Classic Tea

Greetings, friends. Welcome back to good morning yoga. What's in your kappa? This morning's practice is dedicated to the classic tea ritual and to my grandma Joanie. She was British, and one of our rituals was going to visit her and having tea and playing cards with her.

She was very cheeky and funny. And one of the things that she would always say to us if we forgot to put our tea cup back on our saucer was, oh, Somebody forgot to put their pants on. And I think about that a lot with just coming back to your foundation, putting your pants on. So get your pants on. And let's start.

We'll have two blankets and two blocks. We'll use this for part of our practice today, and we'll begin grounding and kinda steeping in our child's post. So just reach your hands forward. Drop your forehead down and take a deep breath into the back of the heart. And as you exhale, relax your shoulders, relax your chest, your hips, ankles, and knees. And allow yourself to really drop into the weight of your body and gravity against the earth and that foundation that we feel beneath us.

And this practice will pay particular attention to our roots, to our foundation, lower body. So releasing into that and drawing your attention all the way down with your breath to your feet, to your toes. Excel releasing. And we'll start kinda slow here. In our foundation. And you're welcome.

2 options here either to inhale hands and knees rocking forward. And then exhale back into child's pose, just feeling the creasing of hips and knees, inhale rocking forward, and just kinda staying grounded, staying low in the teacup, so to speak, or you're welcome to rock your hips back on your heels and lift your chest. And take your beautiful face up towards the surface and then exhale back down into child's pose. So either one of those options rocking to hands and knees or opening up the heart center, is towards the sky and back down on the exhale slow and steady. And I'd love for you to just imagine yourself inside of a warm cup of water this morning and really steeping in whatever's happening let it just dissolve as you inhale.

And as you exhale, invite the elements that you feel around you. Wherever you are, if there's wind or rain or sunshine or snow, just let that start to permeate into the movement of your body. And in particular, feeling Earth energy, is you rock forward and back, or is you lift and lower with the breath? And we'll just take 2 more rounds here as we start to feel the breath deepen. And we start to feel our body slowly awaken, kind of like tea leaves slowly opening up.

And once more in here, either rocking forward or opening the heart. And exhale back into your child's pose. Moving into a simple lunar vinyasa will inhale to hands and knees. And as you exhale, just slowly lower chest down, right, in between the hands, easy cobra on an inhale. And then exhale, slide back to your child's pose.

Big toes can touch. Knees can be wide. And we'll stay with this flow. Inhaling hands and knees can continue to shift forward as your feet separate. Exhale, lower down.

Inhale, easy cobra. Exhale back to your child's pose. Twice more just like that. And you start to feel a little more warmth than the shoulders you lower in one piece, a little reaching and expanding of legs through the toes as you come to bhujangasana, cobra, and then folding back in to child's pose once more. Exhale to lower.

Inhale. Opening up into cobra. Exhale pressing back. Child's pose. Beautiful. Let's shift forward one more time, inhaling, exhale lower all the way down and moving into a simple series of open twist. So slide left hand straight off from your chest.

Keep the right elbow bent, right palm flat. We'll bend right knee and just roll halfway on to your side. And then from there, come back to the center, and we'll take it to the second side, switching arms, bending left knee roll onto your side. So moving back and forth, again, just marinating steeping in your foundations, staying low to the ground, opening up chest and shoulders, And we're in no rush. That was also part of the, process and ritual that Grandma Joanie would teach us is Take your time.

Let the tea brew. Let it steep. Don't blow on it. Just allow it to come to the right temperature when it's ready. So one more time, we'll take it over to the left.

And then staying here, and I'm kinda rolling up and over my my mic pack here. But staying here, you can take that the hand that's behind you, left hand, and maybe reach down and grab onto right foot. So we're sort of in this sideline royal dancer. Take a couple breaths here. It's okay if you can't reach your foot.

No worries. Know that it's back there. And as you exhale, slowly come on out of that, and let's take the second side right on reaches out, rolling on your side. It's okay if you roll off the mat. No worries. And take that free hand down, see about grabbing your back toe or not. No worries.

And opening up into this interesting version of royal dancer. Taking a breath here, releasing into gravity, releasing your foot if you have it, slowly rolling back to center, and then come on up to hands and knees. Let's take a couple rounds of cat cow here taking care of the spine again inhaling to arch. Exhaling to round. Inhale to arch.

