Practice To Calm A Rajasic Mind

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00:30

Practice To Calm A Rajasic Mind

by The Holistic Initiative - Emilie Berger

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Experienced

A steady, grounding practice designed to settle a restless, overactive, or fiery mind. This sequence emphasizes mindful movement, breath awareness, and intentional pacing to help shift from agitation into clarity, softness, and presence. Props needed: -2 yoga blocks Poses and practices included: -Cat/Cow + hip circles -Surya Namaskar -Warrior II, Peaceful Warrior, Trikonasana, Extended Side Angle -Warrior I, Devotional Warrior, High Lunge, Revolved High Lunge, Utkatasana, Revolved Utkatasana -Child’s Pose + Dancing Camel -Janu Sirsasana, Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana, Upavistha Konasana with Sama Vritti Pranayama -Marichyasana III -Supine Twist Please note: This practice is offered for educational purposes to support your understanding of Yoga and Ayurveda and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider to determine what is appropriate for your individual needs.

Yoga Mindfulness Calm Breathwork Asana Meditation Relaxation Transition Glutes Child Pose Shavasana

Meet your Teacher

The Holistic Initiative - Emilie Berger

Portland, OR, USA

Meet your Teacher

The Holistic Initiative - Emilie Berger

Portland, OR, USA

Transcript

When the mind gets really busy and is all over the place, It's hard to just boom, Come to stillness. We actually need that transition. We need to move. So that's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna bring some movement. Going to start kind of strong and then we're going to slowly start to slow down. So that at the end we can really sit and be still. So come to all fours. And find a few rounds of cat-cow for yourself, Dropping the belly looking up. And then rounding the back And start to adjust your breath so that it matches the inhale is the opening and the exhale is the closing. Big breath in and big breath out. And maybe you even make some circles with the hips. Maybe the cat cow is too still. So feel free to do that. One way and then the other way. Might be some cracking and popping that you hear. And then once you get to a point where you've moved a good amount, You're going to lift your right knee up with the foot towards the ceiling and then open the right knee out and then back in. And we're going to make some circles like this. With the right leg. And the tendency is going to be for the rest of my body to get all over the place. See if you can keep the shoulders really still. The left leg and the left hip really still and the only thing that's moving is the right leg. Few more like this. You're going to feel it in the glutes, You're going to feel in the outer hip. And then go the other direction. So out, Up, In. It's going to feel really weird. And same thing, See if you can keep the rest of the body out of the equation, It's just the hip. Bring the right knee down, Cap cow, Drop the belly. And then round the back. Two more. And then lift the left knee up. With the left foot up, Left knee out, Left knee in. It's the same thing, Some circles with the left leg. With his knee bent. And notice if you can keep the upper body out of the equation, If you can keep the right hip out of the equation. If you can use both hands to support you rather than lean heavily on the right hand. And then go ahead and reverse, So out, Up, In. This side is always this. Reversing is always weird. A few more, See if you can bring a little bit of. . . Fun and joy to it. And then bring the left knee down, Walk your hands forward, Downward facing dog, Please. And you can move in your down dog or you can be very still right away. Just be where you are if you need movement. Actually accentuate the movement you can kind of pedal through the feet heavily. Or you can let your body be still and notice the movement of the mind, That's okay too. And when you're ready, Walk your feet all the way to the front of your mat. Fold over your legs with tanasana. And right away, Roll all the way to stand. So we're not stopping. We're moving, Right? Hands to heart, Reach your arms up, Big breath in. Exhale, Fold forward, Big breath out. Inhale, Lift halfway up, Maybe hands on blocks for the first one. And then exhale, Plant your hands, Step your feet back, Plank pose, Inhale, Breathe in. Drop the knees down or all the way. Baby cobra inhale and an exhale down dog. Take a breath in. Look