Hands and Feet

Hi, welcome back. This next sequence is, I call hands and feet, and it's really a continuation of the opening sequence. And I find it a useful practice to do either on its own, especially if you work in an office all day long, or in conjunction with all the sequences in this practice. So we'll begin by talking a little bit about why it's so important to have this openness in the hands and feet. And in a way, if you think about it, the hands and the feet are your conduit for connection.

We use our hands to greet, and we use our hands to touch, and we use our feet to walk on the planet, and especially without shoes on, as you begin to do more yoga, you have this deeper quality of awareness, let's say, in the textures that your feet feel. And this practice helps you basically create that ability to feel with your hands and feel with your feet. All right? So let's begin. If you could come up on your hands and knees, and those of you that are starting on your hands and knees, you'll drop the hips forward with straight arms.

Those of you that are comfortable in lotus, and I'm going to move into lotus here, we'll start in lotus, and then from lotus, just roll up onto your knees. Place your hands shoulder-width apart with straight arms, let your hips sink forward, and wherever you feel comfortable, and then slow your breath down, breathing into the back, and as you breathe through the back, let the fullness of your breath lift your hips a little. Like you're coming out of the pose slightly. On the exhale, release the sphincter muscles and the skin below your navel, feel your hips drop a little, and simultaneously press down into your hands, lift up through the back of the skull. So inhale slowly, let the fullness of your breath lift your hips a little.

On the exhale, release through the pelvic floor and lower belly, hips sinking, press down into the hands, lift up through the back of the skull. And now turn your right wrist over, place the hand behind the shoulder a little, keep your arms straight. If it's too intense, move the hand a little closer to the legs, and try to keep the weight even on both arms. And then slowly clench your right fist, curling the forefinger into the palm if you can. And release, change sides, turn the left wrist over, arms straight, make sure the hand is behind the shoulder, and then clenching the fist, curl the forefinger.

And now if you can, both wrists, if you can't do this yet, you can do the first side two or three cycles of breath and then the second side. Those of you that are on both, clench both fists, bend the elbows out, and slowly lower your chin to the floor, and then press up. And now bringing the hands back, turn the palms down, hands together, fingers pointing toward your feet. And working with straight arms, the first part of this everyone should be able to do here, drop your head forward, pull the navel up and round your spine. Those of you that have enough on your plate here, you can stay here.

If you're going deeper, slowly lean forward, bend your arms, press your elbows together, and slowly lower your nose to the floor. And as the nose touches down, relax your shoulders down, slide your knees a little wider, feel your tailbone drop. Breathe into the back of the heart, spread the skin across your shoulder blades. There's not many places to breathe in this pose. And on the exhale, release the top of the lungs, feel your heart sink.

And for the last part, if you're going for the full pose, slide your nose forward a little, your legs just naturally pop up, still bouncing on the face, and then lifting the face into the full pose. Coming out, if you're in lotus, unhook your legs, and now everyone bring your knees in hip width apart, readjust your hands. Make sure the hands are together, touching. Even the fingers come together so they touch. Then tuck your toes forward, walk your knees back just a little.

Very slowly, sit back and peel your palms off the floor. Keep your fingers flat. So you're actually folding at the base knuckle of the fingers. And wherever your maximum is, you're going to pause there. It may be here.

Those of you that have a little more motion in the wrist, a little bit lower. When you reach your maximum, bend your arms slowly, peel your fingers off the floor until the elbows touch down. And those of you that are new to this, it may look like this, where it's just your fingernails hooked into the mat and your elbows are on the floor. And as you ground the elbows, gently press your wrists forward, releasing the fingers, curl the wrists over, press the back of the knuckles together, and slap your wrists. Watch again.

And then sitting up on your heels, ideally toes tucked forward. Feet together, knees together. Start with your left hand, bend the arm, and your hand is like you're going to shake someone's hand. The right hand grabs the left, bend the wrist down, and right as you feel the tendons in the top of the wrist engage, that's all you need. Slowly extend the arm forward.

Full extension, and then slowly contract the arm, pulling it all the way back. And bend the wrist up. When you reach your maximum, slowly extend the arm. You'll feel the tendons here on the underside of the wrist, keeping the arm straight, slowly lower the hands. Other side, right arm bent, hand like you're going to shake, bend the wrist down, slowly extend the arm.

Slowly retract the arm. Bend the wrist up, slowly extend. When the arm is straight, slowly lower the hands. Good. Now arms coming forward, palms face each other.

Turn your left hand over, thumb down. Take your right hand over the left, interlock your fingers, squeeze your palms together. With your left hand, pull the right hand back. With the right hand, pull the left hand back. Hands in the middle, slowly wind the arms forward.

Twist your hands to the right, twist your hands to the left, wind the arms back, twist your hands right, twist your hands left, release, change. Left hand over the right, interlock the fingers, squeeze the palms. With your right hand, pull the left hand back. With the left hand, pull the right hand back. Hands in the middle, slowly wind the arms forward.

Twist your hands left, twist your hands right, wind the arms back, twist left, twist right, release the hands. Hands up out to the sides, elbows bent 90 degrees. With your forearms vertical, I want you to just shake the hands side to side. And start slow, like you're flicking water off your fingertips. And now a little faster, like you're flicking hot water off your fingertips.

