 My name is Emily. Thank you for joining me for some gentle chair yoga. I'm in Burlington, Vermont and I'd like to share with you some movement that you can connect with your breath to hopefully find just a little more relaxation or a little inner peace. When I say gentle chair yoga we'll go about 25-30 minutes and we're connecting our breathing to our movement and I would say it's acceptable or appropriate for all scale levels and all bodies. With that said, all of the movements that I suggest are suggestions so please move with what feels best for you and your body. If something doesn't feel good if it doesn't sound safe definitely refrain from doing it and just focus on your breath and what's best for you. Now for chair yoga let's talk a little bit about our setup. So I've got a full new chair and any chair will do. I recommend a chair without arms so that you have full range of motion without being blocked. Now in my case I'm on the small side I'm under 5 feet tall and so when I'm sitting in the chair I can't sit back and have my back resting against the chair without my feet coming off the ground. So I might need some props to help bring the floor up to me. So in this case I've got a couple options. If you have yoga blocks yoga blocks work great for putting them under your feet. If you don't have yoga blocks a folding up towel or a folding up blanket. So then that way you can place them under your feet bringing the floor up slightly trying to find a 90 degree angle with the ability to sit comfortably back with your back against the chair. Now if you also have another blanket or towel I would suggest grabbing that because we might need it for the end for Shavasana for our resting time. Also it's a great prop so if we're coming down forward but it feels difficult to hinge at the hips that can help bolster you and support your body so you're not coming down quite as far. Now if you're on the other end and you're on the tall side maybe you find that you can't comfortably sit because your knees are coming up higher than 90 degrees right? So in that case you can take a blanket or a towel to put it on the chair to bring your hips up. So the goal is to sit comfortably for your body. So again I'm going to grab my blocks and I'm going to place them close to the chair bringing myself my knees to a 90 degree angle. Feet, ankles are parallel legs are parallel. They're about shoulder width apart Now also if you find that this feels unstable or you feel like you might fall out of your chair feel free to bring your feet forward even more so that your feet aren't in front of your knees and perhaps that will provide the stability that feels best for your body. Now for music if you feel that there's some music that you would like to play that would help you relax a little more feel free to play it. Now for the moment let's get our bodies comfortable first we'll get started with just some centering and setting our intention then we'll get into the body do a little movement starting up moving down and then we'll start working on some flow so really focusing on linking our breath to our movement. Afterwards we'll move into Shavasana which is the resting pose or corpse pose and then in that case you may want a blanket or a towel to relax your neck lastly I'd love to share with you a mudra for finding some peace so if you are all set let's get our knees in the proper position our feet are parallel back as comfortably against the chair paying attention to the shoulders trying to relax them down and bringing your attention into your surroundings while collar over walls do you hear any sounds around you now if it feels comfortable gently bring your eyes to a close focusing on our breathing so this particular breath we'll try to find balance through inhaling and exhaling for an equal length of time so on the inhale we'll breathe in through the nose out through the mouth perhaps holding the inhale for 3 seconds and exhaling for 3 seconds perhaps 2 seconds however long whatever feels good for you so let's try one together and then we'll breathe on our arm for a few moments so inhale going at your own pace focusing on your breathing in your own body and perhaps thoughts are flitting through your mind that's absolutely normal and absolutely alright let's acknowledge these thoughts and try to come back to your breath inhaling together so feel free to bring your body back to a normal eyes are still gently closed breathing finding some extension through your spine so perhaps your back is coming off the back of your chair imagine there's a cord extending through the ground of your head to the sky pulling you up now if you find your chin is coming up drop it just a few inches so that it's parallel with the ground though for today's intention I'd like to invite more peace into my life recently I find there are so many uncontrollable variables happening around me and the thing that I can control is just myself and my inner being, my inner storm so hopefully through connecting our breath and our body we can find a little more peace if you feel comfortable let's bring the eyes feel free to close your eyes feel free to wiggle if you need to feel free to stand up if you feel like you've been sitting too long remember this is your practice so do what's best for you so let's get started just with movement bring it down and move into some salutation inhale arms coming up over the head just relax in the shoulders hands are open hands can touch we'll bring in the arms as high as it's comfortable for you exhale arms coming down so we'll inhale coming up exhale coming down inhale coming up now on the exhale I'm going to go to one side so option one slightly bending to one side option two hands are touching option three perhaps grasping a wrist option four feel free to grab your chair so whatever's feeling good for you and your body now let's breathe here and exhale deepening it pose one more inhale and exhale let's release inhale bring both hands up and exhale opposite hand coming down excuse me let's reset inhale coming up and exhale bring the body to the side so again we have option one option two option three or option four so we're inhaling finding some length exhaling sinking into the bones inhaling and exhaling let's release inhaling both hands up and exhale coming down so inhaling shoulder circles back moving down let's inhale and then exhale hands can come to your hips to your knees or even to the chair for a little cat pose so on the inhale we'll open through the shoulders arching through the spine bellies coming forward moving away from the back of the chair on the exhale rounding the back pushing into the back of the chair if you find that it's impeding your movement feel free to shift your body forward a little bit as long as you're feeling stable so inhaling opening through the chest coming forward and