Core Consciousness

Hey, I'm Cleo. Great that you're here for practice. Today is my favorite core. I have a bolster in two blocks. You could use a rolled up blanket. If you don't have this, you could do this on nothing.

We're gonna start lying on the belly. I'm putting the bolster right under my rib cage, not my belly, not my breasts so that the front of the ribs are corseted are are restricted, and the back of the ribs are really free. They can really move. You can make a little pillow with your hands and rest your forehead, if that's alright. And the whole shape of the spine is a dome is around scared Halloween cat turtle as much as you can. And because of the restriction of the bolster, in the front of the body.

Let your breath be guided into the back of the body. And we'll start here with a little pranayamaveloma 1, which is a three part inhale. Start by exhaling, breathe all your air empty. And then breathe in and pause, widen the back waist, breathe in and pause, spread the ribs from center to size, inhale, fill up all the way up to the back of the armpits, pause, and a smooth, long exhale to empty. If you need an easy breath in between, take one.

And you'll do 2 more rounds. Your rhythm is better than mine. I'm faster or slower than you. You'll breathe in and pause, widen, inhale and pause, climbing the ribs, climbing the breath up the sides of the ribs. Inhale, fill, spread like a balloon in the back, and easy exhale all the breath out.

Recovery breath, if that feels right, And then one last time, a three part inhale and a slow, long exhale. Maybe give your hip Sarac. This is wonderful also for your back if you sit a lot just to lie on a bull or lie on a blanket and let there be some traction, some space in your spine. Okay. Great. Come up onto your elbows. We're gonna roll on to the back slide the bolster towards the back of the mat.

Lie on your back, suped about a canasana so the soles of the feet together and the knees apart slip your fingers underneath the bolster and then lift it up. Let's say a forty five degree angle away from the floor. In this shape, feel that the back ribs can drop easily, and the front ribs are knitting together towards the midline. We'll do another 3 part breath, Veloma 2. This is a 3 part exhale, though. So inhale. And then exhale 1 third and pause, drop the back ribs down.

Exhale two thirds and paws, the sides of the navel to the back of the waist, exhale 3 thirds. Maybe even you feel the pelvic floor lifting up and then take an easy breath in and out. And you'll do that two more times. Inhale, exhale a little, pause, Exhale a little, pause, exhale, exhale, exhale. If you know Mula Banda, Udiana Bundet, senses like those actions, easy breath, and we'll do one more time.

Inhale. Exhale. Second exhale, 3rd exhale, pressing the belly down, the diaphragm, pressing the air out, and then an easy breath in and out. Yes. Lift the bolster up above your chest, ground your feet on the floor.

Take your feet as wide as the mat. I'm holding the bolster on the sides. Windshield wipers, let your knees drop left. You reach bolster right. Inhale, come up to center, let knees drop right, and bolster goes left.

And you're on your own, moving the bolster and the knees in opposite directions. And as you twist, To the right, let your inner left foot be heavy. As you twist to the left, let your inner right foot be heavy. And you could even reach the knee to the floor. You can reach the thigh away from the hip, a like, gluteal contraction.

So you begin to feel the sides of the abdomen, the psoas, lengthening, strengthening. Okay. And then bring bolster your knees up to center. Put your right hand down on the floor to your right hand as high as shoulder and just put the bolster on top of it as a weight. Take a block between the knees, lift the feet up like you're in chair lying on your back and with your left hand hold the other block, right above your chest.

We're gonna keep doing those twists, knees to the left. And this time, take your left hand to the right. So the bolster is holding down your right hand, and you could really turn your knees, your hips to the left. Come on up to center. We'll do just three more like that.

So knees to the left and block to the right. Twice more. Look at your knees and see if your right knee is kind of hugging back and see if you could slide it forward. So your knees stay stacked right over the blanket. One more time. These left hand bolster right. And then come on up to center.

Just put your feet down, put the block on your belly. Change the bolster to be in your left hand. So the hand is the same height as the shoulder. The bolster is just on top of the hand as a weight. Knees go right and the hand block goes to the left.

Come on up to center. We'll do 3 more. Watch your knees. It feels like from the back of the left hip pressing the left thigh bone forward, the left knee stacking, Let your feet light up, exhale twisting. Yeah. Great. And then come back to center, block on belly.

