Guided by Breath with Sadia

Talk

Well, how much time do you have? Well, you know, what's in my heart now or something that I've been reflecting on a lot is, you know, there's a lot of wounding that exists in the world and we're sort of at this pivotal time where we're having to confront these wounds and reckon with these wounds. So I'm noticing that for myself and for friends, that we are also experiencing the same confrontation on the micro level, right? So for my part, you know, I'm actually doing a lot of intentional like shadow work, right? And just revisiting these points in my life when, you know, I was, I experienced a lot of pain and just trying to process that pain in retrospect, right? So that I can lay those burdens down and just be in the world in a more, in a lighter way, in a way that's, you know, clear on the clear channel, I can contribute without being saddled by past stuff, past wounds. And likewise in the world, we're reckoning with wounds we must and in order to move forward. So that's what's on my heart now. That's what I'm thinking about. So beautifully laid out both as a sharing, an intimate sharing from you as well as you also in that sharing have given each of us a path. And so how, how are the practices of yoga assisting in this journey for you lately? So you know, a lot of research should say, Sanyid says that, you know, we're able to better process emotion when we can get specific about naming the emotions and expressing them with language. So I feel like you have to get really quiet in order to feel these emotions. So immediately the yoga practice is, is valuable because we start, you know, with the body getting very quiet in the body, being able to name physical sensation for me has been like a fast track and a direct route to feeling more subtle things like emotion. And when, you know, I can navigate the body and notice sensation, name the sensation, be with the sensation. I've noticed that there is an immediate application to my, my skillfulness in naming my feelings, naming my emotions, being with those emotions, processing them and moving through them, you know? So yoga is great for that. Everyone should do yoga so we can feel ourselves and we can feel each other. Yeah. What I'm feeling right now is so much gratitude for you being here and being with us. And tell us a little bit about our practice today with you and what we might need.

We might need a couple of blocks if you have those handy, if not perfectly okay. Today's practice will invite you to feel, to maybe do a little less, scale back the doing and dial up to the feeling. It'll be a grounded, easeful, spacious practice that I hope everyone enjoys. Ah, sounds luscious. Can't wait to be with you this morning and it's all yours.

Practice

Being mindful of the length of the breath and also the pauses between breaths, making sure that the body also pauses. This time as you inhale, you'll come forward to pow pose and you'll pause there and use your exhale to find a neutral tabletop position so the knees will come a little closer to each other. You can untuck your toes, walk your hands a little bit back so wrists are underneath your shoulders, spread the knuckles of your fingers. You can gently encourage your biceps to wrap forward. It doesn't have to be obsessive. We're just trying to bring a little space to the chest. Let the elbows and all of your joints, your mind stay supple. Then begin to inhale, pow pose, tuck the toes, release your belly, reach your heart forward, finish the inhale, really relish that pause at the top of the breath. The exhale comes, the chest falls, the ribs contract, curve your spine, tuck your chin. A few more like that. So moving as breath, the inhale comes and we respond with the cow shape, the exhale comes and we respond with the cat shape. A couple more just like that, moving as your breath. You might find that simply by drawing your attention to your breath, the length of the breath or maybe the quality of the breath changes and you just observe how that may or may not be true for you. After your next exhale, so you find the cat shape, come to a neutral tabletop position and as you inhale, lift your right arm up with a full length of your breath in. As you exhale, thread your right arm underneath, tap your temple to the floor. Do that a couple more times. You inhale, unthread the arm and open twist. As you exhale, thread the arm underneath and twist and once more like that, inhale, unthread the arm, open twist to the right. As you exhale, thread the arm underneath, rest your temple on the floor. You can go ahead and straighten that left arm. If there's another arm variation you like, please do that. Make sure the hips are still stacked above the knees. I'm on left fingertips, but now I'm going to flatten my palm. You experiment with what works best for you, what keeps space in your shoulder. And then now that we're in the shape, give the shape to your breath and feel. As you breathe in, there's a little lessening of the twist. As you breathe out, there's this natural, just like a clarifying quality because things are, muscles are contracting as you exhale. So feel how the shape, the energy of the shape, the mechanics of the shape, may change as you breathe in and out. Place your left hand next to your face and unthread yourself. Your right hand can come to the floor and we'll do the same on the opposite side. So you'll welcome that breath in, the breath will come, you'll lift your left arm up and open, exhale and thread the arm underneath. We'll do that twice more. Inhale, unthread the arm and open, exhale, thread the arm underneath. Once more, inhale, open, exhale, twist, head can rest on the