Yoga Wonderfulness

Hi everyone welcome back to practice so today we're gonna do a practice that is just gonna make your day way more awesome it's short and sweet and we're just gonna start right away so you might want to do this practice when you're just rolling out of bed and you're kind of stiff and sluggish and we're gonna take you from being completely kind of like jello and lazy to feeling energized and excited about your day so you're gonna start oh and Coco might join us or she might go make coffee so we're gonna lie here across our bolster your shoulder blades around the bra line is going to be right across the top of the bolster so we're just gonna come on down and then just letting the back of the head relax onto the mat you can bring your knees a little closer in and you can extend your hips just to relax them a little bit more and then depending on what's comfortable for you you can either have your arms just to the side or gently swing them all the way back very nice and then we're just gonna extend the legs and just let the eyes stay softly closed and then breathing in just sense that beautiful oxygen coming into the body breathing out just allowing yourself to release a little more into the ground and then as we're breathing in and out we're just gonna add a little bit of a mantra to it and it's an easy mantra is just in English so breathing in my body is a life breathing out I am grateful for my body breathing in my body is alive breathing out I'm grateful to be alive and breathing in my body is alive breathing out I'm grateful to be alive so just continuing the breath and your mantra for a few more breath just allowing yourself really to feel that gentle releasing and letting go that happens especially on your exhalation so beautiful to feel your entire body just be invigorated by this prana just dancing through the body very nice and then you can choose to have your eyes remain closed or just have them soft and gently open as we continue with the rest of the sequence so you're gonna bend your left knee and slowly come on to your right side you're gonna extend your right arm and your left gently but not to the point where your shoulders are scrunching up just keep the shoulders nice and relaxed and then just have both of your arms together and then for balance you might want to bend your bottom knee and straighten your top leg and then we're just gonna lengthen away like a crescent that's just supported and again breathing in my body is alive breathing out I'm grateful to be alive just really feel the breath coming all the way into the ribs that sense of expansion feels so liberating and a couple more breaths here and then taking your time you're just gonna slowly roll your way to the other side bending both knees rolling over then we're just going to again have both the arms extending away bend your bottom knee extend your top leg and then keeping the shoulders nice and soft you're just gonna see if you can lengthen your fingertips especially of your right hand and again just breathing in breathing out and just notice how the breath does all this for you without you having to do anything all that gentle unlocking that sense of blossoming and opening invited right into the ribs right into the tops of the arms the shoulders even along your hip which is one more breath here really nice and then exhaling just rolling back onto our backs bending both knees letting the knees come together and placing the feet onto the mat we're just gonna take a couple more breaths here so nice to start your day or even end your day with this practice it just really helps us to come back to a really centered place so whenever you're ready you're just gonna slowly roll on up and we're gonna come into child's pose so for this child's pose it's a little modified we're gonna have the knees wide apart the big toes are together and you're gonna have your forehead on the bolster as well as your arms so coming forward just resting the forehead onto the bolster lengthening out the arms and then again just let the arms go completely let the weight of the hips do the job for you and let the breath let the breath help you to get back to yourself so again breathing in and breathing out just allow yourself for a few more moments to notice how the breath just breathes you by itself and then we're just gonna gently look up walk the hands back to it's yourself just move your bolster off to the side and usually when we do a peaceful practice cocoa is also very peaceful so we're just gonna come on to our hands and knees and from here we're just going to take the body into a little bit more movement so coming into cat and cow just make sure that your shoulders are both your wrists and your hips are above your knees and inhaling we're gonna lift through the heart and the tailbone exhaling we're gonna roll the tailbone down and bring the upper back all the way to the sky and then inhaling exhaling still just flowing with that grateful breath and just a couple more times see if you can let the breath lead the movement instead of letting your head dictate the movement okay so now we're just gonna throw a little rock and roll in there so you're just gonna let your joints move however they feel just rolling forward and back left and right whatever direction you like so you can throw in your head just allowing your head to move as it likes but see if you can do this through moving according to your breath and your heart and not so much according to what you think it should look like so just any way you like beautiful and then we're just coming back to stillness and from here we're just gonna tuck our toes and we're gonna lift through the sit bones lift through the knees we're gonna press back with the hands so draw up through your arms and draw up through your sit bones and exhaling just allow the heels to go wherever they go so pressing into the hands lengthening up through the arms rolling the outer armpits down letting go the head and the neck you can soften your knees a little if this feels like a lot for the morning or whenever and then just bowing the head and then going yes no with the head really nice and then again let's just move a little bit more bend one knee and really draw back the other hip twisting to look under the other arm coming back to center bend the other knee draw the hip back looking under the top arm and a couple more like this just again bringing your breath back in and just really feeling what the movement feels like to you what it feels like in terms of the quality and not so much what it looks like and then we're just gonna look forward between the hands we're gonna step the right foot forward and dropping onto the left knee so coming up we're gonna take our hands onto the right knee and gently coming back to center gently push the hands into the thigh lifting up through the heart and just breathing in here if it feels okay let's bring the arms up shoulders are relaxed and just gently looking up nice and then we're just gonna bring the left arm down and extend the other arm up breathing into this twist and then exhaling we're just gonna bring both the hands back down tuck your toes step back into downward dog bend your knees a lot bring your belly to your thighs and then re-extend through the legs but keep the belly as close as you can to the thighs and then again just play walk forward a little more or walk wider as you like again just twisting into your playful dog nice then we're just gonna come back to center and then looking forward between the hands we're gonna step the left foot forward dropping onto the right knee breathing in we're just going to lift up through the heart hands onto the thighs press down through your front foot and gently let the hips drop so just breathing into this so if your back knee is uncomfortable in a