Day 5: Spring Essentials

Hello, everyone. Welcome to day five of the Spring Ayurveda Challenge. I'm so delighted to have you here with me today. We'll start our practice today sitting and go through some of our warm-ups here and then transfer to tabletop position and do a bunch of different core poses as well as continue with our inner leg, outer leg side body work that we're doing in the spring season. We'll end up doing some great lateral moves for the hips and some balance poses and then come back down towards the floor at the end and go a little deeper into our hips before we recline and get into the core work. For today's class, it'll be great to have a blanket, a block, and a strap. And I want to invite you to use your blanket to sit on the start of class. So if you like one fold or two folds, a little bit of lift can often make it a little bit easier for the hips to tip forward and the knees to drop down lower than your hips. So let's wiggle around in your seat until you feel like you are well established in your posture. And maybe you start with your eyes open to keep your chin parallel to the floor to maintain good alignments. And then whether you keep your eyes open or close, see if you can encourage a little bit more sinking and settling into your hips, your legs, energetically through your sit bones. As we go inward and invite some rooting energy through the sit bones down into the fertile earth. As we send our sit bones down into the earth, see if you can feel the spine lengthen up and some vital energy moving through your spine and the natural curves. If we pause in our center space for a moment and just notice if there's any particular intention you want to work with today, something you wish or hope for a little bit more of. What is it that you wish for a little bit more of and keep that close to your center? And let that be a bit of our guide in our practice today. Take a moment and sense the space above you that we're opening towards in the spring, preparing for that feeling of blossoming into this new season, the new light, new possibilities, while we remain grounded, focused. Just feel next couple breaths to feel balanced in this moment. Maintaining your center as we tip the head to the left and as your head tilts to the left we'll start to stretch the side of the neck opposite sides. Bring your head back up to center and tilt your head to the right and feel into the left side of the neck. Come up to center and then as you go again to your left side add a little forward tilt over to the right and back. Let's start to make some little circles to decrease any stiffness that might live in these small little joints. And even if you've done this move before or do this regularly, you can tune in to what's different today. So replace this or you're getting some feedback or awareness that there might be some stiffness or tension. Come around in neutral now with your head on top of your shoulders and let your arms drop to your side and we'll do a few shoulder shrugs up and back. Arms just generally loose at your side. Now let's let the arms reach up towards your ears and as they go up let's lace your fingers together and stretch your arms up. Squeeze your arms towards your head as you press your palms to the ceiling. Let's do a little bit of arching to the right, little micro bend to the left and just getting the ribs moving, opening up the side waist and then let's hold and press a little bit more towards the sky as you press your sit bones towards the floor. Let's unleash your fingers and set your right hand down. Left arm reaches across the room, our classic side body stretch. Come back up to center and we'll tip right over to the other side. Left hand slides out, right arm overhead. Big breath orienting here. Come up to your center and now slide your hands out in front of your knees and walk your fingertips just a bit forward maybe hands down and do a little bow forward. See if we get a little stretch to the back of the hips and then lift your spine up. Swing your arms behind you and put your other leg in front. And now this next little series as we cross with the new ankle in front, hold your knees and we're going to do a little cat cow in the sitting position. So just warming up from pelvis to spine up through the upper chest. Let yourself tip a little bit forward and back. There's no way to really do this right or wrong. Just moving the joints, your pelvis up through your spine. Find your center and start to make a few circles with your ribs circling around. And you free up some tension or stiffness here. We do this a lot in my classes in tabletop. Just trying out in a different way. Let's go the other direction a few times with your circles. All right, now let's find your center. All right, so whatever you might be sitting on, blankets, let's move it back. Come around to tabletop now. And as we set our blanket maybe about the middle of the mat, have your knees about hip distance apart, toes curled under and let your hands come forward so they're more like in the front yard of your blanket and your toes are more in the backyard. We're going to curl your toes under. Look forward whenever you're ready to breathe in. Full exhale through the mouth, belly stays into the back as we float the knees up into our downward dog working towards straighter legs.

