Rhythm and Bliss

Welcome to Rhythm and Bliss. We have a special lesson here together today and I want to talk a little bit about what rhythm means in terms of an asana practice. If you think of the body as an instrument and music in general, you can think of rhythm as all of the musicians all perfectly timed in, getting that groove down. It just feels so, so good to hear a groove like that and I want you to think of this practice kind of with that analogy in mind that the body we're trying to get all of its parts, the thighs, the arms, the legs, the torso, all into a rhythm and when we hit that rhythm it creates a container for the consciousness that helps to hold and expand it in all directions and that is what creates the bliss part and I want to make a little caveat for this today that please don't expect to experience it all in the first session that you try this. You might feel some rhythm in your forearm or rhythm in your leg and or maybe rhythm on one half of your body. So this is a lesson that you can come back to time and time again and use all of the principles of alignment. This is an ever-growing practice so I really encourage you to do that, all right. I've just got a folded blanket with me here today. We're going to lie on the back to start. Let's do it. I'm going to keep the blanket for my head, just a little extra comfort. Lie down on your back, knees bent and we'll just start here. Take a few easy breaths in and out through the nose, nice and light as we start things out and we'll bring the right knee into the chest, left leg down long on the mat and left arm overhead now. We're going to start by reaching in opposite directions.

First few movements and stretches here just to create some awareness, a little bit of heat in the body. Ease off the stretch a little and we'll repeat again. Left arm, left leg reaching in opposite directions. Bring your awareness and your attention deeper into your body, feel all of your parts, arms, legs, torso, mind, breath. One more time reaching in opposite directions and then arm and leg come back in, left knee into chest, right leg down long and flat on your mat, right arm overhead. Holding the left knee snug to the chest, reach the arm and leg, right arm and leg in opposite directions along the floor. Breath is still slow, soft and easy through the nose, reaching and unreaching. Two more, reach, open up the entire right side line and relax. Let's make this the last one and relax. Arm and leg come back in, bent legs, join knees and feet together with feet on the floor and we'll cross the right leg completely over the left, right leg completely over the left and tip the knees to the right side. One note here that you don't want to pull or press real hard with the right leg over the top of the left. Just let gravity do the work here and let it be more about a twist through the pelvis. Come back, unwind the legs, cross the other way. Now we're tipping the knees to the left, little hip stretch, little low back twist and one more time each side. Right leg completely over the left, knees drop to the right and back to center. Left over right, we drop the two knees to the left side and back to center. Figure four stretch starting with the right leg, right ankle on left knee, left knee comes toward your chest, two hands grab around the left thigh. Another hip stretch here to warm up for our standing poses coming in just a few moments and then release. Second side, left ankle on top of right knee, grab hold of the right thigh. Slow, soft, easy breaths through the nose. We try to hold that breath rhythm throughout the entire practice as challenging as that may be and the more you practice like this, the more you'll be able to do all of the breathing through the nose and then release. Turn to your side, let's come up onto hands and knees. Take the blanket away if you're using one, put it off to the side and we'll start you with a little cat and cow spinal motion up and down, just a few.

Breath is flowing nice and easy in and out through the nose, spine goes up, spine goes down and then cross ankle on ankle. Knees come in just a little bit, just maybe about hip width or slightly more narrow than that and then push your hips to one side, push your hips to the other side back and forth and trying to get a little stretch in the outer hips as we go from side to side. A couple more, cross the ankles the other way around, other ankle on top and push the hips side to side. When I do this, the lower foot, the lower ankle is where I feel the best stretch. You can see how you feel with that but lower ankle tends to be the better accessed stretch when we do this. Then we'll take the left foot forward into a kneeling lunge, gently coming forward into an easy groin stretch. Take your time on this, it's just the first one and then gliding back, adding a principle of alignment here, gliding in a little bit, pushing down to the back heel of the left foot. That gives us the support of the hamstring. Come back again, the principle of support. One more time, pushing down through the left heel, feeling the support of the hamstring and then backing out of the pose a little, right hand down to the floor, turning the chest to the left. We're going to do our best to capture the right foot. See how I did that? Opposite hand reaches around to grab that foot and now turning gently and going for the quad stretch here. Another principle of alignment, balancing the content and container here. Spine through the twist is equal, distant from both sides of the body. So I'm neither bowed or rounded, holding there. And then easy, let go of the foot. Step back, left leg, let's try it on the other side. Three times we'll do the groin stretch, hands on the front knee, lean forward into the stretch. Take it easy on this first one.

