Return - 3 - Listen

Hello dear friends, welcome back. We have a really yummy session for you today. If you have a blanket or a block or a bolster, bring it. If you do not have these things, no problem. I got you. So, no stress. But just in case you want to pause the video and grab those things, um we we can implement them in our session today. But if not, no worries. Ah, let's land here together in a comfortable seated position of your choice. Way to show up. I mean truly way to show up for yourself. This whole series is about returning to what matters most. giving you just enough time and space, invitation, support, accountability to return to whatever it is you need today. We'll utilize some of the tools of yoga. But truly, this is your practice, your opportunity to listen so that you can respond in a way that calls in more balance to your life. So, let's take a moment to just scan the body. Starting at the feet, noticing any sensation in the feet move somewhat swiftly up to the ankle, the shin, the calf. Start to anchor your awareness in the sensation of the knees, the back thighs, the hamstrings, the hips, and the pelvis, the whole bottom half of your body, your legs. Anchor your attention and awareness now and any sensation around the low back, low belly, the waist, the rib cage, midback, your upper body, your chest, your upper back. And then moving your awareness to your fingers, the palms, the wrists. Continue to just invite your awareness to drop into your body, the sensations in your arms, the lower arm, the elbow, and the upper arm. Now let's find just a gentle gentle lift in the heart space as you bring your awareness to the shoulders [snorts] and the neck. The ears, your jaw, your chin, your cheekbones, the back of the head. your nose, the temples, your eyes, the forehead, and the top of the head, the crown. And you may have noticed a few or many thoughts come across your desk here, and that's all good. That's normal. We're just allowing ourselves this time to listen, to notice. So, you're doing great. Take a deep breath in through your nose. And as you exhale, let it out through your mouth with a little sound. [sighs] Inhale in through the nose and exhale out through the mouth with a little sound. [sighs] And now seal the lips. Inhale in through your nose and exhale out through your nose. And keep doing this. And as you breathe in and out through your nose, just notice, really listen, lean in and see if you can sense whether you are exhaling out through one nostril more than the other. See if there's a dominant nostril that you're breathing in and out of.

Just see. And if you're like, I can't tell any difference, that's okay. Just slow down your breath and enjoy this time for yourself to slow down and be still. Nourishing your mind and your body and your heart space, bringing more balance into the rhythm of your life by slowing it down. If you are breathing in and out through the nostrils here and you do feel or sense that there's one nostril that's kind of clear, clear clearer, more dominant and one nostril that feels like it's getting less. Take one hand, any hand to the nostril that's getting a lot of air and see if you can just ever so slightly cover it so that you're evening out the sensation of your inhale through both nostrils and you're evening out the exhale. So you're trying to balance out the sensation of breath as you breathe in through the nose and as you breathe out. So your hand your finger may barely even touch your nostril to get that balance just right. Just play here. Then we'll release the hand. Let it go. Take a couple breaths here just to notice [sighs and snorts] and then we'll let that go. Gorgeous. Beautiful listening. Let's come to all fours here. Nice and slow. We'll meet in tabletop position. As always, feel free to pad the knees if you like. So, let's find extension here. So, think of this long line from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone. This midline in the body, this shashna. Lift the belly up. Draw it up towards the spine to lengthen the back body a little bit. Maybe gently tug the shoulders away from the ears and come into this felt sense of yeah from the crown to the tail. Got a nice long line of energy. Then inhale in here with this extension in all fours. Exhale. Send the hips back in space and melt your heart towards the earth. Child's pose. Inhale. Rise up. Come back to that extension in all fours. Exhale. Send the hips back. Chakra vicassana. Moving with the breath. Inhale. Hands tug back. We find that extension. Naval draws up. Exhale. Send it back. [sighs] Move slow. Move steady. Find that smooth breath. [sighs] Beautiful. Next time your hips are back. Let's walk the hands over towards the right side of your mat. Breathing. Finding that expansion in the left side body. Resting the rad the weight, excuse me, of your head. and then walking it through center and taking it to the other side. [sighs] Feeling that length in the right side body here and releasing any grip in the neck as you hold your head up. Let it go. Walk it back to center. Inhale. Rise up to all fours. Curl the toes under. Exhale. Send the hips back, but you're not coming in a downward dog. You're just sinking the hips back with the toes curled under to stretch through the fashca of the foot. Inhale, we come back up to all fours, but toes stay curled under. Exhale, send it back. [sighs and gasps] Inhale, find that extension. Tug the hands back in space. You might even feel your core muscles turn on here. And exhale, send it back. [sighs and gasps]

