Exhale to Truth

So as we transition from summer, which has this exuberant quality of unlimited, expansive lots of summer, sunny fun, into fall, one of the first things we meet is a sense of constraint, time. Suddenly the days are shorter. It's a little cooler. There's less available space. Now what becomes useful in meeting our own limitations is we have the opportunity of poetry because only through constraints can poetry occur.

And one of the key ways to start to practice acceptance of these limitations is to become more and more intimate and more and more comfortable with the exhale. And the freshest insight for me recently, and most insights are usually quite obvious, but this really fresh insight that we speak on the exhale, that our words occur on the out breath. And so absolutely essential for you to truly release what is no longer serving you is to speak the truth because when we don't speak the truth, we stay in the accumulation. It's the acceptance of these limits that allow us to find our particular unique expression of all there is. So in this next sequence, our play here is to simply find a little bit more awareness of the exhale, a little bit more comfort so that we might find more ease in this transitional autumn equinox.

Thank you for being here. Glad you're with us. We'll start supine. And I find it really hard to lie down without bringing my knees into my chest. I just find that once I lie down, I want to do something like this just because it feels good.

So let your knees come into your chest. I like to hold my knees on my elbow, hold one wrist with one hand and just kind of wobble around a little bit. And then let's find a little bit of room and the hips and the hamstrings. So place your left foot on the earth, bring your right ankle up on top of your left thigh, roll the right hip away from you. You might stay here or you might let this left thigh draw in and just wobble a little bit.

If you're looking for an opportunity through this back of this right side, if it's appropriate to feel more, thread your right arm through, catch around the back of the left thigh. This might be the perfect spot. Some of you might be inclined to catch around the top of the left shin. This might be the perfect spot. If you'd like to keep this situation mostly in the back of your right buttocks and hip region, stay here, if you'd like to bring a little bit of opportunity into your hamstrings, then extend up through this left leg, wrap your hands around the back of the left leg, wherever they find themselves.

Maybe it's the calf, maybe it's the ankle, a few of you, it might be the foot. And then you just start to let this left leg come in towards your head a little bit. Okay. Wobble a little bit. It feels really nice to let your hips come up off the floor.

If that works, that doesn't always work. And then you let your sacrum get heavy. If you're not enjoying it, then it's not working. Okay. Okay.

Let that release. Let the left foot come back down to the floor. Release the right leg. Shake her out a little bit. Place the right foot down on the floor.

Big deliberate. Inhale. Exhale. Everything. Nice.

Left ankle up on top of right thigh. Roll the left hip away. And if it's more appropriate for you to stay here, you stay here, otherwise right thigh draws in. Wobble a little bit. This might be the perfect spot.

Some of you might find your hands around the back of the right thigh. Okay. A couple of you might be inclined to bring it around the top of the right shin. Again, you can see, I just like to wobble a little bit. It just helps.

That sort of fluid, rocking motion keeps me from efforting. If you want to keep it mostly in the hip and the buttocks, you stay right there. If your particular anatomical design and inclination allow it, and you're interested in bringing it into the hamstrings, you can extend up through the right leg. You catch around, maybe it's the back of the calf, maybe it's the ankle. And then you let this leg get heavy.

And as you let this leg get heavy, it might be a little bent, but you let the leg get heavy. Let the hips come up off the floor, if they're willing, you know, for a couple of you, it's very natural to bring them a lot up off the floor. Okay, but you kind of let them come up off the floor, and then you just let your sacrum get heavy. Like you treat your sacrum like your own hammock wobble. Again, if it's feeling too much or stressful, go back to the version with your hands around your right thigh.

Super nice. Okay, release the right foot back down to the floor. Left leg up to the sky, shake her out. And then bend the left knee, place the foot back down on the floor. Okay, spread the toes wide, big deliberate inhale, exhale everything.

And we're going to play a little bit with a rolling bridge pose to start to get used to moving with the breath. So let your arms come up over the top of your head. What I like to do is let the elbows bend a little bit so my shoulders roll back and down. Exhales right in line with your sit bones, spread your toes wide. Okay, big inhale here.

Exhale everything, nice. Then inhale, and as you're ready on your upcoming exhale, press into the feet, draw your sit bones towards the knees and lift up through the hips. Okay, pause here as you inhale, and as you come across your exhale, up on the balls of the feet, and roll back down, upward back, mid back, low back, hips land, and heels land. Nice, let's do that two more times. Inhale, and as you exhale, press into your feet, draw your sit bones towards your knees and lift up through the hips.

Beautiful, stay here as you inhale, as you come across your exhale, up on the balls of the feet, and then slowly roll back down, upward back, mid back, low back, hips land, and heels land. Nice, one more. If my breath paces and your breath pace, you find your own rhythm. Inhale, exhale, press into the feet, draw your sit bones towards your knees and lift. Okay, stay here as you inhale.

