When the mind gets really busy and is all over the place,
It's hard to just boom come to stillness.
We actually need that transition.
We need to move.
So that's what we're gonna do today.
We're gonna bring some movement.
We're gonna start kind of strong and then we're gonna slowly start to slow down so that at the end we can really sit and be still.
So come to all fours and find a few rounds of cat-cow for yourself.
Dropping the belly looking up and then rounding the back.
I'll start to adjust your breath so that it matches the inhale is the opening and the exhale is the closing.
Big breath in and big breath out.
And maybe you even make some circles with the hips.
Maybe the cat-cow is too still.
So feel free to do that one way and then the other way.
Might be some cracking and popping that you hear.
And then once you get to a point where you've moved a good amount,
You're gonna lift your right knee up with the foot towards the ceiling and then open the right knee out and then back in.
And we're gonna make some circles like this with the right leg.
And the tendency is going to be for the rest of my body to get all over the place.
See if you can keep the shoulders really still.
The left leg and the left hip really still.
And the only thing that's moving is the right leg.
A few more like this.
You're gonna feel it in the glutes.
You're gonna feel in the outer hip.
And then go the other direction.
So out,
Up,
In.
It's gonna feel really weird.
And same thing.
See if you can keep the rest of the body out of the equation.
It's just the hip.
Bring the right knee down.
Cat-cow.
Drop the belly.
And then round the back.
Two more.
And then lift the left knee up with the left foot up.
Left knee out,
Left knee in.
It's the same thing.
Some circles with the left leg.
With the knee bent.
And notice if you can keep the upper body out of the equation.
If you can keep the right hip out of the equation.
If you can use both hands to support you rather than lean heavily on the right hand.
And then go ahead and reverse.
So out,
Up,
In.
This side is always,
This reversing is always weird.
A few more.
See if you can bring a little bit of fun and joy to it.
And then bring the left knee down.
Walk your hands forward.
Downward facing dog,
Please.
And you can move in your down dog.
And you can be,
Or you can be very still right away.
Just be where you are.
If you need movement,
Actually accentuate the movement.
You can kind of pedal through the feet heavily.
Or you can let your body be still and notice the movement of the mind.
That's okay too.
And when you're ready,
Walk your feet all the way to the front of your mat.
Fold over your legs with Tanasana.
And right away,
Roll all the way to stand.
So we're not stopping.
We're moving,
Right?
Hands to heart.
Reach your arms up.
Big breath in.
Exhale,
Fold forward.
Big breath out.
Inhale,
Lift halfway up.
Maybe hands on blocks for the first one.
And then exhale,
Plant your hands.
Step your feet back.
Plank pose.
Inhale,
Breathe in.
Drop the feet,
The knees down.
Lower all the way.
Baby Cobra.
Inhale.
And then exhale,
Down dog.
Take a breath in.
Look at your hands.
Bring your feet together.
Step or jump to the front of your mat.
Lift halfway up.
Inhale.
And fold.
Exhale.
All the way to stand.
Urdhva Hastasana.
Inhale.
And fold forward.
Exhale.
So it's not chaotic.
It's not hectic.
But it's movement.
Lift halfway.
And then step back to plank.
So that movement,
Breathe in,
Is actually regulated.
It starts to be regulated.
Lower all the way.
Maybe a little higher.
Cobra.
Big breath in.
So we're going with it.
Tuck toes under.
Downward facing dog.
But we're starting to manage it a little bit more.
On your exhale,
Step or jump.
Front of your mat.
Lift halfway.
Inhale.
And fold.
Exhale.
So it's not managing us.
We're managing it.
Come all the way to stand.
Last one.
Fold forward.
Exhale.
Lift halfway.
Plenty of hands.
Call it your plank pose.
And then if you want chaturanga on your exhale,
You can go for it.
Or you can keep the knees down.
Maybe up dog.
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana.
You can stay with cobra.
And then downward facing dog.
