Detox Flow

Welcome back to the Mat Yogis. Today's topic is detox. I'm excited about this opportunity to let go of some physical, mental and emotional junk. When we do our physical practice we have this opportunity to use the squeeze and soap technique. As you squeeze, twist and do side bends, you're squeezing out some of the metabolic byproduct and some of the toxins and then after the squeeze as you release all that fresh blood flows in. So we'll do a lot of pulsing and twisting today and emotionally and mentally we're just gonna keep letting go at every moment possible. I'm happy you're on the journey for me. Let's get to detoxing. So we're gonna start by letting go of something through some sound therapy. It's your own breath so we're gonna make some sound here. Start by taking a nice slow deep inhale and open your mouth and make a sound something let it go. Try that one more time. Let go a little louder and then pretend you're in the car all by yourself and no one is listening. Take a nice big inhale. Come on do this with me. I feel better already. Take your attention down to your belly. Bring your palms onto your belly and breathe all the way down into the belly. From here let out an ah sound. Try another big inhale. See if you can go even lower. Then travel up to your heart. Take a big inhale. We're gonna make an ah sound. Feel the vibration on the chest and the throat. Big inhale and then bring your palms to the crown of the head. An mn sound as you exhale. Big inhale. Feeling that vibration in the face all the way to the crown.

So it's like we're tuning the body like a tuning fork. Tuning the energetic body. We'll bring all three of those together with an ah all the way up. Take a nice big inhale. Let's do one more together now that you've got it. Big inhale. Now keep that clarity as we go on our journey through a little detox flow. Go ahead and lie on your back and you can start with your knees bent, soles of the feet on the floor. Start with the arms by the side. Go back to that full deep inhale and then as you exhale draw the navel down to the spine. Press the lower back to the floor until the seat starts to lift just a little bit and then as you inhale reach the arms slowly over the head. You'll feel the lower back coming off the floor and then as you exhale release the arms by the side draw the navel down. Start to lift the seat slightly off the floor. A little pelvic tilt. Inhale the arms over the head. It's a nice supine variation of cat and cow tilts. Mobilizers for the spine getting us ready for our practice and our flow today. You can start to lift the seat up a little bit higher each time that you release your hands to the floor. So as you're exhaling you're lifting the hips up just a little bit more and as you're inhaling you're extending and lengthening. Give yourself one more round pulsing with your breath and the next time you lower down go ahead and keep your seat on the floor. Extend your left leg and draw the right knee into the chest. You can hold on to the front of the shins. For some people it's easier holding on to the back of the hamstring. We're gonna press the knee forward until that movement lifts the head and shoulders off the floor. Really nice traction for the back and then we'll lower back down drawing the knee into the chest. If this one's really easy for you you can go to the front of the shin. Press. I'm not using my neck muscles. I'm really relaxing so that this movement forward of my right knee is pulling me forward and stretching the muscles. The back. Thinking about creating space between each vertebrae. Extend your right leg to the sky. Hold on to the back of the hamstring. Invite that right quad towards you and flex your left foot. Good. Keep the left leg really active. Reach your fingertips to the sky and as you exhale pulse up and lower halfway down. Exhale pulse up and lower halfway down. You can keep your left leg on the floor as you pulse or you can hover it about six inches off the floor. Squeeze the inner thighs together for your last eight, seven. Big inhales. Exhale pulse up. Five. Four. Three. Keep looking straight up so you're not drawing your chin towards your chest for this one. Last one. Invite the right knee back into the chest. We'll take the right knee across the body for a soft twist and we're gonna invite that pulsing activity with the shoulder. So reach the arm across and open it with your exhale. Inhale, reach the arm across.

