Day 15: Soar into Joy

Hi, everyone. Here we are, day 15 of Trust the Connection. Can you believe it? This is amazing. I'm Miles Barrero. If we haven't met yet, welcome, welcome. You'll need two blocks and a blanket for practice today. If you don't have those props, don't worry about it. You can also do it without props. My thought, it seems like I've been kind of letting things and the practices each week sort of percolate inside of me, and I've created the practice on Fridays to synthesize and build on what we've been doing, so I'm hoping to do that today. We've had some lovely practices where we've tuned into fun, and we've tuned into sort of our inner space, and we've tuned into focus with Alana, and with Sunithi, we tuned into grounding and resonance, I feel, like that was part of the practice, and beauty. So for today, I thought we could tune into a sense of adventure and a sense of fun, so I'm going to offer something that might be a little bit spicier for some of us, but there are going to be building blocks along the way. I'm hoping to give you a practice that everybody can partake in, even if it's a little wild and a little perhaps even scary or exciting or whatever it produces inside of you. One of the biggest contributors of joy in my life has been play, so I thought I'd offer that back to you today. Go ahead, start seated in bada konasana, soles of the feet together, sit bones down on the floor. If it's hard for you to stay upright in this situation, you can bring the feet a little bit further forward, and then from there, lean over to the left a little bit, walk your hand to the left, and you can let your right sit bone lift, and then bring your right hand onto your thigh, not so much your knee, and then start to press the right thigh out. You can let your shoulder kind of drop down. There's really no, the shape is not so important, and it's not about forcing, but it's more about coaxing and starting to get into your breath, starting to land inside your bodysuit, as it will, and you can stop for a few breaths, you can pulse, and then bring yourself through center, walk your right hand out to the right, and again, you can let your left sit bone lift a little bit, and then start pressing the thigh. We're going to be moving a little deeper, or maybe more specifically into the hips and the side waist today, playing with possibly a hand balance, and maybe even a forearm balance, or playing with what it would take to consider even, to consider playing with them. And then bring yourself up, close your knees out, you're going to come to lay on your backs, and I like to round slowly, slowly onto my back, and then stack the right ankle over your left knee, flex your right foot, and hold the back of your left hamstring with your hands. As you inhale, you can release the legs a little bit in that figure four, and as you exhale, you can bring the legs a little closer to you. Inhale, release, some of you might even hold the front of the left shin, and on the exhale, bring the leg to you, getting your breath going, and then one more inhale, release, and on the exhale, bring that figure a little closer to you. And then as it's closer to you, you can wag the hips a little side to side, the legs a little side to side. I like to go slow, so I'm not bypassing the sensation, but rather using this as a way to go in a little bit to my, there was a play that I did in grad school called the lower depths, into my lower depths. It was a very dramatic piece. You can press the right elbow into the right thigh to press the right knee open. Now listen, you're going to keep the same shape with the legs, exact same shape, and roll the legs over to the left. The sole of your right foot is going to push into the floor and the right knee is going to point up, and you can press your right thigh away with your left hand as you reach your right arm up toward the upper right corner and breathe into your right side waist. If you turn the right palm up, it can give you a nice long line through the right side of the body. Two more breaths. One more. From there, bring your legs back through center, interlace the fingers behind the head, and then point your elbows up, bring your left shin parallel to the floor, flex your left foot, take an inhale. On the exhale, lift your head, neck, and the top of your spine. Stay here. This is going to be home base. Inhale, and on the exhale, curl your tailbone up and reach the elbows up. Keep pressing the right knee away from you. Inhale just a couple of inches down, and on the exhale, lift up so your spine doesn't come to the floor. Inhale down just a little bit. Head is still lifted. Exhale, scoop the tailbone up, elbows up. Inhale, that little amount down. Exhale, lift up. Inhale, that amount down. Exhale, lift up. One more. Inhale, that amount down. Exhale, lift up. Stay. Five, four, three, two, one. Listen carefully. Right hand comes to the outside of the right foot, and you're going to step the left foot down on the floor and come into a half happy baby, half bada konasana. So the right foot is in a happy baby. Right sole of the foot points up. Left knee is in a half bada konasana. Breathe, and you can make super tiny movements. I like to move my sit bones a little bit side to side, almost like I'm shortening the right side waist and then shortening the left side waist. One more. And then step the right foot down onto the floor. I'm losing my mic here.

