We'll begin the practice today sitting in a chair.
Allow yourself to become comfortable using any props or pillows that help to make the body feel more at ease.
Begin by taking several conscious,
Slow,
Deep breaths as you settle into the space the body occupies on the chair.
Begin to notice how you feel.
And as you let the gaze of the eyes soften downward at any point in the practice,
You're welcome to close the eyes.
If keeping the eyes open during the practice is more comfortable,
Feel free to do so.
Begin to call your attention inward as if to feel yourself from the inside.
And allowing yourself to arrive in the spaces of your own body.
Arriving to the current conditions of body and mind.
And begin to settle with yourself just as you are.
Settling with the current conditions of body and mind.
Without the push or the pull of wanting things to be different.
Surrendering to what is.
And as you establish yourself in a practice of contentment.
Content to be in this body,
In this moment,
With all of these conditions and circumstances.
Begin to take your attention through the spaces of body part by part.
Inhabiting those spaces more fully.
Starting with the soles of the feet.
And let your awareness move into the feet and the toes.
Feeling your way into the ankles and the lower legs.
Sensing and feeling the knees and the upper legs.
And opening your awareness now to the hip joints.
Observing from hips to toes and toes to hips as you bring attention and awareness into your legs.
Into your lower limbs.
And now shifting your attention to all ten fingers.
Sensing and feeling the fingers and hands.
And now sensing the wrists and the lower arms.
The elbows and the upper arms.
And the joints of the shoulders.
Opening your awareness from the shoulders to the fingers and the fingers to the shoulders.
And becoming aware of the pelvic floor and buttocks.
Sensing and feeling the abdomen and the organs of the abdomen.
Feeling the space that surrounds the organs.
Begin to feel your way into the region of the navel and stomach.
All of the organs of digestion and assimilation.
And now begin to sense the region of the diaphragm.
Letting awareness move into the rib cage and the muscles between the ribs.
And noticing the lungs.
Sensing the movement as the breath comes in and as the breath goes out.
Begin to notice the heart.
Feeling the sensation of blood and energy moving to and from the heart.
Drawing attention into the region of the throat and the pit of the throat.
And now shifting your attention to the back side of the torso.
Feeling the low back,
The region of the kidneys,
And just on top of the kidneys,
The adrenal glands.
Begin to notice the middle back and the back ribs.
The upper back and shoulder blades.
And the space between the shoulder blades.
Noticing the back of the neck and the base of the skull.
And begin to sense the spine as you let your awareness travel from the base of the spine all the way up through the vertebra of the neck.
Noticing even the muscles that surround the bones.
And now sensing and feeling the base of the skull and the hinges of the jaw.
Bring your attention to the chin and all of the muscles of the face.
Attention to the mouth and the tongue.
The nose and the nostrils.
The eyes and the eye sockets.
The ears and the eardrums.
Noticing the temples and the forehead.
And even the brain,
The cognitive sense.
As you draw your awareness into the scalp,
Lifting your attention to the crown of the head.
And from the crown of the head,
Opening your awareness to the whole body all at once and all together.
As if to allow all of your individual awarenesses,
All the individual parts of yourself to come together,
Gathering up into one whole body experience,
One whole body awareness.
A sense of feeling yourself completely from the toes to the crown and the crown to the toes.
And begin to breathe as if the whole body were breathing together.
As if to imagine the pores of the skin breathing.
As if to imagine your bones breathing.
Breathing from your bones to your skin and your skin to your bones.
The whole body breathing.
And now begin to practice centering as you bring your attention to rest on the tip of the nose and observing breath as it passes through the nostrils.
Bringing the breath traveling from the tip of the nose to the center of the mind and the center of the mind to the tip of the nose.
Holding your attention here,
Riding the breath like a wave.
Thoughts may come and go,
But the mind always returns to the rhythmic flow of breath.
If thoughts push their way into the foreground of your awareness,
Gently allow yourself to be present without any judgment and then make a shift.
Let those thoughts or feelings or sensations settle into the background while the breath stays in the foreground of your attention and your awareness.
Breathing between breath and thought,
Toggling between breath and feelings.
Always coming back to breath.
This is the practice of centering.
Centering yourself with each breath.
With the next exhalation breath,
Allow the gaze of the eyes to fall open and downward,
Half open and half closed.
A kind of 50-50 gaze where 50% of your awareness still lingers in your interior experience and 50% of your awareness begins to open to your exterior experience.
Bringing both hands to rest on the abdomen below the navel.
Letting the breath expand and contract as you focus on the abdomen,
Getting bigger on the in-breath and contracting on the exhale breath.
Practicing several times.
This brings the breath into the gravity dependent part of the lungs.
Allows for full oxygenation of the blood.
Breathing up to three times,
Exaggerating the breath.
And when you've finished,
Let the breath return to normal.
