Ease Back

(waves splashing) Hi. Welcome back. We're gonna do a gentle practice. This is available to mamas who have given birth, just as long as your body feels like it is ready for it, maybe six weeks after birth. This will be moving very slowly, so I'll give you time to just check in, and see how your body's feeling for this practice, and I'm very happy you're here sharing it with me. So we'll start in seated, and I like to use a blanket in seated, because of the sensitivities in the tailbone and sacrum that can happen sometimes.

So we'll just set it there if that feels right for you, and we'll start by getting a little bit grounded, just tuning in to the breath. Let's close our eyes and take some nice deep inhalations. (deep breathing) And noticing the little pauses between the inhalation and the exhale. (deep breathing) And a couple more breaths, just deepening it a little bit more, filling up the belly a little bit more, and lengthening the exhale a little bit more, drawing the navel towards the spine gently as you exhale. (deep breathing) Good.

And just slowly and gently open your eyes, feeling calm and relaxed, and as you're ready we'll just float the arms up with a big inhalation, maybe just glancing up at the hands, interlace the fingers and rotate the wrists so that the palms are facing up, and we'll just roll the shoulders up by the ears, lengthen through the spine, and then roll the shoulder blades down the back. Good. And just pause here for a breath or two, engaging the upper belly a little bit, lengthening through the spine, and gently drawing the navel in towards the spine. And then we'll just carefully unhinge the fingers, let the fingertips float back down. Good.

And let's just switch the cross of the legs, and we'll do that one more time. So big inhalation, lengthening through the spine, looking up at the fingertips, interlacing the fingers. Good. And rotating the palms, and then drawing the shoulders up by the ears, and releasing the shoulder blades down the back. Just softening the neck, pausing for a breath, feel that groundedness in the sitz bones, lengthen the spine.

Good. And then we'll just float the wrists open, fingertips come down to the earth. Good. And then we're gonna transition now onto all fours. So just bringing - you may need a blanket under your knees, if that feels comfortable for you.

Otherwise, just bring the knees under the hips, palms under the shoulders, and let's tuck our toes, just get a little stretch in the arch of the foot, if that feels good for you. Just softening it back up, but there are certain areas that get really tight, which I'm sure you're completely aware of, during pregnancy. And let's just kind of soften them back out, gently. We'll just press through the hands, just bring our shoulders nice and broad, and feeling the alignment of the neck with the tailbone. Good, and just pausing here for a breath or two.

Shifting the weight back slightly, just stretching the feet back out, on an exhale. Bring the weight forward, just really drawing those shoulders back and down away from the ears, drawing the navel towards the spine, shift the weight back, stretching your feet back out. Good. And then coming back up into neutral. So finding that alignment of the spine so the crown of the head really lining up with the tailbone, avoiding the temptation to just dip in right here, just pressing through, keeping a little bit of energy through the shoulders, maybe sway side-to-side to soften up, and now we're gonna untuck the toes.

And extend one leg back straight out from the hip, get a little bit of an internal rotation. So this does require a little bit of engagement here in the lower abs, so just feel that and feel the muscles around the spine getting a little bit activated. If that feels good to you, you can start to reach the opposite arm out, draw the shoulder blade down the back. Soften the face, just relax that face. Take another breath in here, and just float the knee and the palm back down.

And let's just go directly to the other side, so extending the opposite leg out, feeling energy all the way through that leg. The spine is integrated, one whole piece. Not dipping here, just bringing everything into alignment. The leg is about hip level, reach the other arm out, shoulder blade down the back, good. Just feeling what's required of you to strike a little balance in the pose.

Pausing for breath. Good. Inhale, lift 'em a little bit and just float them back down. Beautiful. Good. And just sway side-to-side with the hips a little bit.

If you want to you can shift your weight back, so softening out, this gluteus medius gets so tight sometimes during pregnancy and then there's so much that went on during the birth. So we're just kind of gently swaying, softening things out with the breath. Good. And then we'll just shift our weight back. If you want to, go ahead and place a blanket between your heels and your sitz bones, and just relax the lower back down and soften the belly onto the tops of the thighs and slowly bring your face and forehead down to the earth.

