Cool Drink

(waves breaking) Namaste. Welcome to cool drink. So here's the deal a lot of times at the end of the day we're tired and we might do a little practice, but our mind is still absorbed by our day. Alright and in this practice what I would like for you to find is the ability to really let yourself and your body drink in the practice. This requires attention to the things I'm saying and attention to the things that you're feeling.

So let's give it a shot. Here we go, so let your eyes close just for a moment. Feel the gravity, the gravity has a lot to teach us. Now take a nice deep breath and as you exhale stretch your arms back behind you and lean back into you arms. Inhale again and open the chest.

And thing time as you exhale, exhale reaching forward. This allows the lower back to get a nice stretch, let the back of the head go, the neck go. Inhaling bring yourself up, easing back into your arms again, nice big stretch and as you exhale you're going to bring yourself forward again. Again feel the length to the back, let the back of the neck, relaxation of the body. Inhale come back up.

So, we're gonna start out lying on our back, so go ahead and roll, roll around lay down on your back, get nice and cozy. We'll start out with a single full body stretch. If you haven't done this yet with me it's very simple you extend the arms extend the legs, when you inhale your inhalation you're gonna stretch your body just as much as you can the belly gets tight, it's almost like your body's going through a yawn cycle. And then as you exhale you fully relax everything. Let's do one more of those, so I'm sure you got it.

Extend the arms and legs, nice inhalation as you extend, exhale fully relax your body. Bend the legs now and place the feet to the floor. Take your hands forward to your belly. Feet pressed down and the pelvis lifts up not to your maximum, but you're feeling a sensation of the muscles deepening into the bone. Back down you go, draw the legs into your chest as you exhale.

As you inhale feet come down, pelvis rises as you exhale pelvis comes down knees draw into chest. One more of those. Inhaling, feet come down, pelvis up. Exhaling, lowering yourself down, drawing the legs into your chest. Now let's take the feet to the floor.

We're gonna leave the left leg where it is and take the right leg up. And I'm gonna interlace my hands behind my inner thigh. You might find it more comfortable to interlace behind your calf. Or even lower down on the thigh, whatever feels comfortable we just want to investigate allowing this lifted leg, this right leg to be straight. And part of that is not overworking.

So feel the gravity in the pelvis, feel the relaxation of the back body even though you're holding that leg. And when you think you've got a nice place where it's not feeling like it's straining you can start to straighten your left leg along the mat til the leg is straight. See about spreading your toes a little bit. And remember that this is about drinking in the practice so really let yourself be present. Don't strain, that's gonna chase your mind away from wanting to pay attention.

Let's bend the left the left leg now and return the right leg to the floor. And do a nice lift of the pelvis as we did before. Nice bridge pose, feet pressed down and pulled toward you slightly. And then lower that back down. Leave the right leg where it is and extend the left leg.

Interlace your hands behind, hold the leg comfortably wherever you can. It's really better to have it further away from you and straight, then to have it closer to you and bent. So just, see if you can get that leg straight. Time really does heal things and it will really work if you just have a little bit of patience with that leg. It wants to soften.

If you turn your attention to drinking in the contact of your back body to the earth you're leg will soften. When it does you can straighten out that right leg. Feel the gravity. And then let this leg return, join the other. One more little bridge, lifting yourself up.

Pressing the feet, lifting the pelvis, softening the throat. Nice even breath through the body. So draw your legs into your chest and you're gonna hold your legs with your arms and I just want you to have a little bit of a side to side rocking and what you're doing is you're looking for a sensation in the lower back and in the sacrum which is the bony part of your pelvis right about your tailbone. So just that back and forth action. And come back to center, let the feet come to the floor.

Take your time rolling onto your side and coming into a mild downward facing dog. This is one of my favorite poses because you can really really really work it or you can really take it easy in it. So in your downward dog there's no straining here because we are learning to allow the practice to really sink in to every fiber of our being. We're letting go of any resistance. And then slowly bring yourself down to you knees, I want you to uncurl the toes and just let yourself sit back.

Sitting back into the calves, this is one of the most beneficial things you can do if you have had a hard day; is to just sit and compress your calves, it feels so good. And we're gonna do a little opening in the back, so come forward and take your feet outta the equation, you're gonna widen the knees. And then I'm just gonna reach back, I am sitting on my heels and I have two options; I can lift the chest, for this modified camel, or I can lift the chest and the pelvis. Nice breath in the chest. And then coming forward again right into that mild downward dog.

