Fluid Spine

Why don't we start? Here we go. We're going to inhale. One breath, one movement. Just moving the arms. Inhale up. And softly, just lay down. One more time. Inhale up. And you feel your legs spring so you're starting from the feet. Then you soften the arms, you soften the knees. So the whole thing is working in unison. So now we're going to do a side body stretch using the legs. Move through the body. Inhale up, grabbing the right wrist. Exhale. Bend in the right elbow. Inhale. Lift and lean into the right. Exhale. Inhale up center. Exhale. We're going to bend left elbow, grabbing the left wrist. Inhale. Reaching up, leaning into the left. And exhale back center. Hands drop down. We're going to try it one more time but we're going to add a twist. Inhale. Look back to the right, watching the right arm. Soften the shoulder girdle. Inhale, sweeping it forward, both arms up. We're going to change sides. Do those semi-circles with the arms.

Looking back and stretch, soften the arms. Inhale, arms up. And exhale, samasthiti. Now we're going to add to that and I want to stand at the front of my mat. This time we're just going to switch legs while doing pretty much the same stuff. So I'm staying soft in my knees and I really feel that I can plug in. Big toe, the ball of the little toe and the heel. I feel those three connections, those little constellations. I feel like I can move through them. If there's an imbalance, I don't know, pretty quick. Soften the knees, staying soft. Inhale up. This time I'm going to hinge at the hips. Exhale, fold, throwing the blanket down, over the piece of furniture, letting it soften. Now imagine you're pulling the bedsheets. Inhale, hands connect to the shin bones. Feel the heart move away from the hips. Feel a pulling of the hamstrings with that action. Now we've got the creases out. Let the rest of the spine enjoy it. Folding down. Let the neck go. Feeling the knees bend. We're going to feel that connection to the core and spring. Fluidly inhale up. And then exhale, release the hands down by the side. So here we go. Inhale up. Exhale, hinge at the hips. Let the arms drop down by the sides, just like we did before. And again, like we did before, hands on the shins, feel the heart move away. Exhale, let the fingertips touch the ground. Left leg back into a lunge. And feel way to the hips down. Inhale, push into the front leg. Feel that lovely lengthening. And don't worry too much about how straight or how bent it is. Just notice the sensations as you straighten. Exhale, bend that leg. This time, inhale, both arms up, high lunge. And just like we did before, it's just the arms. Hands come down. Now the back leg is slightly bent because it helps me connect to my abdomen. This time though, I want to keep that connection in the abdomen. Inhale the arms up and work on straightening the back leg. I get this lovely stretch. And exhale, all the way down. Now this time we're going to change from the front leg being bent. We're going to inhale up and work on straightening the front leg. Exhale, straighten. Now to balance pose that back leg, it's a bit of work. And exhale, fold. Next softens.

