Connection Through the Mat

Hi there. My name is Leah, and I'm so happy that you're gonna be joining me today for this math class. This math class is inspired by a tutorial that I just gave here on grief and movement called grief connection. So again, these movements are inspired by the ideas and the thoughts that I share in that tutorial. However, you can enjoy this math class without referencing that tutorial at all. The movement in this class is going to be really feel good and gentle, kind of ooey and gooey and wonderful. So I hope that you enjoy it.

And we're gonna get get started together, and we're just gonna slowly move through the body. And the goal again is to open us and to help us feel really nice and just open and relieved. So here we go. So I want you to sit with your legs crossed. You can have one leg in front of the other. We're gonna go ahead and switch it at a certain time. But I want to make sure that you're right on top of your sits bones, and your hands just gently on your knees.

So close your eyes for me. And as we sort of go into this class very slowly and very gently. And as you breathe, just through your nose, in and out through your nose or if you prefer in through your nose and out through your mouth, that's fine as well. And I just want you to notice and recognize where your body is as you're sitting here. Start at your shoulders and your neck.

Are you feeling like you're holding your shoulders up towards your ears? Are you feeling like you're holding one up higher than the other? And I just want you to let them relax and drop. Not pressing them down or pulling them down, but just relaxing them. And as you do that, you'll feel your elbows start to drop as well.

Towards your thighs and in towards your hips a little bit. And that's good. Now I want you to recognize down in your chest and in your rib cage. I want you to recognize if you're pushing your chest forward, or if it's leaning from one side to the other, or if your star is sitting back and is rounded, And I want you to just elevate your spine a little bit. But more importantly, I want you to feel right here over your chest that you're just sort of lifting it so slightly up on a diagonal. And I just want you to have that in conjunction with that relaxation in your shoulders and that dropping of your elbows.

And now I want you to take your attention down to your lower back and to your abdomen. And this is often where we'll start to feel there's, another big belt of tension that holds in our body. We might feel like we are to be relaxed in our abdomen, and our lower back is just really nice and tight. Well, not nice and tight, but tight. Or you might feel like you're holding trying to hold on so tight in your abdomen, and you're just squeezing your muscles as much as you can. But what I want you to do rather than trying to engage muscles or lengthened muscles, I want you to just simply sit back over your sits bones just a little bit. And I want you to maintain that beautiful natural curve in your lower spine.

And then I just want you to feel that kind of that contrast of that elevation, that heightening of your spine, and that sort of releasing and dropping of your shoulders. And your elbows. And this is gonna be our home base, this position, as we go through this first movement sequence as we warm up, we're gonna come back to this space. Not too far forward, not too far back, not side to side, and we're gonna keep referencing this. So let's get started.

So in this position, I want you to then just slowly start to wrote, move your rib cage from side. To side. So feeling more or less like you're anchored in your sits bones and your pelvis on your mat, and just moving from side to side. And this first sequence is all gonna be about mobilizing the spine and the rib cage and the pelvis, and all these wonderful different directions. So this sort of feels easiest and most natural to start with.

And as you do it, you'll start to kind of feel your shoulders obviously move with your spine here, but I want you to imagine that they're staying nice and level. So you're not elevating 1 or tipping 1, but you're just really focusing on that rib cage. So let's go a couple more sets. And to the side here and here. So coming back to the center, now I want you to come forward on a diagonal. So you're gonna reach your chest forwards.

You're gonna be leading more with your chest, and you're gonna feel that your rib cage is gonna follow, but I want you to keep your pelvis down behind you. And then to come back to that home base of that neutral position. And then the other side. So you're just going forward. And what this is, this has done, again, just a practice of mobilizing and movement.

And I've also used very simple sequences like this to sort of recognize where I'm feeling tight in my body, where I'm feeling tense in my body. Maybe I'm feeling a pull in my lower back or tension in my shoulders, and it just sorts to help to bring my awareness in. And it's just simple and easy. So now we're gonna combine those 2. We're gonna reach out to the side.

