Yoga Twists for Digestion & Core Energy

Move through a dynamic guided yoga practice that takes you from standing twists all the way down to the floor, wringing out tension and awakening the body's natural energy. Twists are among yoga's most powerful tools for stimulating digestion, detoxifying the organs, and firing up the solar plexus — your centre of will, vitality, and personal power. We close with a solar plexus balancing practice weaving together mudra, yantra, and mantra, sealing the energy you've cultivated and leaving you grounded yet energised. This class is suitable for all levels and blends mindful movement with ancient ritual for a practice that works on every layer — body, breath, and being.

Transcript

So today, We're still going to focus on the abdominals, But we're more just going to focus on this whole area, This whole abdominal area, And we're going to look at twists. So in a way, We're going to wring out our insides today, Which is not literal. You literally cannot rinse and squeeze your organs, Contrary to probably what we taught some of you 10, 20 years ago in teacher training, Where we would say, Oh, You were going to, You know, Squeeze out the organs. Really, All you can do is, When you're twisting, Is you're putting pressure on the whole sort of sheath around the organs, And it's enabling kind of better flow of circulation in general. But what's nice, I think, About twists is it gets right into the digestion and the colon and helps that free flow of movement through the colon. So if you have a lot of vata in your system, Which means you have a lot of air and space in your system, Which means you can tend towards having gas or wind, It's really great to compress those areas and just move all that stuff along. And often, When we have a lot of air and space in our system, We tend towards constipation and things like that. And then if we have the other, Which is, You know, Having loose stools, Then it's also nice to kind of work and nurture the abdominal area. So we're going to do a lot of kind of more passive work, You know, More seated stuff, And just to really support this area, And we're actually going to start our practice in child's pose today. Okay, So let's come on to our hands and knees, And we're going to send the seat back to the heels and really feel that connection of the belly to the thighs, And we're going to place one fist on top of the other and just rest our forehead on our fists. If you've got a block handy, So Serena, You were asking me what props do we need today, So I said have everything handy. You can just put your forehead on the block and just have your arms alongside, And then really get into your breath here, And you're going to have that sensation of the breath flowing into the back of the body. So you want to feel the skin on the back of the body expanding. So it's deep belly breathing. So whatever your day's been like or your morning so far, Let's just draw our focus in words, And let's count our breaths. So this is obviously going at your own pace, So maybe you'd like to inhale for a count of four, And exhale for a count of four. And by counting the breaths, It just brings your mind into that one pointed focus, Drawing it out of its need to get all preoccupied with all the thoughts. Now the mind loves bliss, It loves a focus. So let's give the focus the count of our breaths. Even inhalation and even exhalation. So whether you've got your fists on top of each other and you're resting your forehead on your fists, Or whether you have your forehead on the block, Really see if you can keep the back of the neck long, Extending, And see if you can feel your breath really settling down. All right, And then extend the arms, Come onto the hands and knees, We're going to come straight away into a nice little twist here. So we're going to raise the left arm up, And slide the back of the wrist behind the right hand and rest on the left shoulder. Draw your chin down, And bring your other hand to your lower back. Draw your left hip back slightly so that the hips are in line with each other, And just feel that stretch through the back of your left shoulder. Draw your chin down, And just breathe into that area. And again, If you can have an even inhalation and even exhalation. If you want to use your jai, You can, Or you can just breathe into your belly. All right, And then coming back up onto your hands and knees, And sliding the other way. So raising the right arm up, Take a bit of a twist here, And then slide the back of your hand, Back of the right hand behind the left wrist, Draw your chin down, And bring your hand to your lower back. Draw your right hip back slightly, Draw your chin down, And feel the stretch behind your right shoulder. And just breathe. Now if it's not comfortable, You can always put your hand here to support yourself. Your left hand can come back down onto the left side of the mat, With the fingers facing forwards. All right, And then coming back onto the hands and knees, And let's send the seat back to the heels. And we're going to walk both hands over to the right side. So we're going to take a side stretch here, Coming into the quadratus lumborum, Which are the muscles responsible for side bending. And just walk yourself all the way over to the right. Let your head release. And again, Even inhalation, Even exhalation. And then