Experience the profound connection between the universe within you and the world around you as we journey through an exquisite exploration of yin yoga, mindfulness, and the incredible power of gratitude. This is a 90-minute yin yoga practice that fosters a profound sense of appreciation for your body. Designed to bring tranquility, connection, and a space exclusively for you, we anchor our attention on the breath and the internal movement of light within the rib cage.
In this episode we unravel the marvels of cellular respiration, the universe within your cells. With each breath, nourish and support the teeming life within you, The experience of cellular respiration, will profoundly deepen your sense of self and body connectivity.
With each pose, take a moment to appreciate the sensations, the echoes of movements and the hard work of your cells. We conclude with a reflective Shavasana, inviting you to contemplate the remarkable journey of evolution, and your place in the universe. This practice is a loving reminder of the miracles within us and our bodies' phenomenal ability to evolve, exist, and flourish. Tune in for this enriching adventure of self-discovery and appreciation.
Transformational Self Care
A Late Winter Wellness Retreat in the Dominican Republic
March 3-10, 2023
Join me for a 7 day Caribbean wellness retreat. Each day we will focus on a pillar of self care. By the end of the week you will have a group of new friends, some unforgettable memories and a personal self care strategy to enhance your life back at home. Learn More
Let's connect! Follow me on:
Facebook
Instagram
TicToc
YouTube
Free Resources:
Master the Yin Yoga Pose Repertoire: 7 Day Email Course
Introduction to Pain Care Yoga
Practice Gallery Workbook - 6 go to sequences with pictorial instructions
Experience the profound connection between the universe within you and the world around you as we journey through an exquisite exploration of yin yoga, mindfulness, and the incredible power of gratitude. This is a 90-minute yin yoga practice that fosters a profound sense of appreciation for your body. Designed to bring tranquility, connection, and a space exclusively for you, we anchor our attention on the breath and the internal movement of light within the rib cage.
In this episode we unravel the marvels of cellular respiration, the universe within your cells. With each breath, nourish and support the teeming life within you, The experience of cellular respiration, will profoundly deepen your sense of self and body connectivity.
With each pose, take a moment to appreciate the sensations, the echoes of movements and the hard work of your cells. We conclude with a reflective Shavasana, inviting you to contemplate the remarkable journey of evolution, and your place in the universe. This practice is a loving reminder of the miracles within us and our bodies' phenomenal ability to evolve, exist, and flourish. Tune in for this enriching adventure of self-discovery and appreciation.
Transformational Self Care
A Late Winter Wellness Retreat in the Dominican Republic
March 3-10, 2023
Join me for a 7 day Caribbean wellness retreat. Each day we will focus on a pillar of self care. By the end of the week you will have a group of new friends, some unforgettable memories and a personal self care strategy to enhance your life back at home. Learn More
Let's connect! Follow me on:
Facebook
Instagram
TicToc
YouTube
Free Resources:
Master the Yin Yoga Pose Repertoire: 7 Day Email Course
Introduction to Pain Care Yoga
Practice Gallery Workbook - 6 go to sequences with pictorial instructions
Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast. I'm your host, mandy Ryle, for your pod practice. This week, I'm actually bringing an episode back that I first published last year just after Thanksgiving. This is a really special practice, which is a beautiful blend of mindfulness, gratitude and movement, and I am really hoping that sometime in the next couple of days here as we approach Thanksgiving, that you might have an hour, an hour and a half, to really immerse yourself into this practice. I will fully introduce the practice in my intro for the original episode, so I won't repeat myself here. I do want to say, though, on the eve of Thanksgiving in 2023, how grateful I am for you and your continued support of the podcast and for your enthusiasm for evidence-informed practice. Thank you so much for being a listener. If you receive value from the Yin Yoga Podcast, I humbly ask you to consider becoming a patron. Patrons support the great practices and education on the podcast and also get access to the entire video practice library. In my online community, the Ship School, my practice library contains a huge variety of movement, mindfulness, strength and even meditation practices. The library is searchable for pain care practice resources to address the most common musculoskeletal pain issues, including back pain, neck and shoulder pain and hip pain. The Yin teachers out there will love a newly added feature the experiential anatomy practice section, where you get to dive into learning anatomy through your very own body and breath. This is all at your fingertips for a $15 donation each month. You can cancel your patronage at any time. Become a patron today. I'll leave a link in the show notes for you to get started. Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast. I'm your host, mandy Ryle, for this week. I wanted to offer something a little extra special, as it is, after all, the day after Thanksgiving. We have all kinds of amazing scientific evidence that's coming out in the last decade or so about gratitude. I think it's irrefutable. Now. I think we can all agree on the fact that gratitude is really, really important, whether things are going great in your life, or maybe especially when things aren't going so great. For those of my clients and my listeners who have chronic pain, gratitude is important for you as well. My friends, this practice will ask you to practice gratitude on a very, very deep level, as deep as the cell. Rather than looking outside for reasons to be grateful, we will look within. Your practice is suffused with the meditation, which has been designed to help you to cultivate a deep embodied gratitude for the body. This is an extended practice and it's also a live class that I recorded for you. It's 90 minutes. To be honest, I've never published a 90-minute episode. I don't know if you guys are going to like it or not, but I figure let's give it a shot, because this is an important topic and I want for you to have lots of time to really marinate in these poses, in these movements and indeed in this meditation.
