Standing Flow

Welcome back. We'll start at the top of the mat. You can keep your feet slightly separated. Let your shoulders roll back and then engage a little bit in your low belly. The space just below your navel kind of zips in and up so your abdominal muscles are turning on a little bit. Inhale, reach your arms up, interlace your hands, and flip your palms open to face the ceiling. Take a few moments here to extend through your elbows, lengthen in the sides of your waist, and really root down into your feet. The real estate is going to come in your joints and in your waist. Try and relax the tops of your shoulders down. Take an inhale, engage a little bit more in the belly, and as you exhale bump your hips to the left and your arms go to the right. You can look up towards your hands or look straight ahead. Take a couple of breaths into the side of the body. Try and keep that length in your elbows and then engaging in the belly inhale shift back to the middle and exhale other side. Restriction is a good thing. You don't need to go too far here. Just kind of waking up in the side of the body, establishing some breath. On an inhale, back to the center. Separate your feet even wider, maybe a couple of inches, and then on an exhale, belly pulls in, fold forward over your legs, bend your knees if you need to, piece fingers to big toes. Inhale to look up, belly still pulls in here, and then exhale fold forward. Let your head totally drop, heads are heavy. You don't have to hold it up right now. Let your elbows go a little broad. Concentrate on a deeper exhale, breathing into the back of the body, but still keeping some awareness on your belly. On an inhale, look forward, roll your shoulders back. Place your hands on the mat nice and strong, right foot steps back, left foot steps back, high plank, top of a push-up. You can keep your feet slightly apart and then put invisible chopsticks in your shoulders or in your armpits rather. So you have something to squeeze, low belly pulls in, keep your gaze forward and breathe. Low ribs might start to knit together to help support you. Big inhale, big exhale. One more inhale, eyes forward, and then exhale pushing down chaturanga, and inhale to your up dog, really letting your chest pull through your shoulders looking up, and exhale, downward facing dog. Take a moment, walk your dog, pedal your legs, wiggle your hips, get comfortable, and then your right leg can swing up. As you exhale, touch your knee to your nose, place your right foot forward, tap your back knee down and release your left foot. Tend your fingers on either side of your right foot, and then walk your hands back one or both so that you can straighten your right leg, sinking your right hip down. The more active your right foot is, the more you're going to feel, and then ease back to your baby lunge. One more time, straightening the leg, and then coming back to the lunge. Left hand can stay where it is, pick your left thigh up, pull the muscle up to the bone, and peel up for a low twisting lunge, taking a very gentle rinse, but keep some awareness on that right foot, pull the belly in towards the spine, plug into the right foot, come up, crescent lunge. Keep the space and the waist, keep the space in your arms, take an inhale here, exhale, hands to the floor, quietly step your right foot back, chaturanga, inhale, up dog, and exhale, down dog. Bring your left leg back behind you, exhaling, knee to nose, left foot forward, right knee sinks down, release that back foot, and then slowly easing that leg towards straight, coming back to your lunge. One more time towards straight, sinking the hip down, gives you a little more flavor, coming back to your low lunge. Right thigh lifts up, your right hand can stay where it is, and peel your left arm up. Think about making yourself long here, and then engaging in the belly, really strong in that left leg, pull yourself up, crescent lunge, sink a little more, trust your legs, take an inhale, exhale, hands to the floor, step back, high plank, keep your gaze forward, draw the shoulders back, and pull up a little bit into the belly. Breathe nice and deep, even though you're facing the floor, see if there's a way that you can broaden in the chest, staying open. One more inhale, exhale, chaturanga, and inhale, upward facing dog, exhale, down dog. Look forward, walk your feet up between your hands, take an inhale, and exhale, fold, engage in the belly, use your legs, inhale, come all the way up, and exhale, hands at your sides, step out about three and a half feet, turn your right toes away, hips are square, arms away from your body, and as you exhale, warrior two, right knee over your right ankle, shoulders over your hips, take a few moments here to really feel your legs energetically dragging your heels towards one another, the baby toe side of your back foot really snuggles into the mat, come a little deeper, inhale, and exhale, straighten the legs, change sides, see if you can, engage a little bit in the belly so that you're using the abdominal muscles to help stabilize while your legs really work, nice deep breath, and straighten the leg, you can relax your hands for a moment, turn your right toes out once more, and then hands out, inhale, shift, and exhale, right hand to your calf or maybe to the floor for triangle, looking up at your top hand, finding that space across the chest and a little here, inhale to come up, change your legs, dipping to the left, and then hand to the floor or to the calf or thigh maybe, breathing in and out, feeling a little width in the ribs, and stability in your legs, gently coming up, turn your toes in, bring your hands to your hips, a little here, take an inhale, and exhale, fold forward, adjusting as you need with your stance, fingers come to the floor, take an inhale to lengthen in your waist, as you exhale, keep the length, drop your head, walk your hands a little further back, let