Tuning to Center

(waves whooshing) Hello and welcome to your yoga mat. This is a practice about the central channel or the great channel, Shumna channel of the body and we're gonna take that channel and watch how it morphs in different yoga asanas. I have another practice on this site that's just a short meditation on that channel, so this could be done in collaboration with that. So, sit high enough that you can have your pelvis upright. I'm sitting on two blankets.

You can experiment what works for you. And lift your spine and close your eyes. So, take these moments at the beginning here to transition from the outer world into your deep inner self. You can notice how you are doing, what's going on in there? Does it feel busy, chaotic?

Does it feel sluggish, sleepy? Maybe somewhere in between. Just take a moment to check in, see where you are. There's a book on my bookshelf by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the title of that book is Start Where You Are. It's such a beautiful reminder that we actually have no choice, but to be where we are and move from that place.

So, bring your attention down to the bottom of the central channel, the Muladhara chakra, down between the pubic bone and the tail bone, and just sense that place, and just notice if it feels tipped one way or the other way. If you feel like you're more back towards your tailbone, you may need to pull the flesh a little bit back from your sitting bones or even sit a little bit higher. If you feel the pubic bone is dropped that may be creating too much of a lumbar arch, if you're more of a flexible type of person that might be happening. In that case, try to lengthen through your sacrum. And then over the balance of your pelvic floor come up into the navel area, and again just look for an even feeling in the front, back, and sides, like there's a small sphere in your Svadhishthana chakra, the lower belly, that's balanced on all sides.

And then drawing straight up into the Manipura chakra, the base of the sternum, but back in the center. And again, just notice if there's a kind of leaking or a pushing forward, or a sinking back, and see if you can also find a feeling that that space in the solar plexus, the big bundle of nerves can soft and balanced. And then coming up higher into the heart center, right in the center of the chest. And the heart center will invite balance and also a steady quietness. And sliding up into the neck, and for the neck, just see if you can balance the neck over the heart, solar plexus, abdomen, pelvis, so making a very clear rising channel upwards, and then again look to balance the sides of the chakra which will be seen also in a balance in the sides of the neck and a balance in the front and the back of your throat.

From there, slide straight up into the Ajna chakra behind the space in between your two eyebrows in the center of your head. Invite ease there. And then bring your attention right up to the Sahasrara chakra at the very crown of the head, it's represented by having either usually a thousand lotus petals or an infinite amount of lotus petals up there at the top of your head. Deepen your breath and imagine the breath can pour in through the crown of your head all the way down to the pelvic floor. And as you exhale, the breath rises up and out.

And just take a couple of breaths, imagining that you can even see the breath pouring down and in through the Shushumana Nadi to the pelvic floor. And as you exhale, it rises up like an elevator just sliding up right up through the center of a building. After your next exhalation, let your eyes softly open and look straight forward. See if you can have very soft eyes, so whatever you see has a feeling of coming to your eyes even coming to the back of the eyes, there is no strain to look out. I'm gonna start by turning just the throat center, so let your right ear drop over towards your right shoulder, stretching the neck.

See if you can be diligent about keeping the heart balanced, the abdomen balanced, so we're just making a really clear turn right at the neck. And then roll your chin down towards your chest feeling the stretch all along the back of the neck, float your head up. Second side, left ear drip straight down towards the left shoulder, just being mindful not to turn at the ribs, but keep the ribs, keep the heart balanced and turning just at the throat, and the result of that, the third eye and the head also are tipped over to the side. And roll your chin once again down towards your chest. And then from the rooting of your sitting bones feel the whole channel lift up, lift your head.

Just one more time, the neck opener always needed, usually needed for most people. This time we're gonna take the right hand right underneath the left inner part of the collarbone and drag that skin and musculature down. A big muscle called the sternocleidomastoid connects from underneath your ear right down into the top of your breastbone and the inner part of your clavicle, so as we use the hand to pull this down, we get a little extra lengthening through that big neck muscle that can get tight. From here, roll your chin down, let your hand come right to your heart center, and then lift your heart, lift your head. Second side, left ear to the left shoulder, the right hand helps to draw the bottom of the sternocleidomastoid down, dragging the skin of the inner clavicle down.