floor, right arm can straighten or take whatever variation you like. Just making sure, you know, whatever you're doing allows for movement of breath, movement of this prana, this life force. Let the breath speak to and through your body. Place your right hand next to the face so you can cleanly press into the hand and lift yourself up. Walk your hands forward about a handprint or so. Tuck your toes under. As you inhale, stay here. As you exhale, just lift your knees slightly away from the floor, just deconstructing our entry to down dog. Take a breath in there as you exhale. Keep looking forward as you lift your hips up and back and then release your head. And once you're done, you're downward facing dog, you can pedal through your feet. You can do whatever you like, maybe even bend the elbows a little bit to arrive in the shape. So we're never, no more assuming the position, you just arriving in the shape and letting every shape, every movement, movement you do in your practice be an exploration, right? A conversation between you, your body, your breath and your body. Conversation between your inhale and your exhale. Come to stillness and down dog and pause. Soften the knees, press the hands down and forward, reach your tailbone back. As you next begin to inhale, lower your knees to the floor, release your belly, open your chest, start to exhale, child's pose, bow into the breath. Inhale and come forward so you can release that front of your body to breathe in. And as you exhale, lift your hips up and back. Inhale, lower your knees to the floor, open your chest, cow. Exhale, child's pose. Once more like that. Inhale, coming forward, opening the chest, finishing the breath, loving that pause at the top of the breath, using the power of your exhale to lift your hips up and back to down dog. Once more, inhale, knees to the floor, open the chest. Exhale, child's pose. Inhale, opening the chest, coming forward and then exhaling, downward facing dog, pausing and dog pose. Let's walk the hands back towards the feet. So you're in, uptanasana, standing forward fold at the back of your mouth. Your feet can be as wide apart as you like. Soften your knees, spill your pelvis towards you like you're pouring your spine out of your pelvis. Release your head towards, not even the floor, towards the center of the earth and grab opposite elbows. Let your arms be heavy. Let your head be heavy and torso heavy. And feel here too, the breath movement. As you inhale, you feel your ribs expand. It's like the forward fold lessens. And as you exhale, there's this descending quality, this quieting quality of the exhale feels like things get a little heavier. Let's take a couple more breaths there. Just allowing the breath to move. Body is supple enough to be this vessel for breath and then change the grip of your hands so opposite arms in front. Relax your head. Maybe taking some audible exhales if that feels right for you. And then release your hands to the floor. You can bring your hands to your hips, draw your elbows together. And with an inhale, so let the inhale arise.

Lift your chest, extend your spine, finishing that breath in. And then coming to stand intadhasana at the back of your mouth. And just pausing there for a moment. Let's take a little walk to the top of your mat. And once you're there, rest your hands on your body. And take a couple of breaths there, just noticing whatever energetic quality might be there, whatever sensation is there, whatever quiet is there, whatever space is there. Release your arms by your side, start to inhale and sweep your arms around it up. You can look up and touch your palms. As you exhale, soften your knees and hinge forward. Inhale to prepare, both lift your chest so it's like you're unfurling your spine so you can take the breath in. You exhale and bow to the breath. Inhale, sweep your arms around it up. The heart reaches forward. That gorgeous pause at the top of your inhale, your palms will touch. And then feel, let the hands mirror this descending quality of the exhales. We draw the hands to heart center. Let's pause here for a moment. Close your eyes. And maybe it's here. We've been moving for a bit, but you can set an intention here, whether it's for your practice or your day, your weekend, your life. Release your arms by your side, start to inhale, sweep your arms around it up. This time, as you exhale, soften your knees and hinge forward. We're actually going to come right back up to stand that way. So you inhale, sweep your arms around it up. Look up and touch your palms. Exhale, soften your knees and hinge forward. So moving as breath still forever. Inhale, sweep your arms around it up. Look up and touch your palms. Once more, exhale, soften the knees and forward fold. Inhale, sweep the arms around it up. Look up and touch your palms. Hands draw down the center line of your body. Breath, same quality, descending energy. Release your arms by your side. And once more, let's add on. So inhale, let's reach the arms up. Exhale and soften your knees and forward fold. As you inhale, lift your chest to prepare a pose. And then exhale, forward fold. This time, interlace your hands behind your head. Let your elbows be heavy. Let your arms be heavy. Attraction in your neck a little bit. And as you next inhale, bend your knees to 90 degrees, tighten your elbows, lift your chest up. Try to manually lengthen your neck so you're lengthening the crown of your head forward. Your elbows are wide. And see if even there's a lot of muscular effort going on, but can you allow that to be there? So here's this perfect metaphor. Things are happening now in this weird chair pose thing that we're doing. So there's work.

