A rigorous vinyasa class with core strengthening and donkey kicks prepares you for Adho Mukha Vrksasana (handstand). This class features classic sun salutations and strengthens the front and back body with leg balancing and chaturanga push-ups. Unwind with heart-opening and hip stretches to release muscles strained in the solar portion. A longer meditation closes your practice with a poem by John O’Donohue.

Style: Vinyasa

Duration: 60-minutes

Level: open-levels

Props: 2 blocks

Focus: core and back strengthening, inversions, handstand.

Location: Lila Familia Production Studio, Vancouver, BC

Music: Spotify Playlist, Vishnu

John O’Donohue poem: On the Death of the Beloved

Though we need to weep your loss,

You dwell in that safe place in our hearts

Where no storm on night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn

Brightening over our lives,

Awakening beneath the dark

A further adventure of color.

The sound of your voice

Found for us

A new music

That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze

Quickened in the joy of its being;

You placed smiles like flowers

On the alter of the heart,

Your mind always sparkled

With the wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,

Your spirit was alive, awake, complete.

We look toward each other no longer

From the old distance of our names;

Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,

As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Let us not look for you only in memory,

Where we would grow lonely without you.

You would want us to find you in presence,

Besides us when beauty brightens,

When kindness glows

And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,

Darkest winter has turned to spring;

May this dark grief flower with hope

In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.

To serve the call of courage and love

Until we see your beautiful face again

In that land where there is no more separation,

Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,

And where we will never lose you again.

Opening Meditation

Come to a seat of your choice and close your eyes.

Take a moment to breathe deep into the front body.

Whenever things come to an end, there is a grieving period.

Grief is a very important period of ending a cycle.

It is honouring the sadness we feel inside from loss.

Emotions are energy in motion- so simply breathe into what you feel.

One sound of Aum to bring your voice into the room.

Come to lay down on your back.

Bend your knees and place your feet on the ground.

Core work:

• Stack your knees over your hips
• Take your toes in line with your knees
• Press your back and ribs into the earth
• Take your palms to your thighs and press your legs away from you
• Alternately, draw your legs in towards your palm
• The resistance creates tension to strengthen the lower abdominal muscles

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (bridge pose)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Classic Surya Namaskars (Sun Salutations) – 2x cycles 

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Urdhva hastasana (hands to sky)

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (halfway lift)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Chaturanga

Bujangasana (cobra)

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog)

Anjanayasana (lunge)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Chaturanga

Bujangasana (cobra)

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog)

Anjanayasana (lunge)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Chaturanga

Bujangasana (cobra)

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

** Second set hold DD for 5 breathes OR take 5 donkey kicks with heels to your bum

Utanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (halfway lift)

Urdhva hastasana (hands to the sky)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Wave 1 

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Utkatasana (chair pose)

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (halfway lift)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

• Hold for 8 breaths
• OR take 8 chaturanga push-ups

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog)

Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2)

Trikonasana (triangle pose)

Ardha Chandrasana (half moon)

Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2)

Anjanayasana (lunge)

Vasisthasana (side plank)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Chaturanga

Bujangasana (cobra)

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog)

Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2)

Trikonasana (triangle pose)

Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2)

Anjanayasana (lunge)

Vasisthasana (side plank)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Chaturanga

Bujangasana (cobra)

Adho muka svanasana (down dog) with options:

• 5 breaths in child’s pose
• 5 breaths in down dog
• 5 donkey kicks

Jump to a seat for core work:

• Stack your knees over your hips
• Take your toes in line with your knees
• Press your back and ribs into the earth
• Take your palms to your thighs and press your legs away from you
• Alternately, draw your legs in towards your palm
• The resistance creates tension to strengthen the lower abdominal muscles
• Inhale and press hands to thighs
• Exhale and extend the same arm and leg on one side
• Repeat six cycles total on one side, then switch sides

Adho muka svanasana (down dog) variations

• Donkey kicks with heels to bum
• Move to a wall and kick your toes to the wall

Adho mukha vrksasana (handstand)

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Chaturanga

Bujangasana (cobra)

Shalabasana (locust pose)

Bujangasana (cobra) hold for 5 breaths

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

Utanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (halfway lift)

Urdhva hastasana (hands to the sky)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Wave 2

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Utkatasana (chair pose)

Garudasana (eagle pose)

Virabhadrasana III (warrior 3)

Anjanayasana (lunge) variation

• Place your legs at 90-degree angles
• Bring your hands to interlace at your sacrum
• Lift your chest and send your sternum to the sky
• Stay here, or take your hand to your ankle
• Bring the opposite hand to the sky
• This is a variation of camel pose from lunge
• Hold and breathe

Anjanayasana (lunge) variation to step forward to standing with a knee to chest

Eka pada utkatasana (standing figure four pose)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Phalakasana (plank pose)

Chaturanga

Bujangasana (cobra)

Adho muka svanasana (down dog)

Utanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (halfway lift)

Urdhva hastasana (hands to the sky)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Repeat the same sequence on the other leg.

Cooling Sequence

Ustrasana (camel pose)

Mrigasana (deer pose)

Upavistha Konasana (seated straddle fold)

** option to take this shape one leg at a time.

Seated meditation or savasana to close.