Chakra 2: Svadhisthana

Introduction

It also means sweetness. So it really is everything that you can think of that makes life sweet. Going from survival and just our basic needs, staying alive is very important, and just enough to keep us grounded. But then we can begin to move towards thriving. You may have heard going from not just surviving, but thriving.

Survival is very important, but then enjoying a pleasurable lifestyle comes next. So located within the hips, the womb, our sexual organs, and the whole circulatory system that moves everything around, the bladder, our kidneys that begin to move everything around, our whole bodies are made out of water. Awakening, the second chakra, has to do with being able to invite back in change and rhythm and music and creativity, and again everything that gives our life color and sweetness. So our practice is going to be about that. To have more creativity going from just those basic standing poses and to really being able to have pleasure in your movement and in your body.

So let's go ahead and get started.

Practice

You can just place it down on your knees, and we're even going to do a little bit of shatali pranayama. So that's like creating a little straw through your tongue or sucking the air through your teeth that's going to make your mouth kind of salivate. And this is cooling, it's replenishing, it's nurturing. So you're going to take a deep breath in, and even let out a sigh as you breathe out. And then stick out your tongue, curl it, and if you can't, again, you kind of go like this with your teeth.

And then you're going to slurp the breath in like a straw, draw the tongue back, and then exhale through the nose. And again like that, a little straw with your tongue. Exhale through the nose. One more time. Hold and relieve and taste this moment.

And then exhale out through the nose. From here you're going to take your hands to your thighs, and you can remove any padding that you had underneath your hips, and slide it over to the side. We're going to start by making some big wide, we call these Sufi circles or pelvic circles. So you're going to inhale the chest forward, and then exhale back. So it's this whole pelvic bowl that you're going to begin to move around in.

And again, you can begin to breathe the chest forward as you inhale. And then the sound associated is vam, so V-A-M. So you'll inhale forward, and then maybe exhale back. Vam. And inhale.

Vam. Vam. Vam. Vam. Then come through center, take it around the other direction.

You can internally chant that mantra. It's a serenade, it's a calling on these qualities, stimulating. A great water element, goddess, our lunar, emotional nature, changeable like the moon, we're always changing, as well as having stability. And take one more big, spin around, and then come on through center as you inhale, and then open up your arms, take a big breath in. As you exhale, wrap your arms around yourself.

So our spinal flexes are just going to drop down onto the pelvis. And then again, you're going to inhale, arch the spine, send the chest forward, and then exhale and wrap in. You can even draw the knees up. And then again, big breath in. This is called breath of joy.

And then exhale in. One more big breath in. And then a big breath out. So this time as you wrap your arms around yourself, eagle the arms. It doesn't really matter which one is.

You can kind of move around anything stuck from side to side, like kundalini, energy, or creative power rising up from the pelvis. You can arch back a little bit as you breathe in. And then take a twist over to the right. So you can continue to let the hips drop down. Take a big inhale up through the chest.

And then exhale, twist. And keeping your left hand on your right knee, take the right arm up and over your head. You can bend the elbow to open up through the chest. And then again, this great reaching for all that delights your senses. And circle the right hand down.

And you can wrap your arms around yourself again and kind of sway around back in the kidneys, the whole lower back area. And then again, rise up into those eagle arms. And again, you can get kind of groovy with a little bit of snake-like from side to side. Arch up and back, breathe in. And then twist over to the left, sitting up tall.

Exhale, twisting from the navel, looking back. And then keeping your right hand on your left knee, really grounding it down so that the breath can drop into the pelvis. Stretch open through the side waist. Twist the chest open, a little bend in the shoulder. And then re-extend.

Swim on down through center one more time to wrap your arms around yourself. This great nurturing quality. And then rise back up. And take one more big breath in. Take your arms up to the sky.

And then spin around so that your feet are towards the top of the mat. And your hands are back behind you. Root down through the hands and feet again. And then lift your hips up. Take a deep breath in through the nose.

Stick out the tongue. Breathe out through the mouth, lion's breath. Again, inhale. And then stick out the tongue and breathe out through the mouth. One more time.

Drop the hips and then inhale. Raise the pelvis and exhale through the mouth. Soften your pelvis back down. Cross your ankles. Come forward onto your hands and your knees.

Spread your palms nice and wide and generous into the ground. And take your shoulders a little bit away from the ears as you root down through the thumb and index fingers. And take a deep breath in. Drop your belly. Breathe in.

Look up. Tuck your toes under and then lengthen your legs into downward dog. So remember for today, the mantra is pleasures, enjoyment. You can move through the hips. So it's a nice sensual downward dog.

And then root back down through the feet as the shoulders move away from the ears. And then like a big old wave roll forward into a plank pose. A big breath in. And then child's pose as you breathe out. From here, slither the heart right out through the thumbs into a baby cobra.

And then exhale downward facing dog. We're going to do that two more times. It's like a vinyasa, one breath per movement. Inhale forward plank. Child's pose.

Slithering. Picking up the chest baby cobra. Downward facing dog. Last time inhale forward. Child's pose.

Baby cobra. And back through downward dog. From here, begin to shift the weight into the left foot a little bit. I like to put my left foot a little bit center. And then begin to pick up the right leg.

You can begin to bend through the knee. You can make a few little circles there through the hips. Especially if anything feels stuck. And then allow the knee to open, but press equally down through both hands. Allow the pelvis to open and your right heel towards the left sitting bone.

