Melting into Safety

Welcome. Today we're going to start off seated so you can sit on a bolster if you like. What you want to look for is that your knees are a little bit lower than your hips. You can also sit up in a chair if that's more comfortable for you. Bring your palms to your knees and let them get a little sticky like you're palming a little mini basketball. We're gonna breathe as you inhale start to arch your low back, lift your heart, and open the front side of your heart. As you start your exhale start to tuck the tailbone rounding the spine, lean back into the support of the palms, open the back of the heart. As you inhale start to arch the low back a little like you're sticking your booty out, lift and open the front of the heart. As you exhale rounding, tucking the tailbone, letting the chin drop towards your chest, and following the rhythm of your breath. Lengthening up on the inhale, rounding and opening that space between your shoulder blades on the exhale. Getting a nice wave of movement to go through your spine, a wave that starts with your breath, and then moves up your spine from the tailbone up through your low back into the space of your heart, into your neck, and head. One more inhale, lengthening up, and as you exhale just return to neutral, sitting up tall, and take a pause. Then inhale again, get a little taller, and as you exhale tipping over to your left, place the left hand down on the mat. You can keep the hand in closer, slide it out. You want to open up this right side of the ribcage. You can take the right hand and sweep it towards the sky or past your ear. You can bend the elbow if that's more comfortable on your shoulder. You can also take that right hand and extend it down towards the ground to stretch the right side of your neck as well. One more breath here. Your next inhale, slowly coming up to center, pausing its center, inhaling yourself tall again, and as you exhale, tipping that tallness over to your right, taking the left hand and finding the place that helps open the spaces between the ribs. Those intercostal or in between rib spaces. There's a couple of layers of muscles in between the ribs that help open when they contract. They help to open the space in your ribcage so you can take a deeper breath. One more breath here. Next inhale, coming slowly back up to center and taking a pause. Inhale tall again, exhaling over to your left. Two more inhales. Feeling those right ribs open with each breath. Third inhale, inhale back to the center and exhale your way to the right. Lengthening through the left side.

Next inhale coming back to the center, inhale yourself tall, exhale over to the left again, finding the place that gives you more space in the side of the rib cage. Next inhale back to center and exhale to the right, opening the left side of the rib cage. Next inhale coming up and exhaling, releasing the hands down to the legs and take a pause here for a couple of breaths. We're going to take our palms and bring it to the side ribs. Bring your palms to the side ribs down at the low part of the ribs, right where the rib cage is kind of ending. I want to bring some awareness into the side parts of the diaphragm. A lot of times we tend to think of the breath as just moving forward and back from the belly, but it also comes into the side ribs. If this is an awkward position you can also bring your hands to the side ribs like you're hugging yourself, but I'm going to do it this way so you can see. And with your palms resting here, take a few breaths and imagine that you can fill your palms, you can breathe right into the sensation of your palms to your sides. Really trying to exaggerate and bring awareness to the lateral movement, the sides of the body movement as you breathe. Our breath is really a three-dimensional movement, it moves front, back, side, side and also top to bottom, not equally in a spherical sort of way, but in a really organic asymmetrical way. And we can bring a little awareness into these side ribs and then release your hands and take a few breaths. See if you can still breathe into those lateral spaces, the sides of your diaphragm, and then bringing the legs into butterfly position. And usually we do butterfly way in close, but we're going to do forward butterflies, so slide the feet a little forward, sit on the edge of your cushion if you're sitting on a cushion. If you're on a chair, you can do this in a chair, you can bring the soles of the feet together and come forward in a chair, or you can come down to the ground. You're going to sit up tall, inhaling, and as we exhale, tilting the pelvis forward and then letting the spine round, let your chin drop towards your chest. So some of us are going to just come slightly forward, some may bring the heart closer to the ankles, and then some of you may be placing your chest or your chin on your inner feet. Just coming to a comfortable rounded back position, just going as far as feels really yummy, letting the chin drop. And then in this position, taking a few breaths into those side ribs again. You may also feel your breath moving towards the back of your body in this position, it's wonderful. You can let your elbows rest on your legs or your palms on your legs or feet, some of you may walk your hands forward onto the floor, just going as far as feels good. Remember, deeper isn't necessarily better. Go for the sensations of yumminess, letting the chin drop. Your next inhale, you can slowly start to inhale your heart up and your head up.

