Free Your Hips

(water rushing) Hi, welcome to your practice. Today we're gonna work a little bit lower to the ground, a little bit sweeter. Alright, so this is got the Mah energy, or a Shakti energy. So even though it has a little bit of this fiery transformation quality to it, this practice, it's done with sweetness, it's done with Shakti, it's done with the Mah. And so we'll be visiting Pigeon Pose and a bigger variation of Janu Sirsasana.

But we'll start in Child's Pose, my favorite pose. But it's wide. So you let the knees come out nice and wide, and for today's practice we're gonna use a strap and a block, so you might grab that now before we begin and have that handy, so you have it when we're ready. So the knees come wide and the arms are to work forward and we release and down, third eye to the ground. And breath here.

And I want you to focus on is really just trying to soften through the belly. So much of this time is creating these big shapes, and trying to get into these power shapes, but you're also, for these ones it's power, but also softness. So we have to know how to use both qualities. Let this be soft and sweet. Full breath here.

Your next inhale you'll lift the hips and keep the knees wide, and then walk the hands forward coming to our Puppy Pose. And so for me it feels good to bring my chin to the floor, you could also have forehead down, either one is fine. And again, this like, for today it's like oh, soft, and we let the belly go, and we let the heart go. And find a few breaths here. And then we'll slowly start to walk our hands back underneath us, and sit down on the heels.

The same shape with this wide knees, big toes together, coming into Mandukasana, and you might grab your block just in case, and you can bring it behind you. And we'll bring the fingertips behind us, draw the elbows together, open up through the heart. We're gonna start to say hello. Boom, boom to the heart. And then if you're going a little further you'll lift the hips and draw the tailbone down, so taking a reposition of the gluts, your booty between your legs, between your feet.

Little like cradle that the arches of the feet create. And then slowly, again, you might come on down unto forearms, you might stay where you were. So my block's a little to far away, and if that happens you just lift yourself up, you adjust it. You want it to land right about the shoulder blades. So you can stay here on the elbows, again, lifting the hips, readjusting the seat.

The knees are coming up, that's a signal that that might be enough. Otherwise I like to meet my block and then release the head back, which feels really great. Mandukasana. This is a big shape to start off with, so you'd just stop where it still feeling juicy and yummy and open and expansive, and not where you start to like cringe your face. Doing that, it's like oh, maybe I've gone a little bit beyond where it's useful.

Gonna hold onto your sweet little feet. And then we breath here, the heart open, front of the thighs opens, belly's opening. All good stuff. Last breath. It's slightly awkward getting out.

So you lift the head and you prod the elbows underneath you to get some support, and then one, the other side comes on up, then you can move the block out of the way here for now. We'll come forward here to all fours and find an inhale, arch the spine, exhale, round through the spine, and a washing that out through a few rounds of Cat, Cow. And come back neutral, step your left foot back with the toes tucked under, start to kickstand out that bottom shin, you can move your right hand slightly in and forward, and then left hand rises up, so you ground through the back heel, a little up, up and away, or a Modified Side Plank. And this is, a lot of freedom here, soft and sweet, you can bend into the elbow, press the pelvis forward, press the heart forward, all good stuff. There's like sweet Mah energy.

And then from here root down through the hand, collect the energy into that bottom foot, that extended leg, and then lift up your bottom knee. Reach it down, and then we slide all the way down to the floor. Lower all the way until you're on your side, and take the hand underneath the head. So the tendency here is to like, it's like hey, we're just hanging out, doing some yoga, which is great, but what we wanna do is see if we can make a nice, straight line, which all of a sudden means that we're like whoa. So when we let the booty go back and the knees forward it's a little bit easier, but what we're trying to do is like hide our legs.

So when you look down your leg line it's really like all you can see is toes, or the tops of the feet. Which means the feet are really super engaged and you're pressing down through pinkie edge of that bottom foot, is Santayana. And your peace fingers around the big toe, elbow on inside line. And then again, here's the same thing, it's like booty back, this is the tendency, 'cause this is easier to balance here. What you wanna work is trying to see if you can bring this knee up and the hips forward, which means you have to engage with the bottom leg line.

