Fluid Strength Artwork
Season 1 - Episode 4

Mood Booster Flow

60 min - Practice
56 likes

Description

Lift the body, lift the breath, lift the spirits.  Lydia leads a mood-boosting flow to help us cultivate stability and strength. After a seated stretch, we begin a tapping and shaking practice to bring us into presence and release tension. We move through lunge salutes, strengthening holds, and dynamic standing sequences, experimenting with the gaze and with “joyful breath” throughout practice. We play into an optional inversion before cooling down with back bends and a centering pranayama practice. You will feel stable and uplifted.
What You'll Need: Mat, Blanket, Block (2)

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to this energizing, mood boosting hopefully flow. So we'll be working with some rhythmic movements, some bigger breaths, a gaze lift, arms up over the head, some things that might bring the energy up. So some of these techniques don't work for everyone, so really I want to ask you to check in with if any of these things are giving you any anxiety in their system or kind of agitating and really check that out and ease off and do what works for you. I should mention if you have a couple of blocks and you'd like those for your lunge practice, grab those and have them at the top of your mat and we'll start in a seat. You might want a blanket.

We will have an option for an inversion today, so if you want to be near a wall for that you can do that, it's an option. So you can also do this in the middle of your mat, a couple of hops, or if you'd like to kick up against the wall, you can be near a wall. So let's begin taking our hands on our knees in your seat and starting to circle, moving the energy through your low back and through your ribs, maybe your shoulder blades are sliding on your back, let's come into our breathing. So it's up to you how you're going to breathe with this, maybe you're inhaling forwards and exhaling back, allow it to feel good, go for those pleasure sensations. You might make sound to the breath, maybe even exhale with a sigh.

Nice, come into the center, let's take a side bend over to the right, so let your left arm come up. You might bend down through your right elbow, even wing your left arm back behind you, opening up through the left part of the chest, and let's focus on bringing the breath from those low ribs all the way up into the upper ribs. So this might slow the breath down a little bit, you can take your hand over if you want, maybe even let your head hang, saying hello to your side, your low back, your breath. Use your top hand to help you come all the way up and over to the other side, so big side stretch. You might take that top arm behind you, even roll out through your wrist, let your head hang, and pull that breath from your diaphragm, from down low, fill up down low, and then bring the breath all the way up into the upper lobes of the lungs, right up underneath your collar bones.

Maybe let your head hang, your arm go out and over, and then use that top arm to help you come all the way up. You might switch the cross of your legs here. Just put our hands on our low ribs, and send some breath into that low rib area, feel some expansion going all the way around your ribs, and then as you pull that breath up, beginning of the inhalation fills your hands, and then pull it all the way up to your collar bones. Little breath, nice, one more breath like that. Ask yourself, when's the last time you took a big breath?

Nice, let that go. Let's come onto our hands and our knees here, and you can shift your blanket over to the side, and sit back towards your heels, and we're gonna come up onto the knees here. So rise up, and take our arms out to the sides, inhale, press down through your shins, lift up through your lower back, and then exhale, round in, give yourself a hug, and curl your chin in. Then we'll inhale our arms straight up and back, if that feels okay on your low back. Squeeze your glutes, lift up, and then exhale, hug in, and curl in.

Let's go out to the side, inhale, maybe even flip your fingers back, lift out of your low back like a little camel, and then exhale, curl in. Let's press down and lift up, arms straight up and back. Lift your arms to lift your ribs, maybe look up, and exhale, curl in. Let's experiment with a gaze here, so as you inhale and open your arms, see if you can look up and keep the back of your neck strong, exhale, curl in. Let's try going straight up and back, inhale, nice, slow progression to look a little bit up, squeeze your glutes, press into your feet, exhale, curl in.

Let's walk our hands out into a child's form and take a couple breaths, pulling that breath all the way up to the ribs, you might let your head hang down. And then shifting onto your hands and your knees, tuck your toes, come back into a downward facing dog, pedaling out your feet, and let's take three breaths, focusing on filling that low band of ribs and bringing it all the way up to the upper ribs. Feel the full capacity, strengthen your periphery, press your arms and legs down into the mat. Look down at the ground, notice that you're here, this is your practice. And then we'll walk our feet towards the hands, inhale, lengthen out here, and exhale, fold two more times like that, inhale, lengthen out, you might even use your blocks.

