Vishuddha💠Speak Your Truth

🌳🌷 Hello Beautiful Friends!!

💠 I hope your summer is going well!! 

 During this busy summer, remember to carve out time for YOU! This world is moving super fast, take the time to slow down, before your body & mind FORCE you to slow down either with injury, illness or exhaustion. Your mental health should always take priority, if it hasn’t, make this summer THE time to change that! Every breath is a new opportunity to begin again!

🩵This week we’re diving into the fifth chakra, our Vishuddha: the Throat chakra! This swirling energy center lies in the throat, is turquoise in color, and its element is spirit! It is here where we find our voice, expression, communication, but also where we pause before speaking, where we listen, understand, connect with others, and encourage others to use their voice as well! It is here where we speak our truth and LIVE our truth! 

🌐Throughout this summer, I’ll be leading a heated vinyasa on Mondays, and a gentle version on Fridays! I truly love teaching the gentle classes, it encourages me to intentionally slow down, both my mind, the pace of class, and really focus on the mental health & somatic lessons, breathwork, and intentional movements. So, on Friday, I'll be teaching the gentle version of each chakra I taught on Monday!

🎐 We opened on our bellies, grounding the entire body, discovering peace, relaxation throughout the length of the body from the crown to the toes, with our cheek melting to the earth, a soft turn of the neck and throat chakra!  We closed the eyes, and took a slow scan of the 5 senses, even with the eyes closed, noticing what we see beyond the lids, what we hear in the room, our own breath, what we smell, perhaps the geranium essential oil mist sprayed in studio, the last thing we tasted, and the warm air against our skin, feeling our mat underneath us, supporting us, holding us. We moved into our Pranayama practice, 3-part breath, deep inhales through the nose, filling up to the belly, allowing the belly to take up space, into the chest, expanding the ribs, filling the lungs, all the way to the crown, and then long, slow exhales through the mouth, releasing all our past events, and future to do lists, letting them wash away, becoming truly present! We took time just for ourselves, present in this space, in this moment. Nowhere else to be, nothing else to do, but simply be. We slowed down the chatter of the mind!  

💎 We brought the hands underneath the shoulders, forehead to the earth, spread the fingers like starfish, inhaled up into our low cobra, 2 times, then walked the fingertips out to the sides of our mat, elbows to the sky, inhaling up into our low cobra, lengthening through our throat chakra, 2 times, then reached our hand out to the side of our mat, rolled onto our hip, planting the foot behind the opposite leg, knee to the sky, into our Broken Wing. We opened the shoulder, throat, and heart, floated back to our belly, lifted into a low cobra, and Broken Wing to the opposite side, rolled to the belly, and up into the forearms into our Sphinx, dripping the chin, rocking left to ride, slowly, into the pelvis, then bringing the gaze through center and over each shoulder. We pressed into the palms, rolling back, widening the knees, sinking the hips back into a child’s pose. We walked the hands to the right, hips drawing back and to the left, hands through through center, and to the left, hips drawing back and to the right, through center, melting the heart. We bent into the elbows, hands in prayer, and draped the hands overhead, and down the back of the neck.

🏞️We walked the hands toward the knees, bringing the knees close together into our Hero’s pose, sitting onto the heels for our self-healing reiki practice!  We often forget our hands are tools for healing, not just for others but for ourselves as well!! We softened the body, released jaw clenching, smoothed through the forehead, released chest tightening. We focused on our mental health, sending healing energy to the soul, releasing everything we no longer need. We sent healing energy to the mind, quieting the chatter. The mind is often a time traveler, becoming stuck in the past or traveling too far forward into the future. We connected to the body, which is always present, releasing the past pain & frustrations, and future worries. We sent gratitude to the heart & lungs, set our intention, inhaled fingers to the sky, melting into side bends, and interlacing the fingers, palms up to the sky, inhaling while gaze lifts, throat lengthening, opening the chest, exhaling palms forward, curling the back, repeating 2 more times. We released the hands behind the glutes into a backbend, and exhaled forward into our puppy, melting the heart. 

