Podcast #167 - Compassion and Tara

Okay.

Can I get a thumbs up for sound online? Great! Thank you, we're gonna. We have the second mic that's gonna attempt to do some ambient sound. Um, it's imperfect, of course, if you're online. But this is the this is the sound setup that we have at the moment, so.

Work with what we have. So welcome, everybody! Thanks so much for joining today, uh. Today, I have my friends, one nation sound that will be. Accompanying us with live sound for our practice today. So, um, thanks, and we hope you enjoy it. Um, also, I did just want to say because it's fresh in my mind.

I am planning to. Take a group back to Nepal in early 2027, and I'm sending out the like, pre-sale, like the secret pre-sale info today. Um, before I sort of announce it to The Wider world. So if you're interested, if you even have a little bit of interest in March 2027, going to Kathmandu Valley with me.

Um, uh, don't leave without giving me your email and I'll send you info later today. All, right, cool. So, um? Go ahead and sit up, tall, find a good seat.

All right. Find a good seat, comfortable seat, sit up tall. Think of, you know, sometimes. Actually, this is a good place to start, even just that first breath before Ohm sometimes, when, um. Sometimes when the teacher says like, okay, deep breath in, well, like we could be it, we could be at any point in our breath.

You might already have taken an inhale. You might be at the bottom of it. Exhale. You might be somewhere in between. You might be somewhere in between. So, actually, before you take that first inhale, let's empty out together so that we can fill with breath, right? It's like, if you have, you know?

If you already have a cup that's full, you can fill it more. So, we got to empty out first and then fill it up. So, go ahead, empty out that breath. Inhale deep breath in.

Again, big, full, deep breath in.

One more inhale.

Good. Take a deep, full breath in. And a full exhale. Now, just take a halfway breath like comfortable breath, and we'll begin a round of kapalabati. So short, sharp exhalations. You're pumping the stomach back towards the spine. Try to keep everything else still your shoulders still face. Still, just the abdomen is pumping, and if you're not quite sure what kapalabhati is.

You can listen to some of your neighbors who are more familiar with it. This is, um. Sort of another method for, let's call it emptying the cup right for getting it for a sort of clearing out cleaning out the old so that we can make space for the new.

Yeah, Springtime is a good time for that activity. That type of activity? Okay, so start to just slow the pace of the pumpings, just a little more space between each. And then exhale a full breath out. Inhale deep, full breath in. Exhale full complete breath out! Deep, full breath in.

Full, complete breath out. Another round kapala Batista take about a halfway breath, comfortable breath, and then begin your pumpings. Again, think of almost having like a little bit of a staccato. Exhale really? Vibrant, little sparkly exhale. And then just let the inhale happen passively. Yeah.

See if you could just increase the intensity a little bit now. Either speed or strength of pumping, but just try to amplify it up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And then go ahead and start to slow the pumpings down and exhale completely. Full, deep breath in start right away, your ujjai breathing.

So, keeping the mouth closed, exhale through the nose. So, breath makes a soft whispery sound at the back of the throat and then, as you inhale, hold mulabunda in and up. So, pelvic floor lifting and then keep those two aspects working together. Mulabunda and ujai breath work together for the whole rest of the practice until shavasana.

Good luck. Think of it as a version of meditation practice, right? Like, every time you remember that you forgot your breath, come back to it every time that you remember the pelvic floor lock come back to it and just keep like harnessing those two activities, uh, the whole practice.

Yeah, okay, let's come forward onto hands and knees. And we'll press back to a downward facing. Dog. I came across a story this week.

A, a teacher, a guru, a monk was. Talking to his students and he's, and he tells the students the following story, he says. A man is walking with a cup of coffee and another man bumps into him, and he asks the students. Why did the first man spill coffee?

And the students are like, well, because the guy bumped into him, of course. That was the cause. Of the spilling of the coffee, right? Uh, but the teacher says, no, no, no, no? He spilled coffee because there was coffee in his cup. So, if there was water in the cup, he would have spilled water.

If there was some other substance in the cup, he would have spilled some other substance. So, the point of the story being? What are we? What attributes are we filling ourselves up with such that when we, when we get a bump? When we get a bump, what spills out of us?

I think we, I think we probably all experienced having people in our life who maybe they get bumped and anger spills right out right? Or, um? Whatever. But like, I personally, I hope that through my practice, I have been sort of filling my cup with compassion so that when I get bumped into compassion, spills out kindness, spills out spaciousness, spills out.

I hope I'm still working on it, but right. So, like that question of, like, what do we want to fill our cup with? So that when things get bumpy. The thing. The thing that we want to spill out spills out and not something else. Walk the feet forward towards the hands and fold forward over the legs, you know, for a little while, um, you know, all the Buddhist teachings.

