Grounded and Stable

Hi yogis, welcome. For this practice it's going to be really useful for you to have a blanket or maybe two and a couple of thick blocks in which you could even right now place at the top of your mat, just off of your mat, like that. Focus for today's practice is grounding. So we'll start by sitting comfortably, most importantly be comfortable so if you need to kick one leg out no problem, we'll be here for a couple of minutes. Take a nice deep breath in, exhale and drop your chin a couple of degrees and soften your eyes. Let's do that again, inhale grounding and exhale feeling your sit bones and your legs make contact with the floor. One more time, deep inhale gather your attention and exhale ground your awareness into your body. Let your eyes open and on your next exhale take your right ear towards your right shoulder, opening up the left side of your neck. Take a nice deep breath into that side. Then on your exhale let your chin drop down towards your chest and over to the other side, left ear towards left shoulder. Take a nice deep breath into that side. And then chin down towards the chest and this time deep inhale and exhale round forwards. You can get into that tight fascia in your upper back, tucking your chin. On your inhalation lift yourself back up to neutral spine, lift your chest and if it feels okay lift your chin and look up. Continue to lengthen through the back of your neck, roll your shoulders up, back and down, stretching the front of the throat and come back to neutral. We're going to take our right leg in front of our left, flex the feet. If it's possible for you, stack your right leg on top of your left for more flexible hips. Let your right hand come out to the side, left arm sweeps in front of the face and up and lean over to that side, double side bend. You might play with rolling your bottom chest up, pulling your elbow back and even rolling your sternum down towards the floor, getting into the back of the lungs. Allow yourself to make more breathing room in there. Inhale brings you all the way up with the help of your top arm. Exhale over to the other side. You can roll it open and you can close the sternum towards the floor, opening up the back. Use that top arm to help you come up. And then exhale, pull your sit bones back, you might even move your prop if it's in the way and walk forwards. Couple deep breaths here, easing into your hips. Root your sit bones to help you come on up. We're just going to lean back, switch the cross of our legs, keep the feet nice and flexed or stack the shins if you like and over to the right, side bend. A little bit quicker this time. Pull it open, round it closed. Root your left sit bone to help you come up over to the other side. Roll it open, get into those back ribs, pull yourself up. You can readjust again by pulling the buttocks flesh back so you feel tipped forwards and lean in. You could have your elbows on your French shin or you could walk forwards any amount. Full deep breaths. And every time during this practice you have the opportunity to come into contact with what's touching the floor, hips, thighs, grounding those femur bones. Exhale fully and inhale, make your way all the way up. And we'll move that prop over to the side and come into a downward dog with your hands at the top of the mat. Huddle out your feet, bend your knees and push the tops of the thighs way back. Let your feet come together at the back of the mat and inhale your right leg back behind you. You might open that hip bending the knee spiraling through the spine and come high up onto your left toes. Exhale, bring that foot into a lunge and come up onto your fingertips. And here you might even use your blocks as a little bit of support and a little bit more space in the front of the hip. Strengthen your back leg, press out through your back heel and then nice and strong through your inner legs. You can climb up on your knee with your hands and sweep your arms up breathing in. Bend your back knee any amount to neutralize your pelvis and take three deep breaths. One, two and if you'd like, press out through your back heel to get a little bit more space in the front of the hip. Feel your feet. Three. And then we'll exhale come forward, move those blocks over to the sides and step back into your downward dog. Spread your toes, spread your buttock bones, bend your knees if you need to, root your heels. Feel your hands and your feet. Feet together at the back of the mat, inhale your left leg up, open it up if you like, up. And then come high up onto your right toes and bring that leg forwards.

You might even grab it and move it forwards and use your blocks for a little bit of space in the hips. Strengthen the back leg, root the thigh bone up into the hamstring of the back leg and feel your feet. I'm going to move my blocks out to the sides, climb up, bend the back knee just so that my pelvis is more neutral, not tipped forwards and inhale sweep the arms up. Ribs in, lower back long, lifting your ribcage off of your pelvic crest. Two. And three. Exhale, sweep it forwards and back into a downward dog. Couple deep breaths. Feet together at the back of the mat, inhale your right leg up. This time bend your knee and make three hip circles with your knee into the side out and up. One. Lubricating your hip joint. Two. And three. Come high up onto your left toes, reach that leg out back behind you and bring it into your lunge again. You might grab it and move it forwards. Climb up out of your lunge, inhale your arms up. This time if you like you can root your tailbone, lift up and arc back a little bit. If it's too challenging, keep looking forwards. Just straighten your arms. Three deep breaths. One. Two. And three. Throw that forwards. Grab a hold of your blocks if you like just for some stability. And we're going to move the blocks on our high level or your fingertips are on the floor. Transfer your weight into your right foot and bring your back leg up for warrior three. Make sure you don't lock your bottom knee. So there's a little softness in the knee. So easier is to take your arms up to the sides or keep them on the blocks. And if you want a little more challenge, sweep your arms forwards. Three deep breaths. One. Two. And three. Hands find the blocks or the floor. Left foot finds the floor. Forward fold. Dangle. You can use your blocks always for support or maybe even interlock your hands around your forearms or your elbows. Let the back of the neck open. I'm going to open our arms up to the sides on the inhalation. Sweep your weight all the way up. Then interlock all your fingers except for your index finger and your thumb. Plumb it your pubic bone and tailbone down. Feel your feet strongly rooted into the earth. And inhale. Lift up and it's like you're going over a high bar at your shoulder blades. You can always tuck your chin if you've had neck mischief. Or you can open up the front of the throat keeping length in the back of the neck. And breathe three deep breaths. One. Two. And three. Root down through your heels to help you come up. Grab a hold of your right wrist. Next inhale lift up and exhale side bend over to the left.

