on that how long did it take you to master that you will so comfortable i was just splitting the you do it i don't think of i don't consider myself have mastering it right i just consider practice would say within just a couple of weeks couple of northern maine on a wing and a prayer knowing that nature was healing because it had healed the end of roosevelt there and believing that possibly i could make a yoga retreat there and so i've been operating retreats there now since one nine hundred ninety seven so i'm there five months of the year and the students like steve has come and he's even taken my training up there and they come and they have meals together and everyone has a private room and we get to go out into nature we get to practice yoga and so five months of the year mid may have been october i'm in northern maine and seven months of the year since the mid eighty's i've been teaching in new york city so starting with can the leni but since the early two thousand i switched over to teaching hospital like we're going to do today and some other actually many media and sometimes we really make real contacts there we got some of our chefs for this coming season through our facebook page so we're very blessed that the social media is helping this small venture continue to thrive and heal people and a little younger tidbit and it's a good way for people to stay in touch because we do have vents up there like a writing weekend and women's weekends and then ongoing retreats so it's good to keep in touch that way as i'm going to get my few is a glimpse of all the other things that you've been up to well some this is the one that looks like oh i did actually got the camera right on you they did go yeah they got it so there you go so this is our most recent one the challenge and steve son is on that as a as well as a whole age range of people and so that's a wonderful diverse class doing the yoga with me and then these are ones that were done some years ago but they're all d v d s and this is a postcard for the retreat where the people meditating over the river over there are near rivers and lakes and porch to one side of your home we have you know there's water on one side and there's the greenery on the other the dragon dragons considered friendly in asian culture the dragon goes through your house and blesses you to have a lot of good luck s healing and it's an historic registry because of that healing and that healing for theater roosevelt who had asthma as a child in a life threatening asthma he healed in this house and i believe it has an energy and the people to come say it has an energy and we really continue to i hope offer that legacy that my great grandparents offered which is not just healing but friendship love good healthy food and creating community because i think that's what you know that's about right and i'll mention the comes from within it just with donna and i and stephen myself right so donna we're ready for you great so what i thought we would do with today's segment is that the sun salute is an integral part of yoga and i had a great story about a woman who came to my retreat and talked about a man who had gone to a yoga class and he came back a few years later and the teacher said i remember you but your body's totally different what did you do and the man said i don't you remember you told me to do three five son salutes a day so some salutes are an integrity part of your yoga practice so if you can't do all the crazy gymnastic wonderful beautiful poses you see on instagram and in ads now and all that kind of stuff you can still do a very beneficial yoga practice so what i wanted to zero in on today was sun salutes for that reason but also because you know it is in reference to nature and sun is what gives us life so as we do this today think about the fact that you're offering your practice to the sun it's a salute to the sun and so we're going to go with some simple ones and maybe if we have time we'll build up to the one you get in a lot of the classes these days like a stronger vinyasa and some of the stronger ones it will get up to a chapter on the maybe even was a block people don't always think about using that to do those harder poses yes  never going to start simple so we're going to start at the top of our bath and we're going to start it's just standing at the top of the mat and what i like to do when i start the whole class which we don't have time for is for the person to offer their practice and so i have stories behind that but i've told all my stories of me would be only talking the whole time so let me just offer that you offer your practice ok so bring your palms together and your thumbs to the center of your chest i'll be quiet for a few moments and i invite you to offer to plant  universal and as when you plant any see just let that seed go and now you know it's going to grow so just let that seed go we're going to breathe for nose in and out through this practice if for some reason your nose is blocked you'll have to breathe through your mouth but otherwise please read in and out through your nose and now we're going to open our eyes as we in how we're going to reach the arms up and your choices here so your palms can come together or they can be separated from it stay here for a moment think about that your gaze can be forward or out for and think about we dive forward inhale as you exhale dive your body forward now you might need to bend your knees now because we're going to step back so for most people that means bending your needs look forward and get your back nice along before you even start and as you inhale practitioners here but if you haven't done much over you might be letting your have strong please don't do that lift up in your navel so that your body looks like a plank nice and straight it's a lot of work to look like a plank isn't it you guys you know i'm yes it is nice and then we're going to inhale and we're going to exhale drop your knees and sit back into child we're not in a rush here simply are to know mom back reach your fingertips forward and stay there for a few breaths and i'm going to make a few notes for those at home you don't have to have your buttocks touch your heels you have to be comfortable with what you have to be you don't have to have your head touch the floor you just want to be comfortable and feel the breath feel the breath coming right down into the lower back a really nice yogi breath right this is one of the most distressing poses you can do deliberately bringing your elbows in and the reason is because a lot of people go down like this and it's not so great for your shoulders to do that and you don't get that strength that's required to go into the deeper poses later so take your chest forward just a little bit make your belly strong lift it up  already you can feel your arms working take a big inhale as you accelerate your chest come forward and we're going to come right on torah belly to come right on to your belly and then you're going to bring your forearms on to the floor we're going really simple here coming up in just stinks posture right so while we're in the sphinx i want to mention the hands because we're going up to downward facing dog in a moment spread your fingers why these are starfish hands right they're not crabs they're starfish and so spread the fingers really wide and any time that you're putting a lot of energy onto your arms which we're going to do in a moment you want to make sure the energy is spread throughout your whole hand so that will make your restrung instead of strained and then we're going to come up under our hands and knees if you will help us down and that makes it easier for you we're not rushing but we're going to get ready for down dogs here on your hands and knees your feet are about hip distance apart and we're going to take this slowly which is actually strong some going to invite you and steve to just take their knees off the floor just take the knees off the floor and that's a lot of work right so beautiful down dog and the other thing about yoga is it's not it shouldn't be a competition it shouldn't be goal oriented though sometimes