Day 3: Moving Meditation

Hello, and welcome to day three of our fall Ayurveda Yoga Challenge. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. Welcome back. Today is going to be a little bit of a prop light practice, believe it or not. I'm going to ask you to grab a blanket or cushion, whatever you'd like to sit on.

I'm going to start with a folded blanket myself to insert underneath the pelvis, sit bone area. So the knees will drop hopefully a little bit lower than your hips. If you know your body well enough to know you might need some blocks under knees or legs folded under. For Virasana, if that's better for you, please choose that way. If you're home and you might have a chair close by, you could also do this early part sitting in a chair that's actually better for your knees.

All right. So please take good care of yourself. I'm going to start with a little bit of a meditation pranayama practice. And throughout the course today, we'll do lots of movements associated with breath awareness to bring us maybe a little bit more into a meditative, calm state of mind. Okay.

At the same time, getting her body loosened up. So let yourself wiggle into what feels like a good seat where you can emphasize and lengthen the curves of your spine. At some point, you might close your eyes to decrease the distractions around you. If your eyes are open, please try to find one spot to let your eyes focus on your meditation point to help bring your awareness and attention into this moment. Okay.

So when in sitting, if we can imagine our legs and our base, our buttocks, the ground underneath us, our foundation, kind of like a mountain spread wide. If we can sit in that way like a mountain and let our foundation settle as we start to bring our awareness up through the side body, like the side of the mountain, all the way up to the top of our head, the peak of your mountain, and invite our body to sit still the way that we envision those mountains sitting still. At the same time, we might know that there's still some very subtle movements happening within that mountain. And I want to encourage you to allow your body to make little subtle movements and to avoid getting rigid as you sit. And then once our body feels well aligned and the spine is long, easy to breathe into, please start to turn your awareness to the breath and let yourself try to fill up your lungs and chest three quarters of the way full.

Just kind of having that sense, what does that feel like? And there's a little space for you then to exhale and transition the breath out. And think about exhaling three quarters of the air out. Again, we breathe in three quarters full, not to the max. So there's a little space for you to exhale the air out.

And then we feel, again, there's a little transition room at the end of exhale. It's like a little fast for a moment before we nourish ourself with the next breath in. May that inhale breath be nourishing. Try to use that exhale breath to free yourself of any mental strain or tension, any physical strain or tension. We move that out as we exhale.

Let's try just a few more times, trying to fill yourself up, nourishing inhale breath. And then exhaling three quarters of the way out to leave that little transition space. So the whole class, we're going to try to stay really focused on this breath. Perhaps it's maybe a three or four second inhale. That will be our rhythm as we breathe in and as we breathe out.

And if your breath rhythm is different, again, please honor your breath and try not to force or strain the breath, and hopefully we'll adapt accordingly together to sort of meet in the middle. So we're going to put this into motion now as you let your eyes open. And we'll start with that simple practice as circling your arms up as we take maybe a four second count to reach your arms above your head and then four seconds to bring your hands down towards the front of your chest. We're not rushing. Inhale about four seconds to reach all the way up to the top towards the sky.

Exhale four seconds to come down. You can even do that with your eyes closed if that's more helpful to feel your body moving. Exhale hands in front of the chest. Inhaling four seconds to come up and exhaling four seconds to bring the hands down. One more time.

Same pattern up. Hands in front of the heart center on exhale. Okay, now let's go out to the sides, goal post arms. Inhale four seconds to spread open the chest. Four seconds to push against that little bit of resistance letting the air feel thick.

Inhale four seconds letting those elbows stretch on back. Four seconds bringing the elbows back in towards each other. Big inhale as we open away from the midline and exhale as we come back into the center. Inhaling opening wide, elbows maybe travel further back each time and then pressing in on exhale. Let's do one more.

Inhale elbows travel back about four seconds to bring the elbows to touch and let your hands reach down over the knees. And think of your cow movement here in this cross-legged seat. Let's inhale and lift the chest, full breath in and then as you exhale rocking the pelvis back as you exhale four seconds round the back. Move from the pelvis, inhale come up. Exhale four seconds rounding the spine, head dropping towards the chest.

