Voicing Connection

(waves crashing) Come into your easy seat. Place one foot in front of the other, find your ground. Press down into the earth, roll up through that center core in the spine. Just let your heart beat easy and free here. Today we really don't wanna get stuck at the core, at the chest area, as a lot of the times we can do so easily in life, in yoga.

But to bring all that new energy we're creating all the way up into the throat, out through the mouth, into the head, so that we have that full expression that we seek in our physical poses and off the mat too. So come into your belly bonfire breath. That whole core transformer. Breathe down and wide around the base of the ribs. Allow yourself to soften and release on the inhale.

On your exhale give a nice, light squeeze of the pelvic muscles, the low belly. Take that navel towards the spine and lift that breath up and out. Inhale down, warm and wide. Give yourself that freedom, that space. On the exhale hug and lift up and out.

Think of that breath moving all the way up and out through the chest, through the throat, out through the nose. (exhales deeply) In through the nose, through the throat, through the chest, into that belly, pulling and widening everything. So you get that nice groundedness, but you also open that channel of space of expression and support. Bring your hands onto the knees. Take a deep breath, lean yourself forward and up.

Now notice how often, as we start to draw into that strong core, and offer that heart center, we can tend to grip at the sides of the throat. So you'll see these big neck muscles here start to fire. Sometimes they will, that's okay. But today we want strong core, soft throat. As you open up through the heart, see if you can gently slide the center of your brain back, up and wide, and let the neck just relax more.

That will keep these cables which are connected to your front body from holding you down, and allow you to open much more freely, and with less compression around your voice. Take a deep breath in, lean forward and up. See if you can let that throat be nice and open. Exhale, curl it in. (exhales deeply) Inhale, lean forward and up. (inhales deeply) Exhale, curl. (exhales deeply) Inhale this time, reach the arms all the way up and out. (inhales deeply) Exhale, fists of fire, draw back.

Lengthen up through the spine. Again, you can move wherever you want, kinda like Stevie Wonder a little bit, and let your throat relax. Inhale, lean yourself forward and up. Exhale, fists of fire, draw yourself back and up. Inhale, lean forward.

Exhale, say ha! So I wanna really empower that solar plexus and clear the space for you to just express that from your core. Inhale forward and up. Exhale, ha! Inhale, forward. So we're not forcing it. Ha! We're just allowing it to come out with a nice strong, powerful center.

Ha! Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) Ha! One more time. Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) Ha! Inhale, lift all the way up. On the exhale, plant your hands down, plant the forearms down, unwind the feet. Deep breath in. Let's continue that ha.

On the exhale kick out your right foot. Ha! Then switch. Ha! Ha! Ha! So we're not forcing too hard. Ha! Ha! Ha! Just allowing yourself to get these pulses at the solar plexus. Ha! Ha! Ha! Very powerful mantra to focus and dedicate you.

Ha! Ha! Keep going, and maybe a little faster if you can. Ha! Ha! Ha! Then take a deep inhale. Go for it! Ha! (laughing) Like you're laughing, 'cause it's not really that funny right now. Alright, and then exhale up to navasana. (laughs) Okay.

Inhale, reach up. (inhales deeply) Exhale, curl it all the way down. (exhales deeply) Inhale, stretch your arms overhead. A little rock and roll, back up to navasana. Inhale, reach. Exhale, roll. (exhales deeply) Inhale here, rock and roll all the way up. Get a hang on if you need to.

Inhale, stretch. Exhale, down. Inhale, reach over. On the exhale if you can get there this way then roll yourself up and all the way in to a forward fold. Keep your knees bent or you can just meet me up here.

Lift up through the belly nice and long through the chest, through the throat, and let the head hang. Begin to wave yourself here from side to side. Giving yourself that groundedness, the centeredness, but also the freedom and release above that comes from being rooted and deepen the core. Take a breath at center. Bend the knees, slide the sitting bones back and wide.

