Your first yoga practice is here, and it is a full one, packed with valuable invitations! We begin by taking things nice and slow. You will soon feel more fire, you may move fast, but this series asks you to be disciplined about bringing awareness to the deeper layers of your practice - with breath.
With each breath we have the opportunity to begin again, to arrive in the present moment. In this foundational phase of this journey, I invite you to see each new practice as a new arrival. Accept and celebrate that each day will be different. Some days you will have more energy than others. Some days it will seem as though the universe is supporting you to show up, eagerly, and fully. Some days your brain will* make it very hard for you to arrive, and it may seem like the exterior is winning over your interior goals.
Today’s lesson invites us to focus on anchoring the thoughts of a busy mind with the tools of our practice. If you are new to meditation or to yoga, this can be a bit of a challenge, so in this session I introduce a very useful breath technique called Ujjayi to help us train the brain and body to focus as one.
Listen to the feedback that every gesture gives back to you. Rather than just doing the poses, or doing yoga, trust that the practice really is an art of listening. Listening and responding. Our vocabulary grows today as we continue on our explorative journey, kicking it off with diaphragmatic breathing. Most people do not breathe as well as they can, and I do mean MOST. We continue with intentional and intuitive movement to improve our posture today, why? So you may breathe better, my dear. Re-training the posture is one of the best ways to ensure you are breathing deeply and efficiently. When we are breathing deeply and efficiently we invite a WHOLE WELL of benefits our way.
High five! If you make it to day five, you can do this whole journey. Today’s practice focuses on how the power of a true breath led yoga practice can shift and replenish the whole package. When we train our body to support deeper and more efficient breathing, we will begin to experience benefits that can shift, transform, heal, and center. A true ripple effect of good health, alignment, and therefore the right energy to create, play, work, serve, live your life fully. Today’s session is designed to help you stay curious, to feel how your energy is shifting, and to invite a full replenish to balance out drain.
Day 6 is here, and it is a 30 Days Of Yoga tradition that on day 6 we focus on the core. Core centric practices are great for toning muscles that support strong and optimal function (read - less back pain) and, let me just get this out of the way, you will be working all of your abs into a fine fiery burn. But this type of work can also be really healing and centering. Core work, similar to balancing postures, encourages you to take stock and embody the present moment as a way of creating sustainable strength and stamina. While it can sometimes feel discouraging, it is most necessary that you take on the task of beginning where you are today. This is how we evolve, it’s how we learn to know ourselves better, and it is how we get stronger.
Today’s session invites you to feel the love that you are and that you deserve. We commemorate week one and phase one of this journey with a yummy vinyasa practice. Your Day 7 practice includes some gentle and delicious dynamic movement to help you continue to free your spine, ribs, shoulders, and neck. Synchronize your watch, your heart, your brain, and your movement to your breath.
Who wants to snuggle? (Besides Benji.) Bring an extra blanket or towel and a pillow to the mat today for this restorative practice. Wear something extra comfy! Lay that extra blanket down if you like, and let’s snuggle up to the sensation and rhythm of the breath in today’s gentle floor practice.
We ease in to practice today with a breath technique that can help balance out the brain and body. Alternate Nostril Breathing, also called Nadhi Shodana, is an incredible tool for activating the parasympathetic nervous system which can restore balance - particularly if you are consciously, or subconsciously, living more in fight or flight mode - which is common in such uncertain times. We will introduce the powerful play of opposites in yoga asana as well, considering the ways in which we may join steadiness, or STHIRA, with ease, or SUKHA.
May you enjoy connecting the dots of each present moment today in practice… via your breath. Taking the elements of Sthira (steadiness) and Sukha (ease) - we move from awareness of breath into the second stage of this journey.
In this BREATH session, we focus on the concept of flow, providing tools for practice that may lead you to explore the ways in which you may be working against yourself instead of for yourself. We will begin standing today, taking time to ground before we explore different tempos and rhythms. This is not meant to throw you but to help guide you into new territory for a deeper discovery. We continue to learn new vocabulary as well as integrate what we have learned so far to align and find freedom within the form. This 22 min practice invites you to continue syncing up with your breath in the most loving way and is designed to leave the whole body feeling tended to.