walk back to center, And walk your hands over to the other side. Going as far to the left as you can, So you really feel the stretch in the side body, And you feel that opening through the right side of the rib cage. The connection of your thigh to your belly, Breath in the back of your body. And then coming back to center, Coming back up onto the hands and knees, And lift your sitting bones high, Coming into down dog. So I love down dog. I feel like it's such an awesome stretch for the spine. It's also a really nice way to refocus your breath. Obviously, If you're tightening your hamstrings, You can bend your knees here, And pitch your sitting bones a little bit higher. And then draw your chin into your chest, So there's no pressure behind the shoulders. You don't want to really open the chest too much. You actually want to draw the ribs in, Pressing into thumb and index finger as much as is comfortable. Keep bending the knees. And then back onto the hands and knees, And send the seat back to the heels. And just take a moment in child's pose. And then again, Onto the hands and knees, And lift the sitting bones high to the ceiling. All right, So this is a little bit of a movement now, Which is going to activate the abdominals. So you might want to inch your feet back a little bit, And come into plank position. So in plank position, The abdominals engage automatically. We did this yesterday in the class as well, But we're going to take a little bit of a twist here. So let's walk our toes together, And we're going to take our knees to the left and bend like so. So it's a little bit of a twist through the spine, The knees are bent, And we're sending the seat back. It's like a bent knee down dog, Only we're twisting to the left. Then we're going to inhale forwards, And then we're going to bend and twist to the right. And then inhale forwards, And exhale and bend, Twist to the left. Inhale forwards, And bend, Twist to the right. Inhale forwards, Bend, Twist to the left. Inhale forwards, Bend, Twist to the right. Inhale forwards, Bend, Twist to the left. Inhale forwards, Bend, Twist to the right. Now, I should have said this at the beginning, But if it's uncomfortable, You can always do this up on your fists. If it's even uncomfortable to hold this like this, And you want to do it down on your forearms, You can. So let's actually all try that. So let's come onto our forearms, And we're going to lift the legs. So the forearms have to come a little bit further forward so that you can come into a plank like this. And then you walk the toes together, And bend the knees, And take yourself forward. And bend the knees to the right, Take yourself forward. This is actually harder to go forward than to bend your knees to the other side. Okay, Let's come down. And again, We're going to rest in Child's Pose. And we're going to catch our breath. So nice, Long, Slow inhalation, Counting, And then a nice, Long, Slow exhalation. And I think it's nice sometimes to rest in between more active poses so that you can feel all the muscles settling down. All right, And then we'll come back up into our Down Dog. All right, So let's just walk through our Down Dog. Let's bend and straighten, And bend and straighten. And then we're going to step the right foot in between hands and drop onto the left knee, Coming into that lunge position. And then press your left hand into the floor. Take your right hand to your right hip crease, Roll your torso around. We're not going to raise the arm just yet. Just roll your torso around, But really sink your right hip down. And then try and draw your inner thighs towards each other as you do this. So there's an activation in the inner thigh, The lower abdominals engage, You're sinking your right hip and you're turning your torso and looking over your right shoulder. You can even let your left hip drop a little bit. Breathing here, And then coming back and stepping back into Down Dog. Take a breath. If you want to bend both knees, If that's more comfortable, Go ahead and do that. If it's uncomfortable to hold Down Dog because your wrists are tired, You can always come up onto your fists and just extend through your thumbs. It's a nice variation. All right, And then let's step the left foot forward, Left knee, Left heel in line, Drop onto the right knee, Press your right hand down, Bring your left hand to your left hip crease, Turn your torso, Turn your whole body over to the left, Look over your right shoulder and breathe. Inhaling and exhaling here. Really feel that stretch with the front of the right hip. You'll feel some stretch in the outer hip as well. You can squeeze the inner thighs together and draw the abdomen back to the spine. Keep breathing. And then bring your hands either side of your front foot. And once again, Stepping back into Down Dog. And then we're going to do a little bit of a rotation through the hips. So we're going to bend the knees and then lift the right hip, Lift the left hip, And then bend the knees and lift the right hip, Lift the left hip, And then bend the knees and lift the right hip and the left hip. And then we're going to go the other way. So we're going to lift the left hip and bend the knees and then lift the right hip. So we're kind of rolling through the hips in our Down Dog, Just stretching out from what we just did. All right, Let's slowly walk