Watery Flow

Welcome. So we're going to move through a really fluid and watery practice that is strengthening, energizing, and detoxifying for the body. So let's get started in a seated position. So just find your way to a comfortable cross-leg seated position and maybe close your eyes. Just take a moment to arrive and settle in. Feel your sitting bones rooting down, lengthening up through the spine, through the crown of your head, and then tuning into the natural rhythm of your breath. And then let's begin to move into some Sufi rolls. So we'll inhale as you draw the chest across your right knee. Exhale, draw the chest across the left knee, and then round back as you kind of sit back on your sitting bone. So just making these circles with the spine coming into the hips, inhaling forward, exhaling back. And you can make these circles as big or as small as it feels good. Feel free to let the head and neck relax as you come in to this and just really smoothing out any rough edges here. So maybe take the circle in the other direction, feeling into the body, finding that fluid, watery quality as we begin. Take one more round wherever you're at, and then start to make the circles a little bit smaller, and we'll come back up to neutral, coming back to center. Good, and then reach your left fingertips outside of the left wrist. Reach your right arm up and over, and just take a nice side body stretch, really rooting down through the right side as you reach up and over. And then taking this into a twist, you'll bring the right hand behind you, left hand to the outside of your right knee, and then sit up nice and tall and lengthen, and then exhale, ease into your twist. Good, and then coming back through center, unravel, and then bring the hands in front of you. Start to walk your hands forward any amount as you kind of rock in from side to side any amount into a forward fold. You might keep rocking, just wiggling in, and walking your hands back up, and let's change the crossing of the legs, and we'll come to the other side. So reaching right fingertips out to the right, reach the left arm up and over, rooting down through the left side body. Beautiful, and then taking that into a twist, so left fingertips behind, right hand on the outside of the left. Inhale as you lengthen, exhale as you twist. One more breath. Good, and then unravel, gazing forward, bringing the hands in front of you, walk forward any amount, letting the head, neck relax. Good, and then walking your hands back in, let's come to a tabletop position. So meet me in all fours, stacking shoulders over wrists, hips over knees, and then just start to move into some circles here. So shifting the weight around, letting the hips shift back, maybe even coming toward child's pose. This really intuitive movement is keeping it really loose and fluid, maybe changing the directions of the circles, shifting the weight around, just a couple more breaths to play with that. Again, maybe landing in child's pose for a few breaths. And then we'll take that right into downward facing dog. So same idea as you move to down dog, fluid in the legs, maybe shake the head yes and no, pedal it out, sway the hips. It's feeling into this first downward facing dog. Just a couple full deep breaths here, starting to step the feet toward hips distance, and shoulder width apart. Good, and then on an inhale, come forward into plank pose, top of a pushup. Just a breath here, feel the length in your spine, and then let the exhale bring you up and back to downward facing dog. Good, and then lubricating the joints, inhale, come forward to plank pose, and then allow the exhale to bring the hips up and back, down dog.

One more, inhale, come forward to plank, exhale back, down dog. This time as you come forward to plank, pause, you're welcome to lower the knees down, let's lower all the way down to the belly. And then untuck your toes, take your hands out on either side of your yoga mat, tenting the fingertips, let the elbows lift up, and then we'll come into a modified cobra from here. So pressing through the tops of the feet, inhale as you start to peak, inhale as you start to peel the chest up any amount. Good, and then exhale, lower down. Good, this time inhale, come up, drop the left shoulder toward the center of your mat, look to the left, and just take a nice shoulder stretch. Inhale, come back through center, and then exhale, right shoulder lowers, right side of the face lowers. Beautiful, and then inhale back through center, let the hands come back toward the side ribs, let the head lower down for a breath, and then press back up, hands and knees, and we'll come to downward facing dog. Good, and then from your down dog, let's take a very slow walk, feet to hands, come to the front of your mat, and finding a forward fold at the front of your yoga mat, maybe holding on to opposite elbows, letting everything drape down.

