Self-Care Flow

All right, everybody, happy Monday. Welcome back to Joyful Flow, season two, we're on week four. Last week, it was all about prana and energy and really picking up the pace and recharging the batteries. Today, it's completely the opposite. We are slowing things down.

We are giving a little love to our parasympathetic system. We're going to be massaging body parts, rocking, pulsing movements to help our body really feel a sense of ease, a sense of TLC. It's TLC day today, so get ready. You may need two blocks and a strap today. If not, we can modify.

If you don't have a strap and you want to use like a towel that's about that long, that might be useful if you don't have a strap, and I'm excited. We're going to do a little bit of a Metta meditation at the end, a loving kindness meditation, so make sure to stick around for the end of class. Even if you have to sneak out, just give yourself a couple of moments in love and kindness in our Shavasana. Today, we're going to start lying on the back. When we get ready for our massaging area of the glute, you're going to make a soft fist and we'll use the knuckles right about in this area at the top of the glute.

So I just want to give you a little visual of what's going to happen here when we do get comfortable and lie on the back. So soft fists, make sure this part of your hand is facing down. If you've got rings on, you might want to take them off because you'll get some strange marks on your body. All right, so I'm going to swing my legs around this way, and let's come on down and have a nice roll all the way down. And once you arrive on the mat, you can lower the feet to the floor, bend the knees, let the palms be facing up, close the eyes.

As you settle into your breath, we'll just have a little preview of our Metta meditation. Bring your palms right onto your heart and just repeat after me. May you know peace. May your heart remain open. May you know the true nature of yourself.

May you be healed. May you heal others. So we're setting the tone for our practice, grounding in the heart space, Metta meditation of love and kindness. We're going to continue that with some beautiful movements of our body today. So stay connected and anchored to your breath.

Take your arms out into a little cactus feel goal, and then let the knees rock softly from side to side so you feel that connection to the lower back, the glutes, where we connect upper body to lower body where most people have pain issues or contraction or unease on the body. We're going to be focusing on the two main areas that are complained about, the hips and the shoulders today. So hopefully you feel a nicer sense of relief after this. After a couple of windshield wipers, draw your knees into the chest hands free and choose a direction to circle the knees, drawing the knees away from you as you inhale and back towards the midline, back towards the center as you exhale. As you circle away, nice, slow circles will help you feel this release.

You can explore your range of motion of the hips, how the hips are connected to the torso, lower back, the sacral area. The next time you circle the knees into the chest, switch the direction of the circles. And if your mind is kind of busy today, really give your mind permission to slow down today because we're going to take a really slow pace today. So honor this opportunity to really be kind to yourself today and slow things down because we all truly deserve a little downtime in our busy, busy world. All right, so as you draw the knees back in towards the chest, place the soles of the feet to the floor, keep the knees bent.

Remember those two soft fists that we were making? Make sure the knuckles are facing up, lift your hips and slide your knuckles right at the top of the glute, slightly to the outside. And then once you lower down onto your knuckles, allow your hips to softly rock from side to side, your knees to softly rock from side to side. And we'll just focus on one leg. So let's keep the left foot on the floor and we'll explore little hip circles with the right.

Oh, there it is right there. We'll explore little hip circles with the right leg. This area that we're focusing on, the piriformis, the area where some of us experience sciatica because we have that nice big nerve that goes down through the upper, through the body, through, down through the leg in this area. When the muscles get tight in this area, oh, you can get a nice little shooting pain down there. So think of this as a little preventative release for the outer glute and the hip.

Excellent. Are you ready to try the other side? Over the right foot, keep the left fist, fingers facing down, knuckle up, and just explore your hip rotation with the left side. As you explore, you may pause and stop in a spot where you feel a little tension or a little sensitivity and bring your awareness into that area. Beautiful.

Give it a couple more, a couple more rounds, a couple more circles here. Excellent. And then when you're ready to release that left leg, press into the soles of the feet, lift the hips up, shake out the wrists a little bit, and then let the knees drop, bring the bottoms of the feet together for suprabhata kanasana. Left hand stays right on top of the left thigh, and then we go back to exploring a little range of motion with the right hip again while opening up the left hip. If you want to feel a little bit of resistance, the next time you draw the right knee towards the midline, keep the left inner thigh pressed down and you'll feel a little bit more resistance as you go to open the hip.

