Day 3: Mental Clarity

Welcome to day 3 of our Vitality reboot challenge. You must be feeling quite good by now. Let's keep going. Today we're going to work on physical and mental clarity. That's such a big part of the overall well-being that we can experience. Again, using this potent, vibrant, pranic energy of spring to really invigorate with ourselves with the aliveness. They would say 72 million cells are dancing in your body. So getting in touch with these cells and invigorating them with our right thought with the movements of our lives, with the emotions being allowed to flow and just really feeling this access to that physical and that mental clarity. So let us begin as we always do with tuning in with Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo. Let's bring the palms together at the heart. Let's take a deep inhale. Exhale. Let's inhale to begin. Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo. Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo. Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo. Deep inhale. Hold the breath and take a moment to plant that seed of intention. It could be the same as you started on day one or a new intention for today as you allow yourself to come back into your natural state of well-being and exhale. Good. So what we'll do today is a little warm up and then we'll do the Kriya for the instinctual self. This is a wonderful Kriya because it works on all the energetic chakras, the eight of them, and then it also really takes care of the physical body and the mental body. And then we'll end with a short meditation which was actually given by Buddha to his students, which is to tranquilize the mind. So we're really honing in on that mental clarity and feeling of well-being. So let's begin with our warmups. Let's just bring the left hand over and inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, and let's keep going. Stretch as far as you feel comfortable. If you want to go a little lower down, go for it. If you just need a little stretch, it's so much about listening to your own body, being your own greatest teacher, inviting you to inhale, Sat and exhale, Naam. Truth is my identity. So we are coming out of the ego and of the worldly status and going into our energetic bodies and aligning our energy with the truth of where we come from and who we are. Let's inhale both hands up and exhale, but keep the arms there and just open 60 degrees. Bring the thumbs up, curl the rest of the fingers on the mounds and let's do a breath of fire for ego eradicator. Close the eyes and begin. Keep going, stay up there, nice, strong, straight arms. Remember this is the science of angles and triangles. We're working with the energies of the universe and really fueling ourselves with vitality and rejuvenation, especially through these types of exercises. Keep going just a little longer. And inhale, touch the thumbs above the head, squeeze a gentle root lock, pull up the navel, focus deeply at the brow point and please as you exhale, just sweep your beautiful aura clean, removing any negativity and bring your hands down onto the earth. Just a moment of gratitude. Let's bring the hands up to the shoulders, fingers in front, thumbs in the back. We're going to inhale, twist the whole body to the left, exhale right. Powerful breath, shoulder twist, spinal twist, this should feel really good. Let the head just swing naturally to both sides, inhale left, exhale right. And inhale center, hold the breath and exhale. Let's come with the legs open as wide as possible and we're going to inhale up, exhale left, inhale up, exhale right. In your own time, let's keep going. Stretch as deep as it feels good for you, not overdoing any of it. Just a few more, inhale up and let's just come down halfway, inhale, exhale. Again, this is totally at your comfort level, wherever you are, I'd like to invite you to really move from the heart and not bend the head and the spine. So if you're just moving a little bit, you're really working on opening the root chakra right here, which is quite lovely. Keep going. Couple more and inhale and exhale and let's come standing up. I want to share with you a great little movement that you can actually do as a movement in and of by itself. It's called Archipose. It's wonderful to really bring your vision. What are you planting and what are you sprouting into spring? So we're going to open up the legs and make sure your knee is in line with your ankle and we're going to pull the arrow, the bow of our destiny.

Look at the thumb and we're going to lean into the knee and we're going to chant Har from the belly, H-A-R, which means creative, great creative consciousness as we pump the knee, looking at the thumb and let us begin, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, Har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, just a little bit longer keep going 15 seconds. Har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, and inhale. See your vision, come to life, feel it, and exhale. Good, let's go to the other side. This is a wonderful kriya that you can actually do by itself. You could do one minute on each side, you could do three, you could do up to 11. So let's do this side, pull the bow of your destiny and your vision and begin. Har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, har, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, and inhale. Plant your seed, watch your vision flower. Hold it, crystallize it, and exhale.

Let's begin our Kriya and we will come sitting back down. So let's begin our Kriya for the instinctual self. I invite you while we do this Kriya to pay attention to what you're feeling. We're starting at the root chakra, we're going all the way to the crown. Each exercise will systematically take us through each chakra.

So let's begin at the root butterfly pose, feet together, clasp the hands in venus lock, grab the toes, inhale, spinal flexors right here, exhale. Eyes closed, looking at the brow point and focus on the feeling, focus on how it feels while you do this movement. Breathe into the heart, inhaling Sat, exhaling Naam or your own mantra. Open up a little wider if it feels good. And inhale, tuck in the belly slightly and exhale.

