Envision: Earth Solutions

Namaste. Welcome to practice. This practice will be our envision practice for our earth signs, Torres, Virgo, and Capricorn. We'll be doing some Pranayama and a bit of a heart centered visualization. So at first, take your favorite seat.

I've got a blanket underneath me just to cushion my feet and a block to give my hips a bit of elevation. And if there is another seat that works for you for pranayama practice, please take that one. Quick mention for the pranayama, for the first three exercises, contraindications include If you are pregnant, if you're on your menstrual cycle, if you just ate or you're feeling a little overheated or anxious, you would skip the first three exercises and just stay with long, smooth breathing. I hope you enjoy your practice. So we're gonna start off with kapalabhati, which translates into skull shining breath. It's a nice breath just to get some energy going.

One of the things that I like to value about earth signs is the sense of groundedness and stability, and we don't wanna get stuck. So the kapalibati takes some of that good grounded energy and works it a word towards inspiration and envisioning. Come into Pran Mudra. Take your middle finger and your ring finger, fold them into your palms, and then use your thumbs just to catch those two fingers so your index fingers and your pinky fingers are extended. You can place those upright on your thighs, sit up a little taller.

If you're comfortable with closing your eyes, you're welcome to close your eyes. If that doesn't work for you, you can keep the eyes open and just let the gaze get a little bit softer. And we'll be doing two rounds of kapalabhati about a minute and a half each. So take a full breath in and a full breath out. Emphasis is on the exhalation in and out through the nose.

Here we go. And excel, excel, excel, excel, excel, and deep breath in, retain it at the top, and a soft breath out. And then just give yourself a moment to sit there. See if you can hold on to your pran mudra. Prawn is our energy, our life force.

When we move from pedestrian breath from our everyday unconscious breath into Praniyama. It's a such a beautiful way of taking what is unconscious and making it conscious. Let's do one more round. Deep breathe in. Breath out.

And then you can inhale halfway and begin your second round. And exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, depress in. Retain it at the top. And soft breath out. And letting that practice land.

Perhaps rearranging ourselves into a brighter version of who we are. And then if your eyes are closed, you can open them up, give your hands a little shake out, a little sparkle finger moment, and we'll move into our next practice. And this one is called Bistrika. So it's similar to breath of fire if you've ever done breath of fire that even inhale and exhale. But Bistrika is a bit bigger and slower.

It's a very powerful practice. So Again, quick mention. If for any reason you're feeling a little light headed during this practice, stop, go back into just some gentle, smooth, easy breaths in and out through your nose. We're not gonna do too many of these, two rounds nine breaths each. It's a very powerful practice.

It really gets some of that heat and light and brightness going. So, take a full breath in and a full breath out. Hands can just rest in your lap any way that you're comfortable, and let's begin. Let it go. And you can really feel the effects in this one of just those nine Bistrika breaths. Almost feels like the periphery of the body starts to expand and contract even after the practice is over.

Feeling that ebb and flow, the light radiates outward from deep inside. Let's do one round more. Just nine breaths. Breathing. Breathe out and begin. And slowing it down.

Just be there and feel the effects. Some spaciousness created around the cavity of the chest. And then you can open up your eyes, give your hands a little shake out, give your legs a little shake out. You can move your block in your blanket if you're sitting on a block and blanket off to the side. And for this next exercise, we're gonna lie down on our backs. So you'll come to lie down and place your feet on the ground.

We're gonna be practicing udi on a bandha breath. So this is actually one of my favorite ways to practice it. I feel like it gives you, a very potent way into the practice, almost automatically and organically. So Try this. You can press the backs of the arms down, press the shoulders down, push down into your feet, and lift your hips up so you're in a very gentle supported type of half wheel or bridge pose. Hips are up, feet are pushing down backs of the shoulders pushing into the ground. From here, take your arms up over your head and let them land on the ground behind you.

Elbows can be in a soft bend, hands can be soft here, but the hips stay lifted. From here, take a very full breath in, exhale everything out, get completely empty. Hold the breath out, hold it out, and within the held breath out, lower your hips down. And then when you need to full breath in, and full breath out. So hopefully you felt this almost vacuuming feeling of the belly lifting up underneath the ribs.

The arms can stay exactly as they are just resting on the ground behind the head. Palms are upward, hands are soft here. But we're gonna try this again, push down into your feet and lift your hips, come into that bridge pose, half wheel pose, digging in with the heels, lifting up through the hips. You can even engage in the backs of the legs to get more height and then take a very full breath in. You might try opening your mouth here.

Perhaps a lion breath would be helpful. Holding the breath out, hold it out, hold it out, hold it out, and within that exhalation retention, lower your hips all the way back down to the ground. Full breslin. Really let the belly open. The lower back fills up and and just let it settle in.

So Udi Anabanda is a beautiful way. To start off the day or do a reset in the middle of the day. It's a strong practice that helps to support good digestion, good respiration, and circulation, And, for those of you who love to do arm balances or inversions in your awesome practice, this is a super helpful way to breathe going into those. One last time, push into your feet, push down through the heels, lift the hips up. Arms can stay over the head, relaxed on the ground, pop up through the hips, dig in with your heels, full breath in.

Open your mouth. Totally empty. Totally empty of breath as the hips come all the way down. And then breathing in and breathing out. And just for a moment, left hand over the heart, right hand over the left hand feel, breathe the swell of the chest, opening of Nahata Chakra.

