Week 1: Earth Body

Hello. Welcome to day one of our course. Today we'll explore Earth. Look around your space that you're in and ask yourself the question, where is there Earth in this place? So here where I am, I'm noticing the wood floors and the glass made of melted sand and the clothes I'm wearing. And I can feel in my body the food I'm digesting. There is Earth both inside and outside of my body. We're part of the Earth and the Earth has an intrinsic intelligence. It's alive, just like our bodies. Today we're going to start off kind of slow and we'll be low to the ground. And then we're going to come up for a more active asana practice and then we'll lay back down to integrate. So if you would, please lay down on your back and get comfortable. Open up your legs so they're about as wide as your mat and let your arms come back behind you, also wide. You're making the shape of an X or like a starfish spreading out into your edges. Notice all the parts of your body that are touching the ground and let all of these places widen. So you're offering the weight of your body to the ground and receiving support. Let your whole body know the Earth, feel the Earth, watch the Earth. Lift your head about an inch off the floor and feel how heavy your head is. And now release your head back down and let all of that weight move down to find the Earth, to feel the Earth, to know the Earth. Lift your right arm about an inch off the floor and again feel how heavy your right arm is. And now release your right arm back down and again offer the weight of your whole arm into the Earth. Lift your left arm about an inch off the floor and feel your whole left arm, its weight. And now release your whole left arm down, feeling the touch of the Earth, feeling the weight of your arm. Lift your right leg up and feel how heavy your right leg is. And notice this is a pretty simple action but the whole body adjusted to make this happen. And now release your right leg down and release it all the way down to feel the weight of your right leg. Lift your left leg up and again the whole body adjusts to make that possible. As the left leg floats feel how heavy the left leg is. You can move it around a little bit in space. And now release the left leg down and release the weight all the way down into the Earth. Feel the weight of your whole body. And notice if anything else is hovering and can it too let go. And we let go not by pushing or forcing ourselves down into the Earth but rather we simply let ourselves know weight. Touch the ground and receive the touch of the ground. It's like you're greeting the Earth, saying hello to the Earth with your right palm down and push your right finger pad or your right hand down into the floor. And consider or be with the movement that goes up through the shoulder. You might even feel a little movement in your neck and in your head. And then release that. And turn your left palm down. Bring more weight into your left hand so that creates push. And we'll push down and notice that when something goes down something else goes up. And you might find movement through the shoulder, through your neck, through your head. And we'll release that. And now bend both knees and place your feet on the floor. And again a complex movement.

Something shifted to make that happen. Push one foot down into the ground and the push is coming because you're bringing more weight into the right foot. And again notice when something went down something else went up. And release that. And now push your left foot down. And notice what moves, what shifts, what changes. What goes up. And release that. Let your right arm lift up over your head. And now roll to your right side. Pause on your right side. And feel your side body making contact to the floor. And let this skin widen. And this side of your body feel the earth, touch the earth, and be touched by the ground. Find push to bring you all the way up towards your seat. And then once you arrive melt back down. Melting all the way back down. And with push, with weight, so we go down and let the down inspire you to come all the way up to a seated position. And then once again melting like your butter, warming up, melt all the way back down onto your back. Roll to your side again. And again push, and this time push yourself all the way up to stand. Pushing through the feet, moving down to grow all the way up to a standing position. Feel the legs going down so the spine can be upright and supported. And now let's come to stand at the front of our mats. Feel into your feet making contact to the ground. And can your feet be wide and long? So there's weight that's able to move down through the inner feet, through the heels. The heels can be wide, outer feet. And now check in with your knees and make sure that your knees are available so they're not locked, available for movement. Consider a rooting down through the legs and inhale, reach your arms up for Urdhva Hastasana.

