Supported Foundation

Namaste and welcome everyone. So good to be here with you. We have a wonderful session in store where we have an opportunity to dive very deeply into our poses, open up new understandings with the help and guidance of the wall. You'll need a few props for this session. You'll need two blankets, two blocks, maybe three if you've got them, and one strap.

Let's grab our block and have a seat down at the wall. Place your block a few inches away from the wall. We'll sit down and cross legs. And our first introduction to the wall is being able to feel how it lifts and supports the spine and helps us to open the chest. So take a few moments to just become acquainted with that experience relating to the wall that way.

Take a few nice deep breaths. Feel how it holds the lumbar spine, the lower back up nicely. And then let's add to this by taking the arms up nice and high over the shoulders, palms facing forward. Take a few nice long breaths here as you feel how the wall helps to open up the chest, to give space in the sides of the chest. And then bring the arms down and hold your posture for just a minute, again, feeling the lift of the spine.

And then from here, we'll put the block away and we'll come down onto hands and knees for a few cat and cow. In your hands and knees position, double check that you've got enough space between your knees and your hands so you can get really nice spinal movement here. As we press up, exhale and coming down on an inhale. Cat and cow, exhale lifting up, inhale going down. Feel that your pelvis is able to move all the way through its range of motion, low back, middle back, upper back, all the way up to the shoulder blades and neck.

Exhaling up, inhaling down. Let's take it now into a downward facing dog. You'll curl under your toes, lift your knees and this downward dog is a little special because we get to have our heels up against the wall and the effect of having the heels against the wall is it helps us to lift the legs and lengthen the spine. So you'll press your heels through the wall, through and down into that wall to feel the legs firm and lift. That's the effect we're going for here in our first wall experience.

Some nice long breaths as you feel that work in the legs and then come down and take a little pause. One little technique I like to share with this if you find your hands are slippery is very common on these mats is that you can hold on to the sides of the mat and kind of anchor yourself in to get a great experience of this leg action. So once again, let's come up in dog pose. You come up and place the heels against the wall, toes a little forward of the wall like a 45 degree angle of the foot. Press those heels very firmly into the wall to help firm and lift up the legs so you get that lengthening feeling in your spine.

The hands hold on to the side of the mat and really help you to feel the openness that this technique gives. And then come forward hands in their natural position on the mat and we'll step the right leg forward into a lunge. Here we're going to keep the back heel against the wall to again affect that nice strong lift of the back leg. So let's feel the heel pushing into the wall and we're going to turn this into a twist with a top arm up. So we have that back heel pushing in the wall.

We have the leg lifting and this action actually is what helps turn and open the spine. When the leg drops, so will the chest. So we're learning that strength right now. Let's take the hand down, step back and bring that foot to the wall and we'll bring the second leg, left leg forward. Start by connecting with the wall to the right heel.

Find the lift in the right leg. We'll have the right hand on the floor and we're turning and opening to the left side. Keep your awareness traveling down through that right leg and feel the support and lift of that leg into the twist and then we'll bring it down. Step back into hands and knees and a few cat and cow. Remember exhaling spine goes up, inhaling spine goes down.

From here, we're going to come up into a standing position for a few experiences of poses against the wall. We're going to change our mat into a different orientation. So the long way is against the wall. And before we start our poses, let's bring one block ready for action. So our first pose will be to stand with wide legs with the heels about one or two inches off the wall.

And just like our very first pose, sitting against the wall, we're going to start to get that experience of how the wall helps to train our understanding of our position in space. So here we are, heels just off the wall, bring your shoulders to the wall and arms out and start to feel what that upright position is like. It's a little bit of work, feeling those leg muscles be alive, the spinal muscles hold and support you. Take a few breaths here as you experience your body in this pose. Feel how the wall opens up the chest from sort of the classic desk posture of holding here with the arms rolled back, we get to open up that chest and open the heart.

Let's take our first standing pose. We're going to turn to the right side. To begin, we'll turn the left toes in a little bit and revolve the right leg out 90 degrees. We'll take the block just to the outside of the ankle bone on this side. This is side angle pose.

