Root to Self

Welcome, we're going to begin this practice at the top of our mat in Tadasan. So come on and join me. We'll start just by rooting ourselves through our feet and grounding. So whatever point of your day this is, let yourself just use your breath to feel yourself anchored in your bones. And now we begin with three half sun sluts.

Bring your hands to your heart center and prayer. Take a deep breath in, reach up, Urdhva Hastasan, and then exhale. Hinge at the hips, fold forward and down, inhale, lift the chest, exhale, fold again. I'm going to roll up. You can come up with a straight spine, reach up, and then bring your hands to your heart.

So we'll repeat that two more times. If you want to go deeper, feel free. Inhale from the spring of the ankles all the way through the heart. And then exhale. Again, I'm lengthening in that extension.

Hands are coming on my shins, inhale, lift, exhale, fold. I'm going to take a little bend in my knees, just make it a little deeper. And inhale, I'm rolling up. You're fine to come with a straight spine, reach, hands to prayer. Third and final round.

So you can tell we're starting slow and we're going to move, inhale, breathe. Prayer hands, exhale, fold, a little deeper, inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bow, gentle. This time I'm coming up with a straight spine, inhaling, bringing the prayer hands to the heart, grounding once again, upright and equal. And now we're going into one of my favorite kriyas, breath of happiness.

So feet can stay apart for utkatasana or you bring your big toes to touch, bend your knees. Your hands will come down by your sides. It's a three-part inhale through your nose and then a one-part exhale through your mouth and your arms coordinate with. So you can watch the first round. It's an inhale, arms up, inhale, arms down, inhale, arms up, and then exhale, everything out, arms come down.

So join me now. In, in, in, out. And in, in, in, out. How about three more rounds, in, in, in, out. All right, it's happiness, in, that we're forging into, in, in, out.

This is the final round, in, in, in, out, and then inhale, stand. You can stay at the top of your mat. I'm going to demonstrate these in the middle of my mat. We're going to wake up folding our legs into our chest. So go ahead and fold whatever leg feels right for you into your chest, exhaling, adding balance, and then release.

Let's go, inhale, exhale, and if your balance is off, no big deal, inhale, exhale, linking breath to movement. I always love these because they challenge myself and they seem so simple. Final round. I'm going to add little hip circles. So I fold the thigh in and I bring it around and down.

Okay, two more, inhaling, exhaling, one more, inhaling, exhaling. Let's do the other side to match the effort with the ease linking inside and out. And the last one, to me, is the most challenging. The opposite hand will touch the opposite heel when you bend the knee and release. So stay true to your breath and keep calm as you tap and tap.

One more round, tap, and tap, and then stand in stillness. You're already still at the top of your mat. I'm going to join you there now. Let's add on, inhale, arms come up, exhale, pull, prayer, hands through the heart. Now lengthen, take the left leg back, the right leg back, and come into Adho Mukashwanasan, downward facing dog.

So here you are, spreading your fingers, peddling your feet, maybe wagging your tail, feeling this modified vinyasa. Let's just take an inhale to the plank and an exhale to the dog. Inhale, lift the right leg, step the right foot forward, left foot forward, inhale, lift chest, exhale, fold, inhale all the way up, exhale, hands to the heart. We're going to just do one more round, getting that prana, that life force moving through. Inhale, arms up, exhale, fold, inhale, lengthen, left leg, right leg, down dog.

In breath, out breath, inhale, plank, exhale, dog. Inhale, lift, left leg, exhale, step left foot forward, right foot forward, hands on chins, inhale, chest towards thighs, exhale, inhale, straight or rounded spine, come on all the way up, my friends. Bring your hands to your heart center in prayer. So we stand for ourselves. We keep coming back to this place.

Good job. Let's fold that left thigh in, breathing in, fold it in, here's my balance. We're going to step back with the left leg. Can you do it? I think you can.

And we're going to put our hands on our hips and guess what we're going to do now? We're going to straighten the right leg, inhale, and bend the right knee. If you want to add on with bent elbows, whoops, I hit myself, inhale straighten, exhale, bend. One more time, inhale, exhale, hands prayer, step the back foot forward, stand. Right thigh folds in, breathe, goes back, balance, hands, hips, or cactus, your choice.

In breath, flossing out, breath, bend. Two more rounds, inhale, exhale. I love that moment where I almost fall out, inhale, exhale, hands prayer, step forward. So you can see those moments for the opportunity of grace. Here we go, we're adding on, fold that left thigh in, step back, warrior two.

We are being such rebels, we're skipping warrior one. So find yourself where your shoulders track above your pelvis, be bright in that heart, look over the right shoulder, recline the upper traps, and feel how there's a little shimmy here, little shimmy. Reverse your warrior, breathe in and breathe out. What a gift you're giving yourself to practice. Inhale, come up, strong legs, straighten that right leg, or mostly straighten.

And if you need to shorten the stance, go ahead, let's slurp that right thigh in and slide into uttita, checking us an extended triangle. Now we remember here, it's not how low you go, it's how beautiful your breath is and the expansion to the five long lines, two arms, yeah, two legs, and your spine. Spin those left ribs. You got this, my friends. What a gift to breathe.

The transition, simply bend the right knee, sometimes it helps to look down, put the forearm on the thigh, reach the left arm over, spin the left ribs, uttita, parsvakanasana. Now I just caught myself, my upper traps were rising and I just said, release. If you like, you can take the arm down. If you feel like you want to wrap the arm, you can, otherwise just stay with it. Breathing in, breathing out, inhale, come up through center, exhale, hands to heart, mostly straighten that right leg and then bend it, pivot onto the left toes.

You've been here before, step forward, ground down. What a difference it is to be on two feet together and apart. Let's begin again. Fold the right thigh in, warrior two, stepping back. I love this kind of a practice.

