Heart and Lungs Mat

Good morning. How is everybody you'll find good. So today what we're gonna do is we're going to do a little organic movement. So I'd like to ask a question first and please feel free to answer. There's no right or wrong answer. What is the core?

Okay. Okay. We're, we're, we're seeing the cores, this stomach, uh, you, she, you're, yeah, you're is going all the way up and all the way through. [inaudible] yeah, Ruthie spinal fluid. Okay. So we have some real different ideas about what the core is. Um, and you've probably heard it described as muscles, these, the core muscles, anybody re maybe even you memorize those and maybe you know the bones that the muscles attached to. What if I told you that the bones and the muscles where the container for the core. So what would be the core, your guts, your Oregon's, all that junk that's in there. That seems sometimes not to have much organization, but it really does. In fact, I've just listening to myself talk about organization, realizing that Oregon is within that word.

So a really nice image for core is an apple. And so an apple is beautiful and red. Can you all imagine an apple? Okay, maybe your apple has speckles on it. However, the fruit is what attracts the birds. You know, the bar or the animals or the people. And we go and we eat the fruit. But where it's really the life-giving, what is going to extend the life? Where is that found? Yeah, deepen the center seed, the stem. And you have the seeds. So that is the core. To me, the core is the life.

And the organs in our body are 80% water. And you could think of them as balloons so that they actually hold up your inner structure. So is anybody interested in feeling a little bit of that? So I'm going to make this very simple. I want you to imagine that you have some upper organs in a sack and you imagine that. And then what would be some of the upper organs in your sac, lungs and heart? Good. Let's just stay with that.

We're not gonna talk about the thymus today, although it is in there. That's very important. Yeah, that's true. So then if we had another sack down below what things might be in there. Okay. All those good things. And then we have a muscle back. Yes, that separates these two. Yes, you have a, which is a muscle. So let's find our diaphragm.

So find the sternum, go down to the point, which is as I Foyt process, but you could just call it the point on the sternum. If you're talking to your class, are you just talking to yourself? And then I'm going to walk around the edge of my ribs and if I were to go back a little further, it would, the diaphragm would attach probably at t six and then what's really interesting is the diaphragm goes all the way down almost to t 12 now the ribs protect our lungs. So it makes sense that we want them to go as low as the lungs go. So with that little hand, how low did the lungs go when you do a deep inhalation all the way down. So on, on an exhalation, they're going to go up.

And then this is called a recess on an inhalation. They go down our, sorry, inhale down, exhale up. But I like to also look at this. Put your hands on the lowest rim and then put your hands on the top of the sacral bones or right here there's the sacrum and then the ilium. And then put your fingers between those two boney areas. Put 'em out in front of yourself to look at that.

That is all the space that you have between your pelvis and your lungs on an inhale. So when we say inhale into the back, it's not just an idea. So let's imagine our lungs two and are so right here on the very top, the first rib. And if you took a deep breath and your lung would be a top of a triangle. So take a deep breath in and then out and another deep breath. And so can you feel something happening there?

Anybody feel that? You feel your goals, you feel your pulse very good and inhale. Now I like to think sometimes as I inhale there are little eyes and they peak out all over the top on an inhale and then they kind of go down on the exhale. So let's imagine little eyes peeking up and on the exhale they're going back down. But there's something very interesting I want to look at Lynnea so I inhale my eyes peak up. Oh she's pretty good. Look in exhale. And Dan you just laughed. Do you know what laughter is?

That's your diaphragm muscle. That's where laughter comes from, which is laughter is one of the best medicines that gets our diaphragm moving and our organs moving. So if we go down, we know that our lungs are sort of triangular shaped. Yes. Is that something that you're all familiar with now? So this part is smaller. So as we inhale, this part is going to stretch more probably than this part. Would you agree? And as it does that, what it does is it actually is a spiral and goes down around. So remember the diaphragm's appearance down.

So we're going to feel a little bit of that. So let's put her hand our right hand on our right rib cage, and you can put your left hand over top of it, a top of it if you'd like. And this is going to take a little bit of imaging. So imagine the muscle on the outside. Imagine the bones.

And what we're going to do was we're going to take an inhale and imagine the lung going out and coming in, maybe like a cog wheel on the diaphragm. So you can use your hands to sort of feel that inhale. It's going back and around. Exhale. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Yeah.

Can you see your lung expanding and going around and down? Can you all see that? Can you feel it? Maybe it's just you. Imagine you feel it for awhile and inhale good and down. All right. Just spend your knees, get soft for a minute and put your hands on your shoulders.

Now we're going to turn to the right on the side that we just touched and we're going to go back and we're going to do that again on the right. And this time as you go around to the right, I'd like you to think the inhale and the spiral of my lungs is the twist. So maybe you have to wait for your breath to happen so that your movement follows your breath. Let's check the other side out that we didn't touch. Is there a difference? So Ruth, your whole face is telling me that something is different. And I also think it's telling me it's, how is it a thud? Okay, not moving. All right, so let's try that on the other side.

And as you go around using the image of the lungs going around on the inside, you can imagine there's actually pleura or a membrane. You could imagine your lung is going to polish the inside of that whole cage that you have. And here we go. Lungs going around and down. So as the lungs go around and down, are they going to create more space in the front or are you going to create an opening in the front? Yeah, so it's going to kind of open in the front. So let's try something a little different. What if we did this, but we turned our torso also and come back.

Would we be necessarily really focused in, in her lungs or might we get confused? Yeah. So let's try this three more times and just let the bones and the muscles kind of quiet down and see if you can go deeper inside. Even if it's just an image for now. [inaudible] good and let go. So we check out that side. Has it changed [inaudible] maybe you enjoy going from side to side.

