8. Lunge
3-6 BREATHS EACH SIDE
Step your right foot forward between your hands, keeping the back leg straight and extending out through your back heel. Make sure the bent knee is not coming forward of your toes. The front knee should be bent at a 90-degree angle with the shin perpendicular and the thigh parallel to the floor. Come up onto your fingertips and roll the shoulders down your back while opening the heart as you gaze forward.
Without straining or becoming rigid, can you keep making the effort to lengthen out through the back heel while keeping the chest lifted? Let the breath move freely through the body.
Step the right leg back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG and repeat with the left leg.
Modification:
With tight hips, you may find it difficult to extend your back leg while keeping your front leg bent 90 degrees at the knee. You can place your hands on blocks and even unbend your front knee until you feel more openness in the hips. Ground the front thigh toward the floor while lifting your back leg up toward the ceiling.
9. Hanging Forward Bend
6-12 BREATHS
From the LUNGE, step forward into the HANGING FORWARD BEND. Have your feet about fist-width apart (hip width) and lift your sitting bones up as you drape your torso over your legs. If there is tension felt in the lower back, soften and bend the knees. Cross your arms, interlocking them at the elbows, and just hang.
In this, our second forward bend, it may be easier to see the way the breath moves the body. As you inhale, can you feel the torso rise up a bit? And as you exhale, notice how you release back into the forward bend. It is as if your body was bobbing on the surface of a gentle wave. Again, don’t exaggerate this movement, but also do not inhibit it. Just let it be and experience it. You may or may not go deeper as you continue to hang here. Don’t force it. Hold on to nothing and accept everything. Simply see.
Modification:
Those with tight hamstrings will find that they will round in the lower back, eventually causing tension there. Bend your knees to release the back tension and let your torso be supported by your thighs. This action stabilizes the lower back and sacrum and allows you to bend from your hip joint rather than from the back. Keep the sitting bones lifting, while simultaneously pressing down through your feet.
10. Spinal Roll
20-40 SECONDS
Release your arms and let them dangle freely. Don’t hold them in any particular place. With your knees softly bent, draw your navel back toward your spine and roll up one vertebra at a time. See how little or how much of your spine you can actually experience as you do this. Let the breath be natural.
Keep your eyes open, and if you see your arms coming in to your legs, or reaching out away from you, see if you can consciously let go and surrender them to gravity. We hold so much tension in our shoulders, neck, and arms, so see if you can see the tension as it arises and keep letting it go. Do not lift your shoulders as you roll up. Simply let them roll back into place. Remember that there are seven vertebrae in your neck, so see if you can get a sense of lifting and stacking them right up to the base of your skull.
Modification:
If there is pain in the lower back, even with bent knees, then use your hands on your thighs for added support.
11. Mountain/Balanced Standing
2-5 MINUTES
Stand with your feet hip-width apart and parallel along the midline of the foot (roughly straight back from the second toe). Your big toes will be slightly closer to each other than your heels when lined up along the midline of the foot. Feel the weight of you body descend down through you legs and into the earth just in front of your heels. Let your spine rise up out of the basin of your pelvis, upper chest lifted, and shoulders relaxed and slightly back.
See if you can feel the natural curves of your spine. The neck slightly curves in, while the upper back has a slight roundness and the lower back again curves in gently. Avoid collapsing into the lower back. Keep the front ribs soft. With your eyes closed, as we did in Sequence One, try keeping the body straight and lean forward as far as you can without falling on your face. Notice all the sensations in your body that arise as you tense your muscles in order to keep from falling. What is the quality of your breath and your mind as you teeter here?
Lean forward and back lessening the arc of movement until you can feel the breath grow a bit deeper and more spacious. Notice how you can release all the major muscles in the back and shoulders and be buoyantly straight. Again, let the breath guide you and the feeling tone of the body be your teacher. Once balanced and centered, stand awhile and notice how the feelings change. Notice how the mental formations change. Notice the process of change itself.
12. Triangle Pose
5-15 BREATHS, EACH SIDE
Reach out to the sides with your arms parallel to the floor and then step your feet out so that they are directly under your fingertips. Turn your left foot in slightly and your right foot out completely (90 degrees from facing front). Pressing down strongly into both legs, extend upward from the base of your spine.
