Day 3: Spring Blossom

Hello, everyone. Welcome back. Day three of the spring yoga and Ayurveda challenge. I'm excited to have you here with me to practice today. Today we'll be standing for our practice. We're going to start and continue along with some inner leg yoga poses and stretches some outer legs, which are kind of a common theme here in the spring program. Lots of moves to get your side body open. And we'll have a nice little series in the kneeling and sitting position before we recline and do some floor core work at the end. So for practice today, we'll eventually need a blanket one block and a strap. But we will start standing and no props are needed here at the beginning. So if you will, let your feet wiggle their way towards each other, turn your toes out and let your heels press together. This is one of my favorite standing poses. If you've been with me for the challenge, you'll have probably seen this before. We're going to start with the ankles and knees a little bit bent. And try to keep the legs bent, your feet on the floor and give yourself a moment to tip a little bit forward and back. So you're aware that you're not too much on the back side of your heel or too much at the ball of the foot. You're somewhere in this moment, freshly in the center. Then I find it usually helpful to anchor the hands over the naval area or just a little bit lower into the lower abdomen. And maybe this encourages a little bit more softening of elbows and shoulders. If you're comfortable with your eyes closed, you might close your eyes and fine tune your alignment here. If you'd rather eyes open looking out to your horizon, maybe taking in the view of something beautiful or just simply allowing some natural lights to come into your eyes. Even if your eyes are closed, maybe you can sense and feel that light coming in through your eyes. All right, let's take a moment and more mindfully now settle into your shape into your posture. And use this standing pose as our meditation place to root, sink those tap roots energetically through your feet. As we notice where we might be swaying in our body. So we're trying to allow again, our body to move in those micromovements forward, back, left or right. To avoid being rigid in your standing posture. Eventually, when we feel grounded through the legs, we might notice a little more softening of belly out towards your palms, belly in towards the back. It's kind of the natural movement that typically happens when you're breathing. You can see when we feel calm. And now we take a moment to cultivate an intention to help us focus our mind throughout the practice. And potentially plant that seed for what we wish for a little bit more of today. Maybe in this new season. What do you wish for a little bit more of and then maybe we continue to water that seed throughout the practice water that intention that we might observe transforming as we move from spring closer to summer or perhaps from the early part of the day into your afternoon. All right, one more exhale, let's press down into your feet, straighten your legs and let your heels separate feet go just a little bit wider. From here, let's turn your nose to the right for a moment looking a little bit over that shoulder, turn your nose forward and then the nose looks to the left. Come back to center one more time nose to the right, back to center, nose to the left. From center, drop your chin towards your chest, raise your head up and look up without crunching up the neck, jaw, a little bit more relaxed, chin down, try to relax your jaw as you look up. And again, chin down. Now let's find parallel. So chin parallel to the floor. Let's roll those arms and shoulders as a team. And now let's take just the right shoulder and roll it back a few times. Just the right shoulder.

Other parts of the body are going to move a little bit. And then letting that right arm starts to make a bigger circle. And whatever pain free range of motion you have on this side, just that right arm moving. Let's pause and let that left shoulder roll back a few times, clearing out any stiffness or tension that might be here. And then eventually, it might start to make a larger sweeping circle movements. There's no right or wrong way to do that. What's your pain free range of motion like? Right now let's come back to both shoulders rolling together. You know, if we let the arms settle for a moment and let your hips now make some little circles and feel how your weight's transferring around in your feet. Sometimes the weight's a little more outer edge, sometimes ball of the foot, sometimes heel. So we're looking straight out to a horizon line, but really curious about how your feet are making contact with the ground. Let's circle your hips the other way.

Now bring your legs close together or parallel. Pull your hands down a little bit more middle of thighs or to your knee area. As you look down, let's circle your knees to the right. So knees and ankles. Try to move all these little joints in your body. And as we're lubricating those joints with the movement, let's go the opposite direction a few times. And as we're going fast or that your knees are bent all that deeply. See if you can feel that you're improving your range of motion. Preparing these joints for maybe some larger movements to come. And now let's come up to straight legs. All right, from your straight leg position, slide your hands up to your hips and stretch your right foot forward, maybe one footprint, flex that ankle. And now we're going to move on to the one footprint, flex that ankle. And as we bow a little bit forward, tip from your hips and look down towards the floor long spine. Come back up to neutral spine, arms out to your side parallel to the floor. And again, tip forward from your hips as you bow forward and greeting that right hamstring. Lift your torso, take your arms behind your back, lace your fingers, stretch your arms away from your back, tip forward as you look down towards the floor. Come all the way up.

