Day 2: Spring Flow

Hello, everyone. Welcome to day two of the Spring Ayurveda and Yoga Challenge. I'm delighted to have you back. And I look forward to offering a practice to you that starts sitting. And then we'll do some basic warm ups for our upper body, and then start to do some work that is a little bit more rhythmic and flowy to bring some heat and warmth to our body, and move into some specific standing poses to target those legs. And we'll end up with some sitting postures to root us before Shavasana. So for class today, if you grab a blanket and two blocks, I'm going to have you use the blanket right away and your blocks right away. So you want to open your blanket up, maybe center of the mat, have flat wide blocks at the back, bring your knees wide, maybe as wide as your blankets, sit back on your stack of flat blocks as you bring your feet in towards the blocks. Mandukasanam. I think it's wise and kind to start maybe higher than you think you might need to go. And just notice if this feels safe, comfortable knees and ankles. If you wanted to explore coming down a notch, come down and maybe turn your block to the medium height. See if that's better for your knees. And you're welcome to come back to the higher height if that's better. So once you decide what shape that you feel is safest for you, take a moment, look to your horizon, lining up through the curves of your spine. Let your eyes look a little bit forward and maybe slightly down towards the earth without the head tipping forward. And then let's bring a little bit of tip in the pelvis back and forth until you feel a little bit more confirmed like you're sitting up on top of the pelvis. And then from that place, let's pause here and acknowledge the places where you feel support, eyes open or closed. And acknowledging the firmness of the ground in order to potentially allow for a little bit more softening of our water body, so to speak, where the muscles begin to perhaps soften away from the bone or that feeling that your muscles soften away from the bones. When that softening occurs, notice the results around the surface on the skin. Does your skin even feel a little bit smoother, more porous? So as we sit, maybe we take a moment to notice here, areas as we're breathing in through the nose, as we're breathing in and swallowing, does the throat feel dry or hydrated? Can you sense the circulation in your body? Does it feel mobile or congested? So it's a good circulation in this moment. From deep into your center out towards your limbs. Can we sense as we're sitting, is there areas or tissues or muscles that might feel a little bit more dry, tight or stiff? Compared to areas where there might feel like there's good flow and mobility. Just generally sensing how we're starting today. And then perhaps in our sitting position, if there's any particular intention that you'd like to keep track of and maybe water throughout this practice, something you hope to have more of perhaps this season or maybe at the start of this new day. Maybe we keep that in our heart mind now as we begin some little movements starting by tilting your head a little bit to your right, tip up to neutral and then to your left, the curious dog tilt back to center, again to your right, back to center and to your left and center. And now let your arms stay at your sides and let's have the arms circle and flow up and back a few times. And then let's from here let the movement increase as we start to let the arms come up higher and drawing what might just feel like big kind of circles up and back. And there's no particular way to do this right or wrong just trying to move through a new plane of movements, almost like you're swimming a little bit back in space. And then leave your arms up when you're ready all the way up, soft hands will tip to the right side and reach your fingertips as you stretch your left arm overhead and open your left side body. And then tip back to center, left hand to the floor, soft hands as we arch over to your right sides, open that side body into back to center. One more time tipping to your right sides as the left arm flows up overhead, back to your center, left hand touches ground and we reach over with the right hand to the left, back up to center. Let's lift for a moment up off your prop and as we are working in that wide knee position you can maybe move your blocks completely out of the way. And as you're still oriented hopefully about the middle of your mat with your knees wide, slide your knees apart and big toes touch as we sit back now maybe without the block as far as you're comfortable and walk your arms out in front of you so your hips could be above the feet or your hips could be back in the arches. Let's take your right hand and thread it to the left as you bring your forehead straight down to the floor. So there's a sense of maybe getting an outer right shoulder or mid back stretch as your forehead tips down towards the floor. The left arm is firmly engaged as you press your left hand into the floor, send your left hip back away from your left shoulder. Take one more moment just tending to that upper right shoulder area. Bring your body forwards maybe now like you're back to tabletop with wide knees and then as we sit back second side left hand threads over to the right and drop your forehead straight down to the center line of your mat. Again notice again you're sitting back a comfortable and safe amount for your knees so your hips don't need to be sitting in the feet. They might for some of you. Take a