Day 5: Energy and Enthusiasm

Welcome, friends. I'm Bex, and we're going to do a practice that incorporates all of our beautiful exercises, postures, and movements from this series. So come on to all fours. And if you need a child's pose, start there, okay? These first six rounds of breath. So in hum, satin nam, these first six rounds of inhale and exhale, you are going to do whatever it is you like. So if you'd like to come and move around into cat-cow or around the world, just give yourself some freestyle movement. And as you give yourself that freestyle movement, start to tune in and attune, what does my body most need right now? Now, obviously I'll be offering up this practice. In these moments of sort of freestyle movement, what we do is we allow our body to get hydrated with our breath. And that so in the hum is like the inhale and the exhale and the satin, the nam, we will incorporate into this practice. So we're beginning with that. So let's take our body into downward facing dog. So you hear your breath as you pedal your feet. And as you pedal your feet and you hear your breath, start to lengthen the inhalation and the exhalation and then glide your body forward into the plank stacking shoulders above elbows and wrists. And then exhale to the dog. Let's do that two more times. You can ripple if you like. Inhaling to the plank, exhaling to the dog. Final time. Inhale plank. Exhale dog. Lift your left leg, take your left knee to your left elbow as you exhale and then inhale. Take your left knee to your right elbow and rise and then knee to the nose or chin to the chest. Lift that left leg up and lower it down. Inhale to the plank. Slowly lower. I call this the decelerating plank. It's like wind is strong pulling your body back up as you slowly lower down. Roll those thigh bones in. Press the toenails into the mat. Shoulders shrink down. Excuse me. Elbows squeeze in. Inhale, lift your chest. So just hold in low cobra if you'd like. Lift your hands. If you want a little more, add your legs. Then gently release. You can push back through child's pose or if you have a little more energy, plank in reverse and dog. Lift that right leg. Right knee, right elbow, exhale and up. Right knee, left elbow and up. Knee to the nose, chin to the chest and up and then lower the right foot down. One more time. Inhale to the plank. Slowly come all the way down. All the way down. Pin those elbows toward the spine. Inhale, lift the chest. Lift the hands, lift the legs. Always honor your body.

Release. Push back through plank in reverse or child's pose. Down dog. Lift your left leg. Simply step your left foot forward. Lower your right knee down. The top of the right foot, left hand on the hip. Easeful twist. Or if you want to add on, reach up. If you want to add on even more, flex the back foot and elevate that right knee. Put the left hand down. Step back. Downward facing dog. We repeat this on the other side. Lift your right leg. Step your right foot forward. Lower your left knee down. Top of left foot. Right hand hip or skyward. If you want to add flexing left foot and elevating knee, feel that juicy rotation. And then gently put right hand down. Step back. Down dog. This time we're going to add a little excitement. Lift your left leg. Step your left foot forward. I like to come to tented fingertips here. You don't have to jump. I'll demonstrate the steps so it would be right foot steps forward, left foot steps back. If you have a little more energy, a little more enthusiasm, you just jump and switch. Jump and switch. You can do a half a dozen. That's six. I find these to be a little boost in the practice. Complete on the left side. Take the left leg back. Down dog. Give yourself a breath in. Take your right hand outside your left thigh, knee, ankle. Hello. Twist. And then switch sides. Left hand outside, right hip, knee, ankle. Relax those shoulders. And then slowly look forward. Go ahead and lift your right leg up and step your right foot forward. Look forward. You guessed it. We have one more set. You step the left foot forward and back or you jump switch six times. If you want it to be more or less, that's up to you. I like a nice boost here. My last one, my right foot's forward. I step back. Down dog. Such a blessing to breathe and be in this body. Now go ahead and lift your left leg up. Step your left foot outside your left hand and your right foot forward and outside your right hand and sit into the squat. I'm going to face you. So here's why. You can sit on a block, a pillow. You can wedge something under your heels. We are now