Coffee Medium

Welcome friends. Welcome back to good morning yoga. What's in your kappa? And this morning is coffee medium. My good friends from New York talk about a coffee medium order as your classic percolated coffee with cream and sugar. So let's get right to it.

We'll be practicing with a wall today. So if you set up your mat, near a wall, that would be helpful. Take your feet a little wider than hips width apart. And let's bring our hands down to the base of our pelvis with the palms face up. So just take a moment here and empty your cup and allow your frontal brain to drop towards your heart, soften the knees, and maybe close your eyes.

And as you inhale, start to press through the legs and draw the hands up to the level of the heart. And as you exhale, just flip your hands over and gently let your hands cascade down back down towards the earth grounding. And take that again as you inhale hands come up towards the level of the heart. And as you exhale, hands releasing back down towards the earth, we'll take this for a few more rounds, and it's this simple rising energy, this percolating energy, and this rooting grounding energy that we see in nature, and we feel in our body. And the Sanskrit word is this rising, energy is of, UDana or prana Vayu, and grounding upon Avayu.

So rooting and rising working together just like when we brew our coffee and we hear and feel and smell that percolation, such a lovely sensation in the morning. And then as you circle your arms out and up, just feel the fullness of your breath. And if you're like me and you like a French press, your hands come down the midline and through the mind, through the heart, down into the earth, And every time we circle the arms out and up, it can simply be that. It could simply be a stretch of the arms through the heart and a release and grounding through the midline. Or we can give it a little more meaning and really receiving our breath, receiving all this inspiration around us.

And then coming down through the mind, into the heart, taking it in and whatever we don't need, letting it go composting it in how to circle out and up. Exhale to come down through the midline. And coffee obviously naturally gives us this sense of stimulation and expansion energizes us. So we'll start to just add a little bit of rhythm here as you inhale expand. And as you exhale, bringing it down the midline, inhale. Exhale.

So just brightening the movement, brightening the breath, inhale, exhale. Once more like that, inhale. Exhale. And then releasing step to the front of the mat will go right into very direct Suri and Namscar a and b. And if you'd like to work with blocks, you can set them up at the top of the mat about shoulder width apart.

I'm gonna work with them today just to give myself a little space and a little lift. So let's bring the hands together at the heart. Big toes can come together or feet can be hips width apart. Moving into Syria Namaskar a. Let's inhale circle out and up as you exhale hands come through the midline, bend the knees, forward fold.

Inhale to lift up halfway, Arda Utanasan, can bring hands to shins if you like. And then exhale step back to the plank and just pause here for a moment and feel that rooting and rising, grounding through the palms, grounding through the balls of the feet, rising up through the core, take an inhale here. And for this first vinyasa shift forward and lower the knees, take a buoyant kinda high chaturanga here as you bend the elbows and then scoop through to a supported upward facing dog. You can keep the knees down and open the heart, or you're welcome to lift the knees, pressing into hands and tops of the feet, and then exhale back to your downward facing dog. I always like to move the heels in my hands back to the edges of the block.

And hang out here for a breath or 2. I'm just finding that direct flow and focus with breath, with your gaze, letting your eyes rest right between the toes, and really allowing your body to show up to this shape Let's inhale to the toes, bend the knees, step or hop. I'm gonna take a little hop and inhale halfway. Excel release. So working with this quality of expansion, rising, Excel centering, and rounding.

Moving with purpose, inhale, and then exhale forward fold, soften the knees. Inhaled if the heart halfway. Excel step back to plank and pause. And, again, just feeling into that purpose and when I think of my good friends that told me about the coffee medium order, they're definitely New Yorkers, and they move through their morning with purpose in a brisk way. So shift forward, This time, you can keep the legs straight, if you like, lower halfway to a high chaturanga, flip over the feet, inhale, up dog, Exhale down dog and hang out for a breath or 2. Study.

Focused. One more breath here. Excel completely. Inhale to the toes, bend the knees, feeling that little coffee spring in your step as you hop or step forward. Lift the heart halfway.

Excel release in how to rise percolating, exhale. Hands to heart. Let's move into beat. Surya Namaskar B. So we'll bend the knees, sweep the arms forward and up into Ukatasana, chair opposed, and your hands can be wide, shoulder width apart. Or classic would bring the palms together and then exhale release into your forward fold.

Inhale halfway. Exhale step back to plank. And everything else, so your choice, you can lower the knees. You can keep the leg straight. You can even skip Chaturanga and go right to upward facing dog, heard of a and then exhale.

