Cleanse and Clear

Namaste, greetings, try, welcome to day 10. Can we just, let's do this, because it's day 10. I'm proud of you, I'm proud of myself, this is 10 days in a row, and I'm really proud of you. So, you're a yogi now, let's keep going, you're a third of the way there. And this practice will introduce a couple new shapes, so have a couple blocks handy, and let's start seated, cross-legged, bring your hands onto your knees, and let's circle our spine over our hips, because you deserve it, it feels good.

Maybe close your eyes, maybe let your head roll if that feels good to you, and just start to stir your prana from deep inside your hips, through your spine, all the way up through the crown of your head. Start your breath in, just kind of let yourself shift into the non-verbal space, as you change directions. And I love to feel not only how movements are functional and healing to the physical body, but as you move, you know there's always, you can have meaning inside of your movement if you choose to. And so with each circle of the head, with each exhale, with each shrug of the shoulders, what can you roll off your back, like water off a duck's back, literally, and so come through the center, and sit up nice and tall, take a deep inhale here, tilt your face up towards the sun, and then exhale, dive in and down underneath the wave, you can bring your hands forward, and inhale to rise for a new breath, a new day, exhale, dip down underneath the current, and inhale to rise up. Just take this about three more rounds, probably one of my favorite things about surfing besides being on a wave is that first duck dive underneath when you're paddling out, it's just like, oh, it's clearing of the mind and the body.

So as you breathe, let your breath be like that cleansing salt water as you come up, and then dip back in. Once more, come all the way up, inhaling, this time reach your arms out and up to the sky, exhale, side bend up and over to your right, and we've been in the side of this pattern before, so we open up our chest towards the sun on an inhale, exhale, circle forward and down, and then reach behind you into a twist, your right hand will come across to the left knee, sit up nice and tall as you inhale, exhale, dial into the twist, come back to the center and circle out and out, full breath in, exhale, side bend to your left, inhale, turn your chest up towards the sun, exhale, dunk under the water, sweep along the ocean floor and come into that twist, left hand on right knee as you sit tall, exhale, dial the spine in, and then from here just come onto your hands and knees, and we'll set up for a really familiar cat cow but today we'll add a little bit of power to the cat, so as you round your spine, press into the tops of the feet, keep the spine rounded and lift your knees about an inch or two, and then set them lightly down, inhale to arch the back, exhale, once again round and coil and just let your knees hover, feeling into your core a bit, twice more, inhale, exhale, coil, and once more like that, inhale, as we slowly start to make our way towards crow and some of the coming practices, this feeling of pulling in and up through the core, this coiling is the same feeling that we work with inside of crow, let's extend the right arm forward, the left leg back on an inhale, as you exhale, draw your elbow and your knee to meet underneath you, and then reach back forward as you inhale, exhale, elbow to knee, warming into the core, warming into the center of the body, feel the back body awaken as you reach, front body engage as you coil, and just once more, inhale, get nice and long, bend your back knee and reach back, grab onto the big toe side of your foot, we did this in the last couple of practices, opening up the quad, feeling a little half bow pose here as you lift your chest and lift your thigh, and then as you exhale, let's release back to child's pose, take a moment here, let your hips rock a little from side to side, let your head, your forehead roll a bit, allow for any intention or dedication, it can be the same one you've been working with or it can be entirely new, it can simply be listening, and then when you're ready on your next inhale, rise up to your hands and knees, and set up for the second side, extend your left arm forward, your right leg back, exhale, elbow to knee, inhale to lengthen, exhale, elbow to knee, and just enjoy this awakening of your body, taking care of your body from the inside out, from the outside in as you reach long, hold, and then bend the back knee, reach back, grab hold of the big toe side of your foot, and lift through the chest and the thigh, take a deep inhale here as you string the bow, and then exhale, release to child's pose, take it down, coming back to your breath, in and out of the nose, back to your intention, let's rise up to our hands and knees, curl your toes under, press back into downward facing dog, so from downward dog, let's go into our pendulum namaskar to keep warming up, so extend the right leg to the sky, as you exhale, knee to navel, step it all the way through between your hands, it can be a low or a high lunge, I'm going to go low first, inhale, reach forward and up, exhale, simple twist, left hand down, right arm reaches to the