Sacral Sensations

This is Jason Williams from Baltimore, Maryland. Thank you, Pilates Anytime, for having me on your platform. Today's class in our Vital Restoration series is Sacral Sensations. So, moving up the chakra system to the sacral chakra, which lies right below the belly button, so think around, along the line of the transverse abdominis. The sacral chakra deals with emotion, creativity, think the color orange for that chakra, also sexuality, vitality, all that fun stuff is kind of lying right there, so we'll do a lot of things to kind of work around that region.

So, we'll start with a meditation, we'll start moving, and then we'll end with a nice reiki meditation at the end, okay? So, find a nice, comfortable seat wherever you are, and get started, again, with meditation. You can have your legs folded, straight out, whichever is easier for your body to get relaxed in, because, the more relaxed your body is, the more relaxed your mind will be, okay? So, as you find that nice, comfortable seat, then begin to close the eyes. So, for this first part of this meditation, want to work with a little bit of belly breathing.

So, you can take one hand, doesn't matter which one, and place it right to your belly, right around the belly button or just below it. We'll start with just your one hand, could be your right or left. And begin to take deep breaths. You're gonna inhale through your nose. Exhale through the mouth.

(Jason exhales) Inhale through your nose. Exhale through the mouth. (Jason exhales) Inhale through the nose. Exhale out the mouth. (Jason exhales) And as you continue to breathe, allow your belly to fill up with air, so feel the expansion when you inhale, and feel the contraction as you exhale.

(Jason exhales) Expand, inhale. Exhale, contract. (Jason exhales) So, continue with this breath work, and then exhale. (Jason exhales) And just feel, allow your body to relax, and bring that awareness not only to your belly here, but to the base of the spine, so, behind you. (Jason exhales) (Jason exhales) Inhaling through the nose.

Exhaling through the mouth. (Jason exhales) One more time, breathing in. And out. (Jason exhales) Gonna move into a quick mudra meditation, so you can watch me on this one. So, you're gonna take your hands, make a circle, and then going to place it right around the belly button here, and this is kind of a power mudra here.

So, you're gonna sit up nice and tall. Again, now, return to closing the eyes. So, this circle is gonna represent, again, the sacral chakra here. Take a nice, easy breath, inhale, and exhale. (Jason exhales) Inhale.

And exhale. (Jason exhales) Breathing in. And out. (Jason exhales) Two more deep breaths. And out.

(Jason exhales) One more time, inhale. And exhale. (Jason exhales) Good, slowly open the eyes, and you can slowly bring both your hands to the knees here. We'll start with some simple seated cat cow, so you just slowly round back through your spine, keep your hands here in this seated position. So, feel that nice stretch through the back, and you're gonna pull forward, lift up through the chin, head and neck, nice stretch through the chest, open up, and then rounding through the spine, pressing back so, again, you're getting a nice, easy stretch through the back.

Roll it up nice and tall, and then round the back. So, inhale as you extend it back, nice, round back here, exhale as you come up nice and tall. And I'll show you from the side, as you round back, tucking the chin, exhale, pull up, nice and tall. Two more times, rounding back, inhale, and then exhale. (Jason exhales) One more, round back through the spine, tucking the chin to chest, and then pulling up nice and tall, stacking the vertebrae.

We'll do some nice, easy twists now. So, bringing the right hand to the left knee, rotate to the left side, nice and easy, inhale, and then flow it back over, nice and easy, exhale. So, the nice thing about meditation, and reiki, and the six principles of Joseph Pilates, it all coincides, right? So, breath, breathing, focus, concentration, right? Flow, centered, right?

All those things are all aligned with our practice, right? So it's no coincidence, I believe, that all these modalities have the same, and probably the first principle, which is breath, right? So, one more time, left hand to our right knee here, twist. Then, feeling that nice stretch through the spine, and then slowly come back to the center. And you're slowly bending both knees here.

