As the Breath Turns

Hello, my friends. Welcome back if you're returning. Welcome. Nice to meet you. If it's your first time here, I'm Sadia. This is Guided by Breath. Here, we move freely. We move humanly. We move in a way that's directed by that expansive quality of the inhale, the contracting quality of the exhale. Today's practice is focused on twisting. So we're going to work on, you know, not the sort of like exorcisms that you might associate with twisting, but just deep twists, twists that occur from the center of the body. And of course, there's a little metaphor there. So like, can we turn towards all of the things that are calling for our attention, sometimes justifiably, while maintaining the center about us? So let's begin. We're going to begin in a seated position. I happen to be in Sukhasana, easy seat. You can also find the seat or another, if you prefer. And to begin, I'll have you extend your feet forward. So you'll flex your feet, and you'll find Tagasana in the feet and in the legs, so that evenness, that balance that's in the feet and then the legs also occurs in the pelvis. So can you feel, is your pelvis upright, is the bowl of your pelvis upright, and can you keep it upright? Can you be like a Halloween skeleton and cross your legs at the centers of your shins with your feet flexed? And then grab your buttock flesh out from under you. So your sitting bones make deep in their connection with the, with the floor. Lift your chest up, bring your fingertips back behind you. It doesn't have to be in that showbody way. Just place your fingertips back behind you, fingertips pointing backwards. Draw your elbows towards each other. And we're first trying to find some broadness across the chest. It's not a ton of movement, but it's incredibly, you can soften your eyes close if you like. I just instinctively did that because these small movements, these subtleties, they require right deep, deep listening. And when we close the eyes, you know, we're able to use the mind's eye, which as we know is all seeing in a way, draw the elbows back, feel that broadening of the collarbones, but also now press down into the fingertips to lengthen all four sides of your torso. So front, back, left, right. And then if the eyes are closed, float them open and then very gently lift your fingertips up, but maintain that lift, maintain that broadness as you rest your hands on your knees or your thighs, arm bones are heavy, crown of the head still lifting up, collarbones broad, and then close the eyes again. Relax the legs. So finding right this intersection between clarity, precision, effort, will, and softness, roundness, ease, openness, receptivity, and surrender. Rest your hands on your body and just feel movement of breath in the body, breathing in and breathing out, in through the nose, out through the nose.

Maybe you found your ujjayi breath, a little constriction at the back of the throat as you breathe in and out. Can you, while we're here, transition from doing the breathing to just allowing breath to happen as it does? Can you receive the inhale in its entirety, right? And feel that pause of the crest of the inhale and then watch as that inhale tumbles into an exhale and you feel that descending quality of the exhale. There's a bottom to the exhale and a pause at the bottom and then that exhale turns itself over to an inhale and the cycle just continues. And these moments of quiet, of communing with the breath, are opportunities for us to remember this perfect yoga that exists in us, that is happening in us at all times without effort on our part. It's a chance to do that, but also a chance to return the body to that yoga, right? So to allow the body to have this experience of perfect yoga as breath, moving as breath. So that as we are, you know, acting out there in the world, we are moving from this place of balance, right? This inherent balance that's in us. Bring your palms together at the center of your chest into Anjali Mudra. Soften your head to your hands. You can set an intention or dedication for your practice. Great. And then release your hands down to your thighs, float your eyes open, float the head up with a long neck, release your arms out to the side, wrap, roll your biceps forward, begin to inhale, sweep your arms up. Exhale, release your arms. A couple more times like that. Inhale, raising the arms up. Exhale, releasing the arms. Inhale, lift the arms up. Exhale, release the arms.

