Focused and Clear: A 7-Day Yoga Challenge Artwork
Season 1 - Episode 7

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35 min - Practice
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Description

Join Linda Baffa in a dynamic and exciting freeform class that allows you to release external expectations. This class is designed to foster a deeper connection with your physical vessel, promote a sense of freedom in movement, and free up stress muscles. You'll have some fun getting out of your head and dropping into a creative zone, leaving you feeling uplifted and passionately engaged with your practice.

While this class is a part of Linda Baffa's Focused and Clear: A 7-Day Yoga Challenge, it can also be taken outside of the challenge at any time.
What You'll Need: No props needed

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Hello. Welcome friends. Here we are on day 6. Ready to have some fun, hopefully, and just really feel creative and free. This is by far my favorite part of the sequence and series. Let's start at the front of the mat, standing, feet about hip distance apart, and just start with a few shoulder rolls, Just sort of wiggling into your body.

You bend your knees, roll the head around. Yeah. Maybe some hip circles. You can widen your feet. Just getting to know this Beautiful vessel that gets to carry you around in this lifetime.

Good. And then maybe shake out the hands and the arms, do a few bounces. Just want you to feel a sense of freedom to move however you want. If you wanna make it into a little dance, Take your arms up, pick the fruit again. Yeah. Just all these little movements. A little twist. Take a few ax tails out of your mouth.

Good. And then I want you to reach your arms up and grab the arms. Do a few leans side to side. Getting to the side body. Good. And then take your arms and cross your right arm top of your left and grab your shoulders and just give yourself a hug here and start to move the ribs and the arms in all sorts of directions, sort of wiggling in, freeing up the stress muscle and the back and the shoulders, maybe get creative and draw a little picture with your elbows.

A little smiley face, maybe. So today is gonna be really about getting out of your head, dropping into a creative zone, a freeing zone, and excited uplifted, passionate, beautiful, fun. Maybe I said fun already. Go the other way. So you're gonna take your left arm on top of the right and just keep moving in those little unwinding circles. Maybe you come all the way down now towards your knees. Few more.

Good. Alright. And then from here, you're gonna reach up. Take a big inhale. As you exhale bow forward fold over your legs. Good. Maybe bend your knees a little bit here.

Feel free to sway side to side. Good. And then stop your left foot all the way back into a lunge, land your left palm under your shoulder, take your right arm up to the sky. Just feel this nice open twist and start to wave your right arm forward and back. So today's class is gonna be a little loosey goose just a lot of free form movement, maybe take it into a big circle. And, again, this idea of just getting out of our head and our structures and our patterns and how we think we're supposed to do things, the proper alignment, quote, unquote, just sort of letting that go today.

Yeah. Alright. Then land and plank pose. Good. And then shift back to dog pose. And do that a few times. Go back to plank pose and back to dog with the brassy inhaling forward.

Exhaling back. One more. Gonna take your right leg up into the air, bend the knee, open the hip, maybe circle the hip today. Mother direction. You could step your right foot up, warrior one stance, ground the back heel, reach straight up with your arms.

Good. Lift the heart here. Root through the feet. Good. Then take your right hand all the way back. Try to touch your left leg or just reach towards it and lift the heart space. Gonna take an inhale here.

And as you exhale heart, wheel the hands all the way out to the floor in front of you and pop your back leg up into the air, a standing split. Root through the right foot, take another breath, and then forward fold front of the mat, inhale for a halfway lift. As you exhale fold and round. Good. Let's step the right foot back. Right hand down, left arm up, twist.

And, again, waving that left arm a little forward and back, freeing up the shoulder, maybe let your head hang, and then maybe take a few big circles. Good. And then land that left hand down, plank pose, inhale, exhale down dog. Maybe rounding forward this time in hailing into plank, exhaling into dog. Does this too much. Feel free to do cat cow as well as an option.

Let's do 2 more. Follow the breath. The left leg up into the air, down dog split, circle around the left knee, and a big ball and socket joint there, freeing it up. Good. And then stop your left foot all the way forward. Warrior 1 for the inhale rise up.

