Day 2: Building Blocks

Greetings tribe. Welcome to day two. We're back. Let's do this. Come into child's pose and take your knees wide and your big toes to touch and let's reground down and return back to home base. We'll just take a couple deep breaths here. And really start to listen for the sound of your breath, like the sound of the ocean or the sound of wind through leaves. So there's a little resonating as you breathe and feeling into the texture and quality of your breath. Go ahead and just slip your left arm under your right shoulder and allow the weight of your head and your shoulder girdle to gently relax into the floor and breathe into the back of the shoulder here. And then slowly changing sides, take the left arm forward and sit the right arm underneath. Same thing, just relaxing forehead and shoulders down and let the bottom arm just be soft and the elbow might even bend slightly. And take a deep breath here. And then slowly rising up onto your hands and knees, place your hands right under your shoulders, knees under your hips and let's move into our cat cow. As you inhale, arch your back as you exhale around your spine. And moving back and forth, we'll start to see some repetition in these first couple of sequences just as we rebuild and recover strength and kind of re-familiarize patterns in the body. So keep moving back and forth on your breath or your cat cow. Inhaling to arch and exhaling to round. Notice how your spine feels today, if it feels any different than yesterday. And keep moving and breathing through it. And take two more rounds here, really generous. Inhale to arch. Exhale rounding, feel the tailbone tucked under. And one more time, inhale, open the chest. Exhale, round your spine. And coming back to neutral, curl the toes under, press back and up into your downward facing dog, maybe the first down dog of the day. So bicycle pedal through the feet and set up your feet, hips width apart, spin the heels a little bit wider than the big toes. And then let's take a peek at our hands, hands are shoulder width apart, middle finger or index finger pointing straight ahead and roll the shoulders open and press it on back and feel into your downward dog today. Notice if it feels any different than yesterday. And from here, if you remember yesterday, we practiced a zigzag vinyasa. Let's review that. So as you inhale, just shift forward to plank, build your strength in your core, and then set your knees down and relax back into child's pose, home base. Now shift forward to hands and knees and exhale, press back to downward dog. So familiar territory. Let's do that again. Shift forward as you inhale, exhale, knees down, shift to child's pose. Let's add one element on this time as you come up to your hands and knees, continue to slightly shift forward and then bend your elbows and lower through chaturanga to the belly. Let's come into our first cobra together. So plant your hips down, lift your chest and draw the shoulders back. Let's stay in cobra for a moment or two as you oscillate your head from side to side and feel your heart reaching forward as you inhale, your toes reaching back. And notice that in cobra, our hips, our thighs, our tops of the feet are touching the mat, the heart's lifted. Take a deep breath in here and then exhale, press to the hands and knees and back to down dog. And we'll add that cobra to our zigzag minyasa. So shift forward to plank, lower the knees, shift back to child's pose. Inhale, hands and knees. This time, bend the elbows, lower down through chaturanga. Inhale, cobra. Exhale, press back to hands and knees and downward dog. So it's pretty simple. We're just adding on. Let's do it again. Shift forward to plank, lower the knees back to child's pose. Inhale, shift forward, hands and knees. Exhale, bend the elbows alongside your ribs.