Knees again, come down lightly, look forward on the in breath, drop the belly, pull the belly in as you do that audible exhale. All the breath out. Lift your knees and hips up and back to downward dog. Let's do two more in your rhythm. Inhaling as you come forward into cow, exhale round, keep your belly in, send those hips up and back. And one last one in your rhythm. Drop your belly as you come to your cow. Round, exhale all the breath out. Just a moment, letting the belly float in towards your back. And then we'll come down with the knees to the blanket. This time send your knees about as wide as your sticky mat. Draw your big toes to touch behind you. As the hips go back towards your heels in that direction, slide your right hand over to the left and look towards your right fingertips as the right side of the head comes down to the floor. And some of you might need to have your hips a little further away from your feet. In either case, see if we can send the right side of the head to the floor. Anchor the outer right arm a little bit more towards the ground. And continue to energize your left arm like you're still doing downward dog in your left arm. And at the same time tending to that outer right shoulder, upper mid back stretch. Take one more moment here, just noticing those areas of the body starting to wake up. Let's come around to center with your arms in front of you. Tip forward, let's lift the feet up towards the back of the pelvis as you look straight ahead. Send your hips on back and we'll leave the right hand at the top of the mat. Take the left hand over to the right. Turn your head slightly sideways so left side of the head comes towards the floor. Sit back as much as you're comfortable towards your feet or heels. And ideally feeling the outer left arm come a little bit more in contact with the floor. Are we willing to let a little more weight settle into that area of the body to increase the stretch in that outer left shoulder, upper mid back area? One more moment, that right arm still doing downward dog like action. And then again let's come forward with your left hand back to that top of the mat. Bring both of the feet up as we one more time tip forward like you're doing a little bit of up dog. When you put your feet back down, slide your knees parallel, lock your hands towards your knees. And as we sit back on the feet, this is one place you might want to block between your ankles. Or we're going to keep it in front of us, which could be a place where we rest our forehead. We'll make two fists, plug your fists, knuckles together, rest your hands on top of your thighs. And as you look straight ahead, lift your chest so there's a little more room for the fist to fit in your belly area as we bring the forehead to the block. You might need to scoot your knees forward to get forehead to the block. So once you're here, can we let the elbows drop out to the sides? And as best as we can, it might not be comfortable at first, but try to allow the belly to soften around the shape of your fist so that we might get a little bit more energy and space on the sides of the back, along the spine. And maybe we even feel like you get a little more breath up into the bottom of your lungs on the backside. We're just kind of sensing that's where the breath could go. Take one more moment as you are here. All right, we'll feel maybe the difference when you come on up and you open your palms and maybe give yourself a moment to notice how the belly feels without something pressing into it. We're gonna come up from there to stand with your knees maybe up at the front of your blankets. And let's curl your toes under so you get a little deeper stretch in your feet. Reach the arms in front of us. We've done a few of these in some of the other classes in this challenge. We're just gonna recap, lean back as you press into your toes, press yourself forward. Keep looking that over your fingertips as you lean back. Neutral spine, come forward, tip back, engage the feet, the legs, and then tip forward. Drop your left hand down, right arm up, and as you tip back, look down towards your left heel. Maybe touch your ankle, swing your left arm up, bring your right arm down, lean back, and maybe you touch your heel or your ankle with right hand, swing your right arm up. One more time, lean back, look down towards your left heel. If you make contact, left arm up, lean back, right hand touches right heel, reach back up, and then bring the hands down the center right in front of your knees. We're gonna lift the knees off the floor and potentially send your knees out wide for malasana squat, where we drop the heels back towards the floor as your head lowers down. Some of you might stay with your knees facing forward, but lift your knees if you can for a moment, or even lift your hips if that's helpful, just so you have a second where your knees are off the floor. Let's come back down again, knees on the blanket, and come to your tabletop. We're gonna keep the right knee down, send your left leg straight back, touch the floor at the back end of your mat, and then pivot on the inner left edge of your foot. Keep your right hand down, and we're gonna circle this left arm up into the air above your shoulder. Let's kick your right foot back a few inches so it's easier to balance as you tip a little bit towards the right hand, and raise your left leg up. Let's lower your left leg down as you bring your left arm down by your ear, and then bring your left elbow and knee to touch, and then stretch your left leg and arm away from each other, opening through that left side body. Elbow and knee to touch, we work a little deeper in your balance. Stretch left arm and leg away from each other, left foot finds the floor. Last time bring your elbow and knee to