Own & Tone Your Morning

Start your day with intention in Own and Tone Your Morning, a level 1–2 yoga class with Damian Chaparo. This energizing morning flow blends strength, stretching, balance, and simple nervous-system soothing practices to help you feel clearer, calmer, and more grounded throughout the day.

You’ll also explore a mindset of non-judgment and radical acceptance—connecting to the steady “witness” within you that’s already whole. Optional: bring a yoga block.

Transcript

Hello, My friends. Welcome to Aroha. My name is Damian Chaparro. I'd like to offer you a class today called Own and Tone Your Morning. You've probably noticed that your morning energy is different to your evening energy. Through the day, There is an enormous amount of information and challenge and obstacle in our lives. And usually by the end of the day, We're a bit tired. And in the morning, We receive the benefit of the nighttime ritual that our minds and bodies have, Where there's a healing, There is a soothing. And both neurologically and throughout the organs and through our tissues, Into a state of repair at night. So you feel better in the morning because you're benefiting from all that beautiful work that your body does. And it turns out that when we do wellness practices and we create a beautiful ritual in the morning, It serves us throughout our day. So you will sleep better at night when you meditate in the morning. Your mood will be better in the evening if you've done some exercise earlier in your day. And so together today, We're going to work a little bit towards creating a particular tone, An improvement, A shining up of ourselves to set ourselves up for our day. 84% of people reach for their smartphone first thing in the morning. Now, If you were reaching for your smartphone in order to hit your insight timer and do a meditation, Of course, No worries. But a lot of us will use our smartphones for things that are a little bit mindless and perhaps really don't serve our highest good. So I invite you to begin to notice your morning practice, Begin to notice what it is that you typically do with those morning hours. And potentially, If something that we go through today lands, Then you can bring these practices into your everyday. So we're going to look through two lenses. One of the lenses looks at the physicality of the body and toning. So we know our bodies love to move. So we're going to strengthen and we're going to stretch and we're going to balance our bodies using asana. And we also can tone our nervous system through a few of the practices that we'll do today And then we can tone our spiritual body. So. Your spirit. You know, You can just think of this as your essential self. This is a part of you that you can verify exists in meditation. It is. . . The witnessing consciousness that you are. At least, You know, And potentially more, But at least you can touch and you can feel, You can connect with that essential. Of you. That aspect of you never needs improving. It can't be damaged. It's been with you since the beginning, And it'll be with you through the end. And. So it doesn't actually need toning. It doesn't need improving. It doesn't need evolving. It doesn't need to be repaired. And it needs to learn nothing. It's already perfect. You're actually already perfect. And I know that without having met you because we share that spirit, That essential self within us. And yet, What can happen through our lives is that our cultured self, The aspect of ourselves that has the human experience, Can learn things. We have all sorts of experiences. Sometimes they're enjoyable and sometimes they're really difficult. And that learning, Whether it be things your parents told you you should or shouldn't do, Or what the role models around you showed you was right or wrong, All of that learning. Can sometimes show up as obstacle. It can show up as challenge. So it's said that peace exists. In any moment where there is no judgment. Peace exists when there is no judgment. So what does it feel like for you and I to be in a moment? When we are not needing to get a little bit more of this or a little bit more of that. We don't need anyone else to change in our lives. We accept radically that the world is the way the world is for now. And. . . We're willing to let it be. We're just willing to let what is be as it is. What do those moments feel like? And so we invite ourselves into those sorts of non-judgmental, Radically content moments within our yoga practice. The gateway is any breath that we pay attention to. Or just that feeling of the space between our toes. So let's have a little bit of fun. This is a level one, Two yoga class. So beginner intermediate. There'll certainly be some challenges in there for us. It's a morning flow, So it's going to have a bit of strength and hopefully will warm you up nicely. The only thing you might need is a block for your practice. And you may not even need a block if you're somebody who's quite flexible, You can probably go without it. And you could use something like a thick book. For this particular practice, You could probably even use like a big tin of beans, Anything that'll give you a bit of height off the floor. That you can put your hand onto. So that's it for now. Grab a mat and hopefully a little space where you can have a bit of