Day 3: Comparison to Capacity

Welcome to day three of our summer challenge. I'm so happy you're here. In a world as full as ours, it's easy to get caught in comparison, to think that we aren't enough or that we must be better to be able to do something. But the reality is that we are so capable. We'll use this practice today to realize our capacity, to open it up, to look around ourselves, to get over ourselves, and to get into the work, which is yoga, both here on the mat and out in the world. Let us begin. We'll start standing. Later on in class, you might use a blanket and two blocks. We'll find ourselves on our feet, ground down through the soles of the feet, gently lift up through the pelvis and the heart, and find your hands by your sides. Close your eyes if it's comfortable. Take a full breath in and just a gentle breath out. One more to settle here. We are ready to move. Step your left foot behind your right slightly. Press down through the left foot behind you, press the right hand down, and lift the left hand up. Good. Here you can reach your hands up overhead, grab opposite elbow, and start to open through the chest and shoulders. It's comfortable to look to the left, taking the chin into the armpit, look forward, or if it's most comfortable, you can look down. From here, release the hands, step back to center. Then we'll go to the left. Take your right foot behind your left foot, gently turn the hips forward, press the left hand down, lift the right hand up, and stretch your glorious self. Take elbows overhead, grab opposite elbow, and open more through the chest. Find yourself proud. Take a full breath in. Exhale, we'll step back to center. From here, we'll meet on the mat on hands and knees. Take your hands to the earth, step one knee back and then the other, and we begin to work more in all fours. Let's return to the frame of our friendly cat and cows. Once with traditional breath, inhale up to cow, and just once on the exhale to cat. Press through the hands, squeeze the knees towards the heels of the hands. Breathe here, and then on an inhale, suck it up to cat. Exhale, press it out to cow. Good. Inhale to cow. Exhale to cow. Speeding it up, if you like to go slow, it's good to go fast, and if you go too fast, it's good to learn how to go a little bit slower. But in this case, move it up, stir it up, strike it up. Let's go. Three, two, one. Very nice. Return to center. Big breath in. Look forward, breath out. Step your right knee to the center of your space, and then cross the left knee right into the back of the right. Good. Zagarasana legs are sort of like a twisty tie on a bread bag. Feet out to the sides of your mat. In this case, we'll flip just the right hand around to flip the wrist and open the right collarbone. Place the right hand right underneath the right shoulder, stir the hips to the right once or twice, and then right from here, we'll take the same cat-cow shake. Inhale, exhale, cow. Inhale, exhale, cow. Inhale to neutral center, pause, and we'll switch. Taking the left knee in front of the right, tucking the right knee right into the back of the left knee, almost wiggling the feet wide, making almost like a third foot with the knees. Flip the left hand around to open the left shoulder and the left collar bone. Then inhale to cat, exhale to cow. Inhale, cat, look in, exhale out. Three more times. Inhale, and return to center, all fours. Right knee underneath the right hip, left knee underneath the left hip. From here, we'll grab our blocks. Take both blocks to the center of your mat, turn them up on their second height, really. Hands go in front of the blocks, curl your toes under, lift your hips up and back to a down dog. Bend your knees towards your armpits, let your belly hang on your thighs, and really try to lengthen the low back and widen the bum. From here, look forward, take your head and shoulders forward over your hands, lengthen your legs really strong, press through your feet, lie your hips on the blocks, find a supported up dog. Really roll the shoulders onto the back of the body and lengthen your proud head above you. That way you can see more. Inhale here, and then exhale, press it back. Inhale, forward, high plank to up dog. Exhale, press it back, down dog. Two more times. Inhale, forward and up. Exhale, back and down. Inhale, forward and up. Last time. This time, lay your knees on the earth, come to a modified high plank. You can remove your blocks. With your knees on the mat and your hands on the mat, you can curl your toes under. You can always level up to a high push-up, but we'll learn an important movement for this class. It's just like swimming, so just keep swimming. Look forward. We'll start with the right hand. Reach it up, over, back, and then down to flip the wrist just like you did, and you're all fours. Keep the right hand rooted. If it's too sensitive to do this, you can turn it out or just return it to face forward, but see if you can work the flip of the wrist, which opens the shoulder. Left hand comes around, flip the wrist, set it down. After two back strokes, we go forward. Always looking forward, because even if you feel like you're going backwards, if you're working, you're going forward, and the backstroke is forward, even though it's called the backstroke. One more time, back and back, forward and forward. It doesn't have to be perfect. We just