Befriending Ourselves

Hello, everyone, and welcome back. Today's practice is going to focus on the fourth, Klesha, one of the poisons of the mind, that we use our practice to free ourselves from. And, and that one comes right after attachment to pleasure is our aversion or our pushing away of things that we don't like. Sometimes it's hatred and or anything that we can consider within us any emotion that feels toxic sometimes it's jealousy, sometimes it's just like deep anger, things that we realize that, rise up within us that before we know it can come out into an action and destructive behavior. And so, it's not to say that our anger isn't just fied, especially for many things and many people that we see in the world, but it's effect on us and the effect of the world because it all comes under, as we know, ahimsa, to see how we lessen harm.

So which one of the Yamas is gonna come to our rescue? But the practice of brahmacharya. It's also the fourth one on in the fifth, in the five panca Yamas, the five Yamas. And that one is brahmacharya. And, it means, you know, right action or what leads to Bramman, and sometimes described even flatly as celibacy.

And so it's not one of the most popular ones or a misconception. And so it's not, you know, it doesn't mean celibacy, a %, even though the monks definitely, the yogic monks did practice celibacy. But this is how can we rein in anything that's toxic to us? How can we practice this discipline that ultimately leads to our freedom? So whether it's harnessing it and moving it towards a direction that we desire, like our anger, maybe we move it towards activism in the world and doing good. But it does talk about how can we master our senses before we lash out. So let's go ahead and get started by rubbing our palms together. There's a goddess called which means time and she's seen as, you know, full of rage and blood and we may wanna push her away, but she leads to compassion once we actually are able to make peace.

So you're gonna start actually with sticking out your middle finger. It's okay. Go ahead. It is a yogic gesture and really expressive of everything that we hate, but we're gonna transform it. So we're going to press our middle fingers together. And then you're gonna take the nail beds of your index fingers together and the tips of your thumbs together so that the thumbs stretch to the heart.

And then there's a sword, your middle fingers and then creating this heart. So we use the power of these llamas, our heart, to liberate and free us. So you can lift the chest, allow the elbows to come out to the side. You're gonna feel some energy in the side of the arms for sure. I'm gonna take a few breaths, and we're gonna align this with the practice of Kumbaka.

That's the retention. The power of pausing before we say or do the thing that we don't want to say or do. And so you're gonna inhale all the way up to the top of the inhale, pause there for a moment, keeping the spine long, giving it space. It was Victor Franco who said in that space is our power and our freedom to choose our responses. Stay lifted as you exhale all the way to the depth of the exhale, and then please hold the breath out there.

That's your power source. To pause so that we restrain our energy, bronchitis, again, inhaling, holding at the height of the inhale for as long as it's comfortable, not more. Staying lifted and breathing out to the depth of the exhale and holding it there for a beat or two. This can even the stopping is nirodaha, the stopping of even the Chitta Vriti or anything that causes harm one more time like that. As we begin to transform our actions, it's usually our habitual patterns that before we know it, we're acting out on.

So we learn these pausing techniques. Take one more breath like that in this time. We'll chant the sound of ohm together three times. Aligning with the divine. Again, big breath in.

Holding for a moment. And one more just like that beating it. Take one more brief breath in and exhale to sigh and release the hands down. And then go ahead and Come that onto your hands and your knees. Make sure you have your padding near you if you ever need it for your knees or your body.

And with your hands directly underneath your knees, your knees underneath your shoulders, we're always aligning everything. You're gonna extend the right arm back and then the left leg forward so that you do have also the source of our will is in our naval center, of our strength and inner courage, and then you're gonna exhale to tap your right elbow to the left knee. Climb all the way. Hold for a moment. And then from there, extending and expressing outward.

Again, right elbow to the left knee. Hold for a moment. This is your inner strength. You can even make a little fist. Feeling your strength.

And then again, when we're done like that, extending all the way back, and then climb all the way in. And then from here, plant the right hand down, stretch the left leg back, Reach your heel to the ground, and then peel the left arm up to the sky. So that again, you're hugging in, the ribs hug in, the tailbone hug in. So it's Mahabanda or these great sources of energy and prana that we lock into the body. Instead of flying all the way out here, we draw everything in to be self mastered and self controlled. And then you can play with this and see if your body's ready of it.

You can see if maybe you wanna lift the right knee towards the right elbow for a moment, hugging in for a moment, maybe even shooting the leg out to the side, and then release the left hand down. There's a little bit of a twist here. Before you send your hips towards your heels and take your knees to the ground. So this is even known as, I don't know, I call this crouching tiger. It's that moment before a tiger or kitty or anything pounces, it's a pause to gain its energy.

