Whole Body Flow

Welcome, friends. This is a whole body feel-good flow. For this practice today, you're going to want two blocks or something like blocks, and we're going to start in one of my all-time favorite shapes I like to call impressing the heart. So we're going to start with the setup, one block beneath your shoulder blades at the lowest setting, and then one block under your head at maybe the second or the highest setting. We're going to turn around and then carefully lower yourself down with that block directly below the shoulder blades.

And then place the block right at your skull, back of the head, and just notice what you do to settle in. So if it doesn't feel right, it's not right, trust that feeling, and make some adjustments. You might start by drawing your shoulder blades down your back, feel your low back lengthen, bend the knees and bring the feet just slightly wider than your hips, letting your knees rest towards each other in constructive rest, and allow for a nice full exhalation. Yeah, and just allowing yourself to arrive and settle in your practice, feeling the weight of the body, the weight of the bones begin to drop, receiving the support beneath you. And as the weight of your head gets heavy and the upper back gets heavy, you might feel the eyes softening inward and the jaw releasing.

I love this posture for so many reasons, it helps to open the front body, the front of the chest, and creating a bit more space and breathing room for the lungs and the heart. You might keep your legs where they are, it might feel good to bring the soles of your feet together, and let your knees fall wide into the shape of barakonasana, feeling the stretch and opening through the hips, and you might keep your arms where they are, you might join me in sweeping your arms up overhead, and then on the exhale, bend the elbows and cactus the arms, feeling that big wonderful stretch through the shoulders and the arms, and then inhale, lengthen the arms, reach them overhead, and then exhale, cactus the arms, bending the elbows, opening the chest, and maybe a few more like this. Breathing, peeling into your chest, your shoulders, almost like you're making snow angels or sand angels, nice. And then eventually, you might find a spot where your arms might release open wide, palms open, and just a few more moments here, again receiving the support, feeling the shoulder blade softening, that beautiful space through the front of the body, such a nice counter pose to the forward rounding of the shoulders over the computer, nice. As always, you're welcome to stay here a bit longer, honoring your timing, your rhythm.

Even when you feel ready to transition, you might scoop your hands underneath your knees, toe heal your feet about hips width apart, it might feel good to stretch your legs out for a moment, maybe stretch your arms overhead one last full body stretch here, maybe pointing and flexing your feet, lengthening, feel the front ribs draw in the tailbone lengthen, and then take your time, bend your knees, gently roll to your side off the support, it's always awkward coming off of these blocks, and then let's make our way up into a tabletop positions, might bring your blocks just off to the side, we're actually going to use them as we come into our lunges today, if you'd like to, might have a blanket under your knees for some padding and support, and let's come into our familiar cat cow shape here to warm the spine, you might tuck your toes under, round and stretch your back, release your head, maybe feeling that nice wide, dull, achy stretch through the back body, and then dropping the belly, lifting the sitting bones and the heart, moving into your extension, your cow, exhale cat round, make this your own stretch, inhale to extend and lift, exhale to curl and round, maybe a few more, play with this, you might circle the hips, ribs, moving up into your shoulder blades and neck, feeling into those sticky spots in the body, letting the breath help create space with the inhale, and soften and release any tension, any holding with the exhale, eventually come into what feels like neutral for you, and draw the firm ribs in, let the tailbone lengthen, let's extend out through our left leg, we're going to move into a bird dog shape here, stabilizing the core and the hips, so draw the tailbone under, keep your left hand grounded, inhale lift your left leg up towards the sky, find that internal rotation, and then lift the right arm up, right palm faces you, reaching inhale, exhale release, let's try that on the other side, extend back through your right leg, stabilize your pelvis, draw the tailbone under, lift the right leg up, find that internal rotation, ground the right hand, inhale left arm reaches, palm facing you, inhale to lengthen, exhale to release, let's do that two more times, left leg reaches, inhale left leg lifts, right arm lifts, look down so the neck can lengthen, exhale release, right leg extends, right leg lifts, left arm reaches, inhale, exhale release, one more, left leg reaches, inhale left leg lifts, right arm lifts, tailbone draws under, front ribs draw in, and release last one, right leg reaches and lifts, and left arm reaches, again front ribs draw in, tailbone lengthens, and release, nice work, let's draw the hips back, finding a child's pose here, softening the hips towards the heels, forehead towards the earth, maybe a little wobble from side to side, you might stay here, you might slowly begin to round up coming into a vajrasana shape if that feels good on your knees, and let's interlace the fingers and just circle out through