The Wild Within

Hello, everyone. Welcome back for another adventure in season five. Today for our practice, I think you'll appreciate having a bolster and two blocks. And I'm going to start in a cross-legged seat and invite you to join me sitting on a bolster or folded blanket, if you prefer, but a bolster gives us a little more height so the pelvis can tilt forward and we can feel that length in our lower back as we sit in our mountain pose. If you will take your first two fingers and bring your thumb to fold the fourth and fifth finger in so you've got your piece fingers to press down into the floor at your sides.

We'll use this as our hand mudra to help us stay a little more focused and evoke some of those qualities of the mountain, which are stable, solid, grounded like the earth. When you have the right height underneath you and you're able to feel your fingertips press into the floor at your side, notice your horizon line so you can feel your head staying right over the navel over the center of your pelvis. And after taking a peek of your horizon line, if you feel comfortable, let's start to soften the gaze without tilting the head forward. Perhaps close your eyes entirely and start to visualize the shape of your mountain. Feel your legs, the foundation, the ground, the arms, the sides of the mountain.

The energy moving through the center of our mountain, our spine, up towards our peak, the crown of the head. And while we're in that area of the head and the sky, just notice the busyness or slowness or calmness of the mind this morning. Sensing a lot of clouds, a lot of thoughts. Was there more of a sense of blue sky and space? So we're just noticing without any judgment.

And as we sit, I'm going to imagine a little bit more of this mountain being backlit by the sunrise as we begin our journey together. Seeing that light from the backside starting to awaken your senses of what that light feels like on your back, on your sides. Doing some listening now to your environment with sounds. Are you noticing near and far? Like you might if you're about ready to start climbing a mountain, start to tune in, awaken your senses, what sounds do you hear?

And then noticing again, maybe the sound of your breath coming and going. And what pathways are opening as you sit rooted to the earth. Little pathways are reopening to feel that prana flowing in and down and around to different corners of the bodies. Maybe there's a particular intention you want to create for this adventure today. Something to also help continue to focus the mind and make the practice more meaningful.

What are you wishing for more of today in the journey? Keeping that in the heart mind as we lift the fingertips off the floor and open your palms towards the sky. Let's bring your palms together in front of your chest and rub your palms together quickly to draw a little bit more heat into your hands. And then maybe we can cup the eyes if you feel comfortable as you breathe through your nose. In just a few moments, really let the eyes soften into the face.

Maybe we can recall from our lizard practice how we really were paying attention to our eyes and how when they tend to be soft in the face, in the head, in the eye socket, oftentimes we might be a little bit more soft and relaxed, open in our lower back, in our belly. Just remember those soft lizard eyes. As we let the arms come down to our sides and let your eyes, when you're ready, slowly open and see if you can keep that soft focus as you let your shoulders roll up and back. If you're preparing yourself again to put on a backpack to get ready for the journey and you're just trying to create more ease, better flow of circulation. Maybe as we start walking on the path, we start to see some birds, so maybe we can pretend we're one of those birds and let our arms fly out to the sides, increase your wingspan.

And let's give ourself that hug with your left arm over the right arm. Just kind of feel into that shoulder, work out any kinks here as you squeeze in around your shoulder blades. Then let your arms again reach out to the sides, increase your wingspan, and let that right arm cross over your left arm. As best you can, give a little massage around that inner ridge of the shoulder blade line. And then let your arms open out wide, that big wingspan, and then come all the way down.

Let's lean forward whatever you're sitting on. If it's the bolster, we're going to slide it to the side and then set that about the center of your mat. We'll want the hands on the front side of the bolster and the knees away from your bolster. You might need to adjust after you try your first variation of child's pose, where we send the hips back a few inches, not all the way to the heels, and rest your forehead on the bolster. Just get that full stretch for your backside.

And then lean forward, walk your hands forward if you need to, and let your thighs rest on the bolster as you open your front body, widen through the collarbones, keeping those soft eyes. Send your hips back. You can maybe even close your eyes as your forehead touches the bolster. Imagine you were touching the stable earth. And then tip your body forward, tabletop, and into our modified upward dog as we look straight ahead.

Open chest, soft eyes. Exhale back into that extended child's pose. And now let's, one more time, stay with this little backbend, our modified backbend here. And now let's bend the elbows and tip down to the chest and forehead, lightly tap the floor. I'm going to use your arm strength to press you back up and lengthen your front spine as you look straight ahead, maybe even open the mouth and let the tongue stretch out a little bit to do a little bit of that lizard tongue action here.

