Inner Revolution

Hi, friends. Welcome, welcome to season two of Guided by Breath. I'm Sadia. I'm so glad you're here. Today's theme is inner revolution. We're going to get grounded and stable. We're going to release the outer hips. And from that base of groundedness and stability, we're going to practice revolving from the inside, shifting, changing from the axis of the body. For props today, you will need two blocks and something to approximate or an actual strap will do. But if you have a belt or a tie, you can use that as well. And we're going to begin class today in Shavasana. So final resting pose to start. So you'll come to lie down on your back. Legs wide apart, palms face up and away from your body. And you'll take the first few moments just to arrive. So maybe there's some movement involved in this arrival. And let it let it be there. Allow, you know, your energy, the mind to gather and to settle and allow the body to respond to that settling of the mind and of the energy. Take a nice full big deep breath in, receiving the full breath in. And as you exhale, sighing out the mouth. Again, like that, inhaling in through the nose and exhaling out through the mouth. Hands more, inhale. And as you exhale, really releasing the breath, really giving the weight of your body to the floor. Rest your hands anywhere on your body. And with your hands, feel the movement of breath in your body, feeling as you breathe in expansion of the belly if the hands are there, expansion of the ribs if the hands are there, expansion of the chest. And as you exhale, feel the chest fall, the ribs contract, the belly draw in and up. And a few more breaths, just like that. Nice and easy and receptive and free. Not so much grasping for air as receiving the breath in its natural fullness.

And then, friends, begin to deepen your breath, so receiving a little bit more air in little small movements through the hands and the feet. I'm sorry that I'm not going to leave you there for the duration of class, although you're welcome to do that, certainly. Wiggling fingers and toes, and then slowly stepping your feet to the floor. Feet are about hips width. You'll press into your heels to lift your pelvis up and just lengthen your tailbone forward so you can release your pelvis back down onto the floor, create a little bit of length in your lumbar spine, and then draw your knees into your chest. You can rock a little bit from left to right if that feels good. Maybe you like to make circles with the knees, either together, knees like circumscribing one circle together, maybe knees are moving separately and in opposite directions, just getting the thigh bones to, heads of the thigh bones to move around a little bit in the hip sockets, and maybe actually visualizing that. Pretty amazing. Miraculous human body. And then go ahead and step the feet to the floor again and then grab a hold of your strap or your necktie or your belt or whatever brilliant tool you're using there. And then you will unravel it if it was neatly rolled like mine was. Otherwise you'll find the center of the strap. You'll draw your right knee in towards your chest and loop the ball of your right foot into the strap. Reach the heel up to the ceiling any amount. Maybe the knee extends fully or not. Maybe you bend the knee and straighten the knee a few times, keeping a loose grip on the strap. You don't want to hold so tightly that the brain and the body are focused on what the hands and the arms are doing. Just gently drawing against the strap enough so that you feel a little feedback as the foot presses into the strap. So strap is taught. And then after you've played a little bit with bending and straightening that knee, I want you to walk your hands up the strap so the elbows are fully extended. But then plug your upper arm bones down into the floor. And then friend, lengthen the right side of your body. So sometimes when we draw a leg towards us, that hip also wants to lift up towards the shoulder. Lengthen the right side of your body and pause there. And then just take a few breaths here, being really observant, flexing those toes back towards you, reaching the heel up to the ceiling and letting there be a softness in the knee, even if the leg is fully extended, particularly if you know you're a hyperextender, create an actual bend in the knee. Otherwise, a little micro bend of any amount that feels valuable and useful to you. And then as you keep that knee extended, please very slowly straighten your left leg along the floor, flexing the left toes back towards your face. You can use your power of proprioception to feel whether or not that left leg is finding Tadasana and is in Tadasana. You can also, if you're curious, lift your head and upper back off of the floor, take a look at the leg, take a look at the foot. Is the center of that thigh pointing up towards the ceiling? If not, see that it is. Reach that heel forward, reach both heels, in fact, away from you. And marvel right now at the fact that both feet and both legs are actually doing the exact same actions, they're just in different relationship to the pelvis. Fascinating. Geometry. I love geometry in high school. I hated algebra. They usually say that you like one or the other, but never both. If you like both, you should see a doctor. Lengthen your right hip towards your left foot. Keep a hold on the strap that is, you know, creating some tautness, but no gripping, just holding, supporting. And then take both ends of the strap into your left hand, hook your right thumb into your right hip crease, keeping a softness in that knee. I'd like you to begin to cross your right leg over your body any amount. In fact, don't go any more than halfway. It's a 45 degree angle, roughly. Keep flexing the toes, spreading the toes. With your right thumb, draw, manually draw that hip towards your left foot. Soften the shoulder and you take a few breaths here as that outer right hip releases. Both feet flex, both heels being sent away from your body. Both inner arches, so inner seams of your feet being sent away from your body. And we'll take a few breaths here, just like this. And maybe in this shape you play again with little micro bend in the knee, staying supple in the shape. There's a clarity about it. We're pretty linear shape, but let there always be that roundness of intention and of sensation. And perhaps you're called to cross the leg a little bit more towards that side of your body. But again, trying to stay subtle, actually trying to stay subtle, trying to stay quiet in these external actions so that we can hear and see with the mind's eye really clearly what's going on in the body as we release this outer hip. We'll take one more breath in there. Ideally, you were breathing this entire time. And please on an exhale, you draw that leg towards center. You'll bend both knees. So you step the left foot to the floor, unloop that right foot and then extend both legs for a moment. And you'll pause and you'll just register your experience. Great. Do you notice a difference between the two sides? And are you allowing yourself to kind of marvel at that difference? And once you're done celebrating your body, step your feet to the floor again.

