Day 5: Harvest

Hello, everyone, welcome back to day five of our fall Ayurveda yoga challenge here. I hope you're feeling nourished and in good spirits from our yoga this week and from your extra self-care practices got one more practice to share with you today and what we'll need for class is a blanket and a couple blocks and a bolster, but we're going to begin on the ground with perhaps no props at all. And if you can turn towards the floor when you're ready, going to lie down on your belly. If you like more padding, you can, of course, open up your blankets and have more padding underneath you. And we'll start in this prone position with your hands potentially stacked.

Let the forehead rest on your stacked hands and if that's not quite enough height, you might make a fist with one hand and a flat hand or take some other position that supports your head and at the same time allows your chest and your shoulders to relax. So I like to separate the legs a comfortable distance so that I can free up any muscular tension in the legs or glutes. There'd be a little movement you need to do through the center of your body or your elbows just to confirm that you're in a good spot, letting go of any tension in the neck that you're aware of or maybe now becoming aware of. And when things feel like they're settling in a good way here, try to let the weight of the forehead rest on your stacked hands just as a grounding gesture. Eyes closing as we look down towards the earth.

And as we start to feel more connection to the ground, the different places we're feeling pressure of our body against the floor, letting the bones here anchor us into this moment. As we try to make a little bit more space in the center of the body and maybe more specifically around the abdominal area and your spine. So this is one place I like to do a little bit of belly breathing when I'm on my belly so that I can feel freshly what it's like when the belly meets the ground on the inhale. And then I can actually feel, and I hope you can, when your belly starts to leave the ground a little bit on exhale. So it's a real soft movement away from the earth rather than a real big pull in.

It's a real soft pulling in towards your back. Then when you inhale, let your belly relax into the ground, soft belly, spacious center. And then as you exhale, see if you can feel again how gently your belly peels away from the floor. And please try a few more times on your own and that gentle peeling away from the ground is an action that I'm going to refer to again and again throughout this class as what we might call Uddiyana Bandham, which creates a little bit of lift of awareness and energy from that navel center up towards maybe the bottom of your rib cage, the xiphoid process. You feel that underneath the lungs and at the end of your exhale, you can follow that movement of the navel in and up and maybe a sense of elongating from your navel up to the base of your breastbone, that xiphoid process.

So there's an upward flying movement on the exhale and it's really gentle. So again, keep emphasizing that so that we're not going to any extreme where we're creating tension as you exhale. Think of the exhale as that opportunity to create lift and support. Maybe try one more moment just feeling that gentle peeling away from the ground, the belly peeling away from the ground on exhale. Really kissing the earth on inhale.

You know, from here when you're ready, let's lift the head away from the ground and we'll eventually now roll over onto your back and we're going to do a similar thing, but be on your back and then find your spot. Maybe with feet on the ground for a moment before you stretch your legs all the way to the floor. Okay, now let's take your arms back towards your ears and I like to grab my opposite thumb and then it helps keep my arms in close towards my ears, palms open towards the ceiling, legs engaged out in front of you. So now, now can you let your belly move towards the ceiling or the sky on the inhale? And maybe we take a little bit more of a soft audible exhale through the mouth and just feel that gentle softening of the belly towards your back, towards the earth.

And then just a moment of pause before we inhale and move the belly again towards the sky, the ceiling and then exhale, belly falling into the back, so not so much pulling or forcing. At the end of your exhale, take a little pause and notice if you can feel more length, more distance between your navel and the base of your sternum and then the belly again moves up towards the sky on inhale. So when we're working with these little Bandhas, keep going, these little energetic lifts. One thing I hope you notice is how it turns our attention inwards into some deeper places in our body. So the practice is a little more meditative, just a couple more cycles.

So the mind has a focal point, the body has some sensation and maybe through the contraction and relaxation into some of these muscle groups, maybe we have better circulation after doing more of our Bandha work, that internal contraction and relaxation. So maybe now we've got a better sense of how that center of the body Bandha works, that Uddhiana, it's gentle. Let your arms reach out to your side and let's go ahead and bring your feet to the floor knees bent for a moment and then let's open the knees wide out to the sides as the bottoms of the feet join together and this would be an opportunity if that's too intense for your legs to add blocks underneath your thighs or maybe it's okay for now to have that sensation. So please take care of yourself, what's better for you today. And now as you inhale, see if you can feel the breath going from your nose all the way to the lower abdomen into the pelvic floor area.

