Moving to Your Heart Beat

Hi, welcome. Welcome to moving to the beat of your heart. So I'm going to ask you to come into a comfortable seated position, anyone that feels right for your body. Go ahead and take a blanket to boost your hips up. And again, just slide both your hands right underneath your hips. Create an internal rotation. The thighs allow the tailbone to drop down. Bring your hands comfortably onto your knees. Close your eyes. Allow the upper lids to soften the lower lids. And then get quiet. You're going to take your thumbs, you're going to bring them right into the armpits. And we're going to lift up so that the side body, your waist becomes long. Roll the shoulders back. And then keeping this, go ahead and take in a deep inhalation. Relax the shoulders. And then you can go ahead and draw the hands again right onto the thighs. I'm just going to spend about a minute here to work on the breath. So if you know Ujjayi Pranayam, you're going to lightly contract the back of your throat. You're going to create that whisper sound, the sound of the wind moving through the trees. Drawing the breath in through the nostrils, taking it from the lower belly all the way up to the upper chest. When you arrive at the upper chest, just take a small pause, comfortable pause here before you exhale. And allow the breath to slowly, softly move out of your body without collapsing into the spine, to the shoulders. Keep the heart open. Keeping your breath with each inhale and with each exhale.

Just the last four again at the top of your inhalation, a small pause, natural pause. And then exhaling out slowly. And then we're going to raise the arms three times. Spread the fingers wide now. Have a soft gaze with your eyes and then inhale and the arms up. And then turning the palms facing the earth, exhaling down. Keep the breath moving, smooth. And the last time. When you reach the top, you're going to go ahead and take your right hand onto your heart and your left hand is going to follow. And then close your eyes now. I'm going to take in a couple of deep breaths here. I want you just to check in with your heart. So this is actually the first brain. And it's actually the heart that sends messages to our brain and not the brain that sends messages to the heart. This is the seed of the soul. And then ask yourself, what is your heart communicating right now? Just check in. Feel. And you go ahead and open your eyes. You can take the blanket out from underneath you. Just put it off to the side. We'll be using it later. And then still in your comfortable position, just slide the hands right onto the knees. So if your arms are really long, you might want to even just bring the base of the wrist right over the knees. Otherwise, you can keep your hands right onto the kneecaps. You're going to go ahead and inhale. Bring the heart forward right between the shoulders. Feel the spine lengthen. And as you exhale, you can even move the knees off the floor, rounding the spine. And then again, pushing the heart forward, leading with the heart. And then exhaling again, back down. Spine touches the back. And then inhaling again through the heart. Just a couple more breaths. Leading with the heart. Opening the shoulders and keep the shoulder blades and the collarbones wide. One last round. And then coming back into a neutral position, draw the hands to the sky. And then again, bring the hands to your heart. Close your eyes and then turn inward. And again, ask yourself, what is your heart communicating right now? Okay, and then open your eyes and then from there, we're going to go ahead and turn to the side. Bring your feet hip-width apart and spread the toes really wide. And then you're going to anchor down into the mound of the big toe and then allow the ball of the foot to also anchor down and keep the arches lifted. You're going to bring your hands back behind you, turning the fingertips inward towards you. And then from here, you're going to inhale, opening the heart. So the heart is actually going to be pushing forward towards the knees. Without letting the knees splay out, you want to keep the feet grounded into the earth. Shoulder blades anchored into the back and then you keep the collarbones really wide. Inhaling here. Chest moves up and it moves forward as well. And then exhaling, you're going to be working on the triceps.

So squeezing the elbows in, draw the navel into the spine and the chin towards the chest. And then inhaling, again, coming back up. Chest moves forward between the shoulders. And then again, exhaling. Find the movement of the spine. Lead with your heart as you inhale. And then as you exhale, you're going to slide your hips now towards your knees and allow the knees to come right over the base of your ankles. Shoulders over the base of your wrists here. Inhale here. Abdomen to the heart. Protect your neck without dropping the head back. Keep it in line with the spine or chin to the chest. And then exhaling down, we're going to move right into bending the elbows. And then again, inhaling. Heart moves forward. Slide the hips now towards the ankles. Pushing the knees forward, line them up right over the base of the ankles. Shoulders over the base of the wrists. Exhaling down. One more. And then exhaling, bending the elbows. And then from here, we're going to draw all the way down onto the back. You can just comfortably either bring your hands to the backs of the thighs, come all the way onto your back. Place the feet again, hip width apart. About a hands width distance from the hips to the heels. And then again, just relax your head. Draw the chin slightly in. We're going to inhale. We're going to bring the arms overhead. Lengthening again through the waist. Then as you exhale, you're going to draw the knees into the forehead, forehead into the knees. You can hold onto your ankles if this feels comfortable. And then inhaling again, arms overhead. Place the feet with awareness back onto the earth. And then as you exhale, we're going to move up, hips to the sky. Keep the chin towards the chest, but a light space here between. And then coming back again, inhaling the arms overhead and then exhaling, alternating. Apanasana. Again, leading with the heart. Satu bandhasana. So three more on your own. Again, connecting with the heart, leading with the heart. This last one, we're going to inhale the arms overhead. Place the feet with awareness back onto the earth again.