That's bra metaria. And then press out into a plank pose nice and long. And lower your cells down. It can be knees, chest, and chin, or in one piece. We point the toes with the forehead to the ground, roll the shoulders up and back.

Lift up into a baby cobra. We're playing with these pausing practices. Then press back up onto the hands and knees. Walk your knees underneath your hips, hands underneath your shoulders, and then extend the left leg back and the right arm forward. Plug in towards your center, your source, of energy that we wanna contain because it's secret and then extended outward reaching.

Again, plug in and pause holding practice. And then reaching out one more time hugging all the way in, pause and hold. Reach all the way out. And then as you come in one more time, You can begin to take your left shin down, take the right leg back, and peel open the right arm. But hugging the tailbone inward, the ribs in, the chin in, Mahabanda.

So we don't blow all of our prana. You can lift the right leg up. And then you can play with seeing how it feels. I always have to soften my elbow a little bit, so I don't lock my joints Maybe you tap your elbow. Maybe stretch the left leg out to the side.

And then circling the hands down. You'll get a nice IT stretch here for a moment. Before sending your hips towards your heels and laying the knees down so that you're pulling open even the soles of the feet there a little bit, reaching back, pausing before pressing out into your plank. And lowering down for your vinyasa rising up as you breathe in. And then tuck your toes under so that you can come up into a plank pose.

And then from here, you're gonna lower all the way down. Just like old school push ups. And then this is gonna be a lot, but it's just a play. It's not my favorite thing, but it's again calling on lifting up from the ground into Chaturanga dandasana. So you're gonna take a deep breath in, exhale to hold the breath out, and then see if you can lift up off of the ground.

And then, again, it could just be a play. See if you can reach the right arm forward the left leg up, and then switch hugging in using your sore, a power source of strength. And then lower down onto your belly. Take your elbows forward. Flex back through the feet one more time.

If you take a deep breath in, lifting and opening through the chest for a sphinx pose. Rolling the shoulders back so that even though these poses call on on a lot of strength, we wanna see that they're not aggressive or agro that stresses us out and create tension in the body, but we wanna use that energy of fire that's in us. You can take a deep breath in with the face nice and soft, and then see if you can find the lift up through the belly. And then you can play with a little twist here. You can come onto the outer edge of the right foot. You can even kind of bend through the elbow like a Chaturanga of the left hand, and then see if you'd like to lift the arm up.

And then we'll come back through center and lower down. Spinks pose as you breathe in. And then forearm plank. I usually just like to hang here in the twist because you get this nice oblique. Awakening.

And then maybe pop the right hand, so it's like a half Chaturanga, half forearm. You can always release the bottom shindown as you inhale to open up. And then come on back through center. You've got a cobra as you breathe in, and then hands and knees and into your downward facing dog as you breathe out and hang out in this nice heat. Of your own fire that is really powerful when we direct it for the right uses.

And then bend your knees deeply as you inhale look forward. Again, you wanna take that pausing practice to harness your energy. Maybe walk your hands back and let's see if you can spring forward with your feet between your hands. Slide your hands up your shins as you breathe in. And then exhale to fold into your legs. Wrap your arms around the backs of the legs because it's this discipline of love, of fierce love that keeps us moving away from destructive habits and reactions.

Towards more positive responses in the world, root down into the feet and then rise up like the sun, the most positive expression, of fire, warming and heating up the whole world. Your arms by your side. Like, the sun rises, falls every day. Arms by your side. Come up to Stan tadasana. Nice and tall.

And then interlace your hands behind you, sometimes I see. In our practice, the binds really lead to the freedom. So we're gonna explore a little bit through binding. So we'll start with our hands interlaced here. As you breathe in, lift the chest, and as you exhale, fold forward, bend the knees, this is kind of like the horses in the bug of Agita.

There's the chariot and the horses, which are all the senses. To rein in. And then lift the right foot up, send it back behind you, slide your hands down your inner right thigh, and then inhale the arms up to the sky for a high lunge. You can bend through the elbows and sink down a little bit, plant your hands to the ground, step back into a plank pose, see if you can lift up and into the belly, and as you bend the elbows, hover for a moment in Chaturanga, let the belly parachute up And then you can lower for cobra, we're right into upward facing. And then exhale into your downward facing. I'm gonna pause here for a couple moments, breathing.

And breathing out, find that hold, that spaciousness, that freedom, power to choose our responses lie, and then bend the knees, inhale to look forward, pausing practice, Step step or take a big hop to the top, hands up your shins, breathing in halfway lifting, and exhale to fold. Route down into the feet, inhale rise up. It's to the heart. Arms by the side. Interlacing your hands behind you as you breathe in, lift and open through the chest, exhale, bend the knees and fold forward.

