- Hello my sweet friends and welcome to your -
31 day Yoga Revolution. Today we have a serenity practice, so I'm going to invite you to grab a pillow. I grabbed the pillow off my bed. You can grab any pillow and if you don't have one, don't worry, you'll still be really comfy.
So some traditions are not meant to die, so it's day eight, don't hate, meditate, feel great. Can't wait. (upbeat music) Alright my lovely friends, we're going to begin in a nice comfortable seat,
ankles crossed, sit up on your pillow if you like. I went full hog and laid a whole blanket down. So if you want to pause the video and get really cozy so that you can stretch out on a nice padded surface, please do. And when you're ready, we'll bring the hands
to the tops of thighs or the knees, whatever feels more natural, most natural, whatever feels good. And let's take a trip down memory lane to yesterday's practice and begin to find this lift up through the front body, this grounding
through the back body. Feel this connection of the sits bones down into the earth, this length up through the crown. This steadiness, this alertness in the spine. And then let's use the breath to soften it, so today as you know is about soft, stretchy,
yummy movement, but that's not without support or the stability, so we're gonna marry the two together, and hopefully that will leave you feeling super refreshed and balanced, and a little more balanced in your inner world when we finish this practice today. So sit up nice and tall and use your breath to find
places to soften, maybe through the fingertips, the jaw. And, whatever this means to you, just take a moment, maybe close your eyes, go inward to blanket yourself in love. So if you've been really hard on yourself, I was hard on myself yesterday
and I finally recognized it, and then once I recognized it, I lifted that weight off my own self and felt better. So, if you've been really hard on yourself lately or maybe you just had a rough day thus far or rough week or rough year, can you blanket
yourself in love here? And that's not easy to do, so that's why we commit to this practice. What does it feel like to blanket yourself in love? What would that look like? What would that feel like?
How would you breathe? And for me, when I really move from a place of self love, as cheesy as hell as it sounds, that is when I feel and discover peace, this idea of balance and tranquility, or as we are embracing today, serenity.
And when you think of the word serene, what sort of picture comes up in your head? So it's really not that we're lackadaisical and chill all the time, we're focused, we're alert, sthira, but we balance that with the ease and with the recognition of what feels comfy.
That's how I like to define it. So today is about embracing that really nice, slow movement here. Open your eyes if they are not already and bring the left fingertips down, and then slowly, left palm or left fingertips down,
and then slowly just draw your left ear over your left shoulder. And try to keep anchored through your right shoulder. That stability in the shoulders. And then a little softness here, maybe you close your eyes once you get into the good spot.
Maybe you find soft, easy movement. And then maybe you stay here or maybe you lift the left hand and draw it all the way up just to the top of the head. We're not putting any extra added weight, got zenned out there, it's working,
but just allowing the weight of the hand to naturally fall. And then don't let this come up here, but keep that stability that we establish in the shoulders, keep that. And then, are you breathing?
Let's breathe. So it's super hard to slow down, I want to acknowledge that, so you are a total badass for being here and for showing up. Stick with this video. Stick with me.
Stick with your practice. And if you're really busy and you feel like you don't have time, know that this time on your mat is going to affect all the other things you have to do. Ten-fold.
Read my email today. Read it later, make time for that too, because it really is about us shifting gears to realize, ah yes, by taking this time for myself, everything else moves more smoothly. Alright, release the left hand to the ground.
Draw the chin through to the chest and then lift up to center from here. Mmmm, right fingertips or right palm comes down. Bring the left hand to the left thigh and then find that stability in the shoulders, and then slow and steady, drop right ear
over right shoulder. And so the first layer here, the superficial layer, that kind of first layer is, ah yes, neck stretch, perfect, wonderful, great for everyone. But then use your breath to go beyond that, and again, practice moving, breathing, experiencing
the full body here, so you might see this line from crown to tail. You might feel the stretch from your left ear to your left hip. You might have a memory or thoughts might come up about your to-do list later.
And then embrace all of those things. And keep returning to the role of the observer by the breath, via the breath. Right hand might come up and over. Soft and easy, be kind. Practice being kind and gentle to yourself.
It's tough. Mmmm. Maybe take one more breath here. And then use the exhale to release. Draw the chin into the chest. And then roll it up here, life is good.
Yes, beautiful. So soft, easy movement. Pay attention to how you connect things today from point A to point B, really nice, calm, soft, easy movement, okay, left foot's gonna come in.
