Grounded Freedom

(waves crashing) So, we'll start in Downward-Facing Dog. Swing around. Okay. In your first Downward-Facing Dog, just give yourself a moment to pedal out your feet a little bit. Get connected to your hands, so push into the inner edges of the hands.

Point your fingertip, pinkie fingertip, and feel that as you press down into your hands, you're also receiving, you're lifting up out of the wrists. Upper arm bones rolling away from each other. Maybe you need to relax a little bit through the face, so you can shake your head yes and shake your head no, and unapologetically putter out your lips. (mouth vibrating) Do whatever you need to do. Inhale into your Plank Pose and just pause in Plank Pose for a breath.

Exhale, press back, Downward-Facing Dog. Step your right foot to the outside of your right hand. Step your left foot to the outside of your left hand and find a squat. So, if your heels come off the floor and it's uncomfortable, just stick a blanket underneath your heels, or you can sit up on a block here. Breathe deeply.

Try to focus the eyes on one point. Lift up through the crown of the head. Inhaling. Exhaling. Place your hands to the ground, lift your hips up.

Walk the feet in a little bit. Inhale, look up, lengthen. And then exhale, you can bend the knees as much as you need to. Let your head release down. Breathing deeply.

Inhale. Exhale. And let the weight of the head stay released. Let the weight of the arms stay released and slowly, keeping the knees soft as you come up, pull the belly in, roll all the way up to stand. Head and neck are the last things to lift.

And then, maybe some shoulder rolls. Turn the head and do whatever you need to do. And then, step to the front of your mat. Big toes together, heels together. We will start with our Sun Salutations.

Inhale, reach the arms up. Exhale, fold into your legs. Let your head and neck release. Inhale, look forward. Exhale, Chaturanga.

Take any modification that you need of the pose. Inhale, Up Dog. Exhale, Downward-Facing Dog. Breathe here. Inhale.

Exhale, one. Inhale. Exhale, two. Remember you can bend your knees in your Down Dog. Inhale.

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

Bend the knees. Look forward. Step or jump. Inhale, look up. Exhale, fold down.

Inhale, come all the way up. Gaze right up at your thumbs and exhale to Dasana. Gaze at the tip of your nose. Again, inhale, arms up. Gaze up toward the thumbs.

Exhale, fold. Inhale, look forward. Chaturanga, exhale. Up Dog, inhale. Down Dog, exhale.

Breathe. Inhale. Exhale, one. Inhale. Exhale, two.

Inhale. Exhale, three. Steady, even breath. Inhale. Exhale, four.

Inhale. Exhale, five. Bend the knees, step or jump. Inhale, look up. Exhale, fold down.

Inhale, come all the way up, squeeze your legs together. Look up. Exhale, arms alongside your body. One more time like this. Arms up, inhale.

Exhale. Inhale, look forward. Chaturanga. Inhale, Up Dog. Exhale, Down Dog.

Five breaths. (breathing deeply) Listen to the sound of your breath so you've got that ocean-sounding breath. Inhale. (breathing deeply) Bend the knees. Step or jump your feet forward.

Inhale, look up. Exhale, fold. Inhale, come up. Exhale, arms alongside your body to Dasana. Surya Namaskar B.

Bend your knees. Inhale, Utkatasana. Exhale, hands down. Then, straight in Uttanasana. Inhale, look up.

Exhale, Chaturanga. Inhale, up. Exhale, Downward-Facing Dog. Step your right foot forward, ground the left heel down. Inhale, Warrior 1.

Exhale, hands down. Step back, lower. Inhale, Up Dog. Exhale, down. Step your left foot forward, ground the right heel down.

Inhale, arms up. Exhale, hands down. Step back, lower. Inhale, up. Exhale, back.

Breathe. Three breaths. (breathing deeply) Bend the knees, step or jump. Inhale, look up. Exhale, fold.

Bend your knees. Inhale, Utkatasana. Look up at your thumbs. Exhale, to Dasana. So, we'll take a balance practice.

