- Hello my friends, and welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene and today we have a really sweet, lovely little practice for when you're feeling anxiety. We've all been there, it's very natural in this crazy world we live in, to be met with feeling self-anxiousness, feeling down, blue, nervous, fear, so I find the tools of yoga, especially at home, a little goes a long way, are really helpful. So grab a pillow if you like, get into something comfy, and let's help you find what feels good with this hands-free, low-to-the-ground, chill practice. Let's get started. (mellow acoustic music) Alright, so let's start sitting on a blanket or a pillow if you have it. Let's lift the hips up a little. Now we're gonna bring the left heel in and then the right heel in. We'll bring the hands to rest gently on the tops of the knees or the thighs and we'll just take a second to close the eyes and accept where you are today. So if you've made it this far, you're in good hands. It's a quick video today, so stick with it, and give yourself permission to just really be in this moment. So here, you've landed in this shape maybe on your mat, maybe just on the ground, and you have committed to taking a little bit of time for yourself. See if we can kind of transform the energy of the body and find support. Stack the head over the heart, the heart over the pelvis, and then just take in the quality of air of the room, any noises, any sounds around you. I hear a big airplane overhead, but you might hear different things depending on where you are. Notice your soundtrack. And just accept it all, take it all in. Great, then draw the hands together at the heart. (inhales) Take a deep breath in, (exhales) deep breath out. Deep breath in, sit up nice and tall, (inhales) and exhale, bowing the head to the hands. Big stretch on the back of the neck. Big inhale in. And exhale release. Great, so, we've dropped the pen, we're here. Let's tend into it. We're going to start today with a little pranayama, a little breath practice. This is one of my faves. We have a whole video just on it, so if you really like it or it's too complicated for you and you wanna dive in, you can go check it out, it's called alternate nostril breathing, or nadi shodhana. And this is a really great breath to just kind of calm and quell and chill out any frayed nerves, that feeling you have when you're feeling like (grunts) on the edge of being depressed and anxious. You can't decide if you're like feeling really blue or really anxious. You know what I'm talking about. It's great for that. So here we go, we're gonna take whatever your primary hand is. I'm gonna use the right hand and I'm just gonna bring, so we have options here. You can bring the middle three fingers in, kinda like a hang loose thing and use the thumb and the pinky. You can also use the thumb and the ring finger. It's whatever works great for you. And again, we're not gonna really break this down too much. So you can check out that other video if you need. I'll still try to guide you and cue you in a way that feels good. So sit up nice and tall and go ahead and seal the right nostril with your thumb. Take a deep breath in through the left nostril. Pause, hold, retain the breath at the top. We switch, seal the left nostril, and then exhale out through the right. (exhaling) Deep inhale in through the right nostril. Pause, hold, retain the breath at the top as you seal and switch or switch and seal. Exhale out through the left nostril. With practice, this becomes easier. At first it can be a little complicated in the brain. Inhale deeply through the left nostril. (inhales) Retain the breath, seal and switch. Exhale out through the right nostril. (exhales) Inhale in through the right. (inhales) Pause. Seal and switch, exhale out through the left. (exhales) Smooth inhale in through the left. (inhaling) Pause, switch and seal, exhale out through the right. (exhaling) Inhale. (inhaling) When you feel like you have the hang of it, close your eyes, seal and switch, exhale. (exhales) And I'll stop cuing, just letting you move with the breath. (inhaling) (exhaling) (inhaling) (exhaling) (inhaling) (exhaling) And even it out. (inhaling) And then after you've evened it out, bring the hand down, close the eyes. And let your breath return back to its natural rhythm. Great, bat the eyelashes open, game changer. Draw the hands together at the heart. Inhale in exhale, let it go. (exhales heavily) Fingertips come to the ground. I'm so zoned out. Fingertips come to the ground and we're gonna walk it forward. Forearms might come to the ground, otherwise just nice strong hands here. Maybe relax the weight of the head down, everyone will be a little different here. Maybe you find a little sway. Send awareness to your right hip. Try to keep your tailbone, your coccyx, on your pillow or down on the ground, so not rolling up. (inhaling) (exhaling) Relax the weight of the head over. Keep going with this beautiful long, smooth, even breathing. Alright, then walk the right hand or the right elbow to the center. And on a big inhale, open up through your left arm. It doesn't have to come all the way up to the sky. If it feels good to do that, great, but it can just open up here, opening the chest and pressing into your right hand or the right forearm. You can also be here. Big breath in, expand, find expansion and then exhale, left hand replaces the right, maybe you do the form variation, and we inhale. Find expansion, breathe deep. Open through the throat chakra here, lengthen through the crown of the head. One