sky, and then follow that rhythm, scoop it down, forward and up as you inhale, open your wings, and exhale, that's ada vinyasa here, your choice, stage one with the knees down, stage two with the knees lifted, cobra or upward dog, exhale, downward dog, and take the left leg to the sky on an inhale, exhale, step it all the way through, lower high lunge, inhale as you expand, exhale as you twist, retrace the pathway of the top arm, inhale, push your heart, open your wings, exhale through your vinyasa, so stage two we keep the knees lifted as we lower, come through cobra, add upward dog, exhale, downward dog, it's always your choice, you can always skip vinyasas, inhale, right leg, exhale, step it through, I'm going to keep the back knee lifted this time, inhale to come up, exhale, simple twist, inhale, return to crescent, exhale, open your wings and step back, any vinyasa, maybe it's a cat cow vinyasa, arching and curling, I'm just going to keep offering these different rhythms to connect from left to right side, left leg rising on an inhale, exhale, step it all the way through, inhale to crescent, exhale, simple twist, inhale, return to crescent pose, exhale, open your wings, any vinyasa, I'll take cat cow, arching as you inhale, curling, maybe hover the knees, inhale to arch, exhale, so let's take two more rounds of this, inhaling right leg, exhale to start to find your rhythm, lower high lunge, rise, exhale, simple twist, inhale to rise, open your wings, flow like water, any vinyasa, now open the heart, exhale, fold it back, downward dog, left leg, inhale, exhale, step it through, inhale, rise, exhale, inhale, return, open your wings as you exhale, passing through your vinyasa, I'm taking stage two, inhale, exhale, maybe you come up to upward dog or straight back to downward dog, let's take one more round together, inhale, rise, exhale, inhale, working with building a little stamina and strength, exhale to the twist, inhale, come up and exhale, let's introduce the stage three vinyasa, since it's day ten, so come down halfway and hover, go right to upward dog, big inhale, exhale, no big deal, just an option, left leg rises, inhale, exhale, step it through, inhale, rise, exhale, simple twist, inhale, come all the way back up, open your heart, any vinyasa, maybe a stage three, hovering in chaturanga, coming right to upward dog, exhale, downward dog, let's breathe right here, so from your downward dog, come down to the knees and either sit back in child's pose or you can sit in virasana and just place your hips right on your heels and breathe for a moment, maybe close your eyes and just feel your heartbeat, the namaskaras that we just went through were on the brisker side, a little on the faster side, so if you're feeling like, whoa, what just happened, it's just an opportunity to let loose the reins a little bit and see how it feels to flow at that pace, by no means is it required, we can always back off and move slower, we can always move quicker and one of the things I'm really trying to share with you is the knowledge of how to make those decisions on a day-to-day basis, so just feel into your body, your breath, how does it feel, continue on with a little bit of a slower pace and some new shapes, so let's come back up to our hands and knees, back to downward facing dog, and from here walk your feet to the top of the mat, coming into a forward fold, let's lift the heart halfway, come up kind of high, hands on the shins and then exhale, forward fold, with a flat back come all the way up to standing, lift your head, lift your heart, circle out and up, exhale hands to your heart, a little bit of a balance sequence here, let's bend our knees like we're coming into chair pose but bring your hands to your heart and shift your weight into the right foot, crossing your left ankle on top of the right knee, it's different than an eagle pose where we wrap the leg, we want to keep the ankle on the knee and the knee open like you're sitting at a dinner table and this one's called temple dancer, just reach your hips back and you might feel you probably will feel some opening in the left hip almost like a pigeon sensation and from here simply stand tall, reach your arms over your head, extend forward through your left leg, it can be low or high and then as you exhale both feet plant on the mat, soften through the midline, almost tai chi, chi gong style and come to the second side, so we'll lift combining these two postures, extend your arms over your head, extend your right leg forward and then come into temple dancer from there, so it's a little bit technical but you can do it, as you inhale come back up and just feel your prana in action, feel your focus in motion, both feet plant, exhale, soften through the midline, super steady, inhale extend forward through the left leg, up through the arms, exhale cross the ankle on the knee and if you've ever practiced any internal martial art, karate, kung fu, tai chi, you start to feel into this flow, inhale to extend, exhale, step down, soften through the midline, once more, extend through the right leg, reach up, eyes steady, exhale, ankle on the knee, sit back in the hips, moving with patience, inhale, extend long through the right leg, exhale through the midline, yeah, circle