work it till it works. Down dog. Breathe here, lengthen your spine, soften your breath, tune into yourself. Preparing to move, stepping forward even more, look to the top of your space. Step your right foot to the top of your mat for a low lunge, and then lower your left knee to the mat and find your blocks. We'll use both blocks today in this variation. One will go on the lowest setting and the second block will go on the tallest setting. Come to your low lunge, find a nice long distance, don't sell yourself short, don't sell your lunge short either, and find enough space between left foot and right foot to bend your right knee into your right armpit and rest the really meaty part of your left quad on the blocks. Inhale, rise to a high lunge. This can be intense for many, so if you prefer the left knee on the mat, take it. This will always be an option later in life. It doesn't have to be today. Inhale right here, and then exhale for a vertical twist. Send your left hand forward, your right hand back, and we'll twist to the long side of your mat. Inhale to center, high lunge, and then exhale to the right. Once more, inhale, and then exhale back to your low lunge, returning your hands to the earth. From here, you can step your blocks off your mat again. Keep them close for the second side. From here, look forward in your modified sort of low lunge, and we're going to press to a modified pyramid, bending the left knee, standing on the ball of the left foot, keeping the right knee in the right armpit, flexing the right toes to keep the knees and hips safe, and breathe. Inhale here, and exhale here too. Good. Come back to your low lunge. Turn your left heel and left toes out, and find warrior two in the legs. From this place, take your right hand on top of your left, and find Garudasana arms, or eagle arms. You can always just wrap hands to the shoulders if it's hard to get a grip, but sometimes it's nice to get a handle on things. So take your left hand all the way around to your right wrist. Make your right wrist hand, rather, into a fist. Bend into your right knee, and come on up to warrior one, and then fold it back up, stretch the handle forward, place it down, and then get punchy, and come on up. Find your capacity, your capabilities, and get a handle on it by finding the arms. Once more, inhale, rise up, and then exhale, fold it down. Good. From here, hands can come to the earth, step left foot to meet the right, and then gently turn to the long side of your mat for extra space. Left hand to right ankle, right hand to outer left ankle, right arm crossed on top. Bend your knees for a good forward fold that lengthens the low back, and gently take your chin towards your chest. Breathe here, even if it feels a little hard to do. You can always grab for the knees if it feels really far to the feet. Ideally, we get all the way to the ankles. Walk the feet nice and wide. Hold on. Bend your knees. Good. Take the knees outward, stretch, stretch, stretch through the spine, and then again, the arms are wrapped perfectly. Right elbow is right in the left elbow. You come around to find your eagle arms again. Make the right hand into a fist, left hand grabs the right wrist, bend your knees, look forward, stretch forward, come all the way up, and take a gentle lift to a back bend at the top. Then stick the butt out, reach the arms out, and fold it back up. Good. It's okay if you feel your breath change. Change is not failure. It's just awareness that the conditions are changing, adjusting. Walk your left hand back, I'm sorry, your left foot rather, to your right hand. Turn to face the top of your mat. From our forward fold, inhale to a gentle halfway lift, resetting the spine.

Good, and then exhale forward fold. Second side, fingertips touch the earth, right foot steps to the back of the mat, and then just let your right knee come down to this mat. Grab your blocks. First block goes on its lowest height. Our second block again stacks on its highest height, and this will become our kickstand for this really, really beautiful stable high lunge. Place the belly of the right thigh on the blocks. Give yourself enough space so you can really bend the left knee, left knee over left ankle. When you're ready, inhale rise up, high lunge. Remember that if the back gets pinchy, squeeze through the feet, squeeze to midline, and if you need to, you can always take the right knee to the mat. Inhale here, and then exhale for our twist. Left hand back, right hand forward, maybe even look back. Inhale, rise up, exhale for the twist. Inhale, high lunge. Exhale and twist. Last time, inhale, high lunge. And then exhale to our low lunge. Here, lifting the leg off the blocks, moving them out of our way. When you return to your low lunge, turn your right heel in, right toes point out. Warrior 1 in the legs. From here, right arm goes underneath the left arm, right hand grabs the left wrist, and left hand makes a fist. Press down through the feet to lift up, and open through the chest, and exhale, fold it back up. If we think of the hips as the love handles, these arms are like the heart handles, so reach them up to open the windows of the chest, and then exhale, fold them back down. One more like this. Good, and then exhale, release to the mat. Hands frame the front left foot, bend the right knee, and then drag the left hip back, modified pyramid here.

