Grounding Mat

Thank you for joining me. Today, we're gonna do some mat work, maybe a little intermediate with some spice. Here we go. So... gazing straight ahead, take a minute to find your feet on the ground.

Your arms at your sides, the top of your head are reaching up into the air, so just standing. We are starting to create movement, and sensation, and a work in our body. We're gonna take the arms out to the sides. As they come from shoulder height and up overhead, we're gonna allow the spine to come up into a small arch, a thoracic extension, upper back arch. Reach out to the side, take up a lot of space.

Begin to bring your body into more of an upright position, let the arms come down to the sides of the thighs, and as they do, let them soften. Bring your chin to your chest, allow your knees now to soften, and just begin to take the top of your head down towards the floor. The spine goes with the head, the knees are soft, the abdominals are lifting up into the center of the body. We bend the knees. Push the floor away and stretch your legs towards straight.

As you bend your knees, again, feel that you're pushing into the ground, so we're actively using the legs, roll up with the body. Pushing the floor away, taking the body into an upright position. As the gaze comes forward, begin to move the arms out to the side. As they past the shoulder height and they lift overhead, we allow the spine to lift as well. We take the arms back out to the side, create like a sensation of suspension there, and then as they come down, we begin to come more upright.

Arms come down, head goes down. As the spine is going forward, the arms can be heavy, but the collarbone are held back so they're parallel. Parallel to what they're just wide and long. Pausing at the bottom and bend the knees. Push the floor away as you straighten your legs or go towards straight, and then feel that as you're softening your knees or bending your knees a little bit, again, feel that you're pushing down into the floor, so that you can create opposition through the center of your body.

We're rolling up through the spine. As the body comes up, the arms comes first to the sides of the thighs. The head comes up, the arms reach out, the spine extends as the arms reach overhead. Stays in extension as the arms come back out. Begins to come upright, more upright as the arms come down.

We're just gonna do this one more time. And what I like to think about in this very beginning movement, this very beginning movement, these very beginning movements is to use them to bring ourselves into the space, your space, this space, our space together. Bend your knees. Create some mind-body connection. Some body to body connection.

Simple, push the floor away, roll up. Stand up. Eyes come forward. As the arms come around and the spine comes up, the eyes just track with this upper spine, so the gaze goes up. Reach out.

Take the arms down. Last time, roll down, we're gonna stay down when we get there, just so you know. This time, when we bend the knees, we're gonna bend deep to the mat, roll up over the toes. And sit just a little stretch for the toes. My feet are tight, sitting upright on the mat.

Arms reaching forwards, take an inhale, exhale, round the spine, the body goes back right away. The arms are gonna come out to the sides. Back to the center of the body. We're gonna roll up. Keeping the arms parallel to the shoulders.

When the body comes into the upper curve, the C curve at the top, we're gonna change that by lifting the body up, open the arms out. And as the arms reach forward, we take the body round again and right away we go back and down. And inhale and exhale. And find your C curve and find your straight body. And open the arms, and the heart, and the chest.

And take the arms forward and around the spine, and go back. I like to try to see if I can find a combination in my movement, my body, of depth, of contraction. And ease of movement. And open. And reach.

And one more down. Feeling the feet anchored to the ground as best as you can. I like to pull back with my heels. Some people like to push forward with their heels. Whatever you need to do that makes the most sense to you, to find some feedback, some connection to the back of your legs, reach up, reach open, reach forwards, and go down.

Down, down, down. When the low back is down, we'll put the arms down. Bring the pelvis towards the feet, and come all the way down onto our backs, and inhale there. Pressing down into the feet, we roll up into a bridge. The top of the bridge is where the knees and the shoulders are aligned, and then we roll back down from there.

So just looking for each bone of the spine to come into the ground individually, dropping all the way down through the tailbone, and then going again, feeling the arms active on the ground. The shoulders pressed back, but not pinched together. The shoulder blades, specifically, is what I mean. And roll down. So we just wanna feel that the shoulder blades are wide, and also just laying flat on the ground.

And inhale, and we're undulating, mobilizing the spine. Feeling connection to the back of the legs. The way I think about that is to think of pulling my heels towards my fingertips or my knees forward of my toes. Both of those things mean the same things to me and achieve the same goal. So whatever makes the most sense to you, or maybe something else makes sense to you.

But whatever you're thinking about, think about finding your hamstrings, rolling up. And inhale, looking for precise shapes. Doing a little pause as we find the shape on the up. A little pause as we find the shape on the down. We have one more to go, lifting up.

