Soulful Maté

Greetings, friends. Welcome to what is probably my favorite practice for this good morning yoga series. What's in your Kappa? This morning is soulful Mate. And if you've never had the privilege and the joy of enjoying a Mate, it's a really beautiful South American classic beverage that's meant to be shared and sipped slowly among friends.

So that's the vibe of this practice. Great to have a bolster handy and your mat near a wall because we'll be kinda lingering and indulging in some of these shapes. So Let's begin. Let's start in a comfortable seated position. You're welcome to sit on your bolster if you like to elevate your pelvis or cross legged.

And let's start by gently circulating our rib cage over the hips in some nice, slow, souffy rolls here, and feeling how the shoulders and the hips, the wrists, the elbows just start to work together. In creating some ease and relief at the low back and hips. You can let your head and neck spiral as well. And start to invite the breath as you inhale to come up and exhale to melt forward and down. Just allowing some easy movement in the lumbar spine.

Let's go the opposite direction, inhaling to rise, and exhaling to melt down and kind of stirring through what's in the base of the hips, the base of the spine. Although one thing to remember if you're drinking Mate and once you put the bombilla, the the stainless steel straw into the herbs, you don't stir it. You keep it grounded and see it. So let's find that grounding and finding that central line of energy through the spine as you inhale to reach up. And then as you exhale, take a side bend over to one side and grounding down through one hand, press into the opposite hip, Let's lift and turn the chest towards the sky.

Take a big inhale. And as you exhale, slowly circulate down towards the base, forward and around. So we'll sweep along the floor here and come up into a seated twist opposite hand to opposite knee. Lift up through the chest as you inhale and exhale spiral looking over the back shoulder. Feeling a gentle twist in the lumbar spine.

And let your pelvis tilt a little bit forward and back and find your sweet spot for the twist. Mine's a ride about here in the middle, lifting up on an inhale, and exhale dropping in a little deeper, just hanging out in this moment. No need to rush. And then slowly come back to the center in how to reach out and up, looking up, pause there for a moment, get a little more length through the sideways, and then exhale over to the opposite side. And my one of my close best friends from 2nd grade, Michael. He's the one that introduced me to Mate.

And I know when we take the time to enjoy a gourd together, It's gonna be for a while. We're gonna take our time and chat and catch up and find that quality of just surrendering into the moment and enjoying rather than rushing through. We always rush so much in daily lives. So it's nice to just hang out and feel the shape, take a deep breath in. And then as you exhale, reach forward and down, kinda cruising along the bottom of the ocean here and then come right back up to that opposite twist, it tall and exhale turn the spine, sitting a little taller.

Exhale to spiral. Feeling that little tilt in the pelvis, the subtlety through the low back and through the hips as you Find a little more juiciness in your spine and the twist. And then exhale slowly release. Let's come to hands and knees. And find that same circular energy with shoulders and hips over arm and leg bones. And I like to curl my toes under here and stretch through the metatarsals and allow the rib cage to barrel roll and extend kinda like a jungle cat maybe it's a leopard or a jaguar as you go to the other side, finding your mobility through the spine, through the ribs, through head, neck, and shoulders, linking it with the breath, inhaling, exhaling, And then coming back to the center, big toes touch, let's release back into child's pose, forehead drops down, and take a moment here and just rooting into that earth element, earth energy.

Mate has a very earthy smelled scent to it, which is lovely. Lowing your breath to fill and expand through the back of the heart. And feeling child's pose as its own shape. It is. This is often referred to as wisdom asana. Gently folding into hips and knees, folding into the breath.

Take one more cycle of breath here. And exhale completely. Let all the breath out. And then inhale into hands and knees. Curl your toes under, press up and back into down dog.

Maybe it's the 1st down dog of the day. So let's bicycle pedal and savor this shape. Kinda like you're putting your most comfortable pair of jammy pants or sweat pants on. Shifting side to side, stretching into the skin and bones as you bicycle pedal, and then taking a slow meander, towards the top of the mat, and we'll set the feet nice and wide as wide as the mat. We'll come into a bit of a creative namaskar this morning. So I'd love for you to bend your knees.

Take your hands to your shins and on an inhale. Project the heart forward as you straighten the legs, creating almost a tabletop through the spine. And then as you exhale, soften and surrender your spine down, relax through the backs of the hands and head. Just take that twice more inhale. Feel that buoyancy opening through the heart without any stress and then exhale.

