Detoxifying Pungent Practice

Namaste. I'm Allie. Today's practice will be a pungent practice related to the taste of pungent. Pungent is associated with the third and the fourth chakras, so that's the element of fire and air. So today's practice will be some twisting, some detoxifying, a little something to get you heating up, feeling a little lighter, a little clearer, and I think that's it. So let's get started. We're going to start off actually with an exercise from the Kundalini tradition. So you'll take your fingertips and just rest them on your shoulders and your elbows stay pretty high up. And then you're going to twist to the left and that's your inhale. And then when you twist to the right, that's your exhale. So for all of this, we want to try to keep the elbows pretty lifted, spine long, sideways long, and just letting the legs drop and stay grounded. And we're going to do 54 times. So we'll inhale left and exhale right and then begin. And And coming back around to center. Have a moment.

Just rest your hands on your thighs. Let yourself absorb the practice for a moment, the breath work. I'm already sweating. You might be too. And so let's take a deep breath in together.

And then open up your mouth and just breathe it out. And then we're going to do something very similar. But instead of taking the hands on the shoulders, we're going to take the right hand and just gently touch the center of the sternum right at the heart there. And the left arm is going to swing back behind you. And it's the same breath pattern.

So inhale left, exhale right, inhale left, exhale right. So you can take your arms out wide. And then we'll start twisting to the left on the inhale. Okay. And come back around to center, pause.

Let yourself settle for a moment. Just feel the effects. Pranayama is a very powerful practice. So if you need to take a little bit longer, rest for a moment, pause, do that. Otherwise we're going to come forward onto hands and knees.

So I'm just going to slide my blanket off to the side. And coming on to hands and knees with the wrists underneath the shoulders and the knees underneath the hips, and I'm still lengthening the tailbone back, crown of the head forward. So I've got some firmness right there in the center. Take the right arm out to the right about shoulder height. Stretch the arm away from you.

And then pushing into the left hand, inhale, send the right arm up, and on the exhale slide it underneath and come into that thread the needle shape. And then press the back of the right arm into the ground so that you can get a little bit more twisting, and I'm even pushing with the left hand a little bit. And then you're going to take your left arm up and slide it behind your back. And you might even take the right hand to the left shoulder and give yourself a little bit of an adjustment pushing the left shoulder back. And then releasing the right arm down, lift the left arm back up, place the left hand down, step the left foot wide out to the left and spin the left heel down like a warrior foot and rise it to stand on your right knee with your right arm all the way up.

Take a side bend, a gate pose, over towards the left and I'm pushing down into the left foot and pulling up out of the lower back so it's really spiraling the chest up a little bit more. Step onto both knees, reach up, take a hold of your elbows, pull them right into your belly and fold over them, just getting a little extra stimulation for the belly there. And then come back onto your hands and your knees and let's try the other side. Left arm out to the left shoulder height, arm stays straight, press into the right hand, lift up and on the exhale slide the left arm underneath coming down towards the left ear. Lift the right arm up and fold it back behind you and again pushing into the back of the left arm to roll the right shoulder back and I'm working to keep the hips pretty straight but they're going to shift a little bit, that's okay.

And then take your right arm back up, place the right hand down underneath your right shoulder, step your right foot out to the right and rise all the way up onto the left knee, lifting up through the left arm, take your side bend over towards the right. Parigasana gate pose and it's early yet so it doesn't have to be a big movement here. Just start to open up the space along the side of the waist and the left ribs. Standing on both knees, swing both arms up, catch your elbows, pull them into your belly and fold right over them. And then coming back onto hands and knees, tuck the toes under, lift the hips up and let's press back into a downward facing dog.

Coming into your first down dog, so stretch back through the sitz bones, reaching forward through the arms, get long there and then when you're ready, lifting the right leg up and step the right foot forward, coming into a lunge, spin your back heel down, warrior two right from here and I'm trying to settle right there in the middle of both legs, turn the right palm up, lean back into a peaceful warrior, stay leaning back and straighten out your right leg so you're in a reverse triangle and I'm still engaging the navel so I stay lifted. Come into triangle right from there, shifting the hips back and reaching up through the left arm and then take your left hand behind your back just like you did earlier on hands and knees and reach your right arm forward, come all the way up, go mukhasana in your arms so you might grab your fingertips or your shirt and then get a little lift in the chest with your inhale on the exhale, folding forward over your legs, release your right hand down right in the center of your chest and lift your left arm up, taking your twist and then you've got that same thread the needle, left arm underneath the right, take a hold of your right ankle and then you can walk the left hand a little bit out to the left and twist right underneath the right arm. Come back through center, eagle, wrap the left arm underneath the right and come on up to stand and then just turn to the front of your mat, step your right foot forward, step into the right foot and left leg up and around for eagle. So getting a little bit more into the balance work which really works with the core, draw the navel back in your eagle and let the back waist spread and right from your eagle, utkatasana, set the feet together, swing the arms up, sinking the weight back into the heels, push off, rise all the way up, urdhva hastasana, bring the palms together and then tracing the midline, fold forward, uttanasana. Send your left leg back into a lunge, bend your back knee just slightly and come on up into a high lunge and I do that just so the pelvis can drop evenly, we don't need to tuck the pelvis or let the lower back arch, there's just a feeling of weight there.