And then inhale, sweep the arms up. This time, as you exhale, draw your hands down the center line of your body with the full length of the exhale. It's almost poetic, right? Pairing the movement with the breath, giving the movement to the breath, letting the movement be an offering to the breath. And then interlace your hands behind your head, widen your elbows, lengthen your neck, so using the hands to find some length in the neck, some more length in the neck. As you inhale, lift up through the crown of the head. As you exhale, twist to the right along the axis of the body. Pause, begin to inhale, come to center, lift up. Exhale, twist in the opposite direction, along the axis of the body. So with the hands behind the head like this, we'll keep moving. We're keeping the neck long, and we're actually not rotating at the cervical spine, at the neck. We're trying to have an experience along the upper back, the thoracic spine. And still moving with breath, so I'm moving pretty fluidly, but it's still very much coordinated with my breath. So twisting on the exhale, and then returning to center, so the body is in a position to receive the breath. And then we exhale, we use the natural participation of the body with the exhale to twist, and then come back to center. Great, release the backs of your hands to your legs and pause. So not a ton of movement, but this quality of deep listening allows us to really sense the power in subtle work. And then let's reach the arms out to the sides again.

As you inhale, sweep the arms up. This time, as you exhale, lower your arms as you revolve along the axis of your body. So twist to the right, stay looking forward, and as you inhale, we'll come back to center. And we'll do this a few times, so I want you to keep looking forward using the exhales to twist, pausing at the bottom of the exhale. The inhale arises, you receive the breath in. As you exhale, you twist in the opposite direction. Inhale, lift. Exhale, twist, gazing forward. Inhale, lift up. This time, exhale, twist and stay in the twist. As you inhale, lengthen through the crown of the head. As you exhale, a little more clarity in the twist, but now you can allow the head to turn in the direction of the twist. So allowing now the cervical spine to participate in the twist. But realizing perhaps that you're turning your head, but the bulk of the twist has occurred below the neck. So I want you to have that experience, so that rather than twisting with the eyes and with the neck and with the head, it's full spinal participation. As you next inhale, come back to center, lift up and lengthen. Exhale, twisting in the opposite direction to the left. At first, gazing forward, using that next inhale to lengthen a little more through the spine. And then beginning to exhale, a little more clarity in the twist and with a gentleness and a curiosity and a slowness beginning to turn the head in the direction of the twist. And observing. So was it your experience that as you turn the head, not much changed save for what you're looking at? Begin to inhale, come back to center, lift the arms up, exhale, release the arms and just pause and experience whatever you're experiencing. Deep, deep listening. And then come to child's pose. So big toes touching knees wide apart. Relax your head and neck. Let the head rest into the floor so that the neck is relaxed.

Let the hips be heavy. And you're just receiving breath here now in this forward fold. Can you feel as you inhale, the ribs expand, there's a little lessening of the forward fold. As you exhale, there's this energetic, but maybe also physical, subtle physical deepening of the shape. Start to crawl your hands as far forward as you can, spreading your palms and widening your palms so they're a little wider than shoulder width. And as the next inhale arises, you'll come forward to cow pose, release your belly, spread the collarbones, keep your neck long, and then exhale, press back to child's pose. Inhale, come forward. Exhale, press back. Once more, inhale, come forward to cow pose. Maybe unfurling the spine. And then exhale, reverse. Child's pose. Pause in child's pose, extended child's pose. Keep your arms long, lift your head slightly up. So we're coming a little bit out of the shape so that we can thread the right arm underneath the left. And maybe you stay lifted this way in this twisted child's pose, or maybe it's comfortable for your body to keep threading the arm through as you release the head to the floor. We'll take a few breaths here, just like this. Left hand can crawl directly forward, or it might feel interesting to crawl the left hand a little over to the right. So you're not so much deepening the twist as you are. How can I rephrase it euphemistically, so we're not doing an exorcism? You just give the shape to your breath. So receive the breath and feel the ribs expand. And as you exhale, you're encouraging, write a little bit more exploration in the direction of the twist. How's that verbiage? Great. Soften that left arm, press into the palm so you can lift up if you were lowered and unthread the arm.

And let's come to center and pause and register, right? Register what's happening in the body as a result of having made that shape. And then let's do the other side. So you thread the left arm underneath, and maybe you stay here. Maybe you explore walking the right hand forward, walking the left hand a little more over to the right and releasing your head to the floor. Placing that left hand so that you have space in the shoulder, the left shoulder. Maybe the right hand begins to crawl forward and over to the left some amount. But definitely not the priority. So we're just exploring, right? Not so much deepening as we are asking different questions. And being curious about our capacity to contain our experience.

