Yoga for Addiction Recovery | Slow & Steady | Chelsea Rappel, C-IAYT

Transcript

make a little cushion for yourself so that when you lie down you are feeling as supported as possible and we're going to start in the posture of constructive rest which is with your back on the floor and your knees bent and your feet on the floor and then either you can allow your hands to rest on your tummy you can allow your arms to rest by your side and just as we did at the beginning of the practice give yourself permission to return to that watery ocean body noticing if there's anything that's gotten stuck or frozen and just a little wiggle a little sway a little rock nestling into the surface beneath you like an animal in its den preparing for a winter's nap nestling in to the floor to the earth and let your eyes close connect to your breath and perhaps connecting to a sense of something greater of a higher power source spirit god the universe whomever or whatever speaks to you and allow yourself to just play and merge and communicate with that something bigger something greater even if it's just all of us together in this space and all these different parts of the world doing yoga together that's so huge i'm settling in for three to five quality breaths here softening through the front body through the face the throat the belly in the front of the thighs and hip creases slowing down and then on your next breath i invite you to extend your left leg long keeping the right knee bent right foot on the floor extending the left leg along as if you were standing on the floor so reaching through the heel toes facing the sky and sense what it would take i love someone mentioned the middle path right so that you're not squeezing the muscles and forcing but you're not being too lacks so feel that the muscles are beginning to wake up the muscles of the calf ankle the thigh muscles hugging the bone not too much not too little engaging through the leg and then on your next breath please reach your left arm up overhead maybe even touching the floor behind you and the same idea with your arm engaging right not being too loose or too tight just right goldilocks said and then just stretching and reaching through that entire left side of your body sensing the distance between your left hand and your left foot and take another big breath here and then as you lower the arm back down to the floor pre please bring your left leg in towards your chest and then snuggle that left knee in towards your body you can bring your hands to your knee or shin and then just begin to play a little bit with that right thigh bone in the socket you might like to make little circles right maybe you take that knee out to the left a little bit or take it into a little bit of a twist across the body right you might extend the leg so there's no right or wrong right there's no instruction manual right just a slow steady exploration of that left thigh warming up the left hip socket hip joint i'm taking another moment or two here and then do the same thing with the ankle and the foot so just a little circle a wiggle of the foot going both directions to clear out the ankle joint and then please keep the knee in towards the chest but this time let your arms come to the floor open in a letter t shape right press the elbows down press the backs of the hands down feel stability across the back of the shoulder blades and then extend your left leg uh not straight but straight ish a little bend in that knee and then please just start to play with the idea of making circles with that leg as and initiating the movement from the hip socket so we're moving the femur the thigh bone and your circles can be large they can be small and if you feel any pops in your hip that might be a signal to go a little bit smaller and then go the other direction and feeling that connection between stability in the upper body and the stability required in the abdominal muscle with this idea of fluid fluid circles let's do one more circle here and then go ahead and release that foot back to the floor relax here pause and in the pause experience the left side of your body the left leg and hip noticing if there's some energy some tingling some warmth maybe there's a little more clarity there right a little movement goes a long way we don't have to take these big dramatic strides right movement is movement and then let's extend through the right leg so the same idea but even though you know what we're doing because we did it on the other side see if you can approach it with the beginner's mind a newcomer's mind as you flex through the foot begin to engage the muscles of the right leg taking the right arm up overhead and just exploring the right side of your body length and reach and take another big breath feeling the distance between the hand and the foot and then gently guiding the right knee now towards the chest holding on to the knee or the thigh as you just find some movement there with the right thigh in the hip socket right just maybe some circles or maybe bending and straightening the knee little twists right noticing i find if i know where i'm going and i know what to expect i start to check out a little bit so see if you can stay engaged stay curious let's start to get into the ankle and the foot so circling through