the wrist, so that might be a lot of work on the wrist, that bird dog, and then just release the arm, shake it out, as you're ready join me in a plank, tuck the toes under, reach back through the heels, forward through the heart, and exhale back into your downward dog, now in your down dog walk your feet as wide as your mat, I love this variation, bend the knees a lot, and feel your sitting bones reaching up towards the sky, as you ground through your hands, feel that space in the upper back, shoulders out of wrapping, yeah, sitting bones reaching, breathing here, walking the hands towards the back of the mat, heels out, heels in, toes out, coming into your malasana, your squat pose, find what feels right for you, nice, hands might stay where they are, you might bring the hands together towards the heart, lifting the chest, find that ease in your neck, as you're ready, forward fold uttanasana, toe heel the feet a little closer, soft bend through your knees, hands might find the elbows as you dangle here, releasing the hands as you're ready, bend the knees, curl the tailbone under, chin into the chest, and just slowly begin to roll and round your way up towards standing, and as you arrive take a moment to pause and settle, and feel the blood, the energy moving down and grounding through the feet, and together let's take a walking meditation towards the top of the mat, easing our way into tadasana, and as we move into our lunges, go ahead and bring your blocks, if you'd like to work with them on either side of your feet, maybe at that second setting, and finding your way into tadasana, spreading the toes nice and wide, and we'll take a few shoulder rolls up, back, and down, up, back, and down, and we're creating space from the inside, this warmth, this energy, and bringing the hands together at the heart, and taking a few moments here, so we draw our awareness inward towards the breath, allowing this uplifting quality through the spine, the central channel, more subtle energy within, beautiful, and letting the breath move us, and inspire the pace, as you're ready on an inhale sweep your arms up towards the sky, and as you exhale forward fold, soft bend in the knees, hands might release to the blocks, inhale half arch, lift your spine and lengthen, and as you exhale bend your knees, step your right foot back into a lunge, and let the left knee bend, now the blocks can be really nice for this, you might adjust the height of the blocks, just press into the ball, that left foot, straighten the left leg, coming into your pyramid, and exhale, bend the knee, and lift the heart, breathing into the back hip flexors, press into the ball, that left foot, pyramid, straighten the left leg, bend the knee, come into your lunge, maybe one or two more like this, extend and lengthen, bend and lift, press into the ball, that left foot, lengthen the leg, and exhale, bend, next time you bend and find the shape of the runner's lunge, twisting lunge, ground the right hand, inhale sweep the left arm up for a twist, and reach back through your right heel, forward through the heart, feeling that beautiful rotation in the spine, reaching from the heart into the hands, if you'd like you might take a few circles with that top left arm, looking down, maybe following the gaze, up, and release, beautiful shape of the lunge, let's lower the back right knee, you might pad it with a blanket, and we'll inhale up into our low crescent lunge, feeling that lift from the back of the heart all the way up, breathing, inhale here, exhale, release the hands, bring your blocks outside of your mat, tuck your back toes, step your left foot back, come into your downward dog, feel into your downward dog, and as you're ready, inhale, plank pose, shoulders over the wrists, exhale as you choose, inhale, cobra, lift the heart, and exhale, lead with the heart, lower, tuck the toes, press up, coming into your downward dog, from down dog as you're ready, inhale, reach the right leg up to the sky, exhale, step it through, coming into your runner's lunge, go ahead and pull your blocks in a little closer, from the runner's lunge, press into the ball, the right foot straighten the leg, find your nice groovy pyramid, and then the knee, sink into your lunge, breathing into that back, left thigh, hip flexor, press into the ball, straighten that right leg, pyramid, and exhale, bend, a few more times in and out, warming the hamstrings, breathing into the back, hip flexor, next time you find your runner's lunge, bend the right knee, ground the left hand, inhale, sweep your right arm up for a twisting lunge, reach back through that left heel, forward through the heart, ease in the neck, you might stay here, sweep the right arm down and overhead a few times, finding circles with your right shoulder, breathing, nice, slow, de-rotate the spine, lower the back knee down, and inhale, sweep your arms up for a low crescent lunge, feeling that lift from the base of the spine up, beautiful lift from the back of the heart, ease in the throat, inhale here, exhale, release, hands can stay on the blocks this time, tuck the back toes, and then rock and roll, step the left foot forward to meet the right, inhale, half arch to lengthen, exhale, bend the knees to fold, ground through the feet, bend the knees, inhale, sweep your arms up to the sky, and exhale, bring the hands together at the heart, and pause, notice how you feel. Second side as you're ready, inhale, arms sweep up, exhale, diving forward and in, releasing, inhale, half arch to lengthen, exhale, bend the knees, step the left foot back, right knee bends, inhale, might