Creation, Fire, and Flight

(waves crashing) Welcome back. This practice is about creation, fire, and flight. You can bring your hands out in front of you and we're gonna do a wrist exercise to help open the energy in the hands, in the fingers, and to prepare to take some weight through our arms. So we're gonna accompany this movement of the hands with breath of fire. You can take a deep breath into the nose, and then empty it out quickly as you spray the fingers out.

(inhaling and exhaling forcefully) Magic hands. (laughs) You can stretch the arms up. Give yourself some spirit fingers and then we'll turn and sit up for baddha konasana. Take the soles of the feet together. Sit up nice and tall. Then you'll bring your hands right underneath you.

Just beside the hips as a framing device. This moves quickly eventually. Reach through the hands and stretch up through the crown of the head. You can breath in here. On your exhale, shoot the legs forward into staff pose or dandasana.

Inhale, bring your feet back together, baddha konasana. Now with your next exhale, it's boat pose, navasana. Inhale, baddha. Third round, upavistha, wide angle. Inhale, baddha.

Exhale, danda. Inhale, baddha. Exhale, boat. Inhale, baddha, Exhale, wide. Now, pick it up a little bit if you can.

Inhaling. Exhaling. Inhaling, go wide. Inhaling, straight out. Inhaling, lift up.

Inhaling, wide angle. Inhaling, staff. Inhaling, boat. Inhaling, wide angle. Let's go a little bit faster.

Out and forward and up. Out and forward and up. And pause in boat. That should get things fired up. Take a breath in.

Cross your legs. Step back. Downward-facing dog. You can take a moment here to smooth up the breath. Feel the heat building in your body.

Inhale to plank pose. Stack your shoulders over your wrist there. We're gonna add a couple of actions here. You'll stretch the heel straight back. Feel a little lift through the inner thighs.

Imagine you're shutting a window so the hands actually pull toward the toes. Immediately you'll feel a little extra energy through your navel center. A little extra third chakra charge. You're shutting an imaginary window here, pulling the hands down toward the toes. One more breath in and empty all the way down happily.

You can inhale for a small cobra, stretch the belly open. Press back for child's pose. Take a pause. Breathing in, rise up to all fours. Then breathing out, downward-facing dog.

Inhale your right leg high. Exhale, bend the right knee and roll the hip open. Inhale the right knee to the upper right arm, give it a little tap there. Then exhale the right foot to the outside of the right hand for a nice wide lunge. Breathing in, take the right arm up.

Spiral the heart open. Then circle it overhead. You're gonna spin the left heel down. Start to straighten your right leg and flex through the foot. It's a little bit crooked and that's okay.

Take a moment to feel that opening through the legs. With your next breath in, return to your lunge, pick up the back heel. Now pin the right knee to the upper right arm. Reach through the hands and suck the navel in and up. You're gonna exhale, lift your right heel up.

The right heel is lifting up to the right sitting bone. Take another breath in here. Then breathing out, shoot the leg back behind you, downward dog split. Inhale the plank. Lower to the mat.

Breathing in, baby cobra. Breathing out, downward-facing dog. Left leg lifts high on an inhale. Bend the left knee and roll the hip open exhaling. Inhale the left knee wide to the upper left arm and step it to the outside of the hand.

Inhale, the left arm floats up. Let's circle it overhead, spin the right heel down straight into the left leg. Breathing in, come back through your lunge. Right toes tucked, pin your left knee to your upper left arm. Then breathe in, now pick up the left heel.

Reach down through the hands, feel your uddiyana bandha upward flying lock lift. Exhale, shoot the left leg straight back. Breathing in to plank. Breathing out lower down. Inhale, open up.

Exhale, press back, hips high. From here you can lift to the balls of your feet with an inhale. Bend the knees. Exhale your way to the top of the mat. Heart lifts.

Breathing in. And fold into yourself. From here, you can turn your toes out. It's almost like a little first position. And you'll wanna tent the fingers or perhaps use blocks if the floor feels too far away.

You're gonna come up under the balls of the feet. The heels touch here and there's space between the arches of the feet. You're gonna come down like a grand plie. Inhale and gaze upwards. Exhale, straighten the legs and let your head hang down.

