Making Space for the Breath

We are going to be starting supine. We're going to be touching into like, see if we can find out the pranamaya kosha. That sounds like a super fancy word. The kosha, kosha in Sanskrit means sheath. Okay, it's a somewhat of an artificial demarcation to identify layers of ourself. But that's what we do. We have to name and label for things to be clear. Okay, so welcome to any of you who are just joining us now just to repeat because, you know, if you're just joining, it's not it's just turning 1030. So just once again, make sure you have a blanket and or a big beach towel so that we can do a little belly opening. And we will start supine. Okay, so lie yourself down on your back, separate your feet about hip distance, knees are bent and let your hands find your lower belly. Okay. And just with your hands on your lower belly, wobble your head a little bit, big deliberate inhale and exhale, let it happen and soften. And do that again, inhale and exhale, let it happen. And just with your hands on this lower belly region, begin to let the touch of your hands help draw your attention to the way the breath feels down in the lower belly. And as we've talked about before, when we've done similar things, you know, obviously, that's not really your actual breath that you're feeling in the lower belly. What you're feeling is the displacement of your organs as the breath moves in and out of your lungs. But you're feeling the effect of the movement of your breath. Just a few more moments. This is our first assessment. Maybe about another 15 seconds or so. Eyes can be open or closed, whatever helps. Nice. Okay, super sweet. All right, let the knees come into your chest, wobble a little bit, cross the ankles, inhale, roll back, exhale, roll up and then let's get our blanket to be the way we need it to be. Okay, so you'll want to have your blanket in front of you like this. So take a moment. And again, if it's a beach towel, just approximate. And then take a moment to smooth it out. There is a precision to the use of props. Okay, then we're going to fold it into thirds. So you're going to fold it once, halfway, like kind of like, so if this is half, I'm going to be beyond half so that how much I folded it this way matches this way, then I'm going to fold that underside under so that I have it looks like a stack of two. And now I'm going to create what we call a belly bolster. So I'm going to put it on my mat long wise. And I'm just going to roll it up until it's a giant burrito size. So for me in this big, thick, nice fluffy blanket, I only need to kind of roll it up really only like not even a full rotation to get a nice big sort of round thing depending on the quality of your blanket that the dimension of your blanket or beach towel, you might need to roll it up more. Then you're going to come to kneeling.

And you're going to try to find that spot. Right. So you've got these two pointy spots of your pelvis. It's the technical term the pointy spots of your pelvis. Sorry about that. You're going to find that belly bolster in between those two spots. And you'll know you found it if it's a little uncomfortable. You're going to kind of wiggle into that. And then I'm going to have my keep stay up on my elbows for a moment while I get used to it. And the play there is to receive the belly bolster. It's an inhale. And as you exhale, you're going to like exhale, soften, and you're going to let yourself melt down over. Those of you that were here two weeks ago, we did this. We're doing it again. I just find it so effective. Let it just really helps to open up the jaw and let the mouth go slack a little bit. Like to sort of I find it really helpful to wiggle. And then we're going to make it a little bit easier, but it will also allow it to go a little bit deeper. So you're going to draw one of your knees forward towards your head until it's about in line with your hip. Adjust the placement of your ankle so that it's comfortable and then kind of sink down a little bit more. So now you should be able to let that belly bolster go more into that one side and it should make it a little bit more comfortable and then sink in a little bit lower. And it's a receiving. If you haven't been able to receive the blanket yet and you're still fighting, it means it's probably too thick. Unravel it a little bit and then let a bit of a happen. So we're using this to help give the tension that accumulates in the lower belly a chance to soften. That tension that just is perpetual and consistent and vigilant. So I mentioned that we're focusing on the kosha, the sheaths of the body. So when we are primarily in what is called the anamaya kosha, ana translates as food, the food sheath, the muscular outer layer of ourselves, the meat suit. When the tension is really intense in the meat suit, the motor neurons communicate a sense of separateness back into the brain. Okay, so let a bit of a happen. Nice. Okay, super nice. Now slowly release that leg behind, pause in the middle, wiggle a little bit, and then let the opposite knee come up. Find your spot, big deliberate inhale and exhale, let a happen. Yeah, so the more physically tense our muscular system is the more a feeling of separateness. Yeah, which is why if any of you out there lift weights or do gym work or do heavy athletic work, you know there's this extremely exhilarating quality of self awesomeness and maybe even a little bit of aggressiveness sometimes after a really hard workout. Let a bit of a happen. And yoga, the practices of yoga, especially the breath and the subtler work, they're trying to like soften just a little bit of that.

