Phase 1: Menstruation

Welcome. Today's practice is for phase one of your menstrual cycle which is actually menses. So this is the time where you're shedding your old endometrial lining and then towards the end of this phase you start to prepare new lining for your next cycle, for this next cycle. So this is the beginning of the cycle. What we want to do is promote downward flow to really help clean the uterus out and clean out the old blood so that we don't get stagnation in the area. So we really want to promote the downward flow. That's why you won't see very many inversions here. We'll be in down dog but we're really not going to hold it. We really want to do more of a restorative practice because we don't want to engage a lot of bonda during this time. We want to really just let things go and flow. Also women tend to be a little tired this time especially because they're losing blood. So if you are anemic or if you're right on the edge you might especially feel more tired. So let's come to the front of our mats and we'll get started just with some gentle half sun salutations. So we'll bring the feet together, roll the shoulders down the back and lift the chest up and just take a moment to become aware of your breath. Breathing in and out through the nose and let the breath be nice and soft and relaxed. And with your inhalation we're going to reach the arms up overhead and let's take an exhale here keeping the arms up overhead and just widen the shoulders. Let go of any tension around the neck. Wrap the outer upper arms around to your face and take one more deep breath in. Lift your chest up and with exhalation we'll hinge at the hips and fold forward. We'll take a couple extra breaths here maybe bend the knees your first one. Try not to go too fast. Let the backs of the legs open up slowly. Inhale we'll bring the hands to the shins, lengthen the spine and then we'll flow through that a few times with exhalation you'll fold. Inhale we'll lengthen. Exhale and fold. Inhale and lengthen one more time. Exhale and fold. And then inhale we'll come all the way up to the top. Reach the arms up overhead and exhale arms down alongside the body. Inhale arms reach. Exhale and fold forward. Inhale and lengthen. Exhale fold. Welcome all the way up and exhale arms down. Inhale arms reach. Exhale and fold. Inhale and lengthen. This time with your exhalation you're going to set your hands or fingertips down and we'll just step the right foot back and bring the right knee down to the floor.

With an inhalation we'll take the hands to the left knee, lift the chest but relax the shoulders and just come into a low lunge. You may find that you want to adjust your stance a bit here by moving the left foot forward or back. We want the knee to be behind the ankle or right over the ankle but not past it. We'll just sink the hips, lift the chest, maybe add the right arm in, reach it up overhead, lengthen the right side body. Get that nice stretch across the front of the right hip. And then exhale we'll release the hands to the floor, curl your back toes under, straighten your back leg and let's just take one moment here, sink the hips but get the back leg nice and straight. Just pull the shoulders down the back and the chest forward a little bit. And then with your next exhalation we're going to step the right foot forward to meet the left. Inhale and lengthen. And then exhale we'll take the left foot back, keeping the left heel lifted, bring the left knee down and then point the left toes. We'll come up into our lunge on this side, bring your hands to your right knee. Lift your front hip bones, drop your tailbone down and then sink the hips and you may need to adjust your right foot forward or back to make sure the knee stays over the ankle. And then we'll raise the left arm up to the ceiling, finding that nice stretch in front of the left hips. And with exhalation we'll release the hands to the floor, curl your back toes under, straighten your back leg. Take a moment here, breathe into your chest, pull your shoulders back away from the ears. And then we'll exhale and step the left foot forward. Inhale and lengthen. Exhale and fold. And inhale we'll come all the way up and exhale the arms down. We'll build on that a bit. Inhale and reach the arms. Exhale, hinge at the hips and fold. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, step the right foot back again and bring the right knee to the floor. This time we'll add on the option to bend the right knee, lift the foot up and reach back with your right hand to grab a hold of that right foot. This is too intense when you come into it, just let it go. Keep the foot on the floor. And you can also take this the opposite way if it feels more steady and balanced. I rotate between both. Sometimes one hand feels better than the other. And then we'll release that foot. Curl the back toes under, straighten your back leg, take a deep breath in and with exhale you'll step your right foot forward to meet your left. Exhale to lengthen, exhale to step the left foot back again, bring the left knee down to the floor. And then you have the option to bend the left knee, reach back for your left foot if that feels okay for you today. And you also have the option to use your right hand to hold your left foot. Whatever feels right. And then we'll release the left foot, curl the toes under, straighten your back leg, take a deep breath in and with exhalation we'll step the left foot forward to meet the right. Inhale to lengthen and exhale to fold and inhale to come all the way up and exhale the arms down. One more time. Inhale, arms reach. Exhale and fold. Inhale and lengthen. Exhale, step the right foot back. This time you have the option to come up into either crescent or warrior one if you have a preference. With inhalation we'll reach the arms up, back leg nice and straight, chest nice and lifted.

