I am open

Hi there. Welcome to the fill your cup series. Today, we'll be focusing on external rotation in the hips. You'll need two blocks for this practice. When you feel ready, find your way into a tall but comfortable seat. Take your time to allow yourself to settle a bit, let the external world kind of soften to the edge, and let the internal world build up a little bit more vibrant. As you soften the eyes to close, find a sense of stillness with the spine nice and tall, and just start to arrive for the practice.

Notice the natural breath giving indications of where the nervous system is. Notice the sensations in the body in connection with the floor and the air around you and the clothing and the subtle internal awareness. Acknowledge and accept any passing thoughts or stagnant emotions, allowing yourself to be here and now. Draw your hands to heart center, bow your gaze in reverence and gratitude to whatever you bow to in your life. Take a moment to offer up your efforts of your practice.

To someone specific, or maybe the idea of everyone and everything in existence, this deeper, full connection. With that in mind, we'll take the sound of union, the sound of ohm, If you'd like to add an intention to your home today, I offer the intention. I am open. Inhale. Oh, Stay here for another moment and deepen your breath here, ujjayi Praniyama, deep inhales and exhales through the nostrils, restricting the space through the throat.

So you hear and feel the breath more vividly, keeping that metronome within you while you practice in the body. As soon as you're ready, we'll meet on our backs. You can start in a mini Shivasan who's lying down nice and easy onto your back. Draw your knees into your chest and give yourself a nice hug. From here, wrap your right knee around your left knee, bring your knees to kiss, and see if you can bring your hands around the kneecaps and softly pull both knees together into your chest, deepening this internal hip space, a little bit more, breathe into it, allow the breath to help you heat up and make some room in those hips.

And then from here, see if you can fully eagle wrap. The right toes tuck underneath the left ankle. Stay with the legs and then take your arms and wrap your right arm under your left arm. Tuck your elbows into each other and then see if you can wrap the back of the hands around until you can grab the thumb or the interlace hands. Take a second to settle the shoulders, the back body into the earth, fill your low tailbone connected into the earth.

We'll build some eagle crunches here. You can keep your head on the floor or lift your shoulders up the back for a little more effort in the core, inhale pull the elbows and knees away from each other, and then exhale bring them to tap. Two more times, inhale pull away, keep the low back heavy into the earth. Exhale, bring them to touch, pull the belly down. Last time, inhale reach back.

Exhale, pull in. Softly unravel all together and take a moment to pause back onto the floor. Roll over to one side. Meet me in a downward facing dog, bringing your hands to the earth, tucking your toes, lifting your hips up and back here. You can take a second just to find the feed in the hands on the floor, get your hips shifting until they're even. The hands weight equal, then take your right ankle and figure four your right ankle over your left knee, and then work your shoulders a bit to push the chest back, and you'll naturally deepen the opening of that external rotation as you push the shoulders back, keep that right foot flexed.

Take a breath. Switch the legs from here, right foot back on the earth. Left ankle, figure four down dog, use the push of their shoulders to help stretch and strengthen at the same time. Deep breathe here. Slowly release both feet.

Lift your heels and tiptoe your way to the front of the mat. Easy forward fold. Shake the head out. Yes, and no, bend the knees. Move around until you feel like you can really feel the feet underneath the floor there helping the hips rise. Take another breath or two here. If you want, you can wrap the elbows around each other and sway and hang the shoulders.

Release the hands if they are bound, bend the knees and slowly roll through the spine to stand. Find yourself in tadasana pose, find your feet a little bit closer together if you can roll the palms open. Use the earth to build your awareness of the body from the ground up. Feel a little lift in the head, a little heaviness through the feet, a space in between. We'll take a modified sun b here, adding a warrior two, starting with the legs together, chair post, low.

Find your hips, reach the arms up. Take a deep breath in. XL fold forward straighten the legs. Halfway lift as you inhale. Exhale, step or float back, lower down Chaturanga halfway down.