And releasing the hands down toward the earth, let's come halfway up, so walking the hands up onto the shins, lengthen through the spine, take a big breath in, and then exhale, fold back over the legs, root down through the feet, rise up to stand, arms circle all the way out and up, and then draw the hands to your heart. Good, and then again inhale, arms sweep up, as you exhale, fold back over your legs, uttanasana, and then step your left foot all the way to the back of the mat, so find a runner's lunge coming onto your fingertips, lengthening out through the spine, the crown of your head, and then we'll take a twist from here, so left hand down, sweep the right arm up, twisting to the right, hugging the right hip in, as you open up the chest to the right side, beautiful, and then maybe take the top arm over your ear for a breath, lower the right hand down, and then start to straighten through your front leg any amount, so press back through your left heel and fold over both legs, take a couple full deep breaths, drawing your right hip back, left hip forward, yeah, and then rebend through your front leg, runner's lunge, step back to downward facing dog, at the back of the mat, feet step back, good, and then come forward to plank pose, and your choice, you can lower the knees down, or maybe they stay lifted this time, lowering all the way down to the belly, cobra pose on your inhale, press into the tops of the feet, draw the shoulders back, lengthen through your spine, and then exhale right back to downward facing dog, tucking the toes, lifting the hips up and back, and then float the left leg up to the sky, take a big full breath in, and as you exhale, step the left foot all the way through between your hands, nice, and then lower your back knee down, reach your arms forward and up, anjali asana, and as the arms lift up, take hold of your right wrist, and just reach up and over to the left side, so feeling that right side body stretch, good, and keep engaging through the core, protect the lower back, and then come back through center, big breath in, exhale, lower the hands down, this time we'll step the right foot to meet the left, come to the front of your yoga mat, come halfway up on your inhale, lengthen, exhale, bow back in, forward fold, and then root down, rise up to stand, big breath in, hands to heart, exhale, beautiful, and then just taking it to the other side, as you're ready, inhale, arms lift, exhale, fold back over the legs, and then we'll step the right foot to the back of the mat, find your lunge, come on to the fingertips, lengthen through the spine, and then right hand down, sweep the left arm up, keep hugging the left hip in, let the twist happen from the navel up, and then breathe, good, and then maybe top arm comes over the ear for a breath, if that feels okay in the shoulder, lower the left hand down, frame your front foot, and then start to straighten through both legs, so press back through the right heel, let the torso drape down over the left leg, and just breathe, feel into the backs of the legs, couple breaths, nice, and then we bend through your front leg, we'll come back to downward facing dog, flattening out the palms, step the left foot back, inhale, come forward to plank pose, and then your choice, you can lower the knees, maybe they stay lifted, you might lower halfway through chaturanga or all the way down, cobra or up dog, inhale, meet me back in downward facing dog on, and exhale, nice job, inhale, float the right leg up, exhale, step it all the way through, come back to that lunge, lower the bottom knee down or the left knee down, reach the arms forward and up on jannyasana, this time hold the left wrist, reach up first, and then take it over to the side body stretch, so reaching over to the right and breathing, reaching up and out of the side waist, good, and let the inhale bring you back through center, exhale, hands come down, tuck the back toes, step the left foot to meet the right, forward fold, halfway up, inhale, exhale, fold back in, root down, rise all the way back up, and then hands to heart, exhale, and then from here let's come to chair pose utkatasana, sink the weight into the heels as you sweep the arms up and then keeping with the fluidity, as you exhale just sweep the arms back, lower the torso down toward the thighs, and we'll do that a couple more times, so inhale, chair, exhale, sweep the arms back, lower the torso, one more, inhale, arms lift, exhale, sweep the arms back, lower the torso down, inhale as the arms lift and this time fold all the way over your legs, uttanasana, good, and then again step the left foot to the back of the mat, this time we'll set up for warrior two, spin the back heel down, come on up to warrior two, good, so front heel to back arch alignment, reaching forward and back at the same time centering the weight, and then coming through center parallel both feet, reach the arms up, take your gaze up, maybe press palms together above your head, flying warrior, and then find warrior two to the back of the mat, so left toes turn out, sink down toward 90 degrees into that front leg, good, and then one more time through center, inhale, arms lift, and exhale warrior two to the front, beautiful, and then reverse warrior, inhale as you lift up and back, circle your hands down to a lunge, come on to the ball of your back foot, and then we're coming into half moon from here, so reaching the hand forward, right hand forward, lift up through the left leg, and then start to peel the chest