Magically Supported

We're just a shy moment from beginning, all you really need is something to sit on eventually towards the end, but of course, always anything that makes your practice better and more enjoyable have that near because you're at home, isn't it so great to practice with each other from home? I really miss being in the flesh together and yet there's also this magic connection that I so appreciate and I really appreciate all of you showing up and just as I always like to say, it looks like I'm here in my home alone, but I'm not. I've got a team who's helping me run this situation, an amazing team, Julie and Nicole who are also working from their homes and I've got my friend Elizabeth from her home who's watching this so that we can have it up on the site. So okay, we're at 10.30 and we try to start on time around here because in some philosophies, time doesn't exist, but in the relative reality that most of us live in, time exists. So we're going to start on our backs.

Just get yourself forward, reach your arms out and roll yourself back down. Let your arms come up over the top of your head, soften your elbows a little bit and then notice that your feet are flat on the ground and let's start with a couple rounds of windshield wiper just to let it feel good. So letting the knees fall to a side, letting the knees come back up and then letting the knees fall to the other side. And letting the knees come up and letting the knees fall to the other side. But really this sense of realizing that we're not doing this alone, this is one of the primary like crowbars to the ignorance that assists us in feeling separate.

And so starting to really sense the intercontextualness, the interdependence, yeah, like right now like I'm doing nothing to digest my breakfast. I'm not thinking about that at all. It's just happening for me. I'm not doing much to keep my heart beating. I'm doing nothing to ensure that these words come out clearly.

All of that's just happening for me. So again, part of this practice today is just to start to reconnect to how mystically magically supported we really are. Okay, just a couple more rounds of this just so it feels good just to kind of get into the moon. Yeah, beautiful. Then come up back to center and then we'll start to do a little cat cow on the back.

So inhale here and eventually as you exhale, curl the sit bones under and kind of draw the sit bones under so you're lifting your hips up off the floor a little bit, not too much, just a little bit. And then as you inhale, roll your pelvis forward and let your low back arch. Okay, as you exhale, curl the sit bones under a little bit, feel that rounding and kind of that action. There's a little bit of abdominal and as you inhale, all the pelvis forward. Okay, continue like this, just easy.

So as you exhale, you're curling the sit bones under a little bit, getting a little action. And as you inhale, you're rolling the pelvis forward. That pelvis forward, we usually call that swimsuit model position. I don't really have a name for the tailbone under. Please feel free to throw one into the chat so I can find it later.

Okay, now for the last few moments of this, the play here is to just start to notice like, yeah, we've got this tiny little movement we're focusing on. But as we focus on this tiny little movement of this sacrum and pelvis and tailbone movement, do you feel how the rest of you is responding, right? Can you feel how this is affecting up through the upper back, up through the head and the neck? Are you aware of that? Are you aware that small movements, tiny focal points affect the whole thing?

Okay, yeah, let that relax a little bit. Now let the arms come back up to the sky and come back down along you and we're going to move into what we call the shimmy. Those of you that have practiced and hung out with me in the past know this. If you're new, it might be new. Okay, so you're going to use the heels to start to create an action that's rocking your, that starts to rock your spine.

So I'm pressing into my heels and I'm like pressing and unpressing, pressing and unpressing. It's like a rapid fire movement to allow, maybe Julie, if you can't see this through camera one, maybe camera two, sorry to micro direct here from the earth. But so you can kind of feel, okay, what we're looking for here is a rocking of the sacrum and the base of the skull. The temptation is to do too much in the butt to use your ass and to kind of go into like Prince pelvic thrust. It's not pelvic thrust, your butt's actually soft.

It's a little bit more like if you ever have had the great privilege of riding a horse, it's a little bit more like you're riding a horse. Okay, a couple more moments. So you're using the heels to create this like a rebound action in the spine. Uh-huh. Okay, now stop.

And as you stop, like if we were getting into the right spot, there's this like euphoric kind of sweet, whoa, wow. Because the rocking of the sacrum region and the base of the skull, this encourages the release of the serotonin, the endorphins, the joy hormones. So it's a little bit like, it's a little bit of a key and your own sort of like drugstore. We often joke that this is great if you're single and on a budget. Okay, try it again.