Wow. And then try your left knee in towards your chest. And same thing on this opposite side. But we know where we're going, but let there be a curiosity as though you were doing this entire sequence for the very, very first time. It's the same level of curiosity you had on the first side, separating the two ends of the strap. You're at the center of the strap. And then crawl your hands up the strap, extend your elbows, draw your shoulders back and down towards the floor, flex your toes, lengthen the left side of your body. So we know the actions. We can move with a little bit more speed, although I hesitate to use that word, but with same, same level of curiosity. So here too, bending and straightening the knee, keeping a hold on the strap that's not, you know, rigid, and just observing what's happening on this new side. I myself am observing that this side is quite different than the other, even just here already. Very interesting. There's a quote, I think, I think it was Joel Cramer. He's a teacher, OG teacher. He said, you know, the quality of your life, and he really means practice as well, is directly related to how interested you are in it. So be deeply, deeply interested in your practice right now in this left foot, in those left toes that are flexing back towards your face. In that left knee that is extended but soft, in this right leg, this right knee that's going to now extend in the right toes that are flexing back towards your face, in the center of the right side that is pointing straight up to the ceiling. Both ends of the strap into your right hand, hook your left them into your left hip crease. Lengthen that side of your body already before doing anything else. We want to find balance in the pelvis. And then with exquisite tenderness and deep curiosity, cross your leg over your body 3% of the way and observe. I'm observing and I am astounded. So just use your, you can close the eyes if that helps or remove the visual stimulation so you can have a really interiorized experience. I don't even know if that's a word. I have a habit of, you know, just throwing suffixes onto things and saying them nicely so people believe that I'm using real words. But breathe. Receiving the breath in. As you exhale, lengthen the left side of your body a little bit more. Flex those toes a little bit more. Perhaps you play with crossing the leg over the body a little bit more. And those right toes can also turn in that same direction towards the right. Trying to keep balance in the pelvis as we do this. You take a few breaths here. Coming to a point of, you know, that illusion of stillness. The feeling how illusory it is. Because there's a ton of movement inside. And maybe you can feel some movement outside such as shaking. But that's, you know, completely hypothetical. I know nothing about that. Maybe crossing the leg over the body a little bit more and observing. Can you lengthen the left side of your body a little bit more and soften that knee? Just a hair. Full breaths in, long breaths out. Let the breath support you in this exploration. Take a big breath in and then as you exhale, bringing the leg to center. Bending both knees. Unlooping your foot. Extending both legs onto the floor. Resting hands, arms alongside the body or hands on the body. Whatever feels supportive of you listening to your body right now. And observing the differences that are there, if any. I imagine there are some. And then hug both of your knees into your chest. Good. You can roll onto your side. If you like to rock and roll yourself up to a seat, you can go ahead and do that. Feel free. And then we'll just sit for a moment. Any seat you like, any seat that feels useful and good, mainly. Rest the hands on the knees or the thighs. Soften the eyes closed if they're not already. Sit well. Bring the palms together at the center of the chest. Bow your head to your hands, maybe setting an intention for your practice or for your day, your week, your month, your year. Release your hands down to your knees or your thighs. Open your eyes open. I was going to say. Open your eyes. Just open the eyes and then extend your arms out to the sides. Roll your biceps forward.