Hold one block. You can put the other block to the side, and you're gonna hold one block clip it between your elbow and your knee. Right elbow right knee and a block is clipped between your right hand can hold your head. You can keep your head up your, left arm, left leg, long and moving away from each other, like, Arda Nevasana. So your right knee, right elbow, hold the block, left arm, left leg away from you. And then just roll on to your right side a little bit.

And roll back onto your back. And we'll do this three more times, rolling to the right, see if you can feel your back bottom ribs, I'm already shaking. As you try and articulate them rolling like a melon onto your back. One more time. Is it 2 more times?

You know, more core, more more better. Okay. And then left arm, left leg lift up, and then bend your left knee, like your right knee is bent, like you're doing and a touch your left knee to your left elbow. Inhale left arm and left leg away from each other, exhale, baccasana action, left knee to the left elbow. Do this twice more inhale and exhale one more time. Breathe in. Back ribs down, down, down.

And out. Good. And then put both feet down. Take a breath. Put your head down. We'll switch sides. So clip the block between your left knee, left elbow. You can hold your head or let your head lay down, right arm, right leg up, and then away from other, breathe in, and roll onto your left waist as you breathe out, and come back to center.

We'll do this three more times rolling, getting all of your back waist down you'll feel that the lower back wants to pop up that the ribs want a yawn open. So keeping this Hugging to the midline feeling one more time. Great. And then right arm, right leg up in the air, and then bend the left, right arm, right knee to your right elbow like Baccasana. Okay. Extend away as you breathe in, bakasana action as you breathe out. You could even touch your toes, your heel together, twice more in.

And out. That's really a sign of a mature bakasana when the toes and the heel touch one more time. Okay. Great. And then put your head down. Hold your block overhead Put your feet on the floor like bridge pose, feet on the floor hip distance, hold the block overhead, inhale lift your hips up, Listen, we're gonna play with empty. So you'll breathe out all your breath and you'll stay empty. Okay? Breathe in.

Open the mouth. Exhale all breath. Roll down your upper back, your middle back, your lower back, maybe just the top of your sacrum hip pause, and pull the brick apart white in the interior of the rib cage, Udiana banda action, and then take a regular breath in and out. We'll do it one more time. So if this is new to you, you're just playing with retention.

You're just playing with empty with Excel. Inhale to lift the hips, open mouth, all the breath empty. Stay empty, roll down, upper, middle, lower. It's like an excavation of the abdomen hollowing out of the abdominal cavity, pull the block apart like a fake cough, like a fake laugh, widening the interior of the ribs, and then an easy breath in and out. Great. Put your block down. Hug your knees in.

Roll yourself head to tail up and down to sit, lie down, sit, lie down. One of my favorite things to do lately is standing and sitting with no hands. Cross your right ankle. See about it. Stand up. Keep your right ankle. Cross it down.

Left ankle. So you're on your own standing and sitting. And if no hands feels really challenging too. You can put your hands down. You can use your blocks.

This is one of the ways I think that we stay young. If we can honestly get up and down off the floor. Last time will be your left ankle in front. And then maybe you see can you do both feet uncrossed You can dismount. Great. And then step to the front of your mat.

Tadasana, feet together. Word vastasana, lift the hands up, breathe in, And then just hover your left foot. Like, the floor got shorter. It feels like your left hip is hiking up, and you're gonna go halfway forward, hands go back, like a flat back, reaching your chest forward. Almost like your nose, toes are gonna kick your nose, and then stand. Inhale. Arms go up. Let's do this twice. Exhale belly to the back, hinging from the hips, One more time. Inhale.

Exhale hinge. Stay here and then sweep your left leg back warrior 3. Round your back, pull your front ribs up remember the bolster. Take the arms forward step back warrior. 1, breathe in, and then both hands to the mat Stepping back, down dog, and breathe out.

Plank, pose, inhale. And lower all the way to your belly exhale. Shalabhasana interlace your fingers clasp behind your butt Breathe in, inhale, chest up, shoulders up, exhale for our head down. Change the interlace again inhale and exhale. Come to down dog any way you like.

