Brahmacharya

Hey there, welcome back. This is our fourth practice together, and I'm really excited to share with you my thoughts on brahmacarya, okay? So brahmacarya has helped me quite a bit personally in my own life, and I'll share with you just a moment. It can also be viewed and looked at in other ways. So what we're looking to focus on with this practice is where in your life as an individual are you letting go of or feeling depleted, run down, or you're not holding this vital force, this strength of yours, in this container of your body, let's say, right?

So it's a preservation, because you almost treat it like gold, right? It's a special thing. Prevention of your vital life force or energy, all right? So where in your life do you feel like you're depleting it, okay? Social media, right?

Are you maybe a bad relationship? Maybe, maybe, maybe. So you can take a few moments to kind of feel into that. My personal experience is post divorce, right? I'm an old age guy, I'm in my early 40s, and all I'm doing is focusing on women, right?

Not being a bad guy, but all of my energy is looking to date, looking to date, looking to date, looking to meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, meanwhile I have a business, I have a company, I have a life to run, I have a son, I've got beautiful family and friends, and all of those things that are very important to me are now not, right? And so those are starting to suffer, and that did not feel very good until it was brought to my attention. I don't even know how long I would have continued, you know? A friend of mine said, this is not very attractive, you're better than this, right? So when I started, I'll wrap this up for you, when I started to not focus on that, focus more on containing my energy, focusing on what are really those things in my life that are very important.

My life has changed like crazy, right? More money, strong business, life relationships, my son, right? I'm in a really loving, beautiful relationship right now. So where are you wasting time and energy? And you can feel it, it doesn't feel right, and you start to shift a little bit.

Again, this isn't about being perfect. This is just about awareness, taking these ideas and being aware. So with that said, I'll just let you know one more time. I am not perfect, but I have these tools that I rely on to keep things in balance for me. So hopefully that's helpful for you.

Let's take it into our practice, all right? We'll have a fun practice together, day four, brahmacarya, okay? So let's meet down onto our back. So get yourself set up, lie down on your back, meet me, okay? Once you find yourself situated, grounded with your legs bent or straight, we'll take a few moments to touch in and let's say ground into the breath.

You can almost think of the breath as that vital life force because it is, right? For practicing yoga, take a few natural breaths here. So breathe in through the nose and either out of the mouth or through the nose, whatever feels better for you right now. You can place your hands on your body so you can feel that action of breath in and breath out. Use that nice letting go quality and that exhalation.

Start to build, if you haven't already, that awareness of and that practice and effort of inhalation belly rises using your diaphragm, which is located below your low ribs, right? So there's that expansive feeling of inhalation. And instead of forcing the exhale, open the mouth a little bit and let the breath just relax its way out. So there's a little more of an effort on the inhale, relaxed exhale, the belly falls. One more time like that, breathe in.

Take it now into the rib cage and chest on the second. So it's belly in, rib cage and chest, and you let it fall out. Lengthen the back of the neck, relax the body where it doesn't need to be working. Do that again, breathe in, belly, then rib cage and chest. And the breath falls out.

One more time, inhale. The breath goes all the way up into the shoulders and collar bones and you exhale, let it fall out. The next stage is you're taking it into that third phase of the brain, up into the head. Now again, that might be more of an imaginary sensation, but work with it, right? So belly, inhale, chest, collarbone, shoulders, and all the way up into the brain, kind of that imagine the oxygen kind of circulating around the head, into the brain.

Again, breathe in. One more time before we can breathe in and let it go on the breath out. Keep in mind, whenever, you know, if that felt good for you, you can pause the video and do this for five more minutes, 10 more minutes. It's something I do every morning and it helps to kind of charge my body. It helps to ground me, prepare me for my day, and also build energy.

I draw the knees into the chest, take a little stretch here with the knees wide and together just to maybe see if you can stretch out the low back. This is that child's pose lying on your back. Continuing with the best breath you can find, right? Not forcing anything, but it's almost like breathing in a way that supports the given moment we're in. Now a little bit of core, all right?

