Fluid Spine

Welcome, thank you for being here. This practice is all about exploring movement and mobility in our spine. So it's designed to invite more ease, fluidity, and awareness through the entire spine. For this practice it'll be helpful to have a blanket on your mat and a strap nearby. Let's begin our practice on our back.

I have a blanket patting the spine, so we might do that as well. And let's take a few moments as you come onto your back. Go ahead and bend your knees, bring your feet just a little wider than your hips, and let your knees rest towards each other. And bring your hands onto your belly, be down around the lower belly. We'll take just a few moments here as we transition into our practice.

Begin to allow the weight of the body, allow the weight of the bones to settle and release towards the earth, towards the floor. Are you feeling the presence of the back body releasing? Notice where you can soften a bit through the face, the jaw. Feeling the weight of the head release, the upper body, the shoulder blades, down through the lower back. What would it feel like to allow the weight of the pelvis to sink into the floor?

Begin to draw your awareness now towards the breath. Notice the quality of the breath, the movement of the breath in the body and any sensations that are rising. Looking for another moment or two to settle. Perhaps feeling or sensing the movement of the breath beneath the hands and the belly. Let's stay with this as we ease our way into cat-cow on the back, so exploring some spinal waves and undulation.

Go ahead and open your arms up into the shape of cactus or goal post arms. As you bend your knees, bring the feet about hips-width apart. Keep your pelvis on the floor and begin to let your back arch. Lift your lumbar spine up as you come into the shape of the back bend here. Keep your pelvis on the floor as you exhale, curl the tailbone under.

Feel the navel draw towards the spine, press into the heels and as you inhale, big breath into the belly. Let your back arch, feel the chin soften down towards the chest and with your exhale, curl the tailbone under. Feel the lower back, connect to the floor, that strong scooping of the deep low belly as you press into the heels, let the head rock back and up and then continue exploring at your own pace with the breath, articulating the spine, this nice, fluid, relaxed movement here. Inhale, let the back arch, lift the lumbar spine up, chin softens down, exhale, curl the tailbone under, navel the spine, head rocking back and up. A few more rounds like this, feeling this cranial sacral rocking, spreading your awareness between the movement of your pelvis and the movement of your neck and head.

Inhale to arch and exhale to curl, maybe one or two more rounds like this, warming the spine, good, and then just relax the effort for a moment. From here, go ahead and bring your hands behind your head, so interlace the fingers behind the head and take a few moments here, feel how you can press your elbows into the floor and activating the upper body and the shoulder blades and then move into your arch position. Go into that extension, that back bend, lift the lumbar spine up and as you exhale, manually lift your head up off the floor, we're doing a sit up and draw the tailbone under, elbows towards each other. Slow lower down, open the elbows, the lungs arch the back, exhale, curl and lift, elbows towards each other, tailbone draws under. Let's explore a few more together, inhale, open the lungs, the elbows, arch the back, exhale, lift and curl, lowering down, inhale, arch, exploring the full range of movement through your spine, exhale, lift and curl, releasing the tissues around the back of the heart, shoulder blades, diaphragm, maybe one more, exhale, lift and curl, lowering down, this time we'll inhale, arch and let's move across the body, bringing the left elbow towards the right knee, lower down, inhale to arch, exhale, right elbow, left knee, lower down, elbows wide, arch the back, exhale, left elbow, right knee, lower down, one more, inhale to arch, exhale, right elbow, left knee, lower down, inhale, arch and then just exhale, release, take a moment, release the arms, let's stretch the legs out one at a time, relax the effort and notice how you feel, feeling some warmth or pulsations through the body, just allow for a clearing breath, inhale, exhale, release, when you're ready go ahead and bend your knees and let's hug the knees into the chest, easing in, rock a little bit from side to side, feeling into your back body, muscles around the spine, into the lower back, we'll take this rocking in a circular direction so the hands can stay on the knees or you can release your arms, let's circle the knees in one direction, massaging the perimeter of the sacrum, feeling the glute area down through the tailbone, top of the sacrum and keeping it relaxed through the upper body as you feel a bit more work through the abdominals and the hip flexors, we'll take this circle in the other direction and you're just exploring a range of movement that feels good without overdoing it or strain, good, come back to center, pause for a moment and then ground the feet with the knees bent, let's go ahead and look for our strap and let's go ahead and bring the strap around the bottom of both of our feet, so we'll stretch the legs up towards the sky and keep a soft bend through the knees and really let the bottoms of the feet open here, so feel how you can spread the toes nice and