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Season 3 - Episode 5

Guided Asana, Day 3

75 min - Practice
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Do it with love. Erich guides us through Opening Pattern Three—a series of gentle standing and seated postures with the encouragement to listen for inner guidance, emphasizing the "Conscious Pause." He invites us to become aware of what we are doing, and to notice that we have options and choices. You will feel more grounded, clear, and connected.
What You'll Need: Mat

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With the right arm, small easy little arcs, so remember at this part still it's like do Simon Says-ish this small easy arcs that gradually get bigger until finally your arm feels like going all the way over and then close your eyes, see if you feel differently about this as you're doing it with your eyes closed and remember the technique is just like keep getting into it a little bit more than you already are and be especially attentive to the linger moments, the flow on moments, the change direction moments and just keep letting your arm get freer as you do this. When your arm feels satisfied for the moment, let the arcs slow down and get smaller and then take it to the other side, but start small, start easy, gradually increasing the arcs until finally your arm wants to go over and then close your eyes, be aware of what your feet are doing, be aware of the path that your hand traces through space, be aware of what your other hand is doing, then let the arcs slow down, get smaller and come to the first time to shake the hand loose, add the forearm, add your whole arm and then close your eyes and get into it a little bit more than you already are and watch how you keep changing it up and then with the other hand add the forearm, the upper arm, close your eyes, like feel how awesome this is just doing this, like wiggling, okay and then with the foot and your lower leg and your whole leg and then close your eyes and then the other one, the foot, the lower leg, the whole leg, close your eyes or not, okay and then with your feet hip width apart, spread your toes, snuggle your feet, from there step a little bit wider apart, from there step a little wider apart, re-snuggle your feet, take a breath in, as you exhale bend the legs, then slide your hands down the legs and feel your hands beginning to merge into the ankles and deliberately snuggle your feet more, now from here just let yourself sink to the down extreme of the arm line, again you wouldn't want to be like this forever but like just get clear about the note here and then lift to the up extreme, just feel the difference, be aware of your head and neck and go for a nice neutral here, so usually your chin is going to float down to find neutral here and then breathe, and as you're breathing in, be aware that you're breathing in and as you're breathing out, be aware that you're breathing out, those were the Buddha's initial instructions about how to meditate, shift your hips to the left, refix your neck, shift your hips to the right, refix your head and neck, shift your hips to the left and just go side to side a couple times but again practice being attentive to the linger moments and then the flow on moments because remember in this easy context you're learning to listen for inner guidance, just listen for linger or flow on, linger or flow on, then shift your hips over to the left, keep them there, move your head and torso over towards the right, re snuggle the feet, push your arms long so you'll lift up a little bit, feel where the spine line is, just begin to twist it deeper into the pose little by little and fix your head and neck here a couple seconds and just feel what's going on, shift your hips to the right, keep them there, move your head and torso over to the left, just watch how you begin to spiral into the twist, this is nice, top it off with the head alignment and then bring it back to the middle, fold down through the middle, just let your head dangle and then bend your legs, come all the way down into the squat and just let your feet come a little closer together at this point, okay, mudra number one, just close your eyes for a moment and just check it out, mudra two, let your arms go straight, just close your eyes again and just check it out, mudra three, just let your hands float up, feel the energy in your hands, feel the energy that is your hands and then mudra four, bring the palms together, let the left hand spin down, the right hand spin up and mudra size your fingers, yeah, okay, on your hands and knees, so yeah, we're going through opening three again, it's a cool one, put your hands down accurately so the wrist creases are squared, fingers spread fully, again that's just one choice, you could have your fingers together and pointy, you could make a fist, wrist creases squared, fingers fully spread, snuggle your hands, get grounded through the palms of your hands and then look at your index finger and memorize where it is, as you exhale sink to the down extreme of the arm line, just feel what this is like, as you inhale float to the upstream of the arm line, just feel what this is like, as you exhale float to the bottom, inhale float to the top, just go down and up a couple times, again you're familiarizing yourself with the choices, you're either at the down extreme or you're at the up extreme or you're somewhere in the middle, find a nice middle spot, shrug the shoulders away from your ears, neutralize your head