Knowing We Are Supported

Hi and thanks for joining. We're gonna do a practice today where you will need a mat. Two blocks, a belt. And most importantly, a wall. A wall that you can lean on that can take your weight so if you have an open space in your house with you know some wall, take the art off, you know make sure it's clear.

But if you have to use a door make sure it's a door that opens in so when you put your weight against it's not gonna open on you. Alright. We'll start lying down. On your back. And find your belt and just have it handy just take it right there next to you.

And lay back. And then lengthen your legs and touch, touch your feet on to the wall. And it's nice to start in a place where your legs aren't yet straight so, lay back, relax and, and feel your feet kinda snuggling into the wall. And then kind of inch worm yourself away from the wall until your thighs start settling down. And, the skin on your back you can find, sorta moving off until you find that, the skin of your back is smooth and soft and your legs are straight.

And your feet are meeting the wall as clearly as possible. And you wanna kinda wedge the heel into the corner of the wall floor. So, walk one foot and then the other foot. Couple more times just kind of like a cat would start to make their nest. Just walk your feet into the wall.

Release your arms so it's, it's almost like your sleep walking. You could close your eyes. Connect to your breath. Then continue this in a rhythmic patting into the wall. And then, it's like you find this place to come into tadasana.

You stop the walking and you're standing through your feet into the wall. Like wouldn't this be great if tadasana felt this easy. This kind of relaxed and released. Tasasana on your back. And now take a breath in and as you exhale thrust your legs into the wall.

Fully like you're trying to push the wall away. And try to map out the, the pads of your feet like where is your weight going through your feet and can you send weight into your heels and then across the ball of the foot so big toe mound out to the little toe mound. Can those parts of your feet land? And that takes some effort right? So can you, can you send your energetic weight through your legs into the wall but still in sort of easeful floating tadasana slash savasana place.

Alright you're gonna bend your right leg and step your right foot on the floor. And then take your right foot back to the wall. And just do that simple bending with the left leg. So make it so simple that it's really just one leg folding. The other one staying steady.

So you wanna watch that there's not a lot of shifting through the pelvis or the spine so the spine is long, clear, even. And when you bend the leg and step on it there is not a lot of weight shifting. Okay, right leg is bent, left leg is grounded into the floor and into the wall. And now without shifting the pelvis, what is this hinging action of thigh bone and hip socket. So move it a little bit.

See what your movement possibility is without any shift in the pelvis. And go ahead and, and be as free as you like, you don't wanna be too wild because you really wanna feel what is the easeful movement like the rotation possibility, the fold possibility of right thigh bone, femur and hip socket. Okay. Find your belt. And you just have to unwind your belt.

And lasso it around the sole of your right foot and this is actually a place where we can kind of go off kilter, like, like the idea is to not at all shift the hips but get the belt around the foot. So you might have to go really quietly. And then take your right leg up into the air. And then snuggle that belt down so that the belt is near the front of the heel in the back of the arch. So sometimes you know you can do it across the ball of the foot but for right now let's start at the back of the arch, front of the heel.

And then you can hold on to the belt easily and wind your hands once around the belt and then let the weight of the arms fall back towards the floor. Take a, a press through the left foot and connect the left foot, kind of clearly, firmly to the wall and exhale, let your right thigh bone just settle down if it's at all pulling up. You wanna feel that the right thigh bone can drop into the earth. And then find the place where you need to hold your leg. You might, you know need to have it not straight up towards the ceiling so be open to feeling where is it that I find my hips even in square, my breath clear and soft and I'm not like yanking on the hamstring.

Okay so it's still you can like, take a little circling, any little movement. So you feel the weight of the leg dropping into the hip socket into the floor. And then spread the toes and bend both knees as you inhale and as you exhale, lengthen through the legs so you find that clarity again of energy really moving through the torso and out the legs. And then you're going to turn the right leg out, don't take it out to the side, just spin the thigh bone in the hip socket and watch, your right toes will turn out, the knee goes as well. And then, you turn in.

So turning out and turning in. External rotation, internal rotation. Right. Okay. And then keep the leg externally rotated.

Hold both sides of the belt in your right hand and take your left hand to your belly. Bend both knees as you breathe in. Extend both legs as you breathe out. In a very tiny bit, take that turned out right leg out to the side. So you'll feel if you go a little too far, your body starts coming off the floor, it goes with the weight of the right leg and we're gonna isolate this action a little more clearly.

So take it out to the place where you can control it and you can feel your mid line, your center line and the firm clarity of your left leg. And then bend the right leg, inhale. As you exhale reach it powerfully out and as you take the right leg just a little further out, feel like the whole leg is zooming out of the hip socket through the foot. And then come back to center. And one more time, inhale, exhale, bend, lengthen up away from you and that leg as it moves out to the side makes a wide arch.

