Day 11: Celebrate Joy

Hi, everybody, welcome to day 11 of week three, Trust the Connection online yoga retreat. I'm happy to be here and I'm even happier because today we are talking about joy. How cool is it that we get to focus on joy for a whole week? Last week we talked about connection and all of the teachers had the same intuitive sense to have that connection somewhere at the center of self. So when we connect today, wherever you felt that connection at center of self, I invite you to go back there.

As we explore joy today, movements of joy, opening the heart, playing with some movements of our shoulders and our hips, more rotation, I invite you to use two blocks for our little standing splits and some other variations today. So let's get settled in, find a nice comfortable seat. You can move your padding back a little bit. And as you settle in, go back to that space where you felt connection. So for me, it's at the heart space, so I'm bringing my hands to the heart.

And I'm going to invite the breath to be a little bit longer, slower, fuller and deeper. We can bring our awareness and attention to our breath. Beautiful Buddhist monk, not Han, said that joy is in every breath. So maybe we can just explore inviting a little expansiveness with each inhale and seeing if we can appreciate each of those breaths. Life giving force.

Start to stretch out all four parts of the breath, a nice, slow, deep inhale. Enjoy a little pause. And as you exhale, slowly draw the navel to the spine to help move the breath out. As you connect with your breath, let's extend the arms and expand a little bit. So as you inhale, reach the arms a little higher than your shoulders, take them out like a little star right there, and then hug the arms back to the center of yourself.

Inhale, send it out once again, expansion, enjoy expanding the body and the energetic body that we're working with, hug back to self. We're all energy, send that energy out, expand the borders a little bit. And then hug back to self. Two more times. As you lift up and open the arms, maybe the heart lifts a little bit more, maybe the chin lifts a little bit more.

You can smile, smiling's good, and invites you to find a little bit of ease in the body, a little ease in the present moment. One more time, inhale it all the way up. And then this time, as you exhale, slide your hands right down to your shins. We'll play with a little cat and cow tilt, so the front of the body. As you exhale, round the spine, lean back a little bit.

And as you inhale, glide the heart forward, lift the chin away from the chest, maybe look up as you press your shins to the floor. As you exhale, round the spine, draw the navel up and back, and as you inhale, glide forward. You can take a little rock forward and backward as you play with these movements of the spine. Give it one more round. As you come to a neutral spine, slide your palms on top of the knees, let your right ribcage lean out and over the right thigh as you inhale.

Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, roll to your left. And as you exhale, round the spine, draw the navel up and back, shift your weight right to left, lean forward to the right, lengthen all the way forward, round the spine. These nice little torso circles as we explore a circumduction of the spine help us to feel that movement and that freedom of the spine. Give yourself two more rounds in the same direction. The next time you are bowing forward, you can take a little pause right there and then switch the direction, round back with your exhale, lean forward and lengthen with the inhale.

If you want to feel this rotation, the cervical spine as well, you can let the head and torso, head and neck start to roll just like the torso is rolling. Enjoy one more round. And when you come up to your tall spine, allow your spine to just kind of wave from side to side. Let it wave from side to side and then inhale the palms to the sky as you wave from side to side. Kind of like you're on a roller coaster or I always connect this with that song back in the 80s or 90s, we are the world.

Remember that one? I don't know, it feels celebratory. The next time you wave the arms over to the right, bring the right fingertips to the floor, send the left arm up and over the ear and then inhale it back up and then exhale, wave to your left, bring the left fingertips to the floor, right arm up and over the ear. Inhale back to center. Let's take a couple of more of these side bends, making them feel really good and intuitive.

Inhale it back to center and then exhale it over to your left. The next time you inhale back to center, pause and reach out with that right arm. Take a moment here to feel through the right side body and then we're going to sweep the arms forward like we did in those torso circles. Slide your arms forward, reach out with the left hand, side bend on the right side. Big inhale here.

Feel the right side body and exhale, sweep forward and all the way over to your right, right fingertips to the floor, left palm to the sky. Open up a little deeper through the left side body and then sweep it on forward, back over to your left. One more time, the next time you sweep over to your right, hang out right there. Lift that left rib, lift the right rib cage. Give yourself a little bit more space.

Turn the torso slightly to the left and if you want to feel more, bend that right elbow just a little bit and inflate, inflate, inflate on the left side body and find space. Left hand on top of the right thigh, right fingertips behind, lift the length of the spine. Get as tall as you can as you exhale, rotate to your right, lengthen, lift and rotate. Give yourself one more, enjoy this motion of the spine, this rotation of the spine. Keep the left hand where it is.