Arms at your side. Let's slide your left heel forward, hands back to your hips, the slight bend of the right knee, tip forward from your hips. And we're focusing on the right hamstring and calf. Lift your torso up, arms out parallel to the floor. Same thing, tip forward from your hips, left leg is our focal point, right leg slightly bent. Lift your torso, take your arms behind your back, stretch your arms away from the back as you tip forward last time, acknowledging those left hamstrings or calf. Lift yourself up, hands to your hips as you pull that left foot in. Now we're going to raise your right knee a little bit up towards the ceiling so you're balancing and we'll make a few circles with your right ankle and then start to make some external rotation circles with your right thigh. So you're rolling your leg out, rolling that leg out a few times while just noticing what balance is like. Can we encourage more rooting through your left foot, the whole foot? Now let's go the other way with your right leg and do more internal rotation, bringing your leg towards the midline. Now let's cross that right leg over your left leg with your hands at your hips, both feet on the floor, tip back, move your hips back as you tip from your hips and slide your hands down your right leg like you might be familiar with this pose it in some way used to always be called the runner's stretch. So just kind of sense as you slide your hand down your outer hips are more of our target point.

Slide your hands up your legs, arms again out to your side, tip from your hips and come forward, long spine, thighs pressing together, feet rooting, come back up, arms reach behind the back, lace your fingers, stretch your arms away from the buttocks, away from the lower back as you again come forward, thighs pressed together. Inhale all the way up, release your arms at your side, step your right foot to the floor, hands to your hips, and let's bring the left knee towards the ceiling and circle that left ankle a few times. And then the other direction. Now let's start our external rotation with your left thighs, you're rolling out away from your midline and lubricating that ball and socket joint here this way. Now let's go the other direction, do a little bit of that circling in towards your midline. Noticing if we're rooting well for our right foot today.

Every day is a little different. Now let's cross your left leg over your right, plant your feet, legs are straight. And as we tip from the hips, the buttocks swing back slightly torso forward, look down, now slide your hands down your left leg, and maybe more consciously squeeze your upper thighs towards each other, in particular firming your back leg. Slide your hands up, torso is vertical now as we spread the arms wide. Let's tip forward now with your arms wide. Try to maintain that long spine body parallel to the floor. Tip up to standing, reach behind your back, stretch your arms away from your back. And one more time, tip forward, parallel to the floor, come all the way up, and then both feet on the ground, arms at your side. Let's bring the feet as close as you're comfortable, root down through the feet. Now as you take your arms up towards your ears, and maybe even your hands touch, or maybe eventually they touch, you're going to stay on your right foot and kick your left leg out to the side as you drop your left hand down to touch your left leg. Bring your left leg to the floor, left arm back to meet your right hand. Kick your left leg out, drop your left hand down to touch that leg. Reach back up, root your feet. Two more times, kick that left leg out as you reach up through with your right fingertips. Lower your left foot, we're back to center. One more time, kick your left leg out, pause. One second here, raise your left arm up, and then come through chair pose. Maybe a high chair. Swing the hands back by your hips as you tip forward. Swing your arms all the way back up towards the ceiling on inhale. Two more, exhale, swing your arms back as you tip forward, chest on your thighs.

