Hip Happiness

Hey, welcome. Yes to you for making it to practice today. I'm Cleo. We're gonna be in the hips. I have a strap. You'll want one too and maybe a block.

We're gonna start on the back. Soup to body So you'll just lie on your back, soles of the feet together with the knees opened. I like arms overhead. You can have them loose, or hold your elbows port under the knees. Let the knees drop.

Even if that feels initially, tight or limited. And we'll start with a bit of breath work on Tara Kumbaka, which is just really feeling the space of full feeling inhalation. So you can start just by sighing or emptying the breath out. And then a smooth, steady breath in, and you'll simply hold the breath at the top. Widening the collar bones.

You can hold full as long as comfortable for you and then exhale soft, smooth, slow breath out, and a couple more times. So just breathing in and holding full, adding in some smile, kind of welcoming to yourself. To this practice, to this time, an acknowledgement, that just being here is, communication to your body and mind of caring of kindness. Great. And one more breath, full inhale, smile the collar bones, the corners of the lips, maybe even the corners of your eyes. Kind of, what's up, friend? Nice to see you.

Good to be with you. Hi. And then exhale. All the breath empty. Yeah. Okay. Hold the knees, bring them together, and you're gonna go ahead and lie on your left side. Line yourself up at the so that you see a lot of mat in front of you.

You can lay on your left Right around your ear. Do you see that your ankles, hips, and shoulders are in line? It should be kind of a balance challenge balancing on your left baby toe. And then this might be a place where you grab your strap go ahead and bend your right knee and you can at first hold the knee bringing it into the armpit like a frog. And you're welcome to keep the right knee bent.

Hold the baby toe or classically the big toe. Onantasana and straighten the leg. You could also be using a strap, or you could keep the knee bent. The tendency is for the knee to come the leg to come forward towards your mat towards the floor and for the butt, especially the right butt to go back. So give some attention to your right gluteus muscle wrapping the outer hip under you almost as if there was a strap attached to your right thigh, and someone was pulling your right thigh bone to the bottom of the hip socket, making space at the right waist.

And as you with your hand or your strap, bring your right leg back towards the wall behind you, see if you can also roll your belly towards the floor in front of you. Great. Release the foot, bend the right knee like tree pose, and then put the foot on the floor just in front of your left leg so the outer ankle touches your left thigh and you're gonna keep this set up just like this and roll onto your belly. That's why you want a lot of matte. I mean, if you come off, you're matte, no big deal.

You just readjust But so your right foot is underneath your left thigh. And immediately, you'll feel the right hip is lifted up sort of popping up away from the floor, and you can ground it down, again, this contraction of the outer hip muscle, It almost feels like the work of trying to pick up your right knee. You can catch and release that muscle. Let's take a little bit of a twist so I'm up on my elbows threading the right arm underneath the left and the left hand can just go to the side and see if you can yawn open the right groin, the right knee moving away from the hip. And again, taking out the space between the right hip and the floor. You might also get a spinal adjustment.

Exhale. Great. And then maybe even like a upward facing dog, cobra feeling. It doesn't have to be big. But again, to yaw and open the groin. Lovely.

Roll on to, undo the leg slide your right leg out, and then you'll roll on to your right side. And again, line up at the back edge of your mat. I'm gonna call this the back edge so that you see a lot of mat in front of you, and you take a beat to make sure your shoulders, your hips, your ankles are all in the same line. And again, you can lay on your arm. It is easier for balance laying on the arm than holding the head.

The balance happens in your Excuse me, in your right babytail. But it's forward, front ribs, back, everything towards midline, And then you can bend your left knee. And, again, you could use your strap at first just bring the knee towards the armpit. If you're not wobbling, you know, go for it more. Go for it more to try and get the leg more vertical straight up to the ceiling. And the body, more parallel to the walls in front and behind you. You can straighten the leg a little or a lot.

Pressing the left thigh bone back, back, back, and gripping the left buttocks muscle, tailbone forward, One more time see about moving the leg more towards the vertical and turning the abdomen, the belly button more towards the floor. Release the leg. Do tree pose, bend the left knee, step on the right thigh, and then step in front of the right leg. So that the outer ankle touches the thigh and you'll roll onto the belly. I mean, I feel it.

