Manifesting: Air Solutions

Namaste, and welcome to practice. This practice will be for my air sign folks, Gemini, Libra, Aquarius, or if it happens to be Gemini Libra or Aquarius season, and you feel like you might need some grounding, feeling steady, calm, and centered. For this practice, you will need two blocks. Blanket is optional. If you know your knees are a little sensitive, you'll wanna go ahead and grab a blanket right now.

Let's get started. Come to stand up, grab one of your blocks, and you're gonna place it on the medium level, about a foot or so, maybe 20 centimeters in front of your feet with your feet all the way together. From here, lift up onto the balls of your feet and bend your knees and let the tips of your knees, just the tips of your knees rest on the very edge of the block. Now If for some reason this is like not so great on your knees, you can grab your second block and place that right on your heels and sit on your second block, and that should give a little bit more spaciousness to the knees. If that's not enough support for you, turn your block up to the second height, and that might give you even more room. So this is a pretty intense foot stretch.

All this to say, if it feels like too much for you, then you skip it, and you come to sit in Vedrasana instead. Otherwise, we're going for that opening across the bridge of the toes. Let your hands rest on your thighs with palms downward. And breathe into any sensation that you feel. You know, so all day long, oftentimes we're walking around in shoes. We might be walking around on concrete.

If you're somebody who lives in the city. So this is just a way to get the feet feeling more open, unlock any tension that runs down through the fascia line in the bottom of the foot. So just a few more breaths here. And, of course, if it starts to feel like too much, you'll come out of it. Otherwise, let's rub the palms together. Take your hands into Anjali Muja right at your chest.

And we'll chant the sound of ohm just once. Breathing in. And take a very full breath in. Equally full breath out. Anch her into the sensation in your feet.

And then you can come off your block, block can move off to the side, and you'll come onto your hands and your knees, wrists under shoulders, knees under hips, and just give a little pitter patter to the tops of your feet, get some circulation going in the feet, just all that awareness. You know, one of my teachers used to always say where where awareness goes energy follows, where awareness goes energy follows. And then you'll still that and tuck the toes, lift the hips, auto mukha Sonasana downward facing dog. And once you're in your downward facing dog, one thing that I find to be helpful in downward facing dog that first down dog is perhaps take the feet slightly wider than usual, and that might give you access to a little bit more opening in the hamstrings, in the lower back. And that wider stance can feel quite stabilizing.

It's nice. Take a full breath in here. Full breath out. Let's do one more breathe in. And breathe out. From here, lift up your heels.

Roll your way out into a plank pose and and finish your plank pose. Right? By that, I mean, pull back through the heels. Reach forward through the crown of the head, navel to spine, gazing slightly out in front of you, full breath in, full breath out. One more breathe in, pushing the fingertips down, and downward facing dog breath out. Just one more like that just to get ourselves a bit more steady, rolling out plank posts, spreading through the fingers, spreading through the toes, See if you can even think of widening the backs of the knees so the legs feel quite alert here, breathing in, breathing out. One more. Breathing.

Downward facing dog with your breath out. From here, stretch your right leg up, and bring your knee in towards your nose as you come forward, shoulders over wrist, press the ground away. Inhale, reach the right leg all the way back up. And on the exhale, we're stepping forward, come into your lunge, lower the left knee down, point the toes of the left foot, and lift both arms up early Anjanae asana. So with this early on Janae asana, it doesn't need to be a big backbend here.

Just more of an opportunity to open up the front body, so stretch up through the fingertips, feel that lift and lightness. We do want that. Right? And we wanna balance it with the lower body, giving into gravity a bit. One more full breath in here, and full breath out. And then a bit of a stay with me moment here. Bring your hands down on either side of your right foot.

