Physical and Mental Vitality

Welcome. This kriya is for energy. It's for physical and mental vitality. So when you really want to work hard, you want to call in an abundance of energy and just really get the work, get it done, this is an excellent set for you to do to just energize your entire system. And so let's get started. Begin with a seated position, an easy pose, cross legged, palms facing upwards at your knees, eyes closed. Just for a moment, let's tune in to ourselves. Take note of your energy for today's practice. How are you arriving to the mat? Are you feeling that it was exhausting just to get you here or are you feeling pumped up and ready to go? Take note of it, just become aware of it without judging or criticizing how you've arrived. Just be in it. Noticing where within your body it feels ready to go and where within your body it feels sleepy. And together, let's inhale long and deeply. And with this exhalation, release as I inhale long and deeply into those spaces within you that feel still dormant. And exhale. And inhale long and deeply, filling in your lungs, filling in your belly, sipping a little bit more. Visualize your breath all the way down to your toes. Inhale a little bit more and powerfully exhale. Relax your breath. Begin rubbing your palms together, creating a heat between your hands, charging up your electromagnetic field, your auric field, and then hands together in prayer at your heart center. Thumbs pressing into your sternum right at the center of your chest, rolling your shoulders up, back, and down, eyes closed, focusing inwards and upwards into your third eye points right between your brows raised just slightly. We'll tune in just like we do with every Kundalini yoga practice with Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo, bowing unto the wisdom within as we connect to the golden chain of wise ones who've come before us. We'll chant Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo three times, and then it will lead into the Mangala Charan Mantra. Aar Gurana Me, Jugaar Gurana Me, Sat Gurana Me, Sri Guru Deve Na Me, calling in that wisdom to protect us in love and light. We'll chant that three times as well. Your eyes opened up. Let's close them again. Focus at your third eye points, and let's begin tuning in together.

Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo Aaar Gurana Me, Jugaar Gurana Me, Sat Gurana Me, Sri Guru Deve Na Me, Exhale. Inhale. Inhale, suspend your breath hold, visualize, feel the mantras vibrating through your body from your heart around you, around the space where you're practicing today, out around the earth and beyond, and exhale. Sit down, relax your arms, relax your hands, we're going to begin with a warm up called life nerve stretch, so if you happen to be sitting on a blanket or a bolster just place that aside for a moment, and so I'm going to turn sideways here so that you can really see how my spine is aligned in this asana. So the full complete asana is that you're touching your toes, you're going to take your peace fingers and you're going to place them around your big toes, press your big toenail with your thumbs, roll your shoulders up, back and down, flex your feet, spread your toes, see how my neck is aligned with my spine, I'm going to maintain that the whole time.

And so I'm going to inhale in this up position and exhale, what's bringing me down is not curving my spine, it's not about bringing my head to my knees, it's about bending my elbows. And see I came down just a couple inches and for maybe for you it's more, maybe it's half an inch, but you're going to go to your limit here, that's an exhale, your inhale up, exhale down. So that's what the full complete asana looks like. So what you want to do is if you cannot touch your toes right now, maybe eventually through this warm up you will, you're going to place your hands on your knees, keep that spinal alignment and walk your hands down to as far as you can go where you feel like there's a good stretch, like a juicy stretch in your hamstrings and in your legs, in your hips. Stay there, inhale up, exhale, bend your elbows down.

And so that may be what it looks like for you. So find the right asana that feels good for you and your comfort level while still feeling like you're stretching and going beyond what you feel like is that physical limitation. And let's begin. Continue here, your eyes are open, go ahead and close them, roll them inwards and upwards into your third eye. Continue to breathe powerfully through this, using your inhale to really breathe into where the tension is that you're feeling in your legs, in your hips, perhaps in your arms or your shoulders, your core, every exhale release that tension.

Allow yourself to create heat here, move a little bit faster, quicken your breath in these last moments. Inhale in the up position, exhale in the down position, inhale come rising up and exhale release. Feel free to shake out your legs, roll your shoulders up, back and down, roll your ankles. Now join me back into a seated position, cross-legged, easy pose. And now we'll begin the kriya.

And so in this kriya, we're going to first start working out on a core. And so I'm going to come lying down and we're going to do scissor legs. So I'm going to first come into that asana and then join me. So I'm going to come lying down onto my back. If you feel like your lower back needs support, feel free to place your hands underneath your buttocks, otherwise your hands are facing downwards on the floor beside you.