Inhale, lift up, chair. Exhale, ribs on thighs, chest on the knees, swing your arms up, and come back up through chair pose. Now let's have straight legs. Bring your arms a little closer, maybe your hands touch above your head. Stand on your left foot now as you kick your right leg out to the side and drop your right hand down to your right leg. Take your right arm up as your right foot drops down. Right leg kicks out, right hand drops to touch the side of that right leg. Release, come back up with your right arm, root through your feet. A couple more times, kick your right leg out, touch the side of that leg. Reach back up. Let's do one more. Kick your leg out to the side balance as you touch the right side of the leg. Pause, turn those right toes forward. Lower the leg as your arms come up. Again, that chair flow. Swing your arms back as you tip your torso forward. Raise your arms as you swing your body back up. Big exhale as you fold over your legs, swing your arms up and back. Inhale, arms swing up. Last time, tip forward, swing your arms back and swing your arms up chair. Come up into straight legs, hands in front of the chest and now let's wiggle the feet a little bit wider apart for our goddess high squat stance. Slide the hands now around to the hips and start to make a few little circles with your hips. And as we make some of those circles, let's come around to center and then let your hips sway back and then bring your hips forward. We're going to sway a little bit back, tipping a little forward, and tipping back and forth, just being aware of how you're moving in the bowl of your pelvis. Now, let's go ahead and stay neutral and begin to turn towards your right side and one arm is in front, one arm is behind. We're going to tap along our outer buttocks, outer hips, tap, and as you're tapping, the legs stay in one position. So rather than knees bouncing, try to keep your knees still. Now tap a little higher up around your waist area. The elbows bend a little bit and we're turning to look over our shoulder as we twist. We mobilize all these different joints along your spine and then tap up in front of your chest and one hand taps along the back of your rib cage. I always love this for a simple movement break or a nice way to start the day, maybe as some hot water's boiling, get the body warmed up first thing in the morning. Now let's go ahead from here and swing your right arm up in front of you, left arm behind you, and then left arm up towards the ceiling, right arm behind you. So you're going to swing the arms across the center line. One goes front, one goes in the back, just send a little energy into that reach. Side body opens, legs stay bent. Again, there's no real way to do this right or wrong. We're just trying to open your side body a little bit more. And now let's come back to tapping upper chest and back of the rib cage. Come back to the tapping, turning your nose as much as you're comfortable when you look over your shoulder. Tap along your waist, tap along the hips. Now let's come around to straight legs. Take a pause. Let's notice the difference in your legs. Now slide your hands on your legs down towards your knees as you come into a little deeper squat position and be willing now to adjust the angles of your feet as you press your left hand into your left knee.

And we're going to turn towards your right leg and slide your left heel just a little more to the left as we try to bring your left shoulder towards your inner right knee. Come back to center. And then as we press the right hand into the right knee, slide your right heel back an inch as we lower towards our inner left leg and imagine your right shoulder going toward left knee. That's the slow motion version. Come back to center. So a little more real time. Let's turn to the right and slide your left leg straight as you're curling into your inner right leg. Back to your squats. Press into your right leg as you turn and pivot towards your left leg and curling into your left leg. Come back around to squats. Okay, so left leg straight. We press into the inner left leg as we curl to the right like you're in warrior two but you've curled into your leg. Back to your squat. Then one more time with that movement. Adjust your heels. Curl down into your left leg. Come back around to center. Now when we go to the right, right leg bent like you're doing warrior two, stretch your left arm out at an angle away from your shoulder as you keep pressing your right hand into your right knee. Lower your head so your head is dropped down and your left ear is beside your left arm. And just feel that nice long stretch hopefully from your left lower back or upper buttock area all the way out to your left hand. Let's walk back to center and then transfer. Your hands are on the ground as you transfer. Put your left hand on your left knee and then walk your right hand away from your yoga mat, away from your shoulder as your head drops down so your right ear is beside your right arm. Deepen into your legs. Let your feet root into the floor as we stretch the right side of the back here. Now let's come around to center and you need to come around to your center. Keep your hands more under your shoulder line and we'll do that spring cleaning of the inner leg channel by moving the feet wider apart and trying to be mindful that you're not putting too much weight on your hands.

They're not turning too white or pink as you're getting a little more grounding through your legs and a little more lifting up through the belly and chest so there's less weight going on to your fingertips. So think of plank pose in your torso and that side splits in the legs. We've already done this this week so hopefully you're noticing maybe a little bit of change in the muscle tone or even the reactivity to the pose because you've maybe done it recently. Let's notice what's different today. Now let's bring the legs a little bit closer together so feet might be wider than your shoulders. Bring your legs and feet in so you can come into a squat that might be a medium squat in the sense that your hips are higher than your knees and some of you lower with your hips pointing down as we gather the hands at the chest. Here's one more big fun move for you. We're going to stand straight up, reach your right arm out to the side and as your right arm reaches out to the side step into your left foot and bring your right foot to your left hand and we're going to come back to your squats. As we leap over a little bit to your right side raise your left arm out and bring your left foot to your right hand. Come back to your squats. There's your center. Lean to your left, right arm helps you balance as you kick your right foot to your left hand, back to squat. Come up, left arm is out there to help you balance as you bring your left foot to your right hand, back to center, right arm goes up, kick your right foot to your left hand, maybe we'll go just a tiny bit faster the last few. Left arm out, left foot to right hand, squat. Last one, right arm goes out, kick your right foot to your left hand, squat, left arm out, kick your left foot to your right hand, squat and then launch yourself up.

