Heart Softening with Miles

Talk

Practice

And on the exhale, right leg lifts, lift your arms, curl your tailbone up. Inhale, bring the leg down, arms down. You're still hovering the exhale, left side. Lift up. Inhale, back to that little hover place. Exhale, right leg and arms up. Inhale, back. Exhale, left leg, arms up. Two more. Inhale, back. Exhale, right leg and arms. Lift. Inhale, back. Exhale, left leg and arms. Inhale, back. Hug the knees in toward your chest. Release your spine. From there, you can wag a little bit side to side. Let the sacrum melt into the floor. And then you can choose to roll over to the side or you can roll back and forth. If you're rolling back and forth, can you really curl your spine into the ground and come on up to sit. Separate your feet, hips distance wide. Hands will come underneath you with the fingers pointing toward your bum. Now from there, narrow the elbows in a little bit. Puff up your chest like a proud bird. And then from there, lift your bum and spread the chest, spread the abdomen after that ab work. I find it doesn't take a lot. If you do it well and expediently, you can get the benefits right away. One more breath and roll your booty down. Come on up to sit. If you're sitting on a block, you might take a supported Virasana. That means the block would be in between your heels. The toes would point back, the knees would point forward. If you're sitting cross-legged, that's also fine. Sit nice and tall though. We'll start by chanting together. And you don't have to chant if you're shy or if you're in a space where it's not quite acceptable. Listening is just as beneficial. It's called shravanam. The act of chanting is kirtanam. And really, it's a practice of deep listening. When we speak or voice sound or sing, what we're really working is our ability to listen. And isn't it true that the world could use some deep listeners right around now? So it's a good practice to have. Repeat after me. Radhe govinda radhe.

Radhe govinda radhe. Gopala radhe radhe. Gopala radhe radhe. So I'll sing it once, then you sing, then I sing, then you sing. And if you get really comfortable with it, you can just belt out in your living room. Radhe govinda radhe. Gopala radhe radhe. Radhe govinda radhe. Gopala radhe radhe. Radhe govinda radhe. Gopala radhe radhe. Radhe govinda radhe. Gopala radhe radhe radhe. Radhe govinda radhe. Gopala radhe radhe. Last time. Radhe govinda radhe. Gopala radhe radhe. Palms together at the heart. Deep inhale, close your eyes. Gently open your eyes. We'll meet in a child's pose at the back of your mat. If you're using blocks, set them on right and left top corner of your mat. When you come into your child's pose, let the head rest on the ground. Reach your arms forward and simply drop your weight into the floor from there. Imagine that there was a ball or a little marble right in front of your nose and start to look slowly, slowly forward. Bend the elbows and pull your chest forward. Keep the chest low as you scrub the chest forward into your cobra pose. And then as you exhale, lift your bum and press back into your child's pose. We're going to do that twice more. Start to look forward. Bend your elbows. Keep the chest low. Scrub, scrub, scrub the heart forward. Inhale. Roll open. Spread the chest. On the exhale, lift your bum. Pull back. Child's pose. You've got one more. Push the marble forward. Keep the chest low. Inhale. Roll open. And on the exhale, push back. Child's pose. Roll yourself up to sit. Walk your hands back. And then when you come up to sit, inhale.

And on the exhale, curl your nose in toward your chest and round through a cat's spine. Once you get into your child's pose, push that marble forward with your forehead and then lift your chest up to sit. It's exaggerated. So then curl your tailbone under and round, round, round. Inhale. Roll open. Lift your chest. And one more. Curl your tailbone under. Round, round, round, round. Inhale. Open your chest. And on the exhale, curl your tailbone. Round once again through your cat spine. Reach your arms forward. Open your chest. Cow pose. On the exhale, tuck the toes, press up and back. Downward facing dog. On the next inhale, sweep the right leg up, but try to keep the hip closed. Come high up onto the ball of your left foot and bend your left knee and pull your left sit bone back a little bit faster than your right sit bone. As you exhale, hug the right knee in toward your chest. The left leg is going to straighten, so you're seesawing the legs. And then inhale your right leg high. Bend your left knee. Bend your left knee. On the exhale, hug the right knee in toward your nose. Round, round, round. Kick your butt with your right heel. Inhale, right leg back. Bend your left knee. On the exhale, hug the right knee in toward your chest. Round, round, round. Push the hands down and step the foot forward. From there, walk your hands forward. Lift your left leg. You're in a supported warrior three. If you've got your blocks there, you can use them. Inhale. On the exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose. Round. Inhale, extend. Crown of the head forward, heel back. Exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose and round. Inhale, extend. Exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose and round. Last one. Inhale, extend. On the exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose and round. Walk your hands back a little bit and hold onto your left shin with your hands. Interlace your fingers in front of the shin. Lift yourself up to stand.

