Yoga for Digestion - Bija Practice

Transcript

What's up everyone! Welcome to Yoga
with Adriene. I'm Adriene, this is sweet Benji. And look,
perhaps you have found this video because you're feeling a little full
in your tum tum. Maybe. Or maybe. And I am going here with this
because I can. And I stand behind my belief here. Maybe you're wanting to digest something
emotionally, or process something that two lives deep inside this
area of the body from a yogic perspective. So whether you've just eaten
and you want to help digest your food, or you're just in a position in a season
in your life where you're wanting to process
and care for the energetic body, hop into something comfy and let's get started
with this little Seed Practice. Okie doke. Thank you so much for being here. Let's get started in a comfortable seat. So come to cross
legs. You can lift your hips up on something if you need to. And let's come into a tall spine here. So this is a pretty low to the ground practice, but
we want to bring an active attentiveness to the shapes
that we are going to come into together. So let's start right away by lifting up through the heart space,
lifting the chest, allowing the shoulder blades to draw just ever so slightly together
and down the back body. And you can close your eyes here. Soften your gaze. Definitely take this time for you to feel nourished and cared for. Coming to our breath,
let's just begin to notice the breath. And particularly with the focus of today's
BJA practice, the seed practice just notice the sensation
in your belly as you breathe, or the lack of sensation in your belly
as you breathe. Either one. So we'll work with asana today to stimulate the digestive organs. But as I mentioned in the intro,
just also coming into this practice with the subtle body perspective. I think this is one of the reasons
why I really love yoga and believe in it for so many people, including myself,
because we really are. Practicing in a way that has an effect on our whole self. The physical body, emotional body, the energetic body. The brain and how it's all tied together. Take a deep breath in here and as you exhale,
draw your hands to your heart. Anjali mudra and maybe a slight tuck of the chin
to lengthen through the back of the neck. Just slowing things down. So we're going to move into, diaphragmatic breath here. You don't need to push it or force
anything. Just allow
this be kind of a centering, practice that will just help us
move towards this path of digestion. So we'll come into this shape and just take a couple of easy breaths here to start. Sending that inhale down into the belly. You can imagine
the breath comes up and out of the nose or mouth. So sorry. Let me say that
a little bit better for you. As you breathe in you can see it
headed in the direction of your belly. So it's downward breath as you breathe in, filling the belly. And as you exhale, it's almost as if the breath comes in this upward direction. And you just repeat. Inhale this downward breath. In the exhale
it does this little somersault at the bottom
and comes up and out the nose or mouth. Then keep your hands here. Anjali Mudra. If you feel comfortable
bring your hands to your belly. And we're just going to exaggerate this
a little bit so you can peek at me if you need to. As you breathe
in, you sip air in through the nose and it comes out
and we're going to exaggerate this motion with the expansion of our palms
coming out just like this. And then exhale slow and steady
with kindness. The breath goes in and up and out
through the nose or mouth,
and the palms come back to the belly. Here we go. Inhale. Expand. Breathe down. Exhale. Navel draws in slightly. Breath goes out. Stick with me here. Stay focus. Inhale. Diaphragmatic breath. Using the hands to just help us connect the grooves of our brain
to this breath pattern. To this breath technique. And then, depending on how you're feeling in your body today,
you might start to exaggerate the exhale. Just a hair by finding good finding
excuse me? Be an abundant
little navel drawing in and up or just above the navel. Inhale. Belly expand. Exhale. It softens and draws in. All right. On your next inhale check it out. We're going to inhale. Move past that point. We're just out. But we're going to take the arms
all the way out left to right. Just big stretch. Exhale palms come together
back to the belly. If this is not feeling comfortable at the belly
hands on belly you can do hands on heart. Inhale to expand. Move with your breath. Exhale soften and bring it back. Sticking with that diaphragmatic breath. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. We're going to add on inhale. Expand. This time as you exhale
you're going to make an all sound as you bring the palms in. Give it a try. Inhale. Breath is the same. Inhale filling the belly with air. One more time. Don't be shy. Good. Open the eyes. Shake the hands. Let that go. Let's come to shift
