- Hello my darling friends and welcome to Dedicate. Your 30 day yoga journey. I could not be more excited and honored to go on this ride with you. It's Day 1. Discern. Let's get started. (bright music) Okie doke, my darling friends. Let's begin in a nice comfortable seat. Welcome to Day 1. You've made an awesome choice for yourself. Thank you so much for being here. We're gonna start by taking our time. So right away take your time coming down to the yoga mat. One of the things I'd like to invite you to pay attention to on this journey is how you get in and out of practice. So take your time. If I'm ever moving a little too fast for you, take your time. You're in charge. And then how you get up and off your yoga mat is important too. You know you go through your practice, you find your presence for the day and then there might be a tendency to rush off the mat. So just something to pay attention to right away. And it's kind of nice just someone reminding us we have permission to move in a way that feels good here so even as you come on down to the ground here, find a little inner smile if you can. Benji's protecting us here in our beautiful location for this beautiful new 30 day journey that we are embarking on together. Embarking on. So take your time getting settled in here and notice what it feels like to kind of not be hurried or rushed. And when you find your seat, notice if the spine is kind of rounding here. If it already feels difficult and if it does totally normal. If you're feeling the spine kind of rounding maybe front of the hip creases is tight. Hip flexors are a little tight, no worries. Maybe pause the video, grab a little blanket or a towel or a yoga block and sit on that block or blanket or towel to lift the hips up a little high. This will just give you a little lift to help the knees drop down and to allow you to find more ease as you gently, everybody now, sit up a little taller. Find length in the spine. And then as you feel ready, start to gently notice your breath, allowing your hands to rest wherever they fall naturally. So we're easing in this Day 1 practice. Taking today to discern or recognize why we've committed to a 30 day yoga journey. And if you don't know why yet, that's okay. But taking a little moment here to just meditate on the why. Why are you showing up for yourself? Why is this important? And again if you don't know why yet, that's okay. This is a practice. This is about processing. Maybe you'll find out why later today. Maybe you'll find out why after Day 30. Trusting the process. Then as you're ready go ahead and take your gaze gently down past your nose or if you feel comfortable, close your eyes. Allow the sound of my voice to guide you here. Not only are we kind of closing or softening the eyelids to just bring our attention, our focus inward but we're also sending a signal to the brain that again, you are in charge. You are your own best teacher and throughout this journey we're gonna cultivate that relationship. I'm honored to be your guide, to be your pal and you can trust me. I will lead the way with honor and with respect but really you are in charge. You're in the driver's seat. So by simply softening the gaze or closing the eyes we are putting trust in both the relationship to the practice but also to yourself. Then with the eyes closed or the gaze soft, I invite you to take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. Alright, we've already begun. Here we go. Deep breath in. And a long breath out. Nothing fancy here. Again, deep breath in. And a long breath out. Now continue this mindful breath on your own. Again committing to that trust to that relationship with yourself. Trusting me trusting the video and trusting that this time that you've dedicated for yourself, with yourself is valuable. Continue to gently deepen your breath. And notice where your thoughts are, where your mind is going here. And if you're new to the practice please know that inevitably your mind will wander. So on the mat we practice not actually ignoring those thoughts or anything that comes up along the ride, along the journey. We don't ignore them but in fact we lean right in. We recognize those thoughts. We acknowledge them. And then we remember our breath. It's always spiraling back to the breath. Awesome. Now on Day 1 we have to take a moment to also recognize that though you have so bravely stepped on your mat and so beautifully shown up for yourself, you are not alone. You are not alone. I am here with you. And so are people all over the world. So I don't know if I've ever done this on a Day 1 but as you sit here in your beautiful Sukhansana noticing your breath, remembering that the mind will wander, emotions will come up. Some days will be harder than others. Know that you are supported by not only me and Benji but by human beings and animals all across the globe. And so to that I say Namaste. I'll invite you to bring the hands together and we do this to acknowledge all of the other beautiful folks who are showing up with you to practice. It's pretty awesome. Gently bow the head to the heart. Start to breathe a little deeper. Press the palms together bringing the elbows out left to right. So