- Hello everyone. Welcome to Breath, your 30 day yoga journey. We're so glad you're back. It's Day 4, and today we're going to listen. Let's get started. (bright upbeat piano music) Alrighty, welcome. Let's begin on the floor, lying down on our backs. Yay! Benji looks like he's ready too so come on down to the ground. As always, no need to rush. Take your time. Slow it down, move nice and easy. We're gonna come to nice flat back and then extend the legs out long. And to begin, we're gonna bring the hands to the belly. Allow the shoulders to relax, elbows rest on the ground. So if they're kind of caught up here, you can allow your fingertips to even be on the side waist, side of the belly so that your elbows can relax. You're not holding the arms up. And then take a deep breath in. And as you exhale, relax the weight of your body into the mat. We have begun. You've hit play/ You've arrived with a deep inhale in through the nose again. And out through the nose. And if you'd like, go ahead and open your eyes for a second and just kind of take in your surroundings visually with no judgment or commentary although those thoughts may come up, just kind of acknowledge them. And now close your eyes, make a wish and blow out the candle light. Sorry, it really, it's like a programmed thing I can't stop it. Okay, so close your eyes. I'll pipe down here and let's begin to gently deepen the breath. Filling the belly today with air. Really sending that breath downward towards the belly. So big diaphragmatic breath here if you can. And then on the exhale, it softens and it falls. And I'm gonna to let you just play a couple of moments here on your own, feeling the rise of the inhale and the gentle fall of the exhale. Starting to practice the art of listening by drawing your attention and your awareness inward toward your breath. Trust that this moment is valuable. It's as valuable as the Planks. It's as valuable as the glute strengtheners. It's as valuable as our twists. Just noticing the rise and the fall of each inhale. Remembering that each inhale is an arrival, is new. Noticing the thoughts that come up and coming back to that new arrival, greeting it. Each one like a new guest at the party. Maybe you start to integrate a little Ujjayi breath as you continue with your listening. Then just in case you had a hankering or had a thought that maybe yoga was not about all the fancy poses, but was about listening, deep, deep listening, then I'm here to tell you that I think you're onto something there. I think you might be right. Start to wiggle the fingers and toes. And then you can bat the eyelashes open or you can use the sound of my voice to guide you. Keep your eyes closed, we're just gonna reach the fingertips all the way up behind the head for a nice full body stretch. As you continue to wiggle the fingers and toes, you might start to rotate the ankles, the wrists. And see if you can do so in a way that you're really listening to the feedback that every gesture is kind of giving back to you, right? So rather than just doing the gestures, the poses, it really is an art of listening where we're listening and responding. Continue to breathe deep here or to breathe with more consciousness. And as you're ready, we will bend the elbows, float the fingertips down, so the palms are on the ground and then we'll bend one knee and then the other so that the feet are on the ground, and then you're just gonna scoop your tailbone, actually lift the bum up for a bit, for a moment, so that you can then place the low back on the earth with a certain kind of mindfulness. So it feels really flush and connected, and of course, that talks to the core muscles, and you're gonna really listen by just kind of enhancing that core connection, maybe anchoring down with your navel, the ribs. And then you don't have to look, just feel it out, again, listen to your body and I like to quote Mr. Willie Shakespeare, "see feelingly". So if your toes have come out, your knees have come out, see if without even looking, you can guide your toes to point forward, the knees come into alignment there. And you can give yourself the image of maybe squeezing a yoga block between the inner thighs. So press into your foundation, the feet, the palms, and begin to draw the shoulders down. So relax the shoulders as you peel very slowly, the tailbone up, up, up, we're going into an easy Bridge flow here, nice and slow to start so that you can feel, you can really listen to what's happening as you lift the hips, shins reach forward. This doesn't work for everyone, but I love the image of kind of sending my sits bones towards the backs of the knees. Just brings more length to the front body here. I'm using the hands, shoulders draw down. Big toe mound is rooting down. Back two corners of the heel, rooting down. Pinky toe mound, rooting down. Great, now, give the glutes a little squeeze. Lift it up a little higher. Keep the chin and the head nice and straight, so gaze is up towards the sky. Good. Give it another little squeeze and lift. Ooh, wonderful. And then slow and steady, let's release it down. Slow enough so you can really maybe even feel a little massage. We're trying to isolate the vertebra as we roll down, roll down, roll down. Sweet, let's do it again. Peeling up. Using the foundation, keep the toes pointing forward, squeeze that imaginary block. Try to isolate the vertebra. And if, you're new to the practice, maybe this will be kind of hard. It'll all just feel like one big stick. But we're working here to create more flexibility in the spine. The bonus here for this warm up is you're getting a nice opportunity to strengthen the muscles of the legs, the glutes. We're drawing the navel in and up just a bit to support that process. Shins forward. Now, give a little squeeze in the glutes, lift the hips a little higher. Keep breathing, listen to your breath. And then slowly release it down. But again, keep the tailbone scooping up so you can kinda feel your spine as you lower it down. And one more just like that. Here we go. Be patient with yourself. I know this type of work takes patience and a