8 Limbs of Yoga | Tapas | Self Discipline

Transcript

[Music] all right so here we are so the limbs of yoga we've gone through the yamas kind of the things to avoid the niyamas we're on now the things to practice the personal ops observances and today we're on tapas and tapas is a really interesting concept i was reading up a little bit more preparing for the class today and um tapas can mean uh oh good you got it now go mara great so tapas can mean self-discipline it can also mean it literally means like heat tapas is the root is like to to heat up your your body to heat up and create energy and um there's there's some uh analogies they're saying it's like the heat of a mother hen sitting on an egg that helps the transformation that helps the kind of like uh mature the egg and allow it to crack through and and kind of come into the world and be born so this heat is kind of like our spiritual warmth that cultivates the inner experience so that we can become enlightened we can reach our our nirvana or samadhi as they call it so the the tapas is is the word is used in jainism and hinduism and buddhism a lot of different systems they kind of will use different uh interpretations of tapas in the yoga tradition it's generally seen as like the physical practices that generate heat in your body or the discipline to be persistent to continue with your practice so it's a little different because a lot of times nowadays you see like hot yoga where there's external heat and it creates a really hot environment and that has certain benefits it has certain drawbacks but tapas is internal heat creating warmth from the inside creating this internal energy so that's going to be our theme for today creating some energy and heat in our body for transformation if you're ready we're going to start seated and what better breathing practice to begin with than breath of fire for a tapas class right when i talk about tapas sometimes people think of the little um like little spanish appetizer dishes like tapas you know like little tacos and stuff a little different so get settled in and shrug your shoulders after class you can have some tapas for lunch i suppose roll back and down and then shrug your shoulders forward rolling and releasing i'll get a little music for you [Music] [Music] and then bring your hands to the knees and you can rotate your waist circling around getting some warmth flowing through your midsection your back and hips let me know anytime if the audio sounds funny and then rotate back the other way circling rotating around [Music] and then pumping your spine front to back so a little arch and a little curl your hands can slide on your knees back and forth to allow your shoulders and your back to move so it's kind of like front to back tucking your chin your pelvis can rock as well [Music] back and forth [Music] nice [Music] all right now for the breath of fire kapalabhati bring your hands to your low abdomen and you're going to make a pump with your belly exhale and inhale through the nose only and let the exhale come strongly and powerfully and let the inhale just come naturally without any effort so back and forth breathing through the nose you're creating a little pump trying to get some heat like a bellow into the belly like stoking a stove or a fireplace [Music] you don't really want the heat going up to your head that's it's the energy goes up to your head it's kind of like cooking rice and then the steam rises up so the heat of your your body to water up fire down principle the heat actually goes down and the water goes up so to make the water evaporate and rise like steam to cool the head the heat has to come down so you bring the heat and the energy down you can go a little faster if you like low belly goes in the pelvic floor comes up so up and down up and down here pumping the pc muscles the pelvic floor perineum [Music] try to find a rhythm that you can sustain if you get dizzy or uncomfortable just stop and breathe naturally now slowly exhale gather your arms up above your head clasp your index fingers inhale slowly up and hold the breath in 10-15 seconds and the steam rises up cooling the head [Music] whenever you're ready you exhale let the arms down just pause for a moment notice and feel the body sensations changes in temperature and let's do another round bring the hands to the low belly and pumping breath of fire with practice you can do this pretty rapidly [Music] the important thing is that you're comfortable and you can do it steady and for a long period of time not all at once and then not at all so find a sustainable pace [Music] if you're trying to build a fire you don't want to burn all the paper at once and then just have the whole thing extinguish start nice and easy and then little by little you can build a long lasting inner heat [Music] the pelvic floor goes up as the belly goes in pelvic floor goes down as the belly goes out in a steady rhythmic pace [Music] [Music] slowly exhale slowly inhale gather your arms above your head hold clasp and you can [Music] lock the pelvic floor so lift and hold the pelvic floor up mulabanda if you run out of air inhale more take those sips of air hold it 10-15 seconds lift and hold the pelvic floor up above lock the root [Music] whenever you're ready softly exhale let the arms float down [Music] the energy settle into your lower dan tien low belly pause breathe observe [Music] [Music] you can join your hands together in front of your heart [Music] tapas can be used to burn away the old things you no longer wish to experience or to have or to hold what is something that you would like to sacrifice into the fire of your practice today