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Hi, I'm Alan Finger, and welcome to Yoga Zone's conditioning and stress release video.
There are many benefits to yoga, both physical and mental.
In this video, I will give you a complete yoga practice, focusing on stress release and conditioning.
To further your yoga practice, join me in the other Yoga Zone videos from our series.
With me are two of our senior instructors, Michelle and Lisa.
Lisa will demonstrate postures for those of you who are more flexible.
Michelle will demonstrate postures in a modified form, for those of you who are less flexible.
Watch the video at least once before practicing it.
Now please join me in the unique world of Yoga Zone.
So let's begin.
Come to sit in a comfortable cross-legged position, with your spine held tall.
Now this could be really difficult for a lot of us, as our backs are tight and the knees are pretty troublesome.
So to overcome this, take a folded blanket or a Yellow Pages book and place it under your seat.
Press the sit bone back and keep the spine tall.
If your knees are troublesome, take a couple of towels, roll them up and place them beneath your knees and your feet.
Great. That should feel a lot better.
Now, one's mind, breath and body are connected.
And this can be seen if you are relaxed and calm, your breath is slow and even.
If you get tense, your breath becomes speedy and agitated.
If you get a shock, you'll gasp for air.
So to calm your mind and condition the body, what we do is we learn to stretch the breath long and deep.
To teach you how to do this, I'd like you to place your hands onto your lower ribs, with your thumbs behind and your index finger in front.
Breathe through your nostril, making like an echo-y sound in the throat.
That helps you to stretch the breath deep and long.
Now, inhale and feel the circumference around where your hands are, the lower ribs expanding and your rib cage lifting up.
As you exhale, draw your belly in and your lower, your rib cage lowers down.
On the inhalation, feel the circumference of the lower ribs expand, your rib cage lifts up.
On the exhalation, your abdomen draws in and your rib cage slowly lowers down.
On the inhalation, feel the hands expanding all the way around to the back, ribs lift up.
On the exhale, feel your abdomen draw in and your entire rib cage lowers down.
Good. Continue another few breaths like that.
Try and feel it. That circumference expands, ribs lift.
As you breathe out, feel abdomen in, ribs lower.
Keep the echo-y sound, stretching the breath long and then out.
One more breath.
So now we come to the first posture, potted palm series.
This series is tremendous for releasing stress.
For those of you who've got a towel under your knees, you might find it easier taking the towel out here.
Great. Take your hands back and pull open each side of your seat apart so that you get the sit bone working back behind you.
Place your fingertips onto the floor behind you. Inhale and lift your breastbone up in front.
Exhale, work your sit bone further back behind you.
Inhale, lift the breastbone up in front. Exhale, work your sit bone back behind you.
Terrific. Bring your hands out in front of you.
And again, inhale, lift the breastbone. Exhale, sit bone back.
Slowly deepen into the pose as much as you can using your breath.
Always know that your breath is the gauge of how far you should move.
If your breath is becoming tight, it means that you're straining.
So just breathe through as best you can and let yourself open.
If the breath is calm, you might find you want to go a little deeper. That's fine.
Now, the next section, inhale and exhale, walk your fingers over to the right side.
Keep your shoulders level to the ground and turn the torso and lengthen it over the knee.
Inhale and exhale. Take a few breaths there.
Again, it's the breathing that's going to slowly relax the system out.
It's on the exhale that you can deepen and it's on the inhale that you feel a realignment.
Excellent.
Walk your fingers to the center and then walk over to the left side.
And again, keep your shoulders level. Inhale and exhale.
And I'm sure you can feel this great release into your hip area and into the side of the body.
Inhale and exhale. One more breath. Inhale deep, breastbone lifts.
Exhale, just surrender into the pose. Great.
Walk your hands forward to the center again. Very good.
And walk your hands back to come up tall. Good.
Relax your hands onto your knees and we come to neck release exercises.
Now, obviously a tremendous amount of stress locks in the shoulders and neck and this is how to get it out.
