00:00Welcome to the Essence Wellness House. My name is Leslie Salmon Jones.
00:05I'm Jeff W. Jones and we're the founders of Afroflow Yoga.
00:08Today we're going to guide you through a short practice of yoga movement to live healing music.
00:15You can do it on the floor or from a chair. We'll begin from a comfortable seated position.
00:20Making our way in a comfortable seated position. If you need to pat up your knees or sit on a pillow, feel free to do so.
00:36And we're going to begin with the breath. The breath, as we've been so reminded, is life.
00:44Breath gives us energy and it also helps us release any stress.
00:49I invite you to place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly.
00:54And as we settle, perhaps you close your eyes or soften your gaze. Take your gaze inward.
01:02Take a deep breath in and exhale.
01:07As you breathe in, perhaps you notice how you feel relaxing through your breath,
01:13softening your shoulders, relaxing your jaw, your fingers and your toes.
01:20This is a practice for you to connect to your highest self,
01:25to go within and find that light and joy and peace and love that you deserve.
01:31As we stay connected to our breath, you're going to relax your palms down and then on the next inhale,
01:43lift your chin up toward the sky and then exhale, draw your chin to your heart.
01:48So see if you maintain the length of your spine. As you inhale, lift your chin up and exhale, draw your chin down.
01:56Let's do this two more times. Inhale and exhale and one more inhale and exhale.
02:05Great job, great job. And then begin to circle your head around with the breath.
02:10See if you maintain the length of your spine, lift of your heart and then reverse, inhale and exhaling.
02:20Beautiful. Then bring your chin back up and let's bring the soles of our feet together this time.
02:30And place your hands on your shins or your knees and inhale, lift your heart up, expand your heart
02:36and then exhale, round your spine. Inhale, lift your heart and exhale, round.
02:43Inhale, expand and maybe imagine bringing light and love into your heart and inhale and exhale.
02:55And then coming up to a long spine, begin to circle around your torso. One breath in one motion.
03:06Maybe close your eyes, keep your gaze soft. And here as you move through the spine,
03:14perhaps you begin to notice how you feel bringing energy into your spine.
03:23Perhaps you take it a little faster or a little slow.
03:32Maintain the breath and then reach the right arm to the left shin, reach your left arm up,
03:39inhale and exhale and take a gentle twist. Lift your heart and exhale the breath.
03:47And then come back to center and reach the arms up and switch sides. Inhale, lift your heart and exhale,
03:54take a gentle twist. And here we're awakening the spine, placing your hands on top of your shoulders,
04:04relax your shoulders. Relax your shoulders. Begin to find a little freedom in your spine.
04:12Use your breath, maybe close your eyes here.
04:19Letting go of any tension.
04:20And then begin to slow it down. Take a deep breath and reach your arms up. Bring your hands to your heart.
04:33And then gently bring your knees in toward each other. And here we're going to make our way onto all fours.
04:44Swinging the legs around, you might need to pat up your knees. And then lining your wrists up with your shoulders
04:51and your knees with your hips. Exhale, round your spine. And inhale, tuck your toes under as you look up.
04:58Let's do that a few times. So you're bringing energy into your spine.
05:06Make sure you're breathing here. One breath and one motion.
05:10Notice how it feels just to bring this little motion into your spine.
05:15And then slowly sit back on your heels. We call this child's pose. Stretching your arms out, relaxing your shoulders down.
05:23And taking four breaths.
05:28Good. This is a good time to connect your practice to your heart.
05:34Melting away, returning home to yourself.
05:37On the next inhale, come back up on all fours.
05:43Tuck your toes under. Bring your knees in a little closer and take your hands out in front of you.
05:48Stretch through your arms and then lift your hips up toward the sky into a downward facing dog.
05:55And begin to pedal out your heels using your breath.
05:58And if this is a difficult position for you, perhaps you stay in child's pose.
06:08And then begin to walk toward your hands.
06:11And here we call this a ragdoll position.
06:14So imagine yourself like a ragdoll, taking a soft bend on your knees.
06:21Maybe interlocking your hands in the crease of your elbows to be a gentle sway,
06:26bobbing your head up and down.
06:27And on the next exhale, releasing your hands gently down.
06:32Lift up through your belly.
06:34Move your feet down. Press your palms against your shins.
06:38And lift up to a halfway lift. See if you can lift up through your belly, your spine.
06:44And then begin to root to rise. And then inhale, lift your arms up.
06:50And then exhale, bring your hands to your heart.
06:54Now step the right foot out and the left foot out.
06:58And then expand your arms. Inhale.
07:02Think of bringing in light.
07:05And exhale, exhale, light to your heart.
07:07And then inhale, reach out, love.
07:11And exhale, expand that love.
07:14One more inhale, peace.
07:15And exhale, bring peace to your heart.
07:19And then as you extend the arms side to side, begin to take a gentle sway.
07:26And imagine you're a tree blowing in the wind.
07:30And then let's begin to release whatever's not serving you.
07:38Give it a little toss.
07:42And then let's begin to connect to the sky.
07:47Reach.
07:47Reach.
07:48Reach.
07:48Reach.
07:48All those dreams.
07:49Reach.
07:50All those dreams.
07:50Pull those dreams down to your heart and then take it to the earth.
07:57Connect.
07:57Maybe give it a little gratitude.
08:01And then let's bring it to the heart.
08:05Feel your heart expanding.
08:07And let's begin to shake off.
08:12Whatever's not serving you, give it a good little shake.
08:18A few more seconds.
08:20Good.
08:21Let go of all that stress.
08:22Inhale.
08:24And then inhale.
08:26And then exhale.
08:27Slowly bring it down.
08:29Toe-pill your feet together.
08:32Come back to your heart and your breath.
08:35Maybe giving yourself a little gratitude.
08:38Reaching the arms down.
08:40Inhale.
08:42And then exhale.
08:42Take a swan dive all the way over.
08:45Exhale.
08:47And from here, we're going to step back with the right and the left.
08:52Coming back into the child's pose.
08:55Taking your time.
08:56And exhale the breath.
08:59And as you take the breath, coming back home to yourself,
09:05I invite you to make your way across your ankles, onto your spine,
09:12stretching the legs out, or however you come down, hug the knees in.
09:19Inhale.
09:19Inhale.
09:20Take them all the way over to the right.
09:24Reaching the left arm.
09:26Out to a T and relaxing.
09:31Ah.
09:31Just feel your spine releasing.
09:37Gently come over to the other side.
09:41Draw the knees to your heart.
09:43And take the knees over to the left as you reach over with that right arm.
09:53And then back to center to relax.
09:57Then shavasana.
10:04Find surrender.
10:05Release and let go.
10:18And stay relaxed or gently wiggle your fingers and your toes.
10:23Coming back into your physical body.
10:26Placing one hand on your heart, one hand on your belly.
10:28Take a deep breath in, deep breath out, rolling over onto one side in a resting and fetal position.
10:45And whenever you're ready, gently bring yourself up to a comfortable seated position.
10:57Hands to your heart.
11:00Ashe and Namaste.
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