Love in the Afternoon

Welcome to love in the afternoon. This is a balancing mid-day practice. If you remember the movie, the Audrey Hepburn movie with Gary Cooper and it's a big adventure. But you can just imagine this great romance. I think of the yoga practice, just of that, of meeting ourselves and exploring different aspects of who we are. We all have different sides, different qualities. So this practice is really aimed to meeting yourself in maybe some unexpected ways. And so we're gonna start by sitting up nice and tall. Make sure that you have some padding underneath your sitting bones. And this is called the Earth Witness Mudra. It's a grounding mudra to root down into your body and to become a little bit more present. For again those unexpected moments, small miracles, even if our days are just as they are, but being able to be awake. You can take your left hand into your heart for a moment and then even release your left hand down so that it's open and receptive. The saying yes to whatever life puts in our path. We're guided to listen. You can start by listening to the sound of your own breath. With the chin moving in towards the throat, it becomes a little bit more constricted so you can hear the sound of your breath, this audible whisper of the breath, this great romancing of the mind. You can sit up just a little bit taller. Then on your next exhale, breathe out completely. You can open your eyes and then begin to make your way forward onto your hands and your knees and take a few breaths in Child's Pose. So begin to point your toes, send your hips back towards your heels. I like to even stretch out my spine with your arms forward and that the third eye can come to the ground again, awakening this intuitive center. You can rock your head a little bit from side to side and take a few nourishing breaths and bowing to the earth to this childlike innocence even way we approach our life and then begin to rise up onto your hands and knees for a few cats and cows, nice spinal flexes to warm up your spine. So you'll breathe in to look up and then an exhale to round towards yourself. Again, breathe in, lift your gaze, look up and then exhale, turn the gaze in as the tailbone carves forward. Lift your tailbone up, lift your gaze, drop your belly, drop your heart, then exhale in towards yourself. You'll take one more deep breath in and then tuck your toes under. Begin to root down through the hands, slowly lift the knees, keep pressing down through all ten fingers to see if at the same time you can roll the shoulders away from the ears as you begin to lengthen the legs and drop your head. Pedal out through the feet, feeling all the sensations in your body that your practice is trying to get you closer to this deep listening and then begin to roll forward into a plank pose. Pause there for a moment, release your knees, your chest and your chin towards the ground. Point your toes, lie flat down on your belly, spread all ten toes on the ground and then press actively down to the top of the feet so that the heart can lift up into a baby cobra. Hug the elbows in, look up, get curious and then press back onto your hands and knees. You can walk your shins forward a little bit for child's pose. Rise back up onto your hands and knees, take your left hand center and then open your right arm up. You're going to weave the right shoulder to the ground and your ear to the earth. Lengthen your left arm forward so you can drag your left hip back and breathe into the right shoulder. Again with your ear to the ground a little deeper, tuning in, listening. Slide your left hand back and from here keep the left shin on the ground but you're going to stretch the right leg back and then place the sole of the right foot towards the ground with your right knee right underneath your right hip and peel open wide to the unexpected. Stretch your right arm up and over your head, arch backwards and circle the right hand down. Draw the right knee in towards the nose just to find a little lift through the low belly, a little spark. Stretch the right leg back, stretch the left leg back into a plank pose and then take both knees to the ground again followed by your chest and chin. Point your toes as you inhale. It's a baby cobra so really using the energy of the legs as well as the hands. Downward-facing dog. Roll forward into a plank pose and it's child's pose again. Back up onto your hands and knees, take your right hand center, peel your left arm open and then weave your shoulder to the ground. Take your head to the ground, stretch your arm forward peeking out underneath your right arm a little bit and then take your right hip back to lengthen out the right side of your waist. Slide your right hand back, stretch your left leg, seal the left heel to the ground and then open up wide. You take a little arch back as the arm reaches over your head, circle your hand and draw your knee