So that we can have more of an experience of our connection. Yeah. Okay, like let a bit of a happen and soften and none of that has to mean anything. It's just, it's some of the explanation and languaging and pointing towards these things that are ultimately actually pretty mysterious. Okay. It's natural that you might feel your umbilical pulse. Hopefully that's happening. Yeah. Gorgeous, really nice. Okay, slow release that other leg, pause in the center one more time. Let a bit of a happen. Nicely done. Okay, now come back up onto your forearms and just kind of roll off the blanket and place it to the side of you and then gently roll back onto your back because we have to find out if that was worth it. Roll onto your back, knees are bent, hands down on the low belly, big deliberate inhale and exhale, let a happen. And just be aware of the quality and the tone and the availability of this lower belly. See if you maybe, and maybe is always a great word. See if maybe you have a little bit more access, a little bit more room, a little bit more availability for the organs to move in response to the breath. Beautiful. Let's get a little bit of room in the hips. Now keep your left foot on the floor, bring your right ankle up on top of that left knee, keep the left foot on the floor and just begin to floss a little bit in this right hip. So that as you inhale, let the knee come towards you and as you exhale, let the knee move away. Let's kind of let that feel good. And for some of you, this might be the perfect amount of opportunity in the hip. For some of you, next time that hip and that knee move away, let the left thigh draw in. So now you're finding a little bit more opportunity of a stretch back through the back of that right buttocks. This might be enough. Some of you might be inclined to thread the right hand through the triangle of the leg, catch around the back of the left thigh and just wobble a little bit. Can feel nice to curl the head up. Beautiful. Let the head come back down to the floor, left foot comes back down to the floor. Right leg shakes up to the sky a little bit and then soften the ankle and just bend the knee a little bit and see if you can feel the rotation in your hip. So as you exhale, turning those toes out, so you're getting a little bit of external rotation and as you inhale, the toes turn in, but you're moving from the hip. Yeah. Okay. Next time that hip is in external rotation and the toes are slightly turned out, find your half happy baby, bend the right knee, catch around where it's convenient. Maybe it's the shin, the ankle or the outside of the foot. Draw that right knee in and let the left knee come in as well. So wobble a little bit. Now keep the right knee in, extend the left leg up towards the sky, flex the foot and slow, slow, slow start to lower that left heel towards the earth. Reach your left hand towards the left foot and curl up. Wobble. Nice. Beautiful. Now keep that right knee and that half happy baby. Slow, slow, slow. Let the head lower, let the left foot lower. Beautiful. Release the right leg up towards the sky. Shake it out a little bit. Let the right foot float back down to the floor. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale, let it happen. Let your legs relax. Let your toes like, let your feet just naturally fall. Let your hands come down more to the region of the hips and feel if that effort was worth it. Feel that effort with your breath. Like feel the rise of the belly on the inhale and the fall of the belly of the exhale. Like see if you have any more breathing room from giving some attention to the right hip. So this is really the key is, is there more room to sense the movement of the breath when there's less tension in the body? Is that true for you? Okay. Bend the knees, soles of the feet on the floor. Left ankle up on top of the right thigh. Now keep the right foot on the floor and just kind of play with the hip hinge. So as you inhale, left hip and knee towards heart. And as you exhale, left hip and knee away. Inhale towards you. Exhale away from you and do this a few times. Like just see if you can feel this opportunity. Really nice. Really nice.

