Flow into Yin

Happy day, thank you for being here. Today we're going on a little vinyasa journey. Think of the vinyasa part as the main course and the yin at the end is our dessert. You'll be using two blocks and a blanket today for our yin postures, so keep them handy. Come to a nice comfortable cross-legged seat, move the cushions, your built-in cushions back a little bit, and then bring the hands on top of the thighs. We're going to move right into our cat and cow tilts, sliding your hands down to the shins. As you inhale, press the knees down, lift the sternum, chin and chest up, and as you exhale, engage your core around the spine, draw the navel up and back. Inhale, lift the heart, sternum, chin and chest. Exhale, engage the core, feel the separation between the vertebrae and the back body. Inhale, opening up through the front body. Exhale, creating space in the back body. Bring your palms right on top of your thighs, take your right ribcage over the right thigh, lengthen forward as you inhale, and then as you exhale, engage the core around the spine, pull the navel up and back. So our little torso circles, our kundalini rising. If you want to keep the neck neutral, that's the traditional variation, otherwise you can let the neck flow in the same direction that your torso is moving. We're going to do a lot of joint movement and mobility today, so lots of range of motion in all parts of the body. The next time you bow forward, pause and switch the direction of your circles. Same opportunity to let the head and neck flow in the same direction as the torso. Find yourself in a nice comfortable tall spine, and those hands that you have on your knees, lift the palms up, hug the elbows to the midline, and turn the palms towards each other. This is your exhalation, and as you inhale, slowly lift the elbows, the height of your shoulders if they go that far, and then hold the breath, and exhale, drawing the palms almost to touching, just so you feel that energy between the palms. Inhale, lift it up, a little shoulder opener expanding through the ribs, so the side body and the lungs, pause, and then exhale, hug it back to the midline. Keep connected to the breath as you inhale, lift it up, bring your fingertips to the tops of your shoulder blades, and give yourself a little bit of a shrug up and back. Roll it up with the inhale, and back down the spine with the exhale, finding a little range of motion here in the upper shoulder girdle. The next time the elbows lift to the sky, interlace your hands behind the base of the head, lean the head back as you draw the chin slightly down towards the chest, take your elbows over to the right as you anchor down into the left sit bone, inhale back to center, take your elbows over to the left as you anchor down into the right sit bone, give it one more pulse to each side, and the next time you end up on the right side, hang out right there, release the right arm to the floor about a foot, foot and a half away from you, keep the left hand behind the head and just lean the head back. If you need to feel more, drop that right elbow in the direction of the floor until you feel your resistance. Breathe into the spots where you're feeling the resistance, give it one more full inhalation into the side body, and then exhale, place the left palm on top of your right thigh, walk the right fingertips behind you, tall spine, lift, lengthen, rotate, a nice little twist for the mid lower back, walk the fingertips a little farther back, lift, lengthen and rotate, and then your finale, let that right ear drop towards your right shoulder to release the trapezius muscles, draw that left shoulder blade down. Keep the left hand where it is, inhale the right palm to the sky, cross the left, squeeze the knees to the midline, hold the outer left knee, and then press the knees away, you'll feel the stretch in the upper back shoulders, the space between your shoulder blades, the rhomboids, all the way out to your deltoids, give yourself a pulse here, see more rounds of breath, great everybody, one more, inhale, free those arms back to the sky, interlace your hands behind the base of the head, one pulse over to your right, inhale back to center, and then as you pulse over to the left, anchor down into your right sit bone, walk the left fingertips out about a foot, foot and a half until you feel that breath in the side body feeling a little restricted and breathe into the area and try to inflate, try to move into the space where you feel resistance and inflate and create more space for prana, life force, breath, go for it, one more round of breath, lower your right hand down to your right knee, walk the left fingertips behind you, tall spine lift lengthen and rotate to your left, keep the spine growing with each inhale and softly turning with each exhale, let the left ear drop towards the left shoulder so you're releasing that tension in the right shoulder, give it one more round of breath here, and then keep the right hand where it is, inhale the left arm up and over the right, squeeze the right knee to the midline, hold the outer right knee, same thing, press the knees away until you feel that space between the upper back and shoulders and then come back to center, you got two more, last one, great, free the arms, you might want to grab a block here for your reverse table, putting a block under each hand gives you a little bit more opportunity, we're gonna do a little strength work in reverse table, so blocks underneath the hands, feet are hip distance, press down into the blocks, lift your hips, this is the inhalation, as you exhale bend your elbows, lower your seat next to the heels, this is a tricep firing action, inhale lift back up, you're gonna feel this in the triceps and the chest, lower the heels towards, lower the hips towards the heels and come on back up, pulse with your breath, squeeze the elbows to the midline, two more, last round, the next time you lower the seat, lower the seat as close