- Hello, everyone. Welcome to BREATH, your 30 day yoga journey. It's Day 8. Don't hate, meditate, feel great and snuggle up for a restorative practice. So wear something extra comfy today. If you have an extra blanket or towel, bring it. And if you want to bring a pillow, grab that too. If you don't have any of these things, just come as you are are. It'll still be really yummy and snugly. Let's get started. (bright upbeat piano music) Alright my sweet friend, come on down to the ground. This is a nice, slow and low practice today. Go ahead and sit on your blanket or your pillow. I've also laid a nice blanket out for you know who and I to just kind of have a nice cozy setting for today's practice. As you're ready, do sit up nice and tall, relax your shoulders. And I'll allow you to kind of choose what feels good today. Hands on the knees, thighs. Or sometimes I like to bring one hand on top of the other and rest them nice and easy in my lap. So find what feels good. And we'll close the eyes here coming into the present moment by bringing our awareness to the breath. Or if I may today begin to snuggle up to the sensation and the rhythm of your breath. Just noticing how it feels today and noticing the rhythm. Is it easy kind of steady breathing, or does it seem a little difficult, maybe short breaths? We're practicing slipping into the role of the observer here. So whatever it is is all good. We're just noticing and allowing the action of bringing our awareness to the thing, which is our breath here, to be non-judgemental. Not doing anything or forcing anything or even trying to change anything. Just noticing here, although you'll find by bringing your awareness, your attention to something it inevitably shifts and changes. So we'll just allow. Go ahead and use this moment too if you like to snuggle up to this time that you've carved out for yourself and maybe allow the dust to settle. If you've been having a difficult time or it was a struggle to get here, you can take a breath in here and exhale and maybe just let that go. Allow the dust or the glitter, you choose, to settle here. As you come to reside in the role of the observer. Snuggling up to the role of the observer has changed my whole life off the mat. I'm able to pause, breathe. Notice how I feel about something. Notice my reaction. Before I make a choice, conscious or unconscious, and how I want to act or react to that emotion. Then bow your head down. Sit up nice and tall. So you might need to lift the heart a little bit here relax your shoulders down. Then bring your fingertips gently to the earth at your sides. And on a nice, slow inhale start to reach the fingertips up towards the sky. You can allow your gaze to follow. Look up, fingertips kiss up and overhead. And then exhale, float them down, gently ground your fingertips into the earth. Good. Twice more like that. Big inhale, sit up nice and tall, big stretch. And exhale, float it down. And one more time. Inhale in. Exhale, float it down. Left hand comes to the earth. Inhale, reach the right fingertips up and over. Side body stretch. Try to spiral your heart up towards the sky here. Spread the right fingertips, press away from the earth with the left palm. And then slowly come back through to center. Ground the right hand, inhale, spread the left fingertips. As you reach left hand all the way up and over. Stretching through that left side. Spiral your heart, your chest up towards the sky. And then slowly bring it back down. Gorgeous. We're gonna bring the left heel in towards the center of the body. Uncross the ankles, bring the right foot in to follow. So you have left foot then right foot. Then we're gonna use the fingertips on the ground to slowly crawl forward onto the forearms. Now breathe here. You might start to feel this in your right hip. If you're not feeling a kind of resonance in that right hip yet go ahead and keep moving the heart forward. Gaze forward, reaching the fingertips and straightening the arms maybe to bring the forehead to the ground. So we're here on the forearms. Or we're reaching the fingertips forward. Kind of like in Downward Facing Dog. Now everyone reach, actively reach your hip creases back try to glue your sits bones, your bum to the ground. So there's an action of reaching forward, leaning forward and then there's an action of pulling back. Then bring a little bit of energy to your toes as you send awareness to your right hip and breathe in. And breathe out. And again, breathe in. And breathe out. Now stay where you are. We're just gonna walk the hands or the forearms over towards the right and same thing. We breathe in lots of space in the low back, left side waist here. And breathe out. Lots of awareness in the right hip as you breathe in. And breathe out. Good, walk the hands through center or forearms through center. Take it to the left now. Same thing, relax the head over, breathe in. And breathe out. Then breathe in. And breathe out. Then walk it back to center. Fingertips, guide the way all the way back up to seated and we'll switch bringing the right heel in towards the center of the body, left foot to follow. Fingertips