Root to Rise

Welcome to Root to Rise. I'm so happy you've joined me today. For today's practice, let's have one strap and let's get started on our back. So come onto your back, finding a very simple Shabhasana. Just letting your legs be long, letting your arms rest by your side.

Turning your palms up to the sky, closing your eyes. And let's take a nice big breath in through the nose. Exhale through the mouth release. One more time. Inhale. Endexhale.

And just become aware of the back of the body as it starts to surrender into the earth, feeling the backs of the thighs, knees, calves, backs of your heels, just softening. Feel the low back. The middle back and the upper back and the space between and around the shoulder blades completely softening. Let the shoulder heads relax down so we start to find an opening across the chest and the collar bones. Relax through your jawbone.

Soften the forehead and just take a moment to drop into the breath in its most natural state without changing or manipulating the breath, can you take a moment to simply witness and watch? Inhale and exhale. And allow that awareness and breath to begin to soothe the mind to begin to soothe the heart and to soothe the body. Allow the belly to be really soft. So that as you are ready, you can begin to deepen your breath.

And allow the breath to move into the belly so that as you inhale, the belly expands and it rises. And as you exhale, the belly falls. And just stay with that deep full conscious breath. Every round filling up a little bit more and releasing even more. Your next inhale, just reach the arms up over your head.

I would invite you to hook your thumbs feels okay in the shoulders. We're gonna move into one of my favorite shapes, which is called Banana Asana. So we're gonna take our upper body over to the left to begin. So the upper body is gonna curve over to the left. We wanna try to keep the right rib cage and the right shoulder down into the earth as best we can.

Arms are fully extended. And then start to take your left leg over to the left and bring your right leg over to join it. So we create this nice banana shape in the body. If your right hip is lifting, bring your right leg back because ideally our right hip is plugging down and we're feeling this really yummy stretch through the right side of the body. Flex your feet for a moment and think of pressing forward through the feet as if you're rooting down so that as you root down, you can reach out through the fingertips a little bit more creating space from the right lower rib to the right side of your pelvis.

Breathe quite deeply into the right rib cage, feeling the right rib cage expand with every inhale. And feeling that soft sweet contraction as you exhale. And let's take 3 more breaths. If you'd like, you could cross your right ankle over your left here to go a little bit deeper. I'm just feeling the heaviness of that right hip melting down, finding a really nice tractioning through the right thigh bone, Big breath in, sigh it out.

If you cross your right ankle over your left uncross, slowly bring the legs back to center. Slowly bring the torso and the arms back to center. Take a moment to bring the arms back down by the sides. Just hit the reset button before we move to the other side. Maybe wiggling out through your fingers, through your toes.

And then reach the arms up. Again, option to hook the thumbs. If it feels okay at the shoulders, full extension in the arms. Upper body and arms go over to the right. And then right leg goes over to the right. Left leg goes to the right.

Try to keep that left hit point down. Try to keep the left shoulder moving down. Let the breath just rise into that left rib cage. Flex your feet, press forward. So as if you're rooting down into the earth to reach out through those fingertips even more finding that space from the left lower rib to the left pelvis.

And then perhaps left and go over the right. Just letting the weight of that left outer hip meltdown. Few more breath. Here. Nice and easy. Just relax any effort as it comes into the forehead or the jaw. Take a nice big inhale and exhale.

If you cross left and go over right, uncross it, bring your legs carefully back to center, bringing the torso and the arms back to center, Bring the arms down by your sides for a moment. Wiggle your fingers. Wiggle your toes. And then let's hug the right knee into the chest. Give it a nice gentle squeeze in towards the chest.

And let's draw a few little circles here just to wake up and stir the thigh bone around the hip socket. Take your left hand onto your left thigh and press down to the thigh. Flex your left foot. We're gonna take a half happy baby. So perhaps grabbing the outer edge of the right foot, maybe the right big toe or maybe that right hand is to the back of thigh, but finding that happy baby, opening the right thigh bone up, taking a moment here just to gently rock side to side.