Alright and if you feel tottering, you can bring your elbows on to the floor to steady your chest. And maybe that'll give you a little more access to take that leg out to the side. And it's a strong reach out from the center through that foot. Inhale, bring the leg up, exhale. Turn the foot parallel.

Hold on to the belt now with your left hand and you can take your right arm wide. And then just keep that, that right back hip on the floor and cross it over, so cross the leg over. And, you know when that, when that takes place, you might feel like a crunch in the groin area. So, how would you actually take the leg across but feel a width, a sense of space in the right groin? How spacious is your whole right pelvic belly?

So this low belly area. Alright. And then, we'll take it all the way into the twist so you can allow your left foot which is on the floor to turn out and you'll take that right leg across. Go steadily. Right.

And then maybe it'll come to the floor or maybe it hovers. Who knows, right? Breathe in, breathe out. Let the weight of the leg help you to turn. Any little adjustments of the back body on the floor so you don't feel like you're getting, like your skin is pulling.

And then play here a little movement in that right leg. Now bend both knees for a moment here as you breathe in. And then exhale, extend both legs out from the belly. So feel like the leg action and vitality clears the belly, it like drags any, any sort of cob webs or stickiness out of the belly. And then notice how it feels through the rib cage, through the chest.

You can always prop that right foot up on something if you need to so you don't have to take it all the way to the floor. Full breath in, full breath out. And then stand into your wall leg. Take your right hip toward the wall as well. And then big breath in and out, come center.

Take hold of the belt with both hands, winding your hands around uh huh. Drop the leg toward the wall, breathe in, as you breathe out, peel your head off the floor. Check out your left leg, hello. Refine the alignment. So heel in line with the hip socket.

Just an easy long line through that left leg. And then, drop your chin towards your chest and kinda round up and pull the elbows wide. And now finally, you get to open the hamstring. And as you take the leg up, your head is up so you can watch. Don't hike up, don't roll the right hip up and out.

Instead, wrap that outer right hip towards the wall. And find the length of your hamstrings. Lay your head back. Breathe. Check it out.

And then bend the leg. Place the belt on the side and lengthen the legs. Back down, nice even tadasana. Hook your thumbs. Reach the arms overhead.

I like to take this little walking action like a tsh tsh tsh kinda walking to, to feel the soft grounding of the legs. And then, arms up, giving lots of space to the belly, to the diaphragm, to your whole organ body open and free. And then release the arms down. Nice and steady. We'll do the whole thing on the left side.

Bending the left knee, no shift in the pelvis. Step the foot on the floor. Bring the knee a little higher. No shift. Right, you're really just looking at the leg bone moving and the hips are steady.

And then any little movement in and out. Kind of exploring. It's like, running your tongue around the inside of your cheek you know. You're just kinda lookin' at that hip socket, how does it roll? How free can it be?

Uh huh, if you run into, you start wobbling or you run into any unpleasant sensations, make it a lot smaller. Very soft, right. Okay, nice and steady and remember we're just gonna try to lasso the belt around the sole of the left foot without taking the hips out of square. And then extend the leg long, it does not necessarily have to go to the ceiling. So you're not pulling on the hamstring yet and you wind your hands once around the belt and then let the legs, I mean arms fall.

Reestablish the sense of relationship through the whole right side of the body into the wall and into the floor. Take a little bounce so you sense the weight of the left leg. Clear, soft, connected, dropped, not pulling. And then you begin to take the left leg a little higher. Very straight.

Until you just feel the, the beginning of the pull of the hamstring muscles, right. So the hamstrings, they run along the back of the leg and they connect into that sit bone so if that's short, some other part of your body will want to, want to take over to compensate for tightness so just, just isolate these movements. And watch expectations. Easy breath, clear stance. Turning the leg out and turning it in.

Whatcha got there, like how does it work? And really, you know the tendency is to sometimes just turn the foot but can you turn the whole leg, maybe you wanna use your hand at the top of that left thigh. Turn it out, turn it in, can you feel movement there? Really deep in the hip socket. A bone rolling in its home.

Mhm. Okay. And then holding on to both sides of the belt, oops no. Holding on with just the left hand, you can open your right arm or you can take your right hand to the belly. Externally rotate the left leg.

Reach both legs out of the pelvis so there is a sort of a dynamism of energy moving through the limbs. And this leg is reaching out and up and you describe the arch, any little amount out to the side and back into the middle. It doesn't take much movement to feel the change of weight, the shift of weight in the body. So as that leg goes just a little further you wanna take the, the reach of the right of the left leg up and out through the sole of the foot. And standing into the right side, into the floor and into the wall can help you find stability here.