They say, they say, like, don't don't indulge anger in impatience. Actually, it might feel good in the moment. But, like, don't indulge in, and then for a few years recently, there was like this. There's like this point of view that was sort of coming out in pop psychology of like of, like having catharsis like, yeah, go ahead.

Go to that break room and break things or go, you know, go kind of let out your anger. But real science is now catching back up to the reality that the more we indulge those emotions, the quicker they are to surface, right? So, to go back to the ancient wisdom, the the ancient teachings, um, don't indulge those those, uh?

Instances, because then you'll just be more inclined to to reach for that reaction later. Walk the feet wide, bend the knees, come into a squatting position, hands together at the center of the chest. Yeah.

Bring the hands down to the floor, raise the hips up, and fold forward over the legs. Bring the feet halfway closer together, arms behind the back, Lace the fingers together into one fist, reach the arms away from the back. With your inhale, bend your knees, open your chest, look forward.

Exhale, straighten the legs and fold forward. Inhale, bend the knees, open the chest, look ahead. Exhale straighten the legs to fold two more inhale Bend. Exhale extend. Inhale to bend. And exhale. Extend hands on your waist. Lift all the way upright to a standing position. Reach the arms up overhead.

Clasp the hands together. Inhale a breath. Exhale Bend to the left side. Inhale lift up to the center exhale right side. Inhale lift up to the center. Exhale left. Inhale, lift up, exhale, right side. Inhale, lift up, breathing, breathing everybody. Exhale Bend, left, inhale, lift up and exhale Bend, right side.

Good lift all the way up. Reach the arms up a little extra. See how far down you could feel that reaching, like, reach, so that you open up your armpits, the sides of your waist, even the hips, legs, feet, feel the reaching and then release. Feet and legs together arms alongside the body, preparing for Surya namaskar Sun citations.

With the inhale reach the arms all the way up overhead, hands pressed together. Exhale, fold forward hands to the floor beside the feet. Inhale, prepare, exhale, hop, step, or walk back to chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog breathing. Breathe out! Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale three. Inhale.

Exhale. Four inhale. Exhale, bend the knees, inhale Hopper, step forward feet to hands, exhale, fold forward, inhale, stand up, reach the arms up. Exhale, release the arms inhale, reach up hands, press look up towards your hands, exhale fold all the way forward, remember breath, and mulabanda inhale look forward!

Exhale Hopper step back chaturanga inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog breathing. Breathe out, one steady breathing inhale. Exhale for two. Inhale. Exhale three breathe in! Breathe out four inhale! Exhale, bend the knees, inhale Hopper, step forward, exhale, fold forward, inhale, stand up, reach the arms all the way up.

Exhale, release the arms inhale, reach arms overhead. Exhale, fold forward hands to the floor inhale. Look forward. Exhale, hop, step, or walk back chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog breathe in. Breathe out! Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale three breathe in! Breathe out! Inhale. Exhale, bend the knees, inhale upper, step forward feet to hands, exhale, fold forward, inhale, stand up, reach the arms up.

Exhale, release the arms, hook your thumbs in front of you, inhale, sweep the arms forward and up, arch the back. Exhale, bend the knees, swing the arms behind the back, lace the hands together, fold forward inhale, place the hands down, step the right foot back. Look forward. 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 and Chin to the floor. Inhale slide forward Cobra exhale, tuck the toes, sit back towards the feet, and then extend the legs downward dog inhale right foot forward. Exhale left foot next to right foot.

Fold forward inhale bend, knees hook, thumbs. Reach up Arch back, straighten legs, exhale Bend knees, swing arms behind lace hands together and fold inhale hands down. Step the left foot back. Exhale downward facing dog inhale plank exhale chaturanga inhale upward, face exhale downward, face inhale plank, exhale knees, chest, and Chin to the floor.

Inhale slide forward into Cobra exhale. Tuck the toes sit all the way back towards the feet and then extend the legs. Inhale left foot forward. Exhale, right, foot forward, inhale bend, knees, hook, thumbs, reach up, Arch, back, exhale, stand up, and release the arms. Bend the knees deeply reach the arms up utkatasana.

I see all hands to the floor, fold forward. Inhale. Look forward to prepare exhale Hopper. Step back chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog inhale. Step the right foot forward, left heel down, reach up Warrior one. Exhale, hands down. Step back in lower chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog inhale.

Step the left foot forward. Reach up Warrior one. Exhale, hands down, step back and lower chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog breathe in. Breathe out! Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale three breathe in! Breathe out! Inhale. Good exhale. Bend the knees. Look forward. Inhale upper. Step forward feet to hands and exhale.

