Take Inspired Action

Hi, and welcome. I'm Lara, and today's class will be all about inspired action, and it will be a fun and energetic class energizing you to do the things that you desire and taking that next step towards them. So as we start today, we'll come onto our backs, go ahead and come down onto your back with your knees bent up. You can have your feet planted. You can rest your arms away from you or gently onto the body. Take a moment here. You can feel free to let your eyes relax closed, create some space from the day that's happened, let go of the day that's happened, and we'll start with a full round of breath, big inhale through the nose, through the mouth, say it out, let it all go.

And as you focused on your intentions and the things that you're calling in. Today, we'll start to think about what is the next step, even one little step that will get you closer what you're envisioning and what you're dreaming about and start to think about what that is. If you have your eyes closed, you can go ahead and open them back up. It'll start warming up with some core here. And bring your arms down alongside your body if they're not already there.

And start to extend your left leg all the router in front of you flexing through the left foot start to reach your right arm all the way back behind you. So right arm, left leg are reaching in opposite directions from each other. And have your left palm firmly planted down onto the floor alongside the body. Take an inhaler as you extend from heel to fingertip And then as you exhale, we're crunching up, reach your right fingertips up towards the left toes as you lift the head, neck, shoulders off the mat. And he'll extend everything gently lowers back to the floor, exhale crunching up, reach fingertips to toes.

And just one more, inhale finding that long extension, and then exhale crunching up. And bend your left knee, lower it down. You can release your right hand alongside the body. And take your right leg now. Extend it all the way forward flexing through the foot with the toes pulling back.

Reach your left arm opposite arm all the way back behind you. And planting your right palm firmly down onto the floor. Take an inhale. Extend. And then as you exhale, finding that crunch Reaching fingertips to the right toes. Inhale, slowly back to your extension, moving with control, exhale crunching, fingertips to toes, And just one more crunching up, fingertips, the toes, and go ahead and bend your right knee plant the foot down. You can release your left arm down alongside the body, hug your knees in towards the chest.

You can pause here. You can rock side to side a little bit. Or circle your knees out a little bit. Take your hands to the space behind your knees, and then we'll start to rock forward and back a few times lengthwise along the spine, and use this momentum to come up to a tabletop so you can cross your shins, roll over your knees, or sweep your legs around as you come to your tabletop at the front of your space. Risks underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips, finding your tabletop position, pressing into the palms, and step your right foot to the back of the mat, press down through the ball of the right foot reaching back through the heel.

And keeping the ball to right foot grounded starts to take your left arm and stretch it forward alongside the ear with your thumb pointing up, pinky side down. So start to feel that extension that reach back through the heel, forward through the fingertips, and we'll make this shift keep your core strong, and lift the right heel to the level of the hip. It's pretty subtle. Your body will feel nice and strong as you create that long line from heel to fingertips. Take an inhale here. And then as you exhale, another crunch, elbow to knee as you round up through the spine.

Inhale coming back to your extension and 2 more nice and controlled, nice and smooth elbow to knee, inhale extend, and just one more elbow to knee curling in, Inhale come back to your extension, and then gently lower your hand down, lower your knee back down to the mat. We'll set up for the next side, take your left foot, set it to the back of the mat, pressing the ball of the foot down to the floor, just take a moment to check-in. Arms are strong, core is strong, and then start to take your opposite right arm. Sleep it forward alongside the ear with your thumb pointing up, pinky side down. And feel that reach with your foot still grounded, feel extension back through the heel, forward through the fingertips, core is strong, back body is strong, and find that subtle lift, left heel lifts up.

To find your balance, heel lifts about to the level of the hip. Breathe here. And take one more inhale as you extend through the body Excel crunching and elbow to knee. And he'll come back to your extension, nice and controlled, XL Curling and elbow to knee. One more inhale extend, elbow to knee.

