Mandala Mindfulness & Yoga

1. Mandala Mindfulness & Yoga - Introduction: Hello, and welcome. My name is Sala. It's great to have you here. I hope you thoroughly enjoy this course going through a yoga practice with me, followed by a guided meditation based on living mindfully to experience the present moment so that you can express yourself through some mandala coloring. Enjoy every moment. See you again, Sue. 2. Movement Practice - Morning Hatha: Hello. My name is Sala and welcome to this 15 minute refresh. This is a beautiful full body quick class when you've got 15 minutes and you need to get out of here, your head into your body. We will begin standing and make our way down to the ground for a beautiful five minute shasna. So 10 minutes of Hatha movement. So when you are ready, standing to the front of your mat or in your space, if you have a couple of blocks nearby, please bring them into your space now. If you're ready to go, simply drop your arms down and find a non moving gaze point in front of you. Begin to address any sensations you feel in your head. Just notice what's there. How are your eyes feeling? How's the jaw, the neck, the shoulders, and the hands? Is there anything going on through the chest or the back, tummy or lower spine and pelvis? How about down in the feet? How do they feel? And now that you have a picture of what's going on, take a beautiful big inhale and sigh out. We'll do three rounds of this. With each sigh, I'd like you to try and let go of what maybe you don't need in this practice. So breathe in with me. Sigh, relax, head, eyes, tummy, feet. Two more. Inhale. Sigh, relax, neck, shoulders, back, glutes. Inhale fully. Exhale, relax your whole body. Inhale, take a beautiful big stretch up, spreading your fingers. Exhale, lower your arms by your side. Inhale, stretching up, breathing in through the nose. Return the arms down and sigh. Beautiful. As we inhale, we breathe in fresh new oxygen. Sigh out to release anything you don't need. This time breathing through the nose. Interlace your fingers together. Exhale, turn your palms and flip them up. Arms can be straight or elbows bent a lot. Pull in your tummy and soften your knees. Take an inhale, lift your spine, and exhale, lower the arms down. Take an inhale with the left arm now, watch it rise in front. Inhaling and exhale send it behind. Next arm, inhale. Exhale, send it behind. This time, interlace your thumbs behind your back or your fingers and inhale, start to reach the palms away. Puffing the chest open on your next exhale, go ahead and sigh softening the knees. Inhale, stand tall, reach the arms up. Exhale, left arm down as we side bend to the left. Exhale. Inhale, find both feet even on the mat. Si out. Inhaling. Both arms up. Exhale, right hand down, side bend, exhale. Balance both feet. Inhale. Si out. Inhale both arms come up. Exhale, sit down in an imaginary chair, a little or a lot. Hands on the thighs. Find one full breath in. Exhale, straighten the legs until almost straight, microbend in the knees and find a beautiful shape or halfway lift. Your hands are up on your thighs, soft elbows or down on your shins. Stretch your neck forward in space, pull your tummy in, take an inhale. And exhale. You're welcome to stay here, find your blocks. And if it's safe for you to forward fold, meaning you don't have any blood pressure issues, heart conditions, glaucoma, or anything else, on your next exhale, you can keep softening your knees so much so so your torso rests on your legs. If the earth feels really far away, bring the blocks under your hands, remembering we have three levels on the blocks, so the earth can always come to support you. Take a lovely inhale here and sigh, fully drape your body or release through the mouth. If you were in your halfway lift pose, we are all going to join you there. So everybody take an inhale and slide the hand somewhere on the legs that works for you. Exhaling. Relax your shoulders, give them a little shimmy, and we're going to bend the knees a lot so much so so you can plant your palms on the earth. Step 1 ft back to tabletop, followed by the other and align your hands under the shoulders and knees under the hips. If your palms are sensitive or your wrists are painful here, you can always prop up to your fists or even better. Sometimes just more space in the shoulder joint is all we need, and we can place the blocks underneath the hands. If you need any padding under your knees, grab a blanket. The other option is, as we inhale, we open the chest, and as we exhale, we release the spine and we fold in the mat, a little quarter on each side under the knees. Now that you know where we're going, inhale, open the chest, lift the tail, look up. Exhale round the back. Two more rounds of breath, breathing out through the mouth or knows your choice. This is your refresh. Use your exhale