Root and Bloom

Thank you so much, everybody, for being here. We're actually going to start standing today. I think like we did last week and the week before, something about it being summer here. So you do want to have, you know, your cushion or your blanket handy for when you're, when we move towards meditation. I put that in the corner. Just a shout out on our way towards beginning to our amazing production team, Julie and Nicole. It does seem like I'm here virtually alone in this little converted chicken coop, but it wouldn't be possible to be here without our amazing team, Nicole, Julie, and Alana. And of course, all of you, because when you show up, things really happen. So let's just get in the mood here. Separate your feet about hip distance, bend the knees, and then just slide your hands down and let's make our way into an easy Uttanasana. So as you bend your knees, let your hands find their way towards the earth, let your head drop. And then what we like to do is alternate the bending of the legs. So let your left knee bend a little bit more. Let the other leg draw a little straighter and then do that a couple times side to side. Bend that knee. Let the other leg draw a little straighter. Let the back of the neck be long. When you show up, if you're just showing up, say hi in the chat. So we know you're here. Just really, right? Like all of you who are yoga teachers out there, anything really, you know, it's all about who shows up. That's how this happened. And even though like it's a little harder in this weird zoom space to kind of resonate and be in the harmony, it's still happening. Okay. Widen your feet just a little bit more. And if squat is available, bend the knees, sit down, walk your hands forward and come into your version of the squat. Like let your hips hang, walk your hands, let it round a little bit, let a bit of a happen. Nice, beautiful.

Make your way back up into Uttanasana, draw the sit bones up back in the knees, soft bending, chin into the chest and slowly let yourself roll all the way back up. Feel the belly open. Feel the heart open. Feel the throat and the face. Beautiful. Squeeze your shoulders up and around your ears. Get super hunched up in here and then exhale, let it drop. Do that again opposite. Squeeze your shoulders up around your ears. Get super hunched up in there and then exhale, drop. Do that again. Four and up. Exhale, drop. Inhale, back up. Exhale and drop. And now let's start to floss into the shoulders. So let one of your arms extend out, soften the elbows so you have more access in the shoulder joint and then begin to floss. Let the shoulder roll forward and then let the shoulder roll back. Let the shoulder roll forward, like really get round in there, even like let the elbow bend forward a little bit so you can really feel that across the back of the shoulder blade. And then let the shoulder blade draw under, draw your elbow under and up and lift. A couple more like this. So forward, we used to, back in the old days, we used to call this swamp monster action. And then as you roll it back under, we used to call this hallelujah. So we'll revive those terms. Just a couple more, just kind of like flossing in there. Nice. Okay, beautiful.

Next time the elbow is under and the shoulder blades are under, next time you're in the shape of hallelujah, let that arm relax, shake it out a little bit. Notice the effect. It's always useful to sort of notice if this practice is working. Okay, other side, roll that shoulder forward and roll that shoulder back. And by using your elbow as the driver, it makes it a lot easier. So if you kind of like soften the elbow, I don't really mean driver, I mean though, but like let the elbow be soft so you can really get into the shoulder joint. So the play today here is we are seeking tight spots, right? Like tight spots are our opportunities. Okay, the bodhisattva prays for difficult people and difficult situations so she can find out if her practice is actually working. If relationships are smooth and harmonious and everybody thinks you're awesome, we can get lulled into thinking that we're actually good spiritual, highly evolved people. Okay, so the body provides an opportunity for navigating tight spots that are relatively low risk. Next time the elbow is under and the shoulder is back, you're in that position of hallelujah. Okay, relax that, shake that out, squeeze your shoulders up around the ears, exhale, drop, roll the shoulders up and around the ears and exhale, drop, nice. Okay, let's get into the neck a little bit. Gentle on this one, drop the chin into the chest. So as you drop the chin into the chest, we're looking for an opportunity up through the back of the neck. As you feel that opportunity up through the back of the neck, feel how you can let your shoulders kind of roll back and down a little bit, like let the hands get a little bit heavier. Now, so gently and easily and only as you're ready, start to roll one of your ears over towards its shoulder. Okay, as that ear starts to get heavy towards that other shoulder, let that shoulder drop, you'll start to feel an opportunity through the opposite side of the neck. Let a bit of a hop in and just like let it feel good as you let the hand on the side that you're stretching get heavier. Yes, beautiful. Now slowly roll your chin back and towards your chest. Be easy about this. Let the throat open, let your face lift. Nice. Okay, inhale here, exhale, drop the chin into your chest. Okay, so you're letting the shoulders roll back and down. You feel that stretch in the back of your neck and then so slowly stretch or roll that opposite ear over to that shoulder. Pause. Okay, let both shoulders feel heavy like you're looking for this opportunity through the side of the neck to imagine that this tightness shouldn't be there, right? To feel the tightness and then imagining it should be other. It's to not give it the space to be seen and ease up. Yeah, and so when we discover tight spots, they're not something like to be scolded about. We don't need to go ahead and shoot the second arrow. It's like, oh hey, what's up? Okay, slowly roll that chin back into the chest. Okay, press into the feet, let the heart bless them, let the throat open, let the face bright and beautiful. Inhale here, exhale, let it happen. Nice. Now we're going to add on a little bit. This time we're going to add that flossing of the shoulder. So dropping the chin into the chest, slow roll your ear over to the shoulder of its side. Pause. Let both arms feel heavy and if this is flavorful enough today, you're just going to kick it here.