We'll just reach our hands way out, getting a nice length in the arms right here, breathing like you're breathing into those armpits. Stretching everything out, softening the neck and the face, feeling that space in the belly. Let it just go really soft. Good. If it's feeling really good to you, you might walk your elbows a little closer together, connect your palms, walk the elbows out a ways from the body, and just take a little bend in the elbows, so you're just stretching out the deltoids, opening the shoulders.

Beautiful feeling of lightness in the shoulders and the arms, soften in the belly. As you're ready, just float the hands down, if they're in prayer, float them back down. Good. And then start to roll yourself with a big rounded back, back onto your heels, sitz bones staying connected to the heels. Coming back up, just pausing here, maybe roll the shoulders a couple times.

Good. And now we're gonna carefully work our way back into standing, so just remove this blanket if you had a blanket there, and we're gonna come back onto all fours, go into this little roly poly position here, just letting that spine hang loose, belly resting on the legs, neck just totally relaxed. Couple of breaths here. Good, just softening things out. You're gonna walk your hands a little closer to your feet and just start to lift your pelvis up to the sky, keeping your knees bent.

Again, just allowing the belly to relax on the legs and lengthen out. Letting the neck be heavy, shoulders relaxed. So as you're ready you're just gonna open your arms like big wings with a big inhalation, connecting through the feet, bring your palms together up above your head and reach towards the sun into standing. Good. Exhale.

Just open the arms, bring your hands back in front of your heart, and let's just pause for a moment in tadasana. Just feeling supported by the earth, feeling our feet really connected, lengthen the spine, opening through the shoulders. Good. Soften through the face. And we're gonna go into Warrior One now.

So we're just gonna step forward with one leg, step back with the other. So we're just kind of reminding our body of the sensation, the feeling, the alignment of the asanas, taking it nice and easy. So grounding through the outer edge of the back foot. Front knee is over the ankle. Good.

Feeling really connected through the feet. We're gonna inhale, sweep the arms up into Warrior One, pause here, and just bend the elbows, roll the shoulders down the back, lengthen through the spine, sink into the legs a little bit more. If it feels right for you. Inhale, lengthen, and then open, just rotate those shoulders open into Warrior Two. Getting a little bit of an engagement in the lower belly and length through the sacrum.

Lift through the sternum without arching the back. So again, just reminding your body of what it's capable in the asanas. Warrior Two, expanding through the heart, grounding through the legs. Good. Start to straighten that front leg.

Connect through the feet. Spread through the arms and shoulders, and just rotate around to the other side. Nice and easy. Good. And bending through that opposite leg, grounding through the outer edge of the back foot, knee over the ankle.

Reach the arms up, expanding through the spine, softening the elbows and allowing the shoulders to roll down the back. Good. And just breathing into the pose. Inhale, lengthen through the spine a little bit more, ground through the legs a little bit more, and then open on exhale into Warrior Two. Good.

And just sinking into the strength of your legs, expanding through your fingertips, lengthening through the spine. Couple more breaths. See if you can feel equal connection through each feet - each foot into the earth, and then start to straighten up this front leg, just drawing the knee in and up and then we're just gonna rotate the toes forward this time. It's a little bit of a pigeon toe in the toes, heels opening. Just relax the palms down for a moment.

Maybe just look down and lift your sternum, bring your sternum a little bit closer to your eyes, and then lengthen your sacrum by engaging your lower belly. So everything's uncoiling in the spine. Inhale, reach, exhale, we're gonna if you need to bend your knees, and just float your hands down to the earth. Relax the spine, release the spine. Good.

Pause for a breath, maybe roll the shoulders down the back away from the ears. Good. And we're gonna float the arms open like big wings. On an inhale, take yourself back into standing. Good.