few breaths and just acknowledging again what you're opening here in that outer left shoulder I hope or outer arm, mid back, general areas I'm hoping you're feeling the stretch. And then over the next breath let's release the left arm and come forward with your hands and just for a moment keep the big toes touching. Last thing we'll do a quick little move forward with straight arms. Tip your feet towards your hips and look straight ahead. Swing your hips back, head down. Come again forward, lift your feet towards the back of your hips. So you come forward and as you go back let's put the feet down, draw your knees in parallel and take a block if you will between your knees and thighs in the medium position. With your block in the medium position bring your hands forward of the blanket, curl your toes under. As you inhale bring your legs close enough that you feel you're engaged with the block hugging in with your thighs. Look forward when you're ready. Full exhale through the mouth as you exhale all the breath out. Pull the belly in as you lift your knees and hips and try your downward dog with that udiyana action where the belly is drawn into the back at the end of exhale. Knees come back down, look forward, drop the belly towards the floor. Full exhale all the air out, squeeze your block the whole time you're lifting your legs, the hips are going back, belly stays hugged in. Knees back down, look forward on inhale soft belly. Pull belly in, squeeze the block the whole time that you're going up and back. A little pause and one more knees lightly touch. Look forward, last squeeze of the block. Full exhale and draw your hips up and back. All right let's bring your knees back down to the floor. Take your block out from between the legs and then from here with your hands freshly spread on the ground lift your knees and hips up off the floor and we're going to kick your right leg out to the side and rest on the right edge of your foot so your legs are crossed.

Right leg over left, transfer your right leg back to your push up down dog shape and take your left leg and kick it out to your left. Resting on the pinky edge of your left foot. Go ahead lower down, back to plank, knees to the blanket, curl your toes under, walk your hands to your knees. So come off the wrist. Let's take this blanket and fold the blanket up out of the way and as you come back down let's go ahead from here and start to separate your feet. Fold over your legs and have bent knees as we fold over the legs. Take just a moment, grab the opposite elbow, fold forwards. Let gravity take that upper body a little more towards the ground and feel free to flow through the upper body swaying a little bit side to side if that feels comfortable and safe. One more big exhale here. Let go of the elbows and maybe you roll up to standing that that's good for your spine or come up with a long spine and as you come up shake your arms out legs up out a bit. Alright now if we stay with your feet let's say about hip distance apart we'll do one more little breath practice now in standing. As you raise your arms on the in-breath bend your knees exhale press your hands against your thighs as you exhale and pull your belly in as you drop your chin to your chest. We call udiyana bandha, belly drops out, inhale sweep your arms up, exhale all the breath out press against your thighs, pull the belly in and back, soft belly your rhythm could be a little different than mine but let's do two more full exhale press against your thighs, belly in, soft belly as we stretch up last one stay with that udiyana just for a moment and then relax the belly inhale all the way up to straight legs. Let's bring the hands down in front of your chest and then take a step more to the top of your mat. Now we'll do that part to bring a little bit more heat and warmth into the practice. Let's bring the hands in front of the heart center root down into your feet and take a big breath as you inhale let your arms reach up towards the ceiling. Bring your arms out to the side as you fold forward and down and touch the floor and then step back with your right leg. I just realized some of you might like the blanket under your right knee so when you bring your right knee down if you want more padding take a moment to add that padding and we'll relax your back foot to the floor. Let's inhale and swing your arms forward and up as we inhale to vertical little lunge here circle your arms down and back let's again sweep your arms forward and up to lift those lungs and chest arms down and back last one sweep your arms forward and up and then as your arms drop down and back and they come forward let's pause right fingertips will stay down or right palm down as the left arm flows out to the side or up left hand down if you feel it's more accessible with a block under your right hand at a flat block and sweep your left arm up towards the ceiling and come back down we'll do one more inhale left arm sweeps up and come on down curl your back toes under lift your right knee and transfer into your plank to come down knees belly chest we're building a little heat here and float your legs off the ground as you lift your chest legs wide legs together forehead down legs wide lift the chest up exhale lower down one more legs wide as the chest comes up bring your legs together and we're going to press back up to tabletop and then into your downward facing dog let's go ahead and bend your knees and we'll make our transfer now with your right foot forward left knee down and as soon as you