The Birds and the Bees

(wave sounds) Hi, thank you for being here with me today, I'm so happy you're here to share this practice. Um, we're gonna do um, a somewhat of an active practice I recommend for about two to three months after birth at least, giving yourself, your body time to have healed, um, and, um, whatever stage you are, just being very mindful with what's going on with your body right now. It's such a unique journey and just want to really respect what's happening in the body. Um, we are doing a practice that involves just calling it or reconnecting with our sensuality, with our strength and not just as mamas, but um, as women. And, um, engaging our core a little bit more, just bringing those muscles back in to support the spine, and have the spine support those muscles.

Um, so yeah. Just feel free to to really just feel your femininity, feel beautiful even if you haven't brushed your hair, or (laughing) changed out of your, you know your, milk covered clothes or whatever's going on for you, despite that, just feel your beauty your sensuality. And allow yourself to just relish in it for this practice. So, um, we're gonna be, we may use a blanket, and um, I have two blocks here. We're gonna start in seated and if you feel like you need a little support under your tailbone feel free to place a blanket right under there, if you feel like you need support for your knees, you can just rest your knees up like this, sometimes, in some days they feel a little tight joints can feel a little constricted so you might need that support we'll be here for, in seated for a few minutes.

Um, so, uh let's just get started. Get yourself nice and comfortable in a seated position. Taking a nice deep inhalation through the nose, (inhaling sound) drawing it all the way down into the pelvic floor, and then exhaling nice and slow, (exhaling sound) through the nose, let's do that one more time really feeling it, (inhaling sound) enter through the nose and reach all the way down to our pelvic floor and then back up nice and slow, exhale. Good, and we'll just start with some pelvic tilts, torso tilts so just leaning forward very gently opening through the heart, good, and rounding the back slightly drawing the navel towards the spine a little bit softening through the shoulders, inhaling, (inhaling sound) exhaling, leaning back into it. (exhaling sound) Feeling a little softening through the back of the neck, (inhaling sound) last time opening a little bit more through the shoulders and the heart, exhale softening through the shoulders, navel to the spine and then bring yourself back up into this neutral position.

Just taking another breath here in neutral and inhaling through the nose, (inhaling sound) nice long exhale. (exhaling sound) So we're gonna do a circle around our, with our pelvis around our self so we're just gonna lean over to one side keeping it really slow, yes, and then forward with the shoulders sitting grounded through the sitz bones, and over to the other side, and then sinking back navel towards the spine. Good. And let's do that again, so coordinating it with the breath and the way that it feels best for you, (inhaling sound) you might be taking an inhale here, exhale here releasing it out a little bit, (exhaling sound) one more big, yummy, super slow circle. (inhaling sound) Softening out through the pelvis, (exhaling sound) and then coming back, and just slowly winding your way back into neutral.

Pause, the breath. (exhaling sound) And we'll just switch legs, so just balance things out a little bit. So same idea just a little tilt forward, with an inhale grounding through the sitz bones and then relaxing back with an exhale. (exhaling sound) Two more really feeling your breath, (inhaling sound) (exhaling sound) (inhaling sound) opening a little bit more through the heart space if you can. (exhaling sound) Good.

And coming back into this neutral position, let's take a big deep inhale all the way down into the pelvic floor, (inhaling sound) exhale, (exhaling sound) every little particle of air. Good, and we'll take some circles just moving in the other direction. Very slow. Front, just enjoy going slow for a few minutes before we pick up the pace a little bit. Good.

Keeping grounded as grounded as you can through those sitz bones, opening over to the other side, releasing to the back. One more big slow circle, (inhaling sound) heart is opening, shoulders opening, (exhaling sound) resting back into it. Good. And just wind your way back into neutral. Good.

