Duality: Aries Energy Yoga

This yoga practice explores the dynamic energy of the Aries sign in the zodiac. After centering and a warm-up, we take postures that balance bold and introspective energy with postures that help you claim your space and step into your power. We're big and bold, but we also find time to fold and notice our feelings. This practice ends with a full 7-minute savasana to allow the practice to integrate physically and spiritually.

Transcript

Hello and welcome and thank you for choosing me to share your yoga practice with today. My name is Ashley and we are going to do a practice today that focuses on the energy of the Aries astrological sign. I am an Aries and the energy of an Aries is one that is confident and bold. But also has the ability to be self-aware and vulnerable as well. So the poses we'll be taking today are a cross between power poses and forward bending to help us understand and realize how these poses are affecting our spirit and our bodies. So we're going to start with some centering. If it feels safe for you, I'd like you to close down your eyes or you can keep a soft gaze. Sitting in a comfortable seat perhaps on a blanket or maybe a pillow or the floor Feel the ways in which your body comes in contact with the earth. And if you'd like to, Let's do palms face up to receive. Sitting, Noticing your breath. Noticing how your body feels in this moment. And for our visualization today, I'd like you to picture a fire. Burning on top of still water. Where I live in New England, We have an event in Providence, Rhode Island called the Water Fires, And it's beautiful because it's basically fire burning on top of water. It seems like something that doesn't go together. It seems like. . . Something magical. But it happens. And it's this balance of fire and water that creates a balanced Aries. So today in that class, I'm going to come back to that visualization of fire burning and the still water to keep it centered. And I'd like you to think about what that means for you spiritually. And how it can apply to your life. We're going to do three deep breaths together. Inhale through the nose. Sigh it out with control. Two more times, Deep breath through the nose. Filling up all through the diaphragm. Exhale. The last time filling up as much as you can. And exhale. Stillness for a second. Swallow in your throat. Blink open the eyes. Ready to begin. We're going to start with some neck rolls so bringing your hands face down on your knees just for stability. Chin comes to the chest. Roll your right ear over. To your right shoulder. Gently roll through center, Left ear to left shoulder. Roll through center. Right ear, Right shoulder. If there are any parts of this neck roll that feel extra sticky, Feel free to work out that stickiness and stay a little bit longer. You could even go back and forth in that sticky spot to help release. Last time on the right. Breathing, Finding a side where it feels right. Meet me in the middle. Chin rises. Beautiful. Rolling those shoulders back. Shaking it out a little bit if you need to. We're going to do a gentle twist. Bring your right hand to your left knee. Other hand tense on the floor below you to help you with height. Hmm. Attempting to twist from our ribs rather than just our shoulders. You can even assist yourself by pulling those ribs a little bit further. To help them come along with those shoulders. Gently walking through center. And then we'll take the other side. So bringing your left arm over to your right knee. With staying. Guiding the ribs over. Finding height through your head. The crown of your head lifts to the ceiling, The shoulders drop down to the earth so the heart can lift as well. Breathing through this. Lubricating the spine. On your next exhale, Come back to center. We're going to invite a little bit of movement here. Just small circles sitting here awakening a little bit of energy. Doesn't matter which direction you start in. You could be following me. You could have went the opposite way. It's all correct. We'll be doing the other side very soon. As you come forward, Maybe accentuate the heart, Almost like. That cowl position, And as you come back, Accentuate. Rounding of the spine like a cat position. If you'd like to integrate breath, On the back we exhale, On the front we inhale. So inhale here, Exhale here. Quiet the movement, Find a neutral spine. And in the middle, We're gonna bring our arms up. And we're going to expand by bringing our arms down to cactus. Hold this cactus position. Take up all the space you can here. That's what an Aries does best. Open up those arms even wider and receive. Receive goodness, Receive joy. If you aren't an Aries, Become an Aries. Feel confident. Back up to cactus. Bring those elbows together, A little bit of a shoulder stretch. If you can't meet your forearms, You can always stop wherever it stops for you. And just think about energetically trying to bring those arms together. The