Brahmana Practice

Welcome, so I'd like to share with you today a Brahmana practice and we're very lucky to have Malia with us here to demonstrate and this practice, the Brahmana types of practices are about increasing vitality, increasing or building energy, one of my teachers calls it pranafying and they can be very provoking to the sympathetic nervous system. In this practice we'll be building the breath, especially the inhale phase of breath and we'll be doing breath ratios. If at some point the breath feels too strong for you or you're starting to grasp for your next breath, please know that you can take a recovery breath in between or make the breath slightly smaller until you can join us once again. So I'd like to actually start on our backs, so Malia will come down onto her back here and just pick a comfortable starting position, I like Shavasana. So take a few moments to adjust anything that needs to be adjusted, I always think it's nice to stop before we start.

So you can take maybe just a minute to scan the physical body, you notice the sensations in the physical form, maybe you feel a tingling somewhere, a warmth, maybe you feel an area that's a little bit congested or an area that feels quite spacious. It's taking a before picture. And turning the mind towards any emotional coloring mood, maybe a particular repeating thought, peace of your thoughts, just noticing without having to change it or fix it or judge it as somehow not yogic, again just a snapshot of this moment of now. Turning the awareness towards your own breathing, without yet having to change it or fix it, begin to note where you feel the breath, maybe in one particular area of the body, you might feel it at the tip of the nose, through the nostrils, we'll begin allowing the breath to deepen, taking larger, slower sips of breath in and out of the nose. And we'll start as the body becomes more welcoming to this deeper breath, we'll start giving it a little bit more direction.

So can you feel on your inhales if the breath is descending down through your body, the body and throwing its doors open to receive the breath, the spine lengthening, the ribs opening, the collarbones filling, lightning, almost as if they're turning upwards into a smile. And on an exhale can you feel the pelvic floor and the lower belly moving in towards the sacrum and slightly up like an arrow back towards your heart. So the longer breath in, drawing down through the body, lengthening the spine, opening your ribs, the exhale pelvic floor, lower belly moving in and up like an arrow back towards your heart. And then we'll start to layer some movement on this breath. So as you find your next inhale, reaching your arms up and to the floor behind your head, flex through your feet, drawing the inseams of your legs together to touch, draw back through pinky toe and big toe, tail towards your heels.

And then exhale, reach your arms up and down back by your sides, relax through the roots of your legs, letting your belly move in and up. And just two more times like this, inhaling slightly before the movement, carrying all the way through to the height of the movement, spine lengthening, ribs opening, legs active. And exhale all the way through the movement as you lower the arms. And maybe there's a touch of the exhale left at the very end of the movement, relaxing through your thighs, belly moving in and up. One more time, letting the breath inspire the movement, envelop the movement.

So it's born from breath rather than kind of the mind just trying to get it done or get on with it. And the next time, as you exhale and your arms lower down, we'll pause there and we'll bend one knee at a time and place your feet onto the floor. And the feet could separate about hip distance apart, fairly close into your tush without having to jam them in at all. Arms down by your sides, you can turn your palms down to the mat and we'll just turn this breath into a floating bridge. So inhale, you're going to press your feet into the floor, reach your arms up into the floor behind your head as you lift your pelvis.

And then as you exhale, you'll lower the spine, lower the pelvis and return your arms down to the floor. We're going to start building now the breath. So the next inhale, as you do this movement, see if you can find a five count inhale and just counting on your own five slow counts for your inhale. And then slowly exhale, don't worry about the count, just slowly exhale as you return back with your pelvis on the floor, arms by your sides. The next time, see if it's possible to take a six count inhale, just do the best you can and maybe you liberate a little bit more space in your chest, through the spine, through the upper lobes of your lungs and then exhale again, slowly just exhale as you lower pelvis and arms down by your sides.

Let's try two more like that, the next one maybe it's a seven count inhale to lift you all the way up, slow exhale as you lower. This last time maybe it's an eight count inhale as you rise, just do the best you can if you need a recovery breath in between, that's always okay. Beautiful, now as you rest here for a moment, just pause, relax your breath, just notice any shifts, we'll bring the knees in towards your chest and one hand on each knee kind of perching on the knees with your fingers facing down towards your shins. And imagine as if your sitting bones were like little eyeballs and they were pointing or looking downward rather than peeking up, so your sitting bones and tail stay fairly heavy into the mat, the whole length of your spine long. Take a version of Apanasana, so inhale, reach your arms up into the floor behind your head and this time flex through your feet and draw the soles of the feet up towards the ceiling and keep your sitting bones heavy and any amount of straight legs that you can work with.

