- Hi everyone and welcome to Dedicate, your 30 day yoga journey. It's Day 18 where we let love lead the way. Chant it with me, self love now. Let's get started. (bright music) Hi pals, okay let's begin today's practice in Downward Facing Dog. Take your time getting there, and if you know you're super low energy and you want to start with Cat-Cow instead, take it away my friend. Alright, let's begin with some full loving breaths, as individuals showing up for themselves, but also as a community, and I don't mean Yoga with Adriene community, I mean the global community, humanity. Pets, animals, welcome too. Okay, so here we go. Thank you for letting me guide this practice today. I'll guide these breaths. I'll just start you right away, why not open yourself up to the magic, to the love that resides within and that connects us all? Here we go, pedal out through the feet, or if you're in Cat-Cow, you can start to gently move, and when you're ready, get ready, big inhale, in through the nose. Exhale out through the mouth. Again inhale lots of love in, in through the nostrils. Good, exhale lots of love out. Out through the nose or mouth. And one more time, drink it in. Inhale lots of love in. Exhale, lots of love out. Melt your heart backs and your hips up high, bend your knees. Carve a line with your nose as if you were pushing a little ball of yarn like a little kitty cat forward. Integrate the neck as you look forward. And then you're gonna cross the right foot over the left, and then the left foot over the right as you criss-cross step all the way up towards the top of the mat. So we're starting to wake up through the feet, the wrists, the backs of the legs, but you start to get a nice little stretch through the IT as you criss-cross all the way to the top. And when you get there, bend your knees, let your belly come toward the tops of your thighs, let your fingers be soft here, your shoulders heavy, and then allow that weight of the head to release into the earth. What grounds you here is your breath and your awareness, your connection to all four corners of your feet. And then you've heard it before, but let's chant it again. Root to rise, sometimes we get so caught up in our ambition, we forget how important it is to ground. And not only to ground, but to really feel what it is we're grounding in. And today, it's love. Slowly roll it up. Deepen your breath, adjust your love to the mind, and the body, and the soul as you rise up into your Mountain today. And today you can close your eyes here and just gently allow the corners of your mouth to lift just a little. This is advanced, but I'm pretty sure you can handle it, just give it a go, just a little bit. Close your eyes, lift the corners of your mouth, and just imagine the tip of your head, the crown of your head is like the top of the mountain here and then your fingertips just drape gently down at your sides, of course, being the sides of the mountain. And then just anchor yourself here in love. Whatever that means for you. Notice if that brought any shift or any changes, maybe even just physically bringing awareness to the body. Let's rock and roll, bend the knees, you can open the eyes, inhale to send the fingertips all the way up. Exhale, Forward Fold. Inhale, halfway lift, follow your breath. Long beautiful neck here. Exhale to soften and bow. Bend the knees, plant the palms, step one foot back, then the other, Plank or Half Plank, lower the knees. Inhale to look forward. Exhale, lower all the way to the belly. Drag the hands in line with the rib cage, suck the elbows into your side body. Inhale, open your heart, lift your chest. Exhale, release. Curl the toes under, press up to Plank or to all fours, and then send the hips up and back, Downward Facing Dog. Bend your knees generously, today really working to melt the heart back, melt the heart towards your thighs, towards your knees. Feel that stretch in the side body. Maybe you teeter totter the hips a little left to right, a little tick tock. Alright, now inhale, bend the knees, look forward. This time exhale, cross the left foot over the right, then right foot over the left, and just in case you kind of rushed this the first time, see if you can take your time here, find what feels good. And I'll meet you at the top of the mat, Standing Forward Fold. On your next breath in, lift it up halfway, find length. Exhale to soften and fold. Root to rise here, anchor in love. Inhale, reach for the sky, big breath, big stretch, capture something up and overhead and bring it right down into your heart. Inhale lots of love in. Exhale lots of love out. Relax the shoulders, try to keep your heart, your sternum lifted here. Great, now inhale, fingertips go down to come up at your sides, left to right, big Texas T. Exhale hands to heart, Anjali Mudra. Chin to chest, reach behind. Try to create a full body experience here as you inhale, reach the fingertips up towards the sky. Exhale, if you have space, send the fingertips back out, lead with your heart, and bring it all the way down, Forward Fold. Good, inhale halfway lift, your version. Find length. Exhale to soften and fold. Bend your knees, plant the palms, step it back. Plank Pose or Half Plank. On the knees, upper arm bones rotate out, gazing forward, inhale