Week #31 – October 11-17, 2020
Warm Up for Kriya New Lungs and Circulation

Overview

WEEK 31 – Janet Stone Warm Up Full Body Embodiment
Warm Up for Kriya New Lungs and Circulation

Kriya News Lungs and Circulation – The breath and flow in the body can determine your emotional base. You feel full of energy and in control when the lungs and circulation are in excellent shape. This set rebuilds the lungs and improves circulation throughout the body. It is a rhythmical and short kriya for intermediate students or for enthusiastic beginners who are in good condition. You can practice this kriya 22 minutes a day and rebuild your system. It will prepare your lungs for an excellent practice of Kundalini Yoga pranayama.There are 9 exercises in the sequence. You can complete the main kriya in less than 30 minutes.

Remember – If you are on your Moon/Menstrual cycle no held breath, substitute with long and deep breathing.

First, let’s review the warm-up…

Janet Stone Warm Up Full Body Embodiment 

1. Root feet into your mat hip width distance apart.

Rock back and forth forward on to your metatarsals and phalanges

Rock side to side from lateral to medial side of each foot.

1A Right Foot 2B Left Foot

Pull back the toes/phalanges on the right foot towards the face, dorsi flexion.

Feel the metatarsal bones, the bones in the foot under the meaty portion of the ball of your foot. Feel behind the big toe and the little toe, the meaty portion of the ball of your foot.

Root to the earth now. Feel yourself grounding to the electro-magnetic field.

2. Ground Left Leg. Roll the toes of the right foot over, plantar flexion and roll the top of the toes on your mat. The ball of your will be up to the ceiling.

Now pick up that right foot and dorsi flex and plantar flex the foot, pointing the toes forward and pointing the toes back. This shortens and lengthens the muscles and tendons in your calves.

Take that right foot/ankle in rotation clockwise a few turns and then counter clockwise a few turns.

Tik Tok the foot now. Knee is raised and swing the shin and ankle left and right like a ticking clock.

Engage the entire knee, ankle and foot, point the toes, pretend you are stirring up some batter. Pancakes??

Now go back to top and work the Left Foot  – After you have worked the left foot

3. Feet both on the mat, close together. The knees are close together and rotate the knees like you are skiing over a mogul, working the knees clockwise and then counterclockwise.

4. Oval Circles: Open the feet and begin to draw oblong circles with the hips. Draw an oval circle with your pelvic floor.

5. Bring hands to shoulders. Elbows perpendicular to the floor. Make feet/legs/hips stable and twist elbows side to side. Mobility happens on top of stability.

6. Elbows at waist, turn palms up to ceiling as though you are holding a tray. Begin circulating the open palms in front of you, over your head and behind you, trying to keep the dorsi flexion in the hand, palms flat open to hold the imaginary tray.

7. Practice taking off your shirt. Grab your opposite elbows, then take the crossed elbows over your head as if you are beginning to take your shirt off. Reverse top elbow and keep repeating the movement. This is a wonderful stretch for the shoulders.

8. Shoulder Rolls Forward and then Backward. You could add a few shoulder shrugs as well.

9. Arms out in front, fingers stretched wide. Inhale and make a fist and then explode the fingers wide on the exhale. Do this a few times.

10. With arms stretched out still; Dorsi Flex the hands, drawing hands back to your body. Plantar Flex the hands, pointing fingers down to the mat.

11. DJ Hands are flat and slide them side to side.

12. Big circles of hands and wrists, fingers open wide.

13. Push right arm out to side, hand in dorsi flexion as if you are pushing the wall away with your flexed palm. Now bend the neck away from the outstretched arm to the shoulder and do a 1/4 semi-circle tracing your collarbone, the clavicle.

Change sides, Left arm out to side, left hand in dorsi flexion.

14. Slight bend of the knees. Let the arms hang in front of you towards the floor. And begin to make a wave with your trunk as you stand tall again and then leaning forward making this waving motion with the axial portion of your body.

