Regulate Your Nervous System | 15 Minute Yoga Practice

Transcript

Hello everyone! Welcome to Yoga with Adriene, I'm Adriene,
this is sweet Benji, and I am so happy
that this video has found you. Today we're taking some time and space
to tend to the nervous system. If you have a blanket, bring it.
If you don't. No worries. Hop into something comfy though
and let's get started. All right, my darling friends,
let's come into a nice, comfortable seat. I'm up on my blanket,
lifting the hips a little. Do you like to join me there? Please do otherwise. Just come to the ground. Take your time getting there right away. I will invite you to sit up
as tall as you can. Just in this moment. So don't feel like
you have to force a tall spine. But just imagine a
little bit of length between the vertebra. I love that image. Maybe you can imagine a little string
gently lifting you up from the crown. And if none of that imagery is your jam
today, that's great too. Just give yourself a little space and time. We're taking the time here. I'll invite you to soften your gaze down gently past your nose. Or if you want to, go ahead and shut down
the eyelids here as we tune in. That would be wonderful, too. So you have lots of options here today. Really inviting that we listen to our body. You like your individual body? My individual body throughout this practice. And every practice. But really highlighting that today. So just taking a moment. To settle in. Inviting length in the spine. Maybe softening the gaze or closing the eyes. And as we arrive here in this moment together, just notice what feels better. Palms face down on your legs or palms face up. You can make your choice based on what feels more grounding. What feels not necessarily most comfortable,
but what feels safe. And for me, it's palms face down. Today. Then, as best you can without changing a thing. Just start to notice
the quality of your breath. And again, don't change it. Try not to. Don't alter it. Just notice what it's like. Quick or slow? Deep or more shallow. And as we bring our attention
and awareness to the breath, it will likely change. You'll want to change. But again, best you can. Try not to alter the breath here. Just residing in the role of the observer. Noticing its current rhythm. Current flow. Current qualities. Begin to notice if the breath feels like it's more in the upper body. The chest. The upper back. As you breathe in. Or does it feel like it's more in the lower, lower torso? Excuse me? The belly. The lower back. And there's no right or wrong here. Simply noticing. And then if you feel pretty darn good just in this moment
where your hands currently are,
feel free to keep them there. Otherwise,
we'll bring the left hand to the heart, the chest, and the right hand right on top of the left hand. And still just noticing the breath. Sometimes the placement of your hands here
on the heart center can gently encourage a slight lift in the heart space. If that comes easy today, enjoy that. If not, it's okay. I'm just
noticing where your natural breath may move your hands. It may not. Relaxing the skin of the face here. Just noticing if you're gripping
the forehead or the mouth. The jaw. And then sliding the hands. Now down to the belly. The lower belly. Maybe just below the navel. And especially
if you've been practicing for a while, it might be hard to resist the urge
to just do a big belly breath here. And if that's coming easy, rock on. But let's see with the hands now here
in the lower belly, if we can just observe when in our natural breath cycle, do we feel the breath in the hands? And of course, as we get super inquisitive
here and still, the mind will wander, different thoughts will come up. Just just know. Let me remind you. That's all a part of the exchange. It's all good. Just keep coming back to. The seat of the observer. Stay curious. And then release the hands
back to the tops of the knees or thighs. Palms face up or palms face down, that the eyelashes open. And we're actually going to take our gaze
up now, careful not to crunch in the back of the neck. So you don't want to create any tension
in the neck, just send your gaze up, almost like we we do in in lion's
breath up towards that third eye. Then we're going to take our gaze
and our nose and draw a line up and over to the right, past
our right shoulder, eyes wide open, big stretch in the neck, and then all the way back to center. And then same thing to the other side. Eyes up and over, turning to look past the left shoulder and then all the way back up to center. We're going to do that two more times,
just in your own time. Heart is lifting if you can. Staying nice and tall in the spine. Nice natural rhythm with your breath. Nothing forced. And then when you're done here,
bring the head back to center stillness. We'll tuck the chin into the chest. Take a moment here
to pull the elbows back in line with your side body,
and feel your shoulder blades come together. Inhale. Exhale. Lift the head. Now we're going to start to deepen
the breath. So bring the hands to the ribcage. Now we're going to activate
some lateral breathing. So for this you can close your eyes
soft gaze or keep eyes wide open. We're going to bring the hands
to the waistline here. Imagine the elbows coming back a bit
so you can keep this lift in the chest. I often notice when I do this this practice with myself,
I tend to start to collapse here. My shoulders
want to naturally come forward. So we're going to resist that urge
to collapse in the front body. And here we go. Inhale, breathing into the hands,
breathing into the ribcage, feeling that why wide expansion as you
breathe in and then exhale. It softens inward
as you breathe out again. Big inhale breathing downward feeling that expansion and exhale it softens it. And I love the image of an umbrella here. Inhale the umbrella opens. And exhale it softens and closes it. Let's do one more. Nice. Beautiful. Release
the hands. Left hand comes to the earth. Right fingertips reach up and over. Ground down through your right hip. Hug those lower ribs in. Breathe in a side body. Stretch here. Super soft and easy here. So not pushing or forcing. And then sweep it
all the way through center and take it to the other side. And then slowly release. Come back to center. Palms come together. Anjali mudra, take a deep breath in here and a long breath out. And then slowly we'll bring our blanket. If you brought one. If not, no biggie. If so, if you didn't bring one,
just come to lie flat on your back. If you did bring one,
we'll roll it lengthwise like so, and then lay the spine down. On it here. Now, if you're in a place
with your nervous system where this is feeling unwell, not good, then
let's come to back to a comfortable seat or extended child's pose
so you have options. And then for those laying
down on the blanket or on the earth, you can extend the legs out long. You can bring the soles of the feet together, Baddha Konasana. Or last option would be to bring
or you have lots of options. But last optional offer is to bring
the feet as wide as the mat and then allow the knees to come together,
softening through the bowl of the pelvis. So find what
feels good in your body here today. And this is our last shape. And again, looking to see if the palms face up or palms face down feels best. We'll take one big collective inhale in here. Big smooth subtle breath. And then exhale again. Smooth soft. And when I say subtle meaning we're tapping into those subtle body sensations. Not pushing or forcing, really listening. And then just allowing. Yourself to relax here. Allowing the earth or the bolster to hold you. You can stay here as long as you like. Maybe you take a moment after this session to sit in meditation, to journal, or perhaps move into more yin practice or yoga nidra. But if this is it for today, let's all be sure to just say thank you. Thank you to our selves for taking the time and the space. I am certainly grateful that you share your time and energy with me. If you like, we can bring the thumbs
to the third eye here. And we'll close this session. With one last big inhale in. And exhale out. Repeat this session. Keep coming back to it
whenever you need it. Benji and I will be here for you. Thanks again. Take good care.