Rest and Renew

So welcome, thank you for being here. Fall happens to be one of my favorite seasons because it gives us permission to go inward and be quiet and reflect. So this is a nourishing, restorative practice with some gentle movement and we'll feel into embracing support in the body. So we'll begin, I have three blankets. You might have two or three blankets, a bolster and a block.

So we'll start with a block under the head for support and then bringing a bolster horizontal supporting the shoulder blades. So the shoulders will be releasing over the bolster. Now if the bolster feels quite high for you today, you might replace it with a folded blanket which is a bit more kind of mellow and gentle. So finding your way over your bolster or your blanket and then settling in and you might start with your feet on the floor just to kind of let your lower back settle and acclimate. And then if it feels comfortable drawing the shoulders down towards the earth and allow the palms to open and just begin to allow the work of gravity to help assist the shoulders and the arms to release.

And then a softening of the rib cage and of into the back body. And now you might have your feet on the floor. You might at any point find a bodhikonasana with the soles of the feet together, knees wide of opening and stretching the hips or you might prefer to just simply extend the legs and relax the effort. So as you settle in, let's begin by noticing where in the body you can perhaps soften and relax a bit more, allowing the eyes to soften, the jaw to release and beginning to invite your awareness inward towards your breath. And just begin by observing your breath.

So without working with the breath, just begin by noticing the quality of your breath or the sensation of the breath in the body. Just the natural rise or expansion on your inhale and the fall or softening or maybe even an emptiness on your exhale. And with each breath allowing the body to receive the support beneath it. So it might feel like initial effort towards finding a bit more ease in the shape. From here beginning to work with our breath a bit, so inviting your awareness towards your rib cage.

You might even bring your hands to rest around your rib cage just to feel the relationship there. With your awareness in the rib cage, begin to invite the breath into the ribs, into the hands. Feeling that gentle wide expansion in the rib cage and keeping it relatively soft and quiet in the chest, the shoulders and the neck. With this invitation to receive the breath, so rather than forcing the breath or trying to make something happen, noticing the miracle of receiving the breath and then releasing the breath. Guiding your awareness down towards your lower abdomen, lower belly, and you might bring your thumbs around your navel with the fingers pointing towards your knees, your pelvis.

With your awareness in the lower belly, inviting the breath into the lower abdomen, might feel that relationship there in the palms. Two more full breaths into the lower belly, and what would it feel like to have a bit more space through the pelvis, through the hips, through the sacrum, and a little more breath here. And then gently relax the effort of your breath. You might release the arms along your sides, out to the side, and just for another minute or so here, you can come back to observing the sensation of the breath in the body. And maintaining a sense of length through the neck.

Slowly, when you feel ready to transition, bending the knees, bringing the feet on the earth, and then gradually rolling to your side, you might take a moment on your side, and then I'm going to press myself up, so I suggest doing that, bringing your props off to the side, and then we'll transition onto our back supine. Transitioning onto your back, and just taking a moment here on your back, allow for an inhale, and then exhale, release the breath. And then bring your heels in line with your sit bones, the feet about hip distance apart, drawing your awareness down towards your tailbone, and arms along your sides. I'm going to bring my arms overhead so you can begin to see the movement through the tailbone and the pelvis. So we'll inhale together, and then exhale and curl the tailbone under.

So the low back is pressing towards the earth, the belly scooping, and then as you inhale, rolling the pelvis forward, perhaps arching the low back off the floor, and then lengthening up through the front of the spine, the heart, maybe the throat, and then continue. A few rounds like this, exhale, curl the tailbone under, pressing the low back towards the earth and scooping the belly, so navel towards the spine, and then inhale, rolling the pelvis forward, arching, and feeling that movement up through the spine, and then continue a few more rounds with your breath. Inhale, rolling the pelvis forward and arching, and then exhale, curl the tailbone under, around, scooping the belly in, about two more rounds like this, just tuning into the movement through the spine, up through the base of the skull and the head, softening the face and the jaw. Nice. And then from here, draw the knees into the chest.

