Uplifting Breath

Greetings, my friends. Namaste. I'm Sadia. Welcome to, what are we, in the third episode of Guided by Breath, the second season. Excited for today's practice, we are going to open the front of the body. We're going to strengthen the back of the body, which is critical for opening the front of the body. Your props, and I think you've grabbed them already. Two blocks, or two bricks, and a yoga strap. And my friends, we're going to begin seated in Virasana on top of a block. So I will come to a profile view so you can see that. I recommend that you come to a tabletop position. Grab one or two of your bricks there. Set the brick one to start, I'd say, on its lowest height between your ankles, your inner ankles. You will hug your outer ankles in, hug your inner ankles in towards the block, walk your knees towards each other, and then walk your hands back so you can find a seat on top of your block there. And if you find that this is still a little bit intense for your ankles, I recommend either raising the height of your block to the medium height. For me, that feels pretty good. If you need a little bit more height, reset your block to its lowest height and then stack the second block on top. And that should provide sufficient height for you to sit this way comfortably. If not, you'll just find Sukhasana easy seat, you can cross your legs. But let's begin seated this way. I'll turn my body back towards you. And then, my friends, please interlace your hands behind your lower back. So you'll interlace behind your lower back, draw the heels of your hands together, I'm going to turn again, draw the heels of your hands together, keep your elbows bent and draw the bent elbows towards each other. Use your thumb knuckles to encourage your tailbone to descend into the center of that brick, draw the elbows towards each other, feel as that brightens the chest. And can you maintain that brightness of the chest, but a little bit knit those front ribs together. So rather than just fanning the ribs, can you broaden your back body a little bit? And I'll take just a few breaths here. For me, this feels like plenty. I've been doing quite a bit of sitting. I don't think I've ever sat so much in my life as I have this past year or so. But find this shape, go ahead and soften your eyes closed, lengthen through the back of your neck. You can find that length by gently drawing your skull back in space and drawing your chin gently towards your chest. With an inhale, please begin to straighten your arms any amount. In fact, just straighten them, maybe what feels like a nanometer or so and feel how that changes the sensation in the front of the body, the back of the body. Has your pelvis begun to tilt forward? Can you please re ground those sitting bones into the block? Can you roll those shoulders open a little bit more? And as you next inhale, can you extend through the elbows a little bit more? And can you keep those elbows extended however much they are, but draw the front ribs and broaden across the back of the body and notice how that grounds the sitting bones even more. I want us to take a few breaths here into the upper chest. And then with incredible tenderness and gentleness without snapping the hands apart, release your hands and rest the backs of your hands on your thighs. Heavy the arms, heavy the shoulders. Soften the face. Relax your brow. Relax the temples, the cheeks and the jaw. Relax, relax, relax the jaw. Soften the shoulders more and heavy the arm bones. Give a little bit more of the weight of your hands and your forearms to your thighs. Relax the centers of the palms so that the fingertips curl gently towards the centers of the palms. Hug the outer ankles in, hug the inner ankles in towards the block and lengthen the inner edges of your feet. Reach your big toes back. And as much as you are reaching the big toes back, root your sitting bones even more down into the blocks. And then breath. So body is established. The position of the body is established. We've created conditions for both clarity and just easy, full movement of the breath through the body. So just breathing in and out through the nose. If you practice Ujjayi breath you can go ahead and create that little slight constriction at the back of the throat. You hear that sort of ocean-like sound. Let every breath in create a little bit more space inside of your body and inside of your consciousness. Let every exhale draw the mind down into the body and perhaps really visualizing with every exhale the mind dropping into the center of your body. Perhaps visualizing the mind surrounded by flesh and bones. And then surround the body with the breath. I'm going to do a little bit of breath, a little visualization for the breath friend. So imagine that your next inhalation is traveling up from your tailbone, up the front of your body. Feel that inhale expand and lift the chest. Imagine that that inhale is traveling through your throat and then up the back of your skull. And then crest of the inhale happens as the breath rolls up the back of the skull to the crown of the head. And imagine that the exhale descends down the front of the forehead, back through the throat and then down the back of the body. So it's like a little figure eight. So as you inhale, inhale traveling up the front of the body, lifting the chest, traveling through the throat, up the back of the neck, up the back of the skull, pausing at the crown of the head. And then as you exhale traveling down the forehead, down the bridge of the nose, the tip of the nose, down the chin, through the neck, through the throat and down the back of the body. So a few more like that on your own little figure eight breath. What I want you to really sense and what I'd like this breath to highlight is how the inhalation broadens and opens