Powerfully Present

This is the nervous system reset, and welcome to powerfully present. You'll need a block for this class. Lying down on your back. We'll start there. Grabbing your block and just setting your block in your upper inner thighs.

And then at that point, just let your arms rest alongside your body. You can Close your eyes or keep them open as long as you soften your gaze. Draw your attention towards your navel and just notice your navel rising and falling as you breathe. So tuning in to your breath and to this present moment. For this moment in time to start to bring some awareness also to your feet.

They're about hip width apart on the mat, and you're grounding down through all four corners of your feet. We'll take a deep inhale through the nose, filling in the abdomen. Your navel is rising. And as you exhale, notice your abdominal muscles contracting. So you're drawing the sides of your belly towards your navel, like you're hugging your navel, Your back starts to flatten just a little more towards the mat. And we'll notice that again, inhale deeply filling your abdomen, It expands.

The naval rises. As you sail, the sides of the belly, draw in towards the navel, like it's hugging the navel. Your back is a little flatter. And then from here, let's take the hands underneath the heads. We're gonna interlace your fingers there.

Elbows are wide inhale through your nose. And as you exhale hugging your block, lifting your head and shoulders off the mat, so starting with just a little bit of core work, to drop in, inhale as you lower, exhale as you lift, squeezing your block lightly, In Hello, or x l lift. Keep going at your own pace. When you come up, press your feet into the mat. So it just hugs your block a little bit more.

We'll do 5 more. Maybe lower just halfway, inhale, exhale lift. 3 more. So powerfully present, drawing attention to our naval intelligence. And then on this next one, you're gonna hold your head up as you come up and reach your arms forward.

See if it possible as you press your feet into the mat to lift just a little bit higher squeeze in your block. Taking your shoulder blades off the mat. Hold. And then exhale to lower. Remove the block from in between your thighs. We're gonna continue.

You're gonna hold lock in between the palm of your hands, your fingers are pointing straight up, and your fingers are straight. Table top your legs so your knees I like personally to draw my knees in just a little bit closer towards my body, so my back feels more flattish. We're gonna do some heel tops. So you're squeezing your block with your palms, engaging your arms as you inhale. You'll lower your right heel.

And as you exhale lift the heel back up, inhale as you lower left, exhale lift. In how the right heel lowers and taps the mat, exhale it lifts, pressing your palms into your block as you do this, So you're engaging your upper abdominal wall as well. Listening to the sound of your breath. As your heel lowers, notice if your low back starts to arch. So you wanna continue to hug the mat by drawing the sides of your belly down.

We'll do one more in each side. And then lower your block to the side. Hug your knees into your chest. Give yourself a big squeeze. You can rock side to side.

And then go back and forth up and down the length of your spine. We're gonna make our way into downward facing dog. So first starting off on all fours, you can position your hands about shoulder width apart on your mat, spreading your fingers wide. From here, you can tuck your toes, lift your hips and draw your sit bones up and back. Take a moment to just feel your body and to notice. Any tightness. If you wanna bend your knees or shift your hips, side to side.

As you're plugging your hands into the mat, feel the inner arms lifting away from the earth. At any point, you can start to straighten out your legs any amount while keeping the length of your spine. It might help to slightly bend the knees if you're feeling tighter in your body. From here, we're gonna come up on high toes inhale as you exhale, draw your right knee to your right arm, shifting your shoulders right over your wrist. So your right knee to your right arm, pause, feeling your core strength here, and then inhale as you go back to downward facing dog, setting your right foot down, pause, inhale on your high toes, exhale left knee to left arm.

Pies back to down dog, setting your left foot down, inhale high toes, And as you exhale, draw your right knee to your chest, so right down the middle, pause here, sides of the belly lift, and then step your right foot forward. We're gonna place the feet about hip width apart on the mat. So you have space, You wanna track your right knee over your ankle, soften the back knee slightly. You should be on the ball of your back foot. And when you're ready, inhale into crescent.

So I like to come up into crescent with a little bend in my back knee so that I can lift the front of the hip points up towards my navel. Right? So you wanna keep your hips squared here. Find that core strength So the power in your center, you're floating red soft and in towards the navel. And then reach with your arms. Imagine you're holding that block between your hands.

Your fingers are reaching up. Your neck is relaxed, and then we'll move dynamically here. So you're gonna inhale as you bend your back knee. Not quite touching the mat. And then exhale as you straighten that leg. So we're just relaxing the sew as here on then bend knee and then exhale straighten, pause, firm your back leg, See if it's possible to lift your gaze.