All along from the outer knee to the outer hip. It's hard in standing poses like warrior 2 or side angle or triangle to find this muscular action. And so with the help of gravity and with the information, the feedback of the floor, you can feel the right hip is solidly down and there's space. I can put my whole left hand underneath my left hip. As if your left heel is pushing into the floor as if you could lift your left knee up, that's the muscle you're looking to engage. And then we'll take a little bit of a twist, right hand out to the side, weave your left arm underneath, roll some weight toward your left ribs, left waist, left thigh, see if you can iron down the left groin.

Unweave, a little bit of cobra action, updog action, It does not need to be formal. Your hands can be wide. Your right toes can be tucked. It's really for the left leg. And then lower back down, free your left leg.

A little bit of COBRAbery. Then and then child's pose as you breathe out. Great. Roll on up to sit. Now you will want your strap. Grab your strap.

Make a loop with it and it's gonna go around you like a belt behind your sacrum and in front of your knees So it's a big loop. It's like big enough for you and a friend. Ideally this practice of yoga and meditation is, a becoming best friends. You know, with you practice a way of really being with you in a best friend kind of a way. So this strap is going right in front of my knees.

I'm in. It goes over the front of the knees. And, you know, do take the moment to tighten it to the just sweet spot so that it's neither pulling the knees up, nor allowing the knees to drop down. Take your fingers to the side and feel for a moment what it's like to press the knees into the strap. There's a kind of rebound of the belly to the back That same on Tara Kumbaka inhale, knees forward, and back ribs back as you breathe in. And then maintain that as you breathe out, see if you can find some height through the spine.

So almost like sit bones coming together like those kinds of screws in a Christmas tree that hold the trunk down knees forward, back ribs back as you breathe in, and then that screwing pelvic floor, floating the diaphragm up, the palette up, even the dome of the head up. Yeah. Change the cross. You can keep the strap just where it is. Again, a few breasts.

I have my hands out to the side up on fingertips. Just to encourage also the side body to lift, length in the armpits, press your knees forward. Back waist back, breathe in. And as you exhale like an elevator going up, pelvic floor out through the sunroof of your skull. One more breath.

Okay. Great. And then slip out of the strap and keep the loop. Change the cross of your shins And we're gonna make a figure 8 with the loop. So you can see here a figure 8 with the loop. It's just crisscrossed in the middle.

And one circle of that figure 8 is gonna go over your right foot, left knee, x in the middle, and the other loop is gonna hold the left foot and the right knee. And then again, you'll tighten it up. Nice to have the buckle not touching any part of your skin, you'll tighten it up and we're gonna lie down belly first. So you'll need to be towards the back of your mat. And, you know, if this is tender on your knees, you could put down a bolster, a blanket, or do this on carpet, or you can just even do it rolling to the side. So lying prone. Now the strap is holding the feet.

The knees are open. And this gives a lot of space now to the front of the abdomen, the front of the pelvis. We're gonna take Bastrika breath here, which is like a saw going back and forth inhale and exhale, it sounds like this. And we'll do 54 So you could be up on your elbows like I am in a sphinx, or you could have your head down. And you're looking for sensation in the abdomen move.

So go ahead. Start by exhaling. Breathe in. We'll do 54. 4321. Exhale.

A little bit of cobra or updog in hell. Let your pelvis drop, yawn, open the hip crease, and then carefully come back onto your seat. Roll over the knees. You can keep the x just as it is. We'll change the cross of the shins.

So Left foot, right knee in one side, and right foot, left knee in the other. And you might need to adjust the strap because your legs might be different, your hips might be different. Do give yourself that moment. And then when you're ready, come back onto the belly, A lot of times we are opening the outer hip when we do, poses like pigeon. We do a lot of work to open the outer hip, the IT, and there's something deep in the body that can be released when we open the inner thigh, this inner seam of the body, Resting the head if that feels right or keeping it upright. Inhale.

Complete exhale, and we'll take the 2nd round of busstreka. Last 4, 3, 2, 1. Brief empty. Like cobra or updog, inhale, hands next to the chest and lift the chest as you lay the pelvis down and exhale roll back onto your knees. Slip out of the strap. We're gonna take a forward fold. Keep your feet, hip distance apart.

