Week 2: Water Body

Hello. Welcome to week two. Today we're going to explore water. Similar to last week, look around the space you're in and ask the question, where is there water in this place? There's water in the air and there's water absorbed in these wood floors. There's water here in the nearby ocean and maybe by you there's nearby lakes and streams and there's a lot of water in this body. Start to move your tongue around your own mouth and notice how much wetness there is. Feel into the water of your body and let yourself swallow some of your saliva and follow that sensation down into your body. Bring your attention down to your pelvis and start to move your pelvis around. Move your pelvis front to back and side to side. Maybe find some circles if that feels good to you and allow your pelvis to move your spine. So your spine is going for a ride and right now I'm thinking of my pelvis like a bowl full of water and I'm moving from the inside. So it's like I'm shifting the contents or I'm moving the water and moving the water is shifting the container. Now if you feel really restricted with this movement, like it's hard to get some movement in your pelvis, then sit up a little bit higher. Come up onto a cushion or more blankets. You can even sit on a chair so that you can start to feel the freedom in your pelvis and again your pelvis is moving your spine. Notice what it's like to breathe and when we breathe our bodies change. They change shape. Think of your breath moving fluids. It's like when you see wind moving over a lake and the fluids or the water is shifting, moving. And now begin to find a steadiness, an uprightness but still notice movement. So the movement becomes more subtle but it's very much here, part of you. Fluids are receptive, fluids are adaptable and we are movement. And now bring your hands out in front of you and turn your palms up towards the sky. And now flip your hands over so your palms face down and do that several times. Flipping your hands up and then flipping your hands down. And so I've just instructed you to do something and you're doing it. And now we're gonna drop in a little bit more and keep doing this movement but now move and feel at the same time. Feel your own body, the movement of your arms, the direction of your palms. Notice what you notice about your hands. And now drop in a little bit more and feel into your fluid interior. And maybe you can even sense your bones talking to each other through fluid. Bones talk through fluid. Bones communicate through fluid. Moving and feeling at the same time. And now as you do this, notice if there's an observer observing your experience. Like are you watching yourself move? And what would it be like to feel into the mind of the body, like the wisdom of the body? A body that is always changing, always moving, always flowing. Palms turn up and palms turn down.

Moving and feeling. Bones talking through fluid. And now release your palms down and notice the echo. Notice the residue. Notice how you feel. Let's transition to downward facing dog. Notice how you get there. Take your time. Feel your hands starting to make contact with the floor. And I imagine you've played with this shape many times. But rather than thinking of it as a shape, think of it as a movement. So feel currents, pathways, like rivers and streams, movements. Start to extend the pelvis up. Balance your fluid body between the front body and the back body. So can you feel the back body as much as the front? Might even feel good to move through your pelvis a little bit, moving your tailbone to the left and the right. Again, allowing the spine to move. Walk your way forward towards a standing forward fold. And shift your weight far enough forward towards the balls of your feet so that your spine releases towards your head, towards the ground. And notice the movement of your spine. Like a waterfall moving down from the sacrum towards your head, towards the earth. Bend your knees. Feel the weight of your tailbone. Drop your tailbone a little bit more and slowly roll up your spine. One segment of your spine at a time. And now root down into your feet to come all the way up. Lift your head, reach your arms up towards the sky, and release your arms back down to your side, standing here in Tadasana. Feel your feet making contact to the ground. And imagine that you're standing on a water fountain. And this water fountain is going to go up the bottoms of your feet, up the long bones of the legs, up through the hip joints. The water will come back to rise up through the front of your spine, kind of fountain out through your shoulders and your arms, and fountain out through your head. Okay? So bend your knees and pour your fluid body to the side. And now again, like you're standing on a water fountain, let the water rise up through the bottoms of the feet, up the long bones of the legs, up through the hip joints, the front of the spine, all the way up to the crown of your head. And then pour your fluid body to the other side. Again, water coming up through the bottoms of the feet, long bones of the legs, hip joints, front of spine, all the way up through the crown of the head. And again, we'll pour the weight to the side. So we're moving sequentially down and up, coming from the feet, water pouring through our bodies to inspire our rise, pouring to the side, pouring ourselves back up from the bottoms of the feet, all the way up the front of the spine, all the way up to stand.

