Day 30: We Made It!

Greetings, friends. Welcome back. It is day 30. Congratulations. This is a huge accomplishment. It's really challenging to bring something of this magnitude to completion, but you did it. We did it together. Let's enjoy our last practice together. We'll flow and move through some really familiar patterns, and then say starting standing, and then we'll save some time for some juicy grounding restoratives for the end of our practice today. Yes. Congratulations. Take your feet a little wider than hips width apart and bend your knees. Then let's bring the hands to rest at the heart center, the left hand touching the heart, the right hand on top. Just soften your knees, bow your chin into your chest. Give yourself a little bow here. As you inhale, open up your hands away from your arm like you're opening up for an embrace. You can close your eyes as we exhale and draw the hands back to the heart. As you inhale, open up, expand through your arms, through your legs, through your breath. Exhale, return the hands to the heart. Let's just take this several more rounds as we drop into our breath and drop into this feeling of really a celebration inside and outside in the body and the mind. As you open, it's always that wonderful gesture that can mean so much. As you draw your hands back to your heart likewise, it's really bowing into your ability to stay with something you've committed to for yourself and how that affects every relationship around you. Breathe into your heart fully, expand fully from the center of the body outward. As you exhale, bow in to the fire in your heart and let's take that twice more. Full breath in. Exhale completely, wrapping back into the heart center. Once more, full inhale, opening up to this day. Exhale, hands touch at the heart, coming into Anjali Mudra and then open up your eyes and let's step to the top of the mat and set up your feet so their hips distance apart. Let's circle out and up on a full breath in. As you exhale, bend your knees, hinge at the hips, coming into some half sun salutations. Inhale to lift the heart halfway, unround your spine. Exhale, release. Let's keep the knees bent, draw the navel in and roll up slowly, one vertebrae at a time and let's go right into the next cycle. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, swan dive, bend at the knees and hips, give yourself a lot of space. Inhale, halfway, unround your spine. Exhale, release. Knees bent, roll it up. I'm just starting to circulate your prana through the body. Inhale, expand. Exhale, soften at the hips and knees, forward fold. Inhaling halfway. Exhale, release. Bend your knees, rolling up slowly and then step feet together and let's progress into a full sun salutation. Reach out and up. Exhale, forward fold, bend the knees as you like.

Exhale halfway. Exhale, step back to plank and your choice for your vinyasa for this first round for me, I'm taking a stage one. Inhale to cobra, upward dog, whatever feels good to you. Exhale, back to downward dog and let's hang out here for a couple of breaths. Rising up to your toes, bend your knees, step or hop to the top of the mat. Lift the chest halfway. Exhale, release completely. With a flat back, come all the way up to standing and exhale, dry your hands to your heart, feeling tadasana, mountain pose. It has a different feel today. Reach out and up, full breath in. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, lift up halfway. Step back through your vinyasa, whichever one you like. Inhale, open the chest. Exhale, folding it back. Shift the hips if you like and bicycle pedal and as we start to kind of get into our flow here, it's always, no matter what practice it is, no matter what day it is, it's always good to revisit your intention and especially today, maybe go back to that very beginning intention and dedication at the beginning of this challenge and notice where you're at with that. Notice what you've created. Let's inhale to the toes. Bend the knees, step or hop, top of the mat. Lift up halfway. Exhale completely. Inhaling to rise. Exhale hands to your heart. Let's progress into surya namaskar b. Bend your knees. Inhale, katasana, chair pose. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, lift your heart. Exhaling, step back. Maybe float back, lower down. Feel into your strength and how these patterns flow through the body. Hopefully a little more easily now. Taking the right leg to the sky, big inhale.