So now we'll just come back into all fours, getting ready for, um, a little cat cow to start out with, so, if the wrists are feeling sensitive right now you can just keep the weight shifted back to soften the angle on the wrist or coming down into the elbows if that feels better for you, um, and just, getting into a nice comfortable position allowing your shoulders to broaden even if you're down on your elbows so we're not dipping right here, collapsing in the spine, and we're not arching too much, we're just in this nice neutral position, and then we'll just inhale a gentle a little arch, and exhale navel towards the spine relax the crown of the head to the earth let's do two more. (inhaling sound) (exhaling sound) Really tune into your breath the sensations in your body, (inhaling sound) (exhaling sound) Good, coming back into a neutral position. Now we're just gonna have a little fun with it, so just, start to bend those elbows, scoop the heart forward, now you can get a little arch in the back so your tailbones kind of lifting up and, it's kind of little flirtation with the earth here, scooping it forward, getting a little strength happening in the arms, rounding the back slightly and scooping the sitz bones back. So it's a scoop like, very serpentine snake, (inhaling sound) and bring it back. So the movement can be as big or as small as you need it to be.

If there's it wrists stuff happening you can just keep it slow, and in like this, release still opening through the heart and the shoulder if you want to get a little like strength and heat generating through the arms you'll just bring a little more weight into them. (inhaling sound) So a couple more. (exhaling sound) (inhaling sound) (exhaling sound) Good, last time. Inhale, deep scoop, and exhale release those hips back. Just take a little time to go into a child's pose just for a breath.

(inhaling sound) Softening the shoulders and the neck. Let's reach those arms out. And then take ourselves back up into all fours leading with the middle back, so it's like a nice scoop here happening and then come back in, back into this neutral spine here. Good, and then we're just gonna do circles so we're gonna sway the hips one way, and then tuck them in drawing the navel and releasing the crown of the head to the earth. And then doing a big circle so it's like a figure eight.

Feel free to get let those shoulders get really juicy into it if that feels good. Feeling the energy just spiral through your body, through your navel, your pelvic floor, your heart space, your eyes, other direction now with the circles, working with really spirally movements here if that's even a word. So just let that energy flow through in this like natural waves through the body. And again just letting the elbows be a little bit free if you want to. (inhaling sound) Letting your neck be free, your jaw be soft.

Good. Now coming back into this neutral position, we'll just pause here, inhale and exhale float back onto your heels. Soften the face down into the earth, relax the back of the neck, soften the elbows and the wrists, Good, so we're gonna come up into kneeling now and we're gonna use the strength of our pelvic floor to do that. So you're gonna feel like a, like a little contraction in the perineum in the pelvic floor. And you're gonna contract so much that it lifts your torso up until you're on your knees.

And then just take a little arch in the back. Let your arms flow open if that feels good, let's just do that one more time. So you can really feel the contraction in the pelvic floor and just caress the earth here, relax it down. So contract, really contract, draw it in, and then let that contraction lift you up onto your knees. Keep the contraction on your pelvic floor, float the arms open, good, and now just bring your hands together in front of your heart for a breath here.

(inhaling sound) Good if you want to add just a little more of an arch so lifting out of your spine, just the upper spine, float the hands down to the earth, we're gonna tuck the toes, and just for a minute take, oh, enjoy that little stretch in the feet. The arches of the feet, doesn't that feel good? (deep sighing) Oh I hope so. Go ahead and take a nice deep breath, on your exhale start to lift that tailbone and pelvis up to the sky, sink back into your heels, downward facing dog. So just feel like this opening in the armpits maybe bend one knee, bend the other, connect with the base of the finger pads, so if you lift your finger, fingers up you really feel connected.

If your wrists are bothering you in this position you can come down into your elbows. (inhaling sound) That requires a little bit of um, uh, strength in your shoulders so play around with it see what feels good to you, we're gonna do a little bit of core work here, so again, um, be gentle with yourself and if you feel ready for it go for it you can go for it if you feel like you need to ease up and pause, ease up and pause. (inhaling sound) Or if you feel like you need to rest you can just do that. Okay so, pressing through the base of the fingertips we're just gonna extend one leg up, engaging that, that booty a little bit just feeling it get a little bit fired up. And then start to float the knee down, as you bring the other knee up towards your heart space, up towards your heart center.

