Third Eye Clarity

Hello again. Welcome back. Our yin practice today is going to be working with sixth chakra, the brow chakra, right up here. Take a deep breath and exhale. Soften your eyes.

So the brow chakra, the eyes, are the home to our vision, our ability to see the truth in ourselves and see the truth in each other and the world. It's that filter right between our inner landscape and the landscape around us. So if this landscape is not clear and clean and healthy and balanced, if there's tension or stress or congestion, then that fogs up this filter in our brows and doesn't allow us to really see. So today we're going to do some inner landscaping, clearing out, releasing tension in our whole being so that this filter is really clear and clean. So start with, before we do anything, you might want to grab a couple of blocks and a blanket for this practice.

So let's rub our hands together, get some heat going, get some warmth, light, take a deep breath in here, and as you exhale, rest the palms of your hands right on your eyes. And soften your eyes, just invite your eyes to receive this warmth, this comfort, and the support from our bodies, from our intention to clear and balance our vision and take another deep breath in. And as you exhale slow and easy, move your hands away from your eyes, but keep that connection between self-care and self-love. Okay, let's begin. Just moving your blanket off to the side here for a moment, let's come on to your hands and knees.

So hands are shoulder-width, knees are hip-width, we'll move through a couple of cat-cows from table pose. So take a deep breath in and arch, open your chest, and exhale, pull the belly in, round your back, chin towards your chest. Feel that space between the shoulder blades, inhale, arching, breathing into the front of the body, and exhale, rounding, spaciousness behind. Let's do three more of these together, joining the movement to the breath. Each time, just gathering up a little bit more breath, a little bit more energy, filling those spaces in the body.

Last one, good, this time, let's bring the soles of your feet together and inner edges of the feet and knees out to the side, taking a moment in child's pose, Balasana here, just let yourself kind of settle in. You might want to leave your hands in front of you the way they were in table or bring the palms right underneath your brow, your third eye. And so as you rest your body down to the earth, this gesture of release, let this point between the eyebrows, the third eye, the sixth chakra, plug into the earth, tapping into the wisdom and the support and the energy from the earth. So as you soften your head down, it also helps to calm the mind here just by resting the head on the earth, so relax your mind, turn your gaze, your drishti into the sensations in your body, this inner landscape of you. Let's take three more deep breaths here.

Just deep breath in and exhale, good, and slowly come up onto your hands and knees. Let's find a lunge. So bring your blanket in, it's going to be underneath your left knee and grab your blocks on either side of that front foot. So rolling in and out of the lunge to a half split, left knee on the blanket, hands on the block, take a deep breath in here. And as you exhale, sink into the lunge and inhale, straighten your legs and exhale, lean back into half split.

Inhale here, lift up and exhale back to the lunge, inhale, straight legs and exhale, half split. One more time like this, inhale, lift up and exhale, lunge, inhale, straight legs and exhale, half split. So stay here in half split. Deep breaths for a moment or two, softening the neck, pulling the right toes back towards you to deepen the stretch, soften the jaw, moving a little deeper. You can come right down onto your forearms here, relax your hands, breathing into the back of the body, superficial fascial line moves from the soles of the feet all the way up the back of the legs, all the way up the spine, around the top of the head here.

