Stable Like a Tree

Hello, everyone. Welcome to our Stable Like a Tree practice. I'm so glad you're here to join me. In our practice today, we'll be doing a little bit of floor work to get us ready for our peak pose of tree pose today and some wonderful variations before we wind down and get grounded like a tree. So for our practice today, it'll be helpful to have a blanket and a couple of blocks. And when you're ready, let's go ahead and get started in the supine recline position. And I want to encourage you to grab your blocks and put them in the flat position as you recline onto your back, perhaps a little folded blanket under your head and slide those blocks in nice and close to the sides of your legs. So when your legs drop open to the sides, our recline cobblers pose, your legs feel supported by the blocks. And if it's better for your body to have a medium size tilt in the blocks, please go to that position. When your blocks are in the right place, let's drop your arms somewhere out to your sides in a place that's easy for your shoulders. Start to nestle into the ground, feel like your little seedling that's starting to nestle into the soil here. And noticing again that willingness perhaps of some areas of your body to settle more quickly. And if there's some parts of the body that might take just a little bit more time to nestle in as you're planting yourself literally in this fertile earth, this fertile ground, the way a tree seedling might. And to feel for a moment a little bit of gratitude for this piece of land where we are settling, a moment of gratitude for this earth. And that sense now of belonging in this place. Imagine we're becoming part of this larger forest around us and feeling like the forest has your back here. You let that sink in and try to imagine here the forest, the ground has your back so that your front side might get a little bit more soft, mobile, receptive to help you breathe in a way that's really calming and nourishing. Imagine even here that the ground, the soil could absorb any tension or anxiety or stress and make some beautiful compost out of our stress or anxiety or even stiffness for that matter. Let's take maybe three more breaths as you are here setting your place, planting again those early tap roots into the soil. So we're going to make a supine version of a tree shape in just a moment. So I'm going to invite you to tilt your left leg in towards neutral. So your left leg tilts off the block. Stretch your left leg straight to the floor and if you need to move your block out of the way so your left leg is straight and right leg is still in that propped up tree position. Now let's take your arms back a little bit more towards your ears. So it actually would feel like you're doing tree pose here on your back. And if we can remember again the forest has your back. So if a lot of your back has left the floor, see if you can encourage a little bit more of your back body to settle. Now let's turn your palms to face each other like you would in standing tree pose and send a little more energy between your fingertips, your arms and that left leg that's straight and that left leg is rooting down towards the earth. And take a few fuller exhales and at the end of your exhale see if you can find that pause where we draw a little more attention deeper into our core and try to nourish your center at the end of your exhale. And then as we inhale letting that center area open a little softer, a little more expansive. And now let your arms come down to your side all the way down to your side and let's slide that left leg back in and tilt your left leg out to the side to feel the support of the block and then stretch your right leg straight to the floor. You might need to move your block out of the way. And stretch your arms again back by your ears so you're basically doing tree pose on your back with a little prop under your left thigh and then send some energy between your arms, your torso and your legs so you're trying to get longer without letting your backside lift away from the earth. So try to feel your back ribs are in proximity to the ground, this fertile soil underneath us. And take a few more moments trying to find that pause at the end of your exhale. Just that moment where we nourish our center, maybe find a little bit of space between thoughts. Alright, arms down to your side and let's go ahead for a moment now and move the blocks over to let's say your left sides. When the blocks are over to your left side, let's grab your right knee and pull your knee towards your chest and then take that left leg and stretch it down to the floor. Now we're going to take your left arm back by your ear and stretch really long now through your left side. Let's use that right hand to help us open that right knee a little bit out to the right. Kind of like you're doing tree pose again on your back, that right knee open. Let's tilt that right leg back to center and raise your right leg in the air like you just grew that first limb towards the sky. Both arms back by your ears and then drop your right leg down to the floor. Let's reach forward and grab your left knee, tilt your left knee towards your chest. Give it a hug. Take your right arm back by your ear and stretch long through your right side without lifting your back ribs away from the earth. Let's tilt that left leg open to the left a couple of inches like you're warming up for tree pose on your back. Tilt your left leg back to center and raise your left leg in the air as your left arm goes back by your ear. So now that left leg is like a new sprout or a branch reaching towards the sky. Left leg down. Let's do a little quicker now. Bring your right knee towards your chest, left arm back by your ear, right leg opening out to the right, right leg back to your center and then take your right leg to the sky, both arms by your ears and then drop your right leg to the floor. Draw your left knee in. Give it a squeeze. Right arm by your ear, left arm opens to the left, left leg back to center. Swing your left leg in the air, both arms by your ears and drop your left leg down. One more time a little quicker. Right knee in, left arm by the ear, right arm, right leg to the side, back to neutral, right leg in the air, arms by your ears and drop your right leg down. Grab that left leg, tilt it in, right arm by your ear, open your left leg a few inches to the left, tilt your left leg to center, left leg in the air, both arms by your ears and then drop your left leg to the floor. Let's pull both knees in towards your chest now and separate your knees with your hands. With your hand on a kneecap, draw some little circles with your knees and we're more specifically actually moving the femur and the head and neck of the femur. You make those little circles.