the ankle maybe twinkling the toes going the other direction clearing out the ankle joint and then keep the knee into the chest as you open up the arms to the floor opening wide at 90 degrees extend through the right leg not hyper extending the knees you begin to just make circles with that thigh remember not to just to go at your own speed what feels right for you this leg will probably be a whole different experience than the left leg it is for me anyway and then go the other direction really feel the stability of the upper body the arms really helping to anchor you as you paint a couple more circles here and then slowly begin to re-bend the knee bring the foot to the floor here pause and rest again nestle in experiencing the right side of your body and all that you have now awakened or moved or shifted take another breath here and then hugging both knees into the chest this time just a moment to massage the back body a little bit a little bit of a sway here [Music] and then we're going to roll all the way over to our side so i'm going to roll to my left side because that's facing the camera and coming into a a kind of a fetal pose i'm going to make a pillow with my lower arm and my knees are coming into my chest and that upper hand for me it's my right hand is on the floor in front of my chest so i'm stabilizing here and then just settling into this position we're going to reach that upper leg it's my right leg all the way straight to the floor and then guide that upper hand for me it's my right hand up overhead until it maybe reaches and we're going to play again so just feeling a reach here so we did this exact same pose on our backs but how does it feel differently this time now being on your side and take another breath get long as you exhale bend the elbow bend the knee bring them towards each other in front of the chest a little bit of a kind of kiss elbow in the knee inhale reach up get long hello glutes exhale bend the elbow towards the knee good let's do that two more times breathing in as you reach breathing out as you bring the elbow knee to kiss one more time here getting long and bringing it in now extending that right leg or that upper leg straight bring the upper arm to just rest on the hip and as you inhale reach the upper arm towards the sky maybe twinkle through the fingers maybe a little circle of that wrist clearing out the wrist as you inhale reach that upper arm and then lift that lower leg maybe two three four ten inches however high it wants to go as you exhale lower the arm lower the leg do that a few more times inhale reach get tall hello glute muscles exhale lower let's do that a few times just going at your own pace right so i find that here i'm working muscles that tend to be um sleeping a lot of the time my butt my back body the glutes we're just waking up our hiking muscles the muscles we'll need for the journey let's do one more here okay and then lower the leg this time bring that upper hand back to the floor in front of you to stabilize you and then lift that leg once again just hover it a few inches off the ground and then move it behind you like an inch or two and then again circles now we did these circles before but it's also a completely new experience right if you don't feel too much try bringing that heel behind you just a little more hello and then going the other direction a few times being willing to do this imperfectly and flop around if you need to flop around so let's do one more circle here [Music] good and then go ahead and lower that foot to the ground reach the upper arm overhead and we're going to take a little journey to our back so just kind of roll yourself onto your back like remember when we were i don't know you probably don't remember this i don't but when i was a you know we're learning how to roll over like when babies are like on their tummies and they learn how to flip over sometimes i forget that i had to learn how to do that i had to try like a billion times to flip over right now i just do it without thinking now that you're on your back just feel that whole right side of your body or whatever side that was just working enjoying a breath enjoying a moment and then in the next kind of breath or two we're gonna roll over to the other side to do the other side and i'm actually going to just um reverse myself so that i can continue to face the camera but you can just roll over if you want and then again just using that lower arm as a pillow bringing the knees up towards the chest that upper arm for me it's my left hand in front of the chest and then extend that upper leg out long reaching the upper arm up overhead take a big reach and just experience the length on this side of the body let's all breathe in together here and exhale bend the elbow bend the knee let them touch and kiss in front of your chest inhale extend and reach on and exhale knee to the elbow let's do that two more times can you do this without expecting to get anywhere right we're not looking to get anywhere there's no there's no there there's no getting somewhere we're just on the journey but last time here this time extend the leg but then lower the upper arm towards your hip on an inhale reach that upper arm towards the ceiling reach that leg just as high as it wants to go exhale lower the arm