Moving right along to the next posture, you're going to come into a platform pose. So let me demonstrate. Hands directly underneath the shoulders, you want to make sure that you're level here and we're going to inhale here and exhale. Just come into a sweet cobra, inhale, exhale. If you need to modify just doing that, inhale, exhale totally fine.

Do what works for you. Let's continue. Here we're working on the sex organs and the second chakra. Try to keep the body flat and level if you're doing this posture. Using the core to lift yourself up.

Just a few more. And last one. Good. And bring yourself up on your knees, just take a moment, a little breather. Catch your breath.

Deep inhale and exhale. It's nice to just pause after each exercise and just feel the energy moving because that's what we're doing, being in touch with that, the subtleness, right? So here we're into our beloved crow pose. So if your heels, again like day one, are not flat on the ground, you're going to roll up your mat and press your heels into the mat. Your hands are in prayer pose right here.

You're projecting from the heart to infinity, eyes locked at the brow point. And the breath of fire. Good. Keep up, nearly there. And inhale deep.

And from the roots, come up all the way to the crown, hold the breath, project and exhale. Gently come out of the posture and we're going to bring the feet in front and we're going to lie on our backs and we're going to bring the legs up 90 degrees and then down. So let us get into the posture. Please place your hands underneath your buttocks for extra support and leg lifts. Inhale 90 degrees, exhale touch the floor.

Let's begin. Working on the third and fourth chakras here. The third, the solar plexus being about that willpower and that confidence that we need to bring our gifts to the world. Keep going, using your breath to power you. Hear yourself breathe, feel yourself breathe.

And last one. And relax. Just take a moment to receive. Feel the energy of vitality circulating through your body, just getting present to when we put in a little effort, well-being is really at our fingertips, but the consistency of doing something every day can really propel us into the next level of vitality. So from here you're just going to do a little flip flop and get on to your belly and we're going to do a modified boat pose.

So you're on your belly and you're going to clasp your hands in Venus lock at the back and you're going to pull up the chest and we're going to begin a breath of fire. Let's begin. Keep going, we're working on the heart center right here. Peel back those shoulders as long as it feels comfortable. Hold yourself a little bit.

Breathe a little bit longer. Inhale, hold it, lift up and exhale and just melt into the ground. We're actually going to flip flop right back onto our backs and you're just going to take a little moment of relaxation right here. Open the hands, take a few breaths, catch your breath. Long deep breath, thanking every cell in your body for the amazing job that it does every day.

Let's grab the knees to the chest and we're just going to roll onto the spine, activating the spinal fluid along the main channel of the spine called the Shushmana. Forward and back and now we're going to come into a shoulder stand for a short moment with a breath of fire and then right from the shoulder stand we're going to go back into a plow pose with also a breath of fire. So do the best you can, modify if you need to, let us begin. Keep up, just a little longer. Inhale and exhale, gently bring the legs behind you into plow pose and here really wherever it's comfortable for you, continue breath of fire.

You can straighten the arms down if you want for more leverage. Inhale and as you exhale you're just going to unwind very slowly, one vertebrate at a time and lovely, that should feel good. Bring the legs down and just slowly bring yourself up for our last posture. So we're going to sit in celibate pose if that feels comfortable for you. So that means you're sitting in between the heels, you can always put a little cushion behind you which I like to do or blanket to prop you up a little bit.

We're going to close this Kriya with Sat Kriya. So the index finger is up and the rest are clasped and the thumbs are crossed and you're bringing the arms up and we're going to on Sat we're going to pull in the navel slightly and on Naam we're going to release the navel and project the sound out of the brow point. Close the eyes, focus at the brow, let's begin. Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Naam Sat Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit Numsit, numsit. Nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-sit, nam-inhale deep.

Squeeze from the base of the spine all the way up to the fingertips. And please exhale, hold the posture and squeeze another root lock and release the arms. Good. So let's finish with our beautiful meditation. Let's come back into easy pose and a very lovely mudra.

Bring the hands together in like a little tipi and now everything but the middle finger bend it and the thumbs are right in front of the heart, about four inches, elbows to parallel to the ground. Look at the tip of the nose with the eyes one-tenth open. We're going to take a deep inhale and hold the breath and chant silently, sat-nam, eleven times. If you have a big breath capacity, you can go all the way to 22 times. Then we're going to exhale, hold the breath out and chant eleven times.

We'll just begin here with eleven. We'll just do one minute and you can carry on up to three minutes with this meditation. Look at the tip of the nose, inhale deep, hold the breath and chant silently, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, sat-nam, recite. Exhale. Inhale. Keep reciting the mantra. Exhale. Inhale. Last one. And exhale. Relax. And now you can take a lovely shavasana or you can close with me. Let's take a deep inhale for a long sat and a short nam. Sat nam.