Guided Asana, Day 5

We're not going to do all of opening three, but we're just going to do the first piece of it. When you're ready, just get it going. Switch the iron to where you want it. When you feel satisfied with the first one. When I come to the shaking, one hand at a time, and then the whole iron, and the other one, and then the other one, and then the other one.

And then feet hip width apart. And then a little wider. And then a little wider. Spread the toes, snuggle your feet. You've never done it now before. Take a breath in.

As you exhale, bend the legs. Slide your hands down the legs, down to the ankles. Feel your hands merging into your ankles. And then re-snuggle your feet. Sink to the down extreme, lift to the up extreme.

And then put your head and neck in a nice neutral. And just breathe here for a few moments. I find myself still snuggling a lot at this point and making little wiggly movements. Shift your hips over to the left, linger for a bit. Just keep bringing your attention back to the breathing.

Shift your hips over to the right. Just stay with the breathing. And then side to side a number of times. Practice listening for the linger moment and the flow on moments. Get the sense out of your whole body as a single unit and the whole thing is changing. Eyes closed a lot of the time.

And then shift your hips over to the left, keep them there. Move the head and torso over to the right. Feel how the twist starts to happen. Just little by little, 50%. 51, 52. Being attentive to what the main variables are and what the choices are at each main variable.

And just little by little, spiral into this. And then take your hips to the other side, keep them there. Head and torso goes over to the left. Spiral into this. And breathe.

Bring your torso back to the middle. Fold down through the middle and just let your head dangle. And then you come down to the squat. Bring your feet a little bit closer together and mudra one. Mudra two.

Wait for the right moment and then mudra three. Feel the energy in your hands. Feel the energy that is your hands. And then mudra four, maitreya mudra. Excellent. And then onto your hands and knees.

Put your hands down accurately. Wrist creases squared. Fingers spread fully. Snuggle your hands into the floor. Look at your index finger, memorize where it is.

Now this time, rotate your arms so the inner elbows are looking at each other. Not that they should always be like this, but it's just a choice. It's awareness practice. Keep them like that as you let yourself sink to the down extreme. Live here a couple seconds.

And keep your arms attentive as you lift to the up extreme. Just visually keep tabs on things. Exhale, float to the bottom. Inhale, float up. Just go down and up a couple times.

At a certain point, you don't need to keep looking at your arms because you can feel it. And then just close your eyes, but keep the alignment of your arms the same. You can feel that your inner elbows are looking at each other or when one begins to space out. Find a nice middle spot. Fix your head and neck.

And then just take it back to child's pose. Feel the torso beginning to merge with your thighs. Wobble gently. Oh yeah, just stay with the breathing. Re-snuggle your hands and then pull for a few moments.

Just feel what's happening. And then push for a few moments. Feel what's happening. Keep it strong like that. Liquify. Wobble gently. And then without moving your hands, come up on your hands and knees.

Peek at your hands. Turn the toes under. Peek at your arms. Fix them if they've changed. And then lift the knees.

Straighten the legs. Linger here. Fix your head and neck. Neutral spine is in a perfect neutral. Your arms are straight.

Just slowly move the butt back and up until your straight arms and your neutral spine click into the straight line. Keep it straight. Push the floor away so your butt goes away from your hands. It's like you're just stretching toffee, like pulling it straight and long and wobble it gently. And stay here a little longer.

And then shift your shoulders forward. Bend the knees down to the floor. Point your toes. Take it back to child's pose. Wobble gently.

Slide the hands back by your knees. Curl your head in. Do the right moment about now and then just slowly round your way up. And when your head floats up into neutral, just close your eyes and land for a couple seconds. It almost feels like I'm doing this gentle moon landing.

You're not making a lot of dust as you land. Stay with the breathing. Dog number two please. Take the chin up, inhaling. And then hinge, exhaling.

Slide the hands. Lift your head peak at them. Put the index fingers down, spread the other ones fully. Your head comes back down. Pull.

Push. Wobble. Without moving your hands, come up on your hands and knees again. Peek at the hands, turn the toes, rotate your arms, lift the knees, linger fixing your head and neck, and then slowly go for it. Butt goes back and up.