Chances are you're widening the left seat out to the left, so let the left seat drop a little bit. Lift your chest. Stand firmly in the right thigh. Hug the muscles of the right thigh bone onto itself. One more inhale. And as you exhale, release the left foot down. Hook your thumbs. Right thumb over the left. Bend your knees. Step down into the feet. As you inhale, sweep the arms forward and up like you're grazing the insides of a sphere. Lift your chest. As you exhale, fold forward over your legs. Interlace the fingers behind your tailbone. Right index on top. Bend your knees. Lift your chest up into a skier's pose. Pull your bum back. On the exhale, extend the legs and fold. Let the fist fall back behind you. Inhale, bend your knees. Scrub the chest forward. It feels like a cow pose or an up dog. On the exhale, extend and fold. Inhale, bend the knees. Scrub your heart forward. Now listen. Lean the weight to your right foot. Lift your left foot a little bit. And then step your left foot way, way, way back. Release your fingers. Lower the ball of the foot. Lower the knee. Reach your arms forward and up. Hook the right thumb over the left. On the inhale, pull the hips back a little bit. On the exhale, slide the hips forward and down. Lift your chest. Inhale, pull the hips back. Exhale, slide the hips forward and down. Inhale, pull the hips back. Exhale, slide the hips forward and down. Inhale, pull the hips back. Exhale, slide the hips forward and down. Stay for three breaths. Inhale. Kick the back foot down. Exhale. Inhale, turn your left hip forward a little, and one more inhale, and then zip the front ribs, hands down to the floor, tuck your toes under, lift your back leg and step back into your plank pose.

Lower your knees down, push your butt back, your back where you started, child's pose. Take a whole round of breath, appreciate the difference between your right and left side. And then from there, this time, a little different. So listen, you're going to roll up into a cat spine, roll up like a Halloween cat, really spike your vertebra up, and then listen, keep the arms straight, but start to pull your butt forward and roll open from there into an up dog. On the exhale, lower your chest down, and then from there, you're going to bend your knees and lift your bum up, and you're going to come back, rewinding the marble movement, pushing back into your child's pose.

Ooh, I know that one's a good one. We're going to do it a little bit more at speed now. Don't get carried away with the speed, just listen, do your best, follow my voice, round into your cat spine. Let that start to descend the hips forward, brighten the chest, roll open, thumbs and index as press. On the exhale, lower your chest down.

Lift your bum a little, slide the chest back, keep it low in your back in your child's pose. One more, inhale, round forward into your cat spine, on the exhale, hips drop down, the inhale is the cobra, the exhale, chest comes down, smear the chest back as the booty lifts your back in your child's pose. Walk your hands back, hands come to the shins, lift yourself up. We're reversing the movement now, inhale, open the chest first, and then very dramatic like your cow went to Broadway, round forward, round yourself up, and then exhale, roll forward and down, round yourself up, inhale, and exhale, round forward and down, reach your arms forward. You're already prepped for your cow, inhale, open your chest, tuck your toes under, press up and back, downward facing.

