Restorative Flow

Hi, welcome back to practice. In this practice, it's going to have lots of fun with a bolster using it in some ways that may surprise you, in some ways you've probably done before. So get your trusty bolster and we're going to put it right in the middle of the mat and have your knees apart surrounding the bolster and your big toes touching and then press your hands onto your thighs and lift your abdomen, get very long through the belly and then pivot your pelvis over your thighs to come forward and rest into child's pose. Ideally, the bolster is supporting the chest and part of the diaphragm and the belly. If your bolster is too low, you can put blocks underneath it or stack blankets on top of it. Using this restorative child's pose to drop in, to leave your day behind you and arrive to this moment, to this mat, to this bolster and then slowly turn your head to the other side. Usually people turn their head first to the habitual side so it's normal if your neck feels a little tense on the second side. See if you can just soften the neck, soften the head and let your chest and the parts of your body touching the bolster all try to match the softness of the bolster. Softening and dropping your weight into the support of the ground. Feeling the steady breath slide in and out. And then turn your head to the center, come up onto hands and knees and just leave the bolster where it is. We're going to use it very shortly. Coming onto hands and knees with the bolster underneath you. If your knees are just around the edge of the bolster, you can just gently hug in with your knees to the bolsters, which is waking up the inner thighs, the adductor muscles a little bit. And then a few rounds of cat and cow, inhaling, lifting the head and the tail. Exhaling, rounding the spine. And as you move through cat and cow, feel the spine getting more free. Letting go of any restriction or bracing that's happened in the spinal column, in the muscles around the spine and the back, as well as in the internal organs. We brace when we hear the news sometimes. We brace underneath in cold weather. Brace inside when stress hits us. So cat and cow inviting more fluidity and releasing the tensions and the grips inside.

And then come to a neutral spine. Walk your hands forward about four inches. Tuck your toes under, press up and back into downward facing dog. Depending on your size of your arms and legs and bolster, your head may or may not rest onto the bolster. Either way is fine. Root your hands, each knuckle presses, the fingers are long, the fingernails have a little bit of weight, tips of the fingers. Feel the arms extending up as if they're pulling energy from the center of the palm up through the arms, into the shoulders, into the sides of the body. And the pelvis pulls up and back away from the rooting of the hands. With your next inhalation, come forward plank position, reaching head forward, heels back. Exhale, downward facing dog. Just steady and even a couple of times like this. Inhale forward to plank. Exhale back to dog. Inhale, inner arms glide you forward, crown of the head comes forward, heels tether you back. Exhale, downward dog. Inhale forward to plank. And then bend your elbows and lower right down into my very favorite way to do chaturanga supported by the bolster. Heels are reaching back, head is reaching forward. If you feel like you want to have the bolster a little more forward or back, have it comfortable. Maybe the front of the bolster right about at the bra line. And then point your feet and reach your arms back and lift your shoulders, lift your arms, lengthen back through your legs into shalabhasana, this levitating shalabhasana, I call it. Bring your hands to the mat, tuck your toes, lift your abdomen, your thighs, press into plank position and let your legs pull you back downward dog. From down dog, walk your hands back to your feet, hold onto your elbows, bend your knees slightly, let the whole spine pour down out of the bowl of the pelvis. And then straighten your legs, release your arms, shift your weight back a little towards your heels and then walk back into downward facing dog, keeping your heels rooted for as long as possible. Inhale, plank, shift forward, chaturanga supported by the bolster, arms back, legs back, interlace your fingers this time, pull the arms back to help lift the chest, reach back through the legs, inner thighs roll up and the legs toes long. Hands by the ribs, toes tuck in, press into plank, back into dog pose and then walk back Uttanasana, the back of the mat standing forward bend. Interlace your fingers behind your back, reach your arms up towards the ceiling, pulling the shoulders away from the ears, draw the shoulders back towards your shoulder blades and let the arms come overhead. Three breaths, inhale, exhale one, the arms getting heavier, the shoulders keep rolling back, heavy head, inhale, exhale two, inhale, exhale three. Bring your hands to your low back, feel the backs of your legs as your hands slide down to your heels, shift the weight back towards your heels, once again walk forward, downward dog, breathe in, plank position, exhale, shift forward, bend your elbows, chaturanga, reach back, lift up, this time sweep your arms out and forward, inhale, lift the arms, lift the legs to a big back bend supported by the core, long through the front as well as length through the back, swim your arms back, interlace your fingers, pull the chest up and then open your legs just four or five inches and squeeze them towards each other. Open the legs, exhale the legs, squeeze in, inhale they open, chest lift, shoulders pull back, neck is easy, exhale legs together, hands to the mat, plank