Inhaling and exhaling one more time. Holding with the left hand and then you can take, like on this side I really need my elbows on the floor, I don't on the other side for some reason. So how do I find the energy moving through that left leg and the stability of the torso, the quiet of the diaphragm. Take it as wide as you can but avoid the kind of collapse out to the side where the right side of the body comes off the floor so you really wanna move from your center and this is quite strengthening. And then come back center.

Turn the leg so it's parallel, neutral. Hold the belt with your right hand. You can take your left hand to your left hip. Keep that hip steady, dropped and very wide. And cross the leg over the body.

Without gripping the groin, it gets tight in there but is there still a sense of softness like a little carving into a cave there through the low left belly, wide and deep. Anchor down through the right leg. And firm or touch the wall with your right foot. Inhaling and exhaling, you can let the right leg turn out and take that left leg all the way across. You know, shifting where your hands, how your hands are holding the belt.

Taking time. Right, no grip through the groin so it's quite tight, those inner thigh areas right, so feel that the belly can go wide, make your hips even wider and perhaps that'll give you room to take that leg all the way across. Unstick the skin of the back. Right, if your left shoulder comes off the floor, no worries. So the lower body is spinning clockwise and the upper body is spinning counter clock wise so opposing spirals in the body.

And inhaling and exhaling. Find the wall with your standing foot, that right foot. Can you press the right foot into the wall and the leg into the floor? Full breath in and out. Inhale and exhale.

Bring it back to center. Find your center. Wrap your hands around the belt. Drop the leg away from you just a couple of inches and then peel your head off the floor, breathing. Widen the elbows so it's like you make a big circle with your arms and see if you can find this evenness through the legs, a balance through the pelvis.

Breathing in, breathing out. Dropping the left sit bone towards the wall, reaching the left foot out and up. And then roll the chest down and play in your flexibility. With strength. Right, flexibility and strength have to be along the same energetic circuit.

And then bend the left leg. Heel to the buttocks, take the belt away. Stand on the wall. And now, no pushing the wall, just feel the wall through the sensitivity of your feet. Like there's actual communication between you and this entity called the wall.

Bend your legs. Feet on the floor. Roll over to your side. And come to all fours. There's something about working against a wall that brings precision and to the experience.

And, and so it's like when you set your mat up, I usually set it along the lines of the floor, of a wood floor right but, you wanna be aware of the space you're in and you don't want your mat to be cockeyed and you don't want your props to be messy because you know, you take that in, that's like a visual message and we're just gonna work really clearly. So I'm gonna pat down the front of my rolled up mat. Yeah, okay, okay, I got my environment under control. Alright and now I'm gonna set up clearly all fours and move into Atma Muka Savasana downward facing dog. I'm feeling the floor through my hands and my feet.

And I'm opening my body to the information coming through my hands and feet into my body. And so I'll give you time here to explore. That sort of task or that relationship of earth through body. Now walk your hands back towards your feet. And walk your feet away from the wall.

Oh you know 12, 18 inches away from the wall. Bring your fingertips to the wall behind you and then gently guide your seat to the wall. Now this is a place where you might wanna have your two blocks under your hands if you need them so gather them there. So you're not reaching for the floor but you're leaning back, if the wall wasn't there, you'd be fall, you'd be you know, falling down. And you wanna just release the torso over your legs.

Make sure your feet are parallel to each other and feel how the wall is supporting you. You've got this incredible evenness so you can feel your own body in relationship to the wall. Let your head go. And find the breath. If you need to of course, you can keep the legs slightly bent so there's no strain anywhere.

As you breathe your next breath in, extend the spine long. Walk your hands or your blocks over to the right just a bit so you wanna feel that left sit bone which has the tendency now to come off the wall, relaxing into the wall. So, breathe in, kinda hunch up, wrap your rib cage out so maybe you can lay your right ribs on the right thigh and then just breathe there and feel the length, feel the openness. Firm your feet down and your sit bones back into that wall. And then let the body drape back to center.

Kinda wiggle it out. And then we'll do the other side, breathing, extending. You can watch your hands. Walk over to the left. Exhale.

Both sit bones clear into the wall, both feet clear into the floor. And then open that left rib cage out over the left thigh and then, find the length. Inhale, come back to center. and exhale, release. and drape.

Head is heavy, really hang it and kinda bob it like an apple. Now firm the legs down. It's almost like that water skiing action, you have to really thrust your feet into the ski's or into your mat right here. Full breath in. Full breath out.

And bend the knees. The knees come forward, your seat will slide down the wall and then you're gonna roll your spine, tuck your head in nice and tight up on to the wall. Mmkay. So, you know we know the wall's the wall. But what if it were your partner right now like what if it were alive?

