Awakening to Breath

My friends, welcome. Hello. Thank you for joining me. This is Guided by Breath. I'm Sudia. If you're new, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. If you're coming back, you're a return customer. Welcome. I'm also glad you're here. I hope all is well where you are. Where I am here in the Berkshires, autumn is blushing, as I've liked to say these past few days. Autumn is blushing. I'm looking out. I see a sea of green, but there's some color here and there. Season is starting to turn. Of course, this time in general is kind of a time of transition. We are indeed experiencing change from the micro all the way to the macro. Every sort of change you can imagine is occurring right now. I hope you're well during this time of change. I hope you're maintaining clarity and centeredness. This is what we're going to try to work on today in the body lab. So let's begin. For props, you'll need two blocks. If you like to be covered in Shavasana, you can grab a blanket and have that nearby and ready. And today we're going to begin in a reclined position, in constructive rest position. So you'll come to lie down on your back with your feet about mat width apart and stepped away from your body. You want the knees to touch so that the thigh bones are just resting, heads of the thigh bones resting in the hip sockets. The arms, to start, you can have them alongside your body just so you can lift your pelvis up and lengthen your tailbone forward to create space in your low back. And then please bring your hands onto your body and close your eyes. And just witness. Witness for the state of your body. If there's anything you can do to find even a little bit more comfort in your constructive rest position, do that thing. If you're unsure of what that thing might be, experiment. And once the body is comfortable, this is an invitation right for the mind to soften and for the breath to express itself a little more freely. So allow those two things to happen. Maybe taking some audible exhale, sighing is actually good for us. With your hands on your body, feel that movement of breath, feel the expansion as you breathe in and the contraction as you breathe out. And of course, not attempting to control or change the breath. It's just observing, just observing. Breathing in and out through the nose. As you're ready, please draw your knees into your chest for alpanasana. And as you inhale, lengthen your arms, straighten your arms, draw the knees away from your body so your ribcage and belly can extend. As you exhale, draw your knees towards your chest. As though you're trying to help expel that breath out of the body. Inhale, straighten the arms and knees away from your body. Receive the breath in. Exhale, draw the knees in. And once more, inhale. Elbows extend. Exhale, draw the knees towards you, this time taking a happy baby pose. So you'll hold either the outer edges of your feet or the backs of your thighs, whatever is accessible, whatever feels good for your body right now in this moment. Try to lengthen your tailbone so that your sacrum stays grounded. You might feel called to rock a bit from left to right. You might feel called to extend one leg and then the other. Just let yourself kind of explore. Be a happy baby, embody the shape. And I actually, I feel like I have real like kinesthetic memory of doing this as a kid. I think I, if I recall, or maybe this is fantasy, I like to do it on, on a bed for some reason. Did you like happy baby pose as a child? Do you remember? And then come to center when you're ready and pause. And then let's just do happy baby on the right side. So extend your left leg forward, flex your right toes as though your foot you're going to stand on the ceiling. And then you rock a little bit over to the right. It's as though we're deepening that rotation of the hip and you're not forcing, you're just exploring. So maybe you find some movement, you rock a little bit. Maybe you find a spot that's interesting to sustain or to just be in for a moment. Still there and still moving. And then as you're ready, come to center, bend the knee and cross your right knee over your body. Extend your right arm out to the side with a palm facing up.

You might like to use your left hand to press the right thigh bone away from your, your ribs from your shoulders. That creates a little space in the right side of the body. And then as you're ready, you can release and come back to center and then return to full happy baby in the center. So sacrum grounded, pause, extend your right leg along the floor and pause for a moment and just observing, try to find a quality of tabasana and that right leg flex the foot. Toes are flexing back towards you. You rock a little bit onto the left side. You explore. Maybe you find some movement in the, in the knee, but let this be rather than, you know, kind of assuming a position, just doing the work we've been doing of exploring and staying supple and curious. And then come back to center, release the foot, bend the knee and cross the knee over your body. Extend the left arm out to the side, finding a twist. You can use your right hand to gently press the left thigh bone away from your body, getting as close to the hip crease as possible. Create some space in the hip socket, perhaps. Great. And then release that and come back to center and then just extend both legs and pause for a moment and observe. And then once more, happy baby pose, draw your knees towards you. This time, just make the shape with your legs, reach your arms in between the legs. Take an inhale there. See that both feet are flexed and as you exhale, lift your upper body away from the floor. And I want you just to do little pulses in your happy baby pose. Do lifting and lowering. And they're such tiny pulses and see if you can pulse and breathe fully and freely at the same time. It's like rubbing your stomach and patting your head.

