Whole Body Flow

Good morning, friends. You'll be happy to have a block for this whole body flow class, and we'll be moving through a playful and joyful sequence that will allow us to feel grateful for the gift of our moving bodies. Let's come onto our backs to begin. I'm going to grab my block and bring it close by my side so I have it handy for this sequence. Once I've arrived, I'm going to bring hands to my belly and just take three breaths to orient to center. And as you breathe here, each time you exhale, feel for the compactness on the inside of your belly. So at the end of your exhale, it's like the outer belly just gently hugs the inner belly. And then you inhale and feel space. Exhale, a little bit of compactness. Outer belly hugs the inner belly. One more time. Inhale to feel space. Beautiful. Exhale into the compactness of your center. And from there, when you're ready, bring your block between your inner thighs. Bring your hands behind the back of your skull, and we're going to curl in and uncurl. We're kind of mirroring what the breath did. So you're going to exhale in, lean outer body into inner body, and inhale to space. Curl and uncurl like a wave in the ocean. Curl and uncurl. Curl and uncurl. And sometimes when I do these, I do them really slow, and sometimes I move a little faster. So feel free to find a pace that works for you. And we'll go another sort of 10 seconds or so. So find your rhythm, a couple more movements, curling and uncurling. Beautiful. Take your time, bring your head down, take your block out, bring your feet down, do a few gentle windshield wipers side to side just to ensure that the tension gets a chance to release. And then we're going to bring our legs to the center, hold the back of your skull, press into your left foot, hover your right foot, take a breath, lean the front of your belly into the back of your belly. So you feel full and wide across the back of your kidneys, and then elongate your right leg. Pause for a moment, and then retract, bring that leg in, bring your right foot down, plant your right foot, bring your left knee up, lean in front of your belly into the back of your belly, lengthen your left leg like you're zooming your leg in your legs like a camera lens, you're zooming it in, and then zooming it out. Do one more time each side, right knee curls in, elongate as you elongate, keep the fullness in your back body. Bring your leg in, foot comes down, left knee curls in, and then zoom your leg in on whatever's way out in front of you some space across your foot could wiggle your toes, bring your leg in, bring your foot down, bring your head down. One breath nice voluminous breath into your belly expand. And exhale. Now we'll bring our block into the inner thighs again for some twists, arms out to the side knees to your right, and then knees to your left. And I use the block as a placeholder, because sometimes our legs tend to do a little bit of their own thing. So we're sort of attempting to move the pelvis as a unit here. So to the left and then to the right. And then as you go to the left, you might slightly arc your knees towards your elbow, they don't have to touch your elbow. And as you go to the right, you might arc your knees slightly towards your right elbow. So I think about almost like your knees are drawing a smile on the ceiling. And then let your pace speed up. So it's like the movement has no beginning, no middle, no end, could almost hover on the feeling that the movement is a little bit faster than you might ordinarily go, which can be nice, especially in the morning. Stirring it up a little bit intentionally waking up the soft tissue matrix of our bodies. Beautiful.

