Flowing With Purpose Slow Flow

This is an hour-long Michigan-style slow flow. As with other slow-flow practices, we start using a little more restorative energy in a seated position and then build our way up to bigger postures. There is a small period of individual flow during Sun Salutation A while the rest of the practice is completely guided. We end class on our back in a 5-minute savasana.

The theme of this practice is flowing with purpose. It is a live recorded class so there may be little bits of noise from fellow practitioners. The movements are slow but there is always an invitation to come to your own edge.

Transcript

Alright,

Good morning yogis.

We are going to start in a seated position this morning,

So just a little more attentiveness in the body.

As you make your way up to a seated or maybe down from a seated position,

I want you to kind of move your body in a way that helps you to settle into this space of kind of stacking bones.

So we talk about sometimes it's nice to move the head side to side or to and fro or even kind of pull the shoulders up toward your ears.

We'll use that later in our Sun A.

And then I want you to let the hands fall onto the lap or onto the thighs or the knees in a way that it allows the shoulders to relax here as well.

If we were to take our hands and kind of place them on our hips,

Everything would be a little more engaged,

So we don't want to do that.

We kind of want the shoulders to fall down the back.

And then you might close your eyes and all together we'll do a little reset or we'll press our internal reset button by taking a big breath in through the nose and then sighing it out of the mouth.

Now often when we come into a seated position,

Especially at the beginning of class,

We use it as a place of meditation or mindfulness of becoming aware of the breath and you can absolutely do that here.

But we're also going to use this place,

This space,

These first few moments of your practice to do a little contemplative practice,

So kind of contemplating some things.

And so the first thing that I want you to bring to mind,

A question that you can ask yourself this morning,

And it's not a small question,

But the question,

What is the purpose of life?

What is the purpose of life?

What is the purpose of life?

And you might even shift the energy of that question a bit and ask yourself,

What is the purpose of my life?

Let the stirrings of the mind come.

Notice what that question brings up in your body.

Notice if you have a really strong answer or something that you're holding on to as far as a belief around this question.

Notice if just the opposite.

Maybe your mind sits there and says,

I don't know,

I don't know,

I don't know,

And I want you to become the noticer of that as well.

What is the purpose of life?

And maybe more particularly,

What is the purpose of my life?

Not mine,

But yours.

What is the purpose?

Give it a few more moments here,

Noticing what comes up in the heart,

In the head.

Maybe there's a particular emotion that kind of encircles this question.

Maybe a particular memory of the past when you've asked yourself this question before.

Maybe a person that has asked you this question as well.

What is the purpose of life?

What is the purpose of my life?

The beautiful thing about this question is that there's not really one particular answer.

We come up against our own inner truths when we start to dig into these kind of existential questions.

Oftentimes,

These are questions that we asked our younger self or maybe came up against when we were trying to find our way out in the world.

Then we plant our feet and we find a path,

Or we find a job,

Or we find a relationship.

Sometimes we just settle in without asking any more questions,

Without getting curious about our bodies,

Or our brains,

Or our hearts.

So bringing aliveness to your practice,

Bringing aliveness and curiosity into your life today.

Just with this subtle question,

Or maybe not so subtle question,

I want you to take a big breath in,

Yogis,

Once more.

So draw it in through the nose.

Let it go out of the mouth.

Relax.

Let go.

And then in the same way that you settled into the seated position,

I want you to bring yourself,

Kind of settle yourself into child's pose.

So you can roll up and around or up and over top of the legs.

It might be that you have to move your head around,

Or maybe the shoulders need to move around,

Or maybe you have to kind of lengthen the legs.

We will do that in a moment,

But maybe something needs to happen before you're able to sink your hips back toward your heels and lower your chest toward the floor.

Find your breath here in this place.

Inhale and exhale through the nose as much as possible.

And then before we move,

I just have one more question for you to ask yourself.

This morning,

I want you to ask yourself kind of in this contemplative way,

What is the purpose of my practice?

What is the reason that you showed up here today?

What is the draw to your mat?

It's really,

Really cold here in Michigan.

So what pulled you from your house,

From your bed,

From your room,

From the warmth of your home into this space?

And can it be the driving force behind each posture and pose today?

And one more time before we move into these bigger postures,

Yogis,

I want you to draw in a big breath as much as you can.

Fill the lungs and the belly,

Expand everything,

Everything,

Everything,

And then just let it stream out.

Let it go.

Beautiful.

And then pull on up,

Guys,

All the way to plank pose.

So instead of pulling up to hands and knees,

Which we will do,

I promise eventually,

I want you to pull forward all the way to plank pose.

And if you can,

Tuck the toes and lengthen the legs.

And if that doesn't work,

You can keep the knees down.

