Day 14: Stay With the Feeling

(crashing waves) Hello and welcome to day 14, congratulations. So before we get started, I just want you to take a moment to really see how you feel. Reflect back, we've had 13 other practices really focusing on how do we ease and relax in our effort? As well, how do we really find nourishment out of our practice? When we're cultivating energy and not simply just burning energy.

So, let's just start by standing. Let's come back to our regular start with one hand on the heart, one on the belly. Just taking a few moments to really feel. Letting your hands drop to the side and the eyes open lightly and just let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder. Inhale, bring the chin up.

Exhale, left ear towards left shoulder. Inhaling coming up, this time, hang out, right ear towards right shoulder. Just feeling the sensations as you reach the left hand away. Take an inhale, lift the chin. Still with the right ear towards the right shoulder and then softly roll the chin down.

Maybe taking the gaze down. Same thing, repeat. Inhale, take the chin up. Exhale, bring the chin down. Slowly bring the gaze back forward.

Exhale, left ear towards left shoulder. Reach the right hand away lightly and start to dip the right chin up. "The right chin", we only have one chin. Then start to lower it back down. Inhale, lift the chin again.

Exhale, lower the chin down. The gaze back up to neutral. This time, chin to the chest, keep the chest still lifted. Inhale, rise up, let the chin rise up. Gaze can go upward, and exhale, chin again towards the chest keep the chest lifted.

Inhale, one more time, lift the chest. Then chin back to neutral. Exhale, take the chin to the chest, start to roll the ear to the right, to the back, to the left, to the front and just two more times on your own. Noticing any areas that feel stiff, noticing any areas that you might wanna avoid. We're not forcing, just noticing.

Then your chin comes back to the front, we're going to take three times around to the left, so left ear towards left shoulder, to the back, lightly, eyes open, feel free to close them. When you're complete, lifting the chin up. Lightly blinking the eyes open. We'll meet right at the top of the mat. Inhale, come into chair pose.

Moving through our sun salutations with chair pose, exhale, fold forward, legs long. Inhale, let the hands slide up the shins. Come half way up, exhale, fold in. Inhale, rise up chair pose, exhale, come to standing. Inhale, chair.

Exhale, fold forward, legs long. Inhale, halfway rise. Exhale, fold. Inhale, chair. Exhale, come to standing.

Two more, slow, steady inhale. Exhale, fold. Inhale, halfway rise. Exhale, fold. Inhale, chair.

Exhale, standing. One more. Inhale, chair. Exhale, fold. Inhale, halfway lift.

Exhale, fold. Inhale, chair. Exhale, stand and pause. Noticing as we move slowly, consciously, how we can create heat, create stability and start building energy without completely using it all. Moving through our lunge salutes.

Inhale, chair pose. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, come halfway up. Make space so you can take the right leg back. Exhale, bring the right knee and shin down.

Inhale, rise up. Low lunge, exhale, we'll come back into downward-facing dog. Curl the back toes under as you lift the hips. Step back. Same option as day 13, option to stay here, or slide forward into plank.

Option to keep knees up or down, a nice, slow lower. Inhale, option low cobra or lift the thighs, upward-facing dog. Exhale, lower all the way back down. Pressing up, knees or legs long in plank, start to lift the hips, take it back into downward-facing dog. Three breaths.

Your next inhale, take the right leg up. Draw knee in towards the nose and step the foot all the way forward into a runner's lunge. Back knee and shin down, low lunge. Exhale, hands come down, curl the back toes under. Step all the way forward.

Fold it in. Inhale, halfway rise. This time, left foot steps back. Left knee and shin down, arms sweep up, low lunge. Exhale, hands come down.

Step back, downward-facing dog. Head hang out, here's an option. Or shift forward, plank pose. Slow lower down, knees up or down. Inhale, low cobra or come forward into upward-facing dog with thighs off the floor.

Slow lower back down. Curl the toes under, lift up, plank pose. Knees up or down, you know your options. Exhale, back, downward-facing dog. Three breaths.

Your next inhale, bring the left leg up. Exhale, knee in towards the nose and then step forward into a runner's lunge. Right knee and shin down. Arms sweep up. Exhale, hands come down, curl the back toes under.