Walk both hands to the inside of the front leg. So both hands on the inside of the front leg. Bring your back heel down and work on straightening the front leg as best we can. Comfortably. Left hand. Inhale, like you're pulling that lawnmower. Inhale up. Feel your chest open. And exhale, we'll do that again. When we do it again, I want you to notice your spine rotate. Pushing into the back leg. Feel the chest move forward. Inhale. Left arm up. Chest opens. Exhale. And all the way down. Just let it melt. We'll do the same thing here. I'm going to go a little bit further with my feet distance. And I'm going to bend the front knee. So you should have a different feeling in the body. Inhale, left hand again with bent leg. Exhale down. So that's this sweeping feeling with the left hand. Inhale, soft brush stroke. And exhale down. Now we're going to come all the way up. We're going to sweep the arm up. And on that same inhale, we're going to hinge the hips and come all the way up. Softening the shoulders. Here we go. Turn the front palm. Inhale, reverse warrior. That lovely stretch in the waist. Exhale, elbow to knee. Now I'm going to open the chest again like that yawn. But this time to release tension in the neck. The left hand reaches away and comes down by the hip as the bottom ear softens to the shoulder. Feel that little opening on the left side of your neck. Now look back to your hand. Keep your eyes in and inhale, follow that hand. It might be straight up and you might stop there. You might continue. Notice how your throat helps to open your chest. And again, like a yawn, inhale, stretch. And exhale, bring the hand down. Now I want you to think Guitar Hero or Rockstar. Inhale the arm all the way around. And exhale the hand down by the hip. Inhale all the way forward. And last one, exhale down. This time we're just going to inhale up to warrior two. Inhale up. Exhale windmill. Hands on either side of the front foot. Inhale to the top of a push-up plank position. And I'm just going to drop to my knees. Exhale. So now I'm on all fours. And I want to just make sure my fingers are spread. Same thing I did with the feet. Check the connection pattern. And my next inhale, when it works, we move the shoulders away from the ears. Inhale open. Howl at the moon. Exhale, Angry Cat in Halloween. Belly in. Ribs. Feel it back. The shoulder blades come apart. Inhale open. And exhale round. For me, it's like squeezing the toothpaste. Squeeze from the bottom. And neutral. I'm going to do a little shoulder stretch. Left hand forward. Right arm slides underneath. And I'm just going to stretch down. And if you want a little bit more, you can walk the hand a little bit further back. Just take a breath here. And out. Slowly coming out. I'm changing hands. Left hand slides through. Thread the needle. Let it relax. Let my head relax. Just take a breath. Push into the ground a hand. Right hand. And out. Bring the hands back. Inhale open. Exhale round. Come up to your fingertips and keep the connection in the abdomen. And bring the big toes together. Sit your hips back. Feel that stretch in the back. Take an inhale here. And exhale. Now relax the body into child's pose. Come up to all fours. Inhale. Tuck the toes. It'll look just like child's pose. Hips towards heels. Leading with you. Inhale lift your hips up. Heels are high. It's like you're letting air out of the tires. Just release the heels down. Squeezing the shoulders. I don't know. And soften that I don't know all the way to the hips. Armpits nice and open. We're just gonna do the other side. So drop into your knees.

Bring your left foot forward. Tuck your back toes. Lunge. And then we're just gonna start with that pulse. We're gonna inhale straight in front leg. Exhale fold over front leg. Heart moves away from the hips. Inhale pull in the bad sheets. Exhale fold. Now bend the front knee. Inhale all the way up to high lunge. Inhale all the way up to high lunge. Exhale just the arms. We're gonna add the leg reach. Inhale arms come up back leg reaches back. Exhale all the way to the floor. Inhale we're gonna go all the way up again. But this time we're gonna straighten the front leg. Exhale all the way down. Walk both hands to the inside of the front leg. So the left is inside the left foot. Bring your back heel down. Now we're just gonna do that same thing. We're gonna yawn our right arm to the sky. Inhale for triangle pose. Right arm up. Exhale slowly bring it back down. And that lawnmower idea works for me that we're pulling from somewhere. Opening, opening, opening, opening. And exhale down. And now we're gonna do the same thing with the bent knee in the front leg. So I need a bit more space between my legs. And just bend the front knee until it feels buoyant. It's not holding. It's nice and soft. We'll try that same thing with the left hand. I apologize. The right hand. Inhale right arm up. Exhale down. And we'll do it again. Inhale up. And exhale down. But this time and the third time we're gonna come all the way up to warrior two. Inhale up. And lift. Sink into it. Turn the front palm. Inhale reverse warrior. Exhale the elbow to the front knee. Now we're gonna open the chest. And this time bottom ear to bottom shoulder. And as you reach the right hand, the right hand drops down to the hip. So you should feel the neck muscles lengthen and open. Look back to the hand. Follow your gaze. Follow the hand but notice your chest. Your rib cage, your throat. Everyone starts to open. And from baby toe to finger lengthen. Exhale arm down. Like you're moving a guitar around. Inhale arm round in a circle and all the way forward. But on the exhale drop it down and back to the hip. Last one. Inhale all the way forward. Exhale down and up to warrior two. Inhale. Exhale windmill hands on either side of the front foot. Back leg bends. Core connection. Stepping forward. Inhale lengthen spine. And exhale fold. Bending the knees. Back of the hands touch. Zip up to the sky in here. Exhale hands to heart. So now we're just gonna do another little salutation. This time we're gonna work into the twist. Inhale up. Exhale fold. Inhale moving the heart away from the hips. And again moving with the left leg. Exhale left leg back into a lunge. Now we're gonna do that. You feel buoyant in the hips. And maybe we're gonna straighten the front leg for just, see if there's any tension that might have crept back in there. Exhale we're gonna bend the front knee. But this time we're leaving the front knee bent. And the left hand grounds down. And to really get that sense that you feel the connection through the tissue, I'm gonna ask you to bend your left elbow. So when you push, it's like a springboard, you'll feel your shoulder, your chest. You can stack the shoulder and you bring your right arm up. Elbow, wrist, fingers. Hold for a minute. Now push the back heel back. Pull the chest forward. Push into the hand and the ground. And exhale down. Inhale all the way up to high lunge. Exhale hands to heart. Bring your back heel down. Facing down. Wide on the mat. Inhale arms wide. Exhale hands to waist. Elbows back, inhale. I'm gonna hinge at the hips, leading with the heart all the way down. I'm gonna move the weight slightly forward so the heels can release. Not sitting back. Feel that release in the lower legs. Maybe hold your elbows just for a few moments. Let your head hang. Nod your head yes. Notice if there's any tension that crept into your neck. And no. No. Inhale half way out. Exhale both hands to your left leg. One breath here. And up. Slowly changing sides. Right leg. Lengthen spine inhale. Exhale. And come half way out. Now we're going to go to the other side. I'm gonna turn on the mat. So now I'm facing my left leg. Deepen the hips. And we do that same pull of the lawnmower. Right hand is grounded. And I don't stay locked in the joint. I want to feel like I'm pushing through the ground. So I soften the right arm. Inhale left arm up. And just let it linger. Suspended. Push the back here.

