Hi everyone! Welcome to this session of what I call energy flow yoga
This yoga class is designed to support you in your meditative practice
When we're speaking about yoga we're also speaking about non-duality
because yoga itself is a non-dual system, which a lot of people,
especially in our modern culture, don't realize.
where normally our focus is on the posture, as though the stretch
is what yoga is. But of course if you've looked into yoga even a little bit
you'll realize that the first limb of yoga is posture not even necessarily stretch.
Often it's referring to sitting in meditative posture.
And the other seven limbs are all pointing to deeper States both within
our energy our psychology, referring to the breath and ultimately to Consciousness
and so this practice is really designed around incorporating the Asana,
which we will be doing. Which will be various postures and flows,
with the most important aspect of the practice which is concentration
awareness, non-resistance. Just like in the meditative practice.
So we can learn to actually go into our yoga postures flows,
whatever it is we're doing, using the same principle
and so that is the most important part of the practice
you could kind of say the stretch is secondary.
So for this session we're going to go into a format which I often use
starting with breathwork which in yoga is called Pranayama
and then we'll be moving into body stretches or holds.
Normally from a Yin perspective. So Yin stretches and also Yin flows I call them
that build up Prana in the body. Prana actually refers to Life Force energy
and if you've heard the word Chi, then it's the same thing except that
would be the word used more in the Chinese system.
And so as we're working that the mindfulness concentration feeling
are a priority and then the stretch is just something that's going to happen
So, we'll laid in, we'll begin lying on our back so let's just take a moment
and find your mat I'm going to be sitting while I give you the instructions
when I teach, what I'm trying to do is teach clearly enough where you don't have
to open your eyes often, that way your attention is focused inwards on feeling.
So I'll give you another moment here to just find the mat, lying down
in shavasana posture, you can lie down with your hands facing up preferably
with an open heart posture, but if that's not good for your shoulder then just
lie down with whatever position works best for your body.
In the case of prana, that we're talking about on a deep level of practice
pranayama sometimes is referred to only as the very natural breath
that occurs when you're in deep meditation
But for the sake of these practices Pranyama will refer to any way
of working with your breath. so we'll be manipulating the breath first
and then we'll eventually be going into the natural breath.
So as you're lay there, the first thing you want to do is notice your entire body,
and just feel into what's going on right now from head to toe
kind of taking in information not labeling anything
so if there's tension you can acknowledge that if you feel good
maybe there's something like anxiety you can acknowledge that and
these things, these feelings, these things that we're noticing inside the body
and the mind and in the emotional system are part of our practice.
And so we'll do our very best to just allow them to be there as we go through.
So let's begin by noticing the breath rising and falling at the navel,
you're just going to notice the belly expanding and contracting
like a wave, and just allow your attention to notice that as you breathe
there's an expansion in the belly and as you exhale there's a release in the belly
going back down. And we'll just stay there for a couple breaths
before we begin to deepen it. So as you're feeling into your breath
now begin to deepen it towards your collar bone
so you're going to inhale from the belly, once the belly feels full
you're filling up the sternum and then the upper chest right to the collar bone
so when you're into a full exaggerated breath, your inhale feels like a vessel
from the bottom to the top, and the collar bone being the top of the glass.
now we're going to exhale and release from the collar bone all the way back down
until you get to the lower belly. So this is called diaphragmic breathing,
and one of the main areas we want to hone in on, is the diaphragm itself moving
as you inhale and exhale. So you're going to feel that underneath your rib cage.
So for this first breath, think about it more as you're not trying to sink in,
you're trying to unlock the physical breath structure, by using a little bit of
strength here on the breath. And you'll feel the ribs opening. You'll probably
notice where you may be holding some chronic tensions. Let's just take
a couple more of those, helping us get into the body to prepare for practice
Something that can be helpful while you're doing this and throughout the practice
is to relax all your face muscles. So relax your jaw, relax your forehead
and your eyes, your mouth, just let everything go and try to feel more
into a surrendered state. And then we'll go into the second breath.
