Breathing into the Shoulders

Hi, thanks for joining practice today. This is Guided by Breath. I am Sadia. I'm so glad you're here. Today's practice will be a return to the basics, to like radical yoga, the most fundamental stuff. The show is called Guided by Breath. On occasion, we sort of take, you know, kind of meandering roads that are always the thread is breath. But today, I think we're going to dial it back and find some simplicity. We're going to also open the shoulders, find some stability there. We've all been spending a lot of time at, at desks these days. And by these days, I mean, sort of at the micro level, but also just modern times, right? The phone, the screen, the computer. We want to do this, we can never do too much of this. So that's what we're going to do. Two blocks will be your friends for today's practice. Anything you like for Shavasana, of course, you should have at the ready. And let's actually begin in a child's pose. So you'll come to child's pose facing the front of your mat, big toes touching knees wide apart, give yourself the gift of arriving in the shape. So not just assuming the position right, but making your way there, even though it's a pose that maybe you've done thousands of times before. Let this one be as new as the first you've ever done. Rest your head on the floor. Take a few moments to really deliberately and consciously place the head so that the back of the neck is long. Place the head so that the eyes can relax completely. And it maybe feels as though they are receding into the sockets. Maybe move your hips a little bit from left to right, find some little more space there if you can. Reach long through the arms and the fingertips. Take a breath there and perhaps as you exhale, you press into the pads of your fingertips to reach your hips a little more towards your heels. And let's actually take a few breaths just like that in an extended child's pose that I sort of snuck you into there. Crawl your hands a little farther forward. Feel your triceps firm as your elbows extend. And as you breathe in, receive that breath into your upper back. And as you exhale, you feel the belly contract. Feel the ribs contract. Feel that descending quality of breath. Take a few more breaths just like that. Into the upper back, into the shoulders. Take another full breath in and breathing at your own pace. But on your next exhale, I'd like you to flatten your palms and then soften the elbows down. So returning just to child's pose. Bring your palms to prayer behind your head. Walk your elbows towards each other and a little farther forward. You feel the skin of your upper arms, your elbows tractioning on the rubber mat if you're not wearing sleeves. And allow the body to arrive in this shape. Maybe you feel releasing of the backs of the upper arms. And same thing, we're in a forward fold. So breath is being naturally moved to the back of the body. Extend through your arms, flatten your palms, look up, see that the hands are shoulder width apart. And as you inhale, come forward to cow pose, tuck the toes, release your belly as you exhale. Downward facing dog, lift your hips up and back. And once you arrive there, pedaling through your feet, pressing down one heel and then the other. Allowing for that release, the calves, the hamstrings to occur and whatever other mechanical things are happening in your body at this moment in time. Spread the knuckles of your fingers, press your index and thumb knuckles down into the floor and then really wrap the outer upper arms towards your face. As you inhale, come forward to plank pose. You can modify if you like. So knees can rest on the floor. Otherwise, knees are lifted. See that the wrists are underneath the shoulders, press the hands down, press the floor away from you. Roll your biceps now forward. So it's the same action that you do in downward facing dog, but I'm speaking to a different part of the body. See how that registers in your body. You take a breath in there, keep the biceps rolling forward, feel as though you're, you're pulling the mat apart with your hands and feel how that isometric action travels up your arms to the shoulders and keep it going as you slowly lift your hips up and back to down dog. Inhale, come forward to plank pose again. Exhale downward facing dog. This time inhale to cow pose, lower the knees to the floor, release the belly, spread the collar bones. Exhale to child's pose. Inhale to cow pose again. And as you exhale downward facing dog, lift your hips up and back. Inhale to cow pose. This time as you exhale, find a neutral tabletop position. So you have to walk your hands a little back towards you, knees under your hips, wrists