Fold over your front leg while continuously pressing your weight more into the back leg. Your bottom arm is pressing into the floor (or into a block or your shin) while you elongate your spine and open your chest, reaching your top arm toward the ceiling.
Breathing here, keep your awareness spaciously moving through the body, remaining aware of all sensations and thoughts that arise and continuing to let them go. As you stay in the posture, different sensations and different areas of the body will come into your awareness. See if you can drop out of your reactivity and simply observe the moment-to-moment changes of the phenomena themselves. See, if you can, their very nature of and as impermanence.
When you are ready to come out of the posture, press even more into the back leg and lift up through the top arm.
Repeat on the other side. Stay alert to the changing sensations as you move from one side into the other and note any “comparing mind” that may arise. Can you see the difference without having to categorize and make one side “good” and the other “bad”?
Keep coming back to your breath as your anchor in the present moment.
13. Extended Side Angle Stretch
5-15 BREATHS, EACH SIDE
Beginning as you did in TRIANGLE, reach out to the sides with your arms parallel to the floor and then step your feet out so that they are directly under your fingertips. Turn your left foot in slightly and your right foot out completely (90 degrees from facing front). Pressing down strongly into both legs, extend upward from the base of your spine.
Now, bend your front knee to a right angle so that the knee rests directly above your ankle. Your shin should be perpendicular to the ground and your thigh is moving toward parallel. Next, reach your left arm alongside your left ear, extending fully into the stretch.
As you stay in the posture, keep rolling your knees away from each other in an external rotation. Press your hand into the ground beside your right foot and spiral your torso as if you were going to turn your chest toward the sky. Continue to stay with your moment-to-moment experience. Can you see how it changes? Notice any mental commentary and see if you can drop “below” it and rest in the spaciousness of bare attention.
When you come out from this posture, again press down into the back leg and foot, reach up and back with the top arm, and straighten the front leg.
Repeat on the other side.
Modification:
With tight hips, taking your hand to the floor can create energy congestion and muscular tension. To free your hips and allow integration between your legs and spine, place your elbow on your thigh just above the knee or press your hand into a block.
Sun Salutations
14. Sun Salutation A
1 -4 REPITITIONS
• MOUNTAIN
• Inhale, lifting the arms overhead
• Exhale, SWAN DIVE into STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into EXTENDED STANDI
NG FORWARD BEND.
• Exhale, stepping the right leg back into LUNGE.
• Inhale and lift the heart, rolling your shoulders away from your ears and reaching out through the back foot.
• Exhale and step the left foot back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG.
• Inhale into PLANK.
• Exhale into EIGHT-POINT POSTURE.
• Inhale into COBRA.
• Exhale back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG. Breathe here for 3-5 breaths.
• At the end of the last exhalation in DOWNWARD-FACING DOG, step your right foot forward into LUNGE.
• Inhale, lifting the heart and reaching out through the left foot.
• Exhale and bring your left foot forward into STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into EXTENDED STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Exhale and deepen STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into reverse SWAN DIVE, arms reaching up to the ceiling.
• Exhale and lower your arms to your sides, standing in MOUNTAIN.
Now repeat the salutation, stepping the left foot back into Lunge and stepping the left foot forward from DOWNWARD-FACING DOG back into LUNGE.
15. Sun Salutation B
1-4 REPETITIONS
• MOUNTAIN
• Inhale into FIERCE POSTURE.
• Exhale into STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into EXTENDED STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Exhale and step your right leg back into LUNGE.
• Inhale, lifting the heart and reaching out through your right heel.
• Exhale and step your left foot back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG.
• Inhale and bring your right foot forward as your pivot your left foot so that you can come up into WARRIOR ONE. Breathe here for 5 breaths.
• On your last exhalation, step back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG.
• Inhale and bring your left foot forward as you pivot your right foot so that you can come up into WARRIOR ONE. Breathe here for 5 breaths.
• On your last exhalation, step back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG.
• Inhale into PLANK.
• Exhale into EIGHT-POINT POSTURE.
• Inhale, sliding into COBRA.
• Exhale into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG. Breathe here in this fourth and final DOG of the sequence for 5 breaths.
• On the last exhalation, step your right foot forward into LUNGE.
• Inhale, lifting the heart and reaching out through the left heel.
• Exhale and step your left foot forward into STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into EXTENDED STANDING FORWARD BEND
• Exhale and deepen FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into FIERCE POSTURE.