Then repeat, breathing in, the heart lifts. Breathing out, you fold in to yourself. Inhaling. Exhaling. We're gonna start to pick up the pace.

These are kundalini frogs. Great for the second and third chakras. You'll really feel it. You're creating a lot of heat in the hips, strengthen the legs but also the upper flying lift of the navel that gets you above the ground. You can straighten your legs, turn your toes in.

Give yourself some love. Unbend through the knees. Inhale your way up to the stand, reach your hands high. Take your palms through prayer. And open by your sides.

Find yourself in tadasana mountain pose right at the top of the mat. We're gonna play with some pretty creative variations of surya namaskar. Inhale the arms high. Move left leg steps behind the right. You could tuck the left toes, sweep the arms by your side.

This is OMG, oh my goddess, right? (laughs) Bring your feet back together. Inhale the arms up and dive back in for uttanasana. Inhale, the right leg steps back. Exhale, adho mukha svanasana. Plank pose on the inhale.

Chaturanga. Breathing in, urdhva mukha, and breathing out, adho mukha Right leg to the sky. Exhale it through. Inhale the right arm up to twist. Circle it overheard and make your way back into your OMG.

Feet come to meet, inhale the hands high. Then switch sides right away, right leg behind the left, your OMG on the other side. Inhale, arms up, urdhva hastasana. Dive forward, uttanasana. Left leg steps back, breathing in.

Downward-facing, breathing out. Plank pose to chaturanga. Inhale, the heart rolls open. Exhale, you reel it back through your center. Inhale the left leg high.

Step it through. Breathing in, the left arm lifts and breathing out, we've got our OMG. Feet to meet, reach high. OMG on the other side. Meet back in urdhva hastasana and then pull it together here at the heart.

Then bring your arms by your sides. We'll sit into utkatasana. Breathing in, chair pose. Sweep the arms by your sides and pick up your heels for perch. Try that a few more times.

Heels down, see if you can scrape your fingertips to the ground and then reach up on the inhale. Exhale back into perch. The heels lift. One more time, heels down. Utkatasana.

Perch pose, heels lift, heart reaches forward, navel's drawing in and up. Plant your hands in front of your feet, knees to the backs of the arms, bakasana, crane pose. Feel the uddiyana bandha here. Look forward. Then with the next, I'll shoot both legs back for your chatarunga.

Inhale it open. Exhale for downward-facing. Inhale, lift your right leg to the sky. Step it forward directly between your hands breathing out. Then spin the left heel down.

Sit up for a warrior two circling the shoulders back over the hips. Weave the left arm under the right arm for eagle arms. Then inhale straighten through the right leg, reaching your fingertips high. With your exhale, you splash open wide into warrior two again. Flip the palms, inhale to reverse warrior and exhale your way down to your chatarunga or skip it and rest in downward-facing.

Left leg high breathing in. Step it between the hands breathing out. Inhale your way open to warrior two and exhale the right arm under the left. Inhale, reach through the left foot, stretch your fingers high. Then track the knee back over the ankle, open up.

Flip the palms, arch open through the left waist for your reverse warrior and take it down and through breathing out. For this next round, we'll end up facing the other side of the mat briefly. Right leg high, step it through. Inhale through warrior two. The right toes turn in a little bit.

The left toes turn out a little bit. Back into our eagle arms. Add lion's breath here. (exhales loudly) We're in goddess pose. You can even slide side to side here, get the hips to start to open even more.

Awaken through the belly, through the inner leg lines. Then drop your left forearm to your left thigh. You inhale the right arm up. Try to drop the right hip while you're at it so you're nice and even through the hips. Then weave the right arm behind the back for a little extra shoulder opening here.

Lots of fire in the legs. We're gonna shift both feet, the left side, the back of the mat for extended side angle on the thigh with a half bun. From here, start to straighten through the left leg. Your left hand can slide down your shin. Triangle pose.

You can even lean back against your right forearm to open your right shoulder. Then free up the arm breathing in. Circle it overhead reaching along through the right waist. And all the way down pass through prasarita. Turn the right toes out, widen the right foot and come back into that wide lunge we started with.

You can walk your hand so that they're directly beneath your shoulders. Breathe in. On your exhale, pick up your right heel. Inhale to plank. Exhale left knee forward.

