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

♪ ♪ >> Hi, I'm Stacey Millner-Collins.

Welcome to Yoga In Practice.

Joining our class today are Jacqueline and Daniele.

Please sit well, and as you close your eyes bring awareness to how you are feeling today.

Focus on your breath for a few moments.

During the upheavals of life recently, I have found it deeply comforting to engage in the nourishing activities of daily life.

I have stuck closer to home like many of us, and find it's these basics that have kept me grounded, taking walks outside, nestling into a sofa to read or watch a movie, cooking meals and playing with my grandchildren.

Tending to and caring for these fundamental roots of daily life reminds me of what is truly important, and in doing so, has created an inner resiliency to hopefully face future uncertainties.

Let's grow some roots today.

So slowly open your eyes.

You will need a strap, a blanket and perhaps a block for this sequence.

Come to standing and clear any props you have currently on your mat.

Plant your feet beneath your hips.

Spread your toes.

Root down, and as you root down, feel this rising energy up through the rest of your body, staying grounded but opening to what is.

Simply enjoy the way you feel standing and breathing.

Now moving with our breath, inhale.

Lift your arms up.

And as you exhale, release.

Take your time.

Inhale, rise.

(deep breath) And exhale, release.

One more time, inhale, lift.

(deep breath) And as you lower, reach out through your fingertips.

And then inhale.

Lift your arms overhead.

Exhale.

Fold forward into uttanasana.

Pause and breathe.

Now you could fold here with your hands lifted up onto a block or place your hands against the front of your shins.

As you inhale, lift halfway forward, just lengthen out.

Good.

Now bend your left knee, keeping both heels grounded, root back through your right thigh bone.

Take your right hand to the side of your hip and twist slowly to the right side.

The left knee remains bent and as you turn extending, please raise your right hand toward the ceiling.

And just feel how you are stretching your right leg much more, keeping the feet grounded.

Breathe.

And then take this hand back to your mat.

Change sides.

So, bend your right knee.

Push back through your left hamstring.

Hook your hand to your hip.

Elongate through your spine as you rotate to the left and open your hand to the ceiling.

Breathe here.

(deep breaths) And then exhale.

Sweep your hand back to the mat.

Inhale, lift halfway.

Bring your hands to your hips and pulling up with your shoulders.

Tone your abdomen.

Root through the legs, grounding and then rise up to mountain.

Lower your hands.

Inhale.

Lift your arms overhead.

(deep breath) Interlace your fingers.

Turn your palms toward the ceiling.

Extend as you hug your arms closer to your ears.

Keep the top of your thighs and the side of your waist strong back and push your tailbone down.

Now lower your arms in front of your chest.

Lower your chin slightly and extend out through your hands opening some space in your upper back.

And as you guide your ribs back, open space in your mid back.

Inhale.

Lift your arms back overhead.

Keep your hands locked together but turn your palms into each other.

It's fine to extend your index finger toward the ceiling as you squeeze your palms.

Exhale, lean to the right.

This is Crescent Pose.

Stay deeply grounded through your feet.

Keeping your hips and your shoulders squared forward.

Stretch through your elbows and open your waistline.

Inhale.

Rise back up.

(deep breath) and as you exhale, lean to the left.

Try to hug your hands together extending the feeling the ground beneath your feet push more deeply into your legs to keep that grounded quality, that rooted quality, reminding yourself of the basics.

Inhale.

Lift to center.

Exhale.

Lower your arms out to the side.

(deep breath) Again, raise your hands again.

(deep breath) And exhale, lower.

(deep breath) One more time, inhale.

(deep breath) And exhale.

(deep breath) Good.

Shake out your hands, roll your shoulders back, and then take a wide stance across your mat.

How wide you go depends on you on your flexibility as well as your strength.

If you're too wide, you'll feel unstable.

However, if you're too narrow, you're going to feel jammed up.

So find the place where you need to be today and make sure your feet are parallel.

Spread your toes, and then draw your lower legs towards each other toning through the inner thighs.

With your hands on your hips, pull your shoulders onto your back and then slowly hinge forward.

You can stay here with your hands against your legs, or you could take a block again and place it underneath your hands.

Or if it's possible, touch the floor all the way down and fold between your legs.

This is prasarita padottanasana.

It's a wonderful way to open your hips.

