- Hello, my sweet friends. Welcome to Home, your 30-day yoga journey. It's Day 25. Bring a pillow and a blanket to class today, if you have it. If not, it's okay. Today we unwind. (upbeat gentle music) Alright, my sweet friend, let's begin seated. If you have a blanket, let's sit on it here today. Benji, ready? Sit up on the blanket. Lift the hips just a little. Then allow your hands to rest gently on your lap or on your knees. And we have a quick, lovely little ditty here today to help you unwind, stretch and just take it easy. Mucho take it easy. Sit up tall, inhale in. Exhale, close your eyes, relax your shoulders. Come into stillness here and continue to gently deepen your breath. Best you can slow down your breath. Begin to soften any areas of the body that might feel like they're tight or clenched. And then begin to simply notice, notice how you feel. Notice the thoughts that arrive. Acknowledge those thoughts, whatever they may be. And then slowly allow them to pass. Come back to the sound of your breath. Inviting stillness. A sense of calm. Even a sense of relaxation here. Then nice and slow, dropping the chin to the chest, bowing the head to the heart, feeling that deep stretch in the back of the neck as you bow your head down. Breathing nice, smooth, deep breaths. And again, noticing any thoughts that come up here. Whatever they may be. And then just like the passing clouds, acknowledge them, see them and then allow them to move. Come back to the sound of your breath. Gently bring your left ear over your left shoulder. Breathe in. Breathe out. Then slowly reach your right fingertips out to kiss the earth, breathe in. And breathe out. Then flex your right palm. Reaching the right fingertips up towards the sky, breathe in. Breathe out. And as if you were smoothing your right hand up a wall, you're gonna slowly continue with your deep breaths. Just reach the fingertips all the way up in line with the right shoulder. Might feel pretty intense here. And then nice and slow, maybe on an exhale, slide it back down. You can just move up and down here gently in your own time. Unwinding any tension here in the trapezius and on through the neck. The forearms. Okey doke, last but not least, with the right hand pressing out, we might take the left hand and gently rest the left palm on the right ear. We're not actually pressing, we're just allowing the weight, soft weight of this hand to just do the last bit of work here. Inhale in. And then exhale to release. Hands back to the knees or the thighs. We'll bring it back up to center. Drop the chin to the chest. And then right ear over right shoulder. Inhale in. Exhale to relax the shoulders down. Just take a couple of breaths here. Close your eyes. Just keep acknowledging those thoughts. And then coming back to your breath. As you're ready, bring your left fingertips to the earth. Breathe. Maybe part the lips here. Soften through the jaw. Today really getting a chance to go, aha. Focus on sensation. As you're ready, lifting the left fingertips up towards the sky. You can play here gently in this range of lifting the left palm up and down. Then adding this last layer, if you like, of the right hand gently placed over the left ear. Breathe deep here. Ooh, yes. (chuckles) Inhale in. Exhale to release. Ooh, yes. Bring it all the way back. Head over heart, heart over pelvis. On your next inhale, go ahead and squeeze the shoulders all the way up to the ears. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze and lift. And then exhale, drop 'em down. Twice more like that. Inhale, squeeze and lift. Exhale to release. And last one, inhale, squeeze and lift. And exhale, drop it down. Awesome. From here we're gonna come all the way onto our backs, go ahead and leave your blanket here out to the side. However, if you want to grab your pillow and use it for the head and neck, go for it. Come on to the back. We're gonna extend the left leg out long. We're gonna hike the right knee all the way up into the chest and just take a second here to draw a little line back and forth. You can actually keep that left leg soft here for now. We're gonna draw a line back and forth. Think about drawing a line from your right shoulder, so really opening up through your right shoulder and then drawing your right knee in towards your heart. So left to right here. Excellent. Now we're gonna reach the right hand into grab the right inner arch for a little One-Legged Stirrup posture. Take your left hand, place it firmly on the top of your left hip crease. And now we'll start to activate through that left foot. Great, then on your next inhale, send the sole of your right foot up towards the sky. If this is a much too much, you can bend your left knee and bring your left foot to the ground for a little extra stability here. Kick your right foot up towards the sky and