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Season 1 - Episode 7

Water Flow: Ease and Surrender

55 min - Practice
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The lesson of water is 'I am not struggling.' Katie leads us through a watery and fluid practice with undulations to drop us deep into the hips and help us find a sense of freedom in the body. We peak with Agnistambhasana (Firelog Pose). You will feel easeful and satisfied.
What You'll Need: Mat

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(water rushes) So I'm really excited to do this practice with you because it's dedicated to water, which is my favorite totem element. The lesson of water in our bodies and the invocation of water in our body enables us to access the superpower of total ease and surrender while we're making an effort. So as you move through these sequences of movements and poses, what I want you to keep remembering, the most important thing is my relationship to ease and surrender in each of the poses. Water is the element that can take up any container that you put it in. So really feel that each of these poses is an opportunity to experience ease and surrender in different containers.

So to begin, close your eyes and just sense your breath welcoming you into this place where you can experience ease. As you breathe in, pour like water your attention down your body, drop it through you like a plumb line, and feel that wave-like quality of the inhale reaching into your belly, and your exhale the wave drawing the belly back, and just feel that pulse for a few moments. The lesson of water is I am not struggling. It's not that life isn't hard sometimes, it's not that these poses aren't challenging me, but I am not struggling, so feel that as you breathe and encounter. Okay, open your eyes, and we're going to make our way into child's pose to begin.

So I'm gonna come with my knees wide, really wide, actually, and my big toes can touch, and I can really sort of rock it from left to right, rock it from left to right. The lesson of water is that fluidity and the nature of water is to actually move in this sort of undulating pattern, so let yourself rock down into child's. And once you're there, let the forehead settle and just, ahhhh, ease in the body. Every inhale is this opportunity to not struggle but to take in, and every exhale, this dropping back upon myself like a wave crashing. Great, and now I'm gonna come up onto my finger pads, and again I'm just gonna let it rock from left to right, water, and then walk it back left to right, and really push your palms into the ground, and that will help you access the legs and the belly, and walk the hands in, and stay with that feeling.

So even as I hold my body still, I can still sense the way that breath is undulating and moving. You can walk the knees a little bit further together, sit up on the heels. If this is really challenging, you can always place some type of support, like a block, underneath you. We won't be here too long. I want you to rock a little from side to side and just feel into that natural movement, and I'm gonna bring my arms into this.

My right hand's gonna walk back, my left arm's gonna come out, same thing on the other side. So it's just this really intuitive, kind of fluid undulation. My head can kind of stay humble. As maybe the arm starts to lift, my chin kind of stays down in this expression of ease in the head. Easy flow, ease in the head.

And the next time you undulate to the right, I want you to hold this moment, and exhale. Find the other side. Good, exhale. We're staying in child's pose, my knees come wide, and we're gonna come right back in and down, you can undulate into it. This undulation actually helps us, it's really the principle of all dance and all movement, that I can begin to just lubricate and open up this watery ease in the body.

So much of our modern life is very linear and boxy, so this is the opposite. So I'm gonna lift my right hand, I'm gonna press the palm underneath. You can even kind of spider crawl the hands forward and bring the right ear down to the ground. You'll notice that I brought my left hand up on the finger pads. Ahhh, just twisting in.

Beautiful pose here to bring your attention inward and to feel anywhere in your body that feels less than watery ease. Again, remember the lesson of water, I'm not struggling. And so what these poses reveal, actually, is where you've been struggling all day long or all lifetime long. Slowly plant the left palm, push up. Ah, and just take a minute to feel that, exhale.

We're gonna do the other side, you're gonna plant the palm, press the left palm through, come to the other side. This hand's gonna walk up on the finger pads like a spider and you're gonna rock into the pose. (woman breathes deeply) Beautiful, take your time, come up, and as you come up, we're gonna come in to just an easy, comfortable seat, sukhasana. And with that, I really want you to just feel, feel that residual effect of water. Inhale here, feel, exhale.

