Cleansing Flow

Welcome. Thanks for coming back and joining me. If you are ready to take a stand, that's where we're starting. We'll use two blocks today. You know, some days you just feel like you're ready to jump right into things. If you're that type of person that pushes the button three or four times after you've pushed the button in the elevator, this practice is perfect for you. Really, let's get right into it. I'm excited. So bring your palms together. We're going to connect our breath to the movements of our hands. But first, let's rub the palms together, generate a little heat. It's another little magic trick you learn. Start to really slow that rubbing down and then start to slowly move your hands away from each other and you'll feel like this little band of energy. Draw back closer together and we start to connect with the energy that we are, that energy body that's around all of us. Then we're going to start to move with our breath. So start exhaling and bringing your palms towards each other and inhale. Start to move your hands a little farther away from each other. Make sure your palms are the height of your elbows. This gives us really nice external rotation of the shoulder. As you inhale, see if you can roll the elbows a little farther back and the palms a little farther back. And then as you exhale, bring the palms back together. Keep pulsing with your breath. Make sure the breath is moving first. Inhaling the hands away. Exhale, hands towards. Two more rounds. Pulse with your breath. And on that last round, we'll pause bringing the palms almost together so they touch. And then keep your left hand where it is. Just inhale the right arm out. Let your left ear drop towards your left shoulder. Really send it back. Exhale, bring it back to center. A nice trapezius stretch. Inhale the right hand away. Let the left ear drop to your shoulder. Bring it back. One more round and we'll hold right there. So inhale the palm away. Let your left ear drop to the shoulder. Maybe you let the chin drop towards the chest or a little movement to the left side as you open up the right shoulder. Bring the right hand back. Next inhale, take the left palm out. Let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder. Keep moving with your breath. Exhale it back. Inhale it away. Right ear to the right shoulder. Nice opening in the front of the chest and the trapezius. Bring it back. We'll do one more round. Open it up. Let the right ear drop towards the right shoulder. Stay there. Maybe drop the chin towards the chest or move the right ear towards the shoulder. Whatever feels good on this trapezius muscle in the back of the shoulder. Bring the hands back. Bring your palms together. We're gonna lift the elbows up to the height of the shoulders and separate the elbows, lifting the heart, lifting the chin and chest. Big inhale and then as you exhale, bring the elbows back together. Engage your core and draw the elbows towards your core. A little cat tilt of the spine. Inhale, lift the height of your shoulders. Separate.

Lift the heart sternum. Big inhale and then start your exhale as you round the spine and engage your core. In two more rounds, follow the rhythm of your breath. Inhale, lifting, squeezing the shoulder blades together. Exhale, drawing in. Last round. Inhale, lift. Pause here. Bring the hands behind the head. Take a nice little interlace. As you exhale, let the elbows drop to the right and then as you inhale, bring it back to center. Nice side flexion. Exhale to the left. Inhale, lift and back to center. Always the breath first. Exhale and then lean. Inhale, bring it back. Last round. Exhale. Inhale, back to center. As you exhale this time, draw your elbows together. Keep the hands behind the head and just start to tuck your chin down towards your chest, stretching the back of the neck. As you inhale, separate the elbows. Lift the chin. Push back into your hands. Lift the heart. Maybe take the drishti up. Just at the neck though. Exhale, round. Inhale, lift. Give yourself one more round of breath. Keep the lift. Press the head back. Lean back a little bit. Really lift the heart, the chin, the chest and then send the palms to the sky. Exhale your palms on top of your quads. Bend your knees right into your cat tilt of the spine. So when you bend the knees, round the spine and exhale. Puff up the mid spine. As you inhale, let the belly, the heart, move forward and the shoulder blades roll down and back. Exhale, round the spine. Draw the chin up and back towards the chest. Inhale, lengthen forward. So we get this nice space created in the front body and the back body. Bring the chest forward. Lift the heart, chin, chest. Last round. Exhale, round the spine. Come to a neutral spine and then from here let your palms just slide down to your shins. Great.

Straighten your left leg. Keep the right hand where it is. Inhale the left palm to the sky. Exhale the left arm up and over the ear. Let the left hand come to your left shin. Bend the left leg. Straighten the right leg. Right palm to the sky. Exhale, up and over reach. Bend your right leg. Give yourself two more pulses here. Opening up through the side body and getting into the shoulder rotators. Bending the left, straightening the right. Side body stretch. One more round. Finishing with the right arm over the head and then to our forward fold. Take a little bend in the knees. Lift the head and neck. Relax back. Good. We're gonna start our sun salutation. Seize from the front of the mat. So if you're not at the front of the mat, take a little walk forward. Bring your palms to the shins.

