Revolved Triangle & Half Moon

Greetings tribe, nice to see you again. This practice will be flowing towards revolved triangle, privrita, cikonasana, it's a wonderful practice to detoxify and open up the spine as well as the hamstrings. Have a couple of blocks handy for this one. Let's begin. Come to the top of the mat and draw your hands together at your heart into Andralimudra.

Take a very deep breath in through the nose and exhale through your mouth and release your hands. Let's circle the arms out and up, take a full body breath in and exhale, just come right back down the midline, centering your awareness in your breath, coordinating your inhale to match the movement of the body as you reach upward. Exhale to come down the midline, let's take that one more time, breathing in through all of your pores, reaching to the sky, exhale into your forward fold, releasing your hands to the mat, soften the knees a touch, inhale to lift the heart halfway, Ardha Uttanasana, and as you exhale, step back to downward facing dog. From here we'll start to move into a simple pendulum namaskar to start to introduce a little heat to the body and initiate the twisting process. So let's take the right leg to the sky on a big inhale and as you exhale, step forward to a low lunge, lower the back knee down, inhale, reach forward and up into crescent pose and as you exhale, release the left hand down, let the right arm swing all the way back to the sky and then retrace that pathway, inhale back up to crescent pose and let's open up the arms, spread across the chest as you circle your hands down to the mat.

Step back to plank and shift forward on an inhale, exhale lower all the way down to the mat for this first vinyasa, inhale low cobra, exhale back to downward facing dog. Take the left leg to the sky on your next inhale, exhale step all the way through to a low runner's lunge, inhale to crescent and exhale all the way to the twist, right hand down, left hand to the sky, retrace the pathway, inhale crescent pose and then circle the arms open spreading across the chest, stepping back to plank, shift forward on your inhale and this time exhale halfway down to chaturanga if you like, inhale to either cobra or upward dog, exhale downward facing dog, inhale the right leg to the sky, exhale step all the way through maybe this time a high lunge keeping the back knee lifted, inhale reach forward and up into crescent and then take your entire exhale to the twist, left hand down, right hand to the sky, retrace the pathway, let's set the back knee down and inhale open your heart reaching back behind you into the back space, step back to plank shifting forward on your inhale, exhale lower, inhale upward dog or cobra, exhale downward dog, take the left side inhaling left leg to the sky, exhale step it through maybe a high lunge this time, inhale reach forward and up and exhale all the way to the twist, keep your chest close to the front thigh, retrace the pathway, set your back knee down and inhale open your heart, open your wings exhaling to plank, shift forward on your inhale exhale chaturanga, inhale open your heart, exhale downward dog, let's take it once more each side, inhaling right leg to the sky, exhale step it through high lunge, inhale to crescent pose, exhale to your twist and once again just keep your chest close to the front thigh, inhale come back up to your low lunge opening across the heart, exhale through your vinyasa, inhale upward dog, exhale downward dog, left leg rising on an inhale, exhale step it through high lunge, inhale to rise, exhale to your twist, set the back knee down, inhale to your low crescent, exhale open your wings, stepping back passing through your vinyasa, hovering in chaturanga, inhale cobra upward dog, exhale downward facing dog, let's hang out here for just a couple breaths, rolling the shoulders away from the neck, relax your head and neck, maybe take a couple nods yes and no, pressing from your hands all the way up to the hips and rooting down towards the earth through your heels, from here let's move to hands and knees, release the knees down beneath the hips, hands right beneath your shoulders, inhale reach your right arm to the sky, open your chest and exhale, thread the right wrist behind the left and come all the way down to a released twist and you can pitch a little tent with your left fingertips to help turn your chest open towards the sky, so many ways to interact with different twists of the spine whether they be active and standing or released and grounded all of them have similar yet different benefits on the body and if you'd like to take some variations here you can reach your left leg out to the side, maybe bring it up and hold the big toe with your right hand and the left arm can reach upward and start to just turn into a little asymmetrical twist here, top arm can reach alongside your ear if you like and take a couple breaths here, there's a slight inversion in the spine here so it's a nice different bit of pressure and compression and activation on all the digestive organs as we twist and invert so really allow gravity to help you as you lean and open your spine into the twist and even your bottom shin, your right shin can kind of pivot towards the straight leg to turn the torso a bit more and slowly make your way back to your hands and knees centering yourself back to neutral and let's take the left arm to the sky opening the chest up, taking your gaze up, exhale, thread your left wrist behind the right, come all the way down to the outer shoulder and ear, put a little tent with the right hand and start to turn your spine, maybe taking your right leg