I can walk my hands forward again onto the finger pads, and you'll see it with me, it's just this really natural undulation. I don't have to rush it, I can kinda stay with one side and then the other side, and that rocking like a baby really helps me and it helps all of us to unravel pattern. It's like the reason we rock our baby to sleep. You need that in your own body. All right, and so you may wanna stay up high on your finger pads and just do that rocking and the being.

Some of you might want to flatten all the way out and bring your head down. And so you'll rock and then there'll come a moment when you wanna stay and come back into the undulation, the wave of breath in and down into the belly. In and down, the breath into the belly. And maybe rocking the head from side to side. And then you're gonna bring the hands back in.

And just take a moment, as you come up, you're gonna feel it, you're gonna feel the residual effect of being in the energy of water. Good, exhale. You're gonna turn to the front of the mat. Bring your palms down, start to make your way slowly into your first downward facing dog. So the hips come high.

The heels may reach down for the earth, but sometimes it's nice to just bend the knees a little bit, dynamic, with the knees bent, and then straight, bend and then straight, bend and then straight, coming back in the breath, inhale, my attention drops in and down, and I'm gonna come back into the movement, so left to right. And with each undulation of my body, I'm gonna walk the feet out a little more, a little more, until I get them about mat-width's wide. Inhale, exhale. Mat, well maybe it's even beyond the mat if you want to. Really wide downward dog here.

On the next exhale, I'm gonna lift the left heel off the floor. My right hand can grab for the shin bone and I open up into a twist. And so your left heel may drop all the way back down, that's fine. It may not, and that's okay. Breath in.

And notice in these poses where I'm making a little bit more effort, it's the time when I really need to cultivate this easeful quality, no struggle. Exhale, the right hand comes down. The right heel lifts up. I lift the right heel so I can hold my body, and then I let the right heel drop down. Inhale in, exhale out.

(woman breathes deeply) Go ahead, inhale. Release the left hand back to the ground, downward facing dog. Inhale, bend into the knees, exhale, we're gonna go back to child's pose. And this is our little modification on a vinyasa. I'm gonna come in, heel up, all fours, tuck the toes under, exhale, watery, press back, downward facing dog.

Inhale, bend the knees, come all the way down on all fours, lift the chest, exhale, press back, child's pose. Two more of these. (woman breathes deeply) The inhale brings me back down to all fours, the exhale takes me back to child's pose. In, exhale. Now hold the pose.

(woman breathes deeply) Come back to that quality that, even though I'm making an effort, where can I find a sense of surrender? And that each asana is a container in which the consciousness of mind, awareness, drops down into the body, searching out areas that want more freedom, less struggle. I'm gonna step the right foot forward. Inhale, you're gonna bring your feet parallel, come up halfway, exhale, fold. And we're gonna do it again.

Inhale, come up halfway, exhale, fold. Inhale, up halfway, exhale, fold. And now if you'd like, you can walk your hands back behind you, plant the palms down on the ground, and find the breath. Again, just take the liberty here to kind of undulate in the pose. (woman breathes deeply) Inhale, up halfway.

We're gonna turn the right foot forward, press back, downward facing dog. Breathe inhale, breathe exhale. We're gonna walk the hands backwards toward your feet. Inhale, come up halfway, exhale, fold forward, uttanasana. Okay, so as we breathe in, come up halfway, exhale.

I love this pose. We're gonna bend into the knees, come into utkatasana, and I really want you to feel that quality of water. You can be really undulating with the hands, like a flamenco dancer almost. It's like I'm pulling taffy out of the ground. And then I raise the arms.

Exhale, we're gonna come into utkatasana, so the knees are gonna bend, and you're gonna bring your arms out wide, and then lower them down. And again, it's like I'm gathering, I'm pulling up. Inhale, raise the arms, elbows come wide, exhale, fold forward, uttanasana. Breathe in, (woman breathes deeply) and breathe out. Bend the knees, inhale, and exhale.

