(birds, insects chirping) (Adriene gasps) - Hey, everyone. Welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene. And today, we have yoga for when you are scared. So hop into something comfy, and let's get started. (birds, insects chirping) Alright, and here we are. Thank you for selecting this practice. You are not alone. We're gonna begin laying down. Let's join Benji here. Come on down to the ground. Lay down on your back. Extend thine limbs out long. And I promise I'm not gonna talk like that the whole practice. Extend your legs out. Just relax your arms. And essentially, we're starting in the corpse posture today, Shavasana, just taking a moment to relax the weight of our body completely and fully into the earth. A moment of pause. An opportunity for a gentle surrender. If you've come to this practice for preventative care, just to nurture the nervous system, that's great. And if this practice finds you in survival mode, I got your back. And Benji does too. So close your eyes, and together we'll begin to bring our awareness to our breath. And just allow your awareness, this mindfulness of the way you're breathing, to be what inspires maybe a deeper breath. But you don't have to force it, so just by bringing awareness to your breath, it will start to change naturally. But you don't have to force it. Then notice where your thoughts go here. Wherever the mind has wandered here, that's okay. Just acknowledge those thoughts, and then let's use this awareness of our breath to kind of just circle back to this present moment, which is really a gift, a green light, a possibility, an opportunity to kind of get off the hamster wheel and just find a little peace. Even if it's just a little. Soothing nerves. Quelling worry. Let this practice be easy and comforting. Give yourself just this time and space to simply be present. Not in the future, not in the past, but just here. Right now. Take a deep breath in and start to wiggle the fingers and toes. As you exhale, you can bat the eyelashes open and just walk the heels together. We'll draw the right knee up into the chest, wrap the fingers or the arms around your right shin, and you're just gonna rotate your right ankle one way and then the other. Inhale in deeply. As you exhale, peel your head, your chest up. Think about reaching your nose towards your knee. And then release it slowly and switch. Extend through the right leg. Squeeze the left knee up, in towards the chest. Rotate the right, excuse me, left ankle one way and then the other. And then inhale in deeply. As you exhale, gently lift the head. Keep the shoulders relaxed here. You're reaching your nose towards your knee, and then release. Now bring the right knee up to join the left here and your head's relaxed on the ground. You're just gonna hug the knees into the chest, and gently rock a little side to side. Part your lips, relax your jaw. Think about crawling your shoulders down, away from your ears. Feel your back supported here. The earth rising up to support you. This practice, literally having your back in this moment. Just take a breath in. And big exhale out. Beautiful. Bring the left foot down. Cross the right ankle over the top of the left thigh. Thread the needle, so lift your left knee. Interlace the fingertips behind your left thigh. Breathe deep here. Keeping that left foot active. You might rock gently, side to side here, if it feels good. Inhale in. Exhale again, lift the head. And reach the nose towards the calf or the ankle here. Breathe in. And breathe out to release. Then we'll switch. Finding that figure four on the other side. You can rock gently, side to side, if that feels right. Just feel your spine supported here, shoulders relaxed. Lots of emotion in the hips. Just lots of feelings in the body, right? Low back, the belly. So breathe deep. Inhale in. Exhale, lift the head. Nose reaches towards the calf. And then exhale to release. Walk the feet now is wide as your yoga mat. Bring the knees in to touch. Bring the hands now to your belly. And as you inhale, fill the belly with air. Feel the hands rise as you breathe in, big diaphragmatic breath. And then fall as you breathe out. So now we're starting to get a little more specific with the breath. A little more intentional. Inhale, imagining a big balloon in your belly as you breathe in. And exhale, it softens and releases as you breathe out. Give it a couple of goes here. So now we're gonna keep the belly breath, but we're gonna add another part. So extending the inhale, you're gonna inhale, fill the belly, the low belly with breath. And then you're gonna keep inhaling in as you fill the chest, the upper back with air, and then you'll empty it all out. Let's give it a try. So here we go, inhaling deeply. First, fill the belly. Feel it expand. And then the chest, upper back. Good, and then exhale, let everything go. Let's try that again. Two-part breath. Inhale, fill the belly. Keep breathing in, keep breathing in. Fill the chest. Full exhale. Inhale, fill the belly. Fill the chest. Upper back. And full exhale. Now you can close your eyes or soften your gaze here. We're gonna do two more. Inhale belly. Chest, upper back. Full exhale. Last one. Inhale, belly. Chest and upper back. And empty it out. Allow your hands to open here. Rest the arms gently at your side. And you're gonna rock the head a little side to side, ear to ear, just massaging the back of the head. Getting a nice, passive stretch in the neck. And then bring it back to center. We'll hug the knees up into