Focused Flow

Welcome back to the Mat Yogis. Our theme today is focus. This is a great practice for when you just have too much on your plate or maybe you're juggling too many plates and you lose that sense of clarity. So with this practice we're going to invite some of that focus and clarity to be your new experience. So go ahead and close your eyes and we will focus our attention on the rise and follow the breath. So take a normal inhalation, a normal pause and a normal exhalation. Let's do that one more time and then we'll all start to inhale together for the count of four, three, two, one. Hold the breath for the count of four, three, two, one and exhale for the count of six, five, four, three, two, one. Pause, slow deep inhale, four, three, two, one. Pause, three, two, one. Exhale, six, five, four, three, two, one. Count two more rounds out by yourself. Counting them out in your head will help you really find that laser focus on the breath the moment that's unfolding before you. It helps move out all of those other stories in our mind. Finishing off your last round. And when you're done you can slowly open the eyes. Good. So go ahead and extend your legs and we're going to take a couple of little cat and cows here with our legs extended so you can separate the knees and lift the heart, lift the sternum, lift the chest and then as you exhale, lean back, draw the navel up and back, draw your chin towards your chest, inhale, separate the knees, lift the heart, chin and chest, exhale, draw the knees back. One more round.

Then we'll find a neutral spine and you can extend your left leg, place the right ankle just on top and give yourself a little bend in the left leg so that you're taking a figure four variation. We're going to bring our attention to the feet and the feet are what helps us ground and earth into our standing poses so we're going to try to slide one finger in between each toe. I hope you wash your feet today and once you get your fingers in between the toes you've got a little space creator between all of your toes. This is going to help us when we move into our standing poses. They have socks that do this now. This is the old style version so you can just start to flex and point your toes with your fingers and you can use that thumb to just bring it into the arch and bring your awareness to the arches of the feet. We want to do this too long because you might get stuck here in a foot massage. Then we can bring a little bit of circling to the ankle. We'll bring that right leg right into easy Janu Sarsasana, right hand on top of the right thigh, left fingertips walk out, lift through the ribs, activate the left leg and just give yourself a couple of side bending pulses here. Rising with the inhale, melting into the new space with the exhale.

Good. Come on back to center. Draw the right knee into the chest. Easy twist, right hand behind you, tall spine and soft twist, tall spine and soft twist and then you can extend your right leg. We'll give some love to the left foot. Place the left ankle on top, little bend in the knee, slide a finger between each toe and then you can work through pointing and flexing the foot. Good. Giving yourself a little space, a little awareness to the toes, thumb right inside of the arch and just hit a couple of points right here in the arch and we'll finish off with a couple of circles right here. Getting that leg ready for the standing poses, draw the left leg into easy jhanu, left hand on top, right hand walks out, tall spine and easy side bend. Inhale the left palm to the sky, left palm up and over the ear and just move into your pulses here. Rising with the inhale and pulsing with the exhale. Keep lifting through the right side body. Good. So we're opening that hip up nicely and we'll take the left knee across for our soft twist. Now this last part's fun. Line your feet up together instead of your hands sliding between your toes, one toe inside of the other. So it's like you're shaking your toes instead of shaking your hands. You're going to create a little bit of a grip here.

You got your little toe interlaced and just slide your feet forward. It's like look, no hands. Good. So that's bringing all the awareness to our feet. So when we rock and roll up to the standing position, we'll have a lot of grounding and earthing into our toes. So we're going to take a couple of little rock and rolls forward and backward. First couple, you might want to bring your hands to the floor. Just play a little bit. You can pretend you're five years old again and then you can come into a soft forward fold. We'll hang out here. If you need to do those with your hands on the earth to help you get there, go for it. Leaning forward and backward into the feet, feeling those areas that we were just connecting to with our hands. So keeping your knees bent, start to activate your quads and come up to a supported chair pose, palms on top of your knees. As you exhale, curl the spine, press down for your cat tilt of the spine and as you inhale, lengthen the chest, the heart forward, start to shrug your shoulder blades back. Take a couple of easy cat and cows in our chair pose. Preparing the spine for our flow today. Good. The next time you find your flat back chair, hang out right here, slide your right hand down to your shin and straighten your left leg, lengthen the spine and extend your left palm to the sky. Left arm extends over the ear, lengthen the spine, soft rotation. Bend your left leg, bring the left palm down, keep the left leg bent, straighten the right leg, right palm to the sky, lengthen the torso, right arm over the head, give yourself a big breath and then rotate the ribs to the sky. Bend both legs, use your quad and core muscles to help you roll up vertebrae by vertebrae, inhaling the palms to the sky. Easy side stretch, right hand grabs the left wrist, take a little side stretch to your right, be active with the breath, big inhales, back to center, exhale to your left, active with the inhales. And then come to Tadasana, finding your feet grounding right underneath your hips. We're going to do some balancing poses and preps for our standing balances later. So start to really ground down into all sides of your feet, shift your weight over to your right leg and extend your left leg forward. We're going to play with this movement forward and backward. You can start with your toes on the ground and then start to see if you can play with a balance.