And you were doing like a trust exercise where you actually were leaning against each other. So it's kind of the attitude I'd like to work with here that it's not this hard thing that we're pushing against or or pushing, you know, pushing against. Just be easy and natural and feel the wall as, as it's a friend whose got your back. Okay, finger tips on to the wall. Pitch forward.

So the back of your hips are no longer on the wall and then just come to this position where it's kinda comfortable, your trusting your feet, you've got the wall behind you, it's got you right so you're in this kind of football stance. Right hand to the right thigh and breathe in and open the whole left side so sit bones are grounded, heels are grounded and then you're extending that left side forward and out. One more breath in and use the exhalation to bring that left elbow across to the top of the right thigh. Check it out, feet are parallel, both sit bones are on the wall. And then let's make a fist with that left hand and stack it with the right hand.

Now go to the breath. You've got the wall. So you're free to play in the rib cage, to play with the shape of the lungs inside the body. Use the wall, it's there helping you to move the chest away from the wall and to find the turn through the body. Take the head straight forward and the tail bone straight back.

Ribs spin. And then release. Breath out, slide the sit bones up the wall. Straighten the legs. Inhale here, exhale.

Knees come forward, hips drop down, you roll your back onto the wall. And then we do the other side. Football stance. Hands on to the knees. And then reach the right arm forward.

Sort of fly it forward, let it be free, the whole spine is interested in moving away from the wall but also staying with the wall, one more breath in, exhale, swing the right arm across. And then you can press your left hand down on that left thigh and wrap the skin of the back around so you feel that connectivity of right arm, left thigh. Exhale, make a fist and stack it up. Go to the spine. Find the length through the center of the torso.

And don't be in such a rush to use the arms. Because really you want the spine to turn. Make a safe environment, an open environment for the spine to turn. If the arms are working too hard your spine won't turn. Lean back a little bit.

Even on the sit bones. Breathe in, breathe out and release. Down, slide the hips up. Take your hands to your ankles. Kinda squeeze your ankles and draw the skin of the ankle up.

The skin of your shins. Squeeze the knees and pull the skin of the knees up as if you were like. I'm laughing because I think it like, if you had like really wrinkly hangy skin, you want it all to go up and you wanna just tuck it into your belly. Maybe not the most lovely image but, couldn't do any better. Inhaling, exhaling, let your head hang.

Bend your knees. Walk your hands forward. And now bring your feet on to the wall so, heels on to the wall so, I have this nice little molding there and I'm gonna set my heels on the molding so the toes are on the floor. Very broad with the toes and toe mound. And then take the hips high and open the backs of the thighs to the wall like shine the backs of the thighs to the wall.

Breathing in and breathing out. Bend your right leg. So you wanna just fold that leg easily and slide the foot up the wall. Now it's the first we've done this so, you might not be able to straighten the leg. Keep your left leg straight and play with a little bit.

Reaching the heel. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Inhale, exhale, look forward, slide the leg down and bring the foot forward. Perhaps you'll be able to keep the left heel on the wall the whole time, maybe not. Now you're gonna take the left heel off the floor, release the left knee and come to a low lunge.

Relax the top of the foot. Let the hips fall forward. But don't push em'. Don't push em'. Can you sense that the back is there?

The wall is there. Behind your back. Can it bring a sense of fullness? A sense of reflection into your back body? Okay.

Hands on the floor. Curl your left toes under, breathe in. As you breathe out, reach the left heel toward the wall, you can't see it but you know it's there. Reach, reach, reach until the hips pull back towards the wall. And then, suck your right leg back.

You probably have to bend it and there you are back to downward facing dog. Firm your hands down. Reach the heels back and open the backs of the legs to the wall. Left leg bends, foot on the wall. Nice and soft, bending.

Taking it up. Straightening it, maybe, maybe not. You can bend both legs. Right, you wanna work evenly through the pelvis so don't hike that left hip up. Reach both sit bones towards the wall, breathe in.

Breathe out, take the leg down. And forward to a lunge. Do whatever you need to do to bring the heel under the knee and then relax, move far enough away from the wall so you can relax the top of the right foot on to the wall. Using your hands on blocks if you need. It's interesting not to push.

Because, well for like 100 reasons that might take 100 years to understand. If we push for flexibility, I don't know it just doesn't work. That's my experience. But if you breathe and you find the earth around you, you find the wall behind you, you just steady in relationship to everything around you in your life then, then the practice blossoms in surprising ways. Curl your right toes under.

Reach the heel back. So this is a really fun place. Most usually, we kind of back into the lunge and lift the hips but instead, curl the back toes under. Breathe in. As you breathe out, slip that right heel back.

