- Hello my sweet friends. Welcome to Yoga With Adriene.
I'm Adriene. Today we have a very special practice for the new moon.
So this is a blend of Hatha Yoga stretching
with meditation and breathwork and
a wonderful opportunity to check in with yourself before
the next cycle of whatever's to come.
So hop into something extra comfy.
If you have a blanket, bring it.
If you have a block, bring it.
But if you don't have these things,
you'll still be able to participate
and receive nourishment from this practice.
Let's get started.
(upbeat music)
Alright, we're gonna begin in a fetal position on either side,
the left or the right. You get to choose.
So, come on down to the ground, take your time.
And you're gonna use your bottom arm as a pillow here.
And if you brought some props,
you can start to utilize them now,
but we're not gonna be here too long
so I think using your bottom arm as a pillow,
top arm can rest in front of you, on your body,
whatever feels good. Bend your knees.
And let's dive in to this sweet,
nourishing, I hope, practice for you.
I'm honored to share it with you.
So close your eyes if you feel comfortable
or you can just start to look away from the video
and soften your gaze down gently past your nose.
Either one just coming into
this internal space,
which is where we're going to be
invited to connect and play with today.
There are other periods in the moon cycle
where we are more
externally focused,
such as the full moon, perhaps.
And in this stage,
we give ourselves the opportunity to get quieter,
to find stillness.
Maybe inviting in a sense of
feeling safe
exactly where we are.
So we're starting in this fetal position.
The image of being in the womb.
So you can get comfortable here
as we start to tap into just our regular,
natural, whatever's happening right now,
rhythm of the breath.
Letting go of the day thus far.
And just acknowledging how you feel in this moment.
And then the biggest invitation of the day's practice is to
be open. Set intentions to focus
more on the curiosity
than the expectation.
As we enter new seasons of our life,
as we enter new cycles,
as we are with every new moon,
can we stay more open
to the curiosities of our life rather
than these fixed points of expectation?
Okay.
Let's take a deep breath in together
and use the exhale out together to take the top hand
and press into the earth and slowly with as much ease.
So try not to make it clunky as
you move in and out of things here today.
Just let that be part of the practice.
We'll slowly come up to a cross-legged seat.
And this is where you can start to recruit
a blanket or a block if you like.
Nice, and the legs are crossed here in any way that feels good.
I'm gonna bring the palms together,
start to rub them together as you sit up nice and tall.
And I'm definitely planning to invite you to keep a soft gaze
or even the eyes closed down for the duration of this practice
and allowing just the sound of my voice to guide you.
So I'll try to guide you in that way,
while still being mindful, of course,
of giving you quiet space and moments of silence.
Okey-doke, we're gonna take the palms here
and we'll start to pick up the pace just a little bit.
Creating some warmth, some heat.
And then we're actually gonna bring them over the eyes.
So bring it over the eyes today here.
And we'll start to invite some lateral breaths in.
And those are just wide breaths
where you feel all four sides of the torso,
like this 360 breath.
As you breathe in it expands, as you breathe out it softens.
Give it a try, big 360 breath.
And then slowly let your fingertips be light on your face
and if you're comfortable you're gonna just allow the
soft touch of your own fingers to fall down your face
and down your neck and to your shoulders.
Yay.
And we're gonna open up through the chest here,
drawing the shoulder blades together,
elbows back, big breath in.
And then coming in, back into our love cave,
back into the womb,
back into this quiet dark space.
You're gonna round the spine,
chin to chest, elbows, maybe kiss together,
they come forward.
And then we repeat, inhale, we open.
And exhale, we close.
And this is the rhythm, inhale, opening the wings.
Think Cow Pose here in the spine.
And then exhale, we round.
You can think Cat Pose here in the spine.
And try to sync up with an audible breath here.
Moving slowly.
Check in with the pelvis, the hips.
Check in with the heart, the neck.
And do one more round.
And then we'll release.
Send the fingertips out left to right.
Crown of the head reaches
all the way up towards the sky.
Heart is open, chest lifts.
Just pause here and breathe.
Nowhere to go, nowhere to be,
just in this present moment, observing.
Allowing for some quiet space.
Nice, and slowly we'll transition to all fours,
really slow.
Gonna come into a little Tabletop position.
And when you get there, we're gonna curl the toes under
and send the hips towards the heels.
Stretching through the feet.
Breathe.
Sphinx Pose.
Sliding the hands forward, dropping the elbows,
slowly extending one leg and
then the other as you come into your Sphinx Pose.
Pressing into the tops of the feet.
Pressing pubic bone into the earth
and growing tall from your foundation here,
lengthening through the crown.
Now careful not to crunch the back of the neck here.
So tuck the chin.
Keep that length.
And we get to press into our
foundation here to open the heart.
We might draw a line with the nose
towards the right shoulder.
And then coming back through center,
we might take it to the left.
And then come to center,
take another cycle of breath or two here.
Beautiful.
From here, keep the hands, the forearms,
and the elbows where they are.
You're gonna curl the toes under.
Use your core strength to lift
the hips up high and come into Puppy Pose.
So we come onto the knees.
We walk it back so that the
heart starts to melt to the earth.
Maybe the forehead comes to the mat or you can grab a blanket
or a block here to rest the forehead on.
And we come into this cave here,
this quiet
darkness and not to say dark energy,
just this closing down,
this coming, traveling inward.
The removal of all the distractions.
And then press into the palms,
connect to your core to come all the way back up
to Tabletop Position where we'll
take it from our Puppy Pose into a Downward Facing Dog.
So hips up high and back.
You can find some soft, easy movement here if it feels good.
