Intentions with an Open Heart

Hi, welcome to a yoga practice. In today's practice the peak pose is Ustrasana camel pose and we're going to move towards that pose one step at a time. I also would like for you to take a moment and just ask yourself why are you practicing yoga today? And perhaps you can consider setting an intention about that. So let's get started. Please come on to your back and that's also where you can take a moment and set your intention. Do you have a block nearby? And just starting for a few breaths with your knees bent, feet a little bit wider apart than your hips. Turn your feet in slightly, let your knees rest together. Allow your eyes to perhaps close and take a couple of centering breaths, perhaps contemplating again why you're practicing. What is it that brings you to the mat? So allowing your belly to rise and fall as you're breathing in and out. Maybe it feels good to exhale through your mouth a couple of times, just taking this moment to arrive. Now bring your feet in about hips width, parallel your feet, parallel your thighs and knees. Feel free to leave your hands on your belly. So as you're breathing in, allow your lower back to arch, kind of exaggerate the arch in the lumbar spine. So you're kind of moving towards your tailbone and then as you exhale start to press your lower back into the floor, kind of curling your tailbone slightly up off the floor. And then again as you inhale, arch your lower back. So again exaggerating the curve in the lumbar spine and exhale pressing your lower back into the floor. And just very slowly go back and forth. Now when you're arching your lower back, that's also called an interior pelvic tilt. And when you are pressing your lower back into the floor, that's called a posterior pelvic tilt. So just a couple more rounds here, just nice and easy. And then when you're ready, relax for a moment and notice when you're relaxing, now your lower back is in a more neutral position. There's a little bit of space between the lower back and the floor. Pelvis is in a neutral position. You feel your sacrum on the floor. Now bring your right knee into your chest and as you bring your right knee into your chest, interlacing your fingers around the right shin, notice how your lower back will flatten on the floor again. And then as you slowly straighten your left leg forward and as you're pressing the back of the left leg into the floor, notice how again you'll move into that natural neutral curvature of the lower back. So bring your left leg to neutral so the toes are pointing straight up towards the ceiling and actively press the back of the left leg into the floor as you bring the right knee towards your chest.

Now take one more deep full breath in, relax your shoulders and then as you exhale start to firm your belly in and lift your left foot about a foot off the floor pretty much until you can press your lower back into the floor. And the next time you exhale lift your head and upper back, moving your forehead towards your right knee. You're also welcome to reach your fingertips straight ahead or maybe support the back of your head in your hands. So just a few more breaths here. So firmly pressing your lower back into the floor, drawing the navel towards your spine. See if you can lift your shoulders, maybe lift your shoulder blades up off the floor. And then slowly lower back down and then sit your right foot down and hug your left knee into your chest. Again, interlace your fingers around the left shin and once again notice the lower back flattens on the floor. And then as you straighten the right leg forward and as you're pressing the back of the right leg into the floor, again you'll feel that space between the lower back and the floor. So keep the right leg pressing into the floor, right leg in neutral to the toes are pointing straight up towards the ceiling. Relax your shoulders. On your next exhalation, start to firm your belly in, lift your right foot about a foot off the floor and press your lower back into the floor. On your next exhalation, lift your head and upper back and you pick the arm variation that works best for you. If you're supporting your head, press the back of your head against your hands, tuck the chin in. So just a couple more breaths here, breathing smoothly in and out through your nose. Just one more breath. As you exhale, can you lift up a little higher and then slowly lower back down and straighten both legs out onto the floor. You can have your feet about hips width, bring both legs to neutral, flex your ankle, spread your toes and then interlace your fingers and press the palms of your hands up towards the ceiling. Inhale, stretch your arms behind your head. Press out through the heels of your hands and very gently draw your belly lower ribs in. So I'm not asking you to press your lower back into the floor, so keep that neutral position but do firm your belly and lower ribs in. Just take one more full breath here, enjoying like a full body stretch and then inhale, bring your arms back up, bend your knees and hug your knees into your chest. That always feels good. Now bring your knees away from your chest until your thighs are perpendicular to the floor and flex your ankles. Have your knees and feet hips width and then place your hands to the front of your thighs and press your hands against your thighs and your thighs against your hands without pressing your lower back