Inhale, pull forward, lift up. Not rushing, exhale maybe the eyes close as you exhale all the air out rounding. Inhale, coming forward, lift the chest. One last time, exhale come to the rounded shape on exhale. Come up to neutral please.

Go ahead and take that blanket or whatever you might be sitting on out of the way and let's transfer with your legs in front of you. So with your feet about hip distance apart hold on to the back of the legs and soften your spine into what might feel like a really soft C shape. Okay so we're not rigid in the spine here. Okay let the arms reach out in front of you and we'll lean back maybe one more inch and take about four seconds to lift that left leg up a little higher than the height of the knee. And then without rushing lean forward put that left foot down.

Lean right leg goes up, lean back and put the right foot down as you lean again forward. Reaching the leg up as we recline back without rushing. Left foot down as we pull forward. Right leg up as you lean back without rushing, foot down. Again left leg comes up as you lean back a few inches.

Left foot down, lean forward. Let's do one more with the right leg up and lean on back. Both feet on the ground, hands at your side. Go ahead and roll on to your back and as we come down onto the back we'll have both of your legs bent, feet on the ground and the feet might be about hip distance apart. And if you'll start for a moment with your arms down at your side like you would for bridge pose and we'll pay close attention we'll do this first part slowly and then we'll hook it up to our breath.

So please raise your left leg up into the air above your hip and then take your right arm back towards your ear. This will be our little dress rehearsal round. Okay so you have opposite leg and arm. Let's bring left foot back down and right arm back down. Now let's do that same thing in a four second breath count.

Inhale, lift your left leg up, right arm back by your ear and take about four seconds to slowly lower the foot and the hands. Same side, left leg, right arm, stretch away from each other, come back to where we started. Two more, left leg and right arm, stretching long, exhale, slow motion coming back down. Inhale slow motion, lifting up, reaching right arm back and let's go ahead and lower. Okay now do a quick little test run here, right leg goes up towards the sky, left arm back by your ear so you know you're aware of the new sides, right foot down, left hand down.

Okay now with your four second rhythm, inhale right leg up, left arm back, lower back to neutral, inhale right leg up, left arm back by your ear and come down in slow motion. Still working those muscles of the right leg. Inhale right leg, left arm, release back to neutral, slowly. Right leg, left arm combo goes up, we reach back and come down slowly. Okay please leave both of your feet down on the floor and now let's go ahead and tip your knees in towards your chest and now spread your arms out to your side from a T shape with your palms pressed into the floor.

Let's try to keep the legs at 90 degree angles and let's take a four second exhale as you drop your legs to the left, four seconds while turning your head to the right. Let's see if you can take about four seconds to travel back to center, look up. Exhale four seconds, legs dropping to the right, head turns to the left, inhale four seconds coming back to center. Good legs to the left, four seconds going to the left, head turns to the right, inhale back up to center. Legs drop to the right, four seconds, turn to look to the left, coming back to center not speeding up.

One more time. Legs to the left, four seconds, look to the right, inhale back up to center, exhale four seconds, legs to the right, head turns to the left, come on back up to center. Let both feet touch the ground for a moment. Now let your arms come again to your sides parallel to the long edge of your mat, feet about hip distance apart. Now let's try our bridge where we lift our hips and both arms all at once called that bridge wave.

Now as we lower, please take just your right arm down when you lower your spine and right at the end turn to look over that right shoulder. We're doing a little dress rehearsal round. Lift your hips and your right arm swings back towards your ear and then the left arm lowers with your spine and turn your head to the left and pause. Lift your left arm, lift your hips up, both arms back by your ears and then we lower the arms, your spine, your buttocks and that makes one whole set. So let's try that now together with this four second count.

Inhale lifting up, one, two, three, four. Lower just your right arm with your spine, one, two, three, four, look over your right shoulder. Inhale lift up, the hips, the arm all the way back to that neutral spot. Lower your left arm, one, two, three, four, buttocks down, turn to the left. Lift up, one, two, three, four and then lower both arms and your spine all the way back down to the floor.

