And then I want you to take your thumb and your middle finger together into the Akash Mudra.
You can take both.
And then rest your wrists on your knees and sit up tall.
So the Akash Mudra is a symbol of space,
The element of space or ether,
And the representation of the energy of space which you can totally feel in your muscles as you find your way into different yoga shapes with your breath.
Now space isn't only limited to physical space,
It's also mental space,
Right?
And mental space can be super crowded,
Can be super calm.
Pleasurable.
So what I want you to do today is to be really aware of the space physically,
Mentally,
Emotionally,
And if you have a spiritual practice,
Spiritually.
Go ahead and close your eyes,
Go inward,
Start to deepen your breath.
And then absorb some of this wisdom from Pema Chodron.
This one is called When Things Fall Apart.
Things falling apart is a kind of testing.
And also a kind of healing.
We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem.
But the truth is that things don't really get solved.
They come together.
And they fall apart.
Then they come together again.
And fall apart again.
It's just like that.
The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen.
Room for grief.
For relief.
For misery.
And for joy.
Take a deep breath into those ideas.
And then take an audible sigh out of your mouth.
I truly believe that joy is advanced yoga.
Take another big breath in.
And then make it even louder,
Sigh out of the mouth.
Ha ha ha!
Yeah,
One more big one.
Be as weird and as loud as you can be.
Oh,
God!
It's so peaceful and relaxing.
Open your eyes,
Sweep your arms up high,
Find a big inhale.
And then cactus your arms,
Open your fingers wide,
Feel the webs.
And then tilt your elbows up and forward,
Your wrists back and down like you put a heavy weight on your forearm.
And then press the forearms back and down and open up the heart.
Because to make space emotionally takes a lot of love,
Takes a lot of acceptance.
And acceptance,
I really feel,
Is under the umbrella of love.
So squeeze your shoulder blades back and down a little bit more.
Pull your belly in and then lift your heart up and really bare your heart open.
Make some space in the heart so you have more room for love.
And then you'll take your hands behind you,
Fingertips point forward,
Feet in front of you,
You'll lift your hips and then make some space in the front body.
You can let your head roll back.
You can sway from side to side.
You can press into the tips of your fingers,
Into the big toe mound,
Into the small toe mound,
Into the heel,
Inner and outer.
Find one more big breath.
Reach your knees forward,
Your skull backwards,
Get long.
And then really softly,
You're going to sit down.
And then tuck your tail,
Reach your arms forward in the seat.
You can find a reverse crunch down towards the floor.
And then you'll lay down,
Cactus your arms again,
And then send your legs straight up towards the sky.
And then squeeze your legs together.
Take an inhale,
Separate your toes,
Keep your heels together.
So external rotation of the legs.
As you exhale,
Bring the big toe mouths together,
Separate the heels.
Do that a couple more times,
Closing your eyes.
And then imagine your ankles being right over your hips.
And then cast your imagination to where the ball and socket joint of the hip is.
So imagine what's going on down there.
Think mortar and pestle.
You're just rotating this ball of the femoral head around in that acetabulum,
Or the socket of the hip.
Now imagine every little blip of electricity that you feel in your hips is you clearing out space in the hips.
In the chakra philosophies,
The hips are the seed of the emotions of creativity and of our relationship to others.
So feel as if this exercise is removing any creative blocks.
It's removing any blocks from pleasure.
And it's allowing you to make space for whatever emotions you happen to be in,
In your specific set of circumstances being alive.
All right.
Hug your knees into your chest.
Give yourself a squeeze.
Take a big breath into your belly and back.
And then put your feet down on the earth.
Press into them.
Lift your hips and lift your arms.
Take an easy bridge pose.
Inhaling.
And then softly roll down vertebra by vertebra.
Hug your knees into your chest again.
And then send your legs straight up towards the sky.
Cactus your arms,
Separate your legs,
And then take two really slow of the same thing,
Two really slow rounds.
So external rotation as you inhale.
Internal rotation as you exhale,
Feel the inner spiral of the upper thighs and low belly.
Two more of those open up.
Turn in.
Never trust my counts.
One more open up.
And then turn it.
Nice.
Now bring your feet together.
Imagine you had a pin between your knees,
Keeping your knees together.
And then draw a little semicircle separating the feet.
Oh,
Yeah.
And then drop back up to where you came from.
Do that two more times.
Little semicircles like you're drawing parentheses with your toes.
In parenthesis,
This is really.
.
.
So make space for it.
Nice.
After your next one,
You'll bring the soles of your feet together and then separate your knees for a floating Baddha Konasana.
