47 minute yoga class- theme "My body is strong and capable"

Hello, welcome, welcome, welcome to this yoga class. Today we're going to talk a little bit about body image. Most of us in this society struggle with a negative body image due to a lot of unrealistic ideals of what is beautiful. Today I want us to focus on what we feel in our body as we go through this yoga practice. And notice with gratitude what our bodies do for us. We'll move with our breath, and throughout, I want you to pay attention to all of the little things that your body does for you. Notice your breath and how when you move with your breath, a certain state of calm and relaxation comes. Notice that even while we're moving, your body is doing so many things for you without you even thinking about it, such as digestion, keeping your heart pumping blood, keeping your blood pressure steady, your eyes blinking, all of the automatic things that our bodies do for us. And also, I want us to have a mantra going: my body is strong and capable. So we can repeat that throughout our practice. First, let's begin by just coming into a comfortable seat, sukhasana, legs crossed, spine tall, extending from the crown center of the head. You can gently close your eyes if you're comfortable, or find a soft gaze in front of you. Just begin to drop into your breath, noticing where you feel your breath the most today, maybe in your nostrils, your throat. Your lungs, your belly. Just continue observing your breath. You may notice that just the act of observing the breath gradually deepens and lengthens the exhale, allowing a state of relaxation to enter into the mind. Notice the pause at the top of the inhale and the bottom of the exhale. Take that time to just notice. The rest. And as we continue observing our breath, repeat to yourself, my body is strong. And capable. My body is strong and capable. My body is strong and capable. Allowing these words to sink and settle. Allow yourself a few more breaths here. When that feels complete, you can gently open your eyes, and we're going to begin with some spinal warm-ups. So grab onto your knees. On an inhale, arch your back and lift your heart center. On an exhale, round your back, belly in, looking down. Inhale up. Opening up the heart. Exhale, rounding the spine. Continue on your own breath, warming up the spine, getting a nice stretch, and continuing the mantra. My body is strong and capable. Enjoying the flow of the spine. Our spine is our lifeline. Keep it supple, keep it strong. We'll do a few more here. And one more. And we'll meet at center. Now we're gonna do some lateral stretches. So inhale. Arms up. Exhale, lean to the right. And then we'll come back up. Inhale. Exhale, lean to the left. And once more, inhale up. Exhale to the right. Inhale up. Exhale to the left. And once more, and then we'll stay and hold. Inhale up, exhale leaning to the right, and hold. Breathing in and breathing out. Take care that your shoulder remains in the shoulder girdle rather than reaching out too far. And you can look down if that feels good. You can look forward or you can look up, whatever makes your neck happy. I'm gonna look down and just keep breathing. One more breath here. We'll inhale, arms up, and then exhale, leaning to the left. And again, you can look down, look forward, or look up. Reaching from the obliques to get a nice stretch along the side. One more breath here, and then we'll inhale and come up. Now we're going to get a twist in. So on an inhale, again, arms up. Exhale, let's twist from our belly to the right and have our left hand on our right knee. Twisting to the right. And on an inhale, slightly unwind, sit up nice and tall, and then exhale, twist again. And see if you can imagine that you're wringing your waist out like it's a washcloth. So inhale, straighten the spine again, slightly untwist, and then finally exhale and twist as much as you can. Keeping your back straight, spine long. And breathe. And your head can kind of follow the twist of the spine. My body is strong and capable. And let's inhale, come out of the twist, arms up, and we'll repeat on the other side. Right arm, left knee, and left arm behind, sitting up nice and tall. And we inhale, slightly untwist, and exhale, twist, bringing out our waist. Inhale, slightly untwist, spine tall, and exhale, twist again. Last time. Nice and tall, slightly untwist, and then twisting from the belly button and hold. My body is strong and capable. One more breath here, and we'll untwist and come to hands and knees. And we'll just do a couple cat-cows. So inhale, heart forward and tilting spine. Exhale. Rounding the back, chin tilts in. And again, inhaling, arching the spine, and exhale, round the back. Great. Now tuck your toes and have a nice grip with your, the palms of your hands, kind of like making a claw. With your hands so that you've got a nice grip. Burn your hands and your arms into the mat and then push your hips up into downward dog. Doesn't matter if your heels touch the ground, just have the energy of the heels towards the ground. Bend your knees and lengthen your spine. Sending the hips back further. And breathe. Allow your head to dangle, looking somewhere between your knees. And we'll hold here. Excellent. Step one foot forward to your hands and another foot. Move forward, fold. Bend your knees any amount. Go ahead and grab onto your elbows and just allow yourself to hang, enjoying this hold, this inversion, which is good for your back, good for your heart. My body is strong. Incapable. Now inhale, halfway lift. Bring your hands to about your shin. Have your shoulders back and have your belly strong, back flat. Hold here and breathe. Exhale, fold. Inhale, arms all the way up. Exhale, prayer pose. Now we'll stand in Tadasana, which is actually an active