help us crawl our way to forearms first. Just check it out. This side will be different. Breathing. And then maybe taking it a little further. Working to melt the heart towards the earth forehead towards the ground. Bring energy to the toes and breathe in. Reaching the hip creases back as you breathe out. And breathe in. And breathe out. And breathe in. And long breath out. Keep the hips heavy and pulling back as you walk the hands or the forearms over towards the left. Bow, the head down and breathe in. Close your eyes. Breathe out. Snuggling up to the sound of the breath as you breathe in. And breathe out. Keep the focus inward on the breath as you walk the forearms or the hands over towards the right. Bow the head and breathe in. And breathe out. Breathe in. And breathe out. Walk the hands back to center. Palms or fingertips guide you back up. Head over heart, heart over pelvis here. Just take a second to sit up nice and tall. Notice how you feel. Lovely, then bring the fingertips behind you. We're gonna bring the feet to the ground here and we're just gonna with fingertips on the earth or maybe even the palms for a stronger base, we're gonna slowly send the knees to one side any side. So we have an internal rotation with one leg and an external rotation with the other in the hip. And then windshield wiper it through and to the other side. Good, back to center and over. Back to center and over. Okay, now close your eyes or soften your gaze and just start to move a little back and forth in your own time with your breath. Careful not to collapse too much in the chest here. Try to keep the heart a little lift, just a gentle lift there. Little lift. Beautiful. Then bring it back to center. From here we're gonna draw the left heel in, the right leg out. We're gonna flex the right toes up towards the sky. And we're gonna use our hands, bring your hands to your left side waist, your left rib cage. And you're gonna use the hands, the power of touch. Am I right? We're gonna bring it all the way over through as you hug the right femur. So this right thighbone draws back really into socket. You're gonna guide your torso to face your right toes. So this might seem like a lot, especially if you've done this a lot, but I love the power of touch to really feel how everything's integrated. I draw my center in, I bring my rib cage around and I hug my right hip crease into socket. Boom, set up for Janusirsasana. Send the fingertips behind the ears, Head to Knee Pose, inhale, reach up. Exhale, I'm gonna send my heart over towards my knee. Doesn't have to come close. The intention is to traditionally, to get the head to kiss that knee, but we're just gonna work with the intention of that here. If it gets down there close, great. Another great option is if you did bring a second blanket to class you can use that to lift the knee up towards your forehead here. And eventually we'll let the hands rest gently on our sides or maybe grab the shin, the ankle, or the foot. When you land there, go ahead and close your eyes and snuggle up to that ocean sound. Good, take one more cycle of breath here. And then slowly carve a line with your nose to look forward. So remember how you move matters here. So even as you release out of something and head into the next thing, that's like the money for me. Those are the money moments to really connect the dots. And we'll talk more about that later but, moving with ease and lovingly in and out of the postures makes a big difference. A little counter stretch here. We're gonna take the right hand to the left knee keep that right foot flexed, press into your right heel and spread your right toes like crazy. Then send your left fingertips behind you for a little twist. As you inhale, lift the heart. And then exhale turn to look past your left shoulder. Inhale, lift and lengthen. And exhale to release. We're gonna take it to the other side. So right heel comes in. Left leg goes out, flex your left foot. If you want to use that blanket, that extra blanket bring it on over. Come on over, come on over baby And then we'll take the hands to the right rib cage. And just as if we're like smearing some honey, we're gonna smear, smear, smear. Navel draws in and up. Find that Uddiyana Bandha if you're familiar, that lock here in center, navel draws in an up. And, when you're already pulling the left hip crease back. Again, flexing through the left toes. We'll take the fingertips behind the ears, inhale to reach up. And then exhale, send the heart forward hands to rest either on the earth, the calves, the ankle maybe even grabbing the foot here. As you're ready, begin to allow the weight of the head to come over. Head to Knee Pose or Head Toward the Knee Pose. And you can use your makeshift bolster if you like to rest the head. Listen to the sound of your breath. If you have a busy mind, hey, trust that you are not alone there. So just notice the thoughts and come back to the sound of the breath. That's the practice. Take one more cycle of breath here, milk it, enjoy it. And then we'll slowly release. Spiral the heart to center and then over to the right. Left hand to