And now with the knees apart, join the bottoms of the feet to touch. Reach forward, grab your ankles or grab the pinky side of your foot and see if you can press your feet together as you press your knees a little further away from your shoulders. So heels pressed together, a little inner leg stretch, maybe even pelvic floor stretch. One more second here and then let's go ahead and pull the heels wide and come to that little happy baby pose where you tilt your body a little bit to the right and left, just like you'd be a little seed, maybe tumbling a little bit side to side on the ground. One more moment here and then let's put the feet down on the floor. When the feet come down, grab one block please and let's turn over onto your right side. Then you can use your arm as a pillow instead of your blanket. So if we have our right arm bent and that could be your pillow here under your head, let's take your block and put it between the thighs and the block might move and you might need to readjust it. Let's keep the legs at 90 degree angles, a flat block between your thighs and as your feet stay together, press your left foot into your right foot and lift your left thigh off the block a couple of inches. Bring it back down, lift your thigh off the block, set it down, lifting the leg and down. So we're not lifting all that far, just a couple of inches to try to keep your hips stacked. Let's try two more little warm up clam shell move, feet stay together, top thigh lifts. Now let's go ahead and remove that block, that's just a little warm up and then stretch your legs straight, flex your ankles and then from here once your ankles are flexed, your legs are in a straight line with your spine, slide your left foot to the inner upper right thigh like you're on tree pose now on your side. It tilts your left knee towards your left shoulder, stretch your left leg in the air and bring your left leg back to your right leg. Left foot slides into upper right thigh like tree pose, left knee to left shoulder, left leg in the air, left leg come back to meet your right leg. Left foot in inner upper right thigh, tree pose, left knee to left arm, left leg to the ceiling, left leg down. Now let's keep your left foot in your tree pose position, so heel presses into upper right thigh. Now take your left arm up towards the ceiling, right above your shoulder line. So now we're focusing on balance and we're going to move now your left arm down by your ear and open up that left side body. Take your left hand and reach forward, see if you can touch your left knee or your left thigh with your left hand. We'll keep working our balance as we take our left arm down by the left ear, reach across the room. One more time left hand reaches to touch left knee and then left arm again comes down by your ear. Okay your side body stretch kind of like you would in tree pose. Alright let's bring your left hand in front of your chest and pull your knees together and you can go ahead and roll to the other side. I'm going to switch around so I can see you and if you end up now on your left side you're going to have your left arm bent, that's your pillow. Oops we need the block. You want your block to put between your thighs and with your block between your thighs you might put your right fingertips in front of your chest to have balance you and this is when we keep the feet together and we lift your right thigh a few inches off the block. Bring it back down and lift your thigh off the block, right thigh back down and try maybe about three or four more times that little tilt, a little clam shell action. See if you can feel a little bit of warmth in that right glute area in this case as we lift the knee and again trying to keep the hips squared. Alright so if things feel close to even with your first side let's get rid of the block between the legs and then stretch your legs straight, ankles flexed and this is one where we'll slide your right foot in this case to your inner upper thigh like tree pose and tilt your right knee towards your shoulder, right leg in the air and then right leg down. Try that again, slide your right foot to your inner upper thigh, right knee to right shoulder, right leg in the air and then right leg back to your left leg. Right foot into tree pose position, right knee to shoulder, right leg in the air, right leg down. Now let's keep your right foot pressed into your inner upper left thigh like you would in tree pose as you take your right arm up. Let's focus on the balance now as we take our right arm down by your ear and stretch through your side body like we do in tree pose. Take your right hand forward to meet your right thigh or your right knee and then right arm again comes down by your ear, stretch nice and long through your right side, right hand comes back to meet that right leg. Last time try to keep your balance as you stretch your right arm down by your ear, send some energy into your side body and then take your right hand to your right leg. Right now if we bring your right hand in front of you so we can transfer up to the