Lean Into It

Hi, this practice is about leaning into it, moving with ease, and it'll be a supported practice at the wall. You'll need a bolster and a blanket to start. Bring your bolster to the wall, right up against the wall, and this is usually the hardest part is how do I start my dance here at the wall and get your legs up the wall close enough so you don't spend about 20 minutes scooching, scooching, scooching your tail to the wall. So snuggle on up with the baseboard and place your outer left hip, let's say, on the edge of the bolster. So your tail and your toes are right up against the wall and you're starting to spoon with your partner here.

Thread, the same arm as the leg that's down, through the window, and then you just heel toe, heel toe, heel toe, heel toe, try to keep the tail in line with the wall. And then, oh my goodness, it's just one little shimmy to the wall. But extending the legs and allowing the arms to unfold out to a nice wide open feeling. Sensing the support all around you, held, and come into a sense of deep belly breathing. You might even put your hands on your belly just to make sure you're still there, you're still breathing.

So feel the breath pouring down from the tips of the toes all the way down into the abdomen and then unfolding the arms like wings as you breathe in three parts. Belly, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly. Just feeling this nice deep downpour from the belly, the ribs, the chest, and then softening across the chest, gathering at the ribs and the navel drains. And there's a lightness about the legs and this fluid easy feeling you start to anchor in as the earth comes up to meet you and you can spread out and feel safe and grounded that peace even when your world is upside down. Take three more conscious breaths, letting this anchor of three part breath rhythm guide you.

Belly, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly. Allow the legs to pour down and plant your feet for a moment and pause and then heel toe the feet together and open the legs like a book. As you unfold at the hips, let gravity actually be your friend here. Let it work with you to feel the bones just dropping in and sometimes there's a want to kind of push into this but today let's just accept the support and not do that extra effort of pushing up against something but instead receiving belly, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly. This gentle hip opening might be enough or if you're feeling like it, extend the legs out and then dial the toes down towards the floor as the inner thighs kind of scoop up and let everything unfold.

This may look easy but I'm totally feeling it too so if your legs are here, sweet. You don't really have to go so big to feel good, right? If you can go a little bit wider and really feel like you're spiraling the femur bones, the thigh bones back into the socket, there's a sense of again coming back into the center, feeling grounded, feeling supported and in the structure of it all. Never actually seen any legs fall off but sometimes it feels like it. You might even have to say good morning or good evening groin because it's a little suspect there.

It's a little tight. So breathe into what is coming up, lean into the breath a little deeper and then exhale and relax, just a few more breaths here, belly, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly. What's nice about these inversions, these supported inversions is I'm going to bring my legs back together when they're over but also getting a sense of this downpour. And down regulating through the nervous system. So if you've had a stressful day or if you're about to move into some energy that is a little bit daunting and you want to get grounded, this is a nice way to even out your energy.

So we bring the legs back together and just kind of feel this sort of full circle here and then plant the feet, shimmy on back. So this is important. Don't use your hands. This shimmy is actually a nice way to warm up the back. So you're just rocking and rolling on out here and squirming down until your feet are on the wall and the walls now, you know, it's our floor, it's our foundation in a sense.

And you can feel, ready, set, chair pose. Yes, this is the best way to do chair pose right here. Inhale, feel the push through the feet, the reach through the crown of the head, the support here at the back of the body and then maybe even reach the arms up and overhead. Shrug the shoulders down the back, feel the front ribs moving into the back body and just start to anchor through the legs. Deep breath in, exhale, hands to heart.

Take the right leg across in a figure four. And again, there's that tendency to want to like, er, and crank it, don't crank anything. Just lean into this unfolding here at the wall. You might stay the great release for the low back, for the hips, or you could come a little bit into this by a little deeper by lifting the heel. Because that's enough, if you want to pull it all in, threading the right hand through the window of the leg and then you can rock it out and keep breathing.

