New Year's Mat

Hi everyone. If you're here with me in this moment, it means that we've made it through another year. Can you believe? 10 years of Polonius anytime 10 and here we are to celebrate together. So all years are filled with ups and downs. I don't know all of you are where you are in your life, but my life sure has its fair share of ups and downs as I suspect that, um, you all do. So what I do know to be true is that we are here together with the opportunity to move our bodies and welcome in the new year and give thanks.

So let's do just that. Sit on the mat and we have these beautiful skies to look at today. So that's just, that's a, that's an additional new year's bonus. So let's take the hands behind the thighs, finding the feet on the mat and close your eyes or soften your gaze and whatever else is happening in your world and your life and your holiday season. Let's let put that aside for now, just the next few minutes and bring yourself into your experience and into your body and into your movement practice and into the new year 2020 baby.

Here we go. Lifting tall, opening our eyes, breathing in, gazing out, straight ahead. We exhale and curl the spine. So brand new, full of possibilities year ahead and I'll lift the back and extend the spine and straighten the back and round the spine and left. Open the heart and lift the chest and around. I don't know, something else. I believe, and I'm not saying you need to believe this as well, I'm just sharing my sharing my I life experiences that, let's do that two more times round. We can go into our lives the way we go into our movement practices with push or with ease. We have choices to make extending and there's no one else in charge of our choices except for us. And in this moment we're going to roll back, straightening the arms and I'm choosing happiness.

Take the arms overhead, open out wide gathering energy. Take the arms forward, lift the spine all the way up and inhale and round the spine. [inaudible] lift arms and take the arms. And I'm choosing gratitude. I have many, many things to be grateful for. I can't list them all for you, but I think that most of us could say to say, [inaudible] expansion, opportunity growth.

One more. Inhale and back. [inaudible] lifting the arms. Oh, pinning the heart as the arms come out, bring the arms forward and pause lefting into that crew just a little deeper and take it all the way down to the mat. Scoot in towards your feet or bring your feet to your pelvis, preparing for a pelvic curl or a bridge or whatever name you know the spinal articulation move that we're doing now. Exhale to the left, so maybe you're on a mat, on carpet, but wherever you are, there's earth underneath you somewhere. And inhale gravity and lengthen the spine, drawing all the way down and inhale and exhale. Lifting the hips, feeling that equality of weight through the legs, that nice open position in the hips at the top. As we go down, we start a process of softening, softening the throat, softening the chest, softening through the spinal segments, and then allowing the pelvis to lay down gently into the earth and in here and two more. Lifting up [inaudible] and in HANA and lift the arms just off the mat and then reach as you're rolling your spine down, send your arms, like your arms are reaching further, reaching further, reaching further, reaching further, reaching further. And then as the pelvis comes down, take them overhead and then inhale and then reach them up.

They're going to pass the pelvis, they're going to push down into the floor and as they do, we're going to lift those hips up a little higher there. We're going to lift up just off the floor or just off the mat or just off the earth. I'm gonna roll down down town. I lied. [inaudible] I'm starting the new years off with a bang as a liar. We're doing one more roll up just cause it feels good this time. Leaving the arms overhead.

I know we're gonna roll down through the spine or reaching the arms away from the pelvis, stretching the spine in two directions and once the pelvis comes down, we'll interlock the fingers and then just reach the arms. And yes, even lift your shoulder blades and then let the shoulder blade soften. Bend the elbows, bring the hands behind that step diff, step the feet together on the mat and then let the elbows stay just off the mat. So you feel your scapula resting on the map at that you can see your elbows in your periphery. We're going to take both knees to the right and as you do that, reach that left elbow even further away. And now as you exhale, feel that whole side body connection coming with you as we come to the center and inhale, tipping over to one side, opening the body and drawing the navel back towards the spine as he come back into the center. And inhale, continuing side, right and center and in how? Over center [inaudible] and back to the right. Once you get there, take that left leg and stretch it. Allowing the weight of the leg to open up the side of your body in a different way. Bend and come back and inhale to reach over. Extend that leg, let it be heavy on the bottom.

