Hello and welcome to this practice. My name is Renee. I'm the host of the embodied astrology podcast and I'm a somatic movement educator in today's episode. I wanted to share a practice that I led a little while ago at a live workshop. And this was a workshop for the astrology of 2020 and I was thinking a lot about everything that's happening in Capricorn with the eclipses this year and really how much stress there is in the world.how much misalignment there is for so many of us in our lives the kind of basic misalignment that so many of us feel with the way that the world is going the misalignment that we feel with the Earth and that the Earth obviously feels with us and a lot of my focus in the workshop was on exploring somatic tools and relationship to astrology to think into and to feel into getting more aligned and and working through inner body awareness felt sense of awareness subtle awareness to be more aligned and so alignment for me means steadiness and it means he's it is the feeling of continuity and integration in my being and between myself and the Earth and others when I feel aligned. I feel like I'm in flow. I feel relaxed and I also feel strong. And my hope is that that's what this practice does for anybody who engages with it. I know that it's how I feel when I do it, I experienced a lot of chronic pain and inflammation in my joints and the movements in this practice are things that I've done for a long time to help my joints relax, and also to nourish my joints a lot of the movements that I'm offering are movements that increase synovial production and that helps the kind of long-term health of your joints. Ants and helps retain mobility and an end health and padding within your joints. And I also find that this practice does a lot for assisting me and releasing accumulated and residual stress that I tend to gather in my joints and specific joints in particular, especially the occipital joints the base of my skull and down into my neck and shoulders and the joints around my low back and pelvis and these Places that I think a lot of people tend to gather accumulated stress and tension, so I certainly hope that everything that I'm offering is joyful for you to do it and I know that some of what I'm offering is not going to feel joyful for everybody so I might be suggesting movements that don't feel good to your body. You might be working with injuries. You might be working with other needs within your body that you have to attend to so, please modify and adapt this practice intuitively and as you need to if you're ever not sure what to do, but you know that you don't want to do what you think I'm saying you can focus on the basic principles of this practice the basic principles our first yielding or bonding with the Earth letting gravity come through your body secondly relaxation of muscular effort letting go of any effort that you don't need to hold on to and third feeling the relationship between The bones where bones connect to bones are called joints. So getting curious about the relationships between bones in the joint spaces. So you can use any of those principles to explore your own movement and explore your own body at any point. And if I'm saying something you think I'm saying something that you're like that's not going to work for my body do something else the recording you're going to hear as I mentioned is with a live group of folks. So Sometimes you'll hear me talking to people and hope you enjoy that for wherever you're practicing just adapt this practice use the space that you have. I'll suggest that you use something to pad your back against the ground. If you have a wooden floor again, as a person that experiences pain in my bones. I usually like to have a folded blanket at least underneath my spine. There are a couple of times when I'll suggest sliding various body parts. Parts on the floor and for those movements it's really nice to have just a wooden floor or carpet a yoga mat or blankets can also get kind of sticky or they can resist the movement. But again just modify adapt move around as you need to I will be coming back at the ends to finish up the practice with you at the workshop. I continued from this practice into another exercise. So you'll hear this narration voice meet you again and And just about an hour to bring us into closure for this practice. So when you're ready, please find a comfortable way to lie down on your back. Close your eyes and let's begin. Wonderful, so we're going to start just with yielding to the Earth. A yielding practice is a relationship practice just bringing attention and awareness to gravity as it moves through your body. I feel the touch of your body against the ground. Feel the weight of your exhales. And allow your inner body to rest. Try and feel underneath your skin into the weight of your bones. into the weight of your organs Bring your legs forward so your knees are open. Cat you can move a little bit. So you're more on a diagonal and you can let your leg straight in. Great. Imagine that the the weight of your heels is dropping very heavily into the ground. And then bring your toes back towards your body. And now Point your toes forwards. So your heels will stay down onto the ground and your toes will point forwards and back forwards and back. Both feet moving the same direction at the same time. Now this is a very controlled movement. What I'd like you to do is let this movement get a little Freer and see if you can create a rocking of your body by rocking your heels back and forth. This is called a heel Rock. Try and let your ankles get as relaxed as possible. I know that they're working a little bit. Now a heel Rock will create a whole jiggle through your body. So look over you see her body how just jiggling so let the jiggle come in. But the jiggle come in on this side of the