Your gonna squeeze your waist with both hands and then take the right foot up, just a couple inches off the floor. Flex your foot, then point the toes and flex your foot. And point. Flex. Point.

Flex. Point your foot and flex just your toes back. Now, lift forward onto the balls of both feet. It's okay if you go off your mat. Squeeze your legs together.

Bring the arms out in front of you, palms up. Inhale here. As you exhale, leave your arms like they are. Bend the knees. Inhale, press your hands back.

Lift up the chest. Exhale, bend the knees, palms up. Inhale, lift. Exhale, lower. Inhale, lift.

Exhale, lower. Inhale, lift. Exhale, lower. Good. Inhale, lift up.

Now, exhale, shift back to your left foot, hug your right knee into your chest. Focus your eyes on one point. Breathe. Now, interlace your fingers underneath your right thigh. Let the weight of the thigh bone drop down into your hands, flex your foot and extend the leg out in front.

Point the toes and bend the knee into the chest. Exhale, flex extend. Inhale, point and bend. Exhale, flex extend. Now, point your toes.

Look at your big toe, reach the arms up, breathe for one. Inhale. Exhale, two. Inhale. Exhale, three.

Warrior 3. Take the right leg back behind you. You can interlace the fingers. Try to stay open through the fronts of the shoulders. We'll come forward.

Inhale, swing the right leg down, forward, and up. Hug your knee into your chest and then exhale, place your foot down. Moving over to the other side. Okay, so here we'll squeeze the waist again. That's just to give you a reminder of lifting the pelvic floor, lifting the lower belly.

That will be your center point for your balance. Take the left leg out, flex your foot, and then point the toes. And then flex. And point. Flex.

Point. Flex, you can separate the toes out. And point. Then, point the foot, but flex just your toes back. Inhale, move forward onto the balls of both feet.

Squeeze the legs in. Arms out in front of you, palms facing up. So, it's like this offering. Inhale. Exhale, you're gonna leave your arms like this.

Bend the knees. Inhale, press the heart forward. Push your hands back. Exhale. Inhale, lift up.

Exhale, lower down. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, lower down. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, lower down.

Feel a little heat building. Inhale, lift up. Now, exhale, shift back to your right foot, hug your left knee into your chest. Then, let the weight of your thigh bone just drop down into your hands, flex your left foot, and extend the leg out. Inhale, point the toes and bend the knee into your chest.

Exhale, flex extend the leg out. Inhale, point the toes and bend the knee in. Exhale, flex extend the leg out. Now, point your toes. Lift your lower belly, let that hold your leg up.

Breathe for one. Three breaths. Inhale. Exhale, two. Inhale, really reach through the fingertips.

Exhale, three. Warrior 3. Left leg back behind you. Lift the pelvic floor. Feel the sitz bones drawing in towards each other.

Come forward, inhale, swing left leg down, forward, and up. Hug your left knee in. Exhale, foot down to Dasana. Inhale, reach the arms up. Gaze up at your thumbs.

Exhale, fold into your legs, let your head and neck release. Inhale, look forward. Exhale, Chaturanga. Inhale, Up Dog. Exhale, Downward-Facing Dog.

Inhale, reach the right leg up toward the ceiling. Take a big breath in. Exhale, step your right foot forward between your hands. Lunge. Inhale, arms up alongside your ears.

Exhale, Standing Spinal Twist. Left elbow to the outside of the right knee or thigh. Press the palms together at the center of the chest. Now, you can stay here and breathe. You always have the option to bring your back knee down to the ground.

You can move toward straight arms or bind. If you're bound, you might want to play with stepping your back foot forward. So, be playful with it. Left foot forward. Lift the right leg up.

So, whatever variation you're in, breathe. Now, if you're up, you've gotta retrace your steps. So, right foot down, left foot back. Everybody hands down. Look at your right pinkie toe, take your left knee there.

Seated Spinal Twist. Inhale, reach the left arm up. Exhale, you'll twist over to the right side and breathe. Make sure you're really pushing that left thigh bone down and if you take a bind, you can bind here, or not. You always have the option to straighten that left leg out in front of you.

