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

♪ Hi.

My name is Stacey and I will be your teacher today.

Take a balanced seat.

Breathe deeply and look within as you close your eyes.

We are hopefully always engaged in a process of refining and therefore becoming better at who we are.

There's a parable from India that describes a cow eating grass.

The chewing of its cud, which once digested becomes milk, which is then churned into butter, which is further heated to become ghee.

Ghee, the refined form of butter, is clear and tastes sweet.

This process of becoming sweet and clear takes heat, takes time, and a bit of effort.

The practice of Yoga, using its heat and effort, invites us to our most refined self.

Let's practice today with this in mind.

Please open your eyes.

Joining our practice today are Mary and Martha.

Let's begin in table position.

Please come to your hands and your knees.

Take a moment to set up your foundation well.

Look down at the hands with your fingers spread evenly apart.

Pressing firmly through the hands, build strength from your hands into your upper back.

Now, walk the knees back slightly, just getting some length and room through your spine.

Tuck your toes.

As you inhale, please look up, opening the throat and arch the back.

Reverse into cat pose, pushing down and lift up through the waist.

Inhale.

Flow forward with the breath looking up and open.

And exhale.

Round in.

Inhale look forward again.

And exhale, rounding one last time.

Inhale.

Look up.

Maintain the arch of your back.

Raise your knees and lift your hips into downward facing dog.

You may need to adjust the length of your pose.

Make sure that it has enough length.

And if you're tight in your hips, hamstrings or lower back allow yourself to lift the hips up, maintaining the natural curve through your spine.

Keep yourself grounded and just feel as you hold the pose the effort that you feel But find the sweetness that is created by this effort, this self care.

As you exhale, lower your knees back onto your mat, taking table position once again.

Flatten the tops of your feet and sit backward onto your heels, keeping your arms extended out.

Inhale to table.

And we'll move rhythmically with our breathing.

So, lean forward and as you do, bend your elbows lowering the front of your thighs in the front of your hips.

Lift your shoulders and come to a gentle low form of cobra pose and then exhale.

Roll back down and push to table.

Inhale.

We'll do that twice more, moving with the breath.

Exhale.

Go back.

Inhale, table.

Lean forward into a push up.

Rise to cobra.

Lower back down.

Table position.

Sit backward on your heels.

Inhale forward.

Pushup position, thighs and hips.

And then rise to cobra.

Roll back down and push to table.

Pause in table.

Take a deep full breaths and allow yourself just to settle.

Adjust if you need to.

Tucking your toes, inhale look up and arch through the lower back.

And with your exhale, reverse into cat pose.

Really feel that lift of your abdomen.

Inhale.

Look forward.

Reverse and round in.

Once again, inhale.

Look forward.

And then round into cat pose and I'd like you to hold cat.

Really engaging the core, noticing how the front of your ribs comes closer to the front of your thighs.

Keep that and we'll transition into plank pose slowly by raising your right foot back behind you.

And then lift your left leg as well.

Your toes remain on your mat.

Pushing up through the legs and the sides of your waists.

Lean forward so your shoulders are above your wrists and then slowly raise your head.

Then the only part that softens, that finds that sweetness is between your shoulder blades.

Soften down.

Plank pose is one of our best poses for engaging core and building strength.

Notice the effort that it takes just to simply hold to breathe.

Please lift to downward facing dog.

Stretch out.

Enjoy your breathing.

Lifting the shoulder blades onto your back.

As you inhale, draw forward to plank pose.

And then lower your knees into table position.

Make sure the knees are beneath your hips.

Good.

Please raise your right arm forward and your left leg backward.

And extend.

Now, finding your balance, here stay here if you need to.

Or if you can exhale, round in, pulling your elbow to your knee and then inhale, extend.

Exhale, round.

Inhale.

And once again.

Exhale.

Inhale, hold here in Snowbird.

Now, you can add an added bit of effort by also raising your right foot.

This poses deceptively hard, so enjoy it.

Work into what you need.

And then exhale, release your hand, your foot, your knee, coming down.

Shift your weight.

Let's do the second side.