Straight legs, arms up and then arms down at your side. Now let's bring the legs closer together and just notice what's different in your legs. As you shake your legs out a little bit let's find where your strap is and undo the strap whatever you might be using as a strap so that it's more or less folded in half and then let's fold it one more time just so we have a little less fabric that we're working with. We'll wiggle the legs out to the side and start with what your warrior two position is when you turn your right foot out you spend your right knee and adjust the angle of your foot so your front knee is happy and make sure you adjust your back foot so your back knee is happy. Let's hold on maybe with our hands to the ends of the strap or a little bit closer depending on your shoulder mobility. As we pull tightly on the strap we're going to raise your arms up and as you pull on the ends of the strap now you can decide you bring your hands closer or are they in a pretty good spot. We wide through the collarbones and generally feeling good in the shoulders and now straighten your front leg and take your arms down in front of you raise your arms as you come back into your warrior two where you're sinking into both legs so your head stays over the center of your pelvis. Straighten your front leg arms down move just a little bit faster bend your front knee exit working with a slightly quick breath rhythm not lingering too long it's kind of warming up as we go in and out. Now let's leave the arms down turn your right toes in turn your left toes out and let's make the whole shape of warrior two on your second side adjust the angles of your feet and one side might be tighter than the other we might need to lift further away from the ground for one side to get our feet planted well take your arms with that strap up and pull tightly on the ends of this strap so hopefully you feel nice and spacious in that shoulder girdle collarbones shoulder blades all feeling spacious. Now let's put it more into motion arms down front leg straight bend your knees swing your arms up straighten your front leg arms down and go just a little bit faster so still being safe moving in that pain-free range of motion kind of use this as a way to increase circulation to some of these different joints in your body stretch some of those big muscles in your back legs all right let's come to neutral from neutral turn your toes forward transfer the strap behind your back and let your palms face away from the front end of your yoga mat here walk your hands towards each other but we could still be holding the ends of the the strap so from here the arms are behind you and we're going to stretch the arms away from your back bend your knees tilt from your hips and stretch your arms up in the air or overhead as you drop your head down and let's go with bent knees so we're not so much focused on the hamstrings here maybe a little more attention to your shoulders squeeze one more moment up between your shoulder blades now press down into your feet come all the way back up and transfer the straps again in front of you as you turn your right foot back out now with a straight right leg for your triangle base hold on to the ends of the strap raise your arms up when you're ready above your shoulders or your head and then it will tilt to the right side pulling tightly on the ends of the strap come back up to center and it might mean that you're reaching just a tiny bit forward pull tight on the strap feel how you're stretching the muscles of your back side here of course some of you might also feel those right hamstring stretch as we tip over that leg just highlighting a few of the places i'm imagining you feel some of the the benefit of this work maybe one more time just going in and out in that mindful way let's stay even if it's a little more conservative version where we're more vertical lift the shoulder blades send the strap towards the ceiling to create more space in your back one more moment tip back up to center arms down give those shoulders a rest as we turn right foot in turn left foot out and arms come up when you're ready pull tight on the ends of the strap see if that helps widen the collarbones stay wide as we tip to our left just checking out how we're moving here come back up again we'll reach again to that same side and sometimes i feel like one side i have to reach my arms a little bit more forward to feel like i'm widening the muscles of my back versus compressing into the back as best as we can imagine you're lifting that strap towards the ceiling as you go to your side now if you're ready to stay just for that one maybe cycle of your breath unlock your left leg if it tends to lock and more mindfully lift your rib cage shoulder blades and hands up tip back to center arms down in front of you when left toes turn forward reach the strap behind your back and one more time walk your hands maybe closer together while holding tightly to the strap bend your knees tilt from your hips as you stretch your arms up into the air as soon as the head points down try to squeeze more actively into the middle of the shoulder blade area pull tight on the ends of the strap as we widen through the collarbones press down into your legs and let's inhale lift all the way back up release the strap heel toe your legs and feet towards each other and hopefully the legs feel a little bit more energetic now we're going to get rid of this strap and set that to the sides and we'll take a walk up to the front short end of your mat which we have not yet visited so let's find our tadasana for a moment standing up at the top of your mat the short ends defeat underneath the hips palms face forward for a moment feel your rooting through your feet lengthen through the curves of the spine let's press down while we lift the arms up