Trust Mat Flow

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome, I'm Jason Williams here with Pilates Anytime. Thank you for joining me. Today's class in our vital restoration series is Trust Mat Flow. So, we're moving up the chakra system to our third eye, right, right between the eyes here, which is associated with intuition, right?

So we're all very interested, interested in our intuition, trusting our intuition, using our intuition, when to use it, when to flow with it. And that's why we're incorporating our mat and our trust today in our practice and trusting your body, right? And knowing what's good for your body and trusting your intuition about your body, okay. So think the color purple, which is associated with the third eye, okay. We're going to start with a nice meditation, we'll flow, and then we'll end with some Reiki, okay.

So find a nice, comfortable seat, wherever you are. And again, your legs can be crossed, have your hands to your laps, if you want to have your palms up, that's welcome to as well. And then we're gonna start with our eyes open today for our meditation. So open eye meditation, which is a little bit different. So take a deep breath for me, I want you to inhale, and exhale.

Good, inhale, and exhale. Good, one more time. Breathing in. And out. Good, so keeping your eyes open, I just want you to notice your surroundings.

So you're kind of taking a little snapshot of what's around you. So looking at the area in your room, maybe if you're outside, notice also what you're wearing, your clothing, how you're seated. So with the open eye meditation here, we're just kind of focusing forward. And this kind of breaks into that conscious part of, we're interacting with one another, being present. So we're not being distracted by what's going on outside around us, but we're just here, right, you and I.

And while it might be a little bit stranger or hard to kind of focus on visually with our eyes open in meditating. But this is what we ultimately want to get to, is where we can be present with each other, and be focused on each other, and hear what we're saying, listening to what we're saying. So we'll stay here for a few seconds, and you can just kind of gaze forward. Good. Continue to breathe.

Relax your face, relax your jaw. Relax your hands, your fingers. Relaxing the shoulders. And as we're here, continue to gaze here. You might notice things may get a little blurry, maybe on that outside parts of your vision.

That's kind of normal because you're now focusing in, you're honing in on what's in front of you. So essentially, we're calming all the other senses. Take one more nice, easy inhale. Easy exhale. Good.

You can go ahead and blink the eyes, maybe bring your head side to side. You can even close your eyes, maybe here now. Just to get a nice easy stretch. Kind of reset your eyes. Nice, easy, side to side bend in the neck, stretching out the traps a little bit here on each side, the upper part of shoulders.

Now all the movements that we do today are going to be very triangular. So think that V-shape, that we're gonna have, or that triangle shape. And just give me a nice, easy neck roll, head circle down around, looking up towards the sky, loosening up the neck, the shoulders. Good. And then reverse that in the opposite way.

Dropping the chin down and around, looking up should feel good. Releasing some stress in the neck. Good. And if your eyes are closed, go ahead and open them back up, returning your head to neutral, making that triangle shape, or V-shape here with your hands. Bring your hands overhead, and we're gonna slowly bring your hands behind your head for a nice shoulder stretch.

Now, if this is it, this is it. I'm gonna lift my chin up here. You'll feel a big stretch through the shoulders, all right, in your chest and then kind of press back up towards the sky. So we're kind of just going to shave the arms back and up, right, opening up the shoulders a little bit. And again, if you have some shoulder issues, maybe you want to just go to that goalpost arms here, right?

And then back up, maybe bring the hands together to that V and then open it back up, stretching the shoulders, kind of pinching your shoulder blades. But otherwise, try to keep the index fingers and your thumbs that touch behind the head, press it back up. Good, nice shoulder opening movement here, opening through the chest. Try to lift that chin up a little bit, yeah. And really feel the shoulders here, you might feel a little bit of a burn, that's okay.

Again, working on our posture here too, as well. Again, do you. Again, like I say, always open up through the hands a little bit to the goalpost arms, hands together, and then open it back up. Awesome. Pinching back to the shoulders.

So now keeping those hands, if you haven't done so, and that V-shape behind the head, last time. Now open up, we'll all do the goalpost arms together, pinching back through those shoulder blades and then bringing your hands back to that V-shape overhead, or that triangular shape, and then open it back up. Good, let's do one more like that. Very good, breathe. Inhale, exhale.

Awesome. And then bring your hands down to the side. Nice easy side to side stretch, opening up through the rib cage. Nice, easy flow. Really feeling that to the back as well.