stay on the blocks as you press into the ball, the right foot to straighten and bend, let's straighten and bend a few times, pyramid, runner's lunge, pyramid, runner's lunge, one more together, moving into your pyramid, your runner's lunge will pause, this time moving into an extended side angle, ground through the outer edge of the left foot, keep the hand on the block as you sweep the left arm overhead, bending the right knee, kind of revolve and open the chest here, customize it for you, you might bring the block to a higher setting or right form onto that right leg, and then from here play with pressing into the ball, that right foot, we're moving into a slow groovy triangle pose here, top arm might reach towards the sky, feel your ability to lengthen and open, lengthen and open, beautiful, inhale, slow, release that top arm, find the shape of your runner's lunge, spin onto the ball, the back foot, you can bring the blocks outside of the mat, hands ground, step back, downward dog, how did that transition go? As you're ready, inhale, forward plank pose, exhale as you choose, inhale, pull the shoulders up back and down, lift the heart, exhale, lead with the heart, lower, tuck the toes, press up, lift up, downward dog, inhale, left leg reaches, exhale, step it through between the hands, ground and pause, bring your blocks in, press into the ball, the left foot, straighten the leg pyramid, exhale, bend, runner's lunge, press into the ball, extend, exhale, runner's lunge a few more times, warming the hamstrings, warming the hip flexors, finding your flow here, next time you find the runner's lunge, pause, ground through the outer edge of that right foot, moving into your extended side angle, opening up to the right, right hand might stay on the hip or reach towards the sky, sweeping it in front and over if you'd like to, again customize it, maybe bringing that block up to a higher setting in your extended side angle, and then playing towards, trikonasana triangle pose, press into the ball, that left foot, straightening the left leg, feel your ability to root through the outer edge of the back foot and lengthen, and find a spot where your neck feels really good. From your triangle pose, as you're ready to release, sweep that right hand down, and spin onto the ball, the back foot, find the lunge, you might reorganize the blocks, and then just step the back foot forward to meet the front, inhale, half arch to lengthen, and exhale, bend the knees to fold, ground through the feet, inhale, sweep your arms up towards the sky, lengthen, and exhale, draw the hands to the heart, taking a moment here to pause and notice, feeling that inner warmth, space, light. From here let's go ahead and bring the blocks off to the side, we'll step the feet wide for goddess, another one of my favorites, toes out heels in, go ahead and bend your knees, and feel you can ground and root through the outer edges of your feet here.

As you're ready, press through the balls of the feet, straighten the legs, arms reach familiar, exhale, bend the knees, inhale, reach the arms up, exhale, bend, five more, exhale, bend, inhale, arms reach, exhale, two more, inhale, exhale, bend, inhale, exhale, bend, from here bring the hands onto the legs, settle, and we'll do a little twist and dip, so inhale, lengthen, and exhale, twist to your right, dip the left shoulder forward, kicking over the right shoulder, strong through the legs, inhale, back up to center, and exhale, twist to the left, dip the right shoulder forward, and one more time, inhale up, exhale, dip to the right, inhale up, and dip and twist to the left, back to center, pause, one more time, press through the balls of the feet, arms reach, exhale, this time let's cactus the arms and you might even stick your tongue out, sinking down, feeling that burning in the legs, good, and then hands on the hips, press through the balls of the feet, turn the toes in, her feet parallel, arms stretch out, roll the shoulders forward, find that interlace, inhale, lift the heart, and exhale, folding forward, releasing the head, arms stretch up out and over, soften in the knees, beautiful, take your time, releasing the hands, it might feel really nice to walk the hands forward for hammock pose, hips draw back, heart softens towards the earth, and these are familiar shapes and patterns explored in new ways, at different times, and walking the hands back, toe heel your feet closer and come into a melasana squat, heels and toes out sink down, finding your version of a squat, maybe bringing a blanket underneath your heels, hands might find each other at the heart as you exhale, softening the jaw, the face, and then uttanasana, toe heel the feet a little closer, soft bend through the knees, chin into the chest, again we'll roll up through our spine, head last, curl the tailbone, feel the heart, feel the shoulders, feel the face, and pause, laying that ease in your neck, beautiful, let's make our way towards the top of the mat together, and grounding through the feet here, let's play with tree pose, ground through the left foot, and as you're ready, lift your right knee and open the hip, pressing through the inner leg, hands might find each other at the heart, soft steady gaze, now you might stay right here in your tree pose, you might play with bringing that right ankle across the left leg, flexing the right ankle and bending your left knee, lengthening the spine and beginning to sit your sitting bones back, keep the heart lifted and temple dancer breathing, big stretch in the outer right hip, strengthening the left hip, as you're