We're going to bring ourselves to a seated position on our block or maybe a cushion.
Take your legs crossed comfortably in front and then let your hands rest on your thighs here and as your eyes close maybe a couple of times just giving your shoulders a little roll in one direction and then the opposite direction.
And then what we'll do to have a sense of bringing ourselves here is let's take a full deep breath in and full breath out.
And then allowing your attention as much as possible to settle here on your own natural breath in and out.
Having a sense of soft easy inhale coming in through your nostrils and soft easy exhale out through your nostrils.
Sensing shoulder blades soft and easy rested down away from your ears and maybe a feeling of lengthening the spine and maybe even creating like a little kind of double chain effect just dropping the chin just ever so slightly to lengthen the back of the neck.
And can you give your arms like almost like a little gentle lift up and rest them back down and see can you soften the elbows wrists and hands a little more.
So depending on how our last few days have been and even today our energy might be at certain levels our mind might be at different temperatures as such we might be running hot with thoughts or maybe a little cooler feeling maybe a little more lethargy or confusion.
And maybe just sensing your own inner sort of experience here.
A sense of your energy a sense of what kind of mental activity is being arising for you.
And as we check in in this way it's not necessarily cognitively searching for answers or anything it's more a sense of feeling and becoming aware.
And almost imagining like sometimes you might see leaves blowing off a tree in the wind it's like we're almost bringing all the leaves back onto our branches.
A sense of collecting our experience and bringing ourselves into this moment here and there.
At the moment all of us whether it's affecting us in a big way or a small way the circumstances we find ourselves in is bringing about a sense of uncertainty.
We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day we maybe can't plan ahead like we usually do next week or the week after.
And depending on our own situation uncertainty can bring up many feelings and many reactions or responses.
And a lot of what we're practicing here particularly in yoga and as we sit and we anchor ourselves is this concept of centering in uncertainty.
We cannot control external situations or events or what's happening but we can begin to cultivate a sense of awareness of what we can control internally.
And for this evening maybe having a sense or embracing idea of two concepts with us.
The action we take and the attitude that we hold.
So you've taken an action to be here to join me to come together in this group.
That's an action,
Actions that are helpful for us and then we can bring an attitude of kindness,
Of care,
Of compassion.
This is holding a space for both of those this evening.
The actions we take and the attitudes we bring.
And as we notice our breath again inhaling and exhaling.
Maybe just allowing that concept,
Those ideas to settle in your system.
It may mean different things for each of us and again not necessarily we have to understand cognitively.
Let it settle and allow space for it to breathe this evening.
We're going to take one more full deep breath in here and full breath out.
Gently from there we're going to draw our chin to our chest,
Lengthening the back of the spine,
Your neck.
And then once that circle our left ear towards our left shoulder,
Creating a nice sense of space around your right side neck.
And then we'll bring our chin back to our chest and circle our right ear towards our right shoulder,
Lengthening the left side of the neck.
Bringing your chin back around to your chest and lifting your head up centre.
Let's blink our eyes open.
We're going to take our fingertips either side of our hips and as you're ready inhale reaching your arms all the way up,
Deep breath in.
And breathing out,
Releasing the arms all the way down.
Super.
Two more times.
Inhaling reaching the arms all the way up.
And exhaling,
Releasing all the way down.
Nice.
Last time we're going to inhale reach all the way up.
And then exhaling this time we're going to take right hand to left thigh,
Left hand behind and gentle twist here.
Breathe in steady here,
Just allow your neck easy as your eyes maybe turn behind for three.
Feel this sense of easy breath in and out for two.
And then when you're ready we're going to inhale reach our arms all the way back up to the ceiling,
Turn our chest forward and exhale twist the opposite direction.
Lifting tall,
Gentle turn for three.
Breathing for two.
As you're ready we're going to inhale reach our arms all the way back up to the ceiling.
And from here let's interlace your hands and we're going to press the heels,
Palms of our hands up to the ceiling.
Skin loads of length either side here as much as you can.
And sense of feeling here that as our arms reach in this way we've more space for our lungs to expand.
Let's take a deep breath in.
And full breath out.
We're going to undo the fingertips,
Let the fingers tinkle all the way down.
Just give yourself a little shake shake and then we're going to take ourselves all the way onto our backs.
So leaving your block or your cushion to the side if you have one and coming right down onto your back.
