- Howdy everyone. Welcome to Home, your 30-day yoga journey. Today is Day 5. High five. And today we soften. Let's get started. (upbeat gentle music) Alright pals, welcome back. Let's begin today's practice seated. Come on down to the ground. Try to get comfortable here. So little adjustments moving the fleshy part of the buttocks aside. Choosing to let go of the day thus far. Really land on your mat here. You know, honoring, choosing, celebrating that you have taken this time for yourself. Come on down to the ground and as you get settled in see if you can close your eyes or just begin to soften your gaze a bit, allow the sound of my voice to guide you. And perhaps now is a good time here on Day 5 to just extend a little nod of gratitude to you for allowing the sound of my voice to guide you, for showing up here and taking this time for you. Begin to soften. What does that mean? What could it mean for you today to bring your awareness to the act of softening? It's interesting, right? Sometimes I like to guide softening or Sukha, this idea of ease before activation, Sthira. This idea of creating strength and stability. This year, I chose to do our Sthira or our activation practice first because that's kind of where we gravitate. We all work a bit hard. So now that you know you have that discipline, that act of doing, today we're going to undo a little bit and we're still gonna have a full practice, but we're gonna see if we can find that Sukha or that ease. We're gonna see if we can find places where we can get the same amount of benefits but work a little less. So we activated the breath. We're going to remember that that dance comes first so that hopefully we can allow the breath to do some of the hard work for us. Less effort today. More ease. As you ready, draw all the palms together. Let's take a deep inhale in. Fill up. And enjoy a long breath out, soften. Again, big inhale. See if you can lift your heart a bit. Try to find a lift. This feeling of expansion and lifting on the inhale. And a bit of a softening. Anything that might be gripping or tight or holding on the exhale. Good, and one more just like that, big inhale, fill up. And long exhalation. Excellent. Go ahead and open the eyes if they're closed. Bring the fingertips to your sides. Inhale to reach one arm all the way up and over, any arm, big side body stretch. Exhale to come back to center. Find a softness, an ease. So same little bit but finding a little bit of a smooth flavor all the way up and over the other side. Yeah, Benji! Softening into the earth, coming back to center. Now we're going to take the fingertips forward. You're gonna uncross the legs. So you have one leg in front of the other and just very easy slowly walking the fingertips forward. We used to call this spider fingers with the kids. So spider fingers forward. You can come all the way forward forehead towards the earth, or you can keep it nice and soft. Maybe just coming to the forearms here. Continue to gently deepen your breath, activating. Nice conscious breath. Then from your center, navel draws in and up. So try and move from that center point, we're going to take the fingertips back. Fingertips can stay on the earth or maybe the palms come all the way down. We're gonna loop the shoulders forward, up and back. Start to lift through the chest as you breathe in. Stay here or maybe you lift the hip points forward. Lifting the bum up for a big breath in. And then softening on the exhale as you bring it back down. Excellent. From here, whatever leg is in front, just switch it. You're gonna bring it behind and we'll take those spider fingers back out. Nice and easy. Maybe to the forearms, maybe all the way forehead to the earth. Start to go inward here. Again, affording yourself this time, this precious time to go in, walk inside. Wipe your feet at the doormat and step in. Alright. Slowly coming back through center. Try to move from that core point, whatever that means to you. Fingertips go back. Maybe palms to the earth, maybe not. And on a big inhale, we find a lift. Lifting the chest, drawing the shoulder blades together, finding that connection behind your heart space. Maybe the hip points lift up, maybe not, opening, opening, opening. And then using your exhale to slowly bring it through. Awesome. We're gonna come all the way forward on to all fours, but how you move matters here, so take it nice and slow. Breathing deep as you go. Spread the palms wide, walk the knees underneath the hip points, press in to the tops of the feet and right away let's sync up with the breath. Here we go. Inhale, drop the belly, open the chest for Cow Pose. Exhale, claw through the fingertips actively as you