position, downward facing dog and then walk your hands again back to your feet, this time separate your feet, mat distance apart, come down into a wide-footed malasana squat, pause here finding the breath again and then press into your feet, come up to stand and step your feet together. Okay we're going to try tree pose rickshasana standing on the bolster, if your bolster is really round or for whatever other reason you think this is not a good idea, do it on the firm ground, otherwise stepping onto the bolster and I'll tell you why in a moment, adds a little wobbly quality which is part of the deal with balancing poses, we'll bring the right foot up, take the arms to the side, a tight rope walker helping out the matter and you'll feel the left foot has to negotiate a little extra, waking up the small intrinsic muscles of the foot and bring your hands together in front of your heart, feel the right hip dropping down away from the right armpit, feel tall, you're that much taller up on the bolster as well as broad and expansive. Alright, second side, right foot steps down, come up, take your time, have fun perhaps, foot presses into the inner thigh, arms out to the side and just be aware of the dicey quality there down in the right foot and still like any old tree, we want to have a feeling of rooting down even though we're rooting down into a wobbly territory, hands together in front of the heart, breathing and really creates a new awareness if you've done a lot of tree poses, it's like a new experience, this is always good, tadasana and then just step your heels onto the ground behind your bolster, keep the balls of the feet up so your feet will be tipped up like you're standing on a hill. Inhale, lift your chest and as you exhale fold forward, you can rest your hands onto the bolster, onto the floor, onto your shins and you can let the upper body just relax, roll the weight a little bit into the balls of the feet while keeping the heels heavy, make sure that you're not rolled, the tendency is to roll towards the outer edge of the foot, make sure the ball of the big toe keeps rooting down as well as the whole arch of the foot. So for most people and of course we all experience things differently depending on our bodies and experiences, for most people a regular forward bend like this goes mostly into the upper back of the legs, the hamstrings, when you elevate the balls of the feet, if there's some tightness in the calves you'll feel more sensation in the calf muscle, if that's not happening for you, you could either figure out a way and put a blanket, elevate the balls of the feet more or just maybe you don't need more stretch in your calves and you can just enjoy the forward fold without as much sensation, for most of us it's a lot of exciting sensation and length happening there in the lower leg. This pose, the longer you stay the greater the results are, so a couple more breaths, just settling in, let go of the habit of thinking forward and just being right here. And then step just, stay forward folded, just step back and notice the difference when you have your feet on the even, even surface, sometimes you can get a nice sense of weight down into the heels and then put your hands onto your bolster, step or jump your feet apart and then we're going to take the bolster onto the slippery floor and slide the bolster forward, elongating the whole spine. So toes are long, we lift them, spread them, place them back down, arches of the feet lift to the inner knees, at the same time hug your outer shin bones in, firm your thighs and roll the inner thighs and the pubic bone back to lengthen the low belly, from the low belly lengthen to the solar plexus, to the breastbone, to the throat, to the crown of the head. And then bring your hands onto your hips, inhale halfway up and then come all the way up and step your feet together. So let's come to the front of the mat, put the bolster to the side for the next series of poses. So tadasana, lift your right arm up and as you exhale side bend over to the left, inhale come up, both arms reaching up, exhale side bend over to the right, inhale come up, exhale dive over your legs, inhale elongate the spine, imagine the soft bolster underneath the front of the spine, exhale fold over your legs, inhale sweep your arms out to come up, rooting down through the legs, exhale side bend to the right, inhale come up, the side bend like I was talking about in Cat and Cow, embracing the side of the spine, freeing side of the spine, side of the diaphragm, inhale come up, exhale fold forward, inhale to lengthen, exhale fold, inhale come up, press palms up overhead, exhale side bend, we'll do this one more time, side bend right, freeing the left side, inhale come up, exhale side bend to the left, free mobile spacious side, inhale come up, exhale fold over your legs, bend your knees, step your right foot back to a lunge and then step back into downward facing dog, inhale plank, this is a little bit of a challenging moment, you no longer have the support of the bolster but imagine that there's a support underneath you which holds you into chaturanga and then into your upward dog, if upward dog is too much on your back you can lower down, put your body down and come into a little cobra or bigger cobra and press back into downward facing dog, take a breath in lift your right leg up behind you keeping it parallel, exhale right foot forward, left knee down, hook your thumbs, inhale sweep the arms up, lifting the chest, exhale hands down step forward, inhale lengthen your spine, exhale fold over your legs, inhale come to stand reaching the arms high, exhale fold right back over your legs, inhale left foot back to a lunge, exhale