Honey Flow

(waves crashing) Hi, welcome to your practice. I'm really excited to share this with you. This is a class that I like to call Honey Flow. It is all the sweetness. It is meant to be nectar at both ends.

We like to say it's candy in yoga form. So get ready to just feel good and dive into all the yummy. We'll start on our bellies. So laying all the way down. You really can do whichever is most comfortable for you.

Taking the hands underneath the head or along the sides, but allowing the gaze to be down. Just kind of depending on how your neck feels, you might want the hands underneath the forehead for support. It might be OK to lay them at the sides. So here with the belly down, vulnerable side of the body. Your vital organs.

The ground, this relationship to Mother Earth. Creating connection here. Creating safety. Creating groundedness. Allowing the body to soften and relax.

We find a few breaths here just to enter into our practice. Let the breath become deeper. Notice how it feels to have the inhale come in. Press the body into the ground a little bit more. As the exhale falls out, softens again.

Take a few more breaths like that. This is the opportunity to check in, see how you're feeling. Start to wag the tail just a little bit here. Wake up the body. Let that get a little bit bigger and kind of start to roll the legs as well and part of the torso.

Back and forth. Nothing vigorous. Just all sweetness. Slowly start to soften that out. Take your hands back by your shoulders.

Shrug the shoulders up, down, and back. Then lift up nice baby cobra here. Exhale, we soften back down. Do that again two more times. Nice baby cobras.

Exhale, we soften on down. Last one. Exhale, we soften. Call this a rolling vinyasa. So you push yourself up and back towards child's pose.

Keep the arms nice and straight and strong, and then you tuck the chin in and start to round through the spine. Big rounded spine. Keep the arms straight, let the hips soften. You can even shrug the shoulder. It's like anti-yoga.

Shrug your shoulders up. Then you push and move them away and lift the gaze. So somewhere between upward facing dog and cobra, and it's not quite either. We come back, child's pose. Do that one more time.

So rounding rolling all the way forward keeping the arms straight. The belly starts to soften. Again, you can shrug a little bit. And then you find and inhale and you press. Then gaze lifts.

We move back, child's pose. So this time as we come forward, we'll let ourselves come all the way back down to the belly. Move the right hand forward overhead, and roll on over to our right side and prop ourselves up. My favorite shape these days. Today.

Peace fingers, Anantasana. Pressing the pelvis forward and then lifting the leg on up. From here we'll start to lower the foot on down. Then you're gonna switch the leg. So that bottom leg comes forward and you start to press yourself up and frame towards the front of your mat.

So this might be enough and you stay just like this. If you have some more space, you can start to come on down onto forearms. Breathe here. You might even come down a little bit lower and let the forehead come down. There's energy through the legs, but not too much.

Still soft and sweet. Breathe here, full inhale, long exhale. Start to press this on up here. Take that bottom leg underneath. Roll back onto your belly.

Press up towards your child's pose and then round roll it forward. That rolling vinyasa. Pressing into the hands, lifting the heart. Exhale back, child's pose. We try that whole thing on the other side.

So you shift forward to lower down to the belly. Left hand reaches overhead. Roll on over to the left side. Prop yourself up. Peace fingers around the big toe.

Lift the leg on up. A few breaths here. Lower it all the way down here. You take your bottom leg forward. Lift yourself on up.

Frame the front of the mat, and then exhale, lower down. And again, you might stay forearms. Might come through here. Few breaths. We lift ourselves back up.

Start to roll back onto the belly. Child's pose. As you inhale, shift back. Rounding forward, rolling vinyasa. Again, you can shrug the shoulders up and then press down.

Exhale back, child's pose. OK. Rolling all the way forward onto the belly. One more time visiting our side. So you come on over here, and then this time we press all the way up onto our hand.

Take your top foot, cross it over. And we'll be in this four shape. So we'll use this front foot grounding through here using the hand. When you're ready, inhale. Lift the hips.

Arm goes over the ear and you can let it be soft, and then exhale as you lower down. Again, anti-yoga move, shrug the shoulders. Shrugging the shoulders gets this awesome stretch all through that under side belly. Then we inhale and we lift back up, arm over the ear. Let it be soft.

And then exhale, shrug the shoulder. (mumbles). Inhale, lift back up. Exhale, shrug the shoulder. You can stay here as long as we need.

Otherwise, we start to transition back towards our belly lowering all the way down. Lift up just to do child's pose. Rolling vinyasa here, rounding through the spine. Arms stay straight, shrug shoulders. Press down to lift, and then exhale back child's.

Do that on the left side. So you come forward all the way down to the belly. Left hand reaches forward. Roll on over, and then lift yourself up. So that left hand's at a diagonal.

Top leg comes over. Make it so it feels connected to the ground on both parts, hand and foot. And when you're ready, inhale. Lift the hips. Arm goes over the ear.

Again, if doesn't have to be bing. It's, like, soft and sweet. And we exhale, shrug the shoulder up and we pause. Just get all this nice opening through the side body. Inhale, lift.

