Moon

Welcome friends. Today, we bring in the energy of the moon, and the moon in astrology, if we could sum it up into one word is emotional. It is how you feel. It is the part of you that goes inward when you're alone and you just wanna process things and feel. So you can think of the words the affirmation I feel.

And for some of us, this is a difficult place to access. It's not always a place we feel comfortable exploring. So, my invitation for you today is just to be open minded and, to obviously always feel your breath. Let your breath sort of help you move through anything that might be coming up for you. And, we're just We're gonna get into some feelings today. We'll start with a meditation.

You can close your eyes. Maybe sit up on something. Find a comfortable seat. Rest your hands, palms facing down to ground your energy, eyes softly closed, and even the muscles around your eyes can soften. And start to just bear witness to your natural breath and the way it moves in and out through your nose.

And just right here right now notice how you feel. All the feelings are welcome. As Rumi says in her poem, at the guest house, invite them in, meet them at the door. Be curious about all the feelings that are present maybe some lingering feelings from your current worlds, right? Any current drama or disturbances or anger, sadness, anything that happened this morning, anything that happened last week, anything that might happen soon that you are sort of anxious about, Just keep exploring. And as you notice, the feelings arise, maybe you notice some changes in your face.

Our emotional world is usually very present in our facial muscles. Our reactions to our emotions, right, to what happens to us. They come into the body. Maybe you can even feel it in your hearts. The way your blood pumps through your veins.

And we don't need to think about just negative emotions. We can think of positive ones. Joy, serenity, love. And now see if you can just focus on the space behind your closed eyes, space between your thoughts and emotions. Maybe meeting the breath again, right at your nostrils, the space between the inhale and the exhale, the inner space.

The space that feels spacious. So may we open ourselves up today to revealing and healing? Bring your hands to a prayer at your heart and feel free to join me in three sweet, soft owns. Take a deep breath in. Let's softly blink your eyes open. Switch the crossing of your legs.

Grab your knees and just start to move your chin and chest around and around in a circle for some sufi rolls. Grabbing the knees, inhaling the heart reaches forward and around. And as you exhale round back, close your eyes here. So allow these sufi roles to help mix up your energy shifting around all of those emotions like a big pot of soup. And you're just stirring the ingredients together, scraping the sides.

Go ahead. Keep going. Keep feeling your breath. Maybe allowing these sufi roles to be a little slower, a little softer. So the moon energy is is feminine energy. It's yin energy.

And it's quite a contrast from the sun energy that is very external and very brights. Right? This one is a little softer. Go the other direction. Stay with the breath. Maybe you can hear the breath. So I invite you to think of this practice today as a moving meditation.

They'll be times where I'm not guiding and talking and you can just really feel each breath, each movement noticing what comes up. Notice what you notice. And while some emotions might arise that feel like they need to be felt, others might just feel like Unnecessary. Right? So playing around with that. Keep stirring the pot a couple more.

Good. And then come to a neutral spine. Take a big long inhale through the nose and sigh it out the mouth. Good. Let's come to the hands and the knees. Spread your fingers nice and wide. Maybe keeping your eyes closed here.

Reach your heart forward for an inhale. And as you exhale gently round the spine back. Inhale heart reaches, tailbone lifts. Exhale push and round the spine. Keep going like that with the breath nice and slow.

Especially if it's hard for you to slow down, I want you to consciously Try longer inhales, guiding the heart forward, longer exhales, pressing you back. Two more. As you're ready, coming to child's pose, hips to heels, widen your knees, and just melt your belly, your heart down, let your head come down. If it doesn't touch the floor comfortably, you might put a block under your head. And we'll just let the shoulders round.

And feel yourself going into a little cocoon here, a safe space in your little crab shell. And just feeling this nurturing energy. The earth holding you. Going inward. Feeling the feels.

Few more breaths. Softly come up. Make your way to downward facing dog. Just a nice easy, gentle dog to start. You might even widen your feet to the edges of your mat.

Bend one knee, bend the other. So the word nurturing can be on repeat here. Right? Really allowing yourself to meet your body with love with sweet graceful, slow, steady energy. Right? So that you can really notice what you notice. You're taking time.

To pay attention to be there for yourself. Let's take one more breath right here. And then bring your feet back a little closer together and lower your knees back down. And let's sit back to child's pose. So we're gonna move through two different lunar salutations or moon salutations, and they're a little slower and softer, and I'll just guide you through it.