moving with your breath. [sighs] [gasps] [sighs] The next time you're lifted on all fours, you're going to walk the knees in underneath the hip points and step the right foot up into a nice low lunge. Walk the left knee back just a bit. And then take a second here. You can bring your blocks [snorts] underneath your hands or just take a second here to roll your shoulders a little forward, up and back here. Now, let's bring our attention back to that midline. So, hugging the inner thighs in, we'll reach the fingertips forward, up, and back. Lifting up through the front body, finding this crescent lunge. Uncurl the back toes and root down through the front of that back foot. Inhale in. Beautiful. Exhale. Bring it down. Left hand comes to the earth. Option you can keep the back knee lowered here or curl the toes under. Lift the left knee. Reach the left heel all the way back. As you inhale, reach the right arms all the way up towards the sky. [snorts] Exhale. Bring the right fingertips down to touch the earth. Inhale. Reach the right arm up. Big twist. Exhale. Let it float down. Inhale. Last time. Reach it up. Exhale. Rain it down. Plant the palms. Step it back to a plank or a half plank. Your choice. Inhale in. Exhale. Lower to the belly. Inhale. Gentle low cobra. Breathe in. Exhale to release. Curl the toes under. Come back to all fours. Breathe in. Exhale. Send the hips back. Breathe out. Breathe in. Come forward. Extension. Exhale. Inhale. Come forward. [snorts] Exhale. Notice what's happening in the rib cage here, in the belly, in the abs. Good. The next time you're lifted, tabletop position. Let's step that left foot up into the low lunge. Walk the right knee back just a bit. Take a second here. Find your footing. And then we'll lift up and find those shoulder circles forward, up, and back. Then bring your energy, your awareness to the midline, hugging the inner thighs in, finding that lift through the pelvic floor. We inhale, sweep the arms all the way up and overhead. Think about that energy that's running from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone. and unccurl the back toes and root firmly down through the back foot. Yay. Inhale in deeply. Exhale. Release it and let it go. Option to lift the back knee here. You do not have to. You can keep it nice and lowered for your twist. Your choice. Inhale in. Exhale. Reach. Reach the back heel. And [snorts] we'll come into the twist. Moving with our breath. Inhale. Reach up. Exhale. Float it down. Inhale, reach up. Get light on that right palm. Exhale, float it down. Last time. Inhale, reach up. Plant the palms. Step it back to a plank pose. Inhale in. Exhale, lower down. Inhale, open up through the chest. Listen to the sound of your breath. As you exhale, send it back. Send it back all the way. Inhale. Come up. Find that extension once again. Last time we flow here. Exhale. Send it back. Inhale. Extend forward. Tabletop. And last time. Inhale. Come forward. [snorts] Exhale. Send it back. This time we're going to stay here. Toes are curled under. Three breaths. If at any point this is too much for the feet, no problem. Just uncurl the toes and send the hips back. [sighs] After your three cycles of breath, we'll come all the way to all fours. You're going to walk the knees to one side and we're just going to return to come to a seat with the legs extended out long. Bend your knees. Flex your feet when you get here. Inhale. Grab the backs of the

