Only Way Around Is Through

(gently crashing surf) Welcome back. So I'm gonna start this practice with a little story about one of my very dear friends, a woman named Angela Prisaud, who is an amazing Cue-tahn singer in New York. So Angela is a beautiful Indian woman who was raised in a really devotional family in a very very small town in Minnesota. And when she was in high school, one of the cool things to do in her high school was to be in the band, because the band has this really great reputation for being one of the best in the state. And so, she got into the band, she was really excited and proud of herself, and they would rehearse like crazy, because every single move, when you do these parades and things, they get to synchronize, you know, so everyone lifts the foot up at the same time and lifts the trumpet up at the same time.

So they had their whole routine down, and everybody was like celebrating them, and they got invited to go to Washington, D.C., and be in a big parade, you know, doing their band moves and their songs. And so anyways the get to Washington D.C., they're all nervous, they've been rehearsing for months and months and months, they've got every move down, they've got everything completely coordinated, and they're in the procession, and everything is going perfectly. The music is perfect, every step is perfect, and in front of them there is this beautiful line of these amazing horses. And these horses are looking beautiful and the sun is shining, and it's all wonderful, and she's got her trumpet, you know and they're doing their thing, and then all of a sudden she notices that the horse right in front of her does a really big poop. (laughs) And she can't miss the next step, 'cause she's gotta lift her foot up and put it right down, you know, but she's Angela, so she looks at this, and she kind of gets nervous and she steps over the poop and then keeps going on, you know, with her trumpet.

And she hears from way back, the back of the line, the band leader, who is kind of a scary guy, screaming above the crowd, "Prisaud!" And that's her last name. "Prisaud! "You've got to go through the shit! "You can't go around it! "You've gotta go through it!" And she said, after all these years of growing up in this really devotional family with all of her puja, and everything she's doing in her (speaks foreign language), this is the highest spiritual teaching of her life, right, that you can't go around it. You've gotta go through it, right? So, Bhagavan Das says "The only way around is through," and I think that this is so important in our yoga practice. You know, when things arise, and the practice is designed for things to arise sometime, we don't want to attach too much to them, but we don't want to avoid them either, right?

So sometimes things are there because they're meant to teach us something. If something comes up here on the mat, some response or a habit, most likely that same thing happens out there, in the real world. So this is kind of a little micro of the macro. So the only way around is through. And that's what we'll work with today.

Okay so let's start our practice, and we'll see whatever arises, we're gonna go with it. So let's start in sukhasana. Reach your arms up, inhale. And then exhale left hand over to the left side, you can bring the palm flat down or tent the fingers, whatever feels best for you. And then right arm up and over the ear, draw down to the right sits bone and thigh bones, spin the heart open, inhaling, exhaling, always like to support under the head here.

Gives a little more depth. Inhale. Exhale, and then inhale come all the way up, reach the arms up and exhale over to the other side. And whatever rises just let it rise. Inhale.

Exhale, so our breath in yoga practice is always like that home base that we return to. Consistency, it's the steadiness. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale come all the way up.

And then exhale, just take a simple twist. So the left hand to the right knee, gaze over the right shoulder, starting to wake up the spine. It can feel nice to close your eyes maybe. Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale arms up. Exhale over to the other side. Inhale reach the arms up. And exhale bring your hands to your heart. Good, open up your eyes and come forward and spin around and we'll come on to all fours, and starting with our cat and cow stretches.

Inhale arch the back. Exhale round your back, let your head release. Inhale arch press the heart forward. Stretch the throat. Exhale round.

Inhale arch. Exhale round. Inhale arch last one. Exhale round. Find a neutral spine, and then tuck your toes under, come into your first downward facing dog.

And again do whatever you need to do here in your downward facing dog to help you find some space. So remember if there's too much weight in the arms, you'll just bend your knees a little bit. Breath in deeply, inhaling. Exhaling. Inhale.

