Move In Service to the Breath

Hi there, today's practice will release the side body, we'll do a little bit of twisting and sort of reconnect with this idea of creating shift and revolution from the inside. Wow, I really like that, I just came up with that in this moment, I will use it again. So revolution from the inside, please come to sukhasana, so cross legged seat, but before you do, find dandasana, the staff pose, extend your legs straight forward, flex your feet, notice how your legs are actually in tadasana, notice if it's actually difficult to keep the pelvis upright, and if so, you just go ahead and sit on top of a folded blanket if you have one, or on top of two blocks if you have those, and then go ahead and cross your legs at the centers of the shins, keep the feet flexed, so we don't want to sickle the ankles, we want to flex the feet, send the inner arches away from you, away from the midline of your body, and then get situated there, so round your ground, rather your sitting bones down into the floor or the blanket or the blocks that you're sitting on, rest your hands on your knees or your thighs with your eyes open, just orient yourself in your space, your practice, and then as you're ready, whenever you're ready, you close your eyes, so float the eyes closed, and with the visual stimulation removed, taking a moment just to recede now into this interior way of being, and seeing, and use your mind's eye just to do a scan of your body from your feet to your head, making any adjustments that you need to find a little bit more clarity, especially in the feet and in the legs, so that the pelvis can be just upright, but in a buoyant way, extend the spine, lift the crown of the head up, heavy the arms, soften the shoulders, hands are resting on the knees or the thighs, and with the baseline of physical comfort established, turning your attention now to the breath, and just watching the breath, watch as you inhale, watch as you exhale, breathing in and out through the nose, and for now, just feeling that sensation of breath entering through the nose, breath exiting also through the nose, so closing the mouth and breathing in and out through the nose. Rest your hands on your belly, and then as you inhale, draw that next inhale deep down into the belly, feel as the belly expands. As you exhale, feel the belly contract.

This next breath, I want you to inhale and draw it down into the belly, but then draw in a little bit more air, so you also feel the ribs expand. Bring your hands to your ribs, thumbs wrapping back behind. As you next inhale, draw that air deep down into the belly, expand the ribs, and then draw a little bit more air up into the chest, bring your hands onto your chest, fingertips resting on the collarbones, breathe. I want you to continue breathing like that, that was sort of a flash round of three part breathing, but you know, I also wanted to not be so precious, so you're just breathing into the belly, letting that breath also expand the ribs and then expand the chest, so really just awakening to the reality of breath as fully beautifully expansive. And rather than sort of trying to gasp for air or grasp for air, letting the breath exist as it is, and watching as it fills the belly, watching as it fills the ribs, watching and allowing it to expand the chest, you feel that pause at the top of the inhale, and you feel as the chest falls, ribs contract, belly draws in and out.

Few more rounds like that, this time, rest the backs of your hands on your knees or your thighs as you continue to breathe fully this way, into the belly, into the ribs, into the chest, and then release. And bring your palms together at the center of your chest, we'll chant the sound of a single om to start, so you'll inhale your breath, exhale your breath, and then inhaling for om. Vow your head to your hands, maybe setting an intention or a dedication for your practice, and then release your hands out to your sides, open your eyes, lift your head up, roll your biceps forward right away, get broad across your collarbones, and as you breathe in, sweep your arms around and up, as you breathe out, side bend to the right, and pause, taking a nice, nice stretch there, worrying less about, you know, how it looks, than about the function, which is just to release the sides of the body, do the same on the opposite side as you exhale, we'll keep moving like that, so you'll breathe in to center and pause, and then you'll breathe out, side bend in the opposite direction and pause, just a few more, just like that. The next time you're on one side, pause there, that bottom palm can be flat to the floor, root to the opposite sitting bone down into the floor, and reach through those top fingertips, turn the pinky side of the hand towards the floor and soften the shoulders, and we'll be here. So there's a clarity to this, right, but there isn't any, any bracing or rigidity, let it be clear, but let it be clear and light, and easy, and breathe into the side of the body, and take a few breaths there, just like that.