Exhale.
Take a breath in.
And then exhale.
Lift your right leg up.
Big breath in.
Hug your right knee to your chest.
Step your right foot forward.
And then come to front heel.
In your arch of the back foot,
Virabhadrasana 2.
Lift yourself up.
Peaceful warrior.
Right arm over the ear.
Inhale.
Lengthen the right leg.
Triangle pose.
And it doesn't need to be super aligned,
But be mindful of engaging through the legs.
We're more interested in moving today.
Movement going with the flow of prana.
Bend the right knee.
Come back to warrior 2.
And then as you exhale,
Bring your hands down.
Step back to plank pose.
Inhale in plank pose.
So be mindful.
I'm going to pause you for a second.
Be mindful of moving but regulating the breath and regulating the movement.
Lower all the way down or chaturanga.
Up dog or cobra.
Inhale.
And then downward facing dog.
Exhale.
Lift the left leg up.
Inhale.
Left knee to chest.
Left foot forward.
And then heel to arch.
Come up to Virabhadrasana 2.
Settle on the exhale.
Peaceful warrior.
Left arm over the ear.
Inhale.
Lengthen left leg.
Trikonasana.
Exhale.
And then pause here for a breath.
Go with the movement and get back to reining it in.
Bend the left knee.
Come back up to warrior 2.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Hands down.
Step your left foot back to plank pose.
Knees down or chaturanga.
Up dog or cobra.
Big breath in.
Downward facing dog.
Big breath out.
We're going to do that again and add extended side angle.
Inhale.
Right leg up.
Right knee in.
Right foot forward.
It's the last round that we're moving heavily.
Come up to Virabhadrasana 2.
Peaceful warrior.
Inhale to Trikonasana.
Triangle pose.
Exhale.
Inhale and exhale in triangle pose.
Then bend your right knee.
Elbow to thigh.
And then you're going to sweep the left arm forward and then over the ear.
And we're starting to open the side body which can get a little closed off when Pitta gets high.
So opening the side body helps bring more space to Pitta which is also linked to Rajas,
Which is linked to movement,
Which is linked to Vata.
Lots of things happening here.
Come back to warrior 2.
Big breath in.
And exhale.
Hands down.
Plank pose to chaturanga or knees down.
Inhale.
Up dog.
And exhale.
Down dog.
Left leg up.
Inhale.
Left knee to chest.
Left foot forward.
That's the last one.
You're almost there.
Come up.
Virabhadrasana 2.
So stay with it.
Peaceful warrior.
2 triangle pose.
Stay your breath in triangle pose.
Trikonasana.
And then bend the left knee.
And sweep the right arm forward,
Up,
And then over the ear.
And notice all the space that is created on the right side.
Get really energized through the right leg.
So you have length from the heel of the right foot to the right fingertips.
Come back to Virabhadrasana 2.
Inhale.
And then exhale.
Hands down.
Plank pose to chaturanga or knees down.
Lower.
Up dog.
Okay.
Inhale.
Cobra.
Inhale.
And exhale.
Downward facing dog.
All right.
Paws in down dog.
Here we go.
We're going to start to slow things down to get a little bit more intentional and to get the upper hand on rajas,
On energy going a little crazy all over the place,
The mind especially.
Look forward and step your right foot about where your right hand is.
Anchor your left heel down and come up to Virabhadrasana 1,
Warrior 1.
So you have your two feet on two lanes on your mat.
See if you can start to round the left hip forward.
If this doesn't work for you,
You can come to a high lunge.
That's totally fine.
Okay.
So we've moved.
We've moved.
We went with the movement.
Now let's start to slow it down.
We're still going to move,
But we're moving in a more intentional way.
Interlace your fingers behind your back.
Lift the chest.
Maybe look up.
Inhale.
And then start to fold over your right leg,
Devotional warrior.
Exhale.
If the interlacing of the fingers doesn't work,
You can open your arms.
And then breathe.