the feet towards the hands. And again, We're going to bend the knees as much as we can and just let the head hang. So there's this contact between abdomen and thighs. Let your head release. And then sit low and just reach your arms out in front, Setting the sitting bones back behind the heels, Lengthening through the fingers, Spread your toes, Feel the thigh muscles engage, And standing upright. Let's bring both palms together. We're going to come into a side lean here, And we're just going to go into blown palms. So palms are touching. We can interlace at the thumbs and just lean over to the right side and really feel that stretch into the left side of the chest. The shoulders relax. The inner thighs draw towards each other. Breathe. You can, Again, Have that nice, Even inhalation and even exhalation. Come back to center. Lift a little bit taller and go over to the other side. Really stretching into that right side. Toes touching heels a little bit apart. Keep breathing. All right, And then just release the arms. Close the eyes. Catch your breath. Feel your body here. Let's interlace the fingers behind us, Toes touching, Heels slightly apart, And just open through the chest. Feel that stretch through the shoulders. And then we're going to bend the knees, Sit low, Interlace the thumbs, Come into chair, And then bring the palms to the center of the heart and hook the upper left arm against the outer right thigh. So we're just doing some twists to warm up. I know we've done this in previous classes, So it's nice to keep coming back to these ones, And then come back to center, And exhale, Hook the upper arm against the outer thigh and twist to the other side. And let's just do this a few times. Inhale, And exhale, Twist. And inhale, And exhale, Twist. Last two. Inhale, And exhale, Twist. So draw that left hip back, Keep making sure the knees are lined up. Inhale, And exhale, Twist. All right, And then inhale, Stand all the way upright, And exhale, Release. All right, Let's do a little bit of a flowing sun salutation with some twists. So inhale, Arms down around the neck, Palms to touch, Vision to thumbs. Exhale, Folding forwards. Inhale, Rise halfway, Lengthening the spine. Exhale, Step your left leg back, Drop onto your left knee. Press your left hand into the floor, Turn your torso to the right, And exhale, Bring your hand back down to the floor, And send the seat back towards the heels as you stretch through the back of the right thigh. Bend the knee, And let's step back into plank position, And then lower the knees, Bend the elbows, Or come into full chaturanga. Move the hands slightly back, Baby cobra, And then press up onto the hands and knees, Tuck the toes under, Lifting up into down dog. Take a breath in down dog, And we're going to step the same leg forward, Right leg forward, And this time we're going to come all the way up into high lunge, Bring the thumbs, Palms to the center of the heart, Turn the torso, But stay upright. So we're not going to hook the upper left arm against the thigh. We're going to stay upright and just twist the upper body, And then exhale, Hands to the floor, Step the back foot forward to meet the front foot, Fold forward, And then take the arms out, Around and up, Palms to touch, Vision to thumbs, Exhale to the center of the heart. Arms down, Around and up, Palms to touch, Vision to thumbs, Exhale, Dive yourself all the way forwards. Inhale, Rise halfway, And exhale, Step the right leg back this time, And you're going to drop onto the right knee. Pressing the right hand into the floor, We're going to turn and open to the left, Exhale, Bring that hand down, And then extending through the back of the left leg as you send the buttocks back towards the heel. Then from here, Coming up, And stepping back into plank position, Lower the knees, Upper chest, Or full chaturanga to the floor, Roll through into baby cobra, And then press up onto the hands and knees, Coming into down dog. Now we're going to step that same foot in between the hands, We're going to inhale, Raise the arms up, Coming into a high lunge, Palms touch, Thumbs to the center of the heart, And then just turn your torso to the left side of your mat. So keep drawing your right hip back as you turn the torso. Keep breathing. Hands to the floor, And step the back foot forward to meet the front foot. Inhale, Arms, Eyes, Fingertips all the way up, And exhale, Hands to the center of the heart. We're going to keep going. Arms down, Around, And up. Palms to touch, Vision to the thumbs. Exhale, Dive all the way forwards. Inhale, Rise halfway. Exhale, Step the left leg back, And then turn the left heel down, And cartwheel the left arm up and then the right, And straighten both legs. So you have the heel-to-heel alignment here, And we're going to come into trikonasana to start off with. So rolling that front thigh back, Rolling the back hip in, Setting the buttocks back towards the back of your mat. Feel a length through both sides of the torso. Hand can come to the ankle. If you're feeling like you want to work a little bit more strongly in the legs, Have the back of the hand against the inside of the shin, And then raise the other arm into the air. Take a breath here. Okay, Now reach the arm over the head and fold yourself over your front thigh. Maybe step the left foot slightly to the left. We're going to come