Now pause with your arms lifted and notice did your feet shrink? Did they have to? Can your feet still be wide? Can you still feel the down in order to move up? As you're ready, fold forward over your legs. Release the weight of your head and begin to shift your weight a little bit towards the back so you feel your heels. And now shift your weight forward towards the balls of your feet. And notice as you move your weight back and forward, your spine changes too. And can you find that sweet spot where your spine is releasing towards your head and towards the earth? It might feel good to move your head out a little bit and make sure that your neck is free. Inhale, lengthen halfway, Ardha Uttanasana and let that come from the movement down through the feet. As you're ready, step back, Downward Facing Dog. In Downward Facing Dog, push really energetically down through the right hand. And notice as the right hand pushes, something goes up. And for me right now, I'm really feeling my right hip rise. And now push a little bit more through the left hand. And again, notice where are you feeling the line of force? What goes up when the left hand goes down? Push through both hands equally. And now push more through the right foot. And notice what happens, what changes. Create more push through the left foot. What happens? And now push through both hands and both legs equally. Here in Down Dog, when we push through our limbs, our pelvis flies. Push down through your feet and inhale, come forward to plank. You might need to lengthen your pose a bit. Exhale, push into your hands to let your pelvis fly back to Down Dog. Root down through your feet, inhale, come forward to plank. Root down through your hands to lift the pelvis high, Downward Dog. Do that a couple more times for yourself. Include your breath and connect to the ground. The weight moving down into the ground, inspiring this movement through the whole body. Root down into your hands to press to Down Dog. Root down through your feet, pushing to come forward to plank. Root down into your hands to lift the pelvis high, Downward Facing Dog. As you're ready, transition to the front of your mat for a standing forward fold. And again, find that sweet spot where weight is moving down through the feet so that your spine can release towards your head and towards the earth. Inhale, lengthen halfway, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, fold forward, Uttanasana.

