 morning and welcome to the yoga class. Today if you have a couple of props it will be helpful. I have some yoga blocks here if you don't have those you can use a blanket that you kind of tightly wrap up so that you can actually have some support with it. It's a little bit more firm rather than cushiony like a pillow would be. So to get started let's sit on one of our supports and you can always also choose a chair if that's more comfortable for you and then move the flesh from underneath your buttocks, cross the legs at the shins and let the legs just drop down. Rest your hands on your thighs or your knees, lengthen the spine. Imagine that there is somebody pulling you on a string at the back of your head, really lengthening the spine from the bottom to the top and then maybe close your eyes here. Nice deep breath in and out through the nose, the collarbones and let the shoulder blades in the back just relax back and down. Slightly tuck the chin so that the neck is a nice extension of the spine. Relax your facial muscles and your jaw. Start turning into the breath, notice how it feels today. Imagine that there's a balloon at the belly button that you inflate with the inhalation and slowly, gently, passively inflate with the exhalation. This engages the diaphragm, our major muscle breathing and let's us draw air to almost lower lung fields. You can maybe try to visualize as the air goes into the nostrils, back of the throat, all the way down through the windpipe into the lungs and then watch it in the first direction on the exhalation. Let the breath get a little bit deeper with a deep breath cycle so actively engage the diaphragm and draw the air in and on the exhalation let the air initially passively release and then towards the end contract the abdomen muscles to squeeze out that last bit of stale air. Let's draw here as you're deeply inhaling and exhaling just to slightly constrict the back of the throat with every inhalation and exhalation to kind of make a wave-like sound. Which prolongs the inhalation and exhalation even a little bit more and therefore helps to calm the nervous system. Take about three more nice deep breaths here. Make those the biggest breaths you've taken all day, maybe even all week. With that last breath cycle, gently open. Now let's cross our legs here the opposite way. Let's tuck the other leg in front of the one that's been there to begin with and let's inhale both arms overhead. Slowly exhale the hands to heart center. Inhale all the time. Exhale, turn towards your right, placing the right hand behind your left hand to the outside of that right thigh. Inhale, lengthen the spine. Exhale, twist over. Maybe gently look over that left shoulder. Try not to get too much into the neck quite again as we're just starting the practice here. Take one more breath here and then return to center. Inhale the arms overhead. Exhale, turn towards your left with the left hand behind you. Right hand on the outside of that thigh. Inhale, lengthen the spine. Exhale, twist towards the left. Maybe gently gazing the direction of that left shoulder. Take one more full breath here and we'll return. Inhale the arms overhead. This time, right hand to the mat, lean over towards that right hand. Left bicep by the ear, palm faces towards the ground. Bend at the elbow here on that right hand at any degree to make sure that you keep the shoulder away from the ear. Try and keep that left six bone on your support so that you're not bringing the hip of the mat or whatever you're sitting on. And again here, inhale, lengthen and then exhale. Maybe bend a little bit deeper. Paying attention to the side. We're going to go back here for you to see how that feels this morning. Then we'll inhale back to center and we'll go the other way. So then the left hand to the mat, elbow bends, shoulder stays away from the ear. Right bicep by the ear, right bicep and hand and palm faces towards the ground. Keeping the right hip on your support. Inhale, lengthen, exhale, bend a little bit deeper. This is really nice helping us get some fresh air into that right side of the lung here. Expanding with every breath, still tuning into that abdominal breathing that we practiced at the beginning. And then slowly release back. Let's come off of the support and even off worse here. So let's stack the hands underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips. Toes can be tucked or untucked here. Spread the fingers nice and wide. Make sure that the index fingers point straight forward. And then point the inner crease of the elbow forward as well to make sure that you're not rounding the back. And then we're going to go through some spinal mobilization here. Some traditional cat and cow, but I'd like to break it up first. And just focus on the upper part of the shoulder. So keep the hips relatively stable. But look up with the head, lift the crown of the head. Let the shoulder blades come towards the spine. And then on the exhale, bring the chin to the chest and press the ground away from you. Keep the hips relatively neutral here. They are going to move because it's all connected with the spine. But if you want to focus on the upper back, you could begin with to loosen up any congestion and any stagnance that we have there. So on the inhale, again, look up, lift the head, draw the shoulder blades towards the spine. And then exhale, press the ground away from you. Really exaggerate the movement here. Follow your own breath. Looking up on the inhale. And then rounding the shoulders on the exhale. Let's do another two rounds here. And then you turn back to a neutral spine. And now we'll keep the shoulders relatively stable and focus on mobilizing the low back. So inhale, lift that tailbone on the exhale, round the low back, bringing the belly button, the pubic bone in towards the belly button. And then inhale again, lift that tailbone. Just focusing on the lower back and the lower abdominals here. On the exhale, you can engage the lower abdominals to pull the back a little bit closer into you and mobilizing the low back area. Follow your own breath here. Let's do about two more. We'll return back to our force. And now we'll combine the two into a