Day 1: Stay Cool, Be Cool

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Summer Ayurveda Challenge day one. I'd like to welcome you from this beautiful, natural, and stage here in Ojai, California. And we're going to do our practice. Stay cool, be cool today. And for our practice today, all you'll need is a blanket in addition to your yoga mat.

And I want to invite you to open up your blanket for maybe a little bit of padding underneath your hips. As we'll turn to face the ground, the earth today, to start with your pelvis, perhaps on the cushion. Make a little pillow for your hands. And if you're wearing glasses, you might keep your glasses off to the side for this first little set. So I want to invite you to drop your foreheads down to your stacked hands.

And then take a moment to let yourself wiggle a little bit into this first pose, just feeling the support of the ground under your arms, your chest, belly, and then the hips as you start to shake a little bit, wiggle a little bit side to side as if you're on a big raft and somewhere sort of far away, a boat is just passed by and there's little movements. Try to release your sacrum, any gripping around your spine, and then perhaps shaking your legs a little bit, wiggling the legs back and forth here on the ground, getting some sensation feeling down in the legs, down into your feet. All right, now if we can start to settle into this first prone position, just feeling the support of the ground to the earth underneath you and then feel the subtle ripple effects in your body from that little bit of wiggling around. Even though it looks like you're not doing very much, you might feel a little ripple of movement down in your body as you take those slightly fuller breaths in and out. Feel your belly softening into the ground like your belly is kissing the earth as you're breathing in and the belly slightly floating in and up towards your back as you exhale.

And then the ripples of movement that are occurring from those sample movements, breathing into your belly, feeling that sense of expansion, front, back, perhaps even feeling a little ripple of movement out to your right and left. A few more deep full breaths. As you are here, I think one of the wonderful ways to cool down the body is to have a few moments on the earth and particularly face down with the forehead close to the ground. If you ever get the opportunity, if you're feeling a little hot, to come down with your belly on the earth for a moment. So now we'll make our first move as we lift the head up and take your right arm perhaps out straight as you pull your left hand down just beside your chest.

We're going to separate the feet as wide as your yoga mat and then go just off the yoga mat with your feet. So you're actually really wide. I'm going to tip over to the right edge of your body and try to keep pinning the right and left toes down on the floor as you balance on your side body. I'm going to let you take this left hand up towards the top of your chest area. In case you have any shoulder injuries, keep your elbow bent.

Others will stretch this left arm straight as your head falls back beyond that right arm. You might look up more towards the ceiling and follow that left hand back behind you. And then as if you're kind of sweeping this left arm down to your sides and then sweep that left arm back up towards the direction of your ear and left arm sweeping down towards the back of your thighs and sweeping back up towards your ear. You're still finding a little balance here on the edge, the right edge of your body. Maybe close your eyes and try to feel what new space you're creating in this left upper corner of your chest and shoulder.

Let's do one more to kind of have that movement almost like you're swimming with that left arm. We'll take the left arm back to where we started now. Your arms out in front of you and please pull the right hand down in front of your chest. Keep the feet wide as we tip onto the left side of your body. Your head falls off to the side of that left arm.

Anyone with shoulder injuries, you might keep this right arm bent, fingertips to the chest as we make those circles or let that right arm be straight and let that right arm stretch down towards your thighs and then it sweeps on back up towards your ear. Maybe your eyes are closed, maybe your eyes are open, whatever helps you tune a little bit more into yourself and what's the right range of motion? What's the right way to move today to keep this shoulder and chest area safe? Kind of sensing again how far to reach out, how much enthusiasm to put into the stretch as you reach maybe one or two more times, almost like that arm is swimming through water. Then we'll go ahead and turn back onto your belly and when you're on your belly now leave both arms out in front of you and we'll let the arms and the legs rise up at the same time and now let your legs separate wide as your arms swim back towards your thighs, chest curls up, legs together as your arms travel forward towards the front of your mat.

Again lift your arms, your legs, legs separate wide as your arms swim back towards your legs. We lower down, arms are again parallel, legs down. Lift up on inhale, separate the legs wide, arms forward, lift the chest, legs parallel, arms parallel, we lower. Let's try a couple more so it's that action like you're swimming, legs wide, chest up, legs together, arms parallel. Let's do one more, swimming, action, lifting your chest and then stay down on the floor.

