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Relax your entire body, from your toes to the top of your head. Feel the contact of your body with the floor. Relax completely. Now, take one deep inhale and exhale. Once more, inhale and exhale. Move your fingers and your toes. Now inhale and try to stretch your body. Be aware of your neighbors and exhale. We will now slowly practice Pavanamuktāsana. With your right leg, inhale and bend your right knee. Exhale, bringing your nose toward your knee, but keep your shoulder blades on the floor. Inhale, placing your head back on the floor, and exhale as you stretch your leg. Inhale with the left leg. Exhale, nose to the knee. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale... Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, and once more. Inhale, inhale, exhale. Inhale, inhale, and exhale. Left side: inhale, exhale. Inhale, inhale, and exhale. Now feel the circulation in your legs. Feel your lower back and also feel your abdomen. Pavanamuktāsana is excellent for digestion. Now, take one deep inhale and exhale. Slowly stand up. We will practice more in a standing position because the hall is full. Stand with your feet a comfortable distance apart, about the width of your hip joints. Try to ensure your pelvis does not tilt too far back, especially when you stretch your body upward. Try to keep your lower back from arching backward. Always have a picture of a gymnast who is jumping and making these movements; do not practice like that. Now, imagine you are closing a zipper. We will stretch our body. Inhale, stretching up. Remain, and exhale. Two: stretch and remain in the position. You will feel the muscles in your legs. Exhale. Also try to press your ears with your upper arms. Inhale, and take your arms a little back. Exhale. And once more. Inhale, stretch a little back. Exhale. Relax your arms. This is excellent for enabling you to inhale more deeply. When we start to breathe a little deeper, we immediately have more energy and less tension. This is especially useful when you are at work, sitting for eight hours. You may practice this āsana at your work. Now stretch again, but keep your heels on the floor. On the right side, inhale and exhale. Inhale, try to press your ears with your upper arms. Be aware of the position of your pelvis. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, and three. Exhale. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, and exhale down. Be aware of your breathing, especially now in the chest area. We know there are three variations of Pavanamuktāsana. First on the back, and now we will do it in a standing position. When we practice Pavanamuktāsana standing, try to imagine you are on the floor and the picture just rotates 90 degrees. Try to do it like this: inhale, and your knee comes up, more up, more up, while keeping your spinal column straight. Try not to do it like this. This is also excellent for your psoas muscle. Inhale. It is good for concentration, balance, and focus. Exhale, right leg here. Inhale and exhale, your right leg goes up, up, more up. Inhale, exhale, two up. Inhale, three. Inhale, four. Inhale, five. Inhale, six. Inhale, seven. Inhale, eight. Inhale nine, inhale, and ten up, more up. Inhale, stay in this position and relax. You may feel your heart beating a little quicker, but that is good. Relax in this position. Be aware of circulation in your legs. Be aware of your breathing. With your help and blessing, everything is possible. I don't know one more āsana now, and after that we will relax. Separate your legs a little. A little more. And open them a little. Uttānāsana. This is excellent for our legs, especially when you are on anuṣṭhānī, and also for all of us. We will go down. Be careful with your knees. If you have any problem, we will do only the first part. Second, check the alignment of your foot. In that line should be your calf, knee, and thigh—not turned in or out, but the same. When you go down, do not do it this way, but imagine you have something on your head and your pelvis is moving forward. First inhale, two: remain in this position—pelvis, spinal column, legs up and down, down and also up, like this wall behind you. We will also do this. You will feel your heart; this is very important. Feel your heart. So it's important not to bend forward like this, but to keep the pelvis straight, open your chest, and strengthen the whole body. If you have any problem with the knee, remain only in this position. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, two: pelvis a little back, inhale, and three down like Mandukāsana, and up and relax. Sometimes you may feel a little dizziness; it means we need more food for the brain, and you know how. We were practicing this āsana with Viśvagurujī, yes. You know? No? Okay, we will do it Viśvagurujī's way: inhale, exhale, and remain in the position. Viśvagurujī usually starts to talk, telling some nice story, in this position. But I will not. Inhale, two: in this position, the story starts to become even more interesting. Nice story. Up, and we will relax in the last position. And up. Excellent. Now relax in Ānanda Āsana. This āsana is so important. Why? First, it relaxes you. It is good for circulation in your legs. It is excellent for strengthening the muscles. If we want to have a joint in good condition, we need the strength of the muscles. Also, when you completely relax in this position, you may feel the nice circulation in the pelvic diaphragm. Especially, you feel this area of the Mūlādhāra Chakra when you are strengthening this low diaphragm. You also work on all the inner organs; it is excellent against incontinence and painful periods. It is a preparation for birth—not when you are in the last week of pregnancy, but it was done in previous times as preparation for birth. Also for strengthening, to be more here and now. When you feel your heart, take one deep inhale. Exhale and slowly stand up. Breathe normally, just be in the position, and we will do Catuṣpādāsana nicely. From the hip joints, we will go down, stretch the muscles, and this is also for our breathing, especially the upper part, against asthma and myositis. Inhale slowly, go up. Be aware of the position of your pelvis. Now, slowly go down parallel to the floor. And in the end, go down. Be aware that the distance from the hip joints to the shoulders is the same as the distance between your feet and your palms. Be aware that you are on four points. Distribute the weight of the body 50% on the legs and 50% on the arms. Feel the stretching in your legs. It is not only the stretching of your muscles; in this position you have a nice tonus in your veins, and you are also stretching your nerves. Be aware of your breathing—not only in the clavicular area, but also with active abdomen and diaphragm breathing. We will go up, inhale, and exhale. Be aware of your breathing. After this āsana, you start to feel a little warm, yes? That is beautiful. During the winter, if you're feeling cold, one more āsana and a little blanket will be good. Once more, and after that we will relax. Inhale and nicely go down, all the time under control. Everything is under the control of your muscles. After these āsanas, we will do a little more for our balance and also for concentration and focus. But first, we will nicely stretch and bring life into our legs. Now, inhale. Up and exhale and relax. Relax in Ānanda Āsana and feel the circulation again. You don't need to cover your body now. Feel the circulation—not only in the legs, abdomen, and kidney area. The whole body is circulating; breathing is different, deeper. It is not only circulation of your blood, but also circulation of lymph and circulation of your prāṇa. Every day we hear here, Vasant and everybody talk about cleaning this pond—not pond, but this Nāḍī channel. When you clean the channel, it is very important; water is able to flow. Also, with prāṇāyāma and with āsanas, we are cleaning the channel, and prāṇa is able to flow. But the means are all the same. That is the Sanātana. How you clean the channel determines if the water will be clean, not smelly. The same thing is inside with our own channel. Now, slowly stand up. Ekapāda Uttānāsana—we will stand on one leg. There is always one problem with this āsana. People say, "Oh, my leg is just going down. It is because of my trousers." Others will say it is the problem with the socks. But if you are completely oiled, you will be able to do this āsana. But first, from this side, never lock your knee. That is the first very important thing. Second, when you put your leg here, if your pelvis goes back and your leg is here, it will immediately slip down. When you have your pelvis in the right position, you will feel the stretching of the thigh muscle, and also the knee should go a little back. From the side, if somebody observes you, it will be visible as only one leg; if it is visible, it is in the knee. The leg will go down. When we go down, try not to do it in this position, but initiate the movement from the hip joint first. Then, a little, push your knee back second, and third, you are completely straight. In that position, you are strengthening all your muscles. Because of that, you will find in the book that this āsana is excellent against atrophy of the muscles, because you are strengthening your leg, your spinal column, and everything. Also, when we go back, do not