Balance & Stability

Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me today. For our practice, we'll need two blocks, and we're gonna start with one block today standing for our balance practice. One of my pillars of healthy aging. So you might decide, again, does your block feel best between your thighs in the medium position, or do you like it in the narrow position?

And see if you can choose one, try both. That helps you keep a steady contact with your block. And perhaps that sense of steadiness at this beginning part of class where your feet feel grounded, and your legs start to feel a little bit more awake as we give a little squeeze to the block. Okay. We're gonna slide the hands up around the abdominal area and just a little bend of the knees, a little bend of the elbows as we start in a standing meditation with our eyes oriented towards the horizon, the soft gaze, And if you enjoy, again, even working your balance here, you might close your eyes and feel the standing post becomes a little bit more challenging. It might be our first balance move of the day. So as best you can, we try to feel the whole foot pressing down into the earth.

Some awareness of the leg bones supporting us here. I'm kinda feeling where the legs meet up into the pelvis and feeling the sturdiness here in our legs and our standing position as we give a little squeeze to that block. So, one key part for me of improving my balance poses over the years is to keep working on leg strength. So, this is one simple way to work on leg strength. To potentially help us balance a little bit better. And if we bring our awareness to where our hands are resting on the belly for a moment and feel that movement out towards your hands as you're breathing in in towards your back as you're exhaling, Come really aware that there's subtle movement happening in our body within this stillness.

K, remembering, we're not statues, we're not rigid, not frozen, that there will always be a little movement within our balance poses. And one idea of bringing some equanimity into our practice is not to be frustrated when we're wobbly or moving and just knowing that's part of the practice. A steadiness within the movement. Stake a moment to open the eyes if the eyes were closed and let your legs become all the way straight. Okay. Release your arms to your side.

And as you inhale, we'll start to let the arms stretch up towards your ears and then begin to bend your knees as you come into your first chair pose. From our chair, we're gonna lower our arms down and slowly lift up your heels as your arms reach back, and then bring your heels down. Again, let your arms float up towards your ears. Again, bend your knees coming into chair, working on that leg's strength. And then our balance as we come up to the tips of our toes and send your arms back. I'm demonstrating that wobbling as heels down and again arms up.

K. When we're wobbly, we should celebrate because we're teaching our muscles, our nervous system something new, chair, lift your heels as you're rising up to the ball of the foot arms back, heels down, arms up, coming back to your chair. Squeeze that block, arms back, rise up to the ball of your foot. Celebrating any wobbliness that's here, settle into your chair. And from chair, letting your heels lift as your arms travel back, squeeze your block, and then go ahead and lower. Now, grab your block and we'll bring it into the hands and that long position maybe feet a little bit closer together.

Let's take a little step back with your left foot as your arms come up towards your ears. And as you look to the horizon, we're gonna lift your left knee up to your block as you lower that block in front of the belly. Take your left leg back, arms up. And again, looking forward, see if you can touch your knee to the block. Going back with your leg, up with your arms.

Number three, touch the block. Going back. And number four, celebrating that wobbliness. We're learning something new here. Last one, touch the block, and then go ahead and put your foot down.

Second side, take your right leg back, arms up, eyes oriented to the horizon for better posture. Let's lift your right knee to your block. And then step back, lift your knee to the block, look forward, and going back and up. Again, touch your block. Remember wobbliness is part of the practice and and again touch the block. Alright. There we go.

And then the foot down. Alright. Take a moment to re center and ground yourself. Maybe your feet again are about hip distance apart. Now, take your block over to your left as you swing your left leg over to your right. It's kinda crossing that midline.

And then go the opposite direction with your block and leg. Let's do a little kick over to the side too. Crossing the body, and three, cross the body, four, cross the body, and five. Back to mountain pose for a moment. And just re center yourself.

Okay. Hopefully, you're having some fun with the balance. Now, we'll shift your block to your right as you kick your right leg to the left, crossing the body, and then opposite side. That's again, kick that right leg to the left, block to the right, criss crossing, challenging your balance as you're swinging your leg and arms in opposite directions. One more and wobbling this part of the practice, and then we come back to our base. Okay. One more time.

Bring your legs a little closer together now. Look to the horizon and have your arms start straight out in front of you. We're gonna pull the block towards your belly as you slide your left foot up your leg for your tree with that open chest. And then bring your foot down arms forward. Same leg.

Slide that left foot up as you pull your block to your belly. And then reach forward. And pulling that in three. Forward. And let's do four.