and lifts the front body and how the exhalation sort of closes the front body and create some opening as it descends down the back body. Do one more pass like that. And then release fully that next exhalation, bring your palms together at the center of your chest and pause there. And we'll just chant for ourselves the sound of a single Aum, nice low and resonant Aum. So inhale your breath and then exhale your breath and then inhaling for Aum. Aum. Great, bow your head to your hands, maybe set an intention or dedication for your practice. And then float your hands down to your thighs, float your eyes open, lift your head up and as always you'll lead with the back of your skull and sort of floating the head up so the back of the neck stays long. And then I'm going to turn to face you and you will grab a hold of your strap and you will unfurl the strap which I'm sure is rolled up so neatly and nicely. You unroll your strap, treating it like a sentient being and then you will extend, hold the strap, fingertips curling over the top and then you're going to hold the strap, lift it up. Jeez, my mind, where is your mind? Mine is a bit all over the place so I'm just going to collect myself and then I'm going to begin again. Please hold the strap in the front of your body. Let's do it this way.

I think this is a nicer, kinder, cleaner, more elegant way to enter the thing that I would like us to do. So please hold the strap in front of you with your hands shoulder with a part. Lower it down towards your knees so elbows are extended and then begin to inhale friends and then with the full length of your breath in you'll start to lift the strap up and feel as the chest rises. Wow. And then as you exhale with the full length of your exhale you're just going to lower the strap in front of you. Full length of the exhale. Begin to breathe in, feel the inhale rise and respond by lifting the strap up and do it exquisitely slowly so you can feel as the ribs expand as the chest lifts and then once more as you exhale you'll lower the strap in front of you feeling that descending quality of the exhale. Once more begin to inhale, lift the arms up, receive the breath in and then this time my friends stay here as you breathe out a little bit of that knitting of the ribs action and feel as that action lengthens the tailbone. And then please widen your arms, let them go way wide so that the hands are now shoulder height and the strap is quite taut. And then I'd like you friends to send your left shoulder forward as though you're rolling that arm bone in the socket and then we're going to switch sides. So then you'll roll the right shoulder forward and make sure the strap is pretty taut. I can feel that my hands have already begun to slide a little bit apart. So I'm going to come to center and I'm going to walk my hands a little closer together and you adjust too. So I want you to really find some like super tautness of the strap. That's much better. Is it taut? Ask yourself that. Reroot the sitting bones, knit the front ribs together, left shoulder forward. Great. Right shoulder forward. Awesome. And then you find the right tension in that strap so that the strap is supporting you as you do this little action of shoulder flossing. And you do it nice and curiously. So not in a mechanical way, but just waking up the shoulders, this way, it's funky little way to awaken the shoulders and really trying to originate the movement at the head of the upper arm bone, head of the humerus and perhaps synchronizing with your breath. So let the inhale rise and you come to center and you pause there. I'm going to walk my hands a little closer together. And then as you exhale, shoulder forward, inhale center, exhale, switch sides, shoulder forward. Great. You'll keep going like that. Is it awkward? Incredibly so. If you're feeling that way, you're doing it correctly. But let there be this element of curiosity and pay attention to the tension that you're able to find in the strap. And if you're feeling like it's a bit loose and you don't feel supported as you floss your shoulders, you just pause and walk your hands closer together. So a few more passes like that. I don't know about you, but having some feelings here, sensation in the body is definitely a alerting, alerting and awakening the mind. That's for sure. Do one more pass. Great. And then to release this, both arms extend overhead, inhale and then exhale to slowly lower the strap and just pause for a moment. Rest the backs of your hands on your thighs. Let the blood return to your fingertips. Soften the gaze or close the eyes for a moment and just register your experience, your sensation in the body. And then friend, please make a loop in your strap that is shoulder width apart. And how do you measure that? Well, you make a loop in the strap and then, you know, at first you estimate after you've done this thousands of times, you are able to sort of guess at what shoulder width might be or rather guesstimate. And then to measure, it's a little bit narrow, you're going to loop the strap above your elbows on your upper arm bones. And we've done this, we've done this a couple of times before and you want the arms to fall to either side of the body as they would if you were not wearing a strap. But the strap should again be taught here. You test that for yourself, bend your elbows. Can you press into the strap and broaden your collar bones? In fact, go ahead and do that. Press the arm bones into the strap, broaden across your collar bones. And as you do that, root the sitting bones more down into the block. Really feel as though you're going to pull the strap apart. Soften the gaze or close the eyes as you do this. Can you find somehow a quality of softness in this? Although, it's a ton of muscular effort involved in pulling the strap apart.

