Meet Me in Shavasana (Part 1)

Transcript

Oh, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me today. Oh, well yes, this is a private yoga lesson.

You weren't aware of that when you enrolled? Of course. I find that the one-on-one environment like this really allows me to pay more attention to my students and make sure they get the full benefits of our session.

If you're uncomfortable though, perfect. Well, I'm ready for you. Your mat is sanitized and set up.

Go ahead and let's bring it down to the ground to start, and we're going to begin cross-legged. All right? Perfect.

Now in this starting pose, I want you to focus on the straightness of your spine and allowing your sit bones to ground into the earth. This class is a buildup and release of energy for me, and I hope it will be the same for you. Focus on your breathing in and out.

And just let all your tension melt away and into the floor. Excellent. We're going to start moving very softly and slowly.

Let's just roll your neck back and forth, bringing your ears to the shoulder, and then forward and around the other shoulder, back and forth. Excellent. Remember to breathe and use your breath for this.

Work out all the tension. Perfect. Now I want you to lay your palms on your knees, and we're going to incorporate our spine into this movement.

So I want you to roll your spine like a coffee grinder, arching your back and then scooping, and then coming back up to arch. Switch directions, rotating that spine, feeling the tension in your hips and your lower back. We're going to work that out today.

Now staying with the spine, I want you to drop your chin to your chest and arch backwards, and then come forward, feeling the stretch in the mid back. And you can absolutely rest your weight on your hands here on the floor. Remember there's no cheating in yoga.

I want you to meet your body today exactly where it decides it needs to be. Your body is perfect and wonderful and has brought you here. So feel free to move in whatever way feels good to you.

You don't have to follow my words exactly. As long as you are breathing, and feeling the energy move up and down your body. We're going to bring this into our hips now.

So I want you to move into a butterfly. And to do that, put your feet out in front of you, and then let your knees fall open so the soles of your feet are touching. And depending on the flexibility you have in your hips, you might be able to bring your heels very close to your body.

Or they might need to stay a little farther out. Either way, that's perfectly fine. So what I want you to do now is I want you to place your hands on the arches of your feet, and put a little bit of pressure there sort of almost like you're opening up your feet like a book.

And I want you to work your thumbs up and down your arches. Yeah, that's right. Give yourself a little massage.

Our feet are so important, and they rarely get any attention. And they certainly don't get enough attention. So I want you to honor your body by giving a little bit of love to that part of you, which is in most frequent contact with the earth.

Make sure not to forget the heels, the toes, the tops of your feet. I also particularly like working my ankles. I mean, I can spend a long time here rubbing my feet.

But in the interest of moving forward, I want you to bend the waist, keeping your back straight as you can like a staff, and just lean forward into that hip stretch. If this is something that is unfamiliar to you, an unfamiliar motion, you might feel a lot of tension and protestation in your hips. And that is perfectly fine.

Don't push anything. This isn't supposed to hurt at all. Just spend some time and attention filling out those spots, educating yourself on what your body is telling you.

Next, I want you to straighten your legs out long in front of you. Excellent. Again, we need to pay attention to the spine, keeping it straight, and grounding our sit bones, and at this point, our heels as well into the floor.

So I want you to lift your heels just a little bit and flex your toes. Work on getting that stretch. And you can press your fists into the earth beside you to support yourself, and then point your toes.

Make sure to get that stretch all the way up and down those legs. And then I want you to bend your knees a little bit and lean forward like you're going to grab your toes. And that may not be available to you.

You might come only a little bit forward, able to put your hands on your thighs, or all the way down to the calf. Or you might have the flexibility to be able to lean forward and fully grasp your feet. Let the weight of the head hang down.

And so much as that is comfortable for you, there can be a lot of tension, particularly in the upper back in this position. So I want you to be very mindful and very careful as to how you are stretching and go very slow. Take a deep breath in.

And release. Excellent. And so now I want you to take your left leg and lay it out a bit to the side like you were coming into a V position.

And I want your right heel to come inward and place itself against your left thigh. Almost like a figure four position. Perfect.

And now, as always, paying attention to the spine. I want you to lift your arms up over your head, feeling that lovely, beautiful stretch throughout the back and side body. And then slowly come forward towards that left foot.