But what we're going to do,

Guys,

Is here in plank pose,

I want you kind of to start walking out your plank the same way you would walk out your down dog.

So bending one knee,

Bending the other,

And kind of pressing back through one heel and pressing back through the other.

And as you do this,

I want you to bring yourself into down dog and keep walking.

So it goes from a walking plank into a walking down dog.

And then we're just going to kind of reverse that.

So from a walking down dog,

Bring it into a walking plank,

And then back up to that walking down dog.

So just moving through and between the two postures,

You'll pull forward into plank and keep walking and kind of pressing back through the heel and then lift the hips and make it down dog as you're walking.

And just do it maybe two more times,

Maybe three if you're a really fast walker.

Nice.

And then the next time that you pull into that plank pose or upper push-up position,

I want you to pause there and you can hold the legs steady.

Nice.

And then lower all the way down onto the belly and chest.

Let's take arms straight out in front of you,

Palms turned down.

And instead of arms straight out from the shoulders,

Make them a little bit wider,

Almost like a little U or a V.

Untuck the toes so the tops of the feet are resting on the floor.

We're going to take three back bends here,

Guys,

But just using the strength of our core here.

So on the inhale,

I want you to start to lift the hands,

Arms,

Head,

Chest,

Maybe thighs,

Knees,

Shins,

And feet up off of the floor like you're kind of floating from your belly or you're floating the upper portion and the bottom portion of your body and you're just kind of surfing and hanging out there on your belly.

Keep breathing,

Unclench the jaw.

This engagement of the muscles will help to bring heat into the body,

Especially that middle part.

Go ahead and lower down and take a resting breath.

Sometimes we're so ready for that next posture that we don't rest but take an actual rest here.

And then the second time that we're going to lift,

I want you to make little cactus arms.

I want you to bend the elbows out to the side,

Almost like they're going straight out from the shoulders,

And then take that lift.

So lift the chest and the head and the elbows and the arms and the hands off of the floor and then get the bottom portion of the body up,

The thighs,

The knees,

The shins,

The feet.

Again,

Like you're surfing on your belly but now these elbows are wide and maybe even pulling back to engage those shoulder muscles.

Nice,

Beautiful work.

Guys,

Come on down,

Come on down,

Come on down.

Again,

That resting breath.

So this third time that we rise,

I'm going to give you two different options.

The first option,

Guys,

Is to bend the knees,

Feet upward,

And then reach your hands back toward those feet.

So you might grab a hold of ankles or feet or toes.

The other option is to keep the legs long and just bind the hands behind the lower back so you'll pull upward upright from there.

So find your version,

Either bending the knees,

Feet upward,

And you're reaching your hands back and then you're belly surfing.

You're lifting up again,

Chest and thighs or the legs stay long behind you.

Your arms can go behind you,

Interlacing fingers,

And then tug yourself up from there.

Chest lifts,

Thighs lift,

Toes lift.

Nice,

Heat building,

Breath building,

And then slowly come on down,

Lower it to the bottom.

Let the feet come down,

The head,

The hands,

The chest.

Beautiful,

And after a resting breath or maybe two or maybe your body needs five,

Go ahead and meet me in child's pose.

We're going to press back hips toward your heels.

Take your time as much as you can.

Inhale and exhale out of the nose,

And if it feels right,

Guys,

If it feels like a complement to your practice,

Try that slight constriction at the back of the throat.

We call it Ujjayi Pranayama.

It's not only this way to find a little bit of engagement in the body,

Concentration,

Focus,

Right?

We can focus on that sound,

But it also helps to bring and build heat in the body.

On these really cold days,

A great practice to place into your practice.

Let's pull up hands and knees,

So tabletop pose,

And then here's where we're going to get that familiar cat-cow action,

Guys.

As you pull up to hands and knees and stack shoulders over top of wrists,

Hips over top of those knees,

I just want you to start to move in a fluid-like way.

So it might be that you do that traditional way of lifting shin and tailbone and then curling and tucking those ends under as you round the spine,

But there is options.

There are options,

I should say.

So you can get a little side to side.

You can get some circular motion.

I know for me,

When I wake up in the morning and everything feels tight and I'm entering into my practice,

My go-to is circular motion.

I try to hit all of those places in the shoulders and in the hips and the head kind of moves,

But make space for what's calling to your body.

Keep the breath right there along with you.

Nice.

And then after maybe another two breaths,

Three breaths,

Maybe even four breaths,

Guys,

Meet me back into that downward-facing dog,

And maybe at first it's a walking down dog.

You could absolutely move into that place of kind of pedaling the feet,

Bending the knees,

But after that,

Find some stability.

Find some stillness in that down dog.

Press back through the heels.

Lift up through the hips.

Chest presses back a bit toward the thighs.

Let the head drop completely between the arms.