lower just halfway. Exhale, navel to spine, press up. Inhale bend the elbows, lower halfway, gaze forward. Exhale, press back up. One more, you got it. Inhale in, connect to lower belly. Remember yesterday's practice, you have everything you need. On your inhale, lower halfway. And exhale to press up. Beautiful, from here we'll come all the way onto the belly. Nice and then this time, fingertips are gonna come off the mat, elbows up towards the sky. Take a peek at me if you need. Now reconnect, find your foundation, find your breath, and inhale upper arm bones rotate out as we tuck the chin and slowly lift the chest, open the heart. You may not come up this high without feeling a negative whisper in your low back, so if you do feel that whisper, just back off a little bit. Come down a bit. Take a deep breath in wherever you are. Think of opening your heart towards the front and then exhale, release. Draw the hands underneath the shoulders, curl the toes under. Inhale in. Exhale, press up to Plank or all fours, Downward Facing Dog. Press into the fingertips. Root through the index finger and thumb. Little to no pressure in the wrists. Find that hand to earth connection. Yes, then anchor the left heel, inhale lift the right leg up high. Exhale, shift it forward, step it all the way up. Back heel stays lifted or option to lower the left knee to the earth. Inhale, high lunge. Reach the fingertips forward, up and back. Take a second here to just feel it out. Lifting through the front body. Lifting your heart up towards the sky, grounding from the back body. Again, balancing that lift and that ground. Finding a place to meet in the middle, connect to your center. Balancing the sun and the moon, the masculine and the feminine. Cool, then inhale in here, lift your chest. Exhale, open it up, Warrior II, and try to lift the corners of the mouth, again just slightly, as you gaze past your right fingertips. Breathe in, relax the shoulders as you breathe out. And from here, you're gonna straighten through the front leg, inhale in. Exhale, pull the hips back, reach the right fingertips forward, Triangle Pose or Trikonasana. Left fingertips reach towards the sky or can come to the left waistline. Right fingertips to the shin, maybe to a block, or working on core activation, in time we can find a little grace and just reach the right fingertips down. Be present, find what feels good. Listen. Love the moment, love this opportunity to simply take stock, find length in the crown. Take one more breath, your full expression today, you're doing great, inhale in. Then exhale, check it out. Left hand's gonna come through, past your heart space as you bend your right knee. Then we're gonna slowly bring the left hand to the earth and find our open twist, right fingertips to the sky. Exhale back to your lunge. Hands frame the right foot. And then when you're ready, reach that left heel back. Inhale open your chest, let your heart radiate forward. Beautiful, now plant the palms, step it back, belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Up Dog. You can do a little push up in there if you like, or you can skip it altogether. Use an inhale to open your heart. Use an exhale to take it back Downward Facing Dog. Reconnect. Anchor the right heel, on your next inhale, slide the left leg up an imaginary wall. Hold on to your integrity, paying attention to all of the details as you shift forward, step it up. Option to lower the back knee or keep it lifted for high lunge. Engage the inner thighs. Move from a place of connect, so from your center, best you can we rise up, and then we take stock. Inhale lift the sternum. Lifting through the front body, grounding through the back body. Notice if you're clenching in the shoulders here. Create space, and one more breath to maybe guide your nose, look up just a bit. And then take it over to Warrior II. Back toes turn in, take a deep inhale here. Use your exhale to ground. Relax the shoulders, gaze past your left fingertips. Head over heart, heart over pelvis here. Hug the low ribs in, strong and steady. Strong and steady, if we condition the body to be strong and steady, we also condition the mind to be strong and steady. Inhale in, exhale, straighten the front leg. Breathe, as you slowly send the hips back, take your time here, and we'll tip over like a little teapot exploring Triangle. Left fingertips down, right fingertips up towards the sky, or on the waistline. Notice if you're holding your breath here. If you are let's back up off the posture a bit, find that beautiful breath. So just like we discussed in yesterday's practice, can we use this opportunity to learn, to explore, to take stock lovingly? 