So you're going to bring your legs bent 90 degrees, your toes pointing up, knees are right above your hips. Now what I want you to do so we ensure like genuine core activation is, is place your hands on the low ribs, low rib cage, and press them down like you're trying to press the middle of your back down onto the mat. If your low back kind of rises a little bit, that's a natural curve of your spine and that's totally fine, but we're looking for this bracing. So if like I were there with you right now and I gave you a little punch in the belly, you'd be totally solid, okay? You don't want to lose that.

Now keep your legs like that, 90 degrees, arms straight up, okay? From here, and you got to focus, use your brain a little bit here because it can get a little confusing. You're going to extend your right leg straight out. If you need to have it more at an angle upward, 45 degrees or straight out as I'm instructing you, you figure out which height is best for you, okay? Now take the left arm, bring it back.

Now it's really important now that you take those ribs, those ribs, and draw them down, down, down, okay? Now exhale, bring the limbs, the left arm and the right leg right back up to neutral. Inhale the left leg and right arm. So fully extended out, the opposite limbs, they're not moving, they're staying exactly where they are. The focus here is on real functional core bracing, exhale.

Left arm, right leg, extend, extend, extend. Point your right toes in this one, point your toes, activate that right leg and exhale, bring it back home to center. Left leg, right arm, good, extend, extend, extend, point through those left toes, exhale. Three more on each side, inhale, right leg, left arm, exhale, back to neutral, good job. Left leg, right arm, extend, extend, extend, and bring it back with the exhale.

Two more on each side. Right leg, left arm, boom, core. Left leg, right arm, breathing in as you extend, but keeping the core activated, embrace, exhale. Left arm, right leg, and exhale. Left leg, right arm, extend, extend, extend, as much as you can and bring everything back to the core, center, center, center, and exhale.

Very good. Change your left leg out, clasp your fingers around your right shin, lift your head and shoulders up off of the mat, give a good squeeze of that right knee into the chest, and either your left toes are pointing up or point those toes, either one is going to activate that left leg. We want that leg to be stable and strong as it's elevated and extended. Now on your next exhalation, you're going to switch, and you want to maybe like lift the head and shoulders up, up, up, up, up, just to activate a little bit more through the core. Exhale right, exhale left, exhale right, good, breathe as best you can.

We want to exhale on the activation or on the effort. Exhale right, exhale left, exhale five, exhale five, exhale four, exhale four, doing great. Exhale three, exhale three, exhale two, exhale two, exhale one, exhale one, very good. Bring the feet down, take a moment to breathe, come back into that three-part breath, kind of fueling yourself, letting it go, breathing in, let it go. One more time, breathe in, let it go.

Exhales behind the head, legs 90 degrees, extend your left leg out, lift the shoulders, lift the head and shoulders, and take the left elbow in the direction, actually not even the elbow, take the left shoulder toward the right knee, good, right on. So feel it, nice activation in that core. We optimize the core, everything else feels better, works better, exhale right shoulder to left knee, point through the right toes, five, exhale five, exhale four, exhale four, a little bicycle action, exhale three, exhale three, exhale two, exhale two, exhale one, and one. Very good, feet right below the knees, arms alongside the body, arms bent, bridge pose. Now it's going to maybe feel nice to open up the front of the body, that abdominal wall, transverse abdominis, those six-pack muscles you have, good, you can walk those shoulder blades a little closer to one another, the arms underneath you a little bit, feet below the knees, nice, hands can rest on the stomach, if you're inclined to interlace your fingers, you can do that, you know, honestly, it's not my favorite move.

