Opening to Breath

Hi, my friends. Welcome back, if you've been before, and welcome to Guided by Breath. I'm Sadia. I'm so glad you're here. Today, we're going to open to breath. So we'll open the front of the body. We'll do a little bit of side bending, just so we can receive, you know, and continue this work of communing with this animating life force that's inside of us, breath. For today's practice, you'll need two blocks. So you can go scurry and grab those if you don't have them ready. And we're actually going to begin in a supported back bend with the help of those two blocks. So you will actually lay the blocks down on their lowest height. So the long edges of the block are parallel with the long edges of your mat. They're about maybe a few inches apart, that's an arbitrary number, you'll measure it out for yourself momentarily, but you just place the two blocks on their lowest height, the bottom block will support your thoracic spine, the second block will support your head. So you'll come to sit in front of the bottom block, maybe six inches forward or so just estimating where you have to sit so that your thoracic spine is supportive mid mid back. And then you'll interlace your hands behind your head, you're going to slide your hands up your head as you lay your head down onto that second block. You have to adjust your positioning. And then once you found yourself in a nice supported place, you'll bring your arms next to your body, you can place your palms to face down for now, and then gently press into your heels to lift your pelvis up and lengthen your tailbone forward so that you can lay the pelvis back down with some space in your lumbar spine. And then bring your arms directly next to your body and begin to inhale with your inhale with an inhale, you'll sweep your arms alongside your ears with a full length of your breath in, you'll pause, and then you'll grab opposite elbows, you draw your elbows away from your hips gently. And we'll take a few moments just to breathe into the sides of your body. So with every inhale maybe being encouraged to draw the elbows a little bit more away from the hips and as you exhale feeling that sort of the contraction of the low belly that kind of settling energy of the exhale. So just breathing in and out through the nose, receiving breath in, letting that breath expand your ribcage in all four directions top to bottom left to right. And then as you're ready slowly release your elbows as you kind of snow angel your arms towards your body, maybe that's an irrelevant cue for those of you on the west coast but imagine you're making a snow angel until your arms are about 45 degrees away from your body and then heavy the heads of your shoulders. Let your elbows be heavy. Let your body be upper body completely supported by these blocks. May take a few moments to really allow the body to fully settle. You might like to keep your knees bent but separate your feet, let the knees rest into each other. It might feel good to extend both of your legs. I'm just giving yourself, if you're not sure which of those variations would be best for your body, you're always independent in your practice, you can experiment. If you try something and it doesn't quite feel right, you can try the other thing or something else altogether. Let yourself find some position of a leg so that you can fully soften. So this is at once a pretty gentle supported backbend. The blocks are on the lowest height but because of this it's also quite powerful, quite effective. So the chest is supported in a way that's very, you know, there's no drama involved here so it's easier for the mind and the body just to settle and to be supported. It can often be a little challenging for us to really lean into whatever support we have. So this here is an opportunity to practice that in a very tangible way. Take just a few more breaths just like this. Softening the eyes, the brow, the face and really just giving the weight of your body to the blocks into the floor. Begin to deepen your breath so receive a little bit more of the breath. Maybe making little movements with the hands and then if the legs are extended you'll step your feet to the floor. If the knees are touching you'll separate them and then to exit this you'll very mindfully lift your pelvis up, move your pelvis over to one side so you can roll gently onto one side and slowly make your way up to an upright position and to sit today we're actually going to sit in Sukhasana, so cross-legged seat with the support of two blocks. So the two blocks now and you can face whatever direction is convenient for you but you're going to bring them together so they're touching and one sitting bone will rest on each block so you're just going to come to sit. The middle of your pelvis is where the two blocks touch, the middle of the blocks and then please extend your legs into like a staff pose, Dandasana shape. Find neutral, find Tadasana in your feet and in your legs and then try to maintain that neutral positioning of the feet and cross your legs at the centers of your shins. Flex your feet, let the thigh bones be heavy, knees heavy. You can help your your buttock flesh out from under your pelvis so the sitting bones are rooted make sure you're evenly supported and you know once you find and you feel you sense that you're well supported underneath the pelvis you're going to interlace your hands behind your back. Let the heels of your hands touch so the elbows are bent you're going to draw your elbows towards each other. You can stay there if it feels comfortable you might like to extend your elbows. You can