privacy. And let's get started. All right, My friends, So go ahead and find your way down onto your back. Once you arrive there, Allow your eyes to close. And just begin by taking a deeper breath in. And as you do, Gather up any actions, Any energy, Any doing. And as you breathe out, Just let that go. Arrive here and now. Let's do that again, Inhaling. Gathering And then using your exhale to relax the body and release any of that morning energy that's already developed down into the earth. We're going to take a few breaths together. In a pattern known as a physiological sigh. So it's made of two inhales through the nose and one exhale through the mouth. So we breathe in through the nose, Fill the lungs. And then take a second inhale through the nose where you sip in a little more air. And then exhale through the mouth. So we sigh it out. Let's do a few of those together. So inhale. Inhale further. Out through the mouth. Continuing inhale Inhale further. And letting it all go. And give you space for about three more on your own. Using that exhale as a space to let go to surrender Deeper breath in, Fuller breath in. And more complete and empty breaths out. Just take one more, Letting this breath be the one that settles you most. Good, And then right where you are, Just walk your feet in towards the hips. And bring your arms down by your sides, And with your next inhale, Easing the hips up. And with your exhale allowing the hips to lower back down. So pushing down to the feet, Curling the tail up, Hips rise. And then use an exhale to allow it all to lower. Adding in the arms with your inhale, The hips lift up, The arms reach back. And then with your exhale the arms return to your sides and the hips lower. Continuing, Inhale, Reach back, Hips rise. And exhale everything back to the ground. Once more, Inhale. Now when you reach the top of this one, Hold. Walk your big toes together, So hips are lifted. And you're gonna shift your weight onto your left foot and cross your right ankle on top of your left knee. So kind of figure four in your legs. You'll flex your right foot slightly and let your right knee roll out and almost down. You can imagine that there's like a little weight on the knee, Just drawing that femur and that knee gently down. So the hips press up and the leg drops down. Take a breath in, Lift a little higher, And then with your breath out, Lower everything down to the mat. Now inhaling, Reach through the figure four and gently draw that left knee towards your left shoulder. And then just three breaths here. A gentle hip opening stretch to start with. Smooth, Even long breaths. So our breath is one of the ways that we can tone our nervous system. Through the vagus nerve, Our 10th cranial nerve. There are many things that we can do that affect not only our heart rate variability, Our breath patterns, And of course our mood. But they affect our sleep and they allow us basically to have more resilience during our day. And breath is one of them. So slow, Easy, Full, Deep breath. And just give that knee one last squeeze. And then release that leg down to the ground. Take an easy twist. So the legs go off to the left. They're in the same pattern they were, So the ankle is still crossed. And you just take the legs over to the left, Little easy spinal twist. And if it feels good, You can turn your head towards the right. Take a breath here and have no judgments. Allow peace to be who you are. Top of your next inhale, Draw the legs back to center, Uncross the legs and cross the other side. So we'll begin by lifting our hips up. Arms reach back. From here, Walk the toes together, Lift the left leg, And cross your left ankle over your right knee. And just keeping the hips lifting here, Opening that hip up. Drawing your left femur downwards externally rotating Feeling that opening through the head. Take one more breath in, Lift up. And then slowly release down. Reaching through, Finding figure four. Starting to draw that right knee towards the right shoulder. You can clasp your hands behind the thigh. That's probably the most comfortable way to do this pose. Or if you're feeling a bit more bendy today, You can clasp the front of the shin. Shoulders dropping back towards the ground. Bringing some attention into our breath and toning here by pulling the knee towards the shoulder allowing ourselves to breathe deeply down into that left hip and lengthen out some of those internal rotators Give it one more squeeze. And then go ahead and release the foot to the ground, Keeping the legs in this pattern, Taking the legs off to the right, Spinal twist. You can allow your head to turn gently to the left. Allow your breath to soothe any excess effort out of the body. See if in these moments of calm you can even allow the heart to relax Up with your next inhale, Draw the legs back to center. Little rock and roll to come up. Rocking along the sides of the spine. You can take as many as feel good to you today. Eventually making our way up to a seated position. We're gonna roll over the ankles, Come on to all fours, Coming into a tabletop position. From here, Mobilizing the spine, Dropping the belly down, Rolling the eyes up. And then pushing the floor away, Rounding the back. So with the inhale, This is cow pose, The belly drops, The chest draws forward. And with the breath out, The