- Hello, everyone. Welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene and this is darling Benji and we are so glad you are here for this full class. This is yoga for renewal. So hop into something comfy and let's get started. (upbeat music) Alrighty, my darling friend, come on down to the ground. We're gonna begin today's practice in a seat, so you can come to maybe cross legs here, or if it's in your practice maybe you've already been moving a bit today or it feels right in your body to maybe start in a kneeling position, that's an option today as well. If both are rather difficult, know that you're not alone. It might be a good option then for you to sit up on a big towel or a blanket, maybe a block or a big book if you have something just to lift the hips. Try not to think too hard, I just spit, too hard. Just make a choice and let's begin. Sit up nice and tall. Relax your shoulders. You made it. The hardest part is truly done. Making that choice to begin, finding your seat, and here we are. Go ahead and close the eyes. If you're not quite comfortable with closing your eyes yet, just soften your gaze. Look down past your nose. Again, relax your shoulders. Allow the hands to rest gently on the knees or the thighs. Let the elbows get heavy. With a soft gaze or your eyes closed, bring your attention or your mind's eye, your focus, bring your attention, your imagination even, to the very bottom of the spine. And just let your attention, your focus, again, even your imagination, let it ruminate down there. (chuckles) It's off to a great start for a bit, but hang with me. Just kind of bring your attention to the base of the spine. The pelvis. And the hips. And as you bring your attention to this area of the body, just notice what comes up, any fidgeting, any distractions. Perhaps you've landed in a really quiet space and boom, it's serene, but chances are that's not the case. And so don't feel like you have to be in a perfect setting for this practice to really work its magic. The most important thing is that you've taken the time to bring your attention inward. So we'll attempt to become more still here. But if it's not happening right away for whatever reason, it's all good. This session, as with all of my yoga practices, really is an invitation to practice being present. Present with what is. Slowly, gently begin to deepen your breath. Again, we're still just, whatever this means to you, just bringing your attention, your awareness, just allowing some imagination, some energy to swirl around the hips, the bowl of the pelvis, the base of the spine. If you're familiar with the root chakra, then that's where we are right now. Finding our home, our base. Setting the bar at a nice place that feels centered, that feels true. Maybe it's time for you to hit the reset button, come back to basics. Checking in with your foundation so you can grow this season. And start to, yep, you guessed it, take this awareness, this focus, on the base of the spine and let it travel up the spinal column slowly and steadily. And if this little action, this invitation to draw focus up through the spine from the bottom to the top changes your posture or the way you're carrying yourself in this moment, let it. Allow it. It can be subtle, it could be big. You could've noticed you were really crumpling in the spine. Maybe you start to breathe a little deeper here, with more awareness, putting some conscious energy, some intention behind your breath. If you haven't already, travel all the way up to the crown of the head. Find a gentle lift in the chest. Drop the shoulders down a little more, a little heavier in the elbows. Get long, long, long in the spine. Make sure you're not holding or gripping in the toes, the fingers, the jaw. Soften the skin of the forehead. Relax the brows. And when you're ready, so, so slow, so sweetly bring the palms together at the chest, at the heart. Now, if you haven't already, or maybe you've opened the eyes to just check in with me, which is great, always do that. That's why I'm here. Go ahead and close the eyes now just to really feel the palms pressing together here. You can even lift your chest, your sternum, up to your thumbs and feel that connection as well. Imagine your body's really heavy from the waist down and really light from the waist up. Now let's take a deep breath in together. Ready, inhaling in through the nose. And as you exhale slowly, bow your head down to your heart and just feel that nice passive stretch, or maybe it's a big stretch for you in the back of the neck all the way up into the back of the head. Connecting to the muscles of the upper back. Keep breathing here. Take a quiet moment to set an intention for this renewal practice. And if you found something right away, trust it. Maybe breathe with it for a second. If you're struggling here, maybe finish the sentence, "I choose..." I choose... And a big inhale in together. Here we go, in through the nose. And an exhale out slowly together. As we lift the head, release the hands, bat the