Take Up Space

Hello, and welcome. My name is Chantani, and we're here for your 20 minute yoga flow. For today's class, All you'll need is a mat or something to lay on. And if you have blocks at home, they would be really, really helpful, but they're not required. In today's practice, I want you to feel really, really in tune with your breath, feeling really powerful and strong through every single pose, and enjoying the ride as we go through this practice.

Let's begin. We'll start standing. So you'll bring your feet up just underneath your hips. Arms can either go long or I like to place one hand on my heart and the other hand on the lower belly. You can shut down your eyes.

We'll take 3 rounds of breath, inhale, big sigh out the mouth, feeling into the strength and the feet, 2 more, breathing into the sides of the rib cage, exhale, one more deep breath in, maybe pause at the top, just feeling that suspension, feeling that tension, and then consciously release it. If you have any specific intentions, I invite you to bring your hands to prayer. And just take a moment to set them now. This inviting in all the best energy for our practice today. When you feel complete, you can flutter your eyes open, and we'll begin.

Standing at the top of your mat. Your feet can either be hip width or big toes to touch. Just inhale, reach your arms up. Straight away, bend your knees and melt over the thighs. Exhale.

Inhale. Think halfway lift. Your fingertips can go to the ground. Or to the shins or even tops of the thighs, exhale, fold, bend your knees. Roll yourself up one bone at a time. Head is the last to lift.

We begin again, inhale arms rise, exhale fold, bending through the knees, just keeping it real easy. Inhale halfway lift, shifting the weight forward, exhale release, bend the knees, roll yourself up. Head is the last to lift. One more deep breath in. Exhale.

Fold it over. Bending through the knees on the way down. Inhale halfway lift. Exhale plant your palms, bend your knees. Step it back to your version of plank.

And then lower your knees down. Walk your hands underneath your shoulders. We'll go into cat cow. Untuck your toes. Inhale. Roll the shoulders back.

Big breath in. Exhale. Press into the palms. Dom the upper back. Feeling that stretch. Feel so good.

Inhale. Opening up. Creating space, exhale, rounding through the spine. So just take a couple more of these on your own breath really feeling into the strength in the center of your core, especially when we go through this round spine. One more like that. And then coming into neutral.

From here, bring your right arm up towards the sky, opening up through the collar bones, And I want you to thread the needle, but we're not gonna go to the mat just yet. Carving out space through the center. Reach your finger to all the way across. We're not going to the ground just yet. Inhale reach up.

So feel your obliques here feel your power center, feel your activation, inhale back through center all the way up, Exhale. This time, cheek to the mat, seat to the sky, a heart spins around. You have the option to extend your left arm. I like to tend to my fingers. So imagining like you have an orange or a lemon underneath your left palm, take two rounds of breath inhale into the back of the shoulder blade, exhale clearing out the back of the heart. And one more like that, little deeper now, and release that.

Your left palm can go flat right in line with the shoulder. Press into your palm. Big breath in arm rises and exhale release. We'll take it to the other side. Left arm goes up, feeling space across the center of the heart, exhale carving out through the midsection all the way around.

Inhale. Open up. So this is actually quite a bit of work. So really feel your abs pull up as you press into your right palm, inhale, reach up one more, and then exhale cheek to the mat seat to the ceiling, heart spins around. You can extend your left arm out 10 those 10 to those fingers and just breathing here. Notice if the breath is getting tight, that's totally normal.

There might feel like there's limited space sometimes through front body in this position, but in the back, there's like limitless possibility, right? So breathe into the back of the heart, one more. And exhale. Release that. Bringing your right palm in line with the shoulder. Inhale. Lift your left arm up towards the sky.

And exhale coming back to all fours. Walk your hands to the top of your mat so you're in a, like, half plank with the knees down and lower all the way down to the earth. Going into a fun chest opener, you're gonna have to really listen to my cues here, but it's so worth it. Bring your right cheek down to the earth. My hands are underneath my shoulders for now.

Right cheek down. My right hand, the palm slides off the mat reaching out to like a half t position. So just the right arm goes straight. The room here, the left heel pulls in towards the glute. I really feel that contraction. Then press slightly just to lift your left thigh off, and you're gonna start to open up, open up, and I like to spider crawl my fingers out. And then if the foot can reach the ground, great.

If you have to go tiptoes or even just kinda hold in space, we won't be here too long. But you wanna feel the stretch across the chest. Take one more deep breath in, And deep breath out. Carefully bring yourself back through center. Release the leg down.