reach your back toes maybe you have a blanket there under your knee sweep your arms up in front of you come up to that low lunge arms drop down and back sweep your arms forward lift your body back up arms down and back and even though you may have done this before can it notice what you feel in your body today arms down and back let's keep your hands down again I'll show if you wanted to block under your left hand you would put one here as you sweep your right arm out to the side or up right hand down right arm out to the side or up and the hand down without the block right arm up and we bring the hand back down curl your back toes under left knee lifts right leg goes back so plank into your downward facing dog exhale try to create a little flow roll forward into your baby up dog toes curled under look forward knees are lifted and then to your down dog walk your feet forward towards the back of your wrist turn your toes out a few degrees to get you ready for a little bit of a squat be a high squat or hands in front of the heart if we have access to come a little deeper into the legs and whichever version you're working at let your arms reach out in front of you like you've got a big box in your hands and lift that box up towards the sky as you stand gather your hands at your chest as you bring your feet back in underneath your hips that's again press into the feet as we sweep the arms up fold forward over those bent legs touch the earth step back with your right leg into a high lunge press down into both feet and swing your arms in front of you lift up reach for the ceiling and then drop your arms down and back and then we'll sweep forward similar pattern to what you did when your knee was down arms down one more time sweep forward engage those legs and arms come down let's rest the fingertips on the floor or maybe you have two blocks and you could have your hands on blocks if that makes that a little bit more accessible keep your right hand down left arm opens out to the left and bring your left hand to the to the block or floor and try again as you're moving to keep that back right leg energized so your hips aren't sinking down as your arm goes up one more sweep the left arm up bring it down and you can keep your blocks or move them aside as you transfer through plank this is where we come down to the floor knees belly chest hands by the chest as you lift your chest separates your legs legs together forehead down legs wide chest up legs together head down one more legs wide chest up and we come back to neutral let's come up to tabletop into your downward dog when you're ready curl your toes under and we'll step forward with your new side so the right foot comes forward we're in the high lunge press into your feet as you swing your arms up towards your ears and then arms go down and back swing your arms out in front of you as you press into your feet lift up arms down and back press into both feet as you sweep your arms forward and up arms down and back and then keep your fingertips at the front of the mat you feel free again to grab those blocks I'll show with the blocks low right arm swings out to the side your back quadriceps stays engaged right hand to the block so we're trying to turn from the waist more than the hips right arm reaches up to the side right hand back down just to get a little more movement through that mid thoracic spine reach your right arm up right hand down move your blocks right leg back and we're in downward dog exhale tip forward into your plank that goes into early baby upward dog as you look forward thighs are lifted back into your downward dog exhale walk your feet up between the hands sorry move your feet a little wider so your toes turn out and we'll come to a little bit of a squat it could be hips high as knees could be your hips dropping more towards the floor and whichever version you choose feet are on the ground ideally as you reach straight out in front of you like I've got a big box and then lift up to stand as you turn your toes forward hands in front of the heart as you bring your feet in parallel last one press the feet down as we sweep the arms up fold forward over the legs touch the floor step back a shorter step into your warrior one and raise your arms out to the side and up just to get you up and make sure your feet feel stable now let's start that flow arms down and back tip forward reach your arms from the ground up towards the sky arms go down we're going to reach forward down towards the earth and then come up towards the sky last one arms down back reach forward from the earth become up towards the sky and as the arms come down let's stay with maybe blocks under your hands here could even be in the tall position as we work at bringing your left arm out to the side without lifting your back heel left hand down I'm working with tall blocks to keep my back heel down left arm out to the side or up left hand down one more time press into your back heel as you lift your left arm come back to neutral move your blocks step back right leg left leg you're in your pushup of plank knees belly chest we come down that variation where we lift the legs wide chest up legs together forehead down legs wide chest up and we come down one more legs wide chest up and as we lower let's press back to tabletop into your downward dog when you're ready right foot comes forward maybe halfway left foot turns in and down as you bend your knee maybe arms come out to the side and up so you have a moment to adjust the angles of your feet and then drop