Okay, take your time, come back into the center, take your block out. Okay, from here, we're going to take a little bridge pose of plant your feet approximately hip distance apart. So heels aligned with your sitting bones, roll your spine up into your bridge pose, maybe walk your elbows underneath. And then one breath, just like we did at the start of the practice. So you're going to exhale. And as you exhale, feel the gentle hugging of your outer belly into your inner belly, compact, and then inhale to feel space in the periphery. So a little bit of almost breathability through your skin. And then when you're ready, come all the way down. And we'll take our last sequence here on the back with a block between your inner thighs, again, and we're going to repeat the curl ups knees to elbows, this time with the option of having your legs a little straighter or all the way straight hands behind the back of your skull, curl elbows to knees, uncurl arch your spine, maybe look behind you, curl elbows to knees, uncurl, arch your spine, look behind you. And if the straight leg version feels like it's hardening you or you're bearing down on your breath, let your knees bend, curl and uncurl. And similar to the twist this time, pick up the pace. So the movement has no beginning, no middle, no end. You're allowing yourself to undulate between spinal flexion and spinal extension. Take three more on your own. And then when you're ready, bring your feet down, take your block out, take a nice spacious breath through from the inner belly to the outer belly. And then when you're ready, you could lift your legs, use a little rocking and rolling to come up through seated and we'll find our way to hands and knees and eventually to downward dog. So take your time arriving in your downward facing dog. Once you arrive in downward dog, you could bend your knees, elevate your heels, elevate your pubic bone, lean through your fingertips to slightly widen your armpits so there's space for your ears. And then as you're ready from here, walk your feet forward to your hands for Uttanasana, first forward fold of the day. Sometimes I take my first forward fold in the morning with my elbows on my knees to allow for a lengthening of the abdominal cavity down my thighs, or you can bring your hands down. So if I start with my elbows on my knees, I'll take a few breaths there. Breathing belly to thighs, lengthening the distance between my pubic bone and my throat and then hanging as the body feels ready. From your hang, you can take your time to come up to standing, reach your arms up overhead, and then just let your arms come down by your side. And we'll move through a couple of sun salutations together with a few downward dog variations. Let's try. Feet go down, arms go up, exhale to fold. Inhale here, lean through your feet, widen your armpits, let your gaze extend forward, exhale back, downward facing dog, downward facing dog forward to plank pose, plank pose from knees or toes, lower halfway. Inhale over your knees or your toes, upward dog, exhale over your knees or your toes, downward dog. Downward dog first variation is going to be bring your right foot a little bit to the center, press through your left hand and your right foot and let your left leg lift up. And I'm going to start by just lifting up with a bent knee. Stay with that for a moment. Breathe, maybe extend your left leg. Take a breath, bring your left leg down. Press your left foot into the ground a little bit towards center, press through your right hand and your left foot, slowly start to bring your right leg up. Keep your knee bent to start, lean right hand, left foot so you have that contralateral connection between the two hemispheres of your body. Elongate your right leg any amount. When you're ready, bring your right leg down, bend your knees, lightly walk, step or hop your feet forward to your hands. Inhale and exhale to fold. Lean through your feet, inhale coming all the way up. Exhale Tadasana, the mountain. One more time, feet go down, arms go up. Exhale to fold. Inhale, lean through your feet, widen your eyes and then slightly open the eyes of your heart to look forward. Exhale, step or hop back, downward dog. Downward dog forward to plank. From your knees or your toes, lower halfway or all the way. Inhale over knees or your toes, upward dog. Exhale over your knees or your toes, downward dog. From your downward facing dog, we're going to add on to the balance we played with last time. So you're going to start by pressing through your left hand and your right foot and lift your left leg. You can pause anywhere along the way. From here, elongate your left leg and bring your right hand. You can come to your right fingertips at the front of your mat, bring the fingertips of your right hand out to the right side of your mat like a kickstand. Or if you like, you just start to hover your fingers and maybe elongate your right arm behind you. Beautiful.

