- Hello everyone, and welcome to Dedicate, your 30 Day yoga journey. It's Day 16, sweet 16 or your Dulce practice. So hop into something extra comfy today and let's get started. (bright music) Okie doke! Welcome, my friends. Let's begin seated. And today's practice is gonna start out with a little massage. Yay! So first, we'll take two fingers, any two fingers and you're just gonna bring them to the temples here and with soft, sweet touch, you're just gonna slowly start to sit up nice and tall, jumping right in, take a deep breath. As you exhale, relax your shoulders and begin to massage the temples one way very gently. I would like to acknowledge that it's not always easy to show up on the mat and to take out the time and to make it happen. So hopefully, today's sweet practice will give you a little boost, a little love, just a perfect hug as you continue with your commitment and stay dedicated to your practice. Reverse the direction that you've been moving in, nice and easy. And just nice and easy, continue to gently deepen your breath. Alright, then take a deep breath in. We'll move the fingers down, just the jaw, and start moving (giggles) one way. And then the other. Great, and you'll take your fingers, you're just gonna gently tug on the ears a bit. Continuing to gently deepen the breath. Mhmmm, mhmmm, mhmmm. Sound effects always welcomed. When I do a live classes or practice my friends I love to say that sound effects are really advanced yoga. When you're finally just (exhales) let yourself be free. Okay, and now one hand, any hand, to opposite shoulder. And you're just gonna lovingly and sweetly give a little, a massage to the neck, the side of the neck, and to the top of the shoulder, your trap, trapezius. Big muscle. And then play a little piano. Play a little piano here. What should we play today? What the kids, but we're all big kids, right? We pick a little song to play on the piano like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. So you can do this too. You can pick like Philip Glass or another composer and you play a little ditty. Okay. Let's switch to the other side lovingly. And obviously, it feels good to practice a little self-love. And hopefully it's helpful to have somebody just guide you to do that. But you can also use this time to just check in with your mental state, your mental health using your breaths. So just land on the small mat and go, "You know what? "Even though it's a busy day or a busy night, "I know this time is valuable "and I can't really take care of others "or serve the world if I don't take care of myself." Just remembering why we're here, to be sweet to yourself so that you can be sweet and useful. Okay. Now, fingertips are gonna come to the shoulders. We're gonna loop the shoulders forward up and back by bringing the elbows to kiss and then reach it all the way up, start to get a lot of space in the side body and the torso and then take it all the way back. Now with breath, inhale forward, up, exhale back, and down. Inhale forward, and up, exhale back. And down one more time, inhale forward, and up, exhale back and down and release the fingertips to kiss the earth. Mwa, inhale send the fingertips halfway. Exhale, hands to heart. Chin to chest, inhale. Reach for the sky. Big breath, big stretch. Exhale, float it down. Beautiful. From here, we're gonna take the hands to the ankles and you're gonna uncross the feet. Bring the soles of the feet together. And as always, if you need to lift the hips up here so that you're not collapsed here and you're a little back on your sacrum, do it! Sit up nice and tall. And we come into Cobbler's Pose here or Baddha Konasana, imagining the tops of the thighs melting down to the earth here. So get really heavy in your quads. And then when you're ready, yep, you guessed it. You're gonna take your hands to your feet and you're gonna practice the ultimate act, in my opinion, of self-love which is massaging your own feet. And if this is silly to you, just lean in. And if this is vulnerable to you, I got you. I got your back. And everyone, try not to avoid this moment but really look down at your feet once you know what you're doing and do it with love. So get your thumbs right into the arches of the feet. Maybe you move on to the toes. And if you're like, "I don't know, "I kinda just wanna get sculpted arms." I promise you, you're gonna get sculpted arms too and a strong core but this is important. This is also important. What's up, Benji? So here, we're telling the brain and the psyche that although it's tempting to think, oh, we need other people to metaphorically rub our feet or take care of us, we also have the ability and through practice, the power to strengthen this relationship with ourself where we can kinda do these things for ourself as well. Take care of yourself. Okay. Very good. From here, we're gonna grab the ankles, inhale, loop the shoulders again forward, up and back, lift the chest, take a deep breath in, sweet sip of air, in through