So I'm going to do it for a moment, just to kind of demo it, but then I'm going to bring my hands back to the rib cage, to the belly, connect to the breath, and why I say it's not my favorite is because it pulls on my neck in a very unnecessary way in this pose, so if you ever feel that, know that clasping your hands underneath you in bridge pose is not always the way you need to do it, it doesn't make it correct. Push the hips up, up, up, up, up, get that stretch through the front of the hips there, extend, extend. Now slowly undo those arms and shoulder blades, I like to even lift the heel, so why don't you lift your heels up, arms reach up and slowly lower down, one vertebra at a time. So good. All right, so now hold on to those hamstrings of yours and start to rock forward and back, so be mindful, we're going to do this five or six times, what I want you to do is roll back, you can take the hands back behind you and we get a little flexion and movement in the spine here, so bring the feet back, you don't have to go back too far to make this effective, good, and come up, come back, you could come up, draw the bottoms of the feet together and fold forward, open up those hips a little bit, rock back into a plow pose, come back up, fold, good, come back, pause, now we're going to roll up into a little boat pose, roll up, bring the heels down for now, peel the chest and shoulders open, elongate and traction out that spine, even here is a perfect position here, right, to engage the core, remember we're lying on our back, extended limb movements there, activate ribs in, neutral spine, now hold on to your hamstrings, lift the feet, use a little hand adjustment here or hand support, very good, breathe, if you feel like you want to reach those arms forward, reach them forward, keep the shoulders back, good, you could even straighten one leg or even the other, belly strong, point through the toes or push the toes up and back, good, strong, strong quads and legs, and roll back, roll up, maybe balance right in that boat pose again, one more time, roll back, move the spine a little bit, roll up, boom, lock it in, boat pose, your boat pose, bent legs, straight legs maybe, arms out, long healthy spine and come up to sit, I'll face you because I really feel like I haven't been able to connect with you the past several minutes, so here we are, draw the bottoms of the feet together, we'll take three breaths in this bound angle position, so you can stay upright if you'd like or maybe even fold forward a little bit, let the head drop, two more breaths, employing that three-part breath concept and practice, let it go, body will respond to that letting go exhalation, one more time, you can see how I come up to breathe in and coming out of the pose a little bit to grab more breath and then a sweet exhale, all the way up to sit, cross your legs, we've done this once or twice now in the prior videos here, the Kundalini little spinal twist, so it's a breathing exercise, an abdominal and spine toner let's say, it increases your energy a little bit, palms, let's say the palms go forward first then turn them like you're bringing your fingertips to your ears but then bring them down, like cup the tops of your shoulders, thumbs are in the back, fingers are on the front sides of the shoulders, now open up those elbows and sit nice and tall, now we're going to breathe in to the left and kind of a sharp vigorous exhalation to the right, so it looks a little something like this, inhale left, I like to open the mouth a little bit so it's like, got me, let's do it, alright, so let's go about a minute or so, inhale left, good, keep going, keep the spine long and keep pulling the elbows back so you can keep the upper back, that muscle upper back, the musculature of your upper back engaged, alright I'll resume breath with you, inhale, ten, five and come back to a neutral upright position, sit tall, close the eyes and take a few moments just to tune in to what just went on for you, can you feel the energy you've just created, nothing has to happen, you don't have to put any words to it but simply sit with what is after one minute of that breathing and movement, good, three times cat-cow sitting, this one kind of like maybe somewhat dynamic so let's do five actually, so somewhat dynamic similar to this, so it's an inhale, exhale cat sitting, good, keeping that core active the whole time, hands and knees, let's move back into child's pose, alright so exhale, push back, stretch the arms out, let's enter this three more times though, breath in, table, core braced, exhale, child's pose, one, inhale table, exhale, two, inhale table and exhale three, land here for one, beautiful, filled with gratitude, if that works for you, breath right, can you feel it, can you totally connect with that full inhalation and then you let it go, let it pass, beautiful, table top, so just for a moment curl your toes, neutral pelvis here, okay and now lift the knees three inches or so, screw the arms in, all ten fingers grounded, low ribs are pulling up and in similar to we did this on our back, alright you had the same position, now draw those low ribs up and in without rounding, keep the arms straight, hold, look gently forward just a tiny bit like six ten inches out in front of your fingertips, hold and breathe, good knees below the hips, stacking the bones of the arms, breathing, from here starting to feel those legs a little bit, push the hips back, push the belly