Forward one more time. And then five. Take that extra pause. Bring your foot down and arms forward. Now, our second side bring your right foot up, tree with open chest. Touch down. Open that leg for tree. Going forward.

Threes, a little practice run here going forward, and the foot touches in. We got one last one to do. We touched down, and we'll add that extra hold now. Take a moment. Building more strength on that right side left side as we balance.

Okay. Arms out, foot down, and lower your arms. Okay. Now, let's take your block behind you. Different ways that we're opening up the hips here or strengthening the hips. So with your block in your hands, lift your left knee as your block moves back. And then bring your block towards your buttocks, foot down.

Same leg, left knee up, arms back. And re center. Left knee up. The arms go back. Re center. Okay. Two more. Left knee up.

Move your block back. Recenter, also really good for our posture here as you lift in the arms back. Okay. Recenter yourself. Alright. Now, stand on your left foot, lift your right knee as your arms go back. Center, and that right knee comes up, center yourself.

Stable pose. A couple more times. Lift your right knee arms back. Come down. Right knee up, arms back, and down. Last one, knee up, arms back.

And let's touch down. Alright. Bring your block in front of you. Now, we're gonna find the second block. And we're gonna make a little stack of your blocks right about the middle of your mat. And if you can have them set up, so the long part is parallel to the short side of your mat. Now, we're gonna straddle the blocks.

Turn your toes out a few degrees. And let's hold on to your legs as you come down towards the blocks and just see if you can touch your blocks here. With your fingertips. And then we know we're kind of in the right spot. Okay. Let's take your arms up to the sides, bring your hands to your hips, and we'll turn towards your right leg, pivot, and end up in kind of a lunge shape facing your right leg, and we're gonna bring your knee to touch your blocks.

Okay. So it's a supported lunge. Take your arms up towards your ears as you look straight ahead. And then bend your elbows to 90 degrees as you turn to your right. And then face forward, lift off your block, and we're gonna turn and face forward, and we're in our goddess shape. Touch your blocks, and then come back up to arms wide, straight legs, hands to the hips.

We're gonna turn to your left sides. So you balance, see where that block is, drop your knee here. Reach forward and up. Arms at 90 degree angles, and we rotate to your left. Face forward.

Take your arms up. Reach back around, grab your hips, flip into our goddess as we settle in, and we touch down. Take your arms out wide as you stand Hold your hips, and we're gonna pivot and turn to your right side again. Drop your left knee to your blocks. Take your arms up towards your ears.

And as you bend your elbows, 90 degree angles, rotate again to your right. And as you face forward, we're gonna add a lift of your back knee and tip forward into an airplane pose, looking down towards the floor. From airplane, bring your hands back to your hips, turn back to the long side of your mat, sink into your legs, bring your arms into our goddess position, and then touch your blocks. Come back out to arms wide, straight legs, grab your hips. Let's turn to your left and anchor your knee for a moment on your blocks.

This is our kind of crescent lunge. Position here with your arms up. Bend your elbows. Turn to your left. Bring your arms back up.

And as your arms open wide, we're gonna lift your back knee, so you're in airplane balancing. Bring your arms back up, pivot to face the long side of your mat, arms wide, bend your elbows goddess, and then we reach down and touch your blocks. As you inhale, let's come all the way up to standing arms up and release your arms to your side. We're gonna leave your blocks where they are just for another moment and let your arms reach out to the side as you bend your knees. Now, turn your palms to face up, and let's lift your heels as you lift your arms a little higher up towards your ears.

And then take your arms up to the side as you anchor your heels back down. Palms up. Let's lift our heels a little bit up away from the floor. Heels down arms wide. Inhale lifting of the heels as you go up, working on our balance and lower down. Lift our heels, embracing that wobbliness or shakiness in the legs.

Come down one more time. Gradual lift of the heels, arms up. And let's lower. Okay. Straight your legs. Now, let's bring your feet in towards your blocks, and we're gonna get rid of one block.

And we're gonna use a second block for your foot. If you felt more comfortable with two blocks in a row to accommodate your foot, feel free to use two. Just put your left foot on the block and it's just amazing how different something like tree pose can feel when you're up on a block compared to the floor. So we're gonna bring our hands to our hips and go ahead come up to the ball of that right foot. Hey, arms out to the side.

Your branch is slide your right foot to your inner leg, and now let's bend our elbows and then bring our elbows in as you point your knee forward. Open your elbows wide as you open your knee wide. Knee forward, elbows in. Okay. It's kind of challenging your tree working with the wobbliness. Squeeze in, which I am modeling for you when you open back out.