So pressing that outer right hip towards the wall, so we keep coming back to our, to our grounding base and, and this idea of accepting support and leaning into the support that's all around us here. And send the left leg, your sort of standing leg, back to the wall and the right leg. You can interlace the hands and the stroke up and down the leg and make peace with your, your hamstrings a little bit here as you come to the back of the body. And then exhale and energetically kick the leg away from you. So you're trying to kick towards the wall and come back to that grounding and then release and feel it kind of rebound there.

And again, exhale and kick it out, drawing the navel in and down and then release and feel it springing back. One more time, exhale, engage the quad, press through the heel like you're stepping on the sky and then let it spring toward you. Exhale, release, heels lift, have that yay moment where you're just stretching it out, pressing through the heels, inner lines of the legs. And then exhale, plant your feet, sweep the arms up, chair pose, nailed it. Hands into heart, woo, looking good.

Now take the left leg across in your figure four. Each side is different, right? So find the muscles that do this for you. So you're not, they're not in your upper back and shoulders. It's not in the push away.

It's in the outer hip. It's at the core. It's that spiraling open through the outer hip. Find the sense of gathering through the pelvic floor as you hug the thighs together a bit and then heel lifts, maybe stay, deepen the offering, drawing the leg in, threading the needle there and then hug it out with yourself. Maybe there's a little rocking.

Let your jaw slide and your hips slide and smooth it out. Exhale, pull it all in and then plant that standing leg, unfold, sweep up and down, starting to open up the back body as much as you can here. And then there's this sense of give and take. You're going to kick into the leg, kick it away from you. Get it, even traction the arms here and then as you release, it rebounds back.

Kick away, actively isolating, pressing into that standing foot as well and then rebound it back. And I'm not even over exaggerating it. It's just happening. That rebound, I mean, I could, I could go like, but I'm not. It's really happening.

Let the tailbone drop down on this last time that you rebound and then sweep it back to the wall, flex through the feet, sense that drive through the internal rotation, reach up through the inner heels and through the arms, scrub the shoulders down your back. Inhale, exhale, come back to chair pose, sweep up. Last one, roll the outer arms up towards the sky and plug the shoulders back into your rib cage, draw the navel in, slide it up between the shoulder blades and then exhale. Good stuff. Squirm your hips a little closer to the wall and we'll slide the bolster actually on out to your side for a moment so that you can dig in with the outer shoulders and again, you're just dancing.

Oh, it's oh yeah, you're dancing again. It's really good for the hips. Now point your elbows, walk your feet up a teeny bit and then press down. So we'll come into a bridge lift, push through the outer arms and the elbows, walk your feet up so that you're at a 90 degree angle there through the knees, not pressing past the toes at all and only coming up so you still have some clearance, some space at the, the throat, flex through the feet and release and again, pressing down, driving the tailbone towards the backs of the knees and then letting the hips lift, spiral the thigh bones inward and then one more time, articulating back down, rocking back up, press through, shrug the shoulders and then melt back down. Maybe even a little feather wave on the way down with the hips, yeah.

Shrug the shoulders, walk off a little bit more. So now you're going to come so that you're about 45 degrees off the wall. The legs are long, maybe just pushing through the balls of the feet here and then as you push down through the roots of the balls of the feet, curl up, articulating through the spine and hug the navel in, scoop and hollow out and then release back down and you can push through the heels and let the legs just lengthen. If you need any support for the head, you can take one hand behind your head and then you're just going to curl it up and releasing back down and if you did one arm, you may as well do the other one. You got to balance it out, right, and then coming back down.

Good morning core. From here, reach out, press into the balls of the feet and see if you can come up just a little higher, maybe even walk, walk, walk your legs up the wall and oh, the fun part is the dismount, yes, the dismount on the way back down and you're just walking through the feet. Maybe you walk it off a moment here. Everything feels good and freeze, doesn't it? So you're just going to come back up again.

