Foundation Practice

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for being here with us. Today we are going to embark on the foundation practice. I want to introduce to you the person who's going to model the practice be here, do the whole practice. You can watch her for the movement. You can listen to my voice for the cueing. So I'd like to introduce you to Callie Snyder. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So our foundation practice, as we begin this, I just want to give you just a little bit of information. We call this practice principles above personalities, which is a theme that we often hear in the 12 step program. And the idea of this is that yoga is a principle centered practice. Just like the 12 step program is a principle center practice. And you'll see we practice the principles and all the postures, just like we practice the principles in all our affairs. So we love props in Y12SR and we've got a few for Callie to use behind us. One is a block. Oftentimes say that blocks are great if you want to make the floor higher or your arm longer, depending on which way you choose to look at it. So sometimes in forward bending poses in other poses that we might do throughout the practice, it might be a great idea to have a block handy. And again, it'll just offer sometimes a stretch or an opening in the body that for whatever reason may not be possible for whatever's going on within the body in that moment. Another tool that we have behind us is a blanket. These are great to sit on. They're great to work with elongating the spine, particularly as it relates to the spine. I always think, make a joke with my students oftentimes, I know Megan trainers said that it's all about that base, but really it's all about that spine. It's really all about that spine. When our spine is elongated, it allows energy to move through the body in a completely different way. And in many ways, this is all about the movement of energy. So if your knees, you're in a sitting position, your knees are above your hips, it's a great idea to sit on something. It just gives that sense of elongation to the spine. So please use props. There's this other piece of that, that's the really the anatomical reason to use a prop, but there's this other piece to it. It's the symbolism that really jazzes me. I stayed out in the streets. I often say far too long because I was unwilling to receive support. I was unwilling to ask for help. Props are just this little way that I, for me, symbolizes asking the universe or telling the God of my understanding, whatever it is that you call that bigger energy, that today I'm open for support. Today I'm open to receive whatever support is being will that is offered. So that's our props. And with that, we're going to begin our practice. So I'm going to ask Callie to just sit tall to find her sits bones, remembering that whatever touches the earth is our baser foundation. Sometimes it's helpful to just take, if you're in a seated position like this, to take the fleshy part of your buttocks back just a little bit so that the sits bones more deeply root and ground. And then I'm going to ask that you close your eyes. Now for some, this is not accessible. And if you're one of those, it's perfectly fine. It's perfectly okay. The idea of this is to bring our focus and awareness inward. So you can do that by just gently lowering the eyelids. If it doesn't feel right for you to close your eyes, remember throughout this practice and really throughout life, you always have choice. You always have choice. So with the eyes softened, the attention and awareness inward, the invitation is to feel what's touching the earth. Again, whatever touches the earth is our baser foundation. Imagine that here your sits bones have actually grown roots and those roots extend all the way down. They break through the flooring, the concrete and extend down to the very core of the earth itself. At the core of the earth, from 6,000 miles beneath us, there's this magnificent, powerful, fierce energy. And the invitation is to imagine that your roots have tapped into that energy and that energy extends all the way back up through the spine. The spine elongates the top of the sacrum gently falls in the shoulders, the line above the hips, the chin is parallel to the earth and the crown of the head, the area that was a soft spot when you were a baby opens like the blossom of a beautiful flowers that reaches toward the sun. So there's this sense of rooting, grounding from below, opening to receive from above with a recognition that you're right here right now in the perfect place between heaven and earth. And then the invitation is to bring your awareness to the very tip of the nose. Start to notice the flow of the breath, the wind in and out of the body and begin to gradually and progressively deepen the breathing, deepen the inhale, lengthen the exhale until you reach your comfortable maximum breath, whatever that might