We'll take the arms out to the side and a nice big breath in. As you exhale, keeping the back against the wall, extend to your right side and hand on the block. Now some of you might not need that block or you could change the block to a lower level or even if you don't need it, you can set it aside. I'll be teaching the poses with a little bit of block support for those who are needing a little bit of extra. And then come on up with the block and we'll do the second side.

So we'll turn the right toes in and the left leg out, place the block just next door to the ankle. Inhale with the arms out and keeping the back against the wall. Exhale, extend yourself to the left side and take your hand to your support. Here what we're trying to do is just like remember the downward dog in that lunge pose, press the back heel into the floor to firm this back leg and that helps us roll open and meet the wall with our torso. Take a few more breaths here and then inhale, bring the block with you, we get one more try on this one.

Left toes a little in, right leg out to the side, place the block just near the ankle. Here we go, big breath in, exhale and extend to the right side. Once again we're going to press down with that back foot heel so that we can get the back leg alive and that's what turns our torso open into the pose. For now we're going to keep the head looking straight forward, over time if you feel comfortable you can begin to start looking up overhead. Let's add one little component to this pose, turn the left hand over and reach to complete the pose, side angle.

And inhale, come up, bring the block, turn the feet to center, let's go one more time, second side. We'll place the block, here we go, big breath in and then exhale, bending the left knee, bend the trunk, over the left leg, let's set up the actions. Right heel pressing down firmly into the floor helps us turn open and meet the wall with that right shoulder. Turn the palm over the ear and let's complete the pose. Take a few breaths here as you explore, rolling that torso open to the wall.

And then inhale, bring the block and come up. Our next pose is going to be triangle pose, two straight legs in this pose. So we'll turn, left toes in, right leg out and place the block. Remember two straight legs. Stretch the arms, very similar to the previous pose, big breath in, exhale, again extend to the right side and we'll take the hand to the block, you get to choose how low you want to hold the block.

Here we press again the back foot heel into the floor and that's what creates that open rotating experience in these lateral poses. Take a few breaths here, feeling the trunk, stay against the wall, head against the wall, getting that open experience in the body. Let's bring the block and come up, turn the feet to center and second side. Right toes in, left leg out, place the block by the ankle and we'll stretch the arms. Big inhale, exhale, extend, left side.

Take a few more nice deep breaths here, remember, pressing down that heel, opening the chest and top shoulder into the wall, head against the wall as well. Inhale and come up with a block, turn the feet to center, we get one more time on this pose. Place the block, stretch the arms, torso against the wall, big breath in, exhale, extend. And, let's see how we can do on this side one more time, remember, feeling the support of the wall. This helps us because we don't have to worry about balance right now, we can really work on the openness without fearing, you know, toppling over.

Let's take one more breath in this side and bring the block, inhale, come up and final triangle pose on the left side, placing the block, inhale, stretch the arms, ready, exhale, left side. We're pressing again the right heel, back foot heel into the floor, which helps turn open the right leg and torso. And then we just take advantage of that wall, feeling the support and lift and openness in the chest. And then, bring the block, inhale and come up. You can hold onto the block for just a moment, let's bring the legs together in tadasana and feel that support of the wall in a standing pose.

Just recover from those previous poses. Alright, the next pose is going to be a challenge pose, it's half moon, but again you've got the support of the wall, so you don't have to worry too much about falling over. We're going to go to the right side, place the block, and just check your surroundings, make sure you've got enough space to kick up into this pose without being too close to another wall. We're going to start with a block by the heel, bend the right knee, and then step the block out a generous distance, basically as long as the arm can go, and we're going to be coming up to the right side. You can walk in and stand up.

Half moon pose, arda chandrasana, typically a very challenging pose when we do in the center of the room, but with the wall, we actually can begin to relax, almost like shavasana in half moon pose. Here we want to push down to the standing leg, in this case the right leg and the right arm, to get that turning-open effect so we can bring the left shoulder and the left hip closer and closer to the wall. We want to create a nice opening here in the front of the pelvis. And then take a breath in, as you exhale, bend the right knee, we'll come down, bring the block with you as you stand up. Let's do the second side.