One more cycle, inhale lifting your hips, both arms float on back towards your ears. Exhale, right arm comes down as you lower your spine slowly, look over your right shoulder. Inhale four seconds to lift your hips, stretch right arm back towards your ear, lower your pelvis and the left arm and turn to look to the left sides. Inhaling lift your hips, left arm flows back towards your ears and then go ahead leave your arms here as you lower your spine back to the floor slowly. Now let's tip the knees in towards your chest, send your feet up towards the ceiling and reach your fingertips forward to touch your shins or your knees.

We're going to let the legs and the arms move away from each other, taking that big long stretch getting the core engaged and swing your legs back up as your hands reach back up. Now maybe we exhale and lower the arms and the legs away from each other. Lift back up on inhale and going in that slow motion way taking about four seconds to drop your legs and your arms and swing them all the way back up. Be sure to only drop your legs as far forward as your lower back is comfortable. Let's try two more, bring your fingertips up towards your shins, legs and arms moving away from each other.

Maybe it feels like slow motion turning on some of those deeper core muscles. Last one for good measure and then go ahead drop your heels down, hook your thumbs together and let your fingertips spread apart and really energize your legs. Bring them together or parallel like you do in tadasana. Do a little bandha work here or breath work. So stretch your body long as you inhale let your belly move up towards the sky when you breathe in, relax belly.

Exhale take about four seconds to let all the breath out maybe audible exhale. The end of exhale hold the breath out as you feel your navel perhaps sink deeper towards your spine. And the belly moves up towards the sky again full breath exhale belly settles in towards your back call this udiyana and you try to observe that upward flying movements underneath the lungs towards moving the pressure up to the upper lungs. Release the belly big breath in exhale four seconds out hold the breath out draw your navel in towards your spine pause. Last one belly completely soft belly expands on in breath belly sinks in towards the back on exhale pause try to refer to that breath again later in class let's bend the legs arms down to your side and tip your knees in towards your chest so have straight arms for a moment knees right above your hips and then in four second rhythm bend your knee bend your elbows to pull your knees in towards your chest as you exhale.

