Side Crow Pose

Greetings, tribe. Welcome to this special practice for sidecrow, Parsha Babakasana. This is one of my favorite practices, and it can be really helpful for you to set up your mat near a wall, and if you have a couple of blocks, that can be helpful too. One thing to remember about arm balancing is that they are all hip-openers, a coiled arm balancing, that is, and they're all a play between stability and freedom. So let's enjoy together.

We'll come onto our backs to start, and to recline child's pose, we call this pose Apanasana, and you can just wrap your elbows around your knees, let your knees open up towards your shoulders and the feet drop towards your hips, and close your eyes here and take a couple of very deep breaths in and out of your nose, and just feel the curvature of your back and the features of your spine against the floor, the shoulders, the back of the head, and maybe roll your head from side to side to release your neck. Start to bring your awareness and your sensation into the back body. And as you inhale here, go ahead and stretch your arms over your head, and as you exhale, open the arms nice and wide, and palms can be facing up, and lift your feet up a little bit higher than your knees, and simply let your hips rotate to the left and draw the legs down to the floor into a release twist. And if this is a strain for your lower back at all, you can always take one of your blocks and just place it right between your knees, and this creates a little space for the lower back and the hips. Take a very deep breath here, and as you exhale, just notice where your feet are in relationship to the rest of the body.

Sometimes we go into a twist like this, and our feet are kind of tucked under us on the mat, and that actually puts our low back into a bit of an arch, so make sure your feet are off of your mat and onto the floor, and there's an open angle behind your knees. Take a very deep breath in here to your chest. As you exhale, draw the navel into the spine, squeeze the legs tight together, and slowly take it across to the other side, coming into a released simple twist on the floor. Deep breath in across the chest, and exhale, draw the navel in, draw the front ribs in, and slowly float it back over to the other side. This time we'll just hover above the floor, exhale, come back to the center, and then inhale, hover above the floor on the second side, and exhale, come back to the center.

We start to just activate our core a little bit by moving in and out of this dynamic twist. Our spine starts to accommodate towards the twist, and this is essentially the same shape that we come into as we move towards Parsha-Bhakasana, towards side-crows, so I like to, right from the top of the practice, start to just give the body that little bit of foreshadowing and preparation of where we're going with the practice. You can also start to roll your head from side to side in the opposite direction as you twist, inhaling into the twist, and exhaling back to the center, and that gives you an additional bit of layering, a little bit of a cranial sacral balancing as you rotate the head and the pelvis in opposition. Just take a couple more twists to each side, and see if you can start to match the length of your inhale as you twist to the length of your exhale. Breathing on the inhale, and exhale, and taking one more twist to each side, hovering above the floor, feeling that stability in the core, the freedom in the twist, and then coming back to the center and hug the knees into your chest.

Take a deep breath in as you stretch your arms over your head and reach your legs away from the midline, and then exhale, circulate the arms around, draw the knees into the chest. Once again on an inhale, stretch your arms over your head, and then exhale, coiling into the center. We start to feel that expansiveness of our energy reaching from the core to the periphery, and then coiling our energy drawing into the midline. From here, just take your hands behind your head, separate the knees, and lift your feet up a little bit higher than your knees, and as we exhale, we'll coil in elbows inside the knees, and as you inhale, open up and spread the elbows wide. Exhale, draw the navel in, inhale, extend long through the legs.

As you come in the third time, hold here, reach your arms to the sky, and just feel your knees touching the outer triceps, and it's that same shape of Bakasana, of Crow Pose, as we press our hands up towards the ceiling, draw the knees down towards the outer triceps, and the tailbone's coiling under. From here, let's inhale, stretch long, and then exhale, coil back up, inhale, stretching long, and exhale, draw the navel in, coiling back up to that same Bakasana shape. Just one more cycle, and exhale, coiling. Release your head down, wrap your arms around your knees, and roll your head side to side. So as we start to activate our core from our back and feel these arm balancing shapes come into the body, one of the things that we can be aware of is how our head acts as a pretty tremendous counterbalance to the rest of the body.