As you next inhale, you'll lift up and come to center, feel that pause at the top of the inhale, then you'll ride that wave of the exhale down onto the other side, and you'll pause there, pausing in a place that's easy, turning the pinky side of that top hand towards the floor, softening the shoulders, softening, you know, the mind in the shape, receiving breath, directing that breath to the side of the body that's long and releasing, inhale, come back to center, exhale, reach your arms forward, interlace your hands without bending your elbows, flip your palms forward, if you bent the elbows, in fact, I know you bent your elbows, flip your palms back forward so the palms are facing you, extend through your elbows, and now without bending your elbows, keep the elbows extended as you flip your palms forward, inhale, extend your arms alongside your ears, exhale, stay there, draw your front ribs in, broaden your back body as you inhale, reach the heels of your hands up to the ceiling, broaden your legs, your thighs, as you exhale, you'll twist to the right along the axis of your body, so just going for it straight away, inhale, come back to center, it's not a ton of movement, as you exhale, you're twisting to the left along the axis of your body, what do I mean by that? Don't lead with the head or with the eyes or the chin, I want the head to stay chinned, stay in line with the center of your body as you revolve the entire length of the spine, using the obliques to help you find that rotation, and as you inhale, come back to center, lift up, exhale, twisting to the right again, perhaps a bit more, inhale, center, and notice how much work is required to do this small movement, exhale, twisting in the opposite direction, okay, inhale, center, lifting up, exhale, gently releasing the arms out to the sides, getting broad across your collarbones, turning your palms to face up, feeling whatever you feel there, soften the elbows a little bit, as you breathe in, reach your arms up, as you breathe out, we're going to twist again, lower the arms as you twist to the right, inhale to stay there and exhale to find a little bit more rotation, gaze in the opposite direction of the twist, as you inhale, lift the chest, as you exhale, maybe a little bit more clarity in the twist, as you next inhale, you'll come to center, and then you'll exhale and twist in the opposite direction, inhaling to lift up through the crown of the head, going to find a little more clarity in the twist, and then turning your gaze in the opposite direction, and just noticing whatever is there for you to notice, so we're going to say we're used to it, you know, using the eyes to twist, but maybe you gaze in the opposite direction all the time, but just feel, close the eyes, soften the eyes, as you next inhale, you'll come to center, lift your arms up, and then exhale, release your arms by your sides, and just pause for a moment, hands can rest on the thighs, and then please come to a tabletop position facing the front of your mat, on hands and knees, great, inhale, cow pose, the beloved cow pose, keep your neck incredibly long, and as you exhale, reverse, tuck your chin, curve the spine, tap pose, inhale, cow, and you'll keep going just like that, so I won't cue you, you'll take your cues from your breath to find this open shape for the body, followed by the closed shape for the body, trying to transition from moving and breathing to moving as breath, moving from, you know, doing breath and movement separately, but simultaneously to doing the movement as the breath, doing the movement in service to the breath. After your next exhale, you come to a neutral tabletop position, I'm going to move myself back a bit, and then puppy dog pose, walk your hands forward, rest your head on the floor, extend, do the fingertips, for now let the heart melt towards the floor, and you find, feel as though the center of your spine is going to come through the front of your body, reach forward through the fingertips, press the index and thumb knuckles down as you wrap the triceps towards the floor, maybe feel like you're hollowing out your armpits, great and then walk your hands a little back towards you, couple of hand prints, come down onto your forearms, going to do a little, little, well, you'll tell me what it is after you experience it, so come down onto your forearms, bring your right hand to the back of your skull, I can't speak today, bring your hand to the back of your skull, hand is on that, underneath that ridge at the back of your skull, the occipital ridge, and then you will widen your elbow, so elbow is pointing directly out to the side, I want you to use your hand to guide the crown of your head forward, and as you inhale, keep leaning your head into your hand as you revolve your entire chest to the right, not a ton of movement, but incredibly powerful, requires so much strength, as you exhale you'll come back to center, wow, inhale, opening to the right side, elbow is wide, you pause, exhale coming back to center, once more, inhale, opening, elbow wide, this time pause there for a breath cycle, so you'll exhale, and then you'll breathe in again, and you'll exhale and come to center, and you'll release that and pause, I don't know about you, but I certainly felt that, I'm feeling that a lot, we're spending lots of time at, at desks these days, so let's try the opposite side, so hand at the back of the skull, elbow wide, begin to inhale, open the entire chest, so you're not leading with the chin, this is what the hand behind the head is helping us to, to imprint, entire chest opens, and as you exhale you'll come back to center, inhale, open the chest, exhale close, inhale open, and pause, take a breath there, take another inhale there, and then exhale, you go ahead and release that child's pose, big toes touching, knees wide apart, relax your elbows, relax your head on the floor, take your time and arriving in the child's pose, move your hips from left to right, rest the head so that the neck can relax fully, and the eyes can kind of recede into the, the eye sockets, crawl your hands as far forward as you can, little side bend in your child's pose, briefly feel the release for the right side of the body, draw that right hip back and down, I want you to play a little bit with some, some, geez, I don't even know what to call it, but I want you to maintain the architecture of the shape, so I say this a lot, but soften, soften your approach a bit, so can you keep this shape, but can you energetically do less? Let the body keep doing what it's doing mechanically, but can you soften around it, can you recede a little bit more into the, into, into witnessing rather than, than performing? It's really subtle, and I don't know that I explained that particularly well, but you play around with that idea, and then walk your hands to the center and over to the opposite side, right side, side bending, finding the shape, and sort of giving the shape to your breath, and then receding, let your, your conscious mind draw back just a bit, and just watch, and you feel, feel the difference.

