Sweet Flow Practice

Namaste, I'm Allie. This practice is going to be related to the taste of sweet madura, and sweet is associated with the elements of earth and water. So this would be a good practice if you're feeling a little overheated and flighty. This will bring you back down and make you feel kind of grounded, a little more cool, level-headed. So we're actually going to start the practice off in dandasana, staff pose.

So I like to use a blanket for dandasana, setting that up, and it just gives a little bit more lift to the pelvis so that the lower back can extend. So I'm coming into dandasana just so that I can feel my legs, flex the feet, even shape the feet, so I'm drawing back on the pinky toe side of the foot, and pressing away slightly with the inner edge of the foot. Take a couple breaths there. And then step your left foot to the ground with your left knee bent so you can take a hold of the underside of the leg and draw it in pretty close. And cross your left ankle over your right thigh and let the left thigh bone roll open.

And then step your right foot to the ground. And I'm taking my hands back behind me, and then I'm going to push my chest forward. So this is like a variation of ankle to knee, but a little softer, and staying pretty upright. And this is a good variation to come into if ankle to knee doesn't work for you ever, or even pigeon. And so keeping the configuration of the legs, I'm just going to drop the legs off to the left.

And I'll step the left foot to the inside of the right thigh and take the right leg a little bit further back behind me, almost like a barad vajasana shape in the legs, and then twist to the left. And when I've twisted as far to the left as I can, I keep the chest over to the left and look back over the right shoulder. And just have a moment, keeping the breath full and steady. Coming out of that, reach your right leg out in front of you, and you're ready for your jhanu shasasana. You're all set up for it.

So you can just crawl the hands forward. And this is early in the practice, so if this just becomes a dropping of the head, that's great, that's perfect, letting the lower back release, and still keeping some activation in the feet. And then roll your way back up, and take your left hand outside of your left hip, lift up into a stargazer, stretching up through the right arm, pushing down into the left hand. And come on back down, and once again, right into dandasana. Calm breath there.

And then other side, taking a hold of the right knee and draw it in. Cross the right ankle over the left thigh, hands back behind you, and step the left leg in. And then whatever you feel is the best angle for your hands there, I'm coming up onto the tips of my fingers on my hands, and turning the fingers away from me. And then shoulders roll back, chest lifts, I'm still pressing the right thigh bone away from me, and working to spread through the sits bones, create a little bit more space for the hips. And let the legs drop off to the right, stepping the sole of the right foot to the inside of the left thigh, left ankle comes in a little bit closer, almost a virasana shape there, and twist to the right.

And then when I've twisted as far to the right as I can, I look back over the left shoulder. Rolling the shoulders back, lift the chest, anchor the hips, let that go, and stretch the left leg out in front of you, flexing the left foot, and just walk the hands forward. And again, this might not be very big to start off with, just let yourself release the back body towards the front body. Full breathing. And then roll your way back up, right hand outside of the right hip, lift up onto the shin, and once again, take your stargazer, and come on down.

And this time you're going to take the left foot in front of the right, rolling over to hands and knees. Now if your knees are sensitive, keep the blanket underneath them, otherwise sliding the blanket off to the side, and come into cacao. So on the inhale, arch the spine and look up, and on the exhale, let the spine round, drop the chin in towards your chest. A few more like that, still pressing into the feet, and let the spine round. So sweet is made up of earth and water, so that's first and second chakra.

Stay with your cacao, and that's the feet, and the legs, and the pelvis. And one more time, and round. And then tucking the toes under, we're going to press back into downward facing dog, but let the hips lead you, so keep the knees pretty bent here, I'm even taking my feet a little wider than usual, and send the tailbone up first, and let that be what lengthens out the legs, and then at the last moment, reaching the heels back and down, so I'm in a slightly wider down dog than usual here. And then start to walk your hands back towards your feet, shifting the body weight over the balls of the feet, coming into uttanasana, and then bend your knees slightly, tuck your chin, roll your way up to stand. Roll the shoulders back and down, and step the feet together.