You might be feeling sensations in the whole back body, just lean in, soften in, soften the eyes, let's take three more deep breaths, a little wiggle, jiggle, last breath in, coming up onto your hands, take it slow, yeah, and then let's lean into this lunge. You can walk your blocks a little bit further forward, kind of drag your body a little shimmy here, right and left, warm up that left quadricep, if this feels really good, stay right here with your hands, you can either lift up and open up the front of the body by pressing the hands on your right knee, soften in the shoulders, maybe deepening it by bringing the arms over the head and finding a little bit of an arc, heart and gaze up towards the sky, perhaps grasping the hands behind the back, squeezing between the shoulder blades, leaning forward with the hips, soften the jaw, I'm just going to release my hands down and kind of drag your torso forward a little bit for this last moment, make sure that right hip is pulling back, so the hips are parallel, deepen your breath, maybe switching it up again, just to keep things interesting, let's take five more deep breaths here, slow and easy, bring your hands down onto the block, walking the blocks back slightly for the other side, just come onto your hands and knees here, maybe give yourself a couple of cat dogs to encourage the energy and the warmth and the heat to move through the whole body, yeah good, so let's go to the other side, right knee on the blanket, left foot steps forward, the blocks are about halfway up your leg, rolling in and out of this bridge, shimmy your shoulders, release any tension in the hands, let's take a deep breath in lunge, and exhale back to half, split bowing in, inhale lift up and exhale leaning forward, lift the heart, inhale straight legs and exhale bowing down, one more, deep breath in, lift up, exhale bowing forward, lift the heart lunge, inhale here, straight legs, exhale bowing down into your half split, so this side might feel different, it does on me, so I want to deepen the stretch a little bit, so I'm going to lower the blocks, come down onto my forearms here, this leg feels a little more open today for me, yeah walk these blocks forward, always make the little adjustments you need to make to make sure you're comfortable, they're on the sweet side of the edge, and pulling my toes back towards me to deepen the stretch, you feel it right in the backs of the knees, the tendons for the hamstring muscles, back of the leg, and this is available to you bowing your forehead down towards or on your left shin, it's resting that brow chakra down, soft jaw, deep breath, take another deep breath in here, and exhale slowly, press your hands on the block and come on up, spring the blocks up alongside your left foot for the lunge, and we're sinking the left leg forward, pulling that left hip back just to keep the hips parallel, you might feel this in the front of your left thigh, up into the hip flexor, the psoas muscle, dominoes, you might want to stay here if this feels really good, you might want to come onto your left leg with your hands, I'm using my hands as a little bit of a lever to lift up my chest, you might want to come into the expansive expression of this pose, or maybe bringing your hands behind your back, which I really like squeezing between the shoulder blades, feel all that strength in the back body, and let that encourage more length and space in the front body, self in the jaw, the throat, the brow. I'm going to bring my hands back on the lunge for the last few deep breaths, soften something, maybe it's a thought, stay soft, let's take another breath or two here, maybe a little wiggle right and left, slowly coming out of this pose by walking the blocks back, coming onto your hands and knees, maybe flushing it out with a cup of Cacao's, good, good. So moving your blocks off to the side and blanket off for our next series, I'm going to just come onto your backs and bring your knees into your chest, maybe a little rock side to side would feel good, circling the knees around might feel nice, maybe air, bicycling the legs, getting all that synovial fluid and hydration, moving through the joints, planting your feet down, drop your feet in towards each other and we'll prepare for our next pose, reclining half butterfly. So a couple different options, straighten your left leg out along the mat and bring your right knee, your right foot into tree pose with the sole of the foot right against the left inner thigh, this might feel really good and if it does stay right there, if you like to move a little bit deeper, draw your left knee in towards your chest and take your hands and clasp onto that left knee or left shin to encourage a little deeper stretch in the right inner thigh along the front of the body, soften in the shoulders and if you would like to go on and feel a spicier expression of this pose, this is a little pretzelly but stay with me, taking your left hand, reach under your body and grab that right foot and release your right knee all the way back down to the earth so your right hand is holding onto that left knee, left hand is holding onto the right foot, once you're there it feels really good so encouraging your right foot closer to your body opens up deeply into the inner thigh up the front of the body, putting up the fascia in the front line of the body, up into the face, the brow, the eyes, so settle in, take a deep breath in, sigh it out. So calling upon gravity to hold and support release of tension and sensations are messages, sometimes they evoke responses in our body and our minds and our hearts so notice the quality of the sensations that are opening up for you without immediately responding. Invite these sensations to reveal more of their quality. Stay soft, tender in the eyes and staying curious and patient with yourself as those deeper sensations surface. Take another few deep breaths here, maybe a little rock right and left with your left knee just to invite a little bit of movement and slowly release your right foot with your left hand and release your left knee with your right hand, take your time coming out of this pose, bringing both feet on the earth here and an easy little rock side to side, noticing right side, left side, perhaps bringing your knees into your chest and giving yourself a moment to bicycle the legs, staying very curious. Yeah, good. Okay, here we go, other side straighten your right leg out along the floor and bring the left foot into tree. Here we go and this side might feel very different for you staying open to what you need. If you would like to deepen the pose, bend your right knee and draw your right knee in towards your chest with your hands. I have my hands clasped right on my shin. This might be enough.

