Enlighten Relaxation

Hello. Hello. I'm Jason Williams here with Pilates Anytime. Thank you all for joining me for our seventh class in Vital Restoration, Enlightened Relaxation. I'm really excited to teach this class. Now we're getting into the crown chakra, which is right above our head here.

Our crown chakra, think of it as our higher self, so knowing our purpose, knowing who we are, enlightenment. It's also associated with the color violet. Whereas previously, the third eye chakra was more purple, this is we're getting a little bit lighter in the purple color to violet. We'll start with a meditation, we'll do a little visualization, we'll flow, we'll move, and we'll end with a nice reiki practice as well. Find a nice comfortable seat wherever you are.

Again, your legs can be crossed, they can be straight out. More relaxed your body is, the more relaxed your mind's gonna be. We'll start with a nice visual meditation here. Go ahead and close the eyes, and go ahead, take a nice, easy inhale through your nose. (Jason inhaling) Easy exhale out the mouth. (exhaling) Good. Easy inhale through your nose. (inhaling) Easy exhale out the mouth. (exhaling) Good. One more time.

Breathing in (inhaling) and out. (exhaling) Good, and coming to a nice, easy breath, nice and light, and I just want you to visualize how you are seated. You're coming from a place of as if you're looking at yourself right now. What are you wearing? How are you seated? Are your legs crossed, straight out? How's your posture?

What's your hair like? What clothes are you wearing? We're gathering this outside experience as we look at ourselves to start to begin to know how we move, what we need, what we want, and as you're gathering this information about yourself and you're seeing yourself from another perspective, know that you can only know what you need for you, and even as you notice how you're seated, what you look like visually, what's around you, what's the room look like? And all this is bringing us here to now, bringing us in the present moment awareness. Not only are we looking internally, but we're looking externally at ourselves, and now bring your focus or your vision, as your eyes are closed, to that space in front of the eyes, that dark space, that blank space, and there may be some light creeping in, it may be completely black, maybe you're seeing some colors, and just know that that space, that blank space is you.

You're infinite, blissful, endless, and making the connection between your mind and your body. Relax your face and jaw. Relax your eyes. Maybe wiggle the hands, the fingers. Relax your feet and wiggle the feet and toes. As we prepare to move, get out all those kinks, the fidgets, so you can be here and present.

Be present with your breath, with your body, and your higher self. Then you'll slowly, softly, lightly blink the eyes open. Nice. Then you'll slowly start to bring your hands behind the head, take in and interlace the fingers here, and I'm gonna just do some nice neck stretches. You're gonna slowly look up towards the ceiling, keeping your elbows open, and then around forward.

Stretch for that upper back and neck, and then open it back up. Open the elbows. Look up toward the ceiling. Nice and easy and then around forward. We're just getting a nice stretch now through that upper back and neck, really thinking about our posture here. If you've been seated all week, it's nice to really open up here through the chest and shoulders and also stretch that back of the neck and traps.

Nice, easy, and you can breathe and flow with this. Go your pace. (inhaling) Inhale and exhale. (exhaling) Good. Give me two more. Nice and easy. (exhaling) Good. Last one, open it up, around forward, and then from here, sitting up nice and tall, a nice easy side stretch.

Keep your hands behind the head. Really feel that rib cage then back again. Side to side. Nice, easy movements. Feels good to stretch that rib cage while keeping the shoulders open. Good. Breathe.

Inhale, (inhaling) exhale. (exhaling) Inhale and exhale. Ah, feels good, and again, with this practice, this is gonna open you up to your higher self, to your enlightenment and relaxation this day. One more time. Inhale, exhale, and then coming back to the center we'll do, keeping your hands here, nice, easy twist side to side. Here, you can move maybe a little more fluid and quicker as we open up through the spine now.

You should start to feel those shoulders. Good. Nice. Breathe. Inhale. Exhale looking to the right. Again, this keeps our head in a nice neutral position.

Looks good. Breathe. You got three, two, one, and relax the shoulders down. Gonna roll them out a little bit. Next thing we'll do is some palm flips. Extending my arms out to the side, flip my palms up to the sky and my hands are just below my shoulder, so I'm not engaging my traps.

Flip 'em back. Flip 'em palms up. Flip 'em back. Just rotating through the shoulder joint here. Good. Shoulder blades are back. Chin up. Nice tall spine.

Good. Now we're going a little bit movement in those shoulders if they're feeling a little tight. Good. Might get a little bit of a burn. That's okay. Awesome. You got four, three, nice, two and one.

