More Hatha, Less Flow

Hello, everybody. My name is Jason, and thank you for joining us today. One of my favorite practices, and I love that you get to do this with me today. Today, we're gonna slow it down. We're gonna incorporate a bit more of HATA into our flow. Which just means we're still gonna move through a very traditional flow, but we're gonna take our time. Maybe even a minute, a little bit longer in each one of our poses. Why?

1, it helps us to really go inward. It helps us to find our breath. It helps us to find all those wonderful little nuances of each and every And I invite you that at any point you want to slow it down a little bit more, you wanna take your time in that pose or maybe move through on to the next thing, please do. This is your practice, and I'm really happy that you're here to do this with us today. So we're gonna start today in the seated pose. I have a block or maybe a bolster that you might want underneath you just to bring the ground up a bit.

I also do have a blanket because you might want something to put underneath your knees to pad your knees. Blocks, 2 blocks will be very helpful today because we will be utilizing them through our practice. So take a moment. In easy pose, crossed right at the shins, feel the sit bones pressing into the block or into the ground, maybe even Just pulling the flesh aside so you can really feel the sit bones pressing into the ground. Close your eyes for a moment.

And with each inhale, feel a lift, space in the spine, crown of the head reach just a bit more towards the sky and an exhale, keeping all of that length and not allowing the body to sync. Take a deep breath in, open up your mouth, and exhale it out. Let's do that again. Take a deep breath in. And this time, see if you can slow the exhale.

If you have your eyes closed, open up your eyes. And on this next breath, inhale reach the hands up nice and tall. And as we exhale, hands come down to the ground and rotate to the right side. Right hand may come down to the ground back behind you. Roll the right shoulder back. And your chin stays up.

If your eyes reach down to the ground, than your posture rounds. So keep the chin up nice and tall. Take another breath and find all of that length through your spine. And exhale it out. One more spread across the collar bones.

So feel the left ribs and the left shoulder open up just a bit as the right shoulder rolls back. The right ribs reach to the back of the room. And exhale back to Ford. Inhale. Reach the hands up. All that length and let's rotate to the left side.

Left hand coming down back behind you. And with that inhale, you lift. Chin stays up nice and tall. Roll that left shoulder and the left ribs back and use your right hand as a bit of a lever, not really not really hard, not really tough, but just enough to allow the right ribs to come forward and the left ribs to roll back. Take another breath here.

And exhale it out slowly. Coming back to center. That was good. Let's do that again. Inhale. Reach it up. Exhale rotate to the right.

We're gonna add in a little bit here. Take a deep breath in. And exhale come back to center, inhale reach the hands up. This time the right hand comes out directly off to the side of your hip, and exhale. Soft bending that right elbow, reaching the left hand across.

Take a deep breath in, lift those left ribs and eyes go up to the sky as you exhale. If you sit for long periods from the day, this is so good to stretch out those lower back muscles really open up through the ribs. Take one more big breath. Excel, see if you can sink a little deeper into that right elbow. And come on back up the center.

Give a big roll of the shoulders and inhale reach the hands up. And exhale rotate to the left. Hopefully, your breathing today is like you're breathing so everybody can hear And if it just happens to be you and your dog at home, have your dog wonder what you're doing by those deep, deep inhales and exhales. If it'll come back to center, and I'll reach the hands up. And exhale bring the left hand down to the ground and reach it across.

There's a soft bend in that left elbow. We take the breath in lifting the right ribs to the sky and exhale reaching across. One more breath. Exhale it out as we come back to center. A block can come in very handy as we lift the ground up for us to be able to keep nice length through our spine, depending on your level of flexibility.

You may not need the block, but as we take that deep breath and we lift, lift, lift, try to keep all of this length of your spine as we start to hinge forward into a forward fold. If you happen to be on a block, You might feel your tailbone lifting up off that block. So reach the sit bones, reach the tailbone down as you reach through the crown of your head. And sometimes pausing in these deep stretches We tense our muscles. We fight against allowing ourselves to relax and ease into this stretch.

So take a nice deep breath in and exhale it out. Walk the hands back in towards the legs, take that block, and place it back towards the front of your mat. We're gonna take the block out from beneath our butt if you have that or your pad or your pillow or your bolster. We're gonna bring the feet nice and wide. This is to help to bring just a little bit of flexibility and fluidity to the hips.