I like to bring my hands to my hips just so I can feel them moving forward and backward together so I'm not lifting one side or the other. So we're shifting our weight forward and backward, extending and flexing the hip. Drishti focal spot on one point so that we have that focus for our balancing poses. The next time you extend your left leg forward, draw it into the chest and give yourself a couple of circles at the ankle and shin. Circle it the other way and we're going to catch the front of the shin with the left hand and slide the heel up towards the seat for a quad stretch. Squeeze the inner thighs together and then lift your heel up by really activating your bicep. Give yourself two more rounds of breath here. Almost done. Last round and then go ahead and shake out that left leg and shake out the right leg, the standing leg. That was the one that was working. Shift your weight over to the left leg, establish the focal spot, usually about two or three feet in front of you and start to bring your hands to the hips. Right heel moves forward, right heel moves back. Remember, you can keep touching your toes to the ground if you're newer to these balancing movements. If you don't need the ground, see if you can start to extend a little farther forward and back by hinging at the hips. Playing with all the shifting of the weight on the left foot, all four corners of the foot. The next time you draw the right leg forward, pull the knee into the chest and give yourself a couple of circles at the ankle and shin. The great thing about balancing poses is they force you to stay present and focused on the moment in front of you. Reach that right leg back, hug the right inner thigh in for the quad stretch. Pull the heel up into the seat by pulling up and flexing your bicep and then squeezing your thighs together. Good. Shake out the right leg and shake out the standing leg. So we're going to cross the body, abducting and adducting. Shift your weight back over to the left leg and it's imagining you're creating a Z. Stepping that Z behind you and across. You can play with your toes on the floor or you can start to do that abduction and abduction of the leg creating that Z without touching the floor. Each time you send the right leg back, you're going to have to bend the left leg just a little bit to feel the stretch. The next time you send the right leg out, touch the toes to the floor. Nice side body stretch. Lengthen through the left ribs, lats, intercostals.

Stay here or placing the left hand on the IT band, see what it feels like to balance and lift the right leg off the floor. As you come back, we're going to touch the toes to the floor and slide them behind the left leg. Keep the left leg bent, right leg behind and across and we'll take the opposite side stretch. Getting into that right side body this time. Good. We'll come back to center and shake out the legs. Okay. So we're balancing on the right leg this time, extending the left leg forward, taking it across, creating that Z forward and backward. You can keep your toes on the floor the whole time, abducting and adducting. Good. The next time you take the left toes out, touch them to the floor, reach the arm over, big side bend, breathe into that side body. You may be playing with lifting the left leg off the floor for a little balance. Touch the toes back and we'll slide the left leg all the way behind so you got to bend the right leg to get the left leg behind you. Moving back into a deeper expression of that side stretch. Always big inhales as we move through our side stretches and our twists today. Good. Come back to center, feet hip distance and kind of shake it out just a little bit, feeling your grounding back into the floor, palms into prayer, close the eyes for a moment, reconnect with your breath. Maybe noticing that the mind's already starting to settle and you're able to focus a little bit more. We're going to take variations of sun salutation C. I'd like you to get two blocks just in case for this one and put them at the front of your mat. We're going to be doing some strength variations on sun salutation C. When you're ready, inhale the palms to the sky. Exhale, hinge at the hips, swan dive to the shins, lengthen the palms, flat back, bring your hands on top of the block, low, medium or high. Extend your right leg back and practice bending the standing leg and straightening the standing leg, bending and straightening. Maybe if you're feeling more quad strength, you can come up to your fingertips if you don't need all the weight on the blocks. The next time you bend your left leg, you can step the right foot back, lower the right knee to the floor and we'll come up to an easy lunge.

