Day 16: Rise and Shine

Hey, welcome back to yoga anytime, welcome back to the challenge and welcome to day 16. Yeah! Let's do this. Spinal wake-up, that's how we begin this practice. That's how we started days one through three, so it should be somewhat familiar for you. So we start in child's pose, you and I, we start in child's pose.

Stretch the arms out, push the hips back. By now you might have your personalized child's pose all dialed in. I like to have my knees pretty wide. Reach the arms out, stretch through the side body, good. Let's get a little side bend stretch, so walk the hands over as far to the left as you can.

Reaching, stretching through the right side of the body. Find a comfortable place for your head. Good. Day 16, how are you feeling? What's going on with you?

I'm feeling pretty good today. We're going over to the right, a couple spots in the body that are a little sore, little indicators that I've been moving and stretching. I'm sure you've got the same thing. It's good little reminders like, okay, yeah, I've been doing something. Good, stretch it over to the right, stretch to the left side of the body, let's bring it back over to center, get a full stretch out in child's pose, nice.

From child's pose, let's come up into tabletop, prepare for puppy pose. Walk the hands forward as you keep your hips up over the knees, walk the hands out, chest and chin down toward the mat, get a nice long stretch through the spine, let your belly totally relax. We're so accustomed to always engage the belly, tuck the belly, but let it go. Let it go, arch the back, bring your shoulders down toward the mat, your elbows, your forearms. Good, come forward into sphinx pose.

Okay, situate yourself on your mat, point the toes back, lift the chest, find your appropriate arms set up. Nice. Let's bring it all the way down and go for that nice shoulder stretch. Stretch the left arm out directly to the left from your shoulder, walk it out, walk it out, walk it out, and then push yourself gently over onto that left shoulder and arm. Your right foot kind of placed behind your left knee, so it's not too much time here, it's just a little wake up in the shoulder, bring it on over to the right, slide on over.

Stretch that arm out, you've got more space than you think, oh yes, good. Bring it back over. We haven't done this, but we're gonna add this to this opening, it's a little locust cobra combination, so point the toes back, strong legs, lift, place the hands where cobra would be, right alongside your ribcage, lift the palms up off the mat, lift the chest. Good, lift, lift, lift, draw the elbows to the ceiling, and also keep those elbows pinned to the side body. Feel free to lift your legs a little bit, so it's a little cobra-locust combo, make sure you find your breath, make sure it's comfortable.

