I am safe

Hi there. Welcome to the Filier Cup series. Today, we'll be focusing on the hip flexors and opening up the front of the lower body. So when you're ready, feel free to find a tall seat, a comfortable seat to start your practicing. Take your time to get yourself of any energetic stuff out of the way by moving and then find some stillness in your seat. Use the floor to help set your spine tall, soften the ice to close when you feel ready, and just start to arrive for your practice. Field a natural breath within you, watch the breath for a moment unaffected yet.

Feel your body in space, the hips on the floor, acknowledge and accept any passing thoughts, stagnant emotions, just accept yourself right here and now. Try your hands to heart center, bow your gaze and reverence and gratitude to whatever you bow to in this life. Take a moment to offer up your efforts if you'd like. To someone you know, or maybe this idea of everyone and everything that we're all connected to. With that in mind, we'll start today with the sound of alm, the sound of union, If you'd like to add an intention to your home today, I offer the intention.

I am safe. Inhale. Oh, You can release your hands if you'd like. Take another moment here. Just deepening your breath control, ujai Praniyama for the asana, deep inhales and exhales through the nostrils, feeling and hearing the palpable breath moving through the inner eardrum.

As soon as you're ready, we'll meet on our backs and we'll start in a supported bridge pose. Taking your block and setting it of any height underneath your hips, I would offer the highest height if that feels okay for your body. So when you bring the feet to the floor, just lift the hips up and see if you can rest the block flat on the back of the pelvis with a little space for the low back to release. And allow the flat pelvis to settle into the block for a couple of breaths. The hands can rest either by the sides, palms up, or hands rest on the front of the hip bones here.

Take about three really nice, connected deep breaths here in this supported bridge. The muscles on the front of the hips can get really stuck because we don't use this stretch often. So allow yourself to really just get comfortable beginning to find this sensation. After your next exhale, take your time, but press through the feet. Lift your hips up and remove the block off to the side.

Lower your hips to the floor for a moment of pause and allowing the hips to settle back into the earth. Slowly roll over to one side and rise up to a tabletop position. From your tabletop, find your shoulders over your wrists, tuck your right toe back on the to the mat and flex your heel a little bit until you me in a supported side plank, roll your right foot down like a warrior two, turn your left shin open and reach your right arm up to the sky. You're welcome to stay here and stretch a little bit, right arm up overhead like a side plank, or lift your right leg up into the sky, bend the back leg, grab the outer ankle, and then start to allow the back of the shin to press into the hand. And while you do this, think about lengthening that low back rather than arching into the low back, feel the low back getting longer.

So you're getting a lengthening while you're pressing and opening that front chin. You're almost pressing the mid belly to the front of the, side of the mat there. Take another breath here. With control, release, release the foot, turn back to your tabletop position. Shift around as you need to to settle back into neutral, and then try the other side, tuck your left toe on the floor, stretch the heel for a moment, get the calf opened up, and then roll the left foot down like a warrior two, open that right chin, find the lifted supported side plank, get a nice stretch through the upper arm there, stay as much as you want, or lift that back leg up and the back leg.

And same thing, grab the outer shin, there's resistance, you're pushing the shin into the hand, you're pulling on the shin with the hand, and you're stretching the front body forward and lengthening the back tailbone, making more space before you pull. I'll take another breath or so. As you exhale softly release table top position, move through a downward facing dog, just tuck the toes, lift the knees, and then walk yourself to the front of the mat. Easy forward fold, hanging like a rag doll as well as much as you want, folding, moving until you feel nice and steady, bending the knees. A breath or two to find a little bit of release through the back of the neck, the shoulders.

When you feel ready, bend the knees, roll through the spine to stand, find your tadasana pose at the top of the map, mountain pose. Sometimes it's nice to imagine a visualization of yourself standing on the edge of a cliff, looking over a beautiful scenery, really ready to receive the energy of your practice. Find a nice breath grounding into the earth, feeling that energy moving up the entire body. And we'll take a modified sun b with a high lunge today, waking up those hip flexors more. So bring your legs closer together, reach your arms up, take an inhale look up, exhale fold forward over the legs.

Inhale halfway lift, lengthen the heart. XL, plant the palm, step, hop, or float, and lower down Chaturanga halfway fold. Inhale, pull the heart through, up dog, straighten the legs. Exhale, tuck the toes, lift the hips downward facing dog. Inhale, lift the right heel up, stretch the foot back, press into an imaginary wall, exhale place the right foot forward at the top of the mat, high lunge, back heel stays lifted, reach forward, lift up, stretch your back heel, look up if you can, and then exhale, bring the hands back down to the floor, step back and lower Chaturanga Danasana.