So you're using your heels, you're creating this rocking motion. This is a shimmy. Now you got the play here in the second round is, can you loosen up more? So it feels a little bit more like you're four and you want to just do it again, like see if you can get a real bounce going. Okay, just a couple more moments.

Yeah. Okay. And stop. And as you stop, like really like soften the mouth, soften the jaw and like, can you, can you connect into that feeling of like, whoa, like euphoric, blissy, sparkly sweetness. Yeah, a couple more moments, like memorize this.

We're not naturally biologically wired to memorize the yummy, delicious moments. So it takes a little bit of effort. Feel how it feels in the base of your skull, your jaw, your eyes, and if, if all the things I'm saying might be happening or not, then just blame, blame me. Okay. Keep your left foot on the floor.

Bring your right ankle up on top of your left thigh, floss your hip a little bit. So keep your left foot on the floor as you just kind of like, just inhale, bring the right knee in, exhale, send it away, inhale, right knee in, exhale, send it away. Do that a few times. And if that's enough today, if that's what's happening in your hip, keep it there. Otherwise send it away.

Let the left thigh draw in and wobble. Nice. If you'd like to feel more, thread the right arm through the triangle, catch around the back of the left thigh and wobble. Yeah. Nice.

Now just see if this makes sense. Hold that left thigh. Now remember that sort of cat cow we were doing in the spine. Hold the left thigh in and then just see what it feels like to kind of like roll the pelvis forward. Let that arch, feel what that does into that hip opportunity.

And then as you exhale, curl the sit bones in and draw the left thigh in a little bit more. Yeah. Do that a couple of times. So kind of playing with the hip stretch from the movement in the pelvis, arching the spine and then rounding the spine. Yeah.

Let the pelvis roll forward, let the leg move away, curl the tailbone under, let the thigh draw in. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay. Left foot comes back down to the floor.

Release the right leg up. Shake it out a little bit. A couple ankle circles. Super nice. Let the right knee bend.

Foot of the foot back on the floor. Big delivery. Inhale. Exhale. Let us find out if that was worth it.

How does the right hip feel? Nice left ankle up on top of the right thigh and just kind of floss a little bit. Inhale knee in, exhale knee away. Just kind of like, it's just polite. It's like, hey, what's up, what's happening?

Uh-huh. Yes. Next time the left knee is moving away without your hands, right thigh draws in. And if this is enough action for you this morning, keep it here. If it's appropriate, thread the left arm through, catch around the back of the right thigh, draw the right thigh in, and then come into a spot where you have enough action so that you can really feel what happens with the tailbone.

So kind of roll the pelvis forward, let the lower back arch, that'll give one opportunity. Curl the sit bone under, draw the leg in. Yeah. Roll the pelvis forward, arching the back. Curl the sit bone under, draw it in, and just do this a little bit.

It's just, again, we're just trying to find different levers, different action points. Our play here today is we're going to eventually come up to sitting, move through some standing asanas with the intention of finding a little bit more room in the hips, a little bit sense of grounded and a little bit more trust that we're being taken care of. Super hard to have the experience of letting go unless you feel like you're being taken care of. Okay. Let a bit of a happen.

Okay. Super nice. Release that right foot, release the left leg up to the sky, shake it out a little bit and circle, and circle, and then let that left foot come back down to the floor. Last few beats here. Big delivered inhale.

Exhale, let a hop, and maybe widen the feet. Let the knees fall together, and just remember, remember that post shimmy feel? Can you find it? Can you have that in your toolkit of resources? Can you feel the space in your hips that's available now because you paid some attention?

Nice. Okay. Even though we've just started our practice, we're 10 minutes in if you're like, I'm good. I understand. Hug the knees into the chest wobble.

Cross the ankles. Inhale, roll back. Exhale, roll it up to sitting. Super nice. Okey-dokey.

Let's find a little bit of sukhasana action. Nice, Julie. Okay. Crossing the ankles, flexing the feet, wobble a little bit. Okay.

