Learn Yoga

The first position that I'm even taking here was also a choice to feel supported and comfortable. So, basically we're shifting gears a little bit from a mindset that might feel a little bit anxious or off, and we're starting to get organized in the brain and body and say, hopefully by now, you found your seat for today, whatever it may be, your place where you are going to reside, and when you arrive there, you can use the sound of my voice now as a guide, so close your eyes and just bring some awareness to your chest, your heart space, and depending on where you'r eat today, my sweet friend, you might already start to lean in and just feel what's comin' up, let the emotional body have a seat at the table and just notice. And wherever you are today, see if you can begin to do just that, notice. Come into the role of the observer. So, I find it very helpful to close the eyes, relax the shoulders, and bring your awareness to your heart center or your chest area and just allow whatever feelings come up, whatever thoughts, just notice them. And then notice where you might be holding or gripping in the body, the fingers or the toes, the ankles or the wrists, and see if you can use this idea of the observer to just notice all of those points and then in time to allow just the noticing to bring a softness, an awareness. So, your only real job here in this practice today is to pay attention.

We use Pranayama technique to help guide the energy of the body and to hopefully help relieve you from feelings that are not serving, if you feel stuck or off or anxious, stressed out. Hopefully, the Pranayama will allow us to just shift our perspective or break the pattern that we might be stuck in. So, after you've taken a couple moments to just arrive here and settle in, acknowledge that you chose this, start to notice your breath. You don't have to do anything, just acknowledge it, notice the natural ebb and flow. Notice what it feels like as you breathe in and notice what it feels like as you empty the breath out. And then again, bring your awareness to your chest again, your heart space, this place that tends to get really tight and collapsed when we feel anxiety, and see if you can start to lift up through that area, even if it's not a big muscular movement but just a little energy. Then allow that to affect your breath, maybe taking a deep inhale, feeling the heart lift a little, then perhaps feeling the shoulders relax and soften as you breathe out. So, the neck and shoulders also get a lot of tension, a little tightness when we feel anxious, so use your inhale to feel expansion, and as you start to deepen the breath, use your exhale to find a softness, a surrender.

Alright, you're doing great. Stay with it, stick with it, eyes closed, shoulders relaxed, lots of awareness around your heart center, your chest, your sternum. On your next inhale, see if you can bring the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth now, just right behind the teeth, and breathe in, and then breathe out, jaw nice and soft. Again, the tip of the tongue comes to the roof of the mouth and we breathe in. The jaw stays soft, not clinched, as you breathe out. And on your next inhale, we're gonna count to four. Breathe in for four. Here we go. Tongue comes to the roof of the mouth. And we inhale, one, two, three, four, and then just let it go soft and easy. Inhale for four, one, two, three, four, and then let it go. Notice how you feel, stay present, keep observing. Adding onto this ratio, now we're going to hold the breath, retain the breath in between the inhalation and the exhalations for a seven count. So, we'll do one breath cycle, just in and out, and then we'll start with the four. So, breathe in deep here, nice, soft, easy breath. And exhale just to relax the shoulders, empty everything out. I'm breathing in for four. Inhale, one, two, three, four, holding, retaining the breath for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and let everything go. Notice what thoughts come up, stay present, let it unfold. Try to keep the body still. And the last bit of the ratio is an exhale for eight. So, we'll inhale for four, I'll guide you with my voice. We'll hold at the top, retaining the breath mindfully for seven and then a nice smooth exhalation on the eight. Four, seven, eight. Soften through your fingertips and toes. One breath cycle, in and out to start, and then we'll begin. Here we go, inhale. Empty it all out. And inhaling for four, inhale, one, two, three, four. Holding for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Just notice how you did, no judgment, just observing. Inhaling for four, inhale, one, two, three, four. Retaining on seven, six, five, four, three, you got this, two, one. And big exhale, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Inhale for four, three, two, one. Retain for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Inhale for four, three, two, one. Retain, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Let everything go. Stay with it.