by Hannah Brown
Let your breath guide you in this sweet, side bendy slow flow class. Together, we find strength, length + balance. We start with gentle stretches laying down, then work towards a few standing postures. Bring a yoga mat + a blanket.
Meet your Teacher
Toronto, ON, Canada
Transcript
Hey, It's Hannah. We're going to do a nice slow flow practice today. This one is all about side bend. Grab your mat and some comfy clothes and feel free to put on your own music and we'll get right into this. Start lying on your back. You can have your arms and legs however you want. And just take a few slow breaths here. Breathe in, Really drag it out. And take a long, Slow breath out. Try to keep breathing like that. Nice and slow and steady through your nose. Soften anywhere that's asking for a little bit of softness. Maybe that's your face. Your shoulders, Your low back. Maybe it's the way you're speaking to yourself. Invite in some softness. The next time you go to inhale, Straighten out your arms and your legs. Find that big morning stretch. Breathe out just soften keep your arms overhead And again, Breathe in, Stretch long like you're being pulled in two directions. Exhale to soften. And one more like that. Keep your arms lazily overhead there. Just shift your hips to the right. And walk your hands and feet to your left. I like to grab a hold of the right wrist. And cross one ankle over the other. Keep both butt cheeks on the ground. And you're in Banana Asana. Sounds like I just made up the name of that pose, But I didn't. It's this really sweet side stretch. Try to breathe a little bit more into your right side, As if you could only breathe into your right side lung. The next time you inhale, Come back to center. Big morning stretch. Soften, Shift your hips to your left. Hands and feet to the right. Catch a hold of that left wrist. Cross an ankle over until you feel that sweet side bend. Banana asana, Banana pose. Come back to center. Bring your arms down, Bend your knees, Feet flat on the floor. And then you can go ahead and pull your knees in, Maybe rock side to side. Eventually sweep your left arm up and overhead. And roll all the way on to your left side. Your arm is now a pillow. Keep your knees stacked. And drape your right arm over your hips there. The next time you inhale, Sweep that top arm all the way up. Overhead maybe you graze your couch fingertips can touch the floor And breathe out, Soften down. Back to where you started. Inhale, Big stretch just of the arm. Feel how the lower side of your waist lifts. Exhale to sweep it down. Then we'll add in the top leg. Stretch it long. Maybe your big toe touches the floor. Exhale, Come back. So your movement is following your breath. Rather than doing the movements to match me, See if you can just maybe close your eyes. And feel your breath and how it guides you. The next time you stretch long, Stay there. Hold it if you want a little bit more. You can open your heart up towards the ceiling just an inch or two. And release. Come back to that starting shape. Roll on to your back and reach your right arm up so you can flip over to the right side. I'm going to do my on screen flip here. Hand draped over the hip. First two are just with your arm, Just to get a feel for your pace. Your body, Your breath. A movement. Then you can go ahead and layer that top leg in. Couple more. The next time you're long, Stay there. Maybe you open your heart towards the ceiling just a little bit more. Let it go. And make your way up to seated. Once you're seated, Extend your right leg long. Keep a bend in your left knee. Sole of your left foot towards that right inner thigh. Inhale, Sweep both arms up. Exhale. Lower your hands down. Did I get you there? Two more times, Inhale up. Exhale down. Find your breath. As you lower this time, Drop your right hand anywhere along your right leg or to the ground. Inhale, Sweep your left arm up and over. Like you're reaching for your toes. Exhale, Come up. But instead of reaching for your toes, Could you keep your heart open? The goal isn't to touch your toes. It's to keep an open heart as you lean. Exhale to come up. Three more Inhale, Feel all that space. Through the left side of your ribs, Almost like they're like an accordion or gills of a fish. And this last one, Stay there, Breathe. Nothing magical happens if you touch your toes. Pull yourself up so you can drop your left hand down behind you, Maybe off your mat. Who cares? Inhale, Sweep your right arm up. Exhale, Lower it down. If you want a little bit more, Inhale, Lift your hips. Exhale, Lower your hand and your hips. Three more. On this last one, Hold it, Breathe. Keep opening your heart. Reach through your fingertips. You could even reach through your toes if you're feeling fancy. And then lower yourself down. Both arms sweep up, Turn to face that extended leg. Breathe out, Fold over that extended leg. You can touch your toes, Doesn't matter. We're aiming for a stretch down the back of the right leg, Maybe a bit through your spine. The next time you inhale, Come up. Bring your hands together at your heart. And switch out your legs hands-free. Not meant to be super graceful. Once you're here, Inhale to sweep both arms up. Exhale, Lower them down. Two more. As you lower them this time, Drop your left hand onto your left leg. Inhale to sweep your right arm up and over. Exhale, Come back. Keep it going. The next time you do that big reach, Stay there. It's so tempting to reach for your toes and to like prove to yourself how stretchy you are. Don't worry about that. Open your heart. You don't need to touch your toes. I'm gonna get that tattooed. The next time you breathe in, Come up. Set your right hand down. Try it with just your arm for the first go. Left arm up and