the right knee, right fingertips behind, inhale to lift and lengthen. Keep that left leg super active, spread the left toes and then turn to look past your right shoulder. Breathe down into your belly. Find that directional breath. Lovely. Come on back to center, bring the soles of the feet together, Cobbler's Pose. So you're gonna take your thumbs to the arches of the feet and just begin to pull back from the arches to the top of the foot. So a little self massage here. Make sure you're not too tight, tight up here. Give yourself a good amount of space here. Creating a little diamond shape. So a little self massage. If you're like, "Ew, I don't want run my feet." You can wash your hands after this class. You should probably wash your hands after this class anyway. So maybe own this moment. So we're taking our thumbs to the arches, to the center of the foot, really, and then pulling through the arch. And if you feel comfortable with your feet, or if you're just feeling kind of open, don't decide where it ends. You might start to massage your toes. The tops of the feet. The ankles. The achilles. And like the breath practice, pranayama practice, you know self massage is a practice. It takes kind of a coercing of the brain and the heart and the body to say, yes, okay, we're gonna do this and it's going to serve us, right? Instead of just waiting for some external remedy to take away our anxiety or massage our shoulders make us feel better, make us feel loved. And, it's not I'm saying external remedies, outside oneself don't work or not valuable and awesome because they are but something about connecting to what you already have. The source of healing and love that already resides within. Dude. Love it. Okay. So from here, we're going to, we're gonna take it to a little balancing pose. So we're gonna lean back just a bit. And we're gonna bring the fingertips in and underneath the ankles or the calves. Now walk the heels up, come on to the toes. You're gonna lean back way back. And we're gonna balance on the bum here, lifting the shins coming into a little kind of lotus shape. You can spread the fingertips here. We're gonna lift the heart, lift the chest. And if you want, you can spread the toes. We're lifting the heart, lifting the chest just having a little fun. This is the core work today. So a little bit every day in some aspect of centering. We're breathing deep here. Smooth, long, deep breaths. And if you're like, "Man, I want to do that one day "but I can't do it yet." Just do one leg at a time, getting the core engaged getting the coordination too involved and then you can switch to the other leg. And then one day, maybe both. Beautiful. Now let that go. We're gonna come on to our backs before we use our props. Just go ahead and come on to flat back so you can keep your props onto the side. Oh Benji's so relaxed already. Good job, buddy. Way to go. Come on down, flat back position. Take a big full body stretch. So inhale, reach the fingertips all the way up and overhead. Spread the fingers, spread the toes, inhale in. Exhale out. Inhale in again. And exhale. Hug the knees into the chest. So bring everything in. Snuggle the shoulder blades down, rock a little side to side. Then just put your left foot down. Hold on to your right knee. Then we're gonna take the right hand and we're gonna grab the right inner arch, where we were just massaging. The left hand can come to rest on the top of the left hip crease or even on the ground. As we inhale, bring the right foot up to the sky, right knee stays bent. So we're gonna find a little action here of pushing the right foot, the sole of the right foot up towards the sky and then pulling it down with the weight of the right shoulder, the right arm. So you have a push and a pull here. Super yummy for the hip. Obviously opening up through this hamstring. I have my left foot here and maybe even my left hand if I need it for stability. This is a like a Stirrup Posture. A half Stirrup Posture, similar to a Happy Baby. If you want to find soft, easy movement here you can. Return to your breath. Getting snugly in the hips for sure. Okay, from here release that. We're gonna switch. Hugging the left knee in, reaching the left hand to the left arch. Once you have your strong base right foot maybe even right hand. I like to rest my right hand on my right hip crease, but we have options. Lots of options. Kick the sole of the left foot up. Breathe deep. Feel that connection in your low back. Breathe into your belly. And again, it's one thing to just kind of sling ourself into the shape but see if you can find that action here of kicking the sole of the foot up towards the sky and then pulling down with your left shoulder. And if there's a little shake there, that's alright. Getting into those good snugly places here. The left hamstring getting some sunshine. Sweet. Then slowly release that. Both feet touch the ground for a moment. Then we press them up lifting the heels first, toes, press the knees up and off the ground. Hug both knees into the chest. Now we'll reach around. Grab the outer edges of the feet, kick both soles up towards the sky