Right about there. The farthest the right knee is away from the left knee is where you'll feel the spot. Give it one more circle and draw the right knee towards your right armpit, and from here just allow the body to rock from side to side. If you don't feel resistance and you want a little bit more of a stretch, a little bit more of that feeling, that place where it feels like it's a good stretch, reach for the pinky toe side of your right foot, and then bring the right leg into happy baby, keeping the left hand where it is, a nice little soft rock from side to side. As you rock, feel free to rock a little deeper left and right so you're also rocking the muscles along the spine, you'll get a deeper massage, and hopefully the pace of the class and these rocking movements is already helping you settle that busyness in the mind and slow everything down, wonderful.

Come back to neutral left leg stays, right ankle on top of the left thigh, draw the left knee into the chest while you press the sac or down to the floor, hold on to the hamstring and slowly inhale that left leg to the sky, give yourself a couple of circles at the ankle and the foot. If the leg doesn't extend all the way up, that's okay, just find that spot where you feeling the hamstring stretch. All right, this is one of my favorite releasers for the mid and upper back, also goes all the way down to the lower back. Take a little bend into your left knee, press the knee into the chest and then start to straighten the left leg but push the heel and the knee away from you until that lifts the upper back and shoulders off the floor without you using the muscles of the neck to get off the floor, and then pulse back to center. So we're going for a little traction of the spine, enjoy that pulse forward and back.

Take your time, two more rounds, you'll feel the lower back coming off the floor as you draw the knee into the chest and the mid and upper back lifting off the floor as you press the knee forward, perfect. The next time you come in, free the right leg, give yourself a little rock from side to side. Keeping that rock happening, bring the bottoms of the feet together, a little Baddha Konasana rock from glute to glute, that lower area, the lower back glute connection is going to get a nice release today by the end of your journey with me today. Right hand on top of the right side, soft pressure down, and then start to circle that left knee towards the midline and then away from you. You'll feel a little bit more resistance as you circle the knee away.

If you need more resistance, just press the right inner thigh down a little bit more when you draw the left knee towards the midline. You'll feel the right hip can drop a little bit, not give a little resistance as you draw the knee away, perfect. When you're ready, draw the left knee towards the left armpit, reach for the shin, and then go for that rock from side to side. If you need a little bit more resistance, a little bit more of a stretch, reach for the pinky toe side of the left foot and then feel that rock from side to side. Remember how we were rocking a little bit deeper from side to side to massage the muscles along the spine?

If you have nieces and nephews or kids, you'll see them doing this in the crib on the floor because it just naturally, intuitively feels good, great. Place your left ankle on top of the right knee, easy figure four, draw the right knee into the chest, reach your hands behind the hamstring, and then as you press the sacrum to the floor, slowly extend that right leg to the sky, give yourself a couple of circles. Remember if that right leg's not straight, don't force anything today, we're just slowly waking up the hamstring. Another circle, choose the opposite direction, and we'll finish with traction for the spine here, hold on tightly to the back of the hamstring, a nice grip, give yourself a little bend in the knee, draw the knee in, and then as you straighten the right leg, push the right knee away from you until that lifts the upper back and shoulder off the floor. Try not to help yourself lift off, find that space where that knee moving away from you is pulling the upper back and shoulder off the floor, if you want to relax the head from side to side, give yourself a little rock from side to side.

Two more massaging pulses, forward and backward, excellent everybody, one more. The next time you pulse back, go ahead and free the left leg, bring your hands to the front of both knees and finish with a little finale rock. When you are ready, you can finish with that full happy baby pose, grab the pinky toe sides of the feet if it's available or the big toes if not, and we'll finish with that big rock to the right, maybe straightening the right leg a little bit, big rock back to center and then over to the left. As you explore these nice little pulses and these releases for the body, for the connection to the torso, to the limbs, make it feel like a nice massage all the way along the spine as well, left and right, great, come on back to center, cross your legs and hold on to the front of the shins, a soft rock forward and backward, not too much momentum at the beginning, give yourself a little bit of playful movement forward and backward that feels more like a massage than trying to come up to your seat. Once you've had a couple of rock and rolls, you can start to create a little bit more momentum so that you can come all the way up to your comfortable cross-legged seat.

