Podcast #171 - May All Beings

You'll need a belt and a block for this class. In this class, we are working on opening up the shoulders (shoulder extention) we will use the wall a bit and work towards full wheel. 

The Jivamukti Focus of the Month can be read here:
https://jivamuktiyoga.com/fotm/all-you-need-is-love/

Playlist is here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6qpyQBRf4Tkat6smhrXjz5?si=e35afa4c4fd541b2

Follow Everywhere: @yogastickler

Hello! Great! Uh guys, we're going to use, uh, we're going to use two blocks today, and we're going to use a belt. So, get two blocks and a belt, and you can have, of course, more things, but we're going to use those. At minimum.

Yeah. Wow!

Elliot. How wonderful.

Kelly, you can hear me.

Kelly, you can hear me. Yeah. Always sound check. Always do soundcheck welcome! Come on in! Hi, hi. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.

Okay.

They call me smooth stickler.

No apologies necessary, ever?

Let's try that that. Locasama star.

Keep going look as a star.

My star.

Look us. A must. Locas.

Look asama star.

Sing itch! Specific star.

Sing it for yourself. To sing it for a stranger. Maybe someone you ran into in this room? And maybe someone you don't really want to sing it to look as a star. I think we need to do that one again.

Feel different singing towards different kind of categories of people, some you love some. You don't love so much yourself a stranger. Different qualities come up inside or even even come through in the voice, maybe? Um. At the recommendation of a very dear friend of mine, Jules fabre. Chief mooked, a yoga teacher extraordinaire.

Um. He, uh, he suggested reading this book, uh, standing at the edge. He does a he does a monthly book club online. If you're, if you're keen on that, um, you should join up with his online group Liberation lab. It's, uh, it's really good, and they're often having very rich and fruitful discussions.

Of all different sort of corners of spiritual practice, but anyhow. Um, as soon as I saw the new book announced, I was, like, yeah, definitely going to read that one. So Joan Halifax is a wonderful spiritual teacher and standing at the edge. Is really beautiful. The part that I'm at now is talking about the sort of difference between empathy and compassion and warning that, like empathy is sometimes a good thing, but if it goes sort of untrained or unregulated or sort of without parameters, it can be an edge experience that sort of tips us over into either.

Overwhelm and and that that can lead to like inaction. So, we like, feel very big, but don't like take action because of it, or we can become sort of like, righteously, morally indignant and kind of be, um, sort of, all caught up in the ego space about empathy, kind of like, get used to how good it feels to feel.

Um, others suffering right, and um. What was the third one like, avoid? It fits into, like, fight flight, freeze response. Oh, to, like, shut off to run away from it, right? Kind of un. If we're not like monitoring regulating, strengthening our our compassion muscles. Unregulated empathy can also turn into like shutdown, right, like, I'm just gonna ignore it.

I'm gonna run away from it. I'm not gonna look anymore. I'm not going to register it, right? Whereas? Um, whereas training ourselves in compassion, which is sort of a mental muscle that can be changed through meditation practice through contemplative practice through yoga practice, right? Um, that that gives us sort of a healthy differentiation between the person that we are.

That is affected, and ourselves, which, who can be an agent of sort of action or helpfulness, potentially right? But we got to do some training around it. Yeah, so we're going to do some meditation towards the end of class, um, about this. But, you know, even chanting Loca samaste.

May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may may my actions, right? It's a humble ask. It's not like, I'm gonna change the world. May my actions affect others in some some small way, right? Um, and even singing that sort of with sort of different kinds of people in mind, the person you'd rather not sing it to the person that you, uh, don't know at all a perfect stranger.

Uh, the person you already have affection and fun is for, and of course, yourself, and um, involving all four of those contemplations, is important for that sort of. Integration piece. Yeah, okay, so let's move. Let's come forward onto hands and knees, and we'll press back. Let's press back to downward facing dog.

You know? If you know me? You probably know that I'm up to no good. I'm a bit of a I like to. I like to create a little little yoga Mischief. And if you don't know me at all? Um, this is basically going to be a restorative class, you know?

Okay, downward dog downward dog. Yeah. And you know we are at a a such a unique? Point in human history in that our sphere of awareness is, like, ever expanding. We are aware of so many things happening in so many parts of the planet to so many different kinds of beings on a level that like.

You couldn't contemplate even. A generation ago, even 10 years ago, right? And, um, and yet, our sphere of influence is still roughly the same, right? So that can create a real sense of like? Um. A real sense of kind of Disconnect between kind of how much empathy, how much sort of suffering I'm taking in about the world, and how much, um, action?

I can, um, sort of, take in the world. Um. Okay, come on forward to a plank, bring the shoulders forward over the wrist. As you exhale, lower the knees, the chest, and the chin to the floor. Inhale, slide forward into Cobra, point the toes, exhale. Tuck the toes under, move the seed all the way back to the feet, and then extend the legs downward facing dog.

But nonetheless, even though there is this Chasm between our sphere of awareness and our sphere of influence. I promise that finding little ways to take action small action in the world is the antidote to the despair of, you know, seeing all the suffering in the world, just finding little one little action you can do.

Every time you're hearing something overwhelming something, um? Intense, you know, which is basically every minute now. Okay, come on forward to a plank lower halfway down chaturanga inhale upward facing dog. Exhale downward facing dog good? Uh, take the feet a little wider. Bend the right knee and push your left heel down harder into the floor and just pause there.

