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Yoga teachers program

A guided practice for the seventh level of yoga, focusing on relaxation, specific postures, and breath control.

Begin with deep relaxation, systematically directing awareness to each body part while lying down to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. The practice then proceeds through a series of postures starting from a seated position. Key exercises include a sequence of stretches and bends, a one-legged forward fold with a therapeutic variation, a spinal twist, a variation of a backbend, and a shoulder stand with bent knees. Conclude with a focused breathing exercise involving a specific throat contraction and mental observation of the breath's pathway. The session ends with chanting.

"Feel your whole body. Our relaxation is without physical movement. We work only with consciousness and attention."

"In this upside-down position with bent knees, it is quite an unusual posture that challenges how we coordinate and perceive our body in space."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Greetings to all international devotees and followers via webcast. Today we will practice the seventh level of Yoga in Daily Life. Let us begin by chanting Oṁ three times. Please take your seat and position. Close your eyes. Take a deep inhalation. Settle into Ānanda Āsana. We will start with relaxation. Be in a very comfortable position. Face towards the altar. Relax your hands beside the body, palms upward. Feel relaxed. Take a deep inhalation and exhalation. Feel your whole body. Our relaxation is without physical movement. We work only with consciousness and attention, using this subtle movement of attention. We simply touch the different parts of the body with our awareness, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which brings relaxation to the various parts. Feel your heels and the point where they touch the ground. From there, feel and relax your feet, ankle joints, and toes. Feel how the ground touches your calf muscles and relax them, relaxing the lower legs. Relax your knees and thigh muscles. Feel the point where the ground touches your buttocks and relax your buttocks and hip joints. Feel your arms where the ground touches your hands and lower arms. Relax these parts: hands and fingers, wrists, lower arms, and elbows. Relax your upper arms and shoulders. Feel your back, especially the shoulder blade area where it touches the ground, and relax this area, including the muscles between the shoulder blades. Finally, feel your head, the back part where it touches the ground. Relax your scalp and your face, especially the eyes and forehead. While doing this, follow your normal breath. Feel the breath as it passes through your throat area, and relax your neck and throat. Now, release this concentration as we slowly finish the relaxation. Take some more deep breaths. Deep inhalation and long exhalation. Deep inhalation and long exhalation again. Slowly come back, step by step, moving the parts of the body. First, the fingers on the hands. Then the legs. Roll the hands in and out on the ground. Do the same with the legs. Stretch your hands over your head for a good stretch. Feel the back muscles and the side muscles of the trunk, taking care of your lower back as well. Then, with hands up, roll onto your side, right and left, and slowly sit up. With the help of your hands, and as a warm-up, we will practice Kaṭhupranām. Please sit in Vajrāsana. This is the main complex exercise of this level, level 7, which is also introduced from the first level. Those who practice it regularly will know it. From the very beginning of this exercise, please sit straight with relaxed shoulders, hands on the thighs. Relax your face and jaw. If possible, practice abdominal breathing. Inhale as we start, raising the hands up. Then put the palms together for a good stretch, keeping the elbows straight. Next is Śaśāṅkāsana: exhale as you lower your forearms to the floor, bringing your forehead down, then slide forward into the next position. From there, come up with the trunk, then straighten the back with straight arms and straight knees. Step forward with the right leg, keeping the back as straight as possible. Then come up, hands up, with a good stretch, palms together, elbows straight, and the pelvis down. Next position: hands down. Bring the left leg forward, keeping the knees straight for a little stretch in the back and the backside muscles of the legs. Inhale and come up. This is the third good stretch with the hands. Then exhale, bending forward with the right leg going backward. Then hands up, elbows straight, palms together, and smile. Then hands down. Step backward with the other leg for another good stretch for the whole back and legs. Next, come down. Then, slide backward a little bit, and again, a little bit more. Inhale, come up with the hands, and exhale, returning to the starting position. This is half of the complete round, as we can change the leading leg, but considering our time is short today, we will continue with other exercises. This concludes Kaṭhupranām for today. There is a variation of Yoga Mudrā with one leg. Please prepare for this. One leg is drawn towards the perineum, and the other is out to the side. This is Ekapāda Yoga Mudrā. Both arms and the leg that is in front are involved. Slowly, inhale as we come up a little, maintaining the whole position. Do some stretching. Then bend forward as in the normal Yoga Mudrā. Relax your back. Feel and relax your shoulders, and slowly come up on an inhalation. Exhale as you bring your hands down. We will do it on the other side, so change the legs. Inhale, hands up, get