Bring your left foot down, bring your right hand down, wiggle a little bit and we'll try the other side. So press from your right hand to your left foot. Use those contact points as support. Let your right leg lift up. Maybe elongate your right leg. Maybe you come to the fingertips on your left hand. Option to bring that left hand out to the side like a kickstand. And then rather than lifting it all at once, sometimes I just lift finger by finger so that the ultimate lift doesn't feel like a big adjustment for the body. Elongate your left arm. Nice work, everybody. Bring your left hand down, bring your right foot down, bend your knees, walk, step or hop your feet forward to your hands. Inhale and exhale to fold. Lean through your feet. Inhale, come all the way up. Exhale the mountain. Beautiful. Feet hip distance apart, forward fold, parangusthasana. Arms come up. Exhale to fold, hook your index and middle fingers around your big toes. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale to fold. Three breaths in and out. In and out. Follow the waves of your breath. Next time you inhale, lengthen your gaze forward. Bring your fingertips down. And we're going to step our left foot back into a high lunge. I'm going to keep my fingertips kind of at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock at the front of the mat. The right side of my waist is on my right thigh. I'm just going to breathe here for a moment. And as I lean into my fingertips, I can widen my armpits and let the eyes of my heart look forward. Beautiful. Stay for a few breaths. Press into your right foot. Widen your left hip to the left. Press into your left foot and widen your right hip to the right. Beautiful. And then we're just going to walk our hands out to the left. If you can, keep your right hip on the right side of your body here. And then slowly walk your hands further to the left. And we're just going to turn into prasarita padottanasana. Feet point towards the long edge of the mat. Fold in. Beautiful. Take your time. Breathe in. And breathe out. Sometimes I'll look up, walk my fingertips a little further forward. So I'm moving more in the direction that I'm going. And then when you're ready, walk your hands back around to the front of your mat. Step your left foot forward. Inhale and exhale to fold. And we'll try the other side. So lean into your fingertips. Stand on your left foot. Step your right foot back. High lunge. 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock with your arms. Press into your left foot. Widen your right hip to the right. Press into the tippy toes of your right foot and widen your left hip to the left. And you can breathe the contact of the left side of your waist with your left inner thigh. And a couple moments here. As you lean into your fingertips, your armpits widen. You can feel the sensation of the eyes of your heart starting to look in the direction that you're going. Walk your hands a little bit out towards 2 o'clock. Stay a moment. Keep your left hip on the left side of your body. And then from here, you just keep walking all the way around the clock out to the long edge of your mat. Pressarita padottanasana, other side. It's not really the other side.

It's the same pose because it's symmetrical. Bend your knees a little bit. Move your kneecaps a little bit forward towards your armpits. Press into your fingertips. Lift a little taller. Walk your fingertips an inch forward. And fold. Your knees are as bent as they need to be. Walk your hands back around towards the front of your mat. Step your right foot forward. Inhale and exhale to fold. Lean through your feet. Inhale. Come all the way up. Exhale. Take these. Same sequence again with a few add-ons. Feet go down. Arms go up. Exhale to fold. Inhale here. Lengthen. Exhale. Step your left foot back. High lunge. 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock with your arms. Stay for a breath. Right hip to the right. Left hip to the left. Feel the circumference of your pelvic floor. Feel the middle of the middle of your throat. The space between your ears. Walk your hands out to the left. Turn your feet. Prasarita padottanasana. Inhale here. Exhale. An option for a twist this time. Bring your left hand under and hold the outside of your right knee, shin, ankle. Pause. You can keep your gaze down. If you want, you can spin your gaze and kind of nuzzle your chin into your armpit so it's almost like your eyes are looking up at your right palm. When you're ready, look down. Walk your hands back to the front of your mat. We're going to come forward into half moon pose. I'm going to grab my block and gently come forward. Bring my right hand to the block. Lift my left leg. Support from the right hand and the right foot. I'm going to start with my left hand on my left hip. Sometimes I'll play with just bending and extending that top leg just to feel the connection from pelvis to foot. You can keep your hand on your hip or you could let your left arm float up. Beautiful. And then bring your left hand down. Bring your left foot down, back into your lunge, and we'll bring our left knee down. I'm going to bring my block now under the front of my left thigh for a little variation of low lunge. So it just gives a nice amount of support. Sometimes we tend to sag a little bit into that front or the back hip in our lunge. So it gives a little bit of support. It takes a little getting used to to find the sweet spot. So be patient with it. Inhale your arms up. Hold opposite elbows. Stay a breath. You might choose to stay here. It's like a nice long back bend. If you want, you could bring your arms down and just play with bending your back knee. So you have to engage your hamstring and maybe you bring your right hand to your left foot, your left hand to your right knee. Beautiful. When you're ready, you could release it. Bring your block out. Step your left foot forward.