[inaudible] isolated the lungs from, is that a good experience for you if you isolate? Yeah, it's free. It's free. Um, what she asked me, w what she said is she felt like she isolated the rib cage from the actual lung and you felt freer. And I, I'm assuming that your definition of freer is the same as mine. It's a smoother, less restricted, less restricted. Okay. I, those are things I want. Does anybody else want those things? And so what we practice is what we get. So if we want to feel ease in motion, sometimes it helps to stand up and get our body ready for that experience before we dive right down into it. All right, so going back to the ribs, let's just feel our diaphragm and what's going to happen as we inhale. What is the diaphragm going to do?

It's going to move. Okay. Diaphragm's going to move down. Everybody agree? Diaphragm moves down. Okay, so let's see if we can feel it. Sometimes it feels like a little roll that comes up, uh, from under your rib cage. It's a, one of my students said it's like a little hotdog that rolls out. So the hot dog would be this way so you can inhale and on the exhalation. So where is it going to go up? The top hotdog has been eaten. It's disappeared and inhale and exhale and allow your diaphragm to actually go down. Oh my God.

If I let my diaphragm go down, all my stuff is going to hang out. I'm not going to look thin in this particular class. You all might not say, you may think, I don't know how to move. So let's put our hands on our organs down here. Let's imagine diaphragm goes down.

Can you let your organs go forward? It's hard. Well, let's try it three times. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. All right. Why do you think it feels hard? [inaudible] okay. She says, because we replaced these instructors and we had the wrong idea. I think it's even, and there's more to this. I think it's even broader than that. I think it's prescriptive. I was a dancer.

I was taught to do that. Gymnasts are taught to do that. It's also on the fashion magazines. Do you ever see somebody doing a nice inhale letting their organs just expand and saying, look at my organs, am I not an amazing breather? No, it doesn't it. Yeah. Yes. So it's true. And if we were to do a class on, let's say, the digestive system, we would focus on that on more of how the organs move, the lower sac moves.

So let's go back to the lungs now for a moment and put your finger on the top of your right long. And this is a question I like to ask people because I was astounded when I actually took this in. Not as something out of a textbook, but a real thing. A real image. Where does the long attach at the top? How does it stay in there? We know the diaphragm is holding it up from the bottom.

We know there's suction from the ribs and the rib cage. Where is it here? Where is the lung tissue attached? [inaudible]. And where does the Pleura, okay, if I told you, excuse me, the vacuum that holds it, the yacht, that's part of it. But the actual top, I'm going to give you a hint.

There is something called a cervical plural ligament. Ah. So that means it's up in my neck. That means if I'm breathing well, it might actually help me position my neck. So we're going to now imagine as we've been sideways, so let's all been to our left. What is the right lung going to do?

You could imagine your yet, your ribs yawning or you could imagine that your lung is going all the way down to the right side of your back, spiraling around. And what if it was all the way up to the neck and you could feel this long stretch. So let's do that and let's do it on an inhale and an exhale. And if you want to touch, diaphragm is going wear down. Okay, let's try something. I would like you all to look good on this. So I'm teaching this class and if you don't look good, I'm not a good teacher. So we are going to now side bend and you must pull your stomachs in.

So will you please pull your stomachs in and pull them up. So everything is nice and flat. Okay. And now we're going to bend to the side, the left side on an inhale, and you can take your arm up and inhale. Are those stomachs being held in? Please. Thank you very much. And it looks certainly much bladder from my vision. Okay, one more time. Hold that stomach in and then come up. Now, what if we were just a letter diaphragm? Move down. Let's see what happens.

[inaudible] so linnea you went, hmm. Translate them for me. How much more movement in that? Me, I felt like it was getting much more of a stretch. You got much more of a stretch. [inaudible] well just think of it. If diaphragm goes down, it supports the lung to go down.

And then more lengths here. Nick goes over or did anybody else feel more length? Yeah. Okay. If you didn't, you can say that too. Uh, but if you did, I'm, I'm very glad. More ease now. I just love it when I think my neck is part of my side now. And not only is it part of my side Ben, cause it looks prettier, it just playing works.

And if we work with the structure and how the body is designed, then everything is more functional. It feels better. There's an ease to it. So let's try that again on our left side. So I'm going to bend to the right and you're just going to take a moment. Imagine your neck. By the way, these, this ligament is attached to the vertebrae, so it's not going to be right here. So you have to kind of dive in a little deeper there in your imagination.

So here we go. Inhale and exhale. Left leg lung is sliding and spiraling around your body and down and good. Now take your arm up and then you may want to swing like a pendulum. Good. So did anybody discover that there was a bright, a breathing pattern that you preferred when you went to the side? Did you prefer an inhale? I didn't tell you necessarily what to do on that last.

You preferred she preferred an inhale. Anybody else prefer an inhale as I discovered something for the first time? Yes. That the image of the lung sliding, spiraling down, this new and permission for me and that that totally took care of the tendency to go sideways. This one that had consulting. So I really wasn't in much more of an open side and I didn't have to police my alignment. Okay. So what, what Ruth just shared with us is that she wasn't quite as aware of the spiraling of her lung or maybe you were aware that it was down there, but you just never thought of it in movement. And so suddenly there was an ease to [inaudible].

There were some ease. But also, you know how we're always dealing with when people go to the side, they're here. Oh yes, yes. Haven't we all tried to correct this? And then we'd come around and say, you know, open your arm pit, bring your, bring your arm up of the top of the head. And they're like, okay, I'm doing it but am I enjoying it? But the spiral of the lung took care of that completely. Great. I'm happy.

So you are going to email me and let me know how that happens with your students the next time. So now let's do a little bit of forward, um, in this plane forward and backward. So we're going to put our fingertips on a shoulders. So we know on an inhale the lungs are going to separate and they're going to go back as a payer won't around. And so am I wanna do you think I'm gonna to want to go forward to facilitate that? Or do you think maybe backward would work backward. Backward. Yeah. Okay.

