Yin Yoga Artwork
Season 2 - Episode 6

Inner Channel Surf

55 min - Practice
46 likes

Description

Kira opens with ten minutes of guided meditation to allow us to become familiar with the nadis through breath in our nostrils. She carries this subtle layer of awareness into the postures in search of a more intimate experience of the shapes in this Yin practice.
What You'll Need: Mat

Transcript

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(waves crashing) Hi, welcome back. In this sequence, we'll play with tuning in towards some of the inner currents, what our yogi friends call the naughties, and then we'll bring that into our practice to see if it might be able to create a deeper more intimate relationship with ourselves in these shapes. We'll start supine. Roll yourself on back. Reach your arms up over the top of your head.

Your knees are bent. Soles of the feet on the floor and we'll open up with a handful of windshield wipers, so inhale here, and as you exhale, let your knees find a side. Inhale, back center. Exhale, roll onto the other edges of the feet, knees to the other side. Let that happen a couple times.

Inhale, knees center. Exhale, knees to a side. Inhale, knees center. Exhale, knees to a side. Inhale, knees center.

Next time the knees come over to the left. Keep them to the left and lengthen a little bit on your right side, just feel like you can reach a little bit through the right arm, reach a little bit through the right thigh. Feel the space between your ribs and start to get a sense of letting your breath animate the right lung. Just really feel how you can allow the inhale to open and you can allow the exhale to soften, yes. Beautiful, inhale, bring your knees back up center.

Exhale, knees over to the other side. Same idea, lengthen through the thigh, through the arm. Let the breath animate through the left lung. Let the breath soften. Feel the expansion.

And feel the softness, beautiful. Let's repeat that one more time. Inhale, knees up center. Exhale, knees over to the left. Feel the stretch of you through that right side and allow your awareness to be in the right lung and find different areas of the lung that aren't so obvious, back of the lung, bottom of the lung, yes.

Beautiful, inhale, bring your knees back up center. Exhale, knees over to the right. Lengthen, open, yes. Softer in the base of the skull, gorgeous. Now let an inhale bring your knees back up center.

Reach your arms up to the ceiling and let them come back down along your sides. Now we want your back to be comfortable, so notice how your back feels here with your heels in line with the sit bones, knees up towards the sky. And then try this, widen your feet a little bit, let your knees fall together, and see if that feels better or worse. If this feels quite comfortable, you could just stay here. If you're not sure, try bringing the soles of the feet together and letting the knees go wide.

That might feel more better, or less good. (chuckles) 'Kay, choose, so either keep your legs like this, soles of the feet together, knees wide. Widen the feet and let the knees fall together, or simply have your heels in line with your sit bones. Big deliberate inhale, exhale everything. And if you're chilly, you might cover yourself, or put your hoodie back on, just so that you're a little bit warmer.

Okay. As you're ready now, simply let your attention come into your left lung. And as your attention comes into your left lung, begin to feel the movement of the breath there again. Yes. Beautiful, now without necessarily changing how you're breathing, can you move your awareness in to the left nostril?

So become aware of the left nostril, and become aware of the movement of the breath in and out of your left nostril. You might be more aware at the opening. You might be more aware deep in the left nostril. Nice, beautiful, now so gently and with care can you let your mind come over to the right nostril? And as you let your awareness come over to the right nostril, can you feel how perhaps the breath follows?

You might notice other data, like this nostril feels more or less open. As you observe that other data, watch the temptation to try to find meaning in that data. Can you just simply be present with your attention on the right nostril and being able to feel your breath? Okay, beautiful, now move your awareness back to your left nostril, and if the movement of the awareness and the breath back and forth between the nostrils is not quite available today, then let the lungs be your point of focus. Those can be a little bit more obvious and accessible.

But as you move your awareness back into the left nostril now, just really see how you can maybe be aware here. Yes, and now move your awareness back into the right nostril. Okay, let your awareness be in both nostrils. Excellent, and gently relax your effort of this for a handful of moments, big deliberate inhale. Exhale everything, observing the results of attending to small, seemingly insignificant details.

