♪ Support for Yoga In Practice is provided by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

♪ Hi.

My name is Stacey.

Welcome to Yoga in Practice.

Please take a good seat and close your eyes.

What does it mean when the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, says, "“With each step I arrive"”?

This teaching invites us to the here and now, with each breath, with each step.

Practicing postures with presence and mindfulness keeps us more centered and through our awareness of the present moment we can soak in the wonders of life!

A pose practiced mindfully is a pose done without the worries, fears, or anxiety that disconnect us from the present.

Today we will be practicing balancing poses.

I encourage you to do the best you can to become fully present and focused.

Let's begin.

Joining us today are Janet and Jenn.

Please come to your hands and knees for Table Pose.

Take a moment to align your foundation well Move your hands a little wider than your shoulders and as you look down at your wrists, bring the wrists straight and your index fingers parallel.

Press down through your fingertips building strength from your hands all the way into your upper back and then walk your knees back slightly to get more length through the sides of your body.

Please tuck your toes.

Taking a deep breath in.

I invite you to exhale and soft and settle.

Come more to the present moment.

Inhale, look up.

Arch through your back.

Raise your tailbone and round into cat pose.

Inhale forward again.

Follow your breathing And round in, exhale.

Once again, inhale.

Look up.

And reverse and round.

Come to neutral table position.

Take another breath and just let yourself settle.

Keeping your hips above your knees, walk your hands forward for puppy pose.

Your hands may extend beyond the front of your mat.

Now bow your head toward your mat, keeping the arms straight and extended.

Raise up onto your finger tips.

And as you press your fingertips down, lift your forearms raise up through the underside of your armpit and draw your shoulder blades onto your back allowing the space between your shoulder blades to soften.

Now as you do this.

Keep your core engaged, so that your ribs aren't sinking down.

Take another deep breath.

And as you inhale, walk back to table position.

Re-plant your hands.

Pushdown.

Tuck the toes.

Look up once again and arch the back.

And then lift to downward facing dog.

In your downward facing dog allow this pose to be informed by puppy pose.

So that same strength you felt in your arms, the lifting of the armpit region, the relaxing between the shoulder blades, find that here.

But in today's class I want you to focus on keeping the mid section of your body really engaged, so that the area around the kidneys does not sink even here in this pose.

Take another deep breath in, staying grounded.

and then walk forward to Uttanasana, planting your feet.

Move your feet a little wider than your outer hips.

Make sure they're parallel.

Bow over.

Enjoy the breath here.

And then move your left hand across to your right outer calf.

Squeeze your lower legs towards each other as you slide your abdomen across to the right.

Bow your head.

This side form of Uttanasana is a good way to stretch the left side of your lower back in this case.

And then move your hands to center.

Change sides pulling your right hand across slide your abdomen to the left.

And feel that right side of your lower back expand.

Breathe into that.. Inhale.

Move back to center.

Keeping your feet wide Extend.

And then move into a squat resting your forearms across your thighs to begin.

Step back through your hips.

Try to get into your legs more.

Now wrap your hands around your knees and without lifting out of the pose, raise your chest up.

Roll your shoulders back.

And then round into cat pose again.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Look up.

Arching the back.

Round in.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Look up.

One more time.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Extend your arms forward.

Pushing through your legs, rise to mountain pose.

Good.

Keeping your arms over your head, step your feet in beneath your sit bones and then interlace your fingers and rotate your hands toward the ceiling, extending up through the index finger and gently hugging your arms closer to your ears.

On your exhale, lower your hands in front of your chest.

And keeping your hands forward, reach the arms out, broadening space between your shoulder blades and guiding your rib cage back.

Now lower your chin down towards your chest and focus in on breathing into the back of your body to stay in present in what you're doing.

And inhale.

Raise your arms overhead.

Keep your hands interlaced.

Turn your palms towards each other and extend.

Now lean to the right, crescent pose.

Pressing through the legs turn your chest toward the mat and look down.

Extend your arms more fully.

And now keeping that fullness in your mid back, tuck your right shoulder forward and stack your shoulders as you look straight ahead.

