I Believe I Can Fly

My name is Jason. Thank you for joining me today for what is one of my most favorite practices, and, hopefully, this will be yours too. Today, we're gonna fly. Balance work. If I had a nickel for every time someone said to me, oh, My balance is terrible.

I can't do this. What I am gonna come back with is first, it starts with a mindset. Success starts with believing, yes, I can do it. But what it means is finding what balances for you and utilizing whatever props that allow you to find not only confidence but also that comfort and that length and that stability in your body. And I guarantee you.

I guarantee you. The more you practice, the stronger you'll get. And then you'll be able to come back and fly with me through all of our practices. So why don't we get started? We're gonna start on our backs and I definitely recommend a, a bolster or a blanket to put underneath your knees, I have two blocks. I have a strap, and I also have a nice sturdy chair.

And we'll utilize of these in our practice. If you don't have some of these things at home, a nice sturdy stool, some books, or anything that you might be able to be able to put your hands on, a table, a wall. So let's roll over onto our backs. Be sure that your strap is close by because we are going to use that. We're gonna start today, grabbing onto our strap.

Open that up. Doesn't have to be a loop in the strap. Notice I have both feet on the mat. I'm gonna take my right foot. I'm gonna place that strap right around the ball of my foot, and I'm gonna reach that right leg straight up. If you're like me, you come to your practice every morning with some tight hamstrings.

So we're just gonna take a deep breath in a little bend. And as we exhale, extend through our heel, and gently bring the toes up to the head side of the mat. Inhale soft bend just to relax and exhale. Just a simple toes up to the head side of the mat. One more time. Inhale.

Toes up. Hold it there for a moment. If you feel like you're gripping if you feel like you're squeezing those muscles and exhale and reach through the heel. Everybody will know where their edge is. It should never be painful.

It should never take your breath away. Just find that place where you just feel like you're elongating the muscles. Beautiful. Relax a little bit on that right leg. And extend the left leg out, heel on the ground, try to keep the backs of your leg, your hamstring down as well. We're gonna go into a really in fairly intense IT band stretch.

A lot of pain that we have in our knees, a lot of pain that we have in our legs, sciatica, a lot of that comes from really super tight IT bands and a really great stretch for that IT band. Is taking the strap in the left hand. It is extremely important that we keep this right hip grounded down. Don't let this right hip come up. Extend the right hand out.

And as we take a breath, exhale, and bring that right foot over. Oh, boy. As somebody who has run for a long, long, long time in my life, my IT bands are very, very tight. So I don't have a tremendous amount of range of flexibility. But notice the right hip stays down, still pressing through that right heel and bringing that right foot across my body as much as I possibly can. If you have nice flexibility through your hamstrings and your IT, man, bring the toes up a little more towards the head side of the mat and reach that heel. And bring it back.

Bend the knee. Take the strap off. A little goes a long way. Give some circles to that right hip. That just feels good. And bring the right foot to the mat, knee up, bend the left knee, and let's place the strap right around there.

Extend the left foot up to the sky. We have the strap in the left hand. I also sometimes keep my right hand just so that I know that I've got that flexibility to be able to pull that the ability to the choice, take a deep breath in, and exhale. Reach to the heel and bring the toes to a little closer. If the hips come off the ground, back off a little bit, keep the hips grounded.

Inhale soft bend. And exhale. And inhale, I find that I put if I put a lot of tension in my upper body in my armed. It caused me to have tension in my lower body. So try to stay as relaxed as you can, exhale.

And hold it there for just a moment. And here we go. Release. So it's nice and let loose. Extend the right leg out. Here comes that it band stretch.

I'm gonna take the strap in my right hand. I'm gonna extend my left hand out, my left arm out. That's my anchor. I want to keep my left butt cheek, my left hit connected to the ground. So I take a breath in, and I exhale and I just bring that leg across just to that point where I feel that stretch through my IT man and through my glute.

If my hip has come up, I went too far, and I'm gonna bring it back. Notice I'm not pulling. My head's not coming off the mat. My arm is nice and relaxed and just gently. It's a gentle pull.

See if you can bring the toes a little higher up and a little further down. Hold for about 15 seconds. Longer if it feels good. And come on back. Bend that knee. Take the strap off.

