Chakra 1: Muladhara

Introduction

Practice

Squeeze the sitting bones together, engaging the pelvic floor, and then let it go. And then just one more time like that. Taking a deep breath in, exhale all the way down to the base of the spine. Hold the breath there. And then exhale and let go. Take a big breath in and a big breath out. So from here, you're just going to spin around onto your mat. You can move away any padding that you have out to the side. For our practice today, a block would be really, really helpful to be able to lift the floor, the earth, to connect to you if you need. So go ahead and root down through your feet. Your feet are going to be about hip-width apart and plant your hands to the floor behind you, maybe a few inches away from the hips. See if you can roll the shoulders back and draw the elbows in together. And we're going to do a practice from what I call Reverse Cat and Cow.

So you're going to take a deep breath in and press down through the sitting bones and the feet to lift the chest up. And then as you exhale, you're going to round all the way down. So take the chin in towards the chest and massage the low back into the ground. And then again, deep, slow breath in, lift the chest up, and then exhale to round in towards yourself. Take one more big breath in, rolling to the front of the sitting bones, lift the chest, and then exhale and round. So we're going to do that three more times, but this time we're going to add the seed sound LAM. So each chakra has a seed sound that we're going to call on in our practice, and this one is L-A-M. Take one more big breath in, and this time as you exhale, LAM.

Exhaling, LAM. One more time, big breath in. Exhale, LAM. Feeling the vibrations deep down inside. And then on your next breath in, lift your hips up to the sky, take a deep breath. As you exhale, stick out your tongue, breathe out through the mouth, lion's breath. Then soften your sitting bones to the ground. You're going to give a big hug of your knees in towards your chest. So again, just stimulating your roots. Just like when we plant anything, the deeper the roots, the higher everything can go. So we want to really stimulate the area here of the sitting bone.

So climb into like a little bit of a seed, and then we're going to start in just a little bit of a baby Navasana. All of these poses are just the basic needs, the simplest of postures to feel the value of even the smallest kind of quote-unquote mundane things in our lives. And right where they are, so that we're grounded in the here and now. So allow the sitting bones to move forward. If you're ready, you can reach your arms forward. You don't need to even straighten the legs for today. Take one more big inhale, and then cross your ankles. Crawl forward onto your hands and your knees.

You can walk your hips back, and then send your hips towards your heels for a child's pose. So take a deep breath in, and then exhale, you can even press down through the hands to allow the hips to move back towards the heels. Taking a few soothing breaths, and just this grounding of the head to the earth can remove so much stress from the body, from the mind, to come back down to the ground, and it's great safety. Take one more big breath in. Exhale, even sigh the breath out. Along with it, any stress in your mind, anything you don't need.

And allow the next breath in to roll you forward onto your hands and knees for a few cat cows the other way. So you're going to drop the belly as you inhale, lift the tailbone up. So everything's guided from the tailbone. Lift the chest, as you exhale, draw the tailbone in, round the spine, take the chin in towards the chest so that you're breathing into the back of the body. And then again, drop the belly as you inhale, lift your chest, look up. As you exhale, round in towards yourself, carving the tailbone forward and through.

And then you're going to take a few more on your own, and this time you can begin to add some hip circles, you can take it in your own way so that you're really listening to your own needs. This is at the heart of this particular chakra, to listen to your body's needs on any particular day, and becoming conscious of the most simple things in our lives. So take one more big breath in, now come on through center, spread your palms really wide, suckle your fingertips into the ground so that you're getting like a good latch, if you know what that means. And really engage the fingertips into the ground, and see if you can roll your shoulders away from your ears at the same time. So it's this deep connection, you can think of roots drawing the energy up from the earth.

And then from there, tuck your toes under so that you can send the hips towards your heels. And slowly begin to lengthen your legs just about halfway, so that you can allow the heart to melt towards the tops of the thighs, and the tailbone can even lift, so that the sacrum can begin to move into the front of the body, and you're just stretching out through the whole front of the chest and the armpits. And from there you can begin to draw the legs a little bit longer, and then maybe play a little bit with carving the tailbone forward so that you're filling up that low back area. Take a couple of breaths here, you can even pedal out through your feet, feeling the backs of the legs, the hamstrings. And take a big exhale to root yourself down, see if you can play with that, again, that mula bandha, where you're drawing the energy of the tailbone forward and in.

And then allow that same movement to ripple you forward into a plank pose, so that you're moving from the base of the spine, extend back through the heels and energize the spine as the chest moves forward. Even see if you can lift up the front of the ribs, so that you're experiencing this great strength of the pose that allows the mind to become nice and strong, stable. And then you're going to begin to take your knees to the ground, bend your elbows and let your chest move towards the earth. This is called a Shtanga Namaskar, allowing the tailbone to lift up and into the sky, you can wave it, and then drop down onto your bellies, point your toes, take your forehead to the earth, and for a moment just stretch the body out onto the earth, into a prostration, honoring all of those that have supported you. And then on your breath in, slide your hands on either side of your ribs, hug the elbows in towards the chest, press down through all ten toes, and breathe in to lift the chest up into a baby cobra, just a baby, simple.

