Hatha Yoga

1 hour 23 minutes
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Transcript

Okay, so let's start by coming into a comfortable seated position and this is pretty key to yoga finding a comfortable seated position. I like to sit up on a couple of blankets and you all have a couple of blankets available and you can sit in a cross legged position. It's nice to support the lower leg with the foot so that it's not quite as extreme of an angle and you might want to take your feet a little bit further away from you, because that reduces the flexion at the hips and the knees which can be a little bit more comfortable on the jaw It's also fine to bring the soles of the feet together and you have blocks. So you might want to put blocks underneath your knees at any height to provide a little bit of support and that also, it reduces the, the weight that's hanging on the hips by supporting the legs.

If at any point during this initial centering practice, you start to feel uncomfortable in your hips or knees or anywhere else in the body, feel free to make an adjustment. And so for some people, that just means extending the leg for a little bit, I'll sometimes notice that someone does a little massaging of a part of the body that they're noticing is starting to speak to them. So during any point in the class, beginning or otherwise, feel free to adjust as you need. Certainly, the principle of Ahimsa should apply to this class as it should to any other And in order to do no harm to our body, we have to listen to the messages when when you feel a little something that that has shifted in some way or another, respond to that appropriately. Are there any questions this morning before we begin? Okay, so finding your seated position, be sure that you're sitting just slightly forward on the sits bone so that you're not rolling back and putting pressure on the lower back.

So tilting the pelvis just a little bit forward, roll the shoulders back and down, and you can put your fingers on top of the shoulders and find that little bump, that's the end of the collarbone. It's called the acromion process. And I like to think of that as being right over the top of the hip. So the iliac crest or the top of the hip bone, and the acromion process should be aligned. So you might notice if they're a little bit forward or a little bit further back, so find that just right go The lock spot there and let the arms relax. Find the length in your spine.

This is the tallest that you ever get first thing in the morning when you've just spent a whole lot of time horizontal. And you've taken the compression out of the discs between the vertebrae. So appreciate that length in the spine and close your eyes for a moment. Because it allows us to just come inward and pay attention. Find your breath, and you might put a hand on your belly. And notice that as you inhale, the belly expands, and as you exhale, the belly softens.

So this is deep diaphragmatic breathing. Instead of just allowing the chest cavity to expand as you breathe in, you really want to feel that the whole torso opens like a barrel. As the lungs fill with oxygen, the diaphragm moves down the belly moves out, and as you exhale, everything draws inward. Notice the phrasing of your breath. Whether the inhale and the exhale are of the same length or different, without any judgment, just observation. And if you've experienced any stress or tension getting to class this morning, you might want to think about lengthening your exhale.

Breathing in and very slowly letting it out. This engages the parasympathetic nervous system, the relaxation response. That turns off the stress response and allows the nervous system to calm which can also reduce pain. Begin class by sharing three ohms together a nice opportunity also to extend that exhale and to feel a sound vibrations. That moves through the body in hell together. Oh, feel the effects of that sound vibration in the body and in the space around you.

And then bring the palms together and create a little friction with the palms. You can bring the palms just slightly apart and notice the heat and energy between the poems. And as that starts to dissipate, generated again, as you're doing so notice any places of the body that are calling out for attention this morning, are they speaking to you in any way and imagine that this heat that you're generating is full of healing light. And as you're ready, bring your palms to that place in the body that's speaking to you. And allow the body to just soak that in and feel its effects. Notice that as you do that, the muscles begin to soften and let go just a little bit.

And then as you're ready, lower the hands. You might want to create an intention for this morning, something that you'd like to focus on with your practice. Maybe that's some Physical like balance, strength or flexibility. Maybe it's resilience, mindfulness, equanimity. And we'll bring our awareness back to that intention throughout the class. take a nice deep breath and let it out with a sigh and then as you're ready, extend the legs out in front of you, you have blocks nearby.

So, I like to put the blocks underneath my knees for sort of a modified staff pose. So that and you can have the blocks at whatever height feels comfortable for you. We're going to engage the quadricep muscles and this is a nice way to isolate it. The quadricep muscles cross over the knee joint to have the four muscles cross over that joint and strengthening those quadriceps muscles. is actually associated with delayed joint replacement for the knees. So the stronger your quads are, the healthier your knees are.

So it's a nice muscle to to keep strong. Remember yesterday we also talked about that reverse half squat that you need in order to live independently and get yourself up from sitting. This muscle group is also really important to that. You can bring your hands to your thighs. If you feel stable sitting upright here. You can also bring the hands to the sides and place the fingertips on the floor for a little bit of support.