Let's come back to center. So pressing into both hands, actually, to lift yourself up and to unthread your arm. Let's inhale and come forward to cow pose. And then exhale to downward facing dog with soft knees. Inhale, come forward to cow pose, release the knees, release the belly. Exhale to child's pose. So moving as breath as we do. Inhale, you'll come forward and respond, release the belly so you can take the rest of that breath in. Use the power of your exhale to press back to down dog. And this time, lower your knees to the floor. Coming to a tabletop with the hand slightly forward of the shoulders, and then finding some movement in tabletop. I forget the name we landed on, what to call this. It's either, I forget the options with something like exotic cat and like marauding bear. And I think I said that I liked exotic bear. We take a few breaths here, but the point is to find, write some freedom inside of this container that is tabletop pose. Letting the rib cage move in some direction, maybe drawing your attention to your tailbone, whatever you like. Organic movement doesn't matter what it looks like. And then come back to center and pause, hips stacked above your knees, walk your hands forward.

So you're in a puppy dog pose, release the head to the floor a little more towards the hairline so the neck is long. Reach forward through the fingertips and back with your tailbone, with your sitting bolts. Breathe into the sides of your body, lengthen the sides of your body. Let the breath lengthen the sides of your body. Lift your head slightly away from the floor so ears are in line with your upper arms. And you'll take a few breaths there, so this requires a little bit more work of the shoulders and the arms. And you just explore, explore. When the work increases for the body, can you also increase the connection between your body and your breath? So receive a little more breath. Walk your hands back towards you, so your back and tabletop position. Register your experience.

And then this time, as you inhale, lift your right arm up and open twist to the right and pause. We're going to take an exhale cycle there. Breathe in and as you breathe out, thread the arm underneath twice more like that. Begin to inhale, unthread the arm and open twist. Exhale and twist. Inhale, open twist. Exhale and twist. Rest your head on the floor. Crawl your left hand forward if that's accessible for your body, using your power of proprioception to keep the hips stacked above the knees, allowing this twist to occur along the length of the spine. We're in a new shape, but, you know, with this little bit of novelty, well, for this practice anyway, assuming that this is the first twist and tabletop you're doing today, can you deepen your body's, the connection between body and breath? Place your left hand next to the face, you can press into the hand and come back to tabletop. Pause, register your experience. Inhale, lift your left arm up and pause. We'll take a few, not a few, we'll take one more breath and as you exhale, we'll thread the arm underneath, rest your head on the floor, maybe crawling the right hand forward, hips stacking above the knees and then offering this pose to the breath. Letting the breath expand the ribs and then feeling as those muscles between the ribs contract. Come back to center, press your hand into the floor, unthread yourself and pause, observe, walk your hands forward, tuck your toes under, downward facing dog, lift your hips up and back. Let's take a wide dog pose for a moment so you can have this experience of space, bend your knees, lengthen the sides of your body as you walk your hands back towards you so you're in a really wide Uttanasana. Bend your knees a lot, let the crown of your head release to the floor and then let's walk the hands up the legs, keeping the knees bent and extending them as you lift your torso up and you come to find Tadasana there at the back of your mat. You can make some movement with a body and then you just take a walk to the top of your mat, soften your knees a lot. In fact, I'll just be in the middle, you can do the same, soften your knees, let your arms go and let's turn as we bounce the knees and at first, you know, you may feel like this, like a robot, but can you approach humanness as you do this? Can you progressively find a little more freedom in the body, you know, and we actually, we don't have much occasion to do that, certainly not these days when we're sitting pretty rigidly for most of our days. Let the knees bounce as you turn, let the arms go and then progressively make those movements smaller and smaller and then come to Tadasana and just pause there, walk to the top of your mat as you inhale, raise your arms up just to shoulder height, turn your palms up, lift your chest up as you exhale, turn your toes in, round your shoulders, draw your arms together, inhale and open the front of your body to your breath, exhale and open the back of your body to your breath as you close the front body. A few more times like that, I'll let you tune into your breath and let you move with your own breath. Maybe you find, you know, fluid movement between point A, which is here with the front body open and point B, which is with the back body open, the front body closed. And then the next time you inhale and open the arms and lift the chest, exhale, release your arms by your sides, turn your palms just gently forward so the collarbones stay broad, the shoulders are front of the body is open, rest your hands on your body and just listen. Release your arms by your sides, begin to inhale and raise your arms up in a natural way, you can touch your palms as you exhale soften your knees and hinge forward in a natural way. That again inhale, raise the arms up, look up and touch your palms and then exhale softening the knees and hinging forward, keeping the spine pretty long until you get to the bottom and then releasing. Inhale, reach your heart forward, raise the arms up in a natural way, this time as you exhale palms to touch, draw your hands down the center line of your body, you pause, your gaze can be soft, release your arms. Inhale, lifting up, exhale, hinging forward, this time inhale to a little modification of prepare pose, lift your chest, lift your arms up and then exhale, release your arms, forward fold, inhale, lift up, keep your knees soft as you do this, exhale, forward fold, inhale, lift yourself up, lift the arms up, exhale, forward fold. So can you sense and keep going that quality of like respiration that's happening as you lift and as you lower. Lift, inhale, lower, exhale, stay in the forward fold, soften your knees, you can widen your stance a little bit, maybe shift your weight from left to right and then come to center and pause, this time as you inhale, prepare pose. So hands to your shins, keep your knees soft as you lift your chest and reach the crown of your head forward. So different than what we were doing moments ago but that's it, it's just different. The quality of your attention, the shape of your intention as you're in the shape should be what it was moments ago when we were doing this in sort of a more, a rounder way. Keep that roundness about you and take a breath in and as you exhale, you'll forward fold. Bring your hands to the floor and step yourself back to a plank pose and you'll pause, lift the thigh bones up, maybe the knees come to the floor, whatever you choose to do is fine and we'll take a couple of breaths here, lifting up out of the shoulders. As you inhale, can you lengthen the mid-back more? So reach the crown of your head away from your tailbone and as you exhale, lower yourself down to the floor, keep the elbows close.

