Flying Pigeon

Welcome, everyone, to your practice. We've got an arm balancing practice on deck. We're going to be moving towards a shape called flying pigeon. And like many arm balancing practices, it does call upon our strength and our precision quite a bit. But there's also in this pose this sweet snuggling into yourself that has to happen.

And then from that, this reaching out. And as many of us who are practicing yoga in this day and age, we are householders. We're not out there living in a cave somewhere alone, just meeting with the teacher every single day. We're living our lives. We're shopping.

We're getting food. We're eating. We're working. We're raising our kids. And so we're trying to find, as yogis, a lot of us, this balance between drawing in and then also reaching out and engaging with the world.

And this practice really is that. It's like snuggling in and then expanding outwards simultaneously. So let's start on our backs. Come on down. We're going to stretch our hips first.

So place the soles of your feet on the floor. And take your right ankle, cross it up over your left knee. And then engaging your abs, start to draw the legs towards yourself. And then catch your hands underneath your left knee joint. And again, we're going to be using the body more than the legs, more than the biceps, that big Popeye muscle to pull the legs in.

So press your right ankle against your left knee and then tone the left quadricep to draw the legs closer to you as you draw the belly back. And as you do this, make your right sitting bone move closer to your inner left thigh. So you're getting some nice external rotation happening here. And this right here is really the key action for the whole pose. And so we'll stay for a couple of breaths and get the outer part of our hips opened up here.

Keep that contact, that nice connection between the right ankle and the left thigh happening. And one more big exhale pulling in as deep as you can. And then release, place both soles of the feet on the floor. Notice if there's a difference in your two hips. And then cross your left ankle up and over your right knee, threading the hands between, reaching the abs to bring the legs up and then catching the hands back behind your right knee joint.

And then press the left ankle onto the thigh, tone the right thighs, you draw the legs closer. And then move your left sitting bone closer to your inner right thigh, getting that external rotation. The level draws back on each exhale, should feel sort of lovely. Good, and then last breath, drawing in. And then release the whole thing down.

You're gonna place the sides of your palms on the floor by the sides of your hips and start to draw your knees up towards your chest. And then make this diamond shape with your feet. So you're gonna let the big toe knuckle touch and the heel touch. So you're finding some external rotation here. And we're gonna do some core work from this place.

Sometimes for some of us, it can move, the moving of the leg will move off of the hip flexors and rather come to the core when we allow ourselves to do the core work in this external rotation. So take an inhale. As you exhale, start to drop the right heel down towards the floor, but stay in that external rotation and then draw it back up. And then left side, exhale, tap, and draw it back up. And then keep moving there with your breath, tap, and up, and tap, and up, and tap, and tap, and up.

Notice if your eyebrows are starting to do the work for you. Some evolutionary human thing that causes our face to believe that it is responsible for core work, but let that go. And we just got a couple more. One more on the right. One more on the left.

And then come back up. Place the soles of your feet on the ground once more and then take your right leg and come to a pigeon shape. So here we go. This is kind of spicy, friends. There's gonna be two choices here.

You can either take what I affectionately call forklift and take your left forearm underneath your right shin and your right hand can just support your knee and stay there, or you're gonna start to snuggle your right arm in and catch the foot. And you've got your right knee up in your armpit, too. And then you're gonna lift the leg. And this is basically the arm balance. And lower it.

And lift. And lower it. And arms are pressing towards the sky. Shoulder blades are rounding apart from one another. Couple more.

You can see you're super snuggled in and then also expanding outward with that leg. Good. Whoo. And then release. Place both soles of the feet on the floor.

Take your left leg. Take it into this hovering pigeon shape. And then again, there's two options. You can take your right elbow and kind of scoop it around the knee. And then your left arm comes outside like this.

I'll do it like this on this side. And then your right leg comes up. Press the palms towards the sky. And then slowly start to lower the right leg down. And then up.

And then down. And then up. And then down. And then up. And one more.

Down. And then up. I've never counted anything. So release. Good.

Let the hips shift side to side for a moment. Hmm. And then we're going to roll over to our sides. And come right to child's pose. So let the big toes touch back behind you.

Walk your hands out. Lift your chin. And then sit your hips back to your heels. Mm-hmm. Look forward right between your thumbs.