Now we're gonna go back into the nostrils tuning to even a more subtle aspect, dialing and honing in our skill. If it ever becomes frustrating though, again, simply use the lungs as your tether point. This time we'll start on the right lung. So start with the right lung. Become aware of the movement of the breath in your right lung.

And just really start to feel the relationship between your attention and your breath. Yes. Okay, now from there, move your attention up into the right nostril. And as you become aware of your right nostril now, we're gonna dial in a little bit more detail. Can you play with bringing your attention to the back of the nostril?

So, closer to the face. Yes. Can you move your awareness to the inner channel of the nostril? So, closer to the septum. Yes.

How does it feel to move your awareness to the tip, the front of the nostril? And what about to the outer, the far right outer edge of the nostril? Sometimes that'll feel a little bit like you're flaring. Yes. And now just for a few more moments, just play.

Play with allowing your awareness to make small circles to the back, to the inside, to the front, to the outer, and when we move to fast, we lose the connection. And when we move to slow, we fall asleep, so there's a perfect speed for you. Beautiful, now come right into the center of the nostril with your attention. Okay, and then relax and just rest. And we don't wanna move to the second side too quickly, 'cause that can feel jarring after you've created this intimate relationship.

So just rest in the effect of opening here. Yeah. Super nice. Okay, now only as you feel ready, and let's cross over and start in the left lung. Okay, instead of coming right to the nostril.

So bring your awareness down into the left lung, and just inhabit the left lung. Yes. And then once you feel ready, let your awareness come up into the left nostril. Yes. And so same idea, tuning these small details, so as I'm gonna suggest moving to the back of the left nostril, again, if the nostrils aren't available for whatever reason, maybe you just have a cold, you might be in the back of the left lung.

So be in the back of the left nostril. See if you can feel your ability to hone in on this tiny detail closer to the face, yes. Okay, play with moving into the inner realm of that nostril. Play with moving to the tip of the nostril. And play moving to the outer edge of the nostril, okay.

And then similar, just start to allow yourself to make some circles. Just start to notice the amazing power of your attention that whatever you shine the light of your attention on becomes available. Things that you had no idea about. Okay, let your awareness rest right in the center of the nostril. And then relax the effort.

Tuning into the results of small details. And if you've passed out, if we've lost you already, we'll then you have one more technique to help you fall asleep at night. Okay, but if you're still here, big deliberate inhale and exhale everything. And then we'll start to play with some of this subtle awareness into grosser aspects of self. Grosser meaning more obvious.

So we'll start here on the back. Bring your right ankle up on top of your left thigh. My left knee is bent, sole of the foot is on the floor, and just start to get a sense of the hip rotation a little bit. So as you inhale, the right hip and knee comes in towards the heart. And as you exhale, the right hip and knee moves away from your heart.

Now keep your left foot on the floor here. Inhale, right hip and knee towards heart. Exhale, right hip and knee away. Just three more like this. Just kind of get a sense of the movement of the rotation in your hip.

Mm-hmm. Beautiful. On this last one, as the hip and the knee come in, so the hip and the knee are in towards my chest, just see if you can feel the breath in the nostrils, and can you be aware of where it is in that right nostril? Maybe there's no feedback, but does it feel like the breath is more to the inside or the outside of the nostril? And now as you roll that hip away from you, sending the hip and knee forward, and be aware of the breath in the nostril, does it feel like the breath in the nostril is more to the inside or the outside or the back of the nostril?

And these suggestions might not have any bearing on your practice today. We're just playing with smaller details. Keep your hip and knee away and let the left thigh start to come in, and we're gonna stay in this shape for about two minutes. Now some of you are just bringing the left thigh in and wobbling a little bit, might be deep in this initial round. Some of you are gonna catch around the back of the left thigh, or maybe the top of the left shin.