Turn on your left knee to face the side. Step your right foot closer to the left side of your mat and open your arms out wide to the side shoulder height. From here, right forearm on right side, lift your left arm up, and take a side bend over towards the right, reaching through the left ribs. You can take the right hand up, catch the wrist of the left hand, and give yourself a little bit of an assist here, tugging deeper into your side stretch, full breath in, pushing down through the left shin with the breath out. Inhale your way back up to center, And on the exhale, bring your hands down right in front of you. You're still facing the side.

Step your left foot wide so you're in a big god of squat facing the left side of your space. Hands come onto your thighs. From here, twist towards the back of your space and press your right thigh away from you. And then twist towards the front of your space and press your left thigh away from you. Let's do that one more time.

Getting that inner thigh line, twist to the back of your space, press your right thigh away, twist to the front of your space, and press your left thigh away. Coming back into center, turn the toes inward so you're in a wide straddle forward fold, drop your head. Crawl your hands towards the front of your space coming into a lunge and step back into plank pose. Lift your head, look forward, and lower all the way down elbows, brush the ribs. Stretch back through the tops of the feet, lifting up into cobra with your breath in.

Lowering right back down, breath out. Tuck your toes under with the breath in, with the breath out, plank pose, and push back downward facing dog. And inhale the left leg up. Bring your knee in towards your nose as you come forward. Inhale swing the left leg back up.

And on your exhale stepping through, come into your lunge, lower the right knee down point the toes of the right foot, and bring both arms up to your back in your Angina. You can almost imagine, like, you're gonna pull the left heel back towards you, pull the right knee forward so that the thigh bones plug into the pelvis. Deep breathe in. Deep breath out. Bring your hands down on either side of your left foot.

Stay on your right knee and turn to face the side. Open your arms out wide to the side shoulder height, stretching through the fingers. Left forearm on left thigh, lift your right arm up, take your side bend over towards the left. See if you can keep the right hip in line with the right knee. You almost think of pushing it slightly to the right.

You can reach up with your left hand, catch your right wrist, go in a little bit deeper. Full breath in here. Full breath out. Inhale your way back up, exhale hands come down right in front of you shoulder width. Step your right foot pretty wide, hands onto your thighs. Twist towards the back of your space and press your left leg away from you.

And then twist towards the front of your space, press your right thigh away. Twisting towards the back, pressing through the heels, and twisting towards the front. Come back into center. Turn the toes parallel. Drop your head.

Relax your neck. Nice wide legs. Crawl your hands back to the front of your space coming into a lunge and step back into plank pose. Lift your head look forward, lowering all the way down. Stretching back through the tops of the feet, pelvis is heavy, inhale, lifting up baby cobra.

Exhale to lower down, tuck the toes under with the breath in, with the breath out, plank pose, pressing back downward facing dog. Start to walk your feet forward one step at a time. Feeling every footprint along the way. When you get to the front of your space, again, separate your feet a little bit wider. Maybe, almost shoulder width apart. You can catch your elbows and just let yourself hang.

There might be a way from side to side, knees can bend as much as you need. Change the crossing of your arms. Do that again. Allow the weight of the skull to drop you deeper down. Unravel the spine.

Release your arms. Take your hands up onto your shins. Extend your chest forward, lengthen your spine. Take your hands to your hips, push down into your feet. All the way up to stand.

And step your feet together, find your tadasana. Big toes together, outer edges of the feet parallel with the outer edges of your mat. Stretch the arms down, and just even give yourself a moment here in tadasana's such a simple and yet powerful pose, feel your feet, feel your legs, the sturdiness of the lower body, balanced out by some lift and lightness, a receptivity across the chest. From here, let's move into our Suri and Namaskar variation, inhale reach your arms up look up. And on the exhale folding forward coming down over your legs.

Step your right foot back into a lunge, down dog with your breath out. Inhale, come forward to plank pose, Exale chaturanga or to the ground. It's up to you, upward facing or you'll stay with cobra. Tuck the toes, push back, auto mooka downward facing dog. Reach your right leg up.