and look up if that feels good reach behind your back lace your fingers together as you bend your knees fold over your legs on the exhale you point the head down send your hands now to the floor and step back with your right leg into a high lunge position root down through your feet catch your hips and then take your torso up to vertical if you need to shorten your step to have better balance raise your arms up by your ears now swing just your left hand back by your hip as you tip forward and reach towards the front of the room or front of your mat swing your left arm up and we're back to crescent lunge right arm swings back by your hip tip forward just with your left arm leading the way right arm comes back we're in crescent lunge now open your arms wide out to your side look forward and tip slightly forward we're going to take your back right leg cross it over left for eagle or plant simply your right foot to the outside of left foot sit down into your legs and as we bend the arms 90 degree angles you might squeeze your elbows together right in front of your chest or tuck your left elbow in your right elbow crease if you have access to wind your arms and sink down into your eagle this way and then let's launch up and out and bring your arms back at your side mountain pose press down into your feet as your arms sweep up in the air look up if that feels good full reach behind your back bend your knees and let's fold forward and treat ourselves to one more chest opener unlace fingers hands to the floor as you step back with your left leg now into your high lunge catch a hold of your hips with your hands lift your torso up raise your arms we might know this pose as crescent moon crescent lunge not crescent moon take your right arm back by your hip tip forward reach out through your left hand towards the front of your room raise your right arm up and we're back to crescent lunge just the left arm back by your hip tilt forward reach out through your right hand raise your left arm back up let's your arms go to the side kind of like airplane arms step into your right foot and cross your left leg over your right for eagle as we settle down bend your arms 90 degrees squeeze your elbows to touch stay here or tuck your right elbow into your left elbow crease if we're okay in that shoulder area to come into more of a squat position let's launch ourselves come all the way back up to tadasana one more time raise your arms up we'll go through the cycle bend your knees fold forward lace your fingers stretch those arms up towards the ceiling drop your hands to the floor right leg back to that high lunge arms might reach forward and up right into your crescent left arm back by your hip tip forward right arm reaches out in front of you left arm swings up by your ear crescent lunge right arm back by your hip tilt forward left arm leads the way right arm swings back up and we'll do the wide open arms like airplane step into your left foot eagle as you cross your right leg around right toes touch the floor foot might wrap around your lower ankle when you're ready bend your arms squeeze them together or maybe tuck your left elbow and your right elbow crease and take a moment deepening the squats the flexion that lower ankle come up to mountain pose find your center inhale arms up this is meant to be a warming part of practice reach behind your back lace your fingers stretch your arms up as you tip forward drop your hands to meet the floor left leg goes back high lunge maybe both arms sweep forward and up we're in crescent lunge stretch back with your left hand and tip forward with your right hand leading the way left arm swings back up and the right arm goes back by your hip tip forward let the left hand lead the way both arms come back up high crescent lunge airplane arms step into your right foot and left leg crosses over for eagle legs maybe the toes stay on the floor maybe left foot wraps around lower ankle bend your arms squeeze your elbows into the midline or take your right elbow to your left elbow crease and wind your arms around each other as you sink down maybe noticing your right ankle bends just a tiny bit more as you lower launch all the way back up to mountain pose now as we come up with our arms we're going to go into a new sequence fold forward over your legs and now let's take a step back with your right leg and then your left to come into plank and let's fold the upper body now into our practice find that nice distance for plank pose from here we're going to tip to the right and as you tip to the pinky edge of your right foot step your left foot forward to the center of your mat with your left toes facing the long edge left arm sweeps up towards the ceiling you can press into your left foot to help lift that lower right hip and now let's stretch your left arm overhead take it back up and again take that left arm overhead so arm might end up by your cheek one more time on that side going up bring the left arm down towards your cheek and let's turn to the short end of your mat and come back now to down dog from down dog tip forward into your plank pose tip to your left you're on the pinky edge of your left foot as your right foot comes forward to center of the mat press into your right foot as you lift your right arm up and as we're looking towards the ceiling take the right arm down towards your cheek right arm goes straight back up right arm down towards your cheek go back up and then this last time that right arm as it comes overhead turn back toward plank pose into downward dog let the head drop down between your arms and now from here let's bring your knees down to the floor and this is where the blanket was is going to be helpful to add a little more padding for your knees if we have the knees on some padding and take a block between your thighs maybe in the