sitting position and keep your block close by and as you bring yourself up to the sitting position, let's go ahead and join the bottoms of the feet together. The bottoms of the feet are together, catch the front of your ankles with your hands and do a little bit of rocking forward and back in your pelvis. So a little tilting back and forth kind of like you're doing your cat cow in your bada konasana position, rocking back and forth. Alright now when we can tilt a little more easily towards the front of your pelvis, stretch your right leg straight in front of you and keep your left leg in what would be like tree pose, so left foot and inner upper right thigh. I'm going to encourage you to lift your right knee at the beginning. Take your arms up by your ears, reach for the ceiling, lift that waist and then open your arms up to your side as you tilt a little bit forward so your ribs might touch that right thigh. Raise your torso up vertical as your arms come up by your ears. Arms out to the side as you tilt forward, raise your arms up by your ears, lift your waist, arms wide and pause as you reach forward.

Now see if you can grab your right foot with your hand and allow yourself to bend your elbows a little bit towards the floor as you fold a little bit over this right leg and just a little pause, you're welcome to stretch your right leg more straight. Then send your arms out in front of you, inhale, lift your body up, arms down at your side and then we'll switch out and put your left leg straight and pull your right foot in to what look like tree pose in the sitting position. Most of us will benefit from bending your left knee a little bit and then raise your arms up. Alright now as we exhale we're going to tilt forward, arms out parallel to the floor. See if you can feel your ribs touch your left thigh. Lift your body up, arms by your ears, arms wide as we tilt forwards, looking down to the floor. Raise your arms up and one more time floating parallel to the floor for a moment and swing your hands forward to catch your left foot and then maybe a little bit of a soft forward fold over that left leg and invite your elbows here to drop a little bit towards the floor. And then we'll reach the arms out in front of you and lift all the way up and then arms down at your sides. Let's get our props out of the way, the blocks out of the way for the moment as we transfer to the knees and come to your tabletop with perhaps a little bit of padding underneath your knees. We typically use that folded blanket about the center of the mat. So when you come to your kneeling position separate your knees out to the edge of your blanket or sticky mat. We'll join the bottoms of the feet to touch here and as best as you can send your hips towards your heels as your hands walk forward and we'll drop the forehead to the floor or to a block if that feels like it's easier for you in your body. As we bring ourselves closer to the earth here, appreciating the cooling quality of bringing the forehead to the ground and just giving our hips a little bit of an easy stretch, stretch through the back of the buttocks. Another moment to stretch through the chest and shoulders. Imagine your arms are doing the position of tree pose here in this child's like variation. Now let's tilt forward to tabletop and bring your knees parallel and then put your elbows on the floor instead of having your hands on the floor. Bring your palms together like we do in prayer pose and then send your legs back one at a time into our forearm plank position. See if you can press down evenly in your elbows, forearms and wrist and lift your hips an inch towards the sky as you bring your left knee towards your left arm and send your left leg straight back. Drop the hips. Lift your buttocks and hips as you bring your right knee towards your right elbow and take that right leg straight back. Now we're neutral. Hips come up an inch to bring your left knee to left arm, left leg straight back and then bring your right knee to right arm and take that leg straight back and again another cycle. Left knee to left arm, left leg straight back and right knee to right arm and that leg straight back. Let your knees come back to the blanket. Place your hands on the floor and then get ready to swing your hips up into our downward dog. Now when we have our straight leg position and let your hips here sway a little bit side to sides. You're kind of moving on the ball of your foot and swaying your hips a tiny bit side to side and then let's from here go ahead and walk your feet towards the blanket and if you can get rid of the blanket now and set that to your side, walk your feet then to the sides of your wrist and come to a squat position which might have your hips the height of your knees or you might have your hips all the way down towards the back of your heels. So just a moment in a squat position to wake up the feet and the ankles and the legs and then look in front of you. Reach your arms in front of you like you've got a big box that you're lifting towards the sky. Come up to stand and let