Keep your lower leg squeezing in but try to widen your inner thighs apart from one another Elongate out and keep your left hand on the block or on the mat and take your right hand to your hip.

Lengthen and then rotate to the right one more time.

Raise your right arm.

Now as you twist to the right here, avoid letting your left hip dip down.

So try to keep your pelvis neutral and even with each other.

And then exhale.

Sweep your right hand back down.

Take a breath and change sides, hooking your left hand to your hip.

Twist to the left, turning from the back of your waistline.

Broaden your right inner thigh and hip as you stretch your left hand toward the ceiling.

Now extend your arms pushing and just create some opening across your heart.

Enjoy the breath.

And then release and take your hands down.

Good.

With your hands remaining on the block or on the floor, please turn your toes out to a 45 degree angle pointing toward the corners of your mat.

Now lunge over to your right leg.

Inhale, back and lunge over to your left leg, keeping your knee wide.

Good.

Inhale and exhale.

Opening through the inner thighs.

Come back up, and exhale.

Good.

One more.

Both sides.

Come up.

Lunge over to your right knee.

Inhale and back to the left.

Last time.

Good.

Come to center.

Turn your feet parallel.

So make sure your middle foot is even with the side of your mat and lift your hands to your hips.

Pulling your shoulders up.

Inhale.

Rise to standing and then step your feet together.

Good.

Shake your knees.

Shake your feet.

Shake out your hands.

Good.

Clear your block if you used one and pick up a blanket instead.

We're going to do a seated forward fold here.

So it often helps to sit up on a blanket particularly if you're tight through your lower back, your hamstrings or your hips.

So sit down and have a strap nearby that you can reach easily without coming off of your mat.

Good.

Hold in.

Lift your chest up and then take your left leg, extend it forward and position your right foot against your inner thigh.

Squeeze your legs into each other.

So again, the shins hugging in and feel like you're widening your inner thighs.

Hold that engagement.

Place your hands behind you Lift your spine and then exhale, fold forward.

Now you may need to stay more upright or you may actually need to fold your blanket a little bit thicker.

You can take your strap, wrap it around your left foot.

Tug on the strap and keep a nice long spine.

Squeezing in, use your breath and just let yourself come down.

This is a half forward fold.

It's called Ardha paschimottanasana.

It's a nice way just to keep your hips, even your shoulders level and extending and stretching across your low back.

(deep breaths) With your inhale, come back up (deep breath) and slide your right leg forward.

Bend your left knee.

Position the sole of that foot against your inner thigh.

Squeeze in.

Root through the thighs.

Lift through the spine and fold forward.

Spread your toes.

(deep breaths) Let your breath be what's guiding you into this pose.

It's just the basics and with yoga, the difference between just merely stretching and doing yoga is that the breath guide you here.

You don't overdo, when you're practicing yoga, you just listen to how the body is feeling.

You remember the basics and you remember what is nourishing you.

(deep breaths) As you inhale, come back up.

Good.

Slide your legs out.

And change again.

Stretch your left leg forward, bending your right knee, pull your right leg back.

And this pose is called janu sirsasana.

I opened my knee further back, but you can go back to that pose we just did.

Put your hands behind you lift and refresh your spine.

And this pose has a little twist to it.

So bringing your hand to the inside, twist your abdomen to the left, line up your torso as much over your left leg as you can, and then bend over.

Good.

Again, a strap can come in handy here wrapping it around your foot.

Or if you have the ability, with your right hand, reach down and try to hold the outside of your left foot.

Now if that's too much, you could also hold the lower leg, pull up slightly backing out of your pose.

And now shift your abdomen over to the left more.

And once you've shifted your abdomen to the left, reach out and fold.

Try to bring your head to your knee which is the name of this pose, janu sirsasana.

Keep your hips grounded.

Keep hugging in even though your foot is not against your inner thigh.

The energy is drawing you in, towards the middle of your legs.

As you inhale, come up.

Good work.

Release.

Stretch your right leg forward.

Shake out your knees and then change sides.

So bending your left knee, pull that left knee way back, push down refresh the curves of your back, twist to the right lining up your torso and reach forward.

Either use a strap, put your hand on your lower leg.

Or if you can hold your foot, find that and then just bow.