Lifting up nice and tall. Hands can come back behind you, or you can keep your hands at your heart as you drop the knees down to one side. If you feel like it tips your body, keep the hands against the ground so you can keep all of that length through your spine, inhale up, and exhale over. Inhale up and exhale over. Another great option is extending those feet out and think of your feet as windshield wipers.

And they just turn and turn and turn. And it takes that ball socket of your hip joint and just lubricates it. And that's gonna be so helpful as we move into our practice today. Before let's find our way onto our knees. Now this is where having a blanket or having some sort of a pad or doubling up your mat will come in really handy. After every time I practice and I put my knees on a blanket, my knee say thank you.

So let's find our way into our tabletop, spread the fingers nice and wide, and feel your hands pressing into the ground. We wanna avoid locking into our joints, but we wanna use all of that muscle regular strength. So let's roll the triceps in towards the rib cage. Keep that soft little bed and feel yourself nice and sturdy. Shoulders directly over the wrist, hips directly over the knees. Take a deep breath and allow the belly to drop. And the heart to rise, gaze comes up just slightly.

And exhale eyes go between the knees, spine to the sky. Inhale. Cow? And exhale. For cat. Inhale one more time.

And exhale. And as you're in cat, really spread those shoulder blades as much as you can. Come back to a neutral spine. Working on a little bit of shoulder mobility, we're gonna take the right hand and reach the right hand out palm down. Still not locking into that left joint.

So keep a little soft bend. Use all that muscular strength to hold you nice and sturdy. Take a deep breath and reach the right fingertips. And as we exhale, we're gonna allow the thumb to turn to the ground. Palm goes up to the sky. And reach that right hand back towards your tailbone. Inhale, bring it forward.

Palm down. And exhale rotate thumb down palm up. Beautiful one more time. Bring it up with a big breath in. Reach the fingertips and exhale take it back.

Beautiful. Bring that hand down to the ground. Find that stability through that right arm, soft bend, but that tricep rolling in and big breath in, inhale, palm down, left hand, and exhale thumb turns down and rotate. Bringing it back to the tailbone, inhale bring it forward, reach, and exhale take it back. Inhale. Bring it up and exhale. Bring it back. And come back to center.

If you feel any tightness in your wrist, use this time to just turn the fingers, maybe turning them out. I work with sea lions, and they call this. I think this is the seal pose. So just a little rock from side to side, maybe turning the fingertips back towards the knees and gently working the palms down to the ground. That's just gonna give you a lot of flexibility and looseness in the forearms.

And when you're ready, come back to neutral. Soft bending the elbows, strength through the muscles. And this time, on the inhale, take that right foot back. Notice my toes against the ground. Make sure the hips stay as level as you can.

Bring that right heel up to hip height. And as we exhale, we're gonna bring that right knee as high up on the tricep as possible, just like when we're in cat cow, exhale round the spine, press away from the ground. Inhale. Take it back. Think length and excel.

Press away from the ground. One more time. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. Take it back and hold that right foot just about hip height. Be very, very strong and balanced on that right side.

As we walk the left hand forward on our mat. Maybe you stay on your fingertips. If you're feeling nice and strong, because we're gonna pull the front hip bones up, engage the muscles through our mid section, really ground down through the left knee and through that right hand, and see if you can lift that left hand and reach through the fingertips and reach through the heel of the right foot. Deep slow breath in, maybe through the nose. Exhale through the mouth.

Still feel that engagement through the midsection. Maybe a little squeeze of the glutes in towards the center line. And when you're ready, bring both hands to the ground, both knees to the ground. Roll out of the risks if you need it. Feel free to flush back at any point.

Little child's pose before we go back. Into our tabletop. Let's reach the left foot back toes on the ground. We have to find that stability through our left side. So soft bend in the left elbow, squeeze the muscles on that left side.

And when you're ready, lift the left foot up, take a pipe. Think of yourself as a flat table and try to keep that hip from reaching up to the sky. Imagine if you have a cup balanced on your tailbone. And if you reach that hip too high, it's gonna spill. So keep the hips leveled to the ground.