And then bring your left knee up towards your chest, give it a squeeze, and come right into a tree pose, stepping the sole of the left foot to the inside of the right thigh. And with that awareness of the feet, and the legs, and the pelvis, you can put your hands on your hips, and try to let the left hip drop without sinking into the right one. So draw the outer right hip towards the midline, and that gives a little lift to the navel. Hands can come to your heart, and then go ahead and reach your arms up, and right out of the roots here. And then turn your left knee forward, step your left foot down, diver's pose, reach the arms back, coming halfway forward, and pick up the heels.

Gaze is down the tip of the nose. Drop the heels, coming into uttanasana, and fold yourself forward, head hanging. Bend the knees, tuck the chin, and roll your way up, rolling the shoulders back and down, and then just repeat that on the other side, bring the right knee up. So we're kind of echoing the shapes on the floor, step the sole of the right foot to the inside of the left thigh. Hands can come to the hips, leveling things off without dropping in.

Hands can come to the heart, and then reach the arms up, wobble as much as you need to, I certainly am, and then turn your right knee forward, step the right foot down, planting your feet, swing the arms back, come right back into diver's pose, and uttanasana. And fold yourself forward over your legs, walk back out, we're coming right into a plank pose here. Drop your knees and come into child's pose. Little tricky transition in your child's pose, put the left ankle on top of the right ankle so your ankles are crossed. Take your hands underneath your shoulders, push yourself back and have a seat behind your ankles.

Now, if that feels terrible for your knees, you'll just swing the legs around. We're coming right back into dandasana. And then repeating and adding on, bring the left knee in, cross the left ankle over the right thigh, step the right foot to the ground, and press the chest up. Let the legs drop off to the left, coming into your barred vajasana, solo the foot to the inside of the thigh, look over your left shoulder. And then keep the twist and look back over your right shoulder.

Letting that go, this time step your right foot in front of your left foot so your ankles are crossed and reach your right arm up. Send it all the way out in front of you as far forward as you can to sweep it around the inside of the leg. Maybe clasp your fingers, and we're coming into a variation of marichyasana B. And this might not be a big forward bend here, I'm thinking more of dropping the head, drawing the navel back, it's a great pose for digestion. And then roll back up and stretch the right leg forward, jandasasana, you've been here before coming forward.