And then just start slow, start to unbend the knee, just a little bit, and just see, did the booty go back? Okay, and you bring the pelvis forward until it gets straighter. And it doesn't need to straighten all the way. Same thing here. Tendency to move back, can you move it up?

Nice few breaths here. And then we slowly release whole thing down and you roll onto your belly. Bring the hands along the sides of the body here, take the feet nice and wide, press the tops of the feet into the ground, shrug the shoulders up, down, and back, and lift the head up off the ground before you even begin, and then engage through the gluts, so you're pressing the pelvis in towards the ground and you're using your feet, lifting the kneecaps up off the ground. Pressing through the hands, and start to lift yourself up to a bigger variation of Cobra, wherever that is for you. So it might be here, you might even be working towards straightening (mumbling), but like if that happens with the shoulders, like rebend, drawing in.

And then (mumbling), use your feet, use your gluts, take the gaze up, so it's a nice big Cobra. Exhale, shift back, Child's Pose. And then coming back into your all fours position. And we'll do that whole thing on the other side. So you'll start to step, this time your right leg back, kickstand out the left shin, left hand start to walk forward and in a little bit, so that you're in up, up and away, this Modified Side Plank variation on the other side.

Reaching back, and there's all that same sweet stuff. Arm over the ear, little bit of softness, movement, breath. And then when we're ready here the arm reaches up, engage with the hand, engage through that top foot, extended leg line, press down to lift up your bottom knee, extend it down and in front, and then lower the whole thing down nice and slow. Walk the hand out, lower down, hand comes behind the head. So same thing, Anantasana.

So I'm gonna flex through the feet here. Tendency is to let them go back, the booty back, try and keep in a nice line, peace fingers. Drawing the knee up, starting shallow, working your way towards more extension. And a few breaths. Then rebend knee.

Releasing the foot long, rolling onto your belly, I'm gonna take that big Cobra one more time. Shrugging the shoulders up, down, and back, lifting the head, engaging through the pelvis, engaging through the feet, hands press, lift, and then whole thing action happens again. And then shift back here all fours, and to come into Downward Facing Dog. Take the gaze forward here, bend deep into the knees. You're gonna hop outside the hands into a Buddha Squat, so nice, strong bend, look where you're going, hop forward.

So the heels might lift, and that's okay. Press the elbows to the inside line, lift the heart. The right hand can start to come down and we like to lift the heel here, the right side. Left arm comes up. And remember, we're being sweet, we're being nourishing here.

And then the other side. The heel might lift. And come back, hands at the heart, and a few breaths here. And from here start to straighten the legs, fold on over, nice wide Uttanasana. Maybe a few breaths here, shake the head out, yes, no, wag the tail, bend the knees.

And it's a slow rounding, rolling all the way on up towards Upward Salute. Exhale, hands come to the heart. And take the feet together here, inhale, reach the arms on up overhead. Interlace the fingers, exhale, side bend on over towards the right. Inhale through center, exhale, side bend other side.

Inhale through center, exhale, fold on down. Inhale, extension to the spine here, exhale, step on back, Plank Pose. Exhale, lower all the way down to the belly. Inhale, find your Cobra, and then exhale on back, Downward Facing Dog. You take the right leg nice and high here, find a little bit of a lift with your right hand, see if you can make an X, and then step the foot one move outside and press away this Lizard Twist.

Release it around all the way, Skandasana, that left knee bends, right hand's down, or left hand's down, right arm's up. Inhale here. And then exhale, back of the mat, ground the hands, draw the knee in towards the chest, and then left knee, left wrist, hover Pigeon, just off the ground, and then set it down. Shift the hips back. Find an upright.

And then start to walk the hands back, see if you can find the mat and open through the heart. Might be able to inch them back a little bit further. And find the legs, the hips. And then rest and fold here, taking a little bit of a moment into your hips. We're really into just walking off and pressing the leg away, which feels really nice.

You're gonna bring the forearm down. Okay, then we come up again, and this time we're gonna reach back. So thumb up, holding yourself with the left hand, reach around and see if you can find the pinkie edge. So sometimes we bring this down and we will eventually, but for right now what I want you to do is push the foot into the hand, so you're actually doing more of like a Bow Pose, and let that lift you up. So there's strong engagement through that foot, and you get all this opening through the shoulder and it feels really great.

