Hi my name is Julie Tucker,
Yoga teacher,
Meditation teacher and welcome back to the second in this series of eight where I am offering in each session little little offerings to nourish your practice in relationship to nourishing and discovering pathways of connectivity,
Of movement.
Within our body for a moment.
Our practice to unfold like a flower.
Without stress or strain on the body.
So today I'd like us to begin by returning to our foundation,
Our base.
Our lower body.
And.
Beginning with the feet.
We will explore this theme of the importance of the lower body,
Intelligence of the lower body in relationship to gravity throughout these sessions and returning today to listen into the feet.
So,
As we did last time.
Take it in one foot if you're comfortable in this sitting position.
If you're not comfortable in this sitting position,
I recommend you Find a sitting posture that's comfortable for you,
So there's no strain in the legs,
There's no strain in the hips.
Asshole.
And that could include sitting on a chair to do this.
Say it.
Just taking one foot.
Stroking the bottom of the sole of one foot.
And making that gentle stroking all the way from the toes of the ball of the foot to the heel.
And then all the way back again and being curious about the slowness.
And the.
.
.
In that slowness and in an attentiveness that's deepening our listening to the body.
So we start to Notice our contact of our hand on the foot,
On the sole of the foot.
And we start to receive sensation.
Fun to fix.
Sensation.
That is doing itself,
So to speak,
The tissues.
Because they receive the contact of our hand.
And we're slowing down.
There is this kind of feedback loop.
Or hand touching.
Our foot.
The foot receives that touch.
And tissue,
The cells inside our foot.
Become more present.
We feel them,
This sensation.
So we start moving out of density.
Holding,
Fixed.
Where different body parts can get together.
Isolated,
Cut off from one another and this is the beauty of our yoga practice where we bring back that inner flow,
Inner flow of connectivity for health.
In our body and in our mind.
The stroking of the sole of the foot.
Allows our foot to show itself again in terms of this movement.
Form and function of the foot where there's a yielding through the sole of the foot.
That yielding through the sole of the foot is something that resonates through the whole of your foot,
The whole of the organisation of the foot,
The bones,
The ankle joints.
Up through the knee,
The organisation of the knee,
Up through your femur bone for the organisation of your hips.
And hell-based.
On this side,
On this leg.
So just notice.
What might speak to you up through the legs.
Softening.
Of more deep tissue presence.
The organisation of the foot,
Our foundation,
Literally organising the integrity,
The alignment of our legs.
Communicates through our hip and communicates up through the spine.
For integrity and health of movement through the spine,
Everything is whole.
Everything connected,
These pathways of connectivity of movement.
And a movement.
Not move in and out.
Voluntary,
Involuntary movement,
Not movement that we do or instruct.
Now let's change and come to the other foot.
So just Taking the other foot in front of you and the same thing,
Stroking.
So you can fit.
From the toes to the sole.
All the way through to the heel.
And then all the way back again and this mindfulness you might call it.
Some of you may be very familiar with the term mindfulness.
And we are allowing our mind to switch out of Habitual doing patterns,
Ways of thinking,
We slow down in the body.
Is this beautiful intelligent vessel for receiving and soothing that distractedness,
That distracted mind,
That patterned mind,
Nervous system.
Run.
Have it.
For their space.
For something new.
To happen,
This process of renewal,
Inner transformation that yoga offers every time we come to our mat,
Whether it's for five minutes,
For 20 minutes,
For half an hour,
For a whole hour.
So,
Every time you do this.
.
.
Another layer.
Dissolved.
Or he starts to speak to you more.
So it's all about practice too.
So being.
Curious,
Being patient.
And being.
Dedicated.
Coming back to these things time and time again with a fresh mind,
Openness and no demand on your body and on your practice.
You know.
Hmm.
Yielding foot,
That yielding foot that eventually,
Developmentally,
As we Those tiny ones,
That yielding fur has already developed that action in the womb by the way,
In order for us to be birthed.
When we come up,
It functions,
This form and function together so that when we stand,
That foot's standing on earth.
That yielding foot in relationship to ground,
That dialogue,
Relationship,
Connection,
So important,
So important.
Literally allows the leg to be organised and up through into our pelvis,
Hip pelvis.
And for the spine eventually,
For us to stand up and be tall and stable.
So starting with the feet.
Let's come to some breaths and think about And pay attention to these diaphragms,
The diaphragm of the pelvic.