Straightening out your right leg just once and then let the right leg bend. Reach the left arm forward and the right arm back coming into a standing twist and then take the left hand back to the center of the heart like you did earlier and reach through the right arm and get a little deeper into the twist. Take your right hand down your left leg, lift your left arm up and it's like a revolved peaceful warrior there, leaning back and I've still got that little bend in my left leg. Come into a twist, prayer twist, left elbow outside of the right thigh, bringing the palms together and taking your twist and a couple of breaths there, getting into the detoxifying benefits of their twist. Keep pulling the outer hips in, lengthening the spine forward, let's stay for one more big breath in, twist a little bit deeper with your breath out and then hands down on either side of your right foot, swing your right leg up and through, down dog split.

Bring your knee in towards your nose as you come forward, shoulders over wrists, step into plank and take it through a vinyasa, chaturanga to up dog and press back downward facing dog. Let's try the other side, left leg up, step it forward, spin the back heel down, warrior two, spiral the arms around, reaching out in both directions, turn your left palm up, lean back, peaceful warrior, stay leaning back and straighten out your left leg, lift up out of the lower back and right into triangle pose and have a moment there just to feel that openness and then slide your right hand behind your back, reach your left arm forward and come all the way up, go mukhasana in the arms. Now if the hands don't touch, don't force anything here, especially my shoulder people if you've got anything going on, fold yourself forward, take your left hand down to the ground, lift your right arm up in a twist and then thread your right arm underneath your left arm and catch a hold of your left ankle and then you can walk your right hand to the right, taking a little bit of a peek underneath your left arm, working to keep the hips pretty centered if you can and then come back into the center, eagle wrap, right arm underneath the left and come on up to stand, turn to face the front of your mat, so left toes turn forward, pushing off the right foot and coming into your eagle and then just folding forward and you can single or double wrap the right leg, steadying the gaze, third chakra or the element of fire is associated with sight, let's come right into utkatasana, press into the feet, rise all the way up and exhale folding forward, uttanasana, slide the right leg back into a lunge and again a little bend in the back knee, bring both arms up and then one time lengthening out your left leg, let it bend and take your right arm forward and your left arm back and then right hand to the right, to the center of the heart and reach a little further with the left arm, you might even challenge yourself by taking the gaze over the left thumb, left hand back behind you, reach the right arm up, coming into your revolved peaceful, looking over the left shoulder, keep stretching through the right arm and then coming down into your twist, into your prayer twist, right elbow to the outside of the left thigh and turning and see if you can stay with your breath here, twists can have a tendency to lock up the breath so stay with it and then bring your hands down on either side of your left foot, swing your left leg up and through, down dog split, bring your knee towards your nose, step back to plank, chaturanga, upward facing dog, lifting the navel, pressing the chest up and downward facing dog and then we're going to repeat that sequence and build on it, send the right leg up, step it forward, spin your back heel down, warrior two, straightening out your right leg, lean back, reverse triangle and come right into triangle pose, take your left arm behind your back and then a little different this time, reach your right arm forward and you're going to come into an artichandrasana and see if you can keep the right arm reaching forward, left arm behind your back and you might fall or choose to put the right hand down with a block and then see if you can bend the right knee and come right back into triangle pose, tipping up through the head, opening up the left shoulder, take the right arm up, come on up, go mukhasana again in the arms, turning to face the side, right toes turn in, lift the chest and on the exhale folding forward, right hand down to the ground, left arm comes up, take your twist, thread your left arm underneath, hold on to the outside of your right ankle and this time take your right hand to the left ankle so you might need to narrow off your stance a little bit if your stance got real wide and then turn underneath your right arm towards the front of your mat and this is one of those poses where it's like where's my arms, where's my legs, so orient yourself towards the front of your mat and then see if you can shift the left hip a little bit more to the left, coming back through center, eagle wrap, left arm underneath the right, turn to face the front, bring your left leg up and around for eagle and then start to fold forward and then a little different here, place the left foot down outside of your right foot so you're in a pinky to pinky stance and let the hands come forward, drop your head and you're in a cross-footed forward bend here, left leg in front, right leg behind, come up onto the toes, reach your hands forward, you're going to come into a cross-footed crow which sounds a lot fancier than it is, lift up your right foot and then use the left foot to push against it for a little bit more lift there, drawing the navel in, uncross the feet, place them back down, folding forward. From here coming into divers pose, reach the chest forward, stretch the arms back, lift the heels up, again gaze is specific down the tip of the nose, coming into utkatasana, press down, rise up, reach up, urdvahasasana and exhale, fold yourself forward, slide your left leg back into a lunge, little bend in the back knee and bring the arms up and then same thing here, straighten out the right leg, draw the navel in and exhale, bend, reach your left arm forward and your right arm back and then left hand to the center of the heart and stretch the right arm back, take the right hand back behind you, reverse peaceful warrior reaching through the left arm, you might even try to bend the right knee a little bit more here for a deeper stretch and then coming right into your prayer twist, left elbow to the outside of the right thigh, the variation here if you want it is again left hand to the heart and right arm reaches up, as you're ready hands down, swing the right leg up and through, down dog split, step it right back through center, coming into your lunge and tuck your left knee, coming down for a seated spinal twist, arthamatsyandrasana, setting yourself up, working to get the right sit bone down just as evenly as the left one and then take your twist around and I'm trying to maintain as much lift on the side waist here as possible, rolling the right shoulder back so we've got the waist, we've got the shoulders, the guts and the heart and then just one more, lift up a little taller, ring yourself out and take your counter twist in the opposite direction, you can let the head come down to the ground, come on back up and swing your right leg out real wide, you're coming into parsva jhanu sasana, so left knee can bend pretty deep, drawing the left heel close in towards you and take a twist over to the left, stretch your left arm up and side bend over to your right and then big breath here and I can even use this right hand to press the left thigh away and I'm working to send the left sit bone not only down but out, so I get a little bit more space from the crest of the hip to the bottom of the ribs and then inhale back up, place the hand down, come up onto the knee, reach the arm up, stargazer and come on back down, cross your right leg in front of your left leg you're coming back to seated spinal twist, step your left foot back, you're in a lunge, hands on either side of your right foot, keeping the hands down, chest open, step back into plank pose and take it through your vinyasa chaturanga up dog and down dog. On left side, lift the left leg, stepping forward, spin the back heel down, come on up, warrior two, turn the left palm up, lean back, peaceful warrior, stay leaning back, straighten out your left leg and lengthen out into your triangle pose.