downward dog, inhale plank, imagine the support beneath you, chaturanga, inhale up dog or cobra, exhale downward dog, inhale the left leg rises, exhale step forward right knee down, hook thumbs draw a big arc over yourself, exhale hands down step forward, inhale lengthen your spine, exhale fold, inhale sweep your arms out to come up, maybe a little more freedom this time, side bend to the right, inhale come up, exhale side bend to the left, inhale come up, exhale tadasana, release your hands down, inhale sweep up, exhale fold forward, exhale right foot to a lunge, same as you exhale step right back into chaturanga, inhale cobra or up dog, exhale downward dog, inhale right leg rises, exhale step your right foot to the outside of your right hand and then let your pelvis get heavier and heavier and heavier until your back knee comes down to the ground, you can stay here or turn bend your back knee and hold on to your left foot, feel the right thigh hugging back, the belly turning from left to right and the right shoulder opening over the left shoulder into this twist, the energy of the left foot is pressing back like bow pose and then release the leg, bring your right hand down and then bend your back knee a little and step forward to the outside of your left hand come down again into malasana, deep breath in, let's take the tongue out as you exhale and then inhale come all the way up pressing down to come up, exhale tadasana, inside inhale reaching up, exhale sliding forward over the legs, inhale left foot back, exhale right into chaturanga, inhale long legs, long spine, up dog or cobra, pull back downward dog, inhale the left leg rises, exhale step the left foot to the outside of the left hand, instead of just plunking the right knee down let the pelvis get heavier and heavier and heavier until the right knee has no choice but to lower down and then left hand can come on to the left thigh and if you have the openness through the quads you can hold on to the back foot and then roll the left shoulder back, hug the left thigh in and pull the left thigh back and then let the chest open and turn with the right foot pushes back so it's the bow pose feeling and then release, squat, this time bring your left hand to the floor outside of the left foot reach your right arm up towards the ceiling and then bring your right hand down, left arm reaches up twisting from right to left and bring your hand down, press into your feet, inhale come all the way up, exhale tadasana, gonna keep going, bend your knees, utkatasana, a powerful pose, long spine, bend deeply in the legs, breathe in, exhale fold forward, inhale to lengthen, exhale step back plank, chaturanga or to the floor, cobra or up dog and pull back downward facing dog, gonna lift the right leg up, let the right hip open, bend the right knee, keep the left heel descending and make sure you're not overstretching the left hamstrings, if you feel that I'm gonna take the left sitting bone and drop it down a little bit so that you're not overdoing it in the left leg, stretch the right leg up, drop through parallel, step forward, warrior one, rooting the back heel and then straighten your front leg, interlace your fingers, inhale pull down to reach up, exhale bend your front knee fold forward, inhale sweep right back on up, warrior one, exhale lean forward propel yourself forward, warrior three, from here we're gonna lift the back leg, tip forward into a standing split, head down, left toe rises, I'm letting my standing split turn out a little bit because it's more free, more fun for me and then take your left foot, cross it right behind your right foot into I call this cross-footed uttanasana, hang over your legs, this version of the pose widens the back and perhaps you feel different kind of sensation down the outer legs, it's also a little bit of a balance component since we're not super used to having our feet crossed, root into your feet, inhale come all the way up pressing the palms, take your arms to the side and then swing your right arm underneath your left arm, bend your knees, the right leg's already in front, just cross it up at the top of the thigh and maybe double crossing, sit down and with the left foot remember the last balancing pose we were on a bolster, now we have the firm ground so feel that firm ground drop the pelvis down towards the left foot, lift your elbows, garudasana, release mountain pose, just pause for a moment, feel the heart beating, all the sensations living in your body and shifting in your body and then second side of the sequence uttanasana, this is a pose that I've learned to love, let the pelvis really fall away from the reach of the hand so it feels like a big traction on the spine, exhale fold, inhale lengthen, exhale step back, lower chaturanga, strong legs, inhale up dog or cobra, downward facing dog, inhale the left leg rises, exhale step forward, root the back heel, root to rise warrior one, exhale straighten your front leg, interlace fingers, breathe in, pull the arms down, lift the chest up, exhale bend your front knee, fold forward and the next inhale swing up, lean forward, warrior three, feeling support as if that bolster is again underneath your abdomen, lifting abdomen into the back body, tip standing split, I imagine little helium balloon on my right toe giving some life to that leg and then cross-footed uttanasana, right foot crosses behind the left, hang and breathe, root into the feet, inhale sweep your arms out to come up to stand and then arms to the side, left arm swings underneath the right arm, bend your knees, get the right foot established into the ground, cross the left leg high up at the top of the right, single or double crossing the