And we're going to engage one side and then the other, straightening the knee and just extending the heel away from you. And you can feel that muscle engage if you place the hands on the thighs and the other side and you might want to flex the foot and press the heel away from you if that feels available to you. So you're raising and lowering the heel from the floor, alternating one side and then the other and you can Engage this with the breath. Think about inhaling as you raise up and exhaling as you lower or the other way around, play with that and see what feels good for you. Be sure that you're still sitting up nice and tall. And if you don't have blocks under the knees and the legs are just extending, you might not even lift the legs at all.

So it might just be a subtle engagement of the thigh. It's not an actually necessary for the leg to lift. And then give yourself a little massage of the size. Thank them for all the work that they do for you. And let that go shake them out. We're going to come on to hands and knees.

And this is also a nice opportunity to use the blankets for cushioning underneath the knees. You probably only need one blanket for this. And about half of you have wedges. Um so we'll make sure that everybody has an opportunity to To try these at some point, the wedge can be used for wrists or ankles in. In table pose, it would be for the wrist and you want to make sure that the fat end is toward you in this particular pose. I like them for my wrist because I have a little wrist discomfort.

So you placed the palms on the wedge and then you can spread the fingers and press the hands into the wedge. Another option here for other wrist alternatives is to just be on fingertips or fists, or you have your blocks and you can put forearms on blocks and then that takes the risks out of it entirely. In any of these positions, you want to make sure that the knees and the hips are aligned. So make any adjustments you need to so that the knees are hip distance apart and that you have a line perpendicular to the floor with the size And we'll do a little bit of cat cow here. So find the lengthen your spine long line, Crown of head to tail bone as though they're reaching for opposite walls. Make sure the elbows are soft so the insides of the elbows are looking toward each other not forward.

Drawing the belly in, round the back, tailbone tucks down, head lowers. And then arch the back, look out and up. Coordinating that with the breath. So exhale around. Inhale, toe heltah arch and move through that a few times on your own. in coordination with your own breath.

You might want to play with the timing seeing if your head and tail button can arrive simultaneously or if one is moving more quickly than the other. And then find your center. shift the weight over into the right knee and extend the left leg so you can come into a forced arch here where the toes the balls of the foot are on the floor, pressing the heel away. And you can find some nice lanes from crown up, head out through the heel. So stretching the back of the leg there stretching the hamstring, stretching the calves, try the other side. Make sure you're still breathing.

And then come back onto the first side and if you'd like to take this a little bit further, you can try lifting the foot off the floor just a little bit. The foot can be flexed, pressing away from you or it can be relaxed, whatever feels good for you. Bring it as high as feels comfortable for you. And notice how the core is engaged here. And then release that come back to center. shift the weight over to the other side.

And you can stay here for the ball of the foot on the floor, or if you'd like to try a little bit of balance, you can extend that leg, engaging the core, fold deep breath, make sure the elbows aren't locked. And then lower it down. Come back to table pose. tuck the toes under here. Press into the feet and come up into downward dog. So if you're, if you have a blanket under you, you might want to move that out of the way.

This you probably don't need the wedge because in downward dog, you already have an angle at the wrists and make sure that you're safe with your props here. Now actually, if you do have this wedge The down dog. It's nice to have it under the heels. So you might want to try that. especially early in the morning when the muscles may be a little bit tight, it can feel good to have that wedge underneath the heels. You can tread through the feet, pressing one and then the other toward the floor.

Reaching the hips up toward the ceiling, spread the palms, press them down into the floor. Full deep breath here. And then as you're ready, walk the feet toward the hands and the hands toward the feet coming into Forward Fold. Just hanging over for a moment here you might hold on to opposite elbows. Let the upper body just hang. You might interlace the fingers behind the back or bring the hands to the lower back You might want to hold on to your blocks or place your hands on your blocks or forums and your blocks.

Make sure that the knees are nice and soft that they're not locked. And let the weight of the head just hang. Bend the knees even deeper. Bring the hands to the thighs, lengthen the spine, nice long spine space between the vertebrae. And use the hands to assist you as you walk yourself up to standing nice and slow. Maybe a little head rush there as you come to standing.

Roll the shoulders back and down, shake out anything that needs shaking out. And then come to the front of your mat. We're going to do a sun salutation sequence here. Now you all have chairs behind you and you might want to use your chair for the sun salutation. I'm going to use a chair there are A lot of options for how deep you go in Sun Salutation, I think, I think about six different heights. Okay, so the gentlest version is to have the back of the chair facing toward you.

One step lower would be to have the seat of the chair facing toward you. And then we get to the blocks, you can have the blocks at the highest height, the second or the lowest, or the floor, right? So between all of those have six options. And really where that's gonna come into play the most is how deep Do you want your lunch to be? Okay, so if I'm here, then I can have a nice shallow lunch. If I want that lunch to go deeper, and I might turn this around, this is going to take me deeper, right and of course the blocks will take you deeper still.

