Envision: Fire Solutions

Namaste. Welcome to practice. This will be our envision practice for fire solutions. So this would relate to the signs of Ares, Leo, and Sagittarius, or anyone else during those seasons. What we love about fire is that it's powerful and strong. And we just wanna make sure that there's some room for it to feel grounded, a little softer, and flowing. So we'll be pulling inspiration today from the practices of chi gong.

I'm starting out seated, but for this practice, you will not need any props, just your body, your mind, your heart, your soul, your energy. Let's get started. We'll rub the pounds together. Taking hands to your heart and Anjali Mudra. We'll chant the sound of ohm together just once, calling ourselves into presence, breathing in.

Took a very full breath in. And a very full breath out. Good. And then if you're sitting on anything, you can come off of that. And we're gonna start standing up. So separate your feet slightly wider even than your shoulders.

You can fan open through your toes and anchor your heels so your feet feel strong on the ground, soften the knees. So there's some mobility there. And we'll start off with a very traditional exercise in chi gong, and it relates to what we call the dantian. So the word done means a small, compressed, rounded mass Thian means field. So what we're doing with this exercise is gathering up the energy that's around us and pressing it down, moving it towards our own Dan Tian, our own power center located right here, at the belly. So very simply, if this is new for you, you can just watch it once.

Join in when you feel ready. We'll be doing two minutes on the inhale reach the arms all the way out and up gaze can follow the hands to their peak. And on the exhale pressing the palms down right through the midline to finish at the Dantian. Again like that. Inhale reaching up.

And on the exhale slowly with a strong movement, right, find the resistance. Like, you're moving through water. To land at the Dantian, and we'll keep going. And knees can stay soft here. Big full inhale. And on the exhale, pressing down.

Pressing that energy through. Staying with it, inhale, reaching up, and exhale pushing down, pushing down. And if the hands start to feel a little warmer or more tingly, that can happen through these practices. Utilizing the strength of every finger, pushing towards the Duntian, sweeping the arms up, gather up what's around you, and then condense it, give it a purpose, landing at the Dontien. Last few times with this big inhale.

Exhale pressing down through the midline and inhale. And last time, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. Pause there. Palms downward. And then let that soften.

Arms can rest by the sides, and you'll just breathe there. And for our second exercise, we'll be utilizing all of that done tea and energy. Now that we've gathered it up and we've accessed it, we'll be sending it back out and sharing it. So again, you can just watch this once, watch this for the first time if it's new, and then you'll join in as you feel ready. The hands will interlace in front of the chest two minutes with this one as well.

And press the hands forward. Palms forward. Let the spine round head can even drop almost like a standing cat pose. Push into the feet. Begin to lengthen out the legs and lift the arms.

You can look up. Free the hands, roll out the wrists as the arms come down by your sides. And then we'll do that again. Inhale. Hands interlaced in front of the chest, exhale push the palms away, let the spine round, the head can drop. Pressing into the feet, standing all the way up, arms above the head, free the hands, roll the wrist, knees can stay soft here, letting the arms release down by the sides.

Few more inhale interlace the fingers. Exhale pressing forward, letting the spine round, knees bend deeply, pushing down into the feet, lift up, reach up, log through the arms, and then free up the hands, roll out the wrists. Getting right into that heart line meridian across the chest. And again, pulling up, interlaced the fingers, press the palms forward. Let the head bow, the spine round, lifting up.

And on the exhale, let it go, let it go, let it go, circling the wrists down. Last time, interlace, press it forward. Alright. Give it away, share, generous, inhale lifting up. And exhale free up the hands, roll out the wrists. And hands can rest by your sides.

Just feel and breathe. And then you can give everything a little shake out. Our next exercise is a little bit more dynamic. This one is very helpful to support good kidney function. We'll be doing some twist sting.

So you'll twist to the left, right hand to the left shoulder, left hand behind you, just touching the lower spine here on the right side. And then you'll go over to the other side twisting to the right, left hand to right shoulder, right hand to the lower spine on the left side. And then we'll just keep that going. And the arms can swing pretty easily here. We'll be doing two minutes.

Begin as you feel ready twisting and twisting and twisting. And the gaze can be back over the shoulder that you're twisting towards. The feet stay planted, but there is some movement here in the hips. We don't need to lock the pelvis out or lock out through the knees. The knees might turn a bit, and you just stay with this. And you can coordinate your breath with it.

Could be an inhale and an exhale, or you stay with long, smooth breathing. So if you've never practiced Chigong before, it can be utilized in so many different ways. Right? It can be such a beautiful practice on its own, or you might use it as an introduction to your asana practice. I love it as a reset moment in the afternoon or as a beautiful way to start the day or if You've had one of those super active, challenging kind of days. This can also be a really nice practice to do in the evening time just to get your energy feeling a bit more grounded and soft. To lead into your evening.

And we'll call this the last 10, a nine, an eight. Seven, and six, five, and four, three, and two. And one coming back into center, let the arms fall by your sides. And just feel. If your hearing feels more acute, or perhaps your sense of smell has been heightened, where the body feels, a bit of vibration or tingling.

