Podcast #172 - Jaya Rāma

Jessica Stickler offers a dynamic yoga practice designed to help students cultivate strength, flexibility, balance, and mindful movement. The episode also connects the physical practice with the Jivamukti Focus of the Month, providing a more holistic approach to yoga, movement, and mindfulness.

The Jivamukti Focus of the Month can be read here:
https://jivamuktiyoga.com/fotm/o%e1%b9%83-namo-narahttps://jivamuktiyoga.com/fotm/overcoming-the-ego-and-separation/

Playlist is here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2RLo5PzvHeuMT72gU8GNO0?si=b33680b6c84647a5

Follow Everywhere: @yogastickler

Jessica Stickler has been teaching Jivamukti Yoga internationally for 18+ years, and is a leading expert in the method having studies directly with Sharon and David, the co-founders of Jivamukti Yoga Method - and having taught internationally as well as mentored dozens of Jivamukti Teachers worldwide.

TRANSCRIPT:

So, we'll sing a call and response. I'll sing, and then you joined.

Jaya Rāma

Together together. Let's sing that one.

Jaya Rāma

One more time for good luckil.

Jaya Rāma

Experiment with, like, you want to hear your own voice, of course, but also experiment with, like, can you also hear all the voices like, can there be a Clarity both between your voice and the other voices in the room? Try again. Try to hear both your own voice and the voice of the community.

Sita Rāma Judge see? Everyone, just a little louder. Judge us. And how does it change the feeling if you sing for someone else in particular? Um. Time.

I am the world's lowest Alto. You guys have to sing the high part for me. Sitara. Giet. Um, one more time.

The other part.

Jai jazz.

Come forward unto hands and knees. We'll press back to downward facing dog.

I was struggling this morning with a very difficult decision. Today is the first day of navaratri, which is a celebration of durga, the goddess, and yet, the focus of the month is on Sita and RAM, so I was, like, well, what do I teach then? Do I sing to Durga instead?

Do I sing to Siege and RAM? What do I do? Very, very important and heavy decisions for a yoga teacher. Okay? And then I started to realize that actually the similarity. In the two stories has to do with the villain of the story has to do with the bad guy of the story.

Come forward into a plank, bring the shoulders forward over the wrists, lower the knees, the chest, and the chin down to the floor. Inhale slide forward into Cobra. Wow, it's really a no cameras Day online. Almost, I get it. I understand. It's one of those days exhale. Tuck the toes under, move the seat back to the feet, and then extend the legs.

Sometimes, you need to not be perceived, and that's okay. If you have cameras on, I do come by and give feedback, but you know, just just, I am attentive to the cameras. But if you want them off, that's okay, too. Come on forward to a plank, bring the shoulders forward of the wrists.

Lower halfway down chaturanga. Upward facing dog. And downward facing dog. Good, uh, walk the feet forward towards the hands, folding forward over the legs. So, in the in the Epic story about Sita and RAM to, uh, you know, like soul mates? Uh, the villain of the story. This guy ravana, he is.

A yogi. Does that surprise you to hear the villain is a yoga practitioner? It's supposed to be surprising, right? It's supposed to. It's supposed to make us think about it, like the why, right? Um, so, uh, ravana is, um, a very. Like he's studied a lot, and he's like intelligent, and he has the like knowledge, and he has the practices, and because he knows the practices he has gotten very powerful.

And, uh. Because his practices aren't rooted in wisdom and compassion, he lets his ego get in the way of. Actions, so no impulse control, he kidnaps Sita. Um, holds her against her will, um. You know, like steals her away, so everything he does doesn't sort of, like, isn't grounded or centered in.

Any sort of like? Integrity, right? That's the word I'm looking for. Okay, widen the feed. Bend the knees come into a deep squatting position.

Okay, every day. It's been a technical issue, so let's see, okay. Well, good. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Okay, squatting position. Here we go. Gotta go with the flow, you know?

So, what we're meant to, you know? One of the things we're meant to take? About the story is. Oh, it's not plugged into the wall. Great. All right, super. Here we go. Here we go hands to the floor, raise the hips up, fold forward over the legs. Oh, good morning, there's the music.

Okay, bring the feet in the legs halfway closer together, hands on the waist, lift all the way upright to a standing position. Hold on to one of your blocks. Stop trying to make position happen. Okay, sorry. This has been, I don't know. It's just off the cuff this week.

Okay, hold one of your blocks in front of you. Hold it like this straight out in front of you, and then squeeze the block with your. This is what you get for being front and center, the squeeze the block with your hands, squeeze the block so hard, squeeze the block even harder than you've ever squeezed a block before in your entire block, squeezing life?

Let that help you to straighten the elbows and help you to squeeze the sort of triceps up onto the back of the arm bones. Keep squeezing the block start to raise the block up overhead. Let the shoulders go ahead and Elevate up towards the ears so that you can lift the block a little higher.

Keep straightening the elbows, lift the block even a little higher than you thought. You could keep straightening the arms. Look up at your block and see if, just by looking up, you can raise the block a little higher. Isn't that weird? And then, uh, just for one more good effort, raise the blog even higher, like you're trying to put that block in the highest shelf in your apartment.