Bend your elbows, bring your chest back down, press back up, keeping those soft eyes or maybe even closed eyes. One more time, we'll do that little lizard push up, bring your chest to the floor, and then we'll press on up, straight arms, okay, soft eyes. As you move your hips back to tabletop, let's move the bolster out of the way and bring yourself back to that tabletop position. Circle your hips, lower belly, base of the ribs, rib cage, and just generally getting clear, clearing away a few more pathways in the body for Prana to move more easily. After circling through the body, let's bring your knees a smidge closer together and then kick your right foot back an inch and stretch your left leg long.

So we're going to turn to the long edge of your mat, right hand under the right shoulder line as we swing your left arm up towards the ceiling and then down towards your ear and cheek. Kind of a preparatory for our half moon. So here's our crescent moon. Now let's do the half moon with your right knee on the floor. So you've lifted your left leg.

Bring your left foot to touch the floor and your left arm back by your ear. As we balance, float the left leg up, left fingertips point to the ceiling, left foot down, left arm by your ear. One more warm up, half moon. Left leg up, left arm up. As you bring your left foot down, bring your left hand down.

Now come to plank pose. Have both knees off the floor and bring your left knee to the floor. Kick your left foot back a few inches and take your right leg straight. Your right foot's at the back end of your mat there. Left hand under shoulder line, right fingertips towards the ceiling and take your right arm down by your cheek.

So think of this more like the crescent moon. Float your right foot up to the height of your hip, half moon variation. Right hand up, right leg lifted. Drop your right foot down, right arm by your ear, crescent moon into our half moon with right foot up, right arm up. One more.

Think of your crescent moon and take your right hand up and right foot up half moon. Take both knees to the floor, tabletop, both hands to the ground. Stretch your legs back, plank pose. Tip your hips up and think of inverting your mountain here. So thinking of your downward dog more like a mountain shape today, you can raise the pelvis tailbone up towards the sky.

Now let's bring your knees back down to the floor and then your elbows to the floor about shoulder distance apart. I always like my knees a little closer together here for the balance. As we swing this left leg up and visiting that kind scorpion where we're looking a little forward towards the fingertips. Then bring your left knee towards your nose, round your back, left leg goes up, look towards your fingertips, knee to the nose, left leg goes back up. Now keep the leg up and let's pump that left heel up and down towards the ceiling a few inches to continue to wake up that left glute and we're kind of doing that in a gentle way, kind way.

We're thinking of the bending, not biting practice. We're waking up that glutes and our backbend. Let's take your left knee to the floor and then switch out and take that right leg up. Keep the right leg bent. Look forward, think of the foot being that scorpion tail.

Bring your right knee to your nose, round, right leg swings up, think of your scorpion tail, knee to the nose, scorpion tail with that gentle backbend, pause and let that right heel pump up and down a few times. Just kind of feeling how that right glute is working this morning, elongating through our backbend and that includes through the neck, soft eyes. Now let's stretch your right leg all the way to the back of your mat so the toes touch the floor and then take your left leg back so you're in forearm plank for a moment. Adjust the width of your feet, press down with your elbows and toes as you lift the front of your body away from the earth. Think of your back body getting lots of sun, lots of light open towards the sky above you.

