Be Brave in Love

Hi, Brave, Fierce Yogi. In this sequence, we are going to tap into the most ferocious aspects of love. And we will begin standing. And as we begin, we're going to be making some movements that are, you know, sort of outside of the purview of regular yoga. And we'll begin with sort of like a version of, I don't know, the hokey pokey or bone rattling or the Spanx shake.

So like, just move your body, jiggle the parts that jiggle, shake the parts that shake. You might jump up and down a little bit. And then pause. Press the radiance of your own form. We'll step the feet so that the heels are about the distance of your sitting bones.

And you feel stable. And as you inhale, reach the fingers down toward the floor, press the feet into the floor shift, commit to the blooming blossoming of your heart. Exhale, soften the shoulders. We'll inhale and sweep arms, hands, and fingers to the sky. Reach through the fingers, ground through the feet.

Let's pause here just for a breath or two. Shimmering, ferocious. On an exhalation, we'll sweep the arms down to your sides as you bend your knees into sort of a half squat. As you breathe in, press feet into the floor, reach fingers toward the floor, reach up toward the sky, reach in both directions. And exhale, half squat.

One more just like that. Inhale, back up. And exhale, release your arms. Pause and notice. We'll make our way to the top of the mat.

If you're working with props, grab those, you might like to have two blocks and a blanket and a strap. Strap we'll be using now. Unroll it, place it on the floor, flat, and then step on top of it, just about halfway. As you inhale, sweep arms, hands, and fingers toward the sky. As you exhale with a slight bend in the knees, dive forward, uttanasana.

Take hold of your strap, and with just a generous amount of tension, as you breathe in, press the feet into the floor, start to lift the heart, lengthen the spine, increasing the tension, and exhale, fold forward. Let's do that two more times, inhale, press the feet into the floor, lift the heart, lengthen the spine, exhale, fold. One more, and exhale, fold. Release your strap, move it off to the side, place the hands on the blocks if you're working with them, we'll press the feet into the floor, engage with the blocks, and as you inhale, let the left leg back, full lunge, full stretch. Notice the length of the back of the body here, before turning the left toes out slightly and lowering the heel to the earth.

Make good contact between that left heel and the earth, and when you have it, then bring the left hand to the left side body, either to the hip or to the side waist. Now you might be comfortable keeping your right hand here on the block, but for lots of us, it makes sense to bring the forearm and maybe even the hand to the top of the right thigh. Breathe into the length of the body, the shimmering length, the shimmering pulsation of your own skin here in uttita parsvakanasana. At every opportunity, recommit to that left foot making contact with the floor, and breathe into the length of the left side of the body. And with a breath in, we'll sweep this arm up overhead, soften at the shoulder, bend at the elbow, soften into the armpit.

As you breathe in, press the feet into the floor, and we'll start to move the right leg towards straight. Some of my friends have been enjoying keeping the forearm at the top of the thigh here, but if this is too much on the hamstrings, bring the right hand either to the block or to the shin, and we'll extend the left arm toward the sky. Breathe into the side body, breathe into the softness of the back of the heart, into the well of the heart. On an inhalation, we'll cartwheel the arms, hands, and fingers back to the block, spin onto the ball of the foot, maybe pause in your lunge, blocks out of the way, and exhale to downward facing dog. Feel free to really move around in here, to feel around for the edges of this container.

On an inhalation, we'll lower the knees to the floor, untuck the toes, exhale, hips toward the heels. And on a breath in, we'll sort of slide forward, peeling the heart forward and up. Nice gentle cobra, fingers are light on the floor, back of the body is radiant, front of the body is long. And on an exhalation, we'll tuck the toes, lift the hips, press back to downward facing dog, adho mukha svanasana, bending the knees on an inhalation, exhaling, stepping the left foot forward to our lunge, bend the right knee a bit, climb out of it, sweep arms, hands, and fingers toward the sky, soft, radiant, grounded in the well of your heart. Inhale, reach arms, hands, and fingers, forward and down, either to earth or to your blocks, and we'll exhale and step the right foot forward to meet the left uttanasana, standing forward, fold.

Now as you breathe in, press the feet into the floor, roll all the way up to stand, sweep arms, hands, and fingers toward the sky. Inhale, release, pause and notice, same procedure, second side, as you breathe in, press the feet into the floor, reach down, reach out, reach up, lengthen, exhale, and fold. Hands come to the blocks, and as you breathe in, step the right leg back, pause in this long, beautiful, fierce lunge, turn the right toes out slightly, lower the heel to the floor, and you might even sort of feel around for the direction that that right hip is gazing as you bring your hand to the hip or the side waist. Left hand can either stay on the block or bring the forearm to the top of the thigh. Breathe into the length of your body.

