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

♪ [opening music] ♪ Hi!

My name is Stacey Welcome to Yoga In Practice.

I invite you to sit comfortably and close your eyes.

My dear mother-in-law, Mabel, passed away at nearly 102 years of age.

Before she passed I asked if she had any advice on how to live long and well.

Her words to me were, "“Plant a good garden.

"” There is so much wisdom in this statement.

Of course, it is important to put your hands in the Earth to feel more connected to nature.

to plant something, prune it, nourish it, watch it thrive.

To create beauty.

But these words also encourage us to cultivate a garden of beautiful souls a community, our family, and friends.

Like a well-tended garden this, too, takes time, care, patience, and love.

Please open your eyes and let's begin.

Joining us for our practice today are Ashley and Caroline.

Let's begin in Table position.

Come to your hands and knees.

Begin by planting your foundation.

Just making a strong connection into the earth, a strong connection into your breath.

Flatten your feet behind you.

Touch your feet together.

and spread your knees apart slightly opening some space.

As you exhale, sit backward slowly onto your heels and bow your belly down, your head down and touch the earth.

Relax your arms.

Enjoy the breath and just begin to deepen the breath here in child's pose, allowing the breath to nourish you the way that you would water a plant to nourish it to grow.. Use your breath to nourish you throughout our practice today.

Stay here in child's pose, but raise to your fingertips, keeping your fingertips pressing down walk both hands off to the right side of your mat.

and then broaden your left hip more to the left create space and room through the left side of your waist.

Pressing through the fingertips soften your eyes and expand the breasts so that you're opening the pose from within, using the breasts to do that.

Inhale.

Walk back to the middle.

Take a breath and then go to the left side.

Pushing over, broaden your hip over to the side.

Enjoy the breath.

Feel more connected to the moment Then inhale.

Walk your hands back to center.

Come to table position.

Pausing here in table, tuck your toes I'd like you to move your right shoulder to your right hip.

Just broaden.

And do the same thing Move your left shoulder over to your left hip.

Good.

And then come back to table position.

Walk your hands out in front of you for puppy pose.

Again beginning with strongly planted hands to build strength from your hands up into your shoulders And then race to your fingertips pressing down.

As you root the hands, feel the arms rise up, lifting your shoulder blades onto your back.

Make sure you keep a full breath into the back of your body, opening room through the back of the waist.

And then lower your hands back down.

Walk slowly into table position.

Take a breath in.

Let yourself settle, connecting.

Look up.

Arch the back.

Lift your chin and take downward facing dog.

Stretch out.

In this first downward dog just pause and allow the breath to open you.

And enjoy how this full body pose helps to open your muscles slowly.

So, feeling that you're stretching through your calves, your arms, your waist and then as you exhale, bring your knees back into table position.

Coming down.

Good.

Move into a twist.

Keeping your left hand grounded.

Raise your right arm out to the side.

Stretch a hand up to the sky and then slide your right hand over to the left and come down onto your right shoulder.

Rest your head on your mat and you can just push down into your left hand to deepen the rotation here.

Breathe into your back.

Soften the gaze.

and then inhale.

Slide back in and up.

Plant your hand.

Take a breath.

Second side.

Raise your left hand out.

Twist it open toward the sky and then thread the left hand through.

Coming down on your shoulder first and then your head.

Make sure that your shoulder is carrying most of your weight here.

And that your neck stays aligned with the rest of your back.

Enjoy the breath and open through your waistline.

Good.

As you exhale, take the hand, pull it back through and come into table position.

Plant the hands.

Tuck your toes.

Look up and arch the back.

Take your second downward facing dog.

Stretch out.

This time walk your feet apart as wide as your sticky mat, spreading your toes.

Push forward and down into the earth with your hands.

Bend your knees and spread the knees apart.

Reach up through your hips, feel you like you're blooming up higher through the back of your body and then slowly, slowly stretch their legs a little straighter, but cultivate patience here.

Take your time and don't try to overdo into the pose.

Just find which is the best pose for you right now.

As you look up to your hands, keeping your feet wide, walk forward.

Plant the feet.

Spread the toes and feel grounded.