something you'd like to transform to take that contained energy within that thing you're ready to let go of to turn it into light and heat and energy fuel for something else take a deep breath in and breathing out [Music] all right if you're ready let's transition you can do a little rotation stretch your legs out if they're getting stiff or tight or falling asleep and then we'll make our way up to your feet when you're ready so go ahead and stand up and grab your bow staff and let's start moving and warming up the rest of you you can take the staff up and over your shoulders nice and light comfortable grip and then you can twist and lightly rotate lift your back heel i'm trying hard not to knock things off or in my sister-in-law's house and uh we got long sticks roy's parents are with us here off the screen we're all trying to swing five and six foot bow staffs in one room without hitting each other and breaking any lamps you can lift that back heel as you rotate and then swimming forward rotate nice and smooth i think i'm off screen aren't i my uh computer is perched on a package of diapers a nice makeshift tripod all the strange things off the screen right rotate you can go backwards circling your breath is this fuel for the inner fire whether it's chemical energy or this chi energy prana the breath is the source of this fuel so let your breath open up let your lungs expand the diaphragm the intercostals the pecs even the back all involved with taking full deep comfortable smooth fulfilling breaths as we get the pumps opened little by little more energy can flow in take your staff now and then roll up and down your neck turning your head side to side and this is a nice little teaching tool here so this fireplace a beautiful new england fireplace is very much like this dun tien this inner furnace that we want the heat and energy here and you really don't want the fire on the walls on the ceiling and the rest of the house right fire is a powerful and and can be an incredibly destructive force if it's out of control so our practices are about managing and redirecting this fiery energy in a productive and sustainable way take your right hand up left hand down like a sack of potatoes the back palm faces down and then massage the shoulder pressing and releasing the upper traps the neck okay breathing out it's massaging there so when you start to feel your head getting hot your neck getting hot you turn into the red face fiery head exploding emoji cool it off by releasing neck tension shoulder tension in particular slide the front hand in close to your body and then press down and hold it there tilt your head away from the staff and breathe let that warmth melt out of the neck in the jaw the face you're breathing out it's like the chimney releasing the smoke releasing the exhaust wonderful now take your hand and slide it up to the top and then switch your hands now release the backhand and trade side so now you've got the sack of potatoes on the other shoulder and then the back palm down good all right we got some bob marley must be on the wrong playlist here keep going my uh spotify playlists just keep getting bigger and bigger so hard to keep them straight massage that shoulder you can slide the hand closer in digging in rolling around so getting good circulation kind of keeping the head cool when the water energy goes up to your head it's kind of like uh when when wood has enough water if there's been enough rain it won't explode into flames quite so easily it won't ignite and get caught up in other people's heat so keeping the the neck and the shoulders relaxed and hydrated and nourished you won't feel like you're a tinder box and the littlest things will set you off so water up fire down the essential principle all right take your uh press down on the shoulder tilt your head and stretch the edge of your neck and breathe exhale wonderful and release all right back to center take your staff up and over your shoulder shrug it out let your neck release a little bit well continue opening up your shoulder joints take your hands wide feet wide and now slowly circle around your body in a vortex circling around shoulder flossing i'm seeing more and more people doing this practice online a lot of people use it with a yoga strap and that can work too the thing about the strap though is it only has tension in one direction if you squeeze it together it will collapse right so the staff allows you to not only pull apart slightly engaging different muscle groups you can actually press together creating a little isometric pressure in both directions so as you circle play around with pulling and squeezing like a slinky if you haven't yet reverse directions go the other way keep a loose grip very light grip don't hold it tight at all this is a good chance to also kind of bend your ribs your sides you can tilt your neck a little too just get the whole circular joints of your shoulders warmed up all right come back to center and shrug it out i want to open up the sides a little bit the ribs take your feet wide and open your toes slightly out okay drape the staff across your shoulders and take your hands as far out as you can nice and wide and should be comfortable here you don't have to go to the elbows just the hands and wrists take your right toe point it out to the right right side turn your left toe slightly in so both feet are kind of facing the same direction one slightly one fully out and and wide wide stance keep the staff lined up with the toes and just very lightly tilt toward the extended toe toward your right side it doesn't take much here you're just trying to feel the left side open and breathe