So, again, our knees are bent here. We just gonna do some nice half roll downs. Bringing both hands below the knee, sit up nice and tall through the spine. You're gonna slowly tuck the chin around, down, some half roll downs. So, tucking the chin to chest, and then exhale, pull it up nice and tall.

So, can start to lengthen. You can go a little bit farther back now from maybe the seated cross-leg position right before. So, get a nice length, inhale, nice stretch through the back, exhale, pull up nice and tall, stacking the vertebrae, very good. Also, what you wanna do here, or you can do as an option, is extend the arms out for a little more ab engagement, rounding to the spine. So, you go a little bit lower down, exhale, back up, nice and tall.

Good, inhale, lengthen through the spine, rounding through that lower back. Looks great. Exhale, pull it up nice and tall, nice. Two more times, inhale, lengthen back. Exhale.

(Jason exhales) One more, inhale. And then exhale. (Jason exhales) Relax here. Now, moving to roll like a ball. So, keeping your knees in that bent position, you're gonna slowly lift one leg up at a time.

Hands can be placed underneath the knee. And then tucking the chin, rounding through the spine, roll back, roll like a ball, sit up nice and tall, exhale up, and again, those feet are not gonna touch the ground, right? Round the spine, as you come up nice and easy, getting that massaging action along the back, right? Rounding through the spine, exhale up, good. Feet don't touch.

Round it down, again. This is great for that lower back, right at that transverse abdominis there, as well, as you pull back up, nice and tall. Looks great, two more times. Inhale, exhale. Good, one more, inhale, and then exhale, and then come up here nice and tall.

Extend both legs straight out to the ground. Hands out to the front, and we'll slowly peel down to our mat. Inhale. Vertebrae at a time, lower back, mid back, upper back, hands go back over head, big stretch. Very good.

Take a deep breath, and then exhale. (Jason exhales) Very good, bringing both hands down to the sides, bending both knees, bringing each foot up to tabletop. So, we'll do some toe touches here, again, drawing in through that belly. So, inhale, lengthen, toe tap the right toe down to the ground, exhale, pull it back up, switch legs, left foot comes down, inhale, tap, exhale, pull it back up. So, nice and easy, getting that nice length through the hip flexor as you tap down, exhale, inhale on the way down, inhale, lengthen, exhale, back up, (Jason exhales) inhale, lengthen, tap, exhale, back up.

Give you about four more, so two more on each side. Looking good. Get that nice length, nice little tap with the toe. Looks good, breathe. Nice.

So, last one here with the left leg. Little tap toe, and then, keeping your knees here at that 90 degrees, hands can come out to the side. You wanna slowly drop our knees down to the right side, so a little twist. Go your range of motion without really lifting up too much of that left hip. Then, bring it across.

Cross it over, twist the hips side to side now, right? So, now, we're just working again through that lower abs and those lower obliques, right? Looks good. Might get a little crack along the spine there, right? Working out the kinks.

Again, go your speed, your pace. So, you don't wanna go too fast that you torque your back, but nice, and easy, and smooth, and fluid. So, inhale as you go down, exhale, pull it back up. Inhale, drop the knees. Exhale, pull it back up.

We'll do one more on each side, so one more to your right, one more to your left. So, you're dropping the knees down. Exhale it, last one to the left, really feeling those lower ab obliques engage, and then slowly dropping the feet down. Very good. Right foot comes up to the sky, grabbing both hands, either behind a thigh, the calf, depending on your range of motion.

Head comes up to that C curve for scissor kicks. You wanna inhale, exhale. And you're getting that nice stretch through the hamstrings here, while feeling a little bit of engagement through those abs, right? Looks great. Breathe.

Again, your range of motion with all these exercises, do you, okay? Again, if your neck gets tired, you can drop the head down here, right? If you're straining through the front of that neck or anything. Otherwise, in your C curve for one more, with the left foot back, and then slowly pull that right knee in, inhale. Exhale, lengthen.