You might start to feel your arms warming up a little bit here as you inhale to cobra and exhale back to downward dog. Now let's go ahead and take out the child's pose. As you shift forward to plank, pause here, set your knees down. Instead of going back to child's pose, lower directly to your belly. Inhale, cobra. Exhale, back to downward dog. And we call that a stage one vinyasa. So it's another rhythm in your arsenal as you shift forward to plank, lower the knees, and then elbows bend all the way down to the belly. Inhale, cobra. Exhale, back to downward dog. And you can really feel the strength in the arms and shoulders here. So let's walk our feet all the way forward to the top of the mat. Come into a forward fold, bend your elbows, grab on with opposite hands and relax your head down. And you could even swing your spine a little bit from side to side. Knees can be bent or the legs can be straight. And just notice how you feel. And remember that our journey together is a process and a path and there's going to be moments along the way where you feel super powerful and supercharged and probably moments where you feel a little tired, but just go gently with yourself and step by step, feel free to take breaks at any time. So two more breaths here and straining out of the crown of the head. Open your mind into the sound of your breath and shift into a bit of a nonverbal space here. Relax your hands. Today, let's roll up to standing. So bend your knees, draw your navel in and slowly come up to standing, but with the support of the navel drawing into the spine, knees are bent. Once you feel your shoulders over your hips, stand tall through your legs, circle the arms out and up. Take a deep breath in and exhale. Draw your hands to your heart. We're standing up. Yes. Bring the feet together. Let's move into our sun salutes. So take a deep breath in and reach out and up. As you exhale forward fold, you can soften the knees as you need to. Inhale, lift up either hands to shins or fingertips on the floor. This time, as you exhale, step directly back to plank. So we'll add that stage one vinyasa, if you like. Knees come down and then bend the elbows and bring your chest and hips down in one piece if you can. Inhale, open the chest and cobra and then exhale back through hands and knees to downward dog. And if that feels like more than you want, you're welcome to stay with that zigzag vinyasa or just skip it all together and hang out in downward dog for some extra breaths. Let's take one cycle of breath here. Exhale completely. And then walk the feet all the way up to the top of the mat. Lift the chest halfway and exhale forward fold. Relax your head and neck. Come all the way up through a flat back this time. Lift your head and your heart, circle the arms out and up. Exhale, draw the hands to your heart. And let's do it again. So you inhale, circle out and up. Exhale to your forward fold. We're just establishing some patterns and some form here as you lift your heart halfway. Exhale, step back to plank. Shift it forward, lower the knees. Bend your elbows, stage one vinyasa. Inhale to cobra. Exhale, back to downward dog or child's pose, right? It's always there for you as home base. Couple cycles of breath here. And anytime I come into a little inversion like this where my head's hanging lower than my heart, it's like an invitation to just empty out any kind of extra thoughts and just open up your mind a bit. Step your feet all the way up to your hands. Inhale, lift the chest halfway. Exhale, forward fold. Come all the way up through your flat back, inhaling. Exhale, hands to your heart. Let's take two more rounds. Circle out and out. Full breath in, building some strength. Exhale, forward fold. Start to feel your prana, your energy circulate as you lift your heart halfway. This time as you exhale, step back to plank. Same exhale, lower your knees, lower your chest and hips. Inhale, cobra. Exhale, back to down dog. Two deep breaths, empty out through the brain. Open up through the front and the back of the heart.

And yoga is always a practice of listening, right? Listening to the inner body, listening for those inner little drops of intuition or downloads that we sometimes receive in our practice. But it always starts with just listening. So get kind of quiet inside as you listen to your breath. Exhale completely. Then step the hands to the top of the mat. Lift the heart halfway. Exhale, forward fold. Come all the way up deep as breath. Exhale, hands to your heart. Let's take one more round here. Circle out and up, feeling your body start to warm up as you exhale. Forward fold. Inhale, lift up halfway. And then in one exhale, step back to plank. Shoulders forward, lower your knees, chest and hips. Inhale, open to cobra. Feel the flow of your breath. Exhale, pour back, downward dog. Three good breaths. Let your eyes be steady on one point right between your toes or you can even close your eyes. And then from here, walking the feet all the way up to the top of the mat, lift your heart halfway. Exhale, forward fold. Come all the way up to standing, deep as breath in. Exhale, hands to your heart. Let's step the feet about hips width apart. Lace your fingers behind your back. You can grab a strap like we did yesterday. Open up across the chest and as you exhale, pour into a forward fold. Relax your head and neck and lift your shoulder blades and oscillate your head a bit side to side. Let's breathe into the front of the shoulders, into wherever you might be feeling some tension or some opportunities to open up. Breathing into your hamstrings. Breathing into the front of your brain. With each exhale, see if you can melt into gravity. And then slowly release your hands. Stay in the forward fold for a moment longer. Let's bring the feet all the way together. And when we say that as yogis, what we really mean is big toes touch and a tiny little space between the heels. Bend your knees. Let's come into our chair pose. Sweep your arms alongside your ears and really sit your weight back into your heels. Feel a little lift through the low belly. Exhale to sink a little bit deeper. And then as you inhale, stand tall and lift your left knee. Let it float up to your chest, just like we did yesterday. Slow and steady start to thread it back to a long, low lunge. And see if you can let your fingertips and the ball of the left foot meet the floor at the same time. It's okay if you don't, but just try. And then lower the back knee down to your mat or to a blanket. Inhale, reach to the sky. And it's a little progression here as you exhale, bring the hands back down. Exhale the toes under, lift the knee. Scissor your inner thighs to the midline. So squeeze as if you were sitting on a really long, narrow horse. Squeeze inward. And then inhale, reach forward and up. Exhale, bring your hands back down. And now take that back foot a little to the left and drop the heel down. So your back foot's on a diagonal for warrior one. And inhale, come all the way up. Exhale, hands to the front of the mat. Lift your back leg, big, exaggerated step forward. Feet together. Bend your knees, come back into your chair pose. Exhale, forward fold. Relax your head and neck. Inhale, lift the heart halfway.