touch, and then stretch the arm and leg away from each other. We'll turn towards the short end of the mat and come into plank pose for a moment. Lift your knees, now lift your hips and lower your head down downward dog. Knees back down to the floor, relax left ankle. Take your right leg now to the back end of your mat, turn to the inner edge of the foot for side plank, and then kick your left foot a little bit back as a kickstand, as your right arm comes up towards the ceiling. Float your right leg up about as high as your hip, flex that ankle, then lower your right leg towards your ear as you drop your right foot to the floor. Now bring your elbow towards your knee, and then stretch your right leg and arm away from each other, right foot taps the floor, right elbow and knee touch, right leg and arm stretch away from each other, elbow and knee touch. One more full cycle, coming to elbow and knee touching, and as we turn back towards the short end of our mat, back through plank pose into your downward dog, exhale. Let's walk your feet up towards your blanket, and if you can, let's get that blanket out of the way. And with your blanket out of the way, come up to the front of your mat with your feet behind your wrist, bend your knees, and take a moment to fold over your legs on your exhale. As you're ready, inhale, circle up or come up the best way for you to stand with your arms raised for a moment above your head, and then hands down in front of your chest.

I'm going to turn and step and face the long end of the mat, and perhaps you'll do the same. As we're facing the long end, let's turn your toes out a few degrees, bend your knees, rest your hands on your thighs, our classic high goddess squat shape. And then as you're here, let's bring your arms into our 90 degree angles. Now from here, as we go to straight legs, look up, reach up, exhale into our goddess with the audible exhale. Up and audible exhale. Now this last time as we go up, we're going to end up staying a little bit in that squat shape. And then from here, let's lean over to your right side and cross your left leg over your right leg. Take your left hand in the air above your head and press your right hand over to the left. And then switch your arms the other direction and circle around that new way. Now bring both hands down to the front of your left thigh and slide your hands down your left leg. Squeeze your legs together, maybe some of you will even touch the floor. As you squeeze your thighs towards each other, head drops down. Take your hands back to your hips, lift your spine, come up, come back to our goddess with arms in those 90 degree angles. Lean to your left and cross your right leg over your left. Right arm goes up first, left hand presses over to the right. And then try your arms in the other configuration. Left arm up, right hand presses to the side. Bring both hands to your right knee or thigh, and then maybe continue down your shin, maybe you touch the floor and drop your head down. Upper thighs squeeze together, hands up to the hips, inhale, come all the way up, come back to your goddess. One more time, step to the right foot, left leg on top. Take your left arm in the air first, right hand arches to the side, crisscross your arms the other way. Right arm on top, left hand pressing to the side. Both hands to your left knee, slide your hands down your leg or touch the floor. Hands back up to your hips, inhale, lift your spine, come up, step into your goddess position. Leap over to the left, right arm, right leg over your left leg, right arm in the air, left hand pressing to the side. Switch your arms in the other configuration, left arm in the air, arch. Both hands to your right knee, shin, or reach down and touch the floor. Hands back up to your hips, inhale, come all the way up to standing, and then come back to our goddess. Exhale here. Now drop your arms down to your sides, couple little shoulder balls. Keep your legs as they are and let's start turning to your right, tapping your outer buttocks and hips. Sink into your legs and feet. Tap along your waist, turning your head, moving these different joints of your spine. Tap top of the chest, back of the ribs so your elbows bend as you're turning side to side. Now in springtime, in my neighborhood anyway, there's lots of lemons growing around here. So imagine your left hand reaches up to grab a lemon and your right hand is dropping one in the basket behind you. And then I'm going to swing my right hand over to grab a lemon, left arm is behind me. We're going to go a little faster. Reaching across is if you're grabbing a spring lemon, a Meyer lemon. I hope those are what's growing around here. And going side to side, just reaching out to a straight arm and elbow, filling your basket behind you with some goodies. Alright, now let's come back around to center. Hands on your thighs. One big exhale. Let's tip forward from the hips, put your hands down on the floor and wiggle your feet a little bit wider apart, finding your side split edge. When you find that edge again where you're feeling some early stretch in your inner legs, try to hug your inner thighs in and up towards the pelvis to avoid any uncomfortable stretching in inner leg or groin area. So get that mula base to turn on. Maybe one step out with your hands as you lower your head down to get one more little warm up of a now partial inversion with the head down. Hips slowly drawing away from your shoulders. At the end of that exhale, walk your hands in under your shoulder line. Heel toe your legs and feet towards each other. So it'll be a little easier to come up to stand hands on your thighs and then come up using your legs. Let's heel toe your legs and feet towards each other and then take a spin towards the short end of your mat.