And then as you exhale,
Straighten your legs into a V shape.
Inhale your legs together.
Keep the knees together,
Draw the parentheses.
Separate the knees,
Find a floating butterfly.
Straighten your legs as you exhale.
For bringing the legs back together,
Inhale.
Little parentheses with your feet.
Oh,
Big feelings.
Open the knees.
Straighten legs.
Legs back together.
Last round,
Make little parentheses,
Oh,
Separate the knees.
And then stay there,
Reach forward and grab your ankles.
And then lay your shoulders back down and then press your knees away from your face.
Now close your eyes and then feel your ribs descend to the earth.
Feel your tail reach forward and then try and make space in the pubic area and in the groin lines and hip flexors.
So flood the low trunk with your breath.
And then feel how consciously directed breath creates space.
Breath is the energy of love in the chakra systems.
So it's like the more love you're giving yourself,
The better you're gonna feel.
Big surprise.
Find one more big breath here.
Relax your shoulders to the earth as you exhale.
Nice,
And then open your legs into a V shape,
Supta Upavishta Konasana.
Wrap your right knee on top of your left knee,
And then drop your knees to the left as you reach your right arm to the right.
Take a big breath into your right side.
And then melt into the earth.
Imagine both of your shoulder blades scooping under your armpits so you've got a wide open chest.
One more breath here.
Mmm,
Let the pleasure live,
Second chakra goodness.
Come back to center on an inhale,
Find the V-shape of the legs.
And then cross your left knee on top of your right and let the knees fall to the right.
Gaze to the left.
And then breathe into your side between your hip and your shoulder.
Melts into the floor.
Find your shoulder blades,
Scoop them under your armpits.
Depress the ribs a little bit to the back body.
Tuck the tail just a little bit and find all the new space.
If it feels good,
Let it feel good.
Let that feel good feeling linger.
And then come back to center on an inhale.
Hug the knees into the armpits and then grab the pinky toe edges of the feet for a happy baby.
Close your eyes again if they're not and then sink your sacrum to the earth.
Imagine it turned into like lead or something really heavy.
Same thing with your shoulder heads.
They're now lead.
Ground them.
And then as you inhale,
Imagine your butt bones and your collarbones widening and breathe across the front body from your butt bones to your third eye.
Mm-hmm.
On an inhale,
Straighten your right leg.
Maybe you keep your hand attached.
And then bend it as you exhale.
Left leg again.
Exhale,
Bend it.
Both legs,
Ground sacrum,
Blossoming lotus.
And then bend the knees.
Wrap up the legs,
Squeeze the thighs together tight,
And then start to rock along the spine forward and backwards about three times.
You can even flirt with a little bit of plow.
Mm-hmm.
Hey Plow,
How you doing?
Yeah,
That's all I've learned.
Okay,
One more.
Cross your legs,
Crawl over to all fours.
And then sink your butt to your heels and find a child's pose for a breath and see if you can make mental space.
Can you allow yourself to be still in the middle of a movement practice without itching to go forward?
You can.
All right,
Come forward to all fours.
Arch your back into a cow pose.
And then tuck your tail,
Round your back and move your shoulder blades apart for cat pose.
Do that two more times.
Big inhale,
Focusing on making space.
So watch out for the back of the neck being kinked.
Let the back of the neck be long and count.
And then bring the chin to the chest and then scoop the low belly,
Squeeze the inner thighs,
Make some space in the low trunk.
One more,
Bend the elbows,
Drop the heart really low.
And then straighten the arms,
Dig into the earth with the fingertips and the toenails.
Good,
Now stay in cat pose,
Tuck your toes,
And then just send your hips up and back,
And then point your butt bones up and back as you hinge the waist for down dog.
Now bend one knee.
And then bend the other.
And then try to make little figure eights with your hips.
Or like infinity signs.
So a knee will swing out to the side,
And then when you bend the other one,
It'll swing out to the side.
And then can you find your breath in your low trunk below your belly button again?
Sideways,
Low back.
All righty.
You'll still yourself.
And then find an inhale and lift your right leg to the sky.
Bend your knee,
Stack your hips.
Keep your shoulders even.
Ground your left heel,
Lift your right knee.
Now this is really specific,
So pay attention.
Left thigh bone turns to the left,
Left butt cheek squeezes to the right.
Can you feel both of those at once?
Let's find one more big breath here.
And then bring your right knee to your left upper arm.
If you can touch it,
Give some pressure from the arm to the knee,
As well as the knee to the arm.
And then back to the sky.
Step your right foot next to your right thumb.
Drop your left knee,
Sweep your arms high and circle your wrists.
