Embody Your Dreams

Hi, and welcome. I'm Lara, and today's class will be focusing on living in alignment with Whatever it is that you're calling in, whatever it is you're dreaming about, how can you start to embody that and really feel it into your current life? So today, let's go ahead and get started on our backs, and we'll start in a shabasana shape. You can just lay down into your most comfortable shape, extend your body out. Let your arms rest, let your legs rest. You can feel free to let your eyes relax close as we take a moment to settle in and feel anchored down through the back body.

Feel open and free through the front body. It'll take a full round of deep cleansing breath. Take a big full breath in through the nose, feel the lungs, the belly, the chest, the ribs expand, sigh it out through the mouth, let it go. Like, of the day, and just know that this practice is time for you. From here, you can start to bend your knees up and plant your feet down onto the floor.

And if you had your eyes closed, can take a moment to open them back up. We'll start to work into our core today. So extend your right leg up towards the sky. And as you extend your right leg up, flex your right foot, feel the toes pulling back towards your shin, and then take your opposite left leg, extend it all the way forward. Out in front of you, and flex you the left foot as well.

Reach your arms all the way back behind you, take an inhale as you reach back through the fingertips, and as you exhale, we'll crunch up, reach your arms forward. Crunch your head, next shoulder blades up off the mat. Let your arms hover. At this point, you can choose to keep your left heel grounded, or you can hover the left heel off the mat. Breathe here at lower belly hugging and core is activated. Take an inhale.

And then as you exhale, bring your left leg up to meet the right. And we'll do this movement just the left leg moves, inhale draw the heel forward. Let it hover. Ex, help bring it all the way back up to meet the right. 3 more inhale drawing the heel forward.

Let it hover. X, help bring it all the way up. Two more inhale forward, nice and controlled, nice and smooth, exhale draw the leg up. And just one more, drawing the leg forward, let the heel hover, bring it back up, then hug your knees into the chest. Relax your head.

Next shoulders down. Take a moment. Take a beat. Take a couple of rounds of breath. And then we'll reset for the other side. So start to bring your feet back down to the floor, and then start to extend your left leg up towards the sky, flexing through the foot, toes pulling back will take your right leg, extend it all the way forward.

Your right foot is flexed as well. Inhale, reaching the arms all the way back behind you, reaching the fingertips back. And as you exhale, we'll find that crunch, reach the arms forward, let the arms hover as you take the head, neck, shoulder blades up off the mat, you can stay here, or you can hover the right heel off the mat. Take a couple of breaths. And take one more inhale, and just moving the right leg as you exhale. Bring it back up to meet the left.

At inhale. Right leg draws forward. Let it hover. Exhale. Drop all the way back up to meet the left. 3 more inhale. Draw the heel forward. Lower belly hugging in, exhale bringing it up 2 more inhale extend forward, exhale draw it up, and one more inhale drawing the heel forward, exhale bring it all the way back up.

Let's release down, relax ahead, neck, shoulders, hug the knees into the chest. You can rock side to side or circle your knees around a little bit. Let that go. Start to take your hands into the space behind your knees, and we'll rock forward and back a few times, likewise along the spine rocking forward and back, forward and back. You use this momentum to come up to your tabletop.

You can roll over your shins, or you can sweep your legs around as you come into your tabletop position, and set up your wrists underneath the shoulders with the fingers spreading wide, knees and feet hip width apart. Take a couple rounds of cat cow to stretch out through the core, inhale lowering the belly open through the heart space. Excel rounding up your spine pressing into your palms. Just do a few more rounds on your own at the pace of your breath. And start to make your way back through a neutral spine.

And from your tabletop, hug in through the core, feel the strength of the arms, and start to extend your right leg back. Into a balance, flex your right foot, all your right toes are pointing down, keep your right hip at the same level as your hip, on the left side, and keep your core hugging in. So feel that long line from the back heel all the way through the spine through the crown of a head. Keep your right leg we'll walk both of your hands just a couple inches forward of the shoulders. Tuck your left toes under.

Lift your left knee up as you extend your hips extend your right leg all the way up and back to a three legged downward dog. Feel this extension as you press into the palms, feel the reaching back through the hips, back through the right heel, And then shift forward, hug your right knee into the chest, knee to nose, pause, hovering here, pressing the earth away to the palms. Maybe you can tap your knee to the nose. And then look between your palms, lightly step your right foot all the way through between your palms. Little bend in your back left knee as you rise up to a high crescent sweep your arms all the way up alongside your ears.