The breath is a dear friend that you can drop into conversation with anytime, anywhere. The quality of that conversation will change from moment to moment, day to day, week to week, year to year. The awareness of this ongoing conversation might change your life. It did mine.
The most important aspect to focus on when it comes to the home yoga practice in particular, is not that of perfect timing, ideal energy levels, or fancy gear. It is that you are taking the time to check in each day to connect to your self and to your source. To me, this is a beautiful, complete, and highly productive act of self love and self care. Each day is going to look and feel a little different. Keep this in mind as we continue to progress on this journey. Building on yesterday, we keep our discipline but explore how we may “drop the doing” and Find What Feels Good.
Your day 14 practice is a fun and therapeutic session with full conscious breath to guide the way. We focus on creating sensation and space in the body, learning to breathe and move with efficiency, mindfulness, and even sometimes joy - so that when we step off the mat we can continue that practice. This way we may proceed to learn and live with more ease. This way we have proper energy in the tank to serve others more fully. We are approaching the halfway mark!
Consider each new breath as an opening. Enter. The breath is a doorway. Welcome a sense of playfulness and a willingness to not make any decisions about how this is going to go, stay open. We are building strength, resilience, and reinforcing meaningful connection. After today you will be halfway through this journey! Hit the refresh button as we approach the second half of our quest for conscious breath and dive all in.
We are slowing things down today as we begin the second half of this journey. I will introduce some foundational elements for the next wave of this journey, as well as offer practice of a new technique called breath ratio. Breath ratios are breath patterns set to counts. They are a wonderful tool for expanding your awareness and ability to control your breath. They are also full of transformative potential and wonderful to pull out of your tool kit when you are feeling mentally, physically, or emotionally stressed or lost.
Your Day 17 session is an integrative session to help guide you to build sustainable strength and make discoveries that keep you motivated. We will gently continue to build strength today to encourage noticeable muscle tone in the legs, the glutes, and the entirety of the abdominal wall. We will also continue to release stress or tension that lives in the neck, the shoulders, the chest, and the upper back.
Building on yesterday’s exploration, this practice is about noticing if you are willing and available to check in with your true self each day. This is one of my favorite practice themes and HUGE in my personal body of work, which asks, “What is my relationship to center?” Please do not miss this session as I include some of my favorite lessons for growing your practice both in asana and yogic philosophy. If you want to advance, do this work. Step into your power. Learn how to move from center. We ease in today, so if you are tired or feeling unmotivated, I got you. Practice slowing down at the beginning of this session, then join me as we mindfully layer to POWER postures. We will connect to subtle body gestures to make deeper discoveries that may (they will) support you both on and off the mat.
We gain an immense amount of strength from having a conscious and loving relationship with our breath. It is poetic. It’s practical. Today is a bit of a conditioning practice. Don’t fret! Remember, you can do hard things. However, strength practice is not just about sculpting and toning, though hear me loud and clear, this ongoing practice will sculpt and tone, it just will, it’s true. But perhaps more importantly so, this type of breath led work, which is what yoga is, can guide you to gather and build strength in more ways than you could ever imagine.
Take 16 minutes to pause. The focus on breathwork continues today, with an introduction of gentle breath retention. Building on our breath ratios, we will learn to implement a small conscious pause between our inhalation and exhalation… and the exhalation and the inhalation. Think of it as a circular thing. Breath retention has loads of benefits and is safe to practice slowly with mindfulness. If you have serious cardiac and hypertension problems, you can skip it. Stick to the counts and enjoy the benefits of ratios as we all continue to learn to re-pattern so that we may breathe more optimally. Your ocean breath, which we have learned and used in previous sessions, is a perfect match for Kumbhaka. Combine the two and explore!