And then exhaling dynamically, pushing the feet into the earth. We're going to go ahead and lift up. And then inhaling the arms towards the sky, hands facing one another, bending into the elbows. You're going to place the elbows dynamically into the earth. Then from there you're going to lift the shoulders off the floor. Bring the heart high to the sky. Back of the head is placed into the earth dynamically. So you want to make sure that it's not the top of the head, but right between the eyes. Find that point, which you call bindu. Bring that right into the earth. Lift the shoulders, bring the shoulder blades in, engage them. And then activating the thighs. There's two ways of doing this with your feet. Either you can isometrically drag the feet forward, which is going to give a different sensation. Pulling the tailbone now towards the knees, or you can isometrically pull the feet towards you. Either way, lift the heart high to the sky, bring the breath from the abdomen all the way up into the upper chest and the chin towards the chest, creating a light space. We're going to stay here for five breaths here. Inhaling and exhaling. Opening up the heart, widening through the collarbones. Connecting with the rhythm of your own heart. One last breath. And then from there, you can take the hands to the hips, tilt the tailbone slightly in and you can pull the hips down towards the heels. Releasing the spine. And you can take the knees into the chest. You can bring the forehead now to meet the knees. And then go ahead and cross into your ankles, holding on to the big toe with your index finger and your middle finger. Draw the feet right over your head, engage your abdomen, and then go ahead and come forward. And then from there, we're just going to turn around and come into what we call vajrasana. So point your toes back without splaying into the feet. You want to make sure, cycling into the feet, you want to make sure that the toes are spread wide. And if you have any knee injuries or issues, you might want to take a blanket and just slip it right into the knee joints. And you go ahead and sit back like this. And if you don't need a blanket, you can go ahead and take that out. Okay. And then from here, you're going to inhale the arms up. Exhaling, placing left hand onto the earth. Slide the hips now to the right, draw the abdomen, and then turn your gaze towards the earth. Inhaling. And then exhaling. Exhaling, rounding out through the spine, chin to the chest. Inhaling back up. And both the hands behind you stay on your finger pads. So from here, we're going to activate the thighs. You can point both of the knees forward like two arrows. Draw the thighs forward as you inhale, open the heart. And then exhaling, squeezing the thighs together, activating them. Inhaling again, hands to the earth and the sky. Exhaling.

One last one. Hands back behind you. We're going to inhale, come all the way up onto your knees now. Exhaling, drawing the navel in, hands are going to meet the earth. Inhaling onto our forehead. And then exhaling, rounding the spine, chin to the chest. Heart moves between the shoulders. And then again, exhaling. One last one. From here, we're going to bring the hands slightly forward, spreading the fingers really wide, pressing the finger pads into the earth. You have two options. If the neck is sensitive, you want to just bring the forehead towards the floor. So we're humbly melting the head down towards the earth. You want to keep the armpits high and buoyant without collapsing into the shoulders. And then you can go ahead and melt the heart. If your neck is safe with keeping the abdomen in, you can go ahead and just draw your chin down. And then inhaling and exhaling here. Melting the heart. And then slowly coming out, we're going to bring the hands now, right underneath the shoulders. And you can go ahead and come down into a modified plank, all the way down onto the stomach. Activate both your legs by stretching them back. And bring the tops of the feet now anchored into the earth. And take your tailbone now, and you're going to draw it towards the heels. Bring your fingertips now right off your mat. You're going to come high onto the finger pads. Take an inhale. You're going to bring the breath all the way up into the shoulders, getting the waist as long as possible. And then exhale, go ahead and melt the heart down. Soften into the heart. And then inhale into getting coming out. Activate the legs, bringing them energetically back towards the heels. Bring the heart forward and the head and the arm bones back. Inhale here. Exhale, melt the heart even more. Draw the navel in. One more. And then exhaling ever so gently, soften all the way down. Taking a deep inhalation and exhalation here. And using the strength of your abdomen and your thighs, go ahead and bend into the knees. Activate both of the legs, pushing up into a modified plank. And then go ahead and sit back all the way back into your heels. And then keep again the armpits buoyant and hollow by just allowing the forehead to relax down. And whenever you're ready, go ahead and sit back again onto your heels. Inhale and bring your arms to the sky. And then sliding both of the hands right down in front of your heart. Close your eyes, turn inward. And then again, connect with your heart. What does your heart need from you right now? What is it communicating? And then from the softness of your heart, from both of the hands to meet. And again, bowing towards the fingertips. Feel that sense of gratitude. And let that fill your heart, fill your day. And whenever you're ready, you can open your eyes, relax the hands, and begin your day. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed this session. Thank you.