- Hi everyone. Welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene and this is Benji and today we have an awesome at home yoga practice for gaining a fresh perspective. So hop into something comfy and let's get started. (gentle music) Alright my friends, let's begin in Extended Child's Pose. Hooray! If that's not a "hooray" for you, you can just start in a nice seated comfortable posture of your choice. Otherwise come on down to the ground, bring your knees as wide as your mat, and ever so slowly begin to reach the fingertips towards the front edge of your mat. Gently push your doggy's paws off your mat and here we go, take a deep breath in and as you exhale melt your heart to the ground forehead toward the earth. Gently close your eyes. And relax. Relax into this moment. See if you can immediately just lean in. The hardest part is kind of committing to taking this time for yourself. But this video is uploading on Daylight Savings so if you're doing it live or in real time we've gained an hour so take this opportunity. And if you're watching this at another time, not on Daylight Savings, consider how remarkably wonderful it is that you have taken this time for yourself. Commit. Lean in. As you're ready gently begin to deepen the breath. Again, close your eyes. Relax the weight of your shoulder joints. The weight of the hips. See if you can gently part the lips and soften through the jaws. So we're starting in a pose of surrender. And if you're just in a comfortable seated posture, you can do all of these things as well. Just softening, relaxing the shoulders. Inviting the breath to be a little longer, longer inhales, longer exhalations. Then nice and slow you're gonna begin to rock the head, the forehead, side to side and if you're seated, you can just do some gently neck circles. So soft easy movement here. Choose to open your mind and as you melt the heart to the ground, choose to open your heart by simply being open to these possibilities. We're making progress toward gaining a fresh perspective. And that's really all you have to do today to reap the benefits of this practice. Just practice staying open and allow whatever you do with your body here on the mat to reflect that intention. Alright, come back to stillness. Here we go, take the deepest breath you've taken all day. Inhale in. And exhale to let everything go. (sighs) Awesome. Slowly open the eyes. You're gonna slowly carve a line with your nose to look forward. If you're on your bum, if you're seated, go ahead and come to Tabletop Position and if you are in Extended Child's Pose with me just pull your heart up and walk the knees right underneath the hip points. Spread the fingertips wide. Syncing up with your breath. Here we go, inhale, drop the belly, open the chest. Ooh, I'm sore. (chuckles) Exhale, round through chin to chest. Crown of the head to the earth. Notice the tempo I'm inviting here, nice and slow. Inhale, drop the belly. Big breath in. Claw through the fingertips. Exhale, round through, chin to chest, navel up towards the spine. Now listen carefully, on your next inhale drop the belly, draw the shoulders away from the ears, press into the tops of the feet and then pause here for a full cycle of breath in and out. In. Stay here, and out. Then here we go in again. In, exhale, tuck the chin, navel draws up. Hug the lower ribs in and up, up, up as you claw through your fingertips, press into the tops of the feet and now hang out here for a full cycle of breath. Here we go, ready? Big inhale in, pressing away through your yoga mat, stay here for a long exhale out. Beautiful. Inhale to come all the way back to Tabletop. Nice and easy. Awesome, now you're gonna drop the elbows where the hands are and create like an eleven shape with your forearms so two parallel lines. Then begin to keep the knees in alignment with your elbows, you're gonna begin to walk them back so don't walk in or out. Keep them in alignment with your elbows and you're gonna just melt your heart to the ground for another shoulder opener here as we surrender. (sighs) Now keep an active connection between your fingertips. Feel this big opening through the chest, chest (chuckles), the shoulders. Now one more breath here to really pull the hip creases up. So you're gonna feel the rotation in the pelvis as you take your tailbone, your coccyx to the sky. Yeah and then carve a line with your nose, slide on in through all the way to the belly. Sphinx pose. Nice and easy, gentle here as you inhale, open the chest. Keep the neck nice and long. So you don't want a bunch of wrinkles in the back of your neck here. Keep your neck nice and long. You can tuck the chin to create that space. One more breath here, drawing the shoulders away from the ears. Really pressing into your elbows. Nice and then let's start a little fire, let's move a little energy here. You're gonna curl the toes under, inhale in. Exhale, you're gonna hollow through the front body, just like Cat Pose. You're gonna lift your hips up, reach your heels back, knees lift too, gaze straight down at your yoga mat. Forearm Plank. Breathe deep here. Listen to the sound of your breath. Feel that shake. We're here for three, two, claw through the fingertips and slowly back down to the knees on the one. Awesome. You're gonna come up to the hands now. Resume that nice neutral spine, Tabletop Position. Alright, awesome work. From here you're gonna inhale press into your left palm and reach your right fingertips forward. Exhale, pull