You probably feel that intensifies the stretch of the neck. And then from there, the chin gets to roll down to the chest, hand can rest over your soft heart, and then let your head float up and release your hand. Switch the way your legs are crossed if you're sitting in a cross-legged position and bring your hands in front of your heart, interlace your fingers, and we're gonna bring the arms forward and round the spine. We're gonna round the spine initiated from the tailbone coming under and the belly, therefore, the belly pulls back and the spine rounds, and then coming into a backbend initiated by the pubic bone dropping, floor of the pelvis, open the front of the body, so focused, tailbone pulls back, therefore the rest of the spine comes into a C-curve, and then the pubic bone drops back, and the big channel arcs back into a backbend. One more time, exhale, tailbone initiates, spine rounds, and then pubic bone drops at front of the Muladhara chakra, drops to open the spine.

From here, just come up to vertical and see if you can find a really clear lift from the pelvic floor to the crown of the head to the backs of your hands to your palms to the sky and then twist to the right. Bring your left hand to your right leg, your right hand behind you, and then twist, you wanna try to keep that channel very vertical like these flowers here, have that very vertical big sunflower stalks, they're not meandering off to the side. So, although we're twisting, we're still lifting with clarity. Inhale, come back to the center, reach your arms up, find the central channel untwisted, and then as you exhale, twist over to the other side. The head is stacked over the throat stacked over the heart.

The alignment is still there even though it's revolving now. And then with your next inhalation come all the way up again and as you exhale, slide your hands in front of your heart center. All right, we're gonna transfer onto hands and knees. And later in this practice, we're gonna take a big Wheel Pose and arc the spine, and so one of the things that gets tight for me these days is my wrists and that shows up in Wheel, so we're gonna do hands and knees with the fingers pointing towards the knees. I always know when I feel extra tender that I've been sending out a few too many unnecessary texts.

So, from here, cow pose, arcing the whole spine, pubic bone goes back, and as you exhale, round, if this is too much on your wrists, you can point your fingers out to the sides, and if that's still too much, you can do the hands on the regular way. Cow pose, pubic bone moves back, and as you exhale, round, tailbone drops, and then with your awareness add the crown of the head along with the pelvis. The pubic bone goes back and the head lifts up. And as you exhale, tailbone descends and the head descends, couple of times with lots of breath and awareness on the distal ends of the Shushumna channel. Inhale, Cow.

Exhale, Cat. Inhale, Cow. Exhale, Cat. Just two more, this time switch the focus, think about somewhere in the center of the body, the solar plexus part of the central channel initiating and you'll see how that feels different in your body, in your mind, in your nervous system. The back of the solar plexus coming to the front of the solar plexus which makes the back bend.

Center body lifting. And then bring your knees together, tuck your toes under, and as you sit back on your heels, peel your fingers up off the ground like they're glued down, then come up, and then sit upright. If this is very intense on your feet, which is common, you can slide a block underneath your knees, so that would take the pressure out of the feet, but see if you can get your central channel aligned here. For many feet, this is not exactly pleasant, but it is healthy, so see if you can stick with it, and one thing that happens in fear is we do a little bit of clenching of the central channel, and this can bring up a little fear, so can we practice allowing that intense sensation to be in the feet, stretching the fascia and the sole of the feet, and then lifting the central channel and breathing, inhale down into the pelvis. As you exhale, lift up, reach your heels back.

Just one more deep breath here, inhale. And exhale. It's always nice to come out of this, hands down, Uttanasana, just lift your pelvis, separate your feet about hip distance, and let your body hang, you can either leave your arms, hold onto elbows, whatever you like to do with your arms here. And let the head shake a little, shake yes. And a little shake no.