Look up as you breathe in and then exhale the third eye right back and down. One more time like that, inhaling, lift the chest, press down through the pelvis, you can even engage the gluteus maximus, exhale your head down. One more time, breathe in, baby cobra, then press back onto your hands and knees, you can walk your shins forward for child's pose. Another big inhale, and then exhale deeply into the earth until you empty out. On your next breath in, you're going to reach down into your shins, come up onto your heels for a moment, and we're going to do what's called a Tibetan sun salute, so it's kind of like a little mini sun salutations, but again, this bowing down of our heads to the earth.

So the inhale is going to lift you up onto the shins, circle the arms up and above you, grab a hold of your elbows at the top of the inhale, you can arch back, and then fold the forearms into your belly and curl yourselves over, so that your head can bow back down to the earth, emptying all the way out. And again like that, inhale and rise from the roots, grab a hold of the elbows, arch back, and then exhale, have a seat. Inhale and rise up one more time. As you exhale, bow forward and down. On your next inhale, let your hips drop back to your heels into what's called rock pose, and you can inhale the arms up to the sky into a prayer, and then take a little mini twist over to the right, so you can use those right fingertips to sink into the earth, those same kind of rooted fingertips, and then twist just into a simple twist looking back.

And then from here, keeping your right fingertips where they are, circle the left hand back, tent through the fingertips, lift the chest, and then using the tailbone to move forward and through, you can begin to press the pelvis in, but see if you can look up the front of the body so that you're not arching the low back, and then release your hips down to crawl back onto your hands and your knees. Take your left hand to the center of your mat, then you're going to weave the right shoulder to the ground, and again coming back down to the ground, allowing the right shoulder to sink into the earth, but see if you can move the left hip away from you and then extend the left arm out and in front of you. So you can take a breath in here. If you're ready for it, you can snake your left hand behind you and twist open through the chest a little bit more. Reach your left arm back up and down, then press down through the left hand, reach your right arm to the sky, and send your right leg behind you into a supported plank.

So it may take a moment to adjust your body, allowing that left shin to really sink into the earth, and then we're really moving from the tailbone through the legs. So again, you may find the low back arches. You want to draw the tailbone forward to lengthen through the legs and then maybe lift the right leg up. Circle the right hand up and above you, and as the right hand comes back down underneath your shoulders, you're going to draw the right knee in towards your nose, exhaling just like those cat cows, and then inhale and arch the spine a little bit, looking up. Again, exhale, draw the knee in towards your nose, inhale the right leg back up.

One more time to climb all the way through. There may be a little bit of effort. You can help along your foot if you need to and then step your right foot right out and in front of you. Come onto your fingertips, pad up your left knee if you need to if it's uncomfortable at all, and then inhale the arms up for anjana asana. So you allow the hips to sink down.

Again, drawing the pelvis underneath you, engaging the root lock so that you can lift up. You can arch back and then circle the hands down to frame the right foot. Tuck the left toes under, keeping your left knee on the ground. You're going to straighten out through the right leg so that there's all of this energy again back into the legs. You're going to feel it into this hamstring stretch or what's called a half-split artahanuman.

Bowing forward as you flex deeply through those right toes. Take a big breath in. Exhale, even sink back towards your left heels and opening up, peeling open the sole of your left foot. And then re-bend the right knee, take your left hand down. One more twist as you lift the left knee up, pick up the right arm.

Drag your right hip back, see if your chest can open again, pressing into the earth and then opening your right arm up. Lift up through that inner left thigh, energizing out through the legs and circle the right hand down into downward-facing dog. You can pedal out through your feet. Find all four corners, the hands and the feet, creating this very, very stable structure that's downward dog that you can come back to again and again. Shoulders roll away from the ears as you sink down through the feet.

And then again as you engage the tailbone, you'll ripple forward in towards a plank pose. Hold here for a breath. This time you're going to take the knees to the ground but keep your toes tucked under as you send your hips back towards your heels. So it's a very active child's pose or what I call crouching tigers. So by pressing into the hands and stretching out through the feet, kind of like pulling open the roots, maybe you'll lift your knees off of the ground an inch, tailbones forward, and then from there launch forward and in one breath out, lower yourselves to the ground.

Untuck your toes, point the feet, rise up, baby cobra, and then back into a child's pose as you breathe out. You can take a big inhale and then exhale everything out. We're going to rise back up onto the shins, pressing into the heels, rise on up, grab ahold of the elbows, maybe the opposite direction, inhale, and then exhale, draw the forearms and take your head back to the earth. Again, inhale, press down through the shins to rise up and exhale, come on back down. One more time, rooting down to rise up and then exhale, bow your head back to the earth and from there have a seat on your heels, circle the arms back up and above you and then it's a twist over to the leftist time.