in finding that little lift before you extend back into your plank pose and then straight back into downward-facing dog. Pedal up through your feet here a little bit and then keep it going as you take this nice long walk, stroll through the park. A little bend in your knees as you breathe in to look up and then fold into your legs as you breathe out and from here you're gonna reach down into your feet and then slowly rise on up to stand. You can keep circling the arms up to the sky and fill up and slide your hands to your heart and your arms by your sides into tadasana or mountain pose. Taking a couple of breaths there to stand up tall and open. Now on your next inhale, breathe your arms up. As you exhale, slide the prayer in towards center. You can already begin to bend your knees so that you're pouring forward and in gratitude over your legs to the earth and then extend your right leg back. Inhale to look up and then step into downward-facing dog. Inhale forward into a plank pose and here the option is for knees, chest, chin again or maybe see if you can keep lifting up through the belly and slowly lower down in one piece. Point your toes and rise up for cobra. Press down into your hands and knees and then lift yourselves all the way back into downward-facing dog. Stretch the right leg high, slowing down the breath, slowing down every movement to truly experience it. Step forward between your hands. Inhale to look up and then exhale to step forward. Rise up so it's one breath per movement and then release your hands by your sides. We'll take it over onto the left side, breathing in. As you exhale, pour the prayer forward over your legs. This time step your left leg back into a low lunge but let the hips sink down so you can fully inhale. Plant your hands down and empty yourselves out into downward-facing dog. Roll forward into your plank pose. Pause there to breathe in and then exhale lower yourselves down and point your toes for cobra. Exhale into downward-facing dog. Inhale your left leg high, so you're using the momentum of the breath to step forward as you exhale. Let the hips sink down so you can look up and press off the right toes to step forward and breathe out over your legs. Rise up to stand, breathing in. Release your arms by your sides. This time as you inhale, you're going to bend your knees to come right up into utkatasana. It's this powerful pose as you sink down and getting really, drawing all of your energy inside of the body. So the chin moves in towards the chest. You can draw the tailbone in, lengthen out to feel this incredible inner strength. Sometimes we don't know we have until we need it. We're called on. Take one more breath and then fold forward over your legs. From here you can step straight back into a plank pose. Hold. You can skip the vinyasa if you like or even as you bend your elbows. Maybe you'll hover over the ground for chaturanga. You can lower down for cobra or come up into upward facing dog with lifted thighs and long arms. Exhale your way into downward facing dog. Inhale your right leg up to the sky. Draw the right knee in towards your nose and then step your foot forward as you draw your back heel down. Spin the right hip into the left heel. Rise up into warrior one. Draw the right hip back. The left hip forward. As you sink down, press the palms up. Then open your arms wide again. This time interlace the hands behind your back. Take a big breath in to lift your chest. Exhale. Drop your head for devotional or humble warrior. As the arms come up and over your head you can always massage the backs of your shoulders and then as you rise up you're gonna free the left arm forward so that it can circle you all the way up as your right arm comes forward into warrior two. You can take a breath in to lift up a little and then exhale to sink a little deeper. You'll turn your right hand up. Tip backwards towards a peaceful warrior and then begin to straighten the right leg for a revolved triangle before you make your way into your triangle. So you can draw the right hip back. You can begin to release the right hand down and if you have a block handy it might be nice to use it. So it can come on the outside of the right ankle. You can choose your height and again experiment here in your practice. Getting curious. Press into the right foot and then begin to twist your chest open. So one hand is grounding into the earth like that great mudra and the other one open to receive the blessings, the adventures that life can be when we follow the signals. Take one more inhale and then put a bend into the right knee. Climb your right forearm to your thigh and extend your left arm up and over your head for extended side angle. So you can take the knee a little wider but the pelvis comes forward so that there's a slight back bend that begins to happen by pressing to the outer edge of your left foot and stretching over your head.