If you will, with your feet close together as much as you're comfortable, as close as you like, root down into your feet as you look forward since that sky above you that we get to blossom into this season. Raise your arms when you're ready up, stretch up towards the sky and then as you bend your knees, tip forward, keep your legs bent and touch the ground right at the center, the front of your mat. Left arm is going to swing up to the left, look in that direction. Bring your left hand back to the center of your mat. Right arm reaches out to the side, look towards the right and bring both hands down as we step back into our push up of plank pose. Doing a little of that core engaging as maybe we tip a tiny bit forward and back just to get used to using the whole body. Then dial in that movement and we'll lower down knees, belly, chest to the floor. Keep your hands by your chest as you bend your legs and lift the feet up into the air as you lift your head towards your feet. Let's slide your arms forward as we bring the legs down to the floor. Bend your legs again, slide your hands back as if you're going to grab your ankles like you're doing Dhanurasana. Legs down, arms in front of you. Bend those legs, sweep your hands again back towards your ankles. Stretch your legs down, arms in front of you. Let's bring your hands by your chest and press yourself back up to tabletop and then into your downward facing dog on exhale. Bring your left foot a little closer to your right foot and slowly raise that right leg up in the air without rushing to turn that right glute on. Step your right foot forward for a warrior one footprint and we'll swing the arms when you're ready up by your ears with the front knee bent. You might need to adjust your feet so that you feel like you can sink into the yoga mat or the ground. Straighten your front leg, swing your arms back, bend your front knees, swing your arms up, look up. Straighten your front leg, arms back, swing up, swing on back. Next time that your arms are up, stay here, look forward. Bend your elbows out to the side in 90 degrees and now we're balancing. The back toes curled under. Step into your right foot and come into tree pose with your hands in front of your chest, left foot against that upper right thigh. We'll open the arms out to the side, start to bend your right leg and wrap your left leg around your right for early eagle variation with your left toes on the floor. Bend your arms and now squeeze them together. Look straight ahead and then come all the way up and out, arms at your side, wiggle your feet together and hands back at your chest. Lift your arms, inhale, reach up. Exhale, fold over your legs and as we touch the floor, keep your legs bent, deepen that chair seat. Left arm swings out to the left, look up. Left hand back to the center of your mat. Right arm reaches out to the right and bring the right hand down to the floor. Step back to your push-up of plank. Tip yourself a little bit forward and back. Come down knees, belly, chest to the floor and send your arms back as you bend your legs so it says if you're trying to grab your ankles, legs straight, arms in front of you. Bend the legs, sweep your arms back, open that chest, legs straight, come back to meet the floor. Again, sweep your arms back, inhale, look down and then as your arms go forward, legs straight, just a moment of pause. Pull the hands by the chest and up we go back to tabletop into your downward facing dog. So now we have our second side.