Two more deep breaths. Feel your feet and feed that strength of your legs into the softness and length of your spine. Inhale bring it up. Switch the clasp. Exhale. Inhale reach up from your grounding and over to the right. Ribs in. Lower back long. And breathe into those left side ribs. Inhale come on up. And exhale let those arms come down really releasing your shoulders. Shift into your left foot and bring your right foot into tree pose. So the sole of the foot can come on the calf. Or if you lean forwards you can take a hold of your shin or ankle and bring it up and squeeze it into the inner thigh. Inhale your arms up. So less challenging arms up to the sides. Testing your balance. More challenging arms up. Pinnacle arms. And looking up. Right knee out to the side. Pelvis grounding down through the legs. Spine lifts. Two. And three. Let the arms softly release. Let your right knee shift forward. Soften your left knee and come back into your warrior three. So you're always welcome to find the blocks here or sweep your arms forwards. If it's there for you exhale keep your left knee right over your second toe and bend your knee. Exhale inhale straighten your leg. Exhale bend. Inhale straighten. Last one. Exhale bend. Inhale straighten. You might use your blocks here. Shift back into your crescent lunge. Tuck the back toes under. Climb up out of it. You can use your knee or sweep your arms right up. This time cradle the back of your skull with your hands. Elbows in. Tailbone heavy. And lift up and back. Continue to really keep your palate, your jaw, and your neck soft. Your legs anchored and strong. Two. And three. Bring yourself up. Come all the way back down. And you might use your blocks here again. And lower your back knee to the floor. If you have tender knees you could also put a blanket under your knee. Press strong into the back toenails and shift your hips forward. Breathing in. On the exhale make contact with the parts of you that are touching the floor. Continually strengthen the connection of your legs and your feet and your whatever is touching the floor. And continually soften your head, neck, and shoulders. You might even press into your back toes and elevate the back knee.

Keeping the back leg pressing into the toes. More challenging still. So three deep breaths there is to come up. Arms up. And do that same thing. Strengthen the back leg and lift the back knee for one. Stay down if it's too much sensation. Two. Soft jaw. Three. And we're going to exhale. Bring it forward. Move those blocks over to the side. Step back. Downward dog. And we're going to inhale into a plank pose. And exhale all the way down onto the belly. Strengthen the legs. Press the toenails down. And inhale cobra one. Roll the shoulders up and back. And I need to come a little bit high just to not come crashing down on my baby here. So for you you might stay lower and move the chest forward. Exhale come down and you might come all the way down to the floor here. So cobra two. Inhale roll it up. Shoulder blades gently push into the heart. And exhale and come down. Cobra three. Strong legs. Inhale and come up. Shoulders move gently back. Chest moves forwards. And exhale we're going to come up and back into a wide legged child's pose. Grounding breaths in. Inhale gather your attention. And exhale drop into the body. Strengthen your arms in preparation for the dog pose. Squeezing the outer arms in towards the bone. And then come on up. Pad your way into your downward dog. Lifting your hips up and back. And allowing your lower spine to sink into the body. Feet together at the back of the mat. Inhale your left leg up and back behind you. Bending that left leg in three big hip circles. One you can come high up onto your right toes. Two. And three. Reach it back behind you on your inhalation. Exhale bring it forwards. You might grab it and move it forwards. Back leg strengthens and come on up. Inhale your arms up. Three breaths. Two. And three. Shift your weight forwards. Here you might find your blocks. I'm going to bring them up onto the high level and come into a warrior three. Back leg elevates. So again arms out to the sides. Try not to lock your bottom knee. Use your muscular strength. Or arms forwards. Three deep breaths. Back big toe points down. Two. And three. Let your hands find the blocks. Right leg finds the floor. Forward fold. Exhale and fold forwards. Maybe holding the forearms or the elbows. Arms out to the sides. Root your heels down. Inhale come all the way up. And then squeeze your inner legs together. Root down through your tailbone and pubic bone. And inhale come up and back into a standing back bend. Anchor your buttock muscles down into your hamstrings. And look forwards if it's too much on your neck. Or lengthen the back of the neck and let your head fall back. Root down through your heels to help you come up. Grab a hold of your right wrist. Exhale root your feet. Inhale come up and over side bend. Two. Three.