Come back, adding the principle of alignment of support, pushing down on the back side of your right heel to feel like you've got some resistance from the right hamstring. That helps us not to fall into and overstretch the joints. Come back, one more time, supporting with the right hamstring. And then coming back, setting up for the quad stretch. Left hand on the floor, turning the chest to the right side and again trying to keep the spine even within the container of the torso. Neither bowing or dropping. I'll keep everything as centered as we can. Turning and now right hand comes around to capture left foot, holding there. A few soft, easy breaths. If you happen to get a hamstring cramp on the back leg, which is sometimes it happens, just come out of the pose, shake it out and join us again. Repeated efforts in this pose will actually help that to go away as the hamstring builds its strength. And then gentle let go. Once again, let's step back into cat and cow. Easy up and down with the spine. And then a downward facing dog. Tuck your toes. We're going to go for a bent knee downward dog to start. Raise the knees and we'll keep the knees well bent. Very well bent and the heels super duper high. Then pressing the lower abdomen towards the tops of the legs. Lower abdomen towards the tops of the legs. And pressing with our arms, we've got two strong lines of the arms.

The inner edge of the arm from the inner wrist to the inner shoulder. Outer edge of the arms from the outer wrist to the outer shoulder. Those two lines we try to make exactly parallel to hold the arm bones in the center of the arm. And then lower your knees. Take a little rest there. Shake the body left and right. Let's go again from the bent knee pose. Lower abdomen toward the top of the thighs holding there. Set your arm lines. Inner and outer edge of the arm. And then straightening the legs with the heels maximum height. Give yourself the freedom to straighten the legs without much challenge of the hamstrings. Then pedal the legs, pedal the heels, pedal the ankles, up and down. Get some stretch in there. Some mobilization. Can you do that as you keep an eye on the lines of your arms? The parallel lines of the inner and outer edges of your arms. So that we always have the support for the spine in this pose and create a little rhythm. First time I'll mention that as we progress towards standing poses. Then feet together. You're in your dog pose with highest heels. Raise the left leg as high as you can while focusing on the support of your arms.

Lower the leg. Lower your knees. Sit back on shins and we're going to clasp the hands behind the back to stretch the wrist. We'll clasp the hands and then we're going to bulge the wrists out like that. Okay. Clasping the hands and then straighten the arms and press the wrists left and right to the sides to help stretch out the wrists. And then release. Hands on the mat. We'll take another dog pose. Set the lines of your arms. Support with the tricep and bicep. And from a bent knee pose first. Lift your heels up super duper high and straightening the legs. Feet together. We're going to lift the right leg. Now can you do this keeping an eye on the arms, the stretch of your spine, and without disturbing that rhythm, raise your right leg up. In such a way that you join the rhythm of your arms, spine, and leg. Holding there. One line.