going to integrate something called nadam. Sound penetrates layers. That's what the Sanskrit word is. So the words are sat and nam. You can stay right here and just go sat nam. Sat nam. You want a little more juice to it. Sat nam. You want a lot more juice? Sat and nam. I use this to rinse. Sat and nam my mind. Sat nam to reset. Sat nam to unpack. Sat nam to begin again. Sat nam. Three more. Sat nam. Last two. Sat nam. Final one. Sat nam. Sit down. Breathe. Now I don't know about you, but I have an elevated heart rate and I'm excited about that. There's my aliveness. So you're at the top of the mat. I'm going to return there. Step one foot back and the other and let's meet in downward facing dog. Now down dog with a little pedal. Feels kind of fancy. Inhale to the plank. Exhale to the dog. Walk your feet halfway up your mat and your hands halfway back. That'll meet you in the middle and then just slowly lengthen your spine. Take your index and middle finger, wrap around the big toe. Inhale, lift your chest. Exhale, fold forward. Now I'm going to shift and face you just to remind you those shoulders rise up and your elbows bend wide and you can have a little or a big bend in the knees. Lengthen. Place your hands on your shins. Inhale, lift halfway up. Bring your hands to your hips. Exhale. Inhale, come all the way up. So you are in the middle of the mat facing the top. I'm in the middle of the mat facing you. So I can demonstrate another variation of Sat Nam. I am. Sat Nam. I am. I am. So you could stay right here with your arms at cactus and all you have to do is fold that left knee forward and you bring the right elbow forward Sat and then Nam. So I'm doing the same side as you. It'll look opposite if you want to add on Sat and Nam. If you're feeling really energetic Sat and Nam. You do you. Let's go Sat and Nam. We make the sound Sat and Nam. You can add a lift Sat and Nam. You can lift all the way Sat and Nam. Here you are Sat Nam. Be right here Sat Nam. Let's do three more Sat Nam. Last two Sat Nam. Last one Sat Nam and then just ground yourself. Feel your breath rinse through your body. Again, so lucky. Great fullness that my heart is beating. Place your hands back on your hips. Inhale, lift your chest chin. Exhale, hinge and fold forward and down. This time you get to walk the hands forward and the legs back. You'll find your way right back into downward facing dog. Inhale to the plank. Let's roll on to the right hand. Yeah, you could be on the form but we're going to go on the right hand. Just a moment in Vasisthasan. A moment in that central line. A moment of tuning in and then put the left hand down. Roll on over. You can have that left knee down. Right hand on hip. Reach. How do you approach stillness when the heart is beating? Right hand down. Down dog. Breathing in. Down dog breathing out. Down dog breathing in. Down dog breathing out. Beautiful friends. Lift your right leg. Step your right foot outside your right hand. Step your left foot outside your left hand. Here you are again in a squat. Go ahead and sit. Breathe. Hands in prayer. You can stay there still at the top. I'm organizing myself to face you. We're going to do a gentle twist here. So you'll lower your right arm and you'll lift your left arm. If you want less, you'll put that left hand on the thigh or you can just look to the left. Then slowly the left arm will come down and you'll lift the right up or you'll guide the thigh back. Remember, you stay true to yourself. And then we come through the center. Pause. And slowly come to stand. So at the top of your mat, if your stance feels too wide, narrow it. And as you're narrowing it, what I would love for you to do is interlace your fingers. The index finger points straight down. Now we use the sound ha, hud, or hung. Sound of the center. Sound of creating. Sound of flushing, rinsing. And like I said earlier, beginning again. So this is called the wood chopper. Your feet are turned out. Your hands are the height of your shoulders. If you have any low back issues, you just stay right here and you ha, or you hud, or you hung. If you want to soften those knees, ha, hud, or hung, pick one of the sounds. If you want a little more, you inhale, lift chest, chin, and you ha, and you come back up, ha, and you come back up. Now you could do this with more vigor, ha. You could do this louder, ha. You could make as much ha sound. Now it might feel awkward, ha. I want you to embrace awkward, ha. I want you to be with ha, cutting through, ha. Cutting it open, ha. Breaking through, ha. We only have three more. Breaking