For you than it is. For me, I guess, okay, bring the block forward and down. Don't worry, we're gonna do it again. Reach the block straight Ahead, squeeze that block with both hands, so help to straighten the arms, activate the upper arms, squeeze the skin of the elbows. Yes, that's it.

Raise the block up as high as you can. Let the shoulders shrug upwards. They they kind of need to in order to lift the arms higher and then look up towards your block. Raise the block up even higher still. And then one more effort. Just raise the block of even higher than you thought you could before, and then bring the block forward and down and put that block to this side.

Now, with no block between the hands. Reach your hands forward, reach your hands, and your arms forward. Pretend there's an invisible block between your hands and you're squeezing that invisible up block as hard as you possibly can. Straight arms strong back of arms, especially straight elbows, even yeah, even stretch the skin of the palm of the hands and the fingers.

Yeah, and then reach the arms all the way up overhead. Let the shoulders shrug up. Reach up a little higher. Look between your hands. Reach up even higher. Okay. Keep the arms reaching up. Look straight Ahead. Try reaching the right arm a little higher than the left arm. I knew it.

I knew you could reach higher than what you were reaching and. Relax and then reach the left arm higher than the right arm. And then come back to the center now. Reach both arms higher than you've ever reached your arms and your entire arm, reaching life good, and then release the arms down.

Oh, my gosh, feels better already, doesn't it? It's kind of, like, is it's amazing, okay? Reach the arms up. This time right hand holds left wrist moving into a right side. Bend, bend to the right side. Breathe in. Breathe out! Inhale. Exhale two, Elliot. There's an Elliott shaped. A hole in our room here, where you where we miss you so much.

Reach all the way up. Switch the grip of the wrist and then go the other way bend. Breathe in. Breathe out, one! Breathe in! Breathe out too. Oh, do you need to get to this? Sorry, I'm making a mess three inhale lift all the way up, separate the hands.

Reach up a little extra and exhale. Release the arms, legs, and feet together with your inhale. Reach your arms all the way up overhead. Exhale, fold forward hands to the floor. Inhale halfway lift, look forward. Exhale hop or step back chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog.

Breathe in! Breathe out, one! Inhale. Exhale two. Inhale. Exhale three. Breathe in! Breathe out four inhale! Exhale, bend the knees, inhale Hopper, step feet to hands, exhale, fold forward, inhale, stand up, reach the arms all the way up. Exhale release the arms wonderful inhale! Reach up! Exhale fold all the way forward inhale.

Prepare exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog breathing. Breathe out, one! Inhale. Exhale. Two breathe in. Breathe out three. Inhale. Exhale four breathe in! Breathe out five. Bend the knees inhale Hopper. Step forward feet to hands exhale. Fold forward inhale. Stand up. Reach the arms up.

Exhale release the arms jivamukti style inhale hook thumbs reach arms up and Arch back. Exhale bend the knees, swing the arms behind lace hands together and fold forward inhale hands to the floor. Step the right foot back. Exhale downward facing a dog. Inhale forward into plank. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward, facing dog inhale to plank, exhale knees, chest, and Chin to the floor.

Inhale slide forward Cobra. Exhale, tuck the toes, sit back towards the heels, and then extend the legs. Inhale right foot steps forward. Exhale left foot next to right foot. Fold forward inhale bend, knees, hook, thumbs. Reach up Arch back. Straighten legs at the top. Exhale bend knees, swing arms behind lace hands together, and fold inhale hands down.

Step the left foot back, exhale downward, facing dog inhale forward into plank, exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog inhale forward into plank. Exhale knees, chest chin to the floor, inhale slide forward, Cobra exhale, tuck the toes, sit back towards the heels, and then extend the legs downward.

Dog inhale left foot steps forward. Exhale right foot next to left foot inhale, bend knees, hook thumbs, reach up, Arch back, exhale, stand up, and release the arms. Deeply bend. The knees now reach the arms up utkatasana. Exhale hands to the floor. Fold forward, head goes down, inhale halfway lift, exhale Hopper, step back chaturangan.

Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog inhale step, right foot forward, left heel down, sweep the arms all the way up Warrior one. Maybe, imagine that you're squeezing a block between your hands so that you straighten the arms a little bit more exhale hands to the floor. Step back and lower chaturanga.

Inhale upward facing dog. Exhale downward facing dog inhale. Step the left foot forward, right, heel down. Reach all the way up. Exhale hands to the floor. Step back chaturanga. Inhale upward dog. Exhale downward facing dog one more time. Both sides inhale right foot forward, reach through the arms, energize the arms a bit more than usual, exhale hands to the floor chaturanga.

Inhale upward dog. Exhale downward dog inhale left foot forward Vera, but just no one. Exhale hands to the floor. Step back inhale upward facing dog. Exhale downward facing dog. One breathe in. Breathe out!

Exhale for four. Breathe in. Breathe out, bend the knees, inhale Hopper, step feet to hands, exhale to fold forward, inhale, bend the knees, reach the arms up. Exhale, stand up, and release the arms. Oh, I love it when it works out that way. You can't ever quite time it, but it's always nice when it okay.

Separate the feet a few inches apart, hands on your waist inhale, lift up the chest and Arch back. Exhale, fold forward, reach down, grab hold of the big toes, inhale a breath lift head and chest look forward! Exhale! Fold forward top of the head reaches down in the direction of the floor.

