I am supported

Hi. Welcome to the Filier Cup series. Today, we'll be focusing on hamstrings and lower body support. You'll need two blocks for this practice. When you're ready, find a comfortable seat and get ready for your practice. I would encourage you to allow yourself to get some fidgets out of your way and get any extra energy out so that you can find a sense of stillness in the beginning. And when you do, set the spine tall by maybe pressing the hips down into the floor, and feeling maybe a current of energy move up and down the spine.

Allow yourself to settle into this moment, into your body. Feel the natural breath, moving through you on its own, feel the body connected to the floor, air on the skin, the texture of the clothing. Allow yourself to accept any thoughts or stagnant emotions that might be living within you right now. Except yourself fully. Hands to heart center about your gaze and reverence and gratitude to whatever you bow to in your life.

Take a moment if you'd like to offer up your efforts of your practice towards someone you love someone who challenges you, who might need your yoga, or maybe it offered up to everyone and everything, this idea of full connection to the universe. With that in mind, we'll take the sound of union, the sound of om, And if you'd like to add an intention to your home today, I offer I am supported. Inhale. You can release your hands if you'd like. Take a moment just to build your breath practice, ujjayi Praniyama, if you'd like, deep inhales and exhales through the nostrils, restricting the vocal cords, feeling that soft push and pull within your inner ear drum. Take your time.

We'll meet in a supported child's pose to start today. So you can undo your legs and bring your knees together and sit back on your heels, near the back of your mat, and bring your arms behind you, palms face up, and see if you can rest your forehead down to the earth, and just allow the belly to settle into the thighs there. Take a couple nice deep belly breaths here in your close need child's pose, expanding space within your hips, getting more and more comfortable with the chest to the thighs. From here, reach your arms forward, rise up to tabletop, allow yourself to find your hands, pressed into the floor, and then tuck your toes. Find your first downward facing dog.

Bend your knees and lift your hips up and back, and we'll deepen the hips a little bit further here. Bend your knees so much that your belly comes back to the thighs just like before, take an inhale and exhale press back as you lift the hips as high as you can, stopping when you need to. Two more times like that, inhale bend the knees, press the chest back. Exhale stretch and lift while keeping the press as much as you can. One more time, inhale bend. And exhale press.

Slowly lift the heels. Tiptoe your way to the front of the mat into a nice forward fold hanging like a rag doll. Shaking the neck out, swaying the arms as much as you like, feel free to bend and straighten the knees, find the feet into the floor, maybe grab the opposite elbows by the ears and frame the head and sway a little bit. Relaxing the neck and the upper shoulder girdle. Building our halfway lift, walk your hands up your thighs and, take a minute to find where you want the hands to press and press the tailbone back, lift the heart forward, maybe think of lifting the chest even more as you inhale in both directions, and exhale fold over forward fold, inhale halfway, lift, length, and heart.

Exhale fold. One more time, inhale lengthen. And exhale fold. Slowly, bend your knees and roll through the spine to stand top of the mat, tadasana mountain pose, bring your feet hips with distance or closer, roll your palms open to the front of the mat, find the press down into the floor, build the body from the ground up until you feel the top of the head, softly lifting, lots of space between the vertebra of the spine. We'll start today with a traditional Surganamaskar a.

Inhale reach the arms up. Maybe palms press look up to the thumbs. Exhale fold forward over the legs. Inhale halfway lift, lengthen heart. Exhale plant the palm, step, hop, or float, lower down halfway at the wrong guard.

Inhale heart opening, up dog, pull the heart through. Exhale downward dog, curl the spine, retook the toes and press up and back. We'll stay in down dog for five breaths here. Work to find some stillness, work the heels to the floor and lift the hips up through your pelvic floor. Five breaths inhale.

One, keeping the engagement through the arms. Two, lifting the hips up and back. Three grounding the heels into the earth. Four, finding the spine reaching in both directions. Last breath in, As you exhale look forward, bend the knees, step, pop, or flow to the front of the mat.