In hell, coming back to your extension, and then gently lowering your hand down, lowering your knee back down to the mat, take a couple rounds of cow and cat stretching out through the core. And we'll make our way into downward facing dog. Can take your hands, walk them just a couple inches forward of the shoulders, tuck your toes, lift your hips all the way up and back downward facing dog. Do any movements that you need here, bending the knees in one at a time, or lifting and lowering the heels, or maybe you're already ready to just find your stillness in down dog. Find this rooted shape.

From downward dog, separate hop your feet up to the top of your space coming up to your forward fold at the front Rise up halfway with your inhale, find a deep fold with your exhale, and then reading through your feet, rise all the way up to standing, sweep your arms up touching palms over head, top of the breath. X, I'll bring your hands down to the space of the heart. Stir your namaskar a and help keep your arms all the way out lifting through the body, exhale folding forward, melting in, rise up halfway with your inhale, Extell in full, this first round, let's step it back to a plank position, inhale. Shoulders shift slightly forward of the wrist, Exhaw all the way to the belly nice and slow. Always an option to use your knees. Toast point back, we'll take ourselves to cobrahounds by low ribs lift the heart, shoulders, elbows roll back. Excel release back down.

Tuck your toes. Engage your core. We'll press back up to plank. Knees can help you here. Exhale downward facing dog, press the hips all the way back, then breathe in your down dog.

Step or hop your feet up to the top of your space back to your forward fold at the front rise up halfway inhale, deep fold with your exhale, rise all the way up to standing, sweeping your arms up, touching palms overhead, Excel, bring your hands back to the space of the heart. And we'll take a couple more rounds in hell sleeping the arms up, fold, exhale. And rise up halfway, inhale, exhale, and fold, pat your palm, stepper, float it back through a vinyasa or down dog. And breathe and down dog. Stepper, hop it up to the top.

Rise up halfway inhale, fold with your exhale, rise all the way to stand, sweeping arms up, touching palms overhead, Exale hands to heart space, and we'll take one more round. Sleep your arms all the way up. Fold forward and exhale. Rise up halfway with your inhale, exhale and fold as you move through your vinyasa or downward facing dog. Step or hop your feet back up to the top of your space, rise up halfway with your inhale, fold back down with your exhale.

Rooting through your feet rise all the way up to stand, keep your arms up, touching palms overhead, exhale bring your hands down to the space of the heart. I had from here, inhale sweep your arms all the way up. And as you exhale fold in, Left up halfway with a flat back on your inhale. And then as you exhale fold and keep your right foot forward, take a big step back with your left foot all the way towards the back of your mat, and spin your left heel down to the floor. And you can take your right hand on the inside of the foot, or you can bring your right form to the thigh as we open up to a side angle, take your left arm, stretch it up towards the sky, stacking your shoulders. Sealing down through the pinky edge of your back left foot.

We'll turn this into an extended side. Take your top left arm turn the palm to face forward and sweep the arm alongside the ear. So now the palm is facing down, feel that long line of energy through the entire left side of the body. Keeping that chest rapping open, keeping the strength in the legs, rooting through the feet. Try to keep bottom half of the body the same as we inhale.

Sleep your upper body back to reverse where you sleep your arms, your chest all the way back. And then circle your hands down around your right foot, plant your palms, step it back to plank, and finding your version of a vinyasa. Making your way to downward facing dog. And separate hop your feet back up to the top of your space, coming back to your forward fold, rise up halfway. Fold and exhale.

And now, keeping your left foot forward, take a big step back with your right foot. Spend your back right heel to the floor. When left hand can come on the inside of the foot, or left forearm to the thigh as you reach your right arm, up stacking your shoulders, and opening up to your side angle. And breathing as you open up through the chest, lifting up and out of your left shoulder, so not sinking into that joint, and then turn your right palm to face forward so you forward alongside the ear, again, feeling that long line of energy now from your extended side and feel the line from the back heel through the side of the waist, through the arm, through the fingertips, and breathing here. I'm staying rooted through the bottom half of the body in how arms and chest sweep up and back to reverse warrior.