medium width so it's going to keep the hips knees and thighs a little bit more hip distance apart i'm going to slide my knees up to the top of the blanket and have my ankles towards the back okay bring your legs in until you're engaged with the block we're going to raise your arms out in front of you looking up to your horizon line let's engage the feet they press down squeeze your block and look out to your horizon as you tip back and then reach forward squeeze your block as you go back and as you come forward going one more time in that symmetrical way going back and then forward and now let's raise your right arm up by your ear drop your left hand back and tip back and maybe touch your heel with your left hand as you look down raise your left arm up by your ear drop your right hand down towards your right heel as you lean back squeeze your block swing your arm up take both arms back behind you let's curl your toes under and maybe as we tip back with your thighs we kind of reach down to touch the outer ankles come back up now keep your toes curled under lean back one more time drop your left hand down try to touch maybe your heel swing your left arm back up drop back and let your right hand touch your right heel maybe look down right arm comes up both arms go back and give yourself room to lean back a little bit squeeze your block with your legs touch your heels all the way back up and then arms down and let's go ahead and remove that block if the block is better for some of you to sit on you've got a block to sit on and for some of you it might be easier to sit on the floor what's usually not easier to sit on the floor sit on whatever height works best for you you take just a moment now in our sitting position to make two fists with your hands rest your hands here on top of your thighs lift your chest on the inhale as you look forward and if you're menstruating you want to put your hands more back by your ankles so we're not putting too much pressure if you're pregnant the knees would be apart and you'd skip doing the pressure and your hands would go back by your ankles other folks might enjoy pressing the fist into the soft part of the abdomen and when the head tips forward it's a way to try to release some tension along your backside along the banks of the spine and maybe even in your abdominal area that sometimes the fist and bringing your breath to that area is some deep internal massage it's like a deep internal massage so let's take three more breaths as you are here when you finish your third breath let's lift the spine all the way back up and notice what's different in that belly area big breath in and out whatever you might be sitting on if it's a block let's get that block out of the way and we'll slide your feet out to one side and then forward and you might still like that padding underneath your hips so we have the legs bent hold on to the back of your knees in the beginning so you can tip back in your pelvis and find where is that spot where you more easily balance okay so we kind of have that as a reference now if we let the arms reach out in front of you and stretch your left leg up towards the ceiling and bring your left foot down you might tip forward lean back let the right leg kick out in front of you and maybe tip again a little forward tip back maybe a little further as we stretch the left leg up and again tip forward and lean a little bit back and find maybe that right leg kicks out tip again a little forward and one more time maybe go back as far as you feel like you can still keep your balance stretch left leg forward tip forward come back find that balance edge and then right leg kicks out and then come forward all right so now let's slide to the front end of your blankets and if you fold your blanket one more time i'll turn towards you to stay a little more connected you're sitting on a little more padding let's have the left leg stretch out to the left and have your right foot somewhere in front of the left pelvis or inner leg all right and then from here when you're sitting if you will please put your left hands around your knee or your shin and put your right hand on your right leg to help root that right leg down as we slide the left hand along that inner leg as far as what feels comfortable for you flex the left ankle so you're actually firming this left leg that we're leaning over and then let's take the right arm out to the side and a little bit behind you so you're opening that right chest a little more towards the ceiling and see if we can keep that sense of openness here in the chest as we take the right arm down towards your ear and the arm might be a little bit in front of you right some of us will bend that top elbow and catch the left side of your head with your right hand to support your head a little bit if you felt like you wanted more stretching sensation you'd slide your left elbow towards your inner knee or towards the floor and try to be mindful that that right chest is still opening towards the long end of your mat or towards the ceiling as the case might be okay now notice again are your eyes and moving more into your face or out of your face can we be adjusted in such a way that your eyes soften more into your face all right let's slide your left hand up your leg keep holding your head and right at the end let's bring that right arm down all right now let's go ahead and switch out and take your left heel in and stretch your right leg out left hand on left knee right hand on the right thigh and then down towards your knee or towards your shin tip over to your right side and as your hand goes further towards the direction of your ankle you'll probably notice more hamstring stretch on your right you find that healthy stretch for you then swing your left arm back in space so you're more aware of what it feels like to