Upright & Open

Hey. Welcome. I'm Cleo. I'm psyched you here for this session on shoulders. I have a strap in two blocks, and we'll get started sitting. I'm sitting on my heels. You could be standing or sitting on a block.

Fold your strap in half. I like to hold the buckle so it doesn't clank around. Pull the strap taut straight in the arms and lift the strap overhead. Fill out the back ribs as you breathe in and soften down buckle down the front ribs as you breathe out. And then you'll take this strap behind you.

I'm gonna say keep this kind of organized, which is to say the ribs are not moving, but the arms and the arms in the shoulder joint socket are. So as you bring the strap behind you and up and over in front of you, keeping the arms straight and feeling that the trunk, the rib cage, the abdomen, is holding towards center. This is flossing the joint. Should feel nice. Get synovial fluid lube the joint.

And the next time it's up overhead, side bend to the right, and put your right hand down. So that it's holding the strap and just move your left arm back and forth. And it's okay if there's some clicking or stickiness in the shoulder. You can bow out the side ribs. Opening up the space of the side body, and then come on up to center, and we'll go to the other side.

So the left hand holds down the strap and the right arm moves forward and back. And you might even turn your chest up and down. And then come on up, and we'll make circles. So now it can be really unorganized. It can be really asymmetrical. You might be doing one thing on one side.

And something else on the other. Change directions. You might be rolling your neck. Your ribs, your hips. And then you'll take the strap overhead again.

Maybe a shorter hold on the strap. Bring the strap behind your head. Bend the elbows like a goal post and reach track the shoulder blades. So shoulder blades towards the spine and make a backbend. Stick out your tailbone, lift your chest, lift your chin.

This is gonna be the inhale. And when you exhale, you'll lift the strap up and bring it toward your knees rounding the back, like a cat cat cow pattern. So inhale elbows bend It's a backbend. You look up. And as you exhale, bring the strap forward and round the back ribs back.

And we'll do this 3 more times adding breath, inhale nose. This time, stick out the Kong lion's breath, exhale all the air empty. And then twice more, inhaling, stick out the tongue, get empty, stay empty, pull on the strap white in the interior of the ribs. One more time. Inhaling. Open mouth tongue out.

Yeah. Nice. And then roll up. It's good to do that every day, especially if you have any family or, you know, a bank account or anything like that. Lie on your side lie on your side, maybe put a block under your head under your left cheek, lie on your left side, put a block under your left cheek, and bring your elbow out the height of your shoulder make a fist with your left hand. We're gonna do some internal rotation work. So as if you could knock on the floor, your fist in front of the belly, which is gonna be a pretty limited range of motion. And then you can put your right hand on top and add a little bit of resistance.

So moving the shoulder again, let it come up, and then go down. So you're not trying to go into external rotation. You're just doing this internal rotation work. Do this twice more. So turning the armbone in the socket.

So nice. And then just put the block aside for a moment. This You're gonna lie on your back. So roll right, put the left hand behind your back palm open, and then you'll lie on it Inside your right elbow behind your head. So gomukasana, right elbow behind your head. As if your hands could connect behind you, bend the knees, feet on the floor.

And you can feel how your left back ribs pop up, how the front of the left shoulder pops up, drop your back ribs down, breathe in, and let your breath your lungs fill out the back of the body. And as you exhale, it might feel like a cough or a laugh, bringing the front ribs down. So keeping this stability again in the belly, in the ribs, and finding mobility in the shoulder. Take one more breath like this, like a yawn, back ribs into the floor left shoulder lifting to your ear as if it could drop to the floor also and exhaling like a laugh Like a cough. Great. Roll on to your right side, circle your left darm, just big circles, like a back stroke.

Catch your right foot behind you, and just let that open your left shoulder. Great. And then again, find your block. You're gonna lie on your rate. And then your left hand can give it some weight push down internal rotation. Let me do it a couple more times.

This kind of organized front rib, low belly to the back, you know, so one thing stays steady as the other thing finds movement. A really lovely way that we can balance the body and also, you know, the mind. Great. Slide your block aside. This right arm is gonna go behind your back. So roll onto your back.

Slide the right arm behind your back. Nuzzle it up between your shoulder blades. I mean, I'm saying that or don't. And lie on your back, left elbow behind your head, left hand behind your neck. So if it's too much on your right shoulder, your right hand can be lower down towards the hips or further over to the right waist.

And you just feel what the position of the shoulder is at first here, how the front of the shoulder moves forward and see if you can let it slide back, not just the shoulder, but also the front of the ribs. So inhaling like a yawn, right, shoulder drops, back rib drops, and exhaling like a laugh. To reinforce that, to keep the belly solid, steady so the shoulder can be free and move. Okay. Really nice. Roll on to your left side.