Open it with your exhale. You can take your drishti or your focus towards your right thumb. Thinking about that pulsing, twisting movement, massaging the organs, releasing some of the toxins and then flushing it back with that fresh nutrients and blood. Good. Slowly unwind. Lower the right leg. Extend it and then hug the left knee into the chest. You can grab the shin or the back of the hamstring, whichever is easier. This is usually easier, a little bit more challenging. Try not to use your neck muscles. Let the head be really relaxed as the knee pulses forward and back. Creating a little space between the vertebrae of the back. Giving you nice mobilizers for the spine. Helping to release some tension there. And then go ahead and extend your left leg to the sky. Giving yourself a little hamstring stretch. Right leg active. Left leg active. Arms by the side. Shoulders on the floor. Take a big inhale. Exhale, reach. Inhale, lower. Try not to tuck your chin to the chest and do chin crunches. Look straight up. Neck is soft and relaxed. All the work is coming from your core muscles. You've got five more. You can lift that right leg off the floor or you can keep it down for five, four. Keep breathing. Two, one. Lower down. Invite the left knee into the chest. Take it all the way across the body. And then that arm pulse. Inhale, and then send it across with your exhale. Inhale, send it across with your exhale. Inhale, send it across with your exhale. Give yourself a moment here. Enjoy that nice thoracic twist. And then come on back to center. Hug both knees into the chest. Give yourself a little cross of the legs and we're going to rock forward and backward. Forward and backward. Give yourself a little more momentum so you can rock up to your seat. And we'll sit in a nice cross-legged position. Bring the palms right on top of the thighs, taking a little cat tilt of the spine, pulling the navel up and back, and lifting the heart for a cow-till. Pulse with your breath. One more cat and cow-till. Exhaling, drawing the navel up and back. Inhaling, back to center. Go ahead and extend your right arm out to the side. Left arm up and over the ear. Flip the palms so the palms facing the crown of your head. And just bend into that right elbow and release. Think about sinking a little bit deeper, but keep lifting through the right rib cage so that you're not collapsing into the side body. The next time you get that pulsing sensation, pause and then invite your left sit bone to drop closer to the floor. Go back to the breath. Slow, deep inhales, pauses, and exhales. Left palm place it on top of the right knee. Right fingertips walk behind you. Tall spine. Invite that right knee down to the floor. Big inhale. Soft rotation as you exhale. Big inhale. Soft rotation as you exhale. Keep your left hand where it is. Cross your right arm on top of the left. And we're going to start to squeeze the knees together. Keep the knees squeezing together. Lean back just a little bit and then start to press your knees back to the floor. This is going to give you a nice stretch through the upper back and shoulders. Squeeze and then, oh, feels so good. Let's do at least one more. Pulse. One more. Squeeze and pulse. And like any detoxifying flow, remember not to eat two hours before you do this practice.

Extend your left arm out, right arm up and over. Give yourself a little pulse from side to side. Right? We don't want a full belly while we do this. Lifting and lengthening. And then just start to lift that right sit bone off the floor. See if you can pulse a little deeper. And then start to invite the right sit bone down and feel that nice big side stretch. Lift the sternum. Lift the chest. Lift the left side body. Right hand on top of the left thigh. Left hand behind you. Big inhale. Lift the sternum chest. Create space for the rotation. Big inhale. Create space. Exhale into it. Your right palm is going to stay on top. Left arm crosses. Hug the knees in. Lean back a little cap tilt of the spine and then start to press your knees back to the floor. Pulling in. Lifting up. Maybe grabbing a little deeper. Press the knees back to the floor. Really nice stretch for the scaps, traps, the upper back. Good. Then they come to center. We're going to swing the legs around and come into table pose. Set yourself up so that your palms are right underneath your shoulders. Hips are right over your knees. And then we'll softly relax the belly as we lift the seat. Take the drishti forward and then we'll curl the spine. Cat tilting the spine. Two more just to clear the back before we move into our flow here. Exhale. Contract. Draw the navel up and back. Inhale. Soften the belly. Find a neutral spine. Shift your weight into your left hand. Extend the left leg back. Reach your right arm forward and slowly lift that left leg off the floor. Go back to the cat and cow tilts. Draw the left elbow in. Right knee in. Pull the navel up and back and extend and lengthen forward. Draw it in. Keep breathing and extend it forward. Give yourself one more round. Good. Extend. Take your right arm out to the side like a wing and do the same thing with your left leg. So you got three o'clock and nine o'clock happening. Keep lifting your left heel. Keep lifting the right hand. Give yourself one more breath. Push down into that left palm and then keep the left leg where it is. Just lower it to the floor. Draw the navel up and back. Push down into your left palm. Open that right palm to the sky. Use the inhales to lengthen the spine and the exhales to move deeper into your twist. Big inhale.

