Restorative Flow

Hi. I am Tamika Caston-Miller, and this is a restorative flow to make you feel awesome. One of the things that I know for me is kind of a frustration is this feeling of what's my body doing today? This particular practice allows you to be where you are and to explore through the use of many props. And then we will take time to fully rest for a little while. So I have some amazing props that I am going to be using all throughout class.

I recommend that you use them as well. I have my handy dandy bolster, a blanket, and the strap is going to be used a lot. So make sure that you use that one, and then also a couple of blocks. So we are going to use everything today. You're welcome to bring in more or to use less.

You are always an agency to accommodate your body today. The first thing that we will tap into is the support and the restoration available through our own breath. So take a seat in any way that feels good. I personally love sitting on or between my heels. And just take a moment to settle in and notice how you are arriving on the mat today. And then this practice expect for there to be pauses and moments of silence for your own reflection and for your own needs to come through.

Take an inhale for as long as feels good. Exhale for a little longer. Do that again, inhale. But this time, at the top of your inhale hold and exhale for longer than your inhalation. If you enjoyed that, do that again.

And that will take sukhasana. A seated, cross legged seat. And if you like being upright or if you'd like to be lifted a little bit, then bring a bolster under your seats. Cross your right leg in front of your left and give yourself a moment to really settle in. We're also gonna bring in some blocks and place them on the side of us.

And take a strap. We are gonna be using the strap a lot. So with the strap, we'll take the strap into the left hand. And, really, I'm just going to let this strap dangle and bring the strap behind your back into the other hand. So you're just kind of locking your arm here.

We're gonna be doing this several times. So this is a nice opportunity for you to kind of play with what binding using a strap is going to look and feel like. Take an inhale, fine line, and exhale fold letting your forearm come to the block. Let your head soften towards the right shoulder. Let the strap go and bring your left hand to the left thigh, and you just give a gentle awareness to the left thigh.

You're not pushing, we're not pulling. Just increasing the awareness here. Release by pressing into the right block come up. Switch sides. And feel free to really get comfortable in your seat before doing anything else.

We'll bring the strap into the right hand and bring it around the back Again, really leaning in to feeling what binding feels like with this strap. And notice you can really adjust how your arm moves here. Find the length, a little bit of length as you inhale. And then exhale fold again. Side bending and opening all along the right side.

With the left ear drift towards the left shoulder. Rease the strap, bring your right hand onto the right thigh. Again, just allowing for there to be a gentle awareness there, maybe even a little bit of pressure, but not moving into pushing. Press in to the left block to release. Come up.

And we're going to take care of the neck and your body like that throughout this entire practice. Let's go ahead and move the bolster out of the way. We will see you again very soon. And we'll place the blocks and the strap up towards the top of the mat so that we always have access to them. But first, let's explore through a round of cat cow and any other exploration that really feels good.

So come to all fours, And you may be familiar with cat cow rounding of the spine in opposite directions, but the spine moves in so many directions, can you find what it is that you truly desire today? So feel free to bring your right, hip towards the, the right ear, and then go on the other side, maybe look over your shoulder. To flex and extend the spine, rounding, back bending. Lots to do here. Lots of there were so many things that are available.

As we're here in all fours. Maybe you press into your hands and begin to take some big body circles, as though your hips had lights on them or a laser, you'd be drawing a big circle on the mat. So try that on, and that'll also tell you a little bit of information about how your low back is doing today, go in the other direction. I'm finding some things out, so maybe you are too. Alright. Come back to all fours, maybe take another round of cat cow, rounding the spine, flexing the spine in different directions. Take anything else before we move into our first downward facing dog.

Now in this down dog, even here, you will be able to use blocks. This is especially helpful if you're experiencing any kind of joint pain at the wrist. So tuck toes and come into auto mukha Shwanasana downward facing dog. And using the blocks underneath your hand softens what's necessary at the wrists, while also giving a little more opportunity to extend along the low back. Feel free to rock and invite in movement here. Again, a gentle exploration, what's going on in the low back. And take as many or as few steps up towards the top of the mat in your forward fold.

Inhale lift halfway, press into your blocks or your shims, and exhale fold again. Press into your feet, inhale reach up and look up. And exhale hands to heart center. Suria Namaskar a, inhale reach your arms to the sky, exhale forward fold hands to the blocks. And he'll lift halfway, lung, spine.