And then begin to travel back forward like you were through. A plank pose taking your right knee high to the outer edge of your right elbow. And then step your right foot wide into a lizard lunge. So allow the pelvis to sink down and pick up your chest like you see lizards. Lifting their faces up into the sun.

Shameless. No guilt for our pleasure. And then you can pick up the right arm taking a twist. From there, take your right arm up and over. And then straighten the right leg.

And right away, pivot on your feet into an early procerida. So move a little bit from side to side. Again, thinking watery. As we dive into our depth of our emotions, our practice isn't from about escaping them. But getting in touch and expressing.

And then come on through center. You can take your hands to your hips and then rise on up to stand. Breathe your arms up to the sky. And then turn the right leg out, the left toes in for an early warrior two. So I want you to really feel that stability we've been working on in the first week and our first chakra there in the legs.

So it's the stability to be able to sustain all the change in emotions. And then see if at the same time you can find a little softness. So the whole point is to be able to find that great, pleasurable sensuality even as well as the great strength that we have. So sink down, soften through the face and eyes, any type of movement through the arms that's graceful and light. And then tip backwards for a peaceful warrior, opening up the right side of the waist, breathing in.

And then circle the hands down into downward facing dog. From downward facing dog, see if you can come up to the feet. And then even splash the chest forward. It can be for a high cobra or an upward dog. And then downward facing dog as you breathe out.

Take your right foot a little bit center and then pick up the left leg. Bend through the left knee, see if you can drop down through that left shoulder. Maybe a little bit of rolling through the hips. And then take the left knee high up to the left elbow, step wide. Come onto the fingertips, drop the hips, breathe and look up.

And then pick up the left arm, opening up through the chest, allowing the hips to sink down. And then circle the hands through center. And again, it's just a little bit of swaying, waiting in the waters, great cleansing. And then begin to rise up to stand, take your arms up to the sky. Left leg out right toes and sinking into that early warrior too.

Feel the great stability in the legs. And then that softness through the arms and the dance and flow. So that there's no rigidity and that we can be soft and strong at the same time. And then tip backwards, peaceful. Circle your hands downward dog.

Roll right into upward dog or a little higher cobra. And then downward facing dog as you breathe out. Take a big breath in and then a big breath out. Slowly begin to walk your feet forward, step by step, kind of like if you're walking in the Caribbean or somewhere really beautiful or sensuous and the hips move from side to side, you even stop and smell the beautiful tulips and taking in nature's beauty. And then allow yourself to sway again a little bit from side to side.

And then take one more big breath in here. Come up onto your fingertips, turn both toes out here and then begin to send your hips down for a moment in melasana, allowing the pelvis to open but sinking down towards the earth so that we're building on these qualities. Again, we begin to engage the pelvic floor, drawing the energy up and then plant your hands down. Tiptoe your feet towards one another, pick up the chest, breathe in, and then exhale, breathe out. From here begin to slowly roll and rise up from those fertile ground, earth and water elements together.

As you reach upwards and stay in the reaching for a moment, you reach for everything that gives us delight and pleasure in this world that's all around we begin to notice. Then take your hands to your heart center, taking a moment here, and enjoy your breath. And every moment also has its light when we begin to see it. It's great pleasure, principle. So take one more breath in and then exhale, release your arms by your sides into tadasana, inhale your arms up to the sky, and then exhale to fold forward and over yourself.

Inhale your right leg back. Your left leg is going to go straight up to the sky and again allow that hip to open up wide. And then again, travel forward. Take a little top of your right knee wide to the outside of the right elbow. And then as you come through downward dog, you're going to cross your left ankle on top of the right knee and then press your ankle on top of the knee so that you're peeling open through that left hip.

And then you can sink back into it for a moment. And then just breathe into the hip so it's stability and this flexibility at the same time we're cultivating. And then take a big step to the outside of your left hand. Breathe in and look up. And then you're going to shift the weight into the hands and step the right foot to the outside of the right hand.

Let your hips drop down. Take an inhale to lift the chest. Exhale, lengthen the legs until you heal your feet. Soften through the knees. Inhale, rise up to stand.

And then arms by your sides into Tadasana. Let's check out the left side. Breathing in, arms high. Exhale, dive forward and through center. Inhale your left leg back into a low lunge, but your right leg straight up to the sky.

Another bend through the hip. Travel forward to that plank, allowing the knee to open. And then we've got our pigeon dog crossing your right ankle on top of the left knee, bending the left knee so that you can peel open the right hip and send your chest towards the top of that right thigh. You can take a couple pulses here and then kind of spring off those back toes to step to the outside of your right hand. Breathe and look up.

Your left foot to the outside of the left hand. Allow your elbows to open. Take a big breath in to the hips as the spine lengthens. And then from here, plant your hands down. You can step back, jump back, walk back, through Chaturanga or to your bellies.

Cobras are upward dogs, and downward dog as you breathe out. Inhale the right leg up to the sky. This time step right through into warrior one. So plant the back heel down, drag the right hip back to seal the left foot into the ground, and then rise up for your warrior one. You're going to ride away, change it up to the back of the mat to be able to flow with change.

Warrior two to the back. And then parallel the toes. Take your arms up to the sky. This time you're going to turn your toes out, your heels in, and then sink down into goddess pose. So here again you can move from side to side, sinking into the hips.