Exhale. Just float those arms back down all the way to the heart. We're gonna step our feet together, as close as comfortable for you, they can be just almost touching, or touching, around the area of your hips, in alignment with the hips. Engaging the belly a little bit, lengthening through the spine, grounding through the feet. Inhale.

Reach up to the sky. Good. Interlace the fingers, draw the shoulder blades down the back, and you're just gonna release over to one side, let the hips sway in the other direction, just gently. Just feeling really grounded through the feet, lengthening through the spine as you do this. Engaging the lower belly a little bit.

Good. Inhale. Let's pause here, roll the shoulder blades down the back again, giving your neck some room to grow. Connecting the navel towards the spine. Good.

Another breath. On your next exhalation, just float over to the other side. So allow the hips to be free and sway over away from the hands. Just a gentle opening, easing on back into your practice. Good.

And come up to standing again. Inhale. This time just float the hands apart. Let's just take a little moment for chair pose. Nice and easy, sinking back onto the heels.

Line up the knees with the toes. Circle the arms up by the ears. Engage the navel towards the spine. Good. And just maybe glance up at the hands a little bit, just for a moment, and then let the head come back down.

Feel the strength and power of your legs. Maybe just give yourself some credit and celebration and acknowledgement for everything that you've just created. Open, big arm circle. This journey that you've been on. Hands to the heart.

Good. And we're gonna go back into a forward fold. Reaching up and out, soften the knees if you need to, long spine, folding from the hips, let the head relax. From here just bend your knees a lot and then take yourself back onto all fours. Let's just take a pause with a neutral spine, so lifting the head, softening the face.

Good. Lengthening out the spine, and then as you're ready just sit back on the heels and come back up with a nice erect spine sitting on your heels. If you need to for this shoulder opener, you can place a blanket right here, between your heels and your sitz bones. We're just gonna do one nice sweet little shoulder opener, very gentle, walking our hands back, fingertips facing the sitz bones or away, if that feels better for you, and just roll those shoulders open. Lift through the sternum, open through the ribcage, and if you want to, release that back.

Opening, softening those areas that get constricted from carrying baby, feeding baby, just let it all open back out. Feeling safe doing this. Using your breath to create a sense of ease and safety. Good. As you're ready, start to inhale and coming back up on top of your heels.

Just pause for a moment. And now we'll just remove the blanket and come back on our booties, our sitz bones, and if you want to you can bring the blanket under your knees right here. We're just gonna extend the legs out, kind of flex through the feet, again just really livening up those feet, giving them a little stretch, a little love. Lengthen through the spine and then just start to walk forward a little bit. Good.

Lengthening out as much as you can, and as you're ready just relax the face down towards the legs. Relaxing the back of the neck, front of the throat. Softening the spine, the lower back. Couple of breaths here. If you have the blanket under your knees and you're feeling really comfortable here, you can try removing it so you can get a little bit more of a stretch, and a little bit more of a connection here.

Remembering to go easy. Just reconnecting with your body. Your newly transformed body. Good. Just being gentle with it.

Allowing the breath to help you feel really good and energized. Good. Inhale, just start to walk the hands back up, slowly. And we're gonna cross the legs and come back into seated. So just coming back in the same position we were when we started.

Take a moment to just get comfortable here. If you'd like to you can take one arm and cross it over the opposite knee. Just take a really gentle little twist. Opening through the shoulders, lengthening through the spine, grounding through the sitz bones. Breathing.

Good. And then just come back to center. Switch the cross of the legs. Then we'll just do that the other direction. So reaching across, gentle, very gentle little twist, just softening from the base of the spine, relaxing the pelvis into the earth.

Opening through the shoulders. And just coming back into center. And we'll just close our practice the same way that we started, just closing our eyes for a couple of breaths. Feeling grounded through the sitz bones, lengthening through the spine. Just taking a moment maybe to send some really nourishing, tender loving breaths into your belly, into your womb, sending it some love and gratitude.

Good. And as you're ready, let's bring our hands to our hearts, into prayer. Good. And open your eyes. Thank you very much.

Namaste.