So set yourself up in whatever version of this you want to use. And I'm going to go nice and slow through the first one so that we all get a rhythm here you might not be accustomed to doing the sun salutation with these props. So find your two dossena first standing at the front of the mat. shoulders back and down, arms relaxed. You're going to rock front to back on your feet. Give yourself a little foot massage as you roll from balls to heels and settle into that place right, right in the middle of the foot.

Lift the toes, spread them wide. press them down into the mat, creating a nice, wide stable base of support. Make sure that the knees are nice and soft, the tailbone is down creates space between the ribs and the hips as you lengthen upward. The head is floating on top of the spine. The gaze is nice and soft and remember whatever your intention was that you set just a few moments ago. As we prepare for Sun Salutation, nice, full deep breath, let it out with a sigh and bring the hands to the heart You can have palms together or resting on the heart.

And then reach the arms out and up as high as feels comfortable as you arch just slightly back from the rib cage upward, hinge at the hips and fold forward, hanging over bringing the hands to the chair or the blocks or the floor or your forward fold. In here, just a moment, soft knees, feeling a little stretch in the hamstrings. And then step the left foot back coming into a lunge. Whatever prop you're using here, make sure that the knee is not past the ankle. So you want to adjust the positioning of this front leg so that the knee is right over the ankle. And the heart is nice and open.

So coming up a little bit So that you're not rounded forward but that you're able to get a nice chest opening here. From here, step the front foot back, come into your downward dog. And spend a moment here finding that length in the spine, strong legs, long arms. And to come into Cobra. For those of you who are using blocks, you're going to lower a nice chest and chin to the floor. For those of you using the chair, you're going to walk slightly toward the chair and just bring the hips toward the chair.

This is much deeper if the seat of the chair is toward you. So if that's too much, you might want to turn it around and then the Cobra is much more gentle, less weight in the palms. In either place. Make sure that you're really able to open the heart here and that you feel nice and strong in the arms. From that Cobra, press the hips back and come into down dog again. look toward the front of the mat.

Step the left foot forward, come into your lunch on the left side. roll the shoulders back and down. Open the gaze. And then step the back leg forward, hang over in forward fold. You can walk the hands up or reach them out to the sides to come up, arch slightly back and bring the hands back to the heart. And we'll do that again on the other side.

Arms out and up are slightly back Inhale, exhale, fold forward hangover. Inhale, the right leg comes back into a lunge. And exhale, the left leg comes back downward dog. Inhale, come forward into your Cobra. And exhale, press back down dog. And he'll step the right foot forward, come into a lunge on the right side.

Exhale, step the back like forward, hang over. Inhale, take the arms up, arch back. Exhale, bring the hands to the heart. And again, inhale up. Exhale, fold. Inhale left foot back.

Exhale right foot back. Inhale Cobra and exhale down dog. Inhale, left foot forward. Exhale, right foot forward. Inhale up, our back. And exhale, hands to the heart.

One more time on your own moving with your own breath. And then when you find yourself back into dossena, notice the effects of that sun salutation sequence. Find the length in the body. Notice any energy moving through you whether you feel warmth or coolness in different parts of the body. Noticeably if the mind has wandered and what it may have wondered to notice if the cadence of the breath has changed. Notice if you're staying true to your intention.

Take a deep breath in sigh, let it out. shake out anything that needs shaking out and turn to face me. So we're going to come into a warrior sequence here. So I want you to step nice and wide on your map. Actually, let me move this out a little so I can see you all and you want to think about stepping as wide as your palms. Most people keep their warrior stance too narrow, and it doesn't give you enough room to get deep, while also protecting the knees.

So step wider than you normally would. And then notice if your feet are below your palms. And from here, rotate your inner foot outwards, so the foot that's facing in toward the center of the room because that's where your chair is. So whichever foot is near your chair, okay, and again, as we move into To this warrior two, we want to make sure that the knee is tracking right over the ankle. So as you bend into this knee, watch whether you're rolling in on the foot or out, and you want to think about that knee as tracking over the center of the foot or even toward that pinky toe. And also being sure that the knee doesn't go past the ankle.

So if you step too narrow, and then you come into a lunge, your knees gonna go past the ankle, right? So we want to make sure that that stance is nice and wide. And as you bend into this warrior pose, you can hold on to the chair for support and stability. You can bring the other hand to the hip, and the shoulders are stacking right over the hips. So you can think about this as being a rectangle in one plane. And then from here, find the length in the spine and you can gently turn the head to look over the shoulder toward the chair.

This is warrior two, and if you'd like to play with the arm position, Hear You can so if you feel nice and stable and you want to take the other hand to the hip, you can do that. You can take the arms low or to shoulder height, or to cactus arms, depending on what feels good for your shoulders. Make sure that you're still breathing. And this is a strengthening post. So we can think about the physical strength that's created in the body through this post but also the internal strength, the literal and the figurative strength. In this post the inner resilience, the fortitude, the top is the intention, the drive and you might want to go a little bit deeper.