You'll find Apanasana, so with the hands on the knees, as you inhale, let the knees move away, the arms lengthen, and as you exhale, draw the knees in towards the chest, it's nice and easy, inhale, knees move away, you might notice the pelvis is rolling forward a bit, the pubic bone is tilting down, the back is arching, and then exhale, curl the tailbone under, knees towards the chest, a few more times with your breath, inhale, and exhale, softening the jaw, inhale, and exhale, three more rounds, inhale, knees move away, exhale, inhale, exhale, and last round, inhale, knees move away, and then exhale, draw the knees in, let yourself rock a little side to side. From here, moving into windshield wipers, so bringing the soles of the feet wider than your hips, stretching the arms over the top of the head, and just taking a few moments to lengthen the side body, allow for an inhale, and as you exhale, let both knees fall to the right, coming onto the edges of the feet, and as you inhale, let the knees come back up, and exhale over to the left. Just continue moving with your breath, side to side, inhale the knees up, exhale to aside, inhale the knees up, exhale over to the other side, a few more rounds like this, again with your mind's eye, you might visualize or tune into the movement from your tailbone up through your spine, not through the cervical spine, the base of the skull, your head might be moving with your knees or away from your knees, complete the round you're on, come back to center, again hug your knees into your chest, and it might feel nice to curl up, use the belly, bring the forehead towards the knees, and then exhale, release. From here we're going to roll to our side, and then gently use your arms to press yourself up. From here we'll transition onto all fours, coming onto your hands and knees, and we'll set up for a supported child's pose.

So I'll bring a bolster out in front of me, and depending on your body and your hips, you might stack two bolsters, you might have one to two or three blankets. So for me I'll use one blanket here, but again you might stack several. You might even have a blanket under your knees for support. For me my knees are wide, and then take a moment to inhale, lengthen, and then exhale, begin to fold forward, softening through the face, and then bringing the head to one side. And we'll be here for about five minutes or so, changing the position of the head and neck.

And so here in child's pose you might explore breathing into the back of the body, allowing the belly to soften, and then gradually allowing yourself, your body, the nervous system to receive the support. As you explore breathing into the back body, there might be more sensitivity for you between the shoulder blades, the back of the heart, or perhaps through the mid-back or down through the kidneys and the sacrum. And allowing the belly to soften, the jaw to release. Notice what you choose to do with your hands. When you realize you're feeling relaxed, because you're feeling Scanning, you don't We're about halfway through, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support.

We're about halfway through, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support, so you might bring the opposite cheek and ear towards the support. When you feel ready, slowly sliding the palms underneath you and taking your time to press yourself up, so the head is coming up last, how if you drooled in that one, it's working. If it's comfortable on your knees, bring your bolster out in front of you and just take a moment to sit in Vajrasana, just to kind of like settle upright. From here we'll move into a leg stretch, so coming onto all fours and just extend back through the left leg, tuck the toes under and reaching the heel long, lengthening the back of the leg, and then switch, nice, and then moving through cat-cow, just washing that through the spine, spreading the fingers wide, inhale, roll the pelvis forward and arch, shoulder blades dropping towards each other, wide through the collarbones, wide through the base of the skull, and then exhale, curl the tailbone under and get round, releasing the head, inhale, roll the pelvis forward and arch, exhale, curl and get round, you might continue a handful of rounds, tucking the toes under, moving with your breath, exhale, get round, and inhale to roll the pelvis forward, arch, and lengthen. And more round like this.

And so from here moving into Upavishta Konasana for a wide leg forward fold, so you might bring your bolster out in front of you, and then bring your legs wide, and you might choose to bring a blanket underneath your sit bones, just to elevate the hips, and again depending on your body you might have a second, a third, a fourth blanket out in front of you. Now as you approach this shape, take a moment to inhale, lengthen the spine, so feeling the sit bones ground a bit, you might work a bit actively through the legs, flexing the feet, spreading the toes, feeling the spine lengthen, encouraging the pelvis to roll forward, you might stay here, you might slowly begin to walk your arms out in front of you. Now what can feel nice is to allow your head to fully rest in something, so it might be the support of your blanket or a block, it might be the support of your hands, we'll be here for about five minutes or so, so make sure you're comfortable and supported, again allowing the head to fully release, softening through the shoulders and the eyes, the jaw. Here the invitation is to breathe into where you feel the sensation, or breathe into where you feel the stretch, allowing the body to receive the support beneath it. Thank you.