Lengthen the spine. Engage your core. Pull the navel up and back. Ardottanasana and forward fold. Keep the core engaged. Reverse the dive rise all the way up. Send the palms to the sky and bring the palms right down the center line of the body to prayer. Inhale the palms to the sky. Lift the heart, chin and chest. Exhale, hinge at the hips. Forward fold with your core engaged. Lengthen the spine. Palms to the shins. Big inhale. Exhale, bend the knees. Step your right foot back. Lower the right knee to the floor. Low lunge. Good. Bring the left hand on top of the left quad. Right hand to your sacrum. We're just gonna pulse into the back leg. So rock forward and back. Trying to release that back hinge, the hip flexor, and release the front of the hip. Neutral spine. Good. From here we'll inhale the palms to the sky. Roll the shoulder blades down the spine. Lift the ribs. Roll the shoulder blades. Lift the heart. Exhale your palms to the floor. Step the left leg back to meet the right. Lower the knees. Take a five count lower. Five. Bend the elbows. Four. Engage your core. Three. Two. Lower all the way down. Replace your palms with your elbows. Sphinx pose. Roll the shoulder blades down and back.

Keep your knees on the floor for this round. Exhale, round the spine. Cat tilt the spine in your Sphinx pose. Inhale. Let the belly drop and slide the ribs forward as you lift the chin and chest. Two more rounds of breath. Keep pulsing with the inhale and the exhale. Good. Replace your elbows with your palms. This should set us up nicely for a Cobra pose. Press down to the tops of the feet. Move the ribs, heart forward, elbows back, and space. Send it back to your down dog. Pedal it out. First down dog, push actively forward with your hands and bend one leg at a time. Draw the navel up and back. Make sure it feels like you're stretching the mat away from your feet so that you're not sinking into the wrists and the hands are really active. Settle into your down dog. Take an inhale and as you exhale, step your right foot to the front of the mat. Lower the left knee to the floor, right hand to the quad, left hand to the sacrum. Going back to the pulse. Pulsing into the front hip. Try to release this hip flexor. A lot of sitting, contracting in this area. See if you can create some space right here. Good. Next time you pulse into your foundation, lift your ribs, lift your heart, palms to the sky, shoulder blades down to the spine, and really lift with your heart. Lower the palms to the floor. We're stepping it forward. Step your left foot forward to meet the right. Lengthen the spine and then exhale, forward fold. Reverse the dive. Inhale it all the way up. Exhale your palms into prayer. Round two. Stepping back with the left leg this time. Inhale the palms to the sky. Exhale, hinge at the hips, forward fold. Lengthen the spine as you inhale. Step the left foot all the way back. Lower the left knee to the floor. Inhale the palms to the sky. Two more rounds of breath. Roll the shoulder blades down the spine. Now let's take a little side stretch here. Bring the right forearm on top of the right thigh. Reach up and over with the left arm, stretching the left side body.

And then take the left hand, cross it to the outer right knee, keep it there, and inhale the right arm up and over, stretching the right side body. Inhale back to center. Exhale your palms to the floor. Step the right leg back to meet the left. Option of knees. Lower down for five. Engage the core. Four, three, two, one. Lower all the way down. Bring your forearms to the floor. A little core work to heat things up. Tuck your toes under. Forearm plank. Lift your right leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Inhale. Exhale, round the spine. Inhale, lift. Look forward. Exhale, round the spine. Inhale, lift. Look forward. Last one. Exhale, round the spine. Keep the right leg up. Pivot your left foot. Step to your kickstand. Forearm. Side plank. Arm can be reaching up or over the head. Push down into your right toe pads. Come on back to your forearms. Lower down. Stay here for your back bend or replace the elbows with the palms. Inhale, lift up. Cobra keeping the elbows bent, moving the heart forward, or starting to straighten their arms and up dog. We'll meet back in Sphinx pose. With excitement for side two, tuck your toes under. Forearm plank. Left leg to the sky. Bend the knee. Lift the hip. Draw the left knee to the forehead. Look forward as you lift. Draw it in. Look forward. Inhale. Exhale. Last one. Lift. Pivot your right foot to the right. Step the left foot behind. Push down into your left foot and lift your hips. Left arm over the head or straight to the sky for the side stretch. Lower back to your forearms. Lower all the way to the floor. Back bend of your choice. Inhale it up.