And then very, very slowly, I want you to slowly release that effort. Slowly draw the arms towards each other. Great. And then you'll release the strap and you want to have this on the side of your mat accessible, maybe towards the middle of your mat. We'll use it again a couple of times. And stay in Virasana, my friends. Extend your arms out to the sides. Turn your palms to face up. Great. Reach your right arm up to the ceiling. Bend at the elbow. Draw the elbow towards the midline of your body. And as you do this, draw the front ribs in. Broaden your back body. Root those sitting bones down into the brick. And just doing sort of a half Gomukhasana. As you next inhale, reach the arms up. You can look up and receive that breath in as you exhale, bending the left elbow, using the right hand to draw that elbow towards the midline. As you draw the ribs in, broaden your back body. Firm the sitting bones down into the brick. Breathing fully in and out. Outer upper arm on that left, left arm is wrapping forward. Tip of that elbow is reaching up towards the sky. And on your next inhalation, you'll reach the arms up to the ceiling and pause there. And with a full descent of your exhale, you'll release your arms. Begin to breathe in. Sweep your arms around it up. Just as though you're doing this movement to breathe, to honor the breath and then begin to exhale, release your arms by your sides. Again, like that. Begin to breathe in, sweep the arms up. Pause. Begin to exhale, release your arms. Again, like that.

Breathe in, sweep the arms up. Exhale, release. One more time. When your inhale arises, you'll raise the arms up with a full length of your breath in. But this time, as the exhale comes, you'll bring your palms together and you'll descend the hands with the full descent of the breath and you'll pause there in Anjali Mudra with a soft gaze or with the eyes closed. Great. And release your hands and you'll face the front of your mat. You'll grab your two blocks and place them on their lowest height, about shoulder width apart, maybe a little bit wider. And then please find a child's pose or extended child's pose really with big toes, touching knees wide apart. You may have to send your blocks a little bit forward, but adjust yourself so that there's tremendous length from your fingertips through your, all the way to your hips. Crawl your hands a little farther forward on the, on the blocks. Grab the knuckles of your fingers. Press the entire surfaces of your palms into the, the bricks as you roll your biceps up towards the ceiling and just breathe here. You can relax your head. Let the head be supported by, by the floor. Maintain, maintain the architecture of the extended child's pose, but soften your efforts a little bit. And how to do that? Well, it really depends. Is it, can you adjust something mechanically in your body? Can you receive a little bit more breath? Can you let the mind soften as it's surrounded by, by that breath? Breathe into your upper back and feel as that breath expands the upper back, but also the chest, even in this forward fold. And as you exhale, feel the hips get a little bit heavier. This time, as you inhale, you're going to drag yourself forward to a kind of long and wide cow pose, tuck the toes, and then exhale your way back to that child's pose. And we'll do that a few times. So breath is leading the way. And the real poetry that's occurring here is not in complexity of movement, because this is pretty simple, but it's in this beautiful intimacy between your body and your breath. And it's great and, and kind of elegant and profound to feel that intimacy in, in very simple movements and simple shapes. And can you allow yourself to kind of luxuriate in the spectrum of movement that exists between the two poses? So we're doing cow and child's pose, but there are so many moments that occur in between those two endpoints. So can you allow yourself to explore those moments?