So raising your right leg and your left arm, pull out.

Stay here find your balance Then with your breath, fold in, contracting through your core, building heat, inhale stretch out.

Exhale.

Fold in.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Reach out.

Now, I invite you to stay here if this is challenging enough.

If possible, raise your left foot.

Keep your eyes on one point.

Feel the bauble and engage.

And then exhale release.

Take your hand, your knee back to the mat.

Notice the heat that generated.

Please lift into downward facing dog.

Enjoy your breath.

Extending, pressing out through the hands.

And keeping your core engaged to support the length of your spine.

As you inhale, slide to a plank pose, aligning your shoulders with your wrists, keeping your hips your shoulders and your head all in that same plane.

Remember your core.

Now, slowly lower your knees and move through a push up again, lowering your chest to your thumbs.

Pull yourself forward.

Rise to a higher form of cobra this time.

Rolling the shoulders open.

Good.

Table position.

Pause.

Breathe and then round into cat pose.

Tuck your toes once again.

Maintain cat.

And again we'll slowly lift to plank.

So, stretching your right foot back, your left foot back.

Looking back toward your abdomen.

Now, raise the head.

Soften between your shoulder blades and push down through your hands.

Push your hands apart wide.

And then try to draw your hands toward your toes, as you pull your toes toward your hands.

Keep breathing.

Hold and maintain the pose.

It takes some effort and then rise back to downward dog.

Stretch out.

Take a deep breath.

Please inhale.

Raise your right leg, one legged dog.

And then draw the right knee toward your nose and try to touch your nose to your knee and then reach back.

Again nose to knee.

Reach back.

And pull forward and keep your knee coming forward.

Now look up and slide to a form of plank.

Raise your knee your heel higher.

Puff up and then step to a lunge.

Take a deep breath.

Good.

Raise your arms.

Lift overhead.

You can also keep your hands on the floor or just keep them on top of a block.

And then as you exhale, bring your hands back down.

Again a block could be used on the inside of your foot, and stretch your right leg straight into a pyramid pose.

If you can keep your hands on the floor, do so.

Bow your forehead and I want you to push your hands down and forward as you try to drag the right foot to the back, squaring up your hips.

And then lunge forward and sweep your right leg up into one legged dog again.

Extend.

Keep your leg raised and come to one legged plank.

This may be challenging enough.

You can always come to kneeling, lowering your left knee if you'd like.

If possible, also raise your left arm.

Breathe.

And then touch back down and take downward dog.

Stretch back.

Enjoy the breath.

Downward dog.

And these core poses becomes a resting pose, so aligning your downward dog and to soften into it.

Feel it's sweet embrace.

As you inhale, raise your left leg up behind you.

Exhale.

Draw the knee to the nose.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Pull the knee forward.

Hold it forward.

Slide to a plank.

Raise your knee and your heel and then step up to lunge.

Raise your arms.

Lift up a high lunge or you can keep your hands simply on the floor or the top of the block.

And then bring your hands back down setting up for pyramid pose.

Good.

Lift the hips and stretch.

Now, if keeping your knees off the floor feels more intense, it's also fine to modify this as a runner's lunge.

So, choose if that feels better for you right now and breathe.

Good.

Then lunge forward and sweep your left leg behind you again.

One legged dog.

Coming to one legged plank.

This may be deep enough.

Stay here.

If you can raise your right arm, do so.

Extend.

Hold on.

The effort is worth it building your strength and your fortitude.

Your clarity, your sweetness.

And then touch back down.

Good.

Pushup position.

Rise to a cobra.

Open through your heart.

And then table position and child pose.

Settle back.

Whenever you're doing a core practice you'll notice your heart rate speeds up your heat starts to be generated and so just rest here, feeling that warmth and knowing that you're doing good things for yourself as you do this.

Good and then I invite you to lift to seated.

We're going to come to seated, moving your hips to the middle of your mat and we'll do a series of boat poses called Navasana.

We'll do four of these.

That's the traditional way to do boat poses in yoga practice.

So join your ankles, hug your knees together and then reach behind your thighs and lean back.

Now, I don't want you to arch your back.