Bring your left foot forward into your warrior one footprint. Take the arms up by your ears and check in that your stance is set so that you feel stable here. And when you are, straighten your left leg. Let's swing your arms back. Bend your left knee, swing your arms up. Straighten the leg, arms swing back, bend your left knee, arms up. Exit so we come out of the back bend and then as we're in that back bend shape, let's look forward, lift your back heel so you end up in that balance mode. Arms might bend in 90 degrees and step into your left foot and launch yourself into tree pose. Right foot in your inner left leg somewhere. Then open your arms for a moment, bend your left leg and cross your right leg over your left and you've got your eagle legs. Bend your arms and your arms to 90 degree angles and then squeeze your elbows together right in front of the chest. Let's inhale up and out and back to Tadasana. Wiggle your feet together, arms up, forward fold, bend those knees. Now drop your hips, stay deep in your legs and twist with your left arm out to your side. Look up, back to the floor with left hand. Right arm swings out to the side, ribs stay on your thighs. Look down, step back, one leg and then the other plank. Come down to the floor, knees, belly, chest. Bend your legs, reach your hands back towards your ankles, legs straight, arms in front of you. Bend your legs, sweep your hands back towards your ankles, legs down, arms in front of you. And this last time, sweep those arms back, curl the chest up and then legs straight, arms in front of you. Slide the hands back by your chest, press up to your table top into your downward dog on exhale. And we'll take your right foot again forward, warrior one, adjust your feet, swing your arms if possible right up in the air above your shoulders, sink into your feet, exhale. Straighten your front leg, arms go back, bend your front knee, arms go up, lift the chest, lift the gaze, exit. And now keep your right leg bent, arms overhead, bend your arms 90 degrees and lift your back left heel. Step into your right foot, tree pose, left foot landing somewhere in that inner leg. Arms can open wider as you bend your right leg and come to your ego legs. You can wrap your arms if that works for you with your left elbow inside your right or squeeze your elbows together. Launch up and out and your back in Tadasana. Last time, raise your arms up, lift your gaze, fold forward, meet the ground with your hands, look down and then stay in that deep chair squat. Touch the center of your mat and then free your left arm out to the left, left hand down, right arm opens out to the right and right hand down. Step back one leg at a time into your pushup plank, knees, belly, chest to the ground. We'll just do one time, bend your legs, reach back towards your ankles, legs straight, arms out in front of you. Slide the hands by your chest, press up to your tabletop into your downward facing dog, exhale and then we'll step forward with your left foot coming forward, right foot turns down, warrior one, swing your arms up, adjust the angles of your feet. Straighten your left leg as your arms come back by your hips, bend your knees, send your arms up, exhale, front leg straight, swing those arms up. Now please stay, lift your back right heel so you're balancing. You might bend your arms out to the side as you bring right foot to left inner leg and maybe hands in front of the heart tree pose. Arms can be helpful out to the side as we come into eagle legs. Bend that lower ankle, wrap your right leg around left and some of you might do the leg position where your arms wind around each other. Might send your elbows forward even if the elbows are squeezing together. Can you open around the upper mid back? Reach up, let's exit, arms at your side and then let yourself bend the knees, shake your hips, wiggle out any tension that might be gathering there. Big breath in and out. Now I'm going to have you grab your strap, this will be a moment for the strap and go ahead and undo that so it's in half and we're going to use it pretty wide if you will separate your legs when you're ready into what would be your warrior two position. So I'm going to start turning let's say my right foot out first, bend the leg to 90 degree angle more or less and send my arms up as I send my hands almost to the end of the strap. Pull tight, try to relax as best you can through that neck shoulder girdle and we'll start to do once you're grounded is just a little bit of exploring as you stay with warrior two base and reach a little bit forward and then over to your left and kind of see as you go back a little bit and you make some circles or really freestyle movement. Can you feel like you're clearing away some cobwebs stiffness in the fascia muscles skin as you play around with making those big movements. There's no way to do it right or wrong just try to feel like you're clearing out some tension or stiffness there. Now let's tip a little bit now up to center what would neutral be like. Now with neutral from here go ahead and bring your feet in closer together until as you turn your toes forward your feet are pointing straight ahead. Shift over to your right foot put your left ankle on top for your figure four and now we'll do our chair like seat as you sit back keep pulling tight on the strap in front of you. You might straighten your right leg take your arms up and try again to pull tight on the strap as you reach forward send your hips buttocks back. Try to come back up one more time this last one keeping tension on the strap as you look down a little bit towards the floor beyond your nose all the way up to standing put your left foot down tip that left arm in by your head drop your right hand and walk your right hand up