Core Practice

Welcome once again. Thank you. Thank you for being here for the core practice. The focus of this practice is energy. This is the practice where we look for this sense of reclamation of ourselves, reclamation of ourselves. So I'd like to ask you to begin seated. Find your seat. Sit small and rooted and grounded the crown of your head lifted. And then just take a moment and bring your mind into the room that you're in. Bring your mind into the room. Even if your eyes are closed, notice or feel the floor, the wall, the ceilings, the lights, the colors, the textures of the room that you're in. And then bring your mind onto your mat. See yourself in the room on the mat, exactly where you placed it with the clothes you know you have on and feel the fabric of the clothing touch your skin. Feel the space in front of you, behind you, above you, below you, and then locate yourself in space. And then bring your mind into your body. Let your awareness sit at the tip of the nose and start to notice the flow of the breath, the wind in and out of your body. Begin to gradually and progressively deepen the breathing. Deepen the inhale, lengthen the exhale until you reach your comfortable maximum breath, whatever that is for you. Breathing through the nose, the mouth is very gently and softly closed. As you inhale, again, feel the rib cage open, widen, expand, feel the belly rise. As you exhale, gently begin by lifting the muscles of the pelvic floor and then feel the progression of the exhalation, pubic bone to navel, navel to breastbone until the breath rises up and out of the body, remembering that breath is life. And the more breath you have in your body, the more life you have in your body. And then just take a moment and check in. Notice what's present for you in this moment right now. Check in with the body. Just notice the whole of the structure, the muscles, the bones, the connective tissue, the skin. Notice what's present without judgment. Take a moment, notice the quality of your energy in this moment. Notice the mind. Again, the mind is our field of attention and truly the most precious gift we have to give is where we give our attention, where your attention goes, your energy flows. And then we come in just a little bit deeper. So again, for this, the invitation is to bring your hands to your heart center and prayer hands. Good. Taking a moment here to come in to this area that the ancients speak of as housing or values or motivations or intentions, set an intention.

And then coming in just a little bit deeper. Now this is the heart body, not so much the mechanical heart. This is the seed 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 call this mother nature, source, higher power, creative intelligence, the God of your understanding. However it is that you relate to that bigger energy, call it in, call it in now. And then we take a moment for gratitude. What are you grateful for? Gratitude is a powerful force for positive change. And lastly, service. Bring someone into your consciousness that may need just a little extra support or inspiration. Presence them, picture them right in your mind's eye. And then with me, take a big deep breath in. And as you exhale, consciously send them out a little support, a little light, a little healing energy. And now with me, take another big deep breath in. And as you exhale, very gently let your chin fall towards your chest, your head towards your heart. And then with your next inhale, please open the eyes and lift up the head. Namaste. The light in me, I understand in you. So now we're going to move into a little bit of breath work as we move into our practice, actually a little Kriya that's known as Kapalabhati, Kapalabhati. So if you will, if it's available for you, we're going to sit in a posture called Vajrasana. So you'll come to sit with your feet behind you and your hips seated right on your heels. Now, for some, this is not so accessible. If it's not something that will often help is to take the blanket and put it between your hips and your heels. See if that works. If not, just come sit in a posture that's comfortable for you. Now with Kapalabhati breath, this breath, the inhale is actually passive. With the exhale, there's a gentle pumping of the belly. We're going to do one round of Kapalabhati breathing for 18 breaths, 18 breaths. And we'll take this at a very medium paced speed. And when we're done, I'm simply going to invite you to pause and notice, notice the energetic effect of the breath. Notice the focus of pumping the belly right below the navel. Beautiful. As we do this, allow what's called your Dristi or eye focus to be between the eyebrows and above the nose at that third eye point. So first, and if you, if it works for you, allow your eyes to close very softly. Keep that internal focus right between the eyebrows and above the nose. Take a big deep breath in. First, exhale this one out through your mouth. Let your jaw just relax. So take a big deep breath in. And as we exhale, we'll begin the pumpings. Big deep breath in. Exhale it out. Keeping the eyes focused between the eyebrows above the nose. Just pause and notice. Notice the effect of the breath in the body. Notice if you notice a relationship between that area, between the eyebrows, above your nose and that area right below your navel. Notice the energetic effect of Kapalabhati breathing. And then as you're ready, allow the eyes to open very softly and begin to transition to laying down on your back, on the mat. Beautiful. Now, if you have a strap nearby, this is a wonderful place in order to use it as we move into a hamstring stretch. There you are. So please begin with your left foot on the floor and extend your right leg all the way up toward the ceiling. Good. Now you might want to consider wrapping the strap around the arch of that right foot. Now, another option here should you choose is to wrap the hands around the back of the thighs or around the shins or maybe it's around the ankle.