Toes on the left foot stay nice and active, and breathe. This is hard work, it's okay to acknowledge that you're working. I am too. Step onto the left foot, then the right foot comes to follow. We'll again face the long edge of the mat, and again we're gonna cross the arms. This time left arm goes on top of the right, so right hand reaches to left ankle, left hand reaches to right ankle. Walk the hands out, good, until the legs tell you no, there'll be a place where you're like, I can't go any farther. That's good, stay there. It's a good place to be. Bend your knees, widen through the sit bones, but lengthen through the spine. Right hand wraps to grab the left wrist, bend your knees a lot, come through a horse-like squat, and reach up, lengthening the low back, the mid back, and the upper back, and then fold it back up. Good, this time a special treat. We keep swimming. Keep the left hand on top of the right ankle, bend both knees, and drag the right hand behind the right hip. Inhale the right hand up overhead, and notice all of the places you can see along this track. Right hand grabs left ankle, you'll swim the left hand back behind the left hip, follow your gaze with the left fingertips, reach up overhead for the twist, reach forward, and all the way back to the right ankle, and we swim it again. Swimmers practice, they don't practice to make perfect, they just practice to practice, honestly. Left hand behind the right, left hand up and over, and then over the right. One more each way. Opening more through the chest each time, finding your capacity, your capabilities, noticing where the body touches and where it opens. Right from here, walking the feet back together. Good, turning to face the top of the mat. Inhale to a halfway lift, and then exhale to a forward fold. Grab opposite elbow and hang. Hanging with a hold of opposite elbow, reach the arms over to the right, keeping a hold of the elbows, and rise up for sunflower, where you follow the gaze of your arms, around to the left, and then back to the forward fold. Once more this way, inhale over to the right, and come up to stand, over to the left, and back down to fold. Often we put one arm on top of the other, so whichever one you did first, switch it out here, and then we'll go to the left. Inhale to the left, coming up to stand, really opening the frame of the arms overhead, and then exhale to the right, and back down to fold. Once more like this, left and rise up to stand, to the right, and fold. Good, release your hands to the earth. Fingertips touch the mat, take your left foot back to a low lunge, and then roll the left hip back, turning the left heel in, and the left toes out. Inhale, rise all the way up to warrior two, and find an extended side angle where you reach your right hand forward as you press your right knee out. Take your right elbow to your right thigh or knee, and lift your left hand up overhead. Then right from here, reverse the warrior. Keep a bend in the front right knee, inhale right hand high, reverse, exhale, extended. This time keeping the right elbow off of the mat, and almost finding monkey in a barrel like arms. Use your belly to find your power, inhale, reverse. Exhale, extended. Once more, inhale, rise up. It can be a small movement, or a big, beautiful note. Inhale, warrior two, and then exhale down to our low lunge. Inhale, look forward, and this time step your left foot behind your right foot, and you're gonna lay your left shin onto the ground.