be for you. Please breathe through the nose. Let the mouth stay very gently and softly closed. And as you inhale, feel the rib cage and the muscles between the ribs open, widen, expand, feel the belly rise. And then as you exhale, gently contract the muscles below your navel. You might even begin that by lifting the muscles of the pelvic floor and feel a progression of the exhalation from pubic bone to navel, navel to breastbone until the breath rises up and out of the body. Recognizing that breath is life and the more breath you have in your body, the more life you have in your body. More importantly for me, breath is the passageway to our deepest, deepest being is what connects the body to the mind, to the spirit. Throughout this practice, stay with the breath. Stay with your breath. And then just take a deep moment as you stay with your breath to connect in with yourself, what's present for you right now. And we begin this little check in with the, what the ancients speak of as the five bodies. So first just take a moment and scan your structure. Notice what you notice at the level of structure, the muscles, the bones, the skin, the connective tissue without judgment. Just notice. And then take a moment and notice your energy. Notice the quality of your energy in this moment. And then become aware of your mind. The mind is your field of attention. Notice the quality of your attention in this moment. And then we go on a little deeper here and the invitation is to bring your hands to your heart center and prayer hands. So according to the ancients, this is the area that holds our values, our motivations, our intentions, and the invitation always is to set an intention. Intention is the fuel of manifestation. And then we go on just a little bit deeper still. Now the ancients speak of this body as the heart body, but it's not so much the blood pump or the mechanical heart that they speak of. This is the heart that's a seat of love and joy and intimacy and devotion. And the invitation here is to connect in with something bigger, call it whatever you want, or you don't have to have a name for it at all. Some will speak of this as creative intelligence or higher consciousness, the God of your understanding, source, mother nature, doesn't matter what you call it, but take a moment and connect in with something bigger. And then we take a moment from gratitude. Gratitude is a powerful, powerful source for positive change. What are you grateful for? Lastly here is a little bit of service. So bring someone into your consciousness that may need a little extra support or inspiration. Presence them, picture them as if you can see them right there in your mind's eye. And then with me, take a big deep breath in. And as you exhale, gently let your chin fall towards your chest, your head towards your heart. Good. And then with your next inhale, open your eyes and lift up your head. Namaste, the light in me honors that in you. We are one. And now we'll come to all fours. So on our fours, all fours, our basis changed here. Primarily the bases are hands. Allow your wrist to be below your shoulders, the knees below the hips, unless there's something going on with the wrist and you can come to your knuckles. You might also come down on forearms. Know that that is always possible on all fours. If your hands are on the mat, please spread your fingers wide. Let the weight come just a little bit more toward the inner wrist and the outer wrist. Soften the elbows just a teeny bit to avoid locking the joint and bring the shoulder blades back and down and on your back. These are the principles that flow through every posture. And then come to your breath. And as you next inhale, gently moving with your breath, let the belly button drop toward the floor, lift your chest, find a stretch between the rib cage and the belly, and then exhale round your spine as if you're taking the shape of like a Halloween cat, shoulder blades spread tailbone roots. And again, with breath inhale, lift your heart to all fours. Good. Now with this exhale round your spine, bring the chest to the thighs and the hips go all the way back to the heels. Round the spine, chest to thighs, hips back to heels. And now as you inhale, lift your heart, come forward back to all fours. The home of the inhalation is the heart. Exhale round the spine, chest to thighs, hips to heels. The home of the exhalation is the gut. One more time that way. Inhale, come forward to all fours, leading with your heart rather than your head. And then exhale round the spine, chest to thighs, hips all the way back to the heels. So here we pause for a moment in this posture we call Child's Pose. Now we use Child's Pose in a very special way in Y12SR. It's one of our little interventions. Now here Child's Pose may not be the most comfortable posture for you if that's so. Know that it's really not about the posture, it's about the function of that posture. So you might lay over on your back, turn