Apanasana move your knees forward as you breathe in bend your elbows exhale tip your knees in towards your chest exhale stretch the back of the buttocks and low back knees forward four seconds exhale knees thighs in towards your belly chest. Do one more inhaling slowly moving knees forward slowly bringing legs in exhale right put your feet down when you're ready let's roll over to your side and that will come on up to tabletop position and I'm going to encourage you to open your blanket here for some padding under your knees and we'll use that also for the pelvis when we come down to the floor. All right so hands perhaps underneath your shoulder line knees about hip distance apart and even though you may have done this a million thousand times before can you link up with your breath today so maybe it feels new or different helps bring you into this moment by staying with your breath okay so as you inhale look forward we'll take four seconds to find our cow pose exhale four seconds as you round and sit back towards your child's pose variation inhale four seconds coming forwards coming to our cow exhale rounding your spine into your cat and sending your hips towards your heels and if your breath count is different try to find evenness in your inhale and your exhale you might even be counting to yourself at home as you go back and forth and it's a way to stay a little bit more in the moment by following the breath often helpful if we keep the movement simple so it's more about your breath than a complicated yoga pose let's try one more cat cow stay with your breath to keep it fresh and interesting next time that you're in your tabletop let's go ahead and stretch the legs back so you can put your pelvis on your padding and bring your hands right beside your chest I'm going to bring the legs parallel as you lower your forehead to the floor so now as you inhale when my favorite moves here I do this all the time as you lift your feet in your face and then separate the legs wide as you inhale that's a four second count legs come together in four seconds as you lower all the way to the earth inhale four seconds we lift and we separate the feet bring the legs together as you lower your face and chest inhale four seconds or lifting growing the breath legs wide and lower slowly without rushing back to the floor couple more inhale lifting without rushing and exhale lower see if you can be aware of lifting as you breathe in and inhale three quarters of the way full leave that transition space as you exhale down one more time inhale three quarters full legs wide legs parallel as you come back to neutral we're going to keep your hands here beside your chest and do our next move where we bend your knees and lift your toes towards the ceiling as you lift your face and your chest up so the back of your head is moving towards your feet then we straighten the legs and lower the forehead back down now let's inhale take four seconds to lift your head away from the ground nose away from the ground as you bend your legs legs straight as we bring the forehead down again curling up you don't need to lift a whole lot to help strengthen the back straighten your legs forehead down one more time bend your legs lift your head back towards your feet straight legs and lower down all right now from here let your hands come right underneath your forehead for a moment wiggle your hips a little bit left to right just to shake out any tension that might live here big breath in big belly breath out okay let's go ahead now bring your hands beside your chest to press away from the ground and when you come to your tabletop let's get the blanket out of the way so we'll just be on the knees just lightly for a moment if that's okay with your toes curled under we're going to inhale and look forward in your tabletop exhale all the air out maybe four second exhale lift your knees and hips and let your belly stay hugged in towards your back udiana knees come down to the floor inhale look forwards breathing in exhale four seconds rounding the spine the end of four lift your knees and hips belly in towards your back udiana knees back down inhale when you're ready look forward breathing in exhale four seconds rounding lift knees and hips stretch on back belly stays in the last one knees down to the floor look straight ahead as you inhale exhale four seconds round pause come to your downward dog hold the breath out let's go ahead walk your feet forward towards the backs of your hands bend your knees slightly as you come up to stand using your legs to come all the way up to standing okay now let your feet perhaps here stay underneath your hips in our standing position we'll try to do a couple sun salutations to link up with your breath feet stay grounded let's take four seconds to raise your arms up in the air above your head if it feels good look up exhale four seconds to come down to touch the floor with bent knees inhale four seconds lengthen your spine up and four seconds to step back into your pushup of plank stay here breathe in four seconds exhale as we ease our way down to the floor coming into cobra or to your up dog as you're breathing in keeping our rhythm exhale into your downward dog and then stay in downward dog take a four second breath as you exhale walk your feet forward to the back of your hands fold over your legs as you exhale four second breath inhale all the way up take four seconds to come all the way up arms above your head exhale hands in front of your chest four seconds again inhale four seconds to reach up towards the sky four seconds to come all the way forward and down touch the earth inhaling stepping back into your pushup of plank and then staying here big inhale takes four seconds exhale come down meet the floor coming into our cobra or upward dog four second breath into the back bend and four seconds going back into your downward facing dog big breath in four second breath walk your feet forward on exhale the feet apart fold over your legs finish that exhalation four seconds to come all the way up towards standing hands in front of the heart center exhale one more cycle inhale four seconds to reach up forward fold as you exhale touch the earth try to keep this pace four second breath as