Exhale. We're gonna start our class with this pigeon today, so you'll take your right knee toward the right inner wrist. Now you may want to use propping gear underneath the right sits bone. If you're putting a blanket underneath your sits bone, put it under the sits bone and the thigh bone so that it doesn't knock you over, so you've got a bit of length there. And then you might want to take your hand back, roll the back thigh in, so you've got a good rotation of your thigh.

Inhale lift the chest. And then exhale fold forward. So you want to feel that the center of that back knee is on the mat. And breath deeply. Now this is early in practice so you might want to prop yourself up pretty heavily here.

It might feel nice to place a block underneath the forehead, or some blankets. And just breath in through the outer hips. And lift up your head, walk your hands back, and then tuck the back toes under, you're gonna use your lower belly, step back, downward facing dog. And move to the other side, so left leg comes forward. And then set up for your pose.

So again propping can go underneath the sits bone and the thigh bone. Inhale lift the chest, and then exhale release. So if right away you're feeling sensation through the outer hip or the back or maybe for you it's the shoulders, the eyebrows, wherever you might feel the sensation in this pose. See if you can close your eyes, and rather than running away from the sensation, or attaching to it, I'm so tight, that kind of thing. Can you just quietly use your breath to get to the center of it?

So imagine that the inhale goes right to the center of the sensation. And the exhale helps you to release resistance. Helps you to let go. Inhale. Exhale.

Walk your hands back, lift the chest up, and then tuck your toes under, step back, downward facing dog. And inhaling. Exhaling. You're finding that little inner rotation of the upper thighs in down dog. It's almost like the thighs are rolling up and back.

And then look between your hands, bend you knees and step or jump your feet all the way forward, look up, lengthen your spine. Then maybe you soften the knees, 'cause it's the beginning of practice, just let the head drop down. Toe-heel the feet apart. Grab hold of your elbows. And release.

And then just drop your hands down, the knees can stay a little bent, and slowly roll all the way up to stand. So head and neck are the last things to lift up, and roll the shoulders back. Fix your hair. And step to the front of your mat, big toes together, heels together. So we'll start with our surya namaskar A, or sun salutation.

So inhale reach the arms up, gaze up toward the thumbs, and exhale fold forward, pull the belly into your fold and let your head release. Inhale look up lengthen your spine, and exhale step back to a plank pose. Slowly lower chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog. Exhale roll back downward facing dog, and breath.

Inhale. Exhale one. Inhale. Exhale two, pushing into the point of fingers, and pinkie finger tips. Inhale.

Exhale three. Inhale. Exhale four. Inhale. Exhale five.

Good bend the knees, look forward, step or jump your feet forward, lengthen your spine. Exhale fold. Inhale come up, press your palms, gaze up toward your thumbs. Exhale tadasana, gaze at the tip of your nose. Inhale arms up.

Exhale fold. Inhale look up. Chaturanga step or jump, don't look down, good, upward facing inhale. Exhale downward facing dog. Breath inhale.

Exhale one, allow your eyes just to focus on one point. Inhale, so maybe between the feet. Exhale two. Inhale. Exhale three.

Inhale. Exhale four. Inhale. Exhale five, bend the knees, step or jump. Inhale look up.

Exhale fold. Inhale come all the way up. Exhale tadasana. One more time like this, arms up. Exhale.

Inhale, look forward. Chaturanga. Inhale up dog. Exhale downward facing dog. Breath, inhale.

Exhale one. Inhale. Exhale two. Inhale. Exhale three.

Inhale. Exhale four. Inhale. Exhale five. And bend the knees, step or jump.

Inhale. Exhale pull the belly in as you fold. Inhale come up. Exhale tadasana. Okay, surya namaskar B.

So bend the knees, inhale up. Exhale now hands down first, then straighten your legs. Inhale look forward. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale lift up.