legs and then sitting down in the hips as the elbows lift up, see if your forearms can be right in front of your nose on your midline, the thumbs spin to the left and then unwind. We're going to go back to more bolster use, so you can take your bolster, we're going to use the bolster to support the abdomen in dhanurasana, bow pose, so this is going to be underneath the middle upper belly and then I like to put a blanket here so that the hip points aren't crashing down into the ground but there's softness, we want to eliminate any unnecessary pain and suffering, so you're going to lie down and you can play a little bit if you've never done this before, you want to play when we get into bow pose about exactly where the bolster will be helpful, if you get in the right place it's a really sweet thing that happens in bow pose where the bolster helps to lift the chest, so start by just resting your forehead down onto the ground, so begin by reaching back through your toes aligning the feet and then at the same time bend your knees, when you bend your knees the booty tends to go up so you can keep some length to the low back by engaging the low pelvic floor and belly tailbone towards the space in between the knees and then lift your chest, reach your arms back if you can bend your knees a little more and find your ankles at the same time with your hands, from here kick your shins back into your hands and if it's if the bolsters in a good place it will help you to lift up through the front of the body, keep your legs hugging in a bit towards the midline and the shins firmly pull back to lift the chest, breathe and then soften down hands underneath the head, relax your legs let your big toes join and your heels fall apart from each other which is a nice way to rest when you're prone, it widens the back, so the next one takes a little more shoulder opening so if that already felt really much on your shoulders repeat it otherwise you're gonna bend the knees turn the palms down and then out to the sides and then find the inner feet and then pull the feet together so there's that shoulder opening that we visited earlier, pull the shins back and let the bolster help to lift the chest up, so the bridge pose takes a lot of effort, somehow it seems like most of us could do it when we were six years old without a lot of effort but as an adult I find it takes a lot of effort especially in the legs lifting and pulling back and then soften down, the bolster props are always meant to help you if ever they're irritating you were in the way you're always welcome to take them away, we're going to try one more version of bow pose in this one the arms reach back and your wrists cross okay it's kind of confusing sometimes people like to cross their ankles, the ankles don't cross just the wrists cross, you reach back see if you can find your ankles back there, take a breath in and then as you exhale legs kick back, chest lifts, shins pull back and the upper body gets just relaxed as the shins are pulling the legs back, we got one more we'll do it right now without further ado just switch the crossing of your wrists, find your feet see if they're there okay and then take a breath in exhale, shins pull back, chest lifts up and the head is a continuum from the tail, don't over lift or drop your head, breathe here, soften down that's it for the back bending we're going to press back into child's pose, I like to rest my forehead on this one onto the soft bolster, send the breath right into those muscles of the back that we're just contracting okay and then come up to sit, you can move the blanket to the side unless it's helpful to sit on it in your seated poses, we're going to take the legs out in front and bend your left knee open the left leg to the side, we're going to do Janu Shoshasana, we'll do the more traditional way in a moment first we're going to fold over the bent knee the left knee so let your spine this is going to be kind of soft and mellow almost like a kind of a yin feeling to it which means just passive we're going to let the right hip come up a little and just let the spine release over the right leg, the left leg excuse me, it's helpful you can reach out through the right arm and then come up, stick the bolster put it right in between your two legs and fold forward over the bolster, if your head doesn't reach you could stack your fists and reach your rest your forehead onto your fists and then come up, take your bolster put it right on top of your shin, if you have a small bolster you might want to add a blanket come up a little higher turn the belly and fold over your right leg into Janu Shoshasana with the forehead supported right onto the props you can if you can hold on to your foot if you can't reach your foot please get a strap put a strap around the foot and try to lift the spine if you have lots of range here you can hold on to your left wrist on the far side of your foot head soft relaxed here we do want to keep the left outer hip rolling and rooting down as the left side of the waist comes around and forward towards the towards the right knee on these forward folds with the head supported we're pacifying the head in the brain okay and then inhale come up use your left hand to pull your left knee up and then straighten the left leg second side right knee comes in first and then opens and then we're going to do our kind of mellow fold forward over the bent leg and again not being diligent now about the left leg you just roll it in we're more using this couple of these poses now to kind of decompress from all of the back bends from warrior one and the bow pose the bow poses softening breathing feeling and then come up the bolster again on the