Exhale. Press back to your down dog. Pedal it out. Let's focus on the side stretch again. Rise to the tops of the toes. Pivot your heels to the right. And then bend one leg at a time. So you feel the side stretch on the left side body. Come back to your dog. Lift the heels. Pivot your heels to the left. The heels are lower down. Push forward strongly with your left hand. Bend one leg at a time. So you feel that side stretch on your right side body. Pivot back to center. Down dog. Inhale the left leg up. Step the left foot to the front of the mat. Lower the right knee to the floor. Rise up. Low lunge. Roll the shoulder blades down the spine. Bring the left forearm on top of your left thigh. Side stretch. Right arm reaches over the head to the left. Breathe into the right side body. Right hand on top of the left thigh. Keep it there. Hug the left knee to the midline. Inhale the left palm to the sky. Stretching the left side body. Breathe into the ribs, lats and recastals. Lower the left hand to the floor. Look forward. Tuck the toes under. Step your foot to the front of the mat. Lengthen the spine. Inhale. Exhale. Soft forward fold. Give yourself a couple of breaths here. Notice if you're leaning back in your forward fold and start to shift your weight forward just a little bit.

From your forward fold go ahead and bend the knees. Use your quad and core muscles to help you roll all the way up to your stand and we'll reach the palms to the sky. Bring them right to home base. Right into prayer in front of the heart. So we're going to continue on off the foundation of Sun Salutation C but take it into a little bit more of a fun zone here when you're ready. Inhale. Reach the palms to the sky. Exhale. Hinge at the hips. Forward fold. Inhale. Lengthen the spine. Flat back. Exhale. Step your right foot back to the lunge. Let's start with the right knee on the floor and you can choose here. Left elbow. Left hand inside for lizard pose. Keep hugging the left knee to the tricep. Stay here. Feel free to use your blocks and lower your elbows onto the blocks. Keeping it a little softer today. Keep the knee on the floor. Engaging it a little bit more. Push the back heel back. Lift the knee up and hug the left inner thigh towards the midline. Three more rounds of breath. Be active here. Keep moving the crown of the head forward as you push the heel back. Two more rounds. Keep pulsing. We're gonna take a twist. Left palm to the sky. You can keep the right palm forearm to the floor or you can straighten the right arm as you send the left palm to the sky. In all twists, lengthening the spine and rotating the left rib cage to the sky creates space with the inhale. Lengthen and move deeper into rotation with each exhale. Keep pushing the foot back. Keep drawing the left knee towards the midline. One more round of breath. Lower the right knee to the floor. Bring your palms back. You'll tell your left foot in just a little bit. Stretch the left leg. It's almost like you want to stretch it after all that work.

Ardhanaman. Let's draw some circles with the left foot. So we're getting into the ankle. Exploring that ankle. Calf connection. Circling the other way. And then from here, draw your toes back towards your shin and then walk the hands forward to move into a deeper variation. Instead of bowing forward, move your heart forward. Lengthen forward. Great. Bend your left leg. We're gonna focus on the back hip. So untuck your back toes. Press to the top of the foot and slowly lift the knee off the floor. Drag your hips forward. This opens up the back hip. Stay right here. Keep your hands on the floor. Just move your heart forward. We'll all have the chance to come up into low lunge. You might want to try this variation in low lunge. Lower the right knee to the floor. Inhale the palms to the sky. Stay here or without tucking the toes. Press to the top of the foot. Squeeze the legs to the midline and lift off. Three more breaths. Sink into the front leg. Lift the heart for two. Go on and then slowly lower it down. Tuck the back toes under. Left leg to the sky. Reach the heel to the sky. Rise to the tops of the right toes. Lower the right heel. Rise to the tops of the right toes. Lower the right heel. Move to plank pose. Lengthen the spine and then bend the elbows and slowly lower all the way down. Choose the back bend of your choice. Lift the heart. Roll the shoulder blades back. Keep the knees on the floor.