Take a few breaths here, really try to lift the front hip bones up, lengthen the tailbone down so we're really maximizing the stretch in our right hip flexor. And then with your next exhalation we'll release the hands down to the floor and we'll step the right foot forward. Inhale again, lengthen. Exhale, we'll step the left foot back. Either coming up into crescent or warrior one, your choice. Inhale, reach the arms up, lift the front hip bones up, lengthen the tailbone down, really straighten your back leg and breathe. Relax any tension in your neck or shoulders. And then we'll exhale and release, bring the hands to the floor and step forward. Inhale and lengthen. Exhale and fold. And inhale, come all the way up to the top. And exhale, arms down. And then just moving through a little half sun salutation. Inhale, reach. Exhale and fold. Inhale and lengthen. Exhale, this time we'll just step the right foot back and then the left. And right away bring the knees down to the floor. Press your hands flat, knees are underneath your hips, shoulders are over your wrist. We'll take a little cat cow here with inhalation. We'll sink the chest down towards the floor and then pull your upper arms back and your chest through your upper arms as you look up. Tilt the pelvis forward. And then with exhalation, we'll tuck the tailbone under, let the head and neck drop and round your back. Inhale, we'll come back into our cat position, reaching the chest through the upper arms, pelvis tilts forward. And exhale, tuck the tailbone under, round the back. And we'll move through a few cycles of that on our own. Inhaling, reaching the chest and exhaling, rounding the back. Two more times. Inhaling and exhaling. And then we'll just move through our last cycle. And we'll meet in a neutral spine. So with your next inhalation, I'll just come to a flat back and shift yourself forward. Keep your knees where they're at. They can stay on the floor. Pull your belly in just a little bit so that you're supporting your low back. And with exhalation, we'll lower all the way down to the floor. Let's take the hands flat on the floor, forearms on the floor. Take a little sphinx pose here. So pressing the hands down, inner hands. Keep the entire forearm in contact with the floor and just start to drag your upper arms back and pull your chest through your upper arms and look straight forward so your head and neck are an extension of the rest of your spine. Keep pressing the pubic bone and hip bones down on the floor. Just getting a little bit of opening in your upper back. And you can stay with that. Or if you'd like, you can slide your hands back so that your hands are underneath your shoulders. Roll your shoulders down the back. And with your next inhalation, we'll just come up into a nice cobra, peeling the chest up off the floor. And exhaling down. You can stay with cobra or sphinx or we can move into an up dog, your choice. If you're going to up dog, you'll slide the hands back a little further and then inhale. You'll come all the way to straight arms, press the tops of the feet and straighten the legs. So the knees lift off and then exhale. We'll take it back to downward facing dog and from downward facing dog, we'll just walk the feet about halfway forward and then walk the hands back to meet the feet. Separate your feet a little bit wider than your hips, but at least hip distance apart and turn your toes out just a little bit. And we're going to come down into a malasana. So you may need a blanket underneath your heels. This pose is easy for some and more challenging for others. And once you've found your shape, so possibly bringing your heels onto a blanket and possibly keeping your hips up a little higher as well. We'll just kind of rock from back, from side to side for a moment, settling in, working out any kinks. And then you have the option to either keep the hands where they're at or bring them to prayer position. We'll just take a few more breaths here. Just putting this pressure on that lower abdomen is really good for us right now. Helps to break up any stagnation, get things moving. We'll just take a few cycles of squatting. So with inhalation, we'll reach the arms up and exhale. We'll come back into this shape. So inhale, we'll reach the arms up, straightening the legs and exhale. We'll bend the knees and come back to a malasana. Inhale and reach the arms up. Exhale, bend the knees, sit the hips back. Inhale and reach, also creates a bit of heat. Exhale, sink the hips back and low. Inhaling, exhaling, sinking. Two more times on your own. Exhaling. Keep breathing. After your second one, we'll inhale up to standing. Exhale, stay standing. Just bring your hands to prayer position at the heart and you can walk your feet together.