the chest, and you can rock and roll up and down the length of your spine, or if it feels more appropriate today, to turn and take a little moment in fetal position, do that. We're gonna transition all the way up to a nice, cross-legged seat. We'll bring the hands to the knees here. And right away, we're gonna move in a circle. So we're gonna inhale, smooth the heart, the chest forward. Exhale, round the spine, think Cat Pose. And then keep it going. Inhale, smooth it forward. And exhale around and back. Now, close your eyes. If you feel comfortable or soften your gaze and just go inward here as you move with your breath, perhaps inhaling as you come forward, and exhaling as you come around and back. Or you can just sync up with your own rhythm, finding your own conscious breath pattern here. And then reversing the circle. And then releasing that movement and coming into a moment of exquisite stillness, with your head and your heart and your pelvis all stacked in one line. Now notice if you might be a little collapsed in the chest area or the heart. If you are, you're not alone. Let's just give a gentle lift of the chest here. Relaxing the shoulders down. Beautiful, from here, we'll open the eyes and we're gonna take the hands, and we're gonna create like a V with the index finger and middle finger. And we're gonna bring them right to the ear here, right where the earlobe and jaw are. And we're gonna give a little massage up through the ear and then down to the jawline. Up through the ear and down to the jawline. And you can part the lips again, relax your jaw. Just a gentle massage here. Encouraging healthy, lymphatic flow. And if you'd like, you can start to maybe draw it all the way down to the collarbone. Just like so. You don't have to press super hard here unless you're going for a nice massage. Great, and then we're just gonna shake the hands a little bit, let it go. Good, and then we're gonna take the left hand to the right knee, right? Right fingertips behind, just a nice, easy twist to the right. Deep breath in. Long breath out. Again, deep breath in. And a really long breath out. And one more inhale in, lift your chest. Exhale, twist. And nice and easy, back through center and over to the other side. Inhale. Exhale, empty. Inhale in. Exhale fully. Deep breath in. And exhale, twist. Beautiful, bring the palms together at center. You're gonna take a deep breath in here. Exhale out through the mouth. Inhale deeply, slow it down. And exhale fully. Great, now we're gonna do a little box breath. So you're gonna inhale for four. Then you'll retain the breath for four. Then you'll exhale for four. And then we'll, on the exhale, keep it empty as you count to four and then we'll begin again. I'll count us through, so here we go. Just one breath to get on the same page. Inhale in. Empty it out. And we'll inhale on one, two, three, four, pause. Hold the breath for one, two, three, four. And empty one, two, three, four. Hold one, two, three, four. Big inhale, one, two, three, four, pause. Keep the shoulders relaxed for one, two, three, four. And exhale one, two, three, four. Empty and hold one, two, three, four. Big buoyant inhale one, two, three, four. Pause for one, two, three, four. Empty one, two, three, four. Hold for one, two, three, four. Last time, inhale, one, two, three, four. Hold one, two, three, four. Exhale one, two, three, four, and release. Inhale, nice and easy. And exhale to let it go. Release the palms, we're gonna come forward onto all fours. You're gonna walk the hands out, curl the toes under, and we're just gonna move the hips a little easy, side to side. Just a little somatic movement here. Finding what feels good. You might send the hips all the way back. Stretch the feet. You might bump the hips to the right, to the left. If you want to sneak in a Cat-Cow, you can. And find your breath again. And then send the hips up high in the back, Downward Facing Dog. And find what feels good here. Breathe deep, head is now below the hips, below the heart. We're reaching through the fingertips. And then from here, we're gonna lower the knees back down to the ground, bring the right hand over to meet the left, and then we're gonna lift the right foot all the way up towards the top edge of the mat. So we're in a little Lizard variation here. Now pull the right hip crease back and we're gonna turn the right toes out just a little bit. We're breathing deep. If you want a little more here, you can walk the left knee back just an inch. Good, inhale in, look forward. Exhale, relax the shoulders away from the ears. Skin of the face is nice and soft and easy here. Not clenching. Alright. Now inhale in here. As you exhale, lift the left knee and reach the left heel back. Breathe deep here. Find that two-part breath. If you like, think about breathing nice, wide, lateral breaths. So into the side bodies, side body. Beautiful, now lower that left knee. You're gonna take the left toes and just turn it to the right side of your yoga mat. Walk your right foot in just a little bit here, and we'll bring the left hand to the low back as you open up through the chest. Deep breath in. And long breath out. And then nice and easy release. Come back to your nice, low lunge. We'll bring the right foot back in the space. Walk the hands back out and send the hips up high, Downward Facing Dog. Nice cleansing breath here. Inhale in deeply. Exhale, let go. Let it go. Then slowly lower the knees back to the earth. Left hand comes over to meet the right. Left foot comes