the arms out and up, standing tall, touch your palms over your head, exhale, forward fold, lift the heart halfway, now as you exhale, this is where our blocks will come in, so you can grab two blocks and just place them right at the front of the mat and you can turn them tall, we're introducing half moon, so it'll be nice to just have the support of the blocks there, already waiting for when we come into the balance, so let's come back up halfway position and step the feet close together in the middle of the mat, soften the knees just to touch and reach your left leg straight back, so we'll find warrior three from here and one of the things we want to work on is the positioning or the tilting of the hips, so in warrior three the hips are square, we want to pull the left hip slightly down, the right hip back and then come up onto your fingertips and lift, then from there really charge up the standing leg and open up your wings and you can flex the back foot or reach through the ball of the back foot but take a nice deep inhale, now as you exhale soften your knee, bring your hands back down to the blocks, the right block will move in a little closer and if you're feeling like oh that right hip needs a little bit of a break, then just stand up, let's do that anyway and then come back down, sometimes a moment makes all the difference right, now from here left hand will find the hip and you start to turn your hips open and you might notice that my standing leg is still a little bit bent, this allows for some navigation on that bottom leg, so turn the hips open, start to straighten into the right leg if that feels good to you otherwise you can keep it bent, turn the chest open, the eyes are still on the mat and then reach your left arm to the sky and feel into your half moon, a couple of breaths here and you probably notice that the bottom foot gets a little wobbly and usually we want to roll to the outer edge of the foot but keep pressing the big toe side of that foot down, now to come out of this bend your standing leg and slowly step back to where you're too, we've been working with stepping back out of balance postures quite a bit, the slower you go the better, the more control you have, so come to your warrior two, inhale straighten your front leg, reach up, exhale through warrior two, elbow to knee, sweep your left arm alongside the ear, open the chest and then exhale, we saw this yesterday, pivot the feet, bend into the left knee, skandhasana, up and over a couple times, to the right and to the left and then from here let's come to the center, draw both heels in, bend your knees and come on up to a high malasana, backs in the hands against the inner knees, feel the power in your legs and let's circle the arms out and up as you inhale, exhale through the midline, charging up your roots, inhale, exhale, once more inhale, stay deep in your legs, exhale hands come down to the mat, stretch the legs long, feet just turned parallel and then walk it back to your blocks, super simple, we'll step to the front of the mat, forward fold, push off the blocks, lift your head, come all the way up to standing, exhale, hands to your heart, let's do the other side, circle out and up, deep breath in, exhale, forward fold, take your hands to your blocks, even if you normally don't use them, it's kind of nice just to feel into some openness in this shape, so let's take our right leg straight back, finding warrior three, feel how the hips can tilt here and feel for parallel level through the hips and go ahead and just lift up on your fingertips, take the arms nice and wide and extend long through the standing leg, try to keep dialing the right hip down, maybe keep the standing leg bent, exhale, hands come back to the block, let's come up to standing just for a moment, just to ah, that felt good and then right back down, take your right leg back and let's bring our left block a little closer to the midline, it's kind of in front of your baby toe, right hand comes to the hip, once again keep your standing leg a little bent and just start to turn your hips open, keep pressing down through the big toe side of the bottom foot and lift up through the top leg, you can flex the top foot, maybe straighten the bottom leg, maybe keep it bent, balances are a constant state of negotiation, right, so notice where you need to soften, where you need to engage as you expand in all directions, when you're ready, right arm reaches to the sky, feeling into your half moon and just stay here for a breath or two, such a beautiful expansive posture and then slowly soften the standing leg, step back to your warrior to adjust your feet as you need to and then inhale, straighten the front leg, reach up, exhale, elbow to knees, sweep the right arm into side angle pose, full breath in, exhale, trace the long edge of the mat, turn your feet parallel and here we are in skandhasana, side to side a couple of times, just to transfer the weight and then come to the center, let's drop both heels in, toes apart and come up into this high malasana, backs of the hands against the inner knees, inhale, reach up, exhale through the midline, inhale, exhale, feel the power in your base, the freedom in your upper body, exhale, draw the hands down, turn to a runner's