Day 5: Easeful

Chapter 1

They really help us to settle into seated meditation. So we'll listen to the sound of the bell as a way of arriving here together. Okay, letting the to the side and we'll go right into windshield wipers letting the knees go from one side to the other side and let's let the head go in the same direction as the knees so the nose will point in the same direction as the knees. You maybe remember your intention here is it still relevant. Keep going but let your head go in the opposite direction of your knees and then come to the center we'll cross like we've done right ankle over left knee and then pull the left leg in two breaths here inhaling exhale one softening through the outer hip and the shoulders inhale and exhale two and then from here we're going to come into a twist so put your left foot onto the ground cross your right leg completely over your left leg we're going to shift the pelvis over towards the right side of the mat and take the knees over to the left if this feels too strong you can just uncross your legs so just the the right leg is resting on the left leg the left hand can anchor on top of whichever leg is in front and feel the right shoulder heavy releasing down the right lung sitting down into that right shoulder every exhalation feeling how is the lungs deflate the body is more receptive to gravity and then let's take the right arm bring it over to the left arm so you're lying on your side and then come back onto your back for that those two poses on the second side so get yourself even and then the left ankle comes over the right thigh hold on behind the right thigh find a little bit of weight to the tailbone two breaths here inhaling exhale one keep the left foot flexed inhale exhale two and then put that foot onto the ground cross the left leg over the right leg if that worked out for you pelvis shifts to the left knees go to the right the nose face gently turns to the left and then just notice I think it's fun to watch how the breath changes the pose we'll bring the left arm over to the right arm unwind the legs come up come to hands and knees and then press back into a child's pose a couple of breaths here reach your arms forward come to hands and knees press back into downward facing dog and let's do a little tread of the feet here and as you tread your feet you can let your hips shift from side to side as you continue to press and root down through your hands keep some awareness on the breath keep plugging the intention into your experience and find ease where you can these poses take a fair amount of effort but we try not to over effort and then two knees bent walk your hands all the way back to your feet hang over for a few breaths here from here with your toes open and your feet rooting roll all the way up to stand and pause here at the top let's lift the shoulders up and then just easily bring them back let them release down feel your feet notice if you're on your inner heels or outer heels if you can get right in the center of the heels ball the big toes rooting ball the little toes and then feel from the lift of your arch and energy that rises up through your legs up through the floor of the pelvis and right up through the center of the body to the crown of the head find a little bit of length to your fingertips like there's water dripping off the ends of the fingers and within the clarity of your mountain pose what can soften turn the palms to face out and do our three half sun salutations inhaling reaching up gonna relax into the familiarity of this sequence now exhale folding inhale lengthening rolling the collarbones forward exhale fold inhale root the feet rise up feel your hands join feel that baby back bend at the top exhale hands through the heart and down to your sides inhale reaching up exhale folding over inhale to lengthen exhale we fold inhale reach out and up long through the sides of the body exhale hands to heart for the last half sun salutation I will be silent so you can enjoy your own breath and body moving as you bring your hands down find your walking meditation mudra one fist gently below the belly button the other hand wraps with ease around attention down into the soles of the feet and we'll meet at the top of the mat if the blocks were helpful for you in lunges and sun salutations please add the blocks now so from your mountain pose couple sun salutations inhale reach up exhale fold forward bending the knees either hands to blocks or fingertips will step the right foot back to a lunge if you're using blocks you put them to the side root your hands step back into downward dog with an inhalation come forward to plank as you exhale either knees to the floor first or not lower down keeping the core steady and then we'll visit little cobra lifting the chest reaching back through the legs lengthen the tailbone and then come down and then take your hands a little bit wider and come into a bigger cobra but only so big that feels comfortable maybe it's like not a baby cobra not a king cobra but like a teenager cobra somewhere in the in the middle try to lift the chest roll the shoulders back feel the low belly lifting so you're not scrunching into your back and then when you come down get a little longer through the front of the spine as you lay it down onto the mat bring your hands back by your ribs press up onto hands and knees downward facing dog hand walking meditation to the feet bend your knees roll up walking meditation mudra come to the front of the mat mountain pose inhale second side reach up exhale dive forward left foot to a lunge blocks to the side if you're using them downward facing dog inhale plank exhale lower slow point your feet so if up dog seemed doable we can try that again otherwise any of the versions of cobra would be perfectly perfect right here if you're doing upward dog move your hands back about two inches push into the tops of the feet so the legs engage and lift your low belly that's sending the tailbone in the direction of the heels and then use the muscles of the back to begin with and then press into your hands coming into upward facing dog whatever back bend you're in just pause feel and then let your legs pull you back into downward facing dog from here we'll walk the feet I mean the hands back to the feet roll up and the feet walk to the front of the mat do one more sun salutation inhale rising up exhale fold forward this time we're going to step the right foot back and twist reaching the left arm up towards the sky exhale hand down downward facing dog we come to plank we lower down and then your back bend it might be smaller than the last one it might be the same maybe bigger just feel into the moment and then press back into downward facing dog the legs pull back and then the hands walk back