Moving as Breath

Hello, my friends. How are you doing? Welcome to Guided by Breath. I'm Sadia. If you've practiced with me before, welcome back. If you're new, welcome. I hope everything is going well where you are, as well as they can be. In the Berkshires here, it's like the perfect autumn cocktail. The sun today is shining really brightly, but also the leaves are changing. I like that perfect combination. It's like peanut butter and jelly, or like the inhale and the exhale perfect together. Let's begin, shall we? Let's move a little bit. For today, your props, you'll need two blocks. If you like to be supported or covered in shavasana, you can also grab what you need for that. Then we will begin in a seated position. You'll come to sit today however you like. We tried various ways of sitting, so today I invite you to lean into your autonomy and decide how you'll sit. Take a few moments just to arrive in your seat. See that your sitting bones are rooted into whatever it is that's supporting your pelvis. Pelvis is upright. Spine is, this naturally extended head is floating on top of the spine. Then you'll rest your hands on your knees or your thighs and you'll close your eyes. You'll just allow your energy to gather and to settle. It's interesting, kind of amazing how the intentionality of sitting quietly, the body responds, the spirit responds, the breath responds. This moment of quiet, of sitting quietly with the breath and just communing with the breath in this way perhaps for the first time today. It's like a portal to practice. It's like a vestibule of, you know, you're about to enter this, the cathedral of practice, but you pause in the the anteroom, right, and you just stand and you maybe look up a bit and just take a few breaths and enjoy the beginning. Let your attention gently rest on your breath. You're just watching the breath, watching the inhales, watching the exhales. Maybe noticing and experiencing that simply by turning your attention to the breath, equality of the breath brightens a bit. Rest your hands on your body, one hand on your heart, one on your abdomen, and just feel the breath movement. Feel as you inhale expansion of the chest, of the belly, of the ribs. There's a beautiful pause at the top of your inhale and then feel the qualities of the exhale, the contraction, the falling of the chest, contraction of the belly and of the ribs. Breathing in and out through your nose, maybe finding an ujjayi breath if that's part of your practice. And then changing the positioning of your hand so the opposite hand is on the heart, opposite hand on the belly. And then let's for a few moments rest the backs of the hands on the knees, palms open in a sort of receptive gesture. And you see here, rather than kind of doing the breath and reaching for the breath, can you allow the breath to reach into you and to open you? Can you transition to instead of getting the breath, just receiving the breath? And then bring your palms together at the heart center. With an exhale you can lower your chin to your chest and take a few moments to maybe set an intention or dedication for your practice. And then float your hands down to your thighs, float your eyes open, float your head up, reach your arms out to the side, your inhale arises and you lift your arms around it up. And the exhale comes and you lower your arms with that descent of your breath and just again inhaling and welcoming the breath, reaching the arms up as though you were doing this for your breath rather than with your breath. Exhale honoring that quality of the exhale by lowering your arms a few more just like that. And all quiet now so you can continue to tap into the rhythm of your own breath and continue with every inhale and exhale to give a little bit more of the body to the breath. Being mindful not just of the movement of the inhales and the exhales but also of the pauses between breaths. The next time you inhale you can sweep your arms around and up and as you exhale once more palms to prayer at heart center and just pause this time just with a soft gaze. Great and then extend your arms out to the sides with your palms facing down and then as you inhale you'll turn your palms up so we've done this quite a bit and then as you exhale you turn your palms down and then I'll allow you to sort of to direct your own line of inquiry. For me I'm actually focusing on the heads of the upper arm bones and feeling them rotate in the shoulder sockets. That might be interesting for you. You might like to focus on the opposite end and focus on the movement of the hands and how that influences the kinetic chain right all the way up the arms to the shoulder sockets. Whatever you do is fine so long as the breath is the centerpiece of your exploration. You can allow the spine to join this movement. The next time you inhale and turn your palms to face up as you exhale just come to a neutral spine and then bring your hands to your shoulders and then big circles with the elbows coming forward. You can allow the spine to join these movements in a way that works for you and again let it be an exploration and then let's switch directions as you're ready. You can begin to trace circles with the elbows going backwards. Great and then let's alternate so let's let one elbow trace backwards and then the other so just going backwards one elbow at a time one shoulder at a time and then let's come forwards alternating and again breath is the centerpiece and you take a few more passes and staying curious as as you do this can be tempting actually in these repetitive movements to allow the the mind to wander or maybe I'm just speaking for myself but then you know you just invite