Get to know your feet, land into your feet, in your legs, and then sweep your left arm back and down towards your leg, reach up through that right arm, lift the heart space, take an inhale here, and then real playful move, cartwheel the hands all the way to standing split, lift the back leg. Maybe it didn't look or feel so playful, but we do our best. Right? Take one more breath here. And then bring your feet together. Take a halfway lift inhale.

Exhale. Folding back in. Good. From here, let step back to down dog or if you wanna take Vinyasa, feel free to take a Vinyasa along the way. Good. And then from here, down dog right leg up into the air, bend the knee open the hip, Good. Step the right foot all the way up to your thumbs and warrior 2 this time. Open up.

Reverse the warrior, reach the right arm to the sky, and then come forward and take extended angle. We'll make it a little dance here. Inhale as you reach up. Exhale as you come forward. Nice and free.

Flowing with the breath, one more. Good. Okay. And let's just straighten that right leg. Parallel all your feet to the side edge of the mat. I'm just gonna face you for you this one. And then take your arms out to the side, up and out star pose.

Totally made up yoga pose that I love. Rude through the feet, jazz hands, just raise your vibration here in all directions, open your heart, maybe close your eyes and just visualize a star. Your unique light shining bright in this universe. So get in. It may feel strange. Let it feel strange.

One more breath, and then wide fold, dive forward all the way over the legs. Take a few breaths here and just mental purge unnecessary thoughts out through the head. Clearing. Let go of the insecurities, the doubts, the fears, the things that make you feel like you're not enough. Like, you can't be weird. Like, you can't do things. Like, you can't create. They just get in the way.

Take one more breath. Alright. Then you're just gonna crawl back to the front edge of the mat, step back to plank pose, optional vinyasa here, go to down dog together. Take your left leg up into the air, bend the knee, open the hip, inhale as you act sales step it forward. Warrior 2 rise up. Inhale other side.

Good. And then take it to reverse warrior. Inhale. Left arm to the sky, exhale. We take it forward into extended angle. And then flowing side to side. Like a tree, just waving in the wind. Easy breezy.

One more. Good. And then straighten out that left leg star balls. Smile, hold it, root through the feet, raise through the arms, reach through the fingers, lift through the heart, Open up. Open up. One more breath.

Widfold, parallel the feet, dive forward. Let something go. Good. Crawl to the front edge of your mat and step back to plank. Downdog or Vinyasa. Take a big inhale through your nose, hold it in, hold it in, and a sigh. Let it go.

Let it go. Do it again. Big inhale. Hold it in. Hold it in. And a big sigh. Let it go. Take your right leg up, step it forward, lower the back knee.

Half split. Pull your hips back. Good. So you could have a couple blocks here under your hands if you need a little support. Left hand's gonna stay down either on the floor or a block, and we'll twist the right arm up to the sky sort of, Arda part of Rita, Tricanasana.

So a half revolved triangle, pull your toes towards your face here. Dig your right heel down. Take another breath. Good. And then release, right hand down. Let's bend the right knee.

Lift the back knee. And pull back into a wide pyramid. So getting different layers in the hamstrings here to prepare for our next adventure. What's it gonna be? So you can, stop hop that back foot up a little, take a traditional pyramid stance, and then just keep bowing towards your right leg, maybe bend that right knee a little, left hand can stay down here as we take a full revolve triangle.

Right hand might just come to the hip. Or left hand might even come to your right shin. Try to lengthen the heart forward and then maybe play around with lifting that right arm. K? And a block here is also a nice friend sometimes, but I like the shin. It just sort of gives a little more length in the torso, that option to twist the right ribs to the right.

Take another breath here. Good. And then release and just bow towards that right leg. And then from here, we're gonna take it back into that standing split, lift the back leg up, you're welcome to stay here, or we're gonna play with warrior 3. So from the earth, lift your hands, bring them to a prayer at your heart, strong right leg here, maybe reach the arms forward, and the back leg becomes almost parallel to the earth here. Let's hold for 5 breaths.

