Spacious and Open-Hearted

So, our practice together this morning is going to focus really on creating a bit more breathing room around the heart and moving and opening the hips. So, this is really a hip opening focused practice and we're going to start on our back just with a kind of a slow, groovy opening and then eventually move towards standing and back down to prepare us for meditation. So, as you're ready, come onto your back and set up your mat the way you like it. You might have a blanket under your head for support and as you come onto your back, go ahead and bend your knees. So, bring the feet kind of wider than your hips and let your knees rest towards each other, right? Coming into this constructive rest pose, just allow for a nice full exhalation.

Yeah, maybe softening the eyes, softening the jaw, just beginning to allow the weight of the body, the weight of the bones to settle, receiving the support beneath the body and then beginning to kind of soften and settle the mind a bit, tethering our attention towards the breath. You might bring your hands onto your lower belly here and it's noticing the quality of your breath this morning, today. With your mind's eye, with your imagination, feeling into the back of your lungs. Again, without any strain or force, keeping it soft through the throat and the upper body. Just notice the relationship with the back of your lungs, the back of your body and the floor of the earth.

Then from the back of the lungs, drawing your awareness down into the lower belly. You feel and sense the fullness of the breath here in the belly. You might keep your legs where they are. If this feels good on your back, you might bring the soles of your feet together and let your knees fall wide into a Supta Baddha Konasana, beginning to feel this opening and stretch through the hips this morning and the pelvis. And softening the jaw, feel how your front ribs can soften down, connecting with the back of your body, how the low back can lengthen a little bit.

You might keep your hands where they are, it might feel good to stretch your arms overhead. Feel how you can lengthen a bit through the side body and then maybe clasping the hands around the elbows here. And tuning in back of the lungs and down into the lower belly. What would it feel like to find a bit more space between the eyebrows and the base of your skull? Just allowing gravity to assist here in this opening through the hips and the pelvis.

Nice, and then slow as you're ready, go ahead and release your arms, draw your legs towards each other. Bring the feet wide again. Let's ease into windshield wipers, stretching the arms overhead, let the knees fall over to the right, and then inhale, let the knees come up and exhale over to the left. Let's do that, inhale, knees up, exhale over to the right, maybe the head turns to the left, inhale, knees up and exhale over to the left, maybe the head turns to the right. And then just continue at your own pace with your breath, finding this fluid movement through your body, more like the seaweed quality, and then just allowing the legs, the thigh bones to flow in the hip joints and just exploring this range of movement through your spine from the tailbone all the way up through your neck.

Nice, and then the next time your knees fall over to the right, keep the knees to the right for a few breaths, and then go ahead and lengthen a bit more through that left arm. So we're just looking to find space, and then you might wrap your right hand around your left rib cage, just feeling the relationship there, and as you reach through the fingers, continue to draw your attention into your left rib cage and your lung, and just noticing how the breath responds without force, beautiful, and then from that left lung, tune the pathway up through your left nostril, just notice the quality of the breath through your left nostril, sort of a timeless practice here, and cultivating this steady focused attention, this dharana, and just gradually relaxing the effort. As you're ready, inhale at the knees, come up and exhale, let the knees fall over to the left, and then stretching on up through the right arm, feel how you can create a little bit more length and space through your right side. You might stay with this, it might feel good and helpful to wrap your left hand around your right ribs, drawing your awareness into your right lung, feeling, noticing how the breath responds, moving into the intercostals, and then from that right lung, tuning up through the right nostril, staying with this for a few moments, giving yourself the time and the space to slow down, sense, feel, listen, and again, as you're ready, relaxing the effort, inhale at the knees, come up, and let's hug the knees into our chest and rock a little bit from side to side, and then as you're ready, ground the soles of the feet, keep the knees bent, let's bring the right ankle across the left thigh, and just stretch the arms out, we're gonna rock from side to side here, cruising on to the inner outer edge of your left foot, moving into the twisty movement here, might let that right knee fall towards the floor, or the foot fall towards the