Inhale, come all the way up to stand. First move down through the feet, come up, reach your arms up to the sky, and exhale, release your arms down. Bend your knees, let your hips crease, let your ankles crease. So it's like an Uttanasana. But then we're going to push down into the feet to come back up, roll your shoulders up, back, and down. And then we'll bend our knees again, let the shoulders roll as the legs straighten the shoulders lift and go back and down. A few more times like that. We're circling the shoulders and bending our knees. And all of this is inspired by the movement down through the feet. Knees bending, shoulders circling, knees bending, shoulders circling. And this time we'll bend our knees and let the arms rise into Uttanasana. Find a nice big inhale here. On an exhale, bend your knees even more, let your fingertips come forward, let your sitting bones come down and find your squat, whatever that means today. Push down into your feet, inhale, come up to stand. Find a big circle with your arms and then fold forward. Inhale, halfway rise. And exhale, step your right foot back to a lunge. So organize your feet so that your whole left foot can find the earth, the ball of the right foot finds the earth. You can have length, you can have width. And now root down into the feet, let that inspire a rise for high crescent lunge. Make sure that the spine feels supported, the legs are strong. And now include your eyes and play with looking up, maybe at the high diagonal, letting the heart follow. On an exhale, release your hands down. And now push into your hands to step back to plank. We'll find a nice big inhale here. Exhale, bend your elbows, lower all the way down to your belly, feel free to lower your knees down for that transition. Bring the tops of your feet down and inhale, rise into low cobra. So check in with your neck and make sure that your neck feels free. Feel your hands touching the floor and let the hands go down and slightly back. Again, inspiring the lift of the heart. On an exhale, lower down. Tuck your toes, lift your knees or choose to keep your knees down. Push into your hands and feel how that makes your belly lift. With that strength, press up to plank. Push into your hands back to downward dog. A full breath here. Rooting through both hands, inhale, reach your right leg up towards the sky. Feel your hands rooting and can that upward movement go all the way up to the right lifted leg. On an exhale, step your right foot forward between your hands. Again, taking time to organize your feet so you feel rooted, grounded, connected to the earth. And then from your down, inhale, reach your arms up. Again, including your eyes. You can experiment with looking up. Now feel the ball of the back foot and let there be almost like a pulsing action. You're pushing to bring more weight forward to the front foot and then push into your front foot to come back a little bit and do that a couple of times. And then when you're ready, you're going to push off the ball of the back foot and it'll bring you right into a standing forward fold. Inhale, lengthen halfway up. Exhale, fold. Deeply bend your knees. Inhale, rise into utkatasana. Exhale, sit down nice and low, fingertips forward, sitting bones down. Inhale, push down, come up big circle with the arms. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, halfway rise. Exhale, step your left foot back to a lunge. Root down, inhale, rise, arms lift. Again, including your eyes, looking up to the high diagonal, letting the whole spine follow. On an exhale, release your hands down. Push down into your hands to step the right foot back to plank. Inhale, exhale, lower to your belly. Inhale, low cobra again. And we're pausing here, rising up through the front of the spine, lengthening back through the legs. The hands are rooting down and slightly back to lift the top of the sternum forward and up. Lower down, tuck your toes, lift your knees, press into your hands, feel your belly get strong, and then rise up to plank. Push into your hands, down dog. Both hands rooting. Inhale, reach your left leg skyward. And can your hands pressing inspire the left leg to rise? Exhale, step your left foot forward between your hands. Root down, inhale, arms rise. Shift your weight forward to the front foot, and then push into your front foot to shift your weight slightly back. So again, this movement forward and back is coming from the feet, from the connection to the ground. And now find a big push through the ball of the back foot to come all the way into a standing forward fold. Inhale, lengthen halfway, and exhale, fold. Deeply bend your knees, inhale, rise into utkatasana. Exhale, bend your knees even more, sitting down low. Push down into your feet, straighten your legs. Find a big circle with your arms and exhale, fold. Inhale, lengthen halfway, and exhale, fold. Inhale, rise all the way up to stand. Root down into your feet, reach your arms up, urdvahastasana, again pausing here. As your arms lifted, did your feet shrink? And can your feet stay broad? Stay long as the arms rise skyward. Release your hands down. Inhale, reach your arms up, again feet rooting. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, step your right foot back, and this time we're going to lower our back knee down towards the ground. Inhale, start to lift the top of your sternum even more. On an exhale, release your hands down, root down through the left foot, and let that inspire a lift of the pelvis. On an inhale, knees will bend, hands can hover, top of the sternum lifts. On an exhale, hands come down, foot roots, pelvis goes high, maybe the legs straighten. Inhale, breath, knees bend, top of the sternum lifts. Exhale, hands come down, rooting down to lift the pelvis high. This time, just bend your front knee. Once again, press into your hands to come back to plank pose. This time, if you have upward facing dog as part of your practice, you're welcome to explore that, or you'll come back down to cobra. If you're coming to up dog, first flip to the tops of your feet. Push down into the tops of your feet and feel the strength of your legs. Now slowly begin to descend the pelvis, keep your legs strong, send your sternum up towards the sky as your chest comes between the upper arms. On an exhale, push into your hands to lift your hips back to downward facing dog. Inhale, right leg rises. Again, push into both hands to lift your right leg skyward, and exhale, step your right foot forward between your hands. Lower your back knee, lift your sternum, inhale. Exhale, lower your hands, and lift your hips up high. Inhale, lower both knees, start to lift up through the sternum, the hands can hover. As you exhale, hands come down, right foot pushes and that lifts the hips. A couple more times like that. Inhale, knees bend, sternum rises, little back bend.