Now please walk your feet towards your elbows a step, lift your hips and imagine you've inverted your position so that your downward dog, forearm dog in this case is more like a mountain shape. Again, and can we press into the feet to lift a little higher towards the sky above, head dangles down and we'll bring the knees down to the floor, hands on the floor as you lift your elbows off the ground, we'll lift the knees just for a moment and that downward dog as our transition and then walk your feet forward to the top of the mat to have your ankles and knees bend as you come to the top of your mat, swing your arms out wide and think of those wings again as you take your arms up by your ears and then bring your arms to your side as you tilt forward like you're streamlining and look down at the floor and then take those arms like big wings, spread them wide, come up through your chair with arms by your ears and imagine you're kind of starting to dive forward or down with your arms at your side, wings at your side, look down. One more, arms come up slowly, increase your wingspan, streamline, looking to start diving towards the floor as you look down and now let's raise our arms, spread those wings and come up into straight legs and then arms down at your side, spread those wings as you press your feet into the earth and maybe take a look up towards the sky, on the exhale come all the way forward and down with bent knees and touch the ground, touch the earth, top of the head points to the floor. As you lift up, stretch your legs back so you end up in your plank pose and tune into the strength of yourself here as we tip to our right side and then slide your left foot but if you like those variations of little tree on your side with your left arm towards the sky, you can keep both feet down, turn back to plank, you can tip through the feet so you're on your left foot, left hand as you maybe take your right foot into your side tree, right arm towards the ceiling, come back to your plank pose and then we'll slide down down and doing that cobra as you inhale that kind cobra, kind back bend as you curl up keeping those soft eyes, forehead, chest back to the floor, forehead and chest curls up, lower back down, one more time forehead and chest curls up and then press on back to table top and then coming into your downward facing dog and think of that downward dog more like a mountain shape today, step your right foot a step closer to the left and let's reach that left leg up towards the ceiling, kind of a little bit of that handstand like preparation, we'll swing that left foot forward by your left thumb and now if you'll grab your blocks and maybe keep them in the flat position underneath your shoulder line, when you have blocks under your hands let's bring your right knee down to lightly touch the floor and look forward, lift your right knee, look straight down, drop your right knee back to the floor, look forward, lift your right knee up, look down at the floor and when your right knee comes down let's pause and point your right toes behind you, transfer your left hand block to the inside of your leg and I like to turn them wide and stack my blocks here as we come towards lizard pose and whereas you look straight ahead to your horizon you might tip now your left knee away from your left arm, either stay upright or put your elbows on the block and look down towards the floor, whichever one you choose see if you might notice again what's happening with your eyes, are they soft, is that feeling of their liquid and moving in the eye sockets, can we stick the tongue out every now and again to notice that the jaw is not relaxed, the throat, tongue not tense and do that little lizard action of sticking the tongue out, one more moment feeling that pathway open in that left side of your body down into your hip, inner leg, lower belly, as we tilt that left knee back in curl your right toes under and we're going to lift the back knee as you transfer your blocks flat back out to the side under your shoulder line, slide your left leg back into your downward dog or inverted mountain, bring your feet a tiny bit closer together and we'll switch sides and take that right leg up towards the ceiling, got those flat blocks under your hands, take your right foot forward towards the right block and then lower your left knee lightly to touch the floor as you look straight ahead, press into the feet, lift the left knee, look down, lower your left knee, look straight ahead, lift your left knee, look down at the floor and one last time with that left knee down, stay here, rest the top of that left ankle on the floor and take your right block to the inside of your right foot and turn your blocks wide or at least I like to, hands on flat tall blocks so I can look straight ahead, elongate a little more through the spine and then start to check in with the eyes, are they relaxed in the face, can you move them around and then once you're settled maybe let the tongue stick out like a lizard, relax the throat and jaw, tilt forward if that feels appropriate and then explore letting that right knee drop away from your right shoulder and just notice what sort of pathway starts to open on your right side as your knee tips away from your shoulder, take and invite a fuller deeper breath into that space, those first sensations that draw our attention a little bit more inwards and sometimes it might take a little bit more time to experience those deeper sensations. Let's tip that right knee back in and let's go ahead and move your blocks again right under your shoulder line, tuck your back left toes under and lift your back knee, a step through your down dog, both feet on the floor, hands on blocks, send the hips up as you rise up to the ball of your foot, let's walk your feet up towards the space between your blocks and set your blocks to the side, bend your knees, ankles and swing your arms wide, expand that wingspan and come up to chair with your arms up by your ears, streamline like you're going to dive back down, arms parallel to your body, look down, spread those arms and wings and look straight ahead, arms by your ears, torso parallel to the floor, arms at your side, look down at the floor and then inhale, sweep your arms up, spread those wings, look forward and then come up into straight legs, arms down at your side.