We're gonna really draw that left heel in and then I'm gonna actually turn on my mat a little bit here so I can send the right foot out long. Then tug the right hip crease in, tug the right thighbone into socket here. Chko.
And then roll the left inner thigh out. Then remember when we were in Tree Pose yesterday? Squeeze, find a little squeeze up through the midline. And then inhale, reach the arms up towards the sky. Exhale, slowly coming forward, Head-to-Knee Pose. Now we're not gonna crank.
Again, we're not trying to fit ourselves into this shape, but pay attention to everything along the way. So maybe one day I'll get here. But, keep the action of the legs as you slowly play with coming forward. Try to keep the upper back broad and the chest open.
Then we have some options here. We can grab the shin, can grab our pant. We can interlace, need some room here, interlace the fingertips, bring them to the foot. Or, we can take the left hand to the outer edge of the right foot for a deeper stretch
in the left side body. Might be good after that day six oblique work. And then breathing here. Spread the toes. Soften through the skin of the forehead and your brow, and on a final exhale we will draw chin to chest here.
I'm already feeling serenity. Serenity now! You knew it was gonna happen, just a matter of time. Serenity now! Tuck the chin into the chest. From your root, that root chakra,
ground down into the earth, coccyx down, and we roll up. Beautiful, and we'll recenter on the mat, and we're gonna bend the right knee, slow and steady, keep active in the toes. You can never be too careful, too mindful,
and we're gonna come into this shape that I dubbed cheerleader pose, which is not a great, not brilliant by any means, but you get the image. And so, pay attention to the sensation in your right hip socket. And then if you need more stability,
you can walk the left heel out. Fabulous, once you get there, loop the shoulders, lift your heart, and we're just gonna take the right arm across the body. Use the left palm to find this stretch here, and so you've come to this arm stretch in gym class before,
but let's bring our yoga mindfulness to it by maybe finding stability through the shoulders, so a little squaring of the shoulders. And then boom, anchoring some weight down here, think about allowing your right glute to be really heavy, so rather than forcing the bone there,
just imagine that right hip or that right glute gettin' heavy, you know. (laughs) Did your right glute get heavy today? Yes, I did yoga. 31 days of Yoga Revolution!
Okay, one more breath, lift your heart. And then release, and we're gonna do a twist here. So first twist to the right. This is a small twist. Inhale, lift up. And then exhale, big twist.
As you come through center, dial your heart to the left. Inhale, lift. And exhale, twist. Wonderful, release, come back to center. And slow and steady, the right heel comes in, and the left leg goes out, Janu Sirsasana,
Head-to-Knee Pose. Left thighbone tugs in. Top of the right thigh rolls out. Then, you may not be used to doing this in Janu Sirsasana, but do it today, since we're kind of building each day, imagine you're in Tree Pose just like yesterday
and press your foot, even if it's not pressing all the way, but imagine it pressing in, and find that squeeze, that lift up. So you're not going into the pose like this, selling yourself short, dang it. Really root to rise here, find that lift,
squeeze, find length, and then explore the forward fold. So, same as before, you can keep the palms here, grab the shin, maybe you play with interlacing, or taking the right hand to the outer edge of the left thigh, and I encourage you to try different things here, slow and mindful, and not just get stuck.
So play, navigate with your breath. And then remember to soften the skin of the face and the brow, serenity now. So I toyed with calling today's practice surrender, but I liked this idea of serenity being a quality that comes from all these actions
that we're doing on the mat, so surrender is Shavasan, but today it's still active, it's just a different quality, a different flavor, a different rasa. Take one more deep breath in. Use your next exhale to draw the chin to the chest. And then roll it up.
Roll it up, keep the toes active as you shift back to center, bend the knee, toes active. Come to this shape. (laughs) Brilliant, Adriene. So here we go again, feeling the weight of that left glute
drop down, woo, feels good. Should feel really good here, day eight. And then here we go, left hand crosses over the chest, big stretch here, square the shoulders, lift your heart. And again, allowing that left glute to be heavy here, toes are active.
And then slowly release. Small twist to the left, rooting down to rise here, so lift your heart. And then release, big twist to the right. Send breath down into your belly, so practice that directional breath,
that diaphragmatic breathing, so breathe all the way down to your belly here even if you just get one good one in there, come on, give it to me. Big breath into the belly. So great for the internal organs when we breathe in such a way, and then release, awesome.