Bow over, bringing your head down toward your legs.

Bend the knees if you need to, you can always place your hands on the front of your shins if you have to.

Lift half way forward Then coming into a squat, please bend your knees.

Rest your elbows across your thighs and sit back and feel grounded through your legs.

Lift the heart.

Good.

Take your hands around your knees.

Staying in the squat, pull your chest up.

Roll your shoulders open and then exhale and round into cat pose, tucking forward and then in.

Inhale and arch again.

Exhale and round.

Inhale.

Look up.

We'll do that one more time.

Exhale and round, stretching open through your back.

And come through the squat.

Press through the feet and sweep your arms out in front of you.

Inhale.

Rise to standing.

Good.

Keeping your arms overhead.

Join your palms together.

Interlace your fingers and extend your index finger toward the sky.

And walk your feet in beneath your sit bones.

Plant the feet.

Root down.

Rise up and as you exhale, bend to the right.

This is called crescent pose Just once again finding some length through the side of the body.

Feeling your shoulders open.

Try to keep your shoulders and hips level And then inhale.

Rise up.

Go to the second side.

Exhaling.

Hips level.

Shoulders level.

Just root down into your feet and notice how that helps you to open the side of your body more fully.

Inhale.

Rise back to the middle.

Bring your hands down to your hearts.

Take a deep breath and lower your arms.

So, for the rest of this sequence, you may need props like a blanket, a strap or a block.

Let's begin by picking up a blanket.

If you don't have a blanket, you could also use a thick towel, instead.

Place the blanket at the front of your mat.

You can always fold the blanket a little bit more deeply.

We're going to raise our heels up onto this blanket So stand in front of it.

Keep your feet sit bone distance apart and spread your toes here.

And then bend forward.

Exhale into Uttanasana and touch the mat.

Hugging in.

Relax your neck.

And then draw in your left hand across to your outer right calf.

Pull against that calf and slide your abdomen across to the right leg.

Lengthen the neck and feel how this is opening the left side of your lower back.

and then change.

Crossover.

Placing your right hand.

Slide your abdomen across, not really twisting, just sort of moving to the side to open the low back and then come back to center.

Bring your feet together into each other.

So, bring your heels and ankles in and hug strongly.

Good.

We're going to move into a squat Pause and squat.

Now, you can always rest your elbows across your thighs and just stay here in this squat.

But if you can, open your knees and squat down to your ankles.

This pose is called Malasana.

With your knees wide, bow your head and chest down.

Look back toward your ankles back toward your hips and breathe.

We'll transition this pose back up into a standing forward fold.

But the way you move into that standing forward fold is what is important here.

So, as you bow, press your hips back and up And do that just slowly back and up back and up, back and up.

Keep your chest toward your thighs.

Bow your head.

Keep your hands on the mat if you need extra support or place your hands behind your calves.

Holding onto your calves, lengthen down, moving your shins forward as you take your thighs backward If you brought your hands to your calves, release them.

Good.

Take a deep breath, ankle still hugging in.

And once again move into the squat.

Stop with your elbows on your legs if you need to or squatting all the way down, back into Malasana.

Arms between the legs, if you're in this pose and bow over.

And then inhale.

Release.

Come to seated on your mat.

We're going to come to seated and you may need a blanket that you can sit on.

So, adjust the blanket and if you are tighter in your hamstrings, hips or low back, you may need to fold the blanket into a higher position.

Slide back on your mat And extend your legs forward.

With your legs extended forward, flex the ankles.

Open your toes.

and draw your spine in.

Lift the waist, the legs pressed to the earth, the heart extends.

Just take your time.

Please raise your arms in front of your chest.

And from your fingertips drawback, pulling the arm bones into the shoulder joint.

This pose is called Dandasana.

It means a staff, like a staff that you use to walk Hold here.

If you can, raise your arms also over your shoulders.

Palms facing forward as you maintain the natural curve in your lower back.

Pull up.

So, notice this pose.

It resembles downward dog but from a seated position.

So imagine that you're in a downward dog here.

Notice how you can extend and lengthen.

As you exhale, bend forward.

Place your hands on your shins or you can reach down and hold your toes.

