Go with the Flow

(ocean shoring up) Hi, welcome back. Today's we've got on deck a flow for when you're feeling like it's one of those days where it's hard to go with the flow. Sometimes we wake up, or something happens in the midst of our day where we start to feel really sticky, like you're covered with honey but not necessarily in a good way, where something that happened, you like lose your keys and you're gonna hold on to it all day, or you offend someone who you really love and that, you're gonna hold onto for the rest of your life. And I call it the really terrible B movie that plays in your mind where you're either, a, trying to redo something that happened in the past over and over and over again, "Oh, I should've done this," or, "I should've said this," or, b, living in a future where things are so much better than now. And the greatest enemy to our own personal joy is this kind of attachment.

And so hopefully with this practice we'll be able to become more like the river, to be moving and shifting where we are right now, and to be more like the moon where it feels safe and okay to be vulnerable and full and cratered and awesome in our humanness, and through this path be able to find that little spark of joy that happens when we are present with ourselves exactly as we are right now. So welcome. We're gonna start with a little bit of lunar breath just seated. So find a comfortable seat. If you wanna grab a blanket to put underneath yourself, that's awesome.

And let your eyes close for a moment. Snuggle in. Take whatever your dominant hand is, it doesn't matter, and draw it up to your face, and take your other hand and just let it lie open on your knee, on your lap in just kind of this gesture of receptivity. Right away, starting to cultivate that feeling of being more open and spacious, even in the face of you who may be having a day where it's like let's not. And then just gently breathe in through both nostrils.

Relax your shoulders. Draw the chin in towards the front of your throat. Breathe it in. Exhale through both nostrils, breathe it out. And then close your right nostril, breathe in through the left right up to your third eye.

Close the left, exhale right. Inhale left, open it. Close the left, exhale right. Inhale left, close the right. Close the left, exhale right.

Inhale left, making this big moon shape right up to your third eye. Close the left, exhale right. Close the right, inhale left. Big circle. Close the left, exhale right.

Close the right, inhale left. Close the left, exhale right. One more like this. Let it flow right in through your left side. Close the left, exhale right.

Gently drop your hand away from your face. Take a breath in through both nostrils. Exhale completely. And then open your eyes and come on out towards child's pose at the back of your mat. So you can come to hands and knees first.

Let big toes touch, wiggle it out. And then drop your hips back. And today in this practice, when you're trying to feel like your personal flow, let the be a little bit of extra movement of wiggling, just being receptive and open to what comes in that direction. Let the breath be nice and full right down into your belly, into your hips. There's no goal to accomplish here.

It's being present with what arises. Inhale, roll it up. Come to hands and knees. Separate your feet back behind you, and walk your hands out so that they're way beyond your shoulders at this nice, big, beautiful angle. And then kind of stick your booty back up in the air and start to drop your chest towards the ground.

And your chin might come to the ground or you might need to put your third eye down, whatever feels best for you. And hug the triceps in. Let you heart melt down. Big opener for the heart here, anahatasana. (breathes deeply) Good. One more big one.

(inhales) Exhale it out. (exhales) And then gently start to walk your hands back in. Bring your hands underneath your shoulders. Tuck your toes and stretch it back. Come to a bent leg down-dog to start.

So again, bringing in that quality of movement that you begin to cultivate in child's pose, just letting the hips shift side to side making sure your fingers are nice and spread, rooting your bones but letting there be some like fluidity to it, some viscosity. Good, and then you might straighten one leg, and then the other. Lately, I've been really liking to hover one foot as I straighten the other leg. Get's right into my calf muscles which can be kind of tight. So you can switch doing that.

And then come to your nice stable dog, broadening your shoulders, lifting your hips. Maybe there's still a slight bend in the knees. And then just gently let your heel shift over to the right, pull your left hip up and back as you push down into your left hand and get a nice, big, beautiful side bend there. And then come back through center. Take the heels over to the left.

Lift your right hip up and back, find your belly a little bit and big opening to the side of the shoulder right where your waistband meets your pants. Good. And then start to look forward to the front of your mat and start to walk it forward, nice big bent knee uttanasana, letting the head go, hands can just like rest on the floor. From here maybe even reach back and just grab your inner thighs and pull them up and back, just starting to put a little bit of straightening into the legs. And then pull your shins towards midline.

Take an inhale, ardha uttanasana, extend you chest, pull the shoulders back. Exhale, fold it in. Press into the feet, inhale, rise all the way up towards the sky, and exhale, hands to heart center. Let the feet stay separate for this part of the sequence. It's gonna feel good and kind of like wider than normal.