Diaphragm,
Your spiritual diaphragm.
And first just bringing your hands somewhere onto your knees,
Onto your thighs.
Closing your eyes and feeling.
The warmth of your hands,
The contact of your hands and your legs.
So just taking some more time.
Just to feel.
These legs underneath us that organise themselves to support us through this beautiful base.
You're stable.
Bass,
In that beautiful receptive connection.
With Earth.
Warmth of your hands and your legs.
Reminding you.
Of this responsibility of your legs.
You'll pound it.
To the sides of your pelvis.
Hmm.
From here connecting with your breath which may have already a quality of freshness,
Naturalness.
It could be very quiet.
It could be very deep.
Whatever the quality of your breath is as you open your awareness to receive it,
Allow And then noticing the breath around your upper body.
And your nostrils,
Having spent time here in lower body.
And that in-breath coming in in three parts,
Breathing in to that area around your collarbones,
Breathing in to down to your solar plexus,
Breathing in down to your deep root,
Into the depth of your pelvis.
Exhaling,
So the exhalation.
Unravel spirals upwards and as it does so could there be sensation of those pelvic diaphragms.
Drawing down.
And the respiratory diaphragm drawing up.
Continuing inhaling.
To the collarbones,
Down to the solar plexus,
Down into a deep room between the pubic bones.
And sacrum.
Exhaling,
Allow that exhalation slowly to unravel upwards through your midline and That pelvic diaphragm being drawn down.
And the respiratory diaphragm being drawn up.
The respiratory diaphragm and pelvic diaphragm drawing away from one another but they are intimately connected.
Not separate from one another.
Continuing with this breath.
Smooth and easy,
No overdoing.
No straining to get anywhere,
This is all through the body.
Practice and never give up.
Pushing the body or the breath.
We gently invite this.
We gently cultivate a knowing breath in relationship to the diaphragm,
Breath in relationship to body that it already knows.
No need to be in a hurry in our practice.
Be open and receptive to body and where you are today on the mat.
And just to add in as you continue for a few more rounds.
How as that.
On the exhalation.
Spirals up.
Pelvic diaphragm draws down and the spiritual diaphragm drawing upwards.
Not separate to each other,
They are unified.
They're also connected to those yielding feet.
And all the way through.
Up the spine.
To your neck,
To your jaw.
Central and very important fascial line of the body.
This unified diaphragm.
And the spine is massaged on that exhalation.
Fine is not.
Discluded everything in the body.
Everything that we attend to in the body.
It resonates through the whole.
Spine is massaged back into its center.
Inherent health of movement.
You might notice tiny.
.
.
Things happening at deep back of waist spine.
That area of number four and number five.
And that long tailbone on the out-breath.
That long,
Quivering tailbone at the bottom of your spine on the out-breath.
Awakening this beautiful deep centre,
Belly,
Pelvis.
In relationship to the feet,
In relationship to the legs.
Gently,
Gently we're going to let that go.
Remain for a few natural breaths with your eyes closed.
And just notice what speaks to you of midline.
Anything tingly there?
Lightness and liveness.
As this beautiful prana begins to express herself with more flow.
We're allowing her flow back in.
Okay.
Let's now open our eyes.
Gently opening,
Noticing.
How it is to have the eyes open,
The quality of colours and light,
And how it is to be in sitting.
However you have chosen to sit.
How is your seat,
Your base?
And now let's take this.
Into a long-arm child.
Setting yourself up.
Coming down.
Letting your head rest,
Your forehead rest on the earth and your knees.
Can be together or your knees can be a little bit apart,
A little bit more like hair pose and that could be beautiful for all of us so we can keep nourishing this pelvic bowl.
And unified diaphragm connection,
Letting your forehead rest on the ground.
I'm going to bring my head up and sit up so you can hear me but as you arrive here,
First of all just letting some out breaths.
Drop down through your legs.
Through those lower legs and feet and into the earth.
So we rekindle this dialogue with the ground.
Again,
Your base.
Setting this down.
Intelligent base up first,
Our intelligent connection with Earth first.
Let the hands and the fingers and the palms of the hands be rested on earth.
If you're noticing tension somewhere in your arms,
You can now soften.
Ah,
You notice some tension in some fingers,
You can now let go and soften.
And yield your hands to the ground.
And then let's bring this breath.
In bringing your inhalation all the way down into that deep root and on the exhalation this time,
Spiralling that exhalation through long tail,
Down through both hips,
Through both empty hollow bones of thighs,
Spiralling through the knees.