See if your shoulder can always slip away from the ear a little bit and then maybe even experiment with your hand coming a little bit closer towards the ground. We're going to take one more pose here in the sequins or vinyasa. You can start even by taking a half bind so that your chest is open and maybe keep breathing into the legs as you extend the right arm forward. Great romantic movies to reach out and then grab a hold of your block with your right hand. You can step the right foot back a little bit and then you'll shift the weight forward into your right foot and right hand. Lift your left hip. See if you can draw the front of the body to really support right where your forearm is and then you can maybe begin to let go of the left arm to the sky but keep pressing down present and then curious open to the possibilities. We'll take one more big breath in here and then bend into the knees as you come forward. Fold into yourselves and look up. You can step back right into a plank pose. Lower down and hover. Cobra or upward facing dog. Downward facing dog. Take a moment to reset before we take it over the whole adventure on the other side so your left leg up and high. Step forward between your hands. Seal the back heel and begin to align the pelvis and kind of organize it by drawing the left hip back. So as you rise up the palms can meet up and over your head. There can be a little bend so there's really this dual action of sinking down and extending up at the same time. Open up your arms. Take a breath in to lift the chest. Broaden across your heart and your mind and then exhale. Drop your head towards the earth. Take a breath in. Stay for a breath out. You're not rushing through anything. Really taking your time. From here you'll circle the right arm back behind you so that the left arm lifts. You can float up a tiny bit and then melt into it for the full experience. Tip backwards for a peaceful warrior. Open up the whole left side of the waist and then straighten out through the left leg before you reach forward. And again you can reach for your block. Experiment with the height here. So as you press down there's this natural extension upwards. Stay for a couple breaths. Play even with a little bit of movement and how the breath allows for some softness even in the steadiness. And shape shift right into your extended angle by bending through your left knee. Sliding the pelvis forward and then reaching your right arm over your head. See if both shoulders can slide back and then find your right hand behind you. Maybe for a half bind so that you can draw your right shoulder back. Twist open through the chest. Reach your left arm forward and then find your block for your artachandrasana or half moon. This balanced state of the shadow and the light for our wholeness. So you find the back body as well as the front so you open up. We're willing to see all sides of ourselves, all sides of others. One more breath in and then bend through both knees and place both hands down as you fold over your legs. You can shake it out here a little bit. Breathing in and breathing out. And slowly begin to rise up. You can put a little bend through the knees and then come on up to stand. From here we're gonna begin to come into tree pose. So you can move everything out to the side if you need your blocks and steady yourself towards the center of your mat and begin to shift the weight onto the left foot. We already played with a little bit of a balance. Hug your knee in towards your chest. The shoulders drop back a little bit and then you can begin to see if you can place the sole of the right foot high up to your inner thigh. If this is too high it can come a little bit lower but just avoid the actual knee joint there. These poses really call on us to be present. Let yourself fall. Maybe even close your eyes. Don't cheat. Okay and then take one more inhale. From here you can begin to stretch the arms out wide. Maybe if you want to try a little bit of a variation you can begin to see if you can reach for your big right toe. Find that same kind of half moon. Arch backwards a little bit and then for sure let yourself fall out. You can shake your legs a little bit and then find your right foot into the ground as you hug the left knee. Find your balance and your steadiness. Tree pose. You know trees are such great teachers as so many different seasons and they stay just rooted there. They just move with those different tides. We need a little bit more guidance around that. Your hands can come to your heart.