Exhale, fold, inhale, lengthen out, maybe a big knee bend here, exhale, fold, arms out to the sides, press into your heels, come all the way up, look up, press into your heels and exhale your hands down by your sides, nice. In a standing position, let's start to tap our body, so you can tap really hard or light, whatever works for you, kind of waking your body up here and just saying that you're here, this is your body, your arms, your abdomen, maybe, I like to tap my fingertips on the sternum, you might tap your head like little pitter patter, yeah, back of the head, back of the skull, back of the neck, and then maybe the legs, wake them up, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, the backs, lower back area, kidneys, wake it up, and then shake your hands out, so shake, shake, shake, shake your shoulders, you can roll around your head, maybe shake out through your legs, see if you can jiggle everything, maybe you're alone so you can really go for it, nobody's watching. And then stand, look forwards if you're used to looking down, maybe close your eyes or keep your eyes open and notice the aliveness in your body, let's make some sound if you want, so take the hands together at the chest, let's take a breath in, exhale it all out, inhale for om, om, om, top of the mat, breathe into your hands, exhale your hands down, sun salutation A, inhale, arms up, look up, exhale, bend your knees and fold, inhale, elongate your spine, exhale step or if you feel like hopping that can be kind of energizing, hop back into a downward dog, inhale plank, maybe knees are down, exhale lower to the ground or lower to a chaturanga, inhale cobra or upward dog, press your pubic bone down, and exhale, press up, maybe to your knees and back into a downward facing dog for three breaths, inhale fill the low to upper lungs, exhale press into your periphery, get long, nice inhale, squeeze your biceps to the center, exhale press the top of your thigh back even if your knees are bent, inhale look down, notice what you're looking at, exhale feel your bodies here, you can walk your feet in if you want to hop, sometimes it's energizing and playful or you can step, top of the mat inhale and fold in, press your heels, arms out to the sides, come out and up, reach up, release your arms, maybe you take your arms back and up on this next one, open the front of your chest, look up, exhale bend your knees and fold, inhale elongate through your spine, press your hands, step or hop if you want downward dog, inhale to a plank, wide collarbone, straight arms, push the ground away, exhale lower to cobra or upper dog, inhale into that, press your pelvis down, exhale up and back downward facing dog, three breaths, pull in the breath from a low mid to upper lungs, exhale release your neck, strengthen your arms, inhale feel your hands pressurizing into the ground, exhale press your leg bones back, inhale lift your back ribs, exhale bend your knees stop or if you want to hop go for that hop, top of the mat inhale fold it in, press your heels down, inhale come all the way up, look up, release your arms, maybe back and down, so nice, let's variation that, inhale arms up, I don't think that was a sentence exhale fold in, inhale lengthen out, downward dog however you'd like to get there, inhale to plank, exhale lower hover to the ground, roll over the toes, inhale pull the spine out of your pelvis, exhale tuck the chin up and back to downward facing dog, right leg up, inhale, exhale bend your knees, shoulders over the wrists, take it forward into your low lunge, you might want to pop up onto your blocks here, take a breath here shifting forwards and back, ground through your back foot, squeeze your inner thighs together and start to lift up towards a crescent, you can take your arms up here, squeeze your inner thighs together, try not to have your pelvis too tipped forwards, so find that lengthen your lower back and feel both of your feet pressing into the ground, let's try that joyful breath that we worked with on our knees at the beginning of class here, you can lower your arms and then take them out to the sides, inhale maybe even flip your fingers back and then strong steady legs exhale curl in give yourself a hug, round, inhale you might take your arms up and back lift up and out of your pelvis, strong steady legs, exhale hug in, curl in, two more times like that out to the sides you might even explore I know it's a little bouncy with your gaze up, strong back of the neck, exhale curl in, inhale up and back maybe look up, exhale curl in, one more time out to the sides, lift the sternum, sink the tailbone, exhale curl in, up, arms might go up and back and then curl in, let's inhale come up one more time and then exhale have your hands hit the blocks or the floor, place your back foot on a wide angle, so let's say you're going into warrior two and then come up into warrior two, nice reverse that warrior, inhale lift and open your right ribs and then exhale either elbow to knee or hand to the block, extended side angle, let's oscillate through that two more times reverse warrior maybe you float your bottom arm press it forwards it's an option and exhale you could even float your bottom arm in prasarita or sorry parsvapanasana inhale up and back exhale extended side angle parsvapanasana and then inhale come up and parallel your feet get them on the same plane like a five-pointed star here inhale your arms up and exhale fold forward slide your hands down your legs you can take your hands to the floor you might even use your blocks underneath that's an option breathe in here and walk your hands back in line with your toes let your head hang to the ground maybe lift your shoulders and broaden them let's take three breaths breathe in can adjust the stance of your feet maybe a little closer together maybe a little wider apart two and three and let's walk our hands forwards and then you can step hopping sometimes is playful you can play with that step or hop into a toe squat and then we'll widen out through our knees here and take the tops of the feet to the floor so you're either sitting on your ankles you might grab a block sit on the block and widen out through the inner thighs here take your three breaths there or an option here is to start to shift forwards onto your elbows and maybe even roll the inner knees towards the ground you could even press your feet together behind you