Day 9: Clarity

Hello, friends. Welcome. You've made it all the way to day nine of our 10-day challenge. I'm proud of you. I hope you are too. Today's theme is clarity. Clarity. What is clarity? It's the ability, right, to see without obstruction, to just witness what is, right, without anything clouding our judgment. So today's sequence will create conditions for you to cultivate clarity, although I would venture to say that the previous eight days have also helped you find a little bit of clarity and your ability to see without obstruction. So for props today, you will need two blocks and a yoga strap or something that you use to substitute a yoga strap. And we're going to begin, my friends, in a reclined position. So you'll come to lie down on your back. Join me on your back. Take your time. Draw your knees into your chest for a moment and just arrive here. Extend your legs and arrive there and just feel. You know, we've changed our orientation to gravity, so be a little sensitized to what that does for the body and the mind. And then please step your feet to the floor. And then you're going to go ahead and grab your strap, friend, and draw your right knee into your chest. You're going to loop the ball of your right foot into the strap and extend through that knee. Reach your heel, right heel up to the ceiling, any amount. Maybe you're able to right away extend all the way through the knee. If not, no worries. Give the back of the leg some time to release. Maybe you pulse a little bit, but also send your right hip forward. So sometimes when we draw the leg towards us, that hip wants to hike up. Send your right hip forward towards the top of your mat there. Reach up through your right heel. Crawl your hands up the strap so your elbows are straight and then plug the shoulders back down into the floor. And then extend your left leg along the floor. Reach through the inner edges of both feet. So both feet and legs are actually in tadasana. They're just in different relationship to the pelvis. So nice and neutral. And then take both ends of the strap into your left hand. You will hook your right thumb into your right hip crease as you cross your right leg over your body. Just a small amount and maybe marveling at the sensation that arises just through this small movement. Keep sending that right hip forward so that right side of your body stays long. Keep reaching the inner edge of your right foot away from you. And then you can release your right hand and arm. Reach the right arm out to the side. The elbow can stay soft. And we'll pause here for a few breaths. Keep the knee soft. So that may mean actually bending the knee. It may mean just some energetic softness. Staying supple. Staying supple. Keeping that sense of ease and flow in the body. And we'll take a few breaths here. Noticing if the right side of the body wants to shorten. Keeping it long. And noticing how lengthening that right side of your body has an effect on the rest of the shape. You may feel called to cross the leg over the body a little bit more. Making sure that you're not gripping the strap with your left hand.

You just lightly holding the strap. The strap is there to give some support to the foot. But most of the work is happening in the core and the leg and the hip. And of course breath is happening. And let it. Full breath in. Long breath out. Take one more breath in. Use your exhale to draw that leg to center. Staying clear and balanced as you do so. Bend both knees. Unloop your foot. Pause for a moment. Extend both legs. And just register whatever differences are there between the two sides of the body. Always nice to just have an idea. Being conscious of, you know, what these shapes and movements and conversation of body with breath can do. Bend both knees. Step both feet to the floor and let's go to the other side. So drawing your left knee in. Looping the left foot. Ball of the foot. Arms, elbows are fully extended so the arms are straight. Crawling the hands up the strap and then plugging the shoulders in. Reaching the left heel up to the ceiling. Inner edge of the foot. Up towards the ceiling. So not sickling the foot. Extending your right leg along the floor. Finding, you know, Tadasana conditions in both legs. Both ends of the strap into the right hand. Hook your left thumb into your left hip crease. Lengthen the left side of your body. So send the left hip forward and then begin to cross your left leg over your body. Just a small amount. Maybe about 20 degrees or so. Keeping that knee soft. And just noticing whatever is there to be witness. As you're ready, you'll extend your left arm out to the side with a palm facing up. Keep sending the inner edge of your left foot away from you. That knee is soft. You might feel called to cross the leg over the body a little bit more. Softening the knee. Maybe pulsing through the knee. So it's this kind of subtle quiet movement that allows us to see clearly the effects of practice on the body. Lengthen the left side of your body. More, more, more. Sending that hip towards your right foot. Take a breath in. Use your exhale to draw that leg to center. Bend both knees. Free your left foot. Extend both legs along the floor. Witness. Great. And then friends, bend the knees again. Roll onto your right hip. You're going to come onto your right hip. You'll place your right forearm on the floor. Your elbow is just beneath your shoulder. Bend both of your knees. Inner edges of the feet are together. You're going to reach your left arm up to the ceiling. And then as you breathe in, you're going to lift your hips up as you lift and open that left knee. You might feel sort of a glute medius on that bottom hip engage. If you don't know what that is, it's better that way. And then you'll lower yourself back down. We'll do that three more times.