Let the hands rest in the lap in preparation for the next stretches.
With an in-breath,
See if you can imagine lifting the spine up and as you exhale,
Let the chin slowly lower towards the chest as you keep breathing,
Noticing the stretch in the back of the neck.
Softening the shoulders,
Relaxing into the stretch.
And with the next inhale breath,
Slowly come back to center,
Lifting the chin and as you exhale,
Relax.
Keep the breath flowing.
Inhale again,
Follow the spine up and as you exhale,
Take the left ear to the left shoulder and keep breathing,
Softening in and around the stretch,
Relaxing the shoulders,
Relaxing the neck,
Breathing.
With the next in-breath,
Slowly bring the head back to center and as you exhale,
Relax.
Inhale again,
Traveling up the spine and as you exhale,
Take the right ear to the right shoulder.
Continue to breathe as you notice the stretch on the left side of the neck,
Softening in and around the stretch.
With the next inhale breath,
Slowly come back to center and as you exhale,
Relax.
Let go.
Turn the head gently from side to side,
Noticing your range of motion.
As you come back to center,
Let yourself be still.
You might even notice the echoes and the ripples of the movement in the body.
Coming into position now for the shoulder shrugs.
As you let the arms hang down alongside the body,
Slowly begin to squeeze the shoulders up next to the ears as you inhale and with a sigh through the mouth,
Drop them.
And now as you inhale,
Squeeze the shoulders together in the front of the body and as you exhale,
Relax.
And as you inhale,
Squeeze the shoulders together in the back of the body and as you exhale,
Relax.
Rotate the shoulders in both directions,
Circling the shoulders together in one direction and then the other,
Noticing your range of motion.
And then slowly come back to center.
Shake the arms a little bit,
Shake the hands and let yourself be still.
Let the arms hang down alongside the body.
Notice any tensions exiting through the fingers.
Preparing for the practice of the wrist movements.
As you let the arms hang down alongside the body,
Begin to open the fingers really wide,
Reaching with the fingers and then slowly squeeze the fingers into fists.
Open and squeeze and open and squeeze.
And with the hands and fists,
Start to rotate the wrists in one direction,
Making circles and then rotate the wrists in the other direction.
And then as you come back to center,
Lift the hands up and shake them.
Shake them in one direction and then shake them up and down and then flip them over and shake them again.
Slowly let the arms rest back down,
Hands resting on the thighs and be still and notice.
Stretching the legs out in front of you for the ankles and feet exercises.
You can let the heels rest on the floor.
This may mean that you may have to move a little to the edge of your seat.
As you point the toes away from you,
Pointing and then as you flex the feet,
The toes pull towards the top of the head,
Pointing and flexing.
One more time,
Pointing and flexing and then rotate the ankles in one direction,
Making circles with the toes and then rotate the ankles in the other direction,
Making circles with the toes.
As you come back,
Place the heels on the floor,
Open the toes like you're spreading the toes apart and then squeezing the toes together and then opening the toes like you're separating the toes and squeeze the toes together and then slowly relax.
Let the feet rest on the floor.
Close the eyes and notice.
We'll now work with the practice of the cobra,
The back stretch one.
Holding onto the sides of the chair,
Let your chin gently drop down towards the chest.
When you feel ready,
Start to lift the nose,
Lift the chin,
Let the shoulders roll back and down,
Expand the chest.
You might even look up at the ceiling,
Take a breath and then slowly when you feel ready,
Start to lower the chin,
Lower the nose,
Lower the forehead,
Bring the chin back to the chest.
Take a breath,
Pause here for a moment,
Relax.
Let's do it two more times.
When you feel ready,
Slowly lifting the forehead,
The nose and the chin.
Let the shoulders roll back and down.
Let the chest expand,
Breath keeps moving.
When you feel ready,
Slowly start to lower the chin,
The nose,
The forehead,
Relax the shoulders,
Chin comes back to the chest.
Take one breath.
And one last time when you feel ready,
Moving through at your own pace,
Lifting the nose and the chin,
Rolling the shoulders back and down,
Expanding the chest and breathing.
Releasing when you feel ready,
Slowly coming back to center.
Be still and just notice.
Observing the effects of this back stretching pose.
Preparing now for the practice of the half locust pose.
When you feel ready,
Standing up,
Either moving your chair to a wall or standing to the back side of the chair.
So the seat is facing away from you.
The chair is steady.
Place both hands on the back of the chair.
Very slowly slide your right foot back with the ball of the foot on the floor.
As you reach the foot back,
It's as if you're stretching through the calf,
Stretching through the heel.
Breath keeps moving.
You might even want to look forward or even look up a little bit.
When you feel ready,
Release the foot back,
Coming back to a standing pose.
Both feet firmly planted on the floor.