So that's why sometimes a breathing pattern will be prescribed because it suits, it supports the movement we want. So let's just try that and just get soft. All right, so inhale and then on the exhale, what are the lungs going to do? They're going to come forward and they're also going to shorten a little. Now inhale and exhale and inhale lung sliding around on the diaphragm. So if you can think of the bottom of your lung making contact with your diaphragm, you could think of the lung polishing the diaphragm.

Good. And then come down. And how did that feel? I like that image. Okay. Yes, there was a pen left here. All right, so we're going to talk about the heart because we're going to use a little bit of heart imagery. And this is only a very small portion of how much imagery you could give. And when I give this in a class, I probably would give one or two images and then stay with that for that persons. If they're doing privates, maybe two or three privates.

And then I would layer it on. And you'd be surprised how many of them can do multiple imagery layering in a particular piece of movement. So let's make a fist and we're going to imagine this is our heart and I'm going to put this pencil in my hand so that you can see the heart is actually on a diagonal, which is a little important. And then I'm going to put my heart between my lungs on the inside. So as the lungs are working in there, they are sliding around my heart.

And this would be the tip or the pointy end of the cone because the heart is sort of a cone shape. And then this, the bottom of the heart is attached to the diaphragm. So I'm going to take an inhale. My diaphragm is going where it's going down. So it's my heart going to stay there. What is my heart going to do? Diaphragm going down. This is my diaphragm. Diaphragm going up. Diaphragm going down, diaphragm going up. So now my heart is doing a little rotation as I inhale and exhale.

And since my heart is attached also to my cervical spine, I think of it as a Christmas tree ornament that you know the heart is my ornament and it's attached to the bow of the tree by a little string with a hook. And that's in my neck. Yeah. So if the diaphragm goes down, do your next go up through the ceiling? Well mine doesn't. Mine stays pretty much attached to my body. So, but as the heart is going down, it's being stretched. Can you imagine that? So the heart is getting exercise because I'm breathing.

So if I don't send my diaphragm down, my poor little heart is here going. Can I please do my 100 all right. So here we go. And just imagine the heart turning diaphragm down. Hard on turning. So it's turning counterclockwise. It's getting stretched. It's hanging off your neck.

[inaudible] yeah. Just poke your chin forward. Yeah. And do that little motion of heart down as your diaphragm goes down on an inhale. Does anybody really enjoy that position? So do you, um, I've had people tell me just by thinking of their heart hanging here, they don't have to worry about their neck anymore. So as we go forward and back, the heart is going to roll on our spine.

So let's imagine we have a ball in here and we're going to do that little image where we go forward. So the heart is rolling forward over the diaphragm or backward. Okay. The heart is going forward. The diaphragm is going relatively backward. But just think of your heart as a ball. If you came forward, it would have to go over the front. Yeah. And then as I come up, if I do a little extension, it's going to roll on my spine.

Now it's going to go to the back of my spine. So as it rolls over my diaphragm, now it's pulled to the back of my spine. Yes. Now, so yes, it depends on what your images. So if let's think the heart is the come, come back up. I mean heart is attached to the sternum, heart is attached to my spine.

If I round the heart is going to follow my spine as I extend a little bit, the heart is gonna follow my sternum. So it's like tennis, back and forth. So here we go. Heart to the spine, heart to the sternum, heart to the spine, hard to the sternum, heart to the spine. Maybe an inhale, maybe an exhale. Lungs going back, heart going, front, heart, going back, lungs coming forward and come up. Put your hands right on your shoulders. Imagine your lung is sliding around your heart and then we're going to go to the other side. The lung is sliding around your heart.

So going back to the lung image we did, and let's just do this, let's really Polish when you Polish something. So we're going to go in and around and around and around and around and Polish your heart and Polish your heart. Boy, I'm finding I'm really wanting to get it in this dimension. And then I'm thinking, Gosh, if I inhale and I don't try to hold my stomach and my heart is being stretched and shortened and getting a little bit of exercise in every dimension and come up. And then what we're going to do is imagine your Christmas tree ornament and it's a little heavy. So it hangs into gravity. So as I turned, since it's attached to my neck, can you see it's going to swing, swing and swing and swing and swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging and swinging and add your arm, add your arm, swing, swing, swing and swing. So that's just a little bit, it's a tiny little bit of what happens. So are you interested in seeing how some of that imagery may help you in your mat work? All right, so let's, let's just stand up for a moment before we go down to dewar 100 this is going to be, this is usually a little bit of a stretch for people.

You're going to inhale for five and I'm going to count it. One, two, three, four, five. Your challenges, can you have your die of fram go down? Incur incrementally in Hail three, four, five out the air. As Joe said, four. Five. Okay. Yeah, it's one long breath, but it has, it's going lower, lower, lower, low. So if you want a pulse, the breath, so you get that idea. All right, so let's round forward a little bit and then we'll just pump the arms like this. Here we go. And [inaudible]. Now pull your diaphragm up. Five and in Hale, three four, five x, hell three four, five down with the diaphragm on five up with the diaphragm on five.

So how did that feel? The hundred breaths. Good. Were you able to do that? Now we're going to do it on the floor with the 100 as you do the 100,100 can be challenging. See if you can stay with the idea of the breath moving. And one of the things that Joe talks about is the reason he started a lot of the mat work on the floor is to give the organs arrest to actually let them fall into the space. So if you'll please go down to your maps.

And so we're trying to let go the low lessons years ago. Yeah. Well you could say, um, let's rephrase that. We're not trying to let go of anything. We're trying to let in breath. How about that? Do you like that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we, we, let's, let's just see how it goes.

So if you'll get into position now I'm going to trust you all have a hundred position. You know where your legs need to go for you. So lift your head, neck and shoulders first, and then pull in your legs. Okay, I'm gonna try that again. Yeah. So I like to lift my head, neck, and shoulders, and think of my heart going to the back of my spine. That's just a little extra there. Then I like to pull my knees up over my hip joint.

