Yoga in Practice

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

Hello, everyone, my name is Stacy Millner-Collins.

Welcome to your practice today.

Joining us for class are Tom and Anne.

Enjoy your seat and close your eyes.

Please use a blanket or a cushion beneath your hips if you feel tight in your lower back or your legs, rest your hands comfortably and bring awareness to your breath.

We all come into this world with a unique set of gifts and talents.

These gifts as expressed during our lifetime and all the things we accomplish are not only of great value, but they are also meant to bring joy, satisfaction and meaning into our lives and into the lives of those around us.

The teaching is this.

It's not what you do in life, but how you do it.

It's about how much passion, love and care you put into what you do that truly matters.

Consider this today as we begin a gentle yoga practice.

Remain seated and bring your hands to your knees.

Holding on to your knees.

Take a deep inhale and exhale.

Now inhale, again, lengthen up.

And as you exhale, round your back, lower your chin down towards your chest.

So guiding the sides of your ribs back.

Take a deep breath into your waistline, lengthen your neck and then inhale, look up and go the opposite direction.

So raise your chin toward the ceiling, tugging on your knees create more of a back bended shape, feeling an uprising lift through the front of your body.

Good and then release to neutral and lower your arms.

Inhale, lift your arms over your head and then lower the hands out to the side parallel to the floor.

We'll do some shoulder circles here.

So roll your shoulders forward, and then roll your arms back.

Just do this a few times, turning them in and turning them out.

Follow your breath.

And as you do this very simple motion, cultivate a sweet awareness as to what you're doing and how you're doing it.

On your next inhale, raise your arms, lift them over your head and pause here.

Lifting up through the waistline.

Keep your hips and legs heavy and grounded, but create more space in your spine, your ribs and along the side of your neck.

Take a deep breath in.

Exhale.

Inhale one more time, and now lower your left hand besides your body, placing your fingertips on the mat and then bend to the left.

You don't have to go very far.

Just creating some opening more along the right side of your body.

Keep your head drawn back and your shoulders even with each other.

Inhale, bring the left arm up.

And as you exhale, lower your right hand supporting yourself bend to the right.

Pull up through that left arm and enjoy that nice opening along the side of your ribcage and breathe into that sensation.

As you inhale, lift both arms overhead coming to center.

And then exhale, lower your arms down.

Good.

Please come to your hands and knees for Table pose.

So clearing your blanket.

Place your hands under your shoulders not too close and spread your fingers evenly apart.

Check your foundation so that your wrists' crease are straight and your knees are far enough back giving you some room through your spine.

Take a deep breath in.

And with your exhale, allow yourself to feel grounded, softening your skin.

On your next inhale, please look forward and arch through the low back.

Exhale, reverse and round to cat, pushing through the arms.

Inhale, look forward.

Follow the breath in again.

Remember, it's how you're doing this that matters.

Inhale, exploring the movement of your spine.

Exhale.

Inhale one more time, look up and round in and then come to a neutral Table position so that your head, shoulders and hips are in line with each other.

Keeping your hips right above your knees, walk your hands forward into Puppy pose.

Your hands may go beyond your mat, but try to keep your hips above the knees and then bow down, bringing your head down toward the mat.

Pressing your hands firmly into the floor, build, strength in your arm muscles and allow the arms to float up toward the ceiling.

As you move your chest a little closer to the mat, try not to collapse your ribcage here.

Get a nice stretch through your shoulders.

Take one more breath in.

Exhale, and now inhale, walk your hands back into Table position.

Once again, check your foundation, tone your abdomen and then raise your right arm out to the side.

Sweep it up toward the ceiling and look up, and then reach this hand underneath the left wrist twist to the left, and then inhale, raise back up, open the arm and exhale, reach through.

One more time, inhale and exhale.

Come back through Table position, plant the hand.

Take another breath and soften.

Be gentle with yourself.

Once again, second side, raise your left arm up inhale and reach through, exhale.

Inhale ... and exhale.

One more time, inhale and reach through.

Good.

Come into Table position and simply pause.

Placing the hands well, turn your toes under and arch the lower back gently.

Lift into Downward Dog.