the back of that strap as the left hand comes down go mukasana arms. We soften through the front of your rib cage and just truly root down through your feet stretch up through your top left elbow as you look out to your horizon line. Alright let's take your arms down in front of you and open up your feet again for your warrior two on your second sides and as promised we're heading back into the hips inner legs and then outer hips which is one of the fun themes for me anyway in the springtime working with the liver meridian lines on the inner legs and the gallbladder lines on the outer hips and side body. With your hands really wide try to keep your legs still as we tip from one side doesn't have to be a lot maybe a bit forward to get to the left maybe a little bit back and you might tell from one side to the other that it feels different one side there might be a lot less stiffness or maybe there's just some ah some places to pause and stretch so go at a pace that feels good for you kind of exploring here to clear out do some spring cleaning and all these unique corners of your body. Now let's maybe dial in a little bit more towards your center keep your arms up which is already a decent amount of work and now let's bring your feet in maybe underneath the line of your shoulders shift your weight over to your new side and we're going to hang your right foot to the top of that left ankle reach in front of you pull tight on the strap as you sit back straighten your left leg slowly as you take your arms up sit back slowly as you pull tight on the strap you could certainly have your butt against a wall or sit in a chair come on up and then again sitting back as if you're going into chair pulling tight with your strap come on up and then as you stand let's bring your right arm in towards your ear drop your left hand down and up towards the middle of the shoulder blades right hand walks down towards the left go mukhasana arms can you soften through the front of your ribs take a moment they're grounding in front ribs can you feel your thighs firm feet press down let's release the strap and as you get rid of the strap set that to the side we'll take a spin back to the front of your mat and then we'll work our way down towards the floor so as you stay at the top of your mat when you're ready let's sweep the arms up the best way for your shoulders fold forward and down on exhale step back one leg at a time into your down dog now let's bring your feet a little bit closer together maybe the center line of your mat swing your left leg up towards the ceiling and see if you can bring your left knee towards your right elbow just that general direction take that left leg straight back up take your left knee towards your left elbow and then bring it straight back up now let's bring your knee more to the middle of your yoga mat and put your knee down for a moment at the middle of your yoga mat swing your left foot a little bit maybe to the right now see if it makes sense this is the place where your block could be helpful to place a block under that left buttock if you want for pigeon or skip it put your right knee down if a pigeon isn't good for you could also do figure four on your back or sitting and others might sink a little bit more into the ground on that side with your left leg forward when you're ready relax your back foot if that feels possible to sink into your hips if you put your elbows on the floor some of you will have your block maybe where you like it under your foreheads he's sinking into the outer left hip make sure we're keeping that left knee safe so you could do this on your back could do this in a sitting variation or just know this will pass in just a few moments if it's not for you at all got plenty more to do and then maybe after a next moment in that pigeon that's from here lift your head and spine and walk your hands back in so underneath the shoulder line curl your back toes under and as we lift the hips up and back bring your feet back to the center line of your mat now let's take your right leg and lift that towards the ceiling right knee towards your left elbow right leg comes up in the air right knee to your right elbow it goes back up right knee to about the center of your mat and then drop your knee down and keep your back toes curled under so we maybe kick that right foot a little bit to the left and maybe that's our version of pigeon others might step back with that left foot and sink down left knee touches the floor your block could go under your right hip even a blanket that feels good some of you will not use that and some of you will come down to your elbows and look down this is one of those poses again it's great to be really mindful of what variation works best for your body and it might have been something that you could do before and now we have to be more careful so with or without props is there a version that works for you again you can always keep your back knee up so there's less weight going into your right hip if this is exactly what you needed to see if you can sink into this shape just a little bit more maybe improving that circulation in your outer right hip would be my hope right now as we lift the head up we're going to walk the hands back under your shoulder line lift your torso and this time we're going to move if there's something under your right hip moved up to the side so you can sit to the right take this left leg back around and in front of you okay so we can sit now with both feet up in front of you and then stretch your legs out straight for a moment in our foundation of dandasana we're pressing into the floor with your hands with your legs and trying to lift up through your chest elongate through your spine let's take a moment from dandasana try to keep that base