Hello and welcome to today's practice.
Today is a short-ish around 30-minute practice centered around courage.
Courage or creative courage really comes from connecting to the core of who we are.
Building a foundation.
And playing around with cultivating courage through pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zone.
So this is going to be a stronger practice,
A little bit challenging because we don't really.
.
.
Build that courage through comfort.
We build courage through challenging our boundaries.
There's going to be some challenging postures in there,
Some strengthening postures in there and some core focus postures in there because our courage really comes from tapping into this space of the Manipura chakra.
Cultivating that connection to our core and our inner fire and our strength.
So,
As I said,
It will be a little bit challenging,
As always.
Listen to your body if anything doesn't feel right.
If you need a break,
As always,
Take it if that feels like what you need.
But also,
If there's areas maybe you think you can play around with the possibility of pushing your boundaries,
Then this is the time to do that.
So let's start seated.
I'm sat on a block,
As usual.
But sit however you're comfortable.
Hands to your knees,
Lengthen your spine,
Roll your shoulders up.
Back and down.
Do that a couple of times if that felt like what you needed.
Lengthen up through the back of the neck.
And let's just take a few breaths connecting to that breath.
And as always,
With these more dynamic practices,
We like to breathe into this central part of the body.
And as I said,
We are connecting to this kind of solar plexus energy.
So um really can breathe from that space so breathing out into the side of the rib cage and as you exhale lengthen the spine right at the end of the exhale we feel the navel draw in and up And inhaling out to the side.
Exhaling to find length.
And at the end of the exhale,
The navel draws in and up.
To start to build a little bit of that fire,
Let's just do one round of 20 Kapalabhati breaths.
Kapalabhati,
We're forcefully exhaling by drawing the navel back towards the spine and that initiates a passive inhale.
So we're exhaling through the nose 20 times.
Take a big inhale first.
Place your hand on your belly if it helps.
Otherwise,
20 Kapalabhati breaths.
At the end of the 20,
Exhale,
Hold the breath just for a few counts.
And then take a big inhale.
Coming back to breathing to the outside of the ribcage.
And then let's take that awareness,
So breathing to the side ribs.
We'll take it throughout the practice and then let's bring it into some movement.
So coming off your block if you're sat on one,
But move it to the side.
Keep it closed because you may need it in a minute.
But let's come onto all fours.
So as always.
.
.
We're in tabletop,
Shoulders are over your wrists,
Knees underneath your hips.
See if you can really spread your fingers wide and press down with the base of the index finger and the base of your thumb.
Really pressing down and building that foundation and strength through your hands.
And then we're going to move through some cat and cows,
But let's do it in slow motion.
Because in slow motion,
We can really connect to the muscles that we're working.
So as you inhale very slowly,
Drop your belly towards the floor,
Lift your tailbone.
Slide your shoulder blades down your back and look up Now as you exhale,
Gently push the floor away,
Tuck your hips underneath.
When you do that,
You can really feel these muscles close to kind of your hip bones,
Right at the base of the abdomen,
Start to tighten.
Chin comes towards the chest.
As you inhale,
Slowly coming into that arch position,
Sliding your shoulder blades down your back.
Exhale gently tuck the tailbone under first really really drawing your navel in and up push the floor away with your hands Chin comes towards the chest Let me do two more in your own time.
Really slowing down particularly this angry cat position because it brings so much connection to the core line of the body One more for the lab.
Coming back to all fours,
We'll make our way to a down-facing dog.
We're going to take a similar movement into our down dog.
So tuck your toes under,
Lift,
Shift your hips back,
And then gently just straighten your knees.
So down dog as always hands want to be shoulder distance apart feet roughly hip distance apart then you pedal through the feet just to warm up the back of your legs first And then let's hold this down dog just steady for a second.
Heels don't need to be on the floor,
Knees don't need to be bent,
But hips do need to be up and back.
And then from here,
We're going to come through another strengthening little practice and float from plank back to down facing dog.
So as you inhale,
Bring your weight over your hands,
Shoulders over your wrists,
Come to a plank pose.
Again,
Lifting your navel in and up.
As you exhale,
Send your hips back to a down facing dog.
Inhale coming forwards into your plank Exhale,
Send your hips up and back.
Down facing dog.
Inhale,
Send your weight forwards,
Plank.
Exhale,
Down facing drop.
We have two more of these to do.
You can do them two exactly as we have been doing,
Or if you want another little bit of a challenge,
We'll join in one leg too.