forums do touch. Try to keep your shoulders down. For me, I'm about an inch away. Once I bring my forearms together, Those shoulders rise a little bit too far. Beautiful, Release that. We're going to change our legs. So if your legs were right in front or left in front, You're going to switch it. To keep us even. And now we'll take the circles opposite direction. So in the front. In the back right we're inhaling in the front exhaling in the back as we hollow out. This also helps to open our hips. Beautiful. We're going to quiet the movement again. Just find stillness for a second. Then we'll try a little bit of a forward bend, But we're going to bring our legs out straight to Dandasana first. Now this is just a little bit of a hamstring opener. Yes, We're still warming up. So I'd like you to walk your hands only to maybe mid-shin. If you can't quite get to the mid-shin, I'd like you to just stay at your knees and stay tall in this staff pose, Dandasana. So here, Your shoulders are probably rounded forward. Open your hands and roll the shoulders back. Reaches the ceiling. Beautiful. If you'd like to shift a little bit more forward without lifting the shoulders or rounding the back, Please do. Energy in the feet, Toes are active. And then slip your hands down and walk it back. Okay, I'm going to be turning to the side. If you have your mat vertical, You can stay where you are. I just need to change directions. Tabletop position. We're going to sit back to child's pose. Heels meet the glutes if possible. Hands come forward. Lengthen the spine. Breathing here. If you'd like to roll back and forth on your forehead. You can. If you're spiritual like me, I think about my third eye here, My intuition. It's waking it up. One more breath. And push back up to tabletop. So we will now face the long side of the mat. So if you're not there, Let's come there. We're going to be on our knees for a little while. If you have a blanket nearby to help cushion, You can totally use it. You can even pause me and grab one. To come onto my blanket. We're about to go through half poses and that'll just help us introduce some of the ways I want to put you into the pose and notice it in your body. So we're going to be taking a half warrior two, Taking the right leg out first. We're just going to be focusing on the front leg. So what I'd like you to first notice is how you can get a vertical shin. So vertical shin means the knee and the ankle are stacked. You're just going to shift that foot around until that happens. Just look at it, Right? And then I want you to feel the opening happening in the groin. Your knee might cave in to make it easier, Especially if you're tight in here. Think about pushing back into the outer blade of that foot and that'll help pull the knee back as well. Another visualization I can give you is a bungee cord pulling back from the back of your knee to the glute and back of this bent leg. So whichever one works for you. Your hips are going to be squared toward me. So as soon as you do that, You're going to notice a huge opening up in that front knee. When we do this standing, You don't have to have as deep of a bend, But this is a great stretch to help prepare for that. Good job. Alright, We're going to take those toes and turn them toward me but also extend the leg out. So, I'm just shifting my leg over now for this if you have blocks and if you don't it's okay you can use anything that resembles a block it could be a book be pillows anything that brings the earth higher. If you have blocks you can place them in front. From here, You can stay in this position, Because this is a huge inner thigh stretch. That's enough. You're like, I'm good. You stay here. If you want to try a little bit more of a stretch, I am shifting my hips backwards. So bending more into this knee, Keeping the leg on the floor the way it is. It's going to help stretch out your inner thigh. In a different way. One more breath. Gently use your hands to shift those hips forward, Coming to the knees. If you want to sit back, Shake it out a little bit, Maybe your wrists. Felt a little wonky after that go for it. We're going to take the other side so starting with now your left leg stepping out to the side finding that vertical shin once again shifting your foot figuring it out Give yourself grace here. Okay, From here. Thinking about pressing into the outer blade of that front foot to help correct the knee or visualizing the bungee cord coming from the back of the knee to the back of the glute here. Then attempt to turn those hips toward me and feel the opening happening in the groin. Hands can be on your hips for stability. The first time I was just hanging out in this pose. You can also if you're feeling like you need to have a heart center here, Go for it. We're gonna take our toes forward. Extend that leg out. And this side might feel different than the other side. So if you find that this side you could sit back when the other side