Turn your cheek to the other side. Switch your arms, right hand goes down, left arm goes out, and you want to reach out as far as you can. Draw your right heel in towards your seat and squeeze your glute and carefully. You can press into that right palm and spider crawl those fingers all the way out to create space for your chest. Breathe here.

Now if this one isn't too comfortable, it does require a lot of like chest opening and mobility there. We won't be here too long, but it is very good for you. Take a deep breath in, accepting what is exhale. Beautiful. Carefully come out of that one, and you can practice that as many times as you want after class. Coming on down. You can bring your hands underneath your shoulders, press into all fours, tuck your toes and your hips high downward facing dog.

Take a moment, pedal off the feet here just because it feels good. You can wag your tails. Sometimes I like to take figure eights. There are no rules. Okay. As long as you're breathing, it's still yoga.

Take a deep breath in and exhale and finding stillness. One more deep breath in here. Exhale release. You can start to tiptoe your feet all the way towards the hams. Bend your knees.

Soft bending the knees, rolling yourself up. Take your time. Head is the last to lift. Okay. So we're back to standing. We're gonna play quite a bit today. I have blocks with me.

And for our flow, we're gonna be facing both directions. So I I'm gonna have one block on either side just in case that I need it. If you don't have blocks, no worries, but this would be a really great way to set yourself up for success. For the rest of class. So let's start with our feet wide.

Toes are gonna be facing out heels in You're a star. Let's go to star posts. Take a deep breath in. And then as you exhale, bring your hands to prayer, we're going into goddess pose. Right? So feeling that seat drop down, inhale, opening up the chest, take up lots of space today. You deserve it. Exhale feeling all that power through the center.

Inhale. Open it up. Exhale. Pull it right down the middle. And take this on your own. This two part flow. Feeling the heat start to build as you expand and really reaching out through the fingertips here, right? So we don't wanna be here.

We wanna really reach out. Excel pull center. Let's get one more like this. Excel. Listen for the change.

We inhale star pose. Now, you're gonna turn your right toes to the top, the short side of the And then you're gonna spin your left heel back, and then we land in warrior 2. It's like a magic trick. So just take a moment there. Set yourself up as just as needed, soften your shoulders. Your left toes are facing the front left corner of your mat there, feeling that connection to the abs pulling up, landing into the strength of this post.

Inhale, straighten your legs, lift the arms up, exhale warrior 2. Inhale, lift off. Exhill warrior 2. 1 more inhale lift off. Exhill landing into warrior 2.

From here, you inhale, reach your right fingertips towards the short side of the mat, then we have options. Right forearm can start on the thigh let's take left bicep to ear, a version of side angle. So here's option 1. Option 2, you can start to extend the arm down just for a moment. If you need that block, you can always grab it if you have one at home.

And remember, there are multiple levels and layers to the block. Right? Just take one more deep breath in. And deep breath out coming into reverse warrior. So you're gonna come back through warrior to deep breath in reverse. Think more side bend than back bend.

Exhale back to warrior 2. Inhale straighten your legs. Exhale, we're gonna switch it to the other side. So if you were using a block, you are gonna have to move it out of the way, but if not, We'll begin again. Start pose, inhale, heels in, toes, out big breath.

Exhale. Down through goddess. Inhale. Reach it up. Exhale. Pull it all in. Take this 2 part flow again.

Your legs are gonna thank you later. One more. Exhale. Inhale from star pose. Now, you're gonna take your left toes. Face them to the short side of your mat.

Your right heel spins back and you land into warrior too. Good. Take a moment to really land into this pose, adjust as needed, soften the shoulders, feeling that power center really pull up towards the rib cage. Inhale straighten your legs, arms rise. XL warrior 2.

Take this on your own. Exhale. So allowing the breath to be the initiator of every movement. Let's take one more like this. Exhale.

Good. Then from here, you land in warrior 2. Reach their fingertips towards the short side of the mat, and then you take side angle. I like to go forearm to thigh, top arm bicep to ear to start, And then if you have a little bit more, you can extend the arm and the inside of the leg. If you need that block, it's there for you. And if you're here on the thigh, that's good too.

Feel the strength in that back leg, right? So my leg is like an arrow or reaching out through the crow crowd of my head and through the fingertips. Take a deep breath in. Exhale back to warrior 2. Inhale to reverse and exhale warrior 2. Straighten your legs.