Yum! So all the practices in the world. All the knowledge in the world all the like, uh, power in the world doesn't do. As much good, unless it's like rooted in a sort of. Ethical sort of orientation, right? Got to have practiced a little bit something to God for so that we have, like guard rails guide posts.

Yeah, inhale lift head and chest look forward. Slide the palms of the hands underneath the soles of the feet. So very, very similar in the story of dorga, um, the, the villain, the bad guy, the the he, the demon, really represents the ego demon. He kind of goes crazy, and he starts like taking over different worlds and taking over heaven and Earth.

And like all these, like just more, more and more like this completely greed, driven ego, demon, and uh dorga comes to defeat the demon with all of her power. All of her wonderful power. That is rooted in care connection, Community self-awareness, all that good stuff, inhale look forward, exhale hands on your waist, inhale lift all the way upright to a standing position, exhale feet together, legs together arms alongside the body, inhale bend, the knees reach the arms up.

Exhale. Hands to the floor. Fold forward. Inhale halfway lift exhale chaturanga? Inhale upward facing dog. Yeah, exhale downward facing doc inhale. Step the right foot forward Warrior one. Exhale open hips and arms to the side inhale. Straighten the right leg. Exhale. Reach to the right for triangle. Place the right hand down left arm up for one.

I had. Three. Try to lengthen the right side of the waist, so try to pull the right armpit a little farther away from the right hip pit inhale lift all the way up right to a standing position. That's the technical term exhale bend, the right knee Warrior Two inhale.

Exhale, stretch the arms good breathe in. Breathe out, yeah, great. See if you could sit a little bit deeper in your Warrior Two. Yeah, three back arm matches with the right arm, four breathe in. And breathe out. Inhale straighten the right leg. Exhale. Bend the right knee. Place the right hand outside of the right foot.

Reach the left arm over the left ear, extended side angle for one. Yeah. See if by pressing the left foot down harder, you could stretch longer through the left side, three breathe in. For seal the outer edge of the back foot down, strong five inhale both hands touch down, step into a plank exhale chaturanga.

Inhale upward dog. Exhale downward dog inhale, left foot forward viraba, draw snow one. Exhale open hips and arms to the side inhale. Straighten the left leg. Exhale. Reach to the left triangle, triconasana, one. Chew. That's right. I tuck the left hip crease a little bit more back and down towards the right heel three.

Lengthen the left side as you shorten the right side, so bring this shorter. Yeah, that's it. Inhale lift all the way up, right? Exhale. Bend the left knee varabadrosana two Warrior Two for one stretch out through the arms. Two good try to sit a little bit lower a little bit deeper.

Three Gloria, move your left knee a little to the left, just the knee. Yes, five inhale straighten the left leg. Exhale. Bend the left knee. Place the left hand outside of the left foot, right arm, reaches over the right ear, extended side angle for one. Two good. Yeah, three stretch that right arm even longer, four.

And five inhale. Both hands touch down step into a plank. Exhale chaturanga inhale upward dog. Exhale downward dog. With your inhale. Step the right foot between the hands, but don't change the back foot. Now, don't change the back foot as you exhale start to straighten the right leg, but again, don't change the feet just yet.

Inhale, bend the right knee. Look forward. Exhale. Straighten the right leg and fold forward inhale. Bend the knee. Imagine that you're pushing the right foot forward and down in order to straighten the right leg. Go ahead. One more time inhale Bend, exhale, push the right foot down to extend.

Now, stay there. Don't change the feet yet. Keep the longer stance for now. Keep pushing the right foot forward and down. Keep working towards straightening both legs hips facing forward. Good four. Now, soften the right knee. You can step the back foot in a small step closer and straighten both legs again.

Regular parse fotan Asana classical perspachinasana to breathe in. Breathe out three. Keep pushing back heel down for four. Lift the right hip crease slightly up and back five. Inhale, lift your head in your chest, come up onto the fingertips. Whether your hands are on blocks or on the floor cup, your fingertips on the floor.

And then, whether you're on hands or fingertips, walk the hands as far forward. As you possibly can, while maintaining two straight legs both heels down. So, the fingertips and or the blocks are reaching as far forward of the right foot as is possible reach forward. Oh, yes. Head can hang between the arms.

See if even still you can push more weight into the back foot. Keep trying to straighten the front leg. Now that we've been here, a couple of breaths can the fingertips reach even further forward? Bend the right knee, walk the hands back a step, step into your plank best plank you've ever planked.

Straight legs straight arms look slightly forward. Imagine you're pulling the collarbones forward. Even the soft part of the elbows turn them to face a little bit more forward. Yeah. And then press back downward facing dog inhale. Step the left foot between the hands don't change the back foot now.

Exhale start to straighten the left leg, keep the feet the same, put the foot back where it came from inhale, bend the left knee, look forward. Exhale, straighten the left leg to fold. Inhale bending! Look forward! Exhale, push the left foot down to extend. Inhale Bend. Exhale extend. Now, we're going to keep the longer stance, so don't adjust the foot, even if that's what you usually do.

