Dimple Patel:
Sorry, I just want to get my screen right so I don't have to play with this.
Dimple Patel:
And then once you find yourself on your chair begin to connect with your breath, maybe close your eyes, or soften your gaze above your nose. Feel yourself tall and grounded. For you alignment is super important, especially as we're building up our foundation. So make sure that all 10 toes are grounded onto the earth, your knees are parallel to one another, hips are grounded, chest is open, spine is tall. I want to take a couple of seconds just to get grounded in our seat. So lift up your toes, gently bring them back down. Lift up your heels, bring it back down. Lift up your toes. Just do this a few more times. Bringing some awareness to our feet, the foundation of who we are.
Dimple Patel:
Connect to your breath here. A couple of more times just like this, maybe even go higher next time lifting those knees, bring them down, lift your toes, bring them down. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Now let's begin to check in with the rest of our body. So again if it's okay for you, gently close your eyes or soften your gaze. Palms can be on your thighs or your knees, and tune in with your breath. We'll do three filtering breaths here. So we're going to inhale through the nose, fill up your belly, exhale through the mouth. Let it all go. Two more times just like that. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Last breath. Inhale, fill up your belly, exhale it out through the mouth.
Dimple Patel:
From here we're going to transition into Ojai breathing. So we're going to breathe in and out through our nose. Let's give that a try. Inhale through your nose, lips are sealed, exhale through the nose. Do this a few more times, just to get connected with your breath.
Dimple Patel:
And in this breath work called Ojai, it's almost as if the exhale is coming from your throat. So as you exhale you create a wave-like sound, almost like an ocean-like sound. See how that feels.
Dimple Patel:
This type of breath work has really great benefit, particularly for our nervous system. So when we're in moments of tension or stress or anxiety, our ability to tap into our Ojai breathing really has phenomenal and powerful benefits to calm us down, to help us regain control.
Dimple Patel:
Like anything, it takes time to learn new practices. So if this Ojai breath feels a little funny, a little odd, totally normal.
Dimple Patel:
Now as you're breathing bring your awareness to your forehead, begin to release your forehead. Feel your eyelids. Breathe into your jaw, relax your jaw. You tend to carry a lot of tension here, so really breathe into it. Breathe it all out. Coming down into your throat, into your heart, really filling up your center.
Dimple Patel:
As you exhale, bring your awareness to your right shoulder. Breathe down into your right arm, elbow, all the way into your forearm. Feel your arm heavy.
Dimple Patel:
Keep breathing into your wrists and out into your right fingertips.
Dimple Patel:
Come back to your center, and begin to build up your breath into your left shoulder. Breathe here. As you exhale, follow it all the way down your arm into your elbow, and then into your left forearm. Feel your left forearm be heavy. Go into your left wrist and out through your left fingertips.
Dimple Patel:
Gently bringing awareness to every part of our body. Come back into your center, come into your heart. Inhale, big breath in here. As you exhale follow that breath down into your belly, coming all the way to your right hip. Breathe here. Exhale into your thigh, your right knee, all the way into your leg, ankle and out into your toes. Bring some weight to your right side.
Dimple Patel:
Deep inhale. Breathe in some energy, some love into your left hip. Feel it be heavy. Continue to breathe into your left thigh, into your knee, and all the way down into your leg, coming out from your ankles and into your toes. Deep inhale here.
Dimple Patel:
Your palms can stay on your thighs, or if you'd like you can bring them into prayer in front of your heart. And at this time I invite you to set an intention for your practice, to what or to whom are you dedicating the next hour to?
Dimple Patel:
We will begin with three rounds of Om. Inhale together. Om. Om. Om. Inhale the vibration of Om, universal sound that connects us. Exhale everything else.
Dimple Patel:
Gently open your eyes if you've closed them, place your palms on your thighs. And we're going to slowly begin to wake up every part of our body really taking our time here. We're going to begin with the neck, and we're going to begin gently and slowly.