So feel yourself held by my guidance, by your breath. On an inhale, you're gonna lift yourself up, hips over the knees, arms to the sky. Just reaching, reaching, reaching. Take another breath in here. And as you exhale, just bow all the way back to child's pose.

On an inhale, come to hands and knees, tabletop. As you exhale slowly lower all the way down to the belly. Take a cobra pose as you inhale, lift your heart. And as you exhale, lower it down, inhale, push your way back up to hands and knees, exhale back to child's pose. Hold for a full deep breath.

And again, on an inhale, you'll lift your hips, reach your arms up to the sky. As you exhale bow back down, child's pose. As you inhale come to hands and knees, as you exhale slowly lower all the way down, inhale finding cobra lift your heart, exhale lower down. Inhale hands and knees, exhale child's pose. Hold for a full deep breath.

Rise back up, inhaling arms reach, exhaling bow child's pose, inhaling hands and knees. Exhaling lower down. Inhaling cobra pose, exhaling lower down. Inhale hands and knees. Exhale child's pose.

Hold for a breath. From here, come to your hands and knees. Downward facing dog. Slowly walk your feet to your hands. One foot at a time, bend your knees any amount. Inhale for a halfway lift, fingers can come up your shins.

And as you exhale fold and round, inhale rise and reach your arms all the way to the sky. Exhale, bring a prayer to your heart center. Inhale reach your arms out and up. Exhale bow and fold all the way down. Inhale halfway up, exhale fold and round.

Step your left foot back and lower your left knee down. Reach your arms all the way up, inhaling to a low lunge. Exhaling hands come down. On an inhale, just lift your back knee. As you exhale downward facing dog, take a deep breath in.

As you exhale, lower the knees, the chest, the chin all the way down. Inhale for cobra. Exhale lower down. Inhale to the hands and knees. Exhale to downward facing dog.

Inhale your left leg in the air. Exhale, step it all the way forward. Lower the back knee. Reach your arms up for an inhale. Exhale the hands come down.

Inhale, just lift your back knee. Exhale step forward front of the mat. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold and round. Inhale all the way up, reach, exhale prayer to your heart.

Inhale reach back up. Exhale bow and fold. Inhale halfway up. Exhale folding deeper. Inhale step your right foot back.

Exhale, lower the right knee down. Inhale reach your arms all the way up. Exhale hands back down. Inhale, lift your back knee. Exhale downward facing dog.

Hold for the inhale, exhale lower down, knees chest chin. Inhale slide into cobra. Exhale lower down. Inhale press to the hands and knees. Exhale downward facing dog.

Inhale right leg lifts. Exhale step your foot forward, lower the back knee. Inhale reach your arms up. Exhale, hands come down. Inhale lift the back knee.

Exhale step forward front of the mat. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold and round. Inhale rise and reach. Exhale prayer to the heart.

Let's keep moving, inhale up, reach, exhale fold. Follow the breath. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold and round. Inhale, left foot back.

Exhale lower your knee. Inhale reach the arms. Exhale hands come down. Inhale with the back knee. Exhale downward facing dog.

Hold for the inhale. Exhale lower all the way to the belly. Inhale cobra pose. Exhale lower down. Inhale hands and knees.

Exhale downward dog. Inhale, left leg lifts. Exhale step it through, lower the back knee, reaching up, inhale. Exhale hands come down. Inhale, lift the back knee.

Exhale step forward front of the mat. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold and round. Inhale rise and reach. Exhale prayer to your heart.

Inhale reach back up. Exhale bow and fold. Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold deeper. Inhale right foot back.

Exhale lower your knee. Inhale arms sweep up. Exhale hands come down. Inhale lift the back knee. Exhale downward dog. Hold for your inhale.

Exhale lower down to the belly. Inhale cobra pose. Exhale, lower down. Inhale, hands and knees. Exhale downward dog.

Inhale, right leg up. Exhale step it through, lower back knee, arms sweep up, inhale. Exhale hands come down. Inhale lift the back knee. Exhale step forward, front of the mat.

Inhale halfway up. Exhale fold and round. Inhale rise and reach. Exhale prayer to your heart. Let's pause.