Inhale.

Rise up.

Take a breath.

Inhale stretch.

Second side to the left Crescent pose.

Bow forward and that's going to take you more into the back of your body look down, side of the ribs back.

Now stacking your shoulders by tucking your left shoulder blade underneath you, extend and try to square up your body without moving your ribs forward.

As you inhale, rise up, release your hands.

Exhale fold forward to Uttanasana.

You can touch your mat, the front of your shins or if you have a block, simply put your hands up on something a little higher.

Move your hands alongside your feet and then step back with your left foot into a lunge.

Make sure your lunge is long enough.

Lower your left knee.

Inhale.

Sweep your arms above your shoulders and rise up.

Now stretching, but notice what's happening around the ribs, pull your ribs back.

Lower your arms in front of your chest.

Bow your chin and round through year back.

So again connecting to the core.

Now keep that rounded quality in your back.

Raise your arms back up.

Extend without collapsing.

And then exhale.

Take your hands to your mat.

Raise your left knee.

Step to downward facing dog.

Take a deep breath.

Make sure your downward dog has enough length to it.

And then draw to plank pose.

So in plank you want to feel that same connection into the mid section, like you felt when we were in crescent pose.

So engaging and lifting.

Hips, shoulders and head.

All the same height.

Bring your knees to your mat.

Come down through a push up, moving your chest to your thumbs.

And then slide forward just a little bit and rise up into cobra pose.

Good.

Downward facing dog.

Take a deep breath here.

Soften your eyes.

Feel your skin.

And then walk forward to Uttanasana.

Bowing over.

Good.

Placing your hands next to your feet, this time take your right leg back to the lunge.

Lower your right knee.

Raise your arms, lift up.

Good.

Now breathing here, bring your hands in front of your chest.

Bow your chin to your chest.

and find that fullness through the back of your body rounding through the sides of the waist.

Now maintain that fullness even as you raise your arms back up.

Lift your chin.

Pressing through the legs take a deep breath and then exhale.

Touch your hands back to your mat.

Downward facing dog.

Inhale, plank and find that same engagement, so not letting your hips or your waistline sag down, but staying engaged through the core, enjoy the breath.

And then move through a push up.

I invite you to take your knees to the mat if necessary.

Rise to cobra.

And then downward facing dog.

Please walk forward to Uttanasana.

Bent over your legs.

Inhale.

Raise half way, look up.

Lift your hands to your hips this time and pulling up with your shoulders, maintain that same core engagement and tuck down with your tailbone.

Inhale.

Rise to mountain pose.

Good.

Let's prepare to balance.

So you can always move to a wall, if you need to put your hand against one.

Or put your hand on the back of a chair for support.

The first pose will be tree pose.

Standing on your right foot, tap your left foot out to the side.

Pull your left foot up.

You can keep your left foot down, lower by your ankle or your calf like Janet is demonstrating.

And then fold your hands.

There's nothing like balancing poses to teach us how to bring awareness to what we're doing to stay present and each day that changes.

As you exhale, release back down mountain pose.

Shift your weight.

Change sides.

Tapping your right foot, pull up.

Bring the foot up as much as you can or keep it down low and check in day to day with how that feels to you.

And fold your hands.

Keep the hips level, your shoulders rising.

And then as you exhale, slowly release down.

Mountain pose.

Look down at your feet.

Make sure they're well planted.

So we're going to stand on the right foot.

Raise your left shin up and hold the front of your left shin.

So this is called Hasta Pandangustasana Pushing your shin into your hands, actively press your right thigh back.

Tuck your tailbone and rise up through the crown of your head.

Hold here or interlace your fingers underneath your left leg, pushing into your hands, extend your left foot forward.

Breathing.

And then exhale.

Step down.

Shift your weight.

Change sides.

Lifting your right shin.

Begin by getting your initial balance.

Tone your standing thigh and guide your waist back.

So the more you're engaged in the core, the better your balance will become.

Interlace your fingers underneath your right leg.

Press down and extend the foot.

Remember to keep breathing.