Dimple Patel:
So just begin to look from side to side. Above your left shoulder, above your right shoulder. Bring in some energy, some awareness. Go as slowly as your body tells you, I know that this is a sensitive area for many of us, so because we're still warming up there's absolutely no rush. Two more times on each side. And stay connected. Even in this minor movement, stay connected to your breath. That is the most important thing.
Dimple Patel:
We'll meet back in the center, and then as we inhale look up, begin to gaze towards the sky, maybe open up that throat. As you exhale you come back down the center, chin into your chest. Take a moment here, really feel that relief in the back of your neck. We also tend to carry a lot of stress here, a lot of tension, so really take a moment to find that relief.
Dimple Patel:
One more deep inhale. Exhale it out. Inhale, bring it back through your center all the way to the side. Exhale, coming back down, chin to your chest. A couple more times just like. Let your breath be your guide instead of the other way around. So really let your breath guide your movement here. So as we inhale begin to look up, as we exhale begin to look inward.
Dimple Patel:
Inhale, exhale.
Dimple Patel:
One more time.
Dimple Patel:
Once you're done we'll meet back in neutral. Center, and we'll open the side of our neck. So bring your chin into your chest, and then we're going to roll our left ear on top of our left shoulder to just open up the right side of our neck here. You're welcome to just stay right here and breathe. Close your eyes or soft gaze. Or if you want you're even welcome to take your right fingertips, and walk them up and down the right side of your neck. This feels really good to me, it may not feel good to you. So just give it a try. I feel like it's like I'm giving myself a massage just by walking my fingers up and down.
Dimple Patel:
But wherever you are, focus on your breath, stay connected to your breath. One more deep inhale. And exhale. Bring your chin back through center into your chest, and then just roll the opposite way. So right ear comes above right shoulder, opening up the left side of our neck. Stay here. Or if you want, give yourself a little massage with your left fingertips, walk them up and down, back and forth, whatever feels good. We're just beginning to open up every part of our neck here. Maybe one side is a little bit more than the other. Just notice that, no judgment. One more breath. Exhale, bring your chin back into your chest and then head faces center.
Dimple Patel:
All right, we're going to put all that together. So we're going to make circles with our chin, which will ultimately open up our neck. Again, listen to your body, do what feels good to you. So bring your chin into your chest, and then left ear over your left shoulder. From here keep breathing, opening up the throat, head tilt back coming all the way to the right side so the right ear is above your right shoulder. Then coming back to the center, chin into your chest. Let's do this one more time.
Dimple Patel:
Stay connected to your breath, notice where you may feel a little extra tension or tightness, maybe stay there for an extra breath. Once we come back to center we'll change the directions. So chin into your chest, right ear over your right shoulder. Tilt your head back. Again, going very slowly. There's absolutely no rush. Once you come back to center, make another round in the same direction so that we're even on both sides. Come back, chin into your chest, and then gently lift up facing center. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
You might want to come a few inches off your chair so your back has a little bit more support. Let's just do a couple of shoulder rolls. So palms are on your thighs, and just lift your shoulders to your ears, circle them back and down. Do this a couple of times in one direction, and then take a moment to do it in the opposite direction. Again just finding some relief in every part of our body. One more circle.
Dimple Patel:
Come back to neutral, and then we'll do the same thing with our hips. So for this you definitely want to come a few inches away from the back of your chair. Bring your palms on to your hips, and then just begin to rotate your chest in the circle opening your hips. Hinge a few inches from your hips, your spine is still long, and then just begin to move in a circle in one direction. We'll do three hip circles in this direction. Stay connected to your breath, notice where you feel any tightness, Stay there for an extra breath and see how you feel.
Dimple Patel:
Once you're done with your three circles, circle it the opposite way. Again, this side might feel more natural or a little odd, totally fine. We try to find balance through this practice, and in that process we find that our left side doesn't always match our right and that's totally acceptable. One last circle.
Dimple Patel:
Once you're done come back to center. All right, make sure that our feet are still grounded. We're going to open up our chest, and this time we're going to include our shoulder blades as well. So from here we're going to inhale, fingertips reach the sky. As you exhale palms face out, shoulders are bent, and then shoulder blades come closer to one another as you circle your palms back and down. A few more times just like this. Inhale, fingertips reach the sky. Exhale, palms face out, elbows are bent, circle your elbows back and down. Three more times, maybe gaze follows your fingers if that's okay for your neck. And again, really let your breath be your guide. You could go even quicker if that's what your body's telling you, as long as you're following your breath.