And step it between your hands, come into your lunge, look forward. Step your left foot to meet your right foot and bow forward into your legs. Come all the way back up with your breath in look up. Arms above the head, join the palms, arms by your sides, breath out. Inhale reach the arms up, look up, exhale to fold forward coming down over your legs.

Step your left foot back into a lunge. Automukha's funasana down dog breath out, inhale forward to plank pose, exhale lowering Chaturanga, inhale upward facing Urdvamuka, exhale downward facing auto mooka. Take the left leg all the way up. Step it between your hands. Bring the right foot to meet it and fold forward into your legs.

Coming all the way back up with the breath in, look up, join the palms, arms by your sides, breath out. Just one more round like that, inhale reaching up, exhale to dive down. Step your right foot back into a lunge, downward facing dog breath out. Pull forward to plank breath in, lowering Chaturanga breath out, upward facing dog, flip the feet, tuck the toes downward facing dog. Reach the right leg all the way up, step it between your hands, bring the left foot to meet it and bow forward into your legs. Coming back up with the breath in, join the palms look up, arms by your sides breath out.

Inhale reach the arms up, look up, exhale folding forward. Step the left foot back into a lunge downward facing dog. Inhale out to plank pose. Exhale chaturanga, inhale upward facing, exhale downward facing dog, reach the left leg up, step it between your hands, bring the right foot to meet it and fold forward into your legs. All the way back up with your breath in, arms by your sides breath out.

Utkatasana, bend the knees deep, reaching up through the arms. Once you're in your utkatasana, give yourself a breath or two just to feel the strength of the legs. Right? Sits bones dipping down low. See if you can find even an activation in the hamstrings here, pulling up onto the thigh bones. Full breath in here, folding forward with the breath out hands come down. Come up onto your fingertips, look forward.

Plant the pumps soft top bent knee down dog. You can also step. Once you're in your down dog, legs lengthen roll out to plank. Lower chaturanga, upward facing dog, tuck toes, downward facing dog. Step your right foot forward and put your back heel all the way down, coming up to warrior one.

Give yourself a breath or two in your warrior one, right, drawing the left hip forward, right hip back, and against that, feeling the pressing in in the outer edge of the left foot just to protect that left knee. Take a full breath in here. And on the breath out triangle pose, straighten out your right leg, open up your arms, right hand comes down to your right shin, left arm lifts up. And then see if in that triangle pose, the underside of the waist can pull forward a bit further. Still keeping the legs bright.

Full breath in. Full breath out. From here, take your left hand to your left hip, look down. You can use a block if you need here, coming up into Articendros in a half moon pose. So if you are using the block, helpful to take the block to the right of the right foot and then far enough in front of you that when you lift up through your left arm, you can stack your shoulders, stack your hips. Keep that nice strong flex in the left foot.

Gaze can be upward here. Full breath in. On the breath out, take your gaze back down We're coming back into triangle pose. It's a tricky transition. Bend your right knee.

Tap the left toes down. You can bring your block with you if you need, and then go ahead and straighten out your right leg. And your back in your triangle pose. On the inhale, come all the way up. On the exhale warrior two, so you'll need a longer stance for this. You can heel toe the left foot back a bit further.

And then deep in the bend of the right knee. Gaise can be right over the right middle finger. Steady, even breathing, steady gaze. Drifty can be right out over the right hand, turn the right palm up, lean back into peaceful warrior. Big reach back, full breath in.

On the breath out, bring your hands down on either side of your right foot, spin up your left heel so you're in a lunge Your block can move off to the side, step your left foot to meet your right foot and fold forward feet together at the top of your mat standing forward fold. From here, stretch your arms back, come up about halfway, long spine, shoulder blades together, lift your heels up your in divers pose. Gazes straight out in front of you. Full breath in. With the breath out, let your heels land.

