Day 1: Anchor in Autonomy

Welcome. I'm Bax, and this is a practice for centering yourself. We'll integrate all the ranges of the spine, and any time your mind gets distracted, just put your hand on your belly and you begin again. So let's start reclined. Take yourself to parallel feet, and even from the beginning, we begin with our core. So we just parallel our arms as well and scoop that belly in and just drip by drip. Let's go down that spine. Take your time. It's easy to want to rush. We're here to unhurry ourselves. As soon as you get down, you might be like me and you might want to reorient yourself. So I puff my chest, I slide my hips down and my heels in, and we begin with just a little bit of clocking. So when I think of the clock, I think my navel is 12, and I feel my pubic bone is six. So I'm just going to flatten my back, and I coordinate my breath. I'm exhaling here. And then when I articulate the other direction, I'm inhaling. So I'm just demonstrating if you need a moment to look at the movement of my pelvis and then join. Great. We're going to do five more rounds, and if you sneak in a sixth, good for you. So you exhale and you feel a nice flattening of your back. Beautiful. And then when you inhale, you feel yourself peel your pubic bone gently away. There's a little tiny rainbow under your lumbar. And this wave-like fashion really helps my nervous system come back into the space of this body, this breath. So while I'm not cueing each movement for you, I'm trusting that when you move, you're breathing. And as you're breathing, you're moving. It's that simple. I have just two more rounds, and I don't know how it feels in your body, but it's significant. I already feel a little bit of adjustments happening in my low spine. You might have even just heard one. So now we come back to center. To me, center is where my navel and my pubic bone are level. So I will curl up and look and make sure if they were on the seesaw that they were balanced. And I'm going to take my hands under my head, interlace my fingers. I'm holding my head in my hands like a hammock. We're going to do a classic curl up, or some people call it a sit up. You'll just take a deep breath in to prepare, and then you'll exhale and you'll curl your head and shoulders up. Kind of funnel those ribs, knit them down, level in the pelvis, and then inhale, come down. So simple, and yet, five more. Exhale. It's this effort of ease and coming into that essence, as we call it in yoga. Exhale, curl your rasa, your personal flavor. So each time my mind wanders, I just lift my ten toes and gently press them down. And as I'm doing this, I feel this great fullness last to that my body moves. So this is flexion and extension. On this final one, see if when you curl, you can keep your jaw nice and slacky and your face attractive, and then come down. And now we're going to add a cross. So your right elbow is going to come towards your left thigh.

No movement in my legs at all. And then down. And then yes, your left elbow is going to come towards your right thigh. Again, I feel a little shaky and that's so good for me. I twist right elbow, left thigh, my pelvis, working to be level. And then come down and as you exhale, you come up and across. Now what if your breath is the opposite? What if when you come up, you're inhaling, no stress, just get anchored in this breathing moment and twist. By my count, I have two more. You might be faster or slower. If you get more and good for you, remember the energy is I am here. So on this last round, because two, as we know, is really four because we go right to left and then come down and then we go left to right. Good. So here we are. We're going to take our left hand out to the side. You'll notice my palm is facing up. I call these side parentheses there for the oblique. I'm holding the back of my head with my right hand and I'm just going to side tap my smallest finger toward my outer ankle on the left foot. Five more. Exhale and inhale. I love this one. Exhale and inhale because what it does is it wakes up that side seam of the body. And for these last two, can you relax your head in your neck? I noticed I was a little bit overdoing there and then the left hand comes behind the head. The right hand comes outside and we go for six breathing. Maybe you're exhaling as you tap. Inhale, come back and then exhale. You just have three more, my friends. Okay. So when we go here, if there's room to slow it down, we slow it down last time and then come through the center and slowly come down. So this is that moment where just give yourself a breath, roll your shoulder blades in and now let's articulate our bridge to kind of bring us back to that central line. So what does that mean? Peel your pubic bone and then your tailbone and then your sacrum up and off the mat. A little pressure in the feet, a little waking in the back of the legs. Up you come, up you come, up you come. And then you settle here for a moment. Take a deep breath in and then on your exhalation, just ripple down to the best of your ability, right? Without judgment, without judgment to the best of your ability. We're scooping that navel in and drip by drip coming down and then you get there. And now maybe you feel the back of your legs. Beautiful job. Let's hug our right knee into our chest.

