Jill Miller. Breathe in and Bliss Out. Friday Night.

Jill Miller Friday Night

Jill Miller is such a great teacher.  Tonight's workshop was one of my favorite classes I have ever taken.  Her instruction is clear, concise and full of humor.  Her depth of anatomical knowledge can deepen as far as you can.  And because she has developed most of the techniques she is teaching, they transmit.

Tonight was called, "Breathe in, Bliss Out", but we only did that for the last 20 minutes.  The rest of the workshop should have been called, Get in There and Feel the Suffering.
We used small rubber balls to get into the tight spots. This is basically what we did.

Opening 1
Constructive Rest Pose, she called it "Half Savasana"
Place the pair of balls at the Levator Scapulae.
Press up into Bridge Pose.
 - Chug (like a choo choo train getting ready to start_
 - Shimmy (like disco dancing)
 - Ad arm movements to shimmy
 - Psychic Steering Wheel Action with Arms

Remove balls and rest.

Opening 2 - 8
Again, 1/2 Savasana Pose
Balls from C7/T1 to T8
We placed balls at C7, with them touching
We moved through a variety of movements, eventually ending up with them at the T8.
Sometimes lifting buttock and rolling.
Sometimes attending to opening breath in thoracic.
Sometimes rolling them across the back.

Opening 9
"Beach Pose".  On back, resting on forearms with bent elbows and knees bent.
Place balls at T8 and roll them towards Sacrum, adjusting the balls back to center as necessary.

Bridge Breathing 1
From Half Savasana, Inhale arms over head and press up into Bridge.  Exhale release body and arms down.

Bridge Breathing 2
From Half Savasana, Inhale arms over head and press up into Bridge.  Stay in the position and exhale.  On empty, keep arms over head and roll backdow, experiencing the spontaneous uddiyana bandha.
This was super cool.

Neck and Jaw Opening
Starting in Half Savasana with a block as a pillow.

Occipital Opening
Using a Block as pillow, we placed the pair of balls at the Occipital, clasping them with our hands.
We played with small movements of "Yes" "No" and "the Stevie Wonder" to open and access the tight spots.

Sexy Neck
Rolling to one Side one one Ball we again made small movements

SCM
We placed the ball behind the ear "on the ear's shadow".
Again, yes, no and small movements

Repeat Sexy Neck and SCM on the other side.

Jaw
We placed the ball under the cheekbone, near the ear and pressed.
Slow opening and closing of the Jaw.


Psoas Opening @ Wall
Round 1
Supine Apanasana.  ONe foot on wall and one knee bent into chest. 
Pranayama: active inhale, passive exhale

Happy Baby.  One foot on wall and one leg into 1/2 Happy Baby.
Pranayama: active kalabhati like exhale, passive inhale

Round 2
Repeat above with low brick under sacrum

Round 3
Repeat above with medium speed brick under sacrum

Jill timed us for about 30 seconds on each side, each round.

Yoga Nidra
Jill guided us through Yoga Nidra

Step 1: Fidget until comfortable and then stop fidgeting
Step 2: Attention towards breath in belly, count down from 40
Step 3: Guided attention through the body
- right thumb, through the fingers
- palm
- wrist
- forearm
- elbow
- upper arm
- shoulder
- whole arm

repeat with left arm

- right big toe to little toe
- sole
- heal
- whole foot
- ankle
- calf
- shin
- knee
- thigh
- hip
- whole leg

repeat with left leg

pelvis?
neck and skull?
face?

then eventually chest
then belly
whole body (x3)

Step 4: Attention back to breath, Count down from 10

To awaken, deepen breath
Roll to a side and come up.