Kurma & Stirring Stuff Up

Hi. Welcome to your practice. My name is Ashley, and for today's class, you'll need a couple blocks, a strap, and two blankets. Well, once you've gathered your goodies, come meet me in Shavasana. And please feel free to take any position in the legs that feels best on your lower back. If your blocks and strap aren't already in reaching, just since take a moment to get them there, and then settle in.

If your mind is feeling busy or scattered from the efforts of your day thus far, consider hands on your front body to ground you. And breathe into what feels center. With every in house, expanding, not just the belly, that the sides of your waist, the expanse of your lower back, inhale the whole circumference of your physical center. And with every exhale, give a loving hug back center. And as you settle into the shape and your unique pace of the breath, layer in an intention for your practice.

Once you have that gathered, if you'd like, you can join me in an opening home. Nice full breath in. Blink eyes open if you've closed them. Bend your knees and place your feet on the ground about the distance of your front hip points. Absorb your front ribs as you sweep your arms overhead.

And with an exhale bring right knee into your chest, invite left knee to follow, and circle your knees around one direction, massaging the area around your sacrum, and through your lower back. Circle back the opposite way. And then find your way back, center. Keep the right knee close to your chest with the base of your left foot down. Grab one of your blocks, and take the block to the back of your thigh.

As you inhale, press heel to the sky, resist leg into block, and exhale re bend. Do that again, inhale. Press block into leg, leg into block and re bend. Do it one more time, inhale straight into the best of your ability, pause here. If you've met a purposeful edge, honor that edge.

Stay here. Otherwise, lift your head, lift your shoulders, take your block to your calf, and then see if you can put your head and your shoulders back down inviting the leg a little closer. And if you get there and discover, that was not a wise idea at this moment. Give yourself permission to go back to block at thigh. And again, it's not just about the pull in, but a loving bit of resistance against the block. And then exhale, remove the block, bend your knee, and place your foot down.

Bring your left knee in toward your chest, block to the back of your thigh. And as you inhale heal to the sky, lag into block. Ex, I'll re bend. Do it again. Keep a little scoop of your abdomen in as you resist your thigh away. And re bend.

One more time, straighten to your comfortable edge and pause there. And again, if this edge is purposeful, stay here. Otherwise, lift the head, lift the shoulders, walk your block to your calf muscle, put your head in your shoulders back down, inviting the leg a little closer to your torso. For every bit that you're drawing in with the block, resist lag away from you and into the block. And remove the block, rebend your left knee placing the base of the left foot back down. Grab hold of your strap, bring both knees into your chest.

And take your strap around your feet. Separate your feet as wide as the strap will allow or as wide as your inner thighs will allow without pain or strain. As you exhale, if you have locks in the way like I do, shimmy them down a little bit. Exhale bring left leg all the way to the earth, right foot up to the sky. And then inhale come back center, exhale right leg all the way to the right.

If you can bring pinky edge of the leg to the mat, left foot to the sky. And take a few round side to side. I like to imagine here that I'm moving through water. If you move quickly through water, maybe make that water jello, go slow. Today, we get to know a little bit more about Korma Avatar.

Korma means tortoise. And Korma Avatar is one of the Many creatures, animals, beasts, magical beings that Vishnu transforms into. After the next time you come up from the right side, draw your legs together, remove your strap and set it off to the side. Now without the aid of the strap, take your feet wide once again, flex through your feet. And if your hamstrings are saying a little break, please, bend your knees to a right angle to relieve the stress.

Take your hands straight up to the sky, touch your palms, breathe out. And as you draw your navel down, lift your head, lift your shoulders, try to touch the ceiling, and then hollow the pit of your abdomen a little bit more, reach your hands forward through the legs. Inhale back up to the sky, exhale set it down. Do that again. Breathe out, lift head, lift shoulders. Reach your hands forward.

And hands back up to the sky and head and shoulders back down. Do this one more time. Breathe out, lift. Breathe out a little more. Reach forward.

And then hands back up. Put your head and your shoulders down. Reach your arms overhead and take a 10 count to bring legs to touch. That's eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Bring knees in towards your chest, cross at your ankles, switch to the less natural cross for balance, bring hands to the back of your thighs.