One more time please pull your left hand down towards your chest, tip over onto the right edge of your body with your legs stacked and you can bend your lower leg and it makes a little better kickstand as you bend your left leg and reach back if you have access for your foot and press your left foot into your hand to find that awesome quadriceps stretch in case you end up doing a little more outside activity this summer and nice to give the quads a little love. Left chest rolling open towards the ceiling, if you have trouble reaching that foot your hand could just be on your hip and kick that left heel back so you're doing a little more strengthening work. So one of the two, one more moment perhaps stretching that left knee away from your chest. Let's release that left leg and roll back onto your belly, arms out in front of you, right hand in front of your chest, tip over to your left side and you might bend that left leg, creates a little kickstand, reach back for maybe your right foot and press your foot into your hands, I feel if that's accessible there if it's not again your hand on your hip and you can kick that right heel back, otherwise if you're grabbing your foot stretch that right knee away from your chest and see if that quadricep appreciates again a little stretch here if you've been out hiking or biking or swimming a little bit more, a little bit more need for stretching here. Let's come back onto your belly, place your hands one more time underneath your forehead and this time bend both of your legs with your feet in the air, let your feet and legs tip side to side like windshield wipers and this is just to let the hips loosen up, lower back loosen up, this easy movement here.

Alright, now let's let the feet come back to the floor, slide your hands right beside your chest and as we come on up, put your knees now on the padding, I'm going to turn to face you so it's a little easier to see and see if you can sit on your heels for a moment and if sitting on the heels doesn't work for you might change your position with some extra padding, with your hands on your thighs, again glasses hopefully are still off, if you bring your palms together in front of your chest and rub your hands together quickly to generate a little bit of heat, I'll try to give the eyes a little moment to relax as we cup the eyes with our warm hands, breathe through your nose and just to give the eyes a moment to rest a little deeper into the face in case your eyes are often a little bit drier in the summer season depending on where you live, might they appreciate this little rest from all that they're going to do today for you and feel that the liquidity in the eyes as you make a few little circles with your eyes closed, just kind of sensing that they're moving well in the eye socket, if you let the left hand drop down to your thigh and keep your index middle finger on your forehead, use your thumb and your ring finger where your nostrils are and then we're going to block the right nostril and inhale through your left sides and then block that left nostril and exhale out the right, the cooling breathing practice where you again block your right nostril, inhale through the left, block the left nostril, exhale out the right, a couple more, block your right side, exhale through the left, blocking that left, exhale out the right, tapping into the lunar channel, the moon piercing practice here, again left nostril we breathe in and then exhaling out through your right sides, let's do one more for good measure, tuning into that calm cool energy of the moon and then eventually breathing out that right sides. Let the hands rest on your thighs again and we'll come on up and this time turn around so that you're facing that front little edge of your yoga mats, we'll come into our tabletop position now with maybe the padding underneath your knees and I'd like you to set up and let yourself tip forward and back, you're kind of eventually going to get to child's pose and you're going to eventually get to upward dog with knees down, you're kind of patiently moving your body back and forth, see if there's any interesting territory to open up along the way before you get to the full pose, what you might think of as the full pose and just going back and forth and maybe even with your eyes closed so that you're moving a little more intuitively, like to suggest that in the summer time, just finding that pace that works for you, maybe it's helpful when you're at home practicing there aren't others around to compare yourself to, which is just all around a good suggestion not to compare yourself to anybody else doing the yoga practice, okay one more time maybe going to the furthest edge now of your up dog with your knees down and going as far back as you're comfortable into your child's pose, as we come up to tabletop walk your hands in towards your knees are going to lift the torso up and let's take your right foot forward into what would be like a lunge position, if I have you take your right arm around your back keep your left arm free at your side, so we're going to bend the right knee and swing your left arm up towards your ear and drop your left arm down as you move your hips again back let's do that again left arm up hips forward in your lunge move yourself out inhaling again reaching long through that left side exits let's do one more swing that left arm up lift through your chest and fingertips and then when you exhale back please tuck that left hand into the small of your lower back so now we're going to bend that right knee this time drop your chest to your right knee and then as if you're open up these big wings in your back spread the arms wide and move back to stand on top of your left knee release both arms behind your back stack and that low back as you tip forward spread those big back wings as you move yourself back to vertical again tip forward chest over that right knee hands in the small of the low back spread those back wings as you exit going for length one more exhale forwards spread those back wings as you reach up let's take the arms down to your side take your right knee back to the blankets and then transfer with your left foot forward so this time that left arm goes behind your back to keep that chest open right arm at your side and as we inhale we'll swing the right arm up and then going back you can give that low lunge left knee bends swing right arm up exhale inhale as you stretch a little longer through your right sides and exhale let's do one more on that side going for length and when you exit set that right hand into the small of the lower back so again we lunge drop your chest to your front knee and then the arms spread wide as you take yourself back up to vertical reach for the sky hands stack in the lower back chest to the left knee look down and then move your body back as your arms swing all the way up hands to the small of the lower back tip forward again chest above that left knee press back swing those arms wide up last time stack the hands in the sacrum sorry right above your sacrum or low back lean forward and then arms go all the way up let your arms come down to your side and take your left knee to the blankets put your toes down for a moment take your arms behind your back