Exhale, shrugging the shoulder. Inhale, lift. Last one. Exhale, hips lower, shoulder shrugs. Ah, it's so nice.

And then again, we start to move back. Come into child's pose here. Breathe and hold. We'll change it up a little bit from here. Look forward towards your hands.

Lift your hips to all fours. Tuck the toes, find downward facing dog. Take a moment here you can walk the hips out. We'll take the right leg nice and high. Step through all the way between the hands.

Lower the back knee down. Release the back toe, and then take your hands inside that front foot and walk the foot out towards the edge of your mat. Turn the toes out. Just loungy lizard. Just like how it sounds, allow it to be loungy.

So the toe can peel up. The knee moves out, moving that femur out to the side. You can stay just like this. You might come down onto forearms. You can have forearms on blocks.

We think of our pelvis as just stirring this bowl. So allowing some movement here and getting into the corners. Like scraping the dough. Making sweet hip cookies. So moving it around.

Allowing some spaciousness to come on in. A few breaths. And again, if you find something really nice and interesting in there you can always stay and pause. Start to prop ourselves up onto our hands. Those left fingers will turn out.

You keep the leg just as it is. Thumb up, reach back all in one. You can stay like this up onto the hands. We come onto the forearm and spin all the way. A breath or two here.

Release it on out. Toe heel that foot through center line. Press into the hands of that back knee just enough here to draw the front knee in and then out sliding it down for pigeon pose. So just adjust. Again, find a little bit of that movement here through the hips and greeting it.

Then we're gonna start to walk our fingertips away. So this is our right leg in front, so we walk our fingertips over towards the left here. You might stay just like this. That left hand stays down and the right hand comes to the inner thigh area. You're just giving gentle encouragement to open here.

Take a few breaths. You might come down onto forearm. You might stay just like this. If this ruins it for you, you can always come down into your regular loungy pigeon. However you most enjoy it.

I like a little bit of movement. Come back through center here, and then the right hand stays were it is. The left hand reaches out and then threads underneath. We turn ourselves towards the knee. The top arm can stay here overhead.

It can reach around towards the back. We breathe here. Another few breaths. Full inhale, long exhale. Slowly start to lift ourselves on up.

Take a moment through center. Breathe here. OK, so from here you're gonna let the weight come on over towards that right hip. So leaning over, and then actually we're gonna swing the leg around and open up to this open version of Janu Sirsasana. We'll take our peace fingers around the big toe, take your right hand behind the head here, and then with the elbow, find the inhale and pull the elbow back behind you, gaze lifts.

Exhale, round towards that extended leg. Inhale, lift. Exhale, round. Inhale, lift exhale, round. Inhale, lift.

And you can stay just like this, or if it feels useful, maybe arm releases out. Maybe it goes over the ear. And for today's purpose is just allow it to be a little bit softer than you might normally do. Lift on up here. Pivot ourselves to the extended leg, and then let's just take a few breaths here.

So as you exhale, you start to soften towards it. Inhale, you might release. Exhale, we soften towards it. Inhale, it releases. Let's say two or three more breaths.

You can always stay here longer. Next time you inhale, lift yourself on up, and then your right leg will stay as it is. Left one tucks back in and let this hip lift. So this is called deer pose. So we let this hip lift.

We kind of come around at it to lay down around in a circle. Look at this nice long opening through the side of the leg and into the hip. So you start to come over onto your right elbow and then you lay back down onto your back. And it's OK here the knee might lift a little bit. It's this big opening through the leg.

If coming down onto your back all the way is not useful for you, you can always lay on a blanket or some blocks or a pillow here and find a little bit of lift. You can also come down just to your elbows. Take a few breaths here. Big inhales, long exhales. It's like yum, yum, yum.

The exit out is not always as graceful. So start to prop yourself up onto your elbows onto your hands and we come back around. Take a second in seated just to ground and connect. Then we'll take a sweet twist over towards the right. Stay towards the right.

Bring your hands down towards your front of your mat. Release that back leg and come back into downward facing dog. Inhale to shift forward. Child's pose. The next inhale when it comes in, rounding rolling forward.

Keeping the arms straight. Again, remember it can be soft. And then you press, lift. Exhale back, child's pose. Lifting the hips, downward facing dog.

That left leg comes high, step through low lunge. Bring the hands inside. Walk the foot out. Lower the back knee down. Turn the toes out.

Loungy lizard. So big toe can lift. You can start to come over to that pinky edge. You might stay on fingertips. Palms.

Might be elbows on blocks. It might be down onto the forearms. And again, I just like to explore here. So usually listening in. Sometimes there's a spot and it's just full of information.

As we lean into it. Give it its goods. Maybe it's asking you to stay still when you do that. Again, you can stay in any of these as long as you need, as long as you'd like. As we're moving on we come back up onto our hands.

Right fingertips turn out a little bit off side your mat. Left hand presses away. This is option one. You stay just like this. Option two, thumb up, reach back.

Pinky edge. Breathing here or be coming down onto the forearm. Really opening through hip, shoulder, chest. All in one. Release this.