Heels in toes out. We'll add on big breath. Exhale. Goddess inhale star. Exhale goddess, inhale star pose, right toes face the short side of your mat. Find your warrior too. Land.

Inhale there, exhale settle, straight legs, arms lift off. Exhale warrior 2. Inhale reach forward. Exhale right forearm comes to the thigh. Or left bicep to ear.

Maybe you stay here. Maybe you extend the arm. If you have that block, I'm gonna invite you to bring it just on the inside of the foot on the highest setting. K? Now, start to shift your weight forward. You some people need to kinda tiptoe their back foot in, and that's okay.

But I want you to really feel yourself reaching out, reach out shifting your weight forward into half moon. Whoop. Can't look at you too long. So really squeezing those glutes. And now reaching out, I like to flex my foot sometimes that helps me really get that activation. We won't be here too long for the 1st round.

Take a deep breath in. As you exhale carefully bender standing leg, landing in warrior 2. Straighten your legs and just bring your hands to heart center. How you live in. Sometimes that pose can be kinda tricky.

So be patient with yourself. We're gonna go on the second side. If you know that you're gonna use that block, go ahead and bring it out in front. Right? That way you know that it's there for you when you're ready. Here we go. 2nd side, inhale. Star pose. Heels in toes out Exhale goddess. Let's take a few of these. Inhale.

Pump the breath. Take up space. Exhale. Inhale. Opening up. Taking up space here on the mat, exhale pulling all of that good energy in 1 more inhale, exhale goddess, Then we inhale star pose transition to the 2nd side warrior to land. Take a moment inhale, commit to that lunge in the front exhale, straight legs, arms lift, Excel warrior 2.

Now reach your left fingertips forward. Maybe that you have that forearm on the thigh. Maybe you extend finding your version of side angle reaching out. If you have that block for support, go ahead and use it. We transition into half moon.

So shifting your weight forward forward forward, floating that top leg up. You can flex the foot. You can point the toes. You can keep your gaze down. Some people like to take the gaze up.

You do what's best for you. Start to notice all of the heat building in that standing leg. Hold your core. Deep breathe in. And exhale, carefully lowering down.

Just do your best there. Back to warrior 2. Inhale. Stand up. Listen for the change. Altos face me big breath. Exhale. Fold.

Wide legged forward bend. Just taking a moment to land into the forward bend 10 two fingers on the ground, think inhale halfway lift. When you shift to your weight forward, exhale. Release all of that tension. Start to heel toe your feet in towards the center of the mat and exhale Drop your seat down towards your heels, and let's take a seat. Nice job.

So you can take these beautiful blocks if you have them at home and just set them to the side. Thank them for their service. And we're gonna take a seat, bring your toes towards the the short side of your mat take a light grip behind your thighs and carefully lower all the way down. Ah, to your back. Hug your knees in towards your heart.

You can rock and roll side to side just taking a moment. And then from here, happy baby. Is one of my favorite poses. So you're gonna take your knees out wide, bring your feet, flexed, almost like you're doing like a goddess squat on the ceiling. Okay? You can take your forearms behind your knees.

You can grab your ankles. You can grab the bottoms of your feet. One other variation that I really love is actually to take my hands, send them through the center of my legs, and then coil my hands around and then draw the elbows wide. Take a deep breath in here, whatever you've got. Releasing attachment to what it looks like, exhale tapping into how good it feels.

One more deep breath in, When you feel complete releasing your grip here, bring your feet flat on the floor. Arms are gonna go out to a tee. And then you can just let your knees kind of rock side to side. Just resetting the lower back. And when you feel complete, you'll extend one leg long, and then the other for the best pose in yoga, Shivasana.

Enjoy. Hands can come to the top of your hips or long by the sides, Just taking a moment for you. Deepening the breath if you haven't already. Allowing the awakening of the breath to awaken the body I invite you to place your hand somewhere on your hips if you haven't already. And you're welcome to stay here. If you'd like to press on taking a moment to honor and celebrate this body for holding all of you all the time.

The good parts the hard parts, the messy parts, the magnificent parts, just honoring this vessel with one more deep breath. Exhale. Carefully rolling over to one side And then you'll press yourself up to seated. Your head is the last to lift. Hands come to prayer.

Thumb tips come to your heart. Taking a moment again to just honor and celebrate you, all of you. The parts that we see and the parts that only you see knowing that as you are, you are already more than enough. Thank you for teaching me today. Sending you peace in and peace out.

Thank you. My name is Sean Tani, and we'll see you back here next time.