Quiet Hips

(waves lapping) Hello and welcome. This is a hip-opening practice. So we're gonna start in Sukhasana. Sukhasana is when the shins are a little forward and the thighs are drawing in, versus Siddhasana where the legs are wider. Sukhasana, and we're gonna fold forward from the pelvis, and then if your head comes to the ground you can rest your head on the ground.

Otherwise, if you have a block that you could rest your head onto or a couple of books, do that. Just to begin here by letting the head, the brain, just soften. And when the head softens, perhaps the back can relax and the hips can release. Take a deep inhalation. And a slow, smooth exhalation.

And again, inhale. And exhale. If you need to breathe faster or slower than how I'm counting, please let this be your own experience of your own breath. I'm just hitting a middle ground, but breathe as you need. Okay, and then slide your hands back and use your hands to come all the way up.

Put the other leg in front. Take a breath in, and as you exhale, once again turn the pelvis, let the whole spine come forward, and rest your head down onto the block or the ground. You can also stack your fists if you are without props, maybe if that might be the right height for your head. So we switched the crossing of the legs because usually, not always but usually, the leg that's in front, that hip gets a deeper opening. If you have one side however that's tighter than the other side, you'll probably feel the tighter side with each crossing.

A couple more breaths here, paying a deep attention to the sensations of your breath and the journey that the breath takes into your body. And then again, use your hands under your shoulders to push down and come up, and slide your feet into Baddha Konasana, the soles of the feet together. Take a breath in, lift your chest, and then once again tipping forward, and you'll notice I'm sitting on a blanket. You may or may not need a blanket to create ease and the ability to fold forward. Find your breath.

And again, use the sensations of your breath to draw your attention in. In this practice we use the body and we use the breath to drop into the truth of this moment, a deep presence into the sensations of your human body. Okay, and slide your hands back, and come up. From here we're gonna take the feet and make them into a V, so pull the balls of your feet apart from each other. Just the heels are touching.

Bring your hands by your hips and then lift your pelvis and come onto the balls of your feet, and then walk your hands up and over so your hands are in front. And then see if you can slide the ball of their big toe as well as the ball of the little toes perhaps come together. And then drop your tailbone. Lift your chest. You're welcome to keep your hands onto the ground, or maybe float your hands up onto your knees, lifting the chest.

It's definitely a little bit of a balancing act. And this is a variation of a pose called Mulabandhasana and Mulabandhasana if you have the bones and the muscles to do it, you sit down behind your heels, but a lot of this hip opening stuff is the shape of your bones. Bring your hands to the floor. Your toes will be happy to come out of this. You're gonna come into Uttanasana, stepping the feet as wide as your hips, and let yourself hold onto your elbows and slightly bend your knees.

From here release your arms and bend your knees, and roll up bone by bone all the way up to stand. Okay, we're gonna grab a block, and you're gonna bring the block right in between your thighs. So with all this deep hip opening that we're doing in this practice, we also want to create some stability in the sacroiliac joints and through all of the musculature of the hips, and we'll do a few things that really draw us in, including this. So look down at your feet. Make sure they're parallel.

Block in between the upper thighs. I have my block the thin way. You may have yours probably the thin way, maybe the medium way. And then just squeeze the inner thighs straight into the block. Turn your palms to face out, and as you inhale, reach your arms out and up, lifting your chest.

Keep squeezing the block as you open your arms and fold forward. As you inhale, the block moves back as the chest moves forward, coming into flat back. And as you exhale, fold back over your legs. Inhale, squeezing the block. Reach out to come all the way up.

Make sure that you don't push the block forward, jamming it into the low back. Keep your legs where they are. Exhale, release your hips. A few more half sun salutations. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, fold. Inhale, squeeze the block to come up. Keep the inner thighs slightly moving back.

Exhale, hands to the heart, and down to your side. Inhale with freedom. Lift your arms. Exhale, fold forward. Big breath in to lengthen the spine.

Keep activating your adductor muscles, the inner thighs, into the block. Exhale, fold. Inhale, root. Lift. Exhale, hands to the heart.

This one's gonna be a little different. Inhale, reach up. And as you exhale, fold all the way over. And then lengthen your spine. We're gonna come into Dog Pose, but attempt, it's not gonna work so well, but attempt or plant the seed that the legs can stay back where they are, so the legs, as if the legs are stuck in some very thick mud as the upper body journeys forward.