So who doesn't even have to push? You're just going to using the gravitational pull to help you to open up the tissue in your body in a different way. We'll do it one more time to each sign in here and stretch that leg long and bend and back and over. Last time my friends at and stretch that leg long and bend and come back to center and inhale in center. And now as we exhale we're going to curl the head and chest on imprinting into the lower back and are going to come back down. And we're going to cruel that and Justa and imagine that you could create all the head, your head in your hands supporting through the neck so that we feel that the Oh the works being concentrated into the center of the body and down and lifting up and down. And for the new year's treats.

We're going to do my favorite app series, which is this. We come up, we listen likes and we touch the toes. We less the knees. He was holding the spine stationary, the lower back connected to the ground all the time as the legs are either lifting or lowering. We're really fighting for that thoracic flection, that nice supported isometric contraction through the center of the body. We're doing three more and we're doing tomorrow and we're doing one and we're holding. Now take the hands on the leg that's closest to me.

Take the opposite leg down. Use your arms to lift as you pull across, and so you're using your arms and you can always put your hands behind your head. If you don't like this suggestion, that's equally valuable, but I like to use my arms to really ring out that shape to really find the end of the breath to really connect in a deeper way. One thing that you could do should it feel good to you is lift the fireboat up, but heavy up the pelvis. That feels really good in my body, but it's all just suggestion again. Of course. Let's do one more.

Go ahead and then we come up. We'd take the hands back behind the head, we'll lift a little higher and then we come down. And now we left that in jest. [inaudible] we take the toes down, we lift the legs up, we bend the knees. Now we're going to curl, curl, curl, curl. Feeling so grateful for the mobility of the spine and we get a lower back down. You know, lift the feet and take the body down. Annie. Inhale and exhale.

Lifting up. Bolding some energy through the center of the body and back and bend the knees and curl. Curl and left and three more. And lift the head and chest. Tota lift the knees, bend the knees, baby ball. Reverse roll like a ball. Lower back down.

Lift the length. Lower the spine. How about two more? Two more. Up. Bet. Curl rural back down. Feet lift at had comes down last time. Left touch back. Bend the knees, let go of your head. Put your hands down on the floor. Do the rolling and now put your head down and see if you could straighten your legs and continue. Well just keep the legs together.

We'll flex the feet. We'll bring the body down. Down, down, down. Yeah. At the bottom. Let the knees bend now. Roll up, up, up, up, pop, straightening the legs at the last minute. Flex the feet.

RA, RA, RA, RA, roll and bend the knees and rural and the inReach. I think this is almost more difficult than the regular old rollover and flex and go my friends. We're going line more time and band karate kick this time as we bring the pelvis down. Just keep the feet soft, lift the head, lower the pelvis, reach up, pull, look where you're going. [inaudible] that's a life lesson as well. Look where you're going, not where you've been. Legs come down, spine comes up, hands behind the head and let's pull. Pull, center, pull, pull, center, rotate and raring out the spine and every time you go into that rotation looking for a little more depth, a little extra. Maybe in order to find the extra we approach it more gently.

I work through me in order to find the extra intensity, I approach him more gently. Let's do two more times. Now. Not saying that it's easy or it feels easy. It's the way I think about it that changes it for me. [inaudible] center, take the arms on, point the feet, open the chest, open the arm flow and then taking the hands us fingertips face in chest lists and breathe in. Push down with your feet, lift up with your pelvis.

Find that long line, invigorating the backside of the body and then keep that back side body invigorated as the pelvis comes down and step into the feet. Reach ah hinges, allowing the eyes to just follow the line of the spine. Abdominals are drawing in and down. Mid back is helping us stay committed to scapular stabilization as we're lowering our pelvis to barely touch the mat and we lift two more and come down and last one up and down. I now open the feet, lift the body, take the arms forward, lift, energize, lighten and roll forward over your legs. Noticing where you are without needing to be somewhere else.