And you'll just step on your strap. It doesn't matter where you are anywhere. Just step on your strap I'm gonna have my my loop behind me, but yours could be anywhere and pull up. So the pinky side of the foot, the outer arch of the foot, pull up, and let your head go down, and see if you can imagine not just the outer arch of the foot going up, but the outer kneecaps going up. If you can lift the outer hips up, And from this inner groin from the very top inseam of your pants, elongate down. So the inner groin to the inner knee, to the ball of the big toe, inner heel down, and the baby toe, outer knee, outer hip up. Like a u shape.

Good. You'll stand. Keep holding the strap. You might need to make a big adjustment with the strap. You might need to make your strap very big, but you'll just stand Nice to have the strap behind you as I have here although it could be also in front of you. And again, you can slide your hands down a little bit, bend your knees a little bit and pull up this time your arms are straight, you just have a sense of elongation. The strap is giving you this lovely feedback to, lengthen and create space in the whole spine.

Yeah. Something magical about standing on our own 2 feet. Okay. Great. Step out of the strap. Have the buckle near your right hip. You're gonna step your you might want a block.

We're gonna do artichendrasana. So if you practice half moon with a block, you can put it at the upper right corner. Step your left foot heel. I like heel into the strap, and your right leg will go through this loop. Have the buckle near your hip so that you can tighten it and we're gonna go into half moon so slow, you know, fold forward hands to the floor like warrior 3. I'm tightening my strap right here.

Maybe you wanna block for your right hand about a foot forward to the right. You can keep your left hand on your hip, And if you're not feeling that the more you push into your left heel, the more you're getting that traction information in your right leg to move the thigh bone towards the back of the hip, then just tighten the strap. So should really feel like there's, two ends of the strap, the left heel and the outer right hip. And it can make wonderful space in the sacrum, you know, the pot of the spine, the pelvis is this pot of the spine If it feels right, you can lift your left arm up and begin to revolve your belly. The way you did on your when you were lying face down, how your belly turned away from your bent knee, from your tree pos knee.

Now you can do that here. We're gonna move into side angle, Pajva Konasana, bend your right knee, keep reaching back with your left. He'll go way back back of mat, move your block with you. You might need to lengthen again So it should feel like this is really holding your right hip back. And from that depth, you can elongate your right rib cage, take the left arm over ear side angle pose.

Wrapping the right buttocks under and rolling the belly up. Okay. Both hands down. You're just gonna step forward. The strap is gonna fall off. Step out of the strap, hold the strap, stand, and we'll do it on the other side.

So again, I'm gonna hold the buckle near my left hip, step my right heel, on the strap and then left leg through so that the buckles on the outer hip folding down half moon And, you know, you have different lengths, legs, you habitually sit, lean, stand one way or the other. So you might need to adjust your buckle. And every encouragement to do that. Go ahead kick the heel. I really like the heel kicking into the strap and elongate your left waist.

Pull the armpit, the left rib cage away from the hip, even as the strap pulls the left hip away from the armpit. You might even look up. Okay. Go ahead, bend your left knee, tap down, step back once or twice, pull the left hand block back with you. It's nice. It gives us kind of a safety net to drop into the hips.

We're being held by the strap, by our intention, by the breath, by the attention. It's almost you could almost even dial your left heel forward to encourage the left hip to go forward. And then against that forward belly back, front ribs back. When we're breath, right arm alongside the ears, you inhale. Left chest, ribs, rolling forward, right, chest ribs rolling back exhale.

Good. Both hands down. Step your right foot forward. The strap will fall off. And then a wide legged prosardapatatenasana fold So you can simply step your right foot to the back of the mat.

Turn to the long side Hands under the shoulders, breathe in, and then head to the floor. If your head doesn't reach the floor, you can put your head on a block. Stage one is to straighten the legs completely. So if your legs are not straight, you You could have your arms any way you like. And if an inversion is part of your practice or interesting for you today, go ahead and set yourself up for that.

