Transcript for:
Yoga Flow for Calm and Balance

  • What's up everyone, welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene, and today on our Movement Is Medicine practice, we have a calming balancing sequence for you. So this is something you can repeat over and over again, when you know you need to kind of tend to the energetic body. This will in turn give you the energy that you need to be active and fulfill your life's destiny. But today we're taking a calm stretchy soothing pranayamic approach. So hop into something extra comfy, and let's get started. (upbeat music) Alrighty my friends, let's begin on the ground, seated, nice and low. And we're gonna bring our hands behind us. When you get there, move the feet out in front. And if you're on a yoga mat today, bring your feet as wide as the yoga mat. And then, turn your fingertips in towards your body, and then inhale, lift your chest, and start to feel stretched through the front, the shoulders, the armpit chest. And if this is too much you can turn the palms the other way. So you can turn the fingertips back like this. Otherwise we're turning them in towards our body. Inhale in, lift your chin, lift your chest. And then exhale out, claw into the fingertips and see if you can lift your chest a little bit more. So we're diving right in today. Inhale. Then exhale to release. To release we'll bring the fingertips now to the center. Feet stay on the ground. Knees up towards the sky. Reach the fingertips forward. Inhale in. Now we're stretching the back body. And exhale, maybe your chin to chest. Get some energy moving up and down the spine by deepening the breath. Today's practice is gonna calm or quell any anxiety. Just chilling out a bit, right, we need that sometimes. And we have to actively counteract all the busy bustling energy, the wicky whacky stuff. Take a deep breath in. Exhale, slide the fingertips to the tops of the feet. Catch your ankles. Little core activation. Lift the feet up. Bring the arches together. Lift the chest, lift the chin. So we're back to where we just started lifting the fronts of the shoulders up towards the sky, lifting the heart. Inhale in. If you want to do something crazy and stretch your legs, on the exhale you can. Great, take one more breath, inhale. Just activating this line that runs up and down the spine here. Beautiful, and then with control, slowly bring the feet to the ground. Not suped up, Baddha Konasana. Just straight up Baddha Konasana. Hold onto the ankles, or interlace the fingertips around your toes. And sit up nice and tall, take a big sweeping inhale in. Imagine the breath traveling down to your belly as you fill up with air. Then exhale, tops of the thighs, ground down. Beautiful inhale, and again lift your chest. Find expansion, and then exhale. We can track. Take the thumbs to the arches of the feet. Start to open the feet like a book. And just make this little practice about self inquiry. We don't need to boost the biceps of the booty here. We're working on balancing it out so we can have energy to do all the other stuff. So balance it out today. Give yourself a little massage on the arches of the feet. We are gonna get some good little openings in the hips. In the inner thighs. And then again stimulating from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head, so that we can balance out the energy of the body and find our chill. Alright, take one more inhale and exhale. One more cycle of breath here wherever you are. And then slowly roll up. And we're just gonna take the right foot out, and then actually hug the right heel in a little closer. So create an L shape. And sit up nice and tall. Then take your right hand to the top of your left hip crease, and just side body stretch with the left fingertips over towards the right. Inhale in. Exhale all the way back up. We'll switch. Dig the left heel into your yoga mat. Send it out long. Hike the right heel in. Left palm gently comes to the top of the right hip crease. And side body stretches, you sweep the right fingertips up and overhead. Now breathe into the lower back. So great for the internal organs, as you breathe deep, as you bring these conscious breath, replenishing the organ, the kidneys, the liver. Alright, come back up. Beautiful work, got a hair in my mouth. Send both legs out long. Inhale in deeply. Hook the thumbs. Wu-Tang Clan. Exhale forward. Fold, bend the knees generously. Big breath in. If you can bend the knees so much so that you can bring the hands to the ankles or the feet, great. If not, just allow the hands to rest wherever they naturally fold. Deep breath in. Long breath out. Great, slowly roll it up. Lift the legs up, cross the ankles. Come through to all fours. Cat-Cow. Right away. Wrists underneath the shoulders. Knees directly underneath the hips. Keep checking in. Again, this practice is about self inquiry. Balancing out the energy of the body, so you can feel good. Drop the belly, inhale. You gotta bring the breath. And there's an artfulness to the way you breathe today. Perhaps finding something new. Exhale as you lift. Up through the heart, navel to spine. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. And then drop the elbows where the hands are. Keep breathing. And then keep the hands firmly planted as you walk the knees back. And you're gonna bring the knees wide. Wide as your yoga mat. And then you're gonna actually bring the elbows a little bit wider on today's variation. So, a little bit wide with the elbows, a little bit wide with the knees. And then, here we go. Inhale in. Exhale. Melt it all down. Chin comes to the yoga mat, gaze forward. Tailbone up towards the sky. Breathe deep. You got this. Claw into the fingertips. Breathe. Wonderful, then activate through the tops of the feet. Par in line with the nose, come forward. Walk the elbows back underneath the shoulders. Hands come into alignment. We'll curl the toes under. Walk the knees in. And here we come into a forearm plank. Breathe deep. Didn't expect that did you? Fire up through the belly. Get my ponytail out of the way. Big breath in. Gaze straight down. Big breath out. You got it. One more big breath in. Feel that shake, that prana, that's what we want, stirring the pot. And then slowly lower the knees. Bring them together, feet together. And we roll up to a nice seat. Head over heart, heart over pelvis. Nice work. Feel the blood flow, opposite direction. Close your eyes so you can really feel the sensation going on. Excellent, then come forward on the fingertips. Flip the toes. Sink the hips back on the heels. Little yoga for the feet. Try to press into your pinky toe. Lift up from the pelvic floor. Listen to the sound of your breath. Like waves of the ocean crashing. So inhale. And exhale. Nice full deep breaths. Wonderful, then walk the knees as wide as the hips here, hip points. So just a little bit wide. And then lift your hips up. Come onto the tops of the feet, should feel really good now. Lengthen tailbone down. Inhale. Lift your heart. Awesome, eagle arms. Send the fingertips forward. Right arm underneath the left here, wrap around. Inhale, keep pressing firmly into the tops of the feet. Lengthening tailbone down, creating spaciousness through all four sides of the torso. So really pay attention to this lift up through all four sides of the torso. And then from there inhale. Lift your elbows up a little higher. Exhale. Navel to spine. Inhale to expand. Exhale. Navel to spine. One more time. Inhale in. Exhale navel to spine. Beautiful. Send the fingertips out in front. Interlace steeple grip. And I want you to slowly lower back. Keep head, heart, and pelvis in a line here. Hold onto that danda strengthening the quads. Stretching through the fronts of the hips. Front of the hips. And baby pulses maybe here for five. Four. Three. You're doing great. Two. Press from the tops of the feet to come up on the one. Beautiful, release the arms. This time left arm underneath the right. Inhale, lift and lengthen. Exhale. Navel to spine. So find this play of expansion and contraction in the belly with your breath. Inhale. And exhale. Navel draws in. Inhale, find expansion. Press into your feet, exhale. Beautiful, inhale, unravel. Exhale, release the fingertips interlace behind the tail. Knuckles draw down and away, inhale. Open the chest. Open your heart. And then exhale. Here we go. Slowly drawing the nose towards the navel. Head comes down towards the earth. Crown of the head to a block, or the earth. You can curl the toes under here if it feels more stable. Breathe into the belly. Knuckles reach towards the sky. You're doing great. Big breath in. Not putting a bunch of pressure on the neck here. Staying connected lifting up from the shoulders. With the arms, reaching, reaching, reaching. Then reach the heels back, and the hips back, and tuck the chin to slowly roll it up. Back to the foot stretch. Release the arms. Palms come to the tops of the thighs. Big breath in. Lion's breath, tongue out. If this is your first lion's breath ever, welcome to the club. Let's do another one, inhale in. Lion's breath, tongue out. Rock and