So using the fingertips into the ground, pressing into the earth so that the spine can elongate and then twisting from the belly as you ring out. Circle the right hand back, lift and open the chest and then the pelvis lifts by actually drawing the chin in and the pelvis forward and up. Release your hips back down, crawl forward onto your hands and your knees and this time it's the left shoulder that comes down to the earth in your left ear. So take your right hip back, lengthen your right arm forward, breathe into the outer edge of the left shoulder. You can move your hips a little bit from side to side.

Your right arm can reach back behind you, like to open up through the shoulder. Take it back up and then root down through the right hand. Press down into the right shin and then peel open the left arm. Again, there's always this little inner work where you're drawing the focus of your body. So the pelvis comes forward, the front of the ribs move in so that there is this inner stability we're cultivating through this practice today.

And then from there, maybe your top leg lift. Stretch your arm up and above you and then right back and down as you climb in. Flex through the left toes, lift the chest. Exhale. Inhale, swing the leg back so that you're using a little bit of momentum and your next breath out with the left foot forward.

Help your foot along if you need. Stamp it into the ground and then reach your arms forward and up. If there's any little movements you'd like to take here to allow the pelvis to sink, frame your left foot with your two hands. Tuck your right toes under. Keep the right knee on the ground.

There may be a little bit of repositioning so that you can lengthen for your half split or Ardha Hanuman and just breathe into the back of your left hamstring. Flex through the left foot as much as you can and tend through the fingertips so you're almost doming into yourself. And then by pressing off those back toes, using the power of your roots, you can begin to shoot up with the left arm into the sky. Again, dragging that left hip back behind you, sinking down. Reach up through the inner right thigh and circle your left hand downward facing dog.

Roll forward plank. Crouching tiger so your knees hover over the ground as you press through the heels. Press off the toes and lower down onto your bellies. Untuck the toes, rise up cobra as you breathe in and then back into downward dog as you exhale. So then even hold the breath out again and see if you can find or engage that root lock.

Drawing everything in to that great pelvic floor power. And then slowly begin to walk your hands backwards. It's like a little walking meditation. As you draw your hands back, as we honor the first chakra, we go back to our roots, where we come from, our families, our ancestors, even every step that we've passed is everything's coated in our first chakra-like magnetic tape. So bowing down to the feet, the feet of your teachers, of your ancestors, of your family, as you exhale and even hug your arms around the backs of the legs and then maybe lengthen them a little bit more.

And then you can drop your hands, soften through your knees, let the hips drop under you and engaging your root lock so that you can rise up vertebrae by vertebrae, by pressing down through the feet, rolling the shoulders back. You can even inhale the arms up as you continue to press down through the feet. And then drawing heaven or the divine right there into your body as this conduit between heaven and earth, sinking down through the feet, but reaching up through the crown of your head. And from here you're even going to take a slow walking meditation. One of the ways to really engage and awaken this chakra is simply through walking, walking in nature, walking barefoot, feeling your feet underneath the sand, being present with everything that's around you.

So slowly walking forward to the front of your mat and standing up nice and tall like a mountain. Your arms can come by your side, tadasana. Again, you can bend your knees a little bit, lift up through the inner arches, the tailbone to drip down, and then begin to straighten the legs. You feel a great sense of self, confidence that's kind of unbreakable no matter what's happening outside. You feel this great sense of stability.

A couple of breaths there, drawing up the energy from the earth, great minerals from life to strengthen you, taking care of your body. Stay here for one more breath in, standing up nice and tall in yourself, knowing that you can take care of all of your needs, the great survival, your survival, and the survival of the planet, brothers and sisters, that strengthening this great chakra, our most primordial one, reawakens us to our connectedness and safety. Exhale deeply into your feet, soften the knees a little bit so that, again, you draw the energy in and up and above you. As you exhale, you're going to draw the prayer through the midline of the body, so it's like a full-body prayer, and then touching the earth with your hands as you breathe out. Inhale and step the right leg back, so we're just going to go through a simple round of surya namaskar.

Lift the chest and breathe in, and then exhale into downward dog. Roll forward into a plank pose as you breathe in, crouching tiger as you breathe out. Press off through the feet, lower down onto your bellies. Point your toes cobra as you breathe in. Exhale, downward facing dog, through hands and knees at the head drop.

Inhale your right leg up to the sky. Come up onto your left tippy toes as you exhale, draw the knee in towards your chest, press the ground away, and then drop your foot between your hands. Inhale, let the hips sink down as you look up. Exhale, step forward, uttanasana. Inhale to rise up, really stretch the breath in, lengthen it, tadasana as you breathe out.

Inhale the arms up and look up. As you exhale, a soft bend in your knees, prayer down to the earth. Inhale your left leg back behind you, let the hips sink down. Come up onto the fingertips, look up. Downward facing dog as you breathe out.

