Mars

Hi friends. Welcome to your practice. Get excited because we are exploring Mars today and Mars simply put is the planet of action. So we get to do, we get to go, we get to initiate, we get to take action towards anything you want. Anything you're calling in will work with intention, will work with visualization. So Mars just gives us the energy we need to initiate, to be aggressive, to take action.

Alright? So we'll start at the front of the mat, and if you need to just like get a little energy, just like do a little thing like that and then come to the front of the mat. Just kind of feel excited because it can be fun. Alright? Prior to the heart. Feed about hip distance so you can really land into the soles of your feet. Close your eyes.

Take a deeper breath in through your nose. Out through your mouth. Do it again. A really long inhale. Feel that inspiring, energizing oxygen coming in, and open mouth exhale. Let it go.

Good. Now ask yourself the question. What do I want? What do I want? Is there something specific that is calling you that you need to bring into your life. It could be a simple word. It could be a feeling.

It could be a specific goal. I want you to get a little clear here and state something specific. Call it into your mind's eye. Drop it down to your heart and bring it into that prayer, Anjali Mudra. The prayer, the intention.

And then we'll reach the arms all the way up. Take a big inhale. And as you exhale, just bow and fold all the way down. Inhale halfway up, off for your heart, exhale fold and round. Wormming up, inhale just reach the arms back up as you exhale drop that prayer, that intention into your heart.

Inhale as you reach up, rooting through the feet. Get long exhale bow and fold down. Inhale halfway up. And exhale fold and round. Inhale rise and reach. From the grounded feet up through the heart, exhale prayer to the heart intention.

Inhale reach back up. And exhale bow down. Inhale halfway. Exhale fold deeper. Good. Inhale rise and reach all the way up.

Exhale one more time, prayer to the heart. Let's pause. Call it in. Stated in your mind's eye. Feel it. Feel it in the prayer. Feel it in the heart.

Let's take one more bigger inhale and longer exhale. Continuing to move because Mars is movement to movement forward. Reach the arms up as you inhale and as you exhale bow and fold. Step your left foot back big lunge, lower the knee, and as you inhale sweep your arms all the way up for a low lunge. Let's pause here.

Take your hands together into that prayer, into that seal, and then interlace everything but the index fingers and point the energy up, up, up, feel that almost like a sword just claiming like the warrior here going into aggression event like I am getting what I want. And then, of course, bring back the yoga element, that sweet breath and kindness, of course, and loving awareness. Let's take one more breath into the heart, into that point. And then sweep the arms all the way down. Step back to plank pose. Feel your fire here.

Feel your belly. Lots of fire energy in Mars. Take about two more breaths. Feel free to close your eyes. Maybe the knees come down if you need a little support, but keep the fire of the belly.

Take one more breath. Good. And then go back downward facing dog. Let's take the right leg up into the air, bend the knee, open up the hip, swing the right knee to the chest, squeeze round hover. And then take the right leg back in the air, and we'll do a few of these hovering planks. Keep going, knee to chest, squeeze and round, inhale, take it back. Feel that fire of the belly, two or three more.

You choose. Taking some action and being a little bit more physical in this practice today. And then we'll step the right foot all the way forward. Take your fingertips just slightly out in front of you and pop your back leg up for a standing split. Push into your right foot little or big bend in that right knee, take another breath, and then bring your feet together.

Inhale halfway up, reset your spine, exhale fold Deep. Good. Step your right foot back, big lunge. Lower the right knee. And on an inhale, sweep your arms up. And find your fingers, interlace. Release the index fingers point up.

Lift the heart. And just feel this gesture of taking action of lifting, of opening, of going for it. So some of us really need Mars Energy, right? Some of us really need that kick in the pants to just Get up and go, right, to initiate, to motivate ourselves. Let's take one more bigger inhale into the ribs. And as you exhale, the hands sweep down, Step back to plank pose, firm your belly here.

Let's hold again. Option, knees up or down. A little extra effort here because sometimes, again, we need that effort. Right hand is gonna tap the left shoulder. Try not to move your hips. Right hand down.

Left hand tops the right shoulder. Hello. Here we are. We're gonna do that a few times. Right hand, left shoulder, try not to move your hips, left hand, right shoulder. Maybe one more, right hand, left shoulder.

Keep breathing, left hand, right shoulder. Good back to downward facing dog. And we'll sweep that left leg in the air, bend the knee, open up the hip. Let's go and knee to chest, squeeze and round, inhale back and up. Exhale squeeze and round, firmly pull in the belly.