Breath or two like that. And then we'll do what we do. Heel towards the seat and release into the quad. And let the whole thing down, ground your hands, tuck the back toe, draw that left knee in, lift it high, and then step through here, peaceful Warrior, rise up. So peace, peace.

Inhale, peaceful, exhale, center. Inhale, peaceful back towards the front, exhale, Triangle. Take the gaze down here, walk the fingertips forward, Ardha Chandrasana, Half Moon. Back into your peaceful Warrior. Reach up.

And spiral the hands on down, Low Lunge. Okay. Collect the energy into the feet, rise up, High Lunge, and then slowly start to lower that back knee almost to the ground, pause, inhale, lift back up. Almost to the ground, pause, inhale, lift back up. Almost, and then lower it down.

Anjaneyasana, reaching back. Take the hands down to the ground, step on back, Three-Legged Dog, but Scorpion the leg, so kick the foot in towards the heel, look forward, lower one knee, chest and chin, and then, ding. Pretty shape. Your Cobra, and then your Downward Facing Dog. We'll do that whole thing left side.

Left leg comes high, and again, start to collect some energy here into that right side, lift up onto fingertips, the left hand, and then maybe X. Can the foot, can the foot (laughs) go all the way? It's like one move, woo, make it happen. And a nice, open, twisty Lizard into the hips. All the way over to our Skandasana, right knee bends, right hand's down, left arm comes high.

This pivots around, hover Pigeon. So hands plant, right knee to your right wrist, press down, it's just hovering above, and then we set it down, like ah. Drawing hips in, you're drawing thighs in towards the hips, so you'll walk the hands back, find the mat. And then pull the mat apart, so you lift up. And then oh, for good measure, a little fold.

Get into the mama hips. We might walk out a little bit and press it away. The right hand pushes into the thigh, left hand walks away, come down. And then we come back up, and we'll do a reach back here, so your right hand's here for stability, left hand reaches back, see if you can find that big toe side, so the shoulders open. And instead of pulling in you're gonna push away and let that pushing away lift you up and open through the shoulder.

So thinking Bow Pose action with the leg. And then we can do the quad stretch, so starting to move, I'm just moving my knee back a little bit, starting to move the heel towards the glut. Your fingertips can point down, elbow presses up. A few breaths here. Release that on out, press your hands down, tuck the toe, draw the knee in, step between the hands, big peace, peace, inhale, exhale, center, inhale, peaceful on the left side, and then exhale, Triangle Pose.

A few breaths, opening, extending, and then gaze is down, Ardha Chandrasana, Half Moon, lift up. Back to our peaceful Warrior. Send it down. All the way, Low Lunge. So collect the energy into your feet and then rise up, High Lunge.

Start to bend into that back knee, dip it almost down, not quite, and lift back up, dip it almost down. That's two. And almost, and then lower the knee down, release the toe, Anjaneyasana. Hands come down, Three-Legged Dog. Bend into the knee here, look forward, so your Scorpion tail, psst.

Shift forward, lower the knee, chest, and chin, and then bend into your bottom knee to release both and push forward into your Back Bend Cobra and Downward Facing Dog. Okay, so adding on from here, right leg comes high, again, a little bit of that hover, X, step through, twist. This time we'll make it the all-in-one, so left hand turns out, reach back, find the back foot. When we release this walks all the way around, Skandasana here. Left knee bends, right leg is straight.

So this time see if you can drop the heel and reach the hands forward. So this might be great. And if you want to, start to work around towards a bind, we'll see what happens. Okay, you might fall out, to come back in. I also really just like sitting in it, just getting into the hips.

Okay, we come back around, hover Pigeon just a moment, press down, draw in, and then set it down, shift the hips back. Take a breath here. This time as we reach back drawing the femurs in, lifting up. So sometimes I have to move my knee once I kind of get in. See if you can get the big toe side, this is sort stage one, you can stay like this.

