Nourishing Flow

(waves crash) Hello and welcome back, so today's sequence is a nice, nourishing flow, so it's really just to kind of, keep the body, the energy, the chi, moving, and we'll be touching on every area of the body, no area specifically, and it's really just to get your energy up, but restore you and not deplete you. So when you're ready we'll come to child's pose, so you'll just come on to your knees, take your hands out in front of you about shoulder distance apart, and point the toes, sit the hips back, towards the heels. Keep the knees pretty wide, so you have lots of space for the belly and then we'll just rest the head towards the floor. And while you're in child's pose just focusing on the breath inhaling and exhaling, creating lots of space, no restriction in the breath. And then from there we're gonna press the hands flat, curl the toes under, lift the hips up and back and just take a gentle downward dog, so don't even straighten the legs for this one, just kind of keep the knees bent, tilt the pelvis forward, let the chest kind of drop, but firm the outer upper arms and take a few deep breadths here.

And then exhale, bringing the knees down to the floor again, point the toes, sit the hips back, child's pose. Deep breathing here. And then again pressing the hands, lifting the hips up, curl the toes under, and tilt the pelvis forward, this time maybe starting to straighten one leg at a time, in down dog. Just seeing how it feels maybe it doesn't go all the way straight yet, just kind of warming up the body, easing into the ham strings. And then again coming down to the knees, pointing the toes, sitting the hips back for child's pose.

And then coming back up onto your hands, curl the toes under, reaching the chest forward, pull the shoulders back, look forward, lift the hips up. And this time coming into a down dog if you can straighten the legs go ahead, starting to energize and activate your down dog, push the hands into the floor, pressing the hips up and back. Lengthening the side ways. Still bringing a little bit of movement into this, maybe even pedaling the feet. And then from downward facing dog, walking the hands back towards the feet, keeping the knees soft at this point if you need to, adjust your stance as wide as you need to so that you have space for your belly.

Inhale bring your hands to your shins, roll the shoulders down the back, look up and lengthen, lengthening the spine keeping the back of the neck long. Exhale and fold. We'll do that a few times with the breathe, starting gently with the knees bent, inhale looking up and lengthening again, exhaling and folding. Again inhale, look up and lengthen, exhale fold. And then from your forward fold we'll take the hands forward again to downward facing dog.

From downward facing dog we're gonna start moving towards our sun salutation. And from downward facing dog, we're just going to come onto our hands and knees, with inhalation we'll lift the chest forward and through, making this mostly about the upper part of the back, only slight bend in the lower back, and then exhale. Tucking the tail bone under but more important, lifting between the shoulders inhale again lifting the chest forward, exhale, rounding and then coming to neutral, lifting the hips up and back for a few breaths. And then walking the hands back toward the feet with inhalation looking up and lengthening. Exhale fold.

And inhale we'll come all the way up to standing, reaching the arms up overhead and exhale arms down alongside the body. Inhale arms reach, they can stay shoulder distance apart or you can reach the hands together. Exhale fold forward. Inhale, look up and lengthen, exhale bend your knees, set your hands down, walk the hands forward, come to plank pose. Take a deep breath in and exhale press it back to downward facing dog.

Do that one more time, inhale coming forward to plank, and exhale pressing it back to downward facing dog. Couple breaths here. And then walking the hands back toward your feet. Inhale look up and lengthen. Exhale and fold.

Inhale all the way up to the top. And exhale arms down alongside the body. Inhale arms reach. Exhale and fold. Inhale look up and lengthen, exhale, bend the knees, walk the hands forward.

Down dog. Inhale come forward to plank. Exhale you can bring the knees down to the floor lower. One little cobra, which is always optional, inhale. And exhale, toes curl under and we reach the hips up and back.

Couple breathes here. And then walk the hands back to your feet. Inhale looking up and lengthening. Exhale folding. Inhale all the way up to the top.

And exhale arms down alongside the body. (speaks foreign language) Gentle variations, bending the knees, sit the hips back, inhale, and exhale fold. Inhale lengthen, exhale hands down walk the hands forward to down dog. Inhale come forward to plank. Let the knees drop, exhale lower.

Coming into a cobra inhale, legs can stay on the floor here. And exhale back to down dog. We'll just set the knees down to the floor, step the right foot forward. Outside the right hand, we'll take your right hand onto your knee then the left hand up, lift the chest up and then start to sink the hips down. I'm just gonna lift the left arm up.

Do just a tiny side stretch to the right. Really opening up that left side body. And then we'll release the left hand down, the right hand down, curl the back toes under, pivot the back heel down. One inhale just to come up to warrior one. And then an exhale to release the hands down inside the foot pick up your back heel, step back to down dog.