floor, easy up through the neck, just easing into the hips this morning and the spine, eventually it might feel nice to ground the sole of that right foot down towards the floor, and then stretch that right arm more at a diagonal, really lengthening again through that right side body, and then play with letting that right knee move away from you, maybe feeling that stretch through the outer right hip, with the exhale, let the back of that right lung soften, find that ease through the neck, few breaths here, you might stay here a bit longer when you're ready, inhale back to center, and then just slowly begin to draw that left knee in towards your chest without using your hands, you might just start by rocking a little bit from side to side, flexing that right ankle a bit, sending the knee away, you might stay with this, you might weave your right arm through there, finding the back of your left thigh or top of the shin, that figure four eye of the needle, wobbling a little bit, you might rock it over to the left a few inches as you lengthen through the outer right hip there, a lot of sensation, breathing into where you feel it, exhale softening the eyes, see the back of the heart and the neck, and then rocking it back through center, inhale here, and then exhale, releasing the hands, ground the sole of that left foot, let's stretch our right leg up towards the sky, you might bring your hands around the back of that right leg, point and flex the foot, circle out through the ankle, whatever would feel good for you, you might keep that left foot on the floor, stretch the left leg out, maybe begin to walk the hands up the back of your leg and you might stay here, you might on an exhale draw your chin into your chest and lift up, maybe even lifting that left heel up off the floor, pulling into the abdominal muscles here, this feels nice, and then just slowly roll the spine down, flex that right foot lead with your heel and just slowly extend, lengthen and lower, beautiful, take a few moments here, pause and notice how you feel, it's resting in the space you've created through that right side, clearing breath, inhale, nice full exhale, let's bend the knees, draw the knees and reset, little side to side rocking here, making our way into the second side, ground the soles of the feet, let's bring the left ankle across, stretch the arms out, opening the hip and just start by rocking from side to side, we're just exploring a range of movement that feels good, easing in, you might find the left foot falls towards the floor, maybe your knee falls towards the floor, I play with rocking your head away from the knees and then eventually you might tip it over to the right, so the sole of that left foot grounds and then maybe stretching that left arm more to diagonal, big side body opening here and then send that left knee away, pulling that stretch, for me it's the outer left hip area, beautiful, couple of breaths, letting the back of that left lung release, take your time when you're ready, inhale at the shape, come back up through center and without your hands just begin to draw that right knee in towards your chest, rock a little bit from side to side, flexing your left ankle, eventually it might feel good to weave your left hand through there, finding the back of your right thigh, the shin, you can also work with a strap, useful, wobble a little bit from side to side, you might play with rocking it over to the right a few inches as you lengthen through the outer left hip, a nice burning through that outer left hip this morning, notice the quality of the breath and where can you find a bit more ease, ready let's take an inhale, exhale release the hands, ground the sole of that right foot, stretch your left leg up towards the sky, bring your hands around the back of your left leg and let's just point and flex that left foot out, circling the ankle in both directions, you might keep your right foot on the floor to support your back or if it feels good, stretch that right leg out, you might stay here, just stretching the hamstrings, releasing the back of the knee or begin to walk your hands up your leg and on an exhale draw your chin into your chest, lift up, forehead towards that left shin bone, maybe floating that right heel up off the floor, nice and then just slowly roll your way back down, flex the foot, lead with your heel, lower that left leg all the way down and take a few moments, relax the effort in the shape of shavasana, arms and legs, release, noticing how you feel, clearing breath, inhale, maybe an audible exhale, take your time, hug your knees into your chest, we're going to transition towards a seat, however you'd like to get there you might roll to your side and use your arms, you might rock and roll up towards a seat, we'll come into asukasana, you might even sit up on a blanket for this and shin to shin, take a few moments settling in, wobbling into the sitting bones and then as you're ready we're easing our way into a forward fold, so hinging at the hips, walking the hands out and just start by leaning from side to side here, flexing the ankles and then come up on to your fingertips and as you inhale kind of traction