Practicing now on the opposite side,
Slowly sliding the left foot back,
Resting on the ball of the foot,
Pressing through the heel,
Noticing the stretch in the calf,
Noticing the stretch in the low back.
You might even lift the chin just a little bit,
Holding onto the chair,
Making sure you feel steady and grounded.
When you feel ready,
Slide the foot back.
Take a pause and just notice.
Breathing one more time on each side,
Sliding one foot back on your own and then the other.
Practicing at your own pace,
One side and then the other.
The breath flows.
The mind stays quiet and calm.
Breathing and breathing.
Once you complete on both sides,
Turn your chair around and sit back down.
Take a pause and just notice.
Turning your attention inward.
Keeping yourself from the inside.
Preparing for the forward bend.
Last week when we did this practice,
We used our forearms to rest on the legs.
Today we'll start by bringing the palms together at the center of the chest.
The first movement is to scoop the hands out in front of you and up overhead,
Reaching up,
Looking up,
The breath flows and as you exhale,
Bring the palms back to the heart.
So it's a scooping,
Sweeping motion.
We'll do it two more times.
Inhale,
Sweep the arms forward and up,
Reach up and stretch up,
Look up and open up and as you exhale,
Slide the palms right back to the heart and pause.
One more time,
Reach the arms out and up,
Reach up and stretch up,
Look up,
Open up and as you exhale,
Gather the palms back to the heart.
This time when you're ready,
Bring the hands onto the thighs and slowly start to slide forward.
Fold the arms so that the forearms are resting on the thighs.
Let the chin come towards the chest.
Let the shoulders roll forward,
Rounding the back and breathing as if the backside of the heart could breathe,
Softening in and around the stretch.
When you feel ready,
Slowly press or slide back to center and let yourself be still,
Noticing.
Coming into position now for the practice of the half spinal twist.
This time,
You're welcome to cross your right leg over your left or you can keep both feet on the floor.
In either case,
You'll take your left hand to the outside of your right leg and your right hand onto the seat behind you.
As you press down into that hand,
Lift the spine up,
Elongate the spine and with an exhale breath,
Begin to twist,
Rotating from the base of the spine up through the vertebra of the neck,
Even gazing over the back shoulder,
Keeping the eyes soft,
Relaxing in and around the twist,
Holding and breathing.
And when you feel ready,
Slowly unwind from the top downward,
Coming back to center.
If the leg is crossed,
You can uncross the leg,
Crossing the left leg over the right or keeping both feet flat on the floor,
Taking the right hand to the opposite side,
Resting it on the left thigh.
Put the left hand on the chair behind you and use it to give a gentle lift to the spine.
Then begin to twist from the base of the spine,
Twisting at your own pace,
Looking to the left,
Gaze of the eyes softening to the back corners,
Twisting and breathing,
Holding the pose without holding breath.
When you feel ready,
Slowly unwind,
Exhaling yourself back to center,
Uncrossing the leg,
Placing the feet on the floor and taking a big sigh through the mouth,
Letting go.
Ah,
Settling now,
Noticing how you feel after the practice of gentle movement.
We'll come into position now for extended relaxation.
This practice can be done sitting in the chair,
Covering up with a blanket if you have one.
If it feels more comfortable to put the legs up on another chair,
You can do that.
Allow yourself to rest.
Here,
Closing the eyes.
We'll move through a practice called squeeze and relax and then extended relaxation.
To begin,
Stretch the right foot out in front of you,
Flex the foot,
Start to squeeze from the foot all the way up to the hip.
You might even raise the leg a little bit off the floor,
Squeezing and tensing.
Inhale slowly from the foot to the hip and as you exhale with a sigh through the mouth,
Relax.
Ah,
The foot comes down.
You might even roll the leg from side to side,
Shake it a little bit and then rest the foot on the floor and be still.
Stretch the other foot out,
Let the heel of the foot touch the floor,
Flex the foot,
Point the toes,
Flex the foot again and begin squeezing from the foot to the hip.
As you inhale,
You might even lift the leg up as you squeeze even more,
Tensing and as you exhale,
Release.
Let go with a sigh.
You can then roll the leg a little bit from side to side and then put the foot on the floor and be still.
With the arms resting alongside the body,
Let the arms hang down and here,
As you make the right hand into a fist,
Start to squeeze the right arm from the fist all the way up to the shoulder joint and tense it,
Tensing,
Tensing.
As you inhale,
Tense even more and as you exhale with a sigh,
Let go.
Shake the arm,
Roll it a little bit and then rest that hand back on your thigh and be still.
Bring your attention to the left hand.
Even the fingers really wide and squeeze that hand into a fist,
Squeezing,
Squeezing all the way up.
Inhale and squeeze even more as you tense up to the shoulder and as you exhale,
Let go.