Inhale, reach, exhale, pull it back, as you continue to breathe. Single leg stretch here, so you're bending one knee at a time, right? Lengthen through the hip flexor. Really get that nice stretch. Pulling the knee in, lengthen it out.

Looks good. You got three, two, last one. Pulling both knees in for double leg stretch. So, you're gonna be here. Inhale, lengthen through the arms and legs.

Circle out with the arms, but keeping both knees in together, pull it back in. Inhale, reach. Exhale, pull it back in, here. Inhale, lengthen, exhale. Again, your head is up in that C curve position the entire time.

You can drop it, again, the head down, if your neck is beginning to strain, right? So, good, do you. You wanna be engaged through that neutral spine right here. Breathe. Inhale, lengthen.

One more. And then slowly pull those knees and hands in together, hands behind the head, brace your head and neck, feet up, straight up to the sky, first position, or Pilates V, with the feet, so heels pressed together. Slowly take those legs down for leg lifts, and then back up. So, inhale, lengthen. You're now really feeling, right?

Those lower abs to that sacral chakra, right here, right? Looks good. Nice. Breathe, inhale, lengthen. Exhale, pull it back up.

Looks good. Two more. (Jason exhales) One more. (Jason exhales) And then relax down, pull those knees in. May have got a little sweat there, nice.

So, go ahead, rock side to side, stretch out that lower back. Looks great. (Jason exhales) And then, slowly, from here, bring those feet down to the ground. So, you're gonna bring the soles of the feet together in that butterfly position here. So, knees open up.

I want you to kinda shimmy your hips so your lower back is flat. Hands come flat down to the ground. We're gonna do butterfly bridges here. So, scoot the heels closer to your butt or your bum, and then you're gonna slowly lift up through the hips, feel that nice stretch in the front of the hips here. Also, lower abs and glutes.

Slowly drop it back down. So, we'll do about six to eight of these nice, easy butterfly bridges. Back up, and back down. Good, so really feel those glutes engage, really feel the hips. Again, the pelvis here, open up here at the top.

Slowly take it back down. Looks good. Squeeze it up, and then slowly back down, exhale it. (Jason exhales) Good, three more. Nice glute squeeze here.

Slowly take it back down. Looks good. And then squeeze back up. We'll do one more. And then back down.

And then squeeze those glutes right back up. Nice, looks great. And then slowly take it back down. Bring both hands behind the head. So, coming up to, again, that C curve, we'll do some crunches here.

Float those feet, still soles together, the feet, and small, little crunch here, right? So, you're gonna exhale, inhale back, exhale as you come up, inhale as you go back. Nice, slow, easy crunches. My feet are about two inches from the ground, maybe a little higher, depending on the strength of your lower back, right? And really feeling those abs here, right?

Looks good, you go three, two, last one. And, relax it down, ah. Very good. Pull those knees in. Nice, little stretch through the lower back, right?

And you can rock side to side. Feels good. And we'll move to frog next. So, hands come behind the head. Again, come up to that C curve, extend those legs over straight out to the top, towards the sky.

Again, first position or Pilates V, with the feet and the heels here, so heels pressed together. Slowly take the legs down just a little bit, maybe 45 degrees, not any lower than that. Pull those knees in for frog. Keep the heels pinned together. Press it out, squeeze glutes, inner thighs, slowly pull it back in, and then press it back out.

Looks good. Again, keeping my lower back flat here, or a neutral spine, right? So, again, you protect your lower back at the same time, so. This is gonna be different for everyone. So, press those heels together, glute, inner thigh, squeeze.

Give me two more. Looks great. Good, one more. Nice. And then slowly pull those knees in, stretch.

Good. So you should really have felt that in those lower abs there, little hip opener, right? So, a lot of these exercises kinda layer from week to week. So, hands behind the head, okay? So, bring your feet straight up.

