Laghana Practice

Welcome. So I'd like to share with you a longana practice, and the longana practice will be more pacifying or relaxing or internalizing, and it'll include things like extending the exhalation and perhaps even putting a little pause at the bottom of the exhale. So if at any time that stresses you out or you start to grasp or gasp for your next breath, it really defeats the purpose of this parasympathetic activating practice. So please feel free to take a pause anytime you need or a little recovery breath until you can join us again. We're lucky to have Malia with us here to demonstrate. So this practice will start on our backs. So come down onto your backs in whatever way is comfortable for you. I like shavasana a lot. And just adjust what you need to adjust. Feel the parts of you that are in connection to the earth below and almost like little drains can begin to pour out any tension, any holding, any gripping. Feel the backs of your heels heavy, the back of the calves and thighs heavy, the seat, back of the ribs and shoulder blades releasing down. Back of the arms, hands, just giving up some holding. Back of the head resting and simply just taking a before picture. Notice what you're coming into this practice with, whether it's a physical sensation, maybe it's a trembling in the mind or a certain mood, that having to carry on a dialogue about it or judge it as somehow unyogic or good or bad. Just simply noting this very unique moment of now. Begin to offer the breath deeper in and out through the nose. You can start to create a small little hug of the vocal structure. So you slide the breath in and out in these kind of more luxurious streams. I almost think of this like drinking a really thick milkshake through a small straw. It takes a little bit more of your effort, but you could savor it for longer. Feel on your inhale, the body getting longer, ribs wider, collarbones turning upwards at the end. In the exhale, feel a purposeful lift of your belly in and up. Begin to layer on some movement to that breath. So next inhale, let's reach the arms up and to the floor behind your head. You can flex through your feet and draw the inner legs together to touch. Peel back through your pinky toe and big toe side. And then exhale, reaching your arms up and back down by your sides. Relax the root of your legs. The thighs might fall open. I'll just do this movement several times. So inhale, reaching the arms up and overhead, flexing through your feet. Try a five count exhalation. So taking five full counts to lower the arms, to release through the legs, and to feel the belly lapping in towards the sacrum and up towards the heart. Again, inhaling, reaching the arms overhead. This time, as you exhale, try a six count exhalation and taking six full counts to lower the arms. Maybe there's a tiny bit of the exhale left at the end of the movement. So it envelops the shape. Again, inhaling, reaching the arms up to the floor behind you. Let's try a seven count exhalation. Just feeling as you slow the breath down, you might even be able to exhale a little bit more than you think you can. The belly a little bit higher. One more time like this. Inhale, reaching your arms up into the floor behind your head. Peel back through the pinky toes, whole body receiving breath. Try an eight count exhalation as you lower the arms, just doing the best that you can. Pause as your arms lower here. Relax your breath for a moment. Just notice where you are. And then we'll begin to bend the knees and feet can come to the floor and we'll roll over to the right side in a fetal position. And from here, we'll slowly start to climb up onto the hands and knees. As you reset on the hands and knees, inhale, breathe the heart forward through the gates of your arms into cow. Then as you exhale, draw the seat back to the heels, forehead to the floor, elbows can bend, head down to child's pose. Next inhale, rising back up onto the hands and knees. Now this exhale, lift your belly, tuck your toes and reach back into downward facing dog. We'll do that series of four pastures a few times. So inhale, bring your knees back to the floor, reach your heart forward, breath diving down through the body. A long slow exhale as you reach your tail back to your heels, bend the elbow, keep your forehead and a heavy as you move back, child's pose. Inhale, rising back up onto the hands and knees. And as you reach forward, keep your chin just ever so slightly in so we're not throwing into the head. Exhale, downward facing dog, letting that rise of the belly take you back into down dog. Take this one more time. Inhaling, bring the knees to the floor. As the spine lengthens, the heart moves through the gates of the arms. Exhale, child's pose, bring your chin a little in as you bend the elbows, rooting back. Inhale, rising back hands and knees. A slow exhale, the belly lifts back into downward dog. We'll stay in downward dog for a few breaths if you'd like to at first kind of wiggle your seat a little bit left and right or make any adjustments in your stance. Absolutely okay. But then find something sustainable. So maybe it means bending your knees or widening or shortening your stance but allow this down dog to be stable so that you can be still. We're even going to steady the gaze at one point between your own feet. Something we call caestera, a steadiness in the body which perhaps leads us to a little bit more steadiness in the mind. So as we stay, return the mind to the breath, a longer breath in and then see if you can find the slow exhale breath out, the belly rising and then maybe even a little pause at the very bottom of the exhale. Just a little suspension. You'll take a nice breath in, long breath in and then as you exhale go to the very bottom of the exhale and maybe a pause.