To the left, we'll place the block down near the left foot, bending the left leg. Press that block well forward, and here we go up to the second side. And we lift up. Right heel is against the wall, that gives us the cue as to where this leg is. And again, pressing down firmly through the standing leg, turning and opening the pelvis, turning and opening the torso, and holding here.

In this particular pose, I'm rolling back that right shoulder and arm to open the chest. And take a breath in, as you exhale, come down, bring the block with you as you come up. We'll do one more time each side. To the right side, block comes down, bent knee, let's stretch the block forward, big step up, here we go. Inhale.

And so you can start to begin to feel where you need a little extra space. I'm going to move the block forward for me so I can get length in my torso there. Once again, pressing down through the standing leg, rolling open the torso, let's take that top arm up, eyes straight ahead. Work to feel the upturn of the torso toward the ceiling turn with the back against the wall. Breath in, exhale, come down.

Bring the block and we'll do our final side. Block to the left side, a breath in, exhale to come up. And once again, taking advantage of this lovely wall so we can feel the full openness of this pose. Take a few breaths while you're here, pressing down on the bottom leg to help lift and open the front of the pelvis to help open and turn the torso. A few nice long breaths as you feel your body.

And take a breath in and exhale, come down. Let's once again stand in Tadasana. Heels about an inch or so from the wall, shoulders back, head to the wall and get that feeling experience of a lifted open body. Close your eyes for just a moment and experience your body. And then we'll bring the eyes back to open again for another standing pose.

This is rotated triangle pose. We won't take quite as deep of a step. I'm going to take the block directly behind the right heel and we'll turn the legs over to the right side. Let's start with the back leg. So we take a nice deep turn into the back foot and we'll turn the right foot out 90 degrees.

I'm also going to start turning my body completely to the right side as opposed to the forward facing poses we had before. We'll start by taking the right arm straight up the wall. We take a breath in, exhale, turn the chest into the wall as we reach for the block with the left hand. Here again, we have such a great opportunity to explore turning in this pose without fearing falling over. We get to experience the muscles it requires to hold the pose safely.

Let's take another deep breath and then come out with the block. Slide the arm down and we'll shift it to the other side. Remember, we want to turn the right toes very deeply in the left leg out. We'll place the block just to the side of the ankle. Left arm up the wall and we're ready.

A breath in, exhale, we'll turn the right shoulder into the wall as we reach for the block. There we go. Here again, turning that torso into the wall. Strong straight legs like we've been learning. That's the gift of the wall and the floor and then an inhale to come up, bring the block.

One more time each side. We'll turn the left toes deeply in, right leg out, place the block and we'll go right into it. Right arm up, torso facing straight forward along the line of the wall. Deep breath in, exhale, come into the pose. Here in this rotated triangle pose, the bottom arm is quite important.

We push into that arm to help turn the torso, rolling the spine around. One or two more breaths. And then inhaling, we come up, bring the block, slide the arm down, we have one more to go. Right toes in, left leg out, we'll place the block. Turning the torso to face along the line of the wall.

Left arm up, big breath in and here we go, exhale, turn torso into the wall, right hand on the block. Let's use that right hand again to help turn the chest into the wall. It's that right arm that connects to the right shoulder blade that begins to bring that rotation into the body. And we can explore this now because we have the help of the wall. And inhale, bring the block and come up.

Let's take a second to put the block aside so we can feel our bodies just as they are. Legs together, tadasana, heels an inch or so from the wall. Take the shoulders back, close your eyes for just a minute and feel your body. How does it relate to the wall? A few breaths as you explore with your awareness.

And we'll open the eyes again. Our next two poses are going to require a strap. So put the block aside, we'll grab a strap and this will help basically make our arms longer. So we don't have to worry about really reaching out for the leg. So I'll take a strap, mine's quite long so I'm going to double it in half and we're going to start with the right leg.

In this pose you want your feet two or three inches from the wall so you feel that you're steady against the wall but not way forward so you're just totally leaning against the wall. Starting with the right leg, we'll bring the leg up and we're going to put the strap around the bottom of the foot. From here, right in the middle of the foot, we're going to hold with the right hand as close to the ankle as we can. So let's use that wall. Bring the shoulders back, nice long spine.