And then bend your knees just a little bit and see if you can feel the spine really pouring. So, sometimes the central channel is described as being in the center of the spinal column, and the center of the spinal column, there is cerebrospinal fluid which is clear sweet liquid. So, just feel the liquid pouring from your tail to your head. Downward facing dog. So, in this Downward Dog, sometimes I like to drop the head, but for today for this practice, let's keep the ears in between the upper arms as a way of keeping that upper part of the central channel in line.

Not everybody, but most of us will need to bend our knees a little bit to really pull the pubic bone and the tail bone back evenly. Balance the abdomen. Solar plexus, if you tend to be flexible, it might be falling forward. If you tend to be tighter, it might be rounding up, see if you can get it balanced right in the center, and then to the heart, clear channel to the throat, to the brain, to the crown of the head. If you can keep that clarity and straighten your legs, please do.

Inhale, take your channel plank position. As you exhale, Downward Facing Dog. Inhale, plank. Exhale, Downward Dog. Inhale into plank position, pause this time, and see the crown of the head to the heart to the pelvis, so looking down the channel, and then from the pelvic floor, imagine that central channel splits and rolls down your inner thighs, inner knees, inner calves, inner heels.

Breathe in. As you exhale, you can bring your knees to the floor or not, lower down onto your belly. Point your feet. Lengthen your tailbone to balance the pelvic floor and then coiling up, perhaps the heart initiates, the neck, the head, are an extension, make sure you don't overdo with the head, keep the back of the neck long, and then press up and back into Downward Facing Dog. From here, take a jump or a walk to the front of your mat.

And pause here. Let your knees bend. So, we're gonna initiate the rolling up from the pelvic floor, so the tailbone drops, and then the lower belly begins to stack, leave your head alone. Solar plexus comes into play. The heart uprights itself.

The throat and the head. So, see the central channel rising up as well as a rooting down through the center of your heels. We're gonna do simple sun salutation step back with a real clear deep focus, a real dharana, it's a complete sort of concentration on what the central channel is doing as we move through the sun salutation step back series. So, turn your palms to face out and inhale, reach up, the heart turns to create a little backbend at the top. Exhale, fold forward.

Watch your back go from the backbend all the way forward into the forward bend. Right foot back into a lunge and as you step your right foot back, extend your spine, so the whole central channel lengthens. Root your hands, lift your pelvis. Here we are back into our long channel dog pose. Inhale, plank.

Exhale, lower down. Inhale to the little cobra again, lifting the shoulders. See the channel, watch what happens to it as you press back, Downward Facing Dog. Take a breath elongating. And as you exhale, step your right foot forward, the channel has to shrink a little to get that foot there, and then take a big breath in to lengthen your spine, and as you exhale, step your back foot to meet your front foot, fold, pour out through the channel.

Inhale, come all the way up to stand. Exhale, hands to the heart. On the second side, I'm gonna talk less, but see if you can keep your attention focused on the central channel. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, fold.

Inhale, left foot to a lunge. Exhale, Downward Dog. Inhale, plank. Exhale, lower down. Inhale, cobra.

Exhale, Downward Dog. Inhale here. Exhale, left foot forward. Inhale. Exhale, right foot meets the left foot.

Inhale, sweep your arms out to come all the way up. Exhale, hands to your heart and down to your sides. And do it one more time, this time we're gonna let the awareness widen out, so moving from dharana which is a really focused awareness to dhyana which is a kind of a vast meditative state, so see how it goes, just not being so focused, but letting there be a more sort of gestalt experience of everything. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, fold, the mind wide.

Inhale, right foot back. Exhale, dog. Wide mind, plank. You can do Chaturanga or to the floor. Cobra or upward facing dog.

Downward facing dog. Big breath in. Exhale right foot forward. Nothing in specific, just an awareness and a presence. Exhale, left foot meets the right foot.

Inhale, come to stand. Exhale, hands in front of the heart and down to your sides. Again, feel everything. Reach up. Exhalation folds you forward.