you can't or vice versa, It's all grace. Whatever it is, Just notice it, Accept it. And there's no right or wrong here. If you feel like you'd like to sit back. Go for it. Using your blocks to help you keep your back flat. Shoulders are down, Heart is lifting. You might also feel a little bit of a stretch on the bent leg. One more breath. Hips come forward beautiful job all right i'm bringing my knee in shaking it out if you need to we're going to bring those blocks out of the way for now we will need them later or if you don't have blocks no worries i'm turning sideways just so i can use my mat here taking my blanket out of the way Hands to the earth. Tuck the toes, Lift your hips downward dog. This is just a transitionary pose. Last minute stretch for the hamstrings. Walking it out, Pressing the heels down to the mat if you can, Leaving them lifted if you have tight hamstrings. Finding stillness. Deep bend in the knees, Look forward, And walk toward the hands. Bent knees, Roll up slowly, Safely coming up to standing. And we're going to start with our mountain pose. So standing on the mat, Finding the four corners of the feet, Roll the shoulders back, Open the heart. Roll the inner thighs back. Wrists are heavy, Heart is lifting, Throat is lifting, Head is lifting. Yes. Take a moment to notice. Close down the eyes if it feels comfortable. If your eyes were closed in mountain pose, Please open them. We're going to start our first pose sequence. If you have blocks, I'd like you to have them on the left side of your mat in the front, Both blocks on the left side. Stepping your feet wide. Three and a half to four feet apart, Taking the left toes and turning them. Sideways, Similar to what we did in our warm-up, We're going to bend into that front leg. Shift that foot around until you figure out the vertical shin. It could be the front foot, It could be the back foot. Back toes can turn slightly inward, Pressing into the outer blade of that foot and the outer blade of this foot to help bring stability to your body. Think about pulling the mat apart with your legs. Warrior two is one of those power poses we talked about. So now that we're standing, I want us to think about our pelvis being neutral. Think about a tether coming from your tailbone to the earth, Almost like a third place of stability. We're going to start with our back arm first. Bring your thumb to your shoulder and reach back. This is going to keep your shoulder down. Same thing with the front, Thumb to shoulder. Reach forward, Keeping your body aligned toward me. It's going to be tempting to turn toward that front leg. Keep your body square. With the long side of your mat. Look forward if you can. If it's uncomfortable, Just look at me. You got it. Feel the power of this pose. Lots of strength in the legs. Beautiful. On an inhale, Straighten the front leg. Hands come to the heart. We're going to turn this into a flow. So it's going to be inhale arms here. Exhale back into warrior two. Inhale arms here. Exhale warrior two on the inhale you can look forward on the exhale toward the front leg. Inhale neutral. Exhale, Yes. Two more times. In her last time here. Hold it. Beautiful. Straighten out the front leg. We're going to bring our blocks a little bit closer. If you'd like to come out of the pose, You can. So if you can reach them. I'm going to show two blocks. You can stack a block like this so one block is flat, One block is on top. I have the same footprint as before. You can bring the block wherever it feels comfortable for you. So if you feel like you need to shift it, Please do. I'm actually going to be demonstrating a block in the front and a block in the back a little bit later on so we can try both. Straightening out the front leg, We're now going to try triangle. So it's the same footprint as before. If you came out of it, Come back into it. Legs wide, Toes facing the front part of the mat, Left toes, And our right toes inward slightly. Triangle pose starts with a shift forward toward the front leg. And then it's about rotating. So notice how I haven't used my arms yet. That's because a lot of people just want to dump into the pose and reach their arms up because they think that's the shape. But in my training, I learned that triangle is more about reaching up and opening towards the ceiling than it is reaching down for that front leg. So that's why our blocks are here. Tallest position helps you rotate. And what I'd like us to do is hold our heart. Beautiful. This position, Yes, We're working hard, But when we put our hand on the heart, It reminds us to be in tune with our bodies. The flow here is going to be a reach, Inhale, Exhale down to the heart. One more. Beautiful. To come out of the pose, We're actually going to take warrior two one more time. Bend into the front leg. If your blocks are in the way, You can move them out of the way because we are going to parallel our feet. And our holding position here is going to be a