When you're ready, find your exhale, come up onto the balls of the feet, and then slowly roll it on back down, upward back, mid back, low back, hips land, and heels land. Beautiful, let your knees come into your chest and wobble. Now, if you experienced hamstring cramping, and that's totally not unusual, because that's using your hamstrings. And so sometimes it feels good between this and the next set to extend your leg straight and flex your feet and stretch the backs of your hamstrings. Another little trick, though, is a lot of people find that if they don't lift their heels up off the floor in that sequence, that sometimes that keeps more stability.

Okay, we're going to repeat exactly what we just did, but we'll stay up and bridge on the inhale, and we'll stay in bridge on the exhale, and then we'll be rolling back down on empty. Now, this will create a really strong stretch through the diaphragm, which will result in what we call udiyarabunda. If you're not sure what udiyarabunda is, there are so many people here at Yoga Anytime who've done masterful classes on udiyarabunda, including Lydia, including Sonia, including Matt Pascendi, and so find a tutorial if you're not sure what it is. It's going to happen whether you know what it is or not. Spread the toes wide, heels in line with your sit bones, clearing breath together, big deliberate inhale, exhale everything.

As you're ready, inhale, exhale, press into your feet, draw your sit bones towards your knees and lift. Now you stay here as you inhale, and you stay here as you exhale everything, like for real, like really get totally, absolutely, completely empty. Then once you're absolutely empty, come up onto the balls of your feet and roll back down on empty. Over back, mid back, low back, hips land, heels land. Relax the contraction, let for a big inhale, and exhale everything.

Breathing out a little bit, rest in the center of your heart from the results of this. Let's do that again. As you come back down on empty, most likely you're feeling a strong stretch. That's going to pull on your chin a little bit. You're going to get a natural jalandharabunda.

You just let that happen. When you relax the contraction, you'll let the chin relax, you'll let the belly relax, you'll find the big inhale, and then you'll follow with the exhale. Let's try it again together. Spread the toes wide, clearing breath, inhale, exhale everything. As you're ready, inhale, exhale, press down into the feet, draw your sit bones towards your knees, and come up into the shape of the bridge.

Pause here as you inhale, exhale everything, like for real. Once you're really sure you're empty, up on the balls of the feet, and then slowly roll back down on empty, upper back, mid back, low back, hips, heels. Hang out at the bottom as long as it feels good, then you relax the contraction. There's a natural big inhale. There's a natural exhale.

Let your elbows soften a little bit, and then just rest in the result of the exhale. Hang out in your heart center. Let's do one more together. If you've had enough, just hang out with us. Otherwise one more together, and then if you want to do more, you can just pause and take a few more.

Let's try it again together and see if it makes sense. Admittedly, it's not so easy to instruct and do it. It would be more profound for me to just do it in silence, but I'm doing my best. Okay, inhale, exhale everything. Then as you're ready, inhale, exhale, press into your heels, draw your sit bones towards your knees, and lift.

Stay here as you inhale, and then as you're ready, you exhale everything. When you're fully empty, come up onto the balls of the feet and roll it on back down, upper back, mid back, low back, hips land, heels land. Hang out here a little bit at the bottom of the contraction if it's okay. Then you relax the contraction, you feel an inhale, and you feel an exhale, and rest. And sometimes there's this sweet, metal-like quality in your heart.

Okay, beautiful. Hug your knees into your chest, and you might want to just hang out there. That might be the perfect amount of practice today, but if you'd like, we're going to put it towards a twist. Cross your ankles, inhale, roll back, exhale, roll up to sitting, and we'll make our way to a twist. So let your left knee bend, and place your right foot in front.

Now this is just one possible shape for this twist, and if this right hip isn't quite finding the earth, you might prefer to work with a straight left leg, or find some support underneath there. Now here's the play. So we've been exploring the bottom of the exhale a little bit. We're going to play with that in this twist. Most usually, it's common to teach the twist on the exhale, to twist as you exhale.

The suggestion here is that we're only going to move when we're absolutely empty. So snuggle down through your sit bones, feel a brightness in your heart, feel the upper palate soften, and find the alignment of the skull that feels quite balanced. And allow yourself to feel your inhale, and allow yourself to feel your exhale, and start to become more aware of that bottom of the exhale, that quality of empty. And the request here is that you only move on that, okay? So inhale, feel your exhale, and then as you come to the very bottom of the exhale, then perhaps hug that right knee with the left elbow, and bring that right hand behind.

Then you'll feel an inhale, let your heart blossom, soft behind her, open in the upper palate. Stay where you are as you exhale, and at the very bottom of the exhale, when you're actually for real empty, then begin to twist. And then stay where you are as you feel the inhale. Stay where you are as you feel the exhale, and only once you're really down there at the bottom, really where there's no breath left, then maybe twist a little bit more. And for most of you, it'll make the most sense to keep this left elbow hugged around the right knee.

It's a bit of a child's safety lock. It prevents the over effort of the arms, but if you're on the honor system, you might cross that left elbow over. And continue to work like this, like feel the blossoming of the inhale. Be aware of the exhale, only twisting on empty. Press a little bit more through the right foot.