Keep the strap close because we're gonna utilize this as an option for our next pose circles. Bring the right knee into the hand with the left knee. Give yourself a nice little rock back and forth. Massage the spine and come into a sitting up position. I'm gonna turn to face you.

Now putting a block or a blanket underneath your tush, might be just the thing you need to be able to keep that nice tall spine. Extend the legs straight out in front of you, done center. So make sure that we have a nice straight line from our hips all the way through our feet, and here's where the strap can come in handy. We're gonna work to find length through our spine. So we wanna try to avoid any kind of rounding.

And if, again, tight hamstrings like me as I forward full, these tight hamstrings make me wanna round my my spine. So taking a strap and putting that strap around the balls of my feet, reaching again through the heels, nice long arms, take a nice deep breath, lift through the spine, growth at the crown of your head and exhale forward fold. If a little bend in the knees gives you a little more length and flexibility for your back, please do. And he'll bring it up. When you hear me say proud heart, lift the heart, It means lengthen through your body.

Take a deep breath in and exhale. Take a little stock. Is there any place you can lengthen Relax. And bend the knees, take that strap off, and we're gonna fold that strap, and we're gonna put it off to the side. Bring that right foot in and take that right ankle and cross it over the left knee.

Sitting up nice and tall, maybe taking that right hand and putting it just gently on the outside of the right knee. So we're in the figure 4. To go a little deeper into the stretch, and everybody's gonna have a different edge on this. I want you to imagine you have string on that left knee, and we're gonna pull that string up, up, up, up, find your edge. If your back and your spine start to curl went a little too far back off a little bit, little goes a long way, sitting up nice and tall.

Flex those right toes towards the right knee and a little gentle press of that right knee down. Feeling good. Wanna go a little deeper into this. You can bring those hands down to the mat. And lift the butt and move it just an inch forward and come back to that figure 4. Sternum towards the shin without the rounding of the spine.

So again, lift that heart And when you're ready, bring the hands back to the mat, slide the butt back a little bit, and relax that down. Take that right leg out. Give it some twists. These twists help to create a little fluid movement in the hip joint. And now let's bring that left foot up. Oh, now you're gonna see that our bodies are not always balanced, and you can see this in me.

My left knee doesn't wanna go down nearly as much as my right hip did. That's okay. You're gonna find how that's gonna challenge us later on when we start to go into our balance poses. So pull the toes back towards the left knee Gental pressure down on that left knee. String on the right knee. Pull that string up.

Joss into that point. Where you start to feel that stretch deep in the glute in the pariformis. Can you lift your heart? Can you bring the shoulder blades back on the exhale sternum a little closer towards the shin? If you wanna go a little deeper into it, this is perfect for me.

But if you wanna go a little deeper into it, lift the butt off the ground and slide it just a little closer towards that left heel. And when you're ready, slide that right leg out, take it out, and a little in and out of that left foot. And let's start to warm ourselves up. So we're gonna go on to our knees. This is where having that pad is just gonna be so nice to your knees.

We're gonna start out in a tabletop. We're gonna take our right leg back toes on the ground. Take that right foot and think of like a rainbow. Take it up and all the way over to the left side of the mat. Here we go with that IT band again.

Watch my toes on my right foot as I bring the top of my right foot down. Now I'm gonna take a deep breath in, and I'm gonna exhale, and I'm gonna start to walk my hands forward until my elbows come down to the ground or maybe onto a block. Or if staying up feels better for you, Just walk the hand slightly forward and try to find as much length as you can from that right elbow to the tips of the right foot. Take an extra breath here. Walk the hands back if you were on your elbows.

And our first true stability exercise. Bring the right toes back to the ground in line with the right hip. Plant the left hand down firmly right underneath the left shoulder and roll the triceps in, but try to keep a little bit of softness in that left elbow. Come up really high on the right fingertips and lift that right foot up to hip height. The challenge, can you bring that right hand slowly to the right hip?

