Day 2: Purification & Detox

Welcome, everybody, to day two. I'm so glad you are doing this challenge with us. Let us know how day one was for you to release that stress and tension through the practice we did yesterday. We'd love to hear from you. So today we're going to focus on purification.

And going into the system, we're going to do quite a gentle kriya, but quite strong, that will align the spine, open up the chakras, and just allow the energy to start to purify whatever we don't need, time to let it go. And also you can look into your life and sort of take an inventory. What thoughts aren't serving you? What emotions are no longer serving you? What particular concepts that you're holding are no longer serving you?

Time to purify and shift the consciousness. Kundalini yoga is all about consciousness. And through these practices, we create a new rhythmic intelligence within the mind so that we can elevate our consciousness. So without further ado, let us begin by tuning in with Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo. Bring the hands into prayer pose.

Let's take a deep inhale. Hold that breath and plant and remember that intention we set together at the beginning of the practice, exhale, and let's inhale to begin. Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo Aung Namo Guru Dev Namo Deep inhale and exhale. Let's begin with a few spinal flexors, inhaling forward, exhale back. Always listening to your body and where it's at, how much exertion you need.

We feel different every day, just paying attention to that. And inhale deep and exhale. And let's come standing up at the top of our mat. We're going to do a nice little Surya Namaskar series just to warm up the body. Come to the top of your mat.

Let's inhale as we raise the arms up and stretch back slightly and exhale, sweep the arms down to the knees, inhale halfway up. And gently exhale, come into a plank. Let's take a couple of breaths here. Inhale deep and exhale, come into cobra on the inhale. And exhale downward facing dog.

Pumping the heels a little bit, opening the back of the calves. And let's just gently walk the feet up to the hands and again, deep inhale. And exhale down. Inhale halfway up and let's come into a plank as we exhale Chaturanga and inhale cobra. Lovely and back into triangle.

Let's just swing that right leg forward and just bring the knee down and we'll just here open up the hips, inhale and push back, exhale, inhale, exhale. And bring the leg back and let's bring the left leg in front. Just a nice little stretch, inhale, exhale. Great exercise when you've been sitting a lot. You need to stretch out the hips and that lower back.

And now let's come standing and begin our Kriya. So this is quite a lovely posture to begin with. Let's bring the right leg in front and you're going to bring the top of the foot flat. We're not going to be here very long. So just the top of the foot is flat.

You're in prayer pose and we're going to take a deep inhale. Hold the breath for eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Exhale, inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And again, bring the feet together.

So if this is tricky for you because it's quite a challenge, you can absolutely just put your feet back in this way and not put your, the top of your foot flat on the ground. So see what works for you. Let's do the other leg. So top of the foot flat if you want, inhale, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Exhale, inhale, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Exhale, inhale, hold one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And bring the foot up, relax for a moment, and we're going to do another round of that. Bring the system, takes a little bit of work. Okay, ready? Take a deep inhale, exhale, center yourself and come back.

Inhale deep, hold the breath, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, exhale. Inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, exhale. Push up, bring the leg up, and let's do the last side. Good job.

I know it's a tricky one. Inhale, hold, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, exhale. Inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, exhale. Inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, exhale. Yes, we did it.

Okay, let's come sitting down into easy pose. Whew, well, that was something, right? This one will be much simpler and easier. So you're gonna grab your hips, but just make sure that you can feel your ribcage. You're really right here at the waistline, and you're going to raise your shoulders as high as you can and hold them there while you inhale and exhale powerfully.

Let's go. Close the eyes, focus at the brat point. Straight the spine and really feel like you're pushing those shoulders up and they stay there while you powerfully breathe in and out, getting all that tension out of the shoulders and the mid back, keep going. So, just a few more. Just a few more.

And inhale, hold and squeeze. And exhale, relax the shoulders. Ah, that should feel lovely. Open the palms and just circle the head around. Release all the tension and the other side.

And inhale, center. And let's move to the next exercise. We're gonna do bear grip, but the right palm is facing down. The left palm comes up underneath and you're gripping the fingertips right here. You're staying here at the heart center with the arms parallel to the ground.

So, listen closely. We're going to inhale completely, exhale completely, and then squeeze a root lock. So, you're gently squeezing the pelvic floor and the navel, okay, and then you're going to inhale, hold the breath, squeeze a root lock and rise the energy from the base of the spine all the way to the crown of the head. So, I'll explain it as, and I'll walk you through it as we do it. Okay, ready, completely exhale.

Inhale, exhale, root lock, hold. Inhale, hold the breath and root lock and feel the energy from the base of the spine all the way up to the crown of the head. Your eyes are closed, just listen to my voice, and exhale, relax, hold the posture. Again, inhale, exhale, squeeze the root lock. Inhale, hold the breath and squeeze the root lock and raise the energy from lower spine to crown.