through the spine, so feel how you can use your fingers to help draw the heart, the chest forward, shoulder blades softening down, your back neck is long, exhale soften the jaw, ground the sitting bones and it might feel good now to round your back here, coming into just a gentle forward fold, releasing, softening, beginning to draw our attention inward, nice, from here let's go ahead and walk our arms over to the right and come up on to the fingertips and then as you inhale kind of traction and lengthen your spine, heart over that right knee, yeah you might stay here in this extension, you might exhale, let your back round, releasing the head again, breathing into that left hip, let it stay heavy, again you might stay right here, you might continue the journey over to the right, coming into a side bend, maybe coming onto that forearm as you sweep your left arm up out and over, this feels like it's too much, you can just stay up on the hand, lengthening and opening the side body and maybe you're looking down, kind of rounding the spine, maybe you're looking up, rolling the bottom ribs, the bottom lung up, few moments here, nice, take your time, inhale, let your arm bring you back up, exhale, release, few moments here, exhale, when you're ready lean back and just switch the cross of your legs, bring the opposition in front, you know we wobble into your sitting bones, flexing the ankles and then easing our way forward again, same pattern moving into the second side, full side to side, again you might come up onto your fingertips, inhale, draw the heart forward, lengthen your spine and then exhale, softening in, releasing, palms might be down towards the earth or you might spin the palms up towards the sky, maybe feeling that kind of dull, achy, wide, warm, stretchy feeling through the whole back body, hips sacrum up through the spine and the neck, you might stay with this or begin to walk your hands, your arms over to the left, coming up onto the fingertips, inhale, kind of draw the chest forward, finding that length and then exhale again, rounding, releasing over that left knee, letting that right hip get heavy and we're breathing into where we feel the sensation, breathing space and then releasing knee stickiness and tension, you might stay here a bit longer or make your way over towards a side stretch here, releasing that left forearm or hand down, sweeping the right arm up, feeling you can reach and lengthen and then maybe you're rounding down, maybe you're evolving the rib cage and the heart up, a few moments here, moving around in there, breathing, take your time as you're ready, inhale, reach with that top arm and carry you up, nice, exhale, release, let's lean back free our legs, stretch the legs out, reach the arms behind you, a little side to side here, I love this one, just releasing through the spine and the hips and then from here we'll transition into table tops, just find your way onto your hands and your knees, again you might bring a blanket under your knees for some extra padding and support, I'm working with a carpet so I've got plenty of that this morning, spread the fingers wide, inhale, drop the belly, widening through the collarbones and then as you exhale, curl and round the back and you might even tuck your toes under in this one, just gonna draw your hips back towards your heels, feeling that kind of wide stretch through the mid-low back and then shoulders over the wrist, inhale moving into your extension, drop the belly, lengthening, sitting bones, heart, exhale, curl and round, stretching the back and continue to find your own pace here, might soften the gaze inward, feeling into any areas that want some extra love and attention this morning, you might circle through your hips in one direction and the other, you might find some kind of barrel rolls through your rib cage, meeting those areas through the outer hips, ribs, shoulder blades and neck, couple more rounds here and your hands might stay exactly where they are, you might even experiment with spinning the fingers out or even spinning the fingers towards your knees which can be quite intense and flavorful for the hands and the wrist, so we're always finding that appropriate edge of sensation, kind of good, curious, stretchy feeling rather than anything sharp or painful, nice and then from here it might feel nice for some of you to bring big toes together, knees wide, moving towards a bit of a child's pose here, child's pose doesn't feel right on your body, maybe you continue with cat cow moments here, so allowing yourself to kind of wobble a little bit from side to side, feeling the fullness of the breath in the back body, you are welcome to stay here the entire time, when you feel ready go ahead and climb your way back up into tabletop and let's use our way into down dog, spread the fingers wide, tuck your toes under as you're ready, lift on up and come into your downward dog, it might feel nice as you kind of ease in to come up onto the balls of the feet, stretching the toes, nice and then let the right knee bend and just stretch that left heel downward, releasing the neck, bend the left knee and just stretch that right heel