Maybe I should have you do that. Take a few breaths, a few more movements, just like this. The next time you reach up towards the ceiling, please keep reaching up. Keep breathing. As you inhale, breathe into your back body. You may feel yourself shaking. That's good. As you exhale, draw your navel down towards your spine and notice the quality of your attention. Are you greeting this sensation and this little bit of intensity with openness or are you bracing against it? And is whatever you're doing valuable? Take one more breath in. As you exhale, release. Draw your knees into your chest and pause. And then you can begin to rock along your spine if that's okay for your body. You can also just roll onto one side. We're going to come up to an upright position. So you roll yourself upright and you find the seat, any seat you like. A seat that works for you and you pause. You find comfort. You see that the pelvis is upright. Spine is extended. Head is floating. And then rest your hands on your knees or your thighs. Close your eyes. Soften your shoulders. Heavy your arms. And just observe. Maybe you feel the echo of the exploring that we did while we were on the floor. And soften everything. But soften your brow and your eyes, your cheeks, your jaw, the hips. And just observe breath. Experience breath. Rest the hands on the body and just feel once more just movement of breath in the body. Bring your palms together at the center of your chest. Follow your head to your hands. Maybe setting an intention or dedication for your practice. And float your hands down to your thighs. Float your head up. Lead with the back of your skull so the next day is long. And just pause and observe and experience whatever is there. And then let's find a tabletop position so you'll face the front of your mat. You'll come on to hands and knees. And then let's go right into downward facing dog. So walk your hands forward. So entering, you know, with clarity and with purpose and with like a curious precision, if that makes any sense. So very delicately, but curiously, you need to slowly lift your hips up and back. And then once you're up, please widen your stance so you're in a pretty wide dog pose. And notice, you know, what that does to your experience of the shape. You can shift your weight from right side to left side. You can pedal through your feet. In fact, do that pedal through the feet. Press one heel towards the floor and then the other. And then come to stillness. Pause, soften your knees, reach through your fingertips, reach your tailbone all the way towards the ceiling. You take a few breaths there and then look up towards your hands and keep your stance wide as you walk your feet up towards your hands and find malasana, the squatting pose. So you can sit on top of a block or two blocks, or you can simply let the tailbone be heavy and release towards the floor. You can bring both palms to prayer at the center of your chest. Lift the arches of your feet up. So you're using those intrinsic muscles as though you're suctioning the mat up. Lift the center of your chest up. Lift the roof of your mouth up. Lift the crown of your head up. And lower the lids of your eyes and paws. And just observe whatever sensation is there. And again, how are you meeting your experience? With curiosity, with openness, or is there some amount of bracing against what is? Lift the chest a little more. Take one more breath cycle there. And then you can slowly float your eyes open, float your hands to the floor. Dial your heels out so your feet are now parallel as opposed to heels dialed in. So feet are parallel. And then lift your seat up. Lift your chest. Bring your palms to prayer at the center of your chest. Sensation. Hello hips. Press into the pads of your fingers to separate the centers of your palms. Wow. Reach your arms up to the ceiling and breathe in. As you breathe out you can release this. Lift your hips up. You can heel toe your feet towards each other so they are as wide as you like. Maybe hips width. Release the crown of your head to the floor. And then slowly walk your hands up your legs to roll yourself up. One vertebra at a time. Great. And then once you're upright, release your what are these arms? Release your arms and your hands. Close your eyes and pause and just observe. Just witness.