Notice any tension in the jaw.

Maybe this is a place that you close the eyes or find a soft gaze between your knees or your ankles.

We're going to build into a sun salutation A.

Together,

We're going to try to incorporate all of the movements of the spine.

So our spine is capable of six movements.

We can forward fold,

We can back bend,

We can side bend both directions,

And we can also twist in both directions.

So we're going to try to get all of that in our practice,

Plus a little lunge into our sun A today.

So I want you to start,

Guys,

By rising up onto tippy toes and then take a little walk all the way up to the top of the mat.

So bring your feet up toward your fingertips.

Stay low with the head and the hands.

And then once you arrive,

Halfway lift.

Peek out and breathe and fill the lungs.

And exhale,

Fold back in.

So you're in this forward fold top of the mat.

So here's where we're going to get our twist.

We're going to put a little bend into the left knee.

Keep the left hand down and start reaching up through the right fingertips toward the ceiling.

So right arm lengthens and your chest opens to the right side of the room.

This first time,

We'll hold it just a little bit longer.

Kind of an introductory opening to your body or like opening,

Opening,

Getting to know what's tight and what's not.

Go ahead and bring the right hand down.

Bend into your right knee now and send that left arm up into the air.

Big twist.

Beautiful,

Guys.

Bring the left hand down and just fold right in toward those thighs,

Right in toward the knees.

Maybe a little micro bend in the knees,

Especially if you're feeling extra tight.

And then we're going to roll up to standing,

But I want you to keep your arms heavy and let them hang by your side as you rise up.

When you get up to standing,

We're going to do a shoulder shrug and maybe you had one when you were seated.

Let's kind of repeat that.

Shoulders tug up toward your ears and then roll down the back so you feel this opening of the chest.

Maybe palms turn open toward the front of the room or the front of your mat.

And then you're going to circle the arms out and up.

As you do that,

Bend the elbows at the top and reach.

Right hand for left elbow,

Left hand to right elbow,

So that you're framing your head or as close to it as you can.

If you can't grab the elbows,

No big deal.

Grab the forearms or wrists.

Let's take a lean,

Guys.

Lean on over to the right side,

So side bending to the right.

Good.

Coming through center and then leaning on over to that left side.

And come back through center.

Reach the arms up into the air,

So get long through the body,

And then exhale forward.

Fold fingertips toward your toes.

Beautiful.

So here's where it's going to change up a little bit from our regular Sun A.

I want you to take a halfway lift.

Breathe in.

And then we're going to step only the left foot back,

So we come into a lunge.

So think of left foot stepping all the way back behind you,

Bending into the right knee.

And as you're flowing on your own,

As you're going through this Sun A on your own,

Feel free to modify this.

Feel free to drop the left knee or to open up that right knee.

Maybe arms go up into the air like a supported crescent,

But this first time just kind of feeling it out,

Noticing where your hips are at today,

Your knees,

Your ankles.

And then from this position,

Guys,

I just want you to go plank pose.

So you're going to step right foot back to meet left,

Top of your push-up,

Lowering down through that push-up.

Heart comes through into a Cobra now,

So palms press,

Arms lengthen,

Chest lifts,

And then downward facing dog.

So this big sweep of the hips up into the air as you tuck the toes.

And again,

Maybe there's some pedaling here at first,

But then find your stationary down dog.

Find that stillness in your posture.

Rise up onto tippy toes.

Let's take a walk all the way up to the top of the mat.

Halfway lift,

Breathe in,

Fold back in,

Exhale.

Now listen,

We're going to go right side to left side.

So when we're on the left side,

I want you to try to twist open to the left side first.

So put a little bend into your right knee.

Right hand stays down and left arm lifts for that twist from the bottom.

And then left hand comes down,

Left knee bends,

Right arm reaches up into the air.

Beautiful,

Guys.

Right hand comes down and let's take that slow roll all the way up to standing.

Arms can stay long by your side.

When you get to the top,

It's a shoulder shrug.

You're pulling shoulders up toward your ears and then letting them roll down the back.

Then arms go out and up.

So wide and tall.

Go ahead and bind hands to elbows as you frame the head.

So bend the elbows and then try leaning left this first time or this left side.

We try to learn lean left first and then come through center and lean to the right side.

Good.

Come through center,

Arms go up,

Take an inhale.

Exhale,

Forward fold fingertips toward your toes.

And here's where it changes up a bit.

Take a halfway lift,

Peek out,

Breathe in.

And then right foot steps to the back of the mat.

You come into a lunge,

Bending the left knee.

Again,

This first time we're just stepping back.

We can keep that right knee hovering.

You might just notice how the hips feel this morning,

Maybe how the back,

The belly feels,

Your ankle,

The bottom of your foot,

All of these things that become engaged.