underneath your shoulders. Inhale to cow, tuck the toes, release the belly. As you send the heart through the upper arms, send the biceps forward. Feel your collar bones broaden as you do that. Try not to leave with the chin, lead more with your hairline so your neck stays long. And as you next exhale, whenever that comes, you respond with a cat shape. Untuck your toes, curve your spine, tuck your chin, press the floor away from you. Inhale, reverse to cow pose. Tuck the toes, release your belly, spread the collar bones. And then exhale, reverse. Inhale, tuck the toes, release the belly, spread the collar bones. Exhale. Cat, tuck the chin, curve the spine. Stay in the cat shape as you breathe. Press the floor away from you. Draw your navel up towards your spine and breathe into your upper back. Release that neutral tabletop position. Puppy dog pose. You'll walk your hands forward. Release your head to the floor. Palms are spreading. So same actions as in downward facing dog. Index and thumb knuckles press into the floor, but then at the same time, biceps roll up to the ceiling this time. Breathe into the sides of your body. Send your tailbone back. And as you breathe out, feel your low belly firm. Take a few breaths just like that. Trying to see if you can find, you know, that intersection of putting effort into the shape, but also kind of surrendering that effort to the breath and letting the breath just move through the body and kind of align the body from the inside out in a way. See if you can wrap the bottom tips of your shoulder blades forward. And if that cue sounds strange, it's because it is. But see if you can, can you get so granular, you know, in your sense of your body that you're able to do that to hollow out your armpits. What? Hmm. It becomes fun, actually, to try to locate that sensation to experience it. And then start to walk your hands back towards you. Let them be a little forward of your shoulders. Tuck your toes under. Lift your hips up and back to downward facing dog. And then walk your hands back towards your feet. Once you're there, soften your knees. Interlace your hands behind your head. Let your hands, arms be heavy. Let the hands and the arms act as a weight to traction the neck. Breathe into your upper back. Feel as the ribs expand and as you exhale, feel that heaviness of the upper body. And of course, that repeats itself as long as you're alive, as long as you're breathing. So feel, you know, even as you're in this kind of illusory stillness while you're in the standing forward fold, there's tremendous movement of breath inside of your body. And other processes right at work as you're in stillness. So stillness is really more like the allowing of what is natural to occur. And then slowly walk your hands up your legs. Keep your knees incredibly soft as you do that. Great. And once you're upright, roll your shoulders back and down a few times. Letting your whole body participate in this, but letting there be a quality of softness as you walk yourself to the top of your mat with your limbs nice and soft. So trying to break a little bit out of that rigidity that we sometimes have when we're doing Asana or when we're living, actually. And as you inhale, lift your arms up, receive the breath in, feel your chest expand, lift up, and then exhale, soften your knees, hinge yourself forward with a long spine. And once you're down there, release the head. Inhale to prepare your elbows, lift the center of the chest, lift the back of the skull, and then exhale forward fold. Inhale, sweep your arms around and up. Look up, touch your palms, and then exhale, draw your hands down the center line of your body. And then pause here, soften the gaze or close the eyes, soften the shoulders, heavy the upper arms. And we'll take a few breaths here just like this in Anjali Mudra. Release your arms. This time as you inhale, chair pose sitting low into chair, extending your arms and as you exhale, you'll come to stand again, tadasana. Inhale to utrkatasana. Exhale, tadasana. And experiment with different ways of raising the arms. You're going to keep going. Inhale to sit and exhale to stand. Maybe sweeping the arms forward with the palms up. Interesting. Exhale, sweep the palms out to the sides. Maybe inhale, sweep the palms forward as they face each other. Exhale, sweep them forward again as they face each other. So be a little fluid in your exploration of this. But of course, you know, breath guided. So breath arises. The movement is an expression of the breath. A couple more rounds, just like that. Great. Once you next are standing, you'll pause, rest your hands on your body. Great. And then friends, your two blocks.