Inhale the right arm on top of, cross the left arm, bring the knees together, grab onto the outer left thigh and then press the knees away and just feel your way through the upper back and shoulders. I like to take my head from side to side to feel the triceps and then draw the knees back in, perfect. Press the knees away, good, and draw the knees back in. As you draw the knees back in, go ahead and release the arms. Inhale the palms to the sky, exhale, take that little side bend to your right and we'll sweep just once forward and over to your left and we'll hang out over there with the right arm reaching up to the sky, slide that right ribcage back so we're taking a little twist as we move into side flexion and then remember you can bend that left elbow if you want to feel a little bit more resistance, enjoy the side body, breathe into it.

You can bring that smile back in, especially as you inflate, you feel expansive once again. Right hand on top of the right thigh, left fingertips behind you, get as tall as you can through the spine, lift, lengthen and then turn the torso to the left, rotate, lift and lengthen, see if you can find a little bit more extension of the spine and rotate into the space that you created. Right hand stays, left palm to the sky, squeeze the right knee towards the midline, left hand grabs the outer right thigh, press away and just feel your way through the upper back and traps a little traction for the muscles around the neck, hug to the midline and pulse two more times, feel your way around, great everybody, last round, good. As you unwind, you can release the arms, I'll meet you in table pose, you can swing the legs around or you can draw the heels in, reach the palms forward and float those legs back and through, knees under the hips, palms right under the shoulders, we're gonna take a really slow cat and cow tilt just from the lower back down, so as you exhale, start to point the tailbone towards the earth, pull the navel up, don't move the mid, upper back or the neck and as you inhale, tailbone starts to lift, heart starts to move forward just ever so slightly, so we're really just playing with a pelvic tilt, forward and backward, good, give it two more rounds focusing on that lower back sacral area, now you can start to add the mid back, pause right when you feel right where the shoulder blades are and don't move the head and neck here, rounding the spine with the exhale, gliding the heart forward, softening the belly, moving the rib cage forward, keep the neck neutral, last round, I know you want to move the head, I know it feels weird to not move the head here, now the head moves last, as you round the spine, you can tuck the chin to the chest last, as you guard the heart, guide the heart, chin and chest forward, you can lift the chin last, let the tailbone, the sacrum be the leader of these movements, it'll feel like a nice rolling massage all the way through, give it one more round of breath, great everybody and then go ahead and find your neutral spine, shift your weight to your right leg, extend the left leg long, push the toe pads into the floor and we're just going to pulse forward and backward, waking up the calf muscles on that left side and pushing actively forward with the muscles of the hands, if you want to feel more, hug the right knee up into the chest as you pulse forward and backward, firing up the core muscles and the muscles in the chest and the arms, waking up creating a little heat, lower the knee right back to the floor if it was off, right under the hip, look forward, cow tilt the spine, scorpion tail, bend the left leg, toes to the sky, guide the heart, chin and chest forward, as you exhale round the spine, push down and forward with the hands, knee towards the forehead and as you inhale go back to the cow tilt of the spine, toes to the sky, ribs move forward. Two more rounds of breath, if you want to play with those last two with the right knee off the floor, you can tuck and hover, you'll feel a little bit more work on the arms and the chest.

Last one, the next time you lift the left leg if your right knee is off the floor, lower down, straighten the left leg, keep the leg straight, turn your toes to the left to open the hip, turn your toes down and to the right to close the hip, play with a couple of movements and start to look in the direction that your toes turning, over the shoulder and over your right shoulder as you close the hip. Give it one more round, the next time you close the hip with your toes pointing down, slide your left foot across the mat a couple inches and press into the pinky toe side of the foot, look over your right shoulder and give it just a little pulse, neutral and then a little side bend to your right. So you feel that IT band outer hip on the left side, little hamstring stretch too. Last one, good, left leg back to the sky, toe pads back to the floor, pivot the heel, easy side plank on the right hand. You can keep the right leg down or you can take any variation that calls you, I like to cross my ankle on top so I get that nice squeeze to the midline.

Arm variation of your choice, just push actively forward and down with your right hand. Come on back to table pose and in your table now come up to your fingertips, take a little weight off of the wrists, guide forward slowly to your cow and cat tilt, head lifts last. Remember that massaging movement as we explored the spine from the sacrum all the way up to the cervical spine. Make it feel good. I like to make the yoga feel good.

Great, neutral spine, palms back to the floor, lift your right leg off the floor, press the toe pads down into the floor as you straighten the right leg. We're going to pulse back into the heel and calf muscle and then forward firing up the muscles of the fingers and the hands. As you shift your weight forward and backward, remember you can glide the knee up into the chest to create a little bit more heat for this journey. Last two, pulsing forward and backward. Last one, left knee back to the floor under the hip, cow tilt the spine, bend the right leg, scorpion tail, move your ribs, heart, chin and chest forward.

