Connect

Hi, friends. Welcome to this challenge focused and clear day 1. I'm so honored to be your guide through this series of classes that are really gonna help us feel aligned and connected to ourselves. Coming back to center and feeling just a sense of deep connection to who we are. And realigning how we feel. So let's start on the back with a big hug of the knees into the chest. Wrapping your arms around your legs, you might wanna gently rock side to side, massaging the back.

And just really feeling this as an act of self love. Hold your body. Welcome yourself to this practice. You've carved out this time. You've set the intention to be here.

So really be here. Take a full deep breath in through the nose and say it out your mouth. And just do that again. A big inhale, maybe squeezing yourself just a little tighter, and then a long exhale. Go ahead and put your left foot on the floor.

Take your right leg up to the sky interlacing your hamstrings. And then point and flex your right foot, maybe do a few ankle rolls. And here you can decide if you wanna extend that left leg along on the earth. And then we're just gonna hold the hamstring stretch here by gently pushing the right leg towards the palms. Activate the stretch.

Take a big inhale. And as you exhale, push into your hands just a little more feel the shoulders draw down away from the ears. And then just stay here for about 5 more breaths. Maybe push your heel up towards the sky. Soft in your face.

And start to come into a smoother deeper breath in and out only through your nose. The awareness of the breath, the quality of the breath, helping us hone in our focus. And gently bend your right knee and guide journey across your body. You can use your left hand here as you guide it all the way towards the left. Take your right arm out to the right, maybe up at an angle between the shoulder and the ear for a universal twist.

So this specific twist, just getting the entire right side of the body, helping to unravel tension in the spine and the shoulder and the hip. We sorta get it all here. Let's take 2 more breaths. Good inhale back to center and put your right foot on the earth, bring your left leg up into the air, and we'll switch sides. Maybe that right leg comes down.

Point and flex the left toes. Maybe a little circle of the ankle. Starting to feel that gentle press of the leg into the hands. As you press the leg, you might feel the lower belly pull in. So we're strengthening the front of the body to stretch the back of the body.

You might feel this all the way in the low back. The neck gets longer. Press your left heel up. And then 2 more, really nurturing breaths. Right into those large muscle groups of the hamstrings, calf, Good. And then go ahead and bend your left knee.

I cross that knee over your body. Use your right hand here to guide it. Take your left arm out to the left. Nice, juicy. Twist.

Maybe feeling the call the sigh out of the mouth. Letting something go. As we twist, we release. And part of coming back to center, back to yourself, back to alignment is recognizing what you don't need. One more breath here.

Good. And then come back to center. Let's hug both knees into the chest one more time. Big hug. Big squeeze. Big breath. And then you can rock yourself up or roll to the side, and we'll come into ballast in a child's pose.

Towards the back half of your mat, maybe widen your knees. The big toes can touch. The hips sink back towards the heels. And just really nestle into a shape here that feels good, that feels comfortable, that feels like you can drop in. Maybe the head wants to move side to side or even the hips a little side to side.

And then really land here. We'll 2 we'll do about 3 deep breaths, and I'm gonna guide you through it. So go ahead and exhale all the air out of your lungs, and then slowly inhale for 3. Keep inhaling for 2. Hold your breath in on 1, and slow exhale for 3.

For 2. For 1. Inhaling 3. 2. 1.

Agsailing 3. 2. More. Inhale, 3, 2, 1, long exhale. And then rise up to your hands and your knees.

And we'll just do a few rounds of cat cow. Just easy round of the spine. Push into the palms in. He'll stretch your heart forward. Exhale rounding.

Good inhale arching. Shoulders draw back. Let's just do one more of those. Good. And then from here, walk your knees back just a couple inches and melt your heart right between your thumbs. This is called crocodile pose.

The chin might lightly rest. The shoulders draw back. The heart is sinking down the hips stay lifted. Just feel that in the heart. One more breath here.

And then slide onto the belly into a baby cobra Keeping your hands where they are. Squeeze the elbows in. Inhale. Lift the heart. Exhale. Lower down. Good. Again, inhale.

Lifting into a baby cobra. And then exhale lower down like a wave, inhale lift up. And then exhaling lower. Good. Let's go into a downward facing dog. Tuck your toes.

Press your hips up and back. And just take a few little movements here that feel good, maybe paddle out your feet. Few nods of your head. Maybe even flutter your lips a couple times. Just letting go.

Letting your body. Just drop in to this shape. To this practice. To each and every breaths. Good. So we'll flow a little now.

Take a big inhale. And as you exhale, lower the knees and lower the chest right between the thumbs again. And as you inhale, slither into cobra, roll the shoulders back. Good. Exhale. Lower down. Good. And then push back downward facing dog.

Maybe coming through the knees, pause for a breath. Good. Take another inhale here. As you exhale, lower down knees, chest, chin, inhale sliding into cobra, roll the shoulders, exhale lower down, and then make your way back to downward facing dog. Warming up the arms. One more breath here.