And then as you exhale, see if you can imagine all those muscles of the pelvic floor weaving together to reverse that downward breath back towards your navel. And then we inhale all the way down the center of your spine towards the base of your pelvis. The exhale weaves together the muscles of the pelvic floor to seal our base and redirect that prana back towards the navel, back up towards the sternum. And so now we're adding the second touchstone, the stopping point. We're inhaling going to the pelvic floor, that's our stopping point, lift the muscles of the pelvic floor in and up, bring your awareness up towards the navel as the belly settles towards the back and then up towards the base of the sternum, the cypoid process.

And we let that whole center area be open and soft as you're breathing in. And as you exhale, feel that falling in towards your center as you integrate that mula bandha, the pelvic floor lift to the center area and up to the base of your chest. And please explore a few more and one thing I like to think about when I'm integrating that mula bandha is to try to imagine I'm plunging or going deeper into any stagnant energy in the hips, in the lower abdomen and inviting that stagnation to move up to the fire, the digestive area, the center of the body to be transformed. So I'm not sure if it actually happens, but I love that idea of potentially nourishing again this area of lower abdomen to upper abdomen. And I feel like when they are actually engaged in a good way, that my mind is just absolutely clear, no longer thinking.

And so maybe when we transform all that stagnant in our base, we know we're making progress in those moments when our mind is absolutely clear. Now lift your head for a second, take your hands behind your head in slow motion, bring your knees together. They've been apart for some of us for a little while. Okay, so let your knees touch, hold the back of the head with your hands. And now as you inhale, let your knees drop out just for a second.

As you exhale, curl up and engage that center of the body now, bring a little more tone. Knees touch, head up, legs wide, head back to the floor, exhale, curl up. And there's a little pause at the end of exhale, firm the belly, then soften the belly as we open wide. Exhale, curl up, pause, roll back down, inhale. Exhale again, curl up, pause, roll back down, inhale.

Let's do one more just to keep the body warmed up as we practice. Come all the way back down to the floor. Now bring just your knees back together, legs back together to touch. Take your arms to the side of your body and separate your feet now, maybe about as wide as your shoulders. Okay, so I'd like you to try now to lift your hips up off the floor.

It doesn't have to be the biggest bridge, but just get your bearings here or things in the right distance, the right place to feel comfortable in your lower back. Okay, take a moment, touch down again. Now as you lift up the second time, we're going to hold the pose, pay attention to that diaphragm area and upper abdomen as we do our kapalabhati breathing here, which is now as you exhale, you take those quick, sharp exhales through your nose as you feel that diaphragm pressing up, maybe against the bottom of your lungs. So it's quick, sharp exhales. And for some people, you might find that you can feel your diaphragm movement easier with this lift.

Now inhale, take a big breath in as you lower your spine, sweep your arms back towards your ears and then exhale all the breath out and we're going to go back to udiyana, letting the belly softly fall in towards your back and a slight hugging of that diaphragm might feel like under the ribs. Press back down with your feet, lift your pelvis, arms back at your side and let's set up for another round of kapalabhati. When you're ready, belly soft, quick, sharp exhales through the nose. Find that rhythm with those sharp exhales and see if you can really actually feel how your diaphragm is moving here, bringing some more energy into the lungs and let's go ahead now roll your spine down, big breath, arms back by your ears. Let's exhale and wait and feel that belly center settle towards the earth at moment of pause, awareness dropping in and deep.

And then last time, press into your legs, arms grounding at your side for bridge and again holding the pose and beginning those quick, sharp exhalations. See if you can notice your rhythm with those clear exhales, a little tiny inhale between every exhale, keep your rhythm. When you're ready, let's take a big breath as you lower your spine, arms all the way back towards your ears, take a big breath at the end of exhale we're holding, waiting for that feeling of udiyana, belly center moving in, feel how that moves with the pelvic floor and we pause. Now let's take your arms down to your side, press into your feet and we're going to lift the pelvis and insert a block underneath your pelvis so it could be the small or the medium height. And I want to introduce that last bind area which is the top of the chest, the base of your throat.