over, hug your knees in toward the chest. It's really the same thing in a different position of the body, a different base. Here though, know that this function is restoration. It's like the second step for the 12 step program. We allow ourselves to be restored to sanity. If you're like me, you can get insane in any moment. The idea is to pause. We call this the pause button. Pause. Allow myself to be restored to sanity. And the ancients have told us all we need to do is key in on our breath. Listen to our breath, it'll let you know. On or off the mat. If ever the breath becomes jerky, jumpy, fragmented, erratic, irregular, it's a sign that something in the nervous system is just a little bit out of balance. And very often all I need to do is pause, all I need to do is stop. Come back to my breath, it brings me back home. And the idea is that if I do too much of risk injury, when we do too little, we risk atrophy. The idea is always the middle path. The middle path is the wisdom to know the difference. You're always welcome in this class to pause. Always. Beautiful. So with your next inhale, the invitation is to come all the way out and lay out on your belly. Lay out on the belly. Beautiful. Now bring your hands to the level of your chest or breast. The elbows are lifted and then bring the elbows toward each other. That's going to help take those shoulders down away from the ears. Stretch your feet back long behind you. Toes stretch back toward the back wall. That firms up your base, which is now your hip bones. Allow your head to rest on the mat and you can turn it to one side or the other. As we repeat the posture, we'll alternate the turning of the head. Now as you next inhale, please stretch the feet back, engage your base, lift the head and chest from the mat. Head comes back to center as you lift and then exhale, lower your head, turn it to the opposite side. And let's do that again. Inhale, head and chest lift leading with the heart rather than the head. Exhale, lower, turn your head to the opposite side. One more time. Inhale, head and chest lift. This time stay here. Exhale, lift the muscles of the pelvic floor. Inhale, lift a little bit higher. Beautiful. Exhale, lower, turn your head the opposite way. Great. And then just pause for a moment here and notice. Just pause for a moment and notice. We love backbends here. Backbends are known for opening our hearts, but at the same time we have to have strength in our back. Both things are true. In order to walk in the world with an open heart, we need to have our own backs. We must have our own backs. We love yoga gives us that dual functioning, opening the heart and supporting our backs. Both things are true. With the next inhale, please come on up to all fours. Now with the next exhale, turn the toes under, lift up the knees and hips. We're coming up to downward facing dog. Beautiful. Now take a moment in downward facing dog. As a matter of fact, we'll come down one more time and come back up. Inhale, come to all fours and lift your heart. Exhale, turn the toes under, lift up the hips, downward facing dog. Now here, just take a moment and breathe. And again, recognize you're always welcome to come out of this posture. But we built downward dog from the ground up just as everything else. It all starts with the base, spreading the fingers wide, weight just a little bit more toward the inner wrist and the outer wrist, softening the elbows just a teeny bit to avoid locking the joint. When we lock something, energy can't move through.

The blades are backing on the back. The side body is long. The sitz bones which were on the floor are now up toward the ceiling. And as your tail is now high, sink the heels down low. Sink the heels low. Beautiful. Take another big deep breath in. Exhale it out with your mouth this time. Gently relax your jaw. And now as you next inhale, you can look between your hands and step or walk, float your feet up to your hands or walk your hands back to your feet. It's all good. Inhale, lengthen the spine, lift the heart, shoulder blades on the back. Exhale as you fold. And with your next inhale, reach the arms out to the side. Lead with your heart. You're coming all the way up. All the way up. Palms touch. Exhale. Bring in energy from above and right to your heart. And then just take a moment here. Pause. Let your eyes close very softly if that works for you. Otherwise just bring the focus inside. Take a moment and notice now. Just notice the current state of the physical body. Notice the current state of the energy. Notice the current state of the mind. And then come back to that sense of connection with something bigger. We're never alone. Come back to gratitude. A grateful addict won't use. Come back to intention. Come back to service. Can't keep what we have without giving it away. And then with your next inhale, release your hands down by your side and open your eyes. Take a moment and find your mountain right here.