Exhale round the spine, draw the right knee to the forehead, inhale, lengthen, look forward. Pinky toe, big toe to the sky. Round it. Remember we're doing two more. If you want to lift that left knee off the floor for the last two to feel a little bit more work, feel free to play, hover it off the floor with your toes tucked.

Next time you send your right leg to the sky, lower the left knee down if it's off the floor, straighten your right leg, open the hip, turn the toes to the right, look over your right shoulder, close it, toes down and over to your left. Pinky toe side of the foot to the floor. Close with your breath, looking over the right shoulder as you open the hip, looking over your left shoulder as you close one more round. The next time you close the hip, slide your right toes over to the left. If possible, bring the pinky toe side of your right foot to the floor and look over your left shoulder, a little pulse to center and then over the shoulder so you feel a little massaging action in the outer hip IT bend area.

One more round of breath. Alright everybody, I can feel it, I hope you can. Right leg lifts off the floor, touch the toe pads of the right foot to the floor, pivot the heel, side plank on your left hand, right hand to the sky. If you're going deeper, modify or mirror whatever you did on the other side, cross the legs or create the arm variation of your choice. Two more rounds of breath.

One more. Back to your table pose. Have a seat on your heels and we'll do a little wrist stretch, a little interlace of the hands, little figure eights. Give yourself a moment to feel your way around the wrist. Good.

Let's switch which index finger is on top. Another opportunity to send some good energy out, send it out. Alright, let's come back to our table pose. Legs under the hips, palms right under the shoulders. From your table, walk your hands a palm print forward, tuck your toes under, push actively forward with your hands, lift your hips to the sky, chest to the thighs.

Pedaling the legs up like a nice and slow little walk in place as you actively press forward. For some people, the little walk in place brings them joy. For some people, they need a little bit more energy, like a little jog in place. If you're a runner and that brings you joy, go ahead and pull the knees up into the chest and play with a little running movements. Good.

And then settle into your dog just for a moment. Push actively forward with your palms, lengthen forward to your plank pose. Lower all the way down. Replace your palms with your elbows, taking a little easy cow and cat tilt for the mid and upper spine, round the spine, tuck your chin to the chest. Look forward, heart forward, shoulder blades, soften down, round and glide forward.

A nice little lower back curve stays there as we explore this feeling in the upper back and neck. Good. And then from your Sphinx pose, you can replace the elbows with your palms, pressing up to table or all the way up to plank and back to your down dog. Great. Shift your weight to your right leg and inhale your left leg to the sky.

The height of your hip reaches far back as you can with your left heel. Keep the heel the height of your hip so that you feel that right hamstring calf stretch as you reach back with your left heel. Keep the left heel, the height of your hip, lengthen forward to plank pose. And then option one, come up to your right fingertips. Your right hand is now on holiday.

Wrist is really happy or look forward and shake with your right hand. Reach forward like you're grabbing a friend's hand for two for one side plank on the right hand. Pivot. Remember you can always bring that right knee or forearm to the floor. If you're stacking, really push forward and down to save the wrist.

Form variation of your choice, do something that feels good. Great. Let's take a nice slow Vinyasa plank pose, bend the elbows, lower down, come up to your fingertips and walk your fingertips off your mat, slide the ribs forward. And then we'll just going to lift up to a little fingertip cobra and then we'll lower back down tops of the feet on the floor. Legs engage, heart moving forward as you lift.

Be in charge of how much you need to lift up, shouldn't feel anything in the lower back. As you lower down, palms back to the ribs, meet you in down dog. Once again, choose your way up and back, that'll lean it out one more time. Shift your weight to your left leg this time and lift the right heel, the height of your hip. Keep the foot flex, reach for the back wall.

Like you're trying to step on the wall behind you. This will help you feel that calf stretch on that left ankle, the ankle pressing, the heel pressing towards the floor, the left hamstring. Great. Move forward to plank pose, keep the right leg the same height as your hip. Come up to your left fingertips, left hands on holiday right now.

If you want it to work a little bit more, reach forward the height of your shoulder like you're shaking a friend's hand. One more round of breath, have fun with the balance. Left hand to the floor, pivot your heels to the left for your version of side plank. Remember, you can bring that left knee to the floor. Try to mirror whatever you did on the other side.

Take an arm variation or leg variation that makes you happy. Good. And then we'll lower all the way down. Lengthen forward, bend the elbows. Stay down on your core, a nice little pec stretch, left arm out to the side like a wing, roll it on over, and then go back to your breath.

If you want to bend one or both legs, just make sure you're enjoying the stretch on the left side body. You're not pushing too much. As you inflate, you'll feel a little resistance, enjoy the resistance, viva la resistance. As you come on back to center, lie on your core. You'll extend the right arm out to the side like a wing, right ear to the floor, slow roll over.