into the floor. So what we're aiming for is keeping that neutral curvature of the lower back and as you're doing this work, the abdominal muscle that is really working or has to work is the transfers abdominis and that's also sometimes referred to as the corseting muscle. So just amp it up a little bit, couple more breaths, press your hands against your thighs, thighs against your hands. Good. Now maintain this, reach your fingertips up towards the ceiling, so maintaining that connection to your deep abdominal muscle. Now you're going to take your right hand to your left thigh and press your hand against the thigh, thigh against the hand and then simultaneously reach your left arm behind your head and then inhale back to the starting position, fingertips pointing up and then exhale left hand to the right thigh, right arm behind your head. Amp it up and then inhale back to center, exhale first side, right hand to the left thigh, left arm behind your head. Inhale starting position, exhale left hand to the right thigh, right arm behind your head. So just do a couple more here on your own, so synchronizing movement with breath. The transfers abdominis is not a muscle that you can see, not like the rectus abdominis, the six pack, but the transfers abdominis is a very important muscle as far as creating stability for the lower back. So just do one more round here and it's really not about how many you do but it's how mindfully with how much focus and intention that you do these. Now when you finish that round just hug your knees into your chest, you can cross your ankles for a moment and just rock a little bit from side to side and then let's add on. Okay so back to the starting position, knees above your hips, meet your fingertips up towards the ceiling. Imagine you're holding a block between your hands. Now as you exhale take the right hand to the left thigh, left arm behind your head and this time straighten your right leg and start to lower your right leg but make sure that your pelvis is not tilting, that you keep your pelvis in that neutral position. You don't have to lower the right leg super low but keep firming your belly, front ribs in and if at any point this bothers your lower back lift the right leg up higher and maybe choose to press your lower back into the floor. Now inhale back to starting position, exhale left hand to the right thigh, right arm behind your head, straighten your left leg and slowly lower the left leg and just holding here for a breath more. Keep firming your belly, lower ribs in so making sure you're not moving into that anterior pelvic tilt and then inhale back to the starting position, exhale first side again, right hand to the left thigh, left arm behind your head, straighten the right leg out in front of you. Inhale starting position, exhale left hand to the right thigh, right arm behind your head, straighten lower the left leg. Inhale starting position, exhale first side again so very slowly go back and forth so again it's not how many you do but it's how well you do them with how much intention and attention. So let's just do one or two more rounds. I'm feeling it, I hope you're feeling it as well and after you finish your last round, hug your knees into your chest maybe cross with the other foot on top and rock a little bit from side to side and then please go ahead once again, straighten your legs out in front of you bring both legs to neutral, interlace your fingers the non habitual way so shift all the fingers, flip the palms of the hands up towards the ceiling, inhale stretch your arms overhead behind your head and take a couple of deeper breaths here. See if you can breathe into your side ribs, back ribs, keeping your back ribs on the floor. One more full breath and then please when you're ready inhale bring your arms up, bend your knees, pause for a moment. So for the next position you may want to use a block between your thighs, optional, place the block between your thighs the narrow way, half your feet, knees hips width, feet parallel and then go ahead and start to gently press your lower back into the floor so the action of that posterior pelvic tilt, feel the tailbone curling up off the floor. Now you can put the arms in a robot arm position and then start to lift your pelvis, lift your hips, gently squeeze the block and as you're lifting your chest can you wiggle the shoulders under a little bit and then press your elbows and shoulders into the floor to lift your chest, press a bit more through the inner edges of the feet as you gently squeeze the block, lengthening the buttocks towards the back of the knees. Just a couple of breaths here and I'm sure you can feel your hamstrings are working hard, your glutes, your buttock muscles are working hard. One more breath and then slowly lower down and now move the block out of the way and we're going to go up one or actually a few more times but walk your feet forward so that your feet, your ankles are in front of your knees and then again the action of the posterior pelvic tilt, curl your tailbone under, feel your lower back on the floor and then slowly start to lift your hips, arms in robot arm position you may have to wiggle your shoulders under again and now this time lift your toes, just your toes and then as you're lifting your toes see if you can imagine kind of pulling them back towards your shoulders like you're dragging your feet towards your shoulders