You'll have your blocks. You'll need both. I'll face you for this for now. You'll place one block in between your thighs and then the other block you'll palm. So it's on its widest setting is parallel with your collar bones. And then you'll find a tadasana somewhere on your mat, anywhere on your mat. I'll find a profile, give you a little profile view. Root your heels down into the floor. Feel like you're going to send the block back behind you, but then also lengthen your tailbone. Keep palming the block in front of you as you inhale, reach the block forward and pause. Plug the upper arm bones into the shoulder sockets. And then as another inhale arises, you begin to raise the block up to whatever degree you can. It may feel best here. It may feel best here, but you experiment. Keep pressing hands into block. Inhaling to lift the block up to the ceiling. And once the block is lifted, draw your front ribs in, press your palms into the block. Be astounded at how much work is required to do this thing that appears to be very simple. Take a breath in, reach the block up to the ceiling. And then as you exhale, release the block forward, pause halfway. Plug the upper arm bones into the shoulder sockets, and then descend the block. We're actually going to do that. I'm just going to say once more, but a couple more times. Start to inhale, reach the block forward, this time continuing. Pressing the palms into the block, reaching the block up as you attempt to knit the front ribs together and broaden your back body. You take one more breath in. This time, as you exhale, bend your knees, keep reaching the block up towards the ceiling. Press the palms into the block firm, your triceps breathe in. And as you breathe out, release the block, come up to stand, straighten the legs. That's enough of that. Blocks can come towards the front of your mat. You can come towards the front of your mat. You can soften your knees, bounce to your knees, and just give yourself a little, little twist from left to right. Some folks call this empty coat sleeves, which I like. I think that's adorable and accurate. Find the empty coat sleeves. Notice too, is there any very subtle bracing in the body, or can you find a total looseness in the arms? It's interesting what we discover when we get quiet enough to do that, just in the body. Then come back to the top of your mat. As you breathe in, sweep your arms around and up. Turn your palms to face each other. Imagine that that block is still there. Wrap your triceps forward and feel what that does to the shoulders. And in fact, experiment with that a little bit. Let the elbows bow out to the sides, and then wrap the triceps forward. Reach the fingertips up to the ceiling. Good. Let the elbows bow out to the sides, and then wrap the triceps forward. Extend the elbows. Inhale. As you exhale, hinge forward with a long spine. Inhale to prepare pose. Lift the center of your chest. And then exhale, plant your palms, bend your knees, step back to downward facing dog. Lift your hips up and back. And that same action, outer upper arms towards the floor, towards your face. Inhale to plank pose. Come forward. And then exhale, lower yourself all the way down to the floor, lowering your knees if you need to. And then inhaling to baby cobra. Lift the center of your chest. Exhale to lower yourself down. Inhale, ride the wave of that. Inhale, up to bhudrangasana. And then exhale, lower down. Inhale, lift up. And then pause there. Slight tuck of the chin so the neck is long. Broaden the collarbones, but then slide those shoulder blades down the back. Take a few breaths here. And how much are you pressing into your hands? Can you lessen a little bit of that effort without actually floating the hands? So I want you to find that kind of sweet spot where the hands are there, but they're providing the lightest suggestion of support. So take one more breath in there. Lift the chest with a breath, rather than pressing with the hands. And as you exhale, you lower down. Press up to tabletop. Lift your pelvis and your ribs up at the same time. And in fact, do that again. Lean forward. Lower yourself down.

Hands next to your lower ribs. And I want you to press up to tabletop. Lift pelvis and ribs up at the same time. And guess what? An exhale is quite helpful with something like this. So take a breath in. The exhale comes. Use the power of that exhale to lift your ribs and pelvis up at the same time. Once more, inhale. Lengthen the spine. Shift forward. Exhale. Lower all the way down. Inhale. Pause. Exhale. Press into the hands. Lift pelvis and ribs up at the same time. Again like that. Inhale. Shift forward. Exhale. Lower yourself down. Inhale. Pause. Exhale. Tabletop. Pelvis and ribs lift at the same time. And class is done. No, please come to tabletop position. Great. And pause for a moment. Let's see our little organic movement. And what is that? I noticed that when, you know, when I'm doing my organic movements like this in my personal practice, there is actually a, there's like a prescribed quality about it. So it's actually not entirely organic. So see if you can tap into that part of you. Closing the eyes may help. That, you know, is just purely curious. And you know, in what ways can you move that might illuminate what's happening, particularly in your shoulders, but in the entirety of your body. And then make those movements smaller and smaller until you are in stillness. And then from tabletop position, inhale. Lift your right arm up and open twist to the right. And as you exhale, you thread the arm underneath. Place more. Inhale. Unthread and open with a full breath. Exhale. Thread the arm underneath. Right. Inhale. Open. Exhale. Twist. Rest your head on the floor. Crawl the left hand forward. Use your power of proprioception to sense whether or not the hips are stacked above the knees. And then you soften the gaze or close the eyes and you allow the breath to do its work from the inside out. So just receiving the breath in in its entirety and then feeling what happens as you release that breath. So a little lessening of the twist as you breathe in and perhaps a little deepening of the twist as you breathe out. But I don't want that to color your experience. I want you to really become attuned to what's actually happening in your body and to become able to give your own label to your experience. Press into your left hand to unthread yourself and you'll pause and you'll come back to tabletop. Recalibrate in a natural way. And then an inhale will come and with that inhale you'll lift your left arm up and then you'll exhale and thread the arm underneath and you do that twice more.