Feeling your navel draw in towards the spine crown of the head is relaxed towards the earth, inhale float it back up pressing into that opposite leg, this time you're just gonna float the toes back down, onto the earth next to the other foot. And we're gonna alternate with that a couple of times. So inhaling it up, exhaling as you lower one knee down bring the other knee all the way towards the heart let's just pause like we did on the other side. Feeling your navel drawing way in, knee towards the heart space, crown of the head relaxed, pressing through the hands, inhale extend it back up. (inhaling sound) So you're getting that little heat in the booty on both sides, both cheeks getting very involved equally, so inhale, (inhaling sound) exhale float it down one knee and one knee comes way in round the back, navel towards the spine, this time just float it back up.

Pressing through the hands, nice long arms, float it down. Last time, inhale floating it up. Exhale knee comes down and all the way in navel towards the spine, good. Press through to that foot ground through the heel, extend through the opposite leg float it back down. So today we'll just play with that, we'll just stay with that.

And the other time you can start to go into this one where you come into plank, and you just knee forward and in, and float it back up. Oh good, really activating that core so, I'll just demonstrate with the other leg just to even things out. But you can stay with the knee coming down or not. Good. (exhaling sound) Should be getting a little bit of heat going on in the body that's a good thing for what we're doing right now.

And let's just pause in down dog. (inhaling sound) Take a big deep breath press through the hands, bend the knees, find the little spot in between the hands, and just look at it with nice loving eyes, and then step to it. Just walking up to it until you're forward fold, you can have your knees really bent if you need to, just hang out here for a breath, relaxing the hands, relaxing the wrists maybe just rolling them around a little bit. Softening the spine, if you'd like to straighten your knees, you can do that, we're lengthening out the torso wherever you are with bent knees or straight knees, lengthening out the belly, relaxing the shoulders and the face, just like we're gonna give ourselves a nice little kiss on the knees, and then we're drawing in the pelvic floor a little bit, it's a little bit of contraction there as you hang out here. So just feel it kind of draw energy in and up and then spiral through your spine and back out and down to the earth.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna roll up, rolling our way into standing, so let's just soften our knees if they're not bent already, and just feel like that contraction like we did a minute ago when we were in kneeling happening, and that's what's that energy that contraction that will abound us what's gonna bring you up. Vertebrae by vertebrae. Tucking the navel towards the spine they're just saying hello to each other. Being nice and intimate right here. Good coming all the way into standing, and let's just reach our arms up to the sun, connecting our palms, a big opening through the shoulders as we bring our palms together in front of the heart.

Saying hello to the heart space, with a breath. (inhaling sound) Good, and now we'll just step, um, to the center of our mats. We're gonna do a little bit of standing work, um we're gonna start with the same sort of idea of rolling through the spine so feet are a little bit, um, farther than the open, more open than the hips, we're gonna bring our hands together at the heart, and then we're gonna do some shoulder rolls to begin with. So before we even do that just feel your sacrum lengthening out a little bit, feel a little bit of energy coming up through your pelvic floor. Navel drawing towards the spine, saying hello right there, and then we're just gonna roll the shoulders up, allow them to fall back, good.

Two more inhale, as you come up, exhale as you come down. One last time. (inhaling sound) Good. (exhaling sound) So now we're gonna release the hands and we're gonna do the shoulder roll with what I call the body roll. So we'll just, roll the shoulders and then we're gonna add the body so it rolls down and there's a little lift at the heart and the sternum as you're coming down, you can caress and say hello to your legs, you're gonna roll it up so legs are bent and they're rolling you into standing.

