Grounded Strength

Welcome everyone to class. Today's class grounded strength is an invitation to feel the support of the earth beneath your body. So let's begin on our backs. Start in supta baddha konasana, joining the soles of your feet together, letting the knees part wide. If that's not comfortable for your low back, just bend your knees, feet on the mat.

Close your eyes. Let the palms face up towards the sky for a moment. Just feel your whole body, the parts of the body that are resting on the earth. You'll place one hand on the belly and one hand on your heart to notice your body as it moves and breathes. So on your inhale, feel the belly rise, feel the chest rise.

As you exhale, feel the belly fall, feel the chest fall. We'll be here for three breaths. Breathing down into the belly, filling all the way to the chest, and exhaling all the breath out. Please do that twice more on your own. And the next time you exhale, just feel how your whole body is moving in the same direction as gravity towards the earth, you're settling, arriving.

Take a moment to set an intention for your practice. Blink your eyes open, hands to the thighs, join the knees back in towards one another. We're gonna make our way into downward facing dog. Just a couple of pointers for your down dog, make sure that your hands are shoulder width apart. Look back at your feet so that they're hip width.

And now your hands and feet are touching the surface, touching the earth. So root your palms down. But at the same time, your inner arms are lifting away from the earth. Right? So the inner arms are resisting gravity. Notice the mounds of your big toe and your pinky toes pressing down. Try to even get your heels to draw towards the ground.

And if you start to feel your spine is rounding, you can always bend through your knees. Take one more breath here. Big exhale. And on your next inhale, lift your heels. Look forward, bend the knees, end of the exhale.

Step up to the top of the mat. Inhale halfway up, breathing in. XL forward fold. Ground the feet to the earth inhale rise. Hands to your heart.

Moving into Sunolute a, inhale, reach up, breathing. XL hinge from your hips and fold. Halfway up, inhale shrug your shoulders back. Step back to your first plank pose, pause there. And feel your hands like you did in down dog, feel your feet.

Push the earth away, feel the front of the belly, drawing up, lengthen your tailbone to your heels. Take a breath. Looking forward, shift forward, bend your elbows. And for this one, come all the way down to the mat. Point your toes back.

Keep your hands where they are, inhale lift your chest for cobra. Exhale tuck the toes downward facing dog. Big breath in through the nose. Full breath out through the nose. Inhale your heels lift.

Bend the knees, look forward. Step up to the top of your mat. Come up halfway, breathing in. Forward fold, breathe out. Ground your feet, feel your strength as you rise, inhale.

Hands to the heart. Adding on inhale arms to the sky. Exhale, forward fold to the earth. You're coming up halfway between the two, the earth and the sky, and then step your left foot back You're gonna place your hands down to the mat, step in your left foot back. If you want, you can frame your right foot with blocks, one on each side of that right foot, left knee lowers to the mat.

If you have sensitivity to that knee, you can always put a blanket there or fold the left side of your mat. Pick up your left foot and place it over to the right side. We're coming into a variation of extended side angle. So that back knee is down. You've got your right knee on top of that, right ankle. Your left hand is on your hip, and you wanna press into your right thigh with your right elbow and forearm.

So feeling that root into the heel of your foot. Take your left arm to the back of your mat, opening the palm to the left, inhale here. And as you exhale, sweep that left arm forward, spinning the pinky side of the hand down and the thumb up. And we'll do that one more time. Inhale as you circle that left arm to the back of your mat, exhale as the arm sweeps forward.

Reach that left arm up. And set your hands back onto the block, pick up your left foot, bring it back to the left side of your mat, lift the left knee. We're spinning that left heel down. So move your right heel a little bit left so you're more of a heel to arch alignment with your feet. The block on the right side is gonna come all the way up against that right foot.

Choose how high you wanna place that block. Right hand down, left arm goes up. And so feel the edge of your left foot now pressing into the earth, moving with gravity, really anchoring you in that back leg. Hug that right hip into the midline of the mat. And we'll do the same thing with that top arm that we did a moment ago.

So reaching back to the back of your mat with your left arm in hell, exhale as you sweep that top arm forward. One more time, inhale as the left arm circles back, exhale as it circles forward, inhale root your feet, warrior two, feeling your strong legs. Really strong, right, thigh. Just take a peek at your knee, making sure it's not going past the ankle. It's in line with that second or third toe.

Flip your right palm, reverse it back, inhale. XL, circle your hands to your mat. Choose a vinyasa or not. It's up to you. I'm in a lower into Chaturanga, exhale halfway or all the way. Cobra, or maybe you're choosing up dog now, if you're choosing up dog, root the tops of your feet in your hands, lift your chest, exhale downward facing dog.

Breathe in through your nose. Breathe out through your nose. High toes inhale. Bend the knees. At the end of your exhale step or hop, top of the mat. Half way up, breathe in.

Forward fold, breathe out. Ground both feet, inhale to rise. Join your palms to your heart. Inhale arms go up. Exhale, ride the breath as you fold.

Halfway up to breathe. And this time, step your right foot back. Set up your blocks, framing your left foot, place your right knee down, cushion that right knee if you need to. Move your right foot over to the left side of your mat, coming into that variation of extended side angle. So you're placing your form to the thigh.

Press into the thigh, give your left heel some more weight. And then your right hand, right arm reaches for the back of the mat, turn the palm open to the right inhale. Exhale sweep that arm forward. One more time, circle that arm to the back of the mat inhale, exhale circle it to the front of the mat. Now reach that right arm up to the sky.

