GOLD LIVE Class: Meditative Yoga 2

Well, hey there everybody, JC and Sheila here for meditative yoga number two, what do we have in store for you today? Well, we're gonna start with a little bit of time right here in a comfortable seat, and then we will attach what we talk about and feel and move with in this seated time into some posture practice. And it'll be right back here again at the end. So let's begin. I invite you to find a comfortable seat. Now I don't know what that will be for you, maybe you need to crisscross your applesauce, maybe you go ahead and stack your shins one over the other, maybe it feels good to kneel, or maybe right now you even find a chair or a comfy couch. Wherever you can find yourself in a space that you would deem comfortable, I invite you to find that. Hey, and just for a moment, close your eyes. Not to dive into a deep meditative experience right now, but to simply arrive in the space that you are in. Right, so within your seat, right now, eyes close, rock left and right, and front and back like you are a joystick. And all of a sudden find yourself in the middle space of all these directions, right, left, front, back, find yourself in your center. Now as we take some time seated here, know this, right, if all of a sudden you go, "Gosh, I need to adjust. I have an itch, I have a scratch", please, please adjust. Please itch, please scratch. Right, our intention here is not to remove thought or to be as still as possible. No, it is to allow de-stressing to happen through moments of proverbial stillness. Right, so there is no harm, no foul, if you need to wiggle and shake things out. Now from this stillness, reopen your eyes. Today we're gonna talk about the relationship between quantity and quality. I'd like to do a little experiment here. For one minute, I'm gonna have you count how many breath cycles you move through. So all you're thinking about for this minute is when you go inhale, exhale, you're just gonna tally in your brain one, and at the end of this minute, I'll ask you, "So how many breaths did you have?" If it feels better right now to close your eyes, if it feels better to place one hand on belly, one hand on chest, please do so. But right now, breathe in, and breathe out. Begin to count your breath cycles right now for one minute. Every inhale and exhale together is one. The focus in your mind is to ensure that you are paying attention to that very normal human act when you breathe in and breathe out, one. When you breathe in and breathe out again, two. All the way to the end of this moment, which I will let you know when we arrive at. The part of your brain that helps you plan and schedule, that allows you to create form and function and pattern, that is where you're tapping into right now. Keep going. Three, two, one, stop. So how many breath cycles did you move through? Sheila, how many did you move through? Eight. Eight. So you may be six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. Maybe that number makes you go, "Oh, that seems like a lot of breaths. So that seems like not too many." Maybe next time you would do this experiment, perhaps you would try to decrease the amount of breath cycles, and in doing so, deepening the breath and width of each breath. Here's the second part of this experiment. For another minute, I'm gonna have you breathe and bring your attention to it. This time I want you to focus on the quality of your breath. Let's go. Three, two, one, begin. So what do you focus on when you hear the word quality? Perhaps you are going, "Gosh, does this mean I need to slow things down, speed things up? Like what am I doing? What am I doing?" Well, does your breath feel smooth? Does your breath feel choppy? Does it feel like your inhale is wider than maybe your exhale? If you're looking at this as mountains and valleys, are your mountains higher and your valleys more shallow? Maybe you consider the quality of your breath and how it's making you feel. Ooh, my breath right now is making me feel calm, or my breath is, focusing on it is making me be more anxious. Three, two, one, stop. So I'm gonna put Sheila on the spot again. Sheila, how is the quality of your breath? Big, juicy breath, could get four in because I was really thinking about how much air I could take in, how much air I can take out and let it massage my internal organs. I love that, right, I heard big juicy massage. Right, she moved as she was describing the quality of your breath. We spend more time in this world focusing on the quantity rather than the quality. That is what we're gonna move with today. Ask yourself right now before we move, are you someone who looks at your days as a to-do list? As of today I accomplished this many checkpoints. Are you a person who goes, "You know what? Today was a good day, it felt good." In reality, we live on this axis where quantity is our x-axis, quality is our y. And when we can balance those two things, that is where the fullness of life exists. Join me in a tabletop. Now stack your shoulders over your wrists, bring your hips over your knees. And for a moment, press and slap the tops of your feet into your mat. Right, perhaps your ankles, your feet, your shins, your knees got a little stale. Maybe they fell asleep when you are sitting still. So can you move right now in responsive ways? Curl