towards your thighs, I'm going to stretch my hands out a little bit longer and from this position send the sit bones up and start to straighten out those legs a little bit, downward dog, walk it out, loosen up the head and neck a little bit, get that side body involved so if you let's say bend the left leg quite a bit, straighten the right, send your hips over to the left and breathe into that right side of your body, breathe into the left side as you bend your right leg straighten out the left, back to neutral, take another breath bend on your exhale, bring your knees down to the mat, back into tabletop, similar to what we did on our back, now this is that bird dog extended but we're in a tabletop so what I want you to do is send your right arm forward, thumb up, try to rotate that right shoulder out away from the neck, keep that left arm good and strong, back flat, more engaged, send the left leg straight back, toes down, now pull up through the belly, so brace the belly, low ribs, hug in, get the full extension, good, try your best not to hyperextend your left arm, so put a tiny little bend in it, stay strong in that left arm, now on your exhale bring the left knee to the center right elbow to the inside of your left knee, like a cat pose right, now push the ground away, away, away from you and activate that low belly core action, four more, inhale extend out, strong back, strong core, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, pause here actually can you push through your left heel so much that you feel your left glutes or buttocks, favorite word, to engage, two more exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, now bring your left toes down, right hand down, spin the left heel down, for balance slide your right foot over six inches or so, it's like a kickstand okay, now we're looking to align the right hand with the right knee and the left foot somewhere around there, side plank, hey how's it going, okay so the outer edge of your left foot is grounded, left arm is rising high, the right arm again see the joints here, right shoulder, elbow and wrist all stacked up okay, you can lift your left leg up if you'd like, push through the heel of the left foot, open up, breathe, so open up from shoulder to shoulder, core is braced, try not to back bend too much here, good, left arm down, left knee down, cat cow one time, inhale and exhale, inhale table, pause exhale, inhale the left arm, right leg, so get that full extension, drop that right hip down, get aligned in the hips, healthy and long in the spine, now when you're ready you've got your alignment, exhale, right knee comes to center, push the ground away, draw the left elbow to the inside of your right knee, maybe even look towards your limbs there towards your right thigh, now inhale extend almost like cow pose, exhale like cat, inhale, you can see I'm kind of sharply exhaling that helps to for me anyway to activate that core, inhale three, inhale four, inhale exhale five, now extend out again, left hand down, right toes down, right heel down, stack the joints, left arm, left knee under the left hip, slide your left foot over or keep it exactly where it is, if you keep it where it is you will notice it's a little more challenging balance wise especially if you line up, left hand, left knee, left foot, right heel, now right arm high, okay take a moment to look at the screen, don't let your elbow, left elbow splay out, screw that whole arm in so that that left arm connects to the shoulder, cross the back to the right shoulder, everything's working, tailbone extends back down toward the back heel, you can get creative always with how you move your arm to kind of circulate through the shoulder joint, move the neck, good work, lift that right leg up as an option, now when I lift it up and I haven't created that little kickstand with my left foot my balance is challenged for sure, I've got to focus, breathe and let's come on out, nice table top, nice aligned table top, downward dog, back to your comfortable breathing, your supportive breathing right, what I mean what I say is is you know I can I can give you tons of cues on breathing which I will and hope to do but in any given moment breathe in a way that supports the moment you're in in your practice let's say, okay let's walk up to the front of the mat, take a stroll, just a nice little walk in the park, flat back on the breath in, knees bent, extended long spine, exhale fold, inhale rise up and exhale palms rest at the center of your chest, heart, inhale circle the arms out and up, exhale bend the knees forward and down, inhale to your flat back, exhale step back into plank pose, use your strength and use your ability to choose your best chaturanga, use your knees or not, upward facing dog on your breath in, pull those shoulders back, chest draws forward as you press the hands down into the mat to pull the chest forward, shoulders back and exhale downward facing dog, take the right leg, lift it up, bend it open the hip, looking to stack your right hip over the left hip, breathe very specifically into the right side of the body, now a little bit of work is coming up here so square off right knee to right elbow plank, exhale, inhale send it back up, exhale knee toward the nose, inhale exhale right knee toward the left elbow, from here step the right foot out onto the floor, pause here send the left heel down for support, left arm high, this is a side plank with that right foot extended straight