yoga class

Good morning. My name is Zoe and I will be guiding you through your yoga journey today. Let's all come to seated, legs crossed, hands to your heart, palms touch. Close your eyes here. Sit tall, but sit comfortable. Begin to observe the movement of your chest. Expanding through the bottom of your belly on your inhale, contracting on your exhale. Slow your breath. <2-3> Bring your hands to the center of your forehead, your third eye center. Connect with your intuition, honoring your path to your higher self. <2> Bring your hands back to your heart. Engage your Ujayi breath here, breathing in and out through your nose, with a slight constriction in the back of your throat. This is audible, oceanic breathing. Let your breath guide you through your practice today, using it as an anchor to keep you firmly grounded in the present moment. <2> Very slowly, open your eyes, plant your palms into the ground and come to your knees. From here, on your exhale, find your downward dog, sending your hips high to the sky, hands and shoulders are hip width distance apart. Pressing through all ten fingers, shoulders roll away from one another and down your back. Energize your heels towards the mat. Together, lets warm up our legs. Inhale onto your toes. Exhale drop your knees parallel to the mat, hovering just a few inches. Inhale hips back high to the sky, still on your toes. Exhale your heels to the ground. Inhale, onto your toes. Exhale, shins parallel. Inhale, hips high. Exhale heels down. Once more, breath cues only. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Beautiful. Inhale. Exhale look toward your hands and walk your feet forward to the top of your mat for Ragdoll Pose. Bending forward from the hip flexors, interlace your pinkies in your elbows. Really embrace gravity in this pose. Opening up the sides of the body, inhale gently sway right. Exhale gently sway left. Inhale right. Exhale left. Inhale. Exhale. Coming back to center, drop your hands. On your deepest, longest inhale yet, unfurl one vertebrae at a time to standing. Hands to your heart. Take a moment to set an intention for your practice this morning. If you are new to yoga, perhaps your intention is to simply observe your body today. Let the poses mold to your body, and not the other way around. Or perhaps you would like to send out this positive energy, this chi that we are creating today to the less fortunate, whether family or strangers. Take a few of your own deep breaths here. <3>

Release your arms to your sides. Inhale Tadasana, mountain pose, hands extending to the sky. Pinkies roll in toward one another, shoulders melt down your back. Finding freedom and extension in this asana, this pose. Exhale Uttanasana, bending at the hip, hands melting through your heart. Inhale halfway lift, finding a flat spine, energy from the top of your head through your tailbone. Exhale plant your palms and step back to a high plank position. Come to your knees to modify our first Chattarunga today. Inhale, inch slightly forward, exhale lower halfway to the ground, elbows tuck into your sides. Inhale upward facing dog, pressing through the tops of your feet and your palms. Heart shines to the sky. Neck is neutral. Exhale, engage the core, downward facing dog.