Inhale to plank, drop the knees down, you can always do cat/cow here and lower. Inhale, cobra with the legs down, exhale down dog. I'm bringing the knees down, step the left foot forward, coming into a low lunge take the hands to the left knee. Reach the right arm up and then you can sink into the left knee, as you reach the right arm over to the left side, into a little side stretch here. And then release the left, the right hand down, curl the back toes under, pivot the heel down to the floor and inhale come up into a warrior one.

And with exhalation release set the hands down inside the left foot, lift the back heel, step back to downward facing dog. Inhale to plank. Drop the knees, exhale lower, inhale cobra, and exhale, downward facing dog. Keeping everything nice and light, bringing gentle movements into all your joints. And walking your hands back, inhale look up and lengthen, exhale and fold, bend your knees, sit your hips back, inhale to ucka-tasana.

And exhale (speaks foreign language). We'll just open up, for vera-vedra-sana two. Gentle hip opener, take your feet about a legs distance apart, turn the right toes out. And the left toes in, so that they're at an angle, slight angle, hips are gonna be at about 45 degrees, bend the right knee so that it's pointing to your second toe and then with an inhalation reach the arms up but drop the shoulders down and we'll just hold and breathe for a few breaths. And even in the stillness of being in the postures notice all of the subtle movements, the way the breath creates movement in the body, all of the subtle shifts by energizing the left leg and straightening it a little more.

Pressing the right knee out, sinking a little deeper in. And breathing, just let each movement happen with the breath. So the inhale creates expansion and the exhale you sink in deeper. And then we'll just straighten the right leg, turn the feet parallel and then we'll change sides, turn the left toes out right toes in. Side angle, relax the shoulders down, deep breath in and exhale, bend the left knee, pressing the knee out so it points to your second toe.

Hips are gonna be at a slight angle. Shoulders on the back, looking out over your left fingertips and again just letting the breath create the shape in the body. The inhale fills the body, energizes the body, expands, and the exhale contracts and also softens, lets us sink deeper into postures. And then inhale straightening the left leg, again paralleling the feet, and rest the arms, we're going to grab ahold of a block, just one for now, for triangle pose. We'll just set it outside of our right foot, closer to the heel and you'll be in the slightly shorter stance then we were for vera-vadra-sana two.

Heel to heel or heel to arch alignment, you'll have to play around with that and see what feels better for you, your hips, you'll have the hips at an angle, take a deep breath in, reach the arms up, with exhalation spin the right thigh bone out from deep in the hip socket. Let the right hip drop and we're just gonna reach out, keeping equal length on both sides of the waist, set the right hand down to our block and then take the left arm up to the ceiling, drop the shoulders down the back, find a slight rotation in the torso and maybe if it feels okay for the neck you'll turn to look up to the thumb, and then we also have the option to turn the palm forward and reach the arm up overhead, adding a little bit more rotation in the shoulder blade, in the shoulder socket. And then reach, find length in this left side, a few more breaths here, make sure not to lock out the right knee, keep the knee cap lifting up the thigh, keep breathing, and then we'll reach the arm back up to the ceiling, press the feet, inhale, come up, I'm going to bring my block with me, change the block to the left hand, turn the feet around, left toes out, right toes at an angle, set the block by my left heel. Inhale, reach the arms, spin the left thigh bone out, drop the left hip, sink it back as you lengthen out over your left side, set the hand to the block, and then start to revolve the chest open, maybe raise the right arm up to the ceiling, pull the shoulder blades down the back. Reach the right arm up.

Keep the kneecaps lifting up the thighs but careful not to lock out the knees, particularly the left one and then you have to option to raise the right arm up overhead. Finding a deeper rotation in the right shoulder. And then raising the right arm back up, pressing the feet, inhaling coming up, exhale, parallel the feet and we're going to bring the block over to the side, we won't need that for now. And then we'll step to the front of our mat. (speaking foreign language) Lots of variations here, we'll take the hands to the waist and we'll just bring the weight to your left foot keep the left leg as straight as you can, the chest and the shoulders over top of the hips, we'll take the weight to the left foot, firm the outer left hip in, grab a hold of the right knee.

We may just wish to stay here, if we're going to take it to the next step, remember balance can be challenging now that our center of gravity is shifted so if you need to use a wall, feel free to go over to a wall. If you're moving on, you'll grab ahold of your right big toe pull the shoulder back, maybe you'll stay here, or you'll start to take the leg out in front of you, but as you do so keep the thigh to the outside of the belly so the leg won't be right in front of the hip, it'll be a little bit more at an angle, pull the shoulder back, and then we'll take the leg out to the side, as you take the leg to the side keep dropping the outer hip, press the left leg straight, lift the chest up, if you feel steady and balanced look over the left shoulder, and we'll inhale it back to center, just raise the leg, if you had the knee bent, you'll straighten the leg out in front of you, hold it for just a couple breaths, and then we'll release it down. And we'll change side, we'll take the weight to the right foot, inhale grab ahold of the left knee, again keeping the left thigh outside the belly. Leaving lots of space, and you may just stay here. Chest lifted, if your gonna move on, grab ahold of the toe, pull the shoulder back, lift the chest up, and maybe start to straighten the left leg out.