your toes, untuck your toes. Move in ways from your toes to your knees to bring that part of your body to life and then to stillness. Hey, as you find tabletop now, be still, squeeze your elbows towards one another, right. You'll feel a little engagement of your tricep. Now squeeze your inner thighs together. For a moment, reach your right fingertips forward, right, as if there was a light bulb on your middle finger and you're shining it into the future. Breathe in, and exhale, right hand back down. Hey, left hand now reaches, right, maybe bicep comes up closer to your ear. That light bulb on your fingertips, shine it directly forward into that proverbial future in front of you. Breathe in. And exhale, left hand down. Hey, now with your right foot, reach it back into the path, point your toes, right, feel length from your right shoulder throughout your right big toe, breathe in. Right knee, back down. Hey, left leg, stretch it back, and feel left shoulder to left big toe. Breathe in, and breathe out. So let's test our quantity versus quality experience right here. Hey, for a moment, I invite you to move through those sets of movements, right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg reaches two times, at your own pace, go ahead, reach one hand forward, plant it back down. Yeah, when you're ready, second hand forward, and back down. Or reach your right leg back. Hmm, and place it down. Left leg back, and place it down. That was one time, go again, right hand. Hmm, plant it. Yeah, left fingers reach. And plant it. Right knee lifts, right toes reach, and plant. And left leg. And plant it back down. Readjust, replant, see your wrists under your shoulders, feel your knees under your hips. And we're going to move through each of those movements one more time. This time I invite you to focus on the quality of your existence of your whole physical state as we move through. So reach your right hand forward. What just got stronger? Great, where do you feel engagement? Where do you feel grounded? Right, do you feel rotation? Do you feel space? Do you feel maybe vulnerable in certain parts of your body? Are you shaking? And how does that make you feel? Breathe in, and exhale, right hand back down. As you reach your left hand, and perhaps you begin to think about how when you shift your foundation, right, when all of a sudden going from maybe six contact points, top of feet, knees, palms to only five, right, you have to work and think differently, breathe in, breathe out, left hand down. Yeah, reach your right leg back. Right now we just lost two contact points, right, top of right foot and right knee. Right, do you feel yourself pull into your left hip and open up? Hey, adjust. Right, imagine as if that right leg is still on the ground. What do you learn? How does the quality of your life shift here? Breathe in, and right knee down. Left leg back, last time. Ooh, right now, I will tell you my right arm is really starting to exhaust to shake, and that's surprising me 'cause I'm going, gosh, I'm not really moving in big ways, but perhaps that says that I have a gratitude and awareness of where I'm holding on in my life, breathe in, that I did not have before, breathe out, left knee down. Walk your hands forward a couple of inches, lift your knees downward facing dog. Right, within your downward facing dog, see your heels about hip width distant, and then look up at your wrist. Allow your wrists to be about shoulder width distance. For me, my shoulders are a little bit wider than my hips. So I'm giving myself right now the highest quality of awareness and focus. Bend your knees, look under one shoulder, your other shoulder. Do things that feel really good. Right, perhaps if we look at this as a shape, right, a posture, downward facing dog. How often does this posture yogis get lost in transition? But if we look at the quality of this moment, all of a sudden we can go aha, now I'm thinking about where I have come from. What memories are being unlocked, physically, mentally, emotionally. And all of a sudden we go, wow, this moment has the highest degree in caliber of quality. Now inhale, look forward, and walk your feet behind your wrists. Right, so now your feet are coming as wide as your wrists and your wrists were shoulder with distant. Right, we focus on the things we place worth in. And go ahead and tent your fingertips on the ground, and look forward and then look back in between your knees. Right, so this little spinal flossing here, look forward as you inhale. Then exhale, look back in between your knees. Hey, if you're going, gosh, this is really intense, forward fold. Perhaps you bring your hands to your thighs, but continue to look forward and back. So this flossing, right? That's what we are doing is we look forward and look back. Now this is a great invigorator for all of your posterior line, from heels to knees, knees to hips, hips to shoulders, shoulders to crown ahead. Continue on. Hey, were you one of the people who brought your hands up to your thighs 'cause you're like, "This will feel better?" Awesome, that says that you're focusing on the quality of this experience, right, not, I'm going to do one scoop of yoga today, but I'm going to pay attention to how this yoga feels and hits my body. Hey, bring your hands back down to the ground no