spine rounds, The head drops. We slide the scapula around to the front. And just a couple more of those. Notice where there's stiffness. Bring your attention, Bring your breath into the areas that need it. And then coming to neutral in your spine, Walking the knees closer together, Taking your right leg and extending it back. Taking your left arm and reaching it forwards. Get long from heel to fingertips, Press the floor away. Draw the navel in, Flex the right foot like you're stomping a footprint into the wall behind you. Take one more breath in and get even longer. Maybe lift a little higher. And then with your breath out, Draw in, Curl in, Knee to chest. Elbow to hips and then inhale, Extend it back out exhale draw in see if you can almost touch your knee to your chest Touch your elbow to your hips. And then extend all the way out. So just full range of motion is what you're looking for. Extension and contraction. Now take one more extension here. As you reach out, Bring your left hand to your left hip and bend your right knee. Now start to magnetize your left hand towards your right ankle. Now, Maybe it doesn't quite get there, Maybe it does. If you can find your ankle, Grab hold of the top of the foot. And then start to string your bow. Let your left shoulder roll back. Press down through the right arm and start to kick into that left arm and kick your toes skyward. Just the first movement of the day here, So take it easy. But give it a little exploration. And then when you've had enough release, Extend out again, Breath in. And then breath out. Touch down, Take a moment, Shift a little side to side, Maybe roll out a wrist. And then come back onto all fours. Take your left leg back, Take your right arm forwards. Find this full extension of the pose again. It is a balance pose, So you'll feel your body making all those little movements to keep you centered. And you should know that when you're doing this work and you feel your body shake, This is a toning of the nervous system. You're literally educating your nervous system and your proprioception and allowing your body to become more balanced. So we look for the moments of imbalance so that we can develop balance. Take a breath in, Lift a little higher, And then draw it in, Exhale. Knee to chest. Elbow to hip Extend out. And draw in. For moi, See if even here when the body is working quite a bit, If you can allow the mind to be soft. No judgment, A sense of peace and a sense of simply observing the work happening. Now next time you extend out, Right hand to hip, Left knee bends, Start to magnetize the hand towards the ankle. If you find connection, Then go ahead and start to string your bow. So the right shoulder rolls back. The leg kicks. We press down into the floor. And just explore. When you've had enough release, Take an extension. And then go ahead and release. Very nice. Sinking the hips back into child's pose. Just take a moment here to settle and come home to your breath. And then rippling forwards, Lift up through the heart, Lift the hips forwards, Come into a modified plank position, Knees on the ground. Create a straight line from knees to head. Take a breath in, Tone the belly, Corset the waist. Exhale, Lower down to the mat. And then low cobra, Just draw your heart forward. It's a little curl up of the chest. And exhale, Release down. Two more of those. Just drawing up, Pulling your heart forward. Exhale down. So the elbows here are reaching back towards the heels so the shoulders drop away from the ears and the chest rises. Good, Now toning through the belly, Pushing up, Pressing back, Downward facing dog. Take a breath in here. Settling the gaze, Little bend in the knees is often nice. Just allowing the heels to drop and the head to hang. Walking your feet forwards, Coming into a forward fold. You can clasp by their elbow, Let the head dingle. Maybe a little bend in the knees or cycling or pedaling through the legs a little. Then take a nice exhale, Bend the knees deeply. And with your inhale, Curl gently one vertebrae at a time up through the spine. Coming all the way up to stands, Take your arms out in front of you. And internally rotate the palms so that the thumbs face down. Then take your right hand and slide it up and over your left. So the palms come to touch. And then take your arms up. Put a little bend in your knees. Take your tailbone down towards the floor. And reach the arms skywards. From there, It gently bends towards the right. Hips go left. Left leg grounding down as the left side of the body lengthens. And see if you can slide your left fingertips a little further forward and extend just that little bit more. Take a breath into your left lung. With your exhale, Come back up to center. And then take your side bend to the left. Hips go to the right. Grounding down through that right foot, Lengthening through the right side, Maybe sliding those right fingertips just a little further over. Taking a breath into the right lung. And then exhaling your way up bring the arms forwards slide the palms across each other and bring the hands to your heart And just take a moment to feel. And your good heart. Your beautiful breath. Notice the the perfection that's always just underneath. That inevitably storms come. And they always pass. Blinking the eyes open, Releasing the arms down. Inhale, Sweep