Intention-Focused Flow

Hello, and happy New Year. Here we are again, and we are going to do some intentional movement today. So thank you for being here with me. And, once again, Happy New Year. So what we'll do is just sit on the mat, bringing the legs into a diamond shaped position and placing the hands just on the shins gently take a moment here close your eyes if you wish. I'm closing mine.

You can do as you wish, but we are going to find some softness in our bodies. So can we find both softness and heaviness and how I like to think about that is can you feel the bones of your spine heavy, the sitting bones heavy, maybe the knees, dropping a little bit more heavy. And then in opposition to that sensation, can you also attempt to create a feeling of lightness of lifting up in the spine. In the spirit. And If your eyes are closed, like mine are closed, you can open them as you wish, and we'll begin to move. So taking a nice big inhale.

And as you exhale, allow your pelvis to rock backwards. So we're creating a rounded shape. So just starting gentle and building later. And inhale, let this pelvis rock back up to upright, bringing the body back into alignment over the sitting bones. And exhale keeping the gaze soft as you round your spine.

And feel that each time you lift your spine, you do so with intention and you do so with that sensation of creating ease and lightness and inhale. And one more, exhaling to around, maybe pressing the feet into one another, and inhale lift up. And bring the feet in, the knees in, or the feet flat and the knees facing straight up. Taking the hands now to the fronts of the shins. And this time, we'll round the spine take the arms forwards and begin to roll back towards the ground.

Finding the lower spine against the the mat, the earth, lifting the arms, taking the arms out wide. Feel that there's a suspension in the arms as they reach. They come forwards. We come up with our body, keeping the roundness of the spine, and then let the arms lift. And as they lift, let the knees just drop open, take the body all the way forward over the legs.

And as you articulate and lift the spine back up into a straight line, let the knees just fold back in and around your spine and go back and reach up and take the arms and take them forwards. And roll the body up. Moving with intention, arms up, knees, abs, and focus, reach forwards, and build the spine back up bringing the knees in, round the spine, creating both ease and challenge and connection in our bodies and reach out and reach fords and roll up, thinking about how we can potentially bring sensations from our bodies into our lives, arms open, our arms lift, spine goes forward, body comes up, then he's come in, and we roll back. This time will come all the way down. As you come to your mat, readjust with your body to bring your pelvis towards your feet, your arms come down.

And inhale, flattening the spine so tip the pelvis, roll the body up, creating a straight line from your knees to your shoulder Inhale, bring your arms up over your head. And as you exhale and bring the body down, we're gonna expand through the chest, circle the arms out to the sides, timing the movement of the arms with the landing of spine so that as the pelvis drops back, the arms can be back next to the body and inhale. And as we exhale, we can press down with thumbs and roll up through the spine. Focus arms come up. And we circle the arms around and we start softening the body into the ground.

As the pelvis drops back, the arms have landed and in here. And left up, pressing down with the feet, feeling the inner thighs, reaching the arms. Maybe you'll get a little bit more freedom in your spine as your arms reach overhead. It's possible. Roll down.

So there's many possibilities in movement as is as are one more many possibilities in life and how we can think about our movement. We can translate that into what we can bring into our life, arms up overhead, and roll down, circle the arms around. And maybe when the world feels like it's on fire, we can just come back to our breath. Step the feet and the knees together, hands go behind the head. Inhale.

Take the knees to one side, reaching the opposite shoulder and elbow in the other direction. So we're stretching the spine. Connect into the center of the body, bring yourself back into the center and inhale, lift off one hip onto the other. So that means If we're gonna keep the knees together, that one foot needs to leave the ground and find the center of your body as you drag the knees creating a resistance. And in here, a gentle resistance against the air as you come back through the center, digging deep, and in how reaching across. So head in the upper body are still, and feel the ribs drop down to the ground, the abdominal pull the body back through center.

