Cleansing Flow

Welcome, everyone. I'd love to lead you through a twisting flow today. And twists can be really lovely for lengthening the spine and working out some sticky areas. And they can also really flush the organ body. So this could be a really rejuvenating, maybe even a cleansing practice for you. We'll start in a seat. And I'm sitting up on a blanket, which you might want. And also, I just want to mention that if you have a yoga brick at home, and you like that in your standing forms, grab that and just have it nearby. So in a seat, meet me here. And we'll take our fingers up onto our shoulders, and just lightly touch the tops of the shoulders. And then we'll breathe in as we twist to the left and out as we twist to the right. And we'll do that a little bit quickly. So just kind of mobilizing through the spine. You might even do breath of fire if you know that breath. Just gently drawing the abdomen back towards the spine on the exhalation. And you might even keep your chin at your sternum as you do this. So you're rotating a little more from the spine instead of the neck or the neck spine. For 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Exhale everything, come into the center. Let's let our arms go. And let's twist to the right. So taking your left hand across, right hand behind you. You might even thread and catch your inner thigh if you like that variation. And let's take a big breath and fill all the way to the top of the breath. Lengthen through the spine and then exhale and twist a little more through the low, mid and upper spine. Maybe pause on empty and you might find a little more revolution, a little more twist. And then inhale, come back to the center. Exhale it all out. Okay, you'll do the same thing, but this time twisting, exhaling to the left. So hands can come up onto the shoulders, elbows reach wide.

And we'll inhale right and exhale to the left. You're welcome to add in sort of a breath of fire here, kapalabhati. And as you exhale, snapping the belly gently back to the spine. You can allow your hips to shift with this. Try not to stay rigid. Just feel a nice mobilization all the way from the pelvis up to the top of the shoulders. If you're getting dizzy, you can stop. If not, we'll go for five, four, three, two, one. Exhale, everything come to the center. And now let's come into a twist coming across, right hand to the outside of the left knee, left hand behind, or maybe threading it around.

Pause at the top of your big inhalation if that's available. And then exhale, twist a little bit more through the spine. You might even feel the abdominal wall getting involved. Maybe look behind you. As you pause on empty, you could twist a little bit more. And then inhale to the center. Exhale, everything out.

Beautiful. Let's come on to all fours in the quadruped position. And we'll just bring some attention into the spine by inhaling and arching the spine, maybe squeezing the shoulder blades together and exhaling, rounding the spine, pressing the shoulder blades apart. Inhale again, arch, and exhale round. And last one here, you might move segmentally through the spine. So let the pelvis arch, low, mid, upper back, look forwards. And then as you exhale, let the pelvis curl under, low, mid, upper back, neck, head. Come to a neutral spine, so nice. Tuck your toes and press back into your downward facing dog, where you might move around a bit. You might bring in a sounded breath if that's in your practice. See if you can breathe all the way around your lower ribs. Step or hop if you like your feet to the top of the mat. Inhale, lengthen through the front of the spine, and exhale, fold in. Press your feet down, come all the way up and reach. Maybe look up, exhale your hands by your sides. Let's do sun salutation variations. Inhale your arms up and fold in. Inhale, elongate. Exhale, step or hop back. Let's lower to chaturanga or if you like to the floor. Roll over your toes cobra or upward facing dog. And exhale up and back to downward facing dog. Inhale your right leg up. Exhale it into warrior one stance. Inhale, rise up to warrior one. Here's our flow. Exhale into warrior two. You might shift your back foot a little bit. Inhale into the peaceful warrior. You might float your bottom arm here. And exhale, we're going to turn onto a pivot on the back foot. Windmill the arms so you might enjoy that big circle of the arms. Taking your left hand down and your right arm up for a twisted lunge. Energize your back leg. Take an extra breath here. Lengthen through your lower spine. And on your next exhalation, take your right arm up and over your ear. Big, nice circle movement. And step back to downward facing dog. Option here to inhale to plank.