Guys,

And then step the left foot back top of your push-up plank pose.

Let's lower down through a vinyasa.

So lowering down,

Elbows close to your ribs.

Heart comes through cobra or maybe up dog and then downward facing dog.

Tuck the toes and lift the hips.

Nice.

So I'm going to take you through two more times.

We're going to do once more on the right,

Once more on the left.

And then I'm going to have you go through a few times on your own.

If you know it,

If you already have it in your body,

Guys,

Feel free to sort of bypass my instructions and find your own pace.

We're going to rise up onto tippy toes and bring the feet up toward the fingers in a forward fold at the top of the mat.

And then halfway lift,

Breathe and peek out.

Fold back in and exhale.

We're on the right side,

So let's twist open right side first.

Right arm reaches up into the air,

Left knee bent.

Good.

And then bring the right hand down and just change sides.

Open up the other way,

Left arm reaches.

Okay guys,

Left hand comes down.

Without a half lift,

You're just rolling your body up to standing.

Shoulders shrug up toward the ears when you're at the top,

And then roll down your back.

Get settled in.

Arms reach out and up,

And as they go up,

You're bending the elbows,

Framing the head,

Reaching hand toward elbow,

And then taking a little lean,

A little side bend to the right.

Coming through center,

Leaning to that left side.

Coming through center,

Guys.

Arms reach up into the air,

So lengthen and then fold.

Chest over thighs,

Fingers toward the floor.

Take a halfway lift,

Breathe in,

Keeping the right foot forward.

We're going to step the left foot back into a lunge.

Good.

Stay and play for a moment or two or maybe five breaths.

Maybe you drop the back knee or lift the arms or just find something that works,

And eventually guys,

Plank pose.

Stepping that right foot back to meet left,

You'll lower down through the push-up.

Heart comes through and then downward facing dog,

And if you happen to mix it up,

If one foot steps back and then it steps back again,

It's okay.

Just try to balance it out as much as possible.

Don't panic.

Here we go on the left side together,

Guys.

Rising up onto tippy toes,

Walking,

Stepping,

Or maybe hopping the feet up to the top of the mat.

Halfway lift,

Breathe in,

Fold back in,

And exhale.

Let's open up to this left side first.

Left arm reaches as your right knee bends and right hand stays to the floor.

Left hand comes down,

Left knee bends,

Right arm goes up into the air.

Good.

As your right hand comes down,

You're going to roll all the way up to standing.

Think of shoulder shrugging at the top,

Getting everything nice and tight,

And then releasing,

Relaxing into that standing position.

Arms go out and up.

You kind of circle around the body,

Grab a hold of the elbows at the top,

And lean on over to the left side first.

Coming through center and leaning to that right side.

You'll come through center,

Lengthen the arms to reach fingertips up toward the ceiling,

And then dive forward,

Guys.

Hinge at the hips,

Fingertips toward the floor.

Halfway lift,

Breathe in.

We're keeping the left foot forward as you step the right foot back into a lunge.

Again,

Lots of places to kind of adjust and modify and change up that lunge.

You can drop the knee,

You can lift the arms.

When you're ready,

Left foot stepping back to meet right.

You're going to lower down through that push-up.

Bring the heart through,

Catch a backbend as your toes point,

Tops of the feet on the ground,

And then downward facing dog.

So as you arrive back in down dog,

You give it as much time as you need.

When you're ready to begin that sun salutation A variation again,

Guys,

You're rising up onto tippy toes and bringing your feet up toward your fingers.

We're on the right side,

If you were sticking with me.

It'll be a half lift,

A fold in,

And then a twist to the right side first.

After a twist in both directions,

A slow roll to standing,

A shoulder shrug.

Arms go out and up,

Connecting at the top as you bend the elbows,

Hands to those elbows,

Two leans,

Two side bends,

A little right,

A little left.

Through center and length,

Forward fold,

Half lift,

And left foot steps back.

So we get a little lunge on each side as we go through.

A few more times,

Rhythm of your own breath,

Finding your own pace here.

Sticking and staying with a posture if you need a little extra time there.

Way to slow it down,

Yogis.

So I want you to finish the side that you're working on and then instead of meeting in downward facing dog,

Take a moment to meet me in child's pose.

When you come into child's pose,

I'm going to have you bring the legs closer together instead of far apart.

So think of thighs and maybe knees potentially touching underneath of you as you slide and kind of fold chest over top of thighs.

There's no hurry through.

Finishing up the side bends,

The lunge,

The vinyasa,

And then child's pose.

So it might have happened that at the beginning of class when we were asking ourselves these deep maybe existential questions that you didn't really have an answer and that's okay.

But sometimes,

Right,

This practice of yoga which is absolutely a listening practice,

Sometimes when we move through these postures and poses,

Answers come.