and stretch your arms your hands away from your lower back and stay in the vertical position or tip forward and put your head down in front of the blanket or on the blanket and then perhaps from here let your forehead press slightly into the ground as you stretch your arms away from your back see if you can feel that slight lift of the shoulders away from your ears eyes potentially closed let's come on up lifting the chest if you went all the way forward and then unleash your fingers and curl your toes under let's take the arms all the way back up towards your ears and this time keep reaching up through your right hand as your legs go back thighs go back so you can touch your left heel with your left hands and they're going to reach that left arm back up towards the sky look down to your right hand that reaches back for your right heel and lean a little bit back both arms up by your ears bring your hands in front of your chest as we come back to tabletop it will lower the chest between your thumbs slide your belly onto the floor and relax your belly as you lift your chest cobra exhale coming back into your tabletop position toes stay curled under as your arms sweep out to the side and we rise back up let's try that again reach back with your left hand for your left heel and it's okay for your hips thighs to go back reach for the sky with your right hand left arm comes up by your ear and take that right hand down to your right heel and look down and back towards your heel keep reaching up both arms up by your ears hands in front of the chest come back to our tabletop drop your chest down between your thumbs and then slide onto your belly little cobra belly soft as you open up the chest come back again to your tabletop arms out to the side swing on up toes stay curled under it's one more time maybe now you got the rhythm left hand goes down right arm reaches up and take that left hand back up towards the sky right hand down to right heel left arm is still reaching up both arms up in the air the hands back in front of your chest as we come to tabletop and lower your chest smoothly stay on your belly a little cobra inhaling lengthen your spine including your neck and then we go back to our tabletop arms up in the air inhale and now let's lower the arms down at your sides and keep your toes curled under as you reach your fingertips for a moment by your knees and that's just to give your feet an opportunity to wake up and then we're going to reach down and grab your blanket and make a rolled shape with your blanket and depending on what kind of blanket you have you might roll it halfway or all the way and then we'll come up to stand for a moment and put your heels on the high part in your toes down in front if you turn your toes out at a few degrees do a little test run to see what it's like if you're coming towards a squat maybe holding your knees some of you might stay high some of you might come lower and adjust your feet angle so you can come into your comfortable place for your knees now imagine you just sort of squatting near a river for a moment there's nice water flowing in front of you see if you could scoop some of that water up into your hands and again cover your eyes in the squat shape and try to feel that coolness letting the eyes relax and rest a little further back into your face as we settle into our legs in that squats one more moment letting the eyes be covered as we work our squat which means the legs are working and then try to keep the eyes relaxed as you reach your arms in front of you if you're holding a box in your hands and then inhale take your arms up as you straighten your legs and come up and then arms down at your sides we're gonna keep that rolled shape and now step your heel to the back side and the toes will stay lifted in the front to access those calves in case you find yourself out hiking a little bit more these days exercising more and you want a little better calf stretch so with your arms down at your side good posture looks straight ahead before you swing your arms up and let your palms try to touch above your heads let's follow that left hand down your left leg and look towards that left heel as your right arm reaches over to the sides like you're doing that crescent moon shape then take that left hand back up into the air meet your right hand and then we'll follow that right hand down your right leg as you arch to your side looking down towards your right heel try to relax the neck right hand reaches back up to meet your left hand reach behind your back lace your fingers together and stretch both arms away from your back keep your fingers lacing your palms open so maybe it's not the biggest chest opener but one that gives you an opportunity to connect to top of the shoulder blades middle and then the bottom just one more time bring your arms up in the air above your head and shoulders left hand slides down the left leg as you arch over to that left side look down towards your ankle left arm reaches back up to meet your right hand right hand slides down the right leg reach over to your right as you look down to your right ankle right hand comes up to meet your left hand and then arms one more time behind your back lace your fingers and now maybe you bring your palms together or wrists together and noticing that your body isn't leaning forward your head is over the center of your pelvis as best as you can feel and let your legs engaged as you find your balance here you tend to lock your knees know to unlock them last breath and then release the arms and then the best part is when you step back off that blanket and feel what's different in your legs after doing some squats and that calf stretch okay after you take take a note of the change let's go ahead and get the blanket out of the way for now and then we'll come to the front edge of your mat here if you will and with your feet about hip distance apart take a step back with your left foot to begin with for a warrior two warrior one stance with your right leg bent so similar to what we did when we were in a kneeling position right arm around your back left arm up by your ear okay so we're gonna look straight ahead as you sink into both feet evenly while reaching up through your left hand and then straighten both legs as your left arm drops at your sides bend your right knee swing your left arm up by your ear look up straighten that right leg left arm at your side two more inhale reach up and exhale as you exit bend your front knee as you go into warrior one with that single arm and then exit you know please both hands in the small of your lower back bend your front knee and bring your chest forward or torso parallel to the ground press into both feet as you spread those back wings and take your arms wide and we're back to vertical with both arms up both hands go to the small of the lower back and we tip forward chest towards the right knee reach those arms wide spread your back wings as you reach up maybe hands touch above your head two more exhale fold forwards from the hips little back strengthening arms wide and the arms above your head maybe they touch last one exhale come forward chest towards right knee arms go wide swing the arms up by your ears and then hands in front of your chest step