lower the leg and then just moving like that you're on your own pace here waking up through the other glute the other hip outer hip here just do a few more times and can you just be in the experience it's the here and now of it all okay let's do one more hello hi hip high outer hip good let that leg rest let that arm rest and then bring the upper hand in front of you once again onto the floor in front of your chest and then lift that upper leg and then here we go circles so see if you can move that leg behind you a little bit you'll feel something different happen and just whatever kind of circles you'd like to make here i find that when i start to feel uncomfortable i start to check out i start to stop breathing and like blinking and swallowing so see if you can still keep your senses online let's go the other way even though we're challenging our body a little bit it was like what working step eight and nine were for me i was like i'm just kind of like felt myself check out a little bit but it's really good present that's where you make amends to people for those who don't know good one more circle here good and then lower that leg reach that upper arm up overhead and behind you let it carry you over to your back like you were a little baby on the floor just rolling over pause on your backside take a moment take a breath feel that whole side of the body that you just moved and toned and then bringing both knees into the chest once again if you can lift your head lift your chest see if you can make a little o shape here and then you might start to rock and roll forward along your spine if your body tells you yeah chelsea no that's not for me you can just simply roll over onto your side and then we'll make our way wherever you are i'll meet you in hands and knees in a tabletop position and i love to use my blanket to pad my knees because the kneecaps have no cushion on them if you haven't noticed so i bring the cushion to the kneecaps and going to make that familiar for most of you probably that tabletop pose but can you approach it as something new right even though you probably have done this many many times something completely new right explore your fingers and the reach and the stretch explore the knees under the hips and then let's move through some some flexion and extension so starting to around the spine into that familiar rounded cat pose and then as you inhale go ahead and drop the belly imagine the organs loosening here as you lift through the heart lift through the tail shoulder blades moving down the back cow pose and moving at your own pace through these two shapes and how can you move through them in a new way right maybe this is the first time you've done this or maybe the first time in a long time it's already new but if you do this pose all the time what could you start to include to make it fresh right maybe you start to move in circles or forward and back a little bit maybe you start to shift the position of the hands and how would that change things all right how can we just keep that beginner's mind that just moving slowly evolving slowly let's take another moment or two here [Music] and then let's all meet back in the tabletop position reaching the left leg back tuck the left toes and then tilt the left heel to the floor so now we're kind of in a kind of a back foot is in a warrior two position and then kick that lower foot out a little bit that right leg press through the right hand lift the left arm a little bit of a side plank variation yeah and reach reach reach and you might decide to kind of uh play a little bit with that upper arm maybe it wants to move back or forward maybe it even wants to come up overhead and just there's nowhere to get to right the journey is the thing right there's no destination even when we get there there's another peak there's something else on the horizon let's take another breath here and then on your next breath go ahead and look down to the floor uh bring both knees under you both hands under you take a few movements here some cat cow or some circles just to flush out any crunchiness and then let's prepare to move on to the second side so from tabletop stretch the right foot back turn the heel down to the floor and then kick the left foot out to the long edge of your mat as you reach the right arm up left arm down a little bit of a side angle side plank here as you start to just expand through the upper chest maybe you reach that arm forward or back all right notice if you're holding your breath or scrunching up your forehead or you've stopped swallowing or breathing right and just keep those senses open as we play and move through life on life's terms here let's take another breath in and another breath out and then look down to where you're going plant the hands bring the knees back under you and then players choice here so either snuggling into a child's pose widening your knees bringing your forehead to the mat or if you're ready for a downward facing dog i think we're just doing one downward dog tonight so this if you feel like a downward dog is uh in the recipe tonight you can begin to tuck your toes lift your hips high and if you're choosing that uh child's pose go there with all your heart right if you're in downward dog i invite you to see what it would be like to