Same opportunity. One or both legs, invite the breath to be as full as it was when you began. Two more rounds of breath. One more. As you unwind, palms by the ribs, you might feel a little bit more space at the front of the body.

Maybe it's a cobra, maybe you're starting to open up to that up dog, shrugging the shoulder blades down, toes untucked, heart moves forward, rib cage moves forward, shoulder blades move back. Tuck the toes under, press back to the down dog of your choice. Any little movements that feel right for you right now before we walk or float the feet to the front of the mat. At the finale of the next exhale, bend the knees, start your journey forward. Lengthen the spine for your flat back, and as you exhale and forward fold, just give yourself a little hang time.

Enjoy the fold, whether it's a sway from side to side or forward and backward. Enjoy the soft forward fold reverse flow of blood. So good for the top of the lungs. Great. With your knees bent, bring your hands to your quads, a soft supported chair pose, lengthen and lift.

One more round or two of cow and cat tilts here just to feel our way through the spine. And then as you exhale, you can round all the way up, inhale the palms to the sky. Exhale your palms right into prayer and give yourself a moment to check back in. Maybe bring that smile back to your face. Enjoy the breath.

Enjoy the connection, keeping that connection with the breath. If you'd like to join me for an om as you bow to the floor, feel free, inhale the palms to the sky, heart tune and chest lift. As you exhale, hinge at the hips. Palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back. As you exhale, bend both knees and walk or float your feet back to plank.

Lower down, glide through your back bend, make it feel good. Send it back to your down dog. As you settle into your down dog, shift your weight towards your left foot, inhale the right leg to the sky, toes pointing down. Lift your left heel as far away from the floor as you can. Keep the right heel lifted, bow a little deeper towards your left shin.

Keep the right leg high, slowly melt your left heel to the floor, say hi to your calf muscle. Do that one more time. Left heel away from the floor, push actively forward with both hands, right leg a little higher, melt the left heel to the floor. On the next exhale, round the spine, draw the right knee towards the forehead, look forward, step the right foot between the hands. Great.

Left hand stays, inhale the right palm to the sky for the twist. Push back into your left heel. Right hand right behind the base or right behind the head. Keep the hand, the palm there, and then elbow, right elbow to the sky for a little rotation. As you exhale, take the right elbow in front of your left forearm or in that direction, and then inhale back to the sky.

Four more pulses, pulse, exhale with your, pulse with your exhale, inhale that right elbow to the sky. Two more rounds of breath. Inhale the right elbow up, one more. The next time you send your right elbow to the sky, go ahead and straighten the arm, lengthen and lift the right rib cage up, soft turn to your right, rotate, beautiful. Right hand to the floor, outside of the right foot, left knee to the floor, go ahead and straighten the right leg.

This is where you might need your blocks, you might want to walk your hands or your blocks back, half split. Let's go into plantar flexion, pressing the toe pads to the floor, feeling that calf again, and then dorsiflexion, drawing the toes towards your shin. So you can think of putting on the gas or the brake, whichever one you do better, and then pulling the toes back each time. You'll feel the hamstring and calf connection here. One more round, draw the toes towards the shin, lengthen the spine, guide the spine a little bit longer so you feel the hamstring.

And then bring both hands inside of the right leg as you bend the right leg, tuck the left toes under, pivot your left heel, take a slow walk over to your left. The right toes will join the left, slightly turn your toes up just a little bit. And then feel free to just sway from side to side as you sway to the left, bend the left leg, as you sway to the right, bend the right leg. If you want to feel more in the legs, less weight on the hands, fingertips, or bring your hands to your hips and enjoy the torso sway as you shift your weight from side to side. If your hands aren't at your hips, bring your hands to your hips, take a little bend in your right leg and straighten the left leg.

Inhale the torso up and over the right side, torso circles, lift the heart, sternum, chin and chest, and then bow over the left leg, bend the left leg as you fold, torso circles to center over to the right as you spend the right leg and straighten the left, and then bow forward. If you want to release the arms, get the upper back and shoulders into it, make sure that this is okay on your lower back if you're releasing the arms. Two more full rounds, exploring space, spreading out. Last one, the next time you reach your palms to the sky, pause right here, star pose, extend the arms, a little look up, and then as you exhale, bring your palms back to home base, back to the heart. Inhale, send it up and out again, a little celebration of life.

Exhale draw it in. Even if you're not feeling like you're in the best mood, doing these movements helps you feel. You see these in people's selfies all the time, they're just like, yes! It does actually help you feel this kind of sense of joy, I think that's why people like to do it. The next time you reach your palms to the sky, enjoy a tiny little back bend, bring your hands to the hips, lengthen the spine flat back, and then hinge the hips for your forward fold. You can bring your fingertips in the line of your toes, lengthen Pasarita Parottanasana A as you invite the crown of the head towards the floor.