we take a solid moment here to bow the head to the heart, the mind intelligence to the body intelligence. Recognizing that you're practicing with people all over the globe. You are not alone. And then also again just taking a quiet moment to discern, to think about why you're here. Maybe set a little intention for yourself. If all of this is just digging a little too deep, your brand new to the practice then just breathe deep and start to notice this grand stretch in the back of the neck. Then everybody soften the skin of your forehead. Maybe your brows become a little furrowed. Totally normal, soften, bring awareness to your face. Press the palms together for one more big inhale. And then as you exhale release you can lift the chin fingertips are gonna come to your sides and we're gonna lift the heart up high. Alright guys, let's rock and roll. Here we go. Big inhale. You're gonna send the fingertips out left to right. So they're just gonna go about halfway up. Palms stay facing down. Then loop your shoulders forward, up and back, drawing the shoulder blades together and if you're already shaking here, you are not alone. It's all good. Notice where you are today and embrace it fully. This practice in particular is about setting ourselves up for greatness. So you have to be honest with where you are today and just come as you are, show up as you are and all will be well. So looping the shoulders thinking about maybe pinching a pencil between your shoulder blades and you know I've been working on this for a bit so I'm finding some space here today. But if you're not finding as much space then ah, relish in the fact that you're here now noticing, paying attention. And then we'll take one more deep breath in and exhale out. And then on your next inhale you're gonna spread the fingertips as wide as you can. And then as you breathe out slowly bring the palms together at your heart. Anjuli Mudra. Great, take a deep breath in here. Lift the sternum to the thumbs and then as you exhale drop the shoulders down away from the ears. Awesome, now listen carefully. Big inhale, you're gonna reach behind. Palms are going to come together behind the nape of your neck or the back of your head, chin to chest and you can peek at me if you need to. Again, we're learning new vocabulary so it's all good. Okay, beautiful. And then on your next inhale drawing energy up from the base of the spine we're gonna slowly lift all the way up fingertips reach all the way up. Big breath in. Beautiful and then big breath out. And then big breath in to lift again up from the base of the spine from the pelvic floor. And then exhale, wiggle the fingertips and rain it all the way back down. We go all the way back to one. Cool. Awesome so if that felt a little bit like this, don't worry. It's Day 1. You're doing great. Let's try again. Inhale, halfway. Fingertips out left to right. Take a deep breath in. Exhale right away palms come together, Anjuli Mudra at the heart. Chin to chest, throat lock here. Reach behind. Nice and slow. And then from the pelvic floor, if you're familiar with Mula Banda you can engage right away. We'll get to that another day. Inhale. We travel all the way up the spine. Deep breath in, reach for the sky. And then exhale, rain it down. Wiggle your fingertips. Fingertips kiss the mat. So this is our first vinyasa, y'all. And I was starting with this one for this journey because I think this is a really great opportunity to notice, "Am I syncing up with my breath or am I like way off?" And if you're way off, totally normal. It takes practice and repetition which is really great that we have the 30 days together to really be honest and true. "Am I moving with my breath?" "Or my spirit?" Right? Soul. So let's give it another go, here we go. We'll pick up the pace just by a hair. Here you go, inhale. Fingertips go left to right. Head over heart, heart over pelvis here. Exhale hands to heart, Anjuli Mudra. Good. Drop the chin to the chest, reach behind, palms come together. Then from the base of the spine, inhale all the way up. Reach, reach, reach. Stretch and exhale wiggle the fingers as you float them to kiss the earth. Once again, inhale halfway lift. Exhale hands to heart. Chin to chest, reach behind. Inhale, fingertips reach all the way up. Exhale, float it down. Wiggle the fingertips. Fingertips kiss the earth and we pause. Observe the breath. With every inhale imagine all four parts of your rib cage expanding. So not just the diaphragm but really use your beautiful creative mind to imagine just all four sides of the torso expanding in every direction. So each time you breathe in recognize that there is opportunity to expand on the inhale. And then recognize or discern each time you exhale not just now but in all of our practice together, can you use that exhale to just gently relax the shoulders down? And this is a little ditty that I share on the YouTube channel a lot. If you don't have time for a full practice or you don't have time for a full meditation or you don't have time for a 90 minute workout, do you have time to just be conscious with your breath? And so I love the little ditty of just recognizing that there's so much opportunity for