Feel your feet as they connect in with Mother Earth beneath you. Beautiful. Hug the energy in. Muscle hugs toward bone. Root your tailbone down toward the floor. The side body is long. The heart is open and the back is protected. The chin is parallel to the earth. The crown of the head reaches to receive from all that's above. Feel your mountain. We practice these principles and all the postures like we practice the principles and all our affairs. Beautiful. And then as you root your feet into the floor, inhale, raise your arms up and overhead. Palms touch. Exhale, soften your knees and all the way over. You go all the way over hands to the floor or to blocks or to your shins, but ground your hands someplace. And then as your next inhale, lengthen your spine and lift your heart. Exhale, fold, bend your knees, step your right leg behind you all the way behind you. Now that right leg is long and strong behind you. Open up the back of the knee, what we call the window of the knee. Hug the energy and same principles. And then when you next inhale, lengthen the spine and lift your heart. Beautiful work. This is our first asymmetric posture of the practice. Can you practice the principles even when life throws us an asymmetry? It's not always going to go our way. Can I practice the principles even when things don't go our way? Beautiful. Next exhale, please step back to downward facing dog. And now look between your hands and step your right foot all the way forward between the hands. And again here, if it doesn't go, you can just hoist that puppy up there. Just hoist it on up there. What is important here, however, is the alignment. So once again, in this asymmetry, can I practice the same principles? Shoulder blades backing down and stable on my back, hugging the energy in, stretching out long and strong through that left leg. Beautiful. Inhale, lengthen the spine, lift your heart. Exhale once again, step back to downward facing dog. Take a big deep breath in. Exhale it out through your mouth. Let your jaw relax. This is the place where we have a tendency to store so much tension. And then with your next inhale, look between the hands. We can step or walk or float the feet forward between the hands. There are always options. You can walk the hands back to the feet. Inhale, lengthen the spine and lift the heart. Exhale, soften your knees as much as needed to bring the belly closer to the thighs. And then with your next inhale, raise your arms wall to wall. It's like you're spreading your wings, coming all the way up, palms touch. Gently look up towards your prayer hands. And then as you next exhale, bring that energy from above and right to your heart. And again, take a moment here and pause. Just notice body, energy, mind, and then come on back to connection, gratitude, intention, and service. We can always pause to keep coming back. Open your eyes, release your hands down by your side, and we're going to come into a side stretch, a lateral stretch. So again, finding that sense of mountain pose in the body, finding mountain pose in the body. With your next inhale, raise both your arms up and overhead. Both the arms are going to reach up and overhead. Good. Now take your left hand and wrap the fingers around your right wrist. You're going to wrap your fingers around the right wrist. Good. Now really root through your feet, root the tailbone, feel the side body nice and long. Take a big deep breath in, lengthen through your whole spine.

And as you next exhale, side bend toward the left. Good. Now you might take the palm of your hand and let it move toward the floor. Turn it down toward the floor. Good. Now again, big deep breath in, lengthen through the spine. Exhale, just see what you got to side bend just a little bit more. Know it's all an investigation. Lift the whole right hemisphere of your chest up. It's like your heart's reaching toward the sun. One more big deep breath. Exhale, just see what's available to come over a little bit more. And now inhale, you're coming all the way back up. Beautiful. Exhale and release the hands down by your side. And again, pause and notice, notice the difference between one side and the other. Oftentimes we don't even notice. Pause to notice. And then with your next inhale, rooting through your feet, lift both arms again up and overhead. Now this time the other way, the right hand is going to wrap around the left wrist. Again, turn the palm of the hand toward the floor. Good. Press through your feet, particularly on that left side. Inhale with the next exhale, side bend toward your right. Good. Another deep inhale, lengthen through, feel the crown of the head just lengthen. And then exhale, just see what's available to come over a little bit more. Good. Now with this next inhale, the whole left hemisphere of the chest just lifts just a bit, heart reaching toward the sun. Exhale over a lift, just see what's available. That's an investigation. And then inhale, you're coming all the way back up. Exhale and release the hands down by your side. Bring your hands right to your heart, pausing once again to notice. Beautiful work, everyone. Beautiful work. Join us again at the front of the mat. Pressing your feet into the floor, inhale and raising arms up and overhead. Exhale, soften your knees all the way over you go. Inhale, lengthen the spine and lift the heart. Exhale fold, bend your knees and simply step back to downward facing dog. Now with this next inhale, you're going to wave your body forward into the posture we call plank. So plank is like the top of a pushup, but notice that plank is really no different than Tadasana. The only thing that's changed is your base. The principles still all apply. Root through your base, shoulder blades are backing down and on your back, stretching long and strong through your body. Take one more long, slow, deep breath in, lengthen through your whole spine. And now you can bring your knees down if you choose or keeping your elbows in close to your body, slowly lower. Use your triceps to slowly lower until your whole body comes belly down all the way to the floor. Beautiful. Turn your head to one side. Take a big deep breath in. Exhale and let it out through your mouth. Relax your jaw. Inhale and come on back to all fours. Exhale and round the spine. Bring your chest to your thighs and the hips all the way back to the heels. Great. And here, just take a moment and pause. Breathe into your back body. Let the life force carry through the breath, the prana. Move into the lower rib cage, the lower lungs, the kidneys, the hips. And then as you're ready, inhale, come on up to all fours. And now as you exhale, simply turn over and lay down on your back, on the mat. As we prepare for deep relaxation, bring your hands down beside your body. Allow your palms to turn up. So this is a very special function. The head of the arm bone comes back, which is wonderful, but in this position is also as if I tell the universe itself, here I am today. I'm open for healing. I'm open for transformation. I'm open for change. Align the feet to reach toward the outer edges of the mat. Let the feet just drop open. Take a big deep breath in and then exhale it out through your mouth. Let your jaw relax. Release the unsaid. Do that again. Another big deep breath in. Exhale and let it go. And then let everything go. Let it all go. Begin with the muscles of the face. The muscles of the face express our personality in the world. And the invitation here is to even let your personality relax, to take this next few moments and step into the world behind your eyes.

