Touch

Welcome. In this practice, the invitation will be to offer and receive your own touch and to love what you are touching. So to begin, let's bring our hands together and rub them together. And as a way to offer your hands some vibration, you'll bring your hands in front of your mouth and sound into your hands. Do that a couple of times. Feel breath on your hands, vibration on your hands. Feel the life of your hands and now place your hands anywhere on your body that could use some additional attention. Feel your hands, feel what you are touching and practice loving what you are feeling beneath your hands. Allow your hands to move down your body to touch your legs and sweep your hands along the roundness of your legs, up and down. And notice that there's areas of your body that want to be touched and maybe there's areas of your body that won't don't want to be touched.

So that's all good information. You can listen to that. And if you feel open to it, bring your hands onto an area of your body that you feel a little insecure about. Pause, breathe there and can you love what is beneath your hands? And there's no pressure, just an experiment to love the parts of ourselves that maybe have not yet been loved. And then again, allow your hands to move. Notice how your hands change shape as they sweep across your round body. And reach your arms out wide to the side and bring your arms around you for a hug.

So we're offering ourself a hug, but we're also receiving a hug. And this part's pretty important and nobody can do it for you. So opening to receive the care that is here right now, being offered to yourself, by yourself. Big round of breath here into your hug. And then releasing your arms and making your way towards an all fours. And then pushing into your hands to head back to your downward facing dog. So remembering the sensitivity of your hands, letting your hands now talk to the ground, push into your hands to let your pelvis travel up and back for your downward facing dog. Come forward to plank and in this plank, bring your legs together. So the legs will make contact in some places, maybe your ankles are touching, maybe your inner thighs are touching, feel that contact and notice your midline. One more big inhale here. And on an exhale, lower all the way down to your belly. Rise up into a low cobra. Start to root down through the tops of your feet. Again, notice if any part of your legs are meeting or touching.

And then lowering down, and press back to a child's pose. A few breaths here to fold into yourself. Listen for your breath. Feel the contact of your belly and your legs. And then gently start to walk yourself back up to sit on your heels. Again, opening your arms out wide to the side and bring your hands forward, right arm on top of left to once again give yourself a hug. In a moment to feel into the office of your hands, you're going to feel your arms out wide to the side. And bring your hands forward, right arm on top of left a hug. In a moment to feel into the offering of the hug and the receiving of the hug. Find a neutral spine and eagle arms and let your fingertips and the crown of your head travel up and back. And bring your elbows towards your navel to round your spine. And we'll do that just one more time. So fingertips and crown of head up and back. Elbows to navel to round. Coming back to neutral, release your arms, reach your arms out wide to the side.

Bring your hands forward, left arm on top of right, bend your elbows, again giving yourself a self hug, bowing into this hug, receiving your touch, offering your touch, loving what you are touching. And then coming up to more neutral spine so that you can find eagle arms. Let your fingertips and the crown of your head travel up and back, little backbend, elbows towards your navel to round. And again, fingertips and crown of head up and back. Elbows to navel to round. Travel through center, allow your arms to unwrap, reach them out wide to the side. And then bring your hands slightly forward, shift your weight into your hands so that you can tuck your toes and shift back so that your knees can start to hover. You're welcome to keep your hands down if you need or you can bring your hands to your heart. Again, feeling your legs meet and let them push in together to once again have a sense of your own midline. We'll keep that sense of midline as we push down through the balls of the feet to start to travel all the way up to stand. And then release your heels down, release your hands down to your sides. So we'll let our arms start to cross in front. And it's like you're giving yourself a hug, but you just pass right through it to let your hands travel up, then they uncurl to the high diagonals for a backbend. And let's reverse that. So the hands come back, elbows bend, and you're going to offer yourself, it's like you're passing through your hug. And if possible, then touching yourself all the way down into a standing forward fold. And we're going to come back up, same thing. So coming up, crossing your arms, passing through the hug, to then uncurl your arms into a backbend, arms to the high diagonal. And coming back, reversing that to fold. And let's include the breath now. So on an inhale breath, traveling up, passing through your hug, offering self-touch on the way up, and on an exhale, folding down, crossing your arms, passing through the hug, touch on the way down. Inhale, traveling up, touching, hugging, expanding, and exhale, folding, hugging, touching, and bowing in, folding forward. One more time. Inhale, coming up, touching, hugging, expanding, and exhale, folding down. Inhale, traveling up, let your arms reach up to the sky, and exhale, hands come together, and bring your hands together in front of your heart. Let's inhale, reach the arms up towards the sky again, bring your hands together so they touch, and then bring the sides of your thumbs to the top of your head. And then bring your hands towards your forehead, to your nose, maybe touch your lips, maybe touch your sternum, we're going down.