we make breakthroughs we're going all of this is great but again except yourself or you are because it's a beautiful tool of self acceptance right and self study to ok great now here comes one that's really challenging for some people you're going to look between your hands because it's always good to look where you're going particularly in new york so if you're going to take your right foot forward now some people can just lay that right foot between rich ween the hands but if you can't land that foot there you might have to come to caterpillar it forward or you might even have to take your right hand to the ankle and step it forward that usually works for most everyone i look back and i see my left knee is not straights i'm going to straighten my left knee there we go and now i'm really strongly into this in the back of my left leg is getting a good stretch good we're going to inhale and step the left foot to meet the right i'm going to remind them to really hollow their navel out because a lot of people have lower back issues and they forget that in yoga we should always be squeezing the belly a little bit and lengthen the tailbone down to contain all those internal organs and to support the lower back so as uniform so there we are so you that's one son so if you do three to five of those a day you know it's going to change right so now we're going to go a little more quickly so that i can hopefully get to the last one before the show is over how much time do i have is that how foot back and gaze forward good for your shoulders towards your waist make that back leg nice and straight and strong and then we're going to take the plank position so inhale come back to the planks position good pushing the floor over way and are going to drop your nice exhale and we're going to sit back into child this time we're not going to stay in child as long we still actually have plenty of time for a sun salutes you know what i'm going to fight these guys to do and i'll demo it to it's going to slither forward i call it like a little serpent and we're going to keep the elbows in going to come forward with our nose and our chest then our belly then our hips so they're doing it good and then you're going to come up into cobra so keep your shoulders down your elbows and beautiful this is a lot more work than the and it's actually not that easy and they both make it look easy but it's not and so if it's pinching your lower back you want to come down a little bit lower and if it's not pinching your lower back then it's strengthening the lower back good so it's current toes and under and in half take it back to downward facing dog exhale downward facing dog so while they're here there's a little thing that we sometimes like to do to loosen the leg so invite them if they want to walk their dog i love animals i'd like to walk the dog every day but i don't always get a chance to so anyway if you want to warm your dog you can peddle your feet right now so you live to one heel and then the other and then just stay in place manu you guys just walk in place you're walking your dog i call this and walk in your dog walk in your dog there you go it's walk in the rights you get that a lot in your practice right the most popular for me over these days ok cool pull those heels down and back and then look between your hands and know it's a left foot coming forward with it inhale exhale inhale step the right foot forward exhale fold not don't worry about just how to use the blah so on this woman was like oh i have issues with richard p c s and then i saw her trying to run and it was just like so hard for her and the form was just not very good and after class i said to her you're doing the right thing because she would just barely get it to chatter on that and then she'd go up and up dog and it wasn't also the best for him and i'm thinking no wonder her upper trapezius are bothering her she's doing this all the time right and we just got enough in life right now so i'm going to offer to buy new that she can use the block and i'm going to demo this quickly and then we're going let them do it so we're going to go through it i'm going to end up we're going to be in plank and the placements really important to get it right on your pelvis and be able to do chattering and everything wow without any huge effort you still have effort ok so you're in your plank and then you're going to you're going to come down and you're going to find that the block will be right under your pillow look at me doing chatter on the right and the block is there and then i'm going to come to my up dog my looks could be a little straighter but in order to use the block i have to just kind of have them not ok kind of a word of warning i don't think everyone really should be doing general and you go to classes these days and they do a ton of chatter on this so you can always take your knees to the floor like we did or you can take your body right to the floor or you can do like the lady this well it's very good point because a lot of people think it's just your arms but it's also your navel and that's just such an important thing so it's everything and chatter on this so here we go and again we're not we're just looking at what these poses are these are the hard ones i have to say these are the on lightly into your plank position and then from your playing position on demo one chatter on their you take your heart forward you keep your legs strong you keep your navel strong you keep your elbows in you come down to your child around you push your heart through you come into your up dog dog with a new hair now you look sorry you don't need that anymore but it's a beautiful tool because all of these elements of the sun salute are things that you can do on their own and one of the things in vinyasa is we rush through upward facing and we spend tons of time in downward facing so often when i teach i like to have people hold upward facing dog a bit because it's beautiful so let's come to plank you guys one more thing and then we'll rest ok plank and let's not going to chatter on the let's go up dog so here let's look at her up dog l stay straight part comes forward don't drop the hips armpit chest forward push the floor right beautiful aren't they beautiful and i drop your knees sit back and a child take her hands there was beautiful i thought you guys feel it beautiful good and so what we're going to do is we're going to rest a little bit so i think we've done enough sun salutes i don't think we need to do any more so i'm going to have these guys make me think got about four minutes i n you will rest this is also a really important posture because you have to integrate everything you did and again if you do nothing more but sun salutes for the rest of your life that's cool and pataki joyce  father he's passed away but he also says after age fifty that if you just do some salutes you're going to be really strong and flexible so of course a lot of us who are over fifty eight myself included we do a lot of the other stuff but i think this segment is really a she can't think of anything inch of us and that's exactly right we're not supposed to think of anything so she's trying to remember something i said before so you're going to ever just relax these guys are with your legs slightly open your feet out to the side you learn to be still you learn to relax and you just last a who's like the mother of restored of yoga believes that sometimes the only time anyone gets to relax in a day is awesome they do restorative then they do more but sometimes you do you don't to restore it if yoga you just do you other stuff and this is the only time you get to relax it's very important and if you remember it now well you were talking about someone you knew but also you told us a little story about he came back and look yes every body changed i can't wait to get there yes your body will change from his the amazing thing you get more flexible because you're doing those back bends forward bends you get more strong because you're doing those little push ups and again we saw the range today of how much you could take a simpler one and you can take a more athletic