Close your eyes. Feel your breath. Notice how you feel. Reach your arms all the way up as you're ready. Let's cinch the hands together into a steeple mudra pointing up through the index finger, squeeze your biceps in, and just lean up and over to the left.

For a version of half moon, one of many. And then inhale back and up. And as you exhale up and over to the right, Good. Inhale back up. Let's go back to the left, exhale. Inhale back up.

Exhale to the right. Good. We'll do one more on each side. Just follow your breath, squeeze your belly, feel the side body. Feel each breath. That smooth, silky breath.

That nurturing breath. Good. And then drop a prayer back down to your heart. And from here, we're going to step the left foot back and we'll come into a warrior two stance, bending into the right knee. Arms, sweep out to the sides. Maybe let your palms face up for this one.

Just feeling a little softer energy across your heart, your shoulders, sink in for a couple more breaths, feel the contrast of your strong, sturdy legs, and that beautiful spacious open free light, feminine upper body. Good. And then take it into a reverse warrior. And you can maybe think of your arms just a little more whimsical and floppy. Right? Not that rigid sun energy, but we're just like soft and sweet. And then come into extended angle, bringing your right forearm to your right thigh, taking your left arm up.

And you could go over or you could wrap around the back and just let your left hand sort of land flop down towards your low back or even to your right thigh. And let your head just kind of hang out towards the right. Just getting into your neck, nurturing energy into your stress muscles, the space between your ears and your shoulders, getting some love. A couple more breaths here. Make sure this left shoulder isn't creeping up towards your ear. Their space.

Hard is open. One more breath. Good. And then just slowly start to straighten your right leg. Put your right hand on your shin. You can stay here in triangle. Maybe keeping that wrap.

Or take it into half moon. You might wanna grab a block. And we'll play with a little balance here in that right leg, lifting up. You could reach the left arm into the air. Or if you like to reach back, you could try to grab your foot, shapasana variation.

So, here we are. Another half moon. Opening the heart, two more breaths, strong right leg for that free, supportive, lifted, light upper body. And then slowly release and take a big step back and let's just straighten both legs, hands to your hips, parallel the feet to the side edge of your mat. Take a big breath and lift your heart.

And as you exhale bow and fold inward. So finding some of that child's pose energy, maybe grabbing your legs or just letting your arms flap down. Let's take about three breaths here. Rounding the spine, softening the brain, the thinking mind, blah, just letting go. Good, and then bring your hands back up to your hips.

Take a slow rise, inhaling all the way up. And we'll open into warrior two to the back of the mat, bending into the left knee, angle your right toes slightly forward. Take some time here again. Maybe palms up. So playing with that light feminine sweet energy of the moon and our emotional world.

So if you want to get a little joyful, happy cheesy with me, you might imagine a rainbow from palm to palm up over your head, and just bringing in some blessings, some good vibes, some positive emotions, right? Emotions are definitely something we can learn to play with, right, and mix up a little bit. Right? Like I said, in the souffy rolls, like stirring the pots. Alright. And then reverse that warrior, reaching up. And take it into extended angle, reaching towards your left leg, left forearm, right arm, up or over or flapping, flapping behind you. Keep meeting all the sensations with all of your breaths. Right?

Maybe let your head hang, getting into those stress muscles again. Just being very kind, very gentle with yourself. You can straighten your left leg as you're ready, finding a triangle, stay here or come into half moon, left hand to the floor, or maybe you grab your block again. With as little drama as possible and just find that shape. Find that lift in your right leg. Any amount.

Maybe reach back. Grab your foot. Breathe in. Breathe out. So, the brass is the support system that's always there for you.

Like a best friend, right, always there to listen, to help you move through any challenges. Let's take one more breath here. And a slow, steady step back. All the way upright. Hands to your hips.

Let's bring the heels in this time, toes out, bend your knees and just start to feel out your hips a little in a goddess stance. It's feminine shape, opening the hips. When we think of the moon in the body. We can think about the hips. That feminine energy, that source of creation energy.

Feel free to dip the shoulders a little here and get a little deeper side to side. Some people believe that the hips are the storehouse of our emotions, suppressed emotions, traumas, things we buried, things we just haven't dug up in a while. Let's take a couple more breaths right here. Right. And then just straightening out the legs. And let's step back forward to the front of the mat.