Inhale, pull the heart through, up dog, thighs, lift, heart pulls through, exhale down dog, curl the spine, lift up and back. Inhale, lift the right leg to the sky, reach it back as far as you come. Exhale, place the right foot forward. Round your back foot down, warrior one as you inhale arms up, look up, bend the knee. Exhale warrior two as you open the back foot widen your stance, stretch the arms and gaze forward. Inhale, flip the palm, look up, find a nice side bend, exhale cartwheel the hands down to the floor, step back plank and lower Chaturanga.

Inhale heart opening. Exhale downward facing. Inhale, lift the left leg up and back, reach the foot. XL place the left foot at the top of the mat, round your back foot to the earth, rise up warrior one as you inhale, lift, bend the knee, look up. Exhale warrior two as you open the back foot step back one big piece moves together.

Inhale reverse the warrior, side bend look up. Exhale cartwheel the hands down to the floor, Chaturanga, Dandasana as you exhale. Inhale, up dog, exhale downward facing dog. Stay here for about three breaths, working the engagement into the earth, feeling the back of the spine, long, lifting the hips high. Feeling the heels heavy.

The finger pads engaged into the earth. One more inhale here. As you exhale look forward, bend the knees, step, hop, or float to the front of the mat. Take a halfway lift inhale, exhale fold forward. Inhale chair post, it low, reach up.

Exhale stand tadasana pose arms by the tsar. It's take a full breath here in your tadasana, just settling with the movement internally watching from a distance. From here, bring your hands to your hips, feed hips with distance, take a nice, easy lift as you inhale look up, and exhale fold forward over the legs. Bring your feet as wide as the mat, bring your toes open, sit into your melasana squat pose, soon as you're ready, bring the hands to heart center, use the heels pressing down to activate the hips, use the palms in towards the heart to open the elbows into the knees. You can stay here if you don't feel like you don't wanna work the arms anymore right now, but you can also bring the hands to the floor.

Lift your knees up to the armpits and start to build a little bakasana. So the beginning of bakasana, you bring the knees high, you start to shift back and forth, learning how to get high on the toes, bringing the weight over the knuckles, little by little. If you feel comfortable, you hold at that edge there, maybe you lift one toe, maybe two toes, you bring the toes together, you try to lift the heels to the sky straight in the arms as much as you can. From the bakasana, if you're holding, you can float back to your chaturanga or easily step back to the lowering down. The inhale pulls the heart through it up and exhale hips high and back downward facing dog. Take a big breath here.

Inhale, lift the right leg up. Exhale, place the foot at the top of the mat. Right away, round your back foot open, cartwheel open to warrior two. Take one breath here, settling into your warrior. To bend the knee forward, if you can.

And then straighten the right leg, turn both toes open to the corner edges of the mat, cactus your arms and find a nice goddess pose. As you drop into the goddess, keep the knees opening towards the pinky edge and try to neutralize your tailbone towards the floor, sit as low as you can. Take a full breath, open wide. And then inhale straighten legs and arms and exhale find your way back to that warrior too. Turn that right foot it back forward.

Inhale reverse the warrior reach the right arm up. Exhale cartwheel the hands down to the floor. Take both hands on your blocks. You can start on the highest height and adjust as you need to stepping the blocks forward both hands, warrior three support. As you shift into the blocks, you lift your back leg up and align the blocks under the shoulders.

Think about yourself in a halfway lift here, and then try to look at your back toes and see if you can get the toes to the earth. Press back, like you're pressing into the wall, and just hang here working the length. If you feel a little lift, you press into the floor, you want to balance, you maybe float the fingertips off the block, hands and come to the heart center, or maybe reach the arms back and fly a little bit. Take one more breath here. If your hands are lifted, bring them back to the block, and then take your back leg, tuck it behind the front leg, cross the ankles, the outer edges of the feet touch.