Exhale, step it all the way through. Set up for warrior one and inhale to rise. Exhale, moving through your body, through your breath with your intention. Open the chest. Inhale. Exhale, fold it back. Left leg rising on your inhale. Step it all the way through. Exhale. Exhaling it for warrior one. Inhale to rise. Exhale, release through your vinyasa. How does it feel today? Circulating, moving, breathing. Let's hold our down dog for a couple of breaths or take child's pose coming back to that very first shape we started in. Deep breath in. Long breath out. Coming back up to your downward dog. If you decided to go to child's pose and let's inhale to the toes. Bend the knees, step or float. Top of the mat. Lift your heart halfway. Exhale, forward fold. Bend your knees. Come to chair pose. Inhaling. Exhale, stand tall. Let's progress to sun salutation C. Inhale. Just feeling into all these beautiful nama scar patterns. Exhale, forward fold. Step the right foot back. High lunge as you inhale. Exhale, downward dog. Shift to plank. Lower your knees. Lower your chest. And then rise through cobra to upward dog. Exhale, downward dog. Right foot forward. Inhale to your lunge. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale to rise. Exhale, hands to your heart. One more round of C. Inhale, reach. Exhale and just enjoy moving and breathing in your body today. Set the left foot back. Runners lunge. I just got a nice little pop in my hip there. Exhale, downward dog. Shift forward to plank. Lower the knees and chest. Inhale through cobra to up dog. Really stand in your strength. Exhale, downward dog. Left foot steps forward as you inhale. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale to rise. Exhale, hands to your heart. Last nama scar sequence. Let's move into Chandra Namaskar moon salutation. So soften your energy a bit as you reach up. Exhale, hands through the midline, forward fold. Step the left foot back, lower your knee. And as you inhale, take your time. Really linger here as you look up towards the sky, maybe back behind you. Exhale, release your hands. Step back to downward dog. Slowly roll and ripple through your spine as you shift forward. Lower your knees, chest and hips all the way down on your exhale. And then let's take the hands wide today. Pitch a little tent with your fingertips. Pull the shoulders back and come up into really generous cobra. Opening up through the heart. Feel into your body for a moment as you reach back through your legs. And then pull the heart forward and down.

And press back to downward dog. Step the left foot forward. Lower the back knee. Inhale, reach forward and up, tracing the inside of a crescent moon. Linger at the top. Stretch into the skin and bones. Exhale, release. And step to the top of the mat. Forward fold. Come all the way up. Big inhale. Hands reach forward. Ground your energy. Hands to the heart. One more round just like that. Inhale to reach. Feel the back bend at the top of the inhale. Exhale, forward fold. Right foot steps back. Lower the knee. And just deliberately slowing down so you can savor each movement, each moment as you reach to the sky. And exhale, release. Hands to the mat. Downward dog. Roll like a wave through your spine. Inhaling. Exhale, knees come down, followed by chest and hips. Take the hands wide. Once again, pitch a little tent and roll your shoulders back as you lift your heart. Activating through the legs and pull forward and down. Pressing back to downward facing dog. Right foot steps forward. Lower the back knee. Inhale, reach forward and up. Feeling into your range here. Notice how it's shifted and opened and changed. Exhale. Forward fold. Top of the mat. Inhale to rise. Lift your head, your heart. Feeling a little baby back bend at the top. Exhale. Press here with your thumbs right at your third eye. Enjoy a couple of moments. Breaths.