and neck, and then just slowly take your seat back towards your feet coming into child's pose and feel your torso beginning to merge with your thighs, now typically at this point your arms are sort of like in the middle spot, you're not pulling, you're not pushing, and so just practice going through the extremes, like pull for a couple seconds, feel what that does, a lot of different places get activated when you do that, then deliberately do the opposite, begin to push the floor away, wobble gently, just keep staying with it, without moving your hands, come up onto your hands and knees, peek at your hands, turn the toes under, peek at your arms, keep them exactly how they are as you lift your knees up and just linger here for a moment, there'll be a ton of weight in your hands now, just lean heavily, if you're just leaning, you're not pushing, you're just leaning, it's sort of relaxing actually, neutralize your head and neck, your spine's in neutral, you're on the ball of each foot, you're not pushing, you're just leaning, slowly move the butt back and up, don't push yet, just keep leaning, just let it feel relaxed, be attentive to when your ears come in line with the upper arms or close to that, so there's a line of energy through each arm, there's the spine line, and then feeling your hands on the floor, push the floor away so your butt goes away from you and just wobble gently, now like when we did the line of energy thing earlier, say you're going 55 right now, just start going 56, 57, 58, and then get out of there, shift the shoulders forward, bend the knees, point your toes, take it back to child's pose, wobble gently, stay with the breathing, stay with the feeling, slide your hands back by your knees, curl your head in a lot, pause for just a moment, and then slowly start rounding your way up and experience the ride, your spine comes up to neutral, your head floats up to neutral, and then just close your eyes for a moment, and oh yeah, the conscious pause, just feel the truth of this new now, dog pose number two, float the chin up inhaling, exhale hinge, slide the hands again, lift your head, peek at your hands, fix them, let your head go back down, and then pull for a couple of seconds, and push for a couple of seconds, feel the difference, wobble gently, like liquify it, without moving your hands, come up on your hands and knees again, peeking at your hands, turn the toes, lift the knees, straighten the legs, fixing your head and neck, and then right about now start making the move towards stage one, don't push yet, just keep leaning heavily, when you hit the straight line, then push, push the floor away, telescope the line, bend your left leg a lot, so you get a nice toe stretch on that foot, and then press the right heel toward the floor a couple seconds, switch the legs, get the toe stretch, then push the other heel down, press the second heel toward down, and then get out of there, shift the shoulders, bend the knees, point the toes, take it back to child's pose, and just wobble, again practice not talking about it to yourself very much, except just keep reminding yourself to immerse yourself in the experience, slide your hands back, curl the head in, linger for just a moment, and when it feels like the thing to do, start rounding your way up, your spine comes up, your head floats to neutral, but this time let your chin keep going up, up, up, up, up, hit the top of the note, and as you exhale, hinge forward, dog number three please, slide the hands, lift your head, peek at the hands, head goes back down, pull, push, come up onto your hands and knees, turn the toes, lift the knees, straighten the legs, wait for the inner feeling to say go, and then just slowly go toward stage one, without pushing, then push, telescope it, this time come way up on the toes on each foot, slowly take your heels down through neutral, and then down towards the down extreme, toward the floor, and then get out of there, shift the shoulders forward, bend the knees, point the toes, take it back to child's pose, wobble gently, slide the hands back, curling your head in, rounding your way up, and then again just for a couple seconds slide into the conscious pause, just get the hang of being conscious, it's effortless, but conscious with less commentary, the commentary will become more like, oh, awesome, awesome, awesome. With an inhale, take the chin up, this is cat pose is the second one, hinge forward, just go through the steps, slide your hands, lift your head, fix some, head goes back down, pull for a few moments, push for a few moments, wobble gently, remember, do it with more love, come up on the hands and knees, and with an exhale, pull the belly in, round your back a little bit, just deliberately, not very much, but just notice where you are, your arms are somewhere, you could sink to the down extreme and keep your spine the same, you could probably lift up a little higher, just notice where you are, notice that you've got choices about it, just consciously mess around a little bit, customize it, this is one of the main variables here, then lift your head, arch your back just a little, let yourself sink down a bit, let yourself lift up a bit, so the arm line is one of the main variables, your head is one of the main variables, with an exhale, curl your head in, again make it a little rounder, when it feels like this thing, lift your head, go for the back bend here, and a couple times please, just smoothly go back and forth, but more than normal, be attentive to linger moments, and