eyelashes open. Oh, hello there. We're gonna take a nice, easy twist to the right. So if you're on your knees, you can stay there. Lift up from the pelvic floor for support, everyone. Let's take the right hand. Excuse me, left hand to the right knee. Right fingertips behind you. Get nice and tall through the side waist. All four sides of the torso nice and evenly lengthened here. Benji's chillin'. Tuck the chin slightly to lengthen through the back of the neck. Inhale in deeply. And exhale to slowly bring it back through center. Then we're gonna take it to the other side. Inhale, lifting up from the pelvic floor. We're not pushing, we're not cranking here. Nice and integrated from the start. Tuck the chin slightly. Get nice and long through all four sides of the torso. And let's release back to center. Inhale, spread the fingertips super wide. Exhale, fist, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Inhale, spread the fingertips super wide, stretch. Exhale, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Navel draws slightly in. Last one, inhale, stretch, stretch, stretch. Maybe this time you open your mouth, open the jaw, face nice and big. And exhale, fists, navel draws in. Maybe scrunching the face, pursing the lips. Good. Inhale, spread the fingertips. We're gonna reach the arms all the way up towards the sky. Exhale, palms down at the heart. Syncing up with your breath. Really do it. Inhale, spread the fingertips. This time, softness here. And exhale, hands together at the heart. Last one, inhale, get really long. So really stretching from the waist all the way up to the wrist, all the way to the fingertips and beyond. And then exhale, hands to heart center. Inhale in together. Exhale out slowly together. Beautiful. Inhale takes you gently to all fours, Cat-Cow. Make sure your wrists are right underneath the shoulders, knees directly underneath the hip points. So we're not too narrow here and we're not too wide, but we're creating a nice foundation, awareness of foundation. Benji, you're doing great. Inhale to the drop the belly. Press into the tops of the feet. As you do so, open the chest, look forward. Cow, grip through the fingertips. Exhale, round through the spine. Navel draws up, chin to chest, Cat Pose. Press into the tops of the feet. Inhale, drop the belly nice and slow. Bye, Benji. Exhale, rounding through. Careful not to rush this. Let's move unhurried. Inhale, drop the belly. Maybe draw a little energy back with the palms here. Press into the tops of the feet. Open up through the neck, the throat. And exhale, chin to chest, round through. Press into the toes, press into the fingers. Good, one more with the sound of your breath, nice and slow. After you've gone both ways, we'll come back to a nice neutral spine. Check it out. You're gonna walk the right knee over to the left, then we're gonna use our hands here to slowly come on to our side, so on the right hip here. Right hand comes to the earth, right elbow just underneath the right shoulder. There we go, excellent. So for starters here, we're gonna keep the knees together, feet together, ankles together here. I don't want to collapse into my right shoulder here. I wanna keep this nice and lifted. So we're creating a little stability in the shoulder joint here. I'm kind of already engaged in my right oblique. I'm just gonna nice and easy open, keep the right leg heavy, and close. Open and close. Now, breathe. Inhale open. And close. Nice and easy in the neck. Open and close. Now, keep it going with your breath here and see if you can draw a little energy to your core by hugging the low ribs in. So instead of splaying out here, I'm really kind of finding that containment here in the abs to support this movement. Left fingertips can come onto the ground here for a little more stability. Alright, you're doing great. Nice and slow, let's do three more here. Wherever you are, count 'em out. Nice and slow. After three, you're gonna relax the right arm onto the ground. You have two options here. You can extend the right arm and rest your head on your right bicep here or you can use your right hand to cradle the right side of the head, the right ear. That's what I'm gonna do here. Then, check it out, now we're gonna open it up a little more. So the left hand's gonna come to the outer edge of the left leg here. I'm gonna open it all the way up. Peek at if you need to. So, active feet. My knees are bent kind of in this right angle here. And then all the way down. And that's it, all the way up and all the way down. Now, you're gonna wanna find your core again here, but here's the kicker. We're gonna do some really nice work for the hips here by creating a little resistance with the top hand. So you're gonna open up and close. Open up, pressing just a little bit down with the left hand and closing with control. Give it a try. Engage that low belly for stability. You don't wanna rush this, so there's an undercurrent, a theme here, of kind of moving unhurried, right? This is a season we're all wanting to get