Really, slow. Good here comes your shoulder roll, here comes your body roll opening through the throat, rolling it back down, as you roll it up, now feel your maluenda, feel a little contraction happening to where you're back into standing. Let's do two more. So you're creating space between your crown of your head and your tailbone, there's a little arch in the back, sinking into the strength of your legs, good. And then rolling it up again, contracting a little bit there.

Good, and let's just pause with our palms facing open. Just feeling the effects of that on our spine, and feeling our feet really grounded with the earth. Nice. And let's just take a little moment to open the feet, open the groin a little bit, so you're gonna, toes are gonna go out slightly, knees are gonna open as much as comfortable for you, you can get to a point where you don't collapse right here. Once you start doing that maybe just straighten your knees a bit.

So your crowning your head is shooting up towards the sky, tailbones is lengthening down towards the earth, and you're just sinking a little bit into this groin and into the booty. Just resting your hands right here, good. And, if you saw the prenatal, we did a little bit of that here to just loosen up the pelvis, let's just do a little shift right here. So you might recognize this, little shifts. You might feel a little bit of like, that, (making cracking sound) cracking feeling so totally normal, (laughing) it's okay.

It's just like everyone, everything's saying hello to each other getting back into place. Little shift, now just tune in a little bit to your sensuality. (laughing) Nobody's watching. At least, maybe not. Or maybe they are and they're enjoying it.

Just enjoy (deep sighing) pause, we're gonna do little circles. So when you do the circles they're tiny and there's a little thing happening in your lower belly between your navel and your pelvic floor. They're getting a little closer together, but you're still lengthening right here. It's like if you do belly dances there's an omi, but with the legs out. So, kind of an ancient move, drawing a lot of energy into your pelvic floor and up through your spine, and out through the crown of your head.

Good let's go in the other direction. Breathing. (inhaling and exhaling sound) Maybe opening up a little bit through the shoulders, through the heart. Good, last time. Lower, sink into it a little bit more and just press into the strength and energy of your legs, squeeze the booty a little bit here, lengthen through the belly let's heel toe our feet here.

Let's just do an actual omi, so our feet are under our hips now and we're just gonna do that circle the same thing, so it's a little contraction here, really all the way into the perineum, and it reaches up to the belly. So let's open our arms, palms up. So just bringing that really healthy nourishment into our reproductive organs, up through the spine through the heart, other direction now. So it's the small circle, a little contraction there, good. Contract, roll it through, contract, roll it through.

Good. A lot going on even though it's such a little movement. Good. And then let's just start to open those hips back out and sway side to side. Just for a breath or two.

Kind of shifting the weight side to side. We'll do one big circle so we're just gonna go one way that torso goes the opposite way to the front, so feeling engagement here, you may want to skip that part if you've or still healing from a c-section, or make it really small, knees are soft, so that was our big circle and we'll go the other way now. So shifting to one side, torso reaches away getting a little stretch in that side body, little engagement here in the core, and then just bringing it all the way around, and back in. And relax palms facing up. Beautiful.

So now we'll go back down to the earth, if you want to go through a squat you can take that through the squat, you can use the support of the block the yoga squat, so if you just come, coming down, pausing for a couple of breaths to contract, into the pelvic floor, um, if that doesn't feel right to you because of whatever you may be working with there, you can just come down onto all fours, just carefully, and sit back on your heels, and do the same thing, a little contraction in the pelvic floor. Just contract, pause with an inhale, and release, okay? Good. So a few more in, drawing it in and holding for breath, and then just releasing slowly with the exhale. And if you feel like you're getting uncomfortable you can place a blanket between your heels, or if you're in malusana you can just pause, come out of it, and come into this position if you'd like.

So contracting, slow release. Nice and controlled. Last time, inhale contract those muscles, good, feel the energy moving all the way up the spine, all the way up the to crown of the head, pause. Exhaling slowly release. So now we'll just transition onto our backs.