Keep both hips facing forward all 10 toes facing forward. Keep pushing the left foot down and almost like you're trying to push through the floor. Okay, soften the front knee. Step the back foot in a small step closer. Now anchor the heel down and then start to straighten the front leg again.

Go ahead and fold forward. First, we'll take the regular parse futanasana, the first one straighten that front leg, unless there's something going on with the hamstring.

Okay. Lift your head in your chest cup. The fingertips on the blocks or cup, your fingertips on the floor, walk the fingertips and or the blocks. As far forward of the left foot as you, oh yeah, sneak them even more forward. Yes, keep pushing the back heel down, keep crawling the fingertips a little bit more forward.

Head can hang between your arms. Right, like one thing, uh? One thing I am reminded of? Is? I had a Sanskrit teacher who used to say, like, don't be a knower. Don't be like an. In other words, don't be a know-it-all. Like, just because you do it your way, like, let it let that knowledge like of yoga, meditation, Sanskrit, whatever it is.

Let that knowledge soften a little bit. Be a little bit more breathable. Be a little bit more porous. Be willing to try things. Maybe you haven't tried them in that particular way before. Okay, walk the hands back. Bend the left knee step into a plank. You can either stay in your plank or will take a Rima style plank.

You'll rock forward and back shoulders slightly forward. Shoulders slightly back legs are straight. Try not to raise and lower the hips down, just gliding forward and back. Yeah, just forward, just back. That's all just gliding. Yes, okay. The next time you go back, go back into downward facing dog.

Inhale. Step the right foot between the hands. Don't change the back foot. Lift the arms all the way up for high lunge. Even in your high lunge, pretend you're squeezing a block between your hands. Try to straighten your arms more than you were before. You can let the shoulders shrug up.

That's what they naturally want to do. Don't fight it, and then lean your upper body forward halfway. Lean your upper body forward so that your upper body is parallel to the floor arms parallel to the floor. Keep squeezing that imaginary block out in front of you, or you could even grab a block right and recreate it now.

Pushing off the left toes, try to step straight forward into your Warrior. Three back leg lifts up. Keep squeezing your imaginary block between your hands, energize the arms and then step right back into your high lunge. Reach the arms up inhale, straighten the right leg. Exhale bend the right knee inhale lean.

Like, all the way parallel to the floor all the way parallel to the floor and then just go forward to go into Warrior three, not tilting up or down, just gliding straight Ahead. Let's try one more time on this side, bend the right knee step back, reach up high lunge, straighten the right leg.

Exhale Bend. Lean the upper body forward all the way parallel to the floor and then keep that orientation as you step forward. I threw off the gravitational pull. Now, we're going to stay here one. Keep stretching the arms forward. Try to stretch the back leg a bit more four.

Two more breaths. Okay, step back high lunge reach the arms up inhale, straighten the right leg, exhale to bend, right hand, holds left wrist, turn it into a side Bend side Bend. Yeah, good. One pull on the left wrist, try to straighten the left arm a bit more, straighten the back leg.

More so, you're really opening that whole left side line of the body form. Inhale lift all the way up. Straighten the right leg again. Exhale. Bend the right knee. Place the hands together in prayer and twist to the right. That's it. Standing spinal twist, straightening through the back leg.

That's right. Plug down through the right, uh, through the left big toe Mound push the shoulders back a little, so you're opening up the front of the chest?

Bring both hands to the floor step right into your plank. Step into your plank cup, the right fingertips against the floor. Cup, the right fingertips, and then place the right hand down. That's it. Try the left side cup, the left fingertips, place the left finger hand down, turn the right hand to the right side.

Turn the left hand to the left side. Turn the right hand to face the back, so right fingers face your toes, left fingers face your toes, turn the right hand around to face the front. Turn the left hand around to face the front. Put your knees on the floor.

We're gonna go. We're gonna cycle it back through the other direction, you know, because symmetry, we love it. Us yoga teachers, okay, you can keep your knees on the floor if you want less pressure on the wrist. No problem. Otherwise, step back to your plank. Cup. The left fingertips against the floor and place the left hand down cup.

The right fingertips on the floor, right hand down. Turn the left hand to the side. Turn the right hand to the side. Turn the left hand to face the back. Turn the right hand to face the back. Turn the left hand normal. Turn the right hand normal downward facing dog.

Step the left foot forward between the hands. Don't change the back foot. Reach the arms all the way up high lunge. Try to recreate that muscle memory of squeezing the block between the hands. Oh yeah, super straight arm. Super energized arms inhale straighten the left leg for a moment.

Exhale, bend the left knee, lean the upper body so that it's all the way parallel to the floor, even the arms parallel to the floor and then pushing off the right toes. Lift into a Warrior three variation for today. We're reaching the arms forward, even though we usually do the other thing in order to experience something about the arms, bend the left knee, step back arms, reach up high lunge, straighten the left leg.

Exhale, bend the left knee, lean the upper body forward parallel to the floor, reach forward, and then step into your Warrior three. Bend the left knee one more time. Step back High lunge. Exhale Lean Forward. Step forward Warrior three. This time, we're gonna hold squeeze that invisible block out in front of your head four.

Try to lift the arms a little higher, like higher than the ears. Okay, bend the left knee. Step back High lunge inhale. Straighten the left leg. Exhale. Bend the left knee left. Hand holds right wrist. Bend to the left side side bending here. That's it. Pull on the right wrist a little bit to open up the right arm.