Maybe your palms touch. Take one more breath and exhale. Lower your hands to your mat. Or step me back to downward facing dog. Take a deep breath in through your nose. Full breath out.

From here, high on your toes, inhale. Exhale this time, left knee to left arm. Shoulders shift over your wrist back into downward facing dog, setting the left foot down. High toes on the inhale, right knee to right arm exhale, shifting your shoulders forward, Back to down dog, set the right foot down. Then one more time on the left.

So inhale high toes, exhale left knee to chest, Pause. Reach your sternum forward towards the gate of your arms and step your left foot forward. So, again, you wanna give yourself some space on your mat with your feet being a hip width apart. Your ankles positioned underneath your knee. And then that back knee slightly bends, you can come up into crescent posts from here. So imagine you have a zipper at your pubic bone that your zipping up towards the navel.

You feel that core strength. So we're stabilizing here. Hips are squared. At any point, you can start to straighten your back leg, lifting your sternum. Your arms are reaching.

Your fingertips are reaching. And then from here, you'll bend your back knee as you inhale. So we're relaxing the psoas, exhale to straighten the leg, inhale as you bend it, Excel as you straighten and pause. Maybe your gaze lifts, you can look up. Watch your palms touch.

Take one more breath. Excel to lower your hands. Take it back to downward facing dog. Let's take a deep inhale through the nose. Full exhale.

Shift forward into plank. You can always place your needs down on the mat if you need a little more support. And then from here, let's come on to our forearms. So we're coming into forearm plank. I like to do this with my palms flat.

But you can certainly bring your hands together and interlace your fingers. Again, to modify, you can always position your knees to the mat. Just keep that zipping of the navel or the pubic bone towards the navel. Do you feel that your core is engaging? Your tailbone lengthens towards the heels.

Your gaze is forward. We'll take one more breath. And then exhale lower your knees. Maybe shift your pelvis back a little bit so that your shoulders align over your elbows. Coming into sphinx pose, and this is just a nice relief after that.

And we'll do that again. So you're gonna tuck your toes from your thighs. Take a breath in through the nose. And as you exhale lift your pelvis, So you're back in that forearm plank. It's only it only comes in twos today.

So we're just doing this one more time. Really dropping into your breath. Feeling the power of your presence, and then let your needs come down Sphinx pose, lifting your chest, softening your shoulders away from your ears. Let's slide our hands back so that you can lower your chest onto the mat. So your forehead can release to the mat for a moment.

Feel your toes reaching back. Your outer ankles firming in, and then we'll come up into cobras. You inhale lift your sternum, shrug your shoulders back. Exhale to lower. And, again, inhaled COBRA, exhale lower.

From here, you can tuck your toes and either come up into a tabletop, or you can inhale to plank firming your thighs pressing yourself up to plank and exhale to downward facing dog. Just taking a moment. Always returning to your breath. As you inhale stretching back at the end of your exhale, looking forward, you can step up. Top of the mat, inhale halfway up, lengthen your spine, exhale to refold, pressing your feet firmly onto the mat to rise in, hey. I'll reach up and exhale hands to your hearts.

We're gonna move into SunSalut B. So just continuing to build that heat and power inhale bend your knees come into chair pose, utkatasana. Excel and folds. Uttanasana. Halfway up, lengthen, maybe shifting a little more weight towards the toes, And on your exhale, you can step back to plank.

Choose to go back to downward facing dog, or if you wish to lower halfway bending your elbows, cobra, or upward facing dog, inhale? Exhale to downward facing dog. We're gonna do our serial numaskar beat just a little bit slow today. So high tippy toes in hill. Step your right foot forward, back heel spins as you hail.

So we're heel to heel or a little bit wider with our feet in how to warrior 1, rising, Exale your hands lower to the mat. Step back. Either downward dog or through your vinyasa as you lower Jat thatanga. Inhale up dog, exhale to down dog. Hi.

On your toes and heel, step your left foot forward. Position your back heel flat. Again, heal to hear a little bit wider. So you have space in Hell Rise, Warrior 1, feeling the power of the posture, Exhale hands lower back down. You can skip the vinyasa or take Jataranga exhaling. In how COBRA are upward facing, exhaled downward facing doc.

Pausing for a breath in through the nose and out through the nose. One more full cycle of breath in through the nose and out through the nose. High on your toes, breathing in, then the knees step up to the top of your mess. Coming up halfway on your breath in. Forward fold. Exhale.

