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Hello, everyone.
My name is Gez.
Welcome to chair yoga.
Thank you for showing up on your chair.
And it's time for self care.
All right, so let's get set up here.
You can scoot forward a little bit
so you could bring your knees over the ankles.
And let's go ahead, pick up the toes,
pick up the heels, the toes, and then the heels.
Lower your heels.
Lift the toes, spread your toes.
And let's ground the toes one by one, baby toe, second toe,
third toe, fourth toe, and a big toe.
So feel the Earth from underneath you,
from all four corners of your feet, big toe,
little toe, inner heel, outer heel.
And then begin to rock side to side, right and left,
right and left.
And feel your sitz bones on the chair.
Then let's ground, right sitz bones, left sitz bones.
Then scoop up your pelvis, pelvic floor, the navel,
the chest, and roll your shoulders up, down, and back.
Sit nice and tall.
Then begin to close your eyes.
Arrive, observing the connection of your feet
to the Earth, of your sitz bones to your chair.
And with your eyes closed, are you
sitting up tall with your shoulders over the hips?
Then scan your bodies.
Acknowledge how you showed up today.
Acknowledge your strengths, your weaknesses and your injuries,
which might give you limitations on what we're about to do.
Accept what is.
And begin to notice your breath.
Notice the rise and fall of your belly, your diaphragm,
and your chest.
Observe your breath.
Is it shallow?
Is it deep?
Is it quick?
Or is it slow?
Breathe in and out through both nostrils and open your eyes.
Bring your hands over the rib cage area by your diaphragm.
And as you inhale, expand through the belly, rib cage,
diaphragm area, and then the chest.
And as you exhale, chest, diaphragm, belly draws in.
So inhale.
Come into your Buddha belly or Santa Claus is belly.
Fill up the lungs all the way to the top.
And as you exhale, chest, diaphragm, and belly
draws in towards the spine.
Again, inhale for three, belly, two, diaphragm, one, chest.
Exhale chest, one, two, diaphragm, three, belly.
So now that know how to guide your breath,
you can rest your hands again onto your lap and inhale fully.
Exhale fully through the nose.
And you can close your eyes as you
continue to guide your breath.
So inhale the new and the vital.
And exhale the old and the useless.
Inhale peace and exhale stress.
Inhale faith and exhale worry.
Inhale courage and exhale fear.
Inhale love and exhale gratitude.
Continue to breathe in and out through your nose.
Smoothen and deepen the breath.
And add the soft constriction of the back of the throat creating
that audible sound like ocean waves,
like trees dancing in the wind, or like a whisper breath.
We call ujjayi breathing.
And anchor with your ujjayi throughout our practice.
Then join your hands in front of your heart space in prayer
and set your intention for today's practice.
It could be one word like healing, clarity, peace.
It could be a phrase.
Or it could be your favorite mantra.
Then open your eyes and let's all inhale, float the arms up.
And exhale, float your arms down through the clouds.
Inhale and fill, fill, fill, all the way
to the top of the lungs.
And exhale, float the arms down nice and light.
And again, inhale and exhale.
Resting your hands onto your lap,
begin to drop your chin towards the chest
and feel a gentle stretch at the back of your neck.
Allow the shoulders to draw away from the ears.
From where you are, come to a half-head circled
towards the right so the right ear draws
towards the right shoulder.
You can stay here or you can extend your left arm
out shoulder level.
You can allow the right hand to cup your face
to support the weight of your head.
And feel the warmth of your hand on your face.
Continue to create space on the left side of your neck.
And another option here is to wrap your left forearm
around your low back and open through the left side,
shoulder, and chest.
Continue to breathe and observe where you're feeling this.
And channel your breath towards that space.
And we always move slowly and mindfully
from where we are, just reversing
the path on how we got there.
Unwrap your left arm and extend.
Lower your hand to your lap.
And allow your right hand to guide your head back to center.
And release down.
Draw your chin to the chest.
And observed the difference between the right
and the left side of the neck.
Just repeating on the other side,
half-heads circle towards the left,
left ear to left shoulder.