Pull the chest. Exhale down. Inhale we're going to spring up again. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale to high lunge. Exhale hands to high. And turn and face towards the middle. Now I want to do a 1980s music video dance awards. So I'm going to drop my left shoulder down to the midline of my body. Down air and air. Push the left knee out. Bend the knee so I feel buoyant. And then once I feel that buoyancy, root and lift the chest. Looking over. And on the exhale soften. Change the other side. Right arm. Right knee pushes up. Inhale lift. And soften. Feel buoyant. Inhale lift. And soften. Last one. Inhale lift. And soften. Inhale arms wide. Come up to standing. Exhale hands to high. And I'm just going to move into tree pose. So I'm going to bring your feet together. The first balance posture. And as we pushed our hands together in Samos Tthi, there's this lovely connection. This root near bound. This kinetic chain. I push. I feel a connection in my shoulder girdle. I feel an opening in my chest. So we're going to establish that exact same thing with what we talked about earlier with the feet. We have the three points in the standing leg.

But my other leg as it comes up. And it might be here. As it pushes in. And my leg pushes back. I feel a stability here. How do we know it's stable? Well, you might feel it. Put your hands in your belly. Or you might notice a softness by putting one hand on the chest. Is the freedom of breath? Or is the muscles of the chest compensating? Where are we holding? Bring the hands together. Now only if you want to try this. We do that little root and rebound again. Standing leg bent. Feel it move through your body. Inhale like you're moving from the bottom of a fountain like a spring. Inhale up. Let it wash over you. The water was hot. Inhale up. Exhale down. Now the truth is, when I nearly get a pose or just about get a pose, that's when I feel like I'm doing yoga. I was doing yoga there. Otherwise, I'm just demonstrating. So here we go again. Round two. You'll probably hear me zip it. Other side. Connect. Feel that connection of the thigh to the foot. The foot to the thigh. Ground it down. Pushing down. Hands together. Now I'm resting my thumbs against my sternum. But I'm looking for the same thing we did earlier. And then we feel that lift, that spring, like geyser. We feel the arms move wide. We feel a softness in the rib cage. Lengthening around the shoulder girl. Inhale up. Exhale down. And now we're going to go down to all fours. And we're looking like one of those, again, music videos. You want those hips to move side to side. You want to be soft in the rib cage. Maybe move into the side like you're taking a corner. And switch the other side. And feel that open.