You can play with closing your eyes maybe and then extend the arms wide. You can stay here and breathe or you can reach for your right hip for a little bit more balance. Take a hold of your big left toe. You can explore lifting your knee up opening up wide. Arch backwards a little bit and then again maybe you'll fall out. Take a curtsy. Rise up to stand and then we're gonna play with actually doing that same tree pose but we're gonna take it in a different perspective. So we're gonna do side plank maybe adding on a couple of these newer variations. So come up to the top of your mat. Breathe your arms up to the sky. Fold forward. Bow down and then step back into a plank pose. You can absolutely take that first variation we explored with the shin down. Play with it again. You can maybe lift the legs. There's a bunch of different variations or for side incline plank you can take your left hand center a little bit to roll onto the outer edge of the left foot. You can tent the right fingertips to prepare and then when you're ready you're taking mountain on its side. You can play with taking tree by sliding the foot and then maybe by putting a little bend into the left knee you can even lift the right leg up. Twist the chest and then you can even drop out. Flip it over. Take a child's pose. You can shake your hips and then take it over to the other side. So you can keep the left shin down. Open up through the left arm or come into your plank. Find the twist so that you're over onto the outer edge of the right foot. Reach down so that you can lift the hips. This can be where you hang out as you're first exploring the pose and then when you're ready you can peel the left arm up. Variations might include tree where you can reach for your big toe and lengthen all the way up. Drop it and then flip it back over and you're in child's pose. Rock your hips a little bit from side to side and then come back onto your hands and your knees and into downward facing dog. Pedal out through your feet and then breathe your right leg high. Step forward between your hands. Rise up to a high lunge. So you're on the ball of the left foot for a high lunge. You can put a little bend through the knee as you reach up, let the hips sink down and slide the prayer to the center of your heart. Begin to twist over to the right side. I like to first put my left knee on the ground for a little bit of a resistance to twist the chest and to find that grounding and the alignment of the right knee over the right ankle and then from there you're welcome to lift the left knee. Arms can open maybe touching the ground in that gesture and then take your right hand to your right hip. This is another great opportunity for your block so we're gonna take that same Arda Chandrasana or Half Moon and revolve that one so to see a whole different side. If you haven't seen Love in the Afternoon you kind of have really a great movie full of lots of adventure and suspense, mystery, thumbs you can see. Where did all that go? Right here. So you can begin to open up as you extend backwards through the left leg, peel the chest open and then from here you can spiral around yourself, tuck the left knee behind the right ankle. This is too much for the knees or your right hips really lifted. You can lengthen your bottom leg and this can be a nice twist. You'll sit up nice and tall and then twist. Everywhere we look through these new, this new perspective. Both hands behind you, take your feet in front of you, float your hips up for a big breath out the mouth and release your hips down. Cross your ankles and make your way into Downward Dog. You're welcome to take a Vinyasa or simply pedal out through your feet and find your breath. The right foot center a little bit, float the left leg up, step forward and rise up into your high lunge, that little bend. Hands to your heart and then find your twist. Back knee, stack the joints, find the prayer to your heart, so it's conscious movement and then begin to lengthen. Play with the shoulder coming a little bit further towards the knees that your arms can open and then we'll make our way towards that Revolved Ardha Chandrasana, the Twisted Variation. Other side as you flex through the right toes. Breathe your left arm up, twist a little bit deeper and then spiral around yourself and take your right arm up and then twist. You can again, you can lengthen this bottom leg out and in front of you. Sometimes it's nice. I'll take this variation where the knee can be bent. Take a couple of breaths and to really twist and ring out through the spine with digestive organs. Come out through center, press down through the hands and feet, exhale through the mouth.

As you release your sitting bones down, cross your ankles, come forward into your hands and your knees. You can move your block out to the side for a moment and then exhale your way into Downward Dog. Again, pedaling out through your feet and coming back into that equanimity and balance that this pose brings us at any time. From here you're gonna inhale the right leg up. You can take a little bend into the knee to peel open through the hip. Then you're gonna come forward with your right knee high up to the back of the right elbow for a breath and then plant your right foot to the outside of the right hand. You can always help it along with your hands and then release the back knee down as we come into a pretty active hip stretch here. So you do want to roll a little bit towards the outer edge of the foot but then reconnect the ball of the right foot to the ground. Your hands can come onto your fingertips. You can keep the back knee lifted. These are all variations of expiration that these poses give us all different sides. Maybe your forearms can come down. This is called a Lizard Lunge. Nice and close to the ground. Move a little bit from side to side. Sinking down a little deeper and step back into Downward Facing Dog. Check it out on the other side. Roll open to the