Stabilization Flow

Welcome back and now the focus is going to be on stabilization. So I hope you hang in there with me and we'll figure this one out together. Standing at the front of your mouth. As always, one breath, one movement. Inhale. Exhale, fold all the way down. Now keep in the knees bent, move the knees behind the toes, feel your core, start to engage. Arms forward, reach the hands forward and the hips back. Inhale. Exhale, fold with bent knees all the way down. Bend the knees. Inhale, just the arms. And exhale, soft arms. Arms, shoulder and throat. Inhale. Like you're in a swing. Exhale. And see if you can work as far up as you can without disconnecting. Maybe even put the hands together. Hands in James Bond. Reach one, two and fold all the way down. Lengthen spine inhale. And exhale, fold. Arms wide like an airplane. Like your chest is filled with helium. Inhale up. Hands overhead. Exhale, hands to heart. Adding a second one on our toes to really work on the core. Inhale, lift up. Heels off the ground. Exhale, release the heels down. Adding the hands. Inhale, heels and arms up. Leaving the heels off the ground. Exhale, notice where your center is as you fold. When you're less reliant on what's familiar, you really focus on what's left. And just fold. Inhale, lengthen. And exhale, fold. Inhale up. And as you exhale your hands down, release your heels. And now we're going to put that together. Inhale up. Exhale, fold into a squat. Inhale, lengthen and open. Exhale, left leg back into a lunge. And we've done this before. Left hand ground. Inhale, right arm up.

Exhale, right arm down. Leave the right hand on the ground and bring your back heel down. Inhale, left arm up. Exhale, left arm down. Both arms at the same time. Inhale, arms wide like an airplane. And all the way up. Exhale, all the way down. Inhale to the top of a push-up. Shoulders away from the ears. Exhale, only halfway down. Inhale, open chest. Push the feet into the ground. Move the hips forward. Exhale, roll back to down dog. And we're going to use downward dog just to investigate and try a few things out. Inhale, heels high. Exhale, knees kiss the ground. Now springing forward. Inhale, side body. We want to turn. Lift the left hand over. And exhale, back, knees bent. Getting ready to spring forward. Inhale, other side. Right arm over. Exhale, hand down. Move back, recoil. One more time. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Settling downward dog. Just get your breath right. Notice the symmetry between the left and right hand. Inhale, left leg up. Exhale, left leg forward. Moving into the twist. With right hand down. Inhale, left arm up. And just the fingertips down. Exhale and back heel down. Inhale, right arm up. And exhale down. And like one leg Utkatasana, one leg chair. Inhale up. One leg bent. Heart opens. Interlace the fingers. And reach up. And exhale, hands down. Lift the back heel. Connect the core. Step forward, inhale. Exhale, fold. And at the end of your exhale, bend your knees so you're back into chair squat. And inhale all the way up into chair. Standing. Exhale, hands to heart. Inhale. Bend your legs into squat. Exhale. Knees behind toes. Inhale, open the heart. Exhale, fold. And inhale. Exhale, left leg back. Into a lunge. Low lunge. Release the hips. Inhale up into high lunge. Active hands. Moving into a twist. Turning to your right. Exhale.

Try to stay soft. And slowly come around into warrior two. Reverse walk. Inhale. Exhale, right angle. Inhale, arm over hand. Exhale, arm back by the waist. Inhale up to warrior two. And now I'm going to bring my right hand down to the ground. Exhale. And left hand to the waist. Springing forward. Just like artichan, the half moon. I want you to keep the standing leg bent, but reach the leg back. Reach the heart forward. Left hand up and overhead. And if possible, but two hands overhead. And reach them apart. And down, windmill. Hands on either side. Inhale, top of push up. Exhale down. Inhale, open. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale, bend the knees. Now rippling the spine forward. Inhale. Exhale, forehead to knee. Inhale, reach. Exhale, knee to opposite elbow. Inhale. Exhale, elbow to knee to same elbow. And back. And down. Let's try the other side. Inhale, heels high. Exhale, bend the knees. Ripple spine. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale, right leg up. Foot into the head. Inhale, open. Exhale, knee to opposite elbow. Inhale, open. Exhale, elbow to same. Inhale. And exhale. Child's pose. And coming back to downward facing dog. Now we're going to just do the other side. Inhale, left leg up. Exhale, bring the left foot forward. Inhale up to high lunge. We're going to go for that twist again. Right hand forward, left hand back. Look back and pulse the back leg. Pulse and stretch into it. Take one more inhale. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, warrior two. Turn the front palm. Inhale, reverse warrior. Exhale, elbow to front knee. Open in the chest. Releasing the neck as the back hand drops down. Looking back at the hand, reach the hand over the head, gaze all the way forward. And exhale, let it spiral around. Inhale, back up to warrior two. And we're going to go for that leg balance again. Bring the hand down and shift the weight forward. Healing heart, reach apart. Keep the standing leg bent. Top arm reaches overhead. Bottom hand comes off the ground. And count.

