Salty Replenishing Flow

Namaste, I'm Ali, and this practice is going to be related to the salty taste, which means that it will be second and third chakra, or the elements of water and fire. So this practice is going to be very lubricating, very replenishing, mildly heating, and this is just a practice to feel good. Maybe this is the practice for after work, or at the end of your day, or if you've been working a lot and you just want to take it down a notch and feel good in your body. So we're actually going to start cross-legged, just like I'm sitting, and just walk your hands forward. Walk them forward, and let your head fall, and relax your neck.

And the hips stay grounded, and breathe into the back of the waist. And then gently start to walk your hands off to your right, and you're going to reach a little further through your left fingers, and pull the left hip back as you do that. Again, dropping the head, and feeling the whole circumference of the waist breathing. Come back through center, and take it right over to the other side. Give yourself some gentle breaths, maybe with a little bit more emphasis on the exhalation, that letting go.

And then come back through center, walk your hands back up, and real simple, just change the crossing of your legs. And if you need to shake your legs out for a moment, do that, re-cross, and then same-same. Walk the hands forward, and just fold. Let the shoulders drop, and then walk your hands off to the left, reaching through the right fingers, and stretching the right hip back, and then back through center. Take it over to the right, and one more time, back through center, walk the hands back up, and give the legs a little bit of a shake.

And you can slip your blanket, if you're sitting on a blanket, take it right off to the side, then coming on to hands and knees. Spread the fingers nice and wide, let's just move into some Cat-Cow. So on the inhale, arch the spine, look up, let the belly drop, and on the exhale, let the spine round, and drop the chin in towards the chest. And then stay with that for a couple of rounds, and work to initiate the movement from the hips, from the waist, moving through the center of the body, and the pace doesn't need to be quick here. Just enjoy the feeling of starting to link the breath and movement together.

And then if you want, you can make some circles with the pelvis, a couple circles in one direction, and a couple of circles in the other direction, loosening up the hips, and just working your way into all those little parts of the pelvis. And then at some point over the next few breaths, tuck the toes under, lift the hips up, start to lengthen out the legs, you're coming into Down Dog. And once you get there, sending the pelvis up and back, sides of the waist stay long, drop the head. And stretch the right leg up, bend the knee, open up your hip, and you can flex the foot here. If you contract the hamstring, the quad will open up a little bit more, the hip flexor and so as, and then stretch your right leg back up, and step it outside of your right hand, coming into a lunge, so it's a wider lunge.

Take your right arm up and twist, and I'm just thinking of working more like circles as opposed to being quite so sharp. And then bring your right hand back down, and simply just step back, Downward Facing Dog. Lift up the heels and roll yourself out into a Plank Pose, the head can come out last, and Press Back Child's Pose, knees come down, hips to heels. Come back onto your hands and your knees, tuck the toes under, lifting up, Downward Facing Dog. And then take your left leg up, bend the knee and open up your hip, flexing the left foot.

Stretch the left leg back up, and step it outside of your left hand, coming back into that wide lunge, and then sweep the left arm up, looking up towards the left hand, getting that twist at the waist, but keeping a little heaviness in the hips, left hand will come down and step back, Down Dog. Lifting up the heels, roll out, Plank Pose, and Press Back Child's Pose. Come back onto your hands and your knees, tuck the toes under, lift the hips up, Downward Facing Dog. And then repeating that sequence and building on it, lift your right leg up, bend the knee, open up your hip, stretch the right leg back up, step it outside of your right hand, open up your right arm, and twist. And then different this time, place the right hand back down, both hands are inside your right foot, bend your left knee and flex your right foot.

So I'm more on the ball of the left foot, I'm not really getting the heel down here, flexing the right foot, and I'm working to lengthen out through the waist and slide the hips back a little. And I call this one like a Crouch Pose. And then step back into your lunge, drop your left knee down, and take the right arm up, and see if you can reach for the left heel. And just give it a little bit of a squeeze, and if that's not working for you right now, stay in your lunge, just a couple of extra breaths there. And then releasing the left leg, bring the hands back down, and step back, Down Dog.