your arms down and back reach for the earth and sweep up towards the sky arms down and back reach for the earth sweep forward and up and down and back one more time sweep your arms forward and up arms down and back and we'll stay maybe grab those blocks keep your front knee bent definitely got a shorter step so the back heel can stay rooted as the right arm sweeps out to the side maybe parallel to the floor right hand back to your block press into your left heel as your right arm sweeps out to the side back to hand on block one more time sweep your left right arm out to the side as you twist hands on the blocks move your blocks step back left leg right leg downward facing dog exhale appreciate that little partial inversion then roll to the ball of your foot as you come into your plank keep your legs strong as you look forward and then into downward dog exhale let's walk your feet forward and then to the sides of your wrist so your toes turn out as we squat from here one more time feet planted on the floor raise your arms in front of you use your legs and envision you're lifting that box up towards the ceiling and then turn your toes forward as your arms come down in front of you all right let's go ahead and transfer your blocks to the long end of the mat and come on up to stand and we'll move the feet maybe as wide as your shoulders once you're stable here we're going to make an adjustment to pull the heels and toes out and as you bend your knees a little bit start to make a few circles we're going to slide the hands from your legs up to your pelvis so you can feel what we're encouraging to move and notice the knee one knee will bend the opposite leg will straighten a little bit you're kind of circling the hips around and as we start to circle around more we might feel like we can come a little bit more forward with the torso and as we're circling around in this maybe unusual kind of way there's no way to do it right or wrong can we start to move the hips less and turn from the torso more kind of finding different corners of the body to move and if tipping forward doesn't feel all that great for you stay more vertical let's try one more cycle of moving around in that way and when you're back up slide your hands to your knees deepen your squats press into your right knee as you look over your opposite shoulder and as you press into your left leg looking over the opposite shoulder let's come back to center touch the ground under your shoulders or grab your blocks medium position maybe or tall to help you straighten your legs and now slide your feet a little bit wider apart now similar foot position we're going to pull the heels back in turn your toes again out a few degrees keep your arms here and now shift your hips to the right as you bend your right knee straighten your left leg and look towards your left foot which is pressing down bend your left knee shift your hips to the left and look at your right toes as your right toes are pressing down let's see if you can feel as you shift side to side one inner leg it's a big stretch we're getting more movement and the opposite ankle and ideally we're not putting too much weight on the hands on the blocks we're trying to transfer using your legs more uh-huh than your hands if you do this regularly and you're willing again to adjust the angles of your feet so your knees are safe some of you might bring your hands in front of your heart and transfer now without using your hands on the blocks shifts you into using some different muscles some of you might even enjoy arms parallel so it feels like you're floating above the floor and certainly asking more of the legs so notice if that feels like what your legs and body needs today after doing some clearing here let's tip to the center grab those blocks gently straighten your legs and let your feet wander maybe an inch or two wider so it feels like you're doing plank pose in your torso and the splits side splits in your legs so keep your head up as high as your heart or as high as your pelvis and let your feet slide a little bit out to the side while tending to that lift in the pelvic floor up toward the navel so that we feel again we're doing that weeding out of stiffness congestion and that hip area and maybe having better flow of prana circulation towards our center right let's heel toe legs and feet a little bit closer together now when your feet are maybe a little wider than your shoulders transfer your hands to your thighs come on up to straight legs and let's bring the legs in slowly heel toe just to feel the difference as you shake your legs out a little bit feel the difference in your legs alright one last thing with the legs again in that wide position raise your arms when you're ready up if it feels good look a little bit up that says we exhale bring our hands into the small of the lower back bend your knees and tilt forward to your parallel to the floor straighten your legs swing your arms all the way back up if it feels good look up exhale bend those knees tip from the hips bring yourself parallel to the floor last one going up and then coming forward parallel to the floor pause bring your hands in front of you grab those blocks and use them to help you transfer back to the front end of your mat I'm going to turn my right foot and pivot so I end up in a lunge at the facing the short front end of my mat now let's slide your right leg back like you're doing plank into downward dog bring your knees to the floor so we're going to slide one block forward pull one block flat in that