Feel that engagement to the belly button. The little lift of the belly button up towards the rib cage will help you to stabilize through that through the mid section. Reach back through the left heel. Now start to walk the right hand to the top of your mat and come up just on the fingertips. This may be just enough.

If you'd like to take it to the next level, feeling nice and strong and balanced, inhale bring that right hand up reaching through the fingertips. Try not to hold your breath. Take those long. Deep inhills. Longer exhale.

When you're ready, bring the right hand back down. And bring the knee down. Beautiful. Give a little roll of the ankles. A little shake up the wrists. This is where I like to call my blocks into play because I like to raise the ground up a little bit, be nice to my wrists, We're gonna take the pad out from underneath our knees and place it off to the side.

May come in handy in a bit. Tuck the toes and lift the tailbone into your first down dog. I heard somebody say this once, and I had never heard it before. Let's take this dog for a walk, pedal the heels down, rock the hips, maybe a little soft bending in the elbows. And then when you're ready, Find that stillness in your pose.

Put a soft bend in the knees. And walk the hands back towards the feet, keeping the knees nice and soft. And just let the whole upper half of your body. Trust hang. If the hands are nowhere near the ground, You can keep the hands gently on the shins.

You can wrap the elbows. Even consider utilizing blocks. In your practice, hopefully, you will follow along with something that I believe, which is your feet are not nailed to the ground. If you need to grab your blocks, Grab them, bring them back, and reset. On your inhale lifting halfway up length through the spine.

These are the muscles that we activate to lift and hold and exhale forward fold. Inhale, slowly rise all the way up, hands reaching to the sky. An excel hand start. On the next big inhale, reach the hands up and exhale forward fold, keeping the spine nice and long, Find that edge and then just allow yourself to sync. In our halfway.

And exhale. Inhale all the way to rise. Maybe adding a bit of extension, but lifting to the heart and trying to avoid any compression in the lower spine. So think of the heart lifting to the sky. And one more time, exhale forward fold.

Just take a moment and really allow yourself to release and hang. Release the hands, inhale halfway up, long spine, use the glute strength, use the abdominal strength, to support exhale forward fold, inhale all the way to rise. An Excel Hands to heart. If you have your blocks on the mat, we're gonna move them off to the side. Let's go ahead and take them off to the side.

And let's meet back in the center of the map. Tedasana mountain pose. Home base, maybe. Find those feet really firmly planted into the ground. Feel the muscles lift away from the ground.

That little lift of the front hip bones Hands can be at your heart, or palms open shoulder blades back. If your eyes are closed, open your eyes. Starting with a right lead, we're gonna reach our right toes towards the edge of the mat and step back with that left foot and find warrior 2. And in this warrior 2, making sure that that front knee is directly over the heel, feel a bit of an openness through that hip. So if you look down, you see that knee is starting to fall in.

Just press slightly into the outer edge of the foot lift through the arch, but feel the heel and the ball of the foot pressing down, reach just slightly to the outer edge of the left foot. And so important is maybe lift that left heel and take it just a little bit further out. When you find that length through the left side, can you feel your tailbone drop and the muscles reach in towards the center line reach the hands out. Gauge or drish deeds, just directly over the right fingertips or maybe eyes closed. And exhale and see if we can bend just a little bit deeper into that right knee without it collapsing, maybe finding a little more space through that left heel.

Are we gripping through the toes? If you're gripping through the toes, just slightly drum the toes, loosen them up, and find the Four corners of your feet to press into the ground. Take one more big breath in. Exhale it out. And on the next inhale, we're gonna straighten that front leg, that right leg. Reach the right hand up to the sky.

Use the left hand to grab onto that right wrist. And as we exhale, open up those right ribs to the sky, roll the right ribs up, and maybe turn the eyes to the sky for sky archer. You can keep both feet grounded. Or if you'd like a little extra challenge, lift those right toes off the ground, really reach. Take a few breaths here.

And on each exhale, where can I find space and lengthen my body? If you have those right toes up, bring them back to the ground, big open of the arms, a block may come in handy, So you may wanna grab a block and place it to the outside of your right foot. And then before we get back into this pose, just make sure the right leg is straight. We're reaching through the left leg through the outer edge. Arms open up nice and wide. Take a big breath in and reach with that right hand all the way towards the very front of the mat, allow the left hip to pop.