then to flow on moments, like feel your spine like a tube of energy, like your whole form as a tube of energy, malleable, one more time each way please, and then you come back to neutral, take it back to child's pose again, and wobble gently, still you're training to be conscious with less commentary, feel the relief of that, without moving your hands, come up on your hands and knees again please, and then take the side bend to the left, just 50%, notice where you feel the curve the most, and then sort of spread it out everywhere, little by little by little gently, take it to the right 50%, feel the curve and just gently be nudging it rounder, go to the first side again 50%, 51%, 52%, 55%, 60%, take it to about 75%, but try to spread it out, there'll be places where you do it, where you're more dominant with it, try and spread it out more, take it to the second side, keep getting into it, oh yeah more love, so that if someone were watching you they would understand, take it to the first side, start going for a huge side bend, pull the left hip back, take the stretch through your neck more, when it feels like the thing to do take it to the other side, and then pull your belly in, curl your head in and let that initiate the big barrel rolls, just go sort of slow here, try to isolate the movements through your spine just like a big jump rope, so you're not doing the big writhing yet, try to isolate the movement more, stay with the stretch sensation as it flows around, then take it the other way close your eyes and just like keep getting into it, it's always changing, and it's always something, then find your way back to neutral, linger for a half a mind moment, and then take it back to child's pose, savor how it is, still breathing, wobbling gently, even more love, and then the last one here is you come up on your hands and knees, and then shift your hips to the left, move the butt back and start circling your hips around your stationary knees, again be gentle, be sensual, pay attention to the experience, at a certain point change the direction, and again at this point you're leading the movement with your hips, the rest of your body is just reacting to that, then bring your awareness up through your spine to the top of your head, and then go into like full on writhing mode, sometimes slower, sometimes faster, try to find places you haven't touched yet, even in your feet, even in your toes, even in your ears as you're doing this, and your eyes, gradually find your way back to neutral, linger for a moment, and then take it back to child's pose, you can then curl your head in, wait for the right moment, round your way up, and either be in the kneeling position or just come to an easy sukhasana, and find your way into a nice conscious pause for a few moments here, easy words remember are get grounded through whatever's on the ground, and so you feel your butt, your feet, whatever's there, and just snuggle, as you snuggle your whole body gently wobbles, wobble gently as you grow tall, up through the crown of your head, open the crown of your head like bloom open, and then relax, and again it takes discipline to actually relax thoroughly, and not just be habitual, and so scan your awareness through your field, and let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, notice that you don't disappear, but it does feel like you are less dense, you're more spacious, spacious is more comfortable, and so you're learning to be the embodiment of comfort, and to take skill, keep softening your eyes, the corners of each eye, the eyelid, the eyelash, get familiar with what you feel like as you're able to be increasingly tension free, and remember the more you touch this spot, the more you'll start noticing the contrast when you revert back to what used to be habitual uptight you, now just before you open your eyes do a leisurely body scan to serve squeegee your form clean, notice how it feels, and then without wrecking it just let your eyes come open. Now I'm kneeling, as you inhale take the chin up, that's movement number one remember, I like to take it up to the extreme often, I like to linger here a lot, as you exhale just hinge forward and take your hands forward, lift your head, look at your hands, just put them the way you've been putting them, you put the index finger where you memorize it, the other ones fully, theoretically your wrist creases will be squared at this point, then lift your head, look forward and just keep looking forward, start walking your hands forward a little and a little and a little and a little, and you can feel the weight on your knees, try and suss it out to where you think your hips are like right above your knees or close enough, you snuggle the hands into the floor, push the floor away and just let your chest curve down toward the floor, this is half dog stage two, if it was stage one your arms and spine would make a single straight line, but here you're going through the straight line and beginning to make the curve, you can do the same thing when you're doing dog, dog pose stage two, now this will feel strange if you've never done it before but keep your hands where they are, don't move them yet and bring yourself up to the all fours position, so now your arms are angling forward, pull the belly in, curl your head in a lot, so you're going to the round back extreme, keep curling your head in and just slowly start sinking your hips forward and down, just go sort of slow, and right about now your head will feel like rolling up and you'll end up