Shine Your Heart

Welcome to Joyful Flow, coming from my little house in Chicago. We're going to start sitting on the mat, so if you haven't rolled out the mat, go ahead and set yourself up. We're going to sit cross-legged today, so you can move your little built-in pillows out of the way and get ready for a heart-opening flow today. Get a better time to kind of connect and recharge with your personal batteries, and that's what we're going to be doing. We're going to be doing it physically, lots of heart openers, lots of backbends, setting you up safely for backbends, and hopefully bringing you back home to the heart center.

So thank you for joining me, and welcome. We'll start in a nice comfortable seat, and you can do what I'm doing right now. Just place your hands right over your heart, close your eyes for a moment, and just check in, listen to the beat of your heart. Just bringing your hands to the heart space allows you to drop from your head space, all that busyness, and back to home here, checking back in. When we're in our heart space, we're able to make deeper connections, not only with self, people around us, but also to whatever you believe the source to be.

So it's kind of like, hey God, I'm here, I'm checking in, ready to recharge my personal batteries here. And keep one hand at your heart, and bring the fingertips of the free hand to the ground, and just place those fingertips like little roots into the earth. Let's all make a dedication from our heart space out through the fingertips to earth. It could be physical earth, it could be people living on earth, it could be whatever your dedication you're offering for your practice means to you. Keeping ourselves up with a little offering, a little dedication, making the practice about something other than just self.

All right, I feel better, I hope you do. Maybe we'll just go right into Shavasana right now. No, we'll actually do the actual Asana yoga stuff today. So as we take these little movements of the spine, use those opportunities, connect with the breath, slide your hands down to the shins. As you press the knees to the floor, slowly lift the heart, the chin and the chest with a nice big inhale, inflating the heart center of its lungs.

As you exhale, draw the navel up and back, round the spine, move the breath out by using your core muscles. As you inhale, lift the heart, chin and chest, kind of checking in with the front and back body, exhale rounding the spine. Open the breath so you're slowing the movements a little bit, nice, slow, deep inhale. This time pause after your inhale, invite a little silence and then exhale, draw the navel to the spine, pull the navel up and back, release the breath, take a short pause and then start your inhalation. So we're using the breath in true vinyasa form.

The breath is creating the shape and form, pause, exhale round. Let's do two more of those together. You can do these at your own pace. Just invite a pause after the exhale and a hold of the breath after the inhale. I don't know about you guys, but time feels like it's flying.

So when we slow the breath down and we do those little holds and we're really present for ourselves, we can try to elongate the day, the moment, the time. Great. Come to a neutral spine, place your palms on top of your thighs, lean your right ribcage over the right thigh and start to inhale the chest forward and all the way over to your left. You can round the spine as you exhale, pull the navel up and back and continue in the same direction. It's not traditional, but if you'd like to let the head roll with the torso, sometimes it feels good.

You get to move the cervical spine and the muscles of the neck as you explore your little kundalini rising here, shifting your weight from sip on to sip on. Give yourself one more round of breath in this direction and then we'll switch the direction of our circles, exhaling it back, inhale, lengthening it forward, pulse with your breath. We're kind of feeling that connection between the torso and the limbs, that separation. Give yourself one more round. The next time you are bowing forward over bent legs, start to walk your fingertips forward and then over to your right.

As you reach the left hand across the body, you'll feel a big side stretch through the left side body lats and or costals. If you want a little bit more rotation, use your right hand next to your right knee, press the floor away, lengthen with the inhale, extend the breath and soft twist with your exhale, lengthen, perfect, and twist. Inside your left hand on top of your right knee, keep it there, inhale the right palm to the sky, we'll take the right arm up and over the ear. We're just going to do a little yoga wave from side to side, exploring the side body, the areas around the heart. So really stretching the areas around the heart, the lungs, creating more space, bringing our attention to this area, waving it back and forth.

We're doing a little yoga wave. The next time you take the right arm over the head, pause, maybe press the right knee to the floor and lift the left rib cage a little bit more, maybe to find a little bit more side flexion through your right side. Inhale the right palm to the sky, place the right hand behind you, come up to your fingertips for this variation, push down into your fingers, lift the heart, chin and chest and rotate. Maybe walk the fingertips back, lift and rotate. We start to work with the muscles in our hands and we don't sink into the wrist so it's nice to start firing up the fingertips right now.

Good, keep the left palm there, inhale the right palm back to the sky. Squeeze your knees together, place the right hand outside of the left knee. Good, inhale for your tall spine and this is all about upper back, exhale, press the knees away, feel that stretch, that flexion all the way in the upper back and shoulders. Inhale draw the knees back in, lift the heart, chin and chest and exhale one more time as you spread, as you move the knees farther apart from each other, you're going to feel that stretch in the upper back and shoulders, perfect. Come on back to center, switch the cross of your legs.