your back left foot forward while you're in the zone go ahead step back with that right leg and adjust your feet so you're in a stable wide position and this time we start with the left arm around your back right arm at your side right arm swings up towards your ear feel that you're grounded through your feet and then straighten your left leg as you drop your right arm at your side inhale into your warrior one legs right arm up exit with left leg straight bend your left knee inhale maybe look up exhale out and again inhaling up with that right hand and exhale out right let's stack both hands in the small of the lower back bend your left knee and then tip your torso forward so you're almost parallel to the ground and then swing your arms wide as you come on up keep the warrior legs arms above your head and then hand stack to the small of the lower back bow forward chest towards left knee swing your arms wide as you come back up warrior one with both arms up maybe hands touch above your head exhale hands to the small of the lower back bow forwards press into both feet as those arms swing again wide come on up hands touch above your head let's do one more hands to the small of the lower back chest to the knee and then swing your arms wide all the way up and out bring your hands in front of your chest and then step that back leg forward let's put your hands in the right above your buttock area and make a few little hula hoop like circles okay and as you're doing those hula hoop circles will start to orient now to the front long edge of your mat and as you find that long edge separates your feet what you might do for our goddess shape so if you pull your heels in bend your knees goddess straddle it's called many things and try to find that shape where you're stable here with the toes slightly turned out all right so now when you find this position let your arms stretch up towards the ceiling or towards the sky and we keep these front ribs a little hugged in to neutral so we're not pushing into a big back bend keep your torso neutral now as you let your arms reach behind your back and we're going to bow forward here so your torso is parallel to the ground as you squeeze this invisible big beach ball between your hands behind you keep your legs bent inhale take your arms up and imagine you've transferred that ball above your heads reach your arms behind your back and there's that big ball that meets you behind you as your body's parallel inhale torso up and imagine you're squeezing a big ball above your heads again reach behind you squeeze the shoulder blades in your body's parallel to the floor come back up with that invisible ball above your heads one last time take your body forward pause squeeze that invisible giant ball inhale as you come all the way up the ball last time above your head you know if you straighten your legs let your arms lower to your side and then let your feet go just a little bit wider if we start with your left foot turned out today and raise your arms out to your side bring your right arm right up beside your ear and let your left arm be reaching out with your palm facing the sky you're going to reach out to the side and lower that left hand down your leg just past your knee even if you could go further just pause here for a moment keep reaching towards the sky with your right hand and turn your belly and chest slightly towards that long edge of your mat now please bend that left knee toward 90 degrees going to bring your hands together in front of your chest and do this little bow forward to the inside of that left leg so we tip down and bow to the earth take your left hand back just below your knee and come back up into your triangle base and then again bring your hands in front of your chest bend that left knee and maybe with repetition it feels a little easier to bow forwards left hand back to your shin right hand to the ceiling and then one last time hands in front of the chest and do a little bow forwards and then left hand to your shin right hand to the sky slide your left hand up your leg right arm down and turn your left toes in and then turn your right toes out you'll take the left arm right up by your ear and reach your right arm out parallel to the floor with your palm up and just take a moment as you tip to your sides if you'll the feet are grounded legs especially right side hopefully stretching allow right hand to your shin area feel your left hand reach for the sky as you consciously press down more into your feet then we'll bend that right leg and bring your hands in front of your chest and start to turn your torso towards the earth and you're looking down at the earth as you bow forward right hand to right shin left arm swings back up towards the sky still engage in both legs bend your right knee hands in front of the chest and bow forwards towards the earth on this right side right hand on the shin left arm circles back up towards the sky one last time hands in front of the heart and that little bow forward here towards the earth right hand just below your knee to your shin as you reach on up let's come all the way back up to center now X like shape in your body okay now as you find the X shape turn your toes to face straight ahead reach your arms behind your back with your toes facing forward squeeze between your shoulder blades stretch your arms away from your back and give a big generous bend of the knees so it's not about your hamstrings as you tip forward and raise your arms up away from your back palms or parts instead of palms touching so we try to think of the four bends can be more on the cooling side and so as you get to the heat of summer we might find a little bit of forward bends throughout the day to help keep our body cool or mind cool one more moment as you are here stretching your arms away from your back and then ground your feet and tip your body all the way back up to neutral unless your fingers and bring your arms back to your sides let's again move your legs out a little bit wider and turn your left foot out one more time I'm gonna put a little bit more into the flow mode as you raise your arms up towards your ears keep your right arm where it is left arm out to your side and reach out to the left and lower your hand for your triangle base bend your left leg and come into that warrior bow as we look down towards the earth on the left coming back to your triangle on the inhale and then transferring back up to neutral shift your feet to the right sides arms all the way up by your ears long side body as we tip over to the right and lower that right hand down bend your right knee gather your hands together and bow forwards come back to your triangle pose left hand reaching for the sky back up to that big x shape both feet facing forward reach behind your back lace your fingers and big breath as you stretch your arms away from your back bend your knees again so it's not about your hamstrings as you tip forward and drop your head down fingers are laced the palms are apart as you come forward ground your feet inhale use those legs to bring you all the way back up your arms spread wide out to the side and last time our little lunar salute with your left toes out arms all the way up come into your triangle pose with your left hand