So I love this bridge pose with support to start to tune in to how it feels to create that seal at the top of your chest or base of your throat. You could always again feel that there's a little gap between your cervical spine and the floor so you're not putting weights on your cervical neck spine. And now let's see if we can follow our awareness of the breath going straight down from your nose down to that center tube of your spine towards your pelvis when you breathe in. As you exhale is where we ignite or engage the bandhas, the pelvic floor, feel the drifting of awareness energy up towards your navel, navel sliding towards the base of your chest bone and now from the base of your chest bone up to the top of the chest bone. The chin is slightly tucked without flattening that cervical spine.

Inhale as you're ready, feel your whole front body soften. Breath moves towards the hips and it's subtle as you engage the pelvic floor muscles. Energy flows the opposite direction back towards your chest and to the base of your throat we pause. Jalandhara Bandha. Let everything soften and open as you breathe towards your hips so it's a meditation.

As you exhale let your awareness travel with the breath from the pelvis back all the way to the top of your chest, base of your neck, jalandhara. Let's do one more in that way. Front body is soft as you're breathing towards your hips. We're going to wear it as a pelvic floor, solar plexus, top of the throat. Let's bring your feet a little closer together and see if we can work with them in some movement.

So if we tip your left knee in towards your chest, stretch your left leg up towards the ceiling and then take a moment as you're here as you let your right foot press down and just have that sense you're going to lift or lift off the block for a moment and lower back down. And just notice how hard it is to work with the Bandhas in motion. So see if you inhale everything soft, lift away from the block, exhale holds, stabilize your body, press into your legs and arms. One more moment, drop back to your block. One more time as you exhale, stay here, lift on an inhale away from your block.

See if you can engage your Bandhas, Bhula, that Uddhiana and Jalandhara Bandha. Come back to your block and put your left foot down. It's not so easy, right? Notice why we do them with support first and nice and slow. Let's put your right leg up and back to pressing down through your arms and your left leg as you attempt now to lift up as you're breathing in, engage your Bandhas, Mula Bandha, that center Uddhiana Bandha, Jalandhara Bandha and back down to your block.

Let's try again one more time. Inhale when you're lifting up off the block, hold, exhale, Mula Bandha, Uddhiana Bandha and Jalandhara Bandha. Go ahead and release and put your right foot down. Let's lift off that block, come on down to the floor, set that block aside and let's turn over to a side and we'll come around into that kneeling position. So if your knees are sensitive to the floor here, I want to encourage you to grab a blanket to have for some padding and have the knees wide, maybe as wide as your blanket or yoga mat, big toes touch, so we were doing the recline cobblers or recline, we could say widening child's pose on your back and then we're going to feel it out here.

If you tip forward, stack your hands, rest your forehead here, see if you can connect to your inhale, soften the front of your belly, the front of your body to direct the breath towards your hips. Can you weave again the muscles of the pelvic floor here? Feel that gentle lifting of the belly here that helps you lengthen through your mid-upper back and keep your chin slightly tucked to your chest, so it's like we're sealing in this prana deeper in towards our center. Inhale again, soften your front body as you breathe towards your hips, touch points of pelvic floor lifts energetically, navel lifts, lengthen from that navel up to the top of your chest, jaw and our bandha, that prana life essence contained in towards our center. Try two more breaths and if nothing else, maybe appreciating that little relaxation and gentle contraction that happen as we engage the bandhas to give us that lift and support.

Ultimately, maybe for better posture, we're to help us become more awake and clear in our minds. Let's lift up the next breath, come away from the ground. Let's bring your knees now to the blanket with the knees apart. All right, so now if we think about our udiyana and our bandhas that we've been playing with, we can play with them here as you curl your toes under, look forward, let your front belly, front body be soft towards the earth. And then as you exhale, start with the pelvic floor lift, the belly in, the chin towards your chest and then we've got the bandhas engaged.