Inhale to plank. Exhale right knee forward. Now when you inhale, shoot the right leg up and lower for chatarunga. Breathing in and breathing out. Take a moment.

Even out the breath. All set up for the second side. The left leg lifts inhaling. Step it through exhaling. Breathing in to warrior two, the left toes turn in, the right toes turn out.

Here you go in your goddess pose. The right forearm lowers to the right thigh. Inhale the left arm up. Try to balance out the hips. The weight between the right and left foot.

Then add the half bun. Both feet are gonna shift to the back of the mat so the left heel has to move back. Stack the right knee over the right ankle. Then begin to straighten through the right leg for your triangle variation. Grow longer through the neck, reaching through the crown of the head, brightening up through the toes.

You can inhale the left arm high and sweep it overhead breathing out. Pass through prasarita right back to the top, widen the left foot out. Walk your hands back. Inhale here. Then reach through the right heel.

Exhale, pick up the left knee. Inhale, plank. Right knee forward exhaling. Inhale, plank. Left knee forward.

Shoot the left leg high and lower. Splash it open and reach your hips to the sky. From downward-facing dog, you can lift to the balls of the feet, bend through the knees, gaze forward, and exhale your way to the top of the mat. Breathing in, lift the heart and breathing out, bow in. Soften the knees, rise up through utkatasana.

Exhaling tadasana. Zeroing out. You're gonna shift your weight into the right foot. Bring your left knee in and open it up for tree pose. Stretch the arms wide.

Reach on down through your right leg so much that you can lift your left leg up. Imagine bringing your left knee up toward your left armpit. You really have to dig in to the lower belly to do that. I call this ara tree. You're gonna lift your interior ara tree five times.

Left knee lifts. One, two, three, four, and five. Now, slide the left leg behind the right OMG. Drop on down. The hands are gonna reach forward to the top of the mat.

You're nice and low here but the belly is lifting high. The left knee comes to the back of the left arm. Tip your hips as high as humanly possible. See if you can lift your right leg and then transfer into half moon. You might be hanging out in your one-legged crow.

You might only be passing through. It sort of depends on the day, doesn't it? Finding a half moon moment here, you're gonna soften the left knee. Inhale back into reverse warrior, wrapping the right arm behind the back. Then come in to a full bind in your extended side angle.

The left knee stacks over the left ankle. Draw the navel in, roll the shoulder back, and reach through the crown of the head. To free it up, circle the right hand down just below the shoulder, tuck the right toes, yogi toe lock, you're gonna pivot all the way around. Just like you're opening a window. Vasisthasana.

Step it back, offer it up for your wild thing. Yeah. Come on down and around pigeon. Beloved pigeon. You can scoot on back a bit.

We're gonna take a moment here to undulate in our pigeon. Breathing in, the heart lifts. It's like a prrr moment. (laughs) Then breathing out, you press down, reach through the left shin, round the back, flexing the spine and navel lifting. Allow yourself to lower again, heart blows open on the breath in. Breathing out, you reach into the ground and contract.

This downward reach through the left shin helps you to pull up through mula bandha. One more time, breathing in and breathing out, reach down to rise. Now you can come all the way down onto your forearms and take a little rest in your pigeon pose. So meditate on the opening of the hips. That fluid energy of creation, our relationships, our emotions, and they move us through the world.

We're gonna use this extra space but also that strength and that fire within to help us rise up and fly. You can climb up onto your hands, tuck the right toes. Slide the left ankle over the right knee so it's like a downward dog meets one-legged chair. There's a nice feeling here in the hips as well. Gaze forward breathing in.

See if you can hop your right foot toward the middle of the mat. The weight comes back into the right heel. You can lift through a flap back here. You have a few options. You might come up and take a balance in this one-legged chair shape.

You might shift your weight forward into the hands, bring the left shin up on the backs of the arms. Pick the right heel up and then float the right leg back, eka pada galavasana. You're reaching down to rise up and step back to downward dog. And chill out in child's pose for a few breaths before we take the second side. You can spread your hands back out.

Inhale up to all fours. Tuck the toes, pressing back to downward-facing. Breathing in, come up to the balls of your feet, soften through the knees and gaze forward. Then breathing out, float your way to the top of the mat. Inhaling, ardha uttanasana.

