Let's practice Tadasana,
Mountain Pose.
Coming to a standing position,
Taking your socks and shoes off so that you can feel the earth under your feet.
Let your feet be comfortably apart wherever they want to be.
In some traditions they have their feet right together.
Today I want us to practice the strength of mountain.
So wherever your feet are comfortable,
Where you feel strong is perfect.
Let's lift our toes up,
Stretch them apart and let them come back down.
Feel your feet gripping the earth.
Really bring your awareness into the connection of every part of the bottom of your foot with the floor or the earth beneath you.
Feel your heels,
The sides of your feet,
The balls of your feet,
All of your toes.
Just like the roots of a tree would experience every inch of the earth that it touches or the way that the base of a mountain is fully connected to the earth.
From there allow your body to find its natural balance.
If you're comfortable closing your eyes,
Let's close our eyes.
If you're not comfortable closing your eyes,
That's okay.
Just close them as far as you can and maybe just have them open a slit so that you can have enough balance but all your focus is inward and you're not looking at the surroundings.
Now be aware of your legs.
Be aware of your shins,
Your calves and let them find their natural balance over your feet.
Let your knees be a little soft but aware.
Let your awareness go up your legs into your hips.
Now here let's make sure that our weight is balanced on both feet.
Feel a straight line coming up from the earth into your genitals,
Up your spine to the crown of your head and allow your body to be perfectly balanced around that central cord,
That your weight is evenly distributed into both feet and then your both hips are naturally sitting on top of both feet.
And let's just play with the hips for a moment.
Contract the buttocks,
Release.
Relax your shoulders,
Let the crown of the head rise up.
Let's do that again,
Contracting the buttocks,
Releasing.
Crown of the head to the ceiling and right here let's make sure we're breathing deeply.
As we inhale we want our belly to expand,
Contracting as we exhale.
Feeling our hip bones nice and centered on each foot,
Being aware of our sacrum,
Our tailbone perfectly centered between our feet.
And allow our awareness to go up our spine.
And again feeling the spine in its natural curvature and if anything is uncomfortable maybe bend your knees a little more or stretch your spine up a little or bend alternate knees to just stretch out any tension that may be in there.
We're awakening old habits that are within us and those old postural habits are connected to old emotions and old fears and things we've been carrying in our hearts and in our bodies.
So as we adjust and as we find this new stability,
This new structure,
Tensions may come so feel free to just move and adjust however you need to release whatever tensions rise.
Breathing deeply then allowing our spine to flow upward,
Being aware of the crown of our head being pulled upwards to the heavens.
Our chins,
Our chin is relaxed,
Our neck is relaxed but the crown is going upward.
Relaxing our shoulders down.
Let's bring our shoulder blades together in the back,
All the way back opening up the chest and then releasing the shoulders straight down.
Your hands are just gently resting at your side in a very natural position.
There are ways you can do it where your hands face forward very intentionally but for now just do what actually feels natural for your body.
And then be aware of your face,
Be aware of the muscles in your face and let them all come to rest.
And just allow your body to sway a little,
Maybe forward and back or side to side.
Don't force it,
Just whatever feels right.
Like imagine you were a tree and the wind came and you just moved a little but maintaining your integrity,
Your power,
Your structure.
And then finding your perfect balance,
Adjust whatever needs to be adjusted,
Maybe bring your shoulders up a little and let them come down,
Move your hips a little and let's just find our mountain pose.
And now let's focus on the breath,
Really feeling the belly expand as we inhale and contract as we exhale with every exhalation feeling all tension going down into the earth.
Releasing any tension in any muscles in the buttocks,
In the quadriceps,
In the chest,
In the arms,
In the face.
And feel your strength.
Feel this place on the earth that you are standing in,
The space that you are taking up because every one of us is meant to be here.
We matter and standing here strong in this place sends a message to our body and our mind and our heart that we remember that we are here and we are meant to be here.
So let's explore this place of power,
This place of strength a little.
Bring both arms up,
Straight up over your head,
Palms facing each other but shoulder-width apart.
And reach up,
Elongating the spine,
Feeling the space lengthening between your fingertips and your feet but feel yourself strong in the earth,
Breathing deeper,
Feeling the blood flowing from your fingertips all the way down your arms,
Through your belly,
Down your legs,
Into your feet,
Breathing deeply.
Then try opening the arms just a little that they're in a V-shape,
Palms facing up to the heavens and your arms are in a wonderful V-shape,
Straight up and out to the sides a little.
And feel how incredible you are.
We are all divine and physical.
To own that,
To feel this divine energy flowing into us from the heavens down into this wonderful physical experience we're having.
And release your arms down and bring them into prayer pose,
Palms together right in front of your heart center,
Right in front of the center of your chest.
And again,
This may adjust your posture a little bit and it's perfect.
Allow your body to adjust to this.
When we bring our palms together,
We are literally bringing together our own polarities,
Our positive negative,
Masculine feminine,
Logic and intuition,
Protector and vulnerable,
All the aspects that make us this beautiful yin-yang symbol and holding our polarity in front of our heart center,
Letting them dance together in this beautiful,
Powerful position.
Let's just take a few deep breaths here.
And releasing your hands down to your sides,
We're going to play with the locks.
Now the body locks are all about playing with the energy of the body.
The first lock is called Mula Bandha.
And so standing tall,
I would like you to contract your navel in towards your spine,
Pull up your sexual organ inside and then contract your anus.
This is Mula Bandha root lock.
So let's just hold that feeling your feet on the earth,
Contracting Mula Bandha.
If you're not sure about contracting your genitals,
It's almost like with not urinating,
Like holding it back.
So just pull it up inside,
Almost as if those three points were coming together energetically inside your pelvis.
Let's release Mula Bandha.
Uddiyana Bandha is very simply,
We're just going to contract your belly in as if you were going to show someone your ribs.
You know,
As a child,
You would pull all your belly in and go,
Look,
You can see my ribs.
So pull it in just a little,
Not a lot.
This is Uddiyana Bandha.
We're not going to do a lot of that one.
But that is one of the locks.
The other one is called Jalan Derband,
Which is neck lock.
And what neck lock looks like is like a soldier when they press their head backwards so that the chin tucks in,
But you're not looking down,
Your face looks totally forward,
But you just move your head backwards.
Okay,
This is Jalan Derband,
Neck lock.
So we're going to do all three.
So let's contract Mula Bandha,
Navel,
Sex organ,
Anus,
Pull in the belly a little bit more,
Uddiyana Bandha,
And then pull the neck back.
And just hold this for a moment and just experience whatever you experience.
Release all the locks.
Breathe deeply.
And our practice is to hold this posture in all of our life.
When we are standing,
Talking to someone as we walk and we're waiting in line,
Even as we're doing dishes or doing something else,
To always be aware of this beautiful alignment that everywhere we go,
We are the mountain.
We are this incredible creation here to explore and have new experiences and connect with others.
And to do it in this beautiful sense of power and strength and integrity,
Fully connected to the earth and fully connected to the heavens.