expansion within an inhale, this can even be in your car and then there is an incredible opportunity to simply drop and relax your shoulders down as you breathe out. And this is a secret weapon. This is a game changer. So if you ever feel like you're contorted or you're a big ball of stress find expansion on that inhale, my friends, and then relax the shoulders down on the exhale. Okay, I think you have it, okay. And this also means you're never bored on the mat. Right, you're always working to find that expansion and that relaxation. And then this is what our Hatha yoga is all about. Finding places to lift and expand, right? To grow and be light and then finding places to ground. More on this later. Okay, from here we're going to press the left hand into the earth and you're going to reach the right fingertips all the way up towards the sky or the ceiling. And just find this stretch first. Feel this connection from your hip to your shoulder, from your shoulder to your wrist and then you're gonna wiggle the fingertips to just bring a little energy beyond the physical body. So you keep reaching out. Good, then from here practice finding that expansion as you breathe in and then drawing the shoulders down as you breathe out. Again, big breath in. Relax the shoulders down away from the ears as you breathe out. Awesome. Now let's go for the gold here. Big side body stretch. Take it up and over and then you do you here. I really want to, you know, at the risk of being a little corny invite you to be yourself right here on Day 1. Set the tone. We're working not to transform you into somebody that you're not. Some yogi muscle persons, flexible vision of somebody else's, you know, idea but to uncover yourself. To be yourself. So right away the way you move here matters. You can find soft easy movement. Maybe gentle pulses or if you feel a little tight remember the breath always comes first. Cool, then anchor down through your hips, feel heavy on the hips as you come all the way back up. Release the right fingertips down gracefully and we'll begin again on the other side. Here you go, big inhale, left fingertips sweep all the way up towards the sky first. So free take it over just, take it up. And let's connect, right? Integrate. We're not just trying to make one body part better. Right, it's interconnected. We're thinking of wellness as a whole body experience so right away connecting hip crease to shoulder, shoulder to wrist and then taking the energetic body and reaching way beyond the fingertips. Wiggle the fingertips. Return to your breath. And then from here with that connection make it your own. All the way up another. Nice side body stretch. Maybe there's a tendency for people to kind of keep a little closed in here so give yourself some space. Again, maybe soft easy movement here. Maybe baby pulses. Maybe you're finally kind of just getting out of your head, letting go of the day thus far and finding a nice rhythm with your breath. Benji's so cute. Okay, take one more breath here. And then anchor down with your hips, the weight of your hips down, down, down as you come all the way back and through. Head over heart, heart over center, take a deep breath in. And this time as you exhale let it out through your mouth. Two more like that. Big inhale. Exhale, relax the shoulders down and sigh it out. (sighs) Surprise yourself in this next one. Here you go, big inhale. Choose to let something go. Something that you just don't need to carry with you on this journey. Awesome, inhale reach for the sky. Palms come together. Jai Namaste and then slither them right back to your heart space. Inhale lots of love in. Using the exhale to relax the shoulders down. Awesome work. From here don't forget how you move matters. So how we begin to move in and out of each beat matters most of all, right? Because how you move is going to kind of discern or help you decide or recognize how you feel in the next beat. So as you slowly come forward and move towards a Tabletop Position, take your time. Unhurried, un-rushed. Don't let anybody rush you. I'll never rush you but if you go to studio, if you have a practice on your own, pay attention to the way you move in and out of each shape. This is going to come in handy when we start to pick up the pace. So the wrists are going to come right underneath the shoulders. Knees directly underneath the hips. There is a tendency to go a little narrow here which we'll do sometimes. And there's a tendency to go a little wide which we'll also do but for now let's stack the bones. Title of my fourth book, stack the bones. Dedicated to Benji. Alright, here we go. Pressing away from the yoga mat. There's a tendency always to collapse, right? That's just gravity. So we are amazing. We're going to defy gravity. We're gonna spread the fingertips super wide. We're gonna claw through the fingertips to take pressure out of the wrists. Then we're gonna press away from the yoga mat creating space in the shoulders. Then same thing with the tops of the feet. So much love and just obsessive awareness in your foundation for this journey. You're gonna press into the tops of the feet. Press into your toes and then allow that to affect what's