You can drop your head down. Options here to keep your hands behind the head, or your hands can come down to your side for clock, okay? So, you're gonna start here, you're gonna circle your legs out to the left, bring them down and around, so you're making a little, like a half moon, or circle, come back to the center, stop. Keep that lower back down, then circle back the opposite way so you're reversing that circle, and then come back, stop, right? And then circle around again, feeling that lower belly, and then reverse it back, right?

Go your range of motion with this. Even if you need to bend the knees a little bit, right? To protect, if your hamstrings are super tight, all right, feel free to do so, all right? Do you, this is your practice, right? And then circle back, and then reverse it, breathe, keep those shoulders flat.

Sometimes, the hands behind the head is nice because it allows you to really open up to the chest. Do a little bit more. Good. So, one more time, around, and then reverse it back the opposite way, to the left side. And then pull those knees in, stretch.

Ah, very good. Little rock side to side, feels good. Okay, gonna rock and roll up. Coming to our side now for a little half moon. So, options here, you're gonna come up, stagger your feet.

I'm-a have my right hand fingers pointed out. My right knee can be down to start here, and then my left hand is gonna reach overhead, side body stretch here, and then slowly have a seat back down, feel that lower oblique here on the inside, and then reach, stretch over top. So, again, nice little side body with that lower hip pointer here, and oblique here at the bottom, right? That's the nice stretch about this exercise, right? Is this lower half here.

Really reach it up. So, if it's in your practice to extend both legs out, you can do so, and then really drop it down here, and then inhale, reach. Then exhale, take it back down. Nice, feel that stretch. Reach it up, inhale.

Then exhale. Again, do you. You can have the knee down or legs extended. You know your practice. You know your machine, right?

There you go. Nice, one more. Big stretch up. And then bring it back down. We'll switch sides, very good.

So, same start or setup, so maybe start the left knee down, fingers pointed out here on the left side. Right hand reaches overhead, all right? So, feel that nice stretch. And, again, bring it down. So, you can really feel that hip pointer lower oblique here, and then reach it back up, and then back down.

Reach it back up, and back down, exhale. And then, again, you can do the same thing you did on the other side, if you wanna stagger the feet longer. Reach it up, slowly bring it down, drop those hips, and then really reach it over top. So, again, go your speed. Make sure the elbow, shoulders are stacked up here, right?

Bring it down, nice stretch. So, go slow through this exercise. It's not done fast. Big stretch, good, inhale, and then exhale. Very good.

One more time, nice stretch, feel that hip pointer, lower oblique, right across here, reach it up, and then slowly take it down. From there, we're gonna move right into snake and twist. So stack, elbow, shoulder. Again, options to have one knee bent on the bottom, so that left knee can be bent. As you rotate the top hand, twist, and then reach it up.

If it's in your practice to extend, again, both legs, my right leg is forward, reach it through, thread the needle, look up towards the sky. Inhale, and then exhale. So, just breathe. (Jason exhales) Good, two more. (Jason exhales) Nice, last one.

(Jason exhales) And then relax it down, switch sides. Very good. So, again, stacking, elbow, shoulder, same thing you did on the previous side. If you had that knee bent, snake and twist, rotate it underneath, look up towards the sky, or, if you extended those feet, straight out. Do you.

Lengthen it, exhale, inhale. Good. (Jason exhales) Give me three more. Looks great. Nice.

(Jason exhales) (Jason exhales) One more. And, thread that needle through, hand up to the sky, slowly bring it down. Very good. So, turning you over to all fours for cat cow, and then that will kinda get that nice massage here. So, again, shoulders are stacked over the wrists.

Rounding up through the spine, drawing that belly in here. One more. (Jason exhales) And then slowly coming all the way down to your belly. Good. So, here, we're gonna bring both hands palms back, right?