And inhale and stack back up. And what I mean by that is as we go forward into that stretch, of course we're working. Of course we're trying, but we don't need it to be different than what it is and inhale, not in this moment anyway, an exhale or at least that's my idea and in here and taking it forward and inhale and exhale. And I think that what you'll notice is it will be different even if you don't try to make a different, I go forward and reach out, keeping the arms close to the ears, getting nice and along in your back and then take it back, push out through your feet, reach out through your arms and round your spine to lift up and inhale and exhale, reaching down you long gating through the spine. Feel that nice strong position in your back. I now go down and I'll up and we'll do three more sitting tall, lighter and down.

And if it feels better to bend your knees, I suggest doing what feels good on the first day of the year, any day of the year for that matter. Let's do one more inhale and take it forward and reach at. Now. Hold here. Take your arms down to wherever they land on your legs and use your arms to really establish a strong spinal position. Then bring your arms out to the side, turn the thumbs of your hands back.

And now take the arms back and the spine reaches forward and the scapula slides together and slides together and slides together. And we'll do two and one and then lift up and rotate and reach. Come up, open and center. Inhale, rotating the torso. Exhale, finding that flat back idea as we dive forward. Lift up, open and center an inhale, reach left, uh, open center and left reach. Uh huh.

Open and center. We'll do one more time. Feel the front arm reaching for the back arm, reaching back. Find straight arms and center an India anchoring through the opposite side of the pelvis and reach up and take the arms down and please turn onto the side of your body. Stretching your legs out to one side, letting your hand rest down on your arm, letting your hand lightly find the mat. Okay. And a gathering at the center of the body. We'd bring the legs and and down, gathering awareness all the time, or right in the middle of the body and and okay for building a strong foundation, three and two.

One in a holding the legs on. Take the arm overhead and feel they just floating here. It's floating. Maybe you're not feeling like you're floating. I personally feel like I'm in the middle of an earthquake, but I'm trying to feel like I'm floating and not take the legs down. Put your hand down, bend your bottom knee, lift up onto your forearm.

Take the opposite hand behind your head. Pressure, head into your hands. Flex your foot and pull. Pull. Take the leg back. As it comes forward. I feel that you're pulling it from the center of your body. Feel the bottom part of your waist from the arm that you're arresting on or working on through to the pelvis is in a straight line. As the leg goes back, perhaps press the head into the hand a little bit.

Well, you're doing three and back to and back, one and back. And then taking the hand down, feeling the chest rotate around and forward. We're going to left, left and left, pulling the sternum up and forward. As the legs reaches around in back, we'll do four, three, two, nice, simple movement practice to get us ready for what's to come or for just our day. Bend your knee, take the leg back. Allow your spine to bend. Psych a like an elbow supported, rocking prep with one leg shape, and then bring the leg across. Let's sit up and give it a stretch.

Bringing the hip down towards the mat, lifting the spine up towards the leg, eh, and it's moments like these where there's a little pause where we can set intention. Maybe not just for this moment, but [inaudible]. What is it you want for your new year? [inaudible] I don't know what I want. I haven't decided yet. Well, I have decided. Let's switch sides. I have spoke about it earlier. Happiness, peace, ease, joy. Reach the legs away. Find the center of the body, take the legs out. And I didn't have his world peace too much to hope.

I guess I'll focus on myself first and then see how that goes. Just building a foundation, finding gratitude for that, letting go of what we can't control and focusing on what we can. We're doing two more and one more and this is the moment where we get to hold. We get to float that arm, get to feel that we're lightly floating in space, reaching up, reaching up, reaching and then taking the legs down, putting the hand on, bending the knee, coming up onto the forearm on that side, creating a long line from the shoulder blade down to the pelvis, hand behind the head. If you feel tension in your neck, make sure you're not pinching your shoulder blade back and said bring it around the front of the body so your head has room to be back there in alignment with the of lifting the leg and we go pull. Reach back front of the body, back of the body.