Take your hands to your thighs, even twist a little bit from side to side. Drop down through the hips, inhale, rise up. And then it's a warrior two again to the top of your mat. This time straighten the right leg, but you're going to bend the back knee deeply and swing back towards rainbow warrior. So this may be new, straighten the right leg, flex through the toes.

Your right hand can move towards the left ankle. It's kind of a twist. And then you're going to sweep down, rebend the right knee, plant the right foot down, straighten the left leg as you arch backwards for your peaceful warrior. Extended side angle from here, right forearm to your thigh, your left arm over your head. Touch the earth with the right hand and allow the hips to open.

As you breathe in, look up. Circle the left hand behind you so that you can twist the chest open. You can find the inside of your right thigh a little bit and then press off the back toes. You can walk the left foot in a little bit for Ardha Chandraasana. Take your left arm up so it's half moon.

It's half kind of dark, half light and our changing emotions that we begin to move and go with the flow with. As you open up, take a big breath in, let it move for today. Then you're going to drop the left foot behind the right and then wing your arms behind you. Press off the back toes, inhale, rise up, Utkatasana. And then flow forward and down over your legs until heal your feet wide again.

Hands to your heart's Malasana. Plant your hands down and you can step back into dog. Jump through Chaturanga, down to your bellies and rise up. Downward-facing dog. Take your right foot a little center, extend the left leg high.

Step forward right into warrior ones. Drop the back heels, swing the left hip, rising up right through center, flowing to the back of the mat. For warrior two, take your arms up. Toes out, heels in. Goddess pose, the whole point.

Instead just enjoy the sensual quality of the shape. Again, maybe twisting around, lengthening the legs, moving. Inhale the arms up. And then warrior two right back to the top. So here we go with our rainbow warrior, straighten the front leg.

Bend the back knee deeply, swing all the way back. And then sweep it up, arching back peaceful warrior. Maybe snaking the right arm behind you. And then extended side angle. Your left forearm to the thigh, nice and rooted in the feet.

And then again, the more the pelvis can come forward and open up so that you're breathing deep into the hips. From that fertile ground, everything else can begin to open and extend out. Take your right hand to your hip. Find the ground to be able to lift up for your ardha chandrasana. Right arm up to the sky.

Find the stability in the ground and the left hand and foot. And then be able to open up with the right arm. Drop the right foot behind the left. Wing the arms back, feet together, arms up. And then flow right back and down.

So last time like this, toes out, heels and hands to your heart. If you'd like to play with a crow pose on your way back, both of your knees can come to your upper arms. And then lift one foot, lift the other foot, step or jump back. And we'll meet a downward dog. So we're going to start out with that same flow.

We're going to add on just a couple of different variations. So you can reach the right leg up as you breathe in. As you exhale, step back between your hands, seal the back heel, press down into the right foot so that you can rise up into your warrior one again. Parallel, the toes as the arms come up, left leg out, right toes in, warrior two again to the back of your mat. Rainbow warrior as you sweep everything back.

Peaceful warrior as you rise up. Extended side angle right into it with the right arm up. And then you're going to swim kind of towards center back into that goddess with your hips low and your hands open. This time you're going to take that right arm underneath the left. And again, maybe you'll come to lean your arms up.

Thinking down as you reach up, take one more big breath in and then it's the other side as you stick out the tongue and breathe out the mouth. Golly goddess. Again, inhale, rise up. And then exhale, stick out the tongue. One more time, big breath in.

Exhale and clear it out. And then from here you can even get a little bit of a pulse. We're going to one, two, three. And then the play is going to be to hop into ukkatasana. So I call these Kali jacks sometimes.

So feet down and then inhale, hop the feet together and the arms come back up into ukkatasana. Shift the weight into the left foot. Hug the right knee into your chest and let's find tree poles. So planting your foot to your inner right thigh, down to your ankle, hands to your heart for a moment. And then you can begin to reach your arms up.

So again there's a play with being rooted and then being able to dance with the elements. So that the arms can be soft, the face can be soft, but there's that nice rootedness into the earth that we don't lose, this strength and stability. Take one more inhale and then you're going to bend the left knee, flex the right ankle one more time and come forward and down into what we call sometimes temple dancer. Your elbows past your shins, your hands to your heart bowing down right into the hips, this temple of the pelvis. And then see if you can take a hold of your big right toe with the peace fingers of the right hand, your left hand to your hip.

Rise up halfway like you were doing with those little elbow taps. And then from there maybe your right leg can lift up one more time, can lengthen as far as it goes as you arch back and then drop it and let it go, the right foot behind your left. So from here we're going to come into a Ardha Chandrasana, a creative way to come in, step your right foot forward, your right hand down with your left arm up, and then this time a full moon. So that's bending through the knee and seeing if you can reach for the top of your left foot with your left hand and then you can press the foot away so that the chest opens up to this gorgeous full moon. When you're ready to let it go again, drop back, arch back and maybe snaking the arm back.

And then from here take your right hand back to the inside of the right foot. So left arm up. And then if there's a bind in there you'd like to explore, the right arm comes under the left arm behind you and you can twist the chest open. And then I don't know, one more lunar pose. You want to try it since we're honoring the great moon in all of its colors.

So if you're bound here, we're not bound, there's an opportunity for one more artichandra asana. Lift the left leg up and then release it down. From here, if you've lost the bind, you're welcome to come back down into squat, into malasana. We're going to meet you there. If you're still bound and you want to come up through bird of paradise, you're going to bend your knees.