Rock yourself forward and back a few times rolling out your spine. And then the third or fourth rock. Bring yourself all the way up to seated and then make your way into your downward facing dog. Stretch it way out, get as long as you can through all four sides of your torso, and imagine the blocks. So at the back of your thighs.

As you reach the top of your thighs back into the imaginary blocks, Draw your front ribs and abdomen in. Inhale to your tippy toes, exhale deep into your knees, look to your hands, step or thoughtfully hop your feet up to meet them. Inhale, drag fingertips back in line with toes or hands to shins as you lengthen your spine. Xhale fold in, root down, inhale, rise up, reach up, and exhale hands to your heart. If your blocks are not already near the front of your mat, take a moment to get them there in case you discover you'd like to use them throughout our flow.

Alright. From tadasana, press into the earth and how reach up to the sky. Acts how fold. Inhale lengthen. Bend your knees enough to get hands to the earth or to your props and then step back with your right foot. Set your back knee down, uncurl your toes.

Press down inhale rise up reach up. Akshale hands to heart center. Take your arms out wide and then cross your right arm underneath your left, either wrapping round for Garudasana, eagle arms here, or if it's kinder in your body, give yourself a hug. Bring the pit of your abdomen in and take a full breath into the back of your heart. Xhale unwind your arms, inhale reach skyward, and exhale hips forward hands down.

Bring your left knee next to your right knee, and then step your right foot out to the right. Inhale open left arm to the left. And as you exh how thread left hand behind your right. Take a full breath right underneath your left shoulder blade. Stay for the exhale.

And then unwind, reach it out, and place your hand back down. Shift your hips a bit back, fold elbows towards the earth, head towards the earth, and inhale rock forward. Do that again, exhale, fold in, shift back. And inhale glide forward. One more time, find a little more of a scoop through the pit of the abdomen before you shift and fold and bring it forward.

Step your right foot back and then cross right leg behind your left leg. Spend your right knee behind the left knee and once again, fold forearms toward the earth, inhale straighten the leg straighten your arms. Do that again, exhale fold it in hollow and find the subtle round. And inhale lengthen. This last time we come in and hold The left hip wants to wander.

Can you draw it back in until you welcome a stretch, focus through the outer hip, and the glutes? Maybe you crawl left hand to the left as you keep guiding the left hip back in in. And exhale, bring your hand back. Rest straighten through your arms. Step right foot back.

Step left foot back. Glyde forward, lower all the way to meet the mat. Brush your toes back. Peel your heart forward and up. And exh, I'll set it right back down.

Top toes under, walk them in, inhale to plank or to hands and knees. And as you exhale, lift your hips, press your thighs back downward facing dog. Inhale, lift your right leg. And as you exhale hug me to your nose, step right foot forward between your hands. Set your back knee down, uncurl your toes.

Heel toe right foot over to the right, so it meets the outer edge of your mat. And then rotate right leg, so right toes come just off the side of the mat. Press down from the top of your back, foot as you shift your hips forward and lift your heart. And if the body says okay, maybe you bring forearms to the earth, or you split the difference and put your forearms on blocks, bringing the earth to you. Breathe through your inner right thigh, slow, and even.

So the story begins with a group of demigods that have been cursed. And the curse that they've been given is that they've lost their immortality because they were heard talking smack behind a sage's back. Not worth it. Press yourself back up to straight arms. Keep right foot where it is. Tuck your back toes under, lift your knee, and I'll hop your left foot to the outside of your left hand.

Rotate left leg so toes angle a bit off to the side and sit into a wide squat here. Malasana, sneak your arms inside the legs, interlace your fingers and then send your knuckles forward. Really hollow through the pit of the abdomen and breathe into the expanse of your back. Exhale hands back to your heart, place hands to the earth, parallel your feet as you fold in, press down in how rise up, reach up, and exhale hands to your heart step back into your tadasana. Press down inhale once again, or exhale fold forward, inhale heart forward, heart forward, bend knees enough to get your hands down, step back with your left foot. Put your back knee down, pat it if it's tender.

Uncurl your toes, press down, inhale, rise up, reach up. Xhale hands to your heart. Inhale, arms out wide And as you exhale, bring left arm this time underneath your right, wrap to find your version of Garudasana, coil your abdomen in, bring the chin slightly in, and take a full breath into your upper back. Losing immortality sucks no matter what, but it was especially bad timing because the demigods had just had a battle with the demons and lost a lot of folks. And how rise up reach up?