Inhale halfway lift. Exhale fold. Inhale rise to stand from the legs, reach up, look up, exhale arms by the sides, tadasana. Take a deep breath here. Bring the hands to the hips, bring the feet hips with distance.

Take a little lift as you inhale, push the hips forward, look up to the sky as much as you'd like. Exhale fold forward over the legs. We'll take a deep compression fold. So bend the knees really deeply and wrap the arms around the legs, see if you can grab the elbows or the forearms, and get the belly close to the thighs again. And engage your, belly into the thighs as you drop the hips, take an inhale, and then exhale, press as high as you can while keeping the belly to the thighs, you can slide the forearms down until you feel your version of the deepest compression you can hold while straightening the legs. Tuck the chin if you like or drop the head and stay here for another two or three breaths.

Working on finding your Urana bandha, pulling the belly up as you lengthen through the body. Deep breath. From here, release your hands to the floor, and then take your peace fingers and your thumbs, grab your big toes wrapping around, finding your padagusthasana pressing the toes into the earth, pulling on the toes lengthening the arms, stretching the heart forward as the tailbone goes back, take an inhale. And then exhale, bend the elbows wide, hollow the body again, tuck the chin, and then press the toes into the floor as you lift the tailbone and rotate it high and up to the ceiling. As you feel space here, you can lean the weight into the balls of the feet while keeping the heels on the floor. Take another breath or so here. Keeping the shoulders on the back while you pull the arms. Halfway lift, keep the hands on the toes, inhale. Exhale plant the palm, step, hop, or float, and lower down Chaturanga.

Inhale heart opening, co up dog. And exhale downward dog hips high and back. Inhale, lift your right leg to the sky, reach the foot back. XL, place your foot at the top of the mat, round your back foot open, cartwheel your arms up to warrior two. Adjust your stance as you need to longer, usually is helpful to find the active hips strengthening in both directions, rounded outer back foot, long arms reaching an equal in both directions, working to find the spine straight up and down here.

Take a breath, maybe looking at the fingertips, and settle in. Slowly, straightening your right leg, heel towing your back foot in just enough so you feel nice and stable through that back heel, preparing for triangle pose, pull your right hip back, hinge your heart forward, see how long you can get. When you're done with that reach your right hand down, see if you can get down to the big toe again. Grab that big toe with your peace fingers and thumbs, and push the right big toe into the floor as you pull on it and let that activate your heart opening up to the sky as the gaze floats up look to that top hand, if you can, and slowly start to lengthen in all directions. Feel the energy move to the back tailbone and out the crown of the head.

Triangle pose, take another breath or two. Using the connection to the earth to help you build the pose always. One more breath. Release the bind, inhale stand up with strong legs and bring your hands to your hips. Turn your toes parallel or slightly turned in as a little bit better to open the back up, take an inhale, push the hips forward, lift the heart, and exhale fold forward through the center of the legs.

Release your hands to the floor, plant your palms in line with the feet, take a halfway lift inhale. And as you exhale, think about pulling the mat with your palms backwards, bending your elbows kind of like Chaturanga, seeing what's available to bring the top of the head down to the floor in line with the hands. Stay here rounding the outer feet, lifting the tailbone up again and breathing. Take one more breath here. Walk your hands forward, take a halfway lift inhale, and exhale crawl to the front of the mat.

Frame your foot, find a low lunge, lift your back heel, and then grab both of your blocks and place your blocks on the highest height here. Once you find the blocks framing the foot straighten your right leg and hop your back foot in for pyramid setup, you want to hop your back foot in just enough to get the back heel flat on the earth, not too close, and make sure the feet are hips width distance It helps if you want to bring the hand to the low back just to make sure the hips are even in space, one knot higher than the other. Take a halfway lift as you inhale, press through the back leg, and then exhale fold forward for a modified pyramid pose. Drop your chin to your chest and see if you can get your forehead close to your knee. Take another breath or so here, lifting through the hips. Inhale halfway lift here, pause and bring your left hand to the outside of your right block.