at your hands, Bring your feet together, Step or jump to the front of your mat. Lift halfway up, Inhale. And fold, Exhale. All the way to stand. Urdhva Hastasana. Inhale. And fold forward, Exhale. So it's not chaotic, It's not hectic. But it's movement to lift halfway. And then step back to plank So that movement, Breathe in. Is actually regulated starts to be regulated lower all the way Maybe a little higher, Cobra, Big breath in. So we're going with it. Tuck toes under, Downward facing dog. But we're starting to manage it a little bit more. On your exhale step or jump in front of your mat. Lift halfway, Inhale. And fold, Exhale. So it's not managing us, We're managing it. Come all the way to stand, Last one, Fold forward, Exhale. Lift halfway. Plant your hands. Pull it to plank pose. And then if you want chaturanga on your exhale, You can go for it or you can keep the knees down. Maybe Abdag or Dvamukasvanasana. You can stay with Cobra. And then downward facing dog, Exhale, Take a breath in. And then exhale. Lift your right leg up, Big breath in. Hug your right knee to your chest. Step your right foot forward and then come to front heel in your arch of the back foot. Virabhasana 2. Lift yourself up. Peaceful warrior, Right arm over the ear, Inhale. Lengthen the right leg, Triangle pose. And it doesn't need to be super aligned, But be mindful of engaging through the legs. We're more interested in moving today. Movement going with the floor of prana bend the right knee come back to warrior two And then as you exhale, Bring your hands down. Step back to plank pose, Inhale in plank pose. So be mindful. I'm going to pause you for a second. Be mindful of moving but regulating the breath and regulating the movement. Lower all the way down or chaturanga. Up dog or cobra, Inhale. And then downward facing dog, Exhale. Lift the left leg up, Inhale. Left knee to chest, Left foot forward. And then heel to arch, Come up to Vyarabdrasana 2. Settle on the exhale. Peaceful warrior, Left arm over ear, Inhale. Lengthen left leg, Trikonasana, Exhale, And then pause here for a breath. Go with the movement and get back to reining it in. Bend the left knee, Come back up for your two, Inhale. Exhale hands down Step your left foot back to plank pose. Knees down your chaturanga. Obdog or cobra, Big breath in. Downward facing dog, Big breath out. We're going to do that again and add extended side angle. Inhale, Right leg up. Right knee in, Right foot forward. This is the last round that we're moving heavily. Come up to Virabdasana 2. Peaceful warrior inhale. 2 trikonasana, Triangle pose, Exhale. Inhale and exhale in Triangle Pose. Then bend your right knee, Elbow to thigh, And then you're going to sweep the left arm forward and then over the ear. And we're starting to open the side body. Which can get a little closed off when Pitta gets high, So opening the sides body helps. Bring more space to Pitta, Which is also linked to Rajas, Which is linked to movement, Which is linked to Vata. All right, Lots of things happening here. Come back to warrior two, Big breath in. And exhale, Hands down. Plank pose to chaturanga or knees down. Inhale, Up dog. And exhale, Down tall. Left leg up. Inhale. Left knee to chest, Left foot forward. That's the last one. You're almost there. Come up. You're Abhadasana too, So stay with it. Peaceful warrior. Two triangle pose Stay your breath in triangle pose, Trikonasana. And then bend the left knee And sweep the right arm forward, Up and then over the ear. And notice all the space that is created on the right side. Get really energized for the right leg. So you have. . . Length from the heel of the right foot to the right fingertip. Come back to Virabhadrasana 2. Inhale. And then exhale hands down, Plank pose to chaturanga or knees down lower Abdago cobra, Inhale. And exhale, Downward facing dog. All right, Pause and down dog. Here we go. We're going to start to slow things down. To get a little bit more intentional. And to get the upper hand and rajas. On energy going a little crazy all over the place, The mind especially. Look forward and step your right foot about where your right hand is. Anchor your left heel down and come up to Vyarabrasana I, Warrior I. So you have your two feet on two lanes on your mat. If you can start to round the left hip forward. If this doesn't work for you, You can come to a high lunge, That's totally fine. Okay, So we've moved. We've moved, We went with the movement. Now let's start to. . . Slow it down we're still gonna move