And what we're going to simply do here is raise our legs 12 inches above the earth and then we're going to crisscross them. So this is what the asana looks like. And now join me. Once you come into the position that feels right for you, whether your hands are underneath your buttocks or beside you, raise your legs 12 inches above the earth and let's begin. Inhaling open your legs, exhale cross, inhale alternate which crosses, exhale there, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

Make sure you're supporting your lower back. If at any moment in time you feel like you need to take a break, you listen to what you need. You're here in this physical asana. Go ahead and close your eyes, go deeply within you and experience the emotions that are coming through for you. Allow that heat to come through.

You're feeling it flushing through your system, clearing through any barriers or blocks that you may be feeling in your legs, in your hips. You can always rest whenever you need to. You can always modify by crossing one leg at a time as well. Last moment's here. Exhale and exhale, relax your legs down the moment you've been waiting for a minute or so of rest.

Relax your arms out from underneath you, palms facing upwards, keep your eyes still closed and just experience that rush of energy through your body from that tension that you purposely called in so that you can become aware of where those blocks are, where those body blocks are. Sometimes the work is just allowing ourselves to be in the pause, in the rest. Really just allow yourself to enjoy this moment of rewiring, of recovery. I wish I could tell you we stay here the rest of the set, but we don't. So we're going to return back into our cross-legged exercise here.

So you're going to inhale, exhale, place your hands underneath your buttocks if you need that support, otherwise your hands again are down by your sides. One last round of criss-crossing legs. Let's begin, inhaling open, exhaling close. Notice how you feel here compared to the first set. Remember you can always take a moment and switch up your legs.

Going one at a time, finding that place, finding your edge. Try to keep your legs as straight as possible. Eyes pointed, eyes closed, focusing inwards and upwards within. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, eight, nine, eight, nine, eight, nine, seven, eight, nine, eight, nine, eight, ten. Last moments here.

Find what means commitment to you here. Maybe it's a slower version or maybe it's full on. that place for you. Find your toes at the edge and let's go. Inhale and exhale. Now we're in that rest and relaxation here for a moment. Relax your hands from underneath your body, palms facing upwards. Relax everything here. Feel your heart's energy. So much more alive than when we first began today's practice together. Notice within you those places that once felt asleep how they are awakened now. Noticing that even in this moment of stillness there is movement, there are sensations you are still quite alive, energized.

And inhale, exhale. Great work. And so we're gonna stay here on our back for a push-pull motion of our legs. Place your hands again underneath your bottom if you feel like you need that support. Our legs are now gonna go up about two feet up off the earth for this push-pull motion. So your legs are pushing and pulling, not bicycling. So you're not creating circles with your legs. It's like pistons in an engine pushing and pulling. Your breath becomes automatic here. One leg inhales, the other leg is an exhale and try to fully extend your legs outwards as you do this toes pointed. And let's begin. Eyes closed, focus at your third eye point. Go at your own pace, go at the pace that feels right for you. You can always bring your legs a little higher if you need to. If that helps, you can always lower a leg too. And if that helps, find the modification that feels right for you. Keep up here, feeling your energy, noticing where the fatigue is coming in, breathing into that place, using your breath to energize it. Last moments here. Find that place within you of energy. And inhale where you are. And exhale, relax your legs down, relax your arms from underneath your buttocks, palms facing upwards. And just be, feel that sweat on your body, feel that heat flushing through your system, let it flow, just surrender to that. Notice the sensations again, just awareness.

Notice how your energy can pick up so quickly because you will it too, as well as rest when you will it too. And inhale, exhale. So guess what? We do this one more time and then we're off our backs. And so let's support ourselves by bringing your hands underneath our buttocks if you feel like you need it. Otherwise hands down by your side, your legs up to that height that feels comfortable for you. So begin with your knees into your chest and let's begin that push-pull motion. Once you have the asana, the actual exercise and the posture, remember close your eyes, go deep within the energy that you're calling in to help you to keep up here is within you. I'm here to support you, but that energy, that vitality that exists within your own being, your own essence. So close your eyes, access that deep within you. Take note of how you feel here compared to the last exercise, call in that inner strength. It's in there, you've used it before, you're gonna use it right now. Remember that there's many ways to come through any kind of challenge. So modify how ever feels right for you to come through this moment. Last moments here, if you can pick up the pace here, do so. Inhale and exhale. You did it, relax your arms out from your bottom if you were under there, otherwise palms now flipped upwards and relax. Celebrate in this moment of stillness your ability to come through using your breath as that vehicle, that carrier, that tool to remind you that every moment is temporary. That challenge was temporary. This moment of rest, yes, is temporary. How we embrace those temporary moments is truly up to us. To take this moment to truly embrace it and enjoy the rest. Let's inhale, exhale. If you'd like to bring your knees into your chest, give yourself a loving embrace. You can move your knees around in a struggle just to massage your lower back a little bit, switch the direction of that. You can rock left and back. If you'd like to, you can roll back and forth up into a seated position. Hurl over onto your side and gently slowly bring yourself up. Take your time here. I've done a lot of floor work and so take your time in coming up.