So left hand on top of the left thigh, right hand to the sacrum. We'll just pulse into this and really start to release the front of the right hip. Press into that left quad, press it forward and down. Lift your ribs, lift your chest. Either keep supported with the left hand or inhale, the left palm to the sky to join the right. Go back to the breath. Left hand back to the left thigh, right hand to the block or to the floor, lengthen the spine, soft twist, lengthen, twist, get a long seat to the crown, twist it out and then go ahead and lower your palms to the block or the floor and straighten the left leg for a half split. Pulling the toes back will help you feel a little bit more in the hamstring. Cat tilt is a little easier, cow tilt to the spine, you'll feel a little bit more resistance here. Go ahead and bend your left leg, step the left foot back to meet the right for plank pose, lower all the way down, knees all the way down, easy cobra and then lower back down. Each time you inhale, rise up, heart moves forward, elbows move back. Each time you exhale, lower down slow.

Lengthening, lifting with the inhale, exhale. Pause and lift with the inhale and then tuck the toes under, press back to your down dog. You can pedal out one leg at a time, pushing actively forward with each hand. So we're going to reverse that flow, right leg extends, exhale, step the right foot to the front of the mat, lower the left knee to the floor, low lunge, right hand on top of the right thigh, left hand to the sacrum, go back to your pulses, opening up the front of that left hip. Lifting the sternum, lifting the chest and then once you find the foundation here, left palm to the sky, right hand you can use as a lever just to keep lifted out of the lower back or you can send it up, shoulder blade shrug as you lift the heart. Two more big breaths, nice big inhales, pauses and exhales. The last one. Right hand, right thigh, left hand either to the block or the floor, lengthen the spine and then push down with the right hand to help you move into the twist. Lengthen and rotate. One more big breath, rotate, twist it out. Right palm to the floor or the block, going straight in the right leg. Same idea, if you flex the right foot you're going to feel the calf muscle as well.

If you have tighter hamstrings, a little cat tilt of the spine makes it easier or moving forward with a cow tilt of the spine you'll feel a little bit more resistance. So from here we're going to bend the right leg, place your hands back on your blocks, you're going to inhale the left leg to the sky and we'll play with bending and straightening the standing leg just like we did on the other side. Less weight, come up to your fingertips, that'll give you more of a quad challenge. And then we'll step the left foot next to the right, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, exhale, pull the navel up and back and fold wherever you're feeling it for your body. Let something go with the exhale, nice big inhale in, let something go. Bend both knees, power through your quads and your core muscles, roll up with a cat tilt of the spine, inhale the palms to the sky, interlace your hands behind the base of the head, lift the heart, chin and chest and we'll take that exhale to the right, inhale back to center, exhale to the left, inhale back to center, exhale your palms right into prayer. We're going to do another sunny sea, a little different this time, keep your blocks handy, inhale the palms to the sky, exhale, slow dive all the way down, bring your palms to the shins, lengthen the spine and then bend both legs. We'll do the left leg again, hands on top of the blocks, extend your right leg back. This time we're going to bend the left leg and bend the right knee and pull them into the chest and then extend. Same variation, fingertips or if you feel like the focus is on point right now, maybe the arms reach as you inhale and hug in, oh maybe I'm not on focus, in and lengthen, exhale. Two more, good, bring your hands to your blocks, step back to a high lunge, inhale the palms to the sky and then we'll straighten the left leg and bend the left leg. Straighten the left leg, rising up and then rebend, see if you can sink just a little bit deeper each time, um, rebending that left leg last time and then bringing the right hand back, bring the right palm to the floor this time, lengthen the heart forward and take that spinal twist, lengthen and rotate. We'll inhale the left palm to the sky and we'll start to straighten the left leg and as we start to straighten the left leg, either a little bit or a lot, we'll send the left arm over the head, rebend it, left arm reaches back, straighten it, each time you're bending, you're inhaling, reaching back, each time you're straightening, exhaling, reaching forward. Last one, bend, pause, pause, we're going to play with a little transition here, stepping the left foot behind the right. You can always bring the right knee to the floor and step to easy side plank forward and backward. Option one, option two, right knee off the floor, push down into the right fingertips, draw the knee into the chest, step behind, kickstand, pull everything up, pull the knee up, step forward. Try a couple of these transitions here, we'll keep your focus pinpointed, laser focused on the actions and the movements in front of you. The next time you step forward, pause, lower the right knee to the floor and go ahead and restrate in that left leg. Half split, use your blocks if you need them or if you're moving into a deeper split, slide the foot forward. Sometimes blocks help you when you get to that three-quarter split or when you get down a little lower but you're not sure about going all the way into the deeper variation of the split. Keeping that front toes pulling back, if you're in the fuller split, internally rotate the right leg and press the tops of the feet to the floor. Slowly rebend the left leg, standing split on the left, great opportunity to use your blocks.