Bring the gaze forward, step forward, exhale, fold it in. Inhale, halfway. Exhale, fold. Bend the knees, rise up, chair pose. Exhale, hands come down.

So slowly, bring the arms up, grab opposite elbow. Soften the elbows down and then we've done this before. Grab the elbows, have this isometric pole. So, starting to warm up the shoulders as we're getting ready prepping in towards bridge pose, and then, even more so into wheel pose, still pulling. Exhale, release.

Roll the shoulders back, nice and steady. Slow, mindfully. Take the arms back up, as you touch the elbows, grab the opposite way. Find that same hook in the elbows and pull them apart. Soften the shoulders down, eyes light.

Action-action-action as you're drawing the arms apart. Pull, pull, pull. Exhale, release. This time, roll the shoulders forward just a few times. Warming them up a little bit before we get to play a little bit later in practice.

Then take one inhale, squeeze-squeeze-squeeze the shoulders up towards your ears, exhale, let them thunk down. One more like that. Inhale, squeeze-squeeze-squeeze-squeeze-squeeze. Exhale, let them go. Taking a moment before we move into our standing poses.

Just tuning in, hands to the hips. Revert into the right foot, step back. Left foot coming into our high crescent lunge with the back heel lifting, and then drop the back heel coming right into warrior two. So, three breaths here. Finding the right knee over the ankle.

The outer edge of the back foot pressing strong. If there was a perfect place to practice, here's our effort. Where's the ease? Going to be softer-softer-softer through our eyes, through the jaw, through the heart. Okay, so option here, stay in the lunge or press out like we did in day 13.

We're going to take it into reverse, so right palm turns up. Go up and then go back. So, staying light through the left hand. Tuned in, feel the heat generating in the legs. Notice that the breath starts to shake, and just simply create a little bit longer inhale and exhale.

Inhale, come back up to warrior two option, to press this leg long, or stay in it. Shift the torso forward, come into our side angle pose. So, a long line from the left fingertips all the way, the outer edge to the left foot. As you start to get tired, stay light through the right forearm. One more big breath.

Your left arm lifts you up to warrior two. Lengthen the right leg, toe-heel this back foot in. As you turn the hips forward, lift on the ball of the back foot, step on up. Just take a moment. Hands come back to the hips, through the left foot, step back, high crescent with the right.

So, our back heel stays lifted. Do that little wiggle to come in. Then drop the back heel right into warrior two. Playing with heel-to-heel alignment, left knee over the ankle. Again, strong like a warrior pose.

Strong like a warrior through the legs, then so light through the heart, light through the shoulders. It's an option to press out to get a little break or move right into our next pose, reverse warrior. Left palm lifts up, don't change the legs and just lift up and dip back. Almost like we're taking our whole body over a beach ball to the right behind us. Notice where the head is in space.

Often times, it goes away, see if you can draw it back in line with your shoulder. Rise back up to warrior two, option to press out and take that little breather, or shift forward right into side-angle pose. Left forearm comes to thigh, right arm frames the right ear. Then the trick here is can you stay, stay light through the left forearm? Can you keep the left shoulder out of your left ear?

Got to inhale, come back up, warrior two. Lengthen this left leg, toe-heel the back foot in. Get control, hips forward, step forward. Take a moment to feel. Inhale, chair pose and we're going to take it all the way down, exhale, into downward-facing dog.

Inhale, halfway rise, step the right foot back then the left, and meet in downward-facing dog. Pausing for two more breaths. Inhale, wave forward into plank pose. Heels high, legs engaged. Choice to stay right here.

If you wanna add a little bit of spice, inhale, the right leg up. Hold it, two, three breaths. Again, it's just an option. Go forward, right leg comes down. Option, left leg.

Remember, you can also come down onto your knees. Exhale, left foot down. Lower all the way down, knees down or straight. When you arrive, inhale, lift up, low cobra. Exhale, lower down.

Either hanging out right here, low cobra, or coming up into upward-facing dog. After taking two extra breaths here, doing the warm-up through the shoulders, through the back. Preparing for wheel pose. Exhale, lowering down. Bring the arms to your sides.