Inhaling to lift up and open the knees and breathe and feel whatever is there to be felt. As you do this work, great. Twice more. One more time. Inhaling to open. Exhaling to lower. Inhale, open, and lift. Exhale, lower. One more time. Inhale, open. This time hold for a breath cycle. You take one more breath in. As you exhale, you'll lower and release that. And then I'm going to swing my legs over to the other side so we can have that experience on the opposite side. Elbow is right beneath your shoulder. Palm can press into the floor for a little bit of support. Bend the knees. Bring them slightly forward. Inner edges of the feet touch. Reach your right arm up to the ceiling. And as you breathe in, lift your hips, open the knees. And then as you breathe out, you'll lower. Great. Inhale, lift and open the knees. Exhale, lower. Inhaling to lift and open the knees. Exhale, lower. And once more. Inhale to lift the hips, open the knees. Stay here. Take another breath in. Full breath in. And then exhale. Lower the hips. Close the knees. Lower the arm. And then come on to your back. Draw your knees into your chest for a moment. Apanasana. And then please step your feet to the floor. So typically our ankles are underneath our knees and yoga bridge. I want you to walk your feet just a little bit forward. A little bit forward. And then as you inhale, press into your heels to lift your hips up. Great. As you exhale, you'll lower your hips back down onto the floor. A few more times like that. Inhale to press into the heels. Lift the hips up. And then exhale to lower. And keep going. Three more times like that. On your own breath. Just lifting. As you inhale, lowering. As you exhale, feet are a little forward. So you may feel your glutes and hamstrings working a little harder than they do. And the other variation of bridge. Great. Take one more cycle of that. So you'll inhale to press into the heels. Lift the hips. And then exhale to lower. Step your feet all the way together. So inner edges of the feet touching. Lift your hips away from the floor. And then now, friends, we're going to open the knees and close the knees. We'll do that five more times. So opening the knees and then closing the knees.

And as you do this, you want to drag the heels back. So a little isometric movement. We're trying to work to stabilize the hips. Build a little strength there. Also your adductors, the hamstrings. So twice more like that. And it's opening, keeping the inner edges of the feet touching. Closing the knees, drawing the inner thighs together once more. Opening the knees. And then closing, drawing the knees together. And then lowering yourself down onto the floor. Your hips draw your knees in towards you. Draw your knees to either side of your rib cage. And then let the soles of the feet face the ceiling or the sky. You hold the backs of your thighs. Draw your knees towards your armpits. And then reach your arms inside of your legs, as in bhakasana, the crow pose. And as you inhale, you'll stay here. As you exhale, you'll lift yourself up, drawing your navel towards your spine. And then you'll lower yourself back down. So maybe lifting on an exhale. So using the power of that exhale to lift. And then as you inhale, releasing and lowering yourself back down. We'll do that a few more times, just like that at your pace. So giving you a little freedom to explore and find some clarity in this movement that is like small in expression, but the work is pretty deep. The next time you lift up and upper back and head are away from the floor. Draw the knees in towards the midline a little bit more, lift up a little bit more, and allow yourself just to pulse a little bit originating that pulsing from your, your deep course or drawing the navel down towards the spine as you lift and hover, lift and hover. Be finding some conversation that can be had between breath and body. The next time you reach up, hold there and stay there.