out to the side to anchor down and reaching your right arm upward and just start to kind of experiment and navigate through this twist, notice if you pivot the bottom shin or reach the top arm over your head how this feels in the body, leaning into the shoulder, leaning into gravity and enjoy a couple of breaths here and then slowly making your way back to hands and knees curling the toes under press back to downward facing dog, so let's move into our first standing sequence from your downward dog, inhale the right leg to the sky, exhale to step it all the way through to a runner's lunge, inhale rise up to your crescent pose, exhale hands to your heart and just take a prayer twist to your right, you can slide up the tricep or you're welcome to place your hand on the mat, whichever works better for you but start to really lengthen your spine on your inhale and then as you exhale turn into the twist and that's kind of a rhythm or a recipe if you will that works for most of our twists, when we inhale we lengthen the spine and when we exhale we turn the twist small degrees to enhance the twist, just take one more breath here keeping your chest close to your front thigh, try not to open up into a back bend but keep the energy drawing inward and then as you exhale just set the back foot for warrior two, release your arms and let's fan up and over into our reverse warrior, so we'll come through warrior two and open up the right side waist, deep inhale to lengthen and then exhale come all the way back around into your crescent twist so you'll spin on the ball of the back foot, left hand down, right hand to the sky, retrace that pathway, set the back heel, lead with your left arm come all the way up and over and then exhale back into the twist, so we'll just take a couple of opportunities here to wind and unwind the spine, last cycle inhale through your reverse warrior, this time as you exhale take the hands down inside the front foot, walk it all the way to the left and come to down dog with the left leg high, deep breath in, exhale step it all the way through runner's lunge, inhale crescent pose, as you exhale draw the hands to the heart and take prayer twist to your left, so once again for this first twist we stay in a little bit longer you're welcome to have your hand down on the mat or work with a little bit of balance here and place your tricep to the outer knee, inhale to lengthen your spine and as you exhale turn into the twist and these balancing standing twists are not necessarily easy they're quite challenging and one of the ways that we can stabilize ourselves is to squeeze the inner thighs to the midline and that helps secure our base, inhale to lengthen, exhale turn your spine, one more breath here and then releasing to a warrior two base, set the back heel down leading with your right arm come through your warrior two all the way to your reverse warrior reaching up and back and then exhale swimming through the space come back to your crescent twist set the back heel down inhale reverse your warrior reaching up and back opening through the sideways exhale all the way back into your twist one more cycle set the back foot inhale reverse your warrior exhale cartwheel the hands down walk it all the way to your right and step back to plank shift forward on an inhale exhale chaturanga inhale cobra or upward dog exhale downward dog and let's enjoy a few breaths here from your downward dog inhale to your toes bend your knees step or lightly hop to the top of the mat lift the heart halfway and then exhale forward fold come all the way up to standing with the flat back inhaling as you rise exhale draw your hands to your heart and let's step our left foot back about three feet or so for a parsvottanasana base parsvottanasana is actually the base of revolved triangle rather than triangle itself because it's a warrior one hip family so feel your hips square and then go ahead and just bring your fingertips to your heart and as you inhale open up your arms like a magician's assistant I used to be one exhale dive your hands behind your back and then dry your fingertips up your spine and pivot the hands into a reverse namaste and if reverse namaste isn't accessible you can just bring your fists together or hold on to your opposite forms whatever works for you but let's inhale lift the heart pour it up and over your hands and then exhale start to hinge forward and pause about halfway down and just feel this shape in the body feel the equal weight between the front foot and the back foot the squaring of the hips the length of the spine and it's really from here that we start to build our twisting triangle so just let yourself breathe here for a moment or two feel this shape and then keeping the openness in your heart and that feeling of cobra in the back body just extend your arms wide like a pelican and then bank your turn to the right and we'll take a block here and just place it to the inside of our front foot we'll come into twisting triangle just for a moment here we'll have another opportunity for it but just feel this shape in its relationship from Parsha to Nasana it's just a turn of the spine opening up through the heart as you exhale release your right hand down and then come all the way up into a Trikonasana base and let's take a reverse Trikonasana so we'll open up the right side waist reaching up and back and as you exhale bend your front knee reach down take your block forward for Ardha Shandrasana for a half moon so lifting through the back leg and you're welcome to turn your block tall medium or low but you really want to be able to open the chest and almost like you're standing in