If this feels comfortable for you. Notice what you're feeling what sensation you're noticing in the body. What's true stories might arise from that And then from here, straighten that front knee, give those quadricep muscles a break. And then you have your chair here. So we're going to come into Triangle Pose, using the chair for support. So again, be sure that this knee isn't locked, that it's still a little bit soft.

And from here, you can reach out to that side and bring the hand to the back of their chair or the seat of the chair, if that feels comfortable for you, or to your shin, or to your block. Okay, so again, you have many options for how deep you're going to go in this post. In any version of this, no matter what your hand is resting on. You want to think about hip over hip and shoulder over shoulder. So you're opening up this top shoulder and this hand might rest on the hip. You might try reaching the arm up overhead if that feels available to you.

But this is really about opening through here, so it's fine If the arm is not reaching overhead, you also want to make sure that this wrist feels okay. So whatever position you need to find for that supporting hand, and we're not really sinking into that supporting arm, we're just using it for a little bit of support, we're lifting up out of that support. Some people might want to look up toward the ceiling, if that feels okay for your neck. You can also look straight ahead or even down toward the floor, but if you're looking down toward the floor, you still want to feel this opening and the upper body Are you still breathing fully and deeply and then from here, take the upper half of the torso and come forward over that straight leg. So again, you can hold on to the chair. You might want to adjust this back leg a little bit and you can bring the hands to the back of the chair or the seat of the Chair going as deep into this as feels comfortable for you.

You can also use your blocks on either side, you might want to step a little bit away from the chair if you're going to eat it here like I am. And in this position, you want to find the length in the spine and now this upper hip was the upper hip and triangle is coming down. So we're squaring the hips. Again, be sure that the wrists feel okay here. This is also a nice place for the wedge behind the back foot if you want to experiment with that. Better bend into the front knee, walk yourself back up, step the back leg and give yourself a little shake.

And we'll do the same thing on the other side. So before we do just stand into dossena for a moment, and notice if you feel any differences on the two sides of the body here from having done that just on one side, if you feel a difference in where the stretch is in your body if you feel more circulation to a certain place if you feel lighter or heavier on one side or the other, and I promise I won't make you walk out of here lopsided, so let's switch over to the other side. So you can move your chair now to the other side of your mat. And you might have noticed that you were happy with the chair being in this orientation or that you want to flip it around and Either is fine. So again, we're going to step nice and wide. roll the shoulders back and down, find the length and the spine.

And now the other foot is going to turn outward toward your chair. hips are square, shoulders are square, create the biggest rectangle you can with your torso, spreading out in all directions. And then from here, we're going to bend this knee. So again, watch the tracking of that knee. Be sure that It's not rolling in, but that it's tracking over the foot that the knee is not going past the ankle. These look great.

And you can hold on to the chair here for support and stability. Be sure that the core is engaged so that you don't have any pressure in the low back. So dropping that tailbone down, really lengthening through the torso, and if you'd like you can take the arms out. They can be a little bit lower than shoulder height for some people that feels better. And then turn and gaze over those fingertips and find your inner warrior. You might even reflect on what in your life requires focus, intensity, inner strength and resilience.

Or what physical strength means. Not just in your yoga practice, but in your life. How it serves you why it matters. Be sure you're breathing fully and deeply. And then straighten that front leg. Reach out and bring the hand to wherever it feels comfortable.

The back of the chair, the seat of block. Find your triangle poster, your upper shoulder is opening. And you might keep the hand on the hip here. Or if it feels good, you can reach it up overhead. You can be gazing downwards, straight ahead or upward toward the ceiling. Whatever's available for your neck today.

And that's going to be different from day to day. That's life with arthritis. It's life in general, right. The body is different every day. The mind is different every day, the only constant is change and our practice and our life have to be adaptable to that constant change. And then from here rotate so that you're facing toward the chair.

You might adjust that back leg I need to and then you can hold on to the back of the chair, the seat of the chair or your two blocks. And you might want the wedge behind you if that is nearby if you have one today. Find the length in your spine, square the hips toward the mat. Notice where you feel the stretch here. And notice that as you breathe that starts to change a little bit. Maybe it moves in the body, maybe it softens.

You can come a little bit lower if that feels available. without pushing or forcing, just easing and allowing, with full easy breath. And then as you're ready, walk the hands back up, step the back foot forward, come into two dossena on this side. Give that a little shake. And now close the eyes into dossena here and notice you might want to rock front to back on the feet. Find your center.

Do you feel even and balanced? Of course, we are always asymmetrical, hopefully a little less. So after having done the second side, remind yourself of your intention for class today and really And let that go. Come back to center. And we're going to do a little bit of balancing. So we'll use the chair for that as well.