But we have to listen.

We have to open up our ears and our hearts.

There are so many times outside of this room that we might ask a question or kind of call out to the universe like why or what do I do and then do we really take time to listen for the answer?

Yoga invites you to the space of listening,

Of slowing down enough to potentially hear that inner voice.

From this child's pose,

Guys,

Pull forward either to that plank pose or maybe hands and knees position and then meet me in downward facing dog.

So tucking the toes,

Lifting the hips.

So from this down dog,

I'm going to have you take the right leg up into the air.

So come on into three limb down dog.

And when you do that,

Guys,

When you lift that right leg,

I want you to bend the right knee and pull your right heel toward your glute and then try to make kind of a circular motion with that right knee,

Almost like you're drawing circles in the air with that right knee from your right hip.

So just giving the right hip a little bit of fluidity,

A little bit of kind of flow,

Some love.

Do it one way a couple times or maybe a time or two and then do it the other way as well.

And once you've done that,

Once you've had both directions,

Try to extend the leg and do that same thing but with the foot.

So you kind of get these circles with the entire leg and it might happen that the toes come all the way down to the floor and all the way up toward the ceiling,

Like that big of a circle,

Or it might be small.

It might be small.

You might find a little less range in that range of motion in that hip.

And then go ahead and set right foot down next to left and let's just repeat that process on the left side.

So left leg lifting up into the air.

At first,

Guys,

Bend the left knee,

Left heel pulls toward your glute and then you're making circles with that left knee in the air,

Almost like you could draw a circle in the air a couple times one way,

A couple times the other way.

And then once you've had a couple circles with the knee,

Try the entire leg.

Lengthen out that left leg,

Kind of sweep the leg,

The foot into big circles.

Again,

You could take up a lot of space where you're dipping down toward the floor and then kind of lifting up toward the ceiling or it might take little circles,

Just little circles.

Find what feels good for your body.

Find what feels right and then go ahead and drop left foot down next to right.

So a little more range of motion in the hips potentially.

Let's play with that,

Guys.

Rise up onto tippy toes and meet me in a low yoga squat at the front of your mat.

So a walk around those hands or maybe a hop around those hands or a big step until the feet come wider than the hands and the hips sink down toward the heels.

If sinking the hips down toward the heels is a no-go for your body,

Think forearms to thighs or sinking and sitting onto a block.

Beautiful.

Now in the same way we twisted before in our sun salutation A,

We're going to kind of reproduce that twist but here in this low yoga squat.

So I want you to set your left hand down onto the floor and reach your right arm up toward the ceiling,

Maybe a little backward,

Little bit toward the back of the room.

And then bring the right hand down and same thing other side.

Left arm goes reaching up into the air.

So this kind of low yoga squat twist open.

Nice.

And then bringing the left hand down.

Listen,

Guys,

We're going to open again to that right side.

We're going to reproduce that twist but we're going to do it as we lunge.

So in the same way we did in our sun A,

I want you to take your left foot and step it all the way to the back of the mat.

Then reach your right arm up into the air so it becomes this low twisted lunge or sometimes we call it drag and fly twist.

Nice.

Find your breath.

Beautiful.

From there,

Half splits.

Bring the right hand down as well as the left knee.

Lengthen out that right leg.

You're pulling your hips back.

You're trying to stack left hip over top of left knee as you lengthen out that right leg.

And then there's a little bit of folding here.

Sometimes there is quite that.

Just a little bit of folding instead of a lot.

Now as we're here in half splits together,

Guys,

I want you to point your right toes toward the floor.

So think about pressing them away from the body.

And then just the opposite.

Pull those right toes in toward the body,

Almost like you're popping up onto that right heel.

And then let the foot become neutral as you try to turn your right toes out to the right side,

So toward the right edge of your mat.

Just kind of tilt them over,

Almost like a windshield wiper blade going to the right side.

And then just the opposite,

Guys,

Inward or toward that left side.

So it's a little tilt inward with those right toes.

Beautiful.

Bring the foot to neutral.

And then pull up and forward,

Warrior A.

So we're going to re-bend the right knee,

Walk the hands forward.

When you're ready,

Planting the back foot and then rising up.

We try to keep hips and chest squared toward the front of the yoga mat.

So kind of squared toward that front knee or thigh.

Arms might reach up into the air,

But as we've talked about this season of winter,

This cold,

Cold weather,

Can have us really stuck in our mind,

Really stuck up in the head.

It draws the energy up.

So if you need to center,

Sometimes it's nice to place the hands to or around the heart or even to the hips,

Finding and feeling this rootedness instead of lifting,

Lifting,

Lifting all the time.

Send your breath deep into your body.

Beautiful holding.