Soften your shoulders,
Make some space.
And then take your hands to the earth,
Straighten your right leg,
And fold.
Take a halfway lift to begin with.
Fold back down as you exhale.
Alrighty,
You're going to crawl forward.
And then plant your hands on the earth.
Check this out.
I'm gonna bend my left knee and then rotate on the kneecap so my left foot points towards my right butt bone.
Then from here,
I'll take my right tricep to my right inner knee and then reach my left arm up.
Mm-hmm.
It's a little sage pose.
Now if this feels like a ton,
You can lift your butt up a little bit and give more weight to your hand,
Or you could grab a brick if you have one handy and sit on it.
Have a breath or two more here.
If you want to wrap your left arm behind your back and grab your right thigh and open up the shoulder head.
I would.
But you're not me.
So make space for you.
Last breath here.
Whoa.
Okay,
If your arm's wrapped,
Release it outside of your left leg,
And then take your right hand to your right thigh,
Press your hand into your thigh,
And then lean backwards,
Lean your skull away from your right leg.
And then squeeze your butt.
Feel your inner groin lines open.
Whoa.
I call this one Sexy Sage Pose.
You can thank my teacher Kate Dunn for that.
Okay,
And then slowly you're gonna crawl back towards your right foot.
Rotate your left foot back to the back of the mat,
Tuck your left toes and then straighten both of your legs and fold.
It's like a halfway lift,
Isn't it?
Fold back down as you exhale.
Try and press into your hands or your fingertips and then drag your right leg back straight to down dog.
Ripple forward to a plank,
You can flatten your hands.
Lower down to your knees,
Then your chest,
Then your chin.
And then glide forward to a cobra.
Flex your belly,
Send your tail and your toes backwards as you backbend.
Child's pose as you exhale.
Take one big breath here.
Then make some mental space,
Release your thoughts.
Inhale,
Come forward to all fours.
Arch the back,
Find a cow.
Tuck your toes around the back and then send your butt up and back for down dog.
Left leg lifts begin now.
Bend the knee and stack the hips.
Now watch out for your shoulders,
Keep them even.
Drive the right heel down as the left knee goes up.
And then think about spinning your right thigh bone to the right and squeezing your right butt to the left at the same time.
Find one more big breath here.
Flood the low trunk with breath.
Left knee to the right upper arm,
Give pressure,
Arm to knee,
Knee to arm,
And then back to the sky,
Three-legged dog.
Step your left foot next to your left thumb,
Drop your right knee,
Sweep your arms high but keep your shoulders low and circle your wrists.
Now dip your hips down and forward as you lift your belly up and back,
Uddiyana Bandha.
Find one more big breath,
Belly up and back,
Heart up and forward.
And then hands to the earth,
Straighten your left leg,
Fold and flex the left foot.
Take a halfway lift,
Carve out some space at the low belly.
Fold back down as you exhale.
Crawl forward,
Framing your left foot with your hands,
And then bend your right knee.
You're balancing on the right patella.
Rotate your right foot towards your left butt bone,
And then take your left tricep to your left inner knee as your right arm goes high.
Again,
If it feels too much for your hips,
You can lift your butt,
You can sit on a brick,
Or you can take both hands down and just play with what it feels like to sit your butt close to your heel.
If you want to wrap the right arm behind the back and grab the left thigh,
You're more than welcome.
Now make some space,
Flood the low trunk with breath.
And then if you've got this little shoulder opening.
Flood the right shoulder head with breath.
One more big one here,
Squeeze your butt,
Feel your inner groin lines open,
Lift up through the pubic bone,
Drop the tail.
And then you're going to release your right hand outside of your right leg.
Take your left hand to the middle of the left thigh and then straighten your left arm and lean towards the right.
Maybe you drop your right ear to your right shoulder.
And then breathe.
Make some space.
Get long through the low trunk.
Get lifted through there.
One more big breath.
Lean back.
Mm-hmm,
And then glide your way forward towards your left foot.
Give some weight to your hands and your left foot so you can rotate on your right knee.
Tuck your right toes and straighten both of your legs folding over the left one.
Take a halfway lift,
Big inhale.
Fold back down as you exhale.
Tense your fingers,
Dig the arms into the earth,
Straight elbows,
And then scoop the belly.
Maybe you keep the left leg straight as you step back to down dog,
Or get to down dog a different way.
It's all good.
Make space for whatever you need.
Plank pose,
Big inhale.
Good,
You can take your knees down and take a Chaturanga or you can go for one normally,
Up Dog or Cobra.
And then Child's Pose as you exhale.