And finding your high crescent, take one more inhale. And then as you exhale, hover your chest forward above your front thigh, sweep your arms back, and steady breaths here, widen through the chest reach back through the fingertips, feel your leg strong. And we'll sweep our arms, creating this movement with the breath, inhale sweep your arms all the way forward alongside the ears, back body, shoulders are activated. Excel sleep the arms all the way back. We'll come back up to a high crescent in sweep your arms all the way up along side your ears, and then take your hands back down to frame your front right foot, we'll step it back to a plank position.

And make your way through a Vinyasa. You can go straight into downward dog if you'd like. Take any variations of a Vinyasa. Breathe in downward facing dog. And gently lower your knees back down to your mat coming back to the tabletop, take that moment to reset, find your alignment of wrists underneath the shoulders, knees and feet, hip distance apart, knees are about right under underneath your hips.

As you strengthen into the arms, hug in through the core, take your left leg, extend it back, flex through the left foot, all the toes are pointing down, Left tip is balanced with the right, and find your steadiness here, feel the extension back through the heel and forward through the crown of the head. And keeping your left leg lifted start to walk both of your hands just a couple inches forward of the shoulders. And then tuck your right toes under. Lift your right knee up as the hips, press back. Left leg extends all the way up and back to this three legged downward dog, pressing into the palms, stand back through the left heel. Feel that link through the sides of the waist, through the spine, through the left leg, all the way through the heel. Take one more inhale.

Then hug your left knee into the chest round up through the spine. Pause here. Keep breathing. Hover here. Maybe you can tap the knee to the nose. And then look, between your palms, lightly step your foot all the way through between your palms. I'm setting up for crescent on the other side, inhale reach your arms all the way up alongside your ears. Feel that lift.

Then as you exhale, hover your chest forward over the front left thigh, sweep your arms all the way back alongside the body. So feel the wide open space across the chest. Feel the arms open. Arms stretching back. And we'll find that sweep of movement.

Movement and breath connected together inhale sweep your arms all the way forward alongside the ears. Excel, sweep the arms all the way back nice and steady. And then coming back to high crescent, lift your chest upright bring your arms up alongside your ears, find your balance at the top, and take one more inhale, and then exhale, bring your arms down to hands down to frame your front foot, step it back to your plank position, and moving through your vinyasa, or straight back into your downward facing dog. From here, inhale extend your right leg all the way up and back. Ug your knee into the chest using that core strength to step your foot through between your palms.

And setting up your feet about hip distance apart will rise up to the fingertips and feel your chest start to lift and lengthen forward. You'll float your chest above the front right thigh just as we did earlier and sweep the arms back alongside the body. So finding that diagonal line from the back heel through the leg, through the spine, through the crown of the head. Keep hugging your outer right hip in, keep the front leg strong, the back leg strong. And we'll find that sweep once again with the arms, and he'll sweep your arms all the way forward.

And this round will hold for a bit as you reach your arms forward, feel the shoulders, the back body activate. Feel the extension back through the left heel and reach forward through the right fingertips. Find that long line of energy, take 1 more inhale, and then exhale super arms all the way back alongside the body. Rise up to crescent on an inhale, sweep your arms up, you can take a little bend, your back left knee. And then as you exhale, bring your hands down around your right foot, plant your palms, Step it back, and take your Vinyasa, or make your way to downward dog.

Take a few breaths in your downward facing dog. Take your left leg, float it up and back, reach back through the left heel. Hugging into the chest and step your foot all the way through between your palms. Again, setting up your feet about hip distance apart, not too tight like a tight rope. Coming to your fingertips, feel that chest lift, lengthening forward through the crown of the head, and we'll start to make our way into that hover, lifting the chest a little bit above the front thigh sweep your arms all the way back alongside the body. And breathing here, as you feel the openness across the chest, the collar bones, fingertips are reaching back little tiny pinch between the shoulder blades. And with your inhale, start to draw both of your arms forward alongside the ears.

Feeling the strength, feeling like you're reaching forward, and finding that line of energy from back heel all the way through the leg, the spine, the arms, through the fingertips, find that nice, long reach. Take one more inhale here. As you exhale, float the arms all the way back. Inhale will bring you up to your high crescent, sweep your arms all the way up alongside your ears, pause, upright, feel your balance, and take one more inhale, and then as you exhale, bring your arms down around your left foot, plait, and your palms, step it back to your plank position. Once again, we'll move through a vinyasa or make your way straight back through to a downward facing dog.