I want you to engage the core by moving your rips toward your hip bones and feeling those abdomen muscles strong.

Keep holding your legs and raise your feet and flex your ankles.

So as we go through the series of for boat poses.

I'm going to give you places to get off of the pose in a safe neighborhood.

So, this is bus stop one.

You can always come back to this pose and build your strength over time.

Good.

Come back to seated.

Bring your feet together.

Open out to bound angle.

Rise up through your spine.

You may want to close your eyes.

Just take a breath.

Good.

And then lift back up.

We'll do boat pose number two.

Plant your feet.

Hug your knees.

Engage the core.

Raise your feet.

Spread your toes.

and release your hands.

And breathe.

This is bus stop number two.

Then rise back to seated.

Join your feet.

Hold around your ankles and feel yourself rising up through your spine.

And then let's do number three.

You can do this.

Rest if you need to.

Hold behind your legs.

Raise your feet.

Extend your hands and now this time, bus stop three, stretch out through your toes.

So you want to try and line up your toes to the height of your eyes.

Hug the ankles.

Hug the knees.

And then pull back in.

Come back into bound angle pose.

And breathe.

And the fourth and final one.

So, same thing.

Rise up.

Hold your legs.

Lift your feet.

Release your hands.

Stretch your legs.

Line up your toes.

Put your hands behind your head.

We call this paripurnam.

Breathing.

It's easy to hold your breath here.

So, keep breathing here, feeling the engagement from your core muscles.

And then bring your knees in.

Turn back into bound angle pose.

And breathe.

Raise your knees.

Extend your legs.

Hold your legs and lie down onto your backs.

Once you're all the way down, keeping your knees bent.

Join the soles of your feet together.

Good.

Rest your hands across your abdomen.

Close your eyes and just rest.

This should feel really nice around the groin area.

Sometimes in core work, the groins can be engaged.

So, we want to definitely lengthen those out.

Just keep in mind, you're building strength along your mid-section.

So, now raise your knees together.

Good.

Once your knees are together, lift your feet and hold the front of your thighs.

Once you have the front of your thighs, press your rips into your mat until your back, your spine is completely flat.

Now, tugging up on your legs, pull as if you're going to lift your legs toward the ceiling.

And then, take an exhale.

And lift your head and shoulders.

And as you pull up, you're still lifting through the legs and you're still pushing down through the waist.

Try not to hold your breath in this pose.

It's easy to do.

Then again this pose is deceptively challenging.

As you exhale, roll your head and shoulders down.

Release your hands.

Put your feet down on the mat for a moment.

Take a deep breath.

And then bring your knees back into your chest, hug them in and rock forward and back a few times.

You're just going to find some momentum here.

If this is challenging for you, simply roll to your side and come up to seated.

And then roll all the way to seated.

Good.

Plant your feet.

This time with your feet remaining about six to eight inches apart, take your hands out in front of you, palms facing forward, like you're pushing your hands against the wall.

I call this part Cosmic Abs.

So, I want you to raise your feet.

Flex your ankles.

Twist your legs to the right.

Twist your torso to the left.

Then imagine you're crawling through space.

Hence, Cosmic Abs.

And then move and change direction, so your legs go left.

Your arms go right.

And then change again, you can just move at your own pace.

You can also just simply move your legs in this pose.

Or you could plant your feet and just simply move your arms.

Try to do both or build up to that at least, moving in one direction and then moving the second direction.

Good.

And then rise up to seated.

Come back to seated bound angle pose.

Hold your legs.

Gently bounce the knees.

We add this little bouncing action.

We call it butterfly.

Breathe into that.

Good.

I then, invite you to lift your knees up.

Now, for this next pose, which will require core strength and balancing, you may need to use a strap for the pose.

So, if you have a strap and necktie perhaps a hand towel, that will also work.

So, just like we did in boat pose, you're going to come up.

Lift your knees.

Pull in.

Now, it's fine simply to stay here, if you prefer this position.

If you have it reach down and hold on to your legs, your outer feet and then raise your legs up.

Stretch up through the crown of your head.