Shvanasana downward dog. Sometimes it's fun to hear the Sanskrit. Right? So let's take the left foot to the midline and inhale the right leg rises steady and direct, exhale step all the way through to set up for warrior 1. It's so nice with the blocks because it gives us that extra bit of space to step through. Let's set the back foot on a steep diagonal. Inhale come all the way up to warrior 1. Little variation take the left hand to the nape of the neck, grab the tip of the elbow, and open the heart.

Take a breath here. Excel sink in a little bit and feeling all the opening spots in the body, hip flexors, spine, shoulder, heart, so much happening in this shape that's inhale to reach up, and then exhale hands come down. Step back to plank. Your choice for your Vinyasa. I'm gonna take a floating Chaturanga, inhale to your backbend.

Exhale downward dog. Now the right foot steps of the midline, we inhale to reach left leg back. Opening the gates of the hamstrings, exhale, knee to navel, coil, and step forward between the blocks. Set the back foot, on a steep diagonal and inhale rise warrior 1. Right hand to the nape of the neck, take the tip of the elbow, and open the shoulders.

So we feel that natural spiral from the outer edge of the back foot, grounding through the pelvis, that's your coffee grounds, and then lifting through the heart. That's the sweetness, the sugar, and the cream rises to the top. Right? We come back to where's my mind? What's the focus of my mind here? Take a deep breath in as you reach out and then exhale release for your Vinyasa. However you like, maybe the knees are down. Chaturanga.

Maybe you keep the knees down for your backbend. Exhale, shifting back downward dog. Couple breaths here. You might be feeling like child's pose is calling your name. That's always an option. And I'm gonna stay in this pose and just hold for a moment or 2, recover the breath.

Recover the focus. You can feel this pattern has a little more briskness to it, a little more rhythm with the heart. Inhale to your toes. Let's bend the knees. Look forward. Take a hop step or jump top of the mat, inhale lift halfway.

Exhale. Let it go. Inhaled or rise. Full body breath in. Bend your knees. Oh, katasana.

I may have slightly shifted the sequence there, but we're okay. And then exhale, hands to heart. We'll take that pattern one more time and add a little a little light lift into our Warrior 1 prep. So let's bend the knees and come into Ukatasana inhale. Exhale. Forward full. Inhale lift the heart.

Bend the knees, maybe step or lightly float back landing in Chaturanga. Inhale heart opens. Exhale downward dog. Now this time as you raise your right leg, you're welcome to simply lift it, or you can step the left toes forward a little bit Shift your shoulders forward forward and start to feel a light little lift transferring weight from left foot to hands as you kick the right leg up and down a few times. It doesn't have to be a big lift, but just feel that weight transfer and then step forward where you're 1.

Inhale to rise. Same thing. Exhale left hand to the nape of the neck. Open the heart. Inhale reach up. Exhale. Hands come down.

Step back. Your Vinyasa Chaturanga. Urd Vamuka, exhale. Adamuka. Option again to simply raise your left leg.

Or step the right toes forward, shift the gaze forward, and lift and lower the left leg a few times. So the left leg is our swinging pendulum. The right leg is our push and then step it forward. And it's an empowering little pattern as you inhale to rise, warrior 1, exhale right hand to the nape of the neck, lift the heart. Stay for the exhale.

Inhale reach. Back up, exhale. Really step back. Lower down or skip. Open the heart. Let's linger here for a moment. Exhale.

Down dog. Hang out for a few breaths. Feel free to come to child's pose for a few breaths. And just notice how you feel. Let's inhale to the toes.

Ben the knees look forward. Step hot, percolate. Top of the mat. List the heart halfway. Exhale. Soften.

Inhaled a rise, ukatasen, bending the knees, standing tall, coming back home. Take a moment here. Deep breath. Exhale. Release your hands. So let's go ahead and move on to our standing pattern here. As you step wide, take one of your blocks and just place it at the back of the mat. So it's there just in case you need it. And then open your arms as you circle around to face the back of the mat, and we'll set up for partial tenasana or pyramid post.

So the right foot points directly back towards the wall. The back fits on a steep diagonal. Bring your hands to your heart for a moment and then open Big old generous opening. Like, you're opening up for an embrace. Turn the thumbs down, reach behind your back for a little reverse namaste. Can also bring the fist together or grab on to opposite wrists. But this is really nice internal rotation and shoulder opening, as well as wrist and forearm stretch.

So as we inhale lift the heart, once again, that sweetness in the heart, while we ground down through the base, opening up the throat. And then as you exhale hinge the hips back, reach the crown of the head forward, and start to descend any amount and see if you can explore the duality of grounding through the legs through the crown of the head, let the coffee grounds dip down into the soil, and then feel that lift from the heart center. So the shoulders are like the wings of the heart, opening up. Keeping the throat open and long. And then as you exhale, release your hands down, little twisting triangle, your hand can come to the block. It can be low, medium, or tall.