happening the rest of your body. So right? We're not just kind of working on one part but thinking of the body as one. Okay, here we go. Creating a little bit of a lift. Lifting the front body to meet the back body. That's kind of a hard image to get right away but maybe a good image is of like a hollowing of the front body. And for all of these things, particularly in the first couple of days, you know, if you're new to the practice just take what you need, what resonates. Leave what you don't and if you're not new to the practice, see if you can pick up on some details that might just bring a little depth and more awareness to your home practice. If you're shaking here, you're not alone. Breathe deep. I'd like everyone to now bring their gaze straight down. Trust me. Trust yourself. Trust the video. You don't need the visual. I'll guide you with my voice. Draw the shoulders away from the ears, create length. Imagine placing a little teacup on the back of your neck and think of the flow of energy that runs up and down the spine. Ultimately we want to create a home practice that invites a healthy flow of energy up and down our spinal column. So if your chin is dropping towards your chest or if your gaze is looking forward we're kind of clenching or pinching off that pathway that energetic highway to the crown of the head. Right? Or to your third eye or whatever you want, right? So think of drawing the chin in towards your throat and lengthening through the back of the neck. So another fun way of putting that is just no wrinkles in the neck. Keep it nice and long. Alright, now here we go pressing into the tops of the feet. You're gonna press into your hands. Try to keep this awareness of your limbs as you gently drop the belly down and release the floodgates. Let's breathe. Dropping the belly for Cow Pose. Clawing through the fingertips, drawing the navel up for Cat Pose. Breathe out. Nice and slow today. Inhale, dropping the belly. Exhale rounding through. Chin to chest. Inhale feel the skin of the belly stretch. Exhale rounding through feel the skin on the back stretch. Foundation remains strong here. Inhale one more time. Belly down to the earth. And then exhale, backbone to the sky. Sweet, inhale come back to that neutral spine. Beautiful. From here you're gonna drop the elbows right where the hands were. Take a little pressure off the wrists. Can even rotate the wrist. If this is kind of a new thing putting pressure on the hands, you're gonna need to be kind and patient with yourself when it comes to the wrists but we'll strengthen them together. So don't give up on those wrists, I got you. Claw through the fingertips. Check it out, you're gonna stay on two parallel lines here as you walk the knees back. One step. And then another and then another and then another 'til your heart begins to melt to the earth. We call this Heart to Earth Pose, Anahatasan. I'm eating my little necklace chain. Right away, keepin' it real. Right away you're gonna get real. You're gonna stick your bum up in the air and you're gonna imagine your sits bones moving left to right. If you're feeling a little adventurous and freaky, you can wag your tail a little side to side but here we are. We are recognizing what's going on with the shoulders. Chances are they're a bit tight. And again, you're not alone. So find that expansive breath here. Breathe into all four sides of the torso. And then exhale all the way out. Killing it. Beautiful, claw through the fingertips. Press into the tops of the feet as if you were pushing a little ball of yarn with your nose. So keep the neck integrated at all times. Just do your best. You're gonna slowly push a little ball of yarn with your nose all the way through the center line. Coming all the way through with the hips. Bring the hips and the belly to the ground and now you're in Sphinx Pose. Awesome. So again paying attention to the foundation here. Press into the tops of the feet. Press into the pubic bone. Notice if your shoulders have come out. This is totally normal because the shoulders get tight and we want to create space. So I'm gonna invite you to try to reel 'em back in so that the bones are stacked here elbow underneath the shoulder. Alright, here we go, inhale in. Breathe in to all four sides of the torso. Exhale, shoulder blades relax down. Twice more, inhale. Breathe in all four sides of the torso. Exhale, shoulder blades come together. Tuck your chin slightly for this last breath. Breathing in. Breathing out. Alright, time to whisper sweet nothings to your core. Curl the toes under. So how we go into this is everything. The attitude that you bring in to this core work is everything. Particularly on this Dedicate journey. So here we go. Inhale in with the breath. Use your exhale to draw your navel up to the spine and that's what actually lifts you. So we're not muscling up into a Forearm Plank. You're moving from a center, from your center right away. Navel draws up heels reach back. Bones are stacked here and I start to breathe like I love myself. Like I want to feel the aliveness. Reaching the heals back. Crown forward. We're shaking here maybe. Our prana is going crazy. The body's starting to do that Bugs