Envision: Air Solutions

Namaste. Welcome to practice. This practice will be our envision practice for air signs. So this would be Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius, or good for anyone during those seasons if you're feeling a little lightheaded, a little spacey, and you wanna work on feeling more grounded and more steady. So we'll for this practice, we will be needing a chair a block and a blanket. I think it's nice to have the chair on the mat just so that there's no hint of slippage.

So I would say make sure to have a mat under your chair if at all possible. And let's get started by rubbing the pumps together. Taking your hands to your heart in Angeli Mudra. You can close the eyes. And right away, even feel your feet on the ground.

So with this practice, we're gonna be starting with body parts that are a bit higher up and working our way down. So that we can finish with the first takra, moving that awareness down towards the feet and the legs, not to eliminate the generosity and the brightness and the lift. Of air just to give it something to feel more settled. Let's chant the sound of all. Breathing in.

And take a very full breath in and a full breath out. Good. And then you can keep your hands right at your chest interlace your fingers, extend your index fingers and cross at your thumbs. And this is my favorite version of Venus Mudra. You'll take your Venus Mudra and stretch it all the way up towards the sky. Pushing down through the feet, lifting up through the arms, take the gaze up towards the fingers, and then on the exhale, let the arms drift back down.

Hans can land right back down on your thighs, rolling the shoulders three times for three, and two, and one. And then we'll repeat that hands come back into Venus Mudra, push down through the feet, lift up through the arms, gaze can be upward. But even at the peak, see if you can be mindful of the tailbone reaching into the support of the chair. And then let go, hands can float down, bringing them back to the thighs, rolling the shoulders forward and up, back and down for one. And two, and three.

Again, interlace the fingers, extend index fingers, Venus mudra all the way up looking up, lengthen through the arms, and then let that go. Hands can drift right back down, rolling the shoulders forward and up back and down for one. And two, and three freeing up the tension that might be hiding in the neck or the shoulders last time, reaching the arms up. Get lifted, and then bring it back down, bring it back down, hands release back down. Let them rest on your thighs, shoulders roll forward and up, backing down for one.

And two, and three. From here, stretch your right arm forward and up, fold it back behind your head, reach up with your left hand and catch your right elbow with your left hand, and then give yourself a moment, see if you can turn the bicep of the right arm a little bit more so it's facing behind you just so you've got that spiraling in the shoulder and absorb the head of the arm bone deeply into the shoulder socket. From here, pushing down into the feet, take a gentle side stretch over towards your left. And you might feel this, yes, in the intercostals, the muscles that run under the ribs or the obliques down through the side of the waist, but also up through the tricep. Right? And the more you think of squeezing the forearm and bicep together. You'll go even deeper into opening up the back of the arm. Stay in your side bend and release your left arm down.

You can catch the leg of the chair, reach the right arm overhead, and go into your side stretch a little bit more deeply, and I'm still pinning my right sit bone down, holding on to the leg of the chair. So even within a deeper stretch, feeling grounded, I'm feeling that sturdiness of the chair. Below you. Sits bones nice and even. Full breath in here.

Perhaps a little deeper, and you can slide your left hand down the chair. One more breathing. Breathing out. From here, reach the right arm around in front of you. You'll take a gentle forward fold.

Just gentle and you can take both hands to the legs of the chair letting the spine round. Take your right hand onto your right thigh, your left hand onto your left thigh, push down into your thighs, pressing your way all the way back up to upright sit up. And take a gentle twist. Left hand comes to the outside of the right thigh. Right hand reaches for the back of the seat of the chair, push the feet down, lift the chest up, full breath in, twisting with your breath out, gaze can be back over the right shoulder.

Again, breathing in, twisting out. One more, holding the feet to the ground breathe in, and twisting out. Come back around into center. A gentle counter twist, hands on thighs. And then go ahead reach your left arm all the way forward and up.

Fold it back behind your head. Right hand comes up to catch the left elbow turn the bicep more towards the back of your space. You can press the back of the head right into the left forearm. Take a full breath in here. And on the breath out, a gentle side bend over towards the right.

Start off these stretches going into a a more subtle expression. And then perhaps as time goes on and breath passes through, you might find yourself able to go in a little bit deeper, squeezing down on the right side body, staying anchored through the left sit bone. And then allow the right hand to come down. You can hold on to the leg of the chair, reach the left arm over, go in a little bit more deeply to your side stretch. And I'm almost thinking of widening the left inner thigh away from the left the right inner thigh, just so that the legs stay more stable.

As the stretch deepens. And swing the arm around in front of you. You can hold on to both chair legs, letting the spine round. Take your left hand on your left thigh. Your right hand on your right thigh pushing down into your thighs.

Roll your way up. Take an easy twist to your left. Right hand to the outside of the left thigh. Left hand reaches back for the back of the seat of the chair. Breathing, twisting with your breath out.

Again, push down through the sits bones, lift up through the crown of the head. Breathing with your breath out. Last time, big inhale. And twisting with your breath out. Coming back through center, gentle counter twist.