It's like I'm gathering, inhale, and exhale, bend the elbows and then fold forward, exhale. Inhale, halfway up, exhale, and I bend the knees. Inhale, pull the arms up, exhale, bend the elbows. Inhale, straighten the arms, and then exhale, fold forward again, uttanasana. And just settle in.

And if you want, you can kinda walk your feet out a little bit, give yourself a little more room, and then move a little bit. Just let that quality of water, bending into one knee and then the other. Hold the pose. And then root the feet down, extend through the arms, come all the way up. Exhale, hands through, and then bring the palms to the heart and just take a moment to just feel, and hopefully what you're feeling is like you are invoking this aspect of water in yourself and you are starting to feel it.

Now, rooting down through the earth with your breath in, I want you to step the right foot, big step forward, external rotation in the feet, and you can take a moment here to just kind of rock again from side to side. Again, one of the best poses for accessing water here. I'm gonna press into the palms, like I'm pushing down into the earth as I bend into the knees. And you get to determine how much, well, intensity you wanna bring into this here. So, obviously with the knees bent and the thighs a little more parallel to the floor, it's just a little more intense.

Okay, so, now my arms are out in front of me, palms facing up, and what we're doing here is really moving awareness, moving love, moving prana. And you do that using the hands as these vehicles, as these, really, mudras, these gestures that are showing you where you are moving your attention in your body. So I'm gonna squat down, and you'll feel that kind of trembling and shaking with joy, bringing your attention into that watery surrender. And I'm gonna inhale, pull the palms up, elbows are bent, I'm gonna come all the way up, and then exhale, I want you to push the palms away from you as you squat a little lower. And then inhale, draw the palms in, elbows bent, exhale, press the palms down, maybe rock.

Inhale, exhale. In, exhale, ground down. You're probably feeling it in the legs, stay with it. Inhale, come up to the heart, push away, ahhhh, even through the mouth on this one. Inhale, exhale, push down, ahhhh.

Squat really low. And now inhale, pull it all the way up, as you lift the heels off the floor, raise the arms, exhale, lower the arms. We're gonna come right back down into that goddessy squat. Rock it from side to side. Last round here with these movements of prana through the spine, really, inhale, feel your awareness in the body, exhale, push away from the belly.

In, exhale, ground down and really sense your awareness pressing in the earth. Inhale, come up. And what I'd like for you to do is I want you to make a downward facing triangle right there on your bellybutton, and what this does is it shows me how the energy is moving. It directs my mind inward, as I lift the heels off the ground, breathe into the belly. (woman breathes deeply) Good, inhale, raise the arms, exhale, lower the heels.

And now, you're perfectly poised to just turn the left foot in, right foot out. Inhale, raise the arms, bringing the hips forward towards the front wall and to what we would classically consider like a warrior one, but what I want you to do is kind of tilt forward into it. So I'm gonna breath in, and then breathe out, like a bear hug. And then, I can feel it, you know, I can feel the prana. And then I'm gonna inhale, gather, exhale, bend, tone the belly up and in.

Inhale, it's like I'm drawing from the back of my body my attention, exhale. Last round, inhale, and now exhale, bring the hands back behind you, clasped. Take the right shoulder to the inner thigh, hold. Let the head be totally humble here. Mind down into the belly.

(woman breathes deeply) Good, release. Again, we're gonna stay low to the ground. The right foot draws in and the left points out. And just take the time to undulate into it, like a monkey a little bit. Find the ground.

You can even bend your knees to feel that. And then inhale, come up warrior one, exhale, lean into it a little bit, get that nice long line of energy all the way down to the floor, and then I can gather, exhale. Belly in, inhale, exhale. Belly in, inhale, exhale, hands will come back behind you, clasped, interlace the fingers. Take the left shoulder to the inner thigh.

(woman breathes deeply) Now, as you hold this, obviously what's happening is you're doing a lot of effort. This back thigh (whistles) lifts upward. The heel and the ball of the left big toe pushes down and the shin bones hug in, so this is so much effort churning right here. So, within that, how can you find this place of just I'm not struggling, I am so at ease? I'm totally accepting what's occurring right now, even though this is such a weird pose to be in.