Inhale your left leg high, keep the hips square, come high up onto your right tip toes, and then bend your knee, pull your sit bones back. From there, take an inhale, on the exhale, hug the left knee and toward the nose, push down through the hands, round your spine, inhale, extend the left leg, bend your right knee, on the exhale hug the knee and toward the nose, round round round, inhale, extend the leg, bend your right knee, on the exhale hug the knee and toward the nose round round round, step the foot right between your hands, from there walk your hands forward, lift your right leg, take an inhale, on the exhale hug the knee and toward the nose, round round, your side waist up. Inhale, extend, crown of the head forward, heel back. Exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose, round. Inhale, extend. And exhale, bend. Round up all the way to stand, hold your shin with your fingertips. Press the shin forward as a way to lengthen your spine. And really lengthen the left leg, stand firmly into it. From there, start to lift the chest. You've got it. And step the foot down next to the left foot, leave a little bit of space. Left thumb over the right, bend the knees, inhale, sweep up like you're tracing the inside of a big ball. And exhale, fold forward, interlace your fingers behind your back. Left index on top. Inhale, bend your knees, pull your chest forward. Exhale, extend and fold. Inhale, bend the knees, pull your chest forward. Exhale, extend and fold. Inhale, bend the knees, pull the chest forward, lean the weight into your left foot. Lift your right foot. Take a huge, long step back with your right foot. Lower the ball of the foot, the back knee, arms reach down. Forward and up, hook the thumbs, left thumb on top. Inhale, pull back a little bit. And on the exhale, slide the hips forward and down, lift your chest higher. Inhale, pull back. Exhale, drop the hips, pull forward, kick the back foot down. Inhale, pull back. And on the exhale, slide down. Super nice. Stay for three breaths. When you roll the inner right thigh back, if you kick the back foot down, it'll help lift your chest. Lift the front of the body up a little bit so you have something to press into. One more breath. Zip the front ribs, hands down, tuck the back toes, step back plank pose. Inhale. And on the exhale, bend your knees, push your booty back. Keep the chest low. Push the marble with your nose one time. Inhale, rolling into a cobra of any size. And then as you exhale, lift the bum. Push back, child's pose. Walk your hands back, hands onto your thighs. Take an inhale. On the exhale, chin into the chest, round. Push the marble forward. Roll your chest up. And then reversing the tailbone is the tricky part. Rounding, rounding, rounding. Reach your arms forward. Open the chest. Cow pose. Tuck your toes. Press up and back. Inhale your right leg high. Bend your left knee right away. Come high up onto the left hip toes. Those are your bottom tip toes. On the exhale, hug the right knee and toward the nose. Round. Inhale, right leg high. Bend the left knee.

On the exhale, hug the right knee and toward your nose. Step the foot right between the hands. From there, walk the hands forward. Lift the left leg. Inhale, lengthen the leg. And on the exhale, hug the knee and toward the nose. Inhale, extend. Exhale, hug it in. Round up. Hold onto your shin. Roll up. Lift your chest up. Press the shin forward. Maybe there's more of a feeling of a back bend this time. Curl the left hip bone under you. And then zip the front of the body to step down. Right thumb over the left. Bend the knees. Press down into the feet. Inhale, roll up. The inhale comes all the way up to the chest. Exhale, fold forward over your legs and release the fingers. Right index on top. Bend your knees. Pull the chest forward. On the exhale, step your left foot way back. All of the foot lands, knee lands, lower the fingers down, forward and up. Right thumb over the left inhale. Pull your hips back. On the exhale, slide the hips forward. Stay for one round of breath. Inhale. On the exhale, hands down to the floor. Tuck the toes under. Press back.

Plank pose. On the inhale, push back into your child's pose and exhale. Now from there, inhale, round up into your cat's spine. Drop your hips forward and down. Inhale, roll open. Exhale, lower your chest. Keep your chest low. Lift your bum, scrub your chest back. That one's hard. Push back. Walk your hands back. Inhale, roll your chest open. Exhale, round down. Curl your chin in. Round up. Exhale, round down. Arms forward. Cow pose, you're already there with the chest. Tuck the toes. Press up and back. Inhale, left leg high. Bend your right knee. Pull your hip bone back. Come high up onto your tiptoes. Exhale, hug the left knee and extend your right leg. Inhale, right knee bends. Left leg extends. Step the foot right between your hands. Walk the hands forward. Lift the right leg. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, hug the knee and toward the nose. You've got one more. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, hug the knee and toward the nose. Round yourself all the way, all the way up. Press the shin forward.

