Pigeon Flow

Welcome, everyone, to this pigeon-focused fluid strength flow. I'm so happy that you're here with me today. We'll begin in a seat, so if you've just popped on the live, grab a blanket. You can sit up on that, and then two blocks might be useful for you. I like to put those at the top of the mat, on either side of the top of the mat.

So you can come into a comfortable position here, hands on the lap, and start by rolling your shoulders. Let's start slow. You might close your eyes here, lift the shoulders up and around your ears, squeeze the shoulder blades together at the back, and drag them down your back. Let's change directions with that, really noticing how your shoulder blades are moving on your back. And then let's circle into the hips.

So starting to feel the spine as it plugs into the pelvis, going one way, you can link your breath in with this, and switch directions. If Ujjayi breath is part of your practice, you might bring that in, starting to listen into your breathing for this fluid practice. Let's come up into the center, and you're invited to take your hands, one on top of each other, onto your heart space, and close your eyes, and take a big breath in. Exhale, you might even circle around where your physical heart is, slightly to the left. It's almost like a heart massage.

And take a moment with your breath to connect in to attend into yourself. Finding trust in your body, wherever that is for you, that your body wants to move towards healing, and trust in your practice. Feeling a sense of wholeness here. And then we'll let our eyes open, and let's shift to all fours. So we'll come onto our hands and our knees, you can move your prop out of the way, and with straight arms, shift forwards and back, from the hands to the knees.

You might even tuck your toes under here, so you get into the soles of the feet. Keep your arms straight, so that as your shoulders come over your wrists, you feel a bit of a stretch through your wrists. Then let's come into a Cat-Cow, so tipping your pelvis forwards, inhale, arching your spine, tucking your pelvis under, and rounding your spine. One more time like that, arching your spine, squeezing your shoulder blades together, and then rounding your spine and pressing your shoulder blades apart. Come to neutral there, and let's take our right hand underneath our face, and then let our left arm come up into kind of an awkward twist.

Push down into your right hand, spread your right collarbone wide, and slip that left arm under your right armpit, until your left temple comes closer to the floor. You can reach through that left arm, maybe tap your feet together and send your hips back. Take an extra breath there, breathing into your upper back, and a little slow motion. Come out of that, and then take our left hand in front of our face, and take your right arm up, reach up, press down through your left hand, reach long through your left collarbone, and thread that right arm under your left armpit, coming down into a twist. Knock your feet together, send your hips back, maybe even roll towards the back of your head to look up.

Find a full breath there, the rib expanding inhalation, maybe a connection to your abdominal wall and your exhale, and then come back up onto all fours. Let's walk our hands way forwards now. You might even come up onto your fingertips for this, and send your forehead towards the ground. Press your arms long, lift your shoulder blades up around your ears, and wrap your outer armpit towards the ground. You might try Cat-Cow like this, so rounding your spine, pressing into your fingers, coming up a bit, and then arching your spine, and you might even look forwards and let a back bend come through the spine, rounding here, tucking the pelvis under, and arching.

Come up to a neutral spine, walk your hands in, and then spin your shins to the right, so both of them. Go to the right, and walk your hands off to the left, so it's diagonal, you might go off your mat, who cares? And then walk back into the center, and walk your hands to the right as your shins spin to the right as well, getting a little more crescent, a little more stretch into the left side of your body. Nice, let's walk into the center, and spin the shins to the left, walk our hands over to the right. Feel a little buoyancy in the armpits, breathe into that big stretch.

And then you can walk your hands over to the left as your shins stay to the left, finding a big side stretch through your left side. Come into the center there, and exhale back into a downward facing dog, pedal out through your feet. We're gonna come back down onto our knees, and this time take our right ankle in front of our left knee, and you can try to move your right knee back a bit, and then start to shift back into the hips, back and forwards, finding our first figure four variation movement towards pigeon. And then we'll do the same thing here, so walk your hands over to the left, and press your right hip back, explore that for a breath. Walk into the center, and hands over to the right, and maybe pull back into your hips.

Then let's walk into the center here, tuck your back toe under, and lift up into a plank with your right leg in a figure four. You might try to lift your outer right knee more towards the ceiling as you find a nice plank. Let's breathe for five. You can always drop your right knee to the ground in this as well. That's a nice option, two, straight arms, three, a little bit of protraction in your shoulder blades, so nice little rounding in the upper back, four, pressing into the knuckles under your fingers, and five.