Let's include an arm. So pouring to the side, top arm reaches. And then like a water fountain rising up through the long bones of the legs, the hip joints, the spine back to stand. Pour yourself to the side, including the arm, finding a side bend, and then sequencing your way back up. So do that again for yourself. And notice if there's parts of this movement that you're skipping. So often there'll be one part of our spine that kind of moves in a big chunk. Can you rise up one section at a time? Not letting anything be forgotten. Pouring weight to the side and letting water come up through the long bones of the legs, the hip joints, the front of the spine, all the way up. And now let's pour down in front. Let your knees bend. And then again, rising up from the feet like a water fountain, come up and then play a little bit with moving into the back space. And now come all the way back up and let your weight shift a little bit to the left, a little bit to the right. It might even feel good to widen your feet a little bit as you sway side to side. And kind of similar to when we were seated, the movement is coming from the inside. It's like I'm shifting my fluid interior and that's allowing me to shift my container, moving from the inside. It's less about the shape and more about our own experience. Giving ourself permission to have our own experience as we sway our fluid body side to side. And now find standing again. And notice the echo of that movement and see if as you're standing here, you can still be with movement, still be with flow. Notice if there's any part of your body that feels held almost like there's a boulder and can you free that spot so there's more freedom for fluid movement. Come to stand at the top of your mat and imagine that you're standing on a canoe, balancing in the water. So if you were standing on a canoe, you wouldn't lock your feet and you wouldn't lock your knees, otherwise you would fall over. So feel into your feet and let them be really soft and receptive like they're tasting the ground or feeling all the subtle movements of the ground. So letting everything be available to this fluid movement. As you're ready, reach your arms up towards the sky and now pause with your arms lifted and notice if anything got blocked or locked. Did you lock your knees or your hip joints? Are you still available for this fluid movement? Again, like you're standing on a water fountain, whole body with fluid movement. As you feel a readiness, fold forward. Lengthen up halfway and step back to a downward facing dog. Again, oftentimes we hear the the name of a shape and then we just head into a shape as though we know it. So what is it like to be in this shape like it's the first time? And in a way it is. Our bodies are always changing so we're meeting this shape for the very first time. Feel movement, be with fluid and now taking our time we're going to roll forward to plank leading from the tailbone. Begin to draw your tailbone forward towards your pubic bone and slowly begin to round yourself forward trying to round every section, every segment of your spine until you roll yourself right into the length of plank pose. And now rolling back leading from the top, leading from the top of the head, start to lower your head and round your cervical spine. Push into your hands to see if you can round the upper middle back, round the low back and eventually push into your hands to grow into the length of downward facing dog. And we'll do that a few times.

The slower you go the more warming it will be. Rolling yourself leading from the tail, take your time, eventually finding the length of plank and then release your head around the cervical spine, around the upper back and middle back and round yourself back until you find the length of downward dog. And again like that, think of your body like a wave, like an ocean wave in slow motion coming forward. We find our length and then we roll ourselves back, taking time, rolling through the whole spine, eventually finding length. Inhale here, exhale, transition to the front of the mat, push down into the feet, lengthen the spine and then fold forward. Bend your knees, drop your tail and roll up your spine. Again, this water fountain image from the bottom of the feet all the way up through the body. Let that lift your arms and release your arms down. Lift your arms back up towards the sky, release your hands down, drop your head, and slowly roll down your spine one vertebrae at a time, coming all the way forward and then bend your knees and sip your right foot back to a lunge. Lower your back knee down, inhale, reach your arms up and if it's comfortable lift your arms up to the sky. On an exhale, release your hands down, lift your hips high as you begin to straighten your legs. Inhale, knees bent, arms rise, and exhale, hands come down, hips rise. So a few more times like that and come back to noticing this watery movement like a stream from the bottoms of the feet, up through the body, up through the arms, and then we flow down and the flowing down lifts the pelvis. Knees bending, arms rising, hands lowering, pelvis lifting.