down, do that a few times, just pedaling the feet, walking it off, nice and then eventually settling for a few moments in down dog and then from here grounding through the hands as you're ready, let's sweep the left leg up towards the sky this morning, you can go ahead and open the hip, bend the knee, yeah grounding evenly through the arms, feeling that big stretch in the back of your right leg and then as you're ready go ahead and square your hips, stretch that left leg back up towards the sky, neutral through your pelvis, inhale here, exhale knee to nose, just begin to bring the shoulders over the wrist, pulling into the belly and then inhale stretch your left leg up towards the sky, exhale knee to nose, let's step it through, coming into a lunge, okay so low lunge, wiggle back through the ball, that right foot we're going to lower the right knee down, you might pad it with a blanket and then let's ease into this slowly, so as you draw your hips back extend through your left leg, find that kind of half split action, you might even find blocks are helpful under your hands and then as you're ready bend the knee and sink into the back thigh and hip flexor, lunging a couple times like this, inhale and drawing back, peeling into the hamstrings and then with your exhale lunging forward, nice, let's find about two or three more, easing forward and back, now drawing the hips back, extending through your left leg and exhale, lunging, eventually when you feel ready go ahead and find the shape of your lunge, you might stay low in the hands, you might bring the hands up to that left thigh, might feel good, inhale sweep the arms up towards the sky and play with hooking the thumbs, feel you can kind of wiggle and find a little bit more length for your side body, pulling the thumbs apart, fanning the fingers and feeling that support through the back of your heart, brightening through the heart, the face, breathing here and then releasing just the left hand down, keeping that right arm up and then stretching up out and over to the left, big stretch through that right thigh, hip flexor, deeper into the psoas, as you're ready reaching that right arm down, pull, draw the hips back, come on to that left heel, you might stay long through your spine, you might exhale, let your back round, forehead towards that left shin bone, nice full exhale, you can kind of drop that left hip downward, okay take your time, bend that left knee, twisting lunge, ground the right hand, tuck the back right toes, lift the back knee up, sweep that left arm up, you might even toe heel that left foot a little bit wider, then feeling that kind of spiral from the base of your spine all the way up through the crown of the head, reaching from the heart into the hands, kind of lift that right thigh up, beautiful inhale, exhale, sweep that left arm down to the floor and let's step back downward dog, kind of reorganize, pedal the feet, you might stay here, join me in a plank, inhale shifting the shoulders over the wrist, strong through the legs, pulling the deep low belly up and in and then exhale, let's lower the knees, draw the elbows in setting up for cobra, as you're ready roll the shoulders up the back, press through the palms, inhale lift the heart, exhale lead with the heart lower down, let's take two more rolling cobras, press through the palms, inhale lifting up and exhale lead with the heart lowering down, one more, press through the palms and gently lift up, lead with the heart lower down, draw the elbows in, tuck the toes under, press up, round your way back, finding your way into down dog as you're ready, easing our way into the second side, rounding through the hands as you're ready, inhale sweep your right leg up towards the sky, bend the knee and let the hip open, yeah, feeling that big stretch through the back of the left leg and then reaching that right leg back up towards the sky, gonna square your hips, inhale exhale knee to nose, curl and round, pulling it, inhale stretch the right leg up, exhale knee to nose, step it through, lunge, and we go back through the ball of that left foot, lower the left knee down, easing in, inhale draw your hips back, extend through that right leg, exhale bend the knee, finding your lunge, and then inhale drawing back a little bit, exhale lunging, a few more like this, just kind of exploring the whole landscape of sensation through your hips, through the back thigh, one or two more like this, eventually easing into your lunge, bending that right knee, you might stay low, you might rise up bringing the hands onto that right thigh, maybe inhale sweep the arms up, hooking the thumbs, if that's useful, feeling that lift and support from your pelvic floor up through your spine, I like to fan the fingers and feel the shoulder blades drawing towards each other, beautiful, breathing here, keeping that left arm high, reach the right hand down towards the floor and if you'd like stretch that left arm up out and over to the right, sinking into that back left thigh, opening up through the ribs, left lung, nice, inhale bring it up, release the hands, pull the hips back again, draw them back, extend through your right leg, come