- Hey everyone and welcome to your 31 Day Yoga Revolution. It's day 23, work hard, play hard. I'm proud of you for being here. Let's do this. We have a discipline practice. Let's get started. (lively orchestral music) Alright, let's begin in a comfortable seat. Sit up nice and tall. Welcome to your yoga practice. I'm so grateful that you're here and today's practice is a contemplation on discipline. So, we're going to discuss or I'll talk about this more in depth in the email that accompanies this day 23 practice, but for now let's see if we can just place this idea of discipline, self discipline in our hearts, and it's not actually there as a prompt or as an invitation to limit you, but rather to liberate you. So, especially in yoga philosophy, we look at self discipline as a invitation or a tool to actually liberate you. So again, more on that in our discussion off the mat, but let's see if we can play with that a little bit through our body and the physical practice on the mat today. So sit up nice and tall. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, let's have some fun. Deep breath in. And as you exhale, relax your shoulders. And as we've been doing, just take these first couple moments to drop the day thus far, to really take this time for yourself and trust your instincts that this is where you're supposed to be right now, okay? Sit up nice and tall, use an inhale to feel that length through the spine, and then use an exhale to just ground in this moment. Honor where you're at today, accept exactly where you're at today. Everything is as it should be. So we're gonna ease in today with a little pranayama, this is actually a little Kundalini practice to awaken the body and stimulate a little energy so that we'll have something to move through our tapas practice with, so this idea, tapas, to burn. Let's just let the body talk here. Here we go, big inhale, reach the fingertips all the way up. Palms are gonna come really wide. Stretch the hands, fingertips wide. And then you're gonna take your fingers in except for the thumbs, take them in, or whatever fingers you have, you're just gonna create a little mudra, and you can actually create a mudra of your choice here if you're not working with 10 fingers or if you're wanting to adjust this in any way, you can even take the hands here and do a mudra. But, I invite you to take the arms up and overhead if you can. I'll come to this mudra here, bringing my forefingers in and keeping the thumbs out. Soft bend in the elbows here, not locked, just soft bend. Remember that beautiful rotation that you've been working on in your practice, and depending on your energy level or how many times you take your arms up and over your head throughout the day, you might already begin to feel tired or weary here. So let's use the breath and the focus of our mind to really support this action as we inhale, lift, press your thumbs up, up, up. And exhale, ground the shoulders down. Start to focus on the sensation and become absorbed with the sound of your breath. Close your eyes here for a couple minutes. Whoa, couple moments, not minutes, don't worry. And breathe. Feel the blood flow opposite direction. Press into the thumbs. Imagine you're leaning up against a wall here. Then find places to lift and places to ground, so draw some energy up from the pelvic floor. Ground down through the tops of the thighs. You got this, one more breath cycle. Big inhale in. And long exhale out. With grace, with poise, release the fingertips nice and slow, place your hands in your lap and continue to listen to the sound of your breath. Breathe. And we take this time to become aware of how we're feeling today. And then drop your chin to your chest, feel big stretch in the back of the neck. Pull the shoulders back. See if you can anchor a little energy through the upper back body, perhaps by bringing the shoulder blades together. Pinch your pencil. And then left ear over left shoulder, keep that activation in the upper back body as you gently bring the left ear over to the left shoulder. Soft face, soft jaw. Big breath. And then slowly, mindfully, chin to chest and right ear over right shoulder. And then notice if there's any added tension here. Part of this practice is definitely noticing where we're actually creating tension, adding tension, so for me I often grip in my hip flexors, see if you can soften in the places that are gripping here. And then draw the chin to the chest and roll it up slowly. Alright, big inhale to reach the fingertips back up. Spread your palms. Spread your fingers. Press the thumbs into the earth when you're ready, so go from open palms, so lots of mindfulness, energy in the fingers, and then find your mudra. Alright, so a little Kapalabhati breath. This is a wonderful breath to kind of just jumpstart your day, give you a little extra kick of energy. It's a cleansing breath. It's a fiery breath. And so, we take a deep breath in, and on the exhale we draw the navel in firmly, fiercely, sharp. The inhale is passive. The exhale is strong. And really, it's a microcosm of the breath work we've been doing, using the inhale to find expansion and the exhale to contract and find