room Claire over here is doing a great example if you're not sure what I'm talking about. So you see how her whole body is is jiggling with those he'll rocks jiggle jiggle jiggle jiggle jiggle. Can I touch your feet cap? So less controlled. Yeah. Can I touch your feet Lara? jiggle jiggle jiggle Yeah. Okay. So if your legs Tire you can pause for a moment, but then come back jiggle jiggle jiggle. Can I touch your feet? Okay, so a little less effort than my goals. Okay, so this can this can build heat fairly quickly. And again, if your legs Tire let yourself rest then come back and I'd like you to use this movement to start to release and shake out tension in your joints. So as you do these he'll rocks let the rocking jiggling motion come up into your spine. Relax your jaw. Let your lower jaw released from your upper jaw. And if the jiggling can come all the way to your head, you're getting a little bit of a rocking a little bit of a bobble head going on and I want you to really let the hinge of your jaw soften and that bobbling. Mmm, when I do this almost immediately, I feel like I need to Exhale out a sound that that is part of part of the releasing of my joints. So feel free to stick your tongue out open your mouth wide like and vocal releases very satisfying for the the nervous system. It helps the organs soften. And the more that you allow your voice to come out the more empowered the people around you feel to let their voices come out, so don't don't be shy. Hmm, we're going to do this for about another two minutes. And he and effort are going to build in. Your lower legs is going to be tiring so pause and rest if you need to but then come back jiggle again. As effort builds if you if you start to experience any like minor kind of frustrated energy that comes up which often can happen for me with this exercise. Let it out with your with your voice. Michael can I touch your feet? So rather than just moving your feet, see if you can I'm going to move your feet for you. Does that make sense? mmm Yeah, beautiful. Come on. Keep it going. This is good. This is a purification practice. This is cleansing take the deep breath breathe through the heat in your legs. Let your body jiggle. Just another minute. Jiggle, jiggle jiggle jiggle jiggle intensify it a little bit really try and get it to come up into your spine. Up into your skull. Another 10 seconds intensify it for the last 10 seconds. All right good and then pause? and notice You feel that tingling that space? And that's your nervous system releasing. Bring a little bit of movement into the joints of the legs so it can work with your blanket. It can work with your socks on the floor. Just start to bend your knees and straighten them and you can bend both at one time or one at a time. You can bend them. So the feet stay on the floor are you can bend them all the way into your chest as you like. You might want to let knees fall out to the sides as they Bend IN. Or when your knees come in, it might feel good to squeeze them out to the sides. Okay, and then bring both of your knees in towards your tummy and hold on to your knees or your shins with your hands. And just rock a little bit side to side. And you might want to take your knees and make a little bit of a circular motion so that you rock wait around the back of your pelvis. Sometimes I do this and I find like such a good spot, you know, some kind of pressure around a hip or in the back of my SI and I just want to hang out there for a second. So explore the weight of your pelvis as it comes down onto the floor. And then bring your hands behind your knees to the backs of your thighs and just straighten your legs a couple of times and you can straighten both at the same time or one at a time. And I'm going to ask you to bring a lot of attention into this movement of straightening your knees. I'd like you to notice where your effort is as you straighten your knees up words. And as you bring them down, where does it feel like you're working? The next time you bend your knees, let them stay bent. Take your hands to the front of your knees touch your knees. Then take your hands back again to the backs of your thighs and now I want you to initiate straightening your legs from your knee joint. So your knees are straightening. They're the ones that are starting this action. I know other thing other stuff is working. But really try and feel your knees doing this motion feel the fronts and the backs of your knees. As they pressed towards each other feel the sides of the knees as they lengthen up. I want you to notice this effort. Good and then the next time your knees Bend, let them stay bent for a second and then just spread and clench your toes a couple of times. Train really feel your feet, bring your attention to the tips of your toes. Bring your attention to your heels. Okay. Now I want you to straighten your legs again, but this time I want you to initiate from your feet. So your feet are reaching up. Okay, Bend and straighten your knees a couple of times and really initiate from your feet. So the heels might reach up or the toes might reach down. Sensation wise and effort wise does this feel different than initiating at your knees? Okay, so just notice those differences. Name them for yourself. Great, and then let your knees bent and your feet come onto the floor. And here there may be a moment where we're going to have to readjust with neighbors or figure out how to work in unison, but you'll start to take your your knees to either side. So your feet can stay down onto the ground and then your knees can drop one side to the other. And personally when I do this, I really like to have my my feet a little bit apart from each other. And I like to use my feet a lot. So I'm pushing into the inner and the outer edges of my feet and I find it very satisfying. So maybe