Flow - Day 6 - Center

Transcript

- Hi everyone,
welcome back to Flow, your 30 Day Yoga Journey. We're so excited
that you're back here. It's Day 6 and this is traditionally
a core centric practice but really we're gonna
look at it as an opportunity to connect to
our center in a deeper way. I love core work.
I know that's crazy. I never thought
I'd say that but I love it, I love guiding it
and I hope you will too. Do you trust me? Let's get started. (light rhythmic music) Alrighty, Day 6. Let's come on
down to the ground. Find a comfortable seat. We have a
shorter practice today, so we're gonna drop right in. Align your head over heart,
heart over pelvis, allow your eyelids to close or soften your gaze down gently past your nose. Hands rest gently,
somewhere on the body. Maybe part the lips here today,
soften the jaw. And slowly as you begin to slip into this present moment, here in practice together, see if you can slowly
find more length in the spine. So reaching up
through the crown of the head, lifting the sternum, using this time to continue to open your heart
and open your mind. And find center. Take a deep inhale
in through the nose. And exhale out through the nose. And as you exhale, think about drawing your
navel back to meet your spine. So you're
activating those muscles. And repeat. Inhale. Release that
contraction in the belly. Breathe in. And exhale through the nose. And there is a drawing in of the muscles of the
belly towards the spine. One more time. If you're still getting settled
in here, totally understand. Let's see if we can catch
this last breath together. Big inhale. Fill the belly with air. And it requires some focus and discipline to really engage the muscles of the
belly as you exhale, contracting them
back towards the spine. Sweet. And release, breathe easy. Bat the eyelashes open. Let's take the left
palm to the earth here. Nice big side body stretch. So don't cut
yourself short here. Take up some space, reach the right
fingertips all the way out, up and over. Same thing with the left palm.
If it's really close to your body, see if you can
slide it out today. Give yourself a
little bit of space. Hips are heavy. Breathing deep here. Maybe spiraling the heart a
little up and a little down. Finding some rotation. Then reach it all the way up,
back through center, and take it to the other side. Hi, sweet Benji. Always here for practice. Always down. Exhale, come all
the way back to center. Beautiful. From here extend your
legs out long on your mat. Let's point the toes and we'll reach
the fingertips forward. And this is not about
mastering this move, this is about
checking in with your center. So just doing a little
roll down here to take stock. I'm getting some nice
foot kisses from Benji. It's not bad. We're just going to
go really slow here. One vertebra at a time you
might feel the legs fly up, in which case you can enjoy that opportunity to smile, check in with your humility. And when you release the
weight of the back on the earth, bend the knees and
bring the hands to the belly. Same breath as before, should be a little bit easier
to find that contraction here now that we're lying on the
ground versus seated upright. So take a deep breath in, the biggest breath
you've taken all day. Fill the belly with air. And then exhale, really activate this contraction here by drawing the muscles of the low abs, in and up,
navel to the spine. It's active, it's fierce. So it's not passive, right? Inhale, expand. (chuckles) And exhale, contract. And you can close the eyes here if it feels good to kind
of feel it a little bit more, the sensation of the
breath expanding in the belly. And then try to
experience that contraction. Just a couple more
minutes to play here. I don't say this often,
but try not to be lazy as you're drawing
those muscles in and down, really activate them here. It'll pay off. And in this practice, this exploration of
expansion and contraction, there's obviously wonderful,
great metaphor. It's in this stance of
inevitable expansion and contraction that we get the
opportunity to kind of know who we are and find what center feels like for us in
the midst of that up and down, that rise and fall,
that expansion and contraction. Okay, you can let
that pranayama go. I want to center
myself on the mat. And we'll
interlace the fingertips, bring them behind the head. Just take a second here to be. Extend the thumbs,
massage the neck. I'm a big fan of core work now, but when I was first
introduced to core work, I thought of it more as like an aesthetic thing for my abs. And now I know that when
I have core conditioning involved in my daily practices, I move easier,
I breathe better, and I feel like
I can move from center. That's not just a concept, it's something
I can really experience. So let's have fun.
For the rest of this practice, we're going to play around,
experiencing our core, bringing some fire to
the center of the body. Let's giddy-up and go.
Inhale in. Exhale, lift the head,
the neck, the chest. Think about pressing your
shoulder blades down into your mat to lift the shoulders
and the chest up higher. Elbows stay wide or
at a nice wide diagonal. And then you're gonna draw the
belly in a bit here if you can, feel the low abs connect. Now many will feel
the heat here, the shake. Soften through the
skin of the forehead, breathe. And then maybe we lift the
right shin up parallel to the ceiling and then
the left shin up parallel. Breathe here. Now notice if the knees are
coming in towards the chest. If we wanna make that adjustment
to protect the low back here, go ahead and do so. If you're feeling pretty solid, start to slide those shins out so the knees are directly
over the hips and you'll definitely feel the abs turn on
a little bit more there. We're breathing here for three. You got this, lift up a
little higher for two and one. Take a rest,
keep the legs where they are. Just relax the head and
the neck, the shoulders down. Inhale, exhale,
contraction in the belly, just like we did in
the warmup as we lift up. So it really comes from the
center right out of the gate. When we work in this way,
we can do a lot less reps, focusing on the quality
and the control of the movement versus the quantity. This time, we're gonna take the left armpit chest over to
the top of the right thigh. So rather than
thinking elbow to knee, think left shoulder or
left armpit chest to the left, excuse me,
to the right thigh. Now keep the head lifted as you slide through center and
then take it to the other side. Right armpit chest to the top of the left thigh. Now keep the crown of the head extended as you come
through center and repeat. Inhale, come through center. Exhale lift. Inhale through center. Exhale. Inhale center. Exhale to the left. Now, notice your pelvis here. Can we keep the
pelvis and the hips steady? So they're not
lifting and shifting. That's the ticket. And even it out. Come back to center and rest. You can release the feet to
the earth, hands to the earth. Just take a breath,
take a break. And we'll go again.