Zip the right hip bone under. Lift your chest. Maybe you start to look over to where the wall and the ceiling crease meet. And then zip the front of the body. Step the foot down. Left thumb over the right. You've got this. Bend your knees. You know it now. Inhale, lift your chest. Exhale, fold forward over your legs. Interlace your fingers. Bend your knees. Pull your chest forward. Step the right foot back. Ball of the foot receives you. Lower the back knee. Arms down, forward and up. Left thumb over the right. Reach up. And pull the hips down and forward. Inhale, lift your chest. And on the exhale, hands down. Tuck your toes. Press back. Plank. Lower your knees down. Push back. Now here, lift your bum up a little bit. Tuck your toes under. And then from there, you're going to push forward and round forward into plank pose. Let's try that again. Bend your knees. Pull your bum back and round. The knees don't come down. They're hovering, hovering. Round, round, round, round, round. Forward into plank pose. Oh, that's hard. Exhale, halfway down. Inhale, upward facing dog. Switch the feet. Push through the thumb and index. And lift up and back. Downward facing dog. Stay for five breaths. Notice how your feet are in prayer with the floor. Notice how your hands are in prayer with the floor. I always love thinking about that. It makes the way I meet this amazing ground that supports me so different than just not thinking of it that way, I guess. Inhale, high up onto your tip toes. Bend your knees. Pull your butt back a little bit. On the exhale, hop or step forward. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, fold. Round all the way up to stand. Inhale, reach up. On the exhale, palms down to your heart center.

We'll take three rounds of Surya Namaskar A together. I'm going to talk you through it. You can always step back instead of hop back of your joints. Don't love the hopping. So please take great care of yourselves. That's why we're here. Inhale, reach the arms up. I like to bring them up through the midline for this practice. Exhale, fold forward over your legs. Inhale, lengthen your spine. On the exhale, lean the weight forward, float or step back. It could be chaturanga. It could be knees, chest, chin. It could be those little vinyasas that we took from child's pose. And then we'll meet back, downward facing dog. Five breaths. Speaking of being articulate and how action or clear action really comes from knowing what the source is, right? Being able to articulate the source in whatever way that pans out. Think of your head being the tail of an arrow and your sacrum being the head of an arrow and the sacrum can lengthen you up and the head can really release down and help you find that length in your spine. Inhale, hop onto your tiptoes, bend your knees and on the exhale, float or step. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, fold. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, palms to the heart. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, fold forward over your legs. Inhale, lengthen. Step or float, chaturanga or any other vinyasa. Inhale, up dog. Spread your chest, bring the inhale all the way under the collarbones and exhale, up and back, downward facing. Breathe.

Push through the fingertips so you're not dropping into your armpits and overexposing the front ribs. Notice how that pressing through the fingertips lifts the front of the body. Inhale, hop onto your tiptoes, bend your knees, on the exhale, float or step forward. Inhale, fold. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, palms to heart. I'm terrible at math, but I think we have one more. It's not part of my job description. Inhale, reach up. Lucky for me. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, lengthen the spine. And exhale, float back. Inhale, up dog. And exhale, press up and back. Downward facing dog. Now listen. Inhale, your right leg high. Come high, up onto your left hip, toes bend your left knee, square your hips. On the exhale, hug the right knee toward your nose. Round your spine to make space to step the right foot forward. Beautiful. From there, step the left foot wide a little bit. Spin the back heel down. And then bring the palms together. And start to reach the arms forward as you anchor weight through the back foot. Now just keep the arms parallel to the floor for now. Can you turn your left hip forward a little? That's going to lift your left arch. And then from there I like to hook my thumbs here, but the palms stay together. Start to bring the arms forward and up. Feel the weight drop back through the back foot. And if that image of the arrow helps, you can imagine or fashion yourself into a bow where your foot is pressing on the string and your fingertips are the head of the arrow. Can there be a clear energetic line from where you're coming to where you're going? Even if it's just energetic, right? Even if we don't quite know yet. That's still a lot of knowing right there. Inhale, extend your front leg. Backstroke your arms. Interlace your fingers behind you. Slide the fist down.