Three, two, one, and up. Exhale, windmill the hands. Bend the back leg, step both feet forward. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, fold. Toes down. And knees wide. Hands down. If I lift my heels higher, I should feel the core kick in. Just like we did in chair pose. And then I create a little shelf life. So lift the hips, slot the shoulders underneath, shoulders away from here. And slide a little forward. Now maybe lift one leg. And down. And we'll try the other leg. And if it's okay, slowly lift the legs up. Open the shoulders, look forward. And just sit in a squat for a few moments. Into standing forward fold, turn the toes in and fold. Soften the knees, back of the hands touch. Roll the spine up. And exhale hands to heart. So now we're going to just do a little variation on tree pose. Previously we tried moving the thigh, the foot against thigh. And we had the sensation that we're moving into center. And now we want to still have that idea that we know we're centers, but we want to move out from center. So as I grab my left leg, I want to feel like equal connection, like two doors opening as we open up. If it feels okay, lengthening the neck muscles, look away. And then let the doors close. And then soften down. And we'll try that one more time. Other side. So bring the knee in. Move the foot up. And even this connection through the shoulder. Feels everything centered. Inhale, expand from center. And back in. And down. And staying with this series, the Padangasasana series, we're going to bring left leg up. Move the knee into the chest. And it can be just extending the leg out. Inhale out. Exhale, bend. Inhale out. Exhale, fold. Inhale, lift up. And if it feels okay in your body, slowly, just lower down and feel a nice release in your lower back. And up we go. And sometimes you stay down. Here we go. We'll try the other side. Exhale up. One breath. Exhale, bring it in. Hold the foot. Maybe extend, maybe don't. Inhale. Exhale, bend the knee. Inhale, extend. Exhale, fold. Let your body release over your leg. Inhale, body up. Exhale, bottom floor. And it's different from leg to leg. And this becomes very apparent. There's the release. And back, up you go. And out. Take a deep breath in. And out. So this is a great way to bring the body back in. You bring your legs wide. And then on the exhale, I'm going to bring my right leg behind my left, sliding it across. I'm going to keep my left hand close to my thigh. And just drop down. And if I continue to spiral with the hands, they're cross for ego. And give a little squeeze.

Almost I know I said keep it soft, but there's this lovely punctuation feeling that we're working towards of like locking it in. There it is. And when you have that moment, you might want to sit with it or you might want to go, yeah. Now we'll turn that into flow in a minute, but let's do the other side. Inhale, expand from center. Left leg slides like a paintbrush behind right. The knee passes. So then when I squat down, I'm in this lovely little squeeze. It's having me balance. I'm going to rest my front arm and my front thigh. And the other arm goes all the way over. Takes the mind. Squeeze. Now imagine we're flowing and the easy thing to remember is as we come up to the center, keep your front, same leg, same hand beside each other. So here we go. One, two, squeeze. Inhale, expand. And you remember that idea, expansion, moving back to center. Giving yourself a moment to sit with it. Let's try two more times without words. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Back to center. Inhale. And we go for a fold. Exhale. Two hands. Reaching to the big toe. One, two. Reach your heart forward. Exhale. Soften your heart down. Inhale. Lengthen. Exhale. Both hands to your left leg. And fold. Keeping the breath fluid and buoyant, pulsing. And exhale. On your next inhale, left arm up to the sky. Open the chest. Twisting triangle variation. And exhale. Now slide the hands to the other leg. Inhale, open. And let that blanket fold down. And on your next exhale, inhale. Right arm to the sky. Open. Let the chest open. And walk hands back to center. Inhale, lengthen spine. Exhale, hands to the waist. Inhale. And step back to the front of your back. And now we're moving into back strengtheners, which we've already started with the primary of foundational back. Heart opener, which is chair pose. So we're going to go through that and see how it takes us down into the ground. Exhale, hands down. Knees back. A chance, an opportunity to feel and squeeze the belly, giving the back chance to open.

