Chill and Release

Hi yogis, welcome back to the mat. I'm excited you're here and you showed up for this practice. Today's theme is just chill, right? Some days we just feel like we're doing too much. We're trying to multitask.

We've got too many things going on in our lives and we just need to pull back a little bit, enjoy the breath, enjoy the movements of the body. So think of this as, if this was a song, think of this as one love, one heart, let's get together and feel alright. That's the theme for this. So if you get lost in it, just go back to the song, we'll bring you back, alright? So let's hang out and be with the breath for a moment.

The thing that I like most about really trying to relax the mind is the pauses. So we're really going to lengthen out the pauses after the inhales to the point where it just feels like, I don't even need to exhale, you know? So it shouldn't feel like you're gripping or holding any tension. It just feels like you're holding the breath, enjoying it while you relax the muscles of the face and then take your time with your exhalations. So let's take a couple of rounds of normal breaths together.

So close the eyes and get in touch and in tune with the natural rise and fall of your breath, whatever that is today. Just by turning your attention to the breath, it'll help really settle you down. Good. Finish whatever exhale you're on right now and take a nice, slow, deep inhale. And just hold the breath and be in that space of silence and quiet where there's nothing going on.

You're experiencing the heart rate, the pulse. Whenever you feel like you're ready to exhale, let go and let the breath go, move it out of the body through the nose. Take a nice, slow, deep inhale. Hold the breath, enjoy the stillness, enjoy the peace, nothing to do, just be present. And then when you feel like you're ready to let go, slowly let go of the breath.

Take two more rounds, just like that at your own pace. As you finish that last round, let it take you two or three breaths before you open the eyes, let the eyes be heavy, relaxed, slightly out of focus as you come back to the body and the breath. And hopefully your mind feels very clear and you feel more relaxed. And we're going to relax even more into a little massage for the glutes and the lower back. So we're going to place this block, grab your block, and I want you to find these two edges of your block right to the top of your glutes.

So we're going to lie on the back, bend the knees, lift the seat up, and you're going to line up the edges of your block about an inch and a half below that waistband so that that triangular part of your sacrum is on the block. And then from here, you're going to hold onto the block and take the knees wide. And we're going to give ourselves a little butt massage here. So let your knees drop to the right and you'll feel the edge of that block on the top of your glute, piriformis area, and then let your knees drop to the left. Keep the knees nice and wide so the focus is on the left glute.

Then we're going to do a couple of little circles. Take it over to the right and then keep the knee drawing away from the midline and just start to circle. You'll start to feel little areas as that block gets into the outer glute and outer hip. You get a nice massage. This area can be really tense, sciatic nerve runs through here.

Give yourself a little release in this area and then we'll rock over softly to the left side and we'll keep the knees wide apart and we'll just start to circle that left leg. This is a nice one you can do any time of the day when you want to get a little release from that connection between the lower body and the upper body that gets really tight from sitting all day. Give yourself one more rock on each side, a couple of circles. We could have a whole practice just doing this. Then go ahead and release your feet back to the floor.

Lift up, slide your block to the side and then let your right knee drop out so you're taking a hip opener with the right leg as if your right leg was in a tree. Keep your right hand on top of the right thigh and draw the left knee towards your left rib cage and give yourself a little rock from side to side here. Little hip opening release on the sacral region and the hip. From here you can bring that left leg into happy baby pose, grabbing the pinky toe side of the foot. If this is intense for you, just let that right knee draw back towards the midline or you can keep pressing that right knee away depending how tight your hips are feeling today.

We want this actually to feel really nice, like a massaging action as we rock from side to side, bringing some ease and some relaxation to the muscles, the lower back and hips. Keep the left leg in a happy baby pose, let the right knee draw towards the midline and place the left ankle right on top of the right thigh, drawing the right knee into the chest for a low figure four pose. Right heel a little bit higher than your knee cap, so at this angle the whole focus is the outer left glute inside of the body. Good, and then from here we'll keep pressing the sacrum down towards the floor and extend the right leg to the sky. If this isn't working for you, just give yourself a little bit more slack here and move the leg away from you.