Replace your palms with your forearms. We're gonna do a couple of pulses in this easy version of dolphin. Lift your knees off the floor. Press your chest back towards the thighs and then as you exhale bring the chin as close to the thumbs as possible. Inhale, press the hips back. Exhale, draw the chin forward towards the thumbs. Two more rounds of breath. Inhaling, lengthening. Exhale and engaging. Dropping forward. Last one. Good. Lower the knees to the floor. Child's pose. Knees a little wider than the mat. Come on down your forehead and come to the floor or deeper back bend. Looking forward. Look forward. Slide forward. Bend the elbows to 10 and 2. Come all the way up to cobra. Up dog. Send it back to your down dog. Same leg we were working with earlier. Left leg to the sky. Take a big inhale here. Exhale, step the left foot to the front of the mat. High lunge. Make sure your feet are hip distance to help you with your balance. Straighten the left leg. Reach your palms to the sky and as you sweep your arms to the back, bend the left leg but keep your heart lifted. How far can you reach your arms back as you lift your heart? Sweep up with the inhale and back with the exhale. Sweep up with the inhale. Squeezing your thighs towards each other to help you with the balance. Sweep back. Lift your heart. One more round of breath. Stay here in the high lunge. Bend the left leg. Push back into the back heel. Forward with the left knee. Bring the left hand on top of the left thigh. Right palm to the floor. Press the left knee forward. Push the right heel back. Lengthen the spine. Rotate. Exhale. Get along with the spine and exhale. We're gonna practice a couple of spinal twisting curtsies. So take your right knee and tap the back of your left calf, balancing on your right hand. Tap. Step it back. Tap. Step it back. Tap. Slide your right foot forward. Try to line it up with the left so the pinky toe side of the foot is on the floor. And then slide your right hand either on top of your right shin, the block, or the floor. Lengthen the spine. Bring your left hand to your sacrum. Get long and then rotate. Lengthen and rotate. Soft forward fold. You'll feel this in the outer left hip. Bring your hands to your hips. Rise all the way up. And we'll take a little side stretch. Right foot following the IT band. All the way up the right side over the head. Maybe left hand comes up to join it. Go back to your breath. As you come back to center, step your right foot on the other side of the left. Shake out that left leg. That was a lot of standing on the left leg. We're gonna switch our balance over to the right leg. Ground into the right foot. And then draw the left knee up the height of your hip and take a little soft twist to the left. It's a little variation of Shiva pose. If you want to go into a deeper expression, you can grab the outer left foot with your right hand. Extend it and extend your left arm. Shake out both sides. This back leg was the one we were doing a lot of opening for. So we're gonna take a quad stretch on the back leg. Shift your weight to the front leg, which was the left leg, and bend the right leg for your quad stretch. This is a great spot to hang out. If you're feeling adventurous and you want to turn this into dancer pose, Natra and Jasana, bring your left hand to your heart. Kick your right foot into your right hand and start to extend your left arm straight forward. Deeper stretch, grab onto the big toe side of the right foot, and then from here lift palm and foot up at the same time. Shake it out. Side one is done. Let's copy that on the other side. Come back to home base, back to Tadasana, back to your palms into prayer. Connect with the rise and fall of the breath. Even out the inhales. Enjoy the pause. Take your time with the exhales. Slowly open the eyes. Establish your focal spot. Inhale, reach the palms to the sky. Lift the heart, stretch the side body. Exhale, hinge the hips, engage the core, forward fold. Palms to the shins, lengthen the spine. Lift the heart, engage, and pull the navel up. Bend the knees. Step the left foot all the way back. Lower the left knee to the floor. Move your right foot slightly to the right so we can take lizard pose on this side. Hands inside of the right leg, right knee hugging to the midline. If you're going deeper, elbows onto the block or to the floor.

Softer hip releasing variation. Stay right here. If you're going deeper and you're working a little harder today, tuck your toes. Lift that left knee off the floor. Push back with your left heel. Move forward with the crown of the head and squeeze the right knee towards the midline. Three more breaths here. Keep it active. Keep hugging the right knee into the midline and keep pushing back into the left heel as you move the crown of the head forward. One more round of breath. Great. Left knee on or off the floor. Right palm to the sky for the twist. Remember you can do this with a straight left arm. Keep hugging the right knee towards the midline as you lengthen the spine and rotate with each exhale. One more round of breath. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, rotate. Palms to the floor. Lower the left knee down. Heel to your right foot to the center an inch or two. And as you straighten the right leg for your half split, give yourself a couple of circles. Circle in one direction. You're feeling the two bands of the hamstring and then circle the other way. Lengthen the crown of the head forward. So guide your heart forward. Imagine moving the crown of the head forward as you get a little bit deeper into this half split. Great. Rebend your right leg. Keep the hands right next to the foot. Push down to the top of the left foot without tucking. Lifting the knee off the floor. Guiding your hips forward. Really opening up the back hip on the left side so as hip flexor. Breathe into that space. Keep guiding your heart forward. Lower the left knee to the floor. Low lunge. As you inhale, the palms to the sky stay right here and guide the the knee forward. Press to the top of the foot. The knee can stay on the floor or you can play with lifting it off the floor. Lift your heart. Lift the sternum. Drishti follows the thumbs. Lower the palms to the floor. Right leg to the sky. One-legged dog. Keep that right leg up there. Lift your left heel off the floor. On the right heel a little higher. Lower your left heel to the floor. Lift your left heel off. Right leg a little higher. Lower. Move to plank pose. Lengthen the spine. Lower all the way down. Your version of sphinx, cobra or up dog with the inhale. Sending it back with your exhale. Down dog. Good. So we'll step that same leg that we were working with forward. Inhale the right leg to the sky. Toes pointing down. Exhale. Round the spine. Step the right foot to the front of your mat. Keep a little separation between your feet. Hip distance apart.