We're gonna come to the side tilts, We're gonna reach out to the front diagonal and back. So on the diagonal forward, then you're gonna take your rib cage and you're gonna go to the side. You're gonna make a little half circle to the diagonal and back. So it's 1, 2, 34. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now as you do that, four pattern here. I want you to feel that your pelvis is gonna move a little bit more with it. So I'm less concerned with your hips and your sit bones staying anchored down on your mat, and just kind of let it respond naturally to the movement. And that will sort of depend again on your body, and what you're feeling and where you're feeling tight and where you're feeling tense. But as you do this, I want you to feel like your spine just moves a little bit further and you're feeling a little bit of that release and that stretch in your body. So diagonal side diagonal in the center. One more set.

Diagonal side, diagonal, and center, diagonal side, diagonal, center. So now coming here, you can serve or to feel that lengthening in that releasing your spine. I know I certainly do. So now I want you to switch your feet so that your other leg and your other foot is in front, and we're gonna continue with this series. So now we're gonna do a big circle. We're gonna go out in the diagonal, We're gonna go to the side, and now we're gonna come to the back.

So if I sit to the side, you'll see that I'm in this sort of pelvic tilts, posterior tilt, and I have this beautiful rounding of my spine here and to the side and to the front. We're just gonna go around in a circle as we do that. And just continue to move. And you wanna feel like you're feeling every single space of that circle as you move around. So that if you were thinking of drawing a circle like with a pencil, it would be an even drawing.

And just let your head sort of move naturally as you do this. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Your elbows sort of drooping down towards your thighs. And you're just moving in that beautiful circle. So I'm gonna stop you in the posterior tilt, and we're gonna come right back up. I believe we did about 8.

So let's go the other direction toward the diagonal to the side and back. And you're just moving And I feel like there's something really wonderful about keeping your eyes up and just your gaze forward. And you can just move and breathe naturally. And then we're just warming up and mobilizing the spine. And forgive me if I don't get my repetitions totally coordinated on side to side, but certainly close enough.

And one more time, to the front side, and we're gonna finish to the back. We're gonna hold it here, and we're gonna come up. So let's come back to that home based position, relaxing your shoulders, and your elbows, feeling that connection in your spine, feeling that elevation here, just feeling you should feel like you should you can sit up a little bit higher. So in this position, I want you to take your left foot forward. I keep your right leg bent here.

So in this position, we're gonna be able to use her hands holding behind our thigh, and we'll be able to sit up a little bit higher. So we're gonna start some pelvic rolling as we're gonna start to incorporate some more movement into our hip and our knee joint. So we're gonna draw back. We'll just do four of these. And as we come up, I want you to flex your foot and drive your heel down into your mat.

So exhale. And inhale. 2 more. Exhale. And inhale. Last one, exhale.

Now we're gonna add on to it. Inhale. So you're gonna exhale. You're gonna reach down. You're gonna extend your leg out. So you're gonna feel that nice lengthening through the back of the leg.

You're in this position. This is what we're focused on. You're gonna bring it back down, and then in just one movement you'll come up. Excel. And inhale.

Exhale. And inhale, and exhale. And inhale. So now we're gonna take the arms out to the side. We're gonna do the same thing a little bit more challenge here, but we're gonna not have our hands to support us. So we're gonna exhale, lift the leg up, and inhale reaching up.

Excel. And inhale. Excel. And inhaler. And exhale.

And inhale. All the way I pulled it here. Try to extend the spine a little bit more, reach the arms out to the side as much as you can, feel that elevation in your spine, feel that height, fill that challenge that you have there, and then slowly release it. And we'll go ahead and switch into the other side. So 44 and 4 are repetition.

So we're gonna start here. And, again, I want you to feel that that left leg is down that you're rotated certainly in that hip and that knee is just resting down. Use your arms to support you here because you know that you're not gonna have your arms in just a little bit. Taking your breath to prepare. Excel. And inhale. So I particularly like this part right where you feel this nice hinge at the hip joint.

I feel like it's a really great way to warm up that hip. Excel? And inhale? And exhale, driving that heel down, and inhale less add on. So exhale.