anchor your right shoulder down, just like we do in our Eagle Poses. So my right hamstring's getting sunshine here. I'm breathing deep. Again, we can always bend that left knee, bring the left foot to the ground. Alright, inhale in. Long exhale out. Inhale in again. Exhale to release, nice and slow. You're gonna bring the right knee in, interlace the fingertips behind the hamstring and then kick your right foot all the way up towards the sky. If the right knee is bent here, that's all good. In time, you can work to lengthen those muscles and straighten the leg. So it's all good if the knees bent. If the leg is straight, really flex those right toes towards your face. Stay here or option to slide the hands to the calf, perhaps. Calf. Or we can take the index finger, the middle finger and thumb and we can grab the big toe here. Nice and easy with the breath. In control. Inhale in. Exhale to release. Send the right leg out long. Take a deep breath in here, both legs extended. And exhale to relax everything. Awesome. Hug the left knee all the way up and in. Moving from the left shoulder to the heart center. Nice and slow. You can keep the right leg soft here to start. Close your eyes. Massage the front of that left hip crease. Move that ball and socket around. Keep the shoulders relaxed. Then start to engage your right leg. Bring the left knee back to center. We're gonna reach through. Left hand grabs the left inner arch, right hand comes to the top of the right thigh. And when you're ready, inhale, kick the sole of the left foot up. Remember, you can bend this right knee, bring the left foot to the earth here. So the action is kicking the left foot up towards the sky as you're drawing the left shoulder down so you find your opposition here. That push and pull. And then return to your breath. Mmmm. Lovely. Inhale in. Exhale out. Inhale in again. Exhale to release. Bring the knee back to center, interlace the fingertips behind the hamstring. Right leg is nice and strong and we'll kick that left foot all the way up. And then just check it out on this side. Maybe you stay here at the hamstring. Maybe come up to the left calf. Or maybe we find the bind here with the big toe. And returning to the breath. Shoulders relaxed. Inhale in. Deep breath. Exhale to slowly release. Send both legs out long. Rest your hands gently on the front of the hip creases, just relax everything. Big inhale. Long exhale. Awesome. Bend the knees, bring the feet to the mat. Happy Baby, we're gonna reach through, grab both arches. So you can do the arches here for a little double stirrup or you can grab the outer edges of the feet. We're gonna kick both feet up towards the sky. Drop the shoulders down to the earth. Think about reaching your tailbone towards the front edge of the mat so you feel this nice connection in the low back, the sacrum and the earth. Then you can find any soft, easy movement here that feels good. Like a Happy Baby laying on your favorite quilt. Or you can enjoy the stillness. Inhale in. Exhale to release. From here, we're gonna grab the blanket and you have an option, you can take the blanket, bring it to rest on the hip creases here. Or you can roll it up and put it behind the knees. Particularly if you're feeling any fuzziness in the low back. Benji's relaxed. We're well on our way. Here we go. Snuggle the shoulder blades underneath your heart space. I love the image of like a bear massaging its back on a tree. Crawl the shoulder blades down. Let your arms rest gently at your sides. Inhale in. Deepest breath you've taken all day. As you exhale, close your eyes, Shavasana. Relax the weight of your body completely and fully into the earth. Now bring your attention, your mind's eye to the soles of your feet. With so much love and respect and care, dear one, bring your awareness from the soles of your feet, scan the body, bring it all the way up to the top of your head. Take your time. Just a loving scan. Drawing your awareness from the soles of your feet. Eventually all the way to the crown. Softening and relaxing any areas of the body that might feel tense or tight. Allow the body to be heavy. Allow your heart to be soft. Just a few more quiet breaths here. Enjoy. Now slowly draw your index finger and thumb together. Rub your index finger and thumb together. And then the middle finger and thumb. Your ring finger and thumb. And your pinky and your thumb. Begin to wiggle the toes. Open and close the palms. And as you're ready, inhale, sweep the arms all the way up towards the sky and then all the way up behind you, full body stretch. Inhale in. And exhale out. Once more, inhale in. And empty it out. Draw the palms together. Slide your thumbs down to your third eye. The awesome in me recognizes the awesome in you. Way to show up today. Inhale in. And exhale to whisper Namaste. (upbeat gentle music)