We're never here in our life, right? And that's where the water comes through, so feel that. And then inhale, this time we're gonna come all the way up, exhale, fold forward, wide-legged forward bend. Inhale, come up halfway, pulse, exhale, fold forward. Inhale, come up halfway, pulse, exhale, fold forward.

A couple of options here. You can hold the outsides of the feet, you can simply bring the hands down, or, if you'd like, you can actually cross the hands. It feels kind of nice. And the elbows can bend. Good, really take this moment.

When we hold these poses, guys, this is really when you're doing that deep inner work. How can I be in the effort of this moment and yet totally not struggling? Good, take your time to come out, we're gonna come up onto the finger pads, and then transition again. This sequence, we stay kinda low to the ground. You're gonna come into a lunge, right foot steps forward, and then exhale, we're just gonna directly step back, downward facing dog.

And again, you might wanna kinda play around in it, and then hold still so you can feel what's happening. All right, so from downward facing dog, the right foot steps forward. You're coming in to your basic lunge here, but we're gonna vary it a little bit. Now you can always just stay here, I want you to always work with what your body is telling you. But if you can, drop the left foot to the floor, the left knee, rather, to the floor.

And you're gonna allow the right knee to actually bend and draw over the ankle just a little bit. And then as you exhale, you're gonna keep the right foot firmly planted down, and you're gonna round your upper back as the right knee straightens. Inhale, come forward, exhale, curl, and I'd rather you keep the foot down and not straighten the knee all the way. If you can, great. But stay committed to the foot.

Curl and round. Great, now stay here. This is such a great pose for accessing what I call the dark side of the moon. So much of the work that we do in yoga is about shining upward and outward from the front body, and this is really about curling and rounding and humbling to the water and the earth of the back, the unseen. You may feel a lot of sensation here and that is great, okay.

So inhale, come forward, and the exhale, you can stay right back in that lunge with lifted knee if you want to. But if it feels okay in your body, what I'd like for you to do is I want you to kind of rock, you're not on the top of the kneecap, you're on this little fleshy mound right behind it, and this might be where you're working, this is a nice little pose for undulating that water energy in the body. And then if you can, you're gonna take the right hand, reach back. I'm not on the kneecap, this doesn't hurt the knee at all, okay. I'm gonna reach back and grab for the foot, and then my left hand plants, ahh, start to open up into the twist.

For my body, actually lifting the right heel, the right inner arch, oh my goodness, it really just lets me feel so much sensation in the top of my left thigh. I can feel this long, watery cord. But for your body, it might feel better to have the big toe mound down. Try to keep the chin slightly in because that keeps energy moving down the body. When I lift it up, which we'll do in other sequences, energy moves up and out.

Good, slowly release, and press back, downward facing dog, and just feel that little number in your body, undulate a little bit. Really opening and moving some prana here. So step the left food forward, same sequence here. I'm gonna drop into it, lunge. I'm not in a hurry, exhale, curl and round, because I'm not struggling.

This is just really easy. And what this is training us to do is, when we're in the routine of life, we're just not struggling. We may be hurrying, we may be doing a lot, but we aren't struggling. It's all just really, really easy. And if it's not easy, it's not the pose for you, okay.

So, remember the commitment is to this foot not hopping up. It's gonna wanna do that. And when it does that, I really want you to check in. It's that my ego wanting to let go deeper, right. I'd rather you not.

Humble. Find the ease and come into the breath and that dark side of the moon in the back body. (woman breathes deeply) Good, inhale, come up. And remember, you can take the variation where you're just in that beautiful little lunge here, or, coming onto that little fleshy mound, rock it from side to side, and this is such a great pose, just that undulation, for opening up those channels. You can stay with that, you can reach back, do it again.