left hip. Take your left knee high up to the back of the left elbow and then plant your left foot to the outside of the hand. Again, come up onto your fingertips first. Allow the pelvis to sink down and your chest to lift. Maybe you'll release the knee down and come onto your forearms. Move a little from side to side and then really connect the left foot back to the ground and from there maybe you'll find a little bit of a lift. Take a couple breaths. You can rock forward and back and then take your hands back underneath your shoulders. You can slide the left foot back a little bit. You can use a little bit of a momentum off these right toes. So you can step the right foot forward and then allow your hips to sink down for Melasana or Garland pose. So these poses bring us so close down again to the ground, earth, to our lives. It can be such a great adventure when we're really here. So take a big breath in, breath out and then begin to release your hands to the ground and float your hips up. So we're gonna make our way into Crow pose or Bakasana and if this pose is new for you a block might be really nice to place underneath your feet because in this way it lifts the hips up already so that your knees can come up to the backs of your knees a little with that little extra height. So your toes are gonna have to come together. This is another variation of Melasana where the knees open up. You can stretch your arms forward and then if you'd like to try the arm balance, your hands are gonna come back to really squeeze your sticky mats with your fingertips and then use your knees to hug the upper arm bones in because sometimes we let the weight of the body drop down like a table and that's not really the action. You want to use all of this breath and the inner muscles and the inner strengths to actually lift you up from inside rather than letting the weight drop down. So you're gonna take it up, hug them in and there's all these parts of us that the yoga practice connects us to like these interlocks of energy or Bandhas. So draw everything in and up then maybe lift one foot, maybe lift the other foot just watch out for your head. Take a moment or two and then you can release down. So you can come off your block, you can have a seat on your heels and rest and shake it out. If that pose is new you can stick with it, you can try it one more time or maybe take the shape and experience it in a different way. So again the block can be super handy as you come up and perch. We're gonna take Parsva or side crows. This is the side of the right leg first. You're gonna find that same twist with the hands and prayer. This might be a nice place. You can find the mudra, touching the earth, opening up and then if you'd like to take it that one step further is the play to twist as much as you can over to the right. I like to place you know about halfway between your thighs where your left elbow comes so that when your hands come down you can play with this shifting of the weight forward into your hands and then hugging the inner thighs together maybe there's a play with lifting up. Come on over towards the center. Twist all the way over to the other side. Find your hands into the prayer so that you're really twisting from the base of the waist and then you can explore maybe taking your hands to the ground. Maybe lose the block because sometimes it's a little bit more uncomfortable and then play with shifting the weight forward. Lift one foot maybe the other and take a breath or two and then when you're ready to come out of it release down and you're gonna make your way over to a wall if you're not there yet so that we can explore building ourselves up towards headstands so the yogis really wanted to flip their perspective. They weren't trying to really 100% let's say stick these poses but sometimes when we get into that mind it's very limiting. So we love the structure in our poses and our practice and our lives but not if it constricts our freedom. So this is why the yogis decided to flip their perspective and to shake things up to see things in a new way. So starting out it's always nice to begin to first feel the weight into your forearms. Since we're going to be placing weight on the crown of the head you want to make sure that your spine is healthy and your neck is healthy so stick with the forearm stand and variation or the dolphin until you feel like your neck is strong enough. You're not putting all of the weight onto your head but we're building the strength up into our forearms to be able to place less than 50% of the weight on our head. So we'll start with coming onto the forearms. Your elbows can come underneath your shoulders and then interlace your hands so that you're making a little basket for where you're gonna eventually place your head. You can start by stretching the right leg out and then the left leg out. This is a forearm plank so that it's the weight in the forearms and then also the use of your navel or the great lifting up from inside as well as outside. From there you can begin to walk your feet forward for dolphin, a bend of the knees so that you can open up the shoulders and breathe into the back of the heart a little bit. You're welcome to play with lifting one leg up and down and up and down and release your knees to the ground and come up to sit for a moment and then for heads down a blanket can be nice to use especially if the crown of your head is sensitive but not so that it's folded too much. So you want to make sure that it's pretty compact and firm blanket that you have if you'd like to use one and then once your forearms are on the ground you don't want to move them so to protect the vertebrae of the neck. So you'll find that same shape using the wall and again the wall is here for support but not so that you begin to hop up. You still want to use all of that energy that we begin to build and lift from the navel to lift you up from inside rather than outside and there's no rush.