Speaker 1:You will want to have some props around you. You'll need some kind of yoga strap could even be the strap that you use to keep your mat rolled up. You will want to have a bolster, a blanket and maybe a block or two. I really hope you enjoy your practice. Yogi, let me have you begin by setting up your props for yourself. I would like for you to have a blanket at the back of your mat, all the way at the back of your mat. Unless you're someone who needs a blanket to sit on in a seated position, then you can sit on your blanket. Take your bolster and your blocks just to the left of you but still very much within reach. Your strap can just sit by the side of your mat Once you've got your props set up.
Speaker 1:You've got all your props. I'm going to have you actually start seated at the top of your mat. Go ahead and smudge forward a little bit you can leave some space at the front of your mat, of course and find a crisscross applesauce, a sucrasna, with your left ankle in front. If now you're changing your mind about sitting on your blanket, go ahead and drag it over and sit on it if you need to. If it's okay, close your eyes. Don't worry about finding the super straightest posture. Instead, find a posture which feels stable to you but also is full, a posture where you can feel yourself breathe.
Speaker 1:And as you're feeling yourself breathe in your steady but easeful posture, you might notice that your breath sort of moves you around a little bit. You might notice some expanding in places as you inhale. Perhaps as you exhale, you notice that, in the absence of that pneumatic pressure, other things kick in to help keep you stable and start to slow the breath down a little bit Slightly longer. Inhale Slightly longer, exhale and tilt forward to plant your palms onto the mat, or you might have your hands on a block. Yeah, so if your hands don't easily reach the floor with the palms fully pressed into the floor. Grab a block and use that instead and just slightly, pulling back with the hands, draw your heart forward on your in and then poke your ribs over to the right a little bit, so you're almost side bent a bit to the left and then poke your ribs backward and then over to the left and forward again. So imagine there's a ball of light and it's pressing into the front ribs from the inside and then it's pressing into the right side ribs and scraping around to the back and then over to the left, this ball of light just gently expanding as it moves around in these circles to the right and back to the left and forward. And if you haven't already, try to incorporate your breath into this movement and then slow down, slow way down, like 50% slower, feeling that ball of light roll around the inside of your rib cage, guiding, orienting, and the next time your heart is forward, stay and then come all the way up to a vertical position again and send the left leg out. Send the left leg out. It's probably going to be off the mat Now if you're one of those people like me who gets cranky when your heel is on the flat floor.
Speaker 1:You could move. So your heel is on the mat with you. Okay, so all of the right foot is to the inner left thigh. Once again, your hands come down in front of you and let your ribs poke over to the right and, as they go turn, walk your hands to the right. You might even walk your hands so far back that your heart turns to the back of the room and then do the opposite. So we're going to come back around forward and as you move to the left, poke your ribs back round. Maybe your right foot moves flat to the floor, the kneecap pointing up or slightly to the left, and then poke your heart forward, move it to the right as you twist, make a big circle all the way around to the right, off for your heart, and then, as you come back around to the left, you're going to sink your heart. You're going to draw your ribs in. The ball of light is pressing backward into the ribs.
Speaker 1:Now Do a couple more. Go really slow, go really slow. Feel that ball of light guiding you. Maybe your eyes close, maybe they stay open. There's benefits to both. Can you go slow enough now that you have the gist of the movement, to feel the body, feel what's happening. Yeah, so don't just go through the motions. It's time to feel it now, time to experience it. Let's do one more to the right, 50% slower for this last one. Like how slow really could you go? Yeah, and one more time to the left so slow. I'm not here to rush you. Got 90 minutes for once I don't have to rush you. And this time stay to the left with your heart drawing backward, pulling your ribs into your body. Your chin has dropped, hold and then, as you begin to emerge from that rounded shape, bring yourself back around, framing that left leg with your two hands, framing the leg with your pelvis tilted forward slightly. Fold over the left leg. Now here's where the blocks and the bolster might be handy. So you're welcome to stay in the fold with no props, but you're also welcome to gather your props and use them.