Exhale roll back, warrior one. Inhale right foot forward left heel grounds. Reach the arms up. Exhale place your hands down. Step to plank, lower, chaturanga.

Inhale up. Exhale back. Inhale left foot forward, right heel grounds, reach the arms up. Exhale hands down, step back and lower. Inhale up.

Exhale back, breath. Inhale. Exhale one. Inhale. Exhale two.

Inhale. Exhale three. Bend the knees, step or jump your feet forward, inhale, exhale. Bend the knee, inhale utkatasana. Exhale tadasana.

One more time like this. Bend your knees, inhale, utkatasana. Exhale hands down first, then straighten your legs, inhale look up, exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward facing, exhale downward facing dog. Right foot forward, left heel grounds.

Inhale warrior one. Exhale hands down, step back, lower. Inhale up, exhale back. Left foot forward, right heel grounds. Inhale warrior one.

Exhale hands down, step back, lower. Inhale up, exhale back. Breath. Three breaths, inhale. Exhale.

Bend your knees, step or jump. Inhale look up. Exhale fold down, bend the knees, utkatasana inhale. Exhale tadasana. Breathing, inhale.

Exhale, utkatasana now we'll hold for five breaths. Bend your knees, inhale reach up utkatasana, exhale breath for one, make sure you can see your thumbs. Inhale, the hands can be apart, or together. Exhale two. Inhale.

Exhale three. Inhale. Exhale four. Inhale, really reach up through the finger tips. Exhale five, now keep your knees bent, hands down.

Straighten your legs. Inhale look forward. Chaturanga exhale. Inhale up, exhale roll back. Inhale step your right foot forward, left heel grounds.

Reach up warrior one. For this one, take a moment just measure out your hands. See you want your hands to be in line with your heart in this pose, so try not to reach the arms so far back that you can't see your thumbs. That can have a tendency to crunch the lower back. So hands in line with the heart, and then keep your hands in line with the heart, make sure you can see your thumbs, reach the arms up.

So your hands can go apart, or palms can press. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale straight to the front leg, exhale open up for triangle pose. So in this pose I teach the top hip slightly forward of the bottom hip. Inhale reach forward. Exhale right hand down left arm up. Inhale.

Exhale one. Inhale. Exhale two. Inhale. Exhale three.

Inhale. Exhale four. Inhale. Exhale five. Left hand on your left hip, bend the front knee, lock your back foot in a little bit, maybe you lift up toward a little half moon.

You can go on to the tops of your fingers or your block can go underneath your hand. Hand can stay on the hip or you can reach the arm up. Just a couple breaths here. Inhaling. Exhale, look down at your right hand.

And inhale lift the fingertips up you're gonna hover, and exhale drop back oop, (laughing) warrior two. Inhale straighten the front leg. And exhale hands to your hips. We'll turn the feet in. So turn your toes in a little bit.

Elbows back, inhale lift up through the center of the chest, and then exhale fold forward. So imagine you've got like a yardstick for this variation, fingertips in line with toe tips. And inhale look up. Exhale fold down and breath. Inhale, gaze at the tip of your nose.

Exhale one. Inhale. Exhale two. Inhale. Exhale, three.

Inhale look forward, exhale, low lunge, so you're gonna walk your hands around the right foot, lift your left heel up. You can go onto the tops of your fingers here, keep drawing that right outer hip back, keep pushing your left heel back. Maybe a little simple twist. Left hand down, right arm reaches up, finds some space. And then place your hand down.

Now keep your back knee lifted, we'll move toward lizard pose. So arms straight, or forearms to the ground. You can also take blocks and stick them underneath your forearms. But leave the back heel lifted for a moment. All right now, back knee down to the ground, scoot your knee back a little bit, you can stay here, let your head release as much as you can, maybe block or two blocks under the head, or you can lift up toward a twist.