And let's squeeze back in. Alright. Arms down, foot down. Stick a moment. Fill your feet on the floor. Second side with your right foot up on your block. We go ahead and come up to the ball of your left foot, hips are pretty even.

Arms wide. Anch your foot somewhere in your leg. Let's bend our elbows. And now start to point your knee forward elbows squeeze in. We open wide.

And again, do a little squeezing in, mixing up your tree. So there's a little more learning happening in your muscles nervous system as you try something new. Going wide. One more time. Squeeze in.

Open and then go ahead and put your feet down. Alright. So now let's get that block out of the way and let's take a step up to the top front short end of your mat. So let's have our feet about hip distance apart. Roll your shoulders maybe back and down. And in your own sweet time, let your arms start to sweep up towards your ears, standing backbend with bent knees, we're gonna fold over and meet the floor with your hands as you look towards the back side of your mat just to release some stiffness in your back and shoulders here.

Step back with your right leg and your left leg and come together in plank pose for a moment. And as you hold yourself in plank pose, bring your right knee down to touch the floor kick your foot a little bit back as you anchor your left foot for side plank. Bring your left arm up towards your ear and try to engage your right side waist a little more so there's less weight on your right hand. More openness through your upper left chest. Take your left hand back to the top of your mat and come into your downward facing dog, separate your feet, maybe a little bit narrower than your hips.

So we can slowly stretch your right leg straight up and back coming into our balancing three legged downward dog. One more moment holding the balance. And then put your foot down, and let's go ahead and walk your feet towards the back of your wrist, turn your toes out a few degrees. Come to a little bit of a squat, and then bring your arms forward. And we're all the way back up to standing with your arms down.

And toes facing straight ahead. Let's again, inhale arms come up or standing backbend. With bent knees, fold over your legs as you exhale. Enjoy that release of tension in your backside. One leg, and then the other goes back.

So you're stable for a moment in plank pose. Bring your left knee down, kick your foot a little back. Turn that right foot in on that long edge for side plank with your right arm in the air. And trying to do that lift through your left side waist. So there's less weight on your left hand, more openness in your upper right chest.

Bring your right hand back to the floor. Let's come back to plank pose. Head to downward dog with maybe your feet a little closer together with the left leg traveling up and back into our three legged downward dog as we hold. And then bring that foot down and walk your feet towards the back of your wrist. Again, turning the toes out a few degrees, bend your knees.

Bring your arms out in front of you and let's inhale all the way up to standing. Take your arms down and bring your feet in and bring your legs a little more parallel in this roll of shoulders. Shake out the legs. Okay. Now, if you see where your blocks are, we're gonna grab one block and come down toward the floor. So as you sit, and we take a moment to orient ourselves, let's go ahead and see again if you like your block in that medium position or the narrow position so you can feel a steady contact with your block.

We give a little squeeze to your block, slide your hands back a little bit behind the line of your shoulders so you can lean a tiny bit back. You know, take a moment and squeeze your block as you lift your left leg forward and up. And then put that heel down. Stretch your right leg forward and up and heel down. And maybe you're feeling now your quadriceps engage. Left leg up. This part of the leg.

We wanna keep strong. Right leg up. And down. Left leg again, up and down. Right leg up and down.

Now, if we stay lean back, lift your feet an inch or two, And then do that same idea of stretching your left leg up, neutral, right leg up, neutral. Let's see if we can do one more with your left leg up, neutral, right leg up neutral and then heels down. So lots of ways that we can balance. Keep the block between your knees and find your second block, and we're gonna introduce that into the hands. As you hold your block out in front of you. Now, as you lean a little bit back, have your right hand hold the block and open your arms out wide. So you try to balance as you have this extra weight in your right hand.

Come back to center. It should feel a little bit easier. When your left arm opens out to the side, we balance with that extra weight and that left hand. And then come back to center. Again, right hand has the block.

We open wide, lean back, and recenter. Left hand has the block lean a little bit back, center. Okay. Reaching forward. Right arm out to the side, find your center here, wobbliness. Again, as part of the practice. Come forward.

Left hand has the block, and we go back. And let's come forward. Alright. Hopefully you enjoyed that adventure. Let's set those blocks to the side for a moment and lean over to your right side. Let's meet on the right side with your forearm down and your legs bent.