So let's come up into that Bakasana shape one more time. As you exhale, press your hands towards the sky, draw the knees down towards the triceps, towards the outer shoulders, and hold that shape, hold that coiling in the body, but allow your head to just tip back, and it might feel kind of heavy here. As you exhale, curl up a little higher, but keep the gaze looking back, and then release down. One of the important things that we work with in coiled arm balancing is where our focus is, where our Drishti is. So just so you can kind of feel that counterbalance of the weight of the head to the weight of the body.

Let's go ahead and open up the arms wide once again. Lift the feet up higher than the knees, and as you exhale, just tilt about a quarter way to the left hip. Reach your hands up towards the sky once again, and tuck your knees towards the outer opposite elbow as you inhale, stretch long, and as you exhale, coil up to the second side. And now we're just exploring that Parsha Bakasana side crow shape as we extend long through the body, and exhale, coiling up with a little bit of a twist, a little bit of lift through the side waist. This is again kind of an important activation to be aware of when we go into side crow is that lift and coiling through the side waist so that the weight of the hips are light on the upper body.

So just take one more to each side, feel that coiling, inhale to stretch long, exhale, coiling, and then stretch the body out completely on the floor, release, all effort, let it go, let your head go, let your legs and your toes go. Take a very deep breath in here, and exhale, release through the mouth. So from here, let's go ahead and start to make our way up to standing, draw the knees into the chest, and just start to rock and roll along the length of the spine from your shoulders to your hips and you can allow your feet to toss over your head and let it be a little bit playful, let it feel like a massage on your back as you rock back and forth. Just take that one more time, nice and easy through the spine, and when you come up, go ahead and pivot into hands and knees, place your hands right underneath your shoulders, your knees right underneath your hips, and as you inhale, arch your back, look forward and up, feel the fluidity in the spine, and exhale to round. And as you move back and forth a couple of times again, just feeling that kind of sense of expansion and contraction, opening of the front body as you inhale, and the opening of the back body as you exhale, inhale, and exhale, and then coming to neutral, walk your hands forward, spread the fingers kind of wide, curl the toes under and let's press back to our first downward dog of the practice.

You can bicycle pedal through your feet and knees, spread the toes, and just start to really feel that opening through the entire back body here, the shoulders, the spine, the hips, down the hamstrings, all the way into the soles of the feet. Even out your downward facing dog, if you'd like to take the feet nice and wide, that helps open up the hamstrings, maybe even bend the knees, and press from the hands upwards towards the hips so you get a nice long length from your hands all the way to the hips, shoulders rolling away from the ears, neck nice and free. Take a very deep breath in through the nose, exhale through the mouth, and then step the feet closer together. Let's go through a simple namaskar, I like to call this a pendulum namaskar, as you inhale, take the right leg to the sky, and then as you exhale, let's go ahead and coil the knee across towards the opposite elbow, so we feel that same lift through the sideways, inhale, reach it back and up, exhale, step it all the way through to a runner's lunge, inhale, come on up to crescent pose, and let's just pause here for a moment in this first crescent and feel again that sense of stability through the lower body with the inner thighs kind of hugging the midline, and then freedom through the upper body, freedom through the shoulders as you open up your chest towards the sky. Take a deep breath in here, on your exhale, come to a simple twist, left hand to the mat, right arm swings back and up like a pendulum, and that's your entire exhale.