Doesn't need to be huge. And then we'll find stillness. Keep plugging this left thigh bone down. Flex your left foot and press forward again, as if you're sending roots into the earth so that everything else rises, reach the left arm up. And reach the left arm back and really find yourself for a moment, pressing forward, sending those roots to that left foot into the earth and allowing that to give you that yummy spaces you reach back through the left hand and left fingertips even more.

Two more breaths. Beautiful. And then bring your left arm down by your side. Slide your left foot back up. Release that right foot down and just pause, bringing your feet wide, your knees together for constructive rest.

Just feel that space. So nice. So now we'll bring our right leg long. Bring your left knee in, hands will wrap around the shin. Give it a big squeeze. And then draw some circles.

Just stir the thigh bone all around the hip socket nice and easy. Let's your right hand find the top of the right thigh. So with the hand suggesting that the thigh press down, flex through the right foot. So really press forward as you flex. Like, you're sending those roots into the earth. Half happy baby on this left side. So, again, so many options you could grab the left big toe.

Our left hand could come to the back of the thigh, or we could grab the outer edge of the left foot star to open that leg up. Keep pressing forward through that right foot. Keep the right thigh hugging down. Relax the left shoulder down. Reach the right arm up, float it back, keep pressing forward through that right leg, and allow that to give you the rise of the right arm, the freedom to the right side of the body.

So I'm pressing forward and down, reaching up. 2 more big full in house and big full ex house. Oh, so nice. And then from here, bring your right hand down, slide your right foot back up. Bring your left knee in. Give it a gentle squeeze.

Set your left foot down. Bring your feet nice and wide. Knees together for of rest. And then both knees this time will hover in. Give yourself a gentle squeeze.

Full happy baby. Perhaps outer edges of feet, big toes or backs of thighs. Open the legs up. And rock side to side. So just give the tail, give the sacrum gentle massage.

And then squeeze the knees in and allow yourself to begin to rock and roll forward and back. Forward and back till you have the momentum that you can make your way up onto your hands and your knees in a table. So once we're in our table, hands under the shoulders, the knees under the hips, toes are spread nice and wide. Just take a moment to inhale and arch the back, open up the chest, and exhale tuck the tail curl and round. One more just like that arching and opening, exhaling rounding.

And then tuck your toes. We're gonna tuck all ten of our toes and see if you can reach back and perhaps spread your toes. So your pinky toes are untucked here. The pad of the toes pressing into the mat, hands perhaps on the thighs and the knees. Some of you might begin to sit back, close your eyes, We're just gonna take 5 big, long inhales. Big, long exhales as we open up the bottoms of the feet. So the feet, the foundation, the feet are everything.

So as we open up our feet, we're opening up our knees, we're opening up our hips, Our shoulders, our head, our neck. Maybe shake the head. Yes. Maybe shake the head. No. Take a big breath in. Big exhale.

Come back onto your hands and your knees. Little taps with your feet here. And then tuck your toes. Lift your knees. Send your hips up and back downward facing dog.

Take a moment. Just wake up the legs. Bending one knee than the other, pulsing the chest back towards the thighs. And then slowly, slowly, slowly walking forward to the top of the mat, finding a forward bend. And just take a moment here just to grab opposite elbows, find a little movement side to side, release through the back.

And then go ahead and release opposite elbows. Slowly roll yourself up. One piece at a time, head last, roll your shoulders at the top. Keep a soft little bend to your knees. Take a nice big full breath in, belly ribs, chest, exhale from the chest, from the ribs, from the belly.

One more time. Inhale belly, ribs, and hearts. Feel that rise. Exhale hearts, ribs, and belly. And then inhale reach the arms high to the sky Grab your left wrist with your right hand.

So feel yourself really rooting down through the feet, and an opposition of the heaviness of rooting down through the feet, reach up, rise up, lift the lower ribs up and off of the pelvis. Start to side bend very, very gently over to the right, moving your hips over to the left. And then inhale back to center. Left hand gets the right wrist. Same thing. Root down.

Connect your awareness to your feet. And then use that opposition to lift up and then go over to the left. In how to center. Acts how bend the knees. Come back down into your forward fold.