There might be a little bit of heat. It's all, it's relative. But can you, inside of this heat, inside of this work, can you first of all open yourself to it? Lift your chest, widen your elbows more. And then can you introduce some space by breathing? And can you just lovingly witness whatever is there to be witnessed? Let's take one more breath in. As you exhale forward fold, interlace your hands behind your lower back to the wedding. The heels of your hands can touch and once more, bend your knees as you inhale, the chest lifts up, then the elbows straighten some amount just to brighten that upper back bend. And take a few breaths here just like the same thing. So work, but softness in the work, breath in the work, space in the work. Without snapping your hands apart, you can release your hands as you and now sweep your arms around and up and look up and touch your palms. As you exhale, draw your hands down the center line of your body. Relax your arms by your side, soft gaze and just witnessing and feeling opening to whatever your experience is in your body, in your heart. And that's inhale to mutkatasana, so chair pose. Inhale, soften your, bend your knees, lift your arms up, lift your chest up, breathe in. As you exhale, forward fold. Inhale to prepare pose, lift the center of your chest and then exhale, forward fold. We'll take a couple of breaths in the forward fold and once more as you inhale, prepare pose. I really want to imprint this expressing the breath. Exhale, plant your palms, bend your knees, step back to a plank pose. So step yourself back. Of course, you have the option to modify your plank pose. You can lower your knees to the floor. Whatever you choose to do is beautiful and perfect. So maybe the knees are lowered, maybe they're lifted, but allow yourself to feel some clarity in the shapes of the hands and the arms, the shoulders are bearing some weight, right? Whether the knees are lifted or not. Take a few breaths here. When you meet this experience of your body with the spaciousness and the softness of your breath. Now as you inhale, stay here, use the full length of your exhale to lower yourself all the way down to the floor. Once you're that, inhale, lift up to baby cobra, bhujangasana, exhale, lower down. Inhale, lift up, exhale, lower. And now lift up. And exhale, lower. And once more, inhale, lifting up. This time, hover your hands away from the floor, draw your elbows back. Rather than looking forward, you can hear my voice. It's really uncomfortable. Look down, lengthen your neck, and suddenly, you know, I sound like Kathleen Turner in my dreams. Inhale, lift up, exhale, lower down. You feel that quality. Press back to child's pose. You're going to move a little bit. So inhale, come back forward to baby cobra, lift the center of your chest, the back of your skull. Exhale, lower down. Use the power of your exhale to cleanly press back to child's pose. The inhale arises, I come forward, I lengthen my body, I lift my chest. I'm amazed at this beautiful pause at the top of my inhale, the exhale comes, I lower down, press back to child's pose. Let's do that just twice more. And I'll pipe down now so you can move with your hand breath. And maybe you're about to express your, your last baby cobra here. We'll meet you in the child's pose. Relax your arms, relax your head and your neck. Take whatever variation you like. Lately for myself, I've been turning my palms to face up, not for a mechanical reason. It's just my spirit is called to open my hand. I feel like it's like supplication, like offering something, but also wanting to receive whatever is out there, whatever messages belong to me, please let them fall into my palms. You can experiment palms up, palms down, always be, be curious. If your palms are face up, you can face them down. Flatten your palms and as you inhale, drag yourself forward to tabletop position and exhale to press yourself back to downward face and dog and her paws and dog poles. Take a couple of breaths there. The knees are soft. Look up between your hands, soften your knees. At the bottom of an exhale, you can hop or step or walk forward. I'm feeling like a little stroll today, so I'll do that. And once I'm at the top and you're at the top, wait for the inhale to come, lift your chest so you respond to it. And then exhale, bowing to the breath. Inhale, sweep your arms around and up, reach your heart forward. This time, touch your palms and pause. In the exhale, draw your front ribs and broaden your back body, separate your palms and grab ahold of your left wrist and as you inhale, lift your fingertips up to the ceiling and as you exhale, you side bend to the right. And not, you know, trying to like, I don't know, I thought I had a joke, but I don't. You side bend to the right, not so deeply that it's creating incredible sensation in the left. Let yourself take a few paces back from the edge of the cliff and just enjoy the view without, you know, having to shake and freak out and think that maybe you'll fall off. And then once you're in sort of a nice ease, full side bend, the breath will invite you to either stay as you