🛼We moved in yummy ways, with a yummy warm up flow of Cat-Cow, adding in organic movements, hips swaying side to side, child’s pose waves, listening to what the body needs! We could stay in Childs pose for the rest of class! If we needed more movement, we melted into the forearms for a cat cow flow, noticing the difference this feels in the body compared to a traditional cat cow flow. We found a neutral spine, still in our forearms, lifted the gaze while extending the right toes to the sky, still on our left knee, and then curling the right knee into the chest, nose to knee, extending 2 more times, opening the throat chakra! We then reached right toes to the back of our mat, floated into the hands, raised the right leg parallel to the mat, then crossed it over to the left side of our mat, gaze following over the left shoulder. We brought the right leg through center, and out to the right, sinking the hips back, 1-leg Childs pose. We moved through a cat cow flow and honored the left side! Super delish!! We opened our throat, heart, chest & lungs, lengthened, extended, linking breath + movement, opened our hips, releasing tension & tightness to release negative energy & nourish the body.

💦Our first flow spiced up our energy, kept us warm, and rooted to the earth as we flowed into our downward dog, lifted high into the toes, rolled forward into plank, creating waves as slowly as possible, into pranam, low cobra, downward dog, into our tadasana, rooting the feet into the earth, feeling that grounding energy all the way up to the crown. We inhaled through the nose, and exhaled into our Lion's Breath, tongue extending far out of the mouth, audible exhale, releasing the breath fully from the body. We moved through side bends, exhaled swan diving into a forward fold, planted the left hand, bending the left knee, twisting the right hand to the sky, and then to the left, planted the hands, stepped back into a plank, pranam or chaturanga, low cobra, upward dog, into downward dog, finding movement then stillness. We inhaled right leg to the sky, exhaled knee to tricep taps, to the chest, knee pushup with extended left toes, then planting left toes to back of our mat, coming up and stepping the right foot between the hands rising up into Crescent Warrior. We inhaled, opened the chest, cactused the arms, T the arms, formed Eagle arms, planted the back foot into Warrior 1, humbling our warrior 3 times, and floated forward into our Warrior 3 with eagle arms. We unraveled the hands to the earth, left toes high into our Standing Splits, adding in curtsy taps, left toes to the earth behind the right leg, extending long and tapping the earth 2 more times, and stepping the left toes to the back Sky Archer. We floated into our Extended Side Angle, right elbow to the right knee, left hand reaching overhead, then planting the left hand inside the right foot, twisting to the right, right hand high Twisted Lunge, into a Side Plank, right foot meeting the left, then stepping the right foot forward into our Dragon. We could stay high rocking forward and back, melt into the forearms, or peel open to the right, binding for the back foot! We framed the right foot, left knee grounded, lifting the hands to the sky, into a Low Lunge, cactuses the arms, into a T, and Eagle arms, inhaled hands to the sky, and as we exhaled the eagle arms to the third eye, we melted the hips back with our bind into a Quarter Split! Much trickier than it sounds with the arms bound! We inhaled forward, released our arms, stepped the right foot back, still on the left knee, arching into a Rainbow, reaching behind us, then melting the hips down and side bending forward over our straight right leg, left arm reaching overhead. We cartwheeled the hands to the top of our mat for a vinyasa flow to honor the left side! We encircled the healing space on our mats!

🫐Somatic experiencing gave us tools to regulate our nervous system, to stimulate the vagus nerve that begins at the base of the brain and runs throughout the body touching every organ system! We agitated emotions stuck in the body, to help them release, and to serve as a reset button. We began at the crown, massaging the fingertips all over the crown, into the temples, the jaw, the perfect release for jaw clenchers like myself. We brushed the fingertips down the neck, opening the Vishuddha Throat chakra! We tapped into the collarbone, and into the sternum! We inhaled through the nose as we tapped into the sternum, and stacked the hands at the heart as we exhaled while audibly humming into our bee breath🐝! If you hold tension here in the chest, this is a nice release!  We squeezed into the shoulders, deltoids, biceps, triceps, and forearms, and swayed noticing the effects: we can feel cool, heat, or tingling sensations, even a spontaneous yawn! We removed anything stuck, anything harmful & toxic still attached to the body! We stimulated the vagus nerve, the super highway of information from the brain to the body! We sent messages to the brain that the body is not under threat, it does not have to exist in a continuous active state (fight mode). We helped our body adjust to triggers. We have the ability to help our nervous system shift fluidly between states when each are needed, the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems! Both are useful and 100% needed, but we do not want to become stuck in one state for too long. These practices are so useful off the mat as we encounter stress or triggers in our daily lives!