And I love doing the third eye chakra. This is one of my favorite chakra's, because it's great to think about your intuition and trusting yourself, which I believe we all need to do more of, especially when it comes to decision making and things like that, right? Good, and bringing focus and awareness there. Last one here. Good.

And then slowly bring your hands down. I'm going to bring my left leg out, keeping my right foot in for a hurdler stretch. So again, it's kind of that V-shape here, right hand comes up to the sky. You're going to twist the cross the body here, so my right hand across to my left foot, I'm going to grab outside of my shin, or the knee, or the foot, depending on your flexibility, and do a nice, easy pull and stretch across. So you're going to feel that along this hamstring, wrapping around to the back here, right?

Nice stretch. It's going to feel really good across the back and that hamstring. And then open it back up again, we'll do two more just like that. Good. So right hand comes back up, reach down and across.

Good. And stretch, awesome. And then back up, reach, big stretch here to the sky, open it and then close it across here, nice. Awesome stretch, take a deep breath, hold it here now. Exhale.

Well done, bring it back up, switch sides. Very good. So now, left foot comes around, left hand up, right leg straight out, bring it around and across. And you'll notice one side will be a little bit tighter. Again, that's normal.

And then feel that stretch. Again, your range of motion, maybe grab at the shin or the knee, right? Do you. Take a deep breath, inhale. Exhale.

Good, breathe in, and out. Nice pull. And then come back up, reach, two more, open it up and then bring it down around and across. Nice stretch through that hamstring, lower back, even into that mid back and thoracic area, which we all need a nice little twist. Back up to the sky.

Inhale, exhale, take it across again. Great stretch, looks great. Breathe in. And out. Awesome.

And then come back up, switch back to that left foot, right foot in, so we're switching back to that first side. I'm bringing my right hand behind me, left hand in front, and I'm going to press up. So now, kind of like my hurdler stretch, but now I'm gonna do a reach and stretch. So, again, create a little V-shape here in the front, bring it back down and relax. We got two to three more of those.

Inhale reaching up, press through that back palm, and then back down. Nice stretch. Open it up and inhale through the body. Last one, press it up, reach. Awesome stretch here.

And then slowly set it back down. Perfect. Right leg out, we'll switch sides so my left hand is going to go behind me, fingers facing away, right palm up, press up, reach, reach, reach. Open body stretch feels great. And then exhale, let's take it back down.

Nice. Inhale, reach it back up. Nice stretch, opening up through the front of the body. Exhale, take it back down. Looks great.

Inhale, reach it back up. Awesome. And then slowly take it back down, very good. Bringing both feet together, soles of the feet for our butterfly stretch. Again, maybe scooting the feet out a little bit to the front, again, that V-shape here, the legs out.

Sit up nice and tall to the sitz bones and then slowly walk your fingers forward to get a nice hip and lower back stretch here. Good, take a deep breath, inhale. Now drop your chin down, exhale, fold forward. Good, inhale. And exhale.

Do it one more time, inhale. And exhale. Nice, inhale. And exhale. Keeping your feet in that same position, sit up nice and tall, side to side butterfly stretch now.

So left hand reaches over top, and then switch it, right hand over top, nice. So we're keeping our hips open while stretching our side body here, on both sides. Good, breathing in through your nose. Good, out through the mouth. Awesome, well done, looks great.

Breathing in. And out. Inhale, and exhale. And then slowly come back down to the center, walking those feet out for our seal. So here, feet are about little bit wider than hip width apart, hands out to the side to that T shape.

You're going to pivot, my left hand is going to pivot across to my right foot, looking back and away. Good, exhale here. Inhale, back up to the center, switch sides, right hand outside the left foot. Exhale, back up to the middle, inhale. And then keep repeating that, taking across the body.

Exhale, inhale, and then exhale. Good. So now really getting nice hamstring, kind of combining that hurdler stretch before from the single side to getting both sides now and take it across. Great stretch. Lift through the chest, chin up, take it across.

Again, your range of motion, right? Even if you only go to the shin, that's fine. Do you. This is your practice, trust yourself, trust your flow. Breathe.

Good, last one here. And come back to the center, relax, good. So moving on to seal, bringing those feet together, back to the soles of the feet. I'm going to bring my hands underneath to my feet here for seal so when I start with that three taps, one, two, three, you're gonna roll back. Come up to that seated position, nice and tall, right.