And then open up into a twist here, extending right hand to the sky, heart open, rotating from the navel ribs, chest and shoulders, exhale release at that block back where it was, and then come on up. Like, the cream rise into the top. Let's just take a couple little sweeps here from left to right. So I love to bring a little bit of the feminine our element into a more fiery practice because it tempers it and balances it. So just allow yourself to flow from left to right a few times with the breath. Imagine your arms are just kinda skimming across the surface of warm water.

And then we'll sweep around the second side. So we adjust left foot straight ahead, back foot slightly turned out. I'm gonna switch my ring situation so I don't pinch my own fingers like I just did. Open your arms and inhale. Reverse non mistake can be dangerous.

Thumbs come in and down and then slide your fingers up and see if you can find fist, palms, wrists, Let's open up rooting and grounding, lifting through the sweetness in the heart, opening up through the throw. It's where the Cream rises to the top and then exhale hips shift back. We lean forward. And start to drop into that. Maha hamstring opening, shoulders and chest open. So the wings of the heart extend.

Keeping the throat in the neck long and released. Couple breaths here. And it's so nice to remember in each of these shapes. Some of them are a little complex, a lot complex. And it's not about making that shape.

It's about finding where your sweet spot is inside the shape. So it might be a little higher. It might be supported on blocks. It might be a bent knee. Let's turn this into a twisting triangle.

And however that works for you, low, medium, or tall block, the hand might stay on the hip. You might reach to the sky. You might be slightly bent in the front, but opening through the heart, wringing out digestion, full body breath in, and then exhale release, and we come out of this through a little standing split. So if the blocks are helpful, you can take a moment, grab that other block, bring it forward, and then push off the back leg and lift right leg to sky, finding your standing split. Options, hands can be on blocks any height.

They can come down. How do you like your coffee? Black, cream, and sugar. We were talking about this earlier. Everybody likes it differently.

It's not that far off with yoga postures. You find the fit for you, and we let this turn into a half moon. So I like to take a tall block on that left side. Even though my hamstrings happen to be open enough to touch the ground, I just like the spaciousness of using a tall block. So finding your half moon, opening up through the heart, take a deep breath in, expand and then exhale let it soften down back into earth energy. Soften the knees, let it go.

And then we take our standing split on the second side. So the left leg rises, Hips can be open or square. Feel what is the right flavor for you. And then start to let that evolve into your half moon. The blocks a little bit to the right of the baby toe.

Hips start to open. Expanding and innovating through the all the way through the toes and the fingers as you reach up. And you might challenge yourself and start to turn your gaze. This might make you fall. It's okay. You just come back in.

Expanding in all directions, staying focused here. And then as you exhale, coming back down to your forward fold. Let's inhaled or rise. Feeling a sense of accomplishment exhale draw the hands back to the heart. Okay. So let's go ahead and move our mats to the wall.

We'll take the blocks and set them off to one side. Separate your feet, give your mat a little slide back to the wall. And we're about to move into a little inversion exploration, which kick starts the energy even more for the day. So I wanna give you several options here. 4 different opt options of how you like your morning cup of inversion. And so option 1, would be to work in your work on handstand on your back. So we find actually we'll take our hands towards the wall.

Coming onto the back and setting yourself up so that you're an arms distance from the wall, pushing heels of the hands into the wall, tucking tailbone under engaging the core and then extending one leg, the lower it is, the more challenging on the core, The higher it is, still challenging, but a little bit kinder to the stability of the back muscles. So you can extend both legs keeping the core engaged may be lower the legs down a bit, and this feeling of pushing into the wall and reaching through the balls of the feet is your feeling of handstand. Pull the knees in. Rest for a moment. So that might be your flow right there pushing into the wall.

Extending through the balls of the feet, maybe extending one leg or both, and cultivating that strength in the center of the body that we need when we're inverted. That's option 1. Coming up for option 2, we'll take our hands to the wall right about level with your ribcaked. And from here, walking back, creating push wall, which is just like downward dog, elongating from hands to hips. Pulling up through the core, and then we start to trace this pathway of one leg rising, which is, simulating a kick up to handstand.

Followed by the other leg. And this is something to remember that I'm a surfer. I love to I love to get in the water. And paddling is probably 80% of surfing. And for kicking up 2 inversions, kicking is probably 80% of inverting is learning and really kind of honing your ability to have that single straight leg lift and lower. To start to inform the pathway up.

K? So you can stay there or on the back working for your with your core. 3rd option We take a block, and we have a seat with our back against the wall. And we're measuring the length of the legs from the wall. So I'll take my block over to one side off the edge of the mat. It's approximately right at the level of my heels.