the nose. And exhale, blow it out through the mouth as if you were blowing out a birthday candle. Make a wish. It's your sweet 16! Alright, then you're gonna inhale in here, exhale, lead with your heart, come forward, bend the elbows left to right, then from here, you can keep the hands on the ankles or if it feels better, you might wrap the hands around the toes and come forward all the way. Lean, lean, lean, opening through the hips and then you can keep a nice, long neck here. If it feels awesome and you want to stretch, draw your chin to your chest and begin to round forward. Play with it. Keep coming back to the sound of your breath. Alright, dig into the sits bones. Quads get really heavy, tuck the chin if it's in a bow and start to roll it up. That's where we're all meet. Let's have a little fun. So from here, we're gonna connect to our core by very gently bringing the hands to the backs of the thighs. You're gonna lean back. The knees are gonna come in just a bit here, not glued in but just in line with the hip point, and then you're gonna begin to just play, lift your toes up. Now, check it out. Light, up that connection, navel draws in and up. We're not collapsing here but we're lifting up through the armpit chest. And then you're gonna take the fingertips. We're gonna go through the hole and we're gonna bring them underneath the calf and then the palms are gonna go up towards the sky here. Okay? So a little bit of playfulness required. If you keep toppling over, you're not alone. Breathe deep. And then if you want, you can take a little Lotus Mudra here by bringing the thumb and the pinky together. Mmm. Awesome. Take one more breath here Just a little bit of fun. Awesome. Then slowly, with control, I'll release the arms, release the legs, and come all the way to the back. Mhmmm, mhmmm. Awesome. When you get here, we'll take a second to just get situated on the mat. Take a deep breath in, a long breath out. Great, then slowly lift the knees up. We're going in to some hip bridges here. So you'll walk the heels up towards the sits bones. Ground your all four corners of the feet. Imagine you're squeezing an imaginary block. That's a little redundant. Imagine you're squeezing an imaginary block. Let's roll with it. Imagine you're squeezing an imaginary block between your inner thighs. Hands come to the earth and then you're just gonna literally literally, press into your head, lift your chest up, draw your shoulder blades underneath you. Okay. Nice and slow here. Inhale in. Exhale, lifting from the tail first and then sending the shins forward, begin to slowly lift the slips up high. Walk your shoulders underneath you. You can grab the outer edge of your mat here. Again, still squeezing that imaginary block between in your thighs. Breathing deep. Shins forward. Good, then slowly releasing, nice and slow. One vertebra at a time hitting the mat, kissing the mat. Take a deep breath in. Empty it out. Round two, here we go. Inhale, slowly lifting up, take your time. Nice and easy. So therapeutic but you have to bring the breath. Shins forward. You can imagine your sits bones reaching towards the backs of the knees here. Inner thighs coming together here. Glutes are engaged but not clenched, strengthening through the glutes. You're here for one more cycle of breath. And then slowly begin to make your way down nice and slow rolling through the spine. Try to find a soft and sweet landing. Then take a cycle of breath here, in and out. And once more. Seeing how articulate you can be with the spine here as we begin to make our way up, final round. And this time, perhaps interlacing the fingertips behind the tail, shins forward. Breathe into your belly. It can really make your belly bug, that big balloon breath here, lifting your chest to the chin, chin to the sky. Then if you want a little added challenge here, you'll hold on to your midline, you have everything you need, you can inhale in, exhale, release, palms to earth, and maybe lifting one heel up and then the other. If you feel like having more here, you might engage your care, and lift one leg all the way up, kicking foot to sky, and then lowering with control. Same thing on the other side. And you'll know if it's right on your body or not. Wherever you are, use an exhale to slowly release and make your way all the way to earth. Then we'll repeat the Cobbler's Pose by bringing the sole of the feet together, allowing the knees to go nice and wide. Hands are gonna come to the belly here or the rib cage. Reclined Baddha Konasana, Supta Baddha Konasan. And here, you just take three active breaths, allowing gravity to do the work, breathing deep. Close your eyes if you like. And maybe you showed up to class today kind of wanting more fire and can you just trust that this sweet session perhaps could be what you need instead. Staying open. Again, allowing the nutrients of your practice, the benefits, the transformation to reveal itself rather than putting too much strain on having certain