like in a gentle cobra and then soften your elbows, your torso will come down sequentially and you land on your face, at this point your hands are up by your face, it feels a little crowded, shift your hands back to about where your elbows are and then hug your elbows inward, so you hug with the elbows, the shoulders you shrug them towards the elbows, if you're not sure how to shrug them towards the elbows, shrug them up by your ears first and then do the opposite, so it's hug, shrug and then don't push with your arms yet but start lifting your head and torso up, and so if you're not pushing with your arms you'll be able to lift your hands up, so just prove it, put them back down but don't use them yet, just reaffirm the hug, the shrug, then lift your legs up, and if you're a teacher I recommend, teach this a lot, it's a good back strengthener, it'll improve everybody's meditation position and just keep talking at this point, now stay the little curve you now are, lower the legs rock up and just little by little start pressing with your arms, don't insist on anything just little by little, if it starts to hurt back out of it to where it doesn't hurt and then just wobble gently, see if you can get liquid in there and then just little by little push a little bit more and just for a second or so just gently emphasize this, soften the elbows, it'll come down sequentially, landing on your face, so now your spine is in neutral, keep your spine neutral as you come up to the all fours position and just linger here for a sec, spine neutral, head and neck neutral, you just sort of stay here long enough to realize where you are and then walk your hands back a little bit and just slowly take your seat back towards your feet and notice how your back is rounding gently, when it was neutral it was straight, now it's rounded gently, you're in a full on forward fold, it's rounded gently, as you snuggle your hands and push the floor away just feel how it intensifies the counter pose, it's nice and wobble a little bit, again please lift your head and look forward, start walking your hands forward, feel the weight on your knees, find the spot this time cross your right ankle over your left ankle, I like to cross my ankles like that, I like the feeling of that, push the floor away, curve the chest down and just watch little fixes that you're doing, untie your ankles, keep your hands where they are, bring yourself up curling your head in and just slowly begin to morph your way towards the cobra, your head will start to roll up, just gently hit the top of the note, soften the elbows bring the torso down sequentially, land on your face and shift your hands back, hug, shrug, head and torso up, just keep your head more of a neutral here, add the legs and like through all of this you try to be as relaxed as you can be as you're doing what you got to do, lower the legs, rock up, add the arms little by little, liquefy close your eyes, emphasize it gently and then melt your way down, leisurely land on your face, your legs in neutral, keep it in neutral, lift up to the all fours position again, linger, breathe, realize where you are, walk your hands back a little bit, slowly take your seat back towards your feet, feel your back rounding, wobble, so the wobbling is like the shaking at the beginning but it's just more subtle, push the floor away and just intensify it gently and then third time lift your head, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, put the other ankle on top, go for the curve, couple seconds here, more love, like to where you like doing it, learn to do it so that you like it, sometimes you intensify, sometimes you ease up, you're just surfing in there, when it feels like the time, just uncross the ankles, keep the hands where they are and then begin to come up curling your head in and with your eyes closed, like practice going a little slower this time, not that you should always go slow but just as a way of getting into it, notice what your arms are doing, sometimes you're sinking, sometimes you're lifting, your head will roll up, soften your way down, now this time just before your torso comes down, shift your hands back and lift your legs up, then lift your head and torso up, rock up, push, so the other way to get out of this is you turn your toes under and lift it up the dog and another way to do the back bend pattern is to do it from here in dog pose and so from here wriggle your feet back an inch or two, come way up on your toes, pull the belly in, curl your head in and then slowly start sinking your hips forward and down, I land on my knees, I point the toes and then take it up into the chin, melt my way down, let your legs come up, head and torso up, rock up, push and one more time turn the toes, take it back. And it feels like the thing, wriggle your feet back a little, come way up on the toes, pull the belly in, curl the head in and go there, like learn, experience it, melt your way down, let the legs come up, head and torso up, rock up, there's one more cobra here, so you like it, do it just right and then soften, melt down, land on your face, turn your head to the side and just relax here for a second. Now notice I didn't stipulate which way to turn your head and the tendency is to just turn your head the way you would normally turn it and if that's the way you would normally turn it that tends to be your best side, turn your head the other way, it may not be true but just see if now this side is the stiffer side, doesn't matter, both sides are good though.