soften the eyes or close them all together and just take a few breaths here so we're trying to release the the front of our shoulders anterior parts of the shoulders and then with control without snapping the hands apart you'll gently release the hands. Rest your hands on your knees or your thighs and then float the eyes closed. Maybe you still feel the imprint of the block against the upper back that samskara that echo of the block against the back. Maybe you still feel the echo of the block against the back of the head and try to channel a little bit of that energy lifting the crown of the head up lifting the roof of the mouth up. Bring your palms together at the center of your chest and just pausing for a moment resting with a breath and bow your head to your hands. Maybe set an intention or dedication for your practice and release your hands to your thighs. Flutter your eyes open and lift your head up lead with the back of your skull and then please extend your legs straight forward again and then cross in the opposite way so sort of a non-dominant way of crossing your your legs reposition yourself and just observe and then as you're ready walking your fingertips out to the sides rolling your biceps forward feeling that lift that comes to the chest and as you inhale you'll sweep your arms around and up looking up maybe the palms touch as you exhale you'll release your arms by your sides with the full length of your breath out we'll do that a few more times so communing with breath right returning the body to the breath in this way that's very practical very easy very tangible very powerful again inhaling sweeping the arms up doing this movement as though you were doing it so you can take the breath in and then exhaling releasing the arms once more inhale sweep your arms around and up look up and touch your palms with the full descent of your exhale you descend your hands to the center of your chest to Anjali Mudra and pause the soft gaze or closed eyes and just witness or just experience and then let's interlace the hands behind the head as we did when we opened and then you'll widen your elbows so with my hands I'm actually gently lengthening my neck widen your elbows feel that length of the neck can you close your eyes in fact and as you inhale can you gently lengthen the neck and also lift the roof of your mouth up towards the crown of your head just take a few moments just to observe this lifting with the inhale and can you meet this lifting up of the very inside of your skull with a softening of the brow and of the eyes and then as you next inhale widen your elbows more as you lift your sternum up not your chin and as you exhale curve the spine tuck the chin draw your elbows towards each other we'll do this a few more times inhale lifting the sternum up widening the elbows receive the breath in exhale reverse draw the elbows together curve the spine tuck the chin again inhale open open to breath exhale drawing in feeling the quality energetic physical quality of the the exhale and as you inhale open and as you exhale drawing inward inhale open lift the chest stay here as you exhale we'll take a few breaths here in the lifted position and I want you to see if you can feel you know you're you're in stillness but can there still be a suppleness about your approach and about your body so that every time you breathe in you feel a little more brightening of the chest take one more breath in as you exhale just come to neutral release the backs of your hands to your knees and just pause and and witness feel and then as you're ready you'll come off of your two blocks the two blocks will now move towards the the top of your mat and they'll be about shoulder width apart and be hair wider than shoulder width you'll place your two hands on the blocks you'll bring your big toes to touch your widen your knees and then slowly send your seat to your heels and you'll relax your head rest your forehead on the floor and you take a few breaths here in this extended child's pose so noticing how this may feel a little bit different than child's pose without blocks can you slowly crawl your hands a little farther forward as though you are intentionally gathering length on the sides of your body feel what happens to the upper back the arms the shoulders can lift your head slightly away from the floor and let the breath bring space let the breath enliven and sort of illuminate whatever sensation you you've you found and just breathing in through the nose and out through the nose maybe practicing your ujjayi breath if that's part of your practice crawl the hands a little farther forward still spread the knuckles of your fingers and roll your biceps up towards the ceiling and we're going to take a little side bend so you walk your hands over to the right the left hand will come to that right block and the right hand will walk itself over to the right and you can stay here and your side bend you might like to bring also the left hand to the floor you take a few breaths there just like that inside of this stillness finding and allowing that quality of suppleness and softness and ease so you know rather than efforting offering so we're this the shape is an offering to the breath we've made the shape with a body and we say breath here take the shape what will you do with this what will you do inside of this and it answers and it tells you i'm going to bring space and then i'm going to give you some clarity and then walk your hands back to center you'll pass through the blocks you can look forward little visual aid there you'll pause in the center and then right hand to the