Embrace Your Heart

Hi, I'm Allie Greene. And this is class four of Move Into Ease. This class is all about embracing your heart. We give a lot of attention to our brain when we're trying to organize our body, our mind, our life. We spend a lot of time trying to think it out.

We kind of think of our brain as the penthouse, but there is the most beautiful place a few floors down, your heart. It's actually referred to as the little brain. It has neurons. So it has the ability to process, learn, and remember. Its electromagnetic field reaches outside of our bodies and it surrounds every single one of our cells.

This is a form of communication. When we work with the heart, we encourage feelings of compassion and love. This generates a physiological response that supports health and wellbeing. For this practice, we just need a chair. So I invite you to go get your chair, come back and join me.

If you're already here, let's have a seat. For our pre-practice observation, I just invite you to notice the area where your heart is. You put your hands there and you can close your eyes. Notice what this area feels like. Is there any holding, tension?

Does it feel heavy? And does this physical feeling match emotional feelings you might be having? So now we're just gonna be with our heart. Our heart created itself. It was two tubes of this beautiful pulsating blood and it spiraled in on itself.

Our heart beat before our brain formed. So I invite you to just soften your heart, soften that area. Just take a few breaths into your heart. Now, we're going to do a little humming. Humming is vibration.

And this vibration just helps us feel our heart. It also connects us into our parasympathetic nervous system, which is very restful. So this doesn't need to be loud or sound like anything. It can just be kind of quiet inside yourself. And you're just noticing the vibration above anything else.

So we're just gonna take four rounds of this humming. So here we go. (humming) Now keep going with the humming and see if you can send that humming into the back of your heart. Let's do one more round. (humming) And then pause.

You can feel that sensation even after the humming has finished. Now, we're gonna move into a little touch. So we're gonna massage this area of our heart. And we're gonna massage from the heart. We're gonna move all the way out to our shoulder.

And we're gonna massage all the way down our arm to our hands. So there's a beautiful relationship between our heart and our hands. And you can get in between the fingers, right to the edge of the fingers, the fingertips. And then let's send that touch back up. And you can choose how you like to touch.

You might like to brush. You might like to squeeze. And then all the way across, and let's connect the other side, our beautiful hands to heart. So our hands have the ability to be open to give, to receive. And our hands have the ability to push away to say no, not in some rude way, but the ability to say no is how we create some really good, healthy boundaries. And if we wanna move with more ease in our life, boundaries are important.

And then you're just gonna go all the way back up. Now, if you can, see if you can get in the back. So remember, we were humming into the back of the heart. You can even go around the front. And if you can't reach back there, it's okay.

You can just continue to massage in the front. So the back of the heart is actually where a lot of our circulation happens. So when we move into back bends, we wanna make sure we're keeping that area nice and open. (exhales deeply) So just let the arms come down. So not only is there this receiving or giving or no, this is also circulatory.

So our heart really lives through our whole body through our circulatory system, energetic flow. So we're gonna do a little arm flow now. Let's start with the right arm. Let's let it come right down by your side. Let's take a few breaths from the heart.

And see if we can just let that breath flow down into the hand, and then back into the heart. And then on the next breath, the arm can flow upwards, connecting to the heart. Now, our heart can be a buoy. And it can also be a bit of an anchor or root. So notice when your arm goes up, where does your heart go?

And then that arm can flow back down. What if we tried that on the other side? It's flowing upwards. And the heart might start as a buoy. And then it might turn into beautiful roots of that hand.

And then returning. And let's do both together. So we have this beautiful heart to hands. It's a loop. Right now the loop is open.

We're gonna bring our hands together. Notice how your heart feels as you bring the fingertips together. And then give a little press and bring the hands down. I invite you, if your eyes are closed, you can keep them closed. If your eyes are open and you're watching me, see what it feels like to close your eyes.

See if you get a little bit more clarity of what you're feeling inside. Arms are gonna travel back up. Let's follow the space between the hands as they slowly come apart. And then notice how the heart feels, and flowing downwards. Let's do that one more time.

So we could move our shoulders our arms and our hands from our heart and our circulatory system. Follow how the hands come together. Find that tone. Little press. Notice what the heart feels about that. Bringing the hands to the heart.

And then returning back up. Follow the space between the hands, flowing outwards, heart-centered movements. And take a pause. (exhales deeply) Notice the rest of your body. Does it need a little bit more support?

