Twist to Open

Hi, welcome. I'm Patti Lewis, and today's practice will be a heart opener. We'll take some twists on our journey to Ustrasna, which is otherwise known as camel pose. And you'll want two blocks for today's practice. So let's get started. And we'll start, take your block, and you're going to have it flat and we'll bring it in between your feet, in between your ankles, and we'll sit on the block in Virasana. So if it's possible to have your knees together, you could bring your knees together. If that doesn't work, have the knees a little part. Your heels are on the outside of your hips. The tops of your feet are on the floor. Your sitting bones, the base of your pelvis is on the block. And bring your hands to your thighs, palms down, draw your upper arm bones back, and allow the eyes to close here just for a moment so that you settle in, settle into your body. Start to gather your attention, your awareness onto your mat and using your breath. So take your next inhale in through your nose and fill up. Open wide and exhale out. Allow your lips to touch and take another inhale in through the nose, filling up. And keep the lips closed as you exhale out, finding a place to release. It might be the shoulders or in the face. As you take your next inhale in, root down through the tops of your feet, the sitting bones lengthen up through the spine. Exhale, allow the shoulders to release down away from your ears. Allow the tailbone to sink towards the block. You could keep your eyes closed or you can open your eyes. Interlace your fingers and press the palms forward. And then inhale, reach your arms overhead. So root down through the tops of your feet and your sitting bones. They press into the floor. Inhale, lengthen up, lifting the rib cage away from the hips. And as you exhale, take a little turn to the right. Inhale, back to center. Exhale, take a little turn to the left. Inhale, back to center. And then release the arms and catch them behind your back. Interlace, take your thumbs to your sacrum to that spot, that bony part of your spine above your lower back. And just sweep it down and then maybe reach your hands away from your hips. And then release and interlace, but switch the lacing. Switch the index finger or all the other fingers. So it's the unusual way. Press your palms forward and inhale, reach your arms up alongside your ears. So root down tops of the feet, the sitting bones. Exhale, take a little tilt to the right and then come back to center. Take a little tilt up and over to the left. Come back to center. Root down, inhale, lengthen and exhale, interlace behind your back. Take the unusual way behind your back. Switch the pinky finger, all the other fingers. You can use your thumbs to lengthen your sacrum down and reach your hands away from your hips. And then exhale, release. And we'll come on to hands and knees. So you can put your block to the side. Come onto your hands and knees and let's come right into a downward dog. Let's bring the hands wider than the shoulders. Tuck the toes, press your hands, lift your hips, bring your feet wider than your hips. So there's a lot of space here. Hopefully you can let your head hang. Take a big breath in through your nose and open wide and exhale out. That sense of resetting your breath. Inhale in through the nose here. Exhale through your nose. Inhale, lift your heels. Your breath is smooth and even. Exhale, lower down to your hands and knees. Come into tabletop with your hands shoulder distance, your shoulders over the wrist, knees, hips distanced under the hips. And then as you inhale, move the chest forward, spread across the collarbones as you arch. As you exhale, press your hands, press the tops of the feet, your foundation and round. Inhaling to arch. Finding the rhythm of your breath. Exhaling to round. Inhaling into the arch. Exhaling to round. Lift the navel, lift the lower belly. Inhale into center. You can walk your hands a little in front, wrists in front of the shoulders, curl the toes, press and lift into Adha Mukhasvanasana, downward facing dog.