So again it's not going to be right in front of the hip, wherever it falls is fine. And then we'll take the leg out to the left as you take the leg to the left drop the outer hip down, and if it feels appropriate turn to look over the right shoulder, and inhale we'll bring the leg back to center, if you had a hold of the knee, straighten the leg out in front of you maybe, point the toe, couple breaths, and then we'll release it down. And just separate your feet, release the arms down alongside the body, and we'll take a sun salutation to the floor, inhale arms up, exhale and fold forward. Inhale look up and lengthen, exhale set the hands down and step back to down dog. And from downward facing dog we'll just bring the knees to the floor, cross the ankles, and sit back, and we'll straighten the legs.

Out in front, so here's somewhere where you may want to sit up on a blanket or a bolster, really we just wanna keep the hips, the pelvis upright, the legs will be, out in front but we'll have a bit of space between our feet, at least hip distance, probably even wider. And then we're just going to sit with the hands alongside the hips lifting the chest up, pulling the shoulders back and breathing. Nourishing breaths, deep breaths in and out through the nose. Keeping them calm and relaxed. And then we'll reach the arms up, lengthen the side body, you may just stay here, or you'll start to reach the arms forward as you hinge at the hips, now just be careful, make sure you have space for the belly, so depending how far along you are you may not go very far.

Inhale lift the chest and exhale fold. And for a lot of us if we have really open joints our practice is really more for finding stability at this point, especially if your already experiencing some back pain and so you really don't want to push your full range of motion, kind of hold back and work more on stability, stabilizing. And breathing. And then we'll inhale look up and lengthen, exhale and release. And then we'll take (speaks foreign language) so we're gonna open our legs up.

And again here you may want to sit up on a blanket and the reason being that we wanna get the pelvis upright rather than tucked under so sitting upright, I'll just stay upright here for a few breaths, hands can be on the thighs, shoulders down the back, relax them. And then we're going to take the left arm up right hand down to the floor inside the right knee, find a slight twist open and then just start to stretch out towards your right foot, just going where it feel appropriate, finding your edge, staying there and breathing, and try to keep both sitting bones planted on the floor or on your blanket. And inhale coming up, and setting the left hand down to the floor reach the right hand up and exhale folding out over the left leg, breathing keeping both sitting bones pressing, chest opening. And then inhaling, coming up, and then we'll just take the hand, right hand outside the right knee, left hand inside, and we'll just start to face the right leg, but not fully squared over the right knee, the bodies gonna be inside of the right thigh, take a deep breath in and exhale, we'll just fold to where we have space and where it feels right, and then just closing the eyes, bringing the awareness within, focusing on the breath, connecting with the baby. And then coming on up, and changing to the other side, so walking the hands over to the left, inhale lengthening the chest, maybe staying here or exhaling and folding forward out over the left leg.

And then walking the hands in, using them for support to come upright and closing the legs, we're going to set up for one of my favorite postures a reclined bodu-kin-asana. But we'll use some props for that, so we're gonna take one block, at it's highest height, and then we're gonna take the other one, kind of like at a T shape. I'm sorry on the lower height, so this is gonna create a ramp with our bolster. And just make sure it's stable, and then we'll sit our back, right up against the edge of the bolster, the knees will be apart, soles of the feet together, you also have the option to do this with straight legs. And if this is a lot you can bring pillows or blocks underneath your knees here too, and then we'll just lay you back, on our back let the head rest and we'll turn the palms open to the ceiling, plug the shoulders in underneath you.

And we'll rest, so this is a nice place to spend some time. It's one of the positions that we can safely and comfortably stay on our backs for most of pregnancy. If it doesn't feel appropriate then you can always lie on your left side, the bolster between your legs, otherwise we'll stay here for about three minutes, however you can stay for longer if you'd like and if you have the time. Just letting the breath soften letting the body soften and relax. Letting the jaw relax, the cheeks relax, the eyebrows widen.

Softening the back of the throat and the tongue. Sending breath throughout the whole body, inner groins, the feet, the fingertips, the chest, and the abdomen. And so if this is feeling good and you have the time stay here. If you're ready to come out, we'll just take the hands to the knees, gently guide them together and then separate the feet. We can roll over to the right side, and just be careful coming up off of the blocks, we'll bring the left hand in front for support and come up to a comfortable seated position.

We'll just cross the ankles, bring the hands to prayer position, gently bowing, we'll just take one nourishing ohm to close out. Take a deep breath in. Ohm. And thank you, namaste.