On your next inhale, you'll pause there in that long and wide cow pose with the toes tucked under, walk your bricks a little bit back towards you. So hands are still a little forward of the shoulders. Great. Palms are spreading, press down, lift up out of the shoulders, press your index and thumb knuckles down as you roll your biceps forward and broaden your collar bones. Look forward, but let there be some length in your, the back of your neck. You'll be here for a few breaths and perhaps you're feeling already, there's, there's tremendous work in, in the upper back, along the whole spine, really that's required for us to even do just so to speak this cow pose. So breath is full. Let's return to that visualization of the figure eight breath. So as you're inhaling, imagine that breath traveling up the front of your body, up the chest, lifting the sternum up through the throat, up the back of the skull, which encourages us to lengthen the neck to the crown of the head. And then as we exhale, imagine that breath traveling down the face through the throat and down the back. Take one more breath in there. And as you exhale downward facing dog, lift your hips up and back with your palms on the bricks. You may have to walk the hands back. So the heels of the hands are pressing into the edges of the blocks there. And then here to roll those biceps towards the ceiling. Let there be some softness in your knees to start and draw your chest towards your thighs. And be here for a few breaths, just noticing whatever is there to notice. As you next begin to inhale, lower the knees to the floor nice and slowly hovering them for a moment. And then finishing that inhale as you open the chest, keep your neck along as you exhale child's pose. Inhale to cow again, the chest lifts the next days long and as you exhale down dog. Once more like that, inhaling, lowering and hovering the knees for a moment. In fact, keep hovering them as you lift the chest up. And we'll take a few breaths here. Press the hands down, lift the chest up, neck is long. Take a breath in and as you exhale, lower the knees, child's pose. Inhaling again, coming forward and let's hover again. Tuck the toes, hover the knees, spread the collarbones, lift the chest, exhale downward facing dog. And then please walk your feet up to your hands. You can raise those blocks up to their highest height. So maybe you're in a supported standing forward fold, the feet will separate so that their hips distance apart, soften the knees. Spill your pelvis forward, let the crown of the head release to the floor and you take a few breaths there. Maybe you find the little gentle sway that tends to be sort of the instinctive thing that we do, but then allow yourself to find stillness. And inside of the stillness feel, inhale, chest expands, ribs expand, belly expands. As you exhale, there seems to be a little deepening of the forward fold as things contract. As you next inhale, prepare poles with hands on your blocks. So press the hands down, roll your biceps forward, feel like you're sending your heart through your upper arms as that back of the neck lengthens. We'll pause here for a few breaths. So tailbones being sent back, lengthening it back, lengthening the crown of your head forward as you lift your chest. So it can maybe almost feel like opposing actions that lift of the chest with that lengthening of the back of the neck. So explore that for a few moments. You can play with actually looking forward and this slowly looking down towards the floor, lengthening the neck. Can you feel, you know, you look forward as you begin to look down, can you feel a little brightening of sensation in your upper back, the thoracic spine? Take a breath in there. As you exhale, release.

Then bring your hands to your hips, draw your elbows towards each other and with an extended spine. So I want you actually to pause halfway, but begin to breathe in, come up halfway. So we're in the same shape we were in moments ago. Our hands are just on the hips now. And can you find long neck, draw the elbows together, find a little baby cobra in this. When another inhale arises, come all the way up to standing, press into the heels, rise up, release your arms. Wow. And close your eyes or soften your gaze, turn your palms forward and just notice whatever you notice. Paying particular attention if it's not automatically or it's sort of physiologically drawn there to your shoulders, fronts of your shoulders. As you breathe in, sweep your arms around and up as though you're doing this movement to receive the breath and then begin to exhale and hinge forward with a long spine. It's a long spine. Inhale to prepare, pose, lift the chest, exhale, forward fold again, interlace your hands behind your back. So we did this while upright, heels of the hands together, elbows together. As you inhale, just bend your knees and lift your chest, keep your elbows bent and take a few breaths here. Find a slight tuck of your chin. On your next inhale, extend through your elbows any amount so nothing changes apart from the arms extending or elbows extending rather and you'll take a