Ignite Your Fire

(waves crashing on beach) Welcome to Ignite Your Fire. So, this short sequence will be all about the core and stoking our fire. So, this is an area that's not only for digestion of our physical food, but it's also the place of transformation where we can really change emotions and energies and do a lot of the work in our lower three chakras. So, from here, we're gonna go ahead and get started on all fours. We're gonna start here lining up shoulders over wrists, hips over knees and just take a moment to ground, to feel your hands, feel your knees, feel your feet.

When you're ready, take an inhale, lift the right arm, lift the left leg. So, your choice if you wanna point through the foot, or flex through the foot, but draw the left inner thigh up and then, knit everything right into your mid-line. All right. So, everything we do today, we're gonna start to move nice and slow so the momentum doesn't carry us, but we're using our strength. Exhale. Knee and elbow meet. Inhale, lengthen.

Good. Exhale. Draw it in. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. You can start to lift the leg a little bit higher. Exhale.

Good. In. One more. Exhale. In. Good. On your next exhale, go ahead and bring the right hand down, left knee down. Just take an inhale and an exhale to round. And, come back to neutral.

Lengthen through the left arm, lengthen through the right leg and, again, you choose. You can flex the foot, point the toes. Draw the right inner thigh up. Just hold here. Find a little press behind your shoulder blades to lift up a bit and a little lift behind your low back right around the area of the kidneys. And on the exhale, draw the knee in to the elbow.

Good. Inhale. Come back. Exhale. In. Exhale. In. Two more. Exhale.

Inhale. Good. Lift the leg a little bit higher. Exhale. Good. Inhale. One last reach. Left hand down, right knee down. Go ahead and sit down. We're gonna turn and come right into boat pose.

So, Navasana starting. Hands at the back of the thighs. Chest lifting. Option of knees bent. And imagine two hands at your low back and two hands at your upper back creating a nice shelf, a nice lift. At anytime during this sequence, if you feel as though you start to round down, bring the hands down or come back here.

Right, protect the low back. Core's not going anywhere, so take care of your body. Option, stay right here. Option, legs long, arms long. Option, stay right here or exhale, come halfway down and pause.

Inhale to come back up. Again, nice and slow so momentum isn't carrying us, but we're doing the work. Good. Three more. Come on back up. Two more. Good. Fire up energy as if you're moving out your feet, out your hands, out your crown.

Right, the longer you are, the easier it becomes. Good. On this next one, exhale, lower down, stay down. Keep the chest lifted. Take the legs up and spread them wide. Bring the hands in between.

Lift the shoulders blades and take pointer fingers forward and then, just pulse. One. We're gonna go up for 10. Good. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Draw the legs back. Still keeping the shoulder blades lifted. Bring the hands behind, just a little shelf for the head. On an exhale, lowering the legs down to hover.

If this is too much, you can also bring the hands down to the sides. Lower down to hover. Good. Inhale to lift. Exhale. Lower down to hover. Inhale. Exhale.

In. Slowly lower. Good. Taking just a minute pause at the bottom and at the top. Good. Feel the belly button drawing down to the spine. And, as I always lose count, I believe that's four more.

(laughs) Three. Embrace any of that shaking, it's just starting. Good. And, last one. Good. Draw the knees in. Rock on up. Turn into plank pose. Line up shoulders over wrists. Create a long line of energy with your body. Good.

From here, on an inhale, take the right leg up just about a foot. Exhale, knee to nose, draw it in. Inhale. Exhale, draw it in. Inhale.

Exhale. As you draw it in, feel the press of the palms. So, this is where we can build the strength into handstand. Press. Good. One more. Exhale, press. Good. Right leg lifts, lower it down.

Coming into the left side, left leg lifts about a foot or so. Exhale. Knee to nose. Draw it in. Inhale. Again, slow. Don't let the momentum carry you. Good. Three. Four.

And, five. Good. Come back down to the knees. Roll it back over. So, that was the first set. We've got two more and they're gonna follow a similar sequence, but adding a bit (sighs) as I like to set kind of the base and then, we move on. So, from here, grab ahold. Lift the chest. Lift the low back and just take a moment.

All right. As we move in this time, we're gonna create little snow angels because living here in California, although only sometimes we get rain, but we dream of snow. Just not shoveling ever again in my life. Exhale (laughs). Come halfway down. Inhale. Open the legs. Exhale. Draw it in. Come back up. Good.

Exhale, lower and pause. Inhale. Exhale. Come on back up. Good. Exhale. Open. Close. Come on back up. Two more. Pause. Pause. Pause.

Right, there's little minute stops. If you need to, use the back of the legs. Exhale. Last one. Come on back up. Good. Slowly lower down. Bring the legs out, interlace the hands, and then, start slow.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Hold. Feel the bellow draw down towards the spine. Good. Legs back together. Choice again, hands at the side here, or behind the back. Take the elbows out and then, slowly lower as you lift the shoulder blades. Keep them up. The more you keep them up, the harder it is which is good.

Inhale brings you back up. Exhale, nine more. You can keep them lifted, or you can take palms to the floor. Good. Six.

Five. Draw the belly button down towards the spin. Curl up. Good. Four. Three. Two. And, one. Bring the knees in. Slowly rock up.