We're going into that nice hamstring stretch. Bending the right leg, placing the sole of the right foot on the floor, left knee on the top, easy twist to the right. You might have to shift to the left a little bit to even out the hips, little cross-legged eagle variation twist here, invite that left shoulder to drop towards the floor. The drishti can be towards the left hand if this is okay on your neck. Really roll back to center.

You're going to bring that left leg into that easy tree variation, and the right leg draws towards the left armpit. Give yourself a little rock from side to side. So if this was the version you were staying with, go ahead and stay right here, or you can bend that right leg, bring it into happy baby pose, and then keep that rock from side to side at the sacrum. Really feeling the release in that mid part of the body, that connection between torso and limbs. Good.

Right hips open, we draw the left knee in, right ankle on top, figure four. Keep your right foot flexed, lift your left heel just higher than your knee. This downward angle, the whole focus is outer glute as you draw down. If you need to feel more, simultaneously press your sacrum down to the floor, and you'll feel a little bit more resistance. Extending the left leg as you press the sacrum down to the floor.

If you need less of a stretch, move the left leg farther away from you. Go back to the breath and see if you can find those pauses that we were working with in the beginning that invites that relaxing, deep release when we're moving into these poses and invites that chill theme that we've been working on. Left leg bends, lower to the floor, slide the right knee on top of the left, crossing the legs. Shift your hips slightly to the right so that you can drop those knees to the left and they're nice and aligned with the torso and the shoulders and the right arm releases out. Go back to the nice, long, deep inhales, holding the breath a little longer than you normally would, and then softening into that space you created with the exhales.

Slowly roll back to center. Both legs drawing to the chest for this variation, full happy baby pose. Draw the sacrum down to the floor as you draw the knees to the floor at the same time. We're going to keep the knees wide for this variation of happy baby pose, and we're going to take an interlace, wrapping the fingers around the pinky toe sides of the feet, drawing the heels down towards the seat. As you press the heels and the knees forward, you're going to get a nice release in the upper back and the shoulders.

Roll back down, move the heels away from the seat, create that diamond shape with the legs, and then draw the heels forward and the knees forward. We're going to take a little rock forward all the way up to our seat, and we'll pause for a moment in our Baddha Konasana fingertips facing back, away from you, heart lifted, knees dropping down to the floor. From here, we're going to walk the feet hip distance. We're going to walk our hands back away from our hips, so we're starting to get a big stretch in the upper back and the shoulders. Dependent how you're feeling in the shoulders will depend how far you walk the hands back.

Take your feet a little wider than the hip distance, and then we're going to start taking our seated windshield wipers from side to side. While you're getting these windshield wipers, you're getting a nice opening in the upper back and the shoulder. The next time you drop your knees to the right, hang out right there. This could be your spot. See if this is your spot first, or you can place the right ankle on top of your left knee.

You're going to feel this in the upper back, shoulders, and nice release for the IT band. Keep the right hand right where it is, and take that left arm all the way across the body. Reach it back for the right hand for that nice, juicy side bend. Enjoy the breath here. As you reach across with the left hand, if you're feeling this is the right spot for you, stay here.

If you want to feel more, press down and forward with your right hand, and you'll get more of a twist through the spine. Slowly unwind, walk your palms back, and free the legs. Going back to that wider than hip distance experience, and we'll walk the hands back one more time. If you want to go deeper, walk the pinky fingers a little closer to each other as you journey the hands away from the sacrum, and this will give you a nice, deep shoulder opener. The focus today is going to be a lot more on opening than strengthening, so a lot of releasing, opening movements so that we can really get into our chill zone.

The next time you windshield wiper your knees to the left, hang out right here. This could be the right spot for you, or you can place the left ankle on top of the right knee, letting the neck move from side to side, trying to release any areas of tension that you're feeling. You'll mostly feel it in that right shoulder as you drop the knees to the left. Left hand stays, finally you get to release that right hand, reach it all the way back for the left, and go back to the breath. The breath will tell you if you're relaxing, if it's nice, full, and deep, you're able to soften into the pose, if it's shallow, invite it to be fuller and deeper.