Fold inhale. Bend the knees deeply. Reach the arms up chair pose. Exhale, stand up, and release the arms. Let's turn to the right hand side. Turn to the right. Open the feet wide apart. And turn the toes a little bit in towards each other. Heels a little bit out hands on your waist wider.

Yeah, inhale! Lift up the chest Arch back exhale! Fold forward, uh, hands touch the floor crown of the head reaching towards the floor. Uh, between the feet. Yeah, go wider with the feet. Yeah, awesome. And try to notice is the weight all the way back in the heels. Can I bring some weight more forward to the center of the feet?

Keep breathing three.

Live with your inhale. Lift your head and your chest. Exhale hands on your waist inhale. Lift all the way upright. Exhale arms behind the back Lace, the fingers together inhale, lift up the chest, Arch back exhale, fold forward top of the head, reaching down in the direction of the floor arms, reaching away from the back breathing.

Breathe out in! Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Three. Breathing. Breathe out for a good inhale. Exhale with your inhale stand all the way upright. Exhale hands on your waist inhale. Lift up the chest and Arch back. Exhale. Fold forward, this time. Reach out and grab hold of the ankles. Hold the front of the ankles inhale.

Look forward. Exhale. Fold forward top of the head reaching down in the direction of the floor for one. Yeah, elbows can even bend out to the right and left side a bit.

Good, keep hold of your ankles. Inhale, look forward. Exhale. Bend the right knee, but keep both feet flat. Inhale. Come back up to the center. Exhale. Bend to the left knee. Inhale Center exhale Bend, right? Inhale Center exhale Bend left? Inhale Center exhale Bend, right knee. Inhale Center exhale Bend left knee, but this time bring the fingertips onto the floor.

Keep that left knee bending walk the fingertips as far forward out in front of you as you can and walk both hands over to the left. So, walk the left hand to the left and walk the right hand near it. Don't change the feet. Don't change the feet. The feet stayed the same.

Yes, we turn this in again. Yep, perfect, and you're just reaching and stretching out that whole right side seam of the body. Okay, extend the left leg, bend the right knee, and walk both hands all the way over to the right side. Like, almost almost like you're trying to reach towards 11 o'clock or something in the room?

Yeah, that's it good. Inhale, extend both legs. Exhale hands on your waist. Inhale to stand all the way upright exhale. Join feet and legs together. Turn to face the front. That's it, uh, join the feet and the legs all the way together. So, try to have as much of the insides of the legs touching as possible, hands together at the center of the chest, lift the heels, lift the heels very high up, so you're on your tippy toes.

Yeah, and then whatever parts of the legs can squeeze together, squeeze them together parts of the upper legs, the knees, the lower legs, maybe ankles, maybe bunions. Whatever can touch squeezes towards the midline. And then reach the arms all the way up overhead. See if just by reaching up a little bit higher, you could lift higher up onto the balls of the feet.

Good balancing here. Two, that's it. Reach reach. Reach three now. Simultaneously, start to bend the knees and bend the elbows. See if you can start to descend your seat towards your raised heels as you bring your hands towards Heart Center. Yeah. Okay, uh, good, keep the heels lifting. Keep the heels lifting now.

Extend the arms and the legs come all the way back up. The way you came. Yeah, and try to time it so that you like the legs straighten at the same time that the elbows straighten, perhaps. Yeah, and then one more time bend, elbows, and knees and try to time it so that the thumbs meet the Heart Center at the same time that your seat reaches your feet.

Yeah, that's it, and then point the knees a little bit more forward and down so that you can pull the spine more vertically more upright in the spine. That's it. To keep squeezing the inner legs together, keep drawing the navel in and up. And then open the knees out to the sides hands to the floor, preparing for Crow pose arm balancing.

So place the knees high up. Foot balancing and arms arm balancing. Oh, I know, and it takes a while, too. Okay, see about lifting, maybe one foot off the floor at a time, maybe both feet off the floor. Yeah, good.

Oh, really. Nice Kalia, good. Okay, wherever you are, hop step, or walk back to chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog. Exhale downward facing dog. So? As we as we sort of move through the first part of the sequence, I'm going to make some of the vinyasas optional. They're all optional technically.

Um, but the reason being is that we're going to be on our hands a little bit more throughout the class. So, if you want to like, save your wrists a little bit, you might want. You might start to skip some of the chaturangas. If you want to add them back in, that's okay, too, though.

Okay, step the right foot forward Warrior one. Exhale open hips and arms to the side inhale, straighten the right leg, and then reach to the right for triangle. Place the right hand down left arm reaches up one good turn the upper right leg a little bit out. That's it too.