And then stretch your arms up above your head, is this how Superman flies? He does it like this, I got to see the latest, I haven't seen the movie lately, slide your right hand back by your chest and then just push so you tip over into reclining Buddha number one, your head will just rest on your left arm, your legs can be bent and just rest your right hand on your hip or your waist somewhere. Reclining Buddha number two is you lift your head up, bend your left arm and just prop your head up and watch yourself making any spontaneous little shifts of alignment, again that's intelligence at work, okay now find a comfortable spot here and for a few moments I would vote at this point have your eyes open, just snuggle your feet together, snuggle your legs together, the right arm relaxed, your belly relaxed, your face relaxed, you don't have to be a perfectly straight line, Buddha probably wasn't, and then just relax, like skillfully relax, again it takes practice or discipline to not just be normal, but to skillfully soften everywhere. Just becoming and then being the embodiment of comfort, this pose should be taught more than it is, okay it's not like just a joke pose, this is cool, okay then roll on your face, Superman it, slide the left hand back, push tip over into Buddha one on the other side, watch what your legs do, put your left arm and hand in a comfortable spot, be aware of the tension level in your face and just let it diminish, number two lift your head up, crop your head up, and just sort of like survey or whirl, what is the truth of this pose, and when you're at home, let yourself linger in these moments longer than you might normally allow, okay, and then just somehow get onto your back again, either, let yourself roll, and turn around so your feet are pointing towards me please, I was just gonna say roll over onto your back but I would have gone off the edge, when I'm at home and I got the whole room I just roll, you know you can go all sorts of different directions, okay so the legs bent feet flat, cosmic grounded pose for a moment here, and with your eyes open just immediately get into the place of wow, I'm viewing life live, look at things as though you had never seen them before, as though you were in the middle of ultimate reality and you were curious to see it a little more clearly, let the tension level in your form diminish and diminish, let your eyes soften and close for a few moments here, notice that even now with your eyes closed you are having a visual experience of some kind, don't just write it off as nothing, the whole inner world starts opening up, you'll begin to see moving mandalas, many things happen here, and be aware of the tension level in your form and just again skillfully let it diminish through your face, through your jaw, your belly, feel the breathing like in your belly and then let your eyes come open again and let it feel like you're seeing the world for the very first time, okay without using your hands, bring the right knee into your chest and then extend the leg up, just sort of like quick review here, put your foot in a skillful neutral, that's option one, keeping your foot in neutral, spread your toes as much as you can, that's option two, point your foot, option three, flex the heel, option four, spread the toes here, start pushing through the ball of the foot, sort of like if you were standing on your toes, option five, curl your toes in, make a fist, number six and then twist your foot, number seven, release it back to neutral, bend the leg, put the foot flat, bring the left knee in, extend the leg up, look at where your foot goes just naturally and then train yourself to put it into a neutral, but sort of again, as relaxed as you can be as you get it into neutral, you got to do stuff but be skillful about it, then spread the toes, then point the foot, flex the heel, spread your toes, start pushing through the ball of the foot, curl the toes in, make a fist and then twist the foot, relax it back into neutral, let the leg come down, put the foot flat, bring the right knee in, extend the leg up again and this time spread your toes and look at your foot, at first everyone thinks I'm being silly when I say this but really look at the colors of your foot and start noticing the glow of light that's coming off your foot, bend the leg, put the foot down, bring the left knee in, stick it up, spread the toes and then look for the light that just might be there, try to make your foot look pretty, that's part of it you know, like it will be right when it looks right, bend the leg, put the foot down, bring the right knee in, extend the leg up, spread the toes again, like spreading the toes is the main option I would teach beginners to default to, just ask them to spread the toes a lot, it's not difficult and it's obvious to everybody whether they're doing it or not, keep the toes spread, take the leg away from you so it comes down towards the right railroad track, I just want to go through this pattern that we did yesterday, I'm going to go a little faster through it though, put the right thumb in the hip crease and then press with the thumb as you bring the leg up to 90 degrees, just wherever you think it's 90, then try to bring it further, further, further, your sacrum is on the ground at this point, press your left foot down to curl the sacrum up off the floor, your right leg will come more over, then come on the ball of your left foot, left heel comes up, so that's one of the foot choices now, that's what five or something, push into the ball of the left foot, the right leg will come more over, reach up, grab the leg but don't pull it in, at this point part of your spine is on the floor, part of it isn't, just slowly roll the isn't down vertebra by vertebra until it is, sacrum down, let the left heel come down and then walk the left foot away from you, keeping it flat, you won't be able to get the leg straight, then lift the left toe so you're on the back of the heel and then slide, push the left leg towards straight, fully straight if you can, and just notice what foot option your left foot goes into and just mindfully