medium position medium width at the middle of your mats so with your block flat about the medium of medium position of your mat I'm going to encourage you now to maybe watch or my directions will hopefully be clear enough where you're in plank pose floating with the block beneath your belly pelvis area kick your right leg out to the side like we did earlier in class but this time we're going to lower your outer right leg and hip to that flat block the back toes are curled under the back leg is engaged and as I look to the short end of the mat once my right leg is landed lower the elbows to the floor and then maybe you can squeeze the block in the medium position between your hands so your elbows might be about as wide as your shoulders send more energy into your back leg that left leg tends to want to bend see if we can press through a straight back leg allow a little softening an outer right hip area or outer thigh where our leg meets that block can we soften to improve maybe a little bit more circulation here if you wanted to tilt your block to a higher angle to rest your forehead on a block tilt your block to the angle that allows your forehead to rest on something solid does that allow you to breathe in a way that softens muscles and skin to feel like maybe we're starting to hydrate some new places than outer hip or your waist or your shoulders as we stay for a couple extra breaths if you lift your head up slide your hands under your shoulder line and come up more towards straight arms let's transfer and slide your right leg back so you end up in down dog and you might tread the legs been one knee and then the other and then we'll get ready to do your second side where as you come to plank pose and your pelvis is floating over that flat block kick your left leg out to the left and then finds again you might need to use your hand to put the block under your left outer hip outer leg back right toes are curled under back knee is lifted as we drop our elbows down and turn and look towards the floor between the forearms between your elbows and maybe slide a block underneath your forehead so notice what's happening in the outer hip area continue to energize your back right leg a little turning from the waist which might reveal some tension or stiffness in the center of the body and maybe we're moving in some ways that you haven't moved before and feeling new places or if you've done this before how does it feel today so can we awaken our mindfulness to be with whatever is being revealed here today another big breath in and out and as we lift the head up off the block let's set that block to the side bring your hands under the line of your shoulders so you can press off the block under your hip back to downward dog for a moment and let's go ahead and move that block out of the way so no blocks on your mats let's come down with your knees now to the floor and I'm going to slide my legs to the side so I end up on my outer right hip on my outer right hip I'm going to adjust my legs so they're a little bit more staggered almost to 90 degree angles with my right leg pressing against the floor more firmly if I turn again towards the short end of the mat kind of like we just did potentially walk forward with the hands to put the elbows down under my shoulder line palms together and focus on that rotation again from the lower waist through maybe thoracic mid spine as I look down and just notice can we breathe all the way down towards the bottom of the lungs the bottom of the waist and eventually down into your hips big breath in and big breath out so we walk the hands back in towards your right leg find that spot where you're lifted and take your right hand a little bit more behind you with your fingertips facing away from your hip and let this left arm reach out to the side towards the top of that short end of your mat and lift your hips up as you stretch that left hand up into the air and a little bit back behind you and then we come back down to the floor hands behind you as we tip the knees up and let's switch your leg angle so we're taking the legs to more or less 90 degree angles left outer leg is the one feeling more pressure with the ground probably walk out towards the short end of your mat the new side if you're ready let's bring your elbows down under the line of your shoulders press your hands together as you look down and then notice right away what's different on this side this reveals some tighter places in the spine or rib cage diaphragm so many places you could be feeling things my general hope is it reduces some stiffness in the center of the body perhaps even into lower back and just finding ways to move in slightly different shapes than what you might do in your day to day life so we're just start to hydrate some new tissues of the body to help promote better circulation overall as we're moving into our season of spring inviting things to unthaw and melt from our winter freeze let's walk your hands back in if you're ready under your shoulder line and as we come here and upright please take your left hand behind you fingers face away from your hip right arm reaches out to your side for the short end of your mat and lift the hand up arm up as you move your hips forward in space and find almost that kind of joyful celebratory shape and then we come on back down as we come down swing that back leg forward you might transfer to have your blanket more underneath your head and slide your blocks to the sides we're going to turn around and end up on your back so if I'll