Try to tighten up above the knees, so squeeze the quadricep muscles before. Even pull the left shoulder back a bit more. With your inhale stand all the way up right, exhale. Bend the right knee Warrior, two most of us, need a little bit longer stance for Warrior Two than what we had for triangles, so feel free to move the feet a little farther apart from one another and then bend a little bit more deeply into the front knee.

Good stretch, the arms lengthen through the arms. Look out past the right hand, four. Five inhale straighten the right leg. Exhale Bend the right knee. Place the right hand outside of the right foot and reach the left arm all the way over the left ear. For extended side angle, one yeah.

Bend the right knee all the way over the right ankle, so your lower leg wants to be vertical to the floor. Push the right knee against the right arm. That's it, good. And then see if you can spin the chest open towards the side of the room even more.

All right, bring both hands to the floor. You can either step back to downward dog, or you can move through chaturanga, upward dog, Etc. Good inhale. Step the left foot forward Warrior one. Exhale open hips and arms to the side inhale. Straighten the left leg. Exhale. Reach to the left for trequinasana triangle one.

Yeah, two. Three good pull right shoulder back more and more four? Go ahead, five inhale stand all the way up right. Exhale, bend the left knee or your two, and again feel free to lengthen your stance a bit more. Some of us need a little bit longer stands for, uh, Warrior Two.

Yeah, lift the center of the chest, stretch the arms a little bit longer. Like, you're trying to touch both sides of the room and then look out past the left hand. Yeah, pour it really nice. Inhale, straighten left leg, exhale Bend, left knee Place, left hand outside of left foot, right.

Arm reaches all the way over the right ear. Go ahead and press the left leg against the left arm, shrug the left shoulder away, right shoulder away from the ear.

Good, spin the chest more and more. Inhale both hands to the floor, either step step back to downward dog, or you may move through an extra chaturanga upward facing. Moving into downward facing dog?

Bend the knees and look forward! Hopper step feet to hands. And fold forward. Okay, walk, uh, walk the feet back a little bit of a step, like, maybe eight ten inches behind your hands, and you're going to want to place one of your blocks kind of out in front of where your hands are.

So, if your hands and your block sort of make a triangle, now you might. You might want to use the block at a higher setting. Once you find out what we're doing, but just bear with me for now. Okay, so we're gonna come into Crow. We're going to come into Crow, and we're going to practice touching the head to the block.

So, I'm going to lean, so far, forward that the head touches down now. One advantage that that has, is it forces my feet to go up there. There will be a point where my head touches down that my feet can't even stay on the floor anymore. Yeah, and then the other thing we're practicing is, we're going to practice lifting sort of from head to block to head up.

So, keeping the feet up, you're going to try to lift your head and maintain your croch. Try that a couple of times. Lean Forward. Head to the block. Try to pick the head up with the feet up if it doesn't work. Try again. If it does work, try again.

Yeah. Block. My block is a little more forward than you might think. It's, it really should be sort of the top of the triangle with your two wrists. Yeah. Uh-Huh, feet, feet, feet, yes, so close. And then practice lifting the head up. Try to keep your feet up off the floor and practice lifting the head up.

That's it. That's it. Okay? Nicely done! When you've had enough of that, come back into downward facing dog.

With your inhale step, the right foot forward between the hands don't change the back foot. Let the hips lower down lower than the height of the front knee, so just let the hips kind of sink down into gravity. Keep the back knee off the floor, though, and then lift the hips back up where they came from and then let the hips lower down into gravity, just lift the hips to the height of the front knee.

So right, thigh parallel to the floor, that's it. And then lower the hips down, down, down, down, down down. Good, and again lift the hips just to the height of the front knee. Have the front thigh parallel to the floor, reach the arms all the way up for high lunge.

Exhale with your inhale. Straighten the right leg. Exhale, bend the right knee. Inhale straighten. Exhale Bend. Inhale straighten. Exhale Bend inhale hands to the floor. Exhale start to straighten out the front leg. Don't change the feet yet. Inhale, bend the right knee. Look forward. Exhale. Straighten the right leg.

Fold forward. One more inhale bending. Look forward. Exhale, extending to full keep the feet the same. Don't change the feet yet. Fold forward. Stay here. Both legs straight, all 10 toes facing forward, both the front part of both hips facing forward. Poor, good, and then imagine you want to push that right foot down into the floor, even harder.

Okay, now soften the right knee. Now, sneak the back foot in a small step closer, even angling the back foot at a little angle to get the heel down and then straighten both legs again. For more of a classical pause for chanasana. One fold forward one? See that the inner edge of the right foot isn't leaving the floor.

Sometimes. Uh, sometimes we inadvertently add a little rotation to the right leg, and that that can end up turning the foot off the floor. You keep that inner border of the foot nicely anchored down, yeah. Okay, inhale. Look forward. Exhale hands on the waist inhale lift all the way upright to a standing position and reach the left arm up.