On your inhale, return to crescent pose, reaching towards the sky, and then as you exhale, make your way through a simple vinyasa, just step back to plank, shift the shoulders forward, and let's lower down, this first one come all the way to the mat, inhale to cobra, and then exhale, reach back to downward facing dog. Take the left leg to the sky on a deep inhale, as you exhale, draw the knee across towards the right elbow, feel that lift through the sideways, inhale to reach back and up, and then exhale, step all the way through. Find the stability in your base as you inhale to rise, and a little bit of freedom through the upper body. Now to lift up through your heart, maybe even lift your gaze, and then exhale, simple twist, exhale completely into the twist, and then retrace your pathway, and inhale back to crescent pose, exhale down through plank, connecting same exhale through chaturanga to the belly, and inhale cobra, and we're just building a little pattern here, we'll start to flow through it a little more briskly, one breath, one movement, inhale right leg to the sky, exhale coiling across, inhale reach back and up, exhale step it all the way through, inhaling to rise, exhale simple twist, exhale all the breath out, inhale to rise, and this time as you pass through your vinyasa, maybe hovering in chaturanga, starting to feel the strength that we work with in our arm balances, inhale through upward dog, and then exhale down dog, left leg rising on an inhale, exhale coiling across, inhale to reach, step it all the way through, rising up with a little stability in the base, releasing back down a little bit of freedom through the spine, inhale return to standing, exhale release. As you move through this namaskar, one of the things you can start to work with to help focus your awareness is your gazing point, we call it the drishti, inhale the right leg to the sky, exhale bring your knee across, shift your gaze forward, inhale reach it back and up, exhale step it all the way through, inhale gazing straight ahead, and as you move into the twist maybe take your gaze to one point on the sky on the ceiling, inhale straight ahead, exhale hovering lightly kind of buoyant and chaturanga, open the heart, exhale downward dog, left leg rising, exhale as you bring your knee across take your gaze forward, inhale reach it up and back, exhale step it all the way through, inhale to rise, exhale see if you can take your gaze to that same point on the ceiling, inhale rise, exhale through your vinyasa, you start to feel a little heat coming into the body, into the breath, let's take one more round, inhale right leg rises, exhale bring the knee across to the elbow, inhale reach it back and up, exhale step it all the way through, rising to crescent pose on your inhale, exhale to your twist left hand down, right arm up, inhale return to crescent pose, and then exhale through your vinyasa connecting plank to chaturanga, inhaling to upward dog, exhaling downward dog, left leg rising on an inhale, exhale bring your knee across, inhale reaching it back and up, exhale step it all the way through, inhale crescent pose, exhale to your twist, exhale all the breath out, inhale returning to crescent and then exhale to your chaturanga, looking forward, inhale rising to upward dog and exhale downward facing dog, let's take a moment and come to child's pose, knees can be wide, big toes touch and just rest here, maybe make a pillow for your forehead, take a deep breath into the back body, exhale in completely and just relaxing your back, one more breath here, easy exhale gently sinking into the folds of your knees and your hips, let's go ahead and come back up to our hands and knees, curl your toes under press back to downward facing dog, hopefully you can already feel a difference in your body just from a simple practice of a little bit of core work and some specific namaskars, let's go ahead and inhale to the toes, bend your knees and look forward and step or lightly float to the top of your mat, lift the heart halfway on an inhale and then exhale easy forward fold, bend your knees slowly roll up to standing and as you roll up draw the navel center in, relax your shoulders relax your head and neck and once your shoulders are stacked over your hips circulate your arms out and up, we're standing up, we're winning, at the top of the inhale hold on to your left wrist and then stretch up and over to your right, just opening up through the side waist a bit here, take a full breath in as you reach a little bit longer up and over to your right side and then as you exhale bend your knees and continue to side bend all the way down into utkatasana, looking forward open up the arms and reach your arms alongside your ears, take a deep breath in as your upper arms move back alongside the ears and then exhale forward fold, release your head and neck, inhale lift the heart arda utkatasana, exhale forward fold utkatasana, bend your knees slowly roll up your spine, be really generous here with your rolling through the spine, take your time, enjoy it and once you come to standing circulate the arms out and up and take hold of your right wrist, side bending up and over to your left, deep breath in as you get a little more length on the right side of the body and then exhale bend your knees come all the way down through the side bend squaring off the shoulders and the hips and then open up your arms into utkatasana, deep