And sovereign. And now again, we'll do that gentle howl at the moon. Inhale. Open. And exhale around. Angry cat in Halloween. Squeezing the toothpaste. So the more I can feel an activity in the front body, the more potential or creating an opportunity I can release in the back body. Inhale. And then I'm going to come up to my fingers. Exhale. Just like we did before. Don't move the hands. Hips towards heels. Down we go. And now we're going to come up and we're going to roll the barrel. So imagine someone put a little, actually I'd say maybe a better image is when you rub bread against a soup bowl. You want your rib cage to move around and feel like you're squeezing the bread against the soup bowl. So you're going to round in a circle, rolling in the barrel. And the other way. And this time you want to look back and just have a little look back. And the hip turns towards you. Someone tells you you got a little bit of mustard on your hip. You're like whoa. You look there. It must be done. From here we move the hands, slide the hands back. And literally don't just throw the hands back. Feel like your hands are a paintbrush. The quality of your action. Connect. Flash the hands. Inhale open. Let your head go. Let somebody pour a bucket of water on your head. Open your throat. Soften your hips and chest down. Inhale open. And exhale down. Last one. Inhale open. Pushing in. Open to get all into the nooks and crannies. And soften down. Now we're going to interlace the fingers. Sitting on your knees, hips over shoulders. Interlace your fingers behind your back. Roll those shoulders back. With a core connection. Open your chest. Open your throat. Feel like your heart is the centre of a compass. And you're moving all the extremities. In all directions. Take one more inhale. Exhale let your head bow down. Let your head touch the ground. Roll onto the top of your head.

And lift your hips and arms forward. Enjoy the weight of your head. Exhale hips and arms down. Feel that opportunity to connect to your core as you lift and open your chest. And notice that relationship between the stability of the lower body and the freedom of the upper. And just soften for a minute. We'll do that one more time but we'll do it more like a flow. So here we go. Inhale. Arms straight. Chest opens. Exhale. Hinge and fold. Inhale. Hips and arms over your head. Roll onto that head. Exhale hips and arms down. Lift your chest. Inhale. And exhale. Soften. And then bend your elbows. When you bend your elbows the thumbs should rest somewhere close to the sacrum. And move your hands to the right side. Bring both elbows together. And let the head drop to the left. Open the chest inhale. And soften. So you'll always notice this kind of sensation of we don't just kind of paint by numbers. We feel that we want to move through the tissue. So when we go to the other side and every time we get that root and rebound. That softening of the body.

And then springing out of the body. It almost like a dominoes. It feels this lovely rippling effect of the tissue and your awareness from a very solid structure to a very free area. So doing the other side. Inhale open. Dropping the head. And soften. And then I'm just going to come through to a seated position. So I can cross the legs. I can if I want to feel the connection to the belly I can slide the legs. Or I can just go. Now for this we're going to work on releasing the back. If my hamstrings are tight. So what I'm going to have to do is just soften the knees. And I like to think of this as a little blue blanket. Hold the arms underneath. Inhale. They found me in a closet one day. Inhale lengthen. And exhale just relax again. The fiber of your body over your skeletal system. Just soften down. Let the eyeballs rest inside the knees. And then imagine your legs like paperweights. They're not pulling. Just the weight of the legs. And as they slide forward. Keep that connection as best we can. From ribs to body and just slide. Like you're fitting, sliding into a nice piece of clothing. And Cinderella. It fits perfect. Fold down. Maybe we can straighten it. Now I want to come up. I want to do hips in a hammock. Left leg bends. And that's it. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring my hips towards my heels. And just relax them.

Feel heavy in the hips. And then using again that connection of the hands through the chest. The hands encourage the chest, not the neck. The chest to move towards the ankle. And this hammock feeling should feel that we're not gripping. We're not putting the handbrake on. You know when the handbrake's on you can go anywhere. You can do a shopping list. When the handbrake's on you're about to roll down a heel. You're questioning what's going on. So really feel that am I opening? Am I gripping? Am I soft? Take a breath. That's an indicator. And it's okay today. So I'm going to release down. And we move into this to sitting tree pose. So we did tree earlier on. Hands to the outside of the straight leg. Inhale, lift. And exhale again. Heart drapes. If it's ever too much I can soften the knee. Or just relax anywhere, anywhere in the leg.

And then when you're ready just after a few breaths we just slowly come up. You can stay in that shape as much as you like. And lift up. Now we're going to do this exact same thing on the other side. Extending the leg out. Left leg. And this time I'm going to bring the right ankle on top of the left knee. Now when I feel the baby toes move back to the knee I know all those muscles are working. So I know if they're working that variable of what can start to overstretch is minimized. And I can really focus on releasing in the hip. So I bend again my left leg. Hips towards heels. Sinking into it. Hands. Heart towards. And I feel like there's a magnetic pull. So I say where is it pulling? I'm pushing with the foot. I'm moving with the chest. And then I want to feel a fluidity. A softness. Both there and in the hips. And at some point I sit. And I gauge how I'm feeling with a deep breath. And slowly I'm going to come out of that. I'm going to move into sitting to your pose again. If it ever feels a little too much on your knee you can put something underneath it. Hands to the outside of the straight leg. Inhale. Exhale. And I do like to pulse in and out of it. Sometimes you stay in it, stay in it, stay in it. And I go come through it. Dive back in. It's like you're going in and out of the water. So if it ever feels too intense, we might settle there at some point. But maybe not yet. And this is a vinyasa. Just minimize. And then after a while just your breath is a vinyasa. That's what's flowing. That's your tissue. Slowly come up and out. And we just do a little bit of stabilization.