are, back off, or maybe you express a little bit more. As you inhale, come back to center and pause for a moment, switch sides, grab ahold of your right wrist and reach up, pull your fingertips up. Try not to fan the ribs out, broaden your back body, lengthen your tailbone, lengthen as you breathe in. And then with the breath out, find a little non-dramatic, super chill side bend and you feel and you feel. And one of my friends, she says, wisdom speaks in whispers. So we have to get quiet to hear whispers. That's with the body too. You have to get quiet to hear the wisdom of the body. Come back to center, extend your arms, reach up and then release your arms by your sides. Pause, rest your hands on your body once more, close your eyes. Listening for the whispers, feeling for the whispers. Sometimes the whispers, the wisdom has no, they're in the words. Open your eyes, relax your arms, bend your knees a little bit, shake yourself out and then pause and just come to a tadasana, easeful tadasana. And then your inhale will come utkatasana, chair pose, sitting, confronting the fire, lifting your chest, opening your body metaphorically, and also literally, please open your front body, lift your chest up. As you exhale, hinge forward, relax your head and your neck. Inhale, lift the center of your chest, exhale, quiet your palms, bend your knees, step back to plank pose and pause there. Take a breath in there. As you exhale, you can lower either all the way or halfway down, whichever is part of your practice, you'll pause. You'll start to inhale and find either baby cobra or upward facing dog. You'll exhale and make your way to downward facing dog. So lifting the hips up. As you next inhale, inhale will come and you'll lengthen your right leg up towards the ceiling, three-legged dog reaching through your heel, taking some breaths here and seeing that, you know, you don't narrow the distance between the feet. Try to keep the feet's width apart. Take a breath in, lengthen. As you exhale, draw your right knee forward and stay there. Take a breath in there, use your exhale to step or step, step, step your right foot forward until your ankle is underneath your knee and pause in a lunge. If you've got blocks, you can use blocks under the hands to find space or you can use phantom blocks like I'm doing. So you lift the center of your chest, peel your back toes all the way back. So your back foot and leg are in plank poles and then you slowly lower your back knee to the floor and then bring your hands to your front knee and just pause here for a few breaths, trying to press into the ball of your back foot to draw your left foot forward. Release your arms by your sides. Just feeling, observing and inhale will come and you'll respond by sweeping your arms around and up. Interlace your hands behind your head as we did upside down, widen your elbows, lengthen your neck. So we're trying to bring this spinal extensions, little back bend into the neck as well as cervical spine and trying to really extend the thoracic spine. So rather than lifting the chin and leading with your chin and your eyes, lead with your heart. A metaphor, a mantra, lead with your heart. But don't let it be at the expense of the hips. So lots going on in the hip flexors, right? You can press into your front heel to lessen that opening of the hip flexor. With your next inhale, you can lead with the heart and lift the center of the chest, widen the elbows and take a few breaths here. So the hands behind the head will feel like you are tucking your chin. As you next inhale, come to neutral, lift your arms up, draw your ribs in and as you breathe and stay here, as you breathe out with side bend to the right, so reaching through your fingertips, extending through your fingertips as you side bend, fingertips can float, they can touch the floor, hands can be on a block, whatever works for you, whatever you have available. As you inhale, come back to center, lift up. As you exhale, bring your hands to the floor or your trusty blocks. If you have them, lift your back knee up and then bring your right thumb to your right hip crease and encourage your right hip to draw back. As you next inhale, encourage your spine to lengthen. Imagine that your spine begins at the bottom of your back heel. Peel those toes back, reach the head, crown of the head forward, inhale. As you exhale, keep looking at the floor as you revolve your chest open and then reach your right fingertips up to the ceiling, low lunge twist. So take a few breaths here and trying even in the shape to let that prana speak, let the breath speak. Inhaling, lengthening. As you exhale, bring your hand to the floor. Inhale to plank pose and pause. Exhale, you can lower yourself either all the way or halfway down. Inhale to baby cobra or upward facing dog and then exhale to downward facing dog. Giving yourself some time to register sensation or watch, listen for the whispers. As you inhale, reach your left leg up to the ceiling. Pause, remembering not to cross the leg over to the right side but keeping feet. If your foot was on the floor, it would still be hips width apart.