Feel that stretch on the right side of your neck,
option to stay here or reach your right arm out to the side.
You can support your head with your hand,
and as if you're daydreaming.
Then option to wrap your forearm around the low back.
If you can reach for your left-hip crease,
go for if for a deeper stretch to open to the right-side chest
and front of the shoulder.
And continue to distance your right shoulder
from your right ear.
Good, slowly exiting, unwrap, extend, lower, and then guide
your head back to center.
And sit nice and tall.
This time we're going to turn our head right and left.
So slowly turn your head towards the right
and observe how far your neck could go, its range of motion.
And then slowly travel your gaze across the horizon
and look back over your left shoulder.
And X marks the spot.
And look how far you could gaze.
And then bring your head back to center as if you're saying no.
Just turn your head side-to-side, side-to-side.
Next time you turn your head to the right, stay there.
Let's change the angle of the neck and the head.
You're going to look down towards the right,
bringing your chin towards the top of the right shoulder.
Once again, observing where you're feeling this.
And channeling that breath towards that area.
And from here, lifting the chin and then
slowly turning the head to center, towards the other side.
Look past your shoulder.
And when you're ready, bring your
gaze down as you draw your chin towards the top
of your left shoulder, once again, observing.
And on your next breath, lift your chin.
And then turn your head back to center.
And from here, you're going to go drop the chin to the chest
as if you're saying yes.
Begin to lift your gaze up towards the sky.
And open to the front of the neck
as you create wrinkles at the back of the neck.
Then just repeating that, drawing
the chin towards the chest.
And then lifting the gaze up.
Bring the head back to neutral and turning the head once again
towards the right.
And observe if your X marks the spot just got farther away
from you, if you were able to increase your range of motion
on the neck.
And slowly turn your head back towards the left.
And same thing, look back.
Where's your X marks the spot?
Are you past that?
And then slowly bring your head back to center.
I'm going to take you to half-head circles.
Drawing the chin to the chest, half-head circle
towards the right.
Chin to chest, half-head circle towards the left,
chin to chest, and then gaze straight ahead.
If that made you dizzy, just stop here.
If not, go for a full-head circle with me.
Do it slowly.
Draw your chin to the chest and circle towards the right,
slowly lifting your gaze up towards the sky, head
towards the left, looking down, chin to chest,
inhale, return to neutral.
Draw the chin back to the chest and slowly
going the other direction, observing the crackle,
the popping in the neck.
And then slowly bring your head back to center.
Let's roll the shoulders up, down, and back, shoulders up,
down, and back.
Couple more times, roll the shoulders up, down, and back.
And pause, draw the navel in, hands on the thighs,
you're just going to hinge forward.
OK, so just hinging from the hips.
So if I will put my peace fingers on my hip joints
and just hinging forward, keeping the spine long.
Inhale and exhale.
One more time, inhale and exhale.
Now we will articulate the spine in our cat-cow stretch.
Hands on the lap or even on the kneecaps, arch your back.
Lead with your chin and with your chest as you inhale.
And as you exhale, round to the upper back.
Draw the belly in and return to start.
Inhale, reach with the chin and the heart.
Arch the low back.
And on the exhale, draw the navel in and round.
And repeat that twice more.
Inhale, lengthen, and arch into your cow pose.
And exhale, round into cat.
One more time, yogis.
Yoking the breath with the movement.
Then let's try to reverse here.
Inhale to prepare.
On the exhale, draw your chin to the chest.
Round your upper back as you scoop the belly in.
Arch your lower back.
Look forward.
Inhale, lengthen and lift up.
Exhale, chin to chest, round, draw the navel in, arch,
lengthen, look up and rise.
Twice more, exhale, round into cat.
Inhale into your cow.
And last one.
Good job.
And let's all inhale.
Float the arms up.
Side bend towards a right.
Return to center.
Inhale, exhale, side bend towards the left.
Let's do one more each way.
And on the next time, inhale, prepare, exhale,
side bend right.
You can hold onto the chair or your right hand on your lap.