And bring your left ankle over your right knee. Thread your fingers in front, or sorry, behind your right hamstring, or maybe in front of your right shin. On the inhale, release the legs a little. And on the exhale, bring the legs in that figure four toward you. Flex the ball of your left foot. Inhale, release a little. Exhale, bring it in. And one more just because you can. Inhale, release. And exhale, bring it in. Move a little side to side with the legs. Be patient. Let the opening come. Force nothing. Meet yourself. And then release the legs. The legs are still going to be in the shape that they're in. Roll the legs out to the right. The sole of the left foot will step onto the floor. The right hand comes to the left thigh. Instead of pulling the left thigh toward you, you're pushing the thigh away. So the knee points up toward the ceiling. And then the left arm reaches up at a diagonal up toward the upper back left corner of the mat. Breathe. Look to the left. Can you step a little bit more into the left foot? That's going to lengthen your left side waist. The next exhale brings the legs back up in that same configuration. That figure four. Slide the right shin parallel to the floor. Off the ground. Flex both feet. Interlace your fingers. Maybe the awkward finger comes on top now. Point your elbows up. Take an inhale. And on the exhale, lift your head, neck, and spine up. Lift your tailbone up. This is going to be home base. You're not going to come any lower. Inhale here. On the exhale, curl your tailbone up. Elbows up. It's a tiny movement, but a horrible one. Inhale back down a little. And on the exhale, lift up. Inhale back down. Exhale, lift up. Inhale back down. Exhale, lift up. Two more. Inhale back down. Exhale, lift up. Inhale back down. Lift up. Stay. Five, four. It's okay if you're shaking. Two, one. Oh my goodness.

And then hold the outer edge of your left foot. Right foot steps down onto the floor. Left knee points down toward the floor. Left sole of foot points up. Right knee wings out to the right. Half bada konasana on your right foot. Half happy baby on your left foot. Breathe. You can waddle a little side to side or even skirt your sit bones forward and then the other one forward like you're shimmying the hips a little side to side. Beautiful. From their full happy baby. I guess there's no such thing really as a half happy baby. I mean a half happy baby is probably still crying, so I don't know if that's truly a happy baby. But these are philosophical questions we can get to afterwards. Knees in toward your chest. Hold over onto one side or you can rock back. Rock forward. Come on up to sit. Sit up tall.

I like to sit on a blanket or on a block. Do you remember the chant from last week? Those of you who were here. You asked me to write the chant in the box at the end of class, which is totally fine, but chanting is really an experiential thing. So it's an adventure and the way that it's taught traditionally in India is through word of mouth, not through looking at it. So it's really about tasting the different sounds, the openness of the vowels and the percussive quality of the consonants and giving yourself permission to perhaps not get it right. And that's okay. The words are Babanam, Babanam, Kevalam, Kevalam. Here we go. Babanam, Kevalam, Baba. Babanam, Kevalam, Baba. Babanam, Kevalam, Babanam, Kevalam. Baba Namke Balam. Baba Namke Ballam. Baba Namke Ballam.

Baba Namke Ballam. Baba Namke Ballam. Baba Namke Ballam. Baba Namke Ballam. Baba Namke Ballam.

Baba Namke Ballam. Baba Namke Ballam. Baba Naamke Ballam. One more time, Baba. Okay Baba Baba Baba Baba Baba Baba Baba Baba Baba Baba Palms together at the heart deep inhale Ah Ah Open your eyes if they're closed. Welcome everyone. We will start on your hands and knees.

Place your hands right underneath your shoulders. Your knees right under your hips. And maybe walk your hands about a half hands distance further forward. As you inhale, rock the weight forward toward your fingertips as you pull into cow pose. And then as you exhale, curl the tailbone under, cup your fingertips and pull the weight back toward child's pose. Inhale, rock forward toward your fingertips. Let the whole spine undulate. Bring the weight forward and on the exhale, rock back.