round through Cat Pose. Inhale, drop your belly. Cow Pose, as I look at my cow dog. And exhale chin to chest, round through, claw through the fingertips. Now try to sync up with your own rhythm here of breath. Perhaps you start to welcome an audible breath here. If you're familiar with Ujjayi, the victory breath, that oceans sound, maybe you sync up with that here or try. And then bring it back to a nice, neutral straight line. Walk the hands out a bit and nice and easy here, we're gonna just find a little sway from left to right. Pressing evenly through the fingertips, the knuckles, really rooting down in that fleshy part of the hand between your index finger and thumb. Then from here, keep swaying, nice and easy. Soft, easy movement is the name of the game today. Curl your toes under and with this sway you're going to lift one knee and then the other and continue the swaying motion, just do your best. We're here to explore all the way up to Downward Facing Dog. And then let that entrance inspire some movement here that feels good. Wiggling the hips, bending the knees, pedaling it out through the feet. Keep that connection between the index finger and thumb. Upper arm bones rotate out. Great and we'll find stillness for one cycle of breath here, melting heart back. Finding a softness in the neck, the jaw. And then bending the knees, looking forward, carving a line with a nose you're going to take slow baby steps all the way up, finding that sway. Feet hip width apart or flush together, just nice conscious footing. If you have a little animal nearby, you can give them a little pet. Soft pet. And if not, I'll share mine with you. He just made us sound like (groans). And then here we go. Let's roll it up nice and slow. Listen to the sound of your breath as you do this. Stack up through the spine. As you take your next inhale in, find the length, see if you can lift the heart, lengthen through the crown and just take a moment here in Mountain Pose to soften through the fingertips, soften the skin to the forehead, the jaw, but find your activation, right? Find those lifts, those locks. Find those places where you can lift up through the front body. And recognize that downward energy through the back body. Inhale in. Long exhale out. Relax your shoulders down. Beautiful, inhale to sweep the arms up and overhead, big stretch. Exhale, Forward Fold, all the way down. Soft fingers today. Just wiggle your fingertips as you rain it down. Big inhale lifts you up halfway, find length. On the exhale that wave crests and falls as you Forward Fold. Beautiful, bend your knees, fingertips come to the mat. Light a little energy up in your core as you step the right foot back. Lower the right knee. Inhale, open the chest, loop your shoulders forward, up and back, look forward. Exhale, pull that left hip crease back, flex your left toes towards your face. Big stretch here. Inhale to roll all the way forward. Lift the back knee up. Exhale to plant the palms, step the left toes back, Plank Pose. Inhale to shift forward, look forward. Exhale with control the lower all the way down to the belly. Inhale Bhujangasana, a little baby Cobra here. Keep it small, soft and easy. Exhale, slowly release forehead back to the mat. Alright, listen carefully, curl the toes under. Press up just to all fours, inhale. And then exhale, peel the hip creases all the way up and back, Downward Facing Dog, soft and easy here. Inhale in deeply here. Find a soft sway or wiggle of the hips as you breathe out. Excellent, bend the knees, look forward. Find that little sway as you take your baby steps all the way up to the top of the mat. Feet hip width apart or flush together, your choice. Big inhale lifts you up halfway, find length. Catch a wave here. Exhale, soften and fold inward. Good, bend the knees. Fingertips kiss the mat. Light a little fire in your belly, here we go. We're gonna step the left foot back this time. Lower left knee to the earth. And if you want to create a little more space here at any time, just walk that left knee back. Walk the back knee towards the back edge of the mat. Good, inhale to open the chest, look forward here. Exhale, peel the right hip crease back, flex your right toes toward your face. Good, inhale to roll all the way forward. Lift the back knee. We're gonna plant the palms, step the right toes back, Plank Pose. So just ask yourself here,"Am I working harder than I need to? "Am I putting in more effort?" Not just in a physical, but in your mental state too. Good, inhale, shift forward on the toes, look forward. Squeeze the elbows in, you got this. Slowly lower with control all the way to the belly. Inhale, Cobra. Lift it up nice and