Keep straightening through the back leg more and more. Good with your inhale lift all the way up. Straighten the left leg one more time. Exhale Bend, left knee, this time hands to prayer. Twist to the left. That's it. Strong and straight back leg. Push especially root down through the right big toe Mound back there.

Good straighten, this out a little bit more perfect. Good, bring both hands to the floor step into your plank. This time lower the right forearm right elbow to the floor and then lower the left forearm left elbow to the floor and then bring the right hand to the floor.

Bring the left hand to the floor. Let's reverse it left forearm to the floor, right forearm to the floor left hand to the floor right hand to the floor downward facing dog. Uh, step the right foot wide. Step it all the way to the outside of the right hand.

Yeah, look forward. Walk the hands forward one or two steps. You can stay on straight arms, or you can start to bring the elbows down in the direction of the floor. For lizard eyes forward, though eyes and Chin forward. I've seen a lot of lizards, and I've never seen them look down the front of their body, so look forward.

Glide the shoulders back a little away from the ears. Squeeze your right knee towards the midline of your body. Walk the hands back under the shoulders. Straight arms, lower the left knee down, reach the right arm, forward up, and back. Look over the right shoulder one. Two. You can optionally hold the left knee left foot if you would like one.

Yeah. Okay, that right arm. It's going to reach the same way it came from, so reach all the way up forward and down, and then step back to your downward facing dog. Step the left foot to the outside of the left hand. Walk the hands forward. Option to lower the elbows to the floor for lizard one.

Walk the hands back under the shoulders, straighten the arms, lower the right knee down, reach the left arm forward up, and back option to hold right foot. If you would like, keep descending the hips forward and down. Keep turning the chest. Yes, four. Nice. Okay, reach the left arm back up forward and down and step back downward facing dog.

Bring the knees to the floor. We're gonna take a few rounds of cat and cow, and the reason I laugh is because way back when I first started teaching. A very, very long time ago. Cat and cow was so overtaught everyone all the time. Everyone was teaching cat and cow and I said to myself, I will never.

Teach cat Cow, and recently I've been like, maybe I should teach cat cow. Cut you 20 years later. Okay? Yeah, good. Okay, so now, tuck the toes under press back to a downward dog shape. And even though, like, it's slightly weird feeling. And even though it's a little different, and even though you can't go to the full range of motion that you could on hands and knees.

Try to recreate the cat Cow movements in your downward dog. Keep the hips high and experiment with both arching and rounding feel that Ray. It's a little bit shorter of a range of motion than what you can do on hands and knees, but nonetheless explore that range a little bit for yourself.

And then walk the feet forward towards the hands, but stop when you get about a foot behind the hands or even more so that you're making more of a box with the hands and the feet than a classical utanasana, and you could have your hands on the floor or fingertips or blocks.

Whatever helps you connect to the floor, but then try lengthening the spine, so try lengthening the crown of the head towards the windows and the tailbone towards the back of the room. And again, try to maneuver through. A cat Cow variation here. Feeling the sort of rounding position and then also in particular like feeling that arching position notice when you lift the hips up when you lift the tailbone up.

You get kind of like a little bit more sensation through the backs of the legs, and you can tuck yes. Just a little exploration here.

And then go ahead and grab hold of the waist. And lift all the way upright to a standing position. Okay, turn to face the right side of the room, open the feet wide apart wide straddle hands on your waist inhale. Lift up your chest and Arch back. Exhale fold all the way forward.

Hands on the floor between the feet. You can step your hands back, head towards the floor for the first few breaths, classical proserito parachanasana.

Lift your head in your chest, lengthen through the spine, come up onto fingertips. So, cup the fingertips against the floor, keeping the legs as they are walk the fingertips as far forward as you can without shifting your weight out of your feet. So, your weight is still in your feet, but you're crawling the fingertips as far as you can.

Let the head hang between the arms and then imagine you're going to be in a little tug of war with yourself, so the fingertips are going to pull against the floor. As if to pull you towards the blanket side of the room, but at the same time, the upper leg bones are like pushing back towards the white wall side of the room, and again like the fingertips pull a little more, and then the legs pull a little bit more, and then the fingertips pull a little more, and the legs pull a little more.

So, we're lengthening and stretching the whole upper body. From the fingertips. To the hips. Okay, walk the hands back, lift the head, lift the chest, start to turn the right foot out, bending the right knee, walk the hands to frame the right foot, push off the left toes, lift up standing splits.

But again, we're going to take a little variation here, away from the sort of classical form. So, lift up onto the fingertips, crawl the fingertips as far forward of the right foot as you possibly can ears between arms. Now, again, imagine you're like pulling with the fingertips to pull yourself forward.

You can even move weight into the ball of the right foot. If you want, then imagine someone walks up behind you and pulls on your left foot and let the weight go back into the heel of the right foot. Yes, pull yourself forward more into the ball of the foot and then pull yourself back more into the heel of foot.

You can even Rock forward and back, but seeing, like, tease the fingertips just a little bit more forward each time. Yes, more forward with the hands more forward, more forward more forward. Oh yeah, look at all that space. Yes. Okay, soften the right knee. Step the left foot back where it came from.

