Kidney Juicer

Hi for this practice you can use a chair if you like if it gets too hard on the quads because we're going to really work the legs and then you'll also want a bolster or couch cushion and a couple of pillows and you should be good. Let's start off by taking the feet wide a little wider than hip width and we're gonna bend down into what's called horse stance. So as we bend down here you don't want to tuck the tailbone and we don't want to stick the butt out but we want to be right in the middle and the legs are really working the quads are really really working. If this gets too much you can just lower your seat down onto the chair still keep the legs active so you get that energy building through the spleen and stomach meridians in the legs. Let's start off by reaching the hands forward we're gonna do a little qigong type of movement. Inhale exhale come down and come to the inner feet with the hands. Inhale up the inner legs to the center and then take the hands around behind your back you're gonna make fists and massage into your kidney area for a few breaths. Just some nice easy circles massaging into the kidney zone with the intention of bringing that earth energy into the kidneys and juicing up the kidneys with that yin energy of the earth. Now if your legs get tired you can try going lower or come up and straighten your legs for a moment. Release the hands forward bend the knees. Inhale exhale come down inhale drawing the energy of the earth up the inner legs up into the center of the body and then bring it around to the back and juice up your kidneys again with a few more breaths. See if you can feel that connection between the earth energy and the kidneys which is basically the earth energy of our bodies. It is the root it is the base of our bodies. Inhale the hands up exhale coming down inner foot inner leg inhaling up drawing up the center of the body draw that energy around the backside and you can stay in the horse stance. If the horse stance gets to be too much you can always lower down but keep the legs active you're still pressing down even if you're sit sitting and resting your hips resting your legs just a little bit. Inhale exhaling coming forward inhale draw it up draw it around to the backside we're gonna do this two more times. Breathe into your low back into that kidney zone energy will follow intention. If you bring your intention to enhancing the connection between the earth and your kidneys the energy will follow it. Inhale the arms forward inhale the energy up the legs up the center of the body and around to the back. You might find yourself sweating a little bit just coming to this horse stance is a lot of work but the legs can handle it. Breathing in and out inhale the arms forward exhaling down inhaling up try to stay low with your knees bent as you raise up with the energy and to the back to the kidneys. In Chinese medicine the kidney organ system is the only organ that never gets excessive it never has too much energy most of the pathologies come from the kidney being depleted. Inhale release the hands to the front and then if you've got the chair there you can have a seat if you don't have the chair there go ahead and stand up give your legs a little shake say thank you quads thank you spleen and stomach meridians and after you've shaken the quads you can come to find a comfortable seated position you can either sit down on the mat or sit up in the chair if you've been using the chair I'm gonna use the chair from here we're gonna do a little bit more breathing and moving still with the intention of drawing energy into the kidneys because the kidneys the depletion we need to focus on drawing the yin energy of the earth up to help tonify our kidneys so let's sitting up tall whether you're sitting on the ground or sitting up in the in the chair inhale a slight arch in the low back and as you exhale tip off towards one side you can either rest the arm on the leg that you're tipping towards or you can let it hang I need a little more support so I'm going to bring that leg there that arm onto my leg and then take your other hand and you can bring the fingertips to the chest and reach the elbow up to stretch in to the opposite side so I'm tilting to my left and I'm stretching my right side right into the area of the kidneys and low in my low back so I'm going to take three more breaths here drawing that energy with my intention into the space of the kidneys ah next inhale slowly come up to seated whoo take a pause seated and then we're gonna slowly tilt in the other direction I'm gonna use the support of my legs but you don't have to tipping over to the other side and then I'm going to bring my fingertips lightly to my chest and kind of like a chicken wing raise my elbow towards the ceiling and maybe a little over towards this side that I'm tipping towards breathe into that side of the low back stretching about three more breaths here the things that drain the kidney energy the main emotion that drains the kidney energy is fear and your next inhale coming up and take a pause at the center in Chinese medicine they say that fear scatters the kidney energy so we want to do what we can to help coalesce that energy help it from being scattered let's do one more round of that inhale up tall as you exhale tilt over fingertips to the chest and reach up to the elbow three more breaths into the low back you can even imagine that you're breathing up through the inner leg right into the kidney here inhale