If you don't feel enough, you can always walk your hands between the legs, flipping the palms, walking your fingertips back for a little deeper forward fold. Relax the muscles of the face. Relax the jaw. All right, everybody, let's walk our palms back forward. So our palms are right underneath the shoulders, lengthen the spine for your flat back.

Shift your weight into your right hand, inhale the left palm to the sky. As you exhale, thread the left arm under, across, and through. The left hand is going to grab the right shin or calf somewhere. You got two options here, right hand to the sky draped around the waist, or if you're feeling a twister game happening, right arm threads under the left arm, peek underneath your left underarm towards your right shin and reach for your outer left quad or shin. A little bent elbow will help you get into this posture a little better.

Two more rounds of breath. One more. Perfect. Pivot your right toes and left toes to the right. Lower the left knee to the floor for a nice, easy, low lunge.

Bring your right hand to your sacrum and your left palm to the sky. A little pulse here, supporting the sacrum with the right hand, tailbone down, left palm to the sky. Place your left hand behind the head to open up the front of the shoulder. Give yourself another pulse, and then we'll kind of ease into the low lunge. You can keep the right hand here for support and press the head back.

For those of you that want to feel a little bit more of a shoulder stretch, slide the right hand up the waist, all the way up the spine, and then left hand drops down, reaches for the fingertips, go macawson, bind, melt into the front of the hip. You can even use the back of the head to press that left forearm back in space. One more big inhale and exhale. Release your arms, frame the right foot with both hands, tuck the toes under, right leg to the sky. Keep the right leg high as you move to plank pose.

Keep the right leg high as you carefully lower the left knee to the floor. Bend the elbows, chin, and chest. This is our little duck dive under the wave. Look forward, slide forward. Inhale to the back bend of your choice.

And then as you exhale, come into child's pose, option one. We're going to be here for about 10 breaths. This is our little pause between sides. If you want to keep the energy up, you can always bring the forearms to the floor and set up for dolphin pose, sorry, middle finger and elbows lining up as much as possible. And for those of you that can't get enough, you're ready for an inversion.

You've got about seven breaths left. You can play with the inversion of your choice that you are comfortable with. Feel free to use the wall, too. Go back to that connection, connecting with your breath, listening at the heart center or wherever your center was. If you are inverting or you're in, dolphins start to slow the journey, bring it back down, meet your friends and child's pose.

Take a moment here to connect with the rise and fall of your breath. And we'll meet in down dog, optional vinyasa if you'd like to, or just set up for table and we'll meet there. I'm going to take a little sneaky up dog, bend the elbows out to 10-2, exhale, hover above the floor, hug the elbows in as you inhale, and then as you exhale, send it back to your down dog, shifting the weight over to your right foot. Inhale the left heel to the sky, toes pointing down. Rise to the tops of the right toes as high as you can with the right heel, send the left heel higher, push actively forward with both hands, and then keep the left leg high as you melt the right heel to the floor, a happy calf muscle.

Right heel to the sky, bow a little deeper, push a little farther forward, keep the left heel high, melt the right heel to the floor, excellent. Draw the left knee to the forehead, round the spine, look forward, step the left foot between the hands. Keep the right hand under the shoulder, bring the left palm to the sky, place the left palm right behind the head, lean the head back to open the shoulder just a little bit more, left elbow crosses towards the right forearm, inhale it back up. Exhale pulse, keep pushing back with your right heel, two more rounds of breath, enjoy the rotation movements, the pulsing movements of the twist. Next time you send the left palm to the sky, or left elbow to the sky, inhale the palm up, push back into the heel, lift your left ribcage forward and up, and a little turn to your left, celebrate the movement.

Lower the left hand, outside of the left foot, lower the right knee to the floor, use your blocks if you need to, walk the fingertips back as you start to pull the toes back on the left foot, Ardha Hanamanasana, the little split. All right, remember we're putting the gas on, press the toe pads to the floor, and drawing the toes towards the shin, planter flexion and dorsiflexion. This helps us really feel a calf and hamstring connection, also gives a lot of nice mobility for the ankle, give yourself one more round. The next time you plant the toes towards the floor, bring the hands inside, bend the left leg, tuck the right toes under, release the right knee, pivot the right heel, and walk your hands over towards the right, toes drawing towards each other, parallel to each other, and then we'll take a little sway from side to side. Turn both feet out slightly, left and right, opening up, 10 and 2 o'clock as you play with a little side movement.