Turn your chin to look over to the right shoulder.
Keeping the shoulders down away from the ears.
Slowly come to the center and then turn your chin to look over the left shoulder.
But without projecting your chin forward, don't push it out.
Keep up tall and just move around the spinal cord.
Come to the center. Move to the right shoulder.
Your spine tall, moving around the axis of the spine.
Come to the center and move to the other shoulder, to the left shoulder.
Come to the center. Great.
Now, the next pose I want you to be careful with, you're going to search where the tension is in your neck in this pose.
And try and find the right muscle to actually release.
So bring your right hand up, turn your chin to face over the right knee and put the fingers around the back top of the head.
Slowly keep your spine tall and let the chin drop down with the hand acting just as a weight pulling the head down.
By a slight different positioning of your fingers, you'll find where to stretch in the neck.
So it's kind of like how the hand is positioned on the top of the head is which muscle you stretch in the back of the neck.
Great. And just breathe through, keep the other hand extended onto the floor with the fingers down.
Inhale and exhale.
Inhale takes time for the stress to go and exhale.
Relax it and come back up to the center.
Put both arms out to the side with the fingertips on the floor.
Turn the chin to look over to your left knee.
Bring your left hand up in the air.
Place the fingers around the top of the head, the fingertip.
And again, gently let the chin drop down and let the arm just pull the neck and release out that tension.
Find the area that's tight.
Explore yourself.
Find which muscle needs it most by just a gentle shift of the fingers.
And then the shoulder works away from the air and breathe smoothly through.
It's the breathing that will help the nervous system to actually let go and let the neck open.
Inhale and exhale.
The arm that's on the floor, those fingers are firmed to the floor.
One more breath. Inhale and exhale.
Release it slowly.
Lower your hand down to the floor.
Bring the head to the center.
And bring your right hand up, taking your index finger and middle finger to the chin.
Press the chin into the neck and feel that you release out and realign the back of the neck.
Now although this looks like such a simple little thing,
by pressing it in you can really feel how it just lengthens out the back of the neck.
Come back to regular.
Lower the hand down and bring up the other hand.
Take the two fingers, push them onto the chin.
Press the chin in and feel how the back of the neck lengthens.
It kind of just takes out the stress from the curve of the neck and stretches it long.
Relax that.
Bring the arm down slowly.
Come down, both hands onto the floor.
Then bring your hands actually onto your knees and roll your shoulders out a couple of times.
Just release out the tension from the shoulder.
Very good.
Well, I'm sure you're feeling a lot more relaxed after that.
Great.
Now, from here to get your arms and shoulders relaxed,
bring your hands out to the sides
and soften your shoulders away from the ears and your fingers towards the wall.
Make fists with your hands and then turn the fists so that the palms are facing forward.
Bring your right arm straight and across toward the left
and bring your left wrist against the right wrist with the knuckles facing each other.
Lower the shoulder away from the air and pull the arm over,
feeling that tremendous release in your shoulder at the back and down into the arm.
It's an incredible stretch.
Inhale and exhale.
Just feel it really opening up,
a mix between the shoulder lowered and the arm pulling over.
Release the arm, come the arms out to the side,
and then bring the left arm over to the right side.
Bring the wrists to each other, knuckles facing towards each other.
Soften the shoulder down away from your ear and then lever the arm over.
Make sure that the arm is straight.
Don't let it bend, otherwise you lose all the dynamics.
Lever it over and breathe through.
And just feel that magnificent release into that whole shoulder area and down the arm.
Inhale and exhale.
Relax the arm and bring them out to the side again.
Very nice.
Stretch them out, soften your shoulders away, fingers out,
and then bring both arms up into the air,
interlace your fingers and stretch the palms up toward the ceiling.
But keep your neck soft and relaxed,
and slowly breathe smoothly and deeply,
making that echoey sound and feel the complete breathing.
That same breath we taught you in the beginning with your hands.
Feel the ribs expand, ribs lift.