Like deep listening. Open your eyes. Begin to inhale with your inhalation. Sweep your arms rounded up to welcome that breath in. And then start to exhale. Soften your knees and hinge forward. Okay. Inhale. Lift the center of your chest for prepare pulls. And then exhale forward fold. Begin to inhale. Sweep your arms up. Reach your heart forward. I'm going kind of in a slow motion action to receive the breath in. Doing that movement as though you're doing it for your breath. Bring your palms to touch it. As you exhale descend the hands as the breath descends. Expressing that descent of the breath. Release your arms. Again. Sun breath. Inhale. Sweep the arms up. Receive the breath. Exhale. The lower belly draws in and up. You fold forward bowing to the breath. The inhale comes and you respond. You lift to prepare pulls. So you can expand your ribs. And then exhale forward fold. Inhale. Sweep the arms around and up. Exhale. Descend the hands with the breath. And pause there.

Bring the hands in prayer position. Let your attention return to your body to this moment. And then an inhale will arise. And when it does, you'll sit into utkatasana, chair pose and you'll pause. Meeting that sensation with openness. You'll exhale. And forward fold. And then inhale. Lift the center of your chest for prepare pulls. Exhale. Plant your palms. Open your knees. Step back to a plank pose which you can take with the knees lifted and experiment with this idea of meeting sensation and meeting activity and activation with an openness. You can also lower your knees to support yourself. But let's sustain this for a few breaths. Staying active in the feet and in the legs. Lift your thigh bones up so the legs are participating in this shape. And you take a breath in and as you exhale lower yourself all the way down to the floor with the full descent of your breath and as you inhale you lift the center of your chest to baby cobra. Exhale. Lower down. Inhale. Lift again. And then exhale. Lower. And inhale. Lift and pause. And you take a few breaths there lengthening the back of your neck. Allowing the breath to move freely and to bring its wisdom right to the situation that you find yourself in, this baby cobra. Then take one more breath in and as you exhale lower down and press back to downward facing dog. Lift your hips up and back and pause. Pause observing quality of attention of breath of body and connection between them all. As you inhale lift your right leg up just hip height so three-legged dog and see that the legs remain hips width apart. Reach through your heel and then to open your hip please roll your right thigh bone open in the hip socket. Maybe you're able to lift the leg a little bit higher and bend the knee. Try to keep your ribs facing the floor and then extend the leg straight back with the hip open. Turn your toes down towards the floor so the hip is closed and feel the difference and then lower your foot to the floor. As your next inhale comes lower your knees to the floor receive the breath in. Exhale to child's pose. Inhale come forward to cow pose. Pause at that crest at the top of the inhale use the power of your exhale to press back to down dog. And then as you next inhale lift your left leg up just hip height reaching through the heel and just observe. Observe the orientation of your hips. Lift the leg a little higher roll the thigh bone open in the hip socket and bend the knee. Try to keep your left ribs wrapping towards the floor. You might like to circle the knee or not but just allowing yourself to keep you know your explorer hat on always really extend the leg straight up with your hip open.

Close the hip turn the toes towards the floor and then lower your foot to the floor. As your next inhale comes lower your knees to the floor release your belly open your chest. Exhale to child's pose. This time as you inhale come forward to baby cobra lift the center of your chest. Exhale lower down and press back to child's pose. We'll do that just twice more. Begin to inhale come forward to baby cobra. Exhale child's pose. Little more little activity in the shoulders right inhale and come forward to baby cobra. Let yourself be supported by your breath guided by your breath. Lift up the exhale comes you lower down and press back to child's pose and pause here for a few breaths. Relax your elbows relax your head and your neck. Receive your breath in its entirety and letting it move as it does into the upper back as you're in this forward fold. Start to crawl your hands as far forward as you can feel the elbows extend feel the arms awaken the shoulders awaken begin to inhale with the full length of your you know so the inhale arises feel it begin to to blossom in in your your belly just imagining that that's the case and come forward to cow pose release your belly open your chest and then exhale downward facing dog once more wide in your feet so you're in a wide down dog soften the knees bend through the knees reach the tailbone back look up between your hands walk yourself forward great and forward fold there soften the knees release your crown of your head to the floor and this time bring your hands to your hips draw your elbows towards each other start to inhale lift the center of your chest up pause in the center can you lengthen the top of your head forward draw your elbows towards each other and then come all the way up to standing and then release your arms and pause rest your hands on your body and just notice soften your knees relax your arms and then in the last class we did a little figure eight with our hips so try to do that just moving your pelvis in what you imagine is a figure eight shape it's testing and playing with