Good, relax it down. Good. Give me a nice, easy neck roll stretching out the traps and shoulders and then reversing the opposite way. Good, and then slowly walking our feet out to a nice bent knee here. We're gonna do roll like a ball. Hands can be either behind the knee or above and below the knee here.

You slowly start to lift those feet off the ground, just engage your inner thighs. Tuck your chin down into your chest. Roll back. Inhale. Exhale. Come right back up. Nice and tall here.

Again, my feet aren't touching the ground. Around through the spine, getting that nice massaging action through the back. Good. Around and down and back up, nice and tall. Lift. Perfect. Around and down.

Ah, feels good, that massaging action along the spine, and again, if you need to actually put the feet down, that's okay to reset. Do you. This is your practice. Good, so give me two more. Nice. One more. Looks good, around and down, and then you'll come all the way up.

Extend those legs straight out. Hands come right in front of the chest here. Slowly, vertebrae at a time, start to roll down. Looks excellent, and then hands come back overhead for full body roll-ups. Inhale. (inhaling) Exhale.

Start to peel up, up, up, stacking the vertebrate. Exhale. Take it over. Good. Drop the chin down. Slowly roll, vertebrae at a time, articulating through the spine, lower back, mid back and then upper. Inhale. (inhaling) Exhale. (exhaling) Lift it up, nice and tall.

Reach forward. Stretch. Get that nice stretch through the back, hamstrings. Roll it down. Take your time articulating through the spine, lower back, the lumbar, thoracic and cervical. Here we go. Inhale. (inhaling) Exhale. (exhaling) Nice and tall. Reach forward.

Stretch. Very good. Roll it down, taking your time. Good. Let's do one more. Inhale. Exhale it up. Nice. Looks great.

Again, and here when you're doing your roll-ups, you don't have to go, if here to here is what you want to do, that's fine. You don't have to go all the way down. We'll add one more in there just so you know that modification. Again, you know your body, you know your machine. Inhale. Exhale.

Roll it up, nice and tall. Good, and then peel it back down. That's it. Well done. Good. Reverse roll-ups next, one of my favorites.

Hands will be flat. You're gonna bring your feet, again, stacking the feet right over the hips here to start, and you're gonna slowly drop the legs down, and keeping your hands flat, peel off the mat. Reach those feet overhead and then slowly start to roll down. Feel that lower back, even that mid back here. Peel, peel, peel, and then feet go to about 45 degrees, and I'll take it back over.

Inhale, exhale, (exhaling) and then slowly start to roll it down. Again, if you need the hands there, bring them down. Nice, and then taking these feet to 45. Good. Feels good. Now we're reversing our backstretch, getting that mid to lower half here and that lumbar spine.

Roll it down, down, down. Very good. Let's do one more. Let's do two more, and then take it over top. Ah, feels good, and then slowly, slowly, slowly peel it down. Looks great. Last one.

Here we go, and inhale, exhale. Take it over top. Again, slowly peel it down. Nice, and then bring your feet to the ground. Stretch it out.

Now we combine that with our full roll-up. We're gonna do all both of the last two. You'll inhale. Hands go overhead. Exhale. Roll all the way up, up, up. Reach forward. Stretch.

Good, and then slowly, vertebrae at a time, take it down. Now move slow as you go to your reverse roll-up now, then the feet come up, reach, and then slowly peel it down. Feet go all the way to the ground here. Hands overhead. Inhale. Exhale. Roll it up. Perfect.

Reach forward. Slowly peel it down. Again, go your pace, your speed here, and then hands come down to the sides. Feet right back up. Take it over top and then peel it down. There you go.

Again, go your speed if you need to do one foot at a time. Hands overhead. Roll it up. Exhale. Perfect. Reach forward and stretch. Roll it down, vertebrae at a time.

Awesome. Nice total body stretch here. Your hands are flat, feet back over top. Nice stretch. Exhale it. Take it down. Again, go your speed.

You can just drop, bend one knee at a time. Inhale. Exhale. Lift it up. Nice. Last one here. Feet over top.

Good, and then slowly peel, peel, peel, and then you'll bend the knees so your feet are flat to the ground here. Perfect. Awesome job. Hands are flat. We'll go into our bridges. Tuck your pelvis. Roll those hips up to the sky. You're pressing through the heels and then slowly peel it back down.

Keep those shoulder blades down and back. Option to bring the hands in front of the chest here. Tuck the pelvis. Roll it up. Well done, and then slowly peel it back down. Good.