And as you let the left thigh in, draw in, and you let the right hip roll away from you, start to become aware of the feeling tone of the breath in the right nostril. And here in this relatively simple shape, can you start to be more aware of letting the breath feel more open in the right nostril? And as you let the breath feel more open in the right nostril, can you feel a potential connected effect in the back of the right leg? Softer in the upper palate, little more easy in the shoulders, kinder in the eyes. Last couple moments.

Can you let the breath be a little bit more in the back of the right nostril? Okay, release that left foot back down to the floor. Right leg up to the sky, shake it out a little bit. Couple ankle circles. And then bend the right knee, place the sole of the foot back down on the floor.

Pause. And your resting, and you're just being aware of the feeling tone down through the right hip. And while I'm suggesting there might be a connection between your awareness and the breath and the nostrils and the hips, that may or may not be true for you, so, you know, yogi science isn't about believing what you're told, and being frustrated when it doesn't seem true for you, that something's wrong with you. Yogi science is accurately recording the data that occurs. Okey-dokey.

Left ankle up on top of right thigh. Keep the right foot on the floor. And then you're gonna just start to get used to the hip rotation. So inhale, left hip and knee towards heart. Exhale, left hip and knee away.

Inhale, left hip and knee towards heart. Exhale, left hip and knee away. Three more like this. Now on this last one, next time the left hip and knee comes in towards your heart, pause and become aware of the feeling of the breath in the left side of the nostril. And just see, just notice if the breath seems more in the inner realm of the nostril closer to the septum, or more to the outer realm, or something else.

Okay, and then next time your hip and knee are moving away from you in external rotation, just be aware of how the breath feels in the nostrils. Does it feel more like the breath is in the outer channels or the inner channels or something else? Okay, now keep the left hip and knee moving away from you, start to let the right thigh draw in. Now we're gonna offer ourselves to this first hold for about two minutes. Wobbling it a little bit side to side, and if just simply drawing the right thigh in feels deep enough for you today, that's what you do.

Okay, only if it's helpful. Find your hands around the back of the right thigh or top of the right shin, soft in the shoulders, kind in the face. And we're using this first shape to start to play with tracking, tracing, the feeling tone and the landscape of the nostril with the hip. So here, first step, just be aware how the breath feels in the left nostril. And then just see if you can allow for a little bit more fullness by allowing yourself to breathe a little bit more in the outer channel of the nostril, the back of the nostril.

And as you do that, as you deliberately make an effort to feel more openness in the left nostril, is there any affect in the left hip? Like maybe, maybe not. Yeah. Beautiful, little softer in that upper palate, little kinder in the eyes, and if the experiment doesn't seem to be registering with your practice, then just breathe in a way that feels focused inward and directed for you. Let the right foot come back down to the floor.

Let the left leg come up to the sky. Shake it out a little bit, couple ankle circles in both directions. And then bend the knee, let the left foot come back down to the floor. Pause, big deliberate inhale. Exhale everything.

Beautiful. Okay, as you're ready, hug the knees into the chest, cross the ankles, inhale, roll back, and roll yourself up to sitting, and let's make our way into our first shape. So we're gonna go right into it. We're gonna make our way into Pigeon. And we're gonna offer ourselves for five minutes.

So the subtle work becomes super important. I'm gonna start with my left leg forward. You might choose a different side. Wiggle on back through that other leg. Now just like every shape, allow yourself the time to wobble a little bit side to side.

Allow yourself to find the comfort that you need. Stretching back through that back leg. Okay, now my left leg is forward, so I'm gonna be tuning to the left nostril. So if you're on the other side, you just reverse it. Okay, now step one, let a bit of (breathes out) happen, down through the low belly and soft in the heart.

Be aware of your left hip, and if you're in too deep, you won't be able to tune to the subtle energies, so you gotta be in a place that maybe might not be your maximum, extremist, most uberist stretchy spot, but is a place where you can deepen your engagement. Become aware of the left hip, and become aware of the left nostril. And can you start to play with letting the two be in relationship? Okay, I'll give you a little hint. They are in relationship.