Both arms come up. Again, tailbone back, chest high, breathe in, and breathe out. From here, come on back up to stand, bringing your right knee up into your chest with two hands. Give it a little squeeze. And interlace your fingers underneath your right leg, flex your right foot lengthen the right leg forward out in front of you just as straight as it will go. Point through the heel of the ball, the toes of the foot, and bend the right knee pulling the foot back in. Again, flex and extend.

Point through the heel of the ball, the toe, and bend. Last time, flex and extend, point heel ball toe, and bend tree pose, sole of the right foot to the inside of the left thigh. Push the foot into the thigh, thigh back into the foot hands can come to your chest here. And then reaching the arms all the way up. Get established in your roots, pushing down through the left foot, full breath in.

Full breath out. Step your feet as wide as your mat with your toes slightly turned out. Come down into a squat. So you're using the backs of the arms to open up your wise, there's your inner thigh line again. And if this feels like too much on your ankle's knees and hips, you're welcome to always sit on a block.

Otherwise, just landing in your squat, hip creases are deepening. Knees are in a deep flexion, really getting into the legs here. From here, take a full breath in. On the breath out, push down into your feet and come all the way up to stand, arms above the head. Deep breath in at the top.

On the breath out, come back down into your squat. Let yourself land in it. Breathe in. And on the breath out push down into the feet rise all the way up arms above the head, Get long, push the feet down, breathing in, breath out, we come right back down. Last time, deep breath in.

And on the breath out, push down into the feet rise all the way up arms above the head, different this time, part your hands, stretch your arms out in a big v, and lift your heels up, push the balls of the feet down, then join the palms above the head, bring the hands back into Anjali Muja right the chest, see if you can keep the heels lifted and start to bend the knees. Balls of the feet pushing down, knees widening out to the sides, Keeping the heels lifted as long as you can. When you get down to the bottom, let your heels land back down in your squat, bring your hands down, step your feet all the way together. We've got a crow pose here. Bending the knees, open the knees, no wider than the shoulders. Your hands become another set of feet here.

So open up the fingers wide, lift your bum, get your knees as high up on your arms as possible, and then make sure that you shift the weight into the tips of the fingers before you lift your feet up. Right? Otherwise, the weight of the legs will pull you down. Once you've got that, yes, push into the hands, dome the upper back and gather your feet up a little bit higher. Full breath in, full breath out. Let your feet come back down to the earth.

Give yourself a moment there. Just in your little squat. And then we'll step back, left foot and right foot downward facing dog. Other side, step your left foot forward, put your back heel all the way down, coming up to warrior one. Pushing into the left heel.

Again, legs here. Right? So wrap the right hip forward, pressing into the outer right foot. Gaze can be upward full breath in. Straightening out the left leg triangle with your breath out. So not a huge adjustment of the feet between warrior one and triangle. Sometimes there might be a bit more external rotation in that back foot.

For the triangle pose. But as you land in it, reenergize the front leg. I'm pushing in with the ball of the left foot, even lifting the toes to make sure that my quad muscle is engaged, knee caps are lifting. From here, right hand to right hip, walk the left hand forward, block if you need it here, artichindrasana lifting up. Stack the hips, stack the shoulders.

Perhaps the gaze can move up towards the right hand, and then take up more space. Get bigger. Get wider. Full breath in. Gaise comes back down, triangle posts, right back into it, bending the left knee, tapping the right foot, and then straightening out through the left leg. Pushing down into the feet, inhale your way up, exhale into warrior two longer stance.

Such a powerful pose warrior two, extending the arms out from the shoulders. Deep bend in the left knee. Chest stays lifted and supported. Turn the left palm up lean back. Peace full warrior.

Big reach. Bring your hands down on either side of your left foot spin up your right heel, block can move off to the side if it's there. Step your right foot to meet your left foot and fold forward into your legs. Diver pose, reach the arms back, lift your heels up. Gaze can be slightly out in front of you here.