Exhale. And then thread that right arm under, across, and through. Left palm can stay right here on the floor for support, especially if that shoulder doesn't come all the way down. Or you can take the left palm to the sky or wrap around for your bind. Good. Keep your left leg exactly as it is. Bring your palms back to table pose. Make sure that your right knee is under your hip and then walk your palms about a print forward. Maybe a print or two forward. You'll know in a second. We're gonna keep the left leg where it is as you press back to child's pose. It's a little hip opening variation. And then we'll move forward to plank or extra credit Chaturanga. Press back to your child and move forward. You can keep the plank. You can move into Chaturanga. We got two more. If you'd like to try this with your right knee hovering off the floor, you can play with that variation too. Depends how much you need to detox today, right? We're gonna lower the right knee back to the floor. Palms under the shoulders, back to table. Left leg stays. Left palm to the sky. Lengthen with the inhale. Open. Big lengthening. We're still twisting, but we're twisting open this time. Left arm threads under, across, and through. If your left shoulder doesn't come to the floor, keep that right arm there for support. If your shoulder comes to the floor, you can push with your right hand to give you a little bit more rotation, right? In that thoracic area of the spine. Go back to the breath. Slow, full, deep inhales. Take your time. Relax with the exhales. Last one. Keep the legs as they are as you come back to table pose. Right hand lines up with the right knee. Left leg slides back. Easy side plank. This could be your spot right here. Or you can extend the right leg across for a variation of fallen triangle, but pulse it to keep that action of that pulse squeeze happening. Good. We'll come back to table pose. Flip your palms. Give yourself a little wrist stretch. If this is challenging for you, stay right here or move the shoulders forward. If you need a little bit more, press your hips back and you'll feel a little bit more. You ready for side two? Let's do this. Shake out your wrists. Extend your right leg back. Reach forward with a left palm. Big inhale. Lift that right foot off the floor. Exhale. Draw it in. Lengthen forward. Contract into self. Pull the navel up and back. Give yourself two more rounds. These are more freestyle cat and cow tilts. Extend your left arm out to the side like a wing. Right leg out. Lift your right foot and left palm at the same time. Nine and three o'clock. One more breath. Keep the right leg where it is. Lower it to the floor. Lengthen the spine and start to open up through the left side body. Lengthen and rotate. Lengthen and rotate. Thread your left arm under, across, and through. If your shoulder doesn't come to the floor, keep your right hand where it is. Support. If your shoulder comes to the floor, then you can lose that right arm. Send it to the sky or drape it around the waist. Let the breath do all the work here. Lengthening the spine with inhales. Soft rotation. Letting go with your exhales. So our breath, we're thinking of that detoxing as the exhale. Moving the physical, mental, emotional tension out through our breath. Keep the legs as they are. Walk your palms back. Left knee right under your hip. Move forward from your table, palm print or two, and then press back to this child's pose variation, and then forward to either plank or add the chaturanga. So we're moving between these two forward and backward, staying with that pulsing movement throughout the practice. We've got three more if you want to try these with the left knee off the floor. Feeling a little bit more power. Turning on that manipura chakra, that third chakra, the heat that helps with the detoxifying. So replace that left knee. Slide your hands back. Right hand inhales to the sky. Lengthen the spine. Find that rotation and then thread across under and through. Your right shoulder doesn't come to the floor.