full cat and cow. So on the inhale, we'll look up and we'll lift the tailbone, draw the shoulder blades towards the spine. Exhale, press the ground away from you, chin to the chest and pubic bone towards the belly button. Really press the ground away from you. Inhale, look up again. Exhale, round to cat. So slowly following your own breath here, moving the spine of those muscles that surround and support us. Let's do about two more here. No rush. And after that last breath, let's return to neutral, neutral spine here. And then turn the wrists so that the fingers face towards the long edge of your mat. And we'll do a little bit of wrist mobility here. So take some circles with the chest so that the hands, the palm of the hands stay on the mat. And you're moving just the wrist joint. And then let me switch direction where you can do some figure eights here. If you work on the computer a lot, sometimes the wrists get pretty sore and overworked. And this really helps to mobilize them. Then bring them back. Bring the shoulders right above the wrists. And then turn the fingers towards you. So now the fingers point towards your knees. Keep the fingers spread nice and wide. And then move back and forth here gently. So move the torso back and forth to feel the stretch in the inner part of that forearm. Try and keep the palm of the hand on the ground here. And move back as much as the range of motion of your wrist allows you. Be very gentle here. And listen to your body to see what feels good. And then eventually lean the torso back and slowly peel the hands from the wrists towards the fingers off the mat. Feeling the stretch in the hands and the finger joints. And then bending at the elbow slowly. And we'll come back to our floors one more time. And then bring the right wrist now and turn the wrist the other way. So now the palm of the hand faces up. And the back of the hand is on the ground. And then gently move back and forth. Again, this can just be a very slight movement. Stretching out the forearm muscles here. Again, being very careful with that movement. And then place the palm of the right hand back on the mat. And then turn that left palm up so that the back of the hand is on the mat. And then go through that other range of motion here. You can one side might feel different from the other. Just pay attention to how your body feels this morning and what feels good to you. Now bring both hands back onto the mat. Tuck your toes here. And then sit back on your heels. Now depending on how your feet feel. This might be enough or you might be here. Try and make sure that all five toes are underneath you. So the pinky toes sometimes comes out depending on how your shape of your toes are. And then try and sit up and stretch the bottom of your feet. This helps to stretch that plantar fascia that sometimes gets a little bit tense or tight. And then if this feels okay, maybe you want to just lean back even a little bit more. Getting deeper into that stretch. Again, listen to your body and see what feels good for you. Don't overdo it. Always listen and go to the degree of sensation but never a decay. Gently come on back up. Untuck the toes and maybe just kind of tap them on the mat here. Loosen them up. Maybe take in some circles with the elbows. And then let's bring the hands underneath the shoulders one more time. And then take the feet off the mat. So lift them off the mat on the right side. At the same time, look over that right shoulder towards those feet. Feeling the opening of the side body here. On the inhale, return to center. And then exhale, kick the feet off the mat on the left side. Look towards the heels on that left side. Inhale through center. Exhale, heels come off the right. Look towards the right. And then just again, flow here with your own breath. If it feels good to linger there for a moment on one side or both. Maybe just stay there. And gently let that area open up. This is another area that we can get very stagnant in. If we sit down a lot. Take about one more on each side here. Maybe you're noticing that things are starting to open up and get a little bit looser with this mobilization that we've been doing here. And then we'll return to our force. Bring the knees to mat with distance. And big toes to touch and sit the buttocks down on your heels. If the buttocks don't reach the heels, you can always take your block or maybe that blanket and place it in between and have another little fill the gap here between your buttocks and the ground. And then let just the arms relax on the mat. In front of you and the forehead comes down to the mat. If that's a little bit tight in the front of the shoulders you can always place another support underneath that forehead. Let the shoulders just relax there and sink towards the mat with gravity. Move the head side to side here and massage the forehead on the mat. Deep breaths. The forehead has a lot of nerve and knees. A lot of times this actually feels really good. And then we'll return the forehead back to center here and we'll get a little bit more active with our arms. So come onto the fingertips and lift the elbows off the mat. Keep the buttocks, the ground is firmly to the heels as you can. And then walk the hands away from you so that you feel again the lengthening of the entire length of the spine. Relax the jaw and the neck muscles here. Maybe lift the wrist a little bit higher with the fingertips remaining on the mat. Maybe engagement in the upper back. Big breath. And then release the hands to the mat. Now let's bring the right hand in between the left knee and the left shoulder so that then the right shoulder releases to the mat and to kind of thread the needle here. The palm of the right hand should be facing up and the left arm remains extended over you. The temple of the right side of the forehead is on the mat as well. Now in this twist here you can choose to press the right forearm into the mat so you can get a little bit deeper into this twist. You can choose to walk that left hand over towards the right side of your mat to open up that left side even a little bit more and maybe come onto the fingertips of the left hand and twist a little bit deeper