It's just more can we see the connection that might already be. And then as you inhale and exhale, can you feel how the hip responds, and now can you start to kinda dial in a little bit more by allowing yourself to feel that outer channel of the nostril? And how it might correspond to the outer realm of the hip? Yes, can you feel the back channels of the nostril? I'm staying upright a little bit.

You might've come down onto the forearms, and then just for the fun of it play a little bit with the channel of the right side. So, notice the breath in the right side of the right nostril. And what happens if you dial it in a little bit more to the interior of the nostril? So, a little closer to the septum. Nice, again, you might stay upright.

That might be the place where you can allow for the subtle awarenesses, or you might have come forward down onto the forearms. And just because I'm suggesting there's a connection and there might be a relationship, it doesn't mean that it's available, or the correct experiment and play for you. 'Kay, softer in the upper palate, kinder in the heart. But just also notice the effect on the quality of your mental and emotional state by tuning towards the subtler details, as opposed to necessarily being focused on the tonality of what the feeling is in the hip. What happens for you when you tune into something less visible, less obvious, more subtle?

Yeah. 'Kay, little softer in the back of the heart, little kinder in the eyes. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Beautiful, about another half minute here. Can you let the shape have a little bit more of you?

Beautiful, okay, hands underneath the shoulders, chin into the chest. Roll it on back up. And we're gonna transition into Revolving Head-to-Knee Pose, so turn to the right, let that left come to the right inner thigh. Extend out through the right leg, schnoogle in a little bit. Allow yourself to have a deliberate inhale.

Allow yourself to have an exhale. We're gonna be offering ourselves to this shape for about two minutes. Let your right hand come down towards the earth. Let your left arm circle in front of the face and up. Now just let the elbow bend.

Let the right elbow be soft, and only as much as it feels good, let the right elbow bend, sink in a little bit. And then feel the tonality in the left nostril, the left lung. Allow this upper side to be obvious and open. Yes. Mm-hmm, you might notice that you're inclined to round a little bit to get more into the back body.

Okay, or to open a little bit to get more into the front body. But for the last half of the shape, can you start to breathe more into the right nostril? The right lung, can you start to let the underbelly of the shape open? Yes. Beautiful, let both nostrils feel full now.

And then take a look down at the earth. Let an inhale bring you all the way back up and pause, and just sit in the juice. Beautiful, now the transition will be back through the shape of Pigeon towards Child's, so roll to your left through the shape of Pigeon. Draw yourself back towards Child's. Wiggle on back through there, knees might bend, forehead might find her way towards the earth and rest.

Yeah. Okay, super nice, other side. Feel your way up onto all fours. Let the right knee, or opposite knee, come forward as you're making your way into Pigeon on this other side. And now, again, we're gonna be here about five minutes, and so as you kind of schnoogle in a little bit, that back leg comes back, for me that's the left leg.

Wobble a little bit and adjust the shape so it's really correct on this side. You know, these sides are different. Okay, now schnoogle in a little bit. Allow for a big inhale. Allow an exhale to soften you, soften down through the low belly, soften through the back of the heart, base of the skull widen.

And now here, again, only as you're ready, and if it's too intense, if the physical sensation is too intense to be aware of the subtle, then chances are it's deeper than is useful. Okay, we're trying to deepen our awareness in the practices of yoga. Okay, so back it off, so that you can be aware of the breath in the right nostril. And as you start to become aware of the breath in the right nostril, okay, can you increase your field of awareness to feel the breath in the nostril and the hip? Yes.

Yes. And now start to become more interested. I'm staying upright as we begin this shape. You might have chosen to come down already, but really start to investigate this play of how you can allow, okay, the landscape of the nostril to inform the landscape in the hip. So, allow the breath to be more attuned to the outer edge of that right nostril.