matter where you are. Then inhale, halfway lift. Yeah, if you have a mirror, right, or if you can use your mind's eye, think about your chest, your belly, your shoulders, your head, all being parallel to the ground. Right, maybe you need a little bend in your knees to allow that to happen, but drag your tailbone back, drag the crown of your head forward. Inhale in your halfway lift. And as you exhale, twist, open to one direction, one hand down, other hand up. Inhale back to your halfway lift. And exhale, twist the other direction. One hand down, one hand up. I love moving into folds from a halfway lift, right, because then all of a sudden, this direction of stretching yourself forward and back in your halfway lift is providing you length, is providing you space. Now you'll notice, right, me and Sheila may move a little bit faster or slower than one another. Why? Because right now what we are tapping into is the quality and texture and length of our breath and how that inspires and instigates movement within our movement, right, within our musculature, within our skeletal response to how our muscles elongate and contract. All right. Find your halfway lift again whenever you are there. So we were just kind of moving purely from a feel standpoint. I'm gonna have you now take three more rounds of your twists, both sides, and I challenge you to focus on quality and quantity. Inhale. And exhale, twist. What do you feel? Right, are you focusing on depth? Inhale brings you back to your halfway lift. Exhale brings you to your second side. Right, are you challenging yourself right now to go, "Wait, was that one? Was that one and a half? I don't remember." How awesome when all of a sudden we lose count 'cause we're focusing on something maybe more valuable or differently valued. I have one more half here, inhale. My brain is going to the depth of the twist right now, how I feel in it, inhale, halfway lift. When you are there, bring your feet to touch, and now fold over your legs as your knees squeeze in. Roll out your neck just for a moment right here, bending your knees as much as you need, and then bend your knees even more, roll on up to stand. As you place your shoulders above your hips, reach your hands to the sky, inhale. And exhale, bring your hands to your chest to, soften your eyes closed. And for this moment, seal your lips as well. And inhale and exhale out through your nose, with your hands at your chest. Right, this posture in Sanskrit , and translated into English, probably most accurately, equal presence, equal awareness on all sides of all things pose. Equal awareness on all sides of all things pose. Right, this posture is one in the most advanced state, which you are an advanced being at all times. So right now your analytical brain may go, "Gosh, I'm just standing on my two feet with my eyes closed." Maybe that qualitative side of your brain goes, "What am I aware of right now?" Do you feel air on your skin? Can you breathe in through your nose and smell the memories and remnants of meals shared together? All right, as your mind probably floods more and more thoughts free through this de-stressing moment, this moment when things you've been holding onto can be freed and released. Are you focusing on thoughts that you did not know that were still there? What are you aware of when you focus not only on the quantity, the bulk things that you accomplish, but also the quality and the worth of those things for you, for those people you care about, for the whole world, for the whole universe, yes, we got really big really fast, but that's what happens when you focus on your impact. Quantity, and quality. You are always on the axis of both within your worth, within your doing. Take one more big breath in. Open mouth, exhale. Hey, open your eyes, release your hands to the sides of your body, inhale mountain pose, touch the sky. Now exhale for a moment, take a side body stretch, reach one hand up and over, other hand down next to the sides of your body. Hey, inhale, reach both hands back up. Now exhale, find your complimentary side. Yeah, reach your other hand up and over, other hand down, finding length on one side, body contraction on the other, inhale, reach both hands up. Exhale, take a little back bend, squeeze your glutes, engage your inner thighs. As you release your chin from your chest, gaze up. Now it's funny sometimes when we gaze up, our tongue presses to the roof of our mouth. If that's happening, can you relax your tongue for a moment and wiggle out your jaw? Be soft where you can be soft right now, be strong where you need to be strong. Inhale, mountain pose, reach up. And exhale, open arm twist to one direction, one arm back, one arm forward. Now you can see both it with Sheila and I's body, it's almost as if there's a line from the crown of her head to the heels of our feet, perhaps you wanna lean port or lean back. Make a little adjustment there. Now inhale, mountain pose, stand tall. Now exit, rotate the second way. Yeah. The inhale mountain pose. And exhale forward fold. Now listen here, inhale, halfway lift, we've been here. Exhale, crouch and curl, bring your fingertips down to the ground, lift your heels up, tuck your chin into your chest. Now if you're going, gush, I can't balance on my toes. Cool, keep your heels down, bring your hands