Feel your collarbone spread as you do that. Familiar action. Maybe I'm a little bit obsessed with it, actually. But turn your biceps forward and feel that. And in fact, turn the biceps towards your body and then back behind you and feel that little kinetic chain going. So pressing the pads of the fingertips into the floor, very slowly roll the biceps forward. Feel what that does to the collarbones, to the center of the chest. Begin to breathe in. You'll sweep your arms around and up. As you exhale, just release your arms. So moving as breath straight away. It's what we do here. Begin to breathe in, sweep your arms around and up. There's a pause at the top of your inhale. As you exhale, you release your arms. And keep going a few more breaths like that. And doing this movement as though it's, you know, the express purpose is to express the movement of your breath. So feeling as you exhale, that descending quality of breath is met with the literal descending of your arms. Once more like that, begin to breathe in, sweep the arms up. And then breathe out, reach your arms out to the side. Palms face down. Feel that. Turn your palms very slowly to face forward. Feel that. Turn your palms to face all the way up. Feel that. Interlace your hands behind your head. Feel that too. Widen your elbows. Use the heels of your hands. So another thing that's very informative and useful. Hands behind the, interlace behind the head. Lean your head into your hands. Use the hands to manually create a little bit of length in your cervical spine, your neck. And you take a few breaths there. Wide, wide elbows. You can soften the eyes. Close if you like. And just take a few breaths here and just actively, but incredibly gently lengthening of the neck with every breath in. Manual lengthening. As you next breathe in, lift the crown of the head up to the ceiling more. As you breathe out, little side bend to the right. Little lateral flexion of your spine if you're into anatomical vocabulary. As you next inhale, come to center, lift up. And then exhale, little side bend in the opposite direction. Pause there for a breath cycle.