ready, inhale, exhale, press through the left foot, lift the right knee, and release that foot down, shake it out, how did it go, nice full exhale, let's play with that on the other side, ground through your right foot, as you shift the weight, lift your left knee up and open the hip, find a spot up the leg, breathing, lengthening, steady the gaze, feeling all that wobbling and movement within, maybe moments of stillness, and you might stay right here in your tree, you might play with a temple dancer, crossing the left ankle, relaxing it, bending your right knee and sitting down as if you're sitting into a chair, keep the heart lifted, keep the gaze steady, notice the quality of the breath here, and finding your edge, very focusing, yeah, one more inhale, exhale, press through the standing leg, lift the left knee, and lower it down and just shake it out, let's make our way down to the earth with the sun salutation, hands together at the heart, inhale, sweep your arms up, and exhale, forward fold, releasing, inhale, half arch to lengthen, exhale, step back, downward facing dog, from downward dog, inhale forward, plank pose, last vinyasa here, strong through the legs, exhale as you choose, inhale for cobra, lifting the heart, rolling the shoulders down the back, exhale, lead with the heart to lower, top the toes, press up and round back into your child's pose, knees wide, you might wiggle little side to side, softening the forehead towards the earth, you might stay here a bit longer, you might slowly begin to round your way up towards the seat, and let's find a few standing or rather seated shapes, so we've done enough standing, so stretch your legs out, you might have a blanket to sit on here, fill your flesh out from underneath your sitting bones, and then go ahead and bend your left knee and open the hip, coming into jhanu shirshasana here, extending out for the left leg, inhale, lengthen the spine and twist a little bit to your right, towards that right leg, and then exhale, begin to lower the hands, you might lengthen the spine, it might feel good to round your back and stretch here, feel like you can kind of draw the rib cage towards the right, feeling that energy through the right leg and ankle and foot, softening the face, drawing the gaze inward, you might stay here a bit longer, you might slowly begin to round your way up, support your left knee, bring the foot to the floor, toe heel just a little wider, coming into marichyasana, see for a twist, inhale, reach the right arm up towards the sky and exhale, twist towards your left knee, release your left fingers down, inhale to lengthen and exhale, gentle twist, you might hook your right elbow, you might wrap the arm, keep that energy in your right leg, few breaths here, and we're wringing out the spine, and then slowly unwind, free that left leg, take a breath, exhale, lean back, draw that right foot in, open the hip, jhanu shirshasana on the right side, inhale, reach the arms up, exhale, gentle twist to your left and begin to release the arms down, you might walk the arms forward, you might round and release the spine, we're breathing into the back, back of the leg, few more moments here, often times I like to bring that left hand and just kind of sweep the belly, the ribs to the left and release, and take your time, slowly rounding your way up, support that right knee, ground the foot, inhale, left arm reaches and exhale, twist to your right, again you might hook the elbow or wrap the arm, right fingertips behind you, inhale to lift and exhale to gently rotate and twist, again flexing the left ankle, wringing out the spine, when you feel ready slowly unwind and go ahead and stretch the legs out, we're going to roll onto our back for a supported bridge, so you might want to grab your block and have it handy, mind your way onto your back, ground through the feet and as you're ready inhale, exhale, press through the feet, lift the hips up, coming into your bridge, you might bring the block on that first side underneath the sacrum, the second side or maybe even the highest side, feeling into what would be most supportive, you might pause here in the bridge, it might feel good to stretch your legs up towards the sky, finding this variation here, Parita Karani, maybe a soft bend through the knees and reaching out through the balls of the feet, really relaxed in the throat, so wonderful inversion to bring the energy down from the feet and ankles and the legs, nourishing the pelvis, the heart, the brain, very rejuvenating, might feel good to stay here for a while, as long as you'd like, or join me in bending the knees, grounding your feet, when you feel ready, press through the feet, lift your pelvis up and just slowly release your spine down one vertebra at a time and pause, from here toe heel the feet wide, kind of rinse the spine, the hips with windshield wipers side to side, letting the head rock opposite of the knees here, breathing and releasing, might bring the soles of the feet together, knees wide, bringing one hand to the heart, one hand to the belly, centering, softening, kind of yielding towards the earth, might rest here in Shavasana, extending out through your legs, your feet, might draw your knees into your chest, ease your way towards a seat, if you're transitioning up, I will meet you there, and taking a few moments to sit together and finding your seat, finding that knees up through the spine and the neck, let's join the hands together at heart, and sharing the sound of all clearing breath, inhale, exhale, breathing in, thank you for your practice, thank you for being here, namaste.