Yes. Back of the nostril. And can you maybe perhaps feel that corresponding awareness down in through that right hip? Yes, super nice, beautiful. And then maybe do a little bit on the other side.

So, be aware of the breath in that left nostril, or the nostril of that back leg. Notice where the breath is. For me, it tends to be in the inner channel. So, can you dial that in a little bit more and let that feel more full? Yes, stay upright if it's superior, otherwise start to come forward.

Again, remembering that if you come into a spot that makes you grimace, face, mouth, eyes, ears, tongue, jaw, if you come into a space that makes you grimace, chances are it's too much. And continue this investigation, this attention to the insignificant tiny, little detail within something that's a little bit difficult. Okay, you're deepening your attention. Softer in the upper palate, kinder in the eyes. Easier in the back of the heart.

I'm choosing to stay upright onto my forearms. You might be choosing to come down onto your hands, or your head might be resting on something like a bolster or a brick. And notice for you, does the awareness on the subtle make the situation easier or more difficult, quieter or noisier? Study the quality of your heart and your mind as you're playing with tinier details. Yes.

So beautiful. Even less than half a minute. Super nice, okay, as you are ready, hands come underneath the shoulders, roll it on back up. And then turn to the left, turn towards your back leg for Revolving Head-to-Knee. Sole of that right foot up against the inner thigh.

Snuggle in a little bit. Allow for an inhale. Exhale everything. Yeah. And then only as you're ready, we'll be here about two minutes, left hand comes down to that, inside or outside of that right leg.

Circle the right arm in front of the face and up. Soften the elbow a little bit. And this left arm might start to bend, maybe it's resting on the leg, maybe it's the inside of the leg if you prefer, but it's finding a spot to rest, as you allow yourself to bend over. It's a soft, groovy, 1960's kind of bend. Let the elbow relax.

And you can feel the reach a little bit, 'cause it feels good, but this isn't a big dramatic, we're still in a Yin Yoga practice, so there's a sweetness of effort. So feel the right side, feel the right lung, feel the right nostril. Be aware of the brighter side. Be aware of the more shiny side. And you might decide to let it round a little bit.

And you might decide to let it open a little bit, yes. If you're pushing, it will be impossible to tune to subtle details, yes. So, now see how this feels. Bring your awareness to the left side, the underbelly, the left lung, the left nostril, and just start to let your attention attune here. And as you attune here in this left nostril, in this left side, allow this to influence your relationship with the shape.

Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. Okay, let both nostrils open up a bit. And then take a look down at the left leg.

Let an inhale bring you all the way back up and pause. Soft in the belly, kind in the eyes, sit for a moment. Beautiful, now we're making our way to Child's. Now one other thing that happens, roll back through the shape of Pigeon, back through Child's, one of the things that happens with the subtle energy is as you start to get quieter and quieter, or if you're starting to get quieter and quieter and more interior, and the instructions of continuing to quote, unquote, "practice yoga," start to distract you from your yoga, well then you stop doing yoga, and rest in the sweetness that has become available. Okey-dokey.

Okay, making our way to lunge, if appropriate. Let yourself come forward. Let your right foot come forward. Now we're gonna offer ourselves to this for about two minutes. Back off a little bit.

Sink in a little bit. Back off a little bit, sink in a little bit. So as you sink in on this side, okay, as you sink in on this side, allow that left hip to get heavy. Let the buttocks be soft. Be aware of your left nostril.

Be aware of where the breath is. Usually it tends to be on the interior front. That's not a guarantee, but usually, and so then just see what happens if you put some attention into letting the breath be more in the back and the outer side. Just allow yourself to open up more channels in the nostrils. See what happens through the left leg.

Yes. Yeah. You an either bring the top of that left foot down or the ball of the foot. I like the ball of the foot usually, 'cause it helps track my knee a little bit more securely. Be up on the fingertips or fists.