it open, ha. Last two, ha. Last one, ha. And then ground. Let your arms come down, bring your feet together. You're at the top of the mat. Just stand still for a moment. Just notice what comes up for you. If there's any feelings, feel them so you can feel your way through. If you need a hand on your thighs, belly, and heart, let that happen. You have another breath here. Okay. If you have any low back issues or bone density issues, just sit down. We're going to do one more fun little rock and roll. So you could sit down and lower and just hold and be still in Navasan or this is a modified Navasan. If you want a little more, this is our final flush. I promise you'll rock back and then you'll stand. Two more of those. You rock back and then you stand. Last one. Rock back, stand, and then we actually have to go back down. Rock back and then we meet in Navasan together. Feet come down, hands go behind you. Okay. Feet come down, hands go behind you. You're going to come into what is called modified purvottanasan. If you need to be on your fists, please do so. Okay. You're going to peel and lift up. Now I love this variation because I can let my head go. If that doesn't feel safe for you, you still look forward and slowly you'll come down. Your seat will land down and your feet will come out in front of you. I like to take the flesh off the sit bones right here, right now. Inhale, sit up tall and then reach the arms up and fold forward and down. Paschimottanasan.

Now remember, you can keep your knees bent. Okay. You can hold thighs, knees, ankles. If you can go further, take that deep breath in and the deep breath out. If you have a block and you want to put it beyond your feet, have at it. More breath. If you want to grab those big toes, sort of like we did in Padangusthasan, good for you. Inhale, come up to seated. Fold your knees in. This is one of my favorite sequences for twisting. First we put our hands on our shins, round your back, coil that belly, elbows float up, shoulders are away from ears and then inhale, sit up tall. Then I take my right hand in front of my shin bones and I squeeze my legs a lot. The left hand can come to the shoulder, can reach back and you can look back or you can look forward and relax your shoulders. See if you can rinse those ribs and if the neck is feeling like it's doing too much, just look forward. Take that left arm up over gently and around. You can scoop the belly in round and then as you collect and hold, come into the midline. The right hand can go to the shoulder or back, back, back. Again, recline those upper traps, maybe look forward. Reach, reach, breathe. Inhale, bring the arm up. Wrap it one more time, a nice sweet hug for yourself. Take the hands under the thighs, come into extension, come into extension. Let's bring our feet together, knees apart, two variations that are possible. One is baddha kanasana where the heels are close to you. The other is tarasana where your feet go out and you're in more of a diamond shape. If you have any low back sensitivity, this one is so welcome in the body. Elbows in front and you fold. If it's too much to fold, you stay up. Let those thigh bones be heavy. Feel what you feel, breathe. It's lovely to be in this body, to breathe, to feel the benefits of sound, penetrating layers, of core integrating. Then slowly you'll sit up, push your knees together, scooch hips forward and then roll on down. My gift to you, fold your right thigh and pull on the right thigh. Flex the left foot, circle around the right ankle once in both directions. Point and flex, give a little more generous pull, my friends. Then slowly release, please, fold the left thigh in, interlace those fingers, flex the right foot, the left foot circles one way and then the other, you might get a little crickle and crinkle. Then point and flex those mini adjustments. Beautiful work. Press that leg down, turn the palms of the hands up. If there's anything that your body needs, give it right now. If it needs less, maybe take a nice beautiful inhale and an audible sigh. Let that title being that feeling of water move and rinse through your body.

Let your breath deepen. Stay as long as you like, my friends. Reclaiming and being receptive. If you're ready to come up to seated, you come up any way you like. I often rub the pads of my feet together and the palms of my hands. And then we always want to just give ourselves a moment to seal in this practice. This time we take for ourselves and when we're in service of ourself, we can be in service of other. Namaste. Thank you for practicing.