You can think of the pause almost like watching a kid on a swing set. There's a moment of suspension before the free fall and before the next movement. Just two more circles of breath like that. And the pause just like bow the head in towards that emptiness. And then we'll rise up now to the tiptoes. You have a lot of room underneath you and then just start to walk your feet very slowly, maybe about midway up your mat and then walking your hands back towards your feet. And then just bend your own knees enough that your whole front body drapes over your legs so whatever that looks like for you. The head heavy like a right piece of fruit hanging from the vine-like spine, the jaw relaxed, the tongue can release away from the roof of the mouth. And this folding forward just encourages the expiration, the depth of our exhale and the organs kind of falling against the diaphragm. So you could really move into the bottom, the basement of the breath. Then let's bring the fingertips to the backs of the knees and just lightly fingertips on the backs of the knees. Inhale, grow the crown of the head towards the front of the room. As you exhale, stay here and just invite the lower belly in and up. Next inhale, we're going to rise all the way up to stand, just lengthening the crown of the head up towards the ceiling, coming up with a kind of a long spine. And exhale, you can release the arms by your sides and just feel the lower belly in. Again, just taking one moment to pause, to feel whatever there is there to feel. Take a Uttanasana series. The first one we're going to do with the fingertips moving back to where the tush and the thighs meet that crease. That's just for fun. That's the purpose. So inhale, we'll stay here. And as the breath travels down, just create a little more length. And then as you exhale, we're going to hinge from the hips. So put a little bend in the knees so you just have a long spine. We'll fold forward over these legs. And as you fold forward, the belly is rising up. The hands might slide to the backs of the knees or backs of ankles or wherever they go. Next inhale, we'll lengthen up halfway, Ardh Uttanasana.

And then exhale, we'll fold back down over the legs, Uttanasana. And then through that incredibly long spine, inhale, reach the crown forward. You can slide the hands up the legs as you come all the way up to stand. And then simply stay standing as you exhale, feeling the belly move in and up. To make it a little stronger, we can use the arms. So inhale, if willing, we'll reach the arms forward and up, body lengthened. Now keep the arms framing the ears, put a little micro bend in the knees. Exhale, hinge from the hips and fold forward, keeping the chin a little inward. And then next inhale, reach your arms forward of your head, come halfway up. Exhale, fold all the way down. Inhale, reaching your arms forward of your head, come all the way back up to stand. Exhale, stay standing, just reach your arms forward like a sleepwalker. And then all the way down by your side, belly kissing up. Do it again with a little bit of different breath. So inhale, reach your arms forward and up. Exhale, as we fold forward, try exhaling for five counts. And then as you inhale, reach your arms forward of your head, keep the back of the neck incredibly long, coming up halfway. Now try as you fold forward, exhale, six counts. Inhale, reaching the arms forward of the head, long spine to come all the way back up tall. Now stay standing, exhale for seven counts just to lower the arms forward and down. Let's do one more like that. Inhale, reaching the arms forward and up. Five count, exhale as you hinge from the hips, folding forward, chin a little bit, baby, double chin. It's kind of like what you don't want to do in pictures, but really great for neck alignment. Inhale, reach your arms forward, come halfway up. Let's try a six count exhalation as you fold down, belly rising in and up. Inhale, reaching the arms forward of the head, come all the way back up to stand. Stay standing, exhale, reach your arms forward, seven count, exhalation. Relax the arms by the sides. Take a moment just to relax your breath, let the breath recover. When we notice the transience of the thoughts, transience of these different sensations in the body, even the transience of the breath, it just becomes less tempting to latch on or push away or really to call any of it the whole story of who you are. Just recognize this new moment of now. We'll step the right foot forward to the front of the mat, the left foot back, a reasonable stance between the legs. I like hip distance apart for our warrior one. Just carve the back toes forward and at angle so that you don't have to torque your back knee. We'll straighten both legs. The arms will be down by your sides. We'll move dynamically first. Inhale, bend your right knee, reach your arms forward and up by your ears, and then hinge slightly forward so you feel a longer line from fingertips to back heel. This will fire up some lower back muscles for us. Exhale, we'll straighten the right leg. Come up to stand and lower the arms down by your sides. So just moving in and out a few times. Inhale, bend in the right knee, a small little hinge in the spine. And as you exhale and you straighten the leg and you lower the arms, feel the lower belly rise up towards the heart. Two more please. Inhaling. Exhaling. Now this next time we're going to stay in the posture. Inhale, bending the right knee. And this time exhale, stay here, invite your belly up. Kayastira, steady the gaze at one point. Steady any of the extraneous wiggles or things we do just to distract ourselves from where we really are or what we're really feeling.

