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

♪ soothing music ♪ ♪ Hi.

Welcome to Yoga in Practice.

My name is Stacey Millner-Collins.

Beginning in a chair, sit well by sliding forward to the front edge of your seat.

Place your feet underneath your knees and elongate your spine and rest your hands comfortably on your legs.

Gently close your eyes.

Have you noticed how some days you can feel stuck, or bored, as if you are simply muddling through life?

A word to describe this feeling is languishing.

To shift out of these ruts, we need motivation.

If you don't know where to begin, a good place to start is by reflecting on what matters to you most, what provides you with a sense of well-being, and what grounds your energy and then go do that.

The more we get going, the easier it becomes.

So, let's begin.

Please open your eyes.

Joining us today are Linda and Melanie.

Please lower your hands beside your hips.

Press down through your feet and your hips and lift up through your spine.

Gently shake your hands.

Once you're shaken your hands Move your wrist a few times.

Good!

Now, inhale.

Raise your arms out to the side.

Lift them overhead.

And then when you exhale, release the arms back down to the side next to the chair.

Follow your breath here.

Inhale.

Lift.

And exhale.

Lower.

Move in relation to your breath.

Not too fast.

Inhaling.

But not too slowly, either.

It is through our breath that we can really energize our body.

Inhale.

And exhale.

Let's do it one more time.

Inhale.

Please raise your arms And then keep your arms lifted overhead.

Pull up through your spine.

Tone your abdomen and pause.

Simply enjoy your breathing.

Feeling this lifting and opening of your spine.

As you exhale, lower your left hand to the edge of your chair.

Leaning to the left, bring that right arm over your ear.

as you bend to the side.

Feel your right hip and right foot remain grounded.

and try to keep your head drawn back So your shoulders remain level.

Enjoy your breath and energize your body.

As you inhale, rise back up.

and change sides.

lower your right hand to the edge of the chair.

Pull up through your spine and bend to the right.

Keeping a nice long extension of that lifted arm, Enjoy your breath.

Shoulders level.

And then inhale.

Rise back to the middle.

Lifting both arms up.

Then exhale, lower the arms slowly, coming all the way down.

Take a deep breath.

Let it go.

Now, roll your shoulders backward a few times Just nice slow action here Warming up the side of your neck.

the upper back muscles, the places where we tend to get tight.

Good and then release and shake your hands again.

Lift your right leg now, holding on to the front of the shin.

Pull up toward that leg so you're remaining long through your spine.

I'd like you to move your ankle a few times in a circle.

And then interlace your hands underneath this right leg.

and press your thigh down against your hand so you feel the spine rise up a little bit more fully.

You can keep your knee bent just holding here, or stretch the foot forward slowly out.

Perhaps you can get it all the way even to the floor, For a hamstring stretch, the back of your legs.

Just keep breathing here.

Enjoy the breath, a full breath in and out.

Now, point and flex the ankle.

So just reaching out, feel your shin and then pressing flex.

Good, now keep your leg extended, and release the heel to the floor in front of you.

Shift your hands over to your left leg Pull up through the spine and then hinge forward from your hips.

Keeping your ankle flexed for a moment, press that heel down into the floor and you should feel the back of your leg open a bit more.

Now lower your toes toward the floor here and just hold this getting a nice stretch across the front of your ankle up the front of the shin bone.

On your inhale, lift back up to seated.

Plant your feet.

Take a breath.

And let's do the second side.

So raising your left knee, pull it up towards your chest.

Good.

Holding there, move your ankle in circles.

Now interlace your fingers underneath the hamstring and pressing your leg down into your hands.

Inhale and stretch your foot forward and maybe you don't go all the way but perhaps you can.

The key here is just lifting upward through your spine, feeling that you're reaching through the crown of your head.

Good.

Now point to flex the ankle slowly.

I love this.

I love how it feels on the front of my shin.

How it moves my calves.

Good.

Now keep your leg extended and release the foot all the way down to the floor.

Good.

Place your hands on your opposite leg and hinging right from your hips.

Lean forward so you're feeling the back of your leg stretching out.