Bring your hands to your belly, hands to your legs, find your forward fold. Inhale, lengthen halfway, bring your hands to your shins, and again, feeling that contact over and over, loving what you are touching, and fold. Coming all the way up to stand, lift your arms up to the sky, and one more time, touch your crown, touch your forehead with the sides of your thumb, touch your face, your lips, your chest, releasing your hands to touch your belly, and then folding all the way forward into your forward fold. Inhale, breath, lengthen halfway, and walk yourself forward to a downward facing dog. Make your way forward to plank, bring the inseams of your legs together, again, feeling them neat, and lower all the way down to your belly. Rise up to a low cobra, bring your hands back behind you, let your hands leave the floor, turn your palms up towards the sky, send your arms out wide to the side and forward, palms can face each other, and now bend your elbows, and if your shoulders will allow it, bring your hands to touch your side waist, as you extend your arms back to where we began. Again, arms out wide to the side and forward, elbows bend, maybe making contact, hands touching the side body, to eventually come back again, and arms out wide to the side and forward, elbows bend, hands touching the side body as you travel back. One more time, arms out wide to the side and forward, and then tracing your body back, bring your hands underneath your shoulders, finding your cobra, and then lowering down. Rise back up to plank, and find your downward facing dog. Come forward to plank, hover your right foot up off the floor, and bring your right knee to your right upper arm. Maybe bend your elbows and let those two points touch arm and leg. Push into your hands, lift your right leg up to the sky, three limb down dog, and let's step the right foot forward between the hands, organizing yourself here for crescent lunge. Root down into your feet, rise up for high crescent lunge, and then interlace your hands and bring your hands behind your head. Let's move the elbows slightly towards each other, and now let the weight of your head move back into your hands. Push down into your feet and let your elbows reach up to the sky. Again, feel the weight of your head. Lift your arms up, and release your hands down. Step back to your downward facing dog. A few breaths here.

A few breaths here. Travel forward to plank. Hover your left foot up off the floor. Bring your left knee to your left upper arm, and then maybe they touch. Elbows can bend. Let those two points knee arm to knee, knee to arm. Push into your hands. Lift your hips up high. Lift your left leg up high. Step your left foot forward between your hands. Organize yourself for high crescent lunge. Rise up for high crescent lunge. Bring your hands behind your head, elbows towards each other, and then again we're rooting down to allow the elbows to travel up. A couple full breaths here. Feel the weight of your head. Offer yourself support here. Receive the support of your hands.

Lift your arms up high crescent, and release your hands down. Once again, heading back to a downward facing dog. Legs together. Find your plank. Lower all the way down to your belly. Rise up to low cobra. Then one more time with this. Send your hands out back behind you. Palms turn open to the sky. Sweep your arms out wide and forward. Palms turn towards each other. Elbows bend. A little self-touch on your way back. Arms out wide to the side and forward, and a little self-touch on your way back. Last time. Arms out wide to the side and forward, bending your elbows, touching your side body on your way back. Release your hands underneath your shoulders. Find your low cobra. Lower down. Find your plank. Back to your downward dog. Find a few generous breaths.