Breathe the breath in, respond with the movement. Exhale, respond with the movement. And the next time you twist, rest the head on the floor, extend the right arm, hips stacked above the knees. That right arm is straight to give some space to your neck and shoulders. And we'll take a few breaths here, really observing what happens to the body as the breath does its thing. Great. Place your right hand next to the face, press into the palm to unthread your arm and you pause there. Walk your hands forward, one hand print, tuck your toes under, downward facing dog, pedal through the feet. Great. And then as weirdly as possible, please walk your feet up to your hands and let that be an exploration too, and breath there all the while, maybe informing the movements that you do. But, you know, of course the condition that your body is in, not the greatest phrase, but the condition that your body is in will also inform the movements you do. And then once you're there at the top, just standing forward fold. Great. Interlace your hands behind your lower back to the webbing. As you inhale, extend through the elbows, let the head continue to release towards the floor. And as you extend through the elbows, pull the fist away from your heart and maybe drawing it forward and towards the floor, if that works for your body, but certainly no, you know, no force effort, but no force. And then take an inhale here. Feel your chest lift. As you exhale, bend your left knee and open your chest to the right. Any amount at all can be the smallest amount. Take a few breaths there. Maybe the breath sort of guides you to right expression of whatever the shape is. Take one more breath in and then exhale. And come back to center. Inhale, reverse, twisting in the opposite direction, opening the chest. Effort, but no force. Steadiness and clarity, but no bracing. Take one more breath in. And then as you exhale, you come to center, release your hands to the floor. Hands to your hips now. Elbows together. Feel the collarbones broaden already. Slide the shoulder blades down your back. Elbows together more. Reach your heart forward as you come all the way up to standing. Great. And you pause there. And then please cross your left arm in front of your body. Use your right arm to draw the left arm a little bit closer towards you. And what is this doing? I don't know. You tell me, but better yet, you tell you. Maybe you adjust the height of the arm, but we want space in the shoulders. Great. Want to release a little bit. What's releasing? Where do you feel the sensation? Take a breath in. And then exhale, release it. And then other side, cross your right arm in front of your body. Use your left arm to hook. And then pause. And then soften the left shoulder.