And then bring the leg down. Once again, sit to the shins and interlace the fingers. Here's the thing. We almost always do it the same way every time. So this is the lower pinky. I'm going to make the other hand own the lower pinky by shifting gears. Take that lock behind the back. Once again, puff the wrists out to the side as you straighten your arms. This is just a little uh counter pose for the wrists. And then release. We're taking a dog pose to move into standing poses now. Ready, lift the knees. Press up and back high heels. Then stretching your heels toward the floor. Again, eyes, inner eye that is, on the arms and spine stretch. Look forward. Step to the front of the mat. Hands on knees. Pause there for a minute and stretch the arms over your head. Nice deep seated pose. Come all the way out and rest your arms. Let's start our standing pose sequence with wide legs. Our target is rhythm through the other alignment principles. The support and action of the leg muscles. Hugging the bones. Creating even and equal lines on all four planes of all the limbs and the torso. Holding the content right in the center of the container, the skin, the periphery of the body. That's how we can feel and sense where we are in the pose. And with all of that, we create our rhythm. Stretch your arms to the side. From your hips to your heels, press the legs into the floor and feel the support of your thigh muscles. Hold and hug the bones. Bring the thighs back a little to begin to create your even front and back lines. Feel the parallel lines of the torso and the balanced upper and lower lines of the arm. Then to the right side, we're going to turn the left foot deeply in, arms up, and we're going to call this a warrior pre-pose.

Same thing. Stretch the legs into the floor to create the support and hug of the muscles to the bone. With that support, then balance the lines of the legs. Inner, outer, top, and bottom. Hold the content right in the center. So I can feel my torsos turned off to the side. My rhythm is broken there. I'm turning to center now. Warrior one. Hold your balance. Bent the front knee. Now in this pose, this brings the bend to the spine, the back bend of the spine. The rhythm here is to see that the bend is even and equal throughout the entire spine. Straighten the leg. Come back to the pre-pose. Hands behind your back. Half parsvottanasana. Fold from the hips, keeping the legs strong, muscles hugging the bone, content in the center. Folding or bowing about halfway down. Lift the trunk, raise the arms. Bend again the right knee. Holding the rhythm of the legs, lines of the legs, and the balanced arch of the spine. Again, straighten the front leg. Clasp the hands.

Full parsvottanasana. Folding at the hips, taking the trunk down. Balanced length on the right and left sides of the trunk, creating rhythm. Come back up. Arms above your head. Turn open to the left side, and we're moving into warrior two now. Again, with the lines of the legs, the contents in the center of the container, bending the right knee for warrior two. If you focus on the rhythm of the arms, equal energy, working from both arms, top and bottom, inside and outside. Hold there. Look over your right hand. Then, parsvottanasana. Side angle pose. Keep the rhythm of the leg. Don't let it get disturbed as you fold over the right leg, and either forearm on thigh, support with your hamstring underneath, or take it full depth. Make a rhythmic line from your left heel, through to your right, left hand, through to your left hand. Hold there. Feel for the line.

Remember, why is the line important? Why do we want to make the shape? We're trying to hold and contain consciousness so we can expand that consciousness into a quiet stillness, even though the work is happening in the pose. Left arm to the ceiling. Press back, triangle pose. If you need a block or if you want to hold hand on shin, that's perfectly fine. Two straight legs, equal and balanced action. Top of the leg, active. Bottom of the leg, supporting. Inner left groin, lifting from heel to hip. Top hand to your hip. Bend your forward leg. Step in with your back foot a bit. Let's take the rhythm into a challenging pose, half moon. Right hand on the floor, straightening the right leg. Create support, resistance behind the back of the right leg as you lift your right quad. We'll keep the left hand on the hip, balancing your lines. Good. Roll the pelvis to face the floor. Both hands on the floor. Release the back foot down and bend your forward standing right leg. Then again, raise the left foot up. You could keep the standing leg bent or for a deeper challenge, straightening the right leg and bowing toward that shin. And tap down the left foot. You can take a little crouch as we begin to stand up, let the blood come down. Standing up and raise the left leg. Capture underneath that thigh, the left thigh. And now you have to create a support with the right quad. You have to brace back that femur to keep the contents in the center of the container. I'll do that now. You'll see my shape change. Now I extend the left leg. You could keep the leg bent if you like or challenge the straightening. And then bend the knee. Tadasana. Create rhythm in this basic pose.

