Cours de BIFF MITHOEFER

My name is Biff MIT Hofer, and you’re listening to the yin yoga cd, which is included in the yin yoga kit. This CD consists of 13 tracks. On this first track, I’ll briefly outline what I think you need to understand to get started in your yin practice. The book, which is also part of this kit, goes into much more detail about the theory and practice of yen yoga. Yin and yang are Doos terms of relationship. Everything in the cosmos contains both yen and yang. Yin and yang create control and are constantly transforming into each other. Our emotional, energetic and physical selves hold both in and young emotionally. Our more young parts are those more aggressive parts of ourselves, those parts which strive for change, which feel the need to make things different. This is our more masculine nature. Our more yk parts are the parts of ourselves which are more accepting, more compassionate, which know that things really are all right just the way they are.

This is our more feminine nature. Both of these aspects of ourselves are necessary for its balance that brings us physical and emotional health. From a physical point of view, the more young parts of ourselves are those parts which are more fluid, closer to the surface, warmer, which most need movement and change. In other words, are muscles and skin are more Y parts. On the other hand are the parts which are closer to the core, which are less fluid, cooler, and which change more slowly. In other words, are bones and connective tissue, particularly in the area nearest our core, the hips, sacrum, and lumbar spine.

It’s this more yin area on which yin yoga is focused. Because this focus is on more yin tissue, we need to practice in a yen way, in a slower, more gentle, compassionate, accepting way. Yin yoga not only helps us bring physical health to our bodies, but because it’s a meditation, a mindfulness practice, it can bring us emotional and spiritual peace as well. There are two guidelines I use in yin practice. First, assume the yin posture you’ve chosen or which has been suggested to you by your teacher, and go deeply enough into that posture to reach your comfortable edge. This should be a place where you can feel some intensity, but where you can still relax and breathe evenly and deeply.

Secondly, just stay in the pose in the practice I offer on this cd, we’ll hold the poses for about five minutes, followed by a rest period while in the poses. It’s important to be in them in a yin way without striving to get deeper but accepting with compassion where you are right now. If you do sink deeper into the posture, that’s fine, but please don’t pull or push or strive to get deeper now. Just breathe and try to let your muscles relax. If you ever feel you are too deep in the posture and that the sensation you’re feeling may not be good for you, please modify or come out of the pose. Listen to your body. Only you can ultimately know what’s good for you.

Most people feel more open or flexible on one side than the other. In any posture which has two sides, like half butterfly, shoestring, square pose, swan or spinal twist, I suggest that you start with your more open side. This will show the more difficult or restricted side, just what’s possible for simplicity on this cd. I’ve sometimes started on one side or the other, but feel free to start on whichever side you choose. If you want to use cushions, bolsters, or blankets for support in your practice, that’s fine. I’ve addressed the use of props in the book and I’ll talk about it more during specific postures. Later in the CD I’ll mention which meridians and chakras are most influenced for many people, but I won’t go into much detail as it’s more thoroughly covered in the book. Remember, we’re all different and you may feel influenced by the posture in a very different way than I suggest.

Tracks two through 11 of this CD will guide you through a one hour practice. This sequence is listed in the CD section of your book. You may find it useful to pick out and arrange the cards for this practice before you begin, so you can refer to the pictures as we go along. If you have a programmable CD player, you can rearrange the order of the tracks or skip any as you see fit because of time constraints I haven’t included on this cd, all the postures which are in the card set, but the concepts I’ll discuss apply to them all. My hope is that after you use the CD a few times, you’ll develop your own practice and use the cards as a guide.

Track 12 is a short closing meditation track 13 is designed as a timer which you can use for your own practice if you have a repeat function on your CD player. Its use is explained in the CD section of your book. During each track I’ll talk about a specific posture. I’ll also speak about mantras and encourage you to be mindful and breathe, but I’ll also leave some time for silence so you can be in the quiet of your own practice. We’ll now go into half butterfly pose. Begin by sitting with both legs extended in front of you.

Bend one leg and bring the soul of that foot against the inner thigh of your straight leg somewhere above your knee. Now, let your bent knee fall open to the side. If the knee of your bent leg doesn’t rest comfortably on the floor, feel free to use a cushion or folded blanket under it for support. For many people, it’s beneficial to sit on a cushion in order to maintain a healthy forward tilt of the pelvis. This will also allow gravity to assist you in the posture. Now while keeping your back nice and straight, inhale and lengthen from the base of your spine all the way up to the top of your head and on your exhale, lean forward as far as you comfortably can.