Turn a little towards your left knee and exhale forward, bringing the hands to the leg or to the floor. And in this gentle forward fold, breathing again into the side ribs, side of the diaphragm, especially that right side that you're turning away from, a little extra opening here. Next inhale, slowly coming up and turning back to center, pausing. Inhaling yourself up tall as you exhale, turning a little towards your right leg and coming forward to a gentle forward fold over the right knee. Hands can come to the floor or to the leg for a few breaths. Your next inhale, slowly coming up and turning back to center for a pause. We're gonna come off of our cushion if we're on a cushion and bring a cushion or bolster onto your mat. I have this blanket set to go underneath my head and neck. And I'm gonna come on back supine on the spine and bringing my foot up onto that cushion or pillow, my feet. And here just take a moment to breathe again. Changing the body position will change the movement of your breath and will change the awareness of your breath. You come onto your back and the floor is going to give you a lot of feedback for how and where your breath is moving. Slowly drawing your right knee in towards your chest. And bring your hands to your knee and hug it in either straight towards your chest or a little out to the right side towards your right armpit. Whatever feels best for you. We're gonna cross that right ankle over the left knee. Now if your right knee is sensitive, lift the toes and keep the toes lifted. That also makes for a more intense hip stretch so you can do that if you want. And then taking the right arm between the legs, the left arm around the outside of the left leg, take a hold of either the back of the thigh or the left shin. If you can't reach you can use a belt of a robe or a yoga strap to extend the reach of your arm so you can come in to thread the needle or figure four pose. Basically the supine version of Pigeon. And breathe. Breathing into your side ribs, into your low back, and into your belly. For the next few breaths I'd like you to explore the direction of that left knee. You can try taking the left knee across the body over towards the right shoulder. It's going to change the angle of right hip and the stretch in the hip. You can take the left knee over towards the outside of the left shoulder. Always bringing awareness to your breath. Noticing if your breath starts to tighten up. Try to ease off the pose a little so you can breathe smoothly, easily in and out even while opening the hip. Then coming back to the center with the left knee. Inhale and as you exhale give a little gentle hug in towards the chest. As you inhale slowly release the left foot back down to your pillow or bolster.

On across the legs placing your right foot down and take a pause here for a couple of breaths. Then drawing on your exhale drawing the left knee up towards your chest and hugging that left knee in either straight towards the chest or a little out to the left side towards the left armpit. Then we're going to take that left ankle and cross it over the right knee. Left knee open out to the side. If your knee is sensitive lift left toes and keep them lifted the whole time. The left hand is going to go between the legs, the right hand around the outside. Maybe you're using the strap. You can take a hold of the back of the thigh or the shin wherever feels best for you and drawing that right knee in towards the chest. Paying attention to the movement of your breath. Explore the angle of that right knee taking it slowly across towards the left shoulder pausing any place where you feel a yummy stretch breathable stretch and slowly coming back to center and taking that right knee out towards the outside of the right shoulder for a couple of breaths. Coming back to the center with your right knee inhaling as you exhale drawing the knee gently in towards your chest and then slowly releasing the right foot down to the bolster on crossing the legs releasing the left foot down releasing the arms out to the sides and taking a few breaths to pause here. Notice the sides of your breath, sides of the ribcage and diaphragm. Then bringing one knee at a time up towards the chest inhaling and exhaling dropping both knees over towards left. You can keep your nose towards the center or roll your nose the opposite direction of your knees. Just take two breaths here breathing into the side body into the back body. In your next big inhale inhaling your knees to the center your nose to the center and exhaling your way to the other side. Your nose can stay at the center or you can roll it the opposite direction of your knees. For a couple of breaths here. Your next inhale inhaling your knees to the center your nose to the center and extending one leg at a time over the cushion or bolster. Finding a comfortable place for your arms. For the next few breaths feel the full dimensionality of your diaphragm. See if you can breathe into the back the sides the front of the diaphragm and breathe out letting your diaphragm relax completely as you exhale. As you inhale the front the back the sides working and releasing as you exhale. Eventually you'll let go of the effort with your breath and just rest. You're welcome to stay in the final relaxation for as long as you want. Even as in about a minute I'll talk you out of the final relaxation but feel welcome to stay there and just rest. If you want to come out of the pose you can deepen your breath and bring some movement into your toes and fingers. Slowly bringing one knee at a time in towards your chest and then rolling your way on to one side and pausing on your side for one breath. From your side let your head stay heavy as you roll a little forward. Chin comes to your chest as you slowly press your way up one vertebrae at a time and coming to find a comfortable seated position. Sitting up tall with your shoulders relaxed. Bringing your palms together in front of your heart and thank you for sharing practice today.