Dimple Patel:
A few more times wherever you are.
Dimple Patel:
Beautiful. Bring your palms on your knees, and we're going to continue opening our chest. And this time we're going to include our back, we're going to give our back a little bit of a massage. So we're going to do some cat cows. Palms are on your knees, as you inhale it's like you're pulling your chest closer to the front of the room and looking up for cow. As you exhale you're going to pull your belly in, dome your back, chin to your chest for cat. A few more times. Inhale, open your chest, look up. Exhale, pull that belly in and dome your back. Release your neck. Do this a few more times following your breath.
Dimple Patel:
Again, if you'd like you can go faster. You can go slower. There's no right or wrong, it's just what is good for you and your body in this moment. This is a wonderful exercise, stretch for your body, especially for your back. It really gets from the top to the bottom of your back so you can totally do this on an office desk, the dining room table. It's a really nice way to release.
Dimple Patel:
Two more times, wherever you are. Keep breathing, stay connected to that breath.
Dimple Patel:
Once you're done, you're going to meet us back in neutral. All right, let's open up our arms now. So inhale, fingertips reach the sky. And then exhale, you're just going to bring your right arm across your chest, and then you're welcome to place your left fingertips on your left hip, or if you want a little bit of a deeper stretch you can take that left forearm, touch it up against your right forearm and then lean inwards, pull it towards you. Breathe here, or if you like you can take it and pull your wrist very gently. Look straight ahead or come into a little bit of a twist, looking above your right shoulder. Wherever you are, breathe.
Dimple Patel:
Beautiful. Come back to center. Fingertips reach the sky. Exhale, right fingers on your right hip, left arm across your torso, and then stay right here. You'll feel a little bit of a stretch in your arm already, or if you want something deeper take that right forearm, push it against your left forearm and then pull it towards you a little, very gently. But you'll see how that deepens the stretch. Breathe here, or if you'd like you can even hold on and gently pull your left wrist, whatever feels good to you. And then if you're going in for that twist, gaze is above your left shoulder. If this is not happening, then look straight ahead.
Dimple Patel:
Breathe wherever you are.
Dimple Patel:
one more deep inhale. Exhale. Let it go, shake out your arms.
Dimple Patel:
All right, now let's begin to open our torso, the sides of our torso. So inhale, fingertips reach the sky. As you exhale bring your left fingers onto your left hip, opening up towards the left. Breathe here. Make sure that your right hip is not hiking up, right? This is not what we want, we always want to feel grounded and lengthened. So make sure, even if you have to pull your hip down with your right hand, totally fine, but we want to feel grounded. And then once you're grounded, then moving over and opening the right side. So that's okay if you're not leaning all the way, right? We want to feel that stress on our right torso all the way to our right hip. This is option one, breathe here.
Dimple Patel:
Option two is to look under your right forearm if it's okay for your neck, this will open your chest a little bit more to the sky. Option three is to take that left palm and place it on the opposite side, so the right side of your chair, and breathe here using both of your arms in opposite directions to help you find a little bit of a deeper bend and deeper stretch on the right side of your body. Wherever you are is perfect, just breathe.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath.
Dimple Patel:
Exhale, release both of your fingertips, and hands reached the sky, exhale prayer down the midline. Then we might want to shake that out. Let's do the opposite side. So lengthen your left arm up and over your right side. So we're opening up the left side of our body. Right palm can come on to your right hip, brief here. Perfect, just make sure that left hip is grounded, it's not hiking up. Right? And breathe here. If you'd like a little bit of a deeper stretch, maybe gaze under your left forearm, you'll see how that opens your chest even further. Or if you'd like, option three, take your right palm and place it on the left side of this chair, opening your left torso even more. Pick what you like and breathe.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath, wherever you are. Exhale, reach your fingertips to the sky, exhale prayer down the midline. Awesome, let's shake it out one more time.