That first round's for the body, right? You got to figure it all out and get organized. Second one's for the mind where we start to focus and integrate. Oh, what's the third one? The third one is the spirit round.

It's just a good feeling. Yeah, now it's all coming together. Lean into the wall, rise up and then exhale, come back down one more time. Draw the knees in toward you and then gently wrap your arms around the legs, taking a child's pose on your back here. Belly ribs, chest, chest ribs, belly.

And then on your next breath, roll to your left side, pause, come into a fetal position. Really let your whole body sink into the earth and feel the roots of the earth coming up in this rebound to support you pressing up. Take a walk back onto your mat. Trying to go off-road a little bit here and then try on child's pose again as you come close to the wall here. Extend the arms forward, tend your fingers and just shimmy side to side a little.

Shoulders release. Starting to bring a little bit of movement, a little bit of flow and now we feel grounded and supported. We can create some freedom here and then let your third eye come to the floor, let it all release. And just unfold now and massage the third eye. And slowly pull your energy forward and want to keep shifting, organically moving, maybe there's a little circle of the head and the tail as you come to all fours.

Just building our framework, building our support system here, switch the direction of your circling, head and tail. Deep breath in, shrug it off, exhale child's pose and smooth it out. This time maybe the arms come by your side as you empty out. Place your hands in line with your knees, curl the toes under and then shift the weight back into your feet. Walk your feet forward until you have about a foot, maybe foot and a half distance from the heels to the wall.