Just bring in the soles of our feet down onto the earth, um, let's bring our palms of our hands down fingertips either facing the sitz bones of away if that feels better to you, you play around with that position, and, we'll just drop back into the arm slightly lift one leg up, bring it in towards the chest a little bit, and float it down. Good and the other leg up. So you're still drawing the navel towards the spine, you're opening through the shoulders, a little bit more of a lift through the sternum if you can, if you want to skip this one because it's too intense for your core right now you can do that. Or just work with me this is the last one. Good.

Just lengthen out the spine again open through the shoulders and now we're gonna take ourselves onto our backs. So if you can do it with the strength of your core, or use the support of your elbows, whatever feels right to you. We'll bring our feet in alignment with our sitz bones, which are in alignment with our knees, so everything's lined up, it's kind of a tight angle here, and we're gonna ground through our feet all the way through the balls of the toes, reach to the arms, lengthen to the shoulders just gonna walk the shoulder blades under the back, and again you're gonna engage the pelvic floor, so you're gonna feel like this sensation of drawing in and up and as you do, you start to press into the feet and peel the pelvis up towards the sky. As high as you can go, and then vertebrae by vertebrae roll it down. And there's still a little bit of a sense of contraction in the pelvic floor, until you release the sacrum, the tailbone, and then just let it release.

Pause, good. Contract before you do anything and that, the energy of that contraction is what brings your pelvis all the way up to the sky. Good. And then roll it down vertebrae by vertebrae, massaging those muscles around the spine with the earth, good and relax it down. One more time.

Contract the pelvic floor, draw it in and up, let that energy just breathe you back up to the sun we're gonna pause here, and then we're gonna come up under the balls of our feet. So reach so there's energy through your hands, pausing here feeling a little like heat going in the booty, pelvic floor just play around with contracting it if you need to release it for a breath you can do that, and we're gonna scoot the hips over to one side, and then it's just like we're barely making contact with the earth as we scoot them over to the other side and then bring them back up. So you're gonna feel a little bit in your abs, your lower abs, they're gonna release right here just letting everything soft, pressing into the feet and then scooping up and around you're gonna feel a little bit abs again here, and one more time. Softening out the hip flexors, good. Scooping it around and then let's just pause.

Let's contract to the pelvic floor again. So now gravity's working for us. It's just allowing the internal organs to rest here, giving the pelvis a break, giving the uterus a break just to soften into the other organs, and then let's lower our heels down, and let's just bring one knee up just like we did a minute ago, knee comes up towards the chest except this time we're supporting ourselves with the supporting leg at work we're contracting the booty a little bit. Good inhale, so right here you should feel a little bit of work, and exhale floating it down. Good two more if it feels right for you, bring it in.

There's a little tightness, a good tightness like a deep good kind of resonant tightness happening right here. No twingy, tweaky stuff but just deep, good and pause. Squeeze it up a little higher, bring that energy all through the front body, through the heart space, maybe turn your palms up to receive and just roll it down vertebrae by vertebrae. Massaging those muscles around the spine. Softening the sacrum into the earth, and it's gonna feel so good probably to just hug those knees in, give yourself a nice little hug, maybe rock side to side, softening this booty back out, softening the hip flexors, embracing yourself with love.

Feeling that ease in the back. (inhaling sound) Nice, and we'll just work our way from here into Shavasana. So we, we're just gonna finish our practice by just relaxing into the earth. Just for a couple of breaths allowing your feet to fall open a little wider than the hips, shoulders, and shoulder blades under the back. Palms open, just take a few breaths to just feel the effects of your practice.

Face is soft, eyes are soft. And you can be here for as long as it feels good to you or as long as you have time (laughing) to be here, otherwise we're just gonna roll over onto our sides, and then just gently and carefully bring ourselves back up into seated. And, get comfortable for a breath or two just to feel the effects of your practice in your body. Yes and your energy level. Maybe just close your eyes and notice.

(inhaling sound) (exhaling sound) Feel your beauty, feel your sensuality, your strength, whatever else comes to you. And let's bring our hands together into prayer, thank you so much for sharing this practice with me. Namaste.