So either continue as we are,
Or this time as you inhale,
Come to plank,
Bring your right knee towards your right elbow.
Exhale,
Step back into a down facing dog.
Inhale,
Left knee,
Left elbow.
Exhale coming back to a down facing dog that spend a breath here.
Now inhale,
Walk your feet forward.
Beat your hip distance apart or wider.
Take hold of your elbows,
Just allowing your upper body to hang and soften over the strength of the lower body.
Spread your toes,
Activate your legs.
And let go of your arms.
Gently roll up one vertebra at a time.
Again it's kind of like zipping up through your navel.
Gently rolling up.
Head comes up there.
Then step your feet together into Tarasana or sometimes in Ashtanga we call it Samastitihi.
So feet spread wide,
Feet as close together as they want to be.
There's a light drawing of your tailbone down.
Ribs in Just open.
We'll come through a couple of sun salutations.
So as you inhale,
Reach your hands up,
Lift your ribs up and out from your hips as you do that.
Exhale,
Fold forwards,
Knees can be bent or straight.
Inhale,
Coming up halfway,
You can keep your hands on the floor or bring your hands to your shins.
Now exhale,
Plant the hands down,
Just step the left leg back.
So stepping your left foot back into a lunge,
Lower your left knee down,
Lift your chest.
Nice big hip flexor stretch.
Now as you exhale,
Either come to all fours or come to a plank.
All authors.
And lower all the way down it'll come all the way down either bringing your knees down chest and chin down or lowering down to chaturanga point your toes inhale roll your shoulders back take a baby cobra Even if you can come up higher,
Play around with using these muscles of the lower back to lift your chest.
Instead of using your hands.
Exhale push back you can take a child's pose if you like or come into a down facing dog five breaths here softening the shoulders away from the ears keep reaching your hips up and back And again,
Keep breathing into the side of the rib cage.
Feeling your navel drawing back towards your spine,
Particularly on your exhale.
Now as you inhale,
We'll step the left foot forwards,
Left foot between the hands,
Right knee down.
Coming back into that lunge,
Lift your chest high.
Exhale,
Step your feet together,
Right foot next to left.
Bring your hands to either your shins or on the floor,
Look forward.
As you exhale fold.
Inhale,
Raising your arms all the way up.
Exhaling the hands down.
And again this time we'll do slightly differently as you inhale reach your arms high It's helpful for it.
Inhale,
Come up halfway again.
Either hands on the floor or hands to the shin.
This time step all the way back either to all fours or to a plank or if you'd like you can play around with jumping so placing your hands on the floor and jump the feedback.
Plank or all fours.
Exhale lower down.
Chaturanga Dandasana or with the knees down.
Inhale take cobra or this time maybe upwards facing dog so hips are off the floor chest up exhale find down facing dog so lifting the hips up and back and let's take five breaths here Now as you inhale,
We'll come back to the top of the mat.
You can step,
Walk your feet forward or bend your knees.
Take a little jump.
Feet together,
Hands to shim,
Look forward.
Exhale and fold.
Inhale reaching your arms all the way up Exhaling your hands down.
Now inhale,
Sit your hips back,
Coming into chair pose.
You want to have your knees glued together,
Really squeezing your inner thighs,
Almost like you're trying to hold something between your knees.
I'll show you this way,
But keep facing forward.
Sit your hips back.
Bring your hands into a breath.
Now as you exhale,
Bring your left elbow to the outside of your right knee.
Left elbow comes to the outside of the right knee.
Twist.
Lengthen the crown of the head forwards.
Crossing your hands together.
Inhale,
Come back to centre.
Right elbow to the outside of the left knee.
Exhale.
And then inhale lengthen through the crown of the head Inhale,
Come back to centre.
Exhale,
Straighten your knees,
Fold forwards.
Inhale,
Come up halfway.
Exhale step or jump back to either all fours or plank once again lower down either knees chest and chin Oh,
Chaturanga.
Inhale cobra or upwards facing dog Exhale come to a down facing dog.
Virvadrasana one warrior one will step the right foot in between the hands you can step as many times you need to or Hug your knee towards your chest,
Bring your weight forwards.
That's that.
Spin your left heel down inhaling all the way up warrior one so you want to keep your right knee more or less over your right ankle.
Again lift your ribs up and out from the hips.
Inhale open out to warrior two so keep your legs as they are just open your body out to the side palms the hands face the floor shoulders down and relax look over your right hand inhale reverse warrior so bring your left hand to your left thigh reach your right arm up and over Inhale,
Coming all the way up,
Straighten your right knee.