But using a strap here is a really, really, really great option. Now take a moment here, a tendency here will be to jack up that right hip. It comes a little high. Just give yourself a little bit of awareness so that the right sits bone, the right hip crease moves toward your left foot. Extend long through your spine. Take a big deep breath in. And then as you exhale, gently guide your right thigh a little closer towards your chest, your right toes a little closer towards your nose. Do that again. Big deep breath in flexing through the right foot. Exhale, draw it in just a little bit more. Good. One more long, slow, big deep breath in lengthen through your whole spine. Now this time as you exhale, lift your nose up towards your knee as your head and chest comes off the mat. Beautiful. One more big deep breath in. Exhale, draw it in just a little bit more. Beautiful. Now as you inhale, release your head and chest back to the floor. Great. Release that right leg. Hug your knee in towards your chest. And then for a moment, hug both knees in towards your chest. And now your right foot will come to the floor as your left leg lifts all the way up toward the ceiling. Again, using the strap or your hands behind the thighs or shins, maybe it's the ankle. Take a moment, align. All right. So that left hip is going to move just toward your right foot. Take a big deep breath in as you do lengthen through your spine, flex that left foot. Now exhale, gently guide that left thigh a little closer towards your chest, your toes towards your nose. Another big deep breath in. Exhale, draw in just a little bit more knowing this is just an investigation. Another big deep breath in, lengthen through the spine. Exhale, let your nose come up towards your knee as your head and chest lift from the mat. Beautiful. One more big deep breath in, flex through that foot. Exhale, draw it in just a little more. Beautiful work. Next inhale, release the head, the chest back to the mat. Great. As you next exhale, draw that left thigh in towards your chest and gently now draw both thighs in towards your chest. Good. And then as you next exhale, turn over to the side, bring the top hand down in front of your chest and you're going to inhale and come on back up to all fours. Coming back up to all fours. Beautiful work. On all fours, finding our stability, spread the fingers wide, wrists below shoulders, knees directly below hips, shoulder blades back and down and on the back. Same principles. Softening the elbows just a teeny bit. Inhale, belly button drops, lift up your heart. Exhale, round the spine, bring the chest to the thighs and the hips all the way back to the heels. Do that again. Inhale, lifting the heart, come forward to all fours. Exhale, round the spine, chest to thighs, hips all the way back to the heels. Inhale and again come back up to all fours. Now this time extend your right leg long behind you. Flex your right foot. Now the tendency here will be for that right hip just to lift a little high. Keep, do your best to keep it level, keeping the sacrum level. And now with your next inhale, extend your left arm all the way out in front of you. Pinky reaching toward the floor. Good. Now just breathe here. Breathe here. Noticing the spine, the extension of the spine. Big deep breath in. Exhale, bend your elbow, bend the knee, bring them toward each other as you round the spine. Inhale, once again, extend long. Exhale, lifting the muscles of the pelvic floor, bring the elbow toward the knee. Inhale, extend the spine long. One more time. Exhale, bending the elbow, bring the knee, bring them toward each other. Inhale, extend the spine long. Stay here and exhale. Pull those muscles of the pelvic floor in. Inhale, really feel the extension. Exhale, release the limbs back to the floor. Beautiful work. Take a moment. Pause. Notice. Notice the two sides of the body. Just take a moment to notice. And now the other side. We're going to extend the left leg long behind us. And then the right arm all the way out in front. Good. Now take a breath here. Find the line between the right shoulder and the left hip. Imagine yourself as starfish. The limbs extending out from the core. And then with the next exhale, bend the elbow, bend the knee, bring them toward each other as you round the spine. Inhale, extend the spine long. Extend the limbs. Exhale, elbow toward knee. Inhale, feel the extension. And one more time. Exhale, bring the elbow toward the knee, rounding the spine, tailbone in. Inhale, extend the spine long. Now one more long, slow, deep breath. Feeling that connection from the right shoulder through the left hip. And then exhale, lower the limbs. Beautiful. Inhale, lift up your heart. Exhale, simply round the spine. The chest comes toward the thighs and the hips all the way back toward the heels. Take a moment here. Pause and breathe. Now sometimes if you allow the sides of the big toes to touch and separate your knees, it'll offer your low back a bit more of a stretch. And if you can allow the area between your eyebrows and above your nose to rest in as close to mother earth as possible. For me, it's this little symbolism. It's like my wisdom center, the area between the eyebrows, above the nose, connecting in again with the wisdom of the mother herself, of mother earth herself, allowing mother earth's wisdom to become a part of me. Good. Breathing deeply. And then as you're ready, inhale, coming back to all fours. And with the next exhale, turning the toes under, lifting up the knees and hips, coming up to downward facing dog. Great. We're going to do that again. Inhale, come on down to all fours. This time as you exhale, round the spine, chest to thighs, let the hips go all the way back to the heels. Inhale, lifting the heart, come up to all fours. And now exhale to downward facing dog. And one more time that way, inhale all fours, lift your heart.