But now I'm positioned in such a way, see, I'm even still kinda monkeying around in it. If you're aware of your body, you aren't ever gonna hurt yourself, ever, because you're connected to her. And so now, from here, I can open up. And in this sequence, we're keeping the chin slightly down, so that I can pour the awareness in and down rather than up and out. You're probably feeling some sensations at this point, and just stay with them.

Breathe into the ease. You may feel a lot right now, but you're not struggling. And exhale, press back, downward facing dog, and feel the liberty, and the freedom in the legs and the low belly, lower back. Here we go, right foot steps forward. Keep moving into these watery easeful realms.

So I'm back here in my nice little lunge. This one's a little bit weird. So both hands are gonna come to the inside of the right foot, and then I'm gonna drop my forearm down on the ground. If that's too much, you can keep the arm extended, right. But if you can, that left arm's gonna come down on the ground, and then it's easy.

I'm just like a monkey, monkeying around, no problem. But then, eventually, I monkey around enough and I can bring that whole lateral side of the leg down on the ground, right. Planting the right foot firmly in the earth and extending through the back heel. Chin down. Maybe the arm wants to extend.

(woman breathes deeply) No struggle. (woman breathes deeply) Good, take your time here to come out. Stay low to the ground, press back, downward facing dog. Feel that liberty, freedom in the legs you're opening up. And then hold the body still.

Come back to breath. And even on the breath, exhale, step the left foot forward, even on the breath. I may feel there are parts of my breath that don't feel good, that even feel a little bit scary or tight. Still, I'm not struggling. Both hands to the inside.

And again, if you just monkey around a little bit in these poses, guys, you'll never gonna hurt yourself, because you're connected. Monkeying around and moving lubricates the pose, right, rather than just jumping into them. And now the forearm comes down onto the ground. The whole lateral side of my right leg reaches into the earth as I push to the right heel. It just feels so amazing.

And then when I move into these poses in this watery way, there's just this organic quality of sweetness that comes through. The arm extended isn't even necessary. You certainly can but you don't have to, you can even bring the arm underneath you. Keep the chin humbled downward as we move the energy into the legs and the deep low belly. Good.

And take your time again. Press back, even here, still monkeying around, downward dog. Find breath, find ease, find stillness. (woman breathes deeply) Good, inhale, bend into the knees, exhale curl and round. And just a few more, inhale, to adjust the spine, exhale, curl and round.

And one more, inhale and then exhale. We're gonna move back, downward facing dog. Right foot's gonna come, well, actually, I want you to kind of bend the knee and hover for a minute, just feel that. And then you're gonna plant the shin bone out in front of you. A lot of times, we hear the instruction bring the shin bone parallel to the front of the mat.

That may be what you're doing but it may not be that at all. I want you to just really feel. There's gonna be somewhere along that continuum that feels right, right. And if I undulate into it, you know, there's a reason why the snake was used so often in these ancient texts to describe what's happening energetically. So if I can emulate that, I can connect to the prana, the energy behind it.

Okay, and so now I'm in the juicy pigeon pose. And then eventually I may wanna bring my forearms down. Some of you that are a little more flexible Gumby people can flatten all the way out on the ground, right. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that you are connected to what is happening down there.

Oh, I've got a little tension there, I've got a little tightness here. And so I can breathe my attention in there. And it's this beautiful training ground because what I'm doing is I'm feeling the body, and the body is the holder of everything I am holding from my past. The body is the sum total of all your past experiences undigested. So I am in that right now, but I'm not struggling with it.

So feel that. Plant the hands, come up with elbows straight. And now I wanna give you a couple of options. You can stay in that pigeon, you may be at your edge. You can lift the left arm and actually wrap it underneath the right, and for some of us, we can just drop the shoulder down to the ground, you're coming into a twist.

For others, that's gonna be a little more challenging, you don't have to go there. You can just twist it right here and that's wonderful. Again, the point is not to go anywhere, it's to be in the body. If you are in that deeper version, you can bring the arm back behind you and grab for that big toe. Again, chin humbled.

