Mercury

Welcome friends. Today, we are going to explore the planet Mercury. Mercury is simply put the planet of communication, communication in all forms. How we get information, how we listen, how we speak, how we even get from a to b through ideas through communication, So maybe you've heard of mercury retrograde. That's sort of famous now, and mercury retrograde is sort of a stall or a stop of communication, and it can affect technology, and it can affect travel, and just sort of how we move forward and move through, all the various ways that we communicate. So we will play a little bit of in that element of communication.

We'll begin with three ohms. You can just find a comfortable seat. You can let your hands rest wherever you'd like or possibly a prayer to the heart. Take a deep breath in. Field of vibration here now, your resonance and your voice from your voice.

Link your eyes open, and we'll just do a few neck rolls to sort of get into the throat. Opening up the energy channel of the throat where we feel communication in the body. Roll it all around good. And then adding in a few little lip flutters getting into the mouth. So a fair amount of sounds today and I want you to keep just moving around exploring maybe open and close your jaw, take your tongue out, just feeling this whole channel of the throat, jaw connection, even the ears, this place where we hear and receive and speak. And then move your way into all fours tabletop.

And we'll just start with a few familiar cat cows. The heart will reach forward on the inhale, opening the throat. And as you exhale gently round the spine tucking your chin in. So let's really feel the earth here through the palms, rooting, heart reaches, and rounds back. And tuning into, which we use a lot in our flow the breath of yoga.

That soft whispery sound of the breath as you keep your lips closed. You can hear a soft whisper. Got a few more rounds here, spreading through the palms, hearing, and feeling each breath. And from here, you'll come to neutral spine, walk your hands forward just a little slowly lower all the way down to the belly, slide your fingers just off the mat. Let's take a wide cobra, inhale, lift your heart.

And as you exhale, slowly lower it down. Good. And then wave your chest back up and hold it there any amount up and start to dip your right shoulder down and turn your head to the left, feel that in the neck, in the shoulder. And then go to the other side, the left shoulder down, turn your head to the right. And we'll keep the legs strong here as we keep flowing side to side and just feeling out these crunchy spots between the shoulder and the ear. These layers in the neck and the jaw, you might kinda make some weird faces again and kinda get in there.

So maybe some audible sighs, right, using your voice. Good. And then come to center and place your hands all the way back by your rib cage, push your, push yourself up and back. Down facing dog, tuck your toes, lift your hips up and back. Let's take a few petals of your feet here and definitely a few nods of your head softening the neck channel. So you could flatter your lips again.

Maybe with some sound like a so using our voice isn't always something that comes easily or naturally. Or has been encouraged in our lives. So hopefully today we can feel a little bit more freedom to speak up, to speak our truth, to feel this place in ourselves that wants to honor what needs to be said. Right? And then we'll go ahead and walk our feet to the front of the mat, find a gentle fold.

Feel free to widen the feet here. Again, nod your head. Yes and no. Take a few little rolls around the head. Good. And then bend your knees and just slow ragdoll all the way up. Let the head be the last thing to come up.

And once you get up, let your head be like one of those bobble heads you get at a baseball game. Just sort of like let move around at the top of your spine. Just like a little bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble. Good. And then take a few shoulder rolls. Just get the shoulders out of the way here.

And then you'll bring a prayer to your heart and your feet might come together and we'll do a few classical sun salutations on the inhale, sweep your arms all the way up. As you exhale bow and fold all the way down. Inhale for a halfway lift, offer the heart. Exhale fold and round. Good. Step your right foot to the back of the mat.

Lower the knee. Come to the fingertips here and just send your heart forward into this low lunge. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, step back to downward facing dog. Take a deep breath in here and as you exhale lower the knees, the chest and the chin down to the mat. Take a cobra roll, inhale, lift your heart shoulders back. Exhale, lower back down.