the right shoulder back. Right thumb is up towards the sky. Beautiful now here we go, we're gonna send the left foot out long, inhale in. Exhale, turn all left toes down to the earth. So we're balancing out the left and the right side of the body. We're present with the sensation. We're focused on the breath, inhale in. Exhale, chin to chest, knee to nose, round through the spine like Cat Pose. Then inhale, send it out. Radiating energy through the fingertips and toes and exhale rounding through chin to chest. Once more you got it, inhale reach it forward. Exhale, round it through. And then come back to Tabletop. Awesome, switching sides. Press away from your yoga mat with your right hand. Inhale, send the left fingertips forward. Exhale, pull the left shoulder back down into socket. So you can imagine your scap kind of hugging in. Shoulder blades coming together here. You're pressing away from your yoga mat. Breathing deep. And then if it's available to you, kick that right foot out. We start to balance out here as you turn the right toes down. So trying to feel that connection to the midline here. It's challenging. Keeping the neck nice and long. Inhale in and here we go, exhale, rounding through the spine, chin to chest. Squeeze it up and in. Inhale, extend it out. Exhale, squeeze it in. Inhale, send it out. You're doing great. Exhale, squeeze it in and then release it back down, Tabletop Position. Great, once again bring the knees as wide as the yoga mat, toes come in. Press into your left palm this time, inhale, reach your right fingertips all the way up towards the sky. Just as far as you can go. Inhale in. Exhale, thread the needle, right fingertips come in and through underneath your left arm. You're gonna come on to your right shoulder, right ear. You can use your left palm to find what feels good here. Big twist, breathe, breathe, breathe. Connect to your center, draw your navel in and up, Uddiyana Bandha, hug the low ribs in. Then from there next cue is to press into the left palm, inhale, reach the right fingertips all the way back up, spiral open. And then exhale, bring it back down. Right hand presses away from the earth, here we go, big inhale. Big open twist to your left. Press into your right hand. Get in the habit. And here we go, exhale, thread the needle. Big twist. Come on to the left ear, left shoulder. Use your right hand to find what feels good here and then breathe like you love yourself, so nice full, conscious, meaningful breaths here. Should feel really good. Just takes a little practice to get in the hang of breathing deep. Ironically. So give it your best shot. Keep breathing. Keep coming back to the breath. Cool and from your center, navel draws in and up. Activate your core. Then from there, press into your right hand, big inhale, big, open twist to the left. Hi Mom! And then exhale all the way back down. Cool. Now walk the hands out just a bit. Walk the knees in. Curl the toes under and yep, you guessed it, we're gonna bring the upper arm bones out, elbow creases towards the front. Keep the knees bent as you peel the tailbone up, Downward Facing Dog. Head goes below the heart. We start to change our perspective, take a look at your feet. Don't worry about the heels coming down. One day they will and some days they won't. They won't even come close. So don't worry about your heels coming down for now. Just pedal it out. Think of your long beautiful muscles getting the length they desire as you breathe deep and move through your feet. Hey buddy. And let's take this pedaling moment to again, deepen the breath and Benji just inspired me to invite you to look from left to right, stretching through the outer hip, the glute. Practicing that external rotation again in the upper arm bones and just looking around at your room. Maybe you need to clean the house. Maybe you have to do all these things. Maybe you don't like your space. See if you can flip the script a little. Be grateful for all that you see here in your Downward Dog. Be grateful for the roof over your head, for the ground beneath your hands and feet. For the hairy four legged creature at your side. Whatever it is. And then that's enough of that so let's step all the way up to the top of the mat. (sighs) And again, continue keeping this head below the heart. Keeping your eyes open if you can and just kind of look between your legs. Look just side to side. Opening your mind to fresh perspective, fresh thoughts. And then bend your knees generously to open up through the back body, lower back body, and then when you're ready take a deep breath in and an exhale out through the mouth. Two more like that. Big breath in and then exhale out through the mouth. And one more time, come on now, inhale in. Exhale to let something go so that you feel a little lighter as you slowly roll up to Mountain. Take your time. Slowly stacking up through your spine. And as you start to stack up and align head over heart, heart over pelvis immediately bring your awareness, like an obsessive amount of awareness, to your feet. And then you can close your eyes and use the sound of my voice to guide you here. Just gonna close your eyes and again send your attention to the soles of your feet and spread awareness throughout all four corners of your feet. Then really get your feet to a place where you feel grounded, you feel good. So it could be zipped up tight together. It could be hip width apart. You decide. Let it really come from this sensation and then