Walk your hands to center, inhale to come forward to cow pose, and then exhale to downward facing dog, lift your hips up and back, pedal through your feet, bend one knee and then the other, pressing one heel down and then the other, and then you'll come to stillness with soft knees, send the inner heels down towards the floor, the inner arches of the feet towards the floor, knees are as soft as you need them to be for you to find full extension of your spine, and then look forward between your hands, and then release the head back down again, descend the heels a little bit more, and as you inhale, cow pose, lower your knees to the floor, open the chest, as you exhale, neutral tabletop position, walk your hands back, so shoulders, or wrists are under shoulders, as you breathe in, lift your right arm up, open twist to the right, and then exhale to thread your right arm underneath, right away, rest the head on the floor, crawl the left arm forward, and be here in the twist. Finish is to, well, it's going to say to not deepen the twist, so we have various arm variations that if you've been practicing for a while, we like to just habitually do, but I invite you now just to be in this easy twist and to do that same process of stepping back a bit and just observing. Place your left hand next to the face, you can press into the hand and elegantly unthread your arm and come to tabletop, and as you breathe in, lift your left arm up, breathe out, thread the arm underneath, twist, rest the head on the floor, crawl the right arm forward so it's straight, you're just creating more space for the shoulder and neck, and you'll pause there, great. Press your right hand into the floor, unthread yourself, walk your hands forward again, downward facing dog. Walk your hands and feet towards each other, standing forward fold, release the crown of your head towards the floor, place your left hand down on the floor, and as you inhale, you can also use a block if you're needing to bring the floor up to you.

Hand on the block, inhale, reach your right arm up to the ceiling, you can bend the left knee, as you exhale, right hand down on the floor of the block, and you inhale to lift the left arm up, and you keep going like that, moving as breath, so inhaling, reaching up, opening the chest, exhaling, hand to the floor, inhaling opposite side, couple more passes like that. Next time you're on one side, pause there, turn the palm to face in that direction, soften the shoulders away from the ears and breathe. Take one more breath in there and as you exhale, release it, switch sides and same thing, palm will face in that direction, release that shoulder away from the ears, soften, soften. Take one more breath in and then exhale, release your hand to the floor, great, interlace your hands behind your head, let the hands rest on that ridge at the back of your skull, so that occipital ridge again, elbows are heavy, arms are heavy, breathe into the upper back, exhale, feel the crown of the head release towards the floor, as you breathe and soften your knees, widen your elbows, pause halfway, lengthen the neck more, widen the elbows more, and then come all the way up to standing, great, release your arms by your sides and pause for a moment. Walk yourself to the top of your mat, once you're there at the top of your mat I can face you to do it, you can stay facing forward, as you breathe in you'll sweep your arms around and up, grab a hold of your right wrist and as you next inhale you'll lengthen, reach the fingertips up to the ceiling and as you exhale it'll side bend to the left and you side bend to whatever degree, you know, allows you to keep breathing completely freely and then from that place, you know, you can explore a little bit of how you're expressing the shape through your body, but breath, breath first, shape second, take one more breath there, let's use the inhale to come back to center and then switch sides, so grab a hold of the left wrist, lengthen, exhale, side bend, keeping the hip points facing forward, breathing into that left side of the body, staying with the breath, breath is primary and maybe, you know, as you continue to breathe you're called to express through the body in a different way and as you breathe in you'll come to center, you'll release your arms by your sides and you'll pause at the top of your mat there and tadasana, just registering your experience.