thighs as you look up. Open up through the throat, through the chest. Breathe in. Think up and over. As you exhale, drape the belly over the tops of the thighs and melt your heart forward. Seated forward fold variation. Find what feels good here. Three breaths. Folding inward. [sighs] [snorts] Listen to the sound of your breath. And I'd like to start to invite you as you listen to the sound of your breath to just notice if it is revealing anything to you. Could be physically, emotionally, spiritually. Just notice what is the breath trying to reveal to you. [sighs] — [snorts] — After your three breaths, begin to release. Roll it up. We're going to come to lie down. If you have some props, let's make sure they're nice and close here. If not, no worries. I got you. Let's come to our backs. Hug the knees into the chest. When you get there, give yourself a nice big hug. [sighs] What is the breath trying to reveal to you today? Again, it could be something physical or a little more in your heart space. And then we'll take a twist by allowing the knees to fall to the right, opening up through the left arm. Gentle, nothing forced or pushing here. Inviting full yogic breath. Breathing into the belly, the rib cage, the chest, and then softening the chest, the rib cage, and the belly. [sighs] Melt it through center whenever you're ready. And take it to the other side. Again, finding a couple lovely full yogic breaths here. Listening to your body. and soaking in this time here. Returning to yourself, returning to this quiet space inward. When you're ready, let's bring the knees back to center. If you have a block here, we'll grab it. Plant the palms next to you. We'll inhale in deeply. As [snorts] you exhale, start to peel up through the tailbone. Ground through all four corners of the feet. We can continue doing bridge as we have with the support of our feet and hands only. Or today we might bring a block on any level, lowest level, medium level to lift up through the hips here and rest the weight at the hips. If you do not have a block and you're not resting here, take a breath at the top and then slowly exhale. Make your way to the bottom and then give it a couple rounds moving slowly, mindfully with your breath. If you're able to bring a block underneath the hips, the sacrum area here, keep a mindfulness through all four corners of the feet. And listen to your breath. Everyone relax the skin of your face. In particular, the brow, the jaw. Relaxes the throat. Lovely. And then if you're moving through a flow, let's bring the hips down to the ground. If you're on the block, let's gently remove it. Come all the way back down. Open the knees wide. SOS of the feet come together and hands rest gently on the belly for a reclined cobbler's pose

or saabakanasana. Take three breaths here. Full yoga breaths. [sighs] After your three breaths, we'll grab a bolster or rolled up blanket if you have it and put it under the knees. Again, if you don't have it, no worries. Just an option. Allow the legs to extend out long padding under the knees or not. Take your hands and bring them to your ears. We will create a little space between the index finger and middle finger or the middle finger and ring finger, whatever feels best. We're just going to take a second to move up and down. massaging the ears and behind the ears. Go on now. Give it a try. Deep breath in. Long breath out. [sighs and gasps] Good. Then we'll release that. Release everything. And let's come into a shavasana here. I'm going to spend a couple minutes here. So the invitation is to really allow yourself to be here. Your mind may want to move on to the next thing, but can we allow ourselves to just return to this little bit of time and space where we don't have to do anything but just be. [sighs] Allow the weight of your body to be heavy and allow your breath to just move into just a natural easy rhythm. Soften anything that might still be gripping or holding any tension. Let it go. allowing your body to rest in stillness. Allowing just a couple moments here for your mind to be at ease. And if it feels right for you today, allowing your heart to soften and open. Let's take one more quiet moment here with ourselves. And then when you're ready, we'll slowly return to the breath. And once again, just ask yourself, what is the breath trying to reveal? And we don't really need an answer. It's mostly the listening part that I'm here to tell you as your friend. That's the that's the money part. Just giving yourself the time and the space to listen. So truly whatever is coming up, we're here. We're here to hear it. All right. Inviting some movement back to the fingers and the toes, the ankles and the wrists, the jaw. We'll close the session by bringing the palms together in anali mudra and gently lifting the thumbs up to the third eye.

Feel gentle pressure of the thumbs right here in between your brows. Let's inhale in lots of love together as a community, as a collective. And exhale lots of love out to finish for now. Thank you everyone. Namaste. —