Stage two, starting to work what we've already worked here. Three, sliding the hand out, catching the nook in the elbow, drawing the femurs in, reaching the opposite around to clasp. Release this out, take a fold, take a break. Softening. Still freedom of movement, finding a little bit here.

And then we press down into our hands, tuck the back toe, lift that knee up, and take it high for a moment, step through, find a Low Lunge, and then we start to walk on over, bending into the right knee, and we find the Skandasana again, except we change it. So instead of dropping back we're gonna let this knee come down, and you can keep the toe tucked. And it's just like really not pleasent, so there's kind of like no way around it. It's some awful variation of Parighasana, Gate Pose. And the left fingers are supposed to walk out and like Triangle you're trying to like open out, like why?

Why mama, why? And we just do it anyways. Okay, and then you lift that out. And you can shimmy yourself back, so that you might be able to release onto the mat. The knee comes down again and you untuck the toes, just make them so much sweeter.

And we're gonna do similar, so it doesn't go all the way to Virasana, so we don't necessarily take the heel fully outside and that, my knees don't even do that anyways, but we're not necessarily going there, we're just kind of using that extra room in the pelvis, do you see this extra room that I've got, 'cause I'm balanced on my heel? We're using that to our advantage to be able to find our foot maybe a little bit closer. And so I start to shift myself over and then maybe arm can go over. And this is like not really useful for anybody. It's like, hi, I've got my foot, but who cares?

You see your foot all the time. So like, oh, reach for the foot, beyond the foot, beyond the foot. And we come on up. How do we get out of this? You can.

Take your hands around, pivot onto those back toes, and then step the foot forward, lowering the back knee down, releasing the back toe. And we bring our hands on up to the top of the knee, shift the weight out. And so we'll do two different kinds of Anjaneyasanas here. This first one we'll move the front foot back and so we're like 90, 90. And depending on how your ankle joint is put together you may or may not have to have it more forward or a little bit more back, so just might take a little bit of experimentation.

We're creating much deeper (mumbling) in the ankle. And so that the calf and the thigh are moving closer together. So for some of us it might mean you have to inch forward, you might not be quite. What you want though is full contact. So if you're so far back that your heel starts to lift it just means that you've gone too far.

So you adjust, you find that maximum depth. And it's like, hello, hi, hmm. Well, check out that back calf. And you might take the arms up. And then we'll release down.

And from here there's no super graceful way in, we just sort of awkwardly inch ourselves forward until the knee comes down. And then it's sort of like the awkward Parighasana, the toe is tucked, the back toe is tucked, we draw femurs in, and we take this variation. And we walk back and you sit back on the heel, extend the leg, and then fold on forward, and release out all of that, just like blood reflowing, and fold into that. From here let the weight shift over a little bit to your left and you pull that left shin in, right leg crosses over, coming into a seated spinal twist. Take a moment.

And then this is like diving into the pool, diving into the pool of fun. We put the foot down, we like look for the pool in front of us, whee, Standing Splits. And this can come on back, take a breath, High Lunge, reach up. And then exhale, all the way down. Plank, and then moving to the belly.

We'll take our hands underneath us into Sphinx Pose, turn the right fingertips towards the left elbow, take Half Froggy. And then you'll start to reach your left arm back, and so like what this, this bottom elbow, it might need to be a little bit farther in, it might be a little bit farther out, so you want to find a place where it's really stable for you. And then when you're ready that left hand reaches back big toe side. So this might be enough, you stay like this. You might do heel to the seat, stay like this, or fingertips pivot around.

And then we're trying to move backwards, so we don't like, it's like push, engage. Find that bottom foot too. And then we release, and you wag the tail, put the head down to the ground, wag the tail side-to-side. And take a few breaths. We'll press back up, find all fours, Downward Facing Dog.

And we do all that fun stuff on the other side. So root and collect into that right hand, start to lift up your left leg. Again, maybe, whoa, there's a moment, and then step through. Start to press away, this time we're lowering the back knee down, releasing the back toe, the right fingertips turn out, and it's just like, oh, I love it. And left hand reaches back, pinkie edge, it's all-in-one, 'cause this is like everything, we've got a twist, we have a heart-opener, got a hip-opener, it's just all you need right here.