expectations or goals. And if you're like, "What?" (chuckles) Just trust. It'll resonate later, maybe. Okay. So the mantra here is allow, release, and let go. Particularly for those who are practicing this as it's coming out live, at the top of the year, but perhaps every month out of the year, it's good to take these moments to be sweet with ourselves. Sometimes, the sweat is not necessarily what we need and it's good to have a practice in which we're training ourselves to really listen to what our needs are in the moment and not necessarily what we think we need. And I'm speaking from experience, guys. Sometimes, it's good to sleep in, right? Okay. From here, we'll bring the fingertips to the outer edges of the legs. Gently close the knees. Awesome, then you're gonna extend the legs out long. And we're gonna end with a yummy, yummy, awesome, sweet, passive stretch. So take your legs out long. And you're gonna walk your heels towards the bottom left corner of your mat. Cool. And then inhale, reach your arms up and over the head. Full body stretch. And then you're gonna head and your shoulder, no, not the shampoo, but you're gonna head and shoulder your way towards the top left corner of your mat. Then when you get here, grab your right wrist with your left hand and bring it all the way up and over. You're creating a little crescent moon with the right side of your body. It should feel really good, particularly after all of the awesome work you've been doing. All the great exploration on your mat. The final little invitation here is to cross your right ankle over your left. Just again, exaggerating the shape in the right side body. And then you can soften your gaze here or close your eyes and breathe, breathe, breathe. Try to relax. Listen to that ocean breath. Just getting a little uncrumpled. We spend a lot of time a bit collapsed in the torso so using these next few breaths to really enjoy the space, the stretch, the love. And start with the arms. You'll release the arms first. Walk the head back to center. Then slowly with the legs, unraveling, and we'll walk the heels now towards the bottom right corner of the mat. Send the fingertips up, feel that awesome stretch here first just as you reach all the way back, and then you can head and shoulder shimmy your way towards the top right corner of your mat. And then we'll grab the left wrist, just exaggerating the shape, opening, opening, opening. Benji! And then here we go, option to cross the left ankle over the right, smell your right armpit, soften your face. Breathe love in and out. Should feel really good here. If you feel a pinch at all, you'll just come out a little bit wherever you are. Just take an inch back off just a bit. Beautiful! Take one more breath here. Just relax and enjoy. And the arms will release first, then the head, and the shoulders, and the heart. Then we'll uncross, unravel the legs. Inhale, send the fingertips all the way up. And exhale, hug the knees into the chest. Give yourself one last beautiful sweet, loving hug gesture. You can peel your nose up towards your knee. Take one more breath. And then as you breathe out, send the legs out, send your arms gently to rest wherever feels good, whether it's on the rib cage or the belly or perhaps gently at your sides. And we'll inhale in, and exhale to relax everything. Quiet moment here as you find stillness. See if you can give yourself permission here to do absolutely nothing just for 30 seconds. Here we go. Relaxing the weight of the body completely and fully into the mat. Sweet surrender. Alright, so sometimes, it's not only about what we do but in my opinion, it's a little bit about how we do it. So it's not what we do always but how we do it. So I invite you to slowly bring, so move up back to your body and consider that. How you wiggle the fingers, how you wiggle the toes. Are you more in the habit of being hard on yourself or can you get more in the habit (giggles) find practices that help you, guide you, to be more in the habit of being sweet with yourself? Even when you mess up. (chuckles) You're human! Okay. Because it's the sweet practice, let's come into a fetal position. Hey, buddy. Just taking a moment here to rest your heart and maybe make a little commitment that you'll continue to be sweet to yourself as you get up off the mat and head on into the rest of your day or your evening. Cool. Then use your hands to press all the way up. Come into a nice, comfortable seat of your choice. We'll bring the hands together ever so sweetly at the heart. And again, remember, sometimes it's not what we do but how we do it, how we move matters. And the way you treat yourself inevitably is going to influence or even dictate the way you treat others. So be kind. Love you guys so much. Inhale, lift the sternum to the thumbs. Take one more final breath. Just notice how you feel. And we'll close it by bowing to ourselves and to one another. I'll see you tomorrow for Day 17. Nice work, everyone. Namaste. (bright music)