Let's reach our right leg back into a full plank, strong legs, and then exhale the knees down to the ground. You might shift forwards and back to ease up onto the wrists. Let's take our left ankle in front of our right knee now, and start to pulse back. You might move your left knee back, that'll intensify sensation, pulsing back into the hips, and then walk your hands a little sideways over to the right. You might pulse back into the hips there, walk them through center, and a little over to the left, beautiful.

Maybe some new movements here. Walk into the center there, tuck your back toes, and come up into a plank where you might lift your left knee up into the air and firm your outer right ankle or your outer left ankle into your right thigh. Let's breathe for five. You can always drop your left knee, give yourself a little more support if you need it, three. I like to shift a little forwards and back in the plank hold, four, a little bit of a roundness to the upper back, long neck, and five.

And then we'll come back into our full plank, strong legs, and this time press back into a downward facing dog, pedal out through the feet. Just walk or tiptoe or hop to the top of the mat, inhale, elongate here, nice, exhale, fold in, let your head go, press your heels to the ground, take your arms out to the sides and up, reach up, and exhale your hands down by your sides. And then solutation A, arms up, reach up, and fold, lengthen out here, front of the belly is long, plant your hands step or hop back, top of a plank, lower to chaturanga or to the ground, tops of the feet on the mat, arch into a cobra or an upward dog, and exhale, press up and back to downward facing dog. Just take five breaths, breathe like you, breathe in a way that is soothing, is opening, is curious, and I'll count, but your breath doesn't need to link up with my count. So three, four, press your thigh bones back, press your hands down and forwards, and five.