Just a reminder. So we're going to lift the legs up. I interlace my fingers again. Little blue blanket is a little friend. And just inhale, lengthen. Exhale, soften. Open the chest. Inhale. Exhale. Release the arms. Inhale. Exhale. Feel like you're moving out from center. Back towards center. So there's always a reference of where you are in your body. Now we'll do a little twist. If it ever feels too much to bring the foot out, and it does for me a lot of the time, I just leave it to the inside. So bring the foot to wherever it's comfortable. Inside or outside your left knee. And again, that idea of squeezing the toothpaste. If I use this, I can lift and lengthen the spine. The right arm goes back behind. The left hand goes up just to give an opportunity to feel the tissue and the abdomen work. And wherever the hand rests, again root and rebound. Inhale. Exhale. We stay here for a few breaths. And looking back, releasing. We try that exact same thing on the other side. Slide the foot to the inside. Foot to the outside. If you go to the foot to the outside, your focus should be releasing the hip down. Sitting into that seat. Then lift up out of it. Left hand back. Right arm reaching. Twist. And wherever it feels comfortable. Up inhale. Exhale. Soften. Just the head. Let the head turn back. And once you release, we just do a few spinal lengthening and release. So it's like it's a pearl necklace. You drop your vertebrae like pearls in a necklace. Inhale up. Exhale. Inhale. Let the air of the tire. Maybe come up to the tippy toes and reach the hands overhead. And last one. Hold the edges of your mat. Pull the mat apart. Shoulder blades together. And see if we can do a few little things here. Hips up. Tailbone to the back of the knees. Knees away from your hips. Chest towards your chin. Snuggle, snuggle. You're pretty much set up now. But what I like to do is just a little windshield wiper with the arms. Start with the legs. Arms wide like an airplane. And just swish. One. Two. And this always reminds me, instead of windshield wipers, it always reminds me, what you're doing. See, just nothing. What you're doing. Nothing. And lay down. Now everything I've said could be contained in a certain sentence. Get comfy. So everything I'm going to say in this still posture is about getting comfy. I'm going to ask you to close your eyes. Notice the two curves in your spine. If you feel, oh, just make sure. Hands behind that, little length in the head. And peel it back down. Kind of just gently releasing into the pillow. And then just in case your back is arched, you can soften the knees and lengthen the spine. Now once you let it sit, let the legs fall out if it feels comfortable.

Notice when the inner thighs, the feet fall out. Inner thighs soft. Very soft. So take a breath just with the feet out. Hips and belly. Now feel the shoulder blades release flat. And the arms move away from the rib cage and the palms face towards the sky. We're getting out of our own way. Notice the breath in your chest with what you did with the arms. If you have done something, curtailed your breath in any way, if you've let it go, let everything go. So right now we're thinking, we're pushing a boat away from the dock and into the current and just letting it flow. No more tricks, no more. Just let it all go. Okay. Thank you. Now, if you wish to stay, stay.

Let my voice more be like white noise, like the sound of the ocean, the water. If you want to come out of it, take a deeper inhale, gently move to the nerve endings that are furthest from the brain, your fingers, your toes, just gently pulsate them, sensitivity. And then turn the feet in, exhale, hands down, exhale, palms to the sky, feet wide, exhale. And inhale, keep just flowing in and out, you're coming back, now we just start to spiral the wrists and the ankles, any way that feels good, change direction, inhale, arms overhead, stretch the right side longer than the left, the left side longer than the right. And soften the body, bend the knees, and roll to the right side.

With your left hand on the ground in front of your chest, keep that connection, slowly lift up, in any way that feels comfortable, any way at all, if you need to find a little higher seat or kneeling, anything that feels comfortable, that's the word, hands together. Thumbs to the forehead for clarity of thought, to the lips for clarity of speech, to the heart for clarity of action, so we're clearing everything we think, everything we say, everything we do. Namaste.