the arms up. Palm's touch. Exhale, Fold forward. Little bend in the knees here. Inhale, Half lift. Draw your heart forwards. Exhale, Touch your hands down and step both feet back. Take a breath in here in plank pose. Firm the legs. Lengthen the tailbone down towards the heels. Top of your next inhale, Drop your knees. Exhale, Lower. Inhale Cobra. Exhale, Press back, Downward facing dog. Settling here heels heavy Your dristy or your gaze settles right between the big toes. And allow that steady gaze to relax and steady the breath and steady the mind. Stepping your big toes together to touch. Take a breath in and lift your right leg up. A breath out and draw knee towards nose. Once again, Taking the right leg up. Knee towards nose. Once more. And this time, Knee towards nose and step your foot through between your hands. You might need to help that foot forwards or adjust, But eventually you'll drop the back knee, Right foot between the hands, Low lunge. Just allow the hips to settle for a moment. And then shifting back into half pyramid, You're gonna start to straighten your right leg and shift your hips. Back. As though your right sit bone was being drawn back. Your right toes will draw back towards the knee. And just finding the appropriate depth for you. The knee can be more or less bent. If you need more, You anteriorly tilt your pelvis more. In other words, Draw your sit bones back more and pour your heart towards your foot more. And then come forwards again. Into our low lunge and this time make our way up. Now here, Sometimes we can lunge quite deep and go into a bit of flexion in the spine. I want you to come out of your lunge just a little bit until your left femur is vertical. And then notice that you have a little more freedom in the pelvic area. So you can tilt forward or kind of pour your bowl forwards and you can tilt back. So do that once or twice and just feel the way the pelvis moves. And tilt, Ultimately, The pelvis back. So tailbone down, Front hip points lift, And the core firms a little bit. And what you'll probably notice is that your left hip flexors are lengthening in this position. So you want that sensation of length through your left front hip. And then just gently lean forwards and see how that feels without losing the tone. And then bring your palms forwards and inhale, Reach forwards. And exhale, Draw in, Belly in, Pelvis tilts back. Inhale reach exhale round Once more. Good. Inhale, Reach. Take the arms up. And then release hands to heart and hands to floor. Good, Stepping that left foot back. Taking a moment in high plank. We're toning the core quite a bit today because of our peak pose and doing a fair amount of hip opening to prepare us for what's coming. So here, Firm the belly, Lift the navel, Lengthen the tailbone towards the heels and push the floor away. Strong pose. Take a breath in. Option to drop the knees. Exhale as you lower. Inhale, Arch up. And exhale, Press back. Three breaths here, Steadying the gaze between the feet. And stepping the big toes to touch. Inhaling the left leg out. Exhale knee to nose. Inhale, Take it up. Exhale, Focus on that curl and the lift of the core. One more time, That same movement as we shift forwards, We step forwards. Take a moment settle the legs maybe help that left foot up and then drop the back knee, Low lunge. And. . . Allowing the hips to settle. Chest drawing slightly forwards, Gaze slightly forwards. Forehead soft, The breath deep. Now as we shift back, You can just kind of notice sometimes if you don't have enough space between your feet, It feels like you can sit on your back heel. If that's the case, Take your front foot forwards. Create more space. But half pyramid here, So creating length in the back of the leg. You might notice that one side is slightly tighter or different feeling than the other. Your left sit bone is drawing back here. Your left toes are flexing, Drawing back towards the knee. And then shift forwards into your lunge. Make your way up. Crescent. So again here, We sometimes lunge deep. You're going to pull yourself back. So come out of the lunge a little bit. Free up the pelvic bowl. Give that a couple of tilts. And then tilt back, So posterior tilt of the pelvis, And you'll feel your hip flexors lengthen. If the knees are sensitive at all, You can help a little bit by pressing down through the top of the right foot. So using your quadricep to straighten the leg. And then just notice how that feels and lengthen forwards just a little, So lunge in. Which will increase the intensity, Palms face up. Inhale, Reach forwards. Exhale, Curl. Round the spine. Inhale forwards. Exhale, Curl. Inhale. And exhale Inhale forwards, Reach the arms up. Full crescent pose, Allow yourself to lunge a little. Maybe the gaze rolls up. Inhale, One more reach. Exhale, Hands through heart center and releasing, Touching down, Stepping back. High plane. Full breath in. Low plank releasing down. Inhaling arch. Exhaling back, Downward facing dog. Take a breath in there. Let your exhale once again, Settle all your energies down. Step the big toes together to touch. Inhale, The right leg lift. Knee to nose step it through high lunge This time we're staying high on the legs. You'll walk your way up. And when you're ready, Reach the arms up, Crescent pose. Allow the hips to settle. So