So if you're twisting you can take you left forearm in a parallel to the front of your mat, bend the back knee. Now you'll reach back for your foot with your right hand. So you're reaching back for your left foot with your right hand. And then drawing the leg in. If you're super open for your hips, you want to allows yourself to bring your butt back, make contact with your heel.

Stay open through the chest and then don't lose that contact as you drop forward, and then you'll get the depth of sensation that you need. So find the place where you're working, and breath. This is a big pose, make sure you can breath. Inhale. Exhale.

Good release that down. Gonna come back, walk your hands in, move toward the low lunge, so right hand to the outside of your right foot, tuck your back toes under, pause. And then step back, downward facing dog. All right, it might feel like one leg is a little longer than the other, but we'll even it out. Let's do a little vinyasa, inhale and then exhale.

Inhale up, exhale roll back. Okay warrior one, left foot forward, right heel grounds, inhale reach up, so you can go heel to heel, or a little wider with your feet. Hip points forward, pose like here and the hands are in line with the heart. You start to understand that spiritual warrior that yogis talk about, all right, with their hands, the action in the world is in line with the heart. Okay straighten the left leg, open out for triangle pose, so readjust your feet if you need to.

Back toes tuck in a little. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale one.

Inhale. Exhale two. Inhale. Exhale three. Inhale.

Exhale four. Inhale. Exhale, half moon, place your right hand on your right hip, bend the left knee, left hand can go forward to the floor or the block. So your thumb is about eight inches or more in front of that left pinkie toe. And hand can stay on the hip or you can reach the arm up.

Breathing deeply. Now look down, inhale lift the left fingertips up, find your little hover, then exhale warrior two. Drop back, inhale straighten the front leg, and then turn your feet in. So prasarita-padottanasana D, variation. So squeeze your waist with both hands, draw the elbows back, you're gonna really flex the muscles in the upper back.

So inhale, lift the chest. And exhale fold forward, grab your big toes. Inhale, lengthen your spine. And then exhale, fold down into your leg, let your head, neck release. Inhaling.

Exhaling, just a couple of breaths. And inhale look up. Then you're gonna release your hands, walk your hands around until you're in you're low lunge. Again right hand can go to the floor or your block, and left arm up, find that twist. Hmm find me some space.

And then we'll move toward lizard pose, so left hand on the inside of your foot, arms are straight or forearms down, and breath deeply. Lower your back knee to the ground, maybe you take your forearms up or your arms can stay straight. Bend the back knee, reach back for your foot, if you need to take your butt to your heel, or just keep a distance there. But if you're particularly open, bring your butt back, and then go down. And breath.

You can move to the outside of that left foot a little bit, or push the foot down, so experiment with it a little bit, play. And let that release, so release your foot back, come out of your pose, realign yourself. Low lunge, pause, step back, downward facing dog. Inhale plank, chaturanga exhale. Chest goes forward as you lower.

Upward facing. Downward facing dog, inhale. Exhale. Bend the knee, step or jump, look up, lengthen. Exhale fold.

Inhale come all the way up. Exhale. So moon rise twist, you're gonna hug your right knee into your chest, left leg stays straight. Don't bend that left knee. You can take your left hand to the outside of the right knee or the outside of your foot, okay?

Inhale the right arm up toward the ceiling. Now if you're holding your foot, you're gonna exhale and like open up in a moon rise as you straighten the leg, or you can keep your knee bent and have that same beautiful action with the arm, but you want to keep your knee bent. So whichever variation you're in, breath. Inhaling. Exhaling.

Can be nice to find something beautiful to focus on, that doesn't move, so it doesn't knock you over. Okay from here you're gonna come forward, cross your wrists, so if you're holding your leg you'll hold your leg out straight, if the knee is bent then you hold around the knee. Inhale lift the chest, stay here, and maybe play with exhale. Folding in, come up, hug your knee in, and place your foot down. Okay, do the other side.

