Dimple Patel:
Welcome. I know folks are slowly being pulled in from the waiting room. Just wanted to do some housekeeping. If this is your first time with us for Chair Yoga, welcome. So excited to have you with us. If this is your second, third, fourth, so excited that you came back.
Dimple Patel:
My name is Dimple Patel. I graduated from Brandeis in 2012 and really, really excited to move and breathe with you. I want to preface that I will give you a set of instructions throughout the sequence and various, various options so definitely feel free to do what feels good in your body. There's no right or wrong way. There's only, for me, a safe way of doing things. Listen to your body, listen to your breath, and do what feels good in your body. You will have several options throughout the practice.
Dimple Patel:
I just want to ... A couple of things that folks have provided me feedback with. I just want to say it upfront. I will be doing the class with you but because we're mirroring one another, in some ways, you're going to be doing opposite of me in terms of if I'm doing something on my right side, you're going to be doing it on your left side. Just wanted to flag that because that came up last week.
Dimple Patel:
Also, wanted to flag if my screen is small, I recommend taking a moment just to enlarge it so you can see the whole sequence on a larger frame.
Dimple Patel:
Yeah. We'll get started. All you need for this class is a chair. I recommend one that has no arms because we are going to use the sides of the chair. If you have a chair that has arms, I highly encourage you to find one that doesn't and one that does not have wheels. If it does have wheels, make sure the wheels are locked.
Dimple Patel:
All right. With that, we will get started. Come and take a seat on your chair. Your back can be supported for now. Let's tune in with our breath. Take a moment to feel really grounded on your feet. Maybe close your eyes or soften your gaze. Palms can be on your thighs or your knees. Whatever feels comfortable.
Dimple Patel:
Begin tapping into your breath here. Let's begin with three cleansing breaths. We're going to do three breaths where we inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. When we're ready, let's inhale together through the nose. Exhale it out through the mouth. Two more deep breaths just like that. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Last one, deepest inhale yet, breathe in, exhale through the mouth. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Now we're going to throughout the practice, breathe in and out through your nose. See if you can tap into what we call our breathing. Inhale, fill up your belly through your nose, and then exhale, lips are sealed, through the nose as well. Relax your forehead, relax your jaw, relax your eyes. Really begin to find more space.
Dimple Patel:
I've been thinking a lot about community and about what it means for showing up for myself and those that I love and the communities that I'm a part of, particularly with everything that's going on in the world. I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes with you as we move and breathe in our practice today, by one of my favorite activists, Miss Audre Lorde and it goes the following, "When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision then it becomes less and less important whether I'm afraid."
Dimple Patel:
At this moment, I will invite you to set an intention for your practice. To what or to whom are you dedicating the next one hour to? Stay connected to your breath. You can bring your arms, your hands into a prayer above your heart. We will begin with three rounds of ohm. Inhale together, ohm. Ohm. Inhale the vibrations of ohm, universal sound that connects us. Exhale everything.
Dimple Patel:
Gently begin to flicker your eyes open. Place your palms on your thighs. Let's just begin to warm up little by little. Let's begin to warm up our neck here. Gently look from side to side, over your left shoulder, over your right shoulder. There's absolutely no rush.
Dimple Patel:
You can also keep your eyes closed. I know that helps me feel more present, more grounded. Once you're even on both sides, come back to center and then let's take that movement up and down. As you inhale, begin to look up towards the sky. As you exhale, come back to your center, chin into your chest. Take a moment to breathe right here. Really allow yourself to feel the release of your neck here. Your neck, your shoulders. Breathe into any area that may feel a little tight.
Dimple Patel:
The next inhale, lift your gaze all the way to the sky. As you exhale, come back to your center, chin into your chest. Do this a few more times following your breath. There's no right or wrong pace. It's just whatever feels good to you. As long as you're letting your breath be your guide.
Dimple Patel:
A couple of more times just like this. Then we'll meet back in the center. Inhale, lengthen your fingertips to the sky, arms frame your face. Bring your right fingertips down as if you were almost reaching the ground. Bend your left elbow. Then from here, hold onto your right ear, give it a gentle tug, as you open up the right side of your body. We're not pulling, we're just giving it a gentle tug and you'll begin to feel the stretch on the right side of your neck. Remember, energize your fingertips as if you were reaching the ground. You'll feel that stretch even deeper.