Utt Catasana. Come on up to stand left knee up into the chest with two hands. Notice as you do that. The tendency is to lean back in this one. Push down into the ball of the right foot.

Keep the right leg strong, interlace the fingers underneath your left leg. Flex and extend your left leg any amount. Point through the heel of the ball of the toe and bent. Flex and extend, point through the heel of the ball of the toe and bent. Last time, flex and extend, point through the heel, the ball, the toe, and bent, tree pose, so the left foot to the inside of the right thigh.

Let your palms land in Angeli Mudra at your chest. And as you're ready reaching the arms up. You know, and the wobbles and the falls out of it, we just get back into it. Alright. If that's if that's happening for you today, that's a part of it. Come back to the breath.

Full breath in. Full breath out. Step the feet as wide as the mat, toes are turned out, coming down into your squat. Now the squat, it really helps to encourage what's called upon a value, that downward moving energy that helps us to feel grounded. But we don't wanna get stuck there. Alright? So deep breath in.

And on the breath out, we rise up. We rise up out of that anchor. Lifting up straight legs, arms above the head, deep breath in. And on the breath out, we come right back down. Again, breathe in, breath out rise all the way up, breathe in at the top, and descend right back into it, breath out.

Last time. Deep breathe in. And on the breath out rise, all the way up, reaching up. This time, again, hands come apart, lift your heels. Find your steadiness. Find your wobbliness.

It's all part of it. It's all the practice. Hans come together. I'm wobbling. Hence to your heart, pushing into the feet and start to lower, lower, lower, keeping the heels lifted, if possible. If possible.

Knees go wide out to the sides descending into the depth of your squat. Your heels will come down. Your hands will come down. We're right back into our crow pose feet come together. Open up the knees, spread the fingers, lift the bum, get your knees up as high as possible on your arms, and then shifting the weight forward.

Gazing slightly out in front of you, the feet gather up, elbows come in, breathing there, press the ground down, lift the naval. And then we'll step the feet down. Right foot left foot this time. Chaturanga. To up dog to downward facing dog. And then let's move on.

Inhale your right leg up. Bring your knee in towards your nose pushing the ground away just like you did in the beginning of practice. Inhale reach the right leg back up. And on the exhale stepping forward, come back into your lunge, lower the left knee, point the toes of the left foot, and bring both arms back up. You're back in that slightly shorter stance, bring your palms together, twist, left elbow to the outside of the right thigh. Turning from the waist.

From here, either you stay with the back knee down or top the back toes under and straighten out the back leg. I find that a slightly wider stance gives me better balance in this, and then think of taking the outer hips in towards the midline and that, almost vise like feeling in the hips gives gives a bit more stability, breathe in, and breathe out. From here, hands come down on either side of your right foot. Hop your back foot in slightly straightening out both legs, parts vote tenasana. So back heel comes down, toes of the left foot turned out at about a 45 degree angle. Just give yourself a moment here to feel the legs lengthening. From here, grab your blocks, both blocks, take them up to the very highest height about shoulder width apart, and walk them forward, walk them forward, utilize the blocks to lift the left leg coming up into a supported warrior three, hands on blocks. You might even come up onto your fingertips here just to level off the hips, strong through both legs.

Take a full breath in, exhale it out. And then slight bend in your right knee. If you need to keep your hands on blocks, you'll do that. Otherwise, right arm comes back. Left arm comes back. Work on straightening out the right leg just like you did in divers pose, but now one leg is off the ground.

Bringing your hands back down onto your blocks, tuck your left knee, coming down, are the matsy andrasana seated spinal twist. And take your twist around to the right. Now we're looking to get both sits bones to land here. So if you need to keep the left leg straight here, then you'll do that straightening the left leg out in front of you. Full breath in, twisting with your breath out.

Again, lengthen with the breath in, twisting with the breath out. Last time, breathe in, and breathe it out. Come back into center, counter twist, opposite direction. Coming back to center, sit back and bring your knees and your feet together. Reach for the big toes with the first two fingers of each hand, lean back and lift your legs up.

