Soon you will be home in a new rhythm for your soul senses the world that awaits you John O'Donohue
Hello and welcome to episode 342 of Yoga with Melissa today we are filming in front of the
beautiful Trial Islands thank you so much for joining us over this next hour and welcoming me
into your home as we journey into our innermost homes we are going to start today in reclined
butterfly today's class is all about new beginnings and so the butterfly is representative of new
beginnings so I will get you you are going to need two blocks today so I'll get you to take
those two blocks so thanks to dusky leaf for our props you're going to take your two blocks and use
them on either side of your knees and then you're going to lie back onto your back for reclined butterfly
place the soles of your feet together open your knees
and use the blocks to support your knees where they don't meet the ground
and then lie down on your back and you can rest here well I sit up and introduce the class to you
and just allow that gentle opening through your inner thighs and groin as a way to prepare your
body for today's class thank you to squeeze yoga clothing for my clothes today I'm wearing one of
my all-time favorite squeezed and oldest tops it's purple I don't even know if you can get
this one anymore I probably shouldn't wear it you can't get the design the flying heart
top and you could get it on a even more vibrant purple bamboo long sleeve and I wasn't planning on
wearing it but then we ended up on the ocean to where it's much cooler what I was planning on wearing
is the short sleeve green mandala top so that's that and I'm wearing capri black leggings with
an oom symbol on them okay I have a testimonial from Carolina from Facebook and she said hi Melissa
I'm 52 years old I started to practice yoga with two books written by Indra Devi but that wasn't
quite enough for me because there are some complicated asanas and the most important reason
because I wanted more asanas and some explanation of each one so I started to look for classes on
the internet and I saw some but I didn't like them because many of them only show the yoga
postures without explaining the reason behind each one the models do the yoga postures but
from my point of view there are no connections between the postures it's as if the models say
look at me I can do this and this and this and you can't then I discovered your classes and I fell
in love with them because in each one you explain many things and you do the yoga postures with
intention for example if you talk about compassion you include yoga postures related to compassion
you explain why you include this or that I've learned a lot with your classes even though
sometimes I can't understand everything you say because I don't speak English very well and I have
to say that her English is way better than my Spanish so I always admire people that take the
time to communicate with me in their second language I learn yoga and I also learn English
so thank you very much for all the benefits that have come to me because of your classes
God bless you so thank you so much Carolina and thank you to all of you that take the time to
write to me about your yoga practice and leave your comments on YouTube iTunes Facebook and
Instagram speak pipe on my website and of course as always our most in-depth conversations happen
in our membership community okay let's come together now with our peace mantra to bring
us together as student and teacher
so that mantra means protect us together student and teacher may our studies nourish us together
may we work together for the union of good the good for all may our learning be luminous and
purposeful may we live in harmony peace peace peace beyond all hey our poem today is for a new
beginning and I chose it today because in august we are going to be doing a beginner yoga challenge
we have 31 beginner classes one for each day of the month you can join tim for that tim's
going to be leading it he's tim's committed to doing it so if you want to do 31 beginner classes
with tim then you can join him with him maybe we should do it together tim like i'll do it with you
well tim says i already am but i'm saying like when your parents are here we could
you could show me how to download the video onto the asus and then we could take it to the park and
do it together in the in the early morning you'd have to get up early though okay anyway so our
poem today is for a new beginning by john odonahue a beautiful poet who left this earth way too young
long he died just a few years ago at the age of 50 50 something maybe but anyway in his early 50s
in out of the way places of the heart where your thoughts never think to wander this beginning
has been quietly forming waiting until you were ready to emerge for a long time it has
watched your desire feeling the emptiness grow inside you noticing how you willed yourself on
still unable to leave what you had outgrown i watched you play with the seduction of safety
and the gray promises that sameness whisper whispered heard the waves of turmoil rise and
relent wondered would you always live like this then the delight when your courage kindled
and out you stepped onto new ground your eyes young again with the energy and dream
a path of plentitude opening before you
you though your destination is not yet clear you can trust the promise of this opening
unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning that is at one with your life's desire
awaken your spirit to adventure hold nothing back learn to find ease and risk soon you will