When you feel you’ve gone, as far forward as you’re going to go, let your back relax and round. I recommend beginning all forward bends with a straight back in order to create length in the spine and to use the powerful back muscles to help pull the pelvis forward. Perhaps you feel that you’d like to be deeper in this forward bend, but you feel restricted because the muscles at the back of your thighs, your hamstring muscles are tight and are keeping you from going forward. If that’s the case, it’s perfectly okay to bend your extended knee. This will release your hamstrings and allow you to go deeper. Bending your knees in any forward bend will do the same thing. If you suffer from sciatica, by all means, bend your knee and be gentle with yourself.

In yoga as in the rest of our lives, it’s a good idea to decide why we’re doing whatever it is we’re doing. If you do have butterfly to get a nice stretch for the tissue of your lower back as I usually do, then releasing your hamstrings may allow you to go more deeply. If however you’re trying to stretch your hamstrings, then you’ll do it more effectively with your knees straight. There is no right way or wrong way. It’s just a matter of where you choose to focus. A hamstring stretch is a more young focus as a hamstrings are muscles, whereas when you target the deeper tissue of the lower back, it becomes more of a yin practice. If you do choose to bend your extended leg, you may want to put a rolled up towel or mat under your knee to relieve any strain or tension there. Some people find that their neck gets tired in some forward bends and enjoy using a stack of cushions to rest their head on. All these suggestions also apply when you do the forward bend. Now, just breathe and relax. Don’t strive to go any deeper. There’s no need to try to change your breathing. Just notice how you’re breathing. Just bring your awareness to your breath.

Now just come to your back. We’ll relax here for a minute. I invite you to check in with your body. Do you feel any energy moving? Do you feel any tingling streaming or pulsing sensations? Try to bring your attention to anything that’s happening for you. Now, grab your knees to your chest. Give yourself a big hug and roll up to a seated position for the next posture.

Now we’ll do half butterfly on the other side. In your own practice, don’t feel you necessarily have to rest on your back or belly between two sides of the same pose. Now, arrange yourself as you did on the other side and once again with a straight back on your inhale, lengthen all the way up your spine and on your exhale, come forward as far as you comfortably can. Now that your back relax and round, don’t forget to use a cushion under your sits bones. If it helps you to get your lower back tilted forward, you may feel very different from one side to another. In my own practice, I often use a cushion under my right knee when it’s the one that’s bent, but I never use one under my left knee. Not only are we all different, but we’re different from side to side and even from day to day or hour to hour, you have a choice of where to lean. In half butterfly, you can lean toward your extended lay, but you can also lean toward your bent leg or any place in between. You’ll find you get a different stretch depending on where you choose to lean. If you lean toward your straight leg, you’ll probably feel the pose as more of a side stretch than if you lean toward a spot between your knees. Experiment to see which works best for you. Right now, you may find you like to switch around while you’re in the pose.

As you’re in the pose, try to let go. Let go of any ideas about how you should look. Let go of how deep you feel you should be. You’ll go as deeply as you need to simply by letting go and accepting. Many people feel the effects of half butterfly on the urinary bladder meridian as it’s stretched along the back of the straight leg. You may also feel its effect on the liver and kidney meridians on the inner thigh of the bent leg and the gallbladder meridian on the outer thigh of the bent leg. Half butterfly most often affects the first and second chakras at the base of the spine and the sacral area. This posture helps us to root ourselves to the earth and at the same time open to our own right to feel pleasure or pain.

Half butterflies a wonderful stretch for the deep connective tissue of the lower back as well as the tissue around the hips. I find it very helpful in the postures to use a mantra. A mantra is a word or phrase you can say to yourself or out loud, which helps you to focus your attention. It’s a sort of reminder. I often use a very simple mantra in the tradition of the wonderful teacher to Han while inhaling. I say Breathing in. I know I’m breathing in and on the exhale I say, breathing out, I know I’m breathing out. I think you’ll find that if you say these simple lines to yourself, your breath will lengthen and deepen and you’ll feel calmer with no effort on your part. Breathing in, I know I’m breathing in, breathing out, I know I’m breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out. Now stretch out on your back and just notice any physical feelings or emotions which may be arising for you at this moment. Now grab your knees to your chest and gently roll up to a seated position ready for the next posture.