Support yourself with a left hand. If that shoulder comes all the way to the floor, you can use the left palm to further the twist. Sometimes when we get into twists, we forget to breathe. So go back to your breath here. Full, slow, deep inhales, and take your time with your exhales. We're going to wring out a lot today. I can feel it. Going back to your table with the palms. Left hand, left knee lines up. Right leg slides back. Easy side plank. Push forward and down with the left hand. Extend the right. If you took the fallen triangle variation, pulsing it, make sure to do that on this side. That pulsing is drawing that left foot forward as you hold the side angle. Come on back to your table and then we'll take a little breath here in our child's pose. From our child's pose, we'll pause for a second and table and walk your hands to palm print forward. Spiral your biceps forward. Push into index and thumb. Tuck your toes under and we'll move into that first down dog. Giving yourself some intuitive movements. Pedaling it out or pivoting the feet from side to side. Just actively pressing forward with your palms and your fingers so you're not sinking into the wrists. Drawing the navel up to the spine as you explore. That'll keep the foundation nice and solid. Move forward to your plank pose. Lower the knees to the floor and start to bend those elbows as we lower down. Nice and slow with control. Setting up for our sphinx pose. I'm a little long so I'm going to slide back on the mat a little bit for this one. Your elbows are going to be right underneath your shoulders. We're going to tuck the toes under and press back into the heels and move forward with the chest. Setting us up nicely for forearm plank. Pushing down into your forearms, drawing the navel up and back. From the forearm plank we're going to take a little pivot onto the right foot. You can either keep the left foot in front or stack easier in front and we're going to lower and lift but keep your left elbow on the floor. I want you to feel the obliques on the right side body working and active. Give yourself three more of these pulses. Push down into your right forearm to lift. Keep squeezing the inner thighs and then on that last one push down. Now you can slowly lift that left palm. You're going to feel the muscles that you use to get into the pose a little differently when you do this. Replace your forearms back to the floor, lower down, sphinx pose and we'll replace the elbows with the palms for a little cobra pose. Pressing into index and thumbs. Give yourself a little roll of the shoulders. Maybe massaging one at a time, making it feel good and then lower back to your sphinx pose. Tucking the toes under, pressing the heels back, lifting the navel up. Pivot your toes to the left. The right foot can be in front of or on top of and we're going to keep that right elbow on the floor as you lower and exhale. Lift, lower, lift. Keep pushing down strongly into that left forearm each time you lift. On the next lift we're going to press down and slowly reach that right palm to the sky. Giving you a nice entry to forearm side plank, really firing up the solar plexus to create heat. Lower on down. Fingertips wider than your mat. Same variations in cobra but wide fingertip. Bring a little bit of movement to the upper back and shoulders one at a time or at the same time. Think Janet Jackson rhythm nation. You know when she did that little, you know what I'm talking about. And then slowly lower back, palms next to the ribs, cobra dog, and press back to your down dog.

Draw the navel up and back. Bend the knees, look at the hands. You can take a little test bend or two, bending and extending before you walk or float your feet to the front of the mat. Lengthen the spine. Soft fold. Hang out for a moment. Connect with the rise and fall of your breath. Good. And then we'll walk our big toes together, bend our knees, palms on top of the quads, press down and lift your heart. Pull the navel up and back so you can start to create that Utkatasana chair pose. And then as you lean the seat back, reach the palms to the sky. Shrugging the shoulders down the spine as you lift the heart. Inhale rise all the way up. Exhale your palms right into prayer. Nice big inhale through the nose. Make a sound again. One more time nice big inhale. Let's make that om sound. Connecting us back to the purpose of our practice. Bend the knees as you exhale. Sweep the arms, Utkatasana chair as you inhale. Soft fold. Lengthen the spine with your inhalation. Walk or float back. Lower down. Always the option of knees first. Sphinx Cobra Up Dog. Listen to your lower back today. Step back to your Down Dog. Inhale the right leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip. Exhale. Step the right foot to the front of your mat. Lower the left knee to the floor and bring the right forearm on top of your right thigh. We're going to slide that forearm in and rest on that forearm. Kind of pushing down to lift the heart and we'll take the left arm over the ear for a little side bend. Pulse back to center and sink into it. Now place the left palm on top of the right knee. A little cross side bend. Right palm to the sky. Drop the hip to the right a little bit. Lengthen and back to center. Lengthen back to center. Give yourself one more breath. Join the side body stretches.

Inhale the palms to the sky. Shrug the shoulders down the spine. Lift your heart. Low lunge. Right palm on top of the right quad. Left hand to the floor. Lengthen the spine. Soft twist. Lengthen the spine and one more twist. Move the tension out. Right hand to the floor. Straighten the right leg. A little hamstring stretch. Arda Hanuman pulling the toes back and then we'll re-bend the right leg. We're gonna send the right leg to the sky for one-legged dog. Walk your hands halfway to your left foot. So you're shortening and tightening that one-legged dog up a little bit. Lean forward and rise to the tops of your toes. Keep the right leg high and then as you lean back bend your left leg. So this is handstand prep. We can stay right here with our foot happily on the floor. If you want to play with a couple of hops make sure as you start to straighten that leg and lean forward that you actively push down into your palms. If that seems a little precarious to you feel free to move to your wall space and play. Left leg on the floor. Right leg popping up to the sky. Just playing with a couple little hops. When you're done walk the hands forward. Plank pose. Lower down. Cobra up dog.

