Lion's Breath - Foundations of Yoga

Transcript

Hey everyone and welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene, and today on the Pranayama series
we are learning Lion's Breath. This is a pose that I used to resist, and
now I embrace, which is why I am sharing it with you today. It's a wonderful breath and a pose - two for
one here today - that for me, inspires, requires even a little bit of silliness and just reminds
you to let go of what other people think. For that reason, I feel like it boosts confidence. The Pranayama practice itself is great for
relieving stress. It boosts vitality, gets rid of negative emotions,
and stuff like that. It can also open up the throat chakra and
relieve any stress or tension in the jaw or the neck if you suffer from TMJ. Anyway, loads of benefits of this pose and
this breath practice, so let's hop on the mat and learn Lion's Pose. All right. So to learn Lion's Breath today, we're going
to come into a seated posture on the knees. We have a couple of options here. You can begin in Verasana, Hero Pose. If this is not available to you, then you're
going to practice Lion's breath in an easy cross-legged position today. You can lift the hips on a blanket, sit up
on a block. You can practice this in a chair. The focus of today is not on the pose, but
rather on the Pranayama or the breath. So just get comfortable. I'm going to come to my knees and I'm going
to bring my two big toes together and let the heels spread wide. I did a voice over this morning. It should be nice and warm and articulate. So knees are spilling out, the two big toes
are kissing together, and I'm letting the sit bones, that pelvic floor nestle in to
the arches of my feet, resisting the urge to say, "Ha-yo." So pelvic floor nestling into the feet. I'll bring the hands to the tops of the thighs,
and you'll loop the shoulders forward, up and back. Open the chest, very important here. So if you're in cross-legged, just sit up
nice and tall. Draw the shoulders away from the ears. We'll take a deep breath in here. And on the exhale, spread the palms wide and
press the palms down towards your knees. So what I'm doing here is connecting palm
to shoulder and really spreading the shoulder blades left to right, becoming active in the
shoulder girdle and in the chest. Cool beans. So for the breath, I'm going to inhale through
the nose. For starters, just exhale out through mouth
with the "ha" sound. Here we go. So let's try it just like that again. This time as you inhale, lengthen up through
the crown of the head. And as you exhale, really press through your
fingers. You can imagine these little Lion's Claws
here as you press into the base of the palm. So spread the palms wide, inhale, lengthen
through the crown of the head, exhale, "ha." So as I'm pressing out through the palms and
exhaling, I'm drawing the shoulder blades down and really opening up through the chest. Just a little extra here. So let's try that one more time. Inhale in, lengthen through the crown of the
head, and exhale out "ha." Okay good. So now, adding a little lion. I'm going to inhale in, same thing. This time, on that exhale which is a strong
"ha" sound, as if you were fogging up a window and creating a little fog there. This time, I'm going to lengthen the tip of
the tongue down towards the Earth. Keep lengthening through the crown of the
head. As I send my tongue out and down, I'm going
to send my gaze up towards my third eye, if you will. So there are many ways to practice this pose. This is how we're going to learn it today
and we're going to shift into different variations as we grow the breath practice. So I inhale in and exhale. Practice, tongue out, gaze up "ha". Okay, so we're going to keep going with this. A couple of notes. Be careful not to create any unnecessary tension
in the neck and the shoulders. That's why we practice with the shoulders
drawn away from the ears and broadening through the upper back body and the chest. Tongue, again, points down as you exhale;
your gaze goes all the way up towards the third eye. So this focus can also be sent up towards
the sky, but in traditional practice - and we can talk more about [inaudible 00:11:19]
and it's relation to the Bandhas or the locks on another day. But for now, this quick foundations in Pranayama. Play with sending the gaze up towards the
third eye here, or just up towards the ceiling. So we're going to practice five Lion's Breaths
in a row and see what happens here. Ready? Here we go. We inhale, lengthen through the crown of the
head, exhale, Lion's breath, tongue out, "ha." Close the eyes, soften through the eyelids. Inhale. Exhale, spread the palms, Lion's Breath, tongue
out, "ha." Inhale. Close the eyes and exhale, Lion's Breath,
looking up, "ha." Two more, here we go. "Ha." Last one. "Ha." Now, rest the palms on the tops of the thighs. Close your eyes and just notice how you feel. Relax your jaw. Then we'll bat the eyelashes open, "Ha-yo,"
high on the breath. So now, we're adding another variation of
the pose so that we can learn the breath in that. We widen the knees. This is another option here, a little more
lion's love for you. So you can stay in cross-legged position if
you're already there. Otherwise, we'll learn a second variation
here, bringing the knees wide and pressing the palms into the Earth. Now, just take a second here to press away
from the mat. Find that broadening through the chest. Then keep that chest open as you turn the
fingertips inside, inwards, in towards your body. Press into all ten knuckles, again, broadening
through the upper back body just like we did before. So there's a tendency to collapse here, like
we're chillin' like villains, so keep that integrity in the spine. Great. Here we go. We're going to practice five Lion's Breaths
here. This time, pressing into the palms, knees
nice and wide, opening through the throat. Okay, here we go. Inhale, lengthen through the crown of the
head and exhale. Begin Lion's Breath, tongue out, "ha." Close the eyes. Inhale. "Ha." For these last two, you might begin to find
a little rotation in the pelvis, so maybe I'll actually turn to the side here just so
you can see that. I wasn't really planning to teach all of this,
but you might as well get all the bang for your buck, so to speak. So, practice two more. Broadening through the chest and just noticing
now, incorporating a little bit of tilt in the pelvis, a little bit of spinal flex here
as we open through the front body. Open through the throat chakra and find a
gentle compression or massage in the back of the neck. Okay, here we go. Two Lion's breaths in a row and then we're
done. Inhale in. Full body experience. Exhale, Lion's Breath, tongue out. Then we'll gently release. Palms walk forward. We walk the knees in towards center. We'll press up and out of the Earth so we
can curl the toes under, a little counter pose for the feet. And then we outstretch it in the front, melting
the heart to the Earth. We'll breathe through the soles of the feet,
and relax. Take a second here if you need to rotate the
wrists, and then we release. Okay doc. So that was Lion's Pose. You can incorporate this breath into your
practice in any Asana that feels good. I invite you to find a little self-expression,
explore doing Lion's Breath in Downward Dog. Explore doing Lion's Breath perhaps in a Cobra,
or Upward Facing Dog or in Sukasana meditation pose. Check it out. For me, again, this pose is about letting
go of what other people think. It's a great way to build confidence in your
practice, which hopefully will translate up off the mat as well. I love you guys. Leave questions comments below. I am incorporating a little bit of a hashtag
- because it's 2014, baby - with this pose. If you want to get silly with me, forget about
what people think and just have some fun. You can hashtag #lionsbreathYWA for Yoga with
Adriene, and share with us your silly Lion's Breath face. I love you. Have a wonderful day. Visit us at YogaWithAdriene.com for more free
goodies. Namaste.