Exhale, hands come down, hips go high. Inhale, knees bend, top of the sternum lifts. Exhale, hands come down, hips go high. This time, inhale, just bend your front knee, reach your arms up to the sky, and shift slightly forward. So you're on a diagonal, noticing this incredible diagonal line between the torso and the back leg. Now push off the ball of the back foot and let that inspire you into a warrior three. You can be on a diagonal or you can lift the back leg up even more, coming more towards parallel. Bring your left foot to meet your right foot, stand up tall, bend both knees, utkatasana, and now sit down even more, finding your squat. Push down into your feet, straighten your legs, find a big circle with your arms, and exhale, fold. Inhale, halfway rise, and exhale, fold again. Inhale, lengthen halfway, step your left foot back to a lunge, bring your back heel down, and rise up to warrior two. Push down into your front foot, straighten your front leg, and reach both arms skyward. Exhale, open up wide, warrior two. Just one more time like that. Inhale, rooting down, bend your front leg, both arms rise, and exhale, open up warrior two. Inhale here, exhale, lower your hands down, push into your hands, step back to plank, inhale, and exhale, lower, bending the elbows, inhale, cobra or upward facing dog, and exhale, push into your hands, reach your hips high, downward facing dog. Pushing down through both hands, inhale, left leg rises, exhale, step your left foot forward between your hands, bring your back heel down, rise into warrior two. And now push down through the front foot, inhale, both arms rise, exhale, open up wide again, warrior two. Again, rooting through the feet to straighten the front leg, reach both arms skyward, and exhale, warrior two. We'll inhale here, and exhale, release both hands down. Now pause here and lift your back heel off the ground, inhale, reach both arms skyward, and then come slightly forward on that diagonal. Again pausing to be with that diagonal from the back leg all the way up through the torso, all the way up through the arms. And now push off the ball of the back foot, let that inspire more weight to come into the front foot to lift the back leg, warrior three. You can be on a diagonal or lift your back leg up a little bit higher to lower the torso. Bring your right foot to meet your left foot, Urdhva Hastasana, arms up, exhale, both knees bend Utkatasana, try sitting down even more. And then root down through your feet, come up to stand, big circle with your arms, exhale, fold. Inhale, halfway rise, and exhale, fold. Inhale, come up to stand, rooting down through the feet, arms go skyward. Exhale, standing tall, Tadasana. Step your feet a little bit wider so they're about outer hip width distance. Turn your palms so they're facing forward out in front of you. Again, take a moment to feel weight moving down through the inner legs, inner feet, outer legs, outer feet.

Feel into the sides of the heels and the balls of the feet. I think of this as falling up. Do I move down in order to move up? On an inhale, let your palms float out in front of you. On an exhale, turn your palms down, bend your knees and let your sitting bones come nice and low, whatever again that means for you today. Turn your palms up, inhale, come up, rooting down to rise. Exhale, turn your palms down, bend your knees, sitting bones close to the heels. Inhale, palms turn up, rooting down to rise. Exhale, palms turn down, bending knees coming down a few more times like that, rooting down to rise, and still feel up, still feel space as you head down, rooting down to rise, bending knees, creasing in hips, traveling down, rooting down to rise, and this time just release your arms down, bring your legs a little bit closer together, pausing into Dasana. In the pause, notice what you notice, what feels alive in you. Where is your attention drawn to? Shift your weight towards your right foot, and notice when you do that, where does your weight go? And for me, it often travels more towards the outer foot, and so I'm going to come back to two feet, shift my weight again and see if I can find both inner and outer foot rooting. Once I find that, then the left knee can rise up towards the chest. Really stand down through the right leg, stand down through the right foot, and look again as you root down, look for the up through the front of the spine. And now externally rotate the left leg and bring the foot up towards the inner thigh, or the space beneath the knee. So we're traveling towards Rishasana. Notice if a lot of weight has poured to the outer right hip, and draw that hip in so that you can feel a lightness coming up through the hip joint and up through the spine. And again, standing down through the right leg, through the right foot, and let me inspire a lift to the arms, Rishasana, rooting to rise, or we could say falling up. Feel your back body as much as your front body, and gently release your hands back down.

Root down through the right foot to lift your left knee back in towards your chest and release the left foot down, standing once again in Tadasana. Again pausing, notice how you feel. And now shift your weight into your left foot. And again, notice where your weight goes when you shift. You might need to do that a couple of times. So you can feel your weight pouring down through the inner foot and the outer foot. And once you find that, hug your right knee into your chest. Externally rotate the right leg, bring the foot into the left inner thigh, or again, the space a little bit lower, maybe beneath the knee. And pausing to feel the left foot rooting, really standing down through the left leg. And then there's this hopefully some brightness and some upward movement through the spine. Inhale, arms rise, coming from the down, we go up, connecting down into the earth to move up. So we don't have to pull our way up, we just go down to naturally receive the up through the body. Feel into your back body. Notice movement and breath. And gently release your arms. Standing down through the left foot to hug your right knee back in. And release your right foot back down to again pause and to notice what you notice. Shift your weight into your right foot. Hug your left knee into your chest. And this time we'll send our left leg back behind us to widen the legs, opening up into warrior two. And then we'll head into extended side angle. So when you're ready, start to tip the hips, right forearm can find the right thigh. And we're really filling up the left side body here. Notice where your weight is on your front foot. And feel your heel. Again, letting the heel be wide. Find the inner foot, outer foot, reaching down, growing roots down. Root down through your feet to come back up to warrior two. And now walk your back foot in just a little bit. We're going to push off the bottom of the back foot again and let that bring all of your weight to your front foot. So your left hand, left shin rather, can come into your right hand. And let's do that a few times. So extend the leg back out, warrior two. Push down through the back foot. Let that move you through space. Left shin, right hand.

