Behold, the Office Yoga® Heart Opening Sequence! Sometimes we need a few minutes to tune in and realign to what we know is true, especially when we feel compelled to close ourselves off in this season of love. Use this sequence as a means to pause, reconnect with the breath, and reinvigorate your heart! Be sure to contact us if you want more support.

10 poses to an open heart

1. • 1. Starting in Tadasana, engage your shoulder blades together and cactus your arms; hold for the full exhale. On an inhale lift your arms back overhead. Repeat 3 times.
   • 2. Keeping your chest proud, clasp your hands behind your back, encouraging your upper arm bones towards each other. Hold for three breaths.
   • 3. Return to Tadasana. Draw your right heel in towards your sit-bone, balance on your standing leg while keeping your chest proud. Take three rounds of breath, switch to the other side.

Find your way to adho mukha svanasana. You may take vinyasa at any point during the sequence.

1. • 4. Inhale, reach your right leg up and back, exhale draw right foot forward. Gently place the left knee down on the floor. Inhale rise, low lunge.Allow hips to fall down towards the floor, place hands on lower back, drawing upper arm bones together at the back of the heart. If it feels okay, lay your head back and open up through the throat. Hold for three rounds of breath, sending each inhale into the center of the chest and the depths of the belly. On your exhale, frame your right foot with your hands, and step back into high plank, then move through vinyasa. Repeat on your left side.
   • 5. Inhale, reach your right leg up and back, exhale draw right foot forward, gently placing foot down. Inhale to raise your arms overhead; high lunge. Hold for the exhale.
   • 6. Inhale hands to heart center, exhale, twist across your body towards the right, brining your left elbow to the outside of your right knee for twisting high lunge. Hold for three rounds of breath.

Move through vinyasa, repeating 5 and 6 on your left side.

1. • 7. From adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog) shift forward into high plank pose. Hold for five rounds of breath. On your final exhale, lower all the way to the floor.
   • 8. Hug the elbows back into your body and press the tops of the feet and thighs firmly into the floor. On an inhale, bhujangasana. Begin to straighten the arms to lift the chest off the floor, going only to a height at which you maintain a connection of your pelvic bones to the floor. Lower your arms and chest to the floor with control on an exhale. Repeat twice more.
   • 9. Lying on your belly, bring your hands alongside your torso with palms facing up. Exhale, bend your knees and hold the outer ankles with your hands. On an inhale lift the thighs and chest as high as possible (continue to look down in front of you instead of out to protect your cervical spine). Try to maintain weight of the body on lower abdomen. Engertically bring the ankles and knees towards each other: dhanurasana. Hold for two rounds of breath. While exhaling, slowly come back to the original position.
   • 10. Find your way to the top of your mat, in a kneeling position. Hips stay stacked over knees, begin to draw arm bones together at the back of the heart. Releasing hands down to heels, (or keeping them at your sacrum with fingers turned towards the floor), begin to lay the head back, opening up through the throat for Ustrasana. Send the breath into the front of the body, take slow and controlled inhales/exhales. Place hands on hips, slowly come out of camel pose, lower hips to heels and draw hands to heart center.

Close your eyes, remember your intention. Open the eyes, and acknowledge the shift that you feel from when you first stepped on the mat. Clear mind, open heart, can’t lose.

Om.