Soften your shoulders. If you'd like to dip into that spicy variation, keep a hold of your right knee with your left hand and bring your right hand drawing your left foot in towards your body, encouraging the left knee to soften down towards the earth here. Yeah, let yourself settle into the side. It's always very interesting when we soften our drishti, soften our gaze, really pick up on the subtler, more tender sensations, allowing us to see things within ourselves and others before they have to get too profound. Notice what these messages are in your sensations today. As you relax your shoulders and your jaw, your belly, your heart, these sensations have a clear pathway to move up to the eyes so that we can see the truth of what is transpiring in ourselves, feeling more comfortable living in our truth. Breathe in. Each deep loving breath continues to clear this pathway from our sensations to our interpretation of what we see. Let's take a few more breaths here, maybe a little wobble with that right knee. Beautiful, releasing both knee and foot. Maybe air bicycling the legs would feel really good. It feels great. Yeah, a little rock side to side, maybe circling your knees around like a deep breath and slow and easy rolling over onto your side. Roll on up, let the head come up last and come on back and set up for our final pose, shoelace. So we did a lot of work right on the inner thighs and the hip flexors. We did a lot of work on the front of the thighs here. We're going to get into the outer thighs and the outer hips. This is a pretty deep pose and my right hip is a little cranky today. So I'm going to take it easy. You can take it easy too. The best thing I find is kind of bringing that left leg in, bending the knee, bringing the foot in towards your hip and then drawing your right knee on top of or as close to on top of the left. I like to keep my feet flexed here to protect my knees. So the goal is kind of guide this right, this top foot in as close as you can, but make sure you're not hurting anything. Make sure there's no pain. Slight discomfort. Okay. Pain. Soften in your shoulders. Soften in the jaw. So if this feels like you're right on the edge, stay right here. If you would like to deepen the experience perhaps, slowly bow your head down, rounding your spine. So I'm just letting the weight of my head soften my whole back body down. Encouraging my shoulders to melt down my back like two waterfalls just flowing off my body down the arms and the hands and the fingers. Resting my forehead, my sixth chakra, the third eye towards or on the right knee. It doesn't have to touch. It just needs to rest and feel the support of your body. Breathe in and let go. And just like the waves in the ocean flowing in and flowing out. Perhaps turning your inner gaze towards the area in your body that is speaking to you through these sensations. As you soften your gaze, you invite the sensations to soften as well. Let's take a few more deep breaths here. Maybe soften your jaw, sigh it out. A little wobble in the head releases the neck. Slowly, gently rolling up the spine one vertebrae at a time by walking your hands back up. Letting the head come up last with the shoulders softening. Wow, that's good. So I like to take it really slow coming out of this pose. Maybe leaning back with your feet in front of you. Maybe a little rock side to side feels nice. It's a little massage right on these glute muscles that we just stretched out. So it's a little hug. Good. Straightening your legs up for a moment. Little rock here. If you take your hands right on the very tops of your thighs as you're rocking the legs right and left, you'll feel the femurs moving in the hip sockets. And it's so nourishing for the hip joints. Snovial fluid. Okay, you ready? Other side. Right leg on the bottom. Crossing that right knee, foot in towards the chest. Left knee on top. Take your time.

Just encouraging, inviting your body to find its way into the shape or the shape to find its way into your body. Yeah, so the left knee is sitting close to or on top of the right. Your feet are flexed slightly, protecting the knee joints, aligning the joints here. Yeah, soften something here. Again, staying right here if this feels really good or walking forward with me just a bit. Letting the weight of the head start to continue to release the superficial fascia in the back of your body. Again, staying really curious. This is a different side. Noticing my shoulder wants to hold myself up, so I'm encouraging shoulders to soften. Also notice what's happening with you, your shoulders and your jaw, your brow. I notice the mind gets quiet when we bow down. Just tuning into your thoughts, encouraging your thoughts to rest and turning your gaze towards your body. With loving, compassion, notice what you notice. If you find the sensation becomes a little spicier than what feels comfortable, either back out an inch or deep in your breath, lean sweetly into those thoughts. Find a way to let something go. Slowly walking yourself back up. Circle your shoulders, leaning back to release the legs. Ah, a little rock side to side. Good. Preparing for my favourite pose, Shavasana. You might want to grab your two blocks back again and stack them at the lowest. They're going to be underneath the knees, the calves, and take your blanket if you have that nearby and bring it on top of your blocks. Go ahead and lie all the way down. Take a moment, just bring your knees into your chest one more time. I'm just going to scootch things down a bit and circle the knees around. When you're ready, straighten the legs out. They should feel supported by the blocks right on the backs of the knees or the calves. Shimmy your upper body into its nesting place. A little rock with the softens the back of the sixth chakra. Encourages release of what is behind us. And let yourself rest. As we have been doing all along, keeping your gaze very gentle, patient and soft. So that even the subtlest of sensations in this pose of rest and stillness, these very tender sensations, these whispers are seen and heard. Our sensations are our inner guides.

See them with a loving gaze. Taking a few more deep breaths here and of course staying here as long as feels comfortable for you. If you're ready, start to rock your head from side to side, turning your head as far to the right as feels good, as far to the left, back to center. And once again, bringing your hands in towards your chest, rubbing the hands, inviting that heat to come into the palms of the hands and bringing the palms of the hands once again, right on the eyes. Notice what you see. Slowly bring your knees into your chest, a little rock. Go over to the right side, palm down, rolling up, moving the head, come up last, coming back to your comfortable seat. Let's together bring our hands at the heart and bowing into the guidance within us, those teachers and guides that are showing us, guiding us all the time. Thank you for joining me. Namaste.