Exhale round the spine, chest to thighs, hips to heels, connecting heart and gut. Inhale back to all fours and exhale to downward facing dog. Again here we hold down dog. You'll notice in the practice we do what's called repetition and then stay. So with repetition, we're retraining our neuromuscular patterning, just like you go to a gym and you do reps to build a bicep. With stay, we work with our physiology and our psychology. So we're working with patterns across all five of our bodies in the practice. And just notice in the stay, knowing that you're welcome to come out of this anytime you choose. Notice what goes on in the mind. Just notice this mat is a wonderful little sacred space to explore. There's this phrase, how we do anything is how we do everything. So I explored here on my mat so that I don't take pressures, any of those kinds of things out in relationship with my kids or with someone else. I can look at my patterns and habits, all these things right here. Great. Pressing through the hands, finding your foundation, softening the elbows, applying the principles. We practice the principles and all the postures like we practice the principles in all our fairs. Take a big, deep breath in. Exhale this one out through your mouth. Relax the jaw. And then as you're ready, look between the hands. You can step, walk, float the feet forward between the hands. You can walk the hands back to the feet. It's all good. Let your hands rest somewhere, either the outer sides of your feet, on your shins, on a block, all good. Inhale, lengthen the spine and lift the heart. Exhale as you fold. Inhale, reach the arms out on this side. You're spreading your wings, lifting your heart, coming all the way up, all the way up. Palms touch. Exhale, bring that energy from above and right to your heart. And then take a moment and just pause here and notice. Notice the current state of the physical body. Notice the current state of the energy. Notice the current state of the mind. And then consciously come back to a 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 ever reminded us that we can't keep what we have without giving it away. And then as you're ready, open your eyes and release the hands down by your side. And here we find mountain. Find your stability. This is the steeda, the sense of steadiness, the sense of foundation. Find your foundation. And of course it all starts with the base, whatever touches the earth. Feel your feet on the floor. Feel the crown of your head lifted up toward the sky. Hug your energy in. This is we reclaim our sense of self. Hug the energy in tailbone roots. Feel your side body grow long, heart open and back protected. Both things are true. Beautiful. And so now turn and step out wide on your mat. Good. And then turn both your feet. So the longer edges of your feet are squared toward the shorter edge of the mat. And then reach your arms out beside you, your palms facing the floor. Just notice if the palms of your hands are just directly in line with your ankles. If not, just step your feet out just a little bit more, just a little bit wider. Step out. Good. Good. And then from your elbow to your shoulder, hug in from your elbow to your fingertips, reach out. Notice that both things are true. I can hug in and reach out. I hug in to support myself. Then reach out and support others. Good. Really feel your feet rooted into the earth. Feel that connection. Hug your inner thighs toward each other. And then simply turn the front leg. So the femur turns in the hip socket. The front foot turns toward the side of the room. Beautiful. Root through the outer edge of that back foot. Take a big deep breath in, lengthen through your whole spine. And then as you next exhale, bend the front knee. Great. Now inhale, straighten the leg, press the palms together overhead, gently look up. Exhale. Once again, just see what's possible to come to a little deeper expression of warrior two. Once again, inhale, straighten the leg, press the palms together overhead. And now as you exhale, find your deepest expression in this moment of warrior two. And then take a moment. We've transitioned. Apply the principles once more. Root through your feet. Hug the inner thighs toward each other. Hug in, reach out. Beautiful work. And now with your next exhale, you're going to bend the front elbow, rest the forearm right above the kneecap. And then inhale, the back arm reaches up and overhead, palm down. Great work. Breathe deeply. Now the tendency here will let the underside of the body just curve and crunch in. Don't let that happen. Really reach right out through the crown of the head. And the upper side of the body, just lift your heart up a little bit more like your heart's reaching toward the sun. Beautiful. Now with your next exhale, take the top hand around behind your back. If you can catch the top of the front thigh, great. If that's not happening for you today, it's really no big deal. Just keep rooting that top shoulder back. Now with your next exhale, gently turn to look down toward the big toe in front. Keep the shoulder rooted back. And then one time just inhale, turn the head to look back up toward the ceiling with your breath very slowly. Exhale, look down. Just really giving some love to the back of the neck. Inhale, gently turn your head to look up. And then once more, exhale and look down. Now release that hand from behind your back. The fingertips reach up toward the ceiling, pressing to your feet. Don't come back up toward your two. You'll feel it in that thigh. I know. Beautiful. Inhale, reaching arms up and overhead, straighten that front leg. Palms touch. Exhale, turn that front foot in, bring your hands right to your heart. Beautiful work. Good. Now with your next inhale, reaching arms again out to the side. Now the foot that was in back is going to turn out, just turning that out toward the other side of the room. Take a big deep breath in, hug in, reach out, find the principles. Exhale, now bend. What was that back knee? Really root toward the outer edge of the foot and back. Inhale, straighten the leg, press the palms together up and overhead. Gently look up toward your prayer hands. Exhale in this moment, see what's possible to find a deeper expression. Inhale, straighten the leg, press the palms together overhead. Exhale and in this moment, find your deepest expression of warrior two. And again, really apply the principles. We practice the principles in all the postures. The tendency here will be toward that, for that front knee to kind of turn in. Don't let that happen. Gently encourage the knee to reach out just a little bit more toward the pinky toe. Great work. One more deep breath. And then with your next exhale, bending the elbow now in front, the forearm's going to come right over the kneecap. Inhale, the arm is going to reach up and overhead, palm down. Three long, slow, deep breaths. Really finding the principles. Root your tailbone toward the floor. The outer edge of that back foot really presses toward the floor. You'll feel the inner arch lift. The whole hemisphere of the chest reaches up toward the sun. And then with your next exhale, that top arm will come around behind your back. Allow the hand to come behind you, either to the top of the thigh or simply resting behind the back. Maybe the back of the hand on the sacrum. And then really give some awareness to that top side. The shoulder reaches back as the heart opens.