If you have a strap, a necktie, a towel available, press that around the balls of your feet.

Sitting upright is also a good modification here.

I want you just to work on how you're engaging your leg muscles, pressing the thigh bone towards your hamstring.

Breathing.

Now if you wish to intensify this pose, if you're more naturally open in it, you could also place a block at the soles of your feet.

Holding that block, push the block into your feet and lengthen forward even more.

Definitely find what is the best pose for you where you feel the most full in your posture.

As you inhale, rise up.

Good.

Clear your props.

Coming to seated join the soles of your feet together.

Hold on around your ankles.

Rise up.

Press the feet in against each other Lift your heels slightly.

Stay up right or if possible, extend forward, intensifying the pose.

Keep the breath nourishing your body Inhale.

Rise back to seated.

Good.

Let's do a twist.

So you can stay up on the blanket if you wish.

If you want to clear it, that's fine.

Please raise your knees together and sweep both of your feet off to the left.

Cradle your left shin into the arch of your right foot.

Sit up tall.

Tone the abdomen.

Then reaching your left hand across to your right knee, sweep around and twist to the right.

Turn through the head and breathe.

And then inhale.

Return back to center.

Pick your knees up and change directions.

Resting your right shin bone into your left foot, Rise up nice and tall and then taking your right hand across to your left knee, reach around and turn.

Begin this twist, low in the abdomen.

Take it across the waist, the chest and the last thing that turns is the head.

And now simply soften your gaze allowing your eyes to cast down, more toward the top of your cheek bone, focusing maybe on the tip of your nose.

As you inhale, return back to center.

Good.

Breathe.

Come up onto your knees and flatten your feet and sit down onto your heels.

And just bring your hands behind you, fingertips.

Lift and arch the back and look up.

Enjoy the breath.

Inhale.

Come back up to kneeling and then take your legs out nice and wide for Upavista Konasana.

You may need to change the height of your blanket here.

So, just the new position of your legs can change the relationship of your legs into your hips which will affect the low back.

Now, make your legs strong.

Flex your ankles and spread your toes open.

And make sure the second toe is pointing toward your ceiling.

Firming your legs, bring the hands behind you.

First, rise up.

You can stay seated Or if you wish, bow forward intensifying the pose.

Walk your hands out in front of you and enjoy that pose.

The whole time in this posture your lower legs are squeezing towards each other keeping the inner thighs firm, move your inner thighs toward the mat.

Breathe here nourishing your body then feel like you lengthen out through the spine reaching through the crown of your head.

Inhale.

Rise up to seated.

Remain on your height.

with your legs wide, re-engage the legs and then raise your left arm over your shoulder.

Stretch up.

Slide your right hand across to your left leg and just lean to the side.

This is Parsva Upavista Konasana.

Just a nice good stretch through the back.

If you're familiar with this pose, have that opening, you can reach down and hold the foot.

Twisting and open.

Put your head back a little bit and make sure you maintain weight on the left hip.

Inhale.

Rise up.

Change sides raising your left arm.

Exhale.

Go over.

Breathe.

Reaching for your left foot.

Hold the foot if you can.

Enjoy the breath.

Stay well anchored into your right hip here.

Let the head go back.

Open through the waist.

Enjoy the breath.

And then inhale.

Rise up.

Using your hands, grab your legs and pull them forward so their extended out in front of you and once again, we'll go into Paschimottansana with your legs extended strong, lift your arms.

raise them overhead and if possible, bow forward, reaching out.

Use a strap if you need to, a block if you wish The pose Paschi that means west.

And in yoga tradition, the back of your body is the west facing side of the pose.

I invite you to go more deeply by refining the work of the arms.

So, holding you can bend your elbows.

You can lift the arms up and then moving from the middle of your upper back, stretch forward more.

Pull your elbows forward.

And then inhale.

Rise up back to seated.

Take a deep breath.

Keeping your right leg forward, take your left knee bend it.

Sweep your leg out to the side.

You can modify this by keeping the left foot against your right inner thigh not opening your legs quite as wide but if you can, move that leg wide And make sure you keep your right foot engaged Good.