back to it. You know, we're wanting to get back to whatever normal life is. You know, we're trying to reach our goals. We're trying to get it all done. We want everything all at once. Can we move slowly, mindfully, paying attention to what's going on on the inside? Super great for the glute here, too. (chuckles) Alright, wherever you are, let's count them out. Do three more. Don't forget to give yourself that resistance with the top hand. And then release. Awesome, we're gonna press back up. We're gonna come back to Tabletop Position. Beautiful. Inhale, drop the belly, open the chest. Exhale, round through the spine, chin to chest. From here, you're gonna walk your left knee over to your right knee and come on to your left side. Great, left elbow right underneath that left shoulder, so we're stacking the bones here. Keep the feet together, right fingertips on the earth for stability and we're gonna open nice and slow and close. Open nice and slow and close. So I'm engaging the muscles of my core here for stability. And you can start to kind of feel how everything's connected, right? Those chains are all working as one. That's why I like to say, think of your body as one moving part a lot. While, of course, there are benefits to isolating muscle groups, we have to kind of always remember that things are working in tandem in a nice, beautiful chain. And it's okay if you actually don't know or understand those chains, your body knows. So if you're just listening in your yoga practice, you'll be able to feel it out. Like right now, I'm really feeling low abdominals, oblique. Nice and slow. Another benefit to not moving too fast, rushing, right? You get to notice what's really going on. Stop and smell the roses, they say. Okay, three more. Count 'em out. Yes, and then slide it down. You get to decide, either arm extended or cradling the head. Bend those knees. Right hand's gonna come to the outer edge of the right leg and we're gonna go, we know what we're doing now on this side, so we're gonna go right into it. We're gonna open and close. Give yourself a little resistance here on the way down, lots of control on the way up. So great for the hips. For muscle, for tissue, connecting at all. If you haven't worked these muscles in a while, your glutes might be on fire, but we're getting a nice strong base for our renewal practice. Just notice if you have kind of sped things up here, see if you can slow it down. Notice if you are still breathing deeply, putting some conscious energy behind the breath here. I mean, if anything, that is what this time is really great for, right? Not to mention all the physical benefits you're gonna get out of this practice, but just putting your phone away and being with your breath, slowing it down. Alright, count it out. We're gonna do three more. And after that third one, press back up. This time, we're gonna come all the way to a Downward Facing Dog. Take your time. Upper arm bones rotate out externally. Keep the pressure on the index finger and thumb as you do that. So you have like a bit of opposition there, which is what this practice, the hatha yoga practice, is all about, working with balancing opposition, opposing forces. We don't know anything about that in our society, do we? So keep that in mind, when practicing the asana, you have all this great opportunity to play with that. Great, then find stillness. Hug the low ribs in so that you're not just spilling all of your energy, your powerful energy of the belly out, but you're drawing it in and up to feel this lengthening in the low back as well. Don't worry about what the shape looks like. Build it from the sensation, from the inside out. I'm giving you cues to play with so you can really breathe and listen to your body, to the sensation. Turn the toes in just a bit so that your shins, knees, thigh bones, up into that hip socket, the femur to the hip socket, that we were just working a little bit, get really snugly. We're here for three, breathe deep, two, and one. Slow descend with care of the knees all the way down. Walk the knees together, really together, feet together. Send the hips back, Balasana. You're gonna paint the yoga mat, drag the hands all the way back towards your toes. Relax the shoulders and breathe deep here. If this Balasana shape's not right for you, you can do an Extended Child's Pose. Give yourself a little more space with the knees wide, or you can come to a nice, comfortable seat. We're gonna do three deep breaths here. Listen to the sound of your breath. As you sip air in through the nose and out through the nose. Alright, from your version of Child's Pose or from your seat, we're gonna come back to Tabletop Position. And this time, when we inhale, we're gonna kick the right foot out, look forward and exhale, round the spine, draw the right knee in. Inhale, kick it out, look forward. Exhale, round the spine, draw it in. Inhale, kick it out, look forward. Exhale, navel draws up. Inhale, kick it out, look forward, hang with me. Exhale, bring it in. Beautiful. This