Chair pose, inhale, hands come up into your hearts. Pausing for a moment, just feeling the beating of your hearts and the warmth of your body. And we'll do that one more time. Inhale, Utkadasana. Exhale, fold. Halfway up lengthen the spine.

Your choice, how you wanna get back to down dog with or without your Vinyasa up. High toes, inhale, right foot forward, back heel spins as you exhale, rise on your inhale warrior 1, hands lower to the mats, through a vinyasa, or just back to downward facing dog. Hi, toes, inhale. Left foot forward. Right heel spins exhale in hell warrior 1, hands lower to your mats, take it to down dog however you wish.

Some of us like to keep building heat. And maybe some of us prefer to do a little less. And then you'll pause in your downward facing dog. Okay. From down dog, let's shift forward into plank. And From here, you can lower all the way down onto the mat.

And taking a moment here to set up. We'll place our arms alongside our body. Your foreheads on the mat to feel your belly against the mat. Reach back with your toes, especially the inner big toes as though you can touch whatever is behind you. With your toes. So you're lengthening the legs, firm the outer ankles in, draw your tailbone towards your heels, Notice the slight lifting of your pubic bone towards the navel.

And from here, we'll start to lift the chest coming into Shalimbasana. Your arms are alongside your body. I'm gonna give you different options. Your palms can be facing up personally for me. That's opens my shoulders a little bit more where you can turn your palms to face in towards one another.

So there are different options there. As you're firmly pressing your pelvis into the mat, your chest lifts, and you can always float your feet away from the mat if you wish. So both ends of the body are lifting. Take one more breath, inhale. And as you exhale, relax. We'll do that one more time.

And again, inhale lift your chest for Shalen Basana. Taking whatever variation you wish with your arms. I'm gonna turn my palms in this time. Flip your feet away from the mats. Take another breath and exhale to lower.

Stack your hands beneath your forehead. Just coming into your crocodile pose. Wagging your hips a little bit side to side. Just really appreciating what your body has done for you today. Appreciating movement and breath and stillness.

From here, place your hands alongside your body. We're gonna make our way onto our backs. So lift yourself up and we'll lie down on our backs and take thread the needle from here. So just coming back to exactly the way you started today. Your feet are on the mat, knees are bent.

We'll start with a right ankle crossed over the left thigh. Flexing that right foot, anchoring the left one in the mat. You can stay right here. Maybe place your right palm against your right thigh as you gently press it out, or you can take your right arm through the gap between your legs, interlace your hands behind your left hamstring or in front of the shin. So there are different variations.

It's always nice to know that we have options. Turning into your inhale and your exhale and perhaps even bringing your mind's eye back towards your navel as you observe it rising and falling. We're gonna lower the left foot. Cross your right leg over your left. From here, shift your hips over to the right.

You can extend your right arm over to the right side and drop your knees to your left. Coming into a little twist. Just really dropping into what you gained and what you cultivated in your practice today. Perhaps a mind that is more spacious, a heart, more spacious, coming back through to center, lower your right foot on the mat, second side, cross your left ankle over your right thigh, flex that left foot. Press all four corners of your right foot onto the mat.

You're welcome to stay here and just press your left palm into your left thigh, or maybe take full thread the needle with your left arm going through the gap between your legs interlacing the fingers behind the right hamstring. Let your shoulders drop. Feel the weight of the back of your skull against the mat. And to lower your right foot, cross your left thigh over. Your arms can extend out to the side, drop your knees to the right.

Just continuing to follow the breath. The nature of the mind is to wonder. So just come back to your inhale, your exhale. And then back to center, hugging your knees one more time in your chest. Just feeling your whole spine, pressing down, angry, feel the support of the earth beneath you.

And when you're ready, you can extend your legs forward. Into Shivasana. If you prefer Shivasana supported, you're welcome to do that with blankets underneath your thighs, if you wish. But just take a moment to feel the weight of your feet. Your legs, the weight of your pelvis, your low spine, mid spine, upper spine. Your shoulders, the upper arms and elbows.

And forearms, wrists, and hands. Feel the weight of your head and your whole body anchoring into the present moment. Feel your naval and the space around your naval soften. Your heart, your chest, soften, your throat. Your mouth, your lips, your cheeks, your eyelids, and the space between your eyebrows.

Shavasana. You can begin to deepen your breath. Noticing the rise and the fall of your navel as you breathe. You're welcome to stay here a little longer if you have the time. I myself am going to opt for that option.

But if you are ready to go, move your toes and your fingers, stretch your arms. Thank you for joining me today.