Exhale, gently turn your head to look down toward the big toe, keeping the shoulder rooted back. Inhale, turn the head to look up. One more time. Exhale, turn the head to look down. Inhale, gently allow your head, moving with your breath, to turn back up. Exhale, your eyes turn toward the big toe. Release that hand from behind your back. Inhale, the fingertips reach up toward the ceiling, keeping that knee in front bent. Inhale, reach back up to warrior. Two beautiful work. Just take a moment here and breathe. Root through your tailbone. We need this kind of strength, this kind of fierceness that this posture offers in our recovery sometimes. You know, we just need this sense of warrior. Warrior has their own sense of purpose and direction. Tap back into your intention right here. And then as you next inhale, rooting through your feet straight in the leg, press the palms together, your head, gently look up. Exhale, turn that foot in, bring your hands right to your heart. Beautiful. Take a moment and notice. Just pause and notice. Great. Now bring your hands to your hips. As you next inhale, root through your feet, lift up your heart. Exhale, you're going to slide the hands all the way down the backs of the legs as you come over into a wide leg forward fold. Now your hands can come to your ankles. They can come to the floor in front of you. Take several long, slow, deep breaths here. The tendency here will be to let the bottom, let your butt lean back. Don't let that happen. Let your weight come just a little bit further forward, more toward the front of the heel than the back of the heel. And then as you next inhale, lengthen the spine and lift your heart. Flatten the back. Beautiful. Exhale as you fold. Exhale and fold. And once again, inhale, lengthen the spine, lift your heart. Exhale as you fold. Good. Now just take a moment here and breathe. In this position, your heart's lifted above your head. Right? The heart doesn't have to work so hard to do its job of pumping blood to the brain. Just take a moment here and breathe. Great. Now bring your hands again around the backs of the legs, more toward the ankle. And then you're going to inhale, slowly rise, flattening the back. When the hands come behind the knees, really lengthen your spine, leading with your heart all the way up. Great. Heel, toe, your feet together. Come to the front of the mat. Bring your hands right to your heart. And then pause here again for a moment and just notice the current state of the body, the current state of the energy and the current state of the mind. And then come back to connection, gratitude, intention, and service. And then as you're ready, open your eyes, release your hands down by your side. Inhale, reaching your arms up, out, overhead, palms touch. Exhale, soften your knees all the way over you go. Inhale, lengthen the spine and lift your heart. Exhale, simply step back to downward facing dog. As you next inhale, gently wave your body forward into the posture we call plank. So once again here, let your shoulder blades come back and down and on your back. Find the principles even here. Plank is no different than Tadasana. The only thing that's changed is the base. Good lengthen right through the crown of your head. Now an option here is to put your knees down if you choose. Otherwise you're bending the elbows, slowly lower, slowly lower until your whole body comes belly down to the floor. Turn your head to one side. Take a big deep breath in, exhaling out through your mouth. Relax your jaw. Inhale, come on back to all forwards. Exhale, round the spine, bring your chest to your thighs, your hips all the way back to your heels. Take a moment here and pause. Pause and just notice. Inhale, come on back to all forwards. So the next posture we're going to come to is a posture called pigeon. And I'm going to guide Kali in from all fours. In your practice, if you choose to come into this from downward facing dog, please feel free. With your next inhale, bring your right knee forward between your hands. The right knee is going to come forward. So the knee will come to the floor. Great. You can bring the right shin more toward the front edge of the mat. It doesn't necessarily have to square the front of the mat. Know that. You just want it out from underneath the thigh. Press toward the baby toe side of that right foot. Now take a moment here and notice your hips behind you. We want to do our best to keep the sacrum level. The sacrum is a common injury point in yoga and we want to do our best here to keep the sacrum level. So if needed, a blanket, a block, some prop underneath that hip to support it, to keep it level is a really good thing. Great work. Now from here, come to your fingertips, inhale, lift up your heart. Exhale, float all the way over and we're going to do that just one more time. Inhale, come to your fingertips, stretch between your rib cage and your belly and exhale, float all the way over. Now here you can grab opposite elbows and rest your head there, or you might rest your head on a block or blanket or some other prop that you might have nearby. But here really in this posture, the focus is to come back to your breath. I want to invite you to make your inhale and exhale here the same length and then pause very gently after the inhale for half the length of the inhale.