Push your way back to downward facing dog, and send your right leg into the air behind you take an inhale here. As you exhale, step your right foot to meet your right thumb and lower the back knee, high to the fingertips, lift your heart, lift your throat a little inhale. Exhale step forward front of the mat. Inhale halfway lift, offer the chest forward as you exhale fold and round. Inhale as you rise up, reaching through your arms as you exhale, bring a prayer to the heart.

Feel each breath, hear it. Inhale reach up. Exhale bow and fold. Inhale halfway. Exhale fold and round. Good.

Step your left foot back, big step back, lower the knee, inhale high to the fingers, exhale downward facing dog. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, lower the knees, lower the chest and chin, cobra for the inhale, lift your heart. Exhale downward facing dog. Inhale, left leg up and back into the air.

Exhale step it through, lower the back knee. High to the fingers, inhale. Exhale step forward front of the mat. Inhale halfway rise. Exhale fold and round.

Inhale all the way up, reach through arms, exhale a prayer to the heart. Let's do it again. Flow, inhale reach up. Exhale bow and fold down. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold and round. Inhale, right leg back, knee down, lift the chest, exhale downward facing dog.

Take a deep breath in, exhale as you lower your knees chest. Inhale cobra exhale downward facing dog. Inhale right leg up and back. Exhale step it forward, lower the back knee. Exhale step forward front of the mat, inhale halfway rise.

Exhale fold. Inhale all the way reach. Exhale prayer to the heart. Inhale reach again all the way up. Exhale bow and fold.

Inhale halfway. Exhale fold. Inhale, left foot back, knee down, exhale downward facing dog, hold for the inhale, exhale lower knees chest chin. Inhale cobra pose, exhale downward facing dog, inhale left legless, exhale step it through, lower the back knee. Step forward front of the mat.

Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold. Inhale rise and reach Exale a prayer to the heart. Let's take a pause for a moment. Option to do an om with me.

Take a deep breath in. So feel yourself getting centered here, taking a pause. So communication can sometimes feel jumbled and rambling and awkward, and we don't always hear things. And sometimes we're more visual learners, and especially in a yoga practice, but I want you to feel into listening to my words. So through the classical sun salutes, there's a lot of cues, a lot of words.

I really want you to just follow my voice. As you follow your breath. So let's try one more round. Inhale reach your arms up. Exhale bow and fold down.

Inhale halfway lift. Exhale fold back down. Inhale right foot back, knee lowers. Exhale downward facing dog. Hold for the inhale.

Exhale lower the knees, chest and chin. Inhale cobra. Exhale downward facing dog. Inhale right leg up and back. Exhale step it forward, lower the back knee.

Exhale step forward and fold. Inhale halfway lift. Exhale fold and round. Inhale rise all the way up, reach, exhale prayer to the heart. Inhale reach back up.

Exhale bow and fold. Inhale halfway up, exhale fold. Inhale, left, back, knee lowers. Exhale downward facing dog. Hold for the inhale, exhale lower, knees, chest and chin.

Inhale cobra, exhale downward facing dog. Inhale left legless. Exhale step it through, lower the back knee. Exhale step forward, fold. Inhale halfway up.

Exhale fold and round. Inhale rise and reach the arms. Exhale prayer to the heart. Pause again here. Take a deep breath in and a long breath out.

From here, let's step the left foot back into a warrior two stance big wide stance here. Spread your wings and just take up some space. We're going to slow it down a little bit and maybe feel some contrast from the the quicker, faster pace of the classical sun salutations to now just grounding and landing into the space of warrior two. And just notice where your mind goes, the thinking mind, mercury, the thoughts, the ideas, the dramas, the resistance. Where does it go?

Does it feel all jumbled in there? Can you come back to your breath? From here, take your hands and interlace them at your lower back. And start to lean towards your right inner thigh, right knee for a humble warrior too. So let's feel that space in the neck, the shoulders. You could really hang your head here. Also getting into the hips a little bit more, maybe nestling that right arm into your right knee if they touch each other.

Let's take one more breath, and then release your hands inside your right foot. And you're gonna crawl yourself to the left side of the mat and pivot your feet a little into a skandasana, point your left toes slightly back and bend your left knee. Good. And then go through center and go to the right knee. And we'll just go side to side a few times like this, feeling into the hips. So in the space of the hips, we can feel our creative expression.

