Twist to Take Flight

Hi, welcome to our yoga practice. In today's practice, we'll focus on twists and moving towards the peak pose called Parsvapakasana. So let's get started. Come on to your back, please. We'll just start with some easy twists, the windshield wiper poses. So bring the arms out to the side, like cactus arms, and bring your feet as wide apart as the width of the mat. And there are different variations, so this is a very simple one. So take a deep full breath in, and then as you exhale, let the knees just move over to your left. Just very gently. And inhale, come back to center, and then exhale both knees to your right. Exhale back to center, and exhale, knees to your left. And just very slowly, a couple more rounds, just go back and forth, just easy and gentle, nothing complicated, nothing that takes a whole lot of effort. Just notice what's going on in your body today, and connect with your breath. Kind of taking in this moment, and meeting yourself exactly as you are in this moment. As you return to center, bring your feet in a little bit closer, and then bring your knees into your chest. Intillate your fingers to the back of your head, or cup the back of your head with your fingertips. Take a deep full breath in, flex your ankles, and then as you exhale, lift your head and upper back. Instead of pulling your head, press the back of your head against your hands, tuck your chin in a little bit. And then when you exhale, straighten your right leg forward, hover the foot off the floor so you can press your lower back into the floor, and then twisting to your left. And it's not important to touch the knee with the right elbow, but just more about the twisting the rotation. You can look towards the left elbow. And then inhale back to center, you can lower down a little bit. Then exhale, extend the left leg forward, press your lower back into the floor, twisting to your right. Moving the left elbow towards the right knee, and looking towards the right elbow. And then inhale back to center. Exhale, first side again, twisting to your left, extend the right leg forward, and then inhale back to center. Exhale, second side, left elbow towards the right knee, extend the left leg forward, and inhale back to center. And just very slowly continue this synchronizing movement with breath, and especially adding a pause at the end of the exhale. And just a reminder again, not to aggressively pull your head. Just more on the twisting the rotation. So just another round or two. And using the exhalation as you're twisting. And then eventually, just simply hug your knees into your chest. And then bring your feet down. Roll over onto either side, and please sit up. Come onto your hands and knees. And just for a moment, come up onto your fingertips. And then as you inhale, start to arch your back, open up your chest, cow pose. And as you exhale, round your back. Scoop your belly in, puff your mid-back up towards the ceiling. Let your head dangle. Inhale, open up your chest, lift your tailbone. Pausing at the top of the inhale, exhale, round your back. Just do two more rounds here. Again, synchronizing movement with breath. And the reason I have you up onto your fingertips is a way that we can start to engage the arches of our hands and engaging the undersides of the forearms to give the wrist a little bit more stability as we move into more weight-bearing positions. And then walk your hands forward slightly in front of your shoulders. Place your hands flat and let's move into our first down dog. And feel free to pedal your feet here. Maybe sway your hips a little bit from side to side. Sometimes it feels good to turn both feet to the right and then both feet to the left. Just explore what's going on in your body.