Maybe arms distance, you can reach back and find it and then oh, found it, the wall comes to you, walk your feet as wide as you need so that you can drape the torso through, soften behind the knees, inhale, lengthen and then exhale and drape forward, elbows fold, tractioning through the spine, letting it all roll right off your back. Now slowly release the arms and start to come up, shifting side to side in the same way we were squirming on our back, oh, oh, this is luxurious, yeah, you're just going to kind of wiggle down the wall, yep, no wall flowers here, this is, you're dancing, you're dancing and then let it kind of squirm out and massage your back body and then come on back up, inhale, reach the arms out, exhale, sit down towards chair, oh, not too low, don't go too low, what are you doing? And then exhale hands to heart, you can use your hands on the wall to push and slide and glide your cheeks back up the wall and dive in again, let it rock, side to side and again rolling up, knee to knee, shifting, wiggling, shoulder rolls, nice and easy, inhale back through center, reach up, navel to the wall and then glide on down and oh, I might need to squirm it out on that chair as well and then offer it all up and over, lean into that forward fold, maybe a little deeper this last one, interlace your hands behind your back this time, bend your right leg and open your chest towards the left, let your head go, your jaw go, open the heart up a little bit, rebound and then empty it all out, switching sides, bend the left side, left leg open your chest, let your head dangle, inhale, rise up, rotate and then exhale, scrub the shoulders down the back, bend your knees, empty it all out and then smooth and easy, rolling up, putting the girls back in, they like a ride, they lean into it as well, so from here walk yourself back up the wall, inhale, feel that support around you, exhale, hands to heart, we'll turn towards the wall, just moving any props out of the way so you've got lots of space to breathe into and then find your stride here at the wall, this is an opportunity to really ground the third eye, it's not a head bashing moment, it's just a seamlessly opening to intuition, feeling supported, rinse side to side and then walking back to a half down dog push wall sort of feeling here, so walk your hands so that they're in line with your shoulders and then tread back until you're at this 90 degree angle, supported, scrub the shoulders down, feel the pull of the lats towards the hips and just sensing that this is your down dog, you're just observing this shape, experiencing the shape from a new perspective here, a lot less weight bearing, so this is a good one for if you have anything going on with the shoulders, with the wrists, pull the shoulders down the back and then climb on up, so you'll reset the hands, reset stepping into the wall for plank, oh you could even do push-ups like, oh look at you go, right, this is chaturanga with some support, so bounce off the wall, bounce off the wall a couple times and just feel this rebound, this springing into the wall, now play with chaturanga here as you rise up onto the balls of the feet and then scrub the shoulders down the back, take your push-up into the wall, sort of tap the third eye, then push up and through to upward facing dog, cobra sort of energy even on your fingertips here, open through the throat, press down and then bow and step it back, downward facing dog at the wall, inhale and then exhale, roll up through a wave, belly, ribs, chest, take that little walk to the wall, plank, aligning the shoulders and the wrists and then rise up enough to take that push-up, there's no hiking the shoulders up here, it's super mellow, anyone could do this and it feels so good as you come up and through, if you want to come out of the wrists, come to fingertips and soar, exhale, breathe it back, down dog walking the feet back, reset the alignment, constantly affirming your stance here, inhale, exhale, press into the support, spread the sits bones, lift the kneecaps and then roll it up, belly then ribs then chest, walk the hands up slightly, plank, chaturanga dandasana, and then come on through, heart opening, exhale, step it back, meeting back in down dog, heel toe your feet together now, sweep the right leg back, you're pushing through and then sense that connection from the wall, pull the arm bones back into the hips, press the leg away from you and inhale, fill up the back body, draw the right leg forward from your warrior three base there into a short stride for warrior one and I like to walk it out a little bit wider, at least hips width to anchor through the hips here and keep it a little broader, gentler for the low back and then come back to the wall in a dolphin position now so you're threading through the hands and lean into the wall here and let your heart start to rise up as you anchor in this broad base, belly, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly, feeling the hips shifting forward stay with the hands here or if you want to go a little deeper in the upper back and shoulders you can walk the arms up the wall, maybe even walk the arms out wide enough to pour your chest towards the wall and ground your mind here stabilizing through that back leg, feeling a nice deep stretch across the back leg into the achilles and then push off, walk the right ball of the foot up the baseboard, broad square base, inhale, rise, exhale, pull the hips back and climb the chest forward, deep heart opening, let the chest melt towards the wall, draw the belly in, you can go even wider if you need a little more grace across the shoulders, the neck, inhale, grounding and then exhale, peel it all off the wall, building your base, transitioning back, downward facing dog, here's your vinyasa, shrug the shoulders down the back, roll the outer arms down, pull the belly in, hips lift and then roll up belly then ribs then chest, walk the wall, rising through the exhale, chaturanga, shoulders down, push through the feet, lift through the pelvic floor, up dog cobra, open your heart and then exhale, pour it back down, bow, down dog variation, shoulders down, feet together, left leg sweeps way back, square it off, hollow the right low belly out, pull the shoulders towards your hips, inhale, long line of action and then exhale, sweep it through, short warrior one base, hips width, walk the arms up, walk the elbows into that dolphin framework and then let your mind lift up and out, let your head float and your shoulders draw down as you press an anchor and let the pelvis lean towards the wall, staying with this, unfolding the arms, broadening the base, expanding outward, nice wide open feeling through the shoulders, the heart, the chest, lean and rise up and then exhale, pull back, hips lift, push off the wall, reset, bringing the ball of the left foot now to the base board and then squaring off, see this pyramid stride and then walk up the wall any amount, right, so if this isn't feeling good in your shoulders just back off and find a position that feels good where you can breathe and you can feel their space and then you're opening into the breath, one more inhale and exhale, push off, take it through your flow, step it on back, inhale, roll it up, belly ribs, chest, exhale, push up, inhale, skim through, get clear and then exhale, down dog, feet together, right leg sweeps, it's your warrior three base and then this time you're going to pull through like you were coming into that lunge but what, wait there's more, you're going to turn and transition, hey warrior two, I didn't know you were coming to the party, yes, heel toe the left foot out so that your front heel is in line with the back arch and then you can use the blade at your right foot up against the wall and then easy side bend, walk down and rise up, rooting through the lower body, rising through the upper body and then clearing some space in this sort of halo you have overhead, inhale, exhale, from here straighten up through the left leg and push off, reaching way out, you're going rogue now, you're going off road but that pinky toe edge is sealed to the baseboard and then let the top arm just float behind you, inhale, drawing the front body into the back body and then exhale, bend the knee, reverse your warrior, hey we're going home, go back to the wall, creep the hands down the wall, find your down dog base, inhale, roll it through the waves, exhale, push up, inhale, splash through, exhale, down dog, feet together, pull the shoulders down, push the spine through, left leg sweeps, massage it on through, find that low warrior two short stride and then we're going around the world here, come up and over, beautiful view and then migrate the right foot, back foot is sealed to the wall and then sweep up and over, feel like you're reaching through the right side and drawing the left side down integrating through that left leg, inhale, exhale, up and over, triangle, reach way out, inhale, pull the front body into that back hand and then allow the left shoulder to draw and traction away from the left jaw, inhale, coming back up, rewind it, reach up and over, reverse it, last vinyasa, inhale, step back, down dog energy, rising up, belly ribs, chest, chaturanga, it's even better when you say it like that, up dog, exhale, downward facing dog, inhale, roll up, walk back in, you have to always say thank you to your dance partner as you inhale and exhale, feeling the support, the vibration coming from the wall and back into you and then the sense of giving energy from the heart here as well. So gently transitioning but we have to do it with some style, right? So come back to the wall, oh, dance it on down, block your feet out so that you've got some space to shift down and you can, oh, squirm it on down the wall, malasana, sometimes you start squirming and you get past malasana and you're like, oh no, what happened, what happened?