Let's grab one block and as you take one block, we'll turn it into your wide position at the top of your mat, just rest that block in front of your thighs as you feel your feet on the ground in mountain pose, that sense of elongating through the spine, top of the head towards the sky, please raise your arms with that wide block up towards the ceiling, take a step back, maybe two feet with your left foot with your heel up so you're already kind of in that balance mode. Now from here as we exhale, we're going to lift your left knee towards your chest and drop your elbows in front of your chest, you're going to squeeze the elbows parallel, step back with your left leg again to your lunge, arms overhead, step into your right foot, lift your left knee towards the ceiling, drop your elbows in front of your chest, step back left leg arms up, this time we'll stay, keep your left knee lifted, elbows in front of your chest and wrap your left leg over your right for eagle legs, keep sinking down as you look straight ahead, the block is more or less in line with my forehead, elbows are parallel. If you want full eagle pose with the balance, wrap that left foot around your right ankle, sink down one more inch, raise your arms up, uncross your legs and then rest your block right down in front of your thighs, mountain pose, inhale when you're ready, arms back up in the air, take a step back with your right foot, squeeze that block with your hands, back heel is up, now we'll swing your right knee towards your chest and drop your elbows down in front of your chest, squeeze your block, step back with your right leg into that crescent lunge, arms overhead, swing your right knee towards your chest, balance, elbows in front of your chest, arms up, right leg back, crescent lunge, this time we'll hold, keep your right knee up, elbows in front of your chest, wrap your left leg over your right leg for your eagle leg position, sink down an inch, keep your elbows parallel, you might even consider wrapping your right foot around your ankle if you want to deepen that adventure or maybe reach a new height today with the balance, steady your focus, arms up, uncross your legs and then arms down in front of you and then we're going to turn towards the long end of your mat and as you turn to the long end of the mat please turn your block to the flat position and I'm going to step my right foot on top of the block, hands to the hips, I want to invite you to step onto your block and then put your left foot back down just so you're aware of how far away from the floor you are and as we come up into our potted tree position where you're standing in that pot bring your left knee up towards your chest and let's make some circles with your left leg as we often do just to warm up that ball and socket joints, keep looking to your horizon, now as we let that left knee open out to the side, rest your left foot along that inner leg and let those arms open out to the side, now your branches help to stabilize you, palms open to receive some lights and now start to imagine which tree might be come today which is stop backpacking and around cedar trees and fir trees, pine trees, hemlock trees, what kind of trees are near you that you might imagine yourself becoming. Stay a little longer, try to bring in some patience, deeper listening and explore again now if there's a little bit of wind which will inevitably happen in the forest drop your left hand to your left knee and bend without breaking to your left, have fun if balance is a little wobbly bring yourself back up now a calm moment and then we meet a little bit of wind and disturbance, what kind of fun yoga shapes you create as you tip to your left, come back up whatever tree you're becoming, keep that impression in your mind as your hands come in front of your heart and let's keep that tree in our mind as we put left foot down and right foot along sides of your block, see if you can bring a little more awareness to your footprint and your rooting here, are you falling into the inner arches or aware of weight going to outer edges of your feet, broaden your base, keep your legs feeling like these strong trunks now as we take that left foot to the block and stand hands to your hips, right foot down, right foot back up, we're in that pot now where let's say we're a young tree as we take the right knee up and we're going to circle that right leg around a couple times, feel how this ball and sockets moving today and then we'll keep that knee open, let your foot rest somewhere along the inner left leg line and then the arms start to grow those branches, palms up, maybe these needles here to catch a little bit more light and then as you stand maybe bringing in the same tree in your minds, was there a favorite tree that you've recently encountered and as we come up letting yourself again grow a little taller here and in this sense of belonging in your little corner of the forest we're inevitably going to meet some wind so let that right hand come to your knee as you tip a little bit to your right sides, just go with it, see if we can bend rather than break, if we fall we come back up and again a little bit of wind inevitably will come to your area in the forest, right hand down, come back up and then tune into the support of the community here and as we come back in stronger, more resilient after we found those uncomfortable edges hanging off to the sides, one more moment and let your arms come down and set both feet down, root again your feet along the sides of the block, kind of feel into tadasana and the whole foot rooting into the earth, all right bend your knees, let's grab that block and let's turn it to the tall height and put it over to the right, let's set your right foot in front of that block and take your left foot back maybe about two, two and a half feet away from your right foot, slide your hands up to your hips and let's do a little pelvic tilt to your right like you're warming up for triangle, tilt back up and again as we tilt over to our right side let's reach down and grab that block with your right hand and maybe rest the fingertips rather than the palm on that block, let's look down at the right hand and start to roll open that left chest a little bit more towards the ceiling, now consider swinging that left finger tips the left hand towards the sky and