Pressing through the heels, getting that nice glute, hamstring activation, even hip flexor stretch here at the top. Roll it back down. Well done. Good. Tuck the pelvis. Roll it up. Squeeze through the glutes and then exhale it. (exhaling) Roll it back down.

Awesome. Two more. Tuck the pelvis. Roll it up. Squeeze through those glutes and then slowly exhale it. Roll it back down. Okay, so from here, you're gonna pull the knees into the chest, get a little stretch, and we're gonna move now into teaser.

Feet are gonna come straight out here. You've got a 45 degree angle. Hands come back overhead. You're gonna inhale, exhale, come all the way up. If you want to reset, grab the feet or ankles here, good, and then slowly take it back down. Hands go back overhead.

Inhale. Exhale. Take it, sweep it back up. Again, maybe reset with your hands, voila, and then slowly take it back down and inhale. (inhaling) Exhale. (exhaling) Chin up. Chest up. Aha, good, and then slowly take it back down and reach. Let's do three to four more.

Inhale, exhale it up. Good. You can always bend your knees here if that's an option for you. It's your safety first. Exhale. Take it back down. Nice. Inhale. Exhale. (exhaling) Good, and then slowly take it back down and release.

Inhale. (inhaling) Exhale. (exhaling) Good. Draw that belly in. Ah, perfecto, and then slowly roll it back down. Awesome. Let's do two more since you are doing so well with that. Exhale it up. (exhaling) Good, and then slowly take it back down.

Last one. Inhale. Exhale it up. Sweep. Good, and then slowly take it back down. Pull those knees into the chest. Ah, rock it out side to side.

Very good. Now I'm gonna move into rocker. You can rock and roll yourself up to seated. Options here, again, if you don't have the hamstring flexibility, maybe you grab behind the knee here. Knees are a little bit wider, so I'll show you here in that angle, or you can extend from the hands here to the ankles.

Those are the two options. If you're here, all right, and you're just gonna slowly roll then come back up, woo, to that seated position, and then slowly back down. Exhale it back up, nice and tall. Good. Again, your range of motion on the way back or grabbing here behind the knee and maybe extending and then you can bend the knees.

Sit up nice and tall through the spine, the assist bones. Here we go. Inhale. Exhale it up. Lift the chin and chest. Good. Inhale. Exhale.

Come on back. Again, option here. Inhale. Exhale it up. Let's do two more. It looks great. Lift up nice and tall. Take it back.

Here we go, and relax it down. Very good. Setting up for boomerang. We're getting very tricky today. I'm gonna cross my left over right here. Hands are gonna start here.

If you need to use the hand to help yourself pull through and sweep through, feel free to do so, otherwise you're gonna be here. Set it up. Again, going over top. Switch legs and palms are up here. Roll it down. Come through, my hands aren't touching, and then bend forward, and then coming through.

Switch. Roll it back down. Come through and back. Again, if you need to use the hands to help you come through here, switch, roll down, that's okay. You'll get there. Again, trust yourself.

Your higher self will get you there. Good, 'cause you know what you need. You know what you can do. You know where you can go to. Keep that endless possibility as you just flow through.

Good. Inhale. Exhale. Reverse. There ya go. All that prep work we just did makes a nice, easy flow. Good, and then peel it down.

Last one. Inhale. Exhale. Nice, and then slowly roll it down and we'll go into saw. Very good. Feet come out a little bit wider than hip with a little hands out to the sides.

I'm gonna pivot and then reach my left hand down across my right foot. Your range of motion here, if it's at the ankle, the shin or the thigh or knee, that's fine. Look behind you. Come back up. Pivot. Inhale. Exhale. Take it across.

Good. Inhale. (inhaling) Exhale. (exhaling) Good. Inhale. Exhale. (exhaling) Looks good. Nice and tall through the spine. (Jason exhaling) Yeah, nice stretch. These are great counter stretches to what we just did with the boomerang and rocker. Looks great. Breathe. (exhaling) Nice. (exhaling) Good, so one more to the right side and then one more to the left side.

Good. Exhale. Good, and then slowly bring your feet together, hands together and roll it down, and we'll go to our side. On our side here, we're gonna start on the elbows with our hands behind the head. We're gonna lift those feet up just a little bit and do a nice, easy scissor kick here and here. Side scissor here and here.

We're just pivoting on that bottom leg and hip. Good. Front to back. Now you can bring the top hand down for support if you need to. Breathe. Create that little mouse house here. Nice. Looks good.