And take a second to reground. If that back heel starts to lift, it's a sign usually you need to shift back and think about the right hip pulling back. Maybe the right hand helps stretch that right hip back. Think of halfway lift of your heart forward. As you stretch the chest, turn your gaze to the right keep pressing down to that bottom block, If you feel stable, reach that right up to the sky, you find your twisted triangle pose.

Almost like the feet are trying to pull together to even the hips together and lengthen the spine as much as you kinda look up to that top hand. Take another breath or two here. Really let that twist start to move through that length and body. One more breath. With control, release the hands down, restructure the hands framing the foot with the blocks, and then walk your blocks forward until you bring the weight into your right foot standing split, shift your back leg high.

Use the blocks to help you stabilize as you lift that back heel. Try to turn your left toes down to the floor squaring the hips as much as possible. If this is too high for you and you want to work deeper, bring your hands closer to the foot option to take your forearm behind the calf and stretch deeper through the standing split. Some of us might want to play with balancing motor both hands to the foot, seeing what you can find. One more breath here. And as you exhale, release the left leg back low lunge, half a step plank pose, inhale, sit back.

And then lower down Chaturanga, inhale heart opening, and exhale downward facing. Take a breath in your down dog. Inhale lift your left leg to the sky, let's do the left side. Exhale, place your left foot forward, round your back foot open, cartwheel open to warrior two. Different sides. So take that same amount of mindfulness to really find the activation in both ways of the body reaching forward and back and making sure that that inner open left thigh keeps the knee and big toe pointing forward. Find a breath or two to stabilize and find the hips maybe dropping another millimeter or inch.

Slowly straighten the left leg. Just the back foot again, so you feel nice and stable here a little bit shorter than your warrior two, and then hinge your hips back through the left hip as you reach forward try to find that hovering space to strengthen the legs. And when you can't go anymore, release the left hand down, trying to grab the big toe if possible, and then press the toe into the earth and pull on the toe at the arm and let that activate your chest open, and try to see that top hand as you twist through the spine here. Really feel the pressing into the floor to help you get taller to the sky, locking everything in through the hip socket there. Take another breath.

As you finish your next exhale, release the bind, stand up through the legs, hands on hips, turn your toes once again, into the side of the mat, a little turned in, I find this better for the hips to open from there, inhale, lift the chest up, look up, and exhale fold through the center of the legs, Pessari Tabatasana wide leg fold. You can repeat the same thing as before. This time, once again, grab those big toes both together, like a forward fold, but wider, pull the toe as you push the toes into the floor lengthen the spine inhale, and then bend the elbows wide, tuck the chin. Maybe you work the head towards the floor in between the feet while pulling on the toes, pressing the toes onto the floor and keeping the shoulders on the back. Another breath or two here. With control halfway lift toe bind, exhale release the bind crawl to the front of the mat, low lunge, grab your blocks, highest height frame your foot, and then stop your back foot in just enough to keep the heel grounded, adjusting a coiling for hips width distance and a neutral spine parallel pelvis. If you use your hand, that can help. From there, find your halfway lift, inhale, modified pyramid pose, fold forward, work the tailbone up as you drop the head.

Take a breath, lift up halfway, bring the right hand to the block on the outside the left foot. You can use your left hand to help you lengthen the left hip back as you stretch the heart, find that halfway lift feeling and then stretch your left arm up as you push down into that bottom block and use your feet to stabilize, maybe imagine pulling the feet closer together and continue to twist. As far as you can, maybe looking up to that top hand, twisted triangle pose, deep breaths? One more breath here. As you exhale, release the hands to the floor, walk the blocks forward until you find your version of the standing split shift into the front foot, lift that back heel as high as you can.