block left hand to the floor release the head and pause and maybe stay here so it's a little it's not as um it's not as so-called deep of a side bend but sometimes you know depth of expression prevents us from depth of sensation and and experience so allow yourself to maybe be in a really easeful version and then maybe at some point you're you're called as an offering to bring your right hand to the floor and you breathe into the right side of your body and you stay supple as as you do this so that the breath can move the prana can move that force that animates us can can move through the body walk your hands back to center hands to the block see that the heels of your hands are on the deviled edges of the blocks or the rounded edges of the block and as you inhale you're going to bring yourself forward to a cow pose and pause and let's actually pause here for a few breaths so the hands are lifted the chest is lifted maybe you feel a little more brightness in the chest as a result of blocks under the hands you'll take one more breath in as you exhale you're going to press back to downward facing dog pressing the heels of the hands into the blocks but keeping the palms broad and you just sense whatever is there to to be sensed as you inhale lower your knees slowly to the release your belly open the chest roll the biceps forward as you exhale child's pose inhale come forward to cow pose again and as you exhale downward facing up once more inhale knees to the floor lowering making the shape as an offering to your breath pausing at that beautiful crest at the top of your inhale the exhale comes and we respond by pressing back to child's pose inhale again come forward to cow pose and pause and then exhale downward facing dog and pause and slowly walk your feet up towards your hands your blocks can come off of your mat and off to the sides and you find uttanasana standing forward fold soften your knees you can grab opposite elbows you might feel called to you know do some some movement like with with will you move your body but then please find stillness in your standing forward fold give the weight of your your upper body your whole body really to gravity let the the breath and and gravity have have a conversation and let let the body listen to that conversation into the grip of your hand so opposite forearm is is in front then interlace your hands behind your head let your hands rest on that ridge at the back of your skull elbows are heavy hands are heavy so we're creating that that space of the back of the neck and as you inhale bend your knees to 90 degrees widen your elbow and lift your chest up and pause widen the elbows lift your head up into your hands and as you inhale feel the upper chest expand as you exhale you can forward fold and release that and then to come up to standing let's walk the hands up the legs and just slowly like little Frankenstein Halloween is coming I think I made that joke before but here it is again and then you roll yourself all the way up to standing you find Tadasana mountain poles and you move around a little bit because you no longer are pretending that you are a rigid robot you're you're a human humans are round there's a lot of spiraling going on in the body you'll find Tadasana with your palms facing forward you'll begin to inhale with a full length of your breath in you'll sweep your arms around and up as an offering to the inhale and as you exhale you soften your knees and bow forward to that breath do that again start to inhale reach your heart forward sweep your arms around and up in a natural way palms maybe touch at the top as you exhale soften your knees and hinge forward once more like that start to inhale sweep your arms around and up this time exhale draw your hands down the center line of your body and pause this time hands on your body and just observe observe movement of breath in your body observe connection of body to breath observe how maybe the mind has now this spaciousness of breath release your arms by your sides open your eyes begin to inhale sweep your arms around and up as you exhale you forward fold with soft knees start to inhale prepare pulls hands to your shins lift your chest you can undulate the spine and lift the chest exhale forward fold plant your hands step yourself back to a downward facing dog soften your knees sand the tailbone up and back as you inhale wave yourself forward to plank pulls or modified plank so moving really organically you can lower the knees as you inhale lift your chest as you exhale use the full length of your exhale to lower all the way down to the floor begin to inhale peel yourself up for baby cobra bhujangasana and pause and exhale lower down inhale lifting up exhale lowering inhale lifting up and this time staying in in baby cobra and feeling you know that same movement of breath that you felt when you were in motion is still there in the stillness and this it's like you know when we're still in a pose it's like we are wrapping our aliveness with stillness so that aliveness is always there as long as we are alive you take one more breath in you exhale lower yourself down press yourself up to tabletop position and then let's walk the hands actually back so you're in neutral tabletop wrists under your shoulders knees underneath your hips and let's do our little undulating tabletop so moving your shoulders elbows spine can move in various directions get weird get weird always get weird and stay stay there stay weird and then you come to neutral tabletop position and pause and let's just do an inhale for cow pulls do it as an offering to your breath so for the breath