Now keep that. It'll give an opportunity to open up. Feel the chest, feel the rib cage open. Exhale, fold. Come to toe stand. Inhale. Exhale, squat. And hands down. The heart goes forward. The hips go back. We try and keep a balance. So think more of the heart come forward and the legs plunking back. As we put the hands down, just let the heart come forward. Inhale, open. Exhale, back. And drop to your knees. One, two. I always like to fit in just a little flash dance. And open. And soften. And I'm going to come and lie in my belly. Now we're going to take this opportunity to really use gravity. Keep our body long. And we start with cobra. So you bring the hands, slide them back by the shoulders. Give a little jiggle. And then as you lift the shoulders up and back, slowly lift up and get lighter in your hands. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. And make sure your heart is in a bubble rather than a cave. It's very easy. The quicker you come up, the more likely I am to get into that kind of 1980s music video shoulder forward thing. So just roll them back. Heart went in the race. Down you come. And now I'm going to bring one arm forward. My right hand. Bend my left leg. And reach back. And the more I push the foot into the hand, I feel the chest open. I feel my quads open. And lift up. One more. Inhale. Exhale. Now I'm pretty tight in the chest and we're working on that one. So we'll try and get to the other side and do the same thing. Open slowly. Here we go. Open in the jaw. And then the leg. Reach back. But feel that lovely connection. The connection is what I'm really, the sensation. Push the foot into the hands. And if you do it just right, you should feel an equal sensation. Almost like a loop, a circuit. Like an electrical circuit. Push and inhale. And exhale. So we don't want it to vibrate too much. It's okay. But keep it pulsing. Inhale. And that's probably as far as I'm going to get with that one today. So now I'm going to move into anahatasana. I'm going to open my chest in a different direction. Bringing the hands forward. Almost like Pythagoras' tear. Pythagoras' triangle. I want my hips over my knees. I just want to soften down. And I end up kind of letting the air out of the triangle so it's more like a skateboard ramp. Soften the chest. Now the straighter the arms are, the more potential I have of releasing tension in the shoulder girdle. But if it gets too much on that, you can soften the elbows. If it gets too much in the lower back, you can move your hips back. So it depends where you want to be today. And now we're going to move into a little twist. We'll thread the needle. The right arm slides through. I'm going to just relax my head down. And I'm going to bring my left hand behind. I'm bending. Remember, the more I can stack the shoulders, the more my spine twists. And I can add to that twist by bringing a leg up. Now as I bring the leg up, my right leg slides in to 45. And then it's like I'm trying to fit into a sleeping bag. Oh, where are you? We're out camping in Coachella. Inhale. Hey, dude. That feels really nice. Now there's a few ways of coming out of it. Or you just stay here forever. And I like to just come out the normal way, but sometimes I like to play with it. I like to slide out, see how fragging we eat. And roll around. It doesn't look graceful, but it works. And it feels nice, that lovely massage in the back. We have to do that side. And here we go. We're going to go for side two. So we come down. We want the hips again. We want the hips over the knees, softening the arms. And we're about to again, just as it feels like you're almost diving into the pose. You make a little space and you move into that space. Left hand slides through as it slides through. Just sink into it. Relax. The top hand, the hand over your head is going to bend and walk behind, stacking the shoulders. The right leg slides out. The hand, if it can, can grab the leg. And now you've got another loop. And then you slowly, slowly, slowly. We're going to roll. Roll, roll, roll. Here we go. And then we're going to now, we're going to finish with the shoulder sequence. And we're going to actually, I'm going to just try this. Rolling down. Feel better here already. And now on the exhale, legs come over. Feel the weight of your legs releasing down. Bent, straight. It doesn't matter, but feel what each of those experience off your body. I'm not in the neck, but I'm relaxing the head. Slowly, if it feels okay, you can open your chest, hands to the lower back. Now you might feel a little compressed in both the belly and the throat. And this just might be a different experience for you. And then slowly, timber. Remember when the legs go one way, the hips go the other way. And relax. Bend the knees. Roll the spine down. And just to play with it, see what it's like to bring the legs down straight. If you feel the overarching your lower back, bend the knees. But it might just feel that lengthening in the abdomen. That lengthening. Now we're going to intentionally arch the back for fish pose. The hands come under the butt. The hands come under the hips. And as they come under, it's like you're at the beach. You're like, Hey, how you doing? Elbows go under. The heart is going to be that compass thing again, where there's four points, your tailbone, your elbows, east and west. And then like you're diving backwards, open your throat, soften your elbows and enjoy the compression. A little gentle connection of the head. And that connection can really have stretch and open the throat area. The thyroid. Given it the opposite effect of what happened in shoulder sound. Just that stimulation of moving in, squeezing. Take a few breaths here. Now you might notice, I'm going to ask you to take your hands out. Keep that work. Now lift your legs six inches off the ground. Bring your hands forward. The legs are almost a counterbalance. Take five breaths. Last breath. I just felt down. Hands down.

Exhales give yourself an opportunity to lengthen the neck. And if you feel that there's a holding, you can physically use your hands. Pull the base of your skull long and let go for Shavasana. And this shoulder sound sequence, especially with the fish pose, it really helps align here. You're already open in your chest. So when you lie down, where you're both vulnerable and feeling safe in the Shavasana, it has a different effect on the chemical system, on your nervous system. So I'm going to give myself a little readjustment. So I keep that openness. Let the legs open as we always do in Shavasana. As we always do. If it works for you. Kind of snuggle into it. Just start with letting go. Think of yourself as a little effervescent tablet. You don't dissolve straight away. You just feel it all just dissolving. I'm going to be quiet for the next minute. Hopefully you will be too. Be still. I'm going to invite you to stay where you are. I'm also going to invite you to join me in coming back before we get on with our daily activities. Deep breath in. Gently move your fingers and toes. Gently move shoulders and hips. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Inhale open. Lengthen arms over head, stretch. Imagine that you can stretch the way you'd like to if you just gave yourself that extra second when you woke up. Rather than checking your devices or rushing to get somewhere that you included yourself in the equation of the day. Bend your knees, roll to the right side and work yourself up into a seated position. Hands a moment of gratitude that you deserve. Inhale tall. Thumbs to the forehead. Clarity of thought to the lips. Clarity of speech to the heart. Clarity of action. So we are clearing everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do. Namaste.