Use your blocks for support, press down length and halfway forward. And exhale fold over a little extra stretch through the hips, through the hamstrings, maybe you walk the hands towards the feet. Take another breath here. See how smoothly you can keep the feet as they are, roll through the spine to stand, squeezing the legs together, and then switching the legs out, meeting me back in that tadasana standing position. Lift your right leg up to the sky and then flex your right foot and bring your right ankle over the left knee, figure four standing position, hands to heart center to start slowly, but surely start to bend your hips keeping the figure four pose, trying to hover and see how low you can get the hips here.

This is a great place to stay, and you have the blocks in front of you, you can use the blocks to ground yourself and then just kind of work the hips lower and lower until you feel like you want to stay and pause. This could be more than enough of a stretch. If you're interested in building that arm strength further, you can work the blocks down to the or the palms, I mean, down to the floor, and then slowly see how close you can get your chest to the thighs. That collarbone and shin try to get closer together. The arm balance is the flying pigeon if you want it.

You shift into the palms like the bakasana, and you just float that heel up to the seat. If that's going well, you reach that left leg back, and you stretch. After you get a good breath here, you bend that knee back in. You release the foot to the floor. You meet if you're seated here in the figure four and see how smoothly you can rise up from the bottom leg in the figure four and then release back to that tadasa mountain pose.

Take a nice, big breath here to settle the energy. Come back to a neutral place. We'll rinse that out. Reach the arms up to the sky as you inhale. And exhale fold over the legs.

Take a halfway lift inhale, exhale chaturanga, stephopper, float, and lower down. Inhale, heart opening, up dog. Exhale downward facing dog. Take a breath here. Inhale, lift the left leg to the sky. Exhale left foot places at the top of the mat.

Open your back foot warrior, too, as you cartwheel the arms open, take a single breath here settling in a little bit deeper if you can. Straight in the left leg, once again, goddess pose, turn the toes open to the outer edges, bend your elbows into cactus, scoop the tailbone down so you feel the back of the pelvis flat. See how low maybe a little bit lower than before. Take a full breath. Inhale straighten the legs up. Straight in arms and exhale warrior two turn those left toes forward, rebend the knee.

Inhale reverse the warrior, reach the left arm up, exhale cartwheel the hands down to the floor, low lunge. Grab those blocks again, frame the foot to start just to get the bearings, and then take the blocks with you in arms length forward, finding that supported warrior three. Lift your back heel, look at the back toes to make sure they're pointed down for square hips, shoulders over, wrists here long, halfway lift feeling. Feel free to stay on the blocks, or gently push through the bottom leg, activate your length through your spine, maybe float the hands by the heart, or maybe float the arms back. Take another big breath here. We meet with the hands on the blocks and then the back foot crosses behind the front foot outer feet touch awkward forward full. Take a little halfway lift here, and then get a little bit deeper any amount towards the bottom legs.

One more breath. See how smoothly with this crossed legs, you can rise up, squeezing together to help you find your awareness, and then stepping open from there tadasana at the front of the mat. Shifting the weight into the right foot, draw your left knee up, and then figure four your left ankle over the right knee, hands at heart to help find the midline, and then very gently start to bend the knees until you can't bend anymore, flexing that bent leg open, so you really protect the knee joint. Pausing here or bringing the hands to the blocks, using that as little support to go a little bit deeper, moving the hips in and out until you find your edge. Feel free to stay or walk your hands down to the earth, getting a nice compression.

The compression really is what makes this pose light rather than letting everything be far apart from itself. If you want to, shift forward into the hands, float that heel up to the seat, and maybe float that right leg back flying, pigeon. Take a nice breath there if you can. And as you come back, release, return back the way you came, all of us rising from the earth, trying to stand up nice and smoothly, and then releasing back to that tadasana. A pause with your arms by the sides. Nice full breath here.

And then rinse it out, reach the arms up to the sky, inhale, and exhale fold over the legs. Halfway lift inhale, exhale chaturanga, step hop, or float, and lower down. Inhale, updog, and exhale downward facing dog. Take a full breath here. Inhale, lift your right leg to the sky. Exhale, place your right foot at the top of the mat, warrior one pose, round your back foot, reach the arms forward and up, pause in your legs, but take your left arm underneath the right arm for those eagle arms again.