And just look down towards your beautiful life, towards yourself standing in this pose, doing yoga, but one more breath. Feet together, prayer to the heart, give that right leg a little shake. Just did a lot of work, maybe feeling the sides of your body, the differences, Take a full deep breath. Go ahead. And then on your end, he'll sweep your arms all the way up. As you exhale bow forward and fold, take a halfway lift, inhale, exhale, vinyasa, step, or float back.

And find your way to downward facing dog. Left leg rises up. Inhale. Exhale step it forward, lower the back knee, shift your hips, back half split. Grieve here. Get to know your hamstrings, loving space, loving attention, maybe take it into that twist right hand under the shoulder, left arm, reaching up Expand through the heart.

One more breath. Good. And then release down. Then the left knee. Lift the back knee wide pyramid. Powing in.

Good. And then maybe pop it into a more traditional pyramid stance that back comes up a little bit. Right hand stays down. Left hand to hip. Maybe that's where you start, or maybe the right hand comes to the shin or a block. And the left arm, reach, is open. Stay with your breath.

Inhale for length. Exhale to twist. Good. And then slowly release. Pop it into a standing split and either stay there or warrior 3. Coming from the ground up, root through that left foot, engage your belly, reach through that back leg, prayer to the heart, or reach forward.

Now look down on your life and see the life you want to live. Maybe it's here now, maybe it's some future vision, one more breath, Good. Hold the heart space, prayer, feet together. Pause. Good. On your inhale, sweep your arms all the way up. As you exhale bow forward and fold, Take a halfway lift as you inhale and then make your way back to down dog however you'd like to get there.

Okay. From here, take your right leg back up into the air, inhale as you exhale step it forward. Okay. So pause here. Walk your fingers out in front of you. This is the adventure I was talking about. Well, lift your back leg up into the air here.

And then you can stay in standing split, or maybe you need to walk yourself back so your hands are on your mat. And then you're gonna lift maybe your right heel, push into your hands, strong straight arms, Look out in front of you just a little bit and just take a little hop towards a handstand. So playful, fun, light, freeing, creative, have fun, little hops. If you're working on trying to nail your handstand, Good luck. No. But seriously, maybe try to just tap your right foot towards your left leg. So your right knee stays bent and you're just trying to tap it.

And that's gonna turn on your deep core muscles. Okay? So do a couple more, little taps, strong straight arms, Oh, maybe you flip over. Have fun. I'll be honest. This is my nemesis pose, and I think that's why I love it so much. So do a couple more on that side.

Maybe say, wee. I love bringing the feet together. Take a halfway lift, inhale, back to down dog, exhale, however you wanna get there. Left leg rises up, inhale as you exhale step it forward. Sometimes one side's easier than the other, fingers out, back leg up, find your standing split, and either stay there, or with that left heel, let that left foot become a little spring.

Find your breath. So even in play and fun, we can always still stay connected to the breath. It's extremely helpful and then little hubs. Breathing, smiling. Last couple of tries here.

Don't worry about it being perfect. Don't worry about it getting it right. Just try. Forward full in front of the man. Let's just go ahead and sit down onto the mat.

And roll onto the back. Put one hand on your belly, one hand on your heart, and just feel your vibration feel that energy surge. Soak it in. Good. And then feet about hip distance, arms come alongside your body here. Inhale for bridge pose, lift the hips.

Maybe wiggle the arms towards each other. Interlace your fingers, press down through the arms, reach your tailbone towards that space between your knees, and reach your heart towards your chin. Smooth out your breath. Good. And then slowly release one vertebra at a time all the way down. Take a pause.

Coming back to that heart space. And, really, today, especially that quality of opening up, expanding your vibration. We'll do another backbend here. You're welcome to take bridge again. Or if you'd like to try out full wheel, put your hands Behind your shoulders, fingers point towards the shoulders, elbow squeeze together, and then push into the feet, lift the hips, maybe just come to the top of the head first and then push all the way up, offer the heart, back, reaching root through the feet, tailbone moves towards the space between the knees, free up the head, and receive and open.