And then you can swing the knees from side to side rolling over onto your right side. Come on back up to sit. And you'll take your seat again. So block, blanket, whatever you need to be the most comfortable here. Sitting in Vedrasana, sitting in sukhasana, or even sitting in a chair, if that's a better fit for you today.

Our next practice will be called Dirga Slausen, or some of you might know this one as three part breath. So we'll start off by inflating the belly. It will move up to the ribs and the heart and then all the way up to the collar bones before we breathe back out. This one is all in and out through the nose. You can take your hands back into Pranmoudra, so middle finger and ring finger come right into the palms.

Index fingers and pinkies extended, your thumb will catch the middle finger and the ring finger, and you can place that upright on your thighs. Again, closing your eyes, and we'll do eight rounds. Breathing in, belly, ribs, all the way up to the collar bones, retain your breath. And then send it back out. Caller bones, ribs, belly softening, expanding, the whole circumference of the waist.

Let's do it again. Breathing in belly. Ribs, collar bones, retain at the top, sending the breath back out, collar bones. Rips, belly. Again, breathing in, belly, ribs, collar bones, retain at the top.

Exhale back out, collar bones, ribs, belly, inhale, belly, ribs, collar bones, retain at the top, exhale back out, collar bones, ribs, belly. Stay with it. Breathing in belly. Ribs, collar bones, retain at the top, exhaling out collar bones, ribs, belly, inhale, belly, ribs, collar bones, retain at the top, exhale back out, collar bones. Ribs, belly, inhale, belly, ribs, collar bones, retain at the top, Exale back out collar bones, ribs, belly, last one, breathing in, belly, ribs, collar bones, retain at the top, exhaling back out, collar bones, ribs, belly, And then just be there.

Just feel into it. One of my teachers used to refer to the Heart Chakra as the gateway to the higher chakras. And when we do that, dear Gaswausen, it's such a beautiful way of having both the anchor of the belly plus the throat chakra feeling the breath all the way up. So you've got the third and the fifth kind of sandwiching the fourth chakra right in between sending the energy right into Anahata. Okay. Our last practice will be Nadi Shodna.

So that's altered at nostril breathing designed to balance the hemispheres of the brain, to balance what we call the Ida and the pingala in yoga, to balance, hot, and cold, sun, and moon to meet in the middle in Sushumna Nadi. So you'll take your right hand into what we call Vishnu Mudra. That means index finger and middle finger come right into the center of the palm, thumb, ring finger, and pinky of the right hand are extended. With the left hand index finger bows to the first knuckle of the thumb in Jana mudra, you can place that upright on your left thigh. Vishnu Mudra, Vishnu is the sustainer, Vishnu Mudra will hover right in front of the nose.

Again, you can close your eyes here if you prefer or keep them open. We'll take a deep breath in through both nostrils. Use the thumb to gently close off the right nostril and exhale out of the left. Inhale left? Close it off with your ring finger gently, lift your thumb and exhale right.

Inhale right. Close it off with your thumb. Lift your ring finger, exhale left. Inhale left. Close it off.

Excellent. Right. And how right? Close it off. Exhale left. And how left?

Close it off. Excel. Right. And how right? Close it off. Excel left, inhale left.

Close it off. Excel. Right. And how right? Close it off. Excel left.

Last round, inhale left. Close it off. Acts. Alright. And how right? Close it off.

Excel left. And then you can release your Vishnu Muja, take your right hand into Yanamudra just like your left hand. So index finger slightly bowing to the thumb right at the first knuckle. Both palms can rest upward on your thighs. And then we'll move into our visualization.

So for this, you're welcome to stay upright and seated. If you would prefer to do this on your back by all means, you're welcome to lie down on your back, either in Shavasana or perhaps constructive rest. However, you're the most comfortable. When you're ready, just take one sort of clearing breath here. You can breathe in through your nose. And a nice gentle breath out. And then if you are seated upright, let your chin just bow slightly towards your chest.

And if you're lying on your back, same thing. Just check-in that the back of the neck is long. Forehead slightly higher than the chin guiding our awareness. Down towards the center of the chest. And when we do have earth signs in our chart, Often, we are the one who is dependent on to be loyal. Trust worthy.

Dependable. All of these are our beautiful qualities. And Sometimes along with those, we can get a little stuck in our ways. A little stubborn. So let's take some of that beautiful grounded, loyal dependable energy and begin to move it upwards.

And you can see this almost as a light glowing. Softly. Starting at the soles of the feet. Your feet. Yes. They plant you on the ground.

They also move you through this world. They also help you to dance and jump and skip. And run. See them as bright. And let that light travel upward through your strong legs.

Like two pillars. Hollow enough on the inside. The energy can travel through. Prana, working its way upward from the force of intention, from the power of envisioning. Into the base of the spine.

See the glow reflected through the pelvis. Lighting up the hips, the belly, powerful centers. Of creativity, determination. Feeling. That warmth, that light spread upwards. Branching off like a flower, blooming into the cavity in the center of the chest.

Petals unfurling. Leaves. Climbing, opening, like the new green of spring, the color of the heart chakra. And then just see that flower, those leaves, that light growing, curling. Shining from the inside out.

Alive and generous. You're welcome to stay just as you are or take your left hand over the center of your chest and your right hand over your left hand. Tenderly. And we'll chant the sound of ohm just wants to close. Breathing in.

Thank you so much for sharing your practice. Namaste.