Exhale, bowing in to your standing forward fold. Sweep the arms up for utkatasana. Standing tall in tadasana. Calming back the center. You might wanna take a small step back just so that you have enough mat space for your hands.

Then pick up the right knee. Tree pose, standing on your left leg. Come in to the midline and grow bigger. Expand. Root down through the left leg to pick up the right knee, ara tree.

Lifting it up five poses. One, two, three, four, and five. OMG, right leg steps behind the left. The arms come to frame the side body. The hands stretch forward, stay low, belly lifting.

Right knee comes to the upper right arm. I'm picking up my left heel so that I'm able to then maybe lift my left leg. Maybe it's one-legged crow. Maybe not. Ardha chandrasana.

Either way. The right leg comes down and the left leg stretches back. It's like the best ardha chandrasana ever, pretty much. You can bend through the right knee, step it back, inhaling to reverse where your left arm weaves behind the back and then wrap your arms around yourself for the embrace in your bound extended side angle. That's a nice place to just get really connected to your belly.

Builds character. Left hand comes to the ground. Tuck the left toes, yogi toe lock with the right hand. Spin to the outer edge of the left foot. Your body turns to the right for vasisthasana.

Step the right foot back off the mat. Stay lifted out of the left shoulder for your wild thing. Offering it up to the gods. Then come back around, pigeon. Right shin to the top of the mat.

Slide on back. Tent the hands, inhale, lift the heart. Now press down as you breathe out, flexing the spine. Let your hips lower on the inhale. Rise on up on the exhale, applying your bandhas.

Some maha bandha moment here really. Lower for the heart to open. One more lift. Then you can come down onto the forearms. Close the eyes, turn your head to one side.

Have your moment. Sometimes the hips are almost too open for this arm balance without the extra lift or the reaching down to get you up. So if you're one of the super flexi dancer types (laughs) watch out for that. Hook the right ankle over the left knee right across the thigh. One-legged chair meets dog.

Then try to float your left foot forward and lift the heart, flap back. Reaching down to rise up for balance or coming forward onto your hands. The hands cannot be right next to your left foot. Move them out in front of your foot. Give yourself some room.

You gotta bend your elbows backwards. Literally move forward onto the backs of the arms. It might be best to move your foot down a little closer to your elbow versus your armpit so that you can push down with your shin. Draw the navel in and up and then unfurl the left leg behind you like a big flying tail. Step it back downward dog.

Child's pose is your best friend. Inhale your way back up to all fours. Exhale downward dog. Breathe the right leg up behind you and step it forward to the inside of the right hand breathing out. We're gonna shift gears a little bit here.

You're gonna hop the left foot up slightly and straighten the right leg for pyramid pose. The hips are nice and square here and you'll find some length. Then with your exhale, walk the hands backwards. We're really gonna work the tented fingers for this one. The hands go so far back that the palms turn to the front of the mat.

If your arms are still having a hard time reaching the floor, you could put blocks under your hands. That might be helpful. Pull the navel in and up, mula bhanda, root lock. Uddiyana bandha, navel lock. Let's see if you can press so strongly through the fingertips and lift so much through the bandhas that you pick the left knee up to meet the right so it's perched.

Perched. Perched low tadasana is what I call it. Put the left leg back down. Keeping that in mind, you can soften the right knee. Pick your left knee up to meet your right.

You're shifting your weight into your hands. See if you can start to lift from the same place. Maybe guiding the left knee up. Try that one more time. The left knee is gonna lead you up into a handstand play.

Then the left knee crosses right behind the right and you come in to your ardha matsyendrasana to the back of the mat. Sort of like OMG just sort of decomposed into this place. Wring it out. When you unwind the knees go apart and you stack the shins for ankles to knees. You can scoot the sitting bones back a little bit and wander your hands forward.

Stacking the shins like fire logs. Breathing into the heat. The fire in the hips here. You're gonna take the right hand to the right big toe. Left hand, peace sign, left big toe.

So that if you look down, the left arm should be crossed over the right arm. This is important or you'll be tangled up. Lean back unto your hips. Extend the legs wide and balance here, kundalini lotus. The heart lifts, the waist grows longer.