the mind to become like gently tethered right to the breath to the body and to this this moment and then you can pause that and release it let's shake shake the hand shake the arms out in fact grab a hold of your your forearm one of your forearms and just let the palm kind of flap shaking is is good for us and then switch sides you shake the opposite side and see if you can really just let the hand be free and it's it can be challenging actually particularly if and I don't know if this is the case for you but if you're on a keyboard a lot or maybe on a computer screen a lot all right and then just pause for a moment hands on on your knees and just observe in fact float your eyes closed for a moment and observe the quality of energy the movement of energy the quality of breath and the movement of breath great you can float your eyes open but then lower your chin to your chest and bring your right ear to your right shoulder and pause and then move in the opposite direction so chin back to chest and then left ear to left shoulder and pause and then you'll continue making these half circles with your head and your neck and just allowing yourself the pleasure of of simplicity right and curiosity about the body and about the breath and in a really simple simple simple way when your chin is lower to your chest again pause there see that the shoulders are drawn back and down the upper arm bones are heavy and just let the weight of the head be drawn forward by gravity so you're just relaxing head and neck and take a few receive rather a few nice full breaths here just like this stretching the back of the neck this way great and then slowly lift your head up lead with the back of your skull so the back of the neck stays long and just pause for a moment great and then let's come to child's pose so your block if you were sitting on a block can come towards the the front of your mat and then find a child's pose so the big toes touching and knees wide apart allow yourself the the luxury of arriving in in the shape rest your head on your mat on the floor relax your shoulders your your arms let your arms be heavy and just receive a few breaths here in in child's pose feeling that as you inhale the upper upper back expands you receive that breath in maybe you feel the sides of your your body expand and as you exhale allow your hips to get a little heavier and then start to crawl your hands as far forward as you can so your elbows are extended spread the knuckles of your fingers so elbows are lifting away from the floor can you wrap the triceps down towards the floor and feel maybe you feel a little hollowing of your armpits as you do that you can also lift your head slightly away from the floor and take a few breaths there just like this so breathing in through the nose and out through the nose and then as you next begin to inhale you'll come forward to cow pose so you drag yourself forward you release your belly spread your collarbones open the chest to cow pose and then you'll start to exhale pass through cat pose to make your way back to child's pose you do that a few more times start to inhale and come forward and then exhaling to press back now keep going just like that at the the rate of your breath seeing if you can initiate the breath first and let the movement be just this response to your breath can you play maybe with articulating through the spine so rather than you know letting this be two kind of discrete poses that were in the child's pose and cow pose can you pass through cat and can you feel all of those moments of extension that happened between cat and cow all the way through the crown of your head and then reversing that as you move from cow to child's poles do one more pass like that so you'll exhale and press back to child's pose as you're ready and as you inhale you'll come forward to cow pose and pause and then use your exhale to make your way into tabletop position so neutral tabletop position knees underneath your hips wrists under your shoulders and then let's take a few rounds of cat and cow so inhale tuck your toes under release your belly spread your collarbones open your chest and pause and then exhale reverse and here too seeing if you can really relish these moments of transition between the two shapes so you know this this vinyasa technically that we're doing is is called cat and cow but there's actually sort of infinite things that are happening between the two and can we be as mindful and as interested in those in between moments as we are in those those kind of terminal points so can we be interested in the spectrum of movement that exists between cat and cow very trippy thing to say but it's reality inhale as you're ready and come forward to cow pose and as you exhale neutral tabletop position and you can do one of our little weird I haven't thought of a name for this I've heard a few names I've heard one teacher call it marauding bear which is pretty cute and then I've also heard another teacher call it exotic cat so maybe like I don't know exotic bear or marauding cat can be can be our thing you decide you can in the comments let me know what you like and that's what we'll call it and then come to neutral tabletop position pause and these pauses too are an opportunity to observe an opportunity to receive information from the body from the breath step your right foot back so come on to the ball of your your right foot and you'll press the heel back and you'll shift forward onto the ball of the foot and you do that you can read you may feel that you're releasing the calf as you do this you're also transitioning between down dog foot as the heel presses to the floor and plank foot as the heel