roll. Okay, here we go. Coming forward onto all fours. We're gonna come onto the tops of the feet here. Neutral spine. When you're ready, inhale. Send the right leg out long. And then exhale. Bring the right leg, right foot all the way up and in. And the fingertips are gonna come together. So we're not quite going as wide as lizards. So go ahead and bring your right foot into the center line. Right hand comes in line with the right arch. If you want you can use a block, or a pillow, or a folded up tile to bring the earth up to you here. Then here you go. Swing the left toes over towards the right side of the yoga mat and inhale. As you're ready open the left fingertips all the way up towards the sky. Send the fingertips up high. If your left shoulder's really coming forward here, it's a good idea to find that lift here, so you can get your left shoulder back. Feel that stretch in the left side body, and the belly. Breathe into the lower back body. Love for the liver and the kidneys today. Inhale in. As you start to open up through the right inner thigh. Now, squeeze the right knee towards your right arm and press your right arm towards the left, uh sorry, towards your right knee. So again, that's squeeze your right knee towards your right arm. Press your right arm towards your right knee. So a little bit of balancing of the opposing forces here. Just squeeze and lift. Alright, inhale. Exhale. Awesome work, amazing job. Come all the way back to frame your right foot. And pull the right hip crease back half splits. Awesome work. Come forward, plant the palms back to Tabletop Position. Neutral spine. Check in. Fabulous, other side. Inhale. Send the left leg out long. Exhale, step it all the way out. Left hand comes to join the right. So we're not going as wide as lizards, so keep that left foot in the center line. Sorry, I have an itch on my nose. Plant the left palm next to the arch of the left foot. And as you're ready, nice and slow. So move from your center. Stay connected to your core. Right toes towards the left side of the mat. Think Gate Pose prep. And then find a little resistance here is what I was trying to say. So squeeze the left leg in towards your left arm, and then press left arm into your left leg. As you inhale, reach to the right, fingertips up. And if you feel like your right shoulder is forward and you can't quite get back, maybe come up onto the fingertips, or come up onto a block here. And then the biggest most beautiful act of love you can do for yourself here right now, is not the pose, but the breath that embodies the pose. So breathe. Send awareness to the lower back. Nourish your systems with this nice full conscious breath. Lean back into it. Squeeze the left knee towards the left arm. Press left arm towards the left knee. Feel that deep stretch in the left inner thigh. The groin, you got it, one more breath. Inhale. And then exhale all the way back down. Bring the right foot back. Pull the left hip crease back. Gentle half splits here, don't press, don't push. Nice and softy and easy. Yeah baby! And then roll through. Plant the palms. Come back to Tabletop Position. Great work. Bump the hips to the left. Turn to look past your right shoulder. Beautiful, come to center. Actively bump the hips to the right. Turn to look past your left shoulder. Great, cross the ankles. Use your hands to guide your way all the way back through to a nice comfortable seat. Then a meditation pose. This is where we'll end today, so, get comfortable. Great, left hand comes to the heart center. Excuse me, right hand comes to the lower belly. Take a second to close your eyes, sit up nice and tall. And just take a couple quiet moments more to yourself. Just steady your breath. And to just be present with what it is. Whatever is going on today. Just lean in. Tap and do a little inner smile. And hopefully you can feel a little bit of warmth here. A little sensation from that practice. From our practice. Take whatever information you received from today's practice with you off the mat and into the rest of your day or your night. Move with ease. I hope you have great sleep tonight. Continue to stay connected to your song, your breath. Find what feels good, listen. Try to move from a big place, an honest place. Draw the hands together. Anjuli Mudra, prayer position at the heart. Inhale. And exhale. Bow your brain down to your heart. Feel the stretch in the back of the neck. Listen to the sound of your breath as you breathe in. And out. The chill in me bows to the chill in you. Thanks everyone, namaste. (upbeat music)