Breathe into the back of the left leg. And then press the right heel down. Bend the left knee. And then let's switch. Press the left heel down, bend the right knee. Last one, press right heel down bend, left knee. Good press, both heels down and then start to walk the feet forward towards the hands.

Feet can be about hip width, distance apart, bend the knees and let the upper body sort of hang over the leg. So, the head hangs down the Torso hangs down towards legs, bend the knees even more, reach around and hold the back of your ankles back of your calves.

Good. Let the head in the chest be heavy. Start to straighten the legs, even if they don't straighten all the way and pull on the back of your ankles. And then again, bend the knees, bend the knees quite a bit, let the head hang down, let the chest drape towards the thighs, and then, as you exhale, straighten the legs.

See if the head and chest can go down more. Do that three more times. Let's do it with some breathing inhale Bend. Exhale to extend. Good inhale to bend. Exhale to extend last one inhale Bend. Exhale extend. Did you get a belt okay, uh, wide, in the feet? Let go of the ankles, widen the feet all the way out to the width of the mat, more or less bend.

The knees come into a deep, squatting position hands together at the center of the chest, lifting up tall in the upper body. Tried to move the chest towards the thumbs, thumbs towards the chest.

And then bring the hands down to the floor, raise the hips up, and fold forward over the legs. Bring the feet halfway closer together. Uh, bring the hands onto the waist lift all the way upright to a standing position. And then, uh, take your belt. Pick up your belt if I didn't hand you.

Raise your raise your hand so I can bring you one real quick. Okay, unroll your belt. Hold the fabric end in one hand and the Buckle in the other. Here you go, take this one. And then put the fabric end through the two metal rings in One Direction. As you go back, double back the other direction, split the Rings, go over the first ring, and under the second ring and pull on the fabric.

Fabric end to tighten. And then you want the loop part to be about shoulder width distance apart. How will you tell you're going to put your wrists right into your belt and you're going to push the wrists? Into the belt. The arm should straighten out in front of you.

Arms should be approximately parallel if the hands are a little too wide and wider than your shoulders, then your belt is a little too wide go narrower. Come on! Yes, and then if your hands are a little narrower than your shoulders, then your belt might be a little too narrow.

Let's widen it just a tiny bit. That's it. Okay, palms of hands face in towards each other, stretch the fingers, stretch the palms of the hands, feel how if you push your hands out into your belt strong. Can you feel how the like collarbones lift and spread in the upper arms kind of plug back and down.

Keep pushing your hands out into your belt really hard. Reach the arms up overhead, reach the arms up. Keep pushing your wrists into your belt so that it helps you straighten your arms more and then lift your arms and your fingertips even higher up towards the ceiling. Keep pushing the wrists out into the belt, super duper hard, and then look up between your hands and can you reach the arms even more up even more.

Straighten the arms even more. Oh yes, keep going, keep going, keep going, and then reach up a little extra and then bring the arms forward and down. That belt to the side. We will revisit it, put the put it to the side. And then, just as if the belt was still on your arms, reach the arms forward and up.

Pretend the belt is still around your wrist and push your wrist as if you're pushing your your imaginary belt. Palms of hands spreading fingers spreading straighten the elbows anymore, even more even feel the skin at the outer elbows sort of tightening up. Reach up extra look between your hands and reach up even more.

And then bring your hands down forward in front of you now. Every time we reach the arms up, whether the hands are together, or whether they're apart, we're going to try to practice energizing the arms. Yeah, so no more like ballerina arms or spaghetti arms, or like, I've forgotten what's happening up here, right?

We're gonna energize the arms. Look no one in this room. Does that? I'm exaggerating. The nerve, but. But, anyway, let's really focus on bringing some attention, energy, and presence, uh, into the arms. Sometimes, we're so busy thinking about the legs or other things, but that's what. That's what we're doing today.

All right. Bring the legs and feet together. So, with your inhale, reach the arms up, whether the hands are together or separate, energize the arms just the way we did, even look up and reach more exhale. Fold all the way forward over the legs inhale. Look forward to prepare exhale Hopper.

Step back chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog. So? So super strong straight arms as if you were still in that belt. Bend the knees and look forward. Inhale Hopper step feet to hands exhale to fold forward. Inhale stand up, energize the arms as you reach up, exhale, release the arms, inhale, reach up hands, press or separate, but keep the arms energized.

Exhale fold forward. That's it, guys inhale. Look forward to prepare exhale chaturanga Hopper. Step back inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog. One way to think about it is that we are here to feel every part of our experience. So why would we leave out the hands and the fingers and the arms out of that good three more breaths?

Two good. Yes, push the floor away. Three, soften the knees, look forward. Inhale Hoppers step feet to hands, exhale to fold forward, inhale, stand up, energize the arms as you reach up, exhale, release the arms again, inhale, reach up, pretend you're pressing your wrists into that belt, exhale, fold forward.

Inhale, prepare, look forward. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog. Exhale downward facing dog. Good breathe in. Breathe out good! Try to tighten the outer elbows to breathe in. Breathe out, push forward even more strongly than you thought you could. For five Bend, the knees look forward. Inhale Hoppers step feet to hands exhale, fold forward, inhale, stand up, reach the arms up.