Xhale, keep the blocks under your hands and come into your high plank then lower into your chaturanga, knees up or down. Now come all the way down and notice how there's a little more spaciousness to reach up into your bhujangasana or low cobra. And ada mukha svanas and a down dog again, feel free to take a moment to send your bum towards your heels, and then to come into your down dog. So in the restorative flow, we're not taking it's not gentle. What we're restoring is ourselves back to ourselves.

Through the, an exploration of what is available and what we truly want, need, and desire in the practice. Look between your hands, step or hop to your half lift. And exhale forward fold, and he'll reach up and look up, and hands to heart center. Now Tamika sun with fun? Alright. And he'll reach up to this guy.

Exhale hands to the block step your your right foot back. Bring your knee down. So I say fun because we're gonna take the strap. And it's not really a classical sun if we're making a variation. Tell me one.

So here with the strap, we can bring the strap about just beyond shoulder width distance. You may want to go beyond that. So bring your strap into your hands and he'll reach up and send your hips forward. Use the strap to help open along the side bodies. And now shift your hips back, bring the strap and your arms right over the shoulders and come into a side bend over to the left.

Inhale, come to center, and exhale twist towards the left. Notice how far you naturally twist or you're not using your leg or a block or the floor to twist with you. And he'll come back to center. Excellent. Let the strap go.

You can bring the blocks as markers as to where your Chaturanga lives today. Come all the way down, shoulders come to the blocks, and he'll lift into your low cobra. Access downward facing dog, feel free to use the blocks underneath your hands again, especially supporting joints. Welcome and movement, pacify the low back. I'm gonna step your right foot forward this time.

Low lunge on the right side. Again, you can use your blocks to set up here. I'm gonna take the strap into your hands again, finding that arm position that really works here and help reach up and sing your hips forward. Into a backbend, bring your hips back so that you're at ninety ninety with your legs. And then side bend over bringing arms over to the right. And he'll come back to center, exhale twist towards the right.

And again, notice how far this twist, what's really available. Bring your hands back to center, move the strap out of the way, and step into your forward bend. Press in to your feet inhale, reach up and look up, and exhale hands to heart center. Take a moment to check-in with yourself, to notice how you feel, to become supported by the breath again. Now we can take the strap again in our standing position and bring your arms back up to the sky.

Reach up. And exhale lean over to the right, side bending and opening on the left, and he'll come back to center. And exhale over to the left. And he'll come back to center. A twist is also quite interesting here because you're bringing your right hip forward while bringing your twist over towards the right.

Come back to center. And again, other side, really leaning into the knowledge of what's available today. And you come back to center. Now, we'll keep the strap with us as we step back on the right side into crescent So step your right foot back, inhale, reach your arms to the sky, and take your strap with you. So we've already explored several things so you can imagine that we're gonna do that again.

Come into the backbend. Come back to center. Side bend, bring your arms over to the left, inhale center and twist. Inhale center. Exhale step into your forward fold.

Inhale lift halfway and exhale fold again. Come all the way up. Can place your strap on your next, step your left foot back, bring the strap back into your hands, and open across the front of the body backbend, inhale center. Side bend over to the right, and he'll come up and twist. And how back to center?

And step in to your forward fold. Inhale left halfway. XL fold. Offer up any movement that feels good. Now we'll take the strap, and let's go ahead and bring blocks with us as we turn out to the wide edge of the mat with the blocks right behind the heels just in case we want them.

But primarily, we're gonna use the strap for binding this time. So come into a warrior two with the strap available You could also I love just hanging the strap right here so that I have access to it whenever I want to. So if you come into your warrior two, you're turning out deeply from the right hip. Finding where the length is along the front of the body, bending your knees as much as you'd like today on the right side and finding again the length on both sides of the body. Now that we're stable from here, we can take some binds.

So we'll first do a bound, bringing the left arm behind the body straighten the right leg and begin folding hinging at the hip as you draw the left hip back. So there's really this interesting reaching action that's happening. It's almost as though your left hip is drawing you back, and the strap is working as a counter lever here. You can bring your hand to the block or the floor. You can either keep the strap in your hand or you can place it under your hand at the strap.

Or you can place it under your hand at the block. Rease them to warrior two again. Let's go ahead and keep the bind. And we're coming into extended side angle that's bound. We wanna make sure that this arm is bound well behind the back, and then bring the strap behind the right thigh near the knee.

Then deeply and grab the strap. Make sure that your strap is not flossing your seat, and then the right knee a lot, opening across the front of the body. Rease Warrior two. And parallel the feet, take it inhale. The exh.

