Day 10: Harmony

So here we are, day ten. Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me. I've had so much fun. I hope you've had so much fun. Something that I wanted to say that I hadn't really mentioned before is go back to some of these classes.

If one felt particularly challenging to you, practice it until it feels easier. It's not meant to be just a one off, right. So if you enjoy this, go back and do it again and maybe again, and you can turn it into a three month challenge, or not. But I really enjoy being here with you and thank you for being here with me. And so, what's harmony?

What does that mean? To me, it's the melding together of everything, all of the things that we talked about. The breath, the balance, the concentration, the precision, the flow, all of the things right? The meditation and motion. The just being with yourself with commitment, and you're committed cause you're here.

So thank you and let's just move and make it feel good. That's what is my intention for you and for me really, selfishly of course. Sit up. Close your eyes. We're gonna sit in a diamond shaped position today to start.

I want you to keep your eyes closed, and press your hands into your shins. I don't know if anyone knew that about me, but I do stutter. I do, that's a fun fact about me and you just got to bear witness. So press your hands against your shins lightly. So can we move in our bodies gracefully and easily and without a lot of push.

Can we try that? So inhale, and exhale. Let your hands be soft on your shins, but let them give you something to pull against as you tip your tail under and curl back, and let your eyes come down in between your legs, oh they're closed but just point them there. And then come back to sitting, and open your eyes and arch the back. You're just rocking the back.

And round. And lift. And arch the back, tipping the tail back. We're lifting the knees a little. And center, and just one more round.

Exhale. And center. So we're gonna bring the knees up. Bring the arms forward, inhale. Exhale, roll back, and can we feel that we're being soft in our bodies today.

I don't know what that means to you, but to me it feels like soft. Open, up overhead. Open out to the sides easy, open up. Up, up, lift your arms open your knees, just keep your feet as they are, and dive forward. And then articulate, just flow through your body.

Bring the knees back. Roll down. Down. Working with intention. Working with ease.

It's what it feels like to be mindful. Can create different sensations in your body just by thinking about them differently. Reach up, open the knees, stretch forward, dive. And then lift up, knees back, do that two more times. Roll back.

Arms open. So I play with this idea all the time, and every time I remember to play with it, I just come back to how nice it feels. These aren't different movements than we've been doing all along. But can you make them feel different just by coming at it with a slightly different intention. Arms back.

Arms around. Hold here. Take the front arm, whatever that means to you, to the back arm, and open, inhale. Back arm to the front arm. Keep the pelvis stationary.

And open, and switch. And open, and lift up to go over. Just easy. And lift up to go over. And center, last time.

Lift up to go over. Come center. Lay down. Set up for bridge. Pelvic curl.

Feeling the feet on the mat. How softly can you stand on your feet as you start to lift your pelvis off the floor? Right, I don't know. Still working. Inhale, and then can you lay your spine down.

So all of the things, the breath, the fluidity of movement, the energy, the awareness around where you are in space. When you think back, lifting up, to when we did this same movement on the ball, and when the ball is, if the ball was shifting around. So bring your awareness really deeply into your body right now, and notice if there's that same kind of shifting pattern, that side to side shifting pattern on your feet that you're maybe not even aware of. Maybe there's not, maybe there is. I don't know, it's just suggestion, a noticing.

Lifting up. And coming back. One more time, coming to the top. Lifting up. Standing on the right leg, lifting the left leg up.

We're gonna take the leg down, now easy. And up. Reach out. And back, three more. Reach out, and back, two more.

Reach out, and back, last one. Reach out, pull back, round the spine. Bring the leg into the body, into the body, into the body, into the body. Drop the pelvis. Drop that straight leg down.

Lift the bent leg up. Hold onto the bent leg with the opposite hand and twist. Looking to the opposite side, you can bring your arm out to counterbalance if you wish. Feels good to me. Come back to center, that foot goes down.

Other foot comes in. Reorganize. I feel a little crooked so we come up again, rolling up. Up, up, up, up. We lift the opposite leg.

Stretch it out. Reach soft, and easy up. Out, and easy up. Three, and back. Two, and back.

