Move Within Yoga started in 2013 after an individual crisis that only I could sort. Endeavors, work, and relationships had shifted or ended. I had only myself. I had to go deep within my being to heal. It's during crisis - when the "outer" scenes of our safe little world dissolves - that we are forced to go within.

Little did I foresee that in 2020 the collective would be forced to go within -- quite literally - with three billion or about half the world's population now in lock-down. It's a misdemeanor to congregate. We get yelled at in grocery stores if we aren't social distancing enough. It's radical to ask questions, or walk in the park.

Crisis also means opportunity in some languages, and this is an opportunity to deepen our connection between our body's intelligence and our mind. Our mind is not in control. It's a chance to deepen our connection to spirit - miracles can happen once we let go of the mind's urge to control.

Each of us are evolving in this time. Our species is evolving and so is its societal structures. We won't be the same people individually or collectively once this is over. You can move within to become aware of the changes and consciously work with them and with others - compassion means to suffer together - or you can succumb to fear, panic and hostility towards others as you try to control the outcome.

Here is a short moving meditation that flows a little quicker than some of my other videos. You can continue the pattern long after the video ends: downward triangle (or dog), stepping through and raising arms up slowly before going into scales (or airplane). Keep the legs buoyant and knees bent as you reach up, as it will test your balance!

You can spend longer in the poses than I do here to experience the body and feelings. I recommend checking out my other videos as well to build up observation powers of the body.

If you're interested in live, online, 30-minute Zoom classes, please email me at movewithinyoga@gmaill.com.

If you find this or any other video on Move Within Yoga useful, please consider an exchange with support of any kind: WOM, sharing or a donation to help defray costs of production: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=MQTVXJ37QM334&source=url

Thank you!
Stephanie
xo

These moves were made with particular attention to our immune system, in particular the thymus and spleen.

There are lots of additional body/soul benefits, too. Move Within Yoga always moves beneath the skin to boost, juice, and jazz our body from the inside-out.

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables, drinking distilled water or clean spring water and exercising everyday -- light activities count! - are essentials now and in the future.

Eating and drinking right are the most basic ways to move within and keep your internal system humming, even when in the midst of challenges.

This sequence is advanced beginner/intermediate, and a great way to warm up for more advanced students who want to get into shoulder-stand and plow.

If you have health or medical concerns, please see your medical doctor. If you think you might have coronavirus or might be showing Covid-19 symptoms, US officials have instructed that you not go to ER but call your doctor, make an appointment and take precautions when you arrive.

Any questions, feedback or comments, please email movewithinyoga@gmail.com.

Stephanie x

I touch my throat a lot in this video. In fact, I connect with my body a lot through touch, with the face being one exception. I was taught the face and head were no-go zones: don't twiddle hair, put lipstick on at the table etc. and these are habits to cultivate given hand-to-head contact spreads germs. If you are worried about coronavirus, as some older people and those with auto-immune issues are, the biggest way the collective can help is to cease-and-desist Public Displays of Face Touching, or PDFT, pronto. You can't control a cough, but you can be mindful about touching your nose, eyes, mouth, lips, and ears in public spaces. Public health notice over.

The throat has been key for human evolution. Once the larynx dropped about 80,000 years or so, humans could speak for the first time. This led to humans developing a strong ability to form and develop concepts and conceptual thought, and has now evolved into a strong sense of subjective thinking (my opinion, my view, my truth) as opposed to objectivity.  Instead of communicating what you are simply seeing and observing in the world around you, we have a preponderance of virtual signaling and a new one - purity signaling. Kids don't do that. They are in fact great at simply telling you what they are noticing and seeing moment by moment.

The sequence starts at 2'04 so please fast-forward if you don't want to listen to me, well...talk. Check out for Blue Jeans Blog at movewithinyoga.com for more.

If you are a beginner, modify the poses with blocks, chairs, and bolsters, and come out of the pose if you need a break. Hit the pause button to settle into the pose. You don't have to come too deep into the poses either - modify, modify, modify. If you're more advanced, try to tune into the energy and receptivity between mind-body.

Trust you'll manage anything that life throws at you. Wash your hands and stop touching your face:).

Shout-out to producers Maeve, County Cork, and my cousin Victoria of The Rose Reserve for their support. Thank you, chicas.

Stephanie x

There is a lot of worry about the coronavirus. Some people are already more prone toward worries and fear about getting sick and catching disease without hearing about this every time you turn on the radio or check the news on your phone or laptop.