Pause on your child's pose. Rest the forehead on the floor. Interlace the hands behind the back. Give yourself a little shoulder stretch. Rabbit pose. Roll to the crown of the head. Cat tilt the spine. Wrists start to move over the shoulders. Without turning your head without turning your neck maybe move your wrists softly from side to side to release some of that tension. The front of the deltoids. And then slide back to your child's pose. Take your drishti forward towards your thumbs. Creep forward Cobra up dog. Big inhale as you come up. Step it back to your down dog. Inhale the left leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip. Exhale. Step the left foot to the front of your mat. Lower the right knee. We'll rest that left form on top of the left eye. Lift through the ribs and we'll take that easy side stretch here. Just kind of pulsing back and forth. Opening up through the right side body. Release your right hand somewhere on top of the left knee just for support. Lean the hips slightly to the left so you can take that left arm up and over and go back to those pulses. Inhaling back to center each time. Taking it over and across. So we're getting both side bodies nice and open so that when we come into that low lunge we find a lot of space here. So send your palms to the sky. Lift the heart. Roll the shoulder blades down away from the ears. Left hand on top of the left thigh. Lengthen the spine. Push into the right hand for your twist. Get long through the spine. Lift the left rib cage up and over the left quad. I told you we're gonna get twisted today. Lower the left hand to the floor. Straighten the left leg. A little half split. Pull the toes back. So we're getting the hamstrings open for that opportunity in the handstand. Remember you can use the wall for this one if you need to. Bend your left leg. One-legged dog. Left leg to the sky. Walk your hands back halfway. Spread the fingertips. Make sure you can lean forward and backwards so the fingertips can't be too far apart. Just like you'd do a handshake. Lean forward rise to the tops of the toes and then bend the leg. Keep the heel off the floor. Each time you lean forward try to move your shoulders over the wrist but then press down strongly. Maybe playing with a couple of kicks or moving to the wall. Trying to find a little control each time you kick up. Walk your hands forward to plank. Lengthen the spine. Lower through your vinyasa and pause in your child's pose. This is a great time to let go of the tension through the breath. Okay from our child's pose we'll come back to our down dog. We'll bring all of this together as you press back into your down dog. Go ahead and inhale that left leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip. You can stay here or you can pivot the right foot and flip your dog. Lifting the left palm off of the floor. Big inhale. Start to open up through the front of the chest. You can send that arm out to the side like a wing and really celebrate space. Step your left foot to the front of the mat and we'll take high lunge right here reaching the palms to the sky. Lifting the sternum. Lifting the chest. Drape your left hand right around your waist. Lift up for a big inhale and hook the right elbow outside of the left knee. Place the left palm on top of the left eye. Lift and rotate. We're gonna play with a couple of steps forward and backward to spinal twisting chair. So take your drishti forward. Lean into that front leg. Slide forward and step into your chair. Put that weight into the left leg. Slide back. You got two more. Power through that left leg. Last one. Lift, twist, step. Keep the palms where they are. Step back to your low lunge. So slowly lower that right knee to the floor. Stay right here as you lift and twist. Or if you feel like going deeper, you've created more space. You can split the palms. Lengthen and open. That's a lot of work on that left leg. So straighten your left leg. Pull the toes back. Squeeze the inner thighs together. You got one more twist on this side.

Right hand inside of the right foot or outside. Feel free to use a block if you need to. Lengthen and revolve. This is a modified variation of revolve triangle. Good. Lower your palms to the floor. Left leg to the sky. Shake it out or flip your little dog. Flip your dog back. Take a vinyasa. Lower down. Cool prep dog and press back to your down dog. Inhale the right leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Open the hip. Stay here or flip your dog. Knees pointing towards the back of the room. Lift your heart. Open up the wing. Push down into the fingers. Forward and down. Look forward. Step forward. High lunge. Keep the left heel off the floor. Inhale your palms to the sky. Are you still with me? Keep breathing. Right hand behind your waist. Lift through the left ribcage and then hook the left elbow just outside of that right knee. Palms into prayer. Lengthen the spine and then press down for rotation. Lengthen and twist. So take the drishti forward. Step the left foot forward to meet the right. Keep the inner thigh squeeze happening even as you separate the legs. Do two more. You're gonna feel this. Good. Last one. Quads of steel.