And then exhale. Take the left hand all the way across to the right side of the right foot all the way to the outside of the foot. Reach the right arm up, rotated triangle one.

Good. Pull the right hip back even more. Three anchor the back, heel down.

Inhale both hands to the floor, either step. Step back to downward dog or move through your Vinyasa.

God, step the left foot forward. Lower the hips down. Yeah, go go almost to the point where the right knee touches down, but then stop just shy of putting it down and then bring the hips back up to the height of the left knee and then let the hips sink low, low, low into gravity and then lift the hips up again and let the hips sink low and then just lift the hips to the height of the front knee, so your left thigh is parallel to the floor.

Reach the arms up high lunge. Exhale, inhale, straighten the left leg. Exhale Bend, left knee. Inhale, straighten, and extend exhale to bend. Inhale straighten. Exhale Bend, inhale hands to the floor, keep the feet the same. Don't adjust the feet yet. Exhale straighten the front leg. Keep the feet the same inhale Bend front knee.

Exhale extend. Inhale to bend. Exhale, extend, keep the feet the same. Don't change the feet. Stay here with all 10 toes facing forward. This sort of longer version of forward bend, push the left foot forward and down into the floor good. And now go ahead, bend the front knee, sneak the back foot in a small step closer, and then straighten the front leg again.

Keep trying to face the front of both hips straight Ahead as best you can.

Good inhale. Look forward. Exhale hands on waist inhale. Stand all the way upright and reach the right arm up. And then take the right arm all the way across to the left side of the left foot rotated triangle. Left arm reaches up one. To Anchor that back, heel down.

Well.

Inhale, bend the left knee hands to the floor. Exhale either step back to downward dog or move through your Vinyasa. Inhale, step the right foot forward Warrior one. Exhale, bring the arms behind the back and interweave the hands together behind the back. Good inhale, straighten the right leg, lift up the chest, Arch back, exhale, bend, the right knee, deeply bow forward, humble Warrior, top of head reaching down towards the InStep side of the right foot.

Arms, reaching away from the back as best you can try to level out the shoulders towards the floor. So, it might be the case that the right shoulder needs to lift up a little left. Shoulder needs to drop down a little in order to make them even. Inhale to stand all the way up right, straighten both legs.

Exhale open the arms, hips, and shoulders to the side Warrior Two. Inhale. Place the right hand on the InStep side of the right foot. Left arm reaches straight up. Lean the right arm back against the right leg. Connect the arm and the leg together. Yeah, nice. Good.

Bring the left hand to the floor next to the right hand. Pivot up the left back heel and heel toe, the right foot a little to the right. Lower the left knee down, push into the hands, and lift the head. Lift the chest. Let the hips move down in the direction of the floor, even lengthening the front of the left thigh towards the floor.

As you lift head and chest spreading collarbones, yes? Walk the hands two steps forward. Two whole steps. Yeah. And then either stay like this or bring the elbows down to the floor for lizard, and then you have some options here as well. You could stay like this or tuck the left toes under lift the left knee up.

Are you doing so far? So, so far, okay.

Walk the hands back under the shoulders, step back downward dog, or move through a Vinyasa.

Step the left foot forward Warrior one. Exhale arms behind the back, Lace the fingers together. Inhale, straighten the left leg, Arch back. Exhale. Bend the left knee bow forward. Crown of head reaches towards inside of left. One, yeah, pull the left hip back a little, so both buttocks are putting more to the back of the room.

Inhale to stand all the way upright. Exhale Open Arms, hips, shoulders to the side. Inhale. Place the left hand inside of left foot, right arm, reaches straight up extended side angle B good, yeah.

Bring the right hand to the floor next to the left hand. Pivot up that right back. Heel and wiggle the left foot a little to the left. Lower the right knee down. Let the hips go heavy into gravity, even as you lift the head and the chest. Imagine you're like lengthening the front of the right thigh more towards the floor, lifting and spreading the collarbones, yeah.

Take two steps forward with the hands and then option to lower the elbows to the floor. Also optional to either keep the back knee down or lift it up. That's up to you.

Good walk the hands back under the shoulders. Step back downward dog will move through Vinyasa.

Okay, bring the knees to the floor, bring the knees to the floor, and once again, we're going to set one of the blocks out in front of where the hands are, and again, there are three settings so you can be on the high setting, the medium setting the low setting.

If you, if you try the next thing and it's way too easy, you can even take the block away. But but let me at least show you what we're doing before you make that critical decision. So, you're going to start look again. My hands are pretty far back from the block, so the block I'm imagining that the block is the top of a little triangle on the floor, then I'm going to press back into an all like a short downward dog.