You might even try, like, see if you can let the outer right nostril open up a little bit to help give you some more room in that right hip crease, which can get a little munchy. Yes. Beautiful, soft up in the upper palate, kinder in the heart. Just about a half more minute. Yeah, yeah.

Beautiful, last few beats. Let the shape have just a little bit more of you. Soft in the back of the heart. Gorgeous, slow, get yourself out of there, lean the hips back, right knee back to meet the left, and Child's Pose. Okay, so again, the practices of yoga are designed to help prepare us for a moment of the miracle of yoga.

So if at any point you feel like, whoa, wow, okay, you with me? Then you stop distracting yourself. Okay, left foot comes forward. Gonna be here about two minutes. Draw it back, and sink it in.

And draw back, and sink it in. Yes. It's just like, you know, some of you might be old enough to remember when you had to actually tune a radio. So, we used to have these things called radio dials, and you'd be like (soft squeaking). And once the song was actually coming through, you didn't keep tuning.

You stopped tuning, and you enjoyed the music. So, sink in. Okay, now as you sink in be aware of the right nostril and notice where the breath is. Okay, again, not necessarily for you, but the data, usually it ends up being kind of to the interior and front. And then, so just see what happens if you put some awareness to letting it be more in the back and the outer, like just see what happens in the right hip, if anything, as you open the situation up a little bit more.

Yeah. Yeah. Softer in the upper palate. Mm-hmm, tune a little bit to the outer left hip, sorry, and as you tune a little bit to the outer left hip, tune a little bit to the outer left nostril. See if that gives you any more room in that left hip crease.

Kinder in the eyes, easier in the jaw. Yes. Beautiful. Not much longer now. Let the shape have just a little bit more of you.

Beautiful, okey-dokey, start to make your way outta there. Draw the hips back, left knee back. Wiggle on back towards Child's Pose. Sweet. Make your way onto your belly.

Now we're gonna be making our way towards Seal Pose. We're gonna start in Sphinx. Okay, now come up onto the forearms. Spread the fingers wide. Wiggle the hips a little.

Back legs are about hip distance apart. Now if you're knees are vulnerable, either tuck your toes under or put a blanket underneath there. Otherwise, tops of the feet to the floor. Now we're gonna be here about three minutes. So we'll start in Sphinx.

Big deliberate inhale. Exhale let a (exhales deeply) happen. Soften the buttocks, soften the low back, let the back of the heart ease. Okay, and so for most of you, Sphinx Pose is where it's at, so while it's still relatively simple, get a sense of where the breath tends to be in the nostrils naturally, like where the shape puts your breath. Okay.

So for most people I've met so far, it tends to be in the inner channels. Mm-hmm. See what happens, see where it is for you, and then see what happens when you bring it more to the back channels. And see what happens in the feeling tone in the low back. See if maybe, we're experimenting here, see if maybe that gives you some relief, some room, some space.

What about the outer channels? Yes, and please stay here if to be aware of the subtle energies requires to be a little backed off from where your physical abilities apparently lie, then stay here. If it's all right to deepen the situation, and you can maintain an eye on the subtle, turn the hands out. Press your palms into the floor, and let your arms draw straight. Now, if I keep my hands way out in front of me, I'll work more of the thoracic spine.

Today I'm gonna choose to bring the hands in a little closer, that will work more the sacrum in the low back. Let a bit of a (exhales deeply) happen. And then it's the same thing. As you let the low back hang, let the back of the heart hang, easy in the upper palate. Can you be more aware of the back channels?

Yes. If it's too intense to be aware of the subtle, then it's, again, more intense than you need. Just about another 15 seconds, not very long at all. Soften. Beautiful, as you feel ready, let the elbows bend, slow, slow, slow, lower yourself on back down.

Rest, elbows wide. Face resting on the hands. And then only when you're ready, this is a tender, vulnerable spot coming out of that passive back bend, so only when you're ready, find your way back into Child's Pose. Hands underneath the shoulders, pressing the hips back, heels towards the hips, arms out in front of you, forehead towards the earth, wobble. Nice.