Oh yeah. We've got four, nice, three, good, two and one. Relax it down. Good. Taking your top leg, you can come to elbow here or you can drop your head all the way down if you'd like. It's up to you.

Here, you'll get a little more engagement through that rib cage underneath. Take your top hand to the knee, inner thigh, so you'll lift that bottom leg. I'm flexing my foot here in a pulse up and down. Nice, easy inner thigh series. Keep your alignment ear down to the hip.

All right. Good. We got five, four, three, two, point the toe, circle it out. There you go. Looks good. Awesome. Three, two, one.

Reverse it, opposite way. Looks good. Nice. Three, two, one. Now hold it here. Hamstring curl, so I'm curling my heel to my butt.

Keeping that knee up, extend it out. Good. Heel to the butt. Kick it out. You're feeling a little inner thighs, a little hamstring. Looks good. Two more. Good. One more.

Last one. Perfect, and relax it down. Stagger your feet. Now we're already on our elbow here. Set up shoulder elbow stack.

Hand up to the sky. Snake and twist. Slowly pivot, thread the needle, and then look up to the sky. Good. Inhale, exhale, thread it through. Good. Option to bring that bottom knee down in here. Good, another option, maybe float that top leg if you want a little extra if you have that knee down.

Give me three. Good. Two. Nice work, last one, and relax it down. Very good. Switching sides. Same setup, so elbow, shoulder maybe stack here.

Oh, excuse me, hands behind the head. Scissor kick, and then you're gonna pivot on that bottom leg and pivot. Again, you can be here with that top hand. Scissor it out. Get my knees off the ground.

All right. Nice and easy. Good. Draw in through that belly. Good. Well done. Uh-huh, and then maybe challenge yourself. Bring the hands behind the head.

Okay. You can do this. Good. All right. (exhaling) All right, so use your mind, your body to control. It's using it as one. One more, and relax it down. Very good. Now you can bring that top leg in, maybe come up to the elbow, grab at the ankle or the knee.

Bottom leg lifts up and down. You could have one side that's a little tighter, so maybe you want to come down all the way here. For me, I'm a little tighter here, so I'm coming down to get that leg up a little bit more. Again, hand behind the head maybe, maybe this hand here. Two more. One more.

Point the toe. Circle it out. Good. You know your machine, you know your body. Good. Breathe. (exhaling) Two more. One more. Reverse it, opposite way. There ya go. Good.

(Jason exhaling) Yeah, you really feel a little burn in that inner thigh maybe now. Last one. Hold it here. Heel curl. Hamstring, kick it out. Point the toe. Flex the heel in. Again, keeping that bottom knee elevated, point and flex.

There you go. Two more. Good. One more. Nice. All right. You know what's next, naked twist. Stagger those feet. Come up to that elbow.

Lift it up. Hands to the sky. Thread the needle through. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Again, option of drop that bottom knee.

All right. Same thing you did on the previous side. Maybe you lift it if that was in your practice. Let's go. You got four. Good. Three. Nice. Two.

Good. One more, and relax it down. Nice work. Roll to your belly. Here, let's just do little hamstring kicks, so that right, right. Left, left. Right, right.

Left, left. If you feel your lower back here, come all the way down here. Fold the arms. Right. Left, left. Right, right. Good.

Left, left. Right, right. Looks good. Three. Good. Two. Nice. Last one with the left and then relax it down.

Very good. Now moving to swimmers. Straighten out those arms in front of the head. Eyes down so you're not straining your neck. Let's start by lifting the right hand and left leg so you're in that opposition and then you're gonna switch, left hand, right leg, and then switch. This is the motion we're gonna be in, or the movement, and then you're gonna slowly start to float both arms and legs.

Flutter kick it out right here for swimmers. Breathe. Inhale. (inhaling) Exhale. (exhaling) Inhale. (inhaling) Exhale. Kick it out. Nice. (exhaling) Four, three, two, one. Child's pose, sit back. Nice. Ah, very good.

Keeping your toes together, knees wide, you're in your child's pose, walk your hands out, maybe here, little bit longer, maybe fingertips or palms flat, getting that nice stretch through the lats. Now shift your weight forward, but don't move your feet or knees. Drop the hips forward here. Chin up. Good, and then press it back. My hands, again, don't move.

Just my hips are moving front to back here. Nice stretch through the front part of the hips, even to that lower back. Look up. Press it back. Good. Shift the weight forward. There you go. Great stretch.

Pull back through the shoulders. Let's do two more. Good. One more, and relax it back to child's pose. Good, so now turning to your back and let's do a little spinal twist here, so pulling the right knee in, left leg long, and now taking my left hand, bring it to my right knee, cross it over and keeping both shoulders down. Nice spinal twist here.