Inhale upward dog, pull the heart through. Exhale downward facing dog, curl and reground the heels. Inhale, left heel reaches up, reach it back as far as you can stretch. Exhale, place the left foot at the top of the mat. High lunge as you reach that right heel back, reach the arms up, stretch, lift up, hook up, exhale, place the hands down to the floor, Chaturanga, lower halfway.

Inhale, Ervamuka, show an asana, pull your heart through. Excel Adomukashvarasana downward facing dog ground the heels. Take about three or four breaths here. Using the floor, taking this time to build this down dog nice and sturdy, and then lifting from underneath. Finding the fronts of the legs active as much as the back of the legs are as well.

One more good breath here. Take another deep breath in. And as you exhale, bend the knees, look forward, step hop or float to the front of the mat, halfway lift as you inhale, Exhale fold forward. Inhale rise to stand from the legs, reach up, look up. XL hands by the side, tadasana.

Pause for a single breath here, feeling the movement within. From here, we'll take a supported standing backbend to help open up these front legs. So bring your hands to your low back and take your time here, give yourself some time to bend the knees and really find the floor and slowly using the hands of support, push the hips forward and start to find enough of a push that you feel, stir, stretch through the front of the legs. And as you start to press down through the heels, a little bend helps, you hollow the belly at the bottom of the exhale, and think about the mid belly pulling up to the spine. Don't worry too much about the upper chest if you don't want to focus more on getting that stretch through the front of the legs.

Take another breath here. Maybe engaging your glutes a little bit in and out to really keep that safe through the back hips. Take one more breath. And then as you exhale slowly come back through center and then slowly fold all the way over the legs and we'll take this nice, in reverse, find the compression fold Think about that same hollowing of the belly as you pull forward. Very interestingly, it's a similar kind of uddiyana banda activation in both deep back bends and deep forward folds.

Find your version of the forward fold in the compression state, and then take another breath or two here. As you exhale next, release the hands, halfway lift as you inhale. And then exhale step hopper float Chaturanga Dandasana. Inhale heart opening, up dog. Exhale downward facing dog. Take a breath.

Inhale, lift your right leg to the sky. XL, place the right foot at the top of the mat. Round your back foot open. Cart wheel open to a warrior two pose. Nice traditional standing pose to get settled into this right side standing series.

Find that nice length through both sides of the body. Activate the front foot a little bit and press through the back heel at the same time. Get nice and long. Maybe a steady gaze at the tips of the fingers. Deep breathe.

Reach your right arm forward stretch the chest inhale, exhale right hand down inside the right foot, fingertips floor or on your palm or grab a block if you'd like if the floor is a little far away. And line the forearm with the right thigh inner shin there and then reach your left arm up to the sky. Take a moment to really open the chest as much as you can. Keep that back leg nice and strong. Take another breath. From here, we'll move into a half moon pose, look down to the hand, reach your block of your hand forward about an arm's length and shift slowly dragging the back foot until you balance on the right leg, press through the inner arch to activate the open hip out to the side.

You're ready, you can look slightly to the side of the room, or maybe start to look up. This might be enough of a place to stay for you, or you start to open up into that back leg bind that we worked on earlier. You bend that back leg. You see if you can grab that foot or ankle And similarly, once you find it, you start to push the shin back and stretch the hips forward and maybe the gaze starts to float up to the sky little by little as you get a nice, connected front body stretch here. Take one more good breath.

With control here, release, look down, float that back, leg back, meet me in warrior two as you rise up, inhale, reach the arm to the sky, look up, exhale cartwheel the hands down to the floor, low lunge, and then drop the back knee, untuck the toes. Take a second to pause, catch your breath if you need to, and take a nice deep lunge into that front foot. You can start by walking the hands up the right thigh and start to push the right hands, the hands into the right knee and start to feel that activation of moving forward and stretching that back leg. This is a great place to stay if this feels like enough of a stretch for you. We're gonna add the back leg bind when we're ready. So changing forward a little bit to get the pressure off the back of the knee, reach back and grab the foot with the same hand. So left hand, left foot, and then you start to pull the heel first close to the seat and lift your chest as much as you feel like you're able to.

Find that hollowing sensation in your belly. So it really connects the psoas muscle all the way down to that hip flexor in the quad. You can stay like this or work the dancer's variation arms as you find your balance in the right foot. You reach that right arm up to the sky. You kinda take the hand to the inside of that back inner ankle, and you stretch the leg as you stretch the heart. Take another breath or two.

Lleaning the weight forward really helps you maintain this balance, feeling the pull in all directions. One more breath. And then as you exhale, release the hands to the floor, release your bind, press your palms to the floor downward dog split. Reach your right leg to the sky, bend the knee, open the hip. You can stay like this, kind of rolling the knee, stretching here, or maybe move into a wild thing.