Fear is part of our human nature, and it doesn't take much for fear to grip our being and influence our thoughts, movement and actions in life. Let's not just release the fear but move within and turn it into fearlessness, true gold.

This sequence is for the beginner, but anyone can do if they're feeling fear and is a nice way to warm up for more advanced sequences and poses. Timestamp: If you don't want to listen to me talk first, just fast forward to 2'23.

Thank you for joining me!

I can be reached at movewithinyoga@gmail.com. For more: movewithinyoga@gmail.com

Peace, love and fearlessness,
Stephanie xoxo

Disclaimer: Please seek medical advice if you have medically-related questions or concerns.

This chair yoga sequence, my third, was inspired by musicians in an orchestra or band. I developed this sequence after a conductor was looking for a few moves to relieve his tired musicians. It's suitable though for anyone with achy necks due to stationary positions or repetitive movement habits. Some people too have heavier heads and this alone places an inordinate strain on the neck just from daily living.

This is suitable for older people and those who are slowly getting back into shape after their recovery period from surgeries or injuries. Always honor the recovery phase to its end! Of course, please seek medical advice if you have medical issues or medical-related questions.



If any Move Within Yoga videos have been of value to you, please consider clicking on the Value-for-Value button: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6LXFHE28DRJJN&source=url Peace, love and groove, Stephanie x

The throat center is the most under-represented of the chakras. The poses aren't particularly sexy or show-boaty. They aren't necessarily "feel good", and are often downplayed, if not disparaged, by fellow yogis.

Yet the throat represents the most fundamental qualities and energies that makes us human: Communication. Speaking, talking, singing, laughing, and making all kinds of other sounds to communicate and convey our deepest longings; our loves, our joys, as well as our thoughts, ideas, and anything else mental.

As I always say in class, the throat is between the heart and the head, not the root chakra, tailbone or rear-end!

That tells you everything you need to know about the importance of the throat, and never more so in these Warholesque times. We're beyond everyone being famous for 15 minutes: It's now an oddity if people don't have personal profile pages to reveal all on social media. Is the blur between the private and public helping or hurting authentic communication?

Your ego creates all kinds of opinions, personas and structures, in other words control mechanisms. Your ego doesn't want to soften, or to open. But to communicate with truth and authenticity means letting go of your ego. It means pluming your own depths, moving within, to then speak how you really feel and what you're clear about instead of vagueness, failing to confront, and lying.

Special shout-out to my Irish soul cousin Maeve M., who continues to help defray production costs of these videos. Megan D of megandproductions.com, thank you for your post-production answers to my questions.

If you find any of this of true value, then the value-for-value model kicks in and you can lend your support in a number of ways that will get you future producer credits, and yes, that really does count on resumes and CVs in our media world these days.

Thank you! https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=XTP5G9GYFNFZE&source=url

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

This upcoming Full Moon in Leo has been one of the more intense moon cycles for some time. I felt the affects creeping in a few nights ago when I couldn't sleep. Insomnia is a fairly common side-effect of full moons, but this has been beyond that. I felt like I was having growing pains all over again. My body was so fidgety; I could not get comfortable. Yoga helps mitigate the affects of some forces that are just outside of our control.

Some of the most basic standing poses in yoga can help with grounding when physically we are feeling a little weak and unbalanced. They are perfect for beginners. We cover a few  in our first Back to Yoga series where we take just one pose - mountain - and break it down on a physical level and weave it in a short basic sequence incorporating heart arches and uttanasana or forward fold.

The standing asanas are both preparatory poses for sequences and wonderful ways as stand-alone exercises. Ten minutes here, ten minutes there!

Some standing poses are more advanced than others. There are also soul and spiritual aspects to each yoga asana.

Here are poses done on the physical, with the beginner in mind and include mountain pose, heart back bend, and uttanasana or long forward fold.

For more information, please go to movewithinyoga.com or drop me a line at movewithinyoga@gmail.com. Thanks to Megan D. for her production work (megandproductions.com) and thank you to a few who have reached out with comments and feedback.

Thanks too to Heinz Grill, who continues to teach New Yoga Will in Italy. I had the honor of attending many of his initiatory trainings and workshops, and attempt to translate his work through my own lens and experience.

All donations are greatly appreciated and help cover production costs. Producer shout-out and credit on future videos with any donation in either time or money: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UC2JBBNT49WVC&source=url

Peace, love and Rock n' Roll,
Stephanie
Copyright Move Within Yoga
Stephanie Sprague Communications
February 6th, 2020

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.*'