support from within. There's a whole video on this breath, Skull Shining breath is what it translates to, which I think is awesome, rock and roll! But we'll be here for a couple minutes. Keep your arms up and overhead if you can. Find something to focus on in front of you or you can focus at the video. Sit up nice and tall and let's begin. (exhaling breaths) Try to keep your shoulders relaxed and just create movement in the belly. (exhaling breaths) Inhale is passive, exhale is sharp. Draw the navel in. (exhaling breaths) Take a deep breath in. And with grace, with control release hands, opposite hand on top if you can remember, just place the palms gently in your lap. Close your eyes. Activate the upper back body. Lift your heart. Observe your breath. Notice places where you might be gripping, holding. Soften. Wonderful, bat the eyelashes open. Let's bring the palms together, create a little heat, tapas, to burn. Create a little friction, and then take this energy, open your eyes, open your mouth, open your jaw. Stretch it out. Start to wake up the face, wake up your eyeballs, maybe take 'em a little side-to-side, up and down. ♫ Up and down Then we'll take it forward and onto all fours for Cat-Cow. Take your time getting there. See if you can move with your breath even here. When you're ready, start to fire it up. Careful not to rush. Keep it nice and integrated. Inhale, drop the belly. You know what to do here. Exhale, round through the spine. Take it a couple rounds. Trust this is where you're supposed to be. Start to create more movement up and down, through the spine. Hands are nice and stretched out on your mat. Fingertips pressing into the earth. And a couple more. And then we'll make our way to Downward Facing Dog by curling the toes under and sending the hips up high. Take a couple breaths here. You can take your dog for a little walk and then eventually come to a place of stillness. Listen to the sound of your breath. Sweet like the ocean. Upper arm bones rotate out away from the ears. Inner thighs spiral in. We lift up from the hip crease and then we anchor down through the heels. Don't worry about the heels touching the ground at all. And then just make sure the neck is integrated here. Maybe draw your nose or tuck your chin in slightly rather. One more breath. Fabulous. Then make your way to the top, nice and slow. Nice, slow movement here to start. Stretching through the backs of the legs. And we'll come to our Forward Fold where we'll take a couple fierce breaths here, letting any tension, any stress go, anything that you've been carrying perhaps on your back, let that load go. You don't need to carry that weight for the duration of our practice. Keep it light. And then when you're ready, slowly roll all the way up. And alright, and as you roll up, really press your feet into the ground, create that full body awareness, and swim the fingertips behind to interlace. Draw the knuckles down and away. Start to open up through the chest. Your pecs, your shoulders, breathe deep here, and you can find what feels good. Stay soft, so mindful in the knees, so not locked, and you can sway a little side-to-side. Maybe repeat the ear over the shoulder. Lift the toes. And then take a big breath in. And exhale to release, break free. Inhale, reach for the sky. Stretch. And exhale, Forward Fold, all the way down. Way to stick with it. Here we are, inhale. Find that halfway lift. Try to find something new here as you lengthen through the crown, pull the elbows back. And exhale, slide it back down. Inhale, reach for the sky, really feel your feet pressing into the earth. Engage the legs, all the muscles as you reach up high, and then exhale, interlace, opposite thumb behind this time. Knuckles draw down and away, title of my second book as you know. (laughs) That joke needs to die. And we open the chest and again, just find some soft, easy movement here. And make it your own. Then big inhale, press away from the earth, expand through all four sides of the torso. And exhale to break free. There's a lightness here. Inhale, reach for the sky, Volcano Pose, big, big beach ball up and overhead. Stay here for a couple breaths. Draw the shoulders down. Lift your toes. Engage. Feel the blood flow opposite direction here in the hands. Really pay attention. Try to study the sensations rather than just hit your mark. Really can you embody this shape with such self-awareness? For me discipline and awareness translate to the same thing when I'm on my yoga mat. Big breath in. Use your exhale to fold. Great work, feel the blood flow opposite direction here. And then when you're ready, inhale, lift up halfway. Awesome, exhale, soften and bow. Bring the feet together arch to arch and then slide your right foot back. Step lightly with an awareness. Back knee lowered or lifted today, yogi's choice. As you open up, just start to stretch out through the legs. So notice if the upper back body is rounded here, can you tug the shoulders back, anchor through the shoulder blades, and open the chest. Then one more big breath in here. Then exhale, plant the palms, step the left toes back to our first Plank here today. Find the integrity. Big