And then from this Warrior A,

Turning open to Warrior B just for a moment,

Guys,

Just to kind of find that position.

Arms open wide,

Chest turns to the left.

And then instead of staying here,

I want you to lengthen out that right leg and tip from here into Triangle Pose.

Right hand toward your right foot,

Left arm stretching up into the air.

Chest stays open.

Breath nice and deep.

Keep this Triangle Pose.

Just wrap your left arm around your lower back.

And then let's rise up Reverse Warrior.

So rising up to standing,

Bending into that right knee and reaching your right arm up and over top of the head.

So the upper body is leaning toward your left foot,

But that right knee is bending and pulling toward the front of the yoga mat.

From here,

Guys,

Keep the right knee bent.

It's extended side angle.

So using that right knee or rather thigh as a platform to bring the forearm down.

Left arm,

Left hand reaching toward the front of the room.

So sometimes the most challenging part of our yoga practice or our asana is just showing up.

And you did that.

The second challenging thing,

Guys,

Sometimes is just breathing.

Breathing and staying steady and continuous with that breath.

Maybe you're there.

The third challenging thing sometimes in our yoga practice is just staying,

Sitting and sinking into the asana.

Be brave enough to brush up against those rough edges,

Guys.

Come on up for Sky Archer.

So keeping the chest open just a bit longer to lengthen the right leg and right arm reaching up and over.

It's like that Reverse Warrior,

But with a straight front leg head.

And then we have a long transition,

Guys.

So I want you to take a full inhale.

And on the exhale,

We're going to cartwheel the hands down around your right foot and go three limb downward dog.

So as your right,

As your hands come down around that right foot,

Turn onto your left toes,

Lift the right leg up into the air like we did before.

And you might bend the knee and pull that heel toward your glute to open up the,

To open up that right hip,

But also stretch that right quad because we used it.

And then from there,

Try this.

Try pulling right knee toward your right elbow.

Squeeze.

Stay there.

Pull it toward your left elbow.

Squeeze toward your right elbow and then try to slip it right into Pigeon Pose right across the front side of your mat.

Lowering the hips and that left knee down onto the floor.

If this Pigeon Pose kind of forward facing doesn't work for your body,

Roll onto the back and we go right ankle on top of left thigh for a reclined pigeon.

Find this place of settling in and sometimes going from those kind of challenging and really muscular postures where we're holding our body up off of the floor in many different ways into this,

Into this place of surrender and settling.

Sometimes it gives us an opportunity to see deeply into ourselves from intensity to integrity.

Keep breathing.

And although I wish I could keep you here forever because sometimes pigeon feels so great,

We have to move guys.

So if you're forward facing,

If you're downward or your chest toward the floor,

Press up to your palms.

I want you to tuck the back toes,

The left toes under and re-enter that Three-Limb Down Dog to just get your own stretch guys.

You might bend the knee or you might just kick the leg or kind of flip it into a flip dog or a wild thing if that feels right.

If you're on your back,

You might slowly make your way all the way to hands and knees.

Then tuck the toes,

Lift the hips and meet us in Down Dog.

Eventually right toes come down next to left and we're just going to rinse it out with a Vinyasa.

So I want you to pull forward into your Plank Pose.

Lower down through that plank guys,

Elbows close to your ribs and then pull your heart through Cobra,

Downward Facing Dog.

Toes tuck,

Hips lift,

Maybe legs pedal,

Knees bend.

So let's enter this practice on the left side.

It starts in a Low Yoga Squat top of the mat.

So I want you to rise up onto tippy toes and take a walk to the top guys or a step or maybe even a hop up around those hands as you sink your hips toward your heels.

Knees go wide.

You might be on tiptoes or flat foot.

You could absolutely sink and sit onto a block.

If coming down all that way doesn't feel right for your body,

Your knees or your hips or your ankles,

Forearms to thighs halfway downwards.

And then let's revisit that twisting but opening to the left side first this time.

So right hand stays down,

Left arm lifts up and then changing side.

Left hand comes down,

Right arm reaches upward toward the ceiling.

A little bit backward,

Pulling the chest open.

Head,

Right hand comes down.

Now again we're going to reproduce that twisting open guys but this time in a lunge.

So I want you to step your right foot all the way to the back of the mat and then reopen left arm reaching up into the air.

So it's right foot stepping back,

Left knee bending.

It's Low Twisted Lunge or that Dragonfly Twist just by stepping back into this lunge and reaching the left arm high.

We're there.

Beautiful.

And then that half splits left hand and right knee to the floor.

Shift the hips back a bit but stay stacking.

Right hip over top of right knee,

Left leg lengthening.

Get that fold and that feeling and that structure first.

And then let's try this guys.

Point your left toes away from your body.