Walk the hands a little bit forward and then draw the sitting bones down to your heels so that you get a big stretch to both sides of your body. And let the forehead rest on the floor. Start to find your ujjayi breath if you haven't already. Start to crawl the hands forward. Really rooting into the pinky finger edge of your hand.

And then look forward. Inhale. Lift up to hands and knees. Tuck the toes and lift the hips up and back and find your downward facing dog. Greet your dog however you like.

Hmm. And then let's all together lift up into the heels. And then take your heels over towards the right as you push down into your left hand and try and get the whole soles of your foot on the floor here. And then what helps me to find space is to lift both of my quadriceps as I press into my left hand. And then back up and let the heels come over towards the left.

Press into your right hand and then lift both quadriceps up. Good. Come on back up to center. And we're going to draw the right knee in towards the nose here and then take the right knee towards the wrist, set the right foot down and come into an early pigeon shape. So walk the left leg back behind you, settle in.

And you can, we're welcome to come down to elbows for this one. Just getting a little bit of extra hip opening. Balancing the weight on either side of the sacrum. You might walk that back leg a little further back to get some more spiciness into that right hip. And then pressing back up to hands, tuck the back toes, use your belly, draw the knee back in towards the nose and then step back downward facing dog.

And then it's the left knee towards nose rounding. And then left knee towards wrist, set the foot down and come all the way back to your pigeon pulse. Let the elbows come down, balancing the weight between the right hip and the left hip and then maybe walking that right leg back to get a little bigger stretch onto the side of that left hip. And then pressing back up to hands, tucking the back toe, lift the left knee towards your nose and then step back downward facing dog. And let's take a wide down dog here.

So let the pinky toe edges come to the edge of your mat, center the weight on the heel joint and then really reach from the sides of your chest into your hands, stretching the hips up and back, tone the inner thighs, zip them up. And then this is really fun. Now lift high up into your toes, bend your knees, look beyond your hands and hop to the outsides of your hands coming to a squat and lower down. For those of you who've been squatting for a long time or have had it in your practice, let the toes start to point a little bit more forward as you snuggle your armpits down your thighs. This is that snuggling in again and then lift your chest up towards your heart.

Back of the neck is nice and long. You can feel the opening in the hips starting to move right into the center of the hip joint here. I like to do a little bit of meandering in this pose, moving back and forth side to side. And then fingertips are going to come to the ground. You're going to start to heel toe your feet towards one another and take an inhale into Arda Uttanasana, extend your spine long, half left, and then exhale, fold in.

Inhale, make the legs as strong, as straight as you can, lean the weight more into the toes than into the heels and start to rise all the way up to upward salute, pressing palms. It's fine to keep the space between your feet and exhaling hands to heart center. Inhale, reach the arms up into the sky. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale Arda Uttanasana, extend the spine long.

Exhale, plant the hands, step back to plank pose. Inhale in your plank pose, shift forward, and exhale, lower all the way down to the belly. Good. For this first one, we're going to reach the hands back behind us, palms facing the sky. Make the legs as straight and strong as you can, and then start to lift the legs, and then the chest, and come to a low shalabhasana, and we're going to stay here for a moment.

See if you can tone the place on your glute where the sitting bone is, so right where the sitting bone is. And then see if you can lift the tops of your thighs off the floor, and then roll the collarbones back coming to a beautiful, strong shalabhasana. Exhale, lower down. Bring hands to your chest, tuck your toes, lift as much as your body up off the floor as you can, so thighs, belly, push up to plank pose, and stretch back, downward facing dog. Good.

Three breaths here, inhaling, exhaling, inhaling, exhaling, inhaling, inhaling, inhaling, inhaling, inhaling, inhaling. Inhaling, preparing, come a high up, high up on to your toes, bend the knees, as you exhale, hop right between your hands, inhale, arda, half lift, exhale, fold. Inhale, rising all the way up, big upward salute, and exhale, hands to heart. Inhale, sweep the arms up. Exhale, forward fold.

Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. This time, if you're ready, hop back, Chaturanga. Lightly, no noise. Use your feet, shift forward, upward-facing dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog, rolling over both feet at the same time.

And three breaths. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Exhale, prepare, bend the knees. Take your chest back to your thighs, look forward, and hop between your hands. Inhaling, Ardha Uttanasana, extending the spine, exhaling to fold. Inhale, rise all the way up, strong legs, and exhale, hands to heart. One more like that. Inhale, sweeping up.