Keep going two or three more. Rooting through the palms. Naval to spine, push the floor away. Good. And then together we'll all step forward. Left foot meets the hands.

Fingertips slightly out, pop your back leg up into the air, standing split. Drop your head. One more breath here. Good feet together. Inhale halfway up and exhale fold and round.

Inhale all the way up. Reach pause with the arms reaching up. Gather up your word, your goal, your intention. Take another deep breath in. Exale, bring it into your heart.

Take a moment. Feel your heart beating. Feel the energy you're creating in your body. Maybe notice how you feel different from the beginning till now in your practice. Playing with energy shifting.

Alright. Let's get ready to move a little more. Chair pose, sit your hips back, sweep your arms alongside your ears, pull your belly in, take a big breath in, and as you exhale bow and fold, inhale halfway lift, exhale step back to plank pose. Knees up or down, take an inhale as you exhale chaturanga, take a cobra or an up dog, you choose, lift your heart. Push your way back to downward facing dog. Right leg sweeps up and back, bend the knee.

Step the right foot all the way forward, warrior one, ground the back heel, reach your arms all the way up. Pause for a few breaths, maybe cinching your hands together. If you like that point, that sword, that action, that I'm ready, I'm ready to go. I'm ready for battle. Right? Because sometimes it is a battle to go after what we want. Right? We gotta move through obstacles. We gotta move through resistance. We gotta move through fear and doubt and all those unnecessary things that just creep in.

Take one more breath. And then hand sweep down all the way down, plank pose, inhale. Exhale, maybe Chaturanga, vinyasa, cobra, or updog, and press back downward facing dog. Left leg up. Then the knee, step it through.

Left foot meets the left thumb or your one. Inhale, feel this energy, the warrior, soften your inner shoulders. So even though we're moving more Getting our heart rate up, we can still try to find some ease in our efforts, right? A little bit more of that peaceful warrior energy. Let's take two more breaths here, rooting through the feet, rising through the heart, through the arms, through the fingers, And the hands slowly come down. Blank pose. Take another vinyasa if you'd like. Follow your breaths.

Hold your down dog. Let's take a big inhale through the nose. Sai it out. Do it again. Big inhale. Letting something go. Exhale.

One more. And this time, we'll walk or hop feet to the hands, inhale halfway up, exhale fold and round, inhale chair pose, exhale to stand prayer to the heart. Let's move again, inhale chair, and exhale fold. Inhale halfway up, exhale plank pose, maybe another vinyasa, or you could just hold plank too. Right? Still very strong. We will meet back in our downward facing dog.

Right leg rises up, inhale. Step your right foot forward. Let's pause there. Come to your fingertips. Let your feet be hip distance apart.

We're gonna play with a crescent lunge, but we're gonna take our time coming into it so that we really feel the integrity behind the shape, the hugging of the bones, the strength that we need to really own this shape. So start to hover the fingers. Squeeze your outer right hip in. Maybe you can take your arms back and hover about halfway and just feel like you're about to take off on a sprint here. Alright. So this is Mars energy. Like, okay, I'm ready.

Hit the buzzer. Let's go. You know, pull the belly in. One more breath, and then you'll rise up to a crescent lunge all the way up with that integrity in the legs, in the core. Take one more breath here. Good. And then you're gonna lean forward slightly and step your left foot to your right foot chair pose.

And then step your left foot back into the lunge. So this is exciting. Step your left foot forward again and step it back. Let's try one more saying hello to your right glutes. Step it back.

Find your crescent lunge, pull the belly in, inhale as you exhale hands come down. Step back to plank pose. Another vinyasa is available if you want it. Right? Press yourself back to downward facing dog.

So one thing I want you to think about here as you practice is how can you maybe conserve your energy for when you really need it, right? And if one of those people that just goes through the motion and does things just to do them. Well, then you're not maybe always gonna get it done. Right? You're just gonna keep blurring by your life. And so just want you to be really intentional listening to your body. Listening to your breath. Left leg's gonna reach up.

Good step it through. Pause there. Find your fingertips. Because one of the the primitive versions of Mars is that it's just very impulsive, right? And it's very all over the place, right? Cause we're just constantly doing things, but we're not actually meeting them with intention. Right? Hey, you might hover your fingers.