On your exhale, begin to gently roll yourself up. Inhale, open up through the chest, through the throat. Be here for a breath or two. Feel if you're jutting the head forward, if you're straining forward in your life aggressively. If you're just collapsing and too far back, and passive, or if you can stand with that regal posture, open, and free, and resilient.

Inhale here. (inhales deeply) On the exhale slowly bow to your practice. Fold over those legs. Play the edge of your stretch there. Inhale through the belly, nice and long through the spine, open throat. On your exhale plant the fingertips down.

Set yourself back, downward facing dog. Now here's one place we can get really constricted around the heart, the throat, and the jaw area. So I'd like you to inhale, bend the knees a little bit. On the exhale actually round your back way up. Get the armpits to lift.

Slide the armpits down your back and widen those shoulders. Let the head and neck relax. Let the throat be open. Then just stretch the legs back again from this new, buoyant dog. Inhale here through the nose.

Exhale, stick your tongue out. Lion's pose. (exhales loudly) Stretching the jaw, releasing tension. Inhale through the nose. Exhale, stick your tongue out. (exhales loudly) The tongue is the top of your core line, so if you really want to express yourself, we're gonna open that space. Inhale here.

Exhale. (exhales loudly) Good, bend the knees. Inhale here. On your exhale begin to lift the belly. Roll the spine forward, wave into your plank pose. Deep breath here in plank.

On the exhale bring the knees down to the floor. Keep that belly lifted though. Try not to let the head jut forward or sit too far back, but just in a nice, soft line. Come on down to the earth. Inhale, prepare.

On your exhale press down into the earth. Lift the belly, strong core, soft throat today. So instead of being here holding back with the neck, try to slide the center of your skull back and up. Let the throat soften more. That will help to release you open for more back bend as the front body gives way.

Inhale here. On the exhale float it down. (exhales deeply) Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) Slide the throat back. Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) Deep breath. (inhales deeply) Exhale up. (exhales deeply) Strong core, soften the throat. Inhale. (inhales deeply) On your exhale, lift up through that belly. Transition yourself back, downward facing dog.

Again, you can take that nice wave. In time it gets easier to do. Relaxing the head, the neck and shoulders. Inhale through the nose here. One time through the tongue.

(exhales loudly) Alright, bend knees and elbows here. Pulse with the earth, use physics to your advantage, give you more power as you lift the belly and lift the right let to the sky. On your exhale sweep all the way in and through. Lift the knee and step your right foot to your right thumb. Lengthen the spine forward.

On your exhale begin to roll yourself up into your high lunge. So just find that kind of liquid movement. When you are grounded below, when you are centered in the middle, you're gonna find this whole throat, neck area opening up for you. You wanna be lighter above. Inhale here.

Exhale, fists of fire. (exhales deeply) Start to express yourself through the energy of this fierce dedication. Inhale and exhale. Inhale, lean forward a little bit. On your exhale (exhales loudly) out through the tongue, fierce lion lunge. Bend the back knee and roll up through the front spine and front belly, so you're not contacting too much back arch.

Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales loudly) Bend the back knee, roll yourself up. Inhale, stretch. Exhale. (exhales loudly) Good. Now inhale, lean forward again. Walk the back foot in a little bit.

So you wanna be nice and stable. On your exhale, fists of fire. Then bring that left knee up into your chest. This is really important to draw up along the front spine instead of just the grippy hip. That's not gonna work.

Inhale, step back a little bit. Exhale, knee to chest. (exhales deeply) Inhale here. Now if you can, we're gonna do some fancy kicks of fire. They look like this. Yes, knee up, but then kick out through the heel and say ha! Inhale, tap it back.

Exhale. Ha! Do your best. Inhale. Ha! Inhale. Balance and empowerment.

Inhale. Ha! One more, inhale. Ha! Step all the way back into your lunge. Draw up through the belly, express yourself as Madonna would say. My girl.