Take your left arm up and take it behind you.

Look at the hand.

Twist open to the side.

Good.

And now taking your right arm, bend the elbow and pull the elbow in towards the inner knee.

Raise your left arm over your head and extend.

So, if you need to, you could hold a strap around the right foot.

If you don't need a strap and have the flexibility.

Hold onto your right foot with both hands.

Lean into your right hip more heavily.

Twist your pose more open.

Gaze up toward the sky and re-anchor your left hip until you notice that left lower back opening out.

Inhale.

Rise up.

That's quite a pose.

Gets into that part of the back the a lot of poses don't.

Let's change sides.

So, have a strap ready if you need it.

Bend your right knee.

Open it out.

Find as much space as you are able to.

Using your strap to begin with you can always clear that strap.

If you have more experience in the pose without using the strap, just hold the foot with your left hand.

So whatever you need to bloom here, find that.

Please sit up tall, lifting both sides of your waist, shoulders back.

Take your right arm, extend it, stretch and now twist open.

Turning more and more and more.

Good keep that twist.

As you exhale, bend your left elbow.

Bring it down to the inside of your left knee.

Reach the arm up and over.

You can hold here or going deeper hold the strap with your right hand or hold the left foot with both hands.

Lean backwards slightly.

Then twist more fully.

Re-anchor your right hip and feel that stretch through the back.

So even if you're more up right in this pose you should be noticing that the right side of your back is opening in this posture.

As you inhale, rise back up to seated.

Enjoy your breath.

Clear your props.

If you're up on a blanket, slide your blanket out and move slightly forward onto your mat.

Bend your knees holding onto the backs of your legs.

Lower down slowly.

Pause for a moment.

Head back.

Take a deep breath.

Draw both of your knees into your chest.

Wrap your arms around your legs.

Press your low back into the mat.

And just let it soften and settle.

Rock your hips from side to side.

And then keeping the knees bent plant your feet back down onto your mat.

Good.

Cross your right ankle over your left knee.

And reaching through your legs hold onto the back of your left hamstring.

Now, you can intensify this pose by shifting the hands up onto the shin.

Notice how Caroline's keeping her ankles very active, the toes spreading open.

That's going to engage the muscles.

Whenever you're fully engaged in what you're doing, you often get more out of it.

Good.

As you exhale, release.

Uncross the ankle, change sides.

crossing your left ankle.

Reach through the legs, Hold to the back of your right hamstring.

Keeping the ankle strong, You can also take the hands to the shin if that's available to you.

Enjoy the breath.

Opening out.

Soften your eyes.

Relax your gaze.

Good.

And then as you exhale release the hands.

Lower the foot back down.

Uncross the ankle.

Let's do reclined bound angle pose here.

So join the soles of your feet together.

Good.

Sweep your arms out wide for a moment.

Close your eyes.

Then we're going to work our feet like we did earlier as we were seated.

So raise your heels slightly As the heels lift up, once again from the inner thigh lengthen out through your inner knee.

Breathe.

Now, keep your eyes closed.

Bring your hands up onto your belly.

Soften and just enjoy the rise and the fall of each breath.

Pressing into your feet, draw your knees back up into each other.

Slide your legs one at a time out onto your mat.

Lower your arms down.

Move your fingers gently, the wrists.

Enjoy just here at the end of your practice how you feel more connected to the earth below you.

Let the earth hold you in its embrace.

Enjoy that.

♪ ({music plays)} ♪ "“The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds.

If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte.

"” ♪ ({music playing] ♪ I invite you to stay here in relaxation for as long as you may need to today.

If you are ready to roll out of this pose, begin by gently moving your fingers and toes Keeping your eyes closed, invite the breath in fully into your body.

Bending your knees, plant the feet back onto your mat.

Roll to your side.

♪ ({music continues)} ♪ Using the strength of your arms, push down into the floor.

and walk yourself up into a comfortable seated pose.

A good seat, I invite you to close your eyes and fold your hands in front of your heart.

Thank you for practicing with us today.

Namaste.

♪ ({closing music full volume)} ♪ ♪ ♪ 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 Stacey Millner-Collins on demand.

♪