Bring your thumbs down to your heart. And your big expansive heart. Fearless heart. And then release your hands down by your side. Let's take the feet hips width apart and lace our fingers or take a strap behind your back. Notice I've got all my gear here. So have your gear handy if you don't. Lift your chest. Take a deep breath in through your fearless heart. And then forward fold. And let's hang out here for a breath or two and empty out through the crown. Relax through the back of the neck. One of the things about this challenge and really any challenge in life when you bring something to completion, whether it be finishing a semester or a year at school or a nutritional challenge or a project you've set your mind to, it really empowers us for anything that we should set out to do. It's like if you can do this, you can do anything. That's not just about the changes that we've made in our body or our habit patterns, but really on such a deeper level, our character. So let's release our hands. Coming back into a relaxed forward fold. Soften the knees if you'd like. Maybe today we take our hands to our own neck and just give a little massage into the nape of the neck, up into the base of the skull. And then release your hands and let's lift the heart. Start to walk your hands up the front of the shins, pass the knees up the front of the thighs, come all the way back up to standing and let's center our weight over the right foot. Coming into some of the balance postures that we've been working on for this whole challenge. So really simple to start. It would be to just open the left quadriceps. So typically if you've ever been a runner or ran track or seen anyone run, you'll see them standing in this shape, stretching the quadricep. And one of the things that we learned over the course, the challenge was this tilting of the pelvis. So as you draw your heel towards your glute and press your thigh back, can you lift the front of the hips up and draw the tailbone down? So you get that little tilt towards the posterior pelvis as you reach your thigh back. And just feel into that shape for a moment here, keeping your knee hugging the midline. Maybe draw the heel a little closer towards your buttock and then slowly release and change sides, ground into the left foot, draw the right foot up towards your glute and see if you can lift and tilt the pelvis upright, drawing the right knee to the midline, pressing back a bit. And notice how when we activate those actions, the whole balance becomes a little steadier and then slowly release. Let's bring the feet together, bend your knees, sink into chair pose on an inhale. Exhale, hands to your heart, steady gaze. Let's put a couple of these balances together. You're welcome to grab your strap for this. It'll probably be helpful. And you can take your left ankle and just place it on top of your right knee as you sit back into temple dancer and feel into the hip opening on the left side. Now from here, take your strap. You can also just use your hand to grab onto your big toes, but take your strap if you have it to your left foot and slowly as you come to standing, almost pass through tree pose. Feel the knee open out to the side and then extend your left leg long on the diagonal coming into your Padagusthasana B. Heart is lifted, breath full, holding steady here, but keeping the breath circulating. And then as you exhale, bend your knees, come back to your temple dancer. We could go right into royal dancer from here, but let's pause and change sides first. Let's bend the knees and come back into chair pose on an inhale. Exhale, hands to the heart, center your weight over the left foot, cross your right ankle on top of your knee, sit back. And then taking your right hand with the strap to your foot, hold on close to the foot, left hand to the hip and slowly come up past through tree pose. And then from there, extend long through the right leg, opening up in all directions, full expression here through the body, through the breath and feel what kind of energy is moving through you and moving behind you. Let this balance be a celebration today, even if it's a, a wildly balance. And then slowly bend your knees and bring it back through your temple dancer. And then back to standing. Take your weight into your right foot. Let's take a moment for our royal dancer. You can take a bit of a longer loop here and you're welcome to just take one arm to the shoulder and one arm to the sky. This is such a beautiful variation of this shape. In the earlier practices, we were taking both hands back and working with it, but let's, whatever works for you today, you can walk your hands down the straps, you can keep it on your shoulder. We're just here for a moment. I kind of like how this feels today. And again, let it feel like a celebration. And slowly release, go right to the second side, ground down through the left foot, loop the right foot and draw the strap over your shoulder. Feel that little lift of awareness through your pelvis, reach through the left arm and extend back. And it's this gentle yet super dynamic opening of the front body. Standing in your strength, in your focus, in your ability to stay with a task, to stay with a commitment. Exhale, slowly release. And let's circle the arms out and up. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, swan dive. Say goodbye to the standing series for this practice. Lift your chest halfway and then exhale, walk it back to downward dog. Let's take one last vinyasa of choice. Maybe chaturanga, maybe child's pose, maybe a virasana vinyasa. That's the one I'm going to take. Opening up, sliding through. Inhale, stand in your hands. Exhale, back to downward dog. Let's come down to our knees and set up for a restorative grounded pigeon pose. So grab your bolster and let's have a seat and we'll come into a supported baddha konasana. So you can just take your bolster underneath your knees and bring the soles of your feet together. I always think of this as a relaxed baddha konasana. You can elevate your hips on a block if you like, if that feels better to you. But just feel it out for yourself and then walk your hands forward and relax down. Sometimes I even like to take another pillow or a block and set it on top of my feet so I can just have a little support, stalk my fist, whatever works for you. But take a moment and drop in to the support of the floor. And it's that swinging on the spectrum of being active and really posting up to some of our standing challenging postures but being able to swing to the opposite side of the spectrum and relax and unwind and drop down and in. And that's really, to me, part of the art of increasing our flexibility. It's internal. The ability to adapt to different situations energetically. Smoothing out your energy. Down regulating your nervous system. Deepening your breath. And slowly press through the hands, lift up through your spine and let's go forward so we're seated on top of the bolster. Stretch the legs out in front of you and we can come into a relaxed forward fold. Of course, use your strap if you like around your feet or you can just set it to one side. Sometimes I like to just kind of let all the air out of the balloon and soften.