When you exhale, feel your abdomen in and the ribs draw down.
One more breath.
Inhale.
And as you exhale, lower your arms out to the side to the floor.
Relax your arms and bring your hands over your knees.
Now we come to Dandasanseris.
Take the blanket from under your seat.
Stretch both legs out in front of you and Dandasana.
Pull open either side of the seat apart.
Place your fingers onto the floor behind you.
Draw the toes back toward you with the big toes touching.
Firm your top thighs, and as you firm the top thighs,
feel that you draw the lower back into the body
and the top corners of the chest lift upward.
Inhale and exhale.
Feel a length from your sit bone to your shoulder.
So you're really learning to get the spine now to sit tall.
You're beginning to condition your being.
Take your hands and draw the arms up into the air.
Place your thumbs and press your fingers up toward the ceiling.
Feel your shoulder blade, your scapula, moving down the back
as your fingers lift up towards the ceiling.
Keep your toes drawn toward you and the top thighs active.
So this here, although it looks like one is just sitting on the floor,
there's tremendous conditioning going on in the thighs, the abdomen,
the shoulder blade and scapula area,
and this is going to develop strength to stop one from slouching
where the back becomes weak in that area.
It really starts to keep one up tall.
Inhale, exhale, and lower your arms down to the floor.
Bend your knees and take your hands to class behind the knees.
Slowly roll down vertebra by vertebra to the floor,
sliding your hands down behind the legs.
As you come back onto your back, bend the knees up
and bring the sole of the feet together.
Bound angular pose.
The sole of the feet together, lower your knees out to the side.
Interlace your fingers and turn the palms to face down away from you.
On the inhalation, lift your arms up into the air
and over the floor to the floor behind you.
On the exhalation, bring the arms back up
and bring the hands back down toward the pubic area.
Now long, smooth breathing, don't forget.
Inhale, synchronize the movement to the longer, smooth breath you've got.
And exhale, bring the arms back on that long, smooth breath.
There you go.
And I'd like you to do another three breaths.
Inhale, up and back, nice and long and smooth.
Exhale, bring the arms back and hands back down.
Two more.
Inhale, lift your arms up and over, long and smooth,
and synchronize the movement.
And exhale, bring the arms back and down.
Very soothing this, huh?
One more.
Inhale, lift up and back.
And exhale, bring the arms back down.
Great.
Excellent.
Release your hands, bring your knees up to touch,
placing the sole of the feet on the floor.
Open the feet hip-distance apart and place your hands down on the floor beside you.
Get the feet as close in towards you as comfortable.
And we come to table posture.
Inhale, expand the chest with the shoulders back and down.
Exhale, lift your hips up into the air,
pressing your heels into the floor as you firm your butt.
Interlace your fingers and stretch your arms out underneath,
bringing the upper arms in toward each other.
Feel that the hips are lifted right up, the butt is firm,
your heels are into the floor, firming the backs of the thighs,
and the top thighs spiral slightly inward to keep the knees parallel,
that your legs don't spread open in this.
It will teach them the correct form.
Breathe smoothly through.
Feel that the spine between your shoulder blade is drawn into the body to open your chest.
And now hold for another couple of breaths.
Inhale and exhale.
Smooth, echoing breath, feeling all of those dynamics,
the butt, the thighs all getting a tremendous workout,
and you're drawing your spine into your body.
Inhale, exhale,
lift your heels up into the air, release your hands,
and slowly inhale, exhale, lower down,
vertebra by vertebra, down to the floor.
Very good.
Take your hands and clasp your hands behind the knees.
Inhale, let the legs draw away from you and your shoulders back to the floor.
Exhale, pull the legs in toward you.
Inhale, let the legs draw away from you,
and exhale, draw the legs in towards you.
Inhale, legs away, smooth, long movement and breath.
Exhale, pull the legs toward you.
Release the legs and place the feet onto the floor.
Inhale and exhale.
Right, so now roll over onto your right side, please.