Next step though is you're going to start to feel into, well, what would it feel like to kind of lift the opposite arm up a little bit, soften the elbow and then just begin to floss a little bit. Like roll the shoulder a little bit forward and roll the shoulder a little bit back. Just like feel how you can find a little bit more opportunity there. Sometimes they'll feel a little nervy. Yeah. Nice. Just one more round like that. Just kind of flossing, checking that out. Beautiful. Next time the elbow draws under and you're kind of in that position of hallelujah, relaxing that arm. Okay, slow roll the chin back into your chest, press into your feet, let your belly open, let your heart open, let your face brighten. Nice. Feel the effect. Like after each opening, I kind of want to check in like, okay, how is that? Maybe the other side, drop the chin in, roll your ear over to the other side, pause, let both arms feel heavy. Again, if this is enough for you today, just keep it here. The neck is so delicate. Let the elbow bend as you lift the arm and then only if it's appropriate, begin to add the flossing, just gently rolling the shoulder forward and kind of rolling the elbow under, rolling that shoulder forward and then kind of rolling the elbow under, oscillating between what we used to call swamp monster and hallelujah. Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Next time you're in hallelujah and the elbow is drawing under, slowly, eventually relax that arm, pause and then slow, let the chin roll back into the chest, gazing towards the heart, press into the feet, let your belly open, let your heart open, let your throat and face lift. Gorgeous. Okay, bend the knees, slide the hands down the legs, let yourself come into an easy uttanasana. We're going to find one more round of neck, kind of shoulder opening to begin with. Just sort of get good at like letting your head dangle. Okay, bend the knees, slow chin into the chest, let yourself roll all the way back up, feel the belly, feel the heart, feel the throat and feel the face and pause. Big deliberate inhale, exhale, let it happen, soften the knees and remember, we've been practicing this a lot together. Big deliberate inhale, exhale, let it happen and ground. Remember that one of our key skills is trusting that the body knows how to stand, trusting that the earth has us. So that as we add this last movement to the pattern, okay, this sort of ability to feel yourself on the ground is key. So some of you out there know this, because we've been hanging out for a while, some of you might be new. This is an action we call the wise guy. So if you're not so sure, just watch. The wise guy is when you start to pull your chin, your jawline up away from your chest, you're gonna like pull the chin away from the chest. And kind of the way we check it, okay, it's like you're trying to pull that bottom lip up. The way you check it is you just check your Joe Pesci. You're like, you think I'm funny? If it sounds like Joe Pesci when you're like, you've got it. Okay, so we're gonna add that. Okay, last round like this, drop the chin to the chest, slow roll that ear over to the other shoulder and pause, let this side open, let it get heavy. And again, this is stage one. And this might be where your bus stops and you get off here and this is perfect. If it's appropriate, start to add the wise guy, start to draw the chin away from the chest like you're, you're like leaning into there. Uh huh. Okay, that might feel like enough, that can feel amazing if you've never done it before. And then slowly let this opposite arm reach out, short in the elbow, you've got the wise guy and maybe last few beats, you're offering the floss like, you can reach with different parts of your jaw, like we are looking for the touch which ish. Uh huh. Nice, gorgeous. Last couple moments like make this your own and like only you know where those side spots are. Well, that's not true. Your family knows too. Okay, let your elbow draw under, find that hallelujah. Beautiful note. Step one, relax the arm. Step to relax the wise guy, just kind of drop the chin, the ear back towards the shoulder. Okay, step three, roll the chin back into the chest. Take a look at the belly, heart, press into the feet, let the belly open, let the heart open, throat and face and pause. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale, let it happen. Like you all know that you're on the right track. There's, there can sometimes be this really wonderful euphoria when we start to tune into the tensions of the neck. I mean, the neck is doing this work. The neck is trying to hold the head up. Okay, chin into the chest. Slow roll the ear over to the other shoulder. Nice. Pause. Again, if this is enough opportunity of opening, kick it here. This might be perfect as you kind of reach down through your fingers. Only if it's appropriate, start to add the wise guy. Draw that chin away. See how you can pull that up. This might be enough. Only if appropriate, let the opposite arm lift and let the elbow soften and then start to play with flossing, rolling that shoulder forward, rolling that elbow under, finding the angle where it's like, ah, I found you. Tight spots are treasures. They are treasures. It's only in the tight spot that is new energy that you can access. Okay. Last couple of moments and to get out of here, step one, you slowly relax your arm back down your side. You slowly relax the wise guy and then slow, draw the chin back into your chest, press into the feet, let the belly open, let the heart open, let the throat open and let the face brighten.