One, and hold. And now rolling in. Bring that leg into the body, into the body, and pelvis comes down. Reach the leg down. Lift the bent knee up.

Bring the leg across, across, across, and enjoy, and breathe, and go where you need to in your body. Shift if you need to. Look for what you want. Come back through center. Both feet down on the floor.

Legs together all the way. Hands behind the head. Breathing in. I can't quite get my hands around my mic, but I've got it now. Exhale, head and chest come up, up, up.

Hold it there. Curl the pelvis, bringing the pubic bone towards the nose. Now as we lay the pelvis down we're gonna go higher. It's like magic. All you have to do is follow the pelvis with the chest.

And then you go down. And we're gonna do that again. So the front of the ribs draw down, the lower spine imprints, the head is softly being held in the hands, the hands aren't pushing. Gonna peel the pelvis up. Place the pelvis down, lifting up, easing up, and lower down.

We'll just do that three more times. Inhale, and exhale lifting up. Drawing the abdominals into the mat, curling the pelvis, curling the chest forward. And lowering down, but lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, and down. Yeah, it's hard to, we can try and be easy but it's still gonna be hard.

But that is what makes pilates fun, I think. And curl, curl, curl, curl. And down, last one. Exhale to lift, we're gonna stay up on this one, get prepared. Roll up, lower down.

Reach forward, lift up. Take the leg say that's closest to me. Take it up, rotate towards it. I want you to hold onto it today. Hold on.

Those bottom ribs are gonna slide in towards the spine. Now we're gonna use our arms to day to pull up higher than we could get without them. And down. Pull up higher than you could get without your arms. And down.

And up, use your arms. I'm not saying just use your arms, I'm saying use your arms to help you create range in your spine. To help you feel work. We'll do two more. And last one.

I believe that was six. If you're counting and you know I'm wrong, do the same amount on the other side. Find center, hands behind the head. Twist to the other side. Hold on and rotate.

And then pull up, and back. And up, and back. And up, and back. Make sure the tail bone's staying down. Three, and two, and one.

Keep the lift, hands come back. Come to the middle. Oh lift both legs up. Take the hands behind the knees. Let the feet just drop over the hands and start little rock.

A little tiny rock. And then we make it a little bigger. And then we make it a little bigger. And then we make it a little bigger. And a little bigger.

And we're up. Take the legs out straight. Bent if you want. Bent if it's easier for you, if it feels better in your body. Straight or slightly bent, hands behind the head.

We're gonna twist towards me, so pressing the head into the hands easy. This exercise is one where you can definitely get more by looking for less force. Meaning don't push. Try to just sneak up on it. And center, and sneak up on it.

And center, and lifting tall. And I'm gonna add on, so we're gonna turn again, inhale. As you exhale take the outside arm to the outside leg. So if my right elbow is going down, it's going to my right knee. And then use the abdominals to peel and lift the spine back up, and come back to center.

So let's inhale, over, exhale round up and up and up and up and over. Inhale, lift up. And exhale center, and inhale lift to twist. And exhale, reach over. Inhale, come back up.

Exhale center. Inhale reach over. Exhale round over. Inhale lift up. And easy, getting taller, one more.

And round. And lift. And center, and up. And round. And lift.

And center, so now we're gonna bend the knees. We're gonna reach for the feet again. Get in small. Get control. Concentrate on keeping the spine stable as we lift the legs.

And then roll back again. Inhale, and balance. And inhale, and balance. And inhale, and balance. Is your shape still the same?

Are you rocking and rolling back and forth? One more time. Back, balance. Hands on the knees. Push the knees into the hands and roll down, down, down, down.

Feet just in front of the knees. And do double leg stretches. Soft, and contract. I mean soft doesn't mean that it's, that you're not feeling anything. It's just a quality of sensation.

A quality of sensation. It doesn't mean you're not working. I can't say that I feel that I'm not working. I'm just trying to do so with an intention. This is our last one, single leg stretch, reach out.

And out, long long, long way. And out, pressing down on the knee. Curling forward into the thighs. Breathing. Noticing.

One more. Hands behind the head for the criss cross. Over, and over. Up to go over. Over, lifting.