I'm going to weave my fingers and slide my left heel down the mat. Now, as I gently nudge my right thigh toward my right ribs, I'm going to flex my left foot. How about a little add on for your right foot? Let's point and flex and circle around the ankle one direction and then the other. This is just so your feet feel like they're part of this practice because they are. Slide your left heel in, switch your legs and again, pay attention to each micro movement as if you extend that right leg from the navel, flex the right foot, point and flex the left one and then circle around a little bit of hydration and lubrication happening there. And then slowly you will slide your left heel back onto the mat as your right thigh comes in. Now, if you need to modify, okay, this is where you are. We're going to take those hands behind the head. We're going to repeat that pattern of curl, twist, side. So again, if you need to be right here, it's just a knee fold. I'm just going to demonstrate curl and switch legs. If you don't need to be there, you slide the leg and the left leg hovers and yes, nose, navel, pubic bone, we curl right to the center and then we switch. If you want to come down, curl up and then you switch. You want to come down, curl up. Now, if at any time it's too much, you can hear I'm already shaking. I'm so happy about it. Come down, switch legs, curl up and then switch. I'm going real slow. Why am I going slow? Because I know come down, switch, curl up, slowness is beauty. I just have one more round on each side. I hope you do too. And if you're going faster, you might feel like this is a lot. Now I bring both knees in and I lower my feet and my head and shoulders. When we add this crisscross again, the longer the lever of the leg, the more challenging. So just stay true to yourself. So I'll demonstrate the modification is right elbow, left knee, my right foot is down and then I come down and switch. Okay. That's one round. If you want more, when your right elbow comes to your left knee, you're just hovering. That's two. We know we're counting to six today. If you're sneaking in two more, good for you. And if you're sneaking in two less, Hey, I appreciate that you know less is more. I'm on my last round and my core is saying, wow, you haven't been paying attention to me both knees in and then down. Now this is the one for me that just like gets me every time. So again, the left knee will fold in. You're going to the side. This is sort of for your brain. And then you're lowering your left foot, folding in your right to the side. If it's too much, just don't lift the leg as high. If you think I'm a powerhouse, then you come through the center, you straighten and hover right leg. I go to the side, both knees come in. And then I go to the right side. Now, if for some reason your hip makes a funny sound, which sometimes happens, I'm on my second round. What's the remedy? The remedy is to take the leg higher. So the leg that goes straight and you noticed even my voice went higher. Good. We go there and we enjoy what's happening in our body. And if you've never done these wind show wiper side ones, they can be pretty profound. I'm already on my last round and I'm kind of thanking goodness that that's where I am. If you sneak in an extra one, good for you. Come through center, come down, turn the palms of the hands up, give yourself that moment. So this is the moment, the pause, the permission to feel, right? The moment before we want to react, I'm just going to take a deep breath. I'm going to relax. I'm not rushing. It's all going to happen. Now hug those knees into your chest. You can hug on your thighs. If it's too far or on your shins, you'll just rock up to seated. Look at that. That was kind of magical. You'll extend your legs. I like to pull the flesh back off my sit bones and then you'll interlace your hands behind your head. That's part of the theme today. We're going to twist to our left, come through the center and then twist to your right center. We're going to side bend over to your left center and side bend over to the right. Come on up and then you will inhale, lift your chest chin and then you will exhale. Relax those shoulders round. Now you'll sit up tall. Take your hands underneath your right knee, fold your right knee in and then externally rotate it. This is Janu Shirsasan. My left hip, knee and ankle are straight. If it feels right for you, you'll inhale your arms up. Here's that rotation and then we extend and fold. Now if your hands land on the outside of your knee, your shin bones, your foot, be grateful, inhale, lengthen and fold. Wherever you are, be grateful. This pose incorporates all of what you have primed your spine to be capable of. So now we breathe in through the nose and out through the nose. I'm softening the lens of my eyes. Being grateful here looks and feels like thank you body, thank you breath. Inhale, come all the way up, fold the right thigh in, slide the leg out and then fold the left knee in and externally rotate. Again, we sit up tall, we feel the rotation, the swivel of the left ribs, the arms come up wherever you land, thigh, shin bone, ankle, bottom of the foot. Take a deep breath in and then fold. We are bathing in our breath as a way in. What is the way in? The way in is through the breath. Maybe you start to lower the left ribs and lift the right ones.