Exhale, bend to your knees, return your hands to perch just lightly on your knees, belly moving in and up towards your heart. Now try this a few more times, see if you can inhale, reach your arms up into the floor behind your head, flex through your feet, draw back through big toe and pinky toe at the height of the inhale, see if you can hold, just pause. Exhale slowly bring your knees back to your chest and the hands back onto the knee. Let's try two more just like that, long inhale to flex the footprint up towards the ceiling, arms overhead, maybe find the very height of your inhale and you just pause maybe just for one or two beats of your own heart and then you exhale and bring your hands back to your knees, thighs, to your chest. One more, inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale, pause the mind just resting in the heart and exhale, thigh bones towards your chest, belly stemming in and up towards your heart, slowly lengthen your legs back down the mat, we'll flex through both feet and then walk your feet, your legs over to your right so you can walk just your legs over to the right as far over as you feel comfortable with.

Keep your legs quite active, the inner seams of the legs drawing together, draw the pinky toes back towards you and feel like the inner thighs pinned down towards the floor. Now you're going to keep your legs where they are and just do a little shoulder shimmy also over to the right, so almost like you look like a little banana. And then we'll sweep the right hand onto your lower belly and reach your left arm up and alongside your ear and try to keep both chest cheeks equally weighted, both shoulder blades equally weighted and then inhale, feel maybe somewhere along the left side of your body beginning to open between the ribs, between the ribs and waist, waist and hips, hips and feet and then exhale, feel the belly move away from your palm towards your sacrum and up towards your heart, quite strong beginning to emphasize the movement of the breath, inhale as the breath descends down, body opens, you're liberating a little space and the exhale, you hold that grandness but the belly moves in and up back to the heart, one more breath here and then just reaching your left arm up and back down by your side and do a little shoulder shimmy back towards the center of your mat and walk your feet back to the center of the mat and then take just 10 seconds to recognize if there's a difference between the sides, a difference in the breath, a difference in your mind and take the other side walking both side of your feet over to your left as far over to the left as you comfortably can, we're gonna keep the legs quite active, flex back through big toe and pinky toe side of your feet, drawing your inner thighs both together and down towards the mat, do a little shoulder shimmy also over to your left, again so you kind of look like a banana shape in your body, your right tush cheek, your right shoulder blades staying rooted down, your right arm up and alongside your left hand on your lower belly and a few very deep explorations of your breath, inhale perhaps you feel somewhere along the right side of your body, expansive, exhale you feel that lower belly move away from your hand kind of sandwiching in towards your sacrum and turning upwards towards your heart, two more deep breaths and we'll return the right arm back down by your side, you can do a little shoulder shimmy back to center, walking your feet back to center and then bending your knees in towards your chest, as you're ready we'll roll gently over to the right side in a fetal position and keeping that more internal focus we'll start to rise up onto the hands and knees, from hands and knees we'll move back tucking the toes and lifting your seat into downward facing dog, take a few moments if you'd like to pedal through your feet or make any adjustments that feel necessary in this downward dog and then I'd like you to be still, so study any of the extraneous movements, you can study the gaze at one point between your own feet and reconnect to the depth of your breath so the inhale still moves from crown down the body, spine lengthening the ribs opening the collarbones getting lighter, brighter and the exhale moves the lower belly in and up towards the heart and we'll start to rise up onto the tiptoes so there's lots of room back behind you and then just take a very slow walk to the center of your mat and then you can gently start walking your hands back towards your feet, you can soften your knees enough that your whole front body touches your legs, the head heavy, we'll bring the fingertips to what I call the knee pits, the kind of the armpits of the knees, the back of your knees and just the fingertips no need to strangle them, that's it, inhale we're going to grow the spine long reaching the crown of the head forward and you can keep your knees soft so you maximize the space in your spine and exhale stay here as your lower belly firms and moves up towards the heart, you can bring the chin ever so slightly in creating a baby double chin so you feel extra space in the neck and lower spine, inhale now reach your arms forward like superman flying and you can keep your palms facing one another, breathe in create length behind your heart, breathe out bend your elbows to a cactus shape right alongside your shoulders and spring the belly strongly in and up, inhale again reach your arms forward lengthening the space behind your heart, exhale elbows into a cactus shape charge the belly in and up, take two more inhale inhale inhale inhale inhale getting long, exhale belly moving in and up, one more time inhaling reaching long through the side seams of your body, exhaling elbows into