out, left arm reaches up nice and high again, stacking, stacking, stacking, shoulders never vulnerable here, with control left arm back down, use your core to pull that knee back into center, back up high on the breath in and stepping to the front of the mat on the breath out, good, high lunge breath in, breath out or however you need to get there right arm underneath the left eagle arms, soft little bend in the back knee to accommodate some movement in the pelvis of neutral pelvis, release eagle arms, take the arms out wide and twist to the right, left hand can rest on the right thigh, right arm can reach back or right hand can press into the low back, good back over to center, palms pressed together at center, heart, chest warrior three, put a bend in the back leg, launch up, lengthen out through the right leg first then put a tiny little bend in it, hinge the body forward, extend the back leg back, point through the left toes or that left heel, draw the left hip down, it wants to lift, it feels better I know, hands center of the chest or maybe out wide, flying warrior three, keep that focus, keep that dristy right, that steady very disciplined focus on that one small object, now palms back at the chest, standing split just for a moment, lifting the left leg high, don't worry about how high it goes, tune back into the breath, I know it gets a little difficult right about now, tuck the chin, soften where you can soften, bend the right leg, step back into lunge, step back into plank, good, from plank bring your elbows down, forearm plank, from forearm plank you can clasp your hands or press your palms down onto the mat, I'm gonna clasp them, my hands or my arms are a little sweaty here, keeps them a little more grounded, walk your toes forward, dolphin pose, now as you do this you're gonna probably want to bend those knees a little bit and push the chest back, so it's a downward dog on your forearms, elbows below the shoulders, back into forearm plank, this is where we get a little work done here, so from here what I'd like you to do is take your left forearm, parallel with the front of the mat, send your heels over to the left and open up into side plank, left elbow underneath the left shoulder, strong across the upper back, lift your hips, now we switch it, right forearm switches out the left, heels over to the right and boom, hey how's it going, just doing a little side plank right, what are you doing, lift the hips, open up the arm, tap into your strength, if you need to modify do it, make it work for you, left arm back down, good, forearm plank, back up onto your hands, so right hand, left hand, plank, downward dog, good job, come through a little vinyasa, so inhale plank pose, exhale with control down, upward facing dog on the breath in, pull those shoulders back, freedom in the neck and head and exhale, downward dog, take a breath or two, reset, you know what we're getting into on the other side, so gather your strength, your mental strength, your physical strength, your breath, left leg lifts, hip opens, good, stack the left hip up over the right, it's a moment simply to address a potentially sticky part of the body, the hips, to breathe into the rib cage, square off the hips, exhale the knee, left knee toward the left elbow and push the ground away, spreading the shoulder blades wide, activating that core, inhale send it back up, exhale knee toward the nose, push the ground away, inhale send it back up, exhale knee toward the right elbow, little cross, now extend the left leg all the way out to the right, spin the right heel down, wipe the sweat from the brow, little indication of work and effort, right arm reaches up, I love that quote, nobody ever drowned in sweat, so sweat a little bit, right, reminder of your effort and you're showing up for yo, yo, right hand back down, that actually when you bring that right hand down, you might even feel this little twisted stretchy thing in the back and that left hip, now lift the left foot up, back into three legged dog on the breath in and with control left foot forward, land it, get your alignment, high lunge, nice, wipe the brow, how are you feeling, good, doing alright, don't get frustrated, it can be challenging, right, just each time you land in your practice it's a different experience, we're looking to cultivate some strength and energy here, that power, that reserve, right, use your breath, now left arm under the right, get that eagle arm position, work those shoulders out a little bit, find some mobility, that one pointed focus, release eagle arms, take the arms straight out and rotate to the left, you can hold just like so, which will be like, you know you've got to really use your core, front and back side to stabilize, or you take the left hand, right hand to the left thigh, left hand to your low back, find a steady gazing point, breathe, so breathe in, belly expands, chest opens, exhale, good work, back over to center, palms to the chest, bent right leg, warrior 3, take flight, push that right heel back, strong right leg, extend long through the spine like we did in the extended limb position, right, little ribs hug in, arms fly, airplane, jet airplane, super dedicated and focused, gaining more strength, more energy, more reserve, so you can like really work on and focus on whatever it is you are focusing on, you need this energy for, now standing split, drop and exhale, so good, step back, plank pose, alright, 3 push ups is all I ask for from