to the heels as they'll go, move the block slightly out of the way so you can walk your hands back, flip the palms away from you, walk them back to stretch the shoulders and give yourself a little windshield wiper left and right, letting the head and neck off and back will allow you to feel this in the upper back, the shoulders right where the neck and shoulder connect, great, that was round one, we got round two coming, so set back up, slide your seat back, for reverse table, come back to your blocks, this one's more for the core, lift your hips up, big inhale, exhale slide your hips between your wrists if possible, if you can keep the hips off the floor, bow forward, pull the navel up and back, engage the core, reverse table with the inhale, engage the core, pull the navel up and back with the exhale, give them two more rounds, you're also strengthening the arms as well but really use the core muscles to help you lift and pull up away from the floor, lower the seat right between the hands and the heels, move your blocks out of the way and keep your hands facing forward to lift up for easy navasana, heels the height of the knees, couple navasana pulses, inhale chest away from the knees, straighten the legs, exhale draw the knees in, pull the navel up, tall spine, pulse with your breath, option of staying here or if you need more work reach for your ankles, as you exhale draw the knees in, heels the height of your knees, two more pulses, last one you should start to feel a little bit more heat in the body, great, the next time you pulse in cross the legs, either swing the legs around for your traditional table or plant the palms in front of you and float the legs back for your traditional table, from your table pose place your palms right underneath the shoulders, glide the heart, the sternum, the chin and chest forward with the inhale, push strongly down with the exhale and round the spine, give me one more round of those, feel the articulation of the spine in your table posture and we're going to go right into down dog and do the same thing, so walk your hands up palm print forward, tuck the toes under, lift the hips to the sky, pedal the legs out one at a time, feel the hamstring stretch, great, bend both knees, look forward, inhale this is the cow tilt, exhale round the spine tops the toes, engage the core this is your cat tilt, pulse with the breath, bend the knees, look forward, exhale round the spine, pulse two more times with me, looking forward possibly beyond the thumbs if you're feeling okay in the neck and really rising up to the tops of the toes as you exhale, last one, pedal the legs out in your down dog, look between the legs and then we're going to slide forward for plank pose, bend the elbows lower all the way down untuck the toes, replace your palms with your elbows for easy swings pose, glide the heart, the sternum, the chest forward, soften the shoulder blades down the spine, last little movements for the neck, let the neck drop, the chin drop towards the chest, roll to the left, chin drop towards the chest, roll to the right, any intuitive movements that are feeling right for you right now feel free to explore, great, replace your elbows with your palms, low medium cobra on that next inhale and then bend the knees, tuck the toes under, press back to the down dog, any last little movements and down dog that you're feeling intuitively maybe it's a shoulder roll or a pivot of the feet before we walk or float our feet to the hands, the finale of your next exhale look to the front of your mat, bend the knees, walk or float your feet forward, lengthen the spine, flat back, exhale take a nice soft forward fold, you can grab onto the elbows and let the torso sway left and right with the knees softly bent, shifting a little bit more weight into the big toes side of the feet, bend both knees hands on top of the thighs for supported chair pose and then our last round of cat and cows round the spine, inhale glide the heart forward, last two, last one, the next time you engage your core and roll all the way up, roll all the way up with the exhale, inhale the palms to the sky, exhale bring the palms right into prayer, close the eyes, connect to the rise and fall of your breath and really be present in the moment unfolding before you, enjoy the connection that you are experiencing and keep connected to the breath as we bow to the floor, inhale reach the palms to the sky, hinging at the hips, soft fold, palms all the way down to the shins or to your ankles wherever you find the forward fold, inhale lengthen the spine, flat back, we're gonna play with our balance pose here so grab your blocks, once again place your blocks in front of you about a foot, foot and a half, low, medium or high block depending what you need, shift your weight to your right leg, lengthen the spine as you lift the left leg off the floor the height of your hip, you might have to move the blocks forward so they're right underneath the shoulders, we want a tall extended spine for our warrior three variation hug to the midline, now bend your right leg without doing anything to the left and straighten it, you're gonna find strength in that right leg firing up the glutes, firing up the core, as you bend and straighten if you want to come up to your fingertips for more work on the legs, take that time to find more work on the legs, if you'd like to bring one palm into prayer the right hand or even the left hand as you straighten and bend the right leg could be some nice work for the quads and the glutes, wonderful, play with that pause in your warrior three whether the hands are on or off the floor keeping that leg extending the spine extending, bring your palms back to the earth, feel free to keep the blocks handy as you step the left leg all the way back, bring the right hand inside of the right leg, pivot your left heel to the floor, walk hand over hand to your left, keep the right foot turning forward, give it about a quarter turn to your