here, Just like we did a moment ago on the ground, You're going to ease the tension on the back leg. So bend your left knee and tilt your pelvis back. Draw your navel in towards your spine. Lift the front hip points up and then start to straighten that back leg. So big psoas stretch here, Hip flexor stretch. We'll need some openness here in just a moment. Now bring your hands down to your heart and pivot your back foot flat. So the back foot needs a little bit of attention. You wanna balance all four corners of the back foot. So the outer edge, The inner edge, The heel, And the ball of the foot all feel somewhat balanced. You can take a little step forward and a little step out to the side to give your hips a little bit of space so that you can start to turn your hips towards the front. And so we've got warrior one legs here, Tailbone lengthening down, Navel drawing in, Arms can reach up. And then release that and interlace your fingers behind your back. Clasp the hands and start to straighten the arms. If possible, You press the arms all the way straight and the palms all the way together. And then inhale, Lift the heart. And exhale. Humble warrior, We bow forwards. Now you can begin by moving the torso towards the thigh so your right shoulder may land on that right thigh. We then firm the left hip in so we're still scissoring the legs so that the pelvis squares towards the front of the mat. And then you might just start to drop the head and look back towards your back heel and lift your arms high. Now, Those who are level two, Two, Three, You can drop the torso off the thigh and drop the head and take a few breaths here. Keep lifting the arms up, Steadying the gaze on the arch of the foot. One more deep breath in. And then use your out breath to release, Come all the way up, Warrior one, Reach up, Big breath in, And then exhale, Touch the hands down. Step back. High plane Take a breath in. Breath out to lower. Breath into Archa. And breath out, Downward facing dog. Big toes step together. Inhale the left leg up. Knee to nose, Step it through. Take a moment, When you're ready, Crescent. That same action in the hips, We bend the back knee, We tilt the pelvis back. And then start to straighten that back leg. Just giving the tissues time. To strengthen and lengthen And in the meantime, Just finding somewhere that you can soften, Maybe the jaw. Or the corners of the eyes. Good, Now release the hands down, Pivot your back foot flat. Setting up for warrior one, Find that nice balanced back foot, Strong back leg. You can take a little step if you like to the side and forwards, But just a little one. And then see if that allows your right hip to start to rotate forward so your pelvis is literally shifting and moving to square off with the front of your mat. And then you want the knee to track right out over the ankle. Find just the right amount for you. Inhale, The arms up. Warrior One. Breath in, Full depth of the pose. And then breath out, Release the hands. Interlace the fingers the weird way with the opposite index finger on top. Start to straighten the arms. Lift the gaze. Hips low. Take a big breath in, Chest lift. Exhale, Fold forwards, Humble warrior. So here the arms start to reach up. Our left hip. Moves towards the midline, So we firm it in. And then begin to allow the pose to deepen so the hips stay low. We might let the head drop and the gaze look back towards the arch of the back foot. And then maybe we slide the torso off for a couple of breaths here, Just hanging. Keep reaching the arms up. Firming your left hip in Strong straight right leg. Take one more breath in there and then release to come up, Warrior one. Use your exhale to touch down. Step back. Take a breath in and plank pose. And then with your breath out, I want you to drop both knees down to the mat. And take a moment just to settle. And then we're gonna move onto the side. So left hand down, Left knee down. We're gonna shift our right foot back. And our right arm upwards. So this bottom leg, I want my knee somewhere underneath the hip and my left foot pointing backwards. So I've got a little bit of a tripod going there. And then the arm reaches up. So a little bit like we did before on all fours, We're gonna lift our right leg. Tailbone lengthens towards the heel. Press the hip slightly forwards. And then again, Start to magnetize hand towards foot. So you may not get all the way there, In which case you just kind of hang out with this magnetized feeling. But if you can find the top of the ankle, Grab on. And then we're acting here. As though we were in our secret peak pose today, Pressing the floor away, Pressing the hips forwards, And starting to string our bow again. So kicking into that right leg as though you wanted to straighten it. Right shoulder rolls back and opens. And we explore. Then when you've had enough, Release. And touch down. Come back onto all fours. A steady breath in. And a full breath out. And then just moving yourself onto the other side, Right hand down, Right knee down, Left foot steps back. We reach the left arm up. Find your base here, So knee underneath hip, Hand underneath shoulder. And find some strength in that right arm and some length. In that left leg. When you're ready, Lifting the left leg up. And start to magnetize hand to foot. If you find connection there, Then