You can come halfway up, pulling in through the belly, finding that integrity in the shape. Good. And then reach up for full crescent lunge. You might do a little bend in that right knee. Feel it. Own it. Look at one spot out in front of you.

Find your balance. Good. And then activating that left leg a little bit more, lean forward. Step your right foot to meet your left foot chair pose. Step your right foot back all the way into that lunge. Do it a few more times.

Step forward. Good. Keep feeling that left foot support. You step back. One more time. Pull the belly in, and step it back. Reach up. Crescent lunge all the way up.

Inhale as you exhale hands, sweep down. Find your plank, knees up or down. Downward dog and or child's pose. Again, honoring any need to give yourself a little rest. One of my favorite quotes.

I don't know who said it. Rest is a form of action. Let's sit with that for a few more breaths. From downward dog, walk or hop feet to hands. Inhale halfway up and exhale fold.

Inhale rise all the way to standing. Exale, bring a prayer to your heart. Alright. You're gonna release your arms alongside your body, spread your feet a little bit wider, and then just start to lift your legs one at a time so to bend your elbows and just run-in place. Get a little faster. Close your eyes.

Yes, it's not a yoga thing, but we're gonna build a little bit of endurance. We're gonna get ourselves going. So keep going. Keep going and just pretend here. Even if you don't run, just run, bounce, move, move, keep moving.

We're gonna go for about a minute So keep going, maybe get your legs a little higher. Maybe you could smile. It's silly. It's fun. It's weird. It's not yoga, but we're just gonna keep going. We're gonna keep going and we're gonna initiate this momentum that we need to build, to grow, to go faster, longer, harder, right? Just keep going. Right? So we're playing with it. Can you start to get a little out of breath?

Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Maybe visualize your intention here. What is it? What do you running towards. What do you need? What do you want? Keep going.

Keep going. You're almost there. See the finish line. See it. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. And stop.

Put your hands on your heart. Cut your breath. Feel your heart beating. I always think it's so interesting to think about the muscle of the heart. And how it's always beating in our life, right, in this sweet, sacred, beautiful life.

And I like to think about the image of a tennis ball being squashed every single time it beats. I don't know if you've held a tennis ball recently, but they're very hard to squish. Maybe impossible. So it's a very strong muscle. Hear it, feel it, and breathe into this energy.

And then bring your hands back to a prayer at your heart. And I want you to claim your intention again. Maybe use the words I am or I have like it already exists in your life. Let's take one more breath. Good.

And then let's go back to chair pose. So we're gonna take that with us and keep going through this sequence. You're gonna lift your left foot in the air. Find a little balance here. And start to cross the left leg over for an eagle wrap, then bend your elbows and cross your left elbow under for a full eagle wrap, squeezing, hugging everything in.

So maybe you sit a little bit deeper today. Maybe you bring your elbows towards your knees and just really squeeze your belly here. And just like an eagle looks down on its prey. Just see. See what you want here.

See it out in front of you. Visualize it. Good. Let's take about one more breath. Keep those eagle arms and try to swing your left leg behind you towards a warrior three.

So left leg's gonna sweep behind you any amount. You can start to straighten that right leg, pull the belly in Keep the eagle arms or if you feel like you need to, bring hands to hips, or you can even reach them out. Couple more breaths. Look down, visualize, see, commit, own it. One more breath. Okay. And we're gonna step back into a lunge, that crescent lunge that we did earlier, step back. I know your right leg is talking to you.

Stay with it just a couple more breaths here. Good. And then bring a prayer to your heart. Come about halfway down like you're gonna take off on that sprint, and let's find a twist here. Left elbow wraps over the right thigh, squeeze your palms together and spin your ribs to the right. Good. Feel free to stay there or you could put your left hand on the floor and your right arm up if you feel like you need a little support or even that back knee can come down.

So honoring your body, meeting yourself where you're at, what you're capable of today, right? Sometimes it's baby steps. As Martin Luther King Junior said once, you don't have to see the whole staircase. You just have to take the first step. And that's Mars Energy, taking the first step, and then the next step. And then the next, go ahead and release back down, walk your fingers out in front of you, and just step your left foot to meet your right foot.

Take a halfway lift, inhale. Exhale fold and round. Take a pause here. Feel the differences in your legs. Feel the energy in your right leg versus your left leg.

Shoulders away from the ears. And we'll slowly start to ride all all the way up. Reach the arms up over the head, lift, and then sit back into your chair. Yay. We get to go to the other side. So you're gonna start to hover your right foot in the air.