Good, bring your palms to the shins, just one cow tilt, lengthen the spine and then bow forward. Take your hands, your fingertips forward and take your journey over to your left. The right arm is going to stay, we're focusing the breath on the right side body. You can use the left hand to give yourself a little bit more side flexion through the right side body and go big into the breath through the right side body. It feels like you're stretching from the inside as you breathe, the lungs are stretching the muscles that are around and supporting them.

Good, place your right palm on top of your left knee, inhale the left arm over the head, we'll all do our little yoga wave together, moving it from side to side, do a little proper wave if you want to, but really we're just pulsing, feeling that side flexion so that we can end up hopefully in a little deeper expression. Left arm over the head, feel the right rib cage, lift with the next inhale and then maybe a little bit deeper as you press the left knee to the floor with the next exhale. You got it guys, keep breathing, inhale the left palm to the sky, tall spine, fingertips behind you, push into your fingertips, lift and lengthen the spine and then go ahead and turn your torso to the left, walk the fingertips back a little bit more, lift and lengthen the spine and once again turn to your left, perfect, nice ringing out of the spine. Inhale the left palm back to the sky, squeeze your knees together, left hand on top this time, tall spine and then exhale, press the knees away, you might let the head relax from side to side, release some trapezius muscles, some muscles in the upper back and shoulders, try that one more time, draw the knees in, tall spine and then go ahead and press the knees away and feel that shoulder stretch, perfect, alright, then we're going to meet in table pose, you can choose to swing those legs around or you can draw the heels in towards your seat, reach the palms in front of your knees, lean forward, press to the tops of the feet and lower those knees right under your hips, instead of traditional table we're going to take the forearm variation, so replace your palms with your elbows, same thing that we do in our cat and cows and table pose but we're going to do it in this variation with our forearms on the floor, as you exhale round the spine and lean forward slightly, really puff up the mid spine, pull the navel to the spine and as you inhale look forward and back up the seat slightly, we're going to play with a couple of rounds just like that, rounding mid spine to the sky, leaning forward, pushing strongly into your forearms and then guiding the seat back, looking forward maybe lifting the chin and chest a little bit higher so you feel that cow tilting your cervical spine, pulsing with the breath, two more rounds, heart moves towards your thumbs as you inhale and navel up and back, shoulders move slightly forward with the exhale, great guys, give it one more full round, excellent and then draw your shoulders right over the elbow, step the left leg back, fire up the muscles in your calves, your feet, step the right leg back, welcome to forearm plank, squeeze your inner thighs towards the midline, push towards your heels, imagine the crown of the head moving forward, draw the navel up and back, if your seat's up really high see if you can lower either the height of your shoulders or just a little bit lower and then squeeze like you're holding a block between your legs, last round of breath, lower all the way down, untuck your toes, press to the tops of the feet, guide the ribs, guide the heart forward a little, slide down of the shoulder blades away from your ears, great guys, lower all the way down, replace your elbows with your palms, tuck the toes under, either press up to table or plank on your way back to your first down dog, hips to the sky, push actively forward with both palms and then we'll pedal the legs out one at a time, so imagine you're pushing the mat away from your toes, drawing the chest towards the thighs, step to the sky and then you can bend one leg at a time to feel the hamstrings and the calf muscles waking up a little bit, great everybody, rise to the tops of your toes, pivot your heels to the right, little side stretching down dog, the left heel will be in front of the right toes, push actively forward with the right hand and once again pedal the legs out one at a time, bending the left leg, bending the right leg, moving deeply into that side stretch you should feel this on the left side body, push actively forward with your right hand, good, pivot your feet back, I'll meet you in plank pose, your option of lowering the knees to the floor as we slowly lower down bend the elbows, alright, coming back to Sphinx pose, replacing the palms with the elbows, guiding the heart, chin and chest forward, inviting the shoulder blades down the spine, tuck your toes under back to forearm plank, walk your big toes together, pivot your heels to the right, stack the left foot on top of the right and replace your left elbow with your left palm, if you need to slide the right foot across the mat for your forearm plank go for it, squeeze to the midline if you can come up to fingertips or left palm to the sky as you squeeze and lift the hips push the floor away with your right forearm, give yourself two more rounds of breath, one more, I'll meet you back in forearm plank, try not to lower down yet, three more breaths, firing up the core, crown of the head moves forward, two more, now you can lower down all the way, either your Sphinx pose as your back bend, lift the knees off the floor, move the ribs towards the thumbs or replace the elbows with your palms, low cobra pulses, now lift, exhale lower, as you inhale and lift your hearts moving forward and elbows moving back in opposition, last round, choose whether you're passing through table or plank pose on your way back to your down dog, hips to the sky, press actively forward with both hands, give yourself a little pedal out left and right, good