Bend the knee, first off, because we've removed the chaturanga, sit, travel inward with your gaze laser-like and secondly reverse the warrior because we've shifted the lane that we're living in, breathing in, we're breathing in and breathing out. What do I mean by that? We're stepping back instead of stepping forward. Inhale, come up, that left leg almost to straight, my knee locking friends, a little micro bend and then slide into extended triangle. So there's a significant amount of recruiting for the muscular energy and then there's this quality of surfing in the body, in the breath.

Open the left knee, knee above the ankle, maybe you need to shorten the stance, extended side angle if you're binding, bind, if you want the left arm down. We know deep down inside ourselves, it's not how far you go, it's how present you are in the practice with your body. Inhale, come up through warrior two, straighten and then bend, come on to the right toes, I like to bring my hands into prayer, steady and then step forward. Here's our landing pad, we keep coming back to this beautiful space, grounding mountain. Hold the left thigh in, step back with the left foot, turn your feet parallel.

Now just for a gauge, I look down at my toes in a nice sweet way just to make sure they're in the same space. Hands on the hips, inhale, stretch the front body, chin, chest, exhale, fold, place your hands on the mat, inhale, lift the chest and then exhale, fold. Now in this moment, you can negotiate with yourself, would you like your feet wider? Do you want your hands to slide back further? Is there more room to traction that spine as your upper traps move up and your elbows bend above that crease of the wrist?

And then here you are, you're here to breathe, I'm here to breathe, we're here together. Now lift the chest, exhale, hands to hips, squeeze those elbows as you rise up, my friends. Little gift for you, turn your heels in and your toes out, pelvis starts to lower down. Oh yes, we're here together in goddess temple. So I do look at my knees and I kind of let them track right above the ankles.

So they're like little pillars and my thighs are like a little bench and when I get a little shaky in the inner thighs, something is right. Let's add a little adjustment of the spine, meaning arch curl, because why not inhale on the down, exhale on the up. Can you give me one more, inhale down, exhale rounding as you come up. Now let's switch it, scoop and round down like a little snake of that spine and arch and come up and one more time. Scoop round down and you'll notice the pelvis might buoy up, no big deal, arch up.

Now we're going to go ahead and bend the left knee and slide into skandhasan. Now when I do this, I'm mindful about having a little softness in my right knee so I can roll my right thigh without walking and blocking the energy in the back of the leg. And then slowly switch sides. Now obviously if you feel a bit stronger today, you can take one hand off or maybe two. You could have your right heel down, totally up to you.

Let's go back to the left side and kind of hydrate in there. I can feel like my ankle appreciates this. I use my left elbow to nudge my left thigh, just give it a little more of that work. And then slowly mindfully, mindfully, excuse me, coming back to the right side, breathe, moving the water, the vibes in the body. Okay friends, let's just walk through the center, turn the toes in, the thigh bones roll in, so wonderful.

And then bring the hands to the hips, come up, feel what you feel, turn the right foot, step back, ground. How about a little circle of the hips? I think that'll feel lovely. So I'm going to do one each way, and then I'm sure you knew this was coming, malasan. So take your feet as wide as the mat, obviously if you need something wedged under your heels, you like to prop your hips with a block, go for that.

Sit down and squat. Now the squat gives us the gift of just noticing, here I am, I am here. Here I am, I am here. And then slowly, maybe gracefully, who knows, land your hips down and your feet forward. Let's do what I like to call a quickie core.

Let's scooch those hips back, bring the knees together, twist, go ahead to your left with your palms together in prayer, and then inhale, come up. Exhale to your right, you'll notice I'm twisting in, I'm lowering in, inhale, come up. The good news is, we only have two more, and it's an opportunity, twist, not an obligation. That's a great way to look at it, twist, and come up, make that breath significant, down, and then up, and then let's hold in the center, just for a moment, scoop that belly in, and since we've been folding our legs in, why not fold the left thigh, lower, right thigh, lower, and then go ahead and sit up. I hope that felt really good to you.

Now we're going to take our hands behind us. Sometimes for a measurement, I'll come onto my elbows, and where my elbows were, I'll put my hands. Then you're going to slide your feet in. This is tabletop, gives a little front body stretch for all those knee folds. You can keep looking forward if it feels right, aligned for your neck and your cervical.

You can let your chin rise up, pelvis up, and then slowly, my friends, you'll work your hips down and bring your feet forward. Let's just lift the chest. Now you may want to pull the flesh back, be steady here. You could stand on Dawson and just appreciate the horizontal line of the legs and the vertical line of the spine, or you can inhale, lift your chest, and exhale, come forward into Paschimottanasana. Now as you're here, keep the length in the spine, flex the feet.

If you're in Dandasana, stay with that appreciation. We just have two more breaths here. Then the hands will come forward. You're going to roll down onto that back of yours, slide your heels in. With your knees bent and your feet parallel, slowly peel and bridge up.

Feel how you're rolling those shoulder blades in towards each other, inhaling, exhaling. Activate the back of the legs. And then this time, as you come down, let yourself drip by drip. Be with your breath here right now. Take your hips to the right and your knees to the left, you can stay for three to five breaths.

Some people prefer to look to the right. If the neck is sensitive, it might feel great for you to look to the left. If you want to cactus or straighten your arms, this is just a moment to rinse. Come through the center, gently move your hips to the left and your knees to the right. And again, cactusing arms, straight arms.

I just like to just use my hands to remind my body to be where it is. Be grateful for what just happened. And then unravel. Come back through center. Allow yourself to just let the legs go long and the palms of the hands face the ceiling.

If you need a putter of the lips or if you need a shimmy or a shake. And as always, you my friends can stay as long as you like in that reclined shape. Namaste.