Big delivered inhale, exhale, let a hop, and let your elbows kind of find their way onto your legs, and feel how you can do that in your pelvis. So feel how you can arch, and feel how you can round, and feel how you can arch. Let me just show that so you can really see it, and then feel how you can round. And when you're rounding, you can get a little bit more external rotation in your hips. You can kind of like roll your hips open a little bit more, and then arch.

And then only if it's nice, start to walk your hands forward. I'm going to turn to face you again. It's only if it's nice, start to walk your hands forward, let a little bit of a hop, and just kind of sink in. And the invitation that I often lean into is the invitation to soften your jaw, let your eyes be kinder, like as if you were sincerely listening to a dear friend. And that dear friend today in your practice, that's you.

We talk about this a lot, like you are your best friend, you're your most intimate relationship, you what we'll call you today for conventional purposes, you're who you've been with this whole time. Yeah. Okay. Inhale, look up a little bit, exhale, walk it, start to walk it to a side. As you walk it to a side, you'll feel it in that opposite hip, let that that forearm on that side come down to the floor and tip over a little bit, circle that top arm in front of your face up out and over, let the elbow bend.

And then like we often play with let the knee and the elbow come towards each other around a little bit and then roll the knee away as you let the knee and the elbow come towards each other and then reach. Yeah. One more time. Let that situation come in towards each other and then reach, maybe roll the pelvis a little bit forward, gorgeous. Take a look down at the earth, let an inhale bring you all the way back up, let a bit of a happen and feel the effect of that.

It's so nice. Post side bending is so sweet, slack in the jaw, kind in the eyes, gooey at the base of the skull, tap into the post shimmy. Yes, okay, lean back, switch the course of the legs, same idea to the other side, wobble a little bit. I'm going to use my cushion under this knee just to give a little support so that he's been waiting for that his whole life. Okay, lean in, let a bit of a happen and then same thing like let your back round like we did on the other side and let your pelvis roll forward, let your heart lift, round, roll the pelvis forward and lift.

Yeah, super nice. Okay, now when you round, notice maybe you can kind of create that rotation of your hips, that external rotation when we were on the ground and we were kind of flossing the hip away, maintain that as you roll the pelvis forward and if it's appropriate, let the hands come out in front of you and again that feeling like soft in the jaw, like you have less to say, like spacious between the eyes, little post shimmy, gorgeous. And one of the difficulties with being your best friend is that we tend to really enjoy ourselves, which is great, which is so great. The complication comes when we become fixated on ourselves and imagine that we have a concrete existence, okie dokie, inhale, lift up a little bit, exhale, walk your hands over the left, come down onto the forearms, like sink in a little bit and then circle that top arm up out and over, let that like that elbow bend and then like we've been playing, like draw the knee in towards that elbow and then roll the knee in the elbow, draw the knee in towards the elbow, get a little bit round and then roll the situation away. Do that a couple times, yes and then eventually you're gonna come into a spot that feels good to stay in, stay in that, maybe roll the pelvis a little bit forward, lengthen, super, take a look down at that hand on the earth and inhale, bring you all the way back up and like, deliberate inhale and exhale, let it happen, like as you do that, yeah, soft in the belly, soft in the mouth, this is like a pregame for our meditation, which we'll do at the end, see if you can trust that the earth has you a little bit more, yeah, hey, nice work, okay, slide this off to the side, our transition here is towards Uttanasana standing forward fold, so just take your time and make your way, we'll meet there together, just gonna make your way into a standing forward fold in the method that is good for you and I'm just gonna apologize to my head of production there, Nicole, I forgot to tuck in my headset mic so sorry about that, okay, let the knees bend, let the thighs soften, let the head drop, let a bit of a, it's a little bit for some of you, it's a little bit like I have these imaginary friends, these imaginary friends that are here with me, Nicole and Julie and Elizabeth and what I like to do in Uttanasana is I like to let one knee bend, like I'm gonna let my left knee bend, let my right leg straight a little bit and then let my right knee bend, let my left leg straight in a little bit, just do that a couple times, I just, it kind of feels good to lean a little bit from side to side, letting the head dangle, gorgeous, so beautiful, okay, both knees bend, chin into the chest and roll it on back up, feel the belly and feel the heart and feel the throat and feel the face, super great, okay, alright from here now, let's get a little bit more action in the sideways, so feet about hip distance apart, let's do it like this, interlace your hands in front of you, palms facing towards you, turn your palms forward and go up and then just kind of like lean a little right and left, like feel that you can get a little bit longer out of there and then bend, I'm gonna bend my right knee, kind of stick my hips out to the left, so I'm not mirroring you, sorry, I'm gonna bend my right knee, stick my hips out to the left and then just kind of lean over to the left a little bit and then slow, press down into the right foot, let the right leg straighten, bend the left knee, send the hips out to the right and lean over to the right, gorgeous, yes, inhale, bring it back up to center, exhale, release the hands, rotate the shoulders forward if it's available, interlace the fingers, bend the knees, chest finds your thighs, let your head drop, let your arms reach up, let your arms reach up out and over and again maybe letting one leg draw a little straighter, letting that knee bend, letting the other leg draw a little straighter, letting that knee bend, doing that a couple times, yes, okay, both knees bend, hands come back behind you, drop your hands towards the earth, now let both knees bend, let a little bit of a happen, okay, curl the sit bones under a little bit, remember how to do that, curl the sit bones under a little bit, kind of feel how you can send your knees forward, let a bit of a happen, post shimmy, do you remember that?