Bring your palms onto the floor, press yourself up,
and come over to kneel onto all fours onto the floor.
For cat-seal posture, point your toes out behind you,
bring your knees together, and keep your hands
so that the heel of the hand is just in front of the line of the shoulder.
Inhale, face looks up, tailbone lifts up.
Exhale, draw your belly in and sit back onto your heels.
Inhale, come up onto all fours, tailbone up,
draw the spine in between the shoulder blade, face looks up.
Exhale, draw your belly in, sit back onto your heels,
head on the floor in front of you.
One more. Inhale, come up, face up, tailbone up,
draw the spine in.
Exhale, draw your belly in, and sit back onto your heels.
Leave the head down and breathe through for three breaths.
Inhale and exhale.
Feel the extension from your fingertip to your sit bone
and your sit bone working to your heel.
Inhale and exhale.
Very good.
Come up onto all fours to kneel onto the floor.
Turn your hands back to work your fingertip in toward your knees.
Now, pressing the palms toward the floor,
this is a tremendous wrist exercise to release tension from your wrist.
If you're stiff in your knees, curl your toes into the floor.
Inhale and exhale, sit back, your seat towards your heels,
and slowly keep the palm down and slowly bend the elbow.
Inhale and exhale.
You'll feel that tremendous release in the wrists.
Our wrists become real stressed from computers, et cetera,
writing, from always locking them forward.
This opens up that whole wrist.
From here, come back up onto all four.
Take the hands to face forward.
Sit back onto your heels.
Use a blanket, if necessary, in between your heels and your seat.
And take a hand, take one hand to hold the other hand,
and pull that wrist open.
Then do the other side.
Other hand holds on top and pull the wrist open.
Relax your hand down.
Come to kneel onto all fours.
Get your position, your heel of the hand in front of the shoulder,
toes curled into the floor, feet and knees hip distance apart.
Inhale, looking up, tailbone up.
Exhale, lift your hips up into the air.
Keep your hands and toes pressed into the floor.
Your knees at this point are slightly bent.
And use your front thighs to pull back,
lifting your sit bone up into the air.
And slowly lower your heels towards the floor.
This might take quite some time.
Don't worry how far, keep breathing through.
Feel your hands nice and flat on the floor and your fingers spread,
your head hanging so that the neck gets like attraction.
Inhale and exhale.
Two breaths more, inhale.
Feel the whole body expand.
And exhale, feel yourself ease into the posture.
One more breath, inhale and exhale.
Walk your feet up to your hands.
If you've got to bend your knees, that's fine.
Don't worry about it, just get yourself up there.
Bend your knees and get your abdomen toward your thighs.
Take your right hand to hold the left bicep
and bring the left hand through.
Let your elbows hang towards the floor,
your front thighs firm and press the sit bone up into the air.
Inhale and exhale.
Use the feet of firm into the floor,
use your thighs to push your sit bone back and up,
and feel your entire spine hanging like traction,
releasing out tension.
Inhale and exhale.
Another breath, inhale and exhale.
So from here, bend your knees, drop the hands,
let the hands lower to the floor.
Use your front thighs to slowly press the feet into the floor,
and if you have a weak back, place your hands on the thighs
and slowly work to come to stand back up tall.
Keep your chin to the chest as you come up
to allow the blood pressure to adjust.
Roll your shoulders up and over
and let your head float back to regular.
There you go.
If you stand up and suddenly pull the head, you'll get lightheaded.
Step your feet together at the front of the mat.
Feel the big toes touching
and spread the rest of the toes apart, mountain pose.
Balance the middle bone in the back of the foot
in the center of your foot.
Feel the pelvic floor, which is between the pubic bone
and the tailbone.
Feel that whole muscle wall lift upward.
Draw it upward.
As you draw it upward, the lower abdomen firms
and automatically your spine is pressed upward.
Feel the top corners of the chest lifting,
your collarbone work out to the side,
and your arms hang as if they were lead in your fingertip.