your proprioceptive abilities and then see if you can maybe reverse your figure eight it's hard but just playing with with subtlety and then as you're ready you'll come to center and you'll pause and then please grab your two blocks you'll place them at the front of your mat on their highest height by the way and then you'll stand in between the blocks and bring your hands to your hips blocks a little bit closer and they're about about shoulder shoulder width and you'll stand directly behind the blocks you will lift put the weight into your left foot and lift your right knee up preparing for tree pose so level the hips lower the right hip and then place your foot wherever you place your foot so maybe foot to the floor follow the foot on the floor heel at the ankle foot on the inner calf or foot on the inside of your thigh and you express you know in whatever way works for you the palms can come to prayer at the center of your chest and we pause here for a few breaths steadying yourself lengthening your tailbone hip points are facing forward reach your arms up towards the sky and your paws for a few breaths there you can place your right hand on the inside of your right side and as you inhale reach your left fingertips up and exhale side bend to the right pressing the right hand gently into the thigh bone to encourage and to explore opening of a hip as you next inhale you can come back to center as you exhale release your hands to your hips and then slowly you're going to remove your foot from wherever it is and let it be aerial so if it was on the floor you can lift the foot slightly up and then we're slowly going to draw the knee forward bend your knee float your hands to your blocks and extend your leg back behind you so you're in a supported warrior three and you take a few moments here see that you're pressing into the blocks and lifting up out of the shoulders square your hips so inner right thigh spinning up towards the ceiling and you pause there so the hip is closed let's flex the toes towards the floor and you can take a look to see how you're doing there with the closed hip and then we're going to play a little bit explore a little bit please just as you did in down dog open your thigh your hip to the right side so roll the thigh bone open breathe in as you breathe out close the hip again toes point towards the floor we'll do that a few times so as you inhale opening the hip exhale closing the hip keep going just like that at the pace of your breath and trying to originate this movement with your right thigh bone specifically like the head of your right thigh bone imagine the head of your right thigh bone moving in the hip socket as your next inhale and the hip is open you can pause there you can stay there maybe floating your right fingertips to the block so weight is in the left foot maybe bringing your right hand to your hips and just doing a little small half moon pose so take one more breath in there as you exhale you can close your hip and then slowly bending your standing leg you're going to return your hands to your hips draw your knee up great and return to tree pose place the sole of your foot on the inside of your leg palms to prayer again great hands to hips once more and then release your foot lower your foot down onto the floor great and pause you can shift your weight around in a way that seems interesting and useful to you and then we'll try the opposite side so hands to your hips weight shifts into your right foot you lift your left foot up preparing for tree pose so noticing if this left side of the body has shortened can you lengthen it by lowering the hip keep the left side of your body long as you place your foot anywhere that works for you bring your palms to prayer at the center of your chest and pause hip points shining forward as you next inhale you can reach your arms up and separate the palms and pause there observing the quality of your attention and how you are meeting this moment release your left hand to the inside of your leg and as you inhale lift up as you exhale a little side bend to the left to whatever degree is calling you so maybe you know very small amount maybe you're feeling a little sassy in which case please somersault to the left and then come back to center as you breathe in and then hands to your hips float your foot away from your leg draw your knee forward and then let's slowly transition bending the standing leg floating the hands to the blocks straightening the standing leg flexing the top foot lowering the left hip by spinning that inner left thigh towards the ceiling lift your chest up and pause check in with the back foot and hip and as you inhale opening the hip as you exhale closing the hip and a few more like this making sure that you keep some softness in the standing knee so that the knee is not hyperextending if your body does that or it's not locked you know there's some some softness and openness there it's supple and springy the next time you inhale and your hip is open you can pause there you can come and float on the left fingertips on the block you might feel called to bring your hand to your hip or some other expression and you take a breath in there use your exhale to float the hand to the block to close your hip to begin to draw your knee forward hands to the hips and then place the foot again returning to tree pose palms to prayer great hands to hips release the foot soften your knees step left to right move your hips around whatever is calling you and just pause for a moment in in mountain poles and you just observe and let's take a little palate cleanser so inhale sweep your arms around and up begin to exhale and so the floor begin to inhale prepare