Feel that nice, long reach. Circle your hands all the way down around your left foot, plant your palms, step it back to plank position, through a vinyasa, or straight back to a downward facing dog. Let me take a couple of breaths here in your downward facing dog. And from down dog, take your right leg fluid all the way up and back. Hugging you need a chest up it through between your palms, and setting up for a crescent, start to reach your arms all the way up alongside your ears.

And then as you exhale, we'll hover the chest forward. Hover your chest above your front right thigh, sweep the arms all the way back. Alongside the body, open through the chest, reach the fingertips back. And then take your right arm, just the right arm will start to sweep forward alongside the ear. So feel that opposite reach between your arms and fingertips, finding that long line from left heel all the way through the right fingertips.

Take an inhale here. And then as you exhale, switch the arms left arm forward, right arm reaches back. Take another inhale. Hold. Excel and switch the arms once again. And this time as you inhale, reach both arms forward, strengthen through the body, As you exhale, bring your fingertips down to the ground for a standing splits, floating the left leg up towards the sky as you find your balance, you can play here.

You can bring one or both hands, your inkler, caffer, keep your fingertips grounded. We'll take one more inhale. And as you exhale step your feet together to the top of your space, rise up halfway, exhale and fold, with your feet, rise all the way to stand, sweep your arms up, touching palms, hands to heart space. We'll come through that on the other side, and he'll sleep your arms all the way up, exhale fold forward. Rise up halfway, exhale in full, plant your palm, step or float it back.

Through your vinyasa or straight into your downward facing dog. And breathe in your down dog. Take your left leg, float it up and back, reach back through the heel, need a chest up through between your palms, keeping feet hip width apart rise up to your high crescent, find your balance up at the top. Lean with your exhale, again, hovering your chest forward now over the front left eye, sweep your arms back alongside the body. Leading forward, finding this openness through the chest, this focus forward, and take your left arm, reach it forward alongside the ear, reaching forward through the fingertips.

Take an inhale. And then as you exhale, switch the arms, right arm forward, left arm back. Hold for one more inhale, exhale, and switch the arms. And then this time as you inhale, reach both arms forward. What is that thing you're reaching for? As you exhale, standing splits, fingertips down, right leg floats up, and as you find your balance, What is just one little step you can take to get closer to what you desire, to what you're dreaming of?

Take one more inhale here. Step your feet together to the top of your space. Rise up halfway. Exhale, deep fold, and release. Rise all the way to stand, sweep your arms up touching palms overhead top of the breath. Exel, bring your hands down to the space of the heart and sweep your arms all the way up.

Exel fold forward. And rise up halfway, exhale in full plant your palms, you can snip or fluid it back through a vinyasa, or straight back to downward facing dog. From downward dog, step or hop your feet back up to the top of your space, coming back up to your forward fold, rise up halfway with your inhale, Take a deep fold with your exhale. Remooting through your feet will rise all the way up to stand, sweep your arms up, touching palms overhead at the top of the breath, and exhale bring your hands down to the space of the heart. Now, start to play with some balance here.

You'll feel your weight shift to your right foot. Bring your left knee about to the level of the hip with your left foot flexed. And find your balance here standing tall, out of the right foot, the right leg, feeling that openness through the chest, it's all spine, and then start to sweep your arms up alongside the ears, palms face towards each other, reaching up through the fingertips. And take one more inhale here. As you exhale, we'll make our way back to a warrior 3, sweeping your arms back alongside the body as you kick the left heel back in space.

To warrior 3. Flexing through the left foot, all those toes pointing down. And we'll find that opposite reach again, so press back through the left heel and start to sweep your right arm forward alongside the ear. Pause find your balance as you extend from end to end. Take an inhale.

And then exhale and switch your arms. Hold again here for 1 more inhale, exhale and switch your arms. Then as you inhale, reach both arms forward, as you exhale, big slow step back to high crescent, bend into your front right knee, pluck the ball of the foot down, reach your arms up and bring your chest upright. Pause as you ground down. Take one more inhale in your crescent option to lift your gaze, touch your palms overhead, and exhale, spin your back left heel down, open it up to a warrior 2, breathe in warrior 2.