Soften your front body as you again look forward and then pull in the pelvic floor, the navel as you round, chin to chest, exhale. And so just noticing those pauses bringing your attention inward. Look forward, one more time, exhale, pelvic floor lifts, belly lifts, chin to chest and come back to soft belly. Pull your hands one more inch forward, same thing or add as you exhale, coming up with your knees and try all that in downward dog, pelvic floor, abdominal lift, chin to chest. Come back down, inhale, front body soft, exhale all the way through your movement to downward dog and then finish with the pelvic floor lift, navel lift, chin to chest and we're elongating the spine.

Knees down, one more time please, look forward, the exhale takes us all the way back without rushing into your pose, pelvic floor lift, belly lift, chin to chest and then go ahead and bring your knees back down. Let's walk your hands towards your knees, curl your toes under and then we can get the blanket out of the way for this next little piece. Come all the way up towards standing, let your hands rest on your thighs for a second and then now as you exhale, start to tip forward with your hands sliding down your legs, down towards your shins. Keep this long spine as you inhale and as you exhale, integrate pelvic floor muscles, navel lift, chin towards your chest. As the hands go down another inch as you inhale, look forward, soften the front body, exhale lifting through pelvic floor, belly, chin to chest and then inhale, lengthening your spine, maybe hands go down one more inch or maybe they stay right where they are or go higher so that you can exhale, ground your feet, pelvic floor lift, belly lift, chin to chest.

And the knees, inhale, roll all the way up to stand and then from our standing position, I'm going to turn and face the front edge of the mat and then we'll move into a few joints movements. With your feet underneath your hips, let's go ahead and start to make a few movements for the next spine. In case we've been building any tension from pulling our chin or moving our chin towards the upper part of the chest, let's see if we can release some tension there. Bring your head all the way back up on top of your spine and a few little shoulder shrugs just to loosen up here. Let's do a little twist to the left, one arm bends in front, one arm behind and maybe you're tapping upper chest and lower back waist or rib cage as you're turning side to side.

Relaxing some of those joints and muscles along your spine that we bring in our awareness to in this class. As your hands fall to the back of your hips where your pockets would be if you had pockets in your pants, so make a few circles here. So we're keeping the chest open as we make a few circles today. Go the opposite direction a few times. Let's go ahead and get those legs ready by doing a little ankle knee work, bring your legs together, hands above your knees and as you look over the tip of the nose, let's roll the knees and ankles to the left, two, three, four, five and six.

Let's go the other way, one, two, three, four, five and six. Now let's separate your feet as you come up to straight legs, separate your feet and we'll get ready for a little Agnisara and Uddhiana Bandha here. When you're ready, let's let the arms circle up towards your ears. Bend your ankles and knees, bring your hands down the center line. Let them anchor on your thighs, little practice run, sit back, inhale, circle up and find that breath rhythm as you exhale at the end of your exhale, press against your thighs and see if you can lift the pelvic floor, belly, chin to chest.

Come all the way back up, straight legs, inhale, arms up, exhale, wait to the end of the exhale, press against your legs to help you lift the pelvic floor, abdomen, chin to chest. One more, inhale going up, exhale, legs are bent, press against your thighs, pelvic floor lift, belly lift, chin to chest. Now we're going to stay in that squat, let your belly relax, take your right hand to your belly and let your belly move in towards your back as you exhale and let your belly relax back into your hands, hold your right thigh. Pull the left hand up to your belly, pull your belly in as you exhale. Relax your belly as your left hand comes back to your leg and see if you can start to feel like you're pulling that right side of the belly in when your right hand comes up, right hand to right knee, pull the left side of your belly in towards your back as the left hand touches the belly, then relax left side of belly, pull the right hand in to feel the right side, pull in and back.

Right hand down, left hand pulls the left side of the belly in and back, so we're getting ready for this thing we might call now-ly that we'll get into at some point in our future. Right hand in, belly in, left hand up to the belly, belly in and then release. Come up to straight legs, circle your arms up and then one last piece I love to do in the fall here as we exhale, rest the hands on the thighs and then as your belly pulls into the back, take your right hand to feel belly went in, without breathing in, push your belly out into your palm, pull your belly back into the back. Move your belly forward on inhale, belly into the back, exhale and then go faster, back and forth without breathing, so you feel that belly movement. Come up to straight legs, inhale arms up, call that the agni-sara, exhale all the breath out, press against your thighs, now put your left hand at your belly, get the feeling of going back and forth with your stomach without breathing in.