Just bend your front knee, push into your hands, and step back to downward facing dog. Roll yourself forward to plank pose, take your time, again you're like a wave. Lower all the way down to your belly, feel free to lower your knees down, lower your knees down, inhale, breath rise into low cobra, lower your head down, your chest down, and try lifting your legs. Lower your legs and inhale, lift your head and chest, exhale, lower your head and chest, and lift your legs. Lower your legs, inhale, lift your head and chest, exhale, lower your head and chest, and lift your legs.

Inhale, breath, low cobra, and on an exhale push into your hands and head back to child's pose, sitting bones towards heels. Notice movement. On an inhale root down into your shins, come up so your hips are over your knees and reach your arms up. On an exhale come forward to all fours, hands underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips, and begin to move your spine some. So this can be cat-cow, inhale lengthening the front of the spine, and exhale lengthening the back of the spine. This could also be circles, letting head and tail move to the left, up towards the sky, to the right, and down towards the floor. So move like yourself for a moment, letting your spine move, and again consider the fluid interior, and again consider moving from the inside. So you're shifting your own contents, your own fluid contents. So when you feel balanced and ready, push back to downward facing dog.

On an inhale reach your right leg skyward, and exhale step your right foot forward between your hands, lower your back knee down, and inhale reach your arms up. Exhale release your hands down and lift your hips high. Inhale bend both knees and reach your arms skyward. Exhale release your hands down, root down through the feet to lift your hips. So we'll keep moving like that, cat-cow lunges, and again considering this wave-like movement.

It's like you're being put into the ocean, being carried by a wave, a wave moving from the inside and moving and feeling simultaneously. Simply bend your front knee and then push off the ball of the back foot to come back to a standing forward fold. Lengthen up partway and fold forward again for uttanasana. Bend your knees, drop your tail some so you can roll up your spine, climbing up your spine, and then root down through your feet, reach your arms up to the sky like water flowing upward, and release your arms down to your sides, and pause. And again check in, how are your knees doing? How are your feet doing? How are your hips doing? Is there still room for movement? Feel the receptivity of your hands.

Inhale, reach your arms up. Exhale, breath, fold forward. Inhale, halfway rise. And exhale, step your left foot back to a lunge. This time we'll keep our knee lifted. Inhale, arms rise. And pause here for a moment, again feeling into your feet. If your knee is happy with it, on an exhale start to bend your back knee just a couple inches and let your elbows bend as well. And then inhale like water coming up from the bottoms of the feet, let that inspire leg straightening and arms lifting. And again exhale, bending knees and bending elbows. And inhale from the water from the ground, come up, arms lifting, legs straightening. And exhale, elbows bend. Inhale, we rise. Exhale, elbows bend. Inhale, arms rise.

And exhale, bend your front knee, release your hands down, and step back to downward dog. Roll yourself forward to plank. Slowly lower to your belly. Rise up to low cobra. And then again release your head and chest down and lift your legs.

Lower your legs and let that inspire the lift of your chest. Lower your head and chest down and let that inspire a lift of your legs. Lower your legs, rise up to low cobra. Push into your hands, sitting bones towards heels, child's pose. A couple of breaths here, again, softening into movement.

Root down through your shins, inhale, rise up, arms up towards the sky, hips up over the knees. Exhale, transition to all fours. And again move through your spine and let there be some personal curiosity with how you want your spine to move. It can be cat cows, it could be circles or side-to-side movements. What happens when you simply notice your fluid interior and let yourself move it around? Let your fluid interior shift, to shift your container.