Bunny thing where you're like, you know, okay anyway, breathing deep. You're here for three, you got it. Soften the skin of the face, two. Big breath. And then on the one, here we go. Bend the knees bring 'em in. You're gonna bring 'em all the way, all the way in and then send the hips back. Hair toss, Balasana. Breathe as you slowly melt the forehead down. So just a little housekeeping, if this shape is not available to you, you can always remember that you're an amazing beautiful creative entity and you can change it up at anytime. You can get creative, you can create your own shape. I'm just guiding the way and, again, I'm honored to do so but you're the best teacher. You're the expert of your body. So if your body is not comfortable in this position, you might get creative, just creating a little more space for the front body. If the hips are too tight, you might work on the toes for a bit. Find what feels good. Then take a deep breath in. On your exhale carve a line with the nose to look up. We'll continue this line all the way forward. Come back to Tabletop Position. Then from here, we're going to curl the toes under, inhale in and exhale. Keep the knees bent as you begin to peel your tail up towards the sky. Walk the hands forward. Press into the knuckles, claw through the fingertips. Turn the big toes in slightly and then begin to melt your heart back just like you did in Anahatasan. Okie doke. Our first Downward Dog together of Dedicate. Begin to bend your knees, one at a time. Pedal it out feel that stretch in the backs of the legs. If this is new to you, just start to breathe a little longer. See if you can extend your inhales and extend your exhales just to calm down, stay in control. You're doing great. Take one more breath. Then on an exhale you're going to slowly take baby steps to the top of your mat rolling through the foot, feeling that stretch in the Achilles. And then we're going to come to a nice Forward Fold at the top of the mat. Again, take your time. It's Day 1. No rush, don't worry. I'm going to kick your butt later. Just enjoy this pace. You're gonna bring feet hip width apart. Again, we're focusing on stacking the bones. And then let everything go. Bend your knees as generously as you need to feel that awesome stretch in the low back. We go inward here by softening the gaze or if you feel comfortable closing the eyes. If you have not already, this is where I'll invite you to find an audible breath. Maybe it's Ujjayi breath. The ocean breath, the victorious breath. And if that sounded like jibber jabber to you, you can maybe take some time to go look at the Ujjayi Breath video, Pranayama series. It's really fun. But for now just fine an audible breath. This act of listening to your spirit, your soul. So nice for the nervous system. As your legs get a little tired, just remember we're not just working on the body parts but we're nurturing our whole body, our whole self. Our internal organs. Our brain to body connection. All systems gonna feel good. Okay, here we go. Tuck the chin, bend the knees more. Take your time, we're going to slowly roll up to Mountain. Root to rise here. Let up in your mantra. So really feel your feet as you ground down through the heels. And roll up to standing. And then, if you feel comfortable, close your eyes or soften your gaze just gently down past your nose and notice how you feel. So as we begin to build on this journey as the vocabulary grows it's going to become more and more important, in my opinion, to really pay attention to the way you move. So even the way you roll up here. You know kind of dictates or informs how you will feel when you arrive here in Mountain. A few action points. Ground through all four corners is a feet. See you can even look down if you need to for these first couple of days to really get a grasp on what that could mean to press into all four corners of the feet. So basically the ball joint of the big toe, the ball joining the pinky toe and the back two corners of the heels. And then from there you just begin to work your way up. And we'll work on this a little more later but just really quickly lifting the arches of your feet or imagining that lift if you can't really quite connect and then lifting the kneecaps a bit, kind of tone the quadriceps. And then just allowing that awareness to slowly continue, continue, continue all the way up the spine, all the way up to the crown and then for Dedicate this year I'm inviting us to go, yes, beyond the physical body. Keeping that energy going all the way up. Then my thought is it goes all the way up and then it ripples out all over the world, right? But let's just stay present here. As you're ready, find that full breath again. Where you expand through all four sides of the torso and then use the exhale to draw the shoulders down. Lift your heart, your sternum up. And then if you can think about grounding down through the back body. Whatever that means to you. So we have this lift up through the front and then we have this loop that grounds down through the back. And then with that connection of lifting and grounding, I'll invite you to slowly reach your fingertips all the way up. When you reach your full