We're doing one more to each side in here, finding your focus, feel the weight of the head, heavy, still in the hands and center. And inhale reaching across. And exhale to center. In the center, keep the feet and the knees together. Curl the head and chest up, taking care to flatten the lower spine down into the ground holding here with the upper body.

Press down with your feet and begin curling your pelvis towards your chin, towards the tip of your nose. As your pelvis comes down into the ground, lift the chest a little bit more high. And then feel that you work your way on back down. And, India, active legs, exhale head and chest come up. Folding from just underneath the rib cage, keeping the head heavy in the hands, press down with your feet, curl your pelvis.

So like a conveyor belt, as the pelvis goes down, the upper spine follows, we get a little bit more height a little bit more intensity into that shape, and then we come back down. And in here, and lifting up, drawing in, connecting to the center of the body, roll up the pelvis. Moving the spine in from and in both directions, the head and chest try to come a little higher, and we come back down. We'll do 2 more. Inhale.

Taking the gaze just past the knees as you curl your head and chest up, Filling your feet on the earth as you lift your pelvis away from it, and then place the pelvis back down and lift the chest and the ribs. Come back down, and one more lifting up. Curl the hips. Take the pelvis down. Pause here and inhale.

As you exhale rotate towards one direction, and come back to center and rotate in the other direction and come back to center. And rotate, keeping the lower body still now, and center. And feeling the connection of your body, the connection of your breath to your movement, one more time rotate, and center, and rotate, and find center and elongate through the spine. Maybe you pull on your head a little bit to create a stretch through the neck. The spine gets longer as it comes down.

And lift up. And let the pelvis come towards the face. And take the pelvis down, but keep lifting the upper body. Now as you rotate, I'll say right and left now. Take the body to the right and the knees to the left. And center.

And the body goes left as the knees go right. So everything is rotating and center and rotate ringing out the spine. And center and rotate. How many more you say? Just one to each side. Rotate and center and rotate And center in the center, reach forward with your arms.

Stretch one leg long, The other leg long, turned the palms to face the sides of the thighs, reached the arms up, and take the head and chest down, and lift your head and chest. And roll through your spine, bringing the shoulders over the pelvis, keeping the spine around, And as you go down, feel your legs pressing together, your legs pressing into the ground, the low back connects to the ground, the arms reach up and the head and chest go down and lift up and curl the body. And establish the shoulders over the pelvis and inhale and rolling down reaching energetically through the arms, through the legs, arms come up, head and chest go down. We'll do 3 more lift up, flatten the spine. And roll, float the spine, and creating your upper shape, the rounded shape, and inhale.

And roll down, bowelless moves, low back touches, arms reach up. A body goes down. And inhale lift. And Excel. And reach all the way forward.

Take your hands and place them behind your head. Articulate your and flex through your feet and inhale. And we take the spine in one direction, twist, and center. And as you twist your spine, feel that you're lifting it taller and center. And ringing out the spine and center, finding a combination of ease and connection and breath and energy.

And center and bringing our positive energy into our bodies and into the world. And I'm gonna say right and left now so I can explain. Rotate left. Take the right elbow down towards the outside of the right leg. Roll up through the spine staying in that rotational alignment and come to center and rotate.

And now the left elbow goes down towards the outside of the left leg. And then we articulate the body back up feeling the movement flow from 1 to the next and inhale rotate left. Excel right elbow, right leg, and articulate up, and find center keeping the feet still side by side, rotate right, and dive down, and roll up and feel the center of the body powering all of the movements and left last time. And up and center and rotate and dive down, creating mobility through the spine and up, and center And in the center, start to take the hands from behind the head, press the palms together as you stretch your arms into the air, take the arms out to the side. Take the arms behind the back.

Point the feet. Press down with the legs and lift the pelvis. And as the pelvis comes down, keep working through the back of the legs, through the middle of the back, let the pelvis just lightly touch and lift up. Working to stand the soles of the feet down towards the ground and sit back working as we pelvis comes down to keep lifting up out of the arms, out of the shoulders. And lift up and hinging from the hip keeping the gaze just reaching out over the horizon last two times lift up.