Cup your fingertips and round, round, round. Twice more like that. Inhale, pull forward, forward, forward. And exhale, round and back. On the next inhale, pull forward. Tuck your toes under, press the thighs up and back. Downward facing dog, let your head hang. Sit bones reach up toward where the wall and the ceiling meet or if you're outside toward the sky, let your head go. And then walk slowly, slowly towards the front of your mat. Use this as an opportunity to massage the feet. Notice when the weight transfers from the feet to the hands and from the hands to the feet.

Notice that you can transfer weight from the heel of the foot toward the toes and from the heel of the hand toward the fingertips. That's important. Inhale, lengthen your spine. On the exhale, let it go through the mouth. Grab your blocks and slide them at the lowest level about a foot and a half or two feet back from the front of your mat. On the right and the left side of your mat, so they're there. You might find that you need them, you might find that you don't. And then round yourself, slowly, slowly, all the way up, all the way up to stand.

We did a great deal of this shaking, I think Alana was calling it monk shaking or yogi shaking or zen shaking, I don't remember. But you can come high up onto your tippy toes and kind of pat, pat, pat your heels down onto the floor and just let that happen and let the energy shake and drape and move over you. And if you want to conjure a partura and you want to let some moans out, let it out, it can be a little bit more active or a little bit sleepier. Just shaking the energy out. About 30 more seconds, why not? We're already here. Keep it going, keep it going. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Close your eyes and try not to tighten your ankles or your knees and you might feel how the breath brings you into a little bit of what we call the postural sway, that feeling of the inhale absorbing you back into your spine and the exhale kind of giving you almost like a lean forward into your future. From there, open your eyes if they're closed, inhale, reach your arms out and up, and then slide the right arm down the right thigh, three breaths to side bend. You might turn your head up toward your left and look underneath your armpit. Inhale, reach up through center and on the exhale slide the left arm down, down, down the left leg. Create a nice long line from right fingertips to right hip.

See if you can connect those two dots. One more. Inhale, reach both arms up, exhale, fly forward over your legs. Cup your fingertips on the floor, inhale, reach your left leg straight back, look at the toes back there, make sure that they're pointing down, and then reach the crown of the head forward so it's like a supported warrior three on the floor. On the exhale, hug the left knee in toward your nose. On the inhale, reach that left leg back away from the crown of the head. On the exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose.

Inhale, reach. Exhale, hug the knee in toward the nose, round, round, round. Inhale, reach. Now from here, bring a little bit more sensation into the back leg, see if you can point your foot and flare your toes and roll the inner left thigh up a little bit more clearly up toward the ceiling. Take one more breath, really reach the crown of the head forward, and then bend your front knee, step the left ball of foot back and down, lower your back knee, the left knee. Now the left hand is going to come onto your left block out on the left side of your mat, the fingers will point out to the left, roll your right chest, open as you swim the right arm up and over by your ear.

Take three breaths here, sway the right sit bone out to the right, breathe into your right side waist, let the bellows of your ribs fly open, open the windows, let the light and the air in. One more, on the exhale, right arm sweeps out to the right block, right finger point out to the right, roll the left chest open as the left arm comes up and over by your ear pointing out to the right, it's a side bend, breathe, breathe, breathe. You got one more, on the exhale swim the left arm out and over to the left one more time, bring the right arm up by your ear, turn your chest up toward the ceiling, you can bend your left elbow a little bit and creep your left chest forward. One more, on the exhale hands down to the floor, if you need your blocks use them, extend both legs, bend both knees, cup your fingertips, drop the back knee, pull your chest forward and up, on the exhale extend both legs. Bend both knees, tap the back knee down, chest forward and up, exhale, extend both legs.

One more, bend both knees, tap the back knee down, lift the chest forward and up, and exhale, extend. Bend your front knee, plant your palms, step back, downward facing dog, feel where the weight is, is it in the legs, is it in the hands, is it evenly distributed? Come high up onto your tiptoes, chin into the chest and then slowly, slowly round forward and feel the weight move from the heel of the hand toward the fingertips and exhale slowly lower down if you need to lower the knees to make that happen, lower down onto your belly. Cup your fingertips out wide, on the hardwood floor, on the floor next to your mat, elbows point up, point your toes, we've done this for the last couple of weeks, inhale roll your spine up, exhale ripple down. It's like your cobra is going to Broadway, inhale roll up, so you can let her be quite dramatic at this point, exhale ripple down, inhale roll up, and exhale ripple down.