Lift up the leg if you want. Exhale, bend the knees, plant the hands down. Step it back, downward facing dog. Walk your feet together in between sides. Bend knees, bend elbows.

So maybe you wanna pulse a couple times. Inhale back. Exhale, press arms straight, lift through the belly. Maybe you wanna hop. Inhale.

Exhale. You can hop down, lift up through the belly, through the pelvis. May lower than that is cool too, but whatever. When you press down and lift up through the belly, see if you can hop yourself forward a little lighter. Inhale, wave the spine nice and long, open the throat.

Exhale and fold. (exhales deeply) Good, bend the knees here. Inhale, slide the sitting bones back. On the exhale come up to chair pose. Oh yeah, stay bent, stay sitting. Inhale, reach all the way up, sit down a little bit more.

Slide those sitting bones back, lift the belly, open through the chest. On your exhale, fierce lion. (exhales loudly) Let it go. Inhale, float up. Stretch the legs if you want. Exhale. (exhales loudly) One more, inhale, float up.

Exhale. (exhales loudly) Good, plant the hands down on the floor, step, or if you're feelin' sassy today, hop back. Downward dog, but do lift the belly. Wave long, relax the throat, relax the jaw. Bend everything, inhale. Exhale, press down, lift the left leg high.

On your exhale knee to chest, lift, lift, lift, and step the foot forward. Inhale, unwind. Exhale, bend back. Roll up so you're coming through that strong core, front spinal muscles, back spinal muscles, in order to release the heart and the throat into freedom. Inhale, reach. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) So really gather in that belly.

Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) Inhale. (inhales deeply) (exhales deeply) See if you can pulse that. Open, soft belly with the exhales. Little stronger, inhale here. On the exhale. (exhales loudly) Stick the tongue out, fierce lion. Roll yourself up, exhale. (exhales loudly) Good, roll yourself up.

Exhale, express. (exhales loudly) Beautiful, roll all the way up here. One more time, can you do it? Exhale. (exhales loudly) Alright, plant the hands all the way down. Step your back foot in a little bit. I want you to walk yourself forward enough so that you feel comfortable and reach your arms out.

On the exhale press into your left foot. Lift through the front spine, knee toward the chest. So you just wanna take that nice balance here. (exhales deeply) A couple of times to feel it from the earth to the core. Neck is soft, you're trying not to overdo any tension in that area.

If you can, kick it out and say ha! Here we go. Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. Ha! Inhale. Ha! Ha! At your own pace. Ha! Ha! Say it like you mean it.

Ha! Ha! One more. Ha! Okay, very good, I like that. (laughs) So you can be casual, it's fine. Reach yourself all the way back. Roll it in and up, let yourself dance with this. Inhale, stretch.

Exhale, plant the hands down. Step yourself back, downward facing dog. (exhales deeply) Bend the knees, bend the elbows, inhale. Exhale, roll yourself forward to plank pose. Find that inner wave. Lower it down to the floor.

Inhale, prepare. Exhale, roll inward and upward. Let the throat soften. Something we don't do will put the head back like that and hang on, so draw yourself back and up. See if you can find a difference there.

Inhale. On the exhale roll back into yourself. Press yourself back into child's pose. Take a moment here, arms behind you, forehead on the mat, and just wave from side to side. So we can let the head release to the floor.

If it doesn't touch the floor, you can get a block or a pillow, or your hands. Give yourself a moment of total rest in the head, neck, the throat, the shoulders. Inhale, sweep the breath through all of that in one, clear line of communication. Exhale through the mouth or the nose. Just relax a little bit more completely.

Let's take three breaths like that together. (inhales and exhales deeply) Alright, from here reach forward again, plant your fingertips to palms, come on up, tuck under and back to downward facing dog. Lift up through the whole spine and wave long. Bend elbows and knees, inhale. Exhale, press down, lift the right leg to the sky, and on the exhale draw the knee into chest, step it forward.