Don't hold your breath as you try to maintain your balance.

And then as you exhale, Bend the knee.

Step down.

Mountain pose.

Take a deep breath.

Close your eyes and to center yourself back into the moment.

Arrive in the here and now.

Please open your eyes.

Raise your arms overhead.

Exhale.

Bend forward.

Uttanasana.

Step to downward dog.

Draw to plank, maintaining that core engagement.

Exhale to push up.

Rice to cobra.

Downward dog.

Lift your right leg.

Inhale.

Step forward between your hands as you exhale.

You may have to take a couple of steps.

Now, I want you to shorten your stance barely, just a little bit and spin your left heel down, aiming your left toes more forward.

Now extend out.

Raise your arms in front of you and clasp your hands.

Point your index finger forward.

Hugging your hips in, make your mid back strong and rise to Warrior One.

Virabhadrasana.

Squaring your hips, squaring your shoulders and even though it has a backbend shape keep your core engaged and rise up through the back of your waist, shoulders and hands.

And then exhale.

Touch your mat.

Step back to downward dog.

Take a deep breath.

Center yourself.

And then inhale.

Raise your left leg.

Step into a lunge.

Shorten the stance slightly.

Then turn your right heel down.

Aim the right toes forward.

Extend your arms.

Clasp your hands and look right down the middle of your hand.

Feeling the back body strong, rise up.

Good.

Breathe here, leaning into the right foot as you soften into your left leg, without sinking into your waist.

As you exhale, touch your hands back to your mat.

Step to downward dog and pause.

Three breaths.

And then walk your hands back to your toes.

Reverse Uttanasana.

Once again, separate your feet a little wider than your hips and bend your knees slightly.

Hugging in with your feet and your lower legs, reach your hands around to the back of your legs and grab your hamstrings.

Using your hands, widen the hamstrings apart.

And then hugging in with your shins, relax your neck pulling apart with your hamstrings.

Press your legs a little straighter.

You should definitely be feeling a much deeper stretch into your hamstrings, because you're aligning the muscles of the hamstrings with the help of your hands here.

Release your hands.

Touch the mat.

Take a deep breath.

Inhale.

Lift halfway.

Bring your hands to your hips and rise to mountain pose.

Good.

We're going into another balancing, so if you have a block or maybe a stack of books, move it up to the front of your mat and we'll walk forward to the front of our mat for the rest of this sequence.

Simply close your eyes for a moment.

Start your awareness down in your feet.

Take the top of your shin and press it forward slightly.

Take the top of your thigh bone and move it back.

Tuck down through the hips.

Pull up through the kidneys.

Roll your shoulders back.

Slide your head back and now take one deep breath and soften some of that effort but feel how connected you are in your body.

Open your eyes.

Inhale.

Raise your arms overhead.

Exhale.

Touch the mat.

Uttanasana.

Step back to downward dog.

Take a deep breath.

Inhale.

Raise your right leg again and step to a lunge.

Now this time, we're going to keep our back heel raised modifying the pose.

Sweep your arms out in front of you.

Good.

Have a block handy if you may need it.

Rounding through your back, push off and raise your left leg.

So you can have your hands down on a block in front of you and just keep both hands down.

If this is fine, see if you can raise one arm forward or take it back behind your hips, maybe both arms.

This pose is called Warrior Three.

It's all about core engagement.

Good.

Step together.

Rise to mountain.

Exhale.

Bend forward to Uttanasana.

Step back to downward dog.

Take a deep breath.

Inhale.

Raise your left leg.

Exhale.

Step forward.

Plus keep your chest against your leg.

Round in through the back and feel you're engaged in the back of the body feels light like it can lift you up raise your arms in front of you.

Get those blocks ready if you need Inhale, push off.

Extend.

Take your time remember that balancing is always a day to day negotiation.

One side may be completely different than the other.

And then raise to standing.

Lift your arms overhead.

Exhale.

Fold forward.

Uttanasana.

Clear your block.

And breathe.

Bow here.

Bend your right knee.

Bend your last knee.

Good.

