New Year's Mat

Hi everyone, if you're here with me in this moment, that means we have made it to a brand new year. So, happy new year. To say this year has been one for the books, is a understatement, I feel. Our lives have been in flux, our world has been in flux but there is one thing that I know for sure, and is that, coming back to movement and coming back to breath and coming back to presence is always the way forward. So, that's what we're gonna do now.

Let's stand up on our feet and you can just imagine the ocean breeze in your living room with you 'cause that's what's happening in this room, ocean breeze and we'll close our eyes. Stamp your feet. And just find some ground, feel the earth underneath your feet, feel the length in your spine the strength of your bones, the softness of your mind, of your experience and open your eyes and take your arms out to the side and overhead. And back out to the sides lifting the chest, lifting the heart softening the arms as they return to the body and inhale. And as we exhale, we'll bring the chin down, we'll soften through our knees and we'll articulate down feeling the earth beneath our feet feeling the heaviness of the head letting any tension in your body just flow out of you into the earth and inhale and push the ground away and roll up articulating through the spine as you stand straighten your knees, take your arms out to the side, take up all the space that you can, reach overhead.

Reach out to the side, welcome the new year and all its possibilities. That's what I'm practicing. That's what I'm choosing. And it's an invitation. Bring your chin to your chest and roll down softening your knees, articulating the spine, supporting through the center of the body and inhale and exhale, grounding into the floor, into the earth articulating, feeling that freedom of movement freedom of expression.

Stand up, straighten your knees one more time, big breath in, lift your hearts fill up with energy, reach out to the sides let your arms suspend as they arrive in that T-shape and then let them start to soften as they return to your body and inhale. And that's a practice, right, returning to the body, rounding down, softening the knees, articulating through the spine, creating support is another practice creating support and roll up. So this year, last time, I remind myself on the daily that there is opportunity to shift, arms come out the way we think, the way we move, the way we interact, react or not. We're gonna come to the mat. We're gonna sit on the mat.

We're gonna take our hands to our knees. I want you to feel that your feet firmly anchored on the ground underneath you. Pull up on the knees, push down with your feet, and lift your spine and inhale. And as we exhale, we'll round the spine, drop back through the abdominals and inhale, come back up and lift the chest, taking the thoracic spine back and coming back to upright and exhale round the spine drawing the inner thighs towards one another and lift the spine and in our movement practice, and lift the spine. As in our life, in my opinion, there is room for ease round, ease of movement, ease of experience and lift even when we're looking for precision for muscular engagement, for mental engagement, lift the chest, can we have both?

Can we find ease and engagement, reach forwards, roll back taking the body down towards the mat. When the low back arrives down on the mat, we're gonna reach up, we're gonna expand out to the side with our arms, we're gonna bring the arms forward. We're gonna roll up. As we sit up, we lift our arms overhead. We open our chest and reach out to the sides.

We round the spine and reach forward. You can imagine reaching for each other. And we go back, back, back, and back, softly landing into the lower back reaching the arms up, opening the arms wide, reaching the arms forward, saying soft in the eyes. Rolling up, lifting up, lifting the chest press the arms towards one another and round one more. Find the lower back, reach up with the arms, open the arms wide, expand and contract.

Hug the arms towards the body and roll up and lift up and lift the chest and round, and go back again. Feeling the feet on the ground, rolling all the way down this time. I'm gonna bring my pelvis towards my feet, we're gonna prepare for some bridging. Our arms are down, our head is down and clear, we feel the feet against the floor. Roll through the spine, lifting the pelvis away from the mat, articulating up through the spine and inhale.

And now, soften. Soften the chest, soften the eyes, soften the shoulders and roll the spine down returning all the way back into that elongated posture at the bottom and inhale and exhale as you press down with your feet and roll up through your spine lifting the hips up nice and high, feeling the arms and reaching for the feet, feeling the feet, reaching back for the fingertips and soften the throat, the chest, the gaze, the mind and return, and inhale and exhale lift. Pressing those hips up nice and high, feeling quality of weight over the feet and down we go. Laying the body down longer and lighter each time and inhale and exhale lifting up and inhale. Take your arms over your head.

Take your arms out to your sides, hover the arms off the mat roll the spine down, reaching the arms, taking up all the space that you can making room for possibility and as you come down, rest your arms on the floor. I'm gonna reach around my mat like this. We're gonna bring the legs up into a tabletop position pressing them together, and inhale, take the knees in one direction. And draw in deepening, as we come back to the center, lifting off one hip onto the other hip, feeling that spine sway side to side and center and inhale across and deepen to come back through center and inhale in every move, every movement and every breath is a chance for us to return to this present moment, to be here completely, and center, and inhale and center, and inhale. I have to admit to you that I'm trembling a little 'cause I'm so excited.