Here comes our pose. We're going to extend the legs straight forward and hold. So I'm using my left hand here for a little bit of balance support but I'm going to work my right shoulder more and more to the wall. You see I'm using a little pumping action to help that. I'm going to do about five there.

Good and then bend the knee and rest. We'll take it down for the second side. Bring the legs in tadasana, second side. Once again I'm going to hold the strap with the left hand as close to the ankle as I can. I lift up my torso, head to the wall, shoulders to the wall and then I'm going to extend the leg out.

Now what I do is I let a little slack out of the strap so that I can get my leg fully straight and start to work in the pose. Use my right hand for a little balance and then we can try that left shoulder to the wall. Here I go. I pull back. You can see that draws the leg up a little higher and then relax.

We'll do one more time on that side, on the right side that is. Holding the strap nearby the ankle, ready and let's inhale and extend. shoulders to the wall, head to the wall and we'll get a little wild and crazy. If you've got the balance, we'll take the free arm up from the foot on the floor so we get that nice big lift in the body. And then we'll bring it down and do the second side.

Left foot, holding the strap right near the ankle and roll the shoulders back and head to the wall and here we go. Second side. Let's start by again bringing the shoulders back, head to the wall and rolling that left shoulder back and then if you have the stability and you want to take your free arm up, you can. Remember we're trying to get this arm to reach up from the stability of your standing foot. And then let's bring it down and rest.

Put the strap off to the side. We won't need it. And let's once again stand in Tadasana with a body against the wall. Let your eyes close and feel how your body is changing through this practice right now. Take a few soft, easy breaths as you explore.

And then we'll bring the eyes open and we're going to take a transition now from these poses down into downward facing dog. We'll turn our mat short ways to the wall and we'll take a downward dog. Just like we were doing before, we're going to bring the heels up against the wall and this is going to be our resting pose from those wonderful standing poses we just did. Once again, heels up the wall three, four inches, toes forward to the wall and let's work that energy of the heels into the wall to lift the legs and lengthen the spine. It's that lifting of the legs and lengthening of the spine that really brings the restfulness of this pose to the body.

Relaxing the back of your head, the back of your neck. Remember if you want to hold onto the sides of the mat again, if you feel you're slipping in any way, better to be stable and steady so you can get the benefit of the pose than worrying that you're going to slip. Let's come down to the knees and take an easy child's pose. Rest your feet together, you can fold forearm on forearm and now forehead on your forearms. Take a few easy breaths as you rest from the standing poses and dog pose.

Let's come up and our next stop is a headstand, but don't worry, I've got a wonderful version of headstand for you that I think you're going to love. We're going to bring the blocks into play and we'll start with one block about three inches away from the wall and then a second block on top so it touches the wall so it's nice and steady. Now if you happen to have that third block, it really helps to make this pose quite wonderful. If you don't happen to have the block, you can turn this block up another level and it will sort of mimic that effect. I'm going to show it with three blocks however.

There's our set up. Our first step is to interlock the fingers around the backside of the blocks. Here we go. And then placing the elbows about shoulder width, I curl under my toes and lift the knees and walk my body into the blocks. Now this set up is such that my head is not on the ground and yours doesn't have to be either.

However if it does touch, that's fine. But the nice thing about the blocks and this set up is that it doesn't put any pressure on the neck. So we really get to learn once again with the benefit of the wall how to open up the chest and support our body in this pose. Now if you have some experience in headstand and you'd like to take the legs up, we can challenge that as well. So we can bring a leg up and now we're in the support of this pose.

I have maybe a pound of pressure on my head and neck, very very light, and I get that restful feeling from headstand that we're actually supposed to be able to get in the free balancing pose. So we're going to stay here for just a few breaths. If at any time you fatigue, you come right on down into child's pose, but I'd like to try to keep us here for up to a total of about a minute or so. Nice easy breaths. When you're pressing down through the forearms and trying to lift the shoulder blades up away from the floor.

That's important for the safety of the neck. About five more breaths. You come down any time you need to. We'll start to come down slowly, but remember to keep that power in your shoulders. We'll slip a leg down and gently unwind to the floor.