Inhale, left foot back. Exhale, adho mukha shvanasana. Inhale, plank. Exhale, Chaturanga, feel the central channel and everything. Inhale, lift.

Exhale, dog. Big breath in. Exhale, left foot forward. Inhale, spaciousness. Exhale, back foot meets the front foot.

Root to rise, feel the wind on your skin. Exhale, hands to your heart. And down to your sides. And just stand for a moment in mountain pose. Watching your breath.

Noticing how you feel. Letting go of unnecessary tension. And then Utkatasana, bend your knees, you can touch the floor, and then reach up. And in Utkatasana, imagine that you're holding onto some bars up there, overhead, and from that reach, you can lengthen the central channel and sit down a little bit lower, really getting very, very long through your center. And then as you inhale, stand up.

As you exhale, fold forward. Inhale, elongate your spine. Exhale, step forward, jump back, Chaturanga, modify at any point, take very good care of yourself, come to a backbend, and pull back, Downward Facing Dog. Settle here. And then with an inhalation reach your right leg up and see if you can feel from the central channel, from the right side of the pubic bone a length all the way to your right heel, so the right leg an extension of the Shushumna channel.

And then exhale, step your right foot forward. Soften your left knee to the ground, hook your thumbs, and come up. So, we're first trying to get upright central channel, you might need to back your pelvis up, so that the muscles at the front of the hip aren't pulling the pelvic floor back. So, you can back yourself up and get upright, almost like your spine is doing Shavasana. And then from that upright, beginning to arc the channel, coming into a backbend, allow your pelvis to come forward especially wrapping the left outer hip forward.

Lengthen up and then lean back. Have some abdominal support, a little hint of Uddiyana Bandha to keep from overdoing it in the sort of mid-body. And see yourself as a big arc, maybe even of light inside of your body, and you can just keep going as long as it's pain free. Lean back, see what's back there. Bring yourself back upright, hands to prayer, breathe in, and as you exhale, twist, take your left elbow to the outside of the right leg.

Here we are in another twist. I just noticed in myself and perhaps it's happening to you, my right side of like the solar plexus channel is bode out to the right, so my right side needs to shorten, see if that's your case also. Left side lengthens to get that central channel more clear. From here, tuck your back toes. If your balance feels okay, you can straighten that back leg powering up through the back leg.

And then with your next exhalation, release your hands to the inside of your right foot. If your knee is up on the ground, just lift it off. Spin your left heel down and walk around, so you're in a straddle facing the side of your mat. Prasarita Padottanasana. From here, walk your fingertips forward, so instead of doing a forward fold on this first side, we're going to do with like a down dog spine, a long extended center body.

Take a few deep breaths here. If there's a part of your body that feels like it's getting a strain that feels too strong, please listen to that. Your body tells you what it needs and what it doesn't need and you have to have the courage to respond. Walk your hands over to your right foot, come to a lunge facing the front of your mat. Root your hands, plank, breathe in here.

Exhale, Chaturanga Dandasana. Inhale, the arcing the whole light center of the body, and pull back, Downward Facing Dog. Second side, left leg, you can do an extension of the central channel. With an exhalation, step your left foot forward, lower your right knee, point the back foot, and come up. Back your pelvis up, so you're upright.

It's just a different way of exploring the body. I noticed my pelvic floor was tipped a little to the left, that could be your experience, too. The left hip needs to drop down here to balance the pelvic floor, the left thigh probably needs to step back a little bit, and then from this vertical place, let yourself roll into a big arcing of that central channel. Again, if one place feels jammed, tight, unsafe, potential injury, please listen to that, you back yourself up, you protect yourself. If you don't feel that, keep exploring what's in there.

Our asana practice is like being in new territory, exploring, seeing what there is, and attempting not to go down the wrong alley. Come up. Find your hands at your heart. Compact your pelvis up a little bit. Hook your right elbow to the outside of the left knee and find your twist.