We've been here before, so if you want to play with a little Skandhasana, as you bend the right leg, you can pull the toes of the left foot off the floor, sink a little bit deeper. Some people call them crouching tigers, I kind of like that one. Bend the left leg, toes lift off the floor, less weight on your hands, more weight on the legs and ankles, so be kind to the knee and ankle joints, but feel free to celebrate the movements, the space that you have. Great, bring your palms underneath your shoulders, a little sway from side to side, bring your hands to your hips, with the hands at your hips, the next time you bend the left leg, torso circles rise up with the inhale, fold over the right leg, bend the right leg with your exhale, inhale it all the way up, exhale, fold over your right leg, option of releasing the arms to get deeper into the upper back and shoulders, find your way through space. Celebrate really spreading the body out.

Two more. The next time you rise up, reach your palms to the sky just like we did before. Fire pose, be the rock star, your own rock star, palms back to the heart center, exhale it in, inhale, send some goodness out into the world. Spread the joy, exhale back to center. Last one, as you send it out, either stay right here or you can bring your hands behind the head and take the little back bend, lift the ribs, lift the heart, press back, perfect.

Come back to a neutral spine, interlace your hands behind the back, move your wrists away from the sacrum, lift the spine, so really lift the sternum. Take a minor bend in those legs so that when you hinge at the hips, you can keep the flat back without having to worry about that lower back giving you problems. As the crown of the head starts to lower to the floor, keep the knees bent and move your wrists softly from side to side, feeling a little space in the upper back and shoulders as you start to guide the crown of the head towards the floor. Relax the muscles of the face, relax the jaw, beautiful. Bring your palms to the floor, right underneath the shoulders, left hand stays, right hand to the sky, exhale, thread the right arm under and through.

Right hand grabs for the outer left calf, ankle or pinky toe side of the foot, inhale the left palm to the sky, you can bring it to the sacrum or drape it around the waist. If you were playing twister on the other side, slide your left hand between the left leg and right arm, peek underneath the right armpit, bend your right elbow so that the head can look under towards your right knee, left hand grabs the outer right quad or shin. Two more rounds of breath. This one's a hard one to breathe in, so try to find your breath here. One more round, pivot both feet to the left, plant the right hand to the floor, lower the right knee to the floor, bring your left hand to the sacrum, palm on the sacrum, inhale the right palm to the sky, a little low lunge pulse.

So the left hand's supporting us as we open the front of the right hip. Left elbow draws in towards the midline, great. When you feel that right hip starting to release, the front of the hip starting to feel a little bit more open, pausing to the foundation of the pose, right hand behind the base of the head, and lean back with the head as you point and lengthen the tailbone down, heart lifts up, rib cage lifts up. Remember you can take that left hand around the waist as you slide the right hand down or maybe even slide it up the spine if you're playing with the Gomakasan variation. If you have the forearm behind the head, you can lean the head back as you shrug that left shoulder slightly back, invite the right hip to open, put a smile on your face, smiling in tricky situations or postures that don't feel that good, sends a message to the muscles to relax and we start to feel a little bit more ease, perfect.

Release the arms, lower the palms to the floor, frame the left foot, send the left leg to the sky, keep the left foot up, you can shake it out if you want to, keep the left leg high as you move to plank pose, keep the left leg off the floor as you carefully lower the right knee down, keep the left leg high, bend the elbows, chest and chin towards the floor, slide forward, inhale to the back bend of your choice. Give yourself three nice breaths here, excellent. Let's press back to our table pose and in this table pose, we're gonna bring our knees really close together. So in this variation of table, our knees are nice and tight together and we tuck the toes under so knees close together, ankles close together, left hand stays, right hand to the sky, thread it under, across and through, we've got a couple of options here. Option one, bring the left hand next to the right form and softly push the floor away.