Your head floats
and feel as if your spine were lifting up and out
through the back top crown of the head.
So you have realigned your whole posture.
Such an important exercise to stop one from slumping,
from slouching into themselves and standing in old habitual patterns.
Now, from here we come to blown palm series.
Bring your hands up into the air.
Interlace your fingers with your index finger
facing up towards the ceiling.
Inhale and exhale.
Press your right foot into the floor
and stretch up and over to the right side.
As you stretch with your right foot pressing into the floor
and your torso lengthened up and over,
then let the left foot lower toward the floor
and it increases the stretch throughout your whole body.
Inhale and exhale.
Never hold your breath.
Inhale and exhale.
Inhale, come up tall,
and exhale, lean over to the other side.
Press the left foot into the floor.
Lift your torso up and out
and then let the right foot be like a weight pulling back down.
Inhale and exhale.
One more breath.
Inhale and exhale.
Inhale, lift yourself back up.
Lower your arms down.
Place your hands onto your lower back
and top of the butt area.
Inhale, pull your elbows in together,
firm your butt,
and feel the breastbone lifting up in front.
And exhale.
Inhale, deepen the stretch back,
getting more and more of an arch into the entire spine,
drawing the area between your shoulder blade into the body.
Inhale and exhale.
Your chin is forward,
and kind of watch and see your chest expand and contract.
As you breathe in, the whole rib cage lifts up,
and as you breathe out,
abdomen draws in and the ribs relax down.
Inhale and exhale.
Inhale, come up.
Exhale, bend your knees.
Lower your hands down, knees are deeply bent.
Take your hands to hold around the heels
with your thumbs tipping the floor.
Get your elbows behind and beside the calf,
and use your front thighs to press the sit bone up into the air.
Doesn't matter how far you go.
Keep the elbows bent behind the calf and your knees bent.
You will be feeling the stretch go as far as you can
in the hamstring and calf muscle.
Inhale and exhale.
One more breath.
Inhale and exhale.
Bend your knees.
Lower your hands down.
Press your feet into the floor,
and slowly come to stand back up into Tadasana,
Mountain Pose, with the chin to the chest initially.
Roll your shoulders up and back,
and let your head float back up to regular.
Inhale and exhale.
Right, now this next section,
we come to some real strong conditioning.
I'd like you to take a large step back with your right foot.
Good.
Look at the right foot and make sure
that the toes are slightly turned in
so the foot is pigeon-toed.
Great.
Then bring your hands onto your hips.
Inhale and exhale.
Track your left knee over the left ankle,
lowering the hips down and try eventually
to get that left thigh level to the floor.
Bring your left forearm on top of the left thigh
and bring the right hand down around and up
so that there's a straight line
from your fingertip to your back heel.
So you have to lower the hip,
and then from in the lower abdomen,
you're going to spiral open the chest,
and if you're supple,
you can let the head follow to look up toward the ceiling.
But I suggest for those who are not so flexible
or if you have a weak neck,
merely to look straight ahead of you.
Inhale and exhale.
Work the dynamics between the bent knee forward
and the little toe side of the back foot firm on the floor.
Don't let the bent knee go further than the ankle though.
It should be above it.
Inhale and exhale.
One more breath.
Inhale and exhale.
Bring your hand down onto the floor
and bend the back knee onto the floor.
Come onto all fours
and then bring the other foot up in between your hand.
Very good.
Now, from here, straighten your right leg
and turn the right sole of the foot onto the floor.
Very good.
Lift yourself up, straightening both legs to stand up.
Place your hands onto your hips,
and then inhale, exhale.
Bend your knee over the ankle.
Excellent. Track it over.
Work the back foot firm onto the floor.
Take your elbow and place the forearm onto the front knee,
and then bring the other arm coming down, around, and up
so that you feel the stretch from the fingertip to the back heel.
Spiral open from right low in the abdomen
so the whole torso opens.
And for those who are more flexible,
you can follow with the head looking up past the bicep to the ceiling.