start to kick. The actions here are tailbone lengthening towards the knee. So the spine will round its back bend. We let that left shoulder roll back. And we push down through that right arm. And then we kick. And string our bow. When you've had enough release. Left arm. And touch down. Pedal it out a little, Maybe a little cat-cow if that feels good. And curling the toes under, Pressing back downward facing dog. And stepping both feet forwards. Coming into a half lift. Exhale, Fold. And inhale all the way up. Homestead. And hands to heart. Close your eyes. And once again, Feel your good body. Perhaps a little warm. A deeper breath. A richer heart rate. This is one of the ways that we can tonify Again, The vagus nerve, The nervous system. When we push into our physicality, When we stretch, When we invite our body into new places, Challenging places. It responds in a hermetic way by creating more strength, More flexibility, More resilience. And this is what it feels like. Good, Inhale, Sweep the arms up, Look up. Exhale full forwards. Inhale, Half-lift. Stepping both feet back, High plank. Take one rich, Full, Deep breath in. Lower as you like. Inhale, Arch, Maybe an upward facing dog if that feels ready. Exhale back, Downward facing dog. A steady, Full present breath in. In the full present breath out. Step the big toes together. Inhale, The right leg lifts. Exhale, Step it through. Crescent lunge, Inhale your way up. Once again, Bring your hands to your hips and pivot your back foot flat. So as we did before, This time setting up for warrior two, You're gonna heel toe your front foot over a little. So you have heel to arch alignment in your feet. Same balance in the back foot, All four corners, Same strong straight back leg. Now notice here that in this pose, The torso kind of wants to lean forwards. Draw back and look down at your torso and see if you can stack your torso directly over your hips. And then sink all the way in. Bring the arms out. Warrior II. Turn your head forwards, Gaze forwards. Soften the corners of the eyes and relax the tongue down into the mouth. Good, And then straightening the front leg. Setting up for triangle pose, We're going to firm all four sides of the legs and lift up. So kneecaps lifting, Legs micro bending, But straight and strong as we reach forwards and pivot. The right hand can come down to the shin. Or to a block or to the floor. Shifting your right hip back and scooping your right sit bone underneath. You should feel a beautiful lengthening in your right leg. Turning the head up for a last breath or two. And then turning the gaze down. Put a little bend in that front leg and take a little micro step forwards. Moving closer and closer to our peak pose here, We're gonna set our block right out in front of the pinky toe edge of the foot. Moving into Ardhasandrasana, Your left hand comes to your left hip, And then you just start to shift your weight forwards into your standing leg and lift the back leg up. So the actions of this pose are to stack the hips. So lift your left hip up, Turn your pelvis towards the side wall, Turn your chest towards the side wall. Lift your left leg and flex your left foot. Both legs strong and straight. Maybe the left arm reaches up. Maybe if we're feeling brave we turn the gaze towards the side wall. Or towards the top hand. And then when we've had enough, Turning to look down, Hand to hip. Step the foot back into warrior two position. And then inhale our way up. Warrior two legs, We reverse. And then windmill the hands, Touch down, Step back, High plank. Breath in. Breath out to lower. And then just pause here on your belly. We're gonna bring our arms down by our sides, Forehead to mat. Zip the legs together. Firm the legs, Start to press the pubic bone down into the floor and lift the chest. Shalabhasana, The arms are gonna reach back like we're flying through the air. And then if you'd like, You can interlace the fingers behind the back and start to press the palms. Upwards and reach the fist back towards the heels. Give it one more left. Release the hands under the shoulders. Rest the head to one side. Bringing the head back to center. Pressing up and back, Downward facing dog. A couple of breaths here, Steadying the gaze. Equalizing through the body. Stepping the big toes together to touch. Inhale, Lift the left leg. Exhale knee to nose, Step it through. Find your balance. Crescent pose. Come all the way up. And then releasing the hands down, Pivoting the back foot, Stepping your left foot over. So warrior two legs, Heel to arch alignment. Take a moment to find balance in your back foot, A strong, Straight back leg. And then just notice if you're leaning forwards, Draw the torso back so you're sitting on top of your hips. Arms reach out. Look forward. Maybe sink a little lower. You can find the soft gaze. Straightening the front leg, Setting up for Trikonasana, Firming all four sides of both legs, Lifting the kneecaps up. Reaching forwards Pivoting, Hand to shin, Maybe hand to floor. Keeping the legs and the base strong as you draw your left hip back and scoop the left hip underneath. Maybe turning to look to the side wall or looking up. And releasing the left hand down, Making our way up. So take a little step forward with the back foot. Your block now moves to the outer edge of your left