Now I invite you to come to your stomach for seal pose lying on your belly. Place your hands just above the level of the top of your head with your fingers spread and turned out about 30 degrees like the flippers of a seal, your thumbs will be pointed almost straight ahead. Now push yourself up raising your torso off the ground by straightening your arms. If you feel that this is too much for you to hold right now, you can bend your elbows and rest your forearms on the floor or if that feels a little too low to be effective, you can rest them on a cushion or bolster. I found that for most people myself included, staying in seal with the forearms on the floor or on a bolster for five minutes works well. However, if you do choose to keep your arms extended, notice how moving your hands closer to your body raises your torso and intensifies the back bend and moving your hands away from your body lowers your torso and eases the intensity of the backend. When you feel comfortably situated, feeling some intensity in the lower back but without pain or any feeling that this might not be good for you, start to relax.

Relax your feet and legs. Now bring your attention to your low back and pelvis. Notice if you’re holding any tension in your buttocks or lower back. Take a big breath and let go. Let your whole spine begin to relax. Feel it draping from your neck all the way down to your tailbone as your belly releases and your naval drops toward the mat. At the same time, try not to sink into your shoulders but keep your chest open to give yourself plenty of room to breathe. Let your head rest wherever it needs to so you don’t feel any stress on your neck.

Seal helps us maintain or even reestablish the curve of our lumbar spine. In many cases, it can also help relieve lower back pain. Now on an inhale, lengthen from your pubic bone all the way up the front of your body to your sternum. As you exhale, feel your breath slide down your back as your belly. Let’s go and drops toward the floor. Inhale, lengthening all the way up the front of your body and on your exhale, feel your breath. Slide down your back as your belly releases and let’s go. Let go of any tension you may be holding in your pelvis, your buttocks or your thighs seal can affect the urinary bladder meridian from compression at the back of the legs and the kidney meridian as it passes close to the coys and sacrum and by stretching them seal can also affect the spleen and stomach. Meridians were run up and down the front of the legs. Seal tends to affect the first and third chakras. Now bring your attention to any part of your body where you may be holding. Many people find it challenging to relax their lower back and seal, so I often use this mantra. Breathing in, I feel some holding in my lower back. Breathing out, I release the holding in my lower back. Breathing in, feel some holding, breathing out. Release

Now rest on your belly. Bring your awareness to any sensations, either pleasant or unpleasant, and just observe them with no effort to change anything you’re feeling. Now gently bring yourself back to a seated position ready for the next posture.

Now let’s go into frog pose. First, bring yourself to all fours. Spread your knees as far apart as is comfortable at this point. For some people it’s quite easy to simply come forward letting their chest sink to the floor so the knees are parallel or behind their hips and their feet are wide apart. These are people who can easily abduct and internally rotate at the hips. In other words, their legs easily rotate in while they’re spread apart. For the rest of us whose hips don’t move that way, our knees may be above our hips, in other words, more towards our shoulders as our buttocks sink back toward our ankles, and if you’re like me, your belly probably won’t be on the floor.

You can see these differences plainly in the pictures on the cards. Cheryl is the one who looks like a frog who’s lying in the sun completely relaxed, and I’m the one who looks like a frog about to enter a jumping contest. Neither of these ways is more right than the other. They’re just different. You can stretch your arms out or you can leave them at your sides. Try it each way and feel the difference. If you find this is a bit too intense on your knees, quads, or groins, it’s fine to use a cushion under your chest to help bring you to a position where you feel the stretch, but your breathing is full and easy. It’s good to put yourself deeply enough into any pose so you have to focus and consciously relax, but it does absolutely no good and in fact can be counterproductive to try too hard.

For many people, frog is a very relaxing posture and a great counter pose to seal or saddle. As you’re in this pose, just feel what’s happening in your body without judgment or the need to be different than you are. For many people, frog affects the kidney, liver and spleen meridians because they’re stretched as they ascend the inner thigh. Some people also feel a stretch in the urinary bladder meridian as it descends the back of the legs. Frog can affect all the first three chakras from the base of the spine to the solar plexus. Now just feel the quiet where your own practice really begins. If you feel your attention wandering, just bring it back in a compassionate accepting yen way, body, mind and breath. When one becomes calm, the other two will follow. Now stretch out on your stomach and bring your awareness to all your feeling.