balance pose. So go ahead and roll around on your feet a little bit until you feel balanced on all four corners of your feet and kind of wiggle back and forth with your ankles till they feel solid and strong. And then engage your calf muscles. Bend your knees a little bit and then lock them. And then find that place where there's a micro bend so they feel nice and strong, solid, but not locked. Wrap your inner thigh muscles in so that they're engaged. At the same time, imagine that you're pulling the mat apart, trying to push it apart this way so that your outer legs, outer thighs are engaged. Engage the Kegels. And the lower belly. Tuck the pelvis down. Make sure that your ribs are in and not sticking out, so tuck the ribs in. Bring your shoulders up, back, and down. Flip your palms forward. Draw the weight of the head back. Chin is level and the crown of the head is lifted. And breathe. And we'll move into Surya Namaskar. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, fold. Step one leg back and another leg. Inhale. Exhale, chaturanga. Great. Inhale, upward dog, or you can do cobra. Exhale, downward dog. Hold and breathe for 3 breaths. Step one leg, and you can easily help yourself with bringing one leg forward with your hand. Inhale halfway. Exhale, fold. Inhale all the way up and hands to prayer. Come back to Tadasana. Breathe. My body is strong and capable. And we'll repeat that version of Surya Namaskar. Inhale up. Exhale. Inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, stepping back with one foot and the other. Inhale. Exhale, chaturanga. Inhale, upward dog. Exhale, downward dog. And breathe. My body is strong and capable. And step one foot forward and the other. Inhale halfway, exhale, hold. Inhale up and exhale, prayer pose. And pause. Let's step into wide-legged stance, something like 3 or 4 feet between. We're going to start with— actually, let's start with Star Pose. This is a nice empowering pose. So feet are out, legs are straight, a little bit of micro bend to protect the knees. And we're just gonna bring our arms out, hands open. This is a powerful pose. You can do this anytime when you need to feel in control, confident. My body is strong and capable. Now let's move into Goddess Pose, bending our knees. And if you'd like, you can flip your hands back. Another powerful pose. My body is strong and capable. Back to Star and Goddess. My body is strong and capable. My body is strong. And capable. One more time. My body is strong and capable. Excellent. Now let's do a forward fold. So pigeon toe your feet a little bit and let's clasp our hands behind and then lift the heart. And pull forward. Any amount. Just enjoying the stretch. And don't forget to breathe. Now lift yourself up. Place your left hand in the middle between your legs and then twist so that your right hand goes up towards the sky. If you'd like, you can bring it around for a bind and breathe. And you can untwist, bring that right hand down and lift the left hand. And if you'd like, you can bring that left hand around to bind and breathe. And release. Excellent. Now bend your right knee and you can come down and stay here for a nice inner thigh stretch, or if you want to come into full sandasana, And come down like this. If you wanna practice balance, you can lift up your foot here and try to balance. Just remember to breathe. It's tricky. And then we'll walk ourselves over to the other side and breathe. Definitely have to establish drishti, which is a gaze, something that you can gaze at to balance. I don't need my drishti. It's not working for me today. Okay, we'll come back up and then lift yourselves all the way up to standing. Excellent. Just come to standing. Together, and we'll do another balance pose. If you want, you can certainly use— in fact, I'm going to use a little prop here to help you balance. Let's come into Dancer's Pose. So stand on your right foot, still on both feet right now, but go ahead and get centered on the right leg. Imagining being grounded through the right foot, all the way up through the right leg, engaging all of the muscles. And then bend your left leg, rolling onto the toes, and bend your left knee. Grabbing onto the inside of that left foot. We're gonna go into Dancer's Pose. So if you want, you can just stay here. That's perfectly fine. And extending your right hand helps you balance. Or you could lean forward a little bit and kick your foot out. So whatever works for you, go ahead and work on your balance. And remember, my body is strong and capable. Keep a bend in the front leg, in the right leg, so that to protect it. I apologize for that loud ringing. Sorry about that. That probably didn't sound very good. Just make sure I get this in here. Okay, we'll switch to the other side for our dancer pose. So again, we'll stand grounded on the left foot, engaging all of the muscles in the left leg, bending the right knee, rolling up onto the toes, and then we'll grab onto the inside of that right foot. And you can stay here and extend the left hand to help you balance. You can bend forward any amount. I can handle the flexibility, I just can't do the balance. I shouldn't say can't. It's just more of a challenge for me. But we all have strengths and areas to work on. And there's nothing wrong with that, right? Because we all have bodies that are strong and capable. Wonderful. When you're finished with that, come back onto your mat. We're just going to come on to our seats. Lovely. Extend your legs forward. And we're going to come into forward fold. So have your back nice and straight. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, fold forward and in. Have a slight bend in the knees. And just breathe. Begin to slow down and cool down a little bit. Allowing our bodies to prepare for rest, grateful for all that they've done for us, all that they do for us. Inhale, come back up. Let's do Janushirasana. So bend the left leg, placing the foot in the inner thigh of the right leg. Twist your torso so it's facing the right leg. Inhale up and hold forward knee up and just breathe. And inhale, come on up. Before we go to the other side, go ahead and stand your foot on towards the inside of your right leg here. We're gonna do a Marichyasana A. So scoot yourself up as close as you can towards the foot, and if you want, you can just stay here and hold. This is great. Or you can fold forward like this, any amount. If you want to go for the bind, Bring your left arm up and then bring it inside of your left leg and then wrap it around. And if you can, you can grab it with your right hand and then you can fold forward. Inhale and breathe. Flexing the right foot. And so inhale, come back up. Release. Now extend that left leg. Bring the right foot into the inner thigh and twist the torso facing the right— I'm sorry, the left foot. And inhale up, pull forward, idiom out. And breathe. My body is strong and capable. Then inhale, come back up. And this time, stand your right foot firmly into the ground. And you can stay here, you can fold forward from here, and, or you can bring your right hand up, bring it to the inside of the right leg, swing it around, grab it with your left hand if you can, and then fold forward any amount. This is a really good stretch for the back. And breathe. And inhale, release. Good. Now let's spread our legs wide. You don't have to go as wide as you can, just whatever's comfortable. A little bit of a bend in the knees. We'll inhale up, fold forward, any amount, and just breathe. My body is strong and capable. And you can push yourself back on up. Excellent. Now bring your legs together and let's do boat pose. So tucking your tail here. And hollowing out your belly so that we're kind of sitting back like this. First, what we're going to do, we're going to extend our arms. We're going to kind of play with this a little bit. So extend one leg forward and release. Other leg, release. Now play with two legs. My body is strong and capable. Good. If you want, you can try extending both legs long, which is tricky. I can do it better if I hold on to— let's see. Any level is just fine. And this, you can also do this and hold on to them here. Or this is just fine too. And going back and forth. Or this is a perfect place to be too. You're still getting the same energetic benefits from the pose no matter what type of what situation you do pose. Now let's sit up, take a nice breath, and slowly lower ourselves all the way down. Good. Let's come into happy baby and grab both of your feet, and if you want to rock, back and forth. That might feel good. Sometimes I like to straighten my legs a little bit. Play around with that, whatever feels good for you. We're going to come into a twist, so cross your right leg over your left. Move your hips a little bit to the right and then let your legs fall to the left, arms out. If you'd like, you can gaze to the right and breathe. My body is strong and capable. One more breath, and lift your legs while you're in the twist, and then gently uncross. Cross the left over the right, shift the hips to the left. And let them fall to the right. And if you'd like, you can shift your gaze to the— enjoying this twist. My body is strong and capable. One more breath, and bring your legs up while you're still in the twist. Gently uncross, and then if you need any more movements before shavasana, go ahead and take those movements, and then settle yourself into a comfortable shavasana. If you'd like blankets Eye pillows, go ahead and get those for yourself. You might want to put on your socks or a sweatshirt and settle into a comfortable space. We'll be here for a while, but I will lead you out. We're gonna start with a little meditation, guided meditation, and then I'll leave you in silence for a bit. So I'd like you to just focus on your breath and pay attention to my voice. If you get distracted, which is normal, that's just fine. Just come back to my voice. I want you to imagine that you're somewhere outside, somewhere that feels very refreshing, somewhere safe, a place maybe that only you know about, or maybe just you and your loved ones. Look around and notice all of the sights. Pay attention to all of the colors, the shapes, the objects. Look like a child with wonder. As if you're seeing everything for the very first time. Notice the sounds in the air, maybe the sounds that are near and the sounds that are further away. Listen for everything. And now pay attention to the scent in the air. What do you notice? What does your nose pick up on? Maybe there's something cooking, or maybe there's a soft scent in the wind. Just notice. And what do you feel? What do you feel and sense on your skin? Maybe you have soft clothing on. Or maybe you feel the wind blowing through your hair. And what is the taste in your mouth? Maybe you just had a glass of lemonade. What do you notice? Be grateful for this experience that your body allows you to have with all of its amazing sense You can either stay where you're at or go somewhere else in the silence for a few more moments. Begin to deepen your breath. Bring some movement to your fingers and toes. Maybe stretch your body long. Roll over onto one side, making a pillow with your arm. And whenever it feels ready, you can push yourself up to seated. My body is strong and capable. I am grateful for all that my body does for me. I will honor my body, my vessel. I'm grateful for coming to this practice. I'm so grateful for all of you practicing with me. May we all have peace and spread peace. The teacher and student in me honors the teacher and student in you. Namaste. Thank you.