and then we'll take a side stretch to the left, lift the toes, the heels off of the floor, pivot your heels to the left so your right heels in front of your left toes, push strongly forward with the left hand as you bend one leg at a time, you'll feel the side stretch through the right side body, great everybody, perfect, pivot your feet back, lengthen forward to plank pose, here you have the option of bringing the knees to the floor as you take your slow lower down elbows hugging to the midline, once again replace your palms with your elbows, press to the tops of the feet, a little inner thigh spiral, lift the knees off the floor, drag your ribs forward towards your thumbs and soften your shoulders away from your ears, so we got our forearm plank on the left side, tuck the toes under, walk your big toes together, push down into the toes and the forearms, pivot your heels to the left and stack, left forearm stays, replace your right elbow with your right hand, remember you can slide your left hand across the mat for tight shoulders, lift the left hip, send the right hand to the sky if you're playing with balance, push forward and down with your left forearm, hold it for three more breaths, squeeze like you got a block between your legs, draw the left inner thigh towards the right and then come on back to forearm plank, three more breaths here, I know afterwards you just want to plop down, no plopping down, last two breaths, push back to the heels, forward to the crown, lower all the way down, the back bend of your choice, sphinx pose, cobra or maybe you're starting to straighten the arms a little bit, whichever variation you're doing, the heart is lengthening, moving forward and the shoulder blades are moving down, press to the tops of the feet, engage the muscles of the legs, let's send it back to our down dog, tuck the toes under, yogi's choice and down dog, I'm gonna let you move around a little bit, whether it's a shoulder shrug, a pivot, a little twist, shake a little inventory of your down dog, awesome guys, we're gonna walk the feet towards the front of the mat, come on forward for a little forward hold, go ahead and bend the knees and let the head, the hang, if you want to grab onto the elbows like the elephant trunk, my little friend behind me, let the muscles of the face and the jaw relax, great, slide your right hand to your right shin, straighten your left leg, keep your right leg bent, inhale the left palm to the sky, take the left arm over the head, palm facing down or slightly turning to the wall behind you and then roll the shoulder blade, draw the ribs forward and turn the torso, right leg bent, nice and safe for the lower back and you open the hamstring, bend your left leg, left hand on the left shin, straighten the right slowly, inhale the right palm to the sky, there's a tendency to lean back here so make sure you're feeling the weight in your toe pads as well, right arm over the head, palm facing down or towards the crown of your head, lengthen and turn, lengthen and turn, good, bend both knees, engage the muscles in your quads and core, lengthen the spine flat back, slide your palms to the tops of the quads, finish with this little round of pound cat tilts in your chair pose, rounding the spine as you exhale, pulling the navel up and back, chin to the chest, guiding the heart, chin to chest forward, dropping into a deeper chair as you lift your sternum and heart to the sky, give it one more round, the spine, the muscles along the spine should feel a little bit more movement, a little bit more freedom and then go ahead and roll all the way up to a stand, inhale your palms to the sky, exhale them right to the center of the heart, take a moment, inhale, cleanse and purify the mind, hold the breath, let something go, try that one more time, nice big inhale, clear the mind, bring the breath to the heart, let it go, join me for an om as we bow to the floor with a nice flat back, arms out to the side, inhale the palms to the sky, lift the heart, chin and chest, hinge at the hips, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back, then both knees, bring your fingertips to the floor about four to six inches in front of the toes, extend the right leg nice and long, keep the right leg extended about the height of your hip and just bend the standing leg and straighten the standing leg, lengthen the spine, bend the standing leg and straighten, the less weight on your fingertips, the more power you feel in the quad, few of you might want to try the palms into prayer as you bend and straighten the leg, just a little playful challenge this morning, this afternoon or whenever you're watching this, good, bring the fingertips back to the floor, step the right leg all the way back, lower the right knee to the floor, bring the left hand to your quad, right hand to your sacrum, a little pulse here to open up the front of the hip, lengthen the tailbone down and lift the ribs in opposition, so the ribs lift so that we're not taking that tilt in the lower back, lengthen it straight down, perfect, now we're going to pause right here into our low lunge, left hand stays on top of the left thigh, right arm up and over the ear, take your side stretch to the left, you'll feel that line all the way from your outer right knee up the arm to the fingertips, good, right hand replaces the left, keep it there, inhale the left, squeeze to the midline with the legs, side stretch over to your right, keep squeezing to the midline so the side stretches from the thoracic spine up, great, and then come back to center, both palms to the sky, a little melt away from the ears with the arms, lift the heart, chin and chest, excellent, lower the palms to the floor, fingertips to the floor, straighten the left leg, you can walk the hands back or bring the hands to the hips, line up your right knee right underneath your right hip, if it's your fingertips are on the floor and you need more, walk the fingertips forward and shine your heart forward if that's okay for your hamstring, little circle