I'm going to lean forward touch the crown of my head to the block and lift back up. If it's too easy, go lower. If it's still too easy, move the block away and again aim for the head to be at the top of that triangle there. Go ahead, give it a try.

The excitement in this room is just exhilarating. I can tell everybody is so excited for this one. Okay. Yeah, so block pretty far. Yes. I know. I know, lifting back up is so hard.

Yeah, try four or five. Okay.

If four or five was very easy for you to do. Move the block lower or even out of the way, and try challenging yourself to go a little bit more. Yeah, maybe. Do two or three on an even lower setting. Oh well, the secret to that is I've been doing it for like nine months.

I've been laboring at it for nine months and and struggling, so you only when you see the demonstration part. You only see this snapshot of my practice, but you don't get to see unfortunately all of the like. Sweat and Tears and frustration and ringing and pulling my hair out that it took to get there.

Okay. If you're really, really excited about this, you could keep going otherwise. Make your way into downward talk.

Step the right foot between the hands, lower the left knee down, reach the arms up, prepare to twist exhale hands, do prayer, twist to the right side. I promise it is going somewhere. I promise. Okay. Bend the front knee a little bit more. Send the hips forward option to tuck the back toes under.

Lift the back knee up. One, yes.

Both hands to the floor, cross the left knee behind the right foot, come to sit down. Seated spinal twist reach the left arm up and then twist to the right side.

Turn the face forward. Exhale counter twist. Turn to face forward. Set up for ankle to knee Flex out through both feet. You can either stack the right leg on top or cross the right leg in front. Yeah, and then fold forward. Bold feed, flexing strongly.

Lift all the way upright to a seated position. And then just come forward into, like, um, a kneeling position. But look how my ankles are crossed, so my right ankle is just crossed over my left ankle, and I'm going to have a block under each hand for this one.

I like the second setting. I like level two setting. Think of the upper body as moving forward into an almost chaturanga shape. In fact, I have to go so low with the shoulders to be able to pick up my shins and knees off the floor. Yeah, try that lean wave.

Sorry. Lean Way Forward so you could see if you could pick up both legs, even if it's just for a split second. That's great, and then legs down. Switch the cross of the ankles and then Lean Forward chaturanga shape in the arms. Try to lift the ankles lift the knees, lift the feet yes, and then set them down.

Switch cross lift. Yeah, think about coming forward with the shoulders forward with the shoulders. Release switch switch the cross of the legs last one lean Way Forward Way Forward Way Forward. That's it. And then release down. Make your way back to downward facing dog.

Inhale, step the left foot forward, exhale the right knee down, inhale reach the arms up, exhale hands to prayer, twist to the left side. From there, you have the option to extend the back leg. Yeah.

And inhale both hands to the floor. Exhale cross the right knee behind the left foot. Come to sit down, inhale, reach the right arm up. Exhale twist to the left side. Yeah, look all the way over the left shoulder breathing.

Turn the face forward counter twist. Turn the face forward. Ankle to knee with the legs so left leg can go on top or left. Leg can cross in the front. Flex the feet. Fold forward.

All the way upright to a seated position. Same idea just crawl forward into a kneeling position. Cross the ankles blocks can be. I prefer the second setting, but you can do first setting or even move the blocks away if you like. Yeah, lean the shoulders forward, lift the knees up.

Tuck the knees towards the chest. That's it. Tuck, yes, and then knees down. Switch the cross of the legs. It only gets easier if you do it more. Okay, Lean Forward lift trying to get that nice tuck position, just not. Yes, and that's where your press handstand and stuff could could come from could start to come from.

Okay, go ahead two more times, Lean Forward. And all those floating back Maneuvers all the yeah? Amazing. Okay, when you're finished, come into downward facing dog.

These are the second time or the first one. Yeah, for me too, actually. Just now, just now, I was, like, oh, look at me. Isn't that so funny? I always say I would say you gotta try everything twice. Okay. First time. It's a struggle second time. You're like, hey, it worked.

Okay, uh, or you can at least feel it more the second time around. Okay, lift the left leg up and back behind you down. Dog splits exhale. Bring the knee towards your nose shoulders over the wrists. Inhale down dog splits. Reach up and back. Exhale knee to the nose.

Inhale down dog splits now. See if you can walk your hands back towards your right foot for standing splits. Yeah. Raise the the left leg High Point the left toes. Two, yes.

And then walk the hands forward into your down dog. Splits bring the left knee all the way forward between your hands for a pigeon moving into pigeon. Untuck, the right toes, fold forward good.

God walk the hands back under the shoulders, either press back to downward dog or move through chaturanga up dog.