and you might feel the hamstrings working even harder and as you're doing this can you lengthen the buttocks towards the back of the knees, press your elbows and shoulders into the floor lifting your sternum and you may just kind of tap the frontal pelvic points and notice how they are likely equidistant away from the ceiling and then slowly lower back down and then if you like you can hug your knees into your chest if you felt any cramping or the start of cramping you can stretch out your legs for a moment, maybe one at a time, it's very normal to get cramps here so don't feel bad if you get a cramp just come out of the pose and stretch it out so again ankles underneath your knees, feet hips width and feet parallel, arms in robot arm position and now bring your right knee into your chest but you're not using your hands okay and notice when you bring the right knee into your chest your lower back is flat on the floor and then slowly lift up into a one-legged bridge pose you can wiggle the shoulders under again much easier when you have your arms in that robot arm position now if there's any discomfort in your left knee walk the left foot forward a bit now we're loading up the left side if there's any doubt left glutes, left hamstrings and now go ahead and straighten the right leg up check your hip points again notice that the right hip is drooping lift it up we'll hold this for about another five breaths you can do small dips you can lower down a little bit and then strongly press through that left heel to lift up as if you're standing on the ceiling or you can just simply hold this position couple more breaths these are very long slow breaths and I'm with you and then lower that right foot and slowly lower all the way down take a breath and then bring your left knee into your chest arms in robot arm position and then lift back up wiggle the shoulders under if there's any discomfort in the right knee please walk your right foot forward a little bit so there's no doubt right we're loading up the right side and then slowly start to raise your left leg imagine you're standing on the ceiling you can either just simply stay right here or you can do small dips you lower down a little bit and then press strongly the right heel into the foot and lift up so important to strengthen the hamstrings and of course the glutes so just two more breaths here and then slowly when you're ready lower the foot and slowly lower all the way down great now hug your knees into your chest maybe cross your ankles again and this time you can make circles circles up on the ceiling as if you're you know drawing circles with your knees then you can circle in the opposite direction okay so now we're going to get onto our hands and knees so you can either roll back and forth to sit up or just lower your feet roll over on to your side and sit up and coming on to your hands and knees so form a tabletop position knees underneath your hips wrist beneath your shoulders and then as you inhale start to open up your chest arch your back cow pose and as you exhale round your back cat pose inhale open up your chest so we're back into that interior pelvic tilt and as you exhale posterior pelvic tilt couple more rounds on your own synchronizing movement with breath pausing at the top of the inhale and pausing at the end of the exhale take your time eventually form a more neutral spine so that your back looks a little bit more flat granted there are curves but firm your belly front ribs in so that corseting action that we worked on earlier imagine a string from your tailbone or line a plumb line from the tailbone out through the crown of your head and then tuck the toes onto the left foot slide your left foot back and then leading with the inseam of the left leg lift your left leg until it's about parallel to the floor and as you do that there's a tendency to dip into the low back firm your belly in shift the weight into your left hand reach your right arm forward imagine you're shaking someone's hand with the right hand keep firming your belly front ribs in pushing the floor away from you with the left hand one more breath and come back to all force and then tuck the toes under of the right foot slide the right foot back spin the right inner thigh up and then raise your right leg spin the right inner thigh up firm your belly front ribs in shift the weight into your right hand reach your left arm forward some teachers call this bird dog so a couple more breaths here keep firming your belly front ribs in pushing the ground away from you at the right hand aligning your left ear with the left inner up arm come back to all force pause for a moment spread your fingers evenly apart index fingers parallel to one another find that neutral position of your back tuck your toes under slide the left foot back firm your belly strongly in slide the other foot back and you're in plank pose now as you press your heels back reach through the crown of your head press strongly through your inner palms as you firm your triceps in by the way if you have tight shoulders turn your hands out a little bit you will like this even more now next time you exhale down dog knowing that it's a hard pose to like especially in the beginning it grows on you now in downward tracing dog if you have tight hamstrings you're normal just simply bend your knees to more easily lengthen your spine align your ears with the inner upper arms shift