So first you'll place the crown of your head to the ground, play a little bit with rocking back and forth, forearms to the ground right underneath your shoulders and this is where you can stay even for the whole time. Just feeling the energy in the crown of the head now in the ground nice and rooted as you begin to lift your knees up and then slowly the next step would be to walk your feet forward just as far as they'll go. You can play with lifting up one foot and then maybe even finding the wall so that it's this wonderful organic movement into the pose instead of flying up before we're ready. So as you press down into the forearm you can even lift your head up to feel how much energy is in your arms and then gently place the crown of the head back down. To balance you do want to begin to draw everything in towards your center, engage the ribs, move everything in, reach your legs up so that there's energy even in your toes. And then when you're ready to come down bend one knee, see if you can keep the other leg up and the other one and slowly come down. Slide your hips towards your heels, rock a little bit from side to side and then rise on up to sit. From here you can take your blanket out to the side and then lower down onto your back. We're gonna take wheel pose so we're gonna start with half wheel and then again if you'd like to explore taking another variation, you know we only do advanced poses or take the we do so much repetition and yoga, the same poses again and again and again and again. The only reason is to take them to the next level is so that we can stay that eternal beginner and curious again. So we'll take half wheel and then if you feel like you're ready to take it up another step, you have a little setup here with blocks for the next step. You'll start with the soles of the feet on the ground, you can graze the backs of your heels to make sure they're close enough and it'll slide the shoulders away from the ears as you begin to press down, lift your hips up, interlace your hands, you can walk the shoulders a little bit from side to side and then you'll find that nice length through the back of the neck if there was any constriction through the headstand. Press down, lift up, good five breaths is nice here or as long as it feels comfortable and feels good after all that constriction contraction and then you can release your hips down. Stay for the results with this great release of energy and then you can take the same half wheel and you can even support your bridge with a block underneath your sacrum. If you want to explore coming up, the blocks are in this diagonal so that it gives a little lift and also begins to build strength in the wrist since this pose really uses a lot of, puts a lot of pressure on the wrist as they're flipped upside down and then the weight of the body is on the wrist. So you can start by lifting up to the crown of your head again, another little mini headstand but then hug the upper elbows in, hug the knees in with the toes parallel and then maybe begin to rise up by lengthening the arms. Take a breath or two, move a little forwards and backwards then slowly draw the chin in towards your chest as you lower down and let your arms release out to the sides, rock your knees, massage the lower back into the ground and then rock right over onto your right side as you begin to make your way up to sit and then from here you can move your blocks over to the side that can be here if you need them and then lower down onto your back. We take a couple of more passive poses now to finish so you can start by hugging your knees into your chest, rock a little bit onto your spine and then cross your right leg over your left so it really is like lounging in the afternoon. Just let the hip release, you can rock a little bit from side to side and then from here you can begin to draw the left knee towards your chest which will bring the right shin in a little closer and then you get to meet your hip a little bit more intimately as you give a hug of your left knee in towards your chest and make sure that your shoulders are still releasing towards the ground and play with a couple pulses so the exhale is what releases as you draw the shin in a little closer and then the inhale you can release the leg and take it about one more time like that maybe lengthen out through the left leg so that you can breathe into the back of the left leg. You can even play with walking your hands up, your foot towards your face and then from here wrap the right leg all the way around the left as we come into supinated twist so blocks come underneath your knees if it doesn't come all the way to the ground and then you can begin to peel the right arm open. So the pose is really supported, your body is so that you can tap into the breath. We get to meet ourselves and all our diversity and see the world and its diversity and others. The non-dual perspective. You'll take one more breath in here and come on up towards center. You can even hug the knees in for a little eagle egg and then take your left shin on top of your right knee. This is ankle to knee. First start by actually pressing the shin away from you and sliding the shoulders a little bit closer towards the ground so that the spine is really releasing into the earth and elongating. The shoulders can melt towards the ground and then you can play with a couple pulses keeping the knee moving away from you as the foot comes a little closer. Mindful that the hip isn't lifting up too much and begin to lengthen the right leg and breathe into the right hamstring. Lift yourself up and then you'll wrap the left leg around the right for a variation of the supine twist with these eagle legs that can even draw with the weight of the opposite leg. Allow for a deeper release in the twist.