Right back into center. Let your hands rest on your thighs, and we'll continue with some seated cow and cat so you can let the hands pull back on the thighs, arch the spine, look up, And on the exhale, slide your hands down your legs, let the spine round, hug the navel towards the lower back. Staying with that, pull the hands back lift the chest, lift the chin, look up. And on the exhale, allowing the spine to round, dropping the chin towards the chest. Let's do a few more like that.

Breathing in. And breathing out, hands come down, letting the spine round, inhale, pull the hands back, lift the chest, look up. Exhale rounding, rounding, rounding. Just two more. Inhale, mobilizing through the spine, lift the chin. Exhale round.

Last time, inhale arch the spine, look up. And exhale rounding, rounding, rounding, rounding, rounding, rounding. Come back to a neutral spine. For our next stretch, we'll take a melasana squat on the chair. So you do wanna be sitting more towards the front of the chair or not too far on the edge, but a little bit more towards the front third of the chair. You'll take your feet a bit wider. Toast can turn slightly out here.

Reach for your block and place it on the highest height with the narrow end facing away from you. Right in between your feet. From here, take your forward fold. You can reach back for the legs of the chair. And then this is a gradual one. Right? Like, you'll start to sneak your arms a bit further. Back hands can come up higher on the chair, and your head can rest on your block.

Now If for any reason you feel like it is a strain to get your head onto the block here, feel free to grab yourself another block and place it on top of the first one on the lowest widest setting, and that way you don't have to come into quite so deep of a forward bend to let the head rest. And this should feel nice. And we're breathing here. And every so often, you might find that you can reach back a little bit further, but this is such a great opening for the lower back. So breathing deeply into the whole circumference of the waist.

And shoulders can press out into the inner thighs. Inter thighs can wrap around the shoulders. And if you've got the room crawling the hands back maybe one more time pressing the heels down. Let's take three more breaths together. Breathing in.

Breathing out. Send the breath around the back of the waist right into what we call the kidney band. Creating some movement there. And then we're coming out of this one very slowly. I like to put my hands on the ground here.

Lift the head, lift the chest. And then once again, right hand on thigh, left hand on thigh, push down into thighs, pressing to come all the way back up. And give yourself a moment there. From here, we can move the block off and we'll be turning to the side. So turn towards your right shoulder and allow the feet to come to a 90 degree angle.

So heels can be directly underneath here. And of course, we've got that beautiful alignment of the knee in line with the hip here. So from here, we'll start with another twist. This time we can go into it with a bit more depth. So take your left hand to the outside of your right leg.

Your right hand will come back to the left side of the chair. And I'm allowing the elbow to move out to the side a bit. Press into the sits bones, feel the heels on the ground, and then you can use your right hand to steer the twist. And see how deep you wanna take it. And with the leverage of the chair, you can go in pretty deep with this one.

So just be mindful that you're breathing the whole way. And, yes, we want that strength here. We want that groundedness. But there still needs to be breath and ease. So without straining for the twist, see where you can get to, and then perhaps a slight push through the right arm Now I'm thinking of moving the arm of the chair a little bit towards the right, and that helps me to twist more deeply.

One more full breath in. Twisting with your breath out. Come back into center. Let your hands rest on your thighs. And then a nice counter pose for this one is warrior two. So you'll take your left leg out to behind you.

And you'll need to work with that left leg toes are pointing out towards the side. Right leg comes into our standard warrior two. Again, heel right underneath the knee. Arms can reach out to the side. And this open pose should feel good after the twisting. So gaze can be right out over the right middle finger.

The chair is supporting you here. In this beautiful, strong, open pose. Vira of Adrasana too. So feel your feet on the ground. Your pelvis resting in the support of the chair.

Breath stays dynamic. Creating space in the chest. Days is direct. Crown of the head is reaching upward. Tail bone is reaching downward.

Last few breaths here. One more. And then you can release your hands down, holding on to the back of the chair. He'll toe your feet in. Give yourself a moment sitting in center.

And then we'll turn towards the left shoulder. And once again, I've got my heels underneath my knees, knees in line with hips, coming into our twist, right hand to the outside of the left thigh, left hand reaches back for the right side of the chair. A breath in to get long. A breath out to twist. We're staying with that breathing in, twisting with the breath out.

Again, breathing in. Breathing out. And one more breathing in. And breathing out. Come back in towards center.

And then we'll make our way into warrior two. So the right leg comes back behind you. Toast can turn out to the sides. Find the place where your hips can land. Back leg is straight as you can get it.

Open up the arms. See if you can feel yourself right in the center of both legs. Breathing in, and breathing out. And give yourself a few more breaths here. Open across the chest.

And this starts to release some energy from the hips. Last few breaths. See if you can stay with it. One more full breath in. Full breath out, and release the arms down.

He'll tow your feet back in towards center. Give yourself a breath there. And then from here, we're gonna be going into a deeper expression of a backbend, heart opener, hip opener. This should feel really good. And with the chair, you can hang out in it a bit longer.