certain kind of integrity in my opinion, to not just move hard and fast but keep it simple. Breathe. Focus on your alignment and your action. For this one, I'll also invite you to really lift the chest to the chin. We've done this once before and then chin to the sky. And notice if you can get a little bit more onto that top of the spine by the cervical spine there. My legs are on, my glutes are on. Squeeze the glutes, lift a little higher perhaps. Breathing here, breathing, breathing. Squeeze the glutes, lift a little higher perhaps, breathing. And then slowly release it down, nice and slow with control. Awesome. So we're gonna do a little rinse. We're gonna inhale, listen carefully. We're gonna do the same thing, but as we lift the hips, we're gonna lift the fingertips all the way up too. They go as far back as you like. Maybe all the way back above the head. And then exhale, use your fingers here to continue that exploration of the spine. Fingers reach up, we lower down and then hands eventually come down. Twice more like that. Inhale, reach it up. Arms all the way back. And then exhale, we float it down. Yummy massage on the spine. One more, here we go. Dude, I love yoga. You can slow down your heart rate, calm anxiety, massage the spine, so you have nice, beautiful posture and you can work your glutes and your legs and your core all at once. What a deal, what a life. When you come back down here, when the hands reach the ground and the hips reach the ground, go ahead and walk the feet together. And then you're gonna hug the knees up towards the chest. Wrap the arms around the shin, squeeze. And then keep your right knee hugging in as you send your left leg out, but we're gonna keep the left heel hovering. That's always optional. I'm just here to guide you, right? You're your best teacher so you can always drop that leg. Even if it's just that you're feeling a little tired today. Otherwise keep it lifted. Inhale in, exhale, you're gonna switch in the air here. So we're keeping the low back flushed in a, flush on the mat, excuse me. Core connection turned on. Shoulders relaxed. Skin of the face relaxed. And then switch again. Right knee comes up and in, left leg goes out. Breathing deep. Using this floor work today to really listen to your breath. Try to find something new. Switch again. (chuckles) Really you can imagine that hip socket getting really snugly on the left side here. And then really sending your right heel way beyond the mat. So energetically pushing out. And switch again. So we're playing with opposition here. Squeezing with the right, pressing with the left. And then switch again. Squeezing with the left, pressing with the right. Keeping that low back flush with the mat. Alright, so we're gonna continue this just as is or you're gonna add a little lift of the head, the neck, the shoulders, nose towards the knee here. And then keep it lifted as you squeeze and switch. Hug the low ribs in. Switch again and now in your own rhythm, just creating a nice, it can be a slow and steady rhythm or if you're like, "I need a little fire today, baby," (chuckles) pick up the pace. I should note though, the fast doesn't necessarily mean fire. And this is one that you might notice, you start to hold your breath and so arrive again at a nice, conscious inhale. Working the muscles of the core. Strengthening the back. Alright, even it out. And then we'll hug both knees into the chest. Release the head, the neck, the shoulders. Send the arms out in a cactus arms, so bend the elbows fingertips point towards up behind your head. And then we'll rock the knees to the right side. Press into your right elbow as your right hand comes towards the outer edge of your left thigh. And then turn onto your right ear. Excuse me, left ear. (laughs) I don't know why I said right. Left ear. Now, remember when we started class with the belly breath, imagine your hands on your belly here, breathe downward. We call this directional breath or even a diaphragmatic breath, all the way down. As you inhale the breath travels down. And as you exhale, it travels up and out. A lot of people breathe the opposite way. They breathe up, exhale down. In yoga, we relearn, retrain the brain and the body to breathe with the inhale moving down. Exhale coming back up. Alright, come back to center, back to cactus arms. And then knees squeeze up and in and then over towards the left. Dig into the left elbow, bring the left hand to the outer edge of that right knee, right thigh, and then turn onto your right ear. Then find that directional breath. Breathe into your belly. Gorgeous. Just slowly bring it all the way back up. Beautiful. You're gonna slowly from here bring the hands to the backs of the thighs and we're gonna rock and roll up and down the length of the spine a couple of times. And it's fun and it feels good, but see if you can really listen to the feedback that you get as you rock up and down the length. If you wanna rock back, touch the toes overhead a little, Plow Pose if that's in your body, maybe you do that. If you're like, "Ooh, yep. Nope, not for me today," come as you are. It's all good. Eventually were gonna rock all the way up and through to all fours. So you'll cross the ankles and come all the way through to Tabletop Position. Find that nice neutral spine. And think about hugging your front body up to meet your back body. So you can think about actively drawing the navel up, the lower ribs up to meet your spine. Wrists underneath the shoulders, knees directly underneath the hips. Curl the toes under, listen carefully. Inhale in, bend the elbows. Exhale, straighten but not lock the elbows, the arms as we lift the knees for Hovering Table. Draw the low belly in towards the center of your abdominals and hug the low ribs in again. So we're creating this kind of hollow body. It feels like we're hollowing through the front here as we hover in Table. Neck is nice and long. Return to the breath, listen. Good. Take breaks if you need to. If you need a little more fire, lift the right foot off the ground. And then we'll place it back down. And then lift the left foot off the