Walk yourself back and let's rest in child's pose. Let's come up out of child's pose. I hope you enjoyed that headstand. It's one of my favorites. We're going to take the blocks back out of the picture now and bring some blankets in for a few recovery poses from the practice today.

I'd recommend up to two blankets depending on how easily you can forward fold. We'll have the blankets about an inch away from the wall. So we'll start in Dandasana and let's do a little bit of help for the legs. We're going to gently spiral the legs. For the left leg, I turn the hamstring a little out, right leg hamstring a little out.

We spiral the legs internally. That really helps get an internal lift in the body. So I'll take my hands to the blankets, roll back the shoulders and begin to lift and open the chest. And I've got that feedback mechanism of the wall again to feel where I'm at. It's very common for people in this pose to actually be leaning backwards.

A lot of that comes from the mobility of the hips, but the blankets will really help with that. Once again, so I'll roll the shoulders back, actively pressing the legs down and I begin to lift and open the chest. Take some time to feel how that wall helps you lift up out of the pose. We keep the thighs gently spiraling in and elongating as we hold Dandasana. Then our next pose is Barakonasana, bound angle pose.

So we'll draw one leg in at a time. I pull the knee out and the knee out and I'm going to have my bottom right up next to the wall so that I have the support of the wall to lift my sacrum. I want to bring those feet in as close as my knees will comfortably allow because that's what actually helps open up the groins. So once again, feet in close. I'm going to take my hands once again to the bolster and I'm going to start to lift up the length of my torso.

Pressing down on the arms, I roll the shoulders back and open up the chest. And as the torso begins to lift, there's a really nice releasing outward and downward of the legs to open up those hips. So we're just taking our time here and calming down the body from the more powerful practice earlier. Check that your shoulders aren't tightened up into the neck. Neck is free and open and take some deeper breaths into that open chest.

One little secret in Barakonasana is we try to open the feet like a book rather than keeping the feet closed together, the opening of the feet actually cues the hips to open up properly. So as we press into the hands down on the blankets, lifting and opening the chest, open the feet to help the hips. And then we'll finish with that pose and extend the legs one more time for Paschimottanasana, seated forward fold. We'll start with that nice lift. Let's adjust the legs.

A little turn out of the hamstring, a little turn out of the hamstring. Lift up nice and tall and we'll stretch forward. Let's reach for the toes first or shins if that's more appropriate for you. If you can capture the toes, you can capture the toes. Big breath in, let's lengthen forward, exhale, bend the elbows out to the sides and start to bring the trunk down.

Bring the legs forward away from the wall. And if you're holding onto those feet, you want to pull back so that you can lengthen and extend your torso. Forward bends are very calming for the nervous system, so we can take these before we start to enter closer to our finishing poses. A few deep breaths and let the body open into the pose. Space for the neck and going along getting the legs and taking the trunk down.

And then we'll slowly come up. And then once again into dandasana as a recovery pose. Rolling the shoulders back, firm the legs and lift up and we'll take out any fatigue in the lower back that may have come in your seated forward fold. Nice long slow breaths as you're working more and more towards shalasana. And then we'll release that pose.

Our next pose will be bridge pose. So we'll come down off of the blankets and lie down on the floor. Have your feet placed about hip width apart and your arms alongside you. And I'm going to recommend for this pose that you hold the sides of the mat, kind of like we did for downward dog a little bit earlier. We're going to press the feet into the floor and begin to lift up the hips and spine.

And holding onto the mat as though we're going to turn and pull the mat apart a little bit. This helps to begin to bring the shoulders underneath. So you'll start to feel as you turn the arms out that the shoulders want to go underneath. And that's what we want to do. We want to lift and tuck those shoulders underneath and this begins to help us open the chest.

So let's just take this first one for a moment, feeling the movement of the shoulders. And then release the shoulders and come down. We'll take a breath or two, recover and we'll do another. Let's do it. Press the feet in the floor.

Lift your hips. Again, turning the arms outward, out to the sides of the room. So you feel those shoulders begin to try to tuck underneath and you lift the chest and allow the shoulder to tuck under, but let's go a little further now. Press into the feet to lift your hips and now press the shoulders, backs of the arms, elbows and forearms into the floor as we start to get more and more height out of the body and chest. Long slow breaths.