Utthita Trikonasana,
Triangle Pose.
So as you exhale,
Reach to your right side.
Hand comes down to shin.
You can come to a block if you like.
Looking up towards your left hand.
You can gently lower your left hand to your hip if you like.
The next posture is Adha Chandrasana or Half Moon Pose.
This one's quite a challenging balance.
So bring the weight over to the right foot.
You can place a block.
In front of your right foot if you like on any height.
Bring your hand onto your block or onto the floor and then we're shifting the weight.
Onto your right foot and your right hand.
Gently lifting the left foot off the floor.
You can stay here with your left hand to your left hip Or maybe reach your left hand up.
One keep reaching your left toes away See you.
Three.
Four always a challenge for me this one and five exhale lower the left foot down With your block out the way for a second,
Windmill your hands to the floor and step your right foot back to a plank pose.
As you exhale low all the way down again knees chest and chin or chaturanga dandasana Inhale,
Come to upward facing dog.
Exhale,
Finding down facing dog.
Now we're going to do all that on the other side.
As you inhale,
Step the left foot in between your hands.
Really bring the left knee in towards your chest.
Step forwards.
Right heel spins down to the floor again left knee more or less over the ankle Inhale up to warrior one,
So reaching the arms all the way up.
On your next inhale,
Open out toward your two.
Opening the arms out to the side,
Palms and hands to the floor.
Gazing over your left hand.
Inhale,
Come to reverse warrior,
So right hand to right leg.
Reach your left arm all the way up and over.
On your next inhale,
Windmill your hands back.
Straighten that left knee,
Coming through Utthita Trikonasana.
Left hand to left shin,
Top of the foot,
Maybe to a block.
Reach your right arm up and look up towards your right thumb.
Lower your right hand towards your hip and we'll come into that half moon pose once again so you may need to grab a block if you used it on the other side transfer your weight onto your left foot shift and place your left hand either onto your block or to the floor.
Open your hips out to the side as you gently.
Start to lift your right foot off the floor.
I do the right leg as in straight out from the hip.
Then maybe open your right arm all the way up too.
Pull on.
Keep reaching your right toes away.
Or.
.
.
And five as you exhale lower your right foot next to the left and we'll come into a forward fold so move your block out the way exhale folding forward Inhale,
Come up halfway,
So you can bring your hands to your shins if you like.
And then bend the knees,
Squeeze your knees together,
We'll come into that chair pose again,
Reaching the arms all the way up this time.
So then hips up,
Hips back,
Arms up.
Exhale straightening your knees,
Hands down.
Malasana or kind of like a yoga squat pose.
Heel toe your feet.
Out to side so you want your feet.
Hip distance are wider,
They could be straight or they could be slightly timed out.
And then as you exhale,
Just bend your knees down.
So bending the knees,
I'm going to move back slightly.
Bending the knees your heels don't need to be on the floor upper arms to the inside of your knees hands together in a prayer pose press your hands together as you reach out with your upper arms squeeze in with your knees and lift your chest Let's hold here for five breaths.
Here you have a choice and another challenging but fun posture,
Back asana or crow pose.
This is an arm balancing posture.
And I'll show you a few different options,
Especially for those of you who have not tried back asana before.
With Bacasa now,
The legs are more or less where they are in Malassana,
Where they are now.
Plant your hands on the floor,
And the same thing I said called mural and tabletop.
Press down through all four corners of your hands,
So really press the base of the index finger and thumb into the floor and spread your fingers nice and wide.
Transferring your weight onto your hands.
Lift your hips high.
And really rock your weight over your hands.
Here you have options.
You can play around with lifting one foot at a time.
Keep gazing forward,
Don't gaze down,
Otherwise it brings all the energy down.
Gazing forward,
You can lift one foot at a time or lift.
Both feet.
Three.
Or and five exhale low down So playing around with that one,
Let's come through a vinyasa to come to see.
So step or jump back to a plank.
Exhale lower down chaturanga dandasana Inhale,
Urva Mukha.
Exhale,
Find out,
Homokopanasana.
And then we'll come to a seat.
So step or kneel your legs down or cross your shins.
And sit.
Stretching your legs out in front of you.
All right,
I might say Androsida and I twisting posture.
Let's bend the right knee Cross your right foot over to the outside of your left thigh.
Then you have a choice,
You can stay like this or you can bend the left.
Leg so your left foot is on the outside of your right hip.
Then hug onto your right knee with your left arm.
Right hand comes behind you.