couple of breaths just like this. Perhaps that figure eight breath will illuminate something for you. If it doesn't seem helpful, you can let it go and just be inside the body with the breath without snapping your hands apart. Release your hands, extend your arms out to the sides, turn your palms forward. As you breathe in, sweep your arms up. As you breathe out, you'll hinge forward, forward fold, inhale to prepare, pose, great. Exhale, we're going to step the left foot back, lower the height of your block so you're in a lunge, peel your back, toes back, lift the center of your chest, press the hands down, send the heart through the upper arms. Find that rotation of your outer upper arms as though you're sending that heart through your upper arms. Look down, great. Take a couple of breaths there just like that. Peel those back toes all the way back so that leg is bright, palms pressing down, arms are like pillars. We'll take one more breath here and as you exhale, lower your back knee to the floor, untuck your back toes, press that back foot down into the floor as much as it was when you were seated in that supported Virasana on the block. Bring your hands to your front knee. We'll pause, soften the shoulders as you do that. Take a few breaths here, try to find that sweet spot where we're allowing that pelvis to be heavy. So you find a little release for the front of the left hip, but we don't just want to sink down into the hips. Press the front heel down, find a little bit of buoyancy so it's as though you're scissoring the legs together and that back foot should be incredibly active. Pressing it down, release your arms by your sides. Take a breath and feel your chest rise as you exhale. Imagine that breath traveling down the back of your body, I want you to scoop your tailbone forward. Inhale, release that, let the chest lift up. As you exhale, firm your low belly, scoop your tailbone forward. Inhale, release, sweep your arms up. Keep your arms extended and pause here and let that exhalation still firm your belly, but you keep your pelvis as it is. Take another couple of breaths here. Back foot incredibly active. Take one more breath in. As you exhale, bring your hands to your blocks. Maybe walk the blocks a little bit back so that they're nearer to being beneath your shoulders. And then that back foot, press the back foot into the floor so much that maybe you're able to lift your knee off of the floor. Pressing the foot down, leg is very active. Palms pressing into the blocks, biceps rolling forward, lift the chest, lengthen your neck, breathe in. And then slowly lower the knee if it's lifted. Lift your hips back, flex that front foot. Great. And then re-bend the knee, walk your blocks off to the side. Great. Hands to the floor and send your right knee back behind you there. Inhale to lift your chest and lengthen your spine. Find that same action of palms pressing down, biceps wrapping forward, heart being sent forward, but not your chin. Just heart, back of the neck long, breathe in. As you breathe out, lower yourself all the way down to the floor. And once you're there, you'll inhale to baby cobra. Lift the center of your chest. Exhale, lower yourself down. Inhale, lifting up again, the chest. And then exhale, lowering down. Great. Inhale, lifting up and pausing there. Hands next to your low ribs. Feet pressing down, tops of the feet pressing down so much that the knees lift, lengthen your tailbone. Find that figure eight breath again. So as you breathe in, feel the breath travel up the front of your body. So perhaps lift your chest more. And as you exhale, feel it quieting the back of the body. Take one more breath in there. Exhale, you'll release. You'll press up to tabletop position, lift your ribs and pelvis up at the same time. Tuck your toes under, lift your hips up and back to downward facing dog and pause there.

Knees are soft. I sometimes encourage people to find a really spacious down dog that can feel fantastic. In fact, go ahead and do that. Let's all do that. So separate your feet so that they're about mat width apart. And then feel, make sure those heels are being sent directly back behind you so you can't really see them. So inner thighs being sent back, tailbone being sent all the way back, lengthen, lengthen, lengthen. And then look up between your hands. You can hop, you can step, you can levitate forward. And once you're there, this time prepare pose just hands to your shins, lift the center of your chest wide across your collarbones. Exhale, you'll forward fold. Inhale, sweep your arms around and up with a long spine. This time a little bit of a back bend at the top palms pressed together and exhale, neutralizing the spine and the pelvis, drawing the hands down the center line of your body, pausing for a moment. Hands can rest on the body as you just register your experience. Great. Release your arms by your sides. Inhale, sweep the arms up. Now you'll hinge forward. The inhale will come, you'll answer the call by finding prepare pose. The exhale will come and you'll step your right foot back, making sure that the feet are hips width apart