And exhale, bringing that right hand down lightly onto the right shin or maybe to a block just to the outside of that right shin and triangle pose, exhale reaching the left hand high. Your gaze can be straightforward or maybe up to the left fingertips. We find length to that right leg reaching the right hip back just slightly and pinning that left hip in towards center. Going from our triangle pose. Take one more big breath.

And as we exhale our left hand or left ribs are going to even out. So basically turning our chest towards the ground, you're gonna wanna take this block. Boy, is it gonna come in handy in a moment and place it to the inside of the right foot? We're gonna turn onto the ball of the left foot. Now if it feels better, a little more balanced to walk that foot in and ground that left foot, please do it. Linked through the right side, reaching the right hip back and exhale into partial tenacity or our intense forward fold. This is really a long, intense side stretch reaching back with that right hip And if it feels tight on that right side with an inhale soft little bend and exhale lengthen, and always say, can I be a little softer with my hands on the ground or my hands on the block?

On the next inhale, soft little bend in that right knee. I'm gonna keep my block with me, and I highly recommend it. Moving it up towards the front of the mat. Bend in the right knee. Our hips are neutral reaching towards the front of the mat. So we're gonna shift our weight into that right foot. Now you can keep the left foot on the ground.

Hands can be at your heart or hands can come on a block. If it feels better to actually come up into warrior 3, we're gonna press into that right foot and lift that left heel just to about hip height. If single leg balances are especially challenging for you, Consider another block back towards the back of your mat. And again, feel free to bring your feet down to find this so that you can find the best possible practice for you. Bringing that toe onto that block in the back See if you can lift the rib cage off of that front thigh.

Hands can be at your heart. Hands can be on blocks. Hands can float back. And breathe. It is said that a pose begins at that very moment that you want it to end.

So at that point where you feel like this pose, maybe you're gonna be a little off balance, maybe bring the toe back to the block. And then find and hold. One more breath. And on the exhale, press into that right leg and bring the left up to meet it. Oh, you know, it'll shake out.

Let's come back to the center of the mat. Now remember, we're gonna go through this, but to our left. So we might need to reposition our blocks just a bit. If you wanna keep that block for your Warrior 3, just keep it close so we can always bring it back. And let's just keep this block. Up towards the front of our map.

Tedasana. Homebase. Recenter. Taking our left foot out, reaching the toes towards the end of the mat. Right leg goes back.

Heel to arch if that is what feels comfortable to you. Listen to your body. Maybe a little forward. A little back might be a little bit more comfortable for you. Deep bending to that left knee.

Go through your checks and balances from the ground up and find your warrior 2. Good gripping those toes, give them a little drum, a little wiggle. If you feel like your shoulders have started to creep up, relax them back down. Focus on your breath. Deep inhale.

Long, slow exhale. One more. Make it the best one. Exhale it out. On the next inhale straighten that left leg.

Reach the left hand up towards the sky. Right hand grabs onto that wrist. And as we exhale, reach back with that left hand, open those left ribs to the sky. If you'd like to lift those left toes and just pause each time lifting the left ribs just a bit higher eyes to the sky. One more big breath.

As we exhale, open up, keeping that front leg straight and grounding the toes. Remember, this is where blocks can come in very handy. Maybe grabbing that block and placing it to the outside of your left ankle. We start by reaching our hands out Imagine that you've got a string on your left fingertips and I'm pulling your fingertips towards the left side of the room the right hip pops out. That's to get a little sassy with it and bring that right hip out.

And as you exhale, allow that left hand to come down to the block or to the shin and right ribs reach up to the sky. Imaginary line from the tips of the right fingertips to the left fingertips straight through. Your gaze can be down at the left foot. It can be straight ahead. Little more challenging to take the gaze up to the right fingertips.

And with the next inhale, press just a bit more through the ball of the left foot and feel the left hip reach back just a bit more. That right hip pins in towards the center. On that next inhale reach the right ribs high. And as we exhale slowly with control, bring the right ribs back to neutral or back to parallel to the ground. We're gonna come up under the ball of that left foot.