wide, soften the grip through the fingers, letting the shoulder blades release down and we'll hang out here for about a minute or so releasing the hamstrings and tuning into the back body the feeling the presence of the back body, the back of the lungs, down through the mid ribs, into the kidneys, down through the lower back and the sacrum, notice the quality of your breathing and where you can soften, putting space between the eyebrows, throat, just a few more moments here in this inversion, bringing some blood and energy down into the pelvis and the heart and the brain and you're welcome to stay here a bit longer, when you feel ready to release, just slowly remove the strap and go ahead and bend the knees, ground the feet and we'll make our way into rolling bridge, so go ahead and ground the soles of the feet, bring the heels in line with your sitting bones and just with the arms down alongside the body, feel the essence of your cat cow here, inhale arching, exhale curling and then from here we'll add the bridge, so next time you inhale and arch the back, exhale curl the tailbone under, press through the feet and lift your pelvis up, you can feel the front of the body lengthening, that internal rotation through your thigh bones, a bit of buoyancy up through the lungs and with your exhale roll the spine down slow, upper back, middle back, low back and this time we'll add the arms with rolling bridge, inhale let the back arch, exhale curl the tailbone under, press through the feet, lift the pelvis up, lift the arms up, you're in the full expression of the bridge and when you're ready exhale lower everything down, arms, upper back, mid back, low back, inhale arch, exhale curl, press lift, arms, you're in the full expression of bridge lengthening, exhale roll the spine down slow, upper back, middle back, low back, let's find one more round like this, inhale, exhale curl, press through the feet, lift the pelvis up, lengthen and spreading the effort evenly through the body, exhale rolling down, upper back, mid back, low back, sacrum, this time we'll keep the arms overhead, inhale arch, exhale curl, press through the feet, lift the pelvis up and you're in the full expression of bridge, arms overhead, keep the arms overhead this time as you roll down nice and slow, articulating the spine, upper back, mid back, eventually low back, inhale to arch, exhale curl, press through the feet, lift the pelvis up, lengthening, arms stay overhead, exhale round the spine down slowly like a wave, beautiful last one here, inhale to arch, exhale press through the feet, curl the tailbone, lift the pelvis, lengthen the front body and exhale we'll roll everything down, arms, upper back, mid back, low back and pause, allow for an inhale, exhale release, ease into windshield wipers from here, stretch your arms straight out from the shoulders, bring your feet maybe as wide as your mat, let your knees fall over to one side, cruising on to inner outer edges of the feet, inhale back up and exhale over to the other side and then continue finding your own rhythm here and what would it feel like to let your head rock away from your knees, so feeling this kind of counter rotation through your whole spine, let's experiment this first round here with the palms up, now as your knees fall towards the right, press through the inner outer edges of the feet, let your back arch so find your kind of cow as you gaze towards the left arm, good letting the knees come back up to center, exhale knees to the left, arch the back and lift the kidneys in as you gaze towards the right, beautiful let's try that one more on each side, knees over to the right, press arch, lift, gaze to the left, inhale back and over to the left, press arch twist gaze and back, let's try one round with the palms down, inhale back and over to the other side and back up and then stretch the arms overhead and keep a soft bend through the elbows, nice and fluid through the hips and the spine, feel how you can reach and lengthen through the arms, opening up through the side body, the ribs, down through the diaphragm into the psoas, hip flexors and then as you're ready, hug your knees into your chest and rock from side to side again, come here, let's go ahead and flip on over onto our bellies, so coming into a prone position and as you come onto your belly, let your elbows go wide and just go ahead and rest your forehead on your hands and take a few moments here, just feel the weight of the pelvis releasing, the weight of the head releasing and feeling the belly and the organs releasing, maybe even a little pulsation in the belly and bring your awareness into the back body, breathing into the back mid ribs, down into your kidneys, feeling the fullness of breath there and at any moment in our back bending you're welcome to right back to this shape and pause, when you feel ready, go ahead and rise up into sphinx pose, so lifting up onto the forearms and bringing your elbows just slightly forward of your shoulders, arms are about shoulder width apart and feel how you can draw the shoulder blades down the back, feel the extension through your neck, be softening through the face a bit here, notice where you can relax any tension or engagement through the legs, allow for an exhale here, a few more moments, you might stay right here in your sphinx pose, you might experiment with bringing the hands around the elbows and feeling the space through your collar bones, the length out of your lower back, you might keep your legs