Keep reaching that right foot up and around. Take your time, see how slow you can get all the way around. And when that foot taps, use your legs. So all that work through the front of the hips, you're stretching up, and you're just seeing what's available to lift up and around. You take one more good, strong breath here. With control, down dog split as you come back, reach the right leg up inhale. Exhale shift forward, keep the leg lifted behind you, and then lower down, chaturanga, donasana.

Toast touch an up dog as you inhale, and then exhale downward facing dog. Take a nice, steady breath in your still dog. Other side here, lift your left leg up inhale, and exhale, place your left foot at the top of the mat. Round your back foot open, warrior two, as you cartwheel up and around. Finding this kind of meeting our pose on the meeting our legs on this side of the pose, adjust as you need to as both sides of the hips can feel a little bit different, finding that steady gaze, that nice reach in all directions. Take another breath or so.

Reach that left arm forward, stretch the side body and bring the left hand down to the floor block or fingertips, and then reach the right arm up and let the chest turn with you, feel that activation through the back leg to really help you stay nice and strong, keep opening the chest, connecting the the floor as you reach up to the sky. Slow transition into your half moon, look down, take the hand or the block, reach it forward, like you're dragging the back foot that helps keep the connection to the floor as you shift forward. There's a little external rotation in your bottom leg as you press in to help you turn those hips open to the side of the room, First, find your balance, and then maybe the gaze goes a little bit sideways to the side. Stay here or bend your back leg. Try to grab that back shin again.

Grab the ankle or the foot. And when you're ready, you stretch away from yourself you work on lengthening that back tailbone area as you push the hips and chest forward, feeling that pull in all directions. Take another breath or so. With control, you slowly release, you try to float back as smoothly as you can back to that warrior too, take an inhale, reverse the warrior, reach it up. And then exhale cartwheel the hands down to the floor.

Drop your knee. Take a little pause. Shift into that right foot. Give yourself a nice moment to find that deep lunge. As soon as you're ready, walk the hands up the left thigh, and the pushing of the hands into the front of the knee here can help activate a little of that pull of the belly up. Take a moment to find this.

Stay here if you want to or slowly hinge forward just enough to bend that back leg, same hand as foot, first focus on pulling the heel into the hip as you lift the chest up, finding that balance, right, keeping that weight in that front foot. This is the leg that always sometimes for me falls over, right? So be balancing those two sides as much as you can. Staying right here or moving into that dancer's leg variation, you take the hand to the inside of that right leg. You lift the arm up and you stretch in all directions here. Take another breath or so. One more breath.

And then as you exhale slowly come out, release the hands to the floor. Down dog split as you inhale, lift the left leg up, And then bend the knee, open the hip. Same options, right? Stay here. Opening the knee rolling or moving or slowly, flip the dog up and around, see how slowly and smoothly you can tap that foot and then use those same quads that we work done. And push and open and just see what lift you can make through your body here. Take another breath.

As soon as you're ready, you come back up and around, down dog split as you inhale left leg to the sky As you shift forward, keep the leg lifted exhale lower down, Chaturanga, Anasana. Toes meet an up dog. Downward facing dog. Nice, slow, steady breaths to reconnect. Moving through a nice kind of big fun transition here.

Lift your right leg up to the sky stretch. Exhale, big step forward top of the mat, right into a standing split, walk your hands forward, lift your left leg, high, get nice and long, inhale, exhale, bend the knee to the chest, scoop the tailbone, find your right foot, stand up on the right leg, one legged tadasana, see if you can carry yourself up with that bent leg. Once you find your balance, dancers pose, push your left leg back, grab the inner ankle. Once you're there, that same push That same lift, that same activation, using the legs, using the reach, seeing how much you can lift as you stretch. Take one more good breath here.

Can't go back the way you came. Pull in the knee. Stand up. Taasana mountain pose. Whoo. Fun, right? Find a nice tadasana.

Reground yourself here. We get to rinse that out, reach the arms to the sky, inhale, and exhale fold forward. Halfway lift inhale, exhale chaturanga, lower down. Inhale heart, opening, exhale downward facing. Take a breath.

Inhale, left leg up other side. Let's go. Exhale, bring that left foot forward, big step, right forward into that front foot, standing, split, take a nice long reach inhale, exhale, knee to chest, scoop under, slowly stand up, keep that compression of that knee to chest as you rise so you contain your midline. Once you're balanced on that bottom leg, grab the back leg as you push it behind you, left arm up to the sky. Every direction you're pushing down into the floor through the back leg, lift the chest, find your balance and expansion. One more breath. Can you come back the way you came pulling in, drawing back to that standing position, and releasing to the floor.

Nice, steady breath. And then rinsing out inhale reach arms up, exhale fold forward over the legs. Inhale halfway, exhale chaturanga, step hop, or float. Inhale, up dog, and exhale downward facing dog. Deep, reconnecting breaths.