And be attentive to when your ears come in line with the upper arms and then push the floor away, wobbling. And then come up way on one foot, get the toe stretch on one foot. And then press the other heel toward the floor. Stretch the legs, toe stretch, press the other heel toward the floor. Keep that heel down, press the second heel toward the floor.

Stay here a little longer. And then get out of there, shift the shoulders forward, bend the knees, pointing the toes, and take it back to child's pose. Wobble. Keep it fluid. Slide the hands back, curl the head in, wait for the right moment and then start rounding your way up.

Just savor the ride all the way up. Your spine comes up, your chin comes up. Let your chin keep going up this time. Hit the top of the note up there. And as you exhale, hinge for dog number three.

Slide the hands, lift your head, peak, fix. Head goes back down. Pull. Push. Wobble.

Without moving your hands, come up on your hands and knees, peak at your hands. Turn the toes, fix your arms, lift the knees. Linger. Slowly go. When you hit the straight line, push the floor away.

Just telescope it. And then this time come way up on your toes. And just sort of look at your feet, try and make them look the same. Stay here a little longer. Slowly start taking your heels toward the down extreme.

Couple seconds. And then shift the shoulders forward. Bend the knees. This time keep the toes turned under as you take your seat back toward your feet. So you're doing the child's pose with your toes turned under.

That's quite a bit different. And then just walk your hands back and you'll be able to just take your heels back and you'll come into a squat position from here. The butt comes up. Your chest and thighs are already together or close together. And just hinge forward.

Wrap the arms around, grab your wrists if you can. And just let your head dangle. A little bit longer. And then bring yourself up. And just walk to the front of your mat please.

With your feet hip width apart. Spread your toes. Smuggle your feet. Take a breath in. As you exhale bend the legs.

Inch forward. And then step the right foot back keeping it on the right railroad track and land on the ball of the foot. Just linger and then just little by little press the right heel toward the floor. So this is a beginning way of how to get into a trikonasana. For each foot pointing straight ahead it's easy to see the back foot.

Just let it stay a little longer. Step the right foot forward. Step the left foot back. Land on the ball of the foot. Put a comma.

Mindfully take the left heel toward the floor. And you're looking at the line on the inner edge of your left foot. Just have it pointing straight ahead. And again the right leg is softly bent. You don't need to push it strong or straight. Just let it cook here. Just get used to it.

Okay, step the left foot forward. Step the right foot back. Get the toe stretch. Put the comma. And then take the heel toward the floor again. Just sort of leisurely. That's the first part.

Second part come up on the ball of your right foot. Bend your left leg more so you can rest the chest heavily on your thigh. And then press the right heel toward the floor. Your left leg will straighten a little bit. Stay here a little longer.

Step the right foot. Step the left foot. Comma. Heel toward the floor. First part. Second part come up on the ball of the foot.

Bend the right leg more. Let your chest rest heavily under the thigh. Then take the left heel toward the floor. Your right leg will straighten a little bit. A little longer. Step the left foot forward. Third one. Step the right foot back. First part first.

Second part second. Third part come up on the ball of the right foot. Spin the right heel down toward the left railroad track. Reposition the left hand to where it's going to be when you do trikonasana. And bring the right hand to your right hip.

So the left leg is bent. Snuggle the feet. Snuggle your left hand wherever it is. Your left arm down extreme, up extreme. Most of the time be lifting up more. Pull the belly in.

And then start coming up through the spine line. And spinning the torso little by little by little. And just gently press your left leg toward straight. And then let your right hand begin to float up. Again like a flower, like unfolding.

A tentive in your top hand. Mudra size it. It is a shape already. It's always a shape. But like mindfully customize it. And then make your whole body the mudra. The mud be everywhere at once for a couple of seconds.

Sweep the right arm down. Step the foot forward. Step the other foot back. Comma. And then first part first. Heel toward the floor.

Back foot straight. Second part second up on the ball of the foot. Bend the front leg more. Rest the chest heavily. And then take the left heel toward the floor. Letting your right leg straighten a little bit.