And then release the shoulders and come down and we'll do one final bridge pose. Here we go again. Pressing the feet in the floor. Lift your hips. Turning the arms outward, holding onto that mat gives us the movement of the shoulders so we lean and tuck, lean and tuck.

Let's become a little bit more active with the legs. We press the feet in the floor, lifting the sacrum and tailbone directly up and then pressing the arms into the floor to help take what's known as the dorsal spine, the middle spine up a little higher. Relax the chin, relax your throat. Long slow breaths. And release the shoulders and come down.

Let's take a moment to pull the knees into the chest in case there was some stiffness that came from the lower back. You can couple that with your breathing as you exhale, you gently tuck in the legs a little bit further. And then release the legs. Let's come back up to sitting. So our last two poses, Viparita Karani and a version of Shavasana, are wonderful to smooth everything out after our practice today.

I have the two blankets here still at the wall and they're not completely necessary but I think it brings a little extra calming to the body to have the hips higher than the chest and head. So I do recommend it if you have them there. The way we're going to do this one, again, blankets about an inch or so from the wall. That'll give us a little extra space for our hips to settle in. We'll start with the hips at the very side of the blankets.

You want to come all the way over to the side. Here's the trick to getting in. We're going to lengthen our body along the line of the mat. Here we go, down to the side and I'm going to tuck my bottom so that both of my sitting bones are going to go into the wall. That's important.

Both of your sitting bones into the wall. So I'm basically lying on my side with my butt to the wall. Then the rest is fairly straightforward. You roll up. You want to check that the blanket is tucked in such a way that it's just up underneath the kidneys and supporting the lower back.

And then I tucked my shoulders but it didn't say anything out loud. Same idea with the bridge pose. We get a little tuck of the shoulders to help open the chest like we've been practicing the entire class, getting that space in the chest. And then begin to relax your fingers, relax your ankles and toes, and let gravity do most of the work here. You can begin to let your eyes close as well.

In Viparita Karani we're looking to have a very soft, calm, passive abdomen area. Viparita Karani actually is upside down lake. And so that softening and calming and quieting of the abdomen really helps quiet the nervous system. You can begin to follow your breathing with your awareness. Just notice its qualities.

Is it smooth and even? Is it rough? Jumpy? Just noticing. It's not uncommon in Viparita Karani with the legs up the wall that the legs at a certain point might get a little achy and that's just because the body's not used to pumping blood up that high.

If you do happen to get that experience, you can gently fold your legs in simple cross legs against the wall for a few seconds and they'll recover. After about 10 or 15 seconds, we'll straighten our legs back up again and so we'll bring the legs back up or back in our pose. We'll spend a total of about two or three minutes here letting the body recover. You can go on focusing on the breath and the movement there. And then to finish in our shavasana pose, I'll start by bending my knees and placing the feet on the wall.

And with minimal masana fuss, I'm going to start to slide myself away from the wall. So my bottom clears the blankets, we want to leave them where they are. Bottom clears the blankets and then I'm going to cross my legs in that classic cross legged sitting position type interlock. Once again a small easy tuck of the shoulders underneath you to support the chest. Completely relax the groin muscles and if for whatever reason cross legs doesn't work, for some having the soles of the feet together can be a better pose.

This is the one that's right for you. Let's once again settle into gravity. Relax your fingers, relax the hip muscles, ankles and you can let your awareness settle on the gentle movement of your chest. It's becoming curious of how the breath moves and we'll stay here for a few minutes. If you're comfortable in your shavasana here, please stay as long as you would like to stay.

If you're ready to finish your practice today, bring the knees together and a gentle hug of the legs into the chest. And then we'll turn to the side, take a pause on your side for a minute and support your head. And before you come up, turn a little bit further toward the ground and push yourself up to sitting and let's take a minute to sit back up on those blankets. We'll sit in cross legs. And finishing where we started with the back against the wall for that support and lovely openness in the chest, a little pause with eyes closed, a little gratitude for the practice to be able to move these bodies in these ways, growing every time we practice.

It's been a pleasure to be with you. Namaste. Have a fantastic day.