So we've started to get into the body. The second breath is focused much more
on activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
This is part of the goal of this practice because when we're in parasympathetic
everything's working right and we're in a relaxed state.
So to help augment that, I'm going to focus on a prolonged exhale
so let's begin still doing your diaphragm breathing
we start start with the count of 3 3 6. So the first number is your inhale.
You're going to inhale to the count of three, filling up.
You don't have to fill it to the point where you feel strained
and once you fill up, you're going to hold your breath for three
and let everything relax. So when you're holding the breath
don't try to force anything just let it settle and then exhale
to the long count of six out the nose. So you're inhaling three,
holding for three, and exhaling for six.
And I know there's many of us at every level of practice here,
so some of you might right away move up to 4 4 8 or 5 5 10
if you find that your natural breath control is much deeper,
but the key here is don't move up by straining, you would only add a number
if it feels like that's softening into your body, and you're not having to force it.
So inhaling first number, holding the second number and the exhale
equals the inhale and hold. So let's say you eventually moved up to 6 6 12
then you would always have the exhale equaling the inhale and hold.
And this is a great breath to do whenever you need it. Even during the day
you can take a couple minutes and do this, and it will help to reset your system.
We'll just stay here for another minute or so
Noticing where your tension is. So one of the other key points
of the practice that we're doing and about to go into is
we want to find the tension. So it's a little different than
what we're used to, which is trying to get away from the tension normally.
In this type of practice you're going to allow yourself
to sink into the tension, and be present with it as you find it.
So let's finish one more of those complete breaths,
whatever number you're at and then you're going to let it go.
Once you let it go, simply notice the body from head to toe to fingertip
and you will already notice that you're a little bit more in your body
most likely even after doing this for about 5 minutes or so
Now as we move into the stretches, we're going to do this practice
mostly on a lower body sequence we're going to be working the hips
and the legs and the spinal column and then we'll be doing another practice
after this, that will focus more on the upper body.
So you're lined down you're just going to turn over, or I'm going to turn over
and we're going to bend the knees we'll have the feet flat
going to have the palms down by my side, so we're going to work into what's called
spinal breathing. So I've got the shoulder blades underneath me
now notice where your hip bones are and you want to have your knees
the same distance apart and your heels so that creates a straight line of energy.
Another big aspect of this particular practice is we're going to build up
a lot of energy and Prana circulating in the body.
I've got the palms down shoulder weights underneath me I'm going to pull my chin
into my throat slightly, so the back of my neck is open
and then the last thing is to tuck your tailbone all the way between your legs
until there's no arch in your back and you're going to see that's already
a fairly deep internal stretch on the back of your abdominal cavity.
This position here is what it feels like when you complete your exhale.
Chin tucked, tailbone tucked, palms and shoulder blades down
and there's two parts of this breath. The first part is just the spine,
as I inhale, come into a deep arch in my spine, pull the breath all the way
to the upper chest and squeeze your shoulder blades together.
and as you exhale, tuck your chin and tailbone pull the diaphragm up,
and squeeze the breath out of your body.
Okay so we're going to inhale expand and arch.
Exhale release, tuck the chin and tailbone.
Right now you're still working the breath that means we're not really concerned
with the natural breath yet, we'll be doing that more in the holds. So here
you're deepening the breath and utilizing the breath to move your spinal column.
We're just going to do a couple of these
and then we will be adding the upper body to it.
Make sure I'm not going to get hooked on the mic.
So on your next inhale, you've exhaled tucked everything in,
on your inhale I'm going to start to float the arms up like this,
now as I do, I want to splay the fingers wide, rotate the palms outwards
and then reach all the way up into a full arch of my spine like that,
[ this cord is kind of pulling up short ]
We are now going to exhale, as the exhale happens the palms are down, and notice
that as I exhale further and further down, I tuck the chin and tailbone,
I flatten everything out and press the palms into the floor.
