- What's up everyone and welcome to Fitness WorkKar today we have a sequence for concentration and mental focus. So this is really great when you're needing to hunker down on a project but you're feeling pulled ina lot of different directions. This is really great when you feel a little uneasy, you might need a little confidence boost, a little feeling of oh, I got this this. This is gonna be an awesome practice for you. Please share it with people you think might benefit from it. I feel like this is a goodone that we can pass around as a little act of love. Hop into something comfy and let's get started. (upbeat music) Alright my friends, let's begin lying down, yay! Don't worry, we'll get up. Let's start by emptying that cup so that we can fill it mindfully. So you're gonna just come toa nice flat back position. And just allow all your beans to spill, (laughs) and allow the weight of your body to relax. So even if you're a little concerned that you will get too tired. Maybe you're already feelinga little sluggish or weird. Even if you're worried thatyou're gonna get too tired and not be able to do this video. Trust me, trust yourself, trust the practice and go ahead and keyword, just allow yourself to be heavy, allow. I'm guessing if you chose this video or you decided to say yes to this video that you could use a little rejuvenation and a little guidance in toward the things that matter. I can't assume, of course, but just a little, part of me believes that you could benefit from some focus and centering. So in order to do that, go ahead and close your eyes and just allow everything to spill, to empty. And this might be a little bitdifficult if you're on the go or you're worried about time but just trust that this is valuable, productive, I would say necessary but that's I'm just one girl. Necessary time that willactually make whatever it else you have to do in life run more smooth, perhaps help you to have more energy, grace and focus. So close thine eyes if you haven't already. Then just start to notice your breath and allow your exhales to be a little invitation to just relax. And as you're ready, we'll just start to rock the head gently a little side to side, ear to ear. And yes this is the lovelylittle massage for the back of the head and absolutely we start to stretch through the neck. But this is also a little signal to the brain that we're slowing down. So if you're like me, anything like me, you might have started thisrocking sensation really fast, you know it's really hard to slow down. See if you can slow it down even more. Just again is a little way I'msignaling the brain, ah okay. Okay, okay. We'll bring it back to center and nothing fancy here, it's a big full body stretch. You can keep the eyes closedor you can start to open them but we're gonna send the fingertips all the way up and overhead. Spread the fingers, spread the toes, take a deep breath in, and a long breath out, walk your heels in line with your hips. Start to point and flex through the feet and you'll feel your shoulders pressing firmly down into the earth, excuse me, your shoulder blades. Firmly pressing down into the earth. Take one more big stretch then exhale float, just the hands the arms down and you'll use your handsto press down into the earth and hug one knee up into thechest and then the other. Your intuition is probably right here so give yourself a big ol' hug. Feel that stretch through the lower back body. Maybe you walk or crawl your shoulder blades down towards the bottom edge of your mat. Kind of like a bear massaging its back on a tree. And then just notice where you're gripping here. Either in the mouth or in the ankles. Sometimes we grip in the weirdest places (chuckles). Am I right? So even if you can't find it, just do a little spotty scan and start to relax again and just kind of emptying the cup so we can fill it with things that feel good and that support and help focus us. We've all been there, get distracted and you go down a rabbit hole and the mind starts to takeover and you get really lost. And sometimes it can be really harmful. So we'll use this practice today to get back on track whatever it is you're up to in your beautiful life. Okay, we're gonna open the knees and then reach the fingertips to the feet. Grab the outer edges of the feet. If you cannot grab the outeredges of the feet, who cares? You're gonna grab the shins. We're just gonna open up through the knees here to start to open up through the hips. So we're here or we're here on the ankles. Again, if you can't get there then maybe palms gently come to thefront of the shin or the knee. And then we're starting here'cause this is a great one where you can tell right awayif you're gripping or holding. So just let it all open out, literally. Thank you YouTube. Be nice, just kidding. And then you can start to finda soft easy movement here. Obviously we're starting nice and slow today so just use this time to settle down. And then as you're ready, we'll slowly release the arms wherever they are. Bring the knees back in and we're gonna slowly inhale in, exhale, squeeze, shins in towards the body and slowly peel head and heart and shoulders up. The nose can come towards the knees but it doesn't have to touch. Breathing deep here. Keeping the shoulders relaxed, the neck relaxed. One more breath and then slowly release. Awesome, slide the hands to the backs of the thighs, you're gonna rock up and downthe length of your spine. We're starting to get a little energy going so just be mindful here. You can do it a couple times but you're actually gonnarock all the way to your feet on this one and this is a very humbling move, it can be very fun. It's also a nice little core activator. So as you're ready, you'll come to a little toe stretch here, a little foot stretch. Fingertips are on the earth.