And then one, two, three, roll it back. So working in the third still. Triangle shape one, two, three, roll it down the back, nice stretch, sit up nice and tall. Good, one, two, three, roll it back. Sit up nice and tall to reach vertebrae, stacking the spine.

One, two, three. And again, if this is too much, you can always just go to roll like a ball here and then come up, maybe three clicks with the heels and then roll like a ball, okay? So those are your options. Give you about three or four more. Inhale, and then exhale as you go back over.

One, two, three, take it over top. One, two, three, take it over top. Last one. Go one, two, three. Moving to open leg rocker now, all right.

Options for bringing our hands outside the knees here, or having that V shape here, right? Take it back, inhale. And then exhale, lift up nice and tall, all right. Inhale, take it back. Exhale, nice and tall, stacking the spine.

Good. So again, you can either go at the ankles, if that's too much, maybe bending the knees, open leg rocker here, lift up nice and tall through the spine, all right. Looks great, round it back. Stacking the vertebrae, nice and tall. Good, do you.

So give me two more. Good, one more. Ah, looks good. You guys are doing great. And relax it down, very good.

Moving to boomerang next, everyone's favorite. So you're gonna cross your right foot over your left. I'm gonna bring my hands back. So this is gonna kind of be the position we end in. You're not gonna use your hands as you scoop through it, right?

So, you're gonna roll back, switch legs here, come through, reach forward, right? So come through, go slow, roll back. Again, we've done this, switching across your legs, peel it down and then come through, drop it down. Okay so, again, this is trusting your mat, trusting your flow, trusting yourself, right? Slowly roll it down, sweep it through it, all right.

Again, my hands aren't touching. Now, if you need the help of the hands, feel free to do so, maybe bring the hands down, come through and then reach, right? So you can use the hands if you need to, to help you out, okay. Good, safety first, right? Always want to protect your back and your spine.

Good, give me about three more. Inhale. Exhale, roll it down, reach it through. Good, inhale. And then slowly peel it down, take it through.

Let's do one more for fun, all right? Good. And take it over top. Peel it down. And relax.

Nice job, well done. So let's go to our backs. Okay, we'll just do some scissor kicks. So hands can come behind the calf or the thigh, head up to that C curve, you'll inhale and then exhale. Inhale.

Exhale. Good. So again, looking forward here through my legs, keeping your legs within the midline here. Nice hamstring pull stretch. Head is up to that C curve.

Again, you're not straining the neck. Let's go to, we got four, three, two, last one and relax. Pull the knees in and relax. Good. Breathe.

And then slowly bring those feet flat, okay. So bringing the soles of the feet together here, right? And scoot your heels closer to your, to your butt. Hands flat, now you're gonna bridge for a butterfly bridge. Feel the hips open here.

Again, you're in that V shape, drop the hips down. Good. And we'll do about six to eight of these. Bridge it back up, squeeze, feel the glutes, and then back down, nice. Chin up here, eyes to the ceiling, bridge it up.

Awesome, and then back down. Good. Bridge it back up. And back down. Good, inhale up, and back down.

Last, two more. Looks great. And then back down. Good, one more time. Bridge it up, inhale, and then back down, awesome.

Now, keeping the soles of your feet together, make that C curve, lift the head up, slide your hands down, but float them off the ground, lift the feet. Now you're just gonna pump here. So you're gonna breathe in two, three, four, five, and out two, three, four, five. So a version of the 100 with our butterfly legs. Looks good, breathe in, two, three, four, five, and out two, three, four, five.

Inhale two, three, four, five, and out two, three, four, five. Breathe in, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five. Breathe in, two, three, four, five, and out, two, three, four, five. Breathe in, two, three, four, five, and out, two, if this starts to hurt, bring those knees together, that's fine. Four, five, and out two, three, four, five.

Inhale, two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five. Two more, two, three, four, five, and out two, three, four, five. Inhale, two, three, four, five, and out, two, three, four, five, relax. Pull those knees in. Ah.

Good. Rock it out, side to side. May have got a little sweat there, right? Good. So now, I'll move it to a teaser, right?

So bring your hands overhead, bring those feet about 45 degrees, you know, slowly inhale, exhale, take it up for your teaser, and then slowly take it back down, drop the legs just a little, protect your back. Take it back up. Woo, there we go. And then slowly take it back down, hands reach back. Inhale.