in your spine that memory of this base pose in your spine as we take your left foot to the outside of the right leg and some of you might keep your foot here hold on to your left knee some might slide your left foot a little further towards the outer hip and as maybe your knees come closer together once everybody puts your hands out to the side root them into the floor and see with your legs crossed is there a little room to tilt forward it won't be a big move but enough to maybe energize the outer hip area or maybe your right hamstrings one more moment just tipping a little bit forward trying to evenly tip forward as you balance yourself using your arms your hands now from here we're going to lift your spine back up and start to slide on back to the floor and grab your legs pull them towards you and see if you might reach around now and catch the front of your right knee and hug your legs in towards your chest and we'll try to go mukhasana legs here squeezing them towards your chest if some part of that crossing doesn't work we could undo that and cross more of your ankles or just simply hug your knees towards your chest unleash your fingers bring your legs side by side and rock yourself back and forth until we're upright stretch your legs again straight out as we go for our second side we'll take your left foot to the out sorry right foot to the outside of your left leg hold on to your right knee and sit up tall this might be where we pause or some of you will take your right foot further back towards your left hip and if that's a safe place for your right knee root your fingertips let's try to do a little tip forward from your hips and notice what feedback you get in your left hamstrings in general the back of your hips feedback you might be getting in your right hip in particular all right it's not generally a huge move let's tip back up and as we slide to our back grab your legs pull them with you and then reach for your front knee so maybe you're catching your left knee and tipping your legs in so you're doing your Gomukhasana on your back best as you can laying the shoulders fall back towards the floor right and then over the next moment as we uncross the legs legs side by side rock back and forth and as you rock maybe back and forth a few times just getting the core engaged so next time that you come up we can go ahead and pause just for a moment feeling the pause of boat pose you might roll back and again the pause of boat pose trying attention to your center roll back last time stay lifted let your hands reach out beside your calves look out beyond your feet towards the ceiling to get that extra lift in your chest area and then slowly slowly work your way down to the floor maybe put your heels down and I'll meet you on the floor in just a moment here as soon as you make your way down to the floor how lovely that always feels please tip your legs and towards your chest okay now for this little core piece if we will go ahead and tuck your left hand behind your head and stretch your legs up in the air as we move the right arm out to your right sides it's going to keep that right shoulder pressed into the floor now as we exhale let's lift the left elbow towards your right knee and then come back to the ground your hand left hand assist your head and lifting up and twisting towards the right and then lower down now third time let's add the dropping of your left leg as you twist to your right side lift your left foot we're back to neutral so two more right left leg drops down as you twist to your right come back down and one more time lower your left leg as you twist towards your right leg and no particular hurry back to center let's bend your knees and switch and put your right hand under the back of your head left arm out to your side stretch your legs back up when you're ready and then as we exhale we're going to reach right elbow towards left knee come back to the floor and get comfortable with that movement right knee to left right elbow to left knee let's try adding the right leg coming down parallel to the floor as you twist to the left raise your leg come back to center right leg lowers down as we twist to the left back to center i think we have one more to do right leg down as we twist to the left and back to center all right now as the arms come down to your side let's tuck your arms a little bit more underneath you and let's drop just the right leg towards the ground left leg stays up swing that leg back up bring your right leg down towards the floor come back up both knees bend and let's tip your knees away from your chest and tap the floor with your toes pull your knees back in legs again shoot up just the right leg comes down and lifts back up so without tipping your pelvis too far forward lower your left leg down bring it back up both knees towards your chest move your knees forward until your feet tap the floor and then bring them back in make a little more room for your buttocks to drop towards the floor so you put the feet down for a moment feet on the edge of your mat open your arms a little bit out to your side please and then our wind show wiper legs to the right as you turn your head to the left just like class is so incomplete without this the legs a little bit to the left and your head turns a little to the right back to center again legs to your right head to the left so play around with your process of going side to side and what's your rhythm like today you need to make any adjustment in your legs and after maybe one more visiting each side just loosening up in that way let's take a moment and pause right in your center with your feet maybe on the edges of the mat arms relaxed to some degree out to the side of your body and just take a pause and let the back of your body feel