Dimple Patel:
Stay connected to your breath. If you want, you're welcome to even tuck your chin a little for a little bit of a different stretch. Still in the neck but you're getting to a different part of your neck here. One more deep inhale wherever you are. As you exhale, release your left arm and then just move your head from left to right. We carry a lot of tension here so this might be intense for a lot of folks.
Dimple Patel:
All right. Let's raise our fingertips to the sky. Bring your left fingertips down. Bend your right arm and then place your right hand over your left ear. Then similarly to what we did last, the other side. Just begin to gently give it a tug. You'll feel the stretch already. If this is where you want to be, stay here. If you want, you can even tuck your chin slightly towards your chest for a little bit of a deeper neck stretch. Energize those left fingertips as if you are trying to touch the ground. We're here for a couple of breaths. Just breathe.
Dimple Patel:
One more deep inhale. As you exhale, release your right fingertips, place your palms on your thigh, and just iron that out by looking over your right shoulder, your left shoulder. Do that twice on both sides until you're even. We'll meet back in center. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Now we're just going to combine all of that by doing a few circles with our neck. We want to be really, really careful here. We're going to bring our chin into our chest. And then begin to circle your left ear above your left shoulder. Take a moment to breathe into this. Then gently begin to roll your head back, opening the throat, bringing it around to the right side where your right ear is over your right shoulder and then back to center, chin into your chest.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do this one more time. Can you go even slower than you did the first time? Really take that moment to notice any tightness. Beautiful. Chin into your chest. Let's do the opposite circles. Rotate your head the opposite direction, noticing any tightness, maybe giving that area an extra breath on your way back to center, chin into your chest, and then one more time in the same direction. Always breathing, always staying connected to our breath. Chin into your chest, gently lift your gaze back to center, and then this time if your back is against your chair, we want to scoot a few inches forward because we want some room behind us.
Dimple Patel:
We're going to begin to open up our chest and give our entire back a little bit of a massage. Place your palms on your knees. We're going to do a few series of Cat Cow. As we inhale, we're going to use this contact between our palms and knees to help us open our chest as we look up for cow, and then as we exhale, we're going to pull our belly in, dome our back for cat.
Dimple Patel:
A few more rounds just like this. Inhale, open that chest, look up. Exhale, pull your belly in, dome your back for cat. Again, go at your own pace as long as you're following your breath. Let your breath guide your movement. Two more rounds just like this wherever you are. Once you're done, we'll meet back in center.
Dimple Patel:
Then we're going to do some hip circles. Your palms can be on your hips, on your thighs, whatever feels comfortable and we're just going to begin to circle out our hips in one direction, begin to find some release in our hip joints. Stay connected to that breath. Then once you come back to center, let's change the direction of those hip circles. Go the opposite way. One side might feel differently than the other. That's totally fine. One more circle in this direction. Then let's come back to neutral. See the pose.
Dimple Patel:
Now we're going to combine those two. We're going to combine the cat cow and the hip circle. Palms can be on your hip or your knees, whatever feels good to you, and we're just going to, as you inhale, open your chest, lean forward, and then as you exhale, begin to pull your belly in, dome your back as you begin to circle back as well. On inhale, begin to open that chest, shoulder blades rolled down. As you exhale, dome your back, pull that belly in. Do this a few more times. This is a lot more fluid so it might feel odd, which is totally fine. We're just trying to create some space in our back, in our hip and even in our neck.
Dimple Patel:
One more circle this way. Come back to center. Then let's change the direction. As you inhale, open that chest. Exhale, rotate the opposite way as you pull your belly and dome your back. A couple more breaths just like this. One more circle wherever you are. Come back to neutral. Beautiful. We should begin to feel a little bit of energy, a little bit of heat, working through our body.
Dimple Patel:
Inhale, lengthen your fingertips to the sky. Then exhale, we're going to come into our first twist. Twist to the right. Your left palm comes on top of your right thigh. As you twist to the right, your right palm can come onto the top of your chair or the bottom of your chair, whatever feels good. Yeah. You might need some space and if you do, just scoot up a little, and then push into your right palms to help you twist a little further.