Again, maybe drawing the left hip back would help to balance the channel. You're welcome to straighten your back leg. And then with your next exhalation, hands to the inside of the left foot. Right heel spins down. Once again, come to the side of the mat.

This time just take a breath to find that long spine and as you exhale, we'll come into the Prasarita Padottanasana A or one. Hands like Chaturanga, hands in between the feet, elbows straight back, crown of the head descends down. See if the shoulders can slide up as the central channel pours down. From here, with an inhalation, lengthen your spine again, see that extension. Walk over to your left foot, come to your lunge, and move through your Vinyasa.

Moving on. One more standing pose sequence. We're gonna lift the right leg up. This time we're gonna let the right hip open and bend your right knee. So, a open-hipped version of Down Dog Split.

So, we're gonna attempt to keep the shoulders even and the throat chakra even. And the left knee points straight forward undisturbed. From here, extend your right leg way up to the sky, drop through parallel, step forward to a lunge. Spin your back heel down. Low body starts, tail but Warrior I, low body starts, abdomen picks up, heart, throat, come up.

So, in Warrior I, the hips for 99.999% of people are not gonna be totally square, so that being said, it's fine to have 'em in a diagonal, but that makes a twist in the central channel of the pose, so let there be that twist. Drawing the left ribs forward, lifting the heart. And then with your next exhalation, straighten your front leg, release your hands. Scooch your left foot in about four or five inches. Pull your left hip forward.

And then you may need to have a belt for this, further down we're crossing the arms. We're gonna lift the left arm and drop it behind the back. Right here, before going on, see if you can balance the two sides of the spine. Right arm out to the side, roll it in, and bring it behind your back. From here, root into your feet, see your central channel, take it into a backbend by lifting at the heart, leaning back onto your left forearm.

As you exhale, come halfway forward, pulling your right outer hip back. Breathe in, you're lengthening the whole channel. And as you exhale, fold forward right over your right leg. Here we are again in a pouring released channel. A very different, different energy than the fire and stability of the legs.

From here, release your arms. Left hand onto your right ankle and lengthen your spine forward, put your right thumb into your right hip crease, pull the right hip back as you lengthen your spine. Pulling the right hip back balances out the pelvic floor and the abdomen, and then from here, shift your left shoulder over your right ankle, and begin to twist through each part of the channel. And I'm in a camp now with a bunch of other yoga teachers letting the pelvis go with the spine, so the left hip can drop down, it makes it a little easier for the sacroiliac joints. Also there's a pretty incredible stretch that you might feel in your right outer hip.

And the third reason is that it's easier to turn the chest. Parivrtta Parsvakonasana, breathe. Release, step back. Downward Dog. Downward Dog, I think of it as like erasing the chalkboard.

You get that incredible design and now just get empty. Clear. Strong and open for what may come. Okay, this is what may come, Down Dog Split. Left leg comes up.

Down Dog Split, rotating. Bend the left knee. As you're here, it's a good opportunity to drop down through your right heel, stretching the achilles and the calf of the right leg. If it feels like too much pressure on your right knee, do a little teeny bend of the right knee. If it feels like too much pressure on your right hamstring, lift your abdomen, extend your right sitting bone towards your heel, right heel.

From here, big breath in, stretch the leg. Exhale through parallel, step forward. Root to lift. That's Shushumna. You can feel everything that you feel.

You can feel it specifically and you can also let it broaden and feel it in a wide vast way. And with your next exhalation, straighten the front leg, scooch your right foot in. Inhale your right arm up without disturbing the center of your body. Drop your right hand behind your head. Left arm widens out to the side, rolls in, slides back.

Root your feet. Balance the central channel, and then with an inhalation, take it into a backbend. As you exhale, come halfway forward. Inhale, widen the left side of your heart. And as you exhale, fold, pour over your front leg.