Extend the leg and inhale come up. Excel, and inhale. So focusing on that lengthening of the back of the hamstring, And inhale one more time. And inhale. Arms out to the side and continuing.

Exhale. And inhale lanes in here. So challenge yourself to feel like you can get really, really high use your spinal extensors using that lift, feeling that challenge there before you go back into the posterior tilt of the pelvis. Extend and up one more time. And extend that.

We're gonna hold it here. We're gonna fill that position. We're gonna be lice and lifted here. Fill that extension of your spine. And keep that spine lifted.

Draw your left leg out. And I want you to widen your feet as wide as your mat here. And now you're gonna use the back of the hands to support you here. So we're gonna go through a little bit of a series. We're gonna move our legs. We're gonna keep going a little bit deeper into our abdominal work.

So taking your breath here. You're gonna draw back into the posterior tilt. You're gonna flex your feet. So we'll do four here, and then we're gonna come here. Excel.

And you should feel like you're able to get a little bit further in that posterior tilt of your spine or your pelvis, and that lower back is lengthening high. It's like scooping underneath you as you're drawing here. And then you should feel like you could set up a little bit higher here, 2 more. And reach up. Last one. Now I want you to hold here, and I want you to bring your arms in front of you here.

Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna rotate, but I just want you to keep your arms so that they're making a ninety degree angle here. You're gonna rotate here. You're gonna reach out and tap your pinky finger on the floor. So you're doing a little bit of a side tilt of your upper body, but your pelvis stays in the posterior tilts. You're gonna come up and center. We're gonna open to the 90 grangle.

Do a little bit of a tilt. Come up and center, and then we come up to the very top. Excel Inhale, exhale, inhale side tilt, and exhale inhale up. So again, the breath pattern, I just want you to breathe. Just finding a nice rhythm in your breath, and I more want you to focus on just this beautiful rhythm that's happening in the body.

Now the reason that I like to do a series like this where we're sort of doing a repetitive movement but we're just adding a little bit of variation to it, is that I find that in addition to just warming up the body, it sort of gives us a focal point so that we can draw in, and we can focus We can do enough repetition to be practicing one movement and getting better at it, but enough variation. Let's do 2 more. To where we can start to explore the movement in our body a little bit more. I mean, it's gonna start to recognize what we might need. And this is what I was talking about of drawing in and finding a focus.

Open side tilts and in, and side tilts and in and up. So now we're gonna carry on. You're gonna flex your feet and you're gonna straighten your legs. So we're gonna go in a little bit deeper, almost like we're doing a roll So I want you to do a little further down. You're challenging that controlling your body.

Then as you come up, you're gonna point your feet and lift up. Excel. And point your feet and lift up. Let's do 2 more like that. Excel.

And point and lift up, and you should start to feel that challenge in your body, but also, like, you're flowing a little bit more through your spine and lift up. Let's add on to it. Excel. We're gonna come up to the top. We're gonna lift the arms up.

We're gonna bow forward. So we're gonna keep our feet pointed. We're gonna bow forward in this beautiful long curve. So we're deepening that stretch into hamstrings. We're gonna elevate the spine up And as we open the arms, we flex and go down.

We bring it up. All the way up. Elevate those arms. Elevate the chest up and then bow forward. Bring it at flex the feet.

And curves. So this just start to feel really good, and we're gonna do a few of these. And bowing forward, bringing it up as you flex and curving. Whoop. Keep your feet balanced. And and forward. So I'm gonna stop my queuing a little bit here.

I'm gonna do 4 more in just this quietness. And I just want you to feel the rhythm of the movement. And flex and bring it Two more. Up. Last one.

Bring it up. Hold it here. Open, and I want you to bring your hands behind you. So you can choose your fingertips being out to the side, or your fingertips being to the back, whatever you'd like. Keeping your feet flexed here. Now I want you to feel like you're gonna elevate your chest up. And we're gonna start a sequence more about the chest, and less about the pelvis.

Your pelvis is gonna move. Your lower back is gonna move in response to it, but I want you to focus on what's happening in our thoracic spine and in our here. So filling this lift here. So you're gonna push your heel of your hands down into your mat. I want you to feel your shoulder blades drawing together. And your chest elevating up.