breaths. And then slowly lower all the way down. You can lower the knees. Come all the way to the belly. Big inhale to lift your heart, pull the elbows back. And then exhale to cascade and release back down. Curl the toes under. Lift the kneecaps. Big inhale to press up to Plank. And then big exhale to send the hips up high, Downward Facing Dog. Shake the head a little loose here. Focus on the sound of your breath. Wonderful and then nice and easy, we'll step the right foot up, back knee can lower or stay lifted, and we just take a couple breaths here to warm up the legs. So stretch through those muscles. Find our alignment. Challenge the breath. And remember to allow the news from your foundation, from down below to travel all the way up to the spine, so if the spine is rounded here, loop the shoulders and see if you can create a nice, long, beautiful, open pathway from the crown to the tail, from the tail to the crown. One more big breath here, you got it. And exhale, plant the palms, step the right toes back, Plank Pose, press away from your yoga mat. Breathe deep. Inhale. Exhale, slowly lower the knees if you'd like and we're lowering all the way down to the belly. Gaze forward as you lower down. Inhale, Cobra. Exhale to release. Curl the toes under. Draw the navel up to the spine as you power up, lift the kneecaps, tone the quads. Big breath presses you up to Plank. And then exhale to your dog. Fabulous, deep breath in here. And long breath out. Inhale to look forward. Exhale, make your way to the top, Forward Fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Find a lightness in your heart here, so inflate, and then exhale to release. Inhale, root to rise. Strong energy through the fingers as you reach up towards the sky. And exhale, hands to heart. Draw it all in. Strong focus. Inhale, reach. Exhale, fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Listen to your breath. Exhale, fold. Inhale, step the right foot back. Back knee lowered or lifted. Loop the shoulders, open the chest. We're gonna come off the fingertips here for one big inhale. Inhale in. And exhale, plant the palms. Step the left toes back. Belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Up Dog. Gaze forward as you lower down. Inhale, pull the elbows back. Exhale to release. Curl the toes under. When you are ready, press up to Plank. And then Downward Facing Dog. Awesome strength, awesome focus. Stay present with your breath. Big inhale to step the right foot up all the way. Back knee lowered or lifted, yogi's choice as you loop the shoulders, look forward, open your heart. Then big inhale to lift the fingertips just for a breath. Open, inhale, squeeze the inner thighs together. Exhale, plant. Step the right foot back, creating more heat, belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Upward Dog. Take your gaze forward. Keep it there as you move with your breath, inhaling to open the chest, open the heart. And then exhale to make your way to Downward Dog. So you make it your own, of course you can do all fours in between there, Child's Pose. Just a reminder. In your Down Dog, take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. Inhale to look forward. And then exhale to make your way to the top, Forward Fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Move with your breath. Exhale to soften and bow. Root to rise, energy in the fingertips. Inhale, reach for the sky, really reach. And exhale, gather it all in, hands to heart. Deep breath in. Soft exhale out. Beautiful, inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, soften and bow. Inhale, step the right foot back. This time we're gonna pivot on the back foot and on the inhale, rise up to Warrior I. So your right toes are pointing towards the front right corner of your yoga mat or the room, and your fingertips have energy in them as they reach for the sky. Front knee over front ankle. Moving through your checklist here, lifting up, drawing the belly in. Pressing into the knife edge of that back foot. Lengthen your tailbone down. And just make sure you're not cutting off energy here, so drop the shoulders down, create space. Then definitely reside in the breath here. Drop the pose and let your breath move through the shape, whatever that means to you. Really feeling the strength, the power in that back leg. That strong bend in the front leg. The stability all the way up through the spine. And then you bring the softness as you inhale. And ground as you exhale. One more breath, feel the blood flow. Discipline practice, we got this. And exhale. Great, inhale, reach your fingertips a little higher. And exhale, hands to heart. Pivot on the back foot slowly, really slow as if you're moving through sludge or clay, and then maybe you can bend that front knee a little deeper, you come to high lunge. Feel that gorgeous stretch in the hip flexor. Lift your heart, sternum to thumbs. And breathe in here. Then on an exhale, we're gonna step the back foot up and come to a standing one-legged Tadasana. Whoa. Beautiful, inhale in. Exhale, cross the right leg over the left. Sink a little deeper in your standing leg. And maybe you wrap the toes around, maybe not. Breathe