And you should feel this all along the right side body, particularly in the upper back and mid-back. Take a deep breath in this position, and then you can slowly roll yourself back up to upright. To upright.

Good. Good. And now we're going to switch.

So your right leg is going to go out long, and you're going to bring your left foot in to touch that right thigh. Excellent. And then repeating that movement, arms coming up past your ears, straight up, rolling the wrists once they're in the air, and then coming forward.

You can play a little bit in this position, stretching your arms in different spots, wiggling your back a little bit, seeing where your body feels like talking to you. Wonderful. Get a nice, deep breath.

And perfect. And now I'd like for us to move on to all fours. So in this position, I want you to take special care to make sure that your hands are under your shoulders and spread your fingertips wide to make sure not to put too much pressure on the wrists.

And I want your knees directly under your hips, so you are square and supported. And we're going to move into a little cat-cow posture. But instead of being super static the way you may have seen it in other yoga classes or instructionals, I want you to feel the freedom to play in this position.

Roll your hips and arch your back and twist. Roll your hips and arch your back and twist. And the normal cat-cow.

I'm going to drop the belly low, feel the stretch, and then on the exhale, curl up like a cat, raising your spine as high as you can. And then coming back down to drop the belly. And then arching the spine back into the air.

And once you're comfortable with that movement, I want you to incorporate the hips into a little bit. Swing them side to side. You can roll them.

You can roll your hips. Swing them side to side. You can roll them.

You can do a full circle where you rotate, leaning forward in cow, and then angling yourself backwards for cat. Don't think too much about hitting these postures. I want you to instead be aware of what feels good.

And I want you to not feel any shame in pursuing that. So if a certain twist or angle feels really nice to you, go ahead and do that. Go ahead and do that.

This is an excellent posture. One of my favorites. Don't often bend and play with our spines quite like this.

Perfect, perfect, perfect. And now from this cat cow on all fours, I'm going to come up into mountain. And to do that, I want you to curl your toes under you and push your hips up into the air, almost into a downward dog, and then step your feet forward until they are right in between your hands.

Oh, see, I tricked you. I'm going to come into a forward fold. And so to do that, I want you to bend your knees as generously as you need.

And let the weight of your upper body hang down, particularly your head. If you don't often come into this posture, this can have a lot of tension in your hamstrings and your back. And that's totally fine.

We're not looking to cause any pain here. So just come where you can. The most important part of this position is letting the blood run in the opposite direction towards your head.

So just let that hang a little bit if you can. Shake your head very gently, yes, and very gently, no. And just allow yourself to be loose.

Seeing the world from a different perspective. Perfect. And now we are going to come into Mountain.

And to do that, I want you to very, very slowly roll your body up into a standing position. So what I want you to picture is stacking each individual vertebrae on top of each other. See how slowly you can get yourself up to fully upright.

And once you are finally standing and fully on your feet, I want you to really ground those feet into the floor. Feel how solid and sturdy you are. On your two feet.

Try not to lock your knees so you can wiggle those and bounce a little bit if you want. And to make sure you are square, something that is something that can be very helpful is lifting your toes and rocking back and forth a little bit. Perfect.

Now, I want you to start with your hands low and then bring them all the way up to touch the sky, feeling that stretch in your side body, in your back. Make sure to lean the spine left and right. And then I want you to drop all the way back down into a forward fold.

Do so slowly, taking care to be gentle on your knees and your back. Wonderful. And from here, I'm going to try to come down and do a squat.

So go ahead and put your head I'm going to try to come down and do a squat. So go ahead and put your hands on the floor and then bend at the knees. Go really slow.

If this isn't a position you're used to, it might be quite wobbly for you. That's perfectly fine. You're going to bend at the knees until you come all the way down back to a seat.

Lower yourself down gently and sit in whatever position is comfortable for you. Perfect. And now for our final and most precious posture, we will be finishing in shavasana, corpse pose.

So to do that, I want you to lie back flat on your mat and your ankles spread a little bit wide on each corner and just let your body relax and sink into the floor. If you wish, you can windshield wiper your feet back and forth a little bit just to loosen up those hips. That can feel really nice.

And your hands can either remain at your sides or spread out in a T pose. Or on your stomach so you can feel your breathing. I just want you to find what is comfortable for you.

Perfect.