you right now, so whether it's on your knees, if you have a bummed shoulder, hold plank or find another position that gives you a feeling of strength, alright, 3 push ups, inhale, exhale, exhale, downward dog exhale, inhale into plank and lower all the way down, from here bring your left arm, bring it way out to the left in line with your shoulder, palm facing down, now right hand is going to push you onto that left arm and shoulder, so when you are about halfway over as you are reaching your right foot behind your left leg, right knee directed up toward the ceiling if you have that kind of space, walk the left arm over a little bit more to get more flat on that front of the shoulder and chest, if you can relax the head down do that, might feel nice, shoulder and chest recovery, good, this is one you could probably stay in a little bit longer, soak it up, so if you feel like coming back to it or even staying now, do that, we are going to exit over to the other side, come back to center, reach the right arm over, stretch it out as much as you can and roll, so if you don't have the capacity or ability to bring the left foot behind the right knee with the knee up, you can stack your feet, stack your legs, make the legs comfortable, basically like take a little action in your practice and figure out how you can create a comfortable leg position so that you can get the priority which is the stretch in the shoulder, the chest, alright we are going to take one more breath here because if I stay any longer I will do just that, stay a long time, this is one of my favorite stretches so let's come back out, so your face is facing downward, reach back behind you, interlace your fingers, so you have opened up the shoulders a little bit just now so this might be a little somewhat more accommodating and now press the pubic bone right, the front part of your body below your navel, press down to adjust the pelvis a little bit, legs active, lift the leg, lift the chest, lift the head, reach the knuckles back, locust pose and relax that all the way down and as you are releasing all the way down slide the hands alongside the rib cage, finish your exhalation, inhale up through a cobra and back into a child's pose, so knees can be nice and wide here if you would like, you can continue to stretch the arms forward or bring them back, take three breaths, this is like that transitional time right, we are going to move on to our back shortly so start to switch gears into closing out, cooling down, relaxing, okay, you can come on up, you can stay there as long as you like because I know that might feel nice but we are going to roll on to our backside, right where we began this lovely practice together, so good, so let's take a spinal twist on each side, you can draw, take your hips over to the right so slide your butt and your low back over to the right, extend the left leg out, draw the right knee in and over to the left, right arm reaches out, try to decongest the upper back so shoulder blades spread out, right palm facing up, any tension you might have in your low back or your outer hip, can use this pose to let it go or minimize it, okay, remember in these poses, this pose specifically, that knee in this case the right does not need to touch for it to be correct, right, just find your range of motion, personalize it, slide the hips over to the left, extend your right leg out, draw the left leg in, track that left leg across your body to the right side, reach the left arm out, try to find that fluid, spacious breathing and sometimes when we come into these intense poses, we can find ourselves gripping, right, our jaw, our forehead, see if you can eliminate some of that, come on back out, align yourself back onto the mat, back to center, draw the knees right back into the body, into that reclined child's pose, you can grab hold of opposite wrists if you'd like, and the head down, lengthen the neck, take a deep breath in and let a big breath out as we move right into a relaxation, relax your entire body and there's a knowing, there's a trust, right, you've just cultivated and worked and created this energy and strength and power, right, at least that's what I feel, so as you relax, as you settle in and settle down and into your relaxation, acknowledge that, acknowledge the effort, the energy you've created that you can then use for what's really important to you at this juncture of your life, something that's well worth your time and it's nothing but fulfilling rather than depleting.

It doesn't matter what it is, you could be building a boat, you could be being a mother or a father, you could be a teacher, it doesn't matter what that endeavor is but if you have it and it's clear that you want to do it, you need the energy, don't waste the energy on something not as rewarding. So I encourage you to stay longer here in relaxation, pause the video, relax your entire body and if you're ready, you can join me, we'll close out in a sitting position, I'm right here with you either way, so to close out, right, your off-the-mat practice might be pay attention, give it that extra little attention throughout your day, where are you feeling depleted, you're doing something it feels, it just doesn't feel right, right, that's all these things are, awarenesses, so I can put my energy somewhere really rewarding and worth my time, right, okay, so with that said, as always, thank you for being here, thank yourself for being here, we close with namaste.