with a little leverage from the step you're in total control not forcing it and when you're ready to come out bend the knee and rise up and reverse turn your feet the other way right toe in left toe up staff stays lined up with your toes and hips shoulders and just slightly tilt and breathe stay firm and engaged [Music] feel the lungs expand into that space in the side of your body bend your knees and come back to center feet forward and release [Music] all right staff up and over shrug your shoulders out roll down okay take it to the side like you've got a hiking stick and then take the staff behind your back and take it up really high so hands go wide take it up to the shoulder blades and then put your elbows behind feet wide bend your knees and then swimming flying fish rolling into the upper middle back another variation you can actually wrap your backs of the fingers around and pinkies to a double vine grip but not necessary get some of that heat create inner warmth through the middle back and then backwards reverse [Applause] all right back to center now and slowly rise up keep the staff nice and high we're gonna do a chest opener from here so your shoulder blades and your hands will slide in your chest opens and then gently arch lift the heart big smile and breathe [Music] feel it opening [Applause] just be patient here there's no rush [Music] let the warmth soak into your body [Music] and relax release let your arms down your hands can just stay behind the staff close your eyes for a moment breathe feel the sensations moving through excellent take your feet wide plant the staff at the front center and your feet apart your hips go back and stretch your arms forward and shifting your hips left to right gliding sending the warmth into the joints your body mostly made of water you can see the difference when water becomes too cold it gets hard and it can crack and break and chip as water warms up it gets more flexible fluid and really quite indestructible so sending warmth into your joints into the tendons keeping your body pliable flexible resilient take one arm up the other arm down twist toward the upper hand side gently rotate like you're squeezing and twisting a warm sponge filled with water feel that hydration circulate on your next breath come back to center then switch your hands one hand up the other hand down and rotate the other way you can play around with the bottom hand straightening and bending the arm you can use the flexibility of the staff to access and palpate the lats and the back [Music] muscles and when you're ready come back to center bend the knees and rise up shrug it out and release walk your feet back in nicely done all right let's send some heat through the hips so take your staff in your right hand your left leg goes forward and right leg goes back let's go into our daily lunges you really can do lunges every day for the rest of your life so might as well get used to them or at least just every day that you sit you can do lunges you can skip the days where you don't sit at all all right hold that lunge take your free hand high inhale you can lighten the touch on this stuff or if you're feeling balanced even take both hands up and rise into warrior one [Music] exhale bring your arms down so the right hand has the stuff now the left hand at shoulder height will twist and rotate [Music] keeping the front knee bent those legs stay exactly the same as before [Music] breathe into your edges as you send that warmth from the core to the extremities [Music] exhale back to center switch your hands so the base of the staff can move about so move that around i like having it sometimes to the outside of the leg when i rotate the other way so you have more of a wider base [Music] comfortable breathing exhale back to center and now let's send some heat down to the hamstrings plant the feet uh plant the staff at your midpoint hips move back straighten your front knee and then glide forward hips back as the arms go forward stretching the back body pyramid pose [Music] pressing down through the staff to elongate your spine firm strong legs [Music] and then bend your front knee and rise up return lovely switch your legs so now the right leg forward and the left hand holds the staff glide into your lunge so i just heard a little chirp in my ear which means my uh earphones are about to die i haven't charged them this trip so uh at some point i'll probably switch my audio to the computer hopefully you'll still be able to hear me okay but let me know if if my voice if you don't hear from me for a couple minutes maybe my audio is dead so make sure to let me know all right and then hold that lunge raise up high inhale warrior one another option is crescent lunge where you go up on the back the back foot you lift the back heel it's a little harder a little more challenging if you want to take your hands up high feel free [Music] you don't always have to take the more challenging options sometimes less is more [Music] when you're ready come back down plant both heels if you've lifted one of them the the free hand now will twist and rotate good and looking back keep that front knee bent feel the hips waking up too [Music] exhale return switch your arms you might move the base around as needed and twist the other way your head turns at the end try to lighten your touch on the staff if you find you're unconsciously just grabbing and hanging on it try to just touch it with your fingertips exhale back to center square your hips let's plant the staff at midline pyramid pose fold forward hips back arms forward press down through the staff and elongate your spine this one in particular will generate