be home in a new rhythm for your soul senses the world that awaits you
so that's by John O'Donohue and it's from a collection called to bless the space between us
okay so gradually draw your navel to your spine lift up to your public floor draw your knees
together and you can put your blocks off to the side roll to your side and you're going to come
up onto your hands and knees and you're going to start in child's pose with your hands down
by your feet and we're going to unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning just the same way
we unfurl our spine we're going to unfurl into those mini sun salutations that we did last week
so you're going to inhale reach up and then we're going to exhale and fold forward
so inhale reach up
and exhale fold forward
inhale reach up unfurling your spine opening up the front of your hips opening up your chest
exhale and fold forward inhale reach up lift and open your chest
exhale and fold forward
inhale lift and open
exhale and fold forward
inhale lift up
exhale and fold forward
inhale lift up
exhale fold forward
one more inhale lift up
then exhale and fold forward
okay so now we're going to do puppy pose to lengthen and open your spine and to open your heart
your heart and french courage to open to new beginnings to open to be courageous for new
beginnings just gonna put this down here okay so you bring your lower legs perpendicular to
the ground 90 degree angle to the ground reach your hands forward open your chest to the ground
lift your sit bones up into the air now if you if this is too challenging for you you can also
place a block underneath your forehead so that lifts the ground a bit that's a good modification
if your shoulders are tight
okay and then we're gonna come back up
so we're gonna walk forward on our knees so uh you're going to i'm probably gonna
double up my mat so you can do this at home too if you're on a hard floor for underneath your knees
and you're gonna stand on your knees and step so all the whale watching boats are going out first
behind me now if you're hearing the boats you're gonna step your left leg forward
sink down through your front left foot and then inhale open up so that you're opening up to new
beginnings
and then you can shift back and we'll do this on the other side so you're going to step
your right leg forward now and sink down through your front right foot open your left hip drop
down through your right sit bone and lift your arms up opening up to new beginnings
and then you can release that on this side and
the the line on the poem from this one is though your destination is not yet clear
you can trust the promise of this opening then we're going to do gate pose so you're going to
turn lengthwise on your mat and i'm actually going to keep this double fold here for underneath my
right knee take your left leg out to the side you want your hips to be level so drop your
sit bone so they're on the same line front to back parallel to the ground and then you're
going to inhale reach your arms straight up and side bend over your left leg so your side bending
your spine and i chose gate pose because i feel like gates are symbolic for walking through that new
beginning
open up your right shoulder
and then come back to center and we'll do gate pose on the other side so you'll place your left knee
i'm going to place it on that nice cushy spot and reach my right leg up this hill drop my hips
so that they're parallel to the ground and also make sure that they're level front to back so
tendency my tendency is to pull my right hip back so i'm going to bring it back forward and drop it
and then bring my arms straight up and side bend over my right leg open my left shoulder
now just so you guys know if you think i look perched on this rock you should see tim and if
he takes one tiny step back he's going to fall into the ocean and i've watched him so many times
just almost lose his balance so please be careful honey
okay and then come back up i'm gonna come to a comfortable seated position now
you might want to sit elevated on a meditation cushion or a chair so that your hips can drop
open you want your knees to be able to rest on the ground so your knees are lower than your hips
okay we're going to do a little bit of eye yoga now to
um because there's that line in the poem your eyes young again with new energy so just to have
that clear vision for the for your new beginning to give you that clear energy so you're going to
rub your hands together and if you have glasses on take your glasses off
and then you're going to take your palms and place them over your eyes and just allow that
cooling energy to create some rest for your eyes so our eyes take a lot of strain from screen time
and so we're just giving them that cooling energy from your palms letting that energy sink into your
eyes let's do that again
yeah you're creating it so tim's saying it's warm but the thing is the darkness is cooling
and it's a grounding energy versus the energy that comes from screens which is
you can see if you drive by people's homes at night you see that blue energy it's buzzing and
you can see that the waves are very fast so this waves the energy from your own physical body are
slower and very calming so that's why i'm calling it cooling energy is much more grounding energy
let's do that one more time it's hard for my eyes to adjust to the sun after this
so see that's so see the difference it's like lunar grounding energy versus the solar energy
the energy of the light of the computer screen last time
so you just allow your eyes to be bathed in darkness here and then you can open them again