down right arm up bend that left leg gather your hands at the heart bow towards the earth on the left side triangle pose reach up towards the sky with your right hand come all the way back up to that x shape just your feet to the right side arms away by your ears as you tip to your side bring your right hand down keep your left arm up hands in front of the heart as we bow forwards bow towards the earth right hand on your shin left arm up for your triangle pose and then come all the way back up to your x turn your feet forwards last time reach behind your back lace your fingers together and open up the chest big generous bend of the knees as you tip forwards and then maybe we keep the eyes open when we're tipping forward so there's no chance of falling over and see if you press your feet into the earth can we work at straightening the legs just a little bit more what does your version look like one more big inhale one more big exhale as we come halfway up put your fingertips down on the floor right underneath your shoulder line and try to be really light on your fingertips here as we keep the right hand underneath your shoulder a chest line and follow your left hand out to the left and look towards your left fingertips and then let's raise that left hand maybe just an inch or two higher up and before you stretch it forwards out in front of you like you're doing a swimming stroke and when you end up putting that left hand back down so up on the tips of your fingers swing your right arm out to the right look to your right please press down evenly into both feet raise your right fingertips a few inches higher and imagine you're reaching forward like you're doing a swimming stroke and that right arm goes in front of you and then back to the floor underneath your chest let's try again left arm swings out to the side perhaps twist another inch or two deeper through the spine swimming stroke with your left arm in front of you and back down to the floor right arm swings out to the side look towards your fingertip steps lift that hand an inch higher deeper rotation and then that right left right arm swings forward like you're doing that swimming stroke last thing here now even stretch walk your hands forward for me a day is not complete without this stretch or a little downward dog hybrids so we're merging that wide-legged forward bend with your downward dog and let your head hang for a moment between your arm shake your head a little side to side so you're aware of decreasing any tension that might live here ground your feet and sense the hips being pulled back away from your shoulders big breath in maybe even an audible size you exhale out let's walk the hands back in under your shoulder line bring your legs and feet a little closer together and let's walk your hands towards that right foot as you pivot to that front small edge of your mat and then transfer back into your push up a plank and maybe you shift your weight right and left and walk into what feels like the right height of the hips for a stable easy shape of plank now from your plank pose lets your hips come up into more of a downward dog position and then without rushing work rolling forward toes stick curled under a little bit of that plank wave looking a little forward and then we go back up with the hips and the head dropping between your arms let's roll in that wave like movement a couple times doing a little bit of work in the upper body one more time your little plank into your downward dog roll alright now as you finish here let's go ahead and come down and have a seat so I'm going to encourage you as you sit to grab what you might need for Sukhasana we think of that of that easy cross-legged seat so I'm going to sit on padding for this one and let's be aware of having maybe the left ankle left leg in front of the right alright so when you have that easy Sukhasana shape if you will let your fingertips and your arms go behind you so you're pressing your fingertips into the floor to let the arm bones roll away from their collar bones stay lifted through the side body all the way through your chest and then if you will here please turn your nose to the left try to squeeze a little more between your shoulder blades and then as you stay here one more moment nose turning to the left perhaps relax your eyes and then maybe we'll do the same thing with the eyes closed as you turn your nose to the right and just see if it feels interesting here to access the left side of your neck how far do you need to turn your nose or just the angle of your head to feel some stretch down that left side of your neck now when we come forward back to neutral keep your hands behind you for just a moment as you start to tilt forward from your pelvis and see what happens so you might notice there's a little bit of tightness in the knee or tension you're welcome to stretch one leg straight or do both leg if you need to hear to make this safe for the knees once you keep the chest area open and you found how far you might come forward from your pelvis transfer your hands in front of you and see if you can on the inhale lift your chest a little bit away from the belly and then as you exhale if there's room your hands walk a little forward and we lower your chin slightly towards your chest I think there's a little undulation of movement in your spine so as you inhale it's almost like you come into your backbend of lifting the chest and then exhale perhaps walking the hands forward lower your chin to your chest so the hope is that you feel some stretch in that left hip and that you don't feel anything in your left knee so it's more being patient and kind here to let that left hip open up so there's no strain in that left knee let's take one more moment with that attempt to have a little lift of the chest as you come into your forward bends now let's walk the hands back in towards your knees now take your hands behind you if you will and we're going to transfer this right foot back behind you maybe you tuck it under your blankets or maybe you sit on it if this need isn't bends you simply keep a straight right leg I'm going to show the bent version first we'll turn towards your left leg and hold on to your left knee with your right hand press your left fingertips into the ground behind you and sit up nice and tall we're going to turn our nose now to the right and then tilt your head at an angle towards your right shoulder that allows this left side of your neck or chest area to stretch I find it's way easier if my eyes are close to feel what's the right angle that might also let me relax my lower jaw away from the upper palate so the mouth might open and perhaps even take an audible sigh an audible exhale let the head hang to the side as you lift your head back up to center take both arms behind your back for a moment and with your fingertips pressing down lift your hips up press your hips forward look towards the sky a little vinyasa in between and then you lower yourself down and let's transfer the legs so now we have the right ankle in front right leg in front I hope I got that right for y'all sit up tall for a moment make sure this feels like your new side fingertips root into the floor behind you as you lift your chest turn your nose to the right maybe