your head totally drop so that the back of your neck is long and your shoulders move away from your ears, on an inhale, look forward, and you can adjust you a little bit in your legs so that you have a slightly bigger stance, turn your right toes out, walk your right hand to the outside of your right foot, press the knee and the arm together on the right side so your tailbone tucks underneath, peel your left arm up for extended side angle, keeping the shoulders nice and broad, your top hand, the left hand reaches away from you, and bring it back so it's either on your right thigh or pressing towards your right hip, keep the baby toe side of your left foot really snuggled into the mat, and breathe, look down, plug in to your back leg, pull your right leg up, your hand can adjust so it's on your calf or your thigh, top arm reaches up, we're back in triangle, and then go to a side triangle, engage in your belly, brace in the in the lower belly just below the navel, plug into the legs, right arm underneath your ear for two, three, four, five, inhale to come up, release your hands, hmm, interlace your hands behind your tailbone, take an inhale here, same thing folding forward, this time a little different in the arms, let your head relax, maybe flip your knuckles, you can swing a little bit side to side but really keep that integrity in the legs, keep your weight tipping forward, gently release your hands back to the mat, take an inhale and then we'll move to the other side, left toes come out, your left hand goes outside of your left foot, the knee and elbow really press together for resistance, a little here, right arm peels up, side angle, upstairs arm turns away from you so that right hand reaches back for the hip or the thigh, so you get a little more rotation but keep the low ribs pulling in so your belly still stays in shape and then gently your left leg starts to straighten, a little in the belly, your hand, the left hand can stay where it is or you can adjust, back and triangle and then really fire up in the legs, side triangle, knit the ribs together, float your left arm underneath you for two, three, four, five, inhale to come up and release, step back up to the top of your mat, bring your left hand to your hip and really squeeze, a little engagement in the belly is going to help as you bring your right knee in the same line as your right hip, peace fingers on the right hand go inside of the right big toe, option one stay here, option two pull the belly towards the spine, drop the right hip, take advantage of those warmed up hamstrings, a little engagement in the belly and then on your exhale keep squeezing your left hip, draw your right leg out, your knee can bend, keep the chest lifting, yeah pressing into the grip so the ball of the right foot is moving out and then very gently bring that right leg back and then you're gonna need your core, pull the legs of the muscle up to the bone, right hand right hip, one, two, three, four, five, slowly release, shake it out a little bit if you need to and then same thing on the other side, left leg comes up, belly pulls in, peace fingers scoop the inside of the left big toe, option one stay here, this is fine, option two straighten, one, try and draw your shoulders back, two, belly pulls in, three, four and five, exhale open, again the knee can bend, that's totally fine, try and extend energetically out from your core, pushing the left ball of the foot away from you, draw the leg back in, release, one, two, lift the chest up, three, four, five, release, shake it out a little bit if you need to and then big toes touch, slight separation in the heels, inhale arms up, exhale fold forward, inhale to look up, exhale to chaturanga, inhale up dog and exhale down dog, look forward, jump or step up and sit down, draw your right foot inside of your left thigh with your heel as close to your groin as you can get without sitting on it and then take your belly and rotate over your left thigh, keep the navel moving towards your spine and on an exhale fold forward, drop your head towards your knee and breathe into the back of your body, let your head totally drop if it touches your knee great, if you need to use your imagination also great, on an inhale lift yourself back up and change sides, bring your right leg out, left heel pulls in, a little rotation in the torso and then exhaling to fold, hands can either come to your foot or on either side of your foot, whatever works best for the range in your hamstrings and low back, keep the belly pulling in towards the spine and inhaling to come up, the left leg will come back out, put your right foot outside of your left knee and then either hook the crook of your elbow around your right knee or to the outside of your right knee, right hand is behind the small of your back, look over your right shoulder, try and take your breast bone and your belly with you into the twist but make it more about sitting tall, keeping some engagement in that left leg and a deep intentional breath, gently rotate back to the middle and change your legs, left foot outside of the right knee and then your right elbow is either outside of the knee or hooking over the top, whatever suits you, look over your left shoulder, taking a little rinse in the spine and in the belly and then exhaling coming back to the center, untie the legs and find a comfortable seat, so whether that means sitting crisscross or on your heels or perhaps on something like a pillow, make sure that you're comfortable, let your belly relax, soften your shoulders down and back, you're welcome to lie down if you prefer for your shavasana or join me here, let your eyes close, sit with some integrity in the body, spaciousness in the spine, really allow yourself to release in the belly, sitting with softness, notice the tone and quality of your breath, thank you for being here, thank you for sharing your practice on your time, namaste.