And then you release, relax, inhale, receive the breath.
Expand, open the ribs, rotate the palms out, exhale.
Palms are facing the floor coming down
Notice how deep of an elongation that is to your spine as you tuck the chin
and tailbone and bring the arms down.
It's actually one of the deepest spinal stretches
because you really can't get any further on elongation
unlike a forward fold, when you're bent. When I do this and I draw the chin in
and pull the tailbone through the whole spine is lengthened
and being pulled up and down, so you're decompressing the discs.
Let's work that for one more.
Exhaling, tucking and then just relax everything now and simply notice the spine
So throughout the practice we'll be checking in and just noticing
what's going on. Feel your body and be aware of any sensation of
internal energy which normally is going to feel like flow, expansion, tingling
in the body, sometimes heat. We're going to go through a full Yin stretch
for each hip now. So from this position I'm going to take my left knee
and pull it to my chest and I'll explain one thing here on Yin stretching.
The more you let go, the more you're in a Yin stretch. So when I'm in a true Yin
stretch, I'm not flexing the target muscle I'm allowing it to expand and release.
So what that looks like is I would take my left hand and wrap it around the outside
or the inside of my knee and I'm going to pull the leg open to the left side
as far out as I can and then just let everything settle, and then
your right leg is just going to hang over to the right side on its own
I want my chin tucked in a little bit and you don't have to do anything here.
You can keep the arm down by your side or maybe even better would be bring the arm
like that at 90° and it creates a counterweight for the left leg.
Now my job is to simply focus my attention on the area that's being stretched
So my awareness is on the left groin and on the breath at the same time and
this is the most important component of the practice is maintain
the awareness focused and whenever you notice that you're back in your mind,
which will happen, find your breath and find the body part.
So my attention is over here on the left groin, and what I'm attempting to do
is simply be present with it, and not resist anything that's occurring
just like you would do when you're meditating you're witnessing it
and allowing it to naturally unfold through the weight of your arm
you don't even have to pull the leg down.
And after about 45 seconds or so the tendons will start stretching so in the
Yin stretch you're actually opening up the connective tissue not just the muscles.
We're going to draw the left knee in now. Inhale and just feel that stretch that
just took place in the drawing. Exhale, pull the left knee to your chest,
and then sit your left ankle on your right knee and we're going to get ready to go
into the hip opener. So I'll give you two options here. The first one is slightly
more intense than the second. Your left hand is going to slide between your legs
and grab the back of your right knee. Your right hand meets it, you allow
the right knee to hang loosely and then you pull the right knee towards you
until you hit a level that you think is a maximum of 95%
So again, you're not forcing any stretches. This is often a misconception in
modern yoga where it becomes really more like a competition against yourself
or other people. You want to listen to your body so if I'm at about 95%
that means there's a little bit of room to give, that means the muscle is not locked
now my attention goes to my left glut and immediately I find my breath and I begin
to allow the breath to really take on a natural rhythm which will be a little
deeper than when you started so you're both aware of the natural breath
coming and going and you're aware of the left hip.
Now the alternative if this was too much for you is to keep
your right foot down, reach up and grab your left leg in the same position,
like this, and just pull the leg towards you, so it's almost the same stretch
not quite as intense. And we'll be here for a few more breaths.
Something else that's helpful is to keep the chin tucked into the throat
that's always lengthening your neck and spine. So remember that you're not trying
to change anything, you're simply allowing the awareness to sink into
the area that's being stretched and over time that awareness is what will do all
the work for you. As you know, you can't force yourself to relax and you can't
force yourself to release tension. You can try with the thinking mind
and normally all it does is the opposite which is create more tension.
These stretches can easily be held for 5 minutes if you want to do
this on your own and that's typical in a Yin practice
Then from here I'm going to allow the right foot to come down and
I'll bring my arms out palms up in tea posture. I'm going to wrap the left leg
around the right leg and then hook the ankles. If you can
and if you can't that's fine. When I'm twisting I want to do it on the exhale,
so I'm going to take a deep breath in and then exhale drop your legs over to the
right as you turn your head to the left and just let everything again settle,
surrender to gravity.