Beautiful, slow, chin into the chest, let yourself roll on back up. Nice, we're gonna find our way towards a forward fold, and then we will sit together. I'm gonna chose to bring my legs straight out in front of me. If you would prefer Badhakonasana, Butterfly, or legs wide, choose that. Wobble a little side to side, and we're gonna be offering ourselves to this for about three minutes.

So let your hands come out in front of you. Chin comes into the chest. And different from what you've learned in a lot of the other practices of yoga, you are going to let your back round. And as you let your back round, drop the chin to the chest, and be in an easy place. Like, be in a place where it's still simple for you, and then now can you be aware of the feeling tone in the nostrils?

Can you be aware of where the tonality is? Is it more at the front of the nostril or the back of the nostril? Yes. And then, can you play with balancing it? And so what I mean by that is wherever it tends to be, like if you feel it more in the interior or the exterior, can you play with from the nostril letting the breath balance to be more even?

And as you play with letting the breath to balance, to be more even, can you be aware of the effect internally? Mm-hmm. Letting your chin draw in as it feels good. If it's okay, you let your head start to drop. So you're really letting your back round, so that you're actually stretching your back.

When you keep your back flat, generally you're strengthening your back. Generally when you let your back round, you're letting it stretch. I usually like to find a mudra with my fingers, just 'cause I'm fancy like that. Soften the ankles, let the legs feel heavier. Let the head feel heavier.

Super nice, slow, chin into the chest. Let yourself roll back up, feel the belly. Feel the heart, feel the throat, feel the face. And you are of course welcome to move toward Savasana, if you prefer. I'm gonna suggest we sit together.

We'll probably sit for about five minutes. So find that seat, schnoogle in a little bit. Big deliberate inhale. Exhale everything, let a (exhales deeply) happen. Soften the belly, soften the floor of the pelvis.

Nice. Upper palate open. And now we've really been tuning to these subtle energies and usually when you've spent, you know, the time, we've spent a while here, and it's not the natural direction. We've been reversing our attention from outward to inward. You'll know your practice was effective if now, whether you're sitting or lying in Savasana, the quiet is seeking the quiet.

That you're not having to corral the kittens. The kittens are all still. Back of the heart is soft. One of the images an I Ching teacher once gave me, the lake of the mind is so still that the monkeys have come to admire their own reflections. And the breath, usually in this state, has become so soft, like barely necessary.

The tensions become really obvious, so as you sense an attempt of gripping in the jaw, just simply let this tension soften. As you sense perhaps a tightening in the shoulders, just let it soften. These habitual patterns of grip take some time to coax towards ease. Beautiful, big deliberate inhale. And exhale everything.

Let your hands find each other. Thank you, my sweet friends, for your practice. Thank you for your journey into the inner channels. Namaste.

Comments

Kit S
Most excellent journey!
Kira Sloane
1 person likes this.
Kit! xok
Cheryl F
1 person likes this.
Thank you for guiding us deeper into the subtle realms Kira! Sublime.
Feroshia K
1 person likes this.
Thank you so much for such a beautiful session/practice!
Kira Sloane
Thank you Feroshia for being here.
Silke S
Thank you for guiding me into my inner channels. It was interesting, new and unexpected intense. I love the picture with the quiet lake and the monkeys can see their reflections.
Kira Sloane
Isn't it magnificent in there, Silke ? Happy. xok
Catherine R
Fascinating practice. Relaxing, clarifying and focused, but also made me feel a bit nauseous or like I was experiencing vertigo. Have any other students ever mentioned that?
Kira Sloane
Dearest Catherine, yes, sometimes when playing with the subtle energies, nausea can occur. I hope it passed quickly. Next time, try practicing with your eyes open and see if that helps. xok
Sarah F
1 person likes this.
This is awesome
1-10 of 33

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