And for some of you and the hips you're working with today, this might be enough. If it's useful, keep that hip and knee reaching away. Let the right thigh draw in and wobble. Like the wobbling just kind of like just, huh, just gives more room. Like think about it. It's just like just kind of dancing with things. If it's appropriate to increase the intensity, thread that left hand through, catch around the back of the right thigh, curl up if that feels good. Super nice. Let that head come back down towards the floor. Release the right foot to the floor. Release the left leg up to the sky and shake it out. Okay. Now soften the knee and the ankle. You're moving from your hip. So as you exhale, externally rotating your hip so the toes turn out to the left. And as you inhale, internally rotating the hip, like rolling that hip in. So the knee and the toes turn in. See if that makes sense. Exhale, externally rotate. Inhale, internally rotate. So as you exhale, you're kind of going duck foot. And as you inhale, you're going pigeon toe. Yeah. Beautiful. Next time you're in external rotation so that knee and the foot are turning out. Bring that foot into your version of Half Happy Baby, catching around where it's convenient. Draw that knee in a little closer. Now let the right knee come in as well. So this takes a little tension out of the back. And for some of you, it might just be nice to stay here. But who would feel good extend the right leg up towards the sky, flex the foot, begin to slowly lower that right heel towards the earth. Reach your right hand towards the foot and curl up. Let a bit of a really nice. Wobble it a little bit. Super. Now keep that left foot into the Half Happy Baby. Slow, lower the right heel down, lower the head down. Let a bit of a hop and then release that left foot up to the sky. Shake it out a little bit. Let that leg slowly lower back down. And once the leg lowers, relax the tension in the legs. Let the feet fall where they will, hands down on the fronts of the hips. Make deliberate inhale. Exhale, let a hop. And from the perspective of the breath, from this perspective of how the breath feels and how much room it has, was that worth it? Yeah. Okay, super nice. Bring the knees into the chest, hug the knees, wobble. And just for the fun of it, catch around both feet. Let's take the full Happy Baby, bring the knees in and wobble a little bit. And what I like to do is as I lean to one side, like as I lean to left, I like to let the left knee fall to the earth, lean to the right, let the right knee fall towards the earth. Yeah. Okay, sweet. We're going to make our way up towards Uttanasana, Standing Forward Fold. Okie dokie, cross the ankles. Inhale, roll it back. Exhale, roll towards Malasana squat. Give yourself a little bit momentum and roll all the way into that Forward Fold. Bend the knees, chin into the chest and hang. And then what I like to do is bend one knee and lean a little to that side as you let the other leg straighten. Bend the other knee, lean a little bit, let the other leg straighten. And just do that a few times, just letting the hamstrings know what's coming. And then slow, bend both knees, chin into the chest, slowly roll on back up, feel the belly and feel the heart and feel the throat and feel the face. Beautiful, big deliberate inhale. Exhale, let it happen, soften the knees and allow the ground to have you. This is our first Tadasana. Do that again. Inhale and exhale, let it happen. Soften the knees. As you soften the knees, soften the low belly and the play. So now that we've given a little bit of room to the breath, a little bit of room to the hips, we're going to continue to kind of like play in the opening of the hips and the legs to help trust the ground that has us. Trust is one of the number one ways to soften tension. But really it's impossible to trust that's which we cannot truly, intimately and physiologically sense. Okay, find the alignment of the skull so the neck doesn't need so much holding. And we're going to make our way through kind of a lunge, prasarita padasanasana, a horsey-ish stance sequence. As you're ready, inhale, circle the arms up.