poles lift the center of your chest exhale forward fold again inhale sweep the arms around and up with a long spine look up and touch your palms and then exhale draw your hands down the center line of your body great release your arms by your sides hands to your hips again and you step towards your blocks you'll step one foot your one foot your left foot back behind you the feet are parallel so we're not opening the hips the hips are actually facing forward right so neutral neutral hips you can give them a little little bit of exploration and feel the hips you can open them to the side and revolve them forward and then let's inhale and reach the arms around it up and pause here firm your front thigh soften the knee begin to inhale as you exhale start to hinge forward hands to the blocks inhale lift the center of your chest and we'll pause here draw your right hip back and lift the center of your chest up now take a few breaths here with every breath in you find a little more length and space and lift of your chest as you exhale maybe you begin to hinge forward with a long spine so movement is coming from the pelvis you take a couple of breaths there just like that exploring the softness in the knee allowing the breath to move through you so there's a little bit of dynamic inner movement as you next inhale you'll lift your chest up you bring your hands to your hips and then come all the way up and step your back foot forward and just pause for a moment and observe and then let's try the other side so hands to your hips you'll step your right foot back about three feet or so both toes are pointing straight ahead you can explore this open hips versus closed hips hip points facing straight ahead thighs are firm let there be softness in the the knee joints and that might mean a slight bend it might mean energetic softness as you inhale sweep your arms up receive the breath in begin to exhale with a full length of your exhale you can hinge forward hands can come to blocks once you're there lift up out of the shoulders lengthen the crown of your head forward draw your left hip back and as you inhale lift your chest as you exhale you can begin to hinge forward any amount but try to keep the spine long breath moving through the body with every inhale the forward fold lessens as you exhale it deepens so giving even this shape to your breath as you next inhale lift up about halfway bring your hands to your hips come all the way up to standing and pause and observe step your back foot forward you can parallel the feet for a moment arms can relax and then you'll turn towards the long edge of your mat you take your blocks with you and place them in you there about shoulder width apart and then you'll come to stand at the center of your mat hands on your hips take a wide stance about a legs width apart parallel your feet lift the arches of your feet draw your elbows back begin to inhale and lift the center of your chest begin to exhale firm your outer hips in as you tip forward folding forward hands can come to the blocks blocks are shoulder width apart lift the arches of your feet lift your chest up and pause here in this halfway position shift your weight slightly forward as you inhale you lift the chest so same action as we just were doing in pyramid pose as you exhale you'll hinge forward with a long spine you can keep your hands on your blocks if that's helpful and then let's extend the arms forward in this variation if you'd like to bring your fingertips or hands to the floor you can certainly do that well let the weight stay in the feet and then the legs let there be a softness in your knees and you play with the positioning of your pelvis and every breath in you feel and you allow for spinal extension every breath out you hinge forward from the hips breathing into the sides of your body so even inside of stillness even inside of linear shapes the breath is is moving about freely or that's that's the idea that's what we're going for here in this life free movement of breath of life force start to walk your hands back towards you soften your knees lift your chest up you can bring your palms to prayer or your hands can rest on your thighs now like you just to shift from left to right just to shift from left to right with your chest lifted if you feel like you want to widen your stance you can certainly do that if you want to bring the palms to prayer and keep them there you can do that but stay nice and low to the ground so we're supposed to be awakening to breath today so we've been doing a lot of work in the hips and it's interesting so let let it be a moment of exploration and not just like mechanical exploration but an exploration of how you meet sensation how you meet challenge right it's a couple more passes like that and then as you return to center you can come to stand straighten your legs heel toe your feet a little closer together dial your toes out and then bend your knees so we're coming to a goddess pose and then with hands on the hips can you encourage your frontal hip points to lift up towards your ribs so that your tailbone lengthens and say hello again to the hips place the hands on the insides of the legs lift the chest and pause and we're doing you know a lot of kind of linear strong shapes today but you know the rule the one rule in this class is that you get weird and stay there so even if you're still and even if you're making these straight lines is there you know is there element of weirdness somewhere on the inside extend your arms out to the side turn one palm down your your left palm down your right palm up let your left shoulder come forward and then switch sides right palm down left palm up and you take