And when you're ready, hands will root, toes will tuck under, and we'll come back to downward dog. Root down through both hands, inhale, left leg rises and exhale, step your left foot forward between your hands. We'll keep the back knee lifted and rise into high crescent lunge. And now again, you're welcome to keep that back knee lifted. If it's okay with it, you'll start to bend your knee and bend your elbows, again connecting to this downward movement. And then on an inhale, feeling water flowing up to invite the legs to lengthen and the arms to lift. And again, bending knees and bending elbows, like a water fountain rising up from the bottoms of the feet, up to the fingertips, crown of head. And again, elbows bending, knees bending, water flowing up. And one more time. And just bend your front knee, lower your hands down, step your back foot forward to meet your front foot.

Step your back foot forward to meet your front foot, lengthen up partway and fold. Rise all the way up to stand, water flowing up, and release your arms down. Again, pausing to check in, standing, imagining you're standing on a canoe, balancing in the water. So allowing for receptive feet, curious feet, curious joints where bones are talking through fluid. Inhale, reach your arms up. And exhale, fold forward.

Inhale, lengthen halfway. And exhale, step right into downward facing dog. And this time we're going to roll ourselves right into upward facing dog. If that is reasonable, if that is nourishing, start to draw the tailbone towards the pubic bone and start to round the spine. And this time, like a wave, you'll roll yourself right into upward facing dog, flipping to the tops of the feet, wave all the way up through the front of the spine, all the way up through the crown of our head. And then push into your hands and try rounding your way back to downward facing dog. And let's do that one more time. So leading from the tailbone, round yourself forward. And again, trying to access every part of the spine, like a wave. And then coming to the tops of the feet. And feel movement all the way up through the crown of our of your head.

And down through your hands and wave, flow back to down dog. Inhale here. And exhale, transition to the front of your mat. Lengthen up halfway. And fold. Bend your knees, drop your tail, roll up your spine. Water flowing up, arms rise. And release your arms down. Let's shift our weight towards the left foot and bring your right knee up into your chest. And now begin to make some circles with that right leg. So the right knee will go to the left, up towards the sky, to the right, and then back down. And keep doing that. And begin to feel the fluid movement of the femur bone talking to the pelvis. And reverse directions. And this doesn't have to be very dramatic. It can be low to the ground. You can even have your right toes touching the floor. And I'm just letting my arms do whatever they want to do. It's kind of casual.

And now let your right leg do some swings, forward and back. So the legs get to swing. And again, your arms can be pretty casual. And I'm really curious, how do we take all of this movement, all of this flow, and how do we organize ourselves in a shape like Frixasana? So hug your right knee in, externally rotate the leg, bring the sole of the foot to the left inner thigh. Pause, notice, feel, and then how do we organize ourselves so some of that freedom that we just found can exist here? Can my left foot still be curious, like it's tasting the floor, or like it's trying to balance on a canoe? And can my arms rise with curiosity? Freedom? When my arms lift, can my neck stay free? So there's still availability? Freedom? And release your right foot down.

Shift your weight to your right foot. Bring your left knee into your chest and find some circles. Again, the arms are just casual, whatever you want to do. Finding some freedom, finding some fluid, and reverse that circle. And let that circle turn into some swings. The leg gets to swing. This is actually like us walking. I mean, sort of. When we walk, we swing our legs. Notice the freedom here. And can we find that freedom as we catch the leg and make our way towards Vakshasana? How do we find freedom in these shapes so that they're alive, living, breathing, moving, fluid movements that are able to change as we change? Again, feeling to your fluid body, maybe that inspires a lift of the arms, again like a water fountain. Notice if your weight is all trapped on one side of the leg, and can it find the center?

And as you're ready, the arms will lower. We'll bring the left knee forward and release the left leg down. Open up the legs a little bit wider, and again, just finding a sway, moving from the inside, moving your water to the left and to the right. And now let's step towards the front of our mat and let our left leg move back. We'll find a lot of length between our legs, preparing for extended side angle. And now start to bend your front knee and let your left arm move up and over. And let's play a little bit here. So let your left arm move down towards the floor and let that move your spine. Let your left arm go back towards your back leg and then up towards the sky.