breath in as your upper arms move back and then exhale separate your knees open like a diamond and come down into malasana yogic squat and so like we mentioned before when we move into any of the coiled arm balances they're all hip openers so just this shape alone just being down with your shoulders inside your knees is a preparation for bhakasana, for galavasana, side crow any of the coiled up arm balances so if we walk our hands forward and just relax our head down we're already in the shape or in the what we call the krama the progression of bhakasana and you can stay here for a moment or two and just release the back body completely notice the feet the big toes touching the heels touching and your heels might be up off the ground but they're reaching towards the ground on your next inhale look forward towards your hands stay low and deep inside this shape but draw the hands towards you so the elbows drop directly below your shoulders and from here we take the knees to the outer arms to the upper triceps and lift up onto the tippy toes and shift forward and just take that a couple times this little movement progression of shifting up and forward is essential in arm balancing because sometimes we set up our hands too close and then we're kind of like where do I go from here so give yourself a little bit of space to shift forward and to transfer your weight forward and then back down notice the gaze is forward at least two feet in front of you and you can continue with that shift forward and back or if you'd like to shift forward and lift one foot up you can do that and we're just starting to prepare the body for that sense of counter balancing and it's such a an interesting interplay between stability and freedom here let's take both feet up now so squeeze your knees lift up and pull your heels up towards your hips feel that coiling of the lower body in the core and the gazing forward and openness of the chest in the gaze stay for a couple of breaths and keep your gaze steady when you're ready step back or float back to chaturanga open your chest exhale downward dog take a very deep breath in and exhale completely and your bakasana may or may not feel stable it might feel a little bit fragile and like you're on the edge of a cliff or a bubble about to burst and that's okay that's kind of one of the interesting things about it shift forward to plank for a moment and then exhale back to downward facing dog step the feet close together on an inhale right leg rises to the sky and let's go ahead and open the hip and bend the knee so you get a little counterbalance opening through the front of the hip and the quadricep on your next inhale stretch the right leg long and as you exhale need a chest shifting forward to plank let's thread the right leg across and off the mat into a fallen triangle and so the outer edge of your foot comes to the floor and the back heel turns flat and rather than releasing the weight of the hips down keep a coiling and lift through your side waist and it's that same sensation that we're working with inside crows so just feel that there you can take your left arm to the sky and take a couple breaths keeping the hips lifted keeping the side waist engaged one more deep breath in as you reach your top arm over and then exhale reach back to down dog right leg high exhale step it all the way through and set up your feet for warrior one so the back foot's going to come on to a like a 65 degree angle inhale to reach forward and up into Virabhadrasana one and as you exhale bring your right hand to your hip and draw the left elbow across to the twist so we keep sequencing in lots of twists prepare the spine and the hips for side crow you can draw the hands together or make a fist with your bottom hand and drape the top hand over and rather than sink down in the bottom shoulder press down through your hands to lift your chest up allow your right hip to pull back take a full breath in and as you exhale bring your awareness back to your side waist and see if you can feel that coiling through the side waist but the lengthening through the chest take another full breath in here stay for the exhale getting a little longer through your spine inhale to the coil exhale lengthen and then slowly come back up to warrior one as you inhale exhale release your hands to the mat spin on the ball of the back foot and lower your back knee down we'll shift back for Ardha Hanumanasana half split and you can wiggle your front heel forward a bit walk your hands forward and go in for the deep dunk three deep breaths here on your next inhale lift your gaze bend your front knee shift forward into a low lunge and to exit out let's place our left hand flat we'll pivot the back shin to the left and come into a kneeling Vasisthasana and again we're just feeling that sideways to lift that's so key for our Parsvabhasana so lots of preparation to set yourself up for success as you inhale reach your top arm alongside your ear get a little bit longer and then exhale release to downward facing dog shift forward to plank on your inhale exhale lower down hovering and chaturanga inhale to upward dog exhale downward dog and let's enjoy the second side inhale the left leg to the sky exhale draw the knee to the chest and let's thread through to fall in triangle so outer edge of the left foot comes to the floor back foot turns flat I oftentimes like to touch my own sideways so I can feel