Just a few more breaths here. Maybe a moment to be thankful for the practice. Being grateful for this moment or anything else in your life that you're especially grateful for. And then walk your feet up to your hands. Have your feet hips width. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. I always like to bend my knees, especially in the first Uttanasana. Let your head dangle here for a moment. Lift your shoulders. Just a couple of breaths here. Inhale, open your chest. Exhale, bring your hands to your hips. And then leading with your chest, inhale, come all the way up. Standing in Tadasana. And just take a moment here to soften your gaze. And then inhale, circle your arms overhead. And as you exhale, hinging from your hips, fold all the way forward. Inhale, open your chest, Ardha Uttanasana. And as you exhale, step your left foot back. So make sure you nod in a tight rope. For the next pose, I like to use a block underneath my left hand. Or you can choose to just simply come up onto your fingertips. Place your right hand to your right thigh. And as you inhale, strongly press the left thigh bone up. Pin the right hip in. Maybe bend the right knee a little bit more. Inhale, lengthen from your tailbone out through the crown of your head. And as you exhale, start to twist to your right. Move your belly, ribcage, and chest to your right. Notice how that left shoulder wants to come forward, draw it back. And optional to extend the right arm up. You can look up or you can simply, like I'm doing, looking down. We'll be here for three more breaths as you inhale, elongate from your tailbone out through the crown of your head. And as you exhale, rebound up and out through the top hand. Just take one more full breath in. And then as you exhale, bring your right hand back down. Step your left foot forward, continue with the feet hips width. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. And as you exhale, step your right foot back. Again, you can use a block underneath your right hand. Take your left hand to your left thigh. So inhale, lengthen from your tailbone out through the crown of your head. Shrug the right shoulder back. And as you exhale, turn your belly and chest to your left. So use that left hand as a little bit of leverage to turn and open your chest. Option to reach your left arm up. You can look down. When you look down, you get more of a sense of the rest of your spine turning, not only your neck and your head. You can of course also look up. So two more breaths here. So inhale to elongate. Exhale, push the ground away from you and rebound up and out through the top hand. And the next time you exhale, bring your hand back down and step your right foot forward. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, bow. Now grab one block. Bend your knees a little bit and place the block between your thighs. Bring your hands to your hips. Inhale, come all the way up. So coming into twisting chair. Bend your knees please. So feet about hips width apart. Spread your toes and shift more weight into your heels. Lift your hip points. Gently hug your lower ribs in. Sit fairly deep here. Put more weight in the heels. Right hand to the right thigh. Inhale, reach your left arm up. And as you exhale, turn your belly and chest to your right. Hook the elbow to the outside of the right knee. Place your hands together for five breaths here. So gently squeeze the block. Press the top hand against the bottom hand. Broaden across your collarbones. Two more breaths. You can choose to look down. Look straight ahead or maybe look up. Now inhale, chair pose. Exhale, standing tall and gather your hands in front of your heart. Second side. Lower your arms. Inhale, chair pose. So shift more weight into your heels. Left hand to your left thigh.

So inhale, find that plumb line. Lengthen from the tailbone to the crown of your head. Exhale, turn your belly and chest to your left. Hook the elbow to the outside of the left knee. Bring your hands together. Draw the right hip back in, in. We'll be here for three more breaths. And if you're like me, you're likely feeling this in your thighs. So press the top hand against the bottom hand. Broaden across your collarbones. Let's take one more breath here. Inhale, chair pose. Exhale, Tadasana. Hands in front of your heart. Take a breath. Lower your arms. Inhale, circle your arms overhead. Keeping the block between your thighs. Inhale, hinging from your hips. Fold. Inhale, open your chest. And as you exhale, you have to take small steps back into Down Dog. So hugging the block between your thighs, your inner thighs, feeling the outer hips firming in. And also get that sense of lifting the block up towards the pelvis. Inhale, Plank Pose. Exhale, either lower all the way down or Chaturanga Dandasana. Broaden across your collarbones. Inhale, point your toes up Dog or Cobra. See what works best for you. Exhale, Down Dog. I know it's a little awkward with the block, but it's a good way to engage the outer hips and the inner thighs. And then take small steps. Walk your feet up to your hands again. Somewhat awkward. Squeeze the block. Inhale, open up your chest. Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, bow. Inhale, squeeze the block. Spread the arms out to the side and rise up and exhale. Hands to your heart. Move the block out of the way. Now you have the option to step your feet together. Take a deep, full breath in. Exhale, lower your arms. Inhale, serve your arms overhead. Exhale, fold Uttanasana. Inhale, open your chest. Exhale, step back into Plank Pose and lower down. Inhale, Cobra or Up Dog. Shrug your shoulders back. Lift your sternum. Exhale, Down Dog. Take three full breaths here. Bottom of your next exhalation. Step or lightly hop your feet up to your hands. Inhale, open your chest. Exhale, bow. Inhale, arms out to the side. Rise all the way up and exhale. Hands to your heart. One more. Inhale, circle your arms overhead.