to your knees. Create a little mushroom top right here. One big breath in, and one big breath out. Hey, inhale mountain pose, unravel your body. We'll move up, we just moved two times. Exhale, lean, lateral extension to one side. Every inhale will bring you back center, mountain pole. Exhale, lean to the second side. Yeah, inhale, mountain pose. Exhale, back bend, squeeze what needs to be squeezed, relax what can be relaxed. Inhale, mountain pose. Exhale, rotate, open one direction like you are wringing out a towel, feel it in the quality of your breath. Inhale, mountain pose. Exhale, second direction. Yeah, inhale mountain pose. An exhale forward fold. And all of a sudden routine settles in. Inhale, halfway lift, we've done it, we start to feel it. Exhale, crouch and curl. Heels up, chin tucks, or heels down, hands to thighs. Breathe in, and breathe out. One more time around our path, inhale, mountain pose. Unfurl your body. Yeah, exhale lateral extension to your first side. And inhale mountain, pose. Now exhale, second side. Mountain pose. Exhale, back bend. Fan, open your ribcage. Mountain pose, pull your belly button in, rotate one direction, retract your shoulders down. Now inhale mountain pose. Exhale, second direction. Now inhale, mountain pose. And exhale, forward fold. Now inhale, halfway lift. And exhale, now find a high plank. Set your feet on back. And from your high plank, if knees are down, that's awesome, take a deep breath in. Exhale, downward facing dog. Hey, one big breath in here. And breath out. Now inhale, look forward. Exhale, step your feet to the front of your space. Big toes to touch. Maybe heels have a little sliver if that feels good. Inhale, halfway lift. Always find it and appreciate the length you can here. Fold back down. Yeah, chair pose, bend your knees, sit your hips behind you and then reach your fingertips away from your seat. Hey, as we take a little time here, I want you to think back for a moment to your mountain lateral extensions, your back bends and twists. We moved through those postures three times. What did you focus on? Were you going, "Okay, what am I doing? What am I doing? Am I doing it right? Okay, that was one time, that was two times, that was three times." That's okay stuff to think about. Right, often yoga creates a little bit of anxiety because we go, "I don't know what I'm doing, or I don't know what's next, right? Wanna figure out where we are heading?" Or "Did I do it right?" Or "How many more times are we going to do it?" Maybe you focus on the quality instead. Hey, take a deep breath in. Exhale, swing your arms back just for a moment. Hey, inhale, mountain pose, stand tall, touch the sky. You can bring your hands to your chest. Close your eyes again, equal presence, equal awareness. On all sides of all things, pose. We've been here. And we may be here again. We may not. Within this moment, what are you focusing on? What are you taking in? Where do we just come from? Within that chair where we were one time, we didn't move once we got into it, so maybe the quantity conversation was hard 'cause from a quantity standpoint, we weren't accomplishing a lot. From the quality standpoint, can you feel right now your quadriceps, the big muscles on the front sides of your legs? Can you feel them going? Ugh. Stretch them, press your heels down, squeeze into your quadriceps. Can you feel your glute muscles going, "Okay, I was holding us in place, I was the anchor." Sweet, squeeze them, drag your tailbone down. Hey, for a moment, place your hands on your belly. Can you feel how strong these muscles are in this moment because they've held you through plank and twist and back bend? Where do you focus on the quality of your action? Open your eyes, inhale, mountain pose. Touch the ceiling. Exhale, chair pose, airplane your arms, send your hips back, reach your fingers back. Hey, chair pose, reach your hands away from your seats and settle in. Now, I will tell you, I am putting on the clock right now, 15 seconds. That is to t. You know you'll be out of this posture in 15 seconds. You're already down to 10. What can you focus on strength here? What can you focus on length here? For this moment, which two shall pass? What is the quantity and the quality relationship? Three, two, one, stand up mountain pose. Hands to chest just for a moment. This is your challenge, your opportunity. We'll be going back into chair one more time. 15 seconds. Can you right now locate a space within your being? Is it your mind? Is it your heart? Is it a certain muscle? Is it a certain physical cue that you're thinking about in this posture? Right, maybe if your low back got tight, maybe you think more of pulling your belly in and creating length or dragging your seat down. Where will you seek quality in your day for this 15 seconds? Open your eyes, mountain pose, inhale. Exhale, chair pose, airplane your arms. Inhale, reach your hands forward, and exhale, settle into your chair right now, 15 seconds. You are on the timer. It's interesting, right, just like when you work a pushup or a squat, when you work a deadlift or you work a certain move, right, we often focus on the quantity. And in this challenging moment, you engage your quality muscles. Three, two, one, mountain pose. Hey y'all, no more chair poses today, forward