Take a big breath in here.
And then taking an audible sigh out of the mouth.
Come forward to all fours.
Find a downward facing dog.
Let's take it again but a little faster.
Right leg high.
Bend the knee,
Stack the hip.
Drop the left heel,
Lift the right knee.
Bring your right knee to your left upper arm.
Three-legged dog.
Right foot,
Right thumb,
Left knee down.
Anjaneyasana,
Big inhale.
Ardha Hanuman as you exhale,
Straighten your right leg full.
Crawl forward right away.
Take your hands on the inside of the right leg.
Rotate the left foot and then reach the left arm up.
And then this time,
You can take a half bind,
Left arm behind the back.
Or you could scoop your belly,
Wrap your right arm in front of your right shin,
And then catch your hands outside your right hip as you turn your chest up towards the sky.
Mm-hmm,
One more breath here.
Release your mind if you got it.
Find your sexy sage pose.
Right hand,
Right thigh,
Lean to the left.
Mm-hmm,
And glide back towards the front.
Give some weight to your hands,
Your right foot,
So it's easier to lift up your left leg.
Pyramid as you exhale.
Halfway lift,
Big inhale.
Good,
Fold back down,
Turn your left heel to the right,
And then maybe scoot your right foot one step to the left.
Take your right hand to your right ankle,
Sweep your left arm back.
Trikonasana,
Triangle pose.
Find your breath.
Shorten your left side,
Lengthen your right side.
Dig the right foot down and forward as the right butt bone pulls up and back.
And then imagine I told you to stand up,
But only do the first couple notches.
So like I said,
Stand up with your whole torso,
But just go a little bit and then feel all the length that creates in your right side.
One more breath here.
All right,
Bend into the right knee.
Take the left hand down to the ear.
Turn your left toes all the way to the right,
And then turn your right toes to the right as well.
And then sweep your right arm behind your back as you dip your hips low.
Okay.
One more big breath here.
Okay,
Maybe,
Just maybe,
Dig in your left hand and your left foot,
And then step your right foot behind your left,
Find a rock star,
A big old back bend.
And then flip over,
Maybe it's a three-legged vinyasa.
Upward facing.
Downward facing,
That escalated quickly.
Left leg lifts right away.
Bend the knee,
Stack the hips.
Drop the right heel,
Lift the left knee.
Left knee,
Right upper arm.
Give it some press.
Back to the sky.
Anjaneyasana,
Left foot,
Left thumb,
Right knee down,
Sweep on up.
Or to Hanuman,
Left leg straightens,
You'll fold.
Crawl forward right away.
Take your hands on the inside of your right foot.
Give them some weight.
Left foot,
Sorry.
Turn your right foot towards your left butt and then open up your arms.
Maybe find a half bind with the right arm.
Or a full bind scooping the belly so you can make space to catch the hands behind the left hip.
Mmhmm.
One more big breath here.
Open the right collarbone.
And then release,
Lean to the back of the mat.
Left hand,
Left thigh.
Drop your head,
Big inhale.
Glide back to the front.
Weight to the hands and the left foot.
Turn the right toe to the back straighten both legs pyramid.
Halfway lift,
Make some space in the low belly.
Seal your right heel down to the left,
And then heel toe your left foot to the right,
So you're in line,
Heel to arch.
Take your left hand to your ankle or your shin,
And then sweep your right arm up and back.
Shri Ganasana.
Okay,
Now let your adapter cook for a little bit.
Again,
You want to find the traction of the left leg.
So left foot down and forward,
Left butt up and back at the same time.
Right side shortens,
Left side lengthens,
Like you're gonna stand up a little bit.
Wrists reach apart.
Mm-hmm.
Find one more big breath here.
So nice friends,
Bend into your left knee,
Take your right hand down to the ground.
Turn all your toes to the left so you're in a horizon lunge and then sweep your left arm behind you open your chest as you squeeze your right butt higher into your left.
Good,
Ground your right hand and your right foot.
Pick up your left foot and step it behind you for rockstar shape.
Find your breath,
Open your chest.
And then flip over,
Maybe it's a three-legged vinyasa.
Up dog to child's pose as you exhale.
And then from your child's pose,
Sit up on your heels.
Rest your hands on your lap,
Close your eyes,
And open your heart wide.
Take the slowest breath you've taken this whole entire practice.
I'm in an audible sigh as you exhale.
Squeeze your legs together,
Tense your fingers behind your feet,
And then lift your hips,
Lift your heart for a modified camel,
Big inhale.
As you exhale,
Squeeze your butt and pull your belly towards your spine.