Dimple Patel:
Before you do that, inhale so lengthen that spine. Imagine your spine is growing taller and then as you exhale, use that extra space to twist a little bit more deeply. Gaze can be above your right shoulder or even past it, if it's okay for your neck. Just breathe here. One more deep breath. Exhale. Come back to center. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do the opposite side. Lengthen your fingertips to the sky. Exhale, twist to the left. Right palm comes onto your left thigh. Left palm comes on top of the chair or the middle of the chair at the bottom of the chair. Whatever feels good to you. Then use the contact with your left palm and the chair as leverage to help you twist even further. Similarly, with your right palm and your left thigh. This is meant to be leverage to help you twist. Maybe even past your left shoulder. As you inhale, really imagine your spine growing taller. As you exhale, find that space to twist a little more deeply. One more breath. Exhale. Come back to center. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Now let's shake it out a little with some shoulder stretches and continue to open up our heart. Inhale, lengthen your fingertips to the sky. Exhale, palms face out. Elbows are bent as you circle your arms back and down. Let's do this two more times. Inhale, fingertips reach the sky. Exhale, palms face out. Elbows are bent. Shoulder blades are pulled in closer to one another. Last time, inhale, exhale down. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do the same thing but going in the opposite direction. Let's start with our fingertips facing the ground. Then as we inhale, our palms are going to face open. As we begin to lengthen our arms up and around, fill up your belly, and then as you exhale, arms are parallel to one another coming down. Two more times, inhale, palms face out. Circle your arms so your arms frame your face. As you exhale, bring your arms in front of you, back down. Last time, inhale, palms face up. Exhale, bring it back down. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
All right. Let's come into our second set of twists. Lock your feet closer to one another. Knees touch. We're going to do thigh chair. I'll give you a couple variations here. We're going to inhale, arms frame our face, and then as we exhale, we're going to hinge from our hips so that our spine remains tall.
Dimple Patel:
Literally, imagine that you're moving forward from your hips so our spine is still tall. It's not bent. We're not doming our back here. From here, prayer down the midline. Then we're going to twist to the right.
Dimple Patel:
Hook your left elbow onto your right thigh. If that's too deep, you're welcome to keep it on your left thigh. Try and see if you can reach for this right thigh and use that as leverage to help you twist to the right. This is option one.
Dimple Patel:
Option two, if you want something deeper, you can wing your arms open in opposite directions so your left fingertips are reaching for the ground, your right fingertips are reaching for the sky. Wherever you are, breathe. Gaze can be straight ahead or if it's okay for your neck then you can even look at your right fingertip for a little bit of a deeper stretch.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath. Exhale it out. If you winged out your arms, bring them back to prayer and then come back to center. Then inhale, lengthen your arms, framing your face. Exhale, prayer down the midline. We're going to do the opposite side. Twist to the left. Hook your right elbow onto your left thigh, side twist to the left. This is option one. Breathe here. Option two is extend and wing out your arms in opposite directions as if your right fingertip is reaching the ground and your left fingertips are reaching the sky.
Dimple Patel:
Wherever you are, just do a quick check that one knee is not hiking past the other. If it is, just try to adjust yourself so that they're both right next to one another. One more deep inhale wherever you are. If you extended your arms, bring them back to prayer. They'll all meet in center. Inhale, lengthen your arms one last time. Exhale, forward. Let it all go.
Dimple Patel:
You can tense up your fingertips like so. Let me scoot back so you can see. Or you can bring your palms onto the ground. Whatever feels good. Just take a moment to enjoy this release, enjoy this forward fold. Shake your head yes. Shake your head no. Shake your head maybe.
Dimple Patel:
Then from here, we're just going to slowly roll up, vertebrae by vertebrae, with your head being the last thing that comes up. Circle out your shoulders in one direction. Circle them out in the other.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do one more final heart opener. We're going to interlace our fingertips like so behind our back. Bend your elbows, interlace your fingertips, and then slowly begin to extend your arms and you'll see how that naturally opens your chest and allows you to gaze towards the sky, lock your feet, hip width distance apart, and then hinge again from your hips into a forward fold. At this point, your fist is facing the sky, your arms are long, and you're just holding forward, doing the same thing, shaking your head yes, shaking your head no, just breathe. Gently release your fingertips to the ground.