Make your way towards a standing forward fold. Lengthen halfway. Bring your hands to your shins. So these two points, let them meet as you lengthen halfway. Shins to hand. Hands to shins. And fold. Bring your hands behind your head. Feeling the back of your skull. Feel the weight of your arms. And the weight of your skull. Offering touch. Receiving touch. And then releasing your hands down. Once again, hands to your shins, lengthening halfway.

Fold forward. Rise all the way up to stand. Moving down, rising up. Arms lift up to the sky. And bring your hands together in front of your heart. Release your hands down to your sides. Inhale, reach your arms up to the sky. Bring your hands together. Bend your elbows at the sides of your thumbs. Touch the top of your head. Touch your forehead. Touch your nose. Touch your lips. Touch your sternum. And then releasing your hands to touch the belly, the legs, all the way down into your forward fold. Lengthen halfway. Ardha Uttanasana. And exhale, fold forward again. And then inhale, rise all the way up to stand.

Lift your arms up to the sky. We're doing that once again. So hands come together. Elbows bend to touch the top of your head. Your forehead, nose, lips, sternum. Down to touch belly. All the way down. Practice in loving what you are touching. All the way down to touch the floor. Lengthen halfway. Hands to shins. Step back to your downward facing dog.

Bring the inseams of your legs together. Travel forward to plank. Lower all the way down to your belly. Rise up to a low cobra. Bring your hands back behind you. Palms turn open to the sky. Send your arms out wide to the side and forward. Palms face each other. Elbows bend to offer yourself self-touch on the way back. And again, arms out wide to the side and forward. Elbows bend, self-touch on the way back. Last time, arms out wide to the side and forward. Elbows bend, self-touch on the way back. Lower down. Bring your hands underneath your shoulders. Press up to plank and find your downward facing dog. Come forward to plank. Cover your right foot up off the floor and bring your right knee to your right upper arm. A moment of contact, potentially. And push into your hands. Lift your hips up high. Lift your right leg up high to the sky. Step your right foot forward between your hands. Prepare your hands to hands. Preparing for high crescent and rise on up for high crescent lunge. Interlace your hands. Bring your hands behind your head. Elbows will start to come towards each other.

Root down through the feet to find the elbows reaching up to the sky. Again, offering your head support. Letting your head rest into your hands like it's receiving that support. Release your hands down to the floor, stepping back to your downward facing dog. Travel forward to plank. Cover your left foot up off the floor, left knee, left upper arm. Elbows could bend. Little contact. Push into your hands. Lift your hips up high and lift your left leg up high. Step your left foot forward between your hands and rise up for your high crescent.

And again, interlacing your hands. Hands behind your head. A moment of support here. Rooting down. Elbows up. One more inhale and releasing your hands down. Stepping back to your downward facing dog and coming forward to plank with the legs together. Transition all the way down to your belly and rise up to your low cobra.

Send your arms back behind you. And arms out wide to the side and forward. Elbows bend as the hands come back to touch the body. Again, arms out wide to the side and forward. Elbows bend to offer self-touch on the way back. Arms out wide to the side and forward. Again, offering some self-touch on the way back. Bring your hands under your shoulders for a cobra.

Press up to plank and back to your downward dog. A few breaths here. As you're ready, transitioning to a standing forward fold at the front of your mat. Bring your hands behind your head. Noticing the weight of your arms, the weight of your head and the movements of your spine.

Release your hands down. Bring your hands to your shins. Lengthen partway and fold. Rise all the way up to stand. Lift your arms up to the sky. Bring your hands together and then again touching the top of your head, touching your forehead, your nose, your lips, your sternum and pausing. Reach your arms out wide to the side. Bring your hands forward, right arm in front on top of left and again just arriving for a moment in a hug. And then arms out wide to the side. Left arm over right, a moment to offer and receive a hug. And arms out wide to the side. And let's reach out with the right fingertips and travel through center and then reach through the left fingertips. And then reaching through the right and reaching through the left.