Speaker 1:In this practice, we hold poses for a fair amount of time. So if there's something that you need to feel more supported, take it and as you're establishing yourself moment by moment in this pose, let the breath partner with you. Use the breath somehow. I trust you Allow the breath to move into the pose with you, for you Allow the breath to suffuse into the tissues themselves, as if these hungry cells were soaking it up.
Speaker 1:And as you take the final three breaths in this first pose of your practice, consider maybe a small shift in your intention from finding a deeper pose, finding a stronger stretch, into finding a deeper sense of experience, experiencing the whole body, the whole self in this pose. And then your hands press down to help you rise up. And as you come up, I'd like for you to just find a vertical or verticalish posture, with the head just beautifully softly perched at the top of the spine, eyes perhaps closed, just feel the echoes of that pose in you. And if you were using any of your props, they can go back to the left side of your mat now and once again you'll plant your hands in front of your shin again and walk them to the right this time. Lean into the right hip, walk them all the way out to the right, lean to the right, lean into your hip. And you may find it easier to lean into your hip if you slide your right knee toward your left wrist. So point your right knee to the side of the room rather than to the front of the room To the side of the room, completely To the side of the room, completely, yeah, and then swing this left leg around and cross the ankle in front of the right thigh Cross. So you're looking at a figure four.
Speaker 1:If your blanket was under your butt, bring it to the back of your mat now so that, with your knee and your toes pointing to the right side of the room, you can lay down with your head on that blanket. Lay down on your side, come down to your side and you might find that the blanket right out of the box is not thick enough or it's too thick for you to rest your head on. As you lay on your side with your left ankle across the front of your right thigh and both the knee and the toes pointed to the right, like very assertively pointed to the right, please, yeah, I like to hold my ankle with my right hand here. So the left hand will be free, but the right hand could hold the ankle. So, rather than being under head, maybe this hand comes and finds the ankle. Yeah, and then reach your left arm up to the sky. Reach the fingertips all the way up, yeah, turn the palm to face the back of the room and just bend the elbow so that your fingers come down to the blanket just above the top of your head. Fingers just rest on the blanket and I have, like, really long arms. So if you don't have such long arms, this may not be an issue for you, but I kind of have to curl my hand under and rest on the back of my hand. Yeah, some of you will have your fingertips just barely touching right. Others of us with gargantuanly monkey arms will have a curled up arm.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then think about that barrel, scraping ball of light. Poke your ball of light forward out in front of you, to the right, yeah, and then allow that ball of the light to roll to the left as your left arm opens, your chest opens to the left. Keep your arm as it is, though roughly It'll move a little, opening your heart to the sky and then even poking ribs to the left, and then allow that ball of light to reverse course, coming back up, poking your heart to the sky and over to the right so that you may round and tuck, and let that ball of light roll around the right ribs to the back so you find a nice expanding position of the back body and then back to the right, up to the front of the chest wall and over to the left as you open your heart and then reverse course again. So it's not just opening and closing, my friends, it's a ball of light.
Speaker 1:Some of you might be familiar with the Sufi grind. It's a Kundalini Kriya, where we do this kind of movement right, although in the Kundalini tradition it's like pretty aggressive, in here it's not aggressive at all, not aggressive at all. It's an exploration. Exploration of your ribcage, of your breath, of your shoulder, of your hip. Yeah, beautiful, let's just do a couple more, friends. So we'll roll and close. Oh yeah, pull those ribs back and then start to poke your ribs up to the sky More. Poke your ribs up, roll your heart open, open, open, open, open. Do it three more times, even though we're gonna start to move into the pose. Okay, yeah, the next time you're open, your left arm is out to the left. Go ahead and reach it all the way to the left and we'll hold in the twisted pigeon. Find a comfortable position for your arm, a heart that is pointed to the sky, perhaps holding your ankle, maybe not. If your foot stays like that, lucky you, you don't have to hold your ankle, but for most of us it slides around and you'll want to hold it. Heart is wide open and share this pose again with your breath Suffusing the pose with this benevolent breath, each cell soaking up the nourishment that comes from out there to in here.