Get delivered in now. Exhale, let it happen. Soften the knees and pause and just a half flack line in the jaw. I feel the effect. Super nice. Okay. So slow. Utanasana, slide your hands down the legs, forward fold. Gorgeous. Bend the knees, chin into the chest, hands on the legs, slow. Let yourself roll all the way back up. Feel the belly and feel the heart. And the throat and the face. Beautiful. Make your way towards the front of your mat. So the play here now is we are going to sort of use some of this opening that we got through the chest, through the shoulders, through the neck. We're going to play with that in our easy simple standing sequence. And then we will make our way towards a little low back work and then we will make our way towards meditation. Okay. Top of the mat, feet about hip distance apart. Spread the toes wide. Big, deliberate inhale. Exhale, let it happen and soften the knees. This is what we've been playing with. Big, deliberate inhale. Exhale, let it happen. Trust that the earth has you. Just enough rooting through the feet to feel that natural generosity of heart. Feel how the shoulders kind of naturally want to relax back and down and now tune a little bit more to the alignment of the skull. This is sort of what we've been honing here. Tune a little bit to the alignment of the skull and see if you can find out how to place the skull so that it's more balanced on the spine. Like can you find, now that you don't have so much tension, can you find out where it rests without so much effort? Slack in the jaw. Upper soft palate domes. Spacious across the brow. Mind open. And so we started out talking about the tight spots in the body, but it is the tight spots in the heart and mind that really get us into trouble. And that's what we're going to be moving towards in our meditation. Hands at the center of the heart. As you're ready, we'll start to flow through a relatively simple lunge pattern towards some standing asanas. Inhale, circle the arms up. Exhale, swan dive forward. Inhale, half arch. Hands slide halfway up the legs. As you exhale, let the hands plant. I'm going to step my right foot back, but just step one of your feet back. Let the opposite knee bend. For me it's the left one. Wiggle on back through the ball of the right foot. Feel your ability to nuzzle into the ball of that big right toe and then kind of feel how you can kind of, well more like the pad of the foot and feel how you can reach back through that right heel. Feel it can nuzzle into the ball of the big left toe and feel how you can kind of draw the left hip back. Feel how you can kind of lengthen through the spine. Do all that and then find out how you can kind of relax some of that neck tension. Like feel how you can kind of widen across the base of the skull. Slap line in the jaw. Gorgeous. Beautiful. Now keeping that left knee a little bent, shorten the stance slightly so that you can angle your back, right foot, you know that 45 degrees situation. And then slow start to let this left leg draw a little straighter and then let the left knee bend. And then let the left leg draw a little straighter and then let the left knee bend. And just notice like see if it's true for you. See if every time you kind of come into the intensity, every time there's that little bit of like twang in the back of the left leg or you or you feel that gentle resistance, see if the neck participates in that. And see if you can kind of like allow for the intensity in the leg without participating, without being kind of a tension cheerleader in the neck. See if that makes sense. Next time the left leg is a little bit straighter, pause and straighter just for you. Just enough so you have an opportunity to be a little like gooey in the neck. Beautiful. Then let that left knee bend, spin up onto the ball, the right foot, rock and roll a little bit. Step the right foot forward. Inhale, half arch. Exhale, forward fold. Soften the knees a little bit. Sit down like you're sitting in your chair. Let a little bit of a, notice how when there's an anticipation of something difficult coming, we get prepared. That's appropriate. Okay. But the play is to reduce some of the waste of energy. So there's a preparation. Curl the sit bones under, letting the knees bend. Start to reach the arms forward. Soften the elbow so the shoulders can relax back and down. Keep it low in the legs. Reach the arms up. Feel your ability to reach through the fingertips and sit low and then get gooey-er in the neck. Inhale here. Exhale, press into the feet. Come all the way up. Beautiful.

