.

Re bend your knee. If you haven't already, place base of the foot on the ground. You can soften the effort with the right hand. And then explore, stretching your left leg forward, flex through your left foot. Find your left front hip point, travel up to the left side of the navel, and then draw down with the hand and scoop up like you're trying to lift the left side of the abdomen gently toward your chest.

And keep that bit of pressure as you reach forward with your left heel. Just think of all the things you're gonna have to share with your friends and family today. First, this lady had me shaking my leg. Then she had me digging into my tum tum with my fingers. No.

Gonna keep it interesting in life. And re bend left knee. Before actually lifting your hips off of the block, press down through your heels. And that press down for the heels, you may feel your glutes fire up, and it's almost like your bum is trying to lift towards the back of the knees a bit. And then let that go.

Do it again. Press into your heels. Enough to engage hamstrings and glutes without actually losing connection with the block, and let it go. Do it a couple more times. The next time you press into the heels and get that engagement through the glutes, the length through your back, press down a hair more and see if you can create enough space to slide the block out from underneath you. Set your block off to the side. Reach your right arm in line with your ear and then roll on to your right side.

Pause a beat catching up with where we've been. And then as you're ready, press into your left hand, look to the earth as you bring yourself up to seated. If you have a blanket open over your mat like myself, remove the blanket from your mat, and take it into a fold like so. Come take a seat. On the edge of your blanket as you come to your cross legged seat.

And we're looking here as we've done a few times through this series to give ourselves enough of a lift underneath the seat so that knees are more level with the hips or maybe even a little bit lower than so that we keep that nice open space we've been creating through the hip flexors. Press into the earth. And as you inhale, reach up to the sky. Exhale, lower your right hand down by your side. Inhale, try to touch the ceiling, and now exhale, crawl your right hand away from you, bend into your right elbow and reach to the side.

Bend your top elbow and take your hand to the back of your head. As you exh, I'll bring left elbow toward right knee, look down. And now press into your right arm or right hand straighten through the arm. As you turn open through your chest. Exhale, elbow toward the earth as you bring top elbow toward opposite knee, press in to right hand.

Lengthen, and turn open. Do that once again. Bin bottom elbow, bring top elbow across your body, root down, inhale. And expand. Reach arm in line with the ear once again, and now press down in how sweep both arms up.

X, how to lower your arms by your sides. And switch the cross of your legs bringing opposite shin in front to help cultivate a little more balance through the hips. Press into your sit bones and as you inhale, reach to the sky. Xhale lower your left hand down this time. It'll get taller.

And as you exhale, crawl your left hand away from you, bend your left elbow and reach all the way from side hip to fingertips. Bend your top elbow, put your hand at the back of your head. And as you exhale, bring right elbow toward left knee. As you inhale, press down with your bottom hand straighten bottom arm and turn open through your heart. Acts, I'll bend the bottom elbow a bit. Come cross with the top elbow.

Inhale, push the floor away and expand through your chest. Do this one more time. Paul's open. Reach. And then push the Earth away.

Slide your left hand in and take both arms up. X, how lower arms down by your sides, and make your way to your hands and your knees. Feel free to place a blanket open under you if that offers a little more padding for your joints. Grab your two blocks and set them towards the back end of the mat so that we have them if we'd like them in a moment. Come back to your tabletop and walk your hands about three inches forward of your shoulders.

Parallel creases of the wrist to the top of your mat and spread your fingers evenly wide. Inhale, glide forward, lift your chest, exhale tuck your toes, lift your knees, and take your hips up and back to your downward facing dog, adho mukha Sharasana. Bend your left knee reach down through your right heel and switch sides, pedal back and forth a few times. Come back to stillness. And if you're feeling stressed through hamstrings or low back, Bend the knees to prioritize the length in your spine and move away from the stress or strain.