that lift of the hips rather than the drop of the hips and then reaching up deep breath in spread through the fingers and the toes and let the top arm reach alongside your ear and feel that support of the sideways on the left side and the openness of your body on the right side deep inhale as you exhale come back through downward dog left leg is high and step it all the way through to warrior one base we inhale to rise exhale left hand to the hip squaring off your shoulders your rib cage draw your elbow to the outside of your side and we just start to work and experiment with our range right notice where you have freedom in your body where you have stability as you draw the hands to the heart and start to turn into your twist just feel that play of the lift and coiling of your sideways and the stretch in length of your spine and take a couple breaths here sometimes I like to add a little bit of a pulsation inside the body as you inhale coiling in and as you exhale expanding out coming back to warrior one on your next inhale and exhale release your hands down spin on the ball of the back foot set your knee down and shift back our to Hanuman and this is such a great counter pose to just release when we go into arm balancing not only does it help really generate a very focused state of mind but it also tends to bring our energy up into you can refer to it as the Virarasa like the energy of the warrior as you go into arm balancing so inside of a practice like this you want to offer a lot of grounding to yourself and opportunities to just release and get calm feel the beat of your heart feel that wonderful kind of simmering of potential inside of you any little bit of free form movement that you like to include inside your release here definitely invited and then to exit out let's bend the front knee shift forward plant your right palm under your shoulder pivot the back shin to your right and come into your kneeling Vashti Stasana again just feeling that support that sense of being held from underneath and that openness and release of the upper body top arm reaches alongside your ear full breath in really fill your fingers your toes your ends and then exhale make your way back to downward facing dog and let's put a period on the end of that sentence with the Vinyasa so we'll shift forward to plank lower down Chacharanga inhale upward dog exhale downward facing dog from downward dog inhale to your toes bend your knees step or lightly float to the top of the mat lift your heart halfway exhale forward full bend your knees slowly roll up your spine surrender your shoulders your head your neck and then inhale expand touch your palms over your head and exhale dry your hands to your heart so we've had lots of preparation into twisting and hip opening and let's start to get into the nuts and bolts of side crow now and so if you take yourself closer to your wall you can set yourself up so that you're about a forearms distance from the wall you can place your hand on the wall and kind of approximate your elbow to your waist and then step your feet close together and let's bend the knees and come into chair pose Utkatasana on an inhale as you exhale bring your hands to your heart and come into your twisted chair bring the elbow across the thigh plant your palms together and reach your chest forward just like we did in Parthva Konasana press your top hand into your bottom hand to facilitate the twist now from here you can take your hands to the wall stacking the right hand above the left hand and somewhat in line with the shoulders and lean into the wall a bit here and you're essentially in the shape of sidecrow just a different relationship to gravity so notice if your hip is kind of dipping towards the wall keep the lift through the side waist and reach your chest forward notice if your right shoulder the top shoulders dipping down press it back and try to equalize the weight in the hands and just take a breath or two here just feeling the shape one more breath you can press the hands downward towards the floor to kind of gently traction the twist a bit and then come back to a forward fold just release relax your head and neck maybe shake your head a couple knots yes couple shakes no bend your knees and slowly roll up your spine coming all the way to standing reach your arms forward and up as you inhale and then exhale hands to your heart and let's take the second side so just take a little about face once again measure your forearms distance from the wall elbow towards the waist bring your feet together and bend your knees inhaling into your utkatasana exhale to your parivrta utkatasana your twisted chair taking your right elbow to the outer left thigh and then turn and look at the wall as you bring your hands to the wall stack the left hand over the right shoulder width apart make sure they're not too close and we're just kind of setting up and grooving some lines of kinetic energy in your brain and in your body here so feel the side crochet notice if the hip is dipping to the wall just pull it back roll the top shoulder back reaching your heart forward couple breaths right here you can turn the gaze right remembering that we have this wonderful range of motion through our neck sometimes in arm balancing we can get stuck in certain positions but just allow some freedom through the base of your skull and take a very deep breath in as you exhale release into your forward fold inhale