Wishing Tree

Hi, let's do a practice for rest today. It's really important to rest your body every day, and that will give you the energy for everything you want to do. So let's start in vulture pose. Let's bring our feet forward, and we'll roll down onto our spines. Tuck your chin, and feel your spine, the bones in your spine.

It feels good to lie down on the earth. Go ahead and hug your knees into your chest, rock from side to side, keep breathing deeply in your belly. That helps your body relax. Deep inhale. Exhale.

Bring your feet to the earth. Pretend you're a giant vulture. Let's go fly. Pressing your feet, inhale your hips up. You might bring your arms underneath you as you push into your feet.

Push your hips up and take a few deep breaths here. Bring some sunshine into your heart. Deep inhale. Exhale. Perfect.

Slowly bring your spine back down onto the floor. Give yourself another hug. Rock from side to side. And then we'll move into yak pose, a twist. That will help us rest.

Hug your right knee in, straighten out your left knee. And bring the right leg over to the side. Open up your arms, and breathe some space into your spine. Soften your breath. Your bones.

Breathing. (exhales) From here, bring that knee back up into your chest. Give it a hug. You might even give it a kiss. Thank you, knee.

And then straighten out that leg. And we'll change sides. Bring the other knee in. Rock a little from side to side. And we'll twist from here, drop that knee over.

Your spine loves to twist. Reach your arms away from you. Relax your face and breathe here. Mmmm, that feels nice. Bring that knee back into your chest.

Make sure to give this knee a kiss, too. Thank you, knee. And then release your leg. Feel your spine, and let's relax here. I'm going to tell you a story, so you stay on the earth and I'll sit up.

And I wanna tell you a story about a secret garden. So close your eyes, and picture yourself lying in a beautiful mountain meadow. You can feel the grass underneath you. You can hear the birds. You can feel the wind on your skin.

Can you hear the rustle of the leaves in the trees? And as you look around here, what a beautiful place. You feel safe and happy to be outside in nature with the sun and the wind and the earth. And as you're lying here, you notice that there's a path. And it's leading into the forest.

So you decide to get up. And you walk down this path, and at the end of the path there's a gate. You open the gate, and you keep walking down the path. And the path leads you to a magical garden. It's the most beautiful place you've ever seen with giant green trees and a beautiful stream that runs through the garden.

And there are flowers everywhere, pink flowers and orange flowers and yellow flowers, all the colors of the rainbow. And as you look around, you see fruit trees, apple trees, you even pick an apple. It's the most delicious apple you've ever tasted. And as you walk around this garden, you see a tree. It's a wishing tree, and tied to all the branches of the tree are tiny little pieces of paper.

And everyone who comes into this garden makes a wish. You find some paper on the ground, and you pick up this magical piece of paper. And you look at it and you make a wish. And holding this paper, you know your wish will come true. You take the piece of paper and you tie it to a branch of the tree.

And then you look around and you see your wish surrounded by so many other wishes of so many other people. And you take a moment here, and you feel yourself connected to all these people, all these dreams. And it makes you feel really happy to be a part of this. And you thank the tree for receiving your wish and all the other wishes of all the other people. And then you walk back down the path and through the gate, and back down to the beautiful meadow where you began.

And as you lie back down on the earth, and you feel the grass underneath you and the sky above you, you take a deep breath here. So happy, so grateful, to be you, to be in your body, to be on this beautiful planet. Close your eyes and breathe. And feel it. (exhales)