to let go. One more. Exhale. If you have padding under your knees, you can remove it now. Our next place we're going is downward facing dog. So take your blocks wide, place them away from you, and walk your hands one palm print forward under your shoulders. Your option today is to tuck the toes, lift the knees off, and then watch yourself straighten your legs as your hips go way back. Dropping your head between your arms, a soft bend in the knees and feet are hip width apart or wider. If you have any pain in your shoulders or wrists, come back down to your knees. You're going to enter the same way with the legs. But instead, place your forearms where your hands were and join your palms together to create a triangle. Then inhale, lift the knees, look at the knees and exhale, watch your legs straighten a little or a lot as your hips pull back. You'll feel your chest move through the gates or the shoulders, opening the chest a little bit. Everybody staying for one more breath wherever you are. Exhale, lower your knees to the earth, knees and ankles together. Look for one of your blocks, place it where your forehead may be, take the other block, place it between your pelvis and your shins, and then sit back on that block underneath the pelvis and slide the first block to a height so you can rest your forehead with a long spine. If this feels a little tight on the tummy or on the hips, you have the option to widen your knees and perhaps the block between the pelvis and the shins is no longer needed, but it can stay if you want. Keep adjusting blocks or no blocks until you are in a child's pose where you feel like you can just melt down. This is where we're gonna finish before taking Shavasana. So for the next four breaths, close the eyes, have the mouth slightly open, so you can release the jaw. Breathe deep down to the belly and lower back and let it all go with a sigh. I know it's very tempting to want to stay, but we will be moving to Shavasana. If for you say, No, I want to stay here instead of Chavana then please do. But if you'd like to join me on the back, walk your hands towards you, so you come up to a seat, bring your legs to one side, sitting On the hip, take the block out the way and swing the legs forwards. Center yourself on your mat, bend at your knees. Take the blocks so they're either side of you about halfway down the mat, and very slowly start to round your spine down, breathing as you go, sliding the hands down until the whole of the body comes down. Your shavasana can be with knees bent up, knees knocking together. It can be legs extended out long, or a completely different shape in the legs that works for you. If you need any padding under the head, a nearby cushion will do. And these blocks, it's very nice, see how you feel can rest underneath the palms so the shoulders can tuck under the back and down. The elbows are soft and wide, slightly bent, and the fingers maybe one or a couple are hanging off the side of the block. T one lovely inhale here. Sigh out, let it go. Feel your shoulders, giving in to the Earth, hips, heels, and head. And then if the eyes are not already closed, go ahead and close them. And we'll rest here for 5 minutes so that we come back to the now. If there's anything else you need to release, you can take a gentle body scan over the next 5 minutes, enjoy those sighs. But I will be back when it's time for us to come into our closing pose. Start to become aware of your breathing. Noticing that the breath now feels very different when we started. The body is softer more quiet. Everything is a little bit more balanced. We are no longer up in the head as much as we were. Our energy is distributed nicely across all parts of our being. Take one more lovely deep breath in here and a cleansing sigh to release any last tension in the throat. Blink your eyes softly open. Wiggle your fingers and your toes. Move any blocks out of the way so that you can have space to bend your knees up if the legs are straight. And we will all roll over to either the left or right side, it's your choice. Paws resting on the side of your body. The arm underneath can rest your head. And then extend your top leg long as you press the hand in front of you down on the earth to bring yourself up sideways. Arrive in a comfortable, seated position of your choice. Choosing to sit on a block or padding up one of your knees if you are working with an injury. Sitting tall, feeling more like yourself. Bring a smile to the face. Let's take one more beautiful inhale stretching the arms up. An exhale, turn the palms away, let it go. With hands on the knees, grounded in nature, grounded in mind and heart, we can close our practice here with the words, now must stay. Which means the light in me sees the light in you. Welcome back home to your inner space. Continue on, and we'll see you again soon. Goodbye.