We've arrived. I think I could do a whole class just on the back itself, note to self for the future. All right, so we're coming to a nice comfortable cross-legged seat, slide your palms underneath your shins, lift the heart, lift the sternum, lift the chest, soft cow and cow tilts for the spine. As you exhale, draw the navel up and back, pull the navel up and back, contract your core, give yourself three more pulses, just like that, glide forward and up with the heart. And release, last one, wonderful.

Coming to a neutral spine, we're going to work a little bit with the feet today. So free your left leg straight and your left leg and we'll work with the right foot. You can have it either inside of your left leg. I'm going to put it outside just so you can see the bottom of my foot. And we'll take each of the fingers, pinky slides between pinky and ring toe and we'll slide a finger in between each foot, in between each toe, not between each foot.

Once you get to your fingers in between each toe, just start to feel a little bit of flexion and extension, like flex the foot and then point. Feel how you feel on the arches, on the top of the shin. We're going to add the thumb into this mix. So take your left thumb and bring it in towards the arch, wherever you can grab. Press straight down and then release and slide your thumb up about maybe a half inch and follow the arch.

As you're pulsing, walk your thumb all the way up really slowly, pulse it all the way up right until you find the toe pad and just stop right before the pads of the feet and then send it all the way back down. Good. Nice little fun fact. If you look at your foot, your foot, the curves of your foot are exactly the same as your spine, lumbar curve, thoracic curve, cervical curve and the big toe is where your head is. That's how I always remember the curvatures of the spine when I was in anatomy.

Just look at my foot. All right. So we'll keep the fingers where they are and just give ourselves a couple of circles to give a little bit of mobility to that ankle joint and switch directions. Good. Place your right foot inside of the right leg for easy Janu Sureshasan.

Right hand on top of the right thigh, left fingertips behind you, flip the palm, lift the lengthen and soft turn to your left, little rotation, lift the lengthen. If you need more lengthening, walk the fingers closer to your hips so you get a little taller of a spine. Soft pressure on the right thigh, especially if you're tighter in the hips, lift, lengthen and a nice soft rotation. Good. As you release that right leg, bring your right hand to the top of your right hip, fingers facing back and we'll take a little internal shoulder stretch here.

So grab onto the elbow, the right hand of the right elbow with the left hand and give yourself a little pull towards the midline. As you pull towards the midline, let your left ear soften down towards your left shoulder to give you a little trapezius stretch. This is easy for you. You can catch the elbow to the inner right thigh and push the right knee away from for a little bit more internal rotation of the shoulder. Just feeling that, yeah.

One more round of breath, either the palm or the knee helping you feel that release on the back of the shoulder, top of the deltoid. Great. And then we'll finish freeing that arm, shake it out, place your right ankle on top of your left knee. And as you bend the left leg for easy figure four, walk your hands behind you a little farther than normal. So when we do our windshield wipers with the legs, you're going to not only get that hip stretch that you started out with, but a nice shoulder stretch for the upper back and shoulder.

Intuitively let the head rock from side to side, maybe the same direction as the knees or the opposite direction. Either way, you're going to get a nice little stretch on the upper back and the shoulders back to that idea of loving kindness. So grateful for this body, this vehicle that we get to journey around in. And remembering this could be a nice little tune up for the body. Much needed tune up.

All right. The next time your knees are rocking over to your left, release the right hand slowly. Bring the sole of the right foot to the floor. Keep the right knee drawing away from you for a hip opening figure four. Lower your left forearm to the floor and turn the right ribcage towards the floor.

Big stretch with the right hand. Inner right side moves away from the floor, lengthen the spine and rotate. If you want to feel more, you can replace your left elbow with your left palm. Take a little push up and lengthen and turn. Now connect with your breath.

Can you breathe into the side stretch? Nice, slow, deep inhales. Exhales and exhales. Nice, slow, deep inhales, pauses and exhales. One more round, just like that.

Really inflate through the right side body and then slowly come on up. Great. Free the legs. Give yourself a moment just to shake out the legs one at a time. And we'll take that foot massage with the left leg.

So bring the left leg in, fingers right between each toe. Once you find that little interlace of your fingers, give your toes a nice good handshake. Then we can start to move the foot up and down, flex and point just to explore how we're moving in the joints. After a couple of those right thumb, find the arch right above the heel, press straight in and release. Walk it up about an eighth of an inch, a quarter of an inch, press in and release.

Just a couple of movements all the way up to the pad of the big toe. Feet are thanking you right now. Think of all the miles that these feet have taken you on, how they have supported you on your journey. So grateful for this connection to earth. Good.