As you inhale, baby cobra, lift the center of your chest, back of your skull, exhale, lower down. Inhale, lift and then exhale, lower down. Inhale, lift up and then exhale, lower. Great, release your forehead to the floor, interlace your hands behind your head and then feel. Can you hug the sides of your head with the heels of your hands? So if we've been together before, I like to do this quite a lot but it's very interesting. Can you feel and can you make a little more space in your neck? It's incredibly subtle, maybe it feels more energetic than physical. Elbows are wide and as you inhale, can you lift your head up into your hands and also lift the legs up some amount. Keep your elbows wide, exhale and lower. We'll do that a couple more times. Inhale, lift up, exhale, lower. Inhale, lift, exhale, lower. Inhale, lift and pause. Elbows are wide, inner thighs spinning up towards the ceiling and lengthen the neck more as you slide the shoulder blades down the back.

I'm going to take a couple of breaths here just like this, receiving the breath in. Take one more breath in. As you exhale, release, stack your hands, rest your head on top of your hands and register your experience. Place your hands next to your lower ribs. Press back to a child's pose and pause. We're going to do a little moving here. So as you inhale, drag yourself back forward to bhujangasana, baby cobra, lifting up. Exhale, lower down and press back to child's pose. The inhale arises and we respond by coming forward to baby cobra, lifting the center of the chest, the back of the skull. Exhale and lower down and press back to child's pose. Let's do that twice more and you move at the pace of your breath and you see how much fluidity you can find between point A and point B, between child's pose and baby cobra. The next time you inhale and come forward to bhujangasana, stay there, press the tops of your feet down back and the neck is long. I'm going to take another breath cycle here and as you exhale, lower down to the floor and then bring your hands forward and come up onto your forearms for a sphinx pose. So elbows are underneath the shoulders, hands are shoulder width apart. Feel that you are dragging back on the mat but also pulling the mat apart. So feeling the chest lift, pressing the forearms down. There's a lot happening actually, it's quite complex. We're pressing down, we're dragging apart and then we're pulling back and we're not lifting the chin and using the eyes to have an experience. We're having the experience on the inside. In fact, close your eyes. Can you lengthen your neck a little more? The back of your neck and you can stay on your forearms if you're feeling called to press into the hands and lift the elbows any amount. You can do that but lift the inner elbows. So don't let the elbows bow out to the sides and whatever you choose to do is find this. Stay lifted, keep lifting your sternum.