So we'll start with a variation on tree. Okay, so I want you to start before we even move into tree pose, just shifting the weight side to side. Okay, and as you do that, notice how your whole torso moves, right, as you shift your weight side to side, your whole torso moves quite a bit from one side to the other. Now our center of gravity is somewhere around here. And when we're on two feet, our base of support is right between the feet, right? So we need our center of gravity to be right between the feet.

But as we shift our weight from one side to the other, our center of gravity has to move. Our center of gravity always has to be over our base of support in order to balance this is a principle that I learned early on in my dance training, that if you're center of gravity is over your base of support, you can do absolutely anything. And you'll stay there as long as you have that alignment, right. So if you are trying to go into tree pose and you don't shift your weight, you're not going to stay in it right. So you have to make sure that the weight shift is complete, that your center of gravity is over that one foot, and then you can do anything, right. So we're going to play with that concept a little bit, I want you to notice that the wider you stand, the more your torso moves side to side as you shift your weight, right.

If you have a narrow stance, then there's less of a shift because your center of gravity doesn't have to move quite so far. So find a comfortable position here. Shake that out a little bit. And now I want you to take that center of gravity and shift it over toward the side where your chair is. So that's going to be different for this sides of the room. And notice that I still have my, the ball of my foot on the floor, right?

So I haven't shifted completely over. I still have a little bit of weight on this side. And I'm going to rotate out at that hip and then draw that heel in, like it's a little kickstand. So the heel is up against that supporting leg and pay attention to the supporting leg. Are you sinking into the hip? Or are you lengthening and lifting up out of the hip, if I sink into the hip, then that is taking my weight out to that side, right.

So I want to find the length and space in this hip joint, also for the health of the hip joint. And from here so you can hold on to your chair, bring the other hand to the hip, roll the shoulders back and down, find the length and the spine. This is tree pose. And if you want to go further You can take this foot and just put it up against the calf. Or you can take it higher. I'm going to stay here today.

And you also have some options with your upper body. Now have you did you sink into that hip when you brought the foot up, find the length in the hip. And you might let go even for just a moment, play with your balance. Allow the balance to be playful. No stress. It's a practice.

And if you're feeling stable, you can bring the hand to the opposite hip. You have other options with the arms as well. You can bring the hands to the heart. You can bring them into cactus, you can take them up overhead. Make sure you haven't lost the breath. You can try the arms out to the sides.

And notice how as you balance, you're making constant adjustments that you're shifting in Weight Distribution on the foot all the time. Because the body is never still. We're constantly adapting and adjusting. And then as you're ready, lower that, shake it out, shift side to side. Even skyscrapers sway in the wind, right? If they didn't, they would crumble.

And certainly with all of the movement that's happening on our body all the time, the lungs, expanding and contracting the blood flowing through the body, the heart pumping, the organs digesting, to be absolutely still is completely impossible. And it's not something that we should even strive for. We want to be steady, not still. Right? And so allow those adjustments, notice those adjustments, and allow the balance to be a metaphor for all of those adjustments that we're constantly making in life in life with arthritis and life in general. Let's do the balance on the other side.

Okay, so again, shift the weight side to side, play with that a little. Make sure that you're still breathing full and deep. And then as you're ready, settle onto one side. By that chair, you can hold on to the chair for support. Rotate externally at the hip. Create your little kickstand.

Come up nice and tall, creating space in that supporting hips, shoulders back and down. hand to the hip. Perhaps you can keep your foot in kickstand or you can take it up a little higher to the calf, or up to the thigh, if that's available to you. Hands can come to hips or whatever other variation of the arms you'd like to try. All available to you play around and see what feels good. You can keep that hand on the chair for stability.

Let it be playful. Let it be an exploration. Trees are stable and also a mobile swaying in the wind growing toward the sky and then as you're ready, release that, shake it out. We'll do one more little sequence that has a balance in it. So turn to face your chair and step the right foot back. And if you have a wedge, you can use the wedge behind that back heel or you can let this be a calf stretch or you turn this into warrior one by rotating that back foot out 45 degrees so you have some options with that back foot.

And again, you want to make sure that you have a wide enough stance that this knee is safe. So the knee is tracking right over the ankle. And here there can be a tendency to compress the low back by over arching. So we want to drop that tailbone down and engage the core creating space between ribs and hips to protect the low back while still drawing the shoulders back and down and creating an opening in the heart. Soften the gaze, relax the jaw. And here you can bring the hands to the hips.

You can also take them into cactus or take them up overhead and find that trustee that seems pointed focus to hold your awareness and intention. You might want to go a little bit deeper in this pose if that's available to you. Making sure that the knees still tracking safely. Hands to the chair. You don't know right? And then we're gonna come into a little variation of warrior three.