There's energy through the legs, even through the feet. Then try to bring your legs together and release for boat pose. Take a breath in there in your boat. You can cross your legs and step it back for downward-facing dog. Take a deep breath in and empty it out.

Inhale the left leg high. Step it forward breathing out. Hop the right heel up, slightly spin the heel down. Lengthen the spine breathing in. Exhale your way into your pyramid shape.

The hands walk back. Tent the fingers either to the mat or to your blocks. Reach through the hands. There's a slight rounding of the upper back. Press through the left foot but keep your left leg exactly where it is as you bring your right knee up to meet your left knee.

Perch. Put it on down. Shift your weight forward into the left leg. Right knee comes up to meet your left. I'm gonna hop back a little bit so I have some space.

Start to rock your weight forward onto your hands. See if you can guide yourself up with your right knee. Maybe lifting the left leg up with you. Then the right knee crosses behind the left knee. See to this final twist facing the back of the mat.

You're welcome to close your eyes here. Take a listen. It's nice to get grounded up for those high, high places. Then when you unwind, the shins stack for your agni stambhasana. Scoot the hips back and meander forward.

We're gonna reverse the crossing of the arms on the way out. You can walk yourself up. Start with your left hand. Peace sign with your left hand around your big left toe and then the right hand around the right big toe. The right arms on top of the left.

Scoot your hips back and then you open up. Kundalini lotus. Hoist the heart up. Chin up. It should be a fairly uplifting shape.

Then bring your ankle bones together if you can. If you need to bend your knees, you're more than welcome to. Then let go finding your boat pose. Imagine that your knees are pinned together for this one though. We're gonna do a variation called paddle boat.

The right foot lowers and then the left foot, and you switch. Knees pinned together legs alternating. Also known as the burlesque variation. (laughs) Then both legs straight, breathe in. Cross your legs. Downward-facing dog.

You can sit back in child's pose. From here, you can roll on to your backs, taking your heels fairly close to your sitting bones, about hip width apart, and take a breath into your back body. We've been focusing a lot on the front body with all that core work and arm balancing. Now allow the back body to release into the mat for a moment. Then you'll reach in to the feet and with an inhale, float the hips up off the ground.

Stretching the front of the thighs, the hip flexors, the belly. You can interlace the hands behind your back. Prop yourself up on the upper arm bones as you externally rotate the shoulders. You might even float the toe pads up off the ground. As the heart lifts up towards your chin, see if you can soften through your throat.

This is the perfect counter pose to what we've been doing. Opening the front body the opposite direction. Take another breath here trying to keep the inner thighs engaged. You can release your hands to the sides and roll them one vertebra at a time. Roll the right knee into your chest to get close and the left leg long.

Then bring the right knee over to the left side of the mat. You can look over the right arm for a nice relaxing lazy spinal twist. Try to release the right shoulder blade into the ground and drop your right hip away from your right rib cage so you feel the waist lengthen out. Revolving around through the ribs to the right. On your way out, take the right foot in your right hand.

Open up the hip, it's half happy baby, so your left hand's on your left hip. Stack your right heel over your right knee. Try to balance out the pelvis so you feel the left hip on the ground. Then release the right leg down. It might even feel and literally be longer than your left.

Left knee into the chest, hug it close. Draw out across the body to the right. You could scoot your hips in toward the middle of the mat slightly. Then smear the shoulder blades against the mat as evenly as you can. Breathing into the left lung, the left waist, even the left hip.

That's half happy baby on the way out. Catching the left foot in the left hand. Grounding the right hip with the right hand. Invite some energy through the right leg and the right foot as if you're standing on it here. Then try to nudge the knee out to the side with the left elbow as you hug the left heel in.

We'll even out with a full happy baby. Press the sacrum into the ground. Stretch the spine long out of the hips. Then you can hug the knees in for apanasana. Draw the chin into the chest, the navel to the spine, the knees to the nose.

Then spread out in all directions for your shavasana. Like you're just being poured out on the ground. I invite you to stay longer in shavasana if you have the time. When you're ready to rise up, you can roll unto your right side, pressing down to the left hand and bringing yourself up to sit in sukhasana. We'll finish with an om.

Bring your hands together. Close the eyes. Draw the breath in through the nose. (chanting om) Namaste.