Gaze over the right shoulder. Inhaling. Exhaling. And release your pose. Little counter rotation over to the left side and then come back to the center.

Let's find Gomukhasana, Cow Face Pose. So, stack your knees on top of each other, one on top of the other. Now, with all these poses, you always have the option to stretch the bottom leg straight. You can sit up on a blanket, or two blankets. So, I want you to experiment and find the variation of the pose that's gonna support your breath.

Maybe blanket between the knees. And then, rather than walking the feet in as tight as you can, walk the feet as far away from each other as you can, keeping your heels in the same line. And then, thumbs to your arches. Inhale, lift the chest. And then exhale, let yourself come forward.

Arms now stretch out in front of you. Let the head drop down and breathe deeply. Let the head release whatever it does. Try not to force or shove yourself into the position. Breathing, inhaling.

Exhaling. Inhale. Exhale. We'll take about two more breaths. Inhale.

Exhale, breathe right into the spaces where you might feel the sensation most dynamically. Walk your hands back. Okay now, you're going to be playful with your transition here. Hands down, we'll go to Downward-Facing Dog. So, you might wanna just swing that right leg around behind you, or you can play with hands down.

Hop to Chaturanga. Inhale, Up Dog. Exhale, Downward-Facing Dog. So, left side you're gonna inhale, reach the left leg up. Exhale, step your left foot forward.

Lunge. Inhale, arms up alongside your ears. Exhale, find your twist. So, really ground into that left big toe joint, palms can press at the center of the chest, heart lifts up. Stay here, straighten the arms, move toward your bind.

Maybe your back knee goes down. So, find the variation that's gonna support your breath. Maybe you wanna play with stepping that back foot forward, like we did on the other side. So, you'll look at your left foot, step the right foot forward, shift over to the right, and then inhale. Lift up.

And then exhale, we come back down. So, left foot down, shoot your right foot back. Gaze up. Place your hands down. Look at your left pinkie toe.

So, everybody release your hands and Seated Spinal Twist. Right knee comes to the outside of your left foot. Inhale, reach the right arm up. Exhale, find your twist. Remember, the options can be that bottom leg straightens, your arm can wrap around, you can take a bind.

Okay, turn to the right side, let your head release. Cow Face Pose. Left knee over right knee. So, we can sit up on a blanket here if you like. Find your propping.

Look at your feet, make sure that your heels are as far away from each other as they can get, keeping them in the same line. Lift your heart and exhale, fold forward. You can let your eyes close, breathe. Inhale. Exhale.

One more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Walk your hands back, lift up the chest. Now, don't think about it too much, Chaturanga.

Let yourself find it, upward facing. Exhale, roll back. Downward-Facing Dog. All right, right foot forward, left heel grounds. Inhale, reach up, Warrior 1.

Exhale, open out, Warrior 2. Breathe. Inhale, straighten your front leg. Exhale, bend your front knee. Now, right hand down to the floor, or a block on the inside of your foot.

So, I call this Extended Side Angle B. Extended Side Angle A would be hand on the outside of the foot. So, here it's on the inside. Left arm reaches straight up. Push your arm into your leg.

Try to find some space to the side of the torso there. Inhaling. Exhaling. Now, look down at your right foot. Inhale, come all the way up to stand.

Exhale, we'll take Extended Side Angle C. So, this is the bound variation. You're welcome to use a belt to help you find the bind. Okay, bend the knee. Right hand down.

Left arm up. Inhale. Now, exhale, left arm goes behind your back. You can put your hand on your sacrum or reach around for the upper thigh. Right hand can stay to the floor or a block.

Gaze up. Maybe you stay here, or you could reach toward the full bind, if that's in your practice. Right arm underneath the right leg. Heart reaches toward the ceiling. Make sure you can breathe.

That's always the indication you're in the right variation of the pose. Okay, back foot steps in just a hair. Bound Triangle. Push into your right foot, straighten the right leg as much as possible. Bend the right knee.

Place your right hand down. Inhale, reach the left arm up. Exhale, look down at your right foot. Inhale, come all the way up to stand. Exhale, bend the knee.