Scan your own body. Although, there's an intensity here for sure, there should also be a feeling of nourishment, not strain, pain, or hardness. Release the right hand to your left ankle, left thumb into the top of the left thigh, pull the left thigh back, lengthen your channel like a (imitates whooshing). Over my house fly the Blue Angels, those airplanes that go really fast and clear through the sky. Maybe like a jet plane moving through the sky and then begin to rotate, also like the Blue Angels, they flip around, right shoulder over the left ankle, belly turns, ribcage turns, heart turns, and again letting the right hip drop down a little bit which gives you more freedom to turn and open your chest.

Exhale, hands down to the ground. Step back, Downward Facing Dog. One vinyasa here, plank position with an inhalation. Exhale, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha.

Exhale, Adho Mukha. Inhale to plank. Exhale, lower all the way down to your belly, and just take a moment to rest, you can turn your head to one side. And just as if your central channel is lying down on a couch, let the whole vast length surrender to the ground. So, from here, we're gonna do Dhanurasana, Bow Pose.

If you're tender in the pubic bone or hip points, take the time to put a blanket underneath your pelvis, so that you don't have that as a problem and eliminate any unnecessary pain. Bend your knees. Find your ankles. With first Bow Pose, we're gonna do a very mellow bow, like a sleepy Bow Pose. Have a little energy coming with the legs coming towards the midline and then let your shins pull back and your arms just go for the ride here.

Let your eyes close. And if the breath, once again, was pouring in through the crown of the head and rolling to the pelvic floor, just see that kinda slide trajectory that it would take. And just notice, can we be content without doing a hundred percent, can I just be very soft here? And then release and release your opposite cheek to the ground. Okay, second one, we're gonna do a little bit more energy.

Bend your knees. See if you can reach back and find your ankles at the same time. This pose takes a fair amount of energy and effort. I have great picture of myself as about a five year old in gymnastics class, and every single one of the girls in my class was in the most massive Bow Pose, so sometimes I think, "I'm just gonna try "to do it like I used to do it," like channel my inner child that could really lift up so high in this pose and then I see what happens. But it's a big leg action, the shins kick back, the thighs lift up.

Keeping care, try not to let the legs go too far apart from each other which can create some strain in the lower back. And then exhale, soften down, hands by the ribs. See the central channel, press back into a wide kneed, toe together, Child's Pose. Can you let the whole center body rest towards the earth? Okay, and then come up to sit.

So, take one of your blankets. And if you're on a carpet floor, you don't need to put a blanket, but if you're on a wood floor and there can be some sliding, use a blanket. We're gonna do two poses with the slidey blanket. Two blocks on either side of your hands. Let's bring 'em onto the high height and then come up and bring your right heel onto the blanket.

You can see where this is going, slide forward, and obviously with the blanket, you could go too far, but see if you can just be cautious, but Hanumanasana is a big pose, so let it also be full. And you just listen and you sink, and maybe you get to a point where you could put a block underneath your right thigh. You can put it medium height, high height, any height, so that you can settle down. So, the monkey god, Hanuman, had to take a big leap from the bottom tip of India all the way to Sri Lanka, so just imagine that god just leaping through the sky, legs open, at the same time as the legs were open, a feeling of drawing back and staying centered, so he didn't miss his destination. Central channel lifts.

If you're settled down on a block, if not you can just keep your hands up onto your block, and then slide your foot back. Lift up. And sit down just for a moment. And then second side, come up. Left leg goes forward.

So, sliding forward. And Hanuman stretches the back of the front leg, hamstrings, and the front of the back leg. If you get to a point where it makes sense to slide a block underneath your front thigh, you can do that. It's also fine to keep yourself back and more flexible does not mean better in any way. More flexible simply means just that, it doesn't have anything to do with happiness or peacefulness, so be where you are.

Try to levelize any amount the pelvic floor, so the tailbone drops, the lower belly picks up, soften the solar plexus back. If you're settled onto a block, you can reach your arms up overhead, lengthening from the tail to the crown and beyond. And then as you exhale, release. Slide yourself back. Sit down.

