 Hello my name is Emily. Thank you for joining me for some gentle yoga in a chair. To begin with let's talk about props. So I always like to grab some blocks or a rolled up towel or a blanket. Now if you're on the smaller side the blocks or the towel or the blanket can be placed under your feet to bring your feet up a little bit more and then in that manner you can have a 90 degree angle while you're sitting in your chair and even being able to press against the back of your chair. Also if you're on the taller side you may want to put a blanket or a towel under your hips to bring you up again looking for that 90 degree angle in your legs. Also we want to get our legs situated but we can use our towel or blanket for folding or bending over and even for a final relaxing pose it feels good to give you a little neck support. So go ahead and get some props for under your feet and I would suggest at least one more blanket or towel for bending over or for your neck if you would like. So we're going to do this without music today so if you feel like you'd like some music I'll invite you to play the music of your choice. Now for yoga it's very important to move with your body and to do what feels best for your body and you'll know that better than anyone so if at any time if what I'm suggesting feels like it's a little too much or if it feels uncomfortable then I'll trust you to make the judgment and perhaps experiment moving your body in another way or just refrain from doing the movement. So to begin with we'll just start with a little centering focusing on our breath then move through the body connecting our body and our movement with our breath a little sun salutation and then I'd like to show you some new breathing and we'll end there. So to begin with let's get all of our props set in whatever manner you need them to be to be most comfortable. My legs are parallel knees 90 degree angle if it feels a little unsteady I can slide out my toes a little bit so I can catch myself if I feel like I might fall out of my chair. Also if your arm excuse me if your chair doesn't have arms that's recommended just so you have full range of motion. So let's get ourselves settled comfortable in a chair knees 90 degree angle and we're just coming into a relaxed position. Let's find some length through our spine rising raising our heads towards the sky if you find that your chin comes up as well you can slightly lower your chin if it feels good I invite you to close your eyes to listen to your surroundings become aware of any noises move it and allow that movement or the noises to help you come back to your breathing now turning your vision inwards connect with your breath connect with your body and we'll focus on our breathing if it feels good feel free to put a hand on your belly we're just focusing on really working our diaphragm so that when we're breathing in we're contracting the muscle and our belly is coming out and then when we're exhaling our belly is just relaxing relaxing through the diaphragm let's try that together hand on the belly breathing in go ahead and bring your breathing back to normal bringing a hand over bringing the hand over to your thigh if it was on the belly and for today I'd like to take a moment to focus on an intention there's something you'd like to invite into your life for me I'd like to work on balance I find when I have lots of time on my hand that I become even more lethargic or when I'm extremely busy and overcome I become inexplicably inexplicably even busier and myself so that I'm just always rushing so I'd like to strike a nice balance there go ahead and think about how you might invite something into your life perhaps it's balance perhaps joy or ease whatever it may be I'll fold it in your mind's eye so I'm going to inhale let's fold our arms up over the head relax your shoulders exhale arms down inhale floating up exhale down on the next inhale we'll just bring one arm up exhale and exhale down down opposite side let's bloom opposite side the last set inhale and then taking three big shoulder shots so let's inhale bring your shoulders up and exhale it aside and exhaling let's inhale arms open and hug this time inhaling open opposite hand on the top inhaling and again switching arm switching last set got inhale hands come down to side inhale just finding length through the spine and exhale dropping the chin to chest inhale let's bring the chin to one side and exhale putting chin to center inhaling for the opposite side and exhale coming center last set inhale let's inhale coming up and exhale just relaxing inhale finding length through our spine hands coming onto your thighs or holding your chair now on this inhale rolling shoulders back bringing chest forward finding arch with your spine and exhale rolling shoulders forward back chest pressing into the chair cat cat form so inhale we're opening closing making it see with our body inhale inhale coming up and exhale relaxing now for the next one let's work on our wrists and we'd like to give you a couple options it feels good you can hang your wrists here option two your arms can be close to your body or option three for a little more strength through your shoulders and your arms you can bring your arms straight out whatever option feels good I'll let you choose so if you feel here here or here then open your hands up spreading your fingers wide like a web inhaling here and then exhaling curling the fingers like little paws and bringing them down so inhaling putting to a web and exhaling now let's bring our hands into wrist circles the direction and resting the hands on your knees moving down to our ankles so if it feels good we can gently bring the leg out so we can do the same thing so inhaling trying to stretch our toes and then exhaling curling our toes or so I can have my heel on my block on the ground whatever I need for that support and support yourself under your thigh up above your knee or if it feels good you can bring you can engage your thigh bringing your toes the ground excuse me your foot parallel with the ground with two different options so go ahead and get set in whichever manner you think would feel good for you I'm going to go here I might have to scoot up a little bit so that I'm comfortably on my block let's inhale bring your toes up towards the sky if you can opening them wide and then exhale curling them and pointing your toe inhale stretching them and exhale inhale stretching and exhale pointing now let's do three breaths on the opposite side giving so that you're comfortable again perhaps you're here supported or engaged whichever way feels good for you let's inhale bring your toes up opening them wide and exhale curling and pointing inhaling up exhaling inhaling up and exhaling curling down and