Anything that you might be needing to let go, let it drain down once more inhale expanding. Exhale, softening, and moving in a sustainable way. So we're building our energy rather than tapping it or sapping it Start to roll up, but take your time, bend the knees a little more generously, pull the navel in, and slowly unfurl, almost like a baby fern fraud and furrows. Let your shoulders roll up and back. And then bring your hands to your shoulders.

Take the elbows up and back. The simple progression. And then a full sweep of the arms, inhale, reach forward and up, open the chest, bend your knees and slowly soften all the way back down to that forward fold. Hands inside the feet take your left foot step back to a wide lunge. So I've got my right foot all the way to the right edge of the mat, the left foot's towards the left edge, and the hips are dropping down.

Let's take a simple twist here and inhale. And then as you exhale, bring your hand back down push off the back foot wide leg fold. Let's step the right foot back. Same thing. Wide lunge, like the hips melt. So we're taken up a lot of territory here.

A lot of real estate on the mat. Open up into a twist. And then exhale bring it back down from here, step back to plank, lower the knees, your Vinyasa is child's pose. Yes. Awesome. Dropping in.

And then taking the hands together, bringing the fingertips towards the back of the neck, feeling that gentle kind of bowing inward and prayer intention, any dedication that you might be working with, just drop it into this moment. And then release your arms. And let's slip the left arm under the right. So we use this grounding energy and the weight of the upper body to open the back of the left shoulder. As you exhale, slide the right hand down just next to your right next to your face here, and you can press into the right pump, turn your head, neck, and shoulders towards your right.

Yeah. And then slide that right hand forward. Unfurl. Take your left arm to the sky. And we'll move up and down three times here. Winding and unwinding is you inhale, unfurl as you exhale, drop down into gravity.

One more time, inhale, unfurl, exhale, drop it down. And just a different perspective is we hang out on the side of the shoulder and head. I'd love to take that right leg out to the side and start to turn this or inside out, taking a few circulations of your top arm. Notice it as you open the chest, that bottom shin can pivot And then as you come back around, it redirects to the back of the mat. So just feeling how you rotate on the shoulder and the knee, And from here, we'll ground right hand.

Come up into a balancing cat for a moment and feel that stability long line of energy from left hand to right foot. So we have that central through line just like a Bombia with a gourd and mate. And then release. Ah, circling through shoulders and hips. One direction than the other. It's an extended Vinyasa and then sinking back down.

Child's pose, we take our right arm under the left shoulder and the weight of your body down through any Anything that feels like a blockage, just release it. Let your breath be like warm water pouring over the Mate leaves. From here, we'll unwind and open the chest up, lingers. You reach to the sky. Exhale dynamic twist underneath, shoulder, and head. Inhale. Come up again.

We get to enjoy this three times. Exhale all the way down. One more time. Inhale expand. Linger at the top.

And exhale all the way back down, grounding to the shoulder and the head, taking your left leg out to the side. And then just open the chest towards the sky, circulating left arm, feeling that natural pivot on right knee, right shoulder, on the side of your head. It's like a massage for the right temple, the right brain, inhale, exhale, right here, left hand, sorry, comes down. And we come up into balancing cat. Extending long through your line of energy, feeling that central danda or staff of the spine that it extends into that idea of a bumpia.

And then exhale, let it go. I just like to say bumpia. Girl the toes under, lift your hips and bicycle pedal through the feet and knees. We're gonna give equal equal opportunity to the legs here to the hamstrings. So let's take the right leg to the sky like a nice big yawn, opening up the gates of the hamstrings.

Exhale. Set it down. Like, you're setting down any worries. And then left leg rises in here. Pause at the top. Exhale step all the way through, runner's lunge, and then walk your hands to the right coming into a wide leg forward fold.

Release down for a moment, empty out. And then just like we did at the front of the mat, soften your knees and slowly roll up the spine one vertebrae at a time. Releasing shoulders, arms, shoulders roll up and back. The same pattern here. Hands come to the shoulders, take the elbows up and back.

Opening through the chest and then full wingspan reaching forward and up and open into trikonasana. So we'll take the right foot and turn it out. The left heel kick back a little. Shift your hips back as you reach forward. And I'm really taking my time here in these transitions kinda savoring the conversation between one posture to the next.

