Easy Transitions

Hi, and thank you for joining me for this easy transition flow where we will move deep into the hips and move with this fluid quality of water. So if you'd please join me seated, we'll find a comfortable cross-leg seated position. Take a moment to land and arrive, letting your sitting bones root down on the earth. If it feels comfortable, allowing the eyes to close for a moment, turning the gaze inward, starting by stopping. Begin to notice your breath.

Feeling that fluid quality of your inhale through the nose. Exhale to release. Do that one more time, big full breath in through the nose, filling up. Exhale softening, find that easy quality as you relax your shoulders, exhale, gently blinking the eyes open. On an inhale, start to rock forward, reaching the heart forward, draw the shoulders back.

And then as you exhale, draw the navel to the spine, rounding, tuck the chin. So this seated cat-cow, as you inhale, arching through the spine, reach the heart forward as you exhale, navel to spine, rocking back on the sitting bones. Do that three more times. So letting the breath bring you forward on the inhale, arching, heart lifts. As you exhale, rock back.

Feeling that watery quality as you inhale, come forward, draw the shoulders back. As you exhale, round through the shoulders, feel the opening in the back of the body. One more time, inhale, coming forward. And then exhale as you round, feel free to linger anywhere it feels good to linger. And then start to take this into circles.

So Sufi rolls, the inhale brings us forward. The exhale brings us back. And you can make these circles as big or as small as it feels good, just really starting to feel into the hips, into the lower back, opening up anything that might be feeling a little stuck today, maybe taking the circles in the other direction for a few rounds. Setting the head, neck and shoulders, release into this as well. Beautiful and then start to let the circles become a little bit smaller as you come back through center.

Take a moment to just notice, maybe setting an intention here for your practice. Anything you'd like to call in, maybe it's just that quality of ease today of releasing what's no longer serving you. Beautiful. And then take your time. Let's come to downward facing dog.

So reaching the hands forward, stepping the feet back. And as you come into this first downward facing dog, just finding any fluid movement that would feel good for you, I'm going to pedal it out through the feet. You might be stepping the feet a little bit wider, maybe even as wide as the mat, letting the hips sway side to side, maybe shaking out the head, yes and no a few times. Just that invitation to notice where you might be holding a little tension and what might be able to be released here just a little bit more. Beautiful.

And then from your downward facing dog, let's glide forward into plank pose on your inhale. Find the top of a pushup. And then as you come into plank, let your knees find the earth and then hips sink back toward heels, child's pose. Letting the forehead rest down on the earth for a moment. So you feel the arms reaching forward and the hips sinking back towards your heels as you feel the opening in the back body.

Good. And then round up to all fours, find tabletop here. And then tucking the toes, lift the hips up and back coming into downward facing dog. So we'll start to warm our joints by moving with those shapes. With the breath, inhale, come forward into plank pose, exhale, knees lower, child's pose.

Hips to heels. As you inhale, round up through tabletop, tuck your toes, lift the hips up and back, downward facing dog. Beautiful. One more like that, inhale, plank, exhale, hips to heels, child's pose. Inhale all fours, exhale, downward facing dog, tucking the toes, lifting the hips all the way up and back.

Beautiful. Come forward into plank pose, this time slowly lower all the way to the belly, hugging the elbows in as you lower down. Tuck your toes, press into the top of the feet and then take your hands on either side of your mat with the elbows pointing up and tent your fingertips. We'll take a wide arm cobra here. As you inhale, activate through the legs, peel the chest up, coming into this wide arm cobra, heart lifts, gaze lifts, good.

And then as you exhale, release that back down. With that fluid quality with your breath rolling cobra, inhale, peel the chest up, maybe coming up just a little bit higher without force, exhale, release. One more like that, inhale, peel the chest up, draw shoulders away from the ears. As you exhale, slowly release back down to the earth, bring the hands next to the side ribs. Tuck your toes, firm the thighs up off the earth, we'll come back up into plank pose on your inhale, hips up and back, down dog, exhale, beautiful.

From here, let's sweep the right leg all the way up and back, big breath in, three leg dog. And then as you exhale, draw your left knee all the way across the body to the right tricep and hover for a moment, top of a pushup, good. And then start to thread that left leg all the way through for fallen triangle, we'll spin onto the right heel, weight into your left hand, reach the right arm up so the heart opens to the side of the mat, maybe gaze up to your right fingertips, good. And then right hand down to the earth, sweep your left leg all the way up and back for three leg dog. This time, draw your left knee towards your left tricep, hover, top of a pushup and then take a big step to the outside of your left wrist, so you're in a wide leg lunge.

