(upbeat music)
What's up everyone?
Welcome to 'Yoga with Adriene'
I'm Adriene.
and today we have yoga tips.
These are tips to help you grow your practice.
So, we're going to integrate some thoughts today
on the spine.
Really considering this line
from the top of the head to the tip of the tailbone.
Something that we refer to in some
of our foundations of yoga as the danda.
The word danda is Sanskrit for rod,
or staff, or stick.
Which is why we perhaps call the stick pose "dandasana",
which we're actually going to do today.
So, teaser.
So to begin we're just going to jump right in today
and just kind of workshop this together a little bit
via the internet.
That's why I love these yoga tip videos.
Okay, so, find a comfortable seat.
If you can come to your knees
then give that a try.
If not, cross-legged, or maybe even this part in a chair.
And just take a deep breath in
and close your eyes
and just visualize your spine,
your danda, if you will.
And you can go as far as you can,
or want, with me on this.
You can just kind of enjoy your breath.
But maybe, you might also take this moment
to just give a little thanks
and a little energy towards this
part of the body that's so incredible
and holds you up, literally, right?
And if you have monkey mind right now, again,
tap into your breath.
And you might just start, give yourself concrete.
You know, start at the base of the spine
and then travel up, travel up; just seeing it.
If you're into anatomy just kind of visualize
it all the way up to the crown of the head.
And if you're like,
"Woah, Adrienne is starting to get weird on me,"
just breathe and sit up nice and tall
and acknowledge the spine.
(deep breathing)
And you can take a couple seconds here
to just kind of work out any kinks in the neck.
Might as well, especially when we're talking
about this danda, to maybe draw circles with the nose.
One way and then the other.
Loop the shoulders with that feels good.
And while you're doing that I'll just talk a little bit
about this line from the crown of the head
to the tip of the tailbone.
So important that we acknowledge that the neck
is an extension of the spine.
For beginners this can be an "a-ha" moment.
It seems so obvious,
but then you get into crazy poses
and not only do we forget about the neck
but we forget about how important
the energetic body is.
Especially in poses like half-moon
or triangle, which we're going to also play with today.
A couple moments more of working out any kinks.
And then bring your head back to center
and draw your palms together at your heart.
And then really, really over exaggerate,
lift your sternum to your thumbs here.
So we're kind of finding this big lift in the upper body,
the shoulders relaxed down.
And then slide your fingertips to your lower ribs.
And everyone scoop your tailbone down
towards the core of the earth
and just hug your lower ribs in just a hair.
And then tuck your chin to your chest,
just slightly, and lengthen through the crown
of the head.
If you started on your knees and your like,
"Girl, this is hurting me,"
then come to cross-legged.
Always adjust when you're feeling like
the body is trying to tell you something.
So again, we'll just talk through that again.
We're coming from this kind of lifted heart,
this like exalted shape in the spine.
This crown of the head is kind of going back,
throat chakra is open.
Lifting, lifting, lifting.
I should have worn a tighter shirt for this.
"Hey-O!"
This is my first "hey-o" in this space.
Hilarious.
Okay, and then let's try again.
Tuck in the pelvis, tailbone grows heavy.
Fingertips kind of come to the lower rib cage,
I find that helps,
and we just draw them in
and tuck the chin slightly.
Okay, and I should say too,
depending on what level of yoga you're at,
I hate that, level,
where you're at in your journey
you know, on the mat.
If you're not feeling these things,
just kind of stick with it anyway,
see what happens
and chances are, I'm sure,
you'll get something out of the video
that maybe I didn't even know you would.
So, on to the next.
So if you didn't connect to anything there, that's ok.
But we're just kind of spreading awareness
through this danda.
This staff, or this stick, this line in the body
that literally holds us up.
Come to all fours now.
If you need a second to kind of roll the wrists
or stretch the legs, please do.
You know my mantra.
And then we'll come to a tabletop position.