shifts forward so feel the difference maybe in the in the leg as the foot is articulated in those two different ways and of course in the ways that are in between those two things and then as you're ready please lift your right leg up see that your toes are pointing down to the floor so you don't want the hip open toes pointing to the floor lift your inner right thigh up reach your left arm forward and inhale as you exhale hand to the floor knee to your nose curve your spine tuck your chin inhale reach your leg back and your arm forward receive the breath in exhale hand to the floor knee to your nose three more times like that inhale lengthening exhale contracting and closing inhale lengthen leg back arm forward receive the breath in exhale honor the quality of the exhale by drawing your knee to your nose your belly is firming once more inhale reach the leg back and the arm forward and then once more hand to the floor knee to your nose exhale and then knee to the floor and you pause you observe step your left foot back heel presses back heel shifts forward and you do that a few times incredibly curious about what's happening in the leg and then come to neutral so right hip is over your right knee lift your left leg up see that the hips are neutral toe is pointing left toes pointing down the right arm reaches forward and you breathe in the left palm is nice and broad as you exhale hand to the floor knee to your nose curve your spine inhale leg back and arm forward exhale hand to the floor knee to your nose inhale lengthening exhale contracting help a more like that inhale lengthen exhale contract once more inhale lengthen reach the arm forward and pause exhale hand to the floor knee to your nose pause there and then release your knee to the floor tabletop position child's pose again big toes touching knees wide apart release your head to the floor this time as you inhale stand on your knees lift your arms up open the chest and as you exhale sweep the hands behind the back as you lower to child's pose would do that a few times so start to receive the breath in lifting up exhaling lowering down with the full length of your breath a few more like that at the pace of your breath letting the breath initiate the movement letting the mind in this repetition of movement this simplicity of movement drop even deeper into the into the heart and into the body into the breath one more inhale you sweep the arms up and as you exhale child's poles you can pause there for a moment then extend your arms forward as you inhale drag yourself forward to cow poles and as you exhale press back to downward facing dog for a moment you can pedal through your feet bend one knee and then the other let yourself explore in a way that's that's useful and interesting to you and then you can walk your hands forward any way you like great and once you're at the top of your mat just standing forward fold hands can be in any configuration any variation you like just let the knees be soft so you can spill your pelvis forward let the spine spill out of the pelvis let the crown of the head release towards the floor modification of course is to have blocks underneath the hands and then bring your hands to your hips draw your elbows towards each other and as you inhale reach your heart forward so you can come all the way up to stand with an extended spine and then pause and find you know some suppleness and some roundness in your tadasana and as you inhale sweep your arms around and up receiving that breath exhale hinge forward inhale to prepare pose lift the center of your chest and then exhale forward fold inhale sweep your arms around and up exhale draw your hands down the center line of your body and pause and again like that sun breath so start to breathe in so we're moving as breath today right which we're doing in every class but be particularly curious maybe today about first inhaling and coming to prepare pose and then exhaling and forward folding inhale sleep your arms around and up you can touch your palms at the top and as you exhale descend the hands rest your hands on your body particularly curious about you know linking and returning the body to the breath really moving as breath not just with breath but for for breath technically the breath is moving for the body release your arms by your sides inhale sweep your arms around and up exhale hinge forward inhale again to prepare pose hands come to your shins length in your neck and then exhale plant your palms on the floor and step back to plank pose and pause there you can lower your knees to modify as you inhale lift your chest length in your spine use your exhale to lower down to the floor keeping your elbows close to your body and then begin to inhale baby cobra lift the center of your chest exhale lower down and press back to child's pose begin to inhale and come back forward to baby cobra lifting the center of the chest and the back of your skull and then exhale press back to child's pose if you more like that inhale you'll come forward being as interested in the the journey as you are in this baby cobra destination and then exhaling and same thing on the way back to child's pose you're looking out the window and enjoying the view couple more like that inhale coming forward exhale once more inhale baby cobra exhale child's pose pause for a moment in this child's pose turn your palms to face up great palms face down you drag yourself forward to a tabletop position again knees under the hips wrists under your shoulders as you breathe in lift your right arm up and open twist to the right as you exhale thread the right arm underneath we'll do that twice more so you inhale and unthread the