We're gonna walk the hands all the way through the straddle all the way through the middle position. Frame the left foot with both hands. Turn the left foot out and then push off the right toes, lifting into standing splits. But again, a little slight variation for today's purposes. Walk the fingertips forward forward forward forward as far as you can head can hang between the arms fingertips Way Forward of your front foot, yes, and then.

Pull with the fingertips a little bit to pull your weight forward towards the ball of the left foot. Imagine someone comes behind you and pulls your right leg to pull you back and then pull a little forward. I'd pull a little back and pull a little forward and pull a little back.

Mmm, so much more intense. Actually, okay? Uh, lift your head and chest. Walk the hands back, feet, and legs together. Hands on your waist lift all the way upright to a standing. Position. Okay. Pretty intense. Okay, let's um, we're gonna go to the wall, so we have actually plenty of space to be along the white wall along the persimmon wall, and also you can put two mats each under the two sconces very side by side.

Take your two blocks with you. Yeah, so short edge of the mat to the wall, two blocks coming along for the ride.

That's. That's apparently it was a big. There was a big kerfuffle about the color. And so I only know the name, the literal name of the paint color because it was like a. A Studio-wide like discussion? Yeah. Does everyone have a spot? Oh, let's find you a spot. Hey, there's.

There's space here. Come on. Your friend will make you space. I'd never want to make little assumptions, but you know? Yours come together, okay? Okay, great. In order to make the zoom people feel included. I have to demonstrate over here for the sake of the camera, so if you can't see, move yourself so that you can see, but I need to kind of be here to make things clear for the online folks.

Okay, so first thing. Is, we're going to experiment with facing the wall. That's it. No. Um. Crack myself up. Okay, reach the reach. The arms up arms are parallel to one another. Look how I'm gonna take a big step back and sometimes you know we do that shoulder stretchy thing where we like sink the chest towards the wall.

This is distinctly not that, but you can do this to feel the contrast, because that can be helpful, right? So, even if I were to start in this position. I'm going to push my hands forward and up into the wall in order to make the shoulders align with the ears you saw, how the chin moves towards the chest, the lower ribs you can't see right now, are pulling into the center of the body, and even the tailbone is moving in.

So, I'm trying to create, like, the strongest straightest line that I possibly can with my body and in particular. I'm trying to activate this, like, back part of the shoulder here. So, once you feel. I mean, you're gonna feel whatever you're gonna feel. I'm not gonna dictate what you're gonna feel.

Just try it.

All I can do is share my experiences and hope. Someone else in the room finds them interesting. Yeah, so you can take a step back. You can start in that stretchy position, no problem, but then push your arms into the wall to activate the arms. Yeah, push no straight arms, straight arms, super straight straighter than straight, and then tuck your tailbone in and your ribs in.

So, you're trying to straighten the front of the body out. Oh yes, oh yes, okay. Take a step forward to stand up, and then we're gonna face away from the wall. Arms up again. So, again, I'm trying to activate the back of the shoulder area. I'm going to take a step away from the wall.

My shoulders are currently at the wall, but I'm going to push my hands into the wall to try to get my shoulders off the wall, so I start here, and I push to try to lift myself off the wall. So, again, we're trying to wake up this back area of the shoulders.

Okay, try. So, arms, yeah, straight arms. Yeah, great. It's all it's like you've already done this before. Straighter arms, straight arms. Oh yes, that's it. Okay, good. Come out of that one. So, I find, you know, I? I've found recently. I think we have been. Under communicating about the role of the back of the shoulder in in handstand, and I'll I'll show you what I mean as as we go, but that's the kind of like through line that I want us to explore right now.

So everyone go ahead and come to hands and knees facing the center of the room. Walk the feet back towards the wall. Touch the wall with your feet. Have your knees under your hips and your shoulders over your wrist, so all fours just crawl the hands like one. Half a hand forward half a hand.

Yeah, perfect. Now, press back like, you're pressing back into a downward dog with your feet at the wall. Uh-Huh! Put one foot and then the other foot right behind your buttocks on the wall, so your feet are the height of your hips, the height of your backside. You can keep the knees bent, or you can start to work on straightening the legs, but push your armpits back towards the wall.

Push your armpits towards the wall and try to feel that same sort of back of shoulder area that we were exploring. A moment ago. All right. Yeah. Okie dokie. Come on down. You're gonna take your blocks. You're gonna put your blocks either on the medium setting or even on the high setting next to the wall.

And we're, it's a very similar setup. Very similar setup as the one we just did. In fact. Let me show. Okay, so something about the one we just did, right, which is the feet at the wall is. My legs are so much stronger than my arms that if I'm if I'm not using the back of my shoulders, it can push my shoulders Way Forward when I strain my legs, right?

So, it's that strength that we were working on of pushing. Into the show of really opening up that area of the shoulders. That's what I'm talking about with the back of the shoulder strength. So, the next thing we're doing? Same setup, but my toes are on the blocks now.

I'm going to bend my knees a little. I'm going to walk my hands back a small step, shoulders over wrists. I'm going to straighten my legs, and I have to push my chest back. I have to push with those same shoulder muscles. Yeah, I'm going to bend my knees.

