Chair Opening (5 Minutes)

So, welcome, we're going to dive into a brief opener to prepare your body to sit more comfortably. You're on a chair, the feet are directly under the knees, kind of neutral weight through the sit bones, the legs, the feet, and just rest the hands wherever they're most comfortable. And let's take a big breath together and just let the exhale out of the mouth. So inhaling, and exhale, let a little something go. And then take a big inhale and just reach the arms up and interlace the fingers.

As you exhale, press the palms to the sky, keep the shoulders soft down the back and let the waist and the rib cage and the shoulders lengthen, and a few breaths here. Soft through the neck and the jaw, soft gaze wherever the eyes are comfortable. And let's stay here together, take a big inhale, and as you exhale, twist to your right, take your left hand to the outer right knee, and just take the right hand behind you, maybe clasp the back of the chair wherever it fits comfortably and gaze back over the right shoulder. Lengthen up through the spine with each inhale, and just kind of deepen, ease into the twist with each exhale, three, two, and with your next inhale, come on back to center and float the arms up again, and exhale, take it to the other side, right hand outside of that left knee, and then just gaze back over the left shoulder nice and tall through the spine. Deep full breath, three, two, and again with your inhale, draw yourself back to center, reach the arms up, and as you exhale, release the hands down onto the legs wherever they just land most comfortably, and we're going to do a little seated cat cow.

So take a big inhale and lift up through the heart, gently lift the gaze, shoulder blades down the back, arching the low back a little, and as you exhale, pull the belly to the spine and let the back round, easing the head down a little, a few more cycles like that. So inhale, ripple up through the heart, melt the shoulders down, and exhale rounding the back, pull the belly in, and let the head go, again big inhale, and exhale, and take just a couple more cycles and feel free to play with it a little bit, again inhaling lifting the heart, melt the shoulder blades down, and exhale to round, belly back towards the spine, once again inhaling, and exhaling, and good. With your next inhale, just come on back to a neutral spine and let's roll the shoulders out a little bit, you can take them back or forward or kind of side to side, just finding some ease there, and then back to neutral, and let's let the chin relax down towards the chest, and just roll the right ear over towards the right shoulder, soft gaze, you're welcome to close the eyes, jaw relaxed, breathing into the left side of the neck, and then releasing the chin towards the chest, and take the left ear over to the left shoulder, breathing into the right side of the neck, again just a gentle gaze, and you can roll the head a little side to side at your own pace, another breath or two here, sending a message of ease and opening to the body before you sit, and as you're ready, draw the head back to neutral, even out on the sit bones, drop the shoulders, rest the hands, and we'll take one more steadying breath together, inhale, and let the body ground on the exhale, beautiful, thank you.