left and then slowly straighten the right leg, you're gonna feel the hamstring releasing a little bit, rebend the right leg toes pointing forward and then walk another hand print over to your left, back up the seat you're gonna feel the side body, one more time straightening the right leg feeling the outer hamstring in your hip and then walking the hands of palm print to the left bending the right leg, turn the right toes forward to join the left so your feet are facing the same direction, take your hands right underneath the shoulders and give yourself a little bend of the legs one at a time, where toes are pointing forward, we're setting up for our torso circles, the next time you bend your right leg keep it bent, bring the left hand to the hip, lengthen the spine, bring the right hand to the hip, rise all the way up, straighten the right leg torso circles, bend over the left leg bow, straighten the left leg as you bend the right, rise up and exhale fold over the left leg, we've got a few more if you'd like to release the arms so you feel that range of motion in the upper back and shoulders feel free to explore that as well, explore the movements of the joints especially the separation between the torsos, the torso and the limbs, bring your palms back to the floor, turn the left toes slightly out to the left, draw the heel and right toes out to the right, bend one leg at a time, skandhasana or crouching tiger as we call it, you can pull the toes of the straight foot off of the floor, flex the foot as you shift your weight from side to side, be kind to your knee and ankle joint here, the more weight on the hands the softer the experience is on the knees, pulse one more time, the next time you are bending your left leg pause for a moment, stretch the front right leg, you can stay here or you can draw the left inner thigh away from you as you bow towards the right leg, just to feel that inner hip flexor, we're moving towards the front of the mat, bring the hands in front of you, straightening the left leg, turn the right toes forward, lift the left heel off the floor, low lunge twist, right palm to the sky, reach back in space with the right arm, circle it forward all the way up, backstroking through the air, letting the left ear soften towards the left shoulder, rolling through that right shoulder, send the right palm to the sky, lengthen the spine and rotate, lower the right hand to the floor, lower the left knee to the floor, straighten the right leg, this is where you might need your blocks again, we're going to move into standing splits on the right leg before we step forward with the left leg, so bend your right leg, set your blocks forward and then inhale the left leg to the sky, if you need to feel more, just keep lifting the left heel, hug it to the midline, walk your hands closer to the right foot, nice big inhale, exhale let it go, step the left foot forward to meet the right, bend both knees, engage the quads, engage the core, roll it up with the next exhale, inhale your palms to the sky, exhale them right into prayer, check back in with the rise and fall of your breath, take a nice big inhale, let something go with your exhalation, inhale the palms to the sky, reconnect with that energy, exhale, hinge of the hips, bow, swan dive all the way to the earth, set yourself up with your blocks for that warrior three work that we did on the other side, blocks in front of you about a foot, foot and a half, lift your right leg off the floor this time, maybe walk the blocks forward, lengthening the spine, bending the left leg, the standing leg and then straightening the left leg, less weight on the hands, more weight on the legs, quads and glutes strengthen a little bit more, so feel free to come up to your fingertips as you bend and straighten the left leg or if you're really going for it, bring the left palm into prayer and possibly the right palm into prayer, wonderful strengthening posture while we're focusing on balance as well, find your version of warrior three with the hands on the floor or in prayer, I'm wobbly today on this side, have fun with the wobbles, lower the hands to the floor, step the right leg all the way back, pivot your right heel to the floor, bring the left hand inside of the left leg, setting up for lizard pose, walk your hands a quarter turn to the right and slowly straighten the left leg, feel the resistance, try to enjoy it, back off of it if it's too much, walk your hands a palm print to the right and bend the left leg, lean the seat back, feel the side stretch, outer left hip all the way up to the left armpit, straighten the left leg, walk your hands a palm print more to the right and then bend your left leg, lean back, one more time straighten the left leg, walk in the hands of palm print, it's kind of like twister with yourself and then bend the left leg, lean into it, turn the left toes forward to meet the right, bring your palms underneath the shoulders and then just do a little test bend in each leg, lengthen the spine, engage your core, bring the hands to the hips, the next time you bend the left leg rise all the way up towards those circles, bowing over the right leg as you fold. Up with the inhale, bowing with the exhale, feel free to release the arms, get the upper back and shoulders into it, any little intuitive movements that help you find space here, that's what we're looking for in this flow, range of motion and space at the joints. Next time you are bowing forward towards the earth, bring your palms underneath the shoulders, turn your left toes out slightly to the left, right toes out to the right, crouching tiger second round, you might feel a little bit more open in the knee-ankle connection, maybe less weight on the hands so you're coming up to the fingertips or exploring the movements without the hands and keeping the hips a little bit lower. This is better for the second round, it's kind of like we've lubricated the joints a little bit, feels a little easier.