Try to work the hips square, turning all five toes of your back foot down as you lift the inner heel, and then going deeper as you want, walking the hands in line with the foot, maybe nose to knee, maybe grabbing one shin, one forearm, sorry, around the shin, or working on pressing through that bottom leg and trying to find a little airtime balancing on the foot. You got one more breath here. And then releasing back low lunge, plank pose as you inhale, vinyasa, chaturanga as you exhale. Inhale up dog. Exhale downward facing dog.

Take a deep breath. From the back of the mat, take an inhale, exhale step hop or float to the front of the mat. Slowly roll through the spine to stand. Take a moment to ground your feet, feel yourself standing at the top of your mat. Utitaosta, straight leg press.

Shift into your left hand, hands on hips to start Draw your right knee into your chest, grab your right knee with your right hand. Once you feel your body stable on that standing leg, take your peace fingers and thumbs, grab your right big toe, and slowly start to straighten your right heel, see how far you can get the legs straight. You can stay lifted in the chest or gently start to pull your forehead down, pulling your chest closer and closer towards that standing leg. See if you can take a breath or so here. You'll inhale lift the chest if you fold it and then slowly come back and release the foot to the floor. Find both feet on the ground, even yourself out a little bit.

And then shifting through the warrior three back into your right foot, switch the legs, reach your arms up to the sky. As you shift the weight into the right foot, float that left foot just an inch off the floor, try to keep your body nice and long, as the heel goes back, let that tell you when the hips start to hinge and find that warrior three reaching forward, reaching back length as your friend here, finding a nice long line, and then slowly, but surely sweeping it down back to that standing split. Lengthening as you go down, take an inhale, and then exhale releasing back to low lunge. Take your blocks once again, frame that foot, drop your back knee, untuck your toes. Slowly, but surely find your half split, and feel free to stay here if the hamstrings are feeling a little tight today.

As you want to, pressing into the block, shifting the heel forward inch by inch, little by little, until maybe you end up into your full splits. You start to find your hips pressing down to the floor using the blocks hinging forward over the front leg. Maybe you start to reach the arms forward, get a nice deep forward fold. Take two nice, slow deep breaths here. Feeling yourself reaching in both directions in the split.

With control, walk your hands back up, blocks frame on the leg, bring yourself back to that lunge, put the blocks off to the side, and then find your down dog split just for a nice release here, and you can straighten the leg, bend the knee, open the hip, anything that feels good to get some blood flow back in there. One legged Chaturanga, inhale stretch the right leg back, shift the chest forward, exhale lower down. Inhale toes meet an updog, and exhale downward facing dog. Take a deep breath. From your down dog, take an inhale bend your knees, look forward, exhale step hop or float to the front of the mat.

Then your knees roll through the spine to stand, tadasana. From your tadasana, bring your hands to your hips, shift your weight into your right foot this time. Draw your left knee into your chest. Take your left hand to the knee and take a moment to find your standing balance. You can stay here, or grab your big toe with your left piece fingers and thumbs and slowly straighten the left heel forward as far as you want to. You stay nice and lifted and tall or gently start to pull on the toe, press the toe and bring the forehead closer to the knees.

Stay for another breath or two. You lift the chest slowly and you come back the way you came releasing the foot to the floor. Once you find your stability on both legs, shift the weight into the left foot now, reach your arms up to the sky, find the length, and then float the right foot just an inch, see if you can keep your body nice and long as you push the heel back, let the hips tell you how to drop the chest. Keep reaching, reaching as your friend as you balance through the warrior three, try to pause in the middle, and then keep going as slowly as you can until the hands come back to that standing split at the floor. Slowly, release the right leg back, low lunge and then grab your blocks, frame the blocks, frame the foot with your blocks, and then drop the knee.

