Inspired By Scaravelli Track 16
by Tony Parsons
Kneeling Sun Salutations Yoga poses can flow into each other: we invite small muscles to come into play, releasing big ones, finding space at the joints. We begin to form a habit for our practice, where one pose leads to another, without having to think too much about what comes next. Listen to your body: pay it attention. Discover the intelligence and harmony there. Experience how the pull of gravity helps you, and stay in touch with how you are breathing (important in this exercise!)
Transcript
Kneeling for mini sun salutations.
You already know how yoga poses can flow into each other.
We invite small muscles to come into play,
Releasing big ones,
Finding space at the joints.
We begin to form a habit for our practice,
Where one pose leads to another without having to think too much about what comes next.
We listen to our bodies,
We pay attention.
We discover the intelligence and harmony there.
We experience the pull of gravity helping us.
And we stay in touch with how we're breathing.
Breathing is really important in this exercise because both in-breaths and out-breaths pace the movements.
It's done in a series of cycles.
So we begin in Vajrasana,
Kneeling with your tailbone near your heels and sitting on them.
Bring your hands to the heart centre in Anjali Mudra,
Prayer position.
Exhale.
On your next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Repeat the inhalation as your palms touch.
When you exhale,
You return back to the starting position.
And that completes cycle one.
Cycle two repeats cycle one and continues from there.
So we begin again in Vajrasana,
Kneeling with the tailbone near our heels,
Sitting on them.
Bring your hearts to the heart centre,
Prayer position.
Exhale.
On your next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Complete the inhalation as your palms touch.
But this time,
As you exhale from the kneeling up position,
Lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you while you sit back on your heels.
This is the salaam position.
It's like being in child's pose,
But with your arms extended on the floor above your head.
As you inhale,
You rise up again to come onto your knees with your arms reaching overhead.
You exhale to return to Vajrasana.
And always be thinking of movement from and back to the spine.
Cycle three.
Kneeling with your tailbone near your heels and sitting on them.
Repeat cycle two to salaam.
Bring your hearts to the heart centre in prayer position.
Exhale.
On your next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Complete the inhalation as your palms touch.
Exhale.
Lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you beyond your head.
And will you sit back on your heels?
On the next inhalation,
Come up onto your hands and knees in an upward facing cat.
Hide your spine deep into your back as your tailbone and back of the head try to meet like a concertina.
Allow your belly to melt towards the floor,
But keep your hands actively rooting into the floor,
Shoulders high.
Your toes may be tucked under to wake up the feet.
As you exhale,
Fold and sit back into position three,
The salaam position,
With the head emerging from the shoulders towards the floor.
On the inhalation,
Rise up again onto your knees.
And as you exhale,
Return to vajrasana.
And that completes cycle three.
Cycle four.
Sitting on your heels with your tailbone near them,
Repeat cycle three.
Bring your hands to the heart center in prayer position.
Exhale.
On your next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Complete the inhalation as your palms touch.
Exhale and lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you while you sit back on your heels.
On the next inhalation,
Come up onto your hands and knees into an upward facing cat.
Hide your spine deep into your back as you make a big back bend using all the vertebrae.
So your belly seems to melt towards the floor,
But your hands are actively rooting with your shoulders high.
Your toes may be tucked under,
Waking up your feet.
As you exhale,
Round your spine in the opposite direction into the downward facing cat.
The tailbone tucks under as you drop your chin to the chest.
You lift the spine as high as you can while maintaining the rooting action of the hands and toes.
Shoulders remain high.
As you inhale,
Round again into the upward facing cat.
As you exhale,
Fold and sit back into salaam.
Inhale and rise again onto your knees.
Exhale,
Return to that shrasana.
If you're finding already that you're starting to strain or it feels like an effort,
Then maybe the best plan is to just go back from this position,
From cycle four back to cycle three and cycle two and cycle one.
If you're feeling okay,
Cycle five goes a stage further and it is more difficult.
We repeat cycle four.
So,
Sitting on your heels with your tailbone near them,
Bring your hands to the heart center in anjali mudra.
Exhale.
On your next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Complete the inhalation as your palms touch.
Exhale and lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you while you sit back on your heels.
On the next inhalation,
Come onto your hands and knees into an upward facing cat.
Feel that the spine is moving from the head towards the tailbone and the tailbone comes up.
Keep your hands actively rooting into the floor,
Your shoulders are high,
Your toes are tucked under,
Waking up the feet.
As you exhale,
The movement along the spine comes the other way.
The tailbone tucks under and the spine arches up into a downward facing cat and you drop your chin to your chest.
Your spine is as high as it can be.
The hands and toes are still rooting into the ground and the shoulders remain high.
This time,
As you inhale,
Let your hips flow forwards as you move the chest up between the arms and come into a cobra position.
On an exhalation,
Come back into hands and knees into the downward facing cat.
Inhale into the upward facing cat.
As you exhale,
Fold and sit back into salaam.
Inhale and rise again on your knees.
Inhale to vajrasana.
Cycle six adds one more pose onto cycle five and it's as far as we go.
But once again,
It can be challenging because it's the movement from the cobra to the downward facing dog.
So once again,
You have the choice.
Every body is different and you know your body better than anyone.
Stop at this cycle if going from cobra to downward dog is difficult for you.
So cycle six.
Repeat cycle five,
Starting from vajrasana,
Sitting on your heels with the tailbone near them,
Bringing your hands up into the prayer position.
You exhale.
On your next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Complete the inhalation as your palms touch.