So excited to be here. Last run, inhale, it's been a long time, and center and bring the legs down. Let's press the legs together. Bring the hands behind the head, inhale, push down into your feet, crawl your head and chest up. Coming up into the chest, lift, feeling the hands cradling the weight of the head and inhale and exhale.

We lay the body back, elongating as it comes back to the mat, feel the feet pressing down, feel the heels pulling to the back of the pelvis and crawl the head and chest up, feeling that lower back imprint into the ground and inhale and exhale as you lay back. And simplicity and depth, and exhale. So there is so many life lessons and movement lessons, and inhale and exhale, and inhale and exhale, pausing here, take your hands behind your thighs, draw in a little more deeply, drop the tail down as much as you are able to do, reach your hands back behind your head and rotate and center. And as the upper spine is going into that rotation, the pelvis stays still, just the upper body moves. The head stays still.

It's being supported, cradled by the hands, and center. The eyes travel just past the thigh that you're going towards rotation to and center and rotate and center and rotate and center and rotate and center and rotate and breathe and rotate, and center. Pausing in the center, take the arms forward, reach a little higher, place your arms down, place your head and chest down, separate your feet, articulate up through your spine. Step into the right leg, lift the left leg up and touch and lift up and touch just allowing that leg to flow through space. And up and touch, and up and take the body down and up.

Take the body down and up. Take the body down and up. And to keep this movement practice nice and simple today, happy new year, last time, and up, place your foot down. Take your arms overhead. As you articulate down through your spine, make a circle with your arms, reach all the way around.

And then as the pelvis lands, the arms return to our sides, we inhale and lift up and lift the right leg up and touch. It is a buoyancy to the movement, and touch, a float. Doesn't mean there can't be connection as well and two, and touch, but a feeling of floating down and up, down and up, goes to the spine and down. And press down with your arms and down and up one more, down and up. Place that right foot back down stabilizing the pelvis, reach your arms over your head.

Once again, as you roll down, reach around to the sides of you coming all the way down on to the mat. As the pelvis land, stretch one leg out, stretch the other leg out, reach your arms over your head, inhale, lift your head and chest, exhale, roll through your spine rounding and then expand and through the arms, lift to a straight body and then reach back for drawing the abdominals in and roll back. Feel the legs reaching out in space, the arms reaching out in space and use those sensations to create opposition for the abdominals and take the arms back, the head back and inhale, lift, drawing in and exhale as we bring the body up. Shoulders come over the pelvis, take the arms up and lift the chest, press your arms back forward, energy through the arms, reaching out in space, pressing down through the backs of the legs. Once you find your chest lift, then the arms and the head come back and the arms and the head come up and we roll up and we open to a world of possibility and we round back and go down, connection, presence, ease.

Arms go back as the head goes down and lift. Is it easy to be, have ease in an ever-changing world? Not always. Is it possible? Yes.

Lift your spine, round your spine and go back, pressing down through the legs, reaching forward through the arms, take the arms back, lift the arms, the head, the chest, roll up, open the arms, reach your arms over your head and lift your spine, bring your hands behind your head, cradling your head, supporting your head, flex your feet and rotate (sniffling) center and (sniffling) center. And as you rotate, feel the potential of that movement the possibility of that movement. And pull pull, center, and pull pull, center, and pull pull, center and pull pull, center. The sun is sparkling and the ocean pull pull, center and pull pull, center and pull pull, center. And rotate to that first side and round, take the elbow just outside that same leg and float back up and return and rotate and round and create ease as we rebound.

And center and rotate and round. And lift and center and rotate and ease and ease and center and rotate and breathe and breathe and center and rotate and breathe and release and center. Reach your arms over your head, circle your arms around behind you. I've got a scoop back on this mat a little bit. We're going into the back support, press the arms into the floor, lift the chest, draw the abdominals and push down with your legs to lift your pelvis, bringing the eyes towards the heavens and then keeping head nice and still so the gaze travels forward.

And up and down, float. And lift, and down, just slightly touching. And lift and down, and two, lift up and down, and lift up and down. And bend your knees in towards your body and take a hold of your feet and lift the feet and balance. What does that mean?

What does balance mean in life? All these Pilates skills go back. Our life worths and we're having a little back thing right now. So, this doesn't mean you're my most beautiful but it's my most real, so there's that. And back, and that's all we can do, right?

But that's that we can, in any given moment. And back and well, it didn't make it at that time but I pulled it together at the last minute, kind of like this year, and back and lift and it just got better. And with practice, it will continue to get better. And hands to the knees, and a roll down onto the mat coming into the double X stretch position, reaching out and in, and expand and connect and reach out and pull in. And as your hands come to your knees, use them for support.