and we're going to do a kapalabhati breath kapalabhati breath is skull shining breath
it's a very cleansing breath it's actually a kriya it's designed to clear away any like of the cobwebs
it's a very energizing breath and so i chose it to clear away the past to make space for the
future so you can place your hands on your belly and the way i teach it is you inhale you exhale
with a ha to let your belly come in and it's an active exhale and passive inhale so all you're
going to do is instead of exhaling through your mouth with the ha drawing your belly back you're
going to start to do it through your nose ha switch to your nose
so you create a vacuum and then the once you've pushed all the air out the breath comes in through
your nose and it helps to have your hands on your belly so you can feel your belly come in
then relax your belly and the vacuum and then the breath comes in through your nose so we'll do
a few of those just to clear the path for the new beginning
so
so
big inhale breathe out all the way
breathe in partway and hold
so
then you can breathe out and the need is great
okay our mudra for today is the Ganesh mudra and it's for courage it's also you invoke Ganesh
when you want to remove obstacles and also for new beginnings at the beginning of something so
that's why i chose the Ganesh mudra so you're going to turn your left palm out your right palm in
you hook your fingers and you pull your fingers apart relax your shoulders down your elbows
are parallel to the ground again at the level of your heart see for courage and for new beginnings
for removing obstacles and for courage the Ganesh mudra so you can sit like this close
your eyes allow yourself to be in a receptive state
for a new beginning by John O'Donnell you in out of the way places of the heart
where your thoughts never think to wander this beginning has been quietly forming
waiting until you were quietly ready to emerge
for a long time it has watched your desire feeling the emptiness grow inside you noticing
how you willed yourself on still unable to leave what you had outgrown
it watched you play with the seduction of safety and the gray promises that sameness whispered
heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent wondered would you always live like this
then the delight when your courage kindled and out you stepped onto new ground
your eyes young again with energy and dream a path of plentitude opening before you
though your destination is not yet clear you can trust the promise of this opening
unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning that is at one with your life's desire
here awaken your spirit to adventure hold nothing back learn to find ease and risk
soon you will be home in a new rhythm for your soul senses the world that awaits you
we can always begin again in yoga we pay a lot of attention to our breath
and even our breath is an opportunity each time we breathe we know we have a chance to begin again
and start over each day we wake up to a fresh new start inherent in john o'Donohue's poem
is that each beginning involves a willingness to let go of a part of ourselves that is no
longer needed it takes courage to let go of the known as the saying goes better the devil you know
than the one you don't no matter how painful it can be safer to deal with the familiar
than to risk the unknown territory one of my favorite ways to step into the unknown
to gather courage and to embark on a new beginning is with the hindu god ganesh
and one of the best ways i heard it described is that it can be useful to have a talisman to
help us along the way i love myth and symbolism because it really teaches us what we already
have inside of ourselves and the archetypal stories are a way to help us understand
our own beings better ganesh is known as the remover of obstacles and the lord of new beginnings
as the remover of obstacles ganesh can clear the way for us to move forward ironically ganesh is
also known to place obstacles on our path in order to teach us how to move forward as well so
sometimes things are put on our past to help us grow and learn it said that ganesh has 180 degree
vision both into the past but also into the future so this is said to encourage us to stop
and look at where we have come from but also where we want to go ganesh has small eyes
and big ears encouraging us to turn our attention inwards and listen when we listen deeply to our
heart's longing we will know the way forward to our new beginning this was new to me and i
really love this i think this is my biggest takeaway from my research into this week's class
ganesh has a huge belly which we all know about and i thought this was mostly because of his love
of sweets but this is symbolic as well his huge belly is symbolic as well it said that he holds
a huge universe in his belly so that's why it's so big and round not just because he fills it
with so many sweets so from this we can learn that we have the wisdom of the entire universe
within us as well so as we are making choices about what step to take what our first step
should be with our new beginning we can have the confidence that everything we need to know is
already within us finally ganesh is known to give courage takes courage to step into the unknown
and begin again and just as you're holding the ganesh mudra for courage finding that strength
there you know you can have the courage to move forward in your new beginning
so reflect on these teachings and how they relate to you in your life right now