So left leg hugs in. So your gazing point is always focused, but quiet, so it's not stern, but it's kind of a spacious focus. Okay coming forward, don't worry if you fall out of this balance, just play with it. Inhale, maybe you stay here, maybe you take the nose toward the knee. Okay come up, hug the knee in, and your foot comes down.

Arms up inhale, vinyasa exhale. Inhale look up, chaturanga. Inhale upward facing, exhale downward facing. Okay right leg lifts up, and this should stay here for a moment, and so rather than letting the hip open here, you're gonna lift the leg up and turn the toes in slightly, so you get some good space through the back of that left leg. And then, using your belly, slowly, right foot forward.

Look at your right pinkie toe, now don't over-think this, you're gonna take your left knee there, seated final twist, ta da. So you can sit up on a blanket, however you like, arm can go around the leg, or you can go outside of the leg. If the knee is bent really push that left thigh down into the floor. And come forward, a little counter-rotation. Okay, ankle to knee pose.

So right ankle over your left knee. Now you can stack both shins or you can stretch the left leg straight out in front of you. Both are fine, you may even want to grab a belt and bring your belt around the top of your heel, that can be nice, and fold forward there. So belts in yoga practice often work as arm extensions, so they're useful. So lift up through the center of the chest, and then you want to make like hitchhiker hands, and take the thumbs right into the hip creases, roll your hips back and down.

So you want to have equal energy going back, as you have drawing forward. Inhale lift the chest, and then exhale keep pushing your hips back and down as you go into your pose. Finally release your hands but don't lose that energy of the hips rolling back, and then let your head, your neck release. Breathing, inhale, maybe close the eyes so, stay in the place where you are. You can start off with blocks under the forehead or you just let the head drop down.

And just like you did in the beginning of practice, maybe work on sending your breath right to those spaces of sensation, finding always that balance of effort and ease, effort and grace. So where is it important to engage, and where is it important to release, in every pose? Okay inhale lift your torso halfway. This next pose is called a hippy twist. So for this one leave your legs exactly as they are, and you're gonna walk your hands over to the right side, so you're arms can stay straight or you can bend your elbows, take your forearms to the floor, or maybe your blocks, and let your head release down.

Keep drawing that left side down, left thigh bone reaches down. I have a two and a half year old daughter and I hold her on my left side all the time, so I feel it, in this pose. Inhaling. Exhaling. Okay straighten your arms, walk your hands back, inhale.

Exhale. Come all the way up, and stretch your legs out, you can shake them out a little bit, whoo, and then maybe roll over your feet, and find downward facing dog, if you want to do it with a jump back, vinyasa, feel free. Okay so left leg reaches up, inhale, flex the foot, turn the toes in a little bit so we've got that inner rotation. And then just breath into that right leg, inhale. Exhale, almost like you're moving in slow motion, knee toward the nose, and then step the foot forward, look at your left pinkie toe, take your right knee there.

Seated spinal twist. All right, inhale, get length, and then exhale, find your twist. So we twist on the exhale, that's where we have the hollowness in the belly. Okay, counter-rotation. Ankle to knee, left leg on top.

So again, flex your feet, inhale with the chest, exhale fold forward and let your head drop down whatever it does. Breath. And if you close your eyes, and as you close your eyes use it as an invitation not to drop out of the practice but to go deeper into it. So really move into that realm of your breath, where you can hear your breath, that ocean sounding breath. Okay lift your torso half way, and we'll walk over to the hippy twist.

Forearms down, remember your arms can stay straight or your forearms can go on to blocks. Do what you need to do. And let your head release. So that right thigh bone, the right sits bone, are moving. Okay straighten the arms, and then come back and let your head release down.

Okay inhale come up, and then you can shift over to the right side, that's kind of a nice way to get back, downward facing dog, and utkatasana, plank, chaturanga. Up, and back. Remember you can always modify those vinyasas as you need. Bend the knees, hop, feet forward, look up, exhale fold. Okay, we'll practice something called Pick up the Step.