here. Choose the option that works for you and take some nice little deep breaths here. Here you close the eyes and tune into the sensations of your back and entire body. And then slowly release if the left hand has walked over walking back and extended right arm back over head. Reset here and then move over the other way. So we'll tuck the left hand between the right arm and knee bringing the left palm facing up left shoulder towards the mat. The temple is on the mat as well and then maybe pressing into the left forearm to get a little bit deeper into the twist while walking the right hand towards the left corner of the mat. Coming onto those fingertips twisting into the upper back here and getting a release in the lower back. Relax the neck and jaw areas here and again maybe close the eyes to tune into the sensations. Take another full breath here and then slowly bend the left arm back out and then flip the arms where they are and then lift the hips so that you're now in kind of all fours but with the arms extended further out than underneath the shoulders and then move the weight forward so that the shoulders come above the wrists and that the hips release towards the mat. Don't let the shoulders come towards the ears rather peel the shoulder blades down on the back and maybe untuck the toes here putting the opening in the front body. Fears remain spread nice and wide putting the opening in the front here and then we'll flow through a couple of breaths here so we'll inhale here and then on the exhale we'll bring the buttocks back to the heels. Sit back. Inhale, move forward shoulders stacked over the wrists releasing the hips to the mat shoulders away from the ears maybe even look up. So sit back into child's pose now come forward flow again with your own breath here and go at your own speed listening to your body. We'll take one more here the next time you come up tuck the toes and lift the hips into your downward facing dog maybe you want to pedal out the feet bend one knee at a time slowly starting to get into the hamstrings making sure that the fingers remain spread nice and wide and that you're distributing the weight throughout the palm of the hand and then maybe find stillness in the legs and press into the mat with the hands bringing the shoulders and torso closer towards the thighs engage the thighs release the heels towards the mat let the head hang heavy on the inhale bend the knees look forward and set the right foot between the hands release the left knee to the mat untuck the back toes and come on up make sure that the right knee doesn't go beyond the ankle here and the angle of your thigh can be anywhere that you need it to be to where the front of that hip on the left side feels like it's going to open up nicely but doesn't again cause you any strain and then we'll inhale both arms overhead here option is pressing that left shin into the mat to get a little bit of a deeper opening the sensation of the front of that left hip here really lengthen the arms towards the sky imagine somebody is pulling you at the fingertips go deep breath and then release the hands to the mat left hand plants on the mat or maybe on one of your supports and then inhale that right arm overhead maybe the gaze follows towards the right hand an option again is pressing the left shin into the mat or deeper hip opening and then exhale place the right hand to the inside of the right foot you can maybe take in your support here now the right elbow touches that right knee and we'll inhale the left arm overhead maybe the gaze follows go deep breath release the left hand to the mat right hand to the outside of the right foot tuck the left toes and set the left foot forward to meet the right feet are about hip width distance bend the knees here just release the torso towards the thighs maybe reach for opposite elbows and swing back and forth releasing the low back here go up the elbows if you've held on and slowly roll up one way or the other comes up last take a nice big roll of the roll now let's inhale the arms overhead and exhale the hands to heart center close your eyes here turn into the sensations of the breath and the body get your thighs a little belly taking the arms out a little back open the eyes inhale the arms overhead bring the palms to touch lengthen here maybe releasing the index finger on the right side side bend just like we can see it before inhale lengthen exhale bend breath here maybe go a little bit deeper with the exhale and then inhale back to center exhale the opposite way towards the left this time breath inhale back to center release the interlace of the hands and then fold from the hips fold forward this time keep the legs straight if the hands don't reach the mat you can always place your blocks underneath you to make the ground come towards you wave more into the toes let the head hang heavy here inhale hands come to the shins into your halfway lift straightening the back pulling the shoulder blades down on the back facing straight down at your mat on the exhale fold step the right foot back releasing the knee to the mat into your low lunge now with the left foot in the front untuck the back toes make sure that the left knee goes beyond the ankle here and then come on up adjust the lunge here depending on how the front of that right hip feels when you find your balance inhale both arms over head leg and the fingertips towards the ceiling this guy really imagine again someone just pulling in towards the sky here releasing the front of that right hip so we press this hand hands come to the mat right hand stays either on the mat or your block and then inhale the left arm over head maybe the gaze again follows actively pressing the hand into the mat trying to open up more into this rotation of the spine here so you're breathing and then slowly release the left hand to the inside of that left foot either on your support or the mat and then we'll inhale to the right arm over head gaze follows deeply press here on the exhale right hand comes back to the mat left hand to the outside of the left foot tuck the right toes left knee step the left foot back to meet the right into your high plank here fire up the core engage