but We're moving in a more intentional way. Interlace your fingers behind your back. Lift the chest, Maybe look up. Inhale. And then start to fold over your right leg devotional warrior. Exhale. If the interlacing of the fingers doesn't work, You can open your arms. And then breathe. Hug your right hip in so you're. . . Centered, Grounded. Come back up to warrior one, Inhale. Lift your left heel up and come to a high lunge. You might need to adjust your stance slightly. Hands to hard, Big breath in. Get settled, Get grounded. On your exhale find a twist to the right it could be left hand down right arm up or you can start to hook. Left elbow to right knee. And you want to engage through the left leg either way. Actually lift the left hip just a bit so it's back in line with the right hip. Another breath here everybody. Come back up, Arms up. High lunge Step your left foot to your right as you bring your hands to heart. And find Utkatkasana. Take a moment. So you want. . . Toes pointing forward, Knees pointing forward, And inner thighs hugging in. Still movement, But again, We're using the body to manipulate the mind, Really. Just the beauty of Ayurvedic yoga. On your next exhale, Find a twist, Left elbow. Right knee. And see if you can reach the left hip a little bit further back. Great, Come back up with Katasana, Chair pose. Fold forward, Utnasana, Slow, Exhale. Lift halfway up, Inhale. Mindful stepping back to plank pose. And then either chaturanga or knees down, It's up to you. Ab dog, Inhale. Down dog, Exhale. Stay in your down dog, Take a breath. Ground yourself. Start to slow down the energetic makeup of your body. Start to slow down the energetic makeup of your mind. Look forward and on your exhale, Step your left foot where your left hand is. Anchor your right heel down. Come up, Virabhadassana One. And then take a moment to kind of adjust. Lift up through the crown of the head, Anchor through the feet, Round the right hip forward. Big breath in. Big breath out. Interlace your fingers the weird way behind you. Open the chest, Maybe look up. Inhale. And then devotional warrior exhale, Fold over the left leg. And breathe. Hug the left hip in. Release the head down. Come back up for your one. And then lift that right heel up, Hands to heart, Exhale. Settle, Get grounded, Inhale on the exhale twist towards the left so either right hand down left arm up or you can hook right elbow outside of left knee. And wherever you are, Re-engage. Through the right leg. Right leg is really steadying you, Anchoring you down. Lift that right hip just a tad. It tends to sink. Come back up, High lunge, Inhale. And then hands to heart as you bring your right foot to your left. Utkatasana bend the knees, Drop the hips and hands to heart. Big breath in, Use the belly to stabilize you. Exhale twist to the left. Right elbow to left knee. And you might notice that right knee creeping forward. You can start to release the right hip back and then come back up to your pose Exhale, Fold, Slow, Slow, Slow, Utenasana. Lift halfway, Inhale. And then this time, Bend the knees and take a seat. Okay. Actually swing your legs behind you. Bring your knees down, Sit back on your heels. And go to Charles Bowes. Yeah, You're welcome. I'm going to put a block under my head so you can still hear me. Big inhale. I would suggest arms reaching back. So you can start to soften. But we're not completely stopping. We're starting to slow down. So lift yourself back up. Yeah, Tuck your toes under. And bring your right hand to your right heel and then lift the left arm up as you lift your hip. Exhale come down switch your hands reach your right arm up Exhale down, Switch, Inhale. So continue with the movement, But notice there's a different type of energy here. There's a lot more softness. There's a lot more control, But not control in a rigid way. As in controlling more own. Intention. Control. So keep going a few more times. And then come back down. Child's pose. Slow down the breath. And wave slowing down the breath, Slow down the body, Slow down the mind. Lift yourself back up. And take a moment, Pause, Notice how you feel. How's your body in this moment and how is your mind? And it may still be kind of the mind might be all over the place, But. It's like water in a lake it gets really busy and cloudy and then notice how you can start to let the dirt settle down to the bottom. We stirred the water on purpose. Because by the way, It was already cloudy. And now we're going to intentionally. Remove the stick