time, kick the right leg out. You're gonna bring the right toes to the ground, then we're gonna bring the right foot to the ground and we're gonna bring the left toes over towards the left side of the mat. Peek at me if you need to. We're coming into a little Gate variation. Alright, when you're there, send the right fingertips all the way back towards the right foot, and then all the way up towards the sky and up and overhead. Little Gate variation here. Breathing deep, press away from your yoga mat here so you're not collapsing into your left shoulder. Now stay here, pressing into the outer edge of your right foot for stability, engaging your right inner thigh, pressing into the left foot for stability, just like we did in Tabletop. And then instead of letting your belly spill, spill, spill, like hug it in, keep some for you. Know who you are as you connect navel to spine. Feel that kind of engagement in the core. So again, stay here or inhale in, exhale use that engagement in the core to maybe lift the right leg up. Good, then place it down. Inhale in, pull the right thumb back. Exhale, maybe lift the right foot up. And place it down. And one more time with the sound of your breath, inhale in, exhale, lift. Good, inhale, release the right foot down, right fingertips are gonna come all the way down to the ground and we'll bring it all back to the center, Tabletop Position. Second side, inhale, drop the belly. Look forward, kick the left leg out. Exhale, nose to knee. Inhale, open the chest, kick the left foot out. Nice and slow, exhale, knee to nose. Inhale, slow and steady, opening. Exhale, chin to chest. Inhale, open. And exhale, navel draws up. Good. Inhale, open. This time, drop the left toes to the ground. Drop the left foot to the ground. Bring the right toes all the way over towards the right side of your mat. Nice and steady. I'm gonna center myself on my mat. When you're ready, send the left fingertips all the way towards the back edge of your mat and then all the way up and overhead. Press away from the earth with your right hand so you're not collapsed. There's equidistant between your ear lobes and your shoulders, both sides, so we're not collapsing here. Find that containment, your power, here in your center. Feel the glutes turned on here, hey-oh. Left thigh engaged, left foot on the ground. Breath flowing, being patient with yourself, softening through your brow. Alrighty, stay here or inhale in. Exhale, lift the left leg. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Inhale, lower, last one. Exhale, lift. Good, inhale to lower. Nice and easy, bringing the left hand to the ground, coming all the way back. Take a second here to turn the left fingertips in towards the body, right fingertips in towards the body. And then release, fingertips out, Downward Facing Dog. Take your time, nice and slow. Alright, anchor the right heel down here. As you inhale, lift the left leg up high, Three-Legged Dog. Try to keep the hips even. It's not so much they have to be super duper even, you just wanna make sure that we're working the left and the right side of the body mindfully. Okay, so you don't really need a mirror. Play with your inner mirror is what I'm trying to say, really. Dial the left toes down. Keep the right heel anchored here. Beautiful, inhale in. We'll maybe lift the left leg a little higher, maintain the integrity, and then exhale, knee to nose. Inhale, lift it up. Exhale, knee to nose. Inhale, lift it up. Exhale, shifting forward. Beautiful. Step it all the way up. Left foot comes up, right foot down to the ground. Great, get light on the fingertips here. We're gonna inhale, look forward. Exhale, you're gonna send the hips back. Really draw energy back with your left foot, but keep a nice bend in your left knee. So you're really starting to open up through left hamstring. Good, then inhale, come forward. And exhale, send it back. Again, really tugging back with that left heel. Inhale, come forward. And exhale, back. Now you're gonna keep moving here. You don't need to come to like the max, maximum gold star, whatever. Like, listen to what your body's telling you here as you move with this repetition. Inhale to come forward. Find that connection. Exhale to come back. How can my low belly and abs play a role in me feeling balance between the left and the right side here? Inhale to come forward, and exhale to come back. Good, next time you're forward, we're gonna take the right hand to the earth and left fingertips all the way up to the sky for a big twist. Now hug your left knee in. And if you want, option here to lift the back knee all the way up. Breathe deep here. Tug the shoulders away from the ears. Breathe into your belly. Breathing, breathing, breathing, stay. Be patient. Good. Inhale in, wiggle the left fingertips. Exhale, rain it down, all the way down. Plant the palms, step the left toes back, Plank Pose. Reach the heels back, crown forward. Engage those glutes that you've been turning on. Engage the core that is there to support you to