Plank pose as you roll forward and through. Crouching tiger. Press off the toes, lower down onto your bellies. Cobra as you breathe in. Downward dog, tuck the toes, send the hips towards your heels and lengthen your legs.

Inhale your left leg up. Exhale the knee in towards the nose, so again you're pressing down through the ground to lift into yourself and drop your foot between your hands. Now let the hips sink down as you inhale, look up. And then press off the right toes to step forward. A soft bend in your knees to rise on up and then hands to your hearts, arms by your sides.

So from here, deep bend in your knees as you rise up, ukkatasana. So again you can send the hips all the way back. The tendency is to drop into the low back, but for today you want to really begin to engage it. Not so much the belly but the tailbone moving in will begin to lift the energy up and you're just sinking here into your legs, sometimes called chair pose, but it's powerful pose drawing in the energy from inside and sinking down using the strength of the muscles of the body to sink into the earth. And then begin to lengthen over your legs, uttanasana.

A bend in your knees, plant your hands down. Now you're going to hop back into a soft downward facing dog. So that deep bend in your knees, towards your heels, crouching, chaturanga if you'd like or down to the ground, not aranga. Cobra as you breathe in and then downward dog as you breathe out. Send your left foot a little bit center, reach your right leg up to the sky and then step forward between your hands again, this time sealing the back heel down, preparing for warrior one.

So your right hip really does want to reach back into the left heel so that you're stabilizing into both feet and then root down through the right foot as your arms reach forward and up. So there is a moment of playing around with the pelvis here to really sink into the earth, reaching through the outer edge of your left foot as the right hip sinks down and always sinking down to reach up. And from here interlace your hands behind you. You may have a little bit more movement to spiral the pelvis forward and lift the chest and then you're going to take one more big old bow to mama earth, including your material reality, honoring your body, honoring everybody as the head bows with humility. And then right from here you can begin to lengthen through the right leg and then swivel the right toes.

So nothing changes except for a little bit of a movement so that you're right in your prosaureta, padottanasana. You can lift up through the inner arches. It's kind of like breathing up through the insoles of your feet. So exhale a little bit deeper. You do want to bend your knees a little bit to feel the connection to the earth and then press down through the feet, release your hands so that you can sweep your arms up to the sky, up and above you.

And then we're going to transition into warrior two by picking up your right leg, turn the right thigh bone out and then press your right foot down. The left toes in come a little bit forward and the left heel out. And then again, as the pelvis begins to align itself dropping down through the hips as you sink into warrior two. So keep the thigh bones really plugging into the pelvis so we're creating a lot of strength. So we want stability as well as this mobility.

So allowing the tailbone to come down lifts the pelvis up but strengthens the thighs moving into the hips. And then there's a little bit of holding here so that the chest can open up but your gaze is forward still softening through the shoulders so it's steady but at ease trying to do those at the same time. And then you're going to tip backwards bending through the right knee a little bit deeper with your right arm up and over your head and you can snake that left hand behind the back opening up through the chest and allowing the right shin to drop forward a little bit more and then press down through the big toe mound of the right foot to lengthen the right leg arching back for a reverse triangle and then drag the right hip back as you reach the right arm forward. A little tiny micro bend into the right knee especially if you tend to hyper extend a little bit like I do and then you can take your right hand to the ground this would be a great time for a block. So if you have one near you and you're using it today I really love to use blocks especially when I'm doing these strengthening first chakra poses so that I can find the ground and press down through the right hand and then begin to twist your chest open to the sky so it's sinking down into the earth not trapped by our material existence but actually finding the freedom within it.