you're lifting your torso legs go back you're in plank and stay here for one inhale exhale your way all the way back to the earth point your toes and we inhale into our cobra or our upward dog and then to downward dog exhale and stay here for a cycle of your breath and a big exhale out let's go ahead walk your feet forward to the back of your hands fold over your legs exhale four seconds press into your feet inhale circle all the way up to stand maybe that takes four seconds and then hands in front of your heart center exhale okay so we're going to stay standing now let your left arm wrap around your back as we take the right arm up towards your ear up towards the sky so we're going to do a deep bend of the knees as you exhale and come parallel to the floor with your torso as you reach out through your right arm and then inhale four seconds come all the way back up use those legs and this time maybe bend your knees a little less as you exhale reach out torso parallel to the floor inhale torso comes up and four second rhythm maybe we bend the legs less and we have straight legs as we reach our torso forward inhale all the way back up and then tuck that right arm behind your back okay send your left arm up by your ear and just be mindful of your backs here we'll do a deep bend of the knees the first one that you tip forwards it's like you're doing chair ribs over thighs inhale four seconds to come up use those legs maybe bend your knees a little bit less tilt forward from your pelvis exhale forward inhale all the way back up and maybe straight legs or slightly bent knees as you tilt forward torso parallel inhale come all the way up slowly and then arms come down to your sides okay let's take a big step out and face towards the long white edge of your mat now if we will when we're in this stance we're going to have the feet a little bit wider than your shoulders but not your full maybe more um i anger like triangle pose so think of a narrow triangle base and if i have you turn your right foot out to the side first and let your left arm come up towards your ear this arm is going to just stay close to this ear micro bend your right knee so not a big bend but just a little bend and i'd like you to slide your right hand down your leg as you tip to your sides so you're in touch with this leg the whole time and then you come back up okay next time when you go to your right let's exhale four seconds go down as far as you go in four seconds slide back up in four seconds okay so we're going to round this left side of your waist as you again slide down exhale four seconds reach to the right press into your feet slide on back up one more time without rushing again we'll exhale and lean over to your right side exhale let that left waist round inhale as you come on up okay now let that left arm drop down turn your right toes in and then let's turn your left toes out okay so not your huge triangle base a smaller triangle like base a little bend in that left leg and then take your right arm up towards your ear and maybe you got some nice smooth pants that you can run your hands down stay in touch with that leg and slide your palm your hand all the way back up get exhale four seconds tilt to your left sides inhale four seconds to come all the way back up exhale four seconds tipping to your sides inhale press into your feet come all the way back up let's do one more tipping to your side as you exhale let that right waist round inhale come on back up right arm down now turn both toes forward again your legs maybe aren't as wide as normal triangle a little bit more narrow we're going to swing your arms out parallel to the floor now bend your right knee just a little bit as we'll take the right arm behind your back and take the left hand down in front of your right foot and you might bring your forehead towards that right knee both arms go wide out to the side as we come back up to center we'll do a little test run again left arm behind your back bend your left knee and take your right hand down in front of your foot so your left foot come back up straight legs come back up straight legs arms out to the sides okay so right arm behind your back exhale four seconds reach over in front of your right foot four seconds coming all the way back up arms wide left arm behind the back exhale right hand in front of your left foot inhale press into those legs come back up slowly now maybe your right leg bends less with your right arm behind your back reach over to your right side left hand in front of your right foot inhale back up to neutral four seconds left arm behind your back exhale four seconds right hand in front of your left foot inhale four seconds come up arms are wide maybe both legs stay straight last time right arm behind your back reach over left hand in front of your right foot inhale all the way back up arms wide left arm behind your back right hand in front of your left foot inhale come all the way up arms wide now let's bring your feet in underneath your hips drop your arms down at your sides take a moment to bend those ankles and knees as you swing your arms up in front of you and arms might be beside your ears or out in front of your ears okay now as we exhale bend those elbows wide and lower your chin towards your chest inhale sit back a little deeper as you stretch your arms a little more forwards elbows bend wide chin to chest on exhale inhale send the buttocks back another inch as your arms reach out in front of you for balance chin to chest on exhale one more time sitting back as your arms reach forwards use those legs and then elbows wide chin to chest let's spring all the way up to straight legs reach for the ceiling and let your arms slowly come down to your side okay now perhaps the feet come a little bit closer together so feet are a little bit apart from your arms and then maybe parallel let's bring the awareness into your left foot and start to lift your right knee up towards your chest and grab a hold of that right knee with your hands and bring the knee up towards your chest okay just wake up that left foot see what's going on down there you could always put your body back against a wall to do this little standing sequence all right now for the inhale we're going to open