Exhale, bring it forward, and now take right knee next to your left knee. Step your left foot out to the left, point your toes straight forward, and I'll take your right arm up. And as you exhale, thread right arm behind the left. Take a full breath under your right shoulder blade. Stay for the exhale.

And unwind. Replant right hand. And now shift the hips back, fold forearms in, let head and neck go. In how come forward, do this twice more, flow at the pace of your breath. So they go to Brahma, the creator, and they're like, Hey, can you help us get our immortality back?

We need to bring some of our troops back, but they've died. They've lost their immortality. Pause here. Take your left foot back and then cross your left leg behind your right. Bend left knee behind right knee, folding, and inhale straighten.

Do it again, fold in, and straighten. One more time, fold. This time, stay. Draw your right hip back and hug it in And again, we're looking for the stretch through the gluteal muscles, through the outer hips. You may stay here or layer in the lateral stretch.

Walk left hand over to the right as you keep guiding the right hip back in So Brahma sends them to speak with Vishnu. And Vishnu is like, yeah, yeah, I got a plan. Bring your hand back straighten through your arms. Step your left foot back and come find your vinyasa. What do you need in this moment? So the plan Vishnu lays out is that the demigod should make a deal with the demons a little truce for a moment because what they both want is immortality.

And there's a way to get this amrita, this liquid of immortality by churning the ocean, the cosmic sea. Inhale, lift your left leg, exhale knee to nose, step foot forward between your hands. Set your back knee down, uncurl your toes. Heal, toe left foot to the left till it meets the outer edge of your mat, and rotate left leg so toes come just off the mat. Anch her down through the top of your back foot, shift your hips forward, smooth bum away from the waist, lift your chest, getting the focus opening through the inner thigh. And from here, if body says okay, forearms to the earth or to your props, let your head and your neck go.

So they listened to Vishnu's plan, and part of which was taking the ocean and placing it in the basin of these mountains to hold it like a bowl. They get the king of snakes involved. The snake agrees to be the stirring rod. So the demigods hold one side of it. The demons hold the other side of it taut and a churning and a churning, they go.

Press yourself back up to straight arms. Bring or leave your left foot right where it is. Tuck your back toes under, lift your knee and hop right foot to the outside of your right hand. Rotate right leg so that toes angle off to the side as well. And once again, sit the hips low.

Now if your knees say, Ashley, I don't do that. Put your elbows on your thighs, come into a third or half of the squat. Otherwise, sit all the way through, hollow through your abdomen, interlace your fingers. Send your knuckles forward and really hollow your belly. Come right back into your heart and place your hands down. Lift your hips parallel your feet as you go fold in. Press down inhale, rise up. Reach up.

Step to your tadasana, bring hands to your heart. Sit heavy to your heels, bend your knees, utkatasana. Cross, right leg over left for garudasana. Bring hands into your heart, open arms to the sides. And again, pick your version of Garudasana, right arm underneath your left.

Alright? Take a full breath into your back body And with the exhale hollow your abdomen, maybe hook the back of your arms to the front of your knees. Inhale stand it up, hug me towards your chest. Send your heel back, reach your heart forward, flying eagle. Bend left knee deeply, step way back with your right foot hinge from your hips, bring your torso upright, unwind your arms and reach to the sky.

Take your back knee all the way down, uncurl your toes. Place your left hand on your thigh. He'll tow left foot over to the left wide enough that each hand can come to the ground inside the foot. Resist the urge to shift your hips forward. Try to draw a right angle with both of your legs.

And instead of hips forward, as we often do in lizard, hollow your abdomen and fold in, like you were gonna take the top of your head to the floor. It's juicy. Take one more breath. For most of us, we get a pretty big experience of this through the back of the thighs and maybe the inner thigh. Inhuh, restrain through your arms.

Bring or actually leave your left foot as it is, straighten it out. So we take a little wider approach to our our half split. Alright. Reepend your front knee. You can leave it forward, but now bring it back into the midline.

Fold in once again, sneak, left arm underneath your leg, left hand on top of the foot. Maybe you bring right elbow to the earth, interlace your fingers on top of the foot. If the left hip wandered, hug it in. And if you feel steady doing so from here, tuck your back toes under, lift your back knee. Coil the pin of your abdomen in, grow your heart forward.