Bend your knees, step, tip toe, hop however you'd like to, top of the mat, inhale there, elongate, and fold in, arms out to the sides and up, push down, reach up, and release your arms, one more like that, inhale, arms up, exhale, fold, inhale, elongate your spine, back of the neck is long, exhale, lower all the way to the floor or to your chaturanga, resist that pull of the floor, roll over your toes, inhale into upward dog or cobra, tuck your chin, press into your hands, downward facing dog for five breaths, one, you might wiggle around or shift side to side, finding little places that might feel like they have cobwebs on them, wake them up, three, press into the inner part of your hand, four, and five, step, hop however you'd like to, hands down maybe, come to the top of the mat, inhale, elongate your spine, fold in, arms out to the sides, press down to reach up, release your arms, let's take a variation, arms up here, fold in, lengthen out through your spine, step or hop back, lower, inhale, upward dog or cobra, and exhale into your downward facing dog, inhale your right leg up and back behind you, exhale, take it to the outside of your right hand, drop your hips and look up, inhale, take your right ankle in front of your left knee, bend your left knee and find a figure four dog, let's take an extra breath in here, maybe pulsing back into your hips, trust your movement, if you want to be still, be still or move, feel free to move, and then let's reach our right leg up and back into a three legged dog and exhale, release it down, left leg up, inhale, reach it up, exhale it to the outside of your left hand, drop your hips and look up, inhale, right ankle in front of your left knee, figure four dog, pulse back into your hips or be still and then reach that left leg up into a three legged dog, maybe even ground your right heel and exhale, downward facing dog all together, breathe in, breathe out, bend your knees, step or hop your feet to the top of the mat, inhale, lengthen out and fold, press down through your feet, reach up through your arms, come on up, release your arms, inhale arms up, let's add to that, exhale and fold, lengthen out here, step or hop back, your choice, lower, strong legs, let your legs feed your spine in the back bend cobra or upward dog and push back into downward facing dog, right leg up and back, exhale it to the outside of your right hand, drop your hips, look up, inhale, right ankle in front of your left knee, pulse back into your hips, beautiful, let's really weight our left hand, roll to the outer edge of your left foot and either keep your fingertips on the floor here or circle your right arm up into like a side plank with your right leg in a figure four, you're always welcome to place that foot in front for a bit of extra support, a little more connection to the earth and then let's slow motion it back into your figure four dog and then your right leg up into the three legged dog, so nice and exhale your right leg down, left leg up, exhale it to the outside of your left hand, drop your hips, look up, inhale, left ankle in front of your right knee, pulse back into your hips, see how it feels there, turn onto the outer edge of your right foot, you can always stamp your left foot in front or keep it more towards that figure four and reach into a side plank with a figure four, push the ground away with your bottom hand, let's sweep it back over into our figure four dog, maybe hop your right foot in a bit, let your left leg reach up and back into a three legged dog, then exhale downward facing dog, take a breath in, exhale flying the buoyancy in your legs, step or hop forwards, inhale elongate, then exhale fold, arms out to the sides, reach up, maybe look up, maybe arc up and back, exhale your hands down, okay let's reach up our arms, slightly different this time, exhale fold in, lengthen out your spine, exhale step or hop back, plank, chaturanga or the floor, cobra, up dog your choice, downward facing dog, okay let's reach into a plank again and lower all the way down onto the abdomen, so turn onto your left side, take your right foot into a tree and then turn back over onto your abdomen, tuck your back toes under, you can walk your elbows forwards and see if you can strengthen your left leg and take your right knee off of the ground, so your tree knee, see if you can take it off of the ground, you might even take your arms out to the sides to help you push down through your hands a little bit, find that strength in your outer right hip, yeah and then turn back over onto your left side, so you can be on your left forearm here, hook your left, your right hand around your right big toe, now you can kick that forwards or up into like an anantasana, take a breath there, feel free to draw the leg in towards you or reach it away and then we'll turn all the way back on the abdomen, tuck the toes hands by the lower ribs up into a plank back into a downward facing dog, back into a plank all the way back down onto the abdomen, turn onto your right side, take your left leg into a tree, turn back over onto your abdomen, you can use your hands out to the sides for support, tuck your right toes, sink your tailbone towards the back of the mat and see if you can lift your left knee off the ground, harder to do this without the press of your hands, so you could try that, feel that strength in your outer left glute, breathe there, try not to take a big back bend here, so nice long lower back and then roll back over onto your right side, hook your left fingers around your left big toe, maybe kick it forwards, you could also be holding onto your back of your shin of course and maybe reach it up, take it in towards you or reach it away, press down through your foundation so your side is pressing into the ground, beautiful, then let's exhale it back over onto the abdomen, tuck the toes, press up into a plank, beautiful, back into downward facing dog, pedal out through your feet, walk your feet in a little bit, step or hop, find the top of