That right leg lifts up and back. Right knee towards nose shoulders over wrists, inhale right, leg up, and back. Exhale right knee to nose? Inhale. Reach up and back. Walk the hands back towards the left foot. Set the heel down straight left leg. Raise the right leg a little higher point, right toes.

Hot, and then walk the hands forward into your down dog splits. Bring the right knee right leg all the way up between the hands, setting up for pigeon. And fold forward.

Okay, walking the hands back under the shoulders. Make your way back to downward dog if that includes a few extra movements. Great! Okay. Bring the knees to the floor. Child's pose. So? I know, I know many of us know how to come into headstand in all kinds of different ways.

For the sake of today's practice. I'm going to call through some specific steps because it's going to inform the next way we come into it, right? So, just follow the steps, even if you usually do things a different way so that we can translate it into the next thing.

We're doing so straighten the arms forward out in front of you, interweave the hands together, elbows a little narrower than the shoulders, tuck the head onto the floor behind the hands. And then lift the knees up. So you're in your half head, stand half downward dog shape, and then here's where the steps.

Uh, here's where the steps are going to start to matter. So, walk the feet. I mean, steps always matter, but you know what, I mean, okay? Walk the feet in a little closer. Bend one knee into the chest and then squeeze that knee so hard into the chest that the second knee bends into the chest.

So you've got this little tuck knee position upside down tuck, and then. From that upside down tuck, you can start to unfold the knees up to the ceiling. And then, lastly, the feet. Tried to reduce or eliminate any hopping. We don't want momentum here. No momentum involved.

Nice, nicely done. Okay. Okay, as much as possible. Try to come down the same way. Hang on one second. Try to come down the same way, so you tuck the knee feet towards the buttocks, the knees towards the chest, and then lower the feet to the floor. Okay. Okay, have a look.

So, there's another. There are many ways of coming into headstand. There's another way of coming into headstand. That's a tripod headstand right, and some of us are going to find it. Some of us are going to find it more accessible than supported headstands. Some of us are going to find it less accessible, but you just never know until you experiment with both.

And we can always learn something. About the other one from the from the other one, right? So the idea again is to have the head a bit forward of the hands at the very top of, like a perfectly equilateral triangle, and where on the head you might ask. Well, I'm so glad you asked, um.

It's not really the top of the head, right? It's not really, they say crown of the head, and we think top of the head. It's not really there. What I like to think of is if I were a unicorn if I were a unicorn, the like root of my horn would sort of start here, right?

So, like, that spot is the spot that I'm placing on the floor. Okay, so just imagine your unicorn horn, and then you're gut. You got to go really forward with it. You want to be able to see your own fingertips. Look at how my forearms are parallel to the perpendicular to the floor, rather.

So, we're gonna practice again, and in this case, you can rest one knee at a time on the upper arms and then, from there. For some of us, that might make it easier to come into that knee tuck position. And then, from there, you can unfold the legs, and if you are feeling quite adventurous today, you can also practice lifting from here.

Into Crow. Isn't that a funny thing about demonstrating is, it's always a little bit of a Hail, Mary. But anyway, there's a way in which you can lift the head off the floor and balance for a moment in Crow. As a variation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right. So, let's try hands on the floor.

Unicorn horn. A little bit forward of your hands. You should be able to see your fingertips in your peripheral vision. Yeah, and then squeeze the inner elbows towards each other. Tippy toe, the toes a little closer. See if you could get one knee to balance on one upper arm, two knees to bounce, and two upper arms, and then maybe you can bend the knees into the chest.

Tuck knee position? Yeah, keep squeezing the elbows in towards each other. Magnetize the elbows, yeah?

Yes. Oh, push, yes, I know. So tricky! Yeah, but and, and that is a critical. That is a critical step, uh, visualizing yourself doing. It is a critical step, even all the top. You know, athletes and dancers and musicians, you know, all these sort of, you know, people who are excelling in their fields.

They all use visualization to get there, so it's very important part of practice very important. Okay. I can take the hint, let's move on. Downward dog.

You're like, we're done with that now. Thank you. Coming forward into a plank lower all the way to the floor. Big toes together arms alongside the body. Lift up shalabasana one.

And slowly release down. Interweave the hands behind the back into one fist. Lift the arms, the head, chest, and legs.

Go ahead and then slowly release down. Prop up onto the forearms and elbows for Sphinx. Bend the left knee, reach back and hold the left foot. With the left hand, press the left heel down towards the outer hip. Keep turning the shoulders to face forward, even tip of the nose to face forward.

That's it.

Wherever the left foot is now, hold it there. Don't let it move, but kick your foot back up into your hand without letting it actually move so your foot is kicking your hand, but you're resisting with your foot. Keep facing forward. Yeah.