Inhale and exhale to fold. Wiggle your hips a little. We'll try the whole sequence on the other side. So step your right foot back. High lunge. Pause here. Press through your left foot. Right hip goes right. Press through the tippy toes on your right foot. Move your left hip a little bit to the left. Feel the center of your pelvis in the middle of your body. The eyes of your heart looking in the direction that you're going. Walk your hands around to the long edge of your mat. Feet parallel. Wide legged forward fold. Option to stay here or to find your twist. So left fingertips stay where they are. Right hand can come under. Beautiful. Pause there. If you like, you can start to spin your gaze. You can look up under your left palm. Beautiful. When you're ready, unravel your twist. Come back around towards the front. Bring your block this time under your left hand. Left hand to the block. Left foot on the ground. Lean through your left leg. Elongate. Use the contact with the ground to create the support. So you lean into the ground to create the sense of lightness. Maybe you bend your right knee and then extend it. It's to play with retracting and elongating the leg from the hip. Maybe let your right arm come up. Maybe spin your gaze. Nice work, everyone. Okay. When you're ready, bring your right foot down. Bring your back knee down. Bring your block. And if you liked the playing without support, you can tip your block onto an angle and use the block for support. So it's like a bit of scaffolding to support your body from the outside in and the inside out. Pause. Lift your arms up. Hold the strange elbow. So the opposite forearm in front. Breathe a couple breaths here. Keep leaning into the block and then slightly widen your left hip to the left. You could stay here if you like. Play with moving your right heel towards your right sitting bone. This can be a place to be, or you could bring your left hand to your right foot. Right hand to your left knee. Spin around the center of yourself. Beautiful. And then release it. Bring your block out. Step forward. Uttanasana, wiggle out through your hips. We'll make our way up to standing. Inhale, come all the way up. Exhale, release.

And the vinyasa down to the floor. Inhale. Exhale to fold. Inhale here, lengthen and widen. Exhale, step or hop back, downward dog. Downward dog, forward to plank. Your version of upward dog or cobra. When you're ready, back to downward dog. Okay, everyone from downward facing dog, let's come forward to plank pose and drop onto our bellies for a little dhanurasana or belly back bend play. So you're gonna just come up into a low cobra. Pause for a couple breaths. Press into your elbows. Get the sensation like you're pulling your elbows towards your pinky toes to elongate all the dimensions of your spine. So the front, the back, the sides. Beautiful. And then come down. And we're just gonna play with the left side to start. So I'm gonna bend my left leg, bring my left hand to my left foot, and just gently press foot into hand, hand into foot. Beautiful, nice job. And then release. And we'll go right hand, right foot. So press into your left hand, bend your right knee, bring your right hand around, right hand on your right foot, or ankle, lean foot into ankle. Take a breath. And then from here, release. And then we'll try contralateral, kinda like we did in the lunge as an option. So I'm gonna bend my right foot this time or my right knee, bring my left arm around and hold my left hand on my right foot. If you can't reach it, just repeat left hand to left foot or left hand to right foot. And then press foot into hand, elongate. See if you can keep your right foot on the right side of your body, your left armpit on the left side of your body. Beautiful. Release it and try the other side. So bend your left knee, experiment with reaching your right arm around. If you can't reach, then go right hand, right foot again. Press right hand and left foot together. Let it open you. The amount that feels breathable and spacious. Beautiful. Take your time when you're ready, release it down. Pause. One time if you like, reach your arms back, hold your ankles or your feet. Press your feet into your hands, your hands into your feet. Sometimes I start with feet together, knees together. And then maybe you can let them open. And feel all the different ways the pose can breathe you. So that we're not so much doing the pose, but allowing shapes to breathe through us. Beautiful. Come down. Pause. Take your time to roll onto your back as you're ready. We'll come all the way onto our back. Pause. Okay, everyone, we're going to make our way into bridge pose, leaning into your feet, rolling your spine up. Walk your shoulders and your elbows a little bit underneath of you. So you feel weight a little bit more on the tops of your shoulders than the backs of your shoulders. And then cross reference with your attention. So press into your