Free your right arm. Circle the right arm. Big back strokes, circles, and then catch your left foot behind you. Just bend the knee heel to the buttocks, catch the foot, maybe the baby tolays on the floor. It's just nice to open the right shoulder this way.

Turn your chest. Okay. Great. And then you'll roll onto your belly just like a big floppy fish. Just Palms face each other, external rotation, thumbs up. And then lift everything. Shalabasana arms and legs come up as you breathe in, and bend the knees as if you're gonna touch the feet, the ankles, down your as you breathe out, and let's just go back and forth.

So inhaling lengthen like you're flying, and exhaling. Bend. Keep the pelvis heavy. Let's do 2 more like this. Inhaling. Wide open arms, bending the knees, heels to butt, exhale. One more time.

Breathing in, reaching forward and back and breathing out, bending the knees and touching down. Great. Elbows to the floor, knees to the floors. For our plank pose, keep your knees down and lift your pelvis up. So back of the skull up, between the shoulder blades, the back ribs go up. The back of the waist goes up. Even tuck your toes.

I really like tucking the toes under. So I can find some and almost feel like you're squeezing the knees towards the elbows, sliding the elbows towards the knees, pulling elbows and knees towards the midline towards each other. Give yourself a few more breasts, wide back ribs, turn on the belly. You know, one of the things that happens is that when we start to move the shoulders, the more mobile place within us the lower part of the spine and the ribs, takes the movement instead of allowing there to be movement in the shoulders. Okay. 2 more breaths.

So this is gonna help you. Tailbone down, pubis up, wide back ribs breathe in like a laugh as you breathe out. Great. Walk your feet towards your face, dolphin pose, lift your knees up. Let your head hang. So right now my hands are in prayer pressing the baby side of the wrist to the floor, and that might be for you too.

You could also turn your palms up a little bit more internal rotation and widen the collar bones. Maybe you go up on tippy toes, your hips over your shoulders, Last couple of breaths, maintaining the width across the shoulders, and see if you can find some width across your back waist, your back ribs. Great. Put the heels down. Maybe without putting your knees down, down dog. So hands on the mat. Both elbows lift.

Sometimes it's nice to have your hands close together. Almost maybe even thumbs touching and let your head drop beneath your arms. Shoulder blades into the chest, front ribs, lifting towards the thighs. A long breath out, exhale, retain empty, Uddiana Banda action. Great.

And then walk your hands back to your feet. Inhale halfway forward, flat back. And as you exhale, bring your hands to your hips, squeeze the shoulder blades, elbows together, press the hips back, pull the chest forward, inhale and stand. Yeah. Nice. And then step into the middle of the mat, have a block on the back edge of either side top and bottom of matte. Step into the middle of the Set up for Warrior 2.

So turn your right leg, turn both legs to the right, turn your hips, your waist to the left, bend the right knee deeply, open the arms, And then let your left elbow come underneath your right. And so you could just be hugging yourself. Your right arm could be straight. You could put the back of the hands together. Or full Gomu Gauru Dawson.

And as your elbows, as your shoulders turn your torso to the left, see if you can press your right knee to the right. Two more breaths like this. Let your left elbow turn your right shoulder, your right chest, and let your right knee see if it can turn the thigh bone in the hip socket. Dilicious inhale, straighten the right leg, lift the arms, hook the right thumb in front. So really long spine, breathe in, And as you exhale tilt to the right, trico Nasana floating, and then let your right hand reach for that block, find the block, left arm, lifts up, and right away begin to let your left arm drift back, taking your left shoulder back and then weave the arm behind the back internal rotation and you can set it into your right waist band or maybe even find your right thigh.

You could also use your right hand to help pull the arm more around. Keep this feeling. Let the left shoulder go back, right, shoulder go back, and then bend your right knee, parsva Konasana, And you could stay like this, right, hand on the block. You could also go right arm inside the leg. You might even explore reach your right arm underneath the right leg and finding the bind, finding your left hand outside your left hip, or you could use your strap.

Give yourself a moment to bust open the shoulders, the collar bones away from the midline as you breathe in, And that same action of your right buttocks forward belly back as you breathe out. Full pose, right hand down, left arm over the ear inhale. And then both hands down, walk your hands to the midline as you exhale, put both elbows on the ground, breathe in lengthen. And then both elbows on the ground. Hands and prayer like you're reaching to for your zipper in the back of your dress.