what it is that you are trying to create sustain let go of a rebirth in your life and how can this
yoga class and these teachings support you right now begin to form your intention for what you
would like to receive from the rest of your yoga practice today
and when you feel ready you can release this mudra from your body and we will make our way
up to standing now I think I'm going to come up through adho mooswanasana downward facing dog
okay from standing you're going to take your feet underneath your hip bones
and your lengthen your legs down and then we're going to do some palm tree swaying
so inhale take your arms overhead interleash your fingers and exhale side bend inhale center
so you can feel the rhythm of your new beginning
so
so
I think something bit me
okay and then you can release that from your body and we're going to do some warrior one
to step into the courage for your new beginning step up towards the top of your mat take a big
step back with your right foot and then you can sink down through your front left sit bone and
bring your arms straight up
and then release that from your body and we'll do that on the other side as well
so you can take a step back with your left foot now
and sink down through your front right sit bone
turn your hips to the front edge of your mat and bring your arms straight up
and then release that from your body and we're going to do some downward facing dog to upward
facing dog just to feel that motion of moving into the new rhythm of your new beginning but also to
open into your new beginning so we're going to combine our inversion with our back bend
so you're going to stand at the top of your mat inhale open up
exhale fold forward and step back into downward facing dog
and now you're going to turn your tailbone under and you're going to come into
upward facing dog okay so your legs will stay off the ground with us I'm on a really big incline
here so so you could your modification for this could be cat and cow okay that would be a nice
modification if that's too much weight bearing and it's still too much weight bearing on your
wrist you can come on to your fists okay so there's a good modification for this if that's too much
for your upper body this is very strengthening for your upper body though if you want to build
strength in your upper body so downward facing dog through to upward facing dog and then back
downward facing dog
tailbone swooshes under coming into upward facing dog nice toe stretch too
and then we'll rest in child's pose or you can take
knees to chest pose so whatever works best for you
okay so from here we're going to come back into downward facing dog to do dying warrior pose
this is so to help us let go of the ending let go of what we don't need to move into our new
beginning so come back into downward facing dog or you can come on to this from all fours too
and then you're going to take your left leg up and you're going to bring it through the space
between your right wrist and your right foot and you're going to lie down so your left leg
goes out and then you roll your right hip towards your left leg lower your chest down and you can
look at your right leg or if you don't have any neck problems you can turn your head and look
towards your left arm so whatever works best for you in your body so dying warrior to release
what you no longer need for your new beginning
and then we're going to come up and we'll do this dying warrior on the other side
to step back into adho muk swanasan and you can take your right leg back and up
and then bring your right leg through so it goes the space between your left
wrist and your left foot take it out to the side and turn your left hip towards it lie your chest
down
so
breathe and let go
so
okay we're going to come out of this pose we're going to come up for our final seated posture
before swasna
so you're going to need your blocks for this so you can support your knees your knee joints and
your si joints so you're going to bring the soles of your feet together close to your groin
and open your knees and then where your knees land you want to fill that space with the blocks
so that your si joints are supported and sit up nice and tall and then lean forward for butterfly
pose also known as bound angle pose baga kanasana for your new beginning
i like our location a lot today make sure you give this video a thumbs up if you like the location
i really like the bulk help is the bulk help like the kind of getting the biggest it's going
to get right now i think it must be in the season it's an annual right yeah the bulk help is just
huge here
so
okay and then you're going to come back up to seated and you can either finish your practice
seated with the ganesh madra again or you can lie down on your backs with the with the shavasana
pose so you can lie on your back the palms turned up beside you to receive and integrate your practice
and you're going to stay here and i will sit up and redo the poem one last time
for a new beginning by john odonahue in out of the way places of the heart
where your thoughts never think to wander this beginning has been quietly forming waiting until
you are ready to emerge for a long time it has watched your desire feeling the emptiness grow
inside you noticing how you willed yourself on still unable to leave what you had outgrown
it watched you play with the seduction of safety and the gray promises that sameness whispered
heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent wondered would you always live like this
then the delight when your courage kindled and out you stepped onto new ground your eyes young