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

Inhale slide forward. Cobra exhale, tuck the toes, sit all the way back towards the feet, and then extend the legs. Inhale, right, foot forward. Exhale left foot next to right foot. Fold forward inhale Bend, knees hook, thumbs. Reach up Arch back, exhale bend knees, swing arms behind. These hands together and fold inhale hands down, left foot steps back, exhale downward, facing dog inhale to plank exhale chaturanga.

Inhale upward dog exhale downward, facing dog inhale to plank exhale knees, chest chin to the floor, inhale slide forward into Cobra, exhale tuck the toes sit back towards the heels and then extend the legs. Inhale left foot steps forward. Exhale right foot next to left foot inhale bend, knees, hook, thumbs, reach up, Arch, back, exhale, stand up, release the arms, bend the knees, reach the arms overhead, just like you had a belt around your wrist, push out into the imaginary belt and straighten your elbows more.

Sit back a little bit further and then reach the arms up even more vividly. Yes, sit back just a little bit further. Look between your hands and see if you can reach up a little bit more. And exhale. Fold forward. Inhale halfway lift exhale chaturanga? Inhale upward face. Exhale downward face inhale.

Step the right foot forward, left heel down, energize through the arms as you rise up. Exhale hands to the floor, step back, and lower inhale upward facing dog exhale. Downward facing dog inhale left foot forward, right heel down, rise up virabadrasana, one stretch the arms more and more exhale hands to the floor.

Step back inhale order, exhale. Inhale right foot forward again. Warrior one reach all the way up. Exhale, hands down, step back and lower. Inhale upward face. Exhale downward, face inhale, left foot forward. Reach all the way up Vera badrasana, one. Exhale, hands down, slowly lower chaturanga. Inhale or vamuka exhale out, bring the knees to the floor knees to the floor, grab the side edges of your mat with your hands, and then press back to downward facing dog again.

Pull with your hands pull as if you were trying to pull your mat like out from under your feet, like a like a tablecloth trick or something like that. Keep pulling and pulling with the arms. And then lower the knees to the floor, replace the hands the normal downward dog way, and then press back to downward facing dog, but see if that experience can help inform the work of the arms in downward dog.

So even though we've replaced the hands, there's still this strong sense of pushing the front of the mat away from the feet, really energize arms. Bend, the knees look forward. Inhale Hopper step feet to hands. And exhale to fold forward. Inhale, bend the knees, reach the arms up. Stay there for a moment.

Exhale. Sit a little lower inhale. Stretch the arms a little bit more assertively. Exhale sit a little bit lower inhale. Look between the arms and see if the arms can reach even more exhale, stand up, release the arms good, separate the feet about a step apart, hands on your waist, inhale!

Lift up your chest and Arch back. Exhale fold all the way forward. Reach down. Grab hold of the big toes with the piece sign fingers inhale exhale, fold forward head goes down good one. Let the head hang all the way down, so you're almost looking at the space between your knees dream.

Four good at opening up the backs of the legs. Five with your inhale lift head and chest. Look forward. Slide the palms of the hands underneath the soles of the feet and exhale. Fold forward. Head goes down. Breathe in. And breathe out, one inhale. Exhale. Breathe in. Try to open the backs of the knees a little bit more three.

And five inhale. Look forward. Exhale hands on your waist inhale to stand all the way upright exhale. Join the feet and the legs together. Stay standing upright. Reach the arms up overhead, inhale. Exhale. Descend the seat for chair pose, so sit back inhale. Stretch the arms up even more.

Exhale. Sit back a little bit more. Inhale look between the hands and stretch the arms even more. Exhale hands down to fold forward inhale halfway lift. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog and exhale downward facing dog inhale. Step the right foot forward, left heel down full energy through the arms to reach up.

Exhale open hips and arms to the side inhale, straighten the right leg, and then reach out to the right for triangle. Place the right hand down left arm up, good one. Try to deepen the right hip crease and even send the right hip back and down towards the left heel.

Good, at the same time, lengthen the right side of the waist more and more. And that left arm. Can you reach the left arm with a little more energy up towards the ceiling? Oh, yes, inhale. Stand all the way upright exhale. Bend the right knee Warrior Two, most of us need a little bit longer stance for Warrior Two, so feel free to move the feet farther apart.

Bend a little bit more deeply into the right knee, both arms making one strong line, one long line parallel to the floor and then reach out through the fingertips. Like, you're trying to touch both sides of the room at the same time. Good inhale. Straighten the right leg. Exhale.

Bend the right knee. Place the right hand outside of the right foot. Reach the left arm all the way over the left ear extended side angle. So, even though we're just working with one arm now? Still try to recreate that same energy like you're pushing your left wrist out into that imaginary belt so you can straighten the arm more and more.

Spread the palm of the hand. The fingertips feel everything that there is to feel about the left arm. Inhale both hands to the floor. Exhale start to straighten the front leg. Inhale lift head and chest exhale. Fold forward what I've never ever played it cool. One day in my whole life, I am the definition of chalant, right?

I've never. Okay, so from where you are, come up onto the fingertips. Look forward. Chest forward chin forward. Whether you're on blocks or not, walk the blocks and or the fingertips as far forward of the right foot as you can without changing the back foot and without bending the front knee.

So, legs still straight both heels, pressing down fingertips, reaching more and more forward. We're stretching the arms, the armpits, even the sides of the waist as we stretch the legs. Oh yeah, oh yes, I knew there was more space in there. Okay, walk the hands back to frame the right foot.