meet you here when we come down to the floor with a blanket under your head and find a neutral place for just a moment we're going to tip the knees in towards your chest once your head has the right padding take a moment to hug your knees and after you're giving your knees a little hug in towards your belly chest area let's open your arms out to the side make sure you've got room for that and then stretch your legs up in the air keep your right leg up and let's drop the left leg down to the floor keep that right leg up we'll take that right leg and start to tip it to the left as you press that right shoulder down roll onto your back lift the right leg back up right leg again might tip to the left maybe further than the first time roll back up let's try a couple more as best as you can we're going to maybe float that right leg parallel to the floor even if your leg could touch the ground can you have it more parallel to the floor and then as we swing that leg back up bend your knee and reach up with your hands to grab a hold of your right foot or your ankle and as we create that external rotation of that right leg elbow slightly bent raise your left leg up in the air and reposition your right leg like you're doing pigeon on your back here with the right leg now please drop your left leg down maybe parallel to the floor swing it back up left leg comes down maybe parallel to the floor back up left leg down and then left leg up now this last time when we keep your left leg parallel to the floor hold your right foot and maybe tilt your head up towards your right foot the head comes down notice if it actually reduces some tension in your back as you lift your head up release down one more time bring your head towards your right foot elbows are bent wide and when you come down please bring your left foot to meet your right foot and press your feet together here to squeeze your feet together lower your heels right above your pelvis let your knees move out away from your arms and shoulders fingers laced and let your knees again continue to move away from your shoulders and long torso hips gradually moving a little bit more towards the floor right we'll switch out and release your right foot down to the floor send your left leg to the sky and reopen your arms up to your sides let's start to tilt your left foot over to the right come back up the left foot again moves over to the right side come up and pay attention feedback you're getting whether you're dropping your leg to that amount where you're really mindful your back is not in any way being compromised moving in that way that doesn't promote any future harm let's do one more twist and releasing any tension maybe along that left outer hip leg when you come back up bend your left leg like you're about to do pigeon reach for your left foot or ankle with both hands swing your right leg up in the air and then maybe reposition that left leg to do more official pigeon like shape then when you're ready drop your right leg down towards the floor swing the leg up and then that right leg comes down we don't need to lower that leg all that far to hopefully feel some new space the front of that right hip area another moment just exploring again might we drop that leg down in a way that still feels good for your back let's keep now right leg floating above the floor lift your head up towards your right left foot bring your head back down lift your head towards your left foot maybe there's a little pause the lower back down again a little lift of the head towards your foot and then down and now this time let's bring your right foot towards your left foot grab both ankles or both feet for happy baby where we'll open the heels a little bit wider and rock yourself a tiny bit left to right so you're massaging those muscles along the sides of your spine you know maybe it's a little easier to access the hips we've got the support of the ground the earth underneath us if we pause here hold your left ankle and let your right leg go straight out to the right and you might assist that right leg moving forward out to your right left leg is doing happy baby bend your right leg catch that ankle or foot and use your left hand to help you move your left leg more to the left and we'll come back to happy baby one moment both legs go up in the air use your hands to help you move your legs forward now create a tiny bit of resistance as we draw the legs in on exhale legs open wide inhale the little resistance exhale close the legs open inhale and then again close so again maybe we're noticing that the spring we're doing a little bit more inner leg outer hip work to clear stagnation in those meridian lines so maybe we feel more vitality as we start to move into those longer days let's go ahead now keep your legs together hands stuck under the back of your head and let's go ahead from here and lower your left leg parallel to the floors you lift and twist to your right leg swing the left leg up head down right leg parallel to the floor lift and twist and leg goes back up let's find our rhythm left leg down lift and twist and even if you've done this before what are you noticing freshly today where do you feel the movement turn to your left find your rhythm one leg down twist to that opposite side noticing what you notice and now maybe we pause and center and give yourself a moment to one more time hug the knees towards the chest and rock yourself a little bit side to side with bent knees one of my favorite little shapes from here is to slide the legs down to the floor