And lift it up and cross it over, eagle rep, bend your elbows, take your right elbow under your left elbow, full eagle garudasana. Squeeze everything to the center, Since your inner thighs, your elbows, your belly, look at one spot, look at your prey, that feeling, like, ready to attack. What's the perfect moment? One more breath. Good root through that left foot, unhook your right leg and just send it back behind you.

Stay strong in that left leg. Stay strong with your gaze. Stay strong with your center. Maybe switching up the arms here. Hands can come to the hips or back or reach forward.

Last couple breaths, long neck. Good. Big step back into that crescent lunge. Here we are. Breathe, hold it. Feel the fire in your left leg. Feel the lift in your heart.

Take one more breath. And then bring a prayer to your heart. And halfway, hover, and twists, right elbow wraps, pushing into the palms. So as you twist here now, maybe thinking of that releasing element that comes with the twist, the rinsing and ringing out of obstacles and fears and doubts and frustrations that are just getting in the way of you claiming and going after what you need, what you want. Right? Couple more breaths, honoring any modifications.

And then release your hands down. Walk them out and step forward. Take a halfway lift and fold deeper. Let's take them a loss and a squat here. Just to give the legs a little break, a little stretch, opening up the backs.

Your heels can be up or down. Doesn't matter. Hands down or prayer at the heart. Maybe roll out your neck a little bit. Good.

Alright. From here, we're gonna go ahead and sit down on the mat. You can put one hand back, one hand forward to help guide your way. I want you to scoot your booty right into the center of the mat. And, of course, this wouldn't be a fiery practice without a little bit of core work. So we're gonna go ahead and do that. Get excited. Lift your heels up.

Grab the backs of your knees. Let's start right here. I'm gonna give lots of options. So, again, I want you to just really be honest, meet your body with integrity. This isn't a resting pose, is it, but we can find elements of rest in it. We can find our breath.

We can soften our face. Right? You can always put your hands back here as well behind you. If you wanna work a little harder, reach your arms forward. Lift your chest. Maybe straighten out your legs. Right? Find that full boat.

Good. Breathe, lift your heart. Lift your hearts. Good. And then we're gonna play with low boat option to come down just to the low back, heels, hover, shoulders, hover. And then we're gonna come back up high boat. And then we're gonna go back low boats.

And then we're gonna come back high boats. And we're gonna go low boat. And we're gonna row row row our boat gently down the street, or maybe it's like one of those outrigger canoe races. Right? And you're just trying to get to the finish line again. Keep going. Keep breathing.

Keep listening to your body. Keep feeling that fire of your belly last two. Alright. Let's come all the way down onto the back. Reach the arms over the head. Take a little break for a moment.

Cut your breath. Good. And then bend your knees, put your feet on the earth, put your hands behind the head, interlace your fingers, elbows wide, lift your legs in the air so your knees are just over your hips. So we're gonna try to come to this position each time for our inhale. And as we exhale, we're gonna twist. So the right l right leg's gonna go out right shoulder to the left knee.

And then inhale both knees to center look up. Exhale twist left leg out left shoulder to the right knee, inhale back to center. So mindful core, but still very strong. Meeting that inhale back to center, Now if you wanna bring your knees in a little bit more and your shoulder up a little bit more, go for it. But keep coming back to that center point.

So the belly stays really firm. Good. And then keep breathing Let's do 100. I'm kidding. We're not. But you could. You might.

Let's do 10 more. Try to have that controlled momentum. Right? Inhaling to center, exhaling to twist. Inhaling to center.

Exaling to twist. Close your eyes. Keep going. Last five. For Feel the burn.

Three. Yes. We gotta do both knees to make it count as one. Last two. Squeeze the belly.

Good last one. You got this. Release. Release head down feet to the earth. Arms play out. Just flop on the floor.

Maybe put your hands on your heart again. Feel the heart beating. You could windshield wiper your legs a little side to side. Good. Then take your arms over your head again and just reach long. Stretch the belly.

Good. And then put your feet on the earth. Let's do one gentle bridge pose just to stretch out the quads, the hip flexors, the belly, you could interlace your hands underneath you, feel the space of your heart opening up. Gathering in once more your intention. Alright? Creating space for it in the space of your heart. Maybe hear the words I am ready.

I am ready. No more beating around the bush. I am ready. A couple more breaths. I'm gonna slow.