And a few breaths. This comes around to our first Skanda, so start to walk your fingertips around towards the right, bend into that right knee, swing the left leg. This time we're trying to move the heel towards the ground, working that, maybe, let's see how this side goes, we find a bind that's useful. Maybe you just let it sink. And come around towards the right side, find the hover Pigeon, back side of your mat.

Flatten those hands out, Jess. Knee in, all the belly in, and then oh, sweetness, set it down. We'll settle into your hips, draw the bones in, start to walk yourself back with your fingertips. You can have this right hand here for stability, left hand reaches back big toe side. And I always find that like once I grab it I always have to shift that knee back a little bit further again.

And so option one is staying just like this. Two, fingertips down, heel in. Three is sliding it out and catching the nook, the big toe in the nook of the elbow. Four, lifting up into your Queen bind. We release this on out.

We come on down and take a few breaths, just getting into the hips. And definitely walk away from this with a whole lot more spaciousness going on in all places. Okay. We lift ourselves on up, and draw the knee in, step through to a Low Lunge, and then around to the left to find all of that awkward work on the left side. Just adjust a little bit here.

So first one is the knee drops down and the toes stay tucked, and then right fingertips walk out, left arm comes up. Another breath here. You bring the hands down, lift the hips enough, release the toe here, so you're sitting on the heel, and then start to slide that leg out. So again, there's like using this mobility here, allowing this work. It's like so, so juicy here.

Lots of space. And then the right hand might come down, and again, it's like, oh, there it is, or maybe we just reach for the foot, beyond the foot, beyond the foot. Come on out. Maybe a little awkward. My hands come back around towards the front, tuck those back toes, and step the foot forward.

Lower the back knee down, release the back toe, and then lift the hips up and back. You can step that front foot back a little bit. So again, it's like experiment, how far back can you keep the foot while still maintaining connection to the ground with the heel? And this can be enough here, there's still like a lot going on. Your hands can rest on the knee.

Our arms come all the way up. And breath here. And you take one more variation, sort of awkwardly inching ourselves forward, oh, there's the floor. Landing the knee. Back toes are tucked, front toes are tucked, draw, it's like a little bit like whoa, so you gotta draw the femurs in to lift up, and arms come up overhead.

May not seem like much, just like visually, but there's a lot of work going on here to stabilize. And we release the hands down, start to shift the hips back, you can untuck those back toes, and we come into our little Runner's Lunge, releasing, it's like all of that work, that bent knee, releasing it on out. And a few breaths here. Folding it on in. You can always place something underneath this hip too if you need support there underneath that left hip.

So from here we lift back up, and to draw your right shin in a little bit and sit down onto the hip. Your left leg crosses over here. Right arm high, left hand behind, little seated twist. And a few breaths here. And then we dive into our pool.

So left leg comes, so it's just like, pshing, pshing, (laughs) pshing. Sometimes you use your hands to help you and you dive in, big Standing Splits. And reach back, High Lunge for a breath, exhale, hands come down. And step on back, Plank, all the way to the belly. Come out into your Sphinx Pose, left fingertips towards that right elbow.

Again, checking in, making sure you're engaged, it feels supported there. Right hand reaches back. Big toe side is stage one, fingertips down, heel down, elbow up, stage two, and then flipping the fingertips around, elbow up, stage three. Gaze comes back forward, don't collapse, press down to lift up. Another breath here, Half Froggy, little Froggy.

And then we release again, take the hands underneath the forearms or the head to the forearms, the hands, and wag the tail side-to-side. And a few breaths. Okay, so here we are, we made it. We're gonna press ourselves on up, coming to all fours, the seat on the heels, and then this is where you're gonna grab ahold of your strap. Nice, awesomely already have a loop all made up, so you can go ahead and take a second and make your loop.