wide with the legs stretching straight arms stretch back by your ears so you end up in that X shape full of energy curl into your little ball exhale go into your X shape feel the support of the ground under you and then we go into a little ball two more going to our X shape full of energy curl into your ball I think the last one from that X shape curl into your little ball pause breathe here mindfully connecting to the floor underneath your back body and in that pause resting here just notice if anything comes to mind that was missed or you'd like to do again on your back of any type of movement your body's craving love having that little extra space after a guided practice to maybe move your body in a way that feels a little more intuitive or nurturing what might you need and if there's something that comes to mind treat yourself to that movement others might be ready to put your feet down and start to slow down and pay attention to how it feels with the support of the ground under us in our Shavasana and some of you might have your legs straight down on the floor there's different props that you might need to be comfortable here go ahead and grab other props but wait until you're ready to come down to the floor so we're more willing to meet now this support that's here as you take maybe a few fuller exhales and let your body become more still let's use our body now as a resource to come into the present moment you feeling that connection to what's stable underneath you can we resonate freshly with the earth element fertile ground in which we're planting ourselves and perhaps even remembering what type of an intention you might have set at the beginning of class and perhaps we come back to water whatever that intention is that you were hoping for more of this day or this season and imagine your breath being something that's actually hydrating before that intention and your attention can be in that lights that helps this grow into the future that you hope to be moving into we slow down to notice maybe what we wish for more of got that intention that we water with our attention with our imagination if we stay focused on that long enough and that perhaps becomes the future we move into if we notice from practice maybe a little bit better circulation all around so that sense of water could be so unifying to gather and unite parts of ourselves might have felt a little disconnected or offline imagine through better circulation now more parts of ourselves being united as we anchor together now for a few minutes in silence one of the essential elements for our health and well-being notice today what it's like to move into quiet space watering your intention we won't stay too much longer here finishing maybe one or two more breath cycles again so we don't get too cold or too sleepy or dull in Shavasana I want to invite you to make some little movements with your fingers and toes today and start to make circles with your wrist and your ankles the mindfully moving your arms and your legs back and forth just moving the arms back and forth now let's bend the legs when you're ready one at a time and there's your feet come to meet the earth just for a moment soften into the lower back we'll start to turn as you're ready to a side slowly from your fetal child's pose press into the ground and start to come up towards sitting if you were okay with our mandu kasana the pose we started with I want to buy you to grab your blanket bring that back to the center of your mat and a block or two whatever you're using to sit on I'm going to have two flat ones here separate the knees and slide those again back between your feet so as you come on up just check freshly this is the right height or perhaps we come down one so we're a little bit closer to the floor and notice how that feels in your knees let's stay here now with your hands on top of the thighs transfer one hand over the naval area and as we sit we're going to do a few rounds of kapalabhati to refresh our minds and to bring a little bit of warmth and energy to the center of the body so as we inhale let your belly soften into your palm and then quickly pull the belly in towards your back as you exhale through your nose so the in real time it's quick sharp exhales take a big inhale exhale press your hands into your thighs as you exhale through the mouth close the eyes if you're comfortable let your navel draw in slightly towards your back as you lower your chin to your chest bring your chin back up parallel to the floor soft belly if it's helpful hand stays over your navel belly again moves out quick sharp exhales pulling the belly in quickly towards your back eyes might even be closed so you focus more on the sound of the exhale and notice there's a little pause between every inhale big breath in everybody both hands on your legs maybe audible exhale all the air out take a pause pulling the belly toward the back lower your chin towards your chest pause as we elongate the spine soft belly look forward last time hand over the belly if that's helpful kapalabhati let your exhales draw your belly in quickly breathe through your nostrils feel that air move quickly up through the lungs chest sharply out through the nostrils when you're ready both hands on your legs big breath in exhale all the breath out belly stay slightly hugged in chin to the chest and feel that lift up from the navel to your diaphragm opening those upper lungs now as you relax the breath out see if you can draw your legs more parallel make two fists with your hands plug those