Take a breath. As you exhale lower your hands to the blocks or the mat so that we can set up for full extended side angle, your right foot moves to the right. Lift your right knee, then your back heel flat on its side. Left heel aligns to right arch. The block on the left goes all the way up against the foot, left hand down, right arm up.

You wanna feel the edge of your back foot again. Just check-in with your feet. Feel the connection between feet and earth. Now right arm reaches to the back of the mat, inhale, exhale, sweep it forward. Inhale circle it to the back, exhale circle it forward.

Inhale warrior two. Root your feet. Come up strong. Land here, breathe here, soften the shoulders, the jaw, the gaze. Flip your left palm and reverse it back inhale.

Hand circle to the mat as you exhale, either to down dog right away, or through chataranga, cobra or upward dog, feel your roots, tops of the feet and hands, exhale to downward facing dog. Pauseing forward breath in. Pause for the breath out. Inhale, your heels come up. XL, bend the knees, stepping or hopping to the top of the mat.

I'm choosing to step up. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold. Inhale rise. Hands to heart. Arms by your sides, mountain pose, feeling your two feet.

Bend the knees, inhale, chair pose, utkatasana, pausing here for a couple of breaths. You wanna draw your shins back just a little bit. Draw your hips back, scoop your lower belly to the naval, lift your heart, take a breath, and exhale fold. Inhale, rise halfway. Your choice vinyasa or down dog. Inhale to up dog or cobra.

Exhale to downward dog. Pausing in your down dog. Take a full cycle of breath. Lift your heels up high. Bend the knees again, step or hop, top of the mat.

Breathe in halfway, lifting, exhale fold, rise on the inhale. And join your palms to your heart. So you're gonna stay at the top of the mat with your feet, hip width apart. So we're gonna be playing with a little bit of balance. But first, just feel all four corners pressing down, your hands on your hips, bend your right knee and lift your right knee to the height of your hip.

You wanna keep your hip points leveled. So drop your outer right hip down from your left hip in. Stay here or grab a hold of your right big toe with the first three fingers, extend your right leg straight. Good. So where you gaze makes a difference. Hey, looking down at the earth, staying grounded.

You could take your knee or your leg over to the right, opening up your hip, opening up the leg, keeping the breath fluid, and then bring your right foot into tree pose, placing the foot either to the thigh or the shin, right, just as long as it's not on your knee. Hands to your heart. How are you doing? You're breathing through this. Whether you found your balance or perhaps wiggling in and out of it.

It's all perfect. Arms reach up. Left your heart. Bring your right knee forward and set your right foot down. Lower your arms alongside your body and two feet on the earth again.

Hands on your hips. Feel that your hips are leveled. Bend your left knee, lift your knee to the height of your hip, and pause and check-in. Did that left hip lift. Right? So make the adjustment.

Hook the left big toe if you wish, extend that leg straight. Find your drishti, your gaze, looking down at the earth or eye level. Take your leg over to the left, feeling the strength of your standing leg. And then bring your left foot into tree pose. Notice seeing where you've placed it.

Hopefully not on the knee. Hands to your heart. Rick Shasana tree pose. Your arms can lift, find your full expression of tree, trees breathe. So make sure you're breathing. And then bring that knee forward, lower the feet so they're together on the earth, arms by your sides. Take a moment.

Just pause. Feel your breath, feel your heartbeat. And then coming again to the top of the mat, we're at the top of the mat, inhale utkatasana one the last time. Fierce pose. Pausing here, grounded strength.

Can you draw your tailbone towards the earth and lift your pubic bone towards your heart? Extend through all four sides of your waist. Lift your chest a little bit. Caller bones wide. Take a breath.

And as you exhale, start to lower your side bones, all the way down, you're welcome to use your hands. If you need that extra support, otherwise take your sit bones down, lower your hands, make your way onto your mat. You're on your sit bones. Coming into Dandasana for a moment. From here, we're gonna go into Janu Shashasana.

So keep your left leg straight. Grab Underneath the right knee, bend the right knee, place the right foot in the left inner thigh, tent your fingers, alongside your sit bones, each side of the hips, and inhale, lift your chest, feel the sit bones rooted. As you exhale leading with your chest forward fold, your hands can walk forward. You can grab a shin or your foot. Just inhale to lengthen.

And as you exhale into more depth, feeling the stretch through the back of that left leg, ground the outer right hip, rotate the right side of the ribcage to the earth. And then inhale halfway lifting. Exhale as you walk your hands back, upright your torso, grab your right knee, bring it back to center, extend the right leg straight, both legs straight for a moment. Bend your left knee. Place your left foot in the right inner thigh.

And tent your fingers. I find this to be so supportive for me just to root down with the help of the fingers. They're like little levers here. Lift your heart. As you exhale, walk your hands towards the right foot, your hands can stay on the mat, or you can grab your foot.

Root, especially through the outer left hip, inhale, reach your sternum forward, and exhale, pause here, folding and rotating the left side of the ribcage to the earth. In how to lengthen, and exhale as you come up to an upright position, bring your left knee in, straighten out both of your legs. And let's come into Shivasana. So resting and finishing our practice on our backs. The legs are extended out in front of you.

Rest one hand to your heart, one over your belly to reconnect to your intention from the beginning of class. To remember that you are held and that there's support beneath your body. And the whole back body can relax. The whole front body can soften. And just feeling the invitation to integrate your practice.

Into every cell of your bean. Thank you for sharing your practice with me today. Namaste.