Inhale, bow. Fold forward. Always find a bend your knees. Inhale, open your chest. Exhale, step into Plank Pose. Slowly lower. Inhale, Cobra or Up Dog. Exhale, Down Dog. For about three full breaths. There may be a moment here to appreciate your breath. Appreciating the inhalation, the exhalation, the pause in between. Bottom of your next exhalation. Step or lightly hop your feet up to your hands. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, bow. Inhale, spread your arms out to the side. Rise up and exhale, back to center. Now we're going to move into Garudasana, Eagle Pose. Bend your knees. Start with your hands on your hips. Shift more weight into your heels. Spread your toes. It's helpful as far as balance is concerned. And then come up onto the ball of the right foot. Pin that left hip in and then lift your right foot and cross it over the left. It's really helpful to find a steady point that you can softly gaze at. Easier to balance. You can also wrap the right foot around the lower leg. Not important. Square the pelvis to face straight ahead. Draw your belly in. Now maybe this is enough or you can take the arms with you. Cross the left arm over the right. Palms of your hands together. Maybe the back of your hands. Lift your elbows about shoulder height. Squeeze your hands away from your forehead. It's normal to feel a little wobbly. I'm with you. I feel a little bit wobbly myself. Take one more breath. And then as you exhale, back to standing on both feet. Okay. Bend your knees. Shift the weight into your right foot. Come onto the ball of the left foot. And then cross the left leg over the right. Maybe wrap the foot around the bottom leg. Square the pelvis straight ahead. Draw your belly in. Take the arms out to the side. Cross the right arm over the left. Garudasana. Lift your elbows about shoulder height and squeeze your hands away from your forehead. Two more breaths. And then come back to standing on both feet. Bring your hands to your heart. And maybe a moment to appreciate the moments we have in balance because most of the time we're somewhere, somewhere tilting to the left or tilting to the right on our mat and in our lives. And finding that moment of clarity. I'm grateful for that. Please lower your arms. Inhale. Sura Namaskar B. Variations. So coming into chair pose. Utkatasana. Exhale. Fold forward. Uttanasana. Inhale. Open your chest. Reach your sternum away from your navel. Exhale. Step into plank pose. Slowly lower. So keep the elbows in but not squeezing against the ribs. Inhale. Cobra or up dog. Press through the inner palms. Exhale. Down dog. Inhale. Raise your right leg behind you. Exhale. Step it through. Now bring your hands to your right thigh. Staying up onto the ball of the back foot. Pin the right hip in. Check that your right knee is above your right ankle. Now reach your left arm forward and turn the hands to the fingertips of pointing to the right. So inhale. Find that plumb line again. Lengthen. And then as you exhale start to revolve your belly, your ribcage, your chest to your right. Hook the elbow to the outside of the right knee. Use the right hand as leverage. Press it down to lift and open your chest a little bit more. Maybe you can nudge the arm more to the outside. Bring your hands together. Press the top hand against the bottom hand. Continue broadening across your collarbones. For some of you it may be interesting to bring the left hand down. You can use a block here and extend the right arm up. You can also externally rotate the top arm. Reach the arm over your cheek. Take one more deep, full breath in. And then as you exhale, come back into down dog. Stretch it out. Inhale. Raise your left leg behind you. Exhale. Step the foot through. Again, do make sure you're not in a tight rope. And that the left knee is above the left ankle. Bring your hands to your left thigh and then reach your right arm forward. Turn the left hand to the fingertips of pointing to the left. Charge the back leg. Pin the left hip in. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale, twisting, rotating to the left sequentially, your belly, ribcage, and chest. Hook the elbow to the outside of the left knee. Press the left hand against the left thigh. Lift and open your chest a little bit more. You can nudge the elbow more to the outside. Maybe hands together first. Press the top hand against the bottom hand. Broaden across your collarbones. Or maybe you choose to bring your right hand down. Extend the left arm up. You can externally rotate the top arm. Reach the arm over your cheek. Keep the back leg straight and strong. One more breath. And then come back into down dog. Inhale, plank. And as you lower, broaden across your collarbones. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog. Let's stay here for five breaths. So as we work on gratitude, paying attention to what we appreciate in the moment, what we already have, what we're already being able to do as far as on the mat, but generally in our lives. That way we can cultivate contentment in santosha. The bottom of your next exhalation, step or lightly hop your feet up to your hands. Inhale, open your chest. And exhale, fold. Inhale, chair pose. Exhale, back to center. And also as we meditate on gratitude, it's a way to bring us into this moment. And again, the idea of meeting ourselves in this moment exactly as we are. Lower your arms. Inhale, chair pose. Utkatasana. Exhale, forward fold. Uttanasana. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, step into plank pose. You can always skip the vinyasas.