Take a couple breaths so that you can be nourished by each pose breathing in and then breathing out inhaling especially pressing down through the feet allowing the thighs to engage and then exhale to twist and then bend the right knee as we begin to transition into extended side angle your right forearm can come to your thighs your left arm comes up and over your head again pelvis forward so that the chest can open up and circle your left hand behind you see if you can find that same half bind by twisting the chest open and then for one more moment you're going to hold extending the right arm forwards really awakening this energy in the legs in your roots from there you can grab a hold of your block again take it forward a few inches about six inches and over to the right side of your mat and then shift the weight into the right foot as you lift the left leg up to the sky for arta chandrasana or half moon so here the legs are super engaged you want to flex through the left leg even though you're externally rotating out through the thigh and then lean back right where your forearm is creating all of that stability even as you open up press down through the ground sometimes the tendencies to want to lift the right hand but for today we're going to really sink into the earth grabbing hold of that support and stability of others what's around us feeling connected take one more big breath in and then exhale come forward in through so you can shake out your legs here you can flutter out through your lips and then rise back up into utkatasana sinking down, reaching up, curling in fold forward into uttanasana shift the weight into your hands plant your hands, see if you can hop into that puppy dog bent knees and hips back to the heels spring forward onto your bellies cobras as you point your toes, pick up the chest downward facing dog as you breathe out take an inhale and another exhale this time take your right foot center extend the left leg up draw the knee in towards the chest and drop your foot between your hands seal the back heel down there is this moment to draw the left hip back so the left hip crease you can take your right hand there to really sink it so that you're engaging and enlivening this back leg and then press down through the left foot to rise up for your warrior one there's always little micro adjustments for your own body you begin to make to send the pelvis forward reach up through that inner right thigh as you sink down interlace your hands behind your back slide your hands down the inner right thigh reach up through the inner right thigh as the hips sink and then drop your head devotional warrior humble warrior demon meant to be that word comes from hummus the earth deep bow and then you'll parallel the toes again adjust your feet move a little bit from side to side allowing your head to release towards the earth becoming grounded present one more time you'll bend the legs on your way up release your hands press into the feet rise up to stand with your arms above your head and then begin to lift up your left leg spiral open through the hip turning the left leg out the right toes in or the right heel out you want to stay lifted as you sink down for today taking a few breaths allowing the hips to sink hugging the thigh bones into the pelvis but extending out breathing in and breathing out cultivating this great stability the body, the mind, the emotions and then as you begin to inhale wrap the right arm behind you take your left arm up backwards so that you can press down into the left foot for your reverse triangle before you begin to draw the left hip back and again, moment to reach for a block to lift the ground up to meet you and then your right hand comes right underneath the right shoulder tiny micro-band so that you can press through the foot avoiding the hyperextension into the back of the knee really protecting the joints as the bones are associated with our first chakra and then when you're ready reach the arm up but take the ribs right where that low back was deep breath in deep breath out one more big breath in and then breathe out into your feet bend the left knee take your forearm to your thigh take the right arm up and over your head swing the pelvis forward stretch into that right foot arch back to your extended angle then circle the right arm back extend the left arm forward you're going to feel a little bit of shaking the strengthening, the awakening of the legs so hold for one more breath awakening this powerful energy there existing in your legs in your pelvis and as we transition into Ardha Trandrasana you want to reach for your block again with your left hand and place it forward to the top left corner of your mat and then switch the weight into the left hand and the left foot as you begin to lift the right leg up to the sky so just halfway Ardha Trandrasana, very specific as we're half in our material world and then half upward towards the heavens as you extend up and really rooted in both of these realities our spiritual, our material and become rooted in both so you can look up as attachment as one of the ways that we go out of balance with the first chakra you stay rooted but also let go a lot more breath in with me and then bend your knees and let it go flutter it out through your lips through your legs shake it out and then bend your knees root down through the feet rise back up, ukkatasana and then straighten the legs take your hands back to your hearts breath in, you can release your arms down and just experience the energy awakened in your body and then begin to shift the weight into your left foot and hug the right knee into your chest we're going to make our way into tree pose but first, find your balance so you'll see you may move into the inner edge of the left foot or the outer edge do you want the inner arch to lift that soft bend in the knee the world is spinning around so it takes a moment to find our balance the planets are moving all around us with oceans we always realign with the moment and then plant your right foot to your inner thigh your foot can come to the ankle every day is different and you can take your hands to your heart you can even find that ganasha mudra to exhale into your feet from here, your mudra is going to turn into a trunk so this is another ganasha movement to honor the great ruler make a trunk with your wrists together and then you're going to extend the right leg out and in front of you so this is a little playful moment for your mudra and then inhale lift the arms up you're going to step right back into that warrior one landing, finding your ground and then transition with your feet parallel one more time and then come forward for one more deep bow into your prasarita so this time the crown of the head can come to the ground you can widen through your feet you can bend your knees a little bit bowing the head in towards the ground and then you're going to take it into a twist so with the right fingertip center just notice what happens as you begin to draw this energy back into the feet with a little bend of the knees and pick up your left arm snake your arm behind you like we've been doing to find the back body a little bit more stable in the kidney area nice and engaged and then as you bend your knees one more time you can press into the ground and then rise back up with your right arm to the sky let it drop behind you you can find your t-shirt or maybe that ganasha mudra behind the heart again this little bear grip to open up through the chest on the breath in turn your right leg out your left toes in a deep bend in the right knee as you arch back one more extended side angle so this time your right hand can come to the ground your forearm can come to the thigh again but explore the right hand down and the left arm up drawing the tailbone forward if you'd like to begin to explore the bind left arm behind you the right arm can snake underneath for finding these little grips to lengthen out through the front leg twisting your chest open half bound or full bound triangle and then circle the hands down pick up the back heel you're going to keep rotating those right toes out and come to the outer edge of your left foot so we're going to begin to make our way towards the side plank but first press into the right foot so again you're using the energy in this right foot to lift the hips that