for Happy Baby Pose. So lengthen the tail. So the action here is to really actively reach the tail bone towards the front edge of the mat. Not just to hang in space. Draw the shoulders down, kick the heels up. If this is much too much for your body do one foot at a time using that grounding foot just like we did for the Stirrup Posture. And of course, of course, of course find what feels good. Now maybe finding soft, easy movement, straightening one leg, then the other. Can start to find a little freedom within the shape, within the form here based on how you're feeling today. Close your eyes. Imagine you're rolling around in your favorite sunny spot. Mine is on the hill at Barton Springs in my hometown. You could like transport back to laying on your favorite blanket or quilt or you can pretend you're a baby animal. Even if it's a millisecond of creating a sweet image for yourself, give it a try. And then we'll come back to Happy Baby stillness. And then we'll release. Feet come to the earth. Cross your left leg over your right like so. Peek at me if you need to. Then hug the knees up to the chest and take 'em over to the right. Hands rest gently on the low ribs as you turn on your left ear. Try to drop that left shoulder down but you don't need to force it too hard. Good, and then come back to center, unravel, cross the right leg over the left. Same thing on the other side. Legs go to the left, turn onto the right ear. Hands resting gently on the low ribs, breathe in. And breathe out. And then slowly come back up. We're gonna grab our props. If you didn't bring any, then you're gonna go old school. You're gonna go traditional, you're gonna be OG and just come to lie on your back. (laughs) Walk the ankles out nice and wide. Let your arms rest gently at your sides. If you have a pillow, go ahead and bring it underneath your head or behind your knees. I'm gonna use the pillow behind my head, and then I'm gonna roll my blanket up to be behind the knees. But if you're in a chilly spot right now you could roll up like a burrito. It's one of my favorite things to do in yoga. (laughs) One of my greatest motivations is rolling up like a burrito after practice, especially when it's chilly on the floor. Or you can just lay a blanket over the hip creases just for a little warmth, a little comfort. And wherever you find yourself, take a deep breath in. And pause the top of that breath. And just hold the breath for a moment here. Retain as you feel yourself suspended. And then exhale, relax the weight of the body. Let the breath go and feel yourself melting into the earth. Close your eyes. Relax the toes and the feet and the ankles. See if you can get really still here as you relax the shins and the calves and the knees. And the backs of the knees and the thighs and those hamstrings that are all nice and long and strong now. Let your breath rest easy as you soften and relax through the hip creases. Through the bowl of the pelvis and the glutes, your hips. Make sure you're not holding, letting go of any tension in the belly, sweet belly, and the low back. And the core and the mid back that we're building all of the strength within. Relax there. Relaxing the whole torso and the ribcage. The front, the back, the sides, the armpit chest and your sweet heart. Let it rest here. Relax through the shoulders. Let your arms and your elbows, the wrists and the hands and all of your fingers get soft and heavy. Breathe easy as you soften and relax through the neck the muscles of the neck, the throat. Part the lips as you soften through your jaw, relaxing the tongue in the base of the mouth. Feel the cool air as you gently breathe in through your nostrils, relaxing through the skin of the face. Just imagine your eyelids getting heavier as you softened through skin of the forehead. Unfurrowing the brow. Relaxing the ears, whatever that means and relaxing all the way through the body. Allowing the head, the skull to get very heavy here. As you snuggle up to stillness. A total surrender. An opportunity to practice letting go. Then slowly, as you're ready you can stay nice and heavy and relaxed here. Just lean in or snuggle up to this idea of garnering or gaining more respect for your relationship with your breath here. As we begin our second week together. I'm going up to the idea of garnering more respect for the relationship you have with your breath as we move into the second week of our journey. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, palms coming together and thumbs gently lift up to the third eye. You can stay here for a bit longer after the session is over or if you have to get moving, I understand that too. Just move nice and easy. See if you can connect the dots as you stand up and walk up and off the mat and into the rest of your day. Noticing all the ways in which the practice can sometimes come off the mat and into your daily life. Let's close with an inhale. Breathing lots of love in. And one final exhale, breathing lots of love out. Thanks for snuggling up with this Day 8 session. I love you guys so much, take good care. See you tomorrow. Namaste. (bright upbeat piano music)