And flip your right palm, reach it back to reverse warrior, big, slow, stretch back. Sickle your hands all the way down around your right foot. Platten your palms down. Step it back to your plank position, and through a vinyasa, or a straight back into your downward facing dog. And breathe in your downward facing dog. And we'll clear out that balance with a full round of breath. Take a big full breath in, slide it out through the mouth, let it go.

Separate, hop your feet back up to the top of your space, back to your forward fold, rise up halfway. Fold with your exhale, and rooted through your feet, rise all the way up to standing, touch your palms overhead at the top, exhale, bring your hands down to the space of the heart. And we'll adjust our balance to the other side now. Feel your weight shift into your left foot, and start to bring your right knee about to the level of the hip flexing through the right foot. Standing up tall.

Feel the length through the spine. And as you press your palms gently together at the space of the heart, you can feel your collar bones wide and feel that openness through the chest. And start to reach your arms all the way up along side your ears, palms face towards each other. Find this nice, long reach in your balance. Take one more inhale, standing up tall, finding a nice, long reach.

And as you exhale warrior 3, as the arms sweep back alongside the body, chest, comes forward, right heel draws back, opening through the chest. We'll find that opposite reach, again, press back through your right heel and then start to reach your left arm forward alongside the ear for breathing here. Finding your balance, take one more inhale, hold in this reach, exhale with control, switch your arms, right arm forward, left arm draws back. Hold for another inhale, reach, exhale switching the arms. As you inhale, reach both arms forward.

Feel that link as you exhale, high crescent softly bend into your front left knee, except back with a ball of the foot, come all the way up bright, and settle into your high crescent. Now finding that grounded energy through the feet still tall and energy high up through the fingertips. And take one more inhale. Maybe you touch your palms, lift your gaze up. And then as you exhale, spin your back right heel down to the floor, open it up to your warrior 2.

And breathe into your warrior 2. Flip your left palm and he'll reach it back to reverse warrior. And then as you exhale, circle your hands all the way down around your front left foot. And step it back to your plank position, and make your way through your vinyasa, or straight back into your downward facing dog. Again, here, we'll clear that out with a deep full breath in through the nose. Side it out through the mouth, let it all go.

And gently lower your knees down onto your mat, coming back to a tabletop. So from your tabletop position, we'll set our forearms down onto the ground. So set up your elbows right underneath the shoulders. Try to keep your forms parallel. We'll make our way towards Dolphin.

And you can stay here with forms parallel. If you know you're tighter in the shoulders, it might be a better option to lace up your fingers under the face here. Ground down into the forearms, activate the shoulders with the heart pulling forward, and start to tuck your toes, lift the hips up and back into your dolphin. Keep pressing into the forearms. You can walk your feet in closer towards your elbows as close as you can, feel the hips lifting up really high.

I'm steady breaths here, working into the arms, if you wanna play with a little bit of balance, maybe you float your right leg up. Keep pressing into the palms, pressing into the arms. And if you lifted one leg, Slowly. Let it down. Lift the other leg. We feel that extension up through the heel.

Create that space. Keep your shoulders working. Your forms grounding. And if you lifted the leg, go ahead and set it back down. And we'll make our way down to child's pose, gently lower the knees, Shift the hips back towards the heels.

Let your shoulders rest. Your forehead can touch down towards the ground. Arms can be forward. Or especially after something like Dolphin pose, we're really working into the shoulders. It might feel nice to take the arms back.

That often helps the shoulders feel a bit more relaxed. Come into your inward space. And especially in a shape like this where your chest, your belly is against the tops of the thighs. You can really feel the breath moving the body. So come back to that rhythm of the breath.

Take another full round of breath together here and through the nose, sigh it out through the mouth, let it go. And from your child's pose, making your way up to seated, you can press. And to your palms, bring your chest upright your legs out in front of you, and we're gonna come down onto your back, and you'll have your block close by you close by your hips within reach. So sit towards the middle of your mat and come all the way down onto your back. If your knees bent up, your feet planted, arms down alongside the body, walk your heels right about underneath your knees, and set up your feet, your knees about hip distance apart. And start to press down into the arms, press down into the feet to lift the hips up off the floor, and we'll use our block for a supported bridge.