a cactus belly moving in and up we'll fold down over the legs take a moment just to soften and now reach your arms forward of your head with an incredibly long spine you're going to come all the way up to stand reaching fingertips crown of head up to the ceiling and then exhale stay standing just reach your arms forward like a sleepwalker and then down by your side's belly moving in and up take a type of utkatasana everyone's favorite so inhale reach your arms forward and up stay standing and then exhale sit your tush into chair pose sitting back into your seat staying in chair inhale lengthen the space behind your heart now stay in chair but exhale hinge from your hips and fold forward over your chair legs and keeping your lower body in chair inhale reach your arms forward of your head and lean the heart back into chair exhale sit a little lower or just think about sitting lower as your belly lifts in inhale rise up to stand reaching fingertips and crown up to the ceiling exhale once more sitting your seat into chair pose belly rising as you sit we'll try with stretching the breath so inhale for five counts as you lengthen the space behind your heart and then a long exhale as you hinge forward over your chair legs now try a six count inhale to reach your arms forward of your head and lean the heart back towards your thoracic spine chair and a long exhale to think about sitting lower actually sit a quarter of an inch lower whatever works try now a seven count inhale to simply stand tall reaching up through your fingertips straightening your legs coming up tall one more time like this exhale sitting your seat into chair pose or what my teacher calls I ain't got no chair pose inhale lengthen the space behind the heart try a five count inhale descending down opening your ribs exhale hinging over your chair legs keep your chin slightly inward so we're building almost like putting a lid on a boiling pot of water building and pronifying this heart region inhale reach the arms forward of your head six count inhale to sit back into your chair long exhale to just sit a little lower as your belly rises an arrow back towards your heart try a seven count inhale as you come all the way up to stand and this time stay standing just exhale reach your arms forward like a zombie and then down by your sides one hand over the other hand over the heart for a moment close your eyes relax your breath and just feel maybe there's a vibrancy around the heart tingle somewhere and let the eyes start to flutter open relax the arms down by your sides you're gonna step your right foot forward to the front of your mat and then just scoot your left foot back we're gonna take a version of triangle so you can open your hips and shoulders more or less to the side of your mat or side of the room a reasonable stance between the legs you're gonna reach your right arm up towards the ceiling and your left arm will stay down by your sides just flip your left palm forward this way your left shoulder blade stays snuggled on the back now on your next inhale reach your right arm in the crown of the head forward lengthening over that right leg and then exhale simply bring your right hand down onto your shin your shin can press back into your hand so it stays participating now we're gonna move the left arm so inhale reach your left arm up and alongside your ear and bow the left side of your body again that kind of banana spine the hand might dip below your head and then as you exhale just return your left arm up and down by your side and zipper the lower belly in and soften your left ribs in creating a longer spine and do this a few times inhale taking your left arm up and alongside your ear opening through the left side of your body filling that left lung and exhale return the left arm down by the side of your hip lengthening out through the crown and push you pull the belly in and up let's try pause after the inhale so inhale take your left arm up and alongside your ear inhale inhale inhale inhale inhale pause mind so zoomed in the heart exhale returning the left arm back down by your side the belly firming in and up one more inhaling left arm sweeps up and alongside your ear filling the left side seam pause exhale left arm back down by your side belly moving in and up now keep your left arm where it is inhale reach your right arm up bring it parallel to the mat getting out some of the wrinkles on the right side of your shirt exhale use your left belly your left obliques to come all the way back up tall lower both hands down we'll pivot the right toes in and we're just going to pivot to the other side so spin your left toes out this time we'll reach the left arm up towards the ceiling we'll keep the right arm down by your sides turning your right palm to face forward slurp the muscles of the legs up lifting your torso up off of your pelvis off of your legs inhale now reach your left arm forward towards your left toes lengthen out over your left leg and then exhale just place your left hand down onto your shin your shin pressing back into your hand we're gonna move the right arm so inhale take your right arm up and alongside your ear and bowing the right side of your body hand might dip below your head and then exhale return the right arm down by the side of your hips soften the right ribs into the heart and do this a few times maybe pausing at the height of the inhale so inhale so much that you feel your collarbones lift your ribs expand the space behind the heart fills the exhales you return the arm the belly moving up just take two more like that inhale inhale inhale inhale inhale inhale inhale and in that pause not a grasping but a suspension a fullness exhaling arm back down towards your hip last