into pavrita trikonasana now, So revolved trikonasana. So have your left hand on your right ankle, And same as we did earlier, Bring your right hand to your right hip crease and draw it back. And then lengthen your spine and turn your torso to the right. Put your hand on your lower back and turn a little bit more, And just breathe. So we're not raising our arm into the air. We're trying to keep the hips stable, So we want to keep drawing that left hip back. We're lengthening the torso and rotating around. Take a breath. All right, Then from here, Let's step back into down dog, Taking a moment in down dog, And we're going to do all that on the other side. So we're going to step the left foot forward, Turn the right heel down, Bring the body upright. I'm just going to demonstrate this way. So rolling that front thigh back, Front thigh out, Rolling the back hip in. What that does is it just creates that little bit of extra length through the underneath side of the torso. We want to really work the feet here and engage the inner thighs, And then bring the hand to the inside of the shin, Or you can hold on to the ankle, Whatever feels comfortable. All this twisting is making me burp, So if that's happening to you, It's a good sign. It's all coming out. And then we're just going to rotate around and raise the arm into the air. You can look down at your foot, Or you can look straight ahead. If there's no strain in your neck, You can look up towards your hand. Engage your thigh muscles, Engage all four corners of your feet. So that's the big toe mound, Little toe mound, Inner heel, And outer heel. All right, Then reach your arm up over your head, Roll around, Step your right foot slightly to the right, And then bring your right hand to your left ankle, Your left thumb into your left hip crease, Lengthen the spine, And rotate the torso around. It's not easy, This pose. We're going to do a couple of variations to really feel it. We're starting with this one. All right, And then from here, You're going to step back into your plank position, And lower all the way to the floor. Lift your upper chest, Press up onto your hands and knees, And lift your sitting bones high to the ceiling. And just take a moment here, Catching your breath. All right, Stepping your right foot in between your hands, Step your left foot to the left side of your mat. This time, We won't come into Trikonasana. We're going to go straight into Revolve Trikonasana. We're going to do a little bit of a variation. So if you have a block and you'd like to work with a block, It's nice to do this with a block. It just makes it a little bit easier. So you just place your block on the high end, On the big toe side of your foot. And again, We're going to fold forward at the hip crease, Place our hand on the block. Now, Instead of keeping everything level and steady, You have my permission, And you can give yourself permission, To let your hip drop. So you're actually going to let your left hip drop, And you're going to raise your right hip, And you're going to go for it and really twist. Yes, You can get a lot of rotation when you drop that hip. And you can raise your arm and relax. You might even want to bend your front knee if there's strain in the outer hip. Try not to have too much weight in the block. So you could also try this with your hand on the floor. See how that feels? And then let's just come up. We're going to turn ourselves all the way to the other side. So we can move our block to the other side. Okay. And then again, We're going to fold forward at the hip crease, Hand comes onto the block or onto the floor. You're going to let your right hip drop now. So what that means is that the hip joint at the front, What we call the as-is, The anterior superior iliac spine, Drops down. And then we rotate around and feel that stretch all the way through the upper chest as well. Keep breathing. All right. And then let's come back up. So now we're going to do a twist in Paradottanasana fan pose. So again, You can have your block out in front of you if that's comfortable. So it's kind of easy, Giving you a nice stretch here. And then place your left hand on the block and just rotate around. And again, Let your left hip drop. Let it go. Just open up. Breathe. Feel the inner thighs drawing towards each other. Take some deep breaths here, Lengthening through the fingers. Engage your thigh muscles. Spread your toes. And then bring your hand back down and go to the other side. Opening up. Big breaths. So these are all nice, Open twists. And they should just feel really nice into the ribs. Getting the breath going here. All right. And then come back. And let's step to the front of the mat. Now we're going to take it into a proper Pavritaparasvakonasana, So a right-angle twist. So inhale the arms up, Palms to touch, Vision to thumbs. And exhale, Dive yourself all the way forwards. And inhale, Rising halfway. And exhale, Step the left leg back. We're going to come back up into that high lunge. And thumbs, Palms to touch, To the center of the heart. And here we go. Turn the torso. Hook the upper left arm against the outer right thigh. Draw that hip back and lengthen the spine. And breathe as you twist. Slow inhalation, Slow exhalation. Count. And then hands to the floor. And stepping back into Down Dog, And we'll do the other side. So left leg steps