Day 12: Fiery Balance

Hey, welcome back, day 12. Before we get started, one thing, acknowledge the priority that you have made today, just with this. Don't get overwhelmed with what you've done, where you're going, day 12. This is all that matters right now. Let's pay attention to how we feel, how we move, how we breathe, all right?

You with me? Okay, good. Let's come up to the front of the mat. We're going to start in our standing salute, and we've got a little special gift for you today. We're going to have a new middle.

From mountain pose, let's begin. Bring the arms up overhead. Get that nice big stretch and exhale, fold forward and down. Inhale, come up halfway and exhale, fold. Inhale, rise all the way up.

Exhale, back bend maybe, and exhale, palms to the chest. Inhale, arms out and up. Stay rooted as you lift, and exhale, forward bend. Inhale, half lift, and exhale, fold. Inhale, rise all the way up.

And exhale, the palms rest at the chest and the heart. Inhale, take the arms out and up. And exhale, forward bend. Inhale, lift the chest, lift the heart, lengthen the spine. And exhale, the right foot back.

Bring the right knee down to the mat and rise up in your low lunge. This is the third time we've done this opening. So if there's anything that you feel you want to leave out or add, this would be a good time. But for now, we're going to open up the chest, roll the shoulders back, and make sure you really capture at least one full moment in this shape. Bring the arms out and up on the breath in.

Exhale the hands down to the mat, curl the back toes, lift the right knee. Open up into a twist to the left. So the left arm only comes up once you've rotated the rib cage. Open to the left, good. Left arm comes down, work a little hamstring love here.

Exhale, straighten out the left leg a little bit. Inhale back into the lunge, exhale, straighten it out a bit, and back into the lunge. Really nice. Now step the right foot up to meet the left, kind of like a reset. Lift the chest to lengthen the spine, breathe in.

And exhale, fold, step the left foot back, bring the knee down. Your left knee comes down, lift your arms up over your head and sweep them back behind you. Release the fingers and open the chest. Good. Release the arms high on the inhale.

Exhale the hands come down to the mat, curl the back toes and lift your left knee, good. Rotate the trunk of the body to the right, releasing the right arm high, nice. Bring your right arm down, tent up on the fingertips, breathe in, and breathe out as you straighten into that right leg. Inhale back into the lunge, exhale, straighten out, it's like a really long pyramid pose. Good job.

Come back into the lunge, step the left foot up to meet your right, forward bend exhale. Inhale, lift the chest, half lift, and exhale fold. Inhale rise all the way up, and exhale the palms to the heart. From here we're going to move into the spicy core balance, spicy core balance. So to start off with, we're going to work a little bit of the balance and core portion.

So take the arms behind the head or hands behind the head and pull the elbows back. Now lean a little bit to the right leg, find a steady gazing point, begin to lift your left heel up. That might be where your balance is today, or build next step, let's say, would be for you to lift your left knee a little higher. So lift it up, up, up, up, up while you're balancing strong on that right leg and begin to engage the abdominals to support you and to also lift that left knee up a little bit more. Nice.

Bring the left toes down toward the mat and exhale, engage your core, bring the knee up. So it's a knee lift. We'll do five on this side. Good. And we want to, like the hands here behind the head are to open up the chest and strengthen the back.

Okay. So draw the shoulder blades toward one another. Exhale the left knee up for three. I know we're here for a little bit. I've got to give you cues along the way.

Exhale four and exhale five. Good work. Let's let the arms come down, shake out that right leg a little bit. Even take the arms up overhead as you breathe in. Exhale the palms back to the heart.

Lean to the left. Take the arms back behind you again. So hands interlaced behind the head, push the head into the hands, lift the right heel and possibly even the toes of your right foot. So you lift the knee up as high as you can, get strong in the core. Inhale the toes down.

Exhale right knee lifts, two. Inhale lower, exhale, lift your right knee, three. Inhale lower, exhale, lift your right leg, four. Inhale lower and exhale, five. Good.

Release the arms down on the exhale and then sweep them up on the breath in, kind of like a clearing. Exhale the palms to the heart. Okay. Now we're going to take that balance into a little bit of movement that requires balance and stability and focus. So I'll talk you through it.

What we're going to do to begin is keep the hands at the chest, lift your left knee. We just did that movement, right? So lift the left knee. Now on your inhale with control, bend your right leg, step the left foot back and reach the arms up overhead for high crescent lunge. That's the inhalation.

Exhale as best you can, coordinate the breath. Exhale the palms to the heart, lean yourself forward and float into warrior three. Good. Inhale, come all the way back up to stand, bring the knee up as high as you can with the exhale, and then inhale, step the left foot back, reach up through the arms for high crescent lunge, exhale warrior three. Pause here, inhale, exhale, lift that left knee up high, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

Come to that full standing position. Good, inhale, step back into high lunge. Really nice. So let's pause here. So find the high crescent lunge with the hips nice and square, maybe a little bend in the back knee to facilitate the tailbone extending downward.

Take the left hand to your right thigh, right hand to your low back, and begin to rotate to the right into a lunge spinal twist. Nicely done. Come back over to center, inhale, bring the arms up nice and high, exhale, the hands come down to the mat, bring your left knee down. Good. Low crescent lunge.