and the diagonal straight out from the angle of the two legs lengthen to fold tipping the pelvis head on bolster on stacked fists of course it takes a certain amount of energy to hold you here but make sure that you're not over efforting in any one department of your body route to the sitting bones come up slide your bolster on top of your left shin you can build it up you could build it with even more blankets of course and then turn the belly from right to left and come forward finding your class holding the foot holding a strap holding the right wrist and letting the forehead rest down on to the bolster this poses an amazing stretch for the for the low back for the quadratus lumborum which is a square shape muscle connecting the top of your pelvis to the bottom of your rib cage and then all the way across the back and then again having the head down and resting on a support softens thoughts and softens even the actual sort of tissue of the brain inhale come up use your right hand to pull the right knee up so keep the hip joint soft you can just sneak your right shin underneath your bolster and we'll do Pashimottanasana and again there's so many ways to do all of these poses but I like to just support my forehead you can also turn the bolster this way and lift the forehead high here you just make sure that you're not smooshing your nose into the bolster you definitely want to have space to breathe we'll keep just a little bit of energy through the legs so that the feet stay open the legs stay clear and aligned but your hands can be either on the mat or just gently resting around the heels restorative Pashimottanasana opening the backside of the body one sheet of fascia that covers the back it goes from the soles the feet all the way up the backs of the legs all the way up your back all the way up the back of the head and wraps around about to the level of your eyebrows in the front that whole wrapping of connective tissue softening and expanding here use your hands slide them by your knees come up sit for a moment in Dandasana just let your your body get used to being upright feeling the head dome of the head stacked over the dome of the diaphragm stacked over the dome of the pelvis okay and then we're going to take the bolster and use it a couple more ways first thing we're going to do is a little bridge pose with the bolster underneath the shoulders so you can come here the shoulders are about an inch or two away from the edge of the bolster press into your feet lift your pelvis gentle interlace of the fingers roll your upper arm bones underneath you let them rest onto the bolster and lift your pelvis up kind of counter posing those forward bends feel the sacrum lifting firmly into the body the thighs drawing in ball the big toes rooting down and then release your hands and let the arms just rest kind of softly up around your sides of your head the legs are working here to keep the pelvis lifted stabilizing the legs stabilizing the pelvis okay and then come down halfway and slide yourself towards your head and move your have your bolster right underneath the sacrum and then lift your legs up into the air into viparita karani in this pose you want to have your feet heels right over your pelvis without gripping in the thighs or the hip flexors or the abdomen so it's fine to have the knees a little bit bent here especially versus having the legs forward this isn't an abdominal exercise it's more of a quiet inversion letting the water and the lymph fluid move from the toes to the pelvis over the chest and kind of pooling there in the throat you're gonna feel the sacrum really resting and sitting down into the bolster and of course you're always welcome to stay longer this is a great pose to stay an extended period in or bring your feet down to the ground lift your pelvis and just slide the bolster one last time so it ends up underneath your knees for shavasana make sure that you feel comfortable if you want to throw a blanket over yourself or get some extra clothing on or cover your eyes with an eye pillow or even a sock or a towel so that the eyes soften and then if you have a kind of soft bolster like the one I've been working with just go inside of your body and see if you can feel almost like bolster fluffy softness inside letting any grips or knots untie all of the inside of your body of course including the muscles and the bones and the blood can drop and you can do less if you can do much less and let the ground do more so that you're completely held here in shavasana corpse pose. Continue to rest your body down feeling soft and spacious inside and let your breath come in a little bit more deeply to meet that space make some movements with your fingers and your toes just bringing vitality back to the ends of your body rock your head gently from side to side and then bend your knees let your feet find the bolster and roll over to your side pause on your side for about three breaths and then press into your hands and make your way up to a seated position sometimes if you're having a busy day it's tempting just to run off to the next thing but see if you can arrive right here for the last minute noticing how your practice has affected you today and if you notice anything that you would recognize as being positive or good maybe a sense perhaps of more spaciousness some ease some life just let that stay with you as you move now off of your mat and just one other thing like I just had a good really good time kind of playing with a bolster and finding different ways to to use it and it's really endless and I encourage you to be creative find your own journey on your mat and grab a prop see what happens and just enjoy and have fun thank you