a few breaths they're just like that again like rubbing your belly and patting your let's do that bring your palms to prayer at the center of your chest bring your hand to your belly and your opposite hand to the top of your head can you do it while in goddess pose i bet you can wow i'm actually surprised that i can do it switch palms to prayer at the center of your chest breathe in breathe out release relax your arms turn your toes to face forward step your feet hips width apart and pause soften the knees close your eyes rest your hands on your body and just witness great and then open your eyes your blocks can come back towards the side of your mat we'll use those a little bit later and you'll find tadasana facing forward you'll pause hands to the hips and let's go to hawaii once more so finding that figure eight and feeling you can place your you know there's some bony landmarks there you can feel the crests of your your pelvis and just explore and be curious and you don't have to make a figure eight but it's a nice guideline and then come back to center and pause release your arms once more inhale to utkatasana welcome the utkatasana you know what it is but can you greet it without bracing sit a little bit lower into the chair and pause there and as you inhale receive the breath in and stay there as you exhale lift your toes away from the ground and spread them you take one more breath in and as you exhale exit as though you're sad to be leaving chair and then release the crown of your head to the floor and sway a little bit from left to right for a moment in utkatasana you can pause as you inhale prepare pulls lifting up for the purpose of breathing in exhale hands to the floor and now I'd like you to try something I want you to soften your knees and see if you can hop back to downward facing dog land with soft knees so you do that on an exhale you inhale and then exhale you hop yourself back and pause how fun and then lower your knees to the floor inhale exhale to child's pulls and pause whatever variation of child's pulls you like will do great begin to walk your hands back towards you so you're in an upright position taking your time to do that and then we'll come to sit down in staff pose so dandasana staff pose you may like to sit on top of a blanket although we won't be here for very many breaths just a few flex your feet maybe there's softness in your knees lift the center of your chest up and pause maybe over time you find that you can begin to reach your heels forward and still keep your pelvis upright of course that requires openness in your hamstrings step your feet to the floor step your feet to the floor hold the backs of your thighs lift the center of your chest the boat pose so pausing elbows can be wide lifting the center of the chest in committing to the shape so it's requiring some effort of us right but we need it and we commit to the shape we allow the breath to support us we allow the body to support us reach your arms forward if you like you can keep holding the legs and you'll take a breath there as you next inhale lower yourself down about halfway you can hold the legs or reach forward and as you exhale lift yourself back up inhale lower down exhale lift up stay here lower your feet to the floor and then lower your body down to the floor so you can scoop the tailbone forward and lower down one vertebra at a time great and once you're there constructive rest pose again separate your feet about mat with a part let the knees rest into each other hands can be either apart or on your body you choose this time great and then separate your knees step your feet a little closer towards each other they're sitting bone distance apart the arms will come next to your body with the palms facing down in fact robot your arms please bend your elbows turn your palms to face each other press into your arms to lift your chest roll the shoulders towards each other then extend your elbows palms to the floor begin to inhale lift your pelvis up you can stay here with the arms extended elbows extended or you might like to interlace your hands underneath your body whichever one you choose to do is fine and now take a few breaths just like that pressing into the heels lengthening the tailbone forward and then offering this gift of bridge pose to your breath and letting the breath do what it will which is expand the chest and extend the spine on the inhale and firm the belly lengthen the tailbone on the exhale take one more breath in there and as you exhale release your hands lower your pelvis to the floor and then just once you'll wiper your knees so you can separate your feet a little wider apart and then return as though you're preparing for bridge pose but this time we're going to do a restorative bridge pose with the help of our blocks or one block so you will lift your pelvis up so you have a block accessible you lift your pelvis up and then you'll slide the block underneath your pelvis on its lowest height please so you have a maximum surface area for your pelvis you'll lay your pelvis down great make sure that you are well supported you can lift the feet to ensure that that is the case and then rolling the shoulders towards each other upper back is flushed with the floor allow the pelvis to be supported by the block that's beneath it if you're feeling as though you'd like more height for your pelvis that's also an option you just place a second block on top of the first one and as you find your version of this supported or restorative bridge pose you give the weight of your pelvis to the block you can keep your feet on the floor some bodies enjoy straightening legs if you're curious about that you can try it if it