Bend your knees halfway lifting up. And then pick up the left foot so that the chest is open. It's always leading through the heart, but the navel's engaged. Slide the leg down behind you as you lift and open through the chest, breathing in, and then breathing out to sink down. Find the hands on either side, the right foot step back plank. Press the ground away.

Reach back through the heels, forward through the chest, lift up, keep the shoulders lifted as you hover for your chaturanga. Dropping for cobra or upward facing, and exhale into your downward facing. Again, a couple breaths here to soften the shoulders, press down through the fingertips. Come back into that regulated rhythm of the breath and those pauses. And then bend your knees inhale look forward.

Step step, or take a big hop. Slide your hands up your shins, breathing in, and exhale to fold. You've been wrapping the arms again around the backs of the legs. As in the Gita, it says that it's a self mastery is befriending ourselves. And from here, bend the knees and rise up utkatasana.

The shoulders roll away from the ears. If comfortable even press the pumps together so that we're drawing the energy in instead of letting it go out, elongating the tailbone, feeling the energy bubbling up inside of the body instead of outside. And then as you come forward, pause for a moment onto your tippy toes, bend the knees. This is diver's pose. Again, it's a nice little pausing moment. When we have a choice, and then plant the hands down, bend the knees and check out jumping right into your Chaturanga.

Dropping for cobra or upward facing, and exhale for your downward facing dog. As you inhale, you're gonna lift the right leg up and into the sky. As you exhale step forward, reach the back heel to the ground, roll the right hip back. And then from here, you're gonna weave the left arm underneath the right. And rise up into an eagle warrior one.

So it's raining all of the strands of the senses inward arching up and back. And then you're gonna catch the hands behind you and bow forward devotional worry. Right from here, you're gonna parallel the toes, prosarita Pado Tanasana, chin in towards the throat, arms over your head, bend the knees a little bit so that you can rise up for your flying warrior. It's a warrior two. Right toes out. Plug the thigh bones in actively.

Oh, usually everything goes back. We wanna hug in towards the center, holding it for a moment. And then tip backwards for your peaceful warrior, you're gonna take the right hand behind the head. You can use your left hand to encourage it to the back of the heart a little bit as you drop down. And then with the left arm reaching down by your side, you can reach for your t shirt, or you can see if your fingertips touch, and then there's a little pull.

That little pull helps to open the heart. And even that's Ginesha Mudra, the remover of obstacles right behind the heart. Begin to lead with the right elbow, and then lean into the inside of the right thigh. So this is where A strap might be nice to explore your binding practice if you don't have one or if it seems like it's unavailable. You can make it into kind of like a short folded in half and maybe in half again.

Because again, it's the discipline or this little pulling drawing in that allows the heart to be free. So by drawing the arm bones back, do you see how the heart can open? Draw the tailbone inward, lean backwards a little bit, and then even lengthen through the right leg. You can let the hands open up a little bit. And then this is where it's gonna get really you're gonna really call on that energy of the belly You're gonna see if you can keep your hands together. If you fall out of it, you're gonna fall, but this is a deep focus of the mind and the senses to maybe lift.

That back leg off towards a bound arch under awesome to play with it a couple times. And then release down. Whooft, hands on either side of the front foot step back plank. Anything here in the middle that you'd like to do, you can hover for your Chaturanga and then drop down cobras anytime. And then it's your downward facing dog.

We're gonna explore the left leg lifting up, stepping forward into that warrior. One, which is actually an expression of shiva's rage. Oh, you're gonna take your right arm underneath the left bursting up through the earth as you sink down so that the energy is reaching upward. And then clasp your hands right away behind you, lifting the chest to fold forward, devotional warrior, and then parallel the toes for your proserita, any little micro movements. The head releasing to the earth, and then rise up with the arms up to the sky.

Turn the left leg out, turn the right toes in, and then bend the knee as you sink down, keeping the chest lifted and the softness, so it's always tira sukha, really alert and steady, but then at ease. Tip backwards towards your peaceful, clasp the back of your neck with your left hand use your right hand, maybe, too. Find the back of the heart as you stretch open, through the outer edge of the right left arm, and then with your arm reaching back. You'll begin to bend the elbow, maybe find the sacrum, or your t shirt, or your fingertips, and you also have your strap, if you'd like to use it to lean backwards for today, opening up through the heart. And then lead with your elbow leaning into the inside of the hip as the pelvis comes forward.