Exhale, empty out your brain and hang out here for a breath or two. Maybe this time give yourself a little bear hug. You can wrap your arms around the back of the legs or knees or ankles, whatever feels good. And just give yourself a hug. From here, bend your knees. Let's come back into chair pose, utkatasana. As you exhale, sit a little deeper. And then inhale, stand tall, float the right knee up. Feel your eyes steady on a point and then slow as you can, thread the right foot back. Take a nice long reach, land, ball the foot and the fingertips at the same time. Lower your back knee down and inhale, reach forward and up. Exhale, fingertips to the mat. Lift the back knee, curl the toes. Scissor inner thighs to the midline and inhale, reach forward and up. Notice how that stabilizes the balance. Exhale hands down, back foot a little to the right, drop the heels. You have a nice steep diagonal on the back foot and inhale, come up to warrior one. Exhale, hands to the front of the mat. Lift your back leg and step it forward. Lift the heart halfway. Exhale, release. Once again, a nice little bear hug here. Knees can be bent, our legs straight. Release your hands. Inhale, lift your heart. Exhale, step back to plank and let's add back in our stage one vinyasa. So make sure you shift the shoulders forward. Come on your tippy toes, then lower your knees, followed by chest and hips at the same time. Roll the shoulders back, inhale to your cobra. And then as you exhale, take a moment in child's pose to shift on back into home base and relax your forehead down. Deep breath in as you rise up to your hands and knees. Curl the toes under, press back to down dog. And you'll notice we're moving, we're flowing, so there might be a little work, a little exertion going on, but just stay with it. From downward dog, let's inhale the right leg to the sky and feel the opening of the left channel in your hamstring. As you exhale, coil the knee of the navel, shift forward as if you're going to step through, but wait a minute, let's reach it back and up and just kind of warm that up, rev that up again, bring it in. Once more, reach it back and up. Exhale, knee comes through this time, step through to a lunge. If your foot doesn't make it all the way up, set it down, grab your ankle, scoot it up. Don't have to make a big deal out of that. Lower the knee down and then lift up, both arms reach to the sky. This time a little side bend here, we'll take our right hand down either to a block or the floor and stretch the left arm up and over. So really feel from the back knee all the way up through your side waist, deepest breath here. Stay for the exhale. Circle it forward and down. Let's stretch the front leg long, slide your heel forward a bit and come into your half split, Ardha Hanumanasana. It's that same kind of scissoring of our hips, that squeezing the midline that we did in our runner's lunge. So feel your inner thighs hug the midline and then melt into your forward fold. And it doesn't matter how low you go, you just want to be feeling for some sensation through the back of the leg and some release through the back of the neck and that inner listening. What's coming up for you in this challenge, in this day, in this moment, we'll start to shift into some intention setting in our next couple practices, but just allow yourself that space to open up inside and see what's arising for you. And then shift forward to your runner's lunge, curl your back toes under, we'll go right back to a three legged dog. The right leg rises and then set it back down and go right into the left side. Take the left leg to the sky. Exhale, knee to the navel, shift forward. Inhale, reach it back and up. Start to feel this remembering of the pattern as your knee comes through. Reach it back and up and then step it all the way through. And there might be a little congestion in the hip or the ankle. Don't worry about it. Just work on it, right? Lower the back knee and reach your arms up. Nice deep breath in and exhale, side bending up and over. Reach way up with the right arm. Notice how it feels from the back knee all the way up to your top hand and just an easy side bend. You can even let your head and neck relax here. Hand can be on a block or the floor. And then as you exhale, shift it on back, straighten out that front leg and square your hips off as best you can. Lower it down. Let it go. And just noticing where you're at, accepting where you're at today, different every day. A little space for a couple of breaths here. Scissor the inner thighs to the midline. Just hug it in a bit. And then go ahead and shift forward to your runner's lunge and step back to downward facing dog. From your downward dog, inhale to your toes. Bend your knees and then guess what guys? Tuck and pivot and sit down and let's roll down onto our backs. Yay! Draw the knees in. There's our child's pose on our back. Rock a little from side to side.