And pausing in your down dog take a few rounds of breath. From down dog, take your right leg, float it up and back once again. Hug your knee into the chest, step it all the way through between your palms, set up the base of your feet for high crescent, sweep your arms all the way up alongside the ears. This round, we'll start to make our way into balance into VERA 3, so take one more inhale as you reach up through the fingertips. And then as you exhale, we'll lean the chest forward, sweep the arms back feel your weight shift into your right foot, left leg will float up, flex your left foot, all those toes pointing down, opening through the chest as the fingertips reach back.

And we'll find that flow with the arms one more time. As you inhale, arms reach forward alongside the ears. And as you exhale, float the arms all the way back. And pause here, finding your balance in VERA 3. Keep your arms reaching back.

We'll slowly let the chest fold towards the top of the right leg, and at the same time, your left leg is lifting up higher, higher. Higher, or making our way to standing splits with the arms reaching back, slowly folding in, catch your balance. And then at the last moment, your finger can ground down to the floor, maybe to blocks, relax the back of the head and neck down. And find your balance in any way that you'd like, you can keep your fingertips grounded. Maybe you bring one or both hands to your right ankle or calf as you fold in. Feel both legs pressing towards street and strong.

And take one more inhale here. And then as you exhale, you'll step your feet together to the top of your space, rise up halfway, ex Hetland fold. Take your feet a little bit wider than the hips. Turn your toes towards the corners. Set your hips down low coming into a melasana for a few rounds of breath, pressing your palms together, tall spine, you get into the space of the hips.

Feel free to let your eyes relax closed for a moment. Bring your fingertips down. Press your legs straight to your forward fold. Walk your feet back to about hip distance. Rise up half way, exhale and fold plant your palm, suffer float it back through a vinyasa, or straight back to your downward facing dog.

And we'll start to flow making our way to that balance on the opposite side. Take your left leg, float it up and back reach back through the left heel. Hug your knee into the chest, step it all the way through between your palms, set up your feet for crescent, rising up, inhale, sweep your arms all the way up alongside your ears. Making our weight to balance into warrior 3 once again here, lean your chest forward, sweep your arms back, feel the weight shift to your left foot, right leg gets light, flex your right foot, all those toes pointing down. On your shoulders, your hips, lined up, reach back through the heel, reach forward, through the crown of the head, feel that openness through the chest.

We'll find that controlled movement of the arms with the breath, inhale reach your arms all the way forward alongside the ears. Excels leave your arms all the way back alongside the body, and keep reaching your arms back. We'll find that slow motion full, take your chest forward as the right leg lifts higher. Slowly, slowly coming down towards your standing splits. Keep reaching the fingertips back.

And when you're at your deepest fold, catch your fingertips to the floor. And your standing splits can fingertip have your fingertips grounded, or maybe you play with balance 1 or both hands here, left ankle or calf, even just for that moment. And ground your fingertips back down. And step your feet back to the top of your space, back to your forward fold, rise up halfway, exhale folding back in, I can widen the feet apart, turn your toes towards the corners, sit your hips down low, coming back to that melasana, coming back into that squat, hands to the heart, tall, spine, open through the chest. So as you press your palms together, feel the collar bones widening, sit down, grounding the hips towards the earth, and pressing down into the feet.

Take a full breath in through the mouth, let it go. Bring your fingertips down, come back to your forward full, turn your toes forward, walk your feet back to about hip distance, lift up halfway. Ex how in full plant your palm, step or float it back through a vinyasa. Into downward facing dog. And from here, inhale, and reach your right leg all the way up and back.

And hug your knee into the chest. Step it through between your palms. Spend your back left heel down. We're setting up base for warrior 2. I'm grounding through the feet circle your left arm up and all the way back behind you, opening up through the chest.

And grounding down through the feet, opening through the chest, feel the length through both sides of the waist, and then feel that energy extending across the chest, across the arms to the fingertips. Breathe into your warrior 2. Press your right leg straight as you inhale sweep your arms all the way up overhead. Start to turn your feet, heels, and toes out towards the corners. We're coming to Skandasana towards the back, then into your left knee towards the back.

Bring your hands to the heart. Or you can bring your fingertips down to the ground, or you can set your hips all the way down low and point your right toes up towards the sky. Maybe bring my hands to the heart here. And breathe into this space, find your tall spine wherever you are, lengthening through the spine, getting open into the hips, and into the back of the leg. Bring your fingertips back down.