from there you're gonna press down. Imagine rooting down into the earth and growing a little bit taller throughout your whole body from that grounding point with the feet. And then take your arms and bring more awareness to them. So you can do whatever you want, again with your arms. Just nice, conscious placement. And here we go. Inhale in. Exhale to relax the shoulders down. And on your next inhale, we'll reach for the sky. So big breath in. Reach it all the way up. Exhale, Forward Fold all the way down. Inhale, halfway lift, another change of perspective. Palms to the tops of the thighs for this first one. Loop your shoulders forward, around and back and then pull the elbows in like little grasshopper legs. And then let the hip creases kind of pull you back here as you reach the crown forward. So you're gazing straight down so you can peek at me of course if you need and then gaze straight down and you're trying to create a figure seven shape in the body. Slight bend in the knees. Great, take one more breath here. Draw the shoulder blades together and then exhale to let it all go. Awesome, root to rise here. Again, an obsessive amount of awareness in the feet. As you inhale, sweep the fingertips, the hands, the arms all the way up towards the sky. Again, big stretch. And then exhale all the way back down, Forward Fold towards the earth. Inhale lifts you up halfway. This time palms on the shins. Take a deep breath in. Try to find length in the spine. Again, no wrinkles in the back of the neck. Great, take one more breath here. Draw the shoulder blades together actively. Yes, and then exhale let everything go. Great, root to rise. Inhale, reach for the sky. Catch a wave here. Full body stretch. And then exhale, cascade it all the way back down. It should feel really good. You're doing great. Inhale, this time halfway lift with the fingertips on the mat. See again if you can take the crunch out of the neck. Tuck the chin, dig into your heels, pull the hip creases back. Great, inhale in. Exhale to let everything go. Okay, here we go, inhale, reach for the sky. Big stretch. Spread the fingertips, ground through the feet. And exhale, take it down. Head below the heart. Bend your knees generously on this one. Fingertips come to the mat, you're gonna kick just the right toes back. Just the right toes, all the way. Great, yogi's choice, you can lower that back knee or you can keep it lifted. Benji's so cute today. Aw. So back knee lowered or lifted, right hand's gonna go to the earth. Big open twist to the left as you reach the left fingertips up high. Open your heart, look up towards the sky. Reach your right heel back, big inhale. Exhale all the way down. Awesome, from here you're gonna lower the right knee if it's not and you're gonna pull left hip crease back, runner's stretch. Take a deep breath in here and a long breath out. Then roll it through. You're gonna plant the palms, step the left toes back, come into a Plank. Take your time, there's no rush. Great, from here you're gonna slowly inhale, look forward, shift forward. Exhale, lower all the way to the belly. Inhale, squeeze the elbows in, press into the tops of the feet. Find a low Cobra here. Activating the muscles of your back body. Then take one more inhale in here when you're ready. Benji! And then exhale, release. Inhale, press up to Plank or all fours. And then exhale, make your way to Downward Dog. Upper arm bones spiral out. Inner thighs spiral in. Great, so you have two different spirals going on. Two different loops. You're gonna hug the lower ribs in here guys and again, just take a couple moments here to move your neck, look around. Great, then bend the knees generously, belly comes towards the tops of the thighs. Hip creases pull up and back once again as you inhale look forward. And then exhale, make your way to the top. So you can rag doll, you can baby step, you can float, you can hop. And then from here, Forward Fold. Great, inhale, halfway lift. Now you can bring the hands to wherever you like. You can even take them out to airplane arms. Just find that length in the spine. And then exhale, let it go. Great, bend the knees generously. Fingertips come to the mat. This time we're gonna lift the left foot up and then kick it all the way back. Great, beautiful. Left hand to the earth. Back knee lowered or lifted. Here we go, big inhale, pull the right hip crease back, reach your left heel back. Right fingertips towards the sky. Big, open twist. So breathe into all four sides of the torso here. Send your gaze either straight out or all the way up. Inhale in. Exhale, bring it all the way down. Great, lower the back knee if it's lifted. Inhale in and then exhale pull that right hip crease back. Flex your left toes towards your face. So your left hip needs to be over your left knee. We're not going all the way back here but rather keeping it nice and stacked if you can. Great, inhale in. Exhale out. Sync up with your breath here. Inhale, come forward. Exhale to plant the palms. Step it back to Plank. Take your time getting there. Take your time, take your time. Great and then inhale, look forward, shift forward. Exhale, belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Up Dog. Use your breath to inhale, open your chest. Look forward or up and then use your exhale to make your way back to all fours and then to Downward Facing Dog. Great. Inhale in. Empty it out. You're doing awesome. Bend the knees, lift the hip creases up high. Feel your sits bones