From your downward facing dog, shift forward to a plank pose, take a nice breath in, and see how slowly you can lower all the way to the floor. Once you get to the floor, untuck the toes and bend your legs towards your seat. Both heels to the seat reach around and grab the outer ankle setting up for your bow pose. Take your time to really get settled here to really find the hips, the front of the hips pressing into the floor. I like to shift a little bit side to side and find the quads connecting.

It helps sometimes to flex the feet and think about the inner thighs paralleling or slight magnetized towards each other. Slowly, start to push back through the shins and let that start to open your heart. You can always stay lower in this pose, as it can be pretty intense. As you feel able, you start to press through the front of the hips, and pull the knees up. And then as you pull the knees up, push the shins back, and then push your belly down into the floor, and stop when you need to, and start to really breathe into your max version of the bow pose getting longer, like you're really pulling a bow and arrow in all directions. Take one more. Good breath here.

With control, softly, release, head to one side, arms by the sides, palms face up. You can swaddle the hip side to side if that feels good for you. From here, bring your hands under your shoulders, rise up to tabletop, and then swing your legs around to the front of the mat. Lie down onto your back and set up for your first bridge pose. We'll get two rounds of this with maybe a fun activation of the bridge after that. So reach your arms by your sides, press your palms to the floor and walk your heels closer to your fingertips, somewhere around them kind of grazing or touching each other is fine.

Press your palms into the earth ground your heels, maybe a couple lifts and lowers with the purpose of really activating the muscles that live behind the back of the pelvis. So the outer hamstrings and the outer glutes really helping you wrap and lift. So you're not putting into the low back. You're really using the legs here. Once you get as high as you wanna go, you press the palms and then interlace your hands under your back and lift your shoulders back and forth until you can bring the shoulder blades closer together and then press your fist press your shoulders and really think about stretching through the backs of the legs and lifting your hips up and pausing when you need to.

Take two or three breaths. Your quads should really be active in this posture. Hollowing that belly at the bottom of your exhale can keep maintain the healthiness of that low back. Last breath here. And then softly release back down.

Let your hips settle. Let your knees move side to side. You can take another simple bridge, or we'll build this what we call a bow bridge. So from here, you set up like you're doing a normal bridge, you lift your hips up again, and then you see if you can kind of walk your feet a little bit further back, foot by foot, until maybe the hands interlace around the outside of the ankles. And when you get that, just like we've been working on, you push the shins forward, and you use the activation of the arms into the legs and the legs into the arm to see how high and are controlled and strong.

You can get that. Almost like you are stretching in all directions here. Take another deep breath in here. Your quads could be burning by this point. Don't mind our last breath.

And then slowly let go. Feed mats with distance and just let your knees fall into the center here. Broken bridge, hands can rest on the front of the hips, or on the belly space, and take a good couple of breaths here, sensing the some scar on the residual energy after action. The hip flexors really are connected to our fight or flight instinct the way we curl up when we're worried about an attack. So releasing them can be pretty sensational and might bring up an emotional release. You can allow that to happen.

If it shows up, not forcing anything, just allowing. When you feel ready, we'll move into a nice, passive twist to counter all that back work we've done today. Draw your knees into your chest, nice, easy hug, and let your knees fall over to the left side, and let your gaze open up to the right. Look over to the right shoulder, the hand can hold the legs open and take about three or four nice, slow cooling breaths. Letting the spine unravel. Allowing the body to settle into these deeper spaces that we've opened up today.

Finish your next exhale. Come back to center, and then move over to the other side, knees over to the right. Look over to the left, any amount. Take a good three or four breaths here as well. Maybe feeling the body get heavier and heavier as we work closer and closer to our rest.

Last deep breath here. And then slowly, but surely coming back to center, a final hug in of your knees into your chest. You can just hold the knees or lift your chest up, wrap the forearms around the shins, give yourself a nice deep hug here and try to drop the back of the head and the shoulders as much as you can while trying to soften the entire back to the floor, a nice deep opposite compression, again, to counter a lot of that deep hip flexor back bend stuff we've done. Slowly pull your forehead up to your knees wherever they are, squeeze everything into a tiny little ball, take a deep breath in through the nose and hold the breath. All at once release everything down together, legs, long, arms, long, shavasana, body, breath, and mind release all at the same time.

And allow your work to be done. Trust that the growth comes the integration when you finally let go. Feel free to stay longer in the Shavasana if you'd like. As soon as you're ready, you can join me and roll over to the right side. Give yourself a moment in the fetal position.

And then roll up to a seat top of the mat. Maybe the same seat that you took the first time. Maybe it's slightly different. But as soon as you can return back to stillness in the body and your seat, you can soften the eyes to close. Sit in stillness and just witness what might have shifted within you.

They say all the answers are inside in yoga. Draw your hands to heart center, bow your gaze, and reverence, and gratitude, thank yourself on your efforts. We'll seal this practice with a single own inhale. Thank you.