So, eyes are straight down. Slowly lift up through the chest, peel it open, pull back through those shoulders, draw your lower abs in here, so feel, kinda pull back towards the spine, exhale, take it back down. So, again, inhale, lift it up, exhale, pull it back down. So, really, the key here to focus is to pull that belly in here at the top, then to exhale as you go back down. Draw that belly in.

Maybe squeeze the glutes here at the top. Again, I'm keeping my feet down. My hands are staying down, too, as well, just so we can kinda just focus on pulling back through the shoulder blades, and then really feeling that lower back strengthen right here. One more. Inhale, and then exhale.

Press it back to child's pose, stretch it back, ah. Okay, so, from there, coming back to all fours, okay? So, extending the right leg back, we're gonna go to a high plank. Left leg extends back here. Again, elbows, shoulders stacked.

Pelvic tilt. So, I'm-a rotate my butt or my hips towards the ceiling or the sky, right? Then I'm gonna tuck underneath. So, I'm-a do these simple pelvic tilts in this plank position while I really feel my abs kinda engage here, right? My lower abs especially, by doing the pelvic tilts here, right?

So I'm just moving through the hips here. Rotate to the sky, tuck underneath, right? So, again, elbows, shoulders are stacked. Now, you can come to knees, and kinda do the same thing, tuck, and release. So think 12 o'clock, six o'clock, maybe, on a clock.

Good. So, again, if that's too much to have your knees extended, always bring the knees down, tuck, and release here. Two more. One more. And relax it down.

Good, shake out those arms a little bit. So, we'll do that same thing on the forearms. So, coming down to forearms, extend it back. Same thing, tuck and then release, rotate the hips up, tuck the hips underneath, pelvic tilts, right? Feel it, again, abs turn on a little bit more here, breathe.

(Jason exhales) Give me three. Good, take your time. Two. Again, always options for the knees here, right? Let's do one more, all right, just for fun.

And relax it down, ah. Stretch it out to that child's pose. (Jason exhales) There we go, and then coming forward to low plank again. So, this time, we're gonna do a pike. Drop the hips down, and then gonna press the hips really high to the sky, right?

And then slowly drop the hips down, get a little stretch. They can almost touch the ground. Press back up to that V shape. Back down, drop the hips, press back up. Good, breathe.

Inhale, and then exhale. Exhale it up. (Jason exhales) Nice. Two more times, looks great. Good, exhale it.

(Jason exhales) One more, drop the hips. Good, and then slowly sit back to that child's pose, bring the toes to touch, knees really wide, extend it back, nice. (Jason exhales) So, next, we're gonna move into a flow. So, keeping your knees in this child's pose position, you're gonna slowly shift your weight forward, drop the hips to almost like a little up dog here, lift through the chest, and then slowly press it back. So, this is just a nice, easy flow to kind of work those kinks out.

Round the back here as you come up, maybe a little cat back to up dog here, pull the shoulders back. Nice, easy flow here, right? So it's nice having the knees wide so you get that little hip opener stretch, you feel, again, right across the front of the hips here into that lower ab, right? Nice little stretch here, into the lower back, maybe look up. Looks good.

Nice stretch here. So, it's almost like my hands don't even move here in the front. (Jason exhales) I'm just moving through the pelvis, nice and easy, nice and gentle. Good. (Jason exhales) And you'll sit back one more time, and then you'll slowly come forward all the way down to your belly.

Nice. And then you can fold the hands or stack the hands, top here, maybe bringing one ear to the shoulder, and you'll bend the knees here, and then just windshield wipe the legs side to side. So, kinda loosening up that lower back. I'm getting this nice and easy side to side windshield wipe, loosen up that lower back, feel that belly. And then slowly stretch out the legs to the ground.

So, here, you're gonna bring both hands back to the sides, and again, turn one ear to the right shoulder, maybe, or to the left, each one, whichever's more comfortable for you. And just gonna breathe here. So, I want you to take a nice, easy, deep breath, let your belly fill up. So your belly will press into the mat. Then exhale, contract it.