Reach your arms out in front of you, soften the elbows, easy in the back of the neck, easy in the jaw, reach your arms up towards the sky, easy, inhale here, exhale, pressing the feet, come all the way back up, big deliberating now, exhale, let a happen, super nice, let's do that again, interlace the fingers with the weird knuckle on top, so it feels like you have somebody else's hands, turn the palms forward and go up, stretch up out of yourself, like kind of wiggle up out of your waist, yes, okay, then slowly bend the right knee and as you bend the right knee, stick the hip out to the left and then reach up out and over to the left and feel how you can roll it a little bit forward and around, get into the back body and then feel how you can kind of roll it open a little bit to get up into the chest area, yes, roll it a little bit forward, it's like you're looking for the cobwebs and actually in reality here as I roll my chest up and I look a bit into the upper right hand corner of my studio, I'm like oh hey, what's up family, what's up new family of spiders, okay, slow come back into the center and then press into the right foot, let it come all the way up, exhale other side, bend the opposite knee, send the opposite hip out to the side, so for me that's left knee bending, right hip out and reach and it's the same idea like roll it a little bit forward and then roll it a little bit, yes and then roll it a little bit forward and then roll it a little bit up, gorgeous, let's do that one more round, there's a family in that opposite corner too, yes, gorgeous, okay come back to neutral-ish, press into that left foot, let it come all the way up, exhale release the arms, rotate the shoulders forward again if it's okay on your situation, interlace the fingers, weird knuckle on top, wiggle it back and down, bend the knees, chest finds the thighs, drop the head, feel the arms reach up out and over, letting one knee bend, letting the other knee bend, dropping the head, so nice, okay keep the head drop, let the hands come back to the hips and down towards the earth, again with that utkatasana, bending the knees, let a bit of a happen and so the temptation, when we start to sense that effort is going to be required, the temptation is to start to pre-freak out, right, so like that's just natural biological intelligence, the play as a yogi meditator, the play is to just notice the temptation to pre-freak out, the pre-freak out isn't bad, it's just more like oh hey what's up, you can meet it with like a, it's gonna be okay, so that poshimi soothing it's gonna be okay, curl the sit bones under, reach your arms forward soften the elbows, yeah, keep it low in the legs, reach your arms up towards the sky, gooey in the neck, nice, inhale here, exhale pressing the feet, come all the way up, big deliberate inhale, exhale let a happen, beautiful, gorgeous, okay separate your feet wide, turn your toes in towards each other, step one here can feel nice is just to kind of like just sort of send your hips out side to side, like so kind of drop one hip and kind of send the other one out, that'll start to let the inner thighs know like oh hey okay nice, come back into neutral, toes are turned in, inhale here, exhale slide your hands down, let your hands find their way towards the ankles and then same idea, just kind of start to lean to a side, like so lean a little bit to the left to get that right inner line, yep lean a little bit at right to get the left inner line, just do that a couple times, like just kind of feel how you can do that to get action in there, gorgeous, then if your hips and knees and ankles allow it start to let yourself bend a little bit from side to side, so as you lean left, let your left knee bend a little bit and kind of sink in a little bit, as you reach up out and over to the right, let the right knee bend a little bit, sink in a little bit, this won't be your last chance to do this, so just we're at a beginning stage yes, okay nice, come back into the center, let your hands come underneath the face, toe heal your feet in, just a little wider than the hips from alasana, bending the knees and start to sink in, let a bit of a happen, walk your hands a little bit forward, yeah, sink in, nice, okay uttamasana, slide the hands back, let the hips lift, toe heal the feet in underneath your hips, bend the knees, chin into the chest and roll on back up, feel the belly and feel the heart and feel the throat and feel the face, big deliberate inhale, exhale, let a happen and soften the knees, so our purpose of these standing poses this morning is to start to clear out that which keeps us from knowing how supported we are, so in between our standing asanas we'll really be hanging out into dasana as preparation for meditation, so big deliberate inhale, exhale, let a happen, soften the knees, let the sit bones get heavy, jaw is slack, yes, then just enough rooting through the feet, so you feel this natural generosity of the heart that hardens in the back of the heart, that's