Inhale comes to center. Exhale again, side bend. Good. Draw your elbows forward and then begin to revolve your chest towards the ceiling. Keep lengthening your neck as you do that. I'm going to take a couple of breaths here and letting yourself find some expression of this that allows you to continue breathing. You take a breath in there and a breath out. As you inhale, lift up and pass through center. As you next inhale, lengthen. Let's draw the elbows forward already and find a little side bend in the opposite direction. Draw the upper arm bones closer towards each other. And as you breathe in, revolve the chest up towards the ceiling. And you take a few breaths there. Not a ton of external movement, but wow, a lot of work involved actually in finding both this simultaneous side bend, but also this rotation of your spine. Just in a seated position. As you next inhale, re-center the body. Release your arms. Good. Little shoulder rolling, little weird movement. You know, like to do that a lot. Let your spine be fluid and let the fluidity of your spine sort of let you explore the echo of the work we just did. So there's an imprint, a physiological imprint. Be fluid and soft and let that fluidity make space for you to sense what's in there. What just happened? What just happened? Like you're waking up in a strange place that you forgot you traveled to the night before. And then come to tabletop position facing the front of your mat. So wrists under shoulders, knees underneath your hips, spreading the knuckles of your fingers. Let's walk the hands forward just for puppy dog pulls. Let's find a little more extension for that thoracic spine. You'll rest your head on the floor a little more towards the hairline. And why? Well, I'll let you discover that on your own. You can go ahead and place the center of your forehead on the mat. If it's okay for your body, you can look even farther forward, maybe resting your chin on the mat. So feel either of those positionings. And then lift your head up, tuck your chin and place the head on the floor closer to the hairline. Keep space in the neck length at the back of the neck. Reach the fingertips forward, press the index and thumb knuckles into the floor. As you wrap your outer upper arms towards your face, reach your tailbone back, breathe into the sides of your body, breathe into your upper back. Full breath in, long breath out. Feel your navel draw in and up as you breathe out. Start to walk your hands back towards you. Back in tabletop position and as you breathe in, lift your right arm up and open twist to the right as you exhale, thread your arm underneath and right away just find a twist. Resting your head on the floor, crawling the left hand forward. Using your power of proprioception to determine whether or not your hips are stacked above your knees. And they should be although I hesitate to use the word should, but let's find balance in the pelvis so that this rotation is happening in the spine rather than as a result of like twerking or turning the pelvis. Place your left hand next to the face, unthread your arm and you'll come to center and pause there and re-center yourself both physically but also just energy. And as you inhale, lift your left arm up and then exhale, thread that arm underneath, rest your head on the floor, crawl the opposite arm forward, hips stacked above the knees, really receiving full breath in here and feeling the movement of the breath and the body as you twist in this way. So how does this shape redirect the breath and the body? And are you in an expression of this that allows the breath to move freely? And if not, what can you adjust so that you're expressing this in a way that's supportive of your breath? We want all these movements, all these shapes to actually support the movement of breath and the body. Great. And then press that right hand into the floor so you can elegantly unthread that left arm. And then let's walk your hands forward, just one hand print, tuck your toes under, lift your hips up and back to downward facing dog. You can pedal through your feet, so arrival, right? Always with the arrival. Pedal through the feet, move the tailbone around. And of course you get as weird as you like, bending through the elbows, all kinds of spinal whatevers. Let this be free. Moving your head and your neck. And then, you know, keep moving, but progressively make your exploration there a little bit smaller and a little bit smaller until you're in that illusion that we call stillness. Palms are pressing into the floor, feet are at least hips width apart, soft knees, chest towards the thighs. As you inhale, you lower your knees to the floor, release your belly, open the chest, finish the breath in, exhale to child's pose. Begin to inhale and come forward.

Exhale, downward facing dog. Again, inhale, knees to the floor. So returning the body to the breath, exhaling to child's pose by doing these movements and shapes that facilitate the breath movement. So you start to breathe in, the belly naturally expands, the chest expands. So coming to that cow pose is natural. Exhale, the belly engages. We use that power to press back to down dog. Inhale, knees to the floor, open the chest. Exhale, child's pose. Stay in the child's pose. Relax your arms, relax your head and your neck. Take a few breaths here. Every exhale, let the pelvis get a little bit heavier. Let's bring the palms to prayer behind the head. Walk your elbows farther forward and closer to each other. Maybe skin of the elbows is tractioning on the mat. So you feel a little release there. Breathing deeply into the upper back and feeling as, you know, as you exhale, feels as though the hips get heavier. And as that occurs, feel a little more release in the backs of those arms. Great. Release your arms.

Tabletop position again. This time come down onto your forearms. Place your left hand behind your head. So it's like a little half. There's half interlace with no interlace. And catching that occipital ridge, that ridge right at the back of your skull there. Elbow wide. Press your right hand and forearm into the floor. As you inhale, begin to open your chest to the left without turning your head. So try not to use your eyes or your chin and you'll feel it's really challenging. As you exhale, you'll come back to center. You can release that elbow for a moment, but as you inhale, you'll widen the elbow then with the hand at the back of the head. So it's helping us to keep a long neck. We want to open the chest. Not turn the head, but open the chest. Breathing requires so much work. Obliques, intercostals, back muscles, other things. Inhale again and as you exhale, you'll come back to center. We'll do that just twice more. Begin to breathe in. Open. Exhale. This time just release. Again, inhale. Open. Exhale. Release. Once more. Inhale. Open. This time stay for a few breaths here, just like that. Going to a place where there is sensation, but you can still breathe. Can you open the chest a little bit more? One more breath in and as you exhale, go ahead and release that. Come down onto both forearms. You can turn your palms to face up, relax your head and your neck and you just take a few resting breaths there. So interesting how, you know, it doesn't actually require a lot of external movement to have an experience or to feel sensation.