a little bit more weight into your fingers keep firming your triceps in and some of you have very flexible hamstrings calf muscles so maybe you straighten the legs and reach your heels towards the floor one more breath add the mukha svanasana downward-facing dog and then walk your feet up to your hands and just have your feet hips with you can bend your knees folding uttanasana now go ahead and bring your hands to your hips leading with your chest inhale stand up let's start the santsalutes turn the palms of the hands to face straight ahead standing in tarasana just for a moment and take a couple of deeper breaths so deepening your inhalations and lengthening your exhalations and then when you're ready inhale circle your arms overhead and as you exhale hinging from your hips you can bend your knees fold all the way forward inhale open up your chest lengthen your spine and as you exhale step your right foot back into a high lunge take a deep full breath in and as you exhale step into plank pose take a deep full breath in and as you exhale start to come forward with your chest you can set your knees down if you like lower all the way down and then inhale point your toes low cobra just simply lift your chest keeping your belly on the floor feel free to stay right here or you can lift up into a high cobra pelvis is still on the floor bend your elbows shrug your shoulder back and down you can also choose upward-facing dog udvamukrishvanasana lift your knees thighs and hips exhale down dog from downward-facing dog inhale raise your right leg behind you leading with the inseam of the right leg exhale step your right foot up between your hands you can always carry it part of the way take a deep full breath in and exhale step your left foot forward continue with the feet hips width for now inhale open your chest lengthen your spine exhale fold inhale arms out to the side leading with your chest rise up and exhale hands to your heart inhale circle your arms overhead pausing at the top of the inhale exhale fold inhale open your chest ardha uttanasana exhale step your left foot back step into plank pose take a deep full breath in look about a foot or so in front of your fingertips slowly lower either all the way down or chaturanga dandasana inhale cobra or up dog exhale down dog inhale raise your left leg behind you leading with the inseam of that leg exhale step the foot up between your hands step your right foot forward option to step your feet together inhale ardha uttanasana open your chest you can bend your knees exhale bow inhale spread your arms out of the side leading with your chest rise up and exhale hands to your heart one more inhale circle your arms overhead pausing at the top exhale fold uttanasana inhale ardha uttanasana open your chest exhale just simply step back plank pose either lower all the way down or chaturanga inhale cobra or up dog and back to downward chasing dog on an exhale let's stay in down dog for three full breaths so deepen your inhalations and lengthen your exhalations just one more full breath and at the bottom of your exhalation you can either step or lightly hop your feet up between your hands inhale open your chest ardha uttanasana exhale bow uttanasana inhale arms out of the side rise up and exhale hands to your heart close your eyes for a moment and perhaps return to your intention or just a moment to center yourself and then allow your eyes to open lower your arms inhale chair pose so if you work with the feet hips width just make sure that your knees are pointing in line with your second toes shift more weight into your heels notice the tendency to come into that anterior pelvic tilt you have a deep sway back perhaps so that's the case lift your hip points hug your belly and lower ribs in take one more deep full breath and you're welcome to look up you can also seal your hands and then as you exhale fold uttanasana inhale open your chest ardha uttanasana exhale step back into plank pose and slowly lower perhaps all the way down inhale cobra or up dog exhale down dog inhale raise your right leg behind you exhale step your right foot up between your hands bring your left knee down now I like to use a blanket underneath my left knee you can use a towel if you don't have a blanket but just giving your knee a little bit more support bring your hands on top of your right thigh and back yourself out of the pose until your left thigh is more or less perpendicular to the floor bring your hands to your hips lift your hip points lengthen the buttocks down sometimes we refer to this as the pelvic wheel lifting the hip points lengthening the buttocks down so that same work that we did in the beginning of the class the posterior pelvic tilt now inhale stretch your arms overhead insulate your thumbs and use your arms to in a sense lift your abdomen up and out of your pelvis get a sense of dragging the mat back with the right foot and dragging the mat forward with the left foot so you're squaring off your pelvis firming the outer hips in and then with all of that in mind perhaps start to bend the right knee a little bit more if you see that the right knee comes away in front of the ankle maybe wiggle the right foot forward a bit more keep drawing the lower belly in and up lifting up and out of the pelvis feel free to separate your hands palms of the hands facing one another and you can look up take one or two more breaths here maybe arching