And again, widening, spreading back out to warrior two. Push down through the back foot to come up. Opening up wide, warrior two. Push down to shift to your front foot. Left shin, right hand. We're spiraling. Pausing here. Breathing here. You can stay holding to your shin. If you feel inspired, you can extend the leg, hold onto the pinky toe side of the foot. Spiraling from the low belly, through the solar plexus and the heart and the throat. And we'll come back to center. Bend your left knee if it's not already and release it down for Tadasana. Inhale, arms rise. Exhale, fold down. Inhale, halfway lift. And exhale, fold forward again. Inhale, rise to stand. Root down to lift up. Arms skyward. And exhale, release your arms down. Shift your weight into your left foot. Hug your right knee into your chest. Send your right leg back for warrior two. Inhale here. And exhale, come into extended side angle. Left forearm can come to thigh. Rooting down through the feet. And in particular, really feel into your front heel. And again, notice that when something goes down, something else goes up. So when you root down through your left heel, you might begin to feel a little buoyancy through the left sitting bone. Really fill up the whole right side of the body as you explore your length. Couple more breaths here. Think of this more as a movement less as a shape. So you're experimenting, you're exploring. As you're ready, come back up to warrior two. Walk your back foot in just a little bit and then push through the bottom of the back foot to come all the way up. Right shin to left hand, a little spiral. And now open back up to warrior two. Push through the back foot to come up to stand. Right shin, left hand. Open back up warrior two. A couple more times like that. So it's the push that moves us through space. Then we're extending out from our belly to our edges back to warrior two. It's the push that brings us to stand. And we extend back out opening wide into warrior two. This time we'll pause. So pushing through the back foot to come up. We have an option here to stay with the knee bent or maybe straighten the leg. Stand down through your supporting leg and then spiral through the belly, through the heart, through the throat and spread out into your edges. Keep standing down through your supporting foot and leg. And now slowly begin to bend your your lifted knee if it's not there already. Hug it in. Release the foot down. Inhale both arms rise. Exhale fold.

Inhale rise all the way up to stand. Exhale release your arms down to your side. Resting into dasana. Again notice movement. Feel your body connecting to the earth. Part of the earth. Now bring your hands together in front of your heart and rub your hands together. Rubbing your hands together. Notice what you notice about your two hands touching. What's happening. What's changing. Pause and allow your hands to move just slightly apart and notice what's happening at the skin and the space between your two hands. And now bring your hands up towards the top of your head and pad out the top of your head. You're saying hello to your skin. Going down to pad out your face and your neck and then padding out your chest and your arms. Trying to say hello to all of your skin. Padding out your chest and your belly. Your legs. Going all the way down. Big pats. And then starting to brush. Pushing out the skin. Your skin covers your whole body. 365 degrees. It divides what is inside and what is outside. Your skin looks in and your skin looks out. Brushing, brushing, brushing. And shake it out. Shake out your skin. And then pause. And feel your skin. The aliveness of your skin. Your skin is like the soil of the earth you're covering. Now let's roll down. So rolling down. Melting down. Let your head come forward. And then slowly begin to roll down. You can bend your knees. Roll all the way down to bring your seat down to the floor. And then keep rolling down until you're back onto your back. You can open your legs up. Open your arms up. And we're back to where we started. Notice how you feel. Notice your whole back body touching the ground. And let your skin widen. Let your skin be receptive. So it's feeling the earth. Feeling the ground that's beneath you. And notice how you feel here. We've been here before. What's changed? Gently draw your knees into your chest. Bring your hands to your shins. Send your legs over to the right for a supine twist. Let your left arm open up wide. Feel the touch of the ground. And notice movement. Notice the movement of your spine. Be here for a couple of breaths. Unwinding.