See if you can get the full wrap, either thumb or full wrist grab, take a second, pull the elbows up to the sky, lift the chest, get a nice stretch through the upper body, take an inhale, and then humble warrior with eagle arms as you fold forward, see if you can let the weight of your arms and your head go and let the upper shoulders get a nice stretch here. One more breath, maybe looking at the back foot, trying to keep the hips a little more connected in space. And then you're going to lift up halfway try to come through that warrior three with your eagle arms. So pull the elbows forward until you back heel lifts and you float through that back foot, maybe try to take a pause in that warrior three, and then pull the knee into the chest, stand up on the right, like, see if you can go right into that eagle pose, wrap the left leg around and slowly see if you can scoop the left toes behind the ankle. You can stay here in the neutral eagle, or slowly start to curl even further down into the knees. Lots of squeezing through the body here.

Take one more breath. And then with control unravel all at once and pause. A really nice release when you let go of that nice wrapping there. Feel the prana. And then a more stable balance here, find your tree pose, shift into the left foot, draw your right knee into your chest, open the knee to the right, grab your right ankle, and you can place the heel high on the leg or really anywhere that feels comfortable with a little resistance between the standing leg and the foot, toes point down in the open hands of heart center. Take two breaths here.

With control, release your right foot back down, fold forward over the legs. Step back to a plank pose, into side plank over on your left side. So roll your edges of your feet out. Press into your left palm and then find your standing clear side plank here. Feel free to stay in your side plank here or find your tree pose maybe in your plank side plank, pulling the heel in up to the groin, pressing the foot into the thigh, but then resisting with the hip and lifting it, but higher, stretching the arm, take and inhale, feel free to stay in the tree as long as you can, come to plank, press into the plank inhale, and then lower all the way to the belly with your tree legs, untuck the toes, press the hips down, find your tree cobra, pull the heart through.

Stay here for another breath and join the hip opening with the heart opening. One more earth. And then slowly release, tuck the toes and meet me back in a downward facing dog. Deep breathe here. Inhale, lift the left leg to the sky.

XL, place your left foot at the top of the mat, warrior one pose, round your back foot, reach the arms up. And then find your eagle arms with the right arm underneath the left arm this time. When you get the eagle arms, lift the elbows up to the sky, get a nice stretch here, take an inhale, and then exhale fold forward with the eagle arms, humble eagle, as you drop the head release the shoulders, get a nice length and take another little release through the upper back the other way. Last breath here. Slowly rise up with the chest.

Find that warrior three like chest, shift forward and then drag the back foot until it floats up. Find that balance in space, and then pull the right knee into the chest, rise up, into that one legged tadasana, and wrap the right leg around, finding that connection of the full wrap, staying nice and lifted, or starting to pull the elbows and knees closer together just like that eagle crunch that we found earlier. One more breath squeezing everything, altogether releasing one legged tadasana, full release. A full nice breath here. Tree pose on the right leg, shifting into the right leg, drawing the left knee up, and deciding where you want to put the heel, maybe mirroring what you did on the other side, toes point down, knee open, hands its heart center to breaths. Study gaze is always good for tree.

With control releasing back to Narasana, folding forward over the legs. Stepping back to plank pose, side plank over on the right side, roll to the outer edges of your right foot and inner left, and then stack the feet if you can, lift the arm up, get nice and tall, stay in the regular side plank, or lift that foot up, grab the ankle, find your version of tree. Stay in tree this whole time if you can inhale to plank. Exhale to the belly. Cobra tree inhale.

Stay for one more breath. Get that nice counter, both stretch here. And then release back to your downward facing dog. Deep breaths. Your down dog, inhale, lift your right leg to the sky, exhale half pigeon, bring your right knee behind your right wrist, and then open your right foot towards the left hand as much as you can, dropping the back knee, and then heel towing your left foot back until you feel a nice nice catch.