Just feel that contraction, relaxation. One more time, straight legs, circle on up, exhale hands down that center line, anchor your hands on your thighs and now without your hands, pull the belly in, imagine your hand was there, you're going back and forth with your belly. Inhales come all the way up, straight legs, circle those arms up and then exhale arms down at your sides. Just notice the effect of doing a few of those moves in your belly area, big breath in, big breath out. Now let's go ahead and separate your feet a little bit wider apart, maybe about as wide as your shoulders, heels in, toes out, come into that wonderful squat that we do so much, so grounding, so I like to stand in this generally at least once a day to get my legs more awake, my feet connected to the earth.

And then see if we can bring our hands in front of the chest as we come down and settle into that pose and just stay here a moment, see if you can run your awareness through the pelvic floor and feel like it's lifting up towards the navel, navel lifting up towards the base of the chest and then a slight chin lowering towards the top of your chest. And then as you inhale you let everything drop back down towards the earth, on the exhale we're lifting pelvic floor, belly softly in, chin towards your chest. Same pose, one more cycle, let the belly lower abdomen soften, exhale pelvic floor lift, abdominal muscles in and back, chin slightly towards the chest. Now tip all the way forward and see if we can feel when the feet go wider that we can maybe be on the tips of the fingers so you have a very long spine. Just another opportunity to stretch the legs, let's see as you inhale if you can soften your front body towards the earth, as you exhale bring your awareness to the pelvic floor muscles integrate, lift towards the navel, navel lengthening up through the mid upper back, chin slightly tucked towards the throat.