And it's that action, the sense of energy moving out of the torso through the back heel that unwinds the body in a very organic way. This leg can be the front leg can be bent or straight, it doesn't matter. Firm your hands down. It's that back heel that still drawing the front leg back to downward facing dog. Alright, walk your hands in a bit.

Make sure your hands are as wide as your shoulders. And then walk your foot, your feet both of them up the wall. So get to this place where you can manage. Right. And then begin to straighten the legs.

And you wanna come to 90 degrees so, you wanna have those, the feet parallel to your hip to the wall. Well, what do I mean? You wanna have your feet on the wall at the same level as your hips. Inhaling and exhaling. Reach those thighs up.

90 degrees. Bend the knees. Step the feet down. And lean back on the wall. Breathing, noticing how your breath is moving and where your breath is moving.

Bend your knees, roll your seat down. Roll the spine up. And enjoy the wall. Alright if you wanna really challenge yourself for strength you bring the lower legs together and you stay here for the rest of the class. And just listen.

Just kidding. Okay. Come to stand tadasana. Now gather a block. And place your block against the wall.

Just near the wall, you're gonna need it perhaps for trikonasana so come again into your tadasana. With your right shoulder facing the wall. Maybe we should start with the fingers just touching the wall, not leaning on it but you just want it to be right there. Tadasana and then heel toe your feet super wide. We're gonna move into triangle pose.

Turn your left foot in about 15 degrees. And then turn your right toes towards the wall. And then feel that you've got a sense of lift through the front body and width of the back body so even though you've just turned your relationship to the wall, sort of bring all the gifts that the wall gave your back. So it's very wide, take the arms wide, inhale and exhale, come to just this beginning of triangle pose. Left hand comes to the hip.

And then look at that right hand and just walk it up a little higher. And keep walking until you feel that your right sit bone is reaching towards the center of the room but you're, you're opening up the whole right flank of the body and you could even now let the full hand come to the floor and lay your head on your right arm. So breathe into this whole open right rib cage. And you know, you don't wanna flare your buttocks back, you wanna be able to draw the tailbone into line. But keep the pubic bone, the groin area wide.

Little movement up and down is fine. And then slide your right hand down and either bring it to your shin or use your block under your right hand and then inhaling left arm up. Exhaling, bring the left hand to the wall. And then same thing, like spider fingers all the way up the wall and then exhale. Soften.

So now you've got this incredibly long, open left side of the body. And play with the other elements of the body. Like, where's the right sit bone? Where's the tail bone? Where's the breath?

Inhale, left arm up. And come to stand. Bend your right knee. Turn the feet parallel to each other. Do anything with your arms right.

Sometimes working with a wall makes you stiff because we, we perceive it as this flat, hard surface but so it's kind of important to keep returning to something soft, something soft cause maybe it's actually not so hard and unforgiving. But it does have a great gift. We'll do the other side so just turn around. Left fingers on the wall without leaning. And then heel toe your feet away from each other.

And then take the arms out as if they're coming off the back, not out of your neck. Turn your right foot in 15 degrees. Left foot out, 90 degrees. Inhale, nice and broad, exhale. Just about you know, 15% into triangle pose.

Right hand to your right hip. Walk your left fingers a little further up the wall. And you make yourself a pillow to lay your head on. I like to bend my knees every once in awhile to see that I'm not harsh in the knee joint so I can feel my feet, feel where I am. But let the spine kind of hammock into a very open left, left side body.

Inhaling and exhaling. Release the left hand down, find the block or your shin. And firmly plant the hand. And then take that right arm up. Breathe into the broadness of your back, the openness of the back.

And then take the right fingers to the wall. And then walk them just a little bit up. And exhale. Soften into the openness from the outer right foot through the outer hip. Right into those right fingers.

And then what's the response in the left side of the body? The more passive side right now. Like there's a communing that leads you into your own center. Inhaling, exhaling. Left arm up.

Coming up. Turn the feet parallel to each other and bring the legs together. In this nice kind of flowy arm movement. Okay. Tadasana.

Stand for a moment in tadasana. Alright and then we'll simply come to a seat. Simple cross legged. You can face away from the wall. You don't need your block, but you might wanna sit up high on a blanket if it's not so easy to sit in a simple cross legged position.

Start with your right shin in front of your left. Use your hands, lift your seat so you're right on top of your sit bones and there's a clarity and a sense of the wall behind you. Right, so you, and what this does is it helps us to bring our attention which we're usually very visually focused into the space in front of us, it helps to just open the space behind us so, so we have a deeper sense of center. Breathing in. And as you breathe out turn to your right.