It could be sheer sauce and a bee. So right from prosardapata Tannasana, right from that fold, or you could be you know, moving to a wall or interlacing your fingers. Nice to be symmetrical with the hips. If you are in the classic headstand, you could mirror what you might be doing if you were in the forward full so upavistha Konasana taking the legs wide. Where you might even take badoconasana if you're in the headstand, souls of the feet together.

You could take tree pose. A figure for you might even play with pulling the heel down a little bit lower towards the hip If you do it on one side, do it on the other, You can imagine if you're doing that figure for shape what it was like to have the floor give you feedback to move the hip away from, you know, in the opposite direction of your face. Okay. If you're up, begin to make your way down, And if you're in the wide stance, bring your hands under your shoulders, come halfway up, breathe in. And then hands to your hips, heel toe your feet in together, and stand.

Great. So we'll take padmasana and, this is really, you know, It it could be sukhasana again, so it could be right shin in front of left. This might be a great place for you. You might find that you have capacity and interest in right ankle over knee, lotus pose, you know, padmasana lotus. And some of you might feel, you know, some people are just born.

This is easy for them. Some people, this will never be part of their practice. So I'm encouraging you to be in a shape that feels, definitely comfortable for your knees 1st and foremost. And we'll do a little bit of alternate breathing here So, Nadi showed another right hand in front of the nose, in front of the face, and the left hand can hold the elbow. Sometimes that's helpful so the head doesn't turn.

The peace fingers can go between your eyebrows or into the palm of your hand. Put your right thumb on the right nostril and your ring finger on the left. Take a breath through both sides. And then close the right and inhale left. Close, left, and exhale, right.

Be with your rhythm if I'm faster or slower than you. Keep going in hell, right? And exhale left. 2 more like this inhale left. Exhale. Right?

Make the touch of the fingers very soft and how right Make your breath very quiet, exhale laugh. And then rest your hands and take an even breath. Great. And we'll change the cross of the shin. So go ahead and straighten the legs. You know, really, I I can't say enough to be kind to your knees here.

This time, it's gonna be your left shin in front or your left ankle first on the right side. If your knees hurt, you know, you can put a sock behind your knees. Right? It's just not worth You know, it's better to sit in some halfway thing because your knees are awesome. You know, you don't need to buy new ones. Okay. This time it's the left hand that's gonna be doing the manipulation of the nose. So your right hand can hold the elbow, or not left thumb to the left nostril and ring finger to the right nostril.

Take a breath through both sides, inhale, and exhale. On this time, you'll close the left and inhale right. Exhale left. Inhale left. And exhale. Right.

Two more breaths like this. Inhale. Right Very thin breath, exhale, laugh, quiet, slow, soft. Last one, inhale left. And exhale. Right? What's your left hand rest?

Both hands and take an even breath through both sides inhale and exhale. We're gonna move into meditation. If you're very comfortable as you are, please stay as you are. And if you think you could get any more comfortable, maybe by sitting up on a block, or by changing the cross of your legs, or even by lying down, please do that. Start by taking a few deeper exhales.

Let it be even on both sides as if it could be. Sense into the body, whatever feeling is most obvious or easy to sense. And then sense into the mind, the heart, how you're feeling right now. And really meet whatever feeling arises the way you would meet a friend. So if a friend came and said there's trouble, there's worry, you know, the the genuine words you would speak to this person, It's okay.

You're okay. This kind of self compassion can be the solve for, a lot of what troubles us a lot of anxiety around a kind of unworthiness or not enoughness. I might even drop into the mind stream these kind phrases. I am doing enough. I have enough.

I am enough. As kind of taking your seat as the friend taking your seat with yourself, unconditional friendship. If you have more time, I encourage you to soak and savor a little bit more. If the rest of your day or night is calling, We can close this practice with a kind touch, self compassionate touch a hand on the heart or the belly holding your face or your hands. Maybe wishing some genuine intention for yourself.

May I be happy? May be kind to myself. May I accept myself just as I am? May I be at ease? Closing this practice with a simple bow if you're sitting, inhale, Maybe just nodding the chin to the chest or bowing the forehead to the floor as you exhale.

Thanks so much for being here and doing any of this, Shanti.