Inhale, exhale, draw your knee forward. Breathe in there. Your back body will expand and as you exhale, you step your left foot forward and you pause in lunge. You take a couple of breaths in the lunge, get long in the spine, broaden the chest, lower your back knee to the floor. Bring your hands to your front knee and pause. Press into the ball of your back foot so you draw that right hip forward and you relax the shoulders even as the hands are on the knee. And you get quiet and you practice that thing that I mentioned at Scientists are talking about granularity, emotional granularity, being super specific. So super specific about what's happening in your body. And I just mean, you know, being attentive, release your arms. Inhale, sweep your arms around and up. Pause, broaden your back body. Interlace your hands behind your head, widen your elbows. We'll be here for several breaths. So you're practicing leading with the heart and no longer leading with, you know, the chin and the eyes and everyone else's expectations of you. Letting your heart speak, letting your breath speak, letting the shape of the body sort of suggest to the mind and to the heart that, come on, bring it, I'm completely open. A couple more breaths just like this. I'm lengthening my neck a little more. I have a tendency to lift the chin. And then as you next inhale, lift up, come to neutral. So press into your front heel to find a little more neutral in the pelvis so you're not shifting so forward, knee above the ankle. Inhale to lift up and exhale to side, then to the left. Maybe the fingertips float. Maybe they're on the floor. Maybe they're on a block or a phantom block. You take a few breaths here just like this. And just as in the standing side bend, you're not like crazy exorcism level activity. Super quiet, super subtle. Just elegantly surveying the scene in front of you, stepping away from the edge of the cliff and breathing. And maybe with every breath, walking a little bit more towards the edge of the cliff. As you next inhale, come to center, lift your torso, your arms up. Exhale, bring your hands to the floor. Inhale to plank poles and pause there and plank poles supported with your knees are unsupported. Feeling whatever is there. Lengthening. And you bring sort of a lightness to the experience of plank poles because your full body is working. Not just arms and shoulders shaking. Legs are also super bright. Inhale, use your exhale to lower all the way down. Relax your arms by your side. Turn your face to one side and pause. Witness that breath. Witness the breath movement. Witness you. Turn your forehead back to the mat. Reach your palms alongside your body. Turn your palms to face down. Lift your shoulder heads up. As you inhale, lift everything off of the floor. Lift your legs, your arms, your chest, and pause. And exhale, lower yourself down. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, lower. Inhale, lift. Exhale, lower. Inhale, lift. Stay lifted. Spin your inner sides up.

Reach your fingertips back, lift your shoulder heads up. And you take a breath in there. And as you exhale, you lower down to the floor. Bring your hands next to your lower ribs. Press yourself back into a child's pose and pause. Walk your hands forward. Drive yourself forward. Lift your hips up and back to downward facing dog. And here on this live broadcast, I'm going to confront my own mistake. Please step your left foot forward and come into a lunge. Lift your chest up. Flatten your right hand to the floor or a block. Hook your left thumb into your left hip crease. Draw your left hip back. Reach back through your heel and forward to the crown of your head. Breathe in. And as you breathe out, keep looking at the floor as you open the chest. And then reach the left arm up to the ceiling and then you can slowly turn your gaze. So take a few breaths just like that. Course correction. Take a few more breaths just as you are and really witnessing. So it's tempting even for me to find, like, express the shape so strong. I have to remind myself to, you know, meet whatever is here, this complex shape that requires work, with softness and curiosity and openness, right, to possibility. Take one more breath in. Exhale. Bring your hand to the floor. Step back to down dog and pause there. Soften your knees. Relax your head and your neck. Okay, look up between your hands. Bend your knees deeply at the bottom of your exhale. You can step, walk, or float yourself forward. You inhale and lift your chest. Exhale and floor, floor. Inhale, sweep your arms around it up. Look up and touch your palm. And as you exhale, draw your hands down the center line of your body. And your palms there. Take a few moments of breath. You're listening very attentively for those whispers. And then you're placing your hands on your hips and just stepping your left foot back some amount, lowering your heel, widening your stance enough. So I'm doing this approximation, this expression of Warrior I. The hands are on the hips. It's not obsessive. We're chill here in this practice. So your back heel is pressing into the floor. Press the outer edge of your back foot into the floor. Loose the arch of your foot. Draw your ribs forward. And just check in with your back knee. If it feels a little funky, widen your stance.