Feel a little bit more length through the left knee. Feel how you can lengthen your left elbow away from you. Right in the eyes, open in the upper palate. Nice. Allow for an inhale.

Allow for an exhale. And then eventually you'll come across that spot at the bottom that will invite you to unwind. Inhale, release, upper back, mid back, low back, pause. And be aware of the quality of the resulting breath. Then as you're invited, make your way into what we usually call cafes, snuggling in.

If it's a little bit much, maybe extend the left leg straight. Hook your second and third fingers onto your big toes, snuggle in. Feel the inhale that allows for the brightness. Feel the exhale that softens. And for many of you sitting right here and using this shape more as a prep for meditation, this particular configuration of the hips has a similar quality to lotus in that it can be quite heightening energetically.

If you're more inclined to find more opportunity in the hip opening, then you could walk your hands forward. Yeah. The main purpose here is to start to tune a little bit more into the quality of breath that starts to be available in the heart and in the central channel. Nice. If you happen to be folded forward, let yourself come on back up, lean back, and switch the cross of the legs.

Right knee is bent, left foot is across, or maybe the right leg is straight. Snuggle in. Hold onto that left knee and just get a sense of the breath. Feel the inhale and be aware of your exhale and start to get a sense of where that bottom of the exhale is. The sages have suggested the study of breath for a long time because it really does match everything there is.

Eventually, you'll find an inhale and you'll find an exhale. At the bottom of that next exhale, you'll wrap, you'll bring the left hand behind, and then you'll probably need to inhale again, so you'll feel that brightening, and you'll feel that softening, and you wait, you wait. And then at the very bottom of that exhale, really when you're done, then you start to twist. Press down a little bit into that left foot, lengthen a little bit with that right knee, and then you wait. You allow for the inhale, and you allow for the exhale.

And then at the very bottom of that exhale, you might twist again. Find a softness in the upper palate. Feel that breath. So I'm giving cues, but hopefully it's making sense by now that you're really waiting for the empty. Pressing down through the left foot, lengthening your right shoulder blade and elbow away from you, soft in the upper palate, kinder in the eyes.

Yeah, again, for most of us, the hug of the knee is more appropriate. It helps resist the temptation of force. For some of you, it might make sense to change the arm position. Nice. Beautiful.

Eventually, you're going to feel the inspiration of a particular inhale. You'll allow for the exhale, and then you will unwind, usually with the gaze, upper back, mid-back, low back, pause. And then make your way into what we usually call cow face, snuggle in, catch hold of your big toes. And again, I like to use this as more of a preparation for meditation posture. And instead of so much actively breathing, starting to be more just aware of the quality of the breath, the feeling in the heart, the tonality up through that central channel, the gracious channel, what the yogis sometimes call the shishuna, upper soft palate.

Some of you might prefer to walk your hands forward and move more into a more dramatic hip opportunity. The temptation, though, is to be distracted by the loudest sensations. Sweet. Those of you that are folding forward, walk your hands back up. Beautiful.

And release your legs into your favorite forward fold. So for some of you, that might be a bada-kanasana. Okay. For some of you, it might be a pashimoto-tanasana. Flex your feet a little bit if it's pashimoto-tanasana, wobble a little side to side, and then just so gently let your hands come out in front of you and just let yourself round over.

This might be the perfect spot. Easy, okay, nice, okay, wherever you happen to be, slowly roll on back up, and while you're welcome to lie down and rest in shavasana, the suggestion is that we're going to finish with a sit together. So I recommend getting something to sit on, maybe it's a blanket, maybe it's a cushion, maybe it's something else, I'm going to get something, I'll meet you back here. Something that allows your hips to be higher than your knees, which then allows your pelvis to tip slightly forward, which encourages the heart to brighten. Okay, snuggle in, big deliberate inhale, exhale everything.

Let the belly soften. Let the back of the heart give up some of her grip. Find the alignment of the skull so that she feels supported, balanced, upper soft palate. Be attentive of what your hands are doing and put them in a place that allows you to be aware and not distracted. And so the play here, the request here in this seat is to simply allow your breath to be as she is, which is almost impossible, because as soon as we bring attention to something, it changes.

With your eyes soft and your mind open, let your awareness rest in this heart region and just be aware of the moments, the moment of the inhale, top of the inhale, the exhale, and the bottom of the exhale. And notice what your eyes want to do. It's funny, today my eyes want to just stay slightly open and focused out in front of me. You might find it more useful to close them, but you're just watching, you're studying, you're watching the inhale, you're feeling that rise, you're aware of the top, you're aware of the exhale, and you're aware of the bottom of the exhale. Is this sort of how the seasons are?

If we can think of spring as that rise of the inhale, summer is kind of the peak. As we come into autumn, we're just beginning the exhale, and then you have the winter, the bottom of the exhale. Okay, a handful more moments here together and of course if you want to sit here longer on your own, do so. Thank you for practicing with us, nice to be here together, happy fall, namaste.