bend in the chest area, but initiate everything from the hip joint. Now we will do it all together. If you are on these stairs, take a position so that you are standing nicely, with flat ground around you. Always be careful. Now, bend your left leg and put it here, where your groin is, with the pelvis in position and knee back. Put your arms beside your body. Excellent. You feel your foot. For balancing, you need the muscles of your foot all the time. We keep our balance with the muscles of the foot. Second is with the ankle joint, and that is the strengthening. If you can't do this, no problem. Do it like in yoga for children, and keep this position the same, but practice going up. Try to look at one unmovable point. It is like a tratak, and when you are observing one point, you will see that your mind is coming down. In front of the chest. We are practicing with open eyes now. But the next level will be everything with the eyes closed. We are keeping balance with our eyes open, and when we don't have open eyes, we must be more focused. In three stages, we will go down a little, down, and remain in this position. A little down and remain in the position. Also, try to keep your pelvis at the same level. Now, slowly go up. Remain in the position. You feel a nice, warm feeling in your foot and in your ankle joint, yes? I feel this. Up, beside your body. And slowly down. That is one secret also. Try to be on the floor. If you have a thick āsana, it will be hard to balance. If you are on the floor or something like this, it is excellent—much, much easier. It was a special wish of Viśvagurujī to practice this āsana because it is so good. Now the other side. Good position and hands. If you have a problem with concentration and focus, really try to practice this āsana. If you practice every day, we will see great progress. Upon the vest, they said that through these movements, through this āsana, you will see how old you are. What is not right? Because many, I will not say old, but in the best age, are much better than the young because we are practicing. It is really for strengthening the whole body. Now, in three phases, go a little down. When you go down, also try to let your leg go a little back. Also, the center of gravity, as you go down, goes back a little. In that way, we will stay still in this position and parallel to the floor, but also never lock your knee. Remain in the position. And slowly go up. Excellent. Remain in the position. Go up beside, and now slowly go down and relax in Ānandāsana. Inhale deeply and exhale. Now, try to feel and be aware of your feet. Be aware of the nice, warm feeling. Ankle joints—be aware of circulation in your calf muscles, especially if you have a problem with your veins and circulation in your legs. You will feel that something is now really flowing in your legs, tight muscles, and also the veins in your thighs. Feel the heaviness of your whole body. Be aware of your breathing—completely yoga breathing. Inhale: abdomen, chest area, clavicle area. Feel that with exhalation you relax the chest and abdomen. Also be aware of your mind. Now, take one deep inhale and exhale. Move your fingers and toes. Inhale, a little stretch, exhale, relax. With the help of your hands, slowly sit. On the abdomen—oh, and slowly go onto your abdomen. Relax in the tiger position. You know the tiger position. You may choose left or right. It is an abdomen position, not on the side. Your abdomen remains on the floor. Excellent. Relax. Now, slowly sit in Vajrāsana. We will do Marjari, the cat. Inhale. Two. Exhale. Look to your navel. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Eight, and slowly up, nine, and ten. Try to go up and down with the muscles, not... Once more, yes, once more. Inhale, one, two, three, and legs, yeah, yes, yes. Now we will do tiger. When we do tiger, one very important thing: when we are in this position, like Marjari, but at the same time, practice bringing your knee to your forehead, but do not put the foot on the floor. Keep it up, and you will feel the strengthening of the muscle. Next, imagine that something is here, something like Vāseṣvāga. When you go up, try not to do it like this. It is not like a dog. Just try to make this movement not too much, not too much—a little and up, up... Look up and again, but try to keep your pelvis level, as if you have this labella water walk, yes, how do you call it? Not up, but remain at the same level, and you will feel your lower back. Okay, now first with the right leg. Inhale, go up, exhale, and right knee to your forehead, three. Inhale, up, up, four, five. Six, seven, eight, knees to floor, nine, and slowly, slowly, slowly sit down. In this position, you are