Have the legs hips distanced and pedal your feet a couple of times just walking the feet out and then allow the heels to release any amount they can towards the floor. Press the tops of the thighs back, press your hands, reach your hips away from your shoulders. Inhale, come forward into plank pose, let your gaze move forward. Pause here for a moment, press your hands, lift the front of the body into the back of your body and then exhale to downward dog. Taking two more on your breath, inhale, lead you into plank. Exhale, lead you into downward dog. Inhale, lead you into plank. Exhale, lightly put your knees down. Shift your shoulders forward, bend the elbows, come towards Chaturanga, pause, hover for a moment and then lower down to your belly. Bring the tops of your feet to the floor and then you want to again find your foundation, your hands press into the floor, tops of your feet, press down, lengthen your chest forward and up into a low cobra. Exhale, back down. Inhale, lengthen to lift your chest, low bhujangasana, low cobra. Exhale, back down. Inhale, lengthen and lift, pause, lift the shoulders away from the floor. They tend to drop towards the floor. Draw your shoulder blades towards your spine and then send your sitting bones towards your heels. Press your feet down. Exhale, fold back down. Press to hands and knees. Tuck your toes, press into downward dog. Pause here. Inhale. As you exhale, let your knees bend and walk your feet towards your hands and keep the feet hips distance. Exhale, fold over your legs, take a little bend in your knees, let your head release and hang in a forward fold, uttanasana. Rooting down through your feet, the base of your big toes, your little toes, your inner, your outer heel. Inhale, slide your hands up to the sides of your shins, lift your chest, arda uttanasana. Notice if your shoulder heads drop towards the floor, lift them away. Bring your hands towards your outer hips, lift the upper arm bones towards each other. Press down. Inhale, all the way up into tadasana. Allow the arms to drop. Pause here for a moment, that awareness of your feet rooting down so that you can rise up through your spine, lengthen the top of your head, the crown of your head towards the ceiling. And then inhale, reach your arms all the way up and over. Keep the arms shoulder distance, take a little bend as you exhale, hinge at your hips, fold over your legs. Hands on the sides of your shins. Inhale, lift your chest, rooting down through your feet, arda uttanasana. Exhale, fold back to uttanasana. And then root down as you rise up on the inhale, arms overhead. Exhaling to tadasana. One more of those flowing on your breath. Your inhale reaches your arms up. As you exhale, fold up and over your legs. As you inhale, lift your chest, arda uttanasana. Exhale, takes you back to your legs. Root down to rise on the inhale, arms overhead. Exhaling to tadasana. Inhale, the arms lift. Exhaling up and over your legs. Inhale, lifting your chest. Exhale, bend your knees, hands to the floor, step the left leg back and pause here for a moment. Deep bend in your front right knee. And then lower the back knee down, top of the foot to the floor. Inhale up, interlace the fingers behind your back. Reach the knuckles towards the back heel, press the center of the back foot down and lift the front of the pelvis. So drop the tailbone, lift the front of the pelvis as you reach your arms back. Inhale, the arms all the way up. You might root down front heel, top of the back foot, touch your palms and look up. Exhale, release the hands, curl the back toes under, straighten the back leg and then step your back foot up to meet your front. Inhale the chest. Exhale into your legs and then root down as you rise up on the inhale. Exhaling your arms down. Inhale, the arms lift overhead. Exhaling up and over your legs. As you inhale, your chest lifts. As you exhale, bend your knees, step your right leg back and lower the back knee down. Top of the foot to the floor. So press your front heel, press the top of the back foot and interlace the fingers behind your back.

Switch the lacing, switch the pinky finger and all the other fingers and then reach the knuckles towards the back heel, press the top of the back foot down, lift the front of the pelvis up and then inhale, reach your arms out and up, touch the palms, maybe look up. Exhale the hands down, curl the back toes under, straighten the back leg, step your back foot on up to meet your front. You could bring your big toes to touch if you like. As you exhale, fold into your legs and then inhale, come all the way up, reach the arms overhead, touch the palms, maybe look up. Exhaling to Tadasana. Inhale, circle the arms overhead. Exhale, folding over your legs. Inhale, lifting your chest, Ard Utanasana. Exhale knees, bend hands to the floor, step your right leg back and then the left into plank. Shift the shoulders forward, exhale. You could stop in Chaturanga or lower to your belly. Inhale into a low cobra or lift your chest, lift your thighs, upward facing dog. Exhale, shift into downward facing dog. Pause here, where's your gaze? Sometimes our eyes are wandering all around the room. Maybe settle the gaze between the toes, between your knees. Sometimes settling the gaze helps the breath to settle. And of the exhale, knees bend, you can walk your feet towards your hands, lift your chest as you inhale. Fold into the legs on the exhale. And then inhale all the way up, reach your arms overhead. Exhale the arms down. One more, inhaling the arms overhead, trying to flow on your breath. It's your exhale that folds you over your legs. With your inhale, lift your chest. With your exhale, bend your knees, step the left and then the right into plank. Shift the shoulders, lower to your belly or stop halfway, Chaturanga. Inhale to low cobra or to up dog. Exhale into downward facing dog. Notice your breath. Notice your gaze. Maybe as you exhale, you can release somewhere in your face. And then let your knees bend, walk or hop your feet towards your hands if you like hopping. Lift your chest as you inhale. Fold into your legs on the exhale. And then inhale all the way up, reach your arms overhead. Exhaling your arms down. So we'll come into the center of our mats and we'll take a couple of standing poses.