Good. And then one more little flow. Big inhale. Exhills. You gently lower the knees, the chest, chin, inhale, slither into cobra, and exhale lower back, downward facing dog, Let's give the arms a little break by walking the hands back to the toes. Take a halfway lift here inhale to a flat back, and as you exhale fold. Good. Let's grab the elbows.

Or the forearms, whatever is more accessible, and just do a gentle sway side to side. Maybe a few more nods of your head, flatter the lips, or even sigh out your mouth. Every exhale is an opportunity to release, to let go, to just move some energy away from you. Something that is not serving you, something you don't need. One more breath.

Good. And then slowly roll up. Release your arms. Bend the knees. One vertebra at a time. And then once you get all the way up, start to roll your shoulders.

Big shoulder rolls. Think self massage here. And then the other direction, Yeah. Good. And then let's reach the arms up over the head and grab the elbows or forearms here. And just take a lean over to the right, pulling on your arms, get a little side body.

Good. And then inhale back up. And as you exhale, you're gonna go over to the left and then inhale back up and just do one more on each side over to the right inhaling up. And then over to the left. Good inhaling up. Reach the arms back up.

Inhale here. As you exhale, just dive forward and fold over the legs. Take a halfway lift again, inhale to a flat back, and then exhale fold. Good. From here, you're gonna crawl yourself back out, find downward facing dog. And then let's shift forward into plank pose, a high push up position. Pause here, root through the palms, maybe lower the knees if you need a little support today.

Honor your body, honor your energy level, honor your strength. This practice is all about connecting to what is what is here for you and become curious. One more breath here. And then we'll go back to downward facing dog. And you can either hold dog or a few times adding another flow inhale to shift forward to plank, and then exhale, press back to down dog.

Few more inhale maybe rounding the spine coming into plank and then back to downward facing. Follow the breath, plank, and dog. Last one. Good. Walk your hands back to the toes.

Find your forward fold. Take a halfway lift, inhale, flat back, a tail fold deeper. Good. Now bend the knees and ragged all the body up again. So just really feeling each vertebra stacking on top of the other, realigning your spine, head bobbles last on top. Do another shoulder roll or 2.

Maybe even shake. Shake your hands. Bend your knees, just sort of feel everything loosen up a little. Yeah? Alright. Now we ground. So from that place of shaking off, we're just gonna ground through the soles of the feet, ta Dasin, at Palms, flare forward, feel the whole body turn on from the feet, root through the top of the head. Good. Let's move it into Rixasen, a tree pose.

So hands can come to prayer at your heart or at your hips. The right foot's gonna come up first. And either touch your ankle or your calf or maybe your inner thigh. Yeah. And then just feel your center. Feel the left foot spreading and growing roots into the earth. Feel your right foot squeezing towards your left leg.

So there's this drawing in as though there's just just long light beam in the center of your body and everything is sucking into that. From the foot all the way to the top of the head. Maybe the arms reach up. 3 more breaths. Study your gaze.

Release down and gently switch. Feel free to shake out your left leg a little bit. Right foot down, left foot up, anywhere on the leg. So we're here. To practice.

Right? We're here to be with ourselves as is. And through that journey, we connect. Right? We don't need to go into the future, how much we wish we maybe weren't wobbling or falling right now.

We don't need to worry. We can just land and deeply accept and deeply connect to how we are as is right now. Maybe reaching the arms up. Few more breaths here. Steady gaze.

You know, if you think about a tree, it just is a tree. It's just there, standing tall, rooted, being, When you're ready, go ahead and release down. Feel free to shake out that right leg. And then just pause here. Feet rooted, prayer to the heart.

Wow. Your chin down and just connect to an intention, maybe. Why are you here? What do you need? One more breath. Alright. Blink your eyes open, and let's take a nice big wide step on the mat facing one side of the mat.

We're gonna build a little bit more strength here. Right toes are gonna point to the Long edge of the mat, then, the right knee, take the arms wide for warrior 2. And just feel out your stance. Right? Maybe it's a little longer, maybe it's a little shorter, but you're feeling steady. Rooted, connected, right, from that tree pose, bring it in here, and then spread some space and length across your arms, across your chest, Couple more breaths here.

Let's take it to reverse warrior. Take the right palm up. Reach the right arm to the sky. Lift the right side ribs. Good. Keep grounding into the sole of your right foot and then pull away from your right foot.

So that right rib cage is lifting up and away. One more breath. Good. And then slowly straighten your right leg. Keep lengthening the right side body. Big inhale here. As you exhale, take your right hand down to your shin.

Take your left arm up, find triangle pose, Chicanasana. So any variations here, if you wanna block for the right hand, feel free to put it inside outside the leg. I always like to put the back of my right hand on my inner shin as a way of pushing into the leg and expanding open through the chest a little more. Gaze can be up or down. Let's take 2 more breaths.