coming up take a pause at center inhaling yourself up tall and as you exhale tilting over supporting the body weight with the arm or releasing it whatever feels best for you and then the fingertips lightly to the chest and reach that elbow up drawing the energy of the breath into the area of that kidney next inhale coming up and resting the arms down and take a pause for a couple of breaths and whether you're sitting on the floor seated on the chair connect your sits bones at the bottom of the pelvis really feel those grounding into your seat and physically supporting structurally supporting your kidneys from below great we're gonna slowly come on down to the ground I'm gonna take one pillow and place it up at the head end of my mat and I'm gonna take a pillow and a blanket about a third of the way up the mat gonna end up with my legs over that for shavasana but first come down come on to my back and I want to make sure the pillow is under my head and not under my shoulders and bring your foot up onto the cushion or bolster take your arms out to the sides push down a little bit with your feet to lift your hips off the mat just a tiny bit and then scooch them over to your left few inches and set the hips down inhale and as you exhale take the knees over to the right you can try keeping the feet up on the bolster that's gonna be the gentlest twist if you want a little deeper twist you can slide that top foot off the bolster and stack the knees that's a little deep for me right now so I'm gonna keep my feet up on the bolster right now I have my nose pointing towards the ceiling I can keep it there or I can roll my nose the opposite direction of my knees and once again bringing the intention to the area of the kidneys both kidneys are getting a rung out a little bit in the twist just like the kidneys were washcloth I can wring some stuck energy out of the area of my kidneys or stuck emotion this is a good place to practice letting go of whatever emotion is being held in the kidneys whatever is holding fear in the kidneys I can breathe in to that area and breathe out whatever I'm ready to release and it's always good to make a little sound with the exhale the sound vibrates all the layers of your being two more breath moaning and groaning as much as you like one more breath and unwind the twist as you inhale you can take that top leg towards the ceiling your nose towards the ceiling the bottom leg towards the ceiling once you're centered press down lift your hips and just bring them to center for a moment and pause at center for a breath or two on your next exhale press down a little with your feet lift the hips just a bit and scooch them a few inches off to your right and then set your hips down inhale and exhale the knees over to the left coming into your comfortable twist you can keep the feet on the bolster or slide them a little further off if you want a slightly deeper twist if it feels good and then your nose can stay towards the ceiling or you can roll your head so your nose goes the opposite direction of your knees and settle into the twist bringing your awareness to your breath again and the intention of breathing across your kidneys were ringing out the kidneys in the second direction with the second twist and just like the second ringing of a washcloth it's gonna squeeze out deeper layers of stuck stuff stuck emotion whatever is ready to be rinsed away with your breath with your voice two more breath on your next inhale and slowly draw the top leg your nose and your bottom leg back to the center press down and lift your hips and bring your hips back to center and then set them down and then draw your knees in towards not quite towards your chest but flat towards your armpits take your knees wide apart soles of the feet towards the ceiling you can either take a hold of the backs of the knees or the outer feet if that's easy for you and take a few breaths again up that medial pathway on your legs drawing up from the feet in towards the kidneys which are now resting on the earth and slowly release one leg at a time over the bolster if you need to shift and adjust to find a really comfortable position for your final relaxation there we go I want to feel my heels on the earth take last few breaths of intention of drawing that earth energy in to the kidney meridian and the kidney area and the low back releasing and relaxing on your exhale release the effort let the earth hold you holding your body holding and supporting your kidneys holding and supporting all of your layers and just rest you're welcome to stay and the final relaxation is long as you lie if you're ready to come up I'll lead you through coming up to seated otherwise just rest and breathe a little awareness into your toes and fingers bringing some movement into your hands and feet then interlacing the fingers in front of the heart turning the palms towards the ceiling and reaching stretching through the palms releasing the hands back down banding one knee at a time bringing the feet on to the bolster and slowly rolling your way on to one side you can fold the head pillow up a little higher as you take a rest on your side your knees up towards your chest from your side let your head stay heavy start to roll a little forward and press your hands down rolling up one vertebrae at a time and coming up to find a comfortable seated position if you like you can sit up on your cushion while seated take one more breath into kidneys bringing your palms together in front of your heart