arm and open twist and exhale and twist inhale open twist and then exhale thread the arm underneath and stay in the twist you can straighten your left left hand use you know proprioception a sense of your body to to determine are my are my hips square they still stacked above the knees and why is that important we want to try to keep the pelvis balanced so that there's this nice rotation of the spine so we're trying to to rotate the spine rotate along the axis of the of the body place your left hand next to your face so you can elegantly press into the hand and unthread yourself and we'll do the opposite side inhale lift the arm up exhale thread the arm underneath inhale open twist exhale twist inhale open twist exhale thread the arm underneath rest your head on the floor straighten your right arm hips are stacked above the knees right arm extended tricep is is firm but not rigid and allow the breath to to move through the body in a in a free way and feel how it moves to the body in in the twist right hand can come next to the face you can press yourself up as you unthread your left arm walk your hands forward one hand print tuck your toes under and press back to downward facing dog and once again pedaling through your feet softening your knees soft seeing if you can spill your pelvis forward so turning the bottom of your pelvis up towards the ceiling palms are pressing down and forward and arms are firm but not rigid so there's a softness in the elbow joint great as you inhale lower your knees to the floor release your belly cow pose exhale to child's pose inhale to come back forward to cow pose and then exhale to downward facing dog again like that the breath begins we respond by lowering the knees we pause in the pause at the top of the breath cow pose exhale to child's pose we pause at the bottom of the breath inhale comes and we come forward to cow pose again and then we exhale back to downward facing dog we'll do that one more time inhaling the knees to the floor lowering them at the same time releasing the belly opening the chest exhale to child's pose hips to heels inhale to cow pose great exhale downward facing dog and pause take a few breaths there knees as bent as you like another modification that can feel interesting or just good is to have a little wider stance so you can step your feet almost not with the part and soften the knees but then after you sort of do these mechanical things with with the body can you let the breath travel through the body right look up between your hands soften your knees and then just weirdly crawl yourself forward in a curious way right as though you're walking forward for the first time ever and once you're there soften your knees forward fold inhale sweep your arms around and up great this time exhale hinge forward interlace your hands behind your back as you next inhale bend your knees lift your chest up and pause keep the back of your neck long we'll be here in in stillness for a few moments and we'll add a bit of movement to the same series of movements so inhale lift the chest and stay here as you exhale the belly draws in we take one more breath in as you exhale forward fold release your hands great walk your hands up your legs as you slowly roll yourself up to standing great and once you're standing palms can face forward inhale sweep the arms around and up exhale hinge forward to uttanasana inhale prepare pulls exhale forward fold interlace your hands behind your back as you inhale bend your knees lift your chest up pause as you exhale release the hands without snapping your hands apart as you inhale sweep your arms up great as you exhale release your arms again inhale sweep your arms around and up a little variation on a sudden breath exhale hinge forward inhale to prepare pulls exhale fold interlace the hands inhale bend the knees lift the chest try to keep the heels of the hands touching exhale engage the back muscles so you're not snapping the hands apart you release them apart and then you use your breath in to come all the way up see that once more exhale soften the knees and forward fold inhale receive the breath and lift your chest exhale forward fold interlace the hands inhale bend the knees lift the chest exhale gently release the hands palms facing down as you inhale sweep your arms up as you exhale release your arms by your sides enhance to the body again feel breath movement observe and just witness whatever is there great release your arms by your sides inhale this time to utkatasana chair pulls exhale and release inhale lift the center of the chest a little quality of baby cobra in your prepare pose as you exhale hands to the floor step back to plank poles lower your knees to the floor inhale to lift the center of your chest as you exhale you lower down inhale to baby cobra exhale lower down press back to downward facing dog lift your hips up and back look up between your hands soften your knees you can walk you could step you can hop forward float forward whatever you like but once you're there find a prepare pose for your inhale and then for your exhale you'll forward fold and then for the inhale you'll sweep your arms around and up the chest is expanding and then exhale release your hands bring your hands to your hips and then step a little forward on your mat and then you'll step your left foot back and lower your back heel so we're preparing for warrior one stand so just check in with your back knee if you feel that the the if the knee feels a bit fungi there are a few modifications you can widen your stance so right foot over to the right or you can lift your back heel up so you find what works for you and take your time in doing that and