I'll meet you in easy pose and cross-legged position. So here we're going to be seated. If you'd like to grab your bolster to come onto your seat, you can do so. That can be a blanket, that can be a pillow or a bolster. In this next asana, our arms are going to be reaching up over our heads. We're going to kind of counter that. We've done a lot of like leg stretch. Now we're going to stretch our arms and so you're going to interlace your hands. Thumb tips are going to touch and then you're going to raise your arm up to the sky. Palms pushing up into the sky and so this is the actual posture of the asana. The breath here is called breath of fire. So it sounds like this. If your arms are up right now, go ahead and take a moment to relax them. Let me just go over this breath with you and so it's an even inhale and exhalation through your nose. We like to allow people the option to breathe long and deeply, particularly if you are on the first three days of your menstrual cycle as well as if you're pregnant or have a tender belly for any reason. The reason for that is because this is a very powerful breath that we use our navel to pump in and so our organs during those times are very sensitive and we don't want to misalign them during that time. So again if you're on the first three days of your menstrual cycle or past 120 days of pregnancy or a tender belly for any reason, just breathe long and deeply anytime I say breath of fire. And so again breath of fire is an even inhalation and exhalation through your nostrils but it's much like panting. So the first way to practice is by panting. Place a hand onto your belly and begin panting. Open up your mouth, stick out your tongue and notice how naturally as you exhale your navel pumps inwards. Good and now continue that breath but breathe through your nostrils and nothing should change. Good if you feel that, that's your breath of fire. Go at the pace that feels right for you. You can always quicken it but what's most important than the pace is that you're inhaling a full belly and you're exhaling bringing that navel to your back. So now that you have your breath of fire let's interlace our hands once again, thumb tips touching, palms facing upwards to the sky. Try to push your biceps maybe into your head as much as you can, arms are straight, eyes closed, focus inwards and upwards into your third eye point and let's begin that breath of fire. This breath alone is very energizing. You're flushing your entire system bringing energy all the way up to the top of your head down to your legs. Use it to burn through and clear through any of those blocks you may have been experiencing in your shoulders, in your arms, in your upper body, in your head, in your throat, in your heart. Feel as though you are pushing up on a lid of a box that has been containing you, keeping you from your full vitality, being able to go for it. Whatever you're ready to create, whatever you're ready to change, stretch up, up, up and breathe powerfully. Last moments here, commit here, stretching up, powerful breath of fire. Feel like you're breaking yourself free of that container. Access your unlimited abundant energy. Inhale, stretch up, up, up, up, up, hold. Feel the energy circulating through you, burst out of that box. Exhale, relax your arms, sweep them through your auric feel down and around, touch the earth beside you and gently slowly open your eyes. Powerful practice right there and so now I'm going to demonstrate the next asana here. Our arms or hands are in a certain position as well and so you're going to bend your elbows, bringing your hands to your shoulders, your thumbs actually are in the front and your fingers are in the back. So this is what this looks like. A modification here could be that you hold your elbows. Okay so I'm going to show you that so you can really see what it looks like from the back. So my elbows are bent, here are my fingers, my thumbs actually kind of weave through so that they're holding the front of my shoulders. My head pushes back into my arms. Modification is here holding my elbows. So find that asana that feels right for you here. I'm going to come back onto my bolster, bending my elbows, bringing my fingers back, thumbs in, pushing my head into my arms. So once you've found that asana that feels right for you, begin your breath of fire. Eyes closed, focus inwards and upwards into your third eye. Try to keep your neck as straight as possible, try not to bring your chin down too much. Shoulders open, chest open. Remember modify that breath of fire. If you need to you can be long and deeply.