again with energy and dream a path of plenitude opening before you though your destination
is not yet clear you can trust the promise of this opening unfurl yourself into the grace of
beginning that is at one with your life's desire awaken your spirit to adventure hold nothing back
learn to find ease and risk soon you will be home in a new rhythm for your soul senses the
world that awaits you that's by john odonahue to bless the space between us is the book it's from
to reflect back on your practice what's one small thing that stood out to you
you it's relevant to you in your life it's one small thing that you're going to take with you
off your mat and into your life this week and then gradually allow your breath to deepen
wiggle your fingers and toes bend your knees
so this part of coming out of shavasana is very metaphorical for new beginnings you're
coming from this death into a birth now so bend your knees roll to your side
pause there for a moment before you birth your new beginning back out into your life
and then slowly make your way up to seated
and we'll finish with our loka samastha suki no bhavan to mantra where you gather the fruits
of your practice first into yourself and then you offer them out into the world making space with
breath and a sigh loka samastha suki no bhavan to loka samastha suki no bhavan to
loka samastha suki no bhavan to may all beings be happy and free and may the thoughts words
and actions of my own life contribute in some way to the happiness and freedom for all so thank you
so much for joining us for episode 342 of yoga with melissa if you like today's show then please
give it a thumbs up let me know if you liked the backdrop that tim chose today if you know somebody
who would enjoy this then please share it with your friends your family co-worker if you think
that they would enjoy it i put out a new free show every friday so if you want it to show up in your
feed then be sure to subscribe to our channel or you can subscribe to my second channel i put out
a vlog every monday where you see the behind the scenes and some of my life off my yoga mat
we did a a time lapse of the behind the scenes today and also every wednesday i answer your
questions so that may be of interest to you as well in fact you can click over to my vlog right here
i want to thank you for your donations thank you to hillary sonia rowena and linda we appreciate
your support so much they help us to continue to offer these free yoga classes all around the world
every friday so thank you so much and if you would like to donate you can click here or you can
donate of your time by answering the question today's question to answer in the comments is
what new beginning are you embarking on in your life right now if you would like an
infographic of my top three benefits of engaging with poetry then go to willisos.com slash 342
scroll down put your email in the opt-in box if you put that in then we'll send you that infographic
of the top three benefits of engaging with poetry and if you would like to have a new
beginning with your yoga or you know somebody who is thinking about starting yoga or maybe has had a
bad experience with yoga inevitably when i meet people and they find out that i teach yoga
they tell me about a bad experience and how they or they tell me oh i want to do that i want to
start it but they've had a bad experience or you know they've had experiences where teachers teach
too fast or don't give enough instructions or it seems to be all about them performing then
be sure to tell them about our 31 day beginner challenge we're starting on august 1st 2016 but
you can join anytime this is for people who are brand new to yoga the classes are easy to follow
step-by-step instructions with lots of modifications so you know this is true of any of my yoga classes
but it's even more so of my beginner classes they're tailor-made to beginners they're really
for beginners so the beginner yoga challenge will help you to stay motivated committed
and disciplined to a daily practice it's going to be on facebook and instagram i'm going to be doing
facebook live streams you can sign up to have the class sent to you every day in your inbox and we're
going to make it super easy for you and it's going to be really fun so i'll put the link in the show
notes so that you can join it and we'd love to have you with us there's already lots of people
signing up for it and it's going to be a lot of fun i know the people that did it last year
oh it's completely free the people that did it last year they're still it gets you in a habit
so the people that did it last year are still completely dedicated to their practice and they
really rocked it so it was a lot of fun we're using the hashtag what's my hashtag for this
beginner yoga with melissa so if you do it use that hashtag take photos of yourself post the
photos and then i'll i'll be encouraging you along all month so it's going to be a lot of fun
so thank you so much for joining us it's been a lot of fun here today gorgeous location i thoroughly
enjoyed it i'm sending you much love from beautiful british columbia may your joy be as deep as our
pacific ocean may you be as strong as our mountains and may you be as rude as the trees in our forest
om chanti namaste
melissa would love to hear your questions and thoughts please leave your comments below the video
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lifestyle with others around the world if you have a question for melissa you can leave a
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