Now bring yourself back to a seated position ready for the next posture. Now, let’s go into shoelace pose. For me, the easiest way to get into shoelace is to start on all fours. Slide one knee behind the other. Your feet should be spread apart and your right foot will now be on your left and your left foot on your right. Now, sit back so you’re sitting between your ankles, your knees will be stacked. One on top of the other many of us will find that one sits bone. In other words, one side of our buttocks is on the ground and the other sort of hanging in space. For those of us who find this happening, it’s a good idea to use a cushion to help level us. A cushion is also important in maintaining a nice forward pelvic tilt. Now taking a big inhale, lengthen your spine and on the exhale, lean forward as far as you comfortably can.

Now let your back relax and round. For some, this will be nearly vertical. For others, their chest will be down to their knees. How far down you get makes absolutely no difference. In fact, those who are very flexible and have their chest comfortably on their knees may actually get less physical benefit from this pose than those who are less deeply in it. Shoelace is a great hip opener and can be a nice stretch for the lower back. As in any forward bend, be sure to maintain some forward pelvic tilt. In other words, be sure that you’re sacrum. That triangular bone at the base of your spine is tilted forward or at least in a neutral position. If you’re far enough forward to rest on your knees, be sure not to put too much pressure on them. Some people like to stack cushions or bolsters just in front of their knees to rest their head or arms on. If your lower knee feels stressed, it’s perfectly fine to do this posture with your lower leg straightened. Now, bring your attention to your breath or to those places where you feel intensity and just stay quietly in the pose. It only takes one mindful breath to bring us back to our bodies and when we’re truly present in our bodies, we return to the present moment.

Now come on to your back. Relax and just notice anything that may be happening in your physical, emotional, or energetic body.

Now grab your knees to your chest and gently roll up to a seated position in preparation for the next posture. Now let’s go into shoelace on the other side. Again, starting on all fours, bring the knee which was on top last time behind the other knee, and with your feet spread apart, sit back between your heels. Don’t forget to put a cushion under yourself if you’re feeling lopsided or one sits bone is off the floor. Now, inhale and length in your spine and on the exhale, come forward to your comfortable edge As you feel yourself as far forward as you’re going right now, let go and let your back round and relax.

If after you try shoelace you feel it’s really not a pose for you, try doing square pose in its place. You may find that it has much the same effect with less strain on your hips or knees. I present shoelace here because I know that it’s a beneficial posture for many people and because it works for my body, but please keep in mind that just because I happen to be the teacher at this moment, it’s still your body and if you listen to it, you will tell you what it most needs. Now breathe, let go and just enjoy being right where you are. In many people’s practice because of the twisting or external rotation of the legs, shoelace affects the liver and kidney meridians in the inner thigh as well as the gallbladder meridians on the outer thigh. It also brings attention and increased energy flow to the first two chakras. Our bodies and breath meet at the present moment. While our minds can live wandering in the past or the future, our bodies and breath live only in the present. When we bring our attention fully to our bodies or breath, we’re brought without effort back into the present eternal moment.

Everyone’s attention sometimes wanders, and when yours does, return with it to your breath. Now just roll onto your back, noticing anything you may be feeling.

Now bring your knees to your chest and gently roll up into a seated position ready for the next posture. Now let’s go into saddle pose. This can be an intense pose, but for many people it may be the most beneficial of all the postures. Be gentle with yourself. Don’t go any deeper into saddle pose than you comfortably can start in a kneeling position. Now, sit back so your butt is between your heels. You can sit directly on your heels, although for most people it’s more difficult. From here, begin to lean back. You can rest on your extended arms or if that feels okay, you can go back onto your forearms. Some people can go all the way back so their shoulders and head are resting on the floor, but most of us need some support, at least at first. I find that for people who aren’t comfortable going all the way to the floor, it’s often easier to use cushions or bolsters to support themselves rather than using their arms.

Don’t hesitate to use as much support as you feel you need. You can pile cushions up as high as you like. When I started holding this pose for five minutes, I used to lean back against a sofa or armchair. After a few months, I found I was comfortable going all the way to the floor, although I still use cushions when I practice in the early morning before I’m warmed up. If you use some kind of support, try to keep it under your shoulders rather than your lower back. Supporting your lower back in this posture is a wonderful restorative pose, but it doesn’t bring the same intense stretch to the deep tissue of the lower back. If you feel this posture too intensely in your ankles, try using a rolled up towel or mat between the top of your ankle and the floor. You can also use a rolled up towel directly behind your knee to help relieve stress there.