And take a few breaths there, reach up a little bit more navel, draws down towards spine, breathe in and out, and release that knees into your chest. Start to rock along your spine forwards and backwards a few times. The next time you rock up, come all the way up to a seat, you can come to Sukhasana. Now that, that will do. Sukhasana will do easy seat crossing at the center of the shins. Extend your arms, reach your arms forward, interlace your hands, flip your palms forward. Inhale to reach the arms up alongside your ears, reach your thumbs up to the ceiling. So rather than letting the hands flip, you know, back flip them up to the ceiling. Inhale to reach up through the crown of your head. As you exhale, you take a twist to the right. So just twisting along the axis of your body. Great. And then inhale coming to center, exhaling, twisting in the opposite direction. Inhale coming to center, it's hard work. Exhale twisting in the opposite direction and pausing this time. And just noticing, so requires actually tremendous strength to twist, particularly without the help of the hands and the arms. So lengthen, lengthen, lengthen as you breathe in. As you breathe out, a little more twisting, finding a little more clarity in the twist, but, you know, trying to originate the movement from the center of your body rather than the head and the neck and the eyes. As you inhale, come to center, release a little moment of integration and ride that wave of your exhale to twist in the opposite direction. It's marveling at the work that's required to do this rather simple movement. Letting breath move and recruiting the breath, not even recruiting, letting the breath do what it does, which is talk to the body. As you inhale, spine lengthens, things expand. As you exhale, things contract. So can you sort of cooperate with this movement of breath in the body? Inhale, come to center, exhale, release your arms, pause for a moment, and then come to tabletop position. So on hands and knees, wrists under your shoulders, knees underneath your hips, tuck your toes under. We're going to do cat and cow. You can go ahead and begin that. Typically, you know, we do it sort of inhaling, open the chest, release the spine, release the back leg, release the spine, release the belly. But now I want you to breathe naturally and just let this cat and cow with toes tucked be about this flexion and extension of your spine so you can move at whatever pace you like. The only rule is that you move a little bit more quickly than you would if you were moving with breath. So just opening the chest, curving the spine, enjoying it, observing what's true for you as you do this kind of weird expression of cat and cow. And then come to neutral as you're ready whenever you're ready and you pause here. Let's step the right foot back behind us. Let's lift the right leg up, spin the inner thigh up to the ceiling, reach your left arm up. This finding balance, lift your front ribs up into your back ribs, float your left hand down, cross your right leg over your body, coming to a side bend and tabletop that right hand can crawl forward. If it's comfortable, you can crawl the right hand over to the left and gaze over your left shoulder. I'm going to take a few breaths here. So there's release happening, there's work happening, but can you find a little less bracing, little less rigidity if it's there, may not be. We're on day nine, so you're well established in softness and suppleness and human movement, I hope. And then release that comes a center tabletop. Let's step the left foot back.

Let's lift the leg up, lift the arm up and pause and feel a quality of balance and centeredness. Lift the navel up towards the spine, knit the front ribs together, broaden your back body. The right hand will float down, the left foot will step back, left hand forward and over to the right as you gaze over your right shoulder and find a side bend here and tabletop. Letting yourself, you know, be supple, be a little bit easy inside of this movement that's pretty, you know, there's a clarity about this shape. Take one more full breath in and then as you exhale, you'll come to center and you'll pause for a moment, maybe little human movement and tabletop, walk your hands forward just a hand print, tuck your toes under, lift your hips up and back to downward facing dog.

And then from down dog, we're going to take a little twist. So press the palms down, lift your right hand up and reach for your outer left ankle or calf. Breathe in there as you exhale, you'll draw against the leg to twist to the left. You can gaze at your armpit or anywhere else that's comfortable that allows your neck and eyes to stay soft. Great. And then you'll release that and we'll switch sides.

So left hand holds the outer right ankle or calf, you'll breathe in in center and then ride that wave of an exhale and you'll twist on exhale and you'll continue to breathe there on the twist, watching, feeling and allowing the breath to move through the body and then release and come to center and pause. Great. Look up between your hands. You can walk, you can step, you can levitate, you can float to the top of your mat, soften your knees, standing forward fold, any arm variation you like that calls to you. Full breath in and long breath out. And then as you next inhale, press into your heels, sweep your arms around and up, get broad in the chest, the spine is extended, look up and touch your palms. Exhale, draw your hands down the center line of your body and then release your arms.

Begin to breathe in, sweep your arms around and up. As you exhale, soften your knees, hinge forward with that long spine. Inhale to prepare pulls, reach the crown of your head forward and then exhale, forward fold. Interlace your hands behind your low back, heels of the hands together. As you inhale, bend your knees, lift your chest up, our friend skiers pulls, shift your weight into your right foot, step your left foot all the way back into a lunge, lift your chest up, draw your hands back, peel the back, toes back.