Part of the practice is about becoming discerning. My teacher says, yoga is the sharpening of the sword of discernment. We become discerning. When do we need to move? When can we just be steady and observe? Three more breaths. Know that you can. Next exhalation, we'll straighten the right leg again, staying upright. Just return the arms down by your sides and pause. And then we'll just begin to pivot to the other side. So you can spin your right toes in, spin your left toes out. You might have to reset your stance. And hip distance apart, legs here, hips more or less facing forward. We'll do this a few times. So inhale, let's bend the left knee and reach the arms forward and up in a small hinge in the spine. So like a long line from fingers to back heel. Exhale, begin to straighten your left leg, lowering the arms down, the belly rising up. A few more, starting the inhale slightly before the movement and carrying all the way through to the height of the movement. Exhaling all the way to straighten the legs, maybe a little bit of the exhale at the end of the movement. Again. This next time we enter into the pose, we're going to stay in a more static position. So inhale, bend your left knee, reach your arms forward and up. And this time as you stay on your exhale, just steady. The sensation will start to arise, emotion starts to bubble up, thoughts begin to race. They don't call this warrior pose for nothing. It's not a very good fighting position. I wouldn't suggest you fight from this position, but warriors are, they can be stable. Their strength is their stability. Their power, right from that power to discern what is needed, what is best left, surrendered. Two more breaths, just know that you can keep moving back inside the breath. Feel it all. Next exhale, we'll straighten the left leg, staying upright, just return the arms down by your sides. And again, we'll pivot, so pivot the left toes in, the right toes forward, right toes towards the front of the mat. Again, this wide-ish stance for our pyramid pose. So we'll take the right hand behind the back and bring the palm to shine back behind you. So the right chest and shoulder can stay open. We're going to take the left arm up and alongside your ear. And it's an asymmetrical pose. You can work slightly asymmetrically, reaching up through the left side of your spine, the whole left hemisphere of the back rising, breathing in. And then as you exhale, you're going to hinge forward. So put a tiny bend in your right knee or a large bend, whatever works for you to keep the integrity in the spine. Exhale, you'll fold all the way down over your right leg. And at the bottom of the exhale, you can relax your arm, relax your head. Now inhale, reach your left arm forward of your head, keep your chin slightly inward as you come all the way back up. I'm going to do this a few times. Exhale, five counts as you fold forward. Inhale, reach the left arm forward of the head coming all the way up. Now let's try a six count. Exhale as you fold down. Inhale, reach the left arm forward of the head come all the way up last time. Exhale, seven counts. Now as you stay here, you could release your right hand down to the floor as well. Left hand down and just soften over your right leg. Bring the hands onto the hips. Inhale, grow the spine halfway up all the way up to stand. And we'll pivot to the other side. So turn your right toes in, your left toes out. You can readjust your stance. This time your left hand will sneak behind your back. The palm will face the back of the room now. Right arm up towards the ceiling. You know, draw your left hip back in space as you snuggle your right hip forward and then reach up through the right side of your spine. Inhale, exhale, put a little bend in your left knee. Hinge from your hips. Keep your chin a little inward as you fold down. And we'll do this a few times with your growing exhale. So inhale, reach your right arm forward of your head, come all the way back up. And then try exhaling five counts as you lower. The inhale will reach the right arm forward of the head powerfully. Reach through the inner elbow as you come up.