Roll your chest open. And as you exhale, fold halfway forward. You might find that you need to bring the back foot in a tiny bit toward the front. Lengthen your spine and fold the rest of the way. If this is too unstable, use your hands on blocks or on the floor. That's totally fine. And breathe. Can you turn your navel a little bit more over your right leg? Let your head go. How's your jaw? If you need your mouth guard, maybe release it. Bend your front knee. Reach the fist back. Spin the back heel up. You're halfway up. And then from there, press forward into a warrior three. Now, I like to rest my fist on my sacrum. You can also rest your hands on the floor. Squeeze the inner elbows and reach the back leg back. Pull your chest forward. Breathe. Can you firm the right thigh? Now listen, this part is super hard. Hug your left knee in toward your chest. Oh, my goodness. I know. Use your fist to come up to stand. Either hold your knee or hold your big toe with your left hand. And you can stay holding the big toe or you can extend the left leg, right arm lift into a ditahasta. A. Lift your chest. Scrub your left hip bone in. Scrub your left shoulder blade down a little. Can you lift as if you were going to dream of dropping yourself back into a back bend? Don't do it, though. I know you can. We're doing less today. And then zip the front of the body. Super nice. Slide the left leg down.

Step your left foot way back. Hands down to the floor. Lower your back knee down. And from there, bring your hands onto your right thigh. Pull your hips back a little. I like to spread or fan my fingers around on top of my bottom hand. And then press actively through the back foot and scrub the top of the thigh forward. Now, notice my shoulders have kind of crimped up by my ears. Soften your shoulders. Can you let the breath fill the lungs and move the ribs from the inside out? Open your chest. If you were to see a picture of the heart and the lungs, the heart sits on the lungs a little bit to the left and it hugs the lungs with all of its intricate network of avenues or arteries and veins, whatever you want to call them. So can you let your heart soften back even as the architecture of your body, of your chest lifts up and over? From their hands down to the floor, extend your front leg, scrub your bum back. You can stay here in Ardha Hanuman, inhale, lengthen and on the exhale, fold. Or if you're really craving more of a splits situation, you can walk your front foot forward. I like to walk my back foot back as well. You have your blocks possibly. You can use them here. For some of you, if you feel like your hamstrings are tight and they never change, part of the reason for that is because the hamstrings are louder. They cry louder than the quadriceps. So oftentimes if you actually move the back leg back and work the opening of the quadriceps, you'll get more mileage without completely overextending the hamstring. A few more breaths. And then from their hands down to the floor, tuck your back toes under, step up and back, downward facing dog. Now it's up to you. You can take any vinyasa that you'd like or you can wait in a child's pose, wait in a down dog. We'll meet back in a downward facing. Close your eyes for a moment. Feel your right and left hemispheres. Notice any differences, any similarities. It's always fascinating to me what speaks to you, what doesn't. Inhale, left leg high, bend your right knee, pull your right seat back on the exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose, round your spine so much that you make space to step the foot forward. That was better. Good, everyone. Step the right foot out to the right, spin the back heel down, palms together, reach the arms forward and up. Come halfway up so the arms are parallel to the floor. Plug your shoulder blades back a little. And then from there, as you reach forward, reach back with the back foot. Let that lift the padabhandha, the arch of the right foot. Pull your left hip back a little, scrub your right outer hip and your right chest up to the left. Lift your chest. And think that you're aiming your arrow, your prana, your energy, your life force somewhere from somewhere, even if it's just from back foot to fingers. Extend the front leg, backstroke your arms, interlace the fingers the opposite way. Roll your chest open, scrub the right hip forward. Exhale halfway down. Soften your left knee, step the right foot forward just a little. Extend your left leg again, pull your chest forward and then fold. Again, if balance is hard here, if it's making it too hard to stay up, use your blocks. This is your practice. It's always your practice. Bend your front knee, fist onto your sacrum, spin the back heel up, press forward into your warrior three. Roll the inner right thigh up, point your elbows up toward the ceiling, scrub your chest forward, pull your left hip back, breathe. One more. Hug the right knee in toward your chest. I know you're not bringing that leg down even though you want to. Right hand grabs your right big toe. Left arm lifts. You can stay here or extend the legs, cinch the right hip bone into the body. Lift your chest. Could you imagine that you were floating up and over a huge ball to drop yourself back? And of course, don't do it. We don't want to make anybody look bad. And then zip your belly. Step your right foot way back. Land the foot on the floor, lands the hands down. Draw your back knee down. Bring your left hand and your right hand. Spread your fingers.