some of us might even want to come into a frog where we parallel or the shins to each other and make them in a 90 degree to our upper leg and then maybe shift the hips a little back and forwards you could minimize the back bend here drawing the navel a little bit towards the spine you could also come on up onto your hands into more of a back bend and let your pelvis come a little closer to the floor so lots of options choose your own adventure let's take our elbows back down to the floor shift forwards if you're wide there let the toes come in walk back up onto the hands bring the knees in so you're back into that toe squat and you can either step or feel free to hop your way into your presserita so your wide-legged forward fold take a breath there through the center and then walk yourself all the way around to the shape of a lunge with your right foot forwards and you can take your back knee down and the top of the foot let's start to shift back and forwards towards like a half hanumanasana or a classic runner stretch you might use your blocks for this there's two ways of doing this you could let your toes come up off the ground as you pull back or you could try keeping the whole sole of the foot glued to the ground as you shift back i'm really liking that variation lately it's nice to use blocks here if you have them they're your friends give you a little more support a little more space then let's sink in and forwards maybe lower your blocks and come into a twist so you might fall into your left block a little off of your mat and then take your right hand on your right knee and start to look over your right shoulder you might do that by falling into your hands and your fingertips can turn out a little bit start to look out over your right shoulder you can even adjust your back knee by kind of lifting it up and getting more onto the top of the kneecap if you like you can bend your back leg even make a big movement back to take a hold of the foot with your right fingertips and either kick back into that or draw it in towards your seat let's take three breaths there pull in the breath from the low to the mid to the upper lungs widen through your collar bones big breaths maybe try looking up how does that feel this is your practice make it yours two and three circle it back so your hands come down onto the ground and step back into your downward facing dog nice let's move that a little bit so inhale into plank exhale into downward facing dog inhale into plank find that long line strong legs exhale into downward facing dog inhale plank exhale downward facing dog okay last one here plank lower to the floor or maybe hover can push over your toes find your upward dog or cobra and then press up and back into your downward facing dog so nice okay let's let our left leg reach up and back exhale bring the knee in towards the nose the foot forwards and come into your low lunge let's take an extra breath there maybe you grab your blocks you might shift forwards and back here we're gonna climb up out of this so you might use your hands on your knee or come right up and take your arms up stabilize through your legs feel a little inner thigh squeeze push into your feet nice neutral pelvis lifting up out of it and as you steady through your legs let's try that joyful breath so we'll open our arms up to the sides maybe experiment with looking up but strong back of the neck lifting and then exhale curling in hugging in inhale arms go right up and back and exhale hug yourself and curl in arms up to the sides maybe experiment looking up if it's okay for your neck and then curl in making those little counter movements in your legs to steady yourself up and back and round in beautiful last one make it yours your breath your movement curl in your practice nobody else's but yours exhale curl in last one here will come up touch the ground or the blocks take that back foot on that wide angle like you're gonna go up into warrior two and then go up into warrior two find that find your stance your happy hips there and we've reversed that peaceful warrior open up those left ribs and then parsvakanasana coming up out and over you could even float your arm if you really want your legs to feel this so reverse inhale maybe float your bottom arm push it forwards your choice an extended side angle float back last one and extended side angle support if you want to inhale come all the way up parallel your feet and I'm going to again turn this way so you can see arms up and then slide your hands down your legs come into a fold you might pull up on your ankles and aim your head for the ground using your little bit of your arm strength you might even take your arms behind you and interlock opening up through the shoulders and fold in adjust your feet as you need to it's perfectly wonderful if your head's not on the ground because it means that the weight of your head is hanging your cervical spines you're getting that traction it's okay if your arms are not at the same height they're not the same breathe into your space your practice find your breath the fullness of your breath how deep do you want to breathe open your eyes look where you are notice where you are and press into your feet let's inhale come up a little bit there and exhale take your hands down in front of you you can hop or step to your toe squat here and then we'll widen out through the knees you might sit on a block right and stay there for your breaths as wide as you like you might start to shift forwards rolling onto your inner knees finding that coming down onto your forearms maybe even for some you're coming down on your abdomen you can backbend here but if it's aggravating for your back maybe come up and explore pushing your hips back a little bit drawing the navel a little back to the spine but keeping your breath full not cinching the waist so much if you want to you can take that frog position so taking the feet out so the lower legs are making a 90 degree with the upper legs and if you want a little more sensation you could come up onto your hands pressing your pelvis down widening through your collarbones wherever you are let's take three breaths make it as intense as you want one bring the breath from the low ribs all the way to the upper two three beautiful let's come back onto our hands shift a little forwards take the feet closer towards each other and you can inch the knees back in towards