close your eyes and stretch into that left side of your neck back to center before we turn the nose to the left stretch more into that right side of your neck look straight ahead and try to keep that chest area wide as you tip a little bit forwards hands walking out in front of you and try to maintain that feeling of the backbend as you lift your chest and then this might be the right place to pause or do you walk your hands more forwards we lower the chin towards your chest as you exhale consider that lift of the chest on the inhale that little mini backbend shape chin to chest as you exhale so there's a softening into the forward folds maybe you can notice there's something calming about looking towards the ground eyes open or closed last little moment as you are here let's walk your hands back in maybe your hands transferred behind you so you can switch out and this time your right leg would tuck back your left your left leg should be back the joy of doing these live okay so with your left leg tucked back that's what mine is turn towards your right leg and hold on to your knee with your left hands and I hope you're with me now okay lift your chest turn your nose to the left and please drop your head at whatever angle helps you access that letter right left right side of your neck take another moment I realize I'm not marrying you but we'll just enjoy the stretch through your neck here let your jaw release and maybe even take in an audible exhale as you are here let that jaw relax as we switch bring your head back up swing your arms behind your back leave your legs as they are take a moment find that little vinyasa as you press your fingers down move your hips forward look straight up towards the ceiling and then we lower back to the earth okay we'll release the legs out from that cross-legged position whatever padding you have let's go ahead and get rid of that and I want to encourage you to maybe make your little blanket roll again if you have access to that let's set that up to put underneath your legs for a short ishavasana they'll be short with me in the mornings so that you don't get sleepy or cold at this time of the day so if you find your way down onto your back and moving the padding so it's maybe underneath your hamstrings maybe more than under your knees today if you haven't tried that pull it a little higher up to your hamstrings let your legs separate wide and perhaps you feel for a moment your hands on your belly area and as your hands are on your belly area it's like you to feel again that movement that's occurring as you're breathing in feel the belly softening and rising towards the sky belly falling in towards your back as you exhale breathing in through the nose breathing out as you exhale belly falling in towards your back we can be aware of keeping your belly soft and relaxed and moving as you're breathing feel free to spread your arms out wider if you like a bigger X shape in your body for shavasana whatever shape gives you good contact with the earth you really feel your earth body sitting on the earth here taking a moment just to notice again that changes from our practice this morning in your physical body let's just feel in the water body we can turn our awareness in a little bit more to the breath now perhaps without doing any strong vigorous sun salutation is the breath mellow calm and can that easy slow breaths guide you a little more easily into the gaps between the breaths place where fewer interruptions in the mind we can rest here and maybe have our minds reflect the blue sky above us free of clouds free of thoughts taking a few moments to take in that quiet that calm perhaps even tuning into the addition of the beautiful bird sounds that you might hear. You You You While still receiving the support of the ground underneath you See if you can stay here and without tensing the body just take slightly fuller breaths in Which often leads them to a slightly fuller breath out Since you're home just notice does it feel better more cooling calming to do audible exhale or more quiet exhale? Continuing to let the earth through its magic absorbing any extra tension That lives in the body can you let that settle and sink into the earth? Now while you're on your back here if you start to make little circles with your wrists and ankles little circles with wrists and ankles Whatever you were able to leave behind in the practice Any tension worry or stress see if you can leave that behind As you bend your legs and get ready to turn to any side you wish to Curl over into your ball shape for a moment And then get ready to transition if you will back up to a seat of meditation So if you like a Square shape you might redo your blankets. You've got the right kind of padding for you to sit on If you prefer to be against a wall or on your back for meditation, you're welcome to choose a different shape than i'm suggesting here All right, so when you get to an upright shape If you will take a moment and but align the bones of your body. So there's minimal gripping or tension in your hips lower back The shoulders or the neck Finding that balance here between the earth and the sky as you take a deep breath in and deep breath out And today is part of our Summer challenge for day one we're going to slowly introduce the practice of meta the loving kindness meditation Throughout the entire five days that we're together And today as you orient yourself first just with your breath to be a little more aware of the feeling tone in the heart Taking deep breath in deep breath out And as you may have heard that Uh advice to first put the mask on for yourself before you are able then to help others So that you are able to help others the same is true here. We try to fill our buckets of love for ourselves So that we are more able to to love others and to bring kindness and compassion to others So as you keep your attention in the heart center your heart center And if you've done this before just noticing what it feels like today as while you're inhaling To potentially recite these phrases with me May I be filled with loving kindness May I be safe and protected May I be healthy and strong And may I live in this world peacefully and at ease This is just for you May I be filled with love May I be filled with loving kindness May I be safe and protected May I be healthy and strong May I live in this world peacefully and at ease May I be filled with loving kindness May I be safe and protected May I be healthy and strong And may I live in this world peacefully and at ease May I be filled with loving kindness May I be safe and protected May I be healthy and strong May I live in this world peacefully and at ease One more time just noticing the feeling in the heart as we recite this together May I be filled with loving kindness May I be safe and protected May I be healthy and strong May I live in this world peacefully and at ease Just letting that settle in deeply to the heart Perhaps reciting to yourself any phrase or all the phrases And for one minute just letting yourself receive the metta, the loving kindness For yourself, your humanness And may we welcome that metta May I be filled with loving kindness May I be filled with loving kindness And then taking a deep breath in, a deep breath out.