Hands by your ribs, push back into a child's pose, walk your hands back until you can sit upright on your heels, and then from there you're going to cup your right fingertips underneath your right shoulder. On the inhale, sweep your left arm out to the right and back behind you as you lift your hips, and as you exhale, roll the left arm down and out to the left, cup your fingertips, right arm sweeps out to the right, maybe you lift the hips, roll the chest open, and on the exhale ripple down. Right hand out to the right one more time, lift the hips, left arm reaches back, it's like a camel with one arm down, and then come down, super nice, arms reach forward, inhale open your chest, tuck your toes under, press up and back. Inhale your right leg high, we've done a version of this with Sunithi, with Wade, roll your inner right thigh up toward the ceiling so you're pigeon toeing your toes to the left, and then sweep the right leg to the left, push your sit bones back, and whoo, I feel that in my left high T-bend, breathe, breathe, breathe. From there, start to point the right toes back behind you, roll the thigh open, keep the leg long, opening in the opposite direction, coming now into external rotation, reach through the ball of the foot, and then close the hip out so you know the difference, and then step the foot right between the hands, inhale, lengthen your spine, and on the exhale step your left foot forward.

Hold on to your right ankle with your right hand, slide the right ankle over your left knee, and from there bend your left knee, reach your arms forward and up, whoo, katasana, oh my goodness, my balance is terrible today, that's okay. Take two more breaths, sink low, pull the right sit bone out to the right a little bit, inhale, all the way to stand on your left foot, lift your right knee, and on the exhale step the right foot down, arms down by your sides. Inhale, reach the arms out and up, second side, on the exhale left arm down the left leg, breathe, maybe go a little deeper this time, maybe not, inhale, reach up, and on the exhale right arm out to the right, three breaths. One more, inhale, come all the way up, on the exhale fly over your legs, fold forward, inhale, your right foot back, reach it back into a warrior three, and then reach the crown of the head forward, roll your inner right thigh up so the leg is neutral, exhale, hug the knee in toward your nose, round your spine, inhale, right leg back, exhale, right knee in, round, inhale, right leg back, exhale, right knee in, round. Now reach the right leg back, point the toes out back behind you, and see if you can, so you're pointing the foot but flexing the toes a little, give a little brightness to the toes, crown of the head reaches forward.

Can you lift the navel, can you scrub the rib cage forward, telescope those ribs, one more breath, and then bend your left knee, step the ball of your right foot back and down, lower the back knee, right hand onto your right block, fingers turn out to the right, sweep the left arm up and over your left ear to the right, roll open, three breaths, sway the left tip on out to the left, maybe you drop your right ear to your right shoulder today on this one, and then swim your left arm out to the left, right arm up and over your right ear to the left, breathe, right arm down, down, down and out to the right on your block, left arm by your ear, breathe. One more, hands down around your front foot, extend both legs, pull back, inhale, bend both knees, cup your fingertips, pull your chest forward and up, why not, lift, and on the exhale extend and fold. Bend both knees, pull your chest forward and up, right chest, exhale, extend and fold, bend both knees, pull your chest forward and up, plant your palms, lift the left foot to step it back so you're not dragging it back. Come high up onto your tip toes, chin into the chest, go slowly as you undulate forward, feel the weight move toward the fingertips, and on the exhale lower everything all the way down. Cup your fingertips out wide, elbows out wide like little gecko hands, point your toes on the inhale, snake up your spine.

I'm really a no drama kind of person, exhale, ripple down, but when my cobra goes to Broadway, inhale, roll up, I let the drama take over, exhale, ripple down, and one more, inhale, roll up, and exhale, ripple down. Hands by your ribs, push back onto your shins, roll yourself up into Vajrasana, you're seated on your heels, cup your left fingertips underneath your left shoulder behind you. Right arm sweeps out to the left, turn your nipples up toward the ceiling, and on the exhale, right arm down, right arm down underneath your right shoulder, roll your left arm open, chest up to the ceiling, and ripple down. Left hand underneath your shoulder, roll open, lift your chest, and ripple down. Arms out in front of you, inhale, open your chest, tuck your toes, press up and back, Adho Mukha, inhale, left leg high, roll the toes to point with the whole leg, right?