then see if it feels good for you today to look straight ahead back at your horizon line toward the long end of your map or does it feel interesting to look towards that sky maybe there's a cloud covering the sun so it's easy to look up still let that light come in from the ceiling from the sky onto your face and hand, let's take the hand back or reverse our steps hand back to your waist look down at your right hand this time bend your right knee grab your block move it a block print forward come into half moon slide left foot in either stay here or we'll tip that left leg up and put more weight perhaps on your right hand block, keep looking down shine nice and bright from your navel into the space in front of you and then consider left hand reaching up towards the ceiling you want more adventure look forward maybe just some new territory or looking up if that brings you into what might feel like the right kind of challenge for today's adventure find that moment of steadiness or at least playfulness as we bend the right knee grab your block and let's come back up to neutral both feet on the floor turn both toes to face the long end of your mat and transfer your block now to the left always have the advantage on the second side of kind of knowing what's happening hands up to your hips let's feel what it's like when you tip to the left with your pelvis tilt back up again tilt to your left this time stay and see if you can reach down and place that left hand on a tall block fingertips on the block look at your left foot while you open that right chest towards the ceiling and then perhaps you add that extra reach of your right hand towards the sky maybe we turn the gaze forward towards the long end of your mat or perhaps you even try looking towards the ceiling towards the sky and once again that wonderful cloud blocking that sun so it's easy to look up the eyes again soft in the face if we retrace our steps let's go back to right hand on the waist look down at your left hand block and bend your left knee so you can move your block one block print forward at least step right foot in and either stay here or raise your right leg for the adventure of half moon where you might send your right hand towards the sky you might keep looking down or look forward if you're looking for greater adventure or maybe more play look towards the ceiling if that feels like the kind of adventure or challenge you're looking for today wobbly still really good for strengthening that ankle and leg retrace your steps bring your right hand to your hip look down at the left hand grab that block as you come up and drop your right foot to the floor you have both feet face the long end of your mat tall block down in front of you so as you slide your hands up to your hips let's roll the shoulders back maybe we kind of imagine you've taken the backpack off for a moment as we've reached our peak a little moment to pause rejuvenate okay now when we're at the top of the mountain let's bend the knees and tip forward and invert our mountain again separate your feet wider if that's helpful to bring the forehead to the block walk your arms a little bit out in front of you like you're doing downward dog if you feel like the blocks too high it just might be so consider bringing the block lower a flatter position so you can really drop your head down and get that feeling like you're inverting your mountain sometimes we get to the top it's nice to kind of see this new perspective and take the pause deeper listening observe what pathways are opening here now as we kind of imagine maybe we're at the the peak of the practice or the peak time of the day the sun over us warming our back sides let's start to walk the hands back in more underneath your shoulder line and take a moment just look down get used to this altitude as you look down at the floor with your torso parallel to the ground when you feel acclimated to this new altitude let's go ahead and shift your feet a few inches closer together you can slide that block out of the way as we walk the hands towards the top of the mat where we started and pivot and turn that right foot to face the short end let's transfer that leg back to downward dog and come again to that inverted mountain shape let's bring your knees now to the floor and as the knees come down what version of child's pose might work for you today and so it could be bolster over your calves could be bolster in front of you or bolster between your knees so see if there's one version of child's pose that's safe for your knees shoulders neck and give yourself a moment where we bring the forehead to the ground this moment perhaps of some more calm while we keep our back body open to the sun the sky our forehead in touch with the cool earth when you're ready we'll lift the head up and slide your feet off to any side and swing your legs out in front of you when you stretch your legs forward into our dandasana for a moment we might bring the mudra back into play where we take your peace fingers press them into the floor at your side to help you ground your legs lift your side waist up to your chest and look to your horizon let's now slide your left foot to your inner right leg without pulling it just let it slide into the inner leg if you like a little lift under your knee if your knee is tight adds your block under your knee now let's take your arms up and maybe even keep that mudra with your peace fingers reach your fingertips and point to the ceiling and then open your arms up parallel tip a few inches forward till you feel a little feedback in your hamstrings raise your arms back up fingers point to the sky perhaps we tip a few inches forward like your tree pose legs as your torso comes forward tilt up one more time tilt forward look down and as you raise your arms up sweep your arms back down to your side and lean back so you can slide that left leg forward back to dandasana with your fingertips rooted to the floor slide your right foot into your inner upper leg without pulling your leg in this side needs a lift under your knee please add your block then raise your arms like you're spreading your wings take your arms all the way up and then arms come parallel to the floor as you tip forward raise your arms back up lift the side waist back ribs torso tips forward notice your hamstrings on the left tilt forward