If you're wearing a baggy shirt,
you get a little new moon practice bonus
by coming into a little cave here.
I love it. I'll take it.
Breathe.
And then slow descend of the knees to kiss the earth.
We'll swing the legs to one side, any side,
and send the legs out long.
Great moment to sit up on a blanket or a block here
as we prepare for Paschimottanasana,
Seated Forward Fold.
So you can lift the hips up a little bit if you like.
Inhale, reach the fingertips all the way towards the sky.
Exhale, soften through the knees
as you send the heart forward and we can relax the
weight of the head down here for three cycles of breath.
Maybe bringing back that 360 breath here.
After three breaths, tuck your chin to your chest,
navel to spine and we'll roll it up slowly.
Capturing the right knee,
bringing the right foot to the earth.
You have a couple options here.
You can hook the left elbow to the right knee,
sit up nice and tall.
Right fingertips come behind, option one.
Option two, take the outer edge
of your left elbow to the outer edge of your right knee.
Right fingertips behind, we sit up nice and tall.
Breathe deep.
Maybe closing the eyes for a moment to imagine
this energetic channel,
this line of the spine.
And then we'll come through center
and take it to the other side.
Bend the left knee.
And you have two options here for your twist.
Again, just inviting the
inward attention,
finding an opportunity here to focus on
what's happening inside.
Thinking about the spine,
your organs here.
Breathing wide into the torso.
Observing any sensation that comes.
Taking stock, alright, release.
Soles of the feet come together for Baddha Konasana.
Benji does a great big stretch here as well.
Sit up nice and tall.
And we breathe here. You can use your thumbs to give
yourself a little massage in the ankles,
the achilles, or even the arches of the feet
if that feels good.
Lovely.
And then we'll release this and
we're gonna come back to lying down.
But this time we're gonna come on our backs.
Just have your block handy.
Hey buddy. (kisses Benji)
Thanks for being here.
We're gonna bend the knees, come to the back
and prepare for Setu Bandhasana, a little Bridge Pose.
So palms are on the ground here to start again.
If you have your block close, that would be delightful.
And when you're ready,
we're gonna start peeling up through the tailbone,
one vertebra at a time, lifting the hips up high.
All the way to the sky, taking a breath in and
then slowly lowering them all the way down.
And again with your breath,
inhaling to slowly lift the hips up high.
(chuckles at Benji) And exhaling to slowly lower.
Now, that's a great spot.
Alright, and the next time your hips are up high, my friends,
we're gonna take the block
and bring it underneath the sacrum here
and you can pick any level that feels right for you.
Low, medium, high.
Palms pressed to the earth to help us with a little stability.
And then we're just gonna take
one leg all the way up to the sky.
Let's start with the right,
keeping the left foot on the ground.
Breathe.
And then lower that leg down, switch.
Left leg reaches up high.
And switch.
Right leg reaches up high.
This time keep the right leg up here.
Use your hands on the ground
for some stability and we'll slowly bring the left leg up
to join for a little Waterfall pose.
If you're close to a wall and
you want to switch to legs up the wall here,
that would be great. That could be wonderful.
And we're breathing here.
This can absolutely be done without the block too.
And coming into some quiet space here for a couple breaths.
You got this.
Beautiful, slowly bend one knee then the other.
Place the feet back down to the earth.
We can remove the block.
And now we're gonna come into our reclined Baddha Konasana.
So same shape we just did, soles of the feet together.
But this time we are lying down flat on the ground.
Hands can come to the belly or somewhere on your body.
We take a deep breath in.
And a long breath out.
And Benji just did a nice long exhale too.
Great job, buddy.
So you can stay here to close
or you can come back to the fetal position,
which is what I'm gonna do.
And this time we can use our props.
So we can use a blanket for a pillow.
If it happens to be chilly in the season
or the place where you're practicing.
Maybe you wrap your whole body in the blanket.
Come into that beautiful cocoon.
Connect with something
bigger than yourself here in this final moment.
Whatever that means to you.
So this is our final pose.
Coming back into the fetal position.
And I actually love that about traditional Shavasanas.
It really is, right? The Corpse Pose.
You really take a
symbolic gesture of surrender.
And I love just that we end
the phase or the cycle of our practice with that.
So I'm gonna do a version of that here today.
So come into your fetal position.
Really take a good moment to get yourself comfortable.
And don't worry about getting too tired.
You can shake your body and
take some energetic breaths when you're done with this.
But do give yourself a full chance to relax here.
If you're practicing this in the morning,
maybe it's a great moment to just plant the seeds for your
day and for this next cycle of the moon.
If you're practicing this in the evening,
perhaps it's a wonderful opportunity to allow your body
to relax and to give thanks for this past cycle,
for this past day.
As you prepare your mind and
your heart and your body
for the journey of this next wave.
Alright, I'm gonna stop talking here and just allow us
a couple quiet breaths here before we sign off.
You can close your eyes.
Inhale lots of love in.
Exhale lots of love out.
Keep it going.
And if you're feeling really just like, oh,
you're starting to just now seep into this solace,
this quietness,
pause the video and stay here longer.
But if you're ready to wrap it up,
we'll slowly use the top hand to press into the earth,
then the bottom hand to support,
and we'll come back up to a comfortable seat.
Bring the palms together at the heart, Anjuli Mudra.
And we inhale, lift the thumbs up to the third eye.
And we exhale to bow fully.
Closing this session,
I wish you just all the nourishment and love and
friendship as you step into
what's ahead, the next cycle,
whatever it may bring.
Thanks for sharing this practice with me.
Namaste.
(upbeat music)