Widen your stance. Release your arms by your sides. As you inhale, sweep your arms around it up. Maybe the palms touch, maybe not. They just reach up your fingertips. And as you exhale, you're going to hinge forward. Release your arms by your sides. Inhale, sweep your arms up. Exhale, forward folding. Inhale, expressing the breath, welcoming the breath with this gesture. And as you exhale, hinging forward, releasing your arms. Inhale, lifting up. This time, stand in Warrior I and pausing. Let your arms express whatever feels appropriate for your body in this moment. But resisting the temptation, you know, to perform what you think is appropriate because, you know, we see it being done a particular way. Let yourself soften into your reality and welcome your reality. And maybe your reality is looking like the cover of a yoga magazine that's perfectly fine too. All experiences are valid, but the breath is moving through your body. Let's take one breath in here. As you exhale, bring your hands to your hips, lift your back heel up. Use the rest of that exhale to step your back foot forward and pause. And we'll straightaway head into the other side. So you step your right foot back, lower the heel, set up your stance so that you feel clear and stable. And you've got to get quiet. You need to close your eyes to really feel what's happening in the body so you can respond in a way that's real for you. As you inhale, sweep your arms around it up. Maybe the palms touch, the exhale comes and we express our gratitude to be exhaled by bowing to me. Start to inhale and sweep your arms around and up. Look up, maybe touching your palms. And as you exhale, releasing your arms, folding forward. And now lift up. Thank you, breath. Thank you, body. Exhale, bowing to the breath. Inhale, sweeping the arms around it up and pausing, expressing as your body would like to. My palms are called to touch. Let the breath speak. Let your life speak through the breath and through your body to your body. Take one more breath in. As you exhale, bring your hands to your hips. Lift your back heel up and step that back foot forward and you'll come to stand in Tadasana. Let's once more do this gesture. I like this hands on the body. It's also a little gesture of self embrace. And this time, if you feel you're going to change your perceptual focus, be inside of your body. Feel the weight of your hands on your body and that assurance. Yes, I'm here. You speaking to yourself. I'm here. I'm here and I'm okay. Release your arms by your sides. Find selffulness and naturalness in your body. And then come to stand at the center of your mat and then just take a wide stance. Your feet are parallel. It can be as wide as you like. Do the splits if you're into that. No, please don't. Just take a very wide stance. Feet are pointing straight ahead and what's actually forward fold to the knees and be soft. We don't want to be performative and rigid, right? There's a softness in the knees. Interlace your hands behind your back. Please draw the heels of your hands together.