deep. Draw the navel inward and upward. So little eagle legs here. Breathing deep. Again, you decide soft hands or maybe pressing into the palms, you're in charge. Lengthen the back of the neck. Take one more breath here. Then we're gonna unravel, unravel, unravel. Come all the way back to your high lunge. Don't look back, trust. Just keep your gaze forward. The earth is there to catch you, I'll be. Inhale, reach for the sky, awesome work. Then exhale, rain it all the way back down to your lunge, back to that nice, low lunge. Inhale to look forward. Exhale, plant the palms, step the left toes back. You can move straight to Downward Dog here my friends or you move belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Up Dog, creating a little more heat. Moving with your breath. In Downward Dog, take a deep breath in. And a long breath out. And nice and easy, step the right leg all the way up. Come to a nice, low lunge. Inhale to look forward. Then exhale, pivot on the back foot. Rise up, big breath, Warrior I. Take your time to get situated here. Find nice, strong foundation. Stay focused on the situation. So, there's an expression, the mat is a mirror. Stay focused on what's going on here. What is going on between the four corners of your yoga mat? Stay present. Press into the knife edge of that back foot. Lengthen tailbone down. Do your best, stick with your breath. And then remember to create a little bit of spaciousness here, so open the chest, drop the shoulders, maybe imagine you're carrying a big beach ball here. Then feel the blood flow all the way down, marrying the stability and the ease, the strength and the grace. Take one more breath cycle in and out. Then inhale, reach the fingertips even higher, and then exhale, hands to the heart, namaste. And slow and steady, try to move from your center, so rather than isolating that back foot, your navel's gonna draw in and that's what cues, ah, that left foot to pivot. Sink a little deeper into your front leg, lift your heart. Again marrying the effort and the ease here. Stay focused, stay calm. Inhale, lift the sternum to the thumbs. Grow longer in the torso. And then soften that back leg and here we go, standing one-legged Tadasana. Hold onto your focus and let's play. We lift up. Strong in the standing leg, so standing leg pushes away from the earth and we use our light practice to find a buoyancy with every inhale. And you can stay playing here or we'll cross the left leg over the right and begin to sink a little lower in the standing leg. Can also wrap that foot around, Garudasana legs. And just play here. Zipping up through the front. Grounding through the back. Party in the front, oh, it's business in the front. Party in the back. I'm party in the front, business in the back. Lift the sternums. Sternum, not sternums. (laughs) Breathe. And then keep your gaze forward. Keep your breath really buoyant and let's unravel and send those toes back without looking, just trust that the ground is there to catch you. Come back to your nice, high lunge. Wow, beautiful, step nice and light. Find that buoyancy here. Big breath. Reach for the sky. Exhale, rain it all the way down to your nice, low lunge. Inhale, let your heart radiate forward. Exhale, plant the palms, let's get strong. Belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Up Dog. Move with your breath. Be present, be kind to your shoulders. Use your exhale to make your way to Child's Pose or to Down Dog for three full breaths. Listen to them, count them out. Awesome work today. Way to show up for yourself. I'm serious, it's so amazing, so amazing. So good. Alright, if you're in Child's Pose, make your way to Down Dog, and we'll bend the knees, everybody inhale, look forward. And exhale, make your way to the tippy top. This time bend your knees so much so that your belly comes to the tops of the thighs. Send the hips back. And then inhale, sweep the fingertips forward. Big beach ball up and overhead, Utkatasana. (laughs) I'm sorry, Utkatasana. Every time I say that, it sounds so Southern, Utkatasana. Lengthen the tailbone down, open the chest. Okay, check it out, big inhale. Exhale, send the fingertips back and lift your heels. Draw the navel, belly up, up, up. Drinking bird. Reach the fingertips back, crown of the head reaches forward, see if you can sink a little lower. Awesome, lower the heels. Inhale, reach for the sky all the way up, oh yeah. Big inhale here. Open your chest. And then exhale, lengthen tailbone down. Gather it all in. Fabulous work. Deep breath in. Close your eyes. As you breathe out, just observe your breath. Observe the energy of the body. And delight in the awareness that we cultivate through something as simple as what we're doing on our mat together, movement, presence. Lightness. Stability. Strength. Honor. Open your eyes, inhale, reach for the sky, keep it soft and easy here. Exhale, Forward Fold. Inhale, halfway lift. Exhale, soften and bow. Bend the knees. Plant the palms. Step or hop it back to Plank. Press away from your yoga mat. Then here we go, inhale, lift the right leg up. Lift the right leg up. Option here to lift the left fingertips. Reach the left fingertips