put it into one of those choices, okay, bend the left leg, bend the right leg, put it down, side two, I'll go a little faster, bring the left leg in, extend it up, spread the toes, slowly take the leg away from you, and so I'm voting memorize the patterns remember, put your left thumb and then bring the leg up, linger at 90, and then bring it further, further, further, sacrum flat still, then push the right foot down to curl the sacrum up, your left leg will come more over, come onto the ball of the right foot, push, your sacrum curls more up, your leg comes more over, reach up, grab the leg but don't pull it in, slowly roll the isn't down until it is, put the right heel down and then start walking the flat foot away from you, you won't be able to get the leg straight, at that point lift your toes up so you're on the back of the heel and then slowly push the leg with love towards straight and spread the toes down there, this is an excellent pattern, I do this one a lot, bend the right leg to the starting position, bend the left leg, the second part is bring the right knee in, stick the leg up, spread the toes and just go through the pattern again, take the leg away, put the right thumb, bring it up, linger and then bring it further, further, further, start curling the sacrum up, come on the ball of the foot, bring the leg over as far as you can get it, reach up, grab the leg but don't pull it in, slowly roll the isn't down until it is and then let the left heel come down but don't walk the left foot away yet, grab the right foot or the ankle or use a strap, remember I put the thumb between the little toe and the ring toe, wrap the fingers around, pull the outer edge of the foot down to keep the foot squared and use the thumb to spread the toes, the right shoulder you shrug it down towards the floor and down away from the ear and then slowly start opening the leg out to the right and just savor the ride, 50%, 60%, keep the right foot in one of those choices, start walking the left foot, lift the left toes, start pushing the left heel away from you and you savor this for a couple of seconds, bend the left leg to the starting position, now keep following the words here, the next piece on this is you bend the right leg and you will come into the reclining lunge on the right side, let yourself tip all the way to the right until your right knee comes down to the floor, this is the easy version of the reclining lunge, it is the easy version because your left leg is bent and you are at the right knee down extreme, you will notice that with your left hand you can put it underneath your sacrum and you can feel how your sacrum is not flat, you are tipping, if you were to get the sacrum flat or if I were to get the sacrum flat, if I were to go to the sacrum down extreme, my right knee comes up, which is okay, it is just the other end of this, but at this point let yourself tip so you are at the right knee down extreme, I usually shift my right hand and grab my heel from the inside, I prefer that grip, it is a little, I feel more solid, keep it at the right knee down extreme, bring the left knee into your chest, that is sort of easy, and then just extend your leg up into the air and spread your toes, this is the starting spot for the next event, keep the right knee down, slowly start taking the left leg away from you, so it approaches the left railroad track, now if you keep the right knee on the ground, I can't reach the railroad track, I hit a float point at a certain point, I am now in the extended leg reclining lunge, right knee down extreme and my left leg is floating, most people are like that, let the right knee float now in order to get the left leg down, so now you are at the left leg down extreme, then let your left leg float to get the right knee down, so you are either at the right knee down extreme or at the left leg down extreme, or put it right in the middle and sort of like float through all that cool stuff, okay, bend the left leg back to the starting position, bring the right foot to the starting position, side two please, bring the knee in, stick the leg up, go through the pattern, taking the foot away, putting your thumb, pushing with the thumb as you bring the leg up, bring it, bring it, bring it, start curling the sacrum up, come onto the ball of the foot, push, reach up, grab the leg but don't pull it in, remember on future stages you pull it in here but at this point your leg is safe, it got there by itself, slowly roll your spine back down, let the right heel come down, then grab the left leg foot and just start opening it out to the side, but again practice going slower than normal, just so you are more mindful, at least when you are learning the pattern, walk the right foot away, lift the toes and then push the heel away, close your eyes, see if you feel differently about it and then bend the right leg back to the starting position, bend the left leg into the reclining lunge and just let yourself tip to the left knee down extreme, shift the left hand so you grab the heel, keep the left knee thigh on the floor and then bring the right knee in, that's a moment of relief, extend the leg up, there is the foot, look for the light around your foot and spread the toes, start taking the leg away from you and just be attentive to when you hit the float point, again if you are more open than me, like the float point, there may not be a float point, but most people have a float point, let the left knee float to get the right leg down, so now it's the right leg down extreme, let the right leg float to get the left knee down, so the left knee down extreme and then put it somewhere in the middle, again there is a zillion little middle spots and you want to erase all of that stuff, bend the right leg back to the starting position, bend the left leg to the starting position, now would you just sit up and watch for a moment please, rare Eric demo, but I like this pose so much, okay, it's not hard, this is what you just did, no no no no, okay, please don't go away, I don't get it, okay wooooo Okay, that was the first part. The second part was once you got to here.

