Thanks for joining me.
I'm Kerry and I'll be guiding us through a gentle Hatha Flow sequence today.
If you'd like to join me,
I'll be starting on my back,
Beginning by bringing some attention to the breath.
With each inhale,
My belly rises.
And with each exhale,
My belly falls.
Inhale,
Belly rises,
Chest rises.
Exhale,
Chest falls,
Belly falls.
And just taking a few moments to bring up some attention to the breath.
There may be some sensations you become aware of in your body.
Gently scanning the body for tension and allowing any of that tension to fall away with your body.
Taking a few moments to bring up some tension and allowing any of that tension to fall away with each exhale.
As you're ready,
Maybe bringing in one knee towards your chest,
Holding around the knee with your fingers,
Maybe they're interlocked.
Taking a few breaths here.
So extending the straight leg forwards,
Perhaps the toes,
Work their way towards the ceiling.
And if you like,
You may try extending that straight leg up towards the ceiling.
And as you're ready,
Releasing that side and switching over to the other side.
So gently pulling the other knee in towards the chest,
Maybe switching the interlocking of your fingers.
Taking a breath here.
And if you like,
Maybe extending that straight leg up towards the ceiling.
After a couple breaths,
Releasing the leg back down.
And now I invite you to join me in hugging both knees in towards the chest and beginning a gentle roll from side to side.
My roll is a very,
Very gentle and subtle one,
So I'm really just rolling just to one side of my spine and back to the other side.
In fact,
There's not much rolling going on at all.
Sort of a gentle massage on my spine.
I invite you to experiment with what degree of rolling works for you today.
And maybe transitioning that to a roll from front to back.
So massaging the spine vertically now.
And as you're ready,
Inviting you to join me in coming up to seated position with my legs crossed.
Perhaps you'd like to release your gaze down towards the floor and roll your head over to one side,
Glancing over your shoulder.
With an exhale coming back down to face downwards and with the next inhale,
The other side.
If you like,
You could repeat this to your breath a couple of times.
Now I will lift my shoulders up towards my ears with an inhale.
And with my exhale,
I'll release my shoulders back and down.
Inhaling,
Pulling my shoulders up towards my ears and exhaling them gently back and down.
Relaxing my shoulders down with each exhale.
You may be noticing some sounds.
Just allowing your awareness to gently greet whatever sensations are finding you today.
And as you're ready,
Rolling onto hands and knees.
And the invitation is to,
As you inhale,
Look forwards with your gaze.
And as you exhale,
Releasing the head,
Relaxing the neck and pushing the ground away from your chest.
You may find it desirable to root into the knuckles of each your thumb and index finger as you spread your fingers wide.
A couple more of these to your breath if you like.
Of course,
Feeling free to adjust or alter any of the forms that we're exploring today as works for your body.
And now I will push back into down dog.
So keeping my hands,
My fingers spread wide,
Grounding the knuckle of my thumb and the knuckle of my index finger for stability.
Rebounding slightly off of the ground with my forearms.
So there's a gentle balance in my forearms,
A lift.
As well as a gentle external rotation in my upper arms.
So my triceps are gently guiding backwards towards my ankles.
I'm keeping a gentle bend in my knees and bending each knee a couple of times.
I'm deciding to leave my knees slightly bent as my legs wake up.
And with each inhale,
Reaching my sitting bones back and with each exhale,
Just toying with straightening my knees just a little bit.
Coming down to child's pose.
So my knees are coming down to my mat and I'm just resting my buttocks back onto my ankles,
Heels.
Allowing my forehead to rest on the ground in front of me and keeping my palms gently grounded.
So perhaps coming onto your fingertips if you like and crawling your fingers slightly forward if that is desirable.
And just relaxing the palms back down into the ground.
So nice long arms,
Naturally extended.
Not straining to lengthen but just giving a little bit of space to the shoulders and neck.
And coming back up onto hands and knees with my next inhale.
And I'll be pushing back into down dog once again.
I'll take a couple of breaths here and I invite you to do the same.
Walking the feet up towards my hands and leaving my knees quite bent.
Lifting my toes,
Spreading them wide.