Your gaze can be down at your mat or your gaze can be straight ahead and maybe extending that right hand up Look at you. You're already flying. With control, bring that right knee in, grab hold, and let's carry that right foot through. Walk the right foot just slightly forward in front of the knee and put your hands on that right knee as we come up. That little bit of pressure on that right knee helps you to be nice and tall. Remember, we talk about lifting the heart a little bit of extension of the spine, slight little curve in the lower back.

Take a big breath and reach the hands up. And then as we exhale, we're gonna shift the tailbone back tight hamstrings blocks can come in very handy right on the each edge of your mat as we shift back into half on a minas and our half split. We have this tendency to wanna try to get our sternum down to our knee, but look how curved my back goes. So instead I lengthen through my spine and reach back through my tailbone. Inhale. Come forward. Hands on that right knee lift, maybe extending the hands up, and exhale shift it back.

If you wanna try a little extra balance work, roll back onto that right heel, roll the toes back extend the hands back. Try to keep the chest and the rib cage off of that front thigh. Shoulder blades reach down your back. Think length through the fingertips. Big sweep all the way up one more time.

And exhale back. Oh, if you've joined me for some of our other courses for some of our other episodes, You know I say slow wins the game every time. Peter, let's bring the hands back back onto that right foot, you may wanna move the blocks off for just a moment as we bring the hands back to the mat, and let's come back into our tabletop. Let's go the opposite side. So extend the left leg back, toes on the ground.

Think of a little bit of a rainbow. So we're gonna take the left toes and just reach them over to the right side of the mat, and we're gonna come flat top of the foot. How long can we be as we reach those left toes back and walk the left hand forward? We're less considered, less concerned about being a you as we are about thinking length and length. One more deep breath.

Walk back up onto the hands, and this is where we need to find that stability right hand pressing into the ground. Roll the triceps back, but keep that soft bend in that elbow. Bring that left foot back across and then lift the left foot to hip height. You automatically feel that left hip start to rotate to the sky as I come up on my fingertips on the left side. The more I press my right hand into the ground and think of closing the distance between my right hand and my right knee, the more stable I will be.

And on the hip, flex that left foot like you're standing on the back wall. Maybe reach that hand up, choose your gaze. You might feel rushed, but move slow. Grab onto that left knee and carry it through. Oh, just put it down super soft.

That's a win. Make sure that the left heel is in front of the left knee. Press into that left knee to come up nice and tall. Lyft through the heart, little arch in the lower back. You've been with me through core in some of our other episodes. You always hear me talk about just slightly through the front hip bones, you feel that stretch through the grounded knee and through the grounded hip flexors drop the tailbone.

And as we exhale, I'm gonna hold onto my blocks and take it back into our half split. Remember, this is my tighter side. And if it's tighter, it's gonna wanna pull my back into a rounded position I'm gonna come up a little bit, maybe high on my blocks, keep nice, long length through my spine, pulling the left toes towards the left knee and reaching the left tailbone back. Well, the left cheek. And bring it up.

This time, try extending the hands up. And as we exhale, shift it back, maybe working on that balance, trying to extend the hands back shoulder blades reaching back, and let's give a nice big sweep up. And one more time, see if we can do this without the blocks. Slowly roll it back. And as we come forward, I'm gonna use the blocks to help tuck the toes on the right side, press up into a standing position, and forward fold. If you feel like you're holding your head up, allow your head to hang.

Blocks can come in very handy. Again, if the ground is too far away, but we wanna create length through our hamstrings and length through our legs, the blocks will allow us to find that length. Inhale halfway reach through the crown of the head and back to the tailwind and exhale forward fold. Inhale all the way up to stand. Remember that extension that we had on the ground, reach, lift the heart, little bit of an arch in the lower back and exhale forward fold.

Inhale halfway and exhale forward fold. One more time sweep all the way up. An excel hand start. Let's get flying. We're gonna just move a few things around.

So I'm gonna take my blocks I'm gonna move them off to the side. We will utilize those a little bit later on, but we're gonna start by taking this chair. Now if you have a nice sturdy, stable chair, I recommend using, like, using that, a wall, bucket stool, something that is nice and strong and sturdy that you can put your hands on. I'm gonna take my mat, my blanket, and move it off to the side. So come back towards the front of your mat, and we're gonna go through this series first utilizing the chair And then we're gonna go through it a second time, and we'll move the chair out.