the mat, inhale, exhale fold, press down through your feet, come on up, maybe sink your heels and come a little up and back and then exhale your hands down by your sides, really nice, arms up and fold here, lengthen out, step or hop back, your choice here for your vinyasa, you can always skip this part for chaturanga, upward dog, downward facing dog, right leg up and back behind you, exhale it to the outside of your right hand, drop your hips, look up, inhale, figure four dog, same thing, so right ankle in front of your left knee and then try out that side plank thing again, so you can turn over onto the outer edge of the foot, maybe keep your right hand down, maybe keep your right foot down, if you like, hook your right piece fingers around your right big toe, maybe kick that forward so you could also be holding onto the back of your shin of course, push the ground away, maybe lift it up like an anantasana, so you end up in Vashasasana B, press the ground away, if you like, circle it back into your figure four dog, right ankle in front, nice and then step it back into a three legged dog and release your leg, left leg up, let's try the other side, left foot to the outside of your left hand, drop your hips, look up, inhale, figure four dog, sink back into that, so lots of places to stop and explore, you might roll over onto this plank, maybe support it, right, or grab your toe or the back of your calf, kick it forwards, maybe up as you wrap your bottom shoulder blade towards your bottom armpit, push the ground away, so nice, if you like, can try to slow motion it, use that buoyancy in the back of your lungs to roll you back into your figure four dog, inhale it into a three legged dog and release it down, you're a downward facing dog, maybe there's a child's form in there, sinking in, coming back to trusting your body's process, trusting your body wants to go towards healing, I like to lean into that sometimes, my mind is busy, walk it forwards here, tuck back, downward facing dog, walk our feet in a little bit, bend the knees, step or hop, top of the mat, inhale, and exhale, fold in, push your feet down, inhale, reach up, and exhale your hands down by your sides, really nice, okay, let's take our right foot behind our left, swinging behind, there's a crisscross action in your legs, take your arms up, grab a hold of your right wrist and side bend over to the left, maybe you're even up off your right heel or you can bend your knees a bit, try not to arch your back too much, go straight over so you feel that delicious side body stretch, we'll come up into the middle there and then tuck your, lift your right heel off the mat rather and start to sink into a bit of a squat, this might be a place where you might want a couple of blocks for support, that could be nice or if you're feeling pretty stable in your legs you can also practice coming off of the blocks, if you like take your right elbow across, make a fist, press into it with your left hand and start to spiral around, yeah, so I'm sitting down but I'm kind of standing up at the same time so I'm pushing down with my legs, my spine is coming up, now I love this one, you can take your fingertips to the floor and round in and take a breath there, maybe coming back up to standing, some of you, if you can get your right elbow to come onto your outer right knee there, you might fall into a little bit of an arm balance, maybe taking the weight into your hands, maybe kicking your legs out into Kondanyasana, widening through your collarbones and you can slowly reverse that, let's see if we can reverse it, so fingertips down, round it in, right elbow to the outside of the left knee, press into that twist, I feel my hips quite a bit here so you're not alone, stand up and come into that glorious side bend, so you're going over to the left, lifting those back ribs up, drawing those front ribs a little in but fully breathe through the base of your lungs, come on up and step to Samasthiti, let's take a breath in and a breath out there, beautiful, left foot behind and grab your left wrist, side bend over to the right, check that out, try to go straight over to the side, maybe look up onto your left armpit, take your time, so both feet point fairly straight forwards in this one, as you sink down, maybe using your blocks to support you, in this interesting crisscross squat, so you're sitting down and standing up at the same time, you might take your left arm across, make a fist, press down onto it with your right and get a sense of lifting your navel off of your bottom thigh, there's some stretch away from that bottom thigh instead of a collapse, you might take your fingertips to the floor, maybe your blocks and round in here, tipping yourself over to the right, either stay there, you're welcome to come on out of that or fall into this arm balance with your left elbow to the outside of your right knee, shifting forwards, maybe get a little weight into your hands and start to lighten your feet or come off of your feet, widen your collarbones and maybe stretch out through your legs, push the ground away, slow motion, let's try to reverse it, land back on your toes, curl in, rounding there, maybe finding that twist, resist that pull of the ground, push down through your legs, stand up, I'm certainly feeling that in my legs, and side bend over to your right, grabbing a hold of your left wrist, arching over, you could also have elbows here, and then step it forward to the top of the mat, alright let's take some pigeon salutations, arms up, reach up, fold in, lengthen out here, step or hop back, your choice, you can simply be in downward facing dog if you want a little less movement, chaturanga, upward dog and downward facing dog, this time right leg up and back, take your right knee towards your right wrist and point your right toes, then come up into a higher pigeon variation, so your back leg lengthens out, you might want your blocks here, so sometimes the blocks are helpful to give you some support to find a lift, so