Bend the right knee step into a plank. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward facing dog exhale downward facing dog. Inhale, step the left foot forward. Reach up Warrior one. Exhale open hips and arms to the side inhale. Straighten the left leg. Exhale. Reach to the left trichonasana triangle. That's it. One good.

Can you put a little bit of rotation on the upper left thigh and almost pull the left hip crease back and down towards right heel, and then at the same time try to lengthen the left side of the body from the armpit to the hip crease forward stretch the right arm just a little bit more than you thought you could.

Five inhale stand all the way upright exhale. Bend the left knee Warrior two, most of us need a little bit longer stance. So wiggle the feet a little farther apart. One strong line with the arms and then reach out through the arms. Yeah, super energized. That line that arm line, yes?

Inhale to straighten the left leg. Exhale. Bend the left knee. Place the left hand outside of the left foot, right arm, reaches up and over. Now again, even though there's no belt and there's only one arm to play with at the moment, push the right wrist like you're trying to push it into the belt and let that arm get straighter and stronger.

Squeeze the tricep and the outer elbow onto the arm, even spread the pot. Like, can you feel the skin of the palm of the hand spreading? Okay, inhale both hands to the floor. Exhale start to straighten the front leg. Inhale a breath exhale. Just fold forward regular for the first few breaths here.

Good, and then everybody lift up onto fingertips. Look forward. Lift the head in the chest, whether you're on the floor or on blocks, walk the fingertips and or the blocks as far forward of the left foot as you can, and then keep pressing the back. Heel down, and keep working to straighten the front leg good.

Can you crawl the fingertips even more forward now? Yeah, great head can hang between the arms four. God walk the hands back to frame the left foot step into a plank. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward dog. Exhale downward facing dog, bring the feet together. Come forward into a plank balance on the right hand.

Outer edge of the right foot for side plank left arm reaches up. Let's do a little experiment here. Let the left arm just be dead weight. They call it dead weight for a reason, then reach the left arm up with so much energy that it actually helps to lift and lighten the shape.

It lightens up the shape just by reaching left hand to the floor. Shift onto the left side, right arm, reaches up. Again, the right arm isn't just there for decoration, right? Let it go slack and feel that actually adds to the heaviness, right? You can make it lighter. You can make it a lighter shape by energizing that arm and helping reach up.

Yeah, both hands to the floor, lower the knees to the floor, and then press back to a child's pose. Knees wide, feet together. Make a fist with the right hand. Make a fist with the left hand. Turn your fist so that the pinky finger side of the fist is on the floor and the thumb side of your fist is up towards the ceiling and then walk the hands a little bit more forward so that your elbows and forearms want to come up off the floor.

In fact, push your neck. You push your fists down into the floor so that the elbows do come up. The forearms do come up now. Lift your right hand right arm off the floor. Pretend you're trying to, like, punch the front of the room. Push your right fist as forward as you can push forward.

Push forward good punch, me, punch, me, push, push, push, push harder, harder, and then release that lift the left arm up. Push me punch me, yes? All right, all right, not so aggressive. No, I'm just kidding and release. Okay, lift the right hand up punch forward towards the windows.

That's it. Teresa, good punch forward towards the windows punch forward towards the window. Stronger, you feel how the shoulders Elevate. That's gonna come into handstand, okay. Release that left arm lifts left fists, punches forward, reach forward, let the shoulder Elevate towards the ear, reach forward and lift higher. Reach forward and lift higher.

Reach forward and lift higher and release down. Bonus round. Keep your head down lift both arms up, lift both arms up, and punch the fist forward to the front of the room and lift them a little higher and punch them forward and lift a little higher and punch them forward and lift a little higher and then release.

Who plays the hands normal on the floor, and I know, sneaky, hard, right? Like, you think it's gonna be a little bit of nothing, and then it's sneaky hard, okay? Tuck the toes under. Press back to downward facing dog. You're part of part of having like Mobility in the shoulders is not just having so-called flexibility, not just being open, but actually having the muscular strength at the end range.

Of our movement to be able to actually do some of the cool shapes we're going to do later. Okay, bend the knees look forward! Inhale Hopper step feet to hands exhale to fold forward. Inhale bend the knees reach the arms up. Exhale just go halfway forward, so abdomen towards the thighs, fingers reaching towards the windows, pull the navel in and up, keep the knees bending, just lift the Torso and arms upright.

Exhale, stand up, reach up a little extra, and then release the arms. Okay, let's turn to the right hand side. Jeez. Turn the right hand side, open up the feet wide, wide straddle hands on your waist, wider straddle, inhale, lift up the chest, Arch back exhale fold all the way forward.

Who needs heated yoga? We create our own heat, okay? Well, all right, the Seth begs to differ. Okay, lift head and chest. Lift your head in your chest. Look forward. Come up onto the fingertips, come up under your fingertips. Walk the fingertips enough forward that you're stretching the arms, but try not to shift the weight out of the feet.

So, the weight is still over the feet, but you're reaching the arms and the fingertips as far forward as you possibly can. Then, imagine that you want to do like a little tug of war with yourself. So, the fingers pull on the floor as if to pull you forward, but then the thigh bones push back as if to push you more back.

Pull a little bit with the fingers, push the upper thighs back, pull a little with the fingers, push the roots of the thighs back. We got that a little bit. Is it making sense? Okay, great. And then walk the hands back under the shoulders. Oh no, wait, sorry. Walk the fingers forward again.

