Flowing with Life

(water rushing) Hey, what's up? This is Robert, welcome to Yoga Anytime. You can do this any time, right? It makes sense. So, welcome back, nice to meet you, nice to see you. I want to share with you a thirty minute Vinyasa practice.

Alright, so one thing I want to mention is that there will be a head stand and a shoulder stand in this practice. If you are comfortable with that, rock it out. If you are not, and you know, and you know if you're not, watch a tutorial, find some sort of tutorial on Yoga Anytime that will help you be prepared for this. And then, once you feel really good, 'cause I'm just gonna kind of like roll right into it, I'm not gonna give a lot of explanation, this isn't that type of video. So, once you feel confident, then start to incorporate the inversions, the head stand and shoulder stand.

Alright? So, let's begin. Downward facing to the dog pose. So, if I come into it from here, usually it feels pretty good. One way that I haven't mentioned too much lately is from plank pose, like a nice, solid push up position, I come into downward dog this way. It helps so that when we're flowing, right, we're in downward dog and I say inhale into plank, you're pretty much right there, as opposed to being in down dog here, and then coming into plank and having to change your hands every time. Alright?

So find that position, find your breath, begin to kind of tune in, ground in. We're gonna move through some sun salutations, which will then add some standing postures, maybe some balance. So 30 minutes, to help kind of jump start your day. From downward dog, you start to walk the feet up to the front of the mat. As you fold, with knees slightly bent, you exhale, inhale half lift, exhale, fold, roll up to stand.

Inhale, the arms high. Exhale forward bend. Inhale, lift half way. Exhale, plank pose. Pause here, breathe in, and exhale, lower down.

Inhale, upward. Exhale downward. Inhale, the right leg high, exhale, step it up. Bring the back heel down. Warrior one. Breathe in, breathe out, hands down.

Step back and lower. Inhale, and exhale. Left leg lifts, breathe in. And warrior one as you breathe out. So step, land, finish your exhale, and rise up.

Breathe in, reach up and back. Exhale, bring it down, step back, lower, breathe in, and breath out. Hold for a couple breaths. Look forward, take two giant steps to the front of the mat, and finish on the exhale on a forward bend. So breathe in, and (exhales).

Inhale, and exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale, forward bend. Inhale, half forward bend. Exhale, plank pose, lower down.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, your right leg. Exhale, step it, warrior one, breathe in. Reach back behind you, interlace your fingers, open up the chest, good, humble warrior. Take a breath in, and as you exhale, draw your body down, down, down, down, down.

Power through your feet, your legs, and your core. All the way up, open the chest one more time. Release the hands, inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, the left.

Exhale the left. Set it up, inhale warrior one. Open up the chest. Breathe in, and breathe out. Powering down through both feet, strong legs.

Use your belly strength to come up. Release those arms, take a breath in. Reach up and back. Exhale. Inhale, and exhale.

Take a couple moments here. If you ever need or feel as if child's pose can be beneficial for you, check in with that. Look forward, on your exhale step up. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

Keep going, breathe in, and breathe out. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, plank pose, lower down. Exhale, right leg lifts, breathe in. Warrior one again.

Eagle arms, wrap your right arm underneath your left. Fingertips reach toward that left thumb, toward the palm. Set it up. Lift your elbows, point your fingers forward just a little bit. Close your eyes.

Maybe get into a gentle, little back bend here. Release into warrior two. Extend your stance out. Good, check in with a couple of those queues. Watch your feet.

Watch your right knee. Keep your shoulders tracking over your hips. Arms nice and long, steady gaze. Here's where we're gonna transition into a wide leg forward bend, which will be that for you, or after the forward bend, you'll come into the tripod head stand. So, point both feet forward, get a nice long stance.

Put a little bend in the hips, or bend in the knees. Fold at the hips. If you know right away you won't be hitting the head, or head stand, find a place to rest your hands, maybe your big toes, the outer edges of your feet, the mat. I'm gonna set myself up for tripod head stand. So my hands will come back, I'll place my head down gently, and lift.

I'm actually gonna work on maybe coming down. Knees land on the arms. Maybe push up through crow. A couple deep breaths in that wide leg forward bend. Push up about half way, and begin to point the left foot back and set yourself up for warrior two on the opposite side.

So right around here, I'll walk forward, right? Point your left toes forward, and then circle that right arm up, and back. Steady, postures are comfortable and steady. Hands on the hips, we're gonna do that one more time, right? So, your version is either the forward bend, which is super good for the legs, right, make sure you press down firmly into those feet.

Try that head stand again if that's what you're working with, right? Head down, with control, lift up. Maybe play around with piking a little bit, little bit of core. I'll try the crow once again, knees down. Breathe in, exhale, grip my core, and ha, whoo.

Turn the hands over, a little break in the wrists. Walk over toward the front of the mat, good. Step the left foot up to meet your right. Fold, inhale half way up, exhale fold. Inhale, and exhale.

Getting prepared for balance, okay, warrior three. So what you're gonna do is you're going to step your right foot back, palms at the chest. Keep your body long, right, your torso, spine long. Begin to lean your body forward, lifting your right toes off the mat, shifting forward, shifting forward, shifting forward, try to keep that right hip facing down, maybe take your arms out. Some of you like to bring your arms forward.