As you inhale, sweep your arms around and up, breathe in and then exhale, soften your knees, hinge forward with a very, very long spine, as you inhale prepare pose, hands to your shins, lift your chest up, as you exhale you can grab your two blocks and step your left foot back into a lunge and we'll pause, I like blocks under the hands because it gives us this sensation of space, peel space in the chest, you can breathe more freely that way, peel those back toes all the way back so that the back foot is bright, the leg is bright, you can play a little bit with movement from left to right, see that the distance between your feet from left to right is wide enough so that you could balance well if you are standing when you are standing, but for now please lower your back knee to the floor, untuck your back toes and as you breathe in sweep your arms around and up and pause in the high lunge, grab opposite elbows in the high lunge and draw your elbows up towards the ceiling or towards the sky and as you do that breathe into the sides of your body, draw that right hip back, left hip forward and inhale and as you exhale draw the elbows up more, feel the belly firm and take one more breath in there and as you exhale you'll release your hands to the blocks, lift your back knee up, breathe in, reach your right arm up to the ceiling for a low lunge twist, gaze straight ahead in this version of the twist, now take one more breath in and as you exhale you bring your hand to the floor, both hands to the floor, step back to a plank pose, pause in the plank, spread the knuckles of the fingers, reach the heels back and the crown of the head forward and as you exhale you can lower yourself all the way down to the floor and once you are there inhale to the baby cobra, lift the center of your chest, the back of your skull and stay here, we'll be here for a few breaths, so just finding an expression of this that allows you to continue breathing, receiving the breath into the chest, feeling as the chest rises with that breath and then exhale lower down, press back to downward facing dog, lift your hips up and back and pause, relax head and neck, inner heels descending towards the floor, hands pressing down and forward. Look up between your hands, soften your knees, you can either float, step or walk yourself forward, once you are there inhale prepare pose, lift the chest, reach especially the crown of the head forward, stay there and now I'd like you just to reach your chest forward and breathe in to sweep the arms up and then exhale to tatasana, mountain pose, inhale reach the arms up, exhale soften the knees and hinge forward, prepare pose comes again so we can receive that breath in, let's take the lunge on the opposite side, step your right foot back, peel the toes back, get long, play a little bit in the lunge, get weird in the lunge, lower your back knee, untuck the toes, breathe in to sweep the arms up, grab opposite elbows in the opposite way, draw the elbows up towards the ceiling, take a few breaths there, so getting, lifting the elbows up as we allow that tailbone to descend, let the breath expand the root cage in all four directions, top to bottom, left to right, front to back, step forward, that's three directions, and we'll take one more breath in here, great as you exhale you can release it, hands to the blocks, lift your back knee up, inhale reach your left arm up to the ceiling, stay gazing forward, scissor the legs together so drawing that left hip back, opening the chest, breathe in, as you breathe out bring your hand to the blocks, blocks to the sides, plank pose, you'll step back and breathe in, as you exhale downward facing dog lift your hips up and back, shorten your down dog so you're walking your feet forward about a foot print or so, enough so that you can ground your heels, press the inner heels down, you feel perhaps a little bit more release in your calves and the backs of your legs, play with that a little bit and then broaden your hands you can look at the hands, we're going to shift our weight into the left hand and foot and then use the right hand to grab the outer left ankle and you pause there and center and look between the feet, inhale as you exhale maybe you draw against that left leg a little bit to encourage this rotation along the axis of your spine, I'm going to take a few breaths there just like that, head and neck relax, your gaze can be at your underarm or just let rather the eyes land where they land, I want you to tap into the sensation of the eyes and the muscles around the eyes as you're twisting, can you soften, can you soften around the eyes, can you let the eyes just naturally land in a place that allows you to soften them and then release that and you come to center, you'll switch sides shifting the weight lifting the left hand up holding the outer ankle, right ankle, you'll breathe in in the center and you'll ride that wave of the exhale into some amount of rotation for your ribcage for your spine but not trying to crank yourself right into the twist just easing yourself towards rotation and letting the breath coax the body in that direction as well so breath is free and full and is the primary feature of what we're doing now and always breathe in and as you breathe out you can draw against the leg a little bit more perhaps and then release it from the center, walk your feet up to your hands and pause there, interlace the hands behind your lower back, elbows together, inhale to lift your chest up, open your chest and pause opening the shoulders without snapping the hands apart, release them, breathe in, sweep your arms around and up, breathe out, bring your palms together, descend the hands down the center line of the body, close your eyes or soften your gaze and pause here, great, release your arms as you breathe in, utkatasana, fierce pose, standing squat, sit nice and low, extend