Through your lower legs,
Through your ankles and out of wide open soles of your feet.
So each time the inhalation,
Drawing it down into a deep root and exhaling.
Spiralling to long tail through the hips,
Spiralling through,
Empty collarbone supplies,
Deep knees.
Deep long ankles and out of the soles of your feet and they may feel like there's a pause there and those beautiful yielding feet,
They gather,
They flower open and gather.
And.
Be curious about this.
Beautiful.
Sensation.
Through your body,
Through your legs.
And noticing that at the end of the exhalation,
As those feet,
Soles of your feet open and recede,
Is there a tiny response through your tail?
Is there something of that tailbone?
Lengthening.
So that then we can start to receive what comes back up.
Just as we did in session one with the bolster,
What can come back up from the feet?
Up through the legs.
Up through the tail and through your spine and maybe gathering.
Spiraling up through the spine.
Through the neck and through long,
Long heads.
And then letting that inhalation come in.
So in that pause at the end of the out-breath,
What might come up?
Through the tail.
Spine,
Whole spine resonates,
Receives and there's that.
Lengthening through the neck and the long head.
Gently let that go.
From your tail,
And drawing and sliding your arms back.
At the end of that exhalation,
That tail.
Receive.
Up through the spine,
The arms can draw back so we can.
Spine can unravel itself and we find that length and reach through the neck and the head.
And then we can bring our hands forward.
Bring your knees underneath your hips so that you take them back a little bit on your mat and they're hip width apart now.
And you can still reach with the elbows a bit more.
But never so that you lose this beautiful gathering core and soft belly centre plate.
So that now you can start to unfold.
There's no collapse here.
And one leg at a time we can.
.
.
Lengthen,
So lengthening through this long leg side,
That exhalation through the hips,
Through empty hollow bone of thighs,
Through the ankle,
Finding wide open foot for what might come back up.
Through the tail.
Pattering through this side of spine.
And my elbows and my hands.
In sphinx,
So not underneath my shoulders,
Giving space for your upper body.
And then next.
Float this leg up and then.
.
.
This soft softness through the front of my pelvis as I exhale down through the right side.
Our face spiralling through the thigh.
Lower leg to wide open foot and what might come back up?
Through the legs.
Through pelvis,
Soft groin,
Collecting through side of spine,
Lumbar spine on my right side and then floating my Other leg down to join.
So making sure these elbows are enhanced.
Parallel palms facing down to begin with.
And then initiating.
We were in the bolster in the first session and here we are.
Initiating that second encerto.
Ankle foot,
The big toe.
And then the two toes next to the big toe,
Those liquid movements.
Initiating what might come up through that widening,
Alive sole of your foot.
From those.
Miracle foot toes,
Up.
Through the centre of the feet,
Through the ankles,
Through the legs.
Gathering those femur bones into the hips,
The feet.
The legs communicate.
Up into your hip joint.
And that is received in both sides of your pelvis at the acetabulum.
And continues its flow.
Through both sides of spine.
Both sides of the spine.
The tailbone on both sides of the spine together.
Long deep back of waist,
Long wide deep back of waist.
Gathering so that then there could be a natural gathering up through the thoracic spine and through a deep back of neck spine.
So the arms and the legs are not pulling and pushing.
On you to be in sync here.
And there's that.
Soft lower front pelvis,
Soft fronts of groins.
Because of that continuous flow of communication.
Never anything static.
We now hold the spine,
Living,
Breathing spine,
Revealing the posture.
So here my breastbone coming in.
Soft breastbone.
Roll tape.
Naturally unfold deeper,
The spine showing itself to me.
A long neck and long head,
Long tail and those feet all the time.
Release for home.
Draw your arms back.
Gathering this place.
And drawing back all the way into long arm child to rest.
And having done that work,
Resting in long child here.
Receive.
Tiny things happening through your midline.
Receive tiny breaths.
As the body.
Integrates what you've just offered.
And we slowly start to re-pattern where there may be density.
Undo where they may be holding.
Halfways of connectivity,
Movement.
Reveal themselves again.
Living stream of intelligence.
Of your body.
It's always there.
We just need to offer the conditions for it to be remembered.
And be.
Where we would like to reside.
In our lives.
For health.
Of body,
Mind.
All right health of the movement.
Thank you.
Your practice.
I look forward to seeing you again.