Take a couple more breaths here. Can you give even this shape to the breath and feel as you inhale the chest rises and broadens and can you stay as you exhale and feel your belly firm, lengthen your tailbone with the firming of your abdomen and take another breath in as you exhale. Let's widen the elbows, stack the hands and rest your head on top of your hands. Little prone, prone shavasana of sorts. You can bend your knees and maybe windshield wiper your feet from left to right if that feels like it might do some good for your body. And then release your feet. Hands next to your lower ribs, press up to tabletop position. Just passing through on your way to downward facing dog. So lift your hips up and back. Knees are soft. You can pedal through your feet pressing one heel towards the floor and then the other turning your head from left to right. Shaking it no, shaking it yes. Pause in your down dog and when the next inhale comes lower your knees to the floor. Cow pose, spread your collarbones. Exhale to child's pose. Inhale, come forward to cow pose and as you exhale downward facing dog, again inhale, cow. Exhale, child, bowing to the breath.

Inhale, cow. Exhale, down dog. Pausing in down dog. Registering your experience while you're in an experience that requires you to put forth some effort. Being human is complex, more complex than we give ourselves credit for. Or perhaps we make it more complex than it needs to be. Look between your hands, soften your knees and then start to walk yourself forward. And once you are forward, soften the knees even more. Relax the neck. Let the head be heavy. Hands see your hips. This time elbows draw together. You reach your heart forward. Come up about halfway and pause. Lengthen the back of your neck. Such straight lines right on the outside of the body. But I know you, you're round on the inside. There's a softness of intention and you maintain that always. No matter what shape you're in, come all the way up to standing and pause, relax your arms, rest your hands on your body. And just tuning in to connection between breath and body. Hands come to your hips this time. Lift your left knee up. And then as you lift the left knee, notice as the left side of your body isn't wanting to shorten, is the hip wanting to hike lower the hip. Lengthen the left waist and pause in your balancing position here. And then bring your right hand to your left knee. You can find a little gentle leverage. So you draw against the knee to lift the chest, broaden the chest. As you inhale, lengthen through the top of your head. As you exhale, begin to revolve your chest to the left.

Looking forward, but then maybe you're called to turn the head in the direction of the twist. Maybe you're called to add a little salt to this by extending your arm back behind you. And then take a few breaths there, just like that. With every inhale, lengthening through the crown of the head, every exhale, a little more clarity in the twist. You take one more breath in. And as you exhale, come to center. Keep that knee lifted. Reach your arms up to the ceiling. Draw your heel towards your hip. Soften your front knee as you step yourself back into a high lunge. Lift your torso. Lift your arms up, reaching up through your fingertips. Peel your back toes back. So there's brightness in the foot. You may like to soften your back knee. You check in with your body. Now take a couple of breaths here, just like this.

Draw that right hip back. So we find balance in the pelvis. And we take a breath in here. As we exhale, let's lower the torso just halfway. The arms can come alongside the body. And then release your hands to your two blocks if you have them. Or to the floor, also an option. Press down into the block so you can lift up out of the shoulders. Find space. And then let's bring the right hand behind the head to find again that length of the neck. Widen the elbow. Breathe in. Lengthen from your back heel through the crown of your head. Draw your right hip back so the pelvis is balanced. And as you next exhale, we can begin to open the chest to the right. You may keep the hand behind the head and keep exploring there. See if doing this low lunge twist is a little more interesting for holding the back of the head. Maybe you extend the right arm up to the ceiling if that's calling to you.

