This is short one is for all you peeps who want it quick and fast. It's also the first of my "Red Pill, Blue Pill" videos where I take a pose, in this case the standing splits, and we do it the easy, automatic-pilot way - the blue pill - and do it with thoughtfulness and more consciousness - the red pill.

Maybe you imitate or think it's cool the way you see people in class or social media sort of just pop into a pose, the blue pill kind of way. If you're naturally flexible or in a habit with your yoga practice, yes, you can fling yourself into a pose, and yes visually it can be cool. Or we can go into poses with more feeling and less "visual" pressure. We can do yoga poses more consciously, building up a picture of an asana in our minds, adjusting the body, and using our concentration to develop a position in a more conscious, thoughtful and expressive way. Yes, it's more challenging. The red pill option always is.

I'm rating this suitable for all. If you're a true-blue beginner and are having a hard time balancing, then grab a chair or table and use that to help ground you and your energy. If you're advanced and can do this in your sleep, try straightening the leg while your torso is as upright as possible. Any time you catch yourself, rounding or bending over, pull yourself upright through the solar plexus or belly.

Peace, love and rock'n'roll,
Stephanie x

Whoa, Nelly! Hold onto to your chair, it's going to be a bumpy ride We're no sooner out of the gate to 2020 and you might be facing challenges that throw you from your routines and habits, and ways of looking at the world.

We might be confronting, too, some very hard truths that we can't escape from, distract ourselves from, or gloss over anymore. This can be the most courageous thing we can do: Confront truths that are painful. As Michael Jackson sang, it's about looking at the man (or woman) in the mirror.

But grab a chair, table or stable edge of any kind while you do. This simple action can help with fitness whether you are emotionally fragile, or physically not-feeling-your-best. Life is not linear. Circumstances and events can throw us even if we've been healthy most of our lives, and sometimes we have to start at the beginning. Please seek a medical doctor's advice if your have medical or health concerns.

This is our second chair yoga video, and tenth overall, a mini-milestone for us here at Move Within Yoga. Thank you Megan Dodson at megandproductions.com for filming and post-production. Thank you to a few of my former students out there who are joining me virtually now.

All of my videos are free but if you'd like to make a donation, please go to paypal at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=E9ETK8N2JLHKU&source=url

Peace, Love and Rock n' Roll,
Stephanie

It's a new day in a new year in a new decade, and look around and what's changed? Probably nothing!

Yet no decade or year or even day ever truly repeats. The sun may rise and fall, the four walls may stay the same, but beneath the skin, on the inside, we are changing in so many ways. We can consciously bring about the change, or the universe can sometimes force us - kicking and screaming - into letting go of what doesn't serve anybody anymore.

Level of difficulty is a medium for this sequence. Yoga mudra at the start of the video is the repeating forward fold, from a kneeling position. It's suitable for all levels, but place a cushion or bolster on the mat if your forehead can't reach the floor. Later, we close on fish pose. It can get intense, so never feel like you have to hold a pose long (never ever). These poses aid in letting go.

Coming soon in 2020: "Back to Yoga" foundation sequences as well as more Chair Yoga.

Peace, Love & Rock-n-Roll,
Stephanie
*Please seek a doctor for medical advise or consultation before starting any exercise program.*'

My latest video was inspired by those in soul connections, karmic relationships, and Twin Flames. These "not normal" relationships are there to heal and grow, and have been a feature of the last decade, the 2010s. They are some of the most emotionally trying experiences the universe has thrown at humanity of late.

While this sequence was developed to help those in such throes, any body in decent health can try these moves as a way to release emotions and keep the energy flowing - especially into the holiday season!

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Karma Blessing Button: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=59LFEZ3BAFCMN&source=url For questions or comments, please email movewithinyoga@gmail.com. For more of my videos, blogs and other stuff go to movewithinyoga.com.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Stephanie xx

Big thanks to Paula in Chicago, Genny in Ohio and Maeve in County Cork, Ireland for helping produce Video #7.