guide you back to center. Inhale to look forward. Exhale to lower all the way to the belly. Inhale to press into the tops of the feet. Squeeze the elbows in, lift up, Cobra. And exhale to soften and release back down. Pressing all the way up through to Plank or all fours, and then make your way to Downward Facing Dog again. Hips up high, claw through the fingertips to take pressure out of the wrist. So breathing with intention, let's take a nice cleansing, nice, beautiful breath of renewal in through the nose deeply, here we go. And exhale out through the nose or the mouth with intention. Let's do one more just like that. Inhale in deeply. And exhale, let it go. Inhale, lift the right leg up high. Three-Legged Dog here. So we're wanting to press into both palms evenly. Again, this is tough stuff. We're hanging out here for just a second, balancing the left and the right side of the body. Listening and responding, you got it. It's hard, engage the core muscles, anchor the left heel down. Turn the right toes down. Alright, now let's flow. Inhale in, lift the right leg a little higher. Exhale, shift it forward, knee to nose. Inhale, lift it up a little bit higher. Exhale, knee to nose. Last one, you got it. Inhale, lift it up with control. Welcome that heat. Exhale, step it all the way up, lower the back knee down. Get light on the fingertips. If you need to do some wrist circles, I'm right there with you. Inhale to look forward. Feel that big stretch through the front of the left hip, the psoas. And then exhale, send it back, actively draw this right heel back. Feel that connection all the way into the hip. Feel that connectivity in that big belly of the hamstring with the right knee bent. Inhale, come forward. And exhale, send it back. And now you can move as you like with your breath. Getting everything moving again, shining a little light in the dark places. And so we're not just working on our flexibility, right? Were also working to get the organs of the body, everything kind of moving, functioning properly, saying yes to one another, just in case anything has kind of gone offline for whatever reason. Alright, and the next time you're forward, stay forward. We're gonna bring the left hand to the earth. Big inhale, right fingertips all the way up to the sky, big twist. Press away from your yoga mat here, lots of length in the neck. I'm squeezing the right knee in. Option to lift the back knee, really reaching the left heel back, back, back. Opening up the chest, maybe gaze up towards the right thumb. Breathing deep here. Breathe into your belly, at least one big full belly breath like you love yourself. Good, then inhale in again to look up. Wiggle the right fingertips and use your exhale to rain it down, wiggling the right fingertips all the way. Good, plant the palms, step the right toes back. Strong Plank Pose here. You feel free to lower the knees if you like, Half Plank, here we go. We're breathing here for three. Slow, two, and one, all the way down, nice and slow. Belly comes to the earth, press into the tops of the feet. Again, Cobra, inhale. And exhale to release. Alright, from here, we're gonna press up to all fours. So we're gonna do a little combination and then we'll flip onto our backs and call it a day. Relax so that we can begin again. Step into whatever is new. Alright, so to start, we're gonna come to Tabletop. We're gonna bring the left foot all the way out, just like we did Gate Pose, but we're gonna do it to the side here. Turning the left toes in, engaging the left inner thigh. Now curl the right toes here for a little stability. You're gonna inhale, drop the belly like you did in Cow. Yes, feel that, just hang there for a bit. And then exhale, you're gonna send the hips back. You can adjust the hands if you like, as if you're in Extended Child's Pose. Relax the head. Now, let's combine the two. Inhale, shift forward, drop the belly, keep the left foot where it is. Feel the connectivity from the arch of the foot all the way up through the inseam. And then exhale, send it back. Alright, working the fascia of the feet even here, I'll start to move at my own pace and invite you to do the same. Unhurried, though, okay? Unrushed. Alright, and the next time you inhale to shift forward, we're gonna release nice and slow, bring the left knee back, shift our way back to center evenly, Tabletop Position, and then take it onto the other side. We'll step the right foot out, turn the right toes in just like Gate Pose. Maybe walk the hands out a bit. Here we go, nice and slow. Really mindful with intention, press into the top of the left foot firmly. As you inhale, open the chest, just like we do in Cow Pose. Mhmmm, mhmmm, mhmmm. And then exhale, curl the left toes and send it back, breathing out. Inhale, drag the hands back to open the chest, come forward. And exhale back. Inhale to come forward and exhale to come back. Try to keep the connection of the outer edge of your right foot pretty strong with the earth. Even if you can't, if you lose it, keep that intention