each other you might try hopping to your toes if you like to hop hopping to your wide legged stance right and then walking all the way around to the front so that your left leg is in front beautiful and let's let our back knee come down so blocks are not we're going to shift back and forwards into this maybe on your fingertips you can explore having your toes come up maybe even keeping your abdomen close to your thigh anytime you need to exhale out of your mouth if you tend to look down all the time explore looking forwards or up nice maybe glue that front foot to the floor a couple more oscillations there feeling into your hips then you can take your right block out to the side let's come into that twist come up start to turn you might readjust your back knee so you're more on the top of the kneecap maybe you're falling into your hand starting to twist widening through your collarbones making a lot of space maybe bending your back leg for some you might reach for that back leg maybe grab a hold of the foot kick back into it maybe draw it in towards you let's take three breaths and one variation of a slight twist in this low lunge widen the collarbones you might lean back and you might look up see if you can support that looking up from the lift of your chest from the length of your sides and from the strength of the back of your neck to pull that breath all the way up to the upper lobes of the lungs and not just at the chest but at the back beautiful let's slowly let go of that turn back to the front let's step it back into downward facing dog and we're gonna oscillate through that so inhale plank three times exhale downward dog inhale plank you can also bend your knees take them to the ground bend them on the way back downward dog inhale find plank long line push the ground away resist gravity downward facing dog last time to plank here lower down hover or to the floor cobra or upward dog all the breath up press into the hands tuck the chin exhale into downward facing dog let's take three breaths one breathe like you at your own pace two so beautiful three step in you can hop if you want you can step tiptoe whoever you'd like to top of the mat inhale there exhale fold in inhale come all the way up maybe you take your arms back and up squeeze your glutes down lift out of your low back exhale release your arms nice arms up and fold lengthen out step or hop back downward dog inhale to plank exhale lower inhale to upward dog or cobra press into your hands tuck your chin up and back downward facing dog one breath per movement this time inhale your right leg up exhale it through find your legs inhale one breath in your high lunge exhale hands down back foot on a wide angle inhale windmill up to warrior two exhale here inhale reverse that warrior exhale extended side angle inhale come up parallel your feet exhale fold through the sensor take the outsides of your ankles or interlock your hands behind breathe in and out there release hands to the ground you can play with hopping or stepping toe squat widen out through your inner knees take one breath in your variation here coming forwards if you like frog legs if you like breathe in breathe out hands back under your shoulders work your feet in hop squat step or hop presserita walk all the way around to your front foot right foot forwards exhale downward facing dog beautiful inhale plank three times here exhale downward facing dog inhale plank two exhale downward facing dog inhale plank three exhale downward facing dog push the ground away as you inhale the plank look forwards exhale lower maybe to the belly maybe to chaturanga inhale find your back bend breathe all the way up into your upper lungs and exhale your downward facing dog inhale your left leg up other side exhale curl it in plant the foot inhale come up one breath crescent exhale come down to the ground take your back foot on a wide angle inhale warrior two take an exhale feel your feet lift your gaze inhale reverse your warrior exhale into your extended side angle good inhale parallel your feet just gonna turn this way and exhale fold through the center your presserita maybe grab your big toes this time one breath here linger with your big breaths your breaths your practice hands underneath your shoulders hop into your squat or step if you like take your knees to the ground widen them out take a breath your choice here so wide through the knees maybe coming forwards maybe frogging out your legs breathe in breathe out your shift forwards take your feet in walk your hands back and you might hop to your squat hop to your presserita your wide legged fold walk all the way around to your front foot your left foot is in front and here let's exhale into downward facing dog three times inhale plank push the ground away exhale downward facing dog so nice inhale plank find your long line your breath look forwards exhale downward facing dog inhale plank find the strength of your legs and glutes exhale downward facing dog inhale forwards exhale all the way down or chaturanga inhale upward dog or cobra exhale press into your hands up and back to downward facing dog notice how you feel let's take three breaths one feel your hands and your feet connecting your body to the ground to your breath pull that breath as much as you'd like from the lower to the upper lungs and three can stop or hop if you like however you'd like to find the top of the mat inhale there and exhale fold in press your feet down maybe arms go back and up reach up release your arms so beautiful let's come to the ground for some belly back bend so arms out and up and fold in lengthen out your spine can step or hop find your downward facing dog inhale to plank exhale all the way to your abdomen here let's take our feet lengthen them out behind us take the hands palms facing up by the sides and start to lift the upper chest lift the legs you can have them apart press your pubic bone down and squeeze strengthen the base of your glutes as you try to get longer think about your feet reaching from your belly button your crown reaching from your belly button as well lengthen let's take three breaths all systems engaged bring that breath up to the upper chest two slow down the breath until you're getting full breaths your full breaths your back bend here your practice three you might take a rest in between or slide your hands so that they're like chaturanga loop your shoulders up