Hug your right hip in so you're centered,
Grounded.
Come back up to warrior 1.
Inhale.
Lift your left heel up and come to a high lunge.
So you might need to adjust your stance slightly.
Hands to heart.
Big breath in.
Get settled.
Get grounded.
On your exhale,
Find a twist to the right.
It could be left hand down,
Right arm up.
Or you can start to hook left elbow to right knee.
And you want to engage through the left leg either way.
Actually lift the left hip just a bit so it's back in line with the right hip.
Another breath here,
Everybody.
Come back up.
Arms up.
High lunge.
Inhale.
Exhale.
High lunge.
Step your left foot to your right as you bring your hands to a heart.
And find Utkatasana.
Take a moment.
So you want toes pointing forward,
Knees pointing forward,
And inner thighs hugging in.
Still movement,
But again,
Start to use the,
We're using the body to manipulate the mind really,
Which is the beauty of Ayurvedic yoga.
On your next exhale,
Find a twist.
Left elbow,
Right knee.
And see if you can reach the left hip a little bit further back.
Great.
Come back up,
Utkatasana,
Chair Pose.
Fold forward,
Uttanasana.
Slow.
Exhale.
Lift halfway up.
Inhale.
Mindful stepping back to Plank Pose.
And then either Chaturanga or knees down.
It's up to you.
Up Dog.
Inhale.
Down Dog.
Exhale.
Stay in your Down Dog.
Take a breath.
Ground yourself.
Start to slow down the energetic makeup of your body.
Slow down the energetic makeup of your mind.
Look forward and on your exhale,
Step your left foot where your left hand is.
Anchor your right heel down.
Come up,
Virabhadrasana I.
And then take a moment to kind of adjust.
Lift up through the crown of the head.
Anchor through the feet.
Round the right hip forward.
Big breath in.
Big breath out.
Interlace your fingers the weird way behind you.
Open the chest.
Maybe look up.
Inhale.
And then devotional warrior exhale.
Fold over the left leg.
And breathe.
Hug the left hip in.
Release the head down.
Come back up where you want.
And then lift that right heel up.
Hands to heart.
Exhale.
Settle.
Get grounded.
Inhale.
And on the exhale,
Twist towards the left.
So either right hand down,
Left arm up.
Or you can hook right elbow outside of left knee.
And wherever you are,
Re-engage through the right leg.
Right leg is really steadying you,
Anchoring you down.
Lift that right hip just a tad.
It tends to sink.
Come back up.
High lunge.
Inhale.
And then hands to heart as you bring your right foot to your left.
Utkatasana.
Bend the knees,
Drop the hips.
And hands to heart.
Big breath in.
Use the belly to stabilize you.
Exhale.
Twist to the left.
Right elbow to left knee.
And you might notice that right knee creeping forward.
You can start to release the right hip back.
And then come back up.
Chair pose.
Exhale.
Fold.
Slow,
Slow,
Slow.
Uttanasana.
Lift halfway.
Inhale.
And then this time bend the knees and take a seat.
Okay.
Actually swing your legs behind you.
Bring your knees down.
Sit back on your heels.
And go to child's pose.
Yeah,
You're welcome.
I'm going to put a block under my head so you can still hear me.
Big inhale.
I would suggest arms reaching back so you can start to soften.
But we're not completely stopping.
We're starting to slow down.
So lift yourself back up.
Yeah.
Tuck your toes under.
And bring your right hand to your right heel.
And then lift the left arm up as you lift your hips.
Exhale.
Come down.
Switch your hands.
Reach your right arm up.
Exhale down.
Switch.
Inhale up.
So continue with the movement but notice there's a different type of energy here.
There's a lot more softness.
There's a lot more control but not control in a rigid way as in controlling more intention as control.
So keep going a few more times.
And then come back down.
Child's pose.
Slow down the breath.
And wave.
Slow down the breath.
Slow down the body.
Slow down the mind.