at the ankle, feeling that connection, calf, inner hamstring, outer hamstring, a little bit of movement helping us for our future standing poses, great, bend your left leg, right hand to the floor, inhale the left palm to the sky, get along with the spine on the next inhale and turn and rotate, if you'd like to lift the right knee off the floor to make it a little bit more powerful, go for it, push down and forward into the right hand, lengthen the spine, since we've been working on our side stretches, if you'd like to take the left arm over the head, lengthen and turn, keep hugging the left inner thigh towards the midline, nice everybody, one more round breath, big inhale, rotate as you exhale and then lower the hands back around the left foot, lower the right knee, untuck your right toes, so point the right foot, press to the top of the foot, big shin, ankle, psoas stretch, as you push down into the top of the foot without tucking, lift the knee off of the floor and guide your heart forward, you're going to feel that psoas stretch opening up really nicely, if you have knee or ankle issues or you're running a lot, biking a lot, don't do this next part, too much on the ankle, maybe bring your hands to the quad, taking a little bit more of that psoas stretch, be kind to yourself, make sure that whichever version you take, this is a nice variation for your body, you're not in a hymn so you're not harming, great, lower down, tuck your right toes under, release your right knee, as you send the left leg to the sky, bend the knee and open the hip, perfect, move forward to plank pose and step the left foot behind for a little wild thing, kickstand side plank, push forward and down with your right hand, breathe into that left side body, yay, and then come back to your plank pose, lower down, bend the elbows, slide the heart forward, press to the tops of the feet, sphinx, cobra or up dog, back bend of your choice, meet you back and down dog, pushing actively forward with your hands, drawing the heels to the floor simultaneously, lifting the navel up and back, sit bones to the sky, we're walking the feet to the front of the mat or floating at the finale of your next exhale, walk or float, lengthen the spine with your inhale, soft forward fold, remember knees bent is an option, if you're moving deeper maybe hands behind the calves or heels shifting your weight towards the toe pads so you're not leaning back too much, good, reversing the dive, let's start with a flat back first, arms out to the side and then we'll rise all the way up using our core, inhale the palms to the sky, exhale palms right into prayer, give yourself a moment to check back in, clear the mind with the inhale, let something go with your exhale, join me for our second ohm on the way down, inhale it up, into the hips, ohh, ohh, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back, exhale bend both knees, fingertips to the floor, shift your weight to your right foot, extend the left leg the height of your hips so don't lower it to the floor, keep it off the floor, we've got a right leg bent we're lengthening the spine, slowly straight in the right leg and bend the standing leg, straighten and bend, playing with weight maybe on less fingers, seeing what it feels like to put more weight in your standing leg or for a few of you you can try the palms into prayer as you straighten and bend the right leg to really fire up the muscles and the quads and the glutes, this will turn on our little heater centers here, great, lower the palms to the floor, fingertips to the floor, step your left leg all the way back, lower the left knee to the floor, right hand right quad, left hand to the sacrum, so start with your left hip lined up over your knee, lengthen the tailbone down, lift the heart up and then you can move into your pulses and you'll feel that psoas, that hinge, that opener, that hinge that connects our torso to our limbs, this one's a real important one everybody, we got to keep working on this one every day when we sit too much, the next time you drop into the right knee go ahead and stay right there, right hand stays, left arm to the sky, taking our side stretch to the right, so when you're reaching over to the right keep lifting your right ribcage as well so you're not feeling any compression there, squeeze to the midline with your inner thighs, great, replace your right hand with your left, keep squeezing the legs together, inhale the right arm over the head, we're just doing a lot of waving today here, squeeze to the midline, a little side stretch to the left without compressing, keep lifting through the left ribcage to move a little bit deeper, perfect, right hand to the floor, oh let's do both, that would be good, lengthen the tailbone down, lift the heart up and now we can inhale the palms to the sky, a little shrug down of the shoulders, a little lift of the heart, go back to your breath, slow inhales, feel the heart center and then exhale melt into it, inhale, these are our little rechargers, our fingertips, reaching up, recharging the source, I like to imagine that, and now we can bring our hands down around the right foot, straight in the right leg for your half split, feel free to walk the hands back or bring them to the hips, I'm going to go for a little deeper forward fold, make sure you're doing what's right for your body, moving the heart forward and the crown of the head forward will help you feel more if you need to feel more resistance and then finale here we're circling the right foot, choose a direction a couple rounds that way and a couple rounds the other way, this will help us prepare for our standing poses which I'm really excited about, alright, re-bend your right leg, plant the left palm on the floor, tuck the left toes under, inhale the right palm to the sky, the left knee can stay on the floor or you can push into the toe pads, lift the heel off the floor, draw the right knee forward towards second and third toe, press back with the left heel in opposition, we can take the arm over the