Take the moment to be open and then slip the right arm behind your back, reach the left arm forward, artichandrasana and you can shift the body weight forward here, so I'm really working to get the body weight over the ball of the foot so that I'm not hyperextending in my left knee, reach back through the right heel, forward through the left fingers and then come back into your triangle pose. Taking the right arm up for a moment just to open up the chest and then hand behind the back, left arm reaches forward, come on up, turn the left toes in, gomukhasana in your arms and fold yourself forward. Left hand down, right arm up, take your twist, thread the needle, right arm underneath the left holding onto the outer edge of the left leg and take your left hand to the right leg, again shorten your stance if you need to and then a little peek underneath your left arm towards the front of your mat and shift the pelvis a little bit to the right to counteract that and you get long through the left side. Coming back to center, eagle wrap, right arm underneath the left, come on up, turn to the front of your mat, left toes turned forward, right leg swings up and around for eagle and fold yourself forward. And then that cross-footed forward bend, right foot comes down, release the arms and fold yourself forward, right leg is in front of the left, come up onto the tippy toes, press the palms down, cross-footed crow, I lift the left foot first and then I push it up a little further with the right leg.

Cross the feet, place them back down, folding forward. Next breath brings you up into diver's pose, stretching back through the arms, lift the heels and then drop the heels for utkatasana. Press into the feet, rise all the way up, join the palms above your head and then right down your middle folding forward. Ride your right leg back into a lunge, little bend in the back knee, reach the arms up and one time lengthening out the left leg and let it bend and then reach the right arm forward and the left arm back and you can take the right hand to the heart and reach a little further with the left hand, take your left hand behind you, send the right arm up and twist and coming into your prayer twist, right elbow to the outside of the left thigh, bringing the palms together and then if you want it on this side, right hand to the heart, left arm reaches up, bringing the hands down on either side of your left foot, swing your left leg up and through, down dog split. Step your left foot forward, right in between your hands, tuck your right knee and there you are in arthamatsya and drasana coming down and you can take a hold of the knee and bring it in towards you or take your right arm outside of your left leg, whatever feels like you can get a little bit more leverage but still stay lifted so we don't want to let the twist crunch us up, stay long, give the organs some room to squeeze out.