over. Exhale, Lower it. Maybe you layer in your hip. Three more. On this last one, Hold it. Read. Stretch along. Maybe you point your toes if you're feeling fancy. Hmm. Lower your hip. Sweep both arms up. And take a fold over your extended leg. Think about keeping your spine long. You can have a bend in this straight leg. Keep your heart open, Shoulders back. Roll yourself up. Hands to your heart. Come to sit cross-legged from there. And that was just for fun. Hands free. Make your way to hands and knees from here. Go for some nice, Chill cat-cows. So breathe in, Arch your back. Breathe out, Round. Follow your own breath. Close your eyes. Eventually, You can tuck your toes under, Lift your hips, Lift your knees to find a nice stretchy down dog. Maybe you pedal out through your feet, Move your hips. And start to walk your feet up to your hands. Then roll yourself all the way up to standing. Come to stand at the center of your mat. Inhale, Reach your arms up. Feel like you're being pulled in two directions. Push down through your feet. Reach up through your hands. Exhale, Fold down. Inhale, Lift up halfway. Exhale, Fold again. You can bend your knees. Inhale, Come all the way up, Arms up. Exhale, Hands together at your heart. Lift your left foot up. Cross it slowly over the right. Inhale, Sweep your arms up. Might be tricky on your balance. Catch a hold of your left wrist. And pull it over to the right, Standing banana asana. See what we did there? Keep your legs as they are. Find your balance. Come all the way back up with your arm. Lower your hand. And we're going to fold here. It gets wobbly. You can bend your knees. Inhale, Lift up halfway. Hands can rest on your legs. Exhale, Fold again. Inhale, Come all the way up, Sweep your arms up. As you breathe out, Uncross your legs, Bring your hands together at your heart. Lift your right foot up. Cross it over. Inhale sweep both arms up catch a hold of your right wrist pull it to the left Standing banana asana. Come all the way up. Keep your legs as they are. Fold forward. Wobbly wobbly. Inhale halfway Exhale, Fold. Graceful like a swan. Come all the way up. Hands together at your heart. Uncross your legs. Breathe. Keep your hands at your heart if you dare. Lift your right foot up. Place it onto your left leg. You can have your toes on the ground. You can have it up higher. Nothing bad happens if you rest your foot on your knee. You can break that yoga rule. You can stay here, Already challenging. OR You could try our bending tree pose. Rest your right hand on your right thigh. Sweep your left arm up and over and lean towards that extended leg. Check that you're still breathing. That your jaw is still totally soft and relaxed. That your shoulders are down. Keep breathing. Piece by piece, We're gonna unravel. So lower your hand. Maybe bring your hands to your heart. Slowly bring that lifted leg forward and set it down. Second side, Lift your left foot. Bring your leg out to the side, Plant your foot anywhere on that standing leg. Feel how your foot's doing that tick, Tick, Tick thing that keeps you balanced. It's doing its job. Stay here or turn this into your bending tree pose. Hand on thigh, Opposite arm sweeps up and over. Try to keep this bent knee moving back if you wanted one more thing to focus on here. Try three more breaths. If you just got the urge to hyperventilate, Me too. Come all the way up. Hands to your heart, Swing your lifted leg forward, Lower it down. Sweep both arms up. Ta-da! Fold down. Lift up halfway. And fold here. You can reach for opposite elbow. Sway, Bend, Whatever. And then eventually you can walk yourself. Back to down dog. And then right down to table. Widen out through your knees. Sink your hips towards your heel. If child's pose isn't your jam, You can stay up, Forearms down, Head heavy. Knees can be wide and just keep your hips over your knees. Wherever you are. Crawl your hands to the left. Shift a little more weight towards your right hip. Switch sides. Come through center. And make your way down onto your back. From here, Bend your knees. Drop your knees to your left. You can reach your arms wide or do whatever you want. Just a nice, Chill twist. Now all these side bends we've done have really helped us to open up through the sides of the ribs, Through the intercostal muscles between your ribs. And this helps to facilitate a deeper breath. It makes it easier for us to. . . Breathe deeper and more slowly. Maybe this twist feels a little easier to breathe in than other times we've done twists. Something about opening the side body can really give you a lot of energy. There's something about it that just. . . Lifts you up, Keeps the energy moving up. Make your way through center until you can find the second side of your twist. And come back to center. We're going to do one last banana asana here. So straighten out your legs, Reach your arms long. Shift your hips to the right, Hands and feet to your left and notice if this feels a little deeper, A little more open, Just a little different. Come through center. Head over to the second side. It feels so good. When you're all set, Just. . . Find a comfortable shape to rest in. And we'll take a few breaths together here. Just breathe on your own. We're all here breathing with you. This time for rest is important. Resist the urge to rush through this. And just stay here with me for five more breaths. And take the longest breath in you've taken all day. Challenge yourself. Really breathe in big. Breathe in full. Hold it. Sip in a little bit more air. And let it go. Place your hands somewhere meaningful for you. And send a heartfelt thank you. To you. Your body. Our yoga practices. And the part of you that carved out this time to practice. Thank you so much for being here with me.