Let that go. Other side. Turn out deeply from the left hip. And, again, find the bind with the arms that are really that's really working with you. Sometimes I like to place my hand into the strap and bring it around the body. So I'm not, like, holding it. So maybe try that on.

Find how you're being supported here, and then begin straightening the left leg, drawing the right hip back towards the space behind you. Notice how this information with this strap allows for the right hip to be dragged a little bit more towards that space, and then bring your hand to the block or the floor. Re bend the left knee, extended side angle, with the strap drop right behind the left thigh, bend and grab it. And again, keep the strap up on the thigh near the knee as you come into a bound extended side angle. Use the strap to give information about how much you're opening along the front of the body and the torso. Can let the strap go behind your back.

Come back to warrior two and parallel your feet again. Taking in hell. Let that strap go. Reach up to the sky. And exhale forward fold.

Give yourself a little bit of movement here. Notice how things are feeling. How's your low back feeling? How's your middle back feeling? And are you holding in the neck, or can you also bring in some awareness here as well?

And he'll come halfway up. And come all the way up now. Feel free to hinge and bring arms out to the side and back to the hips. Now we play a lot in Trico Nasana with a bind But what about half moon? And what about sugarcane?

Sugarcane is one of those poses that, you know, sometimes is there, but a lot of times is not for me. And bringing in a block makes it so much more kind of interesting and fun. See, the thing is, let's come to Warrior two. My goal is to never feel like my practice is at odds with me. You know what I mean? I want my practice to work with me.

So that's what we can do here. So we'll come in through the warrior two just to ensure that our feet and our our lower bodies in alignment. We're going to come in through the movement of trikonasana. Again, now using that information that we just had, bringing the left hip back, reaching forward, creating that length, and that extension that we just played with, but now to come into our half moon. So with the half moon, in order to be set up to get to Sugar King with a strap, we need to have the strap ready at the foot. So now we're going to there are two ways to purchase half moon.

Some of you will hinge at the hips, and you'll just move over right into your half moon like that. Others might bend your knee a lot press down into the block and then lift your leg, both are valid or somewhere in between. For me, it depends on the day. So I've got the strap around the foot. Now bend your knee For sugar cane, lift your left knee up.

And now we have a bind. That just sometimes isn't available. Release. Make your way back to warrior two. And release to center.

So then this dress has a mind of her own. Other side. So we'll come back into through this warrior two again, come into this exploration remembering and recalling that we drew the right hip all the way back, and we were hinging hinge hinge hinge to arrive at this length and this communication between the upper body and the lower body. Remembering that, now we can bring that into the half moon and into this assisted or bound sugarcane. So we'll put the foot in.

Okay. Come into your half moon with both hips facing out towards this face in front of you, bend your knee a lot. And arrive with the bent knee. If your hip turns in a little bit, it's okay because your hip might do that today. Alright.

Let the foot go, come back, strap go, come back to center inhale, and exhale fold. And again, notice how you can support yourself and how the breath can support you in a wide angle forward fold. Inhale lift halfway and exhale fold again. He'll toe your feet in towards one another or hop in and bring peace fingers to big toes for podgastasana, inhale lift halfway and exhale bow your elbows out as you fold into the forward bend. Some people like to bring their hands behind their heels or their calves and really squeeze in.

Be a little different than padangusthasan, but find what works for you, and help lift halfway. And this time, widen your feet apart beyond hip width distance to come into Malasana. So in your squat, you could, say right here. You could bring blocks underneath your seat, and you can also explore. So we've played a lot with binds and side bins, so you may want to explore some twists here. You could bring a block underneath your right hand and explore a twist using your left leg as a lever or lifting your left arm or even bringing it behind your back.

And switch. So options, what is it that you are getting from the practice? And of course, you could stay right where you are. Take another breath in and out. Rease your melasana and take a moment back where we began seated on or between your heels to come into a moment to reconnect with your breath.

And to allow for the standing practice to integrate within your body. Taking in health for as long as feels good. Hold your breath in. And exhale for a little longer. Half pigeon.

So we're going to use some support in this half pigeon. We'll use a bolster or maybe you prefer a block here. Starting on the left side, because we're doing things differently today. So left knee, shin, and foot go forward, extend the right leg back. Bring the bolster underneath your whole side body of the extended leg.