Soften the jaw. Relax your jaw. Soften the knees. The body is like, you know, it's in ecology unto itself. So it's pretty, uh, tension anywhere is a threat to ease everywhere in the body. That's a paraphrase of a Martin Luther King quote that I'm sure you've heard before. And it was completely unplanned. Take a breath in. And then as you exhale, release that. Great. Again, shoulder rolls, but like full body shoulder roll. So I'm saying shoulder, but I just mean originate the movement from the shoulders. Not that only the shoulders should move. Great. Awesome. And then please come back to the top of your mat. Breathe in. Sweep your arms up. Receive the breath in. Exhale. Hinge forward with soft knees. Breathe in to lift your chest up. Lengthen your spine. Exhale, hands to the floor. Plank pull. Step it back. Lift your thigh bones up. Even if your knees are lowered to the floor, spin your inner thighs up. Lengthen your tailbone. Breathe in to lift your chest up. Feel your collarbones spreading. Shift your weight from your left hand to your right hand. Great. Come to center. Feel like you're pulling the mat apart. Take a breath in. And as you lower down, I want you to feel like you are dragging the mat back. Great. And then inhale to baby cobra. Lift the center of the chest. Exhale, lower down. Press back to downward facing dog. Lift the hips up and back. And then please step your right foot forward. That may mean several steps or it may mean just one or two steps. All are equally as valid. And then you'll pause in a lunge. Grab your two blocks. Blocks under the hands. Medium height tends to work for most, but you go ahead and adjust as you need. The purpose is to bring space to the upper body so that we're not, you know, sort of compressed there. So you press the hands down, lift the chest, and same action with the arms will create this broadness and the space in the shoulders. Lower your back knee to the floor. Great. And as you inhale, you'll lift your torso up, lift your arms up, and you'll pause here.

Roll your palms to face each other. And maybe can you sense a little more space in the shoulders? In fact, let's, let's play a little bit. Turn your palms to face forward. Turn your palms to face out. And then slowly turn the palms to face each other. Feel as you're able to soften the shoulders down the back a little bit more. And then please bend your right elbow and draw that elbow towards the midline of your body. And we'll pause here for a few breaths. So back toes are tucked under, press into the ball of that back foot to draw that hip forward. And then you can stay here or option to reach your left arm out to the side. And maybe clasp fingers or maybe the hands just reach towards each other. Fingertips rather reach towards each other for that space between the shoulder blades. Lean your head up or back into your arm and then lift the crown of the head up. I'm going to take a few breaths here just like this. Trying to find, you know, that sweet spot between effort and surrender. Now take a breath in there. And as you exhale, release your hands. Be kind to your shoulders. Roll them around a little bit. Roll the arm bones around in the sockets. And as you breathe in, you'll lift up here. As you breathe out, hands to the blocks. Lift your back knee up. Pause. Get long in your spine already. Peel the back toes all the way back. Crown of the head reaches forward. And as you exhale, nice, slow twist to the right. Maybe extending your arm, turning the palm to face that same direction. Take a couple of breaths there just like that. Making sure that the shoulder is not hiking up space between the shoulder and ear. You may soften the elbow to find a little bit of that space. Take one more breath in. And then exhale. Your hand to the block. Blocks can come off to the sides. Downward facing dog. Pedal through the feet. Soft elbows. Little loose, loose dog. Loosey goosey dog. Elbows soft. Knee soft. Play. Play. And then come to center. You pause. You step your left foot forward. Step, step, step. Step, step. However many you need. Lower your back knee to the floor. Don't lower it. Pick it back up. Blocks underneath the hands. And pause space. Explore that sensation. And in fact, you know, if you just want immediate comparison, it's a very useful tool. So you can set the blocks aside. Place your hands on the floor. Even comes with fingertips. And feel. And for many bodies, this will feel fine. But why not? Bring the floor up to you and find a little bit more space. Props. Severely underrated. Press the hands down and enjoy the space that you have here. You play with shifting the back heel forwards and backwards and feel as that brightens the back leg. Breath is lengthening the spine. Then lower your back knee to the floor. You can pad the knee if you need. And as you inhale, you'll lift your arms up. We'll play this game of turning the palms out. And then turning the palms towards each other. And it's a very subtle revelation. The best revelations are subtle. And keep playing like that. Notice how that turning, wrapping of the palms towards each other.