Now I invite you to lower your toes down to the floor.

And again, feel that stretch moving up your shin bone.

Keep the spine long, soften your face and enjoy the breathing.

Good.

Inhale, release, come back to seated.

Planting your feet, take another deep breath and just remind yourself as to what matters to you.

Good.

Let's walk our feet apart.

So take your feet out.

Turn your toes wide and make sure you're still on the edge of your seat with your hands on the midpoint of your thigh.

Please draw your shoulders back and then hinge forward.

Now you can stop at any point here.

So maybe just go forward a couple of inches.

Or perhaps you can go further down, coming down bringing your hands to the mat, bringing your head down and completely releasing the neck.

Press through your feet, and feel grounded into the chair with your hips.

Enjoy your breath through your lower back.

Good, now you can intensify this pose by either clasping your hands around your back and lifting the arms up.

Or if you're more seated like Linda is doing, reach around and hold the back of the chair.

In this pose, you're opening your chest, energizing the muscles of the upper back.

Now deepen your breath into that stretch.

And then release your hands.

Pull your chest back up and bring your hands to the midpoint of your thigh.

Keep a nice long spine.

Inhale, rise to seated.

Good.

Once you're seated, step your feet back in, and let's turn to the right side of your chair.

Sit on the edge of the chair with your right thigh and hold the back of the chair for balance and support.

Take your left knee and bring it directly under your hips, so your thigh is stretching here.

Add a gentle tuck and you should feel the midpoint of your thigh stretching more.

Now you can walk this foot further back just as much as your hips and your legs allow for.

Hold the chair and now raise your left hand in front of you.

Stop with your left hand parallel to the floor if you have a shoulder injury, but if you're fine with your shoulder, go ahead and sweep this arm up overhead.

And then lift up through your arm.

So you feel this nice opening along the front of your hip, your thigh even into the belly.

Bend your elbow and hold the back of your head and then press your head backward looking up toward the ceiling.

Keep a nice long neck and cultivate more of a back bended pose in this position.

Lifting and breathing.

Remember, don't ever hold your breath.

Good, and now raise this arm up, and then release it back down and slide your left leg forward and remain seated to the side of your chair.

Good.

Taking your hands to the back of your chair, twist to the right side.

Now take your head and look over your left shoulder.

Just working these neck muscles.

Maintain your balance here so you're not leaning too far back.

Breathe, throat open and keep your eyes steady.

Enjoy that deep full breath.

And then as you inhale, release, turn back to the center.

Let's change sides.

So turn and face the left side of the chair.

Make sure you get settled, the left thigh remaining on your chair and your hand on the back edge.

Slide your right leg behind you.

Good.

Position the knee beneath your hip and then just start to inch that leg back as much as you are able to.

Sweep your right arm out in front of you, and you can hold here, pulling the shoulder blade onto your back.

Inhale, sweep the arm up and see how far you can get your right leg to stretch back.

So if you have that flexibility, try for that.

Now raise up through your right hand, feeling the opening, come along your spine, lean the head back a little bit.

Enjoy the breath.

Now bend your elbow, put your hand right behind your head and supporting your head.

Curl the head back.

Good.

Creating more of a back bend.

Keep that tucking action with your hips.

So you're feeling your right thigh stretching.

Good.

And that lift the arm back up, Inhale.

Exhale, take the hand back to your thigh, and then slide your leg forward and come to seated and hold the back edge of your chair.

Good.

Holding the edge of the chair, create the rotation through your back body.

And then turn your head and look over your right shoulder.

Try to keep your shoulder lifted on that right side it wants to drop down.

So you want to keep your shoulders even with each other.

Now direct your breath into your back body.

Enjoy that.

Good.

Inhale.

Release, and turn forward.

Good.

Once you are forward, plant your feet beneath your knees and place your hands on the mid thigh.

Have your feet slightly forward.

We're going into a series of semi squats here.

So I want you to feel balanced with your hands on your thighs.

Lift your hips off the chair and pause in a squat.

Keep your shoulders back.

And now sit back down onto the chair.

Take a breath.

And let's do it again.

