A dynamic and fluid full-body yoga class, this 60-minute vinyasa practice features deep backends with bow and wheel as the peak poses. Open practice with a poem by John O’Donohue and a simple pranayama, Bastrika Breath, to build heat and connect you to your body. Hamstring and inner thigh lengthening, core strengthening, backbends, twists, and seated forward fold complete your practice. Take seated meditation or savasana to close.
Style: Vinyasa
Duration: 58-mins
Level: open
Props: 2 blocks
Focus: full body class with core strengthening, twists, backbends, and deep forward folds.
Location: Lila Familia Production Studio, Vancouver, BC
Spotify Playlist: Chandra Namaskar
Poem to anchor the class:
AT THE END OF THE YEAR
The particular mind of the ocean
Filling the coastline’s longing
With such brief harvest
Of elegant, vanishing waves
Is like the mind of time
Opening us shapes of days.
As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.
The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here.
Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectation seemed to have quenched.
The slow, brooding times
When all was awkward
And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.
The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of the dawn.
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
— John O’Donohue (To Bless The Space Between Us/Benedictus)
Bastrika Breath or Bellows Breath
This style of pranayama works to energize and clear slow or stagnant energy. Do this pranayama at any time of the day to clear the mind and body and stimulate the flow of Prana.
How to do it:
Do three rounds:
Benefits of Bastrika Pranayama:
Movement
10-15 breaths to move as you like, options:
Come to Tadasana at the top of your mat.
2x Sun Salutations
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Urdvha Hastasana (hands to sky)
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)
Anjaneyasana (lunge)
Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)
Phalakasana (plank pose)
Chaturunga
Bhujangasana (cobra pose)
Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)
Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog)
Anjaneyasana (lunge)
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Urdvha Hastasana (hands to sky)
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Repeat the same sequence starting on the opposite leg.
Wave 1
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Urdvha Hastasana (hands to sky)
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)
Anjaneyasana (lunge) varaiton
Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog) variation
Eka Pada Phalakasana (one-legged-plank pose) variation
Chaturanga
ON your belly
Salamba Bhujangasana (ssphinx pose) variation
Bhujangasana (cobra pose) OR Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana (upward facing dog)
Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)
Eka pada adho mukha svanasana (3-legged downward dog)
Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2 pose) variation
Trikonasana (triangle pose)
Anjaneyasana (lunge)
Parivrtta Utthita Ashwa Sanchalanasana (revolved lunge) with wide arms
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Urdvha Hastasana (hands to sky)
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (standing hand to foot pose) variation
Anjaneyasana (lunge)
Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)
Phalakasana (plank pose)
Chaturanga
Bhujangasana (cobra pose) OR Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana (upward facing dog)
Adho mukha svanasana (down dog)
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Ardha Uttanasana (half lift)
Uttanasana (forward fold)
Urdvha Hastasana (hands to sky)
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Repeat the same sequence starting on the opposite leg.
**Second Set:
Shalambasana (locust) OR Dhanurasana (bow)
Setu Bandha Sarvāṅgāsana (bridge) or Urdhva Dhanurasana (wheel)
Floor Series
Baddha Konasana (reclined bound angle)
Jathara Parivartanasana (reclined spinal twist)
Inversion of choice:
Upavistha Konasana (wide-legged straddle fold) variation
Upavistha Konasana (wide-legged straddle fold) OR Baddha Konasana (bound angle pose)
Savasana or seated meditation to close.