then revolve your left ribs forward release your arms as you inhale sweep your arms around and up look up maybe touch your palms if that works for your body and you exhale and forward fold begin to inhale sweep the arms up exhale and hinge forward inhale sweep the arms up exhale forward fold inhale sweep the arms up this time staying in warrior one with whatever arm variation you like hands can be wide apart elbows can be bent palms can be touching decide what works for you maybe through experimentation but let the breath ratio be what it was when you were in motion so receiving your your breaths in in their entirety right now take one more breath in here great and as you exhale lift your back heel up as you sweep your arms to the hips and then step your back foot forward and you come to tadasana and pause and just observe great step your right foot all the way back preparing for warrior one on this side so finding your stance this side may may be different and that's fine revolve the ribs forward release your arms begin to breathe in sweep your arms around it up begin to exhale and bow to that exhale a few more times like that you'll begin to breathe in and lift up yeah exhale and forward fold inhale lifting up exhale forward folding inhale lifting up and pausing and whatever arm variation works for you but let the breath ratio be what it was when you were in motion so can you maintain the clarity of the of the posture of the pose but also maintain you know this element of curiosity and softness take one more breath in as you exhale you'll hinge forward sweep your arms to your hips lift your back heel up so the hips will become square and then step your back foot forward and find tadasana and a soft tadasana you can shake your body out and pause great and then let's come to stand uh at the center of your mat you take a wide stand so about those legs width or so apart turn your right toes towards the right we're preparing for warrior two so generally speaking your heel will bisect your your back arch and you pause for a moment hands can come to your hips and you can just be curious about the positioning of your pelvis here and then as you're ready you'll bend your front knee and you'll pause great extend your arms from front to back reach back through those back fingertips and as you inhale straighten your front leg lift your arms up and then exhale rebound the knee lower your arms inhale straighten exhale rebound the knee lower the arms inhale lifting up exhale pausing and warrior two so pretty ferocious pose right pretty linear but as always you know maintaining that quality of of i'm just gonna say curvaceousness but it's very i don't know if that's the word i'm going for today's one of those days but the roundness inside of all of this linearity and that's sort of that's yoga right we're yoking opposites so allowing the poles to meet each other in the middle straighten your front leg if you will preparing for trikonasana triangle pose if you know your stance uh needs to to shorten or you suspect that you could shorten your stance go ahead and do that i think i want to do that myself and use your intuition to to decide if this is your first time doing triangle pose where we'll explore it now so you'll extend your arms release your shoulder blades down your back firm your your front thigh and then hinge forward so we're trying to keep this right side of the body pretty long and then float your hand down to your your leg your calf and reach your top arm up to the ceiling and take a few breaths there just like this so pretty a pose that requires some lots rather lots of effort muscular effort again very linear shape but can you maintain that softness and that roundness about about your mind and your breath keep receiving breath can you allow your breath to support you and take one more breath in use that galvanizing quality of your exhale to lift your torso up and extend your arms release your shoulders hands can come to your hips and you can parallel your feet so you're facing forward and then once again the stance is about the legs width apart i'm going to move back a bit so legs are nice and wide hands are to your hips you can if you like use blocks underneath your hands but you bring your elbows back draw your elbows back and inhale and as you exhale you'll hinge forward about halfway you hinge forward halfway and find softness in the knees so that you can turn the bottom of your pelvis towards the the wall that's behind you we'll be here actually for a few moments so this is one of those moments traditionally or typically rather we're in a transition from standing to doing the forward fold but notice how much information there is for us to to observe and to receive just just here i have my thumbs on my lower back encouraging my pelvis uh to tilt forward draw your elbows back as you inhale lift your chest and as you exhale you can hinge farther forward floating your hands to the floor and then in this version i'd like us to crawl the hands forward any amount you can be on palms you can come up onto fingertips you also have the option of widening your your stance but let the weight be uh be in the in the legs so we're trying to lengthen the sides of the body without leaning into the hands right so fingertips can be quite useful for for exploring the the legs while we're in the standing forward fold see that the hands are shoulder width apart and you do that same action that we do in down dog roll your triceps towards the the floor towards your face reach your tailbone back breathe into your upper back into your upper back breathe into the sides of your body are there any other places where some some space might