How rounding. Really exaggerating through the breath, breathing through the nose, only if you can, inviting that sound of that of steam that comes from the tea kettle. Right. Before it's about to boil. Exhale. Once more inhale.

Exhale. Coming back to neutral, walk the hands forward another couple of inches, curl the toes under, and then lift the hips up and back into downward dog. Arriving into 1st down dog of the day, and let's come into it with steadiness, pressing back from hands to shoulders, rolling the shoulders away from the ears, feeling that gentle slope of the tailbone upwards. Press of the heels down. Where it's totally fine to keep the knees bent here if that feels better to you or even wide in the feet if the hamstrings feel tight.

Right? And if you're hypermobile, if you tend to have really open hamstrings and kinda arch in the low back, then draw the tailbone down just a little bit. Everybody's different. So we all navigate in a way that works for us. Let's take the right leg to the sky on a big inhale. And then as you exhale, open the hip, bend your knee, and we'll go right into a really simple, mandalenoma scarf.

So step the right foot all the way forward to a lunge. And if it doesn't make it there, grab your ankle and give it a little helping hand. Lower the back knee down. We'll take a low crescent and couple options here. You can take your left elbow and bring the left hand to the nape of the neck, opening the heart.

If this doesn't feel good on your shoulders, then there's been talk of moose around here lately. And so a really lovely Mudger would be to take the thumbs to the temples and just open up your fingers, open up your chest. And that's the Moose Mudra excel release into half Haneman. The Moose symbolizes wisdom, strength, and the ability to navigate through challenging situations. That might be helpful to know that Mudra. Shift forward to a runner's lunge.

Let's lift the back knee and take the right hand to the sky. Simple twist. As you exhale, release, walk your hands to the left. Go all the way around to the opposite edge of the bat and step back to downward dog with your left leg high. Open the hip, bend your knee. Reach it out nice and long.

Come up high on the ball of the right toe and then step all the way through to your runner's lunge, lower the back knee. We're gonna take the Moose Mud dragon. So tips of the thumbs to the temples, open the fingers, open the chest, exhale release, straight in the left leg, hamstring opening. Half Haneman, we call this. Shifting forward, lift the back knee in how to your twist.

And then exhale hands to the mat. Step back to plank. And maybe you're feeling ready for a full chaturanga. If so, keep the legs straight. Otherwise, you can bend the knees lightly to the mat. Your choice and lower halfway, hover.

Then take it all the way down. Inhale cobra. Pause here as you exhale slide the hands back an inch, press into the tops of the feet, kneecaps lift. Let's progress into upward dog inhaling to rise. Exhale downward dog. Right leg to the sky inhaling.

Open the hip, bend your knee, really luxuriate in each of these shapes. Inhale. Reach it long. Excel step it all the way through. Low lunge. Once again, you can take your Moose Mudra, or you can open up the underside of the shoulder catch the left elbow, exhale half hanuman straight in the front leg.

You've got your blocks if you'd like to use them here. Ship forward, runners lunge, the back knee lifts, right arm reaches with a twist. Exhale release. Walk it all the way around. To your left, runner's lunge. Come back to down dog with the left leg high.

Open the hip, bend your knee. Inhale lengthen and reach. Exhale. Step it all the way through. Runners lunge. This time catching the right elbow, right hand to the nape of the neck in here. Exhale straight in the front leg.

Half split. Artahanuman. Rocket forward, runner's lunge. Let's take left arm to the sky. Exhale to your vinyasa stepping back to plank, lower halfway, or all the way this time.

Coming into either cobra or upward dog. I'm going to upward dog. Exhale downward dog. And check-in. We're gonna come back around the mandala.

So we'll repeat that whole cycle leading with the left side, but Before we do so, just notice how you feel. Notice how your body feels. Quality of your energy, where your mind is resting, And can you give yourself permission to relax into this slow meandering flow? Let's step the right foot a little closer to the midline. Take the left leg to the sky.

Big inhale. Open the hip exhale. Stretch it long, rise up high on the toe, and then step all the way through. Low lunge again. Either that Moose Mudra or take the tip of the right elbow and open the chest.

Exhale straight and left leg half split, taking care of our foundation. Shift forward, high lunge. Let's take left hand to the sky, inhale. Exhale. Release. Walk your hands all the way to the right.

Runners lunge and then step back to your down dog, right leg is high. Open the hip. Inhale length. Exhale step all the way through. Low lunge. We catch the left elbow, inhale to open the heart.