I developed this sequence, inspired by those with osteoporosis and osteopenia but suitable for all in general health, too. I incorporate some, if not all, of these moves into my daily life and recommend them. Please seek medical advice or talk to your doctor if you have any specific health issues.

* Osteoporosis is symptom-less and because of this has a quietness about it. How many awareness campaigns do you see about osteoporosis? Yet it causes nearly nine million fractures a year worldwide.

It affects men and women, and the numbers are staggering for women: 200 million or 1 in 10 over the age of 60 and 1 in 5 over the age of 70. Dr Loren Fishman's 10-year scientific study titled "Twelve-Minute Daily Yoga Routine Reverses Osteoporotic Bone Loss" makes for an interesting read for those who have been diagnosed or for those looking for preventative measures.

WOM, support, sharing, caring, social media help and of course donations will get you a Producer Shoutout in future episodes. A Donation is just that - non-obligatory and only if you find this or any other video of value, and would like to contribute.

Clicking on Subscribe is non-obligatory and costs nothing!

Karma Blessing Button (tongue firmly planted in cheek): https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=59LFEZ3BAFCMN&source=url For questions or comments, please bring your attention to Susan Jaffe at movewithinyoga@gmail.com. For more of my videos, blogs and other stuff go to movewithinyoga.com.
Thank you! Stephanie xxx

Inspired by my friends in Monroe Township, NJ, this video is for anyone desiring an improvement in fitness or weight, or needs to heal from surgery or illness (please seek medical advice as it might relate to your condition).

After my surgeries, the road to recovery was slow and a struggle. Moving my body even while sitting down - anytime, anywhere - was the only option available, and sometimes still the best way to get back on the horse, so to speak. I still move against tables, chairs, and walls. Movement is life.

For more information, please go to my website movewithinyoga.com or write me at movewithinyoga@gmail.com. Donations are optional, an energy exchange, and much appreciated. Word-of-Mouth or sharing are a few ways to support. PayPal donations are another way at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr... Thank you so much for joining me! Lots of love, Stephanie

In these last days of 2019, we look back on the decade as we make our way into the 2020s.

This sequence starts at 6'23, and is a longer one, allowing time and space to go within, to reflect and better hear the soul's quiet calls in the hub-bub of the holidays and the everyday.

Do in one go, or carve it out in smaller go's the coming weeks.

Filled with moves for your legs and torso, there are some twists, upside-down poses, and air dancing. For the upside-downs, like plow and shoulder-stand, easy does it! Resist the urge to straighten up too soon and force the legs. Take your time, and build your strength in your torso. For some medical conditions, these are not advised, so please ask your medical doctor. "Lying triangles" are alternatives and can be repeated again at this point.

Comments, questions and feedback? Please send them to movewithinyoga@gmail.com, or visit www.movewithinyoga.com.

Donations, Word-of-Mouth (WOM), Sharing and Caring are all appreciated, and will grant you a Producer Credit and shout-outs on future videos.
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*None of this is expected to replace medical advise, consulting or treatment. Please seek medical advice for physical and mental issues.*

Megan Dodson filmed and edited and more of her work can be found here: megandproductions.com

With love,
Stephanie
https://youtu.be/ZMyrN-hzWF8

A short standing sequence that I recommend doing several times a day for several days.
Grab a chair if you're feeling wobbly! Repeated confrontation with a (difficult) yoga position affects the soul. With repeated practice, you'll gain an innermost impression of the pose "that grows from within to a richer, experiential meaning."

We begin with the dancer, one of the most beautiful and grandest of poses. It can't but help lure the consciousness out of its habits.
*Keep your spine as upright as possible for as long as you can.*

Segue into Tree pose by keeping your leg from touching the ground as you move it forward from behind. Lift the foot as high as you can on the standing leg and test out your balance and stability - if it's truly too difficult then slowly lower the foot down the standing leg until the balancing nature of the pose is less of a struggle. *Keep upright in the chest area, lengthen through the collarbones for as long as you can whether arms are up or down."