open any amount as you lift up through the left arm, press into the ball of the right big toe, find your balance, perhaps you lift the right arm up, maybe an inch off the earth, good, and then chair pose front of the mat, so coming right back to where we started utkatasana, arms sweep up, take a big breath in, and then just come halfway down, sweep the arms back, lower the torso, inhale back to chair, exhale, sweep it back, one more, inhale, lift up, chair pose, exhale halfway down, good, inhale, chair utkatasana, exhale, fold over the legs, uttanasana, let it go, good, and then step the right foot to the back of the mat, taking it to the right, spin the back heel down, front heel to back arch alignment, lead with the right arm as you come up to warrior two, take a moment to settle and arrive, beautiful, and then we'll play with movement here, so coming through center, inhale, flying warrior, parallel the feet, gaze up, press the palms together above your head, and then back of the mat, right toes turn out, warrior two toward the back of your mat, good, and then back through center, inhale, flying warrior, parallel the feet, gaze up, and then warrior two to the front of the mat, left toes turn out, good, and then flip your front palm, tilt back, reverse warrior, circle hands all the way down, runner's lunge, come on to the ball of your back foot, and then coming into half moon, reach your left hand forward this time, fingertips land right under the shoulder, lift the right leg up, and then start to peel the chest open, right arm lifts, hips and shoulders stack, and then if you're feeling like you want to play with balance a little bit more, you might float left fingertips up, maybe an inch, good, and then chair front of your mat, utkatasana, arms sweep up, and then right back into your fold, step your feet hips width, maybe hook your peace fingers onto your big toes, you can bend your knees to get there, and then as you inhale, offer the heart forward, come halfway up, and then exhale, elbows out to the side, fold over your legs, maybe shifting a little bit more weight toward the balls of your feet, letting your head, neck, shoulders relax, coming back to your breath. Beautiful, and then releasing the toes as you're ready, just take your step back to down dog, if you want the vinyasa, feel free to take it, otherwise we'll meet in downward facing dog, good, and then lower the knees down to the earth, keep the toes tucked, and sit back on your heels, so you might take your pinky toes and tuck them under so that all 10 toes find the earth, mine don't quite make it, we'll take a moment here to just feel that stretch in the feet, bring your hands to your heart, so some people like to call this toe torture pose, feels really good to begin with, and then very quickly becomes kind of torturous, notice if that's the case for you, it is a really nice stretch for the feet, good, and then from here we're going to take some heart openers with dancing camels, so we'll take this big expensive heart opener with the fluid quality, so left hand to left ankle, on an inhale the right arm will sweep across the face and up as you lift the hips up any amount, and open up through the heart and the chest, and then exhale as you lower the hips down, take hold of the right ankle, sweep the left arm up and over, lift up through the heart, lift the hips, and then just start to move at the pace of your breath, so inhaling as you lift up, exhaling as you lower, inhaling as you lift up, and you can keep it really fluid if that feels good to you, or if it feels nice to pause anywhere, feel free to find a pause, maybe holding for camel if that feels best, good, let's take a few more rounds, inhale lifts up, linking breath to movement, exhale lower, inhale lift up, exhale lower, and I'm going to hold this last round, feel free to keep it fluid if you'd like, otherwise lifting through the chest, the heart, hips over knees, lift up and lengthen, maybe gaze up, good, and then exhale, we'll release all of that down, and sitting back onto the heels for a moment, noticing how that feels, maybe bringing hands to the tops of the thighs, maybe bringing the palms to face up, maybe closing your eyes, and just taking a moment to check in, just taking a moment to notice where that expansion, that fluidity lands in your body, so taking these moments of pause to feel the echo of the movement, the residue of the postures, the yoga, you're welcome to stay right here, if you'd like to stay in meditation, or join me in Shavasana, I'm just going to roll down onto my back, and just take any last movement that the body is calling for here, and then as you're ready, we'll straighten out through the legs, just letting the feet roll open like books, bringing the palms to face up, arms away from the body, relaxing the shoulders, coming back to the natural rhythm of the breath, letting go of any effort in the body and the breath, and allow the body to feel supported by the earth beneath you, letting be, Shavasana. Feel free to stay here as long as you'd like, we'll start to invite movement back in, begin to deepen your breath, maybe stepping the soles of the feet to the earth, reaching the right arm up and over your ear, rolling to the right side, and just taking a moment on your side to pause, notice how you feel, and then pressing your way up is an extension of your Shavasana, we'll come to a comfortable seated position, gathering hands together at the heart, thank you so much for sharing this practice with me, namaste.