your left arm and your right knee to your left knee and your right knee and your right knee and a four second count come back to center hold that right knee in your hands both hands and then hands under that right leg as you stretch your right leg forward in slow motion bring the knee back in and up towards your chest and then right foot down as your arms stretch up towards the sky it's really like you're moving in slow motion step into your right foot and bring your left knee into your hands take a moment to dial into the balance waking up that right foot and even if it's wobbly it's still really good for lots of little muscles in that lower leg four seconds open your right arm and your left leg come back to holding the left knee with both hands hands under your left hamstring stretch your left leg forward lift those toes up bring that knee back in towards your chest and step into that left foot as both arms go back up to the sky and we know maybe things are always better with practice so again please lift your right knee into your hands give it a squeeze slow motion opening that right leg and left arm away from each other come on back to center without rushing hold the back of your right leg as you stretch that right leg forward toes up knee and towards your chest step into that right foot as your arms stretch to the sky shift to your right hug the left knee in towards your chest slow motion opening left leg and right arm come back to center hands under that left leg stretch that left heel forward toes up without leaning back left knee in and arms up in the air stretching nice and tall and as you exhale let your arms come down let your feet wiggle a little bit further apart and come into that high straddle squat position okay letting those inner thighs press out into what we would call the external rotation once your feet are in the right place straighten once your feet are in the right place straighten your legs reach your arms up and then with your palms down face down that little french press move as you exhale press down towards the floor as you squat inhale come up let your hands come down in front of you exhale come down to that french press squat inhale come up it's probably cruel to talk about something coffee related in the vata season where we we may be decreasing coffee during this time of the year that additional caffeine might be more stressful disruptive to the nervous system exhale come down but then we have yoga to balance out right my coffee loving friends out there one more time exhale come on down that little coffee press move pause okay engage those legs let your arms relax one more second holding and then we'll adjust your feet a little bit closer together and then come down to actually have a seat so when we're sitting here um i want to have you try without a blanket first and then if you find the blanket makes more sense we'll grab it but please take your right leg out to the right and we're going to keep this left foot on the ground with this left leg bent all right so if you feel like you can manage this shape and the pelvis is relatively neutral stay here all right so as we inhale please let your arms rise up above your shoulders or slightly in front of your shoulders and then we're going to see what happens when we ground our feet and our right leg and you reach a little bit forward inhale come all the way back up let's find that four second count exhale four seconds reach forward even if it doesn't feel like you go very far inhale come back up try to feel like there's some movement potentially in the pelvis tilting forward exhale four seconds forward inhale all the way back up one more time exhale four seconds tip yourself forward inhale all the way back up let's bring your right hand over for your left knee or your left shin or your left ankle okay see if you can set up a little bit taller here and then take four seconds to reach that left hand over towards your right foot on exhale it's okay if your right left sit bone lifts inhale come back up to neutral tip over to your right exhale four seconds left hand reaching towards right toes inhale come on back up again exhale four seconds reaching over to your right it's okay for left sit bone to lift come back up without rushing last time exhale over to your right side and come on back up okay let the arms come down stretch your first leg out pull your right foot in i'll figure that out so with your left leg straight right leg bent see if you need padding or if it's okay to settle here and what's it like now as we raise the arms up lift your waist to your rib cage exhale four seconds let your body reach forward notice how different this feels inhale come up without rushing exhale forward we'll find our rhythm inhale about four seconds come up that moving meditation with your breath exhale forward one more cycle inhale four seconds come up it might feel like you're moving in slow motion ground your legs and your right foot as you reach forwards come all the way back up slowly left hand reaches over for that right knee shin or towards your ankle and now let's take four seconds to lean over towards your left sides and then we tip our body back up and again tip over to your left side as you exhale your right sit bone can lift but really wake up that left leg come back to center two more as you exhale tip over to your left sides back up through center last one tip over to your left side on exhale bring yourself all the way back up to center okay take your arms down cross your legs in front of you and maybe we have your left ankle specifically in front of your right ankle okay and just for a moment with that left ankle in front of your right now you might add the padding under your buttocks if that helps your pelvis tilt to neutral take a moment come up with your arms and as you exhale let yourself turn towards your left side as you exhale anchor into your twist inhale turn back to forward position arms in the air and exhale turning towards your right leg find your twist inhale all the way back to neutral arms behind you as you're exhaling so you can lean back and take the other cross of your legs okay with the other cross of the legs arms come up on in breath let's turn to your right side as you