Now reach through your right hand and then send your right hand up and over into a side bend. And it's like your right side waist is still trying to go over to the right but right fingertips are going to the left. Now bring your left hand to your right side body. Notice the breath underneath your hand. And again this practice of caring for what you are touching. Travel back through center, arms out wide and reach out through your left hand. Send your left fingertips up and over. And it's like your left side waist is still heading over to the left. Right fingertips heading to the right and bring your right hand to your left side waist. Feeling what you are touching and caring for what you are touching. Maybe even loving what you are touching.

And we'll travel back through center one more time. Reaching to the right, right fingertips up and over. Left hand to right side waist. Couple of breaths. Coming back through center. Reaching through the left hand. Left fingertips up and over. Right hand to the side waist. Feeling the touch. Feeling the contact. And we'll travel back through center. Release both hands down and then reach your arms out in front of you. And let your hands out in front of you. And let your hands out in front of you. Release both hands down and then reach your arms out in front of you. And let your hands come together to touch. We'll sweep the right fingertips off to the side. Meanwhile, bend your left elbow and trace your right arm with your left hand. Your left hand might even slide right up to your sternum or to your left shoulder. And then coming back through center. Arms tracing on the way back.

Left hand opens up, right arm traces. Maybe to sternum, maybe towards right shoulder. And then we're coming back. Do that a couple times. So right arm opens. And back through center. Left arm opens. And back to center. We might even have a little shift of weight. So the right arm can start to reach. Shift your weight to the right. Maybe even bringing yourself into a spiral. And then back through center. Left fingertips reach. Maybe a spiral starts to come in. And back through center. One more time each side. So right arm reaching.

And through center. And left arm reaching. Back through center. Arms come forward. Hands touch. Arms up. And arms wide. And arms down. Shift your weight a little side to side. So weight coming into the right side. Weight coming into the left side. And the next time you shift your weight over to the left side, bring your right knee into your chest. Externally rotate your right leg to find your version of rickshawsana. Your version of tree. So it could be that your right foot finds your left inner thigh. It could be that your right foot is down by your ankle. Maybe toes touching the floor.

So what would be most supportive for you? So there is this place of meeting with your foot to your inner leg. And let those two points really meet. And again you might find that that gives a little more awareness and integrity in your midline. You're welcome to keep your hands together here at your heart. Or you could play with letting your arms float up. If your arms are lifted, bring your hands back to your heart. And bring your right knee back into your chest. Start to reach back through your right foot. We're coming towards a warrior two, but feel free to take your time to find the ground. And opening up into Virabhadrasana two, warrior two.

Bring your hands forward out in front of you. And just as we just did with the arm tracing. So hands come together. And then right arm spreads open. Left hand traces. Maybe the left hand to sternum. Or left hand towards left shoulder. And then we're tracing back. Left hand opening up. Right hand tracing the left arm. Maybe to right shoulder. And we're coming back. And a few more times like that. And this is a lot. So it's a lot of movement.

But seeing if we can arrive for the touch. And receive the touch. Coming back through center. Last time, right arm reaching out to the side. And back through center. Then left arm opening to the side. And coming back through center. Then left arm opening to the side. And coming back through center. Lift your arms up. And opening up for your warrior two.

Listen for the echo of the contact. So my skin feels a little tingly. I have a little more aliveness and wakefulness because of the touch. Last full breath here. And release your hands down to frame your front foot. And let's come back to a downward facing dog. So here you're touching the ground. Letting that have some curiosity to it. How can you shift your weight? How can you push? How can you receive support?

And let's come back to a standing forward fold. And once again bringing your hands behind your head. Don't have to pull your head but simply inviting your head to release particularly the back of your skull. Can you release the back of your skull? And release your hands down to the floor. Bring your hands to your shins, lengthening up partway. Fold forward.