Then I'm going to stretch out my legs. And here we go. Diaphragm down three, four, five and diaphragm up three, four, five. Diaphragm, down three, four, five and up to three, four, five and down. Two, three, four, five. Enough, two, three, four, five and air down. Three, four, five. And up to three, four, five. Inhale, exhale. Maybe think of your lungs hanging from your neck.

Hale three four, five oh two three for fun in Hail three, four, five and whole three, four, five. Now hold the position for a minute. Inhale with the idea of your lungs hanging from your neck. Tilt Your Chin up, which is not necessarily the position we want. Bring the head and neck back to the position. Do you see why that feels better?

And then come all the way down. Stretch the legs out long onto the floor. Okay, so take your arms over your head and as we round forward, the lungs are going to come forward or the heart is going to go backward. So let's come all the way up on an inhale. Good.

And then we're going to go back on an exhale and all the way up on an inhale, lungs are going around to your back. Exhale and roll down. And again, inhale, as my lungs go around my back, I can fill up and the space in the front has space for me to round. Exhale and roll down. And again, inhale and now let the air out as you go down.

Exhale and roll down. Now we're going to do one more, but before we do, remember on the exhale, the diaphragm is going up. Really lengthening your lower sac, your lower Oregon sack. So just for a minute, take an inhale at sail and feel the length as the diaphragm goes up. So that would be quote the flat stomach look. Alright. And it's okay in this position. So now let's do one more. Inhale up. Good. And as you exhale, exhale down.

And just imagine from all the way in your pelvis, long at sail diaphragm pulling up, lengthening everything arms over the head, and then bring the arms down to the side of the hip. Bring your right leg straight up to the ceiling. Good. And take a nice inhale and fill your leg up. Maybe your leg is a balloon as we did on in another class. So from here, as you make the circle, can you allow the diaphragm to drop? And then at the top we'll have an exhale.

So with Amy, diaphragm down, diaphragm, up, diaphragm, down, diaphragm, up, five across and then five out. Ready and diaphragm, down and up. Diaphragm, down and up. Air In, air out, air in, wringing out at the top across. Ring it out. And one more. Ring it out and stay. Now we're going to go out air into the lungs and up and out, air in and up and out. Air In and up in our air, in and up, an oud and air in and up and out.

And bring that leg slowly down, reaching away. And if you're doing it on an exhale, you're gonna feel length all the way from the pelvis, all the way up into the diaphragm. And that would be your colon. Just a little extra there. So let's bring the left leg up and then let's remind ourselves that, ah, you could think of what Joe said, ringing and sometimes they used a towel image. So on that exhale, even though you've made the circle, really take a moment and visualize your lungs ringing out, or maybe their air sponges. Okay. So we go across the body filling lit up, ring it out, fill it up, ring it out, circle around, air out, circle around, air out and around. Air Out. One more and around and air out.

Now the reverse around. Air Out. Inhale, diaphragm down, up, diaphragm, down, up, diaphragm, down, up. Can you really let it go into your center? And one more. Down and up. And then take an inhale. Reach your leg out, feel the descending colon length, and as your diaphragm pulls it up, just a little extra there. Good. And then bring your arms over your head. And let's roll up to do. Rolling back.

So come all the way up. I'm gonna put my little heart pan over here and I'm sitting up. Now I'm going to go to my heart for a minute. I just really feel that this is a heartfelt moment. All right, so I'm going to inhale. My heart is attached to my sternum. Boy, that really makes me want to feel the sternum lift.

Just imagine dropping your sternum. Just go ahead and drop it. Does that feel very good? So let's just sit up for a moment and then I'm going to allow my heart to be pulled back all the way back to my spine. Yes, it has to go through the trachea and the use of the gifts and the aorta. Basically it's going back. They're having a relationship with my spine and then I'm going to lift up on an inhale and then on the exhale I'm going to go back and feel the round shape.

I'm going to bring my legs in for rolling back. Now imagine that the heart is in there and could we do the rolling back as if our heart were rolling instead of just thinking spine. Make sure I don't roll off the table. Here we go. And [inaudible] baby, your heart is a wheel and you're rolling back. Good. And one more. Very good. And put your feet down for a moment.

And let's roll all the way back down for single leg stretch. So for a single leg stretch, what I'd like to do is focus on the air, the diaphragm going down and really extending my leg out. Because as, as I fill up this space, there's not enough room for my leg. So inhale down and exhale. Yeah.

Now switch the image. So as the diaphragm goes up, it pulls in your leg. And one more. Now both legs am hold onto your legs. This time as you reach out, you're going to inhale, your lungs are going to fill to the front of the back. Yeah. So you're going to feel your lungs go around all the way down. So you're like on an air mattress as you come back and you're going to ring all the air out. So here we go. Inhale. Now ring out the air.

Imagine that as a diaphragm lifts. The legs are just drawn up into your body and out. And one more good. And somebody chuckling over there. Why are you chuckling, Amy? She says that when she does this, it's like she doesn't have any legs.

Yeah, yeah. And so sometimes you know, when you're tired it feels like, oh my gosh, my leg feels like it's 400 pounds and I've got to bring that thing in one more time. It's kind of Nice. If you put the image into the core, then it becomes more core organized. All right, so scissors. Let's pro out. Let's press our right leg up into the air. As the leg is up into the air and we're, I'm working this, I'd like for us to think of our heart as forming part of the curve. So for instance, even though the heart goes forward on the inhale with the sternum, can you see now that the sternum is flex, therefore the heart is relatively backwards. So we're going to be scissoring legs from a rolling hard and okay, as the diaphragm goes down on my breathing, I may even feel that my heart is doing gymnastics, jumping up and jumping down and come all the way in and puts your feet on the ground and legs come out and roll all the way up for the spine.