Okay, the next one is a fun one that I like and it's a hamstring strengthener. In yoga practice, there's so much hamstring stretching, that goes on and probably not balanced with quite enough strengthening, so this is a good one to add to your practice. So, the feet are on the blanket. If you're on a carpet, this might be a little tricky, but you can play with it. Take a block and you can experiment with the block at different heights.

I'm gonna do the medium height and bring it underneath my sacrum, so the low, low part of the spine. From here, I'm just gonna gently roll my shoulders under, not anything too major and rest my arms, and then let my legs slide forward. They may or may not go to straight, the feet can flex at the end. And then those hamstring muscles have to kick in to drag the legs back in. With breath, extending as you inhale.

And exhale, pulling in. And keep going on your own time. You can definitely explore faster, slower. It's important to try not to get married to one way. I've seen some brave souls do this exact exercise, but without a block which is on my to-do list, but not for today.

And you can decide what you think about that. Two more. It's kind of some different sensations than what usually come up, so really be mindful of what your experience is here. All right, next time you come in get your feet right underneath your knees, so they won't slide when you lift your pelvis up. Move your block over to the side.

And lower yourself slowly down. From here, we're gonna come into Wheel Pose and so make sure that your feet are not on the blanket for your Wheel Pose. And lie down, have your heels underneath your knees. Feet hip distance apart. So, pressing into your feet, lift the pelvis up.

Notice now that you don't have the block there what muscles it takes as it goes, maybe those same hamstring muscles kick in, and you can even have a feeling here as if you have a blanket underneath your feet, that the feet are dragging in, don't move them, but the isometric action of the feet dragging in, once again kicks those hamstring muscles in which is very useful as you come into wheel. Of course, it's perfectly fine to hang out in Bridge Pose even a supported bridge, but if you feel up for it, place your hands by your ears with your fingers pointing in the direction of your shoulders, and then open the chest a little bit more, push into your hands, push into your feet, and see the central channel as you rise into Urdva Dhanurasana. As you come down, squeeze the elbows in towards the midline, tuck your chin in, and slowly let that central channel come back down and rest. Bring your hands towards the ceiling, make gentle circles with your wrists. Turn the opposite direction.

And we'll just do one more, feeling the body, feeling the central channel, and also having that feeling that you're part of something greater, so it doesn't have to be really tight or concentrated, but kind of a big feeling of your existence here on Earth. Breathe in. Exhale is at the pelvis first. So, see that part of the channel coming into the backbend and then press it down to come up. This time, let's just rock a little bit.

Take that channel and just give it a little journey forward and back. And then come to the center. Elbows hug in, tongue, chin not tongue, chin tucks and lower down. Take your arms out to the side, let them rest very passively. Walk your feet a little bit away from you and wide, and just a couple of mellow windshield wipers, knees from side to side, just relaxing and releasing the spine.

And then roll all the way over to your side. I'm gonna sit up for a probably two minute headstand. If headstand is not yet part of your practice, please lie with your legs up the wall. I'm gonna do my headstand on one thin blanket. If it's okay for you to do it on a mat, that's kind of advised, but if your head is tender like mine, I like to just have a little softness underneath, but make sure it's not a lumpy blanket, that's why it's advised not to do it on a blanket in case the blanket is lumpy.

So, bring your elbows to the floor, shoulder distance apart. Interlace your fingers, tuck the baby finger underneath. If you're a very headstand practitioner, you might wanna switch the interlace of your fingers just for a different experience and then bring your weight forward. Nestle the crown of your head down into the floor, but lift your shoulders up and push your forearms down, so there's also a feeling of the crown chakra not dropped heavily into the ground, but the crown of the head nicely settled into the ground without a drop. From here, straighten your legs, walk forward, get the throat stacked over the head, the heart stacked over the throat.

Bend one knee, bend the other knee, get your solar plexus up over the throat. Get your abdomen up, so we're just stacking up that channel once again. Pelvic floor comes up. If you're at the wall, your feet would find the wall here, and then lift your legs. So, now we're pouring down from the heels to the pelvic floor to the head, and then a reverberating energy from the earth through that crown chakra all the way up and out through the feet.