right where they are, you might even experiment with bending your knees, bringing your heels in closer towards your sitting bones and shortening the hamstrings here, if this brings too much sensation in the low back or pressure, just go ahead and release the legs and you might stay here in one of these variations of sphinx, if and as it feels good and curious for your body, you might play towards the shape of seal and in seal the palms turn out and the arms are straightish, maybe there's a soft bend through the elbows and then feeling into lifting out of the low back, find a place where your neck feels good, jaw softening, I find here in seal the sensation is more in the mid thoracic spine but if and as you want to feel more through the lower back, you might experiment with walking your hands in a little bit closer towards your pelvis and allow for an exhale and especially in these longer, the in holds, there tends to be kind of a dull pooling of pressure in the low back around the sacrum, really discerning the difference between sensation and pain versus compression, you might stay here a bit longer, when you feel ready to lower, just slowly come back down onto your forearms, into your sphinx, pause for a moment, when you're ready to fully release, let your elbows go wide again, rest your forehead on your hands, draw your awareness into the back body and take a nice full breath into the kidneys, into the mid ribs, exhale, release, from here exploring a variation of cobra or bhujangasana, so let's keep our arms where they are, elbows wide, forehead resting on the hands and go ahead and tuck your toes under, so the legs are active with this, tuck the toes under, walk the toes towards your face and then lift your knees up off the floor and feel that action through the legs, the quad muscles, the knee caps are lifting, the hamstrings are active here, feel the weight of the pelvis sinking into earth, keep your legs active and as you inhale begin to lift your chest up, kind of coiling up like a cobra and then from here play with this action of kind of wiggling or drawing your navel towards your hands, so you're creating a bit of traction through the spine as you reach the heels away lengthening through the top of the head, you might feel a shortening of muscles in the back body, the low back, the paraspinal muscles drawing into the spine and you're finding that appropriate edge of lift, right?

Feel the strength of the back body as you inhale and exhale, release everything, melt down, untuck the toes, release the head and pause, take a nice full breath into the back body, wide into the ribs, the kidneys, exhale, release. One more round here, tucking the toes under again, stretch back through the heels, lift the knees strong through the legs, feel the weight of the pelvis releasing and as you inhale lift up through the chest, feel the navel draw towards the hands, nice and broad through the collarbones, reaching back through the heels, forward through the crown of the head, again you're only lifting up as high as it feels right for you, so maybe it's just an inch off the floor, feeling the strength of the back body here, hamstrings, glutes and paraspinal muscles, the support and strength of the back, you might even feel or sense one side of the back is a little weaker or tighter than the other, I know for me I feel that, exhale, release when you're ready, release the forehead, point the toes, nice full breath again into the back body, exhale, release. From here go ahead and just let your hips shimmy from side to side, relaxing any kind of surface tension through the back body, beautiful, as you feel ready let's go ahead and bring the forehead down, slide the palms underneath you and let's go ahead and press our way up onto our knees and ease our way back into a child's pose, go ahead and bring the knees wide, big toes towards each other and lower yourself down and you might even can stack your fists underneath your forehead or bring your elbows wide or forehead to the earth, whatever feels best for you, really honoring your body, your knees, your hips, your own internal rhythms, if for any reason child's pose does not feel delicious and nourishing you might find the shape on your back with the knees into the chest, a few moments here offering a counter pose or a counter stretch for the spine after back bending and you might explore breathing into the back body without strain or force or pushing, missing how the breath really follows our attention and intention, you might stay here a bit longer when you feel ready, rise up into tabletop and I'm going to take a moment to fold the blanket and bring it underneath the knees in preparation for downward dog, so let's find a few rounds of cat cow here in tabletop, spread the fingers nice and wide, if it feels good go ahead and tuck the toes under and go ahead and lift the sitting bones nice and broad through the collar bones drop the belly, again you're in the shape of the back bend and as you exhale round and stretch your back, this might feel really nice, draw the hips towards the heels a little bit, tuck the toes under and I feel that maybe dull achy stretch through the back body, again shoulders over the wrist, drop the belly, inhale lift, exhale round and stretch, a few more rounds like this moving at your own pace and rhythm, you might soften the gaze inward and closing the eyes you might circle the hips, the rib cage and exploring any nooks and crannies through the body that wants your