I'm just gonna move my chair so you can see the angle of shoulders and hips. I'm reaching for my blanket. And I'll open the blanket out so it looks like this and place that over the chair with the narrow end towards the back and front. From here, I'm grabbing one block and I'll hold it in my hands as I step through the chair, right leg, and left leg. And then I'm scooching my way towards the back of the chair. Make sure your feet are nice and grounded here.

Still holding the block in one hand. I'm holding the back of the chair with the other. Feed stay firmly planted on the ground. Talk your chin to your chest and ease your way down into this. And once you've landed, hands on both hands on the block, you'll take the block behind you, slide it in.

I like the highest height for this. And you wanna find a place where your head can land. You might need to play with the block and find the right distance for yourself there. And then arms can open up. In a big tee, and you're just let yourself hang there.

Breathe. And these first few breaths were not in too deep of a backbend yet. Feeder on the ground. Edge of the block is about at my at my mid thigh. And supporting me right behind the sternum. So you're welcome to stay exactly as you are if that's feeling good for you.

If you would like to go in a little bit deeper, you can move the block off to the side, take your arms over your head, catching your elbows, let your head tip back. Take some deeper breaths. I'm still working to keep my feet firmly planted here. But this is such a nice stretch for the belly, the armpit chest, the front of the hips. Changing the crossing of your arms.

And then you're welcome to stay there or last few breaths. You can slide your arms in between the legs of the chair, maybe slide back a bit further, extending the legs ever so slightly. Let your head dangle. There could be a gentle nodding of the head from side to side. But if this feels like too much, you back out of it or skip it.

And then we're we're coming out of this one very carefully. Right? So you can take one hand out from underneath the chair. The other hand out from underneath the chair. I'm holding on to both sides of the chair. And then a little bit of a of a tricky transition here, push the elbows down, pop up through the chest, press your feet down, see if you can come up with the head still back, and then I catch the top of the chair, and lift up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, cross your arms over the chair and just breathe there. So it's very similar to coming up out of Eustrasana coming up out of camel pose. Right? We wanna think of the crown of the head going upward instead of pulling the head forward.

It's a bit safer on the cervical spine. Change which arm is on top and just breathe. And then you can let that go. We'll slide back on the chair. Slide one leg out.

Slide the other leg out. You can leave the blanket exactly where it is and come to sit on the chair again. More on the edge than on the middle of the chair with your feet firmly placed on the ground. Bring your right knee up into your chest. Cross your right ankle over your left thigh and figure four.

Give yourself a moment there to allow the right thigh to drop, lengthen the spine, and then walking forward. Hands can come down the leg. They can rest by your sides. Head can drop. Closing out with a nice stretch for the ankles, the knees, the hips, the lower back.

Breathe deeply. Pressing into your left foot, roll your way up. Interlace the fingers behind the right leg, kick the right leg forward, maybe a roll of the ankle in one direction, a roll of the ankle in the opposite direction. And then stepping the right foot down, bring your left leg in Give it a squeeze. Cross your left ankle over your right thigh figure four.

Give yourself that moment. Left thigh is dropping down. Side body lifting up. And then we'll fold forward and hands can come onto the chair. Hands can just dangle by your sides.

Let the chair do the work of supporting the lower body and you can just fold forward. Give into the gravity. Last one, breathing in. Breathing out. Push into the foot and roll your way back up.

Interlace your fingers behind your left leg. Kick your left leg out in front of you. Roll the ankle out in one direction. Roll the ankle in the opposite direction. Step your left foot back down to the ground.

Give yourself a moment, turning the palms upward. And then from here, we'll take our Shavasana using the chair so you can come off your chair, spin around and face it. And then just as you would do, coming into Viparita Karani, legs up the wall, you can scooch up right next to your chair and swing your legs right over the chair. Hips under knees, ankles in line with knees, coming down, and maybe snuggle the backs of the knees right into the softness of the edge of the chair, padded with the blanket, arms come out by your sides. Eyes can close here.

And then once you've landed, see if you can visualize. The ground below you with a soft carpet of grass. The sturdiness of earth below the grass. Going deeper and deeper. Strong, force of gravity.

As I've said, we don't really think about it, but most of the day, we're defying, moving against the force of gravity here. We can just give into it. The muscles go slack. The bones go heavy. Pin yourself down at the creases of the hips, at the crevice of the shoulders.

Feeling the weight, the back of the skull. Airsigns are known for being intelligent and quick witted, quixotic and spontaneous. Keep all of those qualities and let yourself be anchored Routed. In the same way that a homing pigeon always comes back to home. Fly off.

Be adventurous, and use your practice as a way to call yourself home. Take a full breath in. Soft breath out. If you've got longer to stay just as you are, Please do that. Otherwise, little movements with fingers and toes. You can step your feet onto the chair.

Rolling over onto your side, press into your hands, and you'll come up to sit. And if it's more comfortable for you to sit in your chair, you can close your practice sitting in your chair. But thank you so much for sharing your practice. We'll close with an ome. Oh, no mistake.