The 5 Vayus: #2 APANA VAYU practice- LauraGyoga

Transcript

[Music] hey guys and Lara welcome to our practice for the second value we're going to be working on upon of iU the grounding downward movement in our practice that helps us to eliminate and let go make sure you watch the Yoga board video before this practice so that makes more sense why we're doing these particular poses and why we're using the sandbag so if you have a sandbag we can use that if you don't have a sandbag just take a blanket and fold it into a smaller shape so that you can put it across your low back as we come into Child's Pose bring the knees wide settle your sandbag or your blanket across your low back nice and low like on the sacrum and the pelvis and we'll come down into Child's Pose letting your head rest on the floor or onto your hands in this position begin to focus on your exhale the exhale is the release we're letting go of what we no longer need to carry with us you can think about that in terms of letting the breath go in terms of letting physical tension in the body release releasing any emotions that have been clinging to you that you have maybe had some difficulty processing through or thoughts that keep coming up that you want to let go of making your exhale longer you can count the breath if that helps to keep the mind focused and then starting to come up sliding your sandbag out of the way and then coming up into a comfortable seat whatever that might be for you today and the breath work that we're going to start with is a short retention after the exhale are upon ov I you practice focuses on the exhale the process of letting go but in the end of the exhale after we've let the air go there's this brief moment of perfect stillness when the lungs are empty and we can settle into that stillness because it has the profound effect of letting us be grounded and centered it'll take a few rounds of normal breath and then the next time that you breathe out once you've let go of all the air gently pause stay in that stillness let the shoulder stay soft and the jaw stays soft slowly begin to inhale take a few regular breaths and then we'll try that again take your inhale exhale release all of the air and then hold and soften into that stillness inhale bring the breath back in and exhale so back into your normal breath watching that play back and forth between the inhale coming in and as the space fills in the lungs there's an upward movement on your exhale even though the diaphragm has to move up to push the air out there's really an overall quality of downward movement and settling so it's interesting how the diaphragm moves opposite to the energetic effect of the inhale and the exhale let's come back over onto hands and knees and here's where we're going to start to warm up the hips I want you to start with the left hip you're going to circle that around you'll notice that right now I'm keeping my pelvis perfectly still I'm not letting my lower back move I'm just taking a few circles forward and back from that ball and socket joint of my hip now watch how that movement changes I'm going to allow my pelvis and my lower back to follow my leg and the movement gets much larger it's a much bigger circle a lot more going on there's really some benefit to practicing that movement both ways but you want to be able to control it when you want to hold something still you want to have that control when you want to create movement you also want to have that skill okay let your enough left knee come down and we'll do that with the right leg first the pelvis stays still a little more controlled smaller circles and then we'll open that up and let your pelvis move a couple circles each way really big you bring your right knee down tuck your toes underneath and let's come up into down dog from down dog you're going to take your left foot and we're taking it out wide on the mat we're going to place it right on the edge of my mat take an exhale let your pelvis feel very heavy there's this downward settling quality right at the base of the pelvis the apana of iU and push back into your back heel and then see if you want to create a little rocking movement forward and back just to help your body acclimate to this wide lunge I'll let your back can you drop down plant your right hand underneath your shoulder take your left hand up onto the knee and then maybe up to the ceiling so if your left knee is healthy and you want to let it drop out toward the side if you want to let it open you can do that as long as it doesn't cause any discomfort in your knee it will give you this very nice opening around your hip come back down draw your knee in hand comes down to the inside of your foot because we're going on wide lunge lift your back knee up and then we're just going to swing the left leg back and then switch over to the other side take your right leg out wide right out to the edge of the mat starting to rock yourself forward and back okay the next time that you come forward drop your back knee down left hand underneath the shoulder right hand up onto your leg just to start that twist there and then see if you want to open the arm up farther maybe the knee wants to open out toward the side if your knee on this side is healthy that's an option bring your arm back down bring your knee into centre yeah well take the right hand down on the inside of that foot so now tuck your back foot underneath through your back toes underneath lift your knee I want you to take your left foot and bring it up to where it was before when we were in our lunge we're gonna maybe take one hop two or three hops bring it out to the edge of the mat and then start to exhale and settle your hips down until your back is flat like a tabletop stick your tip your hips back stick the tail bone back and lift your head stick the crown of the head forward so you're lengthening in opposite directions then let yourself fold forward like you're coming down into a forward bend but the foot placement is much wider than what we're used to good heel toe the feet toward each other soften the knees press the feet down and we'll in how to come all the way up palms come together and drop down into the heart and I'll ride the breath up exhale forward fold well heel toe the feet out toward the sides and let your hips drop down into Milazzo and a squat this is one of the poses that I feel like really embodies the downward movement and the openness of the base of the pelvis that we're working on here with the prana by you so feel that drop from the sitting bones from the tailbone and then we'll take the hands out front let yourself drop back sitting on the mat and then coming all the way down onto the back in this pose here with the knees into the chest is actually called upon asana or the pose of grounding of downward movement take the knees out wide so that the low back and the base of the pelvis can settle and think of those open and close a few times hold on to your right knee send your left leg out feel that opposite movement as the left foot lengthens the right knee comes closer and then we'll change legs left knee in right leg out take the right knee in let yourself a rock from side to side here there's freedom in the hips so that the knee goes out and the other knee goes out any movement that wants to happen at the hip as your roll come back into the center let your feet drop down let your hands open and then we'll sway the knees coming back up in the center lift your knees up into your chest and then let's practice our hip rotation here are active hip rotation by keeping the knees together opening the feet out toward the sides and then switch keep the feet together open the knees this is the movement that we are much more familiar with and then this one might feel more awkward when the feet go out the knees come in but it's important to move the hips both ways to maintain balance okay so now bring the shins together I'm going to take the right leg and cross it on top draw your legs in toward you and then we'll walk the hands down holding on to your shins or your ankles or your feet opening them out to the sides and to gomukhasana make sure that your upper body can settle your head can rest your shoulders can drop back and then we'll rest here releasing your feet walking back towards Center uncross the legs and take them straight up this time for our hip rotation we're going to turn the toes in and the heels out and then go the opposite way take the toes out keep the heels glued together just like we did with the knees external rotation internal rotation feels different with the legs straight bend the knees and come down let's cross the left leg on top knees come in walk the hands down to wherever you want to hold comfortably one last breath on this side release your feet let your feet drop down arms open to the sides and we'll do one more hip movement dropping your left knee in internally rotating feel that nice opening down the front of the thigh the outside of the thigh and switch to the other leg giving a little bit of active pull like you're drawing your leg closer down toward the floor as you pull it in this will also help to open out around the lower back walk your feet in towards Center bring your arms and and find your comfortable position for shavasana here is the place in our practice where the grounding force we're up on of iU is so vital letting us rest and be still not fighting the pull of gravity letting it work to our advantage allowing yourself to rest and be still for as long as you feel like you need to you