attention, good, eventually easing our way into a downward dog just to get an inversion here, spread the fingers wide, tuck the toes under and as you're ready go ahead and lift your hips up and just start by bending your knees here and as you bend your knees feel how you can wiggle and lift and stretch your sitting bones up towards the sky, really rooting through the hands nice and broad through the upper back and as you bend your knees feel how you can find a little bit more extension here, again weight of the head releasing, you've got the blood flowing down into heart and brain, allow for another inhale, when you feel ready just slowly lower the knees back down, maybe there's another round of cat cow here or child's pose, when you're ready we'll find one more variation of down dog and this variation will play with spreading the fingers just a little bit wider, fanning the fingers a little bit wider, feel how you can drop the belly, lift the sitting bones and then exhale again lift up, this time you might play with walking your feet as wide as your mat, wide down dog variation, again knees bending and wiggle and reach the sitting bones up, feel this beautiful, beautiful extension your spine, maybe you're playing with letting the heels get heavy towards the earth, make sure you're not compromising the extension the spine, so if your back starts rounding go ahead and bend your knees and feel that buoyancy up through your sitting bones, again weight of the head releasing, notice the quality of your breathing, easy through the eyes, take your time as you lower bring your feet about hips width apart in your down dog and then lower your knees, one last child's pose here or anything else, knees wide, sink the hips back, notice what you choose to do with your arms, maybe supporting your head, maybe releasing your arms alongside your body, letting a nourishing breath into the back, exhale soften the jaw, the belly, sinking the hips towards heels, nice, you might stay with this a bit longer, when you feel ready just slowly, mindfully transition up, we're gonna find a seat here, so take a moment to, you might sit up on your blanket, we'll come into a seated nisukasana shape, shin to shin, adding a bit more lateral movement, side bending, flexing the ankles, take a few moments here, feel that length in your spine, and then as you're ready we'll reach the right arm out and inhale lift the left arm up towards the sky, just feel how you can root down through that left sitting bone and lean a little bit forward and back, feeling the space through the ribs and breathing wide into the intercostals, opening the lung, you might stay with this, you might walk the right fingertips out with the soft bend through your elbow and stretch your top arm up out and over, breathing into where you feel it, might move around in there revolving your ribcage down towards the floor and then spiraling the ribcage up towards the sky, be a few times like this, and breathing into where you feel it, finding ease through your neck, really let this movement, this exploration, feel good, you might find a spot where you want to pause, your arm might be reaching and floating in space, you might even bend your elbow and support your head with your hand as you open up through the lung and the shoulder, when you feel ready to release, stretch the arm out and with the inhale let that arm bring you all the way up, take a moment to pause and notice how you feel, yeah, as you're ready go ahead and lean back and just switch the cross to the legs, bring the opposition in front and wobble into the sitting bones, feel into the second side, bring the left hand down to the floor, inhale reach the top right arm up to the sky and just start by mapping the sensation and then bring the left hand down to the floor, inhale reach the top right arm up to the sky, reach the top right arm up to the sky and just start by mapping the sensation as you root down through the right hip and sitting bone, lean a little bit forward and back, you might be able to find a little bit more length out of the low back and the waist, you might stay with this, you might walk the fingertips out with a soft bend in your elbow and stretch the top arm up out and over, you might play with rounding the spine down towards the floor, spiraling out through the ribs, the heart, again round stretch the back and spiraling opening and lengthening, a few more moments here, you might continue the movement or oscillation, you might find a spot where you want to pause and breathing into where you feel it, you can find that ease in the neck, maybe you're looking down, you're straight ahead, take your time as you're ready, on an inhale reach with that top arm and let it carry you back up and pause and notice how you feel, nice, from here let's find a little bit more ease in the neck, a little soften the chin down towards the chest, just roll the right ear towards the right shoulder and go ahead and walk your left fingertips out and you might stay right here breathing into the neck where you feel it, you might slowly bring the head and the gaze down a little bit towards your right knee, again easy through the eyes and maybe nodding the head up and moving into the scalings, a bit more into the shoulder and the underbelly of the neck and the throat, up through the face, maybe a few more moments like this nodding the head gently, breathing, and take your time when you're ready to release just slow roll the chin back down towards the chest and