or slightly wider if you need. And then go ahead and lower your back knee to the floor, untuck your back toes, press the top of that back foot into the floor and you pause there for a moment. Palms pressing into the blocks, chest lifting and then lift your torso up. Hands can come to your front knee, soften your shoulders, soften your arms, back foot pressing down into the floor. Release your arms as you breathe in, lift the center of your chest as you breathe out a little scooping forward of your tailbone. Perhaps you notice some difference between this side and the other. I love yoga teachers, you know, we're all, we're always doing that. We make the instruction sound like, you know, it's a general invitation, but in fact, we're just speaking to our own experience. So I'm feeling quite a difference on this side. But as you breathe in, chest lifts, as you breathe out that abdomen firms and I just want you to exaggerate it a little bit and let that firming of the abdomen help you find a lengthening, a scooping forward of your tailbone. And notice you can pause there and notice how that helps you release the front of the body. So we're just exploring that for a little while. Not a tremendous amount of movement, but incredibly powerful and even poetic if you let it. So breathing in, chest lifts, breath traveling up the front of the body, up the back of the skull as you exhale a little scooping forward of the tailbone, imagining that breath traveling down the back of the body to repeat that cycle again. Breathe in and then breathe out. Great. Sweep the arms up as you next breathe in and pause. Press the back foot down. Soften the shoulders. Chest is lifting up as you breathe in and as you breathe out, hand to your blocks, you can walk them back slightly and you'll pause for a moment. You will make sort of telepathic contact with your back foot, spread the toes, press all 10 toenails down into the floor. And then perhaps you press the foot down into the floor so much that you're able to lift your knee off of the floor. Palms press down, chest lifts up. You take a few breaths there just like that. And perhaps knee is not lifting. That's also fine. Just doing this action of pressing the foot down into the floor. So take one more breath in and as you exhale, you'll release whatever you're doing there and then shift your hips back as you flex your front foot. So it's a little counter pose for that work and stretch of the hip flexor. Great. Rebend the knee and then step your left knee back to meet the right. And then my friends, I would like you to place a block between your thighs on its long setting so that front of the block is flush with the fronts of your thighs. You want to get it as high up as you can. And then pause while you're on the knees, hug your outer ankles in, press all 10 toenails down into the floor and just feel, feel as though you're going to send the block back behind you, but at the same time lengthen that tailbone. Bring your hands to the floor so you walk them forward. So you're in like a modified plank position and feel that. So interesting. Feel here as though you were going to, I'm going to move myself up a little bit. Feel here as though you're going to send the block back behind you. Breathe and receive your next breath in. Feel it travel up the front of your body. As you exhale, feel the breath descend down the back of your body and lower yourself down to the floor. Keep squeezing that block. Hands next to your low ribs, press all 10 toenails down, lift your knees, squeeze the block as you breathe in, lift your chest up and pause here. We'll take a few breaths here. So in a little modified baby cobra. So squeezing the block, sending the block up towards the ceiling, lengthening your tailbone, perhaps using that figure eight breath to visualize the breath moving through the body so that the shape is kind of aligned from the inside out. We take one more breath in here and as you exhale, lower down, press up to tabletop position. Keep squeezing the block. Walk your hands forward about a handprint. I have to readjust my block. Perhaps you do too. So you want to make sure that it's pretty secure in there. Palms press into the floor, tuck your toes under downward facing dog as you squeeze this block, feel like you're going to send the block, eject it out behind you, press the hands down, biceps rolling up towards the ceiling. As you squeeze this block, reach your tailbone up and back. As you inhale, come forward to plank pose or modified plank so the knees can be on the floor or you can have the knees lifted, but feet articulated toes are spread. You're on the balls of the feet, whether knees are lifted or not, and you are squeezing this block. You'll breathe in. As you breathe out, lift your hips up and back again. Keep squeezing the block. Inhale again to plank pose and pause in the plank pose. Please lower your knees to the floor if they're not already. As you breathe in, lift your chest up. As you breathe out, my friends, just lower yourself down any amount, in a nanometer. And as you breathe in, let that inhale lift you back up and you'll pause.