And what you're gonna wanna do is have a loop that's relatively small. And this is different, because when we get into Pigeon, so for me, at least right now, catching my actual toe is not that accessible, and I should know not to say not that, it's not accessible, not that accessible, it's just not accessible, so I wanna, but I still wanna know what it feels like, so I wanna have this relationship with this pose. So using this strap is like an extension of my fingers, so I'm just like making my fingers longer, so they can feel what it feels like. And the reason for the loop is because we're gonna hold, the foot will be in the loop and your hand'll be on the loop, versus sometimes when you do this you do it with the tail and what happens when you do it with the tail is you don't get the actually feelings in your shoulders, 'cause you're doing it from a space of like a bigger shape. So here we actually get to feel what that feels like So maybe a little awkward setting up and you might get in there and realize like oh, this loop is way too small, or oh, this loop is way too big and I need to shorten it.

So we get into relative your Pigeon, we'll start on the right side, and you put the strap around your foot here. And you know, you can pull the tail kind of off to the back and leave it. And then we come into our Pigeon Pose. Drawing femurs in, settle into the hips, and then you'll bend into the knee, and externally rotate the shoulder, so the thumb is up. And from here, holding onto the strap, it's got it nice and big, and you can press back through the foot and you get into the shoulder here.

And this can even be a place to work. If you're gonna go further drop the elbow down, so it goes down, out to the side, and then up. And then your other arm, today it's just gonna reach for my wrist, some days it finds the strap too. We can breath here, and resettle in my hips. And gaze starts to lift.

And we come out and we release, we're like oh. We come down, you find maybe a little bit of rocking aroundness, and release on out. This is a really big shape. And then we'll just do the other side. So I already know that my other side is, I need a little bit bigger of a loop, so I loosen up my loop ahead of time.

And then I'm just gonna switch my legs out and put the strap around the foot, Let the tail be back there, and extend the leg, so it's ready for me when I need it. Set up my Pigeon, drawing femurs in, resetting down, and then reaching back, whoops, strappy, and finding a hold of it. So thumb up, so there's external rotation, dropping elbow down, out, and up. And then again, maybe just the wrist. Can you resettle the hips?

And the gaze lift. And releasing that out, and let the strap go for a moment, and then settle on down. Let's take a moment and kind of wag the tail here. And we'll press up and you lean over towards the left and swing your feet around. And then you can move the strap out of the way, so you don't need it anymore.

Put it off to the side. And we're gonna take Janu Sirsasana, our right and our left, just a little bit more friendly variation. So from here we'll start to walk the fingertips out towards the right leg, the right leg's extended, left leg is in. Peace fingers around the big toe, it can also be the hand on the ankle. If you can get the big toe, awesome.

And then arm straight out diagonal from the shoulder here, just like nice and expansive, and sometimes it's like encouragement, remembering, reminding everything to open. And if you're gonna go a little further sort of bend into the elbow, gas pedal the toes, so you're like stepping on the gas, bend into the elbow, and then arm over the ear. Rise up, and switch other side. Same thing, so leg's nice and extended, left fingertips down, it's a great place to start. Otherwise peace fingers around the big toe.

Right hand reaches straight out diagonal and breath here. And go a little further you can bend into the elbow, that left elbow, gas pedal the left toe, bend into the elbow, and then arm over the ear. And this is again, foot, beyond the foot, beyond the foot. Your expansive self. You rise on up.

And those are like, kinds of shapes, create a lot of opening into right side body. So from here we'll take Tarasana. The bottoms of the feet will come together, but inside of tight in like Baddha Konasana, it's a little bit wider. And then spine's allowed here to round and release and fold on in. Big inhale, long exhale, and just hold on sweetly to the toes.

If it's useful you can thread the hands underneath the calves, and hold onto the feet. Some people might be able to interlace their fingers. And again, you've got those long arms and go for it, releasing the head closer and closer to the feet. Big inhale, long exhale. And slowly unwrap arms, lift yourself on up, notice.

We'll take a sage, sagely twist. So we'll start with the left leg, and the right leg can go back behind us into Half Virasana. We'll take the twist over to the left, and again, this is sort of that same idea of like center column, center of the tent, reaching up, and these two hands can serve as support. And here you can even let this hip lift a little bit, just like radiates. Maybe that right hand finds the knee.

And the last piece is to turn the gaze back forward over the shoulder and then like an offended actress, oh, tilt it away. You get this nice stretch through the neck. And you might have to tilt your head a little bit down or a little bit up to kind of find it, so feel free to play. And release the head first, and then the torso, and we just switch other side. So left leg is in Half Virasana, right foot is pressed into the thigh, reach up nice and tall through the spine, and then start the twist with one hand in front, one hand behind.