And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And just noticing what you do to settle in And just noticing what you do to settle in and get comfortable And when you feel ready to transition, sliding your palms underneath you And then pressing your hands into the earth to slowly rise up And just taking a moment, keeping the gaze soft and inward Bringing your bolster and blanket off to the side And coming into revolved head to knee pose Bringing your right knee in And then taking a moment to lengthen the left side body as you begin to lean towards the left So lengthening the left side, your hand might find your shin, your ankle, your foot And then grounding a bit down through that right hip, through the sit bone And then circle your right arm in front of your face And then from here you might play with revolving, rotating the bottom ribs up towards the sky Now your hand might reach towards your foot You might prefer to have some support there with your left hand underneath your head And then breathing here And about five more full breaths into the right side body As you're ready, slow, come all the way back up And taking a moment to pause And then lean back and free your right leg And then draw your left knee in It has to be one of my favorite poses It makes the top ten Inhale, lengthen the right side body And then begin to lean up, out and over towards the right And your hand might be on your shin, your ankle, your foot No need to be ambitious And then as you begin to feel that stretch and length down through that left hip Through the side body, the ribs, sweeping the left arm in front of your face And up, and then heart might begin to brighten up towards the sky Rotating the bottom right ribs up You'll find the side feels a bit different Again you might find support with the right hand underneath the head Or a block there can be nice Breathing into the left side body About five more full breaths here And on your inhale come all the way back up Taking a moment to pause and then lean back and free your left leg You might shake it out a little bit From here we'll come onto our back to find a supported spinal twist And I'll just show, you'll need a bolster and two to three blankets If you have three blankets, open a blanket up for each side So on each side of your mat Like so And then you'll have a bolster nearby and a third blanket which will support your knees So I'll demonstrate coming onto your back And for this we're going to press up as if we're going into bridge pose So from here pressing down through the feet, lifting the hips Sliding the bolster horizontally underneath the hips and the sacrum And then with your third blanket it can be nice to draw your knees in And get creative here But the idea is to bring the blanket so it's padding your ankles and your knees I'm just offering a bit of support and space between the hips And we'll find a spinal twist from here So inhale and as you exhale you're going to bring the legs over to the right And you can adjust this, so maybe it's a bit higher, maybe you add a second blanket or a pillow And then reaching the arms along your sides, inhale Let the left side body lengthen and as you exhale softening the belly And finding a nice extension and length from the heart through the base of the skull And a softening through the eyes, between the eyes And we'll be here about two to three minutes on each side So allowing yourself to really settle here and receive the support For this you might explore breathing into your lower back around the kidney region And spacious around the throat And beginning to feel and allow your muscles to soften around the bone, the belly softened Bring your awareness back towards your breath As you're ready to transition, inhale the knees back up It might take a moment to gently rock a little side to side And then as you're ready, inhale and exhale the knees over to your left And again, because this side is most likely different, you might readjust the support Either add or take some support away Allow for an inhale and as you exhale, again softening the belly and lengthening the right side body And finding a place where the neck and head feel comfortable and connected Again you might explore breathing into the lower back around the kidneys And as you're ready, inhale and exhale And exhale And exhale And beginning to invite your breath to deepen From here when you're ready to transition, on your inhale come back up to center And taking a moment to pause, you might rock a bit from side to side From here we'll remove the blanket, bring the blanket off to the side And then bring your feet to the floor Feel that connection down through the feet and then press down through the feet Lift the hips, we're going to push the bolster down towards our feet Now wiggle the bolster down and then bring the spine, the lower back to the floor And then bring the soles of the feet together, knees wide, resting over the bolster Just be here for a few minutes You might bring one hand to your heart, one hand to your belly Just feeling the back body supported by the earth You're welcome to stay here When you feel ready to move into Shavasana, your final relaxation You can simply extend your legs out with a bolster supporting you I'm going to bring this blanket under my head for support, which might feel quite nice And creating just a slight roll for my neck A little support in the cervical spine And what would probably feel nice is to cover yourself with a blanket Maybe you have a friend nearby, I'm going to come up and tuck myself in You might do the same Just to have that extra support, that extra weight grounding the body can feel really nice It's worth the effort And then tucking yourself in And allow for an exhale And then tuck yourself in And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale And allow for an exhale Now you're welcome to stay here as long as you like And when you feel ready, you can join me on your side And gradually inviting movement back into the body and rolling to a side And taking a moment to pause and curl up on your side When you feel ready to Come up towards the seat, pressing your hands into the earth, let the head stay heavy And then slowly coming up Let's close with just taking a few moments to sit together And you might sit up on your bolster or blanket And keeping your gaze soft, your awareness inward, resting And joining the hands together at the heart And savoring this quiet sweetness Have a nice day