So inhale your arms up into the sky. Catch your hands in vira mudra, stretch up. Exhale, bend over to the right. Inhale, come on back up. Exhale, take it over to the left.

Inhale, come on back up. Exhale, catch your hands back behind you Inhale, lift your chest to the sky, maybe elbows stay bent, your gaze can lift, and then exhale, bend the knees. Take that down and over, let the clasp come over. I like to bend my elbows 'cause then I can feel my upper back. From here, release the clasp.

Inhale, come up, wide-legged utkatasana. Exhale, fold it in. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, fold it in. One more like that. Inhale.

Exhale. Inhale, step back left side. Exhale, place your knee on the ground. And breathe your arms up into the sky for anjaneyasana. Exhale, bring hands down to the floor.

Inhale your right hand up and over as you come to this openy twist kind of thing. And then start to move it with your breath, maybe inhaling to open, exhaling to come down. One more like that. Big breath in calling in that vision of the moon, of the circle here. Good.

And then you're gonna keep reaching through that arm as you start to pivot on your feet, and come to horse stance. And then, I call this old softball guy pose, and then this is like the new and sexier version where you get to take one shoulder and dip it down, and then the other, and you're pushing your thigh back at the same time, and it feels awesome. Let's unite it with the breath here. Inhale, center. Exhale, come down.

Inhale, center. Exhale, dip your left shoulder. Inhale, come center. Exhale, start to turn over to your left. Drop the back knee and breathe your arms up into the sky, once again, anjaneyasana.

Exhale, hands down to the floor. Inhale, start to find your twists. Open that arm. Exhale, lower it. Inhaling, sweeping the arm up and wide.

One more. Plant the hands, step back, find your plank pose. Drop down to the knees. Take a tucked-toes child pose. Drop your third eye to the floor.

With your next breath in, breathe in. Flow yourself out towards and upward facing dog, pressing into the hands, moving the heart through, and then roll it back nice and slow. Exhale, downward facing dog. Good, stretch out your dog. If you wanna put a little bit of movement into it or get those side bends going again, you're welcome to.

And then look forward. You can hop, you can step, you can walk yourself to the front of your mat. Inhale, ardha uttanasana. Make sure the feet stay separate. Exhale, fold it in.

Inhale, rise all the way up. Exhale, hands to heart center. Inhale, breathe the arms up. Catch them in vira mudra. Take a moment, just a little wiggle side to side, and then stretch up, breathe it in.

Exhale, take the bend over to the left. Inhale, breathe it up and in. Exhale, gentle bend to the right. Inhale, come on up. Exhale, catch your hands, non-dominant clasp back behind you.

Bend the elbows. Breath your chest up, look up, stretch up, lift your belly. And then exhale, bend into the knees, take the clasp up and over. Release your hands, inhale, wide-legged utkanasana. Exhale, fold.

Inhale, back up to utkatasana. Exhale, fold. Inhale, rise back up, last one. Exhale, fold. Step back left side. Drop the back knee.

Breathe your arms up, inhale, anjaneyasana. Exhale, left hand comes down, right hand sweeps back behind you. Inhale, breathe it in and open. Exhale, sweep the hand around. Inhale, heart up and open.

Exhale. Inhale, last one. Exhale, start to pivot over towards your left, heels in, toes out, finding a nice kind of horse stance, and then fingers on the insides of your thighs, stick your booty out. And then from here push down into your left hand as you bend your left shoulder in. Right elbow bends.

Inhale, up. Exhale, other side. Inhale, up. Exhale, other side. Good. Inhaling, up.

Exhale. Last one. Good. Coming up. This time on your exhale, start to turn it towards the front of the mat. Drop your back knee.

Inhale, arms up, anjaneyasana. And then exhale, hand down. Start to sweep the left hand back behind you. Inhale, breathing up and open. Exhale, coming down.

You can even let the gaze go with you. Inhaling. Exhaling. Inhaling. Exhaling.

Good. Bring the hand down. Step back. Find your child's pose, tucked toes. Drop the knees back down, exhale.

Inhale, roll yourself out. Find your upward facing dog, thighs and belly lift off the floor. And then roll it back, downward facing dog. Good. Three big breaths here, breathe it in.

Breathe it out. (breathing deeply) Beautiful. When you're ready, start to lift to lift onto your toes or walk it forward. Make your way to the front of your mat between your hands. Inhale, ardha uttanasana.

Exhale, fold it in. Separate your feet once again. This time rise up. Come back to that big bent knee, wide open utkatasana. Inhale here.

And then exhale, bring hands to heart, and start to come down. Shift forward onto your knees. You're gonna come to these big, beautiful camel circles. So it's gonna look like this. One hand's gonna come back behind you, and you're gonna start with your seat on your heels, and your thumb is gonna come to the inside of your ankle.