head, if that's calling you, give yourself a little space where your bicep is by your ear, shrug the shoulder down slightly, lengthen and turn your torso to the right palm of the right hand either facing down or like it's a little mirror for the crown of your head, two more rounds of breath, one more and release the hand, release the left knee back to the floor, untuck the left toes, press to the top of the left foot, keep your hands on the floor and just stretch that ankle-shin connection by lifting the knee off the floor, remember if you have anything going on with those legs, keeping the hands on the floor takes a lot of the weight off, much safer and a much softer opening, if you're going deeper come to that low supported lunge or palms to the sky, lifting the heart, the chin and the chest, lower the palms and the knee to the floor, tuck the left toes under, send the right leg to the sky and bend the knee, open the hip, draw the chest forward to plank pose, keep the right leg where it is, pivot your left heel to the floor, kickstand side plank or wild thing, press into your right toes, inhale that arm over the head, turn your torso to the right, meeting in plank pose and then taking the vinyasa, lowering it down, sliding into cobra and up dog, awesome guys, give yourself two more rounds of breath here, one more and then come to a neutral table here, we're gonna play with table and dolphin pose today and we're gonna play with a little pulse here, so we'll start replacing our palms with our elbows, kind of like we did in the beginning of class, but this time we're gonna lift our knees off the floor, when we do this, we press the chest back towards the thighs for dolphin pose, shifting our weight towards our right foot, inhaling the left leg to the sky, three taps, left knee, left tricep, move your chin towards your thumbs and then send the left leg back to the sky, there goes one, two more taps, on the last tap use the momentum of that leg moving to the sky to try to lift both elbows off the floor and to down dog, how did that feel? I hope it was good, take a nice big inhale here, exhale, step the left foot to the front of your mat, good, make sure your feet are hip distance, we're setting up for a high lunge and it's gonna give us a lot of stability, lengthen the spine, bring your hands to the hips and rise up, good, same situation with the pelvis, tailbone lengthening down, heart lifting up, little pulsing action in our high lunge, straighten the left leg, reach the palms to the sky, drishti straight forward, focus straight forward or up, as you exhale and bend, hinge at your hips, reach your hands for the back of the space as you bow, good, as you inhale, straighten the left leg, squeeze to the midline, maybe the tops of the right toes, lift the heart, chin and chest, look forward or up, exhale, bend, you've got three more pulses with the breath, great guys, last two, you're there, hi and welcome back, that was exciting, alright, so we were reaching up, draping the left hand around the waist, remember our left leg is forward, our right leg is back, bend into your left leg, reach forward with your right fingertips, touch them to the floor, lean forward and lift the right leg off the floor, a little shoulder opening, revolved, half moon, turning the torso, if you want to feel more, bring your left hand to your sacrum, lengthen and turn, keep the right heel lifting, the heart, chin and chest moving forward for that rotation, you got it, step the right foot back, slide the right hand back, pivot your right heel to the floor, so your heels are lining up or slightly train track, slowly rise up and straighten your left leg, so your right toes are moving from zero to about 30, 45, take your left hand that's around the waist and use your right hand to help slide the left hand up the spine, little Gomakasana arms, good, turn your right femur in, your left shoulder back, yeah, you're going to feel this and then inhale the palms to the sky, you can keep the hand behind the head as you lift the heart and bend the left leg or reach for your left fingertips, turn the torso to the right, lift the sternum and chest and lean back, the tailbone is doing the same thing, it's lengthening straight down, so this is a variation of warrior one with Gomakasana arms, lengthen the tailbone down, pull the navel up and back and then lift the heart, chin and chest, see if you can push a little bit more weight into that back right foot, there you go, one more round of breath, and then slowly free the left arm, free the right, let the right hand drop out to the right, same facing up and do the same with the left, so you're really just opening up, you're kind of surrendering here, it's a real big heart opening moment, moving the shoulder blades down and slightly together and then carefully bend your right knee and lower the right knee to the floor, feel free to double up underneath your knee, as you untuck the toes, lift the sternum, lift the heart, palms facing out, let the fingertips drop in the direction of the floor, melt into your soles, imagine someone's got a rope around your upper back and they're just lifting your ribs to the sky, go back to your breath, two more rounds, one more, good inhale the palms to the sky, lower your palms around the left leg, straighten the left leg, thank you left leg, that was a lot of work, either the half split here as you hug to the midline or slight to slide your left heel forward a little bit more, move into a deeper split very slowly, allow the hamstring to feel where you're taking it, those quick movements can really pull on that connection between the hamstring and the glute and those are no fun, you get an injury there, it's gonna last a long time, if your back foot is turning to the right, press to the top of the foot, try to squeeze the knee towards the midline, great guys, I hope while that little technical difficulty was happening you had a little drink or something, back up your left foot, re-bend the left leg and we're gonna finish this side off by