Stretch. Open your feet out. So from here we're going to try a couple of different images. As I inhale and come forward, my heart is going to go back to my spine and then as I exhale it's going to come forward to my sternum and inhale, heart back and heart front. So I'm going to make a suggestion. What if you couldn't sit up if your heart didn't move? Okay, so you really have to stay with that. I don't move my heart does it for me.

And inhale heart back. Exhale. Heart comes up. Inhale heart back and exhale and come up. Good. And bring your hands out for the Saul. Remember when we did this, do you think that might have something to do with the saw?

So when I do my saw, I'm going to do it in a way from you. I just love this feeling. That is, I turn the lung as it fills, takes me around and then I ring it out. [inaudible] see, so I'm just following my lungs around. It may have, we may have to slow this down a little bit so you can really follow the long. Here we go and to the right and inhale, one, two, three. Now inhale, change, lungs go all the way around to the other side. One, two, three and up. And one, two, three and one, two, three and one more.

And one, two, three and come all the way up. I don't usually stop class and ask everybody how they're feeling, but was that a different experience? You like it? All of it is more free. More free. Okay. We'll check in with you at the end of class to see if you still feel free.

Let's come forward facing in for the swan dive. So put your hands at your side and we're going to lift on an inhale and come down on the exhale. As we lift on the inhale, the sternum is going to come forward because we are in a back backbend yes. And exhale as the sternum lifts and bands. What's the heart going to do? Yeah, and down.

So imagine my heart is pulled forward. Ah, my spine wants to bend because of my heart. And then roll down. Now stop for a minute. And what if you could imagine that your heart is attached to your cervical spine. And so you pull that line up as you lift and you may find that your head, neck and head position changes and all the way down. So was anybody here like to do swan dive?

Anybody want to do swan dive? What I'd like to do is will some will see how many of you are gonna are willing to do swan dive. You do not have to do swan dive. Okay, so I'm going to have the swan divers. They're going to imagine that their heart is rolling back and forth. And so the swan dive is the heart rolling. Okay, so come up. I'd like the arms out to the side. This is actually how Joe doesn't return to life.

He does not have the stance over your head. Yeah, but let's start at the top so we can get up there and then when you let go and we're only gonna do this three times. All right, here we go. And heart down. Heart Up, heart down, heart up, heart down, heart up. Very nice. I know some of you are enjoying it so much you want to do more, but you may not. You, you must get the most out of it that you can while you're doing it. And let's get ready for um, the single leg kick.

So hands, hands are here. Now I'm going to, I'm going to ask for something a little different. Let's put our hands together for a moment. What happens to the shoulder blade? Do they, oh, do they pull apart or do they come together? They come together. If they come, they come together. If your hands are together [inaudible] yeah, they come. The shoulder comes forward. What are the shoulder blades to relative. Yeah, they come apart. Does my s is my sternum likely to want to bend more or less than this position?

Less. Yeah. Well yeah, we want it to extend. So are we going to get more extension like this or are we going to get more extension like this? Okay, so let's just try that for a moment and feel like your Scapula scapular coming together. Your sternum is bending. Now I like to remind people to sternum is actually three bones. They are, they are somewhat fused but they're bendable. Think of a bow and arrow. When you have the bow, when you put the string on it, it bends a little. It's still one bow.

So I'm gonna use my inhale to let the stern and press forward. My Heart's going to follow it and my lungs are gonna fill up to the back. So we have a one, two, three and reach. Inhale, inhale and inhale. Inhale, exhale. And inhale. Inhale, hold. Can you think of the inhale in the chest more than the leg pattern?

Chest, chest, and the chest. Chest, and my sternum is flexible. My ribcage is strong, my lungs breathe deeply. And one, two, three and the last one, two, three. Good. And then come down for double leg kick a little bit more. Difficult to get that. But if you can really think of my sternum is flexible, my heart is pulling forward, my lungs are pulling back, taken. Inhale and three kicks with the legs. One, two, three. Now lungs fill. Good.

And again, one, two, three. As my lungs fill, my diaphragm goes down. Have a nice little cushion to lay on. And one, two, three, come up with your heart. Come up with your heart. Let it attach to your Christmas street and one, two, three, and all the way up. Good. And come all the way down and press back into a nice rest. Now whenever I say rest, I don't really mean rest.

What I mean is go inside. Pick something that you want to focus on. When I think of this, I like to imagine the inhale, my lungs are going to round my back. And on the exhale I can feel my diaphragm pulling up in their space between my belly and my knees. And I like that because it's comes from my breath. One more inhale, the lungs reaching around. And An exhale. Now do keep the connection with your neck.

So if you were to lift your chin up just a bit, lift your chin up just a bit. Does that really support your breathing or does it feel better to lengthen your neck and imagine your lungs are attached? Can you feel that a little bit better? Alright. So inhale, one more time. Inhale. You see it would be right up in here, going all the way down and then the at sail coming around and then the inhale and exhale and then bring yourself to supine laying on your back with your feet down. We're getting ready for shoulder bridge. Your roles, you felt gills. I thought that the most looking back is the so also finish.

Yes. And I forgot, I forgot, I forget this, but uh, I it, it's an incredible, if you didn't have a diaphragm and you didn't have lungs and we still had gills, we would have to run I think something like 90 plus miles an hour to force enough air through this to be able to get oxygen into our lungs. So it's kind of Nice. We have this diaphragm and uh, lung system. So lay down on your mat and we're going to do something that, um, I had a little incident where I had to do some recovery and when you recover a recover from surgery, they really have to get you breathing again. So I'm only telling you a little bit about my story to tell you how this happened. So what we're going to do is lift up into the plank line and you know, I think I'm going to have you separate your feet first to try this.