The block keeps pulling back, but the legs are like, "I don't want to go," but the arms say, "Well, you have to come with me a little bit." So use the block here to really draw the inner thighs back and when you do that you feel the outer hips pulling back, which lengthens the sides of the waist and every rib. Like Venetian blinds, let your rib cage open in the side. Squeezing the block, inhale plank. Exhale, just a little Chaturanga. Squeeze squeeze squeeze right into plank, and back into Downward Facing Dog.

This time as you inhale, rise to the balls of your feet way up high. Draw your block back. Exhale, heels back and down. Inhale to plank. Wide chest Chaturanga looking slightly forward.

Right back into plank position, and pull back, Down Dog. One more time like that. Inhale, you rise up, drawing the block back, firming the legs. Exhale, heels back and down. Inhale to plank.

Exhale, Chaturanga. Inhale, press to lift. Exhale, Downward Facing Dog. From here walk your hands back to the back of your mat. Bring your hands to your hips.

Inhale halfway up and pause. With your next inhalation, come all the way up to stand. And then take the block away and just see how your legs feel. And with that inner thigh awakeness, walk to the front of your mat. Stand with your feet together.

Take a breath in. Exhale, the hands release. Inhale, reach up. As you exhale, fold forward. Inhale, lengthen.

Exhale, step or jump back. Chaturanga. We don't have the block, but we do have the memory of the block. Inhale, Upward Facing Dog, or Cobra. Exhale, pull back.

Downward Facing Dog. We're gonna come into Vashisthasana or side plank. You can go right into the full pose, or step your left foot about halfway forward. Roll to the outer edge of the right foot, and lift up. Feel the right outer foot cutting into the ground.

The whole right side of the body sharp, and then hand down. Step back. Second side, either rolling into the full pose stacking your feet, or using your right foot as a little kickstand, and coming up. Collar bones wide, shoulder blades back. The left side of the body clear.

And then release. Downward Facing Dog. Let the right leg lift up. Let the knee bend. Let the hip open.

So this is opening the front of the right hip. This practice is focused on the outer hips, but the hips have many many aspects and facets. Pigeon Pose. Bring your right knee close to your right wrist, and then scoot your right foot a little over to the left, your left leg back. If your right hip is up off the ground, it might help you to put a blanket or any kind of pillow or support underneath your right hip so that you can have something to drop into.

We're gonna come forward on the diagonal, over the right leg, so twist and lengthen over. Three breaths, inhale. Exhale, one, softening into it. Inhale, watching the breath fill. Exhale, dropping into the support of the earth.

Inhale. And exhale. And then just come forward to this more common Pigeon, straight forward over the leg. Three breaths, inhale. Exhale one.

Inhale. Exhale two. What could you let go of right now? Inhale. Exhale three.

Last one, coming over to the other side. Inhale. Exhale one, keeping the right outer hip heavy. Inhale. Exhale two.

Notice where you could soften. Inhale. Exhale three. And then bring yourself back up. Tuck your back toes underneath you.

Come into Dog Pose and it's okay if the right leg feels a little, what should I say? Tight, ancient. A little congested. But just take a moment and just move yourself around and just wait. It will regulate itself quickly.

And then once you feel balanced again, find your Clear Dog Pose as if you have the block pulling the inner upper thighs back away from the rooting of your index finger and thumb. Inhale, the left leg rises up. The pelvis turns over the bottom thigh. The pelvis turns over the right thigh so that the pelvis stacks, and bend your left knee. Sink your right heel, breathe.

And then with an exhalation, shift forward. Feel the journey. Pigeon Pose. Scoot your back leg back. This side might be very different than the other side.

It's normal to have one side that's different than the other. Turn over your left leg. Fold, three breaths. Inhale. Exhale one.

Inhale. Exhale two. Inhale. Exhale three. Shift yourself so your spine is moving straight out of your pelvis.

Three breaths. Inhale. Exhale one. Watch the breath pour into your body. Exhale two.

See if you can guide the breath right to the sensation. Inhale. Exhale three. Lift up enough to shift your spine over into a side bend to the right. Every place you put your spine opens little different musculature of the hip.

Three breaths, inhale. Exhale one. Inhale. Make sure your face, ears, and tongue, jaw, are soft. Inhale.

Exhale three. And then move yourself to the center and up. Just watch what happens as you make your way back into Dog Pose. I said my experience but you might have a totally different experience, and part of this practice is Svadhyaya, which means self-study, self-examination. It's not gonna be like it is for anybody else, so give yourself full permission to feel your feelings.

Okay, from here we're gonna keep going on this hip. Party, come to your hands and your knees, and then slide your left knee behind your right knee. We're gonna do Gomukhasana. Separate your feet and sit back in between your heels. If the floor doesn't seem to be there, you put a blanket or a block underneath your pelvis.