If you find your elbow wants more padding, you just roll your sticky mat in and you got extra cushion. Okay. So we're doing this lift through your side waist. Take your top left arm up towards the ceiling. As you look straight ahead, let's see how we're balancing here through this right side as you swing your hips up and hold, and then lower down. K. We'll lift the hips up and do a moment of holding as you stretch your left leg out, like you're doing a variation of half moon. And then come on down.

One more time. Do a lift up and option whether you're stretching a leg out or just keeping your knees together. We're holding. And then lower. As you take your left hand down, stretch your right arm out and stretch your legs out straight. And we'll take a moment to rest your head on your arm.

As you take your left arm back up, and this time we're going to add the left leg up in the air for sure here. Now to challenge your core, start to circle just your left leg while you keep your left arm up, reaching for the ceiling. We're just trying to keep steady through our center knowing there's gonna be some micro movements. And let's welcome that micro movements and take a few more circles with your left leg. Bring your leg down, bring your left hand back in front of your chest.

As you bend your knees, let's press ourselves all the way back up. Let the legs swing over to your left side. So we're on our left hip, and then lean over to your forearm. And if you want more padding, double up your yoga mat, when you're in a pretty good position, let that right hand reach up and feel that you can lift that lower left side of your chest and waist. We're gonna swing the hips up, reaching for the ceiling, and then lower down.

When we do the lift up, we might hold here or stretch that right leg out. Keep lifting that lower waist. And then come down, and that third time, your choice, your favorite lift, either knees together, or do you like to lift with the legs straight? One more moment, bracing that wobbliness, and then come down right hand to the floor. Slide your left arm out, slide your legs out straight.

So a way that we engage the whole body, right arm in the air, right leg lifted, try to keep yourself centered here as you circle just your right leg. So kind of a different way to balance. Okay. Noticeing again, movement through the center is going to be happening as best you can, we're pretty steady in our movement. Let's go ahead from here and bring your top leg down, bring your right hand to the floor. And go ahead and roll right onto your back.

I'm gonna swivel around. When you're on your back, be sure to grab a block And once you have a block in hand, let's go ahead from here and lift your hips up so you can slide that block under that sacrum area. And then bring your feet, parallel, maybe as wide as your hips, with your arms anchored down to your side, palms facing the floor. A shoulders, press back, chest slightly lifted. Let's swing your left knee towards your chest is another way we can balance this here on our back with our left leg in the air, and we'll do a little lift of your hips away from your block, and then come back to your block.

It's a pretty small move. A little lift up and you balance, engage your arms, and lower. Again, as you lift up, you're engaging your arms, your right foot, lower, Again, it gains your arms and lift up and lower. Put your left foot down. See what it feels like when you've got your right knee towards your chest.

Right leg in the arab, and we're really waking up those arms and your glutes as you lift up, it's a tiny lift, and lower. Do a little lift and lower. Engage you those arms as you lift and balance and lower. Right foot to the floor. Lift your hips. You can slide that block out of the way.

And as you have your blocks to the side, let's go ahead and hug your knees towards your chest. After all that standing work that you did, you might enjoy holding the legs or circling and rocking your hips and legs. In a bit of a circular pattern. At some point, you might enjoy just holding the knees closer to your belly chest and stay in our supine version of child's pose. Letting more of your upper back melt into the floor here.

Anytime that you're ready, we'll let go of the legs and have your feet come down to the floor, maybe your feet about as wide as your yoga mat. Let your hands rest maybe on the top of the abdomen area in our constructive rest pose, and letting more of the floor support your whole backside as we soften through the belly and encourage that filling up on the inhale, and the belly softening, releasing in towards your back as you exhale. In a few more cycles here, celebrating that softness on the inhale and that expansion through your center, and exhale belly releasing in toward the back and feeling a little more grounded, a little more present. As we witness maybe three more cycles of your breath here. Was recentering after our balance adventure today.

Alright. Andy, time you're ready now, we'll let the legs maybe wander a little closer together, turn over to any side that you like. And we'll get ready to press up toward a sitting position. And if it's helpful, I always like to sit on a little bit of height so you might slide a block, a flat block under your hips. And then you can come up with a little less maybe tension in the knees or the back. And as you're sitting, can we feel again balanced right to left here by rocking your hips, side to side, and perhaps forward and back?

So you feel a little bit more on top of your sit bones. Hey, maybe we noticed it's easier to balance when we have good posture awareness. And remember how that feels in this moment and maybe we carry this forward into our day, into our week, and the seasons ahead. Thanks so much for being here today, everyone, Namaste.