Revolve and Release

Welcome. This practice will be twisting and rotating and releasing. So let's get started seated, cross-legged. If you want to put a blanket underneath your sit bones, that's great. Just start to make a little circle with your pelvis.

Because it helps to stir with your torso as well. And all you're looking to do is go around as a pelvis. I sometimes think about it like watching water go down the drain. And so we do several rounds in one direction. And then just when you tire of that direction, we go the other way.

And yes, you could count how many you do. And yet, what about just feeling the experience of just rotating and allowing ourselves to get into that third dimension? So now you'll pause there. Take your left hand to the mat. I'm taking my left hand to the mat, so I'm not mirroring you.

Right hand to the shoulder. Side bend over if you'd like to reach that right hand over to the left. Just relax your left shoulder. I feel a firm plant of my right sit bone. And then inhale, come up and do the other side.

So we come into the body and the ranges of the spine. And there's a great sense of weakening or awakening, depending upon where you are in your body. And remember that option of hand to shoulder. Come on the left, rooting the left sit bone. Come on up.

Put your hands on your shoulders, your elbows the height of your shoulders. Go ahead and twist to your left. If your neck needs a little space, you can keep looking forward. Come through the center and then twist to the right. You can keep looking forward.

Sometimes early in the practice, you're ready to turn your head and other times you're not. And then we'll come through the center. Place the hands on the thighs. Let's go to all fours. I'll meet you there.

You can move any way you like in these all fours to just start to feel what does the body need? Is it arch curl? Is it jump roping? Is it swiveling? So a bit of that freestyle movement in your body for just three breaths, I'm wagging my tail.

I'm letting my body just uniquely find a little more spaciousness. I hope you feel comfortable in your body to do that. Now you will take your right arm, your right arm out to the right and you'll just thread it through. Sometimes we thread the needle way later in the practice. So when we do it early, we want to be mindful hips over knees.

Maybe you slide your knees forward or back and it's just a gentle, gentle twist. I'm using tented left fingertips to support my left ribs rolling toward the back body and my right ribs rolling toward the navel. And then delighting in the breath. Maybe you're the connoisseur of your breath. And then we'll come back through the center and just take that left arm through wherever you are.

Just be with your breath and notice. I started to notice that my right toes were kind of crinkling, so I just relaxed them. Maybe that held true for you. And then slowly what we remember is that as we get out of this pose, we're reposing. So we're not hurrying to get out of the pose.

Look forward, take the hands forward and find yourself downward facing dog. So as we add on, remember, stay true to you. Glide your body forward into the plank and then downward facing dog. Inhale plank, exhale dog. Inhale plank, let's warm up the core because I love that.

Lift the right leg, right knee, right elbow, and back. This is the plank, right knee, left elbow, back, right thigh to the chest, and back. I hope you're shaking. I get to shake a little. Lift that left leg, left knee, left elbow, and back, left knee, right elbow, back, and then thigh to the chest.

Or maybe it doesn't lift that high. Back down dog. Now if you want to shorten your dog for this, feel free to do so. I'm not going to, but you could just step the right foot forward a smidge and the left foot forward a smidge. Take your right hand outside your left hip, your left knee, your left ankle, and then just look underneath, underneath, and then release.

Come into the plank, back to the dog. Let's balance the sides, take the left hand outside the right thigh, knee, ankle. Conscious awareness of ease and effort being matched. Slowly hands forward. Plank pose, lower all the way down to the mat.

Roll your thigh bones in. Take your hands behind you, grab your bottom, squeeze your elbows towards each other, and inhale, lift for a low cobra. And then exhale, release, put your hands under your shoulders, pin those elbows toward the spine. Inhale, lift for a low cobra. Exhale, release.

On this last one, you can lift your hands and your legs if you like. So we inhale, we float everything up. We feel that uniform upward facing happening through the spine, and then release. Push back through child's pose. If you want a little more vigor friends, you know where you go, you go into plank and reverse.