And sit back, and lift up. And sit back and bring the legs in taking a hold of the shins or the knees or the ankles, pressing the legs together, balancing, and we go back in here and find our balance at the top. Keep the arms active. And inhale. Keep the shape of the body.

And inhale. I'll tell you what I'm thinking about, letting go of perfection. Does it exist? I think not. So just have fun.

Move your body. And up one more time inhale and hold here. Left the shin so that they're parallel to the ground, reach forward with your arms, roll down onto the mat, bring the hands behind the head. Bend the knees in so they're in a tabletop position and take the toes down. So a hip hinge and bring the legs up.

Bend your knees so your feet go to your seat. Roll the spine just like we did in the beginning. We articulate the pelvis away from the ground. Same lesson as the pelvis goes back down, The chest follows it. We look for height.

We pick up the shins and take the body down, and lift the head and chest. Keep the height of the body as the legs reach down and back and bend and curl, and curl down, but keep lifting, and bring the legs back into tabletop and come down, and exhale to lift. Keeping the focus, and bring the knees in, and bend the knees and curl, and curl, and lust cushions, and take the body down, and lift up, and take the legs down. Keeping her focus in this moment. This is the moment that matters.

And curl and curl and lift the shins and crisscross. Reaching long through the straight leg, feeling the inner thigh of the bent knee engaging, almost like it's pulling across the leg that's straightening. We do 55. 4433 do. 21.

1. We're gonna do something fun. Reach your arms forward. Place your head down. Bring the feet in.

Begin that same process of peeling the pelvis away from the ground and then kick to go over. Like you're floating. Take the legs down. Roll the spine down. As the bottom of the ribs come down, we lift the head, bend the knees, roll up and balance, begin to roll back, lift the pelvis and kick, float, enjoy.

Take the legs down. Roll the spine down. Energy through the arms, lift the head and chest bend the knees, and balance 2 more. Go back and kick. Nice and light in the body.

Playful. And go down, lifting the head, bending the knees, coming up into that balanced position floating in the air. One more time, go back and kick And take the legs down, and roll down. And bend the knees and balance. Take your ankles and stretch the legs and stretch the body. And fold back in and stretch the legs and stretch the body.

And fold back in one more time, stretch the legs and stretch the body. And come back, place your feet down, and come onto your knees. Position the knees a little wider than the hip joints. Take the arms out to the side. Take the right arm up, the left arm down, Slide the left arm down the side of the left side as you reach up and over in that direction.

For lack of a better way to talk about it, left arm comes up, right arm goes down. Right arm goes down. Left arm comes up. We slide the right leg down pressing it against the thigh. As we take the ribs up away from the opposite side of the pelvis and come back up, arms float out to the side.

And a right arm up and left arm down and side bend. Go go go go go and back and right arm up, left arm. Right arm down, left arm up. I get confused. It's okay.

And reach over. Go go. I'm telling myself that because I think a lot of us stop a little short of our possibility. So don't sell yourself short is the lesson Meredith. And the left arm goes down, the right arm goes up, We take that side, Ben. We're making a change.

Take the right arm around. Come back into the side stretch. Maybe you'll go a little further there and back. And right arm up, down. Again, I did the same and reach over So the lesson from earlier in the class was we're letting go of perfection in 2024.

And reach around or I am, anyway, and back around diving down a little deeper. And coming up, making another change, go over to the left, not to the thigh this time, but to the ground. The right leg comes up into the air. The right hand comes behind the head, flex the right foot, and kick forward. And back and forward and back and forward.

And back and forwards and back and to and back and one and hold the leg out to the side. Go down. And up. And down lift that heavy leg all the way up to the very top of your At most capacity. 2 more down and up, Feel the head reaching out in space and down and out.