down. Exhale. Inhale and come up, then bring the hands back. What follows is not part of this level, but from this posture, we can bend toward the other leg. It is very useful for some muscle problems in the lower leg, so we can try this now, even though it is not the basic Ekapāda Yoga Mudrā. So we can try: inhale, and then bend toward the other leg. It is much more demanding. Try to bend forward and try to feel your lower back, these parts where the muscles are. Then slowly come up and bring the hands down. This was just an addition, as it can have therapeutic effects for those with problems or sensitive areas there. The next āsana from Vajrāsana is Ardha Uttamkati Āsana. Come up. Inhale, first bring the right leg to the front. Then inhale, bringing the hands to shoulder height. Then exhale as you turn with the right leg towards the left heel, bending a little backward and creating a torsion for the spine. Look downward. According to the book, the leg that is back should be on the toes. Slowly come back on an inhalation, hands down, and slowly get back to Vajrāsana. We will practice this with the other leg. Please come up, then hands up, and turn. Bend, turn, and look back. If possible, try to turn your head a little bit more and look down and back. Slowly we come back. Inhale, place hands on the knees or thighs, and slowly return to the starting position. We did not do as many rounds as we usually do with this exercise. We can skip Ānandāsana. We will continue with a Bhujaṅgāsana variation. Please take your position. Lie down with hands in front and legs together. Inhale, come up with the upper body, and exhale down. Inhale, come up. The head should be a little higher than the arms, but not too much. Try to hold this position, and then go down. Once more: inhale, hold the position for a while in Kumbhaka, and then slowly come back. We will continue with some relaxation in Yoga Mudrā, though it is somewhat demanding. Sit in Vajrāsana. In this variation, make fists and place them at the abdomen, on the thighs or close to the stomach. Inhale, then exhale as you bend forward. Breathing is a little harder in this position, but it helps us observe or feel it better. Relax your face muscles. Relax your back. Feel your breathing. Slowly come up with a straight back. Relax your fingers and hands. Inhale, exhale, and relax your abdomen. For today, the next one is the last āsana: Sarvāṅgāsana. This is also a variation for this level. Everyone, please adjust your shirts and take care that your mālā is not pressing on your neck. Please take your starting position, lying down with legs together and hands beside the body. This is the variation where the knees are bent in the shoulder stand. First, take the Sarvāṅgāsana position. You can come up with the legs. Fix your pelvis and back, supporting it with your hands. Feel this position. Normally, the legs are in the same line as the trunk. Then slowly bend your knees, but only the knees; the thighs remain in the same position. The lower legs should be approximately parallel to the ground. We do not bend the hip joints. The effects are quite similar to the normal Sarvāṅgāsana position. It brings more blood to the head, which is good for concentration, memory, and releasing tension and stress. It massages the throat area and gives some insight into the picture of our own body—how we perceive it. In this upside-down position with bent knees, it is quite an unusual posture that challenges how we coordinate and perceive our body in space and its orientation. Now, straighten your knees and slowly make contact with the ground carefully. As a counter-position, you can use one from the first level: just bend backward a little and stretch your back and neck. Take your favorite position. Hold for a couple of breaths, and then just relax in Ānanda Āsana. Take a deep inhalation and a long exhalation. Just follow your breathing process. Relax your face muscles, eyes, and forehead. Relax your jaw. Also, feel and relax the area of the neck and throat. Do a little stretching. Come back from relaxation. Slowly sit up for the prāṇāyāma of this level, which is Ujjāyī. We will practice it for a couple of minutes. Close your eyes and relax your hands. Keep your back straight, neck straight, and lower back not over-bent forward or backward. Just relax and follow the normal breathing process naturally. Slowly, we can start to observe the breath mentally from the navel through the chest area and heart, up to the throat on the inhalation. On the exhalation, observe from the throat, through the chest and heart, back to the navel. It is not necessary to move the breath physically in this way; just follow it mentally: inhalation up, exhalation down. Perform Jālandhara Bandha, the chin lock. Follow the breath: inhalation from the navel to the throat, and exhalation from the throat back to the navel. In this position, the throat area is slightly contracted, creating a soft sound that helps maintain mental focus and concentration. Follow the breath with Jālandhara Bandha. You can connect it with Khecarī Mudrā by rolling the tongue back towards the throat. Five more breaths. We are ready. Slowly release Jālandhara Bandha and Khecarī Mudrā. Come back to normal breathing. This exercise is not for a very long duration, especially at the beginning—about 20 to 25 breaths in one session is sufficient. Finally, we will chant Oṁ three times. Inhale deeply. (Chanting) And for now, we say goodbye for the webcast. Rozloučíme se opět s webcastingem. Thank you for joining us. We will continue the webcast for one more hour. It is 5:30.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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