As you inhale and lengthen,
Exhale and twist.
So with our twisting postures,
They're not like a.
.
.
Door hinge then more of a spiral staircase.
So as you go up the stairs,
You twist around,
Right?
As you twist,
You lengthen.
If you'd like to you can place your left elbow to the outside of your right knee too.
Holding here As you inhale,
Look to the front.
Exhale unwind.
We have an option just to swap straight away your legs around.
So straightening the right leg and swapping around.
Or if you're feeling a bit of fun,
You can twist them.
So standing up as you twist.
So lift your hips up.
As you come up,
Turn around.
And sit down again.
Something like that anyway.
Left foot to the outside of your right thigh And then either right leg straight or right foot to the outside of your left hip.
Then hugging onto your left knee with your right arm.
Left hand behind you.
As you lengthen,
Exhale,
Twist.
Maybe bring your right elbow to the outside of your left knee.
Holding here.
And lengthening as you twist around.
As you inhale look to the front and exhale and twist stretch both legs out We'll come towards the end with one last challenge and that is Navasana or boat pose.
So bending your knees,
Pointing your toes,
Squeezing your knees together.
So same as I said for chair pose.
Really squeeze your legs together.
Reach your arms out to the side,
Out in front of you sorry,
And soften your shoulders down.
You have a choice,
You can stay here on your toes or lift your legs halfway.
Or straighten your legs all the way.
Five breaths,
So on.
Two.
Three.
Four.
And five,
Cross your shins.
Bring your weight forwards over your hands.
Step both feet.
Back to a plank Lower down,
Again knees,
Chest and chin,
Or Chaturanga Dandasana.
Inhale cobra or upwards facing dog.
Exhale if I'm down facing dog.
And then as you inhale,
Come to lay down.
So come into a seat.
Time to lay down.
Hug your knees in towards your dress for a moment.
Let's end with a Sotubandhasana.
So feet hip distance apart or sometimes it can feel nice and slightly wider than that.
Really press down with your big toes and again squeeze the inner thighs,
Fire up your legs,
Hands either side of your hips.
As you inhale,
Send your knees forwards.
As the hips come high your chest can come towards your chin.
You can keep your hands either side of your hips or interlace them underneath your hips.
Bye,
Brett here.
And as you exhale,
Gently lower your hips down.
Hug your knees in towards your chest.
Rock a little bit side to side.
Maybe circle the knees going one way.
And then the other.
And then in your own time make your way into your final rest sort of stretching the legs out wider than the hips so your feet can really flop to the sides Arms away from your body with the palm of the hands facing up.
Lengthen the back of your neck.
And then as always,
Gently close your eyes.
Take a big inhale through your nose.
Full exhale out through your mouth.
And again inhale through the nose.
Exhale out through your mouth one more At the end of this exhale.
Really allow your body to completely surrender to the ground.
Surrendering in order to receive the effects of this practice.
The information,
The kind of imprints that have been made from the postures we've just done.
Allowing yourself also,
It's almost like a full stop to the practice,
A slight pause before you move on with the rest of your day,
Carrying hopefully this uplifted energy,
This little spark of playfulness and courage that we cultivated through this practice into the rest of the day.
So these challenges that we've had,
These slight moments of strength or testing our strength really are not really something to judge.
There's no perfect yoga practice.
There's no.
.
.
Kind of ideal way that this particular pattern of postures should have gone today.
It's really all about opening up the channels of the body,
Opening up our ability to choose play and testing ourselves with this kind of curiosity and courage over perfection or over overthinking or over talking ourselves down.
So just maybe take another minute or so resting here really allowing space.
That message and the imprints of the practice to kind of embed themselves within your body before you move on with your day.
As always,
You're welcome to stay here for as long as you have time for.
However,
If you would like to move on with your day.
Gently start to deepen your breathing and make some small movements of your fingers and your toes.
Maybe stretch your body head to toe,
So reach your arms up above your head.
Stretch your body head to toe.
And then bend your knees and roll onto one side.
And press one hand into the floor and push yourself up to a seat.
Finding length through your spine,
Softness in your shoulders,
And again come back to your breathing.
Bring your hands together at heart center.
Bow your head and then if your eyes are still closed just gently open your eyes over top of your fingertips.
And then lift your gate.
Thank you very much,
As always,
For joining me for today's practice.
I hope that you found that fun,
Uplifting,
And maybe insightful.
Maybe you learned something new.
But otherwise,
Enjoy the rest of your day.
And I'll see you again very soon.