take your feet as wide apart as your match widening through the back of the hamstrings and then bend one knee as you straighten the other leg and then bend the other knee and straighten the other leg and just kind of pedal out the knees as you press into both hands all ten fingers and the corners of all the edges of your palm let the head move away from the shoulders and the shoulders away from the head so the neck is long take another slow steady satisfying breath here and then we'll all start to make our way to a standing forward bend so if you're in dog pose starting to walk your feet go slow go slow to the top of your mat if you're in child's pose lift your head lift your chest you can also start to meander right kind of going slow take a stroll take your feet as wide apart as your hips the outer hips and then let's find a half lift so please bring the hands to the shins as you expand through the chest with the shoulders down and back take another breath in as you move the thigh bones back and the heart forward as you exhale release into a complete standing forward bend perhaps grabbing your elbows or maybe grabbing the back of the calves and shaking out the head and again just a little bit of an exploration here not letting your water body getting frozen or stuck you might pedal out the legs again you might bend the knees quite a lot maybe bring the fingertips to the floor and let yourself sway or twist or reach opening up through the back of the hamstrings how can you do this pose in a new slow gentle way let's take one more breath and then rooting down through the feet press the feet into the floor strengthen the legs and then lift the head and the chest to come all the way up perhaps your arms come with you reaching the arms out and up maybe you even lift the rib cage as you lift the chin and look up on your next exhale release the arms find a easy relaxed mountain pose standing on your mat maybe adjusting clothing hair and just feel the standing posture right we've been standing for a long lifetime now we know what it's like to stand but what if there was nowhere to arrive to like even standing was its own evolution and as you stand let's explore that right shoulder so beginning to shrug the right shoulder and be a little saucy about it if you want a little slinky and see the range of motion in the shoulder right just going your favorite direction noticing what your favorite direction is where did you start the shoulder roll and then the other direction playing there notice if anything in the lower body has gotten locked up or frozen keep the ankles and the knees soft let's take one more rotation and then go ahead and release that just pausing for a moment again keep the body watery and loose as you feel that right channel that right side of the body if there's any more clarity there and then moving through that left side now whichever is your favorite way to roll a shoulder start rolling it that direction good playing with that a few times right if you're feeling pretty subtle this evening or you're feeling a little dramatic about things good and then the other direction like noticing any pops or cracks or snapples no snapples on your shoulder chelsea and she was watching a show and they talked about diet peach snapple and i was remembering snapple sorry one more time remember snapple good and then pausing and just feeling again into that left side that shoulder that arm that watery body and take a big breath here and i'm going to move my blanket out of the way and then i'm going to play a little bit here with um a side angle pose but from standing and i invite you to stand at the front of your mat and we're gonna work our way into a warrior two position from a balancing pose so as you look forward let's bring our left knee towards our chest and if you feel like balance is a little tricky this evening you can always put your hand on a wall or a chair or a countertop okay so make it work for you and as you breathe here feel that standing leg really working for you and maybe it's shaking a little as the ankle finds its rhythm and take another breath and then we're going to transition into warrior two but slowly with grace so i'm going to begin to tilt my torso forward as i start to move that left foot back in space and the arms can start to move and we're gonna imagine that we can reach that left leg back as far as we can you really have to let yourself wobble right and perfectly and reach it back so far until it wins and then you step back into the warrior two footprint and then we're here right so you can bend into that front knee and then if you didn't quite make it where you intended to right because that's what happens in life just adjust your stance so that that back heel is anchored and the toes are pointing forward and then those front toes are pointing towards the short edge of your mat and let's just bend and straighten a couple times in the warrior stance and just noticing the knees and the hips and right the creakiness or whatever is showing up here and then let's all go ahead and straighten the front leg lower the arms turn forward i'm going to teach us a little vinyasa flow here so i'm gonna exhale all the air out as i inhale i'm gonna bend into warrior two extend my arms as i exhale i'm gonna tip myself forward