• Exhale, straightening your legs as your arms come to your sides, ending in MOUNTAIN.
Repeat the entire salutation leading throughout with the left foot.
16. Warrior Vinyasa
• MOUNTAIN.
• Inhale into FIERCE POSTURE.
• Exhale into STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into EXTENDED STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Exhale and step your right foot back into LUNGE.
• Inhale, lifting the heart and reaching out through the right heel.
• Exhale and step your left foot back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG.
• Inhale, bring your right foot forward, and come up into WARRIOR ONE. Breathe here for 10-15 breaths. Stay aware of all that is happening in your body and mind. See if it is possible to release any resistance to being here.
• On your tenth inhalation, straighten your right leg and pivot your feet, turning your pelvis and torso 180 degrees to the left so that you are facing out over your straight left leg.
• Exhale, bending your left knee into WARRIOR ONE. Breathe here for 10-15 breaths. Especially note if the mind jumps to comparing the left side with the right. See if you can just see and experience without having to compare. See that the very act of comparing separates you from the present lived experience. See if it’s possible to let go of the running commentary in your head.
• On your tenth exhalation, open your right hip out as you lower your arms parallel to the ground, coming into WARRIOR TWO. Breathe here for 10-20 breaths.
As the sensations in your shoulders (and anywhere else you may feel them) arise, notice how your mind separates from the sensations. From this mental act of pulling away, a whole string of action arises. The mind makes the sensations into a “thing,” an “entity” that is seen as threatening. This very separation is what creates dukkha. The pain and discomfort may continue, but if you can drop your resistance and the stories created by the mind, much misery and anguish can be ended. You can cultivate this by really entering into the sensations and seeing how they are conditioned, empty of a separate “self.” Through awareness of the constantly changing nature of the sensations, they no longer are perceived as a “thing” to resist. You no longer see yourself as a “self” that must resist. All is seen to be just as it is.
• On your final inhalation, keeping your arms parallel to the ground, straighten your left leg and pivot your feet to the right.
• Exhale into WARRIOR TWO on this side. Breathing here for another 10-20 breaths, continue your meditation on impermanence. See if by staying present and using your breath, not as a distraction from the discomfort, but as the vehicle to enter into and stay present with it, you can keep from separating from mere experiencing. Remember that if you are caught in a story, resistance, or judgment, by definition you are removing yourself from the experience. When we are one with our experience, there is no space for judgment or comparisons to arise.
• On your last exhalation, step back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG. Notice what happens to the sensations and the quality of mind as you make this transition. Learn from this lesson in impermanence. See how the mind may want to attach to the pleasure of relief from the sensations. See if you can enjoy without getting caught in attachment.
• Inhale into PLANK.
• Exhale into EIGHT-POINT POSTURE.
• Inhale into COBRA.
• Exhale into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG. Breathe here for 5 breaths.
• On your last exhalation, step your right foot forward into LUNGE.
• Inhale, lifting your heart and reaching out through your left heel.
• Exhale into STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into EXTENDED STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Exhale and deepen STANDING FORWARD BEND.
• Inhale into FIERCE POSTURE.
• Exhale into MOUNTAIN. Standing here for 10-20 breaths, stay aware of your whole body, as well as the quality of mind. Where now are all the sensations you may have been finding yourself “struggling” against?
17. Tree Posture
10-30 BREATHS EACH LEG
From MOUNTAIN, place the sole of your left foot into your right inner thigh. Press your foot into the thigh as the thigh presses back into your foot. Place your palms together at your heart in namaste (Anjali Mudra).
If your balance feels challenged here, just stay here and keep grounding down through your feet and keep the heart lifted and open. But if you feel confident in your balancing, reach your arms up over your head. Avoid sinking into your lower back by keeping the kidneys “inflated” and the front ribs “soft” and not jutting out.
As you stand here, keep the focus on your breath. Notice if there is any tendency to hold the breath as if that could help in keeping balance. Remember, stability and ease is what defines asana, but this refers to maintaining stability and ease in the mind even if the body feels less than stable! Notice what movements the breath initiates as you stand like a tree. Maintain your awareness of all the feelings that may arise. Can you see that all the constant adjustments your standing foot is making are the dynamic process of balance, and that balance is not other than this?
Mindfulness Yoga Page 26