So starting in the center, step your feet wide and you might want to block behind your right heel. Have your hands on your hips and then deepen your right hip socket. Rotate your right leg open. Allow the left leg and left hip to shift so you really find the external rotation in your front leg. Root down through your feet. Lift your kneecaps, lift your thighs, reach your arms out as you inhale. And then as you exhale, Utthita Trikonasana, reach beyond your front right foot and bring your hand, you could bring it to the side of your shin, fingertips to the floor, hand on the block. Reach the left arm up. So root down through your feet, your foundation, press them, lift your kneecaps, lift your thighs, press the bottom hand, reach tall through the top arm. Take the top arm, rotate it so the palm faces towards your head. Reach the arm alongside your ear. Keep sending your tailbone towards your back, left heel. You may stay here or root down through your feet. Use your legs. You might lift that bottom right arm alongside. Draw the navel lower belly in and then release the bottom hand down. Inhale the top left arm up. Press down. Come all the way up out of the pose. Interlace the fingers. Turn the right leg forward. As here, take a breath in and exhale, fold over your legs. So let the head go. Reach the hands, any amount away from your hips that you can. And then root down through the feet. Inhale, come all the way up. Switch your block to the other side. And then hands on the hips. Deepen your left hip socket. You want to rotate your left leg open 90 degrees and allow the back leg to shift. Reach your arms out. Spread across the collarbones. Inhale, root down through the feet and the legs. And then exhale, reach beyond your front left leg and bring your hand to your block. Or maybe your shin. Reach the right arm up. So pressing the feet, pressing, using the legs, press the bottom hand, reach taller through the top arm. Take the top right arm, rotate it, and reach it alongside your ear.

So using your legs, draw the knee of a lower belly and you can keep the bottom hand down or you can reach it alongside your ear as well. So hovering. And then drop the bottom arm. Inhale, the right arm up. And then inhale all the way up out of uttittottrikonasana. Pressing your hands to your hips. Turn the left leg forward. Interlace and switching the interlace. Switch the pinky finger, all the other fingers. Inhale. And as you exhale, fold on over. This is called prasarita parottanasana c. Lift the arms up and overhead. Press down. Come all the way up and bring your hands to your hips. Bend your knees. Step your feet together. So we'll move our blocks. Make sure you move your block out of the way and come back to the top of your mat. Inhale, the arms overhead. Exhale, come into uttittottasana and then fold on over your legs. Inhale, lifting your chest up. Exhale, bend the knees. Bring your hands to the floor. Step your right leg back and then the left. Come into plank. Pause here in plank, lifting the front of the body. Press the hands, the foundation. Press the tops of the thighs and then shift into downward facing dog. Inhale, your right leg up off the floor. Exhale, bring the knee towards your chest. Step the foot between your hands. So lower your back, left knee down. Bring the top of the foot to the floor. We're adding a twist in now. Reach your arms all the way up. A twist in the low lunge. So you want to press the top of the back foot down. Press your front heel and lengthen up as if you could lift your ribs up away from your hips and then exhale, turn to the right. Bring your palms together in front of your chest and then hook your left elbow on the outside of your right knee. So twisting, low lunge. You may stay here breathing. Find length from your tailbone all the way through the crown of your head. You might tuck your back toes under and press and straighten your back thigh. Find length and then find the rotation. And then release your hands either side of the front foot. Step up with the back foot to meet the front. Inhale, the chest up. Exhale, fold over. Really let your head hang. Keep the legs straight. Inhale, all the way up, arms overhead. Exhale, the arms down. Inhale, reaches your arms. Exhale, bend your knees, utkatasana. Shift the weight into the heels and then fold on over your legs. Inhale, your chest up. Exhale, bend the knees. Left leg goes back, palms flat. Right leg goes back, you're in plank. Pause here and then lift your hips into downward facing dog. Inhale, the left leg up. Exhale, the knee towards your chest. Step the foot between your hands. Lower the back knee down. Top of the back foot to the floor. So root down front heel, top of the back foot. Inhale, reach your arms up. Maybe switch your thumb hook. So press down, lifting the ribs. And as you exhale, turn to the left and then bring your palms together. So maybe you hook your right arm on the outside of your left leg. Keep the palms together. Keep pressing the front heel, top of the back foot. Lengthen from your tailbone to the crown of your head. You could also tuck the back toes under. Press down. Straighten the back leg. Find length, find rotation. And then release your hands. Palms flat. Step back into downward facing dog. Adho Mukhas Vanasana. Let the head go. Feel the twists in your body right now. Notice your breath.