it'll be satisfying to you to maybe not. No, I'd like you to add your upper body a little bit. So again, we're going to maybe you have to readjust or work in unison. But as your knees come over to one side take that same side arm and reach it across your body. The same direction is your knee is going so you're kind of rolling over onto one side a little bit. Hmm, and if both arms are outstretched, then you're reaching the top arm past the lower arm. hmm So reaching reaching further with a top arm than the lower arm and then come back to the center and go the other direction. So your knees fall to one side. The bottom arm comes out in the top arm reaches over the bottom arm and you're going to take your top hand past your bottom hand. Okay. Those are Giggles of soft collisions over there. If you end up with your hands and your neighbors nose to give it a squeeze. Okay. Great, and now can we still initiate from the lower body? So it's still your your legs kind of anchoring down the weight of your knees coming over your feet turning your body and then your hands are going to take over for a little bit as they stretch over and roll back but really let your lower body be very incurred. Call on the breath support. And again, let's feel that the inner body can rest. So the inner body is heavy against the container and the frame of the skeleton and the support of the floor. I've got kind of an inner fluid body that's rolling As you move. Beautiful beautiful yielding to the ground. Just letting that force of gravity really support the release of this movement. When you feel even on both sides then rest onto your back. Let's keep the knees bent. With your feet pressing down onto the ground play a little bit with some pelvic tilts. So if you kind of Imagine where your tailbone is your reaching the tailbone between your legs and up towards the sky and then you're wagging your tail back towards the ground and as your tailbone initiates your pelvic tilts. What the muscles of the pelvic floor softened? Let the muscles of your belly soften. Let your jaw and your throat stay soft. Can this pelvic tilting also move up through your spine a little bit? So you might feel as you tilt your pelvis One Direction your head rocks as well. chin, moving down or up and then if you'd like you can take this movement into a larger spinal roll. Pressing into your feet lifting the tailbone up and rolling your weight off. Your pelvis may be rolling your weight towards the backs of your shoulders. And then when you come down try and roll in the opposite direction, so you're curling your spine back onto the ground and at the very end then you find the wag of your tail. I love to do this movement with my arms up alongside my ears if you have room you might want to take your arms up and reach them up. See if that feels good to you. Yeah, kind of more just like that or you could grab opposite elbows. Good and then when you feel done with this? Let your back come onto the ground. We're going to try something with our arms here. So there might be a couple people who are a little too close to the to the wall or their positions. So what I'd like you to do is to start with your arms down by the sides of your body. Crystal let's have you move towards your feet a little bit and then you'll be staggered. And Michelle, you could move towards your feet a little bit too. And then you'll be staggered. Okay, so your arms are down beside your body keep your elbows in beside your body and then turn your turn your palms to the ceiling keep your elbows beside your body and just bend your elbows. So your hands come out to the sides, but try and keep your wrists on the ground. So if you look at me, I'm doing the shape up here. So it's kind of like this. It's like a funky chicken dance. So your elbows are hugged in towards your waist and your little little wings are flapping out to the side. Okay, so if that creates any pain in the shoulder attention, then the arms can definitely come up but the the idea here is that the elbows and the hands would stay down elbows in the wrist would stay down just bending and straightening a couple times Michael if you want to reposition yourself and then slide your feet this way a little bit that might work better. Okay. So now if you can continue from here after the hands come out to the sides, I want you to keep your elbows on the ground and as much as possible. Keep your wrists on the ground and then take your elbows wide out to the sides keeping your elbows on the floor wrist on the floor and then keeping your elbows and your wrist on the floor. You could stretch your arms alongside your head. So the Palms are up Kina if you want to kind of move a little bit. So your feet are between these two people. You might have some more space. Mhm. So this would be something to just do a number of times. hmm Now this can bring quite a lot of of stretch or opening into the collar bones and the shoulders and chest. Is anyone have that experience where it's like, oh, yeah, if you spend much time texting driving typing this could really get into some of that kind of pectoral and neck tension that we often get with that posture. So work gently and work. With your own body's needs if there's pain in a joint. Please honor that pain and make adjustments for it make modifications for it. And again the idea is that your elbows and your wrists stay down on the ground as you do this motion. So hands coming out to the sides and elbows coming out to the sides and arm straightening beside the head and then coming down in the opposite direction. Hmm now really let your breath fill this practice. Yeah Breathe Into Your Side chests. Hmm and notice if you're collecting tension in your neck or your jaw as you do this, I'd like you to try and keep those areas as relaxed as possible. Same with the Core Body the