your arms come down to your sides. Let's bring your legs and feet towards each other so that they're parallel. Look straight ahead to your horizon line as you press your feet into your sticky mat. Let's raise your arms up the way that's easiest for you and look a little bit up towards the ceiling. Lift those shoulders and hands. With bent knees fold over your legs and come down and touch the earth. Take a step back one leg at a time into your push-up of plank and we're going to stay in plank and tilt your weight to the right as you swivel on the ball of the foot so your feet end up in a line with each other and then go back to plank and swivel your hips a little bit to the left as you move on the ball of your foot so your feet are in a line. Back to plank again tilt to your right side and you might lift your left arm up towards the ceiling. Come back to plank pose let yourself tilt to the left feet are in a line with each other and maybe your right arm comes up and we come back to neutral. Let your knees touch the ground belly and hips to the earth with the toes pointing back. Let's do a little cobra energizing the spine. Lower back to the earth. One more time lifting up little cobra lower down and then as you inhale lift up into plank and then into your downward dog and spread those palms. I feel like you're letting your hands start to create little impressions in your sticky mats going deeper into the soil deeper into the earth as we move the hips a little bit closer to the light of the sky. Now let's walk your feet back up to the back of your wrist area bend your knees let your legs stay bent so it's a little bit more about softening the back body. Come up on an inhale circle the arms up best way for you to stand hands in front of your chest and we'll one more time go through a cycle where we press the feet down as we take the arms up fold over your legs with bent knees so it's not about your hamstrings to release neck shoulders and back step back one leg at a time into your push-up of plank and as we tilt to our right side you might stay on the right and lift that left arm and you might even add your tree pose here and lift your hips closer to the sky. Come back to your plank swivel over to your left stay with feet in the line right arm in the air or maybe you do a little moment of tree pose with right foot and inner upper left thigh. It's a big move come back to our plank knees belly chest down to the floor inhale arching little baby cobra not too much weight on the hands lower down one more little baby cobra and then use that to press back up to plank position and into downward facing dog and one more time try to re-spread your palms try to feel like you're pushing your hands deeper into the earth as we send the pelvis towards the sky and now let's walk the feet back up towards the back of the wrist slightly bent knees let's go ahead and slowly roll up or come up the best way for you to stand and leave those arms lifted up by your ears and then arms down to your side I'm going to turn and face the long end of the mat we'll do a couple more simple warm-ups where we have the feet hip distance apart let's have your hands up towards the sides of your hips as we shift our weight over onto our right foot and try to find your focal point something not moving in front of you we'll bring our left knee up towards the ceiling I just want to encourage everyone to consider the beginner's mind if you've done this pose before what's new today what are you feeling in your right foot ankle buttock area and as we move this left leg start to make some circles to warm up just noticing again what's different today with our balance from last time you try to balance pose and let's step into your left foot for a moment and do the same and as you plant your left foot raise your right knee up we'll make some circles and again just maintain that beginner's mind what's different in this moment as removing our body trying to balance into that greater connection with this moment as we do our balance poses and now both feet down okay shift your weight again to your right side and create that extra rotation and lift that left leg up and then take your right arm up by your ear and then switch step into your left foot bring your right knee up external rotation left arm up by your ear and switch one more time left knee up external rotation of left leg your right arm comes up both feet in the ground last time right knee up external rotation of right thigh left arm up by your ear and then release right now let's go ahead and grab your block and we're going to turn the block into the tall narrow position place that between your feet and bring your feet in close enough that you feel the block we don't have to squeeze the block you're just kind of sensing the block is there between the feet maybe even close to your ankles and try to root down through your feet try to establish those tap roots that help again that tree root grow a little bit more confidently towards the sky and if we can stand in that way for a moment rooting our feet sensing that