Deep work is often, you know, it appears to be the quietest work and it is. Left palm down onto the floor. Forearm down. Right hand to the ridge. Right elbow wide. Breathe in. Open the chest. Lift the elbow without turning the head. Maybe keep your gaze towards the floor and as you exhale, coming back to center. Inhale. With the full length of the breath opening. Exhale. Center. Inhale. Open. Exhale. Close. Inhale. Exhale. Again, breathe in. This time you hold the shape. Keep the neck long. It will maybe feel like you're tucking your chin. Can you open the chest a little bit more? Take one more breath in and then exhale. You'll release that. Release the forearm. Turn both palms to face up to the ceiling and then send your seat back to your heels for child's pose with the palms turned up. But relax the fingertips. Let them curl towards the centers of the palms. And just feeling kind of the physiological, the residue of that work, the echo of that. And with every exhale, letting it go. Reach your hands forward. Look up and breathe in. Drag yourself forward to tabletop just so you can exhale and press back to down dog. Shorten your stance. Walk your feet about a footprint forward so that you can ground your heels. It's very short dog pulls. Ground the heels. Press especially the inner heels into the floor. Lift your toes up and spread them and feel that. What does that do to the rest of the shape you can play with softening and extending the knees? And then spread both palms. Make sure you've got adequate contact with the floor. Lift your right hand up and reach for your outer left ankle. You can pause there. You can and stay there. You can take an inhale and with your exhale, just gently draw against the leg to find a little revolution to the left, to that same direction. Gaze can be towards your underarm.

You can just relax your head and your neck and close your eyes. Every breath in. Little lessening of a twist. As you exhale, maybe you feel a little more clarity in the twist as those muscles between the ribs contract. And then go ahead and release that as you're ready. And opposite side. So you'll stay, body is centered. And you'll grab a hold of that outer right ankle or calf and breathe in. And as you exhale, you'll gently draw against the leg to find a revolution to the right. And let it be less about this hand on the ankle is not so we can crane ourselves or crank ourselves into a twist. It's supportive of this twist that we're creating from the inside. So in fact, revolve your body back to center. Breathe in. As you breathe out without pulling on the ankle, just begin to twist towards the right. And then you gently draw against the ankle to support that twist. Take a few breaths there like that. Slowly release that. Walk your feet up to your hands in a strange way. And then once you're at the top of your mat, soften your knees, spill your pelvis forward, spine is long, crown of the head releasing towards the floor. Breathe in and breathe out. Feel the movement of breath in your body in the standing forward fold. As you inhale, prepare, pull his hands to your shins, lift the center of your chest, lift the back of your skull. As you exhale, stay there, feel the navel draw back towards his spine and in fact, encourage it. Reach your arms out to the side with your palms facing down. As you breathe in, start to turn your palms forward and finish that breath in by coming all the way up to standing, reaching your arms up, bringing your palms to touch and exhaling to draw the hands down the center line of your body and your paws there for a couple of breaths. Great, release your arms by your sides. Inhale, sweep your arms around and up. Exhale, soften your knees and hinge forward. Inhale to prepare, pull. Exhale to forward fold. This time as you inhale, place your left hand on the mat, bend that left knee as you reach your right arm up to the ceiling, breathe in. You can have a block underneath the hand if that's helpful, directly underneath your nose. So grab that if you need, whatever height works for you. You take a breath in in that twist and then as you exhale, we're going to switch sides, so right hand to the block or to the floor and you reach the left arm up to the ceiling and you'll keep switching that way. Exhaling center, inhaling to twist.

The next time you're on the right side, pause there, turn the palm to face that direction, slide that shoulder blade down your back. Try to press your right heel down into the floor as you draw that hip slightly back. You take a breath in there and then you exhale to come to center. You inhale to switch sides, pressing the left heel down, broadening across the collarbones and softening the shoulder. Full breaths in, long breaths out. Take one more breath in there and then exhale to forward fold, soften the knee. Let's interlace the hands behind the back to the webbing, elbows together, inhale, bend the knees, lift the chest as you draw the hands back.