15. Tadasana. Toes/Phalanges spread wide like antennas. Ground to the earth. Hands in prayer. Feel the tripod of your heel/calcaneus bone and the two forward metatarsal mounds of the foot behind the big toes and baby toes. Crown of the head rising as if to reach the sunlight. Rooting to the earth. Rooting and Rising!

rb 10/17/20

CHANTS in this Kriya include:

Adi Mantra – I bow to the Creative Wisdom. I bow to the Divine Teacher within. This mantra is used to access the divine flow and self-knowledge within each of us. We chant it three times. Once for ourselves, once for the people in your class and once for the greater world.

SONGS & MUSIC in this Kriya include:

There is no music in this kriya other than our closing song. If you prefer to practice without music, you will appreciate this week’s video.

Long Time Sun – Closing song of all Kundalini Yoga classes worldwide.
May the long time sun
Shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on

PRANAYAMA – BREATHING in this Kriya includes:

Kapalabhati Pranayama – A forced exhale through the nose, followed by an automatic inhale through the nose. The Inhale and Exhale are of equal force. This forced exhale may feel like you are blowing your nose, it is a good idea to have a tissue nearby, especially during a morning practice.

Note: There are some classes when we may also practice Breath of Fire through an open mouth, inhaling and exhaling through the nose. Keep the head steady and cheeks as well as you practice this “Cannon Breath.” When we do, I will make sure to explain what we are doing as we do it.

Five strong inhale breaths and Five strong exhale breaths ALL takes place through the nose. You can imagine that your nose is a straw and take the five breaths until your lungs are full all the way to your clavicles, your collar bones.

In the video you will hear specific instructions re the number of seconds we’ll use for the pattern. It may be a four-second breathing pattern, five-second, or something different. For instance, on occasion, I may make changes, like adding one extra held breath per cycle which will begin to train the brain to absorb more carbon dioxide. Or, I may add alternate nostril breath to our box breathing pattern; inhaling through the left nostril and exhaling through the right. Simply listen for specific instructions in the video.

Below is the general breathing pattern. You can always begin with a 3 second pattern and slowly increase your times.


Inhale
Hold
Exhale
Hold

Inhale
Hold
Exhale
Hold

Repeat Cycle

With practice you could increase the breath count to 8 seconds per inhale, an 8 second hold and an 8 second exhale. It is the increased carbon dioxide levels in our bodies that trigger our urgent need to take a breath. Free Divers learn to override this physical cue. If you haven’t yet watched the Netflix documentary “My Octopus Teacher” I highly recommend it. This is one of my favorite documentaries in recent memory. If you have yet to watch it, I encourage you to do so.

Box Breathing Technique introduced by Professor Huberman, a Stanford University neurobiologist. If you want to learn more, give a listen to Andrew Huberman: “How stress affects the mind — and how to relieve it,” from “The Future of Everything” presented by Stanford Engineering on ApplePodcasts. 
LINK: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/future-everything-presented-bystanford-engineering/id1235836821?i=1000493145513


In many of the videos here on my website, you may hear me reference Dr. Baxter Bell’s Covid-19 Breath Series, this is Box Breathing.

You may also hear me mention The Breathing App. I highly recommend it as a tool to develop your practice. “The Breathing App is inspired by resonance, the scientific name that describes what happens when our heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, and brainwave function come into a coherent frequency. It occurs spontaneously when we breathe at a rate of six breaths per minute (instead of our usual 15-18), and is the rate of breathing that Buddhist monks and Yogis naturally enter into while meditating.” https://eddiestern.com/the-breathing-app/

ROCKY’S TAKEAWAY

Janet Stone Warm Up Full Body Embodiment – Warm Up for Kriya New Lungs and Circulation
I like this kriya because it has so many standing poses which you can work into more balance poses. The warm up is from Janet Stone’s Anatomy course with Harvey Deutsch. This is a full body warm up beginning from the feet up. We learn to ground our feet in the tripod base. The moment to moment goal is to create mobility on top of stability. The chant Har Har Har Haree is a motivator too. Stay with it! And the sequence also works on the core. You’ve heard me say “the juice” is in the breath. What I mean is your breath work powers your practice. Your sense of well-being comes from a deep connection to your constant companion, your breath.

Sat Nam.e.

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