Really shift the weight down into the left foot. Soften through the knees so that the tailbone comes under. We're still using our pelvic floor lock to be able to rise up. Knee stays bent, chest stays open. Your right leg can lengthen.

Your gaze can come over to the other side. And then we'll all come on down. Back down to earth. Into malasana. Taking a big breath in here and out.

Again, a stopping, pausing to take in. What sweet, sweet thoughts, sweet words. And then your hands can come to the ground, and again, your play of cropos. Again, the key word is play, joy for today, or stay where you are. Walking, stepping, jumping, cobras.

Downward facing dog. Big inhale and then even a sigh. Inhale your left leg up. Stepping your right foot center a little bit. Step forward between your hands.

Right heel down, left hip back. Press down into the left foot so you can rise up. Parallel the toes. Right leg out, left toes in. Warrior two to the back, really sink down deep.

You've got your rainbow warrior as you swing back. Peaceful warrior to rise up. Land in your extended side angle. And then come on through center again towards your goddess. So moving a little bit from side to side.

And then rise up with your left arm underneath the right. Sink down, kind of pulls. One, two, three. And you hop into ukhatasana. Then shift the weight into the right foot.

Hug the left knee up and in towards your chest. Find your balance after all that movement. And then plant the left foot to the inside of the right thigh. Take your hands to your hearts. Take a couple of breaths there and then begin to move your arms up, rooting down.

And then also being able to dance so we can be practical, grounded, and also free and creative. One more big breath in. And then bend deeply through the right knee. Come back into your temple dancer. Sit down into the hips, hands to your heart, deep breaths.

And then take a hold of the big right toe. Peel open through the chest. Lengthen the left leg out wide, as far as it'll go. And then let it go, taking a deep bow. Right hand to your right hip as you step right out into Ardhachandrasana.

Hearing these different creative transitions, how we move with things. As the right arm comes up, again you can play with bending through the right knee. Taking your heel to your hip. Peel open through the top of the thigh. And then let yourself land backwards.

Arching back for peaceful warrior. And then circle down through center with the right arm up. And maybe wrap it behind. Maybe taking your full bind, twisting open through the chest. As you bend through your knee, here's the different variations you can take.

Your hands can come down, you can step into your Malasana. Or play a little bit with shifting the weight forward if you're still bound. One more moon variation, right leg high before you step it down. Sink down through the hips, or shift the weight into the right foot. And begin to rise up for your bird of paradise.

First keeping the knee nice and bent, the hips open, the chest wide, face soft. And then maybe lengthening the leg, as above. So below, we'll come right back down. Taking a breath in together. Inhaling and exhaling.

Last time to take your hands down, your way into downward dog. I'm going to step back. Move around through the hips a little bit. And then here's the last pose in the sequence. You're right leg coming up one more time.

Peel open through the hip. This time swing it all the way through towards a fallen triangle. One more time you can lift the chest. As you come through center, you have one more opportunity in this pigeon dog to sink into the hips and step into your lizard lunge with the knee to the ground. Lift open through your chest and your face towards the sun.

And then you can come down onto your forearms and stay for a few more breaths, taking it a little bit deeper. Again, you can roll into the hips. You can pick up the back knee and drop into the pelvis. And if you're comfortable here or enjoying being close to the earth and taking this moment, you're welcome to snake the right arm underneath, the right shoulder. So you're going really into the depths of the pelvis here.

Both hands come back and bend through the elbows as the chest moves forward and then begin to bend through the knee. Bend through the elbows. Maybe you're going to take a little bit of flight. And then step back into your downward dog. Big inhale.

Exhale through the mouth. And let's take it over to the other side. So left leg high. You can bend through the knee. You'll sweep it all the way to the outer edge of your right hand.

Seal the back, heel down, pick up your chest. Pigeon dog for a moment. Lizard lunge. Lift the chest, sink the hips. And come down to the forearms and again play, moving around a little bit, sensuous there in the hips.

And then taking it over on this side with your hands back. Again, you still want the structure and stability of the arms so we don't forget about those qualities we cultivated just for our creativity. And then you can begin to bend through the elbows. Pick up the back leg. Downward dog.

As you breathe out. Take one more big beautiful breath in. Exhale, let it sigh out of the mouth. And then here we go for our pigeon pose. So pick up the right leg.

And you're going to send the right shin forward towards the top of your mat. Now I like to use a blanket in this one underneath my right hip. And then send the right shin forward, dropping the left hip down. Tint your fingertips back. Lift the chest and breathe in.

Maybe there's a couple undulations there towards the ground. So allowing the head to drop. Rise up, breathe in. And then exhale, bow down. One more time to rise up.

And then exhale to flow forward. So you can feel free to come down whenever you like. And there's a back bend on your way. One more time, you'll bend through this left heel towards your sitting bone. Be the right arm, can come up.

Maybe come behind your head, twisting your chest forward. And then let it go. And so you've got a few breaths here to just settle in. Feeling the beat of your heart and rhythm of your breath and the music you're made of. And maybe dance with a little easier.

And slowly begin to rise up again, undulating from the spine so the head's the last thing to come up as an extension of the heart. And then we're going to transition into sage pose or bard vajasana by allowing your weight to sink into the right hip. And then slide the left shin forward into half your asana. So your left heel is going to be towards the outside of your left hip with the right knee opening up wide. So from here you can keep the right foot like pigeon parallel to the top of your mat.