Place your hands down. Downward-Facing Dog. Step your left foot forward. Ground the right heel down. Inhale, Warrior 1.

Exhale, open out, Warrior 2. Inhale, just for a breath, straighten the front leg. Exhale, bend your front knee. Now, we'll take Extended Side Angle B with your hand on the inside of the foot. Inside of the left foot this time, right arm reaches up.

Now, remember you can place your left hand on the block. Breathing deeply, try to feel open through the chest and the shoulders. Look down at your left foot. Inhale, push into the feet, come all the way up. Straighten both legs.

Exhale, Extended Side Angle C. Bend the left knee, hand goes down. Right arm behind the back, so right hand could go to the sacrum and it can stay here through the whole sequence. You could hold the upper thigh or you could move toward your bind. Whatever variation you're taking, breathe.

About three breaths here. (breathing deeply) Now, Bound Triangle. Slowly step the back foot in a little. Push into that left big toe joint. Start to straighten the front leg as much as possible.

It might be very different on this side than it was on the other side. So, listen to your body, listen to your breath. You've got external rotation of that left upper thigh. Good, soften your left knee. Place your left hand down.

Inhale, reach the right arm up. Then, exhale, look at your foot. Inhale, stand up, straight legs. Exhale, bend the knee, place your hands down. Downward-Facing Dog.

Inhale, Plank. Exhale, Chaturanga. Inhale, up. Exhale, roll back. Breathe here.

Inhale. Exhale. Okay, we're gonna hop into a squat pose from here. So, bend your knees, think about where you want your feet to go. Hop your feet to the outsides of your hands.

Press your palms together at the center of the chest. So, stay in your squat here for a moment. Catch your breath if it got lost in that vinyasa. Try to pull the shoulders back a bit so the chest is really open. We'll move toward a Squat Twist from here.

So, take your right arm straight out to the right side. Now, your right hand can go onto a block or the floor, and left arm toward the ceiling. Stay here or same kind of bind that we took in Extended Side Angle. So, hand to the sacrum, or upper thigh, or wrap all the way around. When you spin your chest open or look up, try not to do that with the neck.

So, I draw my chin into my chest and then from the middle, upper back, try to rotate open. So, not too much tension in the neck. Now, release. Take your right hand down. Left arm up, inhale.

Take your time out of the pose. Exhale, bring your hands to your heart. Inhale here. We'll move into the twist on the exhale. Left arm straight out to the left side.

Right arm up toward the ceiling. Stay here or take some variation of that bind. Again, check in with the breath. Keep your breath steady and calm. Inhaling.

Exhaling. Release the pose. Left arm down, right arm reaches up. Inhale. Then, bring your hands to your heart.

Exhale, hands to the floor, you're gonna straighten out the legs a little bit. Soften the knees a little bit. We'll move toward a twist leading up to Bird of Paradise. So, as the preparation for Bird of Paradise, you'll take a bind similar to what we were doing before in that Extended Side Angle. So, right arm is gonna go underneath your right leg, and to do that you're gonna lift your lower belly really strongly, left arm goes behind your back.

Now, you can grab your belt or a T-shirt and use that like an arm extension to help you with that bind. And then, you start in this twist. Gaze up over the shoulder. So, before you lift yourself up and to the big balance, make sure your breath is really steady here. And then, you're gonna pay attention to your gazing point.

You'll look down, shift your weight over to your left foot, lift onto the ball of your right foot. And then, inhale, looking forward, you're gonna come up toward Bird of Paradise. Now, you can keep your knee bent or you can stretch the right leg straight. Remember, another option in this pose is always coming up toward a Tree Pose. What you don't want to do when you're trying to come up to a balance, is look down.

So, sometimes because these are difficult poses, we can start to give into that heaviness and that difficulty, but if we're looking down, it's gonna be really hard physically, and energetically, to lift this leg up. So, you want to try as best you can to keep the chest open. So, your gazing point can assist you with that. Look forward, shift over, keep the chest open, keep the heart open as you lift up toward your experience. So, place your foot down and we'll go over to the other side.