Downward facing dog. Inhale, right leg lifts. Step your right foot outside your right hand, and then the right hand can go to the right thigh or the sky, put the right hand down, step back to down dog. Inhale, lift the left leg, step the left foot outside the left hand, left hand, thigh or all the way up, down dog. Inhale plank, exhale dog.

Let's repeat that two more times. Inhale, lift right leg, right foot outside right hand, hand where you like it, hand down, down dog. So you can see the cadence and the rhythm changes. Inhale, left leg lifts, left foot outside, left hand. You still just stay true to your breath as you rotate.

Down dog, plank pose, and back last round here, best round here. Inhale, reach, exhale, wide step, wide twist, and down. Downward facing dog, I love this practice, inhale, reach. With the left leg, exhale, step, flowing is the way, hand down, down dog, inhale, plank. Now you can take chaturanga halfway and go right into up dog.

If that's not your thing, then swivel through your thing, okay? That's not your thing, swivel through your thing. You want to do one more? Okay, let's sneak one in. Inhale, plank, chaturanga, up dog, down dog.

Lift that right leg, take the right knee to the right elbow from down dog, exhale, inhale, reach the right leg. Take that right knee to the left elbow, and up. Take the thigh to the chest or the knee to the nose, step the right foot forward, bring your hands into prayer, and let's take our left elbow outside our right thigh. If for some reason you want to take the left hand under the shoulder or outside the right leg, you do you. If you look down, classic Dristy when the hands are in prayer is up, hands come down, move through with a cycling vinyasa.

If you're not feeling it, you know. And then lift that left leg with that same energy and enthusiasm, left knee, left elbow, and up, across, and up. Right thigh, chest, knee, nose, quiet step, hands, prayer, balanced action. Even when the tide gets a little bit rocky, twist. Remember right arm can go under shoulder, right arm can go outside, or prayer hands.

I just felt like I was getting a little slacky in the back leg. So what did I do? I jazzed it up a bit like there's a laser through my right heel. Hands down, vinyasa. Just enough to inspire more.

Lift the right leg, step the right foot forward, warrior two, sit. Look over that right shoulder. What are you aiming for? And how can you be more skillful in your action? Reverse the warrior.

It's lovely to feel that reverse. Inhale, come up, and then forearm to thigh, reach over, extended side angle. Yes, you could bind, for sure. You could take the right arm just on the inside of the knee ankle, or if it comes that you're binding, remember, it's about rolling the left ribs toward the back body. So we don't grab at the expense of something overworking.

That's stearom and sukam, sweetness and strength. Hand down, vinyasa. In practices like these, I'm so invigorated by the vinyasa. So lift that left leg, step the foot forward, veer a two. Always remember hero in the warrior.

Always remember balanced action from the grounding. From the heart space, reach, breathe, generosity, spirit. Inhale up, forearm to thigh, right hand reaches, left arm on the inside. Again, if you're choosing to bind, it's because the body allows, not the ego, overdoing, overdoing. Hands down, vinyasa.

Some days it's there, some days it's everywhere. Wherever it is for you, my friends, wherever it is, just be with it. That's the right leg. Step that right foot forward. Warrior two just becomes a transitional pose.

Just a transitional pose. Straighten the right leg, turn toes in, heels out. Just going to squeeze in, hands on your hips, inhale, lift, chest, exhale, fold forward and down. Take both hands to your right foot. So left hand on the inner ankle, right hand on the outer ankle, if that's too low for you on the knee or the thigh.

As you fold that right hip tends to sag, so I just kind of nudge it. It has to do with a little more energy in the right leg and I fold toward my right thigh. This is really priming me, my body, my breath for this moment that is about to happen. Hands under the shoulders, inhale, lift the chest, exhale, hands to hips, inhale, come all the way up. What's the moment that's about to happen?

Twisting triangle or hands around that right foot. So I prep myself by putting my right foot in the right lane by taking the left outer hip and guiding it forward and reaching the left arm up, forward and down. Yes, a block is fine. Whatever will rise the floor for you. You can take that left hand outside the right foot if it's possible.