Then if lotus is in your practice, you can externally rotate your thighs so that the knee is nice and supported and the shape is coming from the external rotation in the hip. You can place the right foot on top of your left thigh. The binding is, of course, optional if it can snake back behind you. And then pressing down into the hips to lift the chest. This is just one of the most beautiful poses to remind you that life is sweet as the chest can open.

If you're in first variation, your foot's on the ground and you still twist with the chest towards the right, but you gaze past the left shoulder. Breath in. Twisting, allowing the neck to open, the swan. And then as you come back towards center, you'll lengthen the right leg out to the side. Open up the left knee a little bit.

Then take a side stretch with your left arm up and over your head. Towards the right toe so you can twist the chest open. Breathing. And then root down into your hips. Press into the right hand.

Point your toes. Pick up the pelvis arch back. And then on your way down, shoot the left ankle underneath you. And then cross your ankles. Come forward onto your hands and knees and make your way into downward dog.

Pedal up at your feet if you need to. Move your hips from side to side. It feels so nice to re-alongate the muscles and the joints. And then we'll set up for pigeon on the left side, so right foot center. Extend the left leg high.

And then slide the shin forward towards the top of your mat. You can take your blanket underneath your thigh. Walk your fingertips back. Lift the chest. If you're back bending, really make sure that there's equanimity in the pelvis so that there's some lift underneath the hip.

And then begin to reach back for the left foot, or what's this, my right foot. Extend the left arm up. Maybe behind your head as you twist forward, sinking down into the hips, but rising up with an open heart. And then letting it go. Move a little from side to side.

And you get to travel into your depths of the ocean. And then from there, walk your hands back, press down into the hips, undulate up through the spine, vertebrae by vertebrae. And then you can move your padding out to the side. Shift the weight into the left hip, and then slide the right knee forward. So it's half virasana again with the right leg.

The hip and the knee are basically in one line. So that one thigh, the right thigh is internally rotating, and then the left thigh is externally rotating. Again, your foot can stay on the inside, or it can come into a half lotus. But wherever you are, you're twisting the chest over towards the left, dropping into the left hip a little bit, but then looking past your right shoulder. So your foot can come down.

Your hand can come underneath the knee. Taking a couple moments to really sink into the pelvis so that the chest can lift. You can even rock back and forth with every breath. Like the undulating of waves. Every breath in, and with every breath out, sinking back.

And as you come through center, open up wide through your left leg. Your right knee can open up as you place your left forearm to the ground. Pick up the right arm. It can also be the hand if it's a little bit too low. Reach for your left foot with the right hand.

And you can twist open through the chest. Opening up the side waist as you continue to drop down through the outer edge of your right hip. As you exhale, sink down into your hips. Rise up. Press down into your right shin.

Float the pelvis up, arch back. And then as you have a seat, again see if you can slip your pelvis behind you so that your right shin comes forward and then face the middle of your mat. So now we're going to end with perhaps the most intense hip opener. It's called ankle to knee or fire log pose. The shins are really going to be stacked on top of each other.

You get to use all of that hip opening again that combines the stability of the first chakra with the mobility of the second and get into some real deep, deep, deep areas. So with your left shin forward, you can begin to hug the right shin in towards your chest. Maybe cradle it. Take a few circles around in the hip. And then see if you can stack the shins on top of each other.

It's literally ankle to knee. And if there's a lot of space between them, it's a great opportunity for a blanket even a block so that it can really be supported and then you can really sink down as you come forward into the forward bend. So you'll take a deep breath in, even reach into the fingertip. You can lift the hips up a little bit to drag the thigh bones back. And then slowly walk your hands forward just as far as they'll go.

And then again find a little bit of movement so that there's no force. And there's just this softness and deep exploration as you come forward and down. A few breaths, especially any area that feels sticky. And then begin to walk your hands back up. You can take your block out to the side if you had one and take a hold of your big right toe.

Take the knee out to the side and then take a hold of your big left toe, both of them in peace fingers. Draw the knees back like a seated happy baby and then move the legs towards lengthening out to the side for Kundalini Lotus. It's this feeling of being rooted in the mud, the chest nice and open like a beautiful flower. And then you'll stack your shins over the other way. So your right shin forward and down, your left shin in towards your chest, a couple hugs, circles, a great circulatory system.

Everything's moving there in the body, moving it through and flushing it out. And then you can stack the shins on top of each other again. Tempt the fingertips, lift the hips, any support you need between the knees. And then begin to walk your hands forward and again swing from side to side. Your forearms, your head.

Walk your hands back, take a hold of your big left toe, your big right toe with your peace fingers. Take your knees back, lengthen the legs, Kundalini Lotus, allowing the chest to open up wide. And then from here, some softness through the knees so your heels can come down. And then you're going to begin to make your way towards Upavishta or this wide straddle pose. So you do want to see if the thighs can roll out and your feet are pointing up, begin that structure in the legs, so that you can begin to fold forward.

You can come onto your forearms, you can come up onto your hands. My invitation is again to find a little movement on your way down. Your hands can definitely find your ankles as you roll them open. A bolster underneath your chest can be nice. Or a pillow.

Taking a little time in these longer held deep forward bands. Feeling all the sensations. And then begin to walk your hands up your legs as you rise up. Spin onto your mat again, taking the soles of the feet together. We're actually going to spend a little time in Goddess Pose, Supta Baddha Konasana on our way down to Shavasana.