So you finish that one more pass up to the toe pad, then we'll explore a little range of motion at the ankle, circling it up and away, circling it up and away. Beautiful. Bring the left leg to the inside of the right for an easy Janu Shashasana. Left hand on top of the left thigh, right fingertips behind you. Find a really tall spine, lift, lengthen and rotate.

Now lift, get a little bit taller, lengthen and rotate. One more round of breath, go big with the breath and get as tall as you can through the spine and soft turn to your right. Great. Little bend in that left leg, bring the sole of the foot back to the floor, move the heel slightly away from you so that you can use it if you need to. Back of the left hand fingertips to the front of your hip and then pull the elbow in towards the midline.

Give yourself a little pulse back and forth. If you are able to get that elbow inside of the left inner thigh, you can use the left inner thigh to press and release. I like to let my right ear drop towards my right shoulder so I feel a little release in the traps as well. See what it feels like for your body. One more round, good.

And then as you release that arm, shake it out, move it around, thank you shoulder. What would I do without you? Swing the left leg around, place it on top, left ankle on top of the right knee. We'll go back to that easy figure four. So bend your right leg, slide your seat a little closer to your right heel and once again we're flipping the palms, walking the hands back so you feel this stretch on the upper back and shoulders.

The farther you walk the fingers, the more you'll feel the deeper the stretch, find your spot and go back to letting the hips rock from side to side. Back to the glute massage and if you'd like to turn the head from side to side while you're turning the knees from side to side, you'll feel that connection between the muscles, the upper back, where they connect with the cervical spine area, the muscles that support the neck, the weight of your head. Great. The next time you rock over to your right, keep the right hand where it is but slowly release your left hand, keep the figure four, knee pointing to the sky, bring your right elbow down and reach as far back as you can with your left hand. This should feel a little side stretch on the left side body.

If you want to feel more, then pull the right ribcage up a little bit and walk the left fingertips farther or replace your right elbow with your right palm, a little press of the floor away. We're going to be here for three full breaths so take a big inhale, inflate through the left side body, hold the breath and softly let it go, maybe creep a little bit farther. Nice deep inhale, hold it and let it go. Last round, nice big inhale and soften, let it go, slowly unwind. As you come on back up towards your seat, free the legs.

We'll play with this last little variation for our feet. I always find this one to be really fun. Instead of your fingers moving in between your toes, place one pinky in between the pinky of the other foot so you're crossing your toes, interlacing your toes like you would interlace your hands. We're playing with that toe dexterity as we take a little grip. Come on little guy, there you go.

If you're able to, you can free those legs and you have a nice little interlaced. This is a good magic trick to play with as well but it's actually really nice for your feet. They have those socks that help spread the toes so it's really nice for keeping that toe dexterity. We put a lot of downward pressure and a lot of grounding into the feet and the muscles here so it's nice to give them a stretch. Take out the toes, I'll meet you in table pose, swing the legs around for table.

Palms under the shoulders, knees under the hips. Lengthen the spine forward for a soft cow tilt. Feel the ribs and the heart moving forward. And then just as slowly, slowly round the spine. Start with the tailbone pointing down, draw the navel up, press strongly into your palms and the chin touches or moves towards the chest last.

Head moves last, start at your tailbone first. Start to lift the seat, glide the heart forward, press into the palms and lift the chin away from the chest last. Same thing, head stays there, round the spine, tailbone first, pull the navel up and back. Head moves last, last round, the soft cow tilt starting at the sacral area, moving the ribs and heart forward, chin and chest, last, wonderful. Come to a neutral spine, walk your hands over to the left corner of your mat and then once you get them there, swing your toes over to the left side as well, we're doing a little side pulse as you pulse back, enjoy the side stretch on the right side body and then come on back to neutral.

Pulse back, sand it on back, come on back to neutral, two more rounds, really breathe into that side stretch while you settle back into that last one. So we're settling back into the last one and that same focus goes on that right side body, inflate in that area. If you want to feel more, slide your left hand closer to your left knee, press the floor softly away from you and go big with the breath, big into the right side body and these fuller inhalations are helping us to really inflate the areas around the lungs, the areas around the lungs are finding a little bit more space for our breath, a little bit more volume as you come back to center, come on back to your table and we'll set up for the other side. Walk your hands over to the left corner, the right corner of your mat, swing your toes over to the right and then we'll pulse back with our hips towards the left corner of the mat, sliding back to center and just finding a rhythm that feels good for our body. Last two, this rocking sensation has a really calming effect on our body just like it did when we were little babies, helping us to really rock the muscles to a state of deeper relaxation and waking up or helping us connect with the parasympathetic system, that cooling, calming part of our nervous system that really doesn't get used as much or connected with as much unless we're sleeping.