Exhale completely and then hold the breath out very gently for half the length of the exhale. So the inhale and exhale are the same length and then you're pausing after the inhale retaining the breath in the body for half that length. Exhaling, suspending the breath out without gripping for half the length of the exhale and just continue to breathe that way. Let the life force carry through the breath, move into the lower rib cage, the lower lungs, the kidneys, the hips. Then this posture, this is much more of a yin posture. The warrior postures we were doing a little bit earlier are more yang, more assertive, more masculine if you will in their nature. These postures are more yin, more passive. But know that just because something is passive doesn't mean it won't get intense. The longer we're here the intensity for most tends to build right in that right hip. The invitation here is to notice what you can soften around the intensity. Sometimes you can't do anything about the intensity itself, but what can you soften around the intensity? What can you soften around the intensity? The hips are a place in the body where this is one of those places where the issues really live in our tissues. The invitation here again is to allow whatever wants to release the space to release. The beauty is you don't even have to know what it is. One more long, slow, deep breath in this moment. And then as you inhale, come all the way back up. Really find that stretch between your rib cage and your belly. Good. Exhale, slowly unwind to downward facing dog. Another option here is simply to come back to all fours. Inhale, lift that leg all the way up, stretch it back. Beautiful work. Exhale, bring that foot back to the floor.