belly and the muscles around the spine. How little effort can you make to do this? Good. Alright. Now the next time your hands are down on the ground or down beside you. Let's just lift one arm up towards the ceiling. Towards the ceiling. Yep, and then take it down again and then do it on the other side. So when arm up towards the ceiling and then take it down again go back and forth between these sides. Yep, all the way up towards the ceiling elbow Street and then back down all the way up and then back down. Beautiful. Okay, so now notice where there's effort. So what's what's working to do this movement? As an arm comes up you might notice that some. Other part of your body that's maybe in a you know, distant neighborhood from your arm starts to kick in so I just want you to notice what's working. Good, then bring your hands to your opposite shoulders and feel your shoulder joints. Spheal where they are Okay, and then we'll do this motion again, and I'd like you to initiate lifting your arms up from your shoulders. Okay, so your shoulders lifting that arm up? I know other things are working but can this movement start in the shoulders? Use both shoulders to lift both arms up towards the ceiling open your eyes so you can see your hands start to make Fanning shapes with your hands Fanning thrumming your fingers. So you're spiraling your your wrists and your hands like a flamenco dancer. spiral Spiral spiral Yeah open and close your palms move your fingers like they're dancers together. Move your fingers like a jellyfish undulating in the sea. Watch your hands try and and move your fingertips, like like a break dancer, you know, like one joint at a time. Okay, then bring your arms down beside your body. Just let them rest for a second. Feel your fingertips. Again lift one arm up at a time this time initiate from your fingertips. Let the tips of your fingers reach up towards the ceiling the tips of your fingers are reaching up to straighten your arm. And then the tips of your fingers are reaching back towards the ground. Reaching the fingertips up. Does this feel different than initiating from your shoulders? Okay, so notice that the sensations of difference. We're just doing the same motion just shifting our awareness. All right, let's let's bring the hands to the face in the head and I'd like you to use your thumbs, especially to start to massage your face muscles. So get your thumbs into your really strong jaw muscles, I've heard these are the strongest muscles in the whole body. Hey and you can use your thumbs to press in just underneath your cheekbones and then press down along the ridge of your jaw. And as you press down on the ridge of your jaw, let your lower jaw separate from your upper jaw. And let your thumbs travel all the way down along your chin bone. And then use your thumbs and your fingers to massage around your teeth. Press into the gum lines. massage underneath your cheekbones into your jaw joints and around maybe get your thumbs up underneath your chin. massage the the place where your tongue connects Get your fingers in and around your ears stick your fingers in your ears and kind of gently without Force. Try and broaden your ear holes. So you could press into your ear holes and different directions. You might grab a hold of your ears themselves and pull them apart from one another pulling your earlobes. The Middle's of your ears the tops of your ears use your hands to massage all the way around the skin around your ears and especially with your thumbs get up underneath the sides of your parietal bones kind of behind your ears. And then press your thumbs towards one another as they start to travel towards the back of your skull. Keep your tongue in your lower jaw relaxing. Just keep reminding them to soften. Could get your fingers in your hair. Give yourself a scalp massage with all 10 fingers grab fistfuls of your hair and just squeeze. Grab A Fistful of hair and then squeeze your fist maybe a gentle tug is going to feel good. Work your hands all the way around your scalp. You might be able to feel the the joints between your cranial bones It's like sutures where Bones have threaded together. You can use your hands to massage those joints. If you don't know what I'm talking about use your hands to trace the shapes of your skull. Keep breathing. massage your forehead get your fingers around your eyebrows. Maybe use the heels of your hands to press down on your forehead. spreading the forehead skin massage around your eye sockets Get into your temples. Go ahead and then let your arms rest and Roll your head over to one side. If rolling your head to one side made your chin come closer to your chest then just reposition your skull a little bit. So your neck is long. Let the weight of your inner skull the weight of your brain pour down into the Earthly side of your face. Take two or three really deep breaths and allow your inhale to come all the way up into the top of your throat. And as you exhale release the weight of your back body against the ground. imagine a beanbag Imagine your skull is a bean bag. You're going to roll the way to your skull towards the back skull. And then let the contents of the bean bag roll all the way to the other side. Pulse upwards from the base of your spine at the top of your spine and feel that the spine in your neck is long. Release the hinge of your tongue release the weight of your eyeballs. Imagine the weight of your brain is pouring out your ear. Like a bean bag roll the way it in your head to the back. Pulse up words from your pelvis to your crown feel that your spine is long on both sides. And let's start to explore some very small figure eight motions with the back of the head. So you can feel where there's weight in the back of your head and I want you to start to roll your head in the smallest figure