kind of natural, see what you can do to offer support, and start to get good at sensing the alignment of your skull, try to see if you can find out where the skull can rest so that it feels more balanced, so that your neck tension is not so necessary, okay let's continue, it's been kind of the main purpose, okay separate your feet again wide, this time we're going to find ourselves into what we used to call warrior two dance, okay turn for me it's my left foot for you, it might be your right foot, I'm just not, I haven't had enough coffee this morning to mirror my apologize, so what you want to do is make sure as you make your way to warrior two that you're going to be set up for success, that you know your alignment is right for you, okay that you've got the right stance for you, you know what that is, if you're practicing at home online right now, you know what that is, okay let that leg draw a little straighter, read the toes wide, we're going to dance with this for five rounds, so inhale reach your arms up, stay here as you exhale and just kind of stretch up out of yourself like we've been doing, if it helps to kind of like use your thumbs and kind of climb up out of yourself do that, nice, then eventually here inhale and as you exhale let your arms open as you let that one of those knees bend and open towards you your warrior two nice and then inhale press into the feet come on back up and exhale open three more like this inhale up yes exhale open two more like this inhale exhale nice inhale exhale gorgeous let it inhale bring you all the way back up turn that left foot in hands on the ways turn that opposite foot away for me it's the right stance should be about the same but maybe the side is different so just kind of make sure like give it the same do is the other side then eventually let both legs straighten let it inhale reach your arms up and see my day just kind of wiggle about it here okay the practice of climbing up and out of oneself is continual okay as you're ready inhale and as you exhale let that front knee bend open up to your version of warrior two inhale come on back up exhale and open super nice inhale come on back up exhale open that's three two more inhale come on back up exhale open nice one more inhale back up exhale open beautiful inhale come on back up exhale turn the toes in hands on the waist shorten the stance if it got a little bit away from you with the toes turned in hands come down on the legs slide the hands down same idea start to lean a little right and left just like we did before again for some of you that's enough some of you it feels totally natural to start to action into a knee bend so as you lean to a side you let one of your knees bend sink in a little bit lower a couple more rounds like this just kind of at your own pace and what feels good beautiful really nice gorgeous okay let it come back up to center hands come underneath your shoulders toe heel the feet in just wider than the hips maybe turn them out a little bit to help with the external rotation and give you a little bit more room as you start to sink into malasana squat let a little bit of a yeah gorgeous uttanasana draw the sit bones up turn the toes in those legs Julie bend the knees chin into the chest we're gonna roll on back up hands on the legs and slowly start to roll on back up feel the belly feel the heart feel the throat and feel the face okay here we are in tadasana spread the toes big deliberate inhale exhale let a happen and soften the knees slacken the jaw and this is that moment of like trusting that your body knows how to stand trusting that the earth has you like she does soften the belly and yet this support is not the support is unconditional and yet there is an ask of cooperation in the Upanishads it's this intimate combination of divine blessing and human effort so like press into your feet just enough to feel your heart blossom let a bit of a happens off in the back of the heart throat is open and then find the alignment of the skull again where the neck tension is not necessary and we've explored this before together but just to make sure let's make sure we're aware of what the upper soft palate is so bring your tongue back to the front of the top teeth and then slide your tongue back along the hard palate till it finds the edge and kind of falls off the edge that's the soft palate okay relax your tongue now let the soft palate dome yes so there's a sense of grounded like supported in the legs soft in the belly easy and receptive and generous in the heart and vast and open in the mind sometimes it helps to let your gaze be not just straight and ahead of you not not so much horizon just above the horizon yeah okay let's stand again so we're gonna repeat the warrior but this time we're gonna hold it we're gonna hold it with the intention of like can we remain spacious within the effort so turn you know for me it's my left foot turn that foot away make sure you're set up for success okay then let that leg strike for that leg straight and