back a little bit more tuck your chin in slightly and then exhale hands come down tuck the toes under of the back foot straighten the leg and just for now step into down dog stretch it out feet hips width inhale raise your left leg behind you exhale step the foot through bring your right knee down you can point your toes if you like and bring your hands on top of the left thigh back yourself out of the pose until the right thighs perpendicular to the floor you can start with your hands on your hips and take a moment to square off your pelvis firm the sides of the hips in now lift your arms overhead interlace the opposite thumb in front lift your hip points and lengthen the buttocks down take a deep full breath in and then as you exhale start to bend your left knee a little bit more imagine you have a string from your pubic bone to your navel lift up and out of the pelvis maybe separate your hands and you can look up so especially if you choose to look up tuck the chin in first lift your sternum and then maybe look up take one or two more breaths here kind of get a sense of coiling the upper back into the chest and the next time you exhale hands come down straighten the back leg step into down dog move the blanket out of the way and then from your down dog inhale plank pose keep your gaze forward exhale chaturanga or lower all the way down inhale cobra or up dog so coil the upper back into the chest if you choose to look up in up dog tuck the chin in maybe look up exhale down dog and in this down dog anywhere from three to five breaths notice the tendency for the weight to sit in the heels of your hands can you shift a little bit more weight into your fingers on your next exhalation step or lightly hop inhale open your chest exhale bow inhale chair pose maybe sit a little deeper exhale back to center so now we're going to do two more sense of lute so these particular sense of lute are called surinamaskar B sense a newly sense salute sense a mutation B standing in Tadasana inhale Utkatasana chair pose exhale Utkatasana forward fold inhale Ardha Utkatasana and as you exhale step into plank pose slowly lower down inhale cobra or up dog exhale down dog now inhale raise your right leg behind you exhale step your right foot up to your right thumb make sure you're not in a tight rope pivot the back heel down inhale Virabhadrasana one see if you can lift your hip points use your arms to lift up and out of the pelvis and really strongly root through the back foot keeping the back leg straight and strong maybe bending the front knee a little bit more take one more deep full breath and you can choose to look up you can also seal your hands and then exhale back to plank pose slowly lower maybe chaturanga inhale cobra or up dog exhale down dog inhale raise your left leg behind you exhale step it through closer to your left hand pivot the back heel down inhale circle your arms overhead so keeping the back leg straight and strong spinning the right inner thigh back driving the right hip fold a little bit more and then that same work lifting the lower belly in and up you'll feel the right butt affirming in when you do that tells you that you're really stretching and opening the hip flexors take one more breath maybe look up exhale back to plank again feel free to lower all the way down you can always skip the vinyasa if you are a little tired or you're nursing maybe a shoulder issue or a wrist issue or you just simply you've had enough of the vinyasas so once we meet in down dog let's just take three full breaths here there's one more breath and at the end of the exhalation step or lightly hop your feet up to your hands inhale arda uttanasana exhale bow inhale share a pose also translated as fierce pose exhale forward fold uttanasana inhale open your chest exhale step into plank pose slowly lower inhale cobra or up dog exhale down dog inhale raise your right leg behind you exhale step it through inhale warrior one exhale back through plank pose lower inhale up dog or cobra exhale down dog inhale raise your left leg behind you exhale step it through inhale warrior one exhale back to plank pose and this time lower all the way down and then once you're down inhalate your fingers behind your back now if your shoulders are tight your pecs are tight use a strap between your hands now bend your elbows half your knuckles right above the buttocks dynamically stretch out through your legs and then use your hands your knuckles or your thumbs to lengthen the buttocks to the heels lift up into one variation of locust shalabhasana so lift your shoulders lift your chest leading with the inseams of your legs lift your feet and legs press out through the balls of your feet for two more breaths tuck your chin in a little bit one more breath lower down relax for a moment breathe into your lower back one more time insulate your fingers the non habitual way behind your back lengthen the buttocks to the heels so that same work of the posterior pelvic tilt the action and then lift up lift your feet and legs up off the floor it's not super easy to talk in this pose three more breaths here keep your chin tucked in one more breath attempt to make your legs longer lift your chest and then lower place your hands by your lower ribs I like to turn my hands out a little bit in up dog maybe give it a try lift your shoulders either cobra or up dog and again get that sense of spinning the inner thighs