fold. Ooh. Woo-hoo. Right, inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, high plank, step your feet on back, breathe in. Now exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale, lift your right leg high. And exhale, low lunge, bring your right foot in between your hands. If it takes you a while to get your right foot in between your hands, ain't no thing, right? Find yourself there when you get there. Yeah, move here for a moment. Maybe bring your back knee down, bring your hands up to your thigh. Do things that feel good. I know there are people who win, they're given the invitation to do things that feel good. They stress out, they freak out, they go, "Just tell me what I'm supposed to do." Well, the reality of it is ain't nobody gonna know that other than you. When you're given a moment to focus on how you feel, that is on you to trust that you have an awareness of yourself. Hey, find yourself back to your low lunge. Pick your back knee up off the ground, and then root your left heel down to the mat. Inhale, warrior two. Let's be precise here first, start from your midline, right, point your chest to the side of your mat. Feel and see your shoulders over your hips. Now in reality, this leg is working different from this leg, so guess what? This side body is gonna have to be a little bit longer than this side body, which is a little crunched. Do the little things you have to do. We're gonna have four movements here, okay. Take a deep breath in, exhale, twist, press your left palm forward. Your right fist is pulling into the sides of your ribs. I always feel like I'm a little bit of karate kid here, right, hay-ya. Imagine maybe there's some magic in that left palm that is shooting out into the future, and really tighten up your right fist. You should hopefully feel right now your left butt cheek is super, super firm, super, super engaged. Shoulders still over hips. This is our first pit stop. Now secondly, straighten both of your legs, clap your palms up over your head. So it's kind of like preparation for a little triangle with really long side bodies. This is gonna be your inhale, and the exhale back to warrior two. We've already been here and set up. Lastly, reverse warrior, reach your right fingers up, left fingers heavy down to the ground. Let your inhale here, create real estate, building a skyscraper from hip all the way up to fingers. Yeah, breathe in, and breathe out. So let's try it on out, return to warrior two. We're gonna move through this three times. Inhale. And exhale, twist. Inhale, tap your palms up overhead. And exhale, warrior two. Take a big breath in. Exhale, twist. Inhale, tap your palms up overhead. Exhale, warrior two. Add in your reverse warrior, inhale. Exhale last time, rotate twist. Now inhale, touch your palms overhead, squeeze your inner thighs, straighten your legs. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, reverse warrior. And exhale, low lunge, plant your hands, step your right foot back, high plank, breathe in. Exhale, downward facing dog. We have a second side, lift your left leg high. And exhale low lunge. If it takes 10 million steps to get your foot up in between your hands, ain't no thing, and appreciate it, enjoy the journey. Bring your back knee down, if that feels good, take some time here to go, ooh, this will feel good if I do this. We'll take the same setup on the second side, and the reason why, when we live in just a quantity focused world, all of a sudden we look at two sides of body as being symmetrical or balanced. I don't know, I'm right-handed. I broke my left pointer finger, right, my left hip is one inch higher than my right hip. These are all things that make me wonderfully imbalanced. I'm not symmetrical. So rather than focusing on this being a second side of a same journey, now what be focused on the quality here. Return to your low lunge, back knee up. Bring your right knee, or right heel down. Warrior two, find yourself. Let's move through those same postures, right, shoulders are over hips here. Feel that back glute squeeze a little more, that left side body a little bit longer, and breathe in. Exhale, rotate, left fist, pulling into your left ribs, right palm fire, magic, out of your palm, that right glute right now, super, super, super firm, should feel good and strong. Hey, touch your palms overhead, straighten both of your legs. Your feet aren't moving. Your knees, inner thighs are. Warrior two. We've already been here, return there, reverse warrior, that last posture. Fingers of your left hand go up, right fingers go down. Again, building a skyscraper with your breath from your left hip throughout your left fingernails. Return to warrior two. We'll move through these postures three times. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, twist, right, palm presses forward. Inhale, hands clap overhead. And exhale, warrior two. Now inhale, reverse warrior, left fingers up. And exhale, you twist. That was one time, two, here's our second. Now inhale, hands clap overhead, straighten your legs. Inner thigh squeeze, shake, warrior two. Now inhale, reverse. Last time through, twist, right palm forward. Inhale, palms clap. And exhale, warrior two. Now inhale, reverse. Clean the slates. High plank, hands down, left foot steps back. Breathe in, belly strong, carries you back to downward facing dog. And big breath in. And big breath out. For the last of our work on our feet, here's your challenge everybody, we will now move breath to movement one time through. Can you focus on even as you go, "Wait, what's next?" Can you overlapping, bring your focus to the quality of your movement, the quality of your thought, the quality of your feeling, the quality of your life within this moment you have set aside to move your body today? Breath in to prepare, breath out to prepare. Inhale, lift your right leg high and you begin your journey. Low lunge, right foot in between your hands. Now inhale, warrior two, back foot down. Exhale, twist, left palm forward. Inhale, hands clap, legs straighten. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, reverse. Exhale, low lunge, high plank. Breathe in. Exhale, down dog. The body keeps moving, right, left leg high. And low lunge. You can look at this as a checklist, inhale, warrior two. Exhale, twist, right palm forward, but choose to find the quality. Inhale, hands clap, legs straighten. Exhale, warrior two. Now inhale, reverse, left fingers high. Exhale, low lunge, high plank. Breathe in. Exhale, down dog, breathe out. Three breaths here. Right, it's challenging, when the world starts moving, when the dance starts dancing, when your routine starts clicking into its automated state, we lose focus on the quality of our action. Last breath in. And we go on our journey again, risk to focus on quality, right leg high. Exhale, low lunge. Hey, warrior two, back foot down. Twist, wring your body out, feel something here. Inhale, clap your palms overhead, inner thighs go ah. Exhale, warrior two, slither down. Inhale, reverse. Exhale, low lunge, high plank. Breath in. Exhale, down dog. Left leg high, last side. Yeah, low lunge. Hey, warrior two, back foot down. Exhale, wring your body out, the fuller your exhale, the fuller your twist. Inhale, clap your palms, get tall. Touch the sun with your fingernails. Exhale, warrior two. And inhale, reverse. Exhale, high plank. Hands down, foot back, breathe in, and downward facing dog. One breath. And breath out. Shift forward, table top, knees down, and point your fingers out to the sides of your mat. Right, as fingers now point to the sides, lower your belly, look forward. And then lift your belly, look back. A little cow and cat. Inhale, lower, look forward. And exhale, contract your belly, cat back presents itself. Now continue on. Right, you're gonna be here for just a little bit. It is not a this many breath cycles, or this many times to this routine. As we begin to sever ourselves from the what's next, how many more times, what is the sequence in the dance? Your challenge on your yoga mat is to be where you are with what you got and to appreciate that, to honor that, to value that, the quantity and the quality. Be in the midst of this movement with no countdown going, "What do I feel?" And the muscle you are flexing right now is your sensitivity to that feeling. Breaths move. Breaths move out. Let's lace back up one more time, inhale, look forward. And exhale, look back. And bring your hands back underneath your shoulders, they bowed out a little bit, middle fingers point forward. Hey, let's thread the needle. Inhale, reach your right fingers to the sky. And exhale, slide your right arm underneath the tunnel of your left armpit as your left fingers continue to reach. Place your right temple down on the ground. Maybe it feels good to press your palms into one another, and then slide them further forward. Now bring attention to your hips. Think about your halfway lift from before. Can you remember how that felt? Can you find length that parallels, that sensation from your past? You'll notice Sheila, you're taking a wonderful variation to open chest, to compliment length of posterior. Right, perhaps you reach left hand forward. Perhaps you find a variation that you don't know the name of, you don't know if it is a real yoga move. You are always your most exemplar teacher. The variations you make up here are the ones that your body, your qualitative body, are saying, "This will serve us well." Together, we lace up again, one more breath in. And one more breath out. Hey, wherever your hands went, use your left hand. As your jumpstart, press your left palm down to unravel your body. And then table top. Now not to find a parallel side, but to take a second journey, inhale, reach your left hand high. And exhale, thread the needle onto your second side and left wrist travels through the tunnel of your right armpit. Continue to stretch forward, forward, forward. And then pull your left hip behind you. Often the challenge of something like yoga is that it's not set up in reps or times or seconds, and sometimes it's not even set up in cycles of breath. Or right now as you think about your shape, right, if you are watching through this video now, and maybe you're gonna do it later, and you look at Sheila and you go, "Huh, it doesn't look like she's moving." Right, yoga is not a collection of nouns, it's a collection of verbs. Right, we are always in a state of evolution. Can you refine your sensitivity to be able to see and feel that? That is the muscle you are working right here. One more breath in. And breath out. Right palm, let it push you down to unravel your body. And then