In this position now, obviously you're opening the outside of your hip
but you're also opening up your chest and your starting especially the chest
on the left side so if you notice your left shoulder one little thing you
could add here, is to slightly contract your left shoulder blade towards your
spine opening your chest a little further. And your head is turned away from the legs
If this gets a little intense on your hips you would place a pillow under the outside
of your leg supporting, so that you're not going too far over.
Your awareness is directed to the outside of the hip and also the left rib cage
or the left shoulder. So this whole general area.
Always check in make sure you're relaxing your face muscles they're not clenching.
So remember what you're doing is you're meditating while you stretch,
and truthfully that's much more clear definition of yoga, as yoga means to
bring together or coalesce. I'll talk a little bit more about that later
in another class. From here we inhale center, unwind the legs, and then we'll
just release them and give the hips a break there for a second.
You're going to place the hands down over the hip bones. I'm going to take
a breath into the hip bones, and exhale down and out my legs like a wave.
Okay so just breathe where you feel the hip bones and then follow
your attention down your legs and out as you exhale this is called sweeping,
sometimes it's called flushing, there's different names for these techniques
and they're all based on your ability to concentrate. The more that you can
concentrate, the more you can have an effect.
And notice how different the hip you just worked on feels to the side you haven't.
Then from here we're going to bend the knees, feet flat.
I'll begin by opening the right groin. So pull your right knee to center
and then wrap yourhand around the inside, the outside or another alternative is
to bring your arm up underneath the leg like that, so it's really up to you
they're all going to do something quite similar I'm going to draw
the leg out to the right side and then allow the left leg to just flop over
and hang, then bring your left arm 90° palms up, tuck your chin, and surrender
into the floor, surrender to gravity. begin to be aware of both
the right groin and your breath.
Notice what is a deep but smooth breath, when you're not controlling it you'll
notice that your breath is slowly taking on a deeper rhythm without having to do
anything. And you may also notice that now and again you require a deep breath
so listen to that if all of a sudden your body wants to take an exaggerated
deep breath. maybe you're aware of some tension then go with that.
And you'll see that little by little the longer you hold these the more
that the area opens. So in a future class we'll perhaps explore during the full
five minute holds. We're going to bring the right knee back to center now.
And then take your right knee, just bring it into your chest for a sec and take a
breath and then we'll sit the right ankle on the left knee, and as you did
on the other side, thread through, put the right arm between your legs,
grab the back of your left knee, left hand meets it, relax the left knee,
tuck your chin in, and pull the knee towards you until you hit a maximum
of 95% then hold steady and begin to sink your attention and breath into your
right glute. And the alternative is the same if this gets too much
you have your right foot down and you're carrying your left leg towards you.
I didn't emphasize this on the other side but make sure that your knee the
one that you're grabbing is completely relaxed so you're not tensing up.
If you were to flex your left knee even a little bit, notice how that starts
locking up your hips so just keep that leg hanging loosely.
keeping the chin tucked in, you could also try drawing the shoulder blades
a little bit towards the floor and that will help open up the chest.
When I'm practicing my eyes are almost always closed, because then I can feel
much more than when they're open. And notice that when the eyes are open,
how that might take your attention away from your body.
And then from here the left foot is going to come down and then I'm going
to bring the arms out 90° palms up or down if that's better for you.
Wrap the leg over, the right leg over the left, take a deep breath in
and then drop over on the exhale just allowing it to release as you go over.
Your head's going to turn away from the legs and you want to keep
your right shoulder on the mat. So if you were to go too far over,
you might see that the right shoulder is pulling up. Try to use this right shoulder
as a gauge. If it's on the mat I'll allow myself to go over. And then what will
happen is you'll not just feel the hip opener you'll feel the stretch
move up to here. And this is where you can also slightly squeeze
your right shoulder blade inwards if you prefer.