Keep those legs working.
This is tremendous strength for the legs,
for the butt, for the thighs.
Inhale and exhale.
One more breath.
Inhale and exhale.
To come up, inhale and lead with the arm in the air to stand back up.
Turn both toes in to face the center.
Shuffle your feet in so that the feet are one leg distant apart.
Your toes slightly pigeon-toed, bring your hands onto the hips.
Inhale, fan series.
Lift your chest up and relax your head back.
Exhale, firm the thighs and pull them back as you lower your torso forward.
For those who are not too flexible here,
you can bend the knees throughout this whole series.
Place your hands onto the floor.
Walk your hands forward in front of you.
Feel the stretch between your sit bone and your fingertip.
Inhale and exhale.
Don't be concerned if your knees are bent.
It's okay.
You'll be feeling the stretch.
Walk your hands back, please.
Great.
Place the hands under your face and bring the thumbs to touch.
Take your right arm up into the air, keeping your hips level to the ground,
turning, spiraling open from in the lower abdomen as the arm in the air
presses straight up to the ceiling.
Inhale and exhale.
Thighs are firm.
Inhale and exhale.
One breath more.
Inhale and exhale.
Lower the hand in the air down to the floor.
Hands together and then take the other arm up in the air.
Lead it up into the air.
Inhale and exhale.
Feel how you spiral open from the lower abdomen with the hips level.
One hand down, one arm up.
Inhale and exhale.
One more breath.
Inhale and exhale.
Lower your hand down to the floor.
Walk the hands back through the legs, lowering the torso down.
Walk your hands way back that your fingers stretch way back behind.
And just let your back round down and feel that wonderful traction into your spine.
Front thighs are firm.
Sit bone is up.
And you get that terrific release from behind the legs.
Great.
Walk your hands back up again.
Place your hands onto the floor.
Step your feet into about two feet apart.
Bend your knees down onto the floor.
Turn to face the front of the mat.
Open your knees wide open for 12 point.
Great.
Walk your hands out in front of you.
And you'll only go as far as you can.
Keeping the seat anchored to your heels.
Walk the arms out in front.
Trying to work first the forehead to the floor.
That only goes as far as you can.
Many of you won't come near that.
Don't worry.
And eventually you're going to even try and get your chest working to the floor.
And lift your chin forward.
And work the outer armpit area downward toward the floor.
And the shoulder blade area broadens.
These specifics are very important.
They are realigning your whole structure.
Inhale and exhale.
One more.
Feel the stretch between the sit bone and your finger.
Inhale and exhale.
Walk your hands back to slowly come and sit back up tall.
Sit.
Place your hands onto the floor beside you.
Work your knees in together.
Relax your hands on your knees.
Inhale and exhale.
Now come to sit over onto the floor.
And bring your feet out onto the floor in front of you.
Great.
Bring your hands onto the floor behind you.
Turning your fingers to face in toward you.
Inhale.
Bring your elbows in towards each other, lifting the chest up.
Exhale.
Lift your hips up into the air.
And try and get the hips as high up as possible to the level with the knees.
Inhale and exhale.
If you feel secure, you can slowly roll the head back behind to a comfortable position.
This is an incredible posture.
Keep breathing through.
It will develop tremendous strength in your arms, chest, and in the butt.
Inhale and exhale.
One more.
Inhale and exhale.
Bring your chin back and slowly sit back down onto the floor.
Great.
That's a tough one.
From here, straighten the legs out halfway and take hold of your big toes.
Holding your big toes, work the heels more and more forward to try and straighten the legs.
And as you do that, feel the top of the inner thigh pressing the sit bone back
and press the ball of the foot below the big toe forward.
Inhale and exhale.
Try and work to get your chest lifting up and taking the curve out of the lower back.
Inhale and exhale.
Slowly, the elbows can bend and you can deepen into the posture.
But again, it doesn't matter how far.
Even for those of you whose knees are really bent,
all you're doing is trying to work the thighs to press the heels forward.