So you're gonna lift your right heel up off the floor, hold your right foot with both hands, and on an inhale pick up the step. Come all the way to stand, hug your right knee into your chest, exhale, tree pose. Sole of your right foot to the left inner thigh. So in your tree you want to push your thigh into your foot, and your foot back into your thigh, so it creates a little lock. Arms can reach up if that feels good to you.

And bring your hands to your heart. Take your right knee forward, inhale, so this ankle to knee shape is what we just had when we were seated, and then as you exhale, hands down to the floor. Now this may be an appropriate time to reach for your blocks. So if your hands don't come to the floor, you take the floor to you, and you place your hands on your blocks, and stay here and release. If they do come down to the floor, then walk your hands back and let yourself release into your left leg.

Inhale look up, exhale bend the knee like you're coming into utkatasana, arms up, and come all the way to stand, okay. Good focus, yogis. Inhale, arms up, gaze up, and then exhale, lift your belly in and up as you fold forward and let your head release. We'll pick up the step. Inhale lift your heel up, exhale hold your foot, and then inhale pick up the step.

Come all the way to stand, hug your knee into your chest, exhale, vrksasana, tree pose. So find to the foot, foot into the thigh, sometimes it's nice to take that knee a little forward. Arms up. And hands to the heart. Ankle to knee standing variation, left leg over the right, so left ankle over your right knee, fold down, hands to the floor or to your blocks, walk your hands in as far as you can, and again always check in with a breath, if you've lost your breath you've just gone too far.

So you take yourself out of it a little bit. Take in the knee, arms up, and come to stand. We shake your legs out a little bit. Looks good. So what are all these ankle to knees building up to?

Here we can come to an arm balance. This one is called flying crow. So in this arm balance we're gonna use a lot of the same elements that we've been building up during our practice. So we will assume this familiar shape, this time we're gonna lift it up. So there are different steps as you come into this pose.

I'll show you this way. (chuckling) good, so you can use your blocks, and you can think of it as like, getting off a bus, someone once said this was like, you know you can stop uptown, or you can go downtown, wherever it is, and you just want to stay at the place where you are working, and again that means you have to listen to your breath. So if you're shoving yourself into some pose, and you lose your breath, then we've kind of moved ourselves away from the point of the practice. So listen to the breath when you start to feel the sensation, start to feel the place where you're working today, that's where you stay, you hang out there. And you get to know it.

So hands can go on the blocks for this pose as you're starting to learn it. In the full pose in the arm balance, you're gonna take your shin and bring it way up onto the upper arms. So you'll use your standing leg to push your shin forward. And just like we did in crow pose in one of the other practices, you don't have to worry about taking your back foot up off the support at all. Just practice shifting the weight forward.

Now key element with this pose is this foot. So if I don't have much engagement with the foot I'll never hold the leg on. So think about really squeezing that left foot around the left upper arm. Shift your weight forward, maybe the knee bends and the foot comes up. Maybe you start to stretch with the legs straight.

Don't look down! 'Cause that's when we start to collapse. So in all these arm balances, chest, heart open. Got it? Okay, so let's come forward. Blocks can go here, or you can play this without blocks.

So be playful, see what it's like. Shift forward, get a little scared, right (laughing), lift your foot up, or maybe you'll come up to a deer pose, maybe chaturanga, do your thing. Okay, hop forward. Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale. Exhale. Okay, other side. So blocks, you can use your blocks under your hands or not. Sometimes I think when I get a little scared in practice I feel unsteady, it's kind of fun, like when you go too high on a swing.

(chuckling) Get a little tickle, in your belly button. All right. So maybe it's just excitement. Hands down, take your shin up, so use your right leg, push it toward the armpit, stay here, practice going forward or hook that left foot really strongly around your right upper arm and move toward your pose. Chest keeps open.