Maybe your forehead touches your knees. Remember it's a practice. So you just keep showing up. It's not result oriented. Inhale, come all the way up and then take the hands down. Slide that left knee in, the right knee in and just inhale, sit up tall. And now exhale around your back. Cross your right calf in front of your left. You're just going to come and prop yourself forward. Look at that. Smooth, graceful, slowly, gently come all the way down. When we get down, we lift our right leg and then our left. And our hands come under our shoulders. Just prop those elbows in by your sides. And then inhale, lift for low cobra. Now, if you have a little more lift, go ahead. Your cobra feels a little spicy. Lift a little higher. Remember though, this is how I always test the water as I lift my hands to keep me honest. Because if I nose dive down, I know I've gotten a little feisty and I want to just tame it. Now lift your legs. Now lift your hands and breathe. In, out, in, out. Beautiful. Release down. You can stack your hands and wrist your forehead. If you'd like to shake out your hips, go ahead and shake out your hips. All right, my friends, put your hands under your shoulders. Let's push back for a moment, excuse me, into child's pose. Again, a little diagnostic. How am I feeling right now? And then slowly we're going to come forward. Now, if you have any shoulder, elbow, wrist issues, and you'd like to do this on your fists or your forearms, honor that. We are going into one of my favorite shapes, plank pose. So I look at my hands, I spread my hands like starfish. I elevate my knees so my shoulders are above my elbows and my wrists. And I'm just going to steady myself here. Steady myself, a little slurp of the navel. We're going to just rock forward for a moment and back. So I rock onto my toes and back, forward and back. One more. This might heat you up a little. Forward and back. It's sneaky. If you need your knees to be down, honor your body. All right, I'm going to lift my knees. Guess what's going to happen. Lift the right knee and leg and right thigh to the chest and then back with the left leg, right thigh to the chest and back. How about two more of these? Knee or thigh to chest, back, left leg lifts, in, back. I'm shaking. Right leg lifts, back, left leg lifts, thigh to chest, back, lower than knees. Give yourself a moment. Yes, child's pose. It's just a moment because we know it's central, it's twisting and then it's same side. Come forward. I can sense the bubbly enthusiasm as you lift the knees or you keep them down. Lift the right leg, right knee, left elbow and back and down. Left leg lifts, left knee, right elbow, back and down. Two more. Are you breathing? Exhale, inhale, lift left, exhale, inhale, lift right, exhale, inhale, left, cross, back, lower knees, child's pose. So what is this moment that we breathe in the middle? It's permission to pause, to feel. Come forward, lift the knees. What do you think it is? I know what it is. Lift right knee and leg, right knee to right elbow and back and down. Lift left leg, left knee, left elbow, back and down. One more on the right and back and down and the left and actually there's one more. Yeah, there is. Lift, take it, release, lift. Other side, I'm shaking, release, down, push. Turn the palms of the hands up for a moment. Yes, we're in the home stretch. So don't bail on yourself now. This is when it gets good. We're right here. Turn the palms of the hands up.

What am I willing to bring into this body? What am I willing to bring in? I know. Just one more thing. Look forward. Palms forward. Come forward. Come on to your right forearm. Yeah, we're going to do this together. What are we going to do? Take the left hand behind the head. Hips go up and down. Two more, up and down. Last one, up and down. Now take your left elbow toward your right thumb and up. Two more, down and up. Last one, down and up. All right friends, come on to both forearms. Just for a moment. Rock forward and back, forward and back, forward, back. You know what to do. Roll onto that left forearm. Hand behind the head on the right. Hips up and down, up and down. Final one, friends. Up and down and then we twist because we're bringing it all home. We're rinsing it out. And two, exhale. Can you hear that breath? I can. Exhale and down. Now come on to the right forearm. Give yourself a moment. We're right here. You earned this. Glide forward and back, lower knees, thighs, pubic bone. Rest just for one moment on your forehead.

Shake it out. And then flip over onto your back. I really do have that moment in my body when we do those challenging poses, hand, heart, hand, belly, or just turn the palms of the hands up. Let yourself soften. Let yourself soften. Scan the body from the feet, through the ankles, the calves, the knees. Scan your body for your breath. If there's anything that needs to shift or move, I need to puff my chest, roll my shoulder blades, do that. If you need to shake or wriggle. Give yourself full permission for a grateful moment of thank you. The opportunity of the practice. Never the obligation. At every moment you get to do this. If you'd like to stay in this reclined, unspooled shape longer, go ahead. Feel free to just let yourself, douse yourself in this moment. And if not, gently find your way back to your seat. Bring your hands, heart center, and prayer Anjali Mudra. Thank yourself for taking great care. Namaste.