now at this point I'll invite you to go back to your first foot take some ankle circles excuse me for the snap crackle and popping to the opposite foot inhaling also stretching and dropping your foot down so we're going to reset bringing my blocks back towards my body so that my knees are parallel toes are parallel they're in a 90 degree angle also we're going to move into sun salutations we'll be bending over a little bit so if it would feel good to have some support as you bend forward feel free to grab your blanket or your towel and you can put it here so that when you hinge you have some added support if it feels good for you being able to bring your chest towards your knees you feel like you don't need that support and that's absolutely perfect so for the sun sanitation we're connecting our breath with our movement and flowing so to dasana is mountain pose shoulders are down and relaxed arms by our sides palms facing forward spine towards the sky let's inhale bringing our arms up over our head and exhaling down to the side inhaling coming up over our head and exhale starting to hinge at the hips coming down as far as what's comfortable for you even feels good to relax your neck down feeling gently looking up exhaling seeking deeper slowly coming up bringing the arms over the head exhaling bringing the hands to the side of the chair either pressing the chair or perhaps on your lap for some more cat and cow so inhaling opening through the chest shoulders roll back it feels good chin can come up exhaling belly coming in perhaps the backs pressing against the back of your chair inhaling opening lastly inhaling opening and exhaling pushing your back against the chair good inhaling coming into position and exhaling relaxing let's inhale arms coming up and exhale bringing my hands on either side of my knee right so behind my knee under the thigh and perhaps on the inhale and bring my heel up perhaps the foot comes completely off the block whatever feels good for you is what we'll do so we inhale exhale coming behind the leg to class inhale floating the leg by the engagement through the thigh and coming down just relaxing the hands coming up for the opposite side and scooping the opposite leg inhale bringing the leg up perhaps heels floating perhaps the legs engaging through our thigh exhaling coming down awesome let's take one more breath on each side inhaling exhaling scooping behind our leg inhaling floating the leg up bringing the leg down inhaling arms coming up and exhaling down inhaling floating leg up to reset inhaling coming up exhaling and coming to my knees so once again going to bring you into a resting pose called shavasana if you feel like you would like a prop your blanket or towel to wrap around your neck to support your neck go ahead and grab that now if you feel like you'd prefer to sit bring your chin to your chest and do that or if you'd even like to move onto the floor and just open up and relax feel free to do that as well so I'll invite you to get into the position that's most comfortable for you and see how lateral is or shavasana go ahead check in your body take any movements that you need to feel like you're comfortable check in your feet making sure they're grounded your legs are parallel right from your feet all the way through your knees they're about shoulder width apart shoulders imagine just relaxing them down shoulder blades coming down your spine it can feel good you can drop your chin open for further use your blanket to drop your head to either side if you'd like your hands to be calms down on your leg it feels better to palms up or if you'd like to hang feel free to hang here if you're laying on the floor just invite the body to completely relax and even imagine bringing your shoulders up and let's soften our gaze perhaps bring your eyes to your clothes bring your breath it's a warm breath in and then release have a deep breath in just imagine that each inhale you're breathing in just to revitalizing energy and then on each exhale just relaxing even deeper feel free to move your body if you must if you'd like to just getting really comfortable with the position you're in and allow yourself to relax if at any time different thoughts come into your mind you can acknowledge them and then let them go come back to your breathing and try to relax inhale and through the nose and perhaps exhale through the mouth eyes are gently holding and making for a few moments to connect with your breath and to connect with your body in whichever ways you know the most harmonious balanced and beneficial for you let's come back to this room by bringing some movement into the body wiggling the toes wiggling your fingers it feels good and if you're ready gently open your eyes you're sitting in the chair feel free to drop your blanket if you have a blanket it's relaxing even more your chair if you're on the floor go ahead and roll over onto your right side bringing your left palm to the ground in front of the fire we'll inhale together if you're on the floor with the palm on the ground we'll inhale gathering energy under the palm and then exhale pushing into that left hand bringing your body into a comfortable seated position so at the beginning of the practice I mentioned bringing more balance into my life so I'd like to show you a rather balancing cleansing breath that is it's alternate nostril breathing so it might feel a little awkward at first but we'll give it a go I do want to say if it feels uncomfortable or you start feeling short of breath we'll just resume normal breathing so let's give it a try so feel free to use either hand and you can either you can drop your pointer finger and middle finger and you can use your thumb and ring finger as a means to blocking each nostril if that doesn't feel good you can change hands or feel free to use your thumb and your pointer finger as a way to block your nostrils so for nostril breathing we would exhale in one nostril inhale the same nostril block and then exhale on the opposite nostril inhale on that same nostril block exhaling inhaling blocking opposite side exhaling inhaling opposite side so if that feels comfortable let's give it a try so we'll just place our hand over your nose well excuse me with fingers on either side of the nose without blocking your nostrils let's inhale together and exhale here and then block the right nostril exhale and left inhaling left blocking left now exhaling right blocking right exhaling left walking left exhaling right inhaling right drop the hand and exhale let's take one big breath together and exhale through the mouth let's inhale arms coming up over the head and exhale bringing the hands together in front of the heart inhale here walk throughout this week finding balance peace and peace namaste