reach the arms up wiggle up on out of there if it makes sense draw the the sit bone of the back leg under just a little bit so your your pelvis just finds something a little bit more neutral that's that's a geeky detail but sometimes it can feel quite nice okay dancing three rounds and then holding inhale here exhale and open yes inhale come on back up and exhale open yes inhale come on back up this time exhale open and now land let a bit of a happen spread the tone I like to wrap my shoulders under a little bit let the elbows bend let the palms turn up I just I'm looking for all the help I can get and you might look back at that back foot or straight ahead can you let a bit of a can you trust that the ground has you a little bit more so yes there's effort there's cooperation there's a relationship and you feel your heart receptive gooey in the base of the skull can you remember post shimmy even here yeah super nice last few beats press into both feet inhale come all the way back up exhale turn the toes and hands on the waist opposite side if you got a little bit away from yourself shorten your stance make sure you're set up for success I mean why not reach the arms up lengthen when you're ready inhale here exhale and open nice two more inhale exhale and open beautiful one more like that inhale exhale and open and as you land it's like let yourself land notice like if there's temptation to fight like notice that okay again I like to roll my shoulders under elbows bend turn my palms up sometimes it helps me to look at my backhand because sometimes if I'm looking forward there's a sense of striving forward sometimes that's nice look neutral and can you feel that sense of yeah like you're like she's gotcha it's often the belly like generous in the heart be attuned to the quality up through the neck and the base of the skull soften the jaw yeah really nice couple more moments through the feet letting you know bring you all the way back up turn the toes in hands on the waist shorten the stance a little bit if it got a little bit away from you inhale here exhale forward full okay so hands come down onto the legs and lean it a little bit side to side again maybe legs straight is really what's the best action for you some of you it feels good to start to bend legs a little from side to side you know some of you might release the help of your hands okay so it's gonna like play with this for you then eventually come back into neutral turn the toes in and walk your hands forward kind of suction cup your fingertips forward and then pull your sit bones back so it's a little bit like you're in a wide leg down dog but like remember when we used to be able to touch each other and somebody would come by and kind of pull your hips back like remember that remember that feeling length okay slow slide the hands back underneath your shoulders toe heel the feet in turn the toes out a little bit my last in a sink in as your hip bones sink walk your hands forward let a little bit of a yeah gorgeous super nice uttanasana draw the sit bones up turn the toes in bend the knees hands on the legs chin into the chest and slow let yourself roll all the way back up feel the belly feel the heart feel the throat and feel the face beautiful big deliberate inhale exhale at all hop and soften the knees this will be our last tadasana our last mountain pose as you soften the knees and you soften the belly I really get good the way to feel grounded is to feel grounded and and grounded sometimes it can be a funny word so maybe like can you feel supported and then like press through the feet and feel the heart like feel the natural generosity of the heart relax in the back of the heart and find the alignment of the skull gooey at the base of the skull slack in the jaw domed in the upper palate you're looking for that like you're you're tuning into allowing the alignment to start to reveal itself yes like absolutely required for this quality that so many of our teachers speak about about effortlessness absolutely required for a feeling of effortlessness the the trust of letting go is to actually notice that things are still happening okay super nice one more round of standing else and as this time why not some horse so turn the toes out so you're like do a little bit I'd like to see what's gonna feel good for you so just kind of depends on the knees and the hips and the ankles you might be working with today some of you might be quite wide in this stance some of you might be quite narrow please make it work for you okie dokie okay let the legs draw straight inhale reach your arms up and as you exhale let a happen stick your tongue out let your hands come down onto your knees and I like to use the hands to kind of just just so gently press the knees back a little bit just to give that little bit of action beautiful wobble it a little bit from side to side if this is enough for you keep it here if it would feel good to add the twist the suggestion is this inhale here and as you exhale you begin to press one of