No Mud, No Lotus

(waves crashing) I missed you (laughter). Wow, no mud, no lotus. Yoga lives in the heart of the yogi, in the heart of the practitioner. That's you and me, that's where yoga lives. When I went to India and I was on this like 48-hour bus, it was called the Express bus, (laughter) 48-hours on this bus.

Super fast bus, okay? We went by fields and fields of mud, of dirt, and then, as the bus continued, I would see that this dirt was like popping with like bazooka bubble gum pink lotuses, like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And so, it's out of the mud that the lotus comes and it's longtime been the symbol. Here's our lotus, the symbol of transformation, the symbol of awakening and more than a symbol, it's your story and it's my story. Transforming our lives.

My friend often who has a tendency to compare herself to other people, other situations, says, reminded me, rather than compare yourself to somebody else, compare yourself to what you were like before you came to yoga and what you're like now. So you can remember and see your own transformation. So, you gotta get in the mud. You gotta play in the mud. You gotta be willing to get dirty in the mud and then your personal path will arise out of the mud and like the lotus that has no mud that remains on it, your personal practice will come up outta the mud.

By being willing to get so completely real with your practice. Love this flow, check this in, so here's your lotus. Pinkies, thumbs touch. Your breath becomes the mirror for self-seeing, for meeting yourself. It's the true reflection of you is in your breath.

The truest thing about you is your breath. Shape shifts into hakini. It's an awesome, like you can feel this. It's almost like woah, you go right there. The fingertips, everything touches.

And it's the hakini mudra. So sometimes it's fun. I love bringing the mantras with the mudras 'cause I need to use absolutely everything I can to take me on this journey. So, I include everything. I bring all my friends with my practice.

So, mantras and mudras are some of my besties, okay? So, no mud, no lotus. No mud, and you can close your eyes and go inside. No mud, no lotus. We don't get one without the other.

Living is the teacher. Living is the guru. Your life is the greatest teacher. You bow to the teacher within. No mud, no lotus, no mud.

You might wanna get the mud outta your eyes. So you can see. No mud... No lotus. And you don't have to figure anything out right now.

Let yourself be here in this mudra, means to create joy. Draw, to draw this joy forth from you. The mantra is there to take you across. It's there to protect your mind. The mantra is protection.

So then, the two of them are like super powers. No mud, no lotus. The muckiest, wild muckiest part of your life, right? The greatest sinners are the greatest saints. Read the lives of so many people, right?

That's what I love bio's, that's what they're for so you can see, how did that person change their life? What did they do? I like to get so close, I see my teachers tie their shoe laces. Like how do they do, how do they tie their shoe laces? I wanna know.

That's how close I wanna get to my teachers. And the outer teacher helps you find not only the teacher within, the student. Student so you can remain teachable. Learnable. I'm gonna hang out with hakini for a moment.

Brings all the thoughts into like one, dropped your mind right on your breath. (sigh) Leave your thoughts for another time. And if you're feeling like, "Oh, I like that openness. "I wanna stay open today." I'm kinda gripping and clasping around ideas and things. I wanna stay open.

Maybe you find yourself drawn to like, maybe you can't even see your own transformation. That's the thing about staying on the path. If you leave, you have to come back. If you stay, you're already here. Stay, we need you.

You're the messengers. You're all the messengers in the world. (inhale, exhale) Open, open to possibility, fulfilling your dharma. Your path. Your potential.

Realizing your full potential, your highest self. Lotus, no mud, no lotus. Thích Nhất Hạnh says by being present, we can even transform our past. That's the lotus right there, right? That's the mud and that's the lotus.

Both, both, both, both are there. Always, always, I love to pray and play. So, check it in. When I first started practicing, I would watch my teachers totally do these hip opener classes and I would think that that must be the only way to open your hips, right? So I'd be in class and I'd be like trying to remember their every move.

I'm like, "I'm gonna remember exactly that "so I can practice and then teach that hip opening class." And you come to find out that there's a lot of different ways to open up the hips. Something that I always thought was outrageous and extraordinary and interesting is I'd open up some of these texts on hatha yoga and they would say like, "There are 72,000 poses." Like as many poses as there are nadi's or energy channels in the body. And like, they'd say, "Of all those 72,000 poses, "you only need to do 72." And of those 72, you only need to do 36. It would go on like that. Of that eight, you only need to do four and of those four, you only need to do one, which would be something like this.

