Down to Earth

Thank you for joining me today for down to earth. For today's practice, we will need two blocks. We're gonna get started standing. So take your hands, place them right on your belly, Let your feet be a little bit wider than hip bone distance apart. Put a little bit of a bend to your knees. Close your eyes.

And let's take a nice big breath in through the nose. Exhale out the mouth. And, again, inhale. And exhale. Keeping the eyes closed, keeping the knees softly bent.

Just start to make contact with your feet into the earth, really noticing the feet. Sensing the big toes to the outer heels, the pinky toes to the inner heels, and everything else in the middle just sort of balancing up and off of the earth. Relax your shoulders, relax every muscle of the face. And with the hands on the belly, Just begin to connect to your breath. Just feeling the belly moving in and out as we inhale and as we exhale.

Noticing the body. Is it naturally swaying, forward and back or side to side? And noticing if there's any squeezing or gripping anywhere on the body and give it permission to soften. It's taking a moment to open up the imagination. And through the imagination, we imagine a golden thread running all the way from the universe.

Through the baby soft spot of the head, down the throat, down the chest, down the belly out the perineum and into the earth. Connecting us to both the universal and to the personal, to the here, and to the now, rooting us down so that we can rise up. So feel the feet as they're plugging into the earth, not with the sense of rigidity, but with the sense of light connection. Feel the lower ribs lifting up and off of the pelvis. Bill yourself occupying center, grounded and stable, and yet quite free.

Take a nice big full breath into all that space through the nose. Xhale sigh it out. One more time, inhale. And exhale. Just gently blink the eyes open.

Keep the little bit of a bend to the knees. Just gonna do some light tapping to wake up the body. So you're just gonna start to tap first on the chest with the palms of the hands. It feels good to sway side to side or move forward and back. Feel free to do that, which is a very light tap tap tap across the chest, going across the collar bones, go to the left shoulder, go down the left arm, the left wrist, the left palm, back of the left palm, around the elbow, back up through the side of the neck. And then switching, so we start to tap the right shoulder all the way down the right arm, the right hand, the right wrist, right elbow, Coming back going down, down down through the solar plexus, tapping out the belly, all the way down to the frontal hip points, down the thighs through the inner thighs over the knees, the sides of the legs, bending the knees going down the sides of the calves, the inner calves, The backs of the calves all the way up to the backs of the knees, hamstrings, go around the glutes.

And as best you can, see if we can start to tap tap tap out through the low back, and then let the arms rest by the sides, just pause, feel that vibration as it flows through the body. Reconnect the feet to the earth. And then keeping the feet quite wide, just come into a forward fold. So go ahead if it feels good and grab opposite elbows and move it outside to side. Keeping those knees bent.

Shaking the head. Yes. Shaking the head no. And then we'll release opposite elbows, bring your feet slightly wider. Heels and toes out, we're gonna grab our two blocks. One stacked on top of the other at the low setting, and we carefully come down into a squat.

So knees and toes line up. You're gonna bring your palms together at your heart, just a slight activation of pushing out through the backs of the arms into the inner thighs, using that contact to lift the chest so that we find a slight forward tilt of the pelvis. The perineum is really plugging into the blocks. Chins softly and towards the chest, taking about 10 breaths here, breathing all the way up from the tail to the chest. Breathing out from the chest, down and out the tail, back into the earth.

Giving the feet fully connected to the earth, big toes, outer heels, pinky toes, inner heels, let the arches just lift up and balance off the earth, which is gonna give us a little more of a lift. Through the sides of the chest. Let's take a big breath in. Big breath out. One more time in the out.

Exhale. Good take your time. We're coming out of the squat. You're gonna plant your hands, lift your hips. He'll toe your feet in slightly.

We're gonna slide the blocks off to the side. Step back into a downward facing dog. It's taking a moment here to pedal out the feet, shake the head. And then moving into sleeping swan pigeon, we're gonna take our right knee forward behind and slightly outside of the right wrist. Go ahead and come on down into the top of the back leg, top of the back foot.