little bit of a forward bend. We're only going to go halfway today. So sitting those hips back. If your blocks are here, You can use them. Highest position. Both hands on the block. Beautiful sitting back through the hips to open the hamstrings. If these blocks are too low, You can always put your hands on your thighs and stay up here as well, Keeping a flat back and shoulders away from the ears. This is our moment of introspection. After some powerful poses. Two more breaths here. Feel free to go deeper if you'd like, Keeping a flat back. If you went deeper, Come up halfway. Flat back here. And then strengthen your feet, Push against the earth, Hands to your hips, Hamstring work coming all the way up. Beautiful. Take the other side. So now we'll take our right toes. Turn them forward. Walks can be nearby. So I'm actually going to place them in the position I need them for triangle right now. Bend into the front leg, We are going to start with warrior two. So like we practiced in our warm-up, Pressing into the long edge of the foot, Maybe the toes come in slightly on that left side, Pressing into the outer edge of that foot as well. Arms. Back arm, Thumb to shoulder, Reach back. Front arm, Thumb to shoulder. Reach forward. Hips turn toward me. Or are you too? Energy through the fingertips here. With our flow. Inhale, Hands to heart. Exhale warrior to inhale hands to heart. Exhale warrior to We'll do one more. And hold. Feel the power. The power of you. This is all you. Powerful energy. And then we'll straighten that front leg. If you need to get out of the pose and shake it out, Please do. And then when you're ready, You can come back in. We're going to take triangle. Same footprint as before, So if you shook it out, Come into the stance first. I'll give you a second or two. We're gonna shift our body toward that right leg. And we're going to reach down for the blocks with our fingertips. And then take your body and rotate. Another option I should have mentioned earlier, You can also use a chair as your block as well. So you can bring it right up to the front leg and that'll give you the stability here. Or if that's unavailable, You can put your hand on your thigh as well to help with stability. Hand to the heart, Turning toward the ceiling. Arm can reach up. Inhale here, Exhale, Tap the heart. Coming back to ourselves, Feeling our power. Feeling our life force energy. One more time, Hold that triangle pose. Hand can be up or hand can be on your heart. Whatever you're feeling the most today. I'm going to release the pose by bending into the front leg, Warrior two. Parallel the toes maybe move your block a little bit if you'd like to bring your feet a little bit closer you can this time instead of bending we're going to take five pointed star first. Take up as much space as you can. And then we're going to actually enter into goddess pose. So taking both toes out, Let me move these blocks out of the way so you can see what I'm doing. Both toes out. Bend into the legs as much as your body wants because I know we just did a lot of powerful poses if you want to keep this up up higher you can arms up elbows come down cactus goddess arms yes Tuck your tailbone forward slightly. Feel the opening of both groins this time. It's almost like Warrior 2 with both legs now, Right? It's a lot. But you have it. You have this. Keep saying that to yourself, I have this. Keep breathing through it. One more breath. On the exhale, Up to five-pointed star. One more time. Beautiful. We have one more power pose to take on each side. Hands come to heart center. Toes can parallel. Take some time. This time I'm going to have you try to do the blocks in the back. So we'll do a flat block. We'll do a high block. If you have a chair or something, You can put it behind your leg as well. Taking the warrior two stance with your left toes again. So left toes forward, Other toes coming in. Bending into warrior two, Arms out. From here, We're going to angle our front body, So we're angling. Toward the front leg. Arm can reach for the block behind you, Or arm can be on your thigh. I have my forearm resting on my thigh. Thumb to shoulder, Reach up, Side angle pose. You can adjust your feet if you want to get a larger pose and more. Energy into the pose. The wider your stance, The harder it is. I'm going to leave that up to you. Still looking for that vertical shin. Reaching for the block, If that's available. So this pose combines the twisting from triangle with warrior 2. See if you can bring that heart toward the sky. You are powerful. We're channeling the Aries, The fire on top of the water. Bend into the front leg warrior two. Parallel those toes. And this time we're just shaking out those hips. Great work. Shake out the hands if you need to and we're going to shift over to the other side. So taking those blocks. Behind the foot this time. You can also omit the blocks, Right? Now our right toes turn. Taking a Warrior 2 stance. Bending into