Carefully lower that left knee to the floor. Lift the heart. Lengthen the spine for your rotation. If you feel like going deeper, you can take the left hand outside and split the palms. Find your breath here. This is the hard part. Breathing in these deeper twists. Good. Go ahead and release your hands to the floor and straighten that right leg. Pull the toes back for your half split. It's the last little spinal twist right here. Stay right here with your palm. Squeeze the inner thighs together or take your palm outside for a variation of a revolved triangle. Same thing. Lengthening the heart and rotating the spine. Good. Bend the right leg. Send the right leg to the sky. Option of flipping your dog and opening the heart. We'll meet back in down dog. From your down dog, good news, we get to lie on our stomach. So lengthen and slowly come all the way down. Come back up to your Sphinx pose. Keep your right elbow right underneath your shoulder and bend your left leg. We do a lot of quad strengthening, so I want to make sure that we get to stretch that quad out. Reach back with your left hand. Draw the heel towards the outer left glute. Just a direction. As you press down, lengthen forward. Draw your ribs forward and lift your heart. So we're getting a nice quad stretch here. Now we're going to open up the left shoulder here for a pec stretch. Grab the big toe side of your left foot so your biceps facing up and then move the heel away from you. As you move the heel away from you, you might notice that you could come up into a more of a back bend. If you'd like to do that, lower down first. Replace your right elbow with your right palm and then lift from here. As you push forward, draw the heel back and you're moving into a half shape of a Dhanurasana right here. Good. Slowly release. Bring your left palm back to the floor. In between sides, just give yourself a little rock from side to side. Then we'll keep the left forearm down this time. Let the left leg drop to the floor. Reach back with your right hand. Quad stretch. Drawing the heel towards the outer glute and then counterbalance this. Press down by moving forward with your ribs and heart. So you're keeping the back bending quality of the pose. Good. And we're going to catch the big toe side of the foot. So you're grabbing the arch of the foot with your right hand, your biceps facing up and you're starting to move the heel away from you. Stay right here if this is where it feels, where you feel it. Otherwise, lower down. Press up to your up dog variation and then draw the heel away from you so that you can really lift the heart. Go back to the breath. Slowly release. Palms to the floor. You can bring your head to the side of the palms and take a little windshield wiper here from side to side. Good. From here we're going to roll over to our back. Just flip over like a hot cake. You've got a lie on your back. And we'll take a couple of windshield wipers on our back, feed as wide as the mat. The next time you drop your knees to the right, pause here.

Place the right ankle on top of the left thigh. Give yourself a moment here just to feel that release IT band lower back. And then come back to center, feed as wide as the mat. Drop your knees to the left. Right leg stays. Left ankle on top. Give you a nice release IT band. Lower back on the right side. And this is setting you up for a nice shavasana. If there's any last movements that you need before your shavasana, make sure to honor that. You can draw the knees a little wider than the chest and rock from side to side or you can always take happy baby pose. Happy baby is like a nice one before you go into shavasana. As we start to release all these physical movements of the body, really just soften into the floor for our shavasana. You can think of letting go of any attachment that you have to the body, the tension, any physical reactions that were happening. Just let those dissolve into peace. Let go of directing or guiding your breath. Let the breath rise and fall without any efforts from your mind. And then as you sink deeper into shavasana, let each thought pattern dissolve into peace, divine and detoxifying your mind. So enjoy being here right in the present moment that's unfolding before you and stay in your shavasana a little longer if that's what feels right for you today. If you'd like to roll to your right and work your way up to the seat, we'll take one last om together or you can just keep your eyes closed and lie on your back and celebrate the om with us. So we're tying it all together. We'll take that ah and that oh and that mm and hopefully we feel this beautiful vibration all the way from the seat to the crown or energetic body alive and purified. Take a nice big inhale through the nose and to the belly. The light in me is so happy and honored to share this practice with the light and you keep sharing the peace that you've created in your mind today with everyone that you meet. Namaste.