All of that can be a part of this practice. And if that's not what's coming through for you, trust the process also. Our fourth exercise is a powerful squatting exercise. So for this one, you're gonna turn the feet outward, keeping them feet pretty wide. You'll come down into your squat, and depending on what's going on with your knees, this could be deeper, this could be a little bit more lifted, whatever's feeling right for you, but open your hands out and then make a fist with your hands in your squat.

We're going to inhale and pull the fist back towards the done tn, almost making a pendulum shape as the leg straighten, and then right back out, bending the knees, fingers open at the end. And we'll do this for two minutes. Breathing in into the dan tien and exhale. Penulum swings back out and fingers open. And again, squeeze and pull some of that earth energy up And then exhale, release back into it.

Staying with that inhale, gathering up and exhale, giving back away. And inhale, push the heels down, feel the strength of the inner leg, and exhale right back out. Few more like that. Inhale lifting. And exhale letting go, and inhale lifting, and exhale letting go.

And you might find that organically, as you continue, you'll start to go in a little bit deeper. But find your edge. I nothing forced or strained. Chigong is powerfully soft, powerfully soft. Staying with it.

Last two like this, lifting, pulling, strong, letting go, tempering with softness, last time, pulling in. And releasing back out. And then you can lengthen out the legs and turn the toes in. For this one, I like to do a little shake out of the hips. Maybe circling the hips in one direction, circling the hips in the other direction, get one leg a shake out, the other leg a little shake out, and settle back in.

Our next exercise will be doing one side and then the other two minutes each of a big circling of the arm. And this is as big a movement as possible, but remember to stay with an easy breath and create a nice slow flow. So the arm goes out and around, up, and back down. And we follow the hand out and around and up and back down. And I've got my shoulders turned slightly towards the side. I'm starting with my right arm, but if you started with your left, perfect, reaching out.

And I like to think of this one as drawing a line of light and protection all the way around the body. Anna, the repetition can be so beautiful because you start to find the movement in your own body, where the knees can bend, where the legs can lengthen. Or how it might deepen or get more subtle as you go. Follow your hand. Circling around. And even the shape of a circle, there's no hard edges.

Last moment with this. One more round, all the way around. With the right arm big, sweeping circle. And let's go right into the left arm reaching back and up and around. I've been around.

Drawing that circle around yourself. Coordinate it with your breath, bending and straightening through the knees. Never to locked, never to rigid. Utilizing power, yes, in a pliable way. Again, eyes can be open or closed once you find your rhythm.

If that feels nice for you, you can do that. Down to earth, and up to sky, back down to earth. And up to sky. Last two times. Big full breath in, and out, and last one.

Let it go. And back into center, feeling your weight on two feet. Letting the energy disperse where it's needed, allowing your chronic body, your energy body to rearrange itself. Good. And then for our last exercise, I love this one.

This one is referred to as prayer wheel. So you can turn towards your right shoulder. The my right foot is pointing straightforward. My left foot is pointing slightly out to the side about a 45 degree angle. And think of like the rippling of an ocean here.

So you're gonna bend the knees and reach the arms forward. Risk can be soft here, limp and and soft through the hands. And then we pull the arms back, bending the back knee, and let the hands come down. And then we'll do it again. We swing the arms forward, wrists nice and soft, find the peak, lean back, bending the left knee, hands come down. So we'll do that for two minutes on each side. And again, you'll find your rhythm falling into mine or perhaps you'll find your own rhythm let yourself feel it, and let's begin.

And if you are choosing to keep the eyes open, let your gaze get almost dreamy here. I it's heavy. The element of fire is related to the sense of sight. And it's such a beautiful quality to be clear sighted to know our direction. But if we the gaze gets too fixed If the site gets too strong.

It can create challenge when we're faced with the unexpected. Last two like this. So we give room for the flow. Last one. Turning back through center.

We're going right over to the other side for two minutes. Back foot turned out at 45 degrees, front foot facing directly to the side and begin. I'm reaching forward, and falling back, and reaching forward. And falling back. We stay with that.

The elbows can stay soft. Shoulders might round a bit. And then shift backwards. You bit going. I'm the turning of the prayer wheel.

Such a beautiful image. That each spin of the wheel represents not only the cycle of life. Also the repetition of a mantra. Last two times, shift the weight forward, shift the weight back, right back to shifting forward. And falling back.

Coming back into center. Find your feet. Soften your knees. And then that same image of the Dan tien now will be more specific with it. So bring your hands almost as if you're holding a small ball between them.

And you can play with that a little bit like feel moving the hands a little apart and a little closer and a little apart and a little closer until you find the police that feels right for you. And we'll close our practice, holding the Dantian with bromery breath. So with bromery breath, we breathe in through the nose. We exhale with a soft, and that vibration. You might even feel that between your hands.

And through the bones in the head, buzzing behind the lips, three rounds, romery breath together, breathing in through the nose. Your head, dip in slightly towards your hands. Full breath in and on the breath out, open the hands up. Left them move away. Arms released by your sides.

Lift your head.