Keep those actions and then try and squeeze your shoulder blades and lift the space between the shoulder blades to the sky.
And then on an exhale,
Go ahead and sit down.
You're gonna side saddle your hips to the left.
Send your legs forward.
And then center yourself on the mat.
Reach your arms up high towards the sky,
Bend your knees a little bit.
And then reach your arms forward,
Tuck your tail,
Tuck your chin and slowly start to roll down.
When your shoulder blades hit.
Lift back up,
Squeeze the pubic bone to the sternum,
Reach your arms all the way up and overhead.
Do that two more times.
Tuck the tail round down,
Trying to lengthen the low back by compressing the belly.
And then lift back up,
Big inhale.
Uno mas.
Lift all the way up.
And then softly like you're floating down.
You're dropping through water,
Come all the way to your back.
And then hug your knees into your chest,
Give yourself a squeeze.
Send your legs back up high towards the sky like we did at the beginning.
Cactus your arms to open your heart and then turn the toes out slow.
Turn them in slow.
Two more times,
Slow external rotation.
Work from the very top of the leg and the bottom of the belly.
One more here.
Now you're going to do this as fast as you can,
Like you're turning on a faucet.
It's silly.
It's weird.
Keep your ankles over your hips.
Keep rotating and really try and jiggle your legs,
Your upper legs.
I don't want to see really tight,
Strong legs.
Not that I can see anything on the camera,
But I want you to jiggle.
I want you to feel freedom and space to let yourself not be some crazy hard body.
Hard body all the time would be so uncomfortable.
Got to stay loose,
Y'all.
OK,
Go faster.
Oh man,
Sometimes I get really confused.
I'm like,
What are my legs even doing?
Check it out,
Check it out for five.
Seven,
86,
54.
No expectations in yoga.
We're getting rid of those.
And hug your knees into your chest.
Send your left leg out long,
Pull your right knee to the left.
Take a big breath into your side.
Sayonara.
Softly switch sides,
Right leg long,
Left knee to the chest.
Send the left knee to the right.
Take a big breath into your left side.
Sigh and melt Softly come back towards center.
Hug your knees into your chest.
Pick up your skull and then see if you can physically touch your eye sockets to your kneecaps.
Hang out here for about four breaths and see this as a symbolic gesture of grounding your vision and our collective vision today.
Was to create more space physically,
Mentally,
Emotionally.
So when we get really wrapped up in a perceived problem in one of those areas,
We can remember that we have this profound ability to create space if we just remember that we can and take the time to do it and find our breath because the breath is the basis of our reality.
And one more big breath grounding this vision.
And then let it all go.
My name is Sebastian.
Tuck your tail,
Scoop your shoulder blades into your armpit and then get real,
Real,
Real soft and allow yourself some mental space for a couple of minutes.
Start to step away from the temporary egoic things.
So the things that are constantly crowding your mind's eye so that doesn't feel spacious,
Like your situations,
Like the thoughts about whatever come into your mind constantly.
Like your thoughts about your body.
Know that these thoughts are temporary.
Know that your body is temporary.
But the part that's observing both of those things.
Is very mysterious.
In a seemingly permanent way.
So step away from the temporary egoic you.
And then move towards the permanent,
Loving,
Spacious,
Benevolent,
Mysterious,
Cosmic you.
And grant yourself some peace.
Shabbat shalom.
If you have the time,
Please,
Please,
Please give yourself a little more space and stay in Shavasana.
And if you don't.
.
.
That's cool too.
Really sweetly and really lovingly start to move all of the spaces that your physical body takes up.
Writhe around on the ground a little bit.
And then stretch out,
Arms overhead,
Legs long.
Rolled to one side or the other.
And then help yourself up into a seat.
Take your hands in the Akash Mudra again,
Thumbs to the middle fingers,
Rest the wrists on the knees,
And then sit up as tall as you can with a proud heart.
Now to close this sacred practice of self-spaciousness,
Self-discovery.
We're going to take the sound of OM.
And I know OM is loaded for a lot of people.
So see if you can just use it as an exercise to create space.
I hear a lot of times like,
Oh,
I don't sound good.
I can't hit the note.
I think it's weird and religious.
That's fine.
It's okay to think any of those ways,
But can you allow yourself to just make some sound without judgment,
Without expectation,
And just use it as an exercise of self-expression?
Here we go,
Deep breath in from the heart.
Hello?
Put your hands in prayer right at your heart.
Lift your heart high.
And then bow your head into your heart as a gesture of reverence for the energy of love.
Know that we're not separate.
Now that I love you.
Namaste.