out of the water. And let the water calm down. Open your eyes if they're closed and reach your legs in front of you. Both legs in front of you, You might move them a little bit. You're going to bend your left knee, Bring your left foot to the ground, And as you do that, Right leg gets really strong, Flex the right foot strongly. And then open the left knee to the left side. And usually that right hip is forward. See if you can reach it back a little bit. Come to your fingertips, Open the chest, Big breath in. And then I exhale, Start to fold forward any amount. It doesn't have to be big. The forward fold is an opportunity, A tool for what we're doing. It's not the goal in itself. And now we're gonna start to regulate the breath a little bit more. So that we can regulate the mind a little bit more. So go ahead and take an exhale, Please. And then inhale, One, Two. Three for XL1 Two. Four inhale one Two. For XL1. Four last one inhale one Two. 4xl 1 Lift yourself back up. Notice what's happening. It's magic. Lift your left knee up to the ceiling and then lengthen your left leg. Bend your right knee, Bring it up to the ceiling. Take a moment to get tall. And then flex that left foot once you're still there. Engage through the left leg. Open the right knee out. Again, This is a moment of readjusting where we are encouraging the left hip back. Come to your fingertips, Big breath in, And then as you exhale, Start to lower down towards your left leg. Then once you're there, Take a nice exhale. There's no rush. Then inhale one. Four, Exhale, One. Four inhale one four, Exhale, One. Four last one inhale one four, Exhale, One four, Lift yourself back up, Take a moment. Right knee up. Right, Left, Glong. Give your legs a little shake. And then we're going to continue to open the sides of the body. So right leg long. Left foot in towards you. You might want to sit on something that feels a little wonky. And then flex that right foot same thing so toes straight up knee aligned and we're gonna really adjust the torso so that it's right in the middle. From there you might want to block on the outside of that right leg. We'll lift straight up, Inhale. And then straight to the side so there's no turning. See if you can really get right elbow to the block. You could reach the ground. And then reach the left arm over the ear. I'm not mirroring you this time. Big breath in. And then bend the left elbow and place your left hand behind your head and see if you can rest your head in your hands. And then from there, Re-engage the right leg a little bit. And exhale. Inhale one. Two 3. . . Four, Exhale, One, Two, Three, Four, Finding a rhythm, Inhale, One, Two, Three, Four, Exhale, One, Two, Three. Four, Last one, Inhale one. Three, Four, Exhale, One, Two, Four, Use your right hand to lift yourself back up. Release the left hand and then go ahead and switch sides. So mindfully, Right? We're moving, But the movement is really regulated. Right foot comes in and then take a moment to adjust yourself. So where does your right foot want to be? Can you flex the left foot? And once you get there, Find the hip um point straight in the middle of everything. Grab your block if you want it. Reach your arms up, Inhale. Straight to the side, Left elbow to the block. And then bend the right elbow. Find the right hand behind your head. Exhale, Exhale, Exhale Inhale one. Two, Three, Four, Exhale, One, Two, Three. 4, Inhale 1, 2, 3, 4, Exhale 1, 2, 3. Four. Last one. Inhale. One. Two. Three. 4xl1 Two. Three four, Lift yourself back up, Use the left hand down. Extend that right leg, Open both legs, And you might need both blocks here. Upavishtha Konasana. So we went to Janusha Shasana, To Pavrita Janusha Shasana, And then we'll close with. . . Which is again with a lot of fiery moving mental energy we need to both work with air and fire so we're working with fire right now we're opening everything so the fire can exit flex both feet And then. . . Find a moment of center, Lift really up high. Proud. Open and then start to fold any amount. So it doesn't need to be the craziest fold. That you've ever taken. Just a full, Like I could go further, But I don't really want to right now. This feels really good. So you could be right here. Take an exhale. We're going to slow down and lengthen the count for this one. Inhale one Two. Three. Four. Five, Exhale one. Two. Three four. Five, Inhale, One. Two. 3 Four. Five, Exhale one. Two. Three four last one. Inhale one. Two. Three for. Five, Exhale, One. Two. Four. Five, Take