As we come into our trikonasana, your right hand could come to your ankle or a block or the floor, Top arm reaches overhead for full extended, Wutita, Tricanasana. As you inhale, look up towards the light, And then as you exhale, at the top arm circle in front of your beautiful face, bend your right knee, come through warrior 2 to reverse warrior, So we have these concentric circles, the top arm in front of your face, straighten your right leg, and trico na trico Nasana makes an appearance again. Top arm circles, bend your knee, inhale, enjoying the pathway, enjoying this conversation, coming back into your triconasana inhale. As you exhale, moving to Skandasana, we'll pivot the right toes in Hands come to the long edge of the mat. We turn the left toes out, and we're low.

Nice hip opening here. So if this doesn't work for the knees, we can stay a little higher with the feet parallel. Otherwise, if it feels okay for you, lower the hips down. Take a seat. Stay a while. That's what you do when you share Mate.

And we'll allow that right hip to come all the way down. Your bolster's handy if you need a little support and gently draw your left knee down. So I'm gonna shift my hips over a little bit just to use my mat, and then I'll continue this circular pattern. I'm reaching forward with my left arm the right elbow comes down, and I have a nice big opening here. Notice my left hip.

Notice your left hip rocking forward. And then regrounding. So there's this massage happening in the front of the left tip. It might feel great to hang out on your forearms. It's a little half of irasana. It might feel better to stay up high.

Check-in with your knee. Check-in with your situation, and how much do you need? When you're Sharon Mate, the gourd gets passed and refilled many times. And there's 3 different types of caffeine and mate. It's a clean burn, though.

It doesn't leave you jittery, but, you know, a little goes a long way. So same thing with these yoga asanas. A little goes a long way. Less might be more for you today. If you're wanting a little more and you wanna drop in a little deeper, I'm gonna give a scoot here.

You might take yourself all the way down onto your back. And just be aware that, oh, if you snuggle your back into the floor, you gotta get up off the floor. How do we do that? We roll out of it. So I'm gonna roll away from my knee.

And then slowly press myself up, unfold, and make my way back into down dog. Facing the opposite direction. Hey. It's all working out. Finding that bicycle pedal through the feet and knees. Equal opportunity for the legs.

Once again, the left leg gets to lead this round. Hamstrings feel a little more open. And then lower down. And then the right leg rises inhale. Steady slow pace.

Stepping all the way through to your runner's lunge and then walking your hands to the left. Here we are in this wide leg forward fold. Let's inhale to lengthen. Exhale release, soften your knees and slowly roll up. It's kinda melting through any stiffness.

Let's take the shoulders and roll up and back, opening through the heart. Take the hands to the shoulders, move the elbows up and back, and then full wings span reach forward and up. Open the chest. The left foot turns out, and the right foot slightly turns in. So we have this shift into trikonasana reaching forward finding that tilt as we slowly move through these shapes and enjoy the pathway. Top arm reaches.

Inhale here. As you exhale top arm circles, bend your left knee and finding your reverse wire, connecting the dots, top arm circles, straighten the front leg, and it melts right into the next shape. Just cruising. Kinda like you're on vacation, at least for this moment. In now. It's a state of mind and exhale.

We don't always have the time to enjoy a long round of Mate, but when we do, let's go there. Let's savor it. Take a deep breath in. And then as you exhale, bring the hands down, the left foot turns in, we can stay in this high Skondasana or turn the toes out and come into a lower Skandasana taking a seat. So as you drop down, that left hip can come to the floor. Right knee turns in, we readjust as needed, and then we start to find that circulation form to the mat.

And really, I'm focusing on the movement of my hip, and my spine. This is a huge opening for the ankle. Anchles and the feet and the toes. A lot of times we take for granted or lose some flexibility through the feet. So this is a really beautiful shape to start to bring that back. Opening up our roots.

So you can stay high or move a little bit lower, and I like to kinda use my back cord is slowly descends, sometimes even back diving my way in through the back of my head down into this shape. So taking a few breaths here and letting the front of the right quad breeze. And if you came down low, then you get to climb your way out. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale rolling away from the bent knee, pressing yourself up, unfolding and we're ripe for a seated forward fold.