Fix your head and neck. And just the whole time, whether I say it or not, just be aware of what the main variables seem to be. And in each main variable there's options and choices. There's certain recommended choices most of the time, but just sort of like figure out what they are and like fine tune the shape that you are. And then third one, come up on the ball of the left foot.

Spin the heel down to the right railroad track. Reposition the right hand. Left hand to your hip. Snuggle the feet. Start coming up through the torso. And just little by little, like pushing into the right foot. And then let the arm float up.

With the head, I usually look down most of the time. Mudra sides to the top hand. Close your eyes for a second. Get the sense that you're a whole body mudra. And just feel everywhere once.

Okay, sweep the arm down. Step the left foot forward. And then bend the legs. Come down to a squat. And just come all the way down. Sit down on your butt. See like so.

And I usually do this one with the fingers pointing out to the side. You could have your fingers forward, side, back. Those are the main choices. I like them to the side most of the time. Okay, so from here, the left shoulder, like roll it back and start doing shoulder circles a couple times.

I usually do like five. And then the other side. You're trying to do a big circle with your shoulder. And for me, when I get into it, I find myself lingering through the stiff stuff a little slower. And then just sort of do infinity shapes once or twice.

So it's like side to side. And then roll both shoulders back and take it up into your chest this time. Take the chin up. Just so you get a nice chest hit spanner and like nice chin stretch up there. And emphasize it for a moment.

Then you bring your head back up. And I just let myself sort of deflate into a gentle C-shaped curve here. It's just like you're going to the opposite and it's sort of relaxing. Roll the chest up again. Take the chin up again.

This is stage one because your butt is on the floor. Bring your head back up and just let it round again. Stage two, you start lifting your chest up and you move your knees forward until your butt comes up off the floor. And then again, big chest expander. Take it up into the chin.

Bring your head back up. Let the butt come down and just melt into the C-shaped curve. I let my elbows bend. And then go for the chest expander again. Move the knees forward so your butt comes up again, stage two.

Just go for it for a sec. Melt it back down. It's nice going back and forth. So stage one is bent on the floor. Stage two is you move your knees forward so your butt comes up.

Stage three, I like to come up onto the ball of my hand. And you're going to do a similar thing, but this time you move your knees forward until your heels come up off the floor. Sometimes I go for the big chest expander. Sometimes I let it melt down a little bit. I just sort of touch it and then soften out of it, touch it, soften out of it.

And then let your knees go a little more forward. Back off of it slightly. Let your knees go a little more forward. Eventually you'll be able to touch the floor with your knees. But don't insist on it.

Okay. And then you come back down. Roll all the way down into cosmic grounded position. And do a gentle moon landing. And deliberately just relax as much as you can.

Let your eyes soften and close. Be aware that even with your eyes closed, you are having a visual experience. Just sort of look into the space. Eyes soft, face soft. Be aware of the tension level in your experience.

And for a couple seconds here, just skillfully let it diminish. And be curious, remember, if there's less tension in your experience, there's going to be more of something else. What's the more that you start to experience? Just start feeling the difference between tension and release. Notice any colors, any lights in the space you're looking into.

You might see a face. Get really familiar with what this feels like for you. And then let your eyes come open. What is the truth of this new now? Okay.

Then just tip to your side, please. Come to a seated position, Sukhasana. Sukhasana with your left leg in front, please. And then stick the left leg out to the left. Pull the right foot in tight.

Tip forward a little bit so you can wriggle the butt back and then bring the torso up. Now, when I first started doing this position, I was just always into thinking I should be as open as possible. But instead on this one, try and be as closed as you can be. Try and squeeze your thighs toward together. Because your foot's there, you're going to get stuck.

And you'll end up with each thigh out at about a 45-degree angle, which is pretty much how they'll be when you do a lotus. You tip forward, wriggle the butt back, legs as close together as you can. I think we did this on that first day. And the first, without using your hands, rotate. Now, you've got a line of energy down your left leg, the straight one.