a few options here, if you like, you can melt forwards and take five breaths, maybe there's a twist in there as well, taking that thread the needle of your left arm under your right armpit, if you want something a little more active, you can come up and see if you can really lift out of your lower back, so even if that means tipping you forwards do that, press here, so you might notice here that my hips are off the ground, so I'm gonna reach my arms up, reach my arms up and then it's like I'm sending my strong hips back behind me and you can try this as you swing your hands by your sides and sink your torso but your hips are strongly moving to the back of the mat, then you can reach up, lots of strength in the hips here and then send it back, my hips are actually floating a little bit off of the mat, I'm pressing strongly down through the right leg, the right shin and the left shin, one more time, press it back and then melt into it, so walking forwards, maybe even taking blocks underneath your elbows, we'll take a couple breaths there, one, breathe like you, trust your body, your practice, all of these things are suggestions, really nice, let's walk our hands back underneath our shoulders, step back into a three legged dog with that right leg up and back, you might even wanna bend the knee, open the hip and then release it into downward facing dog, ground that right leg, left leg up, three legged dog and reach into your pigeon variation, so your knee towards your wrist, back leg slides back, you might come up and explore that lift or melt down for a little bit of a longer stay there, if you do this practice again, it's nice that there's some options depending on how you're feeling, if you wanna work with that strength in the hips, there's a little uplift, lift of those back ribs, sides of the body really long, reach up and as you shift back, your hips are moving to the back of the mat and you're pressing your left shin, strongly into the ground, inhale it up, exhale, float, push down through your legs, elongate your abdomen, one more time, reach up and press down through your foundation, bend your hips back, reach up and let's sink it in, you can walk in, this time melt into your hips, so you had a lot of activity there likely in the hips and now melt in, maybe wobble side to side, let's take a couple of breaths, trust the adjustments that you need to make, trust your body, I was thinking recently, it's so important for us to have faith in our practice, you know we don't have to have faith in anybody else's practice but ours, beautiful, alright let's place our hands down, fortify the arms, tuck the back toes and reach up and back into a three legged dog with your left leg up, you might bend the knee, open the hip, beautiful, press into both hands, circle that leg back down for your downward facing dog, now see if you want to hop, step or tip toe, top of the mat, inhale, fold in, arms out and up, release your arms, arms up and fold, lengthen out here, step or hop back your choice, stand downward facing dog or chaturanga, push the ground away, upward dog, back your chin, downward dog, right leg up and back, bring it through, right knee towards the right wrist, then come back into your pigeon, so this time if you have blocks you might want to use them, pop yourself up nice and high, you're welcome to melt forwards again if that's more your jam or you can take your right hand, either the right fingertips on your knee or on the block, notice that my hips are quite lifted and strong, I'm compacting them, lifting up through my lower back and then maybe you can explore looking back at your left ankle, if you like lean a little forwards, try to be on the top of your right knee cap, not on the center so much, to start to bend and straighten your leg, yeah, maybe with a big movement back you clasp the inner ankle or the outer, find a spot where you can draw your ankle in, so for some you might sink down into your hips here, I really like the strength of staying a little bit more lifted up, so you can explore with both, maybe you can hook the foot more into your elbow and lift up, my palm is facing the front of my mat here, the left palm, some people really like this variation taking the right arm on top and clasping the fingers and then lift especially out of the left side of your lower back, you might even turn your fingers around the underside of your toes and draw the heel in, lift out of your lower back even if it means shifting forwards, see if you can find space, I'm working pretty hard on my hips here, it will slowly release, turn to the front, melt in for a breath, inhale, exhale, hands down, fortify your arms, tuck your toes, reach into a three legged dog with your right leg up, open the knee, open the hip, then release into downward facing dog, left leg up, pigeon, slide the back knee back, lift up, welcome to come forwards or fingertips or block, hand on the knee can work really well too as you push down and lift up, maybe peek over towards your right leg, pressing down through your foundation is going to be what supports you to lift up, then if you lean forwards try to be on the top of that kneecap if you're making that big movement to catch the foot, right, you're always welcome to lean forwards if it gives you more space and less crunchiness in your lower back, go for that, okay, so here you might try hooking your elbow in and seeing how that feels on the front of your right shoulder, keeping that lift out of your back ribs, maybe there's a big movement in there for catching, especially lifting out of the right side of your lower back, beautiful, or turning your fingertips around those toes and drawing in a little more, get a lift, get a pressure down, get a lift up, slow release, walk in, melt, find the contrast between that strength that pushing away and that melt, such is life, if we're going to work hard, find places where you're working that you have faith that it's going to do something great for you, press your hands down, fortify your