with the breath to express the breath pause the exhale will come feel your belly firm firm it tuck your tailbone curve your spine tuck your chin and just do that once more inhale riding the wave of the inhale opening to that breath and pausing then the exhale comes and we respond a little undulating going on you can experiment with that and then come to neutral tabletop walk your hands forward one handprint tuck your toes under take an inhale here as you exhale lift your knees away from the floor pause take a breath in and then exhale lift your hips all the way up and back to down dog and then please walk your hands and feet towards each other so you're at the center of your mat and then just slowly roll yourself up in that weird way and just exploring on the way up you know some people like the stacking of the vertebra imagery you choose whatever works for you and then once you're standing in tadasana you pause for a moment you can shake yourself out and then turn so that you are facing the long edge of your mat if you will just face in a way that works for you going to separate the legs now so you bring your hands to your hips and then separate your feet wide apart maybe three or four feet it's kind of it's actually arbitrary but you gauge for your body right always developing that autonomy in your practice and then make sure that the feet are parallel lift the arches of the feet the quads are firm thigh muscles are firm draw your elbows back and feel as doing that creates broadness in the chest so you're opening to breath right here just like this so no drama very simple but very effective very effective extend your arms with your palms facing down close your eyes and feel whatever you feel and then with incredible slowness exquisite slowness beginning with the very tips of your fingers and moving up to your shoulders start to turn your palms and your arms up towards the ceiling as you breathe in and open your eyes finish with the eyes feel that crest at the top of your inhale as you breathe out turn your palms to face down feel and allow the shoulders to round forward as you breathe in same thing start with the very tips of your fingers end with your sternum the center of your chest and once more as you exhale reverse inhale turn the palms up see that the the knees are soft while you're doing this and then take a breath in lift the chest a little more as you exhale you're going to twist to the right and you can touch your calf or your ankle whatever works for you we're going to keep moving so you'll inhale and come to center receive that breath in like an offering and then exhale twisting in the opposite direction inhale lifting up exhale twist and inhale will come and you'll respond by lifting and opening the arms and you'll exhale and twist inhale lifting up and then exhale and twisting this time stay in the twist whatever your expression is see that your knees are soft your spine is long so you're doing little side bend little twists kind of complex but we don't have to worry about that you're just in a in a twist little forward fold your arm can extend directly out of your shoulder but every breath in please lengthen the crown of your head away from your tailbone and as you exhale feel a little clarity comes to that twist we'll take one more breath cycle there and the breath we're not sustaining so you can be rigid we're sustaining so you can explore as you next inhale come back to center lift your chest in your arms up and as you exhale your twists in the opposite direction you find an expression of the shape that works for you and maybe you know it's soft to start I'm feeling called to move my knees a little bit I'm feeling called to move my shoulders and then I find a little stillness but it's stillness that is wrapping the movement of breath the life that's inside the body so I inhale lengthen the spine and you can do that too if you like and as you exhale you find a little more clarity in the twist as you next inhale you'll come to center turn your palms up lift up can place your hands on your hips as you exhale and step your feet together and pause and again you know sapo tadasana rest your hands on your body one hand on your heart one on your abdomen and just breathe and and witness great release your arms and then separate your feet wide apart again maybe the the length of the stance is the same so you're going to move into a warrior two on the right side for us so you'll turn your right toes towards the right and you'll see that your heel is roughly in line with your your back arch so the hips can be open hands will come to the hips if they're not already there and then you'll slowly bend your front knee and you'll adjust your stance so the knee will be bent to a degree that works for your body right so always getting the the poses in your practice to to work for your body not your body to fit to a practice maybe taking a few extending the knee bending the knee and then when it feels right you can extend your arms as you inhale sweep your arms up straighten your front leg and as you exhale rebend your knee and lower your arms and you do that twice more inhale straighten the knee lift your arms up and exhale rebend the knee and lower your arms once more inhale straighten the knee lift up exhale rebend the knee this time stay here sustaining sustaining so you can explore the movement inside of your body turn your palms to face up and feel how maybe that changes the the quality the energetic quality of the of the pose and you take a few breaths here inviting yourself reminding yourself to not be rigid be soft be curious you know take