be useful and can you direct the breath to those places and how alive is the stillness that that you're in and if the answer is not very the good thing is you you've always got your hand on the the dial of your practice so just become a little more curious and observe as whatever moment you're in becomes enlivened and quite interesting start to walk your hands back towards you so they're underneath your shoulders soften your knees bring your hands see your hips elbows draw together and as you inhale you'll lift yourself up let's step the feet together for a moment and let's have a moment of of being round and and weird can shake your legs and your arms out a little bit and let's stand for a moment soften your knees you can bend through your knees and just be in tadasana with your arms by your sides with your knees a little softer than they might be ordinarily close your eyes slacken your face let your face be a little bit dull great extend through your knees so the legs are fully straight open your eyes and observe and then hands to the hips let's step the feet wide apart and we'll do the opposite side so warrior two first we'll turn the toes in the opposite direction you bend your knee and you'll pause for a moment and you'll extend your arms and pause reach back through the back fingertips we sometimes have a tendency to lean forward but let your spine let the pelvis be upright so the spine is is upright and extended as you inhale straighten your front leg lift your arms up and then exhale re-bend your knee extend the arms a few more times like that inhale lift up few more times like that inhale lift up exhale re-bend extend the arms inhale lifting up exhale re-bending once more inhale lift receive the breath exhale lowering with the full length of the breath and letting that pause at the bottom of that exhale help you find a little clarity in the shape and then you return to breathing fully and freely and inside of this moment of stress technically on the body we're creating stress by encouraging the the muscles to work in a particular way can you allow yourself to lean into the support that is already there i'm looking directly at you because this is an important metaphor for times such as these so in this moment of intentional stress can we practice leaning into the resources that we already have in this case the breath in this case softening the mind and letting the mind witness the experience rather than brace against the experience straighten your front leg hands to your hips you can shorten your stance we're going to trikonasana extend your arms again hinge forward some some amount and again your hand is on the dial so you adjust the intensity for for lack of a better word now so if you feel like you'd like to hinge a little more forward completely up to you but be exploratory and then as you're ready keep that side of the body long and then hand will come to the calf top arm will reach up to the ceiling and you'll pause there for a few breaths shoulders are released i'm sort of doing what i have been calling triangle light so it's not you know this physically so-called deep expression of the pose but but there is tons of depth here so the gift of simplicity is that you know it strips away all distraction and it allows us to to see and to be to to witness right with some some honesty and some clarity take one more breath in use the power of your exhale to lift your torso up extend your arms great parallel your feet hands to your hip step your feet together pause release your arms come to stand at the top of the mat once more and let's inhale to sweep the arms around it up receiving the breath exhale will bow to that breath inhale to prepare pose lift the center of your chest and then exhale hands to the floor step back to a plank pose lower the knees to the floor inhale to lift your chest exhale to lower yourself down begin to inhale peel yourself up exhale press back to child's poles any variation that that's calling to you at this point in your practice and start to walk your hands back towards you so you're in an upright position in great and then turn come on to a seat so you can extend your legs straight out in front of you like staff poles hands can come let's widen the the feet let's actually do staff pose widen the feet a little bit a little wider than hips width for this variation soften your knees so you draw your knees towards you and feel how doing that allows you to lift your pelvis up hands can come next to your hips you can stay in this kind of dandasana light if you will or you can go ahead and extend your legs but see that your feet are flexed toes are pointing up to the ceiling centers of your thighs pointing up so legs are actually in tadasana great release and witness and then step your feet to the floor or reach your fingertips forward and we'll take that mindful ride down to the floor and once you're on the floor draw your knees into your chest for appanasana maybe rocking along your lower back making circles with your knees either together or individually whatever whatever is calling to you and that is part of the work too i here i've just noticed now that i said a lot in this practice whatever is calling to you whatever is calling to you a lot of the depth of practice is actually figuring out what does call to you so it seems quite simple but pretty pretty profound when you think about it draw your knees into your chest arms are next to your body as you inhale step your feet to the floor lift your pelvis up and extend your arms alongside your ears move myself up and pause at the top of your breath in and as you exhale lower your pelvis draw your knees into your chest a little moving