We start to really wake up the feet, the ankles, the Achilles, the calves, your quads. And then you're gonna inhale, look forward once you get there. This is like a little ninja stand. I dressed like a ninja today for the focus and the mental focus and concentration. I feel like it is appropriate. So inhale, really think about opening the chest, think Cobra here. And then exhale chin to chest rounding through, think Cat Pose. You should feel a nice stretch, maybe the palms come to the earth. And then one more time, inhale open. Think Cobra. A little bit of energy as yousqueeze the knees together and then exhale around chin to chest. Then keep this chin to chest, you're gonna slowly drop the heels and roll all the way up to your Mountain Pose. Take your time, move as slow as you can. And stand up nice and tall when you get there, really feel your feet pressing into the ground. And feel the blood flow and the flush of energy. You're gonna open your palms, really open, open, open up, open up through the chest here and in your Mountain Pose today. And take nice smooth deep breaths. Literally imagine your breath just, I don't know, I sounds cheesy but just imagine your breath is love, like you're inhaling love and you're exhaling love. So it's an active connection of like your breath is your spirit not just oh, breathing, another task. Think about when you sleep, you keep breathing. This is to honor the breath by really inhaling lots of love in and exhaling lots of love out. Alright, inhale, reach the arms up and overhead, big stretch here just like we did on the ground then exhale, right arm'sgonna come underneath the left for Eagle Arms or Garudasana arms. If the palms don't come together, no matter, just take a nice stance here. We're working on opening up through the chest and the shoulders evenly so you don't wanna allow your chest to collapse here. Lift the chest up. Inhale, maybe lift the elbows up and then exhale, experiment, fingertips forward. Again inhale, lift the elbows up, exhale, fingertips forward. Beautiful, now lift the chin slightly, take the deepest breath you taken all day. Careful, no pressure in the lower back here so little connection to your belly. And then exhale, on an exhale all the way down, bend the knees nice and slow. Strong steady focus on the breath here. So nice long breath and then the arms are gonnaunravel at the last moment and we're back in our Forward Fold. Awesome, inhale lifts you up halfway, nice flat back position. And exhale to fold. Awesome, inhale, reach for the sky, root to rise here, really spread your fingertips and this time, left arm underneath the right as you breathe out. Find your eagle, you breathein pressing in the feet, lift the elbows up perhaps and then maybe fingertips forward. Continue to breathe in your own time, lift the chest, inhale and exhale. Draw the navel in just a bit, support your back and inhale one more time. This time, maybe lift the chin and then bend the knees in cascading down with your breath, nice and slow, arms unravel at the last moment. Awesome, inhale, halfway lift. Slow and steady is the courseand then exhale, release. Beautiful, bendboth knees generously, belly comes to the tops of the thighs, you might walk your feet together a little bit here. We're gonna send the hips back, back, back and the fingertips forward. Big stretch here. Send the hips back so big stretch in the side body. So think length. So immediately our minds go to I can't, Chair Pose sucks, just think about creating length in your side body, your front body and your back body here. It's okay if the knees come a little bit forward but send the weight back in your hips. Breathing deep and once again, protect the back, your lower back in particular by drawing the navel in and then this pose requires you to focus. Bring your attention to your breath. Imagine you're carrying abig beach ball here, inhale. And then exhale, right arm underneath the left. Eagle Arms, inhale, lift the elbows up and then exhale, let everything go. Oh yeah, take a moment here to hang, shake it off. Breathing in, lots of love, breathing out with consciousness. Sweet inhale, halfway lift, big breath. Nice refreshing exhale as you fold. Bend the knees, belly comesto the tops of the thighs, send the weight back into your hips and strong focus here as yousend the fingertips forward. Now find support from within,you got this, check it out. It's always fun to repeat