Rise up for your high line. Straighten the right leg. Reach up. Stretch the side body. As you bend the right leg, keep the heart high. Reach back with your hands. Reach as far back as you can. Lift the heart, chin and chest. Inhale. Reach up. Straighten the right leg. Tops of the left toes. Exhale. Bend the right leg. Reach all the way back. Pulse two more rounds of breath. Follow the rhythm of your breath. Keep breathing. Last one. High lunge. Keep the hands up. Now bend the right leg. Roll the shoulder blades down the back. Push forward with the right knee. Back with the left heel. Lift your ribcage. One more round. Big inhale. Right hand on top of the right thigh. Left hand to the floor. Lengthen the spine and rotate to your right. Get a little longer in the spine. Move the crown of the head forward. Lengthen and rotate to the right. Right hand to the sky. Spinal twisting. Low lunge. Spiral your left bicep forward. Push the left heel back. We're gonna draw the left knee to the right calf for a little spinal twist curtsy.

Tap it forward. Tap it back. Tap it forward. Exhale. Inhale. Send it back. Last one. Tap it forward. Stay there. Swing the left toes outside of the right foot. Left hand stays either on the floor or bring it to your shin. Right hand to the sacrum. Lengthen the spine for your twist. And all twists as we get long with the inhale. Creating more space for rotation with the exhale. Lower your palms to the floor. Soft fold. Maybe you're staying at the shins. Squeeze your inner thighs energetically together. Bring your hands to the hips. Engage your core rise up for the flat back. Follow the line of the left foot all the way up. Stretch to your left. Left arm up and over the ear. Right hand reaches up. Pull the left wrist over to the right for that side stretch. And really invite the breath to be a lot fuller with each inhale. Great. Shift your weight back to your right foot. Step the left foot over. Meet the right and you're gonna want to shake out that standing leg, the right leg. So once you find that steadiness in both legs, shift your weight to the left leg. Draw the right knee up the height of your hip. Bring the right hand to your sacrum and we'll enjoy just a little twist here releasing the lower back. If you're going deeper, slide the left hand to the outer right calf, ankle, or heel. Extend the leg. Lift the heart and reach the right palm back. Shiva pose. Lower the right leg. Shake it out. And then this back leg that we were working with, we were really opening up the hip. We're gonna take advantage of that with our quad stretch and optional dancer pose. Just shift your weight back into your right leg. Find the drishti. Find the focal spot. Bend your left leg. Draw the heel towards your seat. Hug the knee towards the midline. This could be your spot here. Just enjoy the quad stretch after all the power that we've been doing on these legs. If you're moving deeper, right hand to the heart. Pinky toe side of the left foot or big toe side of the left foot. As you kick the left heel away from you, start to extend your right palm. Lift the left heel and right palm up at the same time.