a lot of heat usually a lot of sensation through the legs as you firm the quads lift the arches and then bend your front knee rising back up walk it in and shake it out fantastic okay hopefully you're feeling nice and warm let's get your hips warmed up a little bit more as we're continuing to move the heat down take the staff to one side hand to the hip the same side leg will rotate another one you can do day in and day out balance hip mobility and hip strength all at once a challenge lighten the touch on the staff or even take it up in the air eight to ten times and then reverse same leg go the opposite way channeling your attention to the core [Music] nicely done and give your leg a shake release other side now switch and rotate [Music] the staff is kind of like a scaffolding that you use to build a building you use it to build the structure and then you might take it away at some point and then reverse directions go the other way one of the seniors i was working with in leisure care was had a hip injury and he started using a cane and we were working together doing personal training and classes and after a couple of weeks he kept like leaving his cane in the room he'd just kind of walk out and forget about it so it was a good sign that he was feeling a lot stronger so a little by little you'll find your you may use it less as you go shake those legs out now you want to really get some heat going in your legs start with ankle pumps so you can press the staff to the midpoint and pump the ankles up and back toes and heels make sure you're feeling balanced and steady upper body relaxed all right good up and down when i was taking a meditation tour in korea one of the things that i was really struck by was they had heated floors they would set up elements under the floorboards that would pipe hot water and because heat rises it's a really efficient way to do it the heat warms the whole house from the bottom up it's the same idea if we can create heat in the lower part of our body that's really an ideal place for it all right shake those calves out and release and a really good way for tapas to create inner heat is chair pose it's also called fierce po utkatasana a couple versions and the staff can be used to stabilize your shoulders when you do this so bring your feet close together and your palms open the thumbs go out along the edge of the staff like this and your hands need to be wide enough that you can raise it over your head comfortably if it's too narrow or too wide it won't go right so find that sweet spot and once you're in position bend the knees sit your hips back you keep your spine really tall and then raise your arms up and then hold you might need to kind of work your shoulders up and back a few times to get the right position or wiggle your fingers out or in you can do little pulses with your hips and knees to find the springiness and that goldilocks zone the not too hot not too cold not too hard not too easy sweet spot once you settle in hold it there feel the heat gathering in your core rise up and arms down let the heat sink down to your toes take a breath for such an easy looking pose on the outside it can be pretty intense on the inside we're gonna do it again now same thing you may need to make little adjustments as you experience the first round now make little changes for the second go ahead sit back down arms up your eyes can look up at the staff creating a drifty focal point as long as you're not cranking your neck neck is neutral if you can wiggle your toes meaning that your weight is in your heels which means your knees will be happy not overdoing it [Music] the kidneys the lower back should get nice and warm too in general breathe that heat down tap us go ahead rise up arms down all right relax shrug it out [Music] nicely done all right back to center we've got a little bit more heat elements for your lower body take your stuff to the right side and bring it in front of you lift your right knee up in the air and balance now you may need to also hold something else maybe a wall or a chair along with the staff so use that if you need it and then kick forward fire kicks one two three try to relax the shoulders maybe even let go of the staff a little five six seven use your core eight little smile maybe nine ten hold the last one for ten nine eight seven six five four three two one shake it out all right put the fire out tapping and rolling stop drop and roll with your staff good sometimes in a whole class you'll you'll smell like a burning smell sometimes during that all right switch left hand left leg raise up hover find your balance fire kick swan your toes stay down and you can kick low to begin with and then as you get more stable you can kick higher but pace yourself you don't want to burn out too quick seven eight nine ten now hold the last one ten nine eight seven six challenge your balance five four three two and one shake it out nicely done stop drop and roll [Music] any time if you want to sit and do these too if if you're back your legs hurt please modify as needed all right next one called the ring of fire we're really bringing the fire theme today somebody mentioned at one point my last name is guidani guad agni the last four is agony agni you pronounce it ani in italian but a g and i agni means fire in sanskrit so they're like oh you're the fire guy so they do have in hinduism that agni is the god of fire so let's summon the agni spirit with ring of fire staff to the side hand to the hip the inner leg will raise up find your balance and then straighten your knee make little circles start with a small fire and build it up control it it's not a crescent