Always important to warm the body up before we throw some challenge at it. Take the spine down. Take the arms towards the ceiling. Lift one knee, lift the other knee. We're gonna do a fancy little spine twist here, so we're gonna take the knees towards left.

As you take your knees towards left, open your right arm out to the side. And then press with your arm, press the legs back to center. And as you take your knees to the right, open the left arm, the right arm stays vertical, straight up and down. And exhale to come back. And inhale, take the knees away from the arm, feel the arm reaching to help you create more range, more range all the time.

If you're curious... or curious about being curious, you can play with the edges of where you feel like you're far ranges, and then bring everything back in. And inhale. And exhale. And inhale, letting each movement become the next movement.

So there's not really a pause in between things. Maybe a tiny pause, just finding the shape in the center. As you're finding in the shape in the center, you're getting ready to go the other direction. And center. And place one leg down, the other leg down.

We're gonna hold them together today. Reach back, place your hands behind your head. Exhale, lift your head and chest. Feel your feet pushing down on the ground. Try to come up high enough, so that you feel your low spine connect to the ground.

Inhale when you get there. And exhale as you work your way back down. And warming up, lifting up, drawing the chest up, the head stays back in the hands heavy. And inhale and feel the work in your body as you go down. And lift up.

All the way up, find that low back connection, and inhale. And down. We're gonna do two more. And lift up. Find the depth of connection, your best or not.

What I mean by that is the only person that can challenge your body to the very most it can be challenged is not me, it's you. So if you're curious, hands behind your thighs, curl a little higher. See what you can get out of your body. Arms back, hands behind the head, rotate right. And center and left.

And center, keeping the knee side by side lined up. And center, and right, pelvis stay centered, and center. And one more time, right. And center and left. And center, holding yourself in the center.

Work your way back down. We're not quite finished, but almost. And lift up. Once again, use your arms to deepen. Once again, let go and bring your hands back.

This time,, as the body goes right, the knees go left. And center, and body goes left, knees go right. And keep lifting, in fact, go again, try as you're coming through center, not to drop, but instead try to come higher. And rotate and center. And rotate and center.

Last time, rotate. And center in the center paws, straighten your arms. Straighten one leg, straighten the other leg. Reach your arms up, take your body back. Lift your head and chest up, and roll through your spine.

Nice and connected all the time, even at the top, we're drawing back, drawing back very deeply into the spine with the abdominals. And we go back. Arms come up, body goes down, body comes up, finds to the chest lift. We press below back down into the ground, that's what helps us lift up off the ground. Shoulders come over the pelvis, we inhale, and down.

Working our way through our spine. Taking the arms back, lifting the arms and the head. Bringing that shape up, breathing in at the top, and down. So full mobilization of the spine, arms go back, head and chest come up, body comes up. Pause and inhale, take the body down.

Bring the arms and the head back. Lift up, excuse me. Roll up. This time, take yourself all the way forward, and as you do, flex your feet. Roll up with your body, bring your arms out to the sides.

Rotate the palms to face up. Feel the spine getting a little taller, and we'll take rotation to the right. Center and... center and rotate. And rotate.

So think about keeping the arms straight across. Think about trying to go, and then go further into that rotation. Very smooth in our movements, and wringing out the spine. And staying connected all the time to the center of the body, and lifting as we turn. And lifting as we turn.

And lifting as we turn, and center. Take the arms overhead, take the spine forwards. Bend the knees in, bringing the hands to the shins. Make sure you have enough space to roll behind you, so we're getting into a rolling like a ball shape, nice and tight, nice and connected. And we go back and balance.

And back and balance. And inhale and exhale, making a change. Go back and balance. Straighten your legs, bend your knees. And back and balance.

And straighten your legs, and bend your knees. One more back, balance. Straighten the legs, lift the back. Bend your knees, take your hands to your knees. Roll down through your spine into the double leg stretch, and we go reach and around.

And inhale, expand, and pull. And reach and push the air through space. And inhale and come around. And inhale and come around. And inhale and come around.

And three and around. And two and around, and one and around. Straight in the left leg, keep the hands on the right knee, and change. And change. Feel the height of the body, maintain that consistent shape.

No upper down. The leg that's going straight reaches way out in front of us. We line the toes up to the same target. Meaning, the one straight leg is not higher than the leg that's bent, but we're coordinating our movement. The legs pass one another by.

We have four. Three. Keeping the height of the body, two. And one, taking the hands behind the head. We create rotation and rotation, the legs maintain that.

Those clean lines. We keep the lift as we're traveling through the center. Keep the lift as you're traveling through the center, and reach. Head stays with the hands. We're lifted all the way up off the bottom shoulder specifically.