If you don't need your blocks, you can walk your hands back towards the heel and lengthen. Step your right foot back, send the left leg to the sky, shake it out, move it around, come to your plank pose, knees are always an option, chaturanga, cobrapta. Press back to your down dog, we're going to have a little break, your choice, yogi's choice either in child's pose or keeping it more active, dolphin, sliding elbow, middle finger, lining them up together and then tucking the toes under. So either hang out in your child's pose, reconnect with your breath, you can go back to counting the inhales, the pauses and the exhales, four, four, six and then a pause or you can try this in dolphin pose. If you're in dolphin, come back to child's pose, look towards the front of your mat and we're going to bend the elbows out and slide forward into cobrapta. Press back to your down dog, rise to the very tops of your toes, press your chest to the thighs as you slowly walk forward, one foot at a time, really engaging and lifting the pit of the belly, bend the knees anytime you need to, lower the heels to the floor, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, soft fold, reverse the dive, bring it all the way up, exhale, your palms into prayer, close the eyes for a moment, connect with your breath, four count inhale, four count pause, six count exhale, one more round, once you open the eyes, we're going to go for the second side, keep your blocks handy and ready on either side of your mat, inhale the palms to the sky, exhale, hinge at the hips, swan dive, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, exhale, bend both knees, this time the right leg is the standing leg, left leg extends back, drawing the right knee into the chest, left knee into the chest and extending the left leg, right knee bends, left knee bends, maybe less weight coming up to the fingertips or you can try a couple freestyle, arms out, lengthening, warrior three variation and then hugging back in, keeping that drishti really focused on one point, the next time you extend your left leg back, bring your palms back to the floor, step back to your high lunge, inhale the palms to the sky, right leg straightens as you inhale, right leg bends as you exhale, right leg straightens with the inhale and bends with the exhale, last round, feeling that strength and power in your right quad, right hand on top of the right thigh, left hand we're going to move it away from the block this time, lengthen forward, spinal twist, start to straighten the right leg and reach the right arm over the head, start to bend the right leg and reach your right arm back, listen to your hamstring, listen to the hip, if you're starting to move deeper, straighten the leg all the way to all together, that's fine but make sure that your body wants to move to that depth, we don't want to over stretch in the spinal twist right here, the next time you bend the right leg go ahead and pause, look down, press forward with your left hand, left knee can come to the floor for the easy variation, stepping to easy side plank, forward, push and backward or no knee variation, right foot pulls into the chest and steps back, right knee pulls into the chest and right foot steps forward, play with these transitions, trying to smooth out the transitions each time, lower the left knee to the floor, straighten the right leg, go back to your breath, slow deep inhales, pulling the toes back, slow deep exhales, feel free to use your blocks here, your blocks can help you lift out of the pose a little bit softer on the hamstring or you can use your block to get into that three-quarter split, low, medium or high or moving all the way into the split, the blocks kind of keep you safe from that back hamstring from sinking too deep into it, keeping the right leg active and internally rotating the back left leg, this is going to set us up really nice for our standing split, so go ahead and re-bend that right leg, blocks right next to you, inhale the left leg to the sky, as you bow the crown of the head to the floor like a lever that left leg will lift up a little bit, if you want to feel more start to walk your palms back, step the left leg back, move your blocks to the side, right leg to the sky, shake it out a little bit, move it around, thank you leg, you are so cool for all that you do, move to plank pose, lower down, cobra up dog and in child's pose we're going to use two blocks, one on top of the other and we're going to place our elbow, start with one elbow, you see if you can tuck your head underneath your right bicep or whatever elbow you have forward and then reach for the opposite shoulder and slide the other arm up, so you're getting a nice shoulder opener in your child's pose, it's a nice restorative place to be for a couple of breaths, go back to the counting of the breath, four rounds, four count inhale, four count pause, six count exhale, short pause, three more rounds, check in, notice where your mind is right now, see if you're feeling