Press the back edges of your heels down, thighs back, quadriceps equally and equivalently hugging the femur bone. Balance front and back body. Raise your arms up to the ceiling. One rhythmic line from the base of your feet to the very tips of your fingers. Release your hands down. Turn wide open to the long edge of your mat again. Right side, check. Let's do the left. Starting from here. Let's create the rhythmic balance in this pose. Thighs back, quads lifting from knees to hips, hamstrings and calves supporting and hugging the bones. Contents in the center. Torso equal front to back. Arms equal top bottom, inside outside. Raise the arms above your head. Turn to the left side. We start here. Again, I can feel my torso hasn't turned rhythmically all the way around yet. Now I've got it facing the left side.

Both legs active. First is warrior one. Without disturbing the rhythm of your back leg, bend. And by disturbing the rhythm of the back leg, typically we over push this side. We make it quite long. Back leg becomes shortened. So I have to keep that stability there. I'm doing that now. And now I bend. Straightening the left leg, clasp the hands behind. This will be a halfway bow into parsvottanasana. Back leg rhythm. Front leg rhythm. Holding there. Torso equal length. Front side, back side. Come back up. Sweep the arms above your head. Warrior one. And again, come back with straight leg. Clasp the hands. This is the full bow into parsvottanasana. Equal length on both sides of the trunk. And if you go down to a certain point and things start to distort, then that's the limit for you today. And it doesn't matter where that limit is. The magic is in the rhythm, not how deeply you can fold. That's an important point to remember with yoga. It's not the depth of the fold that you create. It's the rhythm. That's the bonus for the consciousness and for the health of the body. Come back up. Sweep your arms above your head. Warrior one. Into warrior two now. Hold there. Back leg line. Front leg. Equal length with a back leg. So sometimes we have to bring that leg back. You can still turn the pelvis a little bit to do that if you're feeling overstretched here at the right leg. So many points we can play with to create this rhythm. Hold warrior two. Supporting underneath the two legs as we enter parsvottanasana, either forearm to the thigh or take the hand all the way down.

So you remember our line from the last time, from the right heel to the right fingertips? How about the support and resistance of this hamstring helping to hold the baddhaekmon so the torso can freely reach. Create your rhythm. Triangle pose. Pressing the left leg back. Right arm to the ceiling. You can put the hand on the shin or keep the hand on the floor. Left hamstring supporting. Left quadricep drawing up deeply into the hip crease.

Inner edge of the right leg. Lifting. Torso. Balanced right side, left side. Bring the top hand to your hip. Bend your left leg. Walk in a little. We're headed for half moon pose. Reach the left hand out. Body weight over the left leg. And we'll try to balance. On my challenge side here. And sometimes that challenge, that wobbliness will just blow rhythm right out of the water. And that's where props and walls and support become so powerful as we get the benefit that we would miss otherwise. Then turn the pelvis to face the floor. Release the back leg down. Two hands on the ground. And bend your left leg. We'll start here by raising the right foot off the mat.

And again, you could keep your standing leg bent. No problem. And just work on the rhythm of your back leg or straighten your left leg and bow the trunk towards your shin. And then release the right toes to the floor. Take a little crouched position here for a moment. Let the blood flow back down. Standing up. Bring your right leg forward. Capture underneath the fold of the knee. The tendency here as we bring the leg up is we bow backwards. We're going to create support in front of the right leg, excuse me, of the left leg. And then straighten. And bend the knee. Release your pose. Mountain pose to recover. And the active mountain pose, we're simply trying to find that balanced rhythm.

Thighs back, quads lifting. Hamstrings and calves supporting the back of the leg. This creates even lines in the front and back of the leg and holds the content directly in the center. Trunk equally balanced front side, back side. Raise your arms up. And release your arms. Step wide, arms out, arms up, and hold. How about rhythm here? And then relax. Heel toe, heel toe. Let's turn to the short edge of the mat and flow to dog pose. Arms up. Bend your knees. Touch the hands to the floor. Plank pose. And pause. Can you create an even balance in your plank pose? Front side of the body, equal length with the back side of your body. And then keep that rhythmic feeling. Both edges of the body, front and back side, even, even, even throughout the entire descent to the floor.