Dimple Patel:
And now we're going to begin to do a little bit to build off of this heart openers that we've been working on. We spend so much time punching in words that that's why I'm spending a little bit of time really trying to open and expand us. This will also require just a few inches off your chair. We're going to interlace our fingertips, and we're going to do this, creating a fist behind our back and lengthening our arms. So that's how much space you need. So kind of do a little bit of adjustment yourself, keep your elbows bent, and then when you begin to release slowly open your chest, lengthening your arms, you'll see how both of those work hand-in-hand.
Dimple Patel:
So once you're here you'll really feel this openness in your heart and your chest, your shoulder blades are being pulled closer to one another and it's a little... Your body will naturally want to look up, which is totally fine, but control how far your neck goes depending on how your neck is feeling. Breathe here, really inhale, get taller. And then as you exhale hinge, from your hips, coming into a forward hold. So we're going to slowly come down. Our fist is basically reaching for the sky. Breathe here. And then as you exhale gently release your fingertips, coming onto the ground, onto the Earth coming into a forward fold here.
Dimple Patel:
So relax your neck, shake out your head yes, shake out your head no. Let it all go. How's that breathing?
Dimple Patel:
Beautiful. Now walk your feet a little closer to one another, about hip width distance apart. And we're going to play with a small, small vinyasa. Which is really just a flow. So as we inhale we're going to come into a flat back. What that means is that we're placing our palms against her shins, pushing them away so that our shoulder blades roll back and down so that our spine is long. That's what I mean when I say flat back. And then as we exhale, coming into a forward fold. Let's do that two more times. Inhale, flat back. Exhale, forward fold. Last time. Inhale, flat back. Push those shins away from you. Exhale, forward fold.
Dimple Patel:
All right. So from here, Keep your toes grounded and then hold on to opposite elbows, really coming into a forward fold, letting everything go. You'll feel some weight and heaviness into your hips. One more breath. Let it go, and then change the cross of your elbows, so opposite arm is on top. And just sway from side to side.
Dimple Patel:
And then from here release your hands, and then vertebrae by vertebrae very slowly roll yourself up into seated position, Sukhasana. Your head is the last thing that comes up. Once you're up circle out your shoulders in one directions, circle them out in the opposite direction. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Now we're going to begin to move into our legs, our thighs, our feet. So for this piece you could actually scoot back if you'd like some support for your back, and we're going to just hug our right knee into our chest. Give it a squeeze, and then hold on to your right knee with your right arm, and begin to draw circles with him. So imagine that your knee is a pencil, you're drawing large circles with it. Do this in one direction. This is allowing us to open our hips even further. And then change the direction of your circles, so begin to circle your knees in the opposite direction.
Dimple Patel:
Keep breathing. No matter how minor a movement is it's so important to be connected to our breath.
Dimple Patel:
Two more circles wherever you are. Once you're done, hug that right knee back into your chest and then place that foot down. Find that tall spine, feel that sense of groundedness, and then pull your left knee into your chest, give it a hug. And then similarly, begin to circle it in one direction. Doesn't matter what direction you start in as long as you do it in both.
Dimple Patel:
Keep breathing.
Dimple Patel:
As you can see I'm going at a medium pace but you can go quicker if you'd like, slower if you like, whatever feels good to you.
Dimple Patel:
All right, then change the direction of your circle. Begin really opening up that left hip. We're going to build our way into some deeper stretches, but before we do that we want to do it safely. And one way we do that is by making sure we're stretched and we have a proper warm up. One more circle.
Dimple Patel:
Exhale, place that foot back onto the ground. Beautiful, we're going to keep building from this. So inhale, hug your right knee into your chest and then make sure you find some length in your spine. And once you do that inhale, get taller, and then as you exhale lengthen your right foot and leg straight ahead of you. If you'd like a little bit of support, you're welcome to take your fingertips underneath your right thigh and use that as support to help you lift. Breathe wherever you are. Notice that the right toes are flexed, that will engage your calf even further, it will be an active stretch. Keep breathing.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath. Exhale, bend that knee, give it a hug. Place that foot back down. Awesome, let's do the opposite side. Hug that left knee into your chest, give it a tight squeeze. And then if you'd like, and you know you want a little bit of support, interlace your fingertips underneath that left thigh. And then before you lengthen your leg, you want to find that length in your spine. So take a moment, take a moment to feel your hip joints grounded and your spine tall. Inhale to get even taller, exhale, begin to lengthen that left leg, those left toes straight ahead of you. Breathe here.