That you know, it's a little kinetic chain that happens. When we turn the palm in this direction, the rest of the arm follows because the body is an ecology. Palms face each other. And when that action happens, we can soften the shoulders. We take a breath in there. And then exhale. And then bend your left elbow. Draw that elbow towards the midline of your body. And you pause. You can stay like that. You might like to reach that right arm out to the side. And then turn the palms so that it faces back behind you. And fingertips can clasp or reach for that space between the shoulder blades. Lengthen the neck. Lift the crown of the head up, up, up. And inside of this moment of sustain, right? Just constantly recalibrating and trying to hit, you know, that not hit land. Land in that sweet spot where effort and surrender meet. It's pretty poetic when you can find it. It's poetic when you can't do. And release your arms. Roll the arm bones around in the shoulder sockets. Breathe in. Sweep your arms up. Maybe the chest lifts. And then you'll exhale your hands to the block. You'll lift your back knee up. And you'll pause in the lunge. Press the front thigh down. And then with an inhale, with slowness or maybe with speed, you find a low lunge twist. You can soften your elbow if you like, or if it feels good to reach to the fingertips, try that. Soften the shoulder. Make sure there's space between the ear and the shoulder on both sides, actually. So really release. You take one breath in and then exhale your hand to the block. Pause. Blocks off to the sides. Great. Downward facing dog. Pedal through the feet. Press hands down and forward. Inhale to plank pose. Lower your knees down to the floor. Roll the biceps forward. Lift up out of the shoulders. Lengthen the spine. Lengthen. As you exhale, just hinge at your elbows like an inch or more if you like. And then inhale to press. Slowly back up. Draw your navel back towards your spine a little bit more. Inhale to lengthen through the spine. And then exhale, little micro bend of your elbow. And then inhale, lifting up again. Whoa. Inhale. And then exhale, hinging at the elbows any amount. Stay with a bent elbow. With two bent elbows. Pull your hands apart.

Pull the heads of your shoulders apart. Slide your shoulder blades down your back. Breathe in. And as you exhale, child's pose. Big toes touching, knees wide apart. Relax your elbows on the floor. Relax your head. And then just sort of, you know, be in the echo there of the work that you just did. Quiet but potent. And then, friend, come forward. Tuck your toes under. Walk your hands back towards you so you're on the soles of your feet. And then press into your heels to stand up. Stand at the center of your mat. Separate your feet wide apart. Great. Separate the feet wide apart. See that they're parallel. And then bring your palms to reverse prayer behind your back. So palms come to prayer behind the back. If that's not accessible for your body, you'll hold opposite elbows. Both valid choices and good choices. If you've never tried one or the other, maybe give a shot to the one you haven't done. Broaden across your collarbones. And just observe what that does to the rest of the shape. Broaden across the collarbones more. Breathe in. And as you exhale, hinge forward with a long spine. Those hands, edges of the hands, if you're in reverse prayer, are giving the secrets of your spine away. So keep the spine extended as you hinge forward halfway and you pause. Let there be a softness in your knees so you're not locking out the knee joints. Can you broaden across the collarbones more and lift the heads of your shoulders up? You take a breath in there and also a breath out. You take one more breath in and as you exhale, firm your belly. Come all the way up to stand. Release your hands. Shake them out. Hold one forearm. Let the hand flop. Hard to really free it. And then same on the opposite side. Great. Pause for a moment. Hands to your hips. Elbows together. Collarbones broad. Upper spine coiling into the chest. Inhale to lift the chest. Or maybe I should say inhale to allow the chest to be lifted. And exhale to hinge forward, right, as you keep the upper spine nice and long. And once you're about halfway, you'll float your hands to the floor. You press into the hands. Roll those biceps forward. Get broad across your upper back here. And stay broad as you walk your hands forward, forward. And lower your torso towards the floor. Hands are shoulder width apart. You can be on the pads of your fingers. If you like to use the help of your blocks, you can. Take a couple of breaths here. And how about how's that project of hollowing your armpits going? How's the project of wrapping the bottom tips of your shoulder blades forward going? Play with that here. Breathe into the upper back. Lengthen the tailbone back. Great. Couple more breaths into the sides of the body. Great. Walk the hands back towards you so you're lifted about halfway. Lift the chest. The spine is long. Hands to your hips. Soften the knees. Elbows together. Long spine. Reach the heart forward. Come all the way up to standing. Excellent. Heel toe your feet a little closer together. Turn your toes out. Lower your seat. Extend your arms. Maybe I should face the opposite direction, but I want you in that horse stance to let's see. Hard to yeah, I think I think I'll give you the reverse view. So you'll be in the horse stance. You'll interlace your hands behind your back. Use your knuckles to encourage your tailbone to lengthen and then bring your fists over to the left side and then draw that left elbow towards the center of your body. All right, I'll face you as you do that. You take a few breaths there, just like that. Drawing that elbow towards the center, broad across the collarbones. Sit even lower. Lengthen the tailbone more and then switch sides. Fists to the opposite side. Draw the outside elbow towards the midline of your body. Draw your, knit your front ribs together. Broaden across the back body. Great. Release. Straighten the legs. Release the arms. Move the arms around. Heel toe your feet together. Soften through your knees. Maybe little hip circles, arm movements and all the while breathing nice and freely. Hands on your body and let's just pause for a moment just to register whatever is there. You can soften your gaze or close your eyes. Great.