Without snapping the hands apart, release them, turn your palms forward, breathe in to sweep your arms around and up. As you exhale, just release your arms in a natural way. Release the arms and you'll pause for a moment in Tadasana. Let's find a little bit of natural movement while we're here. Why not? It's never too much. Do it all the time. Calmly dancing child, elbows, arms, knees. And then when you're ready, just stillness.

Breathe in, reach your arms up in some way. Breathe out, forward fold in some way that honors the full descent of that breath. Inhale, lift your chest up. Exhale, you can use blocks under the hands. We're stepping back into a lunge so you step your left foot all the way back so you're in a lunge. Front heel, of course, is underneath your front knee.

Peel your back toes all the way back. So articulating through that back foot, leg is extended. Lower your back knee to the floor, hands to your front knee. And you'll pause here and take a few breaths here, just like this. Right now, I'd like you to focus on that front heel and that front hip.

So drive that front heel down and drive it down. Use that as leverage to really draw that front hip back. Release your arms by your sides. As you breathe in, sweep your arms around and up. Interlace your hands behind your head. Here we are again.

Lengthen your neck. Scissor the legs together as you lengthen your neck. Little combo platter of cues there. Scissor the legs together. Lengthen the neck. Find, friend, a little side bend to the right with the hands interlaced behind the hip.

As you next inhale, find a little rotation of your chest up towards the ceiling. Great. Breathe in. As you breathe out, turn back to center. Lift your torso up. Reach your arms up to the ceiling. Great. And then bring your hands down to your blocks. If you're using them, lift your back knee up.

Great. And then bring your, what is this, hand to your right hand, the thumb, hook it into your hip crease. And that same action that we were doing when we were doing this, and that same action that we were doing when we were reclined. So we want to use that to manually draw that hip back. And as you do that, reach your back heel all the way back. Reach the crown of your head forward.

Stay looking at the floor, friends, as you begin to revolve your chest towards the right. You can keep hooking the hip crease. You don't have to so actively draw it back. It's a little hint of a self-assist. So reaching crown of your head forward, stay looking at the floor, and just observe whatever you observe in your body as you continue to look at the floor.

And then you can keep this interesting work of looking at the floor while you're in low lunge twists, or you might like to open your chest and turn your gaze in that direction. You might also like to reach your top arm up to the ceiling, or not. We'll take a few breaths here, just like that. Take one more breath in. Great.

And as you exhale, bring your hand to the block, both blocks off to the side, little plank pulls. You'll breathe in. As you exhale, you can lower either all the way or halfway down or into the surface of the earth, whatever you like. Breathe in, find a little baby cobra or up dog, and we'll meet in downward facing dog, moving in a way that's supportive of your breath, the movement of breath. You pause and stillness, soften the knees.

Look up between your hands at the bottom of your exhale. You can float or step or walk yourself forward. Once you're there at the top, you breathe in to lift the chest and then exhale to forward fold. Inhale to lift yourself up, to lift your arms up in some way that serves you. You'll pause at the top of the inhale and exhale to descend the hands and the arms.

Release the arms. Inhale, lifting up, exhaling, folding forward. The inhale comes. We lift into prepare pose so we can lengthen the spine and create space for the front of the body to expand. As you exhale, hands to the blocks again.

If you use them the first time, step your right foot back, peel the back toes back. So already just organizing the body from the ground up. Reach the crown of the head forward and just finding balance here before then lowering your back knee to the floor. Lifting your torso up, lifting your arms up, palms roll to face each other and you feel as that rotation of the palms travels all the way up to the shoulder sockets. Front heel driving down as you draw that hip back, soften the shoulders.

Interlace your hands behind your head, lengthen the neck. Inhale to lengthen the neck more, exhale to side bend. Inhale to open the chest up towards the ceiling. Exhale to stay there. You take one more breath in and a breath out and as you next inhale, center the body, extend the arms, reach them up to the ceiling and then hands to your blocks again.