(woman breathes deeply) Okay, guys, so to come out, really slow, undulate back out. Great, you're still in pigeon. I'm aware, right. Stay here. Rock over, and now I want you to bend into your left knee, okay.

Then your shin bone now is drawn a little bit more in towards the groins. And we're just in a little different version of pigeon, with the back knee bent as well. Drop the head. And you'll feel, it's like totally different sensations in the body, totally different than in that other version of the pigeon. Take the right hand now and you're gonna take the right shoulder down towards the ground.

For somebody, that's not happening yet, that's cool, here you are, right. If you are down here, now what I can do is I can take that heel, again, of the palm and push it, I even can grab my leg and squeeze, ah. Just so, so sweet when you find those moments where the energy just liberates. Chin slightly in, find the breath. Good, and support yourself, come up.

Ahh, yummy, downward facing dog. Feel that liberation in the legs, it's gonna be nice after that sequence. (woman breathes deeply) Good, and then if you wanna move a little bit here, do what you need. You will wanna come down a little bit. Downward facing dog, pigeon, left side, so hug in, hover, hover, hover, then plant the leg.

Remember, you are not going anywhere. There is no pose, actually. There's just exploration, what's happening, right. So, your shin bone may come out, and you may find that that feels better for your body, right. It's just a different sensation, right.

But then some of you may feel actually drawing your heel in a little bit, it's more interesting, okay. Some of you may even be able to press the heel into the belly to just get that extra reminder of where we're bringing the attention. Come back to the inner work, where we leave the body as a pose and we enter the body as a vehicle of prana, this life force that created us. Feeling the sensations, the body as the storehouse of every single thing from our past. I'm witnessing and I'm not running from it.

And it's not always fun, but I'm not struggling any more. I'm water. I'm laying back in ease. You can stay here, you can take the forearm to the ground and come into the twist. Just moving from the belly, radiating outward.

A little deeper version, I'm gonna take the right shoulder all the way down. The left arm's gonna come back. I don't know if you can see this, but I'm grabbing the left big toe. Chin humbled. And the pose, what it does it just awakens this whole realm of feeling.

Where is there any struggle? And can I send love, actually, there? Replant the palm, take your time, undulate out and you'll never hurt yourself, if you just ease out, right. Come up, we're still in the pose but, now, remember what we did before, we're gonna bend the back knee, and I'm gonna come on down, taking the left hand, pressing into that right inner thigh, taking my time, monkeying around, bend a little bit. And, again, for some of you that's too much, so you are just right here on the form, it's the exact same beautiful practice.

(woman breathes deeply) Finding breath, finding watery ease in the pose, take your time. And we'll start to come out, press back at your own pace, downward dog. (woman breathes deeply) Great, and you might wanna bend the knees, you might wanna come all the way down on the ground, rock it a little bit. And let's actually just hold it here for a moment in child's pose, and you see I've got my toes tucked, my heels are lifted. What that does, it just sort of wakes up the energy in the feet.

You can always release them if that's too intense. And then I'm gonna give the forehead a little watery love side to side. And then we'll come into downward dog just to transition, and you're gonna walk your feet through or come down onto your knees, and then extend both legs out in front of you. And then I'm gonna take the flesh, lift that a little bit so I feel the sit bones are right there grounded on the ground. And then just take a minute, I mean, I can really just feel it in myself, where you're just in the flow of all the work you just did.

That combination of ease and focus. Just feel that. Okay, so this last little sequence here. A couple of options here. You can come in to janushirasana, we're gonna start on the left side for this one.

I can bring the sole of the foot to the right inner thigh and move into the pose, as we did in the earth sequence. If you want and it feels okay in your body, you're just gonna hold on to that left foot, just play with that a little bit, and maybe take the top of your foot to the top of the right thigh. And again, you just kinda play and undulate around. Inhale, exhale fold. Pulse, inhale up, exhale, fold.

Inhale, up, and exhale, let's hold the pose. Inhale, come up, exhale, release the left leg, shake it out a little bit. And feel it. Right knee bend. Inhale, up, exhale.