Bada, utan Pristasana, bound intense stretch lizard pose, put your back knee down, uncurl your toes. Unwind your arms. Tuck your back toes under. Sound effects are totally optional. Lift the back knee.

Step it to your plank and through your vinyasa. So they're churning, they're churning, they're churning. And suddenly, the ocean starts to sink. The mountains start to crumble in. This was not the desired plan.

Inhale, lift your right leg. Ex, I'll step right foot forward, grab your two blocks. Hop your back foot in a few inches, pivot your back heel down. Press through the mound of your right big toe and guide your right hip back and in. Elongate from tailbone to crown of head lengthen through your spine.

If you are at an edge, please listen to this edge, stay here. Otherwise, rotate your arms so your fingertips point back You can walk hands and or blocks back, hollow through the pit of the abdomen and fold in. You may stay here. If it's there without pain or strain, you might hold your back leg. For some of us, we need a little bend in the knee to get the hold and a press back.

For others, we might say, Ashley, that sounds overrated. I'm gonna put my hands back on the ground or on my blocks. What do you need today? My bendy friends, like myself, you may notice that front knee wants to lock or hyper extend. Really press through the mound of the big toe as you hollow and subtly round through your spine. Reach your heart forward, walk your hands forward.

Bend your front knee and then hop your back foot up to meet your front. Take your thighs back, grow your heart forward, exhale fold it in. Press down inhale, rise up, reach up Right away, sit into the heels, circle your arms overhead, utkatasana. Cross left leg over right, bring your hands to your heart. Open your arms out wide.

And this time, left arm underneath right, pick your version of Garudasana. What do you need? Take a big breath in, exhale hollow the abdomen and maybe fold elbows to the front of the thighs. Maybe. Route down inhale.

Stand up, uncross your leg. Send your heel back. Reach your heart forward. Flying equal. Unwind your arms.

Plant your hands to the earth or your props. If you enjoyed on the first side, challenging the balance, keep hands at the heart, step it back, little bend to the knee, sweep your arms up. Set back knee down, uncurl your toes. Place hands down, keep right angle in both legs. No shifting the hips forward, keep them there.

Come forward, heel toe, right foot, to the right, wide enough that each hand can go to the earth or a prop inside your front leg, hollow through the pit of your abdomen. And again, instead of taking the hips forward, scoop your abdomen in and fold in. Focus your breath to where you're feeling the resistance, the greatest. So Vishnu comes to save the day. He turns into Korma Avatar, this giant tortoise and literally holds up the ocean and the mountains on his back so they can get back to churning.

Press yourself to straight arms, keep the right foot wide, stretch the heel forward straighten through your leg. Press the ball of your big toe forward, draw the pinky edge back. Length in your spine, and you can stay upright. Or if you can do so without pain or strain, walk the hands forward, maybe folding in a touch more. And if you brought your hands forward, bring them back, bend into your front knee, and bring your front heel back into the midline.

This time, foot stays midline, bring your right arm inside the leg, fold in. If the body will allow, sneak your right arm underneath the leg, put your right hand on top of the foot, either left elbow to the earth, or you can always put the difference left elbow on a prop. Interlaced your hands on top of the foot. And if this is not a kindness in your body, walk the right foot wide again, hands to the earth or forums to the earth from there. If you feel steady doing so from this place, lift your back knee.

Reach your heart forward as you hug your right hip back and in. So we're churning and stuff is starting to come up, but unfortunately that stuff is poison. Oh, we can't cut your break. Put your back knee down. Uncurl your toes. Unwind your arm.

Tuck back toes under, lift your knee and step to plank. Take your vinyasa. Shiva noticing what's happening comes in and sucks all the poison out of the ocean, turning his throat blue, but otherwise leaving him unharmed. Thank you, Shiva. And then the good stuff starts coming out. There's like jewels, and I think, some goddesses might have been churned up through this.

Maybe a magical cow or two. Step your left foot forward. Find your blocks. Give yourself that added bit of height and hop your back foot a few inches in. Pivot back heel down, lengthen your chest straightforward.

If you're at an edge, honor this edge, be here. Otherwise, rotate your arms so that your fingertips point back. Walk your hands and or blocks back. Hollow the pit of your abdomen as you fold in. Now, again, there if it's there without pain or strain, wrap hands around the back leg.