Attach, not just the toes, to point toward the right, and then sweep them to the right like you're scissoring the legs, pull your right hip bone way back, and then bring the left leg back behind you, roll the thigh open the opposite way, external rotation. Reach, reach, reach through the ball of the foot, neutralize the leg in its socket, turn the left thigh bone down, lift the inner thigh and then step the foot between the hands. Inhale, open your chest, on the exhale, step forward, fold over your legs, left hand to the left ankle, stack the left ankle over your right knee, flex your foot, it's that figure four. Lift the arms forward and up, one leg at Utkatasan, sink your butt bones low, widen your left butt cheek out to the left, like you're trying to sit in a different chair with that sit bone. Stand up on your right leg, lift your left knee, and on the exhale, arms down, foot down.

Now you can bring your feet together if you'd like, or you can practice with your feet separated, hips distance apart, it's up to you. We'll move through some Surya Namaskar As. Inhale, reach the arms out and up, exhale, fold forward over your legs, inhale your right foot back, exhale, step back into plank pose. From here, inhale, lean the weight forward, exhale, lower your knees, tune the belly, it's not a cow pose, and then bend your elbows, keep reaching forward, forward, forward, point your toes, kick into the legs, it's an up dog or a cobra. And lift up and back, downward facing three breaths. Inhale, high up onto your tiptoes, bend your knees, look forward, and on the exhale, hop or step forward, inhale, lengthen, exhale, fold.

Inhale, reach out and up, exhale, arms down, inhale, reach out and up, exhale, fold forward, inhale, lengthen your spine, step your left foot back, step back into plank pose. You can lower your knees or not, inhale, pull forward, and on the exhale, halfway down, inhale, upward facing, and press up and back, downward facing, three breaths. Trust that your body is warming up, trust that you can take the time to meet yourself. Inhale, high up onto your tiptoes, bend your knees, look forward, on the exhale, hop or step, inhale, lengthen, exhale, fold, inhale, reach out and up, and on the exhale, arms down by your sides. Sweet, this last one, you can float back into chaturanga right away, or you can step back, inhale, reach the arms out and up, exhale, fold forward over your legs, inhale, lengthen your spine, and as you exhale, float, hop or step back, chaturanga.

Inhale, up dog, and exhale, push up and back, downward facing dog, three breaths. Great, lower your knees down onto the floor, and then you might want to just make sure that there's not a block in front of you, and lower your forearms down onto the floor. From there, look at your elbows, make sure that the elbows are underneath the shoulders, and I like to bring them a tiny bit narrower, and then once I do that I can lock the skin of my arms there on the sticky mat. The thumbs press forward, the index fingers press forward, the palms are as wide as the elbows, tuck your toes under and lift your sit bones up and back. Now from here you could stay here, in fact you can stay at any point along the way, or you might walk your feet forward a little bit, keep the weight back toward the sit bones though, from there you can stay, or you can lift your right leg high.

Now remember the difference between internal rotation of that right leg, external rotation, and neutral, find the neutral where the toes point straight down, look down between your arms, and you can stay here, or you can as you inhale bend the knee and extend the leg on the exhale, bend the knee and extend the leg on the exhale. If you're inhaling bending and exhaling extending and you want to take a couple of hops, you can play with that, I feel like I'm going to lose my sound situation, but you can start to hop as you inhale you bend, and on the exhale you hop, do that a couple of times, or you stay and grow strong here. A few more breaths to play. Maybe you play with balancing, can you net your front ribs in, and then lower down, if you're up. Vajrasana, sit on your shins, palms face up, close your eyes for a moment.

Press back into downward facing dog. Inhale your right leg high, bend your knee and open the hip externally rotate the thigh. From there, you're coming into a pigeon, right knee slides forward, try to bring the right shin as parallel as you can to the front of the mat. We've done a version of this I think last week, if this is too much on your knee, meaning if your knee is not liking it, come on to your back and take the figure four that we took at the beginning. From there, come on to your forearms, and again find the elbows underneath the shoulders and the palms nice and flat so you're not gripping and having fists there in your hands.