A sixth count exhalation as you fold forward. Inhale, reaching your right arm forward of your head all the way back up. Last time here a seven count exhale as you come forward. And you can release now both hands to the floor and soften your head down. And just be. Bring the hands onto the hips. Next longer inhale, come up through that halfway point all the way up to the ceiling. Exhale, feel your feet. And then we're going to just parallel now the feet. So spin the toes to now face forward. Wide legs stance or reasonably wide legs stance. Bringing the feet parallel, so outer edges of your feet parallel to the front and back edge of your mat. Inhale, we're going to take the arms open into a T shape and breath descending body getting longer, bigger. And take a twist. So exhale, bend your right knee fairly deeply. Reach your left hand to your right ankle or as close as you can get to that. And then turn your right arm and chest up towards the ceiling. Now as we stay here, just adjust so your torso is moving more towards your own right thigh than towards the center of the room. Inhale, let's reach back up into that T shape and the arms straightening up to stand and again to the right side. Exhale, bend the right knee, hand to the ankle as the belly rises, it softens you into that rotation. One more time. Inhaling, coming up to stand, arms into a T. Exhale to the right, bending the right knee, hand to the ankle. This time we're going to stay a little arm choreography. So inhale, let's take the right arm alongside the ear and feel the whole right side of the body getting longer. Now exhale, you're going to move your right elbow into a cactus shape and your belly is going to move in and up towards the heart. Let's do this a few times. Inhaling. Now see if you can go to the very bottom of the exhale. So it's not an arm move per se, but it's a belly move into the twist. Go to the bottom of the exhale, pause. Inhaling, arm overhead. Again, exhale into the twist. Exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, pause. Inhale, reach your right arm up to the ceiling.

Good. Exhale, engage your belly. Next, so in you are going to come all the way up to stand, arms into a T and exhale, just release your arms for a moment and bring one hand over the other hand, over your heart. You can close your eyes, relax your breath, just let yourself adjust. We'll take the other side. So inhale, reaching your arms out into a T shape. And this time, exhale, bend your left knee, your right hand will move towards your left ankle. Let's just stay here and finesse so the torso, belly, heart moves towards your left thigh, your shoulders more or less stacking, your right hemisphere of your back just flattening. Take a mental picture and then inhale, come all the way back up to stand, arms into a T.

We'll move dynamically. Take the whole exhale to invite the belly up towards the heart as you rotate. Two more like that. Inhaling, coming up to stand. Exhaling, bending your left knee, right hand to your left ankle, the belly offered up. One more, inhaling and exhaling. And this time we're going to stay in this shape. Adding now the left arm, inhale, taking your left arm alongside your ear. Now exhale, as the belly rises, rotate your left elbow up towards the ceiling, kind of a cactus arm as you rotate the heart. A couple more times, inhale. Now see if you can find the very bottom of the exhale. So exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, pause. Two more like that, inhaling the left arm overhead. Exhaling, last one, inhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. Left arm up to the ceiling, breathe in, breathe out. We'll come slowly up to stand on the inhalation. Lower the arms down by your sides. Take a moment, just allow your breath to adjust. All right, let's pivot the right toes towards the front of your mat.

We'll bend the right knee. Let's take the hands down to frame your front foot. Good. Downward facing dog. And we'll bend the knees into child's pose. I'll walk the hands in towards your knees and try to keep your head nice and heavy. Engage your belly so you can roll up or lengthen up to sit.

Good. Let's swish the hips over to the right side of the heels. We'll come to sit in this mermaid pose. So your hips are on the right side of your heels. Either way, the hips are on the right side of the heels and then just tense your fingertips to the floor and just let the crown of the head feel a little lighter. Now this is not everyone's cup of tea for their knees, so if the knees feel sensitive here you can come to a cross-legged seat and it'll work just as well. So as you take now the left fingertips, walk your left fingertips away from you and bring your right arm up and alongside your ear. And then breathe in as the breath dives down through the body, get a little longer.