Dimple Patel:
If you feel grounded and tall, you're always welcome to go a little higher. And you'll see that also intensifies the stretch, so play around with what feels good. Wherever you are, stay connected to your breath. Couple of more breaths just like this. One more inhale, really just reach as far as you can with your toes. Exhale, bend that left knee, give it a tight squeeze, place that foot next to your right. Awesome. Maybe shake out your legs a little, if that was a little intense for some of you.
Dimple Patel:
All right. Like I said, we're going to keep building so we're slowly laying a foundation for what we're going to do towards the end. So hug your right knee in, find that length in your spine, your chest remains open. And then from here we're actually going to lengthen the left arm. Breathe here, make sure everything is lifted and tall, and we're going to begin to engage the core. So lengthen your right arm by your side. Are you with me? One more inhale, feel your spine get taller, and then as you exhale lengthen your right leg straight ahead of you. Breathe here. Feel your body being pulled in three different directions. Your center, your core is keeping everything together. Breathe here. And keep your chest open, right? I'd rather you lower your leg and keep your chest open then higher your leg and fold in. Right? We spent a lot of work expanding, so we want to continue to build from that.
Dimple Patel:
Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. One more breath. Exhale. Bend your right knee, bring your right palm, bring your left palm back in, give your knee a squeeze, place it back down. Awesome. All right, let's do the opposite side.
Dimple Patel:
Hug that left knee in, give it a tight squeeze, this time lengthen your right arm by your side. Sit tall. When you're ready, engage your core so that you can lengthen your left arm by your side. Your core is really helping you keep this knee bent. So inhale, lengthen that spine. Exhale, lengthen that leg right out in front of you. Breathe here. Remember you can always lower that leg if that's better for you, if you want a little bit of a challenge you can keep lifting those toes to the sky while keeping that chest and heart open. Wherever you are, three more breaths.
Dimple Patel:
Come back to your intention, come back to your breath, come back to your sense of feeling grounded. One more breath. As you exhale, bend that knee. Bring that left palm on your left knee, right palm, both give it a tight hug. Then let it go. Coming back to neutral Sukhasana seated post.
Dimple Patel:
Over here you might want to just give your thighs a little bit of a massage by pressing into them. This feels good to me, might not feel good to you so do whatever you want to kind of show your thigh some love, they put in some work here. All right.
Dimple Patel:
Inhale, right leg in, right knee in. And then as we exhale we're going to lengthen our right foot straight ahead, again palms can be by your hips or underneath your thigh, and just going to circle out our ankle in one direction. You might hear some crackles, how often do we show our ankles some love? Circle it out in the opposite direction. Maybe release your fingertips coming back to that stretch. And then exhale, hug that knee in, place that foot back down. All right, let's do the opposite side.
Dimple Patel:
Hug that left knee in. And then when you're ready, lengthen that left leg and just circle out your ankles. Maybe even your toes too. Circle it out in one direction. Circle it out in the opposite. And then if you want a little bit of core work, lengthen your arms in opposite directions at the same time. Breathe here. Exhale, bring everything in. Give your knee a hug. Place that foot next to your right. Awesome. Beautiful work everyone. Maybe shake out your legs, shake out your arms.
Dimple Patel:
All right, so we're going to do a little bit of a twist now. So scoot your hips a few inches away from the back of your chair, bring your toes to touch, knees to touch so it's almost as if your inner thighs you're touching as well. And this is a called chair twist. So we're already in the chair, so what we're really be working on is a twist.