Keep sliding your abdomen across to the right and it's that action of moving your abdomen to the right, the rotation you feel through your torso that helps you to open your lower back more easily.

Spread your toes, balance your shoulders.

And once again, let the breath be what moves you here in this pose.

Good.

With your inhale, come back up to seated.

Good.

Shake out both legs and we'll come into seated bound angle pose.

So you're going to touch the soles of your feet together.

Once your feet are touching, if you're still up on that blanket, make sure it's underneath your hips fully.

Wrap your hands around your ankles.

Pull up.

And now just lengthen your inner thighs towards your inner knees and try to press your leg to your mat a little bit more deeply.

You can lean forward.

So this is just meant to help you get into your inner leg, your groins.

Fold over as much as you are able.

Bow to yourself.

(deep breaths) And then inhale.

Rise back up to seated.

Good.

Keeping your legs wide, take your right foot, slide it out.

Take your left foot, and slide it out.

This pose, this wide legged pose, sometimes if you're sitting on the floor and you don't often sit up on height, this particular pose you may need just a little bit of height.

It's just the angle of your legs into your hips.

So now firm up your leg muscles.

So I've just toned my legs, my thighs are strong.

Press your inner thighs toward the mat, your inner knee, your inner calves and keep your toes pointing directly to the ceiling.

Firming that up, place your hands in front of you.

Now draw your low back in and then hinge forward and just keep coming forward as much as you can.

Try not to round from your spine here.

You're definitely bending from your hips as you do this and you're holding on to the grounded engaged quality of your leg muscles.

If you can go further down, I invite you into that position and holding your feet.

Keep in mind, I often say this in my classes that how deep you can go in a hip opener has nothing to do with your character.

You're still a good person, even if your hips are tight.

So don't push.

Just listen.

Feel the breath.

And just remember this practice is all about feeling grounded and rooted.

So stay with that.

As you inhale, push yourself back up.

Good.

Keep your feet wide.

Line up your shoulders over your hips, and then sweep your arms up overhead.

(deep breath) Strong legs, so when you lift your hands off the floor, your legs need to do a little bit more work.

Take your right hand, lower it down and slide it across to your left leg and lean to your right.

And then inhale.

Come up.

(deep breath) And change directions.

Left hand across.

Exhale across to your left leg.

Inhale, pull up.

Exhale to the right, just warming up the side body.

Inhale (deep breath) and exhale.

(deep breath) One more time.

Inhale, both sides.

And exhale.

Check are your legs still engaged.

It's very easy to lose the power of your leg muscles when you do this.

Final side, go to your left.

Reach out...and then come up both arms overhead.

Take a deep breath.

(deep breath) Good.

Let's go to the right.

And this time we're going to hold to the right.

So reaching over perhaps you decide to stay more upright in that spine.

Wherever you are, anchor into your left thigh and your left sit bone.

If you can go over and find your foot, do that.

You can also wrap a strap around your right foot and just hold on to that strap with your left hand, Squeeze in.

So imagine what we were doing a few minutes ago when we were standing.

Hugging your shins toward one another, feel your inner thighs widen.

On your inhale, lift back up both arms over your head stretch up.

(deep breath) Good.

And then release.

Go to the left side.

Slide your hand over.

Reach.

Decide how far you can go.

And let your breath carry you there.

Now the key with this pose, Parsva upavistha konasana, is you want to stay grounded in the hip that you're leaning away from.

So definitely anchor your right thigh, your right sit bone and just open through your waistline and breathe.

Good, and then inhale, rise back up.

(deep breath) And exhale, lower your hands.

(deep breath) Take your hands underneath your knees and slowly bring your legs back to the front of your mat and shake out your legs.

Good.

Now if you're up on a blanket, we're going to use the blanket again.

So come off of the blanket for a moment.

Unfold your blanket and you're going to fold it a little bit higher.

So I fold my blanket into thirds.

So what I'm left with is a long thicker blanket.

I'd like you to place this blanket behind you.

We're going into heroes pose which is a nice thigh and groin and low back stretch.

So come up and kneel in front of your blanket.

The blanket is between your lower legs, not your knees.

So make sure your knees are fairly close together, and then open your feet apart.

Spread your feet out.

And then using your fingers, reach behind both of your knees.

Take hold of your calf muscle.