easy. Exhale, soften and fold. Again, curl toes under, just all fours. Big inhale lifts you up. And then exhale, peel the hips back, lead with the tail, Downward Facing Dog. Awesome, shake the head a little bit here. Big inhale. And long, long exhale. Awesome anchor through the left heel. On your next breath in, slowly lift the right leg up high. Dial the right toes down. Then when you're ready, bend your right knee or we're gonna stack the right hip over the left. Peek at me if you need to, take your time. Press into both palms evenly. You can turn your gaze underneath your right armpit chest here. Nice, then inhale in, big stretch expansion through the right side body. On an exhale, move slow. Careful not to rush. Bring your right knee all the way through, all the way up and into your lunge. Good, so we've been here before. We know we can lower that left knee down. Otherwise, we'll experiment with keeping it lifted. Squeezing the inner thighs together. Finding that activation, tuck the chin and roll it up, high lunge. I love the roll up 'cause you can really feel everything turn on. Bend that front knee. (chuckles) Find your breath. Squeeze inner thighs to the midline. Find your center. Hands on the waistline or we'll reach for the sky. Nice. So if you get up here and you're like, "Whoa." For whatever reason, this is too much today, bring that back knee down. The earth is there to catch you and we're so lucky that that is the reality. So bring that back me down if you need to. If the back knee is lifted. Use your next inhale to straighten both legs and let your breath lift you. Lift from the pelvic floor, lift the heart. Straighten, straighten, straighten. And then exhale, bend the knees, front knee bends deeply, micro bend in that back leg. Two more just like that. Inhale, the breath lifts you. Exhale, shoulders relax with control, we bend. One more, inhale, it lifts you. Press in to all four corners of that front foot for stability. And then exhale, we bend. Softening in. Great, here we go. Opening up Warrior II. We're gonna pivot on the back foot, back toes turn in. We want to make sure we're not shifting forward here, but find center. Stack head over heart, heart over pelvis. We want to create a nice healthy line. A little highway in the spine for your energy to flow with ease. Pull the pinkies back, lift your chest. Now pause here. Lean into your strength. Are there places that you can soften? Notice your breath. Great, then reach the right fingertips forward, really forward. Take up space here as you reach all the way up drawing a big rainbow. We'll start to straighten through the front leg, taking the right fingertips all the way up and back. Big stretch here. Big shape. And then find a softness, a playfulness here as you inhale in. Exhale, cartwheel all the way back, bending that front knee. Coming all the way back in through to your lunge. Back knee can stay lifted or it can lower as we continue the journey, spiraling the heart towards the right and taking the right fingertips, soft fingers here, all the way up towards the sky for a big twist. Breathe in, lift. Exhale, take it down. Nice work, everyone. Plant the palms, steps the right toes back. Shift forward all the way. Lower all the way to your belly. Inhale, Cobra, nice and easy. Exhale, bring it down softly. Curl the toes under, press up to all fours. Take a deep breath in. And then peel the tailbone up as you exhale to Downward Facing Dog. Good. Inhale in. Empty it out, let go. Anchor the right heel. Inhale, slide the left leg up high, Three-Legged Dog. Turn your left toes down. Good, then bend your left knee. Keep your right heel dragging down as you open up through the left side, stacking the left hip over the right. There's going to gonna be a tendency to collapse all of the weight into your right side, right foot, right hand, see if you can press and both palms evenly. Great, maybe take your gaze to look underneath the left armpit chest, really open. Inhale in, exhale, nice and slow, bring that left knee all the way down, in and all the way up in to your lunge. Here we go. Activate, find your breath. When you're ready, tuck the chin. Roll it up, roll it up, roll it up, roll it up. Benji's rolling it up too. Good front knee over front ankle as we find our footing. Such a personal journey, right? So there's no rush. There's no rush to catch up with me or mimic me. Find your footing. Notice where your thoughts go. Are you making this harder than you need to for yourself? I'm not saying you are. I'm just, just asking questions. Hands on the waistline or we reach for the sky. Ready? Let your breath do the work for you. Let your breath do the hard work, nothing else. Here