forward. Breathe, we're here for five. Reach. Four. Three, you got this. Breathe, two. And one to release. Going right onto the next. If you need to take a little break, come to your knees in between. Otherwise, here we go, all the way up. This is it, after this, we cool down. Send the left leg out. Work here, lifting from the left inner thigh. Or reach the right fingertips forward, and we're here for five. Four. Three. Two, reach, reach, reach. And one. Awesome, release. Notice the heat. Bring the knees together or come to sit on your bum. We're just gonna come to a nice comfortable seat here. Palms face up. Activate the upper back body and lift your heart. And then close your eyes so you can really pay attention to what's going on. And if nothing's going on, just pay attention to anything that's going on. Observe your breath. Any heat you created in the body. Any thoughts that have come up. So the practice of discipline to me, for me, wears many masks. (laughs) Many costumes. But then so do I. I'm a multifaceted human being as are you. And so my needs change from day to day. And so hopefully this conversation and this whole journey will inspire you to really focus on the discipline of being present and having awareness. For me, people ask me all the time, what other workouts do you do, how do you eat? And I'm like, "Well tons of different things actually, "but the one thing that's consistent is my yoga," and that is because that is the one thing that keeps me really present with what's going on in my body and what I need, and keeps me returning to whatever practice with a joy and a real presence, so I never get injured. I rarely get sick. And most days, not every day, when I look in the mirror, I don't want to punch the mirror. (laughs) 'Tis life. If you haven't already, open your eyes, and we're just gonna take a counter twist, so if you're in a cross-legged seat, great, if you're on your knees, fab, you're just gonna turn to the left, keep your spine nice and lifted and tall. Again, no forcing, no punching the mirror here just sit up nice and tall. Engage. Engage. Chk-chk-chk-chk-chk, engage! Take a deep breath in. And then exhale, float through center and to the other side. And inhale in. And exhale, release. Breaking the wall here. This is really special because this came from Nicaragua on our first Find What Feels Good Retreat. I gave everyone that. I put it in front of them when they woke up from their nature meditation. And that's what I'm talkin' about. Okay, if you're on your knees, then you might wanna come to cross-legged here. If you're in cross-legged, then way to be ahead of the curve. Just wanna come into a nice comfortable seat. We're gonna end our practice today in the Meditation Pose, so actually if there's anything you're craving here, if you need to stretch the legs out, windshield wiper side-to-side, a quick Tootsie Roll, whatever you need. And we'll come to sit up nice and tall. And so the ancient yogis, our original teachers and gurus use the Hatha Yoga Practice or the Yoga Asana as a tool to of course, be present for meditation, so that they could sit for long periods of time. So we're only gonna be here for about an hour, no I'm just kidding. (laughs) But we're just gonna end our practice in Meditation Pose, yes to get a little flavor, but just to kind of honor that practice and to also remind you that you don't have to be an ancient yogi or any certain type of person or live a certain way to be able to access this awareness, this powerful discipline of yoga or meditation, and it doesn't even have to look like Yoga Revolution or any other thing, it can be something that you find you really can be alive in and aware of yourself in. And, of course I'm biased, but I feel like we can take the practice of yoga into any other workout, into any HIIT workout, into any run, into any dance class, into any diaper changing and really end up a happier, healthier person. So sit up nice and tall as I'm sure you are already and I'm just trying to give us some stuff to think about so that it's more than just the, you know, really get your money's worth here. Of course it's a free programs, so, but your soul money, spirit money. Yes, money is energy. Sit up nice and tall any which way, and we'll just take a couple beats here to notice how you feel and to let the breath soften. Let your natural breath, the natural ebb and flow return. And whatever this means to you, I'd love for you to just own this moment, so there might be children around, there might be things going on, maybe you gotta giddy up and go to work, but for one more beat here can you close your eyes or you can keep your eyes open, and just embody what it feels like to just own this moment, own this practice, this discipline as your own. Perfect, draw the palms together at your heart. You rock. That's my version of a power pose. So amazing. Thanks so much for being on this journey with me. I'll see you tomorrow. We have an awesome, awesome sequence of practices coming up for our final week, almost final week here in the Yoga Revolution. So thank you so much. The light in me bows to the light in you. I'll see you mañana. Namaste. (lively orchestral music)