bridge begin to inhale feet step to the floor the pelvis lifts and the arms extend alongside your ears front body is opening to receive the breath the exhale comes maybe you feel the belly firm first articulate through the spine to lower down and hug your knees into the chest great keep going like that with the pace of your breath letting every moment you know between the poles of bridge poles and appanasana letting every moment the whole spectrum of movement count and letting the breath sort of be your companion on that journey from one shape to the other the next time you lift your pelvis up and the arms are extended you'll pause there for a few breaths the arms can stay next to the head you might like to bring the arms next to your body you might like to roll your shoulders underneath you and interlace your hands whatever you choose is fine again whatever is calling to you and sometimes we don't know immediately what's calling to us we have to use little experimentation and sometimes we actually resist experimentation which is interesting because we think we'll get stuck with that variation but practice too is a an opportunity for you to experience the safety in experimenting in trying something realizing it doesn't work and pivoting and continuing to do that until you find what does work take one more breath in as you exhale lower your pelvis to the floor draw your knees into your chest appanasana extend your arms either into a t shape or a cactus shape whatever suits you whatever is calling to you in this moment if you're not sure you experiment because it's safe to do that in practice inhale in the center as you exhale let your knees fall to one side and turn your head in the opposite direction inhale you'll come to center and then exhale knees fall to the opposite side head turns in the opposite direction and you keep moving like this so we're twisting with the breath for the breath still mindful of the pauses between inhale and exhale still super curious in the journey from one side to the other so the next time you're on one side you'll pause on that side and take a few breaths there and just allow yourself to soften into whatever whatever your expression is and with your next inhale you'll respond by drawing your body to the center so you can receive that breath in fully and then you'll use the exhale to twist in the opposite direction so great and then come back to center as you inhale now step your feet to the floor separate them let the knees rest into each other constructive rest constructive rest although that's seeming like a redundancy all rest is constructive at this point okay draw your knees into your chest okay let's have you roll to one side so you can come up right for a moment and let's do a let's do a forward fold so bring the soles of your feet to touch draw your heels towards your body any any amount that seems useful to you that feels good and again experimenting so grab your outer ankles from the front draw against your ankles to encourage extension of your spine and once you do that draw your shoulders back and down draw your upper arm bones back broaden your collarbone imagine maybe that you're doing baby cobras you're in this take a breath in here find a little more baby cobra and as you exhale hinge forward from the pelvis so tip your pelvis forward so the spine stays long as you hinge forward so it's pretty active here and then releasing your ankles walking your hands forward any amount at all walking your hands forward and releasing your head towards your feet if you have a block nearby you might enjoy resting a block on your feet and resting your head on the block that can be quite uh restorative for people now whatever you're doing really relax the head on the neck let the head be heavy so slowly roll yourself up to an upright position step your feet to the floor and once more lowering yourself down in a way that's driven by by curiosity lift your head and upper back off of the floor take a few breaths a little active alpanasana and then take one more breath in and as you exhale you release yourself to the floor for shavasana separate your feet as wide apart as you like palms face up and away from your body and this is it shavasana final resting pose the most constructive rest there is this is when you know you soften your your efforts trusting that the imprints that you've been creating through this practice and through every other practice are slowly but surely or maybe quickly making a home in your body in your mind in your heart in your life so let your front body merge with your back body let your back body merge with the with the floor and maybe envisioning that it's merging with the earth that's beneath the floor and this rest is Begin to deepen your breath. You can keep resting for as long as you like. If you'd like to come up to sit, you can wiggle your fingers and your toes.

Extend your arms alongside your ears, give yourself a nice long stretch from feet to him. Draw your knees into your chest and roll to one side and pause for a moment and then keep your eyes closed as you slowly make your way up to a seated position, any seat you like. Once you're seated, sit well. Press your hands on your knees or your thighs. Let your head float on top of your spine.

Bring your palms together at the center of your chest and bow your head to your hands, thanking yourself for practicing, honoring your body and your breath, the connection between them and may your practice always be your living laboratory. May it bring you to learning how to lean into support and to resources that are already and always there. The light in me sees and honors the light that's also in you. Namaste.