bring the left ear towards the left shoulder, walk the right fingertips out kind of lengthen through the arm, you might stay right here, you might nod the head down, feel how the sensation travels maybe down the neck into the shoulder and the arm maybe nodding the head up and the side feels totally different, you might continue with the nodding up and down of oscillating, again you might find a spot where you want to pause kind of linger and breathe, releasing any stickiness or stagnation, you might stay with this a bit longer when you feel ready just roll the chin back down, relax through the right arm and then just slowly lift the chest and lift the head, just roll the shoulders up for a moment and exhale, release, roll them up again and release and one more, that feels nice and release, move towards a seated twist, so I'm going to turn to the side so you can see, we'll move into a mariachis and a c, so a seated twist will work with a strap here and stretch the legs out and if your spine is rounding here you might sit up a little higher maybe on a bolster or a stack of blankets here stretching the legs out and from here go ahead and bend your left knee so the right leg is staying long and toe heel the foot just a little wider than your sitting bones so that left foot is forward and parallel and you can let your right knee bend now as you go ahead and bring your strap around the bottom of your right foot, from here we're going to reach our left arm around and reach for the strap, so the strap is around the back right hip and then we're reaching around with the hand and then with your right hand you're going to twist and wrap it around your left leg there, start by bending your right knee and feel how you can press and lengthen through the right heel, let that help rotate your ribs and twist you and this is a really deep twist, the strap can bring us even deeper into it so if it feels overwhelming you can just release the strap you'll have as you inhale you can kind of draw the kidneys in draw the spine into the back and exhale twist extending a bit more through that right leg so the right leg is active the heart and chest is lifting again any pain or impingement through the left shoulder just kind of release the tension or the slack the strap, a few more moments here breathing and inhale to lengthen and exhale to twist stay in the shape and just slowly rotate your head forward and then feeling that counter rotation through your spine inhale and then exhale slow unwind oh how did that feel go ahead and stretch the left leg out and shake the legs out for a moment and find the other side as you're ready go ahead and bend your right knee and you might bring the foot just a little wider than your sitting bone and we'll bend the left knee and bring the strap around the bottom of the left foot and then go from here go ahead and bring the strap right around your left hip from here we'll reach our right arm around you can see it this time as I grab the strap with the right hand and then take that left arm and hug the right knee bend the left knee lift through the spine and then extend and press through the heel let that help kind of rotate the ribs drawing you deeper into the twist and inhale drawing the spine into the back exhale twisting to the right feel that energy through the extended left leg the energy out through the spine the top of the head again really customize it for your right shoulder so if it feels like if it's overwhelming in the shoulder go ahead and release this the slack or the tension on the strap good stay on the twist and then slowly rotate the head forward towards the front of your mat feeling this counter rotation in your spine inhale here and as you're ready exhale slowly unwind and stretch the right leg out remove the strap and bring it off to the side just find a simple seated forward fold inhale to lengthen and then exhale maybe there's a soft bend in your knees as you slide the hands down the shins take a moment here in this extension shoulder softening down the back and with your exhale it might feel good and nice to let your back round a little bit here again breathing into the back body releasing the weight of the head if it feels overwhelming on your hamstrings again you can bend the knees here or even roll a towel underneath the knees just pausing here in this symmetrical shape for a few moments and taking your time slow as you're ready rounding your way up pausing here using our way into a cross-legged seat we'll take a few moments to close our practice seated or if you have the time and space for a shavasana and you prefer lying down you might stretch out on your back it's coming into a comfortable seat and feeling the essence of your cat cow this kind of freedom and undulation through the spine and ease all the way out through the base of your skull and feel how the base of the skull can gently float back and up as the chin softens down notice the quality of the breath and without doing anything specific with the breath the lungs and the body receiving the breath and releasing the breath and feeling the presence of the back body and soft through the face heart belly you're welcome to stay and rest in whatever shape you're in as long as you'd like and you feel ready to close your practice and bring your hands together at the heart and let's rub the hands together and feeling the warmth and bring one hand to the heart one hand to the belly and allow for an inhale and exhale namaste thank you for your practice