You can come through cobra, hands and knees, plank pose. Okay. Lift the right leg up. Inhale. Bring your right knee to your chest. Come forward. Top of a push up. Look, you can be up on fingertips. You could have hands on blocks.

Step your right foot forward. So if that felt like a a far journey, do put blocks under your hands. You can have them. I have my medium height You could have yours low. I wouldn't have them high. Bring your left knee to your chest.

Extend the left leg forward and sit down, like Marie Chiasma, and then we'll go back. So push into your blocks, your hands, lift your hips, knee to the chest, lunge. Let's do this twice more. Left knee to the chest. Extend the leg. Sit bring the knee to the chest, step back one more time.

You know, they rollerskate and do this. Okay. And then both feet to the floor. Sit on a block. I'm having my medium height so you're in a squat. Bring your elbows to the inside of your knees.

Hands a prayer or you could touch your fingertips together. Our next pranayama is kapalabati, sharp exhalations through the nose, the belly moves back, Breathe in. We'll do 54 pumps, exhale completely. And then inhale half a breath and begin. Last four, slow down. Stay empty. Almost stand like you're in a team huddle, hands on your knees, knees a little bit bent, inhale nose, That same uddiana but work, blow it out your mouth, get empty, stay empty.

Pull your belly to your back. When you're ready to breathe in, you will. You'll stand, lift your arms, inhale. Hands down through heart center exhale Take the block off your mat If you're using blocks on either side, put them on either side, step the feet together. Or lift the arms, breathe in, standing on your left foot, just hover the right foot. So the hips slightly hikes up, leg is straight, foot is flexed.

As you exhale hinge from the hips, chest forward, and hands back, it's like you're gonna kick your nose. Twice more inhale. Let your belly be the mover, exhale. One more time. Breathe in.

Heart forward, hands back. Breathe out. Stay like this warrior 3, sweep the right leg back. Maybe your hands go forward, round your back, like there was a bolster there, breathe in, warrior 1 step back once twice, inhale, reach the arms up, and exh hail downward facing dog, hands to the mat and step back. Plank pose, breathing in.

Lowering down, breathing out, cobra, upward dog, whatever backbend feels right, inhale. And downward facing dog exhale. So if you're using blocks, you can put your hands on blocks, left leg lifts, breathe in, lunge step forward. Maybe your hands blown blocks. Maybe you're up on fingertips.

Bring the right knee into your chest, kick the right foot forward, sit, We'll go back and forth two more times, inhale lift up, and step back. One more time. Oh, no. Now one more time. And then you'll just put your foot under you.

Again, squatting down. If you don't want the block, you don't need the block, you can take a wide squat. You just want your heels down. Hands in prayer breathe in, exhale empty breathe out, inhale 54 pumps, Breathe in. Hands to your knees like a team huddle straighten your arms, exhale all your air empty out of your mouth, dump the breath. Some of you could play with flapping the belly with rolling the belly. Nowly, if you know it, When you're ready to breathe in, you will.

Lift the arms, look up, inhale, and pull it down through heart center. Exhale. Okay. Great. Malasana, bring that bull your back on your mat, and you'll step your feet together. I'm gonna have it sort of in the middle of the mat.

Step your feet together so your heels are up on the bolster. Big toes together, heels together. This is what I'm saying about Bakasana so that the inner foot touches. Go ahead. Keep this and squat down melasana. So now your butt touches the bolster or at least descends closer to it.

You could put a block here for your forehead. We're gonna fold forward breathe in, and as you exhale arms inside the knees, you might be able to wrap your hands around the back of the heels and put your head on the block. And we'll take a few breaths here, see if you can direct the breath into the back ribs, like there was still the bolster there. It's easy to feel that space widen on the exhale, but see if you can Sometimes when that space is tight, or closed. When you breathe in and direct the breath there, the buttocks will lift or the head will float up.

Take two more breaths and see if you can keep head down but down and inflate the kidney ban. You might even lower the block. One more breath. Great. Lift your head. Straighten the legs.

Slip off the bolster. You can slide it off your mat. And you can step up on a block. Now put the block where the bolster was. Perch your feet up on the block Big toes together, heels, inner heels touching, hands on the floor, arms inside the knees, and crawl your knees as high up your armpits as you can get them.