one inhaling opening through the right side body pause mind and the heart exhale arm back towards your hip keep the right arm still now inhale reach your left arm bring it parallel to the floor wrinkling the left side body and then exhale use your right obliques to come all the way back up tall we'll lower both hands we'll move the left toes parallel we'll spin the right toes towards the front of your mat the next place we'll move is into a low lunge so pivot your back heel up and then bend your right knee we'll bring the hands down to the floor you can soften the back knee down to the mat and then bring your hands up to your front knee if you're comfortable and in this lunge we're going to come slightly out of the lunge of the depth of the hips you bring your hips back a few inches until they arrive right over your left knee now if this is uncomfortable for your knee you're welcome to flip up the edge of your mat or slide a blanket underneath there we'll take the left arm up alongside the ear and asymmetrical so reach up a little bit more through the left side of your spine good we'll lower the left arm just down by your side here for a moment now inhale you're going to move your hips forward coming deeper into the lunges you reach your left arm forward and up inhales the breath descends you get taller even though you're getting lower to the floor and then as you exhale come slightly out of the posture hips back over that left knee as you return your left arm forward and down belly moving in and up let's try with the breath inhale five counts inhaling deepening the bend of your right knee sinking your pelvis forward lengthening up somehow you're getting taller exhale coming slightly out of the pose return the arm zippering the belly up let's try six count inhale just doing the best you can let's try a seven count beautiful so we're going to just now exchange the side so you can bring your hands down to the mat and just bring your right knee back to meet your left and we'll step the left foot forward and steady yourself squaring your hips towards the front of your space and then as you feel steady bringing the hands up to the front knee it's migrating the crown of the head back over the base of your spine and then send the torso back coming slightly out of the pose so your hips are aligned over that right knee and thigh and reach up a little bit more through the right side of your body the whole right hemisphere of the back fills we're gonna lower the right arm just down by your side to begin and then with your own breath inhale sink a little bit deeper into the pose reaching your right arm up and alongside your ears the breath travels down you're getting taller bigger more welcoming to the breath exhale coming slightly out of the pose as you return your right arm back down and bring the belly in and up maybe feeling two inches taller as you do this inhaling maybe it's a five count inhale as you sink lower breath filling inspiring the exhale holding that space as your belly rises to meet the heart let's try a six count inhale and one more a seven count inhale again if you ever need a recovery breath in between no that's totally okay beautiful and we'll return the hands back down to the mat this time we're gonna tuck the back toes under lift the back knee and we'll move into downward facing dog and take a moment you can even let the breath pause here and feel whatever there is there to feel your next inhale it's deep in the breath and we'll roll forward into a plank position and we'll take the whole exhale to lower the body into the mat so resting now onto your bellies you can keep your hands framing the sides of your chest let's inhale lift your head chest and right leg away from the mat head chest right leg away now keeping your chest lifted exhale bend your right knee with a little resistance from your hamstrings keeping the knee lifted if at all possible inhale restreaten your right leg floating your breastbone a little bit more forward then exhale lower head chest and right leg down to the mat left side inhale lifting head chest left leg again keeping your chin slightly baby double chin exhale keeping the left leg lifted bend your left knee trying to keep the knee facing the floor inhale restreaten your left leg your body getting longer as it receives more breath exhale return everything down to the mat one more time each side like this inhale lift head chest right leg exhale bending the right knee heel moving in towards your seat belly rising inhale restreaten your right leg breath lengthens you fills you exhale lower everything to the floor left side inhale lifting head chest left leg exhale bending your left knee as your belly rises almost like there's a cold penny underneath there and you're lifting it up inhale restreatening your left leg heart floating forward exhale return down to the mat both legs inhale lifting head chest both legs off the floor legs could stay hip distance or closer for more of a challenge exhale bend both knees heels in towards your buttocks trying to keep your knees lifted if possible inhale straightening both legs we're gonna stay lifted exhale again bend both knees belly moving in two more times inhaling receive the breath in ribs floating exhale bending both knees belly like an arrow back to the heart last one inhale straightening both legs exhale bending both knees inhale straightening both legs float a little higher still with more breath exhale lower down to the floor you can create a pillow with your arms under your head you can relax your heels open and close the eyes relax your breath maybe you feel the beat of the heart against the floor the pulse a reminder of your aliveness and your capacity let's turn now the