one more breath in here and as you exhale bring your forearm to your thigh your your right forearm to your thigh and then sweep the left arm alongside your ear and we take a breath here lift up out of the shoulder take several breaths here lift up out of the shoulder let the abdomen be firm take an inhale and lengthen through your fingertips as you exhale you draw your elbow back inhale reach through the fingertips lengthen exhale draw the elbow back inhale lengthen and stay here we take a few breaths here just like this every breath a little bit more space every breath in a little more space every breath out a little more clarity you take one more breath in as you exhale keep your front knee bent use the power of your exhale to lift yourself back up into warrior two great and then you can straighten that front leg turn your toes your your foot so that both feet are parallel and you pause for a moment soften your knees don't soften bend your knees a lot you can hinge a little bit forward and maybe synchronizing with your breath so on the exhale perhaps lowering yourself down and on an inhale coming to stand up and then stay in this stance a wide stance grab your two blocks let's let's use the the help of the two blocks here for our wide angle forward fold standing forward fold you place the blocks in front of you on perhaps their highest height you may change that once you're you're expressing the shape but as you inhale hands to hips draw your elbows back there is that opening to breath lifting the chest up as you exhale hinge forward with a long spine so keep your spine long draw your elbows back bring your hands to your blocks the blocks can be underneath your shoulders see that the arches of the feet are lifted legs are firm outer hips firming in as you inhale lift your chest up as you exhale you'll hinge forward hinging forward from the hips so not rounding the spine keeping the spine extended let every inhale help you find or maintain that length of the spine and you'll hinge forward as much as makes sense for your body you may find that you would like to lower the blocks you may find that you would like to explore pressing the blocks forward let yourself be spacious in your your exploration it's a pretty linear a lot of straight lines right but can you maintain roundness in your approach and in your your your inner body and in your mind come up about halfway so if you walk the blocks forward walk them back and come up halfway soften your knees and then everyone bring your hands to your hips keep your knees soft reach your heart forward so you come all the way up to standing and you step your feet together and then once more I do a little weird stuff with your body whatever works for you stepping one foot and then the other you can shake yourself out whatever allows you to come to that you know reset and then let's stand again in Tadasana soft Tadasana hands on your body once more and just witnessing and now we'll do the other side so step your feet wide apart once more move my blocks off to the side here step your feet wide apart turn your left toes out so we're rotating that thigh bone open we're turning your your right toes slightly in and you're bending your front knee to whatever degree works for your body today you'll extend through your arms lift the center of your chest as you inhale straighten your front leg lift your arms up exhale rebend your inhale lifting up exhale rebend the knee extend your arms once more inhale lift up exhale rebend the knee and pause turn your palms to face up and feel what that does for the the energetic quality of the pose you take a few breaths here just like this just observing witnessing and we have shrouded right that inner movement with stillness but we haven't suffocated it so there's a ton of movement inside the body and then as you're ready forearm to thigh sleep your right arm alongside your ear and as you do that you open the chest inhale to lengthen through your fingertips exhale to draw your elbow back inhale lengthen exhale draw the elbow back inhale lengthen and stay here lift up out of the shoulder press into your your left heel so that you're not sinking into the hip and let you know let the body and the breath have a conversation in which the body is incredibly attentive and responsive you take one more breath in as you exhale come back to warrior to lift your torso extend your arms great straighten your front leg hands to hips turn your toes so that your feet are parallel and you can step your feet together and just witness either in stillness or in some type of movement and then you'll come to the top of your mat and again sappol tadasana as you inhale sweep your arms around and up in a way that works for you so I'm going to change it reach my arms forward and up living on the edge and then exhale hinge at the hips forward fold inhale prepare pose lift the chest exhale plant your palms bend your knees step yourself back to plank pose or modified plank whatever works for you but let's pause for a moment in the shape that is not just linear it is a line we're making a line with our body and it requires a tremendous amount of effort but can there be a lightness about the effort whether the knees are lifted or not can you feel the legs are also active even when the knees are lowered can you feel as you inhale lifting your chest lengthening through the entire length of your spine and let's on this next exhale lower ourselves all the way down to the floor and as we inhale let's come straight away to b b cobra and pause take a few breaths here in bjungasana you might like to keep your hands on the