Exhale, forward folding. Inhale, extend your spine. Exhale, hop back, Chaturanga. Upward-facing dog, inhale. Exhale, rolling over the toes, downward-facing dog.

Two more breaths. Inhale, preparing, bend the knees, exhale, light-weep, right between your hands, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, fold. Bend the knees deeply, sweep your hands back behind your heels, and reach your arms forward first, coming into your Utkatasana. And then stick your booty back a little bit, strong thighs, squeezing the inner knees together.

Inhale, lift your chest. And exhale, forward fold. Inhale, Ardha. Half-lift, exhale, Chaturanga. Upward-facing dog, breathing in.

Exhale, downward-facing dog. Inhale, the right leg straight back up and behind. Exhale, step between your hands. Turn the back heel down, rise up, Vira 1. Breathing in.

Exhale, all the way back down to your Chaturanga. Upward-facing dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog. Inhale, the left heel straight back up and behind. Exhale, step between your hands.

One breath, Vira 1, inhaling. Exhale, hands down, all the way to your Chaturanga. Same breath out. Inhale, up dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog.

Three full breaths. Last one, inhale, lift high up into your toes. Bend the knees, look forward, exhale, leap. Inhale, half-lift. Exhale, forward fold.

Bend the knees, touch your hands back behind your heels. And then inhale, lift your chest. Exhale, stand all the way up, hands to heart. One more round like that. Inhale, reaching the arms up into the sky.

Exhale, bend the knees, touch your hands back behind your heels. Inhale, reach your chest forward. Reach your arms forward, sit your booty back, find your belly. And then slowly start to lift your chest, try not to move your legs. Breathe in here.

Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, hop back, Chaturanga. Inhale, upward-facing dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog.

Inhale, the right leg straight back up. Exhale, step between your hands. One breath, Vira 1, rising up. Exhaling hands all the way down to the floor. To your Chaturanga.

Inhaling, upward-facing dog. Exhale, downward-facing dog. Inhale, left heel lifts. Exhale, step between your hands. One breath, Vira 1, inhale, rising up.

And exhale, hands down to the floor, all the way down. Moving through. Down dog. Last breath. Last breath.

Lifting high up into your toe tips. Bend the knees, look forward. Exhale, hop right between your hands. Inhale, Ardha. Exhale, fold.

Bend the knees deeply. Inhale, lift your chest, Uttanasana. And exhale, stand up, hands to heart center. Great. So you're going to grab your blocks now.

And you're going to place your blocks right in front of your mat space on the highest setting. And then separate your feet so that they're hip widths distance apart. And take your right knee and lift it up towards your chest. Bend into your left leg. And then with your hands and your hip creases, shoot your hip points back.

As you bow your chest, this is a snuggling in part, over your right shin. And then bring hands to the blocks. And keep sitting your hip creases back. Notice if you're swinging the hips one way or the other. See if you can use your felt sense to find center.

With each exhale, bringing the chest closer to the right shin. Pressing the right shin onto the left thigh, just like you did on the floor. Good. And then we're going to transform this into warrior three shapes. So keeping the hands on the blocks, press your hands on the block, start to lift your chest.

And then you're going to sneak the right leg back behind you. Mm-hmm. Lifting the leg, strong, straight left leg. And like you did in the Shalabhasana, the locust pose, use the strong muscles on your back leg to keep the leg perfectly straight. And then pull the chest forward.

Reach out through the big toe on your standing leg. Snuggle the low ribs down. Breathe in. And then exhale the right foot next to the left. Forward fold for a moment.

For me, there's a big difference in how straight I can get my right leg. Totally just drift sweat on the mat if you did too. Good job. But from getting the outer hamstrings open with the pigeon variation there, often the forward fold feels better. Good.

And then inhale, res all the way back up. And exhale, hands to your beautiful hearts. Take your hands to your hips once more. Lift your left knee, bend into your right knee, and cross over. And then with your hands and your hip creases, push your hips back, back, back, back, back, and then bring hands to the blocks.

Do your best to balance the weight so that you're not shifting the hips from side to side, but you're centered. And then with each exhale, start to lower your chest towards your shin. And then starting to sneak your way into Warrior III, this is the expansion part. Press your hands on your block, lift your chest away from your shin, and then take the leg back. Strong, straight right leg is best you can.