Next time you bend your right leg, pause, walk your left hand outside of your left leg and start to lower the hips, use the right hand to guide the right inner thigh away and we're just lengthening the spine and taking a little bow over the left leg, moving the right inner thigh away from us, great. Keeping one hand on either side of the left leg, push down into the right, bend the left leg, lift the right heel off the floor, left hand to the sky, spinal twist, lunge, left hand reaches back, circles forward, finishing off with these nice windchill wipers or windmills, back strokes, whatever you want to call them for that left shoulder. Find your range of motion, let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder. The next time the left palm is reaching to the sky, pause right here, lengthen and rotate, left palm to the floor, right knee to the floor, go ahead and straighten the left leg. Remember the opportunity to use your blocks for standing splits, our finale for this side.

Rebend the left leg, maybe slide that right foot forward, set up with your blocks as you send the right leg to the sky or walk your hands or your blocks closer to your left heel. Nice big inhale, exhale, let any of that tension top a lot of the crown of the head down into the earth. Step your right foot forward to meet the left, take your feet a little wider, grab onto the elbows, let yourself just hang in a soft fold and then bend the knees, engage the core, roll all the way up. Inhale, palms to the sky, exhale right back to prayer and reconnect with the breath. Beautiful everyone, turn the left toes out to the left, the right toes out to the right and widen your stance just a little bit.

We're going to come down to a seat and melasana, you can bring your hands to your hips or your elbows to the knees. If you want to make this a little softer, you can always sit on your block if you're able to go deeper, elbows inside, bring the palms into prayer and lengthen the spine. We're going to start our yin postures now, we've created some beautiful heat, the muscles, the bodies open and ready to just soften into some deeper, longer holds. So when you're ready, grab onto your block and your blanket and we're going to come to a seat and set up for a nice little side stretch with our blocks over. Let's start with the blocks on the left side of our hips as we sit cross legged.

So we're going to put the blocks right next to each other, one in front of the other and the folded blanket on top of the block. If you don't have blocks in the bolster, a blanket, you can always grab a bolster or a nice pillow and put the pillow on top of the block. We're trying to find comfort here. Keep your left leg bent and then bend your right leg to the midline, hug to the midline and swing the toes around for half Virasana, we call it. This is going to open up the quad and knee if possible, top of the right foot to the floor.

Slide your right hand underneath your right shin. We're going to start this posture with a little trapezius stretch. Bring your left forearm to the bolster and then as you lean to the left, you're going to feel that release and that pull on the trapezius muscle. This is where you can close the eyes and just start to settle in. Let the chin drop towards the chest.

Let it drop away from the chest, left ear towards the left shoulder. Enjoy some space here as you settle in. If you need to feel more for your quad, just anchor your right hip a little closer to the floor, but be kind to your knee. Release the right arm. I know we could stay there for a long time, huh?