Left hand to your right knee. Right fingertips behind you, the head on top of the spine. Now brighten the feet, so set the outer edges of the feet into the floor. And begin to play into the twist. You can pull on your right knee with your left hand and you can press your right fingers down but make the arm action really soft.

Secondary to the movement of the spine. And the movement of the torso. Be right up on the sit bones. Feel the earth, feel the space above you and then turning around your own axis. So the spinal bones turn so you can think of low vertebrae turning and turning and turning and then middle vertebrae and whatever little movements help to get into that spine to turn and turn and turn and then even those sort of illusive upper thoracic vertebrae convey turn with curiosity around and around.

So you know that they're bone that's like, hardened solid tissue but inside the spine is very fluid. Very fluid. Open up, open up, open up. Look to the wall. Hey, thank you for being there.

Right, thanks for having my back. And then release, turn forward. Just change the legs simply, come to baddha konasana and place your left shin in front of the right. Draw the toes back beyond the outer edge of your feet. A solid seat.

Breathe in. And as you breathe out turn to the left. So use the legs as you go, it's like fuel for the spine. Kind of spiraling, squeezing energy from the base of the spine upward. Right the sacrum, there's not much if there but then those, those lumbar bones do turn and then there's more available through the thoracic spine.

And then 10 to one we always have some place where we're blind, right? That we don't actually have access to so be open to meeting your own shadow areas. Use your arms gently. The direction of the elbows is away from the mid line. Spacious lungs.

All the way up. Take your time. Gazing inward. Nodding thank you to the wall. And release.

Look forward, shift your legs back to baddha konasana. Alright. Shift back, cross your right shin in front of the left, roll through all fours, downward facing dog. Without the wall. Inhaling and exhaling.

Nice and free and open. And then walk your feet forward, take your hands to your hips, inhale, head up, exhale tadasana. We'll turn towards the wall now. Mkay. So stand in tadasana facing the wall.

Take your right leg and place it up on the wall. And so you have to find out how close you need to be to the wall so you really try to make a 90 degree angle between your legs. This can be really, it's deceptively challenging. What we tend to do, is we step the standing leg way back and we're kinda leaning on the wall and that's a more secure place so I'm asking you to kind of, to come into this wobbly area where balance might be an issue. Right foot on the wall.

And as close as possible, left leg parallel, neutral right, so toes are facing the wall. And right leg parallel neutral. It's quite interesting in the pelvis so, send the leg energy into the wall and into the floor. Exhale, relax the ribs. Now hook your thumbs and take the arms up.

And play here any amount of kinda ongelating and encouraging the length of the waist and the openness of the lungs. Woo. Okay. Go a little higher with the hands and begin to twist and open the arms. Left hand can come to the right leg and open the right arm into the space.

So use the wall here and use the floor. They're supporting you. And you get to play in the breath. And the turn of the rib cage. Dropping down through that right sit bone and really standing on that left leg.

Wide in the back. And then inhale, come center, look at the wall, bend the right leg and come to tadasana. And do that little padding action that we started with. A feed into wall, now feed into the floor. Kinda like making your nest.

Making like a cozy relationship to the earth beneath you. Right. This kind of pose like you get in it and you start feeling disconnected. So do whatever you can to drop the breath and feel reconnected. Left foot up on to the wall.

Balance the pelvis. Nice and square. Calm. So, you need that wall, thank you wall. Hook your thumbs and take the arms up, breathing in.

And then open the arms into the space you're in kind of taking in, see where you are. So it's not all about trying to balance against the wall in this challenging position. You're here, you're breathing, your eyes are open. Yeah you wanna encourage the release of the left sit bone down. But, you know if it's not done today maybe tomorrow.

And now turn the ribs. Lungs follow. And spine is supporting the arms. Not the other way around. Arms are not supporting the spine.

At this moment. And then coming up, bring the arms up. Inhale. And exhale, bend that left leg. And push away from the wall.

And take your little padding movement, maybe bending the legs. Little swing in the arms. Mkay. Now we'll do downward facing dog. With your fingers facing the wall, place your fingers about four inches from the wall and walk your legs back.

And find your dog. Find your breath. Plant your hands. So we're gonna take a kick up hand stand here. Step your right foot forward, not too far.

So pretty much under the pelvis, look forward. And then, take an extra swing or a, a kind of setup swing with your left leg. And then come on up to handstand. Bring your legs together. And lengthen them as far up the wall as you can.

And it depends upon your security, you either look at the floor or look into the center of the room. Your left leg is gonna stay on the wall. Send it up high. Kick out through both legs equally and evenly. Keep the hips as balanced as possible.

Now when you start to really split. Look at the wall, floor, reach your top leg and step your right leg down. Balance it out. Do whatever you need to breathe. And to prepare for the other side.