now, with the legs out in front of us, you can stay seated on something. If it feels good, we're coming to bring
the belly towards the tops of the thighs. So if it helps to sit up on something,
go ahead and do that. We might also bring the thighs up towards
the belly by bending the knees here. So wherever you find yourself here in this starting position,
take a deep breath in. Think of this upward current of energy
through the front body, this downward current of energy
through the back body. Very grounding, centering image
of lifting up through the front,
grounding through the back. Good. Then bring that belly breath back into it. Inhale in deeply. Exhale. Think up and over with the heart space. Belly comes to the tops of the thighs. We are going for that hugging together. That kissing together of the belly
and the tops of the thighs. So make adjustments
as needed to get to that place. So just in case
there are a lot of experienced yogis out there, we're not really trying to nail
Paschimottanasana now. Right now we're trying to bring belly
to the tops of the thighs, find a bit of press or a little bit of gentle compression. And like so for me,
I just needed to bring my feet in just a hair to accommodate that. And then when you have that,
you can allow the weight of the head and the heart to rest down. Maybe palms in arms can relax here too. Or maybe you keep them interlaced
or wrapped behind the backs of the thigh. So now we have this great opportunity
to practice this diaphragm attic breath as belly breath
with the gentle pressure of our thighs. Play with that now here. And after you get a couple nice juicy breaths here, we can release it once again. Check the hands and if you feel comfortable, rock back onto sitz bones
and just take a second to shake the feet. Nice. All right. Coming down to your back. Let's come flat to the back. Hug the knees into the chest right away. Breathing in as you breathe out,
navel draws down towards the spine. And we might lift the head,
the neck, the shoulders up very gently and then release. Big breath in. Exhale, nose towards the knees. Inhale last time. Exhale. And release soles of the feet. Come to the mat. Palms come to the mat. Inhale in. Exhale slowly
rocking the tailbone up towards the sky. Navel draws in towards the spine. We're only going to do one bridge here. So stay really present in your body,
really present in your breath as you lift the hips up high. Breathe deep here, shins reaching forward, knees
reaching forward. It can be gentle.
Doesn't have to be super high. And then slowly lowering down. Hug the right knee into the chest. Extend the left leg out long. Inhale in here. Exhale cross the right knee over
towards the left side of the band. Come into a supine twist here. Find that
nice gentle breathing into your belly. can open up the right arm. I just heard my belly
make a big noise, so. Telling ya, yoga works. You can open up through the right arm, is what I was saying. As you're ready, come back through center. We'll switch it. Left knee hugs in right leg. Extend. And when you're ready, exhale. Crossing the left knee over. Finding your twist on the other side. Breathing into your belly. Finding that directional breath. And then slowly release. Come back to center.
Come on to your side here. Find fetal position
with your bottom arm serving as a pillow. Just take
a second here to let everything go. So if you're holding
or gripping in your belly or your shoulders, the hips, anywhere, use an exhale to just let it go. Just take a moment to honor your body. Honor where you're at. And press into one hand and then the other to come up back
to a cross-legged seat. Palms come to the kneecaps here. and we're just going to take
a couple gentle circles in one direction. And then the other direction. You. Yes. Okay. And then come back to center. So cute, Benji. So cute. And we're going to end
by bringing the palms back to the belly or the heart space.
You choose. Inhale, open the palms and the arms out
wide, just like we did before. And this time you can bring the, sound
as you bring the hands back to your body. Or you can bring in the sound of all. So we'll do it
three times. It's your choice. You can also just listen to me
and and breathe on your own. Okay. Here we go. Big inhale to expand. Exhale up. Two more just like that. Inhale. Last time. Breathing easy. Just take a quick moment to notice how you feel. And then slowly
open your eyes of their close. Bring the palms together. Thank you so much
for sharing your practice with me. I never take it for granted. You can bookmark this little, practice
so that you can return to it from time and time again. That's kind of how it was designed, so
that you can come to it whenever you need, and maybe even share it with a friend. Okay. Love you guys. Take good care. Namaste.