Lift yourself back up.
And take a moment.
Pause.
Notice how you feel.
How's your body in this moment and how's your mind?
And it may still be kind of,
The mind might be all over the place but it's like water in a lake.
It gets really busy and cloudy and then notice how you can start to let the dirt settle down to the bottom.
We stirred the water on purpose because by the way it was already cloudy.
And now we're going to intentionally remove the stick out of the water and let the water calm down.
Open your eyes if they're closed and reach your legs in front of you.
Both legs in front of you.
You might move them a little bit.
You're going to bend your left knee.
Bring your left foot to the ground.
And as you do that,
Right leg gets really strong.
Flex the right foot strongly and then open the left knee to the left side.
And usually that right hip is forward.
See if you can reach it back a little bit.
Come to your fingertips.
Open the chest.
Big breath in.
And then exhale.
Start to fold forward any amount.
It doesn't have to be big.
The forward fold is an opportunity,
A tool for what we're doing.
It's not the goal in itself.
And now we're going to start to regulate the breath a little bit more so that we can regulate the mind a little bit more.
So go ahead and take an exhale please.
And then inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Last one.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Lift yourself back up.
Notice what's happening.
It's magic.
Lift your left knee up to the ceiling and then lengthen your left leg.
Bend your right knee.
Bring it up to the ceiling.
Take a moment to get tall.
And then flex that left foot once you're still there.
Engage with the left leg.
Open the right knee out.
Again,
This is a moment of readjusting where we are encouraging the left hip back.
Come to your fingertips.
Big breath in.
And then as you exhale,
Start to lower down towards your left leg.
Then once you're there,
Take a nice exhale.
There's no rush.
Then inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Last one.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Lift yourself back up.
Take a moment.
Right knee up.
Right leg long.
Give your legs a little shake.
And then we're going to continue to open the sides of the body.
So right leg long.
Left foot in towards you.
You might want to sit on something that feels a little wonky.
And then flex that right foot.
Same thing.
So toe straight up.
Knee aligned.
And we're going to really adjust the torso so that it's right in the middle.
From there,
You might want to block on the outside of that right leg.
We'll lift straight up.
Inhale.
And then straight to the side.
So there's no turning.
See if you can really get right elbow to the block.
You could reach the ground.
And then reach the left arm over the ear.
I'm not mirroring you this time.
Big breath in.
And then bend the left elbow and place your left hand behind your head and see if you can rest your head and your hands.
And then from there,
Reengage the right leg a little bit.
Exhale.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Finding a rhythm.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Last one.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Last one.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Use your right hand to lift yourself back up.
Release the left hand and then go ahead and switch sides.
So mindfully,
Right?
We're moving but the movement is really regulated.
Right foot comes in and then take a moment to adjust yourself.
So where does your right foot want to be?
Can you flex the left foot?
And once you get there,
Find the hip point straight in the middle of everything.
Grab your block if you want it.
Reach your arms up.
Inhale.
Straight to the side.
Left elbow to the block.
And then bend the right elbow.
Find the right hand behind your head.
Exhale,
Exhale,
Exhale.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Last one.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Lift yourself back up.
Use the left hand down.
Extend that right leg.
Open both legs.
And you might need both blocks here.
Upavishthakonasana.
So we went to Janu Sirsasana to Pavrita Janu Sirsasana and then we'll close with Upavishthakonasana which is again with a lot of fiery,
Moving,
Mental energy.
We need to both work with air and fire.
So we're working with fire right now.
We're opening everything so the fire can exit.
Flex both feet and then find a moment of center.
Lift really up high.
And exhale.
Proud.
Open and then start to fold any amount.
So it doesn't need to be the craziest fold that you've ever taken.
Just a fold.
Like I could go further but I don't really want to right now.
This feels really good.
So you could be right here.
Take an exhale.
And we're going to slow down and lengthen the count for this one.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Last one.
Inhale.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Exhale.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Take a breath in.