exhale four seconds to settle in inhale as you come up and out exhale turn to your left might feel like you're moving in slow motion inhale come all the way back up to center and then let your arms come down behind you so that you can lean back and undo the crossing of your legs okay if you will find where your blanket is and we'll use your blanket as a little bit of a prop today if you can roll it and maybe not all the way maybe it's partial roll depending on how thick your blanket is we'll use it as a little lift underneath the back of your rib cage to help you open your chest for a little breath work okay so if your lower back is sensitive you make a really tiny roll or turn your blankets the same parallel to your spine or you make your blanket roll make your blanket roll come on down to the floor and try to feel with your hands that your shoulder blades are actually on the ground they're not on the blanket the shoulder blades are on the ground and then with your arms maybe out to your sides could we stretch the legs down to the floor and then when you feel like there's a little bit of lift maybe under your chest so that you're clear that we're opening the bottom of the chest that muscle of the diaphragm just the intention to make a little bit more space here let's have the eyes relax when your settles you know for some of us it's easier to do that breath oriented practice or to sink with your breath when we do what we call the vinyasa the flow the conscious movement and maybe for some of us it's easier to find that flow when we're still in a restorative like pose like this one so we've had lots of experience guiding our breath moving our breath with an asana and what's it like now if we're here in this one pose can you turn your attention back to that maybe four second inhale we're breathing into your three quarters full and exhale three quarters of the way out or maybe four seconds out so you're aware that there's a little transition space before you breathe in again and you breathe out okay so we dedicated most of our practice to moving asana with the breath and i want to see if we have enough now wakefulness that we could be here for almost five minutes and do our breath work in this one pose okay so we might need to be willing to adjust the breath to sometimes maybe have more sound more ujjayi more breath awareness if your mind tends to get sleepy or dull when we do pranayama or maybe we focus a little bit longer on that exhale and have a slightly longer exhale if your mind is more anxious when we sit still there's more worry about what's going to happen next take time to pause and savor that space after exhale that hopefully roots you a little bit more powerfully into this moment so just another few minutes again of actually putting effort into the pranayama aspect of our practice so maybe we're doing some better self-care which makes it easier for us to feel steady in our asana and if we can pay attention to the steadiness in our asana for longer periods and we might be able to notice the subtlety of the breath and how our body actually moves as we breathe how the state of the mind might change as we stay with these more comfortable deeper fuller breaths and maybe we feel a little bit deeper into the nervous system the calm in the nervous system as we hold our body still and focus on those longer exhales that nervous system again might have needed all those different asana poses to unwind and relax the self-care practices you've been doing that they all help support hopefully this nervous system and being more relaxed in this transition season of autumn and the autumn time of the day shows up every afternoon too there's that transition from the day towards the evening our nervous system can be a little more fragile during that window of time let's focus here maybe on one last minute of pranayama focus so we can have our own personal experience of how this might be beneficial why the yogis have passed down this technique for so long we tap into the benefit of that for ourselves today so now in finishing up the pranayama parts please bend your legs so that your feet are on the ground and if it's comfortable enough for you to press your feet into the ground and lift your pelvis and slide that blanket out from underneath you so when it comes out from underneath you put your pelvis on the ground open up your blanket so it may be the way you had it in your table top and see if you can drape that over your belly and the pelvis for our shavasana where the legs come down now to meet the floor back of the rib cage drops towards the ground and see if that little bit of extra weight is grounding for you in a healthy way you're welcome to pull this further up to the chest if that's where you'd like more grounding maybe over the tops of the thighs and the pelvis and then have this moment to treat yourself to a little shavasana making contact with the earth when the bones are feel like they're in the right place again maybe we can experience the ease of breathing in and out and now in no way trying to alter your breath just aware of breath more as a witness until if all the conditions are right that meditator dissolves into the meditation okay we just organically arrive in that state when all the conditions are right and so together if we hold this space for about another minute or two open to the experience of meditation dissolving into the spaciousness of now so please appreciate where you are here three more breaths right where you are so when you feel complete and perhaps start to slide your hands down to grab that blanket as you bend your legs and put your feet on the ground and take a moment pause when you're ready turn to a sides into that fetal position on your sides and then we'll come on up to set up for our gratitude meditation so if you fold your blanket or come back to a chair if you prefer to sit in a chair for meditation please place yourself in a comfortable seat welcome to scoot your body against a wall whatever is helpful for you to sit okay so if you wiggle into what feels like a good position for you okay when you dial in your seat here let your eyes lower close and then as you settle into this seat I'd like you to try to consider what you are grateful for