Take the leg all the way down. Come up. Same side arm goes onto that straight leg. The other arm reaches up. Slide down that leg with your hand and side bent.

And come back up. When he comes in, the arms reach out. Heather side. Going over, lifting the leg, taking the hand behind the head, flexing through the foot, we kick forward and back. Think about the hype of the leg staying consistent as it goes to the front maybe lifting it a little higher as it comes to the back and and back and forward.

And back. Let's do two more. I may have discounted. I think anyone who's taking class with me comes to expect that. And back no perfection. Take the lake down and reach out and go down and reach out so that you're almost lifting up out of that supporting arm.

And, too, and reach out and 1 and reach out is your leg as high as you can get it. Take it down. Take your body up. Slide the arm down the same side of the body where the leg is straight. Come up, bring the knee in, make fist, and connect your fist together.

So what I want us to imagine is that our hands are stuck together. Like, active. Try to pull them apart. You can't because they're stuck. So that's the energy that I'm hoping that we can find now. As we begin to move, feel that same kind of stickiness, but allow the hands to come apart.

So that simultaneously We're trying to pull the hands together and also apart, reach them out, keep that energy, that ripping of fabric type of feeling. Soften. Reach overhead. Let the spine extend. Keep the arms soft, allow them to float.

As the body comes up, right? We create that energy again, active energy through the hands, bend the arms back in. Pulling the elbows out. So I imagine, like, trying to tear or create activity as I'm pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling, and then get soft. And reach up overhead.

And soft as the arms come back, bring the body up right, create some energy, Bend the arms, active, make your arms feel like you're like they're working hard as a suggestion. And go again. Pull. Like you're pulling weight. And then feel that energy, that active, strong energy turn into release. And reach overhead.

And reach wide to the sides, We'll do one more, bringing the body up right. Create some strength. Just like we can create different sensations in our body, with our brain, One more, we can also, I imagine, create sensation, and life, release, and go overhead. And go back. And strength and bend the arms.

And take them down soft. Sit down on your feet. If your knees don't like to sit down this far, just stay up kneeling. Take the arms out to the side. Now if They were really working.

They should feel pretty floaty now. Take the right arm up. The left arm down. Maybe the fingertips can come down. And then reach over towards that direction, taking the spine into another stretch, And as you come up, let the arms flip.

And take the other arm up starting with the fingertips. And then as the spine changes, maybe we can feel some contact with the hand into the ground. Everyone's different. So you'll do, of course, what works in your body, reach out. And the left arm goes down and the right arm comes up.

And we lean over, letting the arm support you. Maybe you'll even bend. I don't know. And floating one more, the other side, lean and reaching over. And coming back up.

Take the hands behind that. So just a soft support against the back of the head and then let your chin drop to your chest. Not pulling on the head, but simply letting the weight of the hands and gravity Allow the neck to find a stretch, then start bringing your head down, rolling the top of the head, down towards the knees, folding into a tiny shape. Tiny, tiny, and then begin lifting the body back up. Maybe we can feel that sensation of guiding the head with the hands, floating back up, softening.

Let the elbows open. Pull up and back on your heads. A little bit of back extension there. And then back to upright and then bring the head down. And rolling down, so feeling the abdominals creating support for the spine as we fold in taking a spinal stretch, feeling the contraction, the possibility for movement of the body, and then feeling as we lift back up, the possibility of freedom and expansion.

And pull up and back on your head and down with your shoulder blades? And come back to center one more time. Way around. Supporting ourselves as we go every time a little bit more down. A little bit more small.

And then every time, a little bit more open a little bit more light. And take your hands in front of your chest and close your eyes. And in here. And Feel that every timely exhale, we can release what is not serving us. And in here and release Anything that we don't have any control over?

And with our last exhale, We have to inhale first. We can set an intention for what we want to bring into the world. Happy New Year.