In, exhale. In, hold the pose. This is such a good one. Where in me is there any struggle? Not where am I perfect?

You may be feeling the intensity, you may be encountering your emotions, actually, often, if we do this type of practice where we are so deeply committed to being with our past, you will feel feelings, but no resistance. And then inhale and come up, exhale, shake it out. Feel it, feel the fruit of all the work. All right, so the legs are actually, now I'm gonna come wide, upavishta konasana, okay. For me what I like to do is I like to just kind of lift up a little bit so I can side my heels away from one another.

I'm gonna walk both hands out in front of me. And again, it's not about how low can I go, it's how connected can I be with that one who can lovingly witness her own unfolding. Inhale, just a couple of undulations, exhale, and you see it maybe in my body. The more I can do that, the more my body just starts to surrender to the pose, rather than the willful part of me pushing me. All right, maybe you come down onto the forearms.

Some of you who have a lot of flexibility will come all the way down. All right, but I'd rather you be where you are, still in the water, right, than to force yourself into the fire. And hold. (woman breathes deeply) Maybe rocking the head side to side, coming always back into that one to one breath. Okay, slowly we're gonna come back, walk the hands in.

And feel that in the body. Gently bend the right knee. We call this one fire log, because it's like you're stacking two logs. So my right shin bone is out in front of me. I'm not trying to squeeze my heel in as much as I can.

In fact, I'm actually, in this one, trying to bring it parallel to the front of the mat, right. So I've got that. Then I'm gonna bend into the left knee and I've got the left ankle available, and I'm gonna literally stack it right there on that fleshy mound behind my right knee. So for somebody, it's gonna look like this if you do that. That's totally fine.

So your work would actually to be in that watery place right here. And this is what it looks like for a lot of actually really strong guys. So if you're a strong guy watching this video, this is what it could look like, you're in the pose, okay. So for some of you, you're actually, your logs are gonna stack, all right, and there they are ready for a fire, okay, which is usually what this pose feels like for a lot of people, okay. So your hands come out wide.

And again, as you know, in this sequence we are just operating under the superpower of water and we have the whole ocean back behind us. There's nothing more powerful than water. And so if I can approach poses from that place, I can really access that power. So you see me, I'm just sort of starting to come down, right. And then the logs can get higher if I stack now the arms as well.

For my body, this is kinda where I like to hang out. Some of you may be able to walk the hands out and flatten all the way down, by all means do that. But once you're in the pose, forget about it. Forget about the asana so that you can begin to enter into the purpose of all this yoga, which is to be in all the ways that I have forgotten myself, to be in all the past ways that I have misidentified myself with something other than spirit, and just feel into that with breath and with ease. Good, and when you're ready we're gonna come out.

Shake it out a little bit, and you're gonna definitely feel which side is your fierier side, right. And then we'll repeat. So now the right ankle, really make that commitment, right ankle's right there, it's not on the kneecap, it doesn't hurt, right. So for some of you, it's gonna look like that, that's your pose, you're right here elongating the spine, maybe starting to take the shin bone down, fire. Easeful undulation into the pose, and then you move so that you can not move, right.

So there comes a moment when I, you know, the truth is we could actually just keep undulating all day long, right, but there comes a moment when you just say I am here, and that's enough, I'm gonna be in my body, I'm not gonna move, so that I can encounter what's there. Okay, take your time to come out. Turn, lay down on your back. And you're so ready. We'll do a couple more poses, but I'm just ready for that deep breath.

So I'm gonna inhale, lift the arms, lift the hips, lift the buttocks, draw them up and back, exhale, come down. In, ex. In, and then hold the pose, you can bring your arms underneath you, you can clasp the hands, or you can also walk so that you're on your upper arm bones. And for my body, sometimes I like to even come up off the heels, and then drop them down. And you'll feel, wow, what a different energy, back bends, right.