And as you exhale forward, fold, swan, dive, soften the knees. Let an inhale, create a half arch. And as you exhale, plant the fingertips, step the right foot back or whatever, you know, it's my right foot, step the right foot back, let your left knee bend. Now wiggle on back through that foot and lengthen. So I just use the right and left cue. But whatever foot makes sense that you are going to be able to face the camera, face the video when we turn towards the this side of the mat. Sorry for that confusion. Lengthen back through that heel a little bit, lengthen out through the skull. And then as you're ready, walk your hands to the front of the center, turn your toes in towards each other. So right now, like just because we're going to be moving back and forth, it'll be easier for you if you are now facing your monitor or however you can see what you're doing. Oki-doki, prasarita padasanasana variation. The hands are underneath the shoulders, toes are turned in. Just begin just really lean your hips a little bit side to side. Lean a little bit to the left. So whatever side that is for you. So you feel the right inner side. Lean a little bit to the other side. So you feel the other inner thigh. Do this a little bit. So you're kind of like waking up that inner thigh line. Yes. Yes. Come back into the middle. Let's get a little bit more room through the front of the body. So walk your hands forward, suction cup your fingertips and pull the sit bones back. Yeah. We used to call this hammock pose in the old days. Gorgeous. Slide your hands back underneath your shoulders. Now walk your hands back around to what used to be the back foot, but now is the front foot and come into the lunge. So you're facing the other side of your mat now. Yes. Reach back through that opposite heel and lengthen. Gorgeous. Okay. Root down through that front foot. Step the back foot forward. Inhale. Half arch. Exhale. Forward fold. Bending the knees. Bending the knees like you're sitting down in a chair. Let a bit of a happen. Curl the sit bones under. Reach your arms forward. Little utkatasana action. Keep the legs low. Reach the arms up. Inhale here. Exhale. Pressing the feet. Come all the way back up. Nice. Tadasana number two. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale. Let a happen and soften the knees. And can you remember how to let this lower belly open? Like let the lower belly open. And as you let the lower belly open, let your jaw slacken. And can you play with like trusting that the earth has you? Like tension can only soften when it senses that it's held by a greater tension. Okay. So nice. Keep just enough press through the feet. So you feel the heart blossom and find the alignment of the skull so the neck doesn't need so much tension. Upper palate domes. Yeah. Beautiful. We'll repeat that going back the other way. Inhale. Arms up. Exhale. Forward fold. Let the knees soften. Inhale. Half arch. Exhale now. So for me it's my left foot stepping back this time. Let your right knee bend. Okay. We go back through there. Lengthen. And now again walk your hands back in front of you. Turn your toes forward. So a little less in. More forward. With them forward then, hands are underneath your shoulders. Begin to lean a little bit from side to side so you can kind of feel the inner line of your leg opening. And then as you lean to the one side start to bend that knee. So if you're mirroring me, you're bending that left knee as you lean to the left. Yeah. Beautiful.

Walking the hands to the other side and bending the other knee. Leaning. Do this a couple times. You can kind of like walk your hands and as you lean, a little extra action is to kind of root through the leg you're leaning away from. Root through the outer edge and lift up through the inner line. Yeah. Walking back the other side. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Okay. Hands come into the middle and then bend the knees. Let the hands find the ankles. Chin into the chest and let yourself roll on back up. Feel the belly and feel the heart and feel the throat and the face. Nice. We're into a little warrior two dance to kind of get more into the hips. So if you're mirroring me, you're going to turn that right foot out. Turn that back left foot in. Spread the toes wide and now set yourself up for success in that warrior two. So kind of make sure that you've got that, that knee bending situation into how you like it. Uh-huh. Take a moment to kind of make sure the stance is perfect for you and we'll dance with it and then we'll eventually hold it. Inhale, arms up. And as you exhale, sink in. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, sink in. Nice. Three more like this. Really nice. Two more like this. One more like this. Beautiful. Other side, inhale up. Exhale, hands on the waist, opposite feet. Take a moment to kind of make sure you're set up for success. Okay. Then as you're ready, inhale, arms up and exhale, sink in. Four more like this. Exhale, sink in. Beautiful. Two more. Last one. Super nice. Let an inhale, bring you back up. Let an exhale, turn your toes in, hands on the waist and then slowly slide the hands down the legs forward fold. Lean in a little bit to one side and lean a little bit to the other and if it would feel good, bend one knee and sink in. Bend the other knee and sink in. Beautiful. Keep your toes forward. Slow. Bend the knees, chin into the chest, hands on the legs. Let it roll back up. Feel the belly, feel the heart, feel the throat and the face. We'll repeat that, dancing for three rounds and then offering ourselves to the warrior two to hold. So turning that right foot out if you're mirroring me, turning that back left foot in. Okay. A little extra detail this time. Can you feel your back sit bone? Draw it under a little bit towards the front foot for you. Just to kind of let the pelvis be a steadier bowl. That may or may not feel right to you. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, open up. Warrior two. Two more like that. And open. Yeah. Last one like this and we're going to hold. Inhale, exhale and open. Spread the toes a little bit. This time let a bit of a happen. So just like we've been doing in Tadasana, soften that the lower belly pelvis region. Trust the legs. Soften the shoulders a little bit. Sometimes it's nice to let the elbows bend and the palms turn up. Maybe just keep the gaze over the heart. Just a handful more moments here. Let a bit of a happen. Can you, can you feel into how to let the legs have you? Yeah. Really nice. Inhale, come on back up. Exhale, hands find the waist. Turn opposite. Remember to draw, see if it works for you. Draw that back sit bone under just a little bit. Just to kind of help the bowl of the pelvis hold you. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, sink in. Beautiful. Two more like that. Inhale up. Exhale, sink in. One more like this and we're going to stay. Exhale, sink in. Holds not really the right word. Stay. Be with. Engage in relationship. Let a bit of a happen and this lower belly area, can you feel how you can, you can allow this to have more room. Can you feel into letting the legs, like trusting the legs, like just whatever that might mean for you. Like even just the suggestion of trust the legs. Shoulders roll back. Elbows under. Try palms out and maybe just keep your gaze over your heart. Yeah. Beautiful. So nice. So gorgeous. Inhale, come on back up. Exhale, toes turn in, hands on the legs. If your stance got a little bit away from you, like it did for me, toe heels and feet in a little bit. Toes are turned in, hands on the legs. Hold on over. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Now we're going to make our way back to the lunge towards what for most of you might be your right foot. Walk, come up onto your hands and slowly walk yourself back into the shape of the lunge. Like spinning up onto the ball of that back foot. Nice. Rock and roll a little bit. Step the right back, step the back foot forward. Inhale, half arch. Exhale, forward fold. Bending the knees.

Bend the knees a lot. Sit down in your chair. Let a bit of a happen. This is going to be our last opportunity for Utkatasana. So make it work for you. Trust your legs. Curl your sit bones under. Reach your arms forward. Trust your legs. Let your heart feel lighter. Gorgeous. Inhale here. Exhale, press into the feet. Come all the way back up. Hands might find the heart for a moment. Inhale here. Exhale, let a happen. Bend the knees. Hands come down along your side. Beautiful. This will be our last Tadasana. This is our third and last Tadasana. Tadasana is such a good prep for seated meditation. Big, deliberate inhale. Exhale, let a soften the knees. Low belly easy. Trust the earth. So this question, as you kind of stretch and bend and kind of squeeze out some of the tension in the legs, is there more trust? Is there more connection? This is what we're playing with and towards. Okay, so the heart is buoyant. Find the alignment of the skull so it's balanced. Upper palate, easy. Yeah, okay. One more round, kind of like this. We'll add a little bit of horse play in there for our last round as you're ready. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, swan dive forward, bending the knees, forward full. Inhale, half arch. Exhale, step that foot back into the shape of the lunge. Spread the toes wide. And then again, walk your hands around so you're in that prasarita padasana shape. Hands find the legs, bend the knees, bend into the chest and slow. Let yourself roll all the way back up. Beautiful. This time turn your toes out. Now you're going to want to find that stance that's going to work for your horse stance. So you just want to kind of bend the knees a little bit, wobble a little side to side. Make sure you're set up for success for what you're working with today. As you're ready, press into the feet, come all the way up straight. As you're ready, inhale, arms up. And exhale, let a bit of a have. And as you stick your tongue out in the hands, find the legs. Now kind of wobble it a little bit from side to side. Use your hands on your femurs to kind of help draw those hips back. Let it feel good. And then here's where the fun starts. So this is relatively easy-ish because there's cooperation between the hands and the legs. The play here though is to start to trust your legs more. So soften in that low belly area. Trust your legs more. Start to lighten the use of the arms. Start to lighten the use of the arms and let the heart feel lighter. Let the hands get lighter, lighter, lighter until they finally can kind of release. Trusting your legs, let your hands find each other at the center of the heart. And you'll notice that if you press the hands together, if you cooperate, if you give a sense of it, it's almost an empathy. There's an empathy as you press your hands together. The legs feel like they're on the same page. There's less effort. So interesting. Let a bit of a happen. Yeah. Gorgeous. Beautiful.