Good. And then come up. Flip it around all the way to the other side. Left toes pointing to the other side of the mat, bend the left knee warrior too. Your arms are getting a little tired, feel free to put your hands on your hips, or stay in the strength and stay in the integrity of showing up into your body. Right?

Show up to yourself as you are. So if there's weakness, observe it. Be with it. Maybe close your eyes here. That's always a nice invitation to connect inward.

Left palm faces up, reverse the warrior, reach the left arm to the sky, Feel this heart opening in the left side ribs. Heart reaches to the ceiling, to the sky. Stay with the breath, and then start to straighten out your left leg. Big inhale here as you exhale come down slowly towards your triangle pose, stack your arms, maybe grab your block. Both shoulders are away from your ears here.

The ribs are reaching forward. Maybe you're playing with the back of the hand frosting into the left shin. Couple more breaths. When you're ready, go ahead and root through both feet and slowly come up. Hands to your hips, parallel the feet, So the toes are pointing the wide edge of the mat, inhale, lift your heart.

And as you exhale bow forward, wide leg forward fold. Hands can stay on the hips or slide down to your calves or your ankles, or maybe even hook your big toes with your peace finger Draw the shoulders away from your ears. Let's take about 2 more breaths here. Really pulling into the legs. Maybe let something go. Again, of the brain, out of the head, out of the breath, Good. And then put your hands back on the hips and slowly rise up big inhale here.

Alright. Wiggle your feet together. And then let's just sit down in the center of the mat. Let your feet come forward and grab behind your knees here. Lift all through the hearts. And then we're gonna slowly roll down.

I call these yoga sit ups because they're just really mindful, and they're really intentional to target the core center. So when we think about connecting to ourselves, the I'm statement lands right here in the core center. So You can keep holding your legs, or you can reach your arms forward for more challenge. And we're gonna lower down for a count of 5. Pull the belly in. 4, 3, maybe closing the eyes. The feet stay rooted.

2, So on one, you're gonna just barely touch the lower back, keep the shoulders lifted, and then come back up. 5. 4. You might want your knees. 3, 2, all the way back up. 1, let's try it one more time, exhaling 5. You can keep the breath moving, of course, for pull the belly in.

You might imagine you're holding a ball here between your hands if they're reaching forward. Last two. One. Good. And then back up. Use the belly. 5.

4, 3, 2. 1. Good. Okay. Let's put the hands back behind us for an easy tabletop. So just rooting through the feet, rooting through the palms, lift your hips up to the guy, feel that stretch in your belly, in your shoulders. Maybe the head wants to hang back, releasing the neck. Just an option.

2 more brass. And slowly lower the hips back down to the earth. Alright. Let's take the right leg out, left foot in. We'll finish with a Johnyusha, and then another hamstring stretch here. You can pull the flash from your sit bones.

If your body tends to round here, you may wanna get a little prop under your seat, like a blanket or a block inhale to reach your arms to the sky, exhale to reach for your right foot. So you might grab it, or you might just grab the cat, or you can even grab the edges of your mat. Right? And you might even bend a little here. Inhale again to reach your heart forward as you exhale round towards your right leg and just pause there. Deep in your breath.

Keep leaning into a place of acceptance towards yourself. Towards where you are in this stretch, in this moment, Let's take one more Full cycle of breath. Gently roll up and switch sides. Again, maybe feel at your hips, pull the flesh from the sit bones, reach up for the inhale, find some length, as you exhale, reach for your left leg anywhere. Take another inhale to lengthen the heart forward.

Take another exhale to bow in. And, again, just pause. Practice pausing, practice landing into the moment at hand This is how we connect. This is how we pay attention. Slowing down breathing, being.

Maybe ask yourself here. Where can I soften a little more Last full deep breath? But slowly roll yourself up. Alright. So we'll come to our ending shape, which might be a seated meditation for you today. Or it might be a shavasana lying on your back.

So just nestle yourself in. Let your eyes softly close. Let your arms and shoulders melt down softening your neck and your face. Allow yourself to absorb the benefits of your practice today. Soak in the stillness, the pause, Feel yourself landing, grounding, connected.

And before you move your body, just once more become aware of the stillness, become aware of how you feel. And if you could wrap it up into one word, what would it be? If you're on your back, you can stay there as long as you need or even if you're seated feel free to stay. If you're ready to go back into your day, just slowly come up a comfortable seat. If you're not already there, and we'll meet together with a prayer at the heart, bowing the chin down towards the palms, sealing this practice today with so much gratitude.

Thank yourself for showing up. Thank yourself for honoring your body and connecting to your breath. And most of all, thank yourself for making a connection to you, to your spirit. It's been a pleasure practicing with you today. Stay well. Thank you.