your knees away so I'm gonna press my left knee away as you drop your left shoulder down and you let your right elbow bend yes that feels so good and then inhale bring it back out and as you exhale other side press the right knee away yes one more time both sides inhale up exhale press one knee away as you drop that shoulder down gorgeous inhale come on back up exhale press that opposite knee away beautiful inhale come on back up now here's where we test our practice a little bit let a bit of a happen now you really got to trust your legs here as you trust your legs you can lighten your manipulative effort like soften the hands away from your legs as you soften the hands away from your legs turn the palms up receive the help that is here as you sink in slack in the jaw kind of in the eyes trust beautiful inhale here as you exhale press on the feet come all the way up this time keep your toes turned out and slide down the legs with your toes turned out lean a little from side to side same idea you might keep your legs straight some of you might start to bend one knee and sink in a little bit lower nice you might come on back up and you might bend that other knee and kind of sink in a little bit lower yeah do that from side to side beautiful beautiful gorgeous so nice slowly come on back up let your hands come underneath your shoulders toe heel your feet in a little bit turn your toes in and then one more time like this sort of a it's a variation on passarita patasanasana section cup your fingers and draw your sit bones back a little bit of a happen gorgeous slide the hands back underneath your shoulders toe heel to feet in malasana sink in beautiful now if it's okay for you if your body lets you come to the seat to the floor from here just bring your hands behind you and kind of as our friend Carrie would stay up in Oregon Papa squat nice okay what I'd like to do before we come to a seat is let's find a bridge pose so come towards the end of your mat reach your arms forward roll yourself on back down and hug your knees into the chest so we've done a lot of that external opening which is good nice seating preparation but let's just kind of put things back together and give a little juice through the heart okay so place your feet down on the floor heels in line with the sit bones arms down along your side take deliberate inhale exhale let a happen do that again inhale and exhale let a happen as you're ready inhale and as you exhale pressing your feet curl your sit bones under let your hips lift some of you this might feel good enough as you root through the feet like give a little extra action like really feel how you compress through the feet and draw your sit bones under essentially we're creating just a little bit of natural internal rotation to kind of counter all that widening keep it here or begin to wiggle your arms underneath you you might be pinky pressers we interlaced at the beginning so maybe interlace is available perhaps rabbit soft in the throat soft in the eyes press just a little bit more draw the sit bones up kinder in the face gorgeous now release your interlace release your arms up to the sky get round in the upper back up on the balls of the feet and roll on back down upper back mid back low back hug the knees into the chest beautiful gorgeous let's do that one more time heels in line with the sit bones arms along your side inhale here exhale press into the feet draw your sit bones under lifting if this is enough kick it here wiggle your arms underneath if it would feel good and maybe you're an interlacer maybe you're a waist supporter find the bridge that works for you yes beautiful so nice okay up on the balls of the feet release your arms out of the way reach them up to the sky roll it on back down upper back mid back low back hug the knees into the chest and lob bring the heels of the palms up onto the thighs bring the knees right over the hips like you're sitting in a chair start to give a little action through the palms into the legs and the legs into the palms so you want to create a relationship between these two things let a little bit of a happen and to give that little extra abdominal play curl your head up yes beautiful gorgeous so nice let the legs come back into the chest and wobble little easy spinal twist let the right leg wrap over the left bring everything over to the left kind of organize right palm on top of left palm and then circle your right arm back up out and over letting that right elbow bend let a bit of a nice beautiful okay keep the legs to the left unwrap so just let the right leg come on top of the left and then lead with the right leg let yourself come back yes okay wrapping other side left leg over the right bring everything over to the right organize and then circle this left arm back up out and over maybe the elbow bends a little bit that helps your shoulder slightly let a bit of a yeah so the difficulty with self-awareness I mean there are so many but often if you're if you're just beginning this effort of