Third part, easy version, reclining lunge, I like to shift the hand. Float point, right knee down extreme, left leg down extreme, and then all this middle stuff. Okay, so I would do that on each side. The next pose is I come to here, bring the knee in, extend the leg up. I'm going to keep the right knee down extreme and keep the toes spread, and instead of taking the leg that way, I take it this way.

This isn't hard, but it's sort of weird looking, which I like. It's got a nice little twist to it. I keep the right knee down, keep the left leg low, and then just slowly start taking the left leg away. Right around here, your hip will do a little flip. I'm now in the extended leg reclining lunge, right knee down extreme.

I let the right knee float to get the left knee down. I let the left knee float to get the right leg down, and then I do it again. You just hit gobs of cool stuff doing this, linger through it. Okay, you want to try that? Okay, so come to easy version on the right side.

Left leg bent, foot flat. Grab the foot however you prefer, and then bring the left knee into your chest. Notice how that's a moment of relief. Extend the leg up, spread the toes. So this is the starting position, you just linger for a sec, and then just take your left leg over to the right.

So the left leg will be on the far side of the right foot. So it should be your hand, your right foot, yeah, and then the left leg. Keep the left foot in one of those choices. Keep the left leg low, just slowly start taking it away from you. The hip will do a little flip right around then, just keep it going away.

So wow, now you're in the extended leg reclining lunge, right knee down extreme. Let the right knee float to get the left leg down. Let the left leg float to get the right knee down. So it feels like you're doing a world tour. Bend the left knee into the chest, get a moment of relief, and then extend the leg up again, spread the toes, take it over to the right again.

Keep the foot attentive, wait for the right moment, keep the leg low, start taking it away from you. Keep the right leg more vertical, and then your shoulder will stay down more I think. Go from one extreme to the other, take it to the right knee down extreme again, bend the left knee into the chest, and then a third time please. Stick the leg up, take it over there, does this make sense, is it cool? Keep the leg low as you take it away from you.

It will flip, let the right knee float to get the left leg down, let the left leg float to get the right knee down, and then bend the left leg back to the starting position, right foot to the starting position. The thing that wipes out on me is my right hand on that, that always surprises me. Okay, so other side please, left side, do it three times, I'm going to start the music, the free form will begin now.

Comments

Lori
2 people like this.
"Remember...do it with more love."

This practice allows me to feel into everything, freely, and at leisure. Thank you so much for this practice for a lifetime. Many shantis.

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