Inhale here. As you exhale, press into the feet. Draw the legs straight. Inhale, arms up. Keep the toes turned out. As you exhale, forward fold. Last kind of skandhasana play. Head down to the ankles. Lean your hips a little side to side. If it would feel good, start to add the bend of the knee. Playing with inhaling to center, exhaling to a side. Just do that kind of at your own pace a few times. If it's too much to have the hands on the legs, if it would feel more correct and better to have the hands on the earth as you do that, do that. Beautiful. Eventually come back to center, hands come underneath your shoulders, and then walk your hands around so that you're now facing that other side of the mat, shape of the lunge. Then we're going to get a little bit different now from this shape of the lunge. Drop that back knee down. Let a bit of a happen. You have a blanket, so if you'd like to put a blanket underneath that back knee, you can. Let a bit of a hucker as you sink. If it feels like too much, you can kind of draw it back slightly, and then sink in. Draw it back slightly, and then sink in. You might toe heel this front foot out a little bit, and what I like to do is kind of roll it a little bit. So I kind of like roll to the outer edge of that knee, and then roll to the inner line. Do that a couple times just to kind of open up that front thigh a little bit more. Let a bit of a have been nice. Beautiful. Couple more beats. If you're wishing that I had suggested to bring the hands on the inside of the foot, then go ahead and do that. Yeah. Gorgeous. Okay, now the pattern is changing a little bit, so let the hands come on either side of that foot you're on now. Lift up through the back of that leg. Okay, rock and roll a little bit, and then as you're ready, we're going to step back to downward facing dog. High up onto the balls of the feet to begin with. Wiggle on out, and then walk it out a little bit. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. And we're going to find the lunge on the other side. So whichever foot you were not just having forward, step that foot forward. Wiggle on through that back leg and drop that knee towards the earth, and then kind of introduce yourself. Inhale, back it off a little bit, and exhale, sink in. And inhale, back off a little bit, and exhale, sink in. Really nice. Once you found your good sink in spot, let a bit of a happen. It might feel good to roll it a little bit forward, and roll it a little bit in. Do that a few times. Yes. I'm noticing my friend Wendy is here. Wendy, it's so great that you've been showing up, and I'm so thinking about what you've been saying about mirroring. So thank you so much for helping us be better and better. And then sink in. Let a bit of a drop that jaw a little bit easy in the eyes.

Yeah. Okay. If you were wishing, I'd ask you to bring that hand on the inside of the foot, and you didn't yet do it. Do it. Gorgeous. Okay, slow. Organize yourself to make your way back into downward facing dog. Both hands on either side of that left foot, lift up through the back of that back leg, and step back into downward facing dog. High up onto the balls of the feet, and lengthen, and then walk it out a little bit. Gorgeous. So nice. And also, that's such a nice preparation for seated meditation is a little bit of heart opener. So inhale, bring yourself forward into plank pose. Exhale, drop the knees, lower on down. Make your way into a sphinx. Come up onto the forearms. Once you're in that sphinx pose, spread the fingers wide, roll the shoulders back, and pull back a little bit through the arms as you feel the heart forward and keep snaking it a little bit. Like, just sort of see if it feels good to kind of slither it a little bit. Let a bit of a, yeah. And so I'm assuming by now that most of you out there have heard of what the mirror neurons, the mirror neurons, which hang out in our frontal cortex, which came on in human evolution about the same time that, you know, we discovered the magic of how to make a fire. And what the mirror neurons do is they allow us to learn almost through an instant empathetic form of imitation. Okay, turn the hands out now, press into the palms and kind of roll the shoulders back and start to wiggle yourself up in towards a cobra. That would feel good. If that's not what would feel good, then keep it in the sphinx. Let a bit of a, and what they do is through mirror neurons, when I see you doing something, part of my brain is just doing it along with you. It's just naturally experiencing what you're experiencing. Let a bit of a, gorgeous. Let the elbows bend, let them go wide, let the head rest on the hands, bend the knees and wobble the legs a little bit side to side. But that can get very confusing. And so what happens is that there's a simultaneous response from the motor neurons, right? So the neurons that are in your onomyocosia, your meat suit, that come back into your brain and let you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not you. You're separate. You're separate. You're separate. You're separate. But what they found through research is that when