Inhale, lift back up and hold.

And then exhale, sit down.

Once more, inhale, lift and hold.

This is good for the strength of your legs.

And then exhale, sit back down.

And we'll do it one final time.

Inhale, come up.

Hold this one and shift your hands around your knees.

Holding on to the knees, pick your chest up and create more of a back bended position here.

Now round your back, Exhale.

Tuck to a cat position.

And then as you inhale, look up, raise your chin open to a backbend, and then exhale, round again.

Enjoy that stretching action across your mid and lower back.

Inhale look up.

And one more time, Exhale and round.

Inhale, look up.

Take your hands out in front of you.

Pressing through your feet rise to standing.

Inhale.

and lower your arms out to the side.

Exhale.

Inhale, lift your arms and exhale.

Lower.

And one more time.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Good.

Let's move to palm pose, which is a balancing pose.

So if you need to move next to your chair or behind your chair, keeping your hands on the chair that will help with this pose.

So with your hands down beside your hips unless you're holding the chair.

Inhale, raise your heels.

And now lift your arms.

This palm pose works on balancing strength of the legs, and then exhale, try to lower your arms and your heels exactly at the same moment.

We'll do that twice more.

Inhale, follow your breath.

And exhale, come back down.

And again, inhale, lift up.

And exhale, come back down.

Good, shake out your hand, shake out your knees.

Good.

Facing your chair.

So you may want to turn your chair so you have plenty of mat space behind you.

The seat is facing you.

And then walk away from the chair approximately two feet to sort of depending on your height, bend your knees and slide your hands down your legs sort of the squat we were doing a moment ago.

Looking at the chair, place your hands on the edge of the chair.

Now you want a nice long back here.

So try not to round your back, but getting this curvature in your lower spine.

To intensify this pose, walk your hands toward the back edge of the chair itself and release your head down between your arms.

Your knees remain bent here at first.

And I want you just to work on this stretching action in your shoulders in your upper back.

So as you press your hands into the chair, feel your arms, lifting a little bit the underside of the arm.

So you're raising more from the armpit region of your arm.

Good now if you can stretch your legs a little straighter, try for that.

Just as long as your spine isn't moving maintain the lumbar curve in your lower back.

Good.

And now walk your hands back to the edge of the chair.

Enjoy your breath.

Good.

Exhale to a squat.

Place your hands on your knees.

And now round your back into a cat position.

And then look up and arch your back and round again, tuck in and look up.

And one more time, Tuck in and look up.

Lift your hands out in front of you and raise to Mountain pose, come up, sweep your arms down to the side.

Move with your breath and roll your shoulders backward a few times.

That should feel very nice.

Let's do downward dog one more time.

So begin in a squat.

Slide your hands down and make sure you have enough distance between your body and the chair, and then place your hands on the chair.

Stay here or you can walk your hands further away from you deepening the stretch.

Arch the low back.

Now if you can stretch the legs a little bit straighter moving into your hips and hamstrings.

This is not normally the way you move.

So it is so good for your back and shoulders though.

So enjoy the energized posture.

Enjoy your effort.

Let your head come down.

Feel the underside of the arms lift up.

Stretch all the way through your spine.

Good, and then walk your hands back to the edge of the chair.

Bend your knees slightly.

Inhale.

Lift to mountain.

Exhale, lower your hands.

Good.

Walk a little bit closer to the chair.

Keeping your right foot planted on the ground, lift your left foot up onto the seat of the chair.

Now you can just stay here this is helping you with balance.

Looking straight ahead keep your eyes on a non moving point, chest lifted.

If you'd like to deepen yourself a little bit, you can lift the left knee holding on to the shin bone and pulling up.

If this causes any discomfort in your knee, however, you could also interlace your hands underneath the hamstring, like we did earlier.

The key here is just to work on your balancing.

Try to hold for 10 seconds.

And then step your feet together come into mountain pose.

And let's do the second side.

So plant your left foot, raise your right foot up onto the chair.

Get steady, eyes steady and feel your breath moving.

Good.

Now lifting the foot if that's possible for you or you can just keep your foot on the chair as Linda is demonstrating.