Lift your chest so we feel the heart reaching forward and slightly up. And then come forward any amount. Perhaps on the forearms. And just allow the head to relax, allow the shoulders to move back and away from the ears, and allow your breath to be quite full. Unclench the jaw.

Just thirty more seconds. And as you're ready, gently press up onto your hands, lift your chest one more time, take a big breath in. XL. Without fidgeting too much, you're gonna shift over into the right hip, swing the left leg around, come right away onto your back without moving too much, finding a mini shavasana. Just allow that to move through you.

Let the body reset itself. Feel your whole back just making contact with the earth. And then start to wiggle out the fingers, start to wiggle out through the toes, shift your head side to side. Bring your feet onto the mat. And then roll over onto your left side into a little fetal position.

Take your time. We'll press ourselves back up into a tabletop. Circling your hips out a few times one way. Few times the other way. And then finding downward facing dog one more time.

From here, moving into our sleeping swan or our pigeon on the other side. So take your left knee forward behind and outside of the left wrist. Go ahead and slide down onto the top of the back leg and foot. Keep your chest lifted for a moment so we find a slight backbend from the pubis up to the naval up to the sternum. And then allow yourself to come forward and fold any amounts.

Dropping down into the body, relaxing the shoulders as much as we can away from the ears. Just notice if we're squeezing and gripping the hand, see if we can allow the hands to relax. Breathe well. Stay with the breath. It's thirty more seconds.

And then gently begin to press yourself back up onto your hands, lifting your chest, big breath in. Big exhale. And then we'll shift over into the left hip, swing the right leg around, come onto your back, finding Sebastian Boston without fidgeting too much. Just feeling a surrender to the earth. The whole back of the body, just letting go and melting into the earth.

Go ahead and wiggle out through your fingers, through your toes. Shift your head softly from side to side. And then bring your legs together. Inhale reach the arms up overhead. Maybe hooking your thumbs.

From here, we're gonna start to take the upper body over to the left. Start to take the legs over to the left. Keep your right hip point down as best you can for baddhanasana. Right ankle might cross over the left. So there is a heaviness to the right side of the body to that right outer hip and to the right shoulder just melting down towards the earth. Just let yourself breathe fully into the whole right side of the body inviting expansion through the right ribcage.

Few more breaths. And then if we've crossed the right ankle over the left, just release that right leg down, start to slowly walk the legs back to center. Slowly bring the upper body and the arms back to center. Bring the arms down by your sides for a breath just to reset. And then inhale reach the arms back up, maybe hooking the thumbs, start to curve the upper body over to the right.

Start to take the legs over to the right. Finding Van and Austin on this side, perhaps the left ankle on the right, feeling and inviting that left hip point to move down, breathing space into the left side of the body. Just invite that expansion through the left rib cage here. Releasing any unnecessary effort in the face. Just breathe.

Few more breaths. And then if the left ankle's crossed over the right, just release it, bringing your legs back to center. Bringing the torso and the arms back to center, bring the arms down by your sides. Pause for a breath. And then both feet come on to the earth when shield wiper the knees softly from side to side.

Then we'll hug the knees into the chest, finding happy baby. So you can grab the backs of the thighs, the big toes, or the outer edges of the feet. We're gonna start to kick out through the legs rocking gently from side to side. Pausing for five breaths here in stillness. Just release the tail, the low back, towards the earth, or imagine that happening.

Big breath in. Big exhale. Rockets side to side again. And then squeeze the knees in. Go ahead and roll over to your left side.

Just curl up for a couple of breaths. And take your time slowly rising up into a seat. Finding a nice tall spine. Close your eyes. Roll the shoulders down the back.

Plug the sits bones down into the earth so we feel that grounding through the earth, and then feel yourself lift up and out of the earth, connecting to all the space that you've opened up. Bowel the chin in towards the chest, and take a moment to seal in your effort, to seal in your practice today with gratitude. Thank you for practicing with me. Namaste.