As you're ready, hands at the heart, other side. Inhale, circle the arms up. Exhale, forward fold. Inhale, half arch. Exhale, step the opposite foot back. For me, it's on stepping the left foot back, letting the right knee bend. Lengthen through the spine. And then notice that you can now make a decision to, okay, gooey-er in the neck. Like letting your head feel a little bit more wobbly. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Now keeping that right knee bent, step the left foot forward just enough, angling the foot so that you can start to play with letting the right leg draw a little straighter and then letting the right knee bend. So it's a little bit as if you were making your way towards pyramid or parshvottanasana, letting the knee bend and straighten. And the action here is just pay attention and notice what it is for you. But see if there's just a natural cooperative, empathetic response towards when things get difficult. So it's just natural as the right leg, you know, feels intensity for the neck. It's just a good team player for it to come along. So next time you come into the intensity, when you can feel an opportunity, can you sort of decouple? Not that the neck still isn't empathetic to the leg, but it doesn't need to throw itself overboard as well. Yes. Yes. Let the right knee bend, spin up onto the ball of the left foot, wiggle back through there, rock and roll slightly, step that left foot forward, inhale, half arch, exhale, forward fold, toughen the knees, toe heel the feet a little bit closer towards each other. If that feels good, bend the knees, let a little bit of a happen. And there's a natural team participation of effort. It's just like, okay, we are naturally cooperative towards ourself. Okay. So keel that sit bone straw under, reach your arms forward, let the elbow soften. So it's soft in the shoulders, gooey in the neck. Keep it low in the legs, reach your arms. Ah, enthusiasm through the fingertips. Inhale here, exhale, press into the feet, come all the way. Ah, beautiful. So nice. Gorgeous. Let's add on to that pattern. Start again with your feet about hip distance apart. It just helps in the grounding. Big deliberate inhale, exhale, let a happen. Soften the knees. Soften the knees to let the legs know that you trust the ground. Through trusting the ground, it's safe to then press against the ground a little bit, just enough to feel that natural spontaneous expression of the heart. It'll naturally, as the heart wants to express, the shoulders will kind of naturally want to roll back to let her like open and then feel like you can find the alignment of the skull so the neck tension is not so necessary. Slacken the jaw wide at the base of the skull, upper palate domes. So allowing our tadasana to be proper preparation for seated meditation. Like practice your meditation cues here. It makes it easier to drop in. Yeah, okay. Hands at the heart. As you're ready, inhale, circle the arms up. Exhale, swan dive forward. Beautiful. Inhale, half arch. We're going to start on the same side again. Exhale, step your left foot back, let your right knee bend. Beautiful. Now wiggle on back through the ball of that left foot. Feel that length. Like feel how you can create the length and then relax some of the neck. Gorgeous. Spin onto that outer back, left edge. Maybe shorten it, shorten the sense, just a smidge for you so it's not so wide. And then feel how you can let your right leg draw straight. And then feel how you can let her bend. Feel how you can let her draw straight. Feel how you can let her bend. And the play here is like we're decoupling the neck tension with what else is going on. Yes. So nice. Next time that right knee is bent, keep that right knee bent. Bring your left hand up onto your left waist. Bring your right forearm up onto your right thigh. Yeah. Ooh, gooey in the back of the neck. Really nice. So slowly start to let this right leg draw towards straight.

Find the right hand where it belongs for you. So that might be on the right leg. It might be on the shin or the ankle. Some of you it might be on the earth. Feel into letting that right ear drop down to the right shoulder. So you can feel that stretch in the left side of the neck and then circle the left arm in front of the face up out and over. So we'll start here just kind of finding the side length that we love so much. Like feel the ability to reach back through that left foot. Feel your ability to reach out through that left arm. Gorgeous. So nice. Beautiful. Let an inhale. Circle this arm up towards the sky now. Let the elbow bend a little bit and start to feel what it feels like to let this arm reach behind you slightly. If that means bending the front right knee a little bit to take some of the twang out of the hamstrings, do that. Let this arm start to feel behind you a little bit. If you bend your elbow, creating that hallelujah action in the shoulder, you'll be able to find a little bit more action in the shoulder blade. Yeah. Last couple moments. Feel your ability to reach back slightly. Gorgeous. Inhale here. Exhale. We're going to come back to the shape of the lunge. Windmill that left arm back down towards the earth. Let that front right knee bend. Come back into the shape of the lunge. From the shape of the lunge, bring your right thumb into your right hip crease. Pull your right hip back. Lengthen your heart and begin to spiral up. Reach back through that back heel and circle the right arm up. Feel your ability to lengthen. Gooey in the back of the neck. Maybe you're just looking kind of straight forward. Maybe it feels better to look at your foot. A couple of you, if and as you can kind of uncouple the effort from the action slightly, might start to look up towards that hand. Inhale there. Exhale. Windmill that right hand back down to the earth. This time bend the left knee. Sink in a little bit down towards the earth and let a bit of a happen. Roll it a little bit to one side and roll it a little bit to the other. Nice. So effort is absolutely required. This word tapas in the sutra is 2.1 tapas. It shows up again in the list of the niyamas, but tapas, dedicated effort. It's really hard to essentially quote unquote get something done without some amount of effort. Beautiful. Tuck that back toes under. Lift up through the back of the leg. Rock and roll a little bit and then step that back foot forward. Inhale half arch. Exhale forward fold. Let a happen. Beautiful. Inhale half arch. Exhale opposite footsteps back.