Dimple Patel:
Then here, walk your feet closer to one another so that your big toes touch. We'll do a short vinyasa. As we inhale, lengthen your spine so that your spine is long. As you exhale, forward fold. Let's do that two more times. Inhale, lengthen your spine, roll your shoulder blades back and down. Exhale, forward fold. Last time, inhale, lengthen your spine. Your torso is parallel to the ground. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, high prayer, come up and around high prayer to the sky. Exhale, prayer to the heart. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Okay. Now we're going to work into our hips a little bit more, into our legs. This is your option, if you want to come all the way back, you're welcome to. I think it's a little bit more comfortable if you have some distance. We're going to hold our right knee into our chest. As if we were giving it a tight hug. Again, if this is the most that your knee goes, this is totally fine. If this is where it goes, totally fine. Whatever feels good in your body.
Dimple Patel:
Then with this right knee, hugged into our chest, we're just going to draw knee circles. Imagine that your right knee is the pencil and you're drawing circles with it. By doing this, we get into our hips. It begins to release any other tension that's there. Continue to create space. Stay connected to your breath. Then change the direction of your circles. Same knee, different circle direction. Again, if you want, you're welcome to close your eyes. Come back to your intention. One more circle. Come back to center. Give that knee a tight squeeze. Then place it down next to your left.
Dimple Patel:
Do the opposite side. Hug your left knee into your chest. Give it a tight squeeze. Then with your left, or both of your hands if you want, if you want one hand just begin to guide that knee into a circle, into knee circles. Notice how this side feels. Maybe this side is a little bit more tight. Just notice. No judgment. Beautiful. One more circle and then let's change the direction of our knee circles.
Dimple Patel:
Make sure that you're also standing tall, that we're not hunching over like this, as we try to make knee circles. We always want to find length and expansion. Really open that chest, keep that spine long as you make these knee circles. One more time. Beautiful. Bring that foot next to your right foot.
Dimple Patel:
Hug the right knee back into your chest. This time interlace your fingertips like so underneath your right thigh. Lengthen your spine. Feel that length. Then gently, lengthen your right leg straight ahead of you. Your foot doesn't need to be this high. It could totally even rest on the chair if that's more comfortable for you. The higher you go, the more you engage your core so that's something to be mindful of.
Dimple Patel:
Then from here, let's just circle out our ankle in one direction. Circle it out in the other. Making sure to not fold in, to stay tall and open. Beautiful. Hug that right knee in. Place that right foot to the ground.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do the opposite side. Hug the left knee into your chest. Interlace your fingertips. Place them underneath your left thigh for extra support and lengthen your left leg straight ahead. Find that length, find that openness in your chest. Once you've done that, then begin to make ankle circles in one direction. Circle them in the other. Maybe even wiggle out your toes. Beautiful. Hug that knee in. Place that left foot next to your right.
Dimple Patel:
Okay. We're going to build some heat now. We're going to hug our right knee into our chest and then release the left arm by your side, engage your core, really keep that center up as you let go and lengthen your right arm to the side as well. Are you with me? You can stay right here or if you want, you're welcome to lengthen that right leg straight ahead. Imagine yourself being pulled in three opposite directions. Breathe right here for three deep breaths. Flex your right foot so that your toes are facing straight towards the sky. One more deep inhale. You can do it. Exhale, bend the right knee, and then bring your arms to give your right knee a tight squeeze. Beautiful. Awesome. You might want to shake out your legs a little.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do the opposite side. Interlace your fingertips behind you. I'm sorry. Let's hug our left knee into our chest. This time, let's lengthen our right arm to the side. Step two, lengthen the left arm to the side. Beginning to engage the core here. You're welcome to stay here or begin to gently lengthen that left foot straight ahead of you. Flex that left foot so that your toes are facing the sky. You'll find that engagement in your thigh as well. We're here for a few breaths. Keep breathing. Imagine you're being pulled in three opposite directions. Two more deep inhales. Exhale, bend that left knee. Hug that left knee into your chest. Place that left foot down. Beautiful. Let's shake it out one more time. Maybe give our thighs a little bit of a massage by pressing down on them. See if that feels good. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Okay. Now I want to get into some of the warrior poses. In yoga, there's various warrior poses. I think there's a fun sequence that everyone will enjoy. I'm just going to make sure my screen is okay.
Dimple Patel:
All right. Again, we don't want to have a chair that has arms. If you have arms on your chair, it's going to make this a little challenging. So, we're going to begin to come into a warrior two. Your feet are in the center. We're going to come onto our right side.