The other hand is gonna do the swooping, the swooping up an open that we've kind of been practicing. So it'll look like this. Inhaling, rising up. Exhaling, coming down, hand to heart. Inhaling, rising up, swooping the arm.

Exhale, coming down, hand to heart. One more, inhale, rise up and open. Maybe this time the hand lands on the foot. Hug the legs together, lift your heart. And then exhale, start to lower down.

And take the other side. Inhale, right arm swoops up and open. Exhale, hand comes back to heart, sit back down. Inhale, swoop it up and open. Exhale, hand to heart, sit back down.

One more. Inhale, rising up and open, turning your heart to the sky. Maybe the hand lands thumb on the inside of your right foot. Lift the chest. Offer your moony heart up to the sky. Good.

And then lower it back down, untuck your toes, close your eyes. (breathing gently) With your eyes closed, maybe bring one hand to your heart. And feel that big beating of your beautiful, bright self. Notice if you feel a little bit less sticky, a little bit more fluid. And open your eyes.

Gently shift your hips over towards the right. Let your heels come right next to your left hip. Inhale your arms up into the sky. And exhale, twist over towards your right. Right hand comes back behind you.

Left hand's right on your thigh. Big, beautiful, open heart shining up into the sky. Ears come back just slightly. And then you can take your gaze right out over your left shoulder, this very graceful shape. Pull the left hip back a little bit.

Good. Breathe it in, come on back towards center. And you're just gonna leave your right leg where it is and slide your left leg back and come towards pigeon pose. So your right heel can can come right toward your left hip point. And then you're gonna walk your hands out in front of you.

Something that feels really nice here is taking your left hand and swooping it underneath your right armpit as you reach your right arm long and your left leg back. Keep dropping that left hip to the floor, drawing the right hip back, soft in the face, soft in the upper body. Just lounging. Good. Start to walk it back up.

Press onto your right hand, unthread your left hand. Sit heavy into your right hip and then take your left leg up and over, and you'll start to come towards the other side. So your heels tuck right in by your right hip, left hand. We'll breathe the arms in. Inhale your arms into the sky.

And then exhale, turn away from your feet towards the left. Inhale, lift your chest nice and big and bright heart to the sky. And then take your gaze right out over your right shoulder. It's a little bit down, ears back. It's beautiful, nice and long and the belly non-compressive twist.

Good. And then you'll release it, sweep it forward. Take your right leg back. Come to your pigeon pose. And once you're settled in, walk your left hand forward, swoop your right hand right underneath your left armpit.

And your head's on the floor nice and heavy. Stretch that leg long back behind you. Big deep breaths. It's so good to be able to recognize the times when we need this kind of practice, even if we're resistant to it and we wanna kick our own booties. It feels really good to just kind of be like no.

When you need to shift things in a different way. Start to come on back up to get less sticky. Sit into your left hip, swing your right leg around. And start to come down onto your backs, and we'll do a little bit of breath work there together. If you like a bolster or a blanket beneath your knees, go ahead and find that shape.

Gather your items about you. I love that moment before shavasana where we take a moment and practice caring for ourselves by just simply rolling up a blanket and putting it below our knees or putting a block where we like it, underneath our necks, whatever it may be for you. It's nice to just choose something and practice doing it for a whole week or something like that. And then let the eyes close. And then we're gonna practice that lunar breath that we began with, but we're gonna do it here on our backs with no hands.

So envisioning that moon kind of in front of your face. When my daughter was born, I called her moon face 'cause her face just looked like this big, beautiful moon. So that's the image that I use. Breathe in through your left nostril. Breathe out through your right.

Start that circle again. Breathe in through the left. Breathe out through the right. And remember, this is energetic, it's not gonna be perfect here. Breathing in left.

Breathing out right. See how seamless you can make it, leaving that thread. In and out. And stay with that as long as it feels comfortable or as long as you need it. It's a tool, all of these wonderful yogic tools we have to shift our state, our way of being in the world until you just gently slip into your shavasana.

And rest, sealing it in, sealing in the practice. You're welcome to stay in shavasana as long as you like. If you're ready to enter back into your day, place the soles of your feet on the floor. Roll on over to your right side and pause, keeping that left lunar channel really open. And then press yourself up towards seated.

Come to a comfortable cross-legged seat. Bring your hands up to your heart. Thank you so much for choosing to share this practice with me today. I hope that the rest of your day will be affected by this, that you're able to be a little bit more fluid to go with the flow. Bowing down to that big, beautiful, bright moon in your heart.

Namaste.