Lift your back knee up, hook the hip crease, look at the floor, back toes peeling all the way back again, heel reaching back, crown of the head reaching forward, open your chest to the left side. Keep drawing that left hip back, back, back. Stay looking at the floor as you continue to revolve your chest towards that side of your room there, that side of your mat. If you like, you can turn the gaze in that direction. So interesting.

And after you turn the gaze, play maybe with turning the gaze back towards the floor and noticing how the gaze and the body can actually happen completely independently of each other. If you like, you can reach that top arm up to the ceiling and take one more breath in there and then exhale. You can release your hand to the block, blocks off to the side, downward facing dog. Let's take a wide dog this time, feet to the outer edges of your mat, press the palms down, soften your knees so much, deepen those hip creases. Great.

With as much weirdness as you can muster, walking yourself up to the top of the mat there, breathing all the while. Once you are at the top, standing forward fold, interlace your hands behind your head this time just to create some traction for your neck. Breathe into your upper back. Every breath out, let your hands and your arms get a little bit heavier. Great. Release your hands slowly with very soft knees, start to roll yourself up to a standing position.

Keep rolling with standing arms, spine, fluid spine. All right. Let's grab your two blocks, put them at their highest height about shoulder width apart towards the front of your mat. And let's play a little bit, little balancing. Lift your, so little no thought to it.

Lift your left knee up and just start to play around and balancing on that right leg as you move the left leg around in whatever way pleases you, the weirder, the better. Try to play with getting low to the floor, try to play with sending the leg forward. How many movements can you take that hip or that thigh bone rather through or that hip through also as the thigh bone moves? Imagine, you know, what's happening in the body as you do this? The pelvis kind of, what's the word, revolving? No, hinging on the heads of the thigh bones.

Keep going. Make sure that right leg, right foot rather is nice and broad and stable as you play. And then friend, draw that knee forward and pause. And then slowly begin to lean your body forward, bring your hands to those blocks right underneath the shoulders as you reach that left leg back behind you. Roll that hip down.

Look at your toes to see that they're pointing towards the floor. Reach that heel back and we'll take a few breaths here, pressing the hands down. Tadasana actually in both legs, just as we were on the floor, except we were, gosh, how many degrees would that be? I don't know. And I claimed I liked geometry and I can't even tell you how many degrees were in the same shape as Supta Padangusthasana.

A relationship to gravity is different. So, you know, muscular effort is different. Some of the actions are a little bit different. But can you keep pressing through both heels? Great.

And then please bring that right thumb to your right hip crease. Draw that hip back. Draw that hip back. Keep the right knee a little bit soft. Reach the crown of your head forward.

You can stay here or you can begin to revolve just your chest towards the right. And you can stay there or you can maybe begin to turn your gaze also in that same direction. You can keep the thumb and the hip crease, or maybe you choose to reach your right arm up to the ceiling. Trying to be in some expression of this revolved warrior three that is supple, that allows you to continue breathing even as, you know, body is working to sustain the shape. You take one more breath in there.

And as you exhale, hand to the block, you draw that knee forward to step the foot forward, separate the feet a little wider, a little supported Uttanasana. Forward fold. You take a few breaths there, just like that. And into the upper back. Great hands to your hips, elbows together.

Let's come up this time through an extended spine. Let's keep the hands on the hips as we lift the right knee up. Release the hands and then start your little balance play there. Okay. Noticing, wow, how interesting that right hip feels after having done so much work just then. And maybe using this as an opportunity somehow to find a little bit of release for that hip.

I'm actually finding I'm taking fewer risks on this side, which is interesting. Oh, your blocks are there if you need them to support you as you explore as I do right now. The play, try to do some movements that seem weird. Yes. Great. And then as you're ready, you'll draw that right knee forward, hands to hips again, and lower that right hip a little bit.

Breathe in. And as you breathe out, soften your left knee, lean forward as you extend that right heel back behind you, blocks underneath the hands, which are underneath the shoulders. Look at the right toes, flex the foot, toes towards the floor. Reach the crown of the head forward. And play with little bending and straightening of that bottom leg.