Point them toward the floor almost like they could reach the floor and maybe they do.

Maybe some of you they do actually touch the floor.

And then just the opposite.

Pull the left toes backward toward your body almost like you're popping up onto that left heel.

Let the foot be neutral guys and then toes to the left.

So almost like that windshield wiper over to the left side.

A little tilt of the toes and then toes to the right.

So those left toes tilt inward.

Just playing with a little bit of range of motion in that ankle.

Bring the foot back to neutral and then we're going to pull up and forward for a Warrior A.

So we're going to re-bend the left knee.

Plant the back foot flat.

When you're ready,

Rising up from there trying to keep hips and chest square toward the front of the mat.

Sometimes that requires our back foot turning in a bit more than we think.

It might be that the arms reach straight up into the air,

Kind of palms turning inward a bit guys.

Or if you need a little more centeredness in your practice,

Hands to heart.

Maybe even solar plexus or hips.

The breath might move a little bit deeper down into the belly and let it get a little edgy.

This is where we get curious about our body.

Noting and noticing the difference between when our mind says,

Okay too much,

Or when our body actually says,

Okay too much.

From this Warrior A,

Bring it into Warrior B for a moment.

Again it's just for the structure.

Pulling open the chest to the right side.

Arms open wide.

Left toes stay pointing toward the front of the room guys.

And then left leg lengthens and we tilt down.

Triangle pose.

Left hand toward your left foot.

Right arm reaches up into the air.

We have a couple postures with the chest open.

Keep thinking about shoulders pulling back a bit here.

And then right arm loops around the lower back.

Reverse Warrior.

As you rise up to standing,

Bend into that left knee.

Left arm starts to tug up and over top of the ear,

Up and over top of the head.

So the upper body is leaning toward that back foot,

But left knee is bending and it's bending and pulling toward the front of the mat.

And then we use that platform of the thigh guys.

Extended side angle.

Bringing the forearm or the elbow down onto your left thigh.

As you lean into it,

Reach your right arm up and over.

So pulling those right fingertips toward the front of the room.

Beautiful.

Just two more breaths.

You've got this.

And then Sky Archer.

So we have an opportunity to lengthen that left leg.

Guys go up to standing.

Left arm pulls up and over,

Just like that Reverse Warrior,

But now with a lengthened left leg.

Press your feet into the floor.

And then here comes that big transition.

We're going to transition all the way to Three Limb Down Dog.

So here's how it goes.

Take an inhale here at the top.

On an exhale,

Cartwheel the hands down around your left foot as you do.

Bend the left knee.

Turn onto your back toes and then send that left leg all the way up into the air.

You got to press through the palms to lift it up.

You might get a bend in that left knee.

Pull heel toward glute.

Kind of open up through the hip,

But also stretch that quadricep muscle.

Okay guys,

Then we keep the left knee bent as you pull left knee toward your left elbow,

Toward the front of the mat.

Keep it there.

Bring it over toward your right elbow,

Over toward your left elbow,

And then try to slide it right into Pigeon Pose.

Left shin across the front side of your mat,

Lowering the hips and that back knee.

Untucking the back toes.

Again,

If you're better suited to take this position on the back,

Then rolling onto the back,

It's left ankle on top of right thigh with the right knee bent.

Beautiful work,

Yogis.

So from here,

Pressing the palms down into the floor and lifting your chest away.

That's if you're kind of downward facing,

Tucking the right toes and lifting the left leg back up into that three-limbed Down Dog.

If you're on your back,

You can kind of roll forward and untangle hands and knees and then meet us in Down Dog.

As you get to that Down Dog,

You might bend a knee,

Flip the dog,

Or take a little wild thing.

Anything that helps to counter the pose that you were just in.

We all feel it a little bit differently.

And then left toes come down next to right,

Guys.

Regular Downward Facing Dog.

Let's rinse it out with a Vinyasa.

So pull forward,

Top of your push-up,

Plank Pose.

Lowering down through that push-up,

Heart comes through.

Take a big back bend,

A big inhale.

Feel the lungs.

And then Downward Facing Dog.

Tuck the toes and lift the hips.

Nice.

And then listen,

Guys,

One more time.

I want you to rise up onto tippy toes and bring your feet up toward your hands in that Low Yoga Squat.

So feet go wider than the hands,

Knees go wide as you sink the hips toward the heels.

Just take a moment,

Feel into it.

Right side and left side,

A little more balanced now.

We've had the work both ways.

And so you might just feel that in your hips and your lower back and your knees and your ankles.

And from this position,

We're going to try to move ourselves into a reverse table,

Guys,

Which might mean that your sit bones have to come down,

But maybe not.

Maybe you just sneak your hands behind you and start walking the hands away from the feet until you can lift into a reverse table.