Otherwise slowly lower. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog. Inhale, raise your right leg behind you. Exhale, step your right foot up to your right thumb. Pivot the back heel down. Inhale, Virabhadrasana one. And as you exhale, either start the vinyasa or skip the vinyasa. We always have options on our mat. Inhale, raise your left leg behind you. Exhale, step it through. Closer to the left thumb. Pivot the back heel down. Inhale, rise up. Warrior one. Exhale, you know your options. I step into plank pose. And this time just simply move into down dog. But please feel free to go through the vinyasa if that works for you. Once we meet in down dog, you always have the option to come into child's pose. Shift a little bit more weight into your fingers. And especially press through the mounds of your fingers. Almost kind of grip the floor a little bit with your fingertips. And you'll feel the arches in your hands starting to wake up a little bit more. And the undersides of your forearms firming. So giving your wrist a little bit more support. Bottom of your next exhalation, step or lightly hop. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. Exhale, bow. Inhale, chair pose. Exhale, back to center. And pausing for a moment, maybe close your eyes. And as you return to your breath, can you start to smooth out your breath? Let the attention that you bring to your breath be a way for you to move more inside. Because ultimately yoga is about turning our mind inside. And please lower your arms. Open your eyes. Inhale, chair pose, Uttanasana. Exhale, folding forward, Uttanasana. Inhale, Ardha Uttanasana. Open your chest. Always fine to take your hands to your lower legs. And then as you exhale, step into plank pose. Luxuriously go through the Vinyasa. So for some of you, that is Chaturanga into Up Dog. Others, it's lower down. Maybe set the knees down first. Move into Cobra or Up Dog. And we meet in Down Dog. Inhale, raise your right leg behind you. Exhale, step your right foot up to your right thumb. Inhale, Warrior I. Exhale, bring your hands down and then shorten your stance about half of a foot. I like to use a block for the next pose. Place the block to the inside of my right foot. Straighten your right leg and hook your right thumb into your right hip crease. Now if you're on a tight rope or if you're too far, mean too long in the stance, it might be challenging to level your sacrum. So you can shorten the stance a little bit. You can also move the right foot a bit more to the right. But take a moment to check that your sacrum is more or less leveled. So hooking your right thumb into your right hip crease, strongly press through the mount of the right big toe. Inhale, lengthen your spine. So that takes priority, finding that length. And then as you exhale, start to turn your belly and chest to your right. Draw the left shoulder back. Roll your right shoulder back. I think most of us in a hurry to bring that arm up, but sometimes we swing the arm back and we are under the illusion that we're actually twisting. But if you wait with the arm, you probably focus on more rotation. And then lastly, take the right arm up. If you like, you could take the block to the outside of the foot. You don't have to use a block, but the block is definitely helpful as a way to more easily lengthen your spine. So this is Parita Trikonasana, Twisting Triangle Pose. Rebound up and after the top hand, you're welcome to look up. Right now, I feel more stability if I look down. Take one more deep full breath and firm the outer hips in as you're holding that block between your legs. And then bring your right hand down. Stretch over your right leg for a moment and then find your way into Down Dog. Inhale, Plank. Exhale, lower, perhaps Chaturanga. Inhale, Up Dog or Cobra. Exhale, Down Dog. Inhale, raise your left leg behind you. Exhale, step the foot through. Inhale, Warrior I. Exhale, bring your hands down. Slide your left foot back about half of a foot. And I'm choosing to use a block again underneath my right hand. Hook your left thumb into your left hip crease. Do the best you can to level your sacrum. I mean, there are times where you allow that right hip to droop a little bit if you feel stiffness in your lower back. There are times where we break certain rules. Now, inhale, lengthen your spine. And then as you exhale, start to turn your belly and your ribcage and your chest to your left. As you keep hugging the left hip and imagine that you are squeezing a block between your inner legs like you did earlier. Roll your left shoulder back. Feel free to take your hand to the outside of the left foot. Hand to the inside is a little bit more user friendly. And I'm all for that. And if you like, extend your left arm up. Keep rooting through the back foot, back heel. So inhale, elongate your spine. Exhale, turn your belly, chest to your left and reach up and out through the top hand. Maybe look up. Take one more deep full breath in. Exhale, stretch over your left leg. It's a variation of Parsvottanasana. And then find your way back into down dog.