Would you like to soften down into the pelvis? Or would you like to find a little bit more lift? All of our organs have movements and the heart is a rolling movement. So what would it feel like if we began a little flexing and extending from the heart? We did this in our breath class with our lungs.

Now it's the heart rolling. It's rolling inwards and the body follows. Rolling upwards, remembering the back of the heart, giving it lots of space to breathe. Let's do one more. We move into that support.

We find that tone. Heart rolls up. And then take a little pause. (exhales deeply) So our heart has a relationship to our brain. The heart sends information up to the brain.

So I invite you to imagine that there is a string from your heart to your brain. And imagine it's pulled tight. What we're gonna do is soften it, give it some slack. (exhales deeply) Now we're going to add some arms into this flexing. So the heart rolls under.

The head is now gonna follow the heart. The arms can flow out from the heart. And as we're flexing forward, we can internally rotate. So it's like the backs of the hands are talking to the heart. And then what if we rotate the arms open and come out of this into a beautiful extension?

And now the front of the hands, the palms of the hands are talking to the heart. Flowing under, heart rolls, head follows. Flowing forwards. All of this connectivity, and then spiraling open, heart rolling upwards, return back to the center, soft heart. And then what if we tried a little side bending?

The heart can spiral over, the head's just gonna follow. So keep checking in with that lovely little string or rope. Just let it soften. And we have this heart all the way up to our hand. And then flowing back up because the heart is gonna spiral us up.

And over to the other side. So our heart is a centering organ. Over you go. Let the head release and return. And let's do that again.

And then we're just gonna add some extra movement into this. So the beautiful rolling heart, just let it roll you into this flexed side bend. And what if it rolls you up? Now the other hand can go on the chair. And that hand can push.

And that really helps our heart feel itself. Push takes us into center. And then this hand has this beautiful reach away from the heart. And we just spiral. Rolling heart.

When we're working with our organs, time slows down a little bit. We can slow down. And then just returning, let's bring ourselves up. Let's find that yield. And then a big push of that hand on the chair.

Reach and pull through space. Up you go. Take a nice little pause. And over to the other side. We lift.

There's this heart. Is it being buoyant? Is it being an anchor? We don't have to feel exactly the same thing. You just wanna know what you are feeling.

And then over. And then here we go. Spiral the heart. Everything follows around. Spiral the heart open.

You can find that yield and push of the hand on the chair. Reach and pull through space. Spiraling back around. What about the back of the heart? That can spiral around, too.

We give that lots of room. Spiraling open. (exhales deeply) Returning back. And here we go, yielding. Even your heart can yield, push, reach, and pull, and up.

(exhales deeply) Take a little pause. (exhales deeply) We're gonna come to standing. We have this beautiful centered heart. So remembering that all of our transitions are just part of our flow. So let's bring ourselves right to the edge of the chair and our heart is gonna hover.

So our heart is just this beautiful, buoyant, hovering heart out into space. Our arms can flow out from that heart. Now the push is gonna come from our feet. So we just shift forward, buoyant heart, push with the feet, coming up, feel the heart in the center and a little reach and pull through the hands, and then flowing down. Beautiful.

We're gonna turn our chair and bring it right here in front of us. And then I invite you to place your hands on the chair. Nice, open hands. Wide hands. Feet can be right underneath the hips. Our hands are a little bit in front of us.

Arms a little bit in front. And we're gonna move into a cat-cow. So some of these things we know, but we're gonna experience them in such a different way. We create a lot of choice and choice gives us a lot of ease. So heart's gonna initiate. Heart can roll down.

Body follows. Softening that string from your heart to your brain. And then the heart can roll up. We give space to the back of the heart. We let it breathe.

And rolling under. (exhales deeply) And we're moving very, very deeply from the inside. That tells our joints, just go this far. And it keeps us really integrated. Let's do one more.

And always remember in this work, we don't need to be moving at the same time. And then returning back to a beautiful, little table. And then what if we did a little side bending? So that heart is now spiraling to the side and everything's following. And the heart is centering.

So our heart just spirals in the center. So we can pay attention to our limbs. They're staying pretty much where they are. We're just pivoting around them. There's not a big shift.

And then what if we just did a little beautiful heart dance? Your heart could just roll any which way and your body is following super fluid. Here's our circulatory system. And that heart flows out through the arms and the hands. And of course it flows up to the brain and down to the tail and out through the legs.

So now we have this beautiful little circulatory dance. (exhales deeply) And then return. (exhales deeply) Let's just come up to a little standing. Take a pause. Let's let the arms flow up one more time here.