a really narrow passageway or a riverbed so lift up through the heart expand in all directions take a very deep breath in and then as you exhale slowly come to a forward fold at the top of your mat and just set your block to the right side inhale lift the heart halfway exhale forward fold come up with a flat back inhale as you rise exhale hands to your heart and let's step the right foot back about three feet or so slightly turn the back foot out and feel the hips square bring your fingertips to your heart and inhale opening up feel your fullness here and as you exhale just take your prayer to the back of your heart open the chest on an inhale arcing up and back and then as you exhale hinge forward until your spine is parallel to the floor just like you're hovering gliding over the surface of the ocean feeling that equal weight in the front foot in the back foot the hips rotating towards square and let's open up our wingspan extending wide and this time bank your turn to the left and you can take your block down and just start to turn your chest open feeling the twisting triangle shape in the body reaching in all directions once you exhale release your left hand down reach up with the right and let's turn the hips and chest open for a Trikonasana base reverse your Trikonasana opening up your sideways exhale bend your front knee shift forward and come into half moon Ardha Shandrasana expanding in all directions up and down forward and back down and up maybe starting to turn your gaze and your half moon just feeling your balance feeling that wonderful lift up through the side waist and then exhale to your forward fold at the top of the mat set your block to the left side let's inhale lift the chest exhale release with a flat back come all the way up to standing touch your palms exhale hands to your heart so let's step the left foot back again and bring the hands to the hips feel your hips square and now we're ready to move into our twisting triangle so let's extend the left arm to the sky and fill all this wonderful length from your hip up to the top fingertips hinge forward just like we did in our Pashvottanasana and then just release your hand down if you're working with the block let's take it to the outside of our foot this time and lengthen through your spine feel that trajectory from your hips through your crown as you start to turn your chest and the hips do have a little bit of mobility here to shift we want to try to keep them somewhat square but as you're starting to make your way into the posture just notice how it feels for you to keep the hips square versus tilted and know that we're eventually working towards square right arm reaches to the sky as you exhale bring your hand down and like you're stringing a bow just draw the right hand up the center of the body reach it to the sky exhale bring it back down and just feel that rotation in action inhale string in the bow reaching up exhale releasing it back down and once more inhale string in the bow stay for the exhale reaching out in all directions feel the work inside of this posture but let it feel kind of sweet and then bring your hand to your hip and let's take it just one next level forward take your block forward and turn it tall it's the same shape but we lift one foot off the earth and come into our twisting half moon and we could be here for a while and really kind of cook the pose a little bit but let's keep be a little kinder to ourself come down soften your knees reach back and take your right hand to the big toe side of your foot and string the bow here and you can feel the shape of twisting half moon inside of arted on your asana release your foot extend in all directions and then exhale forward fold inhale to lift your heart halfway exhale release set your block over to the right side of your mat inhale come all the way up and exhale hands to the heart step your right foot back with enthusiasm to the second side and sometimes when we start to set up postures that maybe were a little reluctant to move into we take a lot of time but just keep moving into it with the breath inhale to lengthen and then exhale take your block over to the other side and start to unfurl your way into your twisting triangle like you can't wait for it exhale bring your hand down and then string the bow draw it up the body feel that wonderful action scissoring of the size opening of the heart exhale bring it down inhale reach it all the way up extending through your heart through your crown exhale once more inhale reaching to the sky and down through the earth stay for your exhale deep breath in feel that effort inside the pose and then exhale hand to your hip bend your front knee let's shift the block forward and take our twisting triangle into a twisting half moon just for a moment so reach your arm to the sky open up your chest try to let the twist come from your torso and then oh come on down bend your knees reach back and take your hand to the big toe side of your foot let's string the bow here lift your chest lift your thigh and enjoy this half back bend here release your foot feel your twisting half moon just for a moment more and then release it down coming into your forward fold setting your blocks to one side lift your heart on an inhale exhale release separate your feet hips width apart turn your toes out and sink down into malasana so press your elbows against your inner knees lift your chest take a full breath in here exhale bow the chin into the chest soften down towards the earth and let's plant our palms and step back to downward facing dog we'll take the right foot forward for pigeon pose turn the right knee out and