Get Out of Your Funk - (30-Min) All-Seated Chair Yoga Class with Kim O'Brien

Hey yogis! How are you guys? Thanks for joining me. I wanted to start today off with a reading. Start with you. Start where you are. Many of us are riled up at the latest news. The economy, the politics, the planet, the injustice. We sit, we stew, we steam, we boil over with rage. So I ask, what good does the rage do? And maybe it's not a full-on rage, but a deep resentment or a low-level discontent or dis-ease that vibrates in the background all day long. That's your inner energy. Fix your inner energy so that the outer energy can heal and not add to the disruption. And one of the greatest ways to fix this inner energy is through deep, beautiful, slow breath. I've taken a pillow up. We might use one today. So you're sitting tall in your chair. You feel rooted through the sits bones. You know, I like to say, move some of that excess out and just squizzle everything down and in. Relax the shoulders. Let the arms be heavy. Close the eyes. And let's just draw a breath in through the nose. And maybe keeping the lips lightly parted, take a slow exhale out. And then repeat that simple breath, drawing in through the nose, lips parted, exhale out through the mouth. But this time, draw the breath in through the nose, fill the body, make sure the belly expands, make sure you feel the energy around your heart, and then exhale back out through the nose. So every time you inhale, inflating this whole front torso, let it distend out. And then on the exhale, let it soften and maybe even draw the navel in tight toward the spine. So inhale, big, fat Buddha belly. And then exhale, activating the core muscles, drawing that navel into the spine. Inhale, big, fat Buddha belly. And then exhale, assist the breath out by drawing the navel into the spine. Couple more of those. Inhale, big belly, fill and inflate. And then that slow exhale, pull the navel in. One more of those. Inhale, big, fat Buddha belly. And then exhale, drawing that navel in. And then let the belly rest, just sitting with the body for a moment. And then allow the hands just to hang heavy down alongside the body. So as you inhale, I want you to float the arms up, but I want you to notice that my wrists are bent, and when I get to the height, my palms face down. And then as I exhale, flip the palms to the ceiling, and then slowly lower the arms down. Keep bending and flexing at the wrist, and then flip the palms, inhaling. So as you reach up, the palms will face downward. And then as you exhale, flexing through those wrists all the way down, feeling that nice, strong movement. Continue with that. Bend those wrists, inhale all the way up, and then flex, exhale all the way down. A couple more of those. Inhale, just bending at that wrist. I want you to feel the stretch in the wrist, and then up here, flip those palms, press the ceiling away as you exhale. Now when you come all the way down and your palms are facing down, I really want you to keep them bent, and I really want you to press down toward the earth. I want energy in the arms, and then exhale, relax that. So now, once again, bending at the wrist, palms face downward as we float all the way up. Now pause here. Ready? I want you to really bend through the wrists and reach the backs of the hands to the ceiling. So I want you to notice the stretch on the wrist, and then once again, flex and reverse the palms to the ceiling, and then really, really slow, really slow, bending at the wrist. Palms should be looking straight toward me, and then once again, keeping that maybe 90-degree bend, maybe not. Flex, pressing down on the imaginary earth as you reach up through the crown of the head, and then relax that. Maybe take some nice little shoulder rolls here. Back, and then let's take those shoulder rolls forward. All right, I'm just going to stay seated in the chair. Turn to the side for demo. The palms of my hands are going to find that space right here on my low back, top of the back of the pelvis there, and then all I'm going to do is press the palms into the back of the hip, maybe draw the elbows together behind me, and maybe lift ever so slightly out through the heart center. Feel that stretch across the chest, and then let it go. So go a little saggy, and then once again, right, so the palms of the hands are here, fingers are pointing downward. I want you to press, then I want you to lift up through the sternum, maybe squeeze the elbows a little bit tighter, feeling the opening across the hot chest, and then soften, and we'll do one more of those. So palms actively press into that lower back area, elbows drawing together, lift up through the sternum, take a really big inhale, feel the energy across the chest, and then exhale. Release the arms, and let them just kind of rest here on top of the thighs. Awareness to the head and neck. Inhale, lift the chin, stimulate the front of the throat. Exhale, draw the chin down, feel the stretch on the upper back rear of the neck. Inhale, lift that chin open. You only go as high as feels good for your neck. Exhale, depress that chin down, feel that stretch in the back of the neck. Inhale, lift that chin all the way up for that nice stretch, and then exhale. One more, depress that chin down, feel that nice stretch in there, and then just lift the chin to neutral. Spread these wings, bring them all the way out, thread the fingers, rotate the palms, reach to high heaven, and then give me this little squizzle move. This just should feel really good. Now if you have limitations in your shoulders, then maybe your arms are a little bit forward here, but you can still move the rest of the body. You can definitely move something, right? You don't have to do everything, just a little bit of something. And then I'm going to keep these fingers threaded, and I'm going to bring them behind my head. So what I'm going to do is take an inhale, and I'm not