Now, you may need to adjust your stance a little bit creating more room, more distance, and if you feel particularly tight in your hips or your hamstrings, I invite you to bend your knees.

That releases the deepest part of the pose and allows you to get more mobility into your hips and your lower spine.

Try to create a good arch in your lower back your lumbar spine, and then slowly over time, see if you can stretch your legs just a little bit straighter.

You don't have to rush this.

Breathe into what you can do and appreciate your gifts and your talents today.

As you exhale, lower your knees onto the mat and set up for Child's pose.

Spreading your knees apart, touching your feet together and sit backward onto your heels.

Child's Pose is such a delightful posture, a posture that gives you an opportunity to turn inward to yourself to enjoy the breath along your back body and to feel grounded through the hips.

Now your knees may not allow you to sit back as far as Tom is sitting back, So just come out of the pose as much as you may need to.

Enjoy the breath through the back of your body.

And then allow your hips to sway side to side.

How you do one thing is how you do all things.

As you inhale, move back up into Table position.

Once you're in Table, step your right foot forward into a kneeling lunch.

Now you may have to inch that foot forward and pay attention to your back knee that it feels comfortable on your mat.

Adjust the knee either forward or back making sure the left knee is good.

As you inhale, raise your chest and then sweep your arms over your shoulders.

This kneeling lunge.

Now you may not have to be as deep as I am.

You can also step that leg in a little bit more.

So modify as you need to pay attention here and just feel your breathing.

With your exhale, sweep the hands back to the floor.

And then stretch your right leg straight by leaning your hips back.

Adjust the pose, getting a nice stretch along your right leg.

If you need to keep that knee bent, that's fine as well.

Flex the ankle, walk your hands in a little closer and spread your toes.

What I want you to try and do is keep a nice long extension in your spine.

And just noticing that right hamstring opening up in the posture.

Stay with your breath.

That's the most important thing, move and breathe and feel the joy of just the movement, and then lunge forward and step back to Table position.

Good.

Let's do the second side.

So stepping your left foot forward, adjust as you need to, And once you're in that lunge making sure the right knee is comfortable, go ahead inhale, lift your arms up over your shoulders, pull up.

Good.

Hugging in with your legs so you feel balanced and steady, draw the arms back and then to soften some of the effort through your fingertips.

Good, breathing.

Hugging the arms towards your head, and then exhale, take your hands back to the mat.

Set up for the runner's lunge.

So lean back.

Walk your hands back with you.

Flex the front ankle and press your heel down into the floor.

Dragging that foot back, firm your hamstring and just walk your spine forward as you elongate out through the crown of your head.

Enjoy the breath, and then lunge forward.

Plant that foot and step to Table position one more time.

From Table, move into Downward Facing Dog, stretch up and extend back.

In this Downward Dog, walk your feet apart a little wider than they have been.

And bend your knees and open your knees apart.

Lift your hips and slowly, slowly stretch out through your legs as you push down and forward through your hands.

On your exhale, lower your knees and come back to Table position.

Make sure your knees are not too wide.

Let's set up for a balanced pose here, Snowbird pose.

Please raise your right leg off the floor.

Now you can hold here just with the right leg raised like Tom is demonstrating, or also lift your left arm forward.

Breathe.

Tone your abdomen, feeling the abdomen support your spine.

And then if you want to challenge yourself even more deeply, raise your left foot.

Keep your eyes on one point.

Flex your ankle and make your leg muscles strong.

And then exhale and touch down bring your hand, your knee and your foot back to the mat.

Good.

Let's change sides.

So raise your left leg.

Good.

You can stay here or also raise your right arm.

So this is a really good basic balancing pose teaching you how to hold the midline.

Keeping your eyes on one point remember to keep breathing as you're holding this pose and then try to lift your right foot off the mat makes it a lot more difficult but that gives you something to strive for.

Enjoy your breath.

And then touch down.

Table position.

And from here, look up one more time.

And let's do Downward Dog, stretch out.

Enjoy your Downward Dog.

Keeping the hands plugged in enjoying movement through your spine upward through your hips and back down through your legs.

Good.

Please walk forward to the front of your mat.

Once you are forward, bend over your legs.