As you take your next inhale, come forward into plank. So the shoulders are over the wrist. Your gaze moves forward. We're shifting towards back bending now. Exhale, lower all the way down to your belly. Bring the tops of your feet to the floor. So the centers of the tops of the feet, press down, lift your upper inner thighs and hook your thumbs or interlace your fingers behind your back. And is it possible to find your sacrum? Send it long towards your heels. Lift the front of the shoulders away from the floor. Using your legs, lengthen your chest forward and up. And then maybe reach the knuckles back. So you want to send the back of your pelvis long. Moving out of your lower back. Exhale. Bring your forehead to the floor. Switch the lacing of the fingers or the thumb hook. And then maybe find your sacrum again. So let it press down and move long. Lengthen your chest forward and up. Reach your arms back. And this time keep your chest up. Release your hands to the floor. So the wrists are underneath the shoulders. Inhale, maybe lift your chest a little higher. Come into Upward Dog. And then exhale back into Downward Facing Dog. Pause here. Settle your gaze. Settle your breath. Inhale, lift your heels. And then lower down to your hands and knees. So we'll take Ustrasana Camel Pose. We'll use two blocks. But first shift. Just bring one block between your ankles and sit back for a moment in Virasana. So that we find our foundation. The tops of your feet are on the floor. Your shins are on the floor. Your sitting bones release down towards the block. So you can think of lifting the front of your pelvis up a little bit. Move the shoulder heads back. Pause here. Bring your hands to your hips. Draw your upper arms back. And then inhale. Come up onto the shins. So we want the legs hips distance, the knees or hips distance.

Take your other block and bring it behind you. Press the centers of the tops of your feet down. And again, lift the frontal hip points. Your hips are over your knees. Bring your hands to your hips. Draw your upper arm bones back. Pause here. Rooting down. Inhale as if you could lift your ribs away from your hips and start to tilt your chest towards the ceiling. You might look up a little. You might stay here. Or interlace your fingers. Reach your hands away from your hips. Press the feet. Lengthen the back of your pelvis. Bring your hands to your blocks. Press down. Lift your chest. Lift the shoulder blades into the chest and you could let your head drop back. Press the feet. Inhale up. Exhale. Sit on the blocks. They're a little high. We're going to take one more. Feel free to stay here on the blocks or inhale. Come up onto your shins again. And interlace the fingers behind your back. Switch the lacing of the fingers. Draw the shoulder blades towards your spine. Root down through your feet. Inhale. Start to lift your chest. Reach your hands away. Find your blocks. Press the knuckles. Lift the chest. Allow the head to drop back. Bring more through the feet. Take one more. Inhale here. And then coming up. Take a block out. Put the block to the side. Sit back in Virasana. Hands on your thighs. Noticing the openness across the front of your body. Maybe keep the eyes closed and slide your left hand to the outside of your right leg. Slide your right hand to your right hip and take a little twist to the right. Coming back to center, release the hands to the thighs. And then take your right hand to the outside of your left leg and bring your left hand to your left hip. Take a little twist to the left. And then come back to center. Bring your hands to the floor. Move your block out of the way. Come down onto your back. And bending the knees. And then bring the knees into your chest. Be here for a moment. But can you still feel the openness that you worked towards in Ustrasana? And then we'll cross the right thigh on top of the left. Bring your knees in towards your chest. You might flex your feet. Take the shins, almost parallel to the floor, widening the lower back, creating some space. And then release that. We'll go into our final twist. So the right leg is on top of the left and drop both knees to the left. You might reach your right arm out or maybe you reach it just lazily alongside your ear. Drop your head to the right. Just breathing here. And then lazily roll onto your back and switch the cross of the shin. So the left shin is on top of the right shin. Bring the knees towards your chest. Flex your feet.

Take a reclining Gomukhasana. So as if you could bring your shins parallel to the ceiling or the floor. Just being mindful of your knees. And then releasing. And the legs drop to the left and or to the right and bring your left arm just lazily alongside your ear. You could even turn and look to the left. As you exhale, roll onto your back. Uncross your legs. Bring the knees into your chest. And then straighten your left leg and allow it to release. Straighten your right leg. Allow it to release. Take your hands along the backs of your hips and just lengthen out of your lower back. You can think of bringing your buttock flush towards your heels. Release your arms down. Allow the eyes to close. Maybe you feel the openness across your chest. Maybe the fronts of your shoulders can release a little more into the floor. Letting go of the effort and releasing into the ease in Shavasana. Begin to move your fingers. Move your toes and your ankles and your wrists. Bend your knees. Bring your feet flat to the floor. Turn to your right side. Use your top hand. Press yourself up. Come and sit on your shins one last time for today. And then bring your hands one to your heart and bring one to your belly. Allow the eyes to close. Being here at the end of your practice. Noticing your breath. Noticing the quality of your mind. As you take your next breath in, fill the belly. Allow your chest. Allow your heart to lift. And keep the lift as you exhale. Bring your chin to your chest. Vowing to your heart. Thank you for joining me today. Have a wonderful day. Stay open.