And if this is comfortable, you're welcome to stay here for your full relaxation. So the soles of the feet together, a rolled up blanket or even blocks underneath the knees. Some sort of support underneath your thighs or your knees. The soles of your feet together. And then allow the body to release to the ground.

And especially every exhale lengthening it out right into that low belly. Your hands can rest between the navel and the pubis to bring awareness to the breath. And you can inhale. It can be for a count of four. Maybe you'll lengthen the exhale to a count of six.

It really fertilizes, enriches. The sacred part of the body where life comes from. And you're welcome to stay here for the rest of your relaxation. Or you can roll your blankets a little further down underneath your knees and lengthen your legs for Shavasana. Again, taking a couple moments to get nice and comfortable.

Tapping back into your breath as it washes over you. Tapping back into your breath. And then we can bring your awareness again back to your body and your breath making it a little bit more aware. All the senses drawn in, feeling, tasting, sensing, seeing, even delighting. In some way, this pleasure of ease, relaxation.

Allow yourself to consciously enjoy it. And then move your fingers and your toes coming into all the senses. Stretch your arms above your head, let out a little yawn. And then hug your knees in towards your chest. Rock over to the right side for a moment in a fetal position.

The way you came into the world and then begin to rise on up. Taking a couple moments to sit. Sit up tall. Take your hands to your heart. Hands can even open for a couple moments to receive.

Even a little smile on your face and you can meditate on that essence of pleasure to give yourself, making sure to include it in your daily life. Let's take one more breath in together and end the sound of Aum breathing in. Aum Bowing down to one another, Namaste.

Talk

And so that has to do with pleasure and sensuality and this enjoyment of life and our practice. So the symbolism is a circle containing a crescent moon and it has six orange petals around it. And then within it is a mythical creature called a Makara. And I love all this symbolism and how they're pictured sitting there within our spine. Starting with the four petaled lotus, red lotus to our six petaled orange lotus.

And then the watery element is the circle and the crescent moon is the changeability of our emotional nature having to do with the ebbs and flows of the moon and how it affects us and the tides. But also it's dualistic nature so that our emotional life can of course be really pleasurable and it can be painful and how we can begin to have this experience of equanimity or cultivate it between pleasure and pain. So this Makara, this creature is an alligator kind of with a Kundalini serpent's tail that spirals all the way down to the base of the spine and it represents desire and passion. And so the only time that it can be dangerous is when it's repressed. So I love again how in this particular path, especially through the tantric teachings where a lot of the chakra teachings come from is that we don't push away desire because that's only when it gets dangerous.

So by honoring it, by being able to experience it and inviting pleasure and our sensuality into our practice and lives, it no longer has a hold on us. And so again, along with the moon, it's our creativity and the right for everyone to create and that we can create the lives that we desire again coming out of just surviving into thriving. And so how we can begin to create our lives, ones that are joyful and pleasurable and relationships that give us great joy and pleasure. And so to kind of get through some of those qualities that exist within each chakra, like I said, the color is orange and I love how that's, I don't know, when you think about orange, it's anything that's juicy like a mango or even an orange. It's just nourishing and replenishing and how we can begin to bring more juiciness into our lives and really fed by life instead of life just being this burden.

How we can also balance it, even if we're working really hard on something. Can we take a moment, especially right now out of our phones and go out into the sun, feel it on our face and eat a mango? I mean, life is sweet just there. To taste life sweetness even within the hardships and the challenges that exist is kind of one of the core qualities to begin to cultivate through our yoga practice. The sense that's associated with it, again with the mouth and its juiciness is taste.

So taste is meant to be huge again in Ayurvedic and in our yoga practice. How can we taste every aspect of life? And so the rasas or these different flavors so that we can begin to experience everything and not just the one thing, which can maybe be first chocolate, that we just eat oatmeal every day, but that this variety is a spice of life. And even if we're tasting something bitter, that there's a sweetness towards it. So I love it how in Asana we're called on to really experience and taste things that are new and different.

And then again, maybe people, right? Not literally bite them, but coming from that tribal family that we grew up with to maybe experiencing people from other cultures, maybe we travel, our dating or whatever it is, that there's changeability that begins to happen as far as our taste goes. And this is how we're beginning to again define ourselves in this definition of self abode, of what is our taste, what is our flavor, part of it makes us who we are. Our element out of the stability of Earth comes the fluidity of water. So again, this reminder that most of our bodies are made out of water, we come from water.

So we're very affected by, let's just say, the ebbs and flows of the moon and the water around us and that's also our emotional nature and our creativity where it begins to come from. So this changeability that we can begin to have out of, again, this stability, our routines that we can begin to cultivate through first chakra, hopefully you've been working on the stability of your finances in your homes, also comes with balancing it out with maybe you'll spend on something that brings you pleasure and give yourself something pleasurable to balance it out because then we can always get very rigid and of course really tight and we can be really attached. So it just balances it out, right, to be able to have this fluidity as well as stability. Our sound is VAM with a V and it's VAM is a little bit, I don't know, for me the M resonates a little bit more, it's kind of like VAM, VAM. I don't really know how I remembered that one other than it's just kind of nice to say VAM.