Bring it up. Switch the class. Inhale root down to rise up. And exhale over to the other side. You can even lean your left hip out to the side for a little bit more stretch in the side waist. Hips back center. Inhale it up. Take three seconds to let your hands drop and really relax the muscles at the tops of your shoulders. Shift your weight into your right foot. Bring it right underneath you and your left foot comes up onto the inner calf or maybe the inner thigh if you can reach down and grab it. Seal the foot and the thigh together. Inhale your arms up. We're out to the sides. So more support out to the sides. And if it's really balance-y day for you, you could even go to the wall and put your finger against the wall. Three deep breaths. More challenging testing your balance is to look up. Slowly let your gaze come back forwards if it's up. Let your knee come forwards. And we're going to shift again into our warrior three. So hands can find the blocks. They can come out to the sides. They can come forwards. And if it's there for you as you exhale lower your knee over your second toe. Inhale bring it back up. Two more times. Exhale lower. Really finding your stability and grounding. Inhale back up. Exhale lower. Inhale back up. And you could use your blocks or see if you can shift your weight until you come into a crescent lunge. Inhale bring your way up. Interlock your hands to the back of your head. It's almost like you're cradling the back of your brain here. Sink your tailbone. Strengthen your legs. And inhale come up and back keeping a soft throat, palate, neck. Eyes sink into the back of the skull. And continue to feel the strength of the connection of your legs. And then come up and forwards. Snuggle that back knee back and we're going to lower the back knee to the floor and the top of the foot. So again if you want that padding put a blanket underneath your knee and start to sink your hips towards your front heel. Notice if you're guarding in the back of your chest and your ribs. See if you can really sink the upper back in. Soften the shoulders back. And you can always use your blocks for more support. We can play with this is really pressing the back toenails down and pressing that back leg towards straight. It's more intense. More sensation. But it might be deeper for you even to keep the back knee down. And if you like a spicier variation is to come up and press that back leg towards straight. Three more deep breaths wherever you are. One, two, and three. Exhale let your hands come down. Back into our cobras. Step back plank pose.

Exhale forwards. Exhale to the belly. Inhale cobra one. Exhale come down. And so if it's too tight on your back move your hands more forwards. Inhale cobra two. Exhale come down. And you can come all the way down here as well. Head to the floor. Three. Strengthen your legs and feel that slingshot of your tailbone to the backs of your legs and the feet. Exhale come on down. Hands move back. Tuck toes. Lift up and back into your downward dog. And pedal out those feet. I'm going to bend our knees and let yourself come through to seated however you do. And just arrange your legs so that you can ease into a forward fold here. You can even allow your spine to round a little bit. Three deep breaths. Feeling the contact of your thighs on the floor. The ease in your neck. The softness in your eyes. And also soften your breath. And then we'll root down through the sit bones to help us come up. And you can pull your blocks over to the side and grab any props that you like to make yourself really comfortable for a seated, a short seated meditation. We'll be here for about two or three minutes. So I'm using one blanket but maybe it would be good for you to use a bolster or even a couple of blankets. Settle in. Choose a position with your hands on your lap. Maybe palms facing up or down or in front of your belly. Just give a few shoulder rolls to ease up any tension that might be happening in the shoulders. And I like to close my eyes but if that doesn't feel safe for you, you can always just keep a point on the floor. Keep a one pointed focus with your gaze. Let's come back to that grounding breath. Inhale, gather your attention. And exhale, really feel grounded, embodied, heavy. I'm extra lucky now I have a prop for feeling grounded which is this belly of mine. So really allowing your belly to sink into your pelvis, feeling the weight of the bowl of your pelvis.

Feeling the jaw unhinged. And feeling the breath soften. And if your mind starts to wander away, which it will, just giving it a large pasture to roam in. And gently bringing it back to the feeling of the heaviness of the belly, the weight of the legs, the softness of the shoulders. It's rumored now that if you can't be intentionally balanced, which is another term for being grounded, if you can't keep your attention on one thing at a time or at least continue to bring it back, it's really challenging for you to be there for others in a compassionate way. So last few moments here, giving all your attention to this feeling of you resting on this planet. Stillness, ease, and gravity. Mm hmm. Of course, you're always welcome to stay longer. But if you're satisfied with your sit, bring a couple deep breaths into the body. And if you like the gesture, you can take your hands in front of your heart.

Thanks for being here with me. Namaste.