And maybe just feeling a little bit more space in the mind, right? Creativity comes from spaciousness. And so we can maybe channel and absorb some freedom of thought, right? Some new ideas. Keep going side to side. Good. And then come to center and parallel your feet. Take a wide leg forward fold.

Just grab some part of your legs here, hang your head, shoulders away from the ears. So you might think of a mental purge here, like as if the crown of the head could open up and the contents of your mind could just sort of flush and pour out. Two more breaths, feel your exhale. Good. And then slide your hands all the way up to your hips inhale as you rise up. Let's face the back edge of the mat.

Point the left toes straight back warrior two towards the back of the mat. So here we are going in a different direction, maybe bringing in some of that mercury retrograde energy where things just feel a little different, a little stalled, a little crazier at times because it's just this inability to move forward through communication in all forms. So it can be related to technology, like how is your car working? How are the mechanics? In your car talking to each other. Right? Or maybe just how you get from a to b, travel, right?

The distance, the communication that it takes to get from one place to another. Our inability to maybe speak up or move forward with contracts and transactions. Let's take one more breath here, and we'll take the hands behind the back and release the fingers. Maybe switch up the grip, pour your chest towards your left knee and drop your head. Humble worrier.

So again, feeling a sense of space here in the brain Really mercury retrogrades just a sign to slow down. And in all honesty, I think in general, slowing down is the key to clear communication. Alright. Releasing the hands back down. Let's do a few more scannedas and as crawling your hands gently over towards your right foot, bend the right knee. And over to the left foot.

Just getting kind of primal and low here, moving in the body in any way that feels good. Alright. You could sink a little deeper maybe. So are you communicating to yourself? Are you listening to your body as we always say as yoga teachers? What does that mean to listen to your body? Usually, we kind of have to slow down enough to feel the feels and pay attention. Find your wide leg forward fold as you're ready parallel the feet.

This time you can interlace your hands at the low back and just take a little hang here in the shoulders, bend your elbows a little or a lot, bend the knees a little or a lot. Feel that sense of mental purge energy again, just dangling the head. We'll take one more breath. But, and then release your hands all the way down. Crawl yourself to the front of the mat and pivot your feet into a lunge, your hands will land inside the right foot.

So we're gonna move into a lizard lunge here, getting a little deeper into the hips. You're welcome to put your back knee down or you can keep it lifted. And you can play around with what I like to call funky lizard. It's just a little bit deeper. The right hand's gonna crawl behind the right heel and out to the right, like a little spider. And your left hand's gonna crawl out to the left, and you'll squeeze your right knee and your right shoulder. Together.

So breathe here. Lots of listening. Lots of things to talk to you. If you want to go even deeper, you could fly your arms out play with your balance, maybe even take an interlace at the low back. We've got two more breaths, deeper breaths, deeper listening. Good. And then release your hands.

Oh my goodness. Right on the inside. That's a good one. That's a feeler. We're gonna crawl back through the side edge of the mat and all the way to the back of the mat.

Wretched your great again. Left foot goes over to the left. We're facing the back of the mat, hands are inside the foot, your version of lizard, or funky lizard. So what I love about meditation and yoga is we get that opportunity to really hear ourselves talk, right, without actually talking? And sometimes it's just like really entertaining.

I invite you to just laugh at yourself a little bit. Notice that crazy monkey mind of yours. Let's take one more breath. Good. And then release and we'll come back through center. All the way to that wide fold for a moment, grab your hips and on an inhale rise up. Big breath.

We've been down for a while. So take a little bit more oxygen in. And then wiggle your feet all the way together and step forward to the front of the mat. Let's bring a prayer to the heart and just pause and land. Notice that space in your hips that you created that freedom for expression.

Let's channel another ohm here. Take a deep breath in through the nose. Notice if that one felt different. From the space in your hips, from the space in your body, from the freedom to express. Reach your arms all the way up for an inhale.