Maybe the hands walk out a little further and you might try here, on the exhale belly, sorry pelvic floor first, belly second, chin to chest third. Maybe your hands wiggle one more inch wider, as you breathe in soften your front body, exhale lifting through the pelvic floor, belly in and up, chin slightly towards your chest. So a way of trying to feel those bandhas or landmarks on the interior of the body, walk your hands back in under your shoulder line, let's bring your legs and feet a little closer together so it's easier to transfer with your bent legs all the way back up towards standing. Let's go ahead now bring your legs together and see if they feel any different, give them a little shake out. Now we're going to turn and face that front small narrow edge of the mat, if you come up to the front more narrow edge of your mat, feet underneath your shoulders, knees bent, just do a little breath release work as we inhale, swing your arms up and the audible exhale as you swing your arms back and up, inhale, come all the way up to standing and maybe a hah, an exhale, come up, a big exhale, hah, come back up, big exhale, hah, come back up, one more time, hah, come back up and this time we're going to stay in that forward bend touch the earth, take one leg at a time back to your push up of plank pose, shift your weight right to left and then holding plank pose and see if you can soften your front body slightly towards the earth, engage the pelvic floor muscles, belly muscles, chin to chest as you exhale here, one more moment trying to soften your front belly as you breathe in, exhale pelvic floor engage, mula bandha, udiyana bandha and chin lock of jalandar bandha, knees back to the floor, walk your hands back towards your knees and you might grab your blanket again to have that padding, so this time when you have your knees wide like we did earlier, big toes touch, sit back towards your feet or add blocks between your feet if that's not possible here and we're going to turn one wrist at a time towards the front of your mat, so for some of us we might need to be sitting away from the feet to actually get to the wrist and some of you might be able to be sitting back more into your feet, so just that intense stretch for some of us from that wrist up into the inner arms, okay one of the parts or one of the components of what's called mayurasana that peacock pose, let's go ahead and come up and maybe thumbs tuck in and your fingers roll over the thumb and make a few circles here, okay now a soft version of mayurasana is where now we'll zip the legs together for some of us bring a block out where your forehead would rest when we make two fists and press your knuckles together, if you're menstruating you want to keep your hands back by your ankles and not put pressure here on your low belly, so let's everybody else come up and come forward over those fists and let your forehead rest on the block, okay now we try to soften the abdominal area to let those fists settle in and then try to run your awareness through the pelvic floor as you exhale feel your belly lifting away from those fists and the chin stays tucked towards the throat inhale again soften your front body should feel those fists exhale pelvic floor awareness abdominal awareness chin to chest one more time soft front belly feel your weight settle to your thighs exhale pelvic floor abdominal area chin to chest and now let's go ahead and come all the way up and we'll move that block out of the way for now slide your feet out to any side and you might appreciate this blanket to sit on as you stretch your legs out in front of you once you have a seat okay so now with the legs out in front if you have your legs out maybe hip distance apart let's take your left foot in first towards the inner upper right thigh and if there's a lift under that knee you want some support please grab your block and put it there put your fingertips out in front of you and root your fingertips to help you lengthen your spine and see if we need to adjust your height anymore to be able to come forwards right now from here see if you can walk out and grab a hold of your shin with your hands or grab a hold of your foot with your hands and I'd like you to root that right thigh towards the ground and again lengthen your spine all the way up towards the ceiling now as you exhale stay lifted see if you can feel the pelvic floor muscles lift abdominal muscles just gently move towards your back chin lowers towards your chest and try to feel like your spine just got a little bit longer it definitely got better reception again let your front body soften press into your right thigh exhale stay long in your spine as you lift pelvic floor abdominal muscles chin to chest now we might bring your hands to the floor some might bend your elbows and lean a little more forward if you feel again that you're rounding your back please make sure you come back up so the spine is long so ideally a long spine is easier to send that breath prana through so let's try one more cycle now in this maybe slight forward fold big breath in exhale feel the lift of the pelvic floor abdominal muscles create more length along your back all the way up to the neck chin to chest one more on your own running awareness through each bandha mula udiana jalandar bandha and then let's walk it on back let's take your left hand to guide that left leg back up and send your left leg out then bring your right foot to your inner upper left thigh so this I could feel quite different you might put your fingertips out here to support you as you try to lean a little forward from your pelvis moving versus dropping from your waist so we're going to try to keep the waist long firmly root your left thigh and as you exhale stay here or touch your shin or grab your foot and start to exhale root your left leg lift the pelvic floor belly chin to chest then relax your front body you might lean a little forward the end of the exhale root that left leg lift pelvic floor muscles belly softly pulls back chin towards your chest and try a few more times and I'd like you to try to notice is there a slightly longer spine that you can ease into awareness staying deep and close to your center to nourish that nervous system alright little bandha in action that mahamudra go ahead and lean on back okay so now if we stretch both legs out in front of you I like to show you the version with probably the most propage so that you have this choice with straight legs take your blocks tall and then put your bolster on top here if you had a chair you could also replace this part with the chair so what I want you to try to do is to put your hands to the sides of you for a moment lift and lengthen your side body again that longer spine is going to be easier for the prana to move