Inhale, plank pose. Exhale, chaturanga, lower all the way down. Inhale, cobra or up dog. Exhale, down dog. And then from downward facing dog, walk your feet up to your hands. Take your middle finger, index finger, reach around your big toes and have your feet hips width now. Press your big toes into your fingers. Inhale, open your chest. You're welcome to bend your knees. Exhale, fold, splay the inner elbows apart. Allow the upper back to widen. And as you draw the crown of your head down, lift your shoulders. Two more breaths. Inhale, open your chest. And then as you exhale, bring your hands in front of your feet and walk your feet all the way together. And then start to bend your knees, lift your heels as you squat down. Now we're going to do Parsvottanasana. It's an arm balance. It's not the easiest pose, but let's start working towards it. So I'm going to step to the center of my mat so that I can be right in front of you. Place your hands on top of your thighs and you can stop at any point. Now reach your right arm up and then move your knees a bit to your right. Inhale, elongate your spine. And as you exhale, turn your belly and chest to your left. Then hook the right elbow to the outside of the left knee. Press your left hand against the left thigh and see if you can open up your chest and rotate a little bit more. And then maybe you can nudge the arm a little bit more to the outside. Place your hands down, fingertips pointing straight ahead. Slide the right hand out to the side a bit, hands slightly wider apart than your shoulders. And I like to turn my hands out a little bit. Grab the floor with your fingertips and then look towards the floor in front of your hands and start to lean your chest in that direction. Come up onto your tippy toes and then try to lift your right foot. Maybe that's plenty. You can also try to lift the other foot. Think Chaturanga arms. So this is Parsva Bakasana. Broaden across your collarbones. Two more breaths here. And if you're new to this, be patient. It takes a little while to learn for most people. And come back to center. Good job. Hands onto your thighs. Pause for a moment. And then please go ahead and reach your left arm up. And then move your knees to your left and rotating your torso, your spine to your right. So inhale, elongate. And as you exhale, hook the left elbow to the outside of the right knee. Use the right hand against the thigh to lift and open your chest, rotating a little bit more to the left, to the right. And then see if you can nudge the elbow more to the outside. And then plant your left hand down, right hand a little bit more out to the side. Claw the floor with your fingertips. Lean a bit to the right and then look in front of your hands. Reach your sternum forward. Come up onto your tippy toes. And then maybe lift your left foot. Maybe both. Now think Chaturanga arms. Two more breaths here. It helps to spread the toes and press out through the balls of your feet. Come back to center. That was Parsha Bakasana. Pose that you have to be very patient with. Maybe a gratitude for what you've done so far, even if you didn't get to Parsha Bakasana. So from this position, go ahead and just for a moment, come into Down Dog. Always has to be one of my favorite poses. Inhale plank and lower all the way down.