One more thing, bend the right knee. Bend the right knee a little bit more, but keep the left foot on the floor. Walk both hands to the right sort of to the upper corner of the direction we're facing, bend the right knee a little bit more, and then see if you can crawl your left fingertips just a little bit further in that direction as if you're crawling the fingertips towards the back of the room.

And then walk the hands back to the center as you straighten both legs. Bend the left knee keep both feet flat. Bend the left knee a little bit more. Walk the hands over towards the upper left corner of the direction we're facing, so almost towards the corner of your mat.

Bend the left knee a little bit more. Walk the right fingertips a little bit more in that forward diagonal Direction. And then walk the hands back where they came from straighten both legs good. Lift your head, lift your chest hands on your waist, stand all the way upright, join the feet and the legs together.

Turn to face the front. Bend the left knee up into the chest. Open the left knee to the side. Left foot can go anywhere along the right leg, including toes on the floor. Hands together at the center of the chest. Think of lifting the center of the chest towards the thumbs.

Imagine someone built this room in a really weird way where, like, the ceiling was just right above your head. See if you could almost push your head up into that ceiling. Like, remember the old ones with the panels. Like, maybe you could even pop a panel right out of the?

Ceiling. Reach the arms all the way up overhead. Stretch the arms. You can separate the hands, but again, press the wrists out into that imaginary belt, so the arms, the elbows, straighten the palms of the hands are spreading. The fingers are stretching. Reach up more option to look between your hands and see if you can reach up even more.

Even if you're looking up, go ahead and look straight ahead and then left hand floats to touch the left leg. Reach the right arm up even more and move into your side. Bend bending Tree. Don't worry, we're doing both. Do what you need to do. Yeah, stretch the arm more, more, more, more, yes.

Yes, good. Okay, lift the arms all the way up. Reach up, reach up a little extra, hands towards Heart Center, Point the left knee forward, and replace the left foot down. Bend the right knee into the chest. Open the right knee out to the side right foot could go anywhere on the left inner leg, hands together at the center of the chest.

Lift your chest towards your thumbs, shoulders, drawing back and down. It pretend you could push the top of your head up into the drywall up into the ceiling, a little bit reach the arms all the way up hands can be together or separate, but again, pretend you're pushing your wrists out into that imaginary belt.

Open up. Yes, open up the arms and the armpits and the elbows and the wrists and the fingers. And then, that's your handstand right there. Okay. Look forward right hand to right leg. Take bending tree side, bending over to the right side if you're playing it too safe, then you won't get, and the hips aren't moving.

You won't get much side Bend if, on the other hand, you're willing to send the hips way over to the left. You can get a way deeper side Bend happening. Yeah, good. Good, all right. Reach the arms all the way up. Reach up extra. Stretch the elbows. Exhale hands to Heart Center inhale point.

The right knee forward exhale release feet and legs together. Inhale reach the arms up. Exhale, descend the seat inhale, reach the arms up more. Exhale, hands down, to fold forward, inhale, prepare, look forward. Exhale chaturangan. Inhale upward dog. Exhale downward dog. Step the right foot between the hands, but this time don't change the back foot back.

Foot stays reach the arms all the way up for high lunge. Here's where. Here's where we tend to lose it, folks. Here's where we tend to devolve into, like his spaghetti arms or unaware arms, right? So really stretch up through the arms. Yeah, inhale. Straighten the right leg. Exhale Bend, even though we're working with the legs, keep livening up the arms inhale extend.

Exhale Bend. Can you even pull the arms back slightly more inhale extend? Exhale to bend, keep the legs the same. We're going to do something a little unconventional. We're going to work into a side Bend in this High lunge, so experiencing a little side Bend with the legs in high lunge.

Try to keep the arms stretching and try to keep the arms equidistant from the side of the face. Yeah, and then lift all the way upright straight in the right leg one more time. Bend the right knee hands to prayer. Twist to the right side, standing spinal twist one.

Yes, keep stretching the back leg. Try to move the thumbs closer and closer to the center of the chest to breathe in. Breathe out for three! Bye-bye for? And five good both hands to the floor. Step into a plank. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward dog. Exhale to downward dog inhale.

Step the right foot forward. Don't change the left foot. Step the left foot forward. You guys are so good. Left foot forward, this time reach up high lunge. Yeah, exhale. Inhale, straighten the left leg. Exhale to bend. Keep stretching the arms inhale to straighten. Exhale Bend, maybe even pull the upper arm bones back a little bit more Bend.

Inhale to straighten. Exhale to bend. Now, we're going to do that kind of unconventional move. Keep the legs the same, but exploring a little side Bend to the left here. A little side Bend in our high lunge. Good one, that's it, two. Yeah, even expand the palms of the hands and the fingers.

Three good lift all the way up to the center and straighten the left leg one more time. Exhale. Bend the left knee. Place the hands in prayer and twist to the left side. Good straighten, the back leg more and more three.

Good, bold hands to the floor. Step into a plank. Exhale chaturanga. Inhale upward dog. Exhale downward facing dog, bend the knees, and look forward. Inhale Hoppers step feet to hands exhale to fold forward. Inhale, bend the knees, reach the arms up. Exhale, sit a little bit deeper. Inhale, stretch the arms more.