Breathe into the elegance that's already happening, like you don't have to do anything but get out of your own way, and in time we'll reach the right arm up overhead, and as you breathe out, bend at the elbow, soft shoulder, feet are pressing into the floor, you might sort of commit to the strength in those right glutes, and the softness at the skin, softness in your hands. As you inhale, press the feet into the floor, start to straighten the left leg, so this could be your trikonasana, reaching the right hand straight up toward the sky. If that is too intense on the hamstring attachment, slide the left hand down the shin or bring it to your block. Brave in love, fierce in love. We'll inhale and cartwheel that right arm, hand, and fingers up overhead.

Inhale onto the ball of the right foot, exhale, pause in this lunge. Can you feel the length up the back of the body? Move the blocks out of the way and on an exhalation, we'll step back to downward facing dog. Inhale lower the knees to the earth table, exhale to bhaktasana devotional. Exhale, slither and slide forward, cobra, imagine that beautiful cobra hood, long through the front of the body, reach through the toenails, reach through the top of the forehead, light through the hands.

There's nowhere you need to get to, you're doing it just beautifully. And exhale, hands make contact with floor, press up, press back, down dog, enjoy. On an inhalation, bend the knees, gaze forward, and exhale, step the right foot forward, bend the left knee enough so that you can engage the glutes, climb on out into the fullness of this lunge like you're ready to just run towards your beloved. Reach armpits, soft shoulders, length, inhale, reach arms, hands and fingers forward and down, exhale, step the left foot forward to meet the right uttanasana, inhale, press the feet into the floor, roll up, sweep up, and exhale, pause, so like linger in the well of the heart, in the shimmer of the heart. Now as we move into slightly more architecturally complicated shapes, stay with that intention, stay with that breath, brave in love, ferocious in love, all about getting to your beloved.

Who cares, you know, what it looks like, deal? As you inhale, sweep arms, hands and fingers toward the sky, as you breathe out, press the feet into the floor, dive forward. If you're using blocks, bring the hands to the blocks, as you inhale, step the left leg back, pause here, sweep up, soften, soft armpits, soft hands, fearless hands, breathe in, bend the back knee, breathe out, slowly start to shift the torso forward, lifting the left foot, notice I have the barbie foot there, it's helping me, it's helping to lift this back leg, engaging where thigh meets butt, that, lengthening, Virabhadrasana 3, slowly release the hands either toward earth or toward blocks, plant the right hand on the floor or on the blocks, bring the left hand to the left hip and slowly open at the hips, Ardachandrasana. Still using that extended left leg, extend the right arm toward the sky, left arm toward the sky, feel free to go crazy here, try something we've never seen before, try something we've never done before, release the left hand down, exhale back to the lunge, soft, inhale, reach forward and down to earth, exhale to downward facing dog, soft heart, sag at the heart, inhale lower the knees to the floor, exhale move the hips toward the heels, inhale slither and pause, we'll set up here, press the hands into the floor, sort of kiddie paw the hands into the floor and we'll start to lengthen through that left leg, lengthen out through the toes as you lift the head slightly, gaze forward slightly, start to lift that leg away from the floor, bending the right knee using the sole of the right foot to support the extended left leg, roll shoulders down the back, and exhale release, inhale press up, exhale downward facing dog, as you inhale bend at the knees gaze forward, exhale step the left foot forward coming to our lunge, climb on out of it, pause here, lengthen, right heart, brave, sweep arms, hands and fingers toward the sky, soften into the armpits, as you inhale bend the right knee and as you exhale slowly shift toward Virabhadrasana 3, lift and lengthen, feel the pulsation of your body with your breath, move a lot, you're moving already, release hands down to blocks, keep the left hand on the block or on the floor as you bring the right hand to the right hip and open at the hip, I got distracted by the view for a second and I almost fell, yes, making love to the environment, extending that right arm toward the sky, pulsing with the breath and then feeling free to try something here, maybe it's a familiar shape, maybe it's something totally new, totally weird and wacky, we'll turn the hips again toward the floor, release the right hand and on an exhalation return to the lunge, inhale reach forward down to the earth, exhale to downward facing dog, inhale lower the knees to the floor, exhale to bhaktasana, hips toward heels, inhale slither forward, we'll pause here for a bit just to get set up, kiddie paw your hands into the floor, lengthen through the right side of the body like all the way out through the toenails, gazing forward, chin sort of juts forward like, you know, bears, start to lift that leg away from the floor, bringing the left foot to rest at the top of the right thigh, rolling shoulders down the back, exhale release, inhale press feet into the floor, press back to downward dog, inhale knees to the earth and exhale booty toward heels, forehead toward the floor, rest in child's pose, feel your way into the gravity that's already happening, slowly come up, we'll shift our weight forward and we'll make our way into a really sort of rounded heel lifted malasana, so we have this yogic squat, let the forehead be heavy, let the back of the skull be soft, like oh right there, tailbone heavy, top of the head heavy and then from here we're going to set up to sort of dance into bhakasana, crow or crane, we have done this together before in season one, same principles still apply, your feet never need to leave the floor and we're really feeling our way in and so what you might do here is to place the hands on the floor about shoulder width and you might lift the booty, squeeze the upper arms here with the inner knees, the inner legs and just start to shift your weight forward, press the palms into the floor round the spine and from here you might sort of shift your gaze forward on the floor, this could be your pose, this is the pose, now some of you might be feeling like yes I am brave, I'm going to lift one foot away from the floor, see how it feels, you might continue to sort of kiddie paw the feet into the floor, maybe the other foot lifts, let it be a dance, let it be an in and an out, feeling your way in, feeling your way out, doesn't matter what it looks like, after you've had enough we'll come down to the floor, we'll need your blocks so grab those guys and some of you might like to have a blanket and the blanket will be underneath the shoulders but the neck and head will be off the blanket, so come down onto your back into a shape of constructive rest, knees bent, soles of the feet on the floor and for now let's inhale and reach arms, hands and fingers toward the sky and exhale, reach them up overhead, bending at the elbows and we'll press the feet into the floor as you breathe in, press the small of the back into the floor and as you breathe out relax all of the effort and we'll do that a couple times, pressing the feet into the floor, pressing the small of the back into the floor and then relaxing and relax the effort. Now we're moving toward an inverted forward fold and we have lots of ways to do this.