Exhale, straight and right leg, half split. Shift it forward runners lunge take right hand to sky. Exhale. Hands to the mat. Step to plank and let's lower halfway or all the way. Inhale cobra or upward dog, Exhale downward dog.

Last half of the cycle, left leg rising inhale. Open the hip and journey. Stretch it long. Inhale. Step all the way through. This time, let's take a high lunge keeping the back knee lifted.

Maybe catching right elbow or taking that moose mudra one more time. Little balance component here. Exale hands to the mat or blocks straight in the front leg. Shift forward runners lunge. Left hand to the sky. Open.

Exhale. Release. Walk it all the way around to your right. Stepping back to down dog right leg rises. Open the hip. Inhale lengthen.

Exhale step all the way through. Runners lunge. Maybe it's a high lunge. Catching the left tip of the elbow or Moose. Exhale release straight in the front leg. Rebend your front knee right hand to the sky. Inhale.

Twist it out. Excel release hands. Feet, lower down, inhale, open, exhale. Downward dog. Hang out here or child's pose and just feeling into that ritual, the namaskars themselves, our ritual practice.

We work with repetition. We work with linking movement in breath and bringing our mind into a State of steadiness. Couple more breaths wherever you are. Let's inhale to the toes, bend the knees, look forward, and then take a slow steady walk. Up to the top of the mat right up to your hands.

Let's inhale lift up halfway. Engage the legs. Exhale, melt into your forward fold, release your head, and then come up with a flat back slowly. Lift your head, lift your heart, circle the arms. Why does you reach through the roof to the sky? Exale hands come to your heart. And finding your Tedasana for a moment.

Yeah. So let's take a wide step to the right, and we'll turn the toes out, and we'll move into a little steady balancing sequence here. And I'd love to encourage you to take your blocks and kind of frame off your mat here with your blocks in a diagonal because we'll work with these diagonal lines. So let's come into some teachers like to call this goddess pose or temple pose, but we have this feeling to me. It's that feeling of foundation and base and the the saucer under your teacup. My grandmother uses beautiful old English china, and we had our whole teapot and and the set.

And I remember each piece was different and unique and beautiful. It was hand painted. So you can just feel your own unique beauty here. And I'll let your knees align over the second toe. So we're not buckling in. And we'll start to just open the shoulders.

You can take one elbow under the other and inhale to lift. And then as you exhale, open up to warrior 2. So left heel will spin back right toes will spin out. Take a deep breath in here. Excel settle.

Into your foundation. And then we come back to that foundational pose opposite elbow underneath inhale. Excel, open up warrior 2 on the second side. Take a deep breath here, feeling your roots, and then bring it in again. And we're adjusting the feet, adjusting which arm is underneath, which arm is on top, Inhale to open warrior 2.

Exhale back to your foundational goddess pose, weave in the arms. And open warrior 2. Coming back to the center inhale. Excel warrior 2. Now this time, let's turn it into pyramid pose, parsvatonasana.

So we're going from an open hip facing to a closed hip facing. I'll take the hands down. You're welcome to grab a block, moving right foot over, and adjusting the back toes forward. So encourage you to turn your block tall and inhale lengthen as you exhale melt down any amount. And you might relax your forehead on your block. You might release your arms back.

Just hang out here for a moment. Getting to know your hamstrings, enjoying that feeling of an inversion. Feeling of grounding and slowing down. I always would notice that every time we would go to Grandma Joni's house, it was this feeling of Just relaxing, taking a moment, and the purpose was simply to slow down and connect. Wasn't to get anything done, to share conversation, to laugh, One more breath here.

And then sliding the hands forward inhale to lift your chest. Let's reset the block on the diagonal and simply pivot your feet back to center. Hands to your hips, inhale, rise with a flat back and then come back into that foundational goddess temple pose. Let's weave one. I'll go under the other inhale.

Taking up the pattern, exhale, finding your warrior 2. Take a breath here. Really establish this shape and then allow it to start to shape shift into your photonasana pyramid post. So we'll heel toe left foot over, scoot the back foot in a little, and square the hips. We get our little helping friend the block, inhale to lengthen, exhale melt down any amount. And releasing your hands wherever they feel comfortable, working on a little squaring of the hips.

And coming back to relationship with your breath. I'm feeling that kinda gentle steam of the breath. It's not a boil. If you boil the water, you burn the tea leaves. Wow. So many little memories coming up as we open up this pathway.