Then lift halfway forward look up and your hands can be on your shin bones.

You don't have to touch the floor.

As you exhale, bow and fold.

Inhale, lift halfway.

Exhale and fold.

One more.

Inhale, lift halfway.

Exhale and fold.

Root through your feet.

Inhale, rise to standing lift your arms over your head.

Good, and then lower your hands Mountain Pose.

Inhale, lift your arms again, rise up and exhale lower.

Take care with how you are synching this movement up with your breath.

Inhale and exhale.

Good.

Take a wide stance across your mat.

So turn sideways if you need to.

And take your feet apart.

Now how wide you position your feet is completely up to you.

If you feel unsteady, unbalanced, go a little bit shorter.

You could also put a chair in front of you to support yourself.

Now, feet parallel, bring your hands to your hips, pull your shoulders back and then hinging right from your hips, bend forward.

Now your hands can stay on your legs.

You can bend your knees.

You can bring your hands to the floor.

There's lots of places to stop here.

But as much as you confirm your legs in this pose, find that, bowing your head and then spreading your toes, firm up your leg muscles by gently hugging your feet in towards each other.

As you inhale, lift halfway forward, look up.

Lift your hands to your hips.

Lift up through your shoulders and rise to standing.

Good.

Step your feet back in.

Sit bone distance and then sweep your hands in front of your chest.

Exhale and squat.

Hold your squat.

Try to sit back towards your heels, keeping your knees not going beyond your toes, but weight yourself back through the hips and heels, and remember that squats are so very important for the health of our hips and our low back.

With your next inhale, please rise to standing and lower the arms exhale.

Good.

Let's step wide one more time.

So you're going wide.

Maybe you can go a little bit wider the second time, line up your feet with each other.

Now take your right foot and turn it to its side.

Spread the toes.

Good.

Balancing your hips, raise your arms, lunge into your right leg and you don't have to go very deep.

It's just a little minor lunge.

And then turn and rest your right forearm on your leg and take your left arm over your head.

If you have any issues in your left shoulder, just keep your hand on your hip, but feel like you're turning through the hips, the waist, the shoulders, you can even look up toward the ceiling.

Keep your legs as they are and rise back up to Warrior Two.

Inhale.

Good and lift to standing.

Release your hands.

Turn your feet back in line with each other parallel, and let's go to the second side.

Turn your left foot.

Good.

Lift the arms and then move into Warrior Two Exhale and lunge.

Good.

Feeling a lift through the shoulders.

Press back through your left foot.

Now lean over and rest your forearm onto your thigh.

Sweep the right arm over your head, and you can just stretch through that arm, turn your abdomen.

Keep your back leg as your balanced leg, the one that's supporting the pose and angle your finger down.

Stay in your lunge and lift back through Warrior Two coming up.

Breathe.

Good.

And then inhale.

Rise up out of the pose and step your feet back to parallel.

Shake out your hands.

Shake out your legs, and then walk to the front end of your mat one more time.

Sit down on your mat.

And keeping your feet planted and your knees bent.

Hold onto your legs, tone your abdomen and then slowly, slowly roll down, roll down, roll down.

Once you reach the mat, hug your knees into your body.

Hold on to your knees and press the low back into the floor.

And go ahead and move your feet a few times.

Good now keeping your right leg into your body.

Lower your left foot with the knee bent and pause pulling that right leg in perhaps a little bit deeper.

Going into Half Happy Baby Pose.

So now reach up with your hands and hold the sole of your foot.

Pulling the heel back so it's above your knee.

Press down with your hands, but push up with your leg to tone the hamstring.

Enjoy the breath.

Soften your jaw.

And it's how you do it.

So it's finding the yoga of your face.

Good.

And then release and change sides.

So hugging your left knee into your chest, pull it in.

Feel that lower back stretching out.

And then lifting your foot toward the ceiling.

Now you can hold the foot like Tom is showing right here, or you could hold the back of the knee.

So bend the knee down into your chest, hands behind the knee as opposed to on the foot, so you can move your hand here.

Good.

Now if that feels too easy, just put your hands back up on your foot and that will be fine.

Allow the hip to settle.

Allow your spine to settle.

Good.