Take a moment to find your half splits to begin, tuck your flex your front toes, and take a second to hinge over. Decide if you want to stay here, or little by little inch by inch slowly straightening that heel forward until maybe you land in your full splits. You take a second to settle in and then start to hinge forward using the blocks and support as needed, maybe eventually going into a nice deep forward fold in your splits. You got a good two to three breaths here, allowing yourself the nervous system to settle into these deeper poses. In whatever version you are, just tell yourself that exactly where you are supposed to be.

Take another good two or so breaths here, allowing yourself your nervous system to get more and more comfortable in these deeper, more uncomfortable spaces. Last breath. With control, you'll walk yourself up. You can use the blocks for support to come back to that lunge, put the blocks off to the side, and then find that release, that counter down dog split as you reach the left leg up, bend the knee, open the hip, roll the knee as you like, stretch the leg, just get all the blood flow moving back again. Three legged chaturanga as you shift forward, keep that back leg reaching, inhale shoulders over wrists, and exhale lower chaturanga.

Toes meet an up dog, inhale, exhale downward facing dog, hips high and back. Take a deep breath in, and open the mouth and let it go. From your down dog, inhale to plank pose, and as slowly as you can lower all the way to the belly. Once you're on your belly, meet me in a sphinx pose. Bring your forearms onto the earth, elbows underneath, palms flat, forearms parallel.

Take a second, maybe to wiggle your hips side to side. Nice little counter to all this forward folding we do. We'll just stretch through the front body, press the palms into the earth and softly think about pulling the the floor towards you as you lengthen the heart forward and slightly up. Take a couple breaths here, and feel free to stay just like this, or move into your seal pose, press the top of the feet into the floor. And then once again, keep pulling them out forward as you lift the elbows from underneath and think about getting longer by pressing the legs down, thinking about the legs reaching back, and then the heart reaching forward and up, allowing the shoulder blades to retract, get closer together around your back.

Take another deep breath in here, and exhale. Last one. With control, bending the elbows if they lifted, and bringing your pants to stack like a pillow, and resting your forehead on the pillow for a nice counter release. From here, bring your hands to the floor, press down, lift up, and then swing your legs around to the front of the mat. We'll finish closing out these hamstrings with a nice Pachimottanasana variation a, grabbing your big toes with your peace fingers and your thumbs, pushing the toes forward as you pull the toes, get a nice long spine, send your sit bones back and down into the floor inhale. As you exhale hinge forward, hug the elbows down to the floor by the legs, and tuck the chin if you like and drop the belly closer to the thighs.

Keep pushing the toes forward while you're pulling the toes, keeping those legs active. Two, three breaths here. As you inhale, lift the chest up, get the spine nice and long again. Same thing or add the another variation, reaching the arms past the legs wrapping around, grabbing the right wrist with the left hand, flexing the outer blades of the feet wide like you're pressing into the wall, deep breath, inhale, and exhale fold. See how low and close you can get. Another breath here. With control, slowly rise up to seat and see how slowly you can roll all the way onto your back.

As you lie down, we'll finish with an inversion, plow pose, press your palms into the earth, lift the legs up to the sky and bring the feet up overhead to behind you. Maybe the feet touch the floor, maybe the hands rest into the low back and hang out here for a good slow three or four breaths. Letting the natural inversion slow the breath down. With control, use your hands as kick stands and gently unravel through the spine vertebra by vertebra. Once the hips touch the floor, try to keep the legs in the same slow movement that the spine was in until the heels touch the floor.

When the heels touch the floor, let the body spread wide, maybe a sensation of melting as you release everything down. Shavasana corpse pose resting here. Allow yourself to drift away from the work and move into the receiving. Feel free to stay in Shavasana as long as you'd like. Otherwise, when you're ready, roll over to one side.

Roll to sit up and finish in the same way you started. Find a comfortable seat where the spine can be stacked. Once you find your seat, return to stillness as soon as you can, close your eyes, soften your gaze, and just take a final moment to watch just to witness. To maybe see what new unravelings you may have seen within yourself. Bring your hands to heart center, bow your gaze in reverence and gratitude.

We'll close with a single, inhale. Thank you.