fists together and drop them on top of your thighs as we do a little forward fold over those fists and let your forehead come towards the ground if you were sitting up and wanted some support under your forehead put a block here we'll be here just for two or three breaths as we lower the head towards their direction of the floor can we soften around where your fists are soften along the banks of your spine as you finish one more breath with your head down when you're ready bring your head and spine all the way up release your hands on top of your thighs and take a moment to look over the tip of the nose or if you're comfortable close your eyes and just tune into the effects for a few moments of that cleansing practice of kapalabhati and that cleansing practice where we apply some pressure to the digestive organs to maybe clear away some stagnation that might be here from our winter freeze from the winter in general and notice that that area feels a little more vibrant if your energy feels a little bit more clear after squishing our organs a little bit and giving them a little bit of a massage take another moment simply here again refreshing your awareness of your intention of what it is that you perhaps wish for more of in the season ahead and as we invite our hands perhaps now up in front of the heart center or staying in your lap may our practice continue to benefit not only ourselves but others and thank you so much for being here to practice for day two of the spring Ayurveda and yoga challenge acknowledging the efforts you put into your practice today and yesterday congratulations for getting through day two thanks so much for being here so some of you might be interested again in growing a little bit of some of our lifestyle health practices beyond the mat and yesterday I made a suggestion to consider our sleep hygiene and work towards finding some restful practices that get you in bed closer to 10 p.m. so that you have a full night's sleep and when we get those long full night's sleeps that definitely gives your immune system a little boost which we're trying to be mindful of as we're moving into the seasonal transition when people tend to get that calm and cold and flu so nothing like more sleep to keep your immune system super healthy and strong and even more in particular this year with Covid so rest is helpful for the immune system I hope you kept track of maybe what your tongue looks like in the morning to see if your tongue was clear or if there was some white coating on the tongue which might be an indicator that some things you ate or drank didn't digest very well with you and the hope is that you kind of take away those things again that make you feel heavy which might be promoting that congestion that you see and maybe the help of that master cleanse drink is going to help in kindle and spark a little bit more heat in that digestive area so that you're able to digest whatever it is you're taking in today so the new pieces I wanted to help you bring a little more awareness to I started our practice with that idea finding your intention to cultivate more intention for each day and this is so that as we move into these brighter days with more light it can be easier to feel like you want to catch up from those dark days where you maybe weren't doing very much and I hope you spent some time not doing very much in the winter so that you had the rest to cultivate the energy that you're going to need to do everything this season so at the same time we want to do some prana management and I think it's helpful to create intentions of what's important to you to do each day and to be mindful again of pacing yourself to try not to do everything in the first week of spring to have those intentions so that we're aware of where we're placing our focus and we're keeping our prana close to our center right so that we have lots of prana lots of energy as we move through these longer days and into the summer without getting too depleted the other encouragement is to think about doing some vigorous exercise maybe we did enough for you here or to consider some exercise outside that brings you towards a sweat and that sweat again is to help us find more energy to be exposed to some sunlight to get more vitamin D so that we kind of feel our best as we start to lighten up if we felt a little bit heaviness still from the winter so exercise can help us do it additional sunlight can help us alleviate some of the heaviness and then the last suggestion for today moving forward this week is to try to have warm food in particular in the morning for breakfast for this week in particular while we're kind of giving ourselves a little bit more of a restful week and are you made it we think of warm food being a little bit easier than cold food to digest and in the morning most of our digestive systems run on the little bit on the cold side which means it's not the ideal time of the day to introduce cold food when your system is a little bit on the cool side might not be able to digest heavy food early in the morning so perhaps we consider warm breakfast simple light nourishing so that you'll be able to get digested efficiently and hopefully have your big meal midday and notice that your energy stays even throughout the course of the day so that's my hope for you on our day two and I look forward to being with you tomorrow to deliver some new moves and new Ayurveda tips for you for our third day of the spring challenge thanks so much for being here everybody have a great rest of the day namaste.