Exhale sit a little bit lower. Look between your hands inhale stand all the way up and reach the arms up the most you've ever reached your arms up in your entire arm, reaching life. Exhale release the arms, yes? I love it when that happens with the music you can't.

You can't time it, right? But, like, sometimes when it happens, it's so cute. Okay. Um. All right, we are gonna go to the wall so. Um, let's go short edge of the mat up against the white wall and the persimmon wall, and under the sconces, try for now to avoid the pillars and the door.

For now, let's see, I think we have enough space without those extras. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, we found a space. If you need a space, someone will help you. Yes, stay okay. All right, I will help you. Okay, let's cinch up just a little bit more on this side, and let's cinch up just a little bit more on this side, and we can fit one extra person under that sconce, and that should do it.

Yeah. Go here and you go here. Okay, oh. Don't call me smooth stickler for nothing. Okay? Uh, I love a callback. Okay. Okay, I have to demonstrate this in a way that the online people can also see it so that they don't feel left out. So I'm going to be demonstrating up here.

And if you can't see then, um, come around where you can see. So, what we're going to start with is I'm going to just stand like about a step away from the wall, not too much. I'm going to reach my arms up parallel straight arms and press my hands into the floor into the wall.

I'm going to take another step back again. It's not too big of a step, but notice how? I'm not trying to just like sling my body towards the wall. I'm not making like a hammock shape that's maybe good for some shoulder opening, but instead, I want to feel that shoulder strengthening component.

So, I'm gonna push against the wall, and I'm going to gather up the front of the abdomen and the tailbone so that I'm trying to make more. Of a street, like a one straight line, from heels to hands, not just hanging out. Yeah. Let's try that. Okay. See, so you start about a step away from the wall or so.

Hands on the wall, and you can climb the hands up, climb the hands up, reach the arms, take another step back away from the wall, and then, um. Arms parallel. Push strut. You can even start in that sort of hammocky shouldery position if you want, but then feel how, by pushing the arms yes, into the wall.

You can create like one long line. Feel the abdomen pulling in. Pull the pubic bone forward tailbone down. Yes, navel drawing in and in an in shoulders, even cinching up towards the ears if you need to. I'm very passionate. Okay. Walk forward and stand up. Look. This is who I am okay.

Okay. So, so now. So, now you can repeat the same one, like, if you, if you have an injury and you're not balancing on your hands right now, or if you just don't want to, that's also okay. You can repeat the thing we've just done otherwise. Next step is going to be to kick up towards the wall, except we're going to do something kind of specific at first, so.

I'm gonna go pretty close to the wall like closer than usually feels comfy. Yeah, that one thing that means is that I need to drop my head down if I'm trying to look between my hands. My head will stop me from lifting up towards the wall, so I'm going to tuck my chin into my chest, and then when I swing up to the wall.

I'm trying to get both feet at the wall. I'm gonna flex and I'm gonna push my hands so hard that my heels lift up higher against the wall. Did you see that I push and I'm lengthening? I'm trying to get as much length. Oh, you see how the heels just kind of come off the wall sometimes?

That, might that might happen? Okay, and you notice how the heels just kind of floated there without much effort. Because all I was thinking about is pushing down, yeah, rather than. That, um, handstand thing we do. All right, let's try. So you? Not for this particular practice. Yeah. When you're balancing, it's different.

But for this, you need to drop the head in order to make space. Yeah. So you can, of course, repeat hands at the wall. You can, of, course repeat this one that we've done. If you didn't want to do? Um, on the hands, that's okay. Or David. You could even be closer to the wall if you.

If you dare, yeah, chin towards your chest, push the hands down, push the hands down, try to grow. Yes, Seth, try to grow your heels higher up to the ceiling. Don't even make it about balancing right now. Just make it about making as long of a shape as you possibly can.

Oh, I was, like, hey man, you're balancing perfectly. And then I saw the bolsters there, but that's okay, too. Yeah. Oh good, it worked. Yeah, it's crazy. It's so cool. Ooh, nice salad! Good! Okay, yeah, David, wonderful. Okay.

Yeah, if you're like. Having a personal breakthrough, then you, of course, keep going, don't. Okay, so let's try, um.

Everyone, just from a standing position. Reach your arms up and flex your wrists back, like handstand shape. Yeah, and then just practice these two movements push up, let the shoulder blades come up towards the ears, and then squeeze with your fingers. Okay, relax. Push up shoulders come up towards the ears and then squeeze.

And relax. Those are the two movements push squeeze. Yeah, okay, relax. So, now, let's go back to the wall this time. So, as always, you can practice anything. What we've already done, you can practice with your hands at the wall, just like we did. You can practice the second thing we did, or this is the third step.

This time, I am going to come a little further away from the wall because I am going to start to work on how it is that I get away from the wall, how it is to balance so I'm? Look between my hands now! I'm gonna kick up, find the wall, and then I'm I'm not gonna try to get my legs off the wall.

I'm not going to try to do anything with my legs. In fact, all I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna push and squeeze. Whoops. It didn't quite work. Push squeeze. Ah, did you see I didn't do an action with my legs? I didn't initiate with my legs. All I did was push squeeze, and then the heels kind of come up.

Yeah, okay, give it a try. Give it a try.

Yes, it's all happening.

The bend and snap works every time. The push and squeeze works every time.

Oh boy!