And then as you exhale, you'll lower yourself down any amount, halfway or less, but not more. Inhale, pressing yourself back up and then exhaling, lowering yourself all the way down to the floor, ideally with a full length of your exhale, still squeezing that block. Great. Baby cobra. Palms pressed down, tops of the feet pressed down. Lengthen your tailbone more. As you inhale, lift the chest more. Long neck. Breathe. Take one more breath in. Exhale, release that. Press yourself up to tabletop. Remove the block. Child's pose. Big toes touching knees wide apart. Place the head so that neck is relaxed. Eyes can relax fully. And let go of all efforts in creating space for just integration of this work that we've just done. Crawl your hands forward. Drag yourself forward. Cow pose. Maybe walk your knees forward. Breathe in. Open the chest. So no props. Now exhale to cat. Untuck the toes. Press the toes down so much. Curve the spine. Tuck the chin. Begin to breathe in and reverse it. Tuck the toes. Release the belly. Open the chest. Send the heart through the upper arms with a long neck. Reverse as you breathe out. A few more passes just like that. And remember, there's point A and point B. There's cat and there's cow.

And then there are all the creatures that exist between the cat and the cow. And you embodying as many of those creatures as possible as you pass from one end to the other. So really riding the waves of breath, which sounds so poetic and cute. But actually, can you feel that breath rising in your body? And can the body movement really be this total response to breath? As you next exhale and ride that wave of the exhale, stay in the cat shape. Press the hands down into the floor. Press the toes and the tops of the feet down into the floor. Tuck your chin, curve your spine. Can you press the tops of the feet down so much that you're able to hover your knees off of the floor or not? So maybe the knees are hovered or maybe just feel that action of pressing the feet down. Whatever you're doing, clarity and intention and of course breath. So breathing into your upper back and then exhaling. Lowering the knees or just releasing that effort of trying to hover the knees. Walk the hands forward, downward facing dog. Walk your hands and your feet towards each other so you're somewhere near the center of your mat. Soften and find a forward fold. Crown of the head releasing to the floor. Breath full, full, full, as it's ever been. Hands to your hips, elbows together, slowly in an inquisitive way come up to stand with an extended spine. Wow, interesting. So much happening for us to do these movements that we kind of take for granted. And they are simple, but there is a mechanical, such intelligence and poetry happening just for us to stand. Pause for a moment. I'm going to face you. We'll do our little human movement break, whatever that looks like for you. People really enjoy the knowing child's meme that I refer to. If you've ever seen that, it's glorious. If you haven't, please Google it. I think it's, what is it? The keywords are like child dancing mindfully or something, but just find fluidity and lightness in your body, something we don't do very often. And it's so powerful and it requires nothing. You can't do it wrong. What it requires actually is just curiosity and openness. So once you found that, you'll just pause for a moment. You can soften the knees, soften the gaze, or close the eyes and just pause. Relax the jaw. Great. And then open your eyes, grab your strap with the loop in it, unfurl it, your sentient strap, treating it, you know, so kindly. And as you've unrolled it, after you have unrolled it, you'll find your loop there. And once more above the elbows, arms are on either side of the body. Please loop your wrists behind you. So you don't want the, I've got a metal D-ring. You probably maybe have metal or plastic, but don't allow that to touch your skin. You just want the fabric of the belt or whatever you're using to be looped around your wrists behind your body. And then just pause here for a moment. Let's find Tadasana. So feet rooting into the floor and resting into the floor. A little rebound action up through the heels, through the bones of the legs and the pelvis. The spine lifts the crown of your head up. Get incredibly curious about what your pelvis is doing. You know, we've got tendencies. Neutral is typically not, you know, a common, it's not a tendency. We're either tilting forwards or backwards. So in fact, do that a few times for yourself. Wrists are gently pressing into the strap and then find what you believe to be neutral. And what is neutral? It's doing the forward tilt and the backward tilt at the same time. So you find that space in the lumbar spine. Press wrists into the strap, wide and across your shoulder heads. Draw your arms back, reach down through your fingertips, draw your hands back and now actively press your arms into the strap. Lengthen your tailbone. As you breathe in, please lift your chest up, draw the strap back more. As you breathe out, stay there, but lengthen your tailbone more, reach your fingertips towards the floor. So it's an interesting thing. We're sort of doing a version of Shalabhasana while standing. So you take a few breaths there.