up to the top edge of your mat. Make any little adjustments here so you feel good in your foundation. Front knee over front ankle. Maybe walk that right knee back an inch. Turn the left toes out. Pull the left hip crease back in space just a bit. And inhale, look forward, open the chest. Nice, wide breaths here. And then inhale in deeply. As you exhale, lift the right knee, reach the right heel back. Really reach, reach, reach. Deepen your breath. That's right, lean in. Mmm. And then we'll slowly lower the right knee. Send the right toes towards the left side of your mat. Walk your left knee back into center, towards the left hand. And you can really press your left elbow and your, excuse me, your, yeah, your left elbow and your left leg in towards each other as we take the right hand to the low back. Spiral your heart up towards the sky. Big inhale. And exhale. Let's slowly release. We'll come back to Downward Dog for just a breath more. So hips up high and back. Claw through their fingertips. Inhale in. And exhale out through the mouth. Beautiful, slowly lower to the knees. Bring the toes to touch, knees as wide as the yoga mat. Melt your heart down and come into Child's Pose. Forehead comes to the mat, close your eyes, and listen to the sound of your breath here. Nice and easy. Nice, slow, calm breath. Each breath in inviting in a sense of peace and of calm. And each breath out, a release, welcoming in relaxation. Take one more deep breath in here. And as you exhale, slowly rise up. Then we'll walk the knees together and we'll send the legs to one side. Then we'll come through to extend the legs out in front. Last bit here. We're gonna just do spider fingers all the way out to touch the shins, the ankles, or the toes. And then you can bend your knees. As you inhale, lift your chest. Let your front body, your belly really, get long. And then exhale. Allow the front body to drape over, finding your version of a seated Forward Fold. So rounding through the spine is okay here today. A lot of times, we talk about keeping flat back. I think you can just go ahead and allow yourself to round forward, as long as you're breathing that nice, wide breath here. Nice and slow. Feeling the sensation of the skin on your back, stretching as you inhale. And honoring the softening that can happen when you exhale and let go. Inhale, find expansion. Exhale, release. Then slowly, we'll begin to tuck the chin into the chest and roll it up. We'll come to lie flat on the back. One more time, hug the knees into the chest. Then we're gonna take the hands down at the sides, and we're gonna bring the feet to the mat. And you're just gonna give yourself a little bit of tap of the toes, but really give it a good tap unless you have downstairs neighbors then maybe omit this part. But you're tapping, you're tapping. Maybe you do the whole foot. Tapping the soles of the feet for five, four, three, two, and on the one, open the knees wide. Soles of the feet come together. Bring your left hand to your heart, right hand to your belly, take a deep breath in. And a long, slow breath out. Again, inhale in. Long, slow release. Bring the fingertips to the outer edges of the thighs. Now walk the knees in and once again, feet towards the outer edge of the mat. Bring the hands to rest on the low ribs. And you're just gonna take the knees over towards the right, but keep the feet where they are. If you like, you can cross the left ankle over the top. Excuse me, right ankle over the top of the left thigh. Breathe in. Nice, breathe out. Hopefully by now, you're really catching some nice, long, soulful breaths. If not, it's never too late. How about now? Let's bring the knees over to the left. Can cross the left ankle over the right. Left ankle over the top of the right thigh. And then release. Extend the legs out long. Allow the hands to rest in a comfortable position. Either gently at your sides, maybe resting on your belly is very comforting. Or even interlacing the fingertips. Bring 'em behind the head, elbows wide. Find what feels good for you today. And we'll come into stillness. And notice any sounds that may be a part of your soundscape here. Today, your setting, your scene. And then bring your attention back to your breath. The sound of your breath. And how short or how long your inhales are, your exhales. And know that this is always available to you to hear loud and clear what is going on in the world. To experience the sounds and the noise in the world, in your world, in your scene. And it's always available to you to pause and come and just start by noticing your breath. How long the inhales are, how long the exhales are. Noticing the quality of your breathing. And that's all you have to do, is come to that moment. And from there, I believe you might keep going. One deep breath leading to another to another. But often, it's hard to remember that that's even there for us. It's quite remarkable, isn't it? So cheers to us for taking time to remember. And cheers to you for sharing your valuable time and energy with Benji and I here today, and all of the beautiful people practicing together. I do believe that this practice is special. It's a reminder that we're not alone, and that even when we feel alone or isolated at home, we are connected and we're all in this together. Take good care of yourself. I love you guys. Bring the palms up to the forehead here. Thumbs to the third eye. Let's just take one more breath in. Altogether, inhale in deeply. And long exhale. Namaste. (upbeat music)