Walk your hands all the way back to meet your feet. And once you're there, If straightening the legs is preventing the hands from making it to the earth or you're pulling through your back or hamstrings to get there, grab your two blocks, set them as tall as you need in order to straighten the legs and lengthen through your spine. Bend your left knee. Try to straighten right leg to the best of your ability. And then walk your hands over to the left.

Guide the right hip back and in so that it stays level with your left hip. And then see if you can crawl your right fingertips to the left a little more. Breathe into the whole right side of your back. Breaking up a bit of the tension through the side body, through the side ribs. And exhale come back through center.

Straighten through both of your legs, reach your heart forward. This time, bend your right knee straighten the left leg to the best of your ability, and then walk your hands and or blocks over to the right. Often, the left hip wants to follow. Work to guide the left hip back in line with the right and see if you can prioritize the length. From outer left hip all the way to the tips of your fingers.

Take one more breath into the greatest areas of resistance. And with your exhale come back through center, draw your chest forward, elongate through your spine, and then exhale, fold it right back into self. Press down with a length and spine, inhale, rise all the way up, and exhale take your hands to your heart. Grab your two blocks, take them with you to the top of your mat. We'll come find your mountain pose to Dasana.

Take the feet about the distance of your front hip points. Press the top of your thighs back as you smooth your bum down. Root down inhale, rise up, reach up. You can stay as you are. I'm gonna turn to face you.

Lower your left arm down by your side. Press down, get taller. And now as you exhale reach. As you do so, notice how heavy the right foot got, and for a lot of us lefty got light. Can you stand evenly in both feet? That maybe bring the side hip in a little more, get longer through the right side.

Press down, stand it back up, reach both arms up. X how lower your right hand down by your side and how get taller. And as you exh, how reach. Wait yourself evenly in both feet and stretch. Press out in house, stand it back up, reach both arms up, interlace your fingers and flip your palms to the sky.

Again, take the thighs back as you smooth your bum down, Try to keep reaching up as you revolve your navel, your ribcage, your chest to the right. Send your left hand forward, your right hand back. Notice if lefty is sneaking forward. Can you guide it back so that it's more level with your right hip? And now bring your right arm forward.

Lower your arms. Let them swing. And press down in how reach both arms up. Interlace your fingers. Go for the less natural grip opposite thumb on top. Flip your palms to the sky.

Lift your heart as you absorb your ribs. And with an exhale revolve this time to the left. Guide right hip back. Notice how the right arm is trying to get real close to your ear. Can you firm both arms evenly in or the left arm in a little more, I should say? That right arm gets some space.

One more lengthening breath here, and then as you exhale send your left hand back and your right hand forward. And look forward, unwind. Allow your arms to swing. Press down inhale rise up, reach up. Xhale, fold forward.

Inhale, heart forward. Ben knees enough to get hands to the earth or blocks. Step back with your right foot, put your back knee down, pat it if it's tender. Uncurl your toes, If you're using your blocks, slide the block that's in your left hand back to the outside of your hip, inhale sweep your arms up to the sky. And as you exh, how low your left arm down by your side, inhale get taller.

Come a touch forward as you scoop your abdomen in and then reach. So left hand can come to your block. It might come to the earth. You might reach that direction without prop. And press down in how come up, reach both arms up, exhale hips forward, hands down.

Bring your front leg back and through, finding your balancing tabletop prep. Alright? Pivot your back heel in and down. And if you gaze down your body, you may notice that the right hip wandered to the right. Kind of scoop your right cheek in and under you until your hip is on top of your knee once again.

Come high onto your fingertips, creating more space, and then lengthen as evenly as you can through all four sides of your torso. Walk your right hand center a little more and forward a hair more and then slowly, thoughtfully turn open through your chest. Try to take your tailbone toward your back heel, lengthen your lower back as you reach to the sky. This is Arta Vashistasana half side plank. If you feel steady doing so, slice through the air with the thumb side of your hand, reach top arm in line with your ear.