If you want to press the floor away with your right hand, slide it back a little bit, wonderful. Come on back to your table pose, we're going to do that same thing in down dog, walk your hands a palm print forward, think of this as a lazy dog though, don't work too much in your down dog today as you push actively forward with your hands, pedal the legs out one at a time, pressing actively forward with the hands is just helping us save the wrists, keeping the wrists nice and safe by using the muscles in our hands. We're going to take a little pivot of our feet to the left, so rise to the tops of the toes, pivot your heels to the left, bend one leg at a time and you should feel and breathe into the side stretch on the right side body. Enjoy the side stretch, breathe into it slower, fuller and deeper. Let's see what's on the other side, rise up to the tops of the toes, pivot your heels to the right, push actively forward with that right hand, you'll feel the side stretch on the left side as you bend one leg at a time.

See if you can lengthen the breath out and connect with all four parts of the breath. One more round, pivot back to center, lengthen forward to plank, lower the knees down as you bend the elbows just soften all the way down, good, untuck the toes, replace your palms with your elbows for an easy Sphinx pose. We're going to stay here for a while, just inviting that lumbar curve to be accentuated a little bit in Sphinx pose. If you need to feel less, walk your elbows forward. We're going to take both thumbs and we're going to follow the brow from right where the two brows meet and we'll place the thumbs, the pads of the thumb, right at the brow and then we'll just follow it out nice and slowly, draw your thumbs towards the very edge of the brow until you're able to find the temple, that area, that little divot right there, right lateral to where your eyes are and give yourself a couple of circles at the temple here and then release and we'll do one more follow of the pads of the thumb, right at the base of the brow.

So you're following that ridge all the way just above the eye socket, all the way out towards the temple and giving yourself a nice loving TLC massage right here and do this for an hour and two more rounds of breath. One more, great. As you lower back down to the floor, we'll take a little pec stretch, an easy version. Left hand, place it on your sacrum, palm on your sacrum, elbow to the sky. As you roll over to that left elbow, roll to your left, you'll open up the front of the chest on that left side.

The farther you roll, the more you'll feel, the closer you get the right glute to the floor, the more open you'll feel or the more stretch you'll feel on the front of the left side body, the pec major, the pec major. All you have to do is inflate in that area and really breathe into it, a nice stretch at the heart space is all about love at the heart space, slowly, slowly unwind and we'll set up for the other side, as you lie on the stomach, place your right hand to the sacrum and take a nice slow roll over to your right. As you set up here, you can step the left foot behind you and be right there or you can start to lower that left hip a little closer to the floor to really stretch that area pec major, pec minor, relax the muscles of the face, relax the jaw and just breathe into the front of your chest, all the way to the belly, really expand the front body here to move into a little bit of a deeper stretch, wonderful, yay. When you're ready, slowly unwind, you can move back to your sphinx pose or if you're feeling a little bit more inspired, you can move into cobra or up dog if you're feeling a nice stretch at the front of the body and you want to increase the back bend a little bit. We're going to set up for our second down dog, place the palms back to the floor if you're in sphinx pose, either pass through table or plank pose.