Inhale, wave the spine long. Bend your back knee and roll yourself up, kind of in a diagonal so the pelvis is nice, and solid, and free between the legs. Bend the back knee, find your center. Interlace your hands behind you. Deep breath in, and on the exhale, turn the heart forward, and just slide inside your front knee or onto the front knee.

Bend on the inhale, back knee too. Exhale, roll yourself up. Inhale, chest in throat. Keep that throat nice and soft. Exhale, roll down.

So you wanna activate that front spine as you roll up, to allow the chest and throat to open more. Then exhale, take it back down. One more breath here. (inhales deeply) Exhale, keep your arms interlaced. Roll yourself up, we're gonna switch sides right here. So other foot forward, and your other heel a little bit back.

Bend the knees, get yourself to center. Lift up to the heart, exhale, begin to fold it down. (exhales deeply) Inhale, find your liquid element here from the earth through the core, softening out chest, softening the neck. Exhale and fold. (exhales deeply) Bend the back knee, inhale. Exhale, roll it out and fold.

One more time, inhale. (inhales deeply) Roll it up and fold it down, waterfall warrior here. Now one breath here and on the exhale, turn your feet to parallel-ish, facing the same way as your kneecaps know, and just begin to straighten one leg and then the other. (exhales deeply) Finding that center between both feet, inhale. On the exhale, release the arm. Now they should feel lighter when you come up. Start to roll up and turn your toes open a little bit.

Inhale, stretch the arms up. On your exhale, fists of fire. Ha! So we're bringing in that same idea of will power, empowerment, fierce dedication here. Inhale. (inhales deeply) To what? Only you can decide today.

That's up to you, so say it like you mean it. Exhale. Ha! (inhales deeply) Ha! (inhales deeply) Ha! Little faster. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Keep your knees open, keep the hips back. Ha! Ha! Ha! Soften in that fierceness so we're not hardening into it.

Ha! Ha! Just three more. Ha! And ha! Good. Reach all the way up, and on the exhale, slowly, hands together, begin to turn it down toward the floor, waving from side to side. Turn your front toes forward, your back, heel up. Step it back, downward facing dog. (exhales deeply) Bend your knees, inhale, look forward.

On the exhale press into the earth, lift your belly, and I want you to hop it forward with your knees and shins down on the mat. If you want a blanket here, or you wanna roll your mat and put your knees on it, that's cool too. So being here, we'll practice a little bit of camel. Just a little flowy, wavy camel, but a high camel. Inhale, hands to the hips.

Let your sitting bones be wide. Exhale, begin to press into the earth. Draw up through the belly. So we want that strong front spinal core, soft throat. Usually we hold on with the head here, so draw in and up along the front spine.

That should allow your head and neck to slide back and up without gripping so much. Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale, begin to fold it down. Sitting bones wide, inhale. See if you can find the wave. Exhale, roll up and in that front spine.

Inhale, fill the chest. (inhales deeply) Exhale it down. (exhales deeply) Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) Good, inhale. So strong core, back body gets involved too, but this is really drawing up along that front spine, and that'll give you the most release in the throat. On your exhale, plant the hands all the way down. Right knee behind the right wrist. Left leg back for pigeon pose.

So I want you just to gently move that right foot out of the way a little bit, not too far forward, back foot comes back. You can creep it to center there so it's behind its own sitting bone. Walk the fingertips wide. Inhale, dive down. Exhale, press down, roll up along that front spine.

Inhale here, watch the throat. Watch what the head is doing. Think center of the brain, moving back and up. Front of that lumbar moving back and up. Those two work together.

On the exhale, flow it down. (exhales deeply) Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale, begin to rise. (exhales deeply) Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale. (exhales deeply) You can try and inhale to come up and an exhale down, but I want you to do about five more of these on your own, just kind of feeling into that connection between that strengthening center, and the releasing heart, throat and head. (inhales and exhales deeply) The last time you come up you could maybe creep the hands back a little bit farther. Again, draw that front spine in, the top pelvis back and up. See if you can glide the skull back and relax the throat more. Perhaps the arms would even float back behind you a little bit and you can find a moment here of freedom above, grounded and centering below.