Let's slide the hands forward, inhale, lift the heart, and then reset your block, and we'll come back to the center turning the heels in, inhale, come up to that foundational, goddess pose, and then turn the feet parallel, bring them in a little closer. Let's start to work into some balancing here. So we'll bend the knees and shift our weight into the right foot. And, actually, you can turn the right foot slightly on the diagonal. And shift your weight so that you're a cord or turn. A little bit of different facing.

We usually stay on kind of the two dimensional edges of the mat, but we're going diagonal today. And then let this turn into temple dancer for a moment. Cross your left ankle on top of your right knee and sitting down for a really juicy hip opener. As you inhale come back up lifting the knee. And then take your left hand down.

Let's see about a baby royal dancer here. Pressing your thigh back, lifting through the heart. We start to tilt, and you can soften your standing leg. Definitely like I'm a little teapot, right, is the upper body tilts forward. The lower body lifts and your blocks right there.

You can take your royal supported royal dancer, open the hips, and start to turn it into Chapasana. Which is our half moon variation. And it feels amazing. Opening up the quadriceps, the heart, the adductor line and the bottom leg. Go ahead and release your left foot coming into that full expression of half moon.

And then check it out. We'll step back into that foundational goddess pose inhale. There it is. Shifting your weight over to the left foot, come up to the balance, lifting right knee, Exhale hands to the heart, sit back, opening the right hip temple dancer. Steady focus, taking care of the foundation, come back up on an inhale, lift right knee.

Exale, hands come to or one hand, right hand takes right foot, right ankle. And there's always a little navigation. It's normal. Speed wobbles start to tilt forward. As you tilt forward, press your foot into your hand. Feel free to bend your standing leg as you come down, feeling those counterbalances, right, slowly pouring.

Out of the teapot. Taking your block, adjust it so it's right under your shoulder, and then start to open towards your chaplasana. Breathing, steady. Taking your time, release your foot, opening to classic half moon, Ardishendrasana. Expanding.

And then slowly stepping back to that foundational. Got his pose. Yeah. Hands to hips, straight in the front leg, straight in the feet, inhale. Lyft your chest. Exhale. Lead with the heart forward fold.

Hands to the center line of the mat. So take a couple breaths here and just empty out through your crown through the spine. Feeling that opening through the foundation, through hamstrings, and calves. Sometimes I like to take hold of the heels or ankles and draw myself a little bit deeper through the gate. Let's release the feet, and we'll take our blocks and send them to one side, turn to your renters' lunch, and have a seat.

On the mat. We'll be setting up for a little, couple of seated postures as well as the supported shoulder stand. So let's actually preset our shoulder stand props. And the simplest way to do this is to put your blankets right in the middle of your mat. So they're ready to go.

And then I like to take my mat and fold it up and over the blanket. So I have something sticky to rest my shoulders on. Head's gonna go here. Shoulder blades will go here. But before we get into our shoulder stand. Let's enjoy baddakonasana.

So bringing the soles of the feet together, perching yourself up on your seat there that you just created, lift your chest on an inhale. We're pulling the elbows back as we reach the heart forward. Forward forward. And then let yourself drape over the legs here. Inhale, re lengthen the spine.

Exhale melt. We'll keep this kind of active with this simple pulsation in how to lengthen. Many of these little nuances have learned from one of my teachers, Shiva Ray, this pulsation inside of Asana that helps us stay connected to the flow and allows us to actually get deeper into the shape in an informed way. One more time inhale lengthen. Exhale melting down.

And then on an inhale rising up to the surface, take your hands to the outer knees, bring them in, We'll keep the right heel a little wide. Extend the left leg forward on an inhale reach right arm up. Take your torso forward. Ends side of the right knee and then reach around your shin here. Back of the hand comes to the hip. You might take opposite hand behind you and link.

Or the hands might rest at the low back. Just allow yourself to drop down. Marie Chiasana is the name of this particular Asana. Wonderful opening for the shoulders and the hips. Fantastic forward fold, and it has this very internal quality.

Slowly release reaching the arms up to the sky. Let's extend right leg forward, left knee comes in, left heel's a little bit wider than hips, reach forward, and then take your left arm around your shin. Right arm behind the back and bow in. Keep the legs active. You pressing forward through right heel, pulling back through left knee, and taking whatever version of this works for you, allowing gravity to pull you slowly towards the earth.