Flatten your calf back towards your heels and sit down on the blanket.

Clear your fingers.

Now if you go to sit down and you don't touch the blanket, if you still need more height, put another blanket or perhaps a block under your hips.

Hug your heels against your outer thighs and bring your fingertips right behind you.

Now lift your chin.

Raise your chest and you can stay more up right like Jacqueline is showing or just journey down.

So coming down slowly down onto your elbows, if that's possible.

If you can go down that far, can you lie down onto your back?

We'll just see how Daniele is doing here.

Breathe.

(deep breath) This is a go to pose for lower back.

You'll feel the back bend but make sure you're still tucking your tailbone and that your toes are turned out slightly.

Feel your hips pressing down to the grounded quality of this is through the inner thighs and breathe.

(deep breath) Good.

With your inhale, slowly, slowly come up.

If you are lying down like Daniele is doing, prop yourself up onto your elbows.

Walk up slowly.

Come into kneeling so we're still on the blanket.

And I'd like you to lean forward.

Hinge right from your hips and bow to yourself, trying to create some of this fluency between going backwards and going forwards.

Enjoy your breath.

(deep breaths) Good.

And then inhale, come up and clear your blankets from underneath you.

Come in to table position on your hands and knees.

Good.

Look up and arch your back.

And exhale round.

Good.

Inhale, look up.

And exhale, round.

And one more time.

Inhale.

(deep breath) And exhale.

(deep breath) Good look forward.

Flatten your feet and sit backward onto your heels and just stretch forward.

One more time... reaching out.

Inhale.

Raise your chest.

Extend your legs out in front of you and slide forward toward the front end of your mat.

We're going to lie down on our back.

So have plenty of mat space behind you.

Planting the feet, hold your legs and roll down very slowly.

When you're all the way down, hug your knees into your chest and pause.

And as you hug your knees, settle into the low back, you can move your feet a few times here, spread your toes, turn your feet in circles.

Good, and then release the feet back to the mat with the knees bent and open your arms sideways.

So if you have any props in your way, clear that out, open your arms.

And now slide your hips to the right side of your mat and cross your right leg directly over your left leg.

Hook together.

Keeping your legs together, exhale and lower your legs across to the left side of your mat.

Look up toward the ceiling.

Keep your right shoulder, right elbow anchored and your lower back drawing in but toning across the front of your abdomen, not letting your ribs poke up toward the ceiling.

Breathe.

(deep breath) Sometimes it's just holding these poses, these wonderful rotations that can do a lot of benefit for our spine, our digestion, (silence) and then inhale, come back up.

Good.

Uncross.

Slide your hips to the left.

Cross your left leg on your right leg and hook together.

Exhale, lower both legs to the right.

(deep breaths) Pressing your head into the floor.

Keep your shoulders anchored down.

Soften your gaze.

Even close the eyes if that's appropriate for you.

Breathe.

Enjoy this nice elongation through the whole side of your body and keeping your low back arched.

On your inhale, bring the legs back to center.

Once your legs come to center, uncross your knees, shift your hips back to the middle of your mat.

And then how your knees once again back into your body.

Good.

Rock side to side.

And then sliding your hands underneath your knees, raise your feet toward the ceiling.

Spread your toes open, and try to challenge yourself by lifting your big toe toward the ceiling, your little toe.

Good.

Now sweep your arms over your head and then lower your right leg toward the mat and it's going to go all the way down.

Once it touches your mat let the left leg come down, take a deep breath, lengthen your whole body.

Separate your feet as wide as your mat and shake your legs and then sweep your arms down next to your body.

Turn your palms up and open and make little adjustments so that you feel comfortable and balanced grounded and rooted.

Close your eyes.

(silence) This is the most basic of all the poses but also the most profound.

So stay here and simply enjoy your breath.

♪ music ♪ Let the beauty we love, be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Enjoy this sense of being in your body grounded, rooted and take time here.

When you're ready to come out of the pose, however, just gently start to move your fingers, your toes.

Please bend your legs, plant your feet ♪ and roll to your side.

♪ Once you're on your side, press your hands into the floor Inhale.

Walk yourself back up right to seated and sit well.

♪ Join your hands to your heart.

May you enjoy the simple things today.

Namaste.

♪ music ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ 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 Miller-Collins on demand ♪ ♪