Lifting through the arches of my feet.
And lifting as well with each inhale,
My quadricep muscles up towards the frontal hip points.
With each exhale just relaxing my spine down.
So much of the energy in my body is conspiring towards the fronts of my hips.
And just relaxing here,
Holding my elbows and completely relaxing my head and neck.
There may be a curl to the spine here,
That's natural.
And being sure to keep my knees bent enough to avoid any pain or tension in my low back.
So I'm attempting to bring a little bit of attention to my quadricep muscles.
As I inhale,
My kneecaps lift slightly,
Knees still bent.
As well as my quadriceps up towards my frontal hip points.
And as I exhale,
Just releasing.
And as you're ready,
You may like to roll up slowly vertebrae by vertebrae,
Either holding your elbows or releasing your arms down until finally your head comes up last.
Bringing my hands to center,
I am circling my arms up above my head and bringing my hands back down to center.
So one more time here,
Just circling my arms up around me,
Bringing them up above my head,
Glancing up at my thumbs.
I invite you to try this if it's something you like.
And as I circle my arms back down,
Just gently folding over my hips back down to a frontward fold.
Still keeping my knees bent,
Inhaling,
Just reaching my chest forwards as my knees stay bent.
And I'll bring my hands to my thighs to support me.
Just glancing slightly forwards,
Trying to straighten my back slightly,
Not straining to do so.
Exhaling,
Releasing my torso back down,
Bringing my hands and fingertips beside my feet and stepping back into upper push-up position.
And I'll slowly release myself down back to my mat on my belly,
Guiding my weight forwards as I do so and bringing my elbows slightly in towards my torso to protect my shoulders.
Finally landing on the ground,
Releasing my hands behind me,
Inhaling,
I'll lift my head slightly and turn to one side,
Just relaxing my head down.
Inhaling,
Lifting my head and exhaling,
Turning to the other side.
The next inhale,
Lifting my head once more and coming back to neutral.
I'll bring my hands back to my sides and push back into Child's Pose.
A couple of breaths here in Child's Pose for as long as you like.
And I invite you to join me in Down Dog.
So my legs are experimenting now with straightening slightly,
Keeping lots of energy moving through my arms.
So spreading my fingers very wide,
Middle fingers facing forward and grounding through the knuckle of my thumb and index,
Pushing some of that weight back into my legs.
And slowly,
As I'm ready,
I will step up to my hands with my feet,
Taking about four steps to reach my feet.
Excuse me,
To reach my hands.
Inhaling,
Lengthening my chest forward slightly,
Looking slightly forwards,
Bringing my hands up to my thighs to support me and exhaling,
Folding back down.
One more time.
So inhaling,
Reaching my chest and glance forwards and then keeping the knees slightly bent,
Exhaling downwards.
So with each inhale,
I'm lifting my kneecaps slightly as well as my quadriceps.
And this may be a very subtle sensation,
If any sensation.
I invite you to experiment with doing what works for you today.
One more time,
Inhaling.
So pulling my chest forward slightly.
And then coming all the way up to standing,
Circling my arms up above my head,
Glancing up to my thumbs,
Exhaling,
Bringing my hands down beside my feet.
Inhaling halfway up and exhaling,
Stepping again back into plank pose or upper push up.
After a breath here,
Just gently coming back down to the ground on my belly as I did before.
This time bringing my hands besides my rib cage and just pulling my chest forwards as I look slightly forwards.
And on the exhale,
I'm going to come back into downward dog through my knees.
So coming back onto my knees and then straightening my legs into down dog.
Stepping up to join my hands once again.
Inhaling halfway up,
Exhaling to fold and inhaling,
Sweeping my arms up above my head one more time,
Looking up and bringing my hands to center.
Quick little chair pose to close the Hatha portion of this practice.
I invite you to join me.
So bending the knees any degree that works for you and reaching the arms up towards the ceiling.
You may find it helpful to with each inhale,
Extend the torso and reach the arms to whatever degree is comfortable for you.
And with each exhale,
Perhaps sinking the hips back and down just a couple of inches.