So there's a sense of surrender. Let's inhale to rise. XL release. We'll scoot the hips forward and position ourselves so that our shoulder blades are right at the edge, maybe about an inch or so of space between the top of the shoulders and the fold of the blanket. And our head is off the edge on the floor. So from here, we have a little bit of a push.

We gotta push off the floor with feet and arms to take it over into your plow. And once you take it up and over, don't turn your head left or right. Just keep looking straight up at your own knees. If you've rolled right off the blankets, then you need to reposition yourself so that your shoulders are a little further towards where your hips were. And you can Lace your fingers and shimmy your shoulders a little underneath you before holding the low back. 1 toe to the earth or towards the earth is one leg lifts.

Go for that oppositional stretch through the top leg. And then let the bottom leg join it. And we worked on this kind of in any inversions, we want our legs to be activated. Unnutrally rotated, and the pelvis to be slight posterior tilt. So feel that activation of your foundation. Like, you're reaching into your through and into your own pants here up through the balls of your feet and feel the majestic quality of this pose.

Getting steady with the breath. Reaching from your core up into the sky. Take 2 more breaths here. And allow your heart, your consciousness, your mind to just settle into the earth beneath you like tea leaves settle into the bottom of your cup. Slowly start to lower your legs.

Over your head and fold back into plow, Halasana, releasing the arms, and very slowly rolling down your spine. We do have that little ledge underneath the head and under the sacrum. So just come down as you like. So you have You feel supported. Pause for a moment here.

Hands on the tummy, a nice, relaxed, or she curve in the lumbar spine and let your knees rest against one another. Take a very deep breath, like a motivating breath, the kind you'd take right before you decide to go into a big back bed. And then as you exhale, roll off to one side, press yourself up, because guess what? We can do it if you want. So we'll unfold our mat.

Take the blankets off to one side. And then come on back down, tuck and roll. Slowly roll it down. And without a whole lot of, Dilly Dallying. That's a word my grandma used to use.

Come up into either bridge. Right? Say 2 banda. Sarvangasna is the really long Sanskrit name, so that's why we usually just say bridge pose. And this is such a beautiful backbend hanging out right here. So fantastic to strengthen your foundation, particularly the back core, hamstrings, glutes, low back. This might feel fantastic to stay here.

If you'd like to come up into a deeper backbend, we did open up the quads a bit. And the shoulders a bit. So you're welcome to place your hands right next to your, ears come up under your crown. Bringing the elbows in and pressing up into wheel, Erud Vidania Rassen, which is a big backbend, can walk in the hands towards feet or the feet towards the houses may or may not be for everybody today, but it is an option. And it's the first cousin to bridge.

So either one of these works, breathing deeply. Opening up through the heart, taking your time to steep in this shape, And then as you're ready, slowly coming down, back of the head, shoulders, ribs, and driving knees to the chest. Let to rinse it off, take the knees over to one side, simple twist. If you need a little space to be kind to the low back, It's really nice to take your blanket and double it up, stack it up, and place it right between your knees, Oh, that's nice and hang out there. And then as you're ready engaging through your core, press through opposite arm and take it all the way over to the other side.

And resting here in this twist. Deep Braxton. Engaging through the core, squeeze the knees tight together, come back to the center, and then set your blanket to one side hug your knees into your chest. As we extend our legs long for Shavasana, You can take your blanket and just place it right over your pelvis right over your the sacrum sacred bone in the body to feel that grounding and weight right into this large bony structure that really is the meeting point for the lower body and the upper body. Let your feet roll out naturally.

Let your palms turn up towards the sky. Close your eyes. Let your breath deepen just one more time swirling through your body. To every cell, like warm water. And as you exhale, release this practice, and relax into this shape.

Full surrender. Slowly start to bring your awareness back into your body. Send a little bit of movement to your fingers and your toes, your ankles, and your wrists, knees, and elbows. Set your blanket over to one side. And hug your knees into your chest.

Give yourself a bear hug here. And then rock on over to one side and come through come up to a comfortable seated position. Let's bring the hands back together at our heart center and finding a very tall seat here. Through the crown of the head, rooting down through your sits bones. Take a deep breath in through the nose.

And exhale through the mouth. Thank you so much for joining me this morning. I hope you feel amazing, and have a beautiful day, and we'll see you in the next practice.