So we're going to shift the weight into this front leg just a little bit. Okay, so you can start by just inching that back leg in a little bit, so that you're standing mostly on this front leg. And you can keep those back toes down and just like we played with shifting the weight, side to side in the tree, we're gonna play with shifting the weight forward onto that front leg. Okay, and move Moving into a variation of warrior three, this may be your warrior three today, the hips are square you're holding on to the chair for support, you can stay right here. If you want to go further you can start to tip forward just a little bit. So as the torso lowers, it's like those, those toys where the bird dips in the water.

So the as the torso lowers, the leg is going up so that there's a constant line from heel to crown of head, and you have this chair here so you can lower the hands to wherever feels good for you. If you want to play with your balance here, you can extend one arm. You can extend both arms. Make sure you're still breathing. And then as you're ready, lower back Let's step back into downward dog get a nice stretch here. You can tread through the feet, pressing one heel and then the other toward the floor.

And slowly walk yourself back up. Shake that out. We'll try the other side. Step the other foot back, come into warrior one on this side. Dropping the tailbone down, creating space between ribs and hips. roll the shoulders back and down.

Find a steady gaze. a spot on the wall. Perhaps something eye height or higher. Full deep breath and you can take the hands into whatever position feels good for you here. Going as deep as feels comfortable. And then as you're ready, start to shift the weight forward, walking that back foot in just a little bit.

Playing with that as we did before pushing off that back leg a little until you find yourself centered over that front leg in a balance, one line of energy from heel to head. coming forward as much as feels comfortable playing with your balance a little bit by extending one arm or the other. Bringing your hand to the back of the chair, the seat of the chair. Noticing where you feel this is it. A challenge to your strain a challenge to your flexibility a challenge To your balance, maybe all three. Notice if any feelings arise about the challenge of this pose.

And then as you're ready, step back into your lunch and come back into down dog for a little stretch. walk the feet in toward the chair coming up to standing and shake that out. We're gonna come down to the floor and I'm gonna show you a way to get down to the floor. If you are a longtime yoga teacher or practitioner, you probably get up and down from the floor without even thinking about it. But that's certainly not true for everyone. So one option Using the chair is to have a blanket that can provide a little bit of cushioning for the knees.

So you can just watch this or you can try it with me. And the seat of the chairs in front, you bring the hands to the seat of the chair. So bending hinges at the hips, bringing the hands to the seat of the chair, right. So this is kind of similar to what we did for down dog. But now we're going to lower one knee down. And, and I talked about lowering down your less affected knee.

Right? So I don't like to talk about good news and bad news because all of our joints are good. But some are more affected than others. So whichever knee you're going to lower, the other foot is going to step forward. So it gives you the room to lower that knee down. Right.

Okay, so Step forward with this leg, I lower this knee down. So now I'm on one knee, and then I'm gonna bring a hand to the floor and lower that hip down to come just sitting. Okay, the same, of course is true in reverse. So for people who have difficulty getting up from being on the floor, and a lot of times the reason people don't want to get down to the floor is because they don't want to have to get up right. So if you come on to the knees on a blanket for cushioning, and for some people, even this is not enough cushioning, so you may need to use a bolster. Again, hands to the chair, step one foot up.

And then step back. Come up. And just for good measure, let's go down again. So you might want to try the other side, hands to the chair, lower a knee Lower the hip and come to city. Okay, now we're actually not going to need the chair so you can move them out of the way. We're gonna come to lying down and I want you to have your strap handy and in a loop, okay, so for for those with arthritis in hands, have somebody else make a loop for you or have this loop ready in advance because what I'm going to show you is really good for people who have difficulty with gripping.

And again, if you need a little bit of cushioning underneath you, you have the blanket handy. I know some of you have double mats, but if you don't have a double mat and you want a little bit of extra cushion and you can lay out your blanket, we're going to come to lying On the back, you might want a little roll of a blanket underneath your knees. If it's uncomfortable for the knees to have them extended all the way and have your strap handy having the strap in your hand you're going to have the right knee into the chest. And I want you to actually hold underneath the knee not on top. I know a lot of people are used to holding the top of the knee but that does put additional pressure in the knee especially if you do that with any kind of force.

So hold on behind the knee. And just notice the stretch in the opposite hip here. And then extend that leg up toward the ceiling. Take your strap and go fishing so There are a couple of ways to do this one is to leech the strap around the soul of the foot. Not everyone has the flexibility for that. So when I say go fishing, literally go fishing.

It might take a few tries, but you'll get better at it. Okay, so here you have this nice loop. And then what I want you to do with this loop is fish the forearms through it. Okay, so you can do this with one forearm or you can do it with two. So let's say I was less flexible. So here's with one forearm.