Take your right hand behind you. And then explore again this use of viewer strap. So the hips do wanna come out. We wanna guide the tailbone in. Chin towards the throat, navel to the spine, and then rolling the upper arm bones out.

Maybe you'll lengthen out through that front leg, and then popping that back foot in, maybe the left leg back out. You have to focus the mind as well as you play with this intense discipline of lifting that backside. Yes. Maybe it's one more time. And then let it go.

Take your hands on either side. Of your foot, press the ground away. To hover, cobra, or all the way up. And downward dog as you breathe out. Big inhale through the nose.

Let any excess heat pour out of the mouth. So we need these healthy outlets and expressions And then bend your knees, look forward, step, step, or bend the knees to hop. Lift the chest as you breathe in, and then exhale to fold. So we're gonna check out one more Big bind here in a standing pose. It's called Brude of Paradise.

Many of us can just fly up into it. I probably can, but it's not in the way that yoga calls us on, which is to move with a lot of discipline, a lot of awareness and symmetry in the body, and not just, you know, talked a lot about just unconsciously moving for for what, for show, but to order to rein and to master everything inward. So we're not doing things consciously, but for our minds. So the same thing's gonna happen with the right fingertips to the ground or a block and the left arm reaching back behind you. And then you're gonna see if you can bend the knees.

There's a maybe you'll have a little you know, it's gotta be a little like that to find the hands. But then I'd like you to first lengthen the legs. If Generally, if when you do this pose or if it's in your practice, that you just rush past it. But pausing for a couple moments, and then bend your knees so you're dropping your hips, squeeze the pelvic floor a little bit. Mula bandha, So from there, you're extracting, you're drawing the knee all the way up, towards the outer edge of the elbow, and pausing here for a moment, shoulders back, maybe the right leg opens up halfway, or maybe it's a whole way, but you want still the face to be soft and maybe twist a little bit. And then see if you can slowly release the right foot down, And then maybe you'll play with lifting the left leg up again. No. Sometimes we stay with this self mastery, and then stretch your leg back behind you.

You may fall out of it, and take your hands to the inside of the right foot. And then hug your right knee to the upper arms. And pick up the heel so that your heel reaches back and then bend through the elbows. So you're not even thinking about flying. The tendencies to just fly.

This is like a little perch and then step back to lower down. And then you've got your cobras and your downward dogs pausing in your child's pose anytime with our practice of pausing. Look forward step, step, hop, or walk, and fold. And then you'll twist over to the other side. So it's a right arm up, grab ahold of your belt, See if you can reach it back behind you as you first lengthen the legs and twist, and then bend through the knees.

As you play with rising up, taking your elbow into the inside of the left knee, and maybe lengthening the leg as you peek back. And slowly releasing down slowly slowly slowly slowly. If you've lost it, let yourself lose it and come back, lift the right leg. And then in this little arm balance prep. So you're hugging the knee to the upper arm, picking up the foot and then taking a little bend so that my shoulders are still lifted.

And then step back to either lower to the ground. I definitely need to. And then back into your downward dog. Take a couple moments here to, again, regulate the breath, the emotions, the nervous system. Anything we need to do before looking forward to step step.

Or take a big hop. Reading in halfway and exhale to fold. Always wrapping the arms around the backs of the legs. And then rolled and rise up. So last big, peak pose that we're gonna do to kinda put it all together. Again, this may be the very first time you've tried this pose at the, you know, I'll forget about poses and then I'll bring them back into my repertoire just so that, you know, even as age happens and all sorts of things happen, it's a new relationship with it.

And these are the poses I generally don't wanna do. They're the ones that I'm averse to. I don't feel 100%. Beautiful, you know, but it's how can I find peace even within some pretty extreme challenge? And I know we're all facing it in different ways.

So we have lots of props and everything to help us and to take it step by step. You can take your blocks even the medium height behind the heels with your hips your feet a little bit wider than hip width apart. Now we can take your straps over to the side. And then I always like to eagle the arms because I find it draws me inward. And this is kind of like a little sumo stance, the feet are wide, and then take your arms behind you so that you're really stretching the hands back and the chest forward.

And this is the first step towards Titibasana or Firefly, and that's that big stoke of fire that we wanna channel. And then you can begin to walk your feet forward. Squeeze the block with your hands. This for me really protects my wrists. And then walk the feet in so that you can hook the right ankle over the left. So this is the first part of Bucha Padasana. I wanna hug in the upper arm bones, and then maybe let the legs reach forward, and then maybe back both knees for a crow pose.