And again, the more you can begin to chant it, the more it can begin to resound and call on these qualities. I like to think of it, the mantra is kind of watering the seeds so that it can begin to grow or awaken and become stimulated because it's made out of energy and so is sound. So calling on it as you're working on your second chakra this week. The functions that we've been also exploring is sexuality and healthy sexuality. It's our emotional nature, healthy emotional development.

Our emotions can of course go awry or they can be repressed as we look into imbalances. It's reproductive, our reproductive nature. So that can definitely be children in the physical form but also this fertility that we can begin to have as creative people and what we're giving birth to in the world. It doesn't only have to be with people still. This area of our body with the glands that are associated, our ovaries, testicles are all part of, as we begin to awaken and energize them, help to create more creativity in the world, awakening these gateways of creativity within us.

So the universal rights that we've been talking about this one is to feel. And again, how we can begin to reclaim our right to feel and express ourselves is so important. So the more we can begin to work on writing down what our feelings are, getting to know what our feelings are. Again, sometimes we can think our yoga practice is to bypass feelings and emotions. Sometimes they can be really painful.

But the whole point is to really make our feelings conscious so that we can either express them or we can begin to transform them in some way. So the asanas that we do are generally moving, they're flowing. Perhaps we sweat so that it can be cathartic. Dance and music is a part of every culture so that we can move everything through. So this movement, sometimes of vinyasa practice, is so powerful to be able to move emotions out so that they don't get stuck inside of the body and our creativity and our expression with people that we trust in our sexuality and our sensuality.

So with all of those qualities, there's two ways that our second chakra can go out of balance. When it's blocked, we can of course experience things like infertility. We can have issues with our infertility. Bladder problems that can manifest inside of the physical body. Kidney stones, kidney infections, impotence.

Everything having to do with our sexuality that can begin to go out of balance. Another thing is stiff lower back or any real pain in the low back area is often associated with a second chakra imbalance because it's in the sacral area. So we can think womb, hips, but it's also known as the sacral area. So in the sacrum, a lot of tension is held as we begin to loosen up and allow the energy to flow through us a little bit more fluidly. So mentally, emotionally, how we can get blocked is when we don't allow pleasure to be a part of our lives, when we're sexually repressed, when we feel guilty for accepting gifts or for pleasurable experience.

So guilt is also known as the shadow or sometimes it's called the demon of the second chakra where pleasure is one of its main functions and positive qualities to be able to call on. The other side is guilt and guilt as we know can be so damaging when we feel guilty to receive or to express our feelings and feel like our feelings don't need to be heard. So those are ways that the second chakra can be truly blocked and then when it's excessive, it can go the other way. You may know or you may be someone who's overly emotional, who's overly dramatic, I can be like that sometimes, who's let's just say even maybe overly sexually addictive, all of these ways in which it can go out of balance and emotional instability, not being able to rein them or to truly be able to express them in a very positive way where it's just emotional over expression. So those are some mental, emotional ways that it can go out of balance.

So when our second chakra is in balance, what does it look like? Our feelings flow freely, able to express ourselves without guilt and with confidence to be able to say this is how I feel instead of maybe putting somebody down, lashing out emotionally. We're more confident in our self-expression, in our creativity. We're able to nourish ourselves. We're able to take time to give to ourselves sexually.

We're able to enjoy a really healthy sexual life and even just, what do you call it, social life, being able to go out and enjoy and go out dancing and go out whatever, enjoying creativity, enjoying art, enjoying what the world has for us. So that's what it looks like when it's in balance and also to be able to nourish others. When the second chakra is truly in balance and it's grounded, we're able to nourish ourselves and we're able to nourish others. This week, you're going to work on exploring and balancing your second chakra through practicing the sequence as many times as you can throughout the week, maybe playing some music that you really, really enjoy while you're practicing so it's like you're dancing and then creating your altar. So I like to sometimes leave some of the first chakra altar items and then to begin to maybe add my altars sometimes go out of control and all the different chakras are on there so maybe keep a couple and then allow it to continue to blossom and mushroom.

So this week, it's reminders of what gives you pleasure. So that could be ice cream. That could be nature again. That can be art. That can be dance.

That can be your lover, your beloved. It can be your pet, things that truly give you joy. It can be a piece of music. It can be your favorite band. So things that give you pleasure and remind you that life is sweet.

So also maybe things that have happened to you, experiences that you've had, photographs of you having a good time. And I know, especially when you're going through a hard time, I have to remember when I'm going through a hard time like I remember when life was so fun during certain times, we can't remember them when the clouds completely eclipsed. So just these reminders are so helpful so that maybe we can begin to incorporate these things back into our lives. Things that are orange, the color orange is so outrageously bright and wakes us up kind of out of whatever dullness we may have. So anything that you'd like to include that's orange, an orange scarf, an orange stone, anything that's orange basically.

And then pictures of water. So the element of water, elements of the moon. And then some sort of art, some sort of creativity that you feel really is expressive of emotions and feelings. So though there's some things you can include along with the symbolism of goddesses that really attract you, you can have the goddess Lakshmi that expresses abundance and beauty, the goddess Kali that expresses the other side. When things become excessive, she kind of comes in with some tough love and we have to kind of cut back on maybe over-excessiveness in our pleasure.

But she's the great creatrix as well, or Saraswati, she's the goddess of music and of art and of wisdom. So maybe an image of a goddess or in some other tradition that really honors those soft curves and the hips and some Venusian or Greek goddess. Anything that reminds you whether you're male or female of your great feminine nature. So those are some things you can begin to add onto your altar as we begin to again cultivate our practice around it. And then some time for journaling.