a breath in. And then exhale, Slowly make your way back up. Good job. You can place your blocks to the side. And use your hands to lift your legs. Really useful to have hands to support the rest of the body. And you can give your legs a little shake. We'll close with a few twists. So you'll want the left leg long and you're going to bring your right knee up. And you want to find this, Let me face you. You want to find this really tall spine. And take a deep breath in. This is Marichyasana 3. Lift the arms up. Then twist towards the right side and you can either have your left hand wrapping around or you can have the left elbow outside of the knee. Depending on what's happening in the body. I like at first to use my right hand really as leverage to lift my chest, But it's not a forcing action. Let me see what is already there that I can access. I can access. Big breath in. And a big breath out. Yeah, Wrapping feels better in my body today this way. To see what happens for you. Left leg is a little bit part of the equation, But not too much. So same thing, We're twisting, We're opening so that this fire, This. . . Excess rajas and pitta can get out of the body. Then come back to center. You might find a small counter twist. And then we'll switch the right leg along. Left foot to the ground, Left knee up, And then take a moment, Don't rush into the twist, Take a moment to be tall. Reach your arms up. And then twist to the left. And you might use again that left hand to kind of prop the spine straight up. You might feel that both sides are different. This feels a lot better than the other side for me. So feel free to do something different. From one side than the other. Something that serves your body. And notice how than mine is at this moment. A little different, Slightly the same. Creating more space. Come back to center. Extend both legs, Give them a little shake. And then make your way to your back, Please. We'll take one more twist. Before settling to Shavasana. So have both feet onto the ground. Knees bent. Arms open next to you. Bring your knees to your chest and then squeeze. Give yourself a hug. So again, We're playing with contraction and expansion with bitta. With this part of the class, We had movement. We addressed air. And now we're addressing fire and releasing fire. Cactus your arms, Move your hips to the right and drop both knees to the left. Breathe. And here you're starting to actually release the effort. Intentionally going into the twist. Previously the standing twist. And the seated twist, Here we're starting to let the twist happen to us. And then come back to center. And squeeze again. So squeezing and then expanding. Squeezing and then releasing. Contraction and then expansion. We need both. We can just have the expansion. And or we can just have the settling down. Sometimes we need the. . . Extreme opposite. Cactus the arms, Move your hips to the left. Drop your knees to the right. It's useful to acknowledge and to use. The extreme we kind of suffer from. Whether that's contraction. Or too much movement Give yourself a few more cycles of breath. And then come back to center, Feet down, Knees up. Big breath in and big breath out of the mouth. Lengthen your legs. And settle for Shavasana. And if you need any props. . . Use your props. Do not skip Shavasana. This is really important. Because this is where This is why we did everything we did. So that we can then let the mind settle, Let the dirt fully settle at the bottom of the pond or the lake. Now is where we reap the benefits. Take an exhale. And then slowly inhale one. Two. Four. Five, Exhale, One. Two. Four. Five continue a few more rounds like this And if you can get to six or seven on the exhale. Without straining. Without efforting. Try that. Just a few more rounds like this. And after your next exhale, Let everything go. Let the breath go. Soften your face. Let your body be still. And I remind you what it does. If it's still busy, That's fine. But maybe it's a little bit calmer. Don't focus too much on it. The more you focus on the mind being busy, The busier it gets. Allow yourself to be for just a minute or so. Is there any part of your body that you can relax just a bit more right now? And I'm going to encourage you to stay. One minute longer. Than you feel you want to. And in that minute. . . Focus on relaxing your body even more. Focus on relaxing your mind even more. Not through work, Not through effort. But through surrender Stay here for as long as feels nourishing.