Inhale, come on back down to all fours. Exhale, round the spine, bring your chest to your thighs, your hips all the way back to the heels. Great work. Again, notice the difference between the two sides. And then inhale, come on back to all fours. Either from here or from downward facing dog, you're going to bring your left knee forward between your hands. Good. The left knee comes to the floor and the left shin comes out more toward the front edge of the mat. Now again from here, simply checking in with your left hip. The tendency here will be for it to drop. If needed, the blanket comes underneath the hip. Working to keep the sacrum level. Coming to your fingertips, inhale, lengthen your spine, stretch between the rib cage and the belly. Exhale, float all the way over. Once more, inhale, lengthen the spine. Exhale, floating all the way over, grabbing opposite elbows here, resting the head, either on the arms on opposite elbows or blanket or block, whatever you may have there to support you. Now here, come back to your breath. Now just see if it's possible to make the inhale and exhale just a little bit longer this time, just a little bit longer.

Pause in again for half that length after the inhale, retaining the breath in the body and after the exhale, gently suspending the breath out. Again in this posture, after a while, the intensity will definitely build and for most it begins to build. Now it will be in the left hip and again the invitation is to notice what you can soften around the intensity. It's like life, life on life's terms. Sometimes we can't do anything about the intensity itself. The invitation is to notice what we can soften and we're all going to have intensity in our life. Sometimes it shows up like a financial crisis. Sometimes it may show up like a health concern. Other times it may be relationship related, divorce, death. We will all have intensity and sometimes while I can't do anything about the intensity in that moment, just accepting what is.

The invitation is to notice what I can soften around that intensity. Take another couple of long, slow, deep breaths allowing whatever release the body wants to have in this moment. And then with your next inhale, coming all the way back up, coming to your fingertips, finding that stretch between the rib cage and the belly. And then exhaling, slowly unwinding into the last downward facing dog of this class. Good. Now, the left leg rises. Just reach it up and stretch it long behind you. And with your next exhale, bring that leg back to the floor. Inhale, come on back to all fours.

Lift up your heart. Exhale, come on back to all fours. Lift up your heart. Exhale, turn over on your back and lie down on the mat. Beautiful work. Good. Now, please bring both your knees in towards your chest. Reach your arms out to the side as if you're making the letter T, and you might turn the palms up and just let your arms rest a little bit below shoulder level. So take some pressure off your shoulders. Now here, cross thigh over thigh. So we're going to go left over right, thigh over thigh. Take a big deep breath in, lengthen through your whole spine. Exhale, sending the knees over toward the right. Very gently turn your head toward the left. Good. Now, take several long, slow, deep breaths here. With every exhale, engaging those lower abdominal muscles, just with the intention of using that to stack the hips directly on top of each other.