If you want to feel more push forward and away from you with that left hand so you get more rotation in your spine. Good. And then we'll slowly rise back up, free the legs, and we'll meet in table pose. So swing your legs around to table. Arms underneath your shoulders, knees right underneath your hips, a couple of clearing movements of the spine, really slow cat and cow tilts, dropping the belly, leaning the heart forward, slow inhale as you lift the chin away from the chest, and leading with the pelvis, the sacrum, pulling the navel up, pushing down with the palms, drawing the chin slowly to the chest.

Good. If you just have one more nice slow round, like you're massaging the spine, and we'll meet in a neutral table pose. Extend your right leg, bend it, and lift the heel to the sky, look forward, take a big inhale here, and then as you exhale, slowly draw the knee into the chest, and press down strongly with your palms to create that cat tilt of the spine, and as you inhale, lift, look forward, exhale, draw the knee in, press down. We're going to take one more, and step the right foot to the front of the mat. So look forward, lift, and then exhale, draw the knee in, step the foot to the front of the mat.

You might have to back up that left knee just a little bit so that you can feel the stretch. Bring your right palm on top of the right thigh, left hand on top of the right thigh, and then just press forward, and see if you can start to release your psoas muscle right here, this front muscle that connects the lower body to upper body. We're going to go up into the shoulders and the upper back fingertips, right on top of your shoulders. Draw the elbows in, and then inhale, lift, and squeeze the shoulders back. Draw the elbows in, lift, and squeeze, move yourself one more round, inhale the palms to the sky, lift the heart, exhale the right hand on top of the right thigh, left hand to the floor, and we'll take a couple of slow circles with the right arm, creating some space in that shoulder, freeing up some space.

It's like you're back stroking through the air here, and with a C right behind me, it might look like I'm back stroking through the air. Good. Bring your palms to the floor, straighten the right leg, little side to side in your half split. Bring the toes back, good. We're going to re-bend that right leg, and that right leg is going to go back to where it started, send it to the sky behind you, bend the knee, lift the heel.

Push down into the right palm, reach back with your left palm. If you're not able to grab the foot, that's okay. The action of reaching is going to open up the pec muscle. If you're able to grab the foot, move the heel away from you, and start to lift the knee away from the floor, and then go into a breath that feels like you're happy to be alive. Good.

Extend your right foot to the back of your mat, bring the left hand to the floor, push down, stay here in your easy side plank, or if you want to enjoy a hip opener, place the left ankle just above the right knee, slide the knee back, open the hip. Palm to the sky, or up and over the ear to feel that nice side stretch. Come down to table pose, palms under the shoulders, knees under the hips, one slow round of cow and cat tilts, inhaling, lifting, exhaling, pressing back. Exhaling your neutral spine, lift and extend your left leg, take your drishti forward, and then draw the knee into the chest. Lift the left heel to the sky, move the ribs, heart forward, exhale, draw it in.

Last round, lift, and as you exhale, you're going to step the left foot all the way to the front of the mat. You might have to back up that right knee just a little bit so you feel that stretch through the left, through the right psoas, and then bring both hands on top of your left knee, and we'll just pulse and try to open up the back right quad hip flexor. If any of these movements are intense, you can always put a blanket underneath your knee. Good. And we'll sink into the foundation here, bringing the fingertips back to the shoulders, drawing the elbows in, and lifting, and shrugging the elbows back, trying to create more space for rotation.

The next time you roll the shoulder blades down, you can inhale the palms up to the sky, go back to your breath. Lower the left hand on top of the left thigh, right hand to the floor, lengthen, and twist. Once you find the twist, we'll do a little freestyle backstroke with a left arm opening up through that left shoulder, let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder, giving you a little bit more space for rotation. Good. We'll place the left palm back to the floor, straighten the left leg, pull the toes back, just a little side to side with your hips.