onto your right heel, draw the toes towards the face, you might lengthen your spine, you might exhale round, easy through the back of the neck, your breath's here grounding through that right outer hip, taking your time as you're ready, bend the knee, twisting lunge, ground the left hand, tuck the back toes under, lift the back knee up, sweep that right arm up, maybe your toe healing that right foot a little wider, reach back through the heel, forward through the heart, I love this one, if you feel another spiral and twist from the deep low belly upwards, creating space, inhale, exhale, sweep that right arm down, stepping back into your downward dog, walking it off, you might stay here, you might rest in child's, you might inhale, shift forward into a plank, nice and strong, press the floor away, draw the deep low belly up and in, and then lower onto the belly, just one round of cobra this time, tops of the feet on the floor, roll the shoulders up, back and down, press through the palms and now lift up, lead with the heart, lower down, easy, tuck the toes under, press up and back into downward dog, moments here, building on that, as you're ready, root through the hands, inhale, lift the left leg up towards the sky, open the hip, bend the knee again, breathing, stretch that left leg up towards the sky, square the hips, inhale and then exhale, step it through, this time using into a warrior to ground through the outer right heel, strong through the legs, inhale, flip that right arm up, let it carry you into your warrior too, so you might look down and readjust your legs, get it just right for your body, lengthening through that inner left thigh, beautiful, let's stretch the arms out and ease our way into a warrior dance, as you're ready, inhale, press through the ball of your left foot, straighten your left leg, reach the arms up, exhale, warrior too, like never before, press through the ball of your left foot, reach the arms up, straighten the leg, exhale, nice and slow, warrior too, let's find three rounds, so at your own pace, letting the breath inspire the movement, inhale, press through the foot, lengthen, arms reach, exhale, warrior too, eventually once you've settled into your warrior too, pause for a few breaths, then feel the essence of mountain pose, tadasana up through your spine, moving into reverse warrior, sweep the right arm down the leg, inhale, left arm reaches up towards the sky, beautiful, feeling that opening again through the left side body, inhale, exhale, press through the ball of that left foot, straightening the left leg, as we move into triangle pose, you might toe heal that back foot in a little bit, we're lengthening the bottom arm, you might even reach that top arm, lengthening both sides of your torso, rooting through the outer edge, feel that bottom lung kind of spin off, might stay here, super strengthening and challenging, you might release that left hand down, you reach that right arm up or overhead, and this morning it might feel nice to find a few circles with that top arm, I'm gonna do it, sweeping the arm back and in front, over, revolving through the rib cage, circling, maybe reaching that arm up towards the sky, finding the internal rotation through the shoulder, bending the elbow, maybe playing with bringing the back of the hand to the sacrum, or wrapping it around that front left thigh, few more breaths here in Trikonasana, triangle pose, finding a place where your neck feels good, gently carefully freeing that top arm up to the sky, rooting through the feet, inhale, let's come on up, let's bring the feet parallel, toe heal the feet just a little closer together, hands on the hips, inhale, let's find length in our spine, exhale, hinge at the hips, forward fold, releasing the hands, let's walk the hands forward, coming into, I love this one hammock pose, softening the heart towards the floor, reaching the hips away from the hands, back of the neck soft, few breaths here, and you might stay here a bit longer, you might join me in walking your hands in closer, heels and toes out will bend the right knee, coming into Skandasana, coming onto that left heel, and then back to center, bend the left knee, coming up onto your right heel, drawing the toes towards the face, and a few times like the side to side, nice, smooth, slow, Yogini, ninja-like movements, tapping into the strength of the legs, and as you come back to center, take a look at your left foot, top of the mat, we're going to find the shape of the lunge, with that left foot forward, the right foot back, are you with me? And then step back, downward dog, from downward dog, inhale into your plank, strong through the legs, strong through the core, and then lowering down, one round of cobra, tops of the feet on the floor, press through the palms, inhale with the heart, exhale, lead with the heart, lower down, tuck the toes, elbows in, press up, and back into your downward dog. Reorganize. As you're ready, stretch that right leg up towards the sky, go ahead and bend the knee, let the hip open, your breath's here, stretching that right leg back up towards the sky, square the hips, inhale, exhale, knee to nose, step it through