Practice spreading your toes down there. Rotate a little further. Stay attentive down the left leg and spreading the toes. Rotate a little further. And remember, at a certain point, you're not going to be able to rotate any further, even though you know you could.

But your torso just can't do it. Put the left hand down on the left leg, the left knee, the straight leg. Put the right fingertips down on the floor behind you, but don't use them. Lift them up. Prove you're not using them. Put them back down, but don't use them.

In order to wind any tighter, you'll need to use them. So use your arms. Wind yourself one notch tighter. Try to minimize your arms. Use your arms. Wind yourself one notch tighter. Try to minimize your arms.

Wind it, wind it, wind it, wind it. Your pelvis is level. The spine's vertical, rotating. Both shoulders back. Shoulder blades down. Belly in. And you put your head on in neutral so your chin is level.

Keep your chin level. Turn your head to number three. To the right as far as it'll go. Keep trying to be as relaxed as you can be. Everything's spinning to the right. Keep spinning to the right. Turn your head to the left. Keep the chin level.

Oh, this is number three, isn't it? Four is to the right, three is to the left. And then from here, take it up into the chin. Take a breath in. And as you exhale, fold out over the right knee.

Let your hands land in like a push-up position. Now again, once you learn the pattern, you don't have to go as slow as I'm making it seem like, okay? You go at a pace that feels nice for you. But your hands are now in a push-up type position. Slowly press your arms straight so that your torso comes more mid-range.

Curl the head in and gently go to the round back extreme and plug the left sitting bone into the floor. You've still got a line of energy down the left leg and you're spreading the foot down there. Keep the arms straight. Lift your chin up and go for the back arch. Look for the sweet spot on the stretch here.

And with an exhale, pull the belly in and go to the round back extreme. Plug the left sitting bone into the floor. Now just go back and forth a couple of times. Attentive to the linger moments. One more time each way, please.

And you're doing this at the mid-range because your arms are straight. Okay, and then start the belly rolls. Start rolling your belly one direction or the other. Just sort of small circles. Just keep immersing yourself in the experience. Gradually get the circles bigger and start bringing them up through your torso more and through your shoulder blades and your shoulders.

Feel how your neck starts getting more liquid and then change the direction. Start low. Start small. Keep getting into it. Gradually making the spirals bigger coming up through the torso, through your head and neck. And then with an inhale, take it up into the chin, hit the top of the nose.

And with an exhale, bend your arms. Your torso will come down sequentially. And then curl your head in, push the arms to come back up. Switch the legs, please. So this is a whole long pattern. Tip forward, wriggle the butt back.

Bring the torso up. No arms, start rotating left. Line of energy down the right leg, spread the toes down there. Rotate, rotate, rotate. Then put one hand down, put the other hand down.

Don't use them right away. And then skillfully use them to wind yourself deeper into the twist. But just always gentle. Pelvis level, spine vertical but spiraling. Both shoulders back and down, belly in.

Chin level. And then turn your head to the left as far as it'll go. The right toes are still spread. Turn your head to the right as far as it'll go. Wait for the right moment and then take it up into the chin, inhaling. And with the exhale, fold out over the knee.

Let your hands land. Keep the hands where they are, curl your head in and just, with feeling, push your arms straight, round your back fully, plug the right sitting bone into the floor. And just sort of feel where the various push out points are on your back. With an inhale, take it up into the chin. Stay attentive down the straight leg.

And just go back and forth a couple times. Just do it with feeling. It doesn't have to be your maximum range of motion. Learn to do it so that you like it. And so that if somebody were watching you, they would get the feeling of what you're doing.

When it feels like the thing to do, start doing the belly rolls. Just notice what direction you go. Start small, keep immersing yourself in the experience. The circles will get bigger. Start bringing them up through the torso, your neck and your head, and then go the other way.

And get the idea, you're erasing all these little tight spots through your whole body by doing this. Take it up into your chin, inhaling. And as you exhale, fold out over the bent knee. Curl your head in, push your arms straight to come up. Switch the legs, please.