Like Sukhasana or Padmasana, which is the full lotus pose. I thought, I kinda feel like I need to do all those poses to get closer to this pose so that I can, the meditation pose, the pose where you can practice being with yourself. Working with what can feel like, what's challenging, what's resistance in the mind or in the body. That's, as a warrior, you stay on the path. So, you embody the spirit of staying and so, we're gonna look at different ways of opening up the hips and you'll find your way, but I thought I'd turn you on to a way that I've been playing with hips.

So, I'm gonna swim around this way and start with some sufi circles. So, I love me some dervishes. The dervish is like this moving prayer where we circle and in the circling, so I'm gonna move all my breaths. So I'm gonna inhale forward (inhale) and exhale back and moving on your breath. Sometimes you might find like, wow, maybe you can stretch your breath.

That's what pranayama means, right? Like to extend, to stretch, to lengthen your breathing. So you might be able to go like one whole inhale all the way around or maybe you need 10 breaths, like (inhale, exhale). You know, it's so personal. So, you're moving on your breath.

That's what vinyasa is, that's what being in the flow, really in the flow of your flow, finding your flow today so that you can flow into your life and honor it, honor where you are. Celebrate it, let's celebrate where we are. So, these are sufi circles and the sufi is the one that's turning and everything that you're not is turning outside of yourself and the turning is a returning home. (inhale) And it's also, I got my, I'm in this cross-legged yogi jam where I'm moving and rolling and kind of almost like a mortar and pestle. Ya know, grinding and rolling and opening here.

So, those are the sufi circles. And I move them, you're gonna drop the feet a little closer together and somethings, it's startling, like wait, I wanna do this at the end of my practice. It gives you an interesting reference to come into this sooner than maybe you're used to, okay? The feet together in bodokan. I'm gonna play a little bit here and invite you to do the same.

Move on your breath. And uh... Come in and out a little bit. Woo! Can feel that in my hamstrings right here. You might feel that too.

That could be startling on it's own. The body is ya know, is chuck full of information. So, you can really learn a lot from where your body's at. I'm gonna even check in the half lotus from side to side, a little jonu, jonu play. I had a friend named Merly, which is the name of Krishna's flute, and I met him in India.

He could come into this pose like without using his hands. Something to try, I don't know (laughter). Merly, that was his famous move, coming into full lotus. Okay, so a little bit of this and you can stay there for a moment. You know, without pressure on the knee, maybe just go above it.

Can play in the feet, any way along the way. It's so good to get your hands on your own body. Ya know, like you're in the poses a lot and the arms are out here and the hands are out here and it's like, just get on in there. The instrument of this body is so fantastic. Sometimes we think we get mad at our body and then when we remember that we've been given this awesome instrument, we start to take better care of it.

Better care of ourselves. God knows self care is not being selfish. Check it out, I've got both toes going here or maybe I'll float up like that mud out of the lotus. Like you don't think you're gonna see, when you see the mud, you don't think you're gonna see a lotus, right? You don't think that they both can be there.

We're gonna float up into a blossoming lotus so the elbows go flying under the back of the knees and you can see if I really reach into my heels, right, I'm gonna get a little longer through my legs and you throw your head back on this one. And maybe just send out like, if you haven't laughed in a while (laughter), you feel a little giggle and you just like, ah. I mean, laughter is the sound of the soul waking up. So, laughing is key to a beautiful life. (laughter) So check that and then I'm gonna keep my legs lifted and I'm gonna stretch my legs long.

You may find that your toes are too far away. You know, you grab where you can grab. But grabbing or making contact, grabbing, not like clenching for dear life, right? But yeah, grab, hold, let the practice meet you where you are. The practice will come up to meet you halfway.

It always does. It's like inspiration. It's the same thing. Or you could always nab a belt, hello. Or you get your sweatshirt.

So many crazy possibilities, I love that. Notice this. Wow, I descend the, draw the arm bones back, right? Rolls the heart up, lifts the front of the heart up. It also moves the back of the heart, almost like a decal, like this decal on the front of the shirt.

Roll it up. And then check this in. I'm gonna start to lower down. So, breathe in. (inhale) Fill up and then as you lower, you're gonna see if you can keep hold of this baby.

Lower, exhale, exhale, exhale. I have to lower down, woah. You're like oh I made it, I'm safe (laughter). Okay, is it okay if I'm off the mat here? How swell is that?