I'm going to sneak the hands a little closer push with the shoulders. I'm gonna bend my knees, walk my hands, a little closer push. I'm trying to come as close to like a pike position as I possibly can. Yours will probably be better than mine. Okay, let's go.

Yeah, shoulders over wrists, and then you progressively on your own. You toes onto blocks, toes on the tops of the blocks, yeah. And then progressively on your own at your own pace. Bend the knees, take a small step back with the hands, straighten the legs, bend the knees, take a small step.

Back with the hands, oh no, because this camera here is gonna get in the way. Good small step. Go incrementally. Yeah, really nice one more. You can do it. Heck, yeah. Oh wow! Wow, okay, come on, down, come on down. That's good. Okay. Some of you might not know me as well, or my style of teaching as well, but What I try to do is I try to like build one thing on top of another, meaning that if you ever want to go back if if I offer the next thing and you're like, hell, no.

Um, you can go back and do anything. What we've worked on so far, you could face the wall with your hands at the wall. You could do this one. You could do hands and knees. You could do the blocks again. You could do anything. What we've just worked on?

Otherwise, the option? Is to start to turn to face the wall. So, the first thing we're going to do? Is a little weird. It feels weird, it's, but it's really good for experiencing the range of the shoulders in your handstand practice. So, I'm I'm a decent amount of away from the wall.

I'm not super close. Um, I'm going to kick up to the wall, so if you're practicing your kicks, that might just look like repeating your kicks. Otherwise, if you're coming all the way up, bend the knees a little bit feet on the wall. Try cat Cow in your handstand.

Try arching and rounding you. Wanna you wanna start to have a little bit more control of that whole range? Because when you're in handstand? You know, sometimes the shoulders start to fall forward. You want to be able to correct for that. Sometimes, the back starts to Arch. You want to be able to correct for that.

So, you want to have strength through that whole range of motion, not just. When your arms are in the perfectly right place? Okay, so let's try something, even if it's not the. Let's try something. Yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, I always, I, oh, that's? That's kind of one of my little. Teaching prep. Yeah. That's one of my, um. Calling cards. You could say. I like things that thread through the whole class. All that arm stuff we were doing. All that annoying arm stuff with the blocks also relates to handstand.

Yeah.

You might be the first person who has ever been in danger of hitting the.

Okay. Okay, good job. Good job, uh, if you're still. If you're like exploring the handstand cat cow thing and you're having the time of your life, keep going. Otherwise, we're going to just add one more thing again. You can repeat anything what we've already done. Or the next thing?

If you guys could just take one step either back toward, oh sorry. Just take one step one way or the other. Yeah, that's it perfect. Okay, so last things last things. So, instead of here's one thing to try. Instead of kicking up and like, what we usually do is we overshoot the legs, and then we try to correct it.

Yeah, right. And then I'm like, guess the guesswork of, like, trying to find where to be. Yeah, instead of just going to the shape, we don't want to do first. Instead, let's try going to the shape we want to do. So, instead of overshooting, I'm going to kick up with my left leg, but look how my right toes are going to find the wall.

I kick with my leg, and I'm touching the wall. So, I'm trying to train my left leg oop. Not quite. I'm trying to train my left leg to go where I want it to go. Not train it where I don't want to go. Yeah. So you can do like a few on one leg.

A few on the other leg. Okay, try that, and then we're. And then we'll wrap up this wall adventure.

It's good. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh yeah, great. Cool. Yeah, yeah, ooh, yes. Go, go Gloria!

Yes, Alan. Whoop! I know it takes a little brain rethink.

If you need a little more time? Feel free to take a little more time. Feel free to take a little more time if you want, otherwise we're going to start to make our way back towards the middle of the room. Yeah.

All. I just try to share what I'm exploring with my practice and hope hope that someone else finds it interesting. Rely on the law. Oh yeah, we do. And I'm desperately trying to move away from the wall. And it's like this whole, like, how do I? How am I gonna get out of my wall habits?

Okay.

Got in there in a way. Great! Delightful! That's the best news. I've heard all day it's great. All right, yeah, you? And again, if you're still, we're gonna enhance. Today, you take all the time you want. Don't worry about us. Come to the, uh, when you're at the center, come into downward facing dog.

Yeah.

Super! Okay. Come on forward to a plank. Lower through plank all the way onto the abdomen.

Arms alongside the body palms of hands facing the ceiling. Lyft, head, chest, legs up, shalavasana.

Exhale release on down. Arms behind the back, Lace the fingers together. Inhale, lift head, chest legs, shalabasana.

Good exhale release on down. Place the hands either side of the chest inhale lift to Upward dog exhale. Go back downward facing dog. Inhale to plank exhale lower all the way to the floor. Bend the knees, reach back, catch hold of the ankles. Inhale, lift up head chest knees, one.

Good exhale. Release down. One more like that bend the knees. Reach back, catch hold of the ankles, inhale, lift up head, chest, and knees one.

And exhale release on down.

Place the hands either side of the chest. Inhale lift forward and up to upward dog. Exhale, go back downward facing dog. Come on forward to a plank lower all the way to the floor. And then turn over and lay on your back.

Feet on the floor, lift the hips up, interlace the hands behind the back into one fist.