Speaker 1:Even a very casual breath can do this. Imagine all of the tiny, tiny little universes within you, called cells, and each of them getting exactly what they need from this pose, from this breath softening and yielding in response. When I think about cellular respiration yes, this is something I think about I think of billions of tiny little twinkling universes humming and thrumming with their own activity, a universe within a simple cell wall, diligently, independently, doing its work, its activity every moment. And it just needs a little help from me. I need to breathe, okay, okay, let's just take two more cell twinkling breaths.
Speaker 1:Take your time as you roll onto your back and you plant the right foot, maybe centering the hips, and draw your left thigh into your chest, use your hands to hold it and then please find your strap and loop it over this left foot. Loop it over your foot so that the strap is kind of where the ball meets the arch and then poke that foot up to the sky. I like to hold a little bit higher on the strap and then just let my arms kind of hang, so I'm not really pulling so much, as just sort of relaxing a little. Yeah, and if you prefer to hold with just one hand, I would say the left hand would be preferable, and if you're holding with both hands that's good too. Let's just take one more breath here and the Padangasthasana, and then you will actually hold the strap in the left hand. Keep your hips pretty steady on the mat, but let your left leg just open out to the left and give yourself lots of space with that strap so that your leg can either come down to your bolster or, for some of you, it'll come all the way to the floor. For some of you it'll come all the way to the floor, but I would like for it to come all the way down. And then find a way to loop that strap around your hand and wrist and then just poke your fingers into the loop so you're not using your grip the whole time, because you're going to be here a little while. So find a way to be holding without a lot of extra effort.
Speaker 1:Reach your right arm up to the sky and, as you roll onto your left side, keep your right knee pointing up or pointing to the right a little bit. Roll onto your left side and then just bend your right arm and once again place the back of your hand, the back of your fingertips, the back of your knuckles, onto that blanket as you are rolled onto your left side. Yeah, go to your left side, do it? Go to the left side, roll to the left side. That's it. Some of you haven't quite decided to roll onto your left side yet, but I would like for you to do that if possible. So you're going to roll all the way onto your side with your arm overhead and your knuckles resting, and now your leg is like yay, I'm super comfy on the floor now. Yeah, your leg is super comfy on the floor. Always yes.
Speaker 1:And poke your ribs to the left side and then allow that ball of light to roll into the right ribs as you once again open your chest. Your right arm is going to open out a little bit, good. And then ball of light comes back up into the center of the chest all the way to the left. So when you roll to your left side, this time you really commit, almost like your upper body is finding a fetal position, rounding so that ball of light rolls around the left into the back body and then back left, forward, right, open up, open up, still finding that Sufi, grind right, go again, do it a few times.
Speaker 1:So, my friends, it's not just opening and closing, is it Gosh? No, you're coiling and tucking as you round and roll to the left side and you're opening, expanding, with that arm still bent, yeah, go, really slow. And of course, your right knee is going to be moving too. So it'll point to the left when you roll onto your left side and it'll point up when you roll to your right side. Well, when you roll on your back, I should say, ah.
Speaker 1:So fusing each cell with the benevolence of the breath, the benevolence of your attention and intention in this pose, come this way. Yes, do a couple more. Yeah, couple more. And the next time you are open, you're going to stay open, you're going to stay open. That right arm maybe reaching out to the right now, and here's where you might be like, ah, no, this is too much for my left thigh. And so you'll grab your bolster or you'll wave your hand around and get our attention. So you have some help.
Speaker 1:Okay, see if your right hip can be steady on the floor rather than lifting up and floating right. If your hip, your right hip, can't be steady on the floor, you might need something under your left leg. That's a choice you can make, and some of you may even like to extend now the right leg long, so two legs will be long. You're almost at a right angle right, yeah, 90 degree angle. So on average, you are composed of about 37 and a half trillion cells. 37 and a half trillion cells, each its own little universe in a cell wall, each requiring cell respiration. The cell is life. All living things have cells. And yet you're not just cells. There's a lot of you which is non self water, lots of different fibers, a whole heap of bacteria, but the cell is the true representation of life.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, when I do this meditation, I imagine the cells breathing with me, almost glowing on the end and slightly dimming on the out. We'll take three more breaths, three more benevolent breaths. So the left knee will bend as you roll again to your left side. Just curl up there for a moment. Curl up on your side. Just release your strap. Breath is completely spontaneous here. This is a moment for you to do nothing. You're not meditating, you're not spending a lot of effort on feeling and experiencing, you're simply resting and then roll into your hands and help yourself up again to your seat your criss-cross apple sauce, this time with your right ankle in front, and even as you're still arriving, you'll kind of shift around all of your props. So now your blocks and your bolster are to the right. Your blanket is either under your butt for now or to the back of the mat. Your strap is to the right side of your mat, yeah Good. And once you get done doing a little housekeeping, everything to the right, yeah Well, that was quite a production we had. That was more than I expected.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have you just sit tall for a moment and just re-enter. Come back. Come back, re-enter contemplating these 32 and a half trillion cells which are you. Then plant your hands in front of your shins. Your palms need to be fully flat, either to a block or to the floor, fully flat, please. Then poke your heart up forward, find that ball of light pressing your ribs forward and then to the left. Allow that ball of light to roll along the inside of the rib cage to the left, and then behind the back, left shoulder blade, right shoulder blade, right side armpit, and then all the way around again to the front to go again.