Through my own experimentation I found that it feels so much better to not have all of the weight of my body resting in the neck and the head and so I've adapted this shape and we'll be practicing it sort of in a sort of watery yin way anyway but listen to your own body and this is really a place where less is more and so you might bring arms, hands and fingers back down to your sides and you might begin by pressing the feet into the floor, lifting the hips enough to place a block under the sacrum and I lately have been liking two blocks, both stacked in their flattest position, both under the sacrum and from here let things sort of settle into that support, holding on to the blocks you might draw the knees in toward the chest, readjust, notice I'm scooching down my block here and from here start to extend the legs. So we have this sort of classic shape of halasana or plow but it's more therapeutic and my neck is not compromised, there's actually zero weight there but I'm still getting this nice inversion, this nice stretch of the back of the legs, this nice forward fold. Some of you might like to start to bend the knees and to widen them and to soften the soles of the feet. Now depending on how sort of stable your setup is here and I guess we'll test this to see how stable mine is, you might bring the hands to the backs of the legs and just join the hands, let the weight of the hands rest against the backs of the legs. Soft at the skin and letting your awareness sort of rest maybe in the back of the heart.

We'll slowly start to come out of this place, bending the knees, lowering one foot and both feet down to the floor, lifting the hips just enough to move the blocks out of the way and then rolling down, pause, notice, and for this reclining twist we'll scooch the feet closer together, let's extend the right leg long to the bottom of the mat. We'll draw the left knee in toward the chest, bring the right hand to the top of the left knee and I like to bring my left hand just down by the booty to turn this low body to sort of pull my way into a nice twist and you could keep your hand there, you could extend the left arm so that it's at a right angle with the spine, maybe bringing a block under the knee, gazing to the left, going to the breath body, feeling the pulsation of breath in the skin, in your organs, throughout your form and on an inhalation we'll slowly untwist and between sides you might extend fully just to sort of notice what happened. We'll extend the left leg fully, bend the right knee, maybe your block goes with you over to the left side, right hand could come to your right hunch, left hand to the top of the right knee as you then exhale into the reclining twist, extending the right arm so it's at a right angle to the spine and softening, creating a little space by relaxing the effort, relaxing the desire to get somewhere and as you inhale bring everything back to the center, extend fully again and just like notice where have I been, what has bravery drawn out of me, what has my wild and ferocious love pulled out of me and if there are shapes that still need to be made then make those and in time start to mosey toward your shape of rest or your shape of integration, could be lying on the back, lying on the side, lying on the belly or with legs up the wall, settle into that contact that you're making with earth and let yourself be pulled into the caress of the sky. That's it. Stay here as long as you like, stay here as long as you're able, come out slowly moving just like you and meander toward a seat where you can really sort of appreciate the loamy fertile soil of your heart.

Bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is knowing fear and acting still. Let us be brave in love, always. Thank you for being here. Jai Ma.