we go, inhale, reaching up straighten both legs. Lift high. Exhale, softening in, bend the knee. Slight micro bend in that back knee. Inhale, reach it up. Strong and steady. Exhale, bend. Inhale, last time to lift, lift, lift. Lift up from the pelvic floor, press away from your yoga mat, reach. Excellent, bend your front knee, pivot on the back foot and nice and slow, let's open up Warrior II. To the right. Find your footing. Again, back toes are turned in. There is a bit of a tendency to kind of lean forward here, so pull it back, strong base. And then spine nice and long. Great. Pull the pinkies back and just observe your breath here. Press into the outer edge of that back foot. Press into the ball joint of your left big toe. Hug the low ribs in, you're doing great. Soften. Gorgeous, then flip your left palm up, reach it forward, up, take up space here as you draw big rainbow straightening through the front leg all the way up and back, nice long beautiful neck here as your reach. (sighs) Thank you body for moving with me, (chuckles) for taking me on this journey. And here you go, soft playfulness as we bend the front knee, cartwheel it all the way back. We're headed into a twist, take your time. Right hand to the earth, maybe right knee to the earth, maybe not as we slowly peel the left fingertips up. Soft fingertips here, take a deep breath in. Lift a little higher. And then exhale to bring it all the way back down. Awesome work. Plant the palms, here you go, you're gonna step the left toes back, Plank. So you can keep the knees lifted here or you can lower. And we're gonna find just a soft, easy sway from left to right. Nice and easy. If this is to watch on the wrist, this is actually really good for the wrists, believe it or not, if you're clawing through the fingertips and pressing into the knuckles, but we can always come onto the forearms here. And we're just finding a soft sway for five, stick with it. Four, stick with it. Find that softness. Let your breath do the hard work. Three, two and one. Slowly lower to the knees. Bring the big toes to touch. Knees as wide as the mat. Send the hips back. Extended Child's Pose, awesome work. Close your eyes. Relax your head. Relax your heart. Soften everything. Listen to your breath. Trust that this time is valuable. And it really doesn't matter what happens on the mat, what you achieve. But simply showing up and your willingness to both activate and soften is enough. Right? The strength and the grace. Take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. And on your next inhale, begin to lift the head, slowly come back up. Good, we're gonna come all the way through to all fours, walk the knees underneath the hips and then you gonna cross one ankle over the other. Be mindful, use your hands here to slowly come all the way through back to Sukhasana. Let's take a second here to sit up nice and tall. The easy pose, not always so easy, right? If you've ever experimented with a meditation or any sort of, you know, just quiet sitting. Some days you land, (sighs) easy. And some days not so easy. In this shape here, Sukhasana, we find that ease. We find this lift up through the front, this grounding through the back. And we just take a second here to close the eyes or soften the gaze and find stillness and see if you can just notice any areas of the body or, I'm thinking these days too, the mind where you might be putting in a little more effort than necessary. I truly believe that with regular practice, we can create a life for ourselves where we feel like we're working for ourselves rather than against. And it's in our daily practice that we get the opportunity to safely experiment and explore and practice that. And you may not notice or have that aha moment on the mat, but it may be something that you notice off the mat or maybe something that someone that you know sees in you or recognizes in you. Just a little food for thought. Take a second here to just notice. Let your next big inhale lift you, whatever that means to you. And on the exhale, you're gonna twist to one side, any side, opposite hand coming to opposite knee. And then your other arm will come behind to support you in keeping a nice tall spine. Soft and easy twists are great to practice Sukha because we tend to crank into them a lot here in the asana practice. Great, go ahead and release it back to center. Again, whatever this means to you, let your inhale lift you. And use the exhale twist to the other side. Awesome, slowly release back to center. Bring the hands together. One final time, we'll take a big inhale together. Let it lift you. And use your exhale to bow. Thanks everyone. Namaste. (upbeat gentle music)