This is such a great position for us to be in But it can also be a pretty emotional one as well as you open up and you lift up. So I wanna go in and out of this. I want you to point your feet and I want you to come forward. So again, this looks like really bad posture. And it looks very probably not very pretty, but this is where I want you to be.

Once your shoulders rolled in and with your sternum and your chest in, I want your feet pointed. Then I want you to feel like you're gonna expand everything in your body, from your toes, widening, your heels pressing forward, your chest opening up, your shoulders stirly rotating your shoulder blades coming together, and you close your eyes, and you lift your face up, and you feel that openness. And then you're gonna come back. And you're gonna feel the contrast of those 2 positions. Flex your feet.

Press your heels down and go all the way up and just feel that beautiful release. In that. And forward inhaling here, or you can exhale. And and every time you go, you should feel like you get a little further. And I notice how I'm allowing my pelvis and my lower back to go into a like an arc like a little anterior tilt in my pelvis.

I want that. I want that beautiful lift, that high arc of the upper back. And then forward. Relax, release, drop the head down, drop the chin down, and then press One more time. Amforward. Ampress.

Up. Now I want you to take your left hand, lift it up to the ceiling. So we're here. So now we're gonna do One has a little bit of a challenge of balance. Feel like you keep your weight equal on your sit bones around your pelvis, rather. And now what we're gonna do is we're gonna rotate the body We're gonna bring that left hand forward. So we're in a little bit of a funny position here, but you can see here, my heel of my hand is still down on my mat. My fingertips are gonna touch.

The floor here. So I'm in this beautiful kind of c curve over on this diagonal. So as my left hip stays anchored down, I feel this beautiful lengthening on the left side of my back. So feel that position here. And then of course just to keep it simple, we're gonna reach back up to that high up. So we're adding the challenge by the single arm and reach that back. And then curving forward point your feet. This time, I didn't see that on the last a petition, but point your feet as we did before.

Try to keep the elbow straight, but if it softens a little bit, that's fine. And then bring it up. All the way up. And press forward. Feel again, that lengthening on the left back side of the body, feel that connection on the right front body and then bring it up. And honestly, this movement just can't help, but bring a little sigh or smile of relief to your face as you feel that opening is you're releasing that tension.

It'll circle that left arm around. Take it down to the mat, transfer your weight, and lift your right, or let's do the other side, and exhale. Point the feet, bring this down, just feel that moment, and that stretch on the right side of your back, and then press, and up. And flex. And And and press. Feeling the arc of the body.

And last one, I'm bringing it up. Hold it here. Bring the arm back down, the right hand down. Feel that press. Now point those feet. And with me, we're gonna go up up into that position here.

We're gonna hold it here. We're gonna flex the feet. We're gonna keep our hips just covering over the mat. So in this beautiful curve, like, attendant stretch, then we're gonna press up. Press up.

So this, we eased into this position, we eased into this movement, and now I want you to really feel the strength that you have in your body as you do this, pressing down to the heel of the hands, 2 more, pulling the pelvis and filling that front body connection, that abdominal connection, and pressing one more, you can do it. And And up, we go. All the way feeling that expansion, feeling that lift gently bring yourself down. Hinge at the hips. Bring the arms up.

Give me one more bow forward. Relax your arms down, your hands on your feet, run the outside of your feet. And in this position, I want you to just rock your hips back and forth just like you're walking with your hips and your pelvis. Just back and forth tilting from one side to the other. Just not paying much attention.

Terrible body other than that it's relaxed and it's heavy, and you're just releasing here. And I want you to continue that. Is your bring your arms out to the side? Holding out to the side? And then I want you to extend your back.

On as much of a diagonal as you can, as you keep the pelvis going back and forth, then I want you to bring your arms up over by your ears. Just feeling that repetition, focusing on that, just feeling that stretch through the hamstrings, that mobility of the pelvis now start to bring your torso upright. You start to feel nice and tall. Open your arms out to the side. Is you keep walking, relax your hands down, bring them to your thighs, and just start to slow the tilt of the pelvis until you come to a stop.