And release, slowly front to back, and a little faster, and as fast as you can. And release. Now a little mental yoga, right hand side to side, left hand front to back, slow, a little faster. And release, left hand side to side, right hand front to back, slow, faster, switch, switch and release. Palms up, hands together, then alternate hands, together, alternate hands.

Take your fingertips to the floor, lift your knees up into a squat, lift your heels up. Keeping your arms straight, lean forward with your left foot only, roll over the toes onto the face of the toenail and roll back. So most of the weight is on my hands. And other side, lean, roll over onto the face of the nail and back. Left foot, roll, and back.

And go all the way onto the base knuckle, just the face of the toenail and back. Now you can repeat the first side and the second side, or you can come onto both. So face of the toenail is not the base knuckle. If you're on the nails, both feet, walk your hands back to your point of balance. And when you're feeling steady, hands in namaste for a nanosecond.

All right, now roll onto the base knuckle of your toes, heels apart. If this is too much, do one foot at a time. You can take the weight off one. If you're on both, pull the heels together so they touch, heels apart, heels together. And drop down onto your knees.

Take the hands of the floor behind you, lean back, lift your knees up. If this is too much on the knee, you can use a cushion or a blanket between the butt and the heels to take a little pressure out of the knees. And just lean back. Those of you that have the space, lift the knees up, tiny circles with your knees. And change direction.

Good, and release. Bring the hands forward, lift your knees, roll back over your toes into a squat. And slowly walk your hands back to your point of balance. Make sure your feet are together. Lift your heels, lift your knees.

When you find your balance, interlock the fingers, press the palms up, arms straight. And then slowly stand. Try to keep your heels off the floor coming up and go slow. At the top, press your palms higher, lift your heels higher, and squeeze your inner ankles together. Coming back down, slowly bend your legs, keep your heels up.

Try to stay forward on the balls of the feet, heels lifting as the hips drop. When you're down, fingertips to the floor, drop your head forward and slowly straighten your legs. It doesn't matter how straight, release your head and shoulders. Breathe through the back, into the pelvic floor, let your torso lift a little away from your legs. On the exhale, release the sphincter muscles in the skin below your navel.

Feel your organs recede a little, waist lengthens a little. Release your head and shoulders. Medicaid your left leg as straight as you can, drop your right heel to the floor. Both heels up, keep your right leg as straight as you can, drop your left heel to the floor. Both heels up, left leg straight, right heel to the floor.

Both heels up, right leg straight, left heel to the floor. And both heels to the floor. Walk your hands back, beside the feet. your head and shoulders, slowly lean your hips forward. Breathe through the back into the pelvic floor, spread the skin across your buttocks, and on the exhale re-release the sphincter and the skin below the navel, organs recede, waist lengthens, lean your hips forward a little, walk your hands back a little, with an inhale gaze forward, walking the hands as far forward as you can without your heels lifting. Okay, so for some if you're flexible in the hamstring it'll look like dog pose, and for others not so flexible it's going to be kind of a hybrid dog pose and forward fold. With your heels flat, palms flat, release your head and shoulders. Breathe through the back, let the fullness of your breath round your spine a little. On the exhale soften the hips and shoulders, they sink a little simultaneously lengthen the arms and legs a little. And now cross your right leg in front of the left, and with your feet side by side line your toes up and try to straighten your right leg. And release, change sides, left leg crosses in front of the right, feet side by side, line the toes up, try to straighten your left leg. Good, release. Coming forward into plank, head down, and when you're in plank head in line with your neck, then leaning forward over the wrists, roll over the toes onto the tops of the feet, then slowly push back into downward dog on your toe knuckles, feet hip-width apart. Lift your butt, drop your head, then turn your right foot in 90 degrees, step onto the outer arch of the foot, place your left foot on top of the right, press the sole the right foot flat. Release, change feet, turn your left foot in 90 degrees, step onto the outer arch, place the right foot on top of the left, press your left foot flat. And then dog pose on your feet. Release your head, slow your breath down. With each inhale let the fullness of your breath round your spine all the way to the tailbone. On the exhale hips and shoulders soften, arms and legs lengthen. One more, slow inhale, slow exhale, hips and shoulders soften, arms and legs lengthen. And lifting your head slowly walk your hands back to your feet. Take small steps with your hands. When you're standing on your feet, grab your elbows, hang forward, release your head and shoulders. And releasing the hands, step on your palms, bend your knees if you have to, tips of the fingers at the heels, tips of the toes at the wrist, keep through weight on the instep side of the foot. Releasing the head and shoulders, lean your hips slowly forward, keep breathing through the back into the pelvic floor, spreading the skin of the buttocks. On the exhale, we release the sphincter and the skin below the navel. Then lean your hips back, turn the hands out 90 degrees to the side, fingers extend out and extend the tip of your thumb towards your heels. So you're stepping literally on your thumbs, slowly lean the hips forward and curl the fingers over the toes. And now coming off the hands, slowly stand, straight legs curling the spine up, head last, arms at your sides, feet together. That ends hands and feet. Thank you.