back and down and pull the floor towards you as you elongate more maybe look a little forwards with keeping the back of the neck long let's take three breaths one get those legs longer through the big toes two we're all feeling this in the backs of the legs and three exhale lower down contact your toes here maybe lighten your belly button on the floor and either come up to your knees or come up to a full plank and then back into downward facing dog let's shift it forwards inhale plank exhale downward facing dog two more times inhale plank exhale downward dog if you're looking down try looking forwards in your plank little forwards exhale downward facing dog this time all the way down to the abdomen nice let your knees come apart a little bit bend through your legs and lift your knees off the ground see if you can keep your pubic bone down with your knees lifted and then reach one arm and then the other arm back for your ankles and press your shins back as you pull your chest forwards and let's take three breaths you might rock with the breath here one two make sound if you need to and three exhale let that all go hands by the low ribs tuck your toes you can press up to your knees if you like or strong legs press right up to a plank and back into downward facing dog strengthen your arms and your legs and come down onto your knees beautiful work let's start to shift forwards and back with our arms as straight as we can pressing into the knuckle underneath the fingers push forwards and back it's almost like you're pushing yourself back to your feet and from your feet you're pushing to your hands and then turn your hands out to the sides and start to circle warming up the wrists circle your hips forwards and back your hips your movement make it yours can change directions flip your hands so that the fingertips point more towards your knees you might walk your knees in and again shift forwards and back just testing that out you can peel the wrist off the ground if you're always looking down check that out maybe you look a little forwards broaden your collarbones breathe up into the top of your ribs okay let's come back onto our hands fingers forwards this time let's pop up onto that first knuckle and slowly lower down so popping up off the wrist a little or a lot up to you and slowly lowering down let's do that two more times pop up slowly lower try to do the both hands at exactly the same time sometimes one wants to do go faster than the other there slowly lower down good sit back towards your heels roll out your wrists nice this is such good work for our hands and then come back down and take one hand to the ground so you can actually widen your knees for this palm facing up and start to shift a little forwards and back in that so tenderly checking out the top of the wrist you might also have your elbow a little bit bent you might straighten it out and you might roll the pit of your elbow forwards and midline forwards and midline and maybe even shift forwards as you do that check that out roll out through your wrist let's try the other side you can start by shifting forwards and back palm flips up you can roll that elbow pit in and out just monitoring how much weight you want to have come down on this hand you can be sitting on your heels for this see how this feels come on out of that roll out through your wrist shake it out so we have our option for our inversion here and if your wrists don't love that full you know that full 90 degree or even beyond then feel free to take a forearm dog here in the middle of the room you can come onto your forearms and have that forearm dog for a few breaths beautiful for the shoulders you might want to come up against a wall and kick up against a wall you might kick in the middle of the room try some kick ups let's go for the kick ups first so from downward facing dog walk your feet in a little bit so you're like in a short dog take one leg up that feels the most natural leg to lift and strengthen it straighten it out then find buoyancy in your bottom leg take your abdomen slightly back and straighten your arms with all that alignment in your top leg straight hop up and come down one push the ground away as you hop up two and three push the ground away and exhale come down can drop back down onto your knees interlock your hands and figure four out through your wrists so this is your inversion practice do whatever you'd like to notice how you feel look around you here you are doing an inversion maybe you haven't done it since you were like seven so if you'd like to kick up against the wall you can measure it out come against the wall are you doing this on your other leg maybe in the middle of the room how long your leg is about there is where your hands are going to go you might want to be on a level surface with your mat and then one leg goes up against the wall and pushes into it you might try that and come back down or push into the wall come up towards like a 90 degree you can also widen your legs maybe they go a little higher that feels better for you or come towards a 90 degree and instead of taking your armpits to the wall making a big backbend pull your armpits away from the wall look down and pull your low ribs in and up press the ground away strong pressure for either one two or three breaths see if you can take at least one full full full full long breath there exhale come on down you might dangle in a forward fold and you might want to roll up or straight spine it up come on up figure eight through your wrists look forwards shake out roll out through your wrists see how you feel okay so one more one more like that if you want to you can turn so that you actually kick up the wall and find the wall so optional you can be about a foot and a half away from the wall and then with the leg that makes the most sense keep it straight and strong and kick up against the wall bending that leg maybe it feels better for both legs to be against the wall if you can bend one leg and take the other leg away from the wall and push the ground away push into those first knuckles straighten your arms engage your glutes lift take at least one big breath maybe you tip toe away and you find a little hand stand then you can do one leg at a time come on down forward fold roll it up and look forwards and figure eight through your wrists or roll out through them and let's come back into a downward facing dog so you