Float your eyes open to the top of the mat again. Inhale, reach your arms forward as you breathe in. Nice, full breath in. Long lift of the arms. Exhale, release your arms by your sides. Inhale, sweep the arms up in any way you like, receiving the breath in. Exhale, receive. Exhale, release the arms. Inhale, sweep the arms up. This time you'll exhale and forward fold with a long spine. Step your left foot back, lower your back heel. As you breathe in, lift your torso up, lift your arms up. Maybe the palms touch if you like. Shoulders are pretty open now. As you exhale, you'll hinge forward. But you do what feels good for the body in the moment. Both, you know, mechanically, yes, but also just energetically. Keep going like that. Twice more. You begin to breathe in, receive the breath in, sweep the arms around and up. And then you'll exhale and hinge forward. Inhale, lift the arms up, sweep the torso up. And you pause. Stay in the lifted position. Let the breath ratio be what it was when you were in motion. Paying attention to how the shoulders feel and what change you can make in the hands of the arms to have more openness there. Although now, as I said, you know, they're pretty, it's likely that they're pretty open now. Wrap the left ribs forward. Let the breath move. Take a breath in there. And as you exhale, dance to the floor. Step your back foot forward. Exhale. Inhale to come all the way up to stand. Exhale to fold yourself forward. Release the arms. Step your right foot back. You'll lower your back heel. See that the heels are aligned or that the stance is even wider than that. You can walk the left foot a little over to the left. And as you breathe in, you'll lift the torso, lift the arms up, and then you'll breathe out and hinge forward. You do that three more times on your own breath. Once more. Inhale, lifting up. Finding a shape that you can sustain that allows you to breathe fully and completely. Take one more breath in, and then you'll exhale your hands to the floor. You step back to plank pose, and you'll do whatever movements you like to make your way back to downward facing dog. Once you're there and there's no rush, you can pedal through your feet. And then lower the knees to the floor and come to a child's pose. Big toes touch, knees wide apart. Walk your hands back towards you so you're in an upright position. And then draw your knees a little bit closer, if not all the way together if you can. And as you inhale, lift your arms up. As you exhale, sweep your arms back behind you, interlace them. And as you breathe in, extend your elbows, lift your chest. As you breathe out, folding yourself forward. Releasing your head on or towards the floor as you draw those knuckles away from your heart, perhaps drawing them down and forward in front of the head, any amount. Breathing into the upper chest. As you next inhale, let that inhale that expands your chest be the one that you use to draw your hands back and lift yourself up. Then rest your hands face up on your thighs. You can close your eyes for a moment or just soften your gaze. Great. And then you'll turn yourself around, you'll sit on your mat in dandasana staff pose, extend your legs, flex your feet.