block between your feet and then take your hands up to your hips so if you'll let your weight shift to your right side and put your left foot on top of that tall block and then if we can turn that left thigh open like we do in tree pose and feel with your hands what happens when your hips shift into center so maybe you feel your whole right foot on the ground and you can feel more that inner arch of your right foot maybe to the block we tend to pronate into the block you want to maybe steer away from the block so that your whole right foot is evenly rooting into the earth right now let's consider bringing the arms up by the ears and keep pressing your left foot into the block to help you feel like you're actually lifting your pelvis off your right standing femur okay push into the block to create that lift where your pelvis lifts off that standing femur you know what if we could stay right here and keep that really strong root base as you allow yourself to experience a little bit of wind which happens in nature and you reach to your left come back up we're still lifting off the standing femur and we might be blown a little bit to our right sides and then sometimes we can get back to our center one more moment press into the block to lift the right side of your pelvis and then take your arms down put your left foot down beside your block right now with your left foot planted put your right foot on top of that tall block open that knee out to the sides and then maybe with your hands at your pelvis so you feel what changes as you press into the block with your right foot can you feel how it moves your pelvis into center and do you feel more of your whole left foot on the floor pressing into that soil under the ground here and as you keep pressing down now can we raise those arms up and find how much to press into that right foot to get a little bit more lift in this left side of your pelvis so it feels actually a little bit more spacious we feel how we wake up some more of those left leg muscles pelvic floor muscles even abdominal muscles to help create that vertical lift as we reach for the light of the sky take one more moment with that hold and then the arms come down and we can move that block out of the way well we're going to move the block into a different position so now we're going to turn the block into the flat position and we're going to be this tree that's now in a planter box so if we put your right foot on top of the block hands to your hips stand on that block and take your left foot somewhere along that right leg line and now like we were pressing into the block we're going to press your left foot into your right leg to help bring your hips in towards center line to bring a little lift in that right side of the hip more elongation into your spine as your arms go out wide and take your arms up by your ears and keep pressing your left foot into your right leg to try to keep that lift of the pelvis off your right femur so your tree gets a little taller and if we can be flexible and accommodate a little wind blowing this to our left keep pressing left foot into your right leg back through center maybe a little wind takes you to your right just that willingness to be flexible with change come back up to center and then arms down at your side step off your block feel the ground under both feet and then take your left foot to the block stand up tall slide your right foot somewhere along this left leg line and as you press your right foot into your left leg bring your hips to neutral so you're standing over your left foot arms out to the side we've got tree in a planter box arms coming up by your ears and add a little more awareness to right foot pressing into your left leg to help you actually lift your pelvis off that standing left femur there's so much core work that takes to elongate to get taller and longer on your left side now again accommodate a little winds just going with the possibility that we might create some wild new moves come back to center be flexible and accommodate a little winds that might be going to your blowing you to your left sides back up to center lift off your left femur and then arms down both feet to the floor right now let's go ahead and bend your knees and move your block to the sides the last piece as we bring our feet together so we're in reality with the trees around us take a moment with your feet on the ground arms float out parallel to the ground so those are your branches lift your right heel turn your right knee out to your right again beginners minds press your right foot into the floor lift off your standing left femur and consider for a moment closing your eyes you still have your right foot on the floor so trees at night and then we might slide that right foot if we want to go for a little more adventure and slide your right foot up your inner right leg eyes are still closed just that willingness to try something new the eyes closed it's always a new beginning as you probably will be experiencing different muscles waking up because your eyes are closed arms down right