You see how I have it looped through, and now I don't have to grip it. My wrist and my hand are completely out of the picture here. I like doing it with two because then it brings the foot a little bit more center and it creates a little bit more symmetry. So if you slide both forearms through. It also makes it a little deeper. You can bring the palms together Or create any sort of mudra and you can bring that toward your heart.

And this also allows you to drop the shoulder blades down toward the floor or you can bring it toward the throat chakra or toward the third eye. Notice where you feel the stretch, so you want to feel it in the belly of the hamstring, the thickest part of the hamstring muscle. If you're feeling it behind the knee, soften the knee a little bit or make an adjustment so that you feel that stretch in the belly of the hamstring. And then from here, draw the knee in and let it cross over the body to the Opposite side coming into a little bit of a twist. So the lower body goes to one side, you can turn the head to the opposite side. If that's available to you.

You can put the knee on a block for support. That feels good. And then hug the knee back into the chest. extend the leg out along the ground and give it a little shake. Again, notice if you feel any differences between the two sides of the body here, probably you do. And that's why we're going to do the other side.

So hug the other knee into the chest. Again, holding on behind the knee feeling the strain direction the opposite hip in front of the opposite hip. Full deep bra. extend the leg up. Find your strap, go fishing. Again you can fish one forearm through or both.

Adjust the loop as needed because one side might be a little tighter than the other. Draw the shoulder blades down toward the mat toward to the hips. relax the muscles of the face and jaw Notice the extended leg whether it's relaxed or engaged either as okay. You might have that heel pressing away from you toward the wall. If that feels good, again, noticing where you feel the stretch. And then as you're ready, release that draw the knee into the chest and take the leg across the body toward the floor, supporting it with a block.

If that feels good, gazing over the opposite shoulder, if that's available To your neck. And then roll on to the back again, extend the leg, shake it out. We'll come into a little bit of a bridge sequence here. So from here, bring the feet flat on the floor, about a foot away from the hips. And just play with pressing a little bit of weight into the feet. And you might notice that as you do that you roll a little bit on the pelvis.

So from the top to the bottom of the pelvis, sort of getting a little massage to the back of the pelvis as you do that. And you might make this a little bit bigger this pelvic tilt by rolling up a little bit so that the pelvis comes off the floor, just a touch. And you can coordinate that with the breath rolling up and down the spine dynamically, smaller, small and subtle. And you can make this bigger if that feels available. being sure that the knees are lined up right over the hips, you might even take a block between the knees. If that is helpful, can help to keep the knees well aligned.

And if you'd like to roll up and stay up for a little bit, that's fine too. You might even slide the block underneath the sacrum on its lowest tight so you can choose To drop the sacrum in toward the block, you can also choose to just stay up in this mini bridge or you can choose to continue rolling up and down the spine. yogi's choice. Full deep breath. Clear open mind and then roll back down moving the block if you had a block underneath you, you might want to hug the knees into the chest and give a little roll side to side or in a circle. roll onto one side and use that Hands to support you as you press yourself up to notice any effects of that sequence Are you feeling a little more mellow, a little more stretched out, maybe we'll do a couple of seated Forward Fold.

So again, you can use your strap for this. Extending the legs out in front, you might want to sit up on something. You have some blankets, you have some blocks. It might help to sit up a little bit taller. If you have a little something underneath you. Have the right knee into the chest and let it open out to the side.

You might want to have a little bit of support under this knee and you can have this foot as high or as low on the left As feels good for you, so it doesn't have to be close to the pelvis, the foot can be down toward the ankle if that feels better. And again, if you have this strap handy, go fishing and you can stay here sitting up nice and tall, holding onto the strap or looping the forearms through. Bring the hands into whatever position is available for you here, shoulders back and down, spine nice and long. Staying vertical here is an option if you want to go deeper into the forward fold, you can do that. You can also forego the strap entirely and just bring the hands to either side of that extended leg. Perhaps walking down as you go.

You can also hold on to the strap in a more traditional way using Strengthen the arms to draw you deeper in the post. Just make sure that that is easeful and not forceful. We want to keep a nice long spine here. I like to think of it as belly to thigh instead of notes to me. And then walk. Take hold of that knee, extend to the leg, shake it out and switch to the other side.

Again, putting a little support underneath me if that feels good. Taking strap around the sole of the foot. And this strap can be on the ball of the foot which is going to increase the stretch in the calf. If that doesn't feel good or it's too intense. For some people, it actually feels good to have it on the arch, especially if you have any sort of challenges with the fascia on the sole of the foot, it can create a little bit of a stretch. So find what feels good for you center over that straight leg, sitting up nice and tall and begin to hinge forward only as much as feels comfortable with a nice long spine and staying vertical maybe what feels best.