lift the heart halfway exhale release bend your knees slowly roll up your spine one vertebrae at a time reach forward and up on an inhale exhale hands to your heart and let's come to the center of the mat and if you have some blocks handy you can take your blocks and we'll use them just to start to transition our positioning from the wall down towards the floor so we're going to be moving through the same position just starting to change the relationship with gravity so bring your feet together bend your knees come into your ukhatasana on an inhale exhale hands to your heart take a twist to your right keep the connection of your left elbow to your outer right thigh because this is the perch that the lower body sits on when you start to move into your side crow and then from here bring your hands to your blocks and notice that i did not place my blocks next to my feet but rather they're about a foot away so you want to give yourself some space to lean just like we did in our crow pose lean forward and then shift back and just take that a couple times feeling that transfer of weight that stability of the lower body into the hands and just once more just kind of feeling that transition and pathway come into your forward fold relax your head and neck inhale lift the heart exhale release let's take our blocks to the other side of our base don't set them up too close give yourself somewhere to go and then slowly roll up your spine coming all the way up to standing inhale reach your arms up exhale hands to your heart bend your knees come into ukhatasana for the second side inhale exhale take a twist to your left and just again notice where you plant your elbow is high up and deep into the outer left eye as you can and then just start to drop the hips a little bit bring your hands to the blocks and shift in and out as you shift in and out notice it's not a shifting down but a forward with the gaze a forward with the chest and a lift through the sideways so it's a lot of preparation it's a lot of practice but i always say to myself it's as important to know how to climb the tree as it is to be up in the tree so we're just learning how to climb come back to your forward fold release your hands inhale lift the chest halfway and then exhale forward fold bend your knees slowly roll up your spine and by now you're just itching to come into your side crow without any blocks without anything else but your own wonderful bodies exhale bring your hands to your heart and let's set the blocks aside it's totally possible to move into side crow with the blocks but let's see how it feels to come all the way down into gravity and bring the hands on the earth so bend your knees come into your ukhatasana exhale bring your hands to your heart twisting to your right same setup and because we're bringing the hands lower we need to bring the hips a little lower so if your knees allow it you can come down into a squat here onto the tippy toes and then take your hands not right next to your feet but a little bit away from you give yourself somewhere to go give yourself a little space and start to shift your weight forward feel the lift through the sideways and the feet will just float maybe one foot lifts maybe both gaze is forward and feel that wonderful balance of stability and freedom it's so fragile it's just a moment here it's like a bubble about to burst and what happens if your bubble bursts nothing you get back up you blow another bubble so let's come back into forward fold inhale lift your heart halfway exhale release roll up your spine reach the arms forward and up exhale hands to your heart let's take the second side bend your knees inhale to chair pose exhale twisting to your left slide way up on the tricep and then come down to your tippy toes lower the hips take your hands away from you give yourself some travel here as you shift forward gaze forward and let the feet float and just feel that steadiness that fragility and that stability and when you're ready come back to your forward fold separate your feet hips width apart inhale lift your heart exhale slip your hands under your feet coming into padahastasana bend your elbows and release your head and neck and just take a moment here we're going to come into side curl one more time but just take a moment here kind of play the piano with your big toes on your the heels of your hands give your wrists a little bit of release with each exhale draw yourself in a little bit deeper shoulders lifting away from the base of the skull and then release your hands bring the feet closer together inhale lift the heart halfway exhale fold bend your knees roll up your spine let's take this last cycle and connect it through like its own special vinyasa so as you inhale reach up exhale hands to your heart bend your knees come into utkatasana on and inhale exhale twisting to your right lowering the hips down take your hands a little bit further away from you give yourself a little travel space and then just float like a floating bubble and then coming back gracefully easily to your forward fold and hopefully it makes sense in your body inhale to lift the heart exhale release your spine bend your knees and roll up inhale reaching to the sky exhale hands to your heart bend your knees come into utkatasana and as you exhale twist and again hopefully the twist feels easy and natural now lots of preparation lowering the hips and there's a great quote by john