For me that's the right foot. Left knee bends. Wiggle on back through there. Pivot the back foot so that it's angled towards the earth. Maybe shorten the stance a little bit as you begin to let the left leg draw straighter and then bend. Straighter and then bend. Okay. But the second suggestion in that same sutra, and I'm referring specifically to Patanjali's yoga sutras. A sutra is a word for a lot of different texts. In that same sutra, the second suggestion, swadaya, self-study. So dedicated effort, heat, discipline, and self-study. So careful observation of what's really happening. Let the left knee bend. Okay. With that back foot now, bring that right hand up onto that right waist. Bring that left elbow up onto that left thigh. You can feel this rooting back through the right foot. You can feel this blossoming of the heart, this gooeyness of the neck. Yes. From here, slow, let the left leg draw towards straight. Let the left hand find its way towards the leg. Maybe up on the thigh for some of you. Maybe down on the earth. Lengthen back through that right leg. And as you feel ready, circle the right arm in front of the face, up out and over and reach. Beautiful. Nice. Wiggle. Feel like you can get that beautiful long line. From here then, as it feels okay to do so, circle the right arm up towards the sky. Press into the feet and lengthen. Gooey in the back of the neck. Keep observing here. And then if it feels okay for you, start to let this arm reach behind you a little bit. And if you let your elbow bend just slightly, you can kind of tuck that shoulder blade under a little bit. If it's becoming too much in that inner left groin, let the left knee bend slightly again. Feel into that ability to kind of like widen. Gorgeous. Beautiful. Last few moments. Inhale here. Exhale. We're windmilling back to the shape of the lunge. Let the left knee bend. Let both hands find their way on either side of that left foot. Spin up onto the ball of the right foot. Bring that left thumb into that left hip crease. Pull the left hip back, lengthen. Reach back through that right heel and open. So nice. From here, if it feels okay, reach the left arm up. Gorgeous. Inhale here. Exhale. Windmill back down to the shape of the lunge and then drop this back right knee down. Sink in. Let a bit of a happen. You might back it up a little bit and sink it in. And if you wish you had something underneath that knee, put something underneath it. You might roll it a little bit right and roll it a little bit left. Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Because one of the really confusing things that happens when we misinterpret what the teachings are trying to say is it can be very easy to imagine that the ego is a bad thing. It could be very easy to misinterpret the teachings to indicate that we should destroy the ego. In fact, a lot of the early translations suggest this. That is the translation. Let a little bit of a happen. Okay, slow. Lift up through the back of the right leg. Rock and roll a little bit. As you're ready, step the right foot forward. Inhale, half arch. Exhale, forward, fall. Toe heal the feet together.

This is going to be our last low uttanasana or utkatasana. Excuse me. Let the hips drop. Let a little bit of a happen. And again, feel effort is required. You got to root down through your feet. You got to like draw the sit bones under a little bit and then relax the unnecessary effort in the neck. Curl the sit bones under. Let the arms reach forward. Soften the elbow so the shoulders are easy. Keep it easy internally as you reach the arms up. Feel a little bit of juju through the fingertips and then gooey in the neck. Inhale here. Exhale, press into the feet. Come all the way back up. Shoulders roll back and down. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale, let a happen. This is our last tadasana. Separate the feet about hip distance. Let's really tune into it again so our seated meditation is easier. Inhale and exhale, let a happen and soften the knees. The third suggestion in this sutra 2.1. Isvara pranadam. Trust. Trust that there's something bigger at work. And the only way to really, tension only relaxes when it really senses that it's held by a greater tension. Gravity is a stronger force than each of us. Let a bit of a. And then, but it's not determining. So as you press into the feet, feel how your heart can blossom. And as your heart communicates its desire to blossom, the shoulders cooperate. They roll back and down. And then feel how you can choose to let your skull find an alignment where your neck tension is not so useful. Wide at the base of the skull. Up and down in that upper palate. Slack in the jaw. Soft in the brow. Yeah. Yeah. Super nice. One more round of standing asanas and then we'll make our way towards the earth. Hands find each other at the heart. As you are ready, inhale, circle the arms up. Exhale, swan dive forward. Inhale, half arch. Exhale, that left knee bends that right foot steps back. Wiggle on back through there. Now, same idea. Just with a few extra additions. So feel how you can lengthen and then feel how you can get gooey.