(Jason exhales) Inhale, let it fill up. And then feel your lower back spread as you inhale, exhale, let it contract. (Jason exhales) Good, inhale. And then exhale. (Jason exhales) Inhale.

Then exhale. (Jason exhales) Breathe in. So, again, laying that belly, the compression, really kinda, like, loosen up that lower back. As you exhale, let that belly contract back towards the spine. It should feel pretty good for the hips.

You can even shimmy the hips now side to side, but kinda loosen that up. So, you let go of that breath. (Jason exhales) And then you'll slowly bring the hands underneath the shoulders, press back to your heels here so you're just kneeling nice and easy here, and we'll go into our reiki meditation from this point. So, again, if this position is too much, you can always fold the legs and just sit as we were earlier in class, okay? All right, so you're gonna sit back to the heels here, you're gonna bring your fingers or hands together here.

You're gonna leave a little space in between here, right? So we did this last time. So, this is our reiki meditation. So, keeping that space there, bring your awareness to that space in between your hands and your palms, okay? So, you may or may not feel a little bit of energy start to swirl around there, like that static electricity, right?

So, if you can't feel that, start to kinda maybe, like, move your hands, like twisting and twisting. You might start to feel a little bit of heat there, and it'll be a little bit warmer than just, like, it could be hot, right? If your hands aren't touching, it'll be warmer than just your hands touching your thigh, right? Good, so you might feel a little bit, like I said, static electricity. Just know that's your reiki, that's your energy, right?

We can use this anywhere in our bodies, right? I'm just doing a nice, easy twist side to side here, right? You can either go that way, you can bring it in and out. Again, if you don't feel it, don't worry. Know that it's there.

You can also maybe rub the hands together a little bit, and come back to that little space in between. Now, keeping those fingers to touch, close the eyes, keeping that space in between the palms. Take a nice, easy inhale. And an easy exhale. (Jason exhales) Easy inhale.

Easy exhale. (Jason exhales) Breathing in through your nose, out through the mouth. (Jason exhales) And again, keeping your awareness to the space in between the palms, feeling that energy source, that reiki. Know that it is your energy. And again, here, you're gonna take your left hand, and gonna bring that right below the belly, as we did earlier, and then you're gonna take the other hand, bring that on top of that hand, and just feel the energy from the palm of your hand, right below the belly, or even at the belly, belly button there.

(Jason exhales) So, maybe feel a little bit of heat, little bit of energy there. Again, don't worry if you don't. Know that your reiki is working. Now, bring your awareness to the color orange. Continue to take nice, easy, gentle breaths.

Again, our sacral chakra's our emotion, our creativity chakra. So, this is a great practice if you need a little more creativity in your life, a little more inspiration, a little more vitality. This is a great practice to do for enhancing those emotions, enhancing your creativity, bringing sensuality, vitality into your life. Maybe even using the mantra I love my body, I love myself. Again, if thoughts arise, it's okay.

It's part of meditation. This is your practice. It's for no one else. So let go, allow your belly to relax. Allow your mind to relax.

Take one more nice, easy inhale through your nose, let your belly fill up. Nice, easy exhale out the mouth. (Jason exhales) One more time, inhaling through the nose. Exhaling out the mouth. (Jason exhales) And releasing your hands down to your lap, and just feel the sensation.

Feel your spine, your lower spine, the base of the spine, your belly below. Maybe it feels a little bit longer. Maybe you feel a little more calmer, relaxed. Maybe not. Again, sometimes, the effects kick in later, after your practice, so no worries if you didn't feel any of the heat or energy right now.

Just know that it worked. It worked for what you needed. And as I count down from 10, you'll slowly blink the eyes open. 10. Nine.

Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four.

Three. Two. And one. Ah. Thank you for joining me.

I appreciate you being here. Excited to see you next time, and we'll see you again, thank you.