Whatever you choose to do, always in the spirit of exploration. And remember, you know, today we're trying to, can we turn towards the things of life while maintaining, you know, center and operating from center. Take a breath in. As you exhale, bring your hand to the block. Breathe in, lengthen your spine. Breathe out. Step your back foot forward. Release towards the floor. Hands through your hips, soft knees, soft intention. Inhale, coming up to stand with an extended spine. And pausing once you've arrived, you can keep your hands on your hips, but relax the shoulders. Lift your right knee up. Lengthen the right side waist. Lift up through the crown of the head. Hold on to the right knee with your left hand. As you inhale, you lengthen the spine even more. As you exhale, begin to revolve to the right. Still gazing forward. Maybe you're encouraged or curious about turning your head in the direction of the twist. Maybe you're curious about extending your right arm back. And you take a few breaths, wherever you are. And there's no, there's no end, right, to any posture. There is no real arrival because they just keep evolving and moving with, with breath. Take a breath in. As you exhale, you can come to center. Keep your knee lifted, lift your arms up. Soften your standing legs. Step yourself back into a lunge. Lift your torso up. Maybe finding some softness in your back knee if that feels like it will be valuable for your body. And we'll just take a couple of breaths in the lunge, softening the shoulders. We take one more breath in. And as you exhale, lean forward, hinge forward about halfway. Float your hands to your blocks. Find spacey. Set the lunge up. We've got, we've got time. Set up the lunge. Step, press your front heel down as you draw that hip back. So trying to find balance in the pelvis. Let's interlace, not interlace, let's place the left hand behind the head, lengthen the neck, widen the elbow. Can you release that right shoulder down the, down the back? Inhale, lengthen, and then exhale, begin to revolve to the left. And maybe staying there and becoming really attuned to your experience. Maybe call, you're called to extend your left arm up to the ceiling.

I'm going to take one more breath in. And as you exhale, hand to the block. Breathe in again. Exhale, step your back foot forward. I'm going to raise these blocks to the highest height and be in a standing, a supported forward fold. It's a crown of the head releasing. Feet are about sitting bone distance apart. Inhale, press into the blocks to lift your chest up so you're in a little supported prepare pose. And as you exhale, keep your spine long as you hinge forward. And then softening the head, relaxing the head, releasing the head towards the crown of the, or the crown of the head towards the floor. And feel, as you breathe in the forward fold lessens, as the torso expands, rib cage expands, as you exhale, muscles between the ribs contract, the forward fold deepens as the rib cage contracts. Bring your hands to your legs, soft knees, walk your hands up your legs, up your thighs. Great. And on the arrival, pausing, being with your experience for a few moments with a soft gaze or with your eyes closed. Great. And then turning towards the long edge of your mat, you can grab one of your blocks and place it at the center of your, center of your mat and you'll take a wide stance apart about a legs distance. Hands will come to the hips, knees have a softness about them, feet are parallel. As you inhale, you'll draw your elbows back and lift your chest up. As you exhale, you'll hinge forward, lower yourself halfway. So let's keep the spine long. Draw the elbows back, weight shifting ever so slightly towards the fronts of the feet, the arches are lifted. And then let's bring your hand to your block, which can come directly under your nose. Block can be on whatever height works for your body.

I happen to have it on the highest height. You can do the same. You can also not use a block and bring your hand to the floor, whatever feels right for your body. You're going to press your hand into the block so you can extend your elbow. And with that extended elbow, draw the left shoulder down the, down the back. So left hand to the block. As you inhale, lengthen from your tailbone through the crown of your head. And then with the exhale, begin to revolve your rib cage to the right. And let's actually stay looking at the block as you revolve your rib cage. And, you know, over the next few breath cycles, I want you to try to continue lengthening the spine with every breath in. And as you breathe out, finding a little more clarity in the twist. Maybe you're called to turn your head in the direction of the twist. I'm going to take a few breaths here. So this deepening of the twist is not so much about how it looks, but, you know, the, the, how, how deep is the connection between your breath and your body? And can you deepen it more still? Or can you allow for that deepening? Because it's already there, right? We're just stripping away so we can return to what is. You might feel called to extend your arm up to the ceiling or not, but you can try if it doesn't quite feel right for your body. You can bring the hand back to your hip. We'll take one more breath in. And as we exhale, come back to center and pause and bring your hands to your hips, soften your knees, and just come up to stand for a moment just so you can register that experience. Step your feet together and just take a, take a moment, move the body around a bit. And then let's try the opposite side. So you step your feet wide apart. Again, feet are parallel. Arches are, are lifted. Elbows will draw back. And as you inhale, you'll lift your chest. As you exhale, you'll hinge forward halfway, hand to the block, directly under your nose. You press into the block, lift up out of the shoulder, lift, reach the crown of the head forward. As you reach the tailbone back, inhale. As you exhale, stay looking at the block as you begin to revolve the chest to the left.

