Hi everybody, welcome. Hopefully this finds you in good spirits. To begin, we're going to start by revisiting some really simple movement with breath.
So I'll take you through some really simple movements, and I'll also guide the inhale versus the exhale, and then you can always add in more repetitions, but I'll just show you the sequence of movements to begin with. So, hands and knees. toes tucked under, feet directly behind the knees, knees in the hip distance and then just take the arms the palms just a little bit out in front and make sure the palms are shoulder distance apart.
If you need to, you can take an exhale out through the mouth just to begin the breath cycle. We'll always start on the inhalation. So, hands and knees neutral spine.
We'll inhale, wheel the chest forward through the upper arms. And exhale, start to round through the spine, starting from the pelvis all the way through the low spine, up into the chest, and then just looking back at the thighs. Inhale to reach the chest forward.
Again, just starting from the pelvis, moving through the mid upper spine, again, reaching the chest through the upper arms, keeping that length and exhale all the way back, buttocks to the heels, keeping the toes tucked if that's appropriate. And then again, inhale forward, exhale round, Inhale forward, just controlling the breath, controlling the movement, keeping the length. Exhale all the way back again.
And then we'll do it again, just on the breath. Inhale forward. And then we'll add in just a leg extension as well. So as you exhale, extend the left leg back. big toe mound grounding through the floor.
And then just notice when you extend the left leg back, notice if the pelvis has started to move or the right hip is shifted out to the right. Hug the outer right hip in, ground through the left big toe mound, and think of reaching the inner left thigh towards the inner left heel. And then just notice if the low spine has collapsed towards the floor, move the tailbone towards the left heel. heel and press up and away from the ground.
If that's appropriate, maybe lift the left foot, just an inch or so off the floor. And then just revisit those movements. Notice if the pelvis is moved, shifted to the right, hug the right hip back in, reach through the left heel and lift from the inseam of the left thigh bone, left thigh reaching to the inner left heel.
Press through the hip. palms and think of lifting the front of the spine away from the floor. Take a deep breath and then as you exhale, lower the foot down, lower the knee down back to a neutral spine.
Inhale, chest goes forward. Exhale, buttocks goes back to the heels. And then other side.
Inhale, come forward. And then exhale, extend the right leg back. So same thing.
As you extend the right leg back, notice now if the left hip is moved over towards the left, hug the left hip back in, ground through the right big tonal, and really extend through the right leg. In seam of the right thigh, extend the... towards the inseam of the right heel. Press down through the palms, lift the front of the spine.
If it's appropriate, lift the right foot just a little bit off the floor. And then again, revisit those movements. Notice what's happened to the pelvis. Notice what's happened to the right leg, hug the outer left hip in and reach through the right leg, inseam of the thigh lengthening to the inseam of the heel and press away from the floor. Take an inhale and then exhale foot big toe mount down, knee comes down neutral spine.
Inhale chest forward Exhale buttocks to the heels and then we can just do that a couple times on the breath. Inhale forward. So just try to do that a couple times, maybe two, three times.
Slow down the first cycle. Give yourself at least maybe five breaths or so. And just really try to use the movements to gauge where the body is oriented in space.
So just like our discussion surrounding where midline Tadasana is oriented and what that suggests, really try to use the back. and forth movements, the extension of the leg, to really gauge that sense of center. Once you do that a few times, once the body has started to warm up a little bit, then maybe go into your seated meditation. Try to sit up onto something, give the pelvis a little bit of space. If you're going to be sitting cross-legged, give yourself at least a couple blankets or maybe even like a pillow or two, something that's solid enough.
so that you're not going to be sinking all the way down. Try that a couple times and see how you feel.