And then slowly. Oh, or yourself all the way down and take another pause. Maybe again, bringing a hand to the belly and a hand to the heart. We are so capable of expansion Let me start to connect and clear and cleanse and remove and calm and then clarify to get to this place. You get to create the world you wanna live in.

Every moment, every day. But sometimes it's hard to feel that, so feel it. So if you have one more backbend in you, feel free to take it. Otherwise, maybe just bring the soles of the feet together, soupta baddha Kannasana, opening your hips for a few breaths. From here, we'll guide the knees towards the chest into happy baby. So you can grab the outer edges of your feet or your ankles.

Do a little rock side to side. Maybe even going backwards in time and feeling this child like innocence before you thought you knew everything. Right? Playful and curious. Maybe it becomes a very happy baby, hook the big toes, take one leg or both legs out to the side. But if that doesn't make you feel very happy, go back here.

Take another breath. Alright. Go ahead and hug your knees together and take your left leg all the way out long, and we'll twists, the right knee over, taking universal twists, the right arm out to the right, maybe the head turns to the right. I'm just removing here, again, letting something go. Any limiting beliefs Mary Ann Williamson says our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

One more breath. Come back to center and release your right leg out, hug your left knee in. Cross it over. Take your left arm out to the left. She continues to say it is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous, actually, who are you not to be?

Two more breaths. And then bring your back to center, hug your knees into your chest, big inhale here, maybe squeezing into a tight little ball today. Squeeze your face. Hold your breath. And on the exhale, just let it all go.

Let your whole body just splay out into the earth. Taking up some space here for a really powerful Shavasana today. I'd like to guide you through a visualization. So just landing on your back. Receive the support of the Earth.

And I want you to start to visualize the inside of your body filled with lights. Illuminating every cell. Any color of light, but it's bright. It's so bright, and it is radiating. Inside your entire entire physical body.

And if you like, you can attach a name to this light, a word, a feeling, something you wanna grow, something you wanna manifest, something you wanna create. And then start to feel this light emanating out of your pours and starting to spread into the space around you. Bright light pouring out of the walls, if you're in a contained space outside touching the earth, touching nature, trees, and mountains, landscape, the rest of your city, the rest of your state, the rest of your country just keep pouring this light all the way out from the center of your being. Just keep visualizing it. Stretching and reaching and growing, touching everyone in the world, maybe it even gets to some other planets and moons, the entire universe.

From you. Expand. And harness your awareness back towards yourself back to the light inside of you. When you feel ready to start to gently Come back into your body. Little movements in the fingers and the toes.

Bend your knees and softly roll to one side into the fetal position. Just make a pillow with your bottom arm. And let this be a moment of rebirth back into your day, back into your life. What are you ready to create? What are you ready to focus on?

How are you gonna harness your potential? Your purpose. When you're ready to come up, use your hands, find a comfortable seat, prayer to the heart. Bowing your chin towards the light inside of you. When we uplift ourselves, we uplift everyone around this.

When we honor our potential and our purpose, We share it, and we let ourselves feel connected. There's a reason we're all here. Right? Each of us unique little snowflakes. Let's take one more easy inhale through the nose. And tie it out in the house.

Now go have an awesome day. Thanks.

Comments

Christel B
3 people like this.
What a fun practice!, hopping into what is the beginning of my challenging pose, exploring movements and letting our lights shine.Thank you Linda.
Sandra Židan
Thanks for this beautiful and interesting practice, Linda! Namaste! 🥰❤️
Brigitte M
I liked very much the end with the visualisation. Very powerful! Thank you ✨ What is the name of the woman you quoted?
Marchel A
She quoted American Author, Marianne Williamson: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
Jennifer H
This was a beautiful class! The positions were very creative and unique. My body enjoyed them. I also love Marianne Williamson reference and your savasana imagery. Thank you Linda!

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