And point your toes. Good job. Roll your chest up. Release the chest down. Tuck your toes. Dog pose. And then looking forward, raise your heels. Join your feet together. Right knee. Let's go left. Left knee to left elbow. Left leg back. Watch my right leg bend as I push back through the left heel.

One more time. Left knee, left elbow. Reaching back with the right leg bending and I push back through the left heel. Joining feet together. Now the right knee. Here we go. Right knee, right elbow. We're leaning into a plank. And now left leg bends, right leg back. One more time. Right knee coming forward into a plank and touching the elbow, maybe. And then sending it back. Join the feet together. Left leg to ceiling. Here comes a lovely pose. Pigeon pose. Tucking the left leg in front of you. Point the right toes back.

And we'll try to create our rhythm here. Focusing on the right leg, the back leg, and the arch of the body. In this pose, you might need some support underneath your left hip. If you feel any pinching in the hip, if it's too aggressive on the spine or the knee isn't happy, please do take some support. A block or folded blanket would be great for that. To create our rhythm in this pose, the first task is to try to create a balanced front and back line of the right leg, the backside leg. What we often do in this pose is press the front of the right hip too much into the ground. So we have to shorten that a little by tilting the pelvis a little forward. Now I can feel a little bit more evenness and you can see my body can more easily touch the ground now. Then I take the balance line of the leg and allow the spine to express its curve. And I see to create a balanced curve from the lower back. I'm not letting it my lower back. Take everything. My mid back, which I'll do now, has to do some work. And to do that, the mid back has to go deeper into the container. And then release. Support with your hands and back leg. Lift and just go to hands and knees for a moment. Wiggle the legs. Give your hips a little chance to release before we go into dog pose. Hips side to side. And now let's take the dog pose. Lift your knees. High heels, bent knees. A little easier way to get a refresh from your pigeon pose than the straightness that we typically do in dog pose. Looking forward now. Right leg forward into pigeon pose. Take whatever props you need for the right hip. First job we'll do is balancing the line. The front line of the leg from hip to ankle. The back line of the leg from the top of the hamstring to the heel bone. You'll see me make that change now where I tip the pelvis a little bit more forward. Just a little. Now my body settles right into the pose. I don't feel much aggressive stretch at all in the front of the left hip, which is good because we often overstretch those poor hip ligaments. We don't want to do that. We want to keep those ligaments happy for decades and decades to come. With the line of my back leg balanced, both lines balanced, I work with the arch now. Again, the mid and upper back have to do their job by going more deeply into the body and you'll see me do that now.

And then again, we'll come out of the pose, pausing here in hands and knees position and gently wiggling the legs left and right. You can take a few circles before we hit downward dog. Let's do a bent knee downward dog. The arms are rhythmically balanced inside edge, outside edge, helping to support completely open the spine. And then lower your knees. Pigeon pose can lead to upward facing dog. It's almost the same pose, but now the legs are straight. Then we'll take the hips down low, walk the knees a little closer to the hands, roll the shoulders back. Why do we do that? Why do we hear that cue in classes? Because we can now create a balanced line, pardon me for just a moment, from the front and back lines of the arm. Okay, and now we're in up dog. Now lift the thighs, holding there, five count. Hunt for your rhythm. Ease down out of the pose, press back. Our little recovery pose here is the wiggling hips of cat cow. And then we'll come all the way down to the mat for a bow pose.

Our final back bend in the series today. Bend the right leg, capture the right ankle, bend the left leg, capture that ankle. Rhythm. Lift up the knees just slightly, roll the shoulders back. Press the feet into the hands and resist against the feet with the hands. Can you create an even, rhythmic bend in the spine where neither the lumbar or any other part is taking too much? All parts equally contributing. And then gently release. Let your feet fall to the mat and rest your head on your hands. Swish your hips left and right, wobble your legs left and right.