Dimple Patel:
So inhale, arms frame your face, and then make sure your shoulders are not hiking into your ears. Maybe roll them back down, we want to create as much space as possible. And from here hinge from your hip, just a few inches so that your spine is tall, and then prayers down the midline. Breathe here, inhale to lengthen. And then as you exhale twist to the right so that your left elbow hooks on to your right thigh, coming in for a thigh chair twist. Breathe here. These can be straight ahead, or if you want something deeper you can look past your right elbow. Again it's all about how you feel in your neck.
Dimple Patel:
Wherever you are, breathe. And just take note of what your toes and knees are doing, make sure they're both as even as possible. We don't want one hiking pass the other. The top of our crown is reaching tall and straight ahead. One more breath. Exhale, bring those arms, again, parallel to your torso, to your face, and then as you exhale prayer down the midline coming into a forward fold. Let everything go.
Dimple Patel:
Slowly, vertebrae by vertebrae, roll yourself up. Be heavy with your head being the last thing that comes up. Beautiful, let's do the opposite side.
Dimple Patel:
So inhale, arms frame your face. Again, hike those shoulder blades down. It's very easy to do this, it's not what we want. We already spend so much time doing that, so we want to really create that space. Bring your toes to touch, knees to touch. And then hinge from your hips a few inches so that your spine remains tall. Prayer down the midline. And then once you feel like you have enough length, begin to twist to the left hooking the right elbow onto the left thigh and then looking either straight ahead or past your left elbow, whatever feels good. Maybe close your eyes. And stay connected to your breath.
Dimple Patel:
Twist has many detoxing benefits, so that's why I love to include at least a few in the practice. One more inhale. As you exhale bring your arm back to center, framing your face. As you exhale, come into a forward fold. Find that relief, do whatever you got to do to let go of that tension, feel that relief. And then slowly, vertebrae by vertebrae, come back up into a seated position. Awesome. All right, so we're going to actually get up now and still use our chair, but just in a different way.
Dimple Patel:
So I'm going to scoot back a little so you can see me, and what I want you to do is use your chair and use the back of your chair, and step about three to four feet behind your chair. We're going to use this part of your chair, the top of your chair for support. So some folks may have longer legs, shorter legs, so it just really depends. And when you get here, you're basically going to come into a halfway forward pose that your palms are touching, your fingertips on the top of that chair. It's as this will recreating a L shape with your body. Right? So find that, take a moment to feel grounded. Your legs are long, but they're not locked. Right? So maybe even bend your knees a little if you feel like you're locking your legs, we don't want that. So there's definitely a balance between bending your knees and locking them. That's what we're looking for.
Dimple Patel:
From here just take a couple of breaths, maybe let go of your neck. This is a really nice relief. Let go of your neck, really allow yourself to almost fall into this knowing that you're supported with the back of the chair. Here you can shake your head yes, you can shake your head no, whatever feels good to you.
Dimple Patel:
All right. So you're welcome to stay like this the whole time, or I have some options for you. First one is bend your right knee. My right knee and left leg is long. And then place your right fingertips, so tensing up your fingers, underneath your nose. From here begin to look underneath your left arm. Breathe here. Or if you'd like something deeper, you can lengthen your left fingertips to the sky. And then maybe even gaze towards your left fingertips. Wherever you are, is perfect. Just breathe.
Dimple Patel:
Couple of more breaths, just like this. If you went into your arm to the sky then bring that back to the back of the chair. Lengthen your right leg, bring your right fingertips behind your chair. Coming into that L shape and take a moment to fold in. Take a couple of breaths here. Do any movement that feels good in your body. Maybe bending one knee, bending the other. Bending one elbow, bending the other. Again, whatever feels good, whatever speaks to you. All right, let's do the opposite side.
Dimple Patel:
So for here, again, this is option one. This is always option one. So right here, option two, bend that left knee, place your left fingertip on to the ground underneath your nose. This is option two. Option three is to look under your right arm, so giving it a little bit of a twist. Option four is to lengthen your fingertips to the sky. Maybe gaze follows your fingertips as well. So pick what you'd like to do, listen to your body and breathe.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath. As you exhale, if you lengthened your arm bring it back to your chair, lengthen your left leg, bring your left fingertips behind the chair as well and come back into this forward fold. Take a couple of breaths. Again, find whatever movement feels good to you. Shaking out your head, shaking out your head yes, shaking out your head no, peddling out your knees. All right.