For more support here. Now some folks like to bring the bolster underneath the groin and between both legs. That's not my favorite, but I do know people love it. So this is really about you finding where you're able to create that support so that you can really enjoy this pose. Now that might also mean bringing something under your head.

Or removing something entirely and coming down onto directly onto the floor. Take what you need and stay for a while. Notice the support of your breath. And everywhere your body meets support. Rease.

Take a moment and upright. Move things out of the way and come into anything that feels good. That might be down dog for you. That might be All fours, feel free to take what you need. Come back down.

We'll do that on the other side. Half pigeon on the right, bring the right knee shin and foot towards the top of the mat. And the bolster, blocks, or anything else supportive along the extended side of the body. Really take time to notice what it is that feels right without rushing this moment. Notice how the breath flows through the body.

And the support of the practice and how it's affecting you right in this moment release. Come back to upright, move things out of the way, and make your way into whatever form of release feels right. Take this time to really feel into goodness, nourishment, whatever it is that really feels like you're kind of undoing that standing practice. Now we're going to really slow things down Tamika into supported fish. So it's supported fish.

We can use the bolster again. Some people may wanna you may wanna use a block if you are using blocks, you can build your blocks using the high and the medium heights of your blocks one under your head, one underneath your shoulders. Tracing the length of the spine, or you could use the bolster and bring the bolster right underneath your back body, and you can welcome in the blanket too. Now with a blanket, I like to create a little bit of a lip in the blanket because I want just a little bit of support underneath my neck. So I'm gonna create this little lip right here.

And I might take the edge of the blanket and create more of, like, a little nook for the head. I don't know what I need until I get there. Alright. So in supported fish, We're leaning in to the openness across the chest and also openness across the hips. First, let's settle into just the openness of the chest, and the heaviness of the hips.

And then if you like, you could explore openness across the front of the hips by extending your legs long. And allowing for there to be a little more length. You could even bring your arms alongside your ears and place them just beyond your head, hands to opposite elbows or wrists. For a few moments, Tamika some time and silence to hear, notice, sense, and feel. If your body tells you to do something a little different, be responsive to what you hear.

If you feel good, be responsive to that by welcoming in that quality. Deepen your breath. Now take a stretch along your body, bringing your toes back towards your face and extending your arms So you're taking a big long standing stretch, but we're doing it in this backbend. And release roll to one side. Make your way back up.

It is time to set up for Shivasada. And for this Shivasana, we want all the things. And so we'll take support from the bolster underneath the knees. And the blanket underneath your head. Now if you have more toys, you can use them.

I'm also going to use the strap one last time in this shape. The tendency for needs to roll out creates a little bit of work and we are doing the absolute minimum. So we're gonna roll the blanket to create just a little bit of neck support underneath your head. And we'll leave the rest of this blanket available to be able to cover the eyes. Bullster will support the knees And then with the strap, we'll use the strap adjusting it to just about shoulder width distance a little bit inside of the shoulders.

And we're gonna place the strap around the legs underneath your knees. So we'll get into it. And first, adjust the strap. So we'll put the strap on and bring the strap just underneath the knees so that your legs are adjusted to hip with distance. And now roll down, settling in and adjusting all of your toys.

All of the elements that we're using for support today. Notice that there's anything else that you'd like to welcome in. We want to ensure that we have darkness, warmth, and support. So that we can embrace quiet and stillness. As you're here, feel free to let my voice travel to the edges of your awareness.

You're welcome to hear as much or as little as you find helpful. Allow for the back body to be softer and heavier into the floor. Feel for softness along the neck and shoulders. The entire back. And letting go of any holding or engagement in the feet, feel for softening around the ankles and toes.

Notice the natural cadence of your breath. Let go of any shaping of the breath. And as though your whole body could exhale, exhale. For the next few moments, enjoy this time with yourself, and know that I will bring you back into more awareness in a few minutes. Feel free to stay here a little longer if your practice doesn't yet feel complete.

If you're feeling like you have enjoyed adequate nourishment, You might welcome in more movement, to more breath, eventually making your way back to an upright position. Tamika whatever you need, including time, shapes, Anything that feels right for you. I encourage you to keep supporting yourself to support yourself with breath, with rest, with whatever it is that you need for yourself today. And to continue listening to that a little bit more. Thank you so much for allowing me to guide you and for allowing for the teacher within you to step forward which becomes more and more frequent every time we take the Simon self study and surrender.

It's my goal to leave you better than I found you. I hope that happened for you today. Shanty shanty. Peace. Peace. Peace.