One more breath.
Inhale and exhale.
Round your back and come to sit slowly up, back up tall.
Bend your knees up into the air.
Place your feet onto the floor and take your hands behind the thighs.
Slowly, roll back vertebra by vertebra to the floor behind you,
pulling your belly in as you go back.
Bring your feet closer in toward you.
Take your right foot up and place the right ankle three inches below the left knee.
Bring the left foot up into the air and take your hands through the leg
and interlace your fingers behind the leg.
Bending the elbows out to the side, pull the legs toward you,
but keep both toes flexed back to the respective knee.
Elbow presses the knee out to the side as you pull the leg down towards you.
And that's what really gives this tremendous opening into the hip structure.
Inhale and exhale.
It really takes a little time here for that to open and give,
so really do a few breaths to let it happen.
Take your time. Inhale and exhale.
Inhale, nice complete breathing as we did in the beginning, and exhale.
One more breath. Inhale and exhale.
Release the posture. Bring both feet back onto the floor.
Now take your left foot and place the left ankle three inches below the right knee.
Bring the right foot up into the air.
Take the hands, clasp the fingers behind the leg.
And again, flex the toes toward the respective knee.
Bend the elbows out with the left elbow pressing the left knee up in the air,
so that it really gets that stretch again into that side top of the leg.
Inhale and exhale.
Again, a few breaths here. Just use your breathing.
On each exhale, feel how you can deepen a little bit more into it.
Great. Now, from here, undo the arms and bring both legs up into the air.
Place your hands under your seat, lever posture.
Make sure that your hands support your butt and that you keep your lower back flat on the floor.
Flex your toes toward you. Inhale and exhale.
Lower the legs slowly down towards the floor.
As you come to about an inch off the floor, bend your knees.
Bring the feet back up, lift them up again, and we do it again.
Inhale, exhale, slowly lower down.
Heels half an inch, bend the knees, come back up again, lift both legs up in the air.
And again, slowly lower the legs down, firming the abdomen, firming your thighs.
And then again, bend your knees, bring the feet back up into the air.
And again, slowly lower the legs down.
Use your belly firm and in to keep the lower back flat.
Once more, please, bring the legs up and very slowly lower those legs down towards the floor.
That's it. And this time, let them touch.
Take your hands out, rest for a second, inhale and exhale.
Now you're ready for a lower back release.
Bend your right leg up into the air and take your left hand to hold just below the knee of the right leg.
Bring your right hand to hold about two inches above the ankle on your right leg.
Keeping the alignment of that leg, slowly pull the leg toward you.
Keep your left foot straight up in the air. Inhale and exhale.
On each exhale, begin to feel yourself just relaxing deeper into the pose now.
Letting the leg open, the hip structure open, the lower back begins to relax and release.
Feel it for a couple of breaths.
Inhale and exhale.
One more. Inhale and exhale.
Straighten your right leg down onto the floor.
And now bring the left knee up into the air.
Bring your right hand to hold two inches below the knee on the shin bone.
And bring your left hand to hold just above the ankle.
Again, keeping the leg in its correct alignment.
Inhale and exhale. Slowly pull the leg toward you.
Keeping your right foot straight up in the air.
Inhale and exhale.
Release out, surrender into the pose, and just let the tension dissolve out of your system.
Inhale and exhale.
One more. Inhale, good full breath.
And exhale. Very good.
Bend both knees up into the air.
And take your hands to hold just below the knees.
Each hand holds each leg respectively.
Inhale and exhale.
Pull the legs toward you.
Shoulders down and the sit bone down.
Inhale and exhale.
And just release into it.
On each exhale, letting the legs just sink more and more in towards you.
Feeling your whole lower back opening up, letting go, relaxing.
Inhale and exhale.
Place your feet back onto the floor.
And finally, to the half spinal twist on the back.
Bring your arms out to the side.
Straight across.
And then, lift your hips slightly and shift them to the left side.
Bring your thighs towards your belly.