Exhale and lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you while you sit back on your heels.
On the next inhalation,
Come up onto your hands and knees in an upward facing cat.
Hide your spine deep into your back.
Tailbone and the back of the head try to meet like a concertina.
Your belly tries to melt towards the floor,
But you keep your hands actively rooting,
Shoulders high,
Toes tucked under to wake up the feet.
As you exhale,
Round your spine in the opposite direction into the downward facing cat.
Your tailbone is tucking under as you drop your chin to the chest.
The spine is as high as possible using all the vertebrae,
And the hands and toes are still rooting into the ground.
The shoulders are still high.
As you inhale,
Your hips flow forwards as you move your chest up between your arms into a cobra position.
This time,
On the exhalation,
You flow back into a downward facing dog,
Keeping your elbows and knees released.
Hips are wide,
Shoulders are wide.
Imagine being picked up at the small of your back by a giant.
Allow the legs and arms to extend with the spine,
With your weight coming backwards.
Remember it's a playful pose.
Happy dogs always have their tails high.
The heels don't need to go down to the floor.
Don't force or plonk them down.
Feeling you're here for a few breaths,
Then exhale completely.
Inhale into cobra.
Exhale into downward facing cat.
Inhale upward facing cat.
Exhale.
Salaam.
Inhale onto your knees.
Exhale to Vajrasana.
So cycle six is as far as we go,
And the many sun salutation now unwinds.
From cycle seven and beyond,
You're dropping one pose at a time.
So cycle seven just goes to cobra and back,
Just like cycle five did.
So I'll say it again.
Starting in Vajrasana,
Bring your hands to your heart center.
Exhale.
On the next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Complete the inhalation as your palms touch.
Exhale and lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you while you sit back on your heels.
On the next inhalation,
Come onto your hands and knees in an upward facing cat.
Your spine is deep in your back.
Allow your belly to melt towards the floor.
Your hands are actively rooting.
Your shoulders are high.
The toes are tucked under.
As you exhale,
Round your spine in the opposite direction into a downward facing cat,
Leading with the tailbone,
Which is tucking under you and ending with the chin on your chest.
The spine is as high as you can.
The hands and toes are rooting.
The shoulders are high.
As you inhale,
Your hips flow forwards and the chest moves between the arms and up into a cobra position.
As you exhale,
Come back with hands and knees in the downward facing cat.
Inhale into an upward facing cat.
And as you exhale,
Fold and sit back into salaam.
Inhale and rise again onto your knees.
Exhale to vajrasana.
Cycle eight is the same as cycle four.
Sitting on your heels,
Exhale.
On the next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead.
As you come onto your knees,
Exhale,
Lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you.
Inhale,
Come onto your hands and knees in an upward facing cat.
Toes are tucked under.
Exhale,
Your spine is rounded in the opposite direction in a downward facing cat.
The tailbone tucks under.
The neck is high,
The shoulders are high.
Inhale back into upward facing cat.
Exhale,
Sit back into salaam.
Inhale,
Rise onto your knees.
Exhale,
Return to vajrasana.
Cycle nine is the same as cycle three,
Just going as far as upward facing cat.
Starting in vajrasana,
Bring your hands to your heart center and exhale.
On the inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come up onto your knees.
Exhale,
Lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching way out in front of you.
Inhale,
Come onto your hands and knees in an upward facing cat.
Allow your belly to melt to the floor.
Your hands are actively rooting,
Your shoulders are high.
Toes are tucked under.
As you exhale,
Fold and sit back into salaam,
With the head emerging from the shoulders towards the floor.
On the inhalation,
Rise again onto your knees.
On the exhalation,
Return to vajrasana.
Cycle ten just goes to salaam,
Beginning in vajrasana.
Bring your hands to the heart center in prayer position.
Exhale.
On your next inhalation,
Raise your arms high overhead as you come onto your knees.
Complete the inhalation as your palms touch.
And as you exhale,
Lower your arms to the floor,
Reaching them way out in front of you while you sit back on your heels.
Inhale,
Rise up again to come onto your knees with your arms reaching overhead.
Exhale to return to vajrasana.
Always be thinking of movement from and back to the spine.
Finally,
From vajrasana,
We just go into raising our arms high overhead as we inhale,
Completing the inhalation as the palms touch.
As we exhale,
We come back to the starting position.
All the way through,
The breathing pattern is helping our orientation.
You always exhale to salaam.
We always inhale to kneel up.
Our thinking mind is releasing control.
We're letting go of thoughts and feelings.
We're putting our body's intelligence in charge,
Finding deeper,
More subtle control.
We're bringing the spine to life.
We're awakening the core while relaxing the outer body.
We're letting go of dominant surface muscles.
So each new cycle was removing one posture,
And we're finally back in the starting position.
So just sit there in vajrasana,
Close your eyes,
And enjoy that sensation.
Remember,
Everybody is different,
And you know your body better than anyone.
Stop at cycle four if going from cobra to cat is difficult,
And cycle five if going from cobra to downward dog is difficult.
Remember that the pose doesn't matter.
It's more about feeling inside the body and undoing tension.
Relaxing the outer body awakens the core and brings the spine to life.
Explore the movement of where you are,
And this might take you somewhere else.
You can't define it and pin it down.
It doesn't belong to anybody,
And it isn't one person's invention.
It's a discovery,
And it's your yoga.
4.0 (3)
Recent Reviews
Elena
September 23, 2024
I enjoyed that sequence!āØ Thank you very much š šš