Exhale. Good, now you can always bring the hands behind the legs here if you need a little more help, right. And then slowly take it back down, scoop through up, and then slowly take it back down. Two more times. So really feeling those abs here, trust in yourself.

Good, last one. Awesome, maybe bringing the hands to the legs, pull the knees in, and then slowly relax it down. Nice. Very good. So now stacking your right foot over top of your left shin.

Okay, so it's just below the knee, my heel here, right? And then bring your hands behind the head to that C curve, lift up through the feet. So again, I'm in that triangle shape with my legs and I kind of just rock down and up. So it's a little bit of a ab exercise, or lower ab, right? Flexing the feet, looks good.

Give me two more, we won't do many. Good, one more, brace your head and neck with your hands. Good, and then slowly bring that down. Switch sides, all right. So that triangle shape.

So my left shin's on my, my left foot to my right shin, bring it up, lift the head to that C curve, drop it down. Flex your bottom foot here, that'll kind of keep everything intact. Good, breathe. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, and exhale.

Two more. Good, one more. And relax knees back in to the chest. Nice. Well done, breathe in, and out.

Good. So let's turn over to our side now. And we're gonna pull our knees up here, my hands are going to be behind the head, you can have one hand down to the mat for support. So knees come up a little bit in that V shape, for a little clam here, drop the knee down, and then back up. My back is flat here, so you might have to adjust a little bit, so good, nice little hip opener here.

Get in another kind of angled or triangle shape with the legs. Good. Three. Good, two. Nice, Last one.

Now kick up to the sky, right? And then bring it back down, right, knee to knee. Back up, and then back down, knee to knee. Looks good. Inhale, and exhale.

Inhale, and exhale. Good, two more. Good, one more. And we'll do a little hot potato next, stretch it out. So three taps with the foot, using the heel of my foot.

One, two, three to the front of the mat. Back up, come behind that leg, one, two, three, up. One, two, three, kick. One, two, three, up. One, two, three, kick.

Come on, nice, get a little hip work. Making that triangle shape, three taps. Again, working with our threes for that third eye intuition. Looks good. One, two, three, up.

One, two, three, kick. Last one, to the front. Good. One, two, three, last one to the back. Two, three, and relax.

Switch sides, well done. So now, again, opposite side here. Pull those knees in for clam, top leg is gonna lift up. Again, flatten that back here. Again, one side will be a little bit tighter, that's okay.

You can have one hand down for support, right? Opening up through that knee. Good. Maybe getting, readjust on the ground to flatten that spine or that back here. Good.

Looks good, breathe. Nice. Looks good, two more. Good, one more. And then kick up to the sky.

Bring it back together. Kick up to the sky. Bring it back together, nice. Looks great. Good.

We got five. Good, four. Nice, three. Two, looks good. Exhale it, last one.

And you know what's next, right? Three taps, straighten out the legs, heel comes to the front first. One, two, three, kick, come behind that foot, up. Nice, one, two, three, kick. Come behind, two, three, up.

One, two, three, kick. One, two, three, up. Nice, good. I'm using the heel, now if the heels too much to rotate, you can always use your toe or your big toe, right? So maybe rotate it down, two, three, up.

Come behind, two, three, up, right? Again, do you, do what works. Again, trust yourself, trust your flow. And up one, two, three, kick. One, two, three, up.

Last one to the front. Last once to the back, and relax. Good. Roll over to your belly, press back to a child's pose stretch. Good.

Take a deep breath, inhale, and exhale. And then coming forward, pressing back, kind of to that down dog. So you're in a V shape here, right? We're in that triangle shape with our hips. Again, take a deep breath, inhale, and then slowly pull that right knee in.

Push pull with the back foot. Press back to that V shape, switch legs. Pull that knee in, push pull that back foot. Get that nice calf stretch. Nice, easy flow here, take your time.

Big stretch. Shift the weight forward. Good. Take your time. Breathe, inhale, and exhale.

Inhale, and exhale. Good, one more. And then slowly set it back down. Relax, good. So on all fours here, I'm gonna extend my right foot back.

So another triangle shape here, you're gonna kick up, cross over outside your mat. So crossing my body, then lift up and outside the mat here. So drawing a triangle with that back foot, kick, and kick. Good. So here you get a little glute, right?