And then you can determine what works best for you and always work to challenge yourself. So starting at the front of your mat, take a deep breath in, exhale it out, set yourself, set your mind, and here we go. We're gonna bring our hands to the mat pressing into the right foot. Take the left foot back. Now we're gonna for this first round, we're gonna ground our heel.

At a very just a slight angle. So our toes are still reaching towards the left side of the mat, but our hips are still straight. So reach back through that right hip as much as possible while keeping that knee over that front heel. Take a deep breath in and exhale. Open up those right ribs to the sky.

May not have a lot of space in this first twist. That's okay. We don't want to lead with the hand, but we wanna lead with the ribs. So make sure from the shoulder to the fingertips, we're one straight line. Your gaze up towards those right fingertips.

Take one more breath and exhale. Bring that hand back down to the chair. We're gonna walk our hands up the chair as we bring that left knee up towards chest. If it helps for a little bit of extra stability, bring that left foot onto the chair so that you can lift your heart, hands at your heart. Working on that stability through the right foot. We've worked on our practice of pressing all four corners of our foot into the ground.

We wanna try to avoid locking into that joint. So keep a soft little bend and use all of that strength in that leg. Practice being as light as you can on the left toes. Take a breath. And as we exhale hands are gonna come back to the chair, and we're gonna take that left leg back for a warrior 3. So just walk the hands down.

And how you can really work practicing right now to be as long as you can through the crown of your head and back through that left heel. And if you feel like your left hip is coming up, which I guarantee you it probably is, We're gonna work to lower that left hip and take our left toes down towards the ground. Your gaze can be straight down or just a few inches in front of you. One of the biggest challenges that we're gonna do today, and I will tell you it is one of the best things you could do is go from a neutral pose to an open pose back to a neutral pose. So taking that right hand, press it firmly into the ground.

Imagine it's like another leg. And come up as light as you can on the left fingertips. Sound familiar? Lift the left tip and bring the left hand to your hip. Half moon pose.

Still a little softness in that right leg. A little softness in the elbow, even though we are firmly pressing, into that chair. If you'd like to extend those left ribs in the left hand to the sky, lift the left hip just a bit more. And with control, slow, slow, slow, bring the left hand back and the left hip down parallel to the mat back in our warrior 3. And let's walk the hands up, and we're coming back into our stand.

Now for this next pose, we're gonna inhale reach the hands up. Try to be as light as you can on the left toes, reach the right hand forward in the left hand back. Hello, dancing Shiva. Come back to center. Exhale hands to heart, left foot to ground.

Good. Ready to do it on the other side. Give a little shake out. Come back. Find your confidence and let's go stepping the right leg back hands to the chair for our dragonfly.

We wanna make sure the knee is over the heel and your feet are not nailed to the ground. So move them around. We don't wanna be in a straight line. We wanna make sure we have a nice alleyway. Feel free to ground that back heel.

Allow that right hip to come slightly forward as the left draws back. Press that right hand into the chair and exhale left ribs to the sky. If that right heel comes up a little bit, that is quite alright. You'll notice I might be at a little bit of an angle here. That's called tightness.

So I'm gonna exhale and I'm gonna lift those left ribs just a bit higher. Take one more big breath in, bring that hand back to the chair, and we're gonna walk walk walk back up. Bringing that right foot up into our single leg Tedasana. And before we start to fly, we wanna make sure we feel strong through the left side, crown of the head, down to that left foot, all four corners of that left foot pressing into the mat. See if you can be light on that right foot.

And when you're ready, walk back down the chair. Into warrior 3. You can have those hands right underneath you, you can start to practice taking those hands out. You have so many options. And as we said before, soft bend in the the grounded leg We can all work to just drop that right hip and turn those right toes down and reach back through the right heel.

Plant that left hand down. Feel it firmly pressing down into the chair or into your support or into a block soft bed in that left knee. And start to raise that right hip. We wanna make sure that we're a straight line from the crown of our head to the edge of our toe. So find where you feel supported. Lift, not right hip. Hi.