Couple more breaths here.
Being aware of the feeling in the stretch and the breath itself.
And then inhaling next inhale we'll bring the knees back up to center.
Unwind the legs and just let your legs go here.
Bring the arms down, feel into your entire body line from head to toe.
What do you notice different in your body now?
After having done, I believe probably around 25 minutes.
So 25 minutes goes pretty quick when you're mindful.
And notice how you can feel your body.
Probably quite a bit more than when you started.
The most important thing to remember is that that feeling of embodiment
is not coming really from the stretches,
it's coming from your awareness, that you've been bringing
and cultivating into the body.
The effect of that, is it opens up all the Nadis which is another word for meridians
in the system and you'll be able to feel that.
Notice any areas that you can't feel yet and that might give you an indicator
where the energy is not flowing as strongly in the body.
So we're just going to do a little scan for the next couple minutes
before we finish up.
There're many forms of scanning and if you've done Yoga Nidra,
I highly recommend it, It often involves body scans.
Then the deeper ones will go into some of the energy rhythms in the body
which we'll explore over time.
So let's just do a generalized scan with our breath.
First thing I'll do, is notice my right hip and the right hip joint,
and you're going to take a deep breath into your right hip.
And then exhale slowly down, and out your right leg.
Noticing all the sensations and again same thing.
And as you do that pay attention to what are the sensations .
it's quite interesting. If you've never felt energy before,
it's not as hard as you think.
Same thing on the left hip. Bring your attention over and we'll be doing
two breaths into the left hip.
Breathing into the hip socket exhaling down as though it all just flushes down
and out your foot on the left side.
Finishing the breath you're on now, notice both of your legs
let the breath just breathe itself now and just simply notice your hips and your legs
and what do you feel. Do both legs feel equal or can you feel the circulation
more on one side, which is more common as the energy circulates in our body often
not in balance. Normally one side we'll have more energy, and one side
not quite as much. Just like one side of the body is often weaker
and one side is tighter.
Okay now take one or two hands and place it over your navel
and bring all of your awareness to the belly button. The the belly button is
considered the life force center of the whole body another way that
we learn to ground our energy is by focusing at the belly.
So as you inhale, using your imagination, imagine a little ball of energy expanding.
Maybe a little sun and as you exhale, it just settles there.
And again as you inhale, even more energy comes to the navel.
We'll do this a couple times.
Always noticing when the Mind tries to wander. If it does, gently come back
to what you're doing, or what you're not doing.
So finishing one more breath, let that go and we'll get ready
to close out the practice, which in this style that I'm teaching we always do
that in sitting. So if you can, just roll over into fetal posture on one side.
And then we'll make our way back up to sitting. If this was a longer practice
then often we would sit in Savasana for a longer period of time just allowing the
integration factor. but after doing all that, you probably will notice
that sitting is a little bit easier than when you began.
So try to find a good stacked posture, the sit bones are in place,
there's not an exaggerate forward or rear arch in the lower back.
Shoulders are up and over brought into place, the chin is tucked in gently.
Looking forward, just feel into this strong posture for a moment.
Once again, closing the eyes.
Take a couple of deep breaths in and deep breaths out, letting it go.
And then we're going to finish with the closing movement,
I'm going to bring my arms out to the side and we'll do this three times.
Inhaling up, imagine you're gathering energy between your arms, and exhale down,
sweep it through both your body and the energy field around the body.
If you want to bring in a visualization, you could visualize the energy or a color
or just try to be in the feeling center.
The key as always is to be present, and when you're present then something magical
can happen that normally doesn't happen when we're stuck in our mind.
And the next time you come up the palms come together.
When you're ready, then you'll come down into prayer posture in front of the chest.
We always close focused at the heart. Taking a moment here, noticing your heart.
Maybe there's an intention or prayer.
And then we'll close taking a bow.
Namaste. Thank you.