Come up onto your fingertips for a moment, reach the heart forward and then plant the right hand down, we'll sweep the left arm up to take a wide lunge twist, opening the chest toward the left side of your mat, maybe lean back a little bit, beautiful. And then lower the left hand back to the inside of your front foot, so you're back in that lizard lunge, walk to face the side of your mat, coming through center parallel your feet, coming all the way into Skandhasana, start to put a bend in your right knee, you can walk your fingertips over toward that right side, keeping the left leg straight, feel free to keep the left foot down or you can come up onto that left heel, the sinking into that right hip a little bit, good, and then stay low to the earth, come all the way back to the front of your mat, runner's lunge, plant your palms, step back, downward facing dog, left foot meets the right, beautiful. As you inhale, glide forward into plank pose, take a slow lower all the way to the belly, hands wide, tent your fingertips on either side of your shoulders, peel the chest up for one wide arm cobra, inhale, good, exhale, pressing back either through hands and knees or plank pose, coming into downward facing dog, big breath in, exhale to release, and we'll take that all to the other side, as you're ready, inhale, right leg sweeps up and back, and then start to draw your right knee towards your left tricep top of a push up, you could stay here or thread that right leg all the way through for fallen triangle, and on to the left heel, weight into the right hand, left arm lifts, take your gaze up, beautiful, and then unravel the same way you came into that, we'll come into three leg downward facing dog, right leg sweeps up and back, draw your right knee towards your right tricep, and then big step to the outside of your right wrist, coming into lizard lunge, take a moment to come up on to the fingertips, reach the heart forward, plant your left hand down this time and sweep the right arm up, big, full breath in, feel that opening, maybe lean back a little bit, good, as you lower the right hand, take it to the inside of your front foot, walk to face the side of your mat, this time we'll bend through the left knee for skandasana and you might angle your left toes toward the corner of the mat a bit, keeping that right leg straight, I'm going to come up on to my right heel, sinking in a little bit deeper, beautiful, and then stay low and fluid as you come back front of the mat, coming into runner's lunge, plant your palms, step the right foot back to meet the left downward facing dog, good, breath in as you come forward into plank pose, slowly lower all the way down, take the hands wide, tent the fingertips, elbows bend, bhujangasana cobra pose, peel the chest up, big breath in, good, and then exhale slowly lower hands to the earths, come all the way back into downward facing dog, lifting the hips up and back, big full breath in, as you exhale, let something go and then take a nice slow walk to the front of the mat, so walking your feet up towards your hands, we'll step the feet hips distance so you might take two fists between your feet just to measure here, good, and then if it's accessible hook your peace fingers, your first two fingers and your thumbs around your big toes, on an inhale lengthen through the spine, reach the heart forward, and then as you exhale let your elbows splay out to the side, tuck your chin, letting the crown of your head melt down toward the toes, and then let a little weight shift toward the balls of your feet, you can keep as much of a bend in the knees as you'd like here, just start to feel that opening through the hamstrings, the back of your legs, and then what might you release? Just a little bit more here, finding ease within your effort, maybe shake your head, yes and no a few times, I feel this nice release in the upper back, where do you feel this in your body? Just noticing, good, releasing your toes, come halfway up as you inhale, and then maybe slide the hands underneath the soles of the feet, so you're stepping the soles of the feet into the palms of your hands, toes up toward the wrists, padahastasana, inhale to lengthen, come halfway up, exhale soften and fold, and then allowing the feet to massage the wrists, the hands, and if that's not accessible for you, any forward fold is great, just allowing that release, maybe blocks under your hands, a couple more breaths, gently releasing your hands, so sliding the hands out from underneath your feet, and then from here start to heel toe your feet as wide as your mat, let your toes turn out slightly, heels come in, and then coming into yogi squat, malasana, bend your knees, let your hips sink down, you're welcome to sit on a block here, otherwise maybe draw hands to heart, find length in your spine as you let your sitting bones reach down, spine long, reach up through the crown of your head, feeling the heartbeat, couple full deep breaths as we get a little deeper into our hips, beautiful, and then take your time, this is not a very graceful transition but we'll come to seated, let your hips find the earth, your sitting bones root down, coming into navasana, boat pose, bringing the hands to the back of the knees, can parallel the shins, let the spine be nice and long as the heart lifts, feel free to straighten out through the legs as well, just go easy with that, and then reaching the arms forward, or you can hold on to the legs, feel that lift in the heart as you draw shoulders back, gently engage your core, we'll hold for five, four, three, two, and then slowly lower on one, so we'll hover as we get down toward the mat, reaching legs up off the earth, shoulders up off the earth, reaching the hands and the fingers forward for five, four, embrace the shaking, three, two, one, hug your knees into the chest, take a moment to land on your back, talk a little side to side, beautiful, and let's move into reclined Gomukhasana, so crossing the right knee on top of the left, let the shins go wide, if it's accessible you could hold on to your shins, your ankles, or maybe the outsides of your feet, and then draw the shoulders down to soften, you might close your eyes, and if that's too intense maybe you're just crossing at the knees and holding on to the knees, you could take thread the needle, find a place where you can comfortably get into a nice hip stretch here, breathe into whatever sensation comes up for you, noticing that, noticing how it transforms and changes, more breaths on this side, beautiful, and then take your time, we'll unravel, hug your knees into your chest for a moment, and then making that transition to the other side, so crossing left knee on top of the right, shins wide, find your shins, your ankles, your feet, noticing that one side is most likely going to feel a little different, and breathe and observe, relaxing the eyes, your jaw, your shoulders, a couple more breaths, let's become aware of the space around you, any sounds, rooting into this moment, take a moment to unravel, hug knees, wrapping the forearms around the shins, there's a fly that likes me in here, you can draw your nose up towards your knees, allowing a big breath in, maybe holding the breath up at the top, hug everything in, sip in a little bit more air, beautiful, as you exhale, release and let that go, moving into the shape of shavasana, letting the legs go long, bringing the palms to face up on either side of your body, and then tapping into that quality of ease, what might you release here, just a little bit more and it's that exhale, that letting go that allows us that sense of release, let go, let be, just rest.

Start to bring your attention to the space around you, temperature of the room, tuning into your senses, any sounds that you hear, any smells, enlivening the senses as you allow the breath to begin to deepen, inviting any movement back in, the fingers, the toes, ankles, and reaching your arms up over your ears, stretch through the whole body, big breath in, long breath out, take your time as you let the soles of the feet find the earth, rolling over to either side, and then pressing your way up to a seated position, we'll gather our hands together in front of the heart, anjali mudra, this mudra of gratitude, checking in with how you feel, and holding that sense of ease, of presence with you as you move out into your day, thank you for sharing this practice, namaste.