And have your feet equidistantly spaced from your hips, and as best you can, get both sitting bones dropping evenly down into the ground. From here I'm gonna twist to the right. Bring your left hand to the outside of the right leg, right fingertips behind you. So twists and hip openers are good buddies. They help each other out.

So if ever you feel blocked or locked in a hip opener, try a twist and see if that indeed brings more freedom to the hips. Your next exhalation, unwind and let yourself fold just right over, come melt over your legs, softening the inner groin, softening down around the pubic bone. And maybe you feel a nice spreading through the low back. You may feel that unless your hips are singing too loudly, which is also fine. If it does feel too intense though you're always welcome to come up a bit of course.

From here rooting into your pelvis. Inhale, come up. Lean back. Sit in Dandasana, extending your legs. Just imagine here that you have a long, thin block in between both of your legs and you can squeeze in towards the midline.

And then from here we're gonna flip over into Vashistasana. You're gonna take your right hand behind you. You roll over onto your right hip, and then maybe you'll come back to using a kickstand like that, or maybe not. Just give it a whirl. See if you can whoosh around.

See what happens. Vashistasana. Just a quick visit, and then flipping over into Downward Facing Dog, facing the opposite side of your yoga mat. Use Downward Dog to rebalance yourself. And then knees to the floor.

This side, the right knee will tuck behind the left knee. Separate your feet. Walk back, sit down in between your two heels. My calf muscle gets a little caught here so I take my left calf and lift it up. Take a breath in.

And as you exhale, twist to the left, staying long. Right hand to the outside of the left leg, or right forearm. Release down through your sitting bones, and keep your back spacious, wide, free. And then with your next inhalation, sit up a little taller. And as you exhale, kind of come over forward and melt, gonna land down any amount over your crossed legs.

One time in my class I had a wonderful woman, her name was Lee. She's a therapist and she said sometimes she has her clients, if the pain is too great to go right into, she has them breathe around the pain. So if you feel this is a super, utterly too intense, maybe instead of paying attention to the exact sensation you can let your mind kind of widen and breathe around where the most intensity is. Okay, and then good old Buddha. In permanence everything comes to an end.

If that was challenging for you, that's good news. If you loved it it's not such good news. That's just the way it goes. Extend your legs out in front of you. Squeeze into the midline.

Bring your left hand behind you. So if you want to use the kickstand, the right foot can come right away and help you come up. Or just using a little side body strength, woop, coming up into Vashistasana. And then rolling around. I can smell the flowers.

Downward Facing Dog. I got close to them. Let's come through a vinyasa here. Inhale, plank position. Exhale, Chaturanga.

Inhale, Cobra, or Upward Facing Dog. And exhale, pull back into Downward Facing Dog. We're gonna bring the right leg forward like we're gonna do Pigeon, but right away swing your left leg around for half-seated spinal twist. Drop both sitting bones down. Inhale your right arm up.

And as you exhale, hook your right elbow to the outside of the left knee, and lift, and turn. Again, since we're focused on hip opening, we're gonna release a lot down, and then just notice the sensation in the hips. It might be strong. It might be subtle. You might not feel anything.

Just notice what you feel. And then from whatever is going on down there, lift up and revolve. And then with your next inhalation, release, and then ankle to knee, or it's sometimes called Fire Log Pose or Double Pigeon. Right shin comes so it's parallel to the front of the mat. Left shin stacks on top.

A couple of things here. If your knee is up off, my knee takes a while for it to go down. If your knee is like mine it's up, and there's any pain, please put a block or some blankets or a pillow underneath your knee. If there's no pain, it's okay. If your knee is way up here, please, you could take a block and put the block in front of your foot like this.

This is a great variation of the pose 'cause it's so similar, but somehow having your foot just that much further makes it a lot more accessible. And then the third option would be to come back into Sukhasana, where we were earlier. So from here, lean forward. Pull the flesh around the sitting bones back so that's not an obstacle. And then take a breath in.

I like to use my hands to root the tops of the thighs down. And then the pelvis turns over the thighs. And come forward. You could keep your hands on your hips. Maybe you want to bring your hands forward.

If you want to once again rest your head, sometimes resting the brain helps the hips to rest. Lots of options. You can draw your breath right to the sensation, or you can kind of draw a circle around the deep sensation and widen your breath there, or even widen the breath even more. One period in my life I had a little mantra that was, what if this moment of my life was Shavasana? I like that for right now 'cause I might look relaxed but I could easily go into sort of a freakout mode 'cause it's intense.