Half lift, hard forward, exhale fold. One more time, half lift, hard forward, Ex helpful. Plans your fingertips or your palms. Step your left leg back. Lower your left knee down, untuck the toes.

Walk your right foot forward so right knee is on top of that right ankle, reach your arms high. Anganaasana. And then from ouranganaasana squeeze the inner thighs in, so there's that sense of rooting down using that rooting down to squeeze the thighs in and to lift up. Bring your palms together at your heart Let your thumbs connect to your sternum and the heart and let the heart reach back into the thumbs. Now from here, we're gonna twist to the right So let your left elbow find the right thigh.

Palms come together as best we can. We're turning the heart towards the direction of the thumbs. Tuck your back toes, lift the back knee, finding your low lunge prayer twist. Keep moving that right shin, right knee forward power up through the back leg and see if we can use that stability to move the crown of the head forward and turn the left ribs up to the sky for 3. For 2, And for one, release back to center, high lunge. Arms straight up to the sky. So right knee on top of the ankle, perhaps a soft bend to the back knee root down.

So feel your foundation and lift up and off of it inhale. Exhale, hands down, step forward, and fold. Half lift lengthen. Exhale fold. Slowly rise up.

Roll the shoulders once you get up to the top. In healthy arms high, exhale, bend the knees, come back down. Other side. So right leg will step back, lower the right knee, untuck the toes, heel toe the left foot forward any amount We've got that nice 90 degree bend to the knee. Reach the arms up. On Janaiosinacrescent lunch.

So same thing I'm rooting down to lift up. So squeeze the inner thighs. You're drawing that earth energy up to lift the lower ribs up and off of the pelvis and then bring the palms together at the heart lift the heart back into the thumbs, twist to your left, right elbow outside of the left thigh. Turn the heart towards the thumbs as best you can. Keep the left knee. Keep the left shin moving forward.

Tuck the right toes, lift the right knee, fire up that back leg and keep turning. Pivoting and spiraling the heart up to the sky for 3. For 2, And for 1, come back to center and then reach the arms up to the sky. High crescent lunge. Left hit back.

Right hip forward. Lift up through the navel. Lift up through the sternum. Feel the foundation of that left foot, the ball of the right foot, giving you that grounding. So you're rooting down, and you're lifting up and off of that grounding for 3.

For 2 and for 1, bring your hands down, downward facing dog, left foot steps back. Let's come forward into plank, lower down to your knees, send your hips back into your heels for child's pose, ballastana, So bringing the forehead down to the mat, extend the arms for it. Press the palms down and forward to extend the hips back towards the heels, feel that length through the low back, through the side body, taking 5 really long inhales and exhales. Directing the breath in this compressed state right into the low back. So imagine that breath filling the kidneys, rising up to the back of the heart, and exhaling, emptying from the top to the bottom.

Two more inhale. Excel. Last one, begin here, and excel. Beautiful. Come back up onto your hands and your knees. Take a moment, circle out through your hips.

We're gonna come down into a seat, bringing your legs long in front of you. So with our legs long in front of us, just shake out your legs. Bring your right knee up and towards your chest. Flex through your left foot. Now interlace your hands around the shin, we find that yourself pulling back to move the heart forward.

So we're inviting this tipping forward of the pelvis. Which is essentially giving us that grounding so that we can root down to lift everything else up. Now left hand is gonna get the outer edge of your right foot. Some of back behind you as if you're about to go into a twist. Perhaps we start to explore extending our right leg out in front of us for an seated variation of Utita Asta, Pada Gustasana, c.

So use this backhand to lift up and out of the grounding of the sits bones. Press forward through the ball of the right foot take 2 more breaths. Maybe even the gaze can move slightly back behind that right shoulder. Inhale and exhale. Now keep this right leg extended.

Keep the left hand where it is. Right arm is gonna reach forward and cross over the left arm for a variation of pull the foot towards you to lift the chest so you're reaching up and out of the pelvis. You're rooting down. You're rising up for 3. For 2, right foot comes outside of the left side for one seated spinal twist.

So I like to take my left hand onto my right knee, sometimes the right shin and just turn very, very gently. So it's pretty close to where we just were. Right fingertips behind. Let the turn. Let the twist come from the navel. So left side of the belly over to the right side. Keep lifting through the chest and then come back through center.