breathing much deeper than in Marjaryāsana. It is more activating for complete yoga breathing. Now, on the left: one, inhale. Two, exhale. Now you will see that you are breathing much deeper. Exhale three, inhale: abdomen, chest, and in the end, clavicular area. Four, five, six. Six, seven, up, look up. Eight, and knee to the floor. Nine, and ten. This is also excellent for your psoas muscle. When you go into this position, you are strengthening your psoas muscle. Then, in this position, you are also strengthening your buttock muscles, which are for the correction of your pelvis, but you are also stretching the psoas muscle. Now, śaśāṅkāsana. Inhale. And slowly go down from the hip joint. Try to keep your knees together—only separate during pregnancy or if you have a slightly larger stomach. But we don't have a larger stomach because when your knees are together, our abdomen is on the ground, on the thigh muscle, and we have more massage of the inner organs. Try to sit on your heels if your knees allow it. Feel the stretching of your spinal column and the stretching of the muscles. Relax your head. Now slowly go up, inhale, and exhale. We will practice one more āsana because we must relax in the tiger and other positions. We will do Bhujaṅgāsana. When we practice Bhujaṅgāsana, be aware of the practice. First level: with the head. I always have a picture of a turtle, like a turtle going with its head out of its shell and going up to reach the salad. Second thing: the elbows should be near the body. Why? Always put the question, "Why?" It will also be challenging for a yoga teacher. If you have them this way, you may develop kyphosis, and plus, all the weight of the body is on your shoulders, which can cause shoulder problems. To save your shoulders, keep elbows close to the body. Second, in Yoga in Daily Life, always keep the pelvis and pubic bone on the floor. Also, we have little movements in every vertebra, not only in the fifth and fourth, because we could injure this area. It is the same as if we are doing this, but we are doing it in a natural way. For example, if somebody wants to break your finger, first we are doing... Without the help of the hand, your palms remain on the floor, but I will put them up first. You are doing it without help, and afterward, you are going later. Remain and stay in this position. Breathe with your abdomen a little deeper. If you read about the chakras and kuṇḍalinī, you will see that a little deeper breathing with the abdomen in this position has more influence on your svādhiṣṭhāna chakra, which means not bending only here, but try to do more in the chest area. Breathe with the abdomen. When you go down now, start from the lowest vertebra slowly, slowly, slowly down. Always imagine that you have a picture. If you handle your picture like this, how will that picture look? Here will be light, but if you do it this way nicely, you will transport the picture, and afterward, no injury, no line on it. Always have something like this in your mind, and you will know exactly how to practice. Also, when you go now, you will do nicely on the stomach. If you have any problem with the spinal column, in that case, your navel should remain on the floor, palms under the shoulders. Now, stretch your head. Imagine that somebody is pulling your head, and slowly go up. More bending is in the chest area. Remain in the position, knees to your body, and try to breathe a little deeper with your abdomen. Slowly go down. Okay, once more. Slowly go up, elbows near the body to protect the shoulders, but also try to keep the elbows above the floor to strengthen the upper arms. Slowly down, and tiger on the other side. Śalabhāsana? No? No? Stand this stand. No, no, no. Yeah. Stand. No, no. No. Legs down. No. Vajrāsana. Yes. Yes... Go up. Ah. No, no... No. Straight. Very nice, straight. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Yes. And? And now, both—no, both legs like this. Yes. Yes. And yes. Oh, yes. Same as Marjari, we will also go a little up; it's good for relaxing. Up, inhale, and like Marjari, palms on the floor, and both feet go up. Now we will go to the right side, and above the shoulder, try to see your foot—not under the foot, but up. Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, yes, and third, exhale. Above shoulder, inhale, and exhale. Feel also your kidneys and all your muscles. Inhale. Down with your foot. Inhale. And slowly sit, exhale. And now relax. And now śaśāṅkāsana. Relax. One more time. And exhale. And slowly go up, inhale. And exhale. Remain in Vajrāsana if you don't have a problem with your knees. Feel how you breathe. Feel the circulation in your body. And tomorrow, again. Tomorrow we will continue.