Good.

Enjoy your breaths.

Try to hold for 10 seconds.

Enjoy.

And then exhale, and step back down.

Enjoy your breath.

Mountain Pose.

Pause, close your eyes.

Deepen your breath.

Feel your feet grounded your energy grounded and enjoying just this gentle movement in your body to energize you.

Good, open your eyes.

And let's bring your chair back to the middle of the mat.

Please sit down on your chair.

And remember be at the front edge of your chair.

Planting your feet beneath your knees.

Sit up nice and tall and take your right ankle Lift it and cross it over your left knee, flexing the ankle.

Now the right thigh is going to press down.

So you're going to feel the stretch more in the outer right hip.

Placing your left hand against the sole of your foot if you can.

Lean forward.

Now how far you go forward really depends on your own flexibility in your hip and across your low back.

Try to keep your shoulders level with each other, the shoulder blades gently lifted onto your back so you're not rounded over.

If you round over in any pose, you'll tend to close off the breath and compromise the spine.

So just try to keep that nice long extension here and breathe.

Inhale, raise back to the middle.

Step that foot down and change sides.

So bringing your left foot up.

Notice any differences.

Does one side feel tighter than the other?

Pressing that left leg down.

Pull up elongating through your waistline again, draw your shoulders back and if it's possible, hinge forward.

Enjoy the pose.

Enjoy your breath.

This posture is so very important if you do a lot of sitting and if your legs and hips are tight, opening this external hip rotator is very healthy for your low back.

So try to do this pose a little bit every day either at your desk or seated in a dining room chair, wherever you can open the hip.

As you inhale, come back up to the middle.

And step that foot down.

Good.

Shake out your hands.

And then take a wide stance, sustain on the front of your chair.

Open your feet out to the side.

Good.

Hands on the mid thigh, lift up through the back and then hinge right forward between your inner thighs.

Again, stay up if you can, or if possible bow forward.

folding over for a little deeper stretch across your mid and low back.

Lower your hands toward the floor.

Press into your feet.

And as you press into your feet, open your knees out and keep your hips grounded.

Now you can deepen the stretch again by clasping your hands around your low back or simply hold the back edge of the chair again, opening your chest.

Take three deep breaths.

Go a little bit deeper if possible.

Good.

With your next exhale, release the hands back to the floor.

Sweep out.

Bring your hands back to your thighs.

Inhale.

Rise up to seated.

Please step your feet together.

Place your feet directly beneath your knees.

Good.

Rest your hands comfortably and close your eyes.

The tendency when we get still in our practice is that we want to fidget.

We'll tend to wiggle our toes or move our fingers.

So I invite you to get very steady and still right here.

Begin to bring awareness just into the subtle sensations of your body.

Notice the touch of your feet on the floor, the weight of your hips on the chair.

The posture that you've created by lifting through the spine and keeping your head and your shoulders pulled back just a little bit.

You'll feel the breath just your natural breath in and out.

Now, begin to tone the muscles in the middle of your throat around your epiglottis.

It's like fogging up a window or a mirror.

Feel that constriction and then breathe in creating the same sound and breathe out.

Continue this but close your lips as you breathe in and out through your nose.

This breath pattern is called Ujjayi.

In the yoga tradition.

The word Ujjayi translates to mean triumphantly up rising or rising triumphantly.

And by giving your mind another sensation on which to focus, you can settle.

Keep this breath pattern moving.

Inhale.

And exhale.

Continue to enjoy your breath.

Feel the air touching your skin.

And maybe notice any places where you may be holding, tightness or tension.

See if you can relax those places.

Just bringing your mind right here into this moment.

It's by doing the simple things.

It's by starting we break out of the ruts.

Knowing what is important to us, noted, where we source our well being.

♪ When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

♪ So remain here for as long as you may need to today.

Decide to bring this practice with you this sense of peace and calm.

When you are ready, I invite you to slowly open your eyes and once your eyes are open drink in the light and the space around you and then fold your hands together.

May this practice encourage you to a deeper sense of well being today.

Namaste.

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