Lifting. Remember what it felt like just a minute ago when we were holding onto the leg to pull up high? Can we create that same height? Probably not. Let's do one more to each side.

One more to each side. Bend the knees. Stretch the legs, reach the arms forward. Okay here's the big tell. Can we roll up, up?

Oh, up, up, reaching for the feet. Reaching over head, separate the legs, and sit up to bring the arms forward. I'm gonna scoot back on my mat. Inhale here. And exhale, round the spine, reach down.

Enjoy. Lengthen the spine out. Put your arms down, they'll land wherever they do. Give yourself a little more. Let the arms come up.

Round back forward. Just float. And inhale. It's like a rebound almost maybe. Up and down, up to go down.

Out to reach up. Hands come down. Give yourself a little more. Reach back, round forward. And roll up.

Do that a couple more times. Inhale. And round. And lengthen. And arms down.

Reach out. Lift up. And reach forward to come up. Last one, inhale. And exhale to round.

Reach out, see what you get on your own. Hands down, help out. Take the arms out in front of you. Bend the arm that's closest to me. Pull like you're pulling on a cable or a weight.

Stretch that arm back. Reach over the top of you and bring the arm forward. Bend the other arm, reach back. Stretch, take the arm over the top, and center. And bend, reaching, pulling your arms away from one another.

Over the top, get longer. And center. And bend, reach behind you, reach over the top. And center, and bend. Reach behind you, reach over the top.

And one more, bend. Reach behind you, reach over the top. Take the body all the way down. Roll up. Bend your right knee.

Put it against your left leg wherever it suits you. My arch is right up against my knee. We're gonna turn the body towards that straight leg. We're gonna walk forwards. Walk forwards and just give yourself a stretch.

Hold on with the left hand, wherever you do. Take the right arm out. Roll the rib cage open, open, open. You're welcome. And come back.

And then just nice and easy we come up. Do that on the other side. The foot's against the knee-ish somewhere. And then we just walk down. Walk down.

So I wanted to give us a gift today, and do nice yummy things. Things that feel yummy to me. So there holding with the right hand, we're taking the left arm around. So I hope that this class feels good for you, I do. And reach down, and back.

And roll up, all the way. Let's bring the legs together again in the center of the mat, taking the arms behind us, fingers face in or face away. Really opening up through the front of the body. Finding the back of the body, press into your heels. Reach out, create that beautiful, long, straight line.

And then keep lifting the chest, keep stabilizing the shoulders as you sit back down. And press down, lift up, up, up, reaching the head back. And come back down. And press up. And back down.

We'll just do one more. It's another one of my favorites. I have so many favorites, maybe I just like Pilates. That's probably good since that's what I do every day. Turn, face me.

We're gonna bend the bottom knee. We're gonna be up on the forearm. Bringing in mind the lessons about shoulder stabilization. We're gonna lift the top leg. Let's just keep the hand underneath the ribs to make sure that we're not sinking into that side, and just swing forward.

Easy on the back. Forward forward, easy back. Well, maybe not easy back, so create some contraction. What works for me really well is creating a sense of reaching out. Not just reaching back, but reaching away.

And we'll do three more, so just forward forward. Reach back and away, so feel the back of the body. Two, last time. We're gonna take that hand and we're gonna put it on the mat, we're gonna turn lifting the chest. Taking the leg up and back to that highest lift, and then little pulses, up, and up, and up, and up.

Pulling the spine forward, three, two, one. And bend. So help yourself up. Take that leg that was on top out to the side so we're coming into the mermaid position. So for today, we're gonna call this exercise the merperson.

Because Perry, the camera guy, feels that mermaid is maybe not inclusive enough for everyone so here today, we do the merperson. So the arms are out to the side. You're welcome Perry. Reach out. Perry's been with us this whole time too.

And reach around. And so has Nicole. And reach out, so we have a team of people on this challenge. You see my face, round. And you hear my words, but they're more people behind the scenes.

And reach up, so let's give them some gratitude. I'm grateful for the both of you, uh-huh. And then up, easy right? Reach out, hand comes down. You're gonna rotate from the spine.

I didn't do this before but we're gonna do it right now. We're gonna lift the chest forwards. We're gonna tuck the tail under and push the mat away and round the lower back. We're gonna unwind. We're gonna lift up.