Nice, I.T., a hamstring stretch for that left leg. Extend the left leg, extend the left leg behind you to the sky, lift the heel, push forward with the left hand, reach back with the right hand. If it's not happening in the connection, just let the left ear drop and the action of reaching will help you open up the shoulder. If you've got it, grab the pinky toe side of the foot and start to lift the heel, lift the knee away from the floor. Lower the left foot, extend it, right hand presses into the floor, easy side plank, the right knee stays down, or push down into that right hand, take the hip opener, palm to the sky, or moving it deeper into the pose, up and over the ear.

Good. Come back to your table pose, flip your palms so your wrists are facing forward, give yourself a little forearm, wrist stretch. The more you back up the seat, the more you'll feel. Good, shake out one wrist at a time. Walk your hands and palm print forward, spiral your biceps forward, then press back to your first down dog, pedaling out one leg at a time.

Staying in the down dog will lift the heels away from the floor and will draw the heels over to the right for a little pivot, bending and straightening one leg at a time, stretching that left side body, breathing slowly and fully and deeply, pressing strongly forward with your right hand, and then rising to the tops of the toes, pivoting the heels to the left, bending one leg at a time as you pedal it out, pushing actively forward with your left hand so you really feel that side stretch through the right side body, pivoting back to center, lengthening forward to plank pose. We'll do an easy knees, chest and chin variation today. So as you bend the elbows, lower the chest and chin towards the floor, booty high so you get that nice little back bend, and then release forward into your sphinx pose, slide forward, elbows replace the palms, invite your ribs forward, roll the shoulder blades back and press into the tops of your feet, nice release for the lower back before we move into our deeper back bends. Replace your elbows with your palms, easy cobra or up dog, whatever you're feeling. Just a nice big breath and then press back to your down dog.