So let's reach up on an inhale. Exhale, melt forward over the long legs. You can use a strap around your feet, grab onto ankles, toes, whatever works for you. And as always, in any seated forward folds, if the hamstrings are feeling a little tight, please elevate your hips up on a bolster or a block or 2. Let's hang out here for a couple breaths.

Last breath here. Inhale to rise, reaching the arms all the way up to the sky, exhale, release your hands down by your side. So let's move towards the wall here. We can spin around, and this is a great place to bring the bolster into play. I'm gonna separate a or slide my mat all the way to the wall so I have that support.

And then I like to keep my bolster close by so that I can get myself into position and then just pull the boast the bolster in, where it's easy. So we'll scoot the hips all the way up to the wall. We've been here before in some of the previous practices and It's nice to know that, well, tuck and roll come under your back, that you can come here anytime for port for standing balance postures, for inversions, for and some of our later practices will move into headstand. So the wall's always there, whether we guide you to it or not. You can use it at any time. So from here, bend your knees. And let's find that pathway into shoulder stand.

We were here in some of our earlier practices using the wall to come up and down, open up shoulders and activate hamstrings and hips, And now this pathway today, we'll just go right into kinda passing through our supported shoulder stand. You're welcome to stay here. If you like, or you can take your shoulder stand a little higher and come off the wall, supporting the low back with your hands, and finding those lines of energy from your hips to your toes, from your hips to your shoulders, and feeling that beautiful inversion, the Bumbia, the through line from the balls of the feet right down to the heart and the throat, and breathe, reaching up with your roots towards the sky. Feeling that flotation freedom in the legs and also grounding in the upper body. And then let's let this fold over into plow.

Release your low back. I'd love for you maybe to take your hands to your ankles today. Feet, whatever you can grab onto and just feel that sense of coiling into yourself. You might even bend your knees. Supporting your hips again with your hands, coming into we call this one Viparita Karani, Sometimes it's nice to take the feet slightly over to the right and take both knees towards the right cheek, wing in on the right shoulder, or taking the feet over to the left, and knees where it's left cheek.

I'm just kind of experimenting with this inversion, either pointing or tucking the toes under, pushing back through the heels, pressing through balls of the feet and then slowly making your way back down and You can take your hands to your low back and your feet to the wall, or you can keep your hands at your ankles and calves and kinda press into a deeper forward fold as you come down. Using your core, using the strength of the arms, to slowly melt your spine back down. Savoring these transitions. Taking the legs back to the wall and then opening up into a wide v. Relaxing the arms over your head and breathing your breath. Like, it's a long, slow sip of warm mat say.

Feeling those open channels of energy through the legs, through the heart, drawing the hands to the outer knees and assisting your legs back up to neutral. Legs come together. Roll to one side and come back up to seated. And finding your your throne on your bolster. Coming into any comfortable cross legged or Sedasana stacking the heels or full podmasana.

I'm gonna take the one that's most comfortable for me right here. So finding this tall, spine, and we'll work with a little alternate nostril breathing to close our practice this morning. So you can take your right hand and create a peace sign with your first two fingers. And gently rest the peace fingers right at your 3rd eye, right between the brows, keeping a tall spine. Use your thumb to seal off right nostril and inhale through the left. Pause at the top, seal the left, open the right, and exhale.

Inhale through the right. Pause at the top. Seal. Open the left exhale. That was one round.

Inhale through the left. Pause at the top. Seal, open the right, exhale. Inhale through the right. Pause at the top, seal, Open the left, exhale.

That was two rounds. Let's take one more together. Inhale through the left. Pause at the top, seal, Open the right, exhale. Inhale through the right.

Pause at the top. Seal. Open the left exhale. Release your hands to your lab. Take a deep breath in through both nostrils.

Little pause at the top. Savor the breath. Savor the feeling of fullness. Exhale slowly, and let your breath return to a normal rhythm. Check into a general mood of how your body feels, your energy, your mind, hopefully a sense of a steady awakening, ready to receive your day, but from a really calm grounded place.

Let's bring the hands together at the heart. I feel that central bow to yourself and namaskarum to your own heart center and to the world around you. Thank you so much for being here today, this morning, for sharing your practice. I hope you feel amazing, and we'll see you in the next cycle. Namaste.