You can choose to look straight out. You can choose to keep your gaze down to the ground. Your dristy is so up to you. You wanna extend that right hand, but more important than the right hand is those right ribs that right hip? Are we pulling those front hip bones up and being long through the tailbone?

I know we are. And when you're ready, bring that right hand back down and slowly come back to your warrior 3. And this is where you get to be so playful, playful with flying. This is why I love this so much because you challenge yourself and you see what do I feel like challenging myself with today? Little more extension back through that right heel, a little more growth to the crown of your head.

And when you're ready, walk that leg back up, bending that right knee chair is there to help come on up as light as you can be on that right. Inhale reach the hands up nice and high. No rush. Right hand reaches back. Left hand reaches for shoulder blades, opening up.

Think of the right ribs reaching to the back of your mat and the left ribs wanting to come forward. But the hips are both still reaching towards the front of your mat and bring it back and exhale down. How'd you do? Good? We're gonna go through this whole series again with the chair.

Without the chair and maybe blocks. So I'm gonna take the chair back I'm gonna bring my blocks up on my mat. May never use them, but it's nice to know that they're there if I'd like to. So choose, chair, blocks, and let's come back to Denasana. Take a big breath in.

And as we exhale, we're gonna reach back with that left foot and bring our hands to the blocks. Choose whether you're gonna be on the ball of that left foot, or remember that left foot could be grounded. We wanna try to lift our ribs off of that front leg. That's where this block can come in really handy. I'm gonna place my block on its wide side as I press that left hand into the block directly underneath my shoulder and exhale open up those right ribs.

Take a quick moment. Look down at that right knee. Is it trying to escape the mat? If it is, bring it back into center, maybe open it up just a little bit wider. Nice big alleyway during the center. As we come back to neutral, Both shoulders parallel to the ground reach the hands back. Oh, we saw this earlier.

Shoulder blades down our back. And as we sweep, I'm gonna bring that block now to tall as we sweep that left leg forward Maybe that left foot goes onto a block, or you come into a single tedasana. Take a single breath. And as we exhale, think of the blocks Find them. Warrior 3.

And maybe your blocks are high. Maybe your blocks are low. Hands at heart. Can you lift the heart a little longer? Extend to the crown of your head.

Remember here comes our real challenge. Right hand comes down to a block or to the mat or to the chair. Lift that left hip. Flex that left foot. You're standing on the back wall.

Maybe reaching. Choose your gaze. Oh, and the most challenging of all is to bring that left knee in slowly? And come back into that standing pose. Oops. Actual. Let's go back into warrior 3.

That's where we're supposed to go. Right there. That is it. I know somebody was you were there saying, no. No. No. Jason, go to warrior 3. That's exactly it.

Good. Find that warrior 3. Drop that left tip slightly. And now let's bring that left knee in, come back into our stand, either toe on the block, or into single leg balance. Toe on a block could be just what you need as you raise those hands up. Oh, tough twist.

XL. Dancing shiva, bent knee, flexed foot, shoulder blades back, and let's come back to center. Who? All that work that we've been doing to strengthen and stabilize strengthen and stabilize is all coming into play here. Don't ever. Don't ever.

This isn't chastising. This is just saying. Celebrate when you fall off out of balance. If you fall out of a pose, celebrate it. Wanna know why? Cause it gives you a chance to get right back up and show yourself that you can do this. So let's go back into it.

We're gonna go on the other side. Start by centering yourself, Tadasana. Take another breath in. And as we exhale, hands are gonna come down to the blocks of the ground. We're gonna step that right leg back.

Are you going to be in a lunge? Are you gonna ground that back heel? Find where you feel comfortable and feel long. Ground of the head, down to the back of that right heel. Press the right hand into the ground, and exhale.

Left ribs high. Oh, look at that left knee reaching out. So I'm gonna open up a little bit. That's where we wanna pull the shoulder blades down in your back. Stay here just long enough that when you take a breath in, you go, I've got a little bit more space, and I can open those left ribs just a bit higher and allow the right ribs to roll underneath.

Hip stay neutral. And as we bring our left shoulder back to square parallel with the mat, reach the hands back, Notice I've got this block. It's ready for my single leg balance as I sweep those hands forward. Bring that right foot up, maybe place it on my block, or find my single tenacity. Should I challenge myself to do this without my block?