As you inhale it up, hips to the sky, chest to the thighs, bend one leg at a time, and two more rounds, breath, one more, great, inhale your left leg to the sky, pause for a moment as you reach up with the heel, push actively forward with the hands, lift the right heel off the floor tops of the right toes and then lower it, take another pulse like that so you're feeling the hamstring calf stretch, especially that calf stretch, pushing actively forward with the palms, look towards the hands and exhale, step the left foot right between the hands, lower the right knee to the floor, this is where your block and your strap will come in handy in just a moment so keep them by the side, untuck the right toes, bring your hands inside of the left leg and we're just going to kind of rock the hips forward and backward a little bit, opening up the front of that hip flexor and the back hip, give yourself a moment to release here and give yourself a little pulse here, great. Now turn your, walk your toes to the left just a little bit and turn them out towards ten o'clock and we'll go with that same pulse but walk your hands to the right and pulse your hips straight forward, you'll feel a different expression, a little different hip release at the front of the hip while your knee is tracking to the left, wonderful. And then walk the left foot back onto your mat, this is where you're going to play with the block, slide your block right in front of the knee, back up your seat so it's in line with the knee, press the block flush to your knee and then bring your hands to the floor in front of you and as you lean forward the block should catch the front of your quad right above the knee, so your knee should be hovering off of the floor, intensifying that psoas stretch, if you want to come up to the fingertips for a deeper psoas stretch go for it, if you want to bring the left hand to the knee and the right hand to the sacrum you'll feel even more, just make sure your kneecap isn't on the block and it's hovering off the floor to give you that nice stretch through the psoas hip flexor area, relax the muscles of the face, ooh relax the jaw, doesn't take much to release this area but when you feel that stretch and breathe into it and slow it down, gosh it does feel really good, alright bring the hands back down, move the block a little farther forward and then grab your strap if you have it, my strap is really long so I'm going to double my strap up for this variation, take your strap so that it's a little wider than shoulder distance, so I'll turn towards you so you can see how wide my strap is, press away with your arms and then we're just going to gently slide the wrist over to the left for a little side bend, as you press down with the left hand move the right wrist back in space and then come on back to center keep hugging the knees to the midline and then as you go over to the right see if you can move that left elbow back in space a little bit, try one more round there we go, last one, good this is where it gets fun and you might have to go wider on your strap, hands a little farther away so see if you can move the strap all the way back and bring it down behind you, if that felt intense take the grip a little bit wider, if you didn't feel anything take the grip a little bit closer so play with that area right where you feel just a little bit of resistance lift the heart and then squeeze those shoulder blades towards the midline and release, you got one more on you let's try one more, good and remember the strap can be a little wider or a little closer, wonderful release your strap off to the side keep your little block where it is because we might use it in a second straighten the left leg as you pull the toes back remember you can use two blocks right here if you need to we'll just let the hips softly rock from side to side as your hips rock to the right turn your toes to the left as your hips rock to the left turn your toes to the right a little internal external rotation so it targets different areas of the hamstring and then find a neutral area bring the one of the blocks on top of your calf muscle and just slide back a little bit if you don't need the block you can come all the way on top of the heel or slightly inside of the heel and then lengthen forward with the spine make sure it feels good and make sure the spine is lengthening forward draw the chin slightly back keep the cervical spine really long wonderful hands back to the floor push down so you can lift back up and we'll finish with a soft twist right hand next to the left foot inhale the left palm to the sky let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder and bring your left fingertips to the top of the left shoulder and explore a little range of motion here so we're enjoying a soft twist you don't have to go deep into the twist just a slow soft release relax the muscles of the face relax the jaw and then go ahead and free that left arm beautiful happy spine happy body lower the left hand in outside of the left leg you may use your block again we're gonna walk the left foot across the mat and as we drop into pigeon we're taking easy pigeon so you'll notice that my right foot swings around behind me so right knee is lining up with the left heel and just swing around so you guys can see this one before we settle into this right knee lining up with left heel and then the lengthening of the spine just allow your spine to move forward taking a soft little twist a hip opening twist to the left take a little journey to the right take a little journey over to your right you can soften and melt right here or if your left elbow forearm or tricep is able to move in to the inner thigh you might hang out with a little soft hip opening twist with this leg bent much nicer on the knee a much softer experience and also a great release for the outer glute on that side relax the muscles of the face relax the jaw wonderful all right so big check off mark for the left leg nice work everybody your gold star will be in the mail draw the left heel in so that when you swing the right leg around there's no pressure on the knee palms to the floor extend that left leg to the sky and shake it out move it around a little bit any little intuitive movements that feel right for you in this posture great come to your down dog push actively forward with ball of hand pedal the legs out one at a time wonderful and then go ahead and send that right