flipping the dog or going back to our wild thing, palms around the left foot, tuck the right toes under, left leg to the sky, bend the knee, open the hip, the only difference is between the wild thing with the right straight leg is you're bending the right leg and squeezing to the midline with your inner thighs, pushing down, lifting the hips and since we took that beautiful heart opener, let's open the left arm out to the side with either a straight arm or a cactus field arm as we open and lift the heart, give yourself two more rounds of breath, push forward and down, one more, left leg to the sky, one leg of dog, this part's fun, carefully lower your right knee to the floor, gotta use a lot of core and quad work, slide your hands back so that they're right underneath your shoulders for table, shift your weight to your left hand, reach back with your right hand, lift the knee away from the floor, kick the heel away and let your left ear drop towards your left shoulder to feel that nice stretch through the trapezius muscles, slow and lengthen the breath, enjoy the stretch, maybe lift the knee a little farther away from the floor, good, slowly release the right hand to the floor, the left knee to the floor, if you're in table, walk your hands forward about a palm print, lengthen forward, bend your elbows and let your chest drop right between your thumbs, look forward, ashtanga namaskar, hips are high, sliding forward to your back bend, feel the heart opening happening, right guys? And then come on back to your table. So we started this side a long time ago in dolphin, so let's set up for our dolphin once again, replace your palms with your elbows, trying to line up the elbows and middle finger, trying to have the shoulders and elbows, the elbow shoulder distance apart, but if those hands roll in, that's okay, tuck your toes under, lift the hips, back up the chest towards the thighs, relax the muscles of the face, this time we're doing the right leg, so right leg to the sky, we've got three taps, right knee, right tricep, chin towards the thumbs, building, strengthening the muscles in the upper back and shoulders, inhaling the right leg to the sky, stretching the shoulders, relaxing the costals feels so good, two more rounds, remember that you're using the momentum of the last round to try to press up at the same time with both elbows into down dog, push, yay, we made it, good, bend your right leg, open the hip, guide the chest forward, kickstand side plank or wild thing, pivot your left foot to the floor, step the right foot back, open up through the right side body, push forward and down strongly with your right hand, great, look forward, replace your right hand, step your right foot to the front of your mat, setting up for the high lunge, so make sure your feet are hip distance, you got a lot of balance here, bring your hands to your hips, slowly rise up, tailbone lengthens down, heart lifts up, push to the back of your left heel, now we got our pulses, inhale the palms to the sky, straighten your right leg, exhale arms by the side, hinge forward, bend your right leg, reach back with your fingertips, inhale, come on back up, squeeze to the midline to help you with your balance, see, exhale fold, we don't squeeze to the midline, we're going to rear off to the right, two more rounds of breath, one more, the next time you're bowing, either stay here for your five breath or shift forward with the left foot, taking it for warrior three, shifting your weight to your right leg, lengthening the crown of the head forward, toes reach back in opposition, fingertips can reach up to create a little bit more of a back bend, step back to your high lunge, you got it, inhale the palms to the sky, straighten the right leg, drape your right hand around your waist, guide your hand over to the left, inhale the left palm to the sky, so we can stay right here or we can lean back just a little bit, setting up for a nice shoulder roll on the right side, bending into the right leg, reaching forward with the left fingertips, touching the fingertips to the floor, sliding your left foot forward about a foot, sliding your left hand forward, lengthening the spine, half moon pose with a twist to your right, so toes pointing down on the left side, squeeze to the midline, keep the hand there, bring it to the sacrum, bend the elbow and turn to the right, keep lifting and lengthening, the more you lengthen, the more you can turn, slowly step your left foot back, good, pivot your left heel to the floor, bring your hands to the hips and slowly rise up, so that when you look down, your heels are lining up, your back foot's turning in about 45, alright, take the right hand back around the waist, we're going to invite it up the spine, this could be your spot, or you can use that left hand to guide it up the spine, you might have to bring it to the elbow, guide the elbow to the midline, good, turn the left femur forward, the left inner thigh forward, roll the right shoulder blade back, inhale the left palm to the sky, and then maybe just bring the forearm behind your head, this is great, little lift and lean, if you've got the fingertips, go for it, pull the navel up and back as you start to bend into your right leg, so if you're feeling like oh I'm not going far enough, just move that right foot forward a little bit, transfer that energy to your back leg and then start to bend into your front leg in opposition, the torso is lifting and turning to the right and then maybe use the back of the head to lean back into that left forearm, big pose, start to breathe a little bit slower, a little bit deeper, free the left arm, palm facing up and turning out, free the right arm, oh that felt good, palm up, turning out, so you're reaching out to both sides, lift the heart, chin and chest and slowly bend the left knee, untucking the toes, lifting the heart to the sky, letting the fingertips drop towards the floor, squeezing the shoulder blades towards the midline and lifting the heart, chin and chest, the eye surrender