You might find that as you breathe, you have a little bit more room available. That each exhale takes you just a touch deeper. And then release back, come back up, extend the leg, shake it out and we'll do a seated forward fold here. So both legs extended coming into your staff post. And again, you can choose to do this with the strap if you'd like around the soles of both feet. sitting up nice and tall.

You might want a little bit of support underneath the knees so that they're not locked, especially if you're sitting up on something. And then you can begin to hinge forward from the hips. As much as feels comfortable using the strap to create a little bit of traction, breathing fully and deeply keeping the length and the spine as you go. And you can release the strap and just have the hands on either side of the legs. You can have the feet flexed or relaxed. Notice the quality of this pose.

Forward folding of surrender, release, letting go and consider what there may be in your life in this moment that you could surrender or let go of What effect might that have? notice any resistance here and send breath to that resistance. without judgment or concern, just a noticing and a letting go wherever possible. And then slowly walk the hands back up, releasing the strap. Come into a cross legged position or soles of the feet together. You can bring hands around the back of the body, holding on to opposite wrist or bringing the hands to the small of the back.

Tuck the chin toward the chest just to bring the energy inward so you can fold forward if that's available to you, but This is more energetic a ceiling in of the benefits of your practice. This is a nice opportunity to thank yourself for this practice for being here. Or bringing your whole self to it. And take a moment here to reflect on anything else you have to be grateful for. Anything that comes to mind right now. On an inhale come up.

No, no, no exhale, release. Bring yourself into whatever position you would like to use for Shavasana heads toward the center of the room feet away. And you have a lot of props here. So you have a chair. If you You would like to do legs on the chair. That can be nice.

And you might want to have a little bit of support underneath your hips from your blanket. You can strap the legs as well. You can have a little roll underneath the knees. And if anyone would like to be covered with a blanket, raise your hand and I'll come around and cover you up. In this position, we'll tense and release the entire body three times before coming to a place of stillness. When we tense we're going to lift up the arms, legs and head just an inch above the floor 123 lifted everything up, squeeze tight, tight, tight or engage every single muscle and drop.

And again 123 lifts, squeeze and drop. Last time 123 years of all the energy you have, so the only option is to completely let go and drop. make any adjustments to the body so that you feel comfortable and balanced and can remain still for the duration of the practice. Notice all of the places where your body is making contact with a surface, whether that's the floor a prop, your own body and allow those places of contact to deepen. Let your body weight drop into that support. There are so many times in life when we don't allow ourselves to use the support that's available to us.

See if you can use this opportunity to practice releasing, letting go being held. dropping in. Become aware of the soles of the feet and imagine a healing light entering the body through the soles of the feet. Relax the tips of the toe the tops of the feet arches and heels. Soften the ankles and let that light travel up to the shins and calves. Relax the knees.

The thighs the hips. Feel the sacrum sinking into the floor the pelvis widens, the abdominal organs melt into the lower back. The lower body is relaxed. Hello that relaxation not healing To travel up the torso the sides of waist, the lower ribs. Relax the heart and lungs feel the rib cage widen. Shoulder blades melt into the floor.

Column collarbones sink. The torso is relaxed. Notice the tips of the fingers and allow them to soften. Feel that wave of relaxation moving up from the fingertips to the palms, the backs of the hands, the wrist Relax the forearms, elbows, upper arms and shoulders. The arms are relaxed. slack and the jaw let the tongue sink in the mouth.

The eyeballs melt into their sockets the brow unfroze. The whole face is relaxed. muscles surrounding the skull are relaxed. The whole body is relaxed. The whole body is relaxed. Become aware now of the breath.

Notice the rise and fall of the breath. Drawing in what you need letting go of whatever no longer serves you a cycle of renewal of cleansing with each breath each exhale just a little bit slower than the one before. each exhale, letting go of anything you no longer need each exhale allowing you to drop even deeper into this relaxation. Become aware now of the mind. Notice any thoughts that are moving through the mind. Allow them to pass through like a river rushing by, without any tech attachment or concern for a particular thought.

Allow the river of the mind to slow to find ease and peace to relax Along with the breath and the body, nothing to do only to be enjoy a few moments here, resting in this your natural state of deep NRP slowly become aware of the breath again, deepen the breath, drawing in new energy that moves through the body, allowing the fingers and toes to wiggle the head turn side to side. You may want to stretch overhead, noticing your body and noticing the space around you. And then as you're ready, come over onto one side for a few more breaths in the fetal position. Use your arms to support you as you gently press up to a comfortable seated position. Perhaps sitting on a blanket block or in your chair. Find that steady, comfortable seat.

Lengthen the spine. fullness in the breath. openness in the heart clarity in the mind. We'll share a piece chant responsively and then a minute in silent meditation Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body last We give it orders, which makes no sense. Henry Miller the entire universe be filled with peace and joy, love and light. Namaste thank you so much for sharing your practice with me.

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