Now this, man this is like gold,
seems so simple but it's so important.
A lot of times, and you're going to have
to look at the video for this,
this is what happens when we come
to tabletop position.
The navel drops down, the tailbone scoops up.
And people are ready to go into cat-cow.
And we can do table top position
and we're either here or here.
This is collapsed.
My energetic body, this is usually where we're at.
I'm kind of exaggerating, but not really.
The body is kind of holding on
or hugging into kind of old habits.
And so we're here to kind of play with that.
So, I'm going to spread the palms super wide for starters.
Then I'm going to square knees, ankles, and toes off.
Knees underneath the hip,
points of the wrist underneath the shoulders.
Then this hurts; this is a lot of weight here
and my spine is just kind of hovering
in the awkwardness.
So I'm going to draw my navel up to the spine,
finding length in my lower back.
Then I'm going to press away from my yoga mat
and broaden through the upper back body.
Then a lot of you have heard me say this before
but imagine placing a little beverage of your choice,
I'll say, on the back of your neck.
So that we're remembering...
Oops, sorry, that was loud in my mic.
to find extension here.
Take a couple breaths and play with this.
See if you can create a nice, long line
from the top of the head to the tip of the tailbone,
all one piece.
A couple of action points that really help me,
really drawing the shoulders away from the ears.
This is great, just kind of stabilizing, strengthening
for the shoulders and just kind of getting ready
for downward dog and growing that practice
into, eventually, a comfy, juicy pose.
Hugging the lower ribs in,
just like we did with our fingertips on the ribs,
really pressing into my foundation.
So engaging the tops of the feet
without necessarily creating tension
or a squeezing in the bum,
but just an engaging quality.
And then take a break with a little cat-cow, kind of.
Lifting the tailbone, opening the heart forward
and exhale, rounding the spine.
Just countering this a little bit.
And then inhale.
And exhale.
And then on your next inhale, back to table top position.
Cool, if you're really strengthening in the wrist.
Really, I'd like for you to kind of go,
this is kind of like two for one here,
but really go ahead and press into your knuckles
so your not kind of crashing into the base of the wrist here
but clawing through the fingertips
and pressing all ten knuckles strong.
Then we can play with that and test our danda
or this line from the crown of the head
to the tip of the tailbone
by lifting the knees.
Now this seems like a strengthening thing,
and it is, but what we're really trying
to kind of test things out here.
Making sure the neck is integrated, and drawing my navel up.
Lengthening through the lower back body,
lifting up through the heart.
One more breath here.
We're shaking, we're hot.
And then we release, awesome.
Go ahead and take a break.
And roll the wrists.
So this is an awesome practice
and just awareness to integrate
into your life if you want to improve your posture.
You know, people always say yoga improves your posture
and then people always get into yoga
and they're like, "It's so true."
And it's not that the practicing of the pose
is correcting your posture magically, in one instant
but it's that overall, continual practice
and awareness that, of course, bleeds off the mat
into the everyday.
And boom, all of a sudden, you're sitting pretty.
So, let's practice now
this idea of maintaining energy
from the crown of the head to the tip of the tail bone
in a pose like triangle.
I think it's a great pose to practice on it.
So we're going to come to a nice, low lunge.
Take your time getting there,
with the right foot forward and the left foot back.
So, there's never any need to rush.
Especially when your just kind of working on your practice,
trying to deepen it at home.
So you might as well use this opportunity
to stretch one way
and then stretch the other.
Then plant the feet mindfully.
Stack your front knee over front ankle
and then, whenever your ready, no rush,
pivot on the back foot.
And then we'll keep that front knee
stacked over the front ankle.
Draw the right elbow to the top of the right thigh
and we begin to press into the outer edge
of the left foot.
So extended side ankle,
drawing energy up through the arch.
Really charging through the left leg here.
And then notice how just naturally
I'm kind of going into a quasimodo shape here,
totally normal.