Good. And then go ahead and release. Shake out the legs. Come back. Palms together in prayer. Tadasana. Great opportunity to check back in. We've got a half dynamic flow left. So a nice little fun finishing finale before we move into our soft resting counterbalancing poses. So you might want to use two blocks at the front of your mat for this one. Just in case you need it, we're going to be doing some dynamic balancing postures here. So establish your drishti. Find a focal spot in front of you, something that's not moving that you can keep your attention on. Shift your weight towards your left leg and bend the right leg. As you inhale the right knee up, extend your arms and start to straighten the right leg as much as it will go. As you exhale, step the right foot all the way back. Slide your arms by the side like wings. Step your foot to the floor. And as you inhale, rise up. Straighten the left leg. High lunge. As you exhale, bring the arms back by the side. Back like wings. You can use the blocks here if you need to. And as you inhale, shift your weight forward and send the right leg back up. Remember the blocks are there. As you exhale, bring the arms by the side. Step all the way back. As you inhale, straighten the left leg. High lunge variation. As you exhale, bring the arms by the side. Bow forward. Use the blocks if you need to. And as you inhale, shift your weight. Bring it all the way up. Last one. Step it back. High lunge. Straighten the left leg. And this time, we're gonna bend the left leg. You can bring your hands to the blocks and release the right leg for warrior three. Or you can bring the palms into prayer or any variation where you can keep your stability and your balance. Beautiful. Step your right leg back. High lunge. And then bring the right hand to the block or the floor. Left hand on top of the knee. Move this out of the way. And take the spinal twist lunge. This is setting us up really nicely for a revolved half moon pose. Bring the left hand to your sacrum. Look forward. Slide your block forward at least six inches in front of your toes. Keep it to the right side of your foot. Bring your hand to the sacrum. Lengthen the spine. Your block should be right under your shoulder, not behind the shoulder. So keep lengthening here because the more you lengthen, the more you can twist. Squeeze the inner thighs together to help you balance. Left hand to the sky, drishti to the floor or up to the left palm. Great. Step your right leg all the way back. Bring the block back with you. Pivot your right heel to the floor. Turn the toes in about 45, 60 degrees and we'll move into pyramid pose. Maybe take a little bend of the knee here and lengthen the spine or if you're comfortable straightening the leg fully you've got the blocks. They're handy. They're right there for you for your balance. Try to squeeze the inner thighs together. Lengthen the spine and we're moving into a nice big finale twist. Revolve triangle. Maybe the block is on inside of the right foot. Hug the left inner thigh towards the midline. Lengthen the spine. Get long through the spine. You can bring your hand to the sacrum or the top of the hip to engage it and pull it back. Lengthening and rotating. If you don't need the block you can put the hand on top of the foot or to the outside of the foot. Get long from the waist all the way forward. Create space for more rotation and then find the breath. Lengthen with the inhale. Rotate with your exhale. Lengthen with the inhale. Hug the inner thighs towards each other. Rotate with your exhale. Beautiful. Bring your hands around the left foot. One last curtsy to lower down. Bend your left knee. Tap your right knee on top of your left calf. Keep the toes pointed on your right foot and lower all the way down for your spinal twist. Matsyandrasana. Your left foot is outside of your right knee. It's good to be down, isn't it? Dry your right heel closer to your left seat but give yourself enough space to try to engage and lower the left heel to the floor. Bring the left hand behind you. Push down into the left hand. Lift the sternum. Lift the chest. Keep hugging the left knee towards the midline. If you want to hook the right elbow outside of the left knee, option.

Just get long with the spine. Lift your ribs and use that elbow as a lever to press to the midline. This pose was created for the quote, never do yoga right after lunch. This was the pose they were talking about. Give yourself one more round of breath because it really rings out the core. Rings out the organs in the body. Great. So this could be your finale on this side. If you saved a little juice on this side and you'd like to try the arm balance, we're gonna take a revolved variation of Kundanyasa. You can keep the left foot right where it is. Slide the right foot back. Tuck your toes under and grab a seat on your right heel. Walk the left hand out. Hook the right elbow outside of the knee. Get long with the spine. The second that elbow starts to straighten, the knee will fall off. So keep the elbow bent. Release the right palm to the floor. Lean straight forward between the palms. Lift the left foot off the floor. Stay there with the right foot or release it back. Kundanyasa A. That one's a good one to practice. Good one for homework. All right. We're gonna swing those legs around for Child's Pose or float the legs through for Child's Pose. You deserve one whether you take the Kundanyasa or not. So you can keep the arms reaching forward or release them by the side as you reconnect with the breath. Return to what's anchoring you to your flow here. What's anchoring you to the present moment, your breath. All of these postures are just a way to move physical, mental, and emotional energy out. So enjoy the movements. Don't get attached to them whether they're good or bad. Let's have fun on the other side. Go on back to your Table Pose. Walk your hands up palm print forward. Tuck your toes under. Give yourself a nice little walk or float forward to the front of your mat. Lengthen the spine and then before you come all the way up you might want to set your blocks up once again if you moved them out of the way. Reverse your die. Rise all the way up and then exhale your palms right into prayer. Who will be balancing on the right leg this time? Extending the left leg forward and backward. Once you've got that drishti or that focal point established, keep it there. Keep steady with your breath and the focal point. Shift your weight to the right leg. This is some dynamic balancing stuff. So really enjoy the focus and attention on each movement. As you inhale the arms to the sky, lift the left leg up.

Straighten it as much as it will go. As you exhale, lower the arms by the side. Swing that left leg all the way back and then as you inhale, straighten the right leg. Rise up. As you exhale, bend the right leg. Bring the arms by the side. Bow forward over the right leg and as you inhale, shift your weight forward. Extend the left leg straight forward and up. Exhale, send it back. Step it back. Reach the arms by the side. Inhale, rise up. Straighten in the right leg. Reaching your palms to the sky. Get long through the side body. Exhale, arms by the side. Keep your focus. Bow forward. Slide that left leg forward and lift. You've got one more round. Keep the focus. Keep the attention there. Step it back. Rise up. Straighten the right leg as you inhale. Exhale, bow. Inhale, slide that leg forward. You should feel those muscles and the legs firing up. Exhale, step back. Stay back. Inhale, rise up. Straighten the right leg. Keep the arms reaching up.