One side invariably is much more challenging than the other. So step your left foot forward. Take a few free swings and kick up into your hand stand. Legs are together, legs are long. Right leg stays up.

Bringing the left leg down slowly. Through like a 90 degrees. And then when it comes a little lower than 90 degrees, power up the top leg, the top leg, the top leg, the top leg and come down. Woo. Standing forward bend.

Inhaling and exhaling. And round up to stand. Okay, turning away from the wall. Gather your two blocks. And bring your blocks on either side of your mat.

And this can be a little bit of a challenging setup. So we're going into shin on the wall. Step your left foot forward. Take your hands on to your blocks and lift them high. And then you're gonna have to walk them around a bit so lean forward.

Send your whole right shin up on to the wall. Use those blocks as crutches and then slide your left shin down. And you wanna try to keep the knee as close to the wall as possible. If it wandered forward, do what you can do right now to send it back. K, now you're in a lounge.

Same thing as before, right? No pushing. Kinda find how does the tail bone hang in the place between the legs? How can the legs support you here? So there are a lot a ways to play here.

We can stick our butt back towards the back heel and lean forward. You might wanna open the right foot out to the right a little bit so it's more like a virasana feeling in that leg. And then, come upright. You can walk your blocks back. But you wanna really stand on that right knee.

Like you need to feel the floor beneath the right knee. Release left hip. Look for the balance of the pelvic belly. And then hook the thumbs and take the arms up. Kinda scooping the belly up now.

But sending the legs down. Inhale, exhale. Let the tail bone fall forward and bring your hands back on to the blocks. Lean forward, stick your butt back and then lift your left toes. Take the left leg forward.

So, we're playing into hanumanasana with the back shin on the wall. And that can be a huge help. So push your right shin back and reach the left leg forward. But the tail bone hang and don't be pushy. No pushiness.

Right, maybe a little wobble. Uh huh. How's it hanging? How's it reaching? Right.

Really anchored down through that right knee, right shin. You come as far as you're gonna today with breath, with curiosity, with love. And then you unwind. Pull it back. Step on the foot.

Use your hands on your blocks and just slide your right shin forward. It's like the easiest way to come out. Mkay. Go to the other side. Stay for a moment with your sit bones on the wall.

Step your right foot forward. Turn the blocks high if you need them that high. Left shin on the wall. Nice and slow, use the support where you need. You bring the left knee down on to the floor.

Right. Stay for a moment. See where you are. And then you open, you just move the left foot to the left a tiny bit so you can bring your hips back and it might help to kinda push the hips back. You can see I'm kinda moving around, I'm looking for it.

I'm looking for ease. I'm not looking for stretch. I'm looking for when my breath falls in when I can actually sense the space around me. Feel the wall behind me, right. Tendency is that the front leg hip goes up.

It's hard. Right, how do we let that go? How do we drop in? Drop in, I love that term that musicians use like, in the pocket. I wanna be in the pocket, be in the groove.

Right, any bit here. And then hook the thumbs and scoop it up. So you can clear the pelvis by drawing the belly back into the width of the back of the torso. All the way up through your fingers. Lengthen up and as you exhale, let that tailbone lead toward your right heel.

Hands on the block. Now, you can lower the blocks, lift your hips so you can release the front leg. And then this is a new game. New game. Hanumanasana.

Maybe you should chant a really beautiful hanuman chant, there are many of them. Press your left shin back, stand in to that back knee. One side is invariably different. Which is the beauty of being in the moment. Okay.

And drawing that leg back. Coming out, stand on that foot and then just shift your weight forward. And, we'll stand up. Clear the blocks. You might need them for the next pose so why don't you walk em' forward to the front of them mat and come into downward facing dog.

With your heels up the wall and your hands well forward. Take a breath here. Lift the skin of the legs up. Open empty, hollow belly. Take your right foot up the wall and this time really dig your toes down and so you can reach the heel up.

Find the balance of the pelvis here if possible. Breathe in, look forward, exhale, come to a lounge. Back heel drills into the wall and the wall helps you come up. Hopefully with ease. Your little arms swinging.

Easy in the chest. Okay. Stabilize the legs by kind of hugging the outer thighs in and press that back heel strongly into the wall. Left arm goes out into space, inhale. And exhale.

Clip it across. Right hand can help you here. You can press down, kinda lift the belly and then the back wraps around. Alright now the, woo, the left heel and the right sit bone are seeking the stability of the wall. But the head lengthening into the center of the room gives you the extension of the spine.

Any variation. Any arm variation. And in my experience the play for me still is to turn the ribs, turn the belly, turn the spine. Right. And then come to quietude.

And release. Hands to the floor. And let's transition to the other side. Right leg back. Take a clarifying moment.