How you move matters. Today’s central theme is not just designed to guide breath control, but to also roll out the red carpet for you to expand your mind and your relationship to the mantra Find What Feels Good. What is it like to focus not just on the WHAT, but even more on the HOW? The same way that you have to bring the breath, you have to bring the awareness of how you are doing something. You get to design how many layers, you get to pay attention to the details… or not. You get to decide the flavor.
The next three practices are meant to be a trio, a holy trifecta, the best of friends. Today’s session invites you into contemplation on what it means to renew. As with many of these practices this theme is meant to be thought provoking and applicable in more ways than one. Chewing on the philosophy of yoga and dropping in to wherever you are today, we continue to put the puzzle together, remembering all the wonderful vocabulary we have learned together thus far. The practice of renewal is powerful! It is one of my superpowers for sure. Anytime I find myself in the struggle zone, I slowly pull this practice out of my tool belt, and find my way back to center with a reverence for both the struggle - and my ability to make my way out to move… forward.
When we take the time to enrich the quality of our relationship with ourselves we are directly influencing the quality of all other relationships. This session highlights how yoga practice can be a practice of devotion, a dedication to one’s self, and the way in which that is connected to everything. We continue to dedicate time, attention, and energy to finding conscious breath.
The practice won’t always leave you feeling rejuvenated. But I love this idea of coming in close contact with the awareness and understanding of what it feels like to bring energy to something. Often we are energizing things that are not serving us, whether it is through our thoughts, actions, our daily rituals, our habits. This practice gives us the tools to notice that where our attention goes… energy flows. Today we begin with the breath of fire, to stir the pot energetically, and give you the juice you need for this rejuvenating flow.
It’s a love fest today. A big one. A brave one. Each time you show up it is an act of love. A Whitney Houston high note kind of act. I very much believe that half (or more) of the battle is showing up… so get there, my dear, and begin to feel the love that you deserve. Fall in love with the sound of your breath. This is sacred space that we have been cultivating here. And today, I boldly invite us to acknowledge that.
You have a beautiful 17 minute practice today, so don’t you even think about skipping it. This session is a great one, once again inviting you to dedicate some time to drop into conversation with your breath. This one is also designed to assist you in putting a lot of elements of previous lessons together for more discovery!
The practice offers us the tools and awareness to help prepare us for the important moments on our journey. You have been working hard. I think it is so beautiful and heroic for you to keep showing up in this way, it’s not easy. It is remarkable, and you are building a habit for utmost wellbeing. Bring your blanket to class today, if you can. If you want, bring two. If there is time, take a moment to set up your practice spot with intention. Maybe today you light a little candle, or adjust the blinds.
Today we focus on trust. The art of listening and responding. But what are we listening to? My cues? Your body? What else? Peel back another layer of onion and open to your hidden truth. Listening cultivates trust. Leading with your breath creates an environment for trust. Trust the process. Uncover your hidden truth. This session is solid. I am so excited for you!
Believe in the power of your conscious breath. Believe you are on your path. The invitation is both simple and profound today. It invites us to recognize how time with conscious breath, contemplation, and mindful movement can lead us toward genuinely believing in oneself. Trusting oneself. Trusting the quality of that relationship as you continue to change, transform, and grow.
In every end is a new beginning. Today’s practice is an acknowledgment that the breath is always there for you. If you are ever unsure of how to begin again, may this practice remind you to start with a new breath. On this final day of the journey I take my mic off and practice with you, alongside you. This is a tradition I have incorporated since my very first 30 Day Yoga offering, and to me this journey would not be complete without this ending and this invitation. Don’t panic. You have the vocabulary, you have the connection. You have it all.
Your Free 30 Day Yoga Journey for 2021 is here! We begin Jan 1st. Join me for 30 Days of Conscious Breath! To start your Free 30 Day Yoga Journey, sign up at https://www.yogawithadriene.com/breath
It is happening! Today’s video is a bit of an orientation, a warm welcome, and an official kick-off. We will begin with a few easy group breaths to enjoy, and recognize that if all you do is arrive here to breathe, you are winning, golden, exactly where you are meant to be. You can consider this a practice day for your upcoming practices if you like.