One more breath in, twist a little bit deeper on your breath out, take your counter twist in the opposite direction, dropping the crown of the head off and come on back up and take your left leg out wide to the left, coming into your parsva, jhanushasana, twist to the right towards the front of your mat, lift your right arm up and take your side bend and again you can use the left arm to push the left, the right leg away, flexing the left foot and I'm trying to spin the underside of the chest up and even let the weight of your skull go. And then inhale your way back up, take your right hand outside of your right hip, lift up onto your shin, stargazer and come on back down. Take your left leg across your right like you're coming into seated spinal twist and step your right leg back, you're in a lunge, look forward, open up the chest, step to plan plank, take it through chaturanga, upward facing dog and downward facing dog. Take a breath, let it out and then plank pose, drop the knees down and come into child's pose. And then in child's pose you could turn the palms upward and it's just always interesting to me how just the tiniest little switch in the jester can bring in a whole different feeling.

And then from here you're going to come onto your forearms and your knees and interlace your fingers and check in that the elbows don't get wider than the shoulders, you're really trying to stack your bones as best you can here, that gives a lot more stability to the joints. And then step your feet back and you're in a plank on your forearms and then start to walk your feet forward almost towards a down dog on your forearms. And as I'm doing that I'm thinking of lifting the tailbone, lifting the hips but pressing the chest back. From there walk your feet back out into plank and see if you can stay in the plank pose but reach the chin forward and then push through the forearms, lift the navel and press back almost towards your down dog shape again. And then reach the chest forward, reach the chin forward even past the hands and push back.

Now if you've got shoulder stuff going on you're going to skip this one, you might stay in a plank on your forearms, otherwise one more time chin comes forward and then pushing back, pushing back. And drop your knees down and have a moment in your child's pose again. And then change the interlacing of your fingers, it's a little detail but it's nice to just really remind ourselves to balance things out as much as possible. We're going to do the same thing, this time I'm going to give you the option of coming up into a headstand. So if headstand is newer for you, I will talk you through it but if it's not part of your practice today for any reason, no worries, you can stay with the dolphin push-ups that we just did and just repeat them or stay in a plank on your forearms or if you need longer in child's pose then you'll stay in child's pose.

So when you're ready, coming onto the forearms and the knees, step the feet back, first establish the plank, lift the navel, strong legs here, and then I'm going to start to walk my feet forward just like I did before. And it's the same thing here of lifting the hips, lifting the hips, and notice that I'm keeping my head off the ground as long as I can and then finally just lowering the head down right into the backs of the hands, both knees come in, I give a little squeeze. Now that lift of the tailbone is essential here to get the lightness in the legs and then once I've found my little egg shape, I'll lengthen up through the legs, reaching through the legs, pressing down into the forearms, still staying long in the tailbone, stretching through the feet, opening the toes, and you'll stay here for a few breaths. Keep lifting the navel, engaging the core, and when you're ready, right back where you came from, like that little egg, bending the knees deeply, and I'm keeping the tailbone lifted, lifted, lifted, lifted, lifted, knees come apart a little bit, and that gives me some more control as I come down, letting the feet land, coming back into child's pose, and once again, turning the palms up and just surrender your sweat. If you are jumping a little onto your mat, just take it as evidence that your practice rocked today and we're going to come into Shavasana.

And so coming into Shavasana, you've got that blanket close by, you can take it and unfold it, just like that, and then bring the ends together, and you've got a nice little pillow for your head there, placing that at the top of your mat, smooth that out. And when I lie down, I'm taking the blanket right to the edge of my shoulders so that my neck is completely supported. And then stretch your legs out one at a time, stretch your arms out, and just feel around so that you can completely let go. If you, you can even lift the head and look down, make sure that your feet are equidistant from the middle, arms are equidistant from your sides, and then once you've set it all up, completely release. If you need a long exhale there, you'll take that.

And then you're going to come back to Shavasana, and you're going to come back to Shavasana. And then you're going to come back to Shavasana, and you're going to come back to Shavasana. And then you're going to come back to Shavasana, and you're going to come back to Shavasana. And then you're going to come back to Shavasana, and you're going to come back to Shavasana. And then starting to bring a little bit more awareness back into the breath, you can give some little wiggles to your fingers and your toes.

And if you feel like you need longer in Shavasana, then you'll stay there. You're ready to come out, step the feet in, and pause there, and then just rolling over onto your right side. Take a little pillow for your head with your right arm, and then pressing into the hands to come on up to sit, and that is your pungent spicy practice. I hope you enjoyed it. See you soon.

Have a great rest of your day.