the front leg, Vertical shin. And take our thumb to the back shoulder, Thumb to the front shoulder. Pressing into the outer blades of the feet. Now we're going to angle toward the front leg, Thumb to shoulder. Side angle pose maybe looking into the inner elbow grabbing for the block if you have it handy behind you. And use that leverage to twist even more toward the ceiling. The sun just started shining. What a beautiful moment. Breathe. One more breath. Deep bend into the front leg warrior two. Parallel the toes. This time we're going to heel toe our feet in. And our moment of stillness, The still water. Take your blocks in front of you if you need them. We all need them, Really. We're gonna come from our hip crease. Hips come back. We're going to take Uttanasana forward bend. So reaching down for the blocks first. Seeing how it feels, Maybe rocking back and forth in your toes. Coming further if you must, If you feel it, If you want to. And adjust the blocks. Shoulders away from the ears. If you prefer, Elbows can grab the floor. Taking more of a ragdoll. You can also rock side to side. This is your moment of stillness and introspection. Are counteracting of that fiery energy we took in all of our power poses today. Slow, Deep breaths. Perhaps you can make the exhale longer than the inhale. On your next exhale, Maybe you need to adjust your blocks. We're going to come up halfway. One breath here. Deep bend in the knees, Push all the way up to standing. Beautiful. We're gonna take our counter poses now, So we can move our blocks out of the way. Coming to the top of your mat, Big inhale, Arms up. Exhale forward bend bend in the knees stepping back to a plank just as a transition drop your knees tabletop position here Sit your hips back. Child's pose, Reaching forward. Ending where we began, Lengthen the spine. This time if you want a little bit of an extra side body stretch, You can bring your left arm over to meet the right. Coming through center. If you chose to do the side body stretch switching right hand meets the left. Back through center. And back up to tabletop. We're going to do a hip opener to end our class today. So we're going to be taking pigeon. Pigeon pose can be difficult for some people. So I'm going to show you a lot of different options you can try. If you'd like to pause me and grab a bunch of pillows, Please do. I'm going to actually be using my blanket for this. So blankets are also helpful. And I say blankets plural because you might need more than one. So I'm going to fold my blanket So it's pretty thick. Taking? My right knee forward. And then we're going to be taking the blanket and using it as a place to bridge the gap between the floor and your hips. I'm going to be taking my back leg back until my hips are like, All right, We're good here. I can't go anymore. And this blanket comes right in here. If this is too much of a stretch for you, You can of course stay more upright on the knee. There really aren't any props required here. It's just more of a hip opening in this place and you can use your hands on the floor or your hands on blocks or books. To keep a higher position. Let's just hold this position. Opening the hips and feeling the opening happening. If you feel called to, You can come a little bit further forward. Especially if you're deeper in the pose, People love this. Introspection release the stillness of the water under the fire. One more breath. Bring your hands a little bit closer. And if you found that that post didn't really work for you, I just want to show you an alternative. So instead of pigeon on the other side, Or you can even do this on both sides, You can lie on your back. Cross one ankle over the other knees. You can see the bottom of my foot here. And this is another option for pigeon This is reclined pigeon and it gives you the same hip opening as it does in the other position we were in before so I'll leave that up to you whichever pigeon you'd like to take the second time you can even do both sides if You found that the first one didn't work for you. I'm gonna come back on my knees and And once again, We're using our blocks for our hands. We use the blanket to bridge the gap or the pillows. Whatever you have with you Maybe starting here with the knee up high. Notice the position of my knee. Shifting the legs further if your hips allow, Shifting the foot out a little bit more if the hips allow, But bridging that gap with the blanket so it's more comfortable. Hands to the blocks help you with height. Few breaths here. Open up the heart. And then if you'd like to walk forward, You can. Completely optional. I like to rest on my forearms. One more breath. Enjoying the stillness and peace. Walk your hands toward your front knee. Bring that blanket out and then we're gonna sit right into our bums our glutes couple more poses for release so bringing my blocks out of the way if you prefer to sit on a blanket bring it right underneath you. You can also