kick and martial arts it's a slow and controlled circle [Music] a little by little rotating around that ring of fire circle okay reverse same way go back the other way a little fire held over a long period of time can do wonders it doesn't have to be a dynamic movement to get a lot of benefit just like cooking too much fire you can burn your food and ruin it so don't overdo it all right shake it out and release if there's any cramps tap them out or roll so that rotation is called a circumduction it's it's combining several ranges of motion at once and it really activates a lot of the small muscles the hip rotators which is why it's so exhausting because it's not just using your quads and hamstrings like our walking muscles that are already pretty stable the rotational muscles are a lot smaller but they're very important switch sides so because they're smaller muscles a little goes a long way you don't have to make a big movement hover hand to hip keep it stable and how slow you go is actually how much control you have the slower you go the more control you'll summon [Music] slow and steady control and centralize your power and your core activate this furnace in your belly tapas ring of fire reverse go back the other way check if your shoulders are tight relax the upper body a few more take a break if you need one more all right release and shake it out okay tap and roll okay my left earbud just went dead i think my right one's still working hopefully you can still hear me so yeah thumbs up okay good tap it out all right and shake it out release so for this next one we're gonna do there's two versions uh it's a hip stretch so if you want to do this one seated you can sit and cross one leg over and fold and do the figure four and that's a good way to do it and if you want to do it standing you take the staff on the same side leg and you cross it over standing so pick your favorite version sitting is okay and then you you sit down and stretch the inner hip lean the staff into your shoulder keeping it nice and stable and breathe for the outer hips waking up [Music] all right rise and return shake that leg switch other side so the same side staff and leg that you're lifting lift and cross above the knee hold slide down lean into the shoulder and sink your hips down and again seated is a really good version for this breathe if you're really feeling like a challenge your balance you can even take your hand away from the staff and balance this way too [Music] but sometimes the exercise you don't do is the most important one of all don't over do it come back up and return shake it out all right put the staff on the floor and you can do this seated or standing and roll and massage your arch okay and this this can be done also if you want to do it seated you can do it also that way it's fine so both versions are good you guys worked up a sweat i sure have i don't know if it's just warm in here but hopefully you've got some heat going in your body press and release milking the foot press and release massaging water up so that sweat on your forehead and your neck obviously cools your body right the water takes the heat out so that's a little bit of sweat on your forehead and neck is actually a really good way to keep your head cool and during class if you get overheated just putting a little water on your hands and or washcloth and keeping your face and neck a little bit moist will also be a great way to cool your head same thing if you get dizzy or kind of like hot-headed lightheaded switch your feet [Music] so it really is amazing how little changes in temperature can affect your body case in point today we went to a little farm nowaday now we're this class is at uh 1 p.m eastern time so we had a whole morning open we went to a little apple farm with charlize and roy's parents and they had apple slushy like a apple like smoothie basically and roy's dad was eating it real quick and got a brain freeze and so if you've ever had a brain freeze that temperature change can create a profound effect on the nerves in your body and your brain so don't underestimate the power of temperature putting heat and cool in the right places roll it out and then stand still take a deep breath feel that energy flowing through [Applause] feel the energy circulating top to bottom into out bring your hands to your lower belly breathe into your abdomen bellows breath feel that warmth concentrating centralizing your own body's central heating this change in temperature not coming from the thermostat not coming from a fireplace or burning fuel this temperature change happened through your actions your movements [Music] you combusted old energy [Music] recall what you're throwing into the fire today what you're sacrificing you're choosing to exchange [Music] and rub your belly clockwise breathe and deep another great use of heat and temperature roya was at the eye doctor the other day and she was complaining about dry eyes and the eye doctor said a hot compress so take an eye pillow or something a hot compress put in the microwave and then put the heat the heated pad on your eyes let it rest for 10 minutes and it releases the oils around your eyes and it actually can help with dry eyes so just a very simple thing if you suffer from dry eyes or you're looking at screens a lot a hot eye pillow and everybody should have an eye pillow anyway it's a fantastic tool let's take a 30 second water break with all this heat let's make sure we stay hydrated come back in a little bit less than a minute [Applause] up yeah [Music] [Music] no [Music] so okay when you're ready come on back and we're going to move to the floor so we want to keep the