into now here can you tip forward from your hips down here rather than the waist and try to keep wherever you are here is your position and you adjust your table put your elbows here hold the head with your hands and now let's try with your legs pressing down into the floor take a breath soften your front body exhale engage your pelvic floor muscles belly in chin to chest maybe feel more energy through the whole body here relax your front body on inhale exhale pelvic floor lifts belly lifts chin to chest and then if you want more sensation you know you'll start shifting this table prop forward or put the bolster on your legs and you might be coming into that version for some where you hinge from your hips come deeper into that forward shape but we're keeping the side body long your legs are engaged so it's not a yin like practice legs are strong every exhale can you initiate from the grounding of your legs the lift of the pelvic floor send any of that stagnant energy up towards the navel for transformation chin towards the chest let's try to run your awareness through those pandas a couple more cycles on your own perhaps acknowledging those places as you're exhaling we're lifting in and up and then maybe over this next time we'll let the head lift up and release the torso back up to neutral all right let's go ahead and slide your bolster out of the way for a second scoot yourself off your blanket prop and now when we come down towards the floor you can let your maybe whole body be supported by the ground come on down to your back find that easy position an easy place to be and then one leg at a time see if that feels okay to have your legs out straight getting set up more or less for a shavasana like pose and your arms wide out to your sides if you prefer some extra props as we move into this sea vata season we might appreciate always having blankets over our body maybe I'll demonstrate again today with the bolts blanket over the front of the pelvis just a little bit of grounding here your legs wide arms wide take up space and let your attention stay close to the bandhas in show before we get to shavasana so now see if we can soften your back body towards the earth as the breath pulls in and moves down towards your hips and very gently as you exhale running your awareness from pelvic floor to navel center base of your chest to the chin lock and you're just simply running awareness through the center of the body through that shashumna naughty that energetic highway perhaps we feel like we've been livens some of those areas in the hips the belly the neck upper chest by letting that conscious prana linger in those areas of your body and if nothing else for this amount of time we've been practicing just to feel that maybe your mind is more calm as we focus on the bandhas as a meditation so either stay with that awareness of running your attention through the bandhas or now just letting your mind completely separate from tracking the breath trust the breath knows where to go and keep encouraging again your back body to soften into the earth muscles relaxed parallel to the spine and just allowing your belly now to be completely soft relaxed and perhaps we end up spontaneously arriving into that clarity the bandhas might activate all by themselves feel the subtle essence and vibration from the practice take a couple minutes in shavasana to let the body get even softer stay curious if that's possible to let the body get even softer stay curious Try to let your physical body stay connected to the earth as we take in slightly fuller breaths and try to sense that inhale is moving all the way to your hips and then feel the vibration of the breath moving from the hips all the way back up towards your nostrils. When you're ready let your arms come closer to your side perhaps you bend your legs to have your feet on the ground and we'll get ready to roll to whichever side you want to roll to before we come on up to sit. Try to feel that bondo work in this last position which is the sitting position. Okay so gather what you need to sit I'm going to sit on a folded blanket since I have blocks I'm going to insert them under the sides of my knees so I have a nice solid base. If you're comfortable let your eyes lower or your eyes close if you prefer eyes open to help you concentrate please choose one focal point for your eyes and then see if your body's in the right position for you to feel the unique curves of your spine and that sense that each curve of your spine is elongating without getting rigid in your back. Okay so imagine again how soft and relaxed you were against the floor or on your belly if that involves the little shifting of your shoulders in a position you think you shouldn't do and what way can you sit that allows your body to be relaxed not rigid. Okay then the intention to lengthen through that inner spine soften front body as you breathe in and down towards your hips and see if you can feel as you initiate your exhale that it can begin in the pelvic floor muscles lifting up towards your navel trace the breath from the navel up to the base of your chest and a slight chin lowering towards the chest that's lifting subtle soften your whole front body as you breathe in breath drops towards the earth seal that energy in the body as you lift your pelvic floor belly in towards the back follow that line of energy up to the top of your chest and chin lowers to seal that prana in again front body soft as the breath rolls in and down you feel that lifting of the pelvic floor for better posture more support as you lengthen up through your mid-back chin to chest we pause meditation on the Bandhas let's try a couple more cycles front body soft feel the breath drop towards the earth exhale from the pelvic floor feel that lift up to navel up through middle upper back upper chest chin to chest chin is still forward let's take two more cycles in your own rhythm run through those touch points mula the root lock udiana upward flying and jalandara that net lock and then after you're complete perhaps let your head rise up on top of your spine and turn your nose your head a little bit side to side so you're aware of not holding any tension in your neck big breath in and out take a moment then settle your head right on top of your spine and then we take perhaps a moment with your hands on your legs or hands in front of your heart to take a moment and come back to our gratitude practice can you think of one thing today that you are grateful for just a moment to breathe and to feel what that's like in your body just to have some gratitude one thing and the next thing imagining again something that you've been able to do for somebody else grateful for something that you were able to do for someone else trust whatever comes to mind is the right