Spin onto that back right outer edge. Let that right hand find the waist. Let your left arm find the left thigh. Root and bloom. And begin to feel how you can start to allow the heart to express. Beautiful. So slow. Start to let this left leg draw towards straighter. Find that left hand towards the left leg or earth. Circle the right arm in front of the face and reach up out and over and get long. Yes. Reach your right arm up towards the sky. Beautiful. Start to let the right arm reach behind you. Yes. Beautiful. Let the elbow bend. If your shoulders are interested in this, roll that right shoulder forward. Remember that swamp monster action? Roll that right shoulder forward. Let the elbow bend. Let the hand find its way behind you depending on your limb length. The hand might find its way to the sacrum. Some of you have more like monkey arms and that hand will find its way around that inner thigh. Press and root. Gooey in the neck. Keep that opportunity as you let this left knee bend. Elbow finds its way to the thigh for most of you. Some of your hands might find its way to the inside of the foot or earth. A few more beats. Root and bloom. Gorgeous. To get out of here, we're going to windmill it back down towards the earth. So slow, you're going to free that right arm. Free that left down towards the earth and windmill back down towards the shape of the lunge. Spin up onto the ball of that right foot. Bend the left knee if it would feel good. Twist it out. Reach the left arm in front of you, up out and over and lengthen. Gorgeous. Circle that left arm back down towards the earth. Let the right knee bend and sink in again. Let a bit of a hucker roll a little bit to one side. Roll a little bit to the other. Beautiful. Gorgeous. The ego is not to be destroyed. The small self-centered part of us is incredibly useful. We need her. Much as our Ravi quotes his teacher, Madame de Salzmann, saying, and yet while she is a terrible master, she is a wonderful servant, and we just need to find her proper place. Lift up through the back of the right leg. Rock and roll a little bit. As you are ready, step your right foot forward. Inhale, half arch. Exhale, forward fold. Step the left foot back. Let the right knee bend. Last sequence of standing postures on this side. Spin up onto the ball of that back left foot. Let the right leg straighten and bend a few times just to kind of remind the body what's happening. Yes. Once that right knee bends now, find that left hand up onto that left waist. Find that right form up onto that right thigh. A little bit of a hucker. Gorgeous. Beautiful. So slow. And only as you're ready, this right leg is going to start to find her way towards straightish. Right hand finds her way to that leg or earth. You're going to know what's right. You're going to know what's right because if you can't soften that neck tension, slacken the jaw and kind in the eyes, it's not working. Circle the left arm in front of the face about and over and reach. Yes. Wiggle. So nice. Reach this left arm up. Only as it feels right, start to let this left arm reach behind you.

Maybe soften the elbow so it helps kind of like allow for some of that rotation. And for some of you, this is the perfect spot. A couple of you are going to roll that shoulder forward. Remember that swamp monster? Bend the elbow. Bring that hand behind. Maybe it stops at the sacrum. Maybe it wraps. Root. Start to feel the gentle like. Gentle blooming of the heart. Maintain that as you start to let this right knee bend. And maybe the elbow finds the thigh. Maybe the hand is down on the ankle or the earth. Root and spiral open and gooey in the neck. Allow the gaze to be where it feels like. Interesting. Yes. Beautiful. Okay. To get out of here, you're going to free that top left arm and we're going to windmill back to the shape of the lunge. Spin up onto the ball of that back foot. Twisting it out. Reach the right arm forward and up. Gorgeous. Inhale here. Exhale. Windmill both hands back down to the earth. Bend the back knee and sink in. Let a bit of a happen. But the tricky thing is, okay, if you don't do anything, if you don't try to help anything happen, it's really hard to get a glimpse of this small, of this like sense of small self. Let a bit of a. So you kind of have to shine her up to expose her. And then it's as if you've dressed her up for her own demise. Yeah. Gorgeous. Because it's impossible to let her soften and relax some of her grip unless she's buying into the notion that she's in charge. Yeah. Okay. Slow now. To get out of here, it's going to