can sometimes collapse in the pose and then take the right arm up it's a lot more work as you feel everything there in the legs with the right arm up and then from here you can stack the feet you can soften the bottom shin down remember you're honoring your needs today this whole week maybe it's a tree pose maybe it's that artichondross and then wherever you are drop the right foot behind you take an arch back and then minding your left shoulder you're going to have a seat facing the front of your mat again so from here there's going to be another little transitional moment where you can take your right foot a little bit wider lengthen through the left leg take your left fingertips to the ground your right arm to the sky and then begin to come forward towards the marichyasana so your left leg is nice and engaged again as your head begins to bow forward the binding is there reaching the chest and another deep bow in towards your roots take a big inhale big exhale and as you root down into your sitting bones both hands behind you both feet in front of you press down lift the hips up and one more breath out the mouth take your sitting bones down preparing for that navasana again so that the chest lifts sometimes navasana we can just think about core but it's so much in the legs and a full body pose because you're rocking forward to the fronts of the sitting bones and really rooting down and then stretching out through the legs to create this nice strength cross your ankles come forward hop back this time with bent knees looking forward you can even hop forward using the power of your feet lifting your chest and bowing down again there can be always a hug around your legs lengthening in towards yourself with great reverence you can lengthen the spine and then exhale to bow right back down you can remove your props over to the side and then one more deep bend in the knees as you come back up for ukkatasana stinking down deep reaching up high and then press down through the feet to shift the weight into the right foot and hug the left knee in towards your chest so again taking a moment to find your balance making sure you can breathe there's a balance between steadiness or effort and ease plant your left foot to your inner right thigh playing around a little bit with your pelvis tailbone sinking down engaging the thighs your hands to your heart finding your ganesha mudra every time you exhale engaging your pelvic floor and then begin to kick the foot forward and a little bit of a dance leg lift up great trunk and then step back into your warrior one so you can find your grounding arching up and back lengthen through the right leg parallel your toes and then bow your head down towards the ground you can let your head release so this is always the beginning of an inversion which we'll be playing with in a few weeks but with the head towards the ground you can begin to play a little bit with maybe the hands coming in line with the feet and then just playing with the heels lifting up grounding the head into the earth the great yogis gesture you can take one more breath in maybe shifting the weight lifting your heels and then take your heels back down with your left fingertips center pick up the right arm wrap it behind the back bend your knees lift up through the back body so you can press down through the feet rise up finding the fingertips behind you maybe it'll puff up the chest to find the fingertips but then draw the ribs in lift the left foot out turn the left leg out right toes in deep bend into the left knee arch back and then extend your left hand forward again as you place your left fingertips to the earth on the inside of the left foot and reach your right arm up to the sky finding the bind kind of like a hand holding as the chest opens up lengthen through the left leg rebend through the knee then frame your left foot turn your left toes out come on to the outer edge of your right foot press into the right foot on the outer edge of the right hand you can take your left hand to your knee peeling open to the inside of the hip but press down through the left foot so that you're lifting up the inside of the right thigh you can even stay here in the supported side plank on certain days or any day stack your feet tree poles your leg can lift up and then fall back behind you so pressing down through the feet as you arch backwards and then coming back down shift the weight into your hips slider, left heel back and then you can reach your left arm up to come around the arms can just widen as you flex through your toes and come forward taking the bind and then your hands behind you bend your knees, lift your hips exhale out through the mouth and then take your hips down and you're going to begin to lie down onto your back so you can spin your feet around and even reach for your block so that we can take a supported bridge for today and then lower down onto your backs slide your heels towards your hips take a moment to land back on the ground you can let your knees sway a little bit from side to side feeling the stability of the earth back underneath you and then definitely slide your heels a little wider and draw your toes in so that you can reach down through the inner edges of the feet and then again moving forward through the pelvis to begin to lift your hips up you can waddle your shoulders a little bit underneath you and again press down through the feet that engages our Muladhara Chakra awakens the energy in the legs and these great muscles the largest muscles are all connected to our base chakra, our roots you can interlace your hands underneath you and again further root down through the upper arm bones lift the chest up as you press down through the feet as you release down if your hands are interlaced you can release your hips onto your interlaced arms and again just feel the openness across the chest you can feel the great pull of gravity drawing you like a great hug back to earth in connection with others and then press down lift your hips up one more time let's start and take your block and place it underneath your sacrum with a wide triangular shaped bone at the base of the spine take a few breaths allow your body to be supported by the block as we welcome more support into our lives creating community, more connection to the earth and then after all of that work we did in our legs we're going to take a couple of moments to allow our roots to reach up toward the heavens again we're rooted in heaven and our heads are on the ground a little supported shoulder stand control your ankles and feel the skin stretch across the calves and the thighs releasing the legs and all of that energy from all of your weight constantly being in your legs all day giving thanks to your feet and then bend your knees again one at a time press down into your feet lift your hips up slide your block over to the side slowly stretch the spine down as you lower upper middle lower back and before you hug your knees into your chest just make sure you're washing the knees a little bit from side to side and then hug your knees in and allow them to rock over towards the left side first allow the right arm to simply reach over to the side surrendering into the great powers of the breath and gravity where you can simply be held the quality of trust that we awaken through this chakra all of our needs will be taken care of inhale and come through center the big hug of your knees into your chest and then shift your weight onto your right hip and twist to the other side as you inhale come on on through center and right from here you prepare for shavasana letting go of your physical body a blanket can roll right underneath your knees to support your low back your shavasana is a little bit more supported for your body to truly let go release your head back down to the ground you can even squeeze everything tight and then exhale release switching to the back of the head slide your shoulders down allowing your body to merge right back with the earth exhale Thank you. Slowly begin to bring your awareness back to your breath, even a little more Shavasana. Come back into your body, begin to move your fingers and toes to this great temple for your spirit. Stretch your arms over your head, reach a little from the right side to the left side. And then a big hug of your knees into your chest, an all-embracing hug.