we're under anesthesia or working with a feeling of paralysis, when we're not experiencing that signal back, letting us know we're separate, that then a hundred percent of the neurons fire. Otherwise there's a dampening. Okay. Child's pose, hands underneath the shoulders, bend the knees, send your hips back. Let your forehead come towards the earth. Let a bit of a, yeah. Okay. Slow. Let yourself roll back onto all fours and come into a wide bodhicanasana. So sitting on your sit bones, let the soles of the feet come together and just let yourself kind of round over a little bit. Elbows bend, let your head hang. This is going to be our kind of our back release before we move towards a seated meditation. So one of the ways that yoga works through the releasing of the commitment of this meat suit, by releasing some of the physical tension, we have a more natural easy sense of connection. Okay. It's about another half a minute here. That's why, you know, sometimes like nothing has really changed in your life after a yoga class. Like all the people that irritate you are still there. All the world conflicts are still there, but it's just easier to handle. Okay. Chin into the chest slow. Let yourself roll up. I'm going to suggest you find what you like to sit on. I've got my little trusty Zafu. Prop yourself up for success. So the thought here is that we will, we'll offer ourself towards a 10 minute seated meditation, a pranamaya kosha seated meditation. And then from there we'll have a chance to do a few finishing asanas in the shavasana. So snuggle in big deliberate inhale, exhale, let a happen and soften the slow belly. Let your eyes focus on a spot in front of you gently or close whatever feels more natural for you. Do that again. Inhale, exhale and soften with the sit bones. Trust that you know how to sit.

Let your body, like your body knows how to sit. Don't rush this part. And then remember in tadasana, once you, once you kind of could trust your legs, then let the heart naturally blossom and then find the alignment of the skull. Yeah. And now bring your attention to the feeling of what seems like the breath at first in this lower pelvic region, the bowl of your pelvis. And while I'm using the suggesting that maybe the breath is that first touch point, you might have a more intimate sense of the subtler layers of the breath, what the yogis call the prana. So as you're aware of the front of the bowl, and then as you're aware of the back of the bowl, like the back of the sacrum, sometimes it feels like the breath, but sometimes it's more of a layer beneath it. Be aware of the sides of the bowl of your pelvis. Bottom of the bowl, of course. If you find yourself really efforting to breathe into all these areas, like back that up about 50%. It's, it's subtler than that. It's like the breath is this, this link, but it's, it's much more kind of a affectionate quality of attention. Yes, really nice. Now once this area feels full and really kind of only once this lower bottom part of the torso feels full, then bring your awareness more to the mid torso. So maybe kind of from the belly button to the diaphragm region and see if you can start to open your mid torso with your attention and let the breath help you. You might be aware of the front and the back, the sides. Yeah. And then once this region feels full, like you've brought this area online, move up into the upper third of your torso, you know, from about that diaphragm up towards the collar bones, like be aware of this top area of the torso, being aware of the front of this upper torso, the back, the sides. And while we, while we separated these three areas to assist in identifying them, of course they are not really separate. Let your torso feel full and integrated. And then like with the power of your attention, let your right leg come online. I feel that connection of how your attention and a sense of your breath can open the prana in your right leg. Feel your left leg come online. Left arm from the shoulder to the fingertips. Feel how with your attention, it's not like your arm wasn't there this whole time and it's not like your prana hasn't been there the whole time. Become aware of it. And right arm. Let your skull feel integrated. And while again, perhaps your skin, for some of you, your skin might feel like a boundary and yet it's likely that there's a sense that you're now bigger than your skin. There's a sense that the breath of you, the prana of you is larger. So it helps maybe to, sometimes it helps if your eyes are closed to sense this. And then just like allow yourself without too much effort, just see if you can start to like, by softening the jaw and the belly and the fixed sort of sense of what is, quote, reality. Let some of your imagination help you as you just let yourself get bigger and bigger. If you're in a room, you might have a sense of filling up the whole room. If you have a sense of where you live, you might kind of expand into your town, your state, nation, planet, planet. Galaxy. Eventually relaxing the effort of expanding. And for the next minute, resting in the results of your expansion.