If you have them lifted with an inhale, you'll press your leg straight, walking back through center, turn all the way forward into a lunge. Now, as you come into your lunge, bring your right hand on the inside of the right foot, heel toe your right foot out to the right It's a few inches. You can point your toes more towards the right corner of the mat, coming down onto your palms, lower your back left knee down to the floor, and you can point your left toes back. We're setting up for a lizard here. So you're welcome to stay right here. Palms pressing into the ground, arms straight.

If you can come down a bit deeper, maybe you walk your hands forward, come down onto your forearms. You can always use blocks underneath the forearms as well. And breathe here. And find your deep breaths as you get into this hip opening stretch. Not always the most comfortable, but being present with anything that comes up, any sensations, any emotions, any thoughts, let yourself be present with it.

I'm gonna allow yourself to shift through your focus as we're in this hold Can you again think about how can you align your life to be in that feeling and that embodiment of what you are calling what you really desire. How can you act as if it's already happening? Can you feel it into your body? Act in the ways that you would as if you already have what it is that you want, cultivating that feeling, cultivating those emotions that come along with it. Breathe into that space, envision, imagine, really feel it here.

We'll be here just for a couple more breaths. And start to press into your palms. If you're not already there, bring your chest back up right, tuck your back left toes. Lift your back left knee up. And squeeze your right knee in towards your upper right arm. And we'll find a little float here as you squeeze your right heel in towards your bottom and then take a long, slow step back into plank.

And from plank, you can lower your knees down to the mat. We'll set up for a forearm plank bringing your elbows underneath the shoulders, getting your forearms parallel. And then tucking your toes, we're going to lift up into a dolphin pose Tap your toes. Lift the hips all the way up and back. You can start to walk your feet in towards your elbows as much as you can feeling the hips pressing up high. And steady breaths here. Feel the hips lifting up high.

Feel grounded into the forearms. Really strengthening into the shoulders, opening through the chest. And then maybe you play with floating one leg up towards the sky, If it's part of your practice, you can take a little flow little hops up towards a balance. And if you're doing that, we'll switch sides, lifting the opposite leg up, maybe playing with those little hops, nice and controlled. Setting your feet back down, lower your knees down, shift your hips back towards your heels, We'll make our way back towards a child's pose, shifting the hips all the way back.

Rest your forehead down. You can reach your arms back alongside the body. Give your shoulders a little break. Feel your breath, feel your heartbeat here. They might be elevated after practicing that dolphin, that inversion.

Really strengthening, activating the body, take another full breath in, side out, do the mouth, let it all go. Start to reach your arms forward. If they're not already there, we'll rise back up to our hands and knees, back to our tabletop. And tuck your toes, lift the hips all the way up and back downward facing dog as we set up for our next side. From down dog, take your left leg, fluid it all the way up and back.

Need a chest up it through between your palms, and spin your back right heel down, setting up that base for warrior 2 So it'll go right arm up and all the way back behind you, opening up through the chest. Breathe here and warrior 2 as you crown through the feet, opening through the chest. Reaching away fingertips to fingertips, and feeling the length through both sides of the waist. And start to press your left leg straight and help sweep your arms all the way up in overhead, reset the feet again here, heels and toes out, as we come into Skandasana, towards the back once again, bending into your right knee. You can have your hands to your heart here.

You can always have your fingertips down for a bit more support, or maybe if you have more openness in your hips. You can sit your hips low. Left toes will point up. Bring your hands to the heart here and breathe. Getting into the space opening up into the hips, into the groin area, and start to bring your fingertips back down towards the ground if you have them lifted. With your inhale, we'll walk ourselves back through center, exhale turn all the way forward.

Back into a lunge racing towards the front. And as you find your lunge here, take your left hand on the inside of the left foot, you can heel toe your left foot out towards the left just a bit angle your left toes towards the left. Plant your palms down. Lower your back right knee down to the floor and point your right toes back. Coming to lizard other side.

You can stay here with your arms straight. You can come down onto your form once once again. You can use blocks as needed if you're somewhere in between and breathe into this shape. Getting deep into the hips and try to notice those places in your body that tend to whole tension, see if you can soften them a bit more, relaxing the muscles of the face, the eyes, relaxing the jaw, feeling the shoulders rest away from the ears, finding a little bit of softness in the belly, breathe be present. And again, in this pause as we hold here.

Can you draw your thoughts to finding that feeling of living as if, acting as if, What you'd like, what you're working for is already present. What are the things that you would do? How would you feel? How would you act? Start to call that in. And let it be a little bit more part of your daily life. As you make little decisions and little choices about how you'd like to feel and act.