Bringing up the heels, roll it out to Plank Pose, and press back into Child's Pose. This time, look forward and slide onto your belly, Cobra, and you can tent the fingertips here, keeping the pelvis heavy, but lifting the navel, and then release and come back, Downward Facing Dog, and you can move through bent knees to send the hips up. With the left leg, bend the knee, open up your hip, and stretch your left leg back up, step it outside of the left hand, open up your left arm and twist, placing the left hand back down, coming into the Crouch Pose, bend the right knee, flex the left foot, and I'm walking my hands back slightly, but then I'm working to tip the tailbone up, and reach the chest forward. And if the hamstrings are the lower back, needs a little space here, blocks under the hands could be great. Step back into the left foot, and let your right knee drop down.

And then left arm reaches back, taking a hold of your right foot, getting the twist, the hip opener, again, the elements of water and fire, and let that all go, and step back, Downward Facing Dog, lifting up the heels, roll out, Plank Pose, Press Back Child's Pose, I'm just working to keep it as smooth as possible here. Looking forward, slide forward into Cobra, and move through bent knees into Downward Facing Dog. And then walk your feet forward one step at a time, coming all the way to the front of your mat, and I've got my feet separated about one fist distance. And then soften the knees, let them bend a little, keep the head heavy, the arms relaxed, push down into the feet, lifting from the navel, rolling your way up to stand. At the top, reach the arms all the way up, even keep the fingers soft here, and then slowly coming right back down, but it's easy.

Knees bent, head comes down last, let yourself go, twice more like that. And turn this into like a moving meditation, just as slow and as smooth as you can, lift the arms up, and then right back down, like you're just diving right back in. Take your time, last time, roll it up, reaching up, and roll back down. And then this time, rolling up, knees can bend again, keeping the arms heavy, and coming up into Tadasana, roll the shoulders back. And then at Lotus we call this one OMG pose, you're going to step your right foot behind your left, and bend both knees, reach your arms back and bring your chest forward, it's almost like a little curtsy.

So stepping the right foot back, OMG pose, bring your hands down, and step your right foot back into a lunge. Downward facing dog with your breath out. Roll to up dog, skip the Chaturanga, drop the hips forward, but lift the waist up, flip the feet, send the chest high, hips low, and then rolling back over the feet to downward facing dog. Take the right leg up, step it outside of your right hand, open up your right arm, bring it back down, right into your crouch, flexing the right foot, and then step into your right foot, left foot steps wide of the left hand, kind of a wider forward bend. Roll your way back up, you can send the arms up, and then left foot behind the right, OMG pose.

Bring the hands down, step the left leg back, downward facing dog. Roll right into up dog, flipping the feet, lifting the chest, letting the hips go heavy, and right over the feet, downward facing dog. Send the left leg up, step it outside of your left hand, open up your left arm, place the left hand back down, crouch pose, flexing the left foot, push off and step your right foot a little wide. Roll your way back up. Reach the arms up, one more round, just like that, right foot behind the left, OMG pose.

Bring the hands down, step your right foot back, downward facing dog. Slide out, upward facing dog, and right back into downward facing dog. Lift the right leg up, step it outside of your right hand, open up your right arm, and twist, bring the hand back down, crouch pose, and step forward, rolling back up. Reach the arms up, left foot behind the right, OMG pose. Let the hands come down, step the left leg back, downward facing dog, roll into upward facing dog, and downward facing dog.