arms, tuck your back toes, shoot your left leg back, open the knee, open the hip and release into your dog, press back, so your choice, see if your legs, your hips want to hop forwards or tip toe or step or hop, hands down maybe, inhale top of the mat, exhale and fold, press into your heels, reach up, look up, release your arms, last vinyasa, inhale the arms up, press the heels, fold in, lengthen out here, step or hop back, your choice you might be in downward facing dog or cycle through, upward dog or cobra, downward facing dog, bend your knees and come on through to lie down on your back, that might be welcome, take your right ankle in front of your left knee and draw the left knee in towards you, so you can hook under your hamstring, you can take your hands around the top of the shin, draw that whole unit in, maybe your right elbow even presses into your right inner thigh, pressing that right knee away from you, couple breaths there, if you like, you can curl on up, hook your left elbow around your right outer foot, interlock your hands around that, your right elbow around your right knee and either lazily let your left leg go with a bit of a bend in it as you take your head back down to the ground or if you want to really point your left toes and stretch your left leg out of the pelvis and drop your left thigh towards the ground, your choice, like a supine pigeon now, bring that left knee back up and plant the left knee to the floor, take your hands palms down, press into your left foot and come up into a figure four bridge, if you can glance at your hips, feel and see that they're fairly level, make those little adjustments to level out your pelvis, you can engage your glutes here, sink your tailbone towards your left knee, drag your left heel towards your back body and then bring your right knee in towards your chest to acupod a bridge, one-legged bridge and reach it up into the air for a second, let's lower our right heel down to the ground and then lift back up into a one-legged bridge, one, two more times, two and three, lift up strong and let's exhale, lower down through the hips, feet plant, press your back into the floor, exhale, inhale, arch your back away from the floor, press your back into the floor, arch your back away from the floor, nice, let's take our left ankle on top of our right knee, draw that whole unit in, you can hook underneath your hamstring or on top of your shin, take the knee towards the right armpit, maybe even that left elbow is encouraging your left eye bone away, I like to be aware of my feet so maybe you can tune into your feet, spread your toes, in my experience feeling my feet more often gives me more of a sense of grounding, alright if you want to you might curl up, hook your shin and your elbows, crisscross your fingers into each other and maybe a lazy let go of your left leg or like an arrow point that right toe and drop the right thigh bone to the ground, maybe even try to tuck your chin in and lengthen the back of your skull away from your right toes, let that go, come back into your figure four, ground through your right ankle to the ground and palms down, strongly press down through your arms, lift up into your figure four bridge, of course it's okay if you're not perfectly level, who is, but check it out, you can bring a little bit more symmetry to the hips and maybe that allows you to feel a little more balanced in your spine, maybe let your left knee come closer down to the ground, yeah, as you shoot your tail bone towards the back of your knee, as you pull your right heel in towards your chest, feeling the underside of your right leg and glutes fire, then bring your left knee into your chest, try to keep those hips level, acropoda said to Bandhasana, one legged bridge, lower it to the ground, let's come up, trying to keep that right knee in line with the hip, so one, two, press down through your arms, two to support that lift, three, lift up and then release that leg to the floor, plant your feet, lower down, again let's go, abdomen down, back touches the ground and then inhale arch away, exhale press down, inhale arch away, beautiful, let's take our right ankle on top of our left knee, grab behind the hamstring or on top of the shin, draw it in, just for a moment and then let the left foot come to the ground and pull the left knee across like windshield wipers, take your hands behind the back of your head, your knees don't have to come to the floor and find some little abdominals here, curling up, especially working with this left side, taking the ribs and the hip closer together, micromovements really, you might engage your left glute, push your hip forwards and really work with that left side, let's do 10, so it's 3, 4, 5, you might think about hollowing and lengthening your belly on the way down, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, slow over there, shift yourself back to the figure 4 and release your right leg, left leg on top, draw it in, hug in, squeeze in, let that come to the ground, windshield wiper your legs over to the left, they don't need to touch the ground just as much as you like, hands behind the back of your head, maybe send your right hip forwards, use your glute and then find those micromovements in that right side waist, curling up. As you're lowering down, lower down slowly and hollow out your belly any amount, feeling length, so that's 4, 5, you can go faster than me or slower, 6, sometimes slower you feel a little more, it's maybe even harder, 7, 8, 9 and 10, release that to the floor, come back to neutral and let's find our 3 backbends, so you can press into your feet, you might roll on up and find a bridge, let's take 5 breaths, elongate now that exact area that you're contracting, see if you can find a lengthen, maybe you're a little more tuned into the space between your pelvis and your ribs, find length, 4, try not to over stretch your neck here, 5, then lower down segmentally, now if you're ready to go up into a bridge you might tuck your fingers