left foot and the top of your right shoulder. Kind of like we did in downward dog. And then press into your right foot and the top of your left shoulder and feel the apex of the pose around the area of your pubic bone. And then we'll just roll our spine down, coming down to the ground. Pause. Take a breath into your belly. Exhale. Feel the outer belly lean into the inner belly. And we'll take one more leaning into your feet, rolling up. If you have wheel in your practice, this could be a place to insert it. For today, we're going to keep with bridge pose, walker elbows underneath. You might choose to support a little bit under your hips. Just even a tiny bit of support can create a little bit of an interesting sensation of space in the pelvis and the low back. So I'm not pushing with my hands. I'm almost just taking like a few pounds of weight out of my pelvis so my legs don't have to work so hard. Beautiful. Take your time, release your hands, roll your spine down. Take a breath in through the space of your belly. As you exhale, feel the outer belly gently leans into the middle of the middle of your belly. And then we'll lean into our left foot, let our right leg come up. We're going to either hold back of your hamstring, calf. Some of you might reach the foot, hover the left leg, slowly elongate it out in front. Maybe centre your left heel down. So sometimes we kind of flop the foot out to the side. See if you can centre down through your heel. And using the attention to detail, not as a way to try to be more perfect, but as a way to stay connected to the moment and precisely noticing our ability to pay attention. From here you could release your hands away. I'm going to bring my arms out to the side and then I'm just going to move my right leg across and some of you might do this with your knee bent. You're just going to bring it across your body and then bring it back and up towards the ceiling. Bring it across your body and then bring it back and up towards the ceiling and last time you go across you can leave it there. So you bring it all the way across and I'm going to support with my left hand under either my right shin or knee in a twisted version of Supta Padangusthasana. And in some ways this is like twisted triangle lying down. From the last variation I like here is just to hover my arm and then really widen the armpit and settle the front of your armpit into the back of your armpit so you feel weighed across the back of your shoulders. And then bring your leg up. Bring both feet down. Maybe you do a little windshield wiper or just lift your hips to centre things and we'll go other side. So left leg comes up. You can either hold back of your hamstring, half or foot. Hover your right leg. Elongate it. Feel the centre of your right heel as it lands on the ground. So you stay integrated through the middle even as you relax into the tenderness of your back body. Pause here. Maybe a little bit of residue from the practice in your legs. Sometimes I'll just even bring a hand and just rub the back of a hamstring really kindly. And then take your hands away. Arms out to the side and sweep that leg up and over like you're drawing a half a rainbow in the sky with your left big toe. And then bring it up. And do it again. Bring it up and over. As you bring it over keep reaching through the legs so you feel long from your outer hip to your pinky toe. Last time across. Again, knee can be bent. You can bend your knee and support your knee here or elongate your leg and support the inner calf. Then I'm going to lift this shoulder and settle the inner armpit into the outer armpit and then let my arm relax out to the left. Take your time when you feel ready from here coming up to centre. Plant your feet. Lift your hips.

Down to centre. Maybe a few windshield wipers side to side. Take a breath in. And as you breathe out feel the outer body gently hugs the inner body orienting to the centre. Do it one more time breathing in. Breathing out. And you might choose here to just lay down palms up. Extend your legs for shavasana on your own for the purposes of this practice we're going to roll up. Take a brief moment and seated to close. Find your comfortable seated shape. Bring your palms together. Take three intentional breaths just like we started so you breathe in and breathe out. Feel the touch of your sitting bones on the ground. Breathe in. Feel the transparency of your skin. The eyes of your heart. Breathe out. Feel the outer belly gently hugs your inner belly. And last breath. Breathe in. Top of your inhale. Briefly pause. Feel the moment of space where there's no rush. And breathe out. End of your exhale. Pause. If your eyes are closed you can open your eyes. Take a moment to thank yourself. Yoga mudra. We open our palms to the ground and we offer the gifts of yoga back out into the world. Yoga mudra. I hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you for being here. Bye.