Roll back up, left hand outside of the left hip, stargazer, and come back down, and right back into jandasana. Other side, right leg in, cross the right ankle over the left thigh, step the left foot to the ground, press the chest up, open up the hip, let the legs drop off to the right, sew the right foot to the inside of the left thigh, left foot back behind you, take your twist and then look back over your left shoulder. Keep the right leg where it is, step your left foot forward, reach up through the left arm, send it as far forward out in front of you as you can, and then see if you can clasp your fingertips, it might be your shirt, and fold forward, belly draws back, I'm pressing the inside of my left arm into my left shin, and rolling back up, stretch the left leg out in front of you, jandasasana, walking the hands forward. Rolling back up, stargazer on the other side, and coming back down, cross your left ankle in front of your right, roll over to hands and knees, and step back, plank pose, lowering down to the ground, press into the tops of the feet, roll the shoulders back, little baby cobra here, and downward facing dog, and once again that down dog is slightly wider, walk the hands back, tuck the chin and roll your way up, pushing the feet down, letting the tailbone drop, draw the left knee up into your chest, and this time take the left leg across in what I call arta utkatasana, or more of an ankle to knee shape, and I'm holding on to my left thigh and my left heel to come forward, stick the bum out, get yourself the hip opener here, and then reach for your big left toe, your right hand will come to the right hip, come on up into utthita hasta b, so stretching the left leg out to the left, and you can reach the right arm out to the right, and then right into tree pose, and if you need to put the foot down first, you put the foot down and then come back into tree pose, reaching up, connecting to the center line, and then step both feet wider than your mat, turn the toes out, bend the knees, come on down, eagle wrap the right arm underneath the left, big wide stance here, hips are dropping, take a full breath in, open your mouth, breathe it out, and then straighten out the legs parallel off the toes, take the arms back behind you, interlace the fingers, lifting up, and fold yourself forward, bringing the hands down to the ground, hop or step your feet together, and we're going to work on crow pose, so bring the arms out in front of you, almost like you're going to come into a down dog, and slide them back, squeeze the upper arms with the inner thighs, tip the body weight forward into the tips of the fingers and see if you can lift your feet up, and this is a crow pose, this is a crow pose, not a crane pose, so keep things a little bit lower here, you can even bend the elbows a little bit more like chaturanga, and then place the feet down, and fold yourself forward, and arm balances can be so grounding there, they build the strength but they stay low, and connect it, rolling up, roll your way back up, let's try the other side, draw your right knee up, take the right ankle across the left thigh, arda utkatasana, sending the tailbone back, left sit bone to the left, right sit bone to the right, holding on to the thigh and the heel, and then reach for your big right toe with the first two fingers of your right hand, left hand to your left hip, I'm keeping the right foot pretty close to me as I come up, and then I'm wobbling, and then I start to straighten your right leg out, and there's your uttita b, and bring the sole of the right foot to the inside of the left thigh, back into your tree pose, reaching the arms up, and then once again step your feet wider than your mat, toes are turned out, eagle wrap, left arm underneath the right, bend the knees, coming down, take a full breath in, open your mouth, breathe it out, and straighten out the legs, parallel off the toes, change the interlacing of your fingers behind your back, lift up, and fold forward, take your hands down to the ground, hop or step your feet together, one more crow pose, sliding the shins around the outsides of the arms, tip the body weight forward, come on up, and I know some of you like to come into a tripod headstand from here, so if that's you, let the elbows widen out to the sides a little bit, tuck the chin, drop the head, and then lift the hips up, right, that's the piece, you've got to get the hips over the shoulders, and then the legs feel quite a bit lighter to come up into your sheer sausana b, reach through the legs, lengthen the tailbone towards the heels, and coming right back down, now if crow or crow to headstand is not in your practice, hang out in a squat here, hang out in a squat and just let yourself release towards the ground, I'm coming back into crow, shift the body weight back, lifting up, and place the feet back down, whoo, uttanasana, walking the hands out, coming back into your plank pose, and lower down, cobra, and downward facing dog, drop it into child's pose, and take your right ankle on top of your left in your child's pose, walk the hands back, and sit down again, and stretch the legs out in front of you, dandasana, last time like this, and bring the left knee in, cross the left ankle over the right thigh, step the right foot to the ground, press the chest forward, get the hip opener, letting the legs drop off to the left, draw the right foot in closer, step the left foot to the inside of the left thigh, take your twist to the left, and then look back over your right shoulder, release, stepping the right foot to the ground with the right knee bent, right in front of the left ankle, reach up through the right arm, swing it out in front of you, coming into your marici b variation, and let your head fall, rolling your way back up, a little different, let the right leg fall open, and stretch your left leg back, coming right into a pigeon pose, and we're going to come forward on this one, so if you need a blanket underneath you, you'll take the blanket, otherwise coming forward, just letting the hips release, a couple of deeper breaths there, again this is a low and cooling practice, so the forward bends are really nice for that, walk your hands back in, bring your left leg around, jhanushrasasana folding forward, roll it up, stargazer right hand outside of the right hip, lift up onto your shin, come on down, soles of the feet together, knees open for bada canasana, and coming forward, and you can sit on a blanket here if the lower back or the hips needs a little space, but sometimes with the deeper stretching it's a little bit more about what can we let go of, as opposed to where we can get to. Roll your way up, and then this time we're going to take the legs out real wide, coming into upavishta, so I like a blanket here, and you can take the blanket like this, fold it non-fringe to non-fringe, and then putting it back behind me, I'm actually going to sit on the corner of it, and just slide the corner right underneath my pelvis, so then my pelvis gets a little bit of weight and walk the hands forward, and I'm flexing the feet, and trying to keep the sitz bones grounded, and it could be that there's a few breaths here that are more active with the feet flexing and reaching the chest forward, and then at some point just let yourself drop a little bit, loosen all the, loosen the work away, just let it feel good, and nice deep breathing here into the inner thighs, and give it a moment, give it some time, and then slowly walking the hands back in, roll yourself up, and shake your legs in, shake them in, shake them in, blanket can come off to the side, coming back into dandasana, right knee comes in, cross the right ankle over, step the left foot in, flexing the feet, lifting the chest, coming into your bhard vajasana, sole of the right foot to the inside of the left thigh, take your twist to the right, and look back to the left, keep the right leg where it is, step the left leg in front of the right ankle, reach up through the left arm, swing it around, coming into marici b, and then let the left leg fall open, right leg comes around behind you for your pigeon pose, and coming forward, left leg forward, right leg back, and if your legs got a little tangled up, no worries, we're going to be here for a minute, just switch sides if you need to, and walk your hands back up, bring your right leg around in front of you, jhanu shasasana, walking hands down, drop the head, roll yourself back up, left hand outside of the left hip, lift up onto your shin, star gazer, come on down, soles of the feet together, knees open, bhard kasana number two, coming forward, and if you're like me and the hips can be a little challenging, just try to add some emphasis to the exhalation, that letting go, and then roll yourself back up, and one more time back into upavishta, if you liked the blanket, you can set yourself up again with the blanket, and come forward, and so you might do that a couple times, stretch the chest forward on the inhale, get a little longer, and then on the exhale just let yourself drop, and then walk your hands back up, and shake your legs in.