your arms, breathe in, sit a little bit lower as you breathe out, hinge forward from your hips so keeping your spine extended, I'm doing it in like super slow motion, it's interesting to do that, spine extended, extended, extended until you get to a point where the release kind of must happen in order for the forward fold to happen and as you breathe in prepare pose nice and fluid and natural and then exhale, release nice and fluidly and naturally hands to the floor or your blocks this time, step your left foot back, pause in the lunge, see that your feet are wide apart enough so that you will feel supported once you inhale and lift your torso up and come up to standing and we'll take a couple of breaths here just like this, peeling the back toes back, drawing the right hip back, as you breathe in, straighten your front leg, as you breathe out we're gonna twist, begin to re-bend the knee and twist to the right as you extend your arms, again like that inhale to center, exhale, re-bend the knee, twist, extend the arms, inhale to center, I like sweeping that, the arms forward, exhale, twisting, extending the arms and pausing in the twist, draw the right hip back, lengthen through the crown of your head, take one more breath cycle there and as you breathe in you come to center, straighten the front leg, breathe out soft and re-bend that front knee, hands to the floor, step yourself back to plank pose and breathe in, as you breathe out lower yourself all the way down to the floor and then right away bhujangasana, baby cobra, press the tops of the feet down, lengthen the back of the neck, crown of the head reaches forward, take a few breaths here, sort of giving the shape to the breath, take one more inhale there and as you exhale you can release it, press yourself back to downward facing dog, lift the hips up and back and pause, and this time we'll step forward, so you'll look forward and step your left foot forward, maybe it's step, step, step or one step until that ankle is underneath the knee, you widen the distance between the back foot and the front foot, you pause for a moment, see, maybe you just use proprioception, will I have enough balance once I am standing and asking yourself this question is a way of developing, you know, that proprioception so that once you stand up you can gauge whether or not your estimation was accurate and if not you adjust and it's fine, the little information, as you next inhale stay here, as you exhale stay here, I think I'm going to shorten my stance actually so I'm going to step my back foot slightly forward, there we go, much better, arms extend alongside your ears as you inhale you'll straighten your front leg, as you exhale re-bend your knee, as you twist to the left, arms extend, you'll pause and then inhale come back to center, exhale twisting, bending the knee, extending the arms, inhale to center, exhale re-bending the knee and twisting and pausing there and letting yourself so it requires tremendous muscular effort to do this, let that effort be there, then soften your intention a little bit, getting curious about what's happening is actually a fine way to find a little bit of softness in the body, breath of course, inhale, observe what happens on the inhale and the exhale and then as you next breath in you'll come to center, lift the arms up straight in the leg, exhale hands to the floor, step yourself back to a plank pose and lift your hips up and back to downward facing dog, great, walk the hands and feet towards each other, you're in the center of your mat, hands on your hips, draw your elbows together, reach the heart all the way forward so you come up to stand with an extended spine and just pause, release your arms, do a little human movement as you turn your body towards the long edge of your mat and then keep moving like a human, little undulation, I've been telling people that you must undulate daily, it's like the requirement of being human, wow, invigorating like a cup of coffee, step your feet wide apart about a legs distance apart, you'll turn the toes slightly towards each other, hands on your hips, pause for a moment, you'll have blocks handy if you like so hands will float to the floor but let the blocks be nearby in the event that you would like to use them, you'd like to bring the floor up to you as we forward fold, so hands to the hips to start, as you inhale draw your elbows back, lift your chest up and then start to exhale and hinge forward, hinge forward with a long spine, looking forward as you do that, once you're forward folded about halfway that's the time to grab your blocks and place the blocks under the hands at whatever height works for you and then friends we're going to walk the hands forward, so the upper body is essentially in downward facing dog, so hands can be on the floor, they can be on blocks but reach through the fingertips as you send that tailbone back, so trying to lengthen the sides of the body, neck is nice and long and soft, breath is full and free and expansive, we'll be here for a few breaths, your work, maintain the shape, give the shape to your breath, soften a little bit around the mind as you do the shape and just witness, just witness like it's so easy. If we all only just witness, everything would be okay. Take a few more breaths here, breath into the sides of the body, expanding the ribs from top to bottom, front to back, can you feel that as you're in this forward fold? And then please walk your hands over to your right foot, I'll mirror you, use your left hand to grab a hold of that ankle and then reach the right arm up to the ceiling, trying to sense if the pelvis is remaining balanced, trying to keep the neck long, so we're doing a lot with the spine, now we're in a side bend but there's also an element of rotation there and we've done those two things in isolation and practice so far, now we're putting them together.