towards that front knee the front arm goes low the back arm goes overhead a little side angle inhale come up in just the upper body so the lower body stays in warrior two exhale straighten the leg lower the arms so that's our vinyasa sequence let's do that a few times inhale warrior two exhale tilt forward front arm comes down back arm comes up inhale come up in the upper body exhale straighten legs lower the arms two more times like that inhale exhale dip see if you can bring that shoulder a little lower towards the knee inhale to come up exhale to straighten one more time slow steady building strength building resilience strong lower body inhale come up exhale straighten and lower pause for a moment just notice what's working here in that front leg and then we're going to move back into that shape into that side angle shape but we'll hold it here for three breaths good so see what it feels like to hold here not letting yourself get stuck maybe that shoulder comes down a little more see if you can rotate your chest a little more to the sky one more breath hello strengths good hello wobbling and then come all the way up inhale keep the lower leg bent if you can exhale straighten and lower the arms turn the front toes to face the camera and let's take a forward bend hands to the hips feel a little softening in your hip creases as you bend forward soften the knees lower the hands towards the ground bend the knees as much as you need to and then let's bend the right knee move the upper body over towards the right foot a little flow then the left knee let the upper body move over towards the left do that a few times just letting your body move like the ocean and the ocean's a big body of water right when the water wants to move it really kind of a slow deep but very powerful kind of like how i feel here in this pose good one more moment here and then let's take a quarter turn towards the right foot or whatever your front foot is turn the front foot forward so now you're in a lunge a runner's lunge start to rock forward and back on that back heel and then the same way we went back into warrior two we'll go forward into standing forward bend when you're ready start to launch yourself in one step or a couple small slow steps towards a half lift hands to the shins heart forward exhale release and bend all the way down inhale lift your head lift your chest press into the feet as you come all the way up rise up exhaling hands to the heart pause and feel right it's in the pausing where svedyaya happens in the yoga text that's self-reflection i cannot be self-reflected if i'm going going going it's in the pause another big breath here and then we'll prepare for side number two i'm going to move to the other side so i'm facing the camera but we'll bring the right knee this time towards the chest standing balance on the leg and then just find the shape slow and steady exploring like there's nowhere to arrive to and then beginning to tilt like a seesaw the upper body goes forward as we begin to bring that right foot back maybe the arms come out to help you balance and we're going to move that right foot back so much until the weight of it gravity just anchors that back foot to the ground and we make our way into a warrior two footprint making sure that front knee does not move over the front ankle and just taking a moment or two to bend and straighten to find that that place where you feel good here where your body feels comfortable the front heel relatively lining up with the back inner arch and then let's straighten the legs lower the arms moving into our vinyasa flow and even though we did it on the first side how can this be new how can we stay open and curious take a breath in exhale inhale warrior two let the arms extend bend the front knee exhale tilt towards that front knee front arm comes down back arm tilts up inhale to rise keep the lower body bent exhale straighten the leg lower the arm three more times inhale warrior two exhale tip forward side angle variation inhale to rise keep the feet anchored exhale straighten inhale bend go at your pace you don't have to follow my pace sometimes i move a little more slowly or quickly than you would naturally exhale release one more time exhale tilt inhale come up in the upper body exhale straighten now this time we're going to move into side angle and hold it so preparing warrior two front arm sweeps down and back back arm sweeps up and over see if you can bring that shoulder a little lower towards the knee we have three breaths see if you can spiral the chest and the ribs a little more to the sky keep breathing keep smiling one more breath stay here exhale ground through the feet inhale rise up let that upper arm carry you up and then exhale release straighten the leg turn the back toes forward so both feet are facing forward hands to the hip creases soften in the hip creases move the butt back move the chest forward as you bend all the way forward take a little softness in the knees and again just a little flow from side to side a little rock moving from right knee to left knee nice and then taking a quarter turn towards the front of your mat those front toes so we're now in a runner's lunge frame the front foot with your hands rocking forward and back forward and back look where you're going