eight that you can This takes a little bit of concentration. So notice if in concentrating your tongue gets tight. Or your belly gets hard. This keep them softening. Keeps away to your brain resting into your back skull. Let those figure eights get a little bit bigger. Back the head rolling against the ground. What the root of the tongue continue to soften in the throat? Let the weight of the face bones continue to be heavy. Let your figure eights get a little bit bigger. Direct your breath into the back of your neck. And in the base of your skull. Not your figure eights get a little bit bigger. Good now take your figure. He's as big as I can get on the back of your skull. Feeling your chin. We even Bob. Switch the direction of your figure eight. So what was nodding down is now nodding up was nodding up as now nodding down keep them big. Keep the back of the skull heavy. the hinge of the tongue relaxed the Jaws soft let your figure eights get a little smaller. Removing the top of the digestive chain here. So really invite your organs to soften. Your throat your chest your belly your groins. relaxation in the inner body let your figure eights get a little smaller. a little smaller Hey tiny little figure eights smallest you can get. Okay, then then pause. Notice the sensations in your inner body. Invite your knees to bend in. When you're ready, you'll roll over onto one side. Let the bottom arm move up to be a pillow for your head. Rest on your side body. Yield again to the ground. So now that you are on this side let this side relate to the Earth. Let your inner body weight rest into this side. As if your whole body was a beanbag roll through your back and onto the other side. Feel this side yield to the ground. Yield to the Earth. As heavy as you can remain bring yourself into a child's pose, so you would continue to roll onto your front you can readjust. And there's lots of bolsters and I'm happy to get props for anybody who needs them. So, please feel free to take bolsters under your tummy to bring bolsters between your calves and your thighs. So if you have a keen he's a bolster between the Cav's and the thighs and then one underneath the tummy that would be to bolsters total is really helpful. It's really a assistive if you need another bolster and you see that there's one not being used just Feel free to take it. Okay, so please always honor your body. If I'm ever asking you to do anything that creates discomfort or intuitively, you know, is it right for you? It's my deep wish that you honor the needs of your body. Bring your arms forwards so that your arms are long and your hands are at least shoulder-width apart and spread your hands. And your arms are reaching so far forward that your elbows might even be off the ground. I want you to keep your head down don't lift your head up start to press into your shins and let your belly curl away from the floor and the ground and roll so that you bring weight into your elbows and the top of your head. So your elbows can bend and then you'll come on a towards the top of your head. Keep your head on the ground and then when you're ready you roll back. So this is the movements very simple. The weight that you're rolling on your head will move between your forehead and the top of your head your arms are there to support you? So the arm stay long when your hips are back and then when you come forwards really let your forearms come onto the ground so the elbows and the forearms and the hands are all supporting you. Try and find an initiation pathway from your limbs through your Center. So as you roll up onto your head initiate from pushing your shins into the ground. And as your shins push into the ground feel your pelvis curl. And feel your front body hollow out your spine rounds and then when you come back try and push through your arms, but also through your head. So your head is pushing into the ground and your hands and your elbows are pushing it in the ground and your tailbone can reach back and as the tailbone reaches back let your buttocks spread. So there's kind of a opening between the Bones as they come back. Try and keep your mouth and your tongue relaxed. You can come back to this movement at any point if it would feel good. The next part of this phrase the sequence is to roll up to sit. So when your hips come back towards your heels then start to curl your tummy in and roll your spine up and drag your arms. And so that your head comes up last. And then go back the way you came in drop your chin to your throat. Let your shoulders round forward slide your hands forwards on the ground and start to slide back into child's pose. Now if this doesn't work for anybody's knees, okay again bolsters, you can stack multiple bolsters underneath your pelvis. So there's less Bend in your knees. And if you need bolsters, just raise your hand. I'm happy to be them to you and then you might just play with doing both of those movements. So you could roll up into your seat. And then when you roll down you could roll onto the top of your head. Your limbs are here to support you. Let your legs anchor to the floor. But your arms and your hands anchor to the floor. Allow your inner body weight to poor. And imagine that you're a jar with water in it. And as one end of your jar your head end or your tail end goes down. The fluid weight is pouring towards the Earth. And you're moving that fluid between head and tail. Good. Now the next time you come down into child's pose stay there. Spread your hands apart Press Your Hands into the ground push into your shins and look forwards to come up on a hands and knees. Okay, make adjustments that you need for your own body. Tuck your toes. Don't lift them very far but hover your knees from the ground. Just an inch. Just a few inches. Okay, bring your knees down. Look at your hands. Don't move