foot on the floor okay so every night again here's what the trees are maybe doing when we close our eyes lift your left heel turn your left knee out so extra rotation your left foot is on the floor and now consider sliding your left foot up your leg and inch or two if you want to play a little bit more in this way with balance again and be willing again to continue to keep your eyes closed and try to root into your feet in particular sorry your right foot is rooting going with the flow trees at night and then take a moment with your arms down and feet on the floor tadasana with your eyes looking forward or closed and just a moment of appreciation and gratitude for trees for cleaning our air providing oxygen the shade they provide for us for the shelter they provide for animals and creatures and even for their role in preventing soil erosion is how those roots help to stabilize our ground right now when your eyes open let's take a spin back to the front short end of your mat and with the gratitude for the trees let's raise our arms up our branches and look up towards that light and then fold over your legs in that forward bend exhale and step back one leg at a time as we face the earth the ground and then we'll lower knees belly chest to the floor when we come down to meet the ground stack your hands underneath your forehead now let's slide your left leg if this is okay in your body to the tree pose position when we're on our belly so last way we'll play with that shape for a moment left leg is in that tree position forehead might be resting on your stacked hands and now feel how the the forest here this ground has your front side so now our back gets to relax feel that support for your belly and your whole front sides as we face the earth grateful for this land where we stand where we belong and slide that left leg straight back and then we'll take that right leg if it's okay in your body and come to the tree pose position with your right leg in tree pose just kind of feel the energy of tree pose when you're on your belly and if we can in this position maybe feel a little bit more softening in your front body so letting the belly be relaxed and move towards the earth on inhale and towards your back on exhale right now let's slide both legs straight back so if we might try this prone relaxation today or shavasana on our belly for a few moments nestle yourself here into a comfortable position allowing more of your body to sink in what might feel like to this fertile ground for fertile soil underneath you and then if we feel like we're becoming a little bit more of this forest floor we feel a little bit of release of our belly into that cool ground and the belly moving in towards your back as you exhale bringing that life energy back in towards your center and if we are here in this way becoming more like the forest ground in our shavasana this sense the the trees around you different in your neighborhood perhaps than mine this kind of sense may be one of your favorite trees that you walk by what's its name visualizing the trunk the bark smooth texture rough texture and then noticing if there any particular animals you typically see in your trees what are their names and maybe this tree that you're imagining you kind of sense its heights and different shapes of the branches are they straight or curly or crooked this little bit of awe for how long this tree has been alive and witnessed this world we get to be near trees maybe we experience a little bit more awe and wonder of their beauty and that also has really wonderful benefits for the nervous system calming down our minds when we're in the presence of such beauty and such strength last couple of moments just visualizing maybe your your favorite tree and maybe even envisioning yourself taking a little stroll to this tree today for some support and some connection to something greater than ourselves last few breaths just imagining you're staying in relationship to that wonderful tree as we begin to let the head eventually rise up and we'll slide the hands back beside your chest and then when we come up towards sitting if you like cross-legged please come cross legged if you're okay with your Rossana which is what I'm going to choose about two flat blocks and turn them to that wide position slide those blocks between the feet and come up to sitting with hands on the thighs facing down is more of a grounding gesture and I just for a moment want to encourage you to let your eyes relax or maybe you even get to look out at your tree if you happen to have a tree let your eyes be open and look towards that tree for the meditation you feel that exchange of breath between the tree and yourself and with our hands may be joined together in front of the heart center a moment of gratitude again for trees and again all that they do for our health and well-being and for all the critters that find safety in the home of the trees food and nourishment from the trees I hope you have a great adventure out near a tree sometime in the very near future thanks for practicing today namaste