Inhale and exhale. (exhaling) Good, inhale and exhale, (exhaling) and then coming back to the center, switching legs, left knee in, right leg long, right hand to the left knee, cross it over, spinal twist, and then reaching that hand out. Good. Take a deep breath here. Inhale and exhale. (exhaling) Good, inhale and exhale, (exhaling) and then coming back to the center, rolling, facing me, both knees here to the chest, hands straight out. Okay, so now I'm in that 90 90 from my knee and my hip, top hand over hand. Lift it up and over for a 90 90 stretch opening out to that upper chest and back.

Come back over. Good, and then right back again. There you go. Good. Just getting a nice stretch through the chest, so countering the stretch we just did before but more of the lower back, now getting to the upper part of the body. Good, and then come back over.

Relax it here. Switch sides. 90 90 here. Hands straight out. Knees pull up to the belly. Good. Top hand reaches up and over. Ah, then come back to the center and then back over (exhaling) and back to the center.

Two more. Big stretch, reach, and then back over. Last one. Reach it out and relax. Well done.

Turning to your back, and why don't we do a little deep relaxation here? Stretching out the legs, palms are gonna face up, shoulders back. Here, take a nice, easy, deep breath. Inhale (inhaling) and exhale. (exhaling) Inhale (inhaling) and exhale. You can close the eyes here. (exhaling) Here, you're gonna relax your toes, your feet.

Relax your hands, your fingers. Relax your face and your jaw. Now we're gonna do some contracting and releasing. You're gonna squeeze your glutes, and as you squeeze your glutes together, you'll feel your hips rise and you're gonna hold this for five seconds, four seconds, three seconds, two and one. Release it down, and we're gonna repeat that three more times.

Contracting your glutes together, feel your hips rise. Five, four, three, two, one, release. Now feel your lower back begin to melt into the ground or your mat. Contract the glutes. Squeeze. Five, four, three, two and one.

Relax. Your back should feel really flat now against your mat. One more time. Squeeze the glutes, hold. Lift the hips just a little bit. Five, four, three, two and one and relax.

Very good. We'll go ahead, wiggle out the hips a little bit and feel how flat your whole spine is against the mat. Deep breath. (inhaling) Exhale, (exhaling) and now moving to your shoulders, you're gonna press your shoulders back into your mat. Maybe your chest rises or lifts just a little bit. Now take your head, same thing.

Press that back so your chin lifts so you have a nice posture here lying on the ground. Hold that for three, two, one. Let it go. (exhaling) Nice. We'll do that three more times. Pressing your shoulders back into your mat, let the chest rise. Head back, chin up, pressing into the mat as well, nice and gently.

Three, two, one, relax. Very good. Same thing, pressing or rolling your shoulders back, let the chest lift. Head back, chin up, pressing into the mat. Three, two, one and relax.

Ah. Last one, pressing the shoulders back. Lift the chin. Press the head back. Everything is pulling back. Palms up to the sky. Three, two, one and relax.

Ah. Kinda can shimmy your body out a little bit. Breathe, exhale it, (exhaling) and now notice how your body feels now. Does it almost feel like your limbs and your body are just floating here on your mat? You feel really sunken down, really relaxed.

It's almost like your body feels effortless. Relax your belly, and then you're gonna slowly take your time coming up to a seated position, take your time getting there, turning and facing me, fold the legs, and then we move into our last part of reiki, bringing those hands together. Again, the fingertips are touching, the palms are away, and you can close your eyes, and feeling that heat start to generate right in between those palms. If you need to, maybe rub the hands together or side to side and then bring them out and in to just feel that energy that is your reiki energy, and maybe this time it's lit more fire because you're now connecting with your higher self, your energy, you, and then you'll take one hand, place that either on the top of your head with your palm or slightly above. You can bring the other hand down to your lap.

As we now connect to our crown chakra, maybe that violet color is coming in, and maybe you're noticing just your higher self, your higher purpose, maybe why I'm here connecting to you here, not only just your higher self but your body and using your higher self to help guide you through what your body needs and doesn't need, and then bringing that hand down to your lap and just feeling. You may be feeling a little bit taller through your spine and feeling the connection waving itself up towards the sky and just feeling that connection of lightness. Take one final, easy inhale (inhaling) and exhale. (exhaling) You'll softly, lightly, gently blink the eyes open. Ah. (exhaling) Thank you for joining me. I appreciate you.