more breath. And then release, use your fingertips to press you all the way back up, and then we'll switch the legs here. So right heel comes in, palms go together, deep breath in. Exhale. Find what feels good. Fingertips down, walking em out. Keep awareness of the coccyx, the tail, dropping down. This'll look a little different for everyone. Maybe you're here. Maybe you're here. Maybe you find a little sway. Again, find what feels good here. Send awareness to your left hip. (inhales and exhales) Nice, smooth, even breathing. (inhales and exhales) Relax the weight of the head down. (inhales) (exhales) Chilling it out, okay. Now, starting with the left arm this time, left hand or left elbow to the center line. We inhale over through the right wing. Big breaths here. You can be here or here. (exhales) Tops of the thighs grounding down here, take one more breath, find expansion. And then exhale, right hand replaces the left, same thing, we open up through the left. Awesome work, release back to center. Press into the fingertips, come all the way back up. We'll send the legs out long. Doing awesome here, so keep, you know, keep breathing deep here, stick with your breath, sending the legs out super wide. Doesn't have to be super, like, Olympic gold splits here, just creating a little bit of space. You should feel pretty stable in the base of the spine so if you need to lift up on something a little taller, please do. Tops of the thighs grounding down here. (exhales) Fingertips come to the mat, we walk it forward. So the same thing, you might just stay here, eventually drawing the chin to the chest (exhales) or you might come all the way down into the floor. (inhales) (exhales) Nice, even, smooth pranayama. Remember your alternate nostril breathing here. Take away any stress, tension, in the neck, the shoulders. Active in the feet here so you can point the toes if it feels good or flex. (inhales and exhales) Alright, then check it out. I'm gonna press up into the palms. Little thread the needle here. So right fingertips are gonna reach in and underneath the bridge of the left arm. You're not gonna go all the way to the ground, just a gentle twist here, keeping that expansion just like we did here. Big breath in, (inhales) exhale to release. (exhales) Right palm to the earth, thread the needle. Left fingertips in and underneath the bridge of the right arm. I'm relaxing, it's working. Inhale. Find expansion. (exhales) Use an exhale to bring you back. Cool, draw the left heel in. Turn your waistline so that you're pointed, you're headed toward your right foot. So there's a shift. Then inhale, reach all the way up, find the length. And think up and over as you bow down. Head-to-knee pose here, janu sirsasana, so the goal is eventually to get that nose to the knee, the head to the knee, but maybe you're here. Right? Maybe you're here. Wherever you are, draw the chin into the chest, take a moment to surrender, breathe deep. (inhales and exhales) Send breath to the lower back body and awareness. Great, and then draw the chin to the chest as you slowly roll it up. I can barely talk, it's working. Setting the left leg out. Draw the right heel in, we're almost done here, you guys doing awesome. Really commit to your breath. Take the hip so that we're pointed toward that left heel. When you're ready, soft and easy breezy, reaching it out. (inhales) And then you're taking it forward. (exhales) Close your eyes, listen to your breath. (inhales) (exhales) (inhales) (exhales) Great, inhale in. (inhales) Now you're just gonna exhale to release. Awesome work. We're just gonna bring the feet in so that we can shift now to be flat on our back. You can use the pillow as a pillow for our head. Imagine that. And we're just gonna get comfy here, feeling our spine supported here to finish. When you get there, hug the knees into the chest. Fix your pillow so it feels good. And then give yourself a great big bear hug. Walk the shoulder blades down. Should feel good, little massage, perhaps. (inhales and sighs) And then close your eyes and imagine, imagine your yoga mat rising up to meet your back body. So often, we talk about, ugh, just spilling all the weight of our body into our yoga mat. Which is great, but just close your eyes and imagine your mat rising up to meet your back body. Feel supported here. Trust that all is well, and that, especially with the tools of yoga, you have the power with your mind and your body and your breath working together consciously and lovingly, kindly, intently. You have the power to transform any negativity or anxiousness, bad juju, nervous energy. You have the tools and the power to transform it to something that feels good. Even if it's just a moment of peace, let's be real, right? Slowly release the feet down to the ground, we'll open the knees wide so the feet come together. Have your pillow here. And then we're just gonna let the hands rest gently on the fronts of the hip creases here, should feel nice. Breathing deep. (exhales) Close your eyes. (inhales) (exhales) And then, one leg at a time, slowly drawing the toes down, extending long through both legs. And then, lastly, opening the fingertips. Palms, arms, out to the sides. Feeling an opening through the chest, a softness in the belly, and the legs heavy. (exhales) Take a second to scan the body and give thanks, a moment of gratitude for you for taking this time to tend to it. The hardest part is just showing up for yourself, and you did. So, awesome work. Stay here as long as time allows. Trust the flow. Namaste. (mellow acoustic music)