Hands on the hips, soft bend, pyramid pose. Inhale, exhale. Good, hands on the hip, strong core, all the way up. Step back up. Inhale, and exhale.

Step the left foot back, find your balance, find your gaze. Warrior three. Pyramid pose. Breathing in, and breathing out. Good, come all the way up, and step back up.

Lunge twist, right foot back, keep the back heel lifted. You can enter this like so. Right, that's a nice option. You can also bring yourself forward, without rounding, keep your spine nice and long. Breathe in, breathe out, right elbow across the thigh.

Lift up and lengthen. Palms together. Slowly come back out. Back heel comes down, left fingertips toward the mat, on the inside of that left foot. Maybe the fingers tented, right?

And then open up, a little kind of counter pose here. Keep pulling that left hip back, right hip forward. Warrior two, reverse warrior, inhale. And then exhale. Step back up, inhale, and exhale.

Left foot back. Find the lunge position. Left hand on the right thigh, right hand to your back, find the twist like so, release your right arm back if that feels good. I prefer this one right now, so breathe forward, or breathe in, come forward without rounding. Tuck the belly in on the exhale.

Slowly out, back heel spins down. Right hand on the inside of the right foot, left hip comes forward and rotate open, upper body. This time, bring the left hand down, last little Vinyasa. Step back, exhale lower, inhale, upward facing dog. And (exhales) child's pose.

The arms come back, either alongside or one of my favorites is underneath. Forehead resting. From child's pose, push up to kneeling pose. Before we roll onto our back we'll do one camel. So we'll sit up onto our knees, curl the toes under, well we'll do two versions.

First one, reach back behind you, fingertips wrapping around your buttocks a little bit. And then see about drawing the tailbone down, lengthening through here, and pushing the chest forward and up. If you'd like to release your right hand down toward your heel, your left hand toward your heel, and then go for that version of camel. Then slowly release, knees together, one last child's pose. Really get those knees together.

And this will really help from this position to help counter it into a more flexed, rounded version. Counter pose. Okay, nice. Now push up. Spin around onto your, your bottom.

And roll down slowly. Pause. Take a moment to kind of feel your body, now that it's on the ground. What kind of sensations that might bring up, or feel like. And we're gonna move into plow and shoulder stance.

So as I said before, if that's not really in your practice, you can close out with knee to chest, spinal twist, we'll probably hit that up afterward, okay? So whatever you need to do to sort of skip this, if you're not ready for it, okay? So, hands alongside the body. Bend the knees. And you'll begin to kind of draw the knees to the forehead and your feet back behind you, so, if your feet do not touch, which sometimes mine do, sometimes mine don't, I support my lower back.

And I start to adjust to the restriction, or the restrictive, restricted, breath. Everything's a little more compressed here. Oh okay, I acknowledge that. And I work with what I've got. Super mindful of my neck, and how that feels.

A walk my elbows a little closer, create more of a stable shelf, and begin to press my hands into my back, as my legs then lift up. I'm not looking for perfection here. At least initially, right? I might come down in a little bit, and then readjust. Instead of adjusting with my legs up high, what I'll do, is I'll bend my knees, this kind of reduces the weight above your head to ensure, or to enable you to kind of walk a little bit more up onto the shoulders.

To exit, I'll bring my knees down toward my ears. Bring my hands down to the mat. And between using my arms and hands as brakes, and my midsection core body strength, I'll lower down. Bend my knees, feet grounded, bridge pose. Press and lift my hips, walk again, the shoulder blades toward one another.

Rest my hands upon my belly, my ribs, my hips. Reach one arm up, reach the other, lift my heels, tuck my tailbone a little bit, roll on down slowly. When you land, take a deep breath in, exhale, the arms down by your side. Take your legs straight, walk your hands underneath your bottom, walk your elbows as close to your elbows, to one another as you can. Okay, and either stay here, or press into your elbows to lift your chest, and then let your head fall back gently, opening your throat. Fish pose.

Press into your elbows, your forearms, lift your head and chest, and roll back down. Pause. Let's take a spinal twist, so if you shift your hips over to the right, draw the right knee in, and draw that right knee across the body. Always adjusting, always kind of like adjusting, and working your way, kind of wiggling your, giving yourself some wiggle room in these poses. Good, come back out.

When I personally come out, I bring my right foot down, and I shift it all the way over to the other side. Right knee in this time, spread my back nice and wide. Breathe in, and breathe out. Start to really wind down. Good, bring yourself back up to center.

Wrap your arms behind your hamstrings, hold onto opposite wrists or elbows, lengthen the neck, pause. Feel the effects of the practice, whatever they may be. Begin to release the effort. All the effort and trying, all the hard work, let it go. You've done enough for now.

Release the feet down, slide the legs out. Make a full body stretch. Situate yourself for final relaxation. And like I said before, right, you've done enough for now. Now allow yourself this time to relax.

When you're ready, roll to your right side, bend your knees, rest your head on your arm. Pause there for at least one full big breath. Full exhale. Push back up. Close out by sitting on your seat in a comfortable position. Take a moment for a little hit of gratitude for your breath.

Genuinely acknowledge the breath. Namaste. It's been a pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. I hope that you find some sense of pleasure with this practice. Thank you, thank you.