💧Our final flow began in Tadasana, grounding into the left foot as the right knee lifted into our Pilar, we formed our Eagle arms again, activating the Vishuddha, opening the knee out, closing the knee through center, unraveling the arms, reaching for the right big toe, perhaps a Toe Hold forward or extending out to the right, and then wrapping the right leg around the left into our full Eagle, arms and legs, lifting the arms, and crunching 3 times, before melting into a crossleg forward fold. We stepped back into our Downward Dog, extended the right leg high, exhaled knee to chest 3 times, then bent the knee, opened the hip, circling through the hip, or flipping our dog! We extended the leg high, hovered the knee at the chest, and thread the foot through into our Fallen Star, and unraveled back into our downward dog! We melted the knees down, sinking back to the heels into our Hero pose for a backbend, then floated forward into a mini cow, lifting gaze and tail, exhaling dripping the chin, pressing into the palms, pressing into the tops of the feet, lifting the hips, arching the back in a little flow. We walked the hands forward into our Downward Dog, jumped forward into a forward fold, and rose into Tadasana. We honored the left side of this final flow, and after this side’s Fallen Star we lowered the hips, coming into our Straddle, V-shape at the back of our mats!

🪺Our cool down moved us from our Straddle into a forward fold, then we walked the hands back toward the hips, brought the left foot in, and then the right foot in, into our Cowface, right knee on top, adding in Eagle arms, inhaling to the sky, exhaling into a forward fold. We inhaled releasing our bind, walked the hands to the left, lifting the hips, pivoting on the toes to face the top of our mats for a mini Wideleg forward fold, letting the head and shoulders hang heavy! We continued to walk the hands to the left, pivoting on the toes, lowering the hips, toward the back of our mats, coming into Cowface, now with the left knee on top! It's a fun PARTY TRICK! haha! We created our Eagle arms left over right, inhaled to the sky, exhaled into a forward fold. We unraveled into a Reverse Table, rocking forward and back, side to side, allowing the head to hang heavy and back, if the neck allowed for it. We lowered the hips, floated the hands and feet into our boat, hovered back 3 times, then all the way to the earth. We moved into Crescent Moons to the right and left, hugged the knees in, rocked side to side, massaging the low back.

🐬We lengthened long, hugged the knees into the chest, extended the feet to the sky into our T-pose, crossed one foot over the other, bending at the knees, hugged the thighs together and reached for shins gently pulling the knees toward the chest.  This lengthens the IT band, and helps to soften where the sciatic nerve travels, releasing any pain we may have there. We released our shins, planted the bottom  foot for a supine twist! We honored the opposite side. We hugged the knees in, opened into our Happy Baby, rocking side to side, and made time to come into any final poses we needed before our final rest such as legs up the wall, bridge, plow or wheel! 

🐳 We made it to our PEAK POSE: Savasana! Together, we completed a full body cleanse! We found meditative peace, a calming of the mind, opened our Vishuddha, found insight into ourselves, found our voice, we experienced growth, fearlessness, release, and freedom. Yoga helps us shed what we no longer need, so we may see our most purest selves! We connect to divinity! 🙏🏻To slow down means to heal! That is why savasana is the peak pose, the most important pose, the goal, the pinnacle. To find peace. In the stillness! We surrender. We discover ourselves again without the layers, the armor, the walls. They all come down, revealing our divine self.🙏🏻

🦋 I loved creating our Vishuddha playlist! Listen here!! 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ZOuetrGaRZq0Z2K3ZaaQC?si=6517Br3GS_-KlSzm-vSYcw&pi=u-bCiqvax7RgOB

🍃Come practice with me Mondays at 8:15am!🫶🏻 ✨🌿