Coming into locus pose, seal up the in seams of your legs. Inhale, lift the heart up, lift the legs, lift the arms. Find the spin of thumbs are away from you and they start to peel up a little bit, so we start to feel this lift and rise of the shoulders. One more big breath. Exhale, release.

Just take the left ear to the floor for a moment. Again, how quickly can you let go of the tension in your body? Your head comes back to center. Last locus, option of adding the hand clasp. So either palms on the floor, hands lifted, or interlace, lift up.

So again, the play of lifting the crown, lifting the feet as well as getting a little bit longer. Exhale, release down, take the opposite ear to the floor. We're just going to roll all the way over onto our backs. I like to take my one arm up high to roll over. Then find your feet, a couple of inches from your bum.

We're moving through flowing bridge, so we're going to flow with our breath. Through the feet, inhale. Let the arms come up, let the pubic bone and chest lift with the arms. Then exhale, let the spine ripple down with the arms. Let's continue with your inhale, initiates the movement.

Exhale, roll it down. Inhale, lift. Exhale, wave it down. One more, inhale, lift. Exhale, wave it down.

This time, as we lift up, start to work the shoulders underneath, come into bridge and we'll hold right here. A few breaths, option, interlacing the hands. Option of pressing the back of the arms down just to lift the fingertips towards the ceiling if that helps. One more breath. Slowly release, lowering down slowly.

So choice, come right back into bridge, what we were just doing and we'll move into prep for full wheel, and then we'll move into wheel. So, the shoulders have to be a little bit open to get into this pose. So, if they're not, stay right in bridge. We're going to take the finger pads behind the shoulders, for the prep, as we press down into the feet, take the elbows towards the ceiling, find that lift as you press through the feet, through the pubic bone, belly and we're going to come to the top of the head. As you lift up, the crown comes down.

The arms draw in, and just hang out here for a moment. This might be plenty. Two more breaths, so the weight's in the hands. Any mischief in the neck, come out. All right, tuck the chin, come all the way back down.

Take a moment, let the knees just rest on each other. So if that felt at your limit, do that one again, or bridge. If you feel like, "I'm curious," want to investigate a little bit more, bring the fingertips underneath the shoulders, press through the feet. Let's rise up into prep again. Top of the head touches, weight in the hands, draw the outer arms in, and then lift all the way up.

So, there's just as much press of the chest lifting as there is the thighs. Start to take the gaze down and if you're here, see if you can stay a few breaths. Two more big breaths. See if you can press through the hands, press through the feet. Lift the chest.

Last one, tuck the chin, see if you can lower all the way down, touching the back before the head. Take a moment. The knees rest on themselves. So notice the energy of a back bend. Sometimes, they can be completely invigorating, energizing.

Sometimes, they can feel a little nauseating. So, just sit with the medicine of the back bend. Then allow the bottoms of the feet to come together, knees are gonna fall out to the sides, in recline butterfly. Really starting to allow your senses to draw inward. Really, really, really paying attention to yourself.

Taking the hands to the back of the thighs, knees up. Keep the feet about hip-distance apart, take the arms up and just let the knees drop off to the right sides, there's this big, open, yummy twist. The knees come back up to center. Let them drop off to the left, turn the head to the right. Bring the knees back up to center.

One leg at a time, lowering down into our final resting pose. If the mind starts to wander, use the breath as a tool to bring you right back to the present moment. Let the thoughts go by, focus on your inhale and your exhale. Taking a little deeper inhale. Full, complete exhale.

Let's give a little wiggle of the fingers, the toes. Take the arms up overhead. Bringing in the knees and slowly rolling over to the right side and just taking a pause as you curl into yourself. Just bring your full awareness to yourself. Really paying attention to yourself, noticing how you feel, noticing any sensations, any emotions.

Try not to sub-serve yourself very much, press up to a comfortable seat. When you arrive, just simply find stillness. So see if you can stay with this feeling. Let's see if you can start to weave this feeling into your everyday life. Knowing that there's places in your life that you can cultivate and build, and create energy through movement, as well as those times of deep relaxing rest.

14 days of yoga for energy. Thank you for joining me, see you soon.