more present, if you're feeling more clarity, invite that to be your new experience for the rest of the day and so we'll move out of this nice shoulder opener, nice and slow, one arm at a time, we're going to use our blocks later so keep them handy, you can move them over to the side and we'll come down and we'll lie on the stomach, right arm out to the side like a wing, make sure your right ear is on the floor and walk your right fingertips out, they should be the same height as your shoulders, we're going to use the left hand to roll for this pec stretch, we're going to bring the left leg into tree for this variation, anywhere below or above your knee and we'll let gravity do the work as we roll, we'll open up and feel this nice stretch through the front of the body, we're going to keep that left leg in tree pose as we roll back to our stomach, this is going to help us open up the front of the hip so that when we get into our hip opening flow, we've already got a little kick start, a little head start, come up to swing pose with your arms, invite your ribs forward and your chest forward, for most of you this is a great spot to hang out, if you're feeling like your hips pretty close to the floor on that left side and you want to see what cobra or up dog feels like, start to lift very slowly, make sure your hips not lifting off the floor, good, push forward with index and thumb, invite the shoulder blades back, from here we've got a transition, it could be as easy as bending your right knee and stepping the left foot to the front of the mat or we can make it a little bit more challenging, keep the leg in tree pose, tree plank, tree side plank and then step that left foot to the front of your mat, good, pivot your right heel for warrior two, so we're lining up left knee over left ankle, right heel, left heel lining up, we're just going to pulse a little bit, so as you inhale reach the palms to the sky and as you exhale sink back into your warrior two, inhale lifting, exhale sinking, bring your hands to your hips for a second and notice if the hips feel even, see what happens if you drop your left hip a little bit and lift your right and then drop your right and lift your left, see if you can find that perfect spot in between and we're going to feel this is our warrior two, we're bringing that focus and attention right here to our hips and then we're going to feel what it feels like to drop the hip and imagine reaching forward for a variation of half moon, so lift and lower, lift and lower and now we're going to add peace forward, the left hip starts to lift and lower, so we get this movement moving forward and back and then all we do is add our block right here and we're going to focus on these transitions forward to half moon and back, bending the left leg, rooting down into the right foot and lifting and lengthening into peaceful wear, bending at the left hip, dropping the hip, lengthening forward, stepping, we're going to do a couple of rounds focusing on the transition between the two poses, so that the standing pose starts to become a balancing pose, you start to feel it in that left quad pretty soon, one more round, reach forward and let's hold this time, left hand on top of the block, lengthen the heart forward, spiral the right rib cage to the sky, lift the right heel and extend to your half moon pose, step back to your warrior two, pause and feel the pose, shoulders over the hips, grounding down into the back foot and then windmill the palms to the floor, right knee down, heel to your left foot off of the mat and then give yourself a little release here, staying right here with the left leg will reach back with the right hand, this could be your spot right here or if you feel like bending the right leg, reaching back with the left hand, catching the pinky toe side of the foot and then moving the heel away from you, feel this nice shoulder heart opener, good, lower the right leg, heel to your left foot to the center of your mat and then back up your right knee so your left knee is behind your left heel, we're going to open up to this diamond shape, imagine if both feet were together you'd create this diamond shape, so this is like half of that diamond shape, left hand inside, half karmasana variation, press down into the top of your right shin and lift your heart like you're moving into cobra or up dog, so this opens up the hip and the hamstring and it's going to set us up really nicely for our compass pose, let's go ahead and straighten the left leg and pull the toes back, good, re-bend the left leg, lower the left hip and then straighten the left leg, re-bend the left leg and then slide your left foot across so that you can come into a variation of pigeon, we're just going to stop right here and then swing the right leg around for figure four, bending the right leg, opening up the hip, so this could be your spot today, this could be perfect place to hang out, if you're feeling it, happy baby with the left leg coming into a variation of compass