The muscles on the back leg are strong and tight, making the bone feel light. And then reach out, pull your chest forward, and reach out through the big toe on that right leg. This pose is really hard. A couple more breaths. Notice if you're leaning the weight on the inside or the outside of that right leg.

Last inhale, and exhale, set the foot down, and forward fold once more, bringing hands on either side of your feet. Noticing the difference in the legs here. If there's some equanimity now, some balance. Good. And then take your blocks, set them to the side, we'll use them later.

Come back to your fold, squeegee the inner edges of the feet together, bend the knees, sit your hips back, touch your hands back behind your heels, reach your arms forward, stick your butt out to establish that low back curve, full belly, firm belly, and also full, and inhale, lift your arms up into the sky. Good. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, arda uttanasana, extend. Exhale, hop back, chaturanga.

Inhale, upward facing dog. Exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale your right leg straight back behind, and then exhale, step between your hands. Inhale, rise up, come all the way up to your warrior one, adding on. As you exhale, reach forward, and imagine that there's a kale salad right there in front of you, and reach for it until you feel your transverse abs engage.

And then once you feel them engage, bring fingertips down to the floor, lift that back leg, and it's standing splits. So wrap your right hand back behind your right calf, strong and straight as best you can, and then roll the belly to the right as you lift that leg high. And then this is a little weird. Release your right hand, fingertips come out in front of you. You're going to bend into that right knee and get a nice calf smooch.

For free. I love smooshing calves. I think that pretty much all of my problems are tight calves, but they've also served me well. And then you're going to bring the left knee into your chest, come up onto your right toes and shoot that left leg forward, and then see if you can find a little moment of balance here. Hands to heart, lean forward, and then fingertips down, and you're going to lean back and come all the way into Navasana Pose.

So reach in the arms forward, round your upper back, strong, straight legs, go, legs, go. Good. Another couple breaths. Whenever I'm talking in class and doing this at the same time, my students kind of glare at me, but it's a secret yoga teacher talent we have, core work and talking. Awesome. Good. And then release, cross your ankles, plant your hands and shoot right back to your Chaturanga, upward facing dog and downward facing dog.

Inhale your left heel, straight back up. Exhale, step between your hands. Virabhadrasana one, rising up, warrior one. And then as you exhale, reach forward and lay over that thigh. There's really seriously the most delicious kale salad right in front of you, just have to reach one more inch.

And then once you feel your abs engage, hands come down and you lift that right leg, standing splits. Wrap the left hand around the back of your calf, push down and forward into the right hand, and stretch and reach. Good. And then release the hands, a little free calf smooshing. Get in there with the right knee onto the left calf.

Hmm. Good. And then draw the right knee in towards your chest, shoot it forward, let the knees squeeze towards one another, and then maybe bringing, whoa, moment of bliss, and then release hands to heart. You can do it. And then come down right onto your booty.

And then second time through, Navasana, the hands can come underneath your hamstrings, release the legs forward, reach the arms forward. And this time we're going to inhale, reach, exhale, lower down. Inhale, reach, exhale, lower down. Two more. Stay with it.

You got it. Inhale, reach, exhale, lower down. Grunting is welcome. Inhale, reach, exhale, lower down. Good.

And this time cross your ankles over one another, grab your blocks, have them by your sides. I think that the mid setting is really nice for this. And then push on your blocks so you can sit up and take your feet back behind you so you're sitting in Vajrasana. You're going to bring your blocks right by your sides, and they're not going to be back by your hips. It won't work if they're back by your hips.

But you're going to bring them right so that they're a little bit just almost to the knee but not quite where you see that quad shape of your leg kind of end. And then place your hands on the blocks, and you're going to lean forward, and you're going to exhale, push down into the blocks, and then bring your feet through and up to your chest, and then push down and set them back. We call these fake jump throughs. You're going to lean forward. We'll do a couple more.

Exhale, draw your navel back, push down into the blocks, round into your upper back, and then draw the feet in and then back. And try and do it lightly as best you can. Like, no one knows that this is what you're doing if they're in the other room. It's very quiet, ninja-like. So lean forward, push, lift them up, and then back.

Good. Last one, best one. Lean forward, exhale, push, lift it up, and then back. Great. So set the blocks to the side one more time.