look forward and eventually the momentum of the back foot just helps take you take a couple steps or one big step to the front of your mat lift halfway shoulders back heart open exhale to fold in and pressing into the earth lift your head and chest to stand sweep the arms out and up and release your hands as you breathe out final mountain pose of the evening connect to what's happening in your body being in relationship with our body and then on the next breath release the hands take your feet as wide as the mat here turn the toes out preparing for a little squat you're just taking the hips back as far as they want to go this might be your squat some of you might come down a little lower some of you might come down all the way this is just we're just going to be here for a moment just feeling the hip creases and the breath and then let's bring the hands behind us to the floor and go ahead and plop yourself down imperfectly so you get to the floor let's bring the feet to the floor for just a moment of a boat pose so leaning yourself back lift the chest maybe come to the tippy toes lift the heels lean back a little more and maybe you lift the feet a few inches more maybe the shins come to parallel you might even reach the arms forward and take a big breath here lift the heart as you exhale come forward bring the feet to the floor let the knees open a little bit so you reach your arms between your knees and then up tilt the pelvis forward lift the front body exhale tilt yourself back bring the knees back together and again your variation of boat pose and let's do that two more times inhaling forward open the knees lift the arms lift the heart exhale roll the back knees together use your abdominal muscles to come into any variation a boat one more time rock the pelvis forward open the knees lift arms lift the corners of the lips and a final boat pose here lean back squeeze the inner thighs together lift the feet to any degree and then bring your feet down maybe hands to the back of the thighs as you roll slowly down to the ground or just slop down do it imperfectly and come all the way back to constructive rest we started here but we're not the same we went on a journey so feel yourself now having gone on a journey sense your whole being the aliveness in your body let's take a very gentle twist here knees come in towards the chest let the arms open wide like the wings of the bird spreading open shift the knees over towards the left maybe they come to the floor just a really simple twist here if you have lower back pain lift that upper knee several inches and maybe that left hand comes to the inner knee as a bit of a kickstand this is an open knee twist take some pressure off the spine and then maybe just let the head rock a little side to side opening up through the right shoulder back of the ribs on the right side rooting another breath here and then using the abdominal muscles to help bring your knees back to center let's find center making any adjustments you need as you carry the knees over to the right side feel free to lift that upper knee bring the right hand to the inside of the upper knee making a kick stand to prop the knee up the thigh up so it really softens the sacrum in the lower back open up the left arm the left chest as you let your head rock side to side massaging the back of the skull let the back of the left shoulder blade ground into the earth take another full breath here and to come back up using your abdominal muscles to bring your knees back to center give yourself a hug rocking both knees massaging the back of the body as we prepare to move towards the shavasana towards our final surrender pose just listen into your body if there's anything that it really wants any final poses to help it feel complete and if not you can begin to make your way towards shavasana otherwise just taking 30 seconds or so to just do anything you're needing to feel complete and as we move towards shavasana just extending through the legs if you want to grab that blanket again and either cover yourself or maybe give yourself a little pillow under your head right once again nestling into the earth allowing your body to be held fully as the eyes close and rest heavy into the eye sockets the mouth becomes soft and there's nothing left to do except rest and let go as you enjoy your shavasana in your rest i will read a short poem this poem is by julia fehrenbacher and it's called what silence said this is what silence said to me today trust what you can't see move forward despite the wobbly groundlessness of i don't know breathe love create show up as you are every day no matter what go where the wild irises grow say thank you for all of it weeds cracks sunbeams the hand on your shoulder the forever throb of ache it's all a doorway a hand leading you back to grace enjoying another moment or two here in your sweet rest and without doing anything simply observe how you're feeling now what's here for you now if you would be very delighted to continue your shavasana even after the we close please enjoy stay where you are rest linger if you feel like you're ready to come out and to close the meeting with us you can begin to move your fingers and toes maybe let your head rock perhaps your arms and your legs begin to stretch as you arise awaken you