things. I love to work to with same vocabulary a lot of times So that you can find new ways have been negotiating, not just the physicality butyour emotional intelligence (chuckles) and your mental focus. Here we go, left arm underneath the right, inhale, lift the elbows up, Eagle Arms. Maybe you sink a little lower here, you got this. Breathe in, smile then it exhale everything releases down. Inhale in, audible exhale as you breathe out. Inhale, halfway lift. Nice long beautiful neck here then exhale to fold. Amazing, bend the knees, step the left foot back, just the left foot, right foot stays in the front. We're come to a nice low lunge here, you can lower the back knee and then left hand is gonna come to the earth and we're gonna slowly peel the right fingertips up towards the sky. Just a nice gentle twist here. Front knee over front ankle,open the chest, breathe deep. Awesome then you're gonna take the right hand in next to the right arch and you're gonna swing the left toes around. Take your time, again this requires some focus, some anchoring of breath and mind so take your time. And we'll just open up through the left fingertips from here. If this is too much, you can come onto the fingertips or right elbow to the top of the right thigh. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in again, stretch, expand, you're awesome and then use your breath outto come back all the way, nice low lunge. Great, inhale, look forward. If you want you can curl the back toes underneath that back knee. If you're not feeling thattoday, keep it nice and low. Beautiful, inhale in. Exhale, plant the palms, step the right toes back. Strong plank pose, we're only here for five, four, enjoy it try, three, two, listen to the sound of your breath and slowly lower all the wayto your belly on the one, you can lower the knees. Nice and easy here, inhale, Cobra to lift up. Keep it nice and low. And then exhale, release. Power up, Plank Pose, inhale, press up, lift up. Strong, steady, five, four, find soft easy movement here that feels good, three, two and one, beautiful. Downward Facing Dog, take your time. Pedal it out. Stay present, try to stick with the sensation, what's going on in this moment. Oh and now this moment. Ooh and now press into your fingertips in this moment. Beautiful then we'll inhale, look forward and exhale, step the rightfoot up, step the left foot up. Inhale, halfway lift and exhale, fold. Inhale deeply through the nose and exhale, sigh it out with sound. Awesome then the knees, step the right foot back, just the right foot. Front knee over front ankle, lower the right knee to the ground. Relish this stretch, this sensation. Beautiful and then right hand will come to the earth and we'll slowly, so there's a little energy in the pelvic floor, cinch up through there, a little scissor effect as you lift the left fingertips up towards the sky. Then see if you can rotate your right shoulder around just create more space. Nice and mindful adjustments here though. Breathing deep as you inhale,smile, breathe into your belly and then exhale, bring it all the way down. Oh, feel the blood flow, theenergy flush, pay attention. Left hand comes in line withthe arch of the left foot then listen carefully, here we go. Right knee essentially stays where it's at. We're going to swing theright toes all the way around. Kind of come into a half warrior here and right fingertips reach all the way up half extended side angle. Now and you can also bring that left elbow up, create more space or if you have a block, maybe play with that. Inhale, find expansion. Exhale and then inhale, expand, create more space and then exhale, bring it all the way down. Awesome, here we go. Framing the foot now with your hands again. Loop the shoulders, inhale atthe heart, radiate forward. You can lift that back knee orkeep it lower, you got this. Awesome then plant the palmsand we'll come to Plank Pose. Five, four, three, you can count with me if you want, two and one. Lower belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Up Dog. You'll inhale to open the chest, open the heart and then exhale to make yourway to Downward Facing Dog. Inhaling deeply and exhale completely. Inhale to look forward, bend the knees. Exhale, step or hop to the top. Inhale, halfway lift, find length and exhale, Forward Fold. Inhale, spread the fingertips, press into the earth, reach up towards the sky and exhale hands to heart, strong and steady. So there's this connection to your center of gravity here, really strong. If a big burst of wind were tocome through, you'd be here. We wouldn't sway, wouldn't fall. Connect to your center. So we're gonna challenge our center of gravity by coming into a standing one-legged Tadasana. You'll press into your left foot and lift the right knee upas if it were on the string and then slowly release it down. Two more times, inhale. Notice if you're shifting allyour weight to your left side, see if you can stay lifted, connect to your center all the way up and then slowly all the way down. Last time, inhale. Careful not to grip to your left toes and this time we're gonna stay here, we're