Blanket, and move off to the side again, and come forward into your passimottanasana, folding forward, and you can walk the sitz bones back a little bit, dropping the head in, and if the knees need to bend here, let the knees bend, you can sit on a blanket if that's better for you, and the same thing here, extending the chest forward on the inhale, getting a little bit more length, and then on the exhale just letting all of the work go, let's try to think here, like less of a stretch, more of a bow, and roll your way back up, and we're going to close out our practice with asuptubhata kanasana, so take the blanket again, and just like this, and then open it up one more, so it's nice and long. You'll turn it to the side, and then make a roll with it, a nice long roll, and so you've got a nice long roll here, and take that roll, and I'm going to come into my baddha kanasana, soles of the feet together, knees open, and I'm wrapping the blanket around the fronts of my ankles, and then I take the ends and slide them underneath, so they're right by my shins, and reach the arms up and over, that's sometimes the confusing part. Take the arms over the thighs, reach for the blanket, and pull the blanket in as you roll down onto your back, so it really catches the legs there, and then arms can come out to the sides, and the blanket's holding you, and I know some of you like to have the hands resting on the belly, you can do that, that can feel good. And just breathing here. All right.

And then up to you where you go from here, if you are happy in the Supta Baddha, you'll stay with that, otherwise you can reach down, grab your blanket, you might just lay it over the pelvis, unroll it, lay it over the pelvis, and come right into Shavasana. And Shavasana can be the sweetest pose of all. Let yourself be held by the ground. And your body will naturally cool off. My breath will start to get a little bit more shallow, a little more dropped in. So, let's go back to Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, If you need to stay longer here, you'll stay longer here. If you're about ready to come out, make some little movements with your fingers and toes. And then walk the feet in, and place them on the ground one at a time. And just have a moment there letting the pelvis hang. Feet on the ground. Earth and water. And then roll over onto your right side. And use the arms to press your way up to sit. Coming back into your cross-legged seat. Hopefully you're feeling a bit sweeter now. Hope you enjoyed your practice. Namaste.