So I find my breath. I practice Shavasana. I practice deep relaxation as best I can right in the midst of that storm. And let your sitting bones root down, and come up to sit. And then if you're sitting in Sukhasana, just stay in Sukhasana.

If you're in ankle to knee, you can just check out Half Lotus by sliding your foot. I just take my left hand, put it underneath my ankle, slide the heel right into the right side of the belly. If you have any pain in your knee, please go to Sukhasana. And then I'm gonna twist to the left, take my left arm, and wrap it around to maybe find my big toe over there. And then if this hand, the right hand, happens to be close to the right foot, you can also take yogic toe lock and find that big toe, or even just rest your hand onto that foot, just as a way of closing the circuit of your body.

And then release the pelvis. Release the legs. Inhale, lengthen your spine. And exhale, revolve. Inhale, lengthen.

Exhale, broaden the left side of your chest as it opens. One more inhale here. And then as you exhale, unwind. Bring your feet into Baddha Konasana, just as a way of releasing the legs. And then cross your ankles, come around, and come back into Downward Facing Dog.

Feel free again to shift your pelvis from side to side. You can (purring) let your lips flutter or ah-ah, stick out your tongue. And then left shin comes forward like a quick visit to Pigeon. The right leg comes around, half-seated spinal twist. The left arm reaches up.

And as you exhale, twist, tucking the elbow. It's also fine to wrap your arm around the knee. And as you're here, feel the right thigh bone nestling right down into the pelvis, and to do that, keep the right inner groin soft. Every inhalation from the pelvis releasing down, the spine gets to rise up. And exhale.

There's a bit of a softening through the organs, so that you can turn. And with your next inhalation, come to the center. Slide your left shin forward and stack the shins until you're ankle to knee, or your foot on a block, Sukhasana. Find what works for you. Pull the flesh around the sitting bones back and wide.

Hands like horseshoes root down through the tops of your thighs. Lengthen, and as you exhale, fold forward. Again, if you'd like to put your head onto a prop, you're welcome to do that. I like the name that some people call this pose, Fire Log, because I think of stacking the fire logs and then watching the hips burn, and sending breath into that fiery sensation. Keep pacifying through all of the musculature of the hips as you release your head and brain.

Okay. Hands down, come up, and then take your right leg, if this is appropriate for you. If not, you're gonna just sit in Sukhasana. Either way is fine. If it goes up into Half Lotus, carry it up.

Turn to your right, right arm swings around, maybe finds the right big toe. Maybe the left hand finds the left big toe. It's also fine just to do the more normal, regular arm position. And then settle down through the legs, just like you're sitting on the beach and your legs can sink down into the soft sand. From there the spine rises, and with each exhalation a little bit of a softening to revolve.

Okay. And then unwind. Slide your feet into Baddha Konasana again to release, and then bring your knees up and stretch your legs out into Dandasana. So we're gonna just put a couple of the things that we've done together. For this you probably will need a belt.

We're gonna bend the right knee and open it up into Half Lotus, so carefully it bends first, and then it opens and comes up into Half Lotus. Janusirsasana is a perfectly wonderful way to do this also. So either foot on the leg or on the side. One of my favorite things I ever heard a yoga teacher say, it was Richard Freeman, he said there are many saints who cannot do Full Lotus, and many sinners who can. Okay, so if you can't reach, this is a good time to practice having a belt, just so you get that feeling of the circle of the arm to the leg.

So the belt wraps around top of the foot and the right arm comes behind. First we'll do Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana. Left arm reaches up, and then as you exhale lengthen forward, fold. So feel what's connecting down into the ground, and then let your breath help take your spine to a longer and longer arc, the spine like a portobello mushroom, very long arc from head to tail. And then inhale and come up.

Okay if you didn't need a belt for that, you might need your belt for this. We're gonna keep going. We're gonna go into Vashisthasana, holding onto this lotus foot. We're done this a couple other times before. Left hand's gonna come behind you, and you're gonna roll over.

It takes a little oom, so I'm gonna say it and then I'm gonna do it. So you're gonna roll over onto your left hip and then lift the pelvis up into Vashisthasana with lotus leg. And then attempting to come down slowly, and roll back. Carefully coming out of it, keep the knee very bent as it comes to parallel, and then extend it and give it a little Thai massage. I learned Thai massage once.

You go like this with your knees. Okay, and then the second side. So half lotus. Left knee is gonna bend deeply first, and then open, and Janusirsasana is perfectly perfect, or Half Lotus. And again, if your knee's up off the floor, you might want to put a little support underneath it.