Walk your hand slowly back to your feet, you can keep your feet hip distance for this one. Palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, exhale fold, bend the knees, head comes up last, roll up vertebrae by vertebrae, inhaling the palms to the sky, exhaling right into prayer. We have the option of doing a bhakasana here so you may want to keep your block handy about two, two and a half feet in front of your toes. So we'll reposition the block in a second, feet are hip distance underneath, right underneath the hips, palms into prayer, reconnect with your breath, slow deep inhale, reach the palms to the sky, exhale swan dive, hinge at the hips, bring the palms to the shins, lengthen forward monkey pose and exhale, bend the knees and just let the hand slide down to the ankles and a modified chair variation, reach your fingertips forward. This could be your spot right here, you don't have to go into bhakasana, just take a nice lower back stretching low chair here or wherever your fingertips are, move the block forward about eight to 10 inches from your fingertips, hug your elbows in, start to bend the elbows, knees right on top of the triceps and the block is there as your little crash pad so you can kind of lean forward, pull the navel up and then maybe one foot off the floor at a time or both feet off as you lean forward, the block is right there for your support if you need it, if you're feeling it, pull the heels up, pull the knees up and start to straighten the arms, lower the feet to the floor, move your block away and then walk your hands to plank pose, knees chest and chin, slide forward to cobra up dog, exhale back to your down dog, walk your hands slowly back towards your feet, turn your toes out and slowly bend those knees, we'll have a seat in malasana, you can sit on your block if this isn't good for your knees, keeps the seat up a little higher, use the elbows right inside of the thighs and lift your heart, instead of floating all the way to the hands we're going to shorten this by taking little frog hops, so reach your palms forward, lift your heels off the floor, keep the seat lifting, little bounce and then hop, all the way to the front of your mat, back into your malasana, pressing your other thighs away, lifting the heart, keep the knees turning out, the heels turning out as you move into a soft forward fold, you can bend one leg at a time, feeling how the hips and the hamstrings connect with the toes turning out, maybe dropping the hands around the hamstrings with the interlace or folding hands behind the calf muscles, take a little bend in the knees, turn your toes forward, feet hip distance, use your core muscles to help you roll up vertebrae by vertebrae, inhale the palms to the sky, exhale them right into prayer, reconnect with your breath, go back to those long pauses, on your next inhale reach the palms to the sky, big inhale, exhale swan dive to the floor, palms to the shins, monkey pose, lengthen and lift, bend both knees walk or float back, lower all the way down, cobra up dog, exhale back to your down dog, inhale the right leg to the sky, bend the knee open the hip, step the right foot to the front of your mat, pivot your left heel and we're going to start to walk hand over hand to the left, keeping that right knee drawing forward, straighten the right leg, walk your hands another inch to the left, re-bend the right leg, straighten the right leg, re-bend the right leg, warm around, feel a little resistance, and then turn your toes of the right foot to join the left, slide your hands in front of you and just bend one leg at a time, good, from here bring your hands to your hips and we'll rise all the way up with a flat back, we're going to do some nice openers for the shoulders so grab your strap and keep the strap handy, hold on to the strap and we're going to find also a hand towel, a nice long towel will work on this as well, so we're going to go wider than the shoulders so that we can start to open up the muscles of rotation, so start with a nice easy grip here, you're moving the palms away from each other and you're lifting and rolling behind, the first round should feel really easy, rolling forward and back, I'm going to give myself a little more resistance by walking my hands a little closer, making it really taut and then sending it back again, creating a lot of space for friendly little shoulders here that need more love, a little closer with your hands, maybe finding that space where you just start to feel, oh right there, the resistance, good, we're going to take a little fold here so let's move the strap behind us one more time and we'll rest the strap on our sacrum, little bend in the knees, palms to the floor, passerita A, soft shoulder rolls as you start to guide the crown of the head down to the floor and it's just a direction right, whether it touches or not it doesn't matter, enjoy the shoulder rolls on your way down, good, little bend in the knees, lengthen the spine, help yourself roll all the way up and grab onto your strap again, take a nice distance between the strap, move it over the head easily and then we're going to grab the strap so that it's shoulder distance, the palms are the same distance to the shoulders, turn your right toes out so you're starting to set up for your warrior two, inhale the palms over the head and as you take the palms to the back of your mat for peaceful warrior, straighten your right leg and then as you bend the right leg we're going to move the wrist forward in space so you get this nice side bend, side angle on the right side, we're just going to pulse forward and backward, turning up, make sure the strap is really taut, you're moving the wrist away from each other, good, give yourself one more round, it's also firming up the muscles in the side body so that we don't collapse into them, keep the right hand where it is, slide the left hand down to the base of the strap so it's a little lower than your shoulder level and then move into a peaceful warrior here, keep that right arm straight and keep the strap moving, the palms moving away from each other and then you can go deeper into the pose by bending your right leg, good, oh that feels good, go ahead and release, keep your strap in your left hand and we're going to bring the right hand just inside, right elbow just inside, left hand drapes around and for those of you that aren't binders without the strap this is perfect for you today, the idea is to lengthen the torso forward and roll the left shoulder back, you can walk the hands a little closer or you can take the full bind, see if you can get long through the spine and roll the left shoulder back in space, from here we're going to walk the left foot forward a couple of inches and then we can straighten that right leg with our bind, make sure that you're still moving that left shoulder back in space and not collapsing into it, we've still got our strap here so we can use that strap to help us in our bird of paradise, bend into the right leg, step the left foot forward, shift your weight into the left leg with or without the strap, look forward come up to the tops of the toes, maybe this is your spot today or start to lift that right foot off the floor, finding the drishti in the balance and extending the right leg is the option, bending the left leg, bending the right leg, lowering down, stepping the left leg back, opening up to that bound side angle and we're done, lower your palms to the floor, invite that right foot to walk off the mat, further opening up the hip, we've had our quad stretch previously on this left leg so it might be more approachable, it might be more accessible now, re-bend the left leg, grabbing big toe or pinky toe side of the foot and then inviting the heel away, opening up through the front of the chest, you can always use your strap here, wrapping it around the top of the foot, you got to kind of lasso it to get it in there.