under, roll on up, maybe find the top of your head and come on up onto your tippy toes, 1, you can rock gently forwards and back, 2, 3, 4 and 5, tuck your chin, roll down onto the back of your head and lower down, so you might do one of those again, best part is coming out for sure, so don't miss that, and if you want to, you can when you're up there, figure for your legs, you might try that one leg and then the other, either position, so roll on up, if you want to come into your bridge, come up onto your tiptoes, your wheel and maybe walk your feet closer into the center and then figure for your one ankle on top of the other and see how that feels, thinking about leveling out your pelvis, maybe switching sides, you can always come down in between those, making those little adjustments and exhale, coming on down, tucking your chin, rolling out here, drawing your knees in towards your chest and you can cup your hands on your knees and lengthen them away and then in towards you, away and in towards you, oscillating through that, hug your knees in either cup on top of your shins or underneath your hamstrings, let's take 5 breaths, some of you might curl right up and crisscross your wrists holding onto the outer part of your feet, squeezing your knees in towards your chest for 3, strengthening your neck here, 4 and 5, let that go, rock and roll or if it makes sense roll over to the side to come on up, walk your hips back, this might be a nice place to put something underneath your hips, walk your legs forwards, walk your sit bones back and start to tip forwards from your hips, a little bit maybe a lot, if you'd like to hold onto your feet you can do that, let's take 10 breaths here, so if you're a little too far forwards and you feel like you can't take those 10 breaths, ease up a little bit, you might start to pull your belly button towards your toes and then curl your head in for 3, 4, 5, maybe even close your eyes, 6, 4 to 5 your legs by pressing them down into the ground, see how that affects your pelvis and your spine, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and press down through your hips, come on up, so you're welcome to simply sit or cross your shins in front, inhale and lift up your body, roll over your feet, step or hop back, strong legs, lower, upward dog or cobra and tuck your chin up and back to downward facing dog, then we'll step or hop through to take your seat to the ground and you might come back up onto your blanket here, so we'll take our left shin in front of our right or if you'd like stack your left shin on top of your right and let's twist to the left, so right hand can come across whichever variation you choose, left hand comes behind, turning, maybe for some you even want to clasp your inner right thigh, adding a little more twist to your spine and your shoulder and then we'll turn forwards and start to walk in, so you can walk your sit bones back, you're welcome to have that stack, maybe even press into your hands, press back into your hips, your blocks always come in handy for a little support and breathing for five, one, connect with your breath, you don't need to be reminded to breathe but to connect into it, connect to yourself, your practice, your breath, four, and five, let's come on up from that, so you're welcome to switch sides or if you like crossing at those shins, inhale, lift your body, exhale, roll it forwards, step back, strong legs lower, roll it open, pull your lower back out of your pelvis there and exhale, tuck your chin and reach back, step or hop through however you do and we'll switch our sides there, so maybe sitting up on that blanket, right chin in front or right on top and twisting to the right, left arm across, finding that twist, your own breath, your own length, maybe clasping your inner thigh with your right hand and turning it forwards, you can walk your seat back, stack if you want and fold in, maybe using a block, for five, breathing in your body, your breath, your connection, your faith in your practice, two, and one, press down through your hips, come on up out of that and we're going to find a seat, so you might shift to look forwards or of course you're welcome to lift if you want that last little, get the energy out, lower, upward dog, cobra, downward dog, come on through, find your seat and a little bit of Veloma Pranayama, so it's exhale the breath all the way to the bottom and inhale half of your breath and pause, inhale all the way to the top of your breath and pause, exhale all your breath, this time inhale a third of your breath and pause, inhale another third and pause, inhale all the way to the top of your breath and pause, long, smooth, steady exhale, at your own time, two and one, your breath, your exhale, your inhale, your breath, your exhale, your inhale, your exhale, and breathe easy after you're done your second round, natural, so you might choose to sit in a meditation for the last four or so minutes we have or you might choose to lie down, so take your version of Shavasana, it might be putting your legs up the wall or having your feet planted, any little movements you'd like to do, to find your relaxation space and feel a sense of wholeness, it seems like yoga is a journey towards wholeness and it sort of is, however you're already whole and the word yoga implies that everything's already connected and somehow that's like comforting, it's already there, you can't really do anything to make yourself more whole. Last few moments here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, so you might want to stay here for a little longer in your relaxation, If you'd like to close the class in the hour, can stretch out through your arms, rotate out through your wrists and your ankles. Take your time to roll over onto your side and come up to a seat.

Let's close our practice with one sound of om. So if you like your hands coming together, you might take that gesture, breathe in, exhale it all out, inhale for om. Thank you so much for being here with this practice.