Roll over onto your right side for a moment. And then begin to rise up to sit, patting underneath your sitting bones, slide your hands to your thighs, allow the chest to open. Take your hands to your heart in prayer as gratitude is one of the highest qualities again of this sacred energy within us. And to bow to the great wealth that we have, to what's all around us in the moment, let's take one big breath in together, even end with one sound of Aum, Aum, bowing down and honoring one another, Namaste.

Talk

As we explored through the practice, the first chakra is at the base of our body, Muladhara. So from the base of our spine, all the way down through the legs, feet, the bones, and the large intestines. So along with the physical aspects of where this ganglia of nerves, a great big energy storehouse that exists is also the adrenal glands. So we can kind of feel this connection to where, how it's all connected from our body to our spirit, to our emotions. We begin to create these intersections of energy.

So the adrenal glands specifically have to do with this flight and fight response. So generally we feel fear when we feel unstable, I find. So it's so primal to begin to connect back to our roots. Right? First and foremost, we come back and connect to our families.

For me, this was big news because I thought my spiritual path was going to take me away from my family very happily. I did everything that I could to kind of escape where I came from. All to know that it's in this coming back and healing the depths of these relationships, coming back home to who I am and back to this connection of my particular family as well as the earth family. Because once we become disconnected from our roots, there's no grounding, we're just kind of floating around aimlessly searching. So sometimes the journey is to come back down, to come back down to earth.

So some of the qualities that we're exploring is first of course this energy of earth that's in our body, our physical body and its needs. This becomes so healing to begin to honor our bodies, to feed it, to give it exercise before we begin to even rise up to our highest spiritual liberated selves that we have to have a functioning body, we have to have this holy temple that we take care of. So we start with the earth element, the color is red and for me symbolizes of course the red earth, but also this blood that we share with one another, this red blood. It's meant to like reverberate at the lowest frequency in red, but it really is those veins that keeps us connected not only to our blood family, but really to all sentient beings. Symbolism is a four-pedaled lotus, red lotus, so four is a base, it's a square, so again it has the strongest, most stable connections.

When we do even all of those asanas that we were doing, we're on all fours, downward facing dog, all four corners of the feet, we're trying to create the stability within the body. And therefore the yogis realize with stability in the body comes stability of the mind, comes stability of the emotions, that it's all connected. The sense associated with muladhara is smell, so again that's our most primal smell, sometimes we think maybe it's the sixth sense that's the most high or spiritually powerful sense that we have, but we've lost so much touch with the information that our senses give us on a daily basis and how we can use our senses. So smell, first of all we can tell if something is off, before I put anything into my mouth I always sniff it because you can kind of tell if it's like whatever it is you're like nah I'm not gonna put it into my body, but smell and aromatherapy is so healing and how we can use scent again to further awaken and strengthen this great power that we have. The sound like we experienced through the practice is lam, L-A-M and the seed sounds are so powerful because they really are like the most potent like a seed is so powerful like the sound of om, but lam, lam, lam really brings us down to our base, it reverberates nice and deep, so since sound is energy one of the most powerful ways that we can awaken our chakras is through sound, so this sound is especially you know deep and down into the depths of us.

I used to think about it when I was trying to first remember the sounds of the chakras, I need little tricks from my mind to remember things and I was thinking about L-A, I was like what can I remember L-A and then I was like what's at the base of the states? Who knows what the state is? Louisiana right? So it starts with an L-A, so down at the base of our country is L-A, so that's for me the way that I think about it in Louisiana, it's kind of like deep, it's kind of first chakra, it's like right, really, really, really soulful and really the roots of where we all come from and so it's that sound like I mentioned Ganesha once we start to put some of these symbolisms to them, it becomes a way of seeing these parts of our bodies and lives as sacred. Ganesha is the elephant headed deity, new beginnings of course and the remover of obstacles but the point is that Ganesha is meant to put them in our paths, again sometimes we think our obstacles are things that are in our way, we want to get rid of them quickly to begin to be free but we're meant to use whatever it is that we find as our obstacle if it's in our body, if it's in our past that we get to honor, I mean Ganesha has quite a story of his family history and his uniqueness, how unique he is and that joyful feeling of being in our bodies no matter what, his love of delights of the earth.