Flex the right foot so that the toes flex back toward the knee, and then tuck the ball of your right, sorry, left foot underneath, lift your left thigh, the right hip will lift a little bit, take an inhale, and on the exhale stay where you are but scissor squeeze the legs, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, scissor squeeze those legs which should feel like you're working a ton, you might even be sweating, do one more. And then lower that down hands underneath your shoulders I know you want to stay but we're not inhale the right leg up and back, square the hips, and on the exhale step the right foot between the hands, spin your back heel down left arm, reach this forward and up, come all the way up warrior to inhale extend your front leg, turn your right palm to face forward, hold on to the right wrist with your left hand really reach long through the right side, and then cut your left hip forward, as you lean back, breathe. One more, come back through center, and you might walk the back foot in a little bit of trikonasana triangle pose, right hand down, left arm straight up, right hand can rest on your right shin, or on the ground or on a block. Can you spiral your right abdomen up to the left. Imagine that your ribs were a school of fishes, and they could wrap around up toward the surface of the water. Bend your front knee, you can rest your right forearm on your right thigh or you can keep the right hand outside the right foot, sweep the left arm forward for parsvakonasana side angle, reach reach breathe.

Can you keep that right chest spinning up. Look down at the floor, left hand comes on to your hip, walk your left foot in a little bit, walk the right fingers forward maybe you grab a block, and then lean the weight into your right foot it's not a hop it's a lean, lift your left leg high, half moon artachandrasana. Roll open turn your right chest up to the left. One more, and exhale turn your chest down to the floor, step your left foot down and shake your hips out a little bit. Okay team, here's where it's going to get super real.

It's not about the shape. It's about the discipline to kind of work with where you're at. And wherever you are in the process, that is the pose. It doesn't have to look anything like my pose. But that is how we build a pose is staying rigorous about the kind of steps of the ladder and trying not to skip five runs. So if you have a blanket, set up your blanket, like so, so that it's out there and you can see it. And then you're going to set up your blocks. And some of you might not need blocks we're going to play with Galavasana Flying Crow, as it's more known and yoga slang I guess the blocks are going to be at the lowest height from there you're going to take your right ankle and stack it over your left knee. Now, you might know where we're going. Don't get super obsessed with that. Take it step by step, palms to the heart, slide the backs of the arms forward and try to slide them down, down, down the shin.

Now from there, the hands will be on your blocks, flex your right foot quite a bit around the upper left arm, look forward, come high up onto your left tiptoes. With your left knee, kick the right shin forward, lean forward, feel the weight come into the fingertips, bend your elbows straight back. And maybe, maybe the left heel lifts, or maybe it doesn't. Try not to hop, you might even rock back and forward a few times. Wade talked about this pose way in his first class. I thought it might be nice to teach it today. Lean forward, if you'd like a little bit more, start to extend the left leg. I like to think of myself as a little dinosaur hatching out of an egg. And step the foot down, step the right foot down. Take your proppage, that's the professional word, out to the side. And then from there, we will meet on your hands and knees.

Now, regardless of whether you felt you succeeded or failed, great work, you showed up today. Life is a handful of successes and failures, so here we are. Walk your forearms down on the floor. From there, elbows underneath the shoulders, tuck the toes, press up and back. Stay here maybe, or go to the next stop on the subway. Walk forward, stay here, or lift your left leg high. Notice if that left leg is externally rotating, if it's internally rotating, don't do either, neutralize it. And then look down in between your arms. The inhale bends the knee, the exhale extends, the inhale bends, maybe start to turn this into a little hop or a bigger hop. Breathe wherever you are, you've got about three more breaths.

And we'll meet on your shins. Great. From there, downward facing dog, here we go. Second side. Inhale your left leg high, bend the knee open the hip, it's a pigeon pose. Try to slide the shin parallel to the front. If you're on your back, you're on your back. Forearms down onto the floor, widen the elbows, shoulders distance apart. From there, tuck the ball of the right toes, lift your right leg, turn the right hip forward, scissor squeeze the legs. It's like you're trying to hug the left hip back and the right hip forward. Breathe. So hard. Where is Arturo when I need him to moan? For me, so to inspire me to moan.