Now take one more breath in there, exhale, release, hands walk over to the opposite side, right hand holds the left ankle, get long first in the spine, rotate, little side bend as you draw against the leg and reach that top arm up to the ceiling, now take a few breaths there just like that, surrounding your experience now with breath, take one more breath in there and as you exhale you'll release, you'll come to center, you'll soften your knees a lot as though you're in a little sumo squat, little football squat and you'll shift your hips from left to right, so knees pretty deeply bent, you can play around with the hands, I'm keeping them pretty close to me but you can get weird, it's kind of cool actually, try it, walk your hands around your mat as you just shift your hips from left to right, and then please come to center, lift the pelvis up again so you're in a halfway position, blocks can be under the hands although no, set one block aside and then that block that remains, you'll lower it maybe to its lowest height, if you need more height you raise the height of the block, the block will be directly underneath your nose, you'll place your hand there, you'll place your right hand there, your left hand there rather and then the right hand will come to your sacrum to encourage presence there, to encourage balance there, so can you get a sense of the balance of your pelvis? As you inhale you'll lengthen through the crown of your head and really do that, if you really do it, it's tons of work and I feel like I'm happy here, just doing this is enough for me, but then inhale, lengthen, as you exhale you start to revolve yourself to the right and maybe you reach that top arm up to the ceiling or maybe not, I'm choosing to keep mine on my lower back because there's a lot happening for me just in this experience, but reaching the top arm up to the ceiling, also very interesting, so you try, you decide which is most valuable to you in this moment, we'll take one more breath in and then as you exhale let's release and switch sides, so right hand down, left hand to the sacrum, lengthen, breathe in, exhale begin to revolve in that direction, left side. And then see, you know, you can play with coming a little bit out of the twist, can you revolve along the entire axis of your spine without leading, you know, don't lead with the chin and with the eyes, open the entire chest, and again, option to reach your top arm up towards the ceiling, if that feels like that might serve you, otherwise staying as you are, doing something else, if that feels like it might serve you best, but long long spine, every inhale, every exhale a little more rotation, you take one more breath in and then exhale you can release that, soften the knees, that block and move off to the side and once more a little weird, I don't even know what this is or I feel like something but that something is the name is like escaping me now, but I like this, whatever this is, think of a name and then, you know, let me know what you come up with, I'm curious. And slowly come to center, heel toe your feet a little closer together, soften your knees, let's sway yourself, roll yourself up, taking good care to keep those knees so soft that they are bent, very bent, as you slowly roll yourself up, you can walk your hands up your legs, great and once you're upright, human movement again, let's come to the top of the mat again and find Tadasana, let's first rest the hands on the body, so one hand on the heart, one on the abdomen, close the eyes, feet are resting into the floor, and just sense whatever is there to be sensed, great, release your arms, bend the knees, little fluid movement again, good, separate your feet a little wider than hips, bend the knees and then just rotate your, move your hips from left to right and then rotate your upper body, let the arms swing, suppose we could have done this facing each other, facing the long edge of the mat, that you soften your knees and really do this, close your eyes as you do it and just feel the rotation, feel like it's easier to not lead with the eyes and the chin in this, but for some reason when it's very linear work, it's very much about form, the brain activates the eyes, everything is on, everything is trying to work in service to this performance of a twist, so let this be the opposite, close the eyes, not performative at all, just free and just, you know, recede into the experience, maybe you feel a little bit of that witness consciousness rising, right, and then slowly make your movements, whatever they are, smaller, wow, and smaller and smaller until you arrive back in the center, back in tadasana, you can float your eyes open as you're ready, step yourself a little bit forward, soften your knees, inhale to just lift your arms up in some way that's natural, receive your breath, and then start to exhale, hinge yourself forward with very soft knees, forward fold, pause in the forward fold, shift your weight a little bit from right to left, and then come to center and as you breathe in, lift your chest, lengthen your spine, great, exhale, step your left foot all