- Hi everyone. 
Welcome to Yoga With Adriene.

I'm Adriene and this is Benji
and today we have a beautiful

meditation for mental 
balance and grounding.

So grab something 
to sit on if you like.

Hop into something extra 
comfy and let's get started.

(bright music)

Alright, welcome 
my darling friends.

We're going to begin, surprise,

our practice today in
a comfortable seat.

So take your time.

Just notice if you're kind 
of rushing right now here

and let's start to slow 
it down as you come into

a nice cross-legged seat.

And I will encourage you,
particularly if you're new to

sitting (chuckles) in a
meditation to lift your hips up

either on a couch pillow
or if you have a bolster, great.

You can fold up some blankets

or some towels 
are just fine too.

And get to where your hips are

a little bit higher 
than your knees

so you can create 
these two slides

of the thighs down.

And as you start to 
get settled in here,

just start to tap into 
that inner smile as

much as you're willing.

This is my power tool, my secret
weapon that I often talk about

so it's not so secret, but just
as you settle in you can start

to kind of feel the benefits of
this time that you're taking for

yourself by softening and, yeah,
tapping into that inner smile.

It can be like, 
"I'm doing this."

Or, "Oh my god, I need this."

Whatever it is just tap into

a little joy that you're taking

this short but 
valuable time for yourself.

Benji's relaxed.

If you're not relaxed, we'll
get you there or we'll try.

Hopefully by now 
you're in your seat.

Getting settled in.

And if you are

working with your 
back right now,

we'll say that, feel free 
to sit up against a wall

or you can even 
do this in a chair.

You just want to make sure that
your spine is nice and long.

And on that note, 
let's take a moment here

to gently tuck the chin.

And bring more 
awareness to the spine.

So that could 
be sitting up tall.

It could just be 
noticing your pattern.

Again, just gently 
tucking the chin.

Feeling that length as you do
so through the back of the neck.

And best you can bringing
more awareness to your spine.

And if you haven't already,
allow your hands to soften,

fingertips to soften just
wherever feels good and then as

I often invite you to do 
in practice same thing here.

Just notice what 
feels good today.

Whether you need a
more grounding palm. Right?

Energetically, I'm here.

(exhales) "I'm doing this.
I need to breathe.

"I need this time for myself."

Or maybe you're feeling 
pretty good and this is more

preventative care today.

So open those palms up baby.

Allow yourself to be a
little more vulnerable, open.

So, both are vulnerable, 
but you get to decide.

And really we're connecting
the brain to the body here.

So there's so much that goes
into these little gestures and

making decisions for yourself.

If you know a mudra you
want to take it now, please do.

And then if you haven't 
already, close your eyes.

Allow your eyelids 
to get heavy here.

And if for whatever reason
you're not comfortable with the

eyelids closed, just soften your
gaze gently down past your nose.

(light music)

Alrighty and we've begun.

Chin slightly tucked.

Neck long.

Hands, arms, carefully placed.

Fingers soft.

Let's start by noticing 
any sounds around us.

Wherever you may be today.

Or maybe you're relishing,

silence.

As we start to settle 
in and ground down,

allow any extra 
movement, patterns,

just fidgeting, see if you
can allow them to soften as you

build a little structure 
for your mediation here.

In time finding stillness

with more ease and being kind if

you're noticing a lot 
of fidgeting or patterns.

No worries.
That's why we're here.

To observe.

With kindness.

To welcome balance 
and clarity to both

the mental and emotional self.

Now most of you have already
likely begun to notice your

breath but if not allow me
to roll out the red carpet,

to bring

fresh picked flowers 
to your doorstep

and welcome you to

just notice with a loving
kindness your natural breath.

And as you begin to notice the
rhythm of your natural breath

today, see if you can 
take it one step further.

Inviting the mind 
to also notice what

the breath does to the body.

As you breathe in and out.

Notice, if you can, 
what parts of the body

move as you breathe in.

And see if you can 
notice how gravity tends to

take over as you breathe out.

So we have this sense
of a rise and a fall,

nice and easy, nothing forced.

Just noticing what 
moves as you breathe in.

And embracing the 
gravity as you breathe out.

Now you can keep going just 
as is or I'll bring another

fresh bouquet to your 
door and invite you to

deepen the breath just a bit.

Bringing more consciousness,

more loving awareness 
to that inhale

and watching the
ripple effect as you breathe in.

And using that 
exhale to ground down.

Relax the shoulders.
Relax your jaw.

Allowing your inhale perhaps

to be a 
little deeper, more full.

And perhaps, when you're ready,

allowing your 
exhale to be longer.

Think of it as a 
beautiful extension.

Breathing out as you 
ground down, down, down.

Now go ahead and let your nice
conscious deep breaths rest.

Return to just a nice, easy,
natural rhythm and flow.

With so much love and
a gentle, just gentleness,

see if you can reestablish
this awareness in your spine

by maybe lifting your heart,

gently sitting up 
a little bit taller.

And you might feel, if
you're doing this with your

eyes closed, as though 
you grow a little bit longer

and taller in the spine.

And as you rest 
easy here in your seat,

soften the skin of the forehead,
relax the jaw and again use a

gentle exhale to 
relax the shoulders down.

You're more than 
halfway through your mediation.

So as thoughts 
come to your mind,

to your soul, just acknowledge
them and come back

to a loving 
awareness of your breath.

So beginning to deepen 
the breath a little bit.

Again here, see if you can find
something new as you breathe in.

Embracing gravity 
as you breathe out.

And now one final invitation.

As you continue to 
breathe and lean into

the dance of feeling

the inhale lift you, a rise.

And feeling the 
exhale ground you,

the fall of the breath.

As you lean into 
that balance of the two,

I lovingly invite you to just
bring your mind's eye to

the tip top crown of your head.

Place your attention there.

And then imagine,

head over heart,
heart over pelvis.

Then from the crown tip top
of your head in your own way,

whatever this means to you,

draw a line

from the top of your head

down through the center 
core channel of your being,

all the way to 
the base of the spine.

So we've placed a light rope

or pipeline,

a cylinder,

whatever it is for you,

this awareness from 
the crown of the head

to the base of the spine.

And see if you 
can allow that action,

that awareness, to affect your
breath or to at least notice if

it changed the way your holding

yourself up here 
with each inhale.

And the way you're 
using your exhale to

continuously ground down.

And for the last minute here,
we'll take that line from the

crown to the base of the 
spine and just hang with me,

my friends, 
continue that line down.

Past your physical body,
down into the earth.

Continue that line down

to the core of the earth.

And then notice how 
that makes you feel.

Notice if, and it may not, 
if that effects the way you

carry yourself here, 
the way you breathe in

and the way you breathe out.

Now take three 
final conscious breaths.

Finding balance

and a sense of calm or peace

between the dance
of the rise and the fall.

The lift and the ground.

The earth and the sky.

Then release your 
conscious breaths.

Rest easy here as you slowly
drop your chin to your chest.

Try to keep the 
shoulders relaxed here

as you gently open your eyes.

Can flutter the eyelashes open.

And when you're ready,
gently lift your head.

Cue the birds outside my window.

We'll bring the palms together.

Just take one quiet little beat
here to notice how you feel.

And we'll close it off by
bowing together and whispering,

Namaste.

(bright music)