I hope my COVID hair is getting everywhere. And then from there, push your thigh forward, press your back foot down. Can you use the pressure of the back foot down to tilt the front of the pelvis up a little bit? And from there, maybe there's more room to open the chest. Nice. Soften your shoulders with that one. I always forget about that one. Yes, my shoulder blades are not earrings. Good to remember. One more. Hands down to the floor, zip the front of the body. Pull your bum back. Maybe you walk the left heel forward a little. And then fold over your legs. And of course, you're welcome to stay here. You're welcome to move as far into it as you'd like. Can you find a little bit of the pinky edge of the right foot pressing down? That's going to help you square your hips. And there's that same feeling of lifting the very top of the pubic bone up toward your navel. You can do that by pressing your legs down. A couple more breaths. You've got it. I lied one more. And then from there, tuck your toes under. Step back. Downward facing dog. Lower your knees down onto the floor. Come to rest on your shins. We're going to play with a hand stand, not a hand stand, sorry, a head stand today. If you have a wall and you'd like to play at the wall, it's a good way to play. In that case, you'd bring your fingers all the way to the wall. I'm going to teach it. So if you're someone who hasn't practiced headstand many times before, you can listen and then you'll have a little time to practice. You interlace your fingers and you create a nice triangle with your elbows and your hand. Now notice I'm not squeezing the mouse because you know what happens, Lenny, when you squeeze the mouse. So don't squeeze the mouse. And you're also not opening the hands out. Just a nice, soft, long line of the arm. From there, I bring my arms down to the floor. I narrow my elbows in just a tiny bit narrower than my shoulders. I know you want to bring your head down, but don't do it just yet. Tuck the toes under, lift the thighs up and back. From there, notice if it's easy for you to keep your head off the ground, if it's not so easy, you're going to stay here. Those of you who'd like to continue, you walk your feet forward until you can bring the very top of your head, what I like to call the whale spout onto the floor. And then keep walking forward. From there, you'll feel your hips come over your head, squeeze the left knee in toward your chest, flex your foot and come super high up onto the right tiptoes. And maybe if you squeeze the left heel enough, you can lift the right leg. If that's not happening, you'll lower the left leg, squeeze the right knee in and play like that. If it is happening, bend both knees, squeezing these together. Now the wall might be behind you and then, or you might be in the middle of the room. From there, imagine that the ceiling is caving in on you and you have to push it away with your feet like you're in a sci-fi movie. Push, push, push and breathe. We'll be up here for about 12 more breaths. Sometimes it's nice to close your eyes. Now you may not have noticed it, but in coming up that way, you really have to articulate your spine and specific your pelvis. I'm telling you this now because when we come down, I'm going to ask you to think about that so that you can really articulate your pelvis as much as possible to bring yourself down as slowly as possible. Okay? Take an inhale. On the exhale, start to lower the knees slowly, but intentionally like you're squeezing them in toward your chest. Keep the sit bones lifting, but let your tailbone start to round, round, round as you lower the feet down. Nice and easy. From there, sink back onto your shins.