Left arm is gonna come around using the belt, or not. Right arm lifts, breathe in. And as you exhale, the impetus for the forward fold comes from the pelvis. The left heel goes right into the abdomen, which is one of the benefits of the pose, a little abdominal massage. And the head lengthens away from the tail.

Connect to your breath. And with your next inhalation, come all the way up to sit, and then just play with this Vashisthasana with lotus variation. Take a breath in. Sometimes a little momentum helps. (deep exhale) And then lowering down.

Woo so fun! And then release carefully, knee forward, and extend. Okay, so that's the end of the deep hip opening. Your hips probably can tell you that also. (chuckles) Let's do a little more strengthening. So hold on to your block. Lie down onto your back, just a moment of squeezing into the block.

Use those, again, inner thighs, and stabilizing for the outer hips. Squeeze in to the block with an exhalation. And then as you inhale, just release the legs a bit so they're not squeezing so much, and just do that a few times. This is a great exercise to do if you have any instability or discomfort in the low back or the sacroiliac joints. It's also good just to strengthen the hips and the legs.

This is always my go-to for people with low back problems and it seems to create lots of happiness for people who are uncomfortable in the low back. Okay, and then when you're done, take the block away and we're gonna slide the block now right underneath the pelvis. Change my ponytail. And we're gonna do an inversion, Viparita Karani. So lift your pelvis.

You can put the block on any height. I'm gonna bring it up to the high height just to open the front of the body a lot, and since I'm long it's not such a big deal, but maybe a medium height or a lower height may be better. You can decide. You can interlace your fingers, and I like to push into my head so the chest lifts and then the shoulders lower back down and I can settle my shoulders, outer shoulders, down onto the mat. From here I'm gonna bring one knee in towards the chest, keeping my pelvis steady on the block.

The other knee in. Leaving the sacrum on the block like a plate sitting on a table, 'cause if the pelvis tips, the block will also tip over, so I want to keep my pelvis steady, and then extend the legs up. If extending the legs up feels like a big grip in the hip sockets, the hip flexors, or the abdomen, it's perfectly fine to keep your knees a little bit bent. This should not feel very effortful in the core and hip muscles. Relax every muscle of your face.

Invite the throat to be immensely soft. Whether you're doing this pose for the first time or you've done it thousands of times, if you can have a fresh experience of being here. And then with an exhalation bend your knees. Bring your feet one at a time to the floor, and then push down to lift up. Move the block to the side and slowly lower yourself down.

From here just mellow mellow, windshield wiper knees from side to side. And the next thing we're gonna do in this sequence is a Shavasana, but if there's anything else you'd like to add, of course feel free. This is your practice. Do it as you need. After the Buddha taught, he would always say, take this information and do with it as you see fit.

Okay, so we're gonna roll over to the side and come up in for Shavasana. I'm gonna invite you to take your blanket and put it underneath your knees. It can be rolled. And then take your belt. After all of that outer hip stuff, our hip work, I thought it would be good to kind of keep a little container for the hips, just to balance the flexibility.

So have the belt looped so that it can hold my feet just a little bit wider than my hips. And I want to make sure there's no wrinkles or crinkles in the belt, so it's nicely placed. And then come down and take a moment to adjust anything you need to. And having the belt hold the legs is quite a different experience for Shavasana. So you can just be with it for a while.

We would encourage you to just try it for at least a minute or two, and then if it's not creating the Shavasana that you need today, you're of course welcome to take it off. Take a big, deep breath in. And exhale, ah, through the mouth. One more time, deep, full breath in. And exhale through your mouth.

And then notice your hip abdomen area. The yogis, ancient yogis, associated the element of water with the pelvis. See if you can feel like an ocean in your belly, soft, fluid, vast. And that softness can slide into the hips and down through your legs to the soles of your feet and beyond. Continue to rest your bones as you begin to deepen your breath into your watery belly.

And then just bring your feet a little closer together so that when you bend your knees your feet will slide out of your belt, and roll over to your side. Pause on your side for a moment, relaxing your left hip over your right hip, relaxing the left lung over the right lung, relaxing the left half of your brain over the right half of your brain. And then keep this ease in the hips, the head, the heart, as you use your arms to help you come up to find your comfortable seat. So, just check in with yourself. These yoga poses were originally designed so that people could sit in meditation with more ease.

Just take a moment to see how your seat feels, if there's been some transformation that's happened. Bring your hands together in front of your heart, and let's close this practice with one sound of Om together, letting this soft, sweet sound of Om come all the way into the body, into the hips, as well as spread wide out. Take a deep breath in. (Om chanting) Continue to take good care of yourself today. Namaste.