foot. And then right hand to hip, Just setting up to come into Ardhasandrasana again. When you're ready, Pivot. So detailing your pose. The hips stack one on top of another. They kind of want to close down, But you're going to lift your right hip up. Lift your right shoulder up and open your torso to the side wall. Then power up your right leg and lift it, Flexing through that right foot like you're standing on the wall behind you and eventually taking the right arm up. Now maybe look towards the side wall. And maybe look up if you're feeling adventurous. And then when you've had enough turning to look down, Hand to hip. One more lift as you step back. Into your warrior two legs. Reversing. Releasing Touching down, Stepping back. Vinyasa. Meeting in downward facing dog. Taking a moment to settle. And then taking a step forward with both feet. Take a breath in, Half lift, Hands to shins. Exhale fold in. Come all the way up. Inhale, Sweep up. And hands to heart. All right, My friends, We've come to a fun point in the class. This is our peak pose. So we've gone into Ardha Chandrasana once, And the peak pose is putting together all the accents we've been working with into a peak pose called Ardha Chandra Chalpasana. So Ardha means half. Chandra means moon, And chapa means bow or arc. Asana means seat or pose. So we're just going to do this from standing, And I want to give you a little bit of time just to play with it. It's a fairly advanced pose that, Yeah, It's fun just to kind of lean into and have a play with. So know that falling or shaking or anything that happens in this is as fun as it was when you were a child. And it's just an exploration, So let's take a little care. Now, This pose is going to take half moon, And it's going to combine this half bow position that we've been playing with. So you can come along for a ride. So from the front of your mat, I want you just to take a little half step back. And you're gonna take your block, We're gonna work with the left leg forward first. So you're gonna take your block and put it right out in front of your left pinky toe. And then just take a little step back with your right leg. And then you can bend in and find connection, Hand to block. You have all three heights of the block if you're working with a block. So depending on how flexible you're feeling in the moment, You can put the block on any side. And then find that connection, And when you're ready, Lift your right leg. So start by creating that Arda Chandrasima shape where you stack the hips, Roll the right shoulder up. And the leg is straight but micro-bent, So you're active in the standing leg, Active in the lifting leg. And then if you're feeling like a bit of an adventure, You bend the right knee, You magnetize hand towards foot, And maybe you find ankle. And then once you find ankle, Those same things we did where we lengthen the tail towards the heel, Press the hips forwards, Roll the shoulder back, And start to kick. Our bow open just have a bit of a play you can challenge yourself by looking to the side wall Maybe looking up. And when you've had enough, You look down, You slowly unstring your bow. And slowly step back. Survived. Ardha Chandra Chapasana. So step forwards. Just take a moment. Settle and breathe. Part of our resilience is being able to recover from adversity. So life has bumps. Life has shaky bits. And Often we are given a chance to surrender and to release when that time is over. And so now is one of those times where you can just fully make use. Of your resting time. It must allow. Your sands to settle. Allow your breath and heartbeat to recover. When you're ready, Open the eyes again, And we'll set up on the other side. So right foot this time, You're gonna just place your block out in front of the right pinky toe side of your right foot, And then just take a little step back with your left leg. So we know where we're heading, And. . . We can set an intention. How is it that we would like to move into this pose and how would we like to be internally, Regardless of what the body does or how it does? Let's choose that sense of peace, Of non-judgment. So bending that front leg, Reaching down towards the block. And when you're ready, Lifting off. Just an exploration, Just a bit of play, Stacking the hips, Stacking the shoulders. And then you choose your adventure, Maybe bending the knee, Magnetizing, Maybe hanging out there. If you find the ankle, Go ahead and kick. Maybe look to the side wall. Maybe look up. I'm not rushing, Just allowing. The exploration to happen in whatever way it does. If you're lucky enough to fall, Just notice how you come back in. And when you're ready, Find your way up. Take a step forward. Shrug the shoulders, A little Buddha smile of acknowledgement as you finish. And then close the eyes again and allow your sands to settle. And this is the path home. Underneath all of our doing, Our striving, Our wants, Our requests. There is a place. And I'll meet you there. In the stillness. Blinking the eyes open, Sweeping the arms off. Brilliant job, Team. Exhale, Fold forward. Inhale to half-lift. Exhale, Touch down, Step back, Take a breath in. And a breath out to lower. Inhale to orange. From here, Knees touch down. Sit back child's purse Just allowing the body and mind to slow. Allowing. The brain to rest in the front of the