And we're going to open up to the side. We'll take our feet apart about one leg's distance apart and we'll turn the right toes out and the left toes in at an angle. With inhalation we're going to reach the arms up and with exhalation we'll bend the right knee so that it's directly over top of the ankle. You may need to adjust your stance here. Take a few breaths in Virabhadrasana II or Warrior II and just relax any tension in your neck and breathe. Just make this about movement. Let it be about breathing and moving gently. Not too much effort. More surrender. And then let's reach through the right hand and just take your right elbow to your right knee. Rotate your shoulders, so left shoulders over top of the right. Keep your left leg straight and then we'll raise the left arm up overhead. You can also take the right hand to the floor or a block outside of your right foot if you'd like. And then press down into your feet. With inhalation we'll come up and straighten your right leg. Exhale and we'll change sides. Turn the left toes out, right toes in. Drop your shoulders down. Inhale, reach through your arms. Exhale, bend your left knee so that it's over your ankle. Careful it doesn't collapse in and we'll just spend a few breaths here really opening up through the hips. Let the breath be nice and soft. Let everything feel good. Try not to overwork here. And then we'll reach through the left fingertips, take the elbow to the knee or the hand to the floor and reach the right arm up overhead. Coming into Parsha Konasana, extended side angle. Just breathe deeply in and out through the nose. Try to guide the breath throughout the entire torso all the way into the lower abdomen. And with inhalation we'll come up, straighten the left leg, exhale, parallel the feet and then step to the front of your mat. With inhalation you'll reach the arms up overhead. Exhale, you'll hinge at the hips and fold forward. Inhale and lengthen. Exhale, bend the knees, let the hands step back to downward facing dog and we'll come down to our knees for Supta Hasta Padangusthasana. We'll come down to our knees and you'll probably find a strap useful for this next posture. So if you have one handy, please grab it now. And we'll lie down on our backs and your legs will be straight. And we'll keep the left leg straight and we're going to bend the right knee and loop the strap around the right foot. And keep the right knee bent for a moment and start to drop the inner left thigh towards the floor and keep the left toes pointing straight up to the ceiling. Then drop your outer right hip so that it's reaching down towards your left foot. Then start to straighten the right leg and as you do so just let the hands slide down the strap so you can really find your shoulder blades on the floor. And then let the breath be nice and deep. Inhaling and exhaling through the nose. We'll spend a few moments here. And then leg doesn't have to go all the way straight. If it easily goes straight you can start to walk your hands up the strap and raise the leg up as well. Just spend some time in this shape and notice where the efforts are and then just try to find some places where you can relax and surrender. So what is working right now that really doesn't need to be? Let that relax. And then we're going to take the straps both into our right hand. Bring your left hand to your left thigh and slowly open the right leg out to the right. And it doesn't have to go very far to get the benefits of this posture. We do want to keep the left hip on the floor and contact of the left buttock to the floor. Keep pressing the left leg straight. And just take the right leg to wherever it'll go without the left hip lifting up. Just letting it open up the groin area. The inner thigh. Feel free to look over your left shoulder if you like. With your next inhalation we'll bring that back to center. Just take a moment to switch hands. Bring the straps into your left hand. Take your right hand alongside the body or out to the side like a T. And we'll just bring the foot across the body. Not all the way.

We still want to keep both hips on the floor. So just bring a nice little stretch into that right glute. Possibly the IT band. And then we'll bring it back to center. Release that. And we'll take the left leg out. Loop the strap around the left foot. And hold onto the strap with both hands. And at first just let the left knee be soft. Press the right leg straight and drop the inner right thigh. Then wrap the outer left hip down towards your right foot. And then once you've got that established then start to straighten your left leg. It doesn't have to go all the way straight. Find your shoulder blades on the floor. And as you hold this posture and breathe you may find that it gets easier. You may choose to take it a little deeper or you might stay with it being easier. And just enjoy the shape. Enjoy the breath. Enjoy the restoration. And then we'll take both straps into the left hand. Take your right hand to your right thigh and we'll slowly open up the left leg. And again it doesn't have to go far to get the benefits of the pose. Find your place. Keep the right hip down on the floor. And possibly turn to look over your right shoulder. And then we'll inhale. Bring that leg back to center. Switch hands. Take both straps into the right hand and then just take the left leg across the body. So we move that into the left glute. And breathe. And we'll take that back to center and exhale release. From here we're going to come up to seated so you can either roll over to your side or rock up to seated. And we'll set up for one of my favorite restorative poses which is a child's pose. I use two blocks and a bolster for it. And I build a little ramp. So you take the first block at its highest height and then the next block at its lowest height. Like this. And then we stack the bolster over top. And you may even choose to bring a pillow or some extra blankets if you want even more height. If at all the tops of your feet are bony or your feet don't all the way straight. They stay more like this. You may even want to bring a blanket underneath your shins. That can be really really comfortable as well. And we'll just take the knees on either side of the bolster and then the hands on either side of the bolster. And then we're just going to rest our bellies over the shape.

And get really really really comfortable. I want you to feel completely relaxed like you could fall asleep in this shape. And if you get into the shape and you're not comfortable come out get extra props and then come back in. Just close your eyes. Relax through the shoulders, the hips, the jaw, the cheeks. Just really feel supported. Know that your supported. We'll be here for about three minutes and you'll probably want to turn your head to the other side at some point. Just to balance it out. And this is roughly the halfway point so go ahead and turn your head. You're really comfortable and you'd like to stay here longer. Feel free. When you're ready you'll just press your hands. Come up to seated. Moving through slowly. Taking your time. And we'll cross the ankles. Bring the hands to prayer position gently bowing the head. And thank you. Namaste.