It's likely that your breath is barely necessary. Beautiful. Start to allow the specificity of the feeling of the breath in your lungs, bring you back. Letting the breath deepen so that you are connecting back into the sense of the physical realm. Beautiful. The suggestion then, if you'd like, is to slowly make your way towards supine. Just for a few finishing asanas and shavasana. If you're properly cooked and want to check out now if you're welcome, otherwise roll yourself on back and hug your knees into your chest in a wobble. One of the gifts of really letting ourselves expand is that when we come back into the recognition of the unique occasion that is each of us, I even really feel quite amazing and exciting. And a little bit like you don't want to waste it. Okay, little bridge pose. Feet down on the floor, knees are bent, arms down along your side. Inhale here. Exhale, press into the hips and press into the feet. Excuse me, let your hips lift. Wobble your arms underneath you. I'm going to suggest supporting your ways with the thumbs pointing in and the fingers wrapping around, but if that's not your jam, do it feels good, soft in the head, back of the neck. Let a bit of a happen. And you'll know you're on the right track if there's a there's a quality of like sweet kind of tender, almost just a little bit sad joy. This is our first instruction in the seven trainings of the mind, the 59th slogan text, the first one. Study the preliminaries. Okay, so what I'm going to suggest is you might stay in bridge, but I'm going to suggest that you're going to make your way to Viparita Karani, candlestick, bringing one knee up towards the chest, flip the hands around so the fingertips are now pointing down the buttocks, and then bring the other leg up. And then kind of sink in, let a bit of a happen. Soft in the throat. This isn't your jam for your neck. You know it. Keep it in bridge pose. Otherwise from this Viparita Karani, let the legs come back, let the feet touch back behind the head, let a bit of a happen. This this went out of fashion a couple years ago and kind of miss it. Bend the knees a little bit, drop them towards your forehead or maybe down around the ears into more of a Viparita Karani kind of situation. Casual though. Okay, let the legs draw a little bit straighter and slow. You're going to roll on out slowly. One vertebrae at a time. Let a bit of a happen. I'm going to bend my knees and place my feet on the floor because it feels better on my back. Then rolling all the way out, let the shoulders roll under, palms up. Big deliberate inhale, let a bit of a happen. Nice. Wobble the head a little bit. I'm going to suggest Shavasana. If you'd like to do a little spinal twist or something else, go ahead. Otherwise let one leg straighten, let the other leg straighten. Big deliberate inhale, exhale and sink in. That first preliminary in the seven mind point training, the Loja. And I'm sorry, I'm going to reference Atisha's 21 point mind training, which is a slightly different text, but it is. Supreme understanding is knowing the true meaning of selflessness. It's like getting a break from that concrete sense of separateness, which is perpetual and vigilant and intimate to our survival. And it's so nice to take a break from.

As you lie here for the last few moments, like, was that worth it? Was this worth your time? Do you take a moment to record the effects? This is how we establish habits. Record the effects. Let your legs come together, reach your arms up over the top of your head. Lengthening the knees, bring them into your chest. Wobble. Make your way up to sitting in your way. You might be a side roller. I'm kind of a rock and roller. I like the feeling of that. Making your way back up to sitting. Big deliberate inhale and exhale. Trust that your body knows how to sit. Trust that you know how to live this beautiful life, this unique occasion at the right juncture within which you find yourself. Have a wonderful, beautiful rest of your day, Yogi friends. So sweet to be together. Thank you everyone who's here practicing and making this happen. Love.