On your exhale slowly walk the hands down to center. Lengthen the spine here and fold. Rest your head completely on a block, your hands, or the floor for five deep inhales and exhales here. Let's do this together. Inhale down to the ribs, warm, and wide, and everything.

Exhale, relax, let it go. (exhales deeply) Inhale, fill up and make that space, and finally decide on the exhale, to release what isn't serving you, to grow, to progress, or just to be here right now, the most important thing of all. Try one more, inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale, really relax the head. (exhales deeply) It's nice to rest the brain for a while, right? Okay, slowly come back up, plant the hands, lift the belly, walk yourself in place. If you're big on vinyasas, go ahead and take that or a little child's pose action. Let's join on the other side.

Deep breath in, prepare, and on the exhale, left knee to left wrist. Creep the right leg back behind you. Walk the hands back, bow to your practice. Inhale here. On the exhale roll in and up along the spine.

What's happening with the heart? What's happening with the neck? On the exhale, fold. (exhales deeply) Inhale. (inhales deeply) Root down to the earth, draw up through that center, and be free. Exhale. (exhales deeply) Even if it's here, a little wave. (inhales deeply) That's lovely, and you're resting on a block. So find the thing that works for you.

Try three more on your own here, just kinda feeling when you're carrying with the head, neck and shoulders, when you're letting that do the work of your core. We all do that, right? The mind and the heart often tries to take over for that truth inside. Then when you're finished, you wanna roll back up, but try to come back a little bit more because you're so self-centered in such a beautiful, positive way. If you can be there, whatever that transformational point is for you, but draw in into yourself.

Offer up through the heart, soft head and neck. I have to do this all the time to remind myself. Open up to all the gifts that are right here for you already. Inhale. (inhales deeply) Exhale, release the hands down. Wave up through the spine here, and on the exhale plant the head, block, hands or floor, five deep inhales and exhales.

This is your meditation today on being able to release the brain, and the heart, in service of that core connection that you hold. (inhales and exhales deeply) When you're ready to transition back out plant the hands down, lift through the belly center and come on back to your dog post. Goodness. Bend the knees, bend the elbows here. Inhale, and on the exhale you're just gonna hop really lightly and come to sit your way.

Stretch your legs out for a moment and just give yourself some wavy gravy over the legs. Bend them at first so the pelvis can move, and in time stretch them straighter, feels alright. (inhales and exhales deeply) So for this next and final sequence, I want you to have a block or even two blocks. We're going towards a little more heart opening here in restorative or active poses. If you don't have yoga blocks, they're a good investment to make, but also you could do it with a couple sturdy couch cushions if you have 'em, or even big books.

Alright, bend the knees, take a hold of the blocks or have them near, roll onto your back. Roll onto your back and lift up through the pelvis. One or two blocks, if you are more curvy in your back, go ahead and put two blocks underneath. Squeegee your shoulders, your head and neck up, away. Let the throat rest, let the head rest.

This is providing traction for your low back, to really help release it out so it can be stronger and more supple for you, so the upper parts of your body do not have to do the work on and off the mat. So from here, simple bridge, arms can come over head. (breathes deeply) I'd like you to breathe here into the belly, even into the chest, so you might flood the belly then up into the chest, play around before you wanna take the breath. Okay, if this feels good for you, you might try some therapeutic bridge. You could remove the blocks.

I like to stay there for about one minute usually. You can lift all the way up here, and then exhale, flow it down, and do that for your minute. Whatever it is, I'd like you to be taking this time to draw yourself into a position. Even lifting up through the hips and interlacing the hands for a more static bridge position here. (exhales deeply) We'll take about five more inhales and exhales wherever you are, but I'd love for you to just focus on how much can you relax the throat and the head.