meditation sometimes it can be quite surprising of the self that you become aware of you know we can have a lot of illusions that meditation is going to lead towards becoming a more quote-unquote spiritual person but stage one like anything like any kind of assessment with a doctor is what's the baseline what is actually happening now what is true where are we now and Trungpa Trungpa used to call um used to say meditation is one insult after the other so keep your legs to the right free that top leg and then lead with the top left leg let it come all the way back but the key and you know our teacher John Dunn says this and John Dunn Dunn's course is maybe it's releasing this weekend hope so hope so John Henton does this course and one of the key points he makes recently in this in this eight day awakening life course is it's not so much what we think but how we are with what we think okay so if seated meditation really isn't your thing and you would like to move into shavasana instead then just put your feet down on the floor and let one leg at a time extend and set yourself up okay but if if it would be nice for our our last 12 minutes together to sit instead okay then hug your knees into your chest and rock yourself back and rock yourself up and you can make it a combination combination where are those two restaurants Taco Bell and what Pizza Hut Pizza Hut and Taco Bell so if you want a Pizza Hut Taco Bell you can do Shavasana and meditation okay so find yourself in a comfortable seat I like loving this offer lately and what you like to sit on will change as your body changes okay big deliberate in now exhale let a happen and soften in the belly and just like when we were into Dasana so it's the same do it again inhale and exhale let a trust that your body knows how to sit and the earth has you yeah like just like trust this yeah I'm as I'm here I'm I'm I'm seeing you guys like I'm thinking about merit and Jamie and Petra and Michelle and Agnes and Linda and Angela and I know there's some of you out there that didn't say hi in the beginning I'm thinking about you guys like I can't not we're here together Gabriella like sit like trust and and then and really wait for it like there's no rushing this this is so nice this is like that jar of muddy water that you've now put on the shelf and the the silt is starting to settle and the clear water is being revealed like enjoy this part yeah so nice even more slack in the jaw even softer in the belly like continue to refine and continue to explore and identify where else you can relax our teacher shift and it's like relax as much as possible and then you just got to do what you got to do so from that sense of ease they'll just be a natural kind of instinct to give just the right amount of rooting through the sit bones just like we did in Tadasana just the right amount to allow your heart to so naturally find her receptive generosity and maybe your eyes are closed but maybe they're open especially if you happen to have a something beautiful to look at like like if you happen to be able to see your sky or a tree now find the alignment of the skull where you're trusting your spine to hold her and like follow the alignment like if you're if you follow the alignment that's trying to come through base of the skull soft in the jaw domed in the upper palate sometimes it can feel nice to let another audible sigh happen it just tension collects so fast it's habitual for us and like so your your focal point is just almost like you're just kind of gently scanning and so tenderly gently just reminding yourself that it's okay to relax and you're reminding yourself it's okay to relax through accurately perceiving that the ground has you accurately perceiving that you are not consciously actively doing anything at this moment to stay alive and yet you are alive your heart is beating your breath is happening and find the placement of your hands that feels quite nice for you today palms up feel safe it's a little bit more vulnerable but a little bit more receptive let's be here together for these last four minutes if you've been in Shavasana this whole time and you'd like to join us and just allow that to happen as it feels good tension will happen again it's doing its job and so your job is just to every so often let another sigh happen yes One of the primary purposes of becoming skilled at relaxing, at letting go, is to be able to loosen the grip around what it is we think we know, who it is we think we are, to allow for something new and unexpected and wondrous to be revealed. Nice. Just a last handful of moments. If you're still in Shavasana and you'd like to find your way up to sitting, perhaps now. And if you've been sitting this whole time, maybe let your hands come together in front of your heart and so tenderly offer your gratitude to all that conspired to allow you to practice this morning. This is never a solo endeavor. Self-realization is a group effort and we need each other. Big, deliberate inhale. Exhale everything. Namaste.