Again, nice tall center spine. And breath here. Maybe that left hand finds the knee, heart starts to get involved, the spine grows. And then last, gaze goes back over the shoulder and oh, offended (laughs). And oh, 'cause as you reach through your back hand you get this nice opening through the neck.

You let the head release first here, and then the torso, and then we'll come all the way down onto our back. Here we're gonna use a block, so you might grab one and have it there ready for you. And come on down onto the back, and draw the knees in towards the chest. So sort of like Happy Baby, but Baddha Konasana style, so bottoms of the feet come together and you take a hold of the pinkie edge of the foot, sort of open up. Full breath in, long exhale out.

And we release the feet on down, and we take your block on the low, flat, and wide setting. Lift the hips, place it below on the sacrum. So don't place it into the lower back, but actually low, like more towards the tailbone, so it's nice and rooted and grounded. So we did all of this work, big asymmetrical with our hips, and so here it's just like a moment to ground and collect. Then draw one knee up and then the other, and you'll start to make tiny circles.

It doesn't have to go in one directly only, you can kind of start to move around in different directions. The knees don't even need to stay together either. This is one of those places where you get to explore and you use gravity and the block. It's a nice little massage. And there's something sweet or is sticky in there, you stay and you're like, oh mama, work that out block.

And then we come on over to the other side and we work it out over there. So take as much time here as you need. Eventually you do find center, collect. And you can stay with the knees bent or you can straighten the legs and take a restorative shoulder stand. So if you lifted your legs and all of a sudden your abs turned on and you're working really hard here again just rebend the knees and pull them in towards the chest, because this is meant to be restful and cooling and we're coming to the end of practice, so you don't need to be working hard.

Otherwise, if it's restful to stay here it's just nice to bring the legs up for a moment. Rebend into the knees. And we slowly let one and then the other foot come down. So it might be nice just to stay just like this, you might extend the feet long and discover that that feels awesome. You might discover it's too much.

If it's too much and you wanna be some where in between you can also bend the knees and take the bottoms of the feet more together in this wide shape, like we did for Tarasana. So choosing the place that feels best for you and just opening through this front side of the body. If you're feeling like you might have a little bit more space you can rebend the knees and plant the feet and turn this to the medium setting. Again, it's low on your tailbone, so that these points of the hips are the pieces that are highest up. The arms can just come along the sides of the body and we breath here.

Should feel grounded and restful, neutral and sweet. And a full inhale and a long exhale. And maybe one more like that. And again, you can always stay in any of these shapes longer if you'd like, just hit pause and relax and rejoin when you're ready. Otherwise we'll start to bend into our knees, lift the hips, move the block out of the way and off to the side, and then extending the legs long.

So you just kind of wag the tail a little bit, let's check out, can we get a little bit flatter there through the sacrum? Allow some relaxation through the legs. So shake them out a little bit, shrug the shoulders up, roll them down and back, open through the chest. And just settle on in. And we're back here in the embrace of the mother, of the earth, the ground supporting us, allowing all that sweetness, allowing ourselves to be held.

Remembering that being nourished and caring is just as important, and can be all fire, all the time. It has to be water. And then breath here a few breaths, silence together. We start to come on back, remembering you can always stay as long as you need, otherwise some deeper inhales and exhales, bringing yourself back home to your body. And belly gets round, heart's full, and softens and releases on out.

And then a last couple one of these exhales fallen out through the mouth and even create an audible sound, just like totally letting go. (exhales) And one more like that, big, full inhale, letting go. (exhales) We'll start to rebend into the knees here, draw them in towards the chest, give a little squeeze, rock side-to-side. Then slowly rock yourself on up to a seat, you can always take it slower and over to your side if you'd like to. Whenever you do get there, find a comfortable seat.

The hands come to the heart. And then let's end here and (mumbling) we'll end here. One palm on top, gentle, pressing inward to the heart. And it's so important to remember sweet care, remember to add the water in, take care of the Mah. May you be nourished.

Namaste.