So you come back, shake it out a little, and then left side. So, pull into your belly. Left shoulder underneath left leg. Right arm behind your back. Push into the feet, find a little twist first.

Check in. Are you steady? And then, look forward. Bend the knee. Inhale lifts you up.

Stay here. Maybe you straighten the leg. Maybe you find Tree Pose. As always, find that variation that supports the breath. Try not to struggle with the pose.

And then, bend the left knee. Place your left foot down and release the arms. You can shake it out a little. (mouth vibrating) And step back, Downward-Facing Dog. Wash that all out with your vinyasa.

So, your vinyasas are like a big eraser. Chaturanga. Inhale, up. Exhale, roll back. Inhale here.

Exhale. Step or jump feet forward. Look up. Exhale, fold down. Inhale, come all the way up.

Exhale, arms alongside the body. Put your hands on your hips. Bend your knees, hop your feet apart. Okay, Triangle Pose. The right toes forward.

Just gonna check in, find a little space. Might feel nice to take your left hand and bring it underneath the head, lengthening your neck a little. Look down. Inhale, come up. And then, we'll just switch right over to the other side.

So, left toes turn out, right toes in. Inhale. That's where you get that length. And then, exhale down into your pose. Look down.

Inhale, come all the way up. Squeeze your waist, bend your knees, hop forward. Arms up, inhale. Exhale, fold. Inhale, look up.

Chaturanga, exhale. Upward facing, inhale. Downward facing, exhale. Pigeon Pose. Right leg reaches up.

Inhale. And then, exhale, right knee forward. Set up with propping if you like. So, blanket can go underneath the right sitz bone and thigh bone. Inhale, lift the chest.

Then, exhale, let yourself release. One more breath here. Lift up the chest, walk your hands back. Inhale. Tuck your back toes under.

Downward-Facing Dog, exhale. Vinyasa, if you like between sides, or just come right over to the other side. Left leg reaches up. Inhale. And then, Pigeon Pose.

Left knee toward the left inner wrist. I always have to check my back leg, roll the thigh in, then come forward. So remember, propping can go under here. It can go underneath the sitz bone and thigh bone. Let your head and neck release.

Letting go. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Walk your hands back, lift the chest up.

Tuck the back toes under, step back, Downward-Facing Dog. Vinyasa. Inhale, Plank. Exhale, Chaturanga. Up Dog, inhale.

Down Dog, exhale. Okay, you're going to look forward between your hands, bend your knees, step or jump to sit. Play with that. Paschimottanasana. Drag the flesh of your seat straight back.

So, sit up on a blanket, if you like. Inhale, lift the chest. And then, exhale, fold forward. Breathing deeply. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. One more breath. Inhale, come all the way up and we'll set up for Compass Pose.

So, in Compass Pose, we have a lot of the same actions that we were finding in our Bound Triangle and our Extended Side Angle. We're just gonna take it on the ground. So, to come into this pose, I'll show you first and then we can move into it together. So, to come into this pose, first you'll start just cradling the leg into the chest. Now, you'll need to lift this sitz bone up off the floor to be able to get your knee over your shoulder.

So, that's how we'll start. So, leg comes up, knee over the shoulder. Now, I'm not going to go into extending my leg without grounding this back down. So, sitz bone goes back down to the ground. I cross my hand over the top of my foot.

That gets confusing for a lot of people. So, you don't want to go here because then that blocks off your shoulder. So, go over the top of the foot, hand down to the ground, push your foot into your hand, spin the chest open. Yes? Okay.

So, we'll try that. We should start with the right side since it'll be proper. Okay, so right leg into the chest, open up. Now, you might feel like this is a whole lot of work and you just want to stay here. This is a really, really big pose and really beneficial, so you can stay here, look up and just ignore everything you hear me saying on your computer screen. (laughs) Find your breath.

If you want to go further, you lift the right sitz bone up off the ground, take the right knee over your right shoulder, and then bring your right sitz bone back down. Left hand crosses over the top of your right foot. Right hand straight out to the right side. Push your foot into your hand, spin the chest open. So, try not to collapse the shoulder down.