Dimple Patel:
Just bring your right foot to the right, as if you were creating a 90 degree angle with your feet. Right? Your right foot, your right toes are facing straight ahead. Then this is where I ask that you trust and listen to your body, begin to gently walk your left foot to the left as far as you feel like is comfortable for you.
Dimple Patel:
The goal or ultimately where we're going is to lengthen this left leg all the way long behind us. This is the goal. Again, at any point in this journey is totally fine. Alignment is super important so let's make sure that our right knee is above our right ankle or behind it, not past it. Okay? And that your left foot is all 10 toes are firmly grounded and that your left toes are facing straight ahead. Any variation of this is totally fine.
Dimple Patel:
This is actually a closed hip pose so just place your palms on your hips and you'll notice that they're open as if they were facing forward. What we want to do is we want them to be facing the same direction as our toes. Even I need to do this where I hold onto my hips and, physically, rotate them to the right. You'll see how that activates my left calf even more. We're physically rotating so that our hips are actually facing the same direction as our right toes. Okay?
Dimple Patel:
We want to extend our arms in opposite directions for the warrior two pose. Soft gaze over your right fingertips and we're breathing. This is a very active pose. It's not an easy pose. Any variation of this will do. Soft gaze over your right fingertips. You can even close your eye here. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
From here, we're going to flip our palms and then inhale, come into a high prayer. Exhale, bring them back. Warrior two. Inhale, flying warrior. Exhale, warrior two. Do this a couple of more times following your breath. Let your breath be your guide. You determine your pace. You can go quicker or slower, as long as you're following your breath. Two more times wherever you are. Inhale. Exhale. Beautiful. We'll meet back in warrior two. Awesome. I don't know about you but my arms are definitely getting tired.
Dimple Patel:
All right. We're going to inhale, really lengthen your fingertips to the sky, and then exhale, release. You might want to shake out your arms and then gently begin to bend the left knee and walk that left foot back to center. Both feet will come to touch.
Dimple Patel:
Okay. We're going to do the same thing on the opposite side. Bring your left foot to the left side of your chair. Left toes are facing straight ahead. We're starting with a 90 degree angle here. Then you're going to begin to walk your right foot to the right, slowly extending. There's absolutely no rush. It helps if most of your thigh is actually on the chair. Right? You feel fully supported.
Dimple Patel:
Slowly begin to walk your right leg behind you until it fully lengthens, if this feels okay in your body. If not, totally keep this knee bent. All right. Let's find our alignment. Left knee is above your left ankle and then let's shift our hips so that they face towards our left foot and our left toes. Palms come onto your hips. Then slowly begin to rotate them towards the left. They may not come all the way. That's totally fine. I just want to create that level of awareness. Right? That this is what we're working towards. All right.
Dimple Patel:
Once we're here, we're going to extend our arms in opposite direction, coming into warrior two. Soft gaze is over your left fingertips and we're breathing. Make sure that you're not hiking up your shoulders. We did so much releasing. Make sure that you're giving your neck and shoulders some space. Breathe here. We'll do that flying warrior but with your palms open, palms touch in a high prayer for flying warrior. Exhale back to warrior two. Inhale, flying warrior, exhale, warrior two. Do this a few more times following your breath, going at your pace, and even though your feet are supported, know that you're still being pulled in four different directions here. Two more times just like this wherever you are. Then meet back in warrior two. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do a final stretch. Really lengthen your fingertips in opposite directions. Stretch it out. Energetically pull yourself in opposite directions. Exhale. Release. Begin to gently bend this right knee. Walk the right knee back to center. We'll come back to seated. Beautiful. You might want to give your thighs a little bit of a pressure. We're going to add onto that.
Dimple Patel:
We'll come back to our right side. From here, place your right foot towards the right. You're facing straight ahead. Then, again, with whatever level of comfort you're feeling, begin to walk your left foot to the back, coming into our warrior two. We've been here before. We've laid our foundation. This time we're going to inhale to extend and lengthen and then as we exhale, we're going to come into peaceful warrior. What that means is left palm comes back behind the left thigh. You open your right arm up and over. Opening all of your right side. Breathe here. One more deep inhale.
Dimple Patel:
As you exhale, we're going to come back for warrior two and extended side angle. The right palm, right forehead comes onto your right thigh, as you open the left side. The left forearm comes up and over you.