heat kind of down so we're going to do some grounding practices and take with you a pillow something like a folded blanket something you can sit on that's going to elevate your hips that's stable when you sit on it so a pillow or something like that yeah [Music] all right and put the pillow just off to the side for now we're gonna do a couple of floor warm-ups before we get on the pillow so just keep it within reach though and go ahead and lay down on your back and for this one it's it's actually really nice if you haven't tried or as an option take the staff behind your knees and then when you roll back and forth you use the staff as a handlebar to roll on your back roll up and down okay and then you can lay down bend your knees hold the knees and rock from left to right massaging your hips sacroiliac joints back and then to go a little further if you'd like arms open out bend the knees keep them up high and rock your hips and knees side to side spinal twist [Music] all right and either rocking and rolling up or rolling to your side and coming up once again put your staff behind your knees and you're gonna sit up nice and tall okay and you don't need a pillow quite yet for this one but you're gonna place the stuff behind the knees and close together so your feet and knees are really close and your hands will slide in so that there's the the grip is really stable and we're gonna do boat pose navasana most people they love to hate it but hate to love it and shrug the shoulders up and back and then you're gonna balance and start with this kind of low boat with the shins and the knees bent to start with now make sure behind you should be clear [Music] okay so make sure if you fall backward roll back you're nice and clear okay and you can come down and rest and kind of stretch it out a few times and just get some warmth going okay make sure you've got space behind you here rotate so you've got enough space behind you and then one more time shrug the shoulders pull back with your arms your arms are active here pulling in bring your chest forward and then you can straighten your toes if you like don't overdo it you can extend your legs or keep them bent okay there should be no back pain i feel the heat gather all right come back down release very nice all right roll your back one more time so either without or with the staff roll and go up and down and you can also go side to side okay that's a good way to get the internal temperature turned up okay roll to your side and now you're gonna sit up on your pillow and make sure that your hips are elevated so you sit up high up on the pillow and get the longest staff that you have so if you have multiple version sizes get the longest one you have six foot is ideal five footer will work too though and you're gonna sit up tall and then take this step behind your back okay both palms face forward [Music] so this is dandasana staff pose believe it or not so take your staff around the side we're going to move to mauricio's pose a seated twist so let's go left side put it between your feet so the tip is between both feet but your hand is holding from the back so you go from back both palms forward to the side hold then you bend the free leg wrap your arm around and you should have the other palm open to feel the chest open and stretch just breathe nice and slow [Music] and i warm through the midsection [Music] all right exhale rewind so release your leg pick the staff up take it off your foot and come back to center okay so once again it's really important that you follow step by step otherwise you'll get tangled up so you're holding the staff so from the front view it looks like this your feet are forward and the staff is behind you the palms both face forward now you take it around the right side of your hip and this hand stays exactly where it is don't change that hand and then you place it between your feet then you bend the other leg and wrap the arm and this back arm should now be holding mauricio's pose and you're going to feel this stretch along this chest arm elbow lord of the fish's pose marie cheese lord of the fish breathe [Music] i don't know why they name this after him there must be a good reason [Music] all right when you're ready slowly release your arm your leg take it off your foot and return okay now a good counter pose is a forward butterfly with the staff so you sit in butterfly first and just bring the staff in front of you sit up on your pillow the higher the better maybe even two pillows is fine or fold your pillow the higher up your hips are the easier this will be on your back so butterfly just clasp your toes and feet together you can start by bouncing lightly just relax your hips your shoulders shrug back [Applause] here and you're trying to tilt your pelvis forward instead of rounding your back the pelvis tilts forward a little anterior tilt of your hips and this is one you can kind of enjoy all right there goes my headphones okay can you guys still hear me it sounds okay yes oh great thank you i'm gonna turn my sound up a little so i can hear you too sounds kind of faint to me it sounds faint yeah my voice or when you move in there yeah i'm further from the microphone um i can't move too far back otherwise i'll go out of the screen but i guess since i'm seated maybe i could move a little closer the harder it is to hear okay i'll try to yell at you guys i'll yell softly at you okay all right so go ahead and balance your hips pull the shoulders back and now for a a nice little use of the bow staff for a butterfly you take the staff and you place the base of it either right in between your feet like in the arches or if you have like