capacity of the stretch, ground through the heels, lift the toes if you can and wiggle your fingertips. Whew, then inhale, carve a line with your nose to look up. Exhale, drop the toes, bend the knees and slowly release it all the way down, Forward Forward. Notice if your toes have turned out here turned in. Just recognizing, right? Just discernment, just recognizing your patterns. Noticing where you are today. It's all good, just pay attention. And then on your next inhale we're going to come to a nice flat back position. Palms on the thighs. Use your shoulders reaching back away from the ears on an exhale to find length in the neck. And then squeeze your elbows in like a little grasshopper legs. Then same thing as we did with the nice neutral spine, you're gonna, on all fours, you're going to take all the wrinkles out of your neck here. You can even see how my voice changed here. I'm not playing. I'm not acting. So imagine if we're trying to create a healthy flow of energy that runs up and down the spine, imagine what's happening if we're in a pattern that's clenching the neck or disrupting this flow of energy that runs up and down the spine. Right, this affects our nervous system. This affects everything. Okay, peek at me if you need to here. We're trying to create length through the spine. In time you'll be able to soft bend in the knees, pull the elbow creases back and really create a lot of length. Cool, then we'll take one breath in here. Lift the heart just a bit up towards the sky and then catch a little wave here. Just cascade all the way down. Oh and then if you're like, "I don't if I did that right. "I don't know what's good." Were you paying attention? That's all that matters. Just building awareness upon each gesture. So stay in the process. Don't worry about mastering the move or getting it. We'll do this two more times. Inhale, halfway lift. Just another opportunity to experiment here. And then on your exhale go ahead and let it go. And then on your next inhale let's do the same thing but this time with palms on the shins. Finding length. Again, thinking about that energy that runs from the crown to the tail. And then letting that go. Bringing it to a Forward Fold. Grounding through your feet, sweeping the fingertips forward, up and back. We'll reach all the way up towards the sky. Capture something here, bring the palms together. Head over heart, heart over pelvis as you slowly bring the hands back down to your heart. Inhale in. Exhale out. Inhale to drop the fingertips down and reach 'em all the way up towards the sky. Big stretch, big breath. Exhale, take it all the way down. Wiggle the fingertips. And again, halfway lift. This time you have the option of maybe keeping the fingertips on the earth. Just another option but you want to still try to create the same length and integrity in the neck that you have here with the hands high. So if you're like Ashtonga yogi or maybe you're used to doing flat back here, I'm inviting us for this journey just to maybe consider finding more length in the neck here. Okay? Take an inhale wherever you are. Lift the heart just a bit. Then move with your breath as you release it all the way down. Cool, from here we're gonna plant the palms. Check it out, we're gonna step one foot back and then the other. And holy moly we're in a Plank. Same thing as we did on all fours. Find that hollow body position. So if the shoulder blades are coming in and collapsing here you're gonna want to spread them left to right. Create space between the two shoulder blades. Claw through the fingertips. Reach the heals back. If bells and whistles are going off like Bugs Bunny maybe try lowering the knees. Keeping that nice beautiful length through the crown. So again, neck not collapsing. Okay, now everyone draw your navel in and up. Bring your belly in just a bit. Loving thoughts as you breathe in. And out for three, two, one. Slowly lower the knees. You're going to come all the way to the belly. Take your time. Draw the hands in line with the rib cage. Squeeze the elbows in towards your side body. Inhale, Baby Cobra. Just a baby one. Exhale to release. Easing in. Curl the toes under. So for this transition you always have an option. You can press all the way up to Plank or from your belly you can press up to all fours and then peel up from there. And this isn't a strength test. This is based on how you're feeling that day, how your energy is. So if you haven't already decide what would feel good today by either pressing up to Plank or all fours and then making your way to Downward Facing Dog. Start to pedal it out. So last time we worked on bending the knees. Finding some space and stretch in the backs of the legs. Turning the toes in to feel the hips kind of rotate in. That ball and socket. Now I'd like to bring awareness to the upper arm bones. So dial your biceps in towards your face so you have this external rotation in the shoulders. Opposite from the internal rotation in the hips. It's a lot. Breathe, you got it. Claw through the fingertips. Little to no pressure in the wrists. You're working hard in the hands. Okay, take one more breath. And on an exhale instead of collapsing to the earth with