One more big breath in. Exhale to release. See if it's deeper and then come on back through center. Roll onto your back. Give a hug of your shins. Lift yourself up and then rock all the way up to sit. You'll spin around one more time. I'll take a couple more forward bends. That same curiosity to look inside. So the first one is Janu Sherasana. Right foot will be in that tree flavor. The foot on the inside of the thigh block can come underneath your knee and then start by taking a little bit of a twist. So with the left hand behind you, you want to rotate the whole right side of the ribs forward so that both sides of the waist are lengthening. You can even look back a little bit before you come forward. You can put a bend into the left knee. You can also use a strap or something to begin to reach for your foot. But really it's not so much the back of the leg as it is lengthening the spine. And again joining the two halves together. Balance. You can close your eyes and listen to the sound of your breath. That deep whisper. It can sometimes even guide us. And follow the right arm all the way up and back. So you reach into the right shin for a counter pose and lift yourself up. Release your hips down and switch out your legs. Take your left arm up. Put that bend in the right knee if you need to find the rotation of the chest and come forward. Both hands can find your foot. Bend the knee and come forward. Resting your chest on top of your thigh. When you're ready to rise up circle the left hand behind you. Press down and rise on up. Release your hips down. This time you'll lengthen both legs out. It's nice to put a little bit of padding to support the backs of the legs and flex through your feet. Breathe the arms up. Again there's that hinging at the waist. So we want to try to avoid coming forward with a more rounded back. So sometimes the bending of the knees allows that spine to lengthen as you reach up. And then you can hinge forward. Even wrap your arms underneath you. All embracing. Shadow, the light, the mystery of yourself. Rise up. Circle the hands behind you. Point your toes. You can bend your knees or you can keep the legs long as you press down, lift up. Release your hips down. And so we're gonna end with a breathing practice. It's a balancing breath called nadi shodhana. So the nadis are the two main channels. We have many nadis throughout the body but they're two main ones in yoga. The solar and the lunar or in Sanskrit, Ida and pingala. And yoga is really concerned with this balancing of dualities. So whether it's light and dark or feminine and masculine yoga aims to join them. So sometimes one's blocked, sometimes the other one's blocked. Especially through this practice we get to clear them both out to experience more of this balanced and whole state. So you can join the feminine index finger of your left hand together as a focus point. Simply place it onto your left knee. Take your right index pointer finger and middle finger in towards your hands and then you're gonna use your right thumb and ring finger to alternate nostrils. Lips are closed gently, eyes can be closed and then I'll talk you through it and then we'll do a few rounds together before we sit and then relax. So sit up nice and tall, place your thumb lightly on your right nostril, your ring finger lightly on your left nostril. You'll practice breathing in nice and slowly, holding the breath for a moment and then breathing out.

Again a count of three or four but that there's equanimity regulating the breath and then breathe in but this time as you exhale you're gonna gently block off the right nostril and then exhale through your left. You'll inhale through the left side, pause, gently close off the left nostril with your ring finger, release your thumb and breathe out through the right. Inhale through the right, pause, switch and then exhale through the left. Inhale left, pause, exhale right, inhale right, pause, exhale left, inhale left, pause, exhale right. Release both hands down. You can do this practice anytime. You need to come back into a more balanced state, state of wholeness and sit together for just a few moments. Basic meditation and placing your mind on your breath and your eyes gently open, tiny bit opens within that fully closed where the inner and outer can meet. The cacophony of all the mind chatter stills and perhaps we can hear that whisper, take one more breath in and breathe out. You can stay in meditation if you're enjoying it, otherwise a few moments in Shavasana. The blanket can stay here supporting the backs of your knees. You let the weight of your body completely release, your shoulders melt down underneath you, squeeze everything tight, consciously let it go. Follow your breath a few times. You slowly even let that go deep into the mystery of what's beyond all that's rational. Welcome to stay here for a little longer in your Shavasana if you have time. Let's begin to deepen the rhythm of your breath. Breathing and living fully. You can move your fingers and toes, stretch your arms up and over your head. Hug of your knees and towards your chest. Rock on up to sit. Thank you for joining me today in your practice. I hope to see you soon. Namaste.