Tadasana, both sides. Supta parangustasana, except not, except warrior three. Hook your left thumb into your left hip crease, feel whatever is there to be felt. Perhaps you've been sitting a lot these days. A few people report excessive sitting.

So if you're in that camp, you may be feeling a lot of sensation. Sensation is good. Bracing, not so much. So express in a way that works. If you have to bend the knee, bend the knee.

Inhale to lengthen your spine. Exhale, start to open your chest towards the left. Try to keep that right foot very flexed. Open the chest, keeping the gaze to the floor. Maybe you'll turn the gaze in that direction as well.

Maybe you'll reach your top arm up to the ceiling. And you'll breathe. Just a couple more breaths there. Take one more breath in. And then as you breathe out, you slowly hand to the block.

Knee forward, little separation of the feet, soften the knees. Hinge forward. And then let yourself sway from left to right. Let's separate the feet a little wider than your mat. Ideally, well not ideally, if you're on a carpet and you're sliding, you can of course turn so that both feet are on the mat.

But if you have a surface that will allow you to find some traction, go ahead and find a stance that's a little wider than hips with. We'll lower these blocks so they are on their lowest height. We will walk them forward and find a little, whatever this is, like a little half prasarita padottanasana, half down dog. Palms resting on the blocks, weight in the legs, lift the arches of your feet. You have room to walk your blocks a little farther forward.

Go ahead and do that. Play with softening and straightening the legs. Great. Lift the chest up halfway, walk your feet towards each other, and then lower your knees to the floor and move your blocks off to the sides. And then come to lie down on your back. So draw your knees into your chest. Apanasana.

Maybe making circles with your knees together or apart. Great. Step your feet to the floor, hips width, palms facing down. Roll the shoulders underneath your body. Inhale to press your heels into the floor.

To lift your pelvis up, draw the thigh bones together, inner thighs spinning towards the floor. Lengthen your tailbone. You can stay with the palms pressing into the floor. You might like to roll the shoulders underneath the body a bit more to interlace the hands. Whatever you're doing, you're pressing your hands down, your forearms down, upper arms down.

Keep spinning the inner thighs towards the floor as you lengthen your tailbone. A little isometric dragging back of your heels also. And then once you've built the house, give it away to your breath. So inhaling into your upper chest and as you exhale, feeling your belly firm. So take one more breath in there.

And then as you exhale, you'll release, lower your pelvis down onto the floor. Hug your knees into your chest. Great. Draw your right knee into your chest, extend your left leg. And we'll do just a simple reclined twist.

So crossing the knee over your body, extending your right arm or arm into a cactus shape. And then come to center and we'll switch sides. So hugging the left knee in, extending the right leg, crossing the leg over your body, arm into a cactus shape. And come to center, knees into the chest, gently roll onto your side and you'll come up to an upright position and you'll find dandasana, staff pose, flex your feet. See that your sitting bones are rooted.

You can lift the center of your chest up. And as you breathe in, you'll inhale to lift your chest and you'll exhale to hinge forward with a long spine. You can keep your knees as soft as you need or you like. Keep the spine long for a few breaths. Let the breath help you find that extension.

And as you exhale, you forward fold. Inhaling into the upper back, exhaling, releasing. Slowly reemerge, feet will step to the floor. Arms will reach forward so you can just gently recline. Apanasana once more, lift upper back and head off of the floor and breathe in.

And then ride the wave of that exhale back to where it all started. Chavasana, extend your legs, palms face up and away from your body. Arrive and then surrender, letting go of all efforts. I'm just basking in that singular energetic quality that is a result of yoga practice. You can continue resting like this for as long as you like, otherwise begin to deepen your breath, wiggle your fingers and toes, reach long through the arms and legs, draw your knees into your chest and roll onto one side and pause there.

And then keeping your eyes closed, you'll slowly make your way up to a comfortable seat. Sitting well, resting your hands on your knees or your thighs. Bring your palms together at the center of your chest. Let's close with the sound of just a single om. So you'll inhale your breath and exhale your breath for a nice low resonant om.

Inhale your breath. Om. May you carry a sense of lightness and play and inner revolution with you for the rest of the day and always the light in me sees and honors the light that's also in you. Namaste.