Dimple Patel:
Okay, so the final stretch that we'll do behind the chair is cat cow, which you're familiar with. We did this sitting down, so this is just a different variation. You might actually want to walk your feet a little closer to the chair so you have a little bit of a bend in your elbows. And we're basically going to do the same opening chest curving spine motion. So on the inhale begin to pull your shoulder blades closer to one another as you look up. And then as you exhale we're going to pull the belly and dome the back, chin into your chest. A couple of times. Inhale, open that chest. Exhale, pull that belly in and dome your back. Do this at your own breath, at your own pace. Absolutely no rush.
Dimple Patel:
Beautiful, one more round. And then we'll come back in neutral and then gently lift yourself up, and then we'll meet on our chair. That was wonderful work everyone. So we'll come back to our chairs and begin to cool down. So again, find that length, that openness. Feet are grounded, and we're going to hug our right knee in. And then place that right shin above your left thigh. So we're creating a figure four stretch with our legs. Your feet might not go in this way, your knee might be all the way here, totally fine it just means that your hamstrings are tight, your thigh is tight, totally fine. So wherever you are, come into this form, this variation, right toes are flexed, and placed your palms on your thigh, close your eyes and just breathe.
Dimple Patel:
You'll notice this stretch, you'll feel it on your right thigh all the way from your right hip. And if you want something deeper you can place your palms on your thighs or your hips, and then begin to hinge from your hips with your spine tall. Just a few inches, you're not going very far because this already intensifies the stretch by coming into a forward fold like this. Breathe wherever you are, maybe close your eyes.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath.
Dimple Patel:
As you exhale, begin to lengthen if you came into a little bit of forward fold, and then Hug your right knee into your chest. Place that foot down. We'll do the opposite side. Hug that left knee into your chest, place that left shin above your right thigh, flexing those left toes. I already feel this stretch here in my left thigh, so this feels a little intense to me. Place your palms on your thighs or your hips, and if you want you're welcome to forward fold a little, just a tiny, for a deeper stretch. Wherever you are, breathe.
Dimple Patel:
One more inhale. Exhale to release, hug that left knee into your chest, place that left foot down. And for our final stretch we're going to end with a twist.
Dimple Patel:
So inhale, fingertips reach the sky. As you exhale, left palm comes onto your right, and then your right palm comes onto the back of your right chair, or back of your chair. And then if you want you can gaze past your right shoulder if that feels okay. And then just as you breathe, as you inhale really feel your spine getting taller. And as you exhale, use that to twist a little bit more deeply.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath.
Dimple Patel:
As you exhale come back to center. Do a couple of cat cows to iron out the back. Then we'll twist to the left.
Dimple Patel:
So fingertips reach the sky. Exhale, right arm comes onto your left thigh as your left palm comes on to the back of your chair, coming in for a twist but left. As you inhale imagine your spine growing taller. As you exhale imagine yourself twisting even deeper, maybe past your shoulder blade, maybe past your left shoulder.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath. Exhale, come back to center. Beautiful. Okay, so let's all move back in a comfortable seated pose, comfortable Sukhasana. Palms can be on your side, soften your gaze or close your eyes, and just take a moment to notice how you feel. Do you feel lighter? A little more open? Just notice, no judgment.
Dimple Patel:
Palms can stay on your thigh, or if you'd like you're welcome to bring into a prayer. We will close with one round of Om. Inhale together. Om. Om. Om.
Dimple Patel:
Thank you everyone so much for taking some time to breathe and move with me. We have three more of these sessions for March, so I hope to see you next week. And if you have any specific request I'm more than happy to incorporate that, I really want this to be something that feels good in your body so please feel free to message me directly. And I know Courtney is going to help me take some questions, so if folks have questions please type them out in the chat box and we can spend a couple of minutes reviewing them. But thank you so much, I hope you all have a wonderful week and hope to see you next.