Spin the heart open. If you have a belt handy, you can put a belt around that right foot and use that like an arm extension to help you get this opening. But, your gaze is up. Mind is calm. And then, release that side down.

Okay, shake it out. Now, we'll do the left side. So, lift the left leg up. Stay here or move toward your compass. So, left sitz bone up off the ground, left knee over left shoulder, drop left sitz bone back down.

Right hand crosses over the top of your left foot. Left hand to the floor or a block. Push your foot into your hand, spin the chest open. So, imagine that right elbow opening up toward the ceiling. And come back, release the legs.

Very nice. Stretch your legs out. Tarasana. Soles of the feet together, knees apart. Take your hands underneath your legs and just let your head drop down.

Just about three breaths here. Inhale. Exhale, one. Inhale. Exhale, two.

Inhale. Exhale, three. Good, walk your hands back, lift the chest up. Hands to the outsides of your knees, bring your feet down, hands behind you. Tabletop Pose.

Lift the hips up. You can let your head drop back. Maybe a little Breath of Fire, so short little sniffs through the nose. (quick sniffing) Inhale. Exhale, bring your hips down.

Then you cross over your feet. You can roll over and go right back to Downward-Facing Dog, or jump back, go through your Chaturanga and we'll all meet in Downward-Facing Dog. Inhale here. Exhale. Take the right leg up.

Inhale. And then, exhale, step your right foot forward to a lunge. Lower your left knee down. Anjaneyasana. Hook your thumbs, reach up, arch back.

Breathe here. You can stay here with your arms up in line with your ears. Of course, remember, don't do that. Ouch. Or you can take the arms behind your back, maybe interlace the last fingers, pointer fingers touch.

Maybe the pointer fingers come toward the floor. And then release this down. Interlace the fingers, lift up. Then, place your hands down. Downward-Facing Dog.

Other side, left leg reaches up. Inhale. Exhale, left foot forward, lower right knee down. So many different arm variations. They all work.

So, you can interlace the fingers on the thigh. Make sure that you're lifting your lower belly so there's a sense of freedom, but it's freedom within a controlled or conscious container. Maybe you can interlace the fingers, pointer fingers toward the floor. Don't shove. Let your breath find it.

And then release that down, lift up. Place your hands down. Downward-Facing Dog. Okay. Inhale, Plank Pose.

Exhale, knees, chest, and chin. So, your butt's up toward the ceiling. Cobra. Inhale, slide forward. Exhale, release all the way down.

Now, your hands are back by your low ribs here, not under your shoulders, so lock 'em back. Pull the elbows back so you're really engaging the muscles in the upper back. Exhale. And as you inhale, lift up head, chest, legs. Keep your hands pressing down and energetically pull the arm bones back.

Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. One more deep breath. Exhale, release down.

Lift right up, Up Dog. Leave your hands where they are. Inhale. Exhale, roll back. Downward-Facing Dog.

Bow Pose. Inhale, Plank. Exhale, all the way down to the floor. Bend the knees. Reach back.

Exhale. Inhale, lift up. One more breath. Release down. Good.

Vinyasa again. Hands back by your low ribs. You can do it. Inhale, Up Dog. Exhale, Down Dog.

Okay, come on to all fours. Now, you're gonna sit down in half Virasana, so half Hero's Pose. So, your left leg is gonna come straight out in front of you and the right leg back. So, you will make sure that all five toes of that right foot are pointing straight back. So, we're going to recline from here.

So, come down onto your forearms. Now, bend the left knee, bring the sole of your left foot to the floor. Lift your butt up and lengthen the lower back so that you're not curved. You're lengthening the tailbone as much as possible and then lay your back back down. Okay?

You can keep your foot on the floor, we're gonna spice this up a little bit. You lift that left foot up, take your left heel and bring it to the right thigh, and you're gonna push your thigh into your heel really strongly. Push your heel back into your thigh. Inhale. Exhale.