And as our first recovery pose from the back bends, left knee will slide it along the floor and close to that shoulder. Release that leg back. Right knee, slide it right up towards the right shoulder. And this is just to come out of the back bends slowly, gently. And right leg down. Press the hands and knees.

Knees apart, feet together, right hand first, thread the needle. Once you've set the shoulder down, slide your torso and right shoulder closer to the left edge of your yoga mat. Slow, soft, easy breathing, letting the body unwind from the work today. Unwind, second side, slide through with the left arm, touch down shoulder, side of the head, and then shift the torso closer to the right edge of your mat as you create your twist. Come out of that pose. Let's grab a blanket for the head as we turn to lie down on the back. Let's take a final easy twist by bringing the knees up, rocking them over to the left side first.

Bring the legs back to center, right side for the twist, and then knees to center. Let the feet rest on the mat for just a moment, and we'll take a little bit of a deeper twist this time. Take the knees all the way into the chest and use the left hand to hug them close as you once again roll the legs to the left side, but this time we keep the legs a little closer to the torso. Take the legs as far as you feel comfortable. Slow, soft, easy breaths in and out through the nose, and come back to center. Right hand holds the knees a little close to the chest and rolling the knees to the right side. Nice and easy. Take it down as far as you like, but we keep the knees close to the chest on this on this particular release pose.

And then come back to center. Two knees to the chest one more time. Both hands hug around the shins, nose to knees. Lift up, curl in, and hold. Let the feet down for a moment. Left knee to chest. This is going to be a half baby pose where I grab hold the outside of the foot. Arm comes from the inside and grabs the outside edge of the foot. Right leg to the ceiling and right leg straight legs slide slowly down towards your yoga mat.

Hold about a foot off the ground there. A breath in as you exhale. Lift the head and look at your right foot. Right hand reaches as though to touch there. Head down, release the limbs, and let's do one more time on the other side. Right leg, bent knee comes toward the shoulder. Right arm on the inside then grabs the outside of the foot. Raise the left leg all the way up to the ceiling. As you hold the right leg in place, lower your left leg down toward the floor. Hover it about a foot off the mat.

Take an easy breath in and out through the nose. As you lift your head, curl the shoulders off the mat and reach as though to touch your left foot. And then head down, release the limbs, drop the legs right side, left side, right side, and left side a few times. And then coming to center, let's set up for a rhythmic shavasana. First thing to do is set the pelvis and spine so that it creates a beautiful centered line. Adjust so the pelvis is level, right side and left side, neither side any closer to its shoulder. And then the spine equally balanced from the lumbar all the way up to the base of the skull. Gently tuck each shoulder underneath a little tiny bit, just a little, so that the arm bones roll out from inside out. And then place the arms in such a way that they're equidistant from the sides of the body. Right leg down slowly, left leg down slowly. And check that they are also the same distance away from the midline, equidistant from the midline. And slowly allow the energy of the legs to relax, letting the feet drop side to side.

And let your eyes close. And using your awareness to scan through your body. And you'll notice particular areas that hook your attention. There's little, little placements here and there that aren't quite perfectly equivalent, but you'll remember that for next time. And ways to make your adjustments better and better and better as you grow in your practice. And slow, soft, easy breaths in and out through the nose as we rest into this pose. So if you would like to stay longer in your Shavasana and enjoy that feeling, please do stay as long as you need. If you're ready to come up, let's wiggle the toes, bring the hands towards your center, stretch over your head and wake up the muscles just a little bit before we come to sitting. Bring the hands down and bend the knees, turn to your right side and rest your head on a blanket or your hands. And then press up to sitting.

We can use our folded blanket as a little lift underneath our sitting pose. What a pleasure to do this lesson with you. Thank you so much for being here. Rhythm is truly an amazing concept and again, it's a never-ending concept. We can create deeper and deeper levels of rhythm through our practice. You can watch this lesson over and over again and combine it with the other principles of alignment and we'll see how far we can go together. We'd love to hear your comments in the comment section and I can't wait to see you again. Take care.