a pillow you can wedge it there under the pillow and then you walk your hands up and you tilt forward i'll show you from the side view as well so you can see you kind of just use this to tilt forward now if you go too high or too low it won't work so find a nice goldilocks zone sometimes you can even interlace your fingers to keep the arms even and this allows you to use the staff to elongate your spine you press down through the ground elevating elongating your back and of course your hips will feel a lot as well you can gently rock from side to side no sudden movements but just kind of undulating exploring the edges all right come back up and release and return fantastic let's do just a couple of hands and knees quadruped movements so come to hands and knees if you want to use a pillow or cushion for the knees you can and we'll wrap up with a couple of cat cows tilting and tucking sliding your shoulder blades back and forth and moving the spine gently through the full range [Music] if you want to link your breath inhale cow exhale cat [Music] [Music] and then bring your knees apart and your feet together your hips back into child's pose and stretch out into child's pose this can also be done with two chairs if you sit on one put your hands on the seat of the other let your back open breathing out so feel that tapas now like the embers at the end of the fire just warm and powerful and radiant not flickering and active but calm and simmering feel that heat soaking into the core the hips your central channels [Music] and then shift your hips forward rising back up to hands and knees take about a minute now for any stretches or shapes or movements that you want to do you could just go through a couple that feel nice or you could even like a cat waking up from a nap just stretch without forming a official position but just moving in ways that feel good [Music] if you want to move into different stretches take about a minute or two and just let your body open up into any angles or positions that would feel good to balance out some of this heat that we've generated today [Applause] a little yoga recess a little free time [Music] [Music] all right and you can take a little while if you need to balance out one side or the other and then eventually we'll move down back to the floor into sleeping tiger and if you already know sleeping tiger is difficult for you you can use a pillow to prop your pelvis so you can put a pillow under your hips and then when you raise your legs up it makes it a whole lot easier which you may or may not want if it's too easy that you don't feel anything you might want to take the pillow away you want to feel a lot of heat gathering a lot of energy collecting in your core your knees are a fist width apart the ankle is slightly flexed the soles of the feet open like satellite dishes drawing energy in fingertips at the lower belly your elbows wide your shoulders back your chin down and feel a gentle rise and fall of your low abdomen [Music] funneling and channeling all this energy to your core capturing the vibration the vitality of your tapas charging it like a battery [Music] [Music] just keep holding it for another minute or two feel the pelvic floor the mula banda that we activated at the beginning of class through breath of fire feel the pelvic floor also has a channel of energy breathing that heat into your core into your creative power that incubation like a hen sitting on the egg keeping the warmth in your belly nurturing incubating this creative power as you sacrifice something into this fire something you're ready to let go of consider where you want this energy to be directed as well what do you need this energy for having a destination for this energy will summon more of it you become a conduit a channel of energy [Music] and when you're ready you can tuck your knees hugging them close to your body and circle your hips gently and both directions and then reaching up grab your feet it's a happy baby pose if your bow staff is within arm's reach you can even use that to press into the soles of your feet and draw in gently releasing your hips and back rocking motions here [Music] [Applause] laughs [Music] all right and make your way into a resting position if you want to do any final stretches some twists maybe a bridge pose lifting your hips up in the air or if you need to roll over and do a cobra or a down dog take your body through any final positions before you enter a nice deep restful vasana and when you're ready use any props you have available to make your body comfortable you can lay a blanket over your torso or elevate your legs close your eyes and if you feel your head is busy and buzzy or you would like to relax deeper you can rock your legs in and out for a minute or two before resting [Music] so [Music] so foreign imagine your body like that campfire smoldering and the embers powerful radiant heat [Music] your consciousness enjoying the warm cozy fire of your tapas [Music] your mind gathering inside of your body so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] if you'd like to stay a little longer your shavasana feel free [Music] if you're ready to transition you can begin moving your hands and feet your arms and legs [Music] and bending your knees rocking from side to side [Music] i'm rolling to one side to transition back up [Music] let's join your palms to anjali mudra [Music] sending our appreciation to that transformative power of tapas putting what burdens and limits us into the fire of our practice using it as fuel to move toward our vision [Music] i hope you take this fire with you through the rest of your weekend thank you so much namaste