lunge and then just step to a forward fold, hands can be on the mat or on your blocks, let's inhale, lift the heart and as you exhale, open up your knees like a diamond and sink down and we'll set the blocks to one side from here, walk your hands forward coming into your malasana, this is a low malasana, the big toes and heels touching, heels are probably off the floor but reach them back towards the floor and let the back round, so relax into this shape, this is actually the first cousin to crow pose, this low malasana, so feeling into the curves of your back and the deep fold in your hips, on your next inhale just lift your head and then slide your hands in so they're just a little bit in front of the shoulders and you can feel your knees touching the outer triceps and shoulders and just as a prep for crow pose, let's round up through the spine, that same rounding we did in Cat-Cow and then sink back down and do that again, as you round up, squeeze your knees into the outer triceps, exhale, sink back down, once more like that, round up, squeeze the knees in and just shift forward like you're looking over the edge of a cliff, keep the head lifted, feel the potential to lift your feet and then skip it because we'll get to that and from here we'll sit down and extend the right leg forward, sole the left foot comes to the inner thigh for Janu Sursasana, some of my friends like to call this Janu Sursasana, so reach your arms up to the sky on an inhale and then exhale forward fold over the long leg, you can hold on to your ankle, your foot or reach around to sole of your foot, whatever feels comfortable to you and let's enjoy a couple of breaths here. Breathing into your kidneys, the low back, hips, hamstrings, allowing your head to just relax, your neck to relax, one more breath and from here lift your head and your heart, come on up as you inhale and as you exhale just point the left knee up towards the side to the sky and take your left foot a little wide and lean into the right leg, a little bit of a mini Marichasana A here, we want to gesture from the heart, reach forward and then around your knee, your shin and you'll notice my arm internally rotates here, so we're going for a wrap and it may or may not happen today but just feel the back of your hand wherever it lands and then take your right arm behind your back and again it might be the backs of your hands resting on the hips or you might link fingertips or one hand might grab a wrist, it just depends on you but see what you've got there, lean it forward at the same time, draw your left knee back and enjoy a couple of breaths into your low back, really great opening for the hips and low back, you can relax your head and relax your neck, enjoy a few breaths in this shape, totally fine to have the fingertips on the floor as well and just for the fun of it let's float our Marichasana, let's lean back, come up on and lift your foot up off the floor and you might float your foot and knee and maybe even that opposite leg might float up for a moment and just feel a floating boat pose meets Marichasana and then let it go, extend forward through your left leg and bend your right knee, sole the foot at the inner thigh, let's take the second side, reach up on an inhale and as you exhale, fold into your Jani-sarsasana, wherever your hands land it's cool, just dropping in, it's a very internal posture, very grounding posture, so relax here and breathe, let yourself deepen the posture by softening into it, it's different than forcing your way or muscling in, relax into it and as you're ready, inhale, lift your head, lift your heart, come on up and sit tall, right knee points up towards the sky, widen your right foot so make space between your foot and your thigh to lean forward and then again just gesture from the heart, reach forward, internally rotate your right arm and reach around the shin, backs of the hands, kind of exploring, sort of feels like you're exploring in the dark back here but just see where it lands, maybe you link up, maybe not, no big deal, even if you're not holding hands or you have your hands on the floor, you're getting some benefit here from the opening position of the hip and the hamstring stretch, that's a grounding pose as well, so just drop into it and as you reach your spine forward, pull back through the right knee, let's enjoy our breath, one more breath here, lift your head, lift your heart, try to keep the wrap or the half wrap, come up onto the toe, lift your toe, that feels good and then maybe lift the other leg, floating for a moment and then slowly come on back down, release, open up the legs nice and wide and before we come into Shavasana, we'll just take a moment here and sit tall, nice wide reach through your legs, you can walk the fingertips forward, we're just here for a moment, just kind of saying hello to this wide angle pose seated before we come onto our backs, so just one deep breath here, exhale, relax down any amount, roll up your spine and then come onto your back, we'll spend a little more time in that posture and some of our coming practices, so from here come on down, spread out, day 10 practice, coming to a close, breathe into that really wonderful sense of accomplishment and relax and rest. And rest, stay tuned.