So ground through the left foot and your left sitz bones
as you continue to reach your left arm
towards the opposite wall, lifting your left ribs
off the hips.
Then from here, just say no, just add movement on the neck.
And then you will leave your gaze
where it's most comfortable for your neck.
So you can look down.
You can look straight ahead.
Or you can look up.
It's up to you.
I choose to look down.
And then from here, you will turn your chest
towards the floor and reach your left arm
towards the front right corner of the room.
Continue to breathe into your left side body.
Inhale here.
On the exhale, you will just return to your side bend.
Inhale, prepare, and exhale, return to center, arms down.
Switching sides, inhale, float the arms up.
Exhale, left arm down, holding onto the chair for support,
grounding to the right foot and the right sitz bones,
and coming into a side bend.
Lift your right ribs away from the hip.
And just say no once again, checking in with the neck.
And then choose the angle where it best suits you.
Where's most comfortable for your neck here?
Go there.
Continue to breathe into the rib cage.
Just changing the angle, turn your torso to the floor.
And continue to reach your right arm
towards the front left corner of the room
as if you're really reaching for something over there.
Continue to find length.
Continue to breathe.
Then slowly returning to your side bend,
stacking the shoulders, look forward, inhale.
And exhale, return to center.
Good.
And then from here, pretend we're holding onto a ball.
I will take you into a twist.
Inhale, prepare, exhale, let's twist to the right.
Inhale, return to center, exhale, twist to the left.
Inhale, center, exhale, twist right.
Inhale, center, exhale, twist left.
Inhale, center, and exhale.
We're just going to twist to the right.
You can stay here holding onto your imaginary ball.
Or bring your left hand to your right upper thigh
and your right hand on the chair.
Inhale, lengthen to the spine.
Exhale, twist a bit more towards your right, moving
from the waist, the ribs, the shoulders, and the neck
and the head will follow.
Continue to breathe here.
Inhale, turns the head back to center.
And exhale, unwind your torso.
Good.
Hold on to your imaginary ball again.
Inhale, prepare, exhale, we twist towards the left.
And then slowly going deeper into twist,
right hand's supported on left upper thigh, left hand
to chair.
Inhale, lengthen the spine.
Exhale, twist a bit more.
Inhale, turns the head back to center.
And exhale, unwind the torso.
OK, so we will all put that together.
Inhale, float the arms up.
And exhale, float the arms down, hands to lap.
Inhale, lengthen, and arch into your happy cow.
Exhale, round into your angry cat.
Inhale, float the arms up.
And exhale, side bend to your right.
Inhale, return to center.
Exhale, side bend towards the left.
Inhale, return to center.
And exhale, let's twist to the right.
Inhale, back to center.
And exhale, twist to the left.
Inhale, back to center.
And exhale, hands to heart.
Let's repeat that.
Try to go with your breath.
Inhale, float the arms up.
And exhale, float your arms down.
Inhale, lengthen and arch.
Exhale, and round.
Inhale, lengthen up.
Exhale, side bend towards the right.
Inhale, back to center.
Exhale, side bend towards the left.
Inhale, back to center.
Exhale, let's twist right.
Inhale, back to center.
Exhale, twist left.
Inhale, back to center.
And exhale, hands to heart.
And release down.
And from here, close your eyes again
and observe the energy that just flowed through your spine.
Observe your breath.
And maybe observe the peace and the clarity.
Join your hands back in front of your heart space.
May love surround you.
May joy walk with you.
May laughter sing with you.
And make good health bless you.
Return to the intention that you set.
And then bring one hand over the belly, one hand over the heart,
feeling your breath, feeling your heartbeat.
And have a sense of gratitude for the gift of life,
for the gift of the now, and for all your blessings.
Join your hands again in prayer.
Ohm, shanti, shanti, shanti, peace, peace, peace.
Namaste.
And thank you for allowing me to guide your chair yoga
practice today.
Have a beautiful day, everyone.
Hello, again, all our lovely viewers.
If you have enjoyed the class, feel free to visit me and all
our other fabulous instructors in any of our Optum Care
Community Centers.
Hope to see you soon.
Thank you.
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