so fun roll up and come to the front of the mat here's our last side of this series inhale reach up exhale slide forward inhale the left foot back to a lunge we twist opening the chest to the right and comes down downward facing dog inhale plank position exhale lower find your back bend and your downward facing dog from dog the hands go to the feet and we'll just pause here for a moment letting the spine relax letting the head relax and then bone by bone roll up to stand we'll reach the arms up and then the Utkatasana the powerful pose slide your hands together in front of your heart then we're going to twist you can either put your right elbow to the inside of your right knee that can give you a nice powerful twist it's a little deeper to bring your elbow to the outside of the left knee so you can figure out which feels best we're trying to really ring the belly out from right to left the top hand is pressing into the bottom hand it's okay to let the right knee slide forward a little bit and it's imperative to keep breathing with awareness if your next inhalation come to the center will reach up and as you exhale chair or powerful pose hooking the elbow to the left or the right knee lengthening head away from tail and turning again it's okay to let the left knee slide a little forward that will give a more freedom to the sacrum and the low back from here let's just fold right over the legs hand walking meditation to the front of the mat and we'll breathe right here from here bring your right foot a little more towards the center of your mat and then reach your left leg up if this feels like too much you can be on your hands and knees and reach your left leg up that until we call this down dog split and then let your hips opens the left hip stacks over the right hip bend your left knee and reach the left hand forward as the left knee pulls up and back sink down through the right heel and breathe and then bring your left knee very close to your left wrist and the left foot over towards the right side of the mat and then scoot your right leg back and if your left hip is off the ground probably is it's can be very helpful to have a blanket folded underneath that hip so you have something to drop into from here we'll put the fingertips onto the ground reach back through the right toes and inhale lift the chest and then as you exhale with lots of length in the front of the spine begin to come forward bring your forearms to the floor or you can bring your forehead to the floor reaching the arms further forward and this pigeon pose is a pose about softening dropping surrendering but paying attention so a softening of the body but an alertness of the mind and the mind doing a meditation a meditation on breath a meditation on sensation a meditation on the body being right here in this shape and then we'll lift the head walk your hands here's our hand walking meditation back move the blanket over to the side and roll over onto your left hip swing your right leg around will step the right foot to the outside of the left thigh if it's hard to be rooted on both sitting bones you could two options one is to straighten the bottom leg another option is to slide your blanket underneath your sitting bones so you have a little bit of elevation from here we'll reach the left arm up towards the ceiling and as you exhale twist wrapping the crook of the left elbow around the right knee and bring the right fingertips behind you as you inhale feel long and remember the feeling of the blanket supporting the shoulder blades on our back bending day so the chest is open exhale turning perhaps a bit more inhale just being receptive to what happens when the breath slides out one more breath here inhaling and exhaling and then unwind without shrinking feel like get taller as you unwind swing the right leg back lift the pelvis step back into downward dog do a little treading of the feet the left leg can step to the middle of the mat the right leg can lift again you can have your left knee down onto the ground right hip opens sail the right toes towards the sky and bend your right knee as you do this can you pull the top of the left thigh back and sink down through the left heel and then with your next exhalation pigeon pose the right knee close to the right wrist left leg moves back you can grab your blanket again for support and then with an inhalation we lengthen the front of the body lift the chest find a floating back bend and as you exhale come forward soften into your pigeon pose and feel the breath come in slides down into the bowl of the pelvis as you exhale what can soften bring the hands in walking up move the blanket to the side swing the left leg around get rooted through the two sitting bones remembering you can straighten the bottom leg and or sit up onto a prop inhale reach the right arm up away from the heavy right thigh and exhale twisting crook of the elbow or you can hook the elbow around left arm comes behind breathing in and breathing out breathing in and breathing out and then again when you come out of the twist be spacious spiral up swing the left leg back towards pigeon and then go back into downward facing dogs our last dog of the practice will come to plank position lower down and then turn over and see you turn over just hug your knees into your back into your chest I mean tug your knees into your chest and breathe here okay we'll finish like we've done a couple of days in Viparita Karani the inversion I'm going to take my two blocks today and stack one on top of the other you can use a blanket a pillow one block two blocks this depends you can take a little time to play around with what feels best we'll leave the pelvis sitting down onto the block and then just the legs move one leg comes up the other leg comes up the shoulders can roll underneath the pose a bit and then pause here feeling a cascade from the toes down the legs a pooling in the belly and then the energetic and a water flow goes from the belly all the way over the chest and pools in the soft throat remember it's fine to have the knees a little bent especially if there's gripping in the hips or the belly bend your knees bring the feet down lift your pelvis move the blocks out of the way slowly lower down and just let the knees drop in towards each other palms face up towards the ceiling it's resting in stillness and then let your breath deepen again maybe you feel the breath rolling down into the hips bring the right arm up so you can let you size a pillow as you roll over onto your right side pause here press down into the ground and come up to find your seat the hip should be good and ready for seated meditation I'll see you there thank you for practicing welcome to the meditation practice I'm wondering how it's gone

Chapter 2

Chapter 3