spread left to right. Then inhale to look forward. And then exhale to make your way to the top. Inhale, halfway lift, your version. Get creative. Keep an open mind and exhale to Forward Fold. Great, inhale, reach for sky. Big breath, big stretch. And then exhale, hands to heart. Anjuli Mudra right here at the heart. Capture your magic here. Listen to your breath. Is there something, you don't even have to identify it right now, but is there something going on off the mat in your life that could use a little bit of your open mind? A little bit of fresh perspective? A gained perspective? Would you be willing? Are you willing? Bend the knees, here we go, big inhale, reach for the sky. Exhale, Forward Fold all the way down. Inhale, halfway lift, your version. Exhale, soften and fold. Bend the knees, step one foot back then the other. Plank Pose. Let's change the perspective again. Right hand to the earth, we're gonna turn on to the outer edge of the right foot and inhale, big open twist now to side Plank. Left fingertips to the sky. You can always bend that top leg and bring the left foot to the earth as a little kickstand or for an added challenge you can come to little tree legs here. Lifting heart, pressing away from the yoga mat as we've been doing, lengthening through the crown. We're here for three, two, one. Come all the way down. You're gonna go right to the other side. Left hand presses away from the earth to start. Come on to the outer edge of your left foot and here we go, big opening over to the right. Hug the low ribs in. Breathe deep, keep the neck nice and long. You can bend that top leg. Take any variation that you like. You can bring it on to the ground for kickstand. Everyone lift your hips up toward the sky. Breathing deep. Three, two, and on the one with control best you can all the way down. Belly to Cobra or Chaturanga to Up Dog. Use your inhale to open your heart. Open your mind. Smile. Use your exhale to make your way to all fours and then to Downward Facing Dog. You can always skip the all fours part too. In Down Dog take a deep breath in through the nose. And the long breath out. Beautiful, on your next inhale lift your right leg up high. And on your next exhale shift forward, squeeze, knee all the way up towards your chest. Then step it up. Pivot on the back foot. You're gonna open all the way to Warrior II to your left. So here we go, left fingertips reach all the way up and back. Back toes are turned in. Right front toes are turned towards the front edge of your mat. Then we're gonna pull the pinkies back here. Lift up from the pelvic floor. Breathe deep. No creases in the neck. Nice and long. Breathing, breathing, breathing. Then inhale, send the right fingertips forward. Keep the front knee bent. Right hip crease pulling, hugging in, pulling back. You're gonna reach the right fingertips up and back. Peaceful Warrior. Breathing deep here, pause. Pull the right thumb back. So notice what happens when you hold this here. What happens? Do you want to give up? Do you want to curse me? Do you get frustrated? Can you breathe? Can you go back to that obsessive awareness in the feet? Pressing into the knife edge of your left foot. Pressing into all four corners of your right foot. Beautiful work. You got it. Find that length in the neck. Good and then inhale in and exhale with control, cartwheel all the way back. You did awesome. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Left hand to the earth. Inhale, right fingertips to the sky. Big open twist. Breathe into your belly. And then exhale, right hand comes all the way back down. We step the right toes back. You can go through a little flow here or you can go straight to Down Dog. Listen to your breath. Listen to the wisdom of your heart, not your brain. On the mat here today listening to the wisdom of the heart. I'm saying heart a little Irish like. Listen to the wisdom of your heart. Okay, here we go, left leg high. Inhale. Exhale, squeeze and shift forward. Nice and slow. Feel it out. Yes, then step the left foot up. Pivot on the back foot. Strong legs, strong foundation before you inhale. Open up, Warrior II to your right. Strong legs. Beautiful, find that connection. Find your stability. Lift up from the pelvic floor. You're doing great. So we know we're going to be asked to hold this time so how can you go into this next gesture different maybe? Here we go, whenever you're ready. Reaching left fingertips forward. Keep that front knee bent. Up and then back. Big stretch. Lengthening through not just the left side body but the right side body too. Pressing firmly into the knife edge of that back foot. Pulling the left thumb back. Neck is nice and long here. Think of that halfway lift here. Think of Tabletop Position. Breathing deep. Sticking with it, letting it grow. Way to stick with it, beautiful. One more breath, you got it. Inhale, lean back. Exhale, woo, from your center, from your core, cartwheel all the way back. You did awesome. Right hand goes right into the earth. Inhale, left fingertips to the sky. Deep breath in. And exhale bring it down. Awesome work. Palms come to the earth. We're gonna step the left toes back. You can take a vinyasa here or you can skip it. We're gonna meet in Child's Pose so knees come together, feet together, hips back, forehead to the earth. And we can take the arms all the way back towards your feet and let the shoulders relax. Meet me here whenever. And when you get here, let it go. Take a nice sigh