on the exhale pushing your back the back of the chair head coming forward into a letter C inhaling opening letter C last one from here going to scooch forward in my chair making sure I still have stability here dropping a foot opening up the stance now what we're doing here is opening through the hips into a goddess pose so again we find whatever feels good for you so maybe you're here maybe you want to pass it's completely up to you and you can do the arm movements we'll find our leg stance and then the arms come to a 90 degree angle so when we move into goddess pose we'll inhale finding length and then on the exhale we want to turn with our torso now sometimes people might be inclined to just turn at the shoulders and so you'll see that I look like I'm turning a lot more but then my torso is not even engaged so let's try that together so legs are open to whatever position is comfortable for you arms come up into a 90 degree angle let's inhale trying to draw your belly in and then on the exhale moving with your belly button inhale here holding it and exhale releasing it so let's do that on the other side let's get our arms up into a 90 degree angle we'll inhale finding some length exhale tightening our belly rotating at the belly button so here let's inhale in and then onwards feel free to push your body back into your chair bringing our blocks for blanket to reset it's a neutral position 90 degree angle through your legs knees and ankles parallel and let's work a little bit on our ankles so perhaps you angle your blanket or push your blocks forward and we're going to bring some movement into our ankle so on the inhale raising our toes to the sky exhale bringing our toes to the ground so inhaling here option 2 if you'd like to float your heel feel free you can support yourself under your thigh and then inhaling here exhaling here option 3 supporting your ankle excuse me supporting your thigh on your chair and then rising your ankle lifting your ankle inhale toes coming up exhale inhale come on inhale exhale if you're floating drop your heel onto the ground and then let's do some ankle circles in opposite direction now what we do on one side we must do on the other so let's reset and then opposite foot trying to straighten it out the best to your ability whatever feels good for your body so option 1 heel is on the ground inhaling toes up exhaling pointing inhaling option 2 perhaps you're supporting yourself option 3 thigh supported by the chair floating your toes now let's drop our heel on the exhale legs still extended ankle circles on one side circles on the other side so let's reset coming fast to our parallel position getting ready for some sun sanitation so feel free to push your back into your chair for extra support making sure that you have a blanket available so when you're bending over you can catch your chest alright so we're going to link our movement with our breath so inhale hands float up exhale down now inhale hands floating up exhale hands coming down and we're going to hinge at the hips and bend forward so if you'd like to grab a blanket and put it in your lap feel free to do so so perhaps you're just bending forward a few inches you prefer not to have a blanket and are hinging at the hips ultimately you just want to get more movement through here hinging through the hips and in the end relaxing the neck let's inhale looking up and exhale sinking deeper down inhale here and gently bring your body to an upright position inhale hands coming up exhale coming down you have a bolster blanket in your lap that's quite alright you can drop it or even keep it in your lap moving into cat and cow hands can be on your knees on your thighs on your chair inhaling opening through the shoulders and exhaling rounding your back feel free to switch forward if you need to inhale opening exhale inhale exhale coming to a neutral position so let's do that one more time without any interruptions so inhale exhale getting ready to come down relaxing the neck inhale looking up exhale relaxing further into the pose inhale bringing the body slowly up exhale coming to neutral position inhale arms come up exhale hands come to hips or chair inhale opening inhale and exhale now let's inhale coming to a neutral position inhale and exhaling so with the length breath and the movement perhaps we got our body temperature up but we're going to bring it back down with a resting pose called Shavasana if you feel comfortable here if you feel like you'd like to lay down feel free to lay down if you put a blanket under your knees and under your head for a little support or if you'd like to stay in your chair and grab your blanket and if it feels good, if it's not too hot, if you feel like it's giving you good support feel free to put it around your shoulders just for a little neck support so for Shavasana we're bringing our breath and our awareness feel free to gently close your eyes, deepening your breath perhaps inhaling through the nose feet are parallel as you can. Each inhale you're bringing energy up through the bottom of your feet extending through your body up to the top of your head and then exhaling releasing any tension so imagine inhaling through your body and exhaling feel free to connect this idea and this breath with individual body parts perhaps on an inhale you'd like to bring your attention to your ankles then release any tension from your ankles perhaps to your knees taking a moment to breathe and slow down connecting with your breath finding peace within into your chest, your neck, your shoulders or a few moments let's bring movement back to our body and wiggle in the tones taking a moment gently bring your inhale free to drop your blanket if you'd like I'd love to show you a mantra to connect with Amudra Amudra is our hand movements that correspond to your body so a very common one is when your hands are resting on your lap and you bring your thumb to your pointer finger through here what I'd like to do is we'll focus on this Amudra and then also connecting our thumb to our other fingers so if our palms are pointing towards the sky inhale and on the exhale thinking peace begins with me so for peace the thumb meets the pointer begins thumb meets the middle finger with thumb meets the ring finger me so let's try that together if it feels good we'll inhale so I'll let you try that on your own and if you'd like to close your eyes feel free whatever's comfortable for you inhaling palms are open and feel free to move through it a few more breaths at your own pace now feel free to your knees or your thighs when you're breathing back to normal you'd like to open your eyes let's inhale hands coming up over the head and feel free to bring your hands together over the top and in front of your heart may you move with joy, happiness and peace namaste thank you for joining me for some yoga