You may need to bend the knee a little bit to get the hold and then press the leg back. Again, favor the ball of your front foot a little more to avoid locking or hyper extending the knee. If you've let your head go, reach your heart forward, bring your gaze forward, walk your blocks forward. Bend your left knee, hop back foot up to meet your front foot, draw your chest straight forward. And then instead of coming up to stand, bring yourself down to your knees.

Alright. For now, set your blocks off to the side. Come lie on your back. And bring your knees in toward your chest. Take your knees wide, bring your arms inside your legs, and grab the pinky toe side of your foot for happy baby pose. If holding the pinky toe edge is not a kindness, you can put your hands at the back of your thighs or loop a strap over your feet to hold them.

Okay. Try to keep left leg as it is. Breathe out, lift your head, lift your shoulders. Put your left hand on the heel of your foot. Take the back of your right arm onto your hamstring and re grab the pinky edge of the foot, put your head and shoulders down. Okay.

One second. Breathe out, lift your head, lift your shoulders. This time. Try to sneak the back of your left arm onto your hamstring, re grab the pinky edge of your feet. Lower down.

You may stay here. You might put your hands on your heels and explore straightening through your legs, and then stretching your arms to the sides. Any amount the body will allow without pain, and rebind your knees. Unwind your arms. Give yourself a little hug.

Cross at your ankles, hook hands to the back of the thighs, and like the elixir of life of immortality popping out of the ocean, rock yourself up to seated. As soon as the elixir comes out of the water, The demons totally renege on their, agreement, their truce. They grab the elixir and run off, and the demigods are like, oh, this isn't how this was supposed to go down. Grab your two blankets. And set them in front of you.

This is to give ourselves a little bit of glide. So if you have, wooden floor that you're working with, make sure you're putting your blankets off of your mat so that they're able to slide with your feet. If you're on a carpeted floor, you might be fine to move at the carpet. You can skip your blankets if you're on something that's a little sticky, like my rug underneath my mat here. And you might just wanna start a little bit further back on your mat, straighten the legs out, checking the distance here. Alright?

Okay. Bend your knees. Place feet on the ground. I'm gonna scooch my bum in a little bit closer. And it's almost like we're taking our melasana, our garland pose with our booty on the floor.

Take your arms inside your legs, hoo, hollow through the pit of the abdomen to breathe and expand through your back. You may get here and say Ashley a wonderful adventure. I'm out. In which case we come back to baddha konasana. Right.

You might pick one leg up, opposite hand to heel, bring arm inside the leg, and try to work your shoulder underneath. Oh, can you do the same with the other? Oh, tricksy tricksy. Take a beak here. If you can keep that in place and do so, rock forward. Take hand to the side, hand to the side, and now maybe you slide your feet a little forward and your arms a little bit more to the sides. Phew, phew, phew. Maybe.

You slide your feet a little bit more forward and your arms a little bit more to the side. And this lifetime or the next, we fold in. Keep reaching your heart forward. Bring the chin ever so slightly in just enough to soften the front of the throat and gently lengthen the back of your neck. Breathe in to the fullness of your back, slow, and even.

So Vishnu, ever so helpful, comes up with a new plan. Reach your chest forward, bend your knees. Drag heels toward you until you can free your arms. If you are using blankets like me, fold them up, set them off to the side. Thank them for their help.

Appreciate you. Alright. And then come on to your front body. Make a little pillow with your hands. Turn your head to one side and come rest a bit here.

Breathe into the resistance of the earth below you and allow that resistance to help you flood and expand your heart. So Vishnu, who was just recently a giant tortoise, now transforms himself into a gorgeous lady. And he goes to see the demons and is like, you know what? Deemons? It could be really fun to drink that elixir, but what if you gave it to me and we all got together, and I would like to pass it out. So in my mind, I think about this lady like, old and times bottle service girl.

Alright. So from here, prop yourself up, smooth your bum away from your waist, and elongate through your lower back. You may stay right here. You might take your right forearm parallel to the top of the mat to give yourself a little bit more of a platform of support roll your inner left thigh up as you bend the knee to keep your joints tracking. Circle your left arm up and back.