We'll rise all the way up to stand. Lift your arms up to the sky. Bring your hands together at the top. Bend your elbows to the sides of your thumbs. Touch the top of your head. And then touching your forehead. Your nose, your lips, your chin, your neck, your sternum. And we'll pause. Letting your hands release and then again shifting your weight side to side.

Feeling your weight pour to the left and pour to the right. The next time your weight is shifting over to your right, keep going until your left foot becomes light. And bring your left knee into your chest. Let's find tree pose, second side. Your version. Again, there is contact with the bottom of your left foot and then somewhere on the inner leg. And let those two points meet. Bring your hands together in front of your heart and also let your hands touch. Touching and being touched. You're welcome to keep your hands at your heart or you can start to extend your arms up. Or you can start to extend your arms up. So in addition to offering our self-touch, we are also of course being touched by the ground. Can you offer yourself to the ground and then receive the ground support? In that moment of receiving the ground support can feel a little magical.

It's like you get a lift. You get support. And bring your hands together in front of your heart. Hug your knee into your chest. And slowly start to send your leg back to a warrior two. You can take your time with that. And then once you're in your warrior two, opening your arms out wide to the side. And we'll find our arm tracing again. So arms come forward out in front of you, hands touch. So to reach your left arm back behind you, let your right arm trace your left arm to touch your sternum. Maybe coming to touch your right shoulder. And then tracing your arm back to be right in front of you. Hands touch and then right arm sweeps out wide to the side. Left arm traces up the arm maybe to sternum. Maybe to left shoulder. And then we're coming back to center. So keep going like that. Left arm opening. Right arm coming to sternum. Then arms traveling out in front of you. And right arm opening. So it's a lot. A lot of movement here. But as best you can, trying to track the contact. To offer and receive your own touch. Left arm sweeping open. Coming back to center. Right arm sweeping open. Back to center. One more time each side. Noticing how your hand has to change shape in relationship to the roundness of your body. Right arm reaching open. And traveling back through center. And then let's open the arms or reach the arms up to the sky. And then opening them wide for a warrior too. And again feeling into this contact with the ground. And what is it like to offer yourself to this touch? And simultaneously receive the support. The support of the ground. Support of gravity. Release both hands down. And step back to your downward facing dog. Travel forward to plank. Bring the inseams of your legs together.

Feel your midline. Lower all the way down to your belly. Rise up for a low cobra. Or down through the tops of your feet. Explore the lengthening through the whole front of your spine. And lower down. If you would like to explore an upward facing dog here, feel free or you can come back into your cobra. Press down through your hands and the tops of your feet. And then from there, let your back bend come up through your whole spine. And find your downward facing dog. Step your feet forward. Bring your hands behind your head. Notice the weight of your arms. Notice the weight of your head. And release your hands down towards the ground. Bring your hands to your shins. Lengthen up part way. And fold forward. Rise all the way up to stand. Root down into the ground. Reach up. Bring your hands together at the top. Touch the top of your head with the sides of your thumbs. Touch your forehead, your nose, your lips, your chest. And pause. Find a full round of breath here. Release your hands down. And open up your feet a little bit wider and let your toes turn out. So you're heading into external rotation. And let's begin to bend both knees to travel down to a squat. And now push down into your feet and come all the way up to stand. And let's do that a couple of times. So you're going to travel down. And then pushing down to travel up. So as you do this, finding your contact with the ground and the movement down that allows you to travel up. Again, bending your knees. So again, a practice in offering and receiving. So heading down and then pushing down to come up. And the next time you find your squat, let's pause there. Your version of squat. So feel free to be up as high as you need to be. Bring your left hand to the floor and meet your right arm up to the sky for a spiral. Travel back through center and find the other side. Right hand down, left arm up. And traveling back through center. We're finding that one more time. So left hand down, right arm up. Full round of breath here. And traveling back through center. Right hand down, left arm up. Full round of breath. And back through center.