You're welcome to take the option where your left leg comes all the way around to a seated, modified twist, or you're welcome to wrap your left heel to your right hip. Press down into your right foot, let your right knee point towards the ceiling, and press your right sit bone down into the mat. Left hand around to the outer right knee, right hand to the hip, behind you like a kickstand, or you can always reach it back. And if you reach it back, follow your gaze over your right thumb. Notice how far you can twist, how much you can see around yourself, and instead of comparing, notice the view that you have in the world, and take great pride in it. Notice how capable you are. This awareness, this sight, gives you great abilities. Take it back to center, step the right foot back to the front of the mat, the left foot back to a low lunge, inhale, look forward, and then exhale to a forward fold. Second side, left foot stays at the top of the mat, right foot steps back in space, turn the right toes out, and inhale cartwheel up to your warrior too. Good, this time reach forward with the left hand left elbow to left near thigh, and right hand up and over for a beautiful long extended side angle. Inhale, reverse your warrior, make the hands almost floaty and round like a big S, and then exhale to extend in. Good, inhale, reverse, exhale, extend. Once more, inhale, reverse, exhale back to our low lunge, left foot stays where it is, right foot steps up and then lay your right shin on the mat, come to sit on your bum, your left foot steps outside your right knee, and you're always welcome to unfold the right leg forward. We don't have too much time to set it up, so that option is perfectly safe and incredibly functional. Press your left foot down, your right hand outside of your left knee, left hand to outer left hip to the ground or behind you, and inhale lengthens the spine, and exhale deepens the twist. Can you try to level across your shoulders and reach out with both arms. Breathe here, look past the left thumb, notice how much you can see, how you know where you're going and where you've been. Stay in your lane, that's where the good work is happening. Unravel right from here, come up and back to all fours, gently turn the face the long side of your mat, sit on your heels or stand on your knees, find a moment of pause. After a moment here, blink your eyes open and find your blanket. There's a variation of this you can do on your back, known as dead bugs, but we'll take prone frog, which I promise is no one's favorite pose, so it doesn't have to be yours either. Take your knees underneath your hips and the blanket on your right knee just off of your mat so that it can slide. If you're on carpet, you can just do this on the mat. Slide out until your body sort of tells you to stop, there'll be a benchmark, and then come down to your forearms. With the blanket like this, keep a gentle pressure squeezing in instead of just hanging out on the inner thighs. Part of finding our capacity is keeping things together, having integrity and not just falling out on all the edges and frailing and flailing around. Stay for another breath, big breath in and full breath out. Challenge yourself to be calm even in moments of great sensation. Walk your hands underneath your shoulders, slowly come back up to sit, transfer your blanket to the middle of your space, sit on your butt, and then throw your legs over the end of your mat so that the blanket is underneath your knees. Scoot your butt back, bend your knees nice and strong so that this way when we do a forward fold, you sort of walk your knees into your armpits, really lengthening the low back instead of rounding and crunching through it. Take a full breath in, maybe you soften the head towards the floor on the breath out, big breath in, full breath out, last breath here. You've done it. Slowly walk yourself back up to sit, slide your blanket just to the side, we'll use it in Shavasana today. And then when you're ready, start to roll all the way down to the mat, pressing the low back, the mid back, and the upper back into the earth. From here, take your right foot to the floor, keep your left leg long, press into the feet and shift the hips to the right, shift the shoulders to the left, use your right hand over the top of your, I'm sorry, your left hand over the top of your right knee. You can reach your right arm out to the right and look back to the right, or you're welcome to reach it up over your head. Take a full breath in and a full breath out. One more breath here. Good, then unravel the twist, right foot back to the floor and shift your hips back underneath yourself. Swap out the legs, left sole of the foot touches the mat, right leg lengthens long, press into the left foot, shift the hips over to the right slightly and shift the shoulders to the right, hips to the left rather. Here, the left leg comes up and over to the right side, right hand captures outer, left leg, left hand reaches to the left or up over your head. Full breath in, simple breath out, two more like this. You can and you have and you can continue to do so, whatever that be, whatever you're working on in your practice and in your life. From here, release the twist by just rolling onto your back, settle your feet wide and knock your inner knees together. We'll take a modified Shavasana if you'd like where the soles of the feet will touch the earth today and your inner knees will knock together. You can place the blanket over the tops of your hips and belly, tuck your shoulders underneath and then lie your limbs long, mostly your arms, but if you'd like to lie your legs long, you're welcome to release this modification for a more traditional Shavasana. From here, come back to your breath, ground yourself in your practice of both movement and mind and commit that you have transitioned the mindset of comparing to others and instead chosen to be in your own lane, to swim into the capacity of your full potential and capabilities and that you settle around this brilliance, this power. Rest here and breathe. Breathe and believe. Breathe and believe.

You can lie here and almost feel like you sunbathe in your own brilliance for as long as you like, but if you're ready to keep swimming through the world, through the day, through your practice, start to wiggle your fingers and your toes. Maybe lift your heels if the feet are grounded, slide the blanket off of your belly, turn to the right side of your mat and then gently press your way up to sit. You're welcome to sit on the blanket or just your space, whatever feels comfortable. Take your hands to heart center and lift your thumbs to the center of your forehead. We pray that your thoughts are full of happiness. Together we hope that your words are full of kindness and that this practice, hands to heart, gives you your capabilities and confidence. Namaste.