Think about how we do table on kind of hands and knees,

But this time it's feet and palms pressing down to lift the hips up.

You're trying to make that table with the belly,

The chest,

And the thighs.

So kind of lengthening out and lifting,

Lifting,

Lifting.

A lot of engagement has to happen through the arms,

The glutes,

The backsides of your legs.

You can feel those engage.

And then do this,

Guys,

Slowly,

Slowly bring the sit bones down.

And as the sit bones touch down,

Give me a little boat pose here.

So lifting the feet,

The heels,

The toes up off of the floor.

You could absolutely keep the hands on the floor behind you if you want a supported boat pose.

Otherwise,

Lifting up the hands and the arms,

Too.

Unclench the jaw.

Feel just this little bit of engagement here.

And then instead of coming into a forward fold,

Which sometimes we do,

I want you to try to roll back,

Guys,

Into a plow pose.

So as we roll into plow,

It's rolling onto the back and really all the way onto the shoulders as the feet go up over top of the head.

So you're rolling back,

Rolling back.

The toes don't have to go all the way up over the head.

They don't even have to touch the floor,

But for some of you,

They might.

And if not,

If that's a no-go for your neck or your shoulders,

Then take legs up the wall and bring your hands behind your thighs and just give a little tug.

And then if you're in that plow pose,

We're going to roll out to legs up the wall.

So think about bringing your back to the floor until the legs are straight up into the air.

And then we'll all meet in happy baby,

Guys.

So moving the feet and the thighs a little away from each other so you can bend the knees and reach the hands up toward the outer edges of those feet.

Give a tug down like you're pulling the knees toward the floor or toward your underarm.

And then legs go straight up into the air again.

Take them straight upright and either keeping the legs glued together like they're one leg out of two,

Guys,

You can lower your legs all the way down to the floor.

Again,

If that's too much for back or belly,

Lower it down one at a time or put a bend in the knees and then set the feet down and slide them straight.

We're going to catch a little fish pose here.

So once the legs come down and they're long and lengthy,

Point your toes toward the front of the room.

Come up onto your forearms,

Elbows,

And palms beside the ribs and then lift the ribs.

Lift your ribcage upward toward the ceiling.

You might drop your head back.

Let's take a big breath in here together,

Guys.

So big inhale,

Big exhale.

Good.

And then lowering all the way down to the floor.

We're going to slip right into Shavasana.

I promise we'll get a twist coming out of that Shavasana,

But I just want you to lower the back to the floor.

With the legs lengthened,

Create a little bit of separation between the feet.

Drop the arms by your side.

And as always,

If there's something that you need to adjust,

If you need to do knees bent or kind of moving onto your side or your stomach or even to a seated position,

You're more than welcome.

One more time as we find this stillness.

Deep breath and big inhale.

Sigh it out.

Let it go.

Shavasana.

I now believe the purpose of life is to be happy.

To grow,

Thrive,

And experience life to the full.

To worry less about our achievements,

Productivity,

And the meaning of our life.

And to prioritize the things we enjoy.

So be kind and compassionate.

Take care of your loved ones and yourself.

Help and support others,

Not because you have to earn worth,

But because you want to improve their lives.

And do what you love as often as you can.

Walk in the sun,

Sit on the beach,

Lie in the grass just because it feels good.

Do it without feeling guilty or beating yourself up for the lack of purpose.

Without fear over whether you are important enough,

Useful enough,

Influential,

Significant,

Or deserving enough.

Because at the end of the day,

Purpose can add to your happiness,

But it's not a prerequisite for it.

You don't need a mission,

Purpose,

A direction for your life to be worth living.

Brian Sewell.

And from where you are,

Yogis,

Take a little bit deeper breath in and then sigh it out.

Let it go.

And so slowly,

Just slowly and tenderly,

I want you to stretch your body nice and long.

So moving the arms and the hands up over top of the head.

If you're still on your back,

Lengthening the legs.

And if you're not,

If you're seated,

Just reaching up and stretching.

And from there,

Drawing the knees in toward your chest,

Giving them a squeeze.

Give them a squeeze and then open up the arms.

Let those knees drop over to the right side.

Come on into a twist.

And then bringing the knees through center,

Tipping them all the way over to that left side.

And then instead of coming back through center,

Go ahead and bring right hand over toward left hand.

Curl right up onto that left shoulder and left hip.

And then starting to press all the way up to seated,

Just turning toward the front of your yoga mat.

So coming to seated,

Crisscrossed ankles,

Maybe palms together in front of the heart,

Chin dipping inward toward your chest.

It's important to ask ourselves questions.

It's important to question things.

But it's also so important to be still enough,

To slow down enough,

To listen for the answers.

One more time together,

Deep breath in,

Let it go.

My heart to yours.

Namaste.