ground, this is optional. Listen to your breath. Listen to your body. And then place it back down. Great, both knees come to the earth. We press into the tops of both feet, and here we go, dropping the belly, inhale, open the chest, look forward. Exhale, round through the spine. Navel draws up. Inhale, drop the belly. Look forward. And exhale, reverse it. Beautiful. Walk the knees back just a bit. Then we're gonna lift the right knee up and we're gonna slowly bring it, the right foot, all the way up into a nice low lunge. So for this one today, we're gonna walk the left knee back, so we're creating more space. Listen to your body. Front knee is over front ankle so you can really walk the toes out a little bit to find that alignment. Good. Then we're just here on the fingertips or on the fist, if you like, breathing deep. Listening to your body. Listening to your breath. Pull the right hip crease back. Squeeze the inner thighs to the midline, so you're not just dumping your center or your power, right, into the earth. There's a connection there. Then if you you're listening to your breath and listening to your body and it says to stay down nice and low today, stay down nice and low. Otherwise we'll flow with the breath, inhale, reaching the fingertips forward, up and back. Going a little deeper in the pose today maybe as you inhale. And then exhale, slowly bringing it down. Going deeper because we walk that left knee back just a bit. Alright. From here, plant the palms nice and easy. You're just gonna come back to all fours. Walk the knees back out again towards the back edge of your mat. And then here we go, bring that left foot all the way up. Front knee over front ankle. Walk the right knee back. And check your alignment. Squeeze the inner thighs. Find the action. And we're here breathing. We're breathing. People always wanna do the splits in yoga. I see that all the time. I have for years and I still see it. Like, wanna work on the splits, which is awesome if you want to work on the splits, but then not many people wanna put in the time. It's a lot of listening, really. Not forcing, listening to your breath, your body doing this type of work that's not fast. But then one day you do the splits, and you're like, "Holy Molly," or your version of the splits. This 30 day yoga journey will get you closer to the splits if you're interested. Okay, so keeping it nice and low. Otherwise, we're gonna lift the fingertips, squeeze inner thighs to the midline, find your connection and that's where it comes from. As you inhale, reach the fingertips up. Lift your heart up towards the sky. And then exhale, follow the breath, bring it down. Beautiful. Plant the palms, come back to all fours. Walk the knees underneath the hip points. So from here, we're gonna take the left fingertips, turn them out in towards the body. We've been here before. Just giving a little break in between the days here. And we're gonna move in a circular direction. Break on the arms is what I mean. One way, and then the other. Try to keep your fingerprints rooted down. If they don't stay down, that's okay. They will eventually with more of this work. But intend for them to stay down. And then release that one nice and slow. Plant the left palm, turn the right fingertips in towards your body and same thing on the other side. One way, and then the other. Alright, after you've gone one way and then the other, let's bring it back. We're gonna walk the knees in towards each other, swing the legs to one side and come through to a cross-legged seat. Take your right hand to your left knee. Take your left hand to your right knee. And draw your chin into your chest and round through. Feeling that nice stretch through the lats, the scaps. The weight of the head bows over. Listen to the sound of your breath. And really feel this nice stretch in the back of the neck. Really up towards the base of my head. Feels really nice. And then bring your awareness to the base of the spine, that root chakra, and we're gonna kind of engage muscles there, if you know what I mean. And from there, we're gonna lift up through the spine, roll up, roll up, roll up, and it as almost as if you're taking that shirt off, I know, salacious. And you're, or, a nicer way of putting that would be it's like, "Oh, good morning," stretch. Opening, opening, opening. Through those cactus arms. If you want to yawn here, make any noise, you can. And then release. Alright, left hand goes to the right knee. Right hand crosses over on top. Same thing, chin to chest, rounding through. Closing your eyes. Practice is about to wrap up here, so really close your eyes, soften your jaw and take a moment with yourself. To me, that's what this beautiful journey is all about. Committing to that relationship with yourself, with your breath. You might notice that the head is holding, and after a couple of breaths, it gets a little heavier and heavier and heavier. And then here we go. From the base of the spine, draw energy up. It's like a little ball of light or a little snake, or just your awareness. It comes all the way up through the abdominals. All the way up through the solar plexus, all the way up as the arms release all the way up through the heart. Up through that throat chakra. All the way up through the eyes and third eye. And all the way up to the crown, and we stretch and we yawn, maybe cactus arms or football goalpost arms, if that's your thing. And then all the way back down. Ground for a second by bringing your fingertips to the earth. Close your eyes and just notice how you feel. Take any soft, easy movements with the head, the neck that feels good here. Way to go, way to show up. Way to listen. We'll bring the head back over the heart. Draw the hands together, prayer position. Inhale in deeply. Exhale to bow the head to the heart. Remembering the mantra from yesterday, my breath is my anchor. My anchor is my breath. Whenever you need it, just tune in to that listening. It's always there for you. We'll see you tomorrow. Take good care. Inhale lots of love in. Exhale lots of love out to whisper Namaste. (bright upbeat piano music)