up firm the outer ankles in and coil the upper back into your chest and if you choose to look up tuck your chin in and then maybe look up exhale down dog two more breaths here and down dog and then please go ahead and come on to your knees we're going to transition into Virasana heroes pose sitting on a block to place the block the long way between your inner ankles if you feel this in your knees sit on two blocks or elevate the height of the block or kneel up like this so as you're sitting here in Virasana just take a moment with a block between the inner ankles to press the inner ankles against the block that will firm the outer ankles in okay and that actually relates to firming the outer hips in can pause here you can even skip the peak pose which is Ustrasana camel pose and you can simply meditate here or you can go with me and coming up like so now you can keep the block between the inner ankles depending on the width of your hips you may have to make it a little bit more narrow and as you're here knees about hips width and hips directly above your knees and take your thumbs to the tops of your buttocks and then work again in that posterior pelvic tilt of the action of that of lengthening the buttocks down and moving your pubic bone up towards moving the pubic bone up towards the navel so there's that pelvic wheel again that we worked on earlier and then roll your shoulders and elbows back just like you did in locust pose and then coil the upper back into the chest so we call this the thoracic wheel it's a lifting your sternum up and notice the tendencies who want to lift the chin just keep your chin towards your chest but lift your sternum your chest towards your chin rolling your shoulders and elbows back so this is step one so I'd like to break it down and you can simply stay with step one in a moment otherwise you're just gonna come up sit on the block again briefly and then move the block between your legs and hug the block between your knees and your inner thighs firm the outer ankles in now take your thumbs the tops of the buttocks again work that pelvic wheel gently squeeze the block you'll feel the outer hips firming in a little bit so first the pelvic wheel then the thoracic wheel draw the elbows shoulders back and you may want to just stay here or step two you start to arch back but I'm still moving my chin to my chest my sternum to my chin and working here squeezing the block so step two and imagine someone is lifting you up by your sternum one more breath and then come up and one more time just sit down so you can continue using the block between your thighs if you like if you know that you can't quite reach the heels feel free to use a block on either side of your feet or some people like to lay a bolster on top of the calves or you may be able to grab your heels so starting with step one lengthen the buttocks down lift your chest tuck your chin in or step two you start to arch back do the best you can to keep your hips above your knees keep firming the outer ankles in spreading out all ten toes perhaps step three hands on the blocks fingertips pointing back but I'm keeping my chin tucked in for now some of you can grab your heels fingers to the inner heels thumbs to the outer heels and you pull on your heels now only if your neck is okay and your chest is well lifted you choose to bring your head back and then eventually hands go to the tops of the buttocks come up and kneel back down pause for a moment now you can completely simply stay here pausing closing your eyes maybe taking a short meditation or maybe do one more Ustrasana camel pose so as you're doing one more do the best you can to do it one step at a time and if there's any discomfort in your lower back you're either going too far in the pose perhaps you're not implementing the pelvic wheel and or the thoracic wheel but there should be no pain but it's work these backbends there are a lot of work so please do take your time eventually you come back down and that's all come into child's pose just for a moment so big toes touching knees slightly apart not wider than your hips okay because that way you're still maintaining a nice stretch for your lower back stretch your arms out in front of you move forward onto your hands and knees and find your way into downward-facing dog just allowing your spine to lengthen to stretch out a little bit so again if your hamstrings are tight just bend your knees and then walk your feet up to your hands take your middle finger index finger reach around your big toes feet about hips width inhale open your chest you can always bend your knees here and then exhale full splay the inner elbows apart now let the upper back widen and as you draw the crown of your head down lift your shoulders strongly press your big toes into your fingers as you gently pull on them let your head dangle this is Padangusthasana inhale open your chest and exhale slide your hands underneath the soles of your feet inhale open your chest and exhale bow and then mush your hands with your feet just two more breaths here let your head dangle lift your shoulders inhale open your chest and as you exhale step into a brief down dog to simply come on to your knees and then to find your way on to your back please with a strap nearby now grab your strap wrap the strap around your right foot and extend the right leg up straighten your left leg out onto the floor and bring your left leg