floor you might experiment with coming up to fingertips or lifting your hands away from the floor whatever you do breath breath is still there always there take one more breath in and then you'll exhale and lower yourself down you can turn your face to one side and just pause with the shoulders round forward and then turn your forehead to the mat keep your arms next to your body with your palms facing down anchor the tops of your feet down spin your inner thighs up as you inhale lift up with your inhale we're going to keep moving as you exhale you'll lower yourself back down inhale lifting and as you exhale you'll lower and do that a couple more times inhale lift exhale lower inhale lift yourself up and stay in the lifted position lift the heads of your shoulders up reach back with your fingertips and your your hand is always on the dial so you can get quite intense with with this pose with shalabhasana right or you can explore it from a little more of a kind of soft place but let yourself tune in to what the body and the breath are telling you and let this be a moment of exploration so still breathing still expansive breath take one more breath in as you exhale you'll lower yourself down this time you'll press yourself back to a child's pose and you'll pause relax your elbows I am choosing to turn my palms up in this child's pose I've actually been doing that quite a lot lately you might want to experiment with that whatever arm variation works for you is perfect just make sure that you find it give yourself that opportunity great and then slowly come up to an upright position and you'll pause for a moment and then you'll come to your back let's actually lower in a in a mindful way so you step your feet to the floor reach your fingertips forward and you'll practice just lowering yourself down playing with one vertebrae at a time great and once you're there you can draw your knees into your chest and then let's have you step your feet to the floor let's all step our feet to the floor so that the ankles are underneath the the knees we'll do a little moving moving bridge so feet are about sitting bones distance apart and then start to inhale press into your heels to lift your pelvis up and extend your arms alongside your ears and then exhale lower yourself down inhale lifting up and then exhale lowering yourself down inhale lift up this time stay in the lifted position arms can stay alongside the ears and this version keep pressing your heels down take another couple of breaths in but again this too it's an offering for your breath take one more breath in and as you exhale lower pelvis to the floor separate your feet a little wider than hips width and then just when she'll wiper your knees from left to right the arms can now come alongside the body and then come back to center we'll actually do one more bridge pose this time with the arms next to the body press into your arms to lift your chest and roll your shoulders towards each other and feel doing that creates this lift of the station is a bit like that supported back then we we did chest lifted when your next inhale arises respond by pressing into your heels and lifting your hips up so that your upper spine can extend and your chest can expand even more so an offering for breath you can keep your palms pressing into the floor you might like to interlace your hands underneath your body but whatever is making contact with the floor your feet your hands forearms upper arms shoulders back of the head they are making very decisive contact with the floor so that the front of the body can lift up and that inhale can move through the body like unobstructed in this beautiful way a couple more breaths here keep pressing the heels down drawing your tailbone forward you take another big inhale here and as you exhale release your hands if they're connected lower your pelvis and again windshield wiper your knees from left to right come to center step your feet together draw your knees into your chest and then whatever you like you might like to roll yourself up to sitting I think I'm going to do that or you might like to roll to one side I'm just going to roll up once you can roll forever if you like and then please come to staff pose dandasana extend your legs straight out in front of you as we did when we were finding our seat in the beginning sitting bones are rooted you can soften your knees if that helps but bring the sole of your right foot to your inside of your left thigh reach through your left heel maybe the knee stays a little soft or bent some amount revolve your torso so you're facing the foot and then just breathe and lift your arms up breathe out and hinge forward breathe into lift up breathe out hinging forward inhale lifting up and exhale hinging forward and pausing you can hold the outer edges of your feet hands can come to the floor whatever feels best for your body that knee can be as bent as you need and then soften your shoulders you can let your spine round feel the breath moving and maybe accept the invitation of the breath to become a little bit more draw a little nearer to that that center of yourself the inner inner refuge and you can slowly roll yourself up and we'll switch side so you draw your right knee and extend the leg bend your left knee place the sole of the foot on the inside of the thigh finding neutral on the torso receiving the breath and welcoming it by lifting your arms up and then bowing to the exhale that follows and doing that twice more so you breathe in and lift up and breathe out and hinge forward breathe in and lift up breathe out and hinge forward for the first