These are the questions I'd like for you to contemplate this week,

Homework

Is there one change you can make out of things that are rigid? Maybe it's even in your hair, maybe it's in the thought process. Maybe it's trying to date somebody different or just doing something different, maybe eating something different for breakfast, going to a different restaurant. These are all ways that we can just make subtle changes and breaks in patterns that become so engraved into our personality. So although first chakra allows us that stability, we also have to be able to break out of those patterns and to try new things so that life is a little bit more sweet and change is the part of that.

The next question is, how creative are you sexually? So if you're single, that could be about awakening to your own sexuality. It doesn't have to be because of another person, if you're not interested in dating anyone, but about how you feel about your sexuality and your sensuality and how you express it in your life. Kind of awakening it into your physicality a little bit. If you are with someone, how creative are you sexually?

So this could be something like, especially if you don't, expressing your desires to your partner this week. So if there's something you've always wanted to explore, perhaps it's some fun you can bring in, but it's more about expressing what your needs are. And so this is a really, really big one when it comes to embracing what's pleasurable for us and not only for other people, really owning it and empowering this part of your life. And then the third one's somewhat related because it's about making sacrifices. So when our second chakra is out of balance a little bit, we a lot of the time sacrifice things for ourselves in order to give pleasure to other people.

And so if we're only sacrificing our needs and we're able to honor ourselves, we're not giving to ourselves, and in relationships these can kind of end up being somewhat toxic relationships where they're imbalanced. So this week I'd like you to really be able to contemplate, do I have to give up my needs for someone else's? How much can I say no this week maybe? And I don't know, maybe there's just no explanation. Just no, I can't this week, and that's it.

You don't need to give an explanation. So sometimes it's about that and about owning, again, yourself and not giving yourself up. A sacrifice is a big thing, again, having to do with guilt that we're not deserving. The fourth one, because of its dual nature, again, of kind of the yin-yang symbol with the crescent moon has to do with our feminine and masculine energies and they shift. Do you feel okay to be soft one day in your relationship or other words and then assertive the other day?

Or do you just fall into like, I always have to be soft and sweet or I'm really, really assertive? I'm always assertive. Can you allow that fluidity so that you can play into your feminine and masculine energies? So contemplate that question and see if maybe you can add in more softness if you're usually very assertive and aggressive or the other way around if you only see yourself as soft, giving yourself some permission to be able to also be assertive. So that's honoring both sides of our sexual nature.

The next one continues to do with receiving. So sometimes we're the givers and we're always giving, we're always giving, we're always giving, but we don't allow ourselves to receive. And so that's not only mean to ourselves, but it's mean to the person who wants to give. So especially in our lives, I can really relate to this one because I'm like, no, I don't need anything. I've got everything.

I can take care of myself. I'll be like in the worst situations, but I'll just do everything and I want to give, give, give. But my friends have even told me in my family, you know what? Like you don't give us the opportunity. You give to us all the time, but you don't give us the opportunity to do the same.

And it's not nice. So I started to let it in and kind of feel like, what is it like for me to just receive, say thank you, feel worthy of whatever it is and accept it and hopefully enjoy it. For your last piece of homework is about your desires. So allowing yourself to imagine, what would it be like to truly desire something and feel that you're worthy to receive it. So that could be material wealth.

It could be whatever it is. It could be the love of your life. Sometimes it's visualization and even the law of attraction and everything that you hear. But do you feel like you have to make a big sacrifice in order to receive it? Because sometimes we feel like we have to work, work, work, work, work.

Or is it enough to just be able to desire and to want what you want and kind of allow it to come to you a little bit more. So this play between sacrifice and desire that we don't have to deny ourselves comes from many, many, many different religious backgrounds about self-denial and about sin and not being worthy. We're trying to go against that and to be able to include it without it getting excessive, of course. But just the right amount of pleasure and our desire nature is very important. So one of the things that I do is that I try to mirror people that really enjoy life, that for who life is particularly sweet.

And there's somebody that comes into mind, just a dear friend of mine, and she's just so joyful. And it's really authentic. It's not kind of like fake happy, but she's joyful. And in this way, when I'm around her, I'm joyful. And I enjoy life.

And we go out and we do things. And for her, life is really, really sweet. And so sometimes I just try to mirror her or be around her a little bit more and see where there's some way that you can change your perception a little bit. So sometimes we think, like, I always walk on the street, you know, like, always life is a particular way, and then there's a sunny side of the street. So which side do we want to begin to walk on?

The choice really comes to us and being able to shift our perception towards seeing and experiencing and especially adding in things that are pleasurable to balance out so much challenge and stress that's in our modern daily life. So that's your homework this week, Questions for Contemplation. Again, the PDF is going to be available for you to download so that you can begin to read them. And if there's a couple that really stand out for you, that you can begin to work in to your schedule, make a date, go out and do something fun, read a book that's just fun, watch Netflix, it doesn't all have to be documentaries, just things that are fun and pleasurable, as well as doing your practice at least a few times a week. And of course, please let me know if you have any questions, if you have any comments, if any awarenesses have come about for you, any aha moments, share them with me in the comment section, and I can't wait to hear from you.

And I can't wait till next week, so enjoy this week and I'll see you soon, namaste.