Hands ground again. Toe heel through center. Tuck the back toe, lift the back knee. Coming into pigeon on that left side, so just pressing down enough to lift it up and open out. All right, and then settle on in.

Again, just with that same sense of freedom to explore. Check out, lean a little bit. Lean a little bit the other way. Tuck the toes, adjust that back hip. Testing out and feeling where it is that you need to find freedom.

Then we'll walk our fingertips over towards the right. So the left leg's forward as we're walking fingertips away. That right hand stays. Left hand finds the inner thigh, starts to press away. Just kind of giving this encouragement to open a little bit more.

Can stay just like this. Might feel useful to come down onto the forearm. That might just make it worse. You just decide. We move back through center onto the palms.

Then your right arm goes out and underneath the left. And if any of these variations here ruin the pigeon for you, no tears. You just come back to the place where it's happiest for you. So the left fingertips might walk overhead. Press down a little.

Thread the needle here. And a few breaths. This arm can also be free. Move back. Really getting (mumbles) the hips.

Come back on out. Hand grounds on thread here. So we'll move into that Janu Sirsasana. So we'll let the weight move over to that left hip and we pivot around. Right peace fingers around the right toes.

Left hand behind the head. And then pull the elbow back. Gaze goes up. Inhale. Exhale, rounding.

Inhale, lifting. Exhale, rounding. Last one, inhale, lifting. Exhale, rounding. Here we lift.

You can stay like this. Reach the arm out to the diagonal. You can also let it come over the ear. And you can also let it be soft. We lift up from here.

Take a moment. Hands on either side of the hips. Lift your hips, square yourself towards your leg, and then a few moments of breathing into the hamstring. The (mumbles) starts to fold you. Meet your edge.

Inhale, you lift up. Exhale, you fold. Inhale, you lift up. Back and forth like that. Sort of tickling the edge here, little taste and we move away all the while being soft and sweet following the rhythm of your breath.

Next time you inhale, we'll lift ourselves up. We come into that deer shape on the other side, so this right knee bends back. Right hip lifts here. and again, it's like sweeping around to lay down. So we move around.

This hip is up. It's not maybe the most graceful entrances. And this may be enough even here for some of us. Otherwise, we start to move all the way down onto our backs and you get this nice long stretch through that front hip, even into the side. Really down into our quads, into our thighs.

Hands can just rest along the sides. They can also be at the belly. Again, if it's uncomfortable here, really being mindful of how the knee feels, if it's uncomfortable in any way, propping yourself up higher behind the back is gonna be more supportive, whereas it should feel like yay. Welcome home. I could hang out here.

Full inhale long, exhale. One more breath. Again, you can always stay longer. As we start to make our way out, not maybe the most graceful exit, but that's OK. Sometimes it's like that.

We come to a little twist. So we start to twist towards the front of our mat over towards the left. Then the hands will stay there. Extend out that back leg tucking the toes downward facing dog. Shifting forward to lower the knees.

Child's pose as we exhale. Inhale rounds you forward. Keep the arms straight. Again, you can shrug the shoulders and then find the inhale, lift. Exhale, child's pose.

From here you start to walk the hands up towards the knees, and then we'll come on down onto our backs. Bend into the knees. Take the feet a little bit wider than your hips. Then we'll windshield riper the knees over towards the right. Hands can rest on the belly.

They can be along the sides. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, left side. Do that one more thing. Each side, lifting up, and falling on over.

Lifting up and sliding on over. As we lift up here through center and keep the knees wide, but walk the feet in. Let the bottoms of the feet meet each other. You can give some encouragement here. Pressing one side down, and then the other side down.

Finding center. Even sending a little bit of energy down and through the thighs. Finding the inner thighs. Opening through the chest. Last few breaths.

If you haven't already, releasing the hands out, the palms turning up. Then extending one leg and then the other coming into shavasana. So rocking the hips side to side. Making sure that you feel nice and settled. Space between the feet, space between the body.

So here it's the backside of the body being greeted by the Earth. Still allowing ourselves to be held here. Any places of tension, so checking in. How is your jaw? The cheeks, can they soften away from the nose, the forehead?

How are the hands? Allow yourself to be completely received here. Full inhale, long exhale. A few moments of silence and rest here. You can stay as long as you'd like.

So if you're happy as you are, you just stay. Otherwise, if you're ready to come on up, start with some fuller inhales, longer exhales. We'll eventually wiggle toes and fingers. Slowly start to bend the knees again, planting the feet on the floor. Pause here.

Then let the whole thing shift on over towards your right side. Hands can rest underneath the head. Keeping the eyes closed, let the transition be nice and slow. When you're ready, pressing yourself on up to a seat. Any comfortable seat is fine.

Bringing the hands to the heart. Letting the head bow on in. Just taking a moment. Acknowledging your effort in this sweet side of practice. Self-care.

Slowing down. It's all really important. Equally important as all the hard stuff. Sometimes this is harder. Acknowledging your effort here in this way.

Thank you for sharing your practice with me today. Namaste.