open that corner of your chest and then start to take that left arm as much as you can overhead and then let's bend that left elbow and maybe grab the right side of your head with your left hand and see if we can turn our left chest a little more towards the ceiling some of you might like to drop your right elbow a little bit more towards the inner right knee or towards the floor and be observing again of your eyes so your eyes moving out of the face or more into your face can you make that adjustment so there's a little more ease in your eyes looking for that right amount of healthy stretch here all right then then slide on up last thing we let go of is the head and bring your left arm down at your side let's slide your blanket that you might be sitting on out from underneath you have your hands back there to support you as you stretch your left leg forward and now let's pull your legs and cross your right leg over your left tilt forward fingertips are still behind you lean back stretch your legs back out to the side tip forward lean back let's cross your left ankle over your right tip forward fingertips are still behind you as you lean forward tip back legs stretch again out wide and tip forward one more time a little more quickly lean back right leg crosses over left tilt forward your hands are behind you lift up uncross your legs tip forward hands are on the floor behind you come up last one left leg over right tip forwards let's see if you deepen into that hip stretch and now as we come up let's bring the legs parallel and we start to make our way to go down to the floor by reaching your arms in front of you and slowly slowly slowly work your way down to the floor and eventually we'll let the arms be down at your side as soon as your arms are down at your side take a moment separate your feet maybe hip distance apart please leave your arms at your side so we tip your right knee towards your chest stretch your right leg in the air and we'll draw a few circles with that right leg right foot on the ceiling and try to notice that you're using your core muscles more than your arms to find our balance and we feel like things are moving well on this side let's do our external rotation and put your right heel on top of your left knee or lower thigh and create your figure four shape tilt your legs in towards your chest legs move forward without using your hands or figure four we tip the legs in legs go forward so some of you might be able to grab the left leg the back the front or we'd add our strap around the front of your left shin to more easily hold that leg okay so you might enjoy one of those or keep doing the movement to lubricate that ball and socket joint with motion some of you will go to the static version and squeeze your leg in that right amount that might help you feel a little deeper into your right hip not so much in your right knee but your right hip area and are we working the right edge here to encourage our eyes to fall back into the face sense that the lower back is somewhat relaxed hey may you tip just a tiny bit side to side now let's release that side put your arms back at your side and when you're ready please take your left leg towards the ceiling we'll make a few circles with your left leg left foot and as we're drawing those circles just noticing again if things loosened up in our hip from all the standing work we did or sitting work let's put your left heel on top of your knee or that lower part of your thigh once your legs are in that figure four shape try to tilt your legs towards your chest move your legs forward tip back in and we go forward and maybe next time you catch your right leg if that's accessible the back of the leg front of the leg or we've got our strap to put around the front of the shin we'll show without on this side and you could also keep moving and that movement i hope feels good like you're lubricating that joints and others if you're staying still see if you can pinpoint what area needs a little bit more attention and try to visualize a fuller breath more chi more flow more hydration going towards those tissues all right let's go ahead and release and now let your arms open out a little bit to your side in 90 degree angles as you bring your knees towards your chest knees stay together and let's circle your legs around as we press our arms into the floor bring some more awareness back into our center now let your knees just for a moment tip to your right side as you turn your head to look to the left come back to center tip your knees to the left as you look to the right and back to center one more time legs to your right look to the left back to center legs to the left head to the right come back to center now grab your knees separate them towards the sides of your chest and see if you can let your shoulders drop back a little bit more towards the floor so you've access in some way to breathe down this front center line of your body and just take notice now if there's any particular movements that your body wants before we wind down to shavasana something we missed something you want to do again something on your back you might complete that pose bringing your knees together and if you're ready for shavasana you want to grab whatever props you use for shavasana you could also have your feet on the ground knees dropped in towards each other arms at your sides and as you're working towards the shavasana even layers again to keep exposed parts of the body covered so we're not losing heat through the heels through your torso and once you decide which variation you're going to work with today maybe we start to turn the attention inward and feel our connection again to the earth and are some parts of the body feeling a little more willing to nestle back into that fertile ground underneath us and perhaps noticing now what