Complete the circle. Take hand to the sky and exhale both hands to the earth. Find the ball of your back foot, step to your plank and press back to your downward facing dog. Really push the earth away with your fingertips get longer through the sides of your waist. Inhale lift your right leg.

Xhale right knee to your nose, foot shoulders over the wrist. And step your foot forward between your hands. Set your back knee down, uncurl your toes. Press down, inhale, rise up, reach up. This time we come straight forward.

Returning hands to the earth or to your props. Take a moment here to really press the top of the foot down. And as you bring your hips forward, draw your abdomen back and lift your heart. Low lunge. Tuck your back toes under, lift your back knee, and now hop your back foot up to meet your front foot. Inhale thighs back as you extend your chest forward, exhale and fold.

Press down, inhale, rise up, reach up, and exhale to your heart. Second half. Inhale again, or the hastasana upward hands pose. Exhale fold into self, utanasana intense stretch pose. Inhale lengthen your spine.

Art, utanasana, half intense stretch. Keep your heart forward, bend knees enough to get the hands securely down, and then step back with your left foot. Set back knee down. If you liked having the block off to the side on that first side, take the block that's in your right hand, bring it along your outer right hip. Press into the earth reach up to the sky.

Next, hello, or right arm down by your side. Move your bum down, take your hips a hair forward, and then reach to the right. And I'll bring it right back up, sweep both arms up. Xhale hips forward, hands down. Bring your right leg back and through.

Setting your foundation for balancing tabletop. Right. What I mean by that is stack your HIP right on top of your knee and your hands right under your shoulders. Pivot your back heel down. And again, notice if left hip wandered to the left. And if the answer is yes, can you guide your left hip back and under you? Till knee is on top of the ankle.

Come high to your fingertips or even put hands on the blocks if that provides more useful space. Smooth bum toward your back heel and get as even in length as you can through all four sides of your torso. Walk your left hand forward about an inch and maybe center about an inch, grip the earth lovingly with your fingertips. Slide the right hand toward you and if and when you're ready. Reach right hand to the sky.

Bring your bottom shoulder out of your ear, set it on your back. You can keep the reach straight up or slice of the air with the thumb side of your hand reach long in line with your ear. Complete the circle, top hand to the sky, and then exhale both hands to the mat. Find the ball of your back foot. Firm abdomen as you step to plank, and then take your thighs back, stretch it all the way out, down dog.

Inhale, lift your left leg, point toes straight down, exhale, left knee to nose, and then try to step your foot forward between your hands. Help it if it doesn't make it there on its own. Put your back knee down, uncurl your toes. Press down, inhale, rise up, reach up. Ex, how hips forward?

Hands to the Earth or to your props. Pick the option that allows you to maintain a lift in your heart as you bring your hips forward. Press firmly down through your back foot as you bring your abdomen back. Almost like that little and if it helps, you can actually put your hands on either side of the naval, lift through the pit of the abdomen as you bring the hips forward. Tuck your back toes under, lift your knee.

Hop your back foot up to meet your front foot. Inhale. Lengthen, exhale, fold in. Root down to rise all the way up. And exhale bring your hands to your heart.

Adding on. Inhale again, stretch to the sky, exhale fold. Inhale, elongate. Bend your knees enough to get your hands down. Maybe you turn blocks to medium height, keeping hands on blocks, shift your hips up and back.

So we've played with this a few times throughout the series, helping find A little bit more effort through the legs are shifting the weight a little more back so that we can get more length and less burden in the upper half of the body. And then come on down to your hands and your knees. Set your blocks off to the side and grab your blanket. Open your blanket underneath your knees and turn to face one of the long edges of your mat. Whichever one you prefer.

Alright? Okay. Place your hands on your hips and now step your right foot out to the right. Bring your right heel a bit ahead of the line of your left knee. From your right hip socket, rotate your right leg until your toes point up, and then draw the heel toward you a couple inches.