And then from there, lower down, our ambassador of moaning, hands back underneath you, tuck the right toes under, inhale the left leg high, wear the hips, step the foot between the hands, spin your back heel down, right arm reaches forward and up. Warrior II, extend your front leg, turn the left palm to the left, hold onto your wrist, side bend up and over, cut the right hip forward. Inhale all the way up, walk the back foot in a little bit. Trikonasana, triangle pose. Swim your left chest up toward the right chest. Side angle, maybe the left arm rests on the left leg, maybe the left fingers rest outside your left foot for a more classic rendition.

Right hand onto your hip, look down, walk your back foot in, walk your left fingers forward. And tip, tip, tip into half of a Munardachandrasana. Roll up. Right arm might reach, you might look up. And down to the floor, turn the right hip down. Good, shake it out a little bit. Grab your props, no time like the present. Now you know what this adventure entails. And you know to learn anything, we have to risk falling. In fact, we have to fall many, many times. So it's okay.

Yoga is the practice of falling and picking yourself up. It's not the practice of not falling. From here, left ankle over your right knee. Palms together, reach the arms forward, try not to rush, the backs of the arms are on the shin. Flex your left foot around your upper right arm. Now look forward, lean the weight toward your fingertips, bend your right knee, come high up onto your tiptoes, and use the right knee to press that left shin forward. Maybe, maybe you start to lift the right heel.

Now the deal is, the reason I like making that dinosaur sound is because it helps me reach my side waist and the crown of the head forward to compensate for the length of my leg. So if you're tipping, tip forward, kick the shin forward, right heel up, and maybe, maybe. And step the foot down, step your right foot down, take your props out to the sides. Ooh, lower down onto your shins. Good. From there, lift up onto your shins. If you want to put the blanket underneath your knees, it's a nice way to go.

I forgot to mention that we're coming into Ustrasana, camel pose. Hands onto your hips, point your elbows back, roll your chest open, kick the feet down, maybe the hands come down toward your ankles. One more inhale, chin into the chest, lift up, ooh, and lower down, palms rest up, close your eyes for a moment. Second and last back bend for today. So you could do exactly what we just did, Ustrasana coming onto your shins, or you could play with undulating it a little bit.

So you could tuck the toes under and hold onto your ankles. This is a harder variation, but it's also very satisfying in its nuance. Hold onto your heels, and then from there, lift from the navel up as you unravel. One more, and the lowering down is always much harder for me. Point your toes, and just take a moment here, if you need to sit on a block, do that, close your eyes, lean the seat to one side, fold up your blanket. Baddha Konasana, how we started, I'll do it facing you so you don't get sad and lonely. Hold onto your ankles, lift your chest, plug your sit bones down, and on the exhale, fold forward, breathing, being curious about what is there, what's available, curious about what could move out of the way for more space to be available, never pushing, just asking, listening, all of the skills that are really important in our world right now.

Inhale up, extend both legs out in front of you, lengthen your spine, and on the exhale, fold, fold, fold. One more. Inhale up, and rock back, Shavasana, all the way onto your back. Chivam Devam, Chivam Devam, Chivam Devam, Chivam Devam, Chivam Devam, Chivam Devam. Shri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram.

Sita Ram, Sita Ram. Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram. Sita Ram, Sita Ram. Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram. I'm going where there ain't no fear.

I'm going where the spirit is near. I'm going where the living is easy and people are kind, a new state of mind. I'm going where there ain't no police. I'm going where there ain't no disease. I'm going where there ain't no need to escape from what is only spirits at ease.

I feel so wonderful, wonderful, wonderful the way I feel, I feel so wonderful, wonderful, wonderful the way I feel. Deepen your breath, wiggle your fingers and your toes, soles of the feet onto the floor, roll over onto one side. Take your time to come on up to sit. If you're moving slowly, that's great. Find an elegant seat.

Close your eyes. Last week we played with this idea of seeing if we could feel each other through space, if you could feel those that are practicing with you at this time on this retreat. And today can you augment that a little bit by seeing if you can imagine that they're receiving you as well so that you are in their resonance, you are being received, you are worthy, you exist and you are welcome. Palms to the heart, deep inhale. Namaste yogis, love and light to all beings everywhere.

No exceptions.