the way back, lower your back knee to the floor, great, inhale to lift your torso up, neutralize your ribs a little bit, so draw your front ribs in, broaden your back body, grabbing a hold of a block so I can place my, place it next to your hip, your right hip, as you breathe in, lengthen, as you exhale you'll side bend to the right and your hand can rest on that block that's there, you'll have to walk it over so you can extend your arm and be broad across that side of your chest, you'll take a couple of breaths here just like that, so releasing that side of the body, hip points facing forward, great, you come back to center, and then this time my friends, hook your right thumb into that hip crease, as you inhale, lift your left arm up, exhale to lower yourself down about half way, and then hook your elbow on the outside of the knee, and perhaps you stay here, this is plenty interesting for me personally, but I'll let you determine what works for you, maybe you are inspired to bring your palms to prayer, whatever you choose to do, look forward, look towards the floor in front of you, and you take a couple of breaths there, and you can stay there in the twist or option to tuck your back toes under and stay there, another option to lift your back knee up, peel those back toes back, get really long in your spine while gazing at the floor, and then maybe you turn your gaze in that direction towards the right, and you take a couple more breaths there wherever you are, whether your knee is up or down or whatever, inhale lengthen, lengthen, lengthen, exhale, lower the back knee if it's lifted, release, straighten your front leg, hinge forward, flex the foot, and you take a couple of breaths there, great, bend your knee, lift your back knee up, inhale, as you exhale you'll step that back foot forward, forward fold, release, inhale, sweep the arms around and up, exhale, soften your knees and hinge yourself right back forward, inhale to prepare pose, little mini undulation, lift your chest, step your right foot all the way back, lower your back knee to the floor, grab your block, place it on the opposite side, and then lift your torso up, lift your arms up, breathe in, draw your front ribs in, broaden across your back body as you breathe out, you'll walk your hand over to that block on the left, and you'll find a nice side bend as you scissor the legs together so those hip points are both facing forward, of course option to lower your block or to not use the block at all underneath the hand, as you next inhale you'll come to center, lift up, hook your left thumb into your left hip crease to draw that hip back, extend to the top arm, lean yourself forward, breathe in to lengthen and then exhale to hook your elbow and maybe you just stay here and you stay looking at the floor, this is plenty, requires a lot of the shoulders, maybe you're called to bring your palms to prayer and you can stay there, it's also plenty, you can tuck your back toes under if you like, I'll give you a bit of space here just to be in your experience, option to also lift your back knee up if that feels interesting for you, try to stay gazing at the floor for a bit before maybe gazing directly forward, I'm going to take a couple of breaths there just like that, I'm going to take one more inhale and as you exhale lowering the back knee if it was lifted, releasing, extending your front leg, flexing the foot, chest is lifted, spine is long, good, shift yourself forward and then bring that front knee back, child's pose, big toes touching, knees wide apart, slowly walk your hands back towards you as you find yourself in an upright position and then flip yourself over so you recline onto your back, draw your knees into your chest for a moment and then extend one leg and then the other coming to shavasana, arms away from the body, palms facing up, legs wide apart and you breathe here, that's letting go of all efforts. And you might choose to keep continue shavasana, that's a fantastic choice, another fantastic choice if you like is to deepen the breath, so come up to sit for a bit, extend your arms alongside your ears, give yourself a nice long stretch from your feet to your hands, draw your knees into your chest and then roll onto one side, rest your head on your arm for a moment and then keeping your eyes closed, making your way up to a comfortable seat and sitting well once you arrive there and whatever seat works for you and finding that again, you know, always that sweet spot where there's a clarity about what you're doing but it's not, you know, you're not, you're not breathing, you're not holding, you just create the structure and then you give it away, you breathe, bring your palms together at the center of your chest, bow your head to your hands thanking yourself for practicing and honoring your body and your breath and the connection between the two and may you carry this quality of centeredness and remembrance that, you know, that place of clarity and ease and space is always right there ready for you to access at any time.

The light in me sees and honors the light that's also in you, namaste.