And then release.

Put that foot down on the floor.

Walk your feet apart, about as wide as your side hips.

We're going into Bridge Pose, a gentle back bend.

So bend your elbows next to your waist.

Pull your shoulders back.

Press your head back into the floor as well.

And then using your head and your arms, lift the hips off the floor.

Good.

Now, you can also use a block to modify this turning its block to its medium height.

You could slide the block underneath the pelvis and then just lower the pelvis down onto the block.

Make sure it's across the thick part of your pelvis and not resting on your spine.

The focus here in Bridge Pose whether you're using a prop or not, is to get into your upper back much more.

Keep your chin slightly lifted so you're not flattening the back of your neck.

And then inhale, lift up and go back down clearing that block.

Good.

Take a deep breath.

Hug both of your knees to your chest.

Once your knees are into your chest, rock a little side to side and move both of your feet, spreading your toes and turning your feet into circles.

Good.

Now plant your feet back onto the mat.

Walk your feet apart as wide as your mat is and your arms are out to the side.

Now lower your knees to the right side of your mat and spread your toes.

This is called Windshield Wiper pose, you want to maintain a gentle curve in the low back.

And if your knees feel okay, in this rotated position, you can lift your right foot and rested on top of your left knee.

This is a great stretch for the side of your hip, the i-t band and a good little rotation across the lower and the middle back.

Take a deep breath and feel yourself elongate out from the heart through your fingers, and notice any tension you may be holding across the face or even into the brow.

To come out of the pose, uncross your foot, inhale, pull the legs back to center.

Take a deep breath, and let's go to the second side.

So lower your knees to the left.

To help with the knees, work your toes.

And then lifting the left foot across that right knee if that's appropriate for you.

Good shoulders are back.

Close the eyes if that feels delightful for you and just feel that expansion of the breath, the in and the out.

Your gifts that you give to the world, the awareness that you're bringing to this day.

Uncross the foot.

Inhale, bring the legs back up to the middle and hug both of your knees back into your body.

With your legs into your body, rock side to side and feel yourself massage across the mid and the lower back and now sliding your hands behind the back of your knees.

As you inhale, lift your feet toward the ceiling.

And as you exhale, lower down.

Inhale and lift and exhale down.

Good.

Inhale and lift.

And exhale down.

Plant your feet and take your right foot across your left leg.

Open the leg out to the side.

Good.

Now you can reach through your legs and hold on to the back of your left leg here or just simply keep your left foot on the floor.

Create that lumbar curve in your low back.

Take a deep breath, opening the hip and then release.

Take that foot down and change sides of crossing your left over your right.

Reach through the legs if that's the appropriate place for you to be.

Enjoy your breath.

Keep your ankles working in that lumbar curve in your lower back and you'll feel that in your hips much more.

And then lower the foot to the mat.

Uncross the leg, hug both of your knees back into your chest.

Slip your hands behind your knees, stretch your feet toward the ceiling and pause.

Good lower the arms down beside your body.

And we're going to take our legs to the floor.

So lower one leg at a time, both legs together or you could just simply bend your knees and place your feet down.

So exhale as you come down.

Once your legs reach the mat, shake your legs apart from each other.

Good.

And then take your arms out to the side.

Turn your palms up.

Rest your head back and close your eyes.

Pay attention to your hands in this pose that you're relaxing your fingers so the fingers just naturally curl in.

Pay attention just to the easiness of your breath and the weight of your body.

Try to relax that tension that you may feel in certain places, maybe your hips, your jaw, your forehead.

Enjoy the weightiness of your body.

I've learned that people will forget what you said.

People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

So stay in this pose for as long as you would like today.

Don't rush and decide to bring your practice with you.

However, when you are ready to come to seated, bend your knees slowly.

Roll to your right side.

pause, take another breath and then using your arms, push your hands into the floor and walk yourself upright into a seated position.

Come to a good seat.

So, if you'd like to use a blanket under your hips, bring that with you.

And then join your hands together and vow to yourself to carry your practice with you into this day with your gifts and your talents.

Thank you for practicing Namaste.

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

Download the SCETV app now and watch Yoga In Practice with Stacy Millner-Collins on demand.