pose, grabbing the pinky toe side of the foot, pressing the heel back, this could be your spot, otherwise left hand reaches for the inside, extend and lift, great variation of compass pose, if you're able to get that heel behind or even with your shoulder, you're probably able to get your shoulder underneath the calf and you can go for the full expression of compass, right hand on top of the left foot, right elbow bends and you're inviting the heel to move back in space and then you're breathing that full breath again, so that could be your finale there, we'll meet back lying on the stomach or if you're still feeling it, right ankle across, slide your heels to the left, lean forward and squeeze your thighs together, we'll all meet at the stomach, slide the right leg back, so once again we're lowering down, this time we're extending the left arm out to the side like a wing, straight out from the shoulder, rolling to the left, nice opening for the front body and we'll bring the right leg into tree pose, inviting the right knee to drop away, opening up through the front of the hip, keeping the right leg open, the right leg and tree as we move back to our stomach, so we start to have a hip opening sphinx pose, elbows right under the shoulders, inviting the ribs to move forward, this is a great spot to hang out and stay or you can replace the elbows with the palms like you did on the other side, lifting up to a variation of cobra or up dog, remember how you stepped forward on the other side, did you just bend the knee and step forward or did you go on that journey with me, tree plank, tree side plank, stepping the right foot to the front of the mat, pivoting your left heel, lining up the heels, rising up to warrior two, looking at that right knee, moving over the hip, straightening the right leg and rebending it, straightening it and rebending it and then we found that hip tilt forward and backward, extending the arms as we move forward and backward, reaching out for the block and then reaching back up, reaching out and reaching up and now we're going to step that left leg off the floor, reaching out, half moon and then stepping back, reaching up, lengthening and just fine tuning each one, slowing it down, keeping your focus, your attention on each of the movements, it's like your life's in slow-mo right now, pausing your warrior to feel like you're getting grounded here and then windmill the palms to the floor, lower your left knee down, heel to your right foot off the mat and invite that right inner thigh to move away from you, extending the right arm back, palm facing up, this is a great spot to hang out or if you took the quad stretch on the other side or the shoulder opener, make sure to bring balance, moving the heel away from the hips, go ahead and release the leg, heel to your right foot forward, right to the center of the mat and back up your left knee here, we're going to create that half diamond shape with the right leg, pulling it back and sending the hips forward to open up through the right hip and then we'll straighten the right leg and re-bend it, this will help us on that compass pose on the other side, draw your right heel across the mat as if you're going into pigeon pose and then swing your left leg all the way around, some of you are hanging out right here in figure four, this is your spot or happy baby on the right side, left palm down, stay here or open up, softer variation of compass pose, inner arch lift or if that heel moves back in space, you did it on the other side, right arm underneath, left palm on top, open and then breathe, breathe, good, if you're trying the arm balance right ankle, lower right calf on top, lift and then maybe slide the left leg on top of and all the way across, and then we'll come back to our seat, we're going to spin the legs around and roll onto our back for a much deserved shavasana, thank yourself for all the hard work today and for the laser focus that you are working to achieve, settle down, you can keep the legs bent or you can straighten them out, if there's any last movement you need before shavasana, feel free, settle in, let's just do one round of counting the breath, inhaling for the count of four, three, two, one, holding, four, three, two, one, exhaling six, five, four, three, two, one and then let everything go, let go of all the doing, let your mind be free of any working and just be in your shavasana.

So feel free to stay right here for a couple more minutes or for the rest of the day if you want to, but if you would like to join me in a comfortable seat, you're also welcome to do that, rolling over to the side and propping yourself up. I hope you feel more clarity, more focus, thank you for going on the journey with me today and keep that mind in the present moment, we might see or experience things that we never would have seen or experienced when our mind was in all different places, so see what happens today with that focus and that clarity, I look forward to hearing from you, namaste.