Intillate your fingers behind your back. Lift and open your chest. Lift your feet and legs. So nice counter stretch for your shoulders from having done the arm balance. Take one more deep full breath in. And then as you exhale, just simply hands by your chest. Push up onto your hands and knees. Down Dog. And walk your hands back to your feet for a moment. Slide your hands underneath the soles of your feet to give your wrists a nice counter stretch. Exhale, folding. Mush your hands with your feet. Massage your wrists with your toes. So most of what we've done has been wrist extension. So this is wrist flexion. Inhale, open your chest. And as you exhale, walk your hands forward. Down Dog. Come onto your knees. Place a block between your hands. Kind of karate chop the floor with the outer wrists. Elbows shoulder-width apart. Kind of get a sense of squeezing the elbows towards one another. Tuck your toes under. Dolphin pose. So especially having done all those twists has helped to open the upper back. And when we stretch the muscles between the shoulder blades, the rotation of the arms in this direction is a little bit easier. But most people need to be up onto the ball of each foot, maybe bending the knees to more easily lengthen the spine. One more breath. Let your head dangle. But the crown of the head is off the floor. Come onto your knees and then briefly come into child's pose. Place your hands underneath your shoulders, sit up. And then go ahead and come into a cross-legged position. Sukhasana, also translated as comfortable pose, easy pose. Hook your thumbs into the hip crease. Anchor through the sitting bones. Inhale, lift and open your chest. And as you exhale, start to come forward. Then walk your hands forward. We're gonna be here for about five breaths. Press the sitting bones into the floor. Press the little toes out of each foot into the floor. Couple more breaths here. You're also welcome to fold your hands underneath your forehead. And then slowly come up and change the crossing of your legs. Now we're just stretching the outer hips. You actually use them quite a lot. I suspect you're going to feel this practice tomorrow in your hips. And hook your thumbs into the hip creases. Inhale, anchor through the sitting bones. Lift and open your chest. And as you exhale, hinging from your hips, go ahead and come forward once again. You can walk your hands forward first. Sometimes placing a block underneath the forehead can be really nice. Sometimes two blocks. Or some of you can fold your hands underneath your forehead. And as we're resting here, focus on breathing into your lower back. Breathing into your back ribs. Relax your shoulders. Two more breaths. And then slowly sit back up. Stretch your legs out to the side. Now you can simply stay upright. Hands behind you. Press the back of the legs into the floor. If your legs turn out, you may need to sit on a blanket so that you can be right onto the sitting bones. Toes pointing up. So you can work right here. You're also welcome to walk your hands forward. What I prefer to make it more restorative, I put a block right underneath my belly, right in front of my pelvis. And as I walk my hands forward, I can rest on the block. Some people like to use a bolster or a couple of blankets. If you want to go more for the traditional Upavista Konasana, you can grab your big toes as you're folding forward.

And if you're really flexible, the legs tend to turn in. So you need to work more on strength of pressing the back of the legs and sitting bones into the floor. So I have gratitude that we all have something to work on, right? Inhale, come up. And then bring your legs together. Now coming into I think one of my favorite poses. I'm going to use a bolster here. But if you don't have a bolster, you can use a couple of blankets or pillows. If you have some lower back issues, it's better to bring the support up more into an incline. So you can always stack blankets or blocks underneath the bolster. You be your own, you know, creator, as far as what works for your body. And I have a couple of blocks, I'm going to use a support for underneath my knees. And then you can grab an extra pillow or a blanket for underneath your head and neck. I'm going to turn around like this. And I like to have my support about an inch behind my pelvis. And then bring the soles of your feet together and put blocks or pillows or rolled up blankets underneath your legs. Sometimes we use a strap, but I'm going to simplify it today. This works very well anyway. And then when you lie back, you can manually take the skin of the buttock, slide it forward a little bit to create a little bit more space for your lower back. Bring the arms out to the side and palms of your hands facing the ceiling. So there's a diff, there's definitely a sense of spaciousness in this pose, being open, kind of taking in the universe in a sense. Allow your eyes to softly close, make sure that you are very comfortable. Maybe let your eyes smile, a whole face smile for a moment. If you're using support underneath your head and neck, make sure it's underneath your neck, but not your shoulders. Now bring your attention to your breath just for a moment and feel the air flowing in and out through your nose. We take around 22,000 breaths every day, give or take. So if we take a moment just to appreciate a few breaths, it can kind of set the tone sometimes for the rest of the day or sometimes just for the next 30 minutes. But it's so miraculous, the breath. Now bring your awareness to the space between your eyebrows, your eyebrow center, perhaps sends a point of energy or you can visualize a white light or a blue light. Then bring your awareness to your throat center, the space right between your two collarbones. Sometimes it's helpful to imagine that you're breathing in and out through whatever point I direct you to. Bring your attention to the core