As you inhale, feel the chest lifts and I draw my hands back to encourage that spinal extension. And then I exhale, sending my heart towards the floor, leading again with the heart, setting this metaphorical imprint so that maybe in life we can also lead with the heart. And once you've lowered down to an expression that works for you, relax your head and your neck. You can also bend your knees as much as you need to. It's difficult to straighten hands. You can keep the elbows bent. So express in a way that works for you with every inhale. Feel the spinal extension. Allow for it. With every exhale, maybe hinge forward a little bit more. As you next inhale, lift up about halfway with soft knees. Release your hands. Bring your hands to your hips, elbows together, and then come all the way up to standing. Great. Extend your arms out to the sides. As you will now turn your palms to face up and lift up. As you exhale, twist to the left, keeping your spine long. We're going to keep moving. Inhale and lift up. And then exhale, twist in the opposite direction. Inhale and lift up. Exhale, bowing to the breath in this shape. Inhale, lifting up, bowing to center, opening, receiving that breath. I'm here. I'm open. Exhale, expressing, bowing to that exhale. And once more on each side, this time we'll inhale and come to center. And we'll exhale and stay in the twist. The hand can rest somewhere on your chin that works for you. Knees can be as soft as you need them to be, right? But lengthen your spine as much as you can. And let yourself forward fold. Interesting shape. So doing a little side bend, but also rotating along the axis of the spine. So with every inhale, you still feel that. Those waves of breath. And I'm exaggerating being dramatic now by expressing the breath. But that is what's happening. As you next inhale, you'll lift up, receive the breath, enjoying that pause, and then the exhale twist in the opposite direction, keeping the spine long. Be here for a few breaths just like this. Breath moving, breath expressing through the body. As your next inhale, when the inhale rises, see if you can use the full length of that inhale to come back to center. Bring your hands to your hips, soften your knees, step your feet together, relax your arms and pause. And then head right back to the top of your mat, front of your ship. I don't know what that's called. I wish I did. Facing forward and just pausing, feeling whatever there is to feel through the body, around the body. As you inhale, sit into chair pose into Patasana. Exhale and forward fold, bow into the breath. Inhale, lift your chest up. Exhale, plant the palms down the knees, step back with the rest of that exhale. Ideally, you can take a few extra breaths but let there be an inhale in your plank which is supported or unsupported. Use the full length of your exhale to lower yourself all the way down. Start to inhale and find baby Cobra dog as you like. Exhale, downward facing dog. Lift your hips up and back and inhale will come and we're going to extend the right leg straight up and back. Exhale will come and we'll draw the knee forward and use that exhale to step the foot forward and a little to the right. Drop your back heel, begin to inhale and sweep your arms around the neck. You'll look up and maybe touching your palms if that makes sense for your body. You release your arms. Bring your hands to the floor, lift your back heel up and step back. You can either move through some series of movements that will take you back to down dog or you can go directly back to downward facing dog. Remembering that your breath is the co-pilot of the heart now. As you inhale, lift your left leg straight up and back and then exhale, step your left foot forward and a little to the left. Give us a little bit of space, lower your back heel. Breath in, you'll come, you'll lift up, you'll sweep the arms around and up and breathe in and then you'll exhale. Bring your hands to the floor. Inhale to plank pose and again either lowering either all the way or halfway down and on your inhale either baby cobra or upward facing dog, pausing at the top of the breath and then exhaling. Downward facing dog, lift your hips up and back. Lower your knees to the floor and come to a child's pose for a moment, any expression of child's pose that you like. Feeling and enjoying and just marveling at, you know, this dance between inhale and exhale and then this other dance between your body and your breath. Walk your hands back towards you so you're in an upright position and you pause and then swing your legs out in front of you. See you step, come past your dandasana for a moment, flex your feet, step your feet to the floor so you're on the bottoms of your sitting balls. Lift your chest up, widen your elbows so rather than hugging the thighs, fingertips behind the thighs and use press, lift, broaden and you keep doing that. That's the same action with the inhale. Wow, it's very supportive of the inhale. If we extend the spine and lift the chest, you can stay there or you can tip back and lift your feet up and see if you can keep extending the spine. You can stay with the fingertips on the backs of the thighs or you can reach your arms forward, green. Take a few breaths there. If you like to straighten your legs, go ahead, hold the backs of your thighs, step your feet to the floor, reach your fingertips forward, scoop your tailbone forward and then see if you can with control keep your feet on the ground, lower yourself all the way down to the floor. Once you have stepped your feet a little closer to your body, lift your pelvis to lengthen your tailbone, create space in your lumbar spine and then draw your knees into your chest and then step your feet to the floor, step your feet to the floor, bend your elbows, let your fingertips point up to the ceiling, press into your