Dimple Patel:
This is action one. If you want something deeper, imagine yourself using your right forearm and right thigh as leverage to help you open your chest further to the sky. Breathe here. Gaze can be straight ahead or underneath your left forearm. One more breath. Exhale. Come back to center. Warrior two. Beautiful. Relax your arms for a moment if you'd like. Shake them out.
Dimple Patel:
We're going to do that sequence twice more a little quicker following our breath. Let's begin. Lengthen your arms. Warrior two. Inhale, keep the warrior. Exhale, extended side angle. Right forearm, right thigh. Left arm comes up and over. Inhale, warrior two. Exhale, release. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do that one more time and then we're done on this side. Extend your fingertips. Warrior two. Inhale. Keep the warrior. Exhale. Extend the side angle. Right forearm through right thigh. Left arm comes up and over. Inhale. Inhale Warrior two. Exhale. Release. Beautiful. Let's bend that left knee. Come back to center. Shake out our legs. Shake out our arms.
Dimple Patel:
Let's do the left side. I'm going to move this way a little. Okay. For the left side we're going to take the left foot towards the left. We have this 90 degree angle. This is where we're starting. Again, make sure that most of your thigh is supported by the chair, right?
Dimple Patel:
Then when you're ready, slowly begin to open up your right thigh by walking your right foot behind you as far as it goes. Wing your arms in opposite directions for warrior two. Tap into your breath here. Okay. We're going to reach up and back to peaceful warrior. Right palm reaches back behind your right leg as your left arm comes up and over the left side. We're opening up the left side here for a peaceful warrior. Two deep breaths here. Come back to warrior two and then extended side angle.
Dimple Patel:
Bend your left arm/left forearm on your left thigh as your right arm comes up and over. You'll begin to feel this deep stretch all the way from your right hip, all the way to your right fingertips here. Breathe here. Again, if you want something deeper or use the compact between your left forearm and your left thigh, push into it so that you can open your chest even further. It's as if you want your chest to face the sky. One more deep breath. Exhale. Come back to warrior two. Then let it go. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
That was the foundation for this side. We're going to do it two more times a little quicker. All right. Find your warrior two. Wing your arms in opposite direction. Ready. Inhale, peaceful warrior. Exhale, extended side angle. Left forearm to left thigh. Wing your right arm up and over. Inhale warrior two. Exhale. Release. Beautiful.
Dimple Patel:
Last time. Lengthen your arms opposite directions. Warrior two. Inhale. Peaceful warrior. Open the left side. Exhale. Extended side angle. Left forearm to left thigh. Right arm comes up and around the right thigh. Inhale, back to warrior two. Exhale. Release. Awesome. Bend that right knee. Gently begin to walk it back to center. We're going to meet back in seated. Awesome.
Dimple Patel:
Let's shake out our legs, shake out our arms. Our hips are really open now. We want to tap into that for some balancing. You have two options. You can use the chair as support. If you want something a little more challenging, you don't need to use the chair.
Dimple Patel:
We're going to stand for this pose. If you're using the chair then you are welcome to bring it a few inches in front of you. We're going to come into Vrikshasana, which is tree pose. The chair can be actually to your side. All you really need is the top of the chair for support. I'll give folks a moment to find their grounding.
Dimple Patel:
Actually while we're here, let's take a moment to connect. Let's come into Tadasana, mountain pose, which is really where all 10 toes are grounded, palms are open, close your eyes, and take a moment to connect with your breath here. Feel yourself strong and steady like a mountain in this mountain pose Tadasana. Beautiful. Gently open your eyes.
Dimple Patel:
We'll transition to Vrikshasana, tree pose. Place your right palm on top of your chair. We'll get into tree pose. Three options. Option one, left foot comes above or on top of your right ankle. Stay right here. Option two, lift that left foot and place it underneath your right knee. Option three is to lift that left foot and place it above your right knee. Do what feels good. Try out what makes sense for you right now.
Dimple Patel:
Then if you want, you can even let go of your right palm and bring your hands into prayer. Play around with that balance. See how you feel. What helps is if you find a drishti, which is a focal point, something that's not moving and you look at that. Just gaze into your focal point. This will help you minimize the distractions and keep your balance. If you want even a little bit more of a challenge, you're welcome to grow branches for your tree by bending your arms to the sky. Breathe wherever you are. If you extended your arm, bring them back down to prayer, down through your center. Lift your left knee, keep finding that balance as this begins to engage some core, and then place that left foot next to your right. Beautiful. Shake it out a little.