few moments doing some exploring and then allowing the head and the neck to become heavy and rounded continuing to be drawn nearer and nearer to that center of the self slowly roll yourself up to a seat extend your legs and then come to shavasana so you'll recline on your back let's draw the knees into the chest once more step your feet to the floor so they're about sitting bones distance apart cross your right ankle over your left knee flex the foot and then draw your left knee in towards your left thigh rather in towards your body and letting the body and the breath continue to have that conversation allowing the body to be responsive to what it hears keep your legs as they are and then extend your arms into either a t-shape or a cactus shape just extend them out to the sides as you take a twist to the left so you take a twist to the left you're going to stand your right foot on the floor and let that right knee point up to the ceiling take a few breaths here it can be interesting to use your left hand to press the right thigh bone away from your body want to get as close to the hip socket as possible if you do this great and then we'll return to center we center the hips and step the left foot to the floor followed by the right and then we'll switch sides cross the left ankle over the right knee hug your right thigh into your chest and pause keep your legs as they are as you extend your arms out to the side and twist to the right stepping your left foot to the floor letting the left knee point up towards the ceiling maybe using your right hand to press the left thigh bone away from the body as you're ready you'll slowly come back to center we center your hips step your right foot to the floor your left foot to the floor draw your knees in towards your body and find a happy baby pose you hold the outer edges of your feet or the backs of your thighs keep your sacrum grounded you can rock from left to right maybe you extend one leg and then the other maybe both and just let yourself find you know find some organic organic movement explore and let that exploration be really spacious rather than kind of rush and then as you're ready please bring the soles of your feet to touch lower your feet onto the floor so the legs are kind of in this diamond shape it might help if this is not comfortable you can of course not do it at all but you can also find support by placing blocks underneath your thighs rest your hands on your body organize your your shoulders and your upper back so that upper back is flush with the floor and then as you're ready extending one leg and then the other coming to Shavasana final resting pose the moment we all wait for and rightfully so because this is it this is the point when all of the work we've done is integrated is woven into the fabric of our of our being makes a home in our body allow yourself to take up space let your legs be wide apart palms up and and away from your body give yourself a few moments to find real comfort in your your Shavasana doing a scan of your body from feet to head and just being very very attuned trying to get incredibly quiet do some deep body listening so if there's anything that would bring even like 2% more comfort to you you can do that thing give yourself the time and the space to really receive the weight of your front body and give the weight of your back body to the floor and allow force of gravity to draw you towards the center of the earth as prana as your breath draws your mind closer towards the center of your being so two of the same processes happening on two levels you're welcome to continue resting in Shavasana if you'd like to come up to a seat take your time make small movements with your fingers and toes and extend your arms alongside your ears get really long through your your entire body keep your arms along as you roll onto one side and rest your head on your arm take a couple of moments in the fetal position and then as you're ready whenever you're ready you'll very very slowly tenderly and gently sweetly come up to a seated position can take any seat you like take your time and finding that that seat and once you are sitting sit well so bottom of the pelvis is grounded the spine is long crown of the head lifting up heavy your arms rest your hands on your knees or your thighs your palms can be faced down it's a little more grounding it might feel good to have your palms facing up for a little more receptive quality of energy and just allow yourself just to abide in this stillness and yourself and your body and your breath rest your hands on your body once more receive the next inhalation in its entirety and feel and enjoy that pause at the top and then feel and enjoy as that inhale tumbles into an exhale full long exhale and feel and enjoy that pause at the bottom of the exhale feel as that exhale rises into another inhalation and so on bring your palms together at the center of your chest and bow your head to your hands thanking yourself for practicing for doing this work for committing to returning your body to your breath so the class you know the series of classes is called guided by breath and you know what I mean by that is not just you know asana and yoga postures are guided by breath but the most important posturing we do is the way we carry ourselves through the world and in the world so may we be guided by breath in those moments of those times when we're leading our lives so that we come from this you know true place of clarity and stillness and openness thank you for practicing with me today delight in me season honors the light that shines so brightly in you namaste