Can I cultivate the watery quality I've been using all through practice even in these more fierier, airy type poses? Great, release when you're ready, just undulate it down. Ahhhh, and feel that for a moment, just feel that ease. Before we draw our knees in to end, I just want you to rock a little bit, and then push your heels all the way up straight. And then draw the knees in.

Rock a little, apanasana. Okay. So you can stay here with the knees in. This might be a good moment to just take any little adjustments that you feel would be good to really deepen your sense of ease and surrender and the shavasana. And then when you're ready, you can lower the legs.

Shavasana, I had a teacher tell me, is the hardest pose. And he said, "Who would like to demonstrate "the hardest pose, shavasana?" Because this really is, shava means corpse, it's like I'm practicing for the shedding off of the thing that I think is so dear to me called body. So when you move in, palms are facing up, the inner edges of the legs open and flower because I am surrendered. I'm safe and I can move from one place to the next with no fear. Feel all the effort that you've been making on the breath and in the body, now is the moment where there's none.

So there's a small little practice I want you to do here as you feel the body surrendering to the pull of gravity and the breath easeful. I want you to imagine, and it's really not imagination, I want you to just call it in, my body is this beautiful coral reef out in the ocean, porous. As I breathe in, I feel this endless sea of healing, of love, of light that is prana. As I breathe in, it floods into this reef of my body. And as I breathe out, it moves right back through me and out into the infinite ocean.

Visualize, feel, imagine that beyond the body is this endless sea of healing, light, and love and connection. And as you breathe in, feel it flood the being. Porous reef resists nothing, home to many. Exhale, it moves right back out through you. So we're gonna do that eight times just on your own, really.

The more you can visualize this, smell the ocean, feel the wetness of the waves, the temperature of the cool water, the more you can, with your senses, feel this, the more this won't be imaginary and you'll begin to enter into that ocean itself, feeling it wash and heal. So please feel so free here to just be in shivasana, soaking in this light, as long as you like. This really is the moment when we heal and recharge the prana body. But when you feel ready, you're gonna bend your knees and draw them in. And then roll to the right side of your mat.

Again, you might wanna take a moment there. Pressing the palm into the ground, I'm gonna come up and I'm gonna take a seat. Make sure to just feel the practice in your body before you move on into your life, feel that quality of the healing undulation of ocean. Place the palms on the chest. And we'll just chant om to close.

Take a deep breath in and down. (woman chants a long resounding om) Namaste.

Comments

Anne J
2 people like this.
Completely lovely practice in every way - yay!
Zoe T
1 person likes this.
Wonderful, unexpected. Thank you!
Elaine Fox
Wow, such a freeing, grounding practice. I feel completely relaxed and loose. Thank you!
Christine L
Beautiful practice! My mantra for today is "No struggle". My hips feel wonderfully open, and I feel at ease, even though I am facing difficult challenges in my life right now. I can face these challenges, but I don' have to struggle!

Namaste,
Christine
Joanne D
1 person likes this.
Goodmorning your classes are beautiful please can we have some more ! Do you ever do workshops / retreats in Europe? Warm wishes x
Paige G
LOVED this practice! I feel so connected to myself :)
Astrid U
1 person likes this.
Aaaahhhh just what I needed!!!!! Great sequence! Thank you!!!!
Kelsey L
Really connected with the water concept and the fluid motions - lovely sequence.
Michelle F
2 people like this.
hola Katie - thanks for the watery love!
I first encountered that "firelog" pose oh, easily 10+ years ago on the Paul Grilley Foundations of a quiet practise dvd. When i saw it I thought - "oh that looks cool and easy" and just could not believe how difficult, actually impossible it was for me. Today you said" if you´re a big strong guy your firelog may look like this" which really made me smile cos what you demonstrated was EXACTLY my firelog - still! and I am soooo the opposite of a big strong guy!!! I just keep trying it however and making it "watery" somehow made it less yuccky! Felt good afterwards !
loveandpeacexxx
Lianne M
Thanks loved the practice...
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