Interlace the fingertips, bring them behind
the head, the neck. Inhale in, exhale from center so that sharp contraction
brings the navel down, presses the low
ribs into the mat, and we lift up from there. Beautiful, lift the shins. One leg at a time. Maybe lift a little bit higher,
neck is nice and long. And we're gonna repeat.
We're gonna send the left shoulder to the
top of the right thigh, and then come through center. Exhale, right shoulder to
the top of the left thigh. And keep it lifted. In fact, you can reinforce that
lift as you come through center. To the right. Inhale. Exhale to the left. Now, stay here.
We're gonna add on. Inhale through center,
exhale to the right. You're gonna extend your
left leg, point the toes. Good, inhale to center. Exhale to the left, extend the right leg,
point the toes. Inhale to center. Exhale extend twist. Inhale, keep it lifted. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale exhale. Inhale to center. And exhale to rest everything. You can bring the
hands to the belly. Maybe give your belly,
your abs a little love, a little loving touch here. So if this work is new to you, be kind to yourself. Be patient. If you've been
practicing for a while, or actually even the
lucky beginner's mind, really use your breath to
enhance the connection with the muscles of
your abdominal wall. So focus on the exhale
(exaggerated exhale) in a big way. We're gonna do one more round.
Here we go. Interlace the fingertips. Inhale in deeply. Exhale, navel draws down. Press into the low ribs. So that bottom rib presses into the ground and that's
how we find this lift up. Good, lift the right shin,
lift the left shin, inhale,
lift the chest a little higher. You're doing great,
exhale, here we go. Left shoulder to the
top of the right thigh. Keep the hip center. Slowly come
back through, inhale. Exhale to the left. Inhale to center,
exhale to the right. Maybe you add the leg extension. Inhale to center. Exhale to the left.
Keep it slow. Inhale to center. Sharp exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Keep it going. One more time on each side. And release. Hug the knees into the chest. Take a second here,
rock a little side to side and walk the shoulder blades
underneath your heart center. Good, then when you're ready,
press the palms into the earth. You're gonna send the
legs up towards the sky. Knees can stay as bent as
they need to here as you desire, as you like. And we're gonna slowly
lower the left leg down, Point the toes. Keep the shoulders relaxed
and then bring it back up, slowly lower
the right leg down. Inhale, feet together. Continue exhale lower. Inhale lift. Exhale, lower, nice and slow. Inhale lift. When you get to legs together, see if you can give it a little squeeze before
you lower your leg. Stay here with the
palms pressing on the earth. If you need a
little more support, walk the palms
underneath your hips. And if you want a
little more fire, you can keep this going,
interlace the fingertips, bring them behind the head. Find your breath. You're here for three. Press those low ribs down. And one release. Nice. Hug the knees into the chest,
release the feet to the mat. Take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. Deep breath in. And long breath out. One more round.
Interlace the fingertips. Lift the head,
the neck, the shoulders, or press the palms into the mat or walk them
underneath the hips. legs go up,
squeeze them together. And this time we're gonna
move a little bit faster. And you might even start to feel a little brushing of the legs, the inner thighs,
the inseams of the legs here. Coming into scissors
for 15 seconds. You got this. Moving a little bit
faster than before. One leg, then the other. Protect that low back by hugging the low
bottom rib down to the mat, lifting the chest
a little bit more. You're here for five, four. You got it. Stick with it, three. Stick with it, two.
You got this. And one, release everything. You did it. Hug the knees into the chest. Rock a little side to side. Drop the feet to the mat. Hands come to the earth. Snuggle the shoulder blades
underneath the heart once again. Inhale, slowly begin to peel up. Starting at the tailbone,
moving up through the spine, you don't have to get
to the highest high point. Just get all the way
up to the cervical spine. Take a deep breath in. And on an exhale soften
through the collarbone, soften through the sternum and start to
slowly roll it down. Finding that
articulation in the spine. Lovely, bring the
knees up to the chest. You can take
the arms to cactus arms or football goal post arms
as we say it down here in Texas and then allow the knees to
fall to one side, any side. You're done for the day. Breathe into your belly.
(chuckles) Well you're maybe not done
for the day but you're done here and I hope you have a
beautiful rest of the day. Take a nice deep,
I love you breath in and out. We'll slowly bring it
back through center and take it to the other side. Again, never underestimate
the power of this time that you've taken
for yourself to connect to cultivate a conversation consciously between
the mind and your body. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, bring it back to center. Let's walk the feet
as wide as the mat. Allow the knees to rest inward towards each other so you
totally relax the lower body. Bring the hands to the belly. Let's take one final
breath in here together. And out together. Palms come together,
thumbs to the third eye. And we whisper, Namaste. (upbeat rhythmic music)