May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be safe and protected. May I be strong and healthy. May I live in this world peacefully and at ease. The hands in front of the heart center, enclosing this part of our practice.

May we awaken for the benefit of all beings. So thank you for coming this far in your practice to say yes to some asana, some pranayama, some movement today. And in our Ayurveda challenge section of the week, I wanted to introduce three things that I use to help keep myself cool and calm during the hot season. And I just introduced one of them to you, which is the loving kindness meditation. And so each day we'll do five minutes of a practice together.

But hopefully if you find that you're irritated at some other part of your day, it might be nice to regroup again, potentially with that so that you're moving forward in your day with more kindness and compassion towards yourself. More compassionate, less critical if the heat makes you a little bit irritated. Another thing I want to suggest is to begin your mornings or maybe after yoga now with some water with lime. And in Ayurveda, we use lime as one of the cooling elements. If you don't have lime, you might add some cucumber slices to your water in the morning or throughout the day or some mints in your water.

So that, number one, you're hopefully inspired to drink water more because it might taste a little bit better. So the lime can be refreshing and can inspire you again to think about having more liquid so that you're staying hydrated while we're in the hotter season. And to help you make good choices in the day, often we'll make good choices if we are hydrated. So the idea is to have water in the morning so you start thinking clearly, you're refreshed a little bit of vitamin C goes a long way. So that's a second step in our summer challenge.