As you inhale, sweep your arms around and up. As you exhale, try to descend the tailbone. So inhaling here, straightening your front leg, lifting up. As you exhale, rebound the front knee and twist to the right as you lower your arms. We'll do that twice more.

Inhale, coming through center, exhaling, twisting, bending the front knee, lowering your arms one more time. Inhale, come to center, exhale, bend the front knee, lower the arms and pause for a breath here, lengthening through the crown of the head, twisting along the axis of the body. As you next inhale, you'll come to center, exhale, re-bend your front knee, float your hands to the floor, bring your right hand to your hip, look at the floor as you revolve your chest to the right, so just the chest revolving, and then reach the arm up to the ceiling, keep looking at the floor, and then slowly begin to turn your head to the right, maybe looking up towards that top arm. You'll take a breath in. As you exhale, bring your hand to the floor.

Step back to plank pose and inhale. As you exhale, you'll lower either all the way or halfway down and pause. You'll inhale to upward-facing dog or baby cobra, bhujangasana, and then you'll exhale to downward-facing dog. And pause for a moment there. Let's step the left foot forward.

Let's come up to a lunge, interlace the hands, draw the hands back, lift the chest up and pause, descend the tailbone, so lift your frontal hip points up. Sweep your arms around and up as you breathe in. Exhaling to press the front thigh down. As you next inhale, straighten your front leg, lift up. As you exhale, bend the front knee and take a twist to the left as you lower your arms.

Again, inhale to center, lifting up, straightening the front leg. Exhale, rebend the knee as you twist to the left and extend the arms to shoulder height. One more time, inhale, lifting up. Exhale, rebend the knee as you twist and extend the arms and you'll pause here for a breath, lengthening the spine. Take one more breath in.

As you exhale, pause, come to center as you inhale, and then rebend the front knee. Bring your hands to the floor. Left hand on your hip, stay looking at the floor as you open the chest to the left, stay looking at the floor as you reach your left arm up to the ceiling, and then slowly begin to turn your head to the left, looking up at your top arm. You take a breath in there. As you exhale, you bring your hand to the floor.

Inhale to plank pose and pause there. And either vinyasa or bring the hips, lift the hips up and back to downward facing dog and you pause. Taking a few breaths in downward facing dog, easy breaths. And then let's walk the hands and feet towards each other so you're at the middle of your mat. Hands to your hips, reach your heart forward.

Let's practice coiling that upper spine into the chest as we come all the way up to stand. And then you'll face the long edge of your mat. You'll step your feet so that they're about a leg's distance apart. Extend your arms out to the sides. Turn your palms up, lift your chest.

As you inhale, stay here, lift up. As you exhale, you'll twist to the left. Do that again. Inhale to come to center, lifting up. And then exhaling, you'll twist to the right.

So left hand to the right ankle. Inhaling, coming to center. And then exhaling, twisting. And let's hold the twist. So holding the outer left ankle, lengthening through the crown of the head.

And with every exhale, maybe a little bit more clarity in that twist. So lots is happening in this shape. Firm the outer hips in. Let there be that stability that we worked on at the beginning of the sequence in the hips and the pelvis so we can find nice clear rotation. As you next inhale, you'll come back to center, lift up.

And then exhale, twisting in the opposite direction, firming the outer hips, lengthening through the crown of the head. And with the exhale, a little more clarity in the twist. Take another breath cycle there. As you next inhale, you'll come to center. You'll lift your chest, lift your arms up.

You'll bask in your expansiveness for a moment and then hands to your hips. You'll step your feet together. Come to stand at the top of your mat. Grab your two blocks and set them up a little wider than shoulder width on their highest height towards the top of your mat. You'll stand directly behind your blocks with your feet parallel.

Hands on your hips. You'll step your right foot back to start about a leg's distance. The feet are parallel in this variation of the shapes that we'll do. And then get the hip points to face forward, release your arms. As you breathe in, sweep your arms up to the ceiling.

As you breathe out, hinge forward about halfway. Elbows can be soft. As you inhale, you'll come up to stand again. Great. Exhale to hinge forward.

One more time. Inhale to lift up, breathing and firming the outer hips. Exhaling to hinge forward with a long spine, floating your hand to the blocks. You can draw the blocks back towards you so hands are underneath the shoulders. You can adjust your stance if it needs to be a little wider, a little longer.