Speaker 1:Go as slow as you can and please do share this experience with your breath, your head and your neck are kind of noodling around. It's hard to sort of figure out what exactly the right place is, so just let it be really natural, whatever feels right to you. The only thing I would absolutely discourage is a neck that is very, very stiff and not moving at all. Okay, there are just a couple more now. Really slow. And the next time your ball of light is forward it's in front. You'll stay. Come all the way up to vertical spine. Send your right leg out, send your right leg out, long shoulder to the left foot, to the inner right thigh. Feel free to shift yourself so you're on your mat. If your heel gets cranky, yeah, plant your hands once again in front of your shin. Allow the heart to draw forward as you walk the hands now to the left, that's an offering and as the hands come back around to the front and over to the right.
Speaker 1:This is a closing. The ball of light is at the back of you and it's pressing backwards. It's this lovely pressure rounding, drawing your ribs in and tucking, and then, when you begin to emerge, ball of your light travels to the left. This is where your heart presses back. The ball of light is to the front of you, uh-huh, and then it comes around, spins around the inside of the rib cage and it finds the back of you. This is the last time you'll travel to the left. Go all the way to the right again and when you get there, just take a beat, just take a moment with the ribs drawn in and the back expanded and the ball of light shining out the back of you. And then, as you come back to the front, you're just going to frame the leg with your hands and fold.
Speaker 1:With or without the use of props, I will tell you that this pose is one of the longer holds in your practice. Yes, of course. So what I would say is let's bring it in really close like this. And then long spine. Turn to me. Okay, elbows. Good, how's this? Some stretch already, right? Yeah, you don't really need much more. If you feel like it kind of ripens a little bit you could bring your head like that.
Speaker 1:Trillions of little universes within you and, just like any living thing, any universe, cells are perpetually dying and being replaced, and dying and being replaced. Cells are learning. Your body has a multitude of little nurseries for different kinds of cells where they learn to be what they will become. This happens in your intestines, this happens in your immune system and your thalamus. And, of course, there isn't just one kind of cell. Not at all. We have about 200 types of cells in our body. We have blood cells which bring oxygen to our tissues, white blood cells. Of course, those are primarily associated with our immune system. We have intestinal cells. We have skin cells which are designed to protect you 24 seven and keep your water in you, which is quite important, not designed, evolved. You have sex cells, which are life itself. You have sex cells which are designed to protect you.
Speaker 1:We'll take another minute here. What will you do with this minute? Can you share the pose with a nice casual breath? Contemplate trillions of little universes working in service to you, every moment of every day. Empty, one final breath. Press your hands down to rise up, find vertical or vertical ish. Make sure you're untwisted and maybe for a moment, if it's okay, you'll just close your eyes and just feel that. Feel that soaking in. If you were using props. They need to be to the right. Think about how you'll set them up in a moment for your Parangushna Sina B.
Speaker 1:And then your palms come down in front of your shin again, your heart pokes forward and emerges to the left. As you walk your hands to the left, all the weight of the left Rocking into that left hip. You will find it easier to rock into your left hip if your left knee points straight out to the left rather than pointing to the left corner. So slide your thigh back to the left, please, yeah, good. And then swing your right leg around and cross your right ankle in front of your left thigh. Make sure that the right toes and the left knee are pointed to the left. No, I'm not negotiating on this. They need to be pointed to the left. Yes, come down to your side with your head resting on your blanket. Your left arm is in front of you, not under you. Maybe your left hand is holding your ankle. Your right arm reaches up to the sky. The palm fades back and then allow the arm to bend and just rest your hand somehow on that blanket. I prefer to be on the back of the hand or fingers and find your ball of light. Allow that ball of light to press your heart to the left and then to the right. As you open your heart, your right arm will probably open to the right as well, but keep it pretty bent. Yeah, keep the elbow bent. And then that ball of light comes back up to the left and then to the back of you to round and tuck, almost like you've created a little fetal position for yourself.