So maybe every morning the rest of this week, you start off with water with something in it that's cooling. And then my favorite part of summer in Ayurveda is we introduce siestas into the mix. So the suggestion this week is to try to make space to do a 20 minutes, maybe 30 minute, but more like a 20 minute siesta after lunch in the hot part of the day, depending on where you're at. That could be one o'clock between one and three is usually when we're recommending for folks to take a 20 minute siesta. So if you notice when you take naps that that tends to cool your body down, which can be a good thing if you've got a long hot day in front of you.

So a 20 minute nap is cooling for the physical body, but it also gives your mind 20 minutes where you're not taking in information. So 20 minutes where you're kind of slowing down from being productive. So summer is a season where we're often more productive because there's more lights and it is easier to do more and we're certainly encouraged to do a lot in the summer because of the abundance of lights. But it's also nice to pace ourselves and it's the whole story of summer is to pace yourself so that you're not doing too much every day at a pace that burns you out. So I feel like the siesta is a great little kind of reset in the middle of each day.

And if you're able to do that over the course of the summer, the hope is that you kind of gather back some of that water cooling energy. And you can move into the later half of your day calmly and with more patience and with more kindness. Sometimes things that evaporate when we're burnt out and we're really tired. So I hope each day to introduce a couple new things to you to help expand your yoga practice beyond the mat and that we move into the summer season as kind, compassionate beings, first with ourselves and then with others around us as we are maybe finding ourselves more indoors with people in our live stream shelter in face. You might find some of these really helpful to do with others also that live in the household with you.

So group naps are great family naps are great I hope and wish you again a really safe rest of the day and to stay hydrated as we move forwards into the week. And I'll look forward to be with you tomorrow to share some of my favorite new moves oriented around the summer season. So thanks so much for tuning in from all over the place. Wishing you good vibes from Ohio, California. Thanks so much for being with us on Yoga Anytime, namaste.