be a little bit different transition. The suggestion is going to be to tuck the back toes under, lift up through the back, left leg, rock and roll. And instead of coming forward, we're going to come back to heel downward facing dog. Step the right foot back. Bend the knees a little bit and wiggle and lengthen and maybe let it walk out a little bit. Gorgeous. Beautiful. Beautiful. Yes. Let it inhale, bring you forward into plank pose. Soften the shoulders back and down a little bit. Feel that heart express. Let a little bit of a last few beats gooey in the back of the neck. And then slow drop your knees down and lower all the way down onto your belly. Find your way into Sphinx pose. Come on to the forearms. Spread the fingers wide. Roll the shoulders back and down and just kind of feel how you can traction your heart forward. Let a little bit of a happen and then try this. So you're slightly active in the body. Drop your chin down. As you drop your chin down, feel how that gets into the back of the neck. Now be gentle here and just kind of feel like you might keep the chin in the center as you kind of roll the shoulders back and down in traction. Like this might feel amazing. And if it feels intense enough, stay here. If the room is there, remember the wise guy stretch a little bit. So just like kind of lead with the left ear and jaw line and just feel how you can kind of like lengthen on that left side as you roll your left shoulder back a little bit. Like just feel how you can find that space. And then gently relax that grip. Let the head hang in the middle. And then feel how you can do that on the other side. You're just kind of lengthening through that right ear, rolling the shoulder back and down. Just kind of finding out if you can get that opportunity. Nice. Okay then relax it a little bit. Chin drops onto the chest. Roll the shoulders back and now gently press into the forms a little bit. Press into the back or the tops of the back feet. And like feel like you can drag your heart forward. Let your throat open. Let the face brighten. Beautiful. Nice. Okay inhale here. Exhale. Elbows bend. Rest your head on your hands and bend your knees and wobble. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Super nice. Let's do that again. Let the legs come back behind you so sphinx times two. Let the elbows come underneath you. Roll your shoulders back and down and then feel like you can just kind of like you can like pull your hands back as you drag your heart forward. Okay drop your chin. Sometimes it can feel good to just sort of gently like let the head hang as you kind of roll your shoulders back. It can get really nice into that neck. Only starting to add a little bit more action if it feels good. Like feel you can root down through that left hand pull the shoulder back and like lengthen with this the sideline jaw. Yes. Okay relax your chin back into your chest and on the other side pull the right hand back and kind of lengthen. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay relax. Last few moments. Shoulders roll back and down. Root through the backs of the, sounds so funny, root through the tops of the back feet. Not your front feet but your back feet. Draw your, draw your zip bones under. Feeling the spine forward and just see if you can kind of feel like let your heart blossom. Let your face brighten. Yeah. Okay super nice. Inhale there. Exhale elbows wide rest your head on your hands and wobble the legs. Beautiful. Okay now gently we're going to make like a blueberry pancake and we're gonna flip over onto our backs. Might feel good to hug the knees into the chest. So all that kind of back bendy neck preparation can be nice for a bridge pose. If you know bridge pose isn't your scene you can choose something else. Our pattern is going to be this. We'll find a bridge pose. We'll find a little hip opener. I'm gonna twist. So heels in line with your zip bones. Arms down along your side. Palms turn up. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale let it all happen and really tune in to like slacking the jaw and letting your neck feel easy. It's easy for the neck to get overstretched here. Even emphasize a little bit of the cervical curve. Like allow the space between your chin and your chest to open up just a little bit. Yes. Inhale here and as you exhale press into the feet. Start to draw your sit bones under. Lift your hips up. And for some of you this might be the perfect amount of inversion today. Soften the neck. Only as it feels right. Inhale here. Exhale press in the feet a little bit more.