of your right shoulder, right elbow, right wrist and sense the palm of your right hand. Sense your fingertips. Now move your attention back to your right wrist, right elbow, right shoulder, throat center. Maybe that sense of breathing in and out through that space. Core of your left shoulder, left elbow, left wrist and palm of your left hand. Notice sensations, fingertips, left wrist, left elbow, left shoulder, throat center, bring your attention to the center of your chest, your heart center, maybe that sense of breathing in and out through that space, right side of your chest, heart center, left side of your chest and back to your heart center. And resting your attention in the center of your chest and see if you can cultivate the feeling of gratitude. Perhaps tuning into what you're especially grateful for today. It could be something very simple as your breath, your practice or maybe someone or something in your life. Almost imagine a smile across your chest. Now bring your attention back to your throat center, eyebrow center and feel the air moving in and out through your nose. Allow your ears to open up to sounds. Maybe take a deeper breath or two. Bring your knees together, stretch your legs out onto your mat, point and flex your feet a few times. Reach your fingertips up towards the ceiling, grab a hold of your elbows and stretch your arms behind your head. Now flex your ankles, press the back of your legs into the floor and bring the breath all the way up into the top of your chest. You can pull just gently on your elbows. Maybe take your deepest breath so far. Maybe exhale side out, make a sound and then bring your arms back up and bend your knees. Make sure the blocks are not in the way. Carefully roll over onto either side and just rest on your side for a moment that there's no hurry to get up. And then eventually you sit up and then turn to face your support whether it's a bunch of pillows or blankets or stacked towels. So I typically when I do support a child's pose I put a blanket alongside or on top the long way on top of the bolster. I need a little bit more height to support my chest and then the bolster or the support is between my knees and I'm sitting on the heels of my feet. If there's any knee discomfort put a blanket between the buttocks and the heels and then I simply fold. This is also one of my favorite poses and I turn my head to one side or you can fold your hands underneath your forehead. There's a way if you like to see this if it's not okay for you to turn your head I sometimes fold the top blanket and then there's room for my throat and my head and then I fold my hands underneath my forehead. So that's another way. But as you're resting here in supported child's pose bring your attention to the back of your body and breathe into the back of your body. Almost get that sense of breathing all the way down into your tailbone. And the reason I do this pose after our prior pose which was Supta Baddha Konasana also some teachers called the goddess pose because your back was in a little bit of extension back bending and this is very soft flexion so that you're stretching out your back muscles here. If you turned your head to one side now choose to come over onto the opposite cheek. We have about another minute here. Is it possible to let go just a little bit more? Notice where you typically hold on. It could be your shoulders could be your facial muscles. So see if you can soften the way that you hold yourself. I feel that this pose nourishes our souls a little bit. Couple more breaths. And then slowly sit back up. Move your support out of the way if need be. And I'm going to end with a brief meditation sitting in Virasana. So I'm sitting on a block place the block between my inner ankles but pretty much what you want to aim for is to find a comfortable seat. So asana in fact hundreds of years ago made the translation was to seat asana meant a seat so finding a comfortable seat for meditation. So what is your comfortable seat for some people it's sitting in a chair right. Maybe for you it's cross-legged or maybe it's Virasana hero's pose like I'm doing. Allow your spine to elongate. Shrug your shoulders back and down away from your ears. And imagine that someone is very gently lifting you up by the crown of your head. And as you're breathing in imagine that you're breathing from your tailbone up to the crown of your head beyond the crown of your head. And then exhaling down to your tailbone to the floor. So as you're breathing in maybe finding a little bit more space between each vertebra a little bit more height. And as you exhale see if you can soften a little bit more. Maybe it's as simple as softening your facial muscles. Perhaps your shoulders. Notice if your eyes are moving around see if you can allow your eyes to be more still with more of a downward inner gaze as if you're looking down into your chest cavity. So as we turn our attention to the inner space connecting more deeply with our breath and our innermost self maybe we feel that sense of stillness or just moments glimpses of stillness. But the more we spend in that space the easier it is to turn our attention back outside with a sense of who we are.

It's like we're building a sense of inner resilience from where we can perceive the outside perceive our thoughts perceive our bodies. It's cultivating a little bit more compassion and kindness patience with ourselves and with the world around us. And also as we cultivate that connection it's much harder to lose ourselves in the world around us to lose ourselves in social media for example or just in whatever drama plays out. Bring your hands together in front of your chest keeping your chest well lifted bow your head bowing to your innermost self and appreciating and respecting and honoring that same place in others. Thank you so much for joining me in today's practice. Namaste. Have a wonderful day.