Okay, release that come back to the center. Bend the right knee. Reach back with the right hand. Catch the InStep side of the right foot. Press the right heel down towards the outer hip. Lift the head in the chest a bit more. Try to face both shoulders, both armpits forward.

Yeah, and then wherever the right foot is now, keep it there, but kick up into your hand. Yeah, so keep pushing down with the hand. Keep pushing down. Foot is kicking up Hound is resisting down. Yeah. And release. Come back to the center. Place the hands either side of the chest.

Inhale upward dog. Exhale downward dog. Inhale, come forward into a plank. Exhale lower all the way to the floor. Bend the knees, reach back, catch hold of the ankles. Inhale, lift up head, chest, and knees. Don your Asana!

I am slowly released down.

Bend the knees second time. Hold the ankles. Inhale, lift up!

Good exhale release on down. Turn all the way over onto the back. Feet on the floor, lift the hips up, interweave the hands behind the back.

Let's bring the feet a little narrower.

Separate. The hands release the back down to the floor. You could repeat the same. Otherwise, we're moving into full wheel, placing the hands to either side of the ears with your inhale. Go ahead, lift up.

Into the chest, slowly release down.

Place the hands, place the feet second time, inhale, lift up.

Chin to the chest slowly release down.

Third time. Here goes place the hands, place the feet. Inhale lift on up one?

And come on down. Hug the knees into the chest.

Bring the knees over to the left side of the body as you look to the right.

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

Bring the knee is all the way up to the center. Come on up to a seated position. You can stay facing the direction we're facing now, just straighten the legs forward out in front of you. Flex, the feet, sit up, tall, fold forward.

Lift all the way upright to a seated position. Bend both knees into the chest, open both knees out to the sides feet together. And fold forward bottom panasana.

Lift all the way upright to a seated position. Keep the shape of the legs the same, but lay down on your back soup.

You can stay like this. Welcome to stay like this, or you can finish your practice with your shoulder stem. Or, you could take a version of legs up the wall. If you like, we can find you some wall space if you need it.

So, spoiler alert. Spoiler alert, we're we're. I'm planning to do meditation today before shavasana, so? I know how it can be you get to your shoulder stand and you're like, well. I know where we're going next. But. But instead, we're going to sit up first and take a meditation so.

You know? Stick with me, stick with me. Yeah.

Yeah.

So, if you are still in shoulder stand, start to come into plow. Halasana feet behind the head?

Yes, so if you're finished with your shoulder stand early, you could of course come to sit up, but we're not quite done with this sequence here. So, rolling out a plow come into fish. Matzius and a crown of the head to the floor. That's it.

And then bring your chin to your chest. Release down, just lay on the back for one second, just. Just to kind of even everything out again after that back bend. And then gather up the knees. To gather up the knees, roll to the right hand side. And come on up.

To sit. So much like, um. Much like? Much like spring cleaning, right? Meditation. Meditation is one of those things where, like, it kind of feels like it's getting worse before it gets better, right? Spring cleaning, you have to, like, like everything gets Messier before it all gets organized again.

It's similar with similar with meditation. Um. Hard to hard to empty the cup if we don't kind of know what's already in the cup. First of all, hard to hard to clean and reorganize if we don't know what's in there in the first place. So, that's why meditation can be so difficult for so many of us.

A lengthy amount of time, you know it. It takes quite a bit of effort and diligence, and like sometimes a little frustration, sometimes a little like, why am I even doing this, you know? Um, so it is what it is, right? So, let's find a comfortable seat. Sit up tall.

Relax the face eyes. Cheeks, tongue. Shoulders.

Practice focusing the attention on the breath. So, noticing. Each time there's inhaling each time. There's exhaling.

Tara is the goddess of compassion. So invoking Tara to sort of fill our hearts. With joy and compassion.

I'll sing first, and then you can sing it back.

Om Tare Turare Ture Soha
Om Tare Turare Ture Soha
Om Tare Turare Ture Soha
Om Tare Turare Ture Soha
Om Tare Turare Ture Soha

You're welcome to stay in this meditative position, or you can move into shavasana.

Start to deepen the breath.

Some movement into the body.

Take a moment to move or stretch as you need and then. Gather up the knees.

Come on up to a seated position.

Shanty for peace? Shining!

Thanks, everybody! Thanks so much for making the time to be here for this wonderful opportunity to practice together. As always, it's better practicing together in my opinion, and uh, join me in thanking One Nation sound for joining us today. These guys do a whole bunch of different, like sound baths and events, and stuff all over the city.

So, you want to stay in touch. You might want to get their Instagram or get one of their stickers or something, so you can see when they're going to be playing next. Yeah, and if you have any questions about class, you can ask me. And if you have any questions about the music, you can ask them okay.

Thanks everybody! You okay?

Oh, good. Um, did you?