forward. Bring the body upright. The palms to touch, Thumbs to the center of the heart. Turn the torso. Hook the upper arm against the outer thigh. Lift that right hip slightly. Lengthen the spine. Spread the toes. Try not to roll in on your instep. Keep breathing here. Step back into Down Dog. All right, And then drop back onto the hands and knees. And one more time, Just coming into that Child's Pose position. All right, So slowly coming up. And we're going to sit to one side and swing the legs out in front. Now, You know your body best. So if you know that you sit slightly on the back of your sitting bones, Then that's a sign that you need a little bit of height underneath your buttocks. We're going to work through a series of twists, Seated twists, Which compress, First of all, The right side of the torso. So bending the right knee, We'll just come, First of all, Into a seated wind expeller. So you can wrap your forearms around your shin and just lengthen your spine. Spread your toes. Point your knee to the ceiling. Just take some breaths here. And then we're going to start with an open twist. So we're going to twist to the left, Bringing the left fingertip behind and bringing the inside of the upper arm against the inner thigh, Sitting up as tall as you can and just twisting. Notice where the breath opens and notice where there's restriction. Try not to lose the left leg. Keep the left leg focused as well. So energy moving through the thigh, Knee pointing to the ceiling, Everything alive. Alive and kicking, As they say. All right, So now we're going to twist the other way. We're not going to cross the foot. We're going to keep the heel exactly where it is in line with the sitting bone and hug your shin in and then turn your torso around. So there's a really strong connection between the right side of your torso and your thigh and you're giving yourself a bear hug. Lift through the fingertips. Send the weight to the center of the sitting bone. Press through the ball of the foot. Keep breathing. Draw the abdomen back to the spine. Even inhalation, Even exhalation. Okay, Now we're going to cross that foot over. So we're going to come still into a twist here. I'm just going to demonstrate off of the blanket. So again, We're going to open, But this time we've got a little bit more leverage as we press the upper arm against the inner thigh. And notice if there's even more twist happening in your torso in the second round. Notice if there's any sensation behind your left kidney or into the adrenal area. Notice any areas of expansion or restriction. All right, And then raise the left arm up nice and high and hook the arm now. So this is a deeper twist. You're hooking your left arm against your outer thigh and turning as much as you can. Breathing deeply. Noticing where you feel the stretch. Really take yourself around. All right, And then come back to center. We're going to release that twist with Janu Sirsasana. So bring the sole of your foot to the inside seam of your leg. We're going to do the forward fold. We are actually going to take this in a twist as well, But we're going to start with a forward fold just to release out of the twist. So interlace the fingers, Raise the arms up, Deep breath, And take yourself forward. You can bend your knee. If you're tight behind your hamstring, You might like to loop something like a sock or a belt around the sole of your foot and just hold and just lengthen the spine. If it's easy for you, There's easy flexion at the hip joint and your belly easily touches your thigh. You can go all the way down. So choose the variation that works for you. There's no competition. Obviously, In yoga, It's really what feels most comfortable. Again, Breathing into the back of the body here. Even inhalation, Even exhalation. All right, Bringing yourself upright, We're going to take this into a twist. So I'll just demonstrate. So I've got my handy little socks here. So you can loop something around the sole of your foot and just turn your torso and hold. So we're turning towards the extended leg. If you have been practicing and you're comfortable with this, You could take your left arm behind and hold on to the inside of your thigh with your left hand and then hold on to the outside of your foot and just take that twist a little bit deeper, Only if that's comfortable. If you're really struggling to get there, It's better just to be upright and just twisting. All right, And then from here, Bend this knee so the foot is flat and draw the other heel close in and take the right upper arm to the outer left thigh and take another twist. Be sensitive here. It might be quite strong. So strong meaning, You know, It feels like you're in touch with tighter areas in the body. So if it's too much, Just don't do it. Just go back. Just hold and sit upright like that. All right, So this is just an option for those who want to give it a go. So the option is you can take this foot up and rest it on the thigh. So it's kind of like a half lotus position, But you've got both legs bent. Yeah, So one of your legs is in half lotus. So if you're not doing this, You're just going to have the shins parallel to each other. If you want to try this, You can bring that foot up just half. And then again, You take your left arm, You roll the shoulder down and then see if you can reach to take hold of