Calm

Welcome friends. Here we are day 4, right in the middle of this challenge. Congratulations for coming so far. And today is just really about finding a place of calm and ease and contentment with ourselves We've connected. We've cleared. We've cleansed.

So let's drop into it right away with a child's pose. Come towards the back half of your mat, widen your knees, and just stretch your arms out in front of you. And just nestle in here, taking a few slower breaths, inhale through the nose. Exhale out the nose or in the mouth. And just feel yourself connect to the earth.

Connect to your body. Connect to your spirit. How are you? Connect to this moment. You can stay right where you are or walk your arms to the right for a couple breaths, one hand on top of the other.

Draw the left hip back. Smooth, steady. Soft breath in and out. Walk your hands. Back through center and over to the left. Again, one hand on top of the other, draw the right hip back.

Can you hear the breath? Like, a soft whisper. And crawl yourself back through center and rise up to your hands and your knees. Let's take a few rounds of easy cat cow, inhale the heart reaches forward, exhale round back. Inhale.

Stretch, lengthen, exhale. Really press and round. See if you can really feel your breath guiding your movement here. Nice and slow. Let's walk the arms forward into half dog, melt the heart towards the earth, keep the hips over the knees.

The chin or forehead might touch the earth here. Breathe into the hearts. Good. Walk your hands back and gently lower the chest into that crocodile we did on the first stay heart melting shoulders back. And on your inhale, sliding into a baby cobra, wiggle the legs back, lift your chest. And then lower down.

Let's take it into a wide cobra. Finger tips off, and that elbows up in. He'll lift your heart. Exhale down. And then you choose either regular cobra or wide cobra rolling up and down a few more times, warming up your back, Good.

And then let's put the hands back by the ribs. Press to your first downward facing dog and take a few petals of your feet. Bending one knee, and then the other. Good. And then pause in downward dog, take a full inhale, long exhale, Then lift your heels up. Gently put the knees down and the chest right between the thumbs, crocodile.

Inhale as you slide into cobra. Exale as you push back downward facing dog. Again, take an inhale, lift your heels, as you exhale lower down the knees, the chest, the chin, inhale as you slide into cobra. And exhale downward dog. So just nice and gentle.

One more inhale lift the heels. Exhale is you gently lowered down knees chest chin. Inhale, bhujangasana cobra. And exhale downward facing dog. Alright. Let's lower the knees.

And sit on your heels, or you can sit on a block between your heels. I'm just gonna face you here. I'm gonna pause in Burrasana sitting upright, either on that block or on the earth. Let your palms just face up on your thighs, and we're gonna mix in some alternate nostril breaths into the practice, which is so calming for the nervous system, and it really helps balance the brain halves. So we're gonna take the peace fingers to the third eye center.

Close your eyes. Your left palm can just rest on your lap. Right thumb is gonna be free to block off. Right nostril, right ring finger, block off the left, and we'll go side to side a few times. So go ahead and exhale all the air out of your lungs. Inhale through the left for 2.

3, hold for 4, and then block the left, and exhale sees a right for 2. For 3 or 4. Inhale through the right. 2, 3. 4, exhale left. 2, 3, 4.

Inhale left. Exhale. Right. In hell. Right? Exhale left. 1 more round, inhale left.

Ax Hill right. And Hill right. Ax Hill left. Just release your right hand, breathe in, and out through both nostrils. And notice how you feel. Let's come back into the physical practice Place your hands out in front of you, back to your hands and your knees, and then move your way back into downward facing dog.

Gently walk your feet up to your hands. Forward fault. Take a halfway lift as you inhale to a flat back. And as you exhale, fold and pause. So grab the backs of your legs here or your heels or your big toes and just actively pull into the legs.

Maybe let the head hang and dangle. Yes and no. One more full deep breath here. And then release that grab. And then you might want one of your blocks here.

You're gonna put it under your left hand bend your left knee, maybe widen your feet a little bit here and twist your right arm to the sky. Just a nice, easy twist. Foldy breath, and really sit down, right hand to the block, or the earth's left arm up, bend the right knee and twist. Go ahead and lower it down. Let's step back into a lunge, left foot back, right, foot forward.

And you might want two blocks for this. You're gonna put your left knee down and just lean into the hips here. Good. Then pull your hips back and straighten out your right leg. Good. Now bend the right knee and dip the hip forward, inhale here as you exhale, pull the hips back straighten the front leg. Just go forward and back a couple more times on your own.

Getting into your hips and your pelvis. Good. And then let's switch the legs. So just lift the back knee, step forward, front of the mat, and then step right foot back. Lower the back knee. Lean the hips forward a little, reach through the heart, inhale here.