Bring your hands back behind you and make your way to your seat. Extend your legs out in front of you just for a moment. And then let's find Ardhamatsyandrasana. So you'll bring your left foot over your right foot, right knee facing out in front of you. Some people will benefit by sitting up on a blanket or a block. Bring your left hand back behind you. Reach your right arm up and begin to twist from your low belly up to your heart. Right arm can cross over your left or you can hold on to your leg. So we have a lot of places that are touching right now. A lot of places that are being touched.

Start to arrive for those places of contact. And notice what that offers you. So what is offered when you feel your leg? Feel your arm hugging your leg. Connect to your breath. And releasing your twist traveling through center. And let's find the other side. So right leg on top this time. Bring your right hand back behind you. Reach your left arm up and starting to twist to your right. Elbow or today it's feeling good for me to wrap my arm around and give my leg a hug. Again noticing, arriving for the places that are touching. For the places that are receiving some support. And what is that offering you? And exploring your breath and noticing how your breath is moving your body in this shape.

You might find there's a little oscillating. A movement towards the posture and a movement away. Gently release your twist coming back through center and unravel your legs. Reach them out in front of you and give them a little shake. And now let's let our give our legs more of a squeeze. So squeezing, feeling the soft tissue and whatever would feel good here. And then one more time kind of brushing, stroking your legs. And again this practice of caring for and loving what is beneath your hand.

And along the way you might touch areas that haven't yet been loved. So sending some extra attention to those places. Let's transition all the way down to the back body. Bend both knees, place your feet on the floor. And cross your right ankle over your left thigh. Start to bring your left leg in towards your body and hold on to the back of your left leg for a figure four. So again lots of places of contact. Your hand touching the back of your leg. Ankle touching thigh, thigh touching ankle.

Noticing all these places of contact to receive the touch. And again noticing what that offers. Feel the weight of your shoulders and the weight of your arms. And begin to relax your hip creases. And gently release your left foot down and then release your right foot down. Second side, left ankle over the right thigh. Right leg will start to come in and hold on to your left foot down and then release your right foot down. Second side, left ankle over the right thigh. Right leg will start to come in and hold on to the back of your right leg. Some breaths here in figure four. Noticing what you're touching.

Noticing the touch of the ground, allowing for some big breaths here to soften your hip creases. And as you're ready, let's release the right foot down and release your left foot down. Let your arms travel up towards the sky and bring your right arm in front of your left, bend your elbows to bring your hands around to touch down by your shoulder blades. So another self hug and again a moment to pause to feel the touch of this. Arrive for this gesture. Notice the qualities of this gesture and offering yourself a hug, a loving hug and then the practice of receiving that. And reach your arms up towards the sky again. Bring your left arm in front of your right, bend your elbows and then again a moment to feel this hug. Soften into the hug and receiving your own hug. Send your arms up towards the sky once again and this time hold on to opposite elbows and let your knees travel to the right. So both knees will head right as the elbows go to the left and find a few big breaths here and travel back through center so your knees can go to the left and your elbows to the right and back through center. Inhale, exhale, knees to the right, elbows to the left. Inhale, breath through center, knees to the left, elbows to the right. One more time each side. Inhale through center, knees up, elbows up. Exhale, knees to the right, elbows to the left. Inhale, knees up, elbows up. Exhale, knees to the left, elbows to the right and inhale through center. Exhale, hug your knees into your chest and extend your legs out in front of you for your shavasana. Settling into this touch with the ground. Offering yourself to the ground and receiving the touch, receiving the support of the ground of gravity. Bring your attention to your breath and bring your hands to your heart. A brief moment to breathe into this contact. Another moment to feel your hands, feel what you are touching beneath your hands and to practice in loving what you are touching. Gently begin to roll to your side and push into your hands to come all the way up to your seat. Let your arms open up wide to the side and as you exhale bring your hands together in front of your heart and find a bow. Pausing in your bow for a full round of breath, bowing into your body, bowing into your life, bowing with your whole spine and gently coming back up.

Release your hands. Thank you.