Exhale, sink into that right quad for your high lunge. Such great strengtheners for the legs and the quads. Lower the right hand on top of the right thigh. Left hand. Take a little twist here. Clear the spine and then we're gonna move forward into our warrior three. You can keep the hands on the block. As you shift your weight forward or you can find that drishti and focus and bring the palms into a different variation. Prayer, side like wings, straight forward, whatever works best for you. Step back to that last high lunge. You can give yourself a little fist bump. Yay! And then bring the left hand to the block or the floor for your twist. Get long through the spine as you push back into that left heel. Setting us up really nicely for our half moon pose. Bring your right hand to your sacrum. Left hand on top of the block. Slide the block forward another six inches or so. Shift your weight forward. You can step that left foot forward. Lengthen the spine. The right hand's there to make sure the hips are even. From here get as long through the spine as you can to facilitate a nice deep twist. Start to rotate to your right. Longer with the spine. Keep active with the left leg. Squeeze the legs to the midline. Two more rounds of breath. One more. Step the left leg back. As you lower the left heel to the floor, line up your heels. Slide your block back. Straighten the right leg for your pyramid pose. Keep squeezing the inner thighs together. If you want to keep a little bend in the leg to keep the hamstring safe. Keep lengthening the spine and folding. Choosing to squeeze the legs together and straighten the leg is an option. This pose sets us up really nicely for our finale twist. Revolve triangle. Left hand on top of the block. Take a little bend in your right leg. Bring your hand to the hip. Draw the right hip back. Lengthen the spine. Then you can send that right palm up. The longer you get, the more you can rotate the torso. If you'd like to go deeper, you can bring the hand on top of the foot or outside of the foot. Invite the hip back. Squeeze the inner thighs towards each other. Get long with the spine and rotate. The breath shortens here. Try to lengthen it. You've got two more rounds of breath. Begin to lengthen. Exhale. Rotate. Last one. Lengthen and rotate. Beautiful. Arms on either side of the right foot. We'll finish with that knee tapping the calf muscle and then stepping it back. One more time. Tap and then keeping the toes pointed, lower all the way down to your twist. I'm gonna slide and face you for my twist. So your right leg is on top. Your left leg is on the bottom. A little space between your glute and your left heel. Hugging the right knee to the midline as you start to let the right glute drop to the floor. Wrap the left arm around and before you twist. See how much space you can find through the spine and then rotate with the torso first and the head last. Let the head follow the torso. Good. If you want to go deeper you can hook the left elbow outside and before you twist lengthen and rotate. Lengthen and rotate. This twist sets this up really nicely for a possibility of moving into that arm balance. The right leg would stay forward. The left leg is going to slide back and you're going to balance sitting your heel, your glute on your heel for broken toe pose on the left leg. The right knee and left knee are the same but the right foot's moving forward just a little bit. It gives you an easier opportunity to straighten the leg. Take your right hand out about a foot, foot and a half. Drop it to the floor so you get that lean to the right. Hug the knees to the midline and hook the left elbow outside of your right knee. From here as you let that left hand drop to the floor, lean forward and bend your right elbow, bend it towards the midline.

You can use the elbow as a little kickstand. You never have to lift your left leg off the floor. You can keep it on the floor or you can start to extend it. Always a good idea to look to the left and not straight down. If you come down you don't want to come down on your nose or well at least it's a good story to tell. All right both sides done. How are you feeling? Go ahead and swing the legs around. We're gonna lower all the way down and from here we're just going to release the arms and take a little windshield wiper of the legs. So enjoy that release. The standing posture is a lot of work on the glutes. Give yourself a little glute massage by rocking from side to side here. If you want more you can always place your knuckles right underneath the glutes and you oh that feels good. You should try it. Give yourself a little rock from side to side to release the glutes. From here you can bring the knees back to center. We're gonna stay on the back for a little bit. You won't need your props. We can get those out of the way. Keep your right leg where it is. Bend your left leg. Easy recline figure four. Lifting the right heel a little higher than your knee so the focus is on the outer left glute. Another stretch for some of that power, all that work we were doing on the left side and right side. Great. You can stay right here for your next five breaths or if a little deeper variation of reclining pigeon wants to happen you can wrap your hands around the legs, wrap your arms around the legs, possibly straightening that right leg but making sure the head stays on the floor for this one. Slowing the breath down, slowing the practice down. If you're not in figure four, replace that left leg for figure four and go ahead and straighten your right leg now. Reach through grab onto your hamstring. A little nice traction for the back. Press your right heel forward until the head and shoulders lift off the floor and you feel space between the vertebrae's and then roll it back down. Give yourself a couple of pulses. On that third pulse we're going to try to come all the way up for a little faux navasana where you get to keep your hands there. Rock up to your seat. Lift your hips. If this doesn't feel good, bring your hands behind you. If this feels great and you still have energy, reach your arms forward. We're doing a little core work after all the backbends just to counterbalance some of the work we've done and then bring the hands behind you. Bend your right leg. Flip your palms. We're going to have a nice shoulder stretch. So walk your fingertips back. You'll know when to stop. See if you can find a spot where you start to feel resistance for your body. With the head and neck, release back. Good.