And three, three, two, two, one, one. Bend the knees in. Take the head down. Take the legs from there towards straight. Bring them up, roll over.

Flex the feet, separate the feet. Keep the spine consistent in that shape as you take your legs down, if you want or can, roll down through your spine, feel that the arms are active, the pelvis comes down, the feet point come down, touch together, lift up, and we take it over. And open, and stay connected, keep your focus. Roll down, bring the pelvis, take the legs, and up. And over.

And open. And down. And roll. And connect the movements to each other and up. And over.

And open. And down. And roll. And reach together. And up and over.

Keep the legs there, separate them there. Roll down, lift the head. Roll up, bend the knees, take the ankle, stretch the legs, and rock back. And balance. If I never need any humbling, this is the exercise for me to feel humble.

And we go back. And balance and back. And balance. And back. And, woo-hoo, balance, that little giggle is me, trying to find my balance, and hold at the top.

Let go. Bend the knees, put the heels down, straighten the legs, lift the body, and roll forwards. And inhale and roll up. Stacking the spine vertically over the pelvis. Lifting taller, looking up a little bit.

So you lift your spine towards up and going down. Reaching out over the legs, deepening into that shape. And inhale. And rolling up, reaching the arms forward to create opposition from the center of the body as we stack the center of the body. One more the same, take the body down.

Take the spine into extension, the head comes with the arms. The body goes back down, we roll up, and lift a little taller, and go down, and reach out. And go down and sit up. And two more. Go down.

And reach out. And go down. And come up. And lift a little bit taller, feel light in your body. Last one, go down.

And reach out. Keep reaching out with the body as you come, this time, all the way up into an upright position, and take the arms out. And take rotation to the right and saw. And come up, open and center, and rotate. As you reach the opposite hand to the opposite foot, feel the spine flattening out.

As you come up in rotation, the back arm opens, the front arm opens, and center and turn, and reach, and come up. Open, and center, and turn. And reach. And come up. Open and center, and feel that rotation at your waist.

And reach. And come up. Open and center, and turn, and look where you're going. Your eyes will take you where you belong, and up. Open and center, and rotate last time in both directions.

We come up. And open, and center, and turn. And reach. And come up. Open and center, bring the legs together.

Take the arms up, lift the spine up, take the arms back around to the sides, set them down behind you. Push the floor away with your straight arms, find a straight line in your body, and then press down with your legs, and come up into a hip hinge. And then as the pelvis goes down, the eyes go forward. And then as the hips lift up, the head just comes with the spine. Create that straight line, hips go down, eyes go forward, so we're hinging from the hip joints, hinging from the hips, and down.

And lift. And down. And lift. And all the way down, take the arms all the way back behind the head, pull your head out towards your feet, sit yourself up straight, hinge back, roll down. Lift the head and chest.

Roll up, take yourself all the way forward over your legs. Lift your back up straight. Take your straight back, back in a hinge. Reluctantly peel the pelvis under, bring the body down, lift the head and chest, roll up through the spine, take the body all the way forward. I'm just gonna scooch a little forward on my mat.

Sit up, hinge back, tuck the tail under, and roll down, we'll do one more. Lift up. Come up and over... all the way forwards. Sit up.

Hinge back, roll down, but not all the way this time. So we roll down, roll down, roll down. We find our shoulder blades. We lift the left leg, take a hold of it with the hands. Press down through the right leg.

Take that little bit of a stretch. Change sides. We'll do a little pause there and stretch. And then we'll continue, we go. Think about guiding the leg towards the body from the center of the body, not just from the hands.

Keep the hands nice and soft. Well, they do create pressure, but I'm not gripping so much from my fingers as I am guiding with the palms of my hands, my leg towards my torso. And we do three and three. And two and two. And one and one, and both legs on.

Bend the knees, take the head down. Make sure you have enough mat underneath your head, so that it provides comfortable support. Stretch your legs forwards, bring them up, take your legs over. Allow your legs to reach down for the floor. And as they do, circle the arms around, taking a hold of the right foot.

As you lift your left leg, feel that you're also lifting up through your spine. Feel that leg lifting up and pressing away, and then hold the body long as we change. We go. And change, reaching up, up and away, and change, up, up and away. And change, and reach, and push.

And change and stay supported with the center of the body. And change up, up and away. And up, up and away. And up, up and away one more time. And up, up and away, take both legs down.

Take the hands to the back of the calves very lightly. As you roll yourself down, allow yourself to apply gentle pressure to the back of the legs. So we maximize the stretch in the body as we lower the body down to the mat. Bend your knees, turn to your side. We're crossing the top leg over the bottom leg, putting the hand on the floor, the other arm comes down to the side.