Lift your head up. Okay. I'm going to turn toward you. You don't have to turn. Drop your right ear toward your right shoulder. Bring your right hand to your left ear. So same hand as you dropped, right? And then left arm reaches out to the left. Turn your left palm slightly up toward the ceiling. Can you slide the shoulder blade down? And then imagine a really cute puppy pulling on your fingertips, wanting to go that O-U-T word. Breathe and then turn your nose down. Hold the back of your head. Don't inhale. Just kidding. Of course. Breathe. I'm just saying I'm not responsible for whatever you find there. Release the head first. Let the head come back up nice and easy. Take a moment with your palms face up to settle. Ooh, that did some really nice things to my right side. Let's do the left side. Left ear to left shoulder. Left hand to the right ear. Right hand out. Spin the palm up. Slide the shoulder blade down. And breathe. One more. That puppy's wanting you to go O-U-T. And then turn your nose down. If you don't like puppies, who are you? And also just imagine something different. It's totally fine. I won't judge you. Release the hand. Inhale. Lift up. And release down. Great. Let me check my time. Perfect. We've basically prepped the spine for backbends. So something that I've noticed with a lot of people is that the progression from bridge pose to full wheel feels impossible because bridge pose doesn't exactly prep the chest opening for full wheel. So if you have a block, you're going to grab your block and slide it at the bra strap level. If you don't have a block, I'll talk you through that. So I'll do the version without the block, but I'm going to talk you through both. So if you have your block, you're going to recline back on your block and then reach your head back and maybe the back of the skull is going to touch the floor. Open your chest. If you don't have a block, extend your legs and you're going to bring your forearms under you and lift up into a fish pose. Let your head drop back. Open into the chest. Breathe, everybody. Those of you who are on a block, you can lift your hands up toward the ceiling, bend your elbows straight up toward the ceiling and cup your fingertips next to your head on the ground. Squeeze the inner elbows in a little. One more breath. And then those of you in Matsyasana fish pose, lift up. Those of you on the block come off of your block and lower down onto your backs. Now from there, we're going to take a bridge pose. So that was working the opening in the spine and the top of the thoracic spine, the ribs. This is going to press and open the quads, which we've already done a little bit of. So grab your mat, the outer edges of your mat. You're going to lift your booty up, snuggle the shoulder blades in a little bit and then widen. Imagine that you're pulling your mat apart and lift up. Scrub your tailbone toward the backs of the knees. One more and curl your vertebra under to roll down. Before we lose our steam, if you'd like to try coming up into a full wheel, even if you don't try it that often, bring your arms up toward the ceiling, bend your elbows and bring your fingers toward your shoulders. See this is as far as you go. Hug the inner elbows in a little bit. Now listen, we're going to inhale and on the exhale, I'm going to ask you to push up and come onto the top of your head first. So do that. Inhale, on the exhale, push up onto the top of the head. Inhale here and maybe you stay or maybe you press up. If you're staying, you have to lift the chin to come down. You've got one more breath and chin into the chest. Lower down elbows, hug in. Lower down, feet as wide as your mat, palms together, thumbs come to the space in between your eyebrows. Close your eyes. We're going to do one more team. You could stay with a bridge pose or you could come up onto your full wheel. You could pause on the top of the head or if you know that you can get yourself up there, you can just press on. I'll talk you through it. Hands by your ears, elbows point up. They like to stay open. Don't let them. From their inhale, on the exhale, lift up onto the crown of the head. Inhale here and on the exhale, press up. Chin into the chest, lower down, elbows point up. Super nice. Feet as wide as your mat, knees together, palms together at the third eye center of the space between your eyebrows. Take a deep inhale through the nose.

Exhale aside through the mouth. Inhale through the nose. Exhale out through the mouth. And now hug your knees in toward your chest. I'm going to ask you to do the hardest thing we've done all class. You're going to inhale and when you exhale, let go of your legs and let the feet stamp on the floor. I know, it felt like the floor was going to move, didn't it? Hug your knees in toward your chest. We're going to do it twice more. Hold your knees, try to release your groin and on the exhale, just let the feet plop down. Yeah, that was better. And now one more time, hug the knees in toward the chest, take an inhale. On the exhale, really just let the feet go. You can close your eyes. Feel that residue, that reverberation. When you feel ready, go ahead, extend your legs. Shavasana. Situate yourself in a way that gives you room, that gives your spine room to breathe. Let the breath go now. No ujjayi breath and allow the practice to integrate into your plumb line. Govinda, Govinda, bhaja, Govinda, bhaja, Govinda, bhaja, Govinda, bhaja, Govinda, bhaja, Govinda. Vajagovindam. Vajagovindam.

Vajagovindam. Vajagovindam. Deepen your breath. Wiggle your fingers and your toes. Step the feet onto the floor. Roll over onto one side.

Come on up to sit. Close your eyes for a moment. Look inside and see if indeed your body has become more articulate and your mind more whole. Palms together. Deep inhale. Love and light to all beings everywhere. No exceptions. Namaste, Yogis.