Elbows towards your head, hips towards the ceiling. Use the floor to let your hands move closer to your waist. And then just hands on the floor under the shoulders, straighten the arms, flat back, breathe in, exhale all your breath, empties, stay empty and fold. Hands to the hips on empty stand. Inhale lift the arms and exhale hands to heart center.

Warrior to on the left, turn your legs left, then your left knee, open the arms, breathe in, and then weave your right arm under your left so you could have straight arms, back of hands together, or double wrap, garuda, are you to arms, Let your arms pull your torso to the right and you turn your left thigh to the left. Your left knee almost even like your left heel is spinning. You know, the heel is spinning more towards the right, but the toes towards the left. Nice stretch across the back of the tricep. The back of the blade. One more breath.

And then straighten the arms. Straighten the leg, lift the arms, breathe in, hook the and as you exhale, triconasana tilting to the left. Left hand finds the block outside your ankle, right arm up in the air. And let your right arm drift back, right shoulder, taking the right ribs along for the ride. Internally rotate your right arm, take the right hand behind the back, hook it in the waistband, find the hip, You can use your left hand to hook into the fingers and pull it more.

So right shoulder goes back. And down. See, is the left shoulder coming forward? Take the left shoulder back. Inhale. Tailbone forward as you exhale. And then then the left knee side angle, weave the left arm underneath, you know, maybe maybe you did it on that side, but not on this. Or on this and not on that.

You can use the strap for one breath wherever you are, spread the chest wide, breathe in, and then belly to the back as you exhale. Left hand down, right arm over the ear, inhale, and walk your hands to the center fold in between the legs. Halfway up inhale. And again, elbows to the floor, hands in prayer behind your neck, between your shoulder blades. You're here just for a breath.

Open the armpits. Let the head, the torso hang, and then hands to the floor under your shoulders, flat back, straighten up, breathe in, Open the mouth. Get empty. Stay empty and fold empty. Hands to the hips. Stand empty.

Inhale arms up and exhale hands to heart sector. Yeah. Step your feet together. He'll toe in. And then let's go to the wall Stand with your right hand at the wall.

A little bit higher than shoulder height and turn your right fingers back. And then if you can turn your right fingers down, so a lot of external rotation in the right arm. Move it a little bit forward, plug the armbone, like you're leaning in, plug the armbone into the socket so it feels like retraction, and then left hand, you can hold your ribs and turn your whole torso away from the wall. Straight right arm, your chest looks up. It's almost like you're doing, wheel, erdvedenurrasana, You could stay just with this right arm, you could add your left arm, take one breath, chest up, And when you exhale, push off the wall and come up symmetrically chest first.

It's like yoga gives us a capacity to pay attention to wake up, you know. That breath. Sometimes you just get one breath a day. Let's do the left side. That's it. You know, one moment. Wow.

It's delicious. Left fingers point up, left fingers point back, left fingers point down, straighten your arm, push the wall. You might even lean into it so your left shoulder blade moves towards the spine. And then go ahead turn. You can hold your right, right hand can hold your rib cage, your left ribs, and turn your body away from the wall, your torso.

Maybe you can even turn so much that your torso faces the ceiling and you can stay here, or you could add your right arm, straight in the arms just like you had that strap. Inhale and then go ahead. Let your chest be what lifts you up as you exhale coming off the wall. Delicious. Let's go to the floor.

Stay at the wall. So into the corner where the floor and the wall meat, you're gonna put your elbows and hold a block on the long side so it's narrow. It's oriented on the narrow way. So elbows into the corner, block into the wall, And then Dolphin, tuck your toes and lift your knees. So you're holding the block like your hands are and you might even be able to press the wrist, the outer wrist into the wall. That same way you would in headstand, sheer SASana, let the block inform your spine.

So you move the thoracic spine towards the front of the body, the dorsal spine, between the shoulder blades. And you might even lift your heels and tilt your pelvis towards the wall. Yeah. Come on down. Put your knees down.

But on your heels, sit on your heels. So you could repeat that. That's wonderful. That's gonna give you a lot of opening in your upper back and your shoulders, the triceps. If you're interested, you could also play with pinch of myrosana for our imbalance.

I'm making my strap into a loop that's gonna be about the width of my chest So like from armpit to armpit, something like that, and of course you can make yours looser if your shoulders feel more constriction or tighter if you have a lot of mobility in your shoulders. I like to be about a I like to be about a hand distance away from the wall classically, the palms are on the floor, you can also of course bring your hands together in prayer, which will make it a little bit easier and you could just do the dolphin. Once you get the strap over the elbows, you know, between the elbow and the shoulder, put your forearms on the floor. Either palms together or down. You could even try up.