leg to the sky rise up to the tops of the left toes send the right leg a little higher and then melt the left heel to the floor for the calf stretch rise up maybe push forward chest towards the thighs lower the left heel one more round of breath great look forward step the right foot to the front of the mat excellent and we'll bring that right hand outside of the right leg just so that we can start to release the front of that left hip so it's a little pulse forward and backward we're not straightening the right leg just straightening it a little bit so that we can feel a pulsing sensation in the back of the left hip the front of the left hip great the next time you pulse forward bring your right hand inside of the right leg heel toe the right foot off the mat towards that two o'clock space and as you walk your hands to the left a little bit same little pulse right as you pulse the left hip forward with the right knee opening to the right you'll feel a little different sensation a different area being released in the hip flexor two more rounds pulse away it's just like you're rocking that muscle to sleep and that muscle the psoas is contracting all the time when we're hinged this is our major body hinge here forward folding sitting in chairs all of those things we need to release this muscle and give it a little love great walk your right foot back onto the map this is where we'll take that block place it right in front of your left knee so before you do that back up your left hip so it's gliding up right over your knee place the block right flush to the knee so you feel the block against your knee and then as you bend the right leg it should catch the top right where your quad and knee meet so the the knee is hovering off the floor but your kneecap is not on the block so find that little space right there and then from here it's guiding the heart forward lifting the spine extending the spine this could be a great spot to just hang out and be in the posture if you want to lift up a little bit more maybe right hand on to the quad maybe left hand to the sacrum the left toes are untucked so we get that stretch all the way up to the hip flex lift the sternum lift the chest be kind to the lower back and focus on the hip flexor wonderful lower the hands back down move the block forward just a little bit we're going to use it again in a second and then come on back to your strap send the strap back up to the sky take a nice wide a little wider than the shoulders for your strap so that we can play with that side to side movement as you take a side bend to your right this time bend your left arm and allow that that side to feel a little bit more of a side stretch and then come on back to center i don't feel much i'm going to take my hands a little closer and grip side bend to my left and then bend the right arm so if you need to get those hands a little closer to feel more resistance feel free to tighten up your grip a little bit this opens up that whole left side a different way of experiencing the shoulder when your elbow is bent it's more into the lats the intercostals beautiful and then as we come up this time we'll take the arms up lift the sternum lift the heart and if it feels okay send those hands back once again reverse it you guys feel a little bit more challenge when you reverse it or when you send it in that's a nice way to just feel your way around that posture last one a little 360 for the shoulder today all right lose your strap you might use your block here on either hand underneath either hand as you straighten the right leg you can put a block underneath underneath each hand we're going to rock the hips to the right turn the toes to the left rock the hips to the left turn the toes to the right little hamstring wake up here but a nice massaging experience for it opposite of what we did last week a lot of energizing your body is going to be so happy in shavasana it's already probably ready for shavasana great the next time you come back to center you can dorsiflex the foot place the block on top of your left calf and then just back up your seat the block saves the knee from moving too deep into flexion if you don't need the block and your knees are nice and open you can come into a deeper stretch walking the hands forward lengthening the spine crown of the head moves forward soften soften soften drawing the chin slightly up to the chest so we get that length from the cervical spine maybe walking the fingertips forward great everybody and then hands back by either side of that left knee right knee press yourself back up walk your hands forward going into a nice low lunge twist you might have to slide that right heel forward if you pulled it back a little bit left knee on the floor right arm to the sky we'll bend the right arm and bring the fingertips to the top of the shoulder as we explore a little bit of intuitive rotation just draw a couple of circles with that left elbow as you draw the left ear towards the left shoulder yourself a couple rounds breath right here softening into it freedom in the shoulders so important a lot of the day we are rolling our shoulders forward phones technology computers and just freeing this area extend that right arm and enjoy the space that you created is so important for our body wonderful right hand outside of the right foot heel toe your right foot across the mat and then remember that left leg for this variation is going to bend so the bending at the knee and swinging the toes around for a safer experience for the front of your right kneecap and just so you can see me i'll swing around the other way but you're going to lengthen the spine forward so that important variation that i showed you with the left knee bent behind you keeps that variation of pigeon really soft your left knee and right heel are lining up as you bow forward get long with the spine and then we'll slowly open up to our left so you can keep the right elbow where it is and take a soft hip opening twist or you can bring that shoulder the forearm the elbow or the the tricep into the arch of your right foot and from here it's just a twist try to relax and soften into whatever your experience is here taking your time relaxing the muscles of the face relaxing the jaw with the breath really inflate hold a little longer than you normally would and instead of pressing into the twist soften into the twist feel that soft rotation kind of like more feeling like you're letting