gonna open up to Tree Pose so you'll grab your right foot and either place it right upagainst your left inner thigh and press your left inner thigh really against your right foot or you can also go below the knee or keep the toes on the ground then find your focal point and try to press into theouter edge of your right foot, finding rotation in the right thigh bone and then take a variation here that serves you. You can get creative with your mudra. You can stay here, hands at the heart or maybe challenge yourself by reaching fingertips towards the sky. For an extra challenge, you can take your gaze up and for an extra challenge, you can close your eyes. And take one more inhale to lift your heart and then you use your exhale, keep your heart lifted to bring it back. Take it to the other side. Three times peeling up from the knee and just notice if you're shifting all of your weight into your right leg, right hip, right glute. And after about three, makeyour way to tree, nice and slow, playing with this idea of pressing energy in towards each other and towards the midline so you can find length and stability in the spine. Honor this side, just accept where you are today and maybe if you're in the mood, you have some fun by lifting the arms up. Maybe looking up taking your gaze up or if you're feeling reallyadventurous, closing your eyes. Inhale in, lift your heart, keep yourheart lifted as you exhale, release with control. Bring the palms together, feet together. Inhale and exhale, sigh it out. Awesome, walk the feet just a little bit wider than hip width apart and turn the toes out. Inhale in, reach for the sky and exhale as if you're painting a wall. You're gonna bend your knees and you're just gonna paint the wall forward. Kind of like a little Tai Chi move here. You're just gonna go about halfway down and you're gonna inhale rise up, Thriller arms. And exhale down, halfway, just checking it out. Knees are going tracing right over the the toes here and then rise up and then one more time. Sync up with your breath, inhale. Alright and now taking it allthe way down on an exhale, listen to your breath find that Ujjayi. Press into the outer edges of the feet, press into the outer edges of the feet and now here we are in our yogi squat. Awesome take a deep breath in. Relax those shoulders as you breathe out. Press the palms together and then really today, activate. Press the arms against your legs and squeeze the legs against your arms and if you're having to bring the hands to the ground for stability here, power to you. Find the modification, be mindful and focus on the sound of your breath here in the last moments of our practice. Get your center down low and feel the heat, the warmth that you've created. And press into the outer edges of the feet, take a deep breath in, and a long breath out. Awesome work. Slow and steady, keep pressing into the outer edges of the feet as you bring your hands forward. And you're gonna walk thetoes together, knees together and we're come into that low squat, just like we did at the beginning of our practice. Now, you can stay here in the nice low squat. Send your gaze forward, find a length in the neck. We can stay here, squeezing the legs together, fingertips on the earth, concentrating on the sound of your breath. Another option would be to bring the palms together, send the knees forward, create length in the quadriceps. Lift your hip creases up towardsthe sky just intentionally, don't literally and come into a little toestand here, breathing deep. Breathing deep. And then you can stay here or we can open the knees wide. Bring some energy up from the base of the spine, send the fingertips forward,keep the shoulders relaxed. Lift up from your center and bring the knees up towards the armpit chest, gaze forward as you maybe rock forward and back. Crow Pose, forward and back and maybe it's a lift off and maybe not. So we have lots of options here, breathing deep. Whatever option you've chosen, listen to the sound of your breath. Lift the corners of your mouth and then after a little bit of playtime, we're gonna come to a nice seat, just cross-legged so take your time, you can work a couple more breaths here and there then we'll come to a nice seat. Just allowing the spine to go neutral, the shoulders to relax and the body to cool down. Maybe flip your palms face up. Take a deep breath in and long breath out. Another deep breath in and a long breath out then one more. Sit up nice and tall, bring the hands together and we're gonna bring the thumbsright up to the third eye. Take a moment here to justtap into a little gratitude, appreciate your body. Just kind of admire and appreciate yourself and this time you've taken for yourself. It's so valuable, so important. I wish you the best. Focus on the things that serve you. You got this, whatever task is at hand, you got it. Maybe quietly whisper to yourself, I got this. Tuck the chin slightly, feel that length in the back of the neck, inhale in and exhale, take everything all the way down, we bow forward. Namaste . That's All for today.
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