Exhale to chaturanga, nice wide shoulders. Press into upward dog. Use your hands. And exhale, back into downward facing dog. Inhale your left leg up and back. Exhale it through for warrior one stance. Inhale, come up into warrior one. Exhale, open into warrior two. I do a little smudge of the back foot back. Inhale, reverse warrior, a peaceful warrior. Exhale, turn onto a pivot on the back foot and do that big windmill with your arms. Letting your right hand come down and your left up. Squeeze your hips to the center. Use the energy of your back leg to lengthen your spine. One more breath. And then big circular movement with your top arm up and over. Either downward facing dog or option to come through this chaturanga strong in the abdomen upward dog and downward facing dog. Let's take a breath there. And as you exhale, bend your knees. Step or hop forwards to the top of the mat. Exhale, fold in. Press down to come up. Reach up and exhale your hands by your sides. Let's add on to that. So inhale, arms up and fold. Lengthen out through the spine here. Plant your hands step or hop back.

And lower to your version of this either to the floor to chaturanga. Inhale, upward dog or cobra. And exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale your right leg up. Exhale it to warrior one. Inhale, find the top. Press your back foot. Exhale, a little opening to warrior two. Inhale, peaceful warrior here. Exhale that windmill that come up onto a pivot big circle into your twisted lunge. Let's take an extra breath wide and through your shoulder blades. Squeeze your hips together. Okay, we're going to make that big circle. And this time we're going to put the weight into our back foot to let us bounce forwards so that we shift the weight into our front foot and come all the way up to bringing your left knee in towards your chest. Come across with your right hand and grab the outer knee. And then as you squeeze your hips to the center and straighten your right leg, you might open your left arm up. If you want to test your balance, you might even look behind you.

And you might also grab the outer foot. Okay, let's look forwards to ground through the right leg. And then exhale your left leg back into a high lunge. Inhale your arms up. And then we'll twist in the other direction. So right arm back, left arm forwards. Ground down through your feet, widen through your collarbones. Extra breath here. Beautiful. We'll windmill our hands down. Inhale and exhale either downward facing dog or you might cycle through this upward facing dog and downward facing dog. Press down through your hands. Inhale your left leg up. Exhale it through for warrior one. Inhale, come up warrior one.

Exhale that little foot smudge into warrior two. Inhale, peaceful warrior. Exhale, put your mind in your back foot as you turn it onto a pivot. Big windmill into your twisted lunge. Take a breath there. Inhale your left arm over your head. So start that transfer of weight, which you might take a couple steps in and step all the way to the top of the mat, right knee into the chest. So take our left arm across either holding the knee. Maybe you take your right arm back and start to turn. Maybe you take the outer foot and start to kick that out. See if you can straighten your bottom leg. Roll your left ribcage around. Let's look forwards, ground down through the left leg, bend the right leg, then we'll exhale our way back into a high lunge. Inhale the arms up and exhale twist into this twisted high lunge, noticing what's happening to the front of your hip. Lift out of your lower spine. Maybe you feel some support around the hips and the back side. However you do, explore coming down to the mat. Maybe it's a kind of a windmill circular action through the arms. Downward facing dog or press into your hands for chaturanga. Press into your feet for upward dog and exhale back into downward facing dog. Take a breath in and out there. Okay bend your knees step or hop top of the mat. Inhale, exhale fold in. Inhale come all the way up reach, clear out your lower spine and exhale your hands down.

Arms up. Exhale and fold. Lengthen out. Step or hop back. Keep the strength in your legs as you lower. Maybe you're taking a cobra or upward dog. Press into your hands. Exhale downward facing dog. Inhale your right leg up. Exhale it for warrior one. Inhale up so you know this. Exhale smudge that back foot open. Inhale reverse breathe into your right lung. Exhale turn onto a pivot twisted lunge. Inhale here. Exhale feel your back foot. Then inhale come all the way up coming into a bit of a standing twist straight in your bottom leg. Take an option for holding your knee or your foot. Let's exhale, release that. So we'll turn forward to ground through the right leg.