As you exhale, pull your hips back. Good inhale, bend the knee. Reach through the heart. Exhale. Pulling back.

Couple more. Flow with the breath. Feel your left heel. Really digging down. Supporting this shift forward and back.

Good. X time you bend that front knee lift the back knee, step forward front of the mat, switch your legs again, left foot back. This time, keep your back knee off the earth. Maybe come even a little higher on your if you want. Inhale here, reach through the heart, maybe dip the hips a little.

And as you exhale, pull back into a wide pyramid. And then inhale to bend that right knee and exhale to pull back. Put 2 more like that. Grounding into the sole of the right foot, the right heel, right leg is so strong and supportive. Good. Just flowing with the breaths.

And then step forward, front of the mat, switch those legs, right foot, back, keep the knee up, melt the hips, lift the heart, inhale, Exhale as you pull back. Inhale. Bend the knee. Exhale. Pull back. Two more. Meeting your body with a lot of ease, a lot of presence, Good step forward front of the mat, move the blocks to the side, take a halfway lift, inhale, exhale fold.

Step back find plank pose and either hold plank or maybe take a slow vinyasa on the x hale, inhale to lift the heart, and exhale to downward facing dog. Take your right leg up in the air, stretch it behind you, maybe bend the knee to open the hip. Good. And then step your right foot all the way between your hands, coming into warrior 2, inhale to rise up. Beautiful. Pause for a couple breaths and just land into your feet. Reverse the warrior.

Reach the right arm up. The left hand glides down the back leg. You can just hold here or maybe grab your head, bend your right elbow, and just grab the base of your skull and lean back. Lean into your hand. Take one more breath.

Good. And then coming forward, let's take a extended angle, bringing the right forearm to the right thigh, left arm either up or over your ear. Maybe a half wrap here, or you could hold the back of the head here with your left hand and lean back into it. So any of those options, maybe even a neck release, another breath, Good. And then use the strength of the legs to slowly come back up, warrior 2. And then we're gonna make it into a little inhale reverse warrior, exhale lean forward, take extended angle, just flow side to side inhaling back to reverse. Exhaling to extended angle.

One more. Lift up. Inhale. Lean forward, exhale. Good. Then come all the way back to warrior 2 and straighten your right leg parallel the feet to the side edge of the mat wide leg forward fold and just pause right there. Close your eyes.

Breathe into your body, grab your legs, really hold them nice and tight, shoulders away from the ears. 2 more rounds of breath. Good. And then from here, you're gonna crawl back to the front edge of your mat, right foot forward over to the right a little bit, and then the hands will come in your right foot, lower the back knee here, and just feel a lizard lunge. Maybe drop down to your elbows as an option. Or elbows could be on a block.

Some of you might wanna grab your lizard tail, reach back, grab your foot with your right hand, and land for a couple breaths. Again, keep coming back to a place that feels easeful, calm, and present. Go ahead and release that and then wiggle your right foot in and straighten out your front leg. You might want your two again here, half split, or option for full split, if you'd like to explore, I like to use Two Blocks as a right leg slides forward. And then just coming into your split, whatever that like for you today.

Maybe that right leg is lifted. Maybe you could even put a block under your right leg playing around with some stability here. Last two breaths. Let's slowly release. Spend that right knee and meet your way back into down dog.

Maybe there's a Vinyasa along the way. Flush it out. Left leg rises in your down dog. Reach it behind you. Maybe bend the knee.

Step your left foot up between your thumbs, inhale for a warrior 2, and just land, settle in, Same thing we did on the other side, reverse the warrior, reach the left arm up, maybe grab the base of your skull and hold your head here and just lean back into your hand. Let it feel good. Let it feel nurturing. Release that lean forward, left forearm to your thigh, extended angle, right arm either up or over the ear, or whatever you did on the other side, you know, make it your own. Maybe there was a wrap, head hang, Where's your breath?

Let it be smooth. Let it be silky. Good. And then slowly coming back up. Warrior 2. And starting to find your dance, rooting through the feet, reach back, reverse warrior, and then reach forward extended angle.

Reach back, reverse, flowing with your breath, exhaling as you come forward. 1 more. Come all the way back to warrior 2 straighten out your left leg, parallel the feet to the side edge of the mat. This time, you might wanna interlace your fingers at your lower back, inhale, lift your heart. Exhale, hip hinge, and bow forward.

You choose either stay there, hands interlaced or, again, grabbing your legs somewhere. So Forward folds are very calming for the nervous system. They stimulate the kidneys and the adrenal glands, and they just allow us to drop inward to soften and breathe. 2 more breaths. Let's come up to the fingertips, and we'll crawl around to the front edge of the mat.