And as you exhale bow and fold all the way down, take a halfway lift, flatten out the back, stop your way back to downward facing dog. Hold here for a few breaths. If you would like a traditional vinyasa, go ahead and take it, shift forward to plank pose, lower to Chaturanga, inhaling cobra or updog. Exhaling downward facing dog. Right leg rises up.

Bend your knee open up the hip. Step your right foot forward into a warrior one. Ground your back heel and reach straight up. Ben your elbows like a goalpost opening up through your heart. Slide your hands behind your head.

Think butterfly wings here as we flap the elbows towards each other any amount and tuck your chin down any amount. And as you inhale, open it back up, wide elbows, lift your throat, lift your gaze, as you exhale squeeze and round, really opening that channel of the neck and the shoulders and the throat, open back up. Let's do one more, exhale as you squeeze down, elbows towards each other. Inhale, open it back up. Good. Take your arms all the way back, interlace your fingers, maybe switching up the grip again, and then come down towards your inner right knee, drop your head.

Let's take an audible sigh here. Big inhale. Open mouth. Do it again. Inhale.

And a. Nice. Release your hands. Step your way back to downward facing dog or plank pose. Another optional vinyasa, if you want it, take it or leave it. Listen to your body. Yes.

Left leg rises up, inhale, bend the knee. Exhale step it through, warrior one, ground the back heel, reaching up, bend your elbows wide goalpost, and slide your hands behind the hut again. Take a deep breath in, lift your heart, exhale elbows towards each other, squeeze and round. Keep going two more. Inhale as you open up Exhale as you squeeze, compressing the chin down.

One more time. Inhale opening up. Exhale squeeze. Good. Inhale, open, hold it. Take your hands behind you, interlace your fingers.

Take a deep breath in and again, pour the chest forward and down, humble warrior. Take a deep breath in, audible sigh. Again, one more. Release the hands down. Step your way back.

One more vinyasa if you want it. We'll find our way back to downward facing dog. Let's take a deep breath in and downward facing dog out the mouth. Lower the knees and sink your way back to child's pose. And just land on the earth for a few moments.

This beautiful earth energy always giving us permission to slow down and ground and calm and release. So the interesting thing about our modern day society is that we are bombarded with information from all directions, from all angles, all the time. And I just firmly believe that we were never meant to absorb this amount of information, and it is probably why we all feel overwhelmed and crazier. There is just too much. So we use this practice yoga, meditation as a way of filtering through softening what is unnecessary, what we don't need to hold on to, what we don't need to process so that we can find space.

So Mercury, the planet of communication is a way of listening to the voice that doesn't use words, as Rumi says. To the spacious and purer place so that when we do use our words, they are clear and they are effective and they are direct. And they are purposeful. Let's take one more breath right here and slowly roll yourself up. Let's move into a camel pose to open the heart and the throat just a little more.

You're welcome to roll your mats. And pad a little bit so that you have something for your knees to kind of soften into. Put your hands just on the top of your glutes here and press down, pulling your belly in and up squeeze your elbows towards each other and just lift your heart and lift your throat a little. Maybe this is enough for your neck. I want you to be really kind and gentle to your neck.

If you like hanging your head back, go ahead and hang it back. If you like reach back for your heels, you can play with that. Otherwise, just hold right here. Sometimes this is enough. Sometimes this is the way that we listen, right? The way that we receive through the heart. Squeeze your elbows towards each other a little bit more.

Take two more breaths. But, and then gently release and go ahead and just sit on your heels for a moment. You can put your hands on your thighs. Just feel the tall spine. Close your eyes.

Pausing and slowing. Good. And then go ahead and unwind your mat. Let's come back to the hands and the knees for a moment. From here, let's bring the right knee behind the right wrist for a single pigeon. Side your left leg back.