Slide your left elbow another three or four inches forward. Lift your left side body, rotate the torso and bring the right palm behind the head for a softer shoulder opener or slide it behind the head. Reach for your shoulder blade and then just lean the head back. You're going to feel a little resistance in the breath on the right side body. I invite you to breathe a little slower, a little fuller, a little deeper into the space where you're feeling it.

Really inflate your inhalations. Relax the muscles of the face. Relax the jaw. And for these last couple of breaths, I want you to extend that right arm. Try not to put too much effort and work to it.

Just let the arm just kind of fall as you open it to the right. Finding some ease in a posture that can be a little bit challenging to hold. Nice everybody. Enjoying the space you're creating on the side body. More prana, more fuel, more life force is being circulated through the body.

Wonderful. So we're going to turn this into a twist, lower your right palm outside of the block, left palm on the other side, lengthen the spine and just start to fold over the block for the twist. Softer expression is left ear to the floor, not as much rotation. If after a couple breaths you want to feel more rotation of the spine, you can turn your head the opposite way and then you'll feel that twist in the cervical spine as well. I'm going to hang out right here and just enjoy the softer version today.

Focus on your exhalations, enjoy the releasing of the breath with the exhale, letting go, letting go of gripping, letting go of holding, moving physical, mental, emotional tension out of the body through the breath. If you're like me, you could stay here for another hour, but we are going to start to slowly transition to the other side, so press into the earth, swing that right leg around and then move your block and your blanket over to the other side. Come to a cross legged seat with the right leg and then swing the left leg around for the quad stretch, point the left foot, so you're drawing on the top of your left foot and then we'll slide the left hand underneath the shin for the trapezius stretch. As the right ear drops towards the right shoulder, you can kind of find where you need to put that right elbow to feel the resistance. Once you feel that resistance, draw the right ear down or the right chin down towards your chest and then just roll to your right and feel any of the feels, anything that feels like this is helping me find a little ease and a little release in an area that is really challenging and tight, great.

Release the left arm, slide your right elbow forward just a little bit on that block, inhale the left palm to the sky, bring the hand behind the head, lean back into the palm, this is a great area to just breathe and fully breathe into the left side body, inflate, inflate, inflate, or you can slide the left hand behind the head, reach between the shoulder blades and lean the head back and you'll feel a little bit more resistance to breathe into. Try to find ease in the space where you're feeling the breath is shortened on the inhale and invite more depth, more fullness of breath there. Give it one more full inhalation, enjoy it and then slowly lift that arm up, softly take it up and over the ear with the elbow bent, anchor that left sit bone down a little bit more for more side flexion. Take a big inhale, roll that left shoulder back, exhale lower the left hand outside of the blanket, the block connection there and then bring the right hand to the other side. Lengthen your spine and then softly fold for your twist.

Remember the right ear to the blanket is a softer expression or even trying that left ear moves you a little deeper into the posture, lengthening the spine and finding rotation with the ease of letting go of each exhale. Really melt, really feel like you're finding that space of comfort and ease in the body as you let go with each exhale. Think of a wave of relaxation from the crown of the head over the neck and down the spine. I remember if this spot felt like the same on the other side and you want to stay there a lot longer, feel free, we're going to come up and take our last little supported posture which is a beautiful heart opening back bend. The blanket can stay, you just swing the legs around.

Make sure that your head is supported by the blanket and you've got a little space between your lower back and your sacrum so you're kind of lowering onto your blanket right about where you're, well if you know where your thoracic spine starts, just make sure you can have a handprint underneath your lower back to where your sacrum is so that you're fully supported with your head on the blanket. The legs can be straight or bent. It's nice to tee or cactus feel the arms and open up into the front of the chest and really just be here. Enjoy the space around the heart, the giving receiving center. Invite in some of the qualities of compassion, patience, love right to that heart center.

This is a wonderful spot to stay and just be into, connect with self. Whenever you're ready you can join me in a comfortable seat or just stay here a little bit longer, I'm going to roll to my right side and come up to a nice comfortable seat. What a nice way to end a fiery flow today with some nice long holds. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope your body feels good and I hope you celebrate how you are feeling with each person that you meet.

Thank you for joining me today and I'll stay.