'Cause where you are today will not be where you are seven days from now or seven years from now. Inhale in. Exhale, right hand comes through. We bend the left knee, with control, we dial from center, our torso all the way through, and find that big open twist, left fingertips to the sky. Big breath in here. And big breath out to bring the left hand down, frame your left foot. Last call for Vinyasa, take it or leave it. So you'll plant the palms, step it back, and find your flow. Moving with your breath. Keeping soft and easy in the face. Working up a little warmth, a little Tapas, a little heat. We'll meet in Downward Facing Dog. Deep breath in. Empty it out. Bend the knees, inhale to look forward. And exhale to make your way to the top. You can do the criss-cross steps, you can do a rag doll step, step, or if you're working on a hop or a flow, take it away. When you get there, we will relax the weight of the head over. Take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. Inhale, on your next breath, find that halfway lift. Try to create a figure seven shape in the body. Imagine that number seven, so the hip crease is really pulled back here in time. And then slowly release. Great, root to rise here, spread the fingertips. Inhale reach for the sky. Anchored in love divine. Hands to heart, it's one of my favorite Carter Family songs. Pause here, try not to fidget. If you need something, if you need to do something, take it, if you don't need it, leave it. Beautiful, take one more breath here. Relax your shoulders, relax your heart. Maybe a gentle tucking of the chin here, a slight reverent bow. Mhmmm, mhmmm, soft bend in the knees, here we go. Inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, send the fingertips out left to right if you have the space. Bend the knees, lead with your heart down. Kick just the right foot back, option to lower on the right knee. You're gonna bring your left hand around to join your right hand, and we're coming into a little Lizard variation here. So we're gonna build on this in the next couple days, so you don't need to go too hard if you're kind of feeling soft and want to be more gentle, which I encourage everyone to do. But that said, if you're like, you know what, I'm feeling a lot of joy, I have a lot of energy today, pick that knee up, send your right heel back, it's all good. So wherever you are, take a deep breath in. You're gonna inhale to look forward, feel that incredible stretch in the front of the right hip crease as you let your heart energy radiate forward. Beautiful, then exhale, chin to chest. You're gonna draw the lower abdominals and the upper abdominals in towards center, as we've been doing. Twice more, inhale to open your heart. Inhale lots of love in. Exhale, lower abdominals, upper abdominals come in towards center, navel draws up. Good, one more time, inhale. Exhale, contract. (shushes) The sound effect does help, it really does. Okay from here, walk your left hand back to frame your left foot. Inhale to look forward. Exhale to step the back foot up to meet the front. Inhale, halfway lift, wash it clean. Exhale, soften and fold. Beautiful, fingertips come to the mat, we'll kick the left foot all the way back. Front knee over front ankle. When you're ready, walk the right hand over towards the left side of the mat. Again option to lower that back knee or keep it lifted. Upper arm bones rotate out as we open the heart forward. Inhale, think Upward Facing Dog here, or Cobra. Then exhale chin to chest, and on this one, go ahead and do an S-H sound with your mouth. I think that will help find that contraction as the navel draws in. (shushes) Yeah, that helps. Inhale open the chest, open your heart. Two more, exhale chin to chest, navel draws up, empty, empty, empty, S-H sound. (shushes) Hollow body through the front. Strong core. Beautiful, one more, inhale, stick with it. Exhale, last time, S-H sound out through the mouth. (shushes) Upper abdominals and lower belly coming together. (shushes) Empty, empty, empty. Good and release. Right hand comes around to frame the right foot. Last time, inhale, get light on the fingertips. Open your chest. Exhale, bend your back knee, bring it to the front of your mat. Last time, inhale halfway lift, make this one fun, maybe take some wings, fly. And exhale to let it go. Beautiful, from here fingertips are going to come to the mat. You're gonna bend your knees, lift your heels, what? Slowly lower your center down, just do your best. Come into a little ball. Okay, you can work in time to get, oh, the soles of the feet to the ground, and if you're like, "Adriene, you're crazy." I know, it is crazy. So keep your heels up. And if this isn't working for you, you can come to a seat, and come to my favorite yoga posture, which is this. Feel the upper back body stretch, inhale in. Exhale out. Now before we rise tall to stand in Mountain, I'd like to invite you to close your eyes, bow your head. Are you there? Close your eyes, bow your head, and affirm. Whisper quietly to yourself, "I love you." Don't be shy now, even if you don't believe it yet, or if you're spiraling back to that truth. Whether you're searching for that loving relationship with yourself or celebrating it today, quietly whisper, "I love you." And then once you've whispered I love you, and only once you've whispered, "I love you," we'll rise up. Anchor the feet, tuck the chin, and slowly roll to Mountain. Take what you need here, leave what you don't. Take a loving breath in. And a loving breath out. And on your next loving breath in, bring the hands together at the heart. Feel the love. Let it guide you, let it lead the way. See with eyes of love. Love, love, love, love will keep us together. Share all your favorite love quotes, love songs, stories of love down in the comments section below. And I'll see you tomorrow. Namaste. (bright music)