feels good you stay there if it doesn't we place the feet back on the floor we'll rest here for several a few breaths a few breaths observing quality of connection quality of connection between inhale and exhale that connection is pretty well established now and between body and breath connection between you and your breathing body and this inner connection you know we cultivate this connection with ourselves this intimacy with the self so that when we go to extend ourselves to another person when we're wanting our heart to meet another heart we can do it clearly and gently with care so if you find that you have dropped fairly deeply into yourself you can continue to stay there there's an option for you to allow a little bit more air in you can wiggle your your fingers and then we're going to do a little legs up the invisible wall on the block so again make sure that your pelvis is well supported can lift your feet up to make sure that that is true and then you'll slowly draw your knees towards you and then reach your legs up towards the ceiling and they don't have to be super straight soften your knees soften your knees and just let the legs let the legs I'm just gonna say hang out but that doesn't really feel appropriate or accurate let the legs exist let the thigh bones descend into the hip sockets you have to position the feet so that you know you find that sweet spot where that can occur and what sensation is there what's what's present what's dissipating what's going away and what's emerging what's changing bend your knees step your feet to the floor press into your heels to lift your pelvis up and you'll move your block off to the side you will draw your knees into your chest rock a little bit from left to right massaging your your lower back great extend your arms either into a T shape or a cactus shape goal posts and as you inhale stay there in the center as you exhale let your knees fall to the right and turn your head to the left finish that exhale and as you inhale you'll come back to center sort of squaring the body so you can receive that full breath in as you exhale knees to the left turn your head to the right inhale center and you keep going like that at the pace of your breath the rate of your breath and let the twisting be really an expression of breath so can you continue you know this work we've been doing in this practice but in this entire series of giving returning the body to its breath letting the the language of breath speak to the body the next time you're on one side you can pause on that side and just soften your body there you might like to place a block between the knees that can be comfortable otherwise just allowing yourself to just be in your expression of this twist as you next inhale come to center and as you exhale twisting in the opposite direction and pausing as you next inhale come carefully to center with the full length of your breath draw your knees into your chest lift your head and upper back away from the floor take some breaths there so there's some muscular effort lower your upper back into the floor onto the floor once more happy baby holding the outer edges of your feet maybe extending one leg and then the other maybe finding stillness whatever seems to be right for you for your body right now in this moment come to center and pause draw the soles of your feet together and lower your feet onto the floor in this diamond shape you can support your thigh bones with blocks so you can allow the knees to descend the hands can rest on your body and as you're ready whenever you're ready extending one leg and then the other coming to shavasana of course you're welcome to stay in that supta vadakonasana for as long as you like turning your palms up moving your arms away from your body and just finding comfort if you're patting your head or covering yourself you can do that now resting with the breath resting with the body just feeling experiencing and maybe even enjoying the echo of your practice that residue of your practice moving all inside the body and maybe you can even sense it on the periphery of your body allow yourself to be supported by the floor you can continue resting or you can begin to deepen your breath if you'd like to come up to a sit close extend your arms alongside your ears give yourself a nice long stretch from your feet to your hands stretching long through one side and then the other then keep your arms long as you draw your knees in towards your chest and roll onto one side rest your head on your arm and pause and then taking your time keeping your eyes closed if you can slowly making your way up to a comfortable seated position any seat you like rest hands on your knees or your thighs and sit well palms can be faced down a little more grounding you can also turn your palms up if that energy feels more appropriate and more feels better to you I'm just sitting receiving more witnessing Let's do a couple rounds of square breathing, so you just begin to inhale. Inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts, and hold for four counts. And you'll just continue that cycle just like that on your own. After your next exhale, you can bring your palms together at the center of your chest.

And let's take a few moments here just to honor yourself, to thank yourself for practicing. Honor your body and your breath and the connection between the two, and may your practice always be a little remembrance ritual, so you can remember that you are in fact quite resilient and you can meet change and sensation, let's say, and life's ups and downs with softness and with ease, with grace and with strength, the light in me sees and honors the light that's also in you, namaste.