could take your arms back and up for that up to you you might just drop into it drop into your dog hold in lengthen out step or hop back find your downward facing dog so nice okay let's come on through to our back roll on back preparing for a couple of backbends so with your feet grounded about hip distance or a little wider roll up into maybe your bridge pressing down through your feet your arms can come underneath you maybe rolling through your shoulders if you're feeling quite warm you might press up into your wheel try not to over stretch the back of your neck here push down into your feet drag your sit bones towards your back of your knees and then lift your sacrum up towards your face and three breaths breathe those full breaths notice if you're feeling restricted and where you can make more space this is your backbend two this is your beautiful backbend and three let's open up the shoulders roll on down nice take a breath look up look around you your body connected to the ground and let's go back up so fortify those legs roll back up maybe you want to flip your hands come up onto the top of your head really lightly push into your hands boost your chest towards the front of your mat where you're looking and then come on up maybe come up onto your tippy toes gently pulse your upper back more over your wrists three breaths one your backbend to your beautiful spine opening up the way that you need it to make sound if you need to exhale talk your chin roll on down and catch the residue of that you might roll out through your wrists let's do one more so however you'd like to do it you can come back into your bridge you can come up onto the top of your head you can come on up into your wheel come up onto your tippy toes maybe you do a little rocking horse action where you shift forwards and back gently bringing the chest over the wrists a little bit more two and three maybe walk it out a bit talk your chin roll on down take your knees in towards your chest now if you had a block and it's not too far away from you you can take your block and dig it in between your knees this is an added goodie to this twisting sequence and have a little squeeze through your inner thighs and then have your arms out to the sides shoulder height about pressing down so find that and then we'll do this floating twist where we take the knees 45 degrees over to one side and then away from you and in towards your armpit 45 degrees over to the other side so shifting side to side kind of massaging the back of your pelvis as you're doing this use your breath press down into space in between your shoulder blades okay now if you like you can take your knees 45 degrees over to the left and if you know the kapalabhati breaths you can take 40 pulses exhaling it's like a bouncy ball in your belly exhale exhale the inhale is passive little pulses and they sound like this squeeze the block in between your knees exhale it out bring the knees to center check out how that felt you can even oscillate side to side a bit and we'll go for the other side so you can take your knees over to the side if that breath makes you feel anxiety or upregulated too much then stay with your big full breaths your breaths or 40 pulses from the lower abdomen here squeeze the block exhale bring into center okay so option here is to straighten out your legs fan out through your toes and 45 degrees over to one side you take the legs and then over to the other side so choose your own adventure here you can continue to slide side to side in this floating twist it's like you're drawing a smile in the air with your big toes right or you could even land in a more passive twist if you feel like it you're kind of more cooked or you can take your legs 45 degrees over to the side maybe even a little more and find those 40 pulses press your shoulders down inhale into the center maybe a little oscillating side to side and let's do the other side so your choice you might find your passive twist or your legs can go over to the side 45 degrees or maybe even more kick out through your legs squeeze the block smile into the center little side to side there take the block out draw your knees in towards your chest notice how that felt you might even curl in squeeze yourself into a little ball and come on down so this last breath practice I'll invite you in is bust Rica so again if it feels like you're getting light-headed or uncomfortable in any way stop it slow it down the idea here I'm gonna take the hands so you can take your hands on your lower ribs and feel the expansion into your lower ribs again and the breath is if you remember those old-fashioned bellows that fanned a fire really sucking the breath in and pushing it out that's the bust Rica breath so it's like a forceful big inhalation all the way around your low ribs and then a strong exhale like you're pressing the breath out from your abdomen squeeze the abdomen and pelvic floor so we'll try for 10 do what you can so one two three feel your back ribs expanding into the ground four five six seven eight nine ten and release that you might breathe in all the way to the top of the breath and pause your breath at the top feel your body weight dropping feel the stillness of your mind and your body hover until you're ready to take a long slow steady exhalation and then notice any residual sensations maybe you open your eyes and you look around you maybe you notice a liveness a buzz feel the whole residue of that practice how your eyes are connected into your nervous system your brain you might close your eyes here and make your way towards shavasana see the three-minute shavasana pick your position maybe out stretch your legs maybe keep them planted take a few breaths make sound if you want release the breath your whole body your beautiful body making contact with the ground and sometimes i take this time to say something to myself like i love you thank you thank you and as we nourish ourselves we might find that the practice is for us but it's also affecting all other beings that we come into contact with and it also ends up being for others last few moments here yes So you might want to stay here for a little longer. I understand if you do, if you'd like to finish this practice on the hour, you can roll out through your wrists and your ankles and maybe give yourself a full body stretch. Take your time to roll over onto a side and push yourself up to a seat.