Option two, palms into prayer, bend the right elbow, a little elbow stand here and if you can't get enough and you're really enjoying the twist, left hand stays on the floor, right hand wraps all the way around the left knee in the direction of the pinky toe side of the left foot and then lengthen the rib cage and walk your left fingertip forward, a little spider crawl, a little bend in the elbows and rotate the torso to the left and remember the inhale disappears on our twists so finally inhale. One more round breath and then as you walk the hands back, keep the knees nice and tight, grab a little seat on your heels, if this isn't nice for your ankles and chin, just kneel with your bum off of your heels, we're going to play with a little twist variation, keep the right knee where it is, walk your left foot forward about a foot, perfect, back up your seat towards the heel, remember if you're not sitting on the heels, modify, right elbow outside of the left knee, this will help us if we decide to go into side crow, shift your left rib cage up and move into your twist. If prayer pose is available and the right knee is, a right elbow is below the left knee, then you might try this variation, find your left hip with your left hand, walk the left hand out about a foot, foot and a half, bend the left elbow towards your left hip and keep your right elbow bent as you lean forward, I'm going to slide forward a little bit, slide to the right a little bit so you can see me better, hug the left elbow in, right palm to the floor, two points of connection, makes it easier, left elbow bends towards the left hip, lengthen forward, maybe just the left leg lifts off the floor, maybe the right joins it, a little side crow party and you're all invited, good, if you weren't doing that, don't worry, we're going back to the same spot we left from, stepping into standing splits from the left leg, so use your blocks if you need to, the farther you walk your hands forward, the easier it is, send the right leg to the sky, bow forward, the crown of the head drops, the right heel can lift up a little bit higher, beautiful, step the right foot next to the left, take a little bend in both knees, let the body sway from side to side and then with the knees bent, engage your core, roll all the way up. So we've got to the fun part, a little dancy jiva, we're playing with a little twist and playing with a little rotation of the spine, so step your left leg back and your right leg forward about a foot, a foot and a half, as you take your elbows up the height of your shoulders, a little cactus field goal, touch your index finger and your thumb. As you lean forward into that right leg, turn your torso to the left, as you lean back, turn your torso back to center or slightly to the right, so start to get this shift forward to the left and backward facing straight forward, add the left knee, the next time you turn your torso to the left, draw the left knee up into the chest while you twist, boom, now step it back, turn your torso to the right, exhale bend your right knee, draw the left knee up into the chest, dancy jiva, you can play a little bit, remember we've got a couple of rounds, turn and rotate, if you're feeling it, straighten the left leg, yeah and then step it back, last opportunity, play, play, play or right hand reaches for the outer left calf, ankle or pinky toe side of the foot, this is where you really got to dance to hold it still, squeeze to the midline, I'm dancing today and then open up through the left shoulder, perfect guys, lift and rotate, alright shake it out, it's always a dance party, when we're trying to connect with joy, okay settling back in, palms into prayer, just a little forward fold, inhale the palms to the sky, hinge at the hips, soft fold, inhale for your flat back, bend both knees, lift your heels off of the floor and slowly lower your seat down, if you've got knee issues you can lower one knee down at a time, you don't have to lower all the way down, you can bring your palms to the floor, lower the knees or shift your weight forward, pull the toes up and the heels up and then lower back down, this is how we started the other side, we're going into table pose with the knees nice and tight together, ankles nice and tight together, toes tucked under giving us a little bit more room to rotate, inhale the left palm to the sky, exhale, thread it under, across and through, try to mirror the option you did on the other side, maybe the right hand moves towards the left wrist pushing the floor away, maybe palms are in prayer and you press into the left elbow to lift the shoulders off the floor, if you're going with that third one, that big wrap around right hand to the floor, left hand wraps all the way around the right knee, grabbing the pinky toe side of the foot, lengthening the spine before you spider crawl the right fingertips forward, a little bend in your right elbow helps you facilitate a little bit more rotation, two more rounds of breath, try to find the inhale, great everybody, slowly unwind, come on back up, alright we're going to play with that twist variation, the right leg moves forward, the right foot moves forward about a foot, I'm going to angle it this way so that you can see me a little bit better, right foot steps forward, left elbow hooks outside of the right knee, if you're comfortable sitting back onto your heel, you can back up onto the heel before you get a nice twist, left elbow outside, maybe the palms into prayer, this is just a safer way to set up for the arm balance, right hand finds the right hip, reaches out about a foot, foot and a half, plant the right palm to the floor, if you can still keep the left elbow outside of the knee, you might be able to do this one with me, keep the elbow bent, bend into your right elbow and lean forward like you're doing chaturanga, bent elbow plank, the right toes might come off the floor, keep the left toes down if you're feeling like you need them down or left knee joins the right or your side crow variation, excellent guys, come on back down, so we left on that second side with our right foot forward, that right leg probably needs to be straightened right about now so we're going to do that as we set up for standing splits, block forward, right leg presses into the floor, left leg to the sky, the farther away your hands are, the softer the hamstring stretch, the deeper you fold, the more you feel, two more rounds of breath, relax the muscles of the face, one more, step the left foot next to the right, a little bend in the knees, a little torso sway from side to side, roll it up and make