Okay, so we're gonna bring the soles of the feet together here. Again, lift up on your pillow. So now we're going tops of the thighs out and we lift up through the heart, the chest, and it's foot massage time, don't be shy.
So take your thumbs to the arches of the feet. So one of my goals for this year is to learn more about the feet, 'cause I know how important it is, but I'm wanting to expand my knowledge on the feet, I'm interested in reflexology. So if you know some shiz, share it with me
and everyone in the comments below. I do know that tending to this arched space too via self massages is a really good thing, positive force. I'll get into that maybe another day, but I think I got into it with the third chakra video.
Anyway, I'm interested in learning, so if you know, make sure you get your toes. If you're a toe popper, be my guest. You're not in a public class, so you can pop away, daddy! And then the ankles. (laughs)
Mmmm, and tops of the feet. You can always wash your hands after this, okay dudes, so give yourself a massage. And this can be a moment for some where it's emotional. So I'm lucky, I have practice, an opportunity to rub my own damn feet a lot
in my line of work, but pay attention. Sometimes when you rub your feet, you feel like crying. There's a release. Sometimes there's other stuff that comes up that's more mental emotional, like oh, I wish I had someone to rub my feet.
Well so does everyone. Just kidding, so this is a great opportunity for us to just kind of smile and keep a sense of humor, but also be really loving to ourselves. Alright. And then remember this moment the next time
you're having trouble sleeping. You can lay on your back in your bed and rub your feet. Or, if you have a partner, get them to join the parade. It's so exciting to see so many people doing Yoga with Adriene though with their partners and with their friends, or their roommates, or their family.
I think the more people practicing yoga, the better the world. (laughs) Of course, I'm biased. Okay, so that's it, now we're gonna shake it off. So we just had a bunch of energy in the hands,
so I'm gonna shake it off, but keep the knees wide and lift up through your heart space. Shake it, really shake it. Shake it. Like a Polaroid picture. Keep shaking.
Maybe close your eyes. Shake a little faster. And then release, bring the hands to the outer edge of the knees, active toes as you bring it in, and we're gonna come to lie all the way flat on the back. Take your time getting there.
Take your pillow with you. And we're gonna use it. Oh yeah, day eight, can't complain. I hope everyone makes it to day eight, man. Okay, so bring the soles of the feet to the ground, and if you want a pillow and you didn't go grab one earlier,
just pause the video and go grab a pillow, but you better come back. Snuggle your shoulder blades underneath your heart space and tap into that inner smile or hell, it's day eight, you better just smile. And then bring the fingertips down at your side
and really root all four corners of the feet into the ground and when you're ready, inhale, start with the tail, get really sassy on me today with that pelvis, okay, so rock the pelvis up, find articulation in all parts of the spine. So really try to get articulate in the parts of the spine,
the vertebrae that maybe you don't normally, so that requires slowing down as you lift up. So we're not blasting into an active Bridge today, but rather using this as a little container to find articulation in the spine. And I'm gonna let you go up and down a couple times
on your own and move with your breath, and so this is gonna be a little different for everyone. And I do, obviously a ton of yoga, but even my chiropractor who I love, shout out to my chiropractor and now friend, she's amazing, she has really encouraged me to slow down here,
maybe even close the eyes and try to gain more articulation and more awareness in the vertebra that I'm maybe kind of just blowing past every time. Okay, so for me it's thoracic, but for you it could be somethin' different. I should say, lovies, if you're on a couch pillow,
you're gonna need to take the pillow off to the side, which we're gonna do in a second anyway, 'cause you want your neck to be able to feel good. Alright, let's do one more wherever you are. Stick with it, it's hard to slow down sometimes. I want to honor that, so stick with me.
And then release. Alright, ready for the catch? You need reach behind, grab your pillow. If you didn't grab a pillow, you're just gonna do hands together, namaste, okay? So here's the catch, we grab the pillow
or hands together at namaste, and we bring it up and over to the left. 'Kay, squeeze your pillow, so there's lots of energy and if you didn't bring a pillow to practice today, press the palms together with energy. So you're either pressing palms together
or squeezing your pillow. Tap into that inner smile and lift the knees. Send your navel down towards your spine and lower back flush with the mat. Inhale in, exhale, bring the pillow or your palms up and over to the right.