Step back into that high lunge and as you're making these transitions, squeeze your hips to center. Maybe you've taken your arms up and then start to twist and see if you can really use your legs to feed some more length into your spine. You might hear if you have the reach with your fingertips, take your left hamstring with your fingers and press down into it. So you press your hamstring up into your fingers and reach up. Okay let's exhale face forwards. This time instead of coming down, let's come forwards. Maybe a big hop or a couple of steps to take the fingertips to the floor. Maybe you find a block there and elevate your back leg. And then let's teeter totter forwards. Head down, back leg up, inner thigh, big toe line lifting.

Don't worry about how high you get the leg. Think about the decompression off of your right hip joint pressing down into the earth and that big toe line of your top leg. All right let's squeeze that outer right hip into the center and then take the left knee to the outside of the right foot almost to come down to the floor and then inhale it back up towards any standing split you like there. One more time exhale lower. Squeeze that right hip in to the pelvic floor and you'll reach up. Exhale take it behind and then start to lower down. So you could do this without your hands as long as you're moving your left foot to make enough space for you to sit or you could use your hands. Let's take our right hand behind left arm up and exhale twist. You could hold your leg, you could hook your elbow. Some people might even catch the inner foot. Let's take a few breaths here in this twist. You don't need to look behind you but maybe you do. And as you exhale you might explore kind of lengthening and twisting through the low, mid and upper spine. Maybe even closing your eyes and putting your mind in your spine and feeling where you might need a little more space. All right so some of you keep breathing there.

Some of you if you like you can kind of pop up onto your toe pads in this cross knee position. From there hook across with your left elbow. Take your hands to the floor and maybe you shift towards the chaturanga and let your legs float a little bit. Maybe you kick your legs out. And then exhaling coming on down and from here let's crisscross our knees. So it might look a little like this. You might snuggle your knees a little closer. You might prop yourself up and exhale fold in.

If this is hard on your knees you could try pointing your toes. Ground down through the hips and it could be enough to be upright in this position. Okay let's come on up. Untwizzle your legs there. Roll over your feet or you might lift and roll over. Exhale to your downward facing dog. Either stay in downward facing dog or take one foot forward. Lift the other leg up and do three hops. One, two, three. Maybe you catch a little bit of airtime there. Come to the top of the mat. Maybe both legs come up and exhale fold. Inhale come all the way up and release the arms. Other side inhale reach up lengthen the spinal column and exhale fold and squeeze out the abdomen. Inhale elongate. Plant the hands. Push the floor away from you as you come back and down chaturanga.

Inhale upward facing. Exhale downward facing. Left leg up. Exhale warrior one. Inhale come up. Exhale open it up. Move your back foot accordingly. Inhale reverse. Exhale twist onto the back toes. Big windmill action. Enjoy that in the shoulders and come into your twist. Take a breath in. Squeeze your hips to center especially that left outer hip. Big movement down. We're going to shift the weight from the back foot to the front foot. Come on up. Squeeze those hips. Stable through the hips. Right knee up. Start to twist. Maybe look behind you.

Maybe you take the outer foot. Turning the organic body the abdomen. Standing straight and tall through your spine. Okay let's look forwards. Ground through the left leg. Slow back into your high lunge. Watch that transition. You keep your hip in. Inhale your arms up reach and exhale start to twist. Engage the backside muscles. Lift out of your lower spine and if you have the reach you can fingertip press towards your hamstring with your left hand and push your fingers and your hamstring together to get more length up and out. It's like a peaceful warrior variation with a twist. Let's inhale the center. So this time we're going to come forwards into a standing split. So it might be a big hop might be a couple of steps. Keep that left hip in and come forwards. So it could be a warrior three with block support or a teeter totter forwards. Don't worry about how high your back leg gets. Work with that big toe line. Work with pressing down through your bottom foot to lift off your bottom hip. Breathe into your low ribs. Then let's keep that left hip compacted in.