it feel good, inhale your palms to the sky and we get ready for our little dancing Shiva party on the second side, I'm going to turn and face this way so it's easier for you to see me, this time our left leg is forward and our right leg is back, we're doing the same thing, index and thumb touch as you turn forward, lean back into your right leg and as you bend into that left leg, turn your torso to the right, lean back, look forward, bend the left leg, turn the torso to the right, now all we have to do is add the right leg, lean forward, draw the right knee into the chest, turn your torso to the right, boom, there goes our Shiva, step it back, pulsing into it, right knee lifts, turn your torso to the right, play a little bit, if there's some arm movements that you didn't get to do last time, feel free to explore a little bit, yeah, if you did that straight leg version last time, see what that feels like, lengthen, lift and turn and rotate, step it back and if you took that outer right calf with your left hand, play with that variation, reach for the calf ankle, pinky toe side of the foot, lengthen and rotate, yay, dance it out, alright, let's come on back down, down to the ground, one last time, palms into prayer, if you feel like oming with me, why not, let's celebrate it, inhale the palms to the sky, om as you bow, om, palms to the shins, lengthen the spine, flat back, exhale, bend both knees, fingertips to the floor, lift your heels off of the floor, one more time, lowering down into table, whatever way feels right for you, good, from your table pose, we're gonna play with a little variation of dolphin here, so we're gonna replace the palms with our elbows, little mock dolphin but keeping the knees on the floor, press the hips back, make sure middle finger and elbow are lined up as you draw the hips back, feel that stretch in the upper back and upper shoulders, perfect, we're gonna shift our weight forward so the elbows are, the shoulders are stacking over the elbows, take that scorpion tail once again with the right leg, glide the heart, chin and chest forward, reach back with your left hand for either the big or pinky toe side of the foot, as you lift the right knee away from the floor, guide your heart, sternum, chin and chest forward and enjoy the cow tilts of the spine and the opening of the front of your hip, we've done a lot of hip flexor releasers, this should feel good, lower the right knee to the floor and slowly back on up to your heels, if you can't easily sit on your heels, come up to a kneel because that's where we're going anyway, bring your hands to the sacrum, easy setup for ustrasana, tailbone lengthens down, heart, sternum, chin, chest, lift up, keep the right hand where it is, inhale the left palm to the sky, either straight up or start to take a little bit of a back bend, the right hand is there to support you, if you want to go a little bit deeper with the right toes tucked, you can reach for the right heel or right toes untucked, keep lifting your right ribcage so that it lifts and joins the left, we've been doing a lot of the hand behind the head, if that feels celebratory, place the hand behind the head and lean on back, come on back to your table pose and we'll see what happens on the other side, replace your palms with your elbows, your forearms and then we'll back up the seat one more time feeling that stretch in the upper back and shoulder and then we'll stack the shoulders right over the elbows, this time the left leg is going in our scorpion tail, lift the toes to the sky, guide the heart, chin and chest forward, shift your weight to your left palm and then reach back with your right hand, as you kick the heel away, move the heart, sternum, chin and chest forward, as you lift the left knee away from the floor, glide your heart towards your left thumb, two more rounds of breath, one more, lower the left knee down, lower the right elbow down, back your seat up again, back to camel pose, bring your hands to your sacrum, lift your hips, stack the hips right over the knees, lengthen the tailbone down, left hand stays right where it is, right hand to the sky this time, lift the heart, sternum, chin and chest up, tailbone down, stay supported here or bring the right hand behind the head, swing back a little bit, open up the front of the chest, same option, toes tucked easier to reach back with the left hand, toes untucked, a little bit more space to reach back, keep lifting your left rib cage if you're reaching back, two more breaths, one more, awesome, go ahead and lower on down, as you lower your hips, move your hips over to your right, swing your toes over to the left, slide those legs all the way around, as you come to your seat, we're going to do a little outer hip glute release, so bring your hands behind you, easy figure four, right ankle on top of the left knee, you can back up your hands if you want to stretch the shoulders a little bit more, just let your knees rock from side to side, a little massage of the glutes, a little opening of the hip, hopefully you're feeling a little lighter, a little bit more ease, enjoying the movements of the body, the joints, let's switch sides, I'm going to walk my hands back a little farther because it feels good on the shoulder, feel free to play, left ankle on top, if you want to let the head and neck release back to another area where we hold a lot of tension, great guys, and then from here you can release the left leg as well, lower all the way down, find your way into any last little movements, maybe it's a little shake of the legs, a little roll of the shoulder blades down, check back in, how are you feeling today, where is joy bubbling up, let go of any working, any doing, celebrate the present moment right here unfolding before you, such a gift each moment that we have, and as you melt into shavasana, let go of any working, any doing, take your time, invite your breath to rise and fall on its own without any guiding or directing from your mind, I'm going to chant a little mantra for you, a little ode to shiva, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya, om nama shivaaya.

to bring some intuitive movements back to your body and your breath. Really slowly stay connected and enjoy. Om Nama Shiva Give yourself a moment to roll into fetal pose and help yourself up slowly to your seat. Om Nama Shiva As you find your way back to your seat, go back to where you felt connection and celebrate it and let it guide you through the rest of your day and the rest of your week. I feel so honored to connect and practice with you today. Namaste. Send it out. Thanks guys.