Press your hands down into the blocks. Lift the chest. Draw your left hip back. So hip points facing forward. Length, length, length in the spine.

You're going to take a couple of breaths here. You can hinge at the elbows. Keep your chest broad and your spine long. Maybe you hinge a little farther forward. Softness in that front knee, particularly if you're a little, you tend to hypermobility.

And then as you next inhale, press into the heels of the hands to lift your chest up. Bring your left thumb to your left hip crease. Draw the hip back. As you inhale, reach the crown of your head forward. As you exhale, start to revolve your chest to the left.

And then you can stay here. Option to reach your left arm up to the ceiling with the palm facing forward. Keep reaching the crown of your head forward. Keep drawing your left hip back, back, back. And we'll take a couple of breaths here, just like this, in revolved triangle.

Trying to find some quality of suppleness and of clarity. So deep work. Firm the hips. Lengthen through the crown of the head. Take one more breath in.

As you exhale, you can come back to center, floating the hand down. Great. Soften the knees as you bring your hands to your hips and come all the way up to standing. You'll step your back foot forward, and you'll pause for a moment. And then let's go ahead and do the opposite side.

So you will step your left foot back about a leg's distance. Feet are parallel. Hip points are facing forward. Release your arms. Inhale to lift your arms up.

Exhale to hinge forward with a long spine. Inhale, lifting up again. So returning body to breath as we do this deep and deliberate work. Inhaling again. And then exhaling with a long spine, looking forward, floating your hands to your blocks, walking your blocks back so that they are beneath the shoulders, hands beneath the shoulders.

Draw the right hip back as you inhale. Longer, longer, longer spine. Look slightly forward as you exhale. A little hinging forward while keeping your spine long. So elbows can bend.

Softness in the front knee. Relax the head and the neck. Breath is expansive and free and moving around within the body. And your work is to do a little less with every breath. As you next inhale, press into your hands.

Lift your chest up. Draw the right hip back. Hook the right thumb into the hip crease. Lengthen the top of your head forward. As you exhale, start to revolve your chest to the right.

Maybe reaching that right arm up to the ceiling. And you take a few breaths there. Long spine. Imagining that you're getting longer with every breath in from the tip of your tailbone through the crown of your head. And take one more breath in.

As you exhale, you'll unravel yourself, hand to the block. Step your back foot forward. Take a brief little pause in Uttanasana with hands on blocks. Great, keep your knees soft as you roll yourself up to standing one vertebra at a time. You can set your blocks off to the side.

And find Tadasana there at the top of your mat. You'll take a breath in, and with your breath in, you'll welcome it by reaching your arms around and up. You'll exhale to hinge yourself forward. Plant your palms onto the floor and step yourself back to a downward facing dog. Take a nice full breath in and a nice long breath out.

And then lower your knees to the floor. You can send your seat back to your heels so you can swing the legs out in front of you. And find Dandasana, the staff pose. Send the inner edges of your feet away. Draw your elbows towards each other.

So back of the pelvis coming forward. You can sit on top of a blanket. Bend your knees, soften your knees. As you inhale, you'll lift your arms, sweep them around and up. Keep a long spine as you exhale and hinge forward for Paschimottanasana.

You can hold the outer edges of your feet. Grab your strap and loop the feet. Anything that's supportive of you sustaining the seated forward fold for a few breaths. So every breath in, these first breath cycles, nice lift of the chest, long spine. As you breathe out, you'll hinge a little more forward with a long spine.

And then when the time feels right, you can go ahead and soften the head and the neck. Let the spine round some amount and we'll take a few breaths here. Full breaths in, long breaths out. As you're ready, you'll slowly roll yourself up to an upright position. And then some options here, my friends, you can join me in a little brief seated meditation or you can find Shavasana.

So you do what suits you. And if you are joining me in a seat, you'll sit well, take your time in finding a seat, rest the hands on your knees or your thighs. Let's turn the palms to face up. Go ahead and soften your gaze or close your eyes. And just sort of abiding right in the echo of this beautiful work that you've just done to cultivate clarity.

Rest the hands on your body, a hand on your heart, hand on your belly. I'm taking a few moments just to honor this vessel of the body this teacher that is your breath. Palms together into Anjali Mudra, lower your head to your hands, thanking and honoring yourself for your commitment to cultivating wholeness. Namaste.