Lift your hips a little bit more. Start to wiggle your shoulders underneath you if that feels good. And for most of you pressing through the pinky side of the arm is going to be the perfect solution. If you're an interlacer feel free to interlace but maybe today maybe there's room to find your hands underneath your waist. So thumbs kind of wrapping around your waist. Well kind of supporting your low back fingers around your waist. And can you be a little bit more attentive to like soften the neck. Yes. Gorgeous. Rooting down through the hands lifting your hips up. Yeah. So nice. Really beautiful. Okey dokey. Release your hands but keep your body lifted as you release your hands up to the sky. Up on the balls of the feet get round in the upper back roll back down upper back mid back low back hips land heels land arms roll back down along your side. It's big deliberate inhale exhale that gorgeous. Keep your left knee bent. Bring your right ankle up on top of your left thigh. Roll that right hip away as you start to let your left thigh come in. Okay. This might be the perfect amount of opportunity. Most of you it's going to feel good to thread that right arm through the triangle of the leg. Catch around the back of the left thigh maybe on top of the left shin. A little bit of a gorgeous wobble. Yeah. Yeah. The play right the play is continually to be willing to set ourselves up to be willing to like shine up that small self get her all dressed up and ready for the ball. And then the reward is just to blow her up for just a hot minute. More like a hot second. Like it's only like a hot second that you can like be free of her. And it's that hot second of freedom for her that we love. Okay. Release the grip. Okay. I'm in that spinal twist. I bring the knees over to the right. I'm going to snuggle in there. I'm going to bring one hand on top of the other and then I'm going to circle this arm back and over. Let that elbow bend and let a little bit of a happen. Nice. Okay. Nice. Keep the knees over the left. Free the right leg on top of the left and pause. And then lead with this top right leg. Let this right leg come on back. Okay. Wobble. And then other side. Left ankle up on top of right thigh. Bring the right thigh in. And then bring that left hand through the triangle of the leg. Catch around the back of the right thigh and wobble. And so we have to be willing to do things. We have to be willing to be moved to follow the passionate river that is guiding us. Knowing perfectly well that things will not go as we expect and knowing perfectly well that we're being led towards an exposure of self that can be mistaken for a feeling of death, but it is really an opportunity of freedom. Okay. Which is why the three essential things for yoga, tapas, effort, dedicated effort. Okay. Self-study, swadhaya. Watch yourself. And the shvara pranadam. Trust. Wrap the left leg over. Shnogal. Arms up from the shoulders. Bring everything over the other side. Get organized. Left palm on top of the left and then bring it back. Let the elbow bend. Let it all happen. Because once you have enough experience with this too, you know you're not going to die. You know your ego structure is going to put itself right back together super fast and be like, wow, that was fun. Just like an amusement park ride. You scream the whole time, but at the end you're like, let's do it again. Okay. Keep the legs to the right. Free the top left leg. Pause. And then as you're ready, lead with that top left leg. Unwind. Bring it back and hug the knees into the chest and wobble. Gorgeous. If it would feel good to curl your head up, do so. Okay. Let the feet come down to the earth. Let your arms come down. Shoulders draw under. Palms up. Keep the knees bent for a moment. And then if it would feel good, let one leg extend and let the other leg extend. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale. Let it happen and like self in the jaw, easy in the eye. Trust that you know how to lie down. Trust that the earth has you without trust in something bigger than ourselves. It's impossible to relax the tension of the small. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale. Yes. So for some of you it might be nicer and better and you might be, have been waiting for Shavasana, this Shavasana your whole life. And so if you'd rather stay in Shavasana and move up towards the seated meditation, then do that. What's so nice about practicing at home is there isn't that sort of group shame of doing something you don't want to do. Okay. But if you'd like to move up towards the seated meditation now, just transition in the way you know how to maybe letting your knees bend and rolling to a side and pressing yourself up, maybe grabbing your cushion and then allow yourself to be super comfortable. Allow yourself to find the seat that works best for you. I'm choosing an easy Sukhasana today, shin to shin. Snuggle in and just like we've been, you know, it's, it's, it's the same as we've been doing. Snuggle in, big deliberate inhale. Exhale, let it happen. Soften in the jaw and just like we did in Tadasana. Trust that your body knows how to sit. Trust that the earth has you. This trust, this is the very first suggestion on how we might find yoga. Yoga chitta vrittina nirodha. The very first suggestion in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras for how we might find a stilling of the fluctuations of the mind is to trust. Let the belly ease. And as you feel the back of the heart spacious and generous, feel the natural receptivity. Notice what you can do with your shoulders and your arms. Just kind of let the shoulders relax, back and down a little bit. Let the elbows feel heavier. Maybe let the palms turn up. And now allow the skull to find its placement so that neck tension is not necessary. Jaw super slack, maybe even like slightly open. Lips just slightly parted, like kissable. Let your lips feel more kissable. Feel the cheekbones easier. Feel the eyes quiet. And sometimes we can think of the skull as just one big hard bone. The skull is made up of multiple bones sutured together. Can you have a sense of letting the skull feel more spacious? Yeah, let's do it. Trusting that the earth has you. Vulnerable enough in the heart to allow for this natural flow of receptive generosity. And a feeling in the region of the skull of like spacious wonder. Those of you that might still be in Shavasana if you'd like, maybe start to transition your way gently, tenderly back up towards the scene. Again, we cannot be free from that, which we cannot see. Seeing ourselves clearly through effort, self-study and trust will result in a loosening of what the yogis call the clacious and an opportunity for intimacy with all that there is. Samadhi. Let your hands now find each other at the center of your heart, gently allowing yourself to feel grateful to all who made it possible for you to show up today.

Nothing happens on our own. We are intimately contextual and internally connected. My deepest gratitude to my team and to all of you. Namaste.