Speaker 1:Good, let's do it a few more times. My friends, it's not just opening and closing right, it's the Sufi grind, it's the ball of light and it's so slow. This is hip, it's hip, it's hip, it's hip, it's hip, a little tender. Oh, on the bottom side. Okay, this is okay though for you. Okay, the next time your ball of light rolls up and out to the right. Your heart is wide open, your right arm opens out to the right and you'll stay with your right ankle crossed in front of your left thigh through the twisted pigeon. What's that? Oh, got it. Yes, we have one critical error. It's the blanket. Yeah, okay, try again. That's gonna feel so much better. Good, and then, why not? Yeah, let me see this if you don't mind. Okay, pretty good, is it okay? Yeah.
Speaker 1:So cells, even though they are a bit of a universe within a cell wall, don't work independently. Cells have a really fascinating strategy for communicating, and when they communicate and they come together, they create systems a reproductive system, a musculoskeletal system, a cardiac system, a pulmonary system, a nervous system, each of these systems composed of specialized cells, amazingly sophisticated. A cardiac cell will continue to pulse outside of the body for a period of time. Some cells just flow through the interstitium, the internal network, and some have to crawl, have to pull themselves through the body. Some cells create life almost out of thin air. Let's take two more breaths in the twisted pigeon and then carefully unwind. Come back to your back, center your hips, gather your right knee in your right knee in this time and when you're ready, with your left foot flat on the mat, find your strap and loop it over the foot where the ball meets the arch. It's right there. Yes, the ball meets the arch with the left foot flat. Still, we'll just take a few breaths here. Go ahead and poke your foot all the way up to the sky. Find a way to be really effortless here, like maybe you just grip lightly and allow the arms to just hang and, if fully extending your knee is not possible for you, it's absolutely okay. What I would suggest is that you bring your heel forward and then straighten your leg, rather than trying to have your leg straight up. So for now, the left foot is flat. Both ends of the strap, please, in your right hand. Loop that strap around the right wrist in hand and then pull your fingers into the loop with your foot so you have a locking loop, and then bring your right leg to the right as you roll onto your right side. We're going to do it a little differently this time, so bring your leg all the way down to the floor, or possibly a bolster, as you roll onto your right side, and probably your left knee will be turned a little bit to the right as well. Yes, and if there's a person there, then you just have to shift a little bit away, and if there's a wall there, it's the same. You'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:Reach the left arm up overhead, bend your elbow, allow the back of the hand or knuckles to rest on the floor and then find your ball of light and noodle around. Start with the forward, lifting the heart as you open your chest. Allow that ball of light to roll to the left just about as far as you can, and then ball of light reverses course, comes back to the right. You will roll onto your side and tuck your ribs into your body. Arm is going to stay mostly overhead, elbow bent throughout as you roll that ball of light around your rib cage. Yeah, are you okay participating in the Kriya? So we'll start here and then we roll and close. No, no, no, you stay where you are dear, you stay. I'm going to have you roll onto your side, pull your ribs into your round like a fetal position and then allow your ribs to lift and emerge. Open up, now, open up. Oh, yes, I'm going to do it again, but I'm going to adjust this. Lift your head, please Do it again. Mm-hmm. Yep, you can keep your head on that blanket, just rolling it around. That's why I provided the blanket for you.
Speaker 1:Your leg is on the floor or on a prop, your right leg on a floor or on a prop. When you breathe in service of each kind of cell, so often in a movement practice, we think about the cells of the musculoskeletal system, quite important cells that are designed to support or resist or contract. Let's do two more rolling that ball of light around your rib cage and the next time you're open You'll stay and your right leg may be on the floor and as you stay here, you might be like it's not going to be able to stay on the floor. I want to need to put something under it. Okay, so you decide what's needed. Let's try that and let's do another thing. Let's do a little external rotation. So start here. Yes, there it is.
Speaker 1:Now, once you've established the position of your right leg, you may like to extend your left leg as well. If you have someone right next to you and you're like worried about your foot touching them, stop worrying, it's totally fine. Maybe you can use their shoulder for your foot. That'd be nice, right? That'd be a great neighbor. I want to take this, if you don't mind. We're going to start here and then we're going to externally rotate and then let's see what happens. Different. Yes, is it okay? Okay, can I have this? Yes, come up, turn out, come down. Are you okay? We turn out.