Bend your right knee until you can get the base of the foot to the earth, lengthen from your groin all the way to your inner knee, lift the pit of your abdomen. Sweep your arms up and now straighten through your front leg. Reach back up. Do that again. Rebend your knee. Reach it out.

Press down in how bring it up. One more time, lower in. Inhale, come back up. This time, keep the front leg straight and lower your right hand down. Inhale get even taller.

And as you exhale, reach both hands toward your right foot. Notice a lot of us start to get light in the ball of the foot. You may need to bend the knee a little bit in order to get the foot fully down. Scoop your right cheek under you, and then try to revolve open through your chest. If the reach of the top arm feels a little aggressive, split the difference, bend your talc elbow, put the hand at the back of the head, like we did in our seated pose earlier. This is Parri Gasana, gate pose.

Reach top hand back up to the sky, press down. Draw your body upright. Come on to the heel of your foot, stick your booty out a little bit, and place your hands down. Set the base of your right foot down and walk your left hand over to the left of full handprint. Bring your right fingertips a little bit more into the midline and now shift your weight to the left.

Per maybe. You lift the foot. Oh my gosh. Okay. H, g g g g g g g g g g. Left hip in.

Bend the knee. Like, you're gonna kick yourself in the booty and then walk your left hand a couple more inches away. Grip the earth with your left fingertips and try to drag your right hand toward your left knee. You can stay here. If you feel steady from this point, pick up your right hand and see if you can grab the front of your ankle, the top of your foot. Open through the front of the thigh and imagine you had a spare hand to dig lovingly into the sides of your belly.

Can you scoop your abdomen in? Swooth your bum away from the waist and open through your heart. Res straighten the leg. Set the foot down. Set your hands back down under your shoulders and bring front knee to meet back knee.

Pause a moment. Think about your life and your feelings. This shape has a lot going on, a lot of pieces moving in different actions, plus throw in some balance on top of it, plus also she's saying, lift my belly and open my heart, breaking through the surface. You know, it can make a mess sometimes when we're finding our way through. And so know that today there may be stumbles along the effort of this shape, know that you may find a spot along the way and say, I've done a lot of work.

Digging my way out of the surface. I've got there, and now I want to rest. You can do that too. What serves you best in this moment? Right?

When you're ready, come forward to your hands and your knees and step. Your left foot out to the left, bring left heel a little bit ahead of the line of your right knee. Put your hands on your hips, root down, stand yourself up. From your hip socket, rotate your leg so that your heel is down and your toes point up. Draw heel toward you a couple inches.

Rebend your knee. Keep going. Length and all the way from your groin to your inner knee. Bring the pit of your abdomen in, open your arms out to the side. So this is kinda like our warrior two with the back shin down.

Press into both feet or I should say full tension reach up, and then exhale lower in. Do that again. And return. Come on out. And this time, keep the leg straight. Lower your left hand to your Notice if you're like me and you have a tennis suit to lock or hyper extend your knee, get heavy in the ball of the foot and fight at least a microbend in more as desired.

Slide your hand. On the leg and either reach top arm toward your foot or bend your top elbow, taking hand to back of head. Turn open through your chest. If you're like me, those ribs went on vacation and the booty is sticking all kinds out. Can you bring the pit of your abdomen in, lengthen your low back? Find that little engagement, or I should say a lot of engagement through your core as you open through your chest.

Remembering we need the roots in order to grow and expand and break through the surface. Reach your top hand to the sky, press down, draw your body back upright. Alright. Come to the heel of your left foot. Stick your bum back, put your hands down. Rotate your left leg so that your toes point forward beyond the long edge of the mat or the direction of the long edge of the mat.

And then walk your right hand at least a handprint to the right. Bring your left fingertips a little bit more to the midline and tent the hand. Shift your body weight over to the right until right shoulder is back on top of the wrist. Grip the earth lovingly with your right fingertips and see if you can pick up your left leg. The sky wants to wander.