So this may feel like a little bit of rest after that work we just did. Bring the arms down, walk your right foot over to the left side of the mat. Pigeon pose, you got to find your pigeon pose. Put an angle on that right shin, extend that left leg back, point your right toes toward the front of the mat to ensure safety in the knee. For this pigeon pose, why don't you just stay upright, we'll be here a breath or two.

Nice. From here, begin the exit strategy, curl the back toes, lift the hips, and step back into downward facing dog. Good. Take that right leg, lift it up, maybe even open up that right hip a little bit, usually feels pretty good after a pigeon pose. Nice.

Bring that right foot back down, come into plank pose. Let's try this on our knees. Two pushups, you're going to lower down on the inhale, and exhale, push back up. Don't let the arms go beyond 90 degrees, so right about right there, exhale, push back up. Now pause here, inhale, exhale with control all the way down.

Point the toes back, long cobra tail through the legs, lift the chest, inhale there, and exhale all the way to downward facing dog pose. Good work. Walk to the front of the mat, let's take two big steps. So right foot, then the left forward bend. Inhale, lift halfway, and exhale, fold.

Inhale, rise up, and exhale, palms to the heart. Okay, we get to do this on the left side now. So bring the palms to the chest, to the heart, lean to the left, and begin to lift your right knee up as high as it will go. Release support through engaging the abdominals. Inhale with control, put a little bend in the left leg, and step back, reach the arms up overhead, breathe in, and exhale, warrior three.

So this is not easy, it's a lot of balance, and a lot of like coordination and focus. So just figure out how to do it the best you possibly can, okay? Now let's come all the way back up, so it's a reverse hinge, you lift that right knee nice and high, place the palms at the chest, and we do it again. Sweep the arms up overhead as you step back into high lunge, and warrior three. Strong spine, good strong back leg, hips working toward level, good, all the way back up to a standing position, bringing the right knee up as high as it will go, good.

High crescent lunge, inhale, arms up overhead, good, we'll find the lunge twist. So make sure you're good in the lunge position, feet are hip width, tailbone extending down, right hand to the left thigh, left hand to your low back, good, lengthen the spine, take a breath in here, on your exhalation rotate to the left, good job, bring it back over to center, take the arms up on the breath in, and exhale, hands down to the mat, right knee down to the mat, pause, inhale, arms up overhead, take another breath, breathe in, exhale the hands down to the mat, walk your left foot over to the right side of the mat, place the left knee down on the left side of the mat, good, point the left toes toward the front of the mat, sort of like flexing that left ankle, slide the right knee back and just like we did on the other side, we'll just stay upright here, grab a little stretch, a little pigeon stretch, how are you feeling, how can you adjust, make sure your knee is okay, begin to exit by curling the back toes, lift that right knee, lift the left foot up, find your hand placement, lift the left leg all the way up, bend the left leg and roll the hip open, square off the hips, both feet grounded, bent knees and let the knees come all the way down to the mat, land in child's pose, transition up and into hip relief, all right, hip relief, so we're going to come on down to our back, similar arrival, draw the knees in, land and ground for a brief moment, I acknowledge that I'm sure some of what was in the prior sequence there, that spicy core, it's a little difficult to balance, so don't be too hard on yourself, see how it goes next time, okay, draw the right knee into the chest and extend long through the opposite leg and take that right knee out a little bit more, you can keep your left leg like up high or hovering halfway or even grounded, you're going to take a half happy baby, so the right hand comes on the inside of the right thigh, right calf, reach up to the outer edge of the right foot, good, make sure when you bring yourself back down the neck is long and you're comfortable in your back body, good, maybe some intuitive little movements investigating where the best possible placement of the foot, the right foot, your knee, the sensations in the hip, place the right ankle on top of the left thigh and we did pigeon in the middle sequence, so what we're gonna do in this one here is focus on the subtle sensation of gently guiding that right thigh away from you, it's subtle, so it might require you to pay closer attention, maybe not, okay, back out just a little bit, slide the hips to the right and take that spinal twist, that figure four spinal twist, slide over just a little bit more, so a more on the left hip as I roll over, okay, bring yourself back over to center, undo, unwrap, bend the right leg out, draw the left knee in, let's do the same thing on the left side, okay, so left hand up on the outer edge of the foot, holding on to the ankle or the shin, maybe there's some kind of like, some kind of movement, just any kind of movement, move it around, really trust, trust, trust that if you move it one way and it feels pretty good, you're doing it correct, correct for you, right, so please feel free to do that. Half happy baby, now take that left ankle on top of the right thigh, gently use your left hand to guide that left hip open, see if you can, you know, pay close enough attention for the subtle sensations of that hip opening, slide the hips and the low back over to the far left side of the mat and find a spinal twist. Make sure your shoulder, my shoulder blades tend to get a little bunched up, so maybe you can check in with yours and see how they feel, spread them out wide, nice, let's bring it back out, align yourself back on the center of the mat, give a nice little squeezy, squeezy squeeze of the knees into the chest, stretch out the low back, good, legs all the way out, arms alongside the body, big, beautiful, beautiful, healthy breath in and breath out. And as I mentioned before, as you take a few breaths here to relax, acknowledge the priority, the choice, it wouldn't have happened without you making the decision and then on top of it making it a priority, there are 20 things you probably could have done instead of these last 20 minutes, so acknowledge, you showed up, all right, let's show up at the front of the mat, you and I, go ahead and roll up, cross your legs and let's close out together like we mean it, right, palms at the heart, we did it, once again, day 12, boom, done, namaste, have a great day.