Taming the Tiger

(water flowing) Namaste to yogi friend. Namaste Jodie. Thank you for being here today. So, this pose I'm naming in this moment taming the tiger. (laughs) Or calming the crazy mind.

So, this is a lovely position to just come into at the end of a busy day, when your mind's been racing, when you just need to calm down and allow everything to soften. It's a very simple posture that involves a chair and a blanket. I've put two blankets on top of this chair because the softer the surface, just the more comfortable it's gonna be for you. So just layering up the chair a little bit. And what we're going to do, Jodie, if you wouldn't mind just moving into a cross-legged position just in front of the chair.

So finding an easy cross-legged position. If there's no such thing for you, then we might just want to find a little bit of support to help get into this position, namely if your knees would like a little bit of support, you can just find a couple of cushions and just place them underneath the knees so the knees can relax in the cross-legged position. Another option is if your hips generally, women's hips tend to move forward and tilt forward more easily than men's. But if you're of the variety of person where your hips don't tilt forward that easily, then find a blanket or a bolster or something, probably a blanket is best, that you can just sit on the edge of. So I'll just show you on Jodie here.

That just helps to tilt the hips slightly more foreword which will make it easier to bring the head down towards the chair. If you have something with a little bit of a weight, like an eye bag, it's quite nice when you get into the position to just put that on the back of your shoulders. It just is a nice comforting thing to have something just slightly resting, pressing down on that area. So find your eye bag if you have one. And once you've gathered your props, just allowing yourself to find this easy cross-legged position in front of the chair, and then what we're going to do is we're going to bring this space just between the eyebrows, and we're going to rest it onto the edge of the chair here.

So what you'll feel like is you'll feel a little bit of traction as if the chair is almost pulling up on the forehead as you rest your head down. So there'll be a little bit of a weight of your head forming this traction there. So Jodie, go ahead and just allow yourself, maybe you don't need the blanket. Okay, so Jodie doesn't need the blanket so we're gonna take that away. And just allow your forehead to come down and rest on the edge of the chair there.

And then bringing the arms and resting them up on the chair. So just take time to find a comfortable position where the brow is resting on the edge of the chair and adjust your sit bones so you might need to go closer or further away. Ideally you want the neck, you do not want the neck to be sagging so just if your neck is kind of sagging and dipping in a little bit, arrange yourself so that you don't have that. Jodie's got a beautiful straight line here in the neck. So just playing with that.

And doing whatever you need to do to find comfort in this moment. Take a deep breath in. (inhales) Exhale, release out through the mouth. (exhales) One thing that I forgot to mention that if you have your eye bag, at this point you can just face it, find it, and just place it best as you can on top of the shoulders, or if you have someone with you, just asking them to place it there. And taking another deep breath in down into the belly.

Exhale, soften and release. Allow the hips to soften back and down. Feeling the tailbone moving down towards the Earth. Allow the shoulders to soften and melt down the back. Feel the arms release any tension and holding, growing heavy, sinking down into the chair.

Allow the jaw to soften and relax. The tongue to release and soften. Breathing in. As you exhale, feeling any distraction, any busyness of the mind just draining out of that third eye point between the eyebrows down into the blankets, down into the chair. As you breathe in, feeling the breath, gathering any distraction, any stress.

And as you exhale, feeling that release down and out through the third eye. Ending the breath on the inhale, gather any tension or contraction in the body, mind, the emotional layer. Exhale, let that release out through the third eye. Deep inhale. (inhales) Exhale everything.

(exhales) And very slowly you're just going to come back up to sitting and just pause with your spine upright, eyes closed. Take a breath in. Exhaling. (exhales) Just noticing the feeling tone of the body. And quality of the mind.

And then gently just place the hands behind you and you're going to swap the cross of the legs. And then allow yourself to come forward. Again, just finding that resting place of the place between the eyebrows on the edge of chair, allowing the arms to come up onto the chair. If you have the eye bag, just placing that best as you can on the tops of the shoulders. Deep breath in.

(inhales) Exhale, feel the belly soften. (exhales) Take a long even inhale through the nose. Long even exhale through the nose. A few natural breaths to follow. Take a long even inhale through the nose.

Long even exhale through the nose. A few natural breaths to follow. Take a deeper inhale. (inhales) Exhale everything. (exhales) Another big breath in feeling the whole body expand.

As you exhale whole body softens. Very slowly in your own timing just allowing yourself to come up to sitting. Resting with the spine upright. Just allowing the backs of the hands or the palms to rest on the thighs or the knees. Inhale.

(inhales) Exhale out through the mouth, let the belly relax. (exhales) Soften the pelvic floor muscles. Reach the crown of the head up to the sky. Let the spine lengthen, the heart blossom open. Chin gently draws in towards the neck.

Just noticing the feeling tone of the body. Quality of the mind. Deep breath in. (inhales) Exhale. (exhales) And bring the hands to touch in front of the heart center.

And then we'll finish with one om. Inhale clearing breath. Exhale. And inhale for om. Om.

Namaste. Namaste. Thank you.