And then something like that. Maybe you've fallen out of it. We just keep practicing over and over again, even something that seems impossible. Sometimes it's an emotion, and We can't contain ourselves, but we keep trying. It's always our intention.

Right? So that that we're not reactive from our repetitive unconscious patterns when we make them more conscious. Wonderful. That was an in very intense practice so far. So let's start to cool it down. Let's come back into our downward facing dog. Lift the right leg up, step forward between your hands, press the back heel down, and then begin to lengthen through the legs so that you can take a moment.

Hands under there on top of the block so that you can draw the right hip back. And then exhale to fold. Taking a few moments here, even feeling the effects of your tapas or intense discipline to steal the mind, channel the emotions. Man, you can begin to take a twist, the right arm to the sky, your revolve triangle, your right hip back, you can open up the heart, even into challenging situations, and then release your hand, soften the back knee to the earth, and then rise up for an Anjanae asana. Can let the hands come behind the head so that the back of the neck is supported as you move into the back then.

And then you can take your arms. Your hands back down. And then this is also where you might. We always have the option to use straps and all of these to make our practice a little bit more Bring that ease that succumb into our practice as you begin to take this twist opening up through the chest and through the top of the quadricep. After a few breaths, you may reach for the top of the foot.

You may release a block down and come down. This is another pose I'm very adverse to from the intensity, those feelings in the quads. And then you can release your back leg down straighten out through the right leg. And then for those of you that would like to move a little bit further towards your Hanuman Asana, you can take your blocks the highest length. Tuck your toes under or walk the hands back so that the chest is open and then explore.

Keeping the chest open. And then using stilts on your hands, you can make your way back into downward dog. You're even welcome to keep your hands here. Sometimes I like to lift the earth up to be really rooted in the feet, and then step into your warrior one or your pyramid pose. So you're drawing your hip back. Into the right heel, lengthening the spine forward, and then folding in.

Finding those pauses, Kumbaka, the retention, suspension when things can stop. I'm beginning to take your twist, taking your hip back towards the inner right heel, Leasing down, softening your right knee to the earth, coming up for your anjaneyasana. And then you'll take your right hand down and explore reaching for the top of that right foot. So again, you have your strap. You can use a little loop In the foot, allow the body to kind of melt into the shape, and then getting a little bit closer in there.

Maybe the forearm to the ground. And then let the leg go for your half split. And then our last big pose hanuman Asana, who did actually, the lord of the wind channeled all of his energies to be of service, lifting open through the chest. And then stepping back into your downward dog. And then you can even keep your hands on to the blocks, put a deep bend into the knees pausing, and then see if you can legs all the way through, or however you made your way down to come to a seated position. Lift your arms up as you breathe in.

And exhale to fold. Getting wrap your arms around the backs of the legs. I'm drawing all of the senses inward towards the sole. Instead of being mastered by our emotions, we can begin to master them in the right direction. And nail the arms up to the sky.

Take your hands so the floor behind you point your toes. Again, you can dig your heels into the ground as you lift the hips up. And exhale release. We're gonna set up for our Shavasana. Again, it's always nice to place some padding underneath the knees, and then beginning to lower yourself down onto your back.

Press into the back of the head and roll the shoulders back. If you need to bend the knees and even move the hips a little bit from side to side, lift the hips. Oh, you can feel the effect or this discipline that leads to liberation. It's the Yelmas Againner there to set us free. As we consider the actions that can bind or the actions that can liberate.

If you can lengthen the breath, holding it out. You have in mind instantly becomes quiet. And then you can let go of all. Focus on the breath. Let go completely.

And gently begin to bring your awareness. Back into more aware Shavasana. I'm still staying rested on the earth. I'm feeling the effect to give us inspiration to work with the most powerful energies that we have within us. Instead of running away from what we reversed to You can open up to it with this inner strength.

Lean to make the breath a little bit more conscious, which is always your tool to anchor you in the midst of any experience, move the needs from side to side, give them a big hug. And then take a rock up to sit or you'll roll over onto your right side. I'm crossing your ankles. And again, just moments of meditation where we can anchor the breath the mind into the breath. So powerful to gain that mastery over our thoughts.

You begin to again lengthen the breath. Even that subtle hold, depth of the exhale can be a great anchor or emotions that can help that can allow us to get swept away or harmful habits. Remembering that the self mastery is befriending ourselves, disciplines. You can take out in the rest of your day with you, join your hands at the center of your heart. I'll take a deep breath in together and end with chanting the sound of three times.

Oh, and with bowing down and honoring one another. All of our gurus, all of the teachers that come to us in those mysterious ways of us practice our yoga all day. Thank you everyone so much. I'll see you next time.