And then we get so tight because we're on our phones
and computers that when we try to come in
to this pose and it looks like this.
So, the power of the danda.
Tailbone lengthens towards the left heel.
I energetically draw energy up through my spine,
that was redundant,
and then awareness through the crown of the head.
It is a hard work.
Remember the fingertips on the lower ribs.
As you hug the lower ribs in,
engage the abdominal wall.
Now we're talking beautiful connectivity.
Great, it is hard work.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
You can keep the left hand on the waistline here,
as you practice.
Notice if the right ear is coming down,
don't get lazy.
Let's slowly begin to build this strength,
this energy up through the crown of the head
and then you'll be able to kind of come here
with more ease of practice.
Take a variation here if you like.
Breathe deep.
And just see if you can find the equidistance
between the earlobes.
So again, this tends to happen a lot here.
Find space.
Draw the shoulder blades together.
Lean back into it.
And then, if you're feeling adventurous,
strain that front leg
and try a triangle out here.
Resist the urge to crash into your ankle
or even grip to the floor.
See if you can take a second to hold here,
drawing your right shoulder underneath,
and just testing out the power of that line.
Crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone.
Awesome, inhale in.
Exhale, bend your right knee.
Release.
We're just going to come all the way through center
and then take it to the other side.
So drop your right knee, come into a low lunge.
Stretch it out here, first.
Take a couple of nice, deep breaths.
(deep breathing)
And then when you're ready pivot on the back foot.
Strong foundation in every posture,
so take your time.
Then we'll bring the top, excuse me,
the left elbow to the top of the left thigh.
And there's a tendency already to kind of
crash down into it.
So begin to grow integrity,
tailbone reaches towards the back heel.
I have a big rib cage too.
It wants to jut out,
like, "Yeah! Yoga!"
Which is good sometimes,
but we're really working on the danda today
so fingertips going to kind of draw the lower ribs in.
And I'm going to remember when I was hovering
in that tabletop position,
kind of the work and the effort it took
to integrate everything.
Really drawing the navel in towards the spine.
Crawling the shoulders down away from the ears.
Take a variation here, challenging yourself
to maintain this beautiful energy
from the crown of the head to the tip of the tailbone.
Extended side angle
and then you might play with triangle pose.
(deep breathing)
Everyone draw your left shoulder under.
Extend through the crown of the head.
Lengthen through the back of the neck.
One more breath here, you got it.
And then exhale, bend the left knee.
Come back to your lunge.
And take a child's pose on all fours.
Let me turn back around this way.
A couple of breaths here to just restore.
(deep breathing)
Stay here and I'm just going to mention to you
that a couple days ago that somebody wrote something
really beautiful in our "Find What Feels Good" kula
about how... Oh I did a video that once
used to be really hard for me
and even though I've been working really hard
and practicing yoga with Adriene for a while,
it was still, it was actually harder.
And I think it's because I know so much more
about my body or I was working so hard.
I know how to integrate, so even things like "Warrior I"
that I used to blast through.
Now I really relish in,
and every muscle comes along for the ride.
And so I think this thing might be kind of advanced
for some people.
The danda and kinda of...
but really, it's not.
It's this kind of intrinsic thing that we just connect to
so that we can stand up tall
and sit up taller.
You can go ahead and sit up tall, speaking of that.
Just come to a nice, comfortable seat.
So that we can sit up tall and stand up taller
with more ease, with more connectivity
and ultimately, so that we can be more open.
Right? Lots of this going on, me too.
So, hopefully this yoga tip video will help you,
kind of, open your heart,
and just tap into more yoga off your mat.
Have an awesome day everyone.
Leave questions, comments below.
That's super important.
I love the conversation
and I'm super glad to have it with you.
I'm super grateful to have it with you
so that we're not just, you know,
doing the yoga robot thing,
but we're actually talking and investigating
and staying curious about our minds, bodies, and hearts.
From my heart to yours, take good care.
Namaste.
(upbeat music)