Hug the arms with the knees, dome the back again, and you'll begin to lean forward elbows going over the wrist, shoulders well past the knuckles, see if your feet lift off, as if you could straighten your arms, dome your back. And then you'll land. Step off the block. Pastasana. Stand on your hands.

Slide the palms under the soles of the feet, toes way up the wrists, breathe in. And elbows wide apart as you fold and breathe out. Like your ribs sliding down the front of your legs as if they could hook over your kneecaps. And then slide the hands out, fingertips in front of feet, Ardo Uhtinasana breathe and and hands to hips inhale and stand. Great.

We're gonna close with a version of Sarvangasana shoulder stand. I'm gonna make a little ledge with my blocks as if my bolster had an stender. You wanna do this towards the front of your mat so your head can stay on your mat. I mean, unless you don't care. My spine is gonna be on the bolster, but my shoulders and head will be on the floor. The feet go up on the blocks So after all of that contraction, have a sense of the length the space within the abdominal cavity.

Your arms can be loosely in goalpost, elbows bent. You really want your shoulders down So now the dome is in the chest. One more time, we'll do Veloma 2, which is the interrupted exhale. So breathe in. Exhale a little bit and pause. Keeping the chest full, exhale a little bit and pause, back ribs sense the bolster one more time.

Exhale, maybe even the back waist, dropping down, and then an easy breath in and out. If you're very comfortable here, please stay here. This is a lovely space to be in 5 or 10 minutes. You might also slide the bolster forward towards your feet and turn it sideways so that your spine can lie on the floor. And your legs can rest on your bolster.

We'll move into meditation. So pick some shape that's comfortable for you, and that might also be sitting on your bolster Sometimes if the mind is very active, it's helpful to be lying down kind of spreading awareness in the horizontal plane like where the water meets the sky. Whatever shape you find yourself in, start simply by settling in Becoming more still and sensing whatever is supporting you. Sense the back, the butt, the legs, the feet touching the floor. Or the bolster.

And because you are supported, see if you can let some muscular holding release and soften. We'll do a body scan sensing in at first to the feet, maybe the temperature or the sensation, whatever you can feel in your feet. It's a wonderful anchor for the mind to go down out of the thinking brain and into the feeling body. And you might also feel a kind of appreciation for your feet. The way you move through this world.

Sense into the legs, the biggest bones in the body, the thigh bones, the weight of the bones. Let the flesh of the bones hang And some appreciation for the legs moving you, taking you everywhere, dancing, moving. Sense into the pelvis, the organs of the belly, maybe even your breath there. Miraculous organs of creation and elimination, where our chi, our prana, our life force lives, this strong, stable place that you touched into today. Sence into the rib cage.

The widening and hugging in of the ribs, as the lungs fill and empty with air. The beating of your heart, some appreciation for these vital organs, their rhythm, the currents, Feel into the shoulders. If you're sitting like an old over coat, let the shoulders drop and be heavy. The arms, the hands. Maybe tingling or pulsing the temperature of your hands.

Amazing hands, holding the world, touching the world. Our arms holding each other or groceries. Sends into the neck, the outside of the neck soft, the inside of the throat, supple, the pit of the throne, deep, our expression, our voice, this canal between the thinking mind and the feeling heart. Relax the tongue in the mouth, separate the teeth. You might even smile slightly widening not only the corners of the lips, but also the cheeks, Let the eyes sink back into their sockets and spread the eyebrows apart smoothing the thinking lines and the forehead.

Like, you have great buddha ear lobes. Let the ear lobes be very heavy. With a wide open listening canal to the ears. The wondrous brain, all that lives within the skull, are seeing, our hearing, our tasting, our creative imagination, and then feel into the whole body. Breathing in sensing your whole body right here right now.

And as you breathe out, smiling at the body, appreciating this body, this home. Please stay. Please enjoy this moment a little bit longer. And if your day or night is calling, if it's time, please go slow. To move, be reluctant and lazy as you bring yourself back to a seat.

We'll close practice with a simple bow. If you're still on your back, you might simply touch your hand to your heart or bring your hands together in front of forehead. If you're with me seated, sit up as you breathe in, and bow forward as you breathe out. Thanks for being here and doing any of this. Shanti.