unfold it once if it was folded too many times for pigeons. Final pose for stillness and release. We're going to bring both legs out wide. And it's going to be a wide-legged fold. However, If this stretch is enough for you, Technically, We're already folding. Because if we were to do this pose standing, You would be actually halfway toward the floor. So just think about that. Because some people in this pose, They're like, Forward bend? OK. You can also use blocks to keep maybe a higher floor so if you wanted to like push them away have it feel like you're bending a little bit more, You totally can. So I'll show you this option as well. Leading with the heart, Shoulders down and back. Take a moment to roll those. And just like as much as your body lets you. Feeling the opening in the inner thighs. We worked on them a lot today. We opened up the groin. Strongness within the legs. Maybe close your eyes and see how still you can be for the next few seconds. One more breath. And walk back toward your legs. One more lying pose before we come into our final rest. Legs come in. I'm going to face the short edge of my mat. If you want to have a blanket or any props nearby for your shavasana, Put them by your mat so you can grab them. Moving my blocks out of the way. Feet up, Grab your thighs safely, Roll onto the floor. Last pose I'll offer you is happy baby. So what that means is we're going to bring our knees toward our armpits. And you can grab behind the knees to start. If it's possible for you. To grab. Your feet? Please do. If you like to rock side to side in this position, You can. You can even do a little bit of a toe hold if you prefer to. Lengthen those legs you can. And our last bit of movement here, Bringing your feet to the earth. I'm just going to windshield wiper the knees side to side. Releasing the lower back, Gentle spinal twist here. If you feel like you want to stay on one side a little bit longer, Go for it. And then once that movement is enough for you, You can find stillness and find your final pose in Shavasana. I'm going to show you a few options. So here's one option. Feet can be flat on the earth. Knees can be lifted. This is great for those who might have lower back issues because it helps your spine stay flat against the earth. You can also choose to have a blanket or a pillow. Underneath your knees so I'm rolling this up a little bit more slide it under my knees like a bolster if you have a bolster please use it comes under your knees, You can lie here as well. You can also put blocks if your blocks are a little bit of that cushioning material and they're not super high. A couple blocks under the knees work as well. You can also take the feet together. I'm just gonna put them on top of my blanket, But yours will be on the floor. Feet together, Opening the knees can help enforce that groin opening we did during class. Or you can just do the plain old lion on your back. Up to you use pillows use whatever you want cover yourself with a blanket and take a moment to let the practice integrate into your body. Find stillness. Come back to your breath. I want to provide you a few minutes here to fully release and relax. Stay in the present moment. Think about today's themes. And what that means for you in your life. I'll be silent for a few minutes so that you can fully enjoy this Shavasana. You you Coming back to the earth. First by deepening your breath. Inhales and exhales become more pronounced. Perhaps you introduce some small movements in the fingertips or the toes. Those movements can become larger. It'd be rocking the neck side to side, The wrists, The ankles. And eventually those movements can either land you in the fetal position on your favorite side, Or it could even land you in a comfortable seat that we started the class in. Whichever position you chose, Place both hands or one hand, Whatever is more comfortable. On your heart. Feel your heart burning like the fire in that visualization at the beginning of class. As it pumps and gives life to your body. And then either one hand or two hands, Bring those fingertips to the earth. And picture that still water underneath you. You are the fire burning on top of the still water. You have the ability to be bold, Be courageous, Be passionate, But also understand yourself. And give yourself what you need. So that you can be fully nourished and can be present in life. If you went to the fetal position, Come up to your comfortable seat. We're going to place one hand on the heart. And the other hand stays on the earth to remind us of the fire and the water. Collective inhale through the nose. Audible exhale. One more inhale. Audible exhale. Take a swallow in your throat. And if your eyes were closed, Blink the eyes open. Hands come to heart center. Thank you so much for joining me today. I really hope that you enjoyed our practice. Namaste to you. Peace, Peace, Peace. And I hope to see you in another practice very soon. Thank you so much.