your hands. Just look at them. I want you to notice if you're rolling more weight to the outer fingers than the inner fingers. I want you to notice which direction your hands are facing and then make any adjustments you need so that your hands are placed so that their underneath your shoulders or even a little wider. Even a little wider than your shoulders Michael you could take your hands a little further apart. and then push your the length of your fingers into the ground and roll the weight on your fingers so that you're not rolling to the outer or the inner fingers, but there is symmetry. And reach from the base of your fingers to the tips of your fingers. As you press into your hands feel that your hands connect to your arms and your arms connect to your ribs and your ribs connect to your spine. Okay. Find the relationship between your ribs and your arms. Without lifting your knees. Your toes are tucked start to push your toes back a little so you feel the muscles of your legs engage. Feel that your legs connect to your spine. Initiate from your belly button lift your belly button just two inches towards the ceiling and then lift your knees. Remember that your arms and your legs connect to your spine? Reach your tailbone up and back to come into a downward dog. Blankets are slippery. Okay, and then we're just going to shift weight in the pelvis a little bit. So wag your your butt left to right. Left to right left to right? Okay. And then as your hips shift one side. Lift your hand up and and start to walk your hands back in so your hips will shift One Direction. The opposite hand will start to walk in walk your hands back towards your feet. Let your feet be as wide as they need to be so that the weight of your spine can hang as heavy as it possibly can. Bring wade into The Middle's of the feet between your heels and your toes. Reach down into your feet and roll up to stand. When you come up to stand notice how you're standing on your feet? Okay, where is your weight? This is it more in the left or the right foot. Is it more in the heels or the toes? the inner or the outer feet Before you make any changes think to yourself. Is there anything that could make standing more comfortable? Could my feet be a little closer or further apart? Would it feel more comfortable to have the heels in or the heels out? Think about it first? Then plan what you're going to do. Think about it. Then plan it. And now make the change. And once you've made the change settle just commit to the change you made a notice. Did this have the desired outcome? Think about it again. Maybe there's another adjustment you want to make think about it. Plan it. Do it and then notice. Lift your arms forwards and up alongside your head. Bring them back down. Okay, keep doing this lift the arms forwards and up. And then bring them back down. And notice what's working? Where is the effort? If you just do it. Like nobody told you to notice where the effort is. Where would the effort be? What else is helping you do this? What else is moving what else is? kicking in good and then let your hands rest down to your sides. And now connect to your feet in such a way that you remember that your feet are connected to your ankles and your ankles are connected to your knees and your knees connect to your pelvis and your pelvis holds your spine. And your spine is lifting up off of your pelvis and your head is reaching up towards the sky take a breath and feel how your breath moves out into your chest and your shoulders. Feel how your breath moves underneath your ribs and into your collarbones. Without moving your arms just spread your hands and engage the muscles of your arms. Feel how your collar bones connect to your shoulders and your shoulders connect to your elbows and your elbows connect to your wrists and your hands. Reach through the tips of your fingers. Press into your feet as if your feet connected to your head. And then initiating from your fingertips reach your arms forwards and up. Keep them up. Keep your arms up. Check in with your feet. Where is your weight? Feel that your feet connect to your ankles. Your ankles connect to your knees your knees connect to your pelvis your pelvis holds your spine. Support your spine resource your spine from your feet. Feel that your crown is open. Your head is opening Towards the Sky. resource your spine from your head keep your arms up. breathe feel how your breath moves out into your shoulders. Remember that your shoulders rest on your ribs? Keep your arms up. When effort arises soften your jaw soften your tongue soften your belly remember your structural support? Your shoulders rest on your ribs. Your shoulders connect to your elbows your elbows connect to the tips of your fingers. Let the tips of your fingers lift your arms try and let the shoulders relax. Let your feet support your spine let your tongue soften. Bring your awareness into your sacrum into the base of your spine. Let your awareness Hold Steady right in the front of your sacrum. Right in the front of your spine. Keep your awareness in the front of your sacrum. And in the front of your spine, don't let it waiver. I'm going to count to 10 and in these 10 counts, you'll very slowly bring your arms to the sides of your body. Keep your attention in your sacrum and the front of your spine. ten nine eight seven six five four three two one notice the quality in your inner body. In just a minute. When you open your eyes. Notice the sensation of the nervous system as you open your eyes notice any Sensation that comes into your skin into your hands into your belly. But your eyes open. We're going to start to walk around the room. Let's walk mindfully. Can walk on blankets? Let this inner body space the awareness of your feet your spine your skeleton. Let it continue continue to notice your felt sense