out through the mouth if it feels good. Close your eyes. Work to stay present here even when you want to give up, you want to look away, you want to turn away. Be open to leaning in. Standing your ground, while also being open to another point of view. Here we go. Press into the tops of the feet. You're gonna slowly lift back up. Come all the way back up, head over heart, heart over pelvis. So we're gonna do a Dolphin Pose here and this is a great prep for a forearm stand or if you practice Sirsasana you want to do a headstand, really wonderful. I highly recommend that you are overprotective of your neck. Particularly doing at home yoga so we're just going to do Dolphin today and then in some other videos in the upcoming year we're gonna really break down more inversions. Particularly on the Find What Feels Good membership but you can go and find a really nice headstand video on Yoga With Adriene YouTube so okay. So here we go. We're gonna take the hands right back to Tabletop Position, spread the palms wide. Take a deep breath in. Find that length through the crown, that dunda, that stick, that staff that we're constantly talking about and exploring on this channel, in this community. Upper arm bones rotate out, just feel it out. Cool, then drop the elbows where the hands are. Try to create that, recreate that, rather, that eleven shape in the forearms. Keep them there. Beautful, then if Dolphin's not for you you can just walk the knees back, recreate this Puppy Posture that we did earlier. Not Benji's Puppy Posture but mine. Although you can go ahead and recreate his if you like. Heart to Earth Pose, Anahatasan. You can stay here or if you want to work in Dolphin we'll bring the shoulders over the elbows, we'll curl the toes under and peel the tailbone up but with a strong emphasis, something that we've already been doing in this practice too, on lifting the hip creases up high. Then you're gonna dig, dig, dig into your shoulders. Breathe in, gaze straight down. Notice if your wrists have come in or gone out. Typically they'll come in because the shoulders are tight. But we've done some shoulder opening so just be kind. Remember it's a practice and then breathe deep here. Breathe into all four sides of the torso. Feel the ribs expand as you breathe in. Beautiful, still stacking the bones and then in time you can work to walk the toes closer up, up, up towards your face. And then in time we can kick one leg up and then the other. But breathing deep. Nice open mind, fresh perspective. No tension in the neck. You're here for three, you're doing great. Press into the palms, press into the knuckles. Two. And on the one, slowly lower the knees. Listen carefully. Press into the the tops of the feet. You're gonna slowly tuck the chin and actually roll all the way up. So not Child's Pose. Then you're gonna reach behind. Eyes in back of your head. You're gonna interlace your fingertips, you're gonna open up through the pecs, the chest, the heart lifts, the sternum lifts. You're actually not dumping all of your weight into your legs here but there's a little lift. You can even press into the tops of the feet. You start to open up here. And then here we go, inhale in. Exhale, you're gonna continue this levitation. Press up, lifting the hips, press into the tops of the feet, sorry, (chuckles), and then I got into it. And then keep your sternum lifted, core control here, as you slowly bow down. Bunny posture or Bunny variation. Crown of the head towards the earth. Should feel awesome in the neck. Shoulder blades draw together. My whole body is lit up with awareness. Nothing is lax here. I'm pressing into the tops of the feet. I'm lifting my knuckles up towards the sky. I'm not putting all of my weight in my head. I'm breathing, breathing, breathing. Great, then nice and slow, release. Send the sits bones back and your bum back. Release the arms. Send the fingertips forward. You're gonna bring the knees as wide as the mat. And holy moly we're back where we started. Back to one. This is where we're gonna finish today so close your eyes and take a couple of cycles of conscious breath here. Just finding what feels good for you today. Noticing where your thoughts go. Noticing how you feel. Noticing if this practice has stirred anything up or done anything for you. And if not, that's okay. Sweet, bring the palms together up over your head. You're gonna bring the hands just behind the nape of your neck or the atlas here. Then walk your elbows forward. Another big shoulder opener, heart opener. Namaste Shark Fin. Get it? The mudra is the shark fin and we're gonna say, "Namaste." Thank you for sharing your time and your energy with me. Slowly release the fingertips down to the earth and press your way back up. You can look at the screen, check out Benji. He's so sweet, isn't he? Thank you so much for sharing your time and your energy with myself and with Benji and with people all over the world. I admire you and commend you for taking time to practice but even more so for keeping an open mind, considering the perspective of someone else, something else and continuing to do that as you grow your practice but also off the mat as well. Okay, I'll see you next week. Please subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already. Share it with a friend or a co-worker or a neighbor or a foe or a stranger and of course, let us know how you're doing down in the comments section below. Love you guys. Take good care. Namaste. (gentle music)