for our warrior too, through the outer edge of that left foot, with that top left arm, inhale, float up into your warrior too, taking a few moments to adjust, right heel towards the left arch, and then as you're ready, press through the ball of your right foot, right leg straightens, arms reach, exhale, right knee bends, warrior two. Again, inhale, press through the ball, the right foot, arms reach, inhale, warrior two, let's take three more rounds, really at your own pace, bending that right knee as you sink in, pressing through the ball of the foot, straightening the legs, arms reach up. Eventually settling into warrior two, pausing here for a few moments, lengthening through that inner right thigh, let's find reverse, slide the left hand down the back leg, inhale, reach that right arm up, and sinking down into the hip as you open through the right side, keep this as you press through the ball of that right foot, straightening the right leg, and as we move into triangle, you might toe heel that left foot a little closer, inhale, and then exhale, we're going to lengthen that underarm, and you might sweep that left arm over, lengthening through both sides, through the torso, we eventually reach that right arm down towards the shin, left arm reaches up towards the sky, I'm going to find some circles this morning through the shoulder, sweeping the left arm down to the floor over the ear, and then back down towards the left leg, circles here, revolving through the torso, finding what feels good. Eventually you might play with stretching that left arm up towards the sky, finding that internal rotation through your shoulder, bend the elbow, back of the hand to the sacrum, or maybe wrapping around that front, that bottom left right thigh, and finding a place where your neck feels good, maybe it's looking down or straight ahead, more breaths here, nice, and then slowly, gently reaching that left arm up, press through the feet, and inhale, come all the way up, feet parallel with each other, toe heel them a little closer together, this side, let's reach the arms out, roll the shoulders forward, maybe interlacing the fingers behind the back, inhale long through the spine, lifting up, and then exhale, hinge at your hips, forward fold, strong through the legs, releasing downward, stretching the arms up out and over, nice, couple of breaths here, you can always bend the knees, gonna take it out of the hamstrings, easy through the neck, take your time, slowly releasing the hands underneath you, inhale, lengthen, and exhale, just simply fold for a few breaths, might feel good from here to bring your left hand towards your right ankle for a twist, as you lengthen through that right arm and just gently, now twisting towards your right, now when you're upside down, it's hard to know which direction you're twisting in, nice, then just slow, let that release, come back into the center, and then bring that right hand to the left ankle, around that area, and inhale to lengthen, exhale just a gentle twist towards the left, that feels really nice, how does it feel for you, let's just slowly let that ankle release, gonna make our way into a lunge, so turn and look forward towards your right foot, find the shape of the lunge, walk your hands around that right foot, spin onto the ball of your back left foot, and let's step back into our downward dog, new breaths here, in downward dog, and then inhale, shoulders over the wrist, plank pose, and then from here let's lower onto our belly, so keeping the elbows in, I'm setting up for a round of locus here, so forehead on the floor, let's go ahead and stretch the fingers towards the toes, and draw the legs towards each other, ending that internal rotation, from here as you're ready, inhale just go ahead and lift the heart up off the floor, a little bit, and then ending the legs on the arms, now you can really draw the back body into your spine, lifting up, be leaning a little bit from side to side, feeling the strength of the back, long through the neck, inhale lifting up, exhale gently lowering down, forehead or one, make a cheek or ear to the floor, nice little exhale, nice second round here, drawing legs towards each other, and then inhale lifting up, and drawing the back body into the spine, feeling the energy through the fingers, the toes, inhale brings you up, and exhale gently lower down, maybe it's the opposite cheek and ear, downward or forehead, a nice little wobble would feel good through the pelvis, one more round like this, you might find a previous variation or maybe you're interlacing the fingers around the sacrum, strong through the legs, inhale lifting up, lifting the chest, maybe lifting the thighs, and opening here, breathing, nice, inhale, exhale slowly releasing, and slide the palms underneath the shoulders, draw the elbows in, tuck your toes under, press your way up and then just nice slow round your way back into the shape of child's pose for a few moments here, spending a counter pose to the back bend, you might stay here a bit longer, join me in a few rounds of the camel play, so when you're ready come up onto the shins and the knees, and finding that internal rotation