wooden that success is when preparation meets opportunity so just feel your preparation feel the opportunity here to shift forward into your balance and the success is inside the effort not inside the shape slowly releasing coming back to your forward fold inhale lift your heart exhale release and just wrap your arms around the back of the legs maybe separate the feet and i'd like to slide my hands through and to the front of the shins but really any clasp any deep forward fold here is fine and as you exhale just drop in drop down and let go and then let's slowly release the hands heel to the feet a little bit wider apart toes turn out heels draw in and bend your knees coming down into malasana and draw your hands to your heart let your hips drop down let your heart lift and feel that sense of gravity and ease in the lower body like you're being held by the earth and that freedom and openness in the heart take a deep breath here exhale completely and then release your hands down we're going to come to seated you can tuck one knee underneath swing your legs nice and wide for a little upavishta konasana wide leg forward fold and you're welcome to elevate the hips on a block or a bolster or just to sit flat upon the earth and start to walk your hands forward a little counter posing for the body it's been a lot of coiling in and drawing inward and so as we start to round out our practice it's nice to go the opposite direction and to create a little openness and speciousness so come down any amount you might stay lifted or you might come all the way down to the earth whatever works for you and again it's not about the shape itself as much as what's happening inside of it as much as it is within our our willingness to show up to it so just find a a place where there's a little bit of ease a little bit of effort little sweetness a little saltiness and take a couple easy breaths here and you might find with each exhale that you can release a little deeper and staying for about two or three more breaths grounding down spreading out upon the earth and releasing using your hands to come back up to upright seated position walking your hands in and you can draw the legs towards one another center yourself on your mat will come into one more counter pose with your blocks or with a bolster a pillow works for a supported easy restorative backbend so you can set your blocks up like this or your bolster lengthwise and then just recline back so that the medium height block supports the thoracic spine and the taller block supports your head let the soles of the feet come together the knees open release your arms wide and close your eyes and again it's this wonderful opening like a lotus flower here the complete opposite shape that we were in in our bakasana and parsva bakasana so really release into the support of the blocks the support of the earth beneath you again feeling that sense of being held but being free at the same time and enjoy a couple deep breaths here and noticing the quality of your energy now and how all these shapes and really methods of practice that we interact with they're a very special very potent medicine for us and they create sort of this alchemy inside so just kind of noticing what this type of practice initiates for you internally how do you feel inside how does your body feel it's the inner state of your nervous system i'm just taking one more deep easy breath here so let's make our way out of this shape take your hands down to the outer knees draw them to the midline plant the feet flat on the mat and then rolling to one side to press yourself up off the blocks and we'll take the blocks out of the way so that we can recline fully for shavasana so go ahead and come down flat on your back and give yourself a lots of space here spread out the feet a little bit wider than hips width apart and roll the legs in and out relaxing the hip flexors take your arms out to the side and turn the palms face up close your eyes and roll your head side to side once or twice and so you find the center of the back of the skull maybe draw the chin and just attach and just again feel the curves of your body in relationship to the floor beneath you very deep breath into your heart open expanse of the chest the heart center and as you exhale just relaxing deeply into the palm of the hand that is the earth beneath you that open palm um allow yourself several long moments to rest here together in shavasana so so so so start to deepen your breath send a little bit of movement to your fingers and your toes feeling your ends and on your next inhale reach your arms over your head reawakening stretching long through the fingers through the toes and as you exhale draw the knees into the chest give yourself a little bear hug here and then rolling over to one side impress yourself up to a comfortable seated position and you draw the hands together at the heart into anjali mudra and leave a little bit of a space between your palms whatever special intentions or dedications that you might be working with in your personal practice in your life just hold them here between your palms giving that energetic commitment of support and stability to whatever you're working with but also the freedom to grow take a deep breath in through the nose exhale completely through the mouth thank you so much for sharing your presence and your practice and your sense of humor and adventure with me today namaste