And then sit down onto your sticky mat.

Now when you sit down on your mat, it's fine to set up on a block or a folded blanket, just giving you some height, especially if you feel tighter in your hips or have a hard time releasing your legs comfortably.

So invite you to join your feet together, we're going into seated bound angle pose.

Wrap your hands around your ankles and push your feet against each other.

Now rise up through the spine but avoid pushing the ribs out, which is our tendency.

You can stay up right here if that works or simply fold forward slightly.

The feet continue to work.

The inner thighs are strong.

Enjoy the breath.

And then inhale.

Rise up.

Stretch your right leg out to the side, then your left leg out to the side.

Using your hands reach underneath the back of your hips and guide the flesh around your sit bones back and wide.

Please flex your ankles and look that your toes are pointing directly up.

Firm your legs.

Bring your hands in front of you.

And if you can bend forward slightly.

Some of you may be best to stay upright in the pose.

Again not using the mid section to do the work, but using your hips.

If you can walk forward, do so.

This pose is called Upavista Konasana.

And it's really a very deep hip stretch, backstretch.

Make sure the ribs stay lifted.

So pulling up through your ribs, lengthening through the neck, root.

And then as you inhale, rise back up to seated.

Using your hands, take your right leg, pull it forward.

Take your left leg pull it forward and shake your legs out.

please keep your right leg extended and fold your left knee in.

You can keep your foot parallel which is a little easier or cross your left foot over your right leg.

Wrap your right arm around your leg and reach your left hand behind you.

Rise up, keeping the belly and the core strong and twist.

Lift the chin.

Hug in.

Let yourself remain grounded here.

Feel the back body that same thing we've been practicing throughout class, but the back of the body is full and you get more out of your rotations when you keep that action.

Good.

Inhale.

Spin, center.

Shake your legs out.

Change sides.

Crossing your right leg over your left leg.

Hold on with your left arm.

Bring your hand behind you.

Find extension without collapsing.

Turn your head.

Breathe.

Just notice the here and now arrive in this pose in this moment.

And then inhale.

Release.

Center.

Good.

Shake both legs out.

We're going to roll down onto our backs.

So make sure you're using the entire mat.

Hold onto the backs of your legs and roll down slowly.

Good.

Extend your arms out to the side.

Keep your knees bent.

Walk your feet in just a little bit closer to your hips.

And as you exhale, lower your knees to the right side of the mat.

This is just a very easy simple rotation.

It often feels very nice at the end of the practice.

And then inhale.

Bring your knees back up.

As you exhale, go over to the left.

Take a deep breath.

Feel into the back of your body.

And then inhale.

Rise to center.

Exhale.

Once again, go to the right.

Feel grounded through your shoulders and broad through the back.

Inhale.

Come back to center.

Exhale go to the left.

Enjoy the widening of the back.

Relax your ribs down.

One more time.

Inhale.

Come back to center.

Exhale to the right.

Inhale, center.

Last time.

To the left.

Good.

And then lift your knees.

Bring them into your body.

Give yourself a hug.

Then move your ankles.

Spread your toes.

Maybe relax your jaw.

somewhat.

Check in with the face.

And then releasing the legs one at a time, slide your legs out to the corners of your mat.

Shake your legs again and if you need to adjust the flesh under the hips, you want it to go wide and out.

Take your arms down.

Shake your fingers.

Move your wrists.

And then closing your eyes.

We don't forsake this pose.

We remember even for a short period of time, just to assimilate what you've done into your body.

Thich Nhat Hanh also said Breathing in, I calm body and mind.

breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is the only moment.

I invite you to remain here in Savasana as long as you may need to.

But if you are needing to come up, move slowly.

Move your fingers.

Your toes.

Your ankles and then bend your knees one at a time.

Planting your feet once again.

Roll to your side.

Once on your side, take a deep breath.

Settle into your pose.

And then using your hands, your arms, push down into the floor and rise up to seated.

Sit well.

Adjust the seat.

I invite you to close your eyes and fold your hands together in front of your heart.

Thank you for practicing today.

Namaste.

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