In that right hip there. Take an inhale length in the spine length in the foot, and take a nice, slow forward fold towards the earth. You can rest on the forearms, make a pillow with your hands, rest the forehead down, or even reach the arms all the way down and drop the chest to the floor. Stay here for a good five breaths or so. Feel the weight hinging in the hips.

Enjoy allowing your body to open up in this way. Supported by the floor. One more good breath here. Slowly walking your hands up, leaning to your right side, swinging your left leg all the way to the front like a tree pose, pull your right heel into your hip, press your right shoulder foot into the left thigh. John Usier shawson is set up, frame your foot leg with your hands, press your hips down lengthen your spine inhale, and any amount crawl your way forward, maybe the hands catch the foot or anywhere on the leg is fine. Long spine inhale release, subtle twist to the left as you fold. Take about three or four breaths here.

Helpening up that right knee while you stretch over the left leg. Feeling that length in both directions, always finding that dynamic reach to keep the body balanced. After your next exhale rise up, double pigeon or sukhasana. Sukhasana means shins in front of each other, left shin in front of right, or if you have the space today, stack the shins on top of each other flex your feet and try to get your shins on top. Press down through the back of the hips, inhale at any amount, fold forward over the legs. Take a good three or four breaths here.

Really get into these hips guys. Allow yourself to meet yourself where you are and breathe. One more breath like that. As you rise up, if you're in the staxion position cross the ankles and any amount of shifting forward, stepping back, you can take a vinyasa lower halfway, inhale through the heart opening, and then downward facing dog. Take a breath here to balance.

Inhale, left leg to the sky, exhale half pigeon left side, left knee to left wrist, bring your left foot as far forward as you can to the right hand, and heel toe your right leg back until you find that catch in the hip from there, fold forward in the same way you did on the other side, getting a good couple of breaths here, finding the length back to find that good stretch, settling the weight of your body, allowing yourself to drop. When you feel resistance, allow the breath to be occurring to move through it. One more breath here. With control rising up, swinging to the left side leaning, and then right leg goes forward, tree pose, Janeshir Shasana with the right leg long, sole the foot to the inner thigh and groin, palms press frame the right leg, take an inhale flex the right foot and fold forward any amount over that right leg, subtle twist over to the right couple of breaths here. One more deep breath.

And then finally, sukhasana or double pigeon. Right shin would be in front of left shin this time or right shin would be on top of left shin this time. Think of it like a woodpile right on top of each other, long spine inhale. And fold forward over the legs. Last couple deep brass and these deep hip openers. One more breath here.

And then very gently slowly rising up. This time, you can just straighten your legs and then slowly lie onto your back. With your feet flat on the floor on your back, one little backbend finally, take your right ankle over your left knee try to lift up to your bridge pose and keep your figure four and try to even out the hips as you lift the hips. You get that external rotation while working on the muscles behind the hips here stretching and lifting just another breath. Reasing down, switching the legs, right foot down, left ankle over right knee, pressing from the earth and lifting up from under, trying to keep the hips even in space while you press.

Deep breathe. Slowly releasing, drawing both knees into your chest from there. Last twist, wrap your right knee over the left just one time and let the knees fall to the left for an eagle twist, reaching your right arm over, looking to the right shoulder. Back to center from there, switching the legs, left knee over right, and then letting the knees fall to the right with that wrapping like the eagle and the left leg arm goes open to the left. So another couple breaths to close out the practice here today.

As you come back to the back body, draw the knees one more time in deep breath ins, and then release everything to your final resting position, Shavasana, corpse pose. Allow yourself to melt into the earth so that you can rest and enjoy. Feel free to stay in the Shavas in a longer if you'd like. When you're ready, roll over to the right side, rise up to your final seat, mirroring the pose you started, and if you can, to witness the change that might have taken place. Return to stillness as soon as possible, and just sit back and allow yourself to receive any information that is meant for you. Try your hands to heart center, bow your gaze and reverence and gratitude.

Thank yourself honor your efforts. We take a final ohm to close together. Inhale. Thank you for your practice.