Pivoting that left foot over to the left into lizard pose, drop the back knee, and maybe reach back with that left hand end, or maybe you lower down to the elbows, honor what you do on the other side. And slowly release, wiggling that left heel in a little. Let's come to half or full split. Possibly using a couple blocks. I'm just wiggle in to your version.

Splits is one of those shapes that's just really changed for me over the year. And it's a beautiful thing. I love my forty something year old splits. And we just come into this moment, this body as it is. Nurturing awareness.

Deep breaths. Slowly. We're kinda come out. And then again, maybe a Vinyasa or maybe just step back downward dog. Smooth, long inhale. Smooth, long exhale.

From here, lower your knees. Let's grab the two blocks and Put them either at the middle level or the lower level. I like the middle level. I have a a bendier back, so you might try that out if you have a bendier back and then less bendy, maybe the lower level, but the elbows are gonna come on the blocks, palms together, And then the knees will inch back as the palms come up, and you wanna sort of get the 4 r I'm sorry. The try set muscles right above the elbows there just onto those blocks and melt the heart down towards the floor.

The head might touch the earth, or maybe the head just hangs in its own weight, and we breathe into the heart space here. Some of you might even feel like you can bring your thumbs towards your spine. Big long breath. Good. And then dig down into those elbows and slowly come up. Walk your blocks off to the side.

Let's go into pigeon again. So right knee forward, left leg back. So we got into this a little bit in the last practice. Let's just come back. Feel that sense of surrender, you're certainly welcome to come onto your back and thread needle instead.

Of course, always an option. Maybe since we have the blocks, you could even use them as a little pedestal coming up a little bit. Resting your head. Take 5 more breaths. And then coming out of this side.

And making your way over to the other. However you like to get there. And then dropping in and just really feel that you're taking care of yourself today. Calming and slowing. This is truly how we connect.

By taking the time by being patient by nurturing each moment with care, with love. Most of us don't do this for ourselves enough. And it's so desperately needed. 2 more calming breaths. As you're ready, slowly coming out.

And then let's just come to a seat, grab your blocks, and we're gonna make a heart bench. Which you feel really good to end our practice with. So you can either do one block at the higher level and one block at the middle level like this or you could do one block at the lower level and then that other block at the middle level. So maybe you try the malware version, which is this, and then go to the other version. If you know you like the other version, go ahead. You're gonna lean back onto that first block.

It comes right under your rib cage. Right under your mid upper back. If you have a clip in your hair, take it out. And then your head comes on to that second block. And you just feel the block support you.

The arms go out to the side. The palms face up. Maybe make some goal. Post arms or splay the arms. Just find maybe even some angel wings.

Up and down until you feel like you can land. There should be no pinching in the low back. Fully supported here on your blocks, fully supported on the earth. And then the legs can really do many things. They could come into butterfly, outer edges of the feet together, or maybe the legs long. Or maybe you just keep your knees bent, let your knees fall together like a teepee.

And you can either just let your breath feel natural and effortless Or you can consciously slow it down. Maybe counting up to 3 as you inhale. And the same count as you exhale. So we're consciously shifting in this series of classes into the heart space. The heart space is where we give and receive.

And from all the clearing and cleansing, maybe now really feeling that you can honor this space of the heart. And start to really tune into why you're here. And receive it. You're welcome to stay here a little longer. Maybe even for the rest of class, if it's feeling good.

Otherwise, you're gonna gently come off the blocks. You can use your arms a little or roll to the side, move the blocks off to the side, and then land on your back. Put your feet on the earth and just windshield wiper your lower legs a little side to side. Hug your knees into your chest. Give yourself a little squeeze.

Maybe take it to happy baby, get into your hips a little. And then eventually start to land on your back, Shavasana. Splay the arms out. Maybe move the head side to side just to encourage the weight of the head to sink down into the earth in the backs of the shoulders, spreading, the weight of your pelvis and hips sinking. And today, just imagine the earth holding you in the palms of her hands.

The mother. Holding you. And from that feeling, just let yourself be held. There there. There there.

As always, if you have more time, feel free to stay here and linger. Otherwise, start to gently wiggle your toes and your fingers. Bend your knees and take a off roll to the right side and just pause in the fetal position, maybe put your head on your right arm. Just feel this transition back into your day. Use your left hand and guide your way up to a comfortable seats.

We'll meet there with the eyes softly closed, prayer to the heart, bowing the chin down as a gesture of gratitude. What are you grateful for in particular today? Bring it into your heart and take one more breath in through the nose. Out through the mouse. Thank you so much.

Stay well.