An even, untwisted moment in downward facing dog. And then left leg bends, moves up the wall. Go to your ability, I walked my hands and you can do that. Curl your right left toes down the wall but kick the heel high. Even in the pelvis, reaching the legs out, inhale and exhale.

Leg comes down and forward. Really set that back heel into the wall and come up to your high lounge. Heel into the wall, that's your stability. Hug the legs into the mid line. Inhale, lengthen, right arm straight out away from the wall breathing in and exhale.

Twist. Right, use that left hand to make a really clear connection of right elbow on left thigh. And then hands to prayer and turn. Use the wall. Use the floor.

And the space of the space that you're in is an invitation to flow into it. Right. So your twisting comes from your center and shifts the space you're in. Breathing in, breathing out. Hands to the floor.

Downward facing dog. Walking your feet away from the wall. Come to uttanasana. And bow to your legs. Bow to the wall.

And the floor. And the space you're in. Bend the knees, roll up. Come to stand. Turn around.

And sit down facing the wall. Now we're just doing this to measure how far you need to be from the wall for headstand, sirsasana A. Okay. If you need a blanket under your head, I don't really suggest that. If you, if you want you can fold your mat up but don't use a blanket under your head, it's too slippery.

Instead fold the mat up and use that more solid surface under your head. Okay, so what you're looking for is the length of your shin. And find your knee. And just put your finger on the floor where your knee is. And then come to, whoops, come to kneeling.

And you're going to interlay, that's the point where your head is gonna be. So you wanna set your hands just a little closer to the wall so there's the point where my head wants to be. I'm gonna bring my fingers about two inches towards the wall and then interlace my fingers like you do for headstand. Okay, and then set the oops, I like to clear the fabric off my elbows. Interlace a nice, soft interlace so no grippiness in the hands and set the length of your forearms down.

Elbows no wider than shoulders. And then you'll take your head to the floor. Snuggle the back of your head right into your hands and then firm your forearms down, curl the toes under and come to a downward facing dog. Uh huh. Firm again so the arm bones, the forearm bones go down and the shoulder blades go up and then you take a little hop or bend the knees, however it is that you get into sirsasana A.

But come to this place where your knees are bent. And then hopefully the wall will be right there. So take your feet to the wall, breathe in and as you breathe out reach your sit bones and your tail bone up to the ceiling and firm your hands down. From that place, I do this because my tailbone always falls out so, it helps to lengthen the tailbone, to get the pelvis upright in relationship to my rib cage. Then extend one leg up.

And the other leg up. Bring your big toes together. Hug the legs gently. And see if you can feel the friendly support and guidance of the wall behind you without actually hanging on it. Standing on your head and on your arms.

Tailbone long, up. Inner thighs hugging that spinal line. Breathing. Okay. We're not sticking to stay long but you can of course choose to stay longer right now.

I'll queue to come down. Bending your knees. Bringing your knees down into your field of vision, go slowly. Inner legs are together. Nice and study.

And then bring the feet to the floor. Shins on the floor. And rest in child's pose. Take your hands to the floor. Press down to come up.

Come off your feet and take one of your block and just bring it closer to the wall. So you're gonna scooch your booty up to the wall. Come on to your side so you're sort of sitting on your left hip. And you'll take your left shoulder down on to the floor and roll on to your back. So, legs up the wall.

Alright and, you can either stay here if you're super duper comfortable or you take that one block that you brought with you, bend your legs, lift your hips and bring your hips on to that block. And you wanna do this in a way actually that releases your the fleshy part of your buttocks into the space between the block and the wall. And here you are. If you're lucky enough to be wearing a hair tie. You can take your hair tie off so you're not, you don't, you're not lying down on it.

But I like to use my hair tie on my big toes. So you kind of like tie your toes together. Because I'm one of these people that like the legs lose form in this posture so I have to have some kind of reminder to keep the inner edge of the toes together but let my legs relax. So, I know that was like a little surprise. See if it works for you if you can do it.

One moment to think about here is that you really wanna use the block so your, your like hip joint is not higher than your rib cage, right so, you wanna make an even relationship with those two so it's really more about back bend position. So you have to let the butt release and then you can see that the hip joint and now my front lower ribs are, are more even so this part, the belly part, this soft, sweet belly part can have space actually, right. Not the weight of the legs into but no weight. Close your eyes. You're still in relationship to the wall and the floor and the space around you.

Imagine that the place you're in is also taking the time to rest. Stay as long as you like. If you're ready to leave just slide the feet down the wall. So that you can lift your hips and take the block away. Unbind your toes.

Roll to your side. And then transition so that your sitting with your back against the wall. Namaste. Thank you.