your inner body. And walk around the room. And walk in every direction. So turn if someone's in front of you. Look for an empty space don't walk in a circle. Okay, pause stand notice how you're standing feel weight as it travels through your skeleton. From your head through your spine into your torso into your legs into your feet. Bend or squat down so that you can touch your feet. Feel the bones of your feet feel through your socks try and feel your toe bones sit. If you need to pull your toe Bones the big joints where your toes meet your foot feel the long bones that are continuous with your toes moving up through your foot feel the arch of your foot feel your heel fill your ankles both sides feel the bones of your feet. toes the joints the long bones in the feet the arches of the feet the heels stand again. Notice your feet and how you're standing. In just a moment when we walk again. We'll ask the feet to initiate. Notice now your weight how your weight comes into the front or the backs of the feet. Don't take a step forward. But as you rock weight forwards feel how one foot could start to kick off how weight would travel from the heel to the toe. Whatever foot it is get light and take a step forward. It's just one step. And then rock your weight onto the front foot. So the back heel lifts and then rock your weight onto the back foot. Lift your front toes feel your heel on the ground roll your weight from your heel into your toes feel the back heel lift and the back toes press down. Roll onto the back foot the heel presses down the front toes lift up. Roll onto the front foot lift the back foot up and take it a step forwards and then continue your walk. And be very mindful of your feet and the bones of your feet. And as you walk notice where there are habits. Is there one foot that rolls in a little bit? Is there one foot? where the toes get tense And then be less careful and come into a little bit more of a natural walk but really notice your feet. notice how weight rolls between your heels and your toes notice how weight transfers and spreads from one part of the foot into another part of the foot and then pause stand feel how you're standing feel your feet. And then let's come down and feel the ankle bones. And with your hands rub up your shin bones feel your shin bones. Use your fingertips and dig into the sides of your lower legs and see if you can find the Nabi Port ruzhin of bone on the side outer sides of your legs. Just below your knees. And maybe you can massage down the sides of your legs tracing the fibula. It's a very thin bone that helps your shins balance. You can trace it all the way down to where it becomes your outer ankle. And then bring your hands up so you can feel your knees and if your legs are straight you could jiggle your kneecaps. And if your knees are bent then you can feel how your leg muscles hold your knee caps in place. Take your hands over just to one knee and let your hands hold the sides of the knee as you bend and straighten your knee a couple of times. Feel that the knee joint is a very direct and simple joint. It bends and it straight ends. It doesn't do any fancy rotation or circumduction or anything like that. It just bends and it straightens and then feel the other knee. Notice if weight comes in more to the inside of the outside as you bend your knee and try and let your weight stays centered in your joint not more to the inside or the outside Bend both knees hold the tops of both knees just to feel these joints. Walk your hands up your thighs squeeze your thigh. Flesh. Try and feel into your thigh bones. Roll your spine up. Give yourself a butt massage on one side squeeze your bun. Feel those muscles where they attach to your thigh, and then follow them all the way up to your hip. Okay, use your hands to trace around your hip on this side. Try and feel its shape. You can feel the top of your hip probably or the crest of your hip. if you follow your hip down in the front along your groin crease you might be able to feel the outside edge the of your pubic bone If you can find your outer pubic bone, then take your knee forwards and just rotate your knee around a little bit. And as you press towards the outer edge of your pubic bone and into your groin crease. You can feel your your hip joint moving. Good and then Trace along the bones along the back or the front and come over to the other hip? Give yourself a butt massage on this side. If we all did this for ourselves everyday life would be better already, right just a little but massage makes the whole day better. Try and feel underneath the muscle like like separate the muscle from the bone. So hold your whole butt cheek and lift it up and away from the bone squeeze it and move it away from your hip bone. Try and feel underneath your muscle into your pelvis. Into your hip bones. Your pelvis is a crazy shape. It is a wild butterfly looking shape. So when you find the top of your hip Crest you might imagine like a fan shape and if you can follow the bone and it gets lost underneath fat and muscle very quickly. But if you can kind of feel through those softer tissues and follow your bone, you can trace all the way to your sacrum your pelvic half connecting to your sacrum. And if you trace it in the front, you'll follow your growing line kind of your underwear line. If you wear underwear and you you follow it down to your outer pubic bone, this is also part of your pelvic half your pubic bones. And then if you move your leg around you might be able to press in and feel where your hip joint is where your thigh bone connects to your pelvis could hold in the back to kind of feel that. Okay good and then take both feet down and bring your hands up onto your hips the top so your hips. And then let your weight shift a little bit forward and back. And notice what happens in your