Okay, let's meet in downward facing dog, however you get there. Okay from here come down onto all fours, and then walk your feet, your knees forward, so the inner knees are together and the feet are apart, and you'll sit down right between your feet for virasana, hero's pose. In this pose you always want to have your sits bones on something. So if they don't come to the floor, then you take the floor to you. You can take a block or a blanket or something and stick it underneath your seat.

You just want to make sure all 10 toes are pointing straight back. Okay, find a place where you can breath. It's okay if there's sensation, maybe even a little discomfort, that can be okay, but pain is never good, so honor pain, get out of it. So you can stay seated here, close your eyes, after that vigorous arm balancing maybe close the eyes and let the inner rotation of the thighs help you to find some quiet. Help to move the energy inward.

Gently open your eyes and now reach the arms up, then exhale you'll twist. So take your left hand to the right knee right on behind you, breathing, just a couple of breaths. And inhale arms up, exhale. Inhale arms up, exhale hands forward, and then one leg at a time, stretch back downward facing dog. So you want to realign the knee joints straight back, and then bend one knee, and the other knee, take your time during this transition.

Inhale into a plank pose and just pause in your plank pose, exhale downward facing dog. Now inhale right leg up toward the ceiling, exhale hanumanasana, right foot forward. So this is our split pose. A couple different variations, you can take what's called ardha hanumanasana, or half split, with your back knee and hip in the same line. Flex the foot, sometimes this is called a runner's stretch.

You don't want to go all the way back here. So keep the hip just above the knee, and let your head release. Or, you can slide toward your hanumanasana, your split, okay? Try to keep the chest lifted in your pose. Just like the pigeon pose that we did in the beginning of practice, make sure your back knee, the center of your knee is on the mat.

So you don't want to do this thing. Draw the leg in. The hips are square, chest is lifted, this can be a good place to grab those blocks. And you lift up. Okay hands down, downward facing dog, step back.

Other side, left leg up, left foot forward, half split or a full split. Check your back leg. Okay, downward facing dog, inhale plank, exhale all the way down to the ground. You'll have to do one back bend here just to keep us balanced. So bend the knees, take both, exhale.

Inhale lift up. Gaze at the tip of your nose about five breaths. Release. Place your hands by your low ribs. Stay with your breath, up dog.

Down dog. Okay, walk your feet forward. Soften the knees a little, grab hold of your elbows, and here you're just gonna let gravity help you release your back. Knees are bent, let it become soft and quiet. And then let your hands release, walk the feet in a little bit, come down to sit.

Let's take table top pose, hands back behind behind you, fingers facing in, lift the hips up, maybe let your head drop back, maybe little breath of fire, (rapid breathing) Hips down to the ground, let's take a forward fold or two, and then relax. Lift the chest, exhale fold, paschimottanasana. (deep breathing) Come up, tarasana. So we've got like a diamond shape with the legs, arms underneath, palms facing down, and let your head release. Thought can go between the feet, let your head fall wherever it does.

And slowly come up, hands to your outer knees, draw them in, and very slowly release all the way down, take your time, if you want to draw the knees into the chest you can do that. Maybe a quick little twist. One side, and then the other side, you want to try to get your hips underneath the armpit. And come back to the center. Hug your knees into your chest.

And then just gonna let your legs drop, so feet heavy to the floor. One leg, and the other leg. Arms alongside the body. Letting go. So no matter what we are given in our lives, whatever experience we're meant to experience, or situations we encounter, if we sit with whatever it is, even if it's a very strong emotion, if we really sit with it, if we stay with it, at the center there is always peace.

So here see if you can let yourself just dissolve into that, deep, deep, inner peace, which is always full, always perfect, always whole, and complete within you. Letting go. Very slowly reach your arms up, stretch. And roll over onto your right side, and stay there for a moment. And very gently make your way up to a seated position, and close your eyes.

Bow forward, sealing your practice. Namaste.