Give it all you've got. Use some strength and that resistance. Here's a little magical occurrence, you're gonna inhale and then exhale, release your heel and you might find a little bit more space. Then you can cross the ankle over the thigh and then you can lie all the way back, or stay on your forearms, and just breathe here. Try to maintain an undisturbed calm of your mind.

So, create the conditions for that calm. Prop the pose as much as you need to. Modify the pose as much as you need to. About one more breath here. Okay, your gonna keep your right leg just as it is, lift the left knee up, straighten your left leg, interlace your fingers behind that left leg and you're just gonna hold your leg straight.

Eyes can close. One more breath. Okay, release your foot down. Now, you got to use your belly to come out of this. So, elbows down, forearms down, push into your arms and come all the way up.

Then, stretch your left leg straight, shift over to the left side, take the right leg out, then shake 'em out a little, gently. And then over to the other side. So, left leg back, top of the left foot to the floor. Five toes pointing back. Get yourself situated.

Then, come down onto your forearms. Right foot to the ground, lift your butt up. Lengthen the lower back, release back down. Breathe here. Let your body relax for a moment.

And then, heel to your thigh and give it a go. Push your thigh into your heel. Push the heel back into the thigh. Really concentrate your effort on that one point. So, you can be effortful and still remain calm.

So, sometimes when we think effort, we start to strain and everything gets tight and tense, but true effort is refined. So, there's a lot of energy going on here, but there's an inner calm, an inner steadiness so that our actions become clear. Inhaling. Exhaling. Okay, one more.

We can have strong effort without force. Like in all of our relationships, right? Okay, release that foot. Cross over. So, stay here or you can recline all the way back.

If you feel like you're rolling way over to the right side, you can counterbalance that, sticking a blanket or something underneath the right hip. Breathe. Okay, left leg stays where it is. Right leg turns in, interlace the fingers underneath the right thigh, and then stretch the leg as straight as possible. Of course, in any of these things, the belt can act like an arm extension.

So, if it's too much to interlace the fingers here, you can take a belt and hold it in your hands. I just want you to hold the leg straight up. Don't pull it in toward your face. Just hold the leg straight. Breathe.

And then, slowly release that foot down. You're gonna use your belly to support you. Inhale, come all the way up. Stretch the leg out. Shift to the right, stretch your left leg out.

Breathe. Maybe turn your feet around a little bit. All right, so from here we have to make our way to Downward-Facing Dog, so bend the knees, cross your ankles, very gently roll over your feet and then press back. Downward-Facing Dog. Come down onto all fours.

Last back bend, you're gonna walk your hands back. So, we'll take Rabbit Pose or Camel Pose. Rabbit Pose, toes are tucked under. Camel Pose, tops of the feet to the floor. So, your choice.

Hands to the hips. Elbows back and lift the chest. You can stay here or exhale, reach back for the heels, or the soles of your feet, then push your hips forward, lift the chest up. Optional, head can drop back. Breathe.

Inhale, up. Exhale, hands in front of you, keep lifting the lower belly, tuck the toes under. Down Dog, but it's a real soft Down Dog. So, the knees are bent, and you're just lifting the belly, and letting the head release. And then, slowly straighten the legs, if that's where your body goes.

We're gonna let gravity help us release the lower back, so walk your feet forward. Feet are hip distance apart and parallel, bend the knees, grab hold of your elbows and just let your head drop down. Inhaling. Exhaling. Let the hands release.

Bend the knees, walk the hands a little, come down and sit. Fold forward, Paschimottanasana. Lift up. Very gentle twist just for a couple of breaths. Right leg crosses over left, left leg stays straight.

Come to the center. Stretch the right leg out, bend the left knee. Wrap the right arm around. And then come forward. You can keep your knees bent a little bit.

Let yourself release just one more time. Gently come all the way up and then all the way down onto your back, Shavasana. Letting go. If you have the time, stay in your Shavasana for a little bit longer, otherwise start to deepen the breath, wiggle the fingers and the toes. Meet your arms up alongside your ears.

Stretch. Roll over onto your right side. And very gently make your way up to a seated position. Just closing your eyes. Press your palms together at your heart center.

And bow forward, sealing your practice. Namaste.