Dimple Patel:
To the opposite side. For the opposite side, you want to stand on the opposite side of the chair so the left side is more readily accessible as we put our balance onto the left foot this time.
Dimple Patel:
Option one, place your left palm on top of the chair, place your right foot on top of your left ankle. Option one, we can place your hand on your hip. Option two, place your right foot underneath your left knee. Option three, you can lift the right foot and place it inside your left thigh above your right knee. We just don't want anything on our knee.
Dimple Patel:
These are your options. Again, if you want something a little bit more challenging, you're welcome to bring your hands to a prayer and breathe, find your drishti, find your focal point, and then if you want a tiny bit more of a challenge, you can grow branches for your tree by extending your arms to the sky and breathing.
Dimple Patel:
One more breath wherever you are. If you extended your arms, bring them down, prayer down through the midline and then lift your right knee into your chest. Flex your right foot. We're just playing with balance here. You can always hold onto a chair. One more breath. Exhale, place the right foot next to the left. Shake it out.
Dimple Patel:
Let's come and meet on our chair. We'll begin to cool down our bodies here. Okay. Make sure you have some space. From your chair, we're going to hug our right knee into our chest and then place the right chin above the left thigh. We've done this before so we're coming into a figure four shape. It's called that because we're literally making a figure four. Again, if this is where your knee is, that's totally fine, this means you have tight hamstrings. Eventually, it'll come down to this. Either way, you should definitely feel a stretch on your right side, in your right thigh, coming up from your right hip.
Dimple Patel:
Flex your right toe. Palms are on your thighs or on your hips. Whatever feels good to you. Just breathe here. If you want something a little bit more deep, then you can gently push down your right thigh. You'll see how that intensifies the stretch. Or from your hips, we're going to hinge from our hips, a couple of inches, not too far because, remember, we want our spine to remain tall and you'll see how that also deepens the stretch by a lot. Wherever you are, just breathe.
Dimple Patel:
One more deep inhale wherever you are. As you exhale, come back to center. Hug the right knee in. Place the foot to the ground to the opposite side. Hug the left knee in. Place the left shin above your right thigh. Again, flex your left toes, right? I know that this side is way tighter for me. I definitely feel the difference. Notice how you feel. Stay here. Palms are on your thighs or your hips or if you want a little bit of a deeper stretch, take your left palm and gently push your left thigh away. See how that feels.
Dimple Patel:
Option three is to hinge from your hips, just a couple of inches, maintaining the length in your spine so your spine is tall, it's not doming, it's a tall spine, and breathe here. Wherever you are just enjoy the stretch. One more deep inhale. As you exhale, come back to center. Hug that left knee into your chest. Place that left foot down. Beautiful. You might want to shake out your seat. Give your thighs a little bit of pressure.
Dimple Patel:
Then before we close, I also wanted to provide a nice wrist stretch that I think you might like. I'm just going to turn this way so you can see me but you can stay seated where you are. It's basically doing a prayer behind your back. See how that feels. This can be a little bit of an intense stretch. It definitely is for the wrist. This is a really nice stretch for the wrist. You can even play around with pushing the left fingertip with your right, pushing the right fingertips with your left, and you'll see how that stretches out your wrist.
Dimple Patel:
Just something simple that you can do anywhere you are. If this is too intense you're, of course, welcome to hold onto opposite elbows like so. This goes more into your shoulder blades but that's totally fine. If you do that just make sure you change the cross of your elbows. We always want to be balanced on both sides.
Dimple Patel:
Just wanted to offer a quick exercise you could do literally wherever you are. We're going to come back to seated position. This time, if you want, you can even sit back all the way to the back of your chair. All 10 toes are grounded. Palms are on our thighs. Just close your eyes or soften your gaze. Allow yourself to enjoy this moment of stillness. Allow yourself to be in savasana, which is our final resting pose so that you can reap the benefits of your practice.
Dimple Patel:
We are going to close with one round of ohm. Bring your hands to a prayer in front of your heart. We're going to inhale together. Ohm. The inner light in me honors the inner light in you. Thank you.
Dimple Patel:
I will stay on for questions if folks have but, as always, such a pleasure to move and breathe with you all. Yeah. I hope you enjoyed the session. If folks have questions, definitely let me know. Yeah. If you're interested in practicing yoga with me, you can definitely reach out to me through my website, through my email.