through the thigh bones, you might imagine there's like a block between the legs just feeling that stability through the pelvis, and I like to think about back bending as really lengthening the front of the body, so feeling that support from the base of the spine, from the pelvic floor all the way up, let's bring our hands together at the heart just start by finding length, so inhale lengthening up through the spine, now you can draw the sacrum in, tailbone descending, and just lengthening, lengthening the side body, now lifting the heart towards the thumbs, you might keep your chin into your chest, so the back bend is really happening through the upper back, through the upper spine as the tailbone descends, beautiful, as you're ready lead with the heart, and come on up, you might sit back on your heels for a moment, just taking a pause, settling, might join me in one more round, bring up onto the knees and shins, you might keep your hands at the heart, you might even bring your hands behind you with the fingers pointing downwards towards the floor, feeling this opening through the chest, as you lengthen the front of the body you can begin to draw the sacrum in a little bit, tailbone descending, feeling that stability in your pelvis as you lengthen your spine, and again depending on your neck you might keep your chin right where it is towards the chest, for some of you it's gonna feel good to slowly let the gaze move up, you might keep your hands exactly where they are, if it's available and appropriate, it would feel awesome, you might bring your hands towards your heels, and it's up to you if you keep your chin in or slowly let the head drop back, feeling that support through your pelvic floor, beautiful, breathing, okay as you feel ready strong through the legs, lead with the heart, bringing your hands back onto your sacrum using your core muscles, slowly coming up, and let's take a moment to sit back on the heels, you're finding a child's pose is a nice counter to that back bend, big full exhale releasing the spine, the back, nice, and feel good here as you come up onto the hands, let's tuck the toes under, let's ease our way into a down dog, from down dog setting up for a pigeon on the left side, so again aware of what's behind you, lifting that left leg up, and then bending the knee and just drawing it through, setting up for a pigeon on the left side, might bring a blanket underneath that left hip, your support, and finding what feels good, might stay upright here, if and as it would feel good and you're invited to do so, you might ease your way forward, coming onto the forearms, nice, releasing through the neck and the head, I like to internally find a little bit of movement, a little wobbling, letting the nervous system know it's not forever and there's a way out, and then re-softening through the jaw, just allowing the hip, the hip joint to release on its own, without needing to do anything, only with this tender quality of listening, you are welcome to stay here as long as you'd like, when you feel ready, just slowly walk your way up, we're going to move into a seated twist, so shift your weight over to the left, we're going to sweep our right leg across, knee into Ardhamatsyandrasana, seated twist, grounding through the ball, that right foot, I love this one, inhale, sweep the left arm up, and exhale, we'll twist to the right, kind of wrapping your left arm around the legs, or you might prefer hooking the elbow, and then inhale, we're lengthening and lifting, and exhale, kind of twisting to the right, can't even use your right hand there to kind of pull the belly to the right, ooh, that really deepens the twist for me, if you feel that, find a place where the neck feels comfortable, notice that there's any hardening or rigidity in the back or the spine, and see if you can find a little bit more fullness there, nice, beautiful, and then just slow, let the gaze, the head rotate forward, and then let the body unwind, let the legs unwind, play with a little Navasana, about pose, bring the hands behind the legs, you might just work right here, lifting the heart, lengthening the spine, kind of hugging the shoulder blades towards each other, you might play with coming onto the sitting bones, lifting the legs up, you're working with any tenderness in your low back, you might keep your hands where they are, you might play with extending your arms and lifting up, maybe play with straightening the legs, whatever feels right today, nice few breaths, helps to smile in this one, I promise, good, and then just cross the ankles, we'll roll forward, find our way back into down dog, so however you'd like to get there, many pathways back to down dog, making our way into the other side as you're ready, reach that right leg up, and then draw that knee through, setting up for pigeon on the right side, easing in, and you might stay upright, bring a prop underneath that right hip, you might slowly begin to lean into it, with this quality of tender listening, allowing for any gentle movement here, maybe offering yourself to a bit of stillness, releasing, breathing into where you feel it. I feel like I could stay here all day.