And out, we need all the support we can get. And out and back and out and back. And if the only person giving you support is you, then maybe that's enough. Hands on the right knee, left leg forward, and change. Feel the leg reaching out in space, push down on the knee, pull wide and down with the elbows creating sensation, creating connections, and change and change and change and change and change and change and stay connected, stay focused, stay with it.

Last one, starting now, bend the knee and rotate, crisscross, rotate, feel those legs reaching out in space, feel the stability through the center of the body as the upper body moves from side to side and rotate. So the inner thighs actively reaching for each other, squeezing towards each other, it's possible even though they're separate. And four, and starting up, four and three and three and two, try your hardest all the time, and one, and one, and bend, place your head down, place your arms down straighten your legs, lift your legs up, exhale as you roll over. Stretching the spine, flex your feet, open your feet maybe the lower, and then roll down, softening through the feet and reach out and together and up, and reverse curl and flex and open and down and roll down using the arms to create stability and point and down together, and up and over and open and down and roll down and point and down together. And up and over and open, keep the feet soft and roll down and lift your head, and roll up and reach for your feet and place your feet down.

Fun facts about me, that transition just brought me great joy 'cause I've been doing a lot of zooms in my house and I don't have room for that one. So that was fun for me. Hope you liked it. Here we go, inhale, and head goes down and the spine goes forward. And we create support and we roll up articulating, creating ease, lifting longer, lifting taller inhale and exhale as we go forward drawing back through the abdominals reaching out between the feet, press down through your feet and inhale and exhale.

Reach the legs forward as the spine is returning back into that upright position and inhale and exhale. Look at the possibility. Are you going further every time? Probably. And lift, can we continue to find ways of moving forward?

Probably, definitely actually, in my opinion. And lift adding some back extension and go down and reach out taking the head out through the fingertips bend your knees, make your spine a little longer, stretch your legs back, go forward and sit back up and inhale and exhale. We go down and reach out and bend the knees getting a little bit more movement through the spine precision, through the spine and then stretch the lungs and then go back and lift up and inhale and exhale. And reach out, feeling joyous in our movement. I'm feeling very joyous in this moment.

Hope I'm passing that onto you at least a little bit, and lift up, and one more, going down, reaching out. And bend and stretch and take your arms down and you're gonna back even more more than you ever thought possible, and take your arms out to the sides and press back like you're flying away, flying into the new year. And three and four, a world of possibility awaits us, lift up tall and rotate and reach down and lift up, open and center and rotate to go down and lift up, open and center and rotate, lifting the spine taking that back down, reaching up, open and center and rotate and reach and reach out, open and center and last time, that means one more in each direction. And up, open and center and rotate and down. And lift up, open and center.

And now bring your legs in turn onto your side come all the way down onto your arm, lining the legs up in a straight line resting the head down on the arm, feel the bones of the big toes in alignment and bones of the inner knees in alignment, connect to the center of your body. How deeply can you do that before we even start moving and then increase that sensation of depth as we lift the leg and down and depth of movement? Lift the legs, and down, simplicity. And lift and down, ease. And lift and down, possibility.

And lift and down, and five, reach away and reach away to lift and reach away to lower and three and down and two and down, and one, and take the legs down and come up onto your forearm. Reach back behind the head with the hand, press your head into your hand, lift your top leg up, flex that foot and pull forward forward and reach away and forward forward and reach away, and forward forward. And as the leg goes behind you, press your head into your hand, feel the whole back line of your body, forward forward and reach away and forward forward and reach away and forward forward and reach away and forward forward and lengthen the waist and three, lengthen the waist, and two, reach out through the spine, and one, lengthen the waist, take the hand from behind the head to the mat rotate your torso towards the mat, lift that leg up behind you as high as you've ever lifted it before. This is the world of new possibilities. As we lift and lift and lift the chest and lift, and lift, and lift.

And five, four, three, two, and one, bend your bottom knee bend your top knee, take your foot into your hands and bring that leg back for a stretch and then take that foot across the opposite leg. Sit all the way up to tall, bringing the knee in towards the body. As the knee comes towards the body we drop into the hip, drop into the hip. And as we drop into the hip, we get lighter. So there's two opposing sensations, grounding heavy sensation in the lower body and are light, lifted sensation in the upper body.

Then we're gonna take that leg out to the side. We're gonna take our arms out to the side. We're gonna reach out, land softly, rotate your body, lift your chest through your arms, round your spine drawing back, open the arm out to the side, sit all the way up to bring the arm overhead and side bend in that direction. As you do that, can you get a little heavier into that sitting bone that you're leaning into. Arms out, floats through space, land softly rotate, draw the abdominals in, force supports, elongate through the spine, round the spine, open the arm lift your body up and reach over and back and each movement just becomes the next, just like each day becomes the next.

And lift, and we can create fluidity there. And open, and up, and over, and back. Let's bring the legs around to the other side. I might just have to adjust this mic a little bit. Here we go.