pose, you deserve a couple of beautiful breaths here, lifting the heart, breathing into the heart, awesome, bring those palms back up nice and slow, hopefully the backbends are feeling a lot more open, lower the palms around the right leg, as you straighten the right leg you might have to back up the left knee or slide the right heel forward, this is your second time in this posture on this side, so you might be moving a little bit deeper into your split, move mindfully, slowly into the deeper expressions of Hanumanasana, Hanuman is a perfect character, a deity for our heart openers, if you see Hanuman the monkey god he's ripping open his chest, showing his heart, basically showing his devotion for Ram and Sita, good, just trying to distract you so you stay here a little longer, alright, slowly back up your right leg, oh that felt good, okay, so we've got our opportunity to flip the dog, when you send the right leg to the sky, this is your finale, you can go back to your wild thing with the left leg straight, bend the right knee, open the hip, pivot the left foot, or once you touch the right toes to the floor, pivot your left foot, bend your left leg, squeeze to the midline, open the heart, straighten the arm or cactus field goal, imagine squeezing the shoulder blades together, got it guys, come on forward, back to your one-legged dog, good, keeping the right leg up, carefully lowering the left knee to the floor for table pose, back up the hand so that they're right under the shoulders, we still got the right leg up, right, shift your weight to your right hand, reach back with the right hand, left hand, sorry, towards your right foot, lift the heel, now if you're not able to grab the foot that's okay, just lifting the knee, kicking the heel away from you or keeping the knee lifted will help you feel the posture, right ear maybe drops towards the right shoulder, so you feel that trapezius stretch on the left side, great guys, carefully lower that right knee down, bring your palms right under your shoulders, we're going to move into puppy pose here, so keep your knees and hips in alignment and then walk forward with your palms, back up your seat, the hips are still right over the knees, forehead to the floor is a nice soft experience, with the upper back and the shoulders are starting to open, chin and chest to the floor, looking forward softly or straight down, great, slide on forward to Suits pose, good, lower, extend your left arm out to the side just like a wing, so you can keep the left arm straight or bent if you want to feel more, from here press with your right hand and roll to the left, you're going to take a reclining dancer pose, bend your right leg, reach back with your right hand, pinky toe side of the foot softer on your right shoulder, you want to feel that right shoulder chest opening, flip your palm bicep to this guy, big toe side of the foot and then just start to move your heel away from your seat like you did earlier in that table variation, big heart opener for both sides, great everybody, slowly come back to center, as you set yourself up you're bringing your right ear to the floor, right arm out to the side like a wing, pushing with the left hand, pressing down and turning, opening up the right side pec major, pec minor, bending the left leg, grabbing the pinky toe side of the foot for a softer experience, big toe side for a deeper experience, moving the heel away from you, oh this is so good, let's just stay here forever, this pose is so good for us, especially when we're working a lot on the computers or driving, shoulders roll forward and it's a nice way just to open up everything in the front of the chest to release everything going on in the back, the over stretching in the upper back shoulders and neck, okay so let's roll back to center, prop yourself up on your forearms and then all you got to do is flip over onto your back, setting up for bridge pose with the option of wheel, okay so the heels are lining up underneath the hips, wipe my hands off here, I'm a little sweaty, we work today, push to the soles of your feet, press your triceps and elbows to the floor, next to the ribs, lift the ribs so you feel the lower back lifting off the floor, push down into the feet, lift the hips, maybe support the lower back or just grab the sides of your mat, really press down into your feet, especially the big toe sides, most people drop the knees out, let's push down and lift the ribs and lift the heart, give it one more round of breath and then we'll slowly lower down, because we've been doing so many backbends try to resist drawing the knees into the chest, give yourself a little side strut, a little windshield wiper from side to side, this releases the glutes, when we're doing our backbends we're going into extension of the spine, if we go right into flexion as we get older it's not good for our bodies, alright so we have the opportunity of going back into bridge pose, maybe interlacing your hands underneath the lower back or if you're setting up for wheel pose flip the palms, thumbs are by the ears, elbows move in towards each other, press into the feet rise to the crown of the head first and then before you lift squeeze the elbows to the midline, push into the feet and then press strongly into your legs and palms as you inhale and lift up, and hopefully you feel a little space here whether you're in bridge or you're in wheel, we did lots of juicy heart openers preparing us for this moment, now all you have to do is breathe into the heart and the ribs, don't worry about breathing into the belly, think about lifting the chest, lower back down, great, they say three is a charm or three is when you really feel the backbends, so if you've got one more join me, if not take your feet as wide as the mat, do your windshield wipers, bridge pose or set up for your wheel, same way you did last time crown of the head, squeeze to the midline and press up, oh that second one always feels good, remember to push into index and thumb as you draw the knees to the midline.