areas are softening making more contact with the ground as we release the weight of the limbs just notice that there's perhaps better circulation from your center out to your limbs out to your extremities and on the exhale can we feel that return of energy flow back towards the center perhaps directing our prana our energy towards the center tube of your spine and imagining energy flowing evenly up and down the length of your spine and your unique curves and as we're gathering our energy and awareness back in towards our center can we come back and notice maybe what our intention is what we wish for more of in this moment perhaps it's changed from the beginning of class sort of remember what was our intention at the beginning and can we again reset our intention to spark that fire element to help us focus as we move a little bit more into the subtle body giving the outer physical body a little bit of rest time and eventually maybe tapping into the spaciousness that's there between the breaths or between thoughts of what to do in the future or what you didn't do in the past there's a spaciousness of right now as you tap into that spaciousness perhaps you can feel the health benefit of the nervous system calming down and may we choose to stay in this place for the next couple of minutes together let's see if you can stay here and still remain connected to the ground acknowledging the heavy parts of the body rooted to the floor and then we welcome that grounding as we take a few deeper fuller breaths to create more space in our front body and then making some smaller movements out at our fingers toes ankles and wrists then a little wiggling of arm bones and leg bones all right now carrying a little bit of that earth element with us as we bend the legs if the legs went straight and bringing that awareness of being connected to the earth as we turn to our sides into our fetal pose and still imagining that blanket of earth body still surrounding us that we stay grounded as we come up to sit and find some padding perhaps underneath your hips to support yourselves as you're sitting and aligning yourself here between the earth and the sky and then maybe the refinement of your sitting as you lower your gaze or close your eyes and see if you're aligned in that way that continue in to feel the energy from your practice the vitality from the practice or perhaps that sense of calm and big breath in big breath out one more full inhale breath and one more full out breath let's gather the hands in front of the heart center and just acknowledge all the efforts you've put into your practice this week for day one and two and now for day three of our challenge and i hope you begin to feel a little bit more energy each day from the efforts you put into your practice namaste thank you yogis for being here for the third day and as you know we're adding in a little bit of lifestyle wellness tips to help us expand and grow our practice especially now that we're moving into this new season where there's a little bit more light and usually a little more energy because there's a little bit more light so i've introduced things that give you some evening challenges like going to bed a little earlier perhaps just for this week to feel more rested some things for your morning time tongue scraping for example or warm food the master cleanse drink and i wanted to offer a few ideas to bring more mindfulness to your afternoon so one thing that i find really helpful to to encourage people to do is to have a cup of tea herbal tea in the afternoon and not just having a cup of tea but having a couple tea mindfully potentially outside in nature or close to the window where you can see natural light and take a moment to have that tea to hydrate so that we can think more clearly for the rest of the afternoon and also as a way to gather your prana back in towards yourself so we take that more conscious rest in the middle of the day which will hopefully help us when we're winding down in the evening to rest or sleep more easily if we've taken some pauses throughout our afternoon or even midday to stop the momentum of these long days and our busyness so to me the mindfulness tea break is a way to hydrate which usually is good for our tissues and for our health and our energy as well as again that acknowledgement of that pause and rest moment helps out in the long run to maybe help us sleep a little bit better and then in that afternoon window when the light begins to change in the afternoon it's a really nice window to tap into creativity where we do maybe more brainstorming or maybe more actual create creative work that doesn't require us to focus on the minute details that kind of work that might be better early in the day when we have sharper focus the afternoon is this wonderful time to be out in nature to tap into her healing that's possible or to step back and reclaim parts of ourself that we didn't get to tap into in our working part of the day we try to reclaim those parts of ourself in the afternoon so we can be creative or maybe just silence having a walk outside in nature to tap into again the the healing that happens when we clear out the clutter from the day and have the nature medicine nature as medicine how's that so our practice for today again have a little tea break or for this rest of the week a little bit of mindfulness in the afternoon and a little bit of time around nature to potentially potentially awaken the muse or as a way to just do a little healing and calming down and maybe that again is going to be part of your afternoon practice for the rest of the season i hope you create that space for yourself all right everyone have a great rest of the day or afternoon whenever you might be practicing and i look forward to seeing you tomorrow for day four have a great rest of the day namaste