Give yourself a little very high. And let's come in to thread the needle. So we'll cross our left ankle on top of the right knee and you can reach your hands behind your right thigh and lace your fingers. And just draw that whole shape in. It's such a nice hip opener on the left side. Let your left knee open. And just kind of notice what happens to your head and your hips here. And just as much as you can get in contact with the floor would be good. So back of the head, shoulders, sacrum, maybe even a little lift under the waist. And just take a couple of breaths here as you ease that whole shape into your body. Grounding down. Circulate that bottom ankle a couple of times. And then from here let your left knee just come into your chest and reach your right leg long. And we'll take a simple twist. So bring it across your body. Reach the opposite arm out. You can turn your head. Full breath here. As you exhale, relax into the twist. One more breath deep. Inhale. You might ease out of it a bit. And as you exhale, try not to force your way into the twist, but rather relax into the twist. And then stay, keep your lower body as it is, but roll onto your right shoulder. And you can take your right arm and create a little pillow, headrest, or this might be a nice spot to grab your block and actually give yourself a block pillow. Hey. And we'll turn our twist into a sideline royal dancer. So grab onto the outer edge of your foot and then kick your bottom leg forward. This creates a nice little counterbalance here. And we start to press back through the top thigh. So you get a nice little quadricep opener for the front of the hip. If your knee's lifted, it's not going to work as well as if it's parallel to the floor. So just drop the top thigh down, reach it back, kick the bottom leg forward. Take a couple of breaths here.

This is a posture that we typically do standing a lot and we will practice the standing in the coming days. But for now, just feel it on your side. And then as you exhale, come back to the center, we'll push our block back and then take side two. So right ankle on the left knee, draw the whole thing in, opening up your right hip and you can press your elbow against your knee. You can always feel which side is different, which side feels more open or a little bit tighter and no big deal. Just good to notice which one might need a little more love. Shoulders relaxed, head and neck relaxed. Take a couple breaths here as you circulate through your ankle. Just checking in with all those little parts, even the toes. And then draw the right knee to the chest, left leg long. Take a deep breath in here. Now bring it all the way across into your twist and use your breath and your ability to relax and let go and surrender to deepen the twist. Try not to give yourself a chiropractic adjustment here unless that's your jam. Go for it. But otherwise, just relax, especially the bottom hip. Notice if you're gripping in that bottom hip and see if you can soften there. Let's roll all the way on to the left side and you can grab your block pillow if you like or use your upper arm. Grab onto the outer edge of your right foot, start to press back as you reach forward with the bottom leg. So it's going to come off of the mountain. You can see this posture from the back now. So it's a bit of a back bend. It's a little bit challenging while you're lying on your side, but just feel into those different points of energy as your right thigh is reaching back, your bottom leg is reaching forward. Chest is open, shoulder draws back. Take a full breath in here and stay for the exhale.

Slowly come back to center, bend your knees, feet flat. We're going to move our block from our head to support our pelvis. So lift your hips, turn the block at its lowest width and you want to center it right underneath your sacrum. So if it's up too high, you're in kind of a funny back bend. If it's down too low, you're in this weird tilt. So right underneath your sacrum and then take the legs straight up to the sky in a supported shoulder stand. You will feel a little arch and lift in your lower back. We want to have that action in the lower back and hips as we reach straight up and then just pour out through your fingers and your palms. Legs are active here, but your mind is relaxed and your breath is soft. Let your energy pool right in the navel center. As you inhale, breathe into the ribs and as you exhale, just relax through the belly. And even though the legs are floating, keep some action in the legs. Really reach through the balls of the feet. I like to spread the toes and slightly separate the heels, big toes touching. You can kind of see in any inversion that you might find yourself in. This is the action of the legs, this slight spiral inward actively reaching through the balls of the feet. Let's take one more deep breath here and then exhale, soften your knees in, draw the feet down to the mat, lift your hips. Let's remove our block and set it over to one side and then slowly roll on down, placing each vertebra on the mat like you were setting a baby down for a nap because you are. So come into your shavasana, feet nice and wide, palms face up and let your eyes close. Ah, just feel yourself held here by the earth beneath you. Send some imaginary roots down from the back of the head, the back of the heart, base of the spine at your sacrum, calves, heels, just drop all those points. Anything that you feel touching the floor, hands, elbows, shoulders, drop some roots down beneath the surface of the floor that you're on, as far as you have to go to drop down into the soil beneath you. And then the front of the body, just feel light and openness across the front of the body and sense of listening from both sides, the rooting and grounding of the back body and the freedom and lightness in the front body. Right in between where those two points meet is the river of your energy. So breathe into that river. Listen to the flow of your breath. Give yourself permission to relax and soften completely and just be carried by the river of your breath. Enjoy these couple of moments of quiet, just a few moments of quiet. And start to bring your awareness back into your body, send the little movement to your fingers and toes, reawakening, refreshed. Reach your arms over your head, reach your feet long, stretch out to your full length and then exhale, hug your knees back into your chest as you open your eyes, rock on over to one side. Hey, pour some weight into your hand and come on up to seated and let's find a comfortable seated position. Bring our hands back together at our heart, bow your chin into your chest, your mind into your heart center. Feeling a little gratitude for this beautiful practice that we get to share together. Thank you so much for joining me today. Have a great rest of your day. Namaste.