Notice the space between the hands and notice as the hands come together and a little press, how does the heart feel? Draw the hands down. Take the hands back up. Notice the space between the hands. Notice how the heart feels about that space.

Oh! Beautiful, open heart. Let's come back to the chair. Same position with the hands. Now, we're going to be moving into a little rotation. So I'm gonna start with my left arm.

So I get to face you and take your legs for a little walk first. Let's get that down, because this has a few pieces to it. Notice how they're walking. Now you're gonna walk so that your right knee bends and your left leg is straight. And then the left arm goes out to the side.

And our heart is gonna begin this rotation. Heart-centered movement. Pausing here, feeling yield-push, whatever's connecting into the ground, reach and pull, through space. Now switch your legs as you come through for a little thread-the-needle. Now it's okay if your straight leg isn't totally straight.

It could be straight-ish. And just spiraling your heart around. And let's do it one more time on this side. Spiral that heart. Do you wanna spiral the front?

Do you wanna spiral around the back? And then spiraling back through little thread-the-needle. And the brain can just go for the ride. (exhales deeply) And then we'll do that on the other side. So let's take our legs for a little walk again.

And then bending the left leg. Right leg is straight or straight-ish. Take the right arm out. And that heart's gonna rotate. Connecting to the hand on the chair with a push.

Connecting to the hand in space with a reach and pull. And then threading through. (exhales deeply) So we could be doing this with our circulatory system. We pay attention to what we value or what we're taught to value. So we can learn to value new things, like your circulatory system as far as movement.

There's so much more to us than, you know, just our muscles, our bones, our nervous system. It all works together. And we're opening back out one more time. (exhales deeply) And then returning. Now we're gonna move those feet further back.

And the hands now become a push. And that push travels through the arms, to the heart, to the tail. Your heart is buoying, suspending from the back body, and resting on the breast bone. So we wanna make sure in a position like this that we create a lot of space in the back. We open up the back.

And how far back you go is it's up to your comfort level. Remember, we don't need to look like something. We want to be able to feel where we should be. Do you feel supported? And then push with the feet.

And just let that roll right up through the body, right through the heart. Heart is a nice, little buoy. And here we are in a plank. And then just push back. There's that little yield and push.

Now, if this is a lot on your body, we're getting a little bit more physical and a little bit more physical. You can make this small. You could also do this right up against a wall. So hands to the wall so that you don't have your full body weight over your hands. So there's so many ways we can work with gravity and space.

Now, here we're going to move into, in yoga, we would call in an updog. In Pilates, this looks a bit like a down stretch, press of the hands, beautiful buoyant heart. And the head is going for the ride. And then a little yield push, send yourself back. Yield.

(exhales deeply) How about one more? Push through the feet. Take yourself forward. Pass through that plank or maybe you wanna stay there. Heart rolls upwards.

Push of the hands to the heart. Space for the back of the heart. You can just turn your head. (exhales deeply) And then a nice little push. Send yourself back.

That got the blood flowing a little bit. (exhales deeply) Let's go ahead and walk the feet forward. And roll up. Pause. Oh, I feel my heart.

I don't know how you are doing with that, but that definitely got a little blood pumping and flowing. So let's finish with a few roll-downs. So softening the knees. And then the heart is gonna roll. Takes the head down.

Heart keeps rolling. There's all of that beautiful space for the back of the heart. And the arms flow out from the heart all the way down. (exhales deeply) When you get to the bottom, push through the feet and roll back up. Arms can flow out.

Here's this entire circulatory system with the heart in the middle. Coming on up. Let's do it. Let's put those hands together. Little press. Notice how the heart responds to those hands.

Back up we go. Let them open. (exhales deeply) Let's roll down one more time. Little nod. Heart rolls.

All the way down, soft, and fluid, into the support of the ground. Push through the feet, flow back up through the heart. Flowing the arms out. Let's pause right here. Hands reaching out to the sides.

(exhales deeply) Palms off the hands to the front of the heart. Backs of the hands to the back of the heart. And let's bring our arms around ourselves. So now let's literally (laughs) embrace our heart. Give yourself a hug.

Give your heart a hug. You can just let your head bow down. Just take a moment just to be with your heart. Post-practice observation. How does that area of your heart feel now?

Has anything changed for you? And always remember, if you're not sure it didn't, that's okay. Everything you feel is real and it's okay. So I hope that this class helped you deepen your relationship to your heart and a whole nother system in your body. Because the more choice we give ourselves, the more ease we find.

Thanks so much for joining me.