Are you trying to use it even here? How much can you soften around that heart center? And even let the core be open and supportive. (inhales and exhales deeply) Slow the breath. (inhales and exhales deeply) On your last breath really relax on a profound level.

So we've gotta bring our attention to doing that sometimes. Sometimes we think we're good, I'm super relaxed, everything's fine, man. Then we find another layer because we looked for it. Take a deep breath in. Exhale completely. (exhales deeply) Then slowly remove out the blocks if they're there.

Come on down, cross your right knee over your left. Gently drop the knees over to the left. Let's take this gentle twist. Turn the skull and the throat over to the opposite direction from the knees. So knees are left, gaze is going to be right.

Let the energy spiral up through the whole spine now. (inhales and exhales deeply) What happens if you let the throat, the tongue, release? You can even take your lion's breath here anytime. (exhales loudly) Feels good. Unwind that, come back to center.

Let's do it to the other side. Left knee over, knees drop to the right. Heart, throat, head spiraling to the left. (inhales and exhales deeply) Notice if you're still holding your head here, the tongue, the jaw, the chest, the sternum, the shoulder joints. Inhale bravely.

Exhale completely, releasing, letting it be. (exhales deeply) Come back to center. Hug your knees into your chest here. You know what I don't often see yoga students do, we're always concentrating a lot, and like releasing out the back, and that's really good, but as you stretch out into shavasana, take your fingertips behind your shoulders, behind your neck and your jaw, and give yourself a lovely massage. You are perfectly capable of doing that, and it should feel pretty nice.

We hold this head up all day long energetically, physically, and in other ways. So give yourself the chance to really release it out. As you rest back into your shavasana, draw your shoulders down and a little wider. Nothing stressful, just so you have enough space there to be natural, as if you're standing in mountain pose. Slide the tailbone gently underneath you and lengthen out the legs, and even creep the head up a millimeter or two.

If you put your hand behind your neck now, you'd have space there. So you want the neck spine to be really neutral. Before we fully rest in shavasana, I want to do a humming mantra with you. So it's the m part of the om with the lips closed. We'll just do this for a bit and really resonate this area around the throat, around the mouth, the lips.

So inhale down around the rib cage. Soften it into the belly, into the pelvis. Kind of root down with that breath. Inhale a little bit more there. With the lips closed.

Mmm. Just let the air press out naturally, organically. Mmm, and let the sound just happen. So you're not trying to sing it, you're not trying to do anything, just allowing it. Inhale down, widen everything. (inhales deeply) Make that space.

Mmm. Just keep going a few more times until you feel you're resonating really nicely. Then you can begin to rest in those vibrations. Just relaxing down as if in a nice warm, soft bed in the middle of a rainstorm, you're dry inside. Great pillows. (laughs) You know the drill.

When you're read to relax, just release the throat. Release the lips, and let yourself receive the benefits of your practice today. Take a few more breaths here. I'll bring you out or you can stay if you like. Just listen in.

If you'd like to stay here, absolutely do. You can press pause or just stay through the talk. Otherwise begin to reach your arms overhead. Try to keep your throat soft while you do this, jaw soft. Hug your knees into the chest.

Gently roll to one side. As you come up, let the earth help to support you. Let that center of your pelvis and lumbar roll you up. Let the rest be free. Rejoin me here in the easy seat.

I wish we had three hands. One for the core, one for the heart, and one for the throat. Let's kinda cross the heart and throat with one, and remember that you have these beautiful centers in that belly and pelvis, in the chest, in the throat, in the brain, that all need our attention to soften, to make space, to realign, to listen, and be truthful, and then to express that truth fully without restriction. This is what we're all journeying to do here on the mat. So thank you for joining me for all of this.

Let's sing one om together from that deep center. Inhale, breathe down. Root it, warm it, widen it. Om. Breathe in, brighten up. (inhales deeply) On your exhale, fists into the low belly, bow forward, and seal your practice deeply within.

Namaste.