you've got your tree pose legs one more time arms wide do that little tilt forward come all the way back up with your arms and as your arms come down we're going to lean back so you can slide your right leg out in front of you make sure your space is clear behind you and i'm going to tip around so it can more easily from here roll back after inviting the hands in front of the chest please press your hands together look at your fingertips as you start to sink back towards the floor trying to feel like each segment of your spine has a moment to float and then we come down until eventually eventually we're all the way down on the floor when you are all the way down on the floor open your arms up to your side and tilt your knees in towards your chest going to raise your legs up in the air open the legs out to the side a big v cross your right leg over the left legs again out to the big v right leg over left cross your right leg over the left big v shape right leg over left and now let's cross the legs like you would in eagle pose i'm going to reach for your knees with your hands and curl into a little ball on exhale legs go forward arms up to your sides again curl into little ball forehead to knees arms open out arms open out wide knees tip forward grab your knees curl into your ball and as the arms go wide lift your legs up uncross legs in the big v shape left leg over right legs in the v shape again left leg over right legs in the v shape left leg over right cross your legs as best you can in your eagle legs grab your knees and curl into your ball forehead to knees arms back to the floor tip your knees away from your chest tip the knees in grab them curl into your ball arms wide knees tip away from your chest curl into your ball arms wide knees tip away and as your knees tip in uncross your legs and slide your arms to the side of your body all right please now let's lift the feet towards the sky and now let your arms travel back by your ears and drop your right leg down to touch the floor swing your right leg back up towards the sky arms at your side left leg down arms back by your ears left leg up arms at your side both legs come to the floor as both arms reach back let's stay here into a full exhale take a moment at the end of exhale to let the navel settle in towards your back and make a little pond in the center of your belly swing both knees in towards your chest arms at your side lift your feet up in the air one more time right leg down arms by your ears right leg up arms at your side left leg down arms back by your ears left leg up arms at your side both legs down to the floor arms by your ears take a full exhale navel towards spine pause imagine you're making a little pond in that navel area and then tip your knees to your chest arms at your side keep your arms here as you make a few little circles with your knees staying together to simply massage the lower back area and still work again a tiny bit of those abdominal muscles to feel like you're bringing a little bit more focus towards your center let's do one more cycle you know grab your knees and gently invite them to move towards the direction of your chest let's cross your right ankle over your left and reach around the sides of your legs to grab a foot with each hand and maybe we from here we tip side to side kind of getting a greater stretch maybe through shoulders or back of the hips if some place feels good or we're done massaging now we're just going to pause and let our weight sink back into the earth and feeling again like maybe this is a little longer and feeling again like maybe the sun now is starting to go back over the other side of the mountain so now there's maybe not quite so much light and encouraging us to move a little slower and now maybe to pause and hold still for a moment we'll make our transition into more stillness as we potentially repurpose that bolster and the knees so your heels are on the floor if we like now for our shavasana separate your heels maybe out to the ends of your sticky mats arms float away from the side of your body what's it like now to ease on back towards the earth in this moment where we're trying to relax every single muscle in the in the body small muscles in the face again checking the eyes mouth relaxed tongue relaxed so you might even let your tongue stick out one more time like a little lizard on its back warming up its belly at the earth floor here absorb any tension you tend to hold in the shoulders upper back with each exhale feeling your sense of belonging maybe perhaps the sense of awe being part of this incredible nature surrounded by beauty and as we appreciate that awe and beauty just notice the effect that has on a nervous system decreasing our stress increasing our presence when we surround ourselves with beauty it's almost like instantaneous meditation so imagining yourself returning to the earth here not on the earth but of the earth made of the earth so you can feel this in your body and slowing down to the end of the exhale and taking that gentle pause you must be witness to three more cycles of your breath on your back the earth the sun the fire element the water the streams and rivers the ocean the air the sense of space and try to keep the elements with you as you wiggle your fingers and toes perhaps set your feet on your bolster as you turn to maybe your right side any side will do stand on your side for just a moment leaving behind whatever you were able to leave behind so we come into this present moment getting the sense of fullness gratitude as we maybe slide onto that soft cushion to again raise our hips up so it's a little easier maybe to cross the legs send the knees down to the floor and we might again one more time bring your piece fingers together press them into the ground at your side and recreating again your favorite mountain now rooting through the fingers lifting through the center of the spine and for a moment maybe we visualize again the sun sets the moon rising and imagining that beauty that exists in nature in so many different forms and perhaps again noticing what you are grateful for keeping that in the heart mind as we now gather the hands in front of your heart and keeping that gratitude that image in your heart mind as we close this part of our practice today we others continue to benefit from our practice namaste