And if you have to futz with your feet, do so. Reaching up, breathing, smoothing out your breath, again, feeling all the twists and then both hands come down a little bend and then a big bend in the right knee for a vinyasa. And here you are, and how are you showing up for you? Here to be with you, lift the left leg, step the left foot forward. We know that our warrior two is just a moment that we stop, we straighten, I mess with my legs a little, bright heart, hinge, fold, hands to the left foot, right arm on the inside noting that I'm not sagging on that right hip, and then fold, breathe.

And this just helps your whole body flow into that rotation that's about to happen. Then gently back through the center, hands on the mat, inhale, lift the chest, exhale hands to hips, inhale, friends, come all the way up. Left foot forward, right foot, and it's only and sometimes is really supportive of decongesting the pelvis, right arm reaches up, right hand comes down. It can go under the shoulder, it can go outside, you swivel, you reach, squeeze those legs, breathe in, breathe out. I love twisting triangle because there's so much happening, so much happening, I have to have the call to action, can I just pay attention right now?

This moment, beautiful, take your hands down, bend your left knee, minyasa, the practice has so much excitement, if you're willing to experience it, if you have a little spring in your step today, bend your knees, when you exhale, look to your thumbs, hop your feet to your hands, now come down and squat, I'm going to turn my position just so I face you okay, you keep staying at the top of your mat, so I'm in that position where my legs are together, my knees are going to go to my left, okay, my knees are going to go to my left, I'm squeezing my legs, now if I stayed here, it would be enough, okay, but if I wanted a little more, I would take and I'm going to my left hand onto the mat and it's outside my right knee, my right hand on the mat and that elbow is going to come to the hip, now in parsvabha kasan, most people like to take the hand out to the side, but let's just see, let's play with this, let's just lean and see and then it's like you're listening to the floor and maybe the wisdom of the earth is coming in and maybe your feet are floating up and you're breathing the whole time and then you come down and it's so fun, we do the other side, so keep the legs together like your toes are on a lazy susan, move your knees now to the right, right elbow outside, left thigh, left elbow into that outer left hip, a little bit of acupressure which is a total bonus here, so then go ahead and lean and breathe and maybe the message is different on this side and maybe the feet float up and maybe they don't, breathe, breathe, breathe and then land and then turn your toes forward, you're at the top of the mat, I'm going to join you here because I know what's about to happen, all that you're going to do is sit down, yeah that's it and then you're going to slide your left foot forward, hug that right heel in, look to your right, take your right hand behind you, inhale lift your left arm up, hook it, twist it, now remember the right hand, I'm on tented fingertips is helping allow the torso to be more up, it's not leaning me like a bike, it's helping me be up, my left foot is flexed and I'm twisting, twisting, twisting, toning, breathing and then release, you get a moment where you just go into the opening, let's switch sides, right leg forward, left heel in, left hand behind, I really like tented fingertips for me because then I can relax my shoulder as opposed to losing my neck, right arm up, hook, twist, twist, hook, breathe, breathe, rotate again on that central axis, rotate, flex your right foot, I had to look at it to make sure it was listening, uh-huh and then get out of there my friends, a moment where you can just twist into the opening, reach both legs forward, inhale, bring the arms up, exhale fold, not too long here just long enough, squeeze those inner thighs, merging us right back into that midline and then slowly, gently rolling all the way down, now I'm certain you don't need another twist but you maybe want one, I think it would be great just to do one half bridge to activate and parallel those legs lifting up, if you're feeling like legs up the wall is a better option for you go there, I go up, up, up, I lift my chest and then I come down and I'm just going to let my legs go long and I'm going to turn my palms up, if you feel like there's something you need you're going to deliver it, if you're ready to just close your eyes and let everything re-earth that's where you'll go, breathing, breathing, as always you can stay as long as you like, I'm going to slide my heels in, bend my knees, roll to one side, come up to seated, that renewal feeling it and that gratitude, bringing the hands to the heart center in prayer, thank yourself for practicing, namaste.