Go up on your tippy toes. Look towards your hands. You know, you could just lift a leg you might be able to kick up. You could play with balance. See if you can find that stability in your lower belly, in your mid back, Well, you enjoy this delicious mobility in your upper back.

Okay. Come on down. Slip out of the strap. Keep it though. We're gonna lie on our back. So feet towards the wall head away from the wall.

Maybe the strap is in the just right width to go over your wrists. So bridge pose, set the feet on the floor, lift your hips, and slide your wrists into the strap to walk your shoulders even more underneath you. And we're gonna take a 3 part inhale here, Veloma 1. Start by exhaling. Let that be complete.

And then inhale into your chest. Move the chest towards your chin. Just a little sip and pause. Inhale another little sip, the chest towards your chin and paws. One more time. Inhale, like you could roll onto the top of your shoulders, fill up the whole rib cage lungs, and then a smooth exhale.

Tailbone to knees, back of knees. Lovely. Take a regular breath, lower down. You could keep the strap just where it is. And you might repeat that. You might also be able to slip the strap over your elbows.

You might be able to do that from bridge or maybe from Halasana, and I'll talk you through that. So inhale, lift the hips again, shoulders underneath you, And then if you're taking if you're taking the strap just to your elbows, you can do that right here. You can just put it on your elbows, slip it up to your elbows, and you might hold your hips. You could just lift your, your heels, and you might even be able to lift your feet up, a kind of shoulder stand, just like that. You could also take your feet overhead if you weren't able to get your strap on into Halasana.

And then that's an easier place to get the strap over your elbows. So wherever you are, do set your shoulders underneath you If you're up in this version, version of Salumba Sarvinggast in a shoulder stand, You might play with dropping back into your bridge pose. So hands, fingers face a little bit out bend your knees, heels to the butt. And you could do one leg at a time or 2. So either into bridge pose or your legs back overhead into Halasana to slip out of the strap, put your thumb into the loop and a slow roll down the spine.

Take a breath. Let your backdrop into the floor. It's amazing. Okay. We're gonna end at the wall. So one block or 2 under your butt legs up the wall. This version of Viparini Karani, it's nice to start with your on your side with your butt up against the wall and then lift the legs.

So you don't need to be all the way at the wall. It's okay to be on a Agneil, maybe just one block under your sacrum, maybe 2. So that there's some weight in the shoulders is nice. And we'll take the Loma 2 here which is an interrupted exhale. A 3 part exhale. You might go for 4 or 5.

It could be endless. Start by breathing out. Smooth, steady breath in, exhale a little bit and pause. Exhale a little and pause. XL.

And you might just feel that space of empty in the abdominal cavity. And when you're ready, you'll take a breath in and out. So interrupted exhale Repeat that again. Breathe in. Maxhale a little pause.

Exhale a little, exhale. Linger and empty, and then breath in and out. In this shape, gravity is helping the diaphragm move towards the chest, pressing air out of the lungs, So easy to feel so much space in the pelvis and the abdomen. Really easeful feeling. And if you're comfortable here for meditation, please stay right here for meditation.

And if you think you could get any bit more comfortable, maybe by putting your back on the floor, moving the blocks, and just having the legs up the wall, lying in Shavasana or even coming up to sit. Your body will intuitively tell you Which one is right for you today? And once you get yourself physically settled, sends into the weight of the body, whatever is touching the floor, the block. You can bring your mind to where all the surfaces meet Whatever your hands are touching the clothes on your skin. And then you can observe deeper self, how your emotional self is, how your mental self is, You might even observe some circumstance in your life, some situation you're in right now.

And allow whatever is real to be seen, to be felt, So it might be that there's some toughness or tightness or real ease and enjoyment. With a real kind of openness, you might even turn your palms up to physically gesture this open handedness. Bring in a kind of acceptance, a kind of allowance, for the many truths of this moment to be here simultaneously. The parts that are beautiful and sorrowful Let's somehow this width across your chest, and the upper most lobes of your lungs has given you a greater capacity to hold both. These 2 truths at the same time. And notice that whatever difficulty or challenges are here that right now you do have the capacity to breathe in.

And to breathe out. As you inhale, feel yourself right here in this moment. And as you exhale, silently whisper. This is a wonderful moment. Inhaling this moment, exhaling, wonderful moment And you can let yourself rest in this awareness, this full awareness as long as you have time today.

And if the day calls you forward, if it's time for you to move, please go slowly reluctantly. These meditations can reverberate throughout your day like small rememberances. For now, I thank you for being here. For your practice and your attention. Many, many wonderful moments.

Shanti.