Can you hug it back in a bit? Ben the top knee like you're gonna kick yourself in the bum and slide left hand towards your right knee. See if you can get your balance here. And if you feel steady doing so from there, grab the front of your ankle, the top of your foot. Open through the front of your hip and smooth your bum away from your waist.

Can you absorb your ribs as you open your chest? This is a variation of tapasana sugarcane posts. And once you've had your fill, let the foot go. Set it down. Bring your hands center.

Shift your bum back a bit, put hands on hips, root down, stand it up. Bring your knee in. Sit back. Okay. Shift your feet off to one side.

Move your blanket off to the side. And then come meet me on your back. The sound effect machine that lives within me, I just had a lot to say during this practice. So if you're talking to over there, you're in good company. Bring your feet in so they're about the distance of your front hit points, bend your knees, and place base of the feet on the ground.

Draw your right knee in toward your chest, and they'll take your right foot and cross it, actually, your whole right leg, cross it over your left leg. Like you're trying to tuck knee behind me. Now, if your hips, your thighs, or any other part of you is saying that's not happening today or it's happening, but it's painful. Instead cross foot just past thigh like we might in our foundation of thread the needle. Alright. Take your thumbs into your front hip creases.

And then scoop your abdomen in and pick your feet up drawing knees toward your chest. Now, you can keep your thumbs here the whole time to avoid that gripping that some of us get through the hip flexors or maybe you lift your head, lift your shoulders. See if you can grab hold of your feet. I said feet, but as you can see, I'm actually holding the front of my ankles. And I have a tendency to prefer the script versus this one because many of us end up sickling our ankles or pulling through the outer ankle. So if the front of the ankle is there, consider opting for this.

You can also hold the front of your knees. And just let your shins go, stretch feet to the sky, put your right foot down, cross left leg over right. Bring thumbs to your front hip creases, and know that you might get here and say, you know what? This is kinda awesome. You can stay here, right foot on the ground the whole time. You might pick up your bottom foot, draw knees towards your chest.

Thumbs can stay in place where they are or Find the front of your ankles, tops of shins, or knees, and flex through your feet. Draw those back towards your shins. And release your legs, press heels to the sky. And then draw knees into your chest. You can hold the stillness.

You can invite in a rock side to side. If your body prefers the release and opening of happy baby, indulge. And in your own time, Let everything go. If stretching the legs out in Shavasana isn't a kindness on your low back, find your blanket, make a roll with it, and place it underneath your knees. In Cleow Wade's book Heart Talk.

She says something to the effect of expanding or growing can be challenging. And that's why we call them growing pains. And I think about this often. As a reminder that sometimes the piece that we are seeking in life is present on the other side of some great effort, some great challenge, some growing pain. We tilled the earth.

We planted the seeds. We trusted the process as we watered the dirt. Hoping that roots were taking hold below the surface. But we don't really know if it's workings until we see that little sprout. Pop up from the dirt.

And what a cool and beautiful and amazing thing to have grown something from seed and to see it sprout. But I take you through that pathway of the till of the planting, of the watering. As a reminder, again, that there is so much effort going along below the surface before we have the opportunity to see the fruits of our labor. It's like we've got a theme going here or something. And so, though, that if there's something metaphorically in life that you're trying to break through the surface of, that you're trying to get to the other side of in some way.

That it may not be without effort. But the takeaway from the growing pain side of things for me is not the pain But the growing. So stay steadfast. Stay patient. And devoted.

And keep noting, honoring, and celebrating each stage of growth. Please feel free to stay here in your Shavasana as long as you'd like. If you have doing to return to invite any movement in that may be calling to you to wake the body out of stillness. And when you're ready, roll on to your side. And pause for a beat or two and press the floor away, coming up to seated.

Join your hands at your heart. Lift your chest. We bow our chins in gratitude. Thank you for sharing your practice.