What happened to happen and then you come all the way down, cheeks to the floor, transition, grab your bolster and we'll set the bolster, about bolster's distance off the wall so that we can come into a mellow supported shoulder stand that keeps the neck safe, keeps the natural curve of the cervical spine but again you get that beautiful wash, that rinse down and grounding effect. So second verse, same as the first, with a little transition here, you're going to walk your tail to the wall, feet to the wall, depending on your height you're going to be about bolster's distance off the wall, maybe a little further if you're taller but the idea is that when you lie down, again, hips and toes at the wall, when you lie back you're unbelievably uncomfortable, you're like what, this has to be wrong, that's the yoga, it's coming together. When you lie back you drive the elbows into the floor, same way we did in the beginning, bridge lift and then you'll shimmy on under so that your cervical spine is supported by the bolster, you'll shrug the shoulders underneath and don't turn your head, keep your gaze forward maybe use the hands to lift out of the mid back but all this work in the legs has been to help you build some strength and some lift up and out of the foundation here, arms can unfold, legs straight, if that feels stressful at all, stay in the bridge right here, just sensing the float, head, neck, shoulders easy, space between your chin and your chest, inhale, exhale let it all settle in, three part breath rhythm, belly, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly, chest, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly, walking the feet under again, find that reset, might feel good even to take the shoulders underneath and scrub the shoulder blades down, arm bones towards the floor, just this final clearing across the neck and the shoulders, build some support using the hands and then we squirm it on down, snuggle on back until your hips find the floor, you'll shrug it off, have your blanket handy as you come into a supported fish position, so for some that could feel a little bit cranky through the cervical spine, so you have just this little bit of support here to help float the throat but open through the throat center and the head supported, you get this nice expansion across the chest. This could be shavasana, feel so good to just put your heart out there and feel all the support around you, if you prefer to support the low back, release through the hips, take a couple of breaths here and then take your final little shimmy back blanket or no blanket up to you and then the hips are lifted, you can walk the feet out, let them even sort of fall in, knock need, completely relax through the lower body but supported and come into final relaxation, belly, ribs, chest, chest, ribs, belly, chest, chest, ribs, belly, chest, chest, and then take a deep inhale and observe your new perspective here, rolling to your side and coming up towards seated, you might even sit your hips back at the wall here, breathe in and exhale, just pause as you come to sit and sense that whatever you're up against you can meet head on, face it, move through it with this newfound sense of support and connection, namaste.