I'm going to take a few breaths there. So deep work, work so deep it can't be seen with the eye, right? So you continue to revolve with every exhale, maybe turning the head in the direction of the twist, lengthening, continuing to lengthen with every breath in and continuing to find and allow for clarity on the breath out. Maybe keeping the hand on the hip or maybe you're called to reach the arm up towards the ceiling. Take one more breath in. And then as you exhale, releasing to center and pausing for a moment, hands to your hips with a long spine, but a soft intention, roundness of the heart. You'll come all the way up to stand. You'll step your feet together and you'll pause, pick up one foot and then the other. And then let's have a narrower stance, now sitting bone distance apart. As you inhale, bend your knees and reach your arms up to the ceiling, utkatasana, right? Chair pose and then exhale, stand. Inhale, chair pose again, and then exhale, release. And then inhale, chair pose and you'll pause here. You'll take a couple of breaths in, chair. So weight is in the heels, the heart is lifted. And then please place your left hand on the outside of your right knee. And then you'll notice, you know, by doing this, the chest wants to revolve in that direction and it can. So you'll turn your right palm to face the wall and you'll find a little twist, find a little leverage against the leg. Look at the knees, see that the knees are in line with each other. And we find a little modified twisted chair and you can sit as low as you like. You might feel called to slide your arm down the outside of the leg, but not necessary. Whatever is working for your body, you always have your hand on the dial, right? Sit a little lower in the chair, inhale. And then exhale, release, coming to center and pausing. And then right away, the opposite side, chair pose, breathe in. Right hand to the outside of your left knee, gently encouraging little rotation, seeing that the knees are in line with each other. And then the left hand draws back and the palm revolves in that direction. So the shoulder can stay spacious. And we take a few breaths there, just like that. So every breath in, receiving the twist lessons. As you exhale, a little deepening of the twist. Take a breath in. And as you exhale, you can release. And let's shake out the arms and the legs. And let's pause, hands on the body. Great. Release your arms. And then let's come back to the top of the mat. So finding Tadasana arms released by your sides. As you inhale, raise the arms up in a natural way.

Exhale and hinge forward. Inhale to prepare pose. And then exhale, hands to the floor, downward facing dog. Pause and down dog with soft knees. Stands can be as wide as you like. And then lower the knees to the floor and come to a child's pose, releasing your head to the floor. I'm going to turn my palms up. My body really enjoys this variation, but you take whatever variation of child's pose feels best for you. Great. And then start to walk your hands back towards you. So you're in an upright position and you pause for a moment. Great. And then come to lie down on your back. So you'll recline mindfully, draw your knees into your chest. You can rock a little bit from left to right. And then step your feet to the floor, ankles are underneath the knees. Press your upper arms into the floor and reach your fingertips up to the ceiling. And then press your upper arms into the floor so your chest lifts, roll your shoulders towards each other. Extend your elbows, palms facing down. As you next inhale, press into your heels, lift your pelvis up. You can roll the shoulders towards each other a bit more. And the hands can press down into the floor. If you like to interlace the hands, of course that's an option. We try to give the shape to the breath. So can you press the heels down and drag it back on the heels? And as you breathe in, can you let the chest expand? As you breathe out, feel the belly firm and lengthen the tailbone. And we use the support of the breath, right? The participation of the lower belly with that exhale to create space in the lower back body. So intelligent. Take one more breath in. As you exhale, release your pelvis to the floor. Great. Separate your feet a little wider apart and then windshield wiper your knees from left to right. Great. Draw your knees into your chest and options.