Inhale and exhale.
Lower the legs over to the right side.
You can place your right hand on top of the left knee.
And slowly let it be a weight for it, pulling it down.
Keep your left shoulder on the floor.
Feel when you breathe in, you make space all the way into the left hip.
And as you exhale, you just let go and let everything open up and release.
Stay there for a few breaths and enjoy this.
Your entire spinal column is twisted from the base to the top.
Releasing out tension all the way.
Inhale and exhale.
Great. Relax it.
Take the hand out to the side.
Pull both knees up into the air and place the feet onto the floor.
Now, inhale and exhale.
Shift your hips to the right side.
Pull the thighs to the abdomen.
Inhale and exhale.
Lower the knees over to the left side.
Try and work the right knee over the left.
Bring your left hand to hold on top of the right knee.
And again, inhale into the hip and exhale just slowly ease into it.
Move with the breath here and feel how your breath sort of lifts into the right hip.
And on the exhale, you let go and deepen into the posture.
Breathe in and breathe out.
Another two breaths.
Very nice.
Bring your knees back up into the air.
Place your feet onto the floor.
Realign your hip structure.
Center your spine and stretch your legs down along the floor.
Bring your arms down to a 45 degree angle with your palms facing up and your thumb and index finger touching.
Now we come to the final relaxation.
To get comfortable, if you need, place a blanket folded underneath your knees.
It's also sometimes advisable to use a blanket over the body because your body temperature is going to drop.
So get yourself comfortable.
Feel your arms and legs find their natural balance.
Move the hips a little and get the hips into a comfortable balance.
Kind of get the shoulder blade drawing down the back and relax them and find their balance.
Let the neck be long and find its balance.
Now, closing your eyes, feel your forehead become smooth.
Feel the tension and stress draining from the forehead.
As your forehead relaxes, feel the eyes gently close and your eyes fall into the backs of the eye socket.
They almost feel like they fall into a cool liquid.
Let your lower jawbone relax and your tongue just sort of lulls back in the throat.
As your whole face and head relaxes, feel a relaxation down the neck into the shoulders,
almost like a warm oil creeping down over the shoulders, over your arms to the elbow,
through to the forearm, through your wrists to your palms and into your fingers.
Getting this wonderful, soothed, healing feeling.
Let your legs drop like two slabs of lead to the floor, heavy, let them go.
Feel your whole torso dropping toward the floor.
As the torso and the body opens to the earth, I'd like you to scan from the toes up to the head consciously,
trying to find any area that holds tension.
Wherever you find any tension, just try and evaporate that tension out of your system
by putting your consciousness there.
Just feel the tension evaporate out of you, leaving your system completely still and healed on the floor.
So you get this amazing feeling throughout your whole body of stillness.
No longer any holding or any tension, a feeling of complete peace.
A feeling where there is no thought, your breath becomes calm, your breath becomes still.
Where there is no thought, the breath takes long pauses.
And in those moments, you move into a consciousness that is beyond thought.
You move into awareness that is completely peaceful.
It's unbound, it has no boundaries.
Let yourself go into that place.
You'll hear there's a kind of inner sound that resonates in your being.
Lie quietly.
Just tune in to that inner vibration when your brain is completely still and there's no breath.
There's a subtle rhythm of silence.
Feel that rhythm.
Feel that stillness.
It has a subtle sound and that sound is like a hum.
When the brain is completely still, there's a sound which is like om.
A resonating sound.
Om.
Try and tune in and bathe in the sound, in this deepest state, this deepest rhythm of stillness.
Om.
Bathe and heal in this quiet place.
When you feel that you have had enough, then just gently bend your knees, take your time, by all means lie here as long as you like.
But when it's time to come out, bend your knees and slowly roll over onto your side.
Take your time and gently bring yourself back with a whole new feeling, a feeling of complete inner peace and inner stillness.
Take that peace, take that stillness, take that joy into your life.
Hari Om Om Tat Sat.
Om.