When you come down, tuck the chin to the chest, take your feet as wide as your mat, let the arms drop out and just let your knees rock from side to side, so for most of us unless we have a really strong backbending practice, the backbends actually feel like we're doing a lot more work, but they also give us a lot of energy as well. The next time you rock your hips over to the right, go ahead and pause, give yourself a little moment right here, keep the left knee dropping to the right, you want to feel more place the right ankle on top of the left thigh and then take the arms over the head grab onto the elbows and just have a couple of breaths right here. Slowing down the practice, moving a little bit deeper back into self, hopefully feeling some space between your thought patterns, a little present to self, those little spaces. Keep the right ankle on top of the left knee, release the arms, heel to your left foot to the center of the mat, this is gonna be fun, walk your left foot over to the right side of your mat, but keep the right knee opening, right, do you feel that? So it's like a reclining double pigeon, for some of you this is gonna be the spot you will feel, a few of you will start to stack like a little logs right knee on top of the left ankle, obviously if this is not good for your body just draw your left knee into the chest and be kind to yourself, most of you will find one spot for that hip opener that feels like you're feeling your resistance and that's all we need to feel.

Lengthen and slow the breath down, do a lot of hip closing now we're opening the hips, external rotation to bring a little bit of counterbalance to the practice, yay awesome guys as you unwind take your feet as wide as the mat, let those knees rock from side to side, I like the cactus feel, the alarms they just feel nice, choose an arm variation that feels good for you, the next time you take your knees over to the left go ahead and hang out, the right inner thigh is dropping towards the left, towards the floor, left ankle on top, just release that lower back IT band area, you can go back to grabbing on the elbows and just hanging out and breathing, this is kind of like hammock pose, enjoying the fruits of the practice, enjoying the space between the thoughts and enjoying living back in that heart center where you get a real retreat space from your daily activities that your character plays, alright so as you bring the right knee back to center keep the left ankle on top, remember you can just slowly lift that right knee up, figure four or walk your right foot across the mat and then let that left knee start to drop towards your right ankle, doesn't mean they have to touch, it doesn't mean they have to line up, you should feel a release in the outer back of the glute and the front of the hip, slow the breath down, lengthen it out, happy Thursday or whatever day it is that you're watching this, excellent, when you do unwind take the knees a little wider than the chest and give yourself a little rock from side to side, this could be a nice finishing pose here or a happy baby pose or whatever your body feels like is the intuitive way to end your practice, I know a lot of people have much different ways of ending their practice, I want your body to feel good and you to lose the attachment to your physical body so take a moment just to release before you set up for your shavasana, get really at ease with your body, give yourself a couple of more rounds of breath, as you do start to set up any little last wiggles of the lower body just to release some tension, the upper body, when you're ready for shavasana flip your palms up, draw your shoulder blades slightly to the midline just to open up the front of the chest, relax the muscles of the face, relax the jaw, thank your body for taking you on this cool journey today, so cool what our bodies can do, thank the breath for guiding you today, for fueling you on the journey, for energizing you, for turning the lights on, most importantly thank the mind for helping you understand, cognize, move the body, let the mind be free from any working, any doing, go back to enjoying those spaces between thoughts, maybe even drop from your headspace to your heart space and listen, listen to your connection with source, listen to your connection with higher self. Remember, you can stay much longer in your shavasana. You can tune me out and just rest, if you're joining me in movement just let your head start to turn from side to side, maybe bring a life, a little life and energy to your fingers and your toes, see if you can stay connected to the heart center as you come back to your physicality, back to your body, back to your breath, and intuitively bring some movements to the body that feel right for you. I invite you to hang out for a couple breaths in Sheedle Pose over to your right side, like to think of this as hitting the reset button, going back to that part of self that was always connected, deep sense of remembering who we are in your own time and in your own way, preferably with the eyes closed, help yourself up to your seat, just give yourself a moment to receive the practice, really absorb all the efforts, experience the energy that you are expanding beyond the physical borders and hugging back to the heart. Thank yourself for giving yourself the opportunity to connect, let this be a part of your sadhana, your personal practice, always coming back and checking in, whether it's your yoga, whether it's some form of concentration, daydreaming, meditation, always come back in and check in to self, let's bring our palms back to the heart where we started, hopefully we feel a little bit more connected and at ease with self.

Thank you so much for sharing your practice with me today, thank you for joining me on Joyful Flow, bring your palms together, namaste, the light in me is so happy to celebrate the light and you have a great week.