A nice little stretch here into that hip pointer and IT, as you cross it over. Good, you got four. Nice, three. Good, two. Last one, and relax.

Good, switch sides. Lift that foot, left leg, cross it over, tap outside the mat, lift up and over, tap outside the mat, right? So you're just touching, and get that big kick, feel that glute. Again, breathe. Awesome.

Again, trust yourself. Breathe. Draw the belly in. Again, if it gets too hard on your hands, you can always go to forearms and do this too, as well. That's okay, right.

Got three. Good, two. Nice, last one, and relax. Good. Still on my knees here.

So extending my left leg out, I'm on my right knee, okay. Again, so that kind of V shape here in between my legs, and just a nice, easy rock front to back, hip inner thigh stretch, good. So this should feel, again, really good in the hips. Good. And if you feel a little bit more maybe here in the back, maybe sit back here.

My foot is flexed in the back, but you can have that toe on top too, as well, if you want to sit back, all right. So do you, if you want a little bit more, maybe go to the forearms. Good. And then come back up to your hands. Extend out, nice, easy side to side flow.

Still in that V shape, reach that right hand. Ah, good. Back and forth. Looks great. Awesome, two more.

Good, one more time, right to left. And then we'll switch sides. Awesome, that feels wonderful. Good, come on down, left knee comes in, right leg extends out. All right, and then we'll start that front to back, here and here, right?

So stay back to the heel. Again, that foot can be flushed or untucked here in the back. Okay, if you want more of stretch to that inner thigh hip, maybe go to the forearm, same thing. Nice, easy flow here and that triangle shape, right? Invoking that third eye intuition, trusting yourself, trusting your intuition.

All right, and then come back up to the center here. Good, hands come out to that T shape, set it up, and then you'll reach. My left hand is down, right hand overhead. Back the other way. Great, stretch through that back, hip, inner thigh, side body stretch, take your time.

Nice, east flow. Good. Awesome, well done. Breathe, inhale. Exhale.

Inhale, last one to this side, right hand over head. And then last one, here. Very good, come on down, bring that knee in. So go ahead, sit back, fold the legs. Take your time getting there.

Okay, we'll set up for Reiki meditation. So bringing the palms of the hands together. So again, remember, leave a little space in between that palm, the palms here, so you can generate the heat and feel your own energy. All right, so you can start by, if you can't feel it quite yet, maybe rub the hands together, right. And maybe bring your hands in and out, side to side.

You can kind of spin that way, but still keeping that space right in between the palms here, all right. So not touching my hands but I'm just kind of feeling for that energy, that static electricity. Good, so coming back to the center, fingertips touch, thumbs are touching too. Again, leaving a space in between. Go ahead and close the eyes.

And again, bringing that awareness to that space in between your palms. So maybe you're starting to feel a little bit of heat, a little bit of energy, and it's going to be a little bit different than just warmth, it should feel like a little like, ball of energy or electricity or static, or just warmth that is other than just your hands. And don't worry if you don't feel it today, just know that it's there. And then you're going to take your right hand, and you're gonna paste your palm right in front of your forehead, kind of right, right above the eyebrow there or in between. So invoking our third eye chakra.

And as your eyes are closed, maybe think about the color purple. Maybe even invoking a mantra of, open my intuition, open my intuition, open my intuition, open my intuition. Again, you can leave a little bit of a space between your hand and your forehead, or you can even touch, it's up to you. But you may be feeling the heat more if you kind of leave your hand off of your forehead. And if this gets tired, switch hands, maybe go on to the left.

And you may feel it more on one hand than the other. And you might know that it's working, and trust that it's working. It's benefiting you. And this is your energy, it's no one else's. This is your time.

So when you're trusting your gut, trusting that feeling, that kind of tells you to do something or not do something. Listening to that voice more. That's your intuition. And then bring your hands down to your lap, and then continue that awareness right into the center of your eyes, that focus. And always trusting yourself, trusting your body, trusting your intuition.

When I need to speed up or slow down, when I need to take a break. Now I'm bringing hands to heart center. I'll end with a little Reiki meditation prayer, or mantra. So I'll say it in Japanese first, and then English second. (speaking foreign language) Just for today, do not worry, do not anger.

Be grateful, work hard, be kind to others. Take one final nice, easy inhale, and exhale. And you'll slowly, softly, gently blink the eyes open. And it was an honor and pleasure to have you in class today. Thank you for joining me.