Yeah. If you are? Having the time of your life? Please, keep going. Don't let me stop you when it's your time. Start to come back to the. Of the room start to work your way back, but if you, if you want a little more time, feel free to take it.

You don't have to rush back just to. Just to keep up with us. All right, yeah. Sit on. Either sit on your heels or sit on a block so, uh vajrasana or Thunderbolt. Uh, Palms of the hands, interlace the hands, press the Palms forward, reach the arms all the way up, reach the thumbs, the tips of the thumbs up towards the ceiling and feel how as you reach the thumbs up.

It can help you lift the pointer fingers side of the hand more up. Yeah. And then, as Remo was saying yesterday, try to lift the wrists up. So imagine you're almost lifting the wrists off of the top of the um forearm bone. And then bring the arms forward and down.

Invert the Palms. Look at the hands notice, which hand starts the interlace. Swap it so that the other hand starts the interlace press. The palms of the hands forward straight elbows reach the arms up. Think of reaching the thumb side of the hand higher up, so your thumb, your pointer finger is trying to be the same height as your pinky finger side, and then even think of lifting the wrists sort of off of the top of the forearm bones.

And then bring the arms forward and down. And then walk the hands forward and press back to downward facing dog. Yeah.

With your inhale, come on forward to a plank exhale chaturanga inhale upward facing. Exhale downward facing. Inhale plank. Exhale all the way to the floor.

Arms alongside the body palms of hands facing up to the ceiling. Inhale, lift up head, chest legs, shalabasana one. Yeah, try to draw the legs more towards each other, too.

And exhale release on down. Arms behind the back lace, the fingers together second time, lifting up shalavasana, lift head, chest legs.

Good, and then slowly release down. Place the hands on the floor either side of the chest. Inhale lift forward and up to upward dog. Exhale. Press back downward facing dog. Bring the knees to touch the floor and stand up on the knees. Take your two blocks and put a block right outside of each ankle.

So, right outside the foot and the ankle on the tallest setting, the tallest height in the block? Even if you don't usually use blocks for this one, the blocks are going to kind of teach us something about not having blocks there, right? So for now, just reach the arms forward.

Make your two fists just like we did earlier. Think, think no back. Bend at first, no backbend, we're just gonna lean back. And then we're going to lean forward. And then we're going to lean back. And we're going to lean forward. Let's do two more like that.

Yeah, and then one more time leaning back, so lean back. Find the blocks with your fingertips, but turn so that the thumb fingertip is forward, and the other fingertips are back and then push into the fingertips to make that Arch for ustrasna. So you're pushing the hands or fingertips into the blocks in order to push the chest forward and lift.

Yeah, that's it. Okay.

All right lift all the way up. Now, you, you can either keep using the blocks there, or even if you're not going to use the blocks. It's a similar thing I'm not just going to lean back and sink back into my hands. I'm pushing my hands against my feet in order to create.

That shape. Yeah, so. Blocks or no blocks your choice. Lean back. Hold on to the blocks or the heels or ankles and then push. Yes, Teresa. Good. Push against them in order to push the hips forward heart up to the ceiling.

Yeah, exactly.

Good, okay, lift all the way up. Just sit on the heels or sit on a block for a moment. But stay upright because the next part. I need to show a little bit. Oh, let me make sure the online people can see me pardon. Want to make sure we have?

Full participation. Okay. So, I'm gonna place the blocks in a stack one over the other, like so, and then I'm gonna put my belt remember 10 years ago when we had a loop in our belt. Well, I'm going to put the belt around my wrist. Now, look how, look how I'm laying back with my shoulder blades on the Block.

My belt is over my wrist. I'm gonna again stretch my arms as much as I can by pushing the wrists out into the belt, so no slack arms here. And then I'm going to reach as if to touch my thumb tips to the floor, but look, they don't touch the floor.

Whatever will I do? Well, I'm gonna lift my hips up until I can get my thumbs to touch the floor, and then when I go back the other way, I'm going to try to keep the thumbs down as long as possible. As I try to descend my seat down towards the floor, but eventually the thumbs come up so I can go back and forth, kind of like a little seesaw.

I try to get my thumbs down, and then I try to get my seat down, probably not successfully. In my case, if your shoulders are much more open than mine, or you're taller than me, you might need higher setup with the blocks or even a third block you can.

We can always adjust it, so go ahead and. Set up, and then we need to adjust it. We will adjust it. I think I stole your belt. Okay, so. Blocks are stacked. Belt is around the wrists. Yeah, more around the wrists. Yeah, and then push out into the belt, so pushing out into the belt activates those upper arm muscles, activates the straightening of the arms as well, and then reach back.

See if you can touch the tips of the thumbs. To the floor. If it's too easy, you might need to set the higher setting on one block or even add a block. Aha! Yeah, retreat, reach, reach, and then lift the hips. See if you can touch down and then keep the tips of the thumbs down as you bring the seat more down.

Do we want a third block? You can do it. Here, try the. Oh yeah, you can do that if you want. Good stretch, the elbows more.

Good. Yeah, I figured.

Yep. Oh, fine. Show off. No, it's good he feels okay. Okay, great. Okay. Coming up out of this is a little awkward. I would suggest butt down belt off the wrists, and then blocks are just kind of pointy. So coming up is just a little awkward. Okay, put your belt to the side.

Put your blocks to the side and lay down on your back. We have done so much shoulder opening for this class. In case you haven't noticed, um, that I'm gonna just start by calling us into a full wheel. If that's not the vibe for you today, you could do half wheel.