the big toe and then twist and breathe. So if you're not doing that and you've got the shins lined up with each other, You're just going to bring your right hand to your right knee and turn. Does the same thing. You're just taking it into a bit of an open twist. Keep breathing. All right, And then just release. And we're going to do all of that on the other side. So we're going to start extending the legs. Start by extending the legs and hugging your left shin in and just holding here and taking some breaths. So sometimes the benefits, You know, They come after the practice. So we may not feel kind of how this practice affects us while we're doing it, But then as the day unfolds, You might notice there's some release in your digestion, You know, Gurgling, Burping, Things moving. All right, We're going to take it into an open twist now. So we're going to turn to the right. And then we're just going to hug the shin in here. We're not going to take the arm across and we'll just turn the other way. So when you're holding this pose, Try and really avoid the tendency to collapse, But work upright as much as you can so you're constantly elongating and lengthening the spine. And if you can see me, I'm right up on my fingertips because when I'm on my hand, I collapse. So I'm using my fingertips to get me up just that little bit higher. Okay, Now we're going to cross the left leg over the right and again take that open twist, But this time your upper arm is pressed against your inner thigh. And then we're going to turn to the other side. So we're going to hook the upper right arm against the outer left thigh and come into a nice deep twist here. So I'm not demonstrating, I'm just looking after my little device here on the back of my arm. Alright, And then we're going to come into Janushi Shasana so that we can just release out of that. So again, You could just be lengthening forwards here with a nice long spine. You can have your knee bent. A nice little technique is to actually put the block under the bent knee. So you've got support there. You don't have to hold it. And then you can just hold on to the foot. Or you can have the leg straight and just be coming all the way forwards. Alright, And then coming up, You're going to take your right hand behind. Well, First option is taking your belt or your sash, Holding on to your sash as you turn your torso coming into the open twist. For those who have long arms, Flexible arm sockets, It's nice to roll the shoulder in first and then take it around. See if you can reach hold of the inner thigh and then the outside of the foot and let yourself go into a deeper twist. I like the easier, More comfortable variation. Feels a little less out of reach these days as I get that bit older. Alright, And then we'll take it around the other way. Okay, So we're going to bend the knee now and again, Take it into an open twist. I hope that's what we did on the other side. And then turning around, Twisting the other way. If you can hook your upper arm, It's quite a deep twist. But if it's not, Just hold and twist. Alright, And then we're going to place, As I said, You can either place the shins in front of each other and just take another twist or if you want to give it a go, You can come into that half lotus position and rotate your shoulder in, Reach behind, Take hold of the toe and turn and twist. Alright, And then coming back to center and let's all meet in the middle. With our shins in front of each other and we're just going to walk forwards and just like we did earlier, You can either, A couple of options, You can be on your elbows and just rest your chin and your hands. You can be on your forehead, Fists resting, Resting your forehead on your fists or you can be in this position. So just choose what feels most comfortable for you today. You want to try and work your sitting bones back as much as possible. And again, Just working with your breath. And we're going to walk ourselves over to the right side. You can have the arms extended or you can have the elbows bent and even just be resting with your chin and your hands or you can have your elbows bent and rest your forehead on your wrists or you can even have a block here and just rest your forehead on the block with your arms out alongside the block. And then just walk yourself around to the other side, Choosing whatever variation feels comfortable. Whether you're on a block, Whether you're on your elbows. This is just all about a little bit slowing down now. Alright, And then coming back to center, We're going to work our way down to the floor now. We're going to do some twists lying down. So you can either roll to the side or come on to your back. And just have your shins in for a moment, Crossing at the shins and just relax here. Just take a moment. Just breathe. Okay, So we're going to do a little bit of an active twisting experience here. It works the abdominals. I'm just moving all my paraphernalia out of the way. So drawing the knees into the chest, Have the arms out at shoulder height. You can have the palms facing up or palms facing down, Whatever's comfortable for you. You're going to shift your hips to the left and let your knees drop to the right. Then inhale, Shift your hips to the right and let your knees drop to the left. And we're just going to keep going, Shifting the hips and dropping the