pose like this you can always put a blanket under the back knee and as much as possible we're trying to get both sides of the hips to face forward and if possible we're just gonna raise the hands extending through the fingertips gently looking up very nice and then exhale slowly release stepping back to downward dog and again just make it a playful downward dog you can't make it a slow playful downward dog you can't make your dog kind of a faster faster paced dog it's really up to you we're gonna come back to just dog and looking forward you're gonna float yourself forward to its plank so pressing down to your hands pushing back with your heels lifting up with the heart and then exhaling we're just gonna drop onto the onto your knees pull your elbows back next to your ribs and slowly come on down so there's a high chance that coming down might just look like which is fine so we'll just keep playing until you get there yeah it doesn't matter so then we're gonna take the arms forward press the palms into the mat let go the toes pull the elbows back lift the heart and just breathing into his things and again still just allowing yourself to marinate in what you might be grateful for today and then exhaling we're just gonna push back tuck your toes downward dog and then inhaling looking forward between the hands which is gonna walk forward inhale lift up through your chest exhaling fold all the way down okay and pressing into your feet drawing up through the thighs coming on up bring the hands to the heart and inhaling soften to the knees lift and lengthen exhaling opening up through the heart coming to the earth inhale lift and lengthen through the heart exhale softly floating in stepping back to downward dog inhale we're gonna come forward to plank exhaling again choose to drop the knees or not for your chaturanga inhale roll your shoulders back lift through your heart and exhaling downward dog so inhaling we're just gonna bring that right foot forward coming down onto the left knee and now for some of us we're gonna start moving like this forward and back so for some of us it might not feel so stable in that case you can use two blocks and just take the blocks under your hands so with the blocks again a lot more luxurious so you can come up onto your heel and then exhaling we're gonna go this way inhale come on back and exhaling drawing back inhale coming forward so we're gonna do this very gently just to see where our balance is if you feel like you're not really moving very much your foot might be too far ahead if you feel like you're kind of here you just kind of have to adjust also if you have back knee either take some padding or if this doesn't really work for you you can just do child's pose or just uttanasana so we're just gonna be here for three more keep drawing that right hip back great and then exhaling hands back to the mat or just gonna step back for a downward dog walkthrough remember yoga is supposed to be where you really treat yourself and learn to be the best friend you can be to yourself so you want to keep this gentle you want to keep this I guess the word is luxurious for now again so drop your right knee down again with blocks or without up to you lift through your heart you can even walk your back knee back a little bit and then just come on to your heel so lift up through your chest and exhale flow forward and again inhale coming on up exhale flowing back and just finding that rhythm so a couple more and then coming back to center we're just going to take the blocks to the side hands back on the mat stepping back for another downward dog and then inhale we're gonna look forward draw ourselves forward to plank exhale as you like chest coming down to its the mat rolling the shoulders back and then rolling back downward dog we're just gonna step the right foot forward dropping the back heel so for this one we want to face our hips forward because we're coming into warrior one both hands onto your hips press into both feet especially the ball of the front foot and the outside edge of the back foot and then inhaling we're gonna lift and lengthen through the heart and exhaling we're gonna extend forward just a little bit we're gonna bring that back foot in and we're gonna try to come up to warrior three just take a breath here so again if this is a pose where you don't feel very stable two blocks under your hands would be great exhaling slowly coming on back palms together palms at your heart and then let's just close our eyes for a moment and set an intention for your day it could be anything it could be I have decided to have an awesome day or awesome evening so whatever you feel like right now and then inhale lift and lengthen exhale we're just gonna flow on back and then inhale looking forward step your left foot forward drop the right heel press down through both your feet slowly coming on up and then inhaling we're gonna bring the arms up lifting up through the heart exhaling just extending forward bring that back foot in and coming into warrior three exhaling just drop your back foot bring your palms back into your heart and just one more time whisper to yourself what is that intention that you really wish to solidify and then inhaling let it all go exhale let's flow back downward dog and then inhaling looking forward we're just gonna open up through the knees and we're gonna drop back down for child's pose so gonna bring the big toes together push the hips back walk the hands forward gently extend through the back of the neck and then relax the forehead onto the mat and then from here we're just gonna look up walk your elbows back just a little bit we're going to sneak our right arm across the chest so I'm just gonna move a little bit more forward so you're gonna bring your right arm across your chest resting onto your right shoulder and your right cheek your left arm you can either extend it ahead of you or you can inhale bring it up exhale turn that arm in and just take your right hand either onto your lower back or into the crease of the right hip and then again we're just closing our eyes here just really letting everything kind of wind down and just now dance within the container of our being nice you'll notice that I tend to close my eyes a lot and I've noticed that as you keep focusing on how it feels on the inside the yoga really seems to give you a lot more treasure than you expect so from here we're just gonna inhale and unwind taking that left arm forward and both the hands forward and then gently again looking up just take your left arm across now left palm is facing the ceiling resting onto your left cheek right hand can be forward or you can bring your right hand up turn it put it on either your lower back or into your hip crease then just breathing into this for a few more moments and then taking your time just slowly coming out of this walk your hands back towards yourself and we're just going to come to lying down for Shavasana so just elbows bent slowly bringing yourself back down get the hips to feel nice and even get anything that feels like it's in your way to be out of your way and then just drinking it in for a couple of minutes before taking all this yoga wonderfulness into the rest of your day and for those of you who can stay here a while longer I encourage you to do so and for the rest of you whenever you're ready start taking in deeper breath feeling again that breath that we're very grateful for and then just bending your knees gently rolling on to your right side and taking a rest on your side and whenever you're ready just taking your time pressing your way back up so just coming into whatever is a comfortable position for you have your palms to get at your heart and just notice the availability of this space within you and may we share the gratitude that is always there namaste