Speaker 1:This Cells, specialized cells, create systems. Systems create you. Systems in service of you, each chugging along independently and yet in communication with every other system. None of these systems can exist without what's outside of you Oxygen, carbon dioxide, minerals, protein, fat, carbs oh carbs, yes carbs. Any of these systems require the presence of other systems, for example your nervous system. It simply cannot survive in a healthy state without other nervous systems around.
Speaker 1:So have you changed your mind about letting your neighbor rest their heel on your shoulder? Just kidding, spearhead. Just one more breath and so you'll bend the right knee, release the foot from the strap and roll onto your right side. Curl up there for a full and complete rest, and so you'll bend the right knee, and so you'll bend the right knee, roll into your hands and rise up to your seat Once again, finding Sukhasana crisscross applesauce left ankle in front. Feel free to sit on the blanket if sitting tall is a little challenging.
Speaker 1:Take a moment and stillness. A nice, stable but easeful position to breathe, perhaps in appreciation for this incredibly elegant, sophisticated self. Once again, the palms need to be touching the floor or the block. Allow the ball of light to press your ribs forward and roll it to the right and to the back and then stop, then reverse course, go back to the right and forward. We're not going to make a full circle, we're just going to do a half circle. We'll go forward, rolling to the right and back. We're just going to do two more. Take your time, keep it soft. It's going to get a little bit more intense in a moment. Keep it soft right now.
Speaker 1:The next time your heart is poked forward, you're going to come up to vertical. Send your left leg out to the left, full of that right foot might be to the inner thigh, it might be a few inches apart. You'll know more in a moment. Reach your right arm up, bend your elbow and just let your fingers just rest or your palm rest on the top of your head. We're not pushing on the head, it's just resting. Poke your ribs forward and out to the right. Then come back again to that rounded position, poking your ribs back Forward, right, uh-huh. Then forward to the left and press back. Crunch those left ribs into you, forward, rolling to the right, forward all the way to the left armpit and then, even behind the left shoulder, crunch those ribs into you. Do two more. You may be finding that you're starting to drift to the left, so your left forearm is maybe resting towards your left thigh and that would be okay. That's kind of where I end up to. Okay, nope, you got it. Sweetie, you're doing great, you're doing awesome.
Speaker 1:Yes, the next time you find yourself in that open position, your elbow is pointed to where the wall meets the ceiling, on the side of the room, your side bent Go ahead and allow yourself to just drop into that side bend. Maybe your left forearm rests on a block, maybe it rests on your thigh. Then bring the right hand down. You could rest it on your thigh. You could rest the back of your hand on your lumbar spine.
Speaker 1:Turn your face, excuse me, first lift your chin and then turn your face to the left. Chin drops into the left armpit Arm is resting. Now, sweetheart, yeah, coming down. Good, you got it. You're doing awesome like this. Turn your face down, up and down, yeah, good.
Speaker 1:And if there's something you need from your collection of props to be more comfortable here in your side bend your half butterfly side bend then do it, grab it, get what you need this way. Okay, now let your shoulders drop to the left. Okay, yeah, let it go. Let it go all the way down, all of these systems working perpetually your whole lifetime in service. Something you have is because of this body. You have nothing that didn't come from your relationship with this body. Lift your chin and then turn your face and drop so much better right For the last minute, in this half butterfly side bend.
Speaker 1:Is it possible for you to be any softer? How could you express gratitude in this moment to this body? How would that change your pose? Or would it be exactly the same if your intention shifted to gratitude, appreciation, final breath in and then to exhale. Don't pop up. Instead, just walk yourself around in front. You're just going to fold down the middle. Any amount You've got props. If you need to put your elbows or your forehead on a prop, fold down the middle Just for a few breaths.
Speaker 1:This is just a resting position. We won't be here very long. A bow, an earnest bow, a heartfelt bow in gratitude. Press into the hands, rise up, cross the ankles again, this time right in front. Take a moment in stillness. Feel the echoes of that little sequence. That was intense, right. So the echoes of that in you. Sometimes we find that the echoes are not great, and sometimes it's fabulous. We're practically purring. Either way, this is the experience that has been cultivated in the self. Pay attention to it. Bring the palms in front of you on the block or the floor. Right ankle is in front of left. This time your ribs poke forward and they go to the left and they come around to the back and you stop and you reverse course. You go back to the left and forward and just noodle around. You've got two more of those noodling around on the left side. Keep it gentle, because you know now it's going to get a little more intense in a moment. Keep it gentle Next time your heart is forward, you'll stay.