hips as you shift your weight forward and back. Let wait come more over to one side. So that as you shift your weight forward, you can take a step forwards and then pause and without foot forwards try and feel the shape of your pelvis. Lift the back heel bring weight into the front foot feel what happens to your pelvis slowly slide the back foot forward. So you take a step and feel what happens to your pelvis. And then continue to walk and keep your hands on your hips so that you can follow the movement of your hips. And as you roll weight from your heel to your toe. Can you feel how there's a mirroring in your pelvis? As the he'll come forward the back of the pelvis comes down. As the heel lifts up the back of the pelvis lifts up. So it makes sense. So side to side the left and the right sides of the pelvis are moving. They connect to one another at your sacrum. But they're also moving independently the right and the left sides. Can you feel how the right foot and the right pelvis have a relationship? And how the left foot and the left side of your pelvis have a relationship. Does that make sense? They're tilting with each other. They're turning with each other. Now if you let your walk become a little more casual a little more quick. You feel your pelvis moving? Bring attention into your sacrum into the base of your spine and feel the way that your spine is held by your pelvis. And as you walk your spine moves a little bit. Pan and then pause let your eyes close let your arms rest. Feel your legs underneath you let your feet yield to the ground. So the soles of the feet notice their relationship to the ground they soften to the ground. They trust the ground. Bend your knees and come down and bring your hands to the ground. Let's Shine the Light Of Our intention into the Earth. Imagine your touch can move through this floor. Through the foundation of the building. into the soil through the soil into the hard crust of the Earth Through the hard crust of the earth into a softer more viscous crust. That's moving slightly underneath the hard crust of the Earth. Through that softer substance into the liquid of the Earth the molten. Through the Liquid Fire and Earth all the way to the core of the earth, which is solid metal. See if you can even comprehend the power of the Earth. Or how can you? Imagine the metallic core of the earth is a magnet. It's going to pull your heels down as you stand up. Feel the magnet of the earth attracting your skeleton. Pulling your weight towards it. Let your awareness spread up and out. Can you even comprehend your size in relationship to the Earth? In the direction that your head is traveling if you were to move up and out you would travel through the atmosphere and out into space. imagine out into space imagine the sun burning radiating star reach your arms up. Take a deep breath in. Reach towards the Sun. reach into space take a deep breath in. As you exhale let your arms rest down and feel all the space inside your body. Feel that the weight of your body is connecting and supported by the ground. I feel that the lift of your head is supported by the space above and around you. Remember the presence of the sun and the Stars? millions of miles above your head feel the skin on your head reach towards them. Remember the magnet the solid metal core the center of the Earth. And feel the weight of your bones being drawn towards it. If your eyes aren't already open then allow your eyes to open. Notice the inner body as the eyes open. And any Sensations that arise in the belly the hands or the chest? Let your eyes stay soft. Feel the weight of the eyes rest back into your skull. Feel the space between your skull and your spine. Feel the length of your spine held on your pelvis. Release down through your legs and feel the weight of your body pass evenly through every joint. Thank your body. Thank the space. Thank the Earth. And when you're ready. In the way that makes the most sense to you. Close your practice and give thanks for the practice.
This is a practice that brings steadiness and ease into your structure. This sequence and each of the individual movements facilitate relaxation in the joints and integrity between the bones by engaging simple repetitive actions that gently release tension and nourish the joint fluids. This recording was made during a live workshop. Practice with some company or modify for your space and environment. You’ll need a patch of empty floor or ground and (if you choose) something soft (like a blanket) to lie on. This practice was made to honor Capricorn Season and the full moon/lunar eclipse in Cancer on January 10, 2020. In medical astrology, Capricorn is associated with the skeleton and Cancer with the soft interior. During Capricorn Season I tend to experience Capricorn-ish symptoms like increased aches and pains in my joints (especially my knees) and rigidity and tension that accumulates with the cold weather and lack of light. I’m also a lot more tired. This practice nourishes and invigorates me. I hope it does the same for you. Always feel free to intuitively modify for your body’s needs. If you stick with the main principles of this practice (bonding to the earth, relaxing unnecessary effort, sensing the relationships between bones and in joints) then you’ll find ways to modify perfectly for your comfort and capacity. To learn more about Capricorn Season in 2020, listen to the Embodied Astrology Podcast  If this work supports you in your life, please support me to continue it! Leave a one-time donation here Become a recurring monthly donor here (monthly donors are subscribed to the EA newsletter and receive month-ahead extended forecasts and astro journals, and discounts on all my online classes and products)   ---   Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/embodied-astrology/message 