Squeeze, lift the tailbone up. Inhale, draw a big rainbow up and over to the left, and then see if you can keep lots of space between your chin and your chest here, so don't crunch. If you'd like a little more, extend opposite leg all the way down.
And so here, we're having a little fun in this core connect, but I love the image of the pillow, because it's literally, right, marrying effort and ease. (laughs) Sthira and sukha. Strength and comfort,
so keep it goin', lads. (exhaling) Inhale as you come in, whoa that was my hip. Exhale as you go to the side. Inhale as you come in. Exhale as you go to the side.
Alright, do one more, even it out. And then check it out, feet go up towards the sky. Pillow goes up towards your feet, lower. And then exhale, pulses with the pillow up towards your toes. (breathing)
And you're trying to lift your tailbone up as you exhale as well. So there's two actions of the heart lifting and the tail lifting. Squeeze your pillow. Getting into that lower belly.
(breathing) The release is gonna be amazing. Stick with it for five more. And release, five more seconds, sorry. And slowly release, bring the pillow back to support the head, ah yeah, that's what's up,
and rest your head down. Close your eyes. Doesn't matter what's going on in the feet right now, just plant them, close your eyes, and notice how you feel. And blanket yourself in love via the breath.
Big, soft inhale. And long, soft exhale. Lovely. Feet are on the mat. Cross the right ankle over the left. Squeeze and lift.
Press your left foot into an imaginary wall. Find that lower back flush with the mat. Maybe you interlace here. Maybe you squeeze. Maybe you extend the left leg, or maybe you flip your burger altogether
for a different version of Pigeon, if your body's craving that. It's really not a big move, you just move on and do it. So that's always an option if you want a little more in the hip. Alright, release the hands, listen carefully.
Send the left foot down. Slowly slide the right leg on top, and then we're gonna press into the left foot, shift the hips over towards the right, and then nice and easy with control, allow the weight of the knees to go to the left.
Open the arms out wide or I suggest bending the elbows, cactus arms, but if your shoulders are super tight, this is not gonna be available to you. You're gonna be stuck here. So, in time we'll be able to come here, or maybe you just take it out.
Mmm, and then turn to rest on your right ear and breathe. So some days these practices are more important than than the HIIT workout, because they invite the nervous system, they invite all of the systems to find balance and serenity,
so that you can feel refreshed for your next cardio or your next takin' the kids to school, or your next political conversation, or your next whatever. You are in charge of your own inner peace. No one else, and I find this practice, and in particular,
this 31 days of yoga, very helpful. Take a deep breath in. Use your feet and then draw your navel back to center like a magnet. Yeah! And then release.
You know what I'm sayin', dudes? It's like, this is really actually just as important as your high impact, high intensity. When you're ready, same thing on the other side, cross the left ankle over the right.
Lift the right foot up, press your right foot in to an imaginary wall, and then squeeze. And then again, you can always flip it on over to do One-legged Pigeon. And you can extend the top leg. And you can invite the biggest breath
you've taken all day in. And then release, right foot comes to the ground, nice and slow, left leg crosses over, and then shift your hips to the left this time. And then allow the knees to fall heavy to the right. And then, you can choose a variation with the hands
that feels awesome, maybe cactus arms. Maybe the right hand rests gently on the left thigh, Texas T, turn onto your left ear this time and breathe. Soak it in. Practice, if you can't feel, or if it doesn't resonate when I say blanket yourself
in love, try, practice. Practice blanketing yourself in love, whatever that feels like today. And resistance is totally awesome. Resistance is human. Revolution!
So I'm gonna go ahead and say it, I would bookmark day eight for when you ever need a mini reboot, a mini revolution where you need to go ahead and come full circle on things, and just find calm. Close your eyes if they are not already.
Take one more breath cycle in and out. And then anchoring navel down to the core of the earth, bring it back to center. And we'll release one leg and then the other, and we'll windshield wiper the toes back and forth, back and forth.
And then if you want to cover up with a blanket here, you can. Bring the hands gently at your side. Snuggle the shoulder blades underneath your heart space. And then we're gonna bring the fingers in, hands into fists here, and you can even curl the toes,
and then tighten your glutes and hug the lower ribs down, and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, maybe even squint your face, make your face really small and little, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze everything tight and inward, hug it all in. Take a deep breath and then use your exhale
to soften and let go of everything. (sighing exhale) Close your eyes for a second. Part the lips. Notice how you feel. This is yoga, showing up for yourself,