Take a deep breath. Okay. So let's transition now into our next movement series. So I want you to come on to your knees, and I'm gonna face you and return to the side at some point, but you can either say facing me and turn to the side, you can say right where you are. It doesn't matter. So in this position, your feet are together, your knees are apart a little bit wider than your hips, and you just wanna be nice and relaxed here. So I generally would do a lot of pelvic floor work in this position, but I wanna focus more on doing lateral work here as we, and then we'll transition into our, again, our last series of the class.

So in this position, hands are gonna be on your knees. You're gonna take your left hand out, and you're gonna start to reach over to the side. So just very basic here, very simple, just feeling that nice side stretch and pressing up, and we're just gonna flow back and forth just to get into this. Now if you wanna keep your gaze forward, that's fine. Or you might enjoy more of letting your gaze sort of follow. The movement. So the point here is your spine should be nice and warm at this point.

But in this position, you're gonna feel a greater stretch in that lateral flexion position, in that side position, and that's what I want you to focus on here. And we're gonna go one more time each side. Letting your gaze follow. And to the left, we're gonna hold it. Now you're gonna come around.

Your hand's gonna go forward. Now this is gonna feel a little bit funny, but just trust me here. You're gonna extend your right leg and your right arm out. And you're gonna be in this beautiful long position here. So this leg is not gonna move. So it's not it's not gonna tilt.

It's not gonna shift, but you're gonna feel the stretch here. And you're gonna lengthen in. You're gonna come back in, come to the side. So that's a little bit of a funny transition, but still feels good. Over to the right. So now you curve forward, like I've done through the other parts of this class.

You should be familiar with that position. Then you've sort of scoop and lengthen out, and that should feel really good. This expansion is really important. And then you're gonna come to the side and over. So let's do it slow one more time each way, and then we'll sort of add the rhythm. So down and reach and to the side and over.

Coming forward, feeling that curve. So you're bringing your shoulders almost parallel to the ground, and then you scoop out you press and hold it. Feel that length and come to the side and over. So let's go a little bit more of a rhythm. So you're coming here. Reaching out, feeling that stretch to the side and over. And around.

So you're just feeling the fullness of this movement to the side and over. So again, letting your spine move, feeling that curve. See the time that I take to go into that curve before I expand out. Reach. And over.

And then when we go back to the left side, we'll add to it. Reach and over and curving. Now lengthen that out. So from here, you're gonna draw the knee and the elbow in. So you're gonna come again to this nice pike position, and you're gonna reach out 4 of them. Draw the knee and keep that left elbow straight. Fill that challenge of the balance and reach out. Spend. Draw it in number 3, and reach.

Last one draw it in. And reach. Then from here, you're gonna come to the side. You're gonna feel this stretch. Hold it there, and then reach back, come down, and over.

And rounding forward and drawing out. So we find that position there and knee in and out, drawing in scoop elbow all the way back knee all the way forward and reach. Excel. And reach. Just feeling that contrast between the curving and the closing off of your body, the rounding forward, And then that expansion, that extension, that openness. Last one, and reach Now going to the side, feeling that side stretch, holding it. Close your eyes if you want to. Really feel that side arc as much as you can.

Now rather than going down, we're gonna come up We're gonna challenge our balance here. We're gonna flex that other foot, holding here. Now I want you to come down point the foot, tap your fingertips, feel the balance, bend the elbow to get a deep stretch, and then don't use your right on too much. Try to use your side body. Your obliques here.

Your lateral flexion as you come up, find the balance. And flex. So I want you to start to feel that control that you have the contrast here between lengthening and stretching and kind of sort of giving into that and then recollecting yourself. Finding your ballast coming up. Oh, 2 more. Reaching.

And then exhale. Trying to reach each position as fully as you can. Feeling that stretch, and then using the side body, coming up holding here, now reach the arms up, freeing that leg in with your balance, bringing the other leg out, and hold. I believe we did 5. So reaching here, and then grabbing with the top side, the right side here, and find your balance.