We're going to come back to the down dog, the down dog, the royal down dog. Place your hands on the floor, stretch back, tuck your toes, and come all the way back. Feel that nice expansion at the backs of the legs, hugging the shins toward midline, inner thighs up and back, pushing down from the sides of the chest. And then one more, hop forward, inhale, lift into your toes, bend the knees, take your chest back to your thighs, exhale, push down and hop all the way up. Inhale, extend your spine long, exhale, forward fold.

Bend the knees deeply, touch your hands back behind your heels, inhale, lift your chest, and exhale to stand all the way up, hands to heart center. Great. Okay, we're going to use the blocks again now. So we're coming to our peak pose. We're putting all of the pieces together.

We're going to snuggle in, and we're going to balance on our hands, and we're going to learn to extend the leg back just like we did in the standing splits. So first things first, come to stand at the front of the mat. Heels are right underneath hips as best you can, and blocks are going to be out in front of you for this first one. So you're going to bring hands to hips like we did before, take your right knee up towards your chest, bend into your left leg, and snuggle it up. And then with your hands and your hip creases, push your hips back and let your chest lower all the way towards your shin.

Hands are going to come to the blocks. They've got multiple settings, but for this one, I think honestly it's either best to use them on the flat setting or the mid setting. But what this does is it brings the floor closer to you. So you're going to take your foot, and you're going to wrap it around your left tricep as close to the shoulder as you can, and then your right knee is going to move way up into your armpit there, and then the foot is kind of like a hand. You're going to lean forward, hands around the blocks, and then you're going to bring your left heel towards your seat, and that's step one.

And then step two is reaching that leg up and back, up and back. Point the toe, strong, straight leg, and then drop back in lightly. Come up. The best part is the fold. You get a great forward fold out of that arm balance.

And then inhale, come all the way back up. And exhale, hands to heart center. Great. Second side. So hands to hips, bend into your knees, cross your right ankle up and over your left knee.

With your hands in your hip creases, push your hips back, and then lower your chest towards your shin, and you'll get to see what happens with the knee in this armpit. A lot of times I see students with the knee way down here. If that's happening with you, back it up a step and just stay in this hip opening stage. Maybe hands come to heart or reach forward or fingertips towards the floor because we really need to get the knee as high as we can up into the armpit. So once your chest is lowered, snuggle your toes around your tricep on that right arm, and then the left knee goes way up into the armpit, hands are on blocks bringing the floor closer to you, lean forward, chaturanga your arms, bend your elbows, and then draw your heel towards your seat, and then maybe reach out all the way up and back.

Good. Come back in, release, and forward fold. Whoo! That's fun. Inhale, come all the way back up. And exhale, hands to heart.

Good. All right. So we've got another variation with the props. You're only going to need one block. This is new.

I just learned it. And again, the block has multiple settings here, so you can kind of shift it and see where it's going to work best for you. It works best for me if it's on this mid or even the low setting. I'm going to leave it on the mid setting. So you're going to place your left toes in front of the block and then same entrance.

Lift your right knee up towards your chest, cross it over, hands are on the hip creases, push back. Mm-hmm. And this time hands are going to come all the way down to the floor in front of the block. And you're going to lean forward and place your knee on the block. It's like super cheater awesome action here.

And then snuggle the foot around your armpit, get the knee way up in the other armpit on that right side, and then lean forward. And then the work is to try and lift the knee off the block. And you push your hands into the floor to do so. And that's going to help you start to get, come on up, release the leg, fold the hamstring action to be able to eventually get the leg up into the air, if that's your limitation. So we'll do the other side.

Block goes in front of the right toes. Okay, second side. So bring your hands to your hips. Your block is in front of your right toes. You're going to bend into your knees, cross your left ankle up over your right knee, and then bring your hands to hip creases, push the hip creases back and lower your chest towards your shin.

From there, you're going to lean forward. Hands are going to come in front of the block and then snuggle your right left toes around your right arm. And then the knee comes way up into the armpit, bow forward, and let your knee rest on the block. And then here we go. You're pushing into the hands to try and lift the heel up and take the knee off the block.

And you can do it a couple of times. If you have fear, place a blanket in front of your head. And then that's it. We'll come up, release the legs, forward fold, set the block over to the side. We're abandoning our props for the moment.