If you happen to have one of those noodles people use to float around on in their pools, it can work great in place of a towel or blanket. Be patient with yourself. It takes time to find a comfortable position and for the big quad muscles to learn to relax and let go. The greatest benefit from saddle is to the lower back and sac area. As we age and due to the amount of sitting we do and the way we sit, as well as the way we stand, we tend to lose our natural lumbar curve, that beautiful curve at the lower back, which is so obvious in young children. As this happens, our sacrum, that triangular bone at the base of the spine tends to sink down away from its home in the ileum. This is the cause of much of our lower back discomfort. I’m sure we’ve all noticed how two-year-olds walk with a very pronounced lumbar curve with their chest open, leading with their hearts ready to embrace life. Postures like saddle, which help us maintain a healthy lumbar curve can help us stay young and open to all life’s possibilities.

Remember, if at any time this pose feels dangerous or potentially injurious, please come out of it. Only you can decide what level of intensity is good for your body. Now inhale and feel a lengthening in the front of your body from pubic bone to sternum. Breathing up along the front of your body, envisioning your body as a rainbow, a beautiful arc for your breath to travel on. On the exhale, let your shoulders and pelvis relax into the mat. Inhale, feel your breath. Travel up your body along the rainbow of your spine. Exhale and let your shoulders and buttocks melt toward the earth. Saddle can stretch and stimulate the stomach and spleen meridians and compress and stimulate the urinary bladder meridians. Saddle also stimulates the kidney meridian as it passes close to the coxy or tailbone. All three of the first chakras are stimulated in saddle pose. As you come out of this pose, be gentle. Your abdominal muscles have been relaxed, so use your arms to push you upright or gently roll to one side, releasing one leg at a time so as not to strain your back. Now, grab your knees to your chest. Gently roll up to a seated position in preparation for the next pose.

Now let’s go into reclined spinal twist. An easy way to get in the spinal twist is to start lying on your back and hugging both knees to your chest. From here while keeping your right knee held near your chest, extend your left leg out along the ground with your right knee bent and your left leg straight. Let your right knee fall over to your left because muscles relax more easily when they feel supported. It’s a good idea to try to keep your right shoulder on the floor if it wants to lift off the floor when your right knee sinks. As happens with most people, you can put cushions under your right knee or you can bend your left leg and just stack your right leg on top of it.

Some people find it helpful to put a thin cushion under their right shoulder. There are many variations of reclined spinal twist, so if there’s one that you particularly like and which gives you a nice stretch and lets you feel supported by all means, use it in this spinal twist. There’s no right way to hold your arms or to face your head. If you face your head toward the bat knee, you’ll feel the stretch in a different way than if you face your head the other way. If you have your right arm perpendicular to your torso, it will give you a different stretch than if you have it parallel, either pointed up or down. None of these variations is necessarily better than another. They just have a different effect. Experiment. See what feels the most interesting or pleasant or beneficial for you.

Now let go release any holding. Let your muscles relax and bring your attention to your breath. This is a good pose to use, a mantra to help keep focused. I often use this one Breathing in. I know this is the perfect moment. Breathing out, I know it’s the only moment. Breathing in perfect moment, breathing out, only moment. For me, yin yoga is a practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness means paying attention and accepting. Being aware. It’s not about judgments of what’s good or bad or the way we think things should be. It’s simply about seeing things as they really are.

To be mindful, we must be willing to drop the filters that our minds often put between us and our own experience. We need to let go of the stories we create about ourselves and our lives, the stories which separate us from our true nature and from each other. In the spirit of the mystical poet Hfi, the time for asking who’s right and who’s wrong, who’s drunk, and who’s sober, who’s closer to God and who’s further away. All that’s over now. This caravan is led instead by a great delight. That’s simple joy, which sits with us now. That is the grace Hafi. You may have just poured a toast which will wash, love, clean of all its stories, which will wash, love, clean of all its stories. Mindfulness is the toast we can pour ourselves that will bring us back to our own hearts. Now just roll gently onto your back and relax. Being aware of all your feeling. Now bring your knees to your chest and gently roll up to a seated position in preparation for the next pose.