This may be a little bit long of a pyramid for you, so you might wanna step up and ground that right foot. Let's bring that block to the inside. Now we're finding all of that length to the left leg, reaching back to the left hip, length through the spine, and exhale into partnership with Tenasana or our intense fold. The goal is not to get your nose to your knee. The goal is not to press yourself into a horribly rounded spine, but instead to find all that beautiful length, length through the left side of the leg hip reaching back link through the spine.

Remember if this is super tightened, making you catch your breath, inhale with a soft bend, and exhale to lengthen. Finishing up with our amazing single leg balance, keeping that block close. You may wanna take a moment, If you wanna grab that other block, place it right about at the edge of your foot, come back towards the front of the mat, soft bend in the left knee, take the block with you. It can come in very handy. And you decide that I don't need it, then don't use it.

But it's nice to know that it's there because we're gonna be here for a while. Rather than using momentum, use your strength. Press forward into that left foot and use that glute strength to lift that right heel up off the ground. Remember, you can keep it, kickstand on the ground. You can also put it. I'm gonna reach that block in just a bit.

Come up. You can put that foot on the block. How much length from the crown of your head through that right heel, can you find maybe practice, lift, and hold We don't wanna lock our joints. So use all that muscular strength in that left leg. Maybe you find that block. Give yourself just that moment.

There's no pride in your practice. There's only try. Left. 2 more of your deepest satisfying breaths. Last one, best one.

And on the exhale, let's bring that right leg up to meet the left. Give a little shake out. Let's take the blocks off to the side. Return back towards the left side of your mat, and I invite you to find whatever is the most comfortable way down to your knees. Remember I said to keep that blanket close by?

Two reasons. You may wanna put that blanket underneath your knees. You may just decide to fold the mat slightly. Put your knees. That's very cushy to have a little fold on the mat.

And then take this blanket and place it just the top your calves as we come into Thunderbolt. If you don't want that blanket, you don't feel like you need that blanket. You could just set your sit bones right on top of the heels. Nice length through the spine. Shoulder blades roll back.

If your mind is already thinking about what's next, bring it back to your breath. We're not done here. Unfinished business. So bring your breath, your focus back to your practice. You can stay facing this direction.

I wanna see all of you. So I'm gonna turn to face. And we're going to finish today where we started. So in Thunderbolt, or if it feels better to go on to your butt and sit with your legs crossed, you could always sit on a block, inhale, reach the hands high. Exhale rotate to the right side, remember to keep the chin up, right hand, just gently reaching down to the ground, pull the right shoulder back.

Inhale reach the hands up high and exhale rotate to the left. Inhale hands. Hi. Reach the right hand out to the side and the left hand reaches over. And as you do, press the left hip bone down, Take another breath in, just to lengthen and exhale reaching the left ribs up. Inhale the center.

Take it over to the opposite side, pressing down through the right hip bone, lengthen, and exhale lift the ribs. And bring it back up. Choose whichever hip is your favorite and roll over. Onto your butt, extending the legs straight out. We're gonna bring the right leg in, bring the sole of the right foot to the inside of the right leg, take a big breath in.

And as we exhale keeping all that length through our spine, remember a block to bring the ground up can be very helpful. The goal is not the foot. The goal is not the ground. The goal is space in your body. Walk it back up.

Switch, extending the right leg out. Left foot comes into the inside of the thigh. Take a deep breath in, lift, and exhale reach forward. Using that breath as a tool to inhale soften and exhale lengthen And we come back up to center. Now I'm gonna turn to the side.

Plant the heels firmly onto the mat, keep a slight bending the knees, lift through the sternum, reach the hands forward, And as we exhale slowly, slowly ever so slowly rolling back It's good to tuck the chin now, lower back, middle back, shoulders, allow the hands to come out, and let's just take a moment here in Shavasana. You can choose to stay here in Shavasana. If you'd like to roll to your right side, using your top hand to press yourself up into a seated position. Find your most comfortable seated position, maybe with the legs crossed or legs out. Still finding that length through your spine.

And I finished today with this thought. Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly. So maybe slowing it all down and finding all the yuminess in each one of those poses is just what you needed today. It was for me. Thank you for joining me, and hopefully we get to practice together again soon. Not mistake.