And if it's there without pain or strain, grab hold of the foot. Now you can hold outside the foot as I'm doing right now. If you're looking for a little bit more opening through the chest after all the forward folding, explore rotating the arms so the thumb is up, hold the inside of the foot. Press down for the top of the right foot coil your abdomen in and kick your foot back against the hand to help open and lift your heart. So Vishnu now disguised as gorgeous lady.

Has the elixir. She lines up all the demigods. She lines up all of the demons, and then she goes down the road and starts pouring the elixir in their mouth. Let your foot go. And we'll switch sides, take your left forearm parallel to the top of the mat, spin inner right thigh up, bend your right knee, and reach back with your right hand.

If it's more accessible to grab the outside of the foot, live that dream. If it's there without pain or strain, rotate arm so that the thumb points up and grab the inside of your foot. Kick your foot back against the hand to lift and expand through your chest. And let it go. Come on down.

And breathe into your back. Open your right hip for resting or sleeping child's pose. Prop yourself slightly up on the forearms and thread your left arm underneath your right. Roll all the way to your left, let the right hip follow you, and then open your right arm to the right coming into a twist. Now as having the bottom leg straight, feels a little too aggressive on the lower back.

You're welcome to bend the bottom knee, stack the knees, stack the hips, as we often do in our reclined twist. So the tricky part of fancy faced lady, she lined up all the demigods in the front row, all the demons in the back row, and oopsie She got to the end of the demigods, and the vase with all the elixir in it was empty. Harmony was restored to the world once again. Restrating through your right leg. Come back on to your front body.

Make a pillow with your hands. And this time, open your left hip, skim the earth with your inner thigh. And breathe into your back and exhale through your legs. If the twist isn't where it's at for you today, you can stay here. Otherwise, prop yourself up.

This time you take your right hand, thread it underneath your left arm. Roll to your outer right hip. Turn open through your chest. Reach left arm to the left. And if your knee is hovering in a way that is stressing the joint, you can always put a prop underneath the leg.

Give yourself more support to explore. So the story, I love so much because The big three exist in it, Bramma, our creator, Vishnu, the sustainer, the MVP of the story, and Shiva, the destroyer. It also gives us the demigods and the demons we've come to know well. And a bunch of transformations, a bunch of different avatars of Vishnu. Come back on to your front body.

If you were using a prop set it out of the way. If lying on the front body is, like, feeling really awesome to you right now, you can stay in a downward facing Shivasana maybe you take a blanket and place it underneath your forehead to give space for the face. Arms can come back. And if they feel burdened hanging in space, sneep your blocks under your shoulder heads so that they can rest fully. If you get here and you're like, nah, girl, not for me.

Either press to your hands and your knees, or you can roll right on to your back. I sometimes after all of that forward folding, like a subtle lift underneath the length of my spine, I come to sit in front of one of the short ends of my folded blanket and lie back so that the heart is passively opened. Any position in the legs that feels best in your back as you spill your arms long at your sides. So one of the big takeaways from this story besides the fact that it brings everybody together is the reminder that as we start working and digging deeper into our practice, as we start churning our body, our mind, our spirit, What comes out isn't always what we were looking for or seeking. Oftentimes, to get to the good stuff, we have to work through the poison and through the crud that bubbles up in the effort.

And there are times where we look at it, we face it on our own, and there are other times where it's helpful to call them the support of others in our life. That can look like friends, a therapist, a teacher, a guide, just as the demigods went to the gods for help. And so this loving reminder, that peace often comes on the other side of some effort It comes on the other side of doing the challenging work, the tapas, that burning effort, that discomfort that we choose, that we step into, or that sometimes is thrust upon us, to help us grow, to stretch us, to help us get to the place where the mountains stop crumbling in. And the elixir, the sweetness, the jewels of life can rise to the surface. If you're at ease as you are, stay here as long as you'd like.

Otherwise, welcome a bit of movement to fingers to toes. If it feels natural or purposeful to do so, you can reach your arms overhead. If you're lying on your front body, you might wanna skip that part. Bend your knees, place your feet on the ground. If you're lying on your front body roll to your side, hug your knees to the chest, coming to meet, those of us on the back that are doing the same.

Press the floor away. Bring yourself to seated. Join hands at heart center, and lift your chest. Bough your chin, sealing in the sweetness of your efforts. Thank you for sharing your practice and for spending this time with me today.

Until the next time.