going there. Move nice and slow. Again, see if you can find connectivity. Part of the renewal process is really taking the time and yes, and take some actions, some mindful effort, to really pay attention to what's firing, what's not firing, what needs to be connected, what needs to have a conversation, what needs to be understood. What do I need to listen to to get kind of where I envision myself being? Alright, and then next time you're up, go ahead and release. Come back to Tabletop Position. Swing the legs to one side, any side, and let's come on to our backs. Right away, hug the knees into the chest. Gently feel the support of the earth, your yoga mat literally having your back here in this time. Way to show up. When you're ready, bring the left foot down to the earth. Kick the right foot up towards the sky. Spread your right toes and then cross your right ankle over the left. We're gonna thread the needle here. Try to get the low back really flush with the mat. If you can interlace the fingertips behind the left thigh, let's do that. If not, you can use a strap or you can even just hold onto your pant here. Or another option is to use more core engagement and keep the palms on the ground and you can rock a little side to side here. So we have lots of options. Make it work, designers, find what feels good. Keep some energy in the toes. I can hear my floor creaking. Oh no, now it's gone, of course. Alright, find one more breath here to get a little playful whether that's maybe finding a little kickstand on the elbows as you go side to side or kicking the left leg up high, find your button and then release. Then we'll switch, right hand comes to the ground. Inhale, left leg up. Spread the left toes here. So we're already engaged, finding that connection, the chain, and then we'll cross the left ankle over the right. Lift it up, thread the needle, or find your version of this beautiful posture, this therapeutic movement, really. There's that creaky, old floor. Mhmmm and keep breathing here. Our practice is coming to an end soon, so really activate the breath here. If you need to leave some stuff on the mat, please do, so that you can step up off the mat feeling renewed, open, open to the gifts that are already coming your way. Take one last cycle of breath here. Let it be playful. Again, maybe kickstands on the elbows or sending the right leg up high, maybe even moving the tongue around in the mouth. And then we will release, Bring the feet to the outer edges, so the wide edges of the mat. Bring the knees in. So now hip sockets feel snugly, they're finding that internal rotation. Bring your right hand to your belly, your left hand to your heart space. Take the deepest breath you've taken all day. Inhale lots of love in. And exhale lots of love out. Close your eyes. Begin to relax your body here. Your knees are touching, they're kissing together, so you shouldn't have to be actively holding any part of your body up here. And again, inhale lots of love in, with the eyes closed. And exhale lots of love out. If you're ever in need of a quick fix, a little bit of renewal, like when you've kind of lost faith and you're just starting to feel anxious or just so overwhelmed with what's next and kind of that unknowing, a great way to come back to your knowing is by, for me, is by just taking a second, getting still like we are here, and saying quietly to myself, "Inhale lots of love in," following suit, and exhaling lots of love out. And it's funny, as I do this, I hear sirens in the background here in my neighborhood and it's kind of, while I always say a little blessing when I hear sirens, it's kind of a good metaphor. It's like, whenever the sirens are going off, just remember inhale lots of love in. Exhale lots of love out. Slowing down the breath, do one cycle, do two cycles. If you have time, do three, but at least do the one and find your way to renewal, that renewed sense of self. Maybe a renewal in your love for yourself or for someone. A renewal in faith. Whatever it is, it's on the way. Just stay present. Be kind to yourself. Keep going. We'll walk the feet in together and you have an option here to extend the legs out for Shavasana and you can chill here for a bit after this video ends, or if you're going to step up off the mat here in a second, you can turn on to one side and press up to a nice comfortable seat. So you're either laying out or you're coming up to the same seat that maybe we started in. If you're on the ground on your back or in a seated position, I'll invite you to bring the palms together here. We'll just take one final breath together to close the practice, inhaling lots of loving in. Closing the eyes, maybe finding a reverent bow here, as you breathe lots of love out. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your energy with me and all of the beautiful people who are showing up for themselves via through this practice and through the breath. Take good care. If you like, you can whisper thank you, I love you, or Namaste. (upbeat music)