Feel yourself as a little link between the earth and the huge sky. You can revisit the investigation into the balancing of the chakras. I just noticed for myself the solar plexus one is leaking forward a little bit. For yourself. Find where there's a lack of harmony and see if you can just with kindness plant a little bit more balance into the pose.

And then just for a point of concentration, watch your central channel, notice the journey it takes as you quietly make your way back down onto your mat. And rest in Child's Pose. Now, that was your Shirshasana, now Sarvangasana shoulder stand, that's, in my opinion and many people's opinion, too much to ask of the neck, to do a shoulder stand without blankets. The neck is not meant to turn that much and also the bones of the neck are very, very petite, so we wanna protect them. They're important, important bones connecting your head to your heart.

So, I like to use three blankets and it's an individual decision on how high you wanna go, but at least two, I like to invite at least two blankets, and then I like to fold them out over, the mat will be traction for my elbows because the elbows like to slip wide here. Okay, and then you lie down with just your shoulders about two inches away from the edge of the blanket, and the hairdo adjustment always comes here, the hair comes down. So, shoulders a couple of inches from the edge. If my shoulders were on the edge when I went up, I would just fall off, so I have to have my shoulders a couple of inches, so when I go up, my shoulders can be right there on the edge. From there, I'm gonna take my upper arms plummet them into the ground really strongly, and then lift my legs up, push into my hands, use a little core strength, Halasana, Plow Pose.

Interlace fingers and then roll your shoulders underneath the pose one at a time. From here, elbows bend, hands onto the back, and you wanna really lift your back. I like to get my hands onto my skin here and lift the back up. So, I'm taking that channel that's in the further mid-back and drawing it into the center, and then the legs come up one at a time. So, this pose has Jalandhara Bandha which is the deep turn at the Vishuddha chakra, the throat.

And the throat is where the thyroid gland is. It looks a little bit like a bow tie pasta, the thyroid gland, and in this pose, the yogic belief is that it gets a good bathing, a good soaking from the toes, the fluid's moving into the throat. And that gland is a key one in balancing hormones and metabolism. B.K.S. Iyengar calls this the mother of all poses for its nurturing qualities. From here, release your feet back into Halasana.

And just roll right on down. I like to roll about to the mid-back, bend the knees, keep the neck soft and relaxed, and then lower down. From here, I slide towards my head just until my shoulders touch the ground, my pelvis ends up onto my stacked blankets, soles of the feet together, knees apart, Supta Baddha Konasana with a little hint of a Fish Pose in the heart area. Inhale down and in. Exhale up and out.

Inhale into your pelvis. Soft exhale up and out through the crown of your head. One more breath here. So, roll over to your side and come up and we'll finish with Shavasana. Since I have all these blankets, I like to take advantage of them and I like to put them right over my thighs, but if you have any back tenderness at all, please roll a blanket and put it underneath your knees.

So, we take a moment to adjust your limbs. So, the limbs are evenly spaced from the central channel. And now soften your pelvic floor completely. Release any gripping or butterflies or tension in your low belly. Invite the solar plexus to soften.

Invite ease around your heart center. Relax your throat and the muscles of the neck. And the very center of the neck. Release the space in between the two halves of your brain. And then let the crown of your head soften, your scalps relaxes.

And from the soft central channel, release your entire self into the support beneath you. If you have time to stay longer, please do so. If you're ready to come up, deepen your breath. Let the breath pour into that soft central channel. And as you're ready with an exhalation, bend your knees.

Take the central channel, roll it over to the right side. And then press into the ground and make your way up to a seated position. I read that when Gandhi was alive, he would take one whole day a week to be in practice, and when asked about that, he said that he needed to make sure that his actions came from the deepest most centered quiet place of his heart. And I wish that for all of us, that we can use our practice, so that we can move out into the world with more clarity and compassion and ease. Thank you so much for practicing, namaste.