And then as you're here, just take a moment and turn your head very gently from side to side. This always in my practice reminds me that I can say no, right? That no is a complete sentence, that I don't need to justify, argue, defend, or explain. Sometimes saying no is exactly what needs to happen to support me in my own self-care and recovery. Good. Take another deep breath in, lengthen through your spine, and with your next exhale, let your knees come back to center. Now release and reverse the cross of the legs. The knees come in towards your chest. Big deep breath in. Exhale, this time the knees will come to the left as the head turns very gently toward the right. Good. Now again here, several deep breaths, using those lower abdominal muscles to support stacking the hips directly on top of each other. And then one more time, just to practice, turn the head from side to side. Sometimes I need to say no in order to get to the yes. Beautiful. And then once again, with that next exhale, engage those lower abdominal muscles, let the hips come back to center. Release the cross of the legs, hug your knees in towards your chest. Now you might bring your hands to their respective knees, right hand on right knee, left hand on left, and gently circle the knees and make the circles as big or as small as in this moment feels good to your belly and your back. And then when you're ready, reverse the direction of the circles. Hug the knees into the chest one more time, and then one leg at a time, extend your legs out long on the mat, separating the feet about the width of the mat apart and let your feet just drop open. Hands down beside the body, head of the arm bone back. Take a big deep breath in, exhaling out through your mouth and relax your jaw. Good enough for just a few moments. Just let go, let go. And now begin to bring your awareness back to the breath, gently begin to deepen the breathing. As you inhale, feel, love, joy, healing energy, enter through the top of the head, guide that energy down the spine. As you let it begin to awaken the internal organs, begin to very gently wiggle the fingers and toes, slowly move the arms and legs from side to side.

And then as you're ready, reach your arms up and overhead, get a good stretch from the fingertips down to the toes, 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, press that hand into the floor to support you to lift back up to a seated position, feeling your sits bones rooted and grounded. Feel the crown of the head lifted up toward the sky. We're going to end this class with just a little bit of breath work and a little bit of a meditation. This breathing technique is called alternate nostril breathing. And we're going to begin by taking your right thumb and use it to gently close your right nostril. And then take particularly the ring finger of your right hand and just let it sit right below the gristle of the left nostril. And then very gently as if you're sipping through a straw, inhale through that left nostril. Now close the left valve open the right and exhale. Inhale through the right nostril, close the right valve open the left and exhale. That's one round. Inhale through the left. Close the left valve open the right exhale, long, slow and deep. Inhale right. Close the right valve open the left and exhale. We'll do one more round. Inhale through the left nostril, close the left valve open the right exhale. Inhale through the right nostril, close the right valve open the left and exhale. Beautiful. Now release your hands. We're going to bring them to what's called mandala mudra. So your left hand will sit underneath the right hand very gently on top with your fingertips toward the opposite wrist. And then just let your thumbs touch very gently, very gently.

All right. Form in that little circle there. This is known as the mudra of wholeness, the mudra of wholeness. And then for a moment, just let your breath come back to normal, easy, automatic breathing. Now very gently here, walk your awareness between your eyebrows and above your nose and then walk your awareness back to the middle of the head where you would imagine right in the middle of the head, the eyes, the ears and the nose meet. This is the limbic part of the brain. Imagine a field there and on that field, peace and serenity, equanimity live. Imagine an expansiveness, a vastness, a clearness here. And for a few moments, just let yourself rest in that openness, that vastness. And if there's any resistance to that, just notice that resistance is the mental and emotional energy that arises and contracts against life situations. Just notice that all thought, all emotion arises in space, that there's actual space around a thought or emotion. For just one moment here, allow yourself to find the space. Let your awareness rest in the space rather than the thought or emotion that might arise within the space. As we rest in the space, that thought or emotion will begin to dissolve.

We are the space. And I'll just let your hands come back to your heart center and prayer hands. So again, we end the class just the way we began it with our hands right here at our heart center and prayer hands, taking a moment to notice the current state of the body, the current state of the energy, the current state of the mind. And then we come back to connection, gratitude, intention, and service. Take another big deep breath in, exhale very gently, let your chin fall towards your chest, your head towards your heart. And now inhale and open the eyes and lift up the head.

Namaste. The light of me honors that in you.