You are certainly welcome to stay here longer, you feel ready to come up, just slowly use your hands, we'll come into our seated twist, so shifting your weight onto that right outer hip as you swing the left leg across, coming into your seated twist, grounding the ball of that left foot, inhale, sweep your right arm up towards the sky, feeling that length, and as you exhale, we're twisting to our left, if you're wrapping the right hand around the left leg, hooking the elbow, and then use that left hand to pull the belly to the left, releasing the left fingers down, inhale, drawing the spine into your back, finding that space, kind of laying fat of the pelvis, and then exhale, there's a gentle twist happening to the left, and feeling some effort without strain or rigidity. Stay in the twist and just slowly let the head rotate forward, and just unwinding the body, unwrapping the legs, one last navasana boat pose before we roll down, bring the hands behind the legs, lifting up through the spine, draw the shoulders down the back, and then reaching up into your boat, pulling the abdominal muscles in, stretching out through the arms perhaps, and lifting up for five, four, three, two, one, let's roll onto our back, bend the knees, find your way onto your back, knees into chest, rock a little bit from side to side here, nice, and then from here, go ahead and let your knees float over your hips, lift your feet up in line with your knees like you're sitting in a chair, and we'll stretch our arms out to our sides with the palms down, feeling the front ribs draw down, imagine there's like a block between your legs, we're going to inhale here and exhale, just let the knees hover over to the right a little bit, turning the belly to the left, gaze to the left, and then inhale knees up and exhale over to the left, turning the belly to the right, maybe then the gaze to the right, inhale up, exhale to the right, turning the belly, the gaze to the left, inhale up, and then exhale, gaze to the right, knees to the left. Let's do one more round on each side, inhale up, exhale knees to the right, turn the gaze left. And inhale, knees up, exhale, knees to the left, turn the head to the right. Inhale, knees up. That's a lot of work in the hip flexors. Let's ground the soles of the feet. Find a sweet bridge pose to release that. Stretch the arms down towards the toes, feet parallel. Inhale, exhale, curl the tailbone under, press through the feet, and lift up into bridge. Palms might press down into the floor. You might roll and tuck the shoulders under your back, finding that sweet interlace, lengthening through the thigh bones, front of the body, tuning towards the exhalation. This feels wondrous through the pelvis and the hip flexors. Nice. Beautiful. When you feel ready, releasing the hands and just slowly rounding your spine down. One vertebrae at a time. Take a moment to pause. Clearing breath.

From here again, you might bring the soles of the feet together, knees wide. And we began our practice in Supta Baddha Konasana, or it might feel nice to reach up and find a happy baby, or maybe a variation of happy baby. And this might find the outer edges of your feet, or you can even grab the inner legs, opening up through the hips. One of those shapes. If you are a happy baby, usually a bit of rocking can feel nice on the spine. We're sweet. We are easing our way towards a Shavasana or seated meditation. So taking your time, anything your body wants to do along the way, depending on your energy, your mood, you might just stretch everything out, finding the shape of Shavasana. If you're in the mood for a seated meditation, you might gently roll to your side and use your arms to press yourself up. You're coming into a seated meditation, actually having support underneath you can feel really nice for the spine and the hips. Sit up on a blanket.

You are in the shape of Shavasana, just allowing the weight of the bones to release. It's really resting in the space you've created. And receiving the support beneath you. You are in a seated meditation. It's getting the alignment of your body just right for you, feeling that quality of lift through the spine, and tuning towards that more energetic central channel through your spine. Letting the base of the skull feel a little bit more wide and spacious.

Simply withdrawing the skull back. And the back of the skull is gently lifting up and back as the chin softens downward. Lips off, jaw soft. Nice, full exhale. It's really allowing the mind to settle and rest.

Perhaps allowing your awareness to rest in and around the heart space, the heart center. You might even feel or sense this gentle and subtle movement through your spine, this undulation. Just relaxing any effort around the breath. Those of you in Shavasana, you are welcome to stay where you are as long as you like. Like to transition and join me in closing your practice in a seat.

Please take your time arriving, settling, and aligning with our energy with the day and evening. And from this space, let's join our hands together. I'm sharing the sound of om. Exhale, empty. Breathing in. Om. Namaste.

Namaste. Thank you so much for your practice and for joining me.