and we might come up with three different gratitude practices the first one is something that you are actually grateful for in this day and just notice what that feels like to breathe that into the heart minds something you are grateful for and then we shift and perhaps notice something that was done for you maybe today or this week something that's been done for you that you are grateful for the third gratitude is something that you were able to do for another person something come to mind that you recently were able to do for another person that you are really grateful for I love expanding this practice of gratitude way before thanksgiving and to the autumn time and maybe taking this time for appreciation and gratitude for something each day for something that someone else might have done for you and perhaps something that you were able to do for another person and then we just sit with that feeling for in our whole body of gratitude unlocking the fullness of life for us perhaps helping a shift out of a more depressed mental state bringing more joy into our life and decreasing some of what we might call the vata imbalances of depletion scarcity and gratitude is a practice that might help us feel more full to see the abundance in life and so as one of our practices something that we're grateful for that might change every day or every five minutes what you're grateful for just savoring that one thing you thought of that you were grateful for that's been done for you a little thank you to who was helpful and then that gratitude for what you were able to do for another person this what does that feel like in your body so as we come to a close of this part of our practice today let's join the hands together in front of the heart center and may others everywhere benefit from our practice namaste and thank you so much for showing up for this part of the practice and i want to invite you then to think about a few of the other pieces that might expand your yoga practice this fall and so we've done a few days already together and i hope maybe you've chosen a few things or many things to try including hydrating with water with lemon in the morning to get your digestive system going and to alleviate constipation maybe a little oil massage to combat the dryness of the season perhaps we've taken breaks to do some joint movements maybe you go back to do some of the happy joints practice and maybe we've worked a little bit yesterday on the boundaries and you were able to identify a few places where you could say no when the invitation didn't feel like an obvious yes to you and i hope you keep working on that every day is a little different whether there's ease or difficulty probably with that um and then the last thing yesterday i introduced was that idea of uh reading perhaps for a half hour before bed so that we're doing something that's calming as we move ourselves further and further away from electronic devices okay so today the invitation was um now to shift potentially to more directed bedtime and so now that the days are shorter the idea is to tune into what's happening into nature and to maybe feel i hope that you feel a little sleepy or earlier in the day and that would be a good sign that you're synced up with the sun which means their day would wrap up earlier especially if we're not turning on a lot of electronic devices at night so the hope is that you try to go to bed at 10 o'clock i know i lose a lot of friends when i make that suggestion but the idea is as close as you can to make attempts to get closer to 10 o'clock maybe it's a half hour earlier each day so that you're getting more sleep now so as we move closer to that season where we hibernate and sleep is so helpful for your immune system and we're in that vulnerable fall season where people tend to get colds a lot so the more you sleep the healthier your immune system will hopefully be and you might be able to avoid some of those common colds that go around the other thing i want to encourage you to do which might be a whole new practice but to try to experiment with having soup for breakfast this week or for a whole week and soup is so wonderful it's like the super food in the fall season it's hydrating it's liquid it's hot which means that you typically have to slow down when you're having your soup and it usually means that you're sitting down when you're having your soup and these are all good things for the vata season which means that you know we're slowing down we have things that are usually easy to digest and then the other thing is it's a savory usually your soup would be something savory so that we're not just having sweets in the morning and so if we introduce new taste to our meals on a regular basis usually we feel more satisfied and complete at the end of the meal so that you can have a longer period between breakfast and lunch where you're not thinking about food and you're doing your your focus work in these shorter days right so we all have our responsibilities and we need to pack them in a shorter day in the fall season so if we're satisfied after each meal we turn our attention to the next task and hopefully if you have more savory foods in the morning that will satisfy more taste buds and you might enjoy that again and maybe try it one day with fresh soup or if a fresh soup is too difficult to obtain a box soup with a couple of fresh ingredients to make it more energetic more colorful and then you could always turn to a canned soup with again something fresh to make it more tasty so those were a few things and then the gratitude practice to open up your heart space way before thanksgiving why not introduce gratitude to again unlock the fullness of life this season and see how that feels how that opens up your practice um it's wonderful to be here with you again and i hope that some of these practices really help you explore this wider experience with yoga and you can turn to my website to send me questions or send me questions here turn to my book to get more information how to weave these into your life on a slower pace if that works better for you and i hope to see you again tomorrow and i hope you sleep well and you're well hydrated for the morning have a great rest of the day namaste