You could even put blocks under your sacrum. If you need something more supportive, but we have done so much opening of the arms that it could be interesting to see how that affects the wheel practice, so place the hands either side of your head. With your inhale, go ahead, lift on up.

Oh yeah, straighten the arms more. Now for someone like me with pretty tight shoulders. All that arm opening work helps give me a little more space in my full wheel. If your shoulders are already open, you might not notice that much of a difference.

Okay, chin to the chest, slowly release down. You do two more Wheels. Five breaths each, come down in between. Go ahead.

Oh yeah, good. Good option.

No rush. No rush. If you're still working, please keep going. When you're done, you can hug the knees into the chest.

Okay, bring the knees all the way over to the left side of the body.

Oh yeah. Bring the knees up to the center and go the other way. That's a great place to go in. The sequence is to go to tiptoe. For the first time in years, I feel like I could do that right now. Yeah, it's a great way. You know, I'm going to add it to the sequence, but thank goodness I'm not teaching this next week, so they don't have to suffer with it.

Okay, bring the knees all the way up to the center. Come on up to a seated position, sit all the way upright. You can face either direction, straighten both legs forward. And flexing the feet, sitting up tall, fold forward posture, seated forward fold.

Okay, lift all the way up right to a seated position, and uh, then set up for shoulder stand. Or, if you want to finish with headstand or a long pigeon on both sides or something else that would help you finish out the end of your practice. Feel free to classically shoulder stand is what happens here.

Yeah.

If you're still in shoulder stand? Start to move towards plow and fish. Take about 10 breaths. Plow 10 breasts fish. If you're in a heads down, just leave a little time for a child's pose.

Everybody's slowly. In your own time, making your way towards shavasana. There's no rush, of course. You finish the. Finishing shapes that you need to do.

I think a couple people signed off already, but I'll come afterwards and help you make sure. Okay, cool, and I can help after too.

Start to deepen the breath.

Start to bring a little bit of movement into the body.

Take a moment to stretch or move.

Slowly waking the body up.

Take your time. When you're ready, gather the knees. Roll off to the right hand side and come on up to a seated position. It can be good to set something under your seat, a block, a blanket.

Do a short. Meditation, where we're going to move through those same categories of people. Self stranger, a loved one, someone that you're not so fond of. Uh, I would just say, depending where, where you're at in your practice, and you know, and everything else. When we get to the difficult person?

Maybe, don't pick the like most difficult, one. You can pick like? A medium, difficult one, right? According to what your capacity for dealing with that is today, right? If you're like newer to these kinds of meditations, or it's just been a week because it has? Um. You know? You ease into it a bit.

Yeah, okay. Sitting up tall, set your best seat. For meditation. Once you have everything set, then be still try to drop right into it. Drop right into feeling the breath.

And then. If you are? A visual person. You can actually sit a version of yourself, right in front of where you're sitting. So, maybe in your mind's eye, you can sort of see. A version of you sitting across. From yourself.

And you can see to that image of yourself. That version of yourself say, may you be happy.

May you be happy?

May you be safe?

May you be safe?

May be free from illness and suffering.

And then moving to a neutral person, a person, maybe a stranger. Or someone you don't have feelings about either way, neither affection nor.

Distaste. Neutral person. And you know, even if you're not a visual person, you can kind of bring that person's energy. Into mind. Bring the idea of the person into mind. Be specific though. Focus on a specific person. And silently say to them, may you be happy.

May you be happy? May you be safe?

Maybe free from sickness and suffering?

Bring to mind a loved one. Someone you have strong? Affection for?

Maybe happy?

May be safe.

May you be free from illness and suffering.

Moving towards a difficult person.

May you be happy?

May you be safe?

May be free from sickness and suffering.

And then, lastly, expanding the wish out to all beings.

May all beings be happy? May all be safe.

May all be free from illness and suffering.

Thank you all so much for making time for practice and for all of your hard work and sense of humor. As always, have a wonderful rest of your Sunday. I'll be gone next weekend, but hope to see you after that. I am teaching harmonium workshop on October 10th, 11th.

So, if you've ever wanted to learn how to play one of these, or you've been piecing it together on YouTube, and it's not quite working out. It can be good to really sit with us and kind of synthesize the whole thing all together, and also you have other people to practice with and other people to.

Uh to work with and play with and all that. So it's really a fun time, um? Yeah, if you have any questions about today's practice, let me know. If not, we'll see you in two weeks, bye! The October 10th and 11th, it's a Saturday and Sunday. Oh great, I love.

So, yeah, for some reason. I was like, you.

Cool! Uh, oh, almost out of battery.

Oh yeah, if you didn't, uh, if you didn't remember to check in, or if you're not sure if you remembered to check in? Oh, okay, no worries. Yeah, we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out together. Okay, don't worry, I'm here to help.

Okay.

Thanks, buddy.

Grocery store. I know, I kind of do, too. Like, usually, usually my Sunday routine is like, once I get back to Jersey City. I'm, like, yeah. Thing.

I do. Yes, Jerry Market. Yeah, I haven't seen Emily in. She just gifted me a beaner. Oh, really. Like, very close family. Oh my God, that's amazing. She was, like, take Jesse's thing. So, like, it's so crazy that, like, wow, she was just like, just like, contact her and say you want her to teach you okay.