Every breath in, lift of the chest. Keep pressing actively your wrists into the strap. Every breath out, lengthening of the tailbone. So we're not tilting the pelvis forward. We're finding extension of the spine in the thoracic spine. So lift the chest, but not the chin. So little tuck of the chin, long neck. Reach your fingertips back and down. Lengthen the tailbone with every breath out. Breathe in. And as you breathe out, you'll release that. That's quite a bit of work. Simple, but powerful. You'll pause. You can set your strap to the side and arms can either be by your sides or resting on your body. You'll slowly walk to the top of your mat. And as you breathe in, you'll reach your arms around and up. You breathe out to hinge yourself forward in a human natural way. And then you'll breathe in to lift your chest and then breathe out to step yourself back to a plank pose. Peel your toes back. Peel them all the way back. Reach the crown of your head forward. Lengthen, lengthen. Press your arms down. Send your heart through your upper arms with a long neck. Take a breath in. Use your exhale to lower yourself all the way down to the floor. Great. Once you're there, you'll find your strap again. Loop it around your wrists again.

Press your forehead on the floor. Great. Press all 10 toenails down into the floor. Lift your knees up. Imagine that that block is between the thighs. Lift your inner thighs up. Lift your hands. Lift that strap off of your body. Press your wrists into it. Reach the crown of your head forward. You could say here actually is quite, from my perspective, it's pretty interesting, but you see what you think and what you feel. Next option is to inhale and lift the chest up as you press the wrists into the strap. So chin tucked, neck long. Inhale, traveling up the front of the body. Exhale, quieting the back of the body. So take one more breath in and then exhale to release it. Release your arms. Send your strap off to the side. Turn your face to one side and pause. Let the shoulders round forward. Great. Hands next to your low ribs. Press back to a child's pose. Rest your head on the floor. Come upright and then roll yourself over so that you're in a seated position. Step your feet to the floor. Reach your arms forward as we do and mindfully lower yourself down onto the floor. Once you're there, draw the knees towards your chest. Step your feet onto the floor. Hold the outer edges of your mat. Pull. Feel as though you're going to pull the mat apart. Press into your head to lift your chest up and roll your shoulders underneath your body. And pause here for a few breaths. You can release your mat. Let the sacrum release towards the floor. Trying to lengthen that lumbar spine a little bit even as the chest is lifted. You can stay here on your next inhale. Go ahead and press into your heels to lift your hips up, perhaps rolling the shoulders underneath the body more and interlacing your hands underneath your body. Feel as though there is a block between your thighs. Spin the inner thighs down towards the floor. As you breathe in, feel the breath traveling up the front of your body, through your throat, up the back of your skull to the crown of your head. And as you breathe out, lengthening the back of your body, lengthening your tailbone forward. So a couple more breaths there just like that. Take one more breath in. And as you exhale, release your hands, release your body onto the floor, knees into your chest. Arms can extend into a cactus shape, so you'll bend your elbows. Bend your elbows to making goal posts with your arms and draw your knees into your chest. And then shift your hips a little bit over to the left and let your knees fall to the right. Take a few breaths there. And just softening into the shape, worrying not so much about what it looks like, but just trying to find, you know, a softness of approach and just total receptivity to your breath. When your next inhale arises, you can come to center. And then as you exhale, let the knees fall over to the opposite side. Good. As you next inhale, knees to center, re-center your hips, hug your knees into your chest, lift your upper back and head up, breathe in, breathe out, release yourself down onto the floor for shavasana, final resting pose, preparing yourself in any way you need. And then once you're prepared, they're just allowing yourself to let go of all efforts, receive the weight of your front body with your back body, give the weight of your back body to the floor, breathe. Just resting in the echo of your practice, the residue of your practice. Simple but deep work. You can continue resting for as long as you like. If you'd like to have a sit together, you can begin to deepen your breath and wiggle your fingers and toes, and your arms in any direction. Maybe you get long, arms long along the sides of your head there, near your ears, stretch long through one side and then the other, draw your knees into your chest and roll onto your right side and pause there, rest your head on your arm.

Then slowly making your way up to a comfortable seat, whatever seat you like. Rest your hands on your knees or your thighs, sit well with the eyes closed. Soften the face, relax your jaw. Then bring your palms together at the center of your chest, bowing your head to your hands, thanking yourself for practicing and honoring your body, your breath, the connection between them. May you bring the sense of just like a quiet strength with you for the rest of the day and always the light in me season honors, the light that's also in you. Namaste.