Speaker 1:Rise up to vertical, send your right leg out. Remember it's a little wider. I hope you recognize that it's wider. So maybe the left foot is in all the way to the inner thigh, maybe the right leg is even wider. Your left arm reach up, your elbow bends, your hand just rests and maybe you start with that closing position, bringing your left elbow down, your face down toward your right arm and then poking your heart forward into the left, opening once again and find that nice tuck ribs draw into you as you round, good, and then you open up again and it's really your ribs.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's this ball of light which is guiding you. Yeah, it's not I'm opening and closing. Yeah, it's this ball of light and it's soft. It's benevolent. This light, it's trying to force you into anything that has your interested heart. Two more, two more. Try not to let the neck do too much. Okay, yeah, respect. The neck Doesn't always want to be totally in control.
Speaker 1:Next time your open, your heart is open, your side bent to the right, maybe your right forearm needs to come down to something, comes down to the thigh, a bolster, a block. Yeah, let your left arm soften, bring it all the way down somewhere, somewhere where you feel soft. Lift your chin away from your collarbone and then arc your chin down towards your right side shoulder. I'll take your arm out of the way. This way, you can rest your head in your hand. Yeah, that's an option. You want to make a little platform for your right elbow? You could rest your head in your hand.
Speaker 1:Chin is pointed down. Make it gentle, make it soft In gratitude. I think I would like to have this so that we're opening more right. Maybe the hand can come down to here though. Yeah, good, keep it soft and then side bent this way. Good Chin down, very nice. So often, when we're confronted with the extraordinary complexity and sophistication of the body and its systems, there's awe. But having taught these things before, I can tell you that often people feel a little bit guilty, like, oh gosh, maybe I need to be providing more things to this amazing body that's taking care of me all the time. It needs my help, and what I find is that, instead of saying I'm sorry, say thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1:We're taking two more breads, and you won't pop up. You'll just sort of swing forward and come into that bow, that fold. Maybe some props support you there as you bow In earnest thanks and gratitude. You'll press your hands down to rise back up to vertical. Take a moment and just listen to the echoes and swing both legs in front of you. You might like to just drag your bolster back with you as you roll onto your back Head could be resting on a blanket, but let's have the blanket not too thick so that the normal curves of your spine are observed. But you have a nice cushion behind your head and the blanket will be under the head, not the shoulders. Now drag your bolster so that it's going to be sort of under your thighs, but you're actually going to stand on it with your feet, and if the bolster is too close to you when you stand on it, your feet are going to slide off of it, right? So have it a little further away, yeah, a little further away from you, so that your heels can easily drop down to the space between your butt and your bolster. So your toes are almost pointed up a little bit and your heels are pointed down. Bring the soles of the feet together with your heels pointed down, your toes pointed up, and allow the thighs to open up into the butterfly with that little extra bolster support. And if the feet are sliding forward, your bolster might be too close to you. I got you. I got you, this is going to come into you, and then we go here. Oh, that is too close. Now, there we go, and if you need something under your thighs to be here comfortably, by all means grab some blocks. How do you feel about being a little bit closer? A little bit closer, try this. Okay, is that okay? Right? Soles of the feet together, maybe something under the thighs, this breath suffused into each of these loyal cells, perfect.
Speaker 1:Over 95% of all of the species that have ever existed on this planet are now extinct, and somehow, improbably. With lots of twists and turns, lots of false starts, some difficult moments. Certainly you, your body, has evolved to exist. Not just to exist, but really, truly to be the dominant species. It started with a cell, which became more and more specialized Systems, emerged Creatures. Now, somehow, you find yourself right here in this body, this extraordinary body.
Speaker 1:Some of your bodies are very, very comfortable here in this pose, and some of your bodies wish they could get out of this pose. So if you are so supremely comfortable that you could be here for hours, I invite you to stay here for your Shavasana, but if you're not supremely comfortable, it's now time to send your legs out long over that bolster. If you have any other props that you would like to use for your Shavasana, now is the time to gather them. And for your Shavasana. I won't ask you to pay attention to your breath, but maybe instead just contemplate this thrumming universe within you. We're going to go all the way. We're going to do the whole thing. Yeah, we're going to do the whole thing. This is closer to yeah. Good, Is that enough this way Ok?
Speaker 1:Yogis, it's time to deepen the breath, time to restore movement to the body and when you're ready, find your way onto the side of your choice and rest. Rest, roll into your hands, rise to your seat, face the front as you come up, press the palms together in front of your heart, allow the head to bow and thanks Namaste.