Use those obliques flex your foot and come up. Reach. Inhale, deep stretch, end up. Again, I hope this is putting a little smile on your face as you feel the stretch, you feel the strength in your body. 2 more.

And up last one. And up, holding here, bringing the leg in, Now I'm gonna turn to the side so you can see me. So you can say facing me or you can turn to the side as well. Now our feet are still together. Our legs are apart. We're gonna hold up here.

We're gonna open the arms out to the side. We're gonna start to hinge back So now we're gonna open the front of the hips, feeling nice and strong in the body, and we're gonna come up very, very simple. And of course, you know, we'll add on to it. So hinging back, keeping the shoulders over the hips, and forward. 2 more.

And Last one before we add on to it. And up. Okay. So we're gonna do one more here, and we're gonna transition into the next part of the sequence. So we're gonna sit the hip down. So the right hip is gonna be over the right heel, hands are forward. So you feel this beautiful hinge in the hip joint.

Now as you reach up, You're gonna go on to the diagonal, onto the hinge. The pelvis goes forward. The spine lengthens lengthens up here. You can hinge a little bit at your knees. And then just sit right down to the left. So you'll start to fill this in your quads.

I want you to fill that mobility in the pelvis, and then press up. So let's challenge ourselves a little bit more. And your shoulders will rise a little bit, but I want you more to think about your hips going forward. And your chest expanding and sitting down. Excel One more set to the right inhale, and exhale. Last one, inhale, and exhale.

Now, hinge straight up for me. Bring your knees underneath you a little bit more if you can't feet together, holding here. Bring the arms up. You're gonna sit down on the right side again. The right arm's gonna circle around, you're gonna look behind you.

So you feel this beautiful opening here, and then you're gonna come straight back up hips forward, left, reach. So we did this movement at the beginning of our class with the arms So now, as you can see, I'm gonna let my spine move a little bit more freely with it, and I'm gonna circle back Just very gentle, last set, and up Last one to the left, and up. From here, diving forward, put your hands on the mat and reach the head out. Take your thighs parallel. So now we're in a classic four point position.

Our back is arced, our upper back is lifted, our head is up, and you're gonna bring the legs back together. You're gonna round the back, and you're gonna roll up articulating through the spine. And forward, Fis go parallel. See, hands come down. And you reach out feeling that nice expansion of the chest pressing the heel of the, hands down. Lifting the sternum up, and then curving, bringing the feet together, and articulating, re stacking the spine.

On top of the pelvis. 2 more drawing down. You can inhale or exhale here. Whatever feels the most natural to you. And one more down and extend holding here, holding that extension of the back, pressing the heel of the hands down, keeping the sternum forward, that I should be gazing out on the floor in front of you, whole disposition, filling that expansion, inhaling, exhale the feet come together.

The spout, the spine rounds, When we come up, up, open the arms, close your eyes if you can, if you feel like you have the balance, bring your arms down. Now let them relax and just sort of sway your body back and forth. Let your hips sort of relax as you sort of sway back and forth Hinge at the hips. Let them travel down to your heels. Keep your torso moving back and forth just very freely.

Bring your hands gently to your thighs, and we're gonna settle in the middle here. Bring your eyes forward. One more time, you're gonna lift the sternum up. At the end of this class, you should feel connected to your body. You should certainly feel more free.

You should have a little bit of an understanding, bring your torso back to the upright position. Eyes open or closed. So I have a little bit more understanding of how important it is to Open your chest, open your hips, lengthen your muscles, mobilize in your hip joint, and just how good that feels and how freeing that feels. And no matter what you're going through in your life or what is happening to you, this class should have just given you a little bit of reprieve from it all. A little moment to connect with your body to focus, to think about things, or to just focus on your breath, whatever it might be, And now for you to feel that wonderful tingling, vibrating sensation we often have in our body when we exert it.

And just knowing that you took that time to do something good for yourself and good for your body, no matter what is going on on this day in your life or this week or this month or this year, that you use movement as a wonderful tool, and a wonderful gift. Let's breathe in together. And breathe out. Thank you so much for doing this class with me today. I hope that you enjoyed it and I hope that you get to try it again and again.

Thank you for joining me.