And we'll do that a couple of times. And here we have our arm moving our torso. And if you let your eyes move, that will also move your spine. And the next time you go around, pause when you're in your extended side angle. And I like to play with my interior body weight here. So I noticed, do I have more weight falling towards my back body or my front body and can that be balanced? Do I have more weight pouring towards my pinky toe side of my foot or my big toe side of the foot and can that be balanced? And then again, rather than thinking of this as a shape, think of it as a movement and look for currents and streams where the outer left foot can move towards the earth, where there can be this whole arching through the left side of the body.

And now come all the way up to warrior two. And this is going to be a big push through the back foot to bring us into Ardachandrasana. And now you may want a block underneath your right hand or you can use a chair. We're balancing here. And here, if we come back to that image of the water fountain, there's a sense of an upward movement up through the bottom of the right foot, the bottom, the long bones of the legs up through the pelvis and then extending out through the lifted leg in the spine. Feel your whole body all at once. And release your left foot down to meet your right foot standing forward, fold, lengthen up partway, fold forward, bend your knees, drop your tail, roll up your spine, come all the way up, lift your arms skyward and release your arms down. Shift your weight to your left foot. Send your right leg back, preparing the legs for extended side angle. As you're ready, coming in, bending your left knee, arm reaching up overhead. Once again, we'll find some arm circles, letting the right arm travel down and then back towards the back leg, up towards the sky and then back over our head, again finding these circles and experimenting with letting the arm move the spine and also experimenting with letting your eyes move your spine. Again, considering rivers and streams, waves. And the next time your arm comes up, start to organize yourself an extended side angle and notice fluid, notice movement. Begin to balance yourself between the front and the back body. Feel movement where the back foot is rooting and the right arm is flowing upwards. Root down into your feet to come back up to warrior two and we'll push off the bottom of the back foot to find Arda Chandrasana, half moon.

And then finding movement again which isn't hard here, but trying to feel the whole body all at once where there's a sensation of from the bottom of the left foot going up through the long bones of the left leg up through the hip joint and then spreading out through the spine, the lifted leg in the arms. A couple more breaths here and we'll bring our right foot to meet our left foot standing forward fold. Then both knees roll up your spine, lift your arms up over your head and release your arms down. Step your left foot back and face the side and now turn your heels in, your toes out, bend your knees nice and deep for a horse stance. Start to push into your right foot so it straightens and the right arm is going to reach to the side and now bend both knees and let your whole spine round through center and now straighten your left leg and reach your left arm up and over. Push through both feet and find a little bit of back bend here and now reverse it. Bend your right knee, left arm up and over, bend both knees and circle through center. Let your right arm come to the side and now push into both feet, open your arms wide and reverse. Right arm up and over, both knees bend, left arm up and over, push into your right foot, straighten both legs, left arm up and over, both knees bend, right arm up and over, find your back bend and then we'll find that rounded shape through center and fold all the way forward. And now bring your feet to parallel and fold forward over your long legs. Shift your weight just slightly forward towards the balls of your feet so your spine again is like a waterfall moving down towards your head. And now lengthen up part way, turn your left toes out, bend your left knee nice and deep and now turn your right toes out, bend your right knee coming down nice and low and take a quarter turn back to the front of your mat. Step your back foot forward to meet your front foot, widen your feet, turn your toes out and your heels in, bend your knees and bring your seat down to the floor. Let your legs be pretty wide here, knees up towards the sky and now send your knees over to the left, let your left hand come down behind you and reach your right arm towards the space behind you. And now come back to center, feet down, knees up, right hand comes back, knees to the right, left arm reaches back behind.

Bring your knees back up, left hand comes back behind, knees to the left, right arm reaches. Come back to center, knees up, hand down and then knees to the right, left arm reaches. Come back to center, knees up, left hand down, right arm reaches back. Come back to center, last time, knees head to the right, right hand back, left arm reaches. And now come back to center and lay down on your back.