Now let’s switch sides rolling onto your back. Drop both legs to your chest. Then extend your right leg and let your left bent leg drop over to your right. If this doesn’t feel natural to you, feel free to switch however you like. Some people get a deeper stretch by hooking their left calf or ankle under their bottom extended leg. Spinal twist can stimulate the gallbladder meridian on the bent leg as it runs down the outside of that leg. Spinal twist helps open the first and second chakras. It also is a great opening for the heart chakra. Many people feel strong emotions during spinal twists, particularly at the end of a practice. Spinal twist is really a spiral starting at the legs and going through to the shoulders or head. It often feels to me as if it’s ringing the energy up from the base of my spine to my chest, bringing issues from the lower chakras into the light of my heart.

Spinal twist is a wonderful pose for relaxing the whole body as well as stretching the lower back. It’s the only pose I’ve given which moves the spine in a twisting way, so I think it’s always good to include it in any yin practice. For me, this pose is sometimes a bit challenging because after feeling the physical intensity of many of the other poses in the gentleness of this pose, my mind can more easily wander. If I don’t pay attention, I can all of a sudden find myself thinking about what I’m going to have for breakfast or what I need to do the rest of the day.

But when this happens, I try to just smile and bring my attention back to my body and my breath breathing in. I feel calm, breathing out. I smile, breathing in, calm, breathing out, smile, just relax. Let go and breathe. I had a teacher, sister two, a disciple of Tek Han, and one day she said, now let’s meditate and go deeply within ourselves or just sit and enjoy breathing and all at once. I realized that to learn to just sit and enjoy breathing might be the most wonderful practice I could give myself. Breathing in calm, breathing out, smile. Just let the smile that’s in your heart be present on your lips. Now we’re roll onto your back, bringing your awareness to your body and to your breath. Bring your knees to your chest and gently roll yourself up to a seated position.

Now let’s go into resting pose. Start by lying on your back with your knees bent feet flat on the ground. Your feet should be hip width or a little wider apart that your knees fall gently together. You may have to widen or narrow your feet to find a position where your knees will stay resting comfortably together with no effort that your arms be where they feel most at ease. There are some people whose knees won’t rest together without effort, no matter how they adjust their feet. For these people, I would suggest using a strap to hold their knees together or just extend their legs along the ground in final relaxation pose and join in the visualization of resting pose.

Resting pose is a very good way to bring release and relaxation to the ilio soaz muscle, which is a very important and deep muscle that we often have trouble relaxing. The soaz muscle begins at the lower spine, connecting the lowest thoracic vertebrae and all five of the lumbar vertebrae. It then joins with the iliacs muscle, which comes from the crest of the ilium, that wing shaped bone, which is the upper front edge of the pelvis or hips. The soaz and the iliacs together make up the ilio soaz, which is the only muscle group that joins the spine, the pelvis and the legs.

The Elio SOAs is a hip flexor. It’s one of the muscles which brings the leg forward when we walk, and it’s a stabilizer for the whole pelvic region. It’s also very much involved in our fight or flight response. The Elio SOAs can be engaged when we sense danger or even just become tense or stressed. So let’s take some time to bring our attention to this important muscle and let it know that we’re safe and that it’s time to relax and let go. So take a big inhale and on the exhale, relax your whole body. Bring your attention to your feet, feel and begin to grow heavy.

The bones melting down through the muscles and sinking toward the earth. Feel your knees lightly touching each other and your shin bones resting softly into your ankles. Your thigh bones grow heavy and float downwards to lie gently but deeply in the hip sockets as all the bones of your pelvic area ease toward the earth. Feel your ribs and spine glide down through the muscles of your back to rest comfortably and gently on the ground. Let your arms sink and melt your head resting perfectly in a bowl created by the earth, which supports and holds it like a pair of loving hands.

Now we’re turning your attention to your lower back. Visualize your so as muscle starting at the front of your spine below your ribs, and running over the front of your hips to connect to the bone at the inside of each thigh. Take a deep inhale and on your exhale, let that whole area relax. Now bring your attention to the crest of your ileum, that bony part of the front of your hips, and see in your mind’s eye the iliacs muscle diving down from that crest to join the so as muscle as it passes over the hip on its way to the thigh bone. Visualize letting these muscles release to hang like a hammock down into the bowl of your pelvis. Take a big breath and on your exhale release and relax your whole pelvic floor. Know that you’re safe, that everything is just as it should be. Accept with gratitude the magic of your body, your breath, and this perfect present moment. Now gently and slowly bring yourself to a seated position or this is the last posture of your practice. Feel free to remain on your back. May all be free of fear and harm.

May we all be happy just the way we are. May we be at peace with whatever comes and may we all rest gently in the softness of our own hearts.