just gonna jam my shoulders back, I'm gonna squeeze my shoulder blades together so they hug the spine. So you're ready, take an inhale, and then squeeze the blades back there together, and that squeezing of the blades will pull the elbows slightly back. I want you to build that strength in that upper back region, and then relax it. All right, going again. First, squeeze your shoulder blades together so they hug your spine, and that movement gently pulls the elbows back. This should be a challenging, energetic movement. Release that, we'll do one more. First, squeeze the blades, and then the squeezing of the blades will open the elbows out a little bit wider, and then relax the blades, extend the arms out, and literally let them just float down. And let's do single shoulder rolls here, right? Rolling up and back, feeling that, and then continue with this. I like to start to then get the elbows involved, and then the elbows might get more of the arm involved, and we start to take this much bigger, circular type movement, allowing that big backstroke to happen. And then we're just gonna change the backstroke into a freestyle, coming forward, right? Moving the body, and then allow both hands to come and land right here on the thighs. Standard protocol here. Inhale, tall, hot spine. Exhale, tuck the chin, round back. Maybe the upper back kisses the chair, maybe it doesn't. Inhale, high. We go again, right? As we exhale, we just roll it back. Oh, and then inhale, bring it up, and then exhale, roll it back. One more. Inhale, high. Exhale, roll it back, and then inhale, come all the way up. Draw the palms of the hands to the heart center. As the arms reach forward, palms up, thumbs back, give a big pull, and then bring it back forward and into the heart center. So we reach, rotate palms up, open, feel that nice stretch, and then we come back in through the center. And then again, forward, palms up, thumbs back, just really feel that. And then let that right hand land on the side of the chair. Let's take this side bend over, and then come onto this and pull this elbow toward the hip. But then, ready? Re-extend, over, reaching for the side, and then pull that elbow toward the hip. And then inhale, reach, and feel that strong. And then all the way up to the sky, take the shoulders, roll them up, back, and down. Inhale, draw the arms all the way up. And this time, let the left hand come down and the right arm come over for that side bend. And then here it is, elbow in toward the hip, and then over for this really good side bend, and then elbow in toward the hip, and then over for that beautiful side bend. I'm going to take one more of those. Elbow to the hip, big opening for that quadratus lumborum, right? It attaches to the bottom of the rib and the top of the hip, and then bring that arm up. Exhale it down. Take a nice shoulder roll, up, back, and down. Inhale, draw two arms high overhead, and then we rotate to the right with the spine, letting the hands land on the outside of the knee and the outside of the chair. Inhale, grow taller in the spine and rotate a little bit deeper to the right. Now hold the twist in the spine. I want you to rotate your chin all the way over to the left, looking over the left shoulder, and then nothing else moves. Bring the chin all the way back to look over the right shoulder. Again, rotating the neck to look over the left shoulder, and then come all the way back to look over the right. One more. Take it all the way over to the left. Now stay to the left, to the left, to the left, and then slightly just tip the head back just to get a little bit of other muscular action in that chest. Oh, and then release that. Palms of the hands are to the knees. Take an inhale, tall, hot spine. Exhale, tuck the chin, roll it back, and I'm going in for my little scoop through and forward. Up, and I'll take that nice roll back, and I'm coming in for the little scoop. One more of those. Roll it back. I'm going to take that scoop, and on the way up, I'm going to reach these arms up. I'm going to rotate to the left. So the hands land outside of knee, outside of chair. It's not an exact science. Inhale, tall, hot spine, and then rotate a little bit deeper to the left. Now I want you to maintain this nice rotation in the spine as the chin rotates to look over the right shoulder, and then it comes all the way back. Can you see behind you? Once again, rotate to look over the right shoulder, and then all the way back to the left. One more. Bring it over to the right, feeling that stretch nice and strong. Maybe tilt the head slightly back. Oh, and then release the twist. Kind of roll the back, but then look at my arms. Rolling forward, squeezing back. Take several of these rows. You're out on Duxbury Bay, right? Moving through the water, skimming the surface, and now every time you come up here, just squeeze those blades back there together. Feel this nice, strong movement. A couple more of these. Squeeze. One more. Now, elbows draw back, and then maybe the left arm reaches on top as you try to pull, and as you're reaching these arms across, visualize your shoulder blades pulling away from the spine, so doing the opposite of what we did. Now, as you come back here, ready? Don't just jam the elbows back. Instead, squeeze the blades together, and then right arm on top, and now we're going to literally pull those shoulder blades away from the spine, and then again, we come back here, pause, squeeze the blades together, and then relax the blades, and give me goal posts, right? Now, I know some of us have limitations, and down here is beautiful, too. If you have the range of motion to honor this, please do. Go three, two, one, and open. Three, two, one, and open. Three, two, one, and open. This time, draw those elbows together. See what your range of motion is? Again, your shoulder blades. Look at me peeking. Your shoulder blades are pulling away from the