Use this breath to clear through all that you've been holding on to, all that you've been carrying that has made you sluggish or lethargic. Set in ways that don't allow you to expand and to grow. Keep up here, commit in these last moments, heart open. Inhale long and deeply. Hold, proud hearts. Stay here, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Hold your breath out. Now we're going to pull what's called mole bond. Your rectum muscles tighten, sex organs tighten, navel squeezes in and up. Feel like you need to use the restroom but you're not going to. You're pulling up on your pelvic floor, almost feeling like you're rising above the earth. Inhale, exhale. Hold your breath out, mole bond again. Rectum, sex, organs, navel. Squeeze in and up, pull up, up, up. We're gonna do this one more time. Inhale, exhale. Hold your breath out, pull that lock. Rectum, sex, organs, navel. Squeeze in and up. Feel like you're locking out all those energies that are keeping you from your vitality. And inhale, and exhale. Relax out of this asana. Roll your shoulders up, back, and down. Take a moment here. Flip your palms upwards at your knees. Close your eyes once again and just be for a moment. Feel the effects of these last asanas. Feel your energy so alive. What seems to be these simple exercises that really awaken this vital energy within you. Subtle, yet so powerful. And inhale, exhale. And just as we are feeling so awake and bright and alive, we get to rest. And so this is shavasana. Feel free to come lying onto your backs. If you want to stay seated here, you can as well. If you're lying on your back, take your bolster, your pillow, your blanket. Feel free to place it underneath your head, underneath your legs. Place the blanket on you. Just come into a deep relaxation. Feel your mind, your body starting to rest and relax because you're willing it to. Allow it to recalibrate and rewire from all that you've awakened. And allow the vibrations of the gong to continue to cleanse and purify as well as amplify your vitality.

Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. Feel the vibrations of the gong. If you'd like to stay here in Shavasana, feel free to do so. Otherwise, I'm going to help you come out of Shavasana into meditation. Inhale long and deeply and exhale. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Roll your ankles. Roll your wrists and rub your palms together. Rub the soles of your feet together. In cat stretch, bring your knees over to one side. Twist your torso the opposite direction. Bring your arms in the direction of your torso. Take a look at your hands and switch sides. And then return back into the center. Hugging in your knees, give yourself that loving embrace. Feel free to rock left and right and back and forth if you'd like to. Just roll over to one side and gently bring yourself up into a seated asana here. I'll meet you in easy pose, cross-legged. And so for this meditation, our hands are in a mudra, which is gyan mudra. Our thumb and pointer fingers are connected, calling upon that Jupiter energy we say is located in our index finger, knowledge and wisdom. So we're calling in knowledge and wisdom as we chant this mudra together. Wahe, guru. So the first part of the mudra is wahe. W-A-H-E, wahe. Wahe is an expression of ecstasy. It's like wow is what wahe means. And then guru is like a guru. The goo, the dark, the rue, the light. That which brings the dark to light is the guru, is the teacher. And so when we put wahe and guru together, we're saying, wow, I am that teacher. Wow, I have this dark and this light and together there's this knowledge and there's this wisdom that's contained within me. And that is where our vitality exists, that mental, physical vitality that allows us to really get it done. So start to create, start to change whatever it is that we're ready for. So wahe guru is really this expression of wow, of ecstasy, of excitement. Wahe guru. So instead of saying guru, like the way you would the word, it's guru. So the R is almost like a D, guru. The tip of your tongue strikes the roof of your mouth. So say that a few times. Guru, guru, guru, wahe guru. Beautiful. So we're going to chant this together. And as we do, just really feel that energy flowing through you. So abundant, like a fountain, a well, that volcano that's just exploding of excitement. Eyes closed, focus inwards and upwards into your third eye point. And let's inhale to begin.

Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru. Wahe guru.

Last one. Wahe guru. Inhale. Hold in your breath. Feel that energy, that ecstasy within. So alive, so vibrant. Exhale. Stay here in this moment of just complete stillness and silence. Feel truly how alive you are, even in this stillness. How you play a vital role in your vitality, truly. You are an important part of this universe, that the universe couldn't exist without you. You play a vital role. Feel yourself so expansive that your energy is beyond your body, beyond your mind. Feel that spirit within you, so alive. And inhale. Exhale. Let's bring our hands together and pray at our heart center. Taking this moment to just notice how you feel here, seated just like how we began today's practice. Notice any subtleties, any shifts. And let's close seeing longtime sun together. May the longtime sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the pure light within you guide your way on. Inhale to chant one long sat-nam together. Sat-nam. Sat-nam.