Hug your knees into your chest. Next, roll over to your right side and extend both arms straight out in front of you. Now your top arm is going to circle, so it'll circle up over your head and then can rotate so the back of your hand comes to the floor and it'll roll you into a supine twist. And now continue to let your left hand come down to eventually touch your pelvis and touch your legs and then it'll be back to its starting point. And again, let your left hand come back behind you, let it roll you open into a supine twist. Keep the left arm going until it touches your pelvis, your legs, all the way back to touch the right hand. Then one more time with this full circle and let the left hand touch the ground and be touched by the ground. The left hand again, we'll come back to past the right hand and the next time it opens up, we'll pause in a supine twist. Be with the ground and feel your weight and feel your fluid body moving with each breath.

Now roll back onto your back, hug your knees into your chest and then let's head to the second side. So rolling to the left side and let your right arm circle up and over your head and it's going to open you up wide into the supine twist. Let your right hand come back down to touch your pelvis and your right leg all the way back to where it started. Again, circling and it's helpful to let your eyes also move so that your whole spine is moving, your arm is moving your spine and you can also feel into the way your fluid body is shifting, your container is shifting and your weight is changing on the ground. The next time your right arm opens up wide to the side, pause in a supine twist and again notice movement that's in response to your breath and then roll back onto your back, hug your knees into your chest and begin to prepare your body for shavasana. Feel the weight of your body touching and being touched by the ground. Be with your skin and listen to sound with all of your skin as though your pores were listening to sound. And now listen to sound with your fluid body as though you were a body of water moving, vibrating because of sound.

We'll rest here for a few more minutes being with our own experience, a body of water. We'll rest here for a few more minutes Be with the front of your body, and begin to expand to feel the space around you so you're both inside and outside your body, begin to move your hands and your feet, moving however you like, whatever feels good, as you feel a readiness, transition to your side body, and rest here for a moment, begin to root down into your hands to come all the way up to your seat, and prepare your body for a seated meditation so you'll most likely want something to sit on so that your pelvis can be slightly higher than your knees, and this will allow for movement availability. You can choose to have your eyes opened or closed, and we'll come back to feeling our fluid contents, and we'll let our weight shift side to side and front to back, finding some circles, again letting the pelvis move the spine, inviting the whole spine to move as though it were a water snake dancing around in your fluid interior. Begin to find some stillness, but of course we're never really still. Can you find an uprightness that is still very alive? Feel your back body as much as your front body, be with your fluid interior so that your sense of alignment is dynamic. Notice streams, rivers, currents, be with movement. Notice what you notice when you're with movement. Maybe you're finding areas that feel held, stuck, and without having to force anything, just let your attention linger there, almost like you're a kind friend wrapping your arms around what is held, saying hello. Now expand again to notice sound and let sound come to you so you're not reaching for sound, but rather receiving sound. Listen with your whole body, again like you're listening with your pores, or listening with your watery interior. Notice sounds that are far away. And can you receive the sounds that are far away with your whole body, not reaching for sounds, but feeling the sounds meeting your body, receiving sounds. Feel both inside and outside your body equally. So begin to open up into being here, a hereness that is inclusive of being in your body and also in the space that you're in. If your eyes were closed, let them open and take in the room. And again, feel your body as you're in the room. And can you be in the room without leaving yourself? So take a moment and grab a piece of paper and a pen and think back to a sweet memory that you have about being in water. And begin to write about that memory and focus on the sensations. How did it feel to make contact with water? Take as much time as you like with that. And this week for your homework, start to really show up for every time your hands touch water and think of it like a formal practice. So a formal practice is like when we show up for our practice on the yoga mat or maybe you light a candle or incense or you have a practice where you're really giving your full attention to something that you love. And what would it be like to show up in a formal way every time your hands touch water? Part of it is just remembering to show up for hands and water. Let me know how that goes for you. And let's rub our hands together again and open up your hands really wide. And as your hands open, feel the space between your hands, feel your hands talking to each other. And slowly begin to bring your hands towards each other. Notice what you notice about your skin, about your interior, about the space between your hands. And eventually we'll bring our hands all the way together to touch. And when they touch, feel them touch. And as your hands touch, feel back all the way to your heart. And we'll close our practice today with a bow. Thank you.