Take your left leg up, step it outside of your left hand, open up your left arm, place the left hand down, crouch pose, and step forward, folding in, rolling all the way back up. Reach the arms up, last time with this couple changes along the way, right foot behind the left, put the hands down, step back into your lunge, this time it's plank pose, and right into chaturanga if you want it, or to the ground, upward facing or stay with cobra, and downward facing dog. And then taking a bend in the knees, I'm looking forward, hop to a squat, palms come to a prayer at the chest, and then hands down, hips high, long legs, parallel toes, tuck the chin, roll up, reach the arms up, step the left foot behind the right, last time like this, hands down, left foot steps back, right into plank, taking it through your vinyasa chaturanga, into up dog, right back into down dog, bend the knees, lift the heels, look forward, hopping or step, come into your squat, bring the hands down, lift the hips up high, lengthen out the legs, looking forward, hop or step your feet together, utkatasana, send the weight back into the heels, lift up, and then fold yourself forward, come up onto the fingertips and then a little different today, we're going to hop into a bent knee down dog, it's a little softer on the joints, so bend the knees, look forward, little hop, and then the legs can straighten out, roll right into your up dog, over the tops of the feet, and press back, downward facing dog, and then rolling out again, plank pose, this time press back into child's pose, look forward and slide your way through, coming right into your cobra, it's easy, and then lower yourself down onto the ground, pressing into the feet, take the legs a little bit wider, lift and engage the navel, draw the elbows in, fingers can turn slightly away from your chest here, pushing down, we're coming up into cobra and straightening your arms a little bit more, but try to keep the pelvis heavy here, so the difference between cobra and up dog is the pelvis is on the ground, legs are on the ground, hips are released down, but then I lift the navel and that's what gives me the impetus to open up the chest, and then reach the chest forward, keep the navel engaged, and lower back down, you've got two more like that, pressing into the feet, coming up, I'm even keeping the head down, build it from the pressing in of the feet, the dropping of the hips, the lift of the navel, the lift of the chest, the opening of the throat, and then all the way back down, third eye touches the ground, last time, and this time I'm taking my hands a little bit wider, I'm coming up onto the fingertips, pushing down into the feet, and lift up, lift up, let the pelvis hang, and lower yourself all the way back down, and then pushing back into a child's pose, and don't, try not to like push into your child's pose too hard after that big back bend, just think of it as more of a neutralizing shape, and then you're going to have some options here, those of you that are familiar with headstand practice, come into headstand, we're going to come into headstand here, I'll talk you through it with some variations, if you are newer with headstand practice, I can talk you through it, but you might want to pause and take your mat over to a wall here, if that's helpful for you, otherwise coming right down onto your forearms and your knees, setting yourself up, interlace the fingers, tuck the toes under, lift the hips up, coming into a down dog on the forearms, walk the feet forward as much as you can, keep pressing the chest back towards the thighs, and then a little boop, and you'll come up into your bent, knee headstand, and I'm lifting the tailbone to lengthen up the legs, now if you're newer for headstand, then just work on staying vertical here, if you're feeling pretty comfy with it, bada canasana in the legs, so that strength of the core, but then the softness and the ease through the hips, and if that's okay for you, you can even take the legs wide, and come into upavishta konasana, and you might find that you like it a lot upside down, it feels like gravity is helping you out a little bit, and then you can bring the legs back into bada konasana, press the feet together, contract through the navel, and then turning the knees more parallel, but still keeping them a little bit wide, so I can keep the hips lifting, lifting, lifting, and come all the way down, coming into a child's pose, and I like this, if you take one fist on top of the other, and let your chin rest on your fists, it's actually a really good counter pose for the neck after headstand, it brings what's called the cervical curve back into the neck, so our necks are meant to have almost like a C curve to them, and a lot of times if we spend a lot of time on our phones, on our computers, that can start to go away, so just bringing that curve back, and then coming out of that, flip around, lower yourself down onto your back, and come right into your happy baby, so reaching for the outside edges of the feet, and I'm still working to lengthen the tailbone down, and this might be enough for you, if you're feeling like you just want one last bit of strength work, you can reach the arms forward, and come up, and lower back down, twice more, keeping the legs where they are, and really finding the abdominals, and back down, and last time, and lower back down, step your feet down to the ground, coming into constructive rest for a moment, knees drop in, hands on the belly, and then for your shavasana, sometimes it's nice to have a blanket over the hips, just to add a little bit of weight, and keep that fire nice and warm as you cool off into your shavasana, so letting yourself drop in here, and be replenished with rest. Good job. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And then if you'd like to stay a bit longer in your shavasana, it might be nice if you're ready to come on out. Give a little wiggle to the fingers and toes. Walk your feet in one at a time, step them to the ground.

You can just slip the blanket off to the side. Hug the knees in towards the chest. Roll onto your right side. And then use the arms to come on up to sit. Coming back into a cross-legged position to finish your practice.

Have a couple of breaths there, and that will be your salty practice. I hope it was very replenishing for you. Thank you for joining me. Namaste.