for the ground let's keep the feet wide tip your knees out to the sides and maybe gradually into your feet towards each other for our supine reclined calvers pose and maybe we'll be here for maybe almost a minute let's see if we can stabilize again here and work towards those sensations if it's too much bring your knees higher up away from the floor or just one last little kind of mini in pose to feel the the tug in the hip area in her legs that gets that deeper stretch winding down our practice with lots of inner leg outer hip outer side body for the last five days clearing those pathways for hopefully better flow and circulation as we move into our new season find those last few breaths to pull your prana your energy in towards your center that root lock move inward and upward towards the navel you know imagine it's slow motion your knees and slow motion coming towards each other slow motion things sometimes get a little shaky in the legs as we move slowly and that's normal and eventually your knees touch and maybe a big exhale through the mouth if there's any little micro movements that you need to make before shavasana the last in our challenge make any last movements as I always invite you to do to move your body however your body wants to move if you're ready to take shavasana let your legs drop out wherever you're comfortable let your arms wiggle out as far as you're comfortable here always still a good idea to cover parts of the body that typically get cold quickly so if your feet or your chest area might add your blankets over one of those spots let's dial into our pose here and just paying attention to your environment take a moment just sensing now the the temperature in the room does it feel warm does it feel cold or cool and sensing areas of your body that feel heavy areas of your body that feel light as we're breathing and we notice that nasal area mouth or throat does it feel dry or more moist hydrated you feel the circulation in the body is moving swiftly out to the limbs and back to your center and we sense a little more stagnation or sluggishness in relation to our circulation as you're settling into your pose do you feel generally more soft in your body or more hard so a sense of smoothness as you're visualizing your breath moving over the body or into the body or does it feel kind of rough in the inner landscape sensing the breath is it starting to feel more shallow or deep just noticing without the story or judgment getting to that place where you observe the mind as the mind feel now slow calm or a little more excited or restless ideally we keep tipping more and more into the center of the opposites find balance to reconnect to more parts of yourself I invite you to continue that exploration and silence together now for a few minutes taking this wonderful rest after your five-day challenge see if we can keep the essence of our Shavasana as we consider making some little small movements in your fingers and toes circular movements with wrist and ankles as we make those little movements eventually bending one leg at a time feel the ground under your feet curl onto your side and your little fetal shape whatever side feels natural for you and pause in that fetal shape tip all the way up towards sitting when you're ready you might gather again your prop of a blanket to sit on bring you into that forward tip in your pelvis it allows you to find again that center as you tip a little bit forward and back just knowing that you're setting yourself up in that way to move energy in the most efficient way between the earth and the sky through this earth body of ours in the moment from our grounding see if we can bring our awareness back through our center area and perhaps remembering what our intention is what you hope for more of in the season or this new day nice to know where to focus your energy and aware of that sky above in which we bloom in this new season so the hands might join together in front of the heart center it's been an honor and a pleasure to be with you for the past five days and I hope these practices not only nourish you but also contribute to the well-being of others namaste all right everyone congratulations on day five and I hope you've enjoyed the series so in addition to all the self-care that you've been doing as we've discovered there's some evening practices some things to do midday take more mindfulness breaks in the morning some warm nourishing foods I just wanted to add the last couple things that we typically do as we're moving into a new season is do a little bit more what we might call cleansing by doing this wonderful technique called dry brushing and it's you could use loofah gloves that some people might have at home or in the bath area of a grocery store it's a natural dry brush where you exfoliate your skin and you do vertical strokes over limbs circular around the joints of the body and it's a wonderful way you do that in the shower before you shower dry brush to promote more circulation and cleanse the largest organ of your body the other thing is at this point typically as we move into spring is to start getting rid of things that generally make you feel heavy or to try to reduce clutter so it's a great time to go through your refrigerator clear out get rid of the foods that make you feel heavy and then general things that make you feel heavy so that you feel ready to spring into the new season so I hope some of that's been helpful if you'd like more support around that check out my seasonal health and wellness book and you can have a guide for each week of a Ayurvedic practice to take you through the seasons I wish you well with your Ayurvedic practices and thanks again for tuning into yoga anytime and the five-day challenge take care everybody namaste you