thing to sit with and there may be a moment of gratitude for something that's been done for you today or yesterday grateful for something that's been done for you just noticing as we go through that gratitude if you feel any different shift in your mind your attitude any difference in how the body feels when we're increasing our awareness of gratitude and feeling grateful you're feeling grateful for all that we've been able to do I'm grateful for being with you for the challenge this willing to share some yoga and self-care with you over the course of the last five days grateful for your willingness to bring me into your homes to practice yoga grateful for this whole crew at yoga anytime to produce these wonderful shows that we can do at home anytime so in closing this phase of our practice together the hands perhaps gather in front of your heart center and may others always benefit from our practice namaste and again thank you for being so dedicated to your practice and showing up each day and considering some new practices to expand your definition of yoga so there's one more piece to fold into our self-care and typically in Ayurveda when we're in a transition season like fall where there's a lot of change in the environment a lot of wind potentially in the environment it's a time that we may be more vulnerable to catching colds so what we encourage people to do is to do kind of a reset of your diet and your lifestyle practices so I'm glad you've been joining us and hopefully this feels like the right time for you to reset so the diet one the food that we take and the drinks that we take in we want to look at what's nourishing for us right now what's easy to digest and what we typically use in Ayurveda is this one meal it's a whole complete protein called Kichri and Kichri is kind of what you might eat in the Ayurvedic system if you had a cold or you weren't feeling well Kichri would be like this one thing that you would eat for each meal to nourish you super easy to digest and it's a whole protein so what we would try to encourage you to do is to think about having a day where all you eat is Kichri it's a mung bean and a rice maybe a white basmati rice is something easy to digest or quinoa or a mixture of grains it doesn't have to be one grain and you have some coconut oil or ghee and a whole bunch of spices one or two vegetables I'll give you an example my breakfast Kichri would usually have shiitake mushrooms and kale and maybe carrots that's it and basically I eat that for my breakfast sitting in some place paying attention mindfully to chewing my food so part of the digestive process is happening in my mouth to make it even easier to digest into my stomach and then when I'm hungry for my next meal I have got that Kichri again to go to and I reheat some oil ghee or coconut oil add some more vegetables and again just a couple I might have beets and some avocado in my next meal for variety a little squeeze of lime over it for some more flavor and that's my lunch meal and then the next time that I'm hungry I might even have a little snack a few bites of Kichri and then I have my dinner Kichri and the same idea just a couple of vegetables not to make it super complicated but to make sure that you're getting some extra fiber with the vegetables and what we're learning more and more is how valuable having more vegetables those dark leafy green ones or red cabbage your colorful vegetables all these have good fiber that's really good for your gut health so in the fall we're trying to really protect and strengthen our gut health as we move through that vulnerable season to get us ready for some of the heavier foods and oils that come in in the winter time okay so you get to kind of move away from any of the summer inflammation or any patterns or habits that are left from the summer that aren't going to serve you and nourish you for the fall so I have a my favorite Kichri recipe it's in the seasonal health and wellness book maybe you grab a copy to guide you through the transitions of the seasons you can google Kichri and you're gonna find a million recipes my main secret though I want to tell you about Kichri to make it taste better is to make sure you use broth instead of water when you cook your rice and beans so that's my big secret so in addition to that we've got loads of things I've introduced I hope some of them feel already like part of your fall routine from hydrating with lemon water in the morning doing more joint rotation movements take little breaks throughout the day for better circulation we've got ideas to have more savory foods your your soups for breakfast we've got the invitation to have boundaries to say no when the invitations come your way that don't feel like a strong yes and the idea of that boundary is to give you actually more space to take better care of yourself during the season and I hope in that extra space you might have each day that you're more creative that you do better self-care the oil massages that I've suggested reading before going to bed things of that nature that sets you up for a good night's sleep I've mentioned things of teas that are helpful late afternoon which is that vata time of the day where we tend to dry up over the course of being productive all day so having those warming teas like ginger can be really helpful across the boards no matter what dosha or Constitution you have as well as one that I love to introduce to people is the ashwagandha is a tea that I'm seeing more and more in most grocery stores and that one is a special one that's calming for the nervous system so we might enjoy some of that kind of tea and some of those teas are mixed with the other superfood called turmeric and that's a lovely thing to introduce into your spices when you make your kittery meals or you might find those in blends with your teas and those again are anti-inflammatory good for people that might have creakiness in your joints so I know most people that I know who do have joint sensitivity or pain have found a lot of benefit from having the turmeric and you might have extra supplements extra supplement dose to actually reduce that discomfort so moral of the story is to kind of start reducing your productivity come in closer to the stove each day for some more meals to nourish you take more time to rest as we get to transition from the fall to prepare us for that season of hibernation and winter which is just down the road so I hope some of these have been helpful for you and I hope some of them really do transform your life your self-care practices and that you found some new things to fall in love with that are really good for you so thanks so much for being here then wonderful being with you over the course of five days thank you so much take good care of yourself namaste