Feel a sense of everything just letting go from the feet, the thighs. Feel a sense of the warmth and light, deep relaxation move through the spine, vertebra by vertebra through every disc, bone, muscle, nerve. So the energy flows freely through the spine and into every single cell of the being. The heart opens and as it does, we release any energy or emotion that no longer serves us worry, fear, resentment, judgment, attachment, release it to mother earth beneath you who gladly takes that energy. She'll take it and compost it, transforming into grace and joy and love and beauty and invite you to open and receive the shoulders, neck and arms. Relax the jaw, teeth and tongue. Notice the feeling of letting go. Notice the quality, the energy, the freedom of surrender. Let go and just relax. And now is the time for deep relaxation draws to a close for this class. Know that you can come back here any time you choose. This too is a matter of remembering to keep coming back. Bring your awareness back to your breath and deepen the breathing. And then as you already gently begin to wiggle the fingers and toes, slowly bringing movement back to the body, you may begin to rotate the ankles and wrists. And then as you're ready, just reach your arms up and overhead and get a good stretch from your fingertips to your toes. And then once more, bend the knees, hug them in towards your chest. Very gently roll to one side. Bring the top hand down in front of the chest. And as you're ready, pressing into that top hand, coming back to lift up to a seated position, feeling the sits bones, rooted in grounded, the crown of the head lifted. You might take a moment here, turn your palms up, let them very gently the back of the hands, resting toward the knees. Allow the tip of the index finger and the tip of the thumb to gently touch. Good. Well, speak to this mudra in just a moment before this moment come back to your breath. Take a moment here, make your inhalation and your exhalation the same length. And then pause very gently without gripping for half the length after the inhale. And then again, holding the breath out for half the length of the exhale. So once again, the inhale, exhale the same length, pausing for half that length very gently after the inhale, pausing again after the exhale. So this hand gesture or mudra, you know, this art and science of yoga, some 5,000 years old, many different lineages that represent the digits differently. One says that the index finger represents our individual consciousness or self will, small as self. And that the thumb represents universal consciousness, so big as self or God will, you might say. When the tip of the index finger and the tip of the thumb touch, this is let them merge. Let my will, God will merge. In Sanskrit, that's namo namaha, not mine. May it merge. Beautiful. And now just let your breath come back to normal automatic breathing. And we're going to end here with what I like to call the one minute meditation. Just one minute, one minute. So here's the invitation for one minute. Release thought. Now know that thought is going to come. Thoughts come out of nowhere, right? Know that they're going to come. But what I don't have to do is create or initiate a thought. I don't have to chase or pursue a thought, nor do I have to resist or fight one. Just let it go. I can just choose to let it go. So that's the invitation for one minute to release creating, pursuing or resisting a thought. And now release your hands. Please bring your hands right back to your heart center and prayer hands. Taking a moment here once again to pause and notice the current state of the physical body, the current state of the energy, the current state of the mind. And then coming back to that sense of connection with something bigger. We're never alone. Coming back to gratitude, a grateful addict won't use. We come back to intention. We come back to that little act of service ever reminding us that we can't keep what we have without giving it away. Please take another big deep breath in. Exhale, let your chin fall towards your chest, your head towards your heart. And with your next inhale, open the eyes and lift up the head. Namaste. The light in me honors that in you.