And legs can be knees can be bent, whatever positioning of your legs allows you to keep your pelvis upright. Sometimes if the backs of the legs are tight, back of the pelvis will posteriorly tilt. It will tilt backwards. So if you draw against your heels, that can help us find that lifting action, less taxing to the hamstrings. And then after you've gone and set that up, please bend your knees. Bend your knees and then step your feet to the floor, lower yourself down to the floor, nice and mindfully reaching your hands forward, rolling yourself down, drawing your navel towards your spine as you lower yourself down. And once you're lowered, step your feet towards you. Roll your shoulders underneath your body and notice how doing that. So we're originating some positioning here, but that will cause the palms to face up. I mean, the palms could face down, but it's a natural, you know, kinetic, there's a kinetic chain going, right? Rolling the shoulders underneath natural to turn the palms outward. So just feel that. Breathing into the chest feels quite nice if I'm allowed to say so myself. How does it feel for you? Check in and really just attune to whatever sensation is there. And you don't have to even put a value, it's good, it's bad. No, oh, my chest feels open. Oh, my collar bones feel a little bit broader. Oh, I feel some constriction in the back of my neck. And then you know, you have to be responsive to your felt experience. And only you know what that is. As you next inhale, press into your heels to lift your hips up, draw those inner thighs together and spin them down towards the floor, roll the shoulders underneath the body more and interlace the hands. So we've been in this position a few times and in different relationship to gravity. So now press the hands down, forearms down, upper arms down. Breathe into the upper chest and lengthen your tailbone. A few more breaths here, heels drive down, hips lift up, tailbone lengthens. Take a big breath in there. And as you exhale, you release your hands, release your pelvis. Let's pause on a little intermediate point here. Separate your feet, let your knees rest into each other for a moment. Soften the belly, let the lower back lower towards the floor or meet the floor and then draw your knees into your chest. Red rock a little bit along your spine from left to right. Keep your right knee hugging into your chest, extend your left leg along the floor and cross your right knee over your body. That right hand can take whatever shape you like. You can extend it into a T shape. I've got mine in a cactus shape so bend to the elbow, but palms face up either way. Soften that right shoulder. And then slowly release it, slowly release it. And we'll switch sides. Let's first straighten that right leg. Great. And then draw the left knee in, recenter the hips and then cross the knee over your body. Left arm either extends out to the side or cactus shape, palm is facing up towards the ceiling either way. And then come back to center, sort of unwinding yourself in the most mindful way possible. Let's keep that left knee drawing in and draw the right knee up to meet it, recenter your hips, hug your knees into your chest. Happy baby pulls, hold the outer edges of your feet or the backs of your thighs, lengthen your tailbone, sacrum on the floor, straightening one leg and then the other or not, rocking from left to right.

Great. Draw your heels towards you, knees towards each other and then extend your legs coming to Shavasana, final resting pose. So legs can be as wide apart as you like, palms face up and away from your body. Maybe you roll the shoulders underneath the body. If you've got props that you would like to use during Shavasana, blankets or sweaters, let's try to grab those as gently as you can. And then once you're reclined and you've sort of set baseline physical conditions, so knees are soft, front body merging with the back body, back body, give it to the floor, let your body be completely supported by the floor. Relax your feet and your ankles, your calves, relax the knees and the thighs, hips, belly, chest. And just rest in the echo of the work you've done, the residue of your practice. Attune to this very unique quality of energy that's moving through your body and perhaps just around your body. You can continue resting. If you'd like to come up for a seat, you can wiggle your fingers and toes, extend your arms alongside your ears, give yourself nice long stretch from your feet to your hands. Maybe stretching long through one side and then the other and then roll onto one side, rest your head on your arm. As you're ready, if you're coming up to have a seat, you can slowly make your way up to a comfortable seat, any seat you like that works for you that you can sustain for the next couple of minutes. And then sit well once you're upright, allowing yourself this little moment to transition from Shavasana back to this is fully, fully alert and awakened consciousness. Sit well, so lift the crown of your head up, let the arms be heavy, let the hands rest on the knees or the thighs, either face down or face up, whichever feels like it resonates with your experience a little more. And then bring your hands to your body, rest the hand on your heart and one on your belly and take a few breaths here. Feel the expansion of the chest as you breathe in and of the belly and as you breathe out, feel the chest fall on the belly, engage, feel and bring your palms together at the center of your chest. Bow your head to your hands, thank yourself for practicing and honor your body, your breath and the connection between them and between you and your breathing body. May you carry a sense of just lightness and kindness and space with you for the rest of the day and always Namaste.