Coming back to your knees, legs together, and again sitting back and compressing the legs. Shifting forward, and one more modified camel pose so you can lift just the chest, or you can lift the chest and the pelvis. Nice inhalation as you go up into that posture. And back down. Rolling all the way forward, into your downward facing dog.

Last dog. And coming onto hands and knees, in your hands and knees look down at your hands and make sure your hands are right underneath your shoulders. I'm gonna keep my toes curled under, you can do that if that's comfortable for your knees. So, we're gonna do little cat cow, so I'm gonna lift the tailbone, lift my head, nice inhalation here. And then I'm gonna exhale and lift my back.

One more of those, inhaling. And exhaling. And back to center. Now let's step the right leg forward gonna take a little journey with some standing poses, just to further ground the body. I straighten both legs.

Your hand can rest on your leg, on a prop a block, or on the floor. But that left arm's gonna go up and as it goes up I'm gonna really reach my spinE nice and long take a nice full breath here. And then my arm will come down, I'll shift myself forward just into a little standing split, nothing too fancy. A couple of breath here, taking care not to overwork. If you feel fancy, you can reach back and float the arms, that's up to you.

Or you can even grab your ankle, that's up to you. And then slowly lower yourself back down back to that beautiful downward dog. Back to hands and knees, inhaling, nice lift of the head, and release of the spin, exhaling. One more of those, inhaling, arching the back and exhaling. Opposite leg comes forward now and again I'm gonna decide where I place my hand, straightening both legs, coming into utthita trikonasana.

My right arm's gonna float up and I'm letting myself drink in the sensations. So if you're having a sensation and you're questioning it you shouldn't be painful. But if it's, there's some effort or you can tell, "wow something's really stretching," try not to deny it or try to run away from it in your mind like really let yourself drink in how that feels. Top arm reaches around, I'm gonna let that back leg lift up. Keeping the mind playful.

Even in the quietness, there can be playfulness so maybe one hand I can reach one hand away. Now it's a two footed pose, not it's a one footed pose. Two footed, one footed, two footed, one footed. Then bring yourself back, to downward dog. Nice long even breath.

Lower onto your knees. And then shift yourself forward in this shift we're doing a modified plank. If plank is fairly easy for you and you wanna go into a full plank that's fine. Whatever feels good to you, but don't overwork. Cause remember, we're cooling as we go.

And then maybe a little modified up dog. And then a down dog. And then coming on down to your knees and again sitting back on the calves. So I know that you noticed I had a blanket here, it's always a good sign. I want you to take your blanket, we're gonna roll it into a tube.

This is a really sweet little series of movements to do with a blanket. If you don't have a blanket at home you can use a towel, it works just as well. But do watch how I get into this cause sometimes you can get into it in a way that's not really that comfortable. So I'm gonna lay down on my back, I'm gonna lift my pelvis, and I'm gonna slide this blanket right underneath my pelvis, right on the right on the sacrum; which is the bone at the back body, the pelvic bone at the back body. And then what I'm seeking to do is fully relax the weight of my body into this blanket.

And what you'll first may notice is that you might be holding off a little bit. So don't hold off, relax deep. Legs will stay bent. Then I'll lift myself, lift my pelvis, take my arms and pull the blanket so now it's at the top of my pelvis. I let the pelvis down, I relax fully, you may feel some deep stretching if it's too much, you have your feet, you can press them into the ground and keep yourself from going too deeply into relaxation in this.

So you are the guide, if it's achy it's probably muscles, it's fine. If it's sharp, you might be aggravating a nerve and you shouldn't do that. Press into the feet now, lift again. Now I'm gonna slide the blanket so that it's under some of my ribs. Just letting myself breath here.

And then sliding it up one more time, and maybe I'll scooch a little bit, that's an official yoga word, scooch. So that it's on my shoulder blades and this way, I like to have my arms over my head. Take in a nice breath here, let that open the body and pay attention to the opening of the body, drink it in. I'll scooch and little bit more, so it's right at the back of my head, so it's almost like a tall pillow. And again, I relax fully.

My legs remain bent. Back of my head relaxing fully, my eyes are closed and soft. And now let the eyes open, shift your hips to the side so you can roll to your side and bring yourself up. And come to sitting. I know some of you don't want to come up.

This is an awesome tool and you can use it and stay in it much longer than that, so take this with you. I hope this has helped you and you've learned a little more about drinking in. Thanks I feel pretty chilled out myself. Peace out. Namaste.