I think that's as far as we got the other day. Let's go a little further, tip forward, wriggle the butt back, bring yourself up, start spinning. No arms, and then you use your arms. Head to the right, head to the left, head to the north, or up. Exhale, fold out over the knee, so it seems like it's the same as before.

Now this time, put your hands in like a push-up position. Curl your head in, slowly press your arms towards straight so you end up in the round back extreme. Plug the left sitting bone into the floor. With an inhale, take it up into the chin, this is not the same as a moment ago. And as you exhale, bend your elbows, fold out over the knee again.

So now you're doing it sort of at this deeper fold. Curl your head in, slowly push the arms again. Plug the sitting bone, round back extreme. Third time, please, take it up into the chin. Exhale, fold.

Curl your head in, slowly push the arms. Plug the sitting bone, round back extreme. And then take it up into your chin again. As you exhale, fold out over your knee. And pretty much keep your right hand where it is, and start walking your left hand over to the right.

So your left foot is wherever it is. Walk your left hand away from your left foot. The left toes are spread, the left fingers are spread. And just because of the position you're in, you're going to get this long, spiraling twist. You're no longer at a mid-range spot.

And so you're not going to get much movement, but it'll feel dramatic. Push your right hand down, spiral into this. And just go for a nice twist here. And then curl your head in, try to round your back. You won't be able to, but it'll feel huge.

And then do the opposite, try to do a back bend there. And then fold as deep as you can. And bring yourself up. Keep the legs the same, please. Lean back on your hands.

And I'm usually on the ball of my hand with the fingers pointing backwards. The right leg is bent, so I start with the right shoulder. Roll the shoulder back, roll the left shoulder back. A couple times, just big shoulder circles. Then roll both shoulders back.

Go for a big chest expander. Take it up into the chin. And just hit it for a second or two here. And then bring yourself up and fold right down through the middle. You'll come down to about a 50% spot.

The inhale will bob you up a little. The exhale will bob you down a little. You bob up a little. You bob down a little. And so you just ride the bobbing breath.

A couple seconds here. This will improve your lotus, it will improve your straddle splits. It's a good forward bend. And last couple seconds here. Without pushing, just let yourself go down.

Okay, bring yourself up please, second side, last lap here. Switch the legs. Tip forward, wriggle the butt. Bring yourself up. Go for the twist.

No hands. Then you add the hands. Just keep the belly in and rotate, rotate, rotate. Head to the left. Head to the right.

Taking it up into the chin, inhaling. Exhale, fold out over the knee. Let your hands land. Curl the head in, push your arms towards straight, round back extreme. Inhale, take it up into the chin.

Exhale, bend your arms, fold out over the knee. Curl your head in, slowly push your arms. Round back extreme. One more time, inhale, take it up. Exhale, fold.

Curl your head in, round it. And then inhale, take it up into the chin. Exhale, fold. Start walking the right hand away from you, right toes spread, right fingers spread. You're getting a long spiraling twist.

Push the left hand down and just skillfully ring yourself out. Don't kill yourself, but like nicely squeeze and then try to round your back, try to arch your back. Just feel what you can do there, like how you're moving the emphasis point around. And then you fold and bring yourself back up. Keep the legs the same, lean back on your hands.

The left leg is bent, so start with the left shoulder. Just figure of eight with your shoulders. This is one of the best ways to just get your chest open and erase all the tension in your shoulders. Roll them both back, and then big into the chest. Take the chin up or not.

If you don't like dunking your head back, just bring your head back up and keep the chest thing happening. You should still be able to talk when you're doing this. Emphasize it. And then bring yourself up, come right down through the middle. The sense out with the 50% spot is, and then bob up a little and bob down a little.

Just keep immersing yourself in it. Even just a little. And last seconds without pushing. Though it's okay to push some of the time, but at the moment, without pushing, just let yourself go down. Curl your head in, push your arms to come up, stick the left leg out to the side, and then fall down through the middle.

Just do an easy spot. Immediately climb into the breathing. Feel your whole body rippling with breathing. And when it feels like the thing to do as you're exhaling, just let yourself go more down.