Lower all the way down back to your booty. Alright. You're welcome to stay here and take thread the needle, right ankle over the left thigh, interlace around your left leg, or I'm gonna invite you to rock yourself up and come into pigeon with the right knee forward and the left leg back. Your glutes, your legs worked very hard today. So I want you to get a nice stretch here, lift your chest, open up for a moment, and then come down into your pigeon. Elbows.

It can be right over under the shoulders. Maybe put your head in your hands. I'm gonna take some time here to drop in, breathing deeply and completely into the outer hip. I'm slowly but surely finding some softening and releasing. And as you hold here, as we slow down, you might consider what is holding you back?

Right. So, again, what are the obstacles in your mind, in your body, in your current existence that's holding you back? And with the strong energy of Mars to initiate, to motivate, to move forward, I ask that you reframe in your mind literally stating new ways of being, new affirmations. Right? So if maybe you said to yourself, well, what's holding me back is I don't have enough money or I don't have enough time or I'm afraid of what people will think of me. Right? What if you said, I have plenty of money. I have an abundance of time.

People will love me just the way I am. People do love me just the way I am. And when something is calling you, Sometimes it's a whisper, and sometimes it's a scream. Either way, I want you to really listen. And use the energy of Mars to take one step forward.

Let's take two more breaths right here. And we'll gently come out. If you did pigeon, just step back to your hands and your knees. If thread the needle, maybe just hug your knees to your chest. Feel free to give the right leg a little movement. And we'll go to the other side.

Left knee is going to come forward. And gently come down. Take your time finding the shape that works for you that you can breathe in So notice where you are here energetically, mentally, And just meet yourself with observation with acceptance, with lots of breaths. Pigeon can be a really good therapist. A really good life coach, you know.

And while we definitely need other people to support us, I want you to feel that sense of supporting yourself. Any emotions that wanna come up, just let them. Let this practice be a safe space for you to work through and move through. Anything that is in the way. Anything that is holding you back.

Let's take about two more deeper breaths. Really feel the exhale. And gently come out and make your way back up to your hands and your knees. And if you're on your back, just go ahead and meet us upright. We're going to find a comfortable seat.

And we'll do a forward fold. So you can either bring the soles of your feet together or you can take your legs out long. And just start to bow towards your legs. If you feel like you need to move the flesh from your sitting bones, find a little bit more grounding in your seat honor that, and just start to round forward towards your legs. The forward fold is assigned to the nervous system to calm down, slow down.

And some of us, you know, have a lot of Mars energy. It's hard to tame. It's hard to slow down. And that's part of this too, is channeling harnessing that go after that initiating, that doing energy. Right?

Because then it just gets all mumbled and jumbled, and things just blur by. We're on a beating, train, and everything just blurs by. But that's why it's important to be specific. To see the goal, the intention at the top of the staircase, and take slow steps towards it. Let's take about five more breaths here. Good. And then just slowly rolling yourself up, feeling your head just stacked on top of your spine.

And from this place, let's roll back down to the back. Give yourself a hug knees to chest. Thank yourself for showing up today. This practice wasn't easy. And just be proud of the fact that you rolled out your mat.

And you decided to take action. Sometimes just rolling out the mat and finding the time is one of the ways that we can continue to take action. Let's take one more inhale. Maybe one more little core burst. Hold the breath.

You might lift your head, your shoulders. And then release it all out, exhale. Let your body splay out onto the floor for a well deserved rest, Shavasana. Let your breath just feel light, effortless, natural. Let yourself be held by the earth.

Let yourself feel the action of resting. Conscious relaxation. And as we rest here a little bit longer, I invite you to visualize your intention coming to life behind your closed eyes. I want you to see yourself living your life with your intention. See it in full detail.

Maybe finding yourself in a specific place at a specific time in the future. The expression on your face, the way you're holding yourself. If anyone is there with you, notice that too. And just keep exploring the feeling of being in your intention. It is there.

It is happening. You're welcome to stay here. Stay in that place. In your mind's eye. Or if you're ready to initiate and move back into your day, just do a little wiggle in your fingers and your toes.

Maybe stretch your arms up over your head, bend your knees, and rock yourself up. Find your way up to a comfortable seats. Bring a prayer to your hearts just like we started our practice and we'll seal this practice with our intention, plant it in your mind's eye. A word, a feeling, a goal, an image, drop it down into the heart, and drop it into that prayer. Let's take one more inhale through the nose, hold the breath in, and sigh it all out.

Open your eyes. Go get it. Namaste.