when you find your table top, hmm, come on down to your seat, one side or the other, extend your legs forward. Coming down to our backs just for a moment today. Inhale, reach your hands up. And exhale, reach your arms forward. Lay on down. One last little twist for you today. Yeah, pull one knee in, then your other knee in, squeeze your inner thighs together, and then pull your knees apart. Squeeze your knees together, and pull your knees apart one more time. Squeeze your knees together, and pull them apart. Hey, as you nuzzle your right knee into your right armpit, extend your left leg long. Use your left hand to guide your right knee up and over your body for a little supine twist. Again, right now, it is not this many reps, this many seconds, it is this non-descript moment of time that you occupy. What about this for a qualitative thought? It is in the moments when we are empty that change becomes possible. All right, think about inhale right now. Inhale fully, fully, fully. Can you twist very good when you are full of breath? Not really. Exhale completely. Feel the weight of your right leg. Keep exhaling, keep exhaling, and all of a sudden you find new space, new opportunity. One more breath in. And breath out. Bring your right knee or your right hip back down rather, liberate your right leg long on your mat, nuzzle your left knee into your left armpit, twist the complimentary way. Right, as you settle in to your second twist here. Be curious about your breath. Okay, maybe your right hand heavies onto your left leg, not to move or manipulate it, but to remind yourself of the weight of your leg. So now as you exhale, that twist changes your state. One more breath in. And breath out. Reintroduce your left seat to the mat, and pull both knees into your chest. Stir your knees one direction, and then stir them the other direction. Find just a little bit of momentum that you need to work your way up to a seat. And return to a space that you would deem as comfortable. Perhaps that'll be different now than it was before. Now roll out your neck for a moment in one direction, and the other. And then return to a state as we test our experiment again and see what profound thought it provides us today. Locate your breath. For one minute, you will count how many inhales and exhales. Together we breathe in to prepare. And breathe out, begin counting right here. We learn, we accomplish, we are filled. Confidence is galvanized into our existence through quantitative activity. I got seven things on my to-do list today, and I accomplished all seven of them. Gold star. Right now, you're having to multitask, you're having to listen to this guy while you're attempting to count your breath cycles. You are good at knocking things off the to-do list. Keep going. All it is, is this non-attached, inhale, exhale. Add another one to your tally. Three, two, one, stop. I'm curious, Sheila, how many? Four. Four breaths. I didn't pay her any money to go ahead and have that happen, but I would've bet a nickel that breath was going to get fuller and deeper and more rooted into the space in which you lift, from eight breaths to four, quantitative evidence of the value of what we are doing here. The second minute of your exercise. Now you will focus on the quality of your breath. Place yourself in the state, maybe you close your eyes like you did before. Maybe you have to shift your state and your seat. Wherever you are, focus on the quality of your breath. In three, two, one, quality. I'm very tempted when I do this exercise with people to speak about quality in the quantitative minute. ♪ No, no, no, no ♪ Right, to go ahead and invite people to focus more as I may be distracting with my voice to be like, "Hey, yes, I'm talking to you, but root into the texture, the sound, the vibration of your breath." Nah, those things exist out of the quantitative elements, and they live in this pool of qualitative reality. Maybe today is the day you will only accomplish two out of the seven things on your to-do list. The nature of the human being, especially in the West says, "You should feel unaccomplished." Can you shift your state to seeing that there's another way to look at the value? Perhaps your happiness, your fulfillment isn't going, "I accomplished only two things today, for those two things filled my cup and they changed the world." Three, two, one. How is the quality? Poor, quality, amazing. Amazing. Hmm. I noticed within Sheila's share. I remember before many words, juicy massage. This time, amazing. Here's to the challenge of embracing the quality of your work and becoming the master, the muscular, the refined athlete of quality in your day. Bring one hand to your chest, one hand to your belly, close your eyes. Within this last moment of stillness that we take, see a new beginning for the fresh start, a full tank and a clear lens. I'll bring both hands up to your chest at prayer. And with gratitude for the things that move you, that ground you, that fire you up, that offer you peace. We finish our time today with gratitude and breath in. From the open mouth, exhale. Y'all, thank you for showing up for you today. And in turn, showing up for the passions and the people that you fill your lives with. Sheila, JC here, meditative yoga number two. We'll see you next time, have a good one. Bye.