So this one is called Erdwamuka Pashimottanasana. It's an upward facing forward fold, catching both toes in your hands. It's so it can be a wobbly one. Right? But that's the point. We want the challenges to our balance. And then we get stronger. Perhaps a bit more flexible.

If you've got the room, see if you can pull the legs in a little closer. It might throw you back out of this one. Take one more full breath in. We'll roll back to a plow pose, breath out rocking up cross the right ankle over the left one, you can hop or step your way back, chaturanga, to up dog, to push back down dog. Take the left leg up.

Bring your knee in towards your nose, swing the left leg back up, and step forward, come into a lunge, lower your right knee, slightly shorter stance for your Anjanae asana arms lift. Bring the palms together, we twist, right elbow to the outside of the left thigh, push the hands into each other, and then you're staying there or we tuck the back toes, straightening out the back leg, coming into the twist full breath in, twisting with your breath out. Just one more breath in, twisting with the breath out. From here, hands come down on either side of your left foot, hop your back foot in, pass vote to Nasana just a breath here, let the legs release. And then once again, we've got our blocks.

Highest height, shoulder width, walk the blocks forward, lift the right leg up, toes of the right foot, dial straight down. And then there's that same idea, yes, level off across the hips, yes, feeling grounded without getting stuck. Right? So outer left hip pulls in and up. From here, you stay with hands on blocks or slight bend in your left knee reach your left arm back. Reach your right arm back, and work on straightening out the left leg, any amount, breathing in. Seated spinal twist.

Hands can come down. You'll tuck the right knee. And let yourself land. And then we twist around to the left. You can take the left elbow outside of the left knee.

I know some of us prefer to hug the leg in. Whichever is feeling better for you today. Deep breathe in. Twist breath out. Again, inhale.

And exhale. Those twists can feel so good. One more breathing. Deep twisting out. Come back through center.

Counter twist opposite direction. Back into center leaning back, bringing the feet and the knees together, reach for your big toes, lean back slightly, gathering the legs up, lifting your legs. And if this is not feeling so great on your hamstrings or your lower back, of course, you can stay with just a navasana keeping the legs up without holding on to the big toes. Take a full breath in, and then maybe the legs come in a little bit closer breath out. It's precarious. I know.

Deep breath in. Breathe it all out, and breathe in, and we'll let ourselves fall back, plow pose, legs overhead, rocking up across the left ankle over the right, hop or step your way back, chaturanga, to up dog, push yourself back downward facing dog. Roll your way out long into plank pose, and lower all the way down. Grab your block and roll over onto your back, please. And lowering yourself down onto your back, crawl your feet in real close to your bum, lift your hips up, block underneath you.

I like the second height here, the wide direction. Let yourself land in this very supported bridge pose. You can turn your palms upward. Perhaps, let the eyes close. Take some deeper breaths, letting the sacrum rest in the support of the block, feet on the ground.

Opening up the front of the hips. And after all of those strong standing poses, Now just let yourself be held here. No. We don't really think about it. And yet all day long, we're fighting gravity. And here we don't need to.

Just let gravity drop you back in. From here, push down into your feet, lift your hips up, slip your block off to the side, and let yourself land back down. Taking the feet slightly wider, just slightly. Hands can rest on the lowest part of your belly, you're in your constructive rest. Let's take three breaths here together.

Breathing in. And out, letting the back waste fill, expand, and contract as you breathe in, breathing out. Weight of the elbows resting on the ground. Last one, breathe in, and breathe out. And then if you need a little bit longer on your back today, feel free to stay just as you are.

If it's time for you to start making your way out of it, you'll roll over onto your right side. Press into the hands. Come on up to sit. Hands to heart. We'll close with the sound of ohm just once breathing in.

Thank you so much for sharing your practice. Namaste.