Separate. The hands release the back down to the floor. Now, you could repeat the same, or we're moving into full wheel. Place the hands on the floor either side of your head with your inhale. Lift up orbit on your ass in a full wheel one good.

Chin to the chest slowly release down, keep the feet grounded on the floor. Keep the feet down second time. Place the hands, place the feet. With your inhale, go ahead, lift up second time.

Good chin to the chest, slowly release down, keep the feet on the floor. Keep the feet on the floor, one more. Placed hands, please feet. And inhale lift. Breathe.

There we go. Got chin to the chest and release down. Go ahead and hug the knees into the chest.

Bring the knees all the way over to the left side of the body knees to the left. As you look to the right?

Bring the knees all the way up to the center. And then go the other way knees over to the right side.

Bring the knees up to the center. And then come on up to a seated position, sit all the way upright. You can stay facing this direction, just straighten the legs out in front of you, Flex the feet, and fold forward poshumo tanasana seated forward fold.

One thing that is often on my mind about practice is. This idea, that's said, sort of, over, and over and over again. In the classical texts, and by all the teachers is like? Don't be so goal oriented in your practice. Don't don't like, um, like, overly focus on some sort of external goal.

But the the difficulty in that, of course, is that, how do we tell if it's working? How do we? How do we know if, like, the meditation, the Asana practice, the um, you know, Mantra, practice all the other practices? How do we know if it's working if we're not sort of checking it against some?

Vision of where we'd like to go, right, so that I always find that? Paradox's a little bit difficult to untangle. But there must there must be some sort of guideposts along the way, right? Like, there must be ways to self-reflect and check in and measure, like, hmm, is my practice going the way that I wanted to go?

And I'm talking about like things that that no Fitbit can measure. Your Fitbit can't even measure how much more flexible and strong and and how much more balance you're gaining like. It can do a very limited thing, but it can't do. The important things like measure how much more?

Patients and compassion. You have how much more Community togetherness, how much more present you are, how much like, how do we measure those things right, and how do we catch? Like, what if a if a practice is going amiss, right? If something? You know if you're doing the same meditation again and again, or you're doing?

Uh, you know something funky with your shoulder in a particular Asana again and again. It can create trouble down the road. So, having those sort of like ways to check ourselves having good teachers to inform us about our practice and give us feedback about our practice is one good way.

Staying. Staying humble, staying curious? Other important. Other important things. Okay, when you're finished with pashmotinasana, you can come up and set up for shoulder stand. If you're not taking shoulder stand, feel free to take vippery to karani legs up the wall. If if I just set a bunch of words that don't make sense to you?

Let me know, and we will. Uh, we will get you into something.

You know, all that being said, you know, towards the beginning, I was saying, like? These. These sort of demon figures are sort of. Communicating the idea of having the foundation of our practice sort of rooted in some sort of guiding. Ethical practice as well.

Which is important? And. It's a practice. It's quite nuanced, right? Everything happens sort of on a case-by-case basis. I was talking to. I was talking to a friend of mine who's who studied ethical philosophy. And. He was saying, like, kind of one of the reasons it's so hard to sort of.

Um, make. Ai, follow ethical principles is because. You can't just kind of like put down a list and have. And have, like the result you want, like? It's good to have the principles, but there's always a little bit of like human decision and. And Nuance involved. Like, don't lie, except, you know, do you lie to say to like, keep someone from being hurt or killed?

Yeah, of course, you do, right? So, there has to be like a little bit of like personal and social give to the rules. That's why, like a list of rules given to a chatbot, doesn't like, work right. At the same time, we need some sort of guidelines, some sort of guard rails to like, help.

Help with the sharp edges, you know?

If you're still in shoulder stand, start to make your way into plow. If you're in something that's got two sides, you might want to switch sides so you're even on both sides.

And then, from plow slowly starting to roll. Down out of it.

If you were practicing shoulder stand to come into fish?

And then chin into the chest.

And release down, setting up for shavasana.

Start to deepen the breath.

Start to bring some movement into the body.

Gather up the knees. Roll to the right hand side.

Come on up to a seated position.

It can be good to put something under your seat not required, but it can help. Uh, your hips and? Legs to relax.

Sort of foundational instruction for all meditation practices is approximately the same, which is to start by. Focusing the attention on the breath and training the mind on the breath. After that, there's a lot of different, um. Techniques, so if you have some specific meditation practice that you're trained on, like that, you can go ahead and go into that, but I'll just start with the fundamental instruction.

So, try to relax, relax the hips belly. Arms hands face.

Be still. Sometimes that can involve some effort.

Feel the breath moving in the body.

Keep the attention on the breath for the inhale, the exhale. Even if it just starts with one breath, maybe the Mind wanders come back. Try to add a breath.

Thank you all so much for making time for practice today and for all of your hard work. As always, have a wonderful Sunday. We'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody. Thanks! If you borrowed one of our mats, you can, uh, there's some spray bottles at the back of the room and some racks right outside.

The room that you can hang it up to dry. And if you have any questions, let me know.

Hi!

Yeah, I think it was Victoria. Also, maybe by the process of elimination, did you just have one person that you weren't sure of? Yes.

Um, but it's fine because I can do it by process of elimination because I know everyone who was on.