Keep this right leg where it is. We're gonna grab our strap. Slide your right knee as best you can over the left thigh. So we are in a half gomukhasana or what we would call is a half shoelace. Take your strap around the ball of the left foot and then pull back into the strap again to lift the chest.

So I'm grounding down. I'm using the grounding to lift up and to rise up. Most of us are gonna stay here. This is quite an intense opening. Some of us are gonna feel it in our hamstring.

Most of us are gonna be feeling this in our cat. This is gonna be just enough to stay here. So breathing here for 5 full in house and full exhales. Challenges to stay lifted to keep rising up. Last one big in here.

And exhale. Release the strap for a moment. Free your right leg up out in front of you. Bring your hands by your sides. Just let yourself relax into the shape.

Circle through your feet. If it would feel good, shake out your legs. Okay. And then we're gonna do the other side. So bring your left foot back, interlace your hands around that left shin, so just below the knee. So you'll notice the tendency for most of us in a top round and sink back.

What we wanna do, we are plugged into the earth. We wanna use the contact. We have to rise up, to lift up, right, finding that forward tilt of the pelvis, which is gonna ultimately set us free. So keep lifting through the chest. Let your right hand get the outer edge of your left foot bring your left hand behind you.

Use the fingertips to lift through the chest, and you could choose to stay right here, which is perfect. Otherwise, perhaps we work towards extending the left leg forward. Now, the leg's not gonna become completely straight for most of us. So keep at least a soft gentle bend. But the most important thing is can we lift up and off of the pelvis?

And maybe the gaze turns back past the left shoulder. That's it for 3. For 2. Keep that right hand where it is. Keep the leg extended.

Reach the left arm over the right arm. Left hand gets the inner edge of the foot, so the arms are crossed, kick out through the foot, pull back into the foot with the hands, lift the chest, shoulders back. 3 for 3. For 2. And for one seated spinal twist.

Let the left foot find the outside of the right thigh. Keep that right foot flexed right hand maybe onto that left chin or left knee. Turn to your left fingertips behind you again to lift us up. Right side of the belly to the left. Turn out to crank with the head and with the neck.

Just let this be simple. Couple more breaths. And then our Half Gomu Kossinger shoelace is we come back to center. Just slide that left knee over onto the right thigh flex through your right foot. We're gonna grab our strap again.

Take the strap around the ball of the right foot, pull back into the strap So that as you pull back into the strap, gives you that contact, that feedback to lift through the chest. So this is probably where we're gonna feel the maximum edge of our stretch for most of us. So you're gonna breathe into the back of the right leg if you're feeling it in the hamstring or if you're feeling it in the calf, but stay lifted. Keep the pelvis stepping for it and breathe. 5 big full inhale.

And big full Excels. Two more. Inhale. Last one in here. And Good. Release the strap.

Free your left leg up out in front of you. Circle out your feet. Check out your legs. Swing your legs behind you, come up onto all fours, couple of circles of the hips one way. Couple of circles the other way.

Tuck your toes downward facing dogs. It should feel like totally different down dog from when we began. Legs are very open. Shake your head. Yes and no. And then walk your feet forward to meet your hands one more time at the top of the mat.

Bring your feet nice and wide. Nice little wide legged forward fold. I like to wrap my hands around the back of my calves and just pull up into the calves to move the chest down to relax the crown of the head down as much as possible. Maybe blow through your lips and then release. Walk your feet back in and roll yourself up slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly one vertebra at a time.

Roll your shoulders once you come up to the top and just pause, feet, hip bone distance, or wider. Feel your feet, connecting into the earth, and feel the rest of the body rising up and out of that grounding, out of that rootedness, relaxing any unnecessary tension, Any unnecessary tightness anywhere else in the body. Take your left hand to your heart, your right hand on top of your left hand, lift the sternum, the heart up into the hands, rise up again, and then bow the head in towards the heart. Seal in your efforts, seal in your practice, your incredible, unique, wonderful, and beautiful body. With gratitude.

Namaste.