forehead down to the mat we're gonna bend the knees and reach your hands back towards your feet if it's not comfortable to make that connection you're welcome to do this with straight legs now we'll take down your asana inhale lifting your head chest and legs away from the floor again chin baby double chin exhale here lifting your belly in i'm going to switch it up just slightly so inhale come just a third of the way out of the pose now exhales the belly charges up to the heart come up to your highest aspect of the pose and just do this a couple of times inhale come slightly out of the pose now from the exhale and the belly charging up reach up through your feet reach up through the back of your head last one inhale come slightly out of the posture exhale exhale exhale exhale lifting to your highest shape stay here inhale fill the capacity of the heart exhale lower down into the mat relax your feet relax your arms if you can remember turn the opposite cheek to the floor pause feel bring your hands back to frame the sides of your chest turn the forehead down to the mat and we're going to come into a child's pose but quite safely for the lower back almost like a so-called girl's push-up terrible name but people tend to know that one you know press the hands into the floor engage your belly press up hands and knees and then draw your tail back towards your heels into child's pose you can have your knees together or knees wide whatever works for you and then staying in this child's pose start to walk your arms and your torso over to the right side as far over as you'd like and just trying to keep reaching your left sitting bone down towards your left heel staying low if you walked over to the right walk yourself forward and then walking the arms and the torso over to the left and keeping in opposition the right sitting bone reaching towards the right heel feeling kind of the right hemisphere of the back melting inwards towards your heart softening down if you walked over there to the left walking your arms forward and walk the hands closer in towards your knees for better support you can let your head stay heavy engaging your belly as you roll slowly up to sit on your heels and then we'll just swoosh the hips over to one side untangle the legs out from underneath you and come to the most comfortable seat that will work for you for just a few minutes lining the crown of the head over the base of your spine closing your eyes being your left hand resting down you'll lift your right hand and take the right index finger and middle finger on the forehead the right thumb and fourth finger little bit above the crease of your nose right at the end of the bony cartilage relax the muscles of your face and jaw take a moment to just breathe in and out through both nostrils and then just gently close the right side of your nose with your thumb and take a long breath in through your left nostril and inhale more than you think you can lifting your ribs lifting your collarbones even a micro shrug of your shoulders and then close both sides of the nose bring your chin slightly in and pause at the height of your inhale again mind just falling inwards towards your heart and then as you need to you'll exhale through your right nostril just a slow easy breath out and you'll inhale through the right nostril again inhale a little deeper than you think you can rising up a little taller lifting your collarbone sip a little extra breath in close and there's a pause not a holding or grasping and then you'll exhale as you need through the opposite side continue on for just a few rounds like this nadi shodhana alternating the flow of breath nadi shodhana alternating the flow of breath as you next exhale you can keep your eyes closed and just return your right hand down onto your knee or thigh let the breath adjust on its own the mind again be subsumed in the light of the heart no need to try or force anything but just the density of your presence in that heart space in that place of fullness luminosity radiance I'll bring the chin down towards the chest and bowing towards your heart allow the eyes to just easily open and then just with great care begin to come down onto your back for your shavasana can make yourself comfortable if you'd like to place something under your knees or over your body for warmth or grounding give yourself a few minutes just to marinate in the benefits of that practice in that tending back towards your own heart so Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're remaining still and just bring your awareness back into your body. Without moving quite yet, just be aware of any sensation that you can identify in your form.

You can think of it like an after picture. Just any certain emotional coloring, the state of the mind. Just your new moment of now. Begin to deepen the breath. Loosen the body gently, wiggling your fingers and your toes.

You feel ready for larger movements, bending your knees, placing your feet to the floor. Rolling over to your right side and just rest in a fetal position, you can create a little pillow with your right arm for your head and just stay here, giving yourself some time to honor the time that you've dedicated to your practice, the level of your engagement in that practice and the experience that's born out of that engagement. That's really the experience of you. Keeping your eyes closed, you can press your left palm into the floor and just lazily bring yourself back into a comfortable seat. Bring the palms together in front of the heart, bowing your head to your heart, and in some way bowing down over your legs, you're bowing down to your true teacher, your inner teacher in Sanskrit, it's umboloshri satt grubhagavanki jai.

Namaste.