And notice that the core has to be engaged to hold your balance.

If you roll back, know that almost everybody does at some point.

And then bend your knees.

Pull the feet together.

Open up.

Stretch through your spine.

If you feel like folding forward, I invite you to extend out.

So, bound angle.

We'll do it one more time.

So this pose is called Ubhaya Pandangustasana.

So, lift your feet.

Hold your outer feet and you'll have better control.

And then, stretch out through your legs.

Use a strap, if you need to.

Spread your toes.

Focus your eyes.

So, there's effort.

There's time.

There's heat.

If you can come up even higher, come up even higher, breathing it's the balance that is created from the core strength.

And then bend your knees.

Good work.

Come to seated and hold the back of your legs.

I'd like you to roll down slowly.

If you have a block, bring the block close to you.

So, after a series of forward folds that the abdomen, the core work requires, we're going to do a bridge pose to realign the spine.

So, if you have a block, use it.

You can use it on its medium height or if you have more flexibility, simply turn it to its highest point.

You can also be at the lowest point, if you need to.

So, bend your elbows next to your body.

Plant your feet as wide as your outer hips.

Press your elbows into your mat.

Press your head into your mat.

Picking up through the heart, inhale.

Raise your hips.

Slide the block underneath your pelvis.

Good.

Settle.

Now, make sure the block is underneath the pelvis and not the low part of your spine.

Relax into that and then try to move the pose more into the upper part of your spine.

So, you walk your shoulder blades closer together.

Keep your head pressing into the floor.

Press into your feet.

Think of this pose just as a realignment of the spine, stretching open through your core.

As you inhale raise your hips off the block clear the block from out beneath your body.

Slide it to the side and sit down onto your mat.

Good.

Now, walk your feet apart as wide as your mat and open your arms out to the side.

Keeping your shoulders rolling back and the heart open, as you lower, exhale.

Bring your legs to the right.

And with the inhale, just pick them back up to center.

Exhale to the left.

And back up to center.

To the right again.

Just feeling like you're moving those muscles of your lower back.

Move with your breath.

Come up.

Exhale to the left.

We'll do once more, each side.

This is called windshield wiper pose.

This is just a nice way to loosen up the back.

Good.

And then come up, back up to the middle.

And lower your knees to the right.

And I'd like you to pause here on your side.

Spread your toes.

Flex your ankles and engage your muscles all the way into your core.

Now, rooting the shoulders, lift your right foot on top of your left knee.

Then, holding this, stretch out through your left leg and sweep your arms beyond your head, raising them up.

Holding your left wrist with your right hand, gently pull.

As you do, lenghten that whole left side of your body, but also notice what's going on, on the inner left knee here.

If you feel any kind of tug or pull there, take the foot off of the leg and just rest your feet on your mat.

To come out of the pose, lower the foot down to your mat first.

Inhale raise the knees to center.

Make sure your feet are still wide.

And then exhale, lower your legs to the left.

Flex the ankle so you're staying engaged in the pose.

With the arms over your head, lift your left foot onto your right leg.

Hold your right wrist and gently pull on that arm, extending.

These poses at the end of your practice are designed just to settle you, to start to cool you down from that heat you've generated, to start to enjoy the sweetness of your practice.

Inhale.

Bring the legs back up to center.

Lower the foot.

Hug your knees into your chest just one time.

Wrap your arms into yourself and rock a little side to side.

And then setting up for Savasana.

I invite you to shake your legs out onto your mat and position your legs out to the corners of your mat.

Wiggle your toes and open the arms.

Find a deep spaciousness so that your arms aren't pinched up next to your body.

Close your eyes.

Soften your tongue and rest here.

Soften.

"“The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is.

Self-knowledge has no end-you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion.

It is an endless river.

"” So, I invite you to stay here in Savasana for as long as you wish.

But, when you are ready to roll out of this pose, just move gently.

Bend your knees.

Roll to your side.

And pushing down into your mat.

Raise yourself back to seated.

Take a good balanced seat again and folding your hands together to your heart to honor the effort that you made in your practice.

Thank you for joining us today.

Namaste.

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