Roll the arm a little bit from side to side,
Shake it out and then place the hand on the thigh and be still.
Noticing how the legs and the arms feel after squeezing and relaxing.
And now bring your attention to the pelvic floor and the buttocks and gently begin to gather up and squeeze the buttocks,
Tensing and squeezing and as you exhale,
Relax.
Try it one more time,
Squeezing,
Gathering the buttock muscles,
Squeezing and tensing and with an exhale,
Relax.
Bring your attention now into the abdomen and as you expand the abdomen,
Inhale,
Expanding,
Let the abdomen be like a balloon blowing up and as you exhale with a sigh through the mouth,
It's like you've popped the balloon letting the air out.
Try it again.
Inhale,
Expand the abdomen,
Let it get bigger and bigger and as you exhale with a sigh,
Let it go.
Let the breath return to normal.
Bring your attention now into the upper chest and again in the same way,
Inhale like you're expanding the upper chest like you're blowing a balloon up.
Hold the breath for just a moment and then sigh through the mouth to let go.
Try it one more time.
Inhaling as you expand,
Exhale with a sigh,
Letting go.
Noticing as you breathe,
Relaxing and now bring your attention into the shoulders and as you inhale,
Squeeze the shoulders up next to the ears,
Tensing them and as you exhale with a sigh,
Let them go.
One more time,
Squeeze the shoulders up next to the ears,
Tensing them,
Tightening,
Breathing and as you exhale,
Let them go.
Relaxing the shoulders,
Letting the shoulders gently fall away from the ears as if you're unburdening yourself,
Letting the weight of the world roll off of the shoulders.
Bring your attention now to the facial muscles and begin to squeeze all of the muscles of the face towards the tip of the nose,
Squeezing,
Pursing the lips,
Inhale as you squeeze even more and as you exhale,
Relax,
Soften the facial muscles.
And one more time,
Practicing again,
Squeezing all of the muscles of the face towards the tip of the nose,
Squeezing and tensing and as you exhale,
Relax,
Letting go.
Relaxing now from top to toe after squeezing and releasing the major muscles in the body.
Now we'll move through at a subtler level.
Bring your attention back to the soles of the feet and mentally relaxing all 10 toes and the feet.
Relax the lower legs,
The knees,
The upper legs and the hip joints.
Shifting your awareness to the fingers and mentally relaxing all 10 fingers and the hands.
Relax the lower arms and the elbows,
The upper arms and the shoulder joints.
Letting the arms and legs be heavy and warm with relaxation.
Bringing your attention to the pelvic floor and the buttocks,
Relaxing the buttocks and the pelvic floor,
Relaxing the abdomen and the organs of the abdomen,
Letting go of any gripping or tension in these organs,
Letting the organs spread out into the space that surrounds them.
Relaxing the region of the navel and now relax all of the organs of digestion and assimilation.
Softening the area of the diaphragm,
Relaxing the rib cage and the muscles between the ribs.
Mentally relax the lungs.
The breath becomes subtle and smooth,
Effortless,
As if to turn all of the responsibility of breathing back over to the body.
No effort around breath.
Relaxing the heart and the chambers of the heart.
Relaxing the valves and the arteries leading to and from the heart.
Imagine relaxing the muscles that surround the artery walls,
Knowing that these muscles are within your conscious control.
And when you relax them,
It allows the blood and the energy to move more freely to and from the heart.
Relaxing the throat and the pit of the throat.
Relaxing even the thyroid gland and the muscles of the neck.
Relaxing the carotid arteries.
These are the receptors that rest in the neck.
Begin to turn your attention to the base of the spine and imagine relaxing the low back,
The lumbar spine.
Relaxing the kidneys and the adrenal glands that sit just on top of the kidneys.
Relax the middle back and the back ribs,
The upper back and the shoulder blades.
Even the space between the shoulder blades.
Relax.
Relax the tops of the shoulders,
The back of the neck and the base of the skull.
Traveling around the jaw.
Relaxing the jaw and the hinges of the jaw.
Relax the chin,
The lips,
The mouth and the tongue,
Letting the tongue settle limply to the bottom of the mouth.
The roof of the mouth broadens and softens.
Relaxing the throat and the pit of the throat.
Relaxing the nasal passages and the sinuses,
The cheeks and the nose,
Noticing the breath as it passes through the nostrils.
Watching the eyes and the eye sockets,
The eyelids,
The eyebrows and the space between the eyebrows.
Relax.
Relax the forehead and the temples,
The ears and the scalp.
And now relax the mind and all the thoughts that linger in the mind.
Relax.
Relaxing completely from top to toe and from toe to top.
Imagine sending any remaining tension out through the crown of the head as if you were sweeping those tensions out,
Letting go of any cares or worries,
Letting go of any fears or concerns.
The whole body rests.
The whole mind rests.