Arm comes up. And reach over. And back. Last one, reach out. Hand comes down.

Wrap, exhale. Get easy, get long, let the pelvis tip, lift the chest. Exhale, round the spine, push the mat away, reach out. Lift up. Reach over.

Nice, maybe do a little quarter turn. Reaching forwards, anchoring through the sitting bone on that same side. And back, and then up. All right let's swing legs around to the other side. Come down onto the elbow.

So we lift the ribs, bottom knee we kept bent just cause it's a little more stable. And then we're gonna go forward forward, reach reach. Forward forward, reach reach. Forward forward, reach reach. And back, just making sure that there's no dropping.

And back. Last two. One more. That free hand comes around onto the mat. Push down with it and pull the forearm arm backwards, and lift your back, and lift that leg right up to the very top of it's range, and then pulse up, and up.

Every time you lift your leg, lift your waist. Last four, three, two, one. And we come back. We bring that top leg around to the side. We sit up.

Grounding the hips for the merperson. And then we reach out, hand comes down, and we reach around. We didn't do the extension and flexion on the first one on the other side so we'll wait on that. And then inhale. Open, now you have to just float up.

Heavy up the hip on that side as much as you can. Arm comes up and stretch over. And back and up. Hair. And reach out, and down, and across, and now elongate the spine, reach out and up through the chest.

Push the mat away, flex the spine. Inhale open out. Exhale lift. And reach up to go over. And then back.

We just have one more to go, reach out first. Arm down. Exhale around. Inhale, can you feel all of the principles, maybe not all at the same time all at once, but you feel how they're all inherent all the time. They're just here with us for us to remember and think about and think about in our other movements to, and maybe in our lives.

I don't know. I could use some harmony in my life that's for sure. Not that it's, I mean it's not a bad life, but in harmony, flow, yeah. That would be nice. And then back.

Okay so we're gonna finish on our knees. So what I want you to do is to take your two fists, and to glue them together. Now super glue them together so they, in fact, hold onto your hands like this. Hook your fingers and hold. Now try to pull your hands apart.

You can't, right, because you're holding. Let's do that on the other side just for balance. I felt like winking just then. I didn't, but I just had a winking urge so there's that. So now we're gonna go, now do the hand knuckle thing, cause we don't wanna hold our hands together, but I want you to feel that same energy, like you're having to pull your hands apart.

So we pull, and what I like to envision, I want you to keep your elbows to the side of you, not behind you. So what I like to envision is opening some very heavy draperies to look at some amazing, beautiful view. And then we're gonna let the hands go, let all that tension go out of the hands. Turn the hands palm face up. Easy arms come back, chest lifts up.

Oh yeah, take the arms over the head back there, we're in back extension. Round forward, draw the abdominals back towards the spine. And then as you come back up onto your knees, bend the arms, and bring the hands back together. Yeah just like that. So here we have some energy, create some tension.

Reach out, out, out, out, out, out, soften. Open, reach back. Take it up over your head. Don't bend too far back so it's all low back. Try to make it mostly in your upper back.

Might be smaller up there and that's okay. And then round forward. Arms reach out, out, out, out, out in front of you. And we'll bend and bring the arms back in. Let's do a couple more, I saved some of my very favorite things for today, so this is one too.

I'm always saying things are my favorite, I have so many favorites. Open, just realized that. Easy, soft. I love that feeling of when you're holding tension and you let the tension go, I don't know, I can feel it. Can almost taste it.

Arms come over head. And then round forward, we're just gonna go one more time. Bend in. Feel the difference between holding tension, cause that's fine. Holding tension is good, creating tension is good, if it's the right kind of tension.

But then notice what it feels like to let the tension completely go. Doesn't that feel better? Arms up, back, over head. Let's go back around to the sides. Lifting, opening the heart.

Opening the chest. Ending on a soft note. And, we did it. Oh my gosh, that was amazing. Thank you for being with me, thank you for coming with me through all those classes.

Talk to me, tell me what you feel like, tell me how you liked it, I wanna hear. I really, honestly can't be, I'm so grateful.