So with all of those different qualities this chakra we can begin to notice when it's out of balance, so it can go out of ways in a couple of different ways. One way is when it's deficient, so in this way you can think of being spacey, being fearful, it can show up physically as far as osteoarthritis or really weak bones, it can also show up physically as far as because it is a large intestine where we let go of waste and only use what's really necessary in our bodies, it can show up as constipation, it can show up also in two different ways physically as far as either anorexia, not feeling worthy, being able to feed ourselves or take care of ourselves and then the other way is to be overweight. So those are the ways it can physically go out of balance and then some of the emotional or mental ways of course is the spaciness, not being able to accept change is another way, really really holding on tight, letting go. Another way is poor boundaries, if it's excessive it can move towards material obsession, so it can either go out of touch where we're kind of spacey and not in touch with life, not in touch with our bodies, not in touch with the importance of our calendars, being on time, all those things, our great disciplines and then it can go the other way of just being really really materialistic and the fear that comes from holding on. So when this chakra is in balance we're more likely to be more grounded, we're able to feel more safe once we can take care of ourselves in this relationship with ourselves, whether it is that we've made peace with our family, a big part of the journey to the first chakra as I mentioned earlier is to go back actually and somehow to begin, maybe it's within as far as forgiveness goes, but to invite family back into your life.

So sometimes we think tribal power is being something archaic but community is so important to feel a part of something and so whether it's our chosen family or actually healing the bonds back with our blood relatives in some way maybe connecting back to a family tree where we came from so that we feel our roots connected to something is really really important so all of that creates a feeling of safety. When our first chakra is in balance we're healthy, we're strong, confident, we can stand up in our own two feet and know that we can take care of ourselves no matter what challenge is placed in our lives, feel a sense of being able to, I don't know, I just like the image of being able to stand up for ourselves, our survival being able to take care of ourselves even if we lost things we're able to just have faith and trust which is huge that it will come back and in this way we can be able to provide this for others you know I love my friends who are really grounded who are stable in one way or another I know I can go to them when there is this sense of stability so if I'm feeling stressed out they have a stability to them. So these are some of the qualities in which we want to begin to invite back into our lives see which way we've gone out of balance and then simple ways in which we can begin to see how it reflects in our life and for me it's not about making a hundred changes maybe one or two as we begin to see them show up in our lives so for this week you've got some homework I'm going to ask you to create an altar and to create that space a safe space for yourself as you begin to invite some of these images into your life as meditation tools to empower yourself to heal this part so so so profound because all the rest of them you have to have this strong foundation really lie at the heart of the safety and our connection to the earth so spending a lot of time on this one with this practice is really important so this week for your homework you're going to create your very first chakra altar honoring muladhara honoring some of these qualities in which we've been exploring some of the things you can begin to add is maybe some aspect of nature make sure you spend a lot of time in nature to connect to the earth again and feeling a part of the earth so maybe it's someplace you've gone to something that reminds you of the beauty of nature another thing could be something honoring your ancestry so your particular culture could be a piece of art it could be music it could be a picture of your ancestry just anything that reminds you of that particular quality of your ancestors and where they come from because ancestral altars are so important to begin to include back into our lives first of all they're there to support us and to remember where we come from and not to move away sometimes we go on the spiritual path and I know even for me I wanted to like change my name into something Sanskrit but to be able to come back and again own where you're from maybe there's a particular food and reconnected in a way that feels safe and sacred for you is really beautiful to have a picture of your family that could be your family that exists right now in your home it could be family that you're estranged from but your primordial family and even if there's it depends on what's going on not if it's too challenging but even those family members that you may have challenges with whether it's a brother or sister or mother or father they may be here and or may not the healing to be able to sit and meditate against some of my teachers in India when I would ask them which goddess or which god should I worship they were said first and foremost God comes in the form of your family and I was like I love you mom love you dad but I wanted them to be more exotic and again to move away from some of the challenges that I had as younger but it became so healing to see my parents my family really as God bringing me into the world and respect and honor them no matter what had happened so those are some things something red something red so it could be if you like Carnelian or Ruby stones are really wonderful as far as crystals if it's like bloodstone is really wonderful but maybe it's a red journal maybe it's a red scarf that you have or maybe hey red socks or leg warmers something that you put on your legs but something red if the elephant headed deity Ganesha means something to you if not but that could be a nice reminder so things that represent this particular chakra for you would be wonderful to begin to add on to your altar as you create the space now once you created and have fun to place these objects then you can take a few moments as you do your practice I like to do it before it's to maybe light some incense sandalwood is great for the first chakra to sit and to contemplate and to maybe do your homework before or after actually your practice whichever one you'd like to do or any time of day but to sit in front of it as far as strengthening these visuals and connections through the mind is super powerful so you'll be able to download this PDF but to go over them together quickly the first one I'd like you to contemplate is about your home so creating safety is very very important in your home so the first question I'd like you to contemplate

Homework