So, check it in. Bend the knee toward your armpit, you might feel this leg drift up. You can let it drift up. Let the breath get deeper. In these arches of your feet right, these are like, you've got your lungs in your feet, this is where your faith is.

Your faith is in your feet. Your faith got you here. Making sure that you could carve out time, sacred time to connect with spirit. You are a soul and you have a body. I know, we think it's the other way around, but you are a soul and you have a body.

And then, it might be more like this, right? Where the right foot comes in front of the left thigh and you reach underneath and you can play in the hips here. Drawing the knee, like the inner thigh open, stretching the inner thighs away from each other. Flexing through the foot. It's gonna be a different feeling than relaxing the leg.

So I'm gonna let you make, these are big decisions you have to make. I'm gonna draw the foot into the elbow. Could be that the leg stays up here to give you room in the hips. (inhale, exhale) Let yourself go inside too 'cause there's so much sensation going on in the body. I'm gonna float the knee up and draw the foot to the top of the thigh.

So already, you're getting a feel for that half lotus. And then, I'm gonna draw the left foot, the other foot over toward the knee. It might go, just let yourself be where the body is. You're not meant to be anywhere other than where you are. That acceptance is such a huge part of the transformation.

Acceptance is key. So, the nice thing about full lotus on your back is it takes a lot of the gravity, the weight out of the knees, the pressure on the knees or hips. See how that feels for you and then I call this one the tipped over Buddha in the garden statue. So, let yourself be in the garden. Feel your breath just like this sacred companion, right?

That you're (inhale) able to pray with and be with and make some room for yourself inside yourself today. You might come into this, be like ah! I gotta get, like if you need to come out of this sooner, like ah, just totally throw your legs up in the air and have a tantrum. I often do this. Or maybe it's just allowing for the quiet and the stillness in between. So, I'm in this lotus and I feel like, 'cause I wanna try it on this side, I'm gonna rock up and keep my lotus actually and check in a peacock, which is why I threw a little glue in my hair 'cause I love a peacock.

And if you wanna get up really early, I used to tell my friend to get a rooster because if you wanna have a practice, you have to get up early. There's so many demands during the day, so you've gotta set the alarm or get a rooster and my friend told me in Savannah, there's a neighbor of hers that has a peacock that's louder than any rooster she's ever heard. So, you know, if you need a peacock or you wanna come into one (laughter). Imagination, use your imagination. So, I'm on my knees.

I'm gonna use these feet, look at my feet. They're hugging into the thigh, like mmm. Hugging into the center, you've heard that line. Hug the midline, right? Hug the midline.

Let's see if we can elevate this baby. Take the lotus and turn it into a peacock. Lean into the love, elbows into guts, roll that lotus up, stretch the heart forward, go for it and then you might even stretch and extend your legs out. Big breath. (exhale) Mmm! Peacock.

Mayur, mayur! Mayurasana. Some of the cool things about the poses is that's the sound of the peacock. Mayur, say it, mayur. Mayurasana. Okay, flip up, other side.

Throw your legs up, throw your shins up, throw your head back, throw your hair back and then, we're gonna lower down on this side and check it in, check it in. You might see that the hip rises up and all that stuff. See if you can just stay with your breath today and let the queues of the body like prompt you to listen more deeply. See the ankle over the knee? The knee in line with the hip.

Big breathing if you need a little room. Notice when I bend the knee, it allows us to come down a little bit. So do some of that, it's almost like a little teeter totter there. Hug the knee in to the foot. Who knows, maybe you get here and on this side, maybe something happened in your hip and you need the room.

You wanna play with what feels like, I know you might have heard the word edge, like you wanna be able to go to that place but then relax away from it because you need to be able to relax in the body. Challenge it but find that balance, right? The steadiness and the joy. The joy in the body even as you challenge it and give yourself these ways to grow, ways to keep learning. I know that's why I teach.

I love to learn, I do love to learn. (exhale) Some peeps go from here into their foot behind the head, right? Walk that, breathe, move on your breath, especially when it comes to anything with the joints. Like you will not injure yourself when you practice if you, while you're breathing. The only time I ever got injured was someone who did something to me.

When you're breathing and you're present, you are gonna have a long, beautiful, happy practice. Check it in. So, here I am. I got the half lotus, arta, padmasana. Right, no mud, no lotus.

Honor any sensation, any experiences. Breathe through it. There's no like, spiritual bypass, right? Sometimes we wanna go around, but we're gonna, the way through is in. So, that's what we're, we're all in, us yogis.