Come back into plank pose (sighs) and just settle for a moment. All right. So, what brings this core work into yoga is the mindset, is the intention, is the breath. Slowing it down. On an inhale, bring the right leg up. Exhale. Knee to right. Still on the same exhale, swoop it to the left.

Bring it back on an inhale. Exhale on the right, left, and back. Exhale, right, left, inhale. Good. Right, left, inhale. Right, left, inhale. Embrace that shake.

Exhale. Exhale. Inhale. Pause. We're gonna do three more. We're gonna go from five to eight. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. In. Exhale. In. Pause.

Right foot down. We're gonna go left leg for eight. To the left, right, back. Left, right, back. Left, right, back. Left, right, back.

Left, right, back. Left, right, back. Three more. In. Two more. Exhale. Good and pause. Come back down. Come onto your bum.

Coming back into Navasana, boat pose. So, again, starting hands at thighs. Heart lifting, low back lifting. Good. Staying here or if there's no mischief in the low back, you can straighten the leg, take the arms up. On an exhale, left arm comes forward, right arm back.

So, you're working a twist. Maybe use the hand to give a little (toots) twist. Inhale. Back up. Exhale. Right forward, left back. Inhale. Oh yes, we're adding on, back to snow angels. Back down. Open on the inhale. Exhale.

Come on back up. Gotta remember, you can use the legs, use the floor. Arms up if you can. Exhale. Open up to the twist. Inhale. Exhale. Good, inhale. Exhale. Lower down.

Tuck the tail bone just a bit, so it doesn't grind into the floor. Inhale. Open up. Exhale. Close. Inhale. Come back up. Arms up. Open up on the in. Arms together. Exhale. Right arm. Inhale. Exhale. Lower down.

Open. Close. Come on back up. Arms lift. Open left arm forward. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale back down. Open. Close.

Come on back up. One more with the twist and snow angel. Open. Inhale. Exhale. In. Exhale. Open. Close. Hold here. Good. Bring the knees in. Stack the knees above the hips.

Flex the feet. Bring the arms behind the back. So, here, you wanna keep the elbows wide. On an exhale, sorry, on an inhale, you're gonna lift. Exhale, twist and as you twist, lengthen through the opposite leg. So, the left leg's gonna kick out.

Inhale, come back to center. Stack knees and hips. Exhale, twist. Belly button to spine. Inhale. Exhale, twist. In. Exhale. Good. So, again, belly button to spine really turning in and turning on the core.

Good. Shoulder blades lifted. Good. Exhale. Exhale to twist. Inhale to center. Ex. Slow control. Good. Inhale back to center.

Four more. Four more right and left that is. Good. Really kick out through the heel. Last one. And, pause. Good. Draw the arms out. Keeping the knees up, draw them in as close as you can.

And, on an exhale, you're gonna let the knees go to the right to hover, but as they hover, draw them in towards the armpit. Inhale, draw the knees up. Exhale, knees to the left. Again, draw them in. Good. Inhale, back to center. Option of keeping knees bent or legs long.

As you keep the legs long on an exhale, let the feet hover over the right palm. Inhale. Take those sacred pauses at the bottom. Exhale, pause and twist. Inhale. Exhale, feet to hover. Inhale. I always get a nice, little back crack on this one which feels good.

Good. Inhale. Exhale right. Good. Inhale. Exhale left. Good. Halfway. And you can always come back to knees bent if you chose to try legs long. Good, exhale. Four more. Exhale to the right. Hover. Come back up.

Exhale left. So, as we get tired, the tendency is to wanna speed up, but see if you can keep it nice and consistent and slow it down. Good. Any mischief, any torquing in the low back, stop. All right. So, you want this to be strong from the core. Good. Two more. And, as I said, my counting is pretty bad, so that could have been more than 10 on each side.

Good. Last one. Pause to hover for a moment. Good. Come back up. Last one to the left. Pause to hover. Come back up. Knees in. Slowly rock on up. Come back to plank pose. So, final one.

This time, same action as the first one, except we're gonna start with the twist. So, inhale, right leg lift. Exhale, to the left, to the right, and then, back up. All right, so the higher the knee, the stronger in the core. Right. Little pause. Exhale, four.

Inhale. Exhale, five. Inhale. Six. Seven. Eight. We're going for 10 on this one. Nine. Last one.

Oh, now we have the left. The last side. Reset. Refocus. Lift the left leg. Exhale to the right, to the left. Inhale back. Right, left, back. Three.

Four. Five. And, slow it down. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.

Last one. Squeeze it in. (sighs) Lower it down. Come down to the knees. Come onto your bum and just have a seat. (sighs) So, just take a moment. Close the eyes. So, depending what kind of energy you want to leave with, you can either lie down on your back, take a full Shavasana.

Or, if you wanna keep that kinda lifted energy, hold right here for a few moments and then, we'll end it. Just letting your breath slow, feeling your heart rate slow. All right. So, sometimes, we just need a little spark to kinda stoke our fire and something this quick, you know, 10 minutes to work the core, to work through some transformation, or even just shift our mind state. Nice. Thank you all for playing Ignite Your Fire with me. I hope to see you soon.