I will also lift my toes and spread them wide,
Set them back down on the ground,
Lift subtly through my arches of my feet.
Lift the kneecaps on my next inhale as well as my quadriceps and with my exhale,
Just relaxing those actions.
One more time.
So inhaling,
Lifting my toes and spreading them wide as well as my kneecaps and my quadriceps and exhaling,
Just relaxing that dynamic.
I'll take one more inhale with that cycle.
Exhaling,
Coming back to standing.
Now coming into a gentle twist.
So back into Utkatasana,
Chair pose.
Again,
You don't have to bend your knees any more than is comfortable for you today.
In fact,
If this pose isn't working for any part of your body,
You're invited to try something completely different.
Turning over to the side.
So hooking my elbow just gently around my outer knee,
Whichever side is preferred.
Inhaling,
Cultivating length in my lower legs,
My upper legs,
My torso,
My arms,
My spine and exhaling,
Maybe just settling into that twist a little deeper.
Whichever side you're facing,
You may find it helpful to gently pull that side of your waist back.
So pulling that hip point back.
Coming out of this twist,
So back into chair pose for a breath and then just gently coming into a twist on the other side.
So hooking the elbow around the opposite thigh or knee,
Pressing the hands together in prayer,
If you like.
Inhaling,
Cultivating length.
So perhaps pulling this side of your hip back slightly to maintain stability and evenness.
And with each exhale,
Just relaxing into the twist.
You may find it helpful to continue with each inhale,
Lifting the toes up off of the ground,
Spreading them wide and then with each exhale,
Setting them back on the ground.
Just something to try,
If you like.
And coming out of this twist back into chair pose and then interlocking the hands behind you,
If you like,
And just gently folding over your bent knees.
So I'm not straining to bring my fists too high up off of my back.
In fact,
My arms are still sealed against my back as I do this and I'm only going as far as is really comfortable for me.
Releasing any tension with each exhale.
Reaching the arms back on the next inhale back into chair pose and standing back up straight legs.
Turning open to face the side.
I'll do a gentle triangle pose at this point.
So feet are parallel and placed as widely apart as is comfortable and pivoting over onto one heel and turning the toes out to the side.
Inhaling,
I'll press some weight into the ball of my big toe,
Lifting my heel up off the ground and keeping my knee bent.
Exhaling,
Setting that heel back down on the ground.
Inhaling,
Lifting the ball of my foot up off the ground once more and setting it down on the next exhale.
Next inhale,
I'll gently,
Gently activate my knee up towards my hip point and keeping it bent,
Activating my quadriceps,
Pulling my quads up into my hip point.
This may be a very subtle sensation.
Inhaling here and with the next exhale,
Perhaps reaching forwards towards that extended leg.
Staying sure to keep the back foot sealed,
The back end of the back foot sealed against the ground.
Maybe keeping that back knee slightly bent and pressing gently that back thigh back towards,
Back behind you.
And you may,
You decide to use your hand to assist you with this.
Inhaling and finally with the next exhale,
Perhaps releasing the sit bone of your extended leg towards the heel of your back leg,
Back foot.
Inhaling,
Coming up to center and pivoting the legs,
The feet,
Excuse me,
To the other side.
Inhaling,
Lifting the heel and grounding into that ball of that big foot,
Big toe.
And exhaling it back down,
Inhaling,
Maybe lifting the ball of that big toe,
Lifting the toes,
Sort of massaging the back of that extended heel and exhaling it back down.
And extending into triangle pose.
Inhaling,
Cultivating length,
Maybe keeping an eye on that back leg and just to keep the knee safe,
Sealing the back of that back foot against the floor.
Perhaps the toes turn in slightly and pressing that back thigh back slightly,
Making sure not to hyperextend the knee,
So maybe a small bend in the knee.
If that's comfortable for you.
And then coming out of triangle pose once again,
Stepping the feet together,
Let's come to seated as you're ready.
You're welcome to repeat after me as I go through this chakra balancing chanting sequence.
Hmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vum.
Vam-Vam Vam-Vam Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram Ram-Ram-Ram-Ram Ram Ram Ram Ram yum yum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Thanks for joining me.