Then almost lower to the floor and inhale come back up. If you really want to challenge yourself here you could do this with your hands floating. Keep that left hip sucking in. All right so you can start to come down now and you might use your hands to support or not use your hands clear enough space for your seat to come down. Left hand behind right arm up. Reach up. Exhale. Find your twist. Could be holding, could be hooking, could be the armpit fitting into the knee. Just watch your not over opening the front of the shoulder. Over opening. Turn around. You don't need to look back. You could work the twist more from your rib basket. You could even look forwards and continue to twist. Find an arm position that works for you. One more breath.

Maybe it makes sense here to pop up into a kind of a crisscross knee squat. Hook across your red elbow. Fall into this and try not to dip your shoulders too much. So push the floor away. Maybe your feet float a little bit. Maybe you kick them out. And coming on out of that and start to crisscross through the knees. So it might be a little more upright like this. You might want something underneath your hips.

Let's come on forwards. You could snuggle your knees a little closer together. And usually your hips are more towards your bottom leg. So move the hips over a little bit. Stay upright or lean in. And a couple more breaths here. Rooting down through your hips. Inhale. Come on up. However you want to. We're going to transition onto our back.

So you might lift up. Roll over your cross-shins. Come on back. Downward-facing dog. And bend your knees. Step or hop through to your seat and roll on down onto our back. All right. Take your feet like you're going into a bridge shape. And we'll roll up segmentally. Pelvis, low back, mid back, upper back. So you might roll your shoulders under and interlock. You might hold onto your hips here and even come up onto your tippy toes. If you have your hips and it feels available to you, try to keep your hips fairly steady and take your right knee in towards your chest.

Maybe you take that right leg up. Maybe you even take it across the body any amount and just sense that slight little twist in the pelvis. We're in the opening of the right SI joint area. Inhale to center. Exhale that down. Really ground through your feet here. The option is to take your left knee in. Maybe take it up more symmetrically. And maybe let it come across. And you could do that with a knee bent as well. Press strongly into your right leg. And just center. Release that. Ground through the feet, the heels. Engage the hamstrings.

And exhale, you might make space in your shoulders and roll down segmentally there. Okay. We'll do that again or any bridge variation that you love. I just want to give an option for some of us to put that into wheel. So you might flip your fingers. Come up onto the top of your head. Find your hands and feet. Find a little posterior tip of the pelvis.

A little pull in through your shoulders and press up. Maybe walk your feet a little closer together. Maybe come up onto your tippy toes and then you could take your right knee in towards your chest. Maybe elongate it out. One-legged bridge. Maybe with the knee bent or straight, take it across the body any amount and see what that feels like. Knees magnetized to the midline. And exhale and release. Find your hands and feet again and maybe you switch sides there. Knee up. Placing with that one-legged bridge or wheel. Maybe the leg up.

Maybe that weird little across movement just to invigorate the senses. Find a little twist. See how it feels. And like exhale. Come on down. Talking the chin. In the bridge variation. Knees into the chest. Come on out. And of course we better do a spinal twist. So let's take our hips to the left. Knees in.

Legs to the right. Let them stagger. Arms can come out into a T or a cactus. Position with the arms. Feel free to take a variation with your legs that works for you. Maybe you're crisscrossing your left knee over. Maybe you're extending out through your top leg. Breathe some length from your pelvis to your head. Let's come on out.

Center out. Other side. So hips to the right. Knees in. Knees to the left. Feel the weight of your body. Maybe you crisscross there. Feel the weight of the back of your heart when you exhale. Let's come into the center. If you like a longer shavasana, then feel free to pause the video and take as long as you like.

Finding your zone. You might come up into a meditation. That's how your energy's flowing today. You might keep your feet planted or lengthen them out. Let's take a breath in all the way to the top of the breath. Pause and exhale through pursed lips. Two more like that. Putting your mind in your spine. Noticing what's different.

Noticing what's the same. Attending to all the subtleties. Last one here. Breathe in. Pause at the top. Exhale it all out. Feel the weight of your spine, your hips, your head, your heart. Now you might want to stay there for a little longer.

Feel free. Or if you'd like to come on up and your energy's wanting to start your day or finish your day, reach out through your arms and legs. And exhale however you do. You might roll over to the side or rolling up. Meet me in a seat. I want to thank you so much for sharing this practice with me today. Namaste.