And let's take a few moments to just sort of feel the lift of the heart and the throat and open that big pigeon breast, take a big inhale And as you exhale, just gently inch yourself down and forward any amount. One of my favorite variations here is to just keep the elbows down and hold the head with your hands. So here, we hold the head, but maybe even thinking about holding the brain. Like, here we are holding this mental processor in the computers of our bodies. And I just want you to feel yourself sort of letting go again, feeling some space, feeling some clarity of thoughts. And as you feel the hips here, a little bit more opening in the hips.

I'm just feeling some space for creativity. Right. Really, maybe listening to the intuition that lies as well in the minds in the pineal gland, taking a few more breaths. Slowly release and come back up. Find your hands and your knees. Table top again, maybe a little unwinding.

Feel free to kind of move that right leg a little, give it a shake or a kick. And then we'll go to the other side, bringing the left knee just behind the left wrist, take your time wiggling in, puff up, lift the heart for a moment, and then gently come down. Easier way in. If you haven't already, you might come back to some of those audible size as you may be hold your head. So let's feel into the idea that you don't have to overthink. You do that enough, don't you?

You don't have to search for something. You don't have to expect anything. Mercury will allow you to communicate in the way that you need to in the way that is right for you. And as one of our main personal planets, it is such a beautiful support system and how you show up in this world, right, how you communicate speaking your truth. So let's take a few more breaths here.

Here the breath. And we'll gently start to come out. You can use your hands. Press back to a tabletop for a few breaths, knees under your hips. Take any little moves here that feel good.

And then we'll walk the knees forward just a little bit. Sit down. And swing your legs out in front of you. Bring the soles of your feet together. Let's feel the butterfly again in the legs. So you can grab your ankles here.

Find a tall spine. Take a big breath in and as you exhale, fold and round down. And just really let your head sort of do that hanging, releasing towards your feet. Feel free to adjust the diamond shape of your legs. You can push your elbows into your inner knees for a little bit more or slide your hands just out in front of you any amount.

As you exhale, feel yourself, sink and surrender, breathe down into your hips. So for the rest of this class, I am not going to talk very much so that you can just listen in here and talk to yourself and notice When it's too much, when you just need to breathe, and find some space. As you're ready, just roll up slowly. Guide your knees together. Let's come on to the back.

Once you're on your back, I want to invite you to take a shoulder stand if you don't have any major neck issues. If you prefer to skip shoulder stand, you can just take your legs straight up like an l shape or even slide your mat to a wall for legs up the wall, something like that. Otherwise, you'll kick your feet up and over the head. Support the lower back with your hands, and then slowly lift your legs up into the air. And you can kinda lean the weight of your hips into your hands a little backed out version, maybe even bending your knees.

Or more traditional lift straight up, maybe sliding the hands up your back. And just pause here. Try to find that natural curve in the back of the neck by just slightly pulling the chin away from the chest. So that you're not compressing the neck too much and just breathe. Whenever you feel ready gently taking your feet over the head, they don't have to touch the floor.

Plow posts, and we'll roll out slowly all the way onto the back. Take your time. Use your abdominal muscles. Use your arms. And you'll take your legs all the way out long on the earth. Zip the legs together, slide your hands just under your sacrum, your booty area, and then come into a fish pose, push into your elbows, lift your chest, lift your shoulders, lift your chin, and hang your head back, opening your throat.

Slowly release back of the head to the earth. And we'll move into a shavasana from here, splay your arms out. If you need any last little moves, please honor that. Listen to your body. Sholders are away from your ears.

Maybe move your head a little side to side and find that perfect spot for the head to rest. Let your breath be effortless and natural and just land here in this sweet place of rest. Feel free to stay on your back a little longer. Or you can start to gently wiggle your fingers and toes and bend the knees and journey up to a comfortable seat. You can rock up or roll to the side.

I'm sort of book ending our practice here back to where we started. You can sit in Varasana. You can sit cross legged. Bring a prayer to your heart. And we'll seal our practice just the way we started with three sweet ohms.

Let yourself use your voice. Let yourself listen. Take a deep breath in. By your chin towards your palms. One more breath in through the nose and out the mouth.

No mistake.