Side bend, come up into a side plank position. Take arc in your body, looking down at the hand that you're rotating towards, or leaning away from, come back out, and bend. And reach up. And over. And back.

And bend. And lift up. And over, really get all the... I don't know, get all the way, get the best out of it. And then the bottom knee coming up over that knee, hand behind the head, lift the leg, flex the foot, and take it front, and back.

And front and back. And forwards and back. And forwards and back. And keep the leg high throughout, and back. And forwards and hold it up, take it behind you, take the arm off the head, and reach around to the front of you.

Bring the leg out, the arm out, bend your knee. Sit into the hip on that side, reaching the upper arm across to the arm that's already on the ground. Taking a breath or two here, and then carrying around, just continuing onto that side, so crossing the top leg over the bottom leg. This arm is down, we go up, and over. And back and down.

And out and over. And back and down. And create a straight line and a rainbow. And back to the straight line, and bring the knee down. Lift that leg up, hand behind the head, and we go.

And back and forward. And back, and forward, and back. Trying not to drop the leg down, Meredith, and back. And two and back. And one and back.

Take it down a little behind you. Take that arm and reach around to the front. Bring everything back, find your shape there, and then reach across the body with your arm as you sit down into that hip. We are gonna continue down onto that hip, turning around onto the mat on our front. Elbows come underneath the shoulders.

Legs reach out long behind us, feel the elbows pushing down and pulling back, the chest lifting up and bring coming forward, both legs up off the floor, belly up off the floor. And we go, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick. ? Inhaling and exhaling and trying to all the time ? ? Hold the body nice and still ? ? The way to do that is to really feel ?

? That you're using your hamstrings ? Both legs straight, head to the right, hands behind the back. Kick one, you can put your head all the way down. I'm looking after my microphone. Reach out, push the arms away, lift the spine, and kick, one, two, three, and reach out.

And kick, one, two, three, and reach out. And kick, one, two, three, and reach out. And kick, one, two, three, and reach out. And kick, one, two, three, and reach out. Take the legs down, bring your arms down, press with your elbows, round your spine, reach back to sit back on your feet.

You can scooch your knees in if you need. Stretching the arms forward. Rolling the spine forward, taking the hips down, reaching the chest through the arms, the eyes up and back. Press into the arms, press into the knees, round the spine. Sit back towards your feet, but not all the way.

This time, just feel the abdominals pulling away from where the hands are connected to the mat. Stretching the shoulders, stretching the spine. Roll forwards, take yourself through, lifting the chest up and back. Press with your arms and your legs. As you're sitting back, think of pulling your knees in towards your hands against the mat.

And rolling up. And taking the hips through. Lifting the eyes. And rolling back, start to tuck the toes, reach back. Lift the pelvis, press into your pyramid, into your upstretched, pressing the heels down.

Lift to heels, roll forward over your arms, point the left foot. And lift, five, four, pushing down and back through that right leg. Two, one, put that leg down. Three push ups. Lift the hips up and back, pressing down through the heels.

Lift the heels. Articulate your spine forward over your arms. And as you arrive, point your right foot and lift up and down. Two and down. Three and down.

Four and down. Five, all the way in, three push ups. And two. And one. And lift the hips.

And breathe, reminding myself, reminding us all. Lift the heels. Roll the spine forward, bring the left knee in and back. Right knee in and back, left knee in, holding the rest of the body stationary and back. With left knee in it drags and back, right knee in and back.

Three push ups. Two. Three. Lift the hips up, press back through the heels. Lift the heels, roll back forwards, one push up.

Just because nine isn't enough, lift up. Walk your hands to your feet, one, two, three. Find your weight over your feet and bend your knees, inhale. Tuck in small. And stretch.

And bend in small, inhale. And stretch. And bend in small, inhale, and stretch, and then let the knees be a little soft. Once again, feel the anchoring of the feet into the ground. Roll through your spine.

Coming back up to standing on your feet. Taking the arms to the sides of the legs. Taking the arms out to the side, and here we take up a lot of space, instead of getting small, we get big. Reach up, gather some energy. Reach out to the side.

Take the arms down, take the head down. Soft through the knees, just coming full circle, another chance to check in. Whatever that means for you is what it means for you. We go down, we inhale, we push the ground away, and roll up. Come up to standing.

Take the arms around and up. Take the arms around and down, but take your time as you reach out to the sides, and then let the arms come down. Softening the gaze, feeling it, the feeling of being in your body. And thank you.