spine. This is a Katie Bowman move, but holding this, and you kind of just open, and we close, peekaboo, and close. Open, close, open, close, and give me a little pump, a little pump. All right, shake those arms out. Just make sure everything feels good, and let's just stomp these feet. Let's just move them around, just starting kind of slow with the feet, and then go slow, and then pick it up slow, and then pick it up slow. All right, now pause. I want to go out, out, in, in, and I want to start with the right foot. Out, out, in, in. I want to just start nice and slow. I want you to do it exactly like I tell you. I know I usually say, do what you want to do, but this is kind of a rhythm coordination thing, and I want you to try to work on that. Right foot leads out, out, in, in, and then all I want you to do is pick it up, out, out, in, in. My core has to be engaged in order to allow these legs to move like this. Out, out, in, I'm going to keep them out. Pause. I just want to stand up out of my chair, rise up, go. I'm going to sit right back down. Oh, it's there. That'd be embarrassing. All right, so in, in, out, out, and I want you to start with the left foot. So in, in, out, out. Piece of cake, right? And then all we want to do is pick it up. Five, four, three, two, bring it in, bring it in, bring it in, bring it in, bring it in. Keep the legs going. Arms up, arms down. Pause. Now sit here, rest for a moment. If you need water, get your water. Mine's right over there behind the monk, little cute monk. I want you to feel the energy here. All right, so one more exercise before we get out of the chair. This is military march. If you want to do it a little bit less intense, you sit the butt all the way back, but you see I'm not leaning back having a cocktail, right? I still have my spine tall and I'm anchored. A little bit more challenging, the butt stays to the front. So start right arm up, left arm low, and just alternate these arms. Now, if you have to go a little softer, we love that. If you have the ability to go bigger and stronger, I'm not looking for speed here. I'm looking for quality of movement and length. All right, last one. Just pause. So we alternate leg extensions. Pretty easy. Again, you can have your butt all the way back in the chair. It's a little bit more supportive. Or when you're to the front of the chair, you have to really activate the core. So basic alternate legs, piece of cake, pause. Arms and legs, we do alternate. Right arm up, left arm down, left leg out. And then we alternate our military march. Now again, I'm not going fast. I'm going for slow and strong. Feel that. Strong, strong, strong. You need to take a break. You take a break. I'm thinking today's class is a little strenuous. But every day is different, right? Five, four, three, two, and one. Relax. Roll the shoulders up, back, and down. I'm just going to do some heel towing of my feet and ankle because that always feels good. In and up. And then let's do some wipers, right? Let's just lubricate the hip sockets, right? Internal rotation of the hip, external rotation of the hip. Opening and closing the hip joint, allowing it to get full range of motion. So my hands, you can do your hands with me. I'm trying to just exaggerate, you know, what the femur, the thigh bone is doing in the hip joint. In and out. All right, come on back. I'm going to take just a couple of quick shoulder stretches. I'm going to reach my right arm across the body, the left arm bends up, and I'm just going to pull this in. Now when I pull this in, I usually pull it in and slightly downward. And then remember all those shoulder blade exercises we did? This should give you a nice stretch in the back of the right shoulder blade region. And then I usually pull it in a little tighter and stronger, and then I rotate it teeny to the right with the neck. And then I'll release that. Shoulder rolls. Draw the left arm all the way across, bending up and in, pull it in. Oh my gosh, this side of my body is so much tighter. It's crazy. And then I'm going to pull it in a hair tighter, and then I'm going to rotate to the left. You can moan if you want. I just did. All right. And release that. Just do this little squiggly action, right? Just move it around. And then before we close out, maybe just come. Oh, you don't have to lean if you have a low back on the chair. That's nice, but you don't have to. Oh, all right. All right. Sit nice and tall for me. Get off the back of the chair. And I just want you to place your hands, palms facing up on your thighs, and I want you to close your eyes. No peeking. I'll know. Okay, I won't, but don't. All right. Close your eyes. And I just first want you to rest and relax. I want the shoulders to feel heavy. I'd like to see if you can maybe even sense the weight of the elbows pulling down. And then just bring the awareness to the palms of the hands. Can you sense the energy in the tips of the fingers? Can you sense the energy in the palm of the hand? Can you feel the space between the fingers? As you inhale, draw the breath in through the nose and let it fill the belly. But as you exhale, feel that breath slide down the shoulders to the elbows across the forearms and just pull in the palms of your hands. So let's master that. Drawing the breath in, filling the torso full, but let the exhale run down the arms all the way across the wrists and feel the exhale pull in the palms of your hands. I want you to keep that pattern going. So your synchronization of breath may be different than mine, but every time you inhale, you want to fill the body full. And with every exhale, trace the energy down the length of the arms and literally feel it, sense it, visualize it pulling in the palms of your hands. Your palms should be getting full. They might even feel as if they are holding weight. Inhaling, filling the body, and then exhaling, releasing and letting it pull. Pause, breathe, and be.