Good, slowly lower all the way down. Breathe in, lift back up for cobra with your hands, exhale, tabletop, inhale, more spine work, right, this is spinal wake up, so extension for cow pose, flexion, stretch out the back into cat pose, inhale, cow pose, and exhale, cat pose, I get cat for the longest time, I never really understood why it was called cow pose, but I guess I kind of get it, exhale, cat pose, nice, come back into a flat back, curl the toes under, and launch all the way up into downward facing dog, might be the first one of the day, so it's gonna feel good possibly to walk your heels down and up and all around, move your hips from side to side. Take a slow stroll up to the front of the mat, like little baby steps, getting a nice little hamstring stretch with each step you take, if it feels better to come up onto the fingertips do so, nice, good, once you land, let's bend the knees and come up halfway as you breathe in, push those hips back, and exhale, fold over, alright, let's come all the way up, breathe in, reach the arms up overhead, and bring the palms to the chest, preparing for our lunge salutations with some back bending, alright, one of my favorites, do I say that all the time? This is my favorite, maybe, but it is, it's all my favorite, how about that, okay, so lunge salutations, we'll start with the sun A, bring the arms up overhead as you breathe in fully, and exhale, forward bend, stretch out the legs a little bit, inhale, half lift, and exhale, step back into dog pose, pause, inhale into plank, first one, exhale, knees, core all the way down, long cobra pose, inhale, downward dog, exhale, look to the front of the mat on the exhale, step the right, then the left, finish the exhale into the fold, inhale, lift halfway, and exhale, fold, inhale, rise up, and exhale, fold forward and down, inhale half lift, exhale, step the right foot back, bring your right knee down, low lunge, arms up overhead, good, here we're going to add an arm stretch, side body stretch, bend your right arm, maybe your right fingertips to your left shoulder, take your left hand and grab hold of that right elbow, make sure you're comfortable on the lunge, now pull that right elbow up and take a little side bend here, nice, I hope you're able to access that because it does feel or can feel pretty good, nice, let's bring it back out, we'll do the other side next time we step back on the other side, bring the arms up overhead as you breathe in and exhale the hands down, step the right foot up to meet your left, forward bend, exhale, inhale, lift halfway, and the left foot back now, bring your knee down, find the lunge, arms up overhead, bend the left arm so the left fingertips are towards your right shoulder, right hand grabbing hold of your left elbow, keep your chest open, keep the back healthy here, tailbone drawing down, good, now draw the tailbone down, I know I just said that but it's important because you'll feel the stretch through the left hip flexor but then when you lift that left elbow up and over to the right, you might feel it even more, good, forward and back, side, little bend here, let's release out, reach the arms up, breathe in and exhale the hands down to the mat, good, step your left foot up to meet the right, forward bend, exhale, inhale, half lift and exhale, fold, inhale, rise and shine all the way up and palms rest at the heart, exhale, inhale, round three, exhale, forward bend, inhale, lift halfway, and exhale the right foot back, bring your right knee down, okay, from here send the hips back a little bit, straighten out the right leg, come back and forth, focusing this shape primarily on the left hamstring for now, so I like to just keep moving, I'm not a big big fan of static holds but if you'd like to hold for a breath or two longer, stay there, I'm gonna move back into the lunge on the inhale and then exhale, straighten it back out, maybe point your left toes forward and down, nice, now let's step the left foot back, sit the seat down on the heels, slide the hands back behind you, pushing the chest upward for what might feel like a little back bend, heart opener, shoulder stretch, good, we've done this middle sequence before, we're gonna move into a camel pose, you know already whether that's for you, so come up, curl the back toes, sweep the right hand back, take hold of the right heel, left hand sweeps up, take hold of the left heel, you gotta kinda like wiggle back a little bit, draw that tailbone down, good, throw the hips forward a little bit, chest up, shoulders back, pull up on the heels so you don't drop into it, nice, support the low back with the left hand and the right hand, come down onto the heels, place your hands down on the mat, find tabletop, good, breathe in cow pose, breathe out cat pose, stretch out that low back a little bit, nice, from table, simply step your right foot up and here we go, hamstring stretch, right, so slide the hands back, maybe sit back on the heel if that's something you'd like to do or we just keep coming back and forth, lunge, straight leg, inhale lunge, exhale straight leg, so a little like kinda relaxed dynamic movement in and out, continuing to trust and feel and explore always, nice, let's bring the right foot back, little heroes pose be a hero for a moment and a hero, right, we're gonna shine the heart a little bit, lift the heart, lift the chest, whatever language resonates with you, right, heart open, shoulders back, stretch the chest, good, stay here because that feels good for you or come on up, curl the back toes, reach your arms back behind you, grab hold of the heels, blocks, whatever you prefer, tailbone, right, so get out of the low back, extend that tailbone down, good, you might feel it through your thighs, your hip flexors, up through your abdominals, open up that rib cage, be moderate though, right, don't hurt yourself by trying too hard, okay, left hand to the low back, right hand to the low back, take a deep breath in, draw your legs together and now exhale, sit the heels back, draw the forehead, kind of pull the belly in, forehead towards your knees and find a nice kind of tight, restorative counter pose, child pose here, grab hold of the heels, good, stretch the arms out, let's begin the transition into hip relief, hip relief, come up into tabletop, make your way onto your bottom, take hold of the hamstrings, maybe even start off like this today, wrap your arms underneath your hamstrings, take hold of your opposite wrists and now roll on down like so, see if that feels all right, a little rocking from side to side, I haven't really done this hand hold much in this challenge and personally for me it works pretty well so check in, see how that feels for you, so arms wrapped behind the hamstrings, one hand grabbing hold of the wrist, opposite wrist, just feels kind of like comforting, okay after all the back bending it might feel nice to create some circles in the back, some side to side movement, release that hold, bring your feet down to the mat, take a full breath and relax, exhale, take your right ankle over your left thigh, let's guide that right hip open and away from you, so press the right hand on the inner right thigh, guide it away, lift the left foot up off the mat, interlace your fingers around either your left shin or left hamstring, good, you can keep pushing the right elbow into the inner right thigh to keep that knee or hip open as you pull the legs gently toward yourself, you might feel that outer right hip stretch similar to pigeon, good, let's bring the left foot down, pause, breathe in, breathe out, taking some time in these shapes to relax, I'm gonna take a spinal twist, once you shift your hips over to the right go ahead and extend your left leg all the way out, left hand on the right thigh, go ahead and twist as far over to the left as it's necessary for you, so there is where you take action, what is necessary for you and you base that on how it feels, sometimes we go so far into a pose that we can no longer breathe, forcing, pushing, possibly even hurting ourselves, so pay attention, let's release that twist, come back out to center, bring both feet down, let your whole low back kind of dissolve into the mat for a one big exhale, and let's do this figure four shape on the other side, so left ankle on top of the right thigh, grab hold of, we'll go right into the hand hold and then if you can, depending on the shape of your body, press the left elbow into the inner left thigh, keep the hip open as you use a little muscular effort in your arms to draw the legs in closer. You may add a little left to right movement, good, bring the right foot down, use your right foot to lift up through the low back and slide it over to the left, now extend your right leg all the way out, hug the left knee in, guide the left knee across the body, so you're kind of on that right hip of yours, reach the left arm out and again it's where is the threshold for you, where's the stretch, it's simple, meaning it's not easy to do but it's quite simple actually, it's just another shape that you're putting your body in, what does this shape feel like, what's it stretching, where do you need to participate in like muscular effort or stabilization, how's your breathing, let's bring it back out, realign, draw the bottoms of your feet together, let your knees open up out wide, you can place your hands on your inner thighs, extend through the neck, relax into the breath, so just a reminder, one of the purposes right, this challenge is to learn how to pay close attention and listen and trust, trust in how you feel, that is the big indicator in how you develop your practice, how you move in and out of the shapes, how you modify, how you add, subtract, you've got to be the one to make that call, it's like taking relaxed action, alright, it's got to happen some day, right, we have to exit and re-emerge back into our life off the mat, so stretch the legs out, stretch your arms up overhead, point your toes forward and back, roll through your ankles, good, roll up to sit, that felt nice, I hope you feel nice, but you feel what you feel, right, so if you don't feel nice, so be it, maybe day 17 will bring something different for you, but nonetheless here we are, closing out once again, this journey is awesome and amazing, thank you for joining me, peace and namaste.