And then we're going to take this walk off to the right. So walk your right foot off to the right of your mat. One more IT band stretch. Drop your knees to the left, also stretching the shoulders. The legs can stay. Keep the left hand where it is. Swing the right hand all the way around. Your left foot can stay on top or you can slide it inside and reach as far back as you can with your right hand. Go big with the breath on the right side body. If you want to feel more, slide your left hand back under your shoulder. Push the floor away and really concentrate on enjoying and expanding the breath through the right side. Really nice counter twist from all of our twisting. Come on back to center and then as you come back to center, hold on to your knees. Lift your heart, your chin, and your chest. And then we're going to round the spine, draw the navel up and back. Let's try to lower down vertebrae by vertebrae. But using your core, so we're massaging each side of the spine as we lower down vertebrae by vertebrae. Take your time. You don't want to hurry your massage. Lower down slow. Good. So now we're going to bring that right ankle on top of the left thigh for figure four. Draw the left knee into the chest. Lift your left heel a little higher than the knee so the focus is all on the outer right glute piriformis. If you want to go deeper, you can pull the left knee in, staying right here. If you need a little bit more work, more opening on that right hip, you can take the right foot, wrap it around, the left hand wraps around the right foot, right hand wraps around the knee. Let the left foot drop to the floor. Try to keep your head down on this one if you decide to do the reclining pigeon. And then just inch the foot away without lifting the head off the floor. Looking for that little spot of resistance here. Breathing into slowing the breath down and seeing if you can release this area of the hip without any force. Great. If you're in reclining pigeon, go ahead and come back to figure four. Left ankle right on top. Hug the left knee in. Extend the left leg and we're going to play with a little traction rocking forward and backward. Forward and backward. All the way up to our version of Novasana. Balancing on the sit bones, lifting the heart, lifting the chest. You can bring the hands behind you for support or if you still got some energy, send the arms straight out. Great. Left leg bends, fingertips walk back. Flip your hand so we get that shoulder stretch on this side. And if you're finding a little bit more space, see if you can walk the pinkies a little closer together to touching and then journey back from there. You'll know when to stop. Your shoulders will tell you. Just listen.

If the breath changes or you start making crazy faces, you've probably gone a little too far. Walk your left foot off the mat to the left and this is where we really start to feel it. Walk the left foot off, drop the knees to the right and especially in that right shoulder. Oh, so good. The right hand is going to stay. The left hand gets to release. The knees will drop to the floor and the left hand swings all the way around for a little finale side stretch here. Walking the right hand back. If you need more of a twist, pushing the floor away and enjoying that side stretch. Slow breath. Slowly rise back up. Come back to the knees bent a little wider than the hips. Lift the heart, chin, and chest. And last time, rolling down vertebrae by vertebrae, massaging the muscles along the spine. Slowly releasing all the way down. And as you settle into the earth, we're gonna contract the muscles on the count of three. One, two, three. Flex the arm, feet, core. Hold the breath and relax. Try that one more time on the count of three. Contract everything. One, two, three. Contract. Hold and relax. If there's any last movements that you need before your Shavasana, any little twists, knees into the chest or turning the head softly from side to side, whatever helps you feel like you're surrendering and sinking into, letting go of the body. Make sure to honor that. Scan the body starting from the toes all the way up the calves, knees, quads, and glutes. And we'll let them be heavy, relaxing deeply into the floor. Feeling the mid-back and the shoulders, the backs of the hands, melting into the floor. No weight, no effort. The back of the head softening, the muscles, the face, the jaw. Lose the physical body altogether and just enjoy the energy that you are pulsing, vibrating. Let go of controlling the breath. Increase the length and duration of the breath, the fullness of the breath, bringing your awareness and attention back to the physical body with any intuitive movements that feel right for you. Maybe it's a stretch or maybe it's a hug before you roll to fetal pose on your right side.

Take your time and see if you can stay inside while you're working your way up to your seat. Slowly enjoy the space that you're able to create in your mind for your Shavasana. And see if you can stay anchored in that space as you work or move through the rest of the day. Bringing your attention to the heart center, imagining a bright white light at the heart center. May we keep loving and living from this space and may we share it with everyone that we meet. Thanks for joining me today. Namaste.