And from here, it's the same shape that we were just in. That elbows at the wall or push wall will come onto our hands and knees. The toes curl under take a deep breath in. And as you exhale, lift your hips, and it's gonna feel like a tiny short down dog because it is, but just trust your measurement and then start to walk your feet up the wall keeping the knees bent. So now we invert hips over shoulders. You can start to straighten the legs any amount, finding that l shape, out the wall.

Same thing here. This might be enough, and then you come down and rest, or you can start to lift one leg up. And bring it down with the breath inhale other leg up and bring it down and just staying in that that training space of paddling is 80% of surfing, learning to lift and lower and kick. Is 80% of inverting. And so that's what we're working with right now is the preps, giving it time and space to build strength And your wrist might be like, come on down, please.

So you listen because yoga's about listening. Not to me, but to your own body. So give your wrists a little a little flow, and we'll get into more hand standing at the wall in some of the later practices in this in, this season. But that's our beginning, right there. So we come on down. It's a strong beginning.

And we move into John Yous Shirtsa. So let's take one leg forward and draw the sole of the opposite foot to the other inner thigh. Reaching up on an inhale. And as you exhale, yes. Let me show you to your table.

Come on down. And holding on to anywhere that's right there, your calf, your ankle, your foot, you can take your strap and loop it around the sole of the foot and allow yourself to just drop in and down. In the back, the spine loves an asymmetrical forward fold. This is so healing for our low back, our hips, opens the hamstrings. And all forward folds have this really nice internal quality. So let your awareness go inward for this moment.

And then as you inhale, come on up. Big breath in. Exhale right to the second side. Moving efficiently, reaching up big inhale, exhale, easy forward fold. Relaxing through headneck and shoulders.

And starting to drop deeper into the shape with each exhale. And on your next inhale, come all the way up, rising. Excel release the arms separate the feet wide coming into Oopamishta, Konasana. It's a wide leg forward fold. If you're sitting back on your sacrum, you can sit up on your two blocks, making, I like to use 2 here. To give myself a little extra lift. Right? This helps the pelvis rotate forward, or you're welcome to stay on the mat.

Just walking it forward any amount and dropping into that deep opening of the inner hips. Keeping the legs active. Letting the heart melt towards the earth and letting the breath flow to all the cells. Last breath here. Sliding the hands in.

Inhout arrives. And then taking a comfortable seat, we'll move into a little bit of pranayama this morning, before entering into Shavasana. So, again, any comfortable position elevating the pelvis is always nice because it allows the femur bones to drop down. And I'd love to introduce 3 part breath to you. So we'll separate our inhale into 3 stages pausing at the belly. At the heart, at the throat, and then an uninterrupted exhale.

So exhale completely. Allow your eyes to gently close. Take about a third of your inhale to the navel and pause. Ground there. Take another third of your inhale to the heart and pause. Feel the sweetness there.

Inhale final third up into the throat. Pause. Felt that opportunity for listening and communication at the throat. Uninterrupted exhale. All the breath out releasing and dissolving. And, again, inhale a third to the navel paws, grounding.

A third to the heart and pause, sweetness. Final third up into the throat, taking that grounding and sweetness, infusing it to our ability to communicate, to listen. Exhale slowly. Uninterrupted. All the breath out.

One more round. Inhale. A third to the navel. Pause. Representing that grounding earth element, coffee grounds from the earth, bringing another third up into the heart, representing that sugar, the sweetness of the heart, our inspiration. Final third up into the throat chakra bringing what grounds you, sweetness into your communication. And then exhale everything.

You're welcome to stay here in seated meditation, if you like, for remaining few minutes together. If you prefer classic Shavasana just staying in this really calm state and shift yourself off of your seat, turn and release into your Shavasana. Taking the feet a little wider than hips width apart, releasing the arms long. Palms face up. Letting go of any formal breath.

Frac, practice, or focus, letting your body release and surrender. Feeling into that sense of coming home. Any little drops of intuition that often enter into our practice. Intelligence of knowing. Let it turn into wisdom.

As you rest here, letting your practice, your effort, your breath, your awareness, it's fertilize all of your best qualities. Take a deep breath into your heart. Pause at the top. Hold for a moment. And then exhale through the mouth.

Send a little movement to fingers, to toes, moving through wrists and ankles, through knees and elbows, articulating your body into a little embrace as you hug the knees to your chest. And then gently rolling over to one side and pressing palm to earth as you press up to a seated position. Good morning. Bringing the hands to the heart. So nice to have coffee medium with you this morning. Thank you for being here.

I hope you feel amazing. Have a wonderful day. We'll see you in the next practice.