Exhale, inhale, exhale, squeeze root lock. Wanna make sure you really exhale completely before squeezing the root lock. Now, inhale, hold the breath and raise the energy, base of spine to the crown. Literally feel it going through and clearing out the energy centers. Exhale, inhale, exhale powerfully and completely.

Squeeze the root lock. And now, inhale deep, hold the breath and squeeze the root lock, rise the energy from the base of the crown, clear out the chakras. Exhale, let's do one last round. Inhale deep, exhale completely. Squeeze the root lock.

Inhale deep, hold the breath, squeeze root lock and rise the energy from the base of the spine to the crown, feel it, feel it. Purifying your space internally and externally and exhale, relax, eyes closed and just rest with the palms open. You really wanna feel the energy circulate after each exercise. See how it get present to how it feels in your body. Good, we are doing wonderful.

Love this next exercise, let's bring the arms out parallel to the ground, nice straight spine. Your fingers are up, so you're like, literally I just imagine I'm pushing two walls out. Okay, so this is how it's gonna go. Your eyes are gonna be focused at the brow point. You're going to inhale deep, hold the breath for 20 seconds with a root lock, exhale and continue, inhale, hold the breath, root lock, stay focused at the brow point.

Exhale, inhale, squeeze the root lock, hold. Exhale, again, inhale deep, hold the breath, squeeze, lift that pelvic floor, pull in that navel, tuck in that chin slightly, really focus at the brow point. Consolidate your energy, go to zero, exhale. Let's do one more, inhale deep and squeeze, hold, focus. And exhale, completely relax again, palms up, feeling the fruits of your effort.

And here's our last posture. We're simply bringing the hands into prayer pose with the arms parallel to the ground. And here, as you inhale and exhale powerfully, you're pressing your palms together as if you are squeezing the life force right here. You wanna apply between 30 to 50 pounds of pressure in between the hands. So let's go for it, the last one.

Squeeze strong. And if you're squeezing properly, your hands will actually begin to shake that will let you know that your nervous system is resetting, purifying yourself in your energies. Your eyes are closed at the brow point. Keep pressing, press hard and nearly there. Just a little bit longer, press, push.

And last breath, inhale deep and exhale and release the palms. Lovely. Wow, your whole body should feel completely soft and relaxed and purified. It's a good time for a little shavasana to really allow this energy to be integrated. Please come lying down.

Open the palms to the heavens. Soften every muscle in your body and just allow yourself to receive the blessings of your practice. Showing up for yourself on day two. Take a deep inhale and stretch the arms above the head. And gently grab the knees of the chest and we'll just roll on the spine a couple of times.

And come, you're seated into an easy pose. We're going to finish our practice with a lovely, one of my favorite pranayams. It's for health, balance and radiance. Anytime that I'm low energy or my body doesn't feel so good, this is always the one that I do. That brings me, whether in seven or 15 minutes, brings me right back to a place of feeling well.

So we're going to bring both hands at the center. The right fingertips are facing up and you're going to clasp the left hand, okay? And it's right here in front of the heart center. What we're going to do is inhale through puckered lips in three short, quick breaths and then close the mouth and exhale through the nose. Now, as we're inhaling through the puckered lips, we're going to squeeze the hands three times.

I'm going to demonstrate and then you can join me. And then we won't squeeze the hands when we exhale. You're going to be looking at the tip of the nose with the eyes one-tenth open. So just look at me for a moment and then join me. Let's do it together.

Keep going. I'll just talk you through the process a little bit. So make sure that you're squeezing the hands on those three strong inhales and that one second exhale through the nose gets pushed out, okay? Make sure you're looking at the tip of the nose and the spine is very straight. Let's keep going.

We'll be here for about five minutes. Just a little tip here. Keep going. At the third breath, you want to make sure that your diaphragm is fully expanded. And then as you push the exhale out, you're completely contracting the diaphragm.

Keep up. Make sure to you're looking at the tip of the nose, eyes one-tenth open and squeezing the hands on those three inhales. Beautiful. Keep going. Last minute.

And inhale deep. And now squeeze the whole body and hold. Powerfully exhale out of pocket lips. Inhale again and squeeze. Exhale.

Last time. Inhale and squeeze. Exhale and relax, opening the palms, feeling the fruits of your efforts. Remembering this is a challenge. You might get a little sore.

You might feel a little awkward if it's just new for you. But it's perfect. Here we are doing something that our body is only going to respond positively towards. Let us enjoy it. Let us show up for the challenge and keep up.

As my teacher would say, freedom takes work. Okay, so let's bring our hands together and we'll close with a long sat and a short nam. Have a beautiful day.