Thank you Megan Dodson. She can be reached at megandproductions.com Producer shout-outs will be included in future videos for donations of any kind: WOM, financial, etc. If you found this video or any others of value, please consider a donation: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr... Feedback, comments, questions? Please drop me a line in the comments section or reach out directly at movewithinyoga@gmail.com Lots of Love, Stephanie

Our third video was inspired by the Mayan creation poem, "The Popol Vuh", which  literally means "book of the woven mat."

"The story serves as meeting place, a mat where people gather to hear its truth be told," writes poet Michael Bazzett in his recently published translation.

The "truth" within the poem is that the gods crave beings who would speak the gods' names. The gods are fed by recognition, by words. "Let our names be named and remembered,/for it is through words that we are fed."

The animals they created - the deer and the birds, the puma and the jaguar - couldn't speak, nor could the people fashioned out of mud in the gods' first failed attempt at creating humans. "Their hearts were blank, their minds hollow./They held no memory of who had made them./They crawled and ambled aimlessly."

The truth is that divinity demands a people who think and feel beyond their next meal, beyond their creature comforts, beyond the material, and who in recognizing the gods become divine, too.

"To be thoughtless is to be in inhuman, a mere monkey; such people will not do," Bazzett said in his notes.

The imagery of the book "as a piece of weaving evokes both a work of intersecting strands and patterns, and the interwoven fibers of a culture - much as the word 'text' derives from the Latin textus, meaning woven thing," he said.

So in our yoga, we return time and again to our mats, our own "woven things", to connect and weave memories, perceptions and thoughts. We go within to recognize the divine, in an ongoing creation story, on a micro level.

Hope you enjoy stretching out between the four corners of your mat in this video!

I highly recommend Bazzett's translated work: "The Popol Voh": https://www.amazon.com/Popol-Vuh-Seedbank-Michael-Bazzett/dp/1571314687/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Popol+Vuh&qid=1573508375&sr=8-1

Feedback, comments, questions? I'd love to hear from you at movewithinyoga@gmail.com, or visit my website at movewithinyoga.com

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Donors, supporters will get producer credit on future videos.

Filming: Megan Dodson or megandproductions.com

Thank you for moving with me! With love, Stephanie

First, introducing Chelsea, my beagle, Ginger, my tabby, and Timber who had a cameo in the pilot video.

This video is dedicated to the little kid in your life, or maybe the little kid in you? Remember the days when you used to run, hop, skip, jump, and tumble on the ground for no reason whatsoever? What happened to those days? When was the last time you jumped? Had a giggle fit?

We don't giggle or jump in here, but we do crawl:  https://youtu.be/HS_MI1puPv0

Animals, like most little kids, do not take themselves seriously AT ALL. They delight in movement for movement's sake. They are free from conceptual thinking, which develops as humans get older. While conceptual thinking comes in very handy on the material plane, it inhibits the flow and power of our energy when we turn that inward against our own life.

Pablo Picasso is quoted as saying: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain on artist once we grow up."

One solution is to start moving - with either exercise, a task, endeavor or skill - without controlling, judging or labeling your actions in the process. And any new skill you dare to learn - yoga included - absolutely requires letting go of concepts altogether, and experiencing and embodying.

Just like a child. 

A few notes: Some of the poses like crow and reverse crow might be challenging to beginners. Don't let the "visual" of the pose freak out your conceptual mind that won't know how to "control" this. Just try them the best you can. Pause the video and spend time rocking back and forth on your hands and toes in crow. You may find you're spending a lot time  just getting your feet in the right position and easing into a squat. Do your best! Tell your conceptual mind to stop worrying what you look like as your learn. Have fun and you'll succeed in time.

Thank you Megan Dodson at meganproductions.com for filming and editing work.

This video is dedicated to my son N whose birthday it was the day we filmed this.