So the legs are lined up together, the hand is resting softly, big toe joints, knee joints, one hip over the other, connect to the center of your body in the way that you best can and lift, right connection to center. Now the thought, moving forward, reaching out, connection to center, connection to breath and you reach out lack of connection to distraction and down and lift up and down and reach out as you lift up and out as you go down and out as you lift up and out as you go down and we'll do four, and down. Make each one better than the next. Three, and down, and two, and down and one, and all the way down. And as the legs come down, we come up onto that forearm lifting the underside of the body bringing the hand behind the head using the bottom leg for stability as the top leg lifts, flexing the foot and forward forward and reach away and forward forward and reach away, and forward forward pulling the head to the heavens, pressing the head into the hand, then that smooth movement as the leg travels through space.

Last four, as the leg goes back, so does the abdominals. We create support with our muscles, with our minds. Last two, and back, and the last one and back and we take the arm and we reach down, we rotate, we lift that leg up nice and high and we go up and up and reaching through the chest and up and up and four and three, and two and one, bending the bottom knee, bending the top knee, taking the leg back. So every time, every year, at the beginning of the year, we have the opportunity to sit up, to stand up, to reflect on what we're looking for in the days to come, lifting the spine. What are you looking for?

I feel like I'm always looking for the same thing. Peace, ease, love, accessibility, change, peace of mind. And, I believe that there is possibility for all of that. Take the leg out to the side, reach your arms out to the side and reach out, float hand comes down, or rotate the body. Lift your heart, feel that full range of possibility within your movement and know that that full range of possibility exists in the world outside of your movement and reach over and out and over and land and rotate and reach up and push the floor away and open and lift up, reaching the arm up as we take the body to the side, stretching open through that side of our waist and come up and out and down and our around and long lift and around and open and up and further, further, and all the way up and around to your knees.

We're gonna take the hands. I don't really have a space to go wide, but if you have space to go wider, do, we're gonna go into some arm work, leg work, take the left leg back lift the left leg up. Now, as you bend your elbows, point them to the sides and lift your leg into the air and push and lift that leg into the air as you, lower to the ground, to the earth and push, feeling that back body line and push and energy in the movement. One more, energy in the position and bend, take the other leg back and up and then lift that leg to the heavens and push and lift the leg and push and lift the leg and push and lift the leg and push and lift the leg and push one more I think, lift up, push up, bend the knee. Position yourself down on the mat, bring your arms down onto the mat holding the fingers together clasping the hands, lifting the waist, lifting the heart softening the eyes, lifting the legs and we kick bup, bup, bup, bup, bup ta, ta, ta, ta, push down with your arms as your spine is lifting up.

Keep the torso nice and still, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, both legs straight, take your arms at your side, hovering the face just off the mat. Reach out with your chest as your pinky fingers come to your thighs and reach back down as your arms reach out. And lift the chest, lift the heart, and back. And lift the chest, lift the heart, and back. And reach out and back, and reach out and back.

Take just the arms up and up and up and up and up and take the legs down. Put the arms down, press up round through your spine and bring yourself back towards your feet, stretching your arms forward in front of you and then come back up onto your hands and knees. Stretch one leg long, stretch your other leg long, bend your knees and round your spine like you're gonna pounce and then back and push up and round and back and push up and round and back and push up and round and a spring. Find a little spring in your step and back and push up, one more round, and back and push up. Lift your hips, press down through the feet, bend one knee, bend the other knee, bring both feet up, lift your heels, bend your knees, look forward, look where you're going, hop and sit.

So you can continue to sit as you are. I'm gonna choose to sit this way so that I can look into your spaces, eyes, is that creepy? Maybe. Okay. Put your hands on your shins. I don't think it's creepy.

I think it's an effort and connection. So I want us just rest our hands against our shins and I want us once again to close our eyes and you can imagine sea breeze watching over you. And lift your chest. Use your arms. You just lean against the holding of the arms and come back, open your eyes if you want or not and round for spine drawing back.

There's no perfect placement here. So you just do what feels right to you sitting up in this moment. I love to lean back. Use your arms for support and come back and round the spine, drawing back. And lifting up and lift the spine and return and round the spine and return and take the arms up overhead and reach forwards and roll up.

And as your spine lifting up, open your arms wide, there's a world of possibility, and reach out and round and roll up and open and reach overhead and round and up, opening the chest. Take the arms overhead, interlock your hands, reach up lifting up through the waist, spread your fingers wide, put the palms of your hands together. We can be here in this moment. Beacons of light for each other, and bend the arms pressing the hands into one another. And as the arms are bending to come down in front of the heart, the spine is elongating, getting lighter.

The pelvis is getting heavier. We can close our eyes. We can open our eyes. We can feel that combination of ease and strength and grounding. And thank you.

Happy new year.