So it's a wonderful combination of oppositional movements here. Trunk stability. Last five, three. As the leg goes back, reach away to one. Take the hands around. I'm staying pretty light on that hand in this practice and this personal moment. And then we're going to lift the chest. I use my bottom arm to pull, lift that leg up nice and high.

So you're in a little bit of a backbend and you go, ah, ah, trying to open up the front of the body while we work the back of the body and we go four, three, two, one and then bend the knee and then push your foot into your hands. Press the pelvis forward, allow your spine to go into a little bit of a back bend and then keep pushing that foot into that hand to maximize the stretch through the front of the leg as you let your spine go into a back bend and then bring it back and then, Oh, almost forgot the stretch. Now it it mean that would have been just like me actually, but I didn't cause just as much as we need the strength work, I believe most of us need stretches too. I do. Now what we're going to do is we're going to come around onto our hands and knees. You're going to find the hands under the shoulders, the knees under the pelvis.

What I want us to do is let the chest drop down towards the hands of the scapula, glides towards each other and then lift the chest through the shoulder blade so the scapula glide apart. So just that for the down moment to me feels kind of like thorough rendering and then coming back and surrendering [inaudible] the chest towards the hands, the heart towards the earth and recollecting one more. And in the physical practice it's good practice for scapular stabilization. Um, hold onto your abdominals. Step one leg back. Step your other leg back. We're going to ground the spine and in the knees stretch the legs out.

We're gonna around the spine, curling over the toes, bend the knees so they can these stretch and then like a laser beam and round back around, back rounds, back three pushups and the hips. Lift and heels reached down. Find that nice long spinal position again. Lift the heels, we roll through the spine, stand on the right foot, lift the left leg up and down, up and down, up and down. Up and down, up and down, three pushups or not, because life is full of choices. Lifter heels go down, gathering our energy coming forwards, their leg lefts, I mean no at two and three and four and five. Bend and straighten. Bend straight, bend, straighten. Lift the hand lift here, articulate the spine forward. Bend your knees, bend your arms and take your body to the ground and then slide the forearms onto the mat. Energizing through the lanes, lifting the eyes, looking out over the horizon, sliding the scapula down, lightly bringing the chest up and forward. Not a lot of push here, more of a dragging sensation with the arms and bring the body down and create a little forward reaching idea with the nose.

Backward, dragging with the forearms against the mat, lifting the chest, lifting the heart and taking it down and her reaching [inaudible]. And then turn your head to one side. Reach the hands behind the back, let the elbows drops with the shoulders. Get a little stretch, let the feet reach out until they lift off the mat. And then we bend one, two, three times. Stretch the wings, lift the body, fill that opening through the front of the body while the back of the body gets its chance to work and head goes the other way. One, two, three range. One, two, three, three, one, two, three.

Reach. Last time to eat. Side reach. One, two, three, reach. Take the legs down, take the arms down, use your arms to press yourself up onto your knees and then sitting back towards the feet. Allow the arms to naturally just stretch out as the pelvis goes back. [inaudible] learning the back of the body to open and rest. [inaudible] and then roll that up with your spine, with your body.

And I'm gonna turn towards you. So if you feel like turning towards me, that's great. If not, that's okay too. Take the arms around, lift the chest, lift the eyes [inaudible] and open and soften. How's the arms come down? They get soft [inaudible] and then we'll take the left arm and put it against the left thigh. We'll take the right arm and we'll reach over.

We'll use that reaching arm to open that side. Body open, open, open, open. And the whole left stop and let that arm come down and that arm comes down, the other arm comes up, [inaudible] reach out, take the arm down and take the arms up. And as they begin to open, we allow the chest open. We allow the chest to lift, we allow ourselves to expand into the stretch, into the position, into the idea, even of expansion, and we come back up and let the arms float and open them maybe a little wider this time, maybe a little further back this time, maybe with more energy, maybe with less energy. Again, going back to the idea, one more time that we create our own choices so you can decide what feels the best for you in this moment in your experience.

And then we'll come back. One thing I know for sure is that I'm very grateful for all of you. Happy new year.