Think about your future self. What would they do? Last couple of breaths here. And if you're not already there, go ahead and press into your palms. Press your arm straight to lift the chest up.

Tuck your back right toes under. Lift your back right knee up. And we'll find that little squeeze hugging the left knee in towards the left shoulder. Let your left heel hover up towards your hip. Find a pause, and then big slow step back to your plank position.

From plank gently lower your knees down so you get set up for Getting into dolphin coming down onto your forms, elbows underneath the shoulders. You can keep your forms parallel. You can always lace up your fingers as a different option to give yourself a little bit more ease into the shoulders. Press into the forms, draw the heart forward, feel the shoulders activate, tuck your toes, lift the hips all the way up and back. Walk your feet in as close as you can towards your elbows.

So hips come up really high, pressing around into the forearms, and breathe here. At any time, you can come down to your child's pose whenever you feel complete. If you wanna play with balance again, maybe float your right leg up. Maybe practicing your little hops, or maybe you have your form balance. You can come into it.

I'm switching sides. If you're playing with that balance, your other leg can come up. You can practice your little hops. Bring your feet back down if you were playing with any of that and come back to your child's pose. Go ahead and Lower your knees down, shift your hips back towards your heels.

Let yourself reset coming back down towards the floor, forehead down. You can reach your arms back again. Let the shoulders rest. Take a full breath in, slide out through the mouth, let it all go. Start to make our way up to seated. So as you come up to seated, you'll set your hips off to one side take the legs all the way forward out in front of you, sit towards the middle of your mat.

You can use your hands, and use them, your arms, your forearms, your elbows to support you as you come all the way down onto your back. Hug your knees in towards your chest. Just give yourself a little hug, a little squeeze here, and rock side to side or roll out through the knees a little bit. And we'll start to set up for suptabatoconasana so you can bring the feet back down and start to draw the bottoms of the feet together opening the knees out to the sides, getting into this hip opening shape. And if your hips, your gourin is on the tighter side, you can always have blocks underneath the knees or underneath the thighs for a bit more support.

And as you let your hips open up here, you can rest your hands onto the hips or onto the belly, you can open your arms out to the sides, Just allow yourself to get into this more restorative hip opener and breathe into this space, opening up through the front of the body. Let your breath smooth out and be steady. And, again, in this pause, can you bring yourself back that idea of living in alignment. Living in alignment with the person you'd like to be doing the things that you'd like to do, what does that feel like? What does that look like? Acting as if it's already happening, acting as if it's really true for you. And that will help bring it closer to your reality.

Take a couple more breaths here. Take a full breath in Side it up through the mouth. Let it go release. You can use your hands if needed to help bend your knees up, plunging your feet back down onto floor. And go ahead and open your arms out to the sides, out to the tee, or you can bend your elbows to the sides.

And pick up your hips, pump them a little bit over towards the right edge of your mat. Set them down. Let your knees twist over towards the left. Your legs be heavy into your twist. You can look over your right shoulder. And gently bring your head, bring your knees back up through center.

Bump your hips a bit over towards the left edge of your mat, set them down Let your knees follow her towards the right, and you can look over your left shoulder. Let your legs be heavy, relax your legs all the way into the toes, into the feet, breathe into your twist. Bring your head, your knees, back through center. Bring your hips back through center as well. And take your time as you set up for your final rest for your shavasana, relaxing your arms out, relaxing your legs out, finding your own most comfortable shape.

And feel free to let your eyes relax close as you start to settle in. Closing our practice here with this deep rest. We'll take a full breath in through the nose. Through the mouth, say it out, let it go. Releasing all effort and the physical body and the mind.

It's allowing yourself to rest, taking in all the benefits of this strong practice. You can stay in Shivas no longer if you'd like. If you're about ready to close-up your practice, start by taking a fuller breath in and a fuller breath out. Allowing the breath to reawaken the body, bringing conscious awareness back to the physical body back into your space. Take a nice long stretchy.

The entire body from end to end, opening up. You'll start to bend your knees up, plant your feet down, roll over to either side, into the fetal position. And just passing through, use your hands, your arms to press yourself up to your meditation seat. And as you ground down, rest your hands to the tops of the thighs, sit up tall, opening up through the heart, and bring your palms to touch in front of the heart space. Allow yourself to enjoy Zia's last few moments of stillness of silence.

Let me wish for you after your practice today to really start that embodiment of living in alignment with person you'd like to be in the choices that you make and the way that you speak, the way that you act, be the person that you'd like to be. We'll close our practice with one more full breath in through the nose, through the mouth, let it go. Thank you for sharing your