upper arms to lift the chest, roll your shoulders underneath your body. As you inhale, press the palms down, lift your hips up into bridge pose, and we'll stay here for now in this bridge pose if you're feeling cold to do some other expression or something else entirely, please, by all means. Otherwise you're pressing into the heels, gently drawing your heels back as you lengthen your tailbone and we've created now this new condition for breath to pass through the body and what does it do? The same thing it's been doing forever. As you inhale, you feel your chest expand, it creates and sort of illuminates this back bend that we found ourselves, we placed ourselves in. As you exhale, the belly firms, that allows us to lengthen the tailbone, so we're creating this beautiful even arc throughout the length of the spine. Take one more breath in, as you exhale, you can slowly lower your pelvis down to the floor, separate your feet a little wider and then windshield wiper your knees from left to right. And then coming to center, stepping the feet closer together, sitting long with seats apart, if you have a block and would like to do a restorative bridge pose, go ahead and slide the block underneath your pelvis. Otherwise let's try another active bridge pose. So press your palms down into the floor, press the shoulders down, begin to inhale, lift your pelvis up. This time let's interlace the hands underneath the body. Let's draw the heels of the hands together and press the hands down, forearms down, upper arms down. And we'll take some breaths just like this. So now hands illuminating also this upper back bend. So it's like where the band changes is all together now, but cans are glass, the pelvis is lifted, the breath is moving through the body. And we're playing this song called Setu Bandha Sarvangasana in harmony. So can you, you know, continue the work that is required of the pose, but meet that work with the softness of the breath, the clarity of the breath, the expansiveness of the breath. Take one more inhale. As you exhale, release your hands, lower your pelvis down to the floor and windshield wiper your knees from left to right. Come to center and pause for a moment and construct a rest position. The hands can rest on the body. Draw your knees into your chest. Pause here for a moment. Let's extend the arms out either into a T shape if you like. Sometimes it feels nice to be in a cactus shape. You experiment and see what works for you. You can be done to about 90 degrees and both behind the knees and at the hips. And as you inhale, you can stay here. As you exhale, let your knees fall to the left, turn your head to the right and pause. Inhale, come to center and pause. Knees center, head center. Exhale, let the knees fall to the right, turn your head to the left.

Great. Inhale, coming to center. Exhale, twisting. Inhale, center. Exhale, twist. Inhale, center. Exhale, twist this time. Stay in the twist on the side and just let it be whatever it is softening your body. Right arm is, right palm is facing up, arm is positioned so shoulder is spacious. I feel the breath movement, right? So we're in this other shape. Breath is moving through the body in this way that is new for this practice. An inhale will come and when it does, draw your knees to the center and look center so we're neutralizing the shape of the body so we can expand. And as you exhale, let the knees fall to the right, turn your head to the left. Just noticing and allowing for the breath to speak, the breath to move, the body to just faithfully surrender itself to the breath and to gravity. As you next inhale, you'll come back to center, neutralizing the shape so you can fully breathe in. Draw your knees into your chest. Hug them into the chest. Lift your head and your upper back away from the floor and take a few breaths there. So meeting even this work in this shape we're doing on the back now, meeting it with softness of breath, movement of breath, letting there always be room for dialogue no matter what the circumstance. Take one more breath in and as you exhale, really extend one leg and then the other coming to Shavasana. Seeing that your legs are wide apart, arms are, palms are face up, arms are away from the body. If you've got props you like to use on Shavasana, with four Shavasana, go ahead and set yourself up and just once you have arrived in final resting pose, do nothing, letting go of every single effort, letting go of every single expectation and just feeling and letting the body dance to that internal rhythm that's always there, that song of yours, which is the beating of your heart and the movement of your breath. Inhale, exhale. Letting the front of your body merge at the back of your body, giving the back of your body to the lower floor, letting gravity draw you towards the center of the earth. And you can begin to wiggle your fingers and toes. If you like to keep resting, keep resting. Extend your arms alongside your ears, stretching really long through one side and then the other, keeping your arms long as you draw your knees into your chest and roll to one side and rest there for just a moment. Keep your eyes closed as you slowly come up to a comfortable seated position and once you're seated, just sitting well, resting your hands on your knees or your thighs. Once more hands on the body feel, movement of breath in the body. Thank you, breath. Thank you, body. And just honoring yourself, your reality.

Bring your palms together at the center of your chest, bow your head to your hands, thanking yourself for practicing, honoring again your body, your breath, the connection between the two and may you carry the sense of connection and groundedness and ease and curiosity and playfulness with you always. The light in me, season honors, the light that shines so incredibly brightly in you. Namaste.