So lift up on an inhale and stay there for a minute. An exhale, and feel your diaphragm pulling all of your organs up into the upper sack. Yes, but it's actually downhill according to gravity. And then come back down again. So for instance, I'm gonna use Amy, so this could get a little confusing, particularly. Sure. Amy, I'm up here. This is one of my favorite things to do when I'm tired. So as the diaphragm goes down, this spills, and you can do it with us as, as you watch her. So inhale, yes. See, I'm getting her to actually make a little stomach there.

I'm feeling really proud of myself. Okay, so inhale and notice that we would hardly call her fat. So it's not about that. So she's gonna Inhale and everything is moving down. Exhale, these organs are being pulled up, sort of like a little vacuum. Um, so now she's going to lift up into a bridge. So if the diaphragm moves, the organs die.

If it moves downward relative to gravity, you're actually pushing something uphill. Your sister this. So she's going to inhale and she's going to push her organs. So she's going to push her intestines, her bladder, whatever else she's got in their ovaries. She's going to push them up ill to her knees, and then she's going to exhale and pull them back down. I call this weightlifting for the Oregon's.

So let's do that four times and inhale, push it up. Hill. Exhale, pull it down. Hill. Inhale weight, lift those organs up and exhale. See if they like this cause they like to move. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale and then come back down. Did anybody feel anything that they'd like to share in reference to that one? Oh, so you, you notice a difference between the right and the left side.

So this might be something you're motivated to explore. Okay. Because plots is supposed to be balanced. So I often said, you know, if you're not balanced in your breathing, you couldn't possibly, what's the point of starting B? Remember it's the first lesson is breathing. Anybody else? Tension encroaching. Okay. So her lower back doesn't have as much tension. Uh, it doesn't crunch. So it's easier for you to support the position.

Well, what I find that all of this is that for it was the muscles that were controlling the movement. And now I feel it's the organs that control the movement and the muscles just supportive. So it's a different, yeah, yeah, completely opposite. And the thing is the muscles are still working. Sometimes what she said is that she felt as if instead of the muscles pulling her bones into different positions, am I correct so far that the Oregon focus allows her organs to move and her muscles and bones just follow into the shape. So there's more support. So the muscles support, the movement of the organs as opposed to by focus is okay, if I can just will the muscles to move in a certain way, I don't even think of the organs. They kind of just, okay.

So the muscles are bringing your muscle and bone along, right? Which is the way I've always been approached. It is like first it's the muscles you will just contract or whatever and the rest just goes along for the ride. Whereas if you focus on the organs, if they're the prime, the first movement, then the muscles just support whatever that movement is. Okay? Yes. So the organs are supporting your movement. And uh, you said something interesting that I'd like to repeat. You said, I used to will my muscles to make the positions and I find the word will as if your body had to be told what to do. And to me that's, you're not enjoying yourself if you're busy going around telling it what to do. It's bossy. I thank you Ruth.

So now let's bring our legs together and we're going to do Oregon lifting. So as you breathe, we're going to do each leg four times. Just have that image. Obviously we're not always inhaling. We're going to have an exhale. Inhale, exhale. But keep that image and think of that whole system supporting the bridge that you're in. So here we go, all the way up and we can start with an inhale.

Just do get ourselves in the position. Lift the right leg up on the exhale and down on the inhale, up on the exhale, down on the inhale, up on the exhale. Two more down and lift and down and lift and place that foot on the floor. Take another inhale just to find that position again. And then on the exhale, lift your left leg and down and up and down and up.

Three and uh, and four and up. Put the foot down. I always like to take another moon moment. Inhale, feel that, and then exhale and feel all the Oregon's lengthen in the lower sac as you exhale and pull down, straighten your legs out. Yeah, if you went to, and let's roll up for a spine twist. Keep your legs together. So when we did the saw, we worked from the lung. Now let's work from the heart. So if I were sitting up here and I were going to do a nice we, what we did in the Sol is we followed the breath around with an inhale.

Now I would like you to inhale and think of your heart. Two, three polishing off the surface of your lung and the lung is polishing off the surface of your heart. See? So they're just smooth, nice and smooth and gliding. All right, so we will go a nice inhale and then turn to the right. Exhale to three. Inhale, exhale to three. Where is the heart hanging from? And one, two, three and one, two, three and one, two, three and come back to the center and come down.

And the sidekicks. So going to lay down, hand up. So I liked this position because I imagine my heart's in here and I imagine a nice long line that my heart can hang from my neck and my lungs too. I find that if I, sometimes if people are on the floor like this, you can see that the line is sort of kinked. So this is just a preference I have, but the rest will work. So we have inhale and exhale.

[inaudible] right as we lift, I'm going to lift on an inhale. I'm gonna imagine the air not only goes into my lungs, but into my leg. And as I exhale, everything closes. Inhale, everything opens. Exhale, inhale X. [inaudible]. So I'm going to bring my leg up here and I d I'm going to do this little movement that I'm very partial to, but I'm going to think of this as my lung.

So I'm gonna change the normal breathing that I do. So my lung goes back. Inhale my lung forward. Inhale, [inaudible] sale. Imagine that it should go back. It's your lung that's directing and down and bring your legs out. Inhale up. Now my lung is going to come forward. They're going to close this time. As I inhale, I'm going to think of my lungs separating and my heart coming forward on my sternum. Like the sun is coming out between the clouds. Inhale, clouds are coming together.

Clouds are coming apart. Sun's coming out and down. Think of your heart. It's going back. Think of your heart coming forward and down and then come up and go to the other side. Alright, so here we go. Hand behind. Now you could imagine as you come forward, just bring your leg forward and you're going to inhale now take it back.