to neutral top of the left thigh heavy so we're back in that same curvature of the lower back that you're not pressing your lower back into the floor have a strap in each hand relax your shoulders and flex your right foot as much as you can spread your toes just very gently pull the right leg in closer until you feel a good stretch in the hamstrings you've been working the hamstrings quite a lot today so now we're stretching them out a little bit more put the straps in your right hand left hand on top of the left thigh and then slowly bring the right leg out to the side you can always rest the right elbow on the ground left hand is a reminder to reminding the left thigh to stay down so that you keep the hip points same thing as earlier equidistant from the ceiling so just a couple more breaths here stretching the inner thigh muscles you use them earlier holding the block between your thighs and then slowly bring the leg back up take a deep full breath in and as you exhale firm your belly in and lift your head and upper back you're gonna feel your lower back pressing into the floor relax your right shoulder so this is a combination of you moving the right leg in closer and you moving closer to the right leg and then slowly lower back down and then bend your left knee take the strap off the right foot lower the foot and then wrap the strap around the left foot and extend the left leg up and straighten your right leg out onto the floor bring the right leg to neutral and give yourself enough strap so that you can straighten your left leg flex your left foot pressing a bit more out through the mound of the left big toe again keeping the top of the right thigh heavy as you gently move the left leg in until you feel a good stretch okay so just a couple more breaths here relax your shoulders put the straps into your left hand right hand on top of the right thigh and then slowly bring the left leg to the left without lifting the right hip so again stretching the inner thigh muscles couple more breaths and then bring your leg back up take a deep full breath in and as you exhale lift your head and upper back slide your right hand towards your right knee relax your shoulders two more breaths firm your belly in it's a nice counter stretch to having done backbends and then slowly lower down take the strap off bend your knees and bring the outer right ankle on top of the left thigh and then either hold around the left thigh or around the left shin and then as you bring your left knee in closer towards your chest press the back of your pelvis into the floor relax your shoulders just one more breath here and then change sides you may want to straighten the right leg up in the air for a moment and then left outer ankle on top of the right thigh either hold behind the back of the right thigh or around the right shin flex especially your left foot but you can flex both press the back of your pelvis into the floor as you gently move the right knee in closer couple more breaths so just taking this last part of our practice today to stretch and be quiet and moving into that place of stillness and when you're ready stretch both legs up in the air feel free to take a wide straddle or maybe a happy baby pose and then find your way into shavasana and I'll talk you through a guided shavasana it's a version of yoga nidra the sleep of a yogi but take a moment to most importantly get comfortable separate your feet a little bit wider apart than your hips bring your arms a bit away from your torso and turn the palms of your hands to face the ceiling and take a moment to allow the back of your body to settle and sensing the touchpoints of your body on the floor feel the air flowing in and out through your nose and perhaps sensing the rising and falling off your belly notice sensations in the palm of your right hand notice sensations in the palm of your left hand if you stay there long enough you may feel a sense of thickness tingling maybe warmth sensing your whole right arm hand arm right shoulder your left arm left hand left arm left shoulder and sensing both hands both arms both shoulders simultaneously and then bring your mind's eye to the center of your chest and imagine for a moment that you can breathe in and out through the center of your chest as if your chest is doing all the breathing what is your deepest most heartfelt intention in Sanskrit that's also called sankalpa what is it that you wish for more than anything that has to do with your deepest highest most heartful meaning that you wish for for your life what is most important to you especially when we work on sankalpa as we move into a place of stillness that's when we can truly tap into our highest intention most heartfelt intention imagine that your whole body is breathing in and your whole body is breathing out your body is breathing and you're just simply observing and witnessing your body breathing allow your breathing to gradually deepen maybe take your deepest breaths so far you can also place your hands on your belly or maybe one hand on the top of your chest allow your ears to open up to sounds if you need to stay on your back a little bit longer I welcome you to do that otherwise you can bend your knees and slowly roll over onto either side and sit back up thank you so much for joining me in this practice I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope to see you soon practicing with me again namaste