(exhale) Here's that moment where the feet can bring energy into the legs inward. Or you can let them soften. Right, it could be woo! I didn't know my voice could go that high. Holy smoke. Relax the lotus down.

It doesn't feel relaxing, so ya know. Can even take it, I'll slide back so you can check this in. You could even take it and then follow forward, right? Your willingness today to see how that feels. (exhale) You could lift it up and like dangle it.

You can go this way. What's also really cool in these is that you can turn into a twist, so you can take your lotus, the foot that's closer to the ground on this side, clearly, right? Sink the foot and then, oh wow, get a nice big opening. You could use just the foot, sinking and having weight into the bones of the feet to roll the thigh open. Look, you can even add your hand a little bit here, look at that.

(exhale) It's really fun to do that, like to take a couple shapes and play with them. Explore yourself through them. I'm gonna rock up. This time, I'm gonna try something else. Move on your breath.

That's always gonna be like the real forklift. It's gonna lift ya up. And you might need a break. We're gonna come out of this and come back in it. Shake it out, pft.

Take it up to the sky. Tripod headstand. If you are checking this in for the first time or the 10th time, you feel like you need a wall, move the couch, move the kitty litter, (laughter) move the stuff outta the way. Otherwise, you can always watch. You know, you learn so much by watching and listening.

Like it's such a great teacher to watch and one of the most important things for me has been inspiration and by practicing together and around each other, it's how we stay inspired and the big thing about your spiritual practice is like, "I wanna stay inspired. "I wanna keep showing up. "I don't wanna give up," right? So here we go. Check this in.

I'm gonna come through tripod headstand. Palms under elbows, check this in. Elbows in line, I think (laughter). You let me know. One leg at a time, both legs.

Shoot the legs up. Take your time with your breathing so you feel you can move as smoothly as you can. Here's that moment, cross the ankle. Bend this left knee so much that you can bring the other foot across to the other thigh. Just where you were.

Hug in here and then drop that lotus on the back of your arms and on your breath in, inhale your way up. Get really long through the arms, hug in through the feet, fall in love or fall. Look up, big breath, drop your head on the breath out. That's quite a drop. Release those legs.

Come on in, big exhale, use that lower belly, right? That's the little belly lifts. That'll help you lower and create lightness in the body. Those little secret belly lifts. (inhale, exhale) And then drop in, hakini, lotus.

Maybe a little bit of both. If you're done, like if all that seated, really will give you a little bit more room in there, your hips to seat, to sit, but if you're feeling like you need to open your legs up or something else, definitely listen and then maybe even switch up the legs for a few moments so you can try the other side. No mud. No lotus. And the hakini is the meditation mudra.

You'll feel the focus. Drop your mind right on your breath. This force of love, this unstoppable power inside of you. This power greater than you that you align with, your truths. That no matter what you've been through, you'll get through it.

It will help you grow. It's your transformation. You're on the path. So, stay. Stay! (deep breath) Stay in the path.

Staying is the transformation lovers. You stay with your meditation today, your prayers. I was gonna, there's a mantra I love with a lotus, it's om mani padme hum. And I was gonna chant some of that. Maybe you'll join me with the chanting.

It's a beautiful mantra, it's the jewel, you are the jewel inside the lotus. It's about meeting the self inside yourself. That yoga gives you the key to yourself. Now we gotta use it every day. So, I'm gonna get my harmonium and share this mantra with y'all.

If you don't have a squeeze box as home, it's a squeeze box. It's a way to, it brings more sound to the chant and sometimes I'm a little shy singing. You have to be aloof to not only public opinion, what other people think, but your own. Singing to feel the song, let your voice. (slow melody) â?« Om mani padme hum â?« Om mani padme hum â?« Om mani padme hum â?« Om mani padme hum â?« So, this is a riff on Ram Das that we're all walking each other home.

So, we wanna acknowledge Baba Ram Das. â?« We all walkin' each other home â?« You know it's true, right? â?« We're all walkin' each other home â?« We all walkin' each other home â?« Om mani padme hum â?« Om mani padme hum â?« Take me home â?« Home sweet home â?« Maybe play around with the keys a little bit. â?« Home sweet home â?« Om mani padme hum â?« No mud, no lotus â?« Okay, maybe not. (laughter) â?« No mud, no lotus â?« (laughter) Oh God is so good.

No mud, no lotus. Loving you, loving life. Namaste.