You could imagine on the exhale the diaphragm is pulling up and you are getting an incredible stretch. So the ace ending colon is actually in your pelvis. Incision leg pulls back and your diaphragm goes up. Wow, what a nice stretch. So inhale to exhale, inhale to exhale, inhale to exhale. Let me see those diaphragms doing their diaphragmatic exercise.

Inhale, exhale and inhale and exhale and bring the legs together. Now inhale up, and then when people tell you to reach your leg out, when you come down, you could imagine that your diaphragm is going in the opposite direction so the leg goes up and then the leg goes out and the diaphragm goes up and inhale and the diaphragm. Since all of these things are attached to our spine, what we can imagine is that maybe our spine doesn't lengthen our Oregon's, maybe our Oregon's lengthen our spine. Good. And then on its side, again, the idea of the lung going in. So we would have to start with the inhale because the lung is back. And exhale the lungs front. So heart forward, heart, back, heart forward, heart back, hard forward, heart, back, heart forward, hard back, breathing nicely, feeling the diaphragm. Go to whatever image you want and down. Bring your leg out and heart goes back.

My left lung lifts and opens me on this side of the room. It'll be the right lung or right or you. It's all of you that your right lung. So you'll go down, heel, your right lung fill and open you up and down. And again, lift and forward. Let me see those right lungs unfolding like flowers and down in one more.

Lift and forward and on. Twist and come down. Very interesting, rich exercise in term of imagery with hearts turning everything hanging. Now let's put our feet toward the center of the room and we'll go into our teaser. So one of the things that's really interesting is Oregon's fit inside of your body. That's a good thing. That's the good news. Uh, I joke about this all the time, but it might be easier to, for instance, to do a liver test if your doctor just said, okay, pat, why don't you bend over there to your left? And my liver would stay here on the pole in my body, and then he could look at it and test it. But it doesn't do that.

It has to fit the shape of me. So when we do a teaser, where are the organs going to go? All of them. Are they going to come forward? [inaudible] yeah, they're going to go to the back. That's a very, that's good. And that's a good thing. So in order to make a teaser, we really have to imagine our organs pulled back. So you could think of all of them being attached to the body wall by, they're called Mesenteries, but they actually will draw the Oregons to the spine.

So let's start with a small teaser first. Well, let's just even keep our legs down and we're going to go back. Now as you come up, you have to think of the reverse in your organs, organs going back. Now the Oregons aren't necessarily going front here, but they're sort of in riposte. And now I'm going to think, okay, my Oregon's are, they're delighting in meeting my spine. They're having a wonderful dine back there and they don't get to visit there very often and down. And then every time I do the teaser and I get this wonderful feeling, the person that lives inside of me hates the teaser, regrets, the Teaser, and I really lust after the teaser or right?

That's your stomach talking right there. So what I'd like you to do now is I want you all to do your favorite teaser and we're going to do just three of them. So you're going to come up with that whole image of your organs coming down. All right? So you're not going to worry about your c curve. You know, you're gonna worry about your arm position. You know, sometimes. Um, I, I did when I was a dancer, they used to say, go ahead and do it. If it looks bad, we'll just, we won't put that on stage, but it might have a value just in the experience.

So we're going to do three teasers a year away. So let's all start flat on the mat and let's come up on an ex sale because it really helps facilitate the curve. Here we go. Take an inhale and up on the exhale. Good. Now inhale, let your organs just go reaching into the floor into gravity and they're going to come up on the x Hale, good. And all the way down. I only promise three. You don't get four.

So if you don't make the most of this, you'll have to do it later. And the organs are coming back to the spine, making the curve, reaching good, and then rolling all the way back and down and then come up and we're going to do a mermaid. So Ms Ruth and I were talking about the mermaid. Um, some people do the mermaid, some people don't. If it doesn't feel comfortable to your knees, you do not have to do this. But we're going to bring the leg that's closest to the ocean.

We're going to bend that one back and bring this one forward. And then we're going to imagine that whole idea. It would be the left side of you. So the left lung is going down, touch the back and the bottom of the left lung. Touch the little top of it where it peaks out, and then travel up your neck and feel the cervical, plural ligament. Feel that stretch.

Now that stretch is going to be your mermaid and inhale and x, ah, [inaudible] bring your legs together and other side. So now if you touched just for a moment, touch different spots. Touch the back of your neck, bring your arms up. You're thinking now of your right lung. Yes. And, and then focus on the exhale. The diaphragm goes up, the diaphragm goes down. Remember earlier at the beginning of the class we talked about if the diaphragm went down, however the stretch got deeper and easier, and one more.

Go ahead and turn facing the center of the room for your seal. So right now I'm thinking, Gosh, my heart is to the back to help make a curl shape. My sternum is slightly flexed in as a rollback on the inhale. I have a lot of air back here so I don't have to worry about whether my spine is a Nabi or not. Okay, so here we go. Inhale back, clap. Two, three, up, clap. Two, three. Inhale, clap. Two, three. Exhale. One, two, three. Inhale, one, two, three. Exhale.

One, two, three, one, two, three. And Finish two, three. Put your feet down on the floor. And we're going to do our push up. So let's all face the center of the room.

All right. And let's stay in the four, four legged stance position there. And let's just do a little arch and a c. So when you make, applaud these round back, go ahead, make a Polonius round back. And Amy come up to the table. Cool. Thank you, dear. You're welcome. Okay, so she's gonna make a round back and it would be a good idea perhaps to get the lungs to come back so that I have less organ in the front.

Yes. And then she's going to take an exhale and then she's going to come down and she's going to inhale and press the heart to the front. So we're going to move on the exhale and, but we're gonna emphasize on the inhale what our Oregon di is doing. So filling up the back on the inhale, starting to move on an exhale, then filling up the lungs again, heart coming forward. Exhale as you transition. Inhale, feel the lungs at sail as you transition.

Inhale, feel that sternum forward. Feel the connection of your neck to your heart and lungs. One more. And inhale, everything goes back and exhale, and then the heart comes forward. And then make a flat line. And let's go to a pushup position. Just stay here.