knees. Lifting up, Shifting the hips and dropping the knees. So you should feel this through the lower body and into the abdominals. So keep going, Shifting the hips and lowering the knees. Coming up, Shifting the hips and lowering the knees. And coming up, Shifting the hips and lowering the knees. Coming up, Shifting the hips and lowering the knees. And just keep going in your own timing. See if you can go a little bit faster. Exhaling down, Inhaling up. Exhaling down, Inhaling up. Just keep going. Alright, And then just relax. Draw the knees in. Maybe lower your feet to the floor for a moment and let's lift up into bridge pose just to get a bit of breath into the belly and just stretching out the abdominals. You can have the feet a little bit apart. Alright, And then lower the hips back down. Draw the knees in again. Okay, So let's extend the right leg and we're going to let the left knee fall to the floor, Coming into a twist. And your shoulder may be a little bit may come off the floor. That's okay. You can just bend at the elbow and just rest with your hand just below your ribs. And just take a moment here. And then draw the knee back and change sides. So hug your right knee in and then let the knee fall all the way to the floor. You might hear some cracks in your spine. You can bend at the elbow and just have the hand below the ribs. It's just such a nice, Simple, Passive twist. And then come back to center. Extend both legs. Raise the arms up and bring the palms to touch and then interlace the thumbs. Walk your feet all the way over to the left and then move your torso to the left and come into a C-shape stretch. So it's a little bit like blown palm, Only both feet are also over to the left. And then come back to center and walk your feet over to the right, Not too far, And then lean over to the right. So just tuning in. Maybe there's some bits that aren't so comfortable in this, So you just work with what feels good. And then coming back to center and then let's just let everything relax. So coming into a Shavasana position. Feet fall open. Palms face upwards. Back of the neck long. Maybe just turn the head right and left. And let's just take a few moments here just to be quiet. Really noticing the different sensations in your body from all those twists. Maybe you feel more heat and energy around the abdominal area. Maybe you can feel sensation at the back of the ribs. So Shavasana, What's lovely about Shavasana is it's a real opportunity for prana to redistribute itself. It's called pranasvarana. So prana is just energy, Life force. We could think of it as our circulation. If you don't want to use Sanskrit or any kind of terms like that. And circulation is happening all over the body. So when you're in Shavasana and you're totally relaxed, You're just letting the circulation go where it wants to go and feeding the areas where maybe you haven't been getting enough circulation. So that's called pranasvarana. So letting go of that sense of needing to do anything or undo anything. And just feeling the effortlessness of lying here. Think about how the heart is just beating effortlessly. Or that the breath is coming and going effortlessly. Alright, So just gently move your fingers and your toes. We're going to finish with a visualization. Sort of a short focused concentration practice. So just moving your fingers and toes and rolling onto your side and bringing yourself back up to a seated position. And then just making sure that you're sitting comfortably. And we're going to come into a shape with our hands. So this is a triangle mudra. And we're going to place the triangle right. . . The two fingers are just above the navel, Just below the ribs. And then the other four fingers are resting. So that you're making this triangle shape. And just close your eyes and visualize that you're placing a red velvet triangle over the navel area. So this is a yantra. The yantra for the solar plexus, The navel. And yantras are diagrams which relate to sound. Kind of the physical equivalent or the geometrical equivalent of sound. So the sound here, The bija mantra or the seed sound is. . . And if you made the sound out loud. . . You'd actually feel this area moving back. So you might like to try that a couple of times. But instead of doing it out loud, We're just going to hold the mudra and visualize the shape of the red triangle and internally chant that sound, Ram. So in a very subtle way, We're bringing our awareness and our energy into that whole abdominal region. And they say that the second brain is in the gut. In fact, There's more microbes in our gut than anywhere else. Trillions and trillions. And a balanced gut contributes to a balanced mind. So let your belly go here. Really breathe into the shape. Chanting the sound internally and visualizing that red velvet triangle. And then just release, Sliding your hands over your thighs, Over your knees, Into your calf muscles. You can massage the soles of your feet, Maybe rubbing from your big toe down to your little toe. And then just bring your palms to touch and just take a moment here for yourself. Notice the sensations and feelings in your body. Things that may have been released. Things that have been energized. And may whatever insights come to you through the practice, May that be a touchstone for the rest of your week. Om Ram Ramaya Namaha. Namaste.