Let’s create space as we move through the chaos.

A slow flow yoga class to create space in the side body and hips, this class was inspired by a poem by Hafiz. Rhythmic and smooth motions build heat to warm and tone the body before opening the hamstrings, inner thighs, outer hips, and side waist. A longer floor sequence helps calm the nervous system and create a stronger connection to the earth if you seek more groundedness.

Style: Slow Flow

Duration: 60-mins

Level: open

Props: 2 blocks,

Focus: hamstring and inner thigh opening

Location: Lila Familia Production Studio, Vancouver, BC

Spotify Playlist: The Temple

Opening Meditation

Come to a seat or a reclined position and close your eyes. Connect to your breath and how it feels in your body.

One of the gifts of chaos is that it teaches us to have laser-sharp focus; when too many things are coming at us at once, we have to refine our focus and shift our attention to only that which is important. Bring your Drishti to your internal landscape as you drop into the moment. Feel your body, feel your breath.

One sound of Aum followed by 6-8 breaths to move as you like, options:

• Balasana (child’s pose)
• Adho Mukha Shvanasana (down dog)
• Uttanasana (forward fold)
• Bidalasana (cat pose)
• Bitilasana (cow pose)

Wave 1

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Urdhva Hastasana (hands to sky)

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)

Anjaneyasana (low lunge) variation

Balasana (child’s pose) variation with one leg extended to the side of your mat.

Bidalasana (cat pose)

Bitilasana (cow pose)

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

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

Anjaneyasana (low lunge) variation with fingertips on the ground

• Inhale and bend into your front knee as you expand your chest
• Exhale and straighten the front leg as you round your back and hug your inner thighs
• Repeat several cycles

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Repeat the same sequence on the other leg.

Wave 2

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)

Anjaneyasana (low lunge) variation

Balasana (child’s pose) variation with one leg extended to the side of your mat.

Bharmanasana (tabletop) variation with one knee to nose, curl into a ball

• Inhale and hug your knee to your belly
• Exhale and extend your leg out behind you
• Repeat several cycles

Bharmanasana (tabletop) variation with one leg and opposite arm extended.

Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)

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

Ardha Hanumanasana (half splits pose) with hands at blocks or on the earth

Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana (standing splits pose)

Rollerskating pose to transition with bum on the ground

Ardha Matsyendrasana (seated spinal twist)

Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana (variation) with a twist

• Take one hand to your knee toward the back of your mat
• Take the other hand up toward the sky
• Hold for several breaths and breath

Camatkarasana (variation) with a knee on the ground

90/90 legs (aka deer pose)

• Option to add a twist by walking hands toward the back of your mat
• Option to hold and breath with hands in front of the shins
• Option to walk hands to the top of your mat to twist in the opposite direction

Seated windshield wiping the knees from side to side

• Option to use no hands

Uttanasana (forward fold)

Tadasana (mountain pose)

Repeat the same sequence on the other leg.

Peak Flow

The peak pose is Upavistha Konasana with several variations:

1. Alternate extending each arm overhead to express the side body
2. Cat/cows rounding and arching the spine to express the front body
3. A gentle twist with hands on either side of each leg
4. Forward fold with a gentle twist – feel free to use your blocks

* You’ll take each of these options on either leg or hold one that serves.

Upavistha Konasana (seated wide-legged forward fold)

• Option to use your blocks under your forearms, forehead, or ribs as you hold and breath

Option to take:

Baddha Konasana (seated bound angle pose) instead of the pull peak pose

Cooling Flow

Matsyasana (fish pose) variation using the blocks for support

• Place one block at the back of your head
• Place the other block between your shoulder blades

Hold and breathe in this pose or take a simple pranayama

Viloma Pranayama

Viloma breath, aka interrupted breath, is the offering while in supported fish pose.

This technique includes a bit of kumbhaka (breath retention) after each inhale; hold lightly. This pranayama helps to expand the length of the breath and the lung capacity.

To do this pranayama:

• Inhale for three counts to the navel
• Hold for two counts
• Inhale for three counts to the rib cage
• Hold for two counts
• Inhale for three counts to the heart
• Hold for two counts
• Exhale everything out

Repeat this several times or breathe naturally

Savasana or seated meditation to close your practice.

Poem by Hafiz.

It is a holy man, a good poem, and a holy

woman; and a temple and a mosque and a

shrine.

Have you not been looking for a companion

like that? For a place of such great refuge,

where time asks nothing of you, where you

can come and go as you please, where you

basically, control all the rules because your

inherent wisdom knows best.

And you don’t have to give up any pleasures

that might still be working, adding colour to

your cheeks.

There is nothing you touch that you hope

won’t fit into a puzzle you are seriously

working on.


I know how the eye works, what its primary

desire and impetus is: to lay its gaze upon

the beautiful, and for beauty to wink back.

The eye, like every part of you, is governed

by your great and continual primal instinctive

need to feel whole and able.

Able to work and learn and give and play—

and love and love. Who would deny that?

It is a holy woman, a decent poem, and a

holy man; and a temple and a mosque and a

shrine.

Carry any relics from my words that you can.