rest the shin the outside of the shin on your mat right knee almost to the right edge of the mat and start to walk your left knee back from here just lift your chest feel that upright length of your spine in your pigeon and we'll add a little twist here in our pigeon so bring your right hand forward and thread the left arm through just like we did on our hands and knees earlier in this practice and can draw your head down if it doesn't reach the mat you can put a block underneath it but hang out here allowing this twist and hip opener to work together therapeutically for your body and for your mind releasing down letting go softening through the fingers through the toes one more deep breath here slowly coming back up through center lifting the chest inhaling to rise and exhaling press back to downward facing dog and let's take the second side bringing the left foot forward turning the knee out into pigeon slide your right thigh back and really lift your chest feel the majesty inside of this shape as you exhale left hand comes for right arm threads underneath and just drop on down drop on in three super deep breaths here so again moving from the active twist very active standing pose of revolve triangle to this passive released twist in pigeons to really let go and last breath here and walking your hands in lifting the chest upright lifting up through the heart big inhale as you exhale pressing back to downward facing dog from here we'll start to come down onto our backs to ground down and close our practice so roll down onto your spine and we'll take our legs up and over for halasana see if you have a braider button or anything just take it out so that you can move really freely into your plow pose arms press down by your side let's inhale the legs up and over the hips and as you exhale press down through the arms fold your legs up and over and bring your hands up to support your lower back and just keeping the legs active here the shoulders drop down away from your ears and folding into yourself this gentle inversion inverted forward fold again is super therapeutic for our digestive organs for our heart for our hormones let's enjoy three more deep breaths here keeping the legs straight and active breathing into any hot spots you might feel at the front of the spine your tummy or in the back of the spine and releasing your hands and slowly lowering down one vertebra at a time using your core to slow the descent let's draw the right knee into the chest and lower the left leg down one last little twist here before we make our way to shavasana extend your right leg to the sky either take a strap to your foot or reach up and hold the outer edge of your right foot and let's bring it across the body all the way towards the floor in a twist and last little cherry on top here bend your bottom knee and reach your free hand down to grab the big toe side of your foot it's the same shape that we were in coming out of our twisting half moon so direct your knee down towards the bottom edge of the mat open the shoulders and allow this top hip to also press down towards the bottom edge of your mat really wonderful passive twist here slowly release let the bottom foot go first top knee bends come back to the center and let's take just a half happy baby moment and your knee down outside the rib cage before releasing right leg down and taking the left leg up to the sky either strap to your foot or take your hand to the outer edge of your foot and start to bring it all the way across into your twist and then bend your bottom knee and reach down to take the big toe side of your foot and try to direct your knee down towards the bottom edge of the mat opening up into the twist here three deep breaths and then slowly coming back to center release your bottom foot bend your top knee roll onto your back and then taking that half happy baby shape for a moment before releasing your legs down for shavasana so just allow your hips to wiggle a little bit from side to side finding center let your legs roll in and out a little bit and find that natural relaxed external rotation take your hands behind your head and just do a little crunch here lift up lengthen the back of the neck and then release your head back down arms open wide palms facing the ceiling allow your eyes to close and your breath and energy to flow freely through all these channels that we opened inside of the body the deeper layers not only of your muscles your bones your joints but energetically inside your body and figuratively inside your mind without thinking too much about it but just allowing yourself to rest and receive all the benefits of your practice from the outer layers to the most subtle inner layers okay Slowly start to bring your awareness back into your body. And a little movement to your fingers and your toes. As you inhale, reach your arms over your head, stretching out to your full length, reawakening. Exhale, draw the knees into the chest.

Rolling off to one side. And let's press ourselves up to a comfortable seated position. And bringing your hands together at your heart. So bringing the heels of the hands, pinkies and thumbs together, and let the remaining three fingers of each hand open up like a lotus, coming into lotus mudra. And you can let the tips of the thumbs just rest at the heart.

Take a moment here and just meditate on all the blessings that you already have that are already part of your life. And also opening up to all the blessings that are coming your way. Deep breath in. Exhale completely. Open your eyes.

Thank you so much for sharing your presence and your practice with me today. Namaste. Have a wonderful day.