And then exhale.
Slowly make your way back up.
Good job.
You can place your blocks to the side and use your hands to lift your legs.
It's really useful to have hands to support the rest of the body.
And you can give your legs a little shake.
We'll close with a few twists.
So you'll want the left leg long and you're going to bring your right knee up.
And you want to find this.
.
.
Let me face you.
You want to find this really tall spine and take a deep breath in.
This is Marichyasana 3.
Lift the arms up and then twist towards the right side.
And you can either have your left hand wrapping around or you can have the left elbow outside of the knee.
So depending on what's happening in the body.
I like at first to use my right hand really as leverage to lift my chest.
But it's not a forcing action.
It's,
Oh,
Let me see what is already there that I can access.
That I can access.
Big breath in and a big breath out.
Yeah,
Wrapping feels better in my body today this way.
So see what happens for you.
Left leg is a little bit part of the equation but not too much.
So same thing.
We're twisting.
We're opening so that this fire,
This excess rajas and pitta can get out of the body.
And then come back to center.
You might find a small counter twist.
And then we'll switch.
So right leg long.
Left foot to the ground.
Left knee up.
And then take a moment.
Don't rush into the twist.
Take a moment to be tall.
Reach your arms up.
And then twist to the left.
And you might use again that left hand to kind of prop the spine straight up.
You might feel that both sides are different.
This feels a lot better than the other side for me.
So feel free to do something different from one side than the other.
Something that serves your body.
And notice how the mind is at this moment.
A little different.
Slightly the same.
Creating more space.
Come back to center.
Extend both legs.
Give them a little shake.
And then make your way to your back please.
We'll take one more twist before settling to shavasana.
So have both feet onto the ground.
Knees bent.
Arms open next to you.
Bring your knees to your chest and then squeeze.
Give yourself a hug.
So again we're playing with contraction and expansion with pitta.
With this part of the class.
We had movement.
We addressed air.
And now we're addressing fire and releasing fire.
Cactus your arms.
Move your hips to the right and drop both knees to the left.
Breathe.
And here you're starting to actually release the effort.
So we were intentionally going into the twist previously.
The standing twist.
And the seated twist.
Here we're starting to let the twist happen to us.
And then come back to center.
And squeeze again.
So squeezing and then expanding.
Squeezing and then releasing.
Contraction and then expansion.
We need both.
We can't just have the expansion.
And or we can't just have the settling down.
Sometimes we need the extreme opposite.
Cactus the arms.
Move your hips to the left.
Drop your knees to the right.
It's useful to acknowledge and to use the extreme we kind of suffer from.
Whether that's contraction or too much movement.
Give yourself a few more cycles of breath.
And then come back to center.
Feet down,
Knees up.
Big breath in and big breath out of the mouth.
Lengthen your legs.
And settle for Shavasana.
And if you need any props,
Use your props.
Do not skip Shavasana.
This is really important because this is where,
This is why we did everything we did.
So that we can then let the mind settle.
Let the dirt fully settle at the bottom of the pond or the lake.
Now is where we reap the benefits.
Take an exhale.
And slowly inhale.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
And six.
And then exhale.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Continue a few more rounds like this.
And if you can get to six or seven on the exhale,
Without straining,
Without efforting,
Try that.
Just a few more rounds like this.
And after your next exhale,
Let everything go.
Let the breath go.
Soften your face.
Let your body be still.
And let your mind do what it does.
If it's still busy,
That's fine.
But maybe it's a little bit calmer.
Don't focus too much on it.
The more you focus on the mind being busy,
The busier it gets.
So allow yourself to be for just a minute or so.
Is there any part of your body that you can relax just a bit more right now?
And I'm going to encourage you to stay one minute longer than you feel you want to.
And then that minute,
Focus on relaxing your body even more.
Focus on relaxing your mind even more.
Not through work,
Not through effort,
But through surrender.
Stay here for as long as feels nourishing.