And we'll try the full variation. So inhale, come all the way up. Exhale, hands to heart center. As in all of these shapes that we've been practicing together, if you need to go back to one of the other steps, it didn't feel like that's your place to work, then you move back. If you're going to try it without the props, then we'll do it this way together.

So bring your hands to your hips, lift your left knee, bend into your right knee, cross it over, and then bring your hands so that your right arm is to the inside of your toes. And find that snuggling of that foot up on the armpit. And then again, the knee comes way up into the armpit. Hands are down on the floor. You're going to lean forward.

For me, it helps to hop my back leg back a little bit. And then as you bend the elbows, take the heel to the seat and then reach it all the way up into the sky, point the toes, gaze is a little bit beyond the edge of your sticky mat, probably. And then right knee comes in, come back, bow forward, congratulate yourself. And then come on up. Big, full inhale, nourishing breath, and exhale, hands to heart.

Last one, hands to hips, take your right knee up to your chest, cross it over, press your hip creases back, back, back, back. And then snuggle your hands so that your left arm is on the inside of those toes. Get the right armpit way up there. Snuggle before expanding. And then bow forward, arms bend, heel to the seat, and then reach that leg back, back, back, back, back, back.

Now straight leg, use your butt. Good. Come in. Mm-hmm. Forward fold.

And then come down to knees. And let's take a child's pose and we'll stretch our wrists. So let the hands come back by the heels. Breath settles. All right, let's go ahead and sit up on our heels.

Coming back to Vajrasana. And we're going to do a wrist stretch together. So this is pretty awesome. You're going to take your fists and you're going to line your knuckles up like this right in front of your heart. And then you're going to turn your arms so that your fingers face up towards the sky.

And then place the backs of your hands on the floor. And the thing that happens here is that you start pointing at yourself. Try to resist pointing at yourself and simply straighten into the arms. Oh, it's fantastically sensational. We call this the anti-carpal tunnel stretch.

If you do it never, your arms will be very bent. If you start to practice this regularly, then your arms can get straighter and straighter. It's a great practice for after inversions, arm balances, even wheel pose. Good. And then release and you're going to take your fingers and place them on the floor pointing towards your knees and then walk your knees back slightly, lean a little bit forward, and then press your thumb down and your ring points your finger down and your middle finger and your ring finger and your pinky.

And it gets a little confusing and then go back around. Pressing each finger pad down into the floor as you lean back and stretch your wrists. And once you've done that a couple of times, it's washing the dishes pose, just flicking your fingers. And shake it out and come on down to your backs, please. Grab one block, set it next to you.

Place the soles of the feet on the floor. We're going to take a bridge pose to stretch out the fronts of the hips. We did lots of hip flexion and folding and standing splits action. So grab the block and place it on whatever setting feels right for you so it could be mid, low, or even high. I actually like the high because it gets my hip flexors nice and open.

And then your palms are just going to be up towards the sky, soles of the feet on the floor. Gaze is up towards the boobs and the belly button, not up towards the sky, and you let the back of the neck lengthen here. You can stay here resting in this place or take your right knee in towards your chest, grab it, and then extend the left leg long on the floor. Release, switch sides, place both soles of the feet on the floor, draw the left knee in towards your chest, catch it, and then reach the right leg long. Let it be heavy, making sure if you're at all wobbly on the block, most likely it's either too low or too high.

You want it to be on the lower part of your sacrum, of your low back. And then release soles of the feet on the floor. One more big stretch here, reaching from the shoulders all the way out through the knees. And then lift your hips, set the block down into the side, and release all the way to the floor, coming towards your shavasana shape. Letting your attention become unfocused.

Resting. Resting. Resting. Resting. Standing to tune your senses back in, deepening the breath.

And exhale, rolling over to your side, pausing here in the fetal position. I love this shape because it's the place where we get to transition between the practice on our mat and the practice in the rest of our lives. That reminder that every moment is an opportunity to wake up. Then use your hands, press your hands against the floor, and come all the way back up towards sitting. Bring your hands to heart center.

I'll leave you with this quote from Mary Oliver, the great mystic and poet. She writes, love yourself, that's the snuggling in, and then forget about it. And then love the world, that's the engaging outward. Going down to that seat of expansive, expansive love that resides within each of your hearts. Namaste.