Wrap the arms around the back of the knees and just relax here and let go of structure and form in favor of the feel, the inner landscape of softening. So you come into the essence of a forward fold rather than the activated action of a forward fold. Just relax around it. Almost like a suggestion of the shape to the nervous system. Relaxing through the belly, through the back of the neck, through your mind and lifting through your head, through your heart and slowly coming up to sit. Let's take a supported twist. So scoot back, turn your bolster lengthwise and let's actually add our blocks to this setup. So we elevate the bolster slightly like so and we'll take our right hip to the block, set up your legs like a pinwheel and turn your spine so that your navel and chest are centered towards the bolster and come down any amount to your forearms. You can also build the bolster up higher. If it feels good to you, turn your head away from the knees. If that hurts your neck then just turn it the other way and relax down into gravity. Gravity is your friend here. Spread out like pancake batter on a hot skillet. Totally release. Three or four really deep, slow breaths here. Last one. Slide your hands in and use your hands to press yourself up and then let's roll to the other side. Shifting to your left hip, turning your legs so they're like a pinwheel. Once again, square off as best you can and come down towards a twist, turning your head either to the left away from the knees. I'm going to keep my head to the right so the microphone stays live and then just relax down. Letting the hips go, the feet, fingers, toes, neck and then taking a breath as deep and slow as you can all the way down to the base of the lungs. Slowly exhale. Twice more. Inhale to the base, middle, top of the lungs. Long exhale. Once more. Deep, slow breath in. Exhale. Plant your palms flat right next to your chest. Press yourself up and let's take the bolster out, or excuse me, the block out from underneath the bolster. Our last shape that we'll rest in is a supported baddha konasana. You can just lengthen the bolster behind you. We'll use both blocks for this to support the outside of our knees. As you come down, you want to set your sacrum up right in front of the bolster and then lowering down onto your back so there's this really nice gentle back bend in the spine. Souls of the feet come together and take your blocks and just place them under your knees so there's no strain in the inner hips. Relax your palms open and if this feels good to you, this can be where you enjoy your shavasana. We'll be here for a few minutes together and then we'll come out and sit together for a moment. If you prefer your legs long, stretch the legs long. But shift into the essence of shavasana here. All right. Send a little bit of movement to your fingers and your toes, of course you are welcome to stay here and just continue breathing, relaxing. If you like to come up together just draw the knees in, roll off to one side, press yourself up. You can take your blocks off behind you and then have a seat on top of your bolster and find a nice tall spine sitting comfortably. And let's turn our palms face down today for grounding, for that feeling of arrival, completion of a cycle, its own vinyasa to start something, to initiate, to work with the skill of having that sustaining power to bring you through it and then the completion aspect of drawing it all the way through, seeing something through, it's no small task.

So notice how that resonates inside of you and how it radiates, an internal glow beyond, beyond you outward to everything around you, how that pours out off your mat and sitting with that wonderful feeling of accomplishment. It's such a gift that you've given yourself. Let's bring our hands together at our heart and keep a little space between the palms. When we come into Anjali Mudra we keep a little space between the palms and it represents holding the seeds of your intention, the flowering of whatever it is that you're working with in your life and continuing to nurture it and dedicate it. It's no small task. So thank you so, so much for being here every day for these 30 days, no matter how long it took you. You did it. Congratulations. I think you're amazing. Namaste. I'll see you on the path.