- Hello everyone and
welcome to Yoga With Adriene.

I'm Adriene and today we have
a quick meditation that you can

do anytime anywhere
and it's for learning.

So I'm learning a
new language right now.

I'm learning Spanish and
sometimes it's nice to just take

a little break and have a
little bit of guidance to slow

everything down so that I can
come back and my brain and

my body and my spirit are 
in a good position to learn.

But if you are a student, this
might be awesome for you or if

you just are wanting to take 
a little time for some more

self study, this might be 
a wonderful meditation

to implement into your week.

So hop into something comfy,
grab a little pillow or a

cushion if you like to sit
on it and let's get started.

(upbeat music)

Okay, my friend, welcome.

Thank you so much for selecting
this video and thank you for

sharing your valuable
time with me and with Benji.

We're going to come to a
comfortable seat of your choice

for today's practice.

Maybe perhaps making a
selection based on how well you can

sit up tall through the spine.

So just do your best.

It may not be super
comfortable at first,

but we're gonna 
try to get to a place

where we can be at ease here.

We'll just see
what happens today.

So as you get settled into

a nice cross-legged seat or
maybe you're sitting in a chair.

Take a moment here to just
drop your shoulders and land.

You've taken this time 
for yourself it's valuable.

Trust that that is true.

And as you're ready, 
we will soften the gaze down

gently past the nose.

And just see if you can

align your head 
over your heart

and your heart over
your pelvis, over your center.

And you might find "Whoa, yeah,
I was really leaning forward,"

or, "Oh man, I was collapsed."

And maybe it's not a big move.

It's just a subtle move as 
we start to kind of drop our

studies outside of this moment
and come into the present.

This present state of awareness.

Head over heart,
heart over pelvis.

Then you can keep a nice 
soft gaze down past the nose

or if you're comfortable, go
ahead and close your eyes here.

And allow the sound of
my voice to guide you.

When you're ready, inhale in 
deeply through the nose.

And as you exhale, relax the
weight of your shoulders down.

This could be just 
an awareness or

it can be an 
actual physical move.

We'll do that again.
Inhale in deeply.

And exhale.

Just feel the fall 
of this exhale

relaxing the shoulders 
down, down, down.

And one more time, big inhale.

And exhale,
relaxing the shoulders.

And if this creates any
small micro adjustments here,

go ahead and allow it to happen.

We're not locked in to
stillness and in general I think

it's a nice way to approach
meditation particularly

if you're new and you might 
think that you have to kind of

nail the 
meditation posture, right?

Let it feel like you,
whatever that means to you.

So you can make 
soft, easy adjustments

at anytime.

Don't feel like you're 
locked into stillness

or into a certain shape.

Make it your own.

And then just continue to
gently deepen your breath with

the gaze soft down past
the nose or the eyes closed.

Noticing where your thoughts go.

And go ahead and 
make it a practice of

acknowledging those thoughts.

And then leaving them

after the 
acknowledgement and coming back

to the quality of your breath.

The rhythm of your breath.

Shoulders keep relaxing down.

Then we keep fine-tuning this

awareness of head over heart, 
heart over pelvis.

Just kind of 
allowing the body to

synch up here with the breath

in a very subtle
and beautiful way.

Feel the gentle
rise of your inhale.

And then trace it.

Follow it all the way down
through the end of your exhale.

(light etherial music)

Keep acknowledging the
thoughts as they come up.

And then keep returning

back to your 
current cycle of breath.

Now as you're ready, 
bring your awareness to

your lower body.

Get heavy from the waist down.

Whatever that means to you.

Now bring your awareness to the
upper body, from the waist up.

And without any grand
gesture necessarily,

it can be a movement,
it can be a physical movement,

but see if you can bring 
a little bit of a lightness

into the upper body.

And notice if that
changes your breath.

Feel the rise of your inhale.

And the softening
with your exhale.

Stay where you are.

Each breath, one present moment.

That opens a 
window into the next.

Now capture a moment
of exquisite stillness,

whatever that means to you.

Inhale in.

And exhale out.

On your next inhale,

flip just the right 
palm up ever so slowly.

Soft fingers with one palm now
face up and one palm face down.

Inhale in.

Exhale to switch.

Right palm comes down.

And inhale, 
left palm open, soft fingers.

Inhale in.

Exhale, both palms face up here.

Capturing that
exquisite stillness.

See what you can do.

See what you can find.

Noticing the thoughts 
as they come by and

perhaps seeing them 
now more like clouds.

You see them, 
you notice them

but then they pass you by.

Now bring your awareness
to the base of your spine.

If you want you can

put a little soft light there.

Then with your mind's eye,
you're gonna slowly travel up

from the base of the spine.

Like an elevator, lift that
awareness all the way up from

the pelvic floor, all the
way up through the waistline,

all the way up
past the belly button,

all the way up
through the rib cage.

Lifting you up all the way
through your heart space,

the neck gets long 
as it travels up

through the cervical spine.

This soft light or this
awareness now all the way up

through the head and all the way
up to the crown until you're

sitting up at your
tallest point here.

Palms face open,
fingertips soft.

Lots of awareness on
the rhythm of your breath.

Then inhale in here.

And you exhale,
spread the fingertips wide.

Bring the palms together and
really feel the warmth or just

the temperature of your palms
here pressing together as you

bring the sternum to the thumbs.

Inhale in deeply
through the nose.

And exhale, nice cleansing
breath out through the mouth.

Inhale in deeply
through the nose.

Nice cleansing breath
out through the mouth.

And one more time, big inhale.

And exhale, sigh it out.
(sighs)

Awesome, bow the
head to the hands.

If you want you can bring
your thumbs to the third eye.

Give yourself a little massage
here on the forehead before you

return to your day 
or your evening

or maybe back to your studies.

Take one more
moment here of gratitude.

You know a little
time just to slow down,

connect with the breath, 
be kind to the body

and the brain 
really goes a long way.

Thanks again for
sharing your time with me.

Take good care.

Namaste.

(upbeat music)