go than you're actually doing something two more rounds of breath wherever you find yourself wonderful one more round of breath and go ahead and release release walking your hands back pull the right heel in so that when you straighten the left leg you don't put any pressure on your knee especially after massaging that area we don't want to put any pressure tuck the left toes under lift the right leg to the sky and shake it out and move it around come into your table pose lower the knees place a block in front of each finger in front of each hand and table pose and we'll place our elbows on the blocks for nice release in the upper back and shoulders i like to interlace my fingertips once i get my elbows set up see what that feels like for you and as you back up the seat you can either look straight down or look back between the knees bring the crown of the head it's a little softer experience looking forward a little bit deeper so feel your way around this stretch and then instead of interlacing your hands bring your palms together fingers together and start to move your thumbs towards the base of the neck behind the head and then press the hips back a little bit more keep the hips pressed back and then start to move your fingers forward as you simultaneously back up your hips and you'll feel a little resistance a little massaging resistance try that again thumbs towards the base of your neck back up the seat and then press forward beautiful finale round your shoulders are smiling at you right now your shoulders could thank you they'd be thanking you right now good and as you get ready to release slowly unwind moving your blocks off to the side we may use the blocks as we move into bridge pose so swing your hips choose a direction swing the legs all the way around slowly lower slide your hands to the hamstrings hold on to the back of the hamstring and just slowly lower down engage your core as you lower all the way down to the floor plant the palms to the floor on the floor right next to your hips and as you press into the feet slowly lift the hips up with that inhale and as you lower massage draw the upper back press it into the floor mid back press it into the floor navel to the spine lower back so that you're giving yourself a massage all the way down vertebrae by vertebrae when you're ready inhale lift the hips draw the navel to the spine exhale massage your way down nice and slow vertebrae by vertebrae if you don't need your hands next to you on the floor on this last one as you lift the hips reach the arms over the head press into all four corners of the feet and then when you massage your way down it's just like a wave of relaxation a wave of energy melting the body into the floor when you make it all the way down pause right here and bring your palms next to the side once again we've got enough time for a supported bridge pose if you want to use the block underneath your sacrum you can place the block low medium or high under your sacrum and just let the palms turn up the shoulder blades squeeze together close your eyes and breathe into the heart center inviting the bright green light of anahata chakra the heart chakra to expand remember a loving kindness towards self so that we can be kinder more patient and more compassionate with self and then turn it towards the rest of the world the rest of the world when you're ready press into the feet and slowly lower down vertebrae by vertebrae massaging your way into the floor losing the blocks extending one leg at a time and then just let your legs shake out a little bit let your head relax let your fingers relax move the body a little bit so you feel no tension at all and just melt into that space as you melt into your shavasana we'll have a couple moments of silence here and then i'll walk you through the metta meditation while you're in shavasana so settle in let go of the breath let go of the doing let go of the effort relax the muscles of the face the jaw let the breath rise and fall on its own without you controlling the breath let any thought patterns that are distracting you melt into peace and just be scanning the body moving all the way down to the feet thanking the feet for taking you on this journey the legs all the miles you have been carried in this beautiful vehicle thank you the breath for guiding you for fueling you on your journey for anchoring you into the present moment thank you the arms for all the embraces the muscles in the face for all the laughter and the smiles if you'd like to repeat with me may you know peace say that in your mind no peace say that in your mind may your heart remain open say that in your mind may you know the beauty of your own true nature may you be healed and may you be a source of healing for others direct that mantra towards your family may they know peace may their heart remain open may they know the beauty of their own true nature may they be healed and may they be the source of healing for others direct this mantra to someone who you have conflict with may they know peace may their heart remain open may they know the beauty of their own true nature may they be healed and may they be the source of healing for others we have one more but we're going to wait till we come up to our seats so give yourself a little bit of movement intuitive movement stretches connecting with the breath allow yourself to roll over into sheedle pose feel the safety of this posture the connection of this posture connected to that deep essence of who you were as you came into this world without a story helping yourself up to your seat a nice comfortable seat with the eyes and closed direct this meta loving-kindness meditation to the world may we all know peace may we all keep our heart open may we all know the true beauty of our nature may we all be healed and may we be the source of healing for others bring your palms together right in front of your heart and as you send the palms out left and right share this wish with the whole world but it takes you a moment to open your eyes come back to yourself to the room but keep the feeling of connection and our takeaway today is obviously cultivating loving-kindness towards self towards family towards those that come that we have conflict with and sharing it with the world so thank you so much for being on this journey with me today i hope you feel better than when you arrived and please share this with everyone that you meet one more time happy day