We're going to come back upright for a bit. You can rock along your spine forwards and backwards. You might like to roll to one side so that your upright, whatever you choose to do is fine. And then extend your legs straight out in front of you. You find a little dandasana with soft knees if you like. The idea is to have the pelvis upright. And then let's cross the right ankle over the left knee. Let's place the hand behind the back with the fingertips turning back away from your body. Draw the elbow back. Use your hand to draw your knee gently towards your body. And we'll pause here. Flex your left foot. Press into the pads of your fingers to lift the back of the pelvis up and pausing here for a few breaths. And you can stay here. You might feel called with your exhales to begin to revolve towards the right. My gaze is forward for now because what am I doing? The same thing we've been practicing with every inhale lengthening from the tailbone through the crown of the head with every exhale little more clarity in the twist. You might feel called after you've twisted to turn your gaze in the direction of the twist but staying supple all the while. Take one more breath in. Use your exhale to come to center. You take a little counter twist in the opposite direction and then let's uncross the legs and pause. You can shake the legs out and the body out. And then let's switch sides. So let's cross the left ankle over the right knee. Let's draw the knee towards the center of the body as we place the fingertips to find some balance in the pelvis. And we pause and it takes some, you know, to get from point A to point B there are infinite stops. So allow yourself to explore the ones that call to you but we want to find balance in the pelvis and upright pelvis so that with every breath in we can find this tremendous length in the spine. And so that with every breath out we can begin to revolve along the axis of the spine finding a twist.

Finding a twist that's happening, you know, along the full length of the spine maybe allowing the head to turn in the direction of the twist but staying with breath, inhaling to lengthen, exhaling a little more clarity. We take one more breath in and as you exhale coming through center, little counter twist, back to center, feet extend. Let's bring the soles of the feet together. Hold the outer ankles and inhale to lift and lengthen the spine. As you exhale hinge forward about halfway and you pause, relax the shoulders, maybe the hands walk forward if that's comfortable for your body and then continue with a long spine to walk your hands forward. At some point it might be interesting to round the spine and release the head and you find whatever variation of the shape works for you. If you like you can place a can demonstrate that you can place a block on your feet at any height and rest your head on the block. Forward folds, right, an invitation to find a little introversion to now that the connection between breath and body is deepened and we've remembered it, we've returned the body to the breath. Can we now return the mind and the heart to this breathing body? And as you're ready to slowly emerging from that experience and then drawing your knees together, stepping your feet to the floor and let's mindfully roll down to reach your fingertips forward, then a little C curve of your spine, release your shoulders, lower yourself down, knees into the chest. Keep your right knee hugging into the chest as you extend your left leg along the floor and then twist, so simple reclined twists and we actually did this shape while standing. So now here we are in a reclined twist and the right arm can reach either directly out of the shoulder socket or you may bend at the elbow, whatever works for you. You can use your left hand to press into that right thigh bone to keep the right side body long and then return to center and let's switch sides. So draw your left knee in, you can recenter your pelvis, extend your right leg along the floor and then cross the knee over your body, either extending the left arm or finding a bend in the elbow, maybe using your right hand to press into the left thigh bone near the hip crease to lengthen that sideways. Great, and then as you're ready, just gently coming to the center, drawing both knees into your chest, recentering your hips, then extending one leg and then the other coming to shavasana, final resting pose. Allow yourself to take up space if you have props that you would like to use or socks or sweater or whatever you like to find complete comfort and support in this final resting pose. The first few moments, you know, arrival, arrival. So no, no rushing, arrival. Once you found baseline physical comfort, relaxing from feet to head, let the fingertips curl gently towards the centers of your palm. Place your head so that the cervical spine maintains its natural curve. Relax your brow and your eyes, your jaw.

You can continue resting or you can begin to deepen your breath, wiggle your fingers and toes, returning your awareness to your physical body and to your body in the space. Reach your arms alongside your ears, stretch long little legs in the arms and draw your knees into your chest and roll onto one side, rest your head on your arm. Keeping your eyes closed, you'll make your way up to a comfortable seat. Any seat you like, any seat that works for you and you'll sit well, rest your hands on your knees or your thighs. Bring your palms together at the center of your chest, bow your head to your hands, thank yourself for practicing, honor, body, breath, connection between them, connection between you and your breathing body. And may your practice always be a laboratory, may it always remind you that, you know, you can turn towards the things in life that grab your attention. And we have to, we have to stay engaged. But as we do that, we can always maintain, you know, that center line, that centeredness. The light in me sees and honors the light that's also in you. Namaste.