So not about getting lower, but rather longer as you side bend. Exhale the lapping of the belly in and up. Sometimes when we kind of try very hard to establish these shapes we get kind of thrown into the front aspect of the body. So just start to soften your heart inwards, the ribs inwards so you're bowing back into the architecture of your spine. Next inhale, we'll come all the way back up tall, release your right hand down and we'll stay in this shape and we'll take a little twist. So bring your left hand across your right knee and your right fingertips back behind your right seat and even if you have long arms try to stay on your fingers so you get nice and tall. The left arm is just lightly placed there, no need to use it as a a mechanism of force, but inhale, lengthen and as you exhale start to rotate the heart, head over to the right and keep softening the right chest or breast down and bowing back. And as we stay in this twist a bit longer, keep the heart spinning towards the right, but slowly turn your head almost as if it's on a a lazy susan. You spin the head, the nose over that left shoulder and you can even tip your nose down so you feel the base of your skull lengthening away from the tip of your tail and allow your eyes to close and just allow the awareness to start moving towards the middle of the brain. There's no need to force or conjure anything up, but there's a magnetizing of your attention, maybe just the density of your presence in the midbrain, in front of the brain quieting.

And then just neutralize the position of your head and un-spiral the rotation coming to face forward. And then we're going to move to the other side so release the twist and then we're going to either swing the legs to the other side or just alley-oop your tush up and over to the other side so you're sitting on the perhaps left side of your heels now. The fingertips will reach down, just establish the spine, soften the heart inward. And now we'll reach the right fingertips away, left arm up and alongside your ear, little side bend to the right. Breathing in, body gets a bit longer, breathing out, keeping that grandness, that length, belly moving in. And inhale, let's lengthen back up tall, releasing your left hand back down to the earth. We'll stay in the seat here, but we'll take a twist right hand lovingly around the left thigh and then left fingertips back to the floor behind you.

And keep softening your left chest or breasts downward so you're moving back into the integrity of the spine. And keeping your heart rotating in the same direction, we'll just take the crown and start to move the nose over that right shoulder. It might feel nice to bow the nose, the chin down as if you're peeking over that right shoulder to see your right knee. And then if comfortable, allow the eyes to close again. The focus just magnetized in towards the midbrain, not trying to strain or look there, just feel a collection of your awareness there. And then neutralize the position of your head and neck and release your rotation in your spine. And then we'll swing the legs forward and come into Tara Asana. So the soles of the feet together, the knees opening up to the sides and kind of a diamond shape between the legs. So pretty generous distance between your heels and your pelvis. You can lightly take the hands around your shin. Start by just hinging from your hips. So we're all built a little different. That might be a little hinge or a big hinge. And then when the hinge stops, just allow the upper spine now to round so as if you're pouring the crown of the head into the soles of the feet. Now, if the head is a little bit further away from the feet, you can create a bridge. So either stacking the palms or prayer position with your hands and just feel a slight connection or pressure in that space between the brows, the forehead muscle.

These are the last few deeper breaths of this Asana practice. So indulge in the slowest, deepest, most connected breaths yet. Inhale, lengthen up through the heart and head. Exhale as you engage your belly, just moving back into that tall seat. You can scoop the hands underneath your knees to help bring your knees back together to touch. And then we're going to move down onto the backs for your Shavasana.

So taking your time, just melting back onto the back body. Heels a little bit wider than your hips. The arms moving a little bit away from the sides of your body. You can turn the palms to face up. You can give your head a little bit of a bobble head action just to find the neutral positioning of your head and neck, a little breeze underneath your neck bones. Allow the brow to relax as if the brow is sliding towards your temples.

The temple sliding towards your ears. The ears sliding towards the floor. As you relax the sides of your jaw, your lips might even part the tongue unfurled in the floor of the mouth. Allowing yourself to rest in the stillness that you've remembered and that more closely represents who you really are. So we can hold onto whatever was found here. Even as you begin to deepen the breath, and even as the mind might start to wander, you're just getting to know the way back in better each time. Gently start to wake the body, wiggling your fingers and your toes. As you're ready for larger movements, you can bend the knees, placing your feet on the floor, and rolling over to the right side in a fetal position. Maybe take your right arm under your head as a pillow and just stay here.

So you have time now to honor your practice, the level of your engagement in that practice, the experience born from that engagement. And keep the eyes closed, and just very lazily bring yourself back into a quiet seat. You can bring your palms together in front of your heart and finding some way to bow forward over your legs, bowing to your true teacher, your inner teacher. Namaste.