Unraveling. And gently bring your legs back to center. And send your legs to the other side. Opening your right arm up wide to the side. Again, feel the ground. Feel the weight of your body. And notice movement. What happens to your spine when you breathe? We're here for a couple of breaths. Unwinding. Spiraling. And gently come back to center. Hug your knees into your chest once again. And now extend your legs out and prepare your body for shavasana. Notice the parts of your body touching the ground. And let these parts widen so you're touching and being touched by the earth. Feel the ground that is directly beneath you. But also feel the ground beneath this foundation that you're on. Can your whole body drop down to feel maybe five feet beneath your body? Drop your attention down even more. Let your whole body feel the vast earth that we are a part of. Can every part of your body feel the earth? If anything is hovering, can it too know the support of the ground? If anything is hovering, can it feel the ground? If anything is hovering, can it feel the ground?

If anything is hovering, can it feel the ground? If anything is hovering, can it feel the ground? If anything is hovering, can it feel the ground? If anything is hovering, can it feel the ground? Staying with the ground or staying noticing the ground, begin to feel movement. Feel your breath. Notice the space you're in. Very gently start to find a little larger movements, waking up your body, moving however you wish. Transition to your side body and push yourself all the way up to your seat. Find a comfortable seat. Feel free to sit up on a blanket or you can sit on a meditation cushion or pillow. Notice where you're touching the ground now and try rocking your pelvis a little bit forward and a little bit back. And find a sweet spot where you're sitting on your pelvis so that your spine can feel free and light. Notice where you're touching the ground and let these places get wide. And again, feel into the ground about three feet down or five feet down. Can your body feel soil, the aliveness of soil? Feel the earth, but also notice your height. Notice the crown of your head. And we don't have to pull ourselves upright, rather falling up, feeling the down that invites the spine to be light and buoyant and upright. Bring your hands to your heart and place your hands on your chest. Notice first what your hands are touching. Maybe it's skin to skin or maybe there's clothing there. And now invite your attention a little bit deeper. So you're starting to feel inside your body and notice the space between your sternum and the front of your spine. Feel into your beating heart, the aliveness of your heart. Ask your heart what it desires and what does it wish for the world, both your personal world, your personal life, and the world at large? What is your heart's desire? What does your heart wish for? Feel your breath and your lungs surrounding your heart. For a moment, just let this heart's desire flood your whole body. Gently release your hands down. And if your eyes are closed, gently allow them to open. Now take a moment and find a pencil or pen and a piece of paper and write about this heart's desire. Make it into a prayer or a song or a poem or just an intention for yourself to speak to this desire of the heart. Again, for the world, both your personal world and for the world at large. And now this week I'd like for your homework assignment for you to consider this question, where is there earth in this place? And just visit that question as you're in different locations, you know, on the city bus, driving your car, in your communities, at your child's school. Where is there earth in this place? Both inside your body and in the space that you're in. And just notice that dialogue between inside and outside. Let's bring our hands together in front of our heart. And once again, rub your hands together. And notice what's happening as your hands meet, as your hands touch. Notice the sensation between your hands. And now open your hands up and pause. Again, noticing the relationship between the two hands. You might feel an aliveness at the skin or maybe even beneath your skin. And now experiment with opening your hands up wide, letting them move farther apart. But can their hands still feel their relationship to each other as they spread wide? And now slowly, slowly bring your hands together and notice what's happening at the skin, but also beneath the skin and also at the space between your hands. Slowly bringing your hands together. I sometimes imagine I'm playing an accordion, feeling the space change. And eventually your hands will come together to touch. And when they do, feel them touch. Both hands are touching and both hands are being touched. And follow that touch all the way back to the heart. Can your hands meeting feel your heart? And let's close our practice in today with a bow. Thank you.