We'll try. Big breath in. And exhale back to warrior 3. If you feel like you're starting to get shortness in your breath, take a deep breath in through the nose, exhale through the mouth. I have a lovely, lovely friend who practices with me and she says all the time, I don't wanna use blocks because it's a crutch. No. No.

No. No. No. Look, if blocks help you to get all that length and all that confidence and stirring his, please use them. I need them for this next pose as I open up that right hip flexing that right foot pressing the left hand into the ground, make sure that that block is directly underneath the shoulder and slowly open up into your half moon pose. Is your left knee soft left toes reaching towards the front of the mat? Can we lift that right hip just a bit more towards the sky? Think of stacking your right hip right on top of the left.

I won't mess it up this time. Here we go. Slowly bringing the right shoulder down. Right hand might find a block. Maybe at your heart, slow and controlled for warrior 3. And if you're like me, your left leg right now is going, oh, boy.

Hold for just one more breath, lower that right hip just a bit more. Make sure that that block If you wanna put your toe on that block for the dancing shiva is on that high point, slowly bring right knee in, lift, lift, lift. And either put that foot gently on a block or bring it up. When you're ready on the inhale, reach the hands up, and exhale slowly open for dancing Shiva. Could always find that block.

Go right back. Find the block and right back. Come back to center. That was good work. I am proud of you.

I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of you too. We're gonna take it down to the ground now. Soft bending the knees. Come back.

Onto your knees. A block, just a single block might still come in handy. So we're gonna hold that there. Come back into a plank. I'm gonna start on my right side so I can show you what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna bring that right foot up I'm gonna exhale that right knee in towards my right wrist, and I'm gonna bring the ankle across. It does not have to parallel the front of the mat. And if this causes you any pain in your knee, any pain in your hip, can always roll onto your back and go into a figure 4. My block is gonna come in very handy as I'm gonna place it underneath my butt cheek. And use that as a target.

I'm gonna release that left foot. I'm gonna take a quick look back and make sure that left foot is not trying to escape the mat. And I'm gonna exhale and find that length through my spine for pigeon. If you have that second block, you can bring your forms onto that block. As we reach back, through that right hip, reach back and down, find that block.

Maybe you don't need a block, but but doesn't reach down to the ground. So find what works for you and your body, but find as much length through the upper half of your body as is possible. Forehead can go on your forms. That is also comfortable. As we take 2 more breaths, If you feel that you're holding any tightness, if you're gripping, your body is fighting against you with each exhale, relax that down.

If you came down onto a block or onto your forums, walk yourself back up. Let's move this block off to the side. Tuck the toes on the left side, bring that right leg back, and let's make some big circles just to get that fluid flow. Come back to that plank. Lift the left foot.

Aim for that wrist on the left side and bring the right ankle up. We wanna make sure that knee is as wide as our armpit or maybe a little bit wider. Got that block. It helps and exhale down. Coming down to your forms or into a block is an option you can stay on your hands.

But just work just to find 30 seconds of quiet. Take one more deep breath in. Exhale it out. If you came down, walk back onto your hands, let's take the block off to the side. We're not gonna use that anymore.

Tuck the right toes. Press into the hands. Come on back. Some big circles on that left side. And when you're ready, he's come down to the ground, and let's roll over onto our backside.

And swing the legs out in front of you. Just nice and quick. Take a deep breath in. Reach through the heels, exhale reach towards that front wall. It's like bending the knees perfectly fine.

Inhale up. And let's reverse that as we slowly work our way back down to the ground. How slow can you control it? You could hold in Shivasana, or if you'd like, and it's gonna feel really good. Bring the soles of the feet together, let the knees drop out.

And just hold. I invite you to stay right here. Or if you would like to join me to sit up, roll to your right side. Press the left hand into the ground and come on up back into a sitting up position. All of that length that you did lift through the heart one last time.

Put your hands on your heart. And just find an immense amount of pride that you showed up today on your mat. You believed that you could try that you could do it, and we got to fly today. So thank you for practicing with me. Keep practicing. Get stronger.

And hopefully, I get to see you again, and we get to practice together again soon. No mistake.