We're going to finish off pigeon pose on the right side, pigeon isn't working for you today, swing the left leg around for your figure four, blocks underneath the right glute, always nice, makes the pose feel a lot more comfortable and we want to find that comfort and ease as we move into this chill flow today, so find it in your breath, lengthening the spine and softening into whatever the experience is, sometimes if you contract your right quad and glute and release, contract and release, you'll start to let go of some muscles that you didn't even know were gripping, good, walk the palms back, right leg back to meet the left, pedal it out in your down dog and inhale the left leg to the sky, bend the knee open the hip, exhale, step the left foot to the front of your mat, pivot your right heel, we'll keep the left knee pointing straight forward as we walk hand over hand, straightening the left leg, walking the palms to the right an inch or two and rebending, straightening and rebending and then finally turning the left toes to join the right and we can just play with bending one leg at a time, the lower you keep the seat the more you'll feel, if you want to pull the toes off of the straight leg off the floor you can move deeper into your crouching tigers as you open the hips, good, we'll bring the palms to the floor, we'll grab our strap once again, bend the knees roll it up by vertebrae and we'll go to that wide arm variation and you have the same opportunity of doing what you did before, those nice slow circles forward and backward or you can take these same slow circles in your passerita, see your forward fold and then you're starting to move the wrists over the head, if you can easily touch the floor it's probably a sign that you need to shorten a little bit and then try it again so that you feel a little resistance. Slowly rise up, keep the strap with you and we'll turn the left toes forward setting up for our warrior two, shortening the strap so that it's shoulder distance and we're going to move forward and backward just like we did on the other side, straightening the left leg, taut strap, moving towards the back of the mat and then towards the front of the mat, keep pressing your palms away from each other so that you're keeping the muscles very active in the side body and they're not released and loose and not active. We'll play one more round and then we'll keep the left hand just above us, slide the right hand down lower than your shoulder, press the strap, hands away from each other, little side bend as you sink into that left thigh, go back to the breath, good as you come out of the pose you can keep the strap in your right hand, left elbow on top of your left thigh, right hand drapes around, you got the strap available for you for the bind, rolling the shoulder blade back, you might find that you get deeper into it, you might not need the strap, walk the right foot forward a step or two and start to straighten your left leg, lengthen the spine, roll the right shoulder to the sky and anytime you need to bend that left leg feel free, look forward, bend the left leg, step the right foot next to the left, shift your weight into the right foot and lift the left heel off the floor, track your drishti forward, redistribute the weight into your right leg and lift, extend the left leg and then reverse, step the right leg back, open through the right side body and then free yourself into warrior two, palms to the floor, you can keep the strap handy just in case heel to your left foot off of the mat, knee following the left toes, left hand reaches back, revisiting this quad stretch that we did earlier, maybe pressing the heel away, go back to quieting the mind, maybe go back to the song, one love, one heart, they will release and we'll walk the left foot over to our pigeon pose, remember you can take your figure four or you can put a block underneath your left seat, lengthening the heart forward and finding that spot so that it feels like you're relaxing, it feels like a restorative pose, it feels like you could hang out here for a while, same opportunity you can contract and clench your left glute and quad and then release and see if you find some more space to soften into and then just like we did on the other side, you can contract the left quad and the glute and then release it and contract and release and see if you find more space to just settle into this really juicy hip opener, in keeping with our chill theme we're going to slowly walk the hands back and we'll swing the legs around over to the right and take a nice slow journey all the way to the back, you can think of this as a massage for each vertebrae, each muscle along the spine as you lower down, one vertebrae at a time, let the shoulders relax, take your feet as wide as the mat and just finish off with those windshield wipers that we were visiting earlier, of course if there's any other finishing poses that feel right for your body before Shavasana honor that, this one gets your spine nice and back to that neutral curvature of the spine is perfect to set us up for Shavasana as we straighten one leg at a time and settle in, enjoy the rise and fall of your breath and let go of any control of it, imagine yourself watching that perfect sunset as the sun dips over the horizon, each moment, each perfect moment is changing and unfolding into the next and it's with this deep relaxation and this presence and you invite that peace in our mind that we're experiencing as we watch that sun slowly dip over the horizon. You can stay with this scene in your mind and watch the colors unfold or if you'd like to join me and coming up to the seat and then you slowly roll to the right side and help yourself up with your left palm. Notice and absorb all the effects of your practice, notice how it just that 45 minutes can really change your whole day, so use all of the gifts and the fruits of your practice and make sure to share it with others.

Thanks for being here with me today, keep chilling, now I'll stay.