You can take the block on the flattest lowest level and set your sacrum right on top of the block. You might like to bring it to the medium height, or even the highest height you can pick, whatever feels nice, supported, and grounding. And your arms can be open, If it feels nice, you can rest your hands onto your hips or onto your belly. You can even bring your elbows out to the sides or arms out to its heat. And just weight the hips onto the block.

Let yourself relax here. And take a few more rounds of breath. Is settling in with every exhale, getting heavier down towards the ground. Perhaps it's become a little bit clearer now What is just one little step you can take towards something that you're calling in? And you keep taking those steps little by little.

And your goal, your dream gets a little bit closer, but it's so important to actually take that action. Even today, what's one little thing that you can do? Like keeping your hips onto the block, And if you have it on a higher height, go ahead and take it down to the lowest flattest height. We'll come into a supported shoulder stand by extending the legs up towards the sky. As you extend your legs up, your legs are generally straight.

They don't have to be perfectly extended straight. The heels are high. Stacking somewhere over the knees, over the hips, just getting into this nice supported inversion, and this pose is so good for circulation in the legs, great to do to get you into a relaxed state. You can think of any stagnancy in your body. It's draining down through the legs, draining down through the back.

Being absorbed by the earth once again. If you wanna take any isolated movements in the ankles, you can in point through the feed or circle the feed around a little bit. If you're circling in one way, you can circle around in the other way. Not your feet relax. Stay here. Just for another breath or 2.

Let me go ahead and bend your knees, plant your feet back down to the floor, and you'll bring your arms back down alongside your body if they're not already there. You can press into the arms, into the feet, and lift the hips up off the block, and move the block off to the side, out of the way and gently roll down the spine, lowering your hips all the way back down to the floor. And take your arms out to the sides out to a tee. And we'll take a twist towards the left with the knees. Bump your hips a little bit over towards the right edge of your mat.

Let the knees fall over towards the left. Your gaze can stay up neutral towards the sky, or you can look over your right shoulder. Let your body feel heavy in the twist. Let your legs feel heavy. You can even let your eyes relax close here.

And bring your head, your knees back up through center. You'll bump your hip a little bit more over towards the left edge of your mat, set them down, and then let your knees fall over toward the right side. Maybe you adjust your gaze over your left shoulder. And bring your head, your knees back up through center as you plant your feet down, shift your hips back through center. Let's start to set up for your final rest for your shavasana, relaxing your arms down, relaxing your legs down, finding your most comfortable grounded shape and doing any little less adjustments that you need to make yourself into the deepest state of ease for your rest.

Feel free to let your eyes rest closed. And before our deep breaths, we'll take one more full breath together, big inhale through the nose, fill up through the body, through the mouth, say it out, let it go. And allow yourself to experience that release. Letting go of all effort in the physical body, letting your mind relax a bit more fully, allowing yourself this time to take in all the benefits of your strong focused practice. If you're able to stay in Chivas no longer, I welcome you to do that.

If you're about ready to close-up your practice today, start by deepening your breath. And as you bring awareness back into your breath, bring it back into your body, back into your space. And take it inhale as you stretch your arms all the way back behind you, opening up from end to end. You can gently bend your knees up, plant your feet down, roll over to either side into a fetal position just for a few moments, allowing yourself to feel grounded, supported by the earth. And then see if you can still keep your eyes, relax clothes, as you use your hands, your arms, sit gently, press yourself up to your meditation seat.

And grounding through your sitting bones, bring your hands to the tops of the legs, sitting up tall, giving yourself these last few moments of stillness of silence. You can bring your palms to touch in front of the heart, Anjali Mudra. And we'll close our practice today with a full breath in through the nose. Side out through the mouth, let it go. I wish you peace and focus and then an intention to take one step towards your dreams today.

Thank you for sharing your practice.