control, like you love yourself, slow descend down. Knees kiss the earth. We'll bring the big toes together to touch. Knees then go as wide as the mat and hallelujah send the hips back. Melt your heart. Extended Child's Pose. And when you land here see if you can land here fully. Take the deepest breath you've taken all day. And as you exhale, relax your shoulders. Close your eyes. And hang with me now. Quietly whisper to yourself, "I choose." Try not to think too hard. Stay open. You can say it to yourself or you can even whisper it quietly. I choose. Sweet, take one more beautiful breath here in your own private little love cave. Yes. And then slowly claw through the fingertips. Draw a line with your nose forward. You're gonna come all the way up to all fours. Remember how you move matters as you walk the knees in just a bit. Here we go, swing your legs to one side. Any side, your choice and you're gonna come all the way through to a seat. You're doing great. Hopefully there's some blood kind of flushing to your forehead and to your feet here. Then nice and easy, you're just going to take stock. That's what today's all about. You're gonna sit up nice and tall. So if you're, you are not alone. I'm so proud of you for showing up and giving it your best shot. You're amazing. So wherever you are in your spine, let's use particularly these first few days to lovingly take stock. Right? And if you need to use a sense of humor, great. I use it all the time just to kind of disarm and lean in and find what feels good. So wherever you are here, don't fret. You're gonna send your fingertips forward. You're going to engage your core by bringing the low abdominals, not so much here or here but right here, low abdominals and upper abdominals in towards your center. And that's what's going to slowly take you back. And here's where a little inner smile or a good belly laugh might help because your legs might fly up. Maybe there's like you haven't activated your core in forever. And that's awesome. That's totally cool. That's what we're here to do. Slowly engage and recognize just where we are. So you might be already on the ground you might be moving at a snail's pace all the way down but whatever pace or rhythm you found today when you land (sighs) land fully. Relax everything. Take a deep breath in and a long breath out. You can center yourself on your yoga mat and then nice and easy we'll bring the right knee all the way up to the chest. Wrap your arms around your shin. Squeeze it up towards your chin or towards your face and then you're going to just gently take it over towards the left side of your yoga mat. You can open up through the right arm you're just a nice easy Supine Twist. Breathe and recognize how you feel in this shape today. And then slowly bring it all the way through back to center. Keep breathing. You're gonna switch. So send the right leg out, bring the left knee in. Squeeze and lift. And then when you're ready, yep, you got it, take it over to the right. Open up through the left. We're not pushing. We're not forcing here. We're practicing. Allowing. So maybe notice how you feel here because it will change from day to day. And then slowly bringing it all the way back up to center. And then when you're ready releasing the left leg down. Awesome. Bring your heels as wide as your yoga mat. Bring your arms to rest gently out at your side. Snuggle the shoulder blades underneath your heart's space, palms face up towards the sky. Tuck your chin slightly and then one more time together as a community as a globe let's take the deep loving soulful breath that we were born to take here. Inhale. And as you exhale, close your eyes and relax everything. Let your breath return to its natural rhythm. Let your fingers be soft. Forehead soft, jaw soft. See how fast you can practice being still. How long does it take to surrender? And ever so slightly, we'll begin to deepen the breath again. You can start moving the tongue around in your mouth. Get weird here. Might as well set the tone for the journey. Just get kind of freaky moving your tongue around in your mouth. I'm sorry (chuckles). Lifting the creases of your mouth, smiling. And then wiggling the fingers and the toes. Discern. Something brought you here. So recognize that, honor that. And know that any time spent with your true self, with that essence that feels true you is valuable. Let's bring the palms together. And we'll bring you thumbs right up to the third eye here. You can stay on your back. Palms to the forehead. Just feel that little pressure here. Slight pressure on a third eye. If you're not into that stuff, then you can just even get a little sinus, a little nice head massage here. But when we kind of bring the hands of the forehead here we recognize that point of intuition. The Inner Teacher. And perhaps that's what brought you here on the mat with me and with all of the other beautiful people who have chosen to show up for themselves. You guys are my hero. I mean it. I cannot tell you how excited I am to go on this journey with you. Day 1 is in the books. Inhale. Exhale to relax the shoulders. And we close out by saying, Namaste. Thanks everyone. See you tomorrow. (bright music)