Bring a prayer to your heart, a soft prayer, take a deep breath. Good. And then widen your feet here. Just slightly towards the edges of the mat, heels in, we're going to squat low into Malasana, sit your booty down. You could sit on a block if you'd like, put it right under your booty and have a little support if you'd like. Putting your elbows on your inner knees, your palms to a prayer at your heart.

Let's just roll out the neck here. Finding some more nurturing energy around the stress muscles. And maybe in the face, the jaw, right? As I mentioned earlier, so many of our emotions show up in our face. Particularly the negative one, but the happy ones too. Right?

And we just wanna kinda move it all around. Make some weird faces. You can stick your tongue out. Just staying feminine and soft still here. Go ahead and then go ahead and straighten out your legs.

And just come into a forward fold, wiggling your feet about hip distance. Let's take a halfway lift, lengthen the spine, and then fold deeply into uttanasana forward fold, grabbing some part of your legs if you'd like, or you can just floppy arms down towards the floor and hang, say yes, no with your head. Feel this permission slip to dive into yourself to soften and let go. Take about three deeper breaths. And let the exhale fall out your mouth.

As you're ready, stop your way back to downward facing dog. Lower your knees, widen the knees, child's pose. Just get curious here. Is there anything that you haven't allowed yourself to feel that you've been pushing off to the side or suppressing I invite you today to really allow yourself to bring your emotions to the surface. And to move through them.

Let's take one more breath right here. And then we'll slowly come back up to the hands and the knees. Let's step your right foot all the way up to the front of the mat, and it'll go to the outside of your right hand. So hands are inside. Lizard lunge will get a little deeper into this storehouse of emotions. You can stay right here or drop down to your elbows or maybe elbows come onto one or two blocks as well. Right. If you need a little bit more support, right? This this is the practice to get the support.

So we'll hold here for about five breaths. You might roll to the outer edge of your right foot. Play with the sensations. The depth of the shape for you, leaning in, breathing in. And feeling the exhales as a, again, a permission slip to just let go.

Let the emotions move through you. One more breath. Slowly come off. And up, and we'll come into pigeon. Right foot is gonna wiggle towards the left side of your mat or maybe even a little more towards your groin's right knee behind the right wrist.

And come down. If you prefer thread the needle, honor that, you can come on your back and take that one, or you can maybe prop up with a block under the right hip if you need, or under the elbows or under the head. So any and all prop are welcome for your pigeon today. And we're gonna land here for about a minute. So we got some time to feel the feels. So one of my favorite quotes is the only way out is through.

And so we really need to move through whatever is coming up for us. Right? And when emotional responses occur, that's a sign to breathe, to slow down, to feel this lunar moon energy. Keep breathing deeply and completely. One more full deep breaths. And gently come out. Let's make our way back to the hands and the knees for a moment.

Maybe move your hips a little side to side. Give your right leg a little, kick or shake. Sink back to child's pose for a couple breaths, feel some of the shifts, and come back up. We'll step the left foot forward towards the outer edge of the mat, lizard lunge, maybe wiggle that right knee back, start to come down, maybe use your block or blocks. Control to the outer edge of the left foot.

Head can hang. Alright. Just a few more breaths right here. Opening up the hip flexor, leaning into it, breathing into it. As you're ready, you're gonna come out of this shape, wiggling the left foot over. For your pigeon.

Take your time propping yourself up in any way that feels good. Supportive, nurturing breaths. Can you just stay in the softer place? Sometimes the moon is represented as a mother, right, that nurturing energy that supports you that says they're there, sweet one. I'm here.

Feel your feelings. I'm here. Last couple of breaths. And we'll slowly start to come up. Make your way back to the hands and the knees.

Scoot your hips back to a child's pose, one deep inhale here, and a long, long exhale. To end our practice, you're invited to come to Shivasana, or maybe back to a seated meditation. And we'll spend a couple minutes just feeling this gentle pause. The eyes, awfully closed. The ease of your natural breath.

Any feelings that have come up or are still present notice them, allow them to be there, meet and greet them, invite them in. If you're on your back, you're welcome to start to come back into your day, into your body, wiggle your toes and fingers. And gently make your way up to a comfortable seat. You can roll to the side and use your hands. And we'll meet together in a comfortable seat.

And let's end with just holding the heart. One hand on top of the other. There there. Just hold yourself here. May you take this soft, sweet, lunar energy with you? Now, miss Day.