the upper back the thighs, the glutes hold here for a moment and then release the knees to the mat keep the elbows close to the ribs when you bend them and lower the chest all the way down towards your mat place the hands underneath the shoulders and really lengthen up the legs behind you and then see that you're almost a little pigeon-toed here so that the pinky toes actually touch the mat keep the elbows close to the ribs hold the shoulders away from the ears and press into the hands coming up into your baby cobra here see that you're just looking about a foot or so in front of you to not hyperextend the neck here you can press the feet into the mat and engage the entire length of the spinal column here breathing engage the area between the spine and the shoulder blades exhale release the forehead to the mat tuck the toes and press back to our force into your downward facing dog couple slow big breaths here noticing how this one I feel a little bit different from the first down dog that we did slowly bend the knees bring them back to the mat and swing them around let's come to seated here extend the legs in front of you but actually keep the knees somewhat bent and then reach with the arms underneath the knees give yourself a nice big hug and then let just the torso come as close to the thighs as is comfortable and release the head towards the knees here this should be a pretty nice passive stretch of the entire length of the spinal column here and then maybe you want to extend the legs a little bit getting a little bit deeper into that release again work within your own body excuse me and what feels good for you got a couple breaths here and then slowly come on up and then come to laying down on our backs let's go moving more into the relaxation phase now if you want to have a cover or put on some socks this would be a good time to do that once we meet on our backs let's go into bridge course here so bring the feet as close to the buttocks as you can and then make sure that the feet the outside of the feet is parallel to the long edge of the mat so again you have a little bit of this pigeon-toed position here place the arms at your side and walk the shoulder blades underneath you keep looking straight up towards the sky doing this entire pose to protect the neck and then press into the feet lift the hips walk the shoulder blades underneath you even a little bit more and then if you like engage with the hands towards the heels or interlace the hands underneath you walking the shoulder blades even a little bit closer towards the midline and then pressing the hands and forearms into the mat lifting the hips a little bit higher practically engage the quads and the glutes to lift the hips slowly breath breath here and then slowly gently release walk the shoulders underneath you outside again and then gently bring the knees into the chest and roll back and forth release the feet back to the mat and walk the feet to the edges of the mat let all the knees come to touch here so that they're kind of like you're making a tent arms can come out to the side either in a bold pose position then let the elbow or maybe just straight out at your sides and then release both knees to the right into a spine of twist here option is placing a support underneath that right knee so that you can really enjoy this passive twist here and then maybe placing the outside of the right ankle on the outside of the left thigh twist a little bit keeping the left shoulder on the mat maybe the gaze goes over towards the left hand maybe the arms even extend overhead and you reach for the left wrist with the right hand lengthening the arm and shoulder away from you lengthen the entire left side of the body you can choose whatever variation feels good for you so that you can kind of relax into release into this close your eyes here a couple breaths together here and then slowly release make your way back up to center bringing the feet onto the mat make sure that you're back in the center of your mat and move any support that you have over to the other side of the left side and then we'll bring the feet back to mat with distance gaze come to touch elbows are bent to that bold pose position or arms extended at your side and then we'll release the knees over to the left side maybe having that support underneath the left knee and then option again is placing the left ankle to the outside of the right thigh maybe looking over towards the right hand and shoulder keeping the right shoulder on the mat or maybe again extending the arms overhead reaching for the right wrist this time with the left hand and gently lengthening the right arm away from you and in the opening on the entire right side close your eyes again and see the wrist about two or four breaths here and slowly release make your way back to center release into the chest one more time and begin walking back and forth releasing a little back and eventually we'll meet in our final resting pose Shavasana here extending the arms and the legs maybe having that cover walk the shoulder blades underneath you again back to chin so that the neck is neutral the feet just fall out towards the sides natural breath return notice the sensations in the body right now ankles raise and behave seven natural space arms open slightly inflation muscles so close with the wrist and the ankles take a full body stretch place the feet on the mat slowly roll over to one side supporting your head with your biceps keeping the eyes closed noticing how you feel right now both physically and mentally gently press yourself up to a comfortable sleep position maybe keeping the eyes closed and from the spine one more time the shoulder blades release out of the back breath might have changed over the last hour and your overall mental state might have feel a little bit calm it's your hands and your heart center think yourself for taking this time and dedicate this time to your overall being both physically and mentally to raise your hands to your third eye the space between the eyebrows place your hands on your lips and the hands back of your heart center think you all have peace thoughts words and practicing with me today have a wonderful day