Uh, let's start with the plank. You wanna s oh yeah, you can, you can go down there. I see. I thought she was asking me if she should lay on the floor or, or not. Um, yes. All right, so we're in the pushup position. Okay. And let's soften our elbows please. Just, uh, that's a little thing I have. Um, Bruce King also had that thing. He didn't like to see anything hyper extended. All right, so take an inhale and let you in. Don't move or do any pushups yet.

Inhale and allow the diaphragm to move down and exhale and imagine your diaphragm pulling your organs up to give you some stability. Inhale, organs go down. Yeah, you can bend your knees if you want. Exhale and they come up. So now inhale as she goes down, matching and then exhale, pull the organs up and let the diaphragm pull the organs up into your upper body. And inhale down. Exhale up. And one more. Inhale down and exhale up. And let's go to an up stretch. Yeah, no recipe. You in this position and that to make a nice inhale, walk your, let your hands back to your feet on an exhale. Walk, walk, walk, walk.

Feel your feet into the ground. We're going to start rolling up. As you roll up every time you inhale, imagine your lungs going down, pulling the back of your spine vertical. Inhale a little bit of a lift. Exhale. Inhale, lungs going down, lengthening your spine. Another inhale as you start to feel the tail bone reaching toward the floor. And now there inhale, the lungs are really diving down.

Another inhale on the exhale. Feel your organs coming up. Inhale, feel your heart coming forward as your lungs go down. Another inhale, feel the connection to your neck and other inhale, feel it out the top of your head. Exhale and finish. So would anybody like to offer anything about this class that you, you think that the, um, people that are watching might want to know?

Um, I it, the freedom is in switching my, um, thought a pattern as to what comes first and allowing the freedom to come from the inside. So freedom coming from the inside. I would like to add this. It's not that you don't want to focus on muscle and bones, it's just that this is a dimension that often just we don't get there. And then all of you have done mat work and [inaudible] work or, and many other kinds of body work for many years. So this might be advanced imagery and I tried to keep it really small, so you might have fun one day. Hicks the struggle out of it.

It takes the struggle out of it, but you may want to go back to the muscle. That failure. Yeah. Well, what about you Christie? Well, I'm trying to think of an exact phrase you might've used for me. I agree with them that it's freeing, but um, I've spent, you know, we spend years protecting and Gurtz for trussing this area, sort of let that go. I hear things that are more metaphorical when you're speaking about, um, stretching the heart. Um, I'm like, I feel that more than there. You know, I, I would like to take this and see how that, among other things that you've said fit in the real world. Okay. So yes, there's the metaphorical, and what I like about this is it's actually how your body's working. So your heart is actually doing this kind of exercise, Miss Ruth, um, lots and lots, lots about myself internally.

My heart is always been very far to the left and I got this. So I learned a lot about myself, you know, Mike torques and the fact that my right side is often check this lock and most of the time it's probably because my heart is too far to the left. And that's why there's so much left. Sidedness um, my heart is much stronger than my lungs. It was easier to feel and move from my heart. Um, it certainly gets me out of typical habit patterns just because it gives me a new, uh, a new focus. Right. And Sir and yeah, it takes a lot of distress and strain. But, um, I love it. I don't know.

It's a lot. She likes she can move from her heart more easily. I know that here. Yeah. Oh, right. Oh, okay. Well, and, and, and the more, the more you practice, the more you practice it, lung trouble in the last four years, you know, so, so that makes sense. Well, thank you. Thank you for breathing with us. I'm agreeing with pretty much everything you said. For me, it just brought it inside so much more and every exercise was like a wonderful new fun thing to explore. And I was very much nowhere, but it was my brain out there.

It was definitely in here and I noticed my back muscles actually working more. I think that I was letting this rule me and when I let it go a little bit, then all of a sudden this kicked in a lot more than it ever had. So you're, you were more efficient. Yeah. Yeah. Without even knowing I was getting fishing now that's interesting. Without knowing that I was inefficient because you don't, you can't make a conscious improvement in something if you don't have something to compare it to. So because you've done this, these exercises so many times, you know what you normally feel, so you were able to have a compare and contrast.

I think I've talked to you about it for the other day, but my diaphragm was stuck on my ads right here. So getting really getting that freed up was huge. And then also the heart just felt much more in the heart. Were you trained as a dancer? I was, yes. When all of us who were danced trained, we weren't allowed to show our stomach. The only time you were really allowed to breathe deeply is when you were off stage.

And so that becomes that kind of training done every day seriously, um, starts to create patterns in our body. And then, you know, the curtains closed on our career. We leave and we're no longer, um, performing, but we don't, we don't know how to do anything. I felt like I was, I'm always holding, holding, holding, holding. So to let that go, it's huge. Are you letting go right now because you look, because you look, you look fantastic. I'm going to say me, you've been working a little bit with this on me. Why do you have to agree with Emily? Well, everybody also I, and throughout the last couple of days, but I'm feeling a lot more in my back, the back of my body, the back of my neck, my back extensors, all the way down. So by thinking about my internal self, I'm not, not gonna phrase it. There's an overuse of the flexors, I think trunk flexors, hip flexors.

So just having this experience of thinking about the organs closer to my spine, my spine enlivened and came up and opened, and now I'm feeling my extensors, which I feel like I'm more up and open. Does that make sense? So from a training perspective, I want my extensors to be a little bit more awake and stronger. I'm not falling, but then all the other stuff. So here's, here's a little tip for people who are watching, who are students and also people who are teachers. We did this specifically to focus on heart and lungs. You may only want to offer up this in two or three places where you know the class can digest it. If you give too much, it can be overwhelming.

So thank you for being a wonderful audience, well trained and very receptive, and it's been a wonderful day.