skull. And then walking your way up. To a seat, Shifting the legs around in front. And we're gonna take a gentle forward fold here. So step your feet about hip distance apart and put just a little micro bend into the knees there, A little more than a micro bend, And then tilt your sit bones back so your torso starts to lift up and over the legs. We're just gonna ease ourself forwards. You can grab onto the ankles or towards the heels. Usually with the knees bent, You can get a little closer to the feet and then just allow yourself to round forwards. And moving with our breath here, So with the inhale, We lengthen our heart up and over the legs. And with the exhale, Round and draw the crown of the head towards the feet. More breaths like that, Inhaling, Lengthen, Ah. And over the legs. And it might feel okay to start to straighten the legs a little more. If you feel anything in the low back, Stick with more bend in the legs. Eventually allow your head to drop, Allow your spine to round. Let the effort fall out of the pose. And ease your way back up to a seated position, Finding the center of your mat and rolling down onto your back. A little back bend to finish here, Locking the legs in. If you feel like you'd like wheel pose, You're welcome to take it. Otherwise, Just an easy bridge pose. So giving it a bit of energy here at the end, Just pressing down through the feet and moving through the legs as though you wanted to straighten them to lift the hip. Lift the sternum. Take a breath in and then use your breath out to lower. So extending the legs out for Shavasana. You're welcome to use any props that you like to use for this pose. And we're going to finish our time here. With a bit of toning of the vocal cords. So it turns out that humming or singing is one of the ways that we can tone vagus nerve, That we can soothe our nervous system, That we can create more resilience. And it kind of makes sense. Culturally, We get quite a bit of joy out of singing, But many of us feel that we can't sing or that we're not singers. So I want to invite you here into a three-part OM. The three parts are ah, Kind of mouth open tongue in the bottom of the mouth, Ah. All you kind of around the lips and start to pull the the tongue back all so all is that middle part and then the lips come all the way together and the tongue presses forward So the tongue is making kind of a circular motion. You can imagine like a wave-like pattern. When the wave comes into the shore, It kind of draws back, It comes up, And then it comes forwards, And it draws back and comes up and comes forward. And the mouth is making this kind of opening and closing sound as well. So there is a beginning, A middle, And a completion of the movement. The sound om is meant to represent the, You could say the sound of the universe, But you could also say the cycle of the universe. So everything has a birth. A maturity, If you will, And an end. Even our stars and our galaxies and, You know, The plants and the animals and creatures and, Of course, We ourselves have that same experience in life. So as you om, You can connect to this universal pattern of birth, Maturity, And end or transition. And know that the tonality, The vibration that you are literally creating in your body is having an effect on your nervous system, On your physical body, As well as perhaps your spiritual body. So we'll take a few together. I want you just to know that this is a personal practice. If you can do this with friends, Great. But be internal. Be interested in the sensations, In the presence, In the divinity of this simple practice. Take a breath in. And take a breath out. And then a breath in to begin. Aum. Aum. Om. Om. Aum. Ngaum. Last one. Aum. Just allow. The vibration to continue after the sound ends. Allow that vibration to settle all your cells. And to release any remaining tension in the body. In the Bible, Jesus speaks. Of the peace that knows no understanding. So here before we move on, Just see if you can verify for yourself. And feel. The part of you. That is peaceful beyond the considering, Understanding, Thinking. Allow all your efforts to soften. And simply be. And then bring your breath a little more deeply in. And bring some movement slowly back into the body. And continue to stretch and ease your way back into your day. We will eventually roll to one side and press our way up to sit. I want to thank you all for joining me this morning, For practicing with me, For balancing and perhaps unbalancing with me this morning. I hope you enjoyed your practice. We touched on several things that you and I can do to tone our bodies and our minds and our spirits. And so, Of course, These practices exist and there are more. So notice the things in your life. When life isn't feeling so good, Notice the tools in your toolkit. That can really shift you and bring you to higher ground. Sometimes we choose things that feel good in the moment, But that have a bit of a hangover that may not serve us. And some of these tools, You'll notice, Have no downside. They just lift and lift and lift and lift and bring you home. So I hope you've enjoyed the practice today. I hope you have a brilliant day wherever you are in the world. You can find me, Of course, On Insight Timer, And you can find me in person here at Adderha Retreat. Lots of love. Be well.