Thank you so much for practicing with me today.

Comments

Jenny S
1 person likes this.
This rejuvenating practice had lots a variety and was very fun. I love tapping and wiggling and breath work - it just feels so good both during and especially afterwards. Thank you for this brightening offering 🌞
Lydia Zamorano
Jenny S So happy you found some joy in this practice Jenny! Happy to be practicing with you always. Lydia 
Lise G
1 person likes this.
Surprising mix